"Well then, I think we are getting closer and closer to the Crown of Immortality," Zima said. "This should be fun, I am just picturing what the divine Crown of Immortality looks like. I'm going to be the first one to put it on."
"Like a little girl trying on a dress for the first time," Jankovic commented. "You keep seeming to forget that I am the one in control of the situation. Everything you are doing, I want you to do. Me, and the loyalists soldiers are going to overwhelm every single one of you. It will be something you guys will never expect. You should just kill us right now and get it over with if you don't want us to reveal our plans." The emotionless expression on his face showed that he was being extremely serious. "Hurry up and kill us."
Lara, Ben and Nadia stared at Jankovic with wide eyes. Zima was taken aback by Jankovic and looked extremely amused. His smiles looked something like the Joker's and he even placed a single hand on his gun. "You know what, I think I'll take your words into consideration. You guys are pretty useless and the only reason I am keeping you alive is because I want you guys to witness my success. The only person I actually need to witness my success is Jankovic. So I'll spare him, and kill the rest of you. Sorry for both Ben and Nadia."
"What about me?" Lara asked. "You still want to give me a slow death like you promised?"
"Yes, so I want to people to be spared." Zima looked at his mercenaries and snapped off orders. "Line Ben and Nadia up and shoot their brains in." The mercenaries nodded and they began shoving Ben and Nadia towards the nearest wall and having them raise their hands high above their head. Lara protested, but Jankovic did not seemed the least bit concerned. Ben and Nadia were going to die because of Jankovic's arrogance and she was going to kill him herself as soon as she found a way to defeat Zima. That was a promise she intended to keep.
"Alright then ladies and gentlemen, raise your guns and fire on my command," Zima orders. He has two of his mercenaries restrain Lara and Jankovic while Zima takes position beside the firing squad. "Three…"
Lara looked at Ben, fearing that this would be the last time she would see her fiance alive. She kept on protesting for Ben and Nadia to be spared, but it was as useless as punching a robot in the face.
"Two…" Zima licked his lips.
More mercenaries began gathering around to see the execution.
Jankovic smiled in.
Lara cried.
Ben panted.
Nadia sobbed and sealed her eyes tightly shut.
"One!" Zima cried.
As the two executioners fired their assault rifles, the bullets flew right back into their faces. The gun barrels exploded and every single bullet in their magazines went flying in their faces and into other mercenaries. The executioners were dead and the eight mercenaries standing beside them were killed as well.
Zima grasped his hand as he feels a bullets pierce through, biting into his flesh and ripping his artery from his wrist. The man clutches his wrist in pain and glares in pain at Jankovic. The surviving seven mercenaries looked dumbfounded at the sudden deaths of their associates. "Jankovic!" Zima shouts in pure anger. "You sabotaged the bullets!"
Jankovic licked his lips in amusement.
Dozens of gunshots came from behind and four mercenaries were gunned down and the soldiers that were captured fought back and killed the four remaining mercenaries with their bare fists.
Lara, relieved to discover that Ben was still alive, rushed towards Jankovic's back and punched him in the back of the skull. He feels little to no pain and he kicks Lara in the chest and she staggers towards the abyss. Ben and Nadia ran and saved Lara as she almost fell over. The three of them turned and watched as Jankovic picked up the fallen cube from Zima. He gazes intently at the cube and stares at the grounded Zima. "You idiot, you honestly though you could screw with me?"
The eight soldiers watched eagerly as Jankovic scolded the treacherous Trinity soldier. They were lucky that Jankovic let them in on the plan and let them know which gun had sabotaged bullets or not.
"You could've just killed me, why didn't you?" Zima asked as he tried to crawl away. Jankovic stomped his foot on Zima's wrist, causing him to scream and forcing him to stop.
"Because, I wanted the Boss to see what kind of thin-dick backstabbing dirtbag double crossing asshole you are." Jankovic took off his leather gloves and use one hand to hold his left eyelid open and use the right hand to take something out. Zima though that he was taking out some kind of contact and much to his horror, it was a contact lense. Not the one for visually impaired, the contact lense with a camera inside. The Mission: Impossible contact lenses. "I caught everything and the Boss watched live as you exposed yourself." He cackled a little at his own triumph. "Now, I'm gonna kill you now. I'll make it slow and painful because that's the kind of death you deserve."
Zima growled in anger. "You son of a b-"
A foot stomped on Zima's head before he could even finish his insult. Jankovic gazed at the crushed skull, blinking in surprise and looked up to see Ben standing with a look of anger on his face. He was huffing and puffing from the adrenaline and he looked at Jankovic before several guns were drawn to him.
"Now Ben, that was very unexpected of you. I understand why you did, but to do it right in front of me when the Boss is watching us? Don't matter anyways, the treacherous pig is dead and thank you."
"I didn't do it for you," Ben says. "I did it because of what he said to me when he and Kovak were torturing me back in your safe haven."
Jankovic leaned back and chuckled. "What did he say to you?"
Ben refused to answer and he was forced back to Lara and Nadia by a soldier. Jankovic turns around and hugs Danny tightly. He hugged him so tightly to the point that his toes barely scraped the ground. "Thank you for slaughtering those F-ing mercs."
