Disclaimer: I do not own the Tomb Raider name, nor am I affiliated with Eidos and Crystal Dynamics in any way.
Author's Note: Rated T for language and violence.
Chapter One: Mediterranean Sea
One Week Earlier...
Lara Croft's yacht rested on the calm water of the Mediterranean Sea. The fog in the distance blocked any views past a few kilometres. Lara squinted ahead, trying to see past the fog - no luck. Her black leather swimsuit with yellow stripes going down the sides shone in the sunlight. Below, her laptop started beeping. She had a look of disappointment on her face before she descended the stairs into the cabin of her yacht.
Pressing the button on the laptop, she smiled when she saw Zip on the video chat. "Hey Lara", he greeted, "Find it yet?"
"Patience Zip. I warned you that conveniently undiscovered islands would be scarce in the Mediterranean".
Behind him, Alister came into view. "Are you sure this Eddington chap knows what he's talking about?", Alister asked.
Lara looked at the framed photograph of her father and his dear friend Professor Eddington at an archaeological dig site. "If he says Father was convinced the path to Avalon was here, I have no reason to doubt it".
"Fair enough", Alister replied, "But it's, well, we've been talking and--"
"You've been talking, man", Zip interrupted, getting out of the chair and heading to the back of the tech room, "Leave me out of it".
Lara loaded up her gear as she listened to Alister speak. Loading her pistols, she cocked the slide back and turned to the screen when she heard Alister's voice of disbelief.
"It's just, all right, maybe Avalon is real, but just because some mad woman tells you your mother didn't die after all - I mean, look, I don't mean to seem heartless, but this idea of your mum living in some, some Celtic underworld…well, it's a little bit mental, isn't it?"
Lara picked up her scuba gear and walked over to the laptop. "I have no illusions that my mother is holding court in some mythical paradise, Alister. I only want the truth…whatever it may be. I'll ring you later".
Closing the video conference, Lara pulled on her scuba gear and executed a swan dive into the water. The beautiful water of the Mediterranean Sea sparkled in the noonday sunlight. Schools of fish happily swam about, sea grass gently danced back and forth with the waves of the water, and where there's peace, there's chaos - Lara nearly avoided being snapped up by a large shark.
She pulled the spear gun from her backpack's holster and fired, the stainless steel rod shot from the gun, piercing the shark's skin, killing it. It jerked left and right in pain before finally dying, it's body floating casually upward. Lara noticed she was bleeding, the red liquid merging with the blue water. Noticing another shark following her scent, she swam quickly away.
Turning around quickly, she prepared herself. When the shark neared, she punched it in the nose, sending it swimming away. She mentally exhaled with relief before investigating the temple that lay at the bottom of the sea.
Through the passageway, several jellyfish floated in the darkness of the temple, taking shelter. Ahead, three large golden spheres were imprinted into the wall, symbols engraved into them. Below her, Lara saw what looked like a golden steering wheel. She picked it up and swam over to what she assumed were the doors of the temple.
Putting the wheel into one of the empty slots, it fit perfectly, to Lara's pleasure. Now, where was the other one? There was already one placed in the middle sphere, but she needed one more. She left the temple and looked around. She spotted a smaller temple and swam toward the doorway. Ahead of her on a raised table was the third wheel. Grabbing it, she swam back to the temple doors and put it inside.
She noticed that it was a puzzle in itself. Each of the doors had symbols on them, the same ones, and Lara assumed that they needed to match. She figured out that by pulling the wheels, the sphere that the wheel was on spins one hundred eighty degrees clockwise. Matching the symbols, the doors opened, revealing a deeper passageway into the temple.
Swimming through it, Lara noticed a dark shadow ahead of her. She swam toward it, but turned around quickly when she heard a crumbling noise. If she had looked back the second she turned around, she would have seen a large tentacle pull back into the temple, out of her way. She turned back around and noticed that the shadow was gone. Shaking thoughts from her mind, she made her way out of the water and onto dry land.
Making her way through the temple, she came into a dark room, a doorway blocked by a gate. She turned her utility light on and saw two pressure plates, most likely when both activated, the doors opened. Lara found two stone weights and put one on the first pressure plate. It wasn't heavy enough. Lara put the second one on the first plate and it worked. How would she get something heavy on the other plate, and activate the lever to open the gate?
She noticed the head of the snake statue was corroded. Throwing her grapple on it, she pulled it down onto the pressure plate and knew it was more than sufficiently heavy. Heading to the switch, she pulled it, and fire spewed from the first snake statue's head and from the neck of the second, since the latter was now decapitated.
Lara entered the room and took out her field camera to record her findings. "Incredible! The carvings are clearly similar to early Germanic design", she said, looking at the carvings along the wall. "But this is far older than the fifth century, yet strangely, more sophisticated". She examined the carvings above the doorway to the rest of the path leading further into the temple.
She squinted her eyes, studying it closely. "Proto-Norse runes. Let's see…World of Mist…that would be Niflheim, the Realm of the Dead. Not Avalon exactly, but the Norse equivalent".
