Chapter Text
Next Day, Azerbaijan
Lara at some point had been again chloroformed by one of Boris’s men during the flight and was knocked out for the past 16 or so hours.
Then suddenly the screams woke her up.
The screams and wails and cries for help in a language or two she barely understood.
The only salvation in this next hellhole-Gladov had actually decided to not keep her tied up and gagged. Unfortunately this was at the price of being stripped down to her white bra and panties. “Oh my God, where am I?”
She couldn’t help but shiver in this darkest and coldest of what seemed to be an ex-Soviet prison and she grabbed onto the cell bars.
“Freezing, dammit!” she yelled tugging on the bars.
Then a voice came across from her in the crossing cell. “Stop! Trouble…” the tan skinned girl squeeked, also pulling on her bars.
“What’s this place? How long have you been here?” Lara replied.
“Mishka…I’ve too been kidnapped, the lot of us have. By the Russians, every night they take one of us and…take turns…” she trembled. “Been here almost 6 months. My only blessing is they’re down on Muslim girls and women like me. Do you know Chechnya?”
“I’ve heard of it, majority Muslim region of Russia. Numerous wars since the 16th century between the Chechens and Russia, including two in last 20 years. Are you from there?”
“Yes, my grandparents and father died in the first war, my mother disappeared in the second…you’re not from here are you?”
“No, and I’m sorry about them. I’m from England, my name is Lara Croft. Is one of the Russians holding you named Gladov?”
“Yes, he’s the architect of our suffering, he’s an evil man. He and his Trinity-“
“Trinity? How much do you know about them?”
“They’re a Christian cult, men of military background. Soldiers, mercenaries. They talk of rituals and initiation, a purpose to cleanse the world of sin,”
“Right…my father had numerous dealings with them before his death. My mentor and foster father Conrad Roth told me they had a hand in it,” Lara remembered.
“Why did he work for them?”
“My dad was an archeologist who had a contract with them, he’d dig up artifacts for one of their front companies. But he didn’t actually give up the artifacts, he gave them duplicated fakes. I-I got my obsession of history from him, him and Roth both,”
“Mr Gladov also kept mentioning a St. Petersburg Pearl, a man named Roth owes him it,”
“And that’s why I’m here, he’s my foster father, my caretaker since I was 3. Roth did owe him the artifact. Said to be the Tsarina’s most valuable jewelry given by her lover Rasputin. Was stolen away by one of the Tsarist generals before the Bolsheviks got to the royal family and murdered them. The general who claimed it is said to have had it with him when he fought in the British-Ottoman clash for what’s now Azerbaijan,” Lara continued to explain as she randomly found a crowbar and pried her cell open. “You want me to-“
But then the voices and footsteps raced and before Lara could get Mishka out, the door slammed open.
“She’s trying to escape!” two of the armed goons yelled in Russian.
Lara then jumped out of the window behind her and held onto the first brick holdings fit for climbing.
“Oh my God, what the hell am I doing…think, Lara, think. Just keep hidden out of sight.”
Suddenly she lost her grip and fell, but at the last second caught another of the holdings. “Shit, too close.”
Then she could hear the woman cry in her native tongue along with the pair of soldiers’ demands. Likely dragging her off for torture or God forbid worse.
“Please don’t hurt her, please don’t hurt her…” Lara prayed for her as she jumped to her right on the next possible holding.
She continued the jumps and grabs until she was now on one of the watchtowers and she watched one of the goons with his winter garb and sniper rifle.
“Fuck me, wish I was back in Liberty right about now,” he said in Russian.
Then his radio came on. “Stop your complaining and watch out for the girl!”
“Which girl, we have a million of them!”
“The Croft girl, she jumped out the upper floor window! Gladov wants her alive!”
Lara scooted on past him and jumped to the next ledge, but unfortunately it gave way and she fell into unconsciousness!
The sound of Ana telling her not to go on adventures again rung in her head as per usual in more dreams than not. But now playing in her head was the conversation between her and Roth from last year.
‘Roth, we’ve been over this. Why keep putting Lara in danger? Why disgrace her family name?’
‘And like I keep telling you Ana, it is what Richard would’ve wanted. Can we end this conversation? I’d hate for Lara to overhear this.’
‘Fine, Conrad. You have it your way…but I’m warning you: if Lara follows Richard into death, it will be your doing.’
