So, Shade Penn wrote a couple series of one shots with the idea of Lara Croft from Tomb Raider being Nero's mother. I highly recommend reading them.

This is me doing a remix on the same idea, meaning pretty much everything from both franchises is fair game. I've gotten up to chapter 8 written, so hopefully I won't have to deal with the plot changing on me. Again.

Chapter 1

Lara Croft probably should have read a little bit more on the place she'd chosen as her anthropological study for the summer. Sam had picked Austria, and most of the rest of the class had chosen Spain and Italy. After the disasterous school trip to Peru, Lara had picked the one that was … out of the way, compared to everyone else. Roth had told her that if no one heard from her the day she was supposed to have left, he'd be bringing his boat and crew to find her.

Lara had laughed and assured him that Fortuna was a nice enough place … just a very odd place.

The main reason: Peaceful Demon worship. Grant it, most demon cults weren't actually prone to human sacrifice, that was mostly fiction, but it was very rare for them to have such … prominence. The Demonic Church seemed to run the town, and were perfectly fine with people coming through to visit, as long as they didn't try to start anything. In fact, they had contacted multiple universities, offering their services to anthropology and archaeology students, though most students would rather go to places that they had already heard about. Lara wanted to try something new and get away from how stifling things had become with her friends now that one of them was gone.

The sole Hotel had surprisingly good rates, so Lara set up there, it would have been better if she could stay with a family, but unsurprisingly there had been no offers to that request, most probably didn't want her to turn their children against their main religion and way of life.

She had a list of things to do- get settled, find a grocery, find a library, and attend a couple of the services. Lara would have to journal everything, and hopefully, not insult someone by her own agnostic views.

She'd only be here for a month, so hopefully, that would be enough.

The woman at the front desk was helpful; giving her the directions she needed on what looked like an old city map- apparently while there was a tourism industry, it was not really what one could call thriving, given by the boxes of maps piled up in the small office behind the desk.

There was even a small pamphlet for their religion, which Lara took to read over.

That done, Lara headed straight to the library. She might as well get a background on this place, as much as she could.

'Two Millenniums ago, there was a war, between the human world and the other, the underworld. But somebody woke up to justice, and stood against the legion alone. His name was Sparda. Later he quietly reigned the human world, and continued to preserve harmony until his death. He became a legend, the legendary Dark Knight Sparda.

He closed the devil gate in our fair city, and ruled as Liege lord for some time; when he left, he promised to return, should we need him.'

The pamphlet was not very helpful, but it did lead her to a couple books regarding the tenants of this odd religion.

It was surprisingly a very honor based religion, with mentions of virtues of loyalty, duty, and protecting those less fortunate while shunning anything that was considered depraved like meaningless violence and sexual promiscuity (akin to most of the current world religions). It was also, paradoxically, Anti-Demon, despite worshiping a demon. Probably why it had been allowed to exist, as there were no attempts to summon their demonic deity.

Lara spent most of the first week she was there in the library, to the point where the librarian actually set aside a desk for her, promising no one would touch it while she was gone. He looked amused when she used the roll top to make sure her notes wouldn't be too disturbed.

There were daily services, of course, but Lara could barely pull herself away from the library- it had such detailed records of the town's history, even of the time this legendary knight reigned. (So Sparda had been a real person, probably equally loved and hated, judging by the use of the word demon)

She sat in the back, which wasn't easy as the room was a semi-circle- she'd have to investigate the architecture later. In the center was a giant statue who was probably Sparda … it was quite odd to see a giant devil in such a pristine church. The stain glass ceiling was beautiful, and Lara hoped she could get a tour of the Church at some point.

The pew she chose had a little family, the parents had their heads bowed in prayer, and the little boy was twitching in his seat but staying still due holding his younger sibling in his arms. She felt as if she stuck out without the head covering, but the lady at the hotel desk assured her that no one would mind how she dressed, so long as she was respectful.

"You're new." The little boy whispered to her. His mother shushed him, but gave Lara a polite smile which she returned.

The mass started with a van guard of men with swords entering and taking their places, followed by a row of children chanting and a man with graying hair, the Vicar of the church, and functionally the leader of the city.

There was quite a bit of singing and chanting, the choir was led by a woman with a dress of white and gold, and stood out because she wore a circlet around her head instead of a the regular head covering. Some of the hymns seemed to be Latin with the occasional Greek but for the most part Lara resolved to ask if they had the words written down somewhere so she could figure out what the main language was.

Finally, the Vicar started speaking, and Lara did her best to keep a straight face as he began to preach on the importance of not letting demons control you and rising above one's base nature.

All in all, pretty much what you expected to hear from a religion, though they stressed the fact that Sparda was an ascended demon.

