First off... Sooooooo sorry that this is late. Stupid site wouldn't let me upload anything until now... So I devoted my day to setting up a new RolePlaying game... Was hell, lemme tell ya. Stargate SG-1, right, so I was having to remember all these planet names, along with their corresponding SGC numbers... No walk in the park. Coming up with a suitable gaming style isn't easy either.

But enough of that... On with the story, enjoy chapter nine!

Chapter Nine

Thieves in the Night

"Karel, as I said, is a nasty piece of work, and has a cruel sense of humor," said Kurtis, still not looking at Lara, "When I wouldn't tell him where the temple was, at first it was just torture, then when that wouldn't work, he moved on to playin' around in my damned head, bringin' back old memories that I would have liked to have kept buried. Finally... After he'd been threatenin' to do so for a while, he brought you in," he held up a hand to stop her protests that Karel had never touched her. "I know, now of course, it wasn't really you, but I thought it was, then... Anyway, he brought 'you' in. I've learned to tell what's a nephilim, and what's not..."

Karel stood in front of him, an angry-looking Lara tied up in the chair across the room. Any thoughts that this was possibly a trick left his mind, when his gaze met Lara's briefly. If this WAS a trick, it was a damn good one...

Lara knew as well. The eyes. When Karel had turned into Kurtis, in the Strahov, it had frightened her, true, almost to the point that she wondered if there was really a Kurtis Trent at all. Then she remembered his eyes. Kurtis' were full of life, and passion... Karel's were soulless, empty. She nodded, signaling him to continue, as she nudged Gunpowder with a booted heel to make him pick up the pace a bit. He'd been lagging behind.

"Whatever the 'you' was, it wasn't nephilim. Karel made me watch while they tortured 'you'...For hours."

Kurtis tried to turn his head away, so he couldn't see what was happening, but one of the bastard's lackeys held his head in place, forcing him to keep his eyes open by way of a rather sharp screw being driven into his back, every time he so much as blinked. He wanted to tell Karel where the temple was... Had, since he'd seen Lara, but she kept telling him not to. To not give Karel what he wanted. And every time she did, the nephilim only hurt her more, though the woman never uttered even the slightest gasp of pain. The tomb raider was certainly doing better than he was... Weeks of such treatment had left him unable to resist crying out. Every cry that Lara held in, Kurtis somehow let out, as he watched the bruises form on her lovely face, from Karel's blows... Or the blood form pools on the floor, as it dripped from her body...

"God, Lara, by the time he'd finished..."

Lara sat slumped in her chair, trembling, blood-soaked, bruised, broken... Her auburn-brunette hair was matted and sticky with her own blood, her fingers all sat at odd angles, each having been broken at least once by the creature that circled her, smiling like a madman. Her breathing was raspy, and blood ran from her nose, and down her chin, as she breathed, telling Kurtis the cracks he'd heard before, when Karel'd had her on the floor, kicking her, had been ribs breaking... And the broken bones had punctured her lungs. She raised her head to look at him, her face was barely recognizable under the bruising. She shook her head, slightly, seeing that he was ready to give in...

"When the not-you finally broke, and screamed, and cried... I told Karel where the damn temple was."

So, Kurtis still said not a word, despite his heart warning him that if he let Lara die, he was going to regret it for the rest of his life... Then, Karel took Lara's head in his hands, and closed his eyes. It was only seconds, before whatever he was doing had an effect on the woman. She screamed. It was a truly bone-chilling sound. Whether the scream was of physical pain, or emotional, he wasn't sure, he just knew he wanted Karel to stop whatever he was doing.

To just leave Lara alone. After what seemed like an eternity, Karel opened his eyes, and took his hands away from Lara. The woman fell forward, broken hands over her ears, as she sobbed. Her entire frail body shook, as she cried, and screamed. Karel had to have shown her something... something awful... The sight before him now, more than anything else he'd seen in the hours of torture, tore at his heart...

Karel moved to do what-ever-it-was, again, pausing only briefly to see if Kurtis would speak. The Lux Veritatis warrior hesitated a moment too long, and Lara let out that heartwrenching scream again.

Kurtis shouted at the nephilim to stop. Eyes on the crying woman before him, he told Karel what he wanted to know. Where the temple was. His brain asked him why he was doing this... Giving potentially dangerous items to Karel on a silver platter. Because of Lara. Because to not tell only caused her more pain. He hadn't spoken before, because she had remained strong... Seemed even Miss Croft had her limits. Grinning evilly, now that he had the information he wanted, Karel pulled a small knife from seemingly out of nowhere. Kurtis' eyes widened as he plunged the knife into an unsuspecting Lara's chest... into her heart.

