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Voices whispered in the back of Jill’s mind. It felt like icy fingers were crawling down her neck, curling around her spine and threatening to bore into the core of her. The soldiers were yelling commands from far away, but all that existed in this moment was the small golden idol on the pedestal in the throne room. It stared at her, taunting her, insulting her.
You’re too weak–you’ll never be safe!
Jill could be safe, she could protect herself from all of this. She could protect Lara too.
Lara, where was she?
No, Jill was alone. She was alone and in danger and she needed to…she had to…remember. Remember what?
Lara.
I have to protect…
Kenneth, whose eyes had nearly bored a hole into the idol, instantly lunged to grab it off the stone. But Jill was too fast, snatching it and clutching it to her chest.
And then everything was gone.
–
Lara watched in horror as Jill’s body contorted in a form of seizure. The soldiers frantically chattered to each other, desperately trying to understand what was happening. Jayce stepped forward, assuming his command–-trying to appear in control. Lara knew better.
Jill stopped moving and Lara was certain she’d fall, despite having somehow managed to keep her feet.
When Jill turned around, her glassy eyes looked from person to person, settling on Lara as she neared.
Lara approached slowly, but Jayce’s arm shot across her chest, blocking her from getting closer.
“Jill, are you alright?” Lara called.
Lara’s question cut through the pin-drop silence.
A frightened hush seemed to have sapped the air from everyone present.
Jill stared back with unrecognizing eyes, and then lunged.
Jayce raised his gun but Lara grappled his wrists, swinging them both around and disarming him as they dodged the path of Jill’s attack.
Lara didn’t even bother looking in Jill’s direction as the latter went skidding-–her eyes were trained on Jayce. Burning holes into him.
She threw down Jayce’s gun and glared, cutting down on the space between them.
“Take aim at her again and I will disembowel you, Captain Shipwell,” she growled.
“She’s not in there!”
“You don’t know that!”
“She’s gone, Lara,” Jayce pleaded, no malice in his voice.
She scoffed, turning back to Jill, who was stumbling around the altar.
“She isn’t,” Lara added, “I’m bringing her back.”
It was partly a hunch. Partly stubbornness. And mostly a hope.
She took a step towards Jill when the floor suddenly shifted and cracked beneath her feet.
“The temple is collapsing!” a soldier shouted.
“Of fucking course it is,” Lara groaned, shaking her head in irritation.
Soldiers began making for the exit. Lara stalked up to Jill but was grabbed by Jayce once more.
“Get your hands off me,” Lara snapped, shaking free of his grip and continuing on her mission.
“I was given orders to bring you in, Croft.”
“Then disobey them.”
“Not at the cost of my men.”
Lara turned back, watching as the room emptied, “What men?”
The ground buckled again and a large chunk of the ceiling fell next to Jayce, making him stumble.
“Lara, you need to leave right now–-forget her! You’ll both die in here!”
“Then your boss gets his wish. I’m out of the picture,” Lara shot, deftly sidestepping a piece of roof that crashed behind her.
Jayce turned tail and ran, cursing her as the hallway began crumbling. He dove forward and the space behind him collapsed entirely, blocking the way out.
“We won’t be going that way then,” Lara sighed, tiptoeing her way up to Jill who was mumbling to herself.
“Jill, we’ve gotta go,” Lara cautioned, “Building’s coming down.”
Jill gave her a confused and angry look, beginning to snarl.
“I’ll knock you out if I have to, but I really don’t want to do that.”
Jill screeched, swiping at Lara with one hand.
“I’m not above embarrassing you with pickup lines or kissing with tongue to wake you, but you really need to wake up.”
Please.
Jill seemed to be vibrating with rage. The muscles in her arm rippled as she clung to the idol in her hand.
That’s it.
“Give me the idol, please,” Lara said cautiously, reaching for it.
Jill snapped her teeth at Lara and Lara yanked her hand back in surprise.
She huffed in annoyance and held a hand up to shield her eyes as a large rock fell and exploded off the ground beside her.
“I asked nicely ,” Lara warned before tackling Jill at the gut.
The wind knocked out of Jill as she caught her by surprise. The pair went crashing to the ground, hitting debris and rolling off. Lara grabbed onto Jill’s wrist with one arm and caught Jill’s jaw with the other as her partner tried to sink her teeth into her. Jill’s mouth opened and closed. She couldn’t snap at her with the grip Lara had, but as Jill’s feet scrabbled for purchase in the dirt, she twisted and got a hand free from under their bodies, grabbing a fistful of Lara’s ponytail and pulling hard.
“Ow, fuck !” Lara screamed, elbowing Jill in the chest in retribution.
