The Eyes Of
Shiva, Part III:
Gods Of
Destruction
By C. Mage
David
felt the pain in his shoulder first, then the dizzying sensation of
freefall. The wind whipped at his
clothes and stung his eyes, forcing him to squint. He dimly saw the plane leaving him behind and realized that
things had gone from bad to infinitely worse. David looked around and saw the mountains coming up at him much too fast
for his own good and thought, This is
it...I'm going to buy in the Himalayas, fer chrissakes...!!
Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked through watering eyes to see the body of Johnny Laylor drifting through space. Then he realized why Laylor looked so strange.
There was a bulge on his back.
THE PARACHUTE!!! David fought to remember everything he'd seen on those TV specials involving stunt parachuting. After tumbling twice, he closed his arms to his body and closed his legs, diving towards Laylor's corpse. It was difficult at best; no amount of TV watching was a comparable substitute for real, practiced skill, but David had only two options left: grab the chute and figure out how to work it in time, or learn how to fly.
He was about seven thousand feet above the mountains when he caught up with Laylor. Sorry, Johnny, but I need this more than you do!! he thought, pulling on the buckles and straps, trying to get the limp cadaver out of the rig. The two tumbled end over end as each pull and tug translated into left and right somersaults.
Finally, David pulled the parachute off and climbed into it, praying that he was doing it right. He buckled himself in as he plummeted towards the ground and snapped the last one at just over a thousand feet above the peaks.
David couldn't find the ripcord.
Where is it?!?! David reached all over, looking for a handle or a loop or SOMETHING as the rock rushed up to meet him...
Lara Croft awoke with a sting on her cheek. She opened her eyes to see Leo Daglione looking down at her. Suddenly realizing what was going on, she started to move when a hand like an iron C-clamp came down on her shoulder.
"Time to put your tray-tables into their upright position, Lara."
"MISS Croft to you," she snarled.
"Very well then, MISS Croft it is. We're about ready to depart. The spot on the map indicates a valley only a few minutes away, so we'd better get ready to go, shouldn't we?"
"Where's David?" she asked with a touch of fear in her heart.
"I'm afraid he stepped out a half-hour ago."
The hand became a crushing grip and Lara allowed herself to be led to the rear of the plane and fitted with a parachute. She looked down and somewhere inside her, a cold rage filled her. She looked up at Daglione with flint in her eyes and said, "When David gets through with you, villain, you'll wish YOU were the one to drop."
"You still think he's alive? Lara, I must have hit you harder than I thought." Leo regarded her curiously. "A fourteen-thousand foot drop without a parachute, miles from the nearest civilized area? What do you think he IS, Ms. Croft? Superman?"
"Not in the least."
"I thought not."
"David doesn't fear Kryptonite in the slightest."
Leo looked at Lara coldly. "Please, Ms. Croft. Try and be realistic. Don't get any false hopes up for some gallant rescue from that waste of skin; David Connors is deader than disco."
Far away, a cold plateau of ice and snow. The scenery lay unchanging, silent as a church on Monday...then a groan echoed softly from underneath the whiteness. A part of the white moved, then was pushed aside as David Connors climbed out from under the silk of the parachute. He looked up into the distance at the plane disappeared from sight, then unhooked the backpack and let it fall, retaining the emergency parachute. I guess that was the right one... he thought as he recalled the bone-jarring YANK as the harness reacted to the chute opening up.
He
shook as the thin, cold air hit him. He
looked around, but didn't see Laylor's body anywhere. Probably wouldn't be much to see...he's probably just over a
centimeter thick right now. Alright, David, first things first. You've gotta find Lara... He looked in the direction the plane had
gone. ..and hope you don't freeze to death first.
As he walked, he really hoped that if he and Lara ever went on another one of their adventures again, they wouldn't end up somewhere THIS cold again.
"Well, that wasn't so bad, wasn't it, boys?" Leo said brightly as he dropped his parachute. The others, not quite so eager, nodded in various stages of relief. "Now, then, Ms. Croft. Here's the map. Now, I know what you're thinking, Ms. Croft...you know, about leading us on a wild goosechase, losing us in the dark, stuff like that."
Lara said nothing.
"As I suspected. Miss Croft is going to lead us to the Temple now. Aren't you?"
The wind blowing over the peaks barely hid the sound of Lara grinding her teeth.
David
collapsed for the fourth time, his balance nearly as numb as the rest of
him. He couldn't feel his fingers or
feet, and he had barely traveled a few miles. Come on...come on, Lara's counting
on you...don't let her down...
He got up and trudged forward five more steps before falling again. A part of his mind said soothingly, Just take a little nap, David...a little sleep will do you good.
NO!! He got up and reached out to pull himself up, but his body was a traitor to his mind and he couldn't get up. David didn't feel the pain in his shoulder anymore...didn't feel anything....
Lara led the group through the valley, noting that it was a great deal warmer in this area. Must be a hot spring of lava flow underneath here somewhere... She looked at the map again. "It's not far...maybe another mile, maybe less."
"Good." Leo looked around at the trees in the valley. "Nice place. May have to put up a mall here someday."
"Don't you revere anything, Daglione?" Lara said disgustedly.
"Of course I do."
"And what is that?"
"You're talking to him."
Lara sighed.
"Accepting your fate, Miss Croft? Good."
"You're pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?" Lara said crossly.
"Of course I am. You see, Miss Croft, from an early age, I've always been the sort of man who has had to rely upon himself and his own faculties to succeed. Soon after I was a young lad, I realized that I was, in fact, superior to all others. I routinely outsmarted teachers, bullies, authorities, rivals and all such obstacles between myself and what I want. Not one has come close to equaling me in brains, talent or cunning. I'm rather proud of that."
"I can tell," Lara said sarcastically.