"Then it all just disappeared... You, the blood that was everywhere. All just went poof. Karel was still there of course, smilin' like a chesire cat. Took me a minute to realize it hadn't been real, and that I'd given up information that was rather important, considering... Hated myself afterwards, for fallin' for it. For tellin' Karel where that temple was, for givin' in."

Kurtis struggled against the bonds holding him in place, as Lara's limp, lifeless body slid from the chair, to hit the floor... Blood pooled around her, as her lifeless eyes stared at Kurtis...

Then it was gone. He blinked, and it was all gone. The blood, the tools Karel had used, Lara's body, it was all gone. It took a moment before the reality hit him. He'd allowed himself to be tricked into talking. True, it was a convincing illusion, but it was still just that, an illusion. And he'd fallen for it. Had he not been tied to a chair, he'd have promptly slammed his head into a wall, for having been so stupid.

And yet, he'd do it again, he realized. If there was even the slightest chance it was real, the slightest chance that information he had could help Lara, he'd do it again in a heartbeat.

A moment before he nudged Ricochet into a fast trot, Lara heard him mutter, "And scariest of all was, I did it for you."

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

They arrived at their destination at exactly the right time. Hidden by the trees, and the coming night, Lara and Kurtis- and through the cams, Zip and Alister- watched as the archaeologist, Trevor Felman, got into his SUV, along with his wife, and two small children. Ignoring Kurtis' muttered complaints about not having been able to drive up, Lara waited for the vehicle to start on it's way down the mountain before she spoke.

"Right, Zip, how many guards are there tonight?"

"According to the cameras, only three, but they're in potentially problematic areas."

"Like where?" Kurtis asked. He still wasn't used to working as part of a team, after having been working alone for so long.

"Like right in front of your entrance route, and your escape route, and the third is in the gallery its self. And pardon me, there's four. There's always one in the monitor room."

"Oh...Joy..."

"No problem," Lara said, countering Kurtis' rather sarcastic response, "The great and powerful Oz, here," she looked at Kurtis, so her friends could see who she meant, though she was sure they already knew, "Can take care of them."

"Me, why?"

"Levitate something, and drop it on their heads, simple enough. Won't know what hit them. Neither will anyone watching on the security monitors, thanks to Zip."

Sighing, Kurtis muttered a few obscenities under his breath, as he and his partner left their mounts where they wouldn't be seen, and creeped closer to the house. Mansion was more the word for it. It was built right into the mountain, two and a half of its four sides, hidden by the rocks. The owner was either very stupid, or very confident in the work of his security guards, for there wasn't so much as a fence around the place, making the job of the two thieves slinking around in the dark, all the easier. Just as Zip had said, there was a guard right in front of their way in. The way in being a hidden door, in the side of the building, that opened into a crawlspace, that led up into the ceiling of the upper floor, where their target rested. Judging from the age of the place, Lara guessed the passage had been made as a way of either smuggling things in, or out, or both.

What its past purposes had been made little difference. Tonight it was being used as a way to get into the place undetected. Having agreed before arriving that they would do as little speaking as was possible, to avoid someone hearing them, Lara knew Kurtis was in her head. So, she told him what to do, via mental connection. Knock the guard out, pure and simple. It was simple, actually. There was a stack of bricks by the wall, right behind the guard. He never even knew he'd been hit, for the moment the brick Kurtis had levitated until it reached about a foot over his head, struck him, he dropped like a-...well, brick.

Needing no words or thoughts to say what was next, both Lara and Kurtis made their way to the wall, looking for the door. Kurtis found it. It was hidden behind a rather dead bush, just to the left of where the formerly conscious guard had been standing. Calling it a door was generous. Just a bit of wood with hinges added, and a fraying old rope as a handle. It opened with a creak, when Kurtis tugged on the rope, and said rope broke, and disentgrated in his hand. Least they knew no one bothered to use this enough to have replaced the rope... The crawlspace was just that... Maybe three-and-a-half, four feet at most, from floor to ceiling, and it was dark, and dusty, and, in contrast to the air outside, uncomfortably warm.

Sneezing, Lara pulled off her coat, as it would have been a hindrance, for what she'd have to be doing later. Not wanting to leave it behind, she stuffed it in her backpack. Kurtis had left his tied to Ricochet's saddle. He considered asking Lara why she hadn't had the sense to do the same, but thought better of it. In that small of an area, he'd have no way to escape her wrath.

Two near misses, from falling through the floor of the little space, and several sneezing fits, from them both -(due to all the dust and cobwebs)-, later, they were above the second floor. Unfortunately, the crawlspace didn't go all the way to the gallery... Just to the hallway before it. Lara dropped down first, as always, silent as a cat. Kurtis followed, with an only slightly more noisy entrance than his counterpart. This was why Kurtis hadn't wanted to come in this way. The laser hallway. The keypad to turning the lasers off was on the other side of said lasers, making disabling them before they had to go through a bit of a problem. Still, it would be interesting to see what Lara was going to do to get past them. As had been planned ahead of time, he used his farsee to search ahead for the pass code. He found it on the desk of the owner 32-23-42-16.

