If she ever got out of this situation alive, Lara told herself she was never going to leave the house again. The trip had started out great, leaving the harbor on the newly outfitted Endurance. But after that, things had taken a turn for the worse. Once out on open sea, the young archeologist had been hit hard by sea sickness.

It had been so bad that she had confined herself to her and Sam's small room, something neither of them had been happy about. It had taken her the better part of a week to get use to the rolling of the waves underneath her feet, telling herself, "Something that big, should not be able to move."

Even after she had gotten rid of the sea sickness, life on the boat had not improved; if anything, it had only gotten worse. Her relationship with Whitman was that of quiet loathing. He was everything she hated in a man and more. His sarcastic comments and constant put downs made the young grad student to want to throw him overboard.

She spent some of her free time drawing little sketches of him getting hit by lighting or being washed away by a wave. It was a great way to relieve her anger, and make sure she didn't end up hitting the man. The man even refused to see sense in the more then acquit proof that she had on the lost civilization of Yamatai. What she had found pointed towards a remote part of the ocean called the dragon's triangle.

Even with the difficulties of dealing with her egotistical male colleague, she had somehow convinced the idiot to fallow her recommendation, something she would soon come to hope had never happened.

As soon as they entered the dragon's triangle and neared an island that looked promising, disaster hit. A massive storm had suddenly appeared and destroyed the ship. The surviving crew members were then stranded on an island filled with nightmares. It couldn't have been a normal island now, could it? There were no white sand beaches and beautiful resorts; no, it was some escaped piece of hell.

The entire place was crawling with this weird cult of men who, when met with a stranded woman, would tie her to a wooden post and burn her alive. Although this wasn't the case for Lara; instead one of them had tried to rape her before the ceremony. It had ended up with the young twenty something killing the man and then losing all of the food she had eaten on the forest floor.

This wasn't common from what she had seen, they mostly stuck to the fires. These fires where done in some twisted and sick hope that some sign would save the girl and prove that she was the 'chosen one'.

This had happened to Sam. They had set the fire and were ready to watch her die, but a sudden gust of wind saved her life. The wind had come out of nowhere and blown water from the nearby water fall on the fire and saved her friends life.

After this miracle, the leader of this all male cult, Mathias, took poor Sam away, ready to sacrifice her to the sun queen who would take over her body in a never ending circle of death. To make matters even worse -if they could be worse- the sun queen had at her disposal a vanguard of zombified samurai that were charged with her protection.

These centuries' old samurai were sick and disfigured with the power their queen had given them. Lara had found evidence of cannibalism among the warriors, although she wasn't sure if the sun guard could be considered human anymore.

The entire time all this was happening, she had learned the cold truth behind the island, about all of its deaths and failed colonies. Many of her friends died finding out this information, and she had planned on making things right. So she had started off up the mountains to kill the sun queen and save all of the lives left on the island.

It was at this point she ran into trouble. She had been ambushed by the samurai and the Solarii (the man cult) and had been driven off the trail and into the forests. Somehow, she had out run them, even lugging around all of her weapons. But she was soon forced into a cave when she came to a cliff.

She had entered the hole in the ground hoping that there was some other way out. Several of the samurai that had been hot on her heels as she had been forced to enter, had seemingly given up following her. Maybe they had known that it was a dead end, and instead of following her around in the dark, they would just wait outside in the light until she tried to escape.

It was a dark thought that could turn out to be all too real, but there was nothing she could do, so she just kept walking, only able to see because of her well used torch, gripped tightly in her hand. So she walked, and walked, and walked, the cave had gone on for longer the she had thought it would. She must have walked more than a kilometer before she noticed the subtle changes in the walls.

What had started out as the work of Mother Nature, had now turned into the purposeful tunnels of man. The walls that were somewhat smooth, were now slightly rougher, and every now and then some tool marks could be seen.

The walls that had run as straight as could be humanly possible, now had an unexpected bend up ahead. It made the battered Britain nervous. Why now? Slowly, Lara pulled her ice axe from her belt. It was the only weapon she had left, and even if she had ammo for her other weapons, it wasn't safe to fire. If she did, the bullets would ricochet and would hold no prejudice towards who they killed.

So she crept nervously down the hall, one arm held high, lighting as much as she could, trying to see the threats she knew were there. With one last breath, she jumped around the corner, mentally ready for anything, but what she found wasn't what she was expecting.

