Author's Note: Seriously, if you haven't already, go read Graves. It provides a lot of backstory and, personally, I think it's a fun read. ..I might be a little biased because I wrote it, but hey, you're already reading this so you might as well know who these people are. Um, also, sorry about chapter 7. It's quality is just not up to snuff, and I'd like to apologize for that because I wrote it entirely while I was in that strange zone of still drunk/hungover. That's my bad, and I might go back to rewrite it, but I really just want to continue with this(And hopefully this one makes up for it). The ending is not far now for this, and I hope at least some of your questions are answered now. Thank you for reading, and I'd appreciate a review if you've gotten this far. But, if not, then simply enjoy the read! -Foxinstrazt

Chapter 8

-Miseries-

Uncharted Island, Northern Pacific Ocean

April, 2014

The first rays of the dawn were just beginning to appear across the sky when Lara saw the entrance to the cave, set into the rock in a way that would have hidden it from the first look of any passerby. It had rained lightly during the night, a drizzle that had persisted for hours as she led the group back the way they had came, minus one of it's members. No words had been exchanged between them as they ran through the forest, drops of water falling from where they were perched on leaves to the ground below. But morning had come, leaving a sky filled only with white clouds and the promise of shelter ahead as she entered the cave, not slowing until she reached where they had rested the night before.

Stopping to place her hands upon her knees and attempt to find her breath again, Lara watched as Ali and Tiane followed through behind her, both of them collapsing near the entrance to sit against the wall. They looked worn down, from the loss of their friend and the run that had carried them away from the enemy encampment. Ashlee was the last one in, the fury in his features no less etched than it had been hours ago when she had pulled him from the brink of the ledge. Despite being as out of breath as the rest of them, he didn't stop, only turning on his heel to pace the small cavern they had entered. "Dammit!" The scream was filled with so much rage it drew all their gazes, pulling the rest of them from their own thoughts to focus on the man.

"Graves-" Ali's voice was quiet, and the look on her face turned quickly from sympathy to surprise as the man turned and yelled at her.

"No!" Throwing his arms out, he didn't seem to be directing his anger at the woman, but throwing it off to whatever he could in a desperate attempt to be rid of it. "I brought a hacker to an island in the middle of fucking nowhere! What the fuck was I thinking?!" Stepping back into the nearest wall, Ashlee slid down until he found a seated position, placing his elbows against his knees and sinking his head into his hands. When he finally spoke again, it was quiet, and carried the first signs of breaking. "Sorry, I just.."

Lara moved over to place her hand upon the grieving man's shoulder gently as he trailed off, and it brought his eyes to her. She held his gaze, feeling nothing but sympathy for him as he suffered through what she had. After a moment, his hazel eyes slid closed and he nodded, once again bracing his forehead against his hands. Looking to the others, she spoke up. "We need to get to Quinn's camp. Regroup, and figure out what to do next." She hated herself for saying it, for being the one who had to force emotion out of the equation, but the others did not share in her hate.

Alison glanced at her, only for a second, before the woman rose to her feet and turned to offer her hands to the large man still sitting. "C'mon, Tiane. On your feet." The islander did not refuse her gesture, taking the smaller hands in his own massive palms to be pulled up. His dark eyes found Lara's, and the nod he gave her wrenched another knot through her stomach. They left the same way they had come, back into the sunlight that was just now starting to shine through into the cave. Lara took three steps in their direction before stopping to look at the man still sitting.

"..Ashlee." He looked up, his face expressionless as he put his hands on the ground beneath him and pushed himself up to his feet. The steps he took were uncertain, a trait he had never before displayed to her.

Stopping near her, he did not meet her gaze as he spoke. "I'm getting you off this island, Lara. No matter what."

Shaking her head, she fought the urge to laugh at the notion he was worried about her in a time like this. "Why?" That single word caught his attention, and he looked at her. "Why is it so important that you save me?"

The green of his eyes clashed with the brown as the light caught them, and he seemed to be struggling with himself before his answer came. "I promised Sam."

