The final chapter! Enjoy!
Hours earlier Jonah and Winston found a way into the compound, thankful for the cover of night, plus having the storm going on over head made it easier to cover the sound of their movements. Picking up a solid round rock, Jonah would sneak up behind or next to a guard from the bushes and hit them over the head, knocking them out and once searching their person would find zip ties to bind them once fully disarmed.
There was only a handful outside, and with booms of thunder being felt through the grounds and inside the house, both were able to easily slip in near the security office for Liam. They discarded their shoes once they go into the house to avoid mud caked foot prints.
Hearing the radio chatter in a dead silent house gave both of them enough of a heads up on when to move and when to hide around a door frame.
Once inside the room they find Liam tied to a chair with his chin resting on his chest, Winston kneels down before him and examines his face, "he's just unconscious, we need to take the house back," he whispers as he fingers some blood on his face.
"I'm way ahead of you, I'll knock out the power to the whole property, make it look like a power outage and wait for them to come and check. Take them out one by one," Jonah says and looks at Winston as he puts away a bunch of the weapons he had been carrying into Liam's gun case. "You need to hide, they'll sweep their flashlights around the room first, best to go behind the cabinet over there," he points at a large, aluminum, filing cabinet. "Be thankful that Liam believes in hard copies and not just digital."
"I am… only now I am really worried about the state Lady Croft is in, knowing how bad Liam is," he looks at him as he moves around the other office chair and squeezes next to the cabinet. "I can't imagine what they were doing to her to hear those screams," he shudders before he finally gets behind it.
"Don't think like that," Jonah whispers as he moves to the box, "if you dwell on it, then your mind won't be in the moment where I need you." Looking in the direction of the cabinet, "Lara needs us, but we need the house back to make arrangements," he opens the door and grabs the primary lever and yanks it down. "Here we go," he whispers and moves behind the door which leaves a hiding spot on the other side of the door.
It will leave him exposed after he makes a move, but for a first glance, the soldier will only be looking for the breaker box. He makes sure to close the door on himself as much as he can and presses his back to the wall, taking small breaths and then he hears the movements.
"I'm checking the office," a guy says and Jonah is straining his eyes to see around the door frame, sees the bright glow as it skims over the room. "Panel is closed, going to inspect," and carefully Jonah pushes the door away to step around and see the man holster his gun.
Flashlight is in the soldier's mouth and he glances around to find the edge, Jonah can hear his heart beat in his ears and if he wasn't soaked from the rain he swears his palms would be sweaty. He swings the rock down onto the top of the man's head and he crumples, wasting no time Jonah takes him by his under arms and drags him to the desk to slide him under it. His ears straining for footsteps approaching over his heart that is beating so fast in his ears he swears he won't hear the next one till its too late.
Finding zip ties in his back pocket he does up his wrists and ankles just in time to hear the radio crackle to life.
"Report your findings," comes a male voice and Jonah makes sure Liam's chair and a box is hiding the knocked out soldier and realizes he will need to think of something new, fast, for the next one.
Swiftly moving behind the door again just as he hears footsteps nearing, no more talking is heard but he sees the flashlight come into the room, "Re-" he stops short and Jonah realizes he forgot to turn the walkie-talkie off. "The hell…" he listens to the soldier walk over to Liam and he pokes his head out to see him sliding the chair over.
Taking his chance, Jonah steps out and feeling an adrenaline rush as the man turns to face him just as the rock hits him in the left temple. The guy spins and crashes to the floor.
"What was that noise and where are we on the lights? Are coms down?" comes radio chatter and Jonah starts to wonder how many more are here before he grabs more zip ties and shoves the new guy on top of the old one.
"I'm hearing you loud and clear, we're not alone," comes another voice, "Echo what did you find?"
Jonah turns off the one walkie-talkie and takes the other, putting it to the lowest setting before hiding behind the door again in a hurry, now he knows there's sweat dripping down his face. Taking deep breaths to calm his heart he closes his eyes. His hands are definitely clammy and he takes in how cold he is, his clothes are totally drenched and clinging to him everywhere making him really uncomfortable.