Jill coughed but did not release her grip. Lara hooked their legs together and contorted her body, trying to roll them over so that she could gain leverage. Jill didn’t seem to expect it.
The real Jill would have , Lara thought, a mix of bitterness and relief rolled over her.
Wrestling to the top, Lara managed to flip Jill onto her stomach, but Jill pulled the idol close to her chest again, pinning it to the ground with her body. Jill’s other arm was twisted behind her back. Lara pulled up on her wrist and heard a whine of pain from Jill. It made her wince, but she couldn’t afford to be soft right now.
“Jill, the roof is going to fall on top of us–-you have to give me the idol now !”
Jill squirmed under her but was unable to push Lara off. She squeezed her legs around Jill and pulled Jill's wrist up again, feeling her wriggle in pain and frustration.
The mix of snarls and screeches made it clear there was no reasoning with Jill, and no threat of a broken arm will stop her.
Lara leaned forward, pressing a hand to the side of Jill’s face and shoving her head against the dirt with her weight. Certain that she had a good hold, she used the other hand to half-roll Jill, exposing the underside of her and bringing the idol back into the light. Lara tried to grab it, but Jill clutched it in a white knuckle grip.
A pillar next to the pair began buckling, and Lara’s heart thudded in her ears.
“Fuck, we’re out of time,” Lara groaned, letting go of the idol and using the heel of her hand to pop Jill in the nose, breaking it with a crunch.
Jill cried out and snapped her eyes shut, rushing a hand to her nose as blood began to trickle.
Lara rolled Jill onto her back and with both hands grabbed the idol, ripping it violently from Jill’s one arm.
Lara staggered to her feet and looked at Jill, panting heavily on the ground.
Voices whispered in the back of Lara’s mind. Despite the heat of the fires and crumbling building, a chill slithered up her back. She looked at the idol in her hands and her face grew hot. The idol was laughing at her. Jill’s blood on her hand felt warm. It felt good. She looked at the blood on her hand and felt a very strong urge to draw more of it.
On the ground, Jill coughed and sputtered, her breathing ragged and shaky.
An urge–-no, a thrum of instruction demanded that Lara obliterate the woman on the ground.
She looked down at Jill with a hunger, a need that had to be satisfied. A bloodlust had taken hold of her.
Letting out an animalistic scream, Lara smashed the idol on the ground next to Jill.
And it was over.
Lara staggered backwards, feeling a crash as the rage left her. She felt utterly exhausted.
Jill looked up at her sadly.
“You have to get out of here,” Jill said quietly.
Lara shook her head, reaching down and dragging Jill to her feet.
Jill wiped some of the blood from her mouth, sniffing to try to stop the flood from her nose. Her legs shook a little and she did not meet Lara’s eye.
“Just leave me–I’ll find my own way…”
Lara bent over, firmly driving her shoulder into Jill’s hip as she pulled Jill’s arms over her shoulders, standing back up with Jill in a fireman’s carry.
“Lara no,” Jill pleaded weakly, “You won’t make it out with me.”
“Do not ruin this moment for me,” Lara groaned, looking around for their exit.
Jill didn’t bother entertain her with a laugh, and Lara felt a pang in her guts.
“We’re both getting out,” Lara told her.
She trudged across the room, clenching as the pillar gave way and collapsed behind them.
“We’re going out the back way.”
“What back way?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
Lara trudged to the far corner, finding a gap in the collapsed walls. They slipped through and down the hall. At the far end, a large door was lowering from the ceiling, cutting off their escape.
“ Fuck ,” Lara hissed, trying to pick up speed.
Lara stumbled to a knee and Jill lifted her head. She leapt off of Lara and ran for the door, catching her fingers under the lip and standing firm, stopping the door from closing.
Lara watched in astonishment as Jill held up the door with her arms alone. Her muscles trembled and she widened her stance, trying to use any leverage she could against the door. Lara scrambled to her feet and ran over, sliding quickly under the door and popping back up on the other side. She took hold of the door and braced.
“Got it, let go!”
When Jill did, Lara’s arms buckled at the weight of the door. She couldn’t hold it for long. Jill rolled under the door and Lara let go, watching the door crash to the ground.
The energy was so firmly drained from Lara that she felt dizzy.
Before she knew it, Jill had her arm draped over her shoulder and was half-carrying her down the hall. She stumbled then found her footing, trying her best to walk alongside Jill.
There was light ahead, and the pair rushed toward it, freedom within their grip.
