Another short one, forgive me. But it's really hard to end chapters exactly where you want to, when you want them to be a certain length.

Chapter eight is longer... I think.

Also... I recently started writing on Chapter Twelve, and I thought I would mention now that there are things in this fic that may seem unimportant... Even after the end... Let me assure you that it is not out of simple carelessness, or laziness that I don't explain certain things by the time we get to the last chapter...

Again I beg people to start reviewing more... Like, every chapter...

This chapter, by the way, goes to Shelley ere, for reviewing last chapter.

And by the way, there's another south park reference in this chap, to go along with the one in the last chapter

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Chapter Seven

The Bad News and the Good News

The knocking would not cease, no matter how much Lara tried to ignore it. It had to be Zip or Alister... But for heaven's sake, why did they have to keep up that infernal banging? And at three in the morning? What was so important that they couldn't let her sleep a bit longer? Also, they would normally just burst into her room if they had anything to say, no knocking needed. Why were they-... oh. If she hadn't been grumpy, at being woken up so early, she might have grinned, or even laughed. They were afraid of what view they might get, were they to walk in, uninvited. Well, she hated to disappoint them, but they would see no such sight this time. Whilst she hadn't slept alone, nothing had happened. She and Kurtis had just been up late, swapping tales of their adventures, and had fallen asleep.

Speaking of Kurtis... He had his head stuffed under a pillow, and muffled threats about killing whoever was at the door were getting increasingly violent. Finally the muffled question of "The fuck do they want?" came from the pillow.

"No clue," Lara muttered, not sure if he could hear her or not. She raised her voice for the knocking-culprit to hear, "Oh come in, or go away!"

The door opened, and the light clicked on, and Zip and Alister stepped in, looking as though they were ready to cover their eyes and run. Lara sighed, and sat up, kicking the covers off of herself, her foot coming in contact with Kurtis' leg on accident.

A barely audible "ow!" came from beneath the pillow.

"What do you two want at this ungodly hour?" Lara yawned, straightening the t-shirt she'd fallen asleep in. "Make it quick."

"Very quick," Kurtis added, head still firmly stuffed under his pillow.

"Shut it, Kenny," said Zip, "Alister here found out who Karel needs."

"Who?" both Lara, and Kurtis asked at the same time. Tired of his muffled speech, Lara yanked the pillow off of his head, and hit him with it.

"You won't believe it, unless you see it for yourself..." said Alister, "Come on."

-------------

"Hey Kurtis, remember when you said we'd have to either protect or kill whoever Karel needed?" Alister asked, as he sat down in front of his computer.

"Yes, why?"

"You may want to remove the 'kill' from that list of options... You're not going to believe this, but, the last living descendant of the fifth Lux Veritatis line is," he turned the monitor around until Lara and Kurtis could see it, "You, Lara."

Lara blinked at him, sure that she had just misheard him. He couldn't have just said that she was the descendant of the Lux Veritatis. No, that was impossible. It had to be impossible. She was Lara Croft, archaeologist extraordinaire, sure, but she wasn't part of some mystical family line. She wasn't part of some prophecy, which by the way, wouldn't be coming true... Then it hit her...

"The chirugai..." she muttered, making a dumbfounded Kurtis suddenly look her way. "The chirugai... When you were calling it, you said it refused to go... When we were locked up in the museum, it moved, for me. Just a few inches, when I couldn't quite reach it... Then when I needed a weapon to use against the guard, the blades came out... "

"Your bloodline would have nothin' to do with that," said Kurtis, looking, if possible, even more bewildered, "That chirugai is mine, and mine alone... It's not meant to obey anyone else's commands, not even another Lux Veritatis, with or without the powers," he looked at Alister, "Are you sure this is right?" he pointed at the computer screen. "Absolutely certain."

"Yes," Alister replied, "I checked, believe me, I checked... I thought it was wrong, at first too... But it's not. Through her mother's side, Lara is the last of the fifth Lux Veritatis line, and if Karel finds out, you can bet, he'll be here in a heartbeat to grab her... Just because he has until the summer solstice to carry out his little plot doesn't mean he has to wait until then to do it."

"Then we don't let him find out," Lara said quietly, expression blank, unreadable. With that, she turned, and left.

----------------

In her room, Lara sat on her bed, staring at her hands, off in her own world. Usually, she was just a bystander when it came to prophecies, and such things. Just a third party, usually there to throw things into the gears that were destiny, and generally piss everyone off. But this time, she was actually part of the prophecy she was supposed to stop from happening. She was the sacrifice of said prophecy, actually, which only served to make things worse. Of all the people in the world, that line had to trace down to her, didn't it? If there was a God, he was determined to get her to believe in fate. And he was going to fail. This whole thing, while it was a minor setback in her plans to remain in complete control of her destiny, wasn't going to stop her.