Ashlee smiled as the small Asian girl watched Lara leave the room, the woman admiring the view of her friend's backside in a way that left little for him to wonder on her thoughts. He opened the door for Alison, who as carrying the briefcases that contained both the artifacts and the notes Lara had labored over for the last day or so. His friend paused only to grin over at the other woman. "See ya, Sam! It was nice meeting you."

"See you, Ali!" Sam turned and waved goodbye as Ali stepped through the portal, leaving him to close the door behind her with a chuckle. Staring at the doorknob in his hand, he searched for something to say to the woman he was tearing Lara away from, a sentiment that could make up for what he was doing. Nothing truly noble came to mind, and so he instead went with his gut.

"I'm am sorry for offering her the job, but I do think it'll be for the best." He met Sam's eyes, and saw the pain in them mixed with understanding as she shook her head, black hair falling over her face as she did.

"Just..keep an eye on her." He could actually see how it was tearing at the woman's heart to ask him this, the way she clutched at her chest. He could hear it in her voice, how close to breaking it truly was. Ashlee was pulling the woman she loved out of her life to do who knew what, and she was trying not to hate him for it. It spoke volumes of her character to him, and he found himself in thoughts he had frequently had since escaping prison. I wish I had someone like Sam to come back to. "Promise me she'll make it back, Ashlee." Leaning heavily on the doorway, he closed his eyes and bowed his head, hearing the request he had feared since the moment he had seen the way Lara looked at the girl.

The sun was almost directly above them by the time Ashlee spotted the new camp the crew had moved too, sitting on a bluff that overlooked much of the nearby terrain. They had taken the trail through the cliffs on the other side of the beach, pushing on through the treacherous paths of the island to reach the forest that now stood between them and the rest of the crew. It took several more hours to hike through the forest to reach the entrance to the camp. He tried his hardest to ignore the whispers of the crew as they strode past, the news of their failure already filtering through the ranks in a way that made his blood boil. Not a hard thing to do to a murderer like you, Lesley.

Shaking his head as he pushed a crewman out of his path, he moved with purpose toward the canopy that sat on the edge of the cliff, and the man who stood beneath it. Quinn's dark eyes rose as they neared, widening before his expression settled into one that resembled a rock more than anything else as the man noticed the lack of one of their members. "I see. Did you find any sign of my children?"

"No." He saw the supply container that his employer was using as a makeshift table, and the logbook atop it that was being used to compile a list of what supplies they actually had. "Where do we stand now?"

Galeforth cleared his throat, pushing aside whatever emotions he was feeling and resuming his study of the book as if it were business as usual. "I activated the emergency beacon once we made landfall, so help should be on the way."

"It won't do much good with Corin parking his ass on the beach." Alison's voice drew both of their gazes as she commented on their situation.

"And I only have a fraction of my security personnel, so a head on confrontation is not preferable. Most of them are guarding the camp, as well. There is good news though." The older man straightened and looked over their ragtag group with an appraising gaze. "I sent ten men out to scout for a better place to set up our base camp, and they radioed back that they had found ruins of some sort just North of here. They said they were going to investigate, but at least we may have actually found what we set out to."

"How long ago was this?" Ashlee's question prompted Galeforth to look down at the watch on his wrist, the man narrowing in a way that seemed to grow his wrinkles.

"Several hours."

"Alright." Tossing a glance back at what remained of his group, he saw that all three of them were watching him. "If they aren't back by morning, I'll go check out the ruins myself."

"Maybe we should dial it back a bit?" Ali moved forward, raising a hand as if to touch his arm.

He stepped away from her, hardening himself against the grief that once again attempted to assault his mind. "No. There will by time to mourn later. Right now, we need to focus on getting everyone off this island in one piece." Rubbing his eyes against the fatigue that gripped him, he looked back to Quinn. "Are there any tents available?"

