The jet was waiting on a open area on the croft estate, Lara could probably keep three there but on the other hand Lara wasn't very fond of flying after the accident with her mother. Every time slight turbulence would start Lara would hold onto the seat, hard enough so that she could probably snap it in half. Eddie was already in the pilot chair when Lara climbed inside. She sat there looking out the window, thinking why she was doing all this for a man she only knew for a few hours. Perhaps it was because he was like her, mentally and physically. He was battle scarred, just like Lara he lost a lot of people he cared about, he shut himself from others. She had thought of him a lot of times after he disappeared but she forced it all away and after everything that has happened to her in the past seven years, she wasn't going to give up easily. She was going to find him and save him, then she was going to kill Karel once and for all if it wasn't some trick her mind decided to play, but if it was real she would go to hell and back to rid the world of such an evil namely Karel. After the jet landed in Prague she decided to go straight to a hotel. It was late, dark and cold. Lara's boots were covered in snow when she climbed onto the first step of the hotel closest to the strahov. Inside the walls were painted a dark brown with a thin white stripe at the top. The lobby was well furnished with accessories such as abstract paintings hanging from the walls and a pot plant here and there. There were a few seats placed neatly across the room with a small diner not too far from the front desk. Public restrooms were also in the lobby. There weren't a lot of people in the lobby that time of night, a couple was sitting in the corner of the diner looking out of the window and admiring the thick white layers of snow gathering outside. One by one the snow flocks were falling like raindrops in slow motion. Busy booking a room was an old married couple, they both wore golden rings and was busy showing the receptionist a photo. Then there were a few people scattered over the floor and making conversation. When the receptionist handed the couple they're room key she called for Lara "excuse me miss can I help you" Lara was immediately snapped out of her concentration and faced the receptionist after putting her bags on the ground.
"oh uhm id like a single room" Lara wasn't really listening, she was tired of the long flight and wanted a good nights rest before the following day.
"of course, you'll be having room 145, enjoy your stay" she said while taking Lara's credit card. Lara excepted the room key and started climbing the white tiled stairs to the second floor with her black bag hanging over her shoulder. Fortunately she remembered this hotel, it was the only one where people actually spoke and understood English. She was standing in front of the wooden door when she got out the keys and fiddled with the door till it opened. She threw the bag on the bed and got out all the necessary equipment. Unfortunately her current room didn't have a balcony. She got out her weapons and set them in the drawer of the desk that occupied the area in front of a big window with beige curtains folded to both sides. There was a sofa with a TV, an old one compared to the stuff zip brought into the manor. A bathroom with a bath tub and shower were also there, the towels the hotel provided were all white as usual. She put the earpiece on the side table next to the double bed in her room. She was still trying to gather the strength she needed mentally to go through what seemed like the darkest time in her life seven years ago. It seemed like minutes that passed since the unending sands of Egypt to the cold and dark streets of Prague. After Lara got dressed in her black pajamas she climbed in under the silk bedding of the surprisingly comfortable bed. She wasn't scared but she was uncomfortable with closing her eyes and drifting off. The city she was in held more secrets than she knew of. She was thinking of the moment she and kurtis shared in the louvre galleries. She was still tired from the past week and before she knew it her eye lids were becoming overly heavy. They started to close, Lara shook her head quite a few times but nothing happened to stall the tiredness that now set in almost completely. She was once again standing in the same room as before where kurtis sat in the chair with Karel surrounding him. Karel was once again changed into Lara. Kurtis looked worse than ever before, he looked scared, frustrated to be completely honest he looked absolutely petrified. She wanted to help him but the real Lara was absolutely useless toward what was happening. Karel was holding his hand out in Lara's form so that his hands looked almost completely flat. He was doing something to kurtis that wasn't physical but mentally it was killing him. How could one person be so ruthless and have no conscience, Karel had no emotion. The warrior named kurtis screamed screams of immense agony, he was shaking violently in the chair. Warm tears slit down Lara's cheek, suddenly she was laying on a soaking wet pillow. Whether the dreams were real or not it had Lara worried, she wasn't going to have these dreams repeating themselves, she couldn't wait any longer. Lara sprang out of bed almost immediately and got into her a pair of black cargo pants which squeezed her hips tightly. She had on her usual black combat boots. She wore a long sleeved black shirt with a brown, thick jacket over. She was warm enough for the weather. It was only early morning, still dark outside when Lara had her weapons in an extra bag she brought since she couldn't walk around a hotel looking like a suicide bomber. She walked casually outside the doors of the hotel. The cool winter breeze hit her face, making her slightly regret not dressing warmer. As her face her fingertips were freezing, she only had the warmth of her fingerless gloves to keep her hands warm. She was standing about a hundred metres watching the building as she was getting her gear and weapons ready. It was dark and her face was hidden by shadows but it was also hidden from shadows, shadows long forgotten. A man came to stand next to Lara, she couldn't see his face properly, she held her gun close to his chest.