Yes she had expected to find bodies. They were not a rare sight on the island. Truthfully, you would have a hard time finding a place that didn't have bodies. What made these different from the others was their apparent age.

They all looked ancient, but they weren't. Something had mummified the corpses at a speed that shouldn't have been possible. It should have taken decades, centuries even for the bodies to dry out as they did. Just by looking at the clothing, she could tell that some of the bodies were recent. Hell, one of them even had a t-shirt from a movie that had come out just a few months ago.

The further she went into the room, the more apprehensive she got. The room was filled with hundreds of corpses. They were stacked in rows six feet tall in-between Grecian columns that had stood for who knows how long. All of them had been mummified; the entire room must have been the length of the top deck of the Endurance, all of it being a monument to the dead.

It was vastly different from the other structures on island; it was far older than anything she had seen. From the looks of the columns and their styling, they looked old. Older then the temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, which is considered the oldest temple ever to be found.

This right here was the type of find all archeologist would hope for. It was something that would rewrite textbooks. At the far end of the room stood two massive stone doors, engraved on them with great care was some kind of warning. Lara's ancient Greek wasn't the best, but even she could tell that the writing was not normal.

It was a mixture of Greek words and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The hieroglyphics helped, they showed graphic displays of torture to warn anyone against opening the doors. But she didn't have a choice, so she reached out with one hand, hoping that the door wouldn't open. But it did. What surprised her was the door wasn't hard to move as it should have been, it was in fact vary easy, almost as if it had some kind of mechanical aides.

Light spilled out from around the door. Hope swelled in her chest at first, before she realized what it was. It wasn't day light, it was artificial, coming from the old excavation lights spread around the room. The room itself was much smaller than the one that lead to it.

The walls were smooth, made with great care, their polished surfaces were not made of the natural stone that they should have been. Instead, they were a dark blue marble with some kind of silver veining. From where she stood still in the doorway, it looked as if the room was surrounded by small chambers that held everything from ancient artifacts, to piles of guns.

In the center and sitting in a depression was a pedestal surrounded by water. Old chains that looked as if they had been made with bronze, or maybe copper, sat discarded around it. It was then that the old man stepped out of one of the rooms that had what looked like a makeshift bed.

There wasn't anything remarkable about him besides the fact that he looked like the world's oldest man. Sending her a small smile, he limped over to her. Even if he looked like he couldn't hurt a fly, Lara tightened her grip on the ice axe. She had learned that appearances could be deceptive.

But he stopped just short of her, actually seeing her appearance and all of her injuries, and immediately turned around. Seconds later, he came back with a large red first aid bag. Surprised, Lara didn't do anything as she was pulled down to a small bench.

The man immediately opened the bag, showing her the piles of first aid supplies. There were more bandages and bottles of medical supplies then she had seen on the entire island.

"Who are you?" Lara questioned, even if she was suspicious, it didn't mean she had to be rude. Startled, the man looked up and broke into a wide grin.

"You're British right?" he replied, his smile was almost contagious.

"Yes. But that doesn't answer my question. Who are you, and why are there all of those mummies outside?" She demanded, losing her patience. Sam needed help, and she didn't have the time to beat around the bush.

Staring at her, the man continued to clean and bandage her wounds, still not answering her question. Instead the old man startled her by his next statement. "You're going up to stop her, aren't you?" She didn't answer, but he didn't need one, the surprised look on her face was enough.

"I thought so," he said to himself, "She looks like the type." Slowly, he moved around the room gathering up small items. Lara looked towards the pile of weapons, and made her decision, running towards the pile. The man was not sane, and if he tried something, she needed something more than a climbing tool to protect herself. Seconds later, she was facing back into the room with what looked like a military grade m16. Fully loaded, the high powered weapon would turn a person into a puddle. But the man was gone, she couldn't see him anywhere, and it disturbed her. Where had he gone?

Her hand tightened around the trigger, ready to send hot lead towards anything that looked like a threat. But then he appeared again out of another small room filled with shelves. Even with his guest now armed, he didn't seem bothered.

When he did notice the gun in her hands, he just shrugged and moved back towards his medical bag.

"What happened to the people?" Lara asked.

"They died." He replied simply, not bothering to elaborate.

"I can see that, but how did they die?" For several seconds he stood there looking at her as if trying to decide on whether or not to confide in her with some secret.