Lara put away her camera and headed further into the temple ruins. She climbed up onto a higher platform and jumped to the ledge above it. Pulling herself up, she dropped down to the other side and headed up the stairs to the temple.
Ahead of her was an open room, it would seem. She headed forward but leapt backward when a giant tentacle shot through the ground, destroying part of the floor. Lara watched as it twisted and slowly descended. Breathing heavily, she crept closely, pulling out her camera. Below her, rested a humongous kraken, the biggest she's ever seen, blocking the rest of the path. "Oh, that's lovely".
Looking above it, Lara noticed a hanging platform, spikes at the bottom of it. On the left and right of it were statues of Thor, the god of Thunder, holding their own platform that locked the spiked platform in place. Lara zoomed in on the kraken's eye and noticed it was albino, the pupil barely visible. "I hope it's as blind as it looks".
Stepping back, Lara noticed a corridor to her right. Heading for it, there was a large hole in the floor, blocking the path to the other side. Lara jumped to the ledge on the left wall and shimmied right, dropping down on the other side. Ahead was another hole - Lara did the same and dropped to the other side. Turning the corner, three vertical poles rested ahead, hanging over the murky water that was surrounding the kraken.
Jumping for the first pole, Lara turned herself and jumped for the second, then the third. The kraken had one of his tentacles wrapped around the column attached to a walkway. Lara jumped to a ledge in between the winds of the tentacle. Shimmying right, she pulled herself up onto the walkway. Before she could react, the kraken squeezed the column with all it's might, crumbling it to bits. The walkway began to shake and would no doubt fall to the depths below. Lara saw a horizontal pole a foot in front of her, and quickly, she jumped toward it. Swinging, she let go, launching herself onto the right platform that was being held by one of the statues of Thor.
To the right was a room with several gears that no doubt when activated, pulled apart those platforms, letting the spiky platform hang loose. Lara headed into the room and noticed another tentacle resting against the gears, rising up onto the platform. Lara pulled the switch to activate the gears and smirked when they crushed the kraken's tentacle, causing him to groan in pain and pull his tentacle out of there.
She headed back and jumped onto the spiky platform and headed around it, jumping to the other platform being held by Thor's statue. She did the same in the second room and smiled when the other platform pulled back. The spiky platform now hung free, being held by one final chain in the center. Lara ran and jumped onto the spiky platform and looked straight ahead. There was a lever in level with the platform, just above the kraken's position. Jumping for the ledge, Lara grabbed it and pulled herself up onto the walkway. Pulling the lever, the spiky platform raised to the ceiling of the temple.
Looking to her left, the chain that pulled the platform had a weak link, as did the one on the right. Shooting them both, the platform went crashing down onto the kraken's head, crumbling to bits. Lara watched from above as the kraken jerked around, groaning in excruciating pain. The spikes from the platform were lodged in it's head, blood spewing out of it. Lara exhaled when the kraken sunk forward underwater, clearing the path Lara was meant to take. She walked to the edge and swan dove into the water. Turning around, she climbed out of the water and activated a switch to open the door that the kraken was guarding. Heading inside, Lara manoeuvred her way through the passageway before finally reaching the last room in the temple - the Gauntlet Chamber. On her left and right were two pressure plates, and ahead was a locked door with a shiny ring at the top. The door had several holes in it so you could see the artifact inside.
Lara walked toward the door and looked inside. She saw a giant statue of Thor, and two statues of Jormungandr on his left and right. "Thor - the Norse god of thunder. Whatever are you doing down here in Niflheim?". Looking down, she noticed Thor's Gauntlet hovering above a raised table, a luminous blue magic about it. "According to the Eddus, Thor needed special iron gauntlets to wield his mighty hammer, Mjolnir. Could it be?".
Lara found two stone weights and put them on the first pressure plate, as one was not heavy enough. The weights pushed the plate down, and the first lock on the door deactivated. Lara hooked her grapple onto the door and stepped onto the second plate. The second lock went down and Lara pulled the door open. Stepping inside, she went to touch the glove, but it fell to pieces in front of her. Floating in it's place was an artifact, the size of a fist. It was iron all right, but not as heavy as one would imagine.
Lara examined it before placing it on her hand. Four pieces shot out and locked itself onto Lara's hand protectively. A radiant blue light shown on Lara's hand in the shape of a glove. "Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, was powerful enough to level mountains…but how does all this relate to Avalon?".
Before she could investigate further, she jumped at the sound of the cocking of a machine gun. She turned around to see herself outnumbered by a group of mercenaries. The leader was closest to her and aimed an AK-47 directly at her chest. "Put your hands on your head!", he said in an Irish accent, "Turn around, slowly".
Lara hesitated for a moment, looking at the group. Two on his left behind him, another two on the right. She knew she couldn't take them. She mentally swore and did as he instructed. "I don't supposed you'd be open to bribery…would you?".