"who are you?" she asked as demanding as ever
"you're the chosen one, the one to fight beside the warrior. I've heard so many-"he was cut off by Lara in mid sentence
"I don't have time for fairytales, either you return from where you came or Ill make you go away permanently" he stood forward pressing his own body against the barrel of her 9mm
"he asked me about our black angel when before he switched on power. He needs you, you go in there your destiny starts you will have no going back" he said it with so much truth but Lara never believed in fait or destiny.
"I control my own destiny now leave" the man gave a shrieking sound, such as no human can do. He ran in the opposite direction of Lara. She reached into the bag for her headset after she'd put the gun back in its holster. Zip didn't really need a room since he mostly fell asleep on the chair he claimed was his and his only. He never took off the earpiece if Lara went out so that if she needed him she would not have any problems contacting him. She pushed the button to activate the headset and a double beep told her that her headset was indeed on. "zip, zip are you there?" she could hear things fall on the other side.
"damnit Lara its three in the morning" zip was still yawning, he called for Alistair to come closer as well as Winston.
"hello Lara how's it going there?" Alistair immediately jumped in
"no time to talk its time for business, zip have you got visual?"
"yeah got it, so what got a new hobby of death wishes before breakfast?" zip was extremely good with technology and extremely good in making delicious food that he rarely got to taste because of Lara.
"something like that" Lara quietly stepped toward the door she exited from when she followed the disc seven years ago, speaking of which she had brought the disc with her for some reason. She didn't know why but she had a feeling she was going to need it. She ripped the yellow 'do-not-cross' papers of the police and pushed open the huge metallic doors. Zip and Alistair just watched in awe as she walked forward in total darkness, yet her fingertips were brushing her guns every second. Within twenty minutes she had already passed five doors and saw a bit of light in front of her. She started jogging toward it. She was gazing over a familiar arena with a familiar stain of red in the middle and a carcass of the creature once called Boaz. Why was his blood still there, had the police not come here? Why was it so much the same? Something wasn't right! Lara was once again grouching over the now dried blood. She was still getting back a lot of memories. "Lara I doubt anyone could survive when losing so much blood" Lara had heard but she didn't want to listen.
"he's not anyone Alistair" Lara hadn't spent attention to the rest of her companion's comments. She stood up and looked toward her right, half the arena had cave in, but what could've caused this much damage? She wouldn't make that ledge without the help of kurtis but she saw a way. There was a pole sticking out of the wall, she threw her grappling hook toward it. She could feel it was unstable but she had no other choice. He quickly ran up the wall before the pole broke out. She was high enough to reach the platform, she did a wall run. Just as she reached her peak the pole broke free and she fell hard to the solid floor, she gave a slight laugh in relief. Something shook violently in her backpack. She quickly reached in so that her back wasn't getting sliced in half, she then stood looking at the active disk in her hand. Was it trying to tell her something? She felt weird as if drifting to sleep. She looked over the arena but it was clean without dust, Eckhardt and Karel was standing next to her yet they were like ghosts, pale and almost transparent. Kurtis and Lara were standing at the bottom. "what's happening Lara why are you just standing there" zips voice echoed over the headset.
