REFLECTIONS
R E V E R S I O N E D
A Tomb Raider Fan Fiction
By Nicholas Clark (Warriorsong)
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Authors Note: This fan fiction is somewhat AU and OOC. I'll explain after.
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She sat in the large bay window, staring out through the rain-slashed panes of glass at the waterlogged downs of southern England. The grey darkness of the outside world was warmed and countered by the hazy orange of a single candle and the roaring blaze set in the fireplace.
"Days like today", she thought, "are for contemplation, and long baths". She sighed. The bath possibility had been exhausted. Her damp hair and terry-towelling robe testified to that point. All that was left was contemplation.
For all her young twenty-nine years she had done so much. From the fateful last minutes upon that mountain when she came of age and her following adventures as Lara Croft - Tomb Raider.
"So many things, yet what have I learnt?"
She was born on a bright spring morning at Royal Prince Albert Hospital in London. The only child to Lord Henshingly and Lady Elizabeth Croft. A quiet childhood, surrounded by warmth and love from her many friends and loving parents.
Always athletic, she had developed a passion for gymnastics at eight years old, her determination evident in the way she pushed herself and her achievements. It was shattered when she was twelve. The cattish and petty behaviour of the other girls had destroyed the childish illusions that Lara had held so dear for her entire life. A deep melancholy settled over Lara, her only outlets her reading and her companionship with the aging butler 'Winston'. During these two years she studied all manner of subjects, rudimentary chemistry, archaeology, biology, basic genetics and advanced trigonomic theory.
Finally in an attempt to bring Lara back to the light of day, her parents had sent her to finishing school in Switzerland. Lara was shattered by this, thinking her parents wanted rid of her, and to make it worse, she departed for the college on her fourteenth birthday.
Lara's tutors were amazed by her knowledge. The two years in isolation had reverted Lara to a shy meek girl. After a year of study, the school was integrated with an American finishing school for males and females. Here Lara met Roman Devlin.
She had fallen in love with Roman at first glance and he her. Two years of fun and skipping curfew were rewarded in slipping grades. Lord Croft was called to the school and Lara was given three months to improve. During the three months she lived on coffee and takeaways, and frequent trips to the schools gym.
After these months in isolation, Lara found that a ski trip to Mount Fuji in Japan was planned. The skiing was fantastic, the culture marvellous. The trip back...
While quietly chatting to Roman and dozing, Lara heard a chunking whirring crunch and black smoke filled the cabin, girls screaming, men in shock and the gradual decent of the plane into the white oblivion below.
The last thing Lara remembered before the dark descended was Roman holding her close and whispering in her ear "I love you".
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Awaking to the feeling of cold overwhelming and bile in her mouth Lara screamed, blood was in her eyes, weight on her legs. Roman. As Lara awakened to find her boyfriends crushed body lying over her; his blood pooling beneath them she realized that she was alone. Roman had used his last strength to cover her with his own body so she wouldn't die from the cold. Lara shuddered and wept.
When the weeping had stopped she pulled herself from beneath his cold body. The area was desolate blocked on all sides by grey and red mounds. Lara was alone; the mounds were testimony enough. Lara went among the mounds, avoiding red. After gathering clothes and food, she went back to Romans body.
A large part of her wanted to climb down beside him and die also, yet a strong new voice told her to make it to civilization - people needed to know where the bodies were. Lara realized with a cold feeling that the new voice was hers.
Placing her great- grandmother's sterling silver cross around Roman neck and whispering a prayer for her departed friends, Lara headed down slope.
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She could, still even now, twelve years later, and many more horrors seen, recall the trip on the cold shoulder of that unnamed Himalayan with crystal clarity. The bright sun of the snow, shunted in its path to her eyes by the stolen sunglasses, the cold only steeped by the multiple layers of clothing purloined from the dead.
"Maybe that started it all", wondered the rain watching twenty-nine year old.
But prominent was the biting cold without and within - Roman and her friends all dead - their families unsure as to whether the chartered plane was late or not coming at all - would she be able to tell her parents that she loved them and forgave them for trying to do the right thing by her...
What kept Lara going however, was what had, years earlier, tried to kill her. Her melancholy didn't break her, but strengthened her resolve and powered her on, through thirteen nights in little caves in snow and rock, past the snowline, into the trees and around that valley wall, when at last see beheld the tiny hamlet of Tokakeriby. Her revelation and joy where overwhelming when unknown strangers, carried her to the local doctor and let her sleep warm.
For days after she awoke screaming.
The doctor, a retired missionary called Kaleb, nursed Lara back to health and talked long into sleepless nights of fear with Lara. Kaleb, who had an amateur radio hobby, finally called the nearest town to relay word about the fate of the chartered flight.
