Authors Note: Can you believe I haven't updated this fic since 2007??! It's been a crazy (almost) 2 years. I'm now a United States Sailor and I'm in school for the next year (if anyone speaks Russian, drop me a note and I'll see if I can't figure out what it says :) ). I'm happily married now and living CA and finally finding some time and inspiration for writing. Yay!! One more chapter, guys. One more. Thank you so much to everyone who's stuck around waiting for this one. It means the world to me and I love to get those little notes saying "when will the next one be up?!" lol. Well, here you go, thanks for your patience 3 L'Ange
Chapter 14
Unlocking the Key
Kurtis's eyes flew open and he remembered at once where he was. He looked around the dusty library of the small hotel they'd found and saw Lara sitting in the corner of the room, her nose in a book. Her eyes darted back and forth along the pages until she slammed it shut and reached for the next book.
"Are you going to stare at me all night or are you going to pick up a book and help me?" she said, bringing him back to reality.
He grabbed the book he had been reading before dozing off and picked up at the same page, only to throw it down in frustration a minute later.
He reached down on the floor next to him and grabbed his pack and pulled out the armor given to him by his ancestor. On the back, in a thin, spiraling font, was an inscription.
"From what it says here, I'm willing to bet that the area that Karel is digging in was the Nephilim stronghold while they flourished. Besides that half breed scum, there's one original Nephilim left and she is located in the tunnels under the Zelve Monastery's church." Kurtis translated loosely as he read. "She can be freed or destroyed with the sword and the key, but to destroy her innocent blood must be spilt."
"The church is the Direkli Church. It's at the foot of the Monastery. I've been there before, there's nothing inside that would lead us down to where we might find a Nephilim, but there's an Aqueduct nearby and something tells me that it might take us where we need to go." Lara said with a small smile on her lips.
"Here you go, Lara, two Aqualungs, two wetsuits." Alex said as he handed over the gear. "Care to tell me what you've figured out?"
She smiled. "No. Not until this is over. I don't need you following us looking for trinkets."
"Thanks," Kurtis told him offering his hand. "For everything. I'm not sure we could have made it this far without your help, Alex."
Alex nodded and shook his hand. "My pleasure. See ya around."
Lara and Kurtis zipped up their wetsuits and strapped on the breathing apparatus and looked out over the clear blue water. Savoring the last moment of sunshine before their ascent into the abyss, Lara smiled and leapt into the water in a swan dive, Kurtis following by jumping with his arms and legs pin straight.
They swam along the channel for a while before reaching a large circular opening, blocked by a large stone disk with a small circular cut out. Lara pointed out a large pole lying on the bottom and swam down, lifting one end. Kurtis followed suit and grabbed the other and helped her guide it into the hole. Lara braced her boots against the wall and pushed with all her strength until the obstacle slid just enough for them to swim in.
Here's to hoping there's another way out from in here, Lara mused. Those doors are meant to lock people out, but that one locked us in.
Lara swam ahead and found where the tunnel opened up into a vast cavern. Kurtis surfaced next to her as she pulled off her mask, gazing around the cavern in awe. This was easily the most amazing architecture that Lara had ever seen in the region. Seeing the temples carved into the walls of the stone reminded her of the carved out temples in the valley of Petra, Jordan.
A faint blue glow emanated from one of the doorways, roughly ten stories above them that had no stairs. "I guess we climb." Kurtis said unzipping his wetsuit and shaking the water from the hair that hung in front of his face.
Before either of them could start their ascent, they heard the sweeping of wind and a winged beast flew down from the alcove above, talons aimed like daggers. Lara grunted as she rolled to the side, the creature tearing a gash in her wetsuit. Blood ran down her arm as her dual pistols took aim and fired a series of lethal rounds into it's flesh.
"You ok?" Kurtis asked surveying her wounds.
"Fine. It's none too serious, I'll worry about it later." she replied wiping away the blood with her fingertips. "What was that thing?"
He shook his head. "No clue. I've never seen anything like it before. Closest guess I'd take would be Griffin."
"Griffin? Really, now." Lara thought aloud as they began to explore the cavern. "We need to find Karel if he's here and kill him. If not, we need to find out what to do before he does. We can't let him win. We'll split up. I'll climb up this way and you take the left side. If there's something here worth discovering, we'll find it. Let's go."
Lara began scaling the wall to the right exploring alcove after alcove. She was three flights up when she first found something. There, in the center of the chamber on a stone dais was an ornately carved marble sarcophagus, the lid slightly ajar. She approached it with caution, gazing down at what was certainly the corpse of one of Kurtis' long dead ancestors.
And it was there, on the wall behind the sarcophagus that Lara saw it: a cut out the precise size of the emerald and sword. That was it - the lock they'd been seeking. Lara ran to back to the cavern and shouted for her companion.
"Kurtis!" she called, her voice echoing through the stone. "I've found it!"
He poked his head out and clambered down the wall in a flash, running full tilt towards her. Kurtis emerged inside the burial chamber in a moment and ran his hands along the stone cut outs.
"I don't know, Lara. What if it's not meant to be unlocked? What if Karel is playing us and that unlocking this secret will give him even more power than he's already got."
"I'm not sure. What does your gut tell you?" she asked.