The shock wearing off a bit, her mind wandered to the other thing bothering her. Kurtis' chirugai. If it wasn't supposed to obey anyone's commands but his, and since she didn't have any of the Lux Veritatis tricks, why then, had it reacted to her? It was... troubling, to say the least, and she doubted that she'd be satisfied until she found out the reason behind the weapon's strange behavior. Stupid thing... Stupid fucking prophecy... Why me? If I ever get my hands on the Fates, I'll use Atropos' shears on all three of them, see if they like their lives being messed with... So, she and Kurtis had both learned something important about their family history... Too bad they both had to learn the same thing.

-----------------

"Very good, Lucas," said Karel to the black-haired man next to him, though he didn't look at him. His attention was on the laptop screen in front of him. Lucas was rather good with computers, and everything that was being shown in the Croft manor was right in front of him. "A clever idea, leaving that little note for them to find... Now they've done all the work for us."

Lucas, whom was in fact mute, grinned, and nodded.

"Shall we go to the mansion, Joachim?" Gabriel asked, tired of waiting... All he wanted was to bring the nephilim back. Playing games with old enemies was a waste of time, but Joachim seemed intent on playing with his food before he ate it...

"No," Karel shook his head, "We still don't know where the item we require is... But, Ms. Croft and her friends are quite adept at finding things... We'll let them do the searching, then claim the prize ourselves. "

Irritated, but refusing to let it be known, Gabriel nodded, "Very well... We'll keep an eye on their progress..."

-----------------

Kurtis paced back and forth in the gym, idly making his chirugai fly about, in varying patterns. It was something to do, when he needed a distraction, and right then, he needed one. This changed alot. Before, the little prophecy wasn't much to be worried about... They just had to make sure that they got the tools before Karel did, and kill him... and his buddies. Now, it was getting a bit personal. If Karel found out it was Lara he was going to need... Well, he'd likely have Lucas, and Gabriel, Lara had said their names were, in the mansion in a flash, to grab her, when he got the spindle. While Kurtis would have liked to have said that he would kill the first man to even try to lay a hand on Lara, he knew he'd be no match for even one nephilim, much less two or three.

Needing something to do, he decided to take a quick run through the course before him, though he knew it by heart, by that point, just as Lara did. But the familiarity was a good thing right then. Something he could do easily, with no need for any real concentration, unless he wanted to polish up his gymnastics skills, to possibly make as fancy a show out of the course as Lara was able to, but he really didn't think that was necessary. He wasn't big on being fancy. As long as it could be done in a semi-simple way, it was good enough for him.

On his mind, more than anything else, was the small matter of his chirugai, and its odd attachment to Lara. He'd been telling the truth when he'd said his weapon would obey no commands but his own. His father had tried using it, on more than one occasion, to no avail, as had his grandfather, and his aunts and uncles... Most thought that he had been an incredibly clever boy, to have constructed his weapon in such a way that it was tied to him, a technique that no member of the Lux Veritatis line had been able to perfect in centuries.

But his father had been rather annoyed with the fact that his least favorite son had managed to accomplish what he himself had tried and failed to do. So, what had happened? Had the connection faded over time, or did his weapon somehow sense his connection with Lara? The second option, quite frankly, unnerved him...The idea that what he felt for Lara was so strong even his chirugai sensed it was... a tad scary. Then there was her dreams... He'd not sent out any call for help telepathically, he hadn't tried to speak to her through the chirugai, yet she'd somehow seen it all. Even a Lux Veritatis couldn't get into someone's head from that distance... And Lara didn't even have any powers...

Half-way through the course, he gained an audience. He could feel whoever it was, watching him, though he didn't bother to look. By the time he reached the end, he'd almost forgotten, until he noticed Zip standing there.

"What's up?" he asked, catching his chirugai with practiced ease.

"You're going to protect her, right?" Zip asked, crossing his arms, "Lara, I mean. She'll say she doesn't need protecting, but I think, in this case, she does."

"Lara doesn't seem the type to let anyone try to protect her," Kurtis replied, wondering where Zip was going with this, "What makes you think she'll let me?"

"Because, she trusts you, and, although she will likely never, ever, ever, say it, I'm fairly sure she loves you... And, you feel the same about her."

"Zip-"

"Oh, don't start... I seen the way ya'll look at each other. Lara ain't made moony-eyes at any guy like she has you in the entire time I've known her. I ain't heard of her accepting much in the way of help either. If she'll let anyone at least guard her back in this mess, it'll be you. "

"You realize that I had intended to watch her back whether or not she wanted me to, right?"