"are you telling me you cant see that?"
"see what Lara" she wasn't listening anymore but focusing on the happenings before her eyes. She was seeing how kurtis gave her the boost and the quick exchange of words. The ghostly Lara ran past the real Lara. Lara watched anxiously as kurtis fought the two forms of Boaz, she saw as he turned and got impaled by the beast that was still taking in some breaths. He swung around and threw the chirugai back at her, her head was cut off. She still watched as time seemed to fast forward to a moment when kurtis stood up holding his stomach and stumbling he walked out the way Lara would soon come. Time once again fast forwarded to where the form of Karel stepped through throwing a shockwave into the ceiling, that is indeed what had caused this much damage. "Lara are you all right?" Alistair asked snapping Lara out of what seemed to be a dream.
"yes Alistair I'm fine "
Lara could not take the old route, instead she found an elevator shaft into a small passageway, not far from the ledge she had fallen on. She found a crowbar in a toolbox on a table, probably for the guards. After she pried open the doors of the elevator that had sealed shut she grabbed one of the many steel cables. She slid down for what felt like an eternity, suddenly the soles of her combat boots came in contact with solid and icy cold steel. She never felt afraid of the dark, or heights, or even small spaces but this time it was different, it was the second time she had to live through this memory. Even when she found her mother, this was worse. She had lost her mother a long time ago, she got used to the idea but this time she lost Werner. But she could live without Werner, it was the tall blue eyed man she had learned to trust, of whom she was equal to, mentally and physically. She never trusted anyone so easily, usually she watched over her shoulder every two seconds to make sure they wouldn't double cross her. Yet she trusted him in only a few minutes, after he stole her painting and unarmed her, after he locked her in the airlock and after all that she trusted him and believed everything he said. He was different, he was hurt, he didn't trust people, he was a loner and that was what had her so intrigued by him. Once she was on the elevator she dropped in and once again pried the doors open. There were quite a few doors but when she got close to a white, almost cream colour door the chirugai activated and pulled Lara toward the inside. She first checked through the little square windows to make sure she was alone. Once inside she saw the body of what appeared to be human but he or she or whatever it was, was misformed. It had icy demonic eyes and instead of being horrified Lara felt some pity toward it. She walked around it with her fingers constantly touching the top of her guns. She followed the halls, passing a few bodies skeletal bones on the way. Stains of dried blood covered the walls, here and there a smeared handprint. As she continued through the way the chirugai showed her, she was standing in a lab. The chirugai willed her to go through the ducts, before she knew it she was standing in a room with the body of a creature, probably the proto nephilim that the human form of Boaz was so fond of talking about. She suddenly pulled her pistol from its holster and threw it behind her, she had heard a shuffling sound from where she had come from. When she was sure there was nothing she immediately put the gun back in its place.
"what's wrong Lara?" zip's voice broke the deadly silence. "Lara something's wrong im losing you im-" he was cut off.
"zip, Alistair?" Lara asked, after no response in five minutes she tried again "damnit guys answer me"
she had no response. She wanted to check the chirugai again but heard the noise again, once more her gun was pointed in the direction from previously. Lara moved a few inches closer when she felt something behind her. She immediately turned, the same man as before stood before her. He closed his eyes with his arm, the light was obviously hurting him. Lara turned it off with her free hand and raised the other pistol as well.
"no I mean no harm only offer help" he raised his hands in the shape of a cross as if to stop her from firing.
"who are you? Why do you keep following me?"
"I was experiment, he help me recover. He was mad man, I run, run here. This is only home I know. When I saw you with chirugai I knew the day had come!"