"Yes, I had your belongings sent to a few tents on the far side of the camp." Ashlee looked back and waved off the rest of his group, watching them go before he stepped through the canopy to the edge of the bluff, looking out over the forest below. "What went wrong?"

"There was no way to get into the camp without being seen, and we were lucky to get away as it is." The sun was already starting to descend towards the horizon as he watched, glaring at the burning orb as if his anger could destroy it. Turning back, he moved to follow the others, not looking his employer in the eye as he strode past. "Excuse me, Quinn. I need to get some rest."

The tablet was draped over her lap, being maddeningly unhelpful as she stared at it. None of the books offered any explanation to the symbols carved into the bottom of the stone, and it didn't reveal any glow as it had just before they had found this island. Scoffing at her hopes to see it happen again, Lara shook her head. "You're going crazy, Croft."

The flap of her tent was thrown open as Ashlee poked his head in, his eyes finding her in an instant before focusing on the tablet. "Find anything new about it?"

Shaking her head, she pushed the stone off of her lap and sighed. "There seems to be almost no connection between it and the island, but maybe those ruins will tell me something."

"You'll figure it out." The man's words brought her gaze back to him, raising an eyebrow. "Don't lose faith in that."

"And how could you possibly know that?"

"You're a Croft, it's what you do." It was the closest the man had come to a smile in the hours since Fang had been killed, just a small twitch at the corner of his lips that told her of his appreciation for her earlier efforts. "You should get some sleep. 'Night, Lara."

Feeling her lips stretch upwards, she gave a slight nod of her head. "Goodnight, Graves."

She was awakened the next morning by the sound of someone stepping into her tent, bringing her back to the world of awareness as every instinct within her body began to tingle. The headache that had granted her mercy the day before had returned with a vengeance as she rose to greet the visitor. Opening her eyes, she blinked away the blur before focusing on what she was seeing, the strange garb that the man wore. A dark hooded vest left his chest exposed, displayed a necklace filled with various pieces of metal with writing too intricate for her to identify in her current state. A grayed shawl was draped over his neck, hanging loosely about his torso as he regarded her with a sneer.

The white paint present on his arms slammed the realization home to her as she scrambled out of her sleeping bag, grabbing at the holster beside her to pull the pistol from it, aiming it at him as fear began to spread out from her chest. He raised a gun in her direction as well, the design of it so familiar that it brought a pang of longing and hatred to her chest as she recognized it as the twin of the one she was holding. "Don't think you are special, girl. Any animal will fight when it's very survival is at stake. And you are no better than an animal, because the fight for survival broke you."

Lara's hands shook in response to the words, to the claims that she was broken, as she screamed at him. "You're dead, I killed you!"

He let loose a laugh that chilled her entire body, his chest shaking from the effort before affixing her with his mocking gaze again. "Do you really think you can save Sam from the coming storm? From the fate that has already been decided?"

"I already saved her! I killed you, and carried her from that island!" Her words were screamed out as she moved her finger to the trigger, struggling internally as she felt the pieces she had slowly tried to place back together in the last year shatter and fall back to the ground. The tent's flap was thrown open, revealing Ashlee as he stepped in, looking at Mathias before his eyes found her, widening in surprise.

The man raised his hands and backed up, her confusion only growing as he spoke. "Whoa! ..What's going on in here?"

In that moment, everything changed. The world seemed to melt away to show her a different scene than before, to show her that she was aiming the pistol at Alison, who had her hands up and was screaming at her. "Lara, put the gun down!"

"But, you were.." She slowly lowered the weapon, her entire body trembling as she tried to explain what was happening. She found herself lacking a clear answer, unsure of what had just transpired. "He was saying that Sam.." Ashlee was nodding and making noises of agreement as he approached, and the man only gave a breath of relief as he snatched the gun from her hands, causing her to jump.

Checking to see if there was a round chambered in the pistol, Ashlee sighed as he looked at her. Even in her current state, she hated the look that he gave her, that pitying expression. "Lara.. Why did you come along if it was this bad?"

"It wasnt! I.. This hasn't happened before!"

