TOMB RAIDER: ONCE MORE
Author's note:
Hello, everyone! This is my new fanfic, which I wanted to start for a long time! That means I'll have to abandon Tomb Raider: the Darkness for some time. I'll return to it once I finish this one. For the meantime, enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: Tomb Raider belongs to Crystal Dynamics, but the previous owner was Core Design, and you know the rest of story. I own nothing but the situations I put the characters in .
Prologue: On a Cold Winter Night
It was night. Midnight, to be exact, and it was somewhere after the New Year. It was very cold outside; the weather man reporting it to be the coldest winter that the country had seen since records began.
Everyone was inside their homes, watching holiday specials while sitting on their couches – some peacefully enjoying the snow the cold weather had brought, others complaining that the bitter cold made the marrow in their bones ache.
But, there was an exception – one person, like the scrooge of old fairy tales, who was not reveling in the cheer of the start of a new year. And that was Lara Croft.
After the HellHeim incident, she just wasn't the same. She simply did not care about anything anymore; she wasn't the same wise-cracking, happy person that others knew and loved. She had changed.
It all started when she defeated Natla – she was depressed. Tormented and felt hollow inside. And those feelings only reappeared after Alister died and she discovered that her mother had died long before that.
She thought that she had long gotten a handle on her emotion after the incident in Horus's temple and everyone had thought she was dead. But recent events had shown her that she was no closer to getting a handle on her emotions than she was closer to being able to grasp smoke in her bare hands.
But now she was back. She couldn't remember how, but there was no disputing the fact that she was. It hadn't taken the world long to realize that they had assumed wrong and given up on her far too quickly. If Lara was anything, she was a fighter, and she always pulled through.
But a piece of her did die in that pyramid… She could barely look at her twin weapons because they would only bring back the memories and the thoughts and doubts of what she could have done instead… Yes, part of the accident was forgotten but she didn't want to remember it.
Her memories played out in her mind and she recalled the phone ringing, it had been Werner Von Croy, her mentor in Paris, asking for her help though refusing to deliver any information by phone.
He had been the last person she had wanted to see.
Lara may not remember a lot of things but what she did remember was him abandoning her at the last moment.
But, she had decided to go. I was the wrong move to make. Werner was murdered, and she was accused for it. She decided then to clear her name and find the real murderer.
While she was tracing the obscure paintings, she met Kurtis. He was someone special and she had felt her feelings for him change and grow the longer she spent with him. He helped Lara to defeat Eckhart, Von Croy's murderer. But, Kurtis disappeared during the process. Lara only found his chirugai, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Somehow she evaded trouble and then all she remembers after that is that she started over and hired Zip full-time. He helped her steal the Iris from Von Croy long time ago. Then, she hired Alister. Everything went well for a while. And then she got a call from Anaya, a longtime friend, telling her about the discoveries in Bolivia.
Later, Lara discovered a stone Dias, a device that was used with Excalibur to travel to Avalon… And that was how her mother had disappeared when she was only eight years old.
It had given her hope – made her think that she still had time to save her. But no. She was too late. Her mother had died while Lara searched around the world for the pieces of Excalibur and later, pieces of Mjolnhir, Thor's legendary hammer. At least now Lara didn't have to fear what sort of torment her mother could be going through. Now, Lara's mother was at peace.
Back in her old manor while the other one was getting rebuilt and repaired, Lara stood on the balcony overlooking the assault course. She remembered how she used to run around, trying to beat her old record again, and again...
"Am I interrupting?" Lara was pulled out of her melancholy thoughts by a familiar voice and she turned around to see who it was. Zip. She should have known. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Are you?" Zip's face clearly showed his concern for his friend's well-being and in the mood that she was in; it set Lara's teeth on edge.
"Do I look like I feel okay to you?" Lara demanded coldly as Zip approached.
"What's with the attitude? You don't normally deal with things this way. You normally blow stuff up and think things through. Yeah, you're a bit prissy for a couple of days but you always snap out of it… What's up?"
"I just–!" Lara wanted to say something. Anything. But she couldn't find the words.
"Well?" Zip demanded, trying to snap her out of her funk.
"It's nothing," Lara sighed, with her shoulders dropping. Zip clearly didn't believe her but he left it at that for tonight.
"Well, you better get to bed. It's almost 1 AM." Zip said and left, hoping Lara would follow his advice and get some rest. He knew how little sleep she had been getting lately and how much she really needed it right now.
Lara stood there a few more seconds, until she decided to go out for just a second and in moment she stood outside on the steps of her manor home.
Memories came unbidden, as they had all night but these were different. These were good and brought her a measure of comfort – she remembered those huge boxes in the hall, how she had once had to deal with Italian mafia, her racetrack, her labyrinth…
But her enjoyment stopped when she saw a shadowy figure on top of the gates. She couldn't see who it was, not from this distance. At least that was until it jumped down.
And as the figure approached Lara knew.
"So, we meet once again… Doppelganger."
END OF CHAPTER