Then the Russian voices came back. “Wake up! She’s not waking up, boss!”
But the punch to the face with the loud demand forced her from unconsciousness with the scream! “I said, WAKE UP CROFT!!!”
And of course she was on the ground. “You bastard, let us go! Let them go, I told you I don’t know where it is-AGGGHHHHH!!!!”
Lara’s plea was cut off by Gladov putting his hands at her throat and again staring her down. “Little girl, I grow tired of your defiance. Conrad Roth is in his final 48 hours of finding the St. Petersburg Pearl. If he does not find it, I’ll let the boys put two in his head and-“
“No! Anything but that, please I’m begging you! I’ll do whatever you say, just let her and the other women go. It’s all I ask…” Lara trembled, nodding to Mishka also at gunpoint.
“Lara, don’t give in to them, it’s-“ Mishka warned, but her cry was silenced by the large slice of duct tape put over her mouth and her hands were also taped up behind her back.
“Silence! Thank you for shutting the Chechen up, she drives me up the goddamn wall! Now listen, Croft…you’re on the thin of ice. Before it cracks into frozen pond. You and your new friend will come with us, to Khinalug,”
“You know where it is? I thought you didn’t,” Lara huffed as her hands were too taped behind her back and she was shoved forward alongside Mishka.
“We’re close. We have scouts all over Azerbaijan, including that village. It’s going to take few hours, but soon enough you’ll be reunited with New Daddy,”
But Roth unknownst to any of them was still only beginning his quest.
Khinalug, Azerbaijan
Roth and Anar departed from the village and were at one of the the first gravesites just to the south and east of the village’s heart. “This is it, your first stop in your search.”
“How many of these graveyards are there?” Roth asked.
“Kyat has eight graveyards, they all surround this village and are scattered across the mountains. But this one and the fourth one well come across have your two clues,”
“What is the first clue?”
“The villagers call it Kyat. Kyat is sacred to locals who need our help,”
“I don’t want to disrespect your dead,” Roth worried.
“You won’t, your general or one of his men left a note in his travels. But to the frustration of the children, generation upon generation has not found it,”
“So we need to look for the odd looking stone…or perhaps, something near the stone. Anar, you check here, I’ll go towards the back,”
“Yes, Mr Roth,”
They split to search.
Roth could barely read the gravestones as they weren’t in a language he could understand. But he did know from some more internet research that these were mostly graves 100 years or older.
Far and wide, far and wide, he looked down on the ground to see any oddities with the ground. Suddenly, he felt something beneath his feet.
“Anar, I think I found something!”
Anar then rushed over. “What did you find?”
Roth gently unburied the earth and right there was a rusty Webley revolver. “Webley revolver. The British used these in World War I. So the British were here with him. But what for…this far north? They were said to have never ventured this far, this close to Russia.”
“You said the English were here, in Azerbaijan,”
“Yes, but down towards Baku and the coast and closer to Nagorno Karabakh, as part of Dunsterforce. They departed from Azerbaijan after the loss to the Ottomans and were disbanded, surviving troops were split between Persia and Palestine. Unless…”
He and Anar unearthed some more until they found the glass bottle. “Message should be in here.”
Indeed was it in the bottle and they popped the cork, with the paper note in it. “I want you to read it, Anar.”
“I’ll do my best, but no English.”
“The…vill-agers…call it…Kyat. Kyat…is…sacred…to…locals who…need our…help,” he read in slow but miraculously perfect English.
“Great job, Anar! That was perfect, my friend!”
“Thank you, Mr Roth. This indeed is our first clue. Your second clue will be in graveyard 6…”
And off they were again to venture. Past more graveyards, past more of the pir shrines, and past more temples.
It took almost all day to cover the other graveyards, it took so long Anar decided to cut the search short for the day and had taken Roth to Atashgah, a Zoroastrian fire temple just short of the peak of Mount Shandagh. “I didn’t realize your people had so many Zoroastrian temples still standing, least of which a fire temple.”