Going back to his body, he informed Lara of the code. She nodded, and moved to stand directly in front of the first laser beam. She stepped high, to get over it, and as she brought her other foot to the ground, she ducked, to avoid the beam that was running back and forth. She crawled under the next few, not more than an inch of clearance between her head and the red beams. She jumped over the next, with ease. So on Lara went, until she came to the final set. The main reason for Kurtis not liking this hall.

The group of beams in front of Lara formed a chain-link-like pattern, and left no room to go under, around, or through. The only way past was to climb one of the stone columns that stood at even intervals along the wall. From the column, she could grab the wooden beam that ran down the center of the ceiling, and simply go over the grid. Before she started her climb, Lara took a breather.

Climbing was the easy part. It would be succeeding in getting safely over the lasers that would be the problem. At the top of the column, she reached out, and grabbed the wooden beam. There was just enough room between the ceiling, and the top of the beam for her fingers, allowing her a good hold. The clearance between the ceiling, and the laser grid, however, not as much as she had thought. Grumbling, she let go of the beam with one hand, and tucked her braid into the back of her black sweater. Couldn't have her hair screwing things up. A solution to the space problem in mind, Lara shimmied sideways, until her feet hung only inches away from the laser grid. She swung forward, pressing her feet firmly against the wall, before walking up it a bit, until her entire body was high enough that she could get over the grid.

She inched over, little by little, struggling to keep her feet against the wall. For a moment she thought she might get across with no mishaps. But then, that would be too much to ask wouldn't it? She was almost over, when one foot slipped. Even from all the way down the hall, she heard Kurtis' sharp intake of breath, as they both waited for her to fall. But only the one foot slipped, the toe of her boot hanging not even an inch from the top of the lasers. Far too close for comfort.

Taking a deep breath, Lara brought her foot back up against the wall, and continued, for a moment, before it was safe to to drop down on the other side. The drop was actually too far of a drop, but she didn't want to waste time climbing down. Didn't hurt that much, at least, just a momentary flare of pain through her feet, up her legs, and spine. Pausing a moment, waiting for the pain to subside, Lara reminded herself of the pass code. Code typed into the keypad, the lasers deactivated with a low buzz, allowing Kurtis free passage down the hall. For a moment, not even a second, really, Lara found herself thinking that if it had just been her, there would have been no reason to deactivate them in the first place, and she could have just gone right through the door, instead of waiting.

Unfortunately, that split second was enough for Kurtis to catch the gist of her thoughts. She expected a glare, or even a few nasty thoughts, when Kurtis reached her. Instead, all she got was; Hey, I ain't used to workin' with someone else like this either... Oh and for the record, I'm not an expert gymnast.

Lara rolled her eyes at the last bit, and with a confident smirk to rival even Kurtis', she opened the door that led into the gallery. The case holding the spindle would be in the center of the room, amidst all the other displays. The problem with getting it out? If anyone so much as breathed on the case while the alarms were activated, said alarms would go off, alerting anyone within hearing distance of their presence. So, the first order of business? To get rid of the guard, and to shut down the alarms.

The guard in here was female, though it seemed Kurtis didn't care, for she was taken care of in much the same fashion, only with no brick this time. Instead, the tool was a rather large book, dropped on the woman's head.

"Oooh, nice shot!" Zip said in their ears.

Neither Lara nor Kurtis replied, wanting to keep quiet, in case anyone was around that Zip hadn't noticed on the security monitors he was no doubt looking at right then. Shutting off the alarm was easy enough. All they needed was the keycard that the guard had clipped to the front of her shirt, and all alarms were turned off. Simple. Now to find the item they were after.

It didn't take long, for all the the gallery was large. Had the man who'd collected all these artifacts been a collector of the mystical items, it might have taken longer, for Lara might have been tempted to take a few extra things for her own collection, but most of what was there was broken pottery, ancient tools, maybe a few idols- nothing but copies of originals that Lara already had- stone tablets with worn down writing on them. The normal things in which Lara had no interest.

Both she and her partner had to admit, the spindle was a little underwhelming. It was beautiful, for such a simple tool, true, with ornate designs carved into the wood, as well as a few words, that had been worn down over the years until they were impossible to read, but still, for something that supposedly held the power to create life, it didn't hold an aura of power and mystery, like many of the objects that Lara had collected. She could see why this tool had been mistaken for an every day ancient spinning tool... It looked the part.

