Chapter 1

"And that's your local weather for today. In news, we have an incredible story about shipwrecked survivors who had just recently returned to civilization. Two of the four survivors briefly tell us about the disaster." Jonah Maiva appears in an interview.

"So Jonah," said the interviewer, "tell us about your experience."

"Well, to put it simply, our crew was on an expedition to find the lost island of Yamatai when a huge storm hit us. As it turns out, we shipwrecked on the very island we were looking for."

"That's certainly lucky and unfortunate at the same time. What are some of the obstacles you've faced surviving on the island?"

"Well it's not your usual survival story. There were inhabitants on the island who were hostile towards us. And it took us a while to send out an SOS. Unfortunately, when a rescue plane did come, it crashed."

"How dreadful." commented the interviewer, frowning. "We have another survivor with us here: Samantha Nishimura." The camera pans over to Sam.

"How did you end up getting off the island?" she asked Sam.

"We eventually fixed up a boat after gathering parts, and went out on the ocean. A cargo ship soon found us."

"Where did this cargo ship take you?"

"It took us to Japan, which is where we all got treated in a hospital." Sam thought back to when they were in the hospital, and summarized what happened there for the interviewers.

11 days earlier

"Alright, he says that everyone is safe to go home except you, Lara." Sam explained, translating for the Japanese doctor. "They advise you to stay another night, so they can check for infection." Lara nodded in understanding.

"We'll stay with her," said Reyes.

"No, go see your daughter, Reyes. It's okay," objected Lara. Reyes paused before speaking again.

"Alright, but be sure to call if you need anything." Lara nodded once again, as Jonah walked over to her.

"I guess this is goodbye until next time. Get better Little Bird." He hugged her. As they left, Sam turned to Lara.

"I'm not going to be able to get rid of you, am I?" said Lara with a light smile.

"Nope." Sam returned the smile. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

~Time Lapse~

Lara opened her eyes. The white walls of the hospital quickly came into focus. She slowly sat up groggily, cringing in pain. "Ugh...I'm aching all over..." she thought to herself. Her soreness went ignored until now. The room was peaceful and quiet, unlike the horrors she had just endured on the island. She was alone. No sounds rang out except for the subtle beeps of machinery. Out of pure boredom, Lara scanned the walls for any kind of imperfection. No cracks or marks were visible from where she sat.

"How are you feeling, Lara?" Lara glanced over to see Sam walking in the room with a coffee.

"I've been better," responded Lara with a slight laugh. She rubbed her bandaged arm gently. Sam looked at the ground, and said nothing. Lara twisted her I.V. Line between her fingers, while observing how steam rose out of Sam's coffee. Her thoughts swirled, much like cream of the coffee. It didn't take long before her thoughts drifted to Roth. The loss of him invaded her thoughts more than anything else.

Flashback

Lara gasped as she regained consciousness. She coughed, trying to catch her breath as a pair of hands lifted her from the ground.

"Come on!" she heard Roth, her mentor, say, as he desperately dragged her away from the helicopter in flames. The helicopter exploded, and the force shoved the two back to the ground. Roth picked Lara up again.

"Come on, Lara."

"It's them." said Lara, still struggling to breath, as she spotted some scavengers behind Roth. Roth quickly turned around, drawing a pistol with one hand, still holding Lara with his other arm. He shot the scavengers, otherwise known as the Solarii, with great skill. He grunted at every shot, exhausted from holding Lara and shooting at the same time. Unfortunately, he ran out of ammo as Mathias, the leader of the Solarii, paced towards them. Roth threw down the pistol in frustration. Mathias took one more step forward, throwing an axe in their direction. Roth turned his back to it, in order to protect Lara. As the axe struck the middle of his back, Roth grunted in pain and let go of Lara.

"Nooo!" Lara screamed as she fell to the ground. Roth turned back around, drawing his other pistol, and shot the remaining Solarii. He stumbled and kept aiming his gun to make sure there weren't any left.

"Roth!" Lara shouted as he finally collapsed to the ground. "Roth...I can't do this without you." she told him, trying to fight the tears.

"I'm sorry, Lara." He paused. "I'm sorry. You can do this. You're a Croft." His head slowly dropped. Lara began crying as she hugged his lifeless body.

End of flashback

The sound of someone stepping inside the room brought Lara back to reality. She looked up to see a nurse.

"I need to check your wounds, Miss Croft." This nurse spoke English. She stepped carefully to the side of Lara, and began unwrapping the bandage around her arm. Lara grimaced slightly and examined her wound, when it was revealed. "It doesn't look too bad." Lara thought to herself. The nurse looked at it a moment longer, then bandaged it again.

"Can you lift up your gown, so I can check your stomach?" Lara lifted the material. Her stomach wound looked worse than her arm. Sam looked briefly before turning away again. Despite the wound's appearance, the nurse consulted the doctor, and Lara was released from the hospital.

Sam pushed open the door. As Lara stepped outside, the sun nearly blinded her. It felt like a completely different world outside of the dull hospital. Loose strands of her hair flowed in the breeze. Lara let out a deep sigh.

"I swear I was going to go crazy if I had to stare at those white walls any longer." said Lara.

"Yeah, we all know that your natural habitat is outside." Sam winked at her. Lara laughed. Then, something hit her. She realized that they were in Japan.

"How are we getting home?"

"My father arranged for a taxi to take us to the airport." replied Sam.

"Oh."

"It should be here any minute." Soon enough, the taxi arrived.

