Lying in her bed, Lara tosses and turns, rolling in the sheets, knocking them off of her and onto the floor. Beaded sweat in her brow and in her hairline as she whimpers and clutches at the fitted bed sheet.
Sofia is running through her village, squeezing between the mass of people running in fear, many of the buildings are on fire, gun shots ring out and she pushes to reach a tower. Looking up Sofia grabs a vine and hulls herself up, scaling the wall, there are dark marks on her cheeks and forehead from the fire. Hands are sore and she grunts as she makes her way to the top.
Screaming from below can be heard, she rushes to this old cranking phone and asks for Lara, "Lara! Trinity is back! I need you!" an explosion goes off behind her and envelopes Sofia.
Sitting up in her bed Lara gasps, her right hand on her chest as she looks around frantically, she feels her heart beating wildly and her light grey shirt is soaked in cold sweat. After a few minutes Lara takes some deep breaths to calm herself and look at the mess of the sheets, turning to the right side of her bed she gets up and walks to her desk.
A stack of papers and books lie there, end tables, the floor and chairs are flooded with books and papers. The printer has a couple of pages resting in the tray, she almost picks up the stack on her desk chair, but she walks to the small bathroom that is connected to her room. Small, a toilet, shower stall and sink, nothing special about it compared to the grand one where she and Sofia had some fun in the jocose.
Turning on the tap, Lara puts her hands together in the shape of a bowl to gather the water up and splashes her face. She does it again before turning the water off and placing her hands on the rim of the sink, lifting her head she looks at herself in the mirror.
"Sofia is fine… Trinity has no reason to go back there," she tells herself before grabbing her face towel and dabbing her face dry with it. The archeologists left Sofia's home a week and a half ago, the documentary crew left a week ago Lara reminds herself, but she still feels a pang of worry. What if Trinity doesn't believe all I've said and all that was shown to the world? She groans and runs her fingers through her hair as she steps through the door and picks up the recent documents she'd found before going to bed.
Lara forced herself to go to bed while it printed, forced herself to take a break, but it seems even her dreams won't let her take long breaks anymore. She sits down in her desk chair to start re-reading the articles she'd found, wanting to refresh her memory.
Her bedroom door opens, she doesn't bother to look up as she knows who it is, "you had the dream again, didn't you?" Liam asks as he walks to her and places a hand onto the back of her chair.
Smirking to herself, "what gave you that idea?" and she listens to him give a light chuckle.
"Watching you toss and turn in your bed for the fourth night in a row," Liam answers and he moves around her so his back is to the desk and he leans against it. "Sofia is fine, you spoke to her on the phone yesterday and the day before and the day before that."
Setting down the first page Lara continues to read the second page, "I know, I just wish I knew what it meant… why am I seeing her village being attacked by Trinity?"
He studies her for a few seconds, folding his arms across his chest, "you want to be with her, that's obvious. But your heart is in your next adventure… what you have in your hands," he answers and waits for her to look up at him. "Jonah is worried too."
She tilts her head as she looks up at him, "yeah, he's also worried you're a peeping tom with your security cameras in my bedroom."
Liam smirks at that, "I promise I never look, and I only have them in here because you have been abducted from your own bed by Frutana Corp. I don't blame him and I enjoy teasing him as to what I may be watching," he gives off a playful smirk and Lara lightly bats his left thigh with the second document. "I know you're not going back to bed, so… tell me what all you have found and what it is you are investigating."
Lara sits back in her chair and closes her eyes to collect her thoughts, she's read over a dozen articles, but only some lead her to where she feels the evidence lies. Opening her eyes she looks him in the eye, "the other set of wings," his eye brows raise at the mention, "reason being, I don't want someone else to get their hands on it. I know that will most likely push the people I don't want to find it into wanting to find it, but I need to take that chance."
Giving a sigh, Liam rests his hands onto his hips, "okay, pitch your evidence."
