Chapter 4: The Past Returns
Natla had underestimated the defense that Lara Croft would put up in the battle inside the pyramid. She had been in her true form during which she felt invincible. It was the destruction of her creation, the Abomination, that made her temper erupt. Natla did not have a clue that she would lose the battle, especially when she was raining hell fire down on Ms. Croft.
Natla had been knocked out of the air, and then she had lost consciousness. She had come to for a brief moment, but in that moment she realized that the pyramid was collapsing down upon her. Using all of the power that she had left, she sent out a burst of energy that went out from her in a spherical pattern.
The burst had saved her life, but had taken everything else. All of her power was gone. She had been in her winged form so she had no clothing on, and that was the way that Ross and company had found her.
Jacqueline Natla now rested in a bed in a hospital in Istanbul. She was still alive, but in a coma. The doctors had checked on her from time to time, but it was unknown how long the coma would last.
It was early in the evening and Zip was looking at the remodeling job. The project was coming along all right. The wall that had been taken out by mistake had never been rebuilt. It added a lot more space and Zip changed his plans for the house.
Zip was just curling up with a book, when his satellite phone sounded. On the screen was Alex West.
"Mr. West?" Zip responded.
"Zip, I'm going to be in the United States for a while on an assignment," Alex said. "I need for you to help me."
"What kind of assignment?" Zip asked.
"I need to take something, and I need a contact on the outside."
"Sure, I can help," Zip replied and then broke the connection.
When Lara arrived back at her mansion, she went to work trying to find the name Reodan, the name written on the wall of the tomb. As much as she searched, she could not find anything. She even searched the Internet with no luck.
Exasperated, Lara went down to her trophy room. The three scions had been placed back where the original one had been. Leaning against the doorway she thought. There has to be another scion. She was almost sure of it, but where could it be?
At that moment Winston walked up to her.
"Ms Croft," Winston said," Alex West is on the satellite phone."
In the study Lara turned on the viewer and Alex appeared, looking a bit flustered.
"Alex, what's going on?"
"I don't know what's going on," Alex replied sounding a bit irritated. "Somebody tried to run me off the road for the Ora Dagger, and now some millionaire who won't even tell me his name is paying me an almost obscene amount of money to get the Infada Stone."
Lara stood quietly for a moment to let what Alex said sink in. Finally she said, "What about the other artifacts that I took to Antarctica?"
"I haven't heard anything about them," Alex replied. "I think you should try to find them again."
Lara thought about the sheer scale of that undertaking. The four items were taken from where she had left them. They could be anywhere on Earth.
"Could you possible help me?" Lara felt almost powerless to ask. She had never needed anyone's help before, and it felt odd to ask.
"Well, I need to go to America to get the Infada," Alex stated. "Once I get back I'll see what I can do. Oh, Zip agreed to help me."
"Zip is going with you?" Lara asked. Lara immediately decided to get the Ora Dagger before Zip left.
"I wish you luck," Lara said to Alex.
"Thanks," Alex replied.
It was during the flight to Chicago and Alex and Zip learned that the Infada had been moved to a museum. It was being put on display along with other artifacts that not much was known about. The best time to take it would be at night.
"This is not going to be easy," Alex said to Zip. After getting the complete layout of the museum, a plan was worked out. Alex kept telling Zip that he felt like a criminal for breaking into a museum to steal an artifact. That was what a criminal would do. But, this was much more than petty theft. The Infada was also much more than a mere artifact. It needed to be kept in a place that only a few knew of.
After Jacqueline Natla had been taking to the hospital, Mr. Ross and his men had returned to where Natla had been found. Ross was obsessed about getting some of the gold that had comprised the destroyed pyramid no matter how much or little there was to find. Some of his workers had returned to the spherical cavern and did a complete search of it. It did not take long to find that there were several large cracks in the walls.
Splitting up into teams of three, the caves that the cracks led to were searched. One of the caves did not go too far, but the other one produced something the team found very unusual. It was a large room that was not naturally made.
"Have you ever seen anything like this," one of the men, Thomas, voiced to the other two. The others merely shook their heads. As the men searched the room they immediately noticed something. Two sides of the rooms were mirror images of each other.
"Man," one man said, "this is fr-".
The sentence was stopped short when it appeared on one of the higher landings. The thing was strangely human formed, and appeared to have female bodily characteristics. It turned its head to look down at the men.
Two of the men were armed, and they both pointed their weapons at it. About five shots were fired into the creature. The creature did not move, but the two men with the guns staggered backwards and fell to the floor of the room. Terrified, Thomas, the man left standing, inched his way over to the shooter nearest him. Feeling for a pulse he found none.
The man stood and ran for the exit. In an instant the creature was in front of him. The creature opened her/its mouth to utter one word in a raspy hiss. "Lara."
Lara Croft was in her dining room eating lunch. She had gotten the Ora Dagger from Zip the other day and it comforted her to know that it was safe. She was just finishing up when Winston entered the dining room.
"Ms. Croft, there is a Mr. Ross on the satellite phone," Winston said. "He sounded quite unnerved."
Lara went to her study and keyed receive on the phone.
"Ms Croft," Ross said as soon as he saw Lara on his viewer. "It's an honor to finally speak with you."
"Thank you," Lara said slowly. "Who are you?"
