They paced into the fortress, keeping their eyes open for any Sarafan warriors. Strangely enough, like the clearing around the front, it was suspiciously devoid of life.
"Where is everyone?" Lara asked in a low whisper. Neither man answered her, they themselves not knowing and refusing to admit it. The only life they ran into were a few rats and bats, both of which turned tail and/or wing and fled at their approach. After a long hour of silence, their traveling finally paid off in what must have been Moebius' study. The place looked like it had been left in a hurry, books and papers scattered and odds and ends sitting on a desk. Tacked to the wall near the desk were a few pieces of paper. Lara glanced at them with mild interest. One indicated the dimensions and powers of the snake staff he always carried with him. On the desk itself were random odds and ends, papers with brief scribblings and one large almost ruby-colored gemstone about as large as Lara's heart. Kain stepped over to her and picked it up. The ruby flared bright red and he released it in surprise as it began to float on its own accord, flashing on and off. The red light condescended into a mist and solidified into the ghostly image of a man with a skeleton face and a hood.
"It is he who damned this world," the ghostly being intoned mournfully, a mixture of sadly accepting the fate and cursing the one who did it.
"Mortanius," Kain hissed to himself, recognizing the former Pillar Guardian of the Pillar of Death.
"Why do you disturb us even in death, destroyer of worlds?"
In an easy movement, Raziel slid forward to stand between Lara and Kain, the Reaver rippling into existence. Mortanius drew away from him, as if repulsed.
"The true Guardian of the Pillars . . ." the ghost whispered almost to himself. Then, as if accepting what fate had tossed him, he turned at last to Lara.
"What happened to you?" Lara asked curiously. Sorrow rippled through the ghost.
"The Pillars were betrayed," he sighed in reply. "One of our own was murdered."
"Ariel," Kain supplied. The ghost of Mortanius nodded in affirmation.
"I was held helpless in my own body, thrall and possessed by the Unspeakable One. And Moebius helped him do it."
"What can he possibly profit from this?" Lara inquired. The spirit seemed to shrug.
"Power, eternal life, the chance to rewrite history so Kain does not kill him, who knows? All we know is he betrayed the Inner Circle. When Kain killed each of us to try to restore the Pillars, Moebius was there, and he captured each of our souls, entrapping them in this gem. For what purpose, I know not."
Lara carefully took the gem out of the air, looking into its depths. Inside she could see other spirits swirling in its depths, and could not piece out who was what. She continued looking in as she asked, "You are bound here?"
"Yes. We cannot leave this world while we reside within this gemstone."
"What would it take to break it?"
"You need only flaw the gem somehow."
Lara looked up to see if either of the men had been listening in on the exchange. She saw Kain had already began shuffling through the items in the room to try to find something that he could use. Raziel had apparently disappeared to do the same. After but a moment, he came back, carrying a simple sword which he handed to Kain. Kain walked to where Lara stood and she looked back at the ruby.
"It seems you will be able to continue onto the next world, Mortanius."
"And who, child, might you be?"
"I am Lara Croft."
"And you, Lara Croft, will be fighting Moebius, will you not?"
"I will be."
"Then take this." The gem began to glow again and lifted out of her hands to hover a few centimeters above them. The mist again coalesced into a solid shape in her hands. Looking down, she saw a single magazine made for her pistols. She looked back up at the ghost.
"It is a collection of those unique items you used to get into the fortress."
Lara nodded once in acceptance as the gem settled down onto the floor. Kain stepped over to it, hefting the sword, checking its weight and balance. He grimaced, but swung the sword once, then brought it down on the gemstone. There was a slight ripple in the air and a muffled explosion as the gem shattered under the weight of the blade. It almost seemed to Lara that she could feel a cold breeze wrap around her body heading away, then it was gone. Around the sword was the ruby light, still glowing as brightly as it did when the ruby was in one piece. It seemed to focus on the sword, then die out, leaving the sword a dull blood red instead of the steel gray it had been. Kain rang his claws down the blade, eyeing it curiously.
"It seems that in shattering the ruby, the power of the gem was transferred to the sword. This will be a useful weapon."
Lara blinked slightly. "It will hold souls just as the gem did?"