"No shame in admitting defeat, Miss Croft. You, like everyone else, assumed that you were my equal in brains and failed. There's a long list of people on that list, Miss Croft, and you're only the most recent addition." Leo smiled. "I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, either you or David Connors would give me a better run for my money. You did. He didn't."
"Don't even speak of him, Daglione...! said Lara harshly. "You're not half the man he is!"
"You're right...I'm easily twice the man he was...and you should be more polite."
Lara stayed silent. You have never SEEN me truly impolite, Mr. Daglione... she thought, wishing that she had her guns. Why stop there? I might as well wish not to be here and that I was back at Walt Disney World with David...
David woke up warm all over and in a beautiful place, colored in red and gold. Funny...I thought Heaven would be whiter... Then he opened his eyes and saw the men standing around him. All were Hindu.
"Uh...am I dead? Is this Heaven?"
"Not quite," said a voice to his left and he saw an old man with a smile on his wrinkled face. "But you are in a holy place, Chosen One."
"Chosen One? I think you've got the wrong guy." David sat up.
"No, we have not. Surely, did you not come from the sky, with a wound in your body?"
"Come from the...?? Uh-uh, I just fell out of a plane and..."
"I know not what you mean, but I do know the prophecies of our sect." The old monk walked to a pillow and sat down upon it. "They foretold your coming."
"Who are you people?" David started to get up when he realized that he was naked. He wrapped the blanket around him quickly, noting some female members looking at him with a smile.
"We are the Chosen Of Shiva, here to protect his rest until he himself awakens. We guard his temple from all outsiders."
"Temple? Oh, BOY..." He walked over to the old man. "I hate to tell you this, but there is a serious psycho trying to wake Shiva up. Why aren't you out there protecting the temple from him?"
"It is not our place to stop them, but yours. You are the Chosen One, the one who will defend the Temple from the infidels."
"Will you stop with this 'Chosen One' stuff? I don't believe in Shiva, or any other Hindu god."
"It is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of what is and what must be."
"Alright, alright...so, what if I am this 'Chosen One'?"
The priest took out a circlet and handed it to David. The headpiece was made of gold and silver threads, weaved together in a fashion David couldn't identify. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"The one who tries to awaken Shiva will be given Shiva's power, but the glory of Shiva will drive that person mad if he does not truly believe in the essence of what Shiva is."
"Great. Just what I need, Daglione even nuttier than before and able to wreak havoc. So what does this do?"
"It releases the power of Shiva's opposite."
"Opposite?"
"The goddess Kali."
"HOLD IT." David held up a hand. "Isn't Kali the goddess of death? I REALLY don't want to have to face two gods, especially not those two."
"It is the only way, Chosen One."
"Whatta world...!!!" He picked up the circlet. "Doesn't look like much."
"Neither do you, yet you ARE the Chosen One."
"Thanks for the ego-boo," David said sourly.
"You must not succumb to the power of Shiva yourself," the monk warned. "His power is not of this world, yet it is enough to seduce even trained minds. You must be true to yourself and have no wish to take control of Shiva's power yourself."
"Look, Yoda, I don't give a damn about some god's power...the only reason I'm doing this is because the woman I love is with those psychopaths and I'm not leaving her there. I'm getting Lara out of there and that's it. Shiva, Kali, the rest of you, you can all rot in this frozen wasteland for all I care."
"Then it is settled."
"Can we get to the temple before they do?"
"Yes. There is a secret passage that will lead you to the temple, a path through an underground lake. You must hurry."
"Just show me the way, old man." David stood up. "I have a score to settle."
"Grand place, isn't it?" Leo said breathlessly. He looked up at the face of the Temple, chiseled out of glacial ice. "A place of such majesty in an area so cold, the ice was harder than stone, yet the priests managed to create this as well as everything else inside. Now then, one more little detail. Gentlemen, please hold Ms. Croft still."
"What are you...HEY, LEGGO ME, YOU CRAZY GITS!" Lara yelled as her arms were pinned and her hair yanked back to expose her neck. Great...the one time I wish I DIDN'T have long hair...!
"Calm down, Ms. Croft." Daglione took out a slim collar with a squarish bulb on the end and carefully put it around her neck, snapping it shut. "Now take it easy. This won't hurt a bit..." He took out a small box with a small button on it and pressed the button, holding it down until the collar made a short BLEEP. "There, it's set. Let her go, gentlemen."
Lara yanked herself free and moved her hands up to the collar. "What have you done to me?"
"Nothing much...just put a little gadget on you. Before you try pulling it off, let me tell you what it does. I want to make sure that you don't run off, so I brought this along. Quite clever, actually. If you try to run off, all I have to do is press this button..."
Lara was knocked to her knees by a powerful taser charge, leaving her gasping on the ground.
"Now, should you manage to get away by the use of surprise, the second function of the bulb takes effect. You see, that bulb has a small amount of plastic explosive within it. If you get too far away...BOOM."
"You sadistic bastard."
"The same thing happens if you try to remove it."
"What if I went up to you right now, hung on to you and tried removing it?"
Daglione smiled. "You won't. I know you too well, Ms. Croft...you're too much the hopeful idealist to give up so easily. Now let's get moving. How do we get into the door?"
"You're not supposed to."
"If that's a hint of rebellion I hear, Ms. Croft..." Daglione held up the small trigger box.
"No, Daglione. I mean the way in is not through the door. The door itself is a trap."
Leo Daglione lowered his hand. "Pray continue."
"The acolytes were devotees of Shiva, and were schooled in many form of death and destruction. Of course, this required well-toned and trained bodies. One of the ways they trained was to scale the face of the temple and climb through that portal high up there." Lara pointed up to a smaller door just wide enough for a man to walk through. "The main doors at ground level are most likely trapped to keep out intruders...like you...and invaders trying to lay siege to the castle."