"I killed them." His admission startled her; he said it as if it was nothing, like he was talking about the weather, not hundreds of people's lives.

"Why?" she whispered in quiet fury. So much death had happened without her being able stop it, but here was one of the island's most deadly residents, if what he said was true, and she had the ability to end it all.

Sighing, he made a motion for her to sit down, but when she didn't he just shrugged and stayed standing. "The reason I killed all of those people wasn't because I could, but because I was forced to." At Lara's look of confusion, he continued. "I'm not what you would call human." As if to prove it, in a flash of golden light he appeared next to her and softly took the gun from her shocked hands.

"I am older than most civilizations, and have been trapped in this prison of mine for longer than I can count."

"What do you mean, you're not human?" The frightened college graduate whispered, looking at him in fear. She had seen some terrible things on the island, some things that could even be considered other worldly, but him not being human was too much.

"I am what you would call a god, and I was trapped on this island under this accursed mountain by those I had once called friends."

"You're insane." Lara said, backing up towards the pile of weapons that still sat behind her.

"That's what the last one said." he replied, making her stop.

"W-what do you mean, the last one?"

"What you don't understand, is that most people couldn't have survived what you have." Immediately, Lara's thoughts went to her dealings with the local cult. But as if reading her thoughts, he continued. "I'm not talking about the things you did on the surface, most people would have died just walking into the outer chamber where all of the bodies are stacked. You see, with my being trapped here so long- thousands of years- energy from my person has had the chance to escape and gather in the tunnels.

"The result of this, is that when a normal person walks down here, their life force is slowly taken from them. You are one of the rare few who can survive down here. In all of my time trapped, only seven people have been able to do that."

"I don't believe you." she replied. But again, as if reading her thoughts, the supposed god raised a hand and pointed towards the doors she had entered through, and where one of the sun queen's undead guards came stumbling in. Smoke seemed to roll off of him in waves, all of it traveling towards the old man, until the armored corpse fell to the ground, looking like the ones outside.

Wide eyed, Lara turned back to the god. "My name is Perseus, god of human faith and belief."

They talked for several hours. At first, Lara was worried about Sam, but Perseus answered her that although is influence was limited outside of the tunnels, he could tell that she was still alive and was not going to be killed that day. So he told her of how he became a god. How in the beginning, the faith, belief and hope of early humans had taken his form.

He told her how he shepherded the early humans, and taught them to make great societies. The further he went on with his story, the sorrier she felt for him. Eventually, he got to the point when the older gods wanted to control the earth, sky, and seas themselves, and attacked him and stripped him of his powers, giving them shape and calling them their children.

"They stripped me of my powers a threw me back into the world of mortals, but over time the energy given off by man's constant hope for something better, and faith that things were going to be all right, brought me back to my previous power, and for the second time they came and took away the hope I had gathered and gave it new shapes. This time, they called themselves the Olympians.

"They realized that I had the power to over-time gain back my domains, even if another had previously taken it from me. So they bound me in chains and brought me to the farthest piece of land they could find and buried me deep; bound not just in my bonds, but in great spells and works of power that keep the energy of every human's hope from reaching me.

"But centuries ago, a young girl much like yourself found me and unlocked the chains you now see." He gestured towards the pile of bronze Lara had noticed when she had first entered; she shuddered at the thought of being trapped in the dark for so long.

"We soon became great friends, and as a token of my thanks I gave her my symbol of power to defend her people, with the instructions that she needed to return it to me once the threat had passed. The first sun queen did not listen, and soon became corrupted by the power. After she lost her first body, she used the power of my sword to transfer her soul into new bodies.

"She did this for so long, that she could do it on her own, but then the last host she was to have killed herself to save herself from that terrible fate. Because of this, she went back towards the power of the sword and used it to draw people here and trap them."

"The storms." Lara whispered in revelation.

"Indeed. She used the power of my sword to collect the power of hope and belief from the humans of the world, and released it in the form of storms so she could find a new body."

"So all I have to do to be able to leave the island is take your sword away from her?"

"Yes and no. You would be hard pressed to take the sword away from her. Last I heard, she had placed it inside her body. Which is not only disgusting, it makes her invulnerable to most attacks."

"Isn't there a way though?" The survivor questioned. "Some weapon you have that could work?"

"It's not that simple. Any weapon I gave you wouldn't affect her, I couldn't put enough power in it to even make a dent. The only possible way for you to be able to even have a chance at killing her, is if you had the ability to absorb the powers of my domain like the sword does. If you could do that, all of that old hag's attacks wouldn't affect you."