"No problem, but I think I'll pass out again if you don't put me down," Danny says in a strained voice. Jankovic obliges and he places Danny down on the ground. "You see Lara, if you hadn't choked Danny out, then Danny never would've been able to shoot up four mercenaries." He turns around to face Lara, the cube in his hand. "Thank you for setting this course Lara. Thank you so very much. We still outnumber you three to one."
"Yeah yeah, there's nine of you total. You actually think you're any better than Zima, you said he treacherous yet you let us purposely escape from your little prison."
"After I did that, I told the Boss about it and was actually pleased with my decision. You see Lara, I am nothing like Zima. You may think so in your eyes, but I am nothing like him. So enough stalling children, and let's get going. The cube is vibrating in my hand and it is begging to go towards the Crown of Immortality. I can practically taste the crown from our location."
"Get going, we don't have a lot of time," Danny says as he follows Jankovic in whatever direction he goes. Lara, Ben and Nadia refused to walk forward until three soldiers cocked their individual guns and aimed them. They had no choice but to follow and they could not escape because the guns are sabotaged in the soldiers' guns.
"Jankovic, I normally don't say this, but thank you for saving Ben and Nadia," Lara actually says. She figured that if a villain saved her soon-to-be husband's life and good friend's life, then the least she could do, the very least she could do was show an ounce of gratitude. Even if he was an agent of Trinity.
"Why you are very welcome Miss Croft." Jankovic took extreme pleasure in the show of gratitude.
"What do you know about my father?" Lara asked. "You used to be friends with him and then Trinity happened to you. What do you know about my father?"
"Still won't let it go? It's classified." Jankovic crossed his hands and put the cube inside his jacket pocket. "If it were up to me, then I would spill the beans, but since I still have orders not to tell, you're just going to have keep guessing." He did take a large amount of amusement in the fact that he was basically playing a puppet master. "There is one thing I can reveal though: I made a pact with your father to not reveal some things about him. This was before I was an initiated member of Trinity. But like I said before, once we have the Crown of Immortality, then we can bring Richard back to life."
"No Jankovic," Lara said. "I don't want Dad to come back to life. He died and now he is at peace. I can't take that away from him. I can't disturb him while his soul is in Heaven, I just can't do it."
"Not even a little bit? Not even a little bit do you want to bring your Daddy back to life? I know deep down you would love to raise him from the dead." Jankovic did not bother to hide his smile from her.
"There is an element of truth in there, but no. It's not right. You can't save everyone Jankovic."
"Trinity will reshape the world," he says confidently. "Trinity will rid the world of sin..of weakness. We can live in a better place. A world without fear, pain or suffering. A world with no death."
"Jankovic, the cost is too high. We are humans who aren't meant to live forever. Plus, if you loved your mother, and she was dead and you raised her from the dead, how would you feel? How would you feel if your mother was an inhumane monster because of you?"
Now Jankovic's heart sank to his stomach. He didn't really like his mother, but he wasn't that heartless. His parents did abuse him, but they did it as a way to toughen him. To some degree, he still loved them and he couldn't bare to bring himself to actually turn them into zombies. And then he suddenly remembered something that his mother told him when he was five years old. Don't let us interfere with your goals. Don't ever let us interfere with your life goals son.
Bringing his parents back from the dead wasn't his mission, saving the world was his mission. He just wanted to save the world for himself and Trinity so he can actually live instead of running and hiding from the world. Lara would never understand, if she was a Trinity member, then she would. Lara presented Jankovic with a lot of evidence on why the crown should not be found, but at the same time, she was robbing him. He was destined to save the world...and Lara was taking that from him. I'm not the 'villain', Lara Croft is. Why didn't I see that from the very beginning? He began recounting all the events that led him to standing in the room; even before he met Trinity.
He was abused by his parents, went to the military, made good friends with Richard Croft, gained a liking towards Lara, earned his way into Trinity, discovered that the Crown of Immortality was real, ended up losing his best soldier and betrayed on every level possible by his close friends. Now here he was, trying to be persuaded by Lara Croft that the crown is not worth finding and that if he really wants to save the world, then drop this mission. He had been pushed too far now.
How dare you Croft? All of this will not be for nothing. I will die...before I let you win. I should've killed you a long time ago.
All the warmness Jankovic felt in his heart turned from love to pure rage in a flash, much faster than a bullet. "Shut yer goddamn mouth Croft! You actually think you can brainwash me into ditching Trinity's destiny? MY DESTINY? Who the hell do you think you are? You think just because your Richard Croft's daughter you can talk your way out of any situation, trying to corrupt me? I am trying to save the world and you are stopping me from achieving that quest! You have been my enemy from the very beginning. To hell with you Croft. As soon as I'm given an order to kill you, I won't hesitate. Even if you were pregnant, I wouldn't hesitate to kill you. A matter a fact, If you were indeed pregnant, I will cut your belly and yank your baby out and kill it in front of you. Afterwards, I would keep you alive so you can live everyday, knowing that because of your actions...your child is dead."
Lara put a hand to her belly as she felt a pain in her heart. A pain that was identical to that of being stabbed in the heart. All the kindness in Lara that tried to persuade her to try and change Jankovic was completely erased. Wiped from existence completely, but her dormant killer side, was reawaken now because of him; all because of him. Now she had only one goal in mind once the Crown of Immortality was found. One goal in mind that she was going to carry out to the very end: kill Jankovic.
Once again, her smile returned and she laughed at the idea of how she was going to kill him.
Zima Horvath (1984-April 7, 2016)