VIII-Convergence of the Parallel
Lara took a step into the dark corridor, keeping the knife and dive light ahead of her as her senses searched the murk. That familiar, inexplicable feeling washed over her, a heady mix of adrenaline, caution, and exhilaration.
The tomb raider was in her element.
Her neoprene dive boots squelched on the thin layer of slime coating the stone tiles of the ramp underfoot. Her light shone against the rock sides of the narrow corridor, the darkness devouring the beam before she could see the end of the ramp.
Lara's eyes searched all around her, searching for traps, as she made her way up the slope. A few long, silent minutes passed before the beam from her light cut through the empty air, the sides of the corridor falling behind her as she stepped into a large chamber.
The air was not as damp here, but still held a noticeable hint of must and decay. Switching the knife to her other hand, she reached into a small pouch at her hip, cracking a glowstick between her fingers before throwing it into the darkness in front of her. A second later it hit rock with a clatter, throwing out a fluorescent ball of green light against the wall. She took out another glowstick, turning a few degrees and throwing it as far as she could, continuing like that until she tossed out her last one.
The chamber, about half the length and width of a football pitch and no more than two stories high, was filled with weak light from the glowsticks, casting eerie shadows on the rough stone walls. Lara spun around slowly, peering closely at everything around her.
Simple in both design and decoration, Lara could immediately tell that it was beyond ancient, more than likely dating back to the very root of Greek civilization. Crude carvings and faded symbols peppered the walls above twenty raised daises evenly spaced along the wall. And there, sitting at eye level on top of each dais, was a small, simple statue, drawing Lara's eyes to them like magnets.
The discovery only made Lara more cautious as she stepped to the closest dais, studying the figure and the symbols above it with a critical eye.
"Hestia. Not quite…" she murmured to herself, stalking over to the next dais. And then next. And still moving on the one after.
She was opposite of her starting point when her eyes fell on the next statue in front of her, a tiny chill traveled over her spine as the memories flashed through her brain
The helicopter swooped low directly over her, barely clearing the treetops as the door gunner let out a spray of rounds, peppering her with shredded bits of branches and kicking up plumes of dirt barely two feet to her left. The rotors screamed ahead of her as the pilot banked hard, coming around for another pass
They were quickly getting tired of chasing her; she was running on borrowed time now.
She slammed to a halt, heels digging into the half-frozen ground as the militiamen burst out of the trees, dark shadows against the deepening purple darkness of the night forest. They yelled wildly as flame sputtered from the muzzles of their weapons, firing at the blurred shadow of their prey racing in front of them.
Lara was halfway over a low stone wall, sailing through the air in a clean vault, within sight of her Land Rover parked at the edge of the fallow field, when a bullet rebounded off of the loose rock to bury itself in her upper back.
A gout of blood sprayed through the air and she staggered when her feet hit the ground, the breath rushing out of her lungs. Her knees crashed into the black dirt for a moment before she dug her fingers in, flinging herself back to her feet, sheer willpower keeping her legs moving. She did her best to clear her mind of any panic or fear, eyes glued to the vehicle parked next to the ramshackle barn, growing closer with every footstep. Lara refused to pay attention to the feel of blood trickling hot down her back, chest, and stomach, soaking into the fabric of her pants.
But Lara kept running, her body screaming in pain as she stumbled over clods of dirt. And then she felt fingers scrabbling at her back, clawing at her braid and grabbing onto her backpack. She struggled against the hands just before they yanked her back, hauling her to the ground.
She kept fighting, her fists arcing through the air with everything she had, kicking out at the men as they fell on her in one frenzied pack….
Lara shook her head, snapping herself back to the present. Her eyes focused again on the slightly misshapen statue in front of her, uncomfortably familiar with the vaguely female shape holding the spear along her side. she studied the dais for a moment before her hand shot out, grabbing the statue tightly.
She spun around in a circle, watching, ready to spring into action. She stood still for a minute more, almost expecting some sort of trap: darts, a collapsing floor, ferocious beasts, maybe even something a little more…supernatural. But all Lara could sense was the faint gurgle of water from the tunnel behind her.
"Well then." Her voice echoed throughout the chamber as a smirk graced her lips. She spun on her heel, taking a few steps back to the chamber's entrance.
"Don't go."