He came up behind her and slammed his gun against her head, knocking her out. When Lara came to, her vision was blurred for a moment. She looked at her hand and saw she was lacking a gauntlet. She turned around to see the mercenary leader set something down at the entrance of the room before the chamber. "Amanda Evert sends her regards", he said.
Lara pulled out one of her guns and pulled the trigger, but all she heard was a click. He had disarmed her - she saw her ammunition magazines tossed aside. He turned around and squeezed a device, pressing a button on it. Lara heard beeping and knew what it was. Sliding behind the table, she ducked as the bomb went off, trapping her inside the chamber. She looked up and saw that the exit was blocked by debris. "Bloody hell", she sighed.
Lara looked around for a way out and found a ledge that led up and around the debris. She dropped down on the other side and followed the mercenary out of the temple. Backtracking, she made her way to her yacht and climbed aboard, wiping her forehead. Looking to her right, she saw a cargo ship in the distance, barely visible in the fading fog. She took out her field camera and zoomed in on it, looking around. She spotted the mercenary leader walking around the bow of the ship, heading down to the cargo hold.
Lara put the camera away and got into the driver's seat. Turning the engine on, she sped toward the cargo ship. Pulling along side the anchor, Lara stopped her yacht and climbed up the chain holding the anchor. Climbing over the railing, she climbed aboard the ship and took out the mercenaries wandering above deck.
Following the path the leader took, she eliminated the rest of the mercenaries trying to stop her. Heading through the engine room, she dove forward as the mercenary leader came from behind her and opened fire. Lara returned it and reloaded behind a canister. She looked up as the mercenary leader's bullets hit it. Lara gasped as she read what is said - flammable. "No..".
She sprinted out of the way just as it exploded, launching her forward. The explosion killed the mercenary leader, to Lara's pleasure. She made her way below deck and followed the sound of voices. Pressing against the wall before the next room, she peered inside, but ducked back a little to avoid being seen. "Damn! It's too small!", she heard Amanda say.
"Only Lara can use it now", the second voice said.
"Until I kill her".
"Even that won't help you unbind the artifact".
The ship shook violently, making Amanda lose balance. Regaining it, she looked around, angry. "Shit, we're taking on water. Damn it! We'll pick this up again later", she said, taking off.
Lara headed inside, and in front of her was a large, glass, specimen jar. She saw a creature in a white suit with wings, sitting with its back to Lara.
"I'm very pleased to see you again, Lara", it said. Turning around, Lara gasped when she saw none other than Jacqueline Natla. "This specimen jar offers little in the way of amusement - so I've grown fond of watching Amanda suffer the effects of sharing your interests".
"Jacqueline Natla", Lara said, walking toward the jar, "You just don't know when to die".
"A trait we have in common", Natla remarked, walking around in her chamber.
"It was you who told Amanda about Avalon".
Above her, the specimen jar's locks deactivated, pulling inside the jar. "Our time is short, so choose your questions carefully".
"What do you know about my mother?", Lara asked.
"The dais you and she found in Nepal is part of a travel network, so to speak. It took your mother to Avalon".
"My father thought Avalon was below, but that's Niflheim. What's the Norse connection?"
"Ah, Richard found the wrong Norse underworld. Your mother didn't go to Niflheim; she went to Helheim".
"Where is it?", Lara demanded.
"I will tell you where it is…one day".
The door above the jar opened, revealing the sky. Lara focused on it as Natla jumped against the glass, making Lara jump back, startled.
"But when that day comes, you'll need Thor's Hammer to get inside. Perhaps you'll have better luck finding it then your father did".
"What do you mean?".
Before Lara could ask any more questions, the specimen jar released, raising upward. "Your answer is on the west-coast of Thailand. Seventh parallel!", Natla said as a helicopter extracted the jar from the ship.
Lara heard an evacuation alarm as the ship began to sink. Lara headed for the exit, sprinting down the corridor as pieces of the ship fell around her. A flammable barrel exploded, causing fire to spread amongst the locker room of the ship. As the ship began to sink, vertically, may I remind you, Lara cursed aloud and climbed her way toward the escape doors of the ship.
Pushing one open, she walked out onto it and looked down - the water was a good thirty feet below her. She looked to her left however, when she heard the whizzing of a helicopter. She saw Amanda dangling from a rope. She pulled out her pistol and fired at Amanda, the first shot missed, but the second grazed her along the left cheek. Amanda threw the gauntlet into the water and climbed into the helicopter.
Lara holstered her gun and swan dove off the door, moving her arms in front of her as she neared the water. The cold water felt good compared to the heat of the fire in the ship. Grabbing the gauntlet, she climbed onto her yacht and watched as the helicopter faded into the distance. Smiling, she looked at the artifact and headed to the cabin. Starting the engine of the yacht, she was on her way home.
Chapter one finished! Chapter two may take a little longer, but I fear that chapter four and seven will take the longest. Either way, I very much enjoyed writing this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Leave me a review and let me know!