A set of steps comes moving in, but he can't tell if there's one or two, for all I know they're using another channel to keep me from listening in before they got here he thinks.
Peeking around the door he sees a flashlight skimming over the room and hears another set of footsteps, biting his bottom lip I have to take my chance, if they get the lights on then they'll be able to see me no matter what taking a deep breath he shoves the door to close. It catches the shoulder of the second guy, making him hit the doorway, the first man turns around to have Jonah chuck his rock at the guys head. It nicks him in the head and causes him to stumble back and land on Liam, grabbing a gun from the back waistband of his pants Jonah turns around for the second guy and shoots, but he had ducked down and rolled out of the room to take cover. Turning back around again Jonah has his gun hand kicked away from the guy and gets kicked in the gut making him stagger back.
"So you came back finally!" the guy states before swinging the butt end of his rifle at Jonah's head and Jonah just manages to grab it, then the upper part and pulls on it. But the soldier refuses to let go, both of them yanking on the gun until the soldier lets go to whip out his secondary gun, Jonah ducks and spins his gun around to defend himself hurriedly.
The man suddenly grunts and staggers forward, having been kicked in the back by Liam, taking advantage Jonah swings his leg out to trip the man while he's off balance and when he's facing the doorway sees that the other guy has returned. Firing at the man he fires back just as Liam shoves off from the desk with his feet to hit the tripped soldier and land on him.
This distracts the other gunman enough so Jonah can shoot him across the chest and then he points his gun at the struggling soldier on the floor, the man freezes when he sees the nozzle pointed at him.
"I need a helicopter or a plane, now!" Jonah tells him and the guy nods frantically. Taking advantage of Liam pinning the guy down in the doorway, he zip ties his wrists, though with difficulty and then his ankles before cutting Liam free.
He finally gets a really good look at the young man, how pale he is on comparison to the bruising and blood on his face and judging by how he is holding himself, he's obviously in a great deal of pain. Swallowing, Liam limps over to the breaker box and turns the power back on, going over the camera footage he assures Jonah that there's no more people. That's when Liam jumps in surprise at hearing Winston come out of hiding.
"I must say… quite terrifying," Winston comments as he squeezes himself out of the tight spaces to meet the others.
"You'll never beat Trinity," the soldier spits and Jonah rolls his eyes.
"You do realize we've gotten Trinity beaten more than once, right?" Jonah asks as Liam steps over to the man.
"Give them the bosses helicopter," Liam says in a threatening tone.
Scoffing, "what makes you think that he didn't use it to go and get the wings?"
Getting to eye level with the man and grabbing his chin roughly, "because of my former employer, I know how you bastards think. Now radio in the bosses helicopter, now!" he holds a walkie-talkie out.
"While he's doing that I need to get a hold of Sofia… I should be able to whip up a working phone to reach her," Jonah takes off while Winston goes through the cupboards to find a massive first aid kit.
Back to present time, Jonah perched up on a hill after running through the thick woods to see the village and set himself up with binoculars and Winston. Seeing that Alister was holding up both of the wings, Jonah set up his scope and watched for any wind, before taking his shot as he doesn't want a breeze to take his precious ammo off course.
"Let's stop this before it even starts," Jonah mutters as his finger rests on the trigger, letting out a breath before pulling it back. He watches as the man jerks back, but he doesn't fall or even falter. "Oh shit…"
"NOW!" Sofia shouts and in unison all of the villagers that are on their knees swiftly pull a hidden dagger from inside the sole of their boots and attack the soldiers.
Lara feels the momentum pick up, with Sofia's people making one last stand, she doesn't need to look to know that they are attacking the soldiers. Her eyes stay transfixed on Alister and she watches him take a step back, he isn't surprised by this at all, he looks amused at the attempt to regain control.