Leaning forward, "there have been several accounts on the black wings, but there is almost no description as to what it looks like, just what it does. For instance, in Egypt there was a yin and yang, they shaped them in the form of wings to be as angels, or gods, but they were kept hidden so well that no one knew there they were. Now and then a Pharaoh would become deathly sick and a stranger would come along with the white crystal wings and he would be better. Because the Pharaoh was desperate for any cure they were trying anything and everything that his people brought forward and so the stranger vanished," she holds her hands out, "I know, it sounds farfetched, but later on there has been accounts of the black wings."
Lara picks up a book from nearby and shows him the images, "there is a point with curves on one side here being dipped into water, and it says there that there is believed to be an object with a great curse upon it. That what it touches it either makes incredibly sick or is killed, and that it has been used in water supplies for villages, cities and therefore decimated populations. It has been known to strike in different places throughout time, but never a clear image, Rome, England, the rocky mountains, France… so many places. I have found evidence," she looks around; standing up to walk over to an end table she hurries back to show him another document.
"The Black Plague, everyone knows about it, but what if these wings were a part of it? Or what if someone's city was being plagued by the Black Plague and they used the black wings to make it worse or make it travel faster?" Lara asks excitedly and Liam gives small nods. Everything can be pointed to them, but in his mind there isn't enough substantial proof. What she has is speculation.
"What about the Angel's Hand of Light?" Liam enquires, he knows she has looked into it as well and Lara goes to a stack of books on another chair, he moves away from the desk to follow her as she sifts through them she pulls the right one out and shows him another page.
"Similar to the Divine Source I'll admit, but there have been a lot of accounts, mostly religious ones of masses of people coming under illness and someone comes along with the wings and heals them. Everything is taken as a myth with it really or as someone with a healing touch," Lara then hurries over to a book case that is usually locked; she opens it and pulls out a very old book. "This is an original book; possibly the only one in existence and my father got it years ago. Again with the myths and legends on secrets to immortality, I gave it a skim once but I didn't think anything of it," she stands before Liam and holds the book open to him to a certain page.
His eyes widen at the image of both sets of wings back to back, "Where there can be great wealth, there can also be devastation. The two should be kept from one another as together they make an imbalance, the world needs both, the world is not perfect and cannot be. Life will be rotated at all times, just as the Wings have been and will continue to be. The wings of Light to be used seldom, lest the people grow dependant and then greed will devastate. The wings of Dark to be used seldom, lest the people in power shall decimate bloodlines. Power trembles for control, for control life must be willing to accept nature and what is out of one's control. These wings of light and dark are equally powerful and equally destructive."
"Wow… that is intense… this is our one real shred of evidence that they exist. And they've been getting used throughout time, but is it really a good idea to be searching for the Dark wings when we have the wings of Light?" Liam asks and Lara sighs.
Rubbing her forehead, her exhaustion catching up from the four nights of awful sleep, "if I know about this, if I know about the wings of Light then someone else does to," she looks at Liam. "I'm certain that Fernando must have reached out to others asking about them in his quest for knowledge and probably came to the same conclusion." A serious and confident look in her tired eyes, "I need to find it first before it lands in the wrong hands."
Nodding in agreement, and planting his hands onto his hips, "where do we start?" Liam asks and Lara smiles sleepily at him as she goes back to what she'd just printed off before she went to bed.
"The last shred of evidence as to where it was reported being used," Lara walks back to her desk and picks up the two sheets of paper. "We follow the cookie trail."
Groaning, Lara wakes up on her right side, facing her bedroom door to hearing an argument in the hallway between Jonah and Liam. She rubs at her eyes and looks at her bedside clock, it's 10:15 a.m. I am not a late sleeper… must have been finally catching up on my rest she figures and sits up. Yawning she pulls off her pair of pants from yesterday, she was too tired to get changed and now feels the need to be refreshed.