"What would the trap be, I wonder?"
"You have my permission to open those doors and find out," Lara said matter-of-factly, just before another jolt of electricity knocked her to one knee.
"Try and keep your comments to the factual, Ms. Croft. Any editorial comments will be punctuated by a press on this button. In short, if you BECOME a pain-in-the-neck..." Daglione let the rest of the sentence hang there. "Now, then. Ricardo, break out the climbing gear."
The climb up was perilous, to say the least, even for someone as well-trained as Lara. The rest of the thugs had to be pulled up by a block-and-tackle. Lara thought about running, but the weight around her neck kept her from trying it. As she helped Daglione pull up the last of the group, she took a torch from a bracket in the wall and lit it, holding it ahead of her. She could see the walls were lined with statues, each one holding a different implement of death...and she counted twenty statues within the reach of the torchlight.
"What are those?" Daglione asked, loosening his tie.
"Those are the founders of the temple, the original devotees of Shiva. They were immortalized in stone and set here to guard the entrance from all non-believers."
"Are they trapped as well?"
"Most likely. I don't dare test what form the trap takes; the priests were quite fond of apocalyptic results. They would be more than capable of setting up different triggers capable of bringing this whole temple down around our ears."
"So how do we proceed?"
"Carefully." Lara held the torch high, examining every square foot of the walls, ceiling and floor. She stepped forward with great care and moved down the corridor.
Daglione nodded, then said to his men, "Step where I step. I don't think I need to impress upon you the seriousness of this. One wrong step and you ALL are dead...even if any of you survive, I'll kill the survivors. Got it?"
He moved to follow Lara, matching her steps with pained precision.
As the group moved through the corridor and past the statues, Lara couldn't help but feel their eyes upon her. She thought she'd be used to the idea of going where she wasn't wanted, but there was a quality to this place that set every nerve on edge. Lara suddenly remembered how she felt when she was twelve, after sneaking into her mother's vanity to try on some of her mother's jewelry. She was not wanted here.
The other thugs didn't feel anything but cramped, but Daglione felt tense. Not much more than that; he'd long since sublimated any such feelings of guilt for his actions.
The hallway opened up into a main room with hallways going left and right. A small altar was placed in the middle of the room, with a golden statue of Shiva directly behind it, his arms outstretched with a wicked dagger in each hand. On the altar sat a golden plate and a golden cup filled with sparkling clear liquid.
"Nice...but I can get gold anytime. Is it safe to walk around in here?"
"I think so...anybody able to go past those traps would've had to face the priests, and they preferred not to have the entire floor rigged, I imagine."
"What next?" Daglione asked.
"I don't know...at this point, all information on the temple ends. The location was secret enough, but no known non-devotee ever entered the temple and lived to leave with a map of the floor-plan."
"Wonderful..." Daglione sighed.
One of the thugs, a bit thirsty, went over to the cup and looked in. "Man, I could use a drink right now," he commented, picking up the cup and tipping his head back as Daglione caught the motion out of the corner of his eye.
"Don't, you idiot!!" he cried, but it was too late. The thug's eyes widened and he clutched at his throat, blood bubbling from his mouth. He fell to the floor, clawing at his throat and chest, trying to suck air into his lungs as red froth dripped down his chin and spattered on the floor. Everyone crowded around as the man died and Daglione had to push two of them out of the way to get to the thug's side. By then, it was too late. Blood ran from his mouth in a slow river. "What happened?"
Lara went to the fallen cup and picked it up, pouring out the contents on the altar. The "water" formed a small pile on the flat surface. "From the look of it, he took a giant swig of finely-ground diamond-dust. Nasty way to go."
"Stupid..." Daglione stood up. "From now on, you morons, don't touch ANYTHING unless I tell you to...got it?"
"Got it," the men grunted, but one of them had his eyes on the gold. As soon as they leave, I can just stick the stuff in my pack and no one will know the difference, he thought.
"Alright, Ms. Croft...pick a direction."
Lara considered, then pointed at the right corridor. "That one."
"Ladies first," Daglione said with a smile.
They started walking down the hallway when they heard a thunderous CRUNCH!!! behind them, startling them. They turned and ran back into the room to see one of the thugs in a piercing embrace. The statue's arms were closed on the thug's body and the daggers, formerly pointing down, were now embedded in the twitching corpse. The plate that had once been on the altar was now hanging over the side, suspended by a thin thread.
Leo turned to the others. "Any questions?"
There were no questions at all.
"Fine. Let's go, Ms. Croft."
Now only Leo and four thugs are left…better odds... thought Lara as they walked down the hall to the next room.
David walked through the natural caverns quickly. He would've run if he'd thought he could get any appreciable traction on the ice. Fortunately, he was garbed in a thick parka, leggings and boots with sharp rocks embedded within the soles. Good thing, too.
The hallway was inside a glacier.
He walked through the cold blue walls while three of the monks kept good time, moving through the freezing hallway as if they were jogging through a park in the early morning. David couldn't understand how they could maneuver so quickly...it was as if they wore ice skates instead of the same kind of boots he wore. "How much farther?"
"The temple is this way...not much farther."
"Good."
"It's only another mile."
"Oy..." David was unused to the idea of wearing so much clothing. I feel like the Michelin Man. "You said there was an underground lake around here somewhere...I don't see how there could be any body of water around here that isn't frozen."
"Here." The lead monk stopped, pointing to a passageway heading down. "Go down there and follow the path to the door. That door will take you to the Shrine."
"Thanks...anything else I need to know?"
"Try not to die."
David looked down at the smiling priest. "Geez, Tibetan humor, go figure..." He carefully moved down the path. After going about a hundred feet, he stopped and whistled.
David was now in a gigantic cavern of blue glacial ice, filled with a lake of slow moving water. The path continued down to an ice-encrusted boat, obviously ancient, but apparently serviceable. David went down to the water and pulled off a glove, poking a finger into the water.