He nodded. "I need to do it. We've fought for centuries to end this Shadow War with the Cabal and with Karel. This is my destiny. I'll do it."
Lara placed the emerald into the depression in the wall and watched as Kurtis placed the sword over it. Suddenly the sword sank into the stone and the wall sank back into itself in a circular shape, rotating until the sword pointed to two o'clock. The sword released itself from the wall, hovering in mid air for a moment until Kurtis wrapped his hand around the hilt.
"It's pointing the way," he told her. "I can feel a pull. Let's go."
Kurtis headed in the direction the sword pulled him towards, which was, in fact, a stone wall. "Get the emerald," he told her. "I have a feeling we're going to need it for this one, too."
Lara pulled at the stone but it held fast. "Maybe you have to use your Jedi powers on it, Mr. Force Master."
So he tried for a moment, concentrating all of his energy onto moving the heavy stone wall until it began to slide out of the way leaving behind a curtain of dust in the air. A stone staircase lay beyond, spiraling it's way up to the height of the carved structure. They marched on and on up the stairs in a faint green glow until they came out into a much larger room than the burial chamber. There, in what looked like green amber was entombed one of the oldest and most honored Lux Veritatis knights. There were strange angular, almost tribal patterns carved into the dark stone of the room. In the center of the room was a large circle with smaller concentric circles carved around it, all lined with a kind of metal it appeared.
"Oh how I knew you'd bring me here," a cold voice drawled. "Thank you, Lady Croft, for bringing me to the room where you shall draw your last breath. I'd be honored to be a spectator, I just wish I'd be able to spill your blood myself."
Lara glared at the man before her who must have been only a few minutes behind them coming up the spiral staircase. "Oh really, and why is that?"
"Surely you've seen the prophecy, milady. You will die today, at his -" he pointed at Kurtis who held the sword pointed in Karel's direction - "hands. You see, he wants to save the world, avenge his family and his people and all that. I want power. To avenge them he must kill us both, but I can assure you that it will not happen this way. You will both die today, yes. Your blood will dampen this very floor and set the future in motion."
"You have to do it, Kurtis." Lara told him. "I'd fight, but what's the point? He's right, I die today. But if my dying at your hands stops this bastard from hurting the world any more than it already is, I'd die a hundred times over to make sure he dies."
Kurtis shook his head. "No, this isn't going to end like this. It doesn't have to, there's another way I know there is."
Lara reached out to where a sword similar in style to Kurtis' was fixed on the wall amongst 12 others. She pulled it off the wall and angled it towards the Lux Veritatis, knowing that the only way she could possibly get him to fulfill the prophecy would be to try and kill him. Lara lunged at him as he brought his sword up to parry. Their blades clashed as Karel smiled on.
"You have to do this," she hissed through gritted teeth as she fought his blade towards him. "this is the way it has to be, but everything will be ok. Trust me. Please, just do it."
She broke the lock and slashed at him some more, feigning a fight for her life as Kurtis began to charge at her, grunting loudly as he brought his sword down onto hers. He drew back and then lunged forward once more, the blade stabbing straight through Lara's abdomen and through her back.
"No," he breathed as he pulled the sword back out. "No, what have I done?"
Joachim Karel laughed cruelly behind him. "Thank you for your sacrifice, Trent, now hand me the sword."
"No." he spat back. "No, that's not going to happen." Kurtis threw himself at Karel, bringing the sword down towards the half-Nephilim.
Karel had anticipated the move and reached out telekinetically to throw Kurtis across the room, smashing into the stone wall and crumpling to the floor. Kurtis was enraged at the loss of Lara, who lay in the center of the floor, her blood seeping into the cracks and running towards the doorway and the staircase. A single droplet fell off of the edge of the floor and down the stairs as he watched in sorrow. And then something caught his eye as he clambered back to his feet. There, standing in the doorway were what must have been hundreds of ancient Lux Veritatis warriors, the line of them extending all the way into the main chamber.
He couldn't believe his eyes. Was this a trick? No, it couldn't be. The prophecy had been fulfilled, then. Perhaps this all a trick on the Nephilim? Lead him to this place, tempt him to see Lara Croft die to bring the last of the Nephilim back from the brink of the Underworld, and then ambush him with the warriors awakened by her sacrifice. Oh what a clever line I come from, Kurtis mused as each of the first five warriors pulled out thin blades that shimmered silver. Periapt shards. No, not the same ones he'd been in possession of, but perhaps fragments of them held by each of these elders for just such an occasion.
"No," Karel breathed, backing away and blasting the warriors with a telekinetic wave. They stood their ground.
The elders closed in around him until he found himself surrounded. They raised the shards and brought them crashing down as he snarled and hissed, light pouring out from his every pore until Joachim Karel ceased to exist.
There was a blast and the ceiling began to crack above Kurtis. One of his ancestor motioned for him to flee, but he couldn't leave her here. Not like this, her cold bloody corpse lying on the floor of an ancient tomb. Or perhaps that's how she'd rather be left. There was, after all, no one left to bury her but Kurtis.
"Go," a familiar voice spoke as the cavern shook again. "Go son, I'll take care of her."
It was Konstantin. "There's so much I need to say to you, Dad," Kurtis said as a boulder came crashing down behind him.
"I know, son. I know. Not now, just go."
And with those words Kurtis turned and ran and never once looked back.