A/N: I warned, you, but this is dark and violent. Your average movie, but this is one of those stories that begs to be written. And listen to trance, it's good stuff.

V-Memory, Reality, and a Dream

She was running through the woods, trying desperately to stay ahead of the militia squad as they chased behind her, firing bursts from their automatic weapons whenever they caught sight of her through the trees.

            Lara could feel her heart pounding in her chest, her legs burning from the sustained sprint as fallen sticks grabbed at her ankles, the half-melted remnants of the winter snow crunching beneath her feet. Her breath was entirely too loud in her ears, a cloud of vapor streaming out in front of her face with each exhalation. The air was getting colder as the sun set; another half-hour and she would be trying to find her way back to her jeep in the dark.

            One of the rebels, thinking he had a clear shot, let loose a spray of rounds. Bark fragmented next to Lara's head, and she ducked involuntarily, willing her legs to move her through the dense forest a little faster.

            But she knew she couldn't outrun them, not when they'd followed her for this long. Her eyes flicked wildly from side to side, looking for a place to make her stand as the sound of a helicopter somewhere overhead grew closer…

            The first thing Lara felt wasn't pain, quite its opposite. Gentle fingers were stroking her cheek, almost like her mother used to when she was a young child. Back in happier times... It made her feel warm and relaxed, ignoring the dull pain that she could feel throughout her body, as if she were on heavy morphine.

            She opened her eyes slowly, widening them in surprise when she recognized the person attached to the hand at her cheek. She would have sat up in surprise, but her body didn't respond, almost as if she were stuck in gelatin. Even her wrist, broken in the fight, didn't hurt.

            That was when a fearful thought cut through her mental haze, chilling her to the core.

            Her voice was a whisper when it escaped her lips, sounding weak.

            "Am I dead?" The words felt foreign on her tongue, as they should be.

            The young man who had frozen the sky in Maddox's bedroom looked down at her, a soft smile on his face. His eyes glinted in the dim light of the city lights, the brightness tempered by dark sadness. "No."

            She tried to sit up again but didn't even twitch. Her heart froze in greater fear. To her, there were few things worse than death…

            "Paralyzed?"

            He didn't say anything, his eyes darkening, looking sad as he bit his lip, looking at her body and then back to her eyes. She saw the truth in them and felt her insides unravel into a million pieces, wanting to scream and vomit at the same time.

            For the first time in a very, very long while, Lara Croft wanted to cry.

            His eyes captured hers, mesmerizing as his hand came back up to touch her cheek, reassuring.

            "Hey, don't give up on me. We still need you." His voice was soft.

            Lara felt a wave of bitter despair build within her mind, threatening to overwhelm her.

            Paralyzed. I'm no good to anyone anymore. The words echoed in her mind.

            "No." The young man looked at her with an overwhelming intensity. "Don't ever think that, Lara." He looked up at the night sky as if searching for something before he looked back into her eyes. "I want you to go to sleep now, Lara. It'll be fine in the morning, you'll see." He grinned impishly.

            Despite every fiber of her body telling her not to, despite the fact that she probably had a serious head injury, despite the emotional whirlwind ripping through her, Lara let her eyes slide closed, trusting the young man and falling back into the comforting void.

            She ran through a dark forest in her dreams, exulting in the feel of her legs carrying her swiftly over the pine covered dirt, the trees whipping behind her. She grinned at the feel of the breeze on her face as she leapt over a log without breaking stride, unaware of the shadows chasing behind her…

            ~~~~~

            Ten stories below, on the city sidewalk, a security operative scooped the small metal statue of a woman off of the concrete, inspecting it critically. Amazed that there wasn't even a scratch on it, he keyed his radio.

            "I've got the statue, but still no sign of the woman."

            "Keep looking; she's gotta be splattered all over the place down there. And bring that statue up here, ASAP. Mr. Gryner wants it locked back up."

            "Yessir," the operative replied, gripping the statue in one hand as he reentered the building.