“It’s from when the Persians were here, but we’ve occupied this land long before they were here. Kayut has existed in some form for 5,000 years. Our elders tell us that we’re descended from Nuh who created the Great Flood. Some of the more destroyed ruins across our land and these mountains come from our ancestors when the earthquake destroyed it a thousand years ago,”
“I again want to thank you for you and your people’s generosity the last few days, Anar. I…it touches me that a people as remote as yours would embrace an outsider like me. Even if I am only here to find something less than a century old for my goddaughter’s freedom,”
“Freedom. That is all that all the Caucasus peoples have been trying to fight for, for centuries the Russians, Persians, and whoever else have enslaved us and fellow peoples of this land. It is why we’ve long distrusted outsiders, lucky for us in this day and age current Azerbaijan lets us be…despite the new road down there in the last few years. Though I do ask, Mr Roth, did you come across a group of men on your way here to our village?” Anar turned to Roth, speaking brief English with ‘Freedom’ before resuming in Azerbaijani. “Who are these men?”
“Men, Russian and your English speaking accents. I can barely make a word out of the English, but I’ve made out ever so basic Russian-“
“Trinity,” Roth gasped with worry.
“You know these men?”
“They’re the cult who murdered Lara’s father. My best friend…staged his murder to be a suicide, I’ve never told Lara the truth. It would horrify her. Do these men speak of Christian themes like restoring paradise from right after the Flood? Any military nature about them?”
“Yes, every few months we get one of their scouts asking about a paradise around here. But we don’t tell them much. Only that if there was any paradise in this land, it was destroyed a long time ago,”
“Any mention of the Pearl?”
“The Pearl…oh yes, the Pearl-“
Then suddenly, an explosion thundered distantly in their ears. “Oh no, no, no, no…they can’t be, not now…Anar, we have to get you back to your village-your family!”
Yet Anar was already on the race back, but Roth tried to yell. “Anar! Where is second clue?!”
But Anar had ran off too far to hear Roth. He couldn’t blame him though, Trinity would destroy the village and kill his people if it meant finding the Pearl. He had to beat them to it.
He then opened the letter again to peer it for any hints to the second clue in this hunt.
Then he noticed a faint mark coming through from its other side. In Russian.
“‘Your English friend Dunsterville has doomed us to Hell for Eternity. This Pearl you carry will get us killed by the Bolsheviks. I’d rather freeze to death than take a bullet for the traitors to my country.’”
“‘I’d rather freeze to death than take a bullet for the traitors to my country’…guessing that’s my second clue. But where…”
Roth now saw another faint mark, but this time it was a drawing of one of the caves they had passed back by. He had remembered Amar calling it and its respective shrine 40 Abbal and how the 40 Azeri holy men known as dervishes had come out.
This had to be the next clue. And so off he was back closer to the village.
Meanwhile down in the valley below the village, a convoy of trucks raced in unison. In the second truck was Gladov and his men, Lara and Mishka in the back to both his left and right. Both taped up and shut up.
“Khinalug, Kyat locals call. Roth is here, I know it. You know, Croft, he is stuck in 1990s time warp. The High Council tells us lower members about Richard. His glorious adventures in finding and plundering history’s artifacts. But know this, he did it for us,” Gladov waved his Platinum-plated Uzi at Lara.
The girls looked at each other in fear. What did Gladov have coming? Were they close to the necklace and would Gladov’s Trinity unit destroy the village and surroundings in their wake? Would they be executed on the spot as soon as Trinity found Roth?
But for now, they were left to wonder and fear.
Then suddenly upon this narrow hill at the the bend and into the northern outskirts of the village, they stopped.
Gladov pushed Lara out of the truck on her side and he did the same to Miskha on hers.
Lara landed with a thud on her stomach, but was quickly picked up off the ground by the two nearest goons before Gladov dragged Mishka with him, then both of course having brief wails through their tape gags.
“Stop crying the both of you, you count your lucky stars. Consider both of your parents very lucky they don’t have to see this fate out either of you…where’s Commander Katlego?!” Gladov threatened both before demanding to his men their other boss.
Then her voice showed up. “Boris Gladov, glad to make your acquaintance. Nadija Katlego, Trinity commander at your service.”
“Your reputation precedes you, the High Council tells of your raid on Vatican headquarters. How goes the search?”
“Who’s the women and why are they here…you know Trinity does not do hostage deals,”
“They are collateral…in particular Miss Croft-“ Gladov grabbed Lara and they both muffled screams with pleas as Gladov put the Uzi to her head. “Please, get him off me! I’m begging you I’ll do anything just let me go!!!!”
The dark skinned woman in the black sweater and green cargo pants with the boots took her 9mm pistol and aimed it at Gladov as did her two closest men with their AKs. “Boris Gladov, I will not have your Bratva tactics interfere with our payday from the Council. The Council frowns upon hostage taking. This whole ordeal between you and Conrad Roth needs to end and it needs to end quickly. Either we kill them now or we find him and the Pearl and then kill them.