"How would I do that?" She asked, with some indecision making its way into her voice.

For several seconds the god looked at her as if trying to see what her intentions were. "You would kill the sun queen..."

"Yes..."

"You would bring back the weapon to me, where it belongs…." Lara didn't reply to his second question, because she really didn't know what the right thing to do was.

Yes, she had heard his story, but how much of it was true? He had shown her his power, but was his story about how he was wrongfully imprisoned true, or was he just trying to get some of his power back? Then came the question, if he was able to get out into the modern world, what would he do?

The entire situation had just gotten more complicated. She had gone from one insane woman with supernatural powers, to also having the deity that gave her the power. Even if he helped her kill the sun queen, what would he do once she came back with his weapon?

"I would swear on an ungraceful oath not to do anything that by your definition would affect the world for the worse, I would even tell you how to kill an immortal like myself." He said, moving back towards one of the alcoves.

"You need to stop doing that." Lara said to herself under her breath. She hadn't meant for him to hear her, but even across the room he did.

"Doing what?" he yelled with a smile across his face.

"Stop reading my mind!"

"I didn't read your mind, you're just easy to read." he replied happily. His statement sent Lara back in to her own thoughts, I'm easy to read? What does he mean by that? Maybe he can read my thoughts and he is just doing this to confuse me?

"No, I'm not reading your thoughts." he said.

"Stop that, Okay! I'll do what you want me to, just get this over with." She grumbled halfheartedly.

"Great!" he exclaimed, almost bouncing over to her. He didn't do what she was expecting. She thought that there was going to be some lights, maybe chanting in some long forgotten language. He didn't do any of that. All he did was throw a bundle of the chains he had been trapped in. She was so surprised she didn't react fast enough, and the surprisingly heavy object hit her in the face before dropping on the floor.

This sent Persues into a fit of laughter. "The chain is meant to negate the power of a god, it should do just fine at blocking any nonphysical attacks. But that doesn't mean that you will be protected from her guard or even if she summons up strong winds. But things like a direct magical attack, or her sending lighting or other pure sources of energy should be stopped.

"When you do kill the old hag... do it quick. She was a good friend once." He was quiet for several seconds, before he moved towards the door. "Take anything you need, and good luck." With that, he disappeared.

Twenty minutes later, she was ready to save her friend, now outfitted with as much ammunition she could carry. She was glad she went for quality over quantity, not once during her trip up the mountain did she have a misfire. The imprisoned god took care of the weapons, and as a result of all his free time they were in perfect shape.

By the time she reached the sun queen, she was covered head to toe in gore, and most of the guns she had gained just hours ago where now either lying broken or lost back along her trail. With one last push, she was through the barrier that had been brought up to keep anyone out. It must have been made of more energy, than it was physical matter.

But all of it was worth it. The sun queen was dead, burning on the hill side, and Sam was safe; frightened, but safe. Sam limped up to her longtime friend slowly and they watched the body of the sun queen burn. "Is it over?" Sam questioned, looking at her ancestor. Slowly, the centuries old flesh burnt away, leaving behind a stone sword in its place.

"No Sam, not yet."

Hours later, Lara entered the god's prison, leaving a confused Sam at the entrance of the tunnel, the sword held tight in her hand. When she had first picked it up, she had felt an intense desire burn through her. The desire to take the weapon as her own and use it to fulfill every hope she had ever felt. For several seconds, she had stood there, the awesome power almost consuming her. She could have it all, the power to control the elements themselves, to be able to live forever, never having to find out the answer to humanity's dark question. She would never get to know whether there was a life after someone died. She would never get to see her mother, her father, anyone, if she deiced to take up the offer.

But she didn't, she looked back at the ashes of the sun queen and remembered the horrors of the island. Would she do what Sam's ancestor did, and bring all of these people to their deaths? No, it was not worth it. She would not give up her humanity. She would make things right.

So she walked into the prison, past all of the unfortunate victims who had stumbled in to it before. He stood there in the same place she had left him. She didn't say anything as she walked up to him, not even as he took the sword from her out stretched hands. As soon as he came in contact with weapon, a flood of what could only be considered power tore its way into the room, destroying the incandescent lights.