Kaleb could speak English, but when talking to the townspeople, used a guttural tongue that Lara did not recognize. The town of Tokakeriby was situated in the southern steppes of Russian, along the Pakistan border. When Lara realized this she cried for hours, Kaleb finally found out that if the plane had continued on for ten minutes they would have been out of the mountains. Lara learnt basic Russian.
Three weeks after her escape from the mountain and five weeks after the crash, a United Nations team moved into Tokakeriby to collect the survivors. Lara. They had received a garbled account in bad English that survivors were to be found. Lara, amongst tears and flashbacks, recounted the events.
The team was unable to do anything. The bodies would be either frozen solid or inside the beasts. A granite memorial of the dead was made and placed in Tokakeriby's square, names of the dead in English and Russian.
Lara left for home.
Six months later and recovered fully yet still suffering the nightmares, Lara stunned her parents by making a trip to the United States. She had enrolled in Berkley College in California to do a major in Archaeology. Needless to say Lord Henshingly Croft went apeshit.
Lara returned home two years later with her major and two years left to do her doctorate. Argumentation and strife ensued in the Croft household and Lara left under a black cloud, Her mother, Elizabeth, managed to convince her father that she was trying to bury the past instead of recover it, and it would pass.
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Those next two years passed quickly for Lara - forsaking a social life for study, unable and unprepared to see those old horrors happen again. For Lara, all her friends seemed to die.
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Lara's first dig was at the ruins of Carthage in northern Tunisia. The excavated site proved a boon to students. The native workers had left for their homes due to civil unrest and the students all moved in to fulfil the jobs. Lara's discovery confirmed an old story about why Carthage was sacked. It was believed that the Carthaginians began a worship of the ancient fire god Baal. Baal demanded human sacrifice especially that of children. A large golden statue with fire in its upturned mouth and a catapult arm was used. Children placed on the arm went into the mouth.
A wide pit in the floor under an old slab of sandstone, filled with tiny skeletons, and a large gold mechanism with a rusted iron spring.
It all began from here.
Sasquatch, The Atlantean Scion, The Temple of The Cat, The Hive, The Dagger Of Zian, The Locked Nest and many others. A whole room dedicated to her exploits and her own fortune from interviews and travel books. A wing dedicated to her at The New York Museum Of Natural History. But a dying father and withdrawn mother.
When Lara's father died of a respiratory infection, she sat with him for hours. Death no longer frightened her, life did.
Her mother entered the room and explained to Lara her father's side of the story. His limp was as prominent in Lara memory as his ever-present pipe and thick grey beard.
"His limp was from his youth", explained Lara's mother, "he was in Africa on a hunting trip, when he was attacked by a lion, wounded and near death, but not by the hunters. It mauled your father. All his leg muscles where destroyed before the lion was killed. He gained an infection and that explains his constant ill health. Your father would never let me tell you why he hated your adventuring but now I feel that"
"He wanted to protect me", whispered Lara
"Yes", said her mother, "But his pride would never let you know"
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Still staring out at the rain, matched now by the streaks on her face, 'Winston' trying to remain unobserved, but ready to go to his mistress, Lara Croft whispered.
"What have I learnt, indeed?"
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Authors Notes
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This fic was my first ever. Compiling it now I haven't changed it at all, minus some spelling. I wrote this before I knew a lot of the Tomb Raider back story and some of it is not (reference to the plane crash) as it happens in the game booklet for Tomb Raider. Artistic liberties if you will.
In this story I have used a character from Ryan Foleys "Wonders Of An Ancient Glory", my inspiration for writing this. I have to thank him here for that and for actually having a copy of Reflections from when I first sent it to him. Sadly Ryan doesn't write Tomb Raider anymore.
Also the reference to Carthage may be somewhat wrong. I do remember reading a few years ago about this practice yet if I am wrong, let me know. I believe it may have been a pre-Carthagian culture that worshipped Baal. Still makes for good reading.
And I changed the 'Marcus' to 'Winston'. I said it was an alternate universe fic but obviously the text wasn't big enough. Someone emailed me about getting it "wrong"
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Disclaimers
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Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and all related indica are copyright by EIDOS, Core and Top Cow Comics. "Wonders of an Ancient Glory" and Roman Devlin are copyright (c) and trademark of RMF Enterprises.
If any of this information is wrong, my most humble apologies. No copyright infringement is intended, this is merely a work of fan fiction. I am in no way affiliated to any of these companies and people and what not. Thanks for reading.
Written 24th October 1998. Compiled 21st January 2001. Reversioned 9th January 2008. By Nicholas Clark (Warriorsong)