Lara walked out with the crowd at the end of the sermon, watching the almost solemn air most adults had, while the children were rather eager to get pass the main gate and immediately started chatting once they were passed them. Lara had just passed the gates when someone called out to her.

"Hey! You're new right? The student?"

Looking up, Lara saw the woman who had been leading the choir coming over to her. "What do you mean?" She asked, a little surprised to see that the woman was not much older than her.

"His holiness Sanctus told us that a student from the mainland would be coming, and that we were to help if we wanted. Most people are probably going to ignore you though."

Well, so much for as little bias as possible. Though it was probably good that most people would just go about their lives and pretend she didn't exist.

"Yes, I am, Lara Croft. And you are-?"

"Oh, Vesper! I'm the choir leader, I also help coordinate our holiday celebrations and make sure things are running smoothly." Vesper smiled. "Would you like to get some food with me? I can answer any questions you might have so far."

Lara agreed, and was a little amused when Vesper started asking her questions instead.

"So, what do you think so far?"

"… Interesting." Lara decided.

"But you don't believe." Vesper chuckled. "That's alright, most are skeptical when they first come."

"… well, you're anti-demon and worship a demon does present a conflict of logic." Lara grimaced, realizing that might have been a bit too far.

"And it's honestly the biggest hurdle for most new converts." Vesper assured her. "It takes a while to understand." Vesper paused. "I know, there's a book about the history of the island in the library, our scholars wrote it a century ago- it's a summary of all the old records, and they made sure to reference them all. Only our scholars tend to read it, but it'll be better than you having to slog through all of our history texts."

"And that helps me understand your faith, how?"

"It's at least a more focused direction than you reading all the books in our library. I'll show it to you." Vesper promised. "It doesn't have an actual title on it, they apparently couldn't agree on one, so it's just called the Compendium."

Most of the second and part of the third week were spent either in the library or in Vesper's company as she guided Lara around the city, as well as explained some of the customs.

"Most adults keep their heads covered, but it's really only mandatory on days of worship, we could go without it if we wanted. There have been some arguments about changing it back to full time for all adults, but for the most part it's an acceptable compromise." Vesper explained. "Since I'm head of the choir, I'm exempt until I get married."

"Those dresses do not look comfortable." Lara had taken to wearing long sleeves in order to not draw as many stares from everyone, but her status as an outsider was pretty obvious, everyone dressed as if it was the nineteen-forties, and Lara was the sole woman who wore pants.

"Everything's pretty much tailored made, so it fits without pinching- oh, we should get you a dress!"

"Most of my money went to paying for the hotel room for the month." Lara objected. She was not going to admit to having more.

"I bet I can get you to wear a dress before you leave, then." Vesper smiled.

"Not likely." Lara scoffed, but paused as Vesper was distracted by something over her shoulder. "Something wrong?" She turned to see a couple of the Order of the Sword members go by, one without a hood while the other was taller and broader and had their hood up. The one with the hood was carrying something.

"That's Commander Lumen and his Lieutenant Antiphon, there was a hunt yesterday." Vesper explained softly. "Someone must've died."

"A hunt? For what?" Lara asked just as softly.

"Demons … though I know you don't believe that yet. They've been spawning closer to the city lately." Vesper explained. "I'll probably be busy with the funeral, I'll see you at the weekly service? I'll show you the school then!"

"Of course. I'll be at the library if you want to talk." Lara started walking to the library, and watched Vesper go after the two before she had to turn down a side street.

She had a bad feeling about those demon hunts, even if she wasn't sure why, a ritual hunt wasn't likely to get someone killed, unless there was an accident … maybe that was it, something had gone wrong, and someone had gotten killed when they weren't supposed to. Lara sighed, and returned to the library.

The Compendium was a fairly dense read, and she had to go for the referenced texts to get any sort of background. Apparently before Sparda, Fortuna wasn't the most hospitable of places, and the people were subjected to being used by the previous regime as sacrifices. The previous regime and its loyalists were described as demons and devils and no name was given to the 'king of hell' that had ruled here then.

There was a thing called the Hellgate, which apparently people were sacrificed to. Sparda apparently sealed it with one of his two swords (And there seemed to be a contradiction in how many swords Sparda carried depending on the text) before ruling benevolently for a couple centuries before leaving.

Grant it, anything was probably benevolent after the previous regime, but it was noticeable that no one claimed lordship over the castle and island after he left. The exact transition was nebulous, as was the reason behind it, but it seemed that the worship started almost a century after Sparda left, due to … something. The book called it a demon attack, and reported that it was repelled by the citizens invoking the name of Sparda in prayer.

