I was still oblivious as to why Lara wanted me to tag along with her. As we crawled through the cave, she showed no sign of why she wanted me there.

Suddenly, she held her arm out to stop me. "Shhhh…" It took me a second to realize why she was shushing me. Then, I heard it. Voices. But not just any voices. One of them belonged to Dr. Whitman.

We slowly crawled to the edge of the ledge, and peered over. Sam, Dr. Whitman, and some other strange man were walking through the opening below us.

"Sam! She's still alive. And the doctor… What the heck are you doing here, Whitman?" Lara whispered.

"Who are these…people?" Whitman's voice was barely audible, but I still managed to make out his words.

"The stormguard." Lara stated.

Confused, I asked, "The what?"

The unfamiliar man finally spoke. "They guard the monastery. They wait only to be introduced to their new queen by the one who brought her back to us." It was an obvious lie, but Whitman was too giddy to catch it.

"Ah, of course, of course." He took a nervous breath. "I have encountered these archaic tribes before. Let's get some awards, James." As if…

"What is he doing?" Lara hissed beside me.

"Being an idiot." I replied.

Dr. Whitman walked out into the opening, and approached the Stormguard. "My name is Doctor James Whitman. I come to you in peace. I bring you your new queen!" He held his arms out, as if presenting something that was meant to appear on a stage. It never came. Lara whispered an 'oh no' beside me. "Your queen!" He looked around nervously, waiting for Sam to come out. "What is it in Japanese…? Your… joou."

The stormguard angrily approached him and impaled him with a sword, causing him to fall off the bridge. Lara buried her face in my chest, not watching the horrific scene.

The man grabbed Sam's arm and dragged her across the bridge before the stormguard could notice. But apparently, Sam saw Lara and I crouched up here. "Lara!"

Lara hopped off the ledge, leaving me up here, and ran after Sam. She tried to run across the bridge, Sam screaming her name. The man only told Sam to come on and kept dragging her. Lara tried to follow, but the bridge was blown away by a mysterious wind, taking the stormguard with it.

As Lara paced, trying to figure out what to do, I slowly dropped off the ledge, focusing on landing on my uninjured leg. I rushed over to her.

"What are we going to do?" She was starting to panic.

I put my hands on her shoulders. "Lara, calm down. It's okay. We'll find another way across."

She nodded and looked around for a path. Lara pointed to a nearby pole, and walked over to it, me following close behind. She shot a rope arrow into a cliff across the chasm. Great. Climbing again. We managed to get up the cliff, and climbed through a window that led inside the monastery.

As soon as we got in, there was a loud battle cry. "The stormguard…still protecting their queen after all these years?" Lara muttered under her breath.

"Maybe they're just zombies, and they don't have a brain?"

She chuckled.

As we advanced through the halls, she stopped me again, and crouched behind a barrel. I did the same. A group of stormguard walked past, and disappeared out of my line of sight. After a few minutes, they didn't come back. "I think it's safe now."

We continued on and came into a room with a dead end. There was a door to the left, which I figured the stormguard went through, so I automatically marked that off of the list of ways out. "What now?" I asked Lara.

Lara took out an arrow and a lighter, set the tip of the arrow on fire, and shot it into a white cloth. After the cloth and a few barrels burned down, it revealed a passage. We had to crouch to get in it. I heard a crunching beneath my feet, and looked down. It took me a minute to realize what was causing it, due to my lack of eyesight, but eventually I realized that it was human skeletons. They were EVERYWHERE. That's… lovely…?

The air smelled… strange. Old. There was no other way to describe it. As the ceiling got higher, I started to hear footsteps, and I let out a curse. "Don't make a sound, Lara."

Pillars were collapsed, providing cover for us to sneak along the path. Even though there were over a hundred stormguard, they didn't seem to notice us. Heck, maybe they are zombies…

Up the stairs we went. It was another dead end, except for a single beam leading to the other side of the room. There's no way I can do that… "Lara…" She saw my expression, and hers changed. What it changed to, I couldn't tell you.

"Umm… okay." She took a deep breath. "There's no other way across. Alex, you're going to half to cross it. But don't worry. I'll help you. Just Trust me. Okay?" I could sense the worry in her voice, but I ignored it. I nodded, gulping.

I put my foot on the beam, looked behind me for reassurance. Lara nodded. I put my next foot out. Oh god, if I fall, they'll kill us both. I can't let that happen... Step by step, I crossed the beam. I almost lost my footing once, but Lara grabbed my arm and steadied me. We finally got to the other side, and the stormguard didn't seem to notice our presence yet. So far, so good.

"Okay, now that ledge." Lara whispered.

It took me a moment to realize that she was referring to a ledge that hovered over the stormguard, not to mention that there was nowhere to put your feet, just a place to dangle from. She started shimmying across it, me just standing there in awe.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, I guess.

As I tried to lift myself onto the ledge, I immediately regretted skipping gym class over the years in school. I had no upper arm strength. Whatsoever. I still managed to cross SOMEHOW (thank god), unnoticed, without falling. That is, until I came across a gap in the ledge.

An inhuman roar sounded beneath my feet, and arrows appeared inches from me. Crap. They saw me.

"Come on!" Lara shouted at me.

I readied myself for the jump. As I flew through the air, I wondered if it was the right decision. I grabbed the ledge, barely. My right hand slipped, and before I could steady my grip again, a fiery pain appeared in my left shoulder, me exclaiming in response. The pain was just too unbearable, and my fingers started to slip. Lara was clawing, trying to get a grip on my hands, but it was too late. I was falling, weightless, in slow motion. The breath left my lungs as I hit the ground with a thud, and a blur of figures appeared over me, weapons at the ready…


AN: Hey guys! Again, not my best work, but at least i have a proper excuse this time. :) I've been trying to work on this inbetween working on a research paper.

I just love all of my fans, and your reviews make my life infinitely better. thank you so much for reading my story :)