The man didn't acknowledge her words right away, glancing back at the other woman. "Ali, you alright?" With her green eyes filled with concern, the woman nodded.

"I started hearing voices the first night on the island.. People who are dead." Her admission brought Ashlee's attention back to her, and prompted the woman she had been about to shoot to speak up.

"You haven't heard voices before?"

The surprise evident in the others voice would have made her laugh in any normal circumstance, but she could not manage to find the humor in the current situation. "No, I had nightmares. But nothing like this.. I'm sorry, I-"

"I've been hearing voices too." Ashlee's words stole any thought of what she was going to say next from her mind as she looked at him. "My father's."

"Great." Ali let out a humorless laugh, throwing up her hands. "Everyone's going crazy then."

Lara's mind raced with the new information, stretching past a thousand different possibilities before settling onto the only likely one as the man in front of her slid the weapon he had taken from her back into it's holster. "It's the island. There's something here messing with people. Graves and I are hearing voices, Corin's men killing each other. It's all connected."

Alison scoffed, shaking her head. "Some 'thing'? Well, I have yet to hear any voices, so I'm just going to assume you guys are the crazy ones before we leap to the 'Insane Island Theory'." Opening her mind to deliver a quick retort to the woman's words, Lara wasn't interrupted by any sound she had heard before. The closest she could compare it to was a thunderclap as the very air seemed to shatter above them. It was deafening, and she could feel it reverberate throughout her entire body. Clutching at her ears in pain against the ringing that sprung up in the aftermath of the explosion, she could see the tent's two other occupants doing the same.

Over the course of the next minute, hearing slowly began to return to her, and she became aware of the gunfire just outside her tent. It sounded as if the entire encampment had become embroiled in fierce combat, with shots ringing out all over, accompanied by the screams of the dying. Ashlee was the first to react, running to exit the enclosure, and Lara was right on his heels, breaking out into the morning air to a grisly sight. The crew, everywhere she looked, was butchering each other in a vicious frenzy that seemed inhuman from the moment she set her eyes upon it.

Some were desperately trying to fend off the assaults, only to fall beneath merciless blows or be cowed by a rifle emptied into their bodies. One of the security personnel started firing his weapon in their direction, but Alison was quick enough that they avoided injury, ripping the pistol she had strapped to her thigh out of it's holster and killing the man with a single shot. It seemed to die down as quickly as it had started as those that had gone berserk turned on each other, tearing one another apart as they stood helpless to stop them. One man, a deckhand by the look of his clothes, charged them, grabbing at Ashlee from behind.

The thief might have lacked the same fury as his attacker, but he was quick and precise in his moments, spinning and throwing the man's hands wide away from him before kicking him back. "Get a grip!" A crazed growl was the only response he received as the crewman picked himself up off the ground and started to charge again. Lara did not wait for him to come to his senses, having seen what the others had done to each other. She pulled the pistol from her thigh, chambered a round by slamming the slide back, and took aim. It took three shots to the chest to bring the man down, dropping him just near her friend's feet. When Ashlee looked back at her with a questioning expression, she shook her head, knowing that there was no saving a man who was that far gone.

He didn't seem to want to argue the point, instead cupping his hands together and bringing them to his mouth. "Tiane!"

"Graves!" The large man's voice guided them towards the canopy that stood near the edge of the bluff, where the islander was crouched above another man. It wasn't until Lara was near that she could see past the man's massive frame to identify the one who was on the ground. It was Quinn Galeforth, his chest a mess of holes that were leaking blood faster than she had thought was possible.

She didn't know if it was the sight of an old friend suffering, or the pathetic sputtering noise that the dying man was making, but Ashlee pushed her aside, reaching up to tug the gun from it's place on his chest. He raised it slowly, and from where she stood, she could see that both of the men were staring at one another. There were no words for him to say as he pulled the trigger, ending the agony for the man on the ground, and it was silent until the woman behind her began yelling.

"What the fuck is happening?!"

