a few months after underworld. History has a way to creep up on Lara even those of Prague.
She was falling to the ground, barely staying on her feet while pushing herself forward in order to escape the mental and physical pain she was in. At that moment she was struggling to determined whether the cocky American she learnt to trust throughout her journey was a trick by Karel or reality. He felt so real, his touch, the warmth he gave when unarming her and being so close. The hallway she followed, hoping it be an exit, led her to the arena kurtis stayed behind when the mutant of a former alchemist was trying to make lunch from them. In the middle of the round floor above the pool she emerged from when she had the fifth and final obscura painting which she obtained from the vault of trophies. Lara stood worried by the amount of red liquid which she thought to be human blood, with the metallic disc laying in the middle. If that was indeed kurtis's blood then he might have been real, even though debating in her mind about whether he was real or not she was almost certain of it, either way she was going to find out. When Lara picked up the disc it activated and five sharp blades shot out, pulling her and almost ripping off her arm toward the dark hallway that the mutant emerged from. The scenery suddenly changed to a room with a door in the middle of the east wall, in the northern corned was a small wooden table with a torture equipment on. The walls were brown which further added to the darkness and the shadows hiding two male figures. In the middle of the room was a table and a chair on which a figure of a well built man with strands of hair hanging almost in his eyes tied to. He looked somewhat familiar to someone from her past and also hiding in the shadows was a figure of a man shed rather forget. Yet those icy blue and demonic eyes never left her mind. Once Lara escaped the trance she was in, the conversation became more clearly as she focused on what was happening in front of her.
"just tell me where it is and ill let you live mister Trent" a deep voice came from the other male figure
"there's no way in hell ill tell you" Lara still wasn't sure but when kurtis lifted his face a few inches to look at Karel she was sure.
"Then maybe I can get it out of the girl you're so fond of" as the nephilim said it he changed form into Lara croft but yet the chocolate brown eyes weren't there, just the icy blue demonic eyes of Karel.
"don't you dare touch her, ill rip your head off do you hear me" it looked as if kurtis had gone through weeks of torture, his face full of bruises and cuts then again Lara couldn't imagine what injuries were hiding underneath his shirt. Karel started a taunting laugh when Lara was woken by the call of her name.
"miss croft! miss croft I've brought you your breakfast. Are you all right, you look troubled?" Winston was repeating from next to the bed
"yes Winston ill be fine but would you be so kind to take it to the dining room I think it will do me some good to eat there for a change"
"as you wish, and remember no raiding for a while, you need a break lady croft"
Lara just smiled at the last comment yet she wasn't really listening but thinking about the sudden dreams relating to events that took place seven years ago. Pushing all worries aside Lara threw her legs over the side of the bed and made her way slowly toward the closet. She grabbed a jean, black tank top and some combat shoes. Firstly she put it on the bed and turned on the bath tap. A sudden shock hit her while she was standing looking out on the grounds from the balcony, the bath water was still running. She jogged swiftly toward the bathroom and closed the tap as well as opening the cold water, the cold steel making contact with her hand gave her shivers. When the bath was full enough Lara undressed herself and went in feet first, while gently sitting down she slipped and almost fell but she grabbed hold of the wall next to her and luckily stayed upright. As she laid in the warm water she could feel her muscles relax but unfortunately that wasn't going to stay that way. She completely forgot about the nightmare she had, or so she kept telling herself. The one thing bothering her all this time was that she didn't know exactly what happened to kurtis, either he died or he lived but with that amount of blood she saw it was impossible. It took Lara an hour to escape the building herself and if he had a fatal injury like she suspected it she would've said it was impossible but then again he was a mystery on his own, the last surviving of an order long forgotten. She searched for weeks in all the hospitals in Prague in between dealing with the police and reassuring Winston shed be home soon. The afternoon she finally reached the manor with nothing more than an id, licence, passport and a small suitcase containing clothes she bought in Prague. She felt something strange for kurtis, something she didn't understand and as an archaeologist she always searched for the truth. But her feeling for the man made it complicated, she swore that she was going to forget him, Prague and all the gruesome secrets it held. Karel was dead, Eckhardt was dead and even though she was partly furious with von croy it saddened her in some way. She was broken from her thoughts when a sudden, loud sound came echoing through the halls. She was out of the bath in seconds and grabbed her pistols lying on the side table and started running downstairs. When she had expected a visit from a few death threats it was only the threat of zip and Alistair killing each other that worried her. They were going on about a twelve century vase that fell in a struggle when Lara intervened.
"boys, boys can you please be careful that pot wasn't cheap and zip please return Alistair's book that you've so kindly tucked into your pants."
"bloody hell where's the disinfectants" Alistair said while holding the book with only two fingers like a teenage girl holding a locust.
"yes hallo Lara I slept well thanks for asking" zip was saying while leaning an elbow on top of the display case that the pot originally stood in
"of course zip did you re-" Lara was interrupted in mid-sentence by the ringing of the phone and zip was kind enough to answer, while he was in conversation with who ever disturbed her peaceful morning Lara started walking in the direction of the dining room. As promised Winston had already put her breakfast there with a cup of tee. She sat down comfortable in the chair slightly leaning forward to start eating breakfast. After a piece of toast Lara grabbed the cup with tea but regretted it when the cold liquid made contact with her mouth. She didn't even notice that it was already twelve o'clock. Quietly sitting back in her chair deciding that she wasn't hungry anymore, zip appeared in the doorway. He looked worried, either from the phone call, or he feared of what he was going to tell Lara.
