She returns long after Lara knows the sun has gone down; there may not be windows in the room, but the room darkens as though there were. Candles light what they can, still leaving several globs of shadows around the room. Lara sits on the bed, staring down at the food she was brought; its been cold for an hour.
"Starving yourself does nothing for you or your friends."
Lara looks up, sees her in that robe, hair disheveled and a tired look on her face. She gives Lara a passive look as she walks over to the grand golden chest in the corner of the room, producing a key to unlock it. Inside were the clothes she was wearing when she captured Lara: cargo pants, a harness for climbing, a dark green tank top and a tactical vest - it says S.W.A.T. on the back of it.
"You have them," Lara murmurs in reference to the others. "Why?"
The woman looks at her, eyes hard but also slightly dull. "Because Mathias orders it," she says like its the simplest thing ever.
Lara looks away when she drops the robe, having nothing beneath it; she snorts lowly and Lara listens to buckles clank against each other. She jumps when there is a shift in the bed, watches the woman pick up her untouched plate and set it to the side. She's completely together, hair braided back and face still tired; she can't be much older than Lara but she sure looks it.
"I'm not gonna sit here and talk about how this is for the greater good like Mathias will," she sits on the edge of the bed, vest crackling as she hunches over to lace her boots. "I wanted you. I took you. That's how it goes and it'll do you good to get used to the fact," she sighs and places both hands on her thighs, looking at Lara. "You can call me Teagan. Mine as well use names since we're gonna be around each other enough."
"What do you want with me," Lara croaks, close to tears and trying so hard to keep it together; Roth would be disappointed.
Teagan stares at her for a long time, lips quirked in the corner like she was contemplating what to say; how difficult could it be? She pushes herself to her feet and reached into the chest, pulling out a slightly battered 92FS - Beretta; couldn't be Reyes', hers was fresh and new.
"Your friend, Samantha? She's only alive for Mathias' purpose," she slid the gun into the holster on her right thigh. "We have a handful of your people in lockdown - old man didn't make it back to the town. And that other man..." She trailed off with a bitter tone to her voice, then shook her head. "But you're mine," she shut the trunk, locked it, tucked the key into her cleavage. "Mathias says I should kill you, some of the men beg to use you. But they won't touch you so long as you're mine. The only one that would even tempt it...well, you met him," a small smile to her lips. "He's dead, so he'll be no bother."
"You killed him," Lara whispers, slightly shocked. "You killed one of your own men," they were animals.
"I do not tolerate insubordination with my men," Teagan bit out. "Mathias puts women down like dogs, sex makes the men stupid. They are not allowed to have any that wash up unless they have been tested first."
Lara has a hard time speaking, floundering with the thoughts of what could happen to her here. Should she really be thankful to a woman who claims Lara is hers? She doesn't fell comfortable with the idea but -
"You're alive," Lara breathes, planting her feet flat on the floor. "He let you live."
An actual smile, giving her a glimpse of the human in her. "Of course," she says, like Lara should know why. "The warning still stands - don't try anything stupid. I am leaving on a hunt. Eat. Sleep. You are useless to me unless you do otherwise and I can force feed you. Best you get used to living here."
The second time she's said it and Lara still doesn't care.
She's not staying on this island.
She hasn't been shot in a long time and the pain is still familiar from that first time. It still ebbs out from nearly the same spot - a lump of scar tissue in her side, near her lower rib - with the brutal pain but she can't stop.
Mathias said so.
"Teagan is down," one of the men bellow, watches her clutch her side from the opposite side of a barrier made from barrels; flammable. "Vladimir!"
Teagan grinds her teeth as she pulls her hand away, fresh pricks of pain hitting bone. Blood coats her hand and stains her forearm but she reloads her gun and struggles to her feet. Vladimir is at her back and firing with his rifle, at an enemy they don't have visual of. They had scored an old sniper rifle from one of the bases - had to, her men only had one amongst themselves and Vladimir had it on his back.
"Give me that damn rifle," she snapped as another man to her left was gunned down.
She holsters her gun, cradling the rifle and checking the chamber. She leveled her sights and spotted the dull glint between the storm clouds, the glint of an opposing scope; this had to end fast, anger was charging the air.
Her finger swept over the trigger, a malicious grin lighting her teeth when she saw the other scope snap out, heard a very faint cry of pain. She lowered the rifle and passed it back to Vladimir, who took it and rushed forward while Teagan limped out from the barricade. She grunted and looked down at the wound, it had cut in just the right spot to only clip the edge of the vest.
"Its nothing," she snapped when one of the youngest recruits tried to scamper to her.
He jumped back a step, eyes still wide and squirrelly but he held his rifle in an easy grip. He was so new to the experience - killing and surviving on a cursed island - and she was slightly concerned he would have to be put down. He hadn't fired a single shot during the assault but he had managed in the biothermal caverns, so there was something in there.
Mathias would help her decide.
"He's gone!"
Her head snapped up, eyes livid as she eyed the spot where the intruder had been; one of the men was hanging by that girls climbing axe and waving the rifle in the air. She cursed under her breath and began to stalk towards the towers base, catching the rifle when it was dropped. The bullet she had shot had ruined the scope and it had blood on the opposite end, so either she had only grazed them or the bullet just drove it back into their face to break skin.
"God dammit," she snarled and whirled, knocking the butt of the rifle into the mans head.
He gave a cry of pain as he stumbled back, clutching at his face while the others watched in mute silence; like Hell they step in when its her. Teagan tosses the rifle to Vladimir, who caught it with practiced ease and she bent down, snatching up the climbing axe; it grated against the ground beneath them.
"Take your brothers and find him," she growled at Vladimir, stalking past him. "The rest of you return home, I will speak to Mathias."