Right foot shifting in the dirt, Lara charges, letting go of Sofia's hand and swings her right fist into his face as hard as she can. This he doesn't see coming, no blood comes from it, but he does jerk and blink that's right goes through her mind and she takes advantage of this moment, she yanks the Wings of Darkness from his hand and he can't stop her as he is holding onto the other set of wings with the other hand.
All moves in slow motion as he swings the Wings of Light over to try and use both hands to grab at the Wings of Darkness, she can feel the surge of the wings creeping through her arms. Her veins turning black, the muscles becoming weaker by the second, nerves are spasming. She holds on and watches as another bullet goes into his left shoulder, he jerks back, fumbling with his grip on the other set of wings and using her right hand slams her palm into his adams apple hard.
Eyes bulging as he drops the other set of wings and he reaches for them to recover from the blow, but Lara was a step ahead of him and snatches the Wings of Light with her right calf and hand just as her left arm was becoming consumed by the power of the Wings of Darkness. Holding both of the Wings she takes off down the incline they are on and runs through the creek and charges off up a hill, where do I go? What do I do? Her eyes skim around while sprinting as fast as her legs can carry her as she hears some gun shots and then shouting from Alister.
Reaching the top of the hill she turns to see Alister racing up after her, many are at a standstill and Sofia tries to grab him but he slips through her grasp. "Croft! Please, don't do anything brash!" he calls out and in the corner of Lara's eye she sees what looks to be a massive boulder in the grass, bits of dirt lies across it in a light coating.
I can't let anyone else get hurt… these two sets of wings are incredibly powerful… he'll kill so many and I have no doubt he'll see himself as a god her breath shudders at images that her mind conjures. Knowing what kind of company Trinity is and the people they have employed. Her eyes travel from the rock to Alister and then to Sofia. Knowing that this is no simple task, just like the last artifact she destroyed here.
Hands are trembling as she holds the wings in each hand, she feels herself getting hotter as she feels the anxiety build up. Taking a deep breath, Lara looks at Sofia in the eye, "I'm sorry," she whispers and lifts the wings high above her head.
"LARA NO!" Sofia screams and several of the soldiers open fire, but due to her still holding the healing wings, she doesn't feel any pain.
Throwing them both down with all of her might into the rock, the impact of them both smashing together brings about a sonic blast like an EMP going off. The force sending Lara into the air, and everyone else backwards by several feet. Lara's body is flails about in the air till she crashes face down into the water on the other side of the hill.
Coughing, on her back, Sofia gasps and sits up, seeing Alister stand up in a hurry only to have a bullet go through the middle of his back. She scrambles to her feet and watches him fall to his back and she pins around to see Jonah and Winston running over along with their helicopter flying over, Liam holding a gun at the ready, "put down your weapons!" Liam commands, "Alister Star is dead! Put your weapons down! It's over!"
Turning around in circles as she watches the soldiers drop their weapons and her own people take control, all the while looking for Lara to stand up amongst the crowd. "Lara… where are you?" she asks out loud and finds her feet starting to walk. As seconds are ticking by she finds she is running into the creek, "Lara? Lara!" she shouts out and cups around her mouth to shout, "LARA!"
Fear starts to settle into her bones as she runs and splashes through the creek and up the hill, seeing the broken remains of the wings on the rock Lara had thrown them onto she looks around wildly. "LARA!" she feels her hands start shaking and realizes it isn't just her hands as Jonah and Winston reach the group finally and she runs both sets of fingers through her hair all the way to the back of her neck. Feeling her nerves getting the better of her, "where are you Lara?" she whispers and suddenly at the other side, bottom of the hill she sees a figure in the water.
Her throat constricts when she realizes she is face down, "LARA!" she screams and runs down, making sure not to trip as she charges into the water and falls to her knees. Sofia's whole body is shaking in fear as she takes Lara by her shoulders and turns her over in the water, her face had been fully submerged and Sofia quickly maneuvers to stand at Lara's head and hook her hands into Lara's under arms. "JONAH! I NEED HELP!" Sofia screams as she drags her girlfriend out of the water and onto the bank.