Alison's panicked yells tore all but Tiane's attention away from Galeforth's body, and Lara was the one who answered the question. "It's the island." Looking between the various looks she received for her statement, she continued. "Think about it. Graves and I start hearing voices, and what just happened here. Something on this island is trying to kill us."

"She is right. There is a will here that broke these men." Tiane was the one who spoke in her support, turning only to gesture to the ruins of the encampment. "Quinn was hit before I could lift a finger."

Ashlee laid a hand upon his big friend's shoulder, his hazel eyes searching the ground before nodding. "Whatever is happening, we need to keep a clear head. We need to stick together and keep each other on point.. The ruins North of here might have some answers."

"No." Alison's refusal once again drew the gaze of the rest of them, as she shook her head. "I don't believe it."

"Ali, there is something going on that isn't normal."

"Get back to reality, Graves. Because you're getting your information from a girl who almost just shot because she thought I was a man she killed, not even five minutes ago." The snarl and the dig at her caused Lara to speak up.

"You have to admit something-"

"I don't have to admit shit. You're the one who got us into this mess in the first place, and now Fang and Quinn are dead. His children are either dead or captured." It looked as if the woman was about to give up when Ashlee opened his mouth, returning the fury to Alison's eyes. "You can go exploring ruins or whatever the fuck you want to do, but I'm going to save Olivia and Aiden. It was the last thing he asked of me, and I'll be damned if the entire Galeforth family dies here because of me."

The woman was gone then, stepping over the bodies that were still warm beneath her as she picked her way through the camp, her mind made and her course set. Ashlee was the only other one who moved, kicking over the body of a security officer to take the rifle off of the corpse, pausing to check it's magazine. "I'm going after her."

"Then so are we." Lara's words brought his eyes up, and the man shook his head.

"No, Ali was right about one thing: We need to get to those ruins and figure out what the hell is going on here." Loading the magazine back into his new weapon, the thief met her eyes, looking as if he wanted to say something more to her. "Tiane, make sure Lara gets there." With that, he followed after his friend, leaving her alone with the islander who was staring at the body of his former employer.

The densely forested region was easily negotiated with Tiane's machete leading their way. He had said no words since they had left the carnage of the camp behind, the man's already quiet demeanor becoming a stoic silence that set Lara on edge. Looking up, she saw that the sun was directly overhead, mercilessly heating the world below without a care to their discomfort, causing sweat to stick her clothing to her in all the worst places. The day before had been cool, and when they had begun their exodus from the ruined encampment, she had grabbed the leather jacket from her duffel when they had stopped by her tent to retrieve the tablet and her notes on translation the Atlantian language.

Now, she was regretting it as the jacket only provided to bake what it covered, making her savor the few moments she spent under the shade of the forest's canopy. Her thoughts consumed common sense, and she was left unaware of the danger they had wandered into until an explosion shook the ground. It left her blind as well, seeing only a bright white light in place of the world she had been studying before as she stumbled back. A rough hand pushed her to the ground as she struggled to get away, her vision fading into a blurry representation of what she was seeing.

It was one of Corin's men, the dark green camouflage uniform easily identifiable even in her disorientation. The rifle aimed at her was ready to fire, and she tried her best to prepare for death before the blade of a machete burst from the man's chest, showering her in blood. It disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, and the body fell away to reveal Tiane with a fierce growl evident in his features as he spun to cleave another of the soldiers almost in half with his massive weapon. Turning back to her, he reached out a hand to pull her up before a shot rang out, his dark eyes going wide as he stumbled into her, nearly taking them both down.

The islander turned to face their newest attacker, affording Lara a view of the bleeding hole that was now present on the man's back as another crack shattered the quiet of the island. Tiane was not dissuaded from his goal as he was shot again, growling out with a fury that she had never expected the usually calm man to hold. Still disoriented and half blind, she looked past her protector to see the last of the soldiers who had ambushed them firing a pistol in their direction, the man's eyes wide with fear as his target did not slow his advance as a fourth and fifth shot found their mark.

