Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.

We had been on the Endurance for three weeks already. Lara and I were doing what we usually did after the evening meals. We would go over our notes and maps and see if there could possibly be anything that we missed about Himiko as Riley would sit around on his laptop, trying to make conversation to two girls that were never listening due to the fact that we were too focused to even think about listening. We had just made an amazing discovery and went to go speak with Dr. Whitman right away. However, as soon as we told him our plans, he shut us down immediately.

Lara and Dr. Whitman were arguing as I took in our little setup we had. I had been on this boat for only three weeks, after all. There are some things that take a little bit longer getting used to than others. This is definitely one of those things. "How can you even think to say that I'm not putting one hundred percent into this expedition?" Dr. Whitman says angrily towards Lara. "Sam and I have both put our savings on the line here!"

Reyes gets her two words in, saying that the funding will not last forever, and it absolutely won't if he keeps pushing us in the wrong direction. "That's exactly why we need to start heading east, as soon as possible." I butt in, trying to keep myself from screaming at him. I knew that I was totally right about not liking him. "We've talked to Roth about this. What point is there in going where people have failed to find Yamatai?"

"Look." Lara says with a sigh, clearly starting to lose her patience. "Ashton and I have both talked about this, and going east will take us to the Dragon's Triangle. It's where we need to go! We're not even far from it. I promise you, Dr. Whitman." The boys continue to cheer about some football game as we were stating out plea. This really is not fair. We have done countless research on Himiko and Yamatai, and this is where we needed to go.

"No one believes that-" Dr. Whitman starts before getting interrupted by Roth, Jonah, and Grim. "No one believes that Yamatai is that far east. Any information about finding it and Himiko do not support your silly little theory." he says, making me want to punch him right in the face and ruin his expensive dentistry. Why do I have to be a relatively nice person?

"Well, with all due respect, Dr. Whitman, any information was never written by anybody that actually found Yamatai and Himiko. Doing this would probably take us right where we need to go." Riley says as he stands behind me, supporting us with every word. Best person award of the year goes to Riley Poole.

"The weather there is terrible. It makes the Bermuda Triangle look like the happiest place on Earth. You could sign me up for that any day." Alex says, dampening my spirit. Even Jonah agrees that the place seems like it has trouble written all over it. That may be, but what does it matter? We've put too much into getting this far to just drop it and go in the wrong direction, however safe the wrong direction may be.

"The stories about Himiko say she could summon storms. If that's why that place does not have a good reputation, then it is our best bet to head in that direction if we ever even want to have a small chance of finding her. Myths usually have some truth to it, Dr. Whitman!" I almost yell as he leans his head back in a frustrated manner. Who did this guy think he was?

"Enough!" Roth says, getting up from his chair. "We don't have enough money to go in the wrong direction! If these two say we should we could go in that direction, I'd bet my life on them being right. It's now or never. You seem to be forgetting it's my decision, and I'm saying that we're heading to the Dragon's Triangle. Now come on you two. Show us your plan."

I let out a little bit of a cheer and a squeal combined as I get up from by chair and go to stand on the opposite side of Roth, showing him the best route we could take and where we would go when we got there. Now that things were finally heading in the right direction, I was confident that we would eventually find Yamatai, and then Himiko after that.

After we were done discussing our plan, I headed into my bedroom to get a good night's sleep after kissing Riley good night. "I'm going to stay up and think for a while if that's all right with you." Lara says, keeping the light on above her bed. I ask her if she's all right. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to think about some things before heading to sleep."

I turn my light off and start to go to sleep. I didn't even bother changing into different clothes. I just really did not feel like it. I even left my shoes on. They were my trusty combat boots. I've been through a lot of expeditions with them. I also had some khaki pants that were kind of tight but kind of loose at the same time tucked into my boots. I had my flannel shirt on and my hair up in a simple ponytail.

I didn't even get much sleep because the boat just kept making constant noises. It made me nervous, but I knew that if something was wrong, they would come to us almost immediately so that we could make a quick escape from the boat. The next thing I know, there was a strike of lighting and the boat rocking forward. Lara starts to shake me awake, even though I was never asleep, but I had a feeling that it really wasn't going to matter much.

Alarms start blaring and everything goes dark. The only thing lighting it up was the alarms flashing a really bright red. I stand up quickly, but only for us to both get knocked to the ground, and I hit my chin on the floor. I let out a groan of pain and quickly stand up. We make our way out of our shared bedroom as the boat starts swaying back and forth even more. It was complete and utter madness.