Once Lara is lying on her back Sofia kneels down next to her and takes her right hand and holds onto her wrist to feel for her pulse while placing her ear to her chest. Straining her mind to focus and listen for anything, but her fingers aren't feeling anything either, "don't you dare Lara… don't you die on me!"
She tilts her head up and opens her mouth before placing her hands over lapping onto her chest, she starts doing compressions while hearing Jonah's footsteps as he hurrying over the hill frantically. After ten compressions, Sofia leans down, pinching Lara's nose closed and breaths twice into her mouth before going back to compressions.
Jonah slips up in the creek and falls to his knees before hurrying to the other side of Lara, "come on little bird, you need to hang on girl," he says and takes her hand that still has the metal splint with bandages around her two fingers. "Come back to us Lara," he whispers as his fingers run along her hand.
Sofia moves to give her two more breaths and Jonah lets go of Lara's hand to immediately start doing the next set of 10 compressions, "Lara this is not your last fight! Come back to us!" Jonah urges and they both hear several people running to them now, but neither look up. Their eyes are transfixed on Lara's face.
As soon as Jonah leans back, Sofia gives Lara two more breaths and in the corner of her eye she sees Winston and Jackie standing to the side. Smoothing Lara's hair back and staring at her closed eyes. "Come back to me Lara… please… you have sacrificed enough! When you wake up your getting some serious R&R!" she smiles but notices as her hand is touching Lara's hair that she fingers are shaking. Vision becomes clouded over and Sofia blinks for tears to start rolling down her face. Her heart feels like it is in her throat.
Moving back Jonah watches as Sofia sniffles and gives Lara two more breaths, his own body is shaking, from fear and anger. Once she's given her two breaths he goes back to his compressions while Jackie places a hand onto Sofia's shoulder, "come on little bird!" he then lifts his right fist and slams it onto her chest. "Come back to us!" he slams it onto her chest again, his own vision is blurry due to tears now, and raising both arms into the air he slams both fists onto her.
Her back arches and water starts pouring out past her lips, body jerking as coughs wrack her body while more water starts jumping out. Sofia immediately turns her onto her side in a hurry, more tears start spilling down her face as her chest starts heaving, sobs starting to rise to the surface as Lara finishes coughing the fluid from her lungs out.
Vision is blurry and doubled, her mind is spinning and her ears are ringing, rolling onto her back she barely picks up on the voices nearby and her eyes try to focus on the faces peering down at her. But her mind gives up on trying and her eyes roll up before Lara's body falls limp.
The four of them watch as after Lara passed out that her chest began to rise and fall on its own, Sofia rests her head onto Lara's chest and gently wraps her right arm around her. Her tears flowing freely, her body shaking from the sobs and trembling from her nerves being shot. The idea that her girl friend had died to protect everyone and that she was that close to losing her, again.
Winston places a hand onto Sofia's back, "come, we need to get her checked out, we need to be sure that there's nothing going on internally," he says softly and watches the young woman pull away from Lara before Jonah radios to Liam to bring a stretcher.
All is quiet, not even muffled sounds are reaching her, no beeps, no whispers, nothing. Her right hand twitches and shortly after she feels warmth touch her hand, her eyes close shut tighter as she feels lights try to penetrate. She moves her head to the left to try and avoid it and realizes she needs to assess herself and her situation.
What do you feel her left hand fingers curl a little and feel a heavy fabric over top of them, it's soft and she realizes it's covering the majority of her body. Curling her toes she flexes her legs and finds that nothing is hurting. I'm not being held down, I don't feel bandages… just comfort- the warmth on her right hand covers her hand and she feels something gentle and soft stroke the back of her hand.
"Lara?" she hears the soft voice of Sofia, she notices that her mind is still foggy and then she swallows to find her mouth is dry. Her tongue moves around in her mouth as she turns her head a little towards the brighter area, parting her lips she opens her eyes slowly.