Also, our Azeri interpreter amongst our crew tells me the townspeople are Shafi Muslim. This may be contrary to typical policy of Trinity, but I have ordered that nothing beyond the most crumbling and torn of ruins be destroyed. Unless we know it is connected to the Pearl. And we will not be killing the townspeople…in Azerbaijan Trinity is a dirty word and in the cities, people are aware of Trinity’s involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh war-“
“I get it, you and your bleeding heart, Commander. But the Council does not like softness. I’ll make a compromise. 24 hours to find Conrad Roth or this village and its temples blow up. You will comply or else-“
“Fine. I told the men to be on the lookout for Roth-“
“You wouldn’t do it! You wouldn’t dare!” Lara yelled interrupting them, the goons holding her and Mishka being dumb enough to ungag them. “Your cult will never get away with destroying another society in your wake-“
“Shut up! Who ungagged you?”
“It was I-“ the one goon came out from behind the truck. But he got interrupted via Gladov putting several rounds into him and he collapsed! “ENOUGH! You will do as I say, ALL OF YOU! Nadija, dispatch the men to find Conrad Roth-NOW! Interrogate the villagers if need be. And Croft…no more whining, you or the Chechen whore,”
“Fine, asshole. But you will be sorry for what you and Trinity have done…” Lara vowed with angry tears coming down her face and then both her and Mishka were shoved deeper into the village.
Outside Khinalug
Roth was still on his way to the cave in these highlands when he heard the first pair of goons at one of the more rotting shrines. “You hear what that lady said? To not blow stuff up? The balls on her-“
“Hey, whatever she says goes. Even if she doesn’t like or want to hurt the locals, it’s up to Konstantin ultimately,”
“Konst-who?”
“Konstantin. Commander of all Trinity forces, is due to make a visit in the next few days,”
“Oh that guy, have heard few stories last couple weeks from the couple of initiates in our unit,”
“What’s he like?”
“They’re not saying much for fear of reprisals. Only that he demands loyalty and he’s to be feared,”
“Let me guess, another ex-Soviet hardass,”
“Whatever, can we at least plant the explosives?”
“Plant them, but don’t set them off,”
“Whatever the gal wants…”
The second guard then went back towards the ledge while the first began to plant the explosives.
But Roth had an ace up his sleeve. A throwing axe.
Down went the first goon and then he used his silenced pistol for the second.
“I’ll be taking this…” Roth took the stick of dynamite into his bag.
Then he was off on his way again.
A few more miles back up this one mountain and surprisingly it wasn’t more defended.
But then just before this main cave, a bigger squad awaited. Four goons.
“Commander said to not do drastic shit until she and Gladov got here!” one said.
“Why…” huffed another.
“Gladov calls the shots, not her!” the commando jumped from a higher ledge with a KS-23 shotgun and the gray balaclava.
“What did he say?” the last goon said, not understanding the Russian commando.
“He said Gladov, not her, calls the shots,”
“That’s some shit, ain’t she one of you few initiated? Why is a rent a thug from Liberty City heading this operation and why does she-“
“Enough! Talk like that is forbidden. You don’t question Trinity orders or ranks no matter how absurd, you just do it and what the boss says goes!”
“He’s right, just shut it down and keep on the lookout for Roth,”
Then they split apart with the two lower scouts spreading out and the two Russians patrolling closer together. “What is it with the Americans?”
“Just deal with them, they ask too many questions. American dropouts Trinity likes recruiting,”
“You right. Though Gladov is not initiated into the organization, he still holds sway. I’ll listen to him before I take commands from that woman, just because she’s from Bosnia doesn’t mean she can tell us not blow shit up,”
“Yeah. Now stop talking and find him,”
“Right…”
Roth again threw his ax at the closest goon and then went up to choke the commando into submission before rushing into the cave.
When he came upon the cave, he felt an emptiness. An emptiness in that it had been years, maybe even centuries since this one cave had been explored.
He then saw the mats all over the ground. Actually this cave had been inhabited. Forty rugs for the forty holy men.
And indeed was it right next to this spring with the water shooting up out of the ground! “I’m not worthy of this, Richard…I wish you and Amelia were here to see this. Lara too…I’ve let you all down.”