"I'll fund it!" comes a familiar voice, Roger and Lara grabs a fresh pair of dark brown, skin tight cargo pants. Slipping out of her light grey shirt she pulls on a burgundy, hooded shirt that is form fitting with a pouch for both hands.
"That's not the point!" Jonah says and Lara rolls her eyes and she steps into the bathroom, grabbing her brush she detangles and smoothes out her dark brown locks before stepping out of her room.
"I'll go with her Jonah, she'll be safe," Liam says as Lara steps out and all three guys turn to her.
"You know I haven't been sleeping great and so you have this argument outside my bedroom door?" Lara asks inquisitively for the three to shift around on their feet. "So what is going on?"
"Liam told me about what you showed him last night, about the Dark Wings but I don't think it is a good idea to hunt for them when an ancient book says to keep both sets of wings apart. Here you are with one set and you want to get the other set, that sounds too dangerous," Jonah answers, obviously not happy with the new adventure she's planning.
Lara puts her hands into her pocket calmly, "every adventure I've been on has had its dangerous moments, and this one is no different than Yamati, the Divine Source or King Midas's Hand. In this case a lot of lives are at stake if the wrong people find out about it and find it." She watches Jonah purse his lips, and clench his jaw.
"I have offered to fund the expedition, I know you still need to hunt down people for information on it, but I'll fund it all," Roger adds and puts his hands into his pockets. "My father will never believe a word of it, but knowing how many lives are at stake, I'll put my whole bank account into it to save lives."
Liam watches Jonah, he won't let Lara go it alone and he has a feeling that Jonah won't either. At the same time he wonders if Lara really needs the both of them with her, he knows she is capable and all three guys will do anything for her. Roger had his childhood with her, Jonah went with her on their first adventure and because of that she has his loyalty. I tortured her for information and stopped when I knew it was futile, and then I saved her and Sofia's lives, she trusts me enough to protect her in her house.
"I say one of us should go with Lara," Liam pipes up and all three look at him, but he keeps his focus entirely on Lara, "I know you are more than capable of handling yourself. But, given what people have done to stop you in the past from finding out truths, I say Jonah or I should go with you."
Jonah clenches his fists tightly, he looks at Lara and then at Liam who finally glances at him and gives him the slightest nod. Looking back at Lara, "I'll go with you, but if we won't find anything within the first few clues as to its whereabouts. I need you to then promise me that you'll no longer pursue it." He would give her that much, he knows that if he limits her to one clue she won't go for it, so he knows he has to bend a little otherwise she could go behind his back and get herself hurt.
She gives him a firm nod, "alright, I'll make the arrangements and get my stuff packed together," she looks at Roger, "you don't need to fund us this time though. I do have money-"
"If you're in an emergency situation and you need a lot of cash, then you can use your money. But for now I urge you to use my donations of whatever you need for the time being. You don't know how much people will scalp you for your money knowing your name Lara," Roger inputs and Lara smiles a little.
Lara finds it cute how much they're each looking out for her, but they also don't see her as being a young, fragile, naïve woman anymore. From the looks in their eyes they see her as being a competent, resourceful, and strategic young woman that is the only woman in the group now. Because of this they are protective over her, and she has no idea how to show them how much she appreciates it. "Okay, but first things first, breakfast," at this they all give a small smile.
They all go to the kitchen where Winston is with his apron on, "bacon, scrambled eggs, toast with strawberry jam and… orange juice?" he glances over his shoulder at her.
Grinning as she takes a seat at the counter shaped like a great big C but on the outside where the stools are facing into the grand cooking area. "That sounds perfect; I'll be going out later with Jonah to search for the Wings of Dark."
The others pile in and Winston glances at them, "are you all hungry as well?" he asks as he goes to the fridge to pull out the bacon and eggs.
Patting his stomach, Jonah shakes his head, "I'll wait for lunch, I'm alright."