Backing the man up into a tree, the gun clicked empty as Tiane raised his machete in a reverse grip with both hands, plunging it down into the mercenary's chest with a scream of fury that lingered upon the air before dying away. Falling to his knees, the massive man who had been assigned to protect her fell sideways, as still as his victim, who sat impaled to the tree behind him. Finally managing to pull the pistol from her thigh, she ran over, falling twice before she reached her companion.

In spite of the anger that had been present in his final moments, Tiane held an expression of peace upon his features, leaving her alone against enemies that could be closing in. Falling past the man's body, she raised her pistol and scanned the surrounding forest for any sign of the mercenaries from her back, finally finding herself able to focus on a single object as her head tried to break itself open. She pushed everything down. The fear from her vision of Mathias, the grief over the loss of Fang, and now Tiane, and the desire to fall into memories of other times when she was left alone against overwhelming odds.

Scrambling to her feet and wrapping a hand around the handle of the briefcase, she pressed on through the woods, heading in the direction she had been before the ambush. It was not long until she could see the crumbling pillars of stone that had been overgrown with moss, peeking out from above the trees in a way that drew her gaze upwards. Sliding her weapon back into it's home on her thigh, she pulled the axe from her belt and moved towards the cliff that the ruins sat atop. Jumping before slamming the edge of the axe into the rock face, she found a good hold for her feet and free hand before ripping it out and stabbing it back into the stone, pulling herself up to a new height. She repeated the motion until it brought her to the edge of the cliff, where she could hook it back to her belt and pull herself over onto flat ground.

The sight she was treated to was one that ignited her sense of wonder, as she saw the lines of pillars that formed an ancient courtyard. Both sides of the stone paths flanked a statue that stood in the middle of the ensemble, looking as if it was carved yesterday. It depicted a young woman sitting upon a throne, a lazy hand raised to rest her head against while the other held an open book in her lap. The inscription upon the base of the monument drew her forward until she tripped over something beneath her. Glancing down as she pushed herself back up, she saw the bodies of the men Galeforth had sent to investigate these ruins, their deaths as visceral as she had seen back in the camp. Several were on each other, bladed weapons used in close quarters to paint a stylized picture of red on the environment around them.

Lara bit her bottom lip against the fear of being alone, choosing instead to press forward, to continue her investigation and finish the mission Ashlee had given her. Stepping carefully past the rest of the corpses, she found herself before the statue before long, the symbols carved into their base easily read in a way they hadn't been before. 'Atlantia, Goddess of Memories.' Running a hand over the etched carvings, she looked up into the face of the young girl. "So you were the namesake of the city, their patron goddess."

A flash of movement drew her gaze past the statue, and her eyes widened at the man who stood under an archway that led into the nearby mountain. The ruffled brown shirt pulled over a deep red one, the gray scarf that was wrapped about his neck. It was a flood of recognition to see the familiar straps over his shoulders, a knife set in it's sheath pointing upwards on his left shoulder. "..Roth." He disappeared as soon as she spoke, stepping into the archway and descending the steps into the cave.

Moving as quickly as she could, Lara followed, catching only glimpses of her old mentor as she turned corners and ran down steps. She lost him, eventually, coming into a small domed cavern with a raised platform in the middle of it. "You can do it, girl." The man's voice turned her around, finding him standing in the tunnel she had just walked through, the sound of his words as clear as they had been back on Yamatai, when he had been right by her. "You can set them free."

Roth nodded in the direction of the platform, which stood at the same height as her waist, only a foot or so wide. Glancing between him and the object he had nodded to, Lara moved towards the platform, setting the briefcase against it as she saw the metalwork that had been inlaid into the stone beneath it. It looked like a silver timepiece, with hands that were whirring about in a circle, but there was no symbols to depict what the hands were pointing to. In the middle sat a bronze disc small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, the intricate designs of it outmatching even the ones that surrounded it.