"is thats what the disc is called? Who helped you? You better start making sense soon or I swear ill put you to sleep"
"yes lux veritatis weapon, man name was Werner. I think Werner croy it was long ago and memory lost" he paused as if forgetting his words, "I try to help you, prophesy must happen for humans to live" Lara had thought of a scenario where Werner would be alive but the creatures words had no effect on her, just like in Egypt when he was possessed
"what prophesy?" Lara suspiciously watched as he stepped closer.
"no time, need to show you something" Lara hesitated but followed the creature, he led her through quite a few halls until he stopped at a dead end and turned to face Lara.
"when I walk freely in home I discover secret room. Under, look under!" Lara had a feeling that told her not to trust him, her, it but she looked under. 'Under what' she though but then saw a keyhole where the wall met the ground.
"do you have the key?" she asked
"yes, yes, here you take, you see!" Lara took the key from his hand which sent chills down her spine, his hand was icy cold and deadly pale but she didn't look too long though.
She cautiously walked in, checking behind her to see if the creature was still there. It was gone, she didn't like it. Hopefully it wasn't a trap. She stopped before a sudden drop, the way down was by using a ladder but if it would hold was the question. She turned around and slowly but cautiously climbed down. She heard a shuffling sound downstairs. When she pointed a torch in the direction that the sound originated and she could see one of those damn experiments trying to reach her by jumping up and down.
"what the hell" she could hear zip say over the headset,
"they're quite friendly actually" Lara was just above it so she back flipped and whilst in mid air she shot a few bullets into it's skull.
"when they're dead, what happened back there?" Lara corrected herself.
"i don't know, I just lost signal as well as visual. Wow we were typing like mad. . .you got-" 'damnit not again' Lara thought to herself
It wasn't as dark as before, instead white lights illuminated on the walls. She entered a small room which could barely be compared to half her bedroom. There were four file cabinets, a desk with a chair and a dustbin. A picture hung from the wall, nothing could be seen though. Dust covered the glass that protected the image from whatever may happen to it. On the corner of the desk sat a small pencil case with some stationery inside. Lara knelt by the drawers of the desk, as she inspected the drawers she found only one thing. A diary of which she read belonged to someone called David montsegur. He wrote quite a few pages but the index was what caught Lara's attention. My name is David montsegur and I now know joining the cabal was the biggest mistake in my life. My brother was killed by the master I now serve. I miss my family, that meaning my dearest son Jonathan, my niece Alice and my nephew. Writing down his name would mean his death so this must be kept secret. I discovered this room while on duty one night. I decided to use it as my escape from the sick activity going on upstairs. I made this room to take record of everything, Im on a need-to-know basis and so I don't know what the plans are. Furthermore he spoke of his experience working for the cabal. Next Lara wiped her fingers across the dust of the photo. She wasn't sure why but the feeling that something was watching her did freak her out in some way. It was still a black and white photo, a young boy stood next to a tall man who had his arm around the boys shoulder, pulling him closer Another man was standing beside the two, holding a girl on his shoulders. The boy was obviously a lot older than the girl. It was hard to estimate their age since the picture looked like it had gone through a lot. She could barely make out their faces. Lara had put it on the table face down, she then moved onto the file cabinet. Immediately she searched for her name, then kurtis's but neither were there. Though there were quite a few things on the cabal and lux veritatis. Lara had looked back for a second when her eye had caught sight of something rather odd. She left the cabinets exactly as they were. On the opposite wall there was a change of colour in the paint. There was definitely something behind it, Lara took a knife and cut on the lines of the unusual paint. She had it open when she heard a sound much like a countdown. "bloody hell" she yelled to herself and grabbed the paper lying in the compartment, she had also grabbed the picture on her way out. She climbed the ladder as quick as she possibly could. She quickly looked back hoping she had not missed a single thing since this was probably the last time she would ever have the chance to see it. Lara was running out of time and she knew it, she found a door that led to the arena. When she was standing on the ledge again she jumped, she had to wait a few seconds for the pain in her feet to go away. Zip and Alistair had started yelling as soon as they were in contact with Lara again, but she didn't take notice. Lara was in the middle of the room when a loud alarm went off, she wasn't going to make it. She could hear various parts of the building blow up. She closed her eyes shut and sat on her knees, waiting for her death to approach. Suddenly she felt extremely cold, she kept her eyes closed though. The creature had returned and was kneeling over Lara. Protecting her from the blast. Lara wanted to yell as she heard flames erupt around them, she felt freaked out as it felt like a dead body was holding her. When it grew quiet around them Lara shoved the creature off her and rubbed her upper arm. A piece of metal cut her, she had bruises and a few burns here and there. The creature was unharmed, as he stood in the extreme glow the fire provided Lara saw that he was changing. His appearance of a creature turned to a human form, before she entered the strahov. His eyes stayed unchanged, even though he helped Lara she had that demonic, sadistic and pure evil look in his eyes, much like Karel's. She could feel the red liquid seep through her shirt. Police sirens were visible from afar but Lara still had enough time to get the answers she needed.