The water was WARM.
How the...? Wait a minute. If I remember correctly, the Himalayas were formed when what was once the island of India crashed into the mainland, pushing the land and rock into a mountainous area. There must be lava flows and hotsprings throughout this whole area. No wonder the priests didn't freeze solid when they settled here. He climbed into the boat and looked around the deck.
No oars, no pole...just a crank set into the deck.
David turned the crank and felt the boat move forward. He grinned. "Crafty..." He began to wind the crank faster and felt the boat propel itself across the lake, heading downstream. He settled back and took off the furred parka he wore; the air was getting much warmer the further he went. By the time he reached the end, he had stripped down to his normal clothes and was wishing that he'd brought shorts.
The end of the line was a set of stone stairs leading up to a small door. He stopped the boat at the stairs and got out, shaking out his right arm to relieve the weariness caused by a few thousand revolutions. David walked up the stairs and opened the door, revealing a gigantic chamber.
Actually, chamber wasn't the right word..."coliseum" worked much better.
The Shrine was a gigantic training area, loaded with what appeared to be exercise equipment and combat weaponry. The outside ring was an obstacle course, only the obstacles were designed to cripple, maim or kill the slow. Rocks suspended from chains, walls of blades, flying whiptails...David cringed just looking at it.
The doorway he exited was near the altar and worship area, and David got a good look at the statue that towered a full sixty feet over the altar itself. It was Shiva, many-armed and angry, a weapon in each fist. David walked up behind the altar and looked up at the demonic face. "Mister...you are one UGLY motherfucker..." He stopped.
The statue had one eye.
"Holy
shit." David looked up at the face, then around the training area. He saw a rack holding some knives and picked
one up. Balanced...and still in good condition. Cold dry air must be great for preservation. Alright, David, now what do you do?
He walked across the floor and noticed that the obstacle course was mechanized. The different threats along the course were driven by flywheels and counterweights, operated by levers and pulleys.
David grinned. "I think it's time to wind up the amusement park rides..."
Lara sat down carefully upon the wooden floor and looked around her. Only minutes before, the group had come upon a full-blown town built within a monstrous cavern. There were twenty to thirty houses and other assorted buildings of unknown purpose, and Daglione had warned his men not to go in any buildings that had not been thoroughly checked by both Lara and Daglione. Once some of the buildings had been deemed safe, Daglione declared that it was high time they got some sleep.
Before Daglione retired to his chosen resting place, he warned his men that if Lara was accosted any time during the sleep period, he'd personally gut them and leave them for the wolves. That convinced a few of them to keep their desires locked down for the night, and all retired to get some sleep.
Lara, however, was not getting any rest at all.
Every time she closed her eyes, David's face swam in front of her. Many times, she imagined that if she just reached out and grabbed quick enough, she could pull David forth like a stage magician's rabbit and hold him close once again. The night passed slowly and Lara had to put every ounce of effort into keeping herself from being paralyzed by grief.
By the time Daglione knocked on her door the next morning, Lara was planning cold revenge. "Move it, Ms. Croft. We're very close, now. The sooner we get to our goal..."
"YOUR goal, Daglione. Not MINE." Lara got up and stretched to shake the sleep from her muscles.
"Really? I was certain that you were as hot to get here as myself. What changed your mind?"
Lara looked at him with a gaze colder than the glacier around them. "It wasn't worth the cost."
"I don't believe that for a second. Despite what the saints say, the end always justifies the means. Now get it in gear. Think of it this way, the sooner I get what I want, the sooner you get to lose your collar. Then we can say our good-byes and get on with our lives."
Who are you fooling, Daglione? I'm dead the moment you get what you want...and the sick part is, I really don't mind that much. Lara joined the rest of the group at the entrance to the Shrine.
The main doors were open wide, fixed there by a chain link between the doors, acting as a counter weight to the doors. They walked past the doors and Daglione looked up at the statue of Shiva overlooking the stadium-sized grounds. "At last...after all this time..." He brought out the Eye and watched its brilliance. "All that needs to be done is to put it next to its twin..."
Lara felt a tug on her shoulder...
"...and then my destiny will be complete!" Daglione grinned a manic grin as he stepped forward. "What do you think of that, eh, Lara?"
No answer.
Daglione turned around and his jaw dropped open. Lara was gone. "YOU IDIOTS!!" Daglione snarled, his rage no longer hidden behind the veneer of civility. "While you morons weren't looking, she ran off! Well, it doesn't matter...I'll find her easily enough." He brought out the trigger box and held it high.
Lara looked up as she was hauled high over the entranceway. She looked up in shock as she saw David reeling her in using the grapplegun. At the sight of seeing David alive, she flew into his arms and held him close. "David! I thought you were...!!"
"I know, I know, baby...I missed you, too." David smiled, relieved that Daglione hadn't killed her. "Hey, what's this around your neck?"
Lara's eyes went wide. "David, it's a bomb!!"
"I WARNED YOU ABOUT THE PRICE OF DISOBEDIENCE, MS. CROFT. NOW THAT I DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE...!!
Lara's eyes went wide in shock as she looked down at Daglione. "David...!!!" she whispered hoarsely.
David had already seen her unwanted "jewelry" and had pulled off the cover of the bulb around her neck. "Hang on, Lara....!"
"Get away from me, David, or you'll go up with me!"
"Nobody's...going...anywhere...!" David picked out three wires. "I leave for a day and look what happens to you. Do you think I'll do that again?"
"SAY GOOD-BYE, LARA CROFT!!" Daglione said, and...
"This had better be the right one," David said, and pulled out the blue wire.
...pressed the button.
Silence.
Daglione listened for the sound of the explosion, but there was no sound except for the howl of wind just outside the ice covering the Shrine. He threw the box to the ground. "DAMN!"