"Yes. It is actually a far better tool than the gem, as well. With a gemstone, one has to focus to push the soul into it. Once this sword gives the killing blow, the soul will be pulled into it. Think of it as a lesser version of the Soul Reaver."
Raziel glanced around the desolate study. "Is there really anything else for us to do here? We still don't know where Moebius is."
"On the contrary," Lara replied, looking down at a sheet of paper, "I think we do." She held up a paper with an image of the Pillars and a path leading off to the right into the woodlands to a small broken temple. "He's waiting for us."
"Then by all means," Kain commented, "let us go to him." He took Lara's arm and touched Raziel's shoulder, teleporting them to the Pillars. Lara blinked at him a moment.
"You would have been so much help on my earlier quests."
"That I would have," he responded. "I probably would have gotten the job done in half the time and kept you out of most of the trouble you found yourself in."
The trio stepped cautiously and quietly toward the path. Ariel appeared in the air near them.
"Beware," she warned. "Moebius awaits on your path, along with one other whom I'm sure you would rather not see again, Kain." Before she could be asked any questions, she disappeared. Lara slipped her pistols out of their holster and Raziel let the Reaver materialize in the physical world. Kain hefted the sword and grimaced slightly. The three carefully made their way down the path toward the temple. At last, Lara sighed in exasperation.
"They know we're coming. What are we waiting for?!" Without waiting for an answer, she started jogging down the path, away from them.
"And again our human compatriot illustrates her lack of foresight," Raziel mumbled.
"On the contrary, Raziel," Kain responded, "she does have a point." The two men headed after her only to find her standing at a turn in the path, blinking in confusion and what looked like a touch of annoyance. Kain and Raziel flanked her only to see a large clearing with a temple set behind it. In that clearing was one figure familiar to all three; that of Moebius. However, only Kain recognized the second, as it was a towering demon that seemed to be as black as sheer nothingness.
"A man's past continually comes back to haunt him, it seems," Kain breathed. The demon turned red eyes on him. The thing seemed to smirk cruelly.
"Play on, little vampire, play on . . ." it hissed in an echoing voice.
"Hash'ak'gik."
Moebius stepped forward, the crystal on his staff flaring. She felt Kain stiffen beside her and Raziel curse. He chuckled softly.
"And as predicted, they show up on time. Just not quite as we would have expected, eh?"
Hash'ak'gik rumbled agreement from behind him.
"You were never supposed to live through the Sarafan army, but I knew you would somehow. But you were never supposed to find a way into my fortress." The smirk was gone as he glared at the three. "You weren't supposed to find that old temple in the mountains. You were supposed to come straight back here, not find the SOUL GEM!" The staff's light had been growing increasingly brighter as the Time Streamer grew angry. Lara found herself gazing at a man who looked somewhere between eighty and dead, with an infinity symbol down his forehead on the bridge of his nose. She felt an eyebrow rise. THIS was the infamous Time Streamer? She suppressed a chuckle, knowing looks could be deceiving. As if sensing her change in emotions, the Time Streamer looked down on her darkly.
"And you were most definitely not supposed to be here." A slight smirk cursed his lip as he regained his composure. "Tell me, little Tomb Raider, Kain and I have had to plan and plot for thousands of years to use Raziel like the 'edge of the coin,' for all intense purposes, to use him to create a paradox and change the course of time. Yet ever since you have been here, you have caused him to land on his 'edge' time and time again, without any planning and with no repercussions! How?!"
Lara blinked at him a moment, tilted her head to the side, and responded in question, "Feminine wiles?"
With a resounded curse, Moebius turned and stormed slightly away, obviously not getting the answer he wished. Lara leaned over to Kain and murmured, "The staff is a pain, isn't it?" She was given a silent nod in answer. As Moebius moved toward Hash'ak'gik, there was a sudden explosion, and his staff was sent flying out of his grip toward the far side of the temple. He spun to see Lara holding out one of the odd weapons of hers. She shrugged slightly.
"Itchy trigger finger," was all she said. Then the Unspoken struck down to try and snap her into its mouth. She darted further into the clearing to avoid the sharp teeth and Raziel and Kain immediately made a break to get to Moebius. The Time Streamer smiled cruelly as a translucent energy field surrounded his form. In the forest, the shrieks of what gave the impression of a multitude of demons sounded. The fight had begun.