"Yes ma'am," several of the murmured before splitting up.
She watches Vladimir and his brother chortle and strut down in the only directions the intruder could have gone; the others split towards the shantytown, no doubt to sleep where she deprived them last night with rounding up the remaining members of the ships crew. She couldn't wait to skewer the snipers head on a spike, it'd go right outside her door.
The walkie talkie on her hip crackled and she sighed, unclipping it. "What is it," she snapped into the speaker.
"Your girl is hiding in the town."
Instant fire in her veins. Teagan grits her teeth hard enough to be concerned about chipping a tooth and starts down the incline behind the rest if the men. She had wanted to go check the progress at the beach before going back, she supposed those plans were now trashed.
"Ungrateful little bitch," she snarled.
Rotting flesh.
It was all there was beneath the makeshift down. Human or animal, there was no discrimination when it came to their disposal, it seemed. The water was nearly chest deep and Lara was sure any second now, she would have up what she had managed to stuff down of cold fish and questionable water; thankfully, the canteen she had drank out of was black and she couldn't see what she had kind of felt on her tongue.
"Where the fuck could she have gone," Lara freezes and the water ripples around her, her whole body wincing as heavy boots rattle the delicate flooring just above her head.
"Teagan is gonna be pissed," there's a Russian accent, but it seems wormed through; years of being isolated would have done such a thing. "I told him not to try anything, he knows what she does when we don't listen to Mathias."
"Well, at least we know that whiskey is still good. I'm gonna get drunk after we find this dumb bitch."
"Better hope Teagan doesn't make it here before then, I don't need to be humiliated again."
"Man, you manage that on your own every other day of the week."
"I'd fucking shoot you if she didn't want the honors herself."
Lara trembled and listened, jerking every time she heard a foot fall or heard shouting in the distance; there was a loud crash and someone screamed in pain but the men above her didn't seem to really care. Lara trudged carefully through the rough lath beneath the building thrown together with metal sheets and old wood. When she had seen this town in the distance, she had only seen a big splotch of red. She had never expected a shantytown made of mazes; she hadn't even expected to make it this far.
She had been in some kind of old monastery, she'd mistaken it for the palace but so many herbs and alters had proven her wrong. From there she had simply ran into this shantytown, assaulted on all ends by the smell and sights of crucified bodies. None of the men had seen where she went, which had her under the town itself.
But that was about to change.
"Where the fuck is she," that scathing, shrill, voice rang out over the town as easy as if through speakers. "Where the fuck is she?! How did she get out?!"
Lara presses herself against a wooden beam slanted in the water, nails digging in and causing soon-to-be-splinters to pop up. She ignored the threat of old wood, eyeing the boots on dainty calves that stopped at the edge of the shack. Blood had stained one side of her pants, appearing to have dropped down from some unseen wound; Lara found mild concern.
"Danté was drinking and he -"
"Bring him to me," Teagan snapped. "You bring him to me and you help me find the girl."
Lara watched a set of feet sprinting in the opposite direction and watched Teagan's feet disappear into the shack above her head. Lara couldn't hear Teagan's steps, only heard the thick steps of the man still around. Someone yelled not here! somewhere in the distance and Lara finally hears something from Teagan - a curse. She flinched but pushed off of the beam, moving slowly in the water to prevent much splashing. Every subtle thump or scrape against the metal above her made Lara flinch, jerk in fear that she had been found; she couldn't be found, she had to get the others - if they were alive - out of here.
She hesitated once she had reached the end of her available space to move, eyeing the dry dirt just inches from her. Bending over slightly, she tried to see if there were any men around to see her slip out - none. She licked her lips and eyed the second destination - another path beneath yet another shack, but that seemed to end in the trees and she would be able to move faster.
Lara took a silent, steadying breath and started to ease out from under her minor haven, smiling victoriously when there was only a wall on the shack she was beneath. There was no way Teagan had seen her, would see her slip out from under and into the brush. The moment she got a solid hold on the ground with her squishy boot, she heard a violent shuddering around her. Instinct had Lara freeze, logic dwindled it down to a second, but it was too late.
The wall of the shack came down on her and Lara scrambled, screaming in pain as the sheet metal caught her legs and pinned her to the ground. She clawed at the dirt, wiggling until one leg was free and then more pressure was added to her still-trapped leg. The bright red of her climbing axe slammed into the ground merely an inch from her head, pulling another scream from Lara as she looked up at Teagan. The woman ripped the axe from the ground, a picture of beauty and rage as she roared and slammed the axe down again, driving it through Lara's right wrist.
She wailed.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"
The anguish fell on deaf ears as several men wormed their way into the small clearing, Teagan panting aa she side stepped Lara and glared over her.
"You stupid girl," she snapped, then her eyes swept over the men. "If I find one more of you defying Mathias' order to not touch the women - I will have you strung up for the Oni at the palace! Do you understand?!"
Silent nods abs fixed eyes on the young woman, who bent down and ripped the axe from Lara's wrist. Blood spattered across Lara's cheat and mouth as Teagan did so, pain making her arm numb. She set pleading eyes on Teagan, who remained cold and callous when staring down at her.
"Take her back to the monastery," she snapped, stepping over Lara. "I still have a man to find. Bind her to the bed if you have to - and I will know if orders are ignored."
"Yes ma'am."
Lara is snatched up by rough, calloused, hands and she screams when one clamps down around the gaping hole in her wrist. Her head jerks up to the man and he isn't looking at her, just wrapping the wound crudely before dragging her behind him. Lara looks back, sewing Teagan a retreating figure, axe thrown over her shoulder as her other hand cradles her injured side.