Title: Closing the Box
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Terry/Lara
Disclaimer: I own nothing, don't sue. Some lines from the movie are used, but some changed, those aren't mine either.
Author's Note: I am writing this as an alternate ending to Tomb Raider the Cradle of Life because I can't bear to see Terry dying or Lara crying, so this will be what I think should have happened instead.
"Put it back…" Lara pleaded with Terry, her usual magnetic eyes looked so sad.
"You're kidding right? This is ours…we could make a fortune…" Terry told her, smirking. They'd earned this, that was his feeling.
"It could kill millions of people…" Lady Croft reasoned with him.
"Don't be so dramatic." He said and walked over to her. "But you do have authorization to kill me. I suggest you do it, because if you think just standing there will be enough…" he punched her in the face hard.
Lara fell to the ground, she was already pretty beaten up from what had happened with Rice. She stood back up, her lip was bleeding and she just stood in front of him, not saying a word.
"I don't know how strong you think you are Lara…" Terry started, smirking cockily at her. "But you're not going to choose them over me." He told her, point blank. He didn't think she could kill him, even though she'd said otherwise.
Lara's heart was pounding, especially when she'd heard him reach for his gun, she was faced with an ugly decision, kill the man you love, or let him kill you and probably millions of others with Pandora's box…she couldn't do either. Thinking quickly she hit him in the face, hard enough to knock him out, and made sure he didn't fall into the pool of acid. If she wasn't going to let Hilary or Bryce die for this, than she wouldn't let Terry either. She walked over and pushed Pandora's box back into the acid, letting it sink in deep, where it would never be reached again, but not before almost taking a peek herself before she thought wiser of it.
She picked Terry up and carried him out of the Cradle of Life, emerging at the top. "Some things are not meant to be found…" she said simply, and told the natives that the cradle was safe now, and Pandora's box could never be opened and unleashed, and used against anyone.
She collected Hilary and Bryce before they could be married to the native women, and she teased them, still carrying Terry with her. She'd had authorization to kill him, a clear shot even and she just could not do it.
She took Terry back with her to England, amazingly he'd stayed out the whole time, or at least he seemed to be. She laid him down on a couch in Croft manor, which had recently been redone again. When he woke up, she was sitting next to the couch reading.
"Couldn't kill me, could you Croft?" he teased her. He had known all along that she couldn't kill him, and he was very happy to have been right. "I told you, you couldn't choose them over me…"
Lara looked over at him, smiling a little, she'd managed to spare him and save the world, not bad for a day's work. What the future brought next for them was anyone's guess.