The two of them would have been left in complete darkness, but for a golden glow that spread from Perseus's body, lighting the walls as bright as the noon day sun. It was so bright that it should have blinded Lara, but it didn't, it seemed as if it passed over her without doing any harm.

But the happy look that had appeared on his face turned sour seconds later. "I should have known this was going to happen." he said to himself in a dark and depressed voice.

"What do you mean?" Lara said, frowning. Was it something she had done? Sighing, he replied, "The power of the sword should've gathered would have normally made breaking out of the prison a piece of cake. But it appears that the gods were smarter than I thought. They managed to put up another barrier around the island that prevents any energy from the outside to enter."

"But the glow and the power, I thought…" Lara trailed off.

"That was the power gathered from the inhabitants of the island, and there was little hope or faith during its time outside this prison. The gods also probably wiped the history books of my name. If they didn't, anyone connected to my worship or temples, would act as a conduit, and would pass the power gathered there through our bond to me. Especially now that the wards around this room are broken."

"So there is nothing you can do." Lara questioned softly. If he was right, then he would be trapped on the island for a very long time. Even if she had only known him for a short time, he didn't deserve to be trapped for eternity on this god forsaken… or just forsaken, island.

"You could become a priestess." he stated out of nowhere.

She almost chocked, "What?!"

"You could become a priestess of mine. I would be able to escape, and be able to protect you, without breaking any of the laws my kind are held by." He looked hopefully at her, almost like a small child, despite the fact that he looked like he was well into his eighties.

"I..I don't … what I mean is…" she didn't know what to say. He was offering her divine protection, but what else would it entail? Would she be in some dusty ruins on a full moon sacrificing animals? But then again, he didn't deserve what had been done to him. It was a hard decision, but after almost ten minutes of deliberation, she made her choice.

With a nod, she stood a little straighter and waited for the god to get the process over with. "Close your eyes." he stated kindly. With one last shaky breath, she did as he asked. Less than a second later, she felt his lips press lightly on hers. Surprised, her eyes opened and one of her hands reached down towards the red ice axe, but then stopped. His face was changing, slowly, but it was definitely happening.

The wrinkles disappeared, the gray, shoulder length hair turned black and shortened until it was only a couple inches long, his back straitened, and he seemed to grow taller. His transformation stopped finally when his age matched her own. If she could have said anything, she would have said wow, but fortunately there was something stopping her, or well, two somethings.

The kiss intensified to the point where Lara was starting to feel faint, almost ready to pass out. The kiss was suddenly broken by the sounds of Sam's surprise. Lara sucked in as much air as she could, while trying to send a withering glare at the other young woman. She just had to follow her and walk in at the worst possible time.

"Dam Lara, I couldn't get you to go out with a guy to save your life back at home, but now on this messed up island I find you making out. Does the danger do something for you?" Sam went on like that for several minutes, each of her accusations or thought up fantasies on what could have been going on got worse and more descriptive.

"Is that what took you so long? You were down here making a move while I was in danger. Come on Lara, you probably didn't have any protection." She couldn't hold it back anymore, the blush that she had been trying to fight back for the entire scolding was now prominently displayed across her face."

Apparently her friend's last statement got to the god too, because soon his booming laughter had filled the room.

They stood on the deck of the US gun boat as it sped away from the island, just her and Perseus, it was quiet. It had taken a good hour to get Sam to shut up, but it was nice, they had all escaped the island, and now the world looked so much brighter.

"Not killing animals." the god suddenly spoke up, taking her away from her thoughts. "What?"

"The worship ceremony. You don't kill animals… there's just a dance involved." She was confused ceremony? And a dance, what was he talking about? Leaning in, he whispered into her ear, "The only thing, is you can't wear any clothes." Then he was gone, running back towards the cabin, leaving a still confused Lara standing there, only now with a bright red blush for the second time that day…

…

YOU LIAR, YOU CAN READ MY MIND!

YAY NEW STORY HOPE YOU LIKE IT. PLEASE LEAVE ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS AND DON'T FORGET TO FAVORITE. ALSO I WILL WRITE A SEQUEL TO THIS STORY WHEN THE NEXT GAME COMES OUT BUT IT MAY BE A WHILE IM A DIEHARD PLAY STATION FAN AND SINCE THE CREATORS OF THE FRANCHISE SIGNED A DEAL WITH MICROSOFT SO IT WILL BE A WHILE BEFORE I CAN GET A COPPY. UNTIL NEXT TIME.