This was inspired by a thread on the eidos TR forum where we speculated what the ending would be like, I came up with a brief idea that I have expanded on here.
Run. That was all Lara could think of. Run, don't look back, never look back. To do so would mean she had to look at herself, what she had done and who she had become. How she had survived, she would never know; skin blistered from the internal furnace inside her, a cocktail of blood, sweat and damnation. The hard ground became sandier as Lara and her mentor Conrad Roth pushed themselves towards the sea. Lara knew that Roth had very few steps left in him as he wheezed and tripped over the smallest of stones. She wasn't upset because they were here, on a remote island off the coast of Japan, she could contend with that now. It was the ritualistic slaughter to what she had to know as a family that twisted her inside, creating a pain that laughed at the visible injuries that adorned her body. Lara grabbed Roth's arm as she pulled them through a dense collection of branches, reopening old wounds on their weathered bodies. It was sundown, the orange sky flooded through the broken branches as Lara ran to the edge of the ridge collapsing at its peak. Peering up through damp hair stuck to her face, she saw a sight that infused a hidden determination, a Japanese fishing boat slowly ebbing its way towards the shore.
"Roth! We did it! We bloody did it!" Lara cried, referring to the fire arrows they had sent from the high peak only an hour ago.
"We did Croft, we did." Roth croaked weakly as he sat beside Lara, "We must hurry, the wind is high and we can't risk aggravating anything else in this damn place". A deep cough came from Roth as he rose on his knees and began to make his way to the beach below. Nodding, Lara fired another lit arrow into the pumpkin sky before following Roth down the pebble slope.
Something wasn't right, Lara thought as she meandered down the makeshift path; the wind picked up brushing Lara's bloodstained ponytail against her shoulders, the hairs on her arms prickled in anticipation. The beach was deserted apart from a small bonfire that flickered in the heightened win.
"Wait, Roth," Lara began as he edged towards the fire. "This is all wrong."
"A fire means someone is alive." Roth spluttered as he gazed into the amber light.
"No. No-one is left. Listen to me..."
A thin black trail of smoke rose from the fire.
"Roth. Please move!" Lara begged as the smoke trail twisted and spun into intricate spirals. It was a futile effort as Roth stood entranced by the interlacing smoke. Wrapping around itself, a figure of a human appeared, flowing between the two adventurers like the softest chiffon.
"An enenra," Lara whispered as a memory of lecture on Japanese mythology came flooding back with nauseating speed. A monster composed of smoke who can only be seen by the pure of heart.
"Roth, Look at me!," Lara ran to Roth's side, shaking him vigorously as he continued to stare into the distance, his eyes glazed over as the enenra flooded his lungs.
Suddenly the smoke twisted itself around Roth, knocking him to his knees as he screamed in agony. Silence for once was louder than any sound Lara could think of. Roth lay still on the sand, the sky tinting his face with a peaceful glow. Lara gazed upwards towards the black chiffon assassin who took away the last person on earth she cared about.
"That's it." Lara whispered as she took out the pistol and fired it at the entity. The bullet skimmed through hitting a rock on the far side of the beach. The enenra mocked her futile effort by pushing her chin up with its feather hands and throwing her to the ground. The saltwater stung her old wounds as Lara screamed in pain. I'm not going to die, not now. She tried to remember what she had read, how could she make the enenra mortal? A small crystal caught the corner of her eye that had fallen out of Roth's pocket.
"The Shisubeki crystal..." Lara gasped as she crawled though the gritty sand. It seemed like an eternity since she had picked up the purple crystal at the bottom of a mountain tomb, yet it was only a few hours. The smoke arms wrapped themselves around her legs dragging her backwards as Lara fought to retrieve the crystal. It took pure survival strength to heave herself to the last hope of escaping from the island alive. She stretched out her arm and snatched the shard, throwing it into the fire making the flames flicker in vivid shades of violet and indigo. The enenra howled as it spun like a tornado becoming a fully fleshed human. A woman, dressed in a dark grey kimono that trailed behind her akin to a wedding train. Her ebony hair flowed wildly down her back while her eyes were absent of a pupil, creating a savage appearance.
"I know who you are Lara," came a haunting voice in Lara's head.
"Get out of my head!" Yelled Lara as she pointed her gun at the enenra.
"You Lara are gifted, extremely gifted."
"You have took everything I care about away from me, how dare you taunt me with your praises!"
"Join us. Be immortal, live your potential."
"Immortal?" Lara paused, "You don't know what that means".
A single bullet escaped from Lara's pistol as it tore through layers of smoky silk and flesh. A shattering sound filled the air as Lara was knocked back by the explosion of violet smoke. Curling up to protect herself from the blast, she bit the side of her mouth, praying that she would survive. Peeking from her fetal position, Lara saw that the only inhabitants on the beach were herself and Roth. The fire had burned itself out, the crystal becoming a burnt ember.
"Konnichiwa, konnichiwa!" Came a female voice from the fishing boat that was now dropping it's anchor.
A tear forced itself through as Lara slowly rose to look towards the boat. Too many emotions were flooding her body now and she didn't know how she really felt.
"Roth," Lara mumbled as she edged towards her mentor, her friend. "Wake up, please Roth, wake up." Lara notice that his chest moved slightly on hearing her voice.
"Lara."
"Oh my god, you are alive." Lara exclaimed.
"Not for long, please, Lara. Follow your heart, you know what you have to do. What you are born to do."
"I'm a Croft, I know what I need to do, who I am. I know now."
"The extraordinary, is in what we do, not who we are. Remember..." Roth closed his eyes and drifted away to the sound of waves swishing around his body.
"Roth? No, no, no, don't go. Please stay, stay you northern bastard!" Lara hit his chest in a futile effort to revive him. The wind had calmed down to a gentle breeze that fluttered her hair across her temples as she realised she was now truly alone.
The woman from the fishing boat threw a rope down indicating that she should come aboard, it was obvious that the Japanese woman couldn't see Roth's body as she was still smiling happily from the deck. Conrad Roth was at heart a free man, a treasure hunter, he always joked on board the Endurance that he would die an adventurer. The irony twisted itself in Lara's stomach as she picked a single maple leaf that had blown on to the beach from the forest above. She place it on his chest and closed his eyes, the last act of kindness she could give him.
The sky remained orange, though it was now a deeper hue with flecks of black as night approached. Lara knew her life had changed, she knew inside her that it is her actions that made who she was. Too many questions had gone unanswered on this island, she owed it to Roth to answer them.
Lara began to walk of the beach towards the fishing boat, the hard deck looked like the comfiest place in the world to sleep to her tired limbs. Her toe knocked on something hard, bending down she picked up Roth's pistol that had been knocked out his hand during the enenra's assault. Lara thought about leaving it, out of respect, but what if she was meant to have this. To take a piece of him wherever she went? Lara picked up the pistol in her bandaged left hand, her right held her own. This moment, Lara wasn't a just a Croft. She was an archeologist, an adventurer, a woman of strength, a tomb raider.
"A famous explorer once said, that 'the extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are'. I'd finally set out to make my mark, to find adventure. But instead adventure found me."