The gap at the end was too narrow to both fit, and Jill pushed Lara forward, urging her to exit first. Lara shimmied through the space and burst into the fresh air, hearing the tunnel collapsing behind her. Jill gave her a shove forward to protect her, but Lara twisted, catching Jill’s arm and using the momentum of her falling backwards out of the gap to yank Jill out with her.
The pair collapsed on the cool grass, the tunnel behind them completely imploding.
They both panted, surprised and relieved to be alive.
—
Jill’s eyes began to well up a bit in shame and she sniffed, irritated at the clog up of blood in her nostrils. She laid still, afraid to look at Lara. When she could manage it she stood up, dusting herself off.
“I’m sorry,” Jill replied flatly, “I don’t know what that was. I wasn’t myself. I swore I’d never let something like this happen again and I–”
She turned right into the path of Lara, who had apparently stood up also.
The sad look Lara was giving her stopped her in her tracks.
“I’m sorry I broke your nose,” Lara replied, “We’re even.”
“No,” Jill shook her head, feeling nauseous, “It’s not the same…”
“Look,” Lara cut in, “That thing made me want to wear your intestines like a hat. You weren’t yourself. I wasn’t myself.” Lara shrugged, continuing, “It’s not your fault. There was little chance fighting it.”
“ You somehow managed.”
“If Kenny hadn’t reached for it I’m sure you would have fought the urge too.”
Jill looked down, feeling the shame bubble again. She wasn’t safe. Not from danger. Nor from being the danger.
“I tried to fight…”
There was no use, she hadn’t tried hard enough.
“I know,” Lara replied, “I could tell. You were so…absent. Your movements were slow. The real Jill would have ripped out my throat with her teeth.”
Jill flinched, “I could have killed you. Why did you stay?”
“You wouldn’t have killed me,” Lara shook her head, “I was kicking your ass while trying not to hurt you. The only danger I was in was from the bloody collapsing ceiling.”
Jill frantically shook her head back, “No,” she insisted, refusing to minimize anything, “You could have been killed. Yet you trusted I was still in there?”
Lara looked at her for a long time.
“Everyone else left,” Jill added sadly, “And they were right to.”
“Maybe we would have saved time had they stayed,” Lara reasoned, “Another pair of hands.”
Jill didn’t know what to say to that.
“No,” Lara corrected, “They’d have gotten in the way.”
“Why did you do it?”
“I’m not leaving you behind,” Lara explained, shaking her head, “I need you.”
Jill laughed sadly, “You don’t need me. You were doing okay on your own.”
“Well then, I want you, Jill,” Lara laughed humorlessly, “Does that make it better?”
Jill’s whole body stiffened.
“I don’t… need partners, I don’t need backup, I don’t need to keep you around for sake of convenience,” Lara went on, “I like having you here. I like having you around. I…y’know insane as it may sound, I have had so much fun with you on this adventure.”
Jill sputtered a laugh of surprise, but knew deep down she couldn’t disagree, despite it all.
“And when it occurred to me that I could lose you…” Lara trailed off, swallowing and shaking her head. When she began again she blinked away moisture gathering in her eyes, “Well, I wasn’t going to have that.”
Jill looked back at her silently, her heart in her throat.
“Call it selfishness, really,” Lara continued, “I don’t like the thought of doing this without you. It’d be wrong.”
“Before I grabbed the idol,” Jill managed, “I thought of losing you. And now after, knowing that I could have…been the reason…”
Lara rushed forward, grabbing the front of Jill’s holsters and pulling her in close. They pressed their foreheads together and Lara shook her head, “Shh…no.”
Jill opened her mouth to argue but Lara kissed her. Warmly, passionately. Deeply. They clung to each other desperately, as if the other might blow away in the wind if she let go.
When they pulled apart, blood was smeared on Lara’s face like a lipstick stain.
Jill looked apologetically to Lara but she just shook her head.
“It’s okay,” Lara assured, “I promise. Come at me again and I’ll just break your nose again.”
Jill laughed and grimaced, “You really just broke my nose like it was nothing, huh?”
“Not nothing. I like your nose,” Lara clarified, “Don’t make me do it again.”
Jill feigned annoyance, but she was honestly glad for the levity.
“If it ever…happens again…” she began, dreading the conversation.
“Then I’ll kick your ass again,” Lara replied casually.
Jill shot her a look.
“You can’t take me in a fight, Jill Valentine, but you are welcome to try, try again.”
Jill huffed at the hubris, but it admittedly made her feel a bit better.
“I can take it,” Lara continued, “You aren’t getting rid of me anytime soon. And I want to keep you around.”
“Okay,” Jill nodded, smiling a little.
“Okay,” Lara agreed, offering a little smile back, sealing their pact.