"Well, I still haven't sussed out whether or not we can trust you not to walk out when things start getting tough," he spoke as if they hadn't already started doing so.

"Then you don't know me very well, dude," Kurtis replied, running a hand through his messy hair, "I ain't walkin' out on Lara."

"Ah, so I was right."

"Zip, shut it, or I'll tell Alister you didn't win that money from him fairly."

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When she was finally able to sleep again, Lara dreamed. She dreamed of the day she'd lost her mother, of when her father had died, of the events in Egypt... It seemed as if every one of her worst memories was coming back to haunt her, and then some. Then the dreams started to change... She instead saw the friends she still had left, dying, in ways so gruesome she would never have thought it possible. When she awoke, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, she was drenched in sweat, and she had tossed, and turned so much that her blankets were wrapped tightly around her lower body, so much so that she couldn't move. And most disheartening of all, she was alone.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she'd hoped that Kurtis had returned, after his trip to the gym, once she'd fallen asleep. Hell, after that dream, she could have woken up to find Zip or Alister next to her, and been happy, simply for the assurance that it had all been a dream... That her family was still safe, and in one piece. Or, in one piece anyway. Safe was a matter of perspective, when you were close to Lara Croft. She sat up, and worked on disentangling herself from her covers, which seemed determined to hang on to her. It took her several minutes to get free, and she saw the evidence of just how tightly she had cocooned herself; the creases and wrinkles in the blankets had left imprints on her bare legs.

Considering the drenched state she'd awoken in, a shower was definitely in order, as well as a change of sheets. She could ask Winston to do that, when she went down to the pool for a swim. Such was the benefit of having one indoors... No matter the weather outside- clouds had covered the sun now, and sleet was turning the thin layer of snow on the ground into slush- she could still enjoy a good swim. Lara rolled out of bed, stretched, and headed for the sitting area of her room, her destination was the door on the other side that led to the bathroom. Something stopped her along the way, however. On her couch was the slumped forward, sleeping form of Kurtis.

She smirked. He was going to regret sleeping like that later. His neck and back would be killing him. Well, served him right, for sleeping there in the first place. Deciding it would be more fun to watch him suffer, and to get to taunt him later, Lara left him as he was, and continued on her way to the shower.

When she emerged, a robe over the bathing suit she wore, hair loose, and still wet, Kurtis had just awoken, and was rubbing the back of his neck, suggesting Lara had been right about the consequences of sleeping in such a position. She said nothing to him, other than good morning, and that she was going for a swim. She passed Winston on the way down to the pool, and declined his offer of breakfast. From his lack of worrying over her, no one had told him of what had been discovered earlier that morning, and Lara intended to keep him uninformed. As it was, Zip and Alister were going to be fretting any time she stepped out the door now, she didn't need Winston worrying himself to the point of a heartattack. So, she kept things normal, and simply asked if he could change her sheets, while she was downstairs.

She made a mental note, as she passed the library, to ask Alister if he could possibly find out if anyone in her family had developed any of the abilities typical of the Lux Veritatis. She didn't recall her mother ever doing anything strange, nor her grandparents on her mother's side. Nor had they ever mentioned anything strange. But then, her grandmother and grandfather had been rather stuck up, and were more likely to pretend that the strange occurrences didn't exist, rather than tell anyone about them... If anything had happened, that was. It was possible, she supposed, that the fifth line of the Lux Veritatis had vanished from the records, because of a loss of power... All on the list of things to ask Alister to look into.

First things first, though. Once she was done with her swim, she'd have to ask Zip if he'd made any progress on finding the little trinkets they were after. If he didn't have any news for her today, she was liable to shoot something, and she didn't like the idea of cleaning up a bullet-made mess, that early in the morning.

She didn't bother with climbing all the way up to the diving board this morning. Instead, when she reached the pool, she just discarded her robe, and dove into the luke-warm water. She resurfaced immediately, moving her hair out of her face. A quick dunk like that usually served to clear her head a bit, but it had no such effect this morning. Oh well... She'd come down for a swim, not just a quick dip. She didn't know how long she spent in the pool, before she decided she'd better get out, before her fingers started to turn all pruny.

Hands on the edge of the pool, Lara shoved herself upwards, into a handstand. She stayed that way for a moment, before carefully bending one leg down, until her foot touched the floor, close to her head... Uncomfortably close, some might have said, due to the flexibility it took to bend ones self in half. The other foot followed, along with her upper body.

"Very, very, very sexy," said someone to her left, "Mind doin' it again?"