Initially, Lara thought that 'demon' was just their way of representing outsiders. Except demons didn't seem to refer to outsiders- the history of trade with the mainland was fairly polite, referencing the cities and or countries that the people and goods had come from, and the occasional time there was an attack from the mainland (two attempts at a religious wars (one Christian and one Muslim) both given up due to weather and Fortuna being located in a spot way out of the way of more conveient shipping lanes, and occasional attempt at expansion, also given up because there was no strategical advantage to holding the island) the attackers were again referenced by their city and country or their religion that they believed in.

"Enjoying your studying?" A man's voice asked, and Lara blinked up at the sight of the commander that Vesper had pointed out earlier. He was a little grey at the temples and his skin was rahter weathered, but he looked good for whatever age he was, Lara was guessing forty.

"You've got the most detailed records of any community I've ever seen. Most get the majority of their documents destroyed or lost." Lara admitted. "It's a lot to get through."

"Most of the people here don't even bother reading our history; it's enough for them to learn what's taught at our school." He leaned over to pick up one of her stray notes, a sketch of a picture in the compendium detailing the devil version of Sparda and three odd symbols surrounding him. "You seem eager to learn everything you can, even if you don't believe half of what you read."

"There's usually a more logical or simple explanation to things. Anyone wields an unusual amount of power; they usually get called a demon, demi-god or god." Lara defended, but felt more uneasy when she realized that no one else was in the library.

"Perhaps that's true on the mainland, but I can assure you there's a very real threat. We're instituting a curfew for the next few days; everyone must be home by dusk. I advise you to take that seriously, for your own safety." Lumen placed the sheet down. "I'll walk you to your hotel tonight." He looked at her, and Lara decided not to complain. She closed up the roll top, and pulled on her jacket before following him out the door.

The streets were deserted, eerily so. The sense that something wasn't right seemed to get worse. Lumen seemed to be hyper-vigilant as they walked, and that in turn set her on edge. The walk to her hotel was quiet and seemed to stretch on for much longer than her usual walks home.

"Here we are. No one is allowed out until sunrise. Have a good night." He didn't move, and Lara realized he was waiting for her to go inside.

"Thank you, have a good night as well." Lara offered weakly before hurrying up the stairs and through the doors. The owner of the hotel immediately locked the doors after her, and Lara watched her go to a door that had a small shrine inside. She'd previously assumed it was a closet.

She headed up to her room, and locked the door behind her. She crossed over to close the curtains and paused. Lumen was talking to a strangely (and by that, rather skimpily by mainland standards, let alone Fortuna's) dressed woman fairly heatedly as they walked away from the hotel. She closed the curtains before either could look back and see her watching.

Things weren't as normal in this city as she'd previously thought. Hopefully she wouldn't have to give up any of her research in order to leave. That would be a pain.

And yet, she wanted to know what was happening, something was happening that she didn't think was just a fairytale about things that went bump in the night.

"Don't go poking your nose where it doesn't belong, Croft." Lara scolded herself. Hadn't that been what happened to her father? He'd started believing that old legends were real, and then reality caught up with him.

Lara did not sleep well that night. She kept waking up thinking she could hear motorcycles racing on the street.

Morning came far too soon, though Lara still waited until she saw people moving about on the street before she got ready for the day.

When she returned to the library, a part of her was surprised to find that absolutely none of her things had been disturbed, no books had been removed, and the librarian was just as friendly as usual. It left her feeling wrong-footed somehow.

With a sigh, she started back on where she had marked the book. Hopefully, whatever was happening wouldn't affect her studies.

She wasn't sure if she was frustrated or relieved when she did discover something wrong with the Compendium.

Pages were missing, and Lara frowned at the Compendium. It wasn't noticeable, there was no gap in the binding, but there was an abrupt subject change from the supposed Hellgate to the construction of the new (current) church. Then later in the book there was another abrupt subject change, this time regarding the defeat of 'devils' which, according to this book at least, were higher level demons. It skipped to Alchemy and weapon forging.

She had a bad feeling about this. Controlling information was not exactly a good thing, especially since the cult seemed to run everything. She was tempted to say something, before remembering the fact that the reference pages were still intact. She might be able to find the original books that way.

It was still something she jotted down in her journal, along with the various references that were written down. For the most part, her feelings of unease started to fade when she did find the referred books in the card catalogue, so she'd be able to find them again when it was time for further study.

Only those feelings came roaring back the next day when she was blocked from going into the church by one of the Order Swordsman, the one that tended to tower over everyone else, and doubly so over Lara, who was non-too pleased at the fact he was purposefully doing so, forcing her to have to crane her neck to look at him.

"Lieutenant Antiphon, I presume? Can I help you?" Lara asked, reluctantly taking a step back in order to not have to crane her neck so much.