"What's the matter, Leo old boy? Having trouble getting used to the idea of being a loser?"
Daglione went white. "CONNORS?!?!"
David peeked over the side. "The one and only."
"How could you be alive?!"
"Remember when you practically threw me out the plane? Is it my fault that you're such a lousy shot? I missed the planet completely. It was the damnedest thing..."
"KILL THEM!!!" Daglione shouted, hopping up and down in paroxysms of rage. Quite unnerved by the sight of their usually calm employer raving like a child having a tantrum, the thugs opened up with everything they had. David ducked back against the stone as bullets rained upwards.
"Well, THAT went well!" David groused. He turned to Lara wand was rewarded by a slap across the face. "OW!! What the hell was THAT for??"
"David Connors, don't you EVER scare me like that again, do you hear me?? If you ever do that again, I swear I'll....I'LL...!!!"
David cut her off by planting his lips on hers and kissing her solidly. She beat on him for a few more seconds, then slowly succumbed until she was kissing him harder than he had kissed her. As bullets chipped the stone under them, Lara pulled back and said softly, "You scared me, Dave."
"You think you were scared? If Laylor hadn't been wearing a parachute, I would've been a lot more scared than I had been...and I was fucking petrified!"
"So, what do we do now?"
"Hope they come up after us." David grinned.
Lara looked at him squarely. "Did you land on your head as a young boy?"
"Listen, any minute now, they're going to try the stairs..."
"So?"
Daglione watched as the bullets missed their targets and he yelled at his men to stop firing. He looked around and saw two flights of stairs on each side of the entrance, both heading up. He yelled, "You and YOU! Go up there and get them!!"
The bruisers nodded and ran up the stairs on the right. A few seconds later, screams came from that stairwell, stopping suddenly. Boulders, all weighing in at just over a ton and some stained red, rolled down the stairs and crunching into the floor at the bottom.
"So the stairs aren't quite what you'd call...safe," David replied.
The last two thugs looked at Daglione.
"Well, go up the other one, you two! He didn't FLY up there!"
The other two looked at each other, then ran up the other stairs, stopping as they saw one large boulder rolling down the stairs. They screamed and ran down the stairwell, splitting up as they hit the bottom. The huge rock rolled right past them, narrowly missing the pair.
Lara looked down at the rolling boulder. Now THAT brings back memories... "So how do we get down?"
David stood up and fired a line into the ceiling high above. Lara caught the hint and climbed onto his back, hanging on for dear life as he leaped off the entranceway, swinging across the wide floor of the training area.
Daglione watched this with an all-consuming hatred and drew his shotgun, firing up at them. Lara felt buckshot score her legs and David felt the pouch on his hip rip away. Oh NO! he mentally screamed, reaching down quickly...but not quickly enough. The other Eye dropped out and hit the stone below, bouncing twice before coming to rest on the ground.
Daglione crowed as he ran for the Eye.
"DAMMIT!!" David cut the line. By this time, they were only ten feet above the ground and they landed hard, but rolled out of the impacts and stood up. "I blew it!"
Lara ignored the pain of the thin furrows dug in her thighs by the shotgun blast. "We've got to get them back!"
"TOO LATE, FOOLS!!" Daglione held the Eyes aloft and recited an incantation in Hindu, a Call he had learned three years ago and had practiced religiously in anticipation of this day.
Lara recognized the phrases instantly. "David, he's calling upon Shiva!"
David backed a step away as Daglione began to grow in size, his skin turning blue. Some Chosen One I was...!!! "Lara, what do we do? The priests at the temple didn't say what to do next!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I AM CREATED SHIVA, THE DESTROYER...DEATH, THE SHATTERER OF WORLDS....!!!" Daglione/Shiva said, reaching a full height of eighty feet, almost touching the ceiling. "ALL SHALL KNEEL BEFORE MY MIGHT...OR PERISH!"
"The priests at the temple, they found me and said I was some kind of Chosen One." David saw Daglione/Shiva pull his hand back, as if about to throw a fastball. He dove behind one of the obstacle course traps while Lara followed suit, rolling to her feet behind a wall. David wasn't quite as agile and skidded to a stop on his rump.
A ball of blue and yellow fire coalesced in Daglione/Shiva's hand and he threw it at the spot where David and Lara had been, exploding and causing a thirty foot crater.
"What did they say?" Lara asked loudly over the roar of the explosion.
David's mind went blank. "I can't remember!"
"TRY!"
"WHERE ARE YOU, CONNORS?" thundered the blue giant. "COME OUT SO I CAN DESTROY YOU."
He really doesn't expect me to just step out and say, "Here I am," does he?? David racked his brain. "Lara, I can't remember it all!"
"RUN!!" Lara grabbed his hand and yanked the Yank through the course, moving around Daglione/Shiva's left, trying their best to avoid his gaze. "David, I hate to be impolite, but our continued existences now depend on your memory!"
"Wait, wait...they said something about how it's supposed to release Shiva's opposite...!"
Lara stopped behind a case of pikes and hunched down low. David did likewise. "Did they mean Kali?" Lara whispered.
"Yeah!" David hissed back. "But how does that help us?"
"We've got to go back through that doorway over there!" Lara pointed to the door where she, Daglione and his thugs had come in.
"Oh, man, why didn't you say something BEFORE! We were right there!"
"Daglione wasn't eighty feet tall, then."
David looked across the coliseum. "Oh, man, we'll never make it that far with the Not-So-Jolly Blue Giant stomping around!"
"Would you rather stay here and wait for urban renewal?"
David sighed. "I knew you were going to say that."
"How much line do you have left on the grapplegun?"
"I dunno...not much left. Why? What have you got in mind?"
Lara smiled. "The oldest gag in the book."
