Disclaimer: I do not own Tomb raider and the characters mentioned in this story.

This story takes place after Underworld

I would like to point out that English is not my main language and I apologize for any bad spelling. Have fun reading the story and I love to know what you think of it so far.

Chapter 1: Old Enemies.

It's been six months since Alister died. Lara still misses him, there are so many things in the manor that remind her of him. But she has to move on, he would have wanted that. Zip and Winston seemed to be doing better than she does. She missed their conversations, which sometimes could last for hours about anything historic.

A deep sigh left her mouth, she was too far lost in thought to notice she did this. The tear that escaped her left eye did get noticed. She wiped it away smoothly with the tip of her finger, the last thing she wanted was Winston or Zip seeing her cry.

Lara looked down at her desk, one of Alister's favorite books was lying on it. She had tried to read it, but she couldn't concentrate enough to read at least one page today.

She has to try and set her mind on something else. Which isn't easy at the moment. Tomb raiding was on the low, there wasn't anything that pulled her interest lately. Was there? Or is it because she is just too busy thinking about Alister.

"Are you alright Lara?"

She looked up in the eyes of her butler, he looked worried. Which was well in his right, at the moment Lara probably didn't look very happy.

"I miss him and I just can't put him out of my mind." She said. "How do you do it?"

Winston shakes his head.

"You have to move on Lara, go back to work, go adventuring."

"Adventuring? There is nothing to do lately."

At her words, almost as if faith waited for her to say this, all power at the manor went down.

"I had to say it, didn't I?" Lara stood up and strode out of the library. "Zip better got something to do with this."

Winston followed her, but they barely just left the library when Lara almost bumped into Zip, and he looked worried.

"Lara, we have a problem." He said, handing her a gun.

"Bugger."

"What do we do?" Winston asked.

"You two hide in the library, I'll go and find out who our uninvited guests are."

However, Zip disagreed.

"You can't go alone Lara."

She turned to him and smiled. "Thank you for your concerns Zip, but I will be just fine."

She took off, feeling the worried eyes of her two friends in her back. Her first stop was the computer room. There wasn't anyone there yet. But then she heard footsteps, they were close too. She quickly hid behind one of the desks.

"We need her alive."

Lara peeked around the corner of the desk, two men carefully walked into the room. They wore black military clothing, and not to forget, firearms. They completely ignored the computer room and headed straight for the library. Lara slightly panicked, the last thing she wanted them to do is head for Zip and Winston, she had to distract them into her direction.

Her foot stretched out to one of the chairs, she pushed it aside and it crashed against the glass wall. Not too loud, but loud enough to get the attention of the two men. Good boys. They advanced towards her. Lara duck her head further down, but could hear from their footsteps how far away they were.

The rifle of one of the men came in sight, that was her signal. She grabbed it and yanked it forward, completely surprising the mercenary. Now in possession of the rifle, Lara jumped to her feet and the moment she landed the butt of the rifle was smashed against the man's cheek. He was out in an instant.

But it wasn't over yet, the second man remained. And his rifle now was inches from her face. Lara was barely fast enough to slam her rifle against his arm, killing his aim. The bullet he fired gazed her left upper arm. A round house kick disarmed the man and she pointed the rifle directly at his head.

"That's not very nice, is it. And here I thought you needed me alive."

She saw the man's eyes widen, he just realized the mistake he almost made. Lara chuckled and then knocked him out. There had to be more, she better not waste time. She removed the spare magazines these men had and the one in the rifle and hurried out of the computer room. However, Lara was forced to stop when suddenly more men appeared from all around her. She counted six.

The closest one was her first victim. She ran straight at him, her fist connected with his cheek, the man was down, for a while at least. She felt another man nearing her from behind. The butt of his rifle almost connected with the back of her head. But Lara turned and placed her elbow at the back of his neck.

That was another one down, four more to go.

Lara was tackled to the ground, she saw a fist coming straight at her, but she rolled away and the poor man hit nothing but the solid floor of Croft manor. He screamed out in pain, Lara left him in his agony for the moment, she jumped back on her feet and faced another goon. She dodged his attack, hitting back with a kick in his stomach. But he blocked it, his other hand immediately shot out to her throat.