"why did you help me?" Lara was still holding her arm
"I follow the master but I need not follow his orders if there are none." He saw the sun rise in the horizon, as soon as Lara turned to see what had caught his attention he gave another screeching sound and then he disappeared, vanished.
"whoa girl what was that about, and who, what was that?"
"déjà vu" Lara said while busy taking off all the gear.
"damnit Lara be more careful" Alistair screamed while looking hard into the computer screen as if Lara would see the worry in his eyes
"oh lighten up Al it wasn't that bad, you've seen worse . . .now call Eddie for a flight immediately before I have a run in with the police" the others didn't really have time to say goodbye when Lara had switched off the headset.
The sun was already out and a little of it's warmth hit her. She had almost no time before the police came so she put all the weapons back into the bag she had left in an alley three blocks from the strahov. She took a few turns in and out of alleys, when she had reentered the hotel room everyone stared intently at Lara as she stood in the door frame. She forgot all about her image, at that moment she looked as if she was hit by lightning. She ignored them and went straight to the front desk where the receptionist sat, "please have my bill ready ill be out in ten minutes"
"of course miss, are you all right you look hurt? Should I phone an ambulance?"
"no ill be fine, I just got mugged out on in alley nothing serious. Now please get the bill ready" Lara ignored the ignorant stares watching as she ascended the stairs to her room. She put away everything she had brought with her. She didn't even bother to clean up, she wanted to leave this dreadful city before she had another police report to take care of. She had just reached the airport when on the TV she saw a news report about the strahov. A reporter was asking quite a lot of questions about the building itself but the police always said the same, 'no comment my ass' Lara said softly to herself. When she had finally boarded she looked out the window while searching through her pocket for the paper she found in the strahov, the photo was in her backpack but unfortunately she didn't have time to grab the diary. Hopefully whatever she found would lead her to the man she fought was dead, to kurtis. He was the only man she had ever known to be as strong as her. She didn't know why she wanted so much to find him but something about him made her feel different. On the paper before her were blueprint to a building, with a small note attached. I have overheard a rumor of an exact replica build in turkey of the strahov. It is located in Istanbul. I am saddened to see that the master has more than one way to release hell on earth as he said. 'great' Lara said in frustration. When back in London she took off all the extra clothes that she had warn for warmth. She opened the gate using the password only she and her three friends knew, Winston, Alistair and zip. A hard thud sound repeated itself as Lara knocked on the front wooden doors to her mansion. She stood there waiting for the door to open and for her to go through her usual routine of showering and running off somewhere into the unknown. Noting happened, she knocked once more. This time Winston opened the door and let the lady of the house inside. She now knew why no one had opened at first. Even she, Lara croft couldn't believe her eyes
thanks a lot for the reviews i appreciate it a lot, it really keeps me going ;-) but please dont stop. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible, ill try for within the next week,it really bugs me when people make you wait so long for a chapter, and you really want to know what happens next and then they take months to write it so ill try to not do that okay. lul