"As a matter of fact, I do mind," Lara replied, not bothering to see who it was. Even if she hadn't recognized the voice, only Kurtis would have made such a request.

"What if I were to say I was curious about what other neat little positions you can get yourself into, while wearin' that little get up?" said Kurtis, stepping towards her, blue eyes dark with lust.

Really wishing that they had time for such things as what she knew he was suggesting, but knowing they didn't, at the moment, anyway, Lara replied with, "I'd say that you really need this, and it's for your own good, to clear your head, you might say..."

Kurtis realized his mistake a moment too late. He'd put himself right in front of the pool... Lara moved too fast for him to try and stop her, dropping down, and swiping his feet out from under him, sending him toppling into the water.

"Bitch," her soaking victim muttered, as he climbed out of the pool.

"You needed it... Other wise you wouldn't have been in the proper mindset for listening to whatever Zip has to say... Go change, I'll see you down in Zip's little hidey-hole."

She turned to leave, but her sopping companion caught her arm, and pulled her back to him, "You'll owe me for that later."

"We'll see."

---------------

"Okay, Zip, please tell me you have some good news," Lara said to her friend, leaning in the door way of his little computer room.

"Actually, as a matter of fact, I do," Zip replied, "I think I've located both of your little artifacts, but it's a matter of getting to them. The shears are in a tomb in Egypt, near Cairo."

"The hell they doin' in Egypt?" Kurtis asked, noting the look of dread that crossed Lara's features for a moment. It was clear she still hadn't quite gotten over what had happened to her. "Shouldn't they be in some nice temple in Greece?"

"They were," Zip replied, "But someone else found them... An archaeologist by the name of Jake Grace... He died last year in Egypt. Part of the tomb collapsed. They got his body out, but they never found his gear."

"And we know he had the shears with him how?" Lara inquired, not looking forward to seeing the pyramids and sands of Egypt again, any time soon, "Couldn't they be in his home?"

"According to what I found on him, he had them all the time... Said they were his lucky charm. I don't think he realized what he found. So, somewhere down in that tomb is his stuff, you just need to find it."

"Any idea why he was there in the first place," Kurtis asked, not sure why he even cared.

Zip shrugged, "He was babbling on to his family about having seen something in there before that reminded him of the markings on his 'lucky charm'. And you're lucky I got that info for you. I had to call the family to find it all out, and they weren't too happy with me asking questions... I eventually found someone willing to give me details on him though. Now, on to the spindle. That should be much easier to get too, actually, if you don't mind security systems. It's in the home of another archaeologist... Again, not someone who knows what he's found. Keeps it in his own private gallery. Unlike you, Lara, he doesn't only collect the mystical items. Keeps just about anything he finds that he likes. Anyway, his little gallery is pretty well secured, and I don't think you're going to convince him that you just want to borrow it for a while. He's in a mansion, built right into the Rockies. Hope you can do some rock climbing Kurtis."

"Where exactly is the mansion?" Lara spoke up, wondering if they even needed to climb.

Zip pointed to his computer screen, where a map of Colorado was shown, their destination marked by a small red dot.

"No need for climbing, in that area," said Lara, "There are all kinds of hiking trails through the woods, though, depending on how far up it is, it may be a better idea to ride, than to walk," she looked up at Kurtis, as Zip smirked, knowing whom she was intending on going to for help, "You can ride a horse can't you?"

Kurtis scoffed, "Duh. It's somethin' you learn, when you live in enough of the southern states, long enough," he smiled a bit, as if remembering something, "Ah, the week I spent in Dallas, Texas was incredibly fun. Painful, and I got more than my share of flyin' lessons, from a bad-tempered sorrel, but it was fun. Don't worry," he added noting her skeptical look, "I can ride. Just keep me away from the ones that aren't quite saddle-broken."

"Ahem," Zip interrupted, "Which shall I arrange transport for first? Boring, and dull sand, or foul-tempered animals, and bitter cold... But I'm sure you'll think of a way to remedy that second one."

Throwing him a glare, Lara said, "Get us a flight to Denver, for tomorrow. We should be able to head out for the mansion by Friday, depending on how badly the jetlag hits us."

"As you wish."

---------------------

"Well, now shall we get her, Joachim?" Gabriel asked, more impatient than ever. "We know where the items are now, we've no more need to let her roam free, causing trouble."

"Patience, Gabriel, my friend," Karel replied, "We'll let them acquire the artifacts... No doubt Ms. Croft's curiosity will get the better of her, and she will go right where we want her too. She'll practically deliver herself for sacrificing. And then this will all have been worth it. "

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Next chapter next thursday, as always.

And happy early birthday to me... 16 tomorrow!