The other two shake their heads as Lara rests her arms on the counter, never much of lady. "The last clue that I read about was possibly someplace in the desert, I don't recall the name off the top of my head."
Liam blinks, "the desert? What was it doing all the way out there? Wiping out a village or a city?"
Lara's eye brows jump up briefly and she purses her lips, she doesn't want to confirm or deny it as in truth, she doesn't know. All that can be done is to speculate. "The perfect lethal weapon… by tomorrow morning or afternoon I suspect we'll know."
Winston sets the bacon into a frying pan and is about to put the eggs into a separate one, Lara smiles, "you can use the same pan, I don't mind," and he smirks.
"Very well, Lady Croft," Winston says and puts the extra frying pan away and cracks two eggs open, three pieces of bacon cooking next to them. While they cook Roger gets a call on his cell phone, Liam goes to his security room he has established in the house and Jonah takes a seat next to her. He watches her and watches Winston cook up her breakfast.
Her mind isn't in the present however, it is back on Sofia, staring off into space she keeps wondering about the nightmare she's been having. Why would anyone go for Sofia's village? I worry that she is in danger and I can't do anything about it… I know she was able to handle herself before she met me and I'm sure she can when I'm not there. It's the unknown I can't stand she rubs the bridge of her nose and then rests her head on the counter.
Frowning, Jonah places his hand onto her back, "you had the nightmare again," he says it as a fact, not a question and Lara nods.
"Her generation has done quite well and so have the ones before her Lady Croft; you do not need to worry. Lady Sofia will be fine and you've called her almost every day to be sure that nothing at all has happened," Winston adds as he puts two slices of bread into the toaster. "You should give her a call when you're done with your meal."
Lara lifts her head and nods a little, "I was planning on it," she looks up at him and then glances at Jonah as he rubs her back. She props her head up on her left hand to look at him. "I couldn't have asked her to stay."
"No, but you could have gone with her," Jonah comments in honesty, he's seen how she is in the wild; he knows she can handle herself. She can hunt, she can hide, and she is able to help those who already live there to improve their living situation.
Sighing, "It's not that easy, we both have different lives and I still want to hunt for these relics, these artifacts. I can't go and ask her to leave her village for me; my world is too different from hers," she looks at Jonah and watches him nod solemnly.
"Well think on it, you can talk to her about it on the phone after you've eaten. Okay?" Jonah says as Winston brings over her plate of bacon, eggs and toast, then her jam and orange juice.
"He is right you know, when you were plugged away into your research and studies we spoke often about her and you," Winston comments and Lara blinks in surprise.
All of those hours in front of a computer, on the phone, she hadn't thought about it like that. Sofia had to find a lot of time to occupy her own time in the house or out in the yard while she did her work. "You did?" Lara asks as she picks up a piece of bacon and takes a bite, her taste buds sparking at the flavour and she smiles as she chews. Only eating bacon as a treat.
"Yes, she admires and respects you, ever since you saved her during the first attack on the village and helped free her trapped villagers. She told you that she was happy to have you as an ally if I remember correctly. Watching you from afar with the catapult as you took down Trinity's men, then used her help to take down Konstantin's helicopter… all the way to watching you work very hard with contacts and other people to help transition those from her village that were interested in expanding beyond their own world. Your dedication Lady Croft. She never wanted to take you from your work as it was because of your work that she met you, at the same time she missed her home, her duties. You both live different lives but she and I believed that one day," his eyes grow soft, "if you truly want to be together, it'll work out."
Lara blushes at his words, touched really as she hadn't expected that and finishes her eggs and starts on her toast. Spreading strawberry jam on the lightly buttered toast, taking a long drink of orange juice before her mind goes back to the Wings of Light.
"I know that look…" Jonah comments and Lara smiles a little before going back to her thoughts, "what are you planning?"
