I own neither Kurtis Trent nor Lara Croft or any of the nephilim characters. The other characters are of my invention, and any likeness to real people, either living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Have you never played Tomb Raider or have no idea what's going on? Scroll to the bottom for background to this fic.
ALL MY WORK IS SUBJECT TO PROFESSIONAL COPYRIGHT
I hope you like it - please let me know your thoughts!
The tall man outside the office block blended into the crowd impeccably.
There was something about his demeanor, his stance and the sharp angles of his face that melted into the background in a purely surreal way.
Or maybe it was his eyes. His stony, pervading eyes. Although the streets were busy with the rush hour traffic, not a single commuter so much as breathed on the tall stranger.
He was dreading what he was about to do. Dreading, and perversely, yearning.
It wasn't like he had a choice. His decisions had been cast in stone far too long ago to be revoked on the basis of sentimentality.
In that moment, he could feel the mongrel blood running through his veins. He could feel the weight of its legacy and the pounding of its uncertainty, and he could do only one thing.
The tall man strode up to the building, parting the crowds as he went, and with a strength he could not feel all the way to his cold heart, he set about his task.
Miss Croft carefully tried the first door. She felt the adrenaline plummet to her stomach as she sensed the click of an alarm, and relished the dread relief as a second click signified the opening of the door, and her entrance to a large, open plan room. After the monotonous grey walls of the hallways, this room seemed lavish. The solid oak cabinets that lined the walls and the plump brown leather sofas gave a richness to their surroundings. Even the windows that made up the furthest wall were impeccably spotless. Miss Croft raised her eyebrows. It was far too artificial.
"Rooms this perfect simply must be hiding something, Zip." She said into her headset, peering up at the panelled ceiling. Zip grunted in reply.
"I don't like it." He mumbled. Lara shrugged.
"Suit yourself." She approached the desk sitting at the head of the room. Casting an expert eye around it, she spotted no sign of lasers or hindrances. Without wasting anymore time, she settled herself in the chair and began to rifle through the drawers.
There was little of interest. Some bills for office supplies, a book on teamwork and a drawer full of spare computer equipment. Truth was, Lara had very little to go on. Rumours were her main evidence, rumours and the somewhat shaky testimony of a dead politician. Allegedly, the company known as "Systamtel" had a careless habit of losing workers rather rapidly. And not just losing them. Removing them also, if what the politician had believed was true.
"Never trust a politician." Muttered Lara, as she found yet another sheaf of meaningless numbers. The source of her own interest was the additional titbit claiming that Systamtel's image as a medicinal drugs company was infact a façade for illicit dealings in powerful artifacts. Somewhat far fetched, but nevertheless a strange aura hung about the affair, and that inevitably drew the insatiable Miss Croft like a firefly to the flame. Lara drew away from the desk.
"Perhaps it wouldn't be quite that obvious…" She murmured, trailing a finger along the ridges of the desktop. With sudden determination, she moved forward again and turned the computer on. It powered up, whirring.
"That thing could be bugged!" She heard Alister sqwark.
"Then it might liven things up a little." She replied.
The computer flickered on, presenting Lara with a username and password. Except the password box was blank, leaving the little text icon relentlessly flashing up at her. But Lara was feeling reckless, and she performed the first of a series of dreadful mistakes.
She reached out, and tapped in the first word that came to her head. Her headset went crazy.
"What the hell are you doing, Lara –" Alister began.
"Yo, girl, wait already –" Zip interrupted, but both fell silent as she hit enters. The computer paused.
And all three of them waited.
A second later, the computer emitted a feeble twirp and shut down. Lara straightened up.
"Ah well, boys. I suppose I'll have to try a little harder to attract some attention up h - " And then she made the second big mistake. She stepped around the desk, treading on a now activated pressure pad. The hiss it emitted cut her off mid sentence. She froze, and in the next second the previously serene room erupted into action.
Before Lara could register the change of climate, what appeared to be four frosted glass panels shot up from around the desk, imprisoning her. Although she could see nothing, she heard footfalls and shouting as the door burst open and the room was flooded with people. Without wasting a beat, she drew her pistols and fired at the glass prison. Worryingly, it didn't budge. The bullet imbedded itself into the material instead.
"Oh dear." She managed, trying to block out Alister and Zip's whining in her ear and concentrate on escaping.