"Do you hear that, Ash?" Lara asks me. I didn't even get a chance to respond before a huge wave of water suddenly comes down the hallway, engulfing us both. We were quickly swept along, and Lara grabs my hand so we wouldn't be separated as she uses her other hand to grab onto a ladder that led up to the upper deck. The window would not open or even break, and the water just started getting higher and higher. Suddenly, everything just went black.

A burst of light came through as Jonah opens the hatch, pulling us both out. The boat breaks completely in half, both of us being separated from the rest of the crew. I squinted, but I could just barely see Roth in the distance, signaling to come toward him. For us to jump across. Across water. In a terrible storm. I grab Lara's hand this time, and she starts running, me not missing a beat and following right behind her. And once we reach the end, we jump.

Miraculously, Lara grasps Roth's hand and he tries pulling us both up. I knew deep down inside that it wasn't going to work as the water makes her lose her grip on his hand. "No!" Roth screams after us and at this point, everything just seemed to go in slow motion. We had let go of each other and were now falling into the water.

I land with a huge splash and surface very quickly, gasping for air. I find Lara right behind me and we both start swimming to shore, trying desperately to keep our heads above water. You have no idea how hard that is to do in a middle of a storm. I drag my body onto the sand as the tide keeps coming up and getting me even more wet than before. Lara comes right behind me, coughing up water and looks like some blood.

I see everyone up in the distance, illuminated by the moon. "Help!" Lara yells over to them as I follow suit. They clearly didn't hear us since they just keep doing what they were doing. Lara tries standing up and barely makes it onto her knees before she is knocked back down again with a gasp. She wouldn't respond to me, no matter how many times I tried shaking her. I quickly turn around to see if I could find her attacker, but he or she was nowhere to be found. I try sitting up the best I could with my very tired body when I hear a rustle in the bushes.

I turn around and only catch the glimpse of a hooded man dressed in black as I was knocked unconscious, right along with Lara. I don't know what happened to get me into this mess. I knew that the Dragon's Triangle had storms, but I didn't know that they were this bad. This is just ridiculous. I awaken only for a few mere seconds to the sound of something heavy being dragged before I blacked out again.

I awake, only this time, I was hanging by my feet, upside down. I look over to Lara who was in the same position I was in, only right across from me. She was wrapped up in a very strange cocoon looking thing, so I'm guessing I was the same way. "Lara!" I quietly yell in case there was anyone nearby. I didn't hear anything, so I'm assuming that there wasn't anyone. "Lara!" I yell a bit louder this time and she awakes with a large gasp.

She finally realizes our surroundings and looks like she is about to scream. "Help!" she yells and I could tell that she suddenly got an idea. She starts swinging back and forth on her rope as she still screams for help. "Jonah! Reyes! Riley!" I join in with her, calling for help. She swings into the other cocoon to the right of her and knocks it into the fire coming from the candles. The cocoon burns as a skeleton drops down, causing it to break the very fragile floor.

"Oh god." I say, starting to panic more than just a little bit. "I don't want to die like this." Lara was really being brave as she knocks herself in the fire, causing her cocoon to burn as well, dropping her to the ground and I hear her scream all the way down. I hear a very loud groan followed by a scream of pain. "I'm coming Lara!" I yell down to her and do exactly as she did. It really wasn't a bad idea.

I start falling down and only narrowly miss Lara. She was holding her left side in pain. I finally got a closer look at the wound and realized how bad it was. "Oh no." she says, looking at it as well. She had some kind of spike going straight through her left side. It is so very lucky that it did not hit any vital organs. If it did, I'd probably be on my own. "Ashton, please pull it out!" she cries, and I can tell she is on the verge of tears.

I nod at her as she applies pressure to the area and I start pulling it out with more screams of pain coming from her. I could almost feel her pain. Why did I let her go first? We get it out and she has tears rolling down her face as she keeps gasping for breath in an attempt to calm down. I help her up and look around at my surroundings down here as well. It was a circular room that was lined with skeletons. I shudder in disgust and help Lara over to the only exit.

She tries to tell me that she can walk on her own, but as soon as she takes her first step without me, she falls flat on her face. It would have been funny had she not been in excruciating pain. I help her up and we continue walking slowly down the hallway. I know that we'd definitely have to pick up the pace eventually, but just not now. I just never really wanted that time to ever come.

She leans over a pole as she gasps, seeing what was ahead of us. A body was hanging over a bunch of candles by the arms. I lean over to the side and start puking up what was left of my dinner from last night. My throat burned and my eyes were watery as I stand back up. Lara was looking up at the body with horrified eyes that just screamed terror as she moved closer. "Just keep moving." she whispers to me, grasping onto my hand, probably to make herself feel better, but it definitely made me a little less scared to know my best friend was by my side.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.