Daglione/Shiva searched carefully. He wanted to simply smash everything in sight, but a deep desire to find the two and torture them first made the other desire insignificant by comparison. He tossed and kicked the walls, traps and obstacle structures left and right. Finally, he was down to the last three. Daglione/Shiva smiled. "I ALWAYS WAS FOND OF THE OLD SHELL GAME. LET'S SEE..." He brought his right fist down on the right trap, a row of spikes traversing a crawlspace. It splintered into kindling. "NO...NOT THERE...MAYBE YOU'RE..."
"Hate to spoil your fun, Daglione, but I'm over here!"
Daglione/Shiva turned to see Lara waving coquettishly from across the stadium, a hundred feet away from the main entrance. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I've gotta run! Ciao!"
At that moment, Daglione/Shiva lost his cool. He got up and turned his body to run after Lara. As Lara broke for the entrance, David came out from under the middle structure and fired the grapple gun at Daglione/Shiva's ankles. His heart rose into his throat as he aimed again, this time at the huge statue of Shiva and fired the other end of the line. It snaked through the air and David felt the tug as the grapplegun emptied itself of cord. Without waiting to see the results, he dashed for the entrance along the right wall.
One end wrapped itself around the leg of the Shiva statue...and the other end....
Daglione/Shiva's eyes went wide in surprise as he felt his legs wrapped together. The force of his stride broke the cord almost as soon as it went taut, but the line's strength was enough to halt the forward motion of his feet and he tripped, falling face-down, his arms outstretched. Lara and David looked up to see Daglione/Shiva's head come crashing down.
Lara dove for the entrance as the giant's face hit the floor, causing a tremendous BOOM that reverberated through the cavern. A cloud of dust filled the stadium and David coughed, "LARA! LARA!!!" Where is she...!?!?
A smaller coughing reached his ears and he silently sent a "thank you" skywards. "Lara!! Are you alright??"
"Define: alright," Lara coughed. David ran around the stunned giant's head to see Lara lying just in front of the divot created by Daglione/Shiva's jaw. The dirt pushed up by the impact covered Lara's legs, hips and lower back.
"Godammit, Lara!! I didn't think I had enough line for a few seconds...why'd you have to be so close to him before taunting him? Why didn't...?"
"David, you know I care quite deeply about you, don't you?"
"Well...yes."
"Then be a dear and kindly shut up." Lara dusted herself off. "We're not finished yet." As if to prove her point, a cloud of dust came up from under Daglione/Shiva's nose. "We've got to hurry before he wakes up."
The two of them ran out of the room. A few minutes later, Daglione/Shiva's eyes opened...and burned with hatred...
Lara led David through the passage to the village area. "David, give me that lid?"
"Lid? Lid of what?"
"Your headpiece, David."
"Oh." David removed the circlet. "What now?"
"Just follow me...I know it's around here somewhere..." she murmured, looking around at the buildings.
"I don't think these people had outhouses, Lara...you should've gone before we left," David joked.
"Sod off," Lara said sweetly in reply, then stopped. "Eureka, as Archimedes would say," she said triumphantly as she stepped up to a building and opened the doors, revealing a shrine to the goddess Kali, a four-armed woman with exaggerated assets and a demonic, fanged face.
"You know what 'eureka' really means, don't you?" said David.
"What?"
"'This bath is too hot.' And you a historian."
"That damned defense mechanism of yours is not helping."
A roar of murderous rage suddenly filled the caverns, soon followed by the sounds of racks coming loose. "Jesus is coming and is he PISSED," David said worriedly.
Lara climbed up the statue of Kali. "Right idea, wrong deity."
"What are you looking for?"
"A keyhole." Lara smiled as she reached the head of Kali. She placed the circlet over the head. "David, get ready to run like the dickens!"
"Lara, there'd better be a good explanation forthcoming. Laughing Boy sounds like he'll crunch his way through the wall any second now and he's going to nuke this place when he does!"
That's when Lara realized why David had begun to babble. He was completely unprepared for something like this, people turning into giants, true magical power. Nothing in his experiences had adequately prepared him for the concept of a godling tunneling through rock to get to him. "Steady on, Dave...wait for it..."
"Wait for what??"
Lara placed the circlet on Kali's head. She heard a faint click. "RUN!!!" she yelled, dropping from the statue and feeling the earth shake under her feet. David staggered to the door and ran out into the cavern just in time to see Daglione/Shiva burst through the wall. His brain starting sending signals to his eyes that basically went something like, "DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!"
Lara had to practically hit him to get him moving again. When his legs did finally start to obey his brain, Daglione had spotted them and his feet moved like never before, propelling David towards the exit. In fact, he was actually beating Lara in a footrace, something that had never happened before. Lara caught up to him as he stooped to pick something up off the floor. "This is no time to grab souvenirs, Dave!"
"COOONNNNNNOOOOORRRRRSSSSS!!!!!!!!" Daglione/Shiva bellowed, shaking the cavern further with the force of his voice alone. He began to run towards them, but he, too, was imbalanced by the shaking and had to pause to steady himself every two steps.
David and Lara ran through the city gates and Lara steered David up through the passageway to the exit. He looked back to see the blue giant crash through the wooden gates, then stop as David and Lara passed through the corridor. "We made it!" David yelled in relief, then saw Daglione/Shiva reaching through the passageway. "You've GOTTA be KIDDING me!!"
"DON'T TALK, RUN!!" Lara tried to pull David ahead, but David reached into his pocket and pulled out something small, throwing it back towards the hand before turning back to run with Lara to the main opening. "David, what did you do??"
"I'll tell you if you tell me what's going on!!"
"The priests of Shiva must've been prepared for this, that someone might actually survive the traps and capture the Temple! So they rigged up a shrine to Kali, Shiva's counterpart."
"So?!"