Now came another job for Kurtis. The top of the case could be opened, but the top was too high to reach, and Lara didn't fancy having to break the case. It might draw the attention of the third, and fourth guards, before she and Kurtis were ready to deal with them. So, all that had to be done was to move the top of the case, then levitate the spindle out through the opening. It was all too easy, really. The little wooden object floated neatly into Lara's waiting hand, as Kurtis simply leaned against another case, as if he wasn't doing a thing.

Oh the cleverness of you, Lara thought, tucking the item into her backpack.

Yes, the cleverness of me, indeed.

"Uh... Guys... " said Zip, "We've a slight problem... I just came across something you should know about... All the artifacts are on pressure plates..."

"No problem," said Kurtis, "We already took care of the alarm..."

"Yeah, the one for the cases not-" he was cut off by the blaring sound of an alarm going off, "-that one..."

"Shit," Lara spat, "Well, have to give Mr. Felman props for his thorough security... Let's go. We'll get out the quick way, no need for stealth now...which way are they coming from Zip?"

"Ah, just go back the way you came, and you'll be good," Zip replied. Lara could hear him typing like mad, "They're coming from the opposite direction, so you should beat them out of the place, no problem. They'll never even see you, if you hurry."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Kurtis said, "Let's get out of here, the alarm is giving me a headache." Without further ado, he grabbed Lara's hand, and hauled her towards the exit.

They exited through the front door of the mansion several minutes both laughing at the images their minds conjured up, upon thinking of what the guards might look like, when they saw a whole display case, no evidence of anyone having hung from the ceiling to get to it, the alarms deactivated, and no apparent forced entry.

Surely their confusion would be priceless. And best of all would be them wondering just how it was that they hadn't even seen anyone come in, on the cameras... After all, Zip would make sure that no one would ever know the cameras had been tampered with, nor would anyone be able to find who'd done the tampering, if by some miracle, it was discovered.

Oh well, too bad they wouldn't get to see. Though Zip had, for he was howling with laughter, in their ears, commenting on how he'd never seen a more confused pair of men in his life, as they checked the house.

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

"So one down," said Kurtis, tossing the spindle back and forth in his hands, once they were back in their hotel room, a few hours later, after they'd both showered- separately, despite Zip's commentary, when Lara had told him it would be a while before she could call him, and Alister- "One to go. What're we gonna do with 'em when we have the shears? We keep 'em, and Karel will certainly come after us again."

Lara shrugged, "Haven't thought that far ahead yet," she replied, though her thoughts wandered to the large double doors in the House of Fate... The ones that led to the chamber of Fate, "But I think these are some of the few things I just want to put back where they belong, and be done with them."

"Back where they belong? As in, back to Greece, in that temple?"

"More specifically, in the chamber with the warning that if you go in, you'll be erased from existence," Lara said it, as if it were as normal as taking a walk through the park, "Maybe that will discourage Karel from going after them."

"It should discourage us from putting them there to begin with," Kurtis muttered.

"Well, if you don't want to go in, I'll do it alone," her tone was teasing, but it still caused Kurtis to grimace a bit.

"Perhaps I should, if you work so much better on your own," he hadn't meant to snap. He hadn't even meant to say it aloud. He didn't even know why her earlier thoughts were just now getting to him...

Lara winced, "I didn't mean that," Kurtis snapped to attention... Was she apologizing, when he was the one who'd spoken without thinking? "What you heard earlier, about it being easier alone... Well, alright so I did mean it. But that doesn't mean that's what I want. This whole thing just takes getting used to..."

"Yeah... Kinda does, doesn't it?" knowing things were going to be uncomfortable for at least the rest of the night, Kurtis put them back on the track of their job, "So, going to call Zip?"

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

Gabriel wasn't at all happy. First, they needed to wait, for the mortals to find the locations of the artifacts, and to figure out the meaning of the prophecy. Well, they'd done that. Then, they couldn't just grab the woman, kill the male, get the items, and be done with it. No, they had to let the mortals get the artifacts, and take them to the proper destination before they interfered. Gabriel had never been a patient man, and he was even less so of late, with the rebirth of his brethren drawing nearer, and just waiting for the damned humans to work things out was taking far too long.

And now, worst of all, Joachim had him playing the little mind games with them..."To keep them unsuspecting of our plans" the older nephilim had told him, when he'd given him his current job. Well, Gabriel would do his job... Though who was to say what would happen if the humans put up too much of a fight? His hand could slip while he was "scaring" them. The Lux Veritatis could easily end up accidentally dead, and of course, if he were dead, why not go ahead and take the woman? Take her to Joachim, and force her to get the shears for them, before they killed her...

Gabriel smirked, as he stood next to the two sleeping forms.

Yes, accidents could happen.

And yes, accidents would happen.

Perhaps this job wasn't so bad after all.

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Gabriel's being a naughty boy...