The two traveled past the tomb and continued down the path. Raziel kept glancing back at the woman to make sure she was able to keep up. To his surprise, she showed quite a bit of durability and stayed close to him, only falling behind when something caught her interest. He had to admit had he not been so quickly jumping into a fight with her originally, he would have noticed immediately that she didn't seem to be from his world. Her appearance was . . . off, for lack of a better word. While brunette hair wasn't uncommon, brown eyes weren't so often to be found on a person with the aforementioned hair coloring. Her figure was superb, he had to admit, and it looked like she was brought up quite well. There were three main things that marked her off, however: her hair was one. While the braided style was quite normal, only women of noble heritage were able to let their hair grow out long, but it was frowned upon after the woman reached puberty. The other two things off about her were her clothes and her weapons. Those weapons were quite intriguing, in fact. He hadn't seen anything quite like them before. Plus, he could also tell her for an outsider from her accent and the way she spoke. She spoke like a woman raised in a culture where the female population meant something. Her accent also gave her away. The taste of her words was not one from anywhere on Nosgoth.

Lara pointedly ignored yet another of the sidelong glances her companion gave her. She knew he was studying her, making guesses. She knew eventually more questions would come. But eventually was the operative word. For now, there'd be peace. And she might even find a long rest from those annoying suitors . . .

She had to admit to herself, however, that he was an interesting character. Now that she had more time to study him, she got over the blue skin and the three-clawed hand. Though he seemed to be missing his internal organs, the rest of his body was exquisitely muscled, and the fact his skin was stretched tight over his body helped to accent it. Off his back were a pair of tattered remains of what were obviously once wings. She made a mental note that if they ever became more comfortable with each other, to ask what happened. Lara shook her head and focused on the path again.

Suddenly, they rounded a curve to find three humans standing in the center of the path. She noticed they were wearing the same type of clothing as the man that Raziel had killed. There were two men and one was a woman. The men carried swords while the woman leaned against a long, hooked staff resembling something like a scythe. She immediately brought it up as the two came into their sight range.

"It's one of the them!" the spear woman cried. The two men jumped up into attack position.

"There's a woman with him!" one man pointed out.

"She's a traitor," the other replied. "Kill the vampire's concubine!"

Lara stopped dead, stunned beyond belief. What had this man just called her? Her breath came in short bursts as she fought to control her anger and her hands slipped down to her pistols.

"Con . . . cu . . . bine?" she repeated very slowly. Each syllable was extremely strained.

"You heard us, whore of the devil spawn!"

Lara snapped. She slid the pistols out, shot out the clip with the silver bullets, and replaced them with normal ones. Then she aimed them toward the humans.

"I was willing to let you live, too. Take it back!"

She noticed Raziel had drawn back and was watching her with interest, seeing what she would do. She bet that he was quite enjoying himself.

"We will take nothing back!" the man who had spoken earlier said in a righteous tone of voice. "We retract no statement that is true!"

"I . . . am not . . . some man's plaything!" she roared before letting loose a barrage of bullets. The humans yelped in surprise before they lost their grip on consciousness and life. She slid her pistols away and turned to Raziel.

"I feel better," she told him.

"Come on, my little concubine," he told her. She pulled out a pistol in a motion faster than a snake's strike.

"I'll shoot you with no hesitation if you ever call me that again."

"Yes," he replied as he leaned toward her around the nozzle of the gun, "but you've already done that once and you've seen I come back. I don't stay dead."

She put the pistol away.

"Good point. Wouldn't want to waste good ammo on you, anyway."

"Come along, woman," he told her, turning away and gesturing. She sighed mentally.

"As you wish, pretty eyes."

The aforementioned eyes flashed at her in anger, but she ignored the look. She decided that as long as he called her woman instead of her name, she'd call him pretty eyes.

They continued down the path without any interruptions. Lara had noted earlier that they had taken the path that past by the tomb where she had found her blue-skinned companion. Well, it had apparently turned out a good idea to go for fun; she had found help. Her help continued to guide her down the trail until they came to a large temple with a pair of double doors. Lara looked up at them and felt an eyebrow raise.