"So when that shrine was opened and Kali crowned with the circlet, it was designed to activate the last trap...one designed to destroy the mountain and take everything inside WITH IT!!"
"I don't get it! Why Kali? Why not a statue of Shiva?"
"Because no devotee of Shiva would ever place such an ornament on Kali, thereby making sure that only an infidel would set off the trap...and if that happened, the acolytes of Shiva were prepared to die rather than be taken, so they figured that they'd either be dead or would wish to be!" Lara turned left down a hallway, leading to the foyer were the chalice and platter rested. The corpse in the grip of the statue was starting to smell. "Now, your turn. What did you throw at Daglione?"
"Something to keep him busy." David brought out the object he'd picked up, the trigger box Daglione had used to coerce Lara. "Would you care to do the honors?"
Lara smiled, snatching the box out of his hand. "Gladly!" She pressed the button.
Daglione/Shiva reached as far as he could, beginning to push through the wall when the wad of plastic explosive underneath his hand went off, mangling the hand and caving in the tunnel, trapping his arm underneath tones of rock. The giant's howl of pain was soon lost as the final trap began to collapse the rest of the temple around him. Cracks and fissures opened underneath his legs, and deep within the mountain, magma began to bubble up towards the town.
Lara dropped the device. "A small pleasure, but we can't dawdle around here much longer! Soon this whole mountain is going to fall apart!"
"Are you sure?"
"Trust me, David, I've been in an exploding mountain before. Remind me to tell you about Atlantis sometime!" She looked down the hallway flanked by the statues. "Blast! David, I want you to run next to me as fast as you can!" With that, she took off down the hallway, David hot on her heels.
As they passed the statues, they came to life, their arms swinging their weapons around in deadly arcs. David ducked as an ax came close to decapitating him and found the strength to speed up. "Lara, how do we climb down??"
"We don't!!" Lara stepped out into open space and David jumped out after her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" they yelled as they fell, a blast of smoke spouting from the opening they had just left. They dropped into the snowbank below, stunned, but alive and unhurt. Lara got to her feet quickly.
"Come ON, Dave!"
"What, aren't we....???" David felt the ground underneath beginning to throb. "Aw, NO!!!"
"This way!!" Lara ran off down the path, ignoring the cold. David followed right after her, struggling to get through the snow. As he ran, he felt the sickening lurches of the mountain starting to come apart underneath them.
By the time they got to Daglione's base camp, the crack of glacial ice coming apart was deafening. "Lara, we're running out of time here! I hope you have a plan!!"
"I do!" She went to one of the boxes and tore off the lid.
"There's something in that box we can use?"
"No."
"Then what are you...?" David saw Lara put the lid on the snow. "Please tell me that you're kidding!"
"Get on, David!"
"Oh, man, this is a huge mistake...this is a really HUGE MISTAKE!" he cried, getting on the lid with Lara. She pushed off and let gravity take over. They started off slow, then picked up speed as they headed down the steep slope. David hung on tight as Lara shifted her weight, moving from side to side to steer the improvised toboggan away from rocks.
As they plummeted down the slope, David felt a shuddering behind him and looked back up the mountain slope. To his dismay, he discovered that the slope was chasing him! "AVALANCHE!!!!" David yelled over the roar of the disturbance behind him, then looked back again to see how close the avalanche was to them.
The tons of snow following them was only the least of their worries.
The peak of the mountain sunk deep into the rock, then the entire mountain began to crumble from the top, progressing down the slope. The mountain itself was falling!
Lara knew what was going on; the destructive ways of the priests' were legendary. "JUST HANG ON AND DON'T LOOK BACK!!!" she yelled, but the roar of the mountain's fall was so deafening that David only barely heard her. It wouldn't have mattered anyways; David had already looked behind her and was now unable to tear his eyes away from the sight. The avalanche was moving just as fast as they were, now; the implosion of the mountain caused enough shifting in the rock below that the snow was actually slowed by the massive quake. The danger of being buried in ice and snow was still quite apparent; Lara was fighting with all her strength to keep the improvised sled from tipping over from all the shaking and moving about.
Lara saw a thick forest coming up towards them and yelled back, "GET READY TO RUN!"
"ARE YOU NUTS??!??" David asked.
They entered the forest, thick trees whipping past them. "JUMP!" Lara yelled and they bailed out, rolling in the snow. Lara recovered first, running over to where David was half-buried in the snow. "COME ON, DAVID!" she screamed, and that's when the mountain blew.
A thick cloud of dust and ash billowed into the air, blocking out the sun in seconds.
David shook himself. "Geez, and to think I used to pay money to go on rides like that..."
"A marvelous observation, Dave, but could we possibly discuss it later?" Lara took off her backpack and pulled out two canteens. "Fill them with snow, quickly!"
"Why?"
"With all the sulfurous ash coming down, the snow will soon be too acidic to use. We've got a long run ahead of us and we're going to need the water!"
David looked up as red trails of lava began flowing out of the wide crater. "Putting the circlet on Kali did all THAT??"
"Precisely." Lara filled up her canteen first and put in her backpack. "Hurry, David...the aftershocks will be here any moment. I don't think Mother Earth has finished her lambada here."
David filled up the other canteen. The cold was only just now starting to get to him and the last thing he wanted to do was wait around. "How far is the nearest town?"
"I don't know...we'll have to see. I might be able to get some bearings once we get out from under the cloud." Lara shouldered her pack. Let's get going."
Hours later, after a not-so-brisk run in the snow, Lara finally pronounced themselves safe. David looked around at the jagged peaks and the ice shelf they were currently occupying, then back up at the angry cloud behind them. The mountain had dropped into a crater the size of a small city, bubbling with hot lava. "What'll happen to that place?" David wondered aloud through chattering teeth.