And then she heard the unmistakeable sound of several large guns being loaded. It resounded in her ears, and her gut clenched. It was a rare situation for her to be stuck with no way out, and the unfamiliarity was daunting. In a moment of angry delirium she kicked out at the walls. They didn't so much as quiver. The silence that followed was crystalline.
A heartbeat later, the room erupted again. Lara was thrown to the floor with a rush of impact. The noise began in an unholy cacophony of shouting and gunfire, though the loudest was the shattering of her prison. Opening her eyes from her position on the floor she saw something she'd never thought she'd encounter again. Something she almost didn't believe. Dumbstruck amongst the hail of bullets and the roar of shouting, she stared.
"Trent?!" She hissed. And all he managed in return was a glance over his shoulder and a long, slow wink.
She felt the familiar shock of electric dart between their locked gazes and sighed inwardly.
I should have known he wouldn't just die quietly.
So...what's going on in Kurtis' head? Is there something going on that we don't realise?
(what happened in AOD - this is not my own storyline) Youtube is quite good if you want to see the actualy cut scenes, which I recommend.
At the beginning of the game, Lara has just returned from Egypt where she was left to die amongst the rubble of a tomb by her mentor, Verner Von Croy.
Von Croy asks her to come to his apartment in Paris - there is a killer called The Monstrum on the loose, who takes his victims innards and leaves a symbol on the walls in blood.
At this point, all we see is Lara's recollection - she goes to the apartment, and refuses to listen to Von Croy's pleas for help. Von Croy panics, draws a gun, and a scuffle ensues, Lara blacks out, and when she wakes Von Croy is dead on the floor, the sign of the Monstrum on the wall. Naturally she is confused, but she hears the police arrive and escapes through the window. She is now on Paris' most wanted list.
Von Croy also gave her a clue - he directed her to a woman who can give her a pass to the Louvre to continue his research.
Eventually, after trekking around the streets of Paris, she finds this woman, who calls the police on her. She finds some weapons, but encounters an explosion. Unbenowst to her, she is being watched by a tall dark stranger on a motorbike.
Lara flees to the Louvre where an archaelogical dig is taking place. The woman did however give her Von Croy's notebook. There are details of something called The Sleeper, a dead nephilim (angels condemned to earth) and paintings called the Obscura paintings. These give the bearer the power to resurrect the Sleeper and reap hell on earth. Naturally, Lara must find these first and destroy them - the notebook tells her someone called Eckhart is at the core of all this. There is also a mention of the Lux Veritatis - an ancient brotherhood of monks dedicated to keeping the sleeper and his followers dead. They have certain abilities designed to help them with this cause, including the use of something called the Periapt Shards.
She gets to the dig and finds a vault, in which after many ordeals, she finds her painting. On escape, however, she finds that the Louvre is under seige - but whether it's the police or something more sinister she is unsure. She escapes to a large gallery, when suddenly something stops her. It's a shiny spinning disk, followed closely by Kurtis Trent. He frisks her and holds her up in silence. It's quite steamy ;) He then nicks her painting and weapons. They then run together. It's quite amusing. Basically he teases her and uses some sort of otherwordly power to blast things. At the end she gets out and finds him unconscious on the floor. She herself is then knocked unconscious, and a "friend" (later tries to kill her) wakes her later - no sign of body.
Later they meet again in the Strahov, the headquarters of Eckhart's people. He locks her in an airlock, they then work together. It's kind of a teasing relationship going on. We discover he is the last remaining member of the Lux Veritatis and he has 2 Periapt shards.
Later, after Lara has another painting Eckhart stops them both. Kurtis (that is his name. Oh, and he's American where she is English) is left to fend off this beast while Lara has to go and stop the revival of the Sleeper. Kurtis' battle ends with him getting some sort of wound, and then we see no more.
At the end of the game, Eckhart is killed by Lara with the 3 shards, but then Karel, his 2nd hand man reveals himself as a real nephilim and the one behind it all. He says he's been helping her and morphs into some people from her journey, including Kurtis Trent. She is shocked but doesn't believe him. He says he has killed the last of the Lux Veritatis and is immortal, but this cannot be true as Lara then makes the whole place explode.
He (Karel) disappears and the body of the Sleeper is destroyed. Lara flashes back and sees Eckhart kill Von Croy, but not after Von Croy had told Eckhart how to use Lara - which he did when getting the paintings.
The last scene we see is Lara pick up Kurtis' spinny thing, his Chirugai, and leave.