She is greeted by Sofia's brightening smile peering down at her, Lara tries to wet her lips and Sofia jumps into action and grabs a jug of ice water on the bedside table and pours a glass of water. She puts a straw into it and Lara finds her joints struggling, like it's still recovering from getting wrecked but without being in a body cast.
Taking the plastic tip between her lips and taking a sip, the cool water pooling into her mouth and going down her throat. Her eyes close and she sighs in enjoyment at how refreshing it is, releasing the straw she clears her throat as she looks up at Sofia. "Hey," she smiles a little and Sofia puts the cup onto the night stand.
"Hey yourself, how do you feel?" Sofia asks and returns to holding Lara's hand, an eagerness in her frame to learn which has Lara wondering what must have happened,
"Mmm… fine… just my body feels like it's a wreck," Lara turns her head to look up at the ceiling and notices she is in her bedroom and smiles. The last time I saw my bed… was after her memories start returning in flashes, seeing a man behind her in the mirror when splashing her face.
"I'm not surprised," Sofia says and Lara turns her head to look at her. "You've been asleep for days, you had both the Wings of Darkness and Wings of Light in your hands and threw them into a rock in front of you," she looks at her seriously. "The impact… it was such a great force that it acted like an EMP, sent you flying into the creek. I found you face down, Jonah did compression's while I did mouth to mouth," she wets her lips before biting her lower lip. "You passed out promptly after and this is your first time being awake since, a nurse has been moving your legs and arms to ensure you didn't get bed sores as we had no idea when you'd wake up."
Watching her carefully, Lara sees her eyes grow moist. She squeezes her hand, she knows she can't say 'I'm fine, you don't need to worry,' but from the tone of her voice, and the memories that flash in her mind, she has a feeling Sofia came really close to losing her. Not just Sofia… everyone she parts her lips, "I only remember bits and pieces."
The bedroom door opens and Liam steps in with Jonah, she sees their faces change from being stressed, and downcast to suddenly looking lively. Liam has fading bruises and isn't moving very smoothly. "Lara, it's good to see you awake!" Jonah greets her.
"How much do you remember?" Liam asks, his tone is on the dark side, carrying guilt over what transpired in her own home.
Her eyes go back and forth in front of her, trying to piece together the events, knowing that they must have been quite traumatic for her to have a hard time remembering. She gives a small flinch at recalling her finger getting broken while on the phone, she sucks in a breath at remembering being attacked in the bathroom and seeing Liam with a gun to his head. Lara's eyes moving to Sofia and images from the fight that was going on while up in the air, she feels her mouth go dry.
"Bits and pieces… I was tortured, wasn't I?" Lara asks and Liam's head goes down in shame.
"Yes… I'm truly sorry for that Lara," he looks at her, "I failed my job," his eyes lock onto hers. "I won't go into detail but when Sofia called, they figured that she must have known where the Wings of Light were."
Walking to her bed side, placing his hand onto her leg, Jonah looks at her seriously, "Winston and I had to sneak into the house, called Sofia that we were coming… she'd already figured out that Alister was on his way. So I devised a plan, I told her that it would take time to get there, but," he gives her leg a gentle squeeze. "We would get there, and she would know when, and that in that moment she would have the chance to take control."
Giving a small smile, not a happy one, but one to try and encourage, "I knew my people wouldn't last long, had few resources, and not nearly as many people as the last time. So when I saw Alister get shot, even though he wasn't hurt because the wings were protecting him, I knew Jonah was there. I set my people up before we surrendered to stash a dagger into the sole of our boots. We knew they wouldn't check there for a weapon, that was our chance at one last moment of surprise and it worked," she gives her hand a small squeeze.
"And then I took the wings from him…" Lara's eyes travel down to her outline under the bed covers. "I had imagined much earlier when we were on the hunt for the Wings of Darkness the amount of death and destruction it would leave in its wake… I did not want your village to be the first to be claimed by it," her grip tightens on Sofia. "I did the only thing I could… I saw Alister was taking to the power and knew he was about to become a very dangerous man," her eyes go from Sofia, to Jonah and to Liam before looking at Jonah again. "His eyes… he looked like he was feeling as though he were a god."