"You're not welcome here, outsider." Lieutenant Antiphon practically growled at her.

"I wasn't aware you had restrictions on who could come in." Lara frowned. She had been in the church twice already, and with only a few glances, most had been welcoming, even asking her what she thought of the services.

"We don't need you watching us like some sort of entertainment!" He snapped. "Leave, you are not welcome here!"

Lara decided discretion was the better part of valor here, especially as she was sure they were attracting a crowd.

"Alright, fine, just let Vesper know I was here." Lara turned to leave the churchyard, trying not to give in to the urge to hit the man. Commander Lumen had been creepy, but Lieutenant Antiphon was just someone she'd like to punch out.

"He's a good boy, dear, just … strict." An old woman stopped her on the way out, having heard the argument. "He'd like us to stop trade with outsiders, even knowing of the epidemic thirty years ago when we didn't have the right medicine. I'll let Vesper know if he doesn't tell her."

"Thank you." Lara smiled, and the woman returned it, before Lara left.

Lara was in the middle of sketching the marketplace- a dull boring place when the people weren't there, but that helped her get a better idea of the space- when she heard her name called. Looking up, she smiled and waved at Vesper who rushed up.

"I'm so sorry about Antiphon!" She apologized, taking a seat on the bench Lara was sitting on. "I don't know why he was like that today; he's normally nicer to outsiders."

"It's fine." Lara assured her (but found it odd that the old woman and Vesper had polar opposite views of the same man) and instead showed her the sketches she had done.

"Looks like you've gotten most of the city!" Vesper smiled. "You even got the castle and the peak!"

"Not easy, I can tell you. I'd like to go up there, but I get the feeling it's off limits?" There was no easy way to get a view of the castle unless one was willing to climb buildings. Lara had to use the rather poor vantage point from her hotel.

"Just for now, we occasionally open it as a tourist attraction for those castle tours the mainland does, but I think it's under renovation. They closed it up a couple months ago." Vesper shrugged. "We go there on school trips when the trails are clear, and when someone's officially inducted into the order they spend the night there. It's a pilgrimage sort of thing."

"Just my luck, I choose to come when it's being renovated." Lara lamented with a smile. Perhaps she'd be able to find a tourist map of it. "You were going to show me the school?"

"Right, come on!" Vesper lead the way to the school, happily chattering on how their education system worked and how only a few left to pursue higher level learning (mostly medical as the mainland was too far away in case of an emergency). The schools were rather ordinary, with a morning prayer dedicated to Sparda posted in every room the only surreal thing.

"So, that's the main school. Some are home schooled, especially if they want to go into a trade, and there are learning centers dedicated to the individual trades."

"Alright, and so the bare minimum to get into the order, which I assume is also considered a trade, is?"

"Have to have lived on the island for at least five years, though they're very flexible on that, as well as spend a lot of time training, and be approved by the High Commander." Vesper explained. "Which reminds me, I'm going to busy this week, I'll only be able to have lunch with you, if that's okay?"

"Sure thing, I should probably start packing and neatening things up for the report I have to do."

"Report?" Vesper looked surprised.

"For my anthropology unit. Basically, I just need to describe the regular day-to-day life, what the schools are like and the type of government, as well as parts of the history of the island. That was cleared before I arrived, I'm supposed to write up a report and submit it to both your order and to my own school." Lara explained. "Don't worry, I don't have to write names down, save for the current Vicar."

"I see, do you have to write before you leave, or after?" Vesper played with her hair a little.

"I've been writing it as I go. If you want to read it?"

"No, but I imagine you still don't believe in demons?" Vesper looked at her rather tentatively.

"I'm afraid that does make the report far less interesting." Lara shrugged, not sure why Vesper was so hung up on that.

"… I don't really want you to leave just yet. Not without you seeing things our way …" Vesper admitted.

"Maybe I'm here to remind you that not everyone can be converted. We're still friends despite that, aren't we?"

"Yes, definitely!" Vesper agreed readily. "Oh, I know just the place for lunch tomorrow!" Vesper had to mark the place on her map when her directions got a little too confusing.

Lara's desk was still undisturbed when she finally made her way back to the Library after that. So she didn't think there would be any trouble- just one more week to go, and technically, she could leave early, she'd researched more than enough for her report.

Looking back, she probably should have just left then, before everything that happened.

(But then she wouldn't have gotten her son, and that more than made up for everything.)

So, ta-da! I made a new character. Actually, several, since Credo's too young at this point to be the high commander and I now have a plan, so they're all named after hymns or parts of a mass because there's a theme.

Vergil shows up next chapter, and then things start rolling. Aiming for once a week updates, so fingers crossed I'll make it!