"I am the CEO of Ross Technologies," Ross replied. Beside Mr. Ross was a man who appeared to have seen a ghost. "Ms. Croft, there is something that you must hear."
Lara listened as Thomas stammered about the mirrored room and the demon looking thing that had killed two of his co-workers. Lara knew immediately what he was talking about.
"My doppelganger," Lara said to herself. "Where did you see it?"
"It was where you destroyed the pyramid," Ross stated.
"Yeah," Thomas replied. "We also found Ms. Natla alive!"
Lara's jaw dropped. For a moment Lara felt as if punched in the stomach. It was like her past was coming back to haunt her.
"Ms. Croft," Ross said, "I want you to search out and get rid of any…more surprises."
"I'll be there," Lara said after a moment.
Mr. Ross had sent the coordinates of where Lara's doppelganger had been seen. During the trip Lara's mind was in a whirl. She had to ask herself why all this was happening.
Lara met Mr. Ross at the entrance to the spherical cave.
"The thing was sighted in one of the branching caves," Ross said to Lara. "None of my men will go into any of the caves now."
Lara looked around at the spherical cave. "This is where Natla was found?"
"Yes, right there in the center."
"Well," Lara said, "I'll be back in a while."
Alex West stood on the other side of the street from the museum. The sun was setting over the city of Chicago, and he was scouting out the best way onto the roof of the large structure. He believed that the best way would be to climb up the wall in the rear.
Around eleven o'clock Alex was parked a few blocks from the back of the museum. He then started his trek to where he had stashed his gear. The only gear that he had with him was a headset.
"Zip, do you read me?" Alex said.
"Loud and clear, Mr. West," Zip's voice came over the headset.
"How's it look?"
"The interior of the museum is mostly empty," Zip replied. "There appears to be three to four security guards on patrol, but I should be able to steer you around them."
Alex looked around nervously before he started to climb up a rope toward the top of the museum. Where he was, was in shadow, so he was not noticed. Once on the roof, he quickly pulled up the rope.
Following Zip's guidance Alex went to one of the numerous skylights. Opening a hatch in the skylight Alex peered down into a lunar exhibit. He then ran the rope into the opening.
Alex adjusted his night vision goggles and then grabbed the rope. "I'm going in."
Flashbacks crossed Lara's mind as she went from one crumbled room to the next. More of the structures that had been beneath the pyramid had survived than she felt comfortable with. She had hoped that everything had been destroyed. The flashbacks started when she found the room where she and her doppelganger had met.
In the confused state of the entire place Lara found her way into places that she was sure that she had never been in before. Sure the architecture was similar, but the general layouts of the rooms were unfamiliar. The further she went the more nervous she became. At least she had her shotgun with her.
At the Croft mansion Winston was just finishing up mopping the floor of the kitchen. He put the supplies away and then went to work getting something to eat. As he prepared the meal, he noticed a strange odor. He had cleaned the kitchen so he knew that the odor had to come from somewhere else. He went to the entrance to the foyer. The moment that he looked into the foyer he gasped.
Lara's doppelganger was standing in the middle of the floor. When the doppelganger turned her head to him, Winston cried out and ran back into the kitchen. Winston was glad that Lara kept a lot of weapons around the house. He went to one of the drawers that had a pistol in it. Unlike Lara, Winston was not used to firearms.
Cautiously Winston went back to the foyer. The doppelganger was not there. For a moment Winston thought about what the thing wanted. Then it occurred to him. It had to be after the scions.
Winston made his way down to the trophy room. The doppelganger was standing in front of the trophy room entrance. Winston pointed the pistol at the thing. The doppelganger turned to him, and he pulled the hammer back. He was about to fire when he remembered Lara's book.
In the museum Alex West was quietly walking down a long hallway. Various metal and stone artifacts from around the world were displayed. Glass separated him and them.
"The Infada should be in the next room to your right," Zip's voice said into Alex's ear. Alex quickly glanced around him before ducking into the room. The Infada was in a glass case at the end. Taking out a glass cutter, Alex set to work on the case.
Lara was nearing the end of a corridor when she came to a strange looking lift. Almost apprehensively, she walked onto it and the lift began to drop. About fifty feet down the lift came to a stop. Shotgun at the ready Lara cautiously walked down a corridor.
The doppelganger was walking into the trophy room. Winston watched as it walked past the scions and up to the Ora Dagger. He had no idea what to do. Shooting it would do no good.
The doppelganger grabbed the artifact. Winston held his ears as the Ora Dagger emitted a high pitched tone. A burst of power came out from it, shattering all of the cases in the room.
Alex West was thrown back as the Infada emitted a similar burst of energy. Glass all around the exhibit room shattered with a great crash, sirens sounding. Alex got to his feet and staggered out of the room.
Up the hall two security guards were hustling toward Alex.
"Hey!" one of the guards yelled. Alex turned and ran.
At the end of the corridor Lara came to a large room, the ceiling of it high above. It took a minute for her to get a layout of the room, but it told her one thing. She could be in a great deal of trouble. All over the walls of the room were numerous embryonic pods, all of which were pulsating. A sound caused her to turn. Another sound came from her left, and then two more above her.
All over the room that Lara was in, pods were hatching.
In Jacqueline Natla's hospital room she lay still. Then…she opened her eyes.