"Just who are we going to see?"

"An old . . . friend," was the response. She watched as the blue blade suddenly swirled into being around his arm and he slid it into the lock.

"By the way, what is that?"

"This? This is the Soul Reaver, an ethereal blade with the ability to devour souls. The same ability I have been endowed with," he added with a malicious glint in his eye. There was a rumbling, then the doors slid back into the wall away from the Soul Reaver. Raziel walked through, Lara following, staring at the murals on the walls. These were of a battle scene of two very different races. One was blue skinned and had clawed hands and cloved feet much like her companion. They had wings, both feathered and bat-like. The other race was a more . . . demonic-looking race, for lack of a better term. Raziel noticed her gaze.

"Yes, those are demons you see there. The other race was one of angels who fought back to save this world. In anger, the demons placed a curse on the angels and turned them into the vampires that roam the world now. Ironic." He shook his head. "Humans kill those that once fought to save their lives. Well, no longer. The last of these former angels was killed, murdered."

His eyes narrowed in a mixture of anger and sadness at the memory. He turned away and continued down the hall, Lara following. She chose not to ask further, knowing instinctively that he wouldn't tell her any more.

They finally came to a large room. There was a platform in the center of the cylindrical room and between the floor and the wall was water. On the farthest edge of the floor was a smaller image of the nine pillars. Raziel walked over to one edge and looked down into the water. Lara followed him.

"So, the Reaver of Souls returns to his savior," an ethereal voice boomed into the air and her mind. She looked over the edge to see what spoke.

"Savior?" Raziel repeated. "Savior?! You were hardly my savior, Elder. More over, you were the one who damned me to this hell!"

Lara's eyes widened when the image of what spoke became visible in the water. She looked up at Raziel.

"This . . . Elder is a giant talking squid?"

"Humph," the male voice grunted. "Who is your concubine, Raziel?"

"CONCUBINE!" she roared. "I am not a man's concubine, invertebrate!"

"Oh, a feisty one, Raziel. Suits you. Well, mortal, what other purpose could you serve?"

"I am a Tomb Raider, for your information, and a damn good one. I've seen things that would kill even a vampire. You, however, are one of the most pathetic things I have seen in my life."

"And would it matter to you, concubine, if I told you that I could rend you apart where you stand?" The Elder's tone was becoming more and more angry.

"What would you do?" she demanded, a sarcastic smile sliding onto her face. "Sucker me?"

The Elder let out a roar and a crackling sounded from behind them. They turned and found a large, bipedal creature standing before them. It was vaguely humanoid, but really looked more demonic than human. A pair of horns spiraled out of the head and glowing red eyes glared at them. A five-clawed paw flexed before the thing gave a roar of outrage and launched toward them. As one, Raziel and Lara darted either way. Lara pulled out her pistols and began shooting at the creature. The bullets hit, but looked like they annoyed the creature more than actually did any damage. It growled at her and at the same moment, Raziel swung in with the Soul Reaver and slashed down its unguarded back. The being howled in pain and turned again to Raziel, leaving its back to Lara. She took the opportunity presented to her and fired into the gash in its armor. The demon roared in pain and backed up from both, keeping its gaze on both. Lara's eyes happened to glance off the demon and onto the pillars and an eyebrow raised. She launched into a flurry of movement, rolling off to the side and pulling her pack off in a single move. She opened it and pulled out her rocket launcher.

In its distraction with watching her, Raziel lunged forward and cut into its guard. It screeched and tried to backhand Raziel, but the Reaver of Souls backed up. Lara placed the rocket launcher onto her shoulder and aimed up toward the top of one of the pillars.

"Woman?!" Raziel shouted, still entertaining the creature's attentions, but was able to glance at her. "The demon is right here!"