Taking a bite of toast, chewing and swallowing, "we cannot keep the Wings of Light here," Lara says and Jonah looks at her quizzically. "If Trinity or Frutana Corp comes here for me, they could search and find it, I can't risk them finding it in an obvious location. I need to store it where no one would look for it," she smiles and takes a bigger bite and Jonah turns his stool to face her.
"All ordinary possibilities are out the window, a storage facility, basement, digging up a bomb shelter in your back yard. Those are all normal ideas, but you and it are far from normal… so what're you thinking?" Jonah asks and Lara smiles at him as she finishes off her first piece of toast and then takes a few chugs of her orange juice.
"I've got the perfect plan for it… but," she bites her bottom lip and finishes off her eggs, "I cannot tell you."
Looking taken aback Jonah stares at her, "do you not trust me?" he asks suddenly feeling like a stranger in front of her, and even after everything they've been through.
Turning to face him, Lara finishes her toast and orange juice, "it's not that I don't trust you Jonah, I am protecting you. If bad people come for it, then it'll be safer with just me knowing where it is, I don't want you possibly tortured for information on it."
He takes a deep breath and rubs the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed, "I hope you know what you're doing Lara, this isn't a game we're playing here," he opens his eyes when Lara takes his free hand into her own.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Lara promises and stands up to walk to Liam's security room where he's reading a book. Standing in the doorframe, Lara leans against it and glances at the monitors, several large screens with 4 camera views on each, one wall filled with computer screens, one standard keyboard and another funky one. A filing cabinet to her left all with the locks done up and a cooler sitting on top of a mini fridge on her right, she clears her throat for Liam to glance up. "Your hard at work," she teases and he smirks.
"Well I don't need to eaves drop on your conversation with Winston or Jonah, I know when to give you privacy," he sets the book down and folds his hands together. "What can I do for you?"
Lara glances up at the monitors, "I want all of the surveillance turned off for the rest of today," she looks at him, "reason being, if Trinity or Frutana Corp find out what I'm up to and come here for answers they'll be able to use the recordings to find out what I'm about to do. I can't risk it."
Nodding Liam stands up and goes to the funky control pad, flipping every switch for a red light to appear above every single one and every camera screen goes black on the monitor. Sitting back down he looks at her, "you have complete privacy," he smiles at her and stands up, "I'll go and take a look over the grounds of the property then."
With that Lara steps aside to let him walk past her and down the hallway, she goes in the opposite direction to the library where she has her special phone for contacting Sofia set up. Taking a deep breath Lara takes a seat next to the phone and picks it up; she set Sofia up with a solar powered phone for her own place up in the mountains.
Dialing her number Lara waits and after three rings hears the other line pick up, "hello sexy," Sofia answers and gets Lara blushing instantly.
"Hello to you too, I take it all is going good over there still?" Lara asks and she can just picture Sofia frowning.
"You had the nightmare again, didn't you?" Sofia asks in return and Lara gives a small sigh. "Everything is fine here Lara, I have patrols still going around even to where I first met you. Trinity and Frutana Corp have no reason to come here, now… I know you've got something going on."
Giggling Lara sits back in her chair, "what makes you think that?"
"Because I know you Lara, you have a hard time sitting still, so what's the big scoop?" Sofia answers and Lara closes her eyes contentedly.
"I'm going to go after the Wings of Darkness, after I hang up the phone I'll be making the arrangements to leave and go after the first clue. I know I'm not going to find it right away so I have some ground work to do," Lara answers and bites her bottom lip, "what would you say to my stopping by for a visit before I start?"
"Really? That would be great!" Sofia gets excited on her end and Lara giggles. "When will you be here?"
Looking at the clock, "hmmm tomorrow morning I expect, it may be off our route that I need to take, but I really, really need to see you," she said in honesty.
She can hear Sofia giving a content sigh, "I'll be counting the hours, because the minutes will take too long."
To Be Continued…
What did you think? Have you guessed what Lara is going to do? Things will be slow at first but I promise they'll pick up. Please review! The more feedback I get the more fuel I get to write.