He collapsed into his knees and cried for what felt an eternity, but it was really a minute.
He wiped away the anguish, the tears. “No, you’d want me to see this to the end. Lara’s life depends on me, as it always has. Here’s to you, Richard…for leading me here.”
After the fake toast with his hands, he then saw a gleaming object down in the water below.
“Allah, I hope you can forgive me if my presence ruins the holiness of this spring,” he said before he jumped in in the water.
He dived and dived, until he hit the bottom and indeed was it the second bottle!
Suddenly, he saw another gleam and he swam for it, but instead was it a hole! He swam through it, a flooded cave. Must’ve been constructed by nature some point over millennia in these most remote and inhospitable to most of humanity mountains. Indeed was the Abbal Spring something else and more than even Anar’s people had thought.
And when he swam out, he began to feel a bit woozy. “No, no…not down, what the bloody…” he then passed out just as he crawled out the water!
But just before he had passed out, he began seeing in green what appeared to be a hidden mountain and then he heard the grunts of a large hairy being.
Khinalug
Gladov, Nadija, and several of their more armed goons had marched their way up the northern hills overlooking the village. Of course, Lara and Mishka were at gunpoint and hands still taped behind their backs. But now several of the elders plus Anar were also forced to go.
“Where are you taking us? How do you expect to find the Pearl? Dokuchaev made no mention of this place in his diary, only that he ventured for several days back into Russia before being captured by the Cheka and sent to the Ryazan prison camp,” Lara explained.
“Okay, you have the point about Croft, she’ll tell us what Roth won’t,” Gladov told Nadija. “She isn’t such the tough girl.”
“We’ll still do it your way if Roth doesn’t find the necklace,” Nadija replied.
“Who are these men, son? Why didn’t you let us know they were coming? Why are they pointing those weapons at us, I demand-“ one of the elders yelled, now revealing himself to be Anar’s father but then got butted to the ground by one of the commandos.
“No! No, no, no! I want you stop, no hurt him! I pray for you, no hurt father!” Anar yelled from Azeri to English.
“Listen to him, please!” Lara replied in unison.
“Alright, alright, get off the old man, he’ll do what we say!” Nadija demanded, getting in front of the commando and helping the old man up.
“I will say, I know of these shrines. This spring is most holy to you people, no? Legend tells of land behind these walls, a layer beyond comprehension for outsiders. Maybe a land only the locals can tell us,”
“So you can destroy them in your worthless pillage for a necklace that may’ve been destroyed by Dokuchaev himself-“
“SILENCE! I have enough of your worthless talk, Croft. If you won’t cooperate with me, then the beginning English speaker of your village shall!” Gladov snapped and took Anar at gunpoint and the others got into line and pointed the guns at the other elders!
“Stop it, stop it! Take me instead you monsters! I’ve seen enough torture and brutality, just get it over with you scumbags!!! God smite them, God smite them, God smite them!!!” Miskha yelled and fell to her knees in hysteria, her last pleas in Chechen.
“Oh my God, shut her up, shut her up!” Gladov demanded and then two of the goons hastily pulled out the tape.
“No, please-MMMMPPPPHHHH!!!!”
Lara’s final plea was again silenced as both her and Lara were regagged, but now the tape was wrapped numerous times around their mouths and face with Mishka still crying hysterically.
“I…I do it, Father…you and elders, do as they tell…open passage, please…” Anar begged with tears also coming down his face.
Anar’s father looked around with the stern look, but he had no choice.
He was the first to put his hand up on the wall.
The other three elders looked around for a moment, unsure.
Then the second youngest elder complied and put his hand on the wall.
Another moment as everyone watched them. The second oldest put his hands on the wall.
Just the grouchiest oldest one was left. He stared at them angrily.
Lara and Mishka shook their heads and muffled in terror, Anar and the others also shook but in silence with Anar doing the prayer.
After giving one final glare at Gladov and Nadija, the old man groaned and cursed-but he relented and put his hand on the wall.
He and the others ushered the group back and suddenly the wall began to open up from within!
A narrow passageway welcomed by a flight of steps awaited.
They then went up to the stairs. “I say, we make Croft and Chechen bitch go down there first.”
Lara could only gulp, but had no choice and both women screamed as they got forced down the narrow steps before collapsing onto the more stable ground below.
The passage to the St Petersburg Pearl awaited.