Bending to examine it closer, she could make out the inscription written along the edge of the disc, the meaning of the Atlantian symbols coming to her as easy as they had on the surface. "'The giver of life will reveal the legacy.'? What does that mean?"

"Look closer, girl. You know what you need to do." She looked back at Roth, who gave a small smile and nodded once again, returning her attention to the disc. She studied it before she noticed what it was, seeing the stains evident upon the altar after a few minutes, making a noise as she realized what it was she needed to do.

Pulling up the edge of her climbing axe, she wrapped her fingers around it, pulling quickly against the sharp edge and gripping it as tightly as she could, crying out as it scraped away the skin from her palm with it's jagged design. Dropping the tool to reveal the blood that was quickly filling her palm, she closed her hand and gripped it over the disc, the sanguine liquid dripping down onto the disc's metallic surface.

At first, nothing came of it, only a frustrating lack of any reaction that made her want to turn on her heel and scream at the apparition of Roth that had suggested this course of action to her. Before she could even begin to turn away, the designs of the disc began to glow, a fierce blue color that leaked onto the rest of the metalwork, spreading until it covered the entire surface of the altar. Without warning, she was thrown into memories that were not her own.

It was like being thrown down a hole that never ended, and it stretched on for an eternity as images flashed by that made no sense, like a puzzle without all it's pieces. Finally, it settled into one single image, showing her a room filled with scrolls. She knew what was contained within those scrolls, even though she had never set foot in this room, and had never opened even one of them, she knew. It was the history, the philosophy, the study of medicine and mechanics. It was a record of every man, woman and child that she had journeyed to protect the legacy of. It was the treasure of Atlantis.

And looking over the treasure that she and her men had journeyed halfway around the world to save, she felt a mixture of pride and regret. For all that she had accomplished, it was so much less than she had hoped. Lara struggled to separate herself from the personality she was thrust into, but found it difficult, seeing from the eyes the disc wished her to. She turned away from the scrolls, ascending a flight of stairs before coming into the room she had just been in. Turning as the stone door slid close behind her, she laid a hand upon the stone, letting out a soft sigh. "Commander, the Athenian fleet is nearly upon the shore!"

It was not her language, nor any language she had ever heard, and yet she understood it perfectly as she turned to address the man who had run into the room. He was dressed in cuirass made from a strange silver metal, an element that she did not fully understand as she searched for the answer in the mind she now inhabited. "I have sealed the temple." Her voice was distinctly feminine, yet carried a strength behind it that sounded as if it could command the respect of entire armies. It was the voice of a general, of a queen. "Now only the key shall open the way. What of the tablet?"

"Maccius was not spotted. It is away, toward the mainland."

She felt the flood of relief tear through her, as their last hope clicked into place. They had played the best hand they could with what the Gods had dealt them, and though their city would fall, their legacy would remain. Athens would not stamp out their memories. "You have done well. If any of our people survive the fire that is to come, they will walk the path. And I will be here to guide them."

She stepped toward the device that sat in the middle of the room, the timepiece design. The key. "If you are certain?" The soldier who had delivered the news of the encroaching enemy fleet looked as if he were afraid of losing her.

She smiled. Loyalty was something that was expected, friendship was something that was earned. "Our lives find worth in service to Atlantis, and her legacy. If Alexandria falls, this will be the only remains of what our people have worked towards." Pulling the sword from her belt, she met the gaze of her soldier with a nod. "I shall meet you in Elysium, brother, Goddess willing." Turning the blade before she could reconsider her course, she plunged it into her heart, a strangled gasp escaping as she fell forward.

Her lifeblood poured out onto the altar that held the key, the last ingredient to the plan the Goddess had given them. The pain was more than she had ever imagined it would be, but pain was a fleeting agent that faded as she felt life slip away. It was not the oblivion that others had said it would be that greeted her, but an awareness, the sensation of opening her eyes after a night's rest. She became aware of the entire island. Aurelion, it was called. More importantly, she felt the churning of the waves along it's shores, and the wooden constructs that were intruding upon the sanctuary she had dedicated her life to.