"come on zip spit it out, its not as if you're going to stand there forever" Lara said while pushing the chair back with her feet and standing in front of zip
"that was the police" zip looked anxious but still he wasn't telling her anything
"oh bloody hell what I do this time, steal the Eiffel tower?" her voice full of sarcasm
"close enough, they called about the time you went to Paris. . . . they mentioned the monstrum and a guy named kurtis. They're coming by tomorrow morning seven o'clock" he could see Lara's face drop immediately.
"thanks zip" she was short of words from what she just heard.
"Lara you never told us what happened"
"Werner died, I was the suspect" Lara didn't even bother to look zip in the eye. Obviously he wasn't going to get more out of her so he returned to his usual routine, going to the tech room and playing with his toys. Alistair wasn't like zip he usually got Lara to open up but she didn't feel like it so she immediately went to the gym to get back to her old self. She was already halfway through the course, standing ready for a running jump to the horizontal pole in front of her she was counting to three. 'one, two, kurtis' she saw a sudden picture of the attractive American she met in Paris, for some reason she started running but unfortunately didn't grab the pole and fell hard to the floor. With a sudden thud a voice spoke from behind.
"who's kurtis?"
"Alistair? Oh no one just an old friend"
"fine ive heard enough don't overflow me with information" Alistair lifted his hands in sarcastic surrender
Lara stood up walking past Alistair toward her bedroom, she was already in the gym for five hours and the recent fall wasn't too good for her either. She turned on the shower and got in, after finally cooling off from the gym session she got out, dried of and got dressed. It was already fifteen minutes past five in the afternoon, Lara was exhausted and tomorrow was going to be even worse, hopefully her nightmares didn't mean anything. She was deep in thought about the moment kurtis and she shared in the louvre when everything went dark. Once more she was in the same room as previous. Kurtis was still sitting in the chair, and Karel was once again circling him in the form of a man Lara had never seen before. Kurtis's head hung low, he was different, he was worried, angry. He had no shirt on this time and in the other corner stood a man with a whip, he had a ski mask on and he looked familiar somehow.
"come on kurtis look at your father and tell me where it is" then it hit Lara, what Karel had said, that was kurtis's father
"my fathers dead"
"oh I do remember his face all too well, he was pleading for his life while he was killed, slowly. . . . and painfully"
"yeah now you expect me to tell you everything right"
"well if not for your father what about Lara" Karel's voice wasn't the same anymore, it was different almost like kurtis's
"she has nothing to do with this war just leave her out of it"
"oh but she does and you know it all too well"
the merc in the corner stepped forward and hit kurtis over the torso at least five times, he hissed from the pain but said nothing. Lara sat straight up in her bed covered in sweat, 'not again, its not real just a dream get over it Lara its not like you to dwell in the past' she was talking to herself trying to reassure her that nothing bad was going to happen. Lara got up put some new clothes on and walked toward the closet, in a drawer she hasn't used in over six years lay the familiar disc that previously belonged to kurtis. It was already full of dust since somehow Lara forced herself to forget it being there. When she touched the metal it was cold as ice In her hand, was that a bad thing? She picked it up and blew off most of the dust. She sat on the bed using a wet cloth to clean it off properly. The metal shone in the light originating from the lamp next to the bed. 'what the hell am I doing, what's happening to me kurtis' Lara slowly whispered to the disc, she never did that but she felt a sudden urge to do it. The disc suddenly sprang to life and almost chopped off Lara's head while cutting furniture, flowers and curtains in the process. Moments later zip was standing in the door with a rifle, Alistair behind him with a book and Lara ducking for dear life. The disc suddenly charged for zip, he tried firing but the disc seemed to absorb all the bullets. Zip ducked in time, pulling Alistair with him in the process so instead of slicing their throats the disc simply stuck in the door.
"god Lara you could've told us to beware of the homicidal UFO in your room"
"like ally said I had quite a nice dream" zip used his thumb to point to Alistair now standing upright
"sorry guys that hasn't happened for a very long time but speaking of time how late is it"
"its seven thirty and what is that" Lara smiled evilly and put her fingers in the finger holes of the disc, the blades retracted which made Lara step back a few inches, she smiled at zip and put the disc in the drawer it had previously been in.
"no need to worry why don't you put your skills to use and make me some toast and tea" zip didn't even have time to say no when Lara walked past him and Alistair and out to the hall. She went to the hall but avoiding zip at the same time so that he had no other choice but to make her the breakfast she asked for. He was just about to give it to Lara when the doorbell rang, no doubt it was the police. Zip sighed, turned around and went back to the kitchen while Winston opened the door. Alistair wouldn't be anywhere but the study and zip went back to the tech room. Two men walked over to her and the first held his hand out to Lara.
No need to worry, kurtis will be back soon. . .This is my first fanfic about them so please take it easy and try not to bite my head of okay ;-)