Lara reached for his arm, he held his grip around her throat, refusing to let go. The tomb raider gasped for breath, but then she smirked at him. Her leg moved up, placing her knee with brute force in his stomach. The man was forced to let go of her throat and gasped in pain. Lara was about to kick him again. But suddenly a strong blast wave threw her backwards. "Enough!"

She crashed against the glass wall of the computer room and slid down to the floor, fighting to stay conscious. She had hit the wall pretty hard, her head throbbed and her view was slightly blurred. Lara could see more men entering the room, they hurried over to her and formed a circle to prevent her from causing any more trouble.

There wasn't much she could do now anyway. She was still sitting with her back against the wall, her body protested against any kind of movement. That crash will leave a nasty bump on the back of her head.

Some of the men moved aside, to make a passage for someone to pass through. The man who passed through wore a black suit, with over it a black leather coat. Calm and confident he walked towards her, and only just now Lara realized who it was. The surprise on her face clearly satisfied him, he smirked at her and kneeled down to reach for the gun she obviously still had in her possession.

Lara didn't stop him, of course not. Even if she wanted to she couldn't. Her body won't allow it, for the moment.

"Miss Croft, things will never be simple with you around, will they?"

Lara shrugged. "Yes well I'm a complicated girl."

The man continued searching her, he removed the magazines she had taken off the men in the computer room and then stood back up. If things weren't bad enough already, Lara saw another familiar face approaching from the library.

"Master Karel, we were unable to find the remaining inhabitants."

Karel nodded. "That's alright Gunderson, we don't need them. Keep an eye open though, I don't want any more trouble."

Lara frowned, where did Zip and Winston go. Well maybe it was best she didn't know either, for their sake.

"Where are your friends hiding, Miss Croft?"

"I wish I knew."

Karel shakes his head. "Simple Miss Croft, I like things simple."

"I told them to hide in the library, but obviously they aren't there anymore, because mister muscles just told you he couldn't find them."

Gunderson growled at her, not happy with nickname she had just given him. Lara disagreed and smiled. She noticed the throbbing in her head had faded. Lara risked an attempt to stand back on her feet. She expected Karel to stop her, but he didn't.

The dizziness shortly returned, she closed her eyes for a few seconds and took a deep breath. Her eyes opened and Karel still stood in front of her. Maybe some part of her hoped this was all just a bad dream and she was going to wake up any moment.

"Very well, let's move to another subject. The Chirugai Miss Croft, where is it?"

Lara frowned. "What?"

Karel had lost some of his patience and slapped Lara fiercely. Her left cheek burned from the pain, but she gritted her teeth and bit it away.

"The weapon that belonged to Kurtis Trent, where is it?"

Lara knew well enough what he was talking about, but she would be the last person to tell him.

"I don't have it."

"Miss Croft allow me to explain how this will go. For every lie, Gunderson over here will hurt you. Eventually you will break and tell me where it is. Or if you don't, I at least had the pleasure of seeing you suffer and I will still find it after my men spend hours of searching your house."

Lara sighed, he had a strong point. But that didn't mean she liked it. He will definitely find it though. She never thought it was that important and just had it resting in one of the desk drawers in the library. She had hoped that maybe Kurtis would come by to retrieve it. But it had been a few years now since she last saw him in that pit with Boaz.

And now it was Karel who came to claim it.

"Miss Croft, I am running out of patience, where is the Chirugai?"

From behind Karel, Gunderson showed a knife and took a few paces closer to Lara.

"Alright, it's in the desk drawer in the library."

Karel immediately turned to one of his men and nodded. He left and returned moments later with the Chirugai.

"Well done, Miss Croft. I do hope you remain this cooperative in the following days."

Lara frowned. "What do you mean?"

Karel slowly paced towards her, his arms folded and his blue eyes were set on hers.

"Don't think we are done yet my dear. We have a long road ahead of us."

"I'm not helping you with anything."

Karel grabbed her by the shoulders and twisted her body around, making her face the glass wall.

"We shall see, Miss Croft, we shall see."

He turned and nodded at Gunderson. The tall muscled man immediately knew what to do. He walked over to Lara, lifted the handle of his rifle and slammed it at the back of Lara's neck. The tomb raider collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Gunderson hauled her over his shoulder and made his way out of the manor. Karel followed him, he turned around for a moment and to his surprise he saw Winston standing at the door opening of the library. He didn't act, the old man was no thread. Instead he just smiled wickedly and left the room.