Present Day

"I'm sorry, father. You were right." Lara whispered to her father's grave, "You were right when you said that mysteries aren't just stories. They do tell the truth. They hold answers. I've found this out first hand on Yamatai...I should have believed you, just as everybody else should have...I'll prove it to them. I'll show the world that you weren't a fool." A tear flowed down her face. Just that one tear escaped her eyes. "I promise, father."

Lara turned around and exited the courtyard, wiping away the tear. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep warm in the chilly weather. A storm was approaching. She sighed deeply, sick of stormy weather.

When she entered the Manor, Winston, the butler who has served the Croft family for years, had a cup of tea ready for her.

"Thank you, Winston." She sat down and sipped the tea. Winston joined her.

"Everything alright, Lady Croft?" Lara paused and carefully set down her tea.

"Yeah." She then pulled out her father's journal from her back pocket and flipped through the pages. "I was just thinking...I might go to Greece."

"Oh, I see...What for?" replied Winston, standing almost stagnantly across from Lara, with his arms tucked behind his back. He always had seemingly proper, professional posture.

"To uncover the truth behind the myth of the Minotaur."

"You mean the labyrinth?"

"Yes, I'm going find its location, if it exists, and see what's left of it."

"You don't want to stay home for a while after your last trip?"

"I just want to stay long enough to study the myth and to do some training." Lara picked up her tea again, and drank more. Winston smiled.

"When are you packing your bags?"

"I think in about three months. That'll give me time to recover fully and start training." said Lara, returning the smile. It was the first real smile she cracked since Yamatai. She set her empty cup down, got up, and turned to walk to her bedroom.

She opened her dresser, selected pajamas for the night, and took a shower. Finally, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her sore muscles. She put her hand on her stomach, where her wound was.

Flashback

Lara shrieked as she fell. When she hit the ground, a sharp pain hit her side. She cried out as she looked down to see a that a spike had gone through her stomach.

"Oh no." she sobbed as she grasped it. She took a deep breath before pulling it out. She screamed in pain, clutching her side tightly. A moment later, she tried to stand, moaning quietly, her vision blurred from tears.

End of flashback

~Time Lapse~

Lara woke up later than usual that morning. She stepped out of bed, got dressed and headed out into the hallway. Instead of going downstairs to have breakfast, as she normally would, she went to the library, eager to start researching the myth. She sat down at the only table in the room and opened her father's journal.

Theseus and the Minotaur

-King Minos lived on Crete, the island and had a labyrinth with the Minotaur in it

-He fed Athenian people to the Minotaur every nine years

Lara kept scanning through her father's notes until she found something that was unfamiliar to her.

I've read up more on the myth and have found a few books that mention an old women named Agneta that told people about a treasure underneath the labyrinth. A powerful artifact of some sort.

Lara saw a couple book names listed underneath the entry. She got up and searched for one. A few minutes later, she found it: "The Book of Many Myths". She flipped to the back to look at the index and found the name she was looking for. She then turned to the correct page and scanned the page to find where it mentioned Agneta. Once she found it, she read the details. The information matched her father's notes.

She closed the book and went back to reading her father's journal.

"I can't wait to begin this expedition. My partner, Jake, and I have discovered a clue to the Labyrinth's location: A riddle. I'm departing for Greece three days from now."

Lara read the next few entries, before reaching the final one about Greece.

We tried for a couple days to decipher the meaning behind the riddle. We figured out parts of it but haven't reached the Labyrinth yet. Amelia called from home, saying that our precious baby girl will be born within the next week. So we are headed home. I hope to come back eventually to figure out the rest of the riddle's meaning and hopefully find the Labyrinth.

After finishing the entry, Lara scanned the page for the riddle. Unfortunately, it was not written. Lara closed the journal carefully, slightly frustrated. She walked out of the library with food on her mind.

"You're awfully late to breakfast. Everything alright, Lady Croft?" asked Winston with concern, as he put food on the table for Lara.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just reading in the library." said Lara. She sat down and began to eat. She placed her hand on her head after realizing that she had a throbbing headache. Winston sat down with a newspaper.

"Winston?" Lara said after a few moments.

"Yes?"

Lara hesitated before speaking. So many people had died for her, but why? Why did so much tragedy have to occur, only for her to find out that her father was right all these years? "I should have believed my father." She tells herself this over and over. "Things would have been different. I could have supported him all those years." She thought back to when she used to go on archaeological digs with her parents. There was some point in that time period when her father began speaking of ancient myths and stories that actually had truth to their histories. Unfortunately, no historians believed her poor father. Articles in newspapers began making him appear as a madman, destroying his reputation he once had as a great archaeologist. He carried that new reputation for the rest of his life. Right up until his tragic death. At the time, Lara also rolled her eyes when it came to her father's claims of myths being real, but she now regrets it, realizing how much she had to go through to believe her father today. Realizing the gravity of it all was so much to bear all of a sudden.

"Why do sacrifices have to be made in this world?" she finally asked. Winston paused, taken aback by the question.

"Sacrifices are made in return for a chance at something good happening." he said, setting down his newspaper. "A chance at something good happening..." Lara repeated in her head, "What good came out of Roth's death? Alex's?" To her it seemed like all that came out of those experiences was more heartache. More internal conflict. More guilt. "It would be so much easier to doubt my father," she thought bitterly to herself. But now that she knows the truth, she can't ignore it. She must carry on with it, and satisfy her curiosity of what else her father was right about. After finishing breakfast, she went to the kitchen to take an aspirin. She gulped down some water with the pill and headed back to the library.