It was a whim, a thought of fury that manifested like a flame. The waves rose up with her anger, crashing upon the Athenians with a vengeance she had never witnessed in life. This was the power that the Goddess had promised would be bestowed, and the victory that she had said would be achieved. She drowned the men who had come to take her people's legacy, to the last, savoring the struggle they put up before crashing them into the rocks below. It was over in an instant, and then she waited for the end.

It did not come.

She witnessed her body being carried to the pyre, witnessed her comrades set the blaze that would have carried her soul to the underworld, to peace after a lifetime of war. She saw her friends, the few soldiers who had survived the journey from Atlantis and across the world to this forsaken place. She saw them begin to waste away, one by one falling to hunger and passing.

She raised the shield, the force that would hide her people's legacy from all of the world, save the one who returned the tablet. She crushed ships that approached over the centuries, ranging from the wooden constructs of her own age, and the metal ones that followed in the years after. None bore the tablet she had carved and sent away. Time barely edged forward, each passing second a reminder of the promise the Goddess had failed to deliver on. She was alone, trapped within her duty, and each soul she snuffed out began to grant her pleasure.

At times, she remembered the great battles of her past, longing for the time she could wield a sword. In others, she screamed and wracked the waters of the coastline in an effort to effect the world that lay outside, willing her fury be carried to Athens and destroy what could remain of those who had butchered her homeland.

Then, it came, one ship that approached like all the others had. She reached out with her will, not considering her actions for a moment as the glee to take life again descended upon her. The first wave heaving the ship from the sea, throwing it upward before crashing back down. She almost missed the presence, the familiarity that she felt beneath her fury. It melted the centuries away, and she rejoiced for the first time since she had bled over the key. She allowed passage, lowering the shield and beckoning those who came closer. The ship exploded with a force she had never witnessed before, beginning to sink to the cold water below, and the madness and fury returned in a magnitude greater than it had ever before.

The thought that someone would stop her people, after all this time, brought her to silently cursing the Goddess for the duty that had been charged to her. For the promise that had not be fulfilled. Time slipped by as the survivors and others began to walk among her island, and she reached out to break them. They would suffer for the pain she now felt, they would suffer for being the instruments of her failure.

Instead, she found that one carried knowledge of her people, of her language. It was this one who had guided the rest to the island, this one she attempted to reach. Each of her attempts were met with silence, as the female's mind resisted her approach. In fury, she lashed out a group of newcomers in the forest, and watched with glee as they tore each other apart in a savage display. One of them was unaffected, running from them until she focused upon him, driving him to bash his own skull open upon the ground until his body fell still. She reached out again, and again, but still no answer came as her fury grew. She lashed out again, causing the people surrounding the one to butcher each other in a haze of anger. She saw the one approach the chamber, now alone, and attempted to show her the path. It was the first time it worked, and the one followed her instructions to some degree. Finally, the female cut open her hand to bleed upon the key.

Lara was thrown back from the altar, screaming as she clutched her head in an attempt to free her mind from the presence that had dominated it. She had seen the massacre where Corin's men had killed each other, and the way that the soul trapped within the disc had tormented her and Ashlee with visions of their past. It was an immensely powerful being that had orchestrated almost every clash of conflict she had come across since landing on the island. The guards of Corin's camp becoming alerted to their presence, the ambush that had cost Tiane his life, and the frenzy that had gripped what remained of the Relentless Gale's crew at the encampment.

The room she saw before her, she saw from two perspectives. One was from her eyes, through tears as she prayed for death, for a release from the pain that was wracking her body. The other was from everything, from the very stone itself. She could see everything of the island, she could see the insects that dug into it, and the people that walked it. She saw herself, clutching at her own head. It began to fade almost immediately after she slammed herself against the wall of the room, sliding down and crying out again as a torrent of emotions that were not her own rushed through her, threatening to consume her. She was left with one final thought, a scream that seemed to echo within her skull, growing in volume until it would not be ignored.

"Release me!"