"I know, pretty eyes," she replied. She fired a single rocket at the pillar's top. It landed with an explosion, successfully separating the top from the ceiling. She threw the rocket launcher away and picked up the pistols as the demon pulled back to slice into Raziel. To save him from death on her account (she had been the one, after all, who had pissed off the Elder), Lara yelled loudly to get its attention and raced toward it. The demon turned toward her and began to run toward her. All the while, Lara was firing. At the last possible second, she went into a slide between its legs and twisted, so she was firing at the exposed back. It roared again in pain and Raziel was on it, digging his claws into its back and slashing at it again and again with the Soul Reaver. Lara turned her attention to the pillar she had broken the top of and began to shoot out the bottom where it met the floor. The rock groaned as it leaned forward toward the duo, then stopped. Cursing, she raced to it and jumped on the pillar, her weight dragging it down.

"Get out of the way!" she yelled.

The Reaver of Souls dove off the demon at the last second as the pillar crashed down on top of it, taking it to the floor with it. Lara half crouched, half perched on the pillar as she gazed at where it lay.

"Is it dead?"

Raziel tore his gaze away from the body to the human woman who had surprised him immensely. Not only had she argued with the Elder, she had also been able to prove her worth in a battle she shouldn't have walked away from. She rested now on the pillar in a feral position, looking physically like a human, but the glow in her eyes was nothing near a human emotion. She had enjoyed the fight. She was exhilarated. It had been a challenge to her and she loved every moment of it. He could read it in her eyes. She looked up at him and he almost expected her to smile at him and bare blood-covered fangs.

"Yes, it's dead."

"Well, well, well," the Elder's voice rumbled. "The mortal is quite an interesting thing. Watch your concubine well, Raziel, especially in your bed."

Lara calmly walked over to her rocket launcher, picked it up, and slid another rocket into the gun. Then she walked over to the edge of the floor and aimed down.

"NO!" Raziel caught her arm. "No," he continued when she glared up at him. "We need him for information." She looked about to argue, but he said softly, "Lara, we need him. No."

She took the rocket launcher off her arm and stepped away.

"All right . . . Raziel." She turned and went to get her backpack. He watched incredulously as she stuffed the rocket launcher, a weapon longer than his arm, in a small, half-foot deep, foot wide backpack with no problems. She put it back on her back, looking as if it weighed nothing. He shook his head and turned to gaze down at the Elder again.

"Where is Moebius, Elder?"

"Beyond your reach, Raziel. I will not tell you where."

"Fine," he replied simply. "And the Time Streamer will grow stronger by the day while you weaker. You cannot lie to me, Elder. You can die and you and I both know you are. He has to be stopped, otherwise you will die."

There was a long silence before the Elder grudgingly answered, "He is in his fortress up in the mountains to the north. He waits for the day when his power will be high enough so he can end me. Watch your concubine well if you should take this path, Raziel, for there will be one who will take her if he is able."

The Elder fell silent, and while Lara was deciding if she should attempt to kill him again (after all, they had gotten the information they had wanted out of him), Raziel turned to her.

"Can you swim?"

"Yes," she replied.

"I hope you can hold your breath for a while." And he jumped into the water without saying anything more. With a shrug, Lara followed, doing an elegant dive into the water. Raziel waited for her in the depths, then seeing her, headed into a cavern. Lara followed, noting the eyes of the giant squid below them following them. The cavern was in actuality a tunnel, but it was incredibly wide in places. She found she was having trouble keeping up with her companion. While on land he was no problem to stay up with, in water was a completely different story. He swam much like a dolphin or whale, his entire body curving up and down to let him glide through the water. Lara's typical swimming tactics, though quite capable, were slower than his were and he was forced to wait every so often for her to catch up.

Her lungs began to feel like they were on fire and still the tunnel showed no signs of ending. She had just gotten to the point that she was thinking death would be more comfortable than this tortured existence when the rock suddenly gave way to a huge lake. She nearly beat Raziel in her race for the surface and air. After breathing in deeply a few times, she moved onto the closest piece of land and sat down across it, coughing. Raziel climbed out of the water and sat down next to her, watching her.

"Are you still alive?"

"Yes," she managed to get out. "I must remember next time I go out on an adventure to bring air breathing gear. I've never had to hold my breath that long. Can we please try to avoid that again?"

"I won't promise anything," her companion answered honestly. "But I'll try."

"Thank you." She let her face fall against the ground as she just breathed. She felt Raziel's eyes on her.