Faith and Punishment: Sherry Birkin x Lara Croft
By atfirstdawn

*Mature content warning
*Sherry Birkin and the Tyrant are copyright of Capcom
*Lara Croft is copyright of Eidos
*Inspired by and Dedicated to DarkLordMenchi


Sherry Birkin raised her beretta, fired an armour piercing round and hoped that it’d be enough…

The gunshot echoed through the underground Aztec temple’s chamber as the round found its mark and buried itself into the forehead of the Tyrant. Dark red blood lashed the stone floor from the spurting hole in the evil creature’s head and with a whiplash-like effect the Tyrant stumbled backwards and fell limply on to its labour-built throne.

Sherry’s hands were shaking; she swallowed hard, holstered her weapon and quickly made her way through the bowed and kneeling natives that crowded chamber. Sherry barely noticed that the once chanting natives had fallen silent with the Tyrant’s apparent defeat; Sherry’s concern was not for the natives nor their blind faith and worship of the Tyrant, but for the woman being held captive at its feet.

Unsheathing her military issue hunting knife, Sherry skidded to halt beside the helpless woman. The woman’s situation was wholly degrading; forced into a kneeling position of false worship by numerous chains which ran from the cruel metal collar locked around her neck into a series of heavy metal rings that had been built into the ancient stone floor. As well as the chains, a series of intricate ropes also bound the woman’s body; these unforgivingly taut ropes first bound her elbows and wrists together and then pulled them tightly into her chest, making it appear as if the woman were offering her prayers to the Tyrant for safe keeping.

Crouching down in front of her, Sherry raised the tired and helpless woman’s head; Sherry’s eyes couldn’t help but widen in shock at the sight of the helpless woman’s face. Within her mouth was a heavy and cumbersome stone sphere which had weighted her head down and had forced her to bow to the Tyrant which had held dominion over her. Her eyes were dark and fatigued, yearning for natural light and comfortable respite. Sherry felt her own eyes grow warm as crystals claimed the corners of her vision… clutching the reinforced plastic handle of her hunting knife with a ferocious certainty, Sherry turned the blade to the unforgiving and unyielding ropes that tortured the woman’s body.

Sherry deftly sliced at the ropes with a degree of caution that she barely possessed, one slip or sudden and unexpected movement could prove fatal given the unwieldy nature of the knife due to its size when compared to Sherry’s slender frame. But instead of a slip or an unexpected movement, the complicating event, which was always going to interrupt her rescue attempt, came in the form of a high pitched and truly unnatural shriek that echoed back and forth throughout the chamber without dissipating for several moments.

The shriek had chilled Sherry’s blood and frozen her muscles; she knew what had made the sound, she knew that what she had shot in the head with an armour piercing round hadn’t died, and even though she couldn’t see it, she felt the Tyrant’s dominant and vengeful eyes piercing the back of her head…

Sheathing her knife, standing, un-holstering her gun and turning to the Tyrant in one smooth motion; Sherry raised her armour round firing 9mm and took aim. Sherry’s finger pulled the trigger, the sound of the shot was masked by her own pain-filled screams and the clattering of her gun falling to the stone floor. A heavy stone rod had been brought down over Sherry’s wrists as she had raised her weapon to the vile and dominating creature standing in front of its throne. Sherry pulled her hands into her chest to quell the pain of the sudden impact, her face contorting into an expression of intense pain; mouth open wide and eyes tightly closed.

Due to the pain in her hands, Sherry barely felt the tens and tens of fingers grab her body; her pain was displaced by fresh panic as she opened her eyes to a crowd of assailing natives. Sherry struggled and fought against the natives, injuring only a few, her valiant and violent attempts of self-defence were too little too late.

Sherry continued to struggle against the combined strength of the natives as they forced her down onto her knees beside the captive woman with the long plait whom she had tried to rescue. Beyond the corners of her vision Sherry heard the rattling and dragging of chains followed by the immediate sensation of the clasping of cold and cruel metal around her neck from behind. Icy adrenaline pumped through Sherry’s tensed muscles as she thrashed her body as hard as she could to the deafening sound of heavy chains being fed through thick metal rings. Chained to the spot beside the woman she had been sent to rescue, Sherry stared up at the natives as they dispersed into the distance to reveal two burly men; one carrying an overabundance of rope, and the other carrying a heavy stone ball with two hands…      

The two muscular behemoths were upon Sherry in seconds, standing over her like two monsters in a fairy-tale. The first man, the one with the rope, knelt down in front of Sherry and grabbed both of her arms. Sherry’s body was physically exhausted from her struggling, but even with all of her strength she would never have been able to overpower the man who was now unceremoniously binding her wrists and elbows to her chest…

Once the last unyielding knot had been tied, the first strong native stood and stepped away from Sherry to allow the other one to kneel down in front of her. With one hand, the second man grabbed Sherry’s mouth and forced it open with his sturdy yet dextrous fingers; Sherry had no choice but to surrender the will of her mouth to the strong stranger lest she wanted her jaw fractured as a result of her futile struggles…

With her mouth opened wide, the burly man whom held Sherry’s mouth open proceeded to force a now familiar stone sphere between her teeth; the solid sphere pushed and ground against sherry’s teeth and continued to force her mouth open wider and wider until her jaws were parted to such a degree that felt it physically impossible to open her mouth any further… Eventually the heavy stone sphere filled Sherry’s mouth behind her teeth and lips; the muscles in her jaw relaxed around the stone sphere and instantly begin to ache as her heart sunk. Sherry knew that she would not be able to open her mouth as wide again short of breaking her jaw…

In a last ebbing act of defiance, Sherry kept her gaze focused on the eyes of the native who had forced the heavy stone sphere into her mouth, but eventually the weight of the sphere elicited too much tension for the muscles in her neck to keep her head raised; and eventually, after a handful of physically agonising moments, Sherry’s head dropped to her chest in defeat as her muscles searched for a comfortable respite from the tension and strain…

Forced to stare down at her bound and bruising elbows and wrists, Sherry closed her eyes in sullen defeat, no longer struggling or resisting, she knew that she was beyond the help of her own physical strength.

Another shriek from the Tyrant sounded out through the chamber for several moments as it had done before; its effect on Sherry still chilled her blood, all too often had she found herself in the company of monsters; first her father at the hands of the G-virus in Raccoon City, then those she had seen infected with the C-Virus in Edonia and China and now this… alone, bound, gagged and without rescue. Neither Jake Muller nor Leon Kennedy were waiting in the shadows, readying themselves for the perfect time to strike and stage a rescue as Sherry herself had tried for the woman beside her…

One by one the natives bowed and knelt beside and behind Sherry and recommenced their chanting as the Tyrant turned and sat back down on its throne. The wound in his forehead completely healed and was as if it had never happened…

Like the natives, Sherry began to pray, not to the awesome might of the Tyrant but to Jake and Leon in the hope that she would be missed by either or both men and that they would come for her and that they would rescue her and free her from the company of monsters once and for all…