Lara stood in the British Museum, amidst the hundreds of scholars, adventurers, and archaeologists. Usually she hated these formal occasions, but it was always fun for her to dress up in an elegant gown and act like a proper lady for an evening.
Her friend Alistair had accompanied her to the ball, but had vanished as soon as he'd noticed the buffet table and Lara had been left to deal with all of the great British snobs on her own. She may have looked and sounded like an aristocrat, but Lara had grown to despise that sort of life.
Slowly, the old curator of the museum approached Lara on his walking stick; he was just about the only person Lara actually wanted to talk to. They were old friends, and the curator had known Lara's mother before Lara had even been born.
"Arthur" she said softly as he approached, giving him a friendly hug, "It's been months, how are you?"
"I'm afraid these old bones aren't what they used to be" Arthur laughed, leaning on his walking stick, "But setting up the new exhibit has been exciting at least"
"I'm glad" Lara smiled, "I'm just sorry I wasn't the one to find it for you"
"It's fine" Arthur nodded slowly, waving his withered old hand in the air as if to bat away the apology. Suddenly he paused, staring at Lara's face, "You look so much like her Lara…"
"Who… Mother?" Lara asked
"Ignore me" he laughed a husky old laugh, "Would you like to see the exhibit before everyone else pours in? I could give you an advanced preview if you like?"
"That sounds wonderful" Lara smiled a broad smile. Arthur was always nice enough to let Lara see the exhibit before everyone else was in the room because he knew how Lara hated being bothered when she was studying the many trinkets that Arthur liked to put on show in the museum.
Arthur led her through the crowd at a painfully slow pace. Lara always attracted stares at these sorts of functions because she'd become quite the celebrity, having supposedly died in Egypt and then triumphantly come back to continue her reign as the archaeologist adventurer who seemed to be able to separate fact from fiction when no one else could.
Eventually they reached the exhibition hall, where Arthur simply nodded to the security guard who unlocked the door and let them in. As Lara walked in she had to gasp at how different the hall had been set out since the last time she was there, when she'd been there last it was just full of glass cabinets filled with samurai katana's and armour, some of which she'd collected herself.
Now, however, the hall was laden with elaborate tapestries depicting scenes from Norse mythology, like the 'Ragnarok', the end of the world. Lara was familiar with the legends, but she was about to see actual proof, found in some of the tombs and temples in Iceland and Scandinavia that had only recently been discovered and chartered.
Before Lara had even scanned the entirety of the room her eyes settled on the one thing she'd been looking for.
"Gungnir…" she whispered to herself hoarsely, "How did you find it?"
Lara approached a huge glass case that held half of an elaborate javelin, rumoured to have been the javelin owned by the Norse god of wisdom, war, battle and death, Odin. The staff seemed to be made of mixtures of stone, wood, and metal, with elaborate carvings reaching from the broken handle to the massive spearhead at the end.
"It was almost by accident…" Arthur explained, "A young Icelandic boy stumbled upon a tomb, and being young and inquisitive, he ventured inside. We don't know the full details, but somehow he managed to unlock a great and ancient catacomb, where the remains of the javelin lay"
"That still doesn't explain how you came to acquire it" Lara said playfully, shooting Arthur an expectant glance
"Well the javelin made it's way here, to London, for analysis" Arthur explained, "and once it was verified as being Gungnir it was auctioned off to the highest bidder, although private collectors such as yourself were kept completely out of the loop"
"Evidently" Lara said, raising an eyebrow as she stared at the javelin, "But there's only half of the javelin left"
"Yes…" Arthur trailed off, "We've got some of our scholars working on that. The tomb where the boy found the javelin was searched from head to foot, every nook and cranny, but nothing was found"
"Nothing that an untrained eye can see…" Lara said, "I'd like to see this tomb for myself, do you have the location?"
"Of course" Arthur nodded, leading her out of the room and back towards his office, "Although I'm not entirely sure what you expect to find there"
"A clue, I hope" Lara said, "I seem to attract the mysteries of ancient broken weapons…"
"Ah, yes, your quest to find Avalon" Arthur said as they approached his office, "How's that going?"
"We've hit a bit of a stand-still" Lara sighed, "But I don't want to talk about that, there's no need"
They both entered Arthur's dark office and Lara instantly noticed the stench of stale whiskey. Usually she would have lectured Arthur on his excessive drinking but he was old and lonely, so she'd let that slide. He approached his desk and picked up a small leather book.
"Any information you need on the tomb is in there" he said, "Take care of the book"
"I will" Lara smiled. Suddenly there was a smash from down the hall, towards the exhibit. Lara's heart skipped a beat.
"Stay here" she hissed to Arthur as she slinked out of the office, closing the door behind her carefully. She made her way down the hall until she was near the exhibit. She could see two men in black mercenaries outfits guarding a door, but they were stood with their backs to Lara, both checking other hallways that led to the party area.
Lara quickly tore her slim red dress so that she could move her legs more freely and asked herself why at all these boring functions she somehow ended up ruining her dress. She slipped off her high-heels and moved low to the floor, her bare feet padded on the ground softly. In one swift movement she pulled one of the soldiers silenced handgun from his holster, gun-butted him to knock him out, and turned to point the fun at the other soldier before he'd turned around.
The second soldier looked over his shoulder and saw Lara pointing the gun at him,
"Put down your weapons and slide them over to me," she said. The soldier sighed to himself and started to oblige, sliding his AK47 machine gun to her feet and then his silenced handgun, identical to the one Lara had taken from the other soldier. She noticed a bulge on his right ankle, she pointed to it,
"And that one" she said, "don't try me, I can get nasty when I'm being impatient"
The soldier took a knife out from an ankle-holster and slid it over too. Lara walked over to him and stroked his face, which was covered by a black balaclava,
"Thanks for that" she winked at him and then made a clean kick to his chin, knocking him out instantly. She stared at his unconscious body and cocked an eyebrow, "Was that as good for you as it was for me?" she asked cockily.
Quickly she grabbed the AK47 and the other handgun and stood in front of the doors to the exhibit hall. She took a deep breath and then kicked the doors open. As if in a fluidic ballet dance she took down three soldiers, then hopped onto another one as she shot him, she flipped through the air shooting three more soldiers, and then another two as she landed, all before they'd even noticed her. She dropped the emptied handguns and quickly grabbed the AK47, pointing it at the only remaining man.
He didn't look like a soldier; he seemed Icelandic with a fair face and dark eyes. His hair was black and greasy and hung down to his shoulders. He wore gothic clothing, a long black coat and black boots and appeared to be wearing a metal glove like an elaborate gauntlet. In his gauntleted hand he held Gungnir.
"Drop the spear" Lara said threateningly
"I will not…" the man replied in an Icelandic accent
Lara pulled the trigger on the AK47 and nothing happened, it didn't even click like an empty gun should do. The Icelandic man held Gungnir as if he were about to throw it,
"You have no idea what this javelin is capable of" he said, "I know who you are Ms. Croft, and I'm not in the mood to have you chasing me to the ends of the Earth for this artefact"
He launched the javelin towards Lara, and as it glided through the air it glowed a deep purple. Lara threw her gun to the floor and dived aside. The javelin missed her by a few centimetres, but still Lara was swept by its power into a wall, hitting her head hard. Before she'd even fallen the ground she was already unconscious.