"Oh, it'll smoke and burn for a while...then the cold will harden the lava into volcanic rock, putting a lid on the place for good. Maybe some earthquakes as it ticks over somewhat, but on the whole, the world won't really notice."
"I can't believe you look so comfortable...it's freezing out here and you look like you're getting ready for a backyard barbecue..." David watched as Lara pulled out a small satellite dish and a laptop. "What ARE you doing, by the way?"
"Hailing a taxi," Lara grinned. "Here, David, take the thermal tent out of my backpack and set up the stove, won't you? I'd very much like to get warmer than I am now, and I imagine that you'll desire the same."
David picked up her backpack and his eyes widened in surprise as he felt how HEAVY it was. It was also able to carry a large amount of equipment, as David soon discovered. "Inflatable thermal tent? Compressed air pump? Solar battery? Good Lord, Lara...I thought Doug gave ME all the neat toys."
"You're not the only one who likes shopping at The Sharper Image, you know. These days, my line of work demands that I stay ahead of the technology curve. Besides, I've been up here before..." Lara looked around through her granny-glasses. David was mildly surprised that she hadn't lost it in the ride down the mountain. "And after that experience, I take every advantage I can get, but I don't allow myself to become totally dependent upon them."
"Smart..." David finished reading the instructions and secured the tent to the shelf with pitons. He inflated it with the compressor, hurrying to keep from freezing. His fingers and toes were already numb. "Air-filled floor, too...that'll beat trying to sleep on this ice cube."
"Done." Lara closed the laptop quickly and hurried inside the tent, grabbing her pack en route. "I e-mailed a friend of mine in Hong Kong. We chatted for a bit, and he'll be coming by to pick us up in seven hours." Lara rapidly set up the gas lamp and lit it, letting the warmth spread through the tent.
"Good!" David finished the inflation and fairly jumped inside, taking off his snow laden boots and socks. "Ahhh...now that's nice," he said, the warmth from the sun and the lamp already transforming the four-man tent into a practical sauna compared to the frigid environment outside the tent. "Cozy."
"Well, this does leave us with a problem...mainly, what to do until Liu Wong gets here."
David smiled slightly. "Well," he said jokingly, "if it weren't for the fact that this place will be pretty warm, I would've suggested an alternate method of creating heat."
"And that would be...?"
"Well...." David suddenly felt nervous. "...uhm..."
"Let me guess. Shagging each other for a few hours?"
"Huh?"
"'Shagging' is another way of saying 'fucking'," Lara said as if answering the question, "Do you have the time?"
David turned as red as a Washington apple. Lara saw his face and laughed musically. "Your face is turning the most delightful shade of red."
"Oh, I'm SO happy that you find me so amusing," David answered sarcastically and turned around to hide his furious blush.
"Oh, Dave, I'm only teasing." She moved closer behind him and wrapped her arms around him, laying her head on his shoulder. "I know how you feel, David. I do know, because I feel it, too. But I don't want to rush anything. I learned a long time ago that sex involves a great deal of commitment to someone..."
"Are you saying that you're not committed to me?" David asked haltingly.
"If you mean, am I interested in someone else? No, David...there isn't anyone else that I feel that way about now. But it's not something I want to get into quickly, or casually. I want to be sure that I'm ready before I give that part of myself to you. That's a very intimate part of me, David...how would you feel if I gave it to you right now? Be honest."
"Well, I'd feel pretty good for a while..."
"A long while?"
"Yeah."
"And after?"
"After?" David stopped. "I don't know..."
"Precisely. Where would we go from there? If we don't have an answer for that, David, then we're not ready for it yet."
"Okay, okay, I concede defeat," sighed David as he felt her pull away from him. "I just can't help it sometimes, Lara. You're a helluva lady and there's so much about you that turns me on."
"Besides this?"
David turned around and was rewarded with the sight of Lara Croft in her birthday suit. "Uh...Lara? What are you doing?"
"We may not be ready for sex just yet, David...but there's nothing I'd rather do right now than to feel you close to me. Very close. But remember, David...no hanky-panky." Lara waggled a finger at him. "Promise?"
"If I can't promise, does that mean you're putting your clothes back on?"
"Right the first time."
David considered. "All right. But I gotta tell you, this is a new experience with me."
"Getting naked with a woman, David?" Lara asked as David stripped himself of his own clothes. "Somehow, I thought you'd be more worldly than that."
"Oh, I am, believe me...it's just that I've never gotten naked with a woman WITHOUT doing anything sexual."
"In that case, David, you're in for a real treat." Lara watched him remove his clothes. When he was completely nude, Lara had to expend a great deal of self-restraint to keep from changing her mind. David was a remarkable specimen of a man, after all, and she felt a delicious chill run down her spine at the thought of feeling all those muscles against her bare body. "Now, come over here..."
Hours later, the helicopter came over the southwestern peaks and saw the bright orange tent sitting there like an Easter egg on the field of white. Liu started looking for a safe place to set down, but came up empty. He switched on the PA system. "Lara?" he called, adjusting the volume to its lowest point to avoid triggering an avalanche, "Are you out there?"
A bare woman's arm stuck itself out of the tent and waved.
"Glad to see you're still in one piece, Lara," Liu said with a smile. "I'm lowering the rope."
The hand on the end of the arm held up five fingers, then five fingers again.
"This isn't a bus, Lara...I don't have that kind of fuel capacity."
The hand dropped, then reluctantly held up a finger.
Liu smiled. Geez, why would anyone want to STAY up here?
Another arm, a thicker male arm, pulled her hand back inside.
Liu smiled knowingly. Too bad, Lara...but at least you're coming down from the Himalayas with someone instead of alone, this time. About time, too. I was beginning to think you were practicing to be a nun or something. With that, Liu sat and held the helicopter steady, watching the tent with a grin. I can't WAIT to hear the explanation for this one...