Wetting her lips and Sofia hands her the cup, Lara struggles but manages to sit up, her body feeling a little better after moving of its own free will and not the actions of a nurse while she slept. Taking several chugs, "I felt it," she swallows and clears her throat, "when Jonah shot him, I felt the shift, that I then had a window and I had to take it," she looks at Sofia. Her own eyes growing moist from the glimpses of memory, "I had to protect you and everyone else… I had to destroy them."
"It cost you your life," Jonah says softly, he and Sofia both clearly are still dealing with it. Lara sees it now, the exhaustion on their faces, the dark circles under their eyes. "Please little bird," Jonah says, she can see his chest is heavy with emotion but he's keeping it under control. "Take a long break, we," he gestures to those around them as Winston comes walking in with a tea cup, "we can't deal with losing you." He says simply.
"Your friends and Liam haven't slept in five days," Winston informs and Lara's eyes dart to each of them.
"I wasn't going to chance a revenge visit from Frutana Corp or from Trinity," Liam says, "I am also setting up the house to be automated. You'll be talking to a computer in the end, but it'll be able to warn you faster than I did."
Tilting her head to the side, she opens her mouth to tell him she won't accept his resignation but Winston sets the tea onto her night stand. "Ma'am, you need to get some rest," Winston informs her and she shakes her head.
"No, I have slept for long enough, five days is plenty," Lara starts to shift to get up but her head starts to bother her, and Sofia walks around the bed to the other side.
"You may have slept for five days but that doesn't mean it was restful," Sofia points out, "now, you're going to be on the proper road to recovery and if you don't mind," she smiles, "I intend to sleep next to you."
Grinning Lara lies back and watches a smile spread across Jonah's face, "I can't say no to that… my first bit of real rest next to you? " she giggles as Sofia climbs in next to her and Lara moves herself down into the covers.
"I'm going to help Liam with the computers, then I'll get some sleep myself," Jonah comments and stands up to move to where Sofia had been to give her arm a gentle squeeze. "Don't scare me like that again," he says softly, "life isn't the same without Lara Croft," he leans down and kisses her forehead.
"You better not resign-" Lara says as she sees Liam is nearly out the bedroom door.
"I won't, not until your better," Liam says with a forced smile, "I will continue to do my best to protect you and those you love. I promise," he then leaves the room.
Slipping her left arm across Lara's stomach, Sofia moves close enough to cuddle with Lara and smiles contently. "I second Jonah and I intend to stay for longer… I missed you too much and after our last phone chat," she looks up at her and sees Lara is looking at her, "I don't plan to leave your side for a while."
"Call if you need anything ladies," Winston says as he's about to close the bedroom door behind him, "it's wonderful to have you back Ma'am," he smiles sweetly.
Looking back at Sofia, Lara leans her head down and they share a kiss, smiling into it Lara moves her right hand under the bed covers to place it onto Sofia's hand. "I missed you too," Lara says and rests her head back. "Mmmm… a vacation," her eyes close and she feels Sofia's arm give her waist a small tug.
"I must agree with Jonah," Sofia whispers as she is starting to feel her eye lids getting heavier, "life isn't the same without Lara Croft."
Lara smiles at that thought and within moments they both fall asleep.
The End
I hope you liked the ending, parts of it I had pictured from the beginning such as the rocks getting smashed together. The trick was how to get there. I am really happy with how this turned out and I hope everyone else is too!
Enjoy your holidays! Happy New Year!
P.S. I was given Shadow of the Tomb Raider for my birthday and beat it in a couple of weeks... felt shorter than the other two, not a lot of boss fights and just generally easy. Plenty of gross moments and amazing graphics, but I think the first is my favourite.
Started: Saturday February. 20, 20 16, 10:54:08 P.M.
Finished: Sunday November. 4, 2018, 12:13 A.M.
Edited: Tuesday November. 6, 2018 2:37 P.M.