Lara whirled around, knife blade scything through the air reflexively, her eyes flashing. The sharp steel only cut through air with a hiss, leaving Lara face to face with a young woman, dressed in a simple white robe, her face hidden underneath a deep cowl.
"Stay. There is only danger out there."
Lara's eyes narrowed suspiciously, holding the knife in front of her, unwavering. "What sort of danger?"
The woman took a soft step forward. "It wants you now; you won't be able to go that way." A delicately-boned finger pointed straight to the tunnel behind Lara. "But there is another way."
"And what way is that?" Lara asked softly, shifting the blade just a little in her fingers.
"Stay and I will show you." The dark shadow in the woman's hood deepened as she took another step closer to Lara. Her lips were pressed in a thin, bloodless line, her skin a very pale bronze. The glowsticks were starting to die, their light weakening, but Lara didn't move, strangely rooted in place.
The woman took another step towards Lara, her face barely a foot from the adventurer's as her pale hands rose to the edge of her cowl, drawing it back off of her head. Her thin lips curved upwards in a seductive smile, the black depths of her empty eye sockets searching Lara's with an eerie intensity that she could feel. She raised her arm, fingers reaching towards Lara's cheek.
"Stay, and I will show you everything…"
Lara blinked slowly, taking in a deep breath, watching the thin hand draw nearer…
…and then watching as it fell to the ground, severed by the knife gripped tightly in Lara's hand.
The woman howled, her rage echoing off the stone walls as she lurched forward, reaching for Lara, her good hand straining for the statue in Lara's hip pouch. But the other woman was already racing for the tunnel, a few steps ahead of the phantasm.
Lara entered the tunnel at a dead sprint, feet flying over the slate tiles. She had barely taken a few steps when she slipped on the slime underfoot, completely losing her footing and crashing to the floor with a yelp of pain. She kept tumbling down the ramp, sliding and careening down the incline. The woman glided right over the surface, rapidly closing the distance between them, the fingers of her good hand reaching….
Unable to stop or control her momentum, Lara stuck out a hand, her fingers scraping against jagged rock as she tumbled out of control, sunbursts of pain flashing every time she hit. She bounced off the tiles one last time before plunging headfirst into the shallow water of the grotto, slamming her temple on the rough stone beneath the murky water, reeling as water flooded into her open mouth and nose. Lara pushed against the floor reflexively, bursting above the surface just to see the woman screaming as she leapt into the air, ready to pounce.
The instant she reached the doorway with the blue shimmer, she froze, shrieking and writhing in the grip of some invisible force. She shuddered, faster and faster, as if she were a rag doll being shaken by a dog. She shrieked even louder, her body a white blur, the instant before she exploded. Tiny fragments of dust and grit, all that remained of the woman, showered the air, spraying the water and peppering Lara.
She suddenly felt hands on her, twisting around to see who it was, prepared to fight them off. She relaxed the second she saw Marc's face above her, pushing herself out of the water to her feet. He eyed her, then the pouch at her hip.
"Are you alright? Did you get it?"
Lara nodded, wading through the water for her dive gear and putting it back on. "We need to get out of here."
Marc didn't argue, getting back into his gear and leading the way down the incline the way they had come, the water rising until he slipped under the surface, a trail of bubbles appearing under the beam of Lara's light. She slipped her regulator into her mouth as the cool water rose to her chest, taking one last look around the dark grotto before she too sank under the water, swimming after the beam of Marc's light.
The trip outside of the warren of tunnels and passageways went by faster this time, yet Lara did not let her guard down for an instant, her light sweeping the passage ahead of her.
She rounded one last corner and a patch of bright blue appeared, beckoning from the darkness of the tunnels. Marc shut off his dive light, and Lara did the same, swimming for the square patch of sun-filtered water ahead. Barely five feet behind him, she was looking sideways at the side of the tunnel just as Marc popped free into the bright blueness. When she looked forward a second later, he was gone.
She looked up and to her left, following a dense string if bubbles, her hand flying back to her knife. Marc was struggling against something almost as big as he was, slender and gray, beating at it with his hands and twisting haphazardly. Whatever he was fighting, it was beginning to gain the upper hand, rapidly pushing him down and away from her. Instead of feeling fear, a calculating part of her kicked in as she instinctively kicked forward.
Lara had barely moved a few feet before she felt something hard slam into her legs. She whirled, holding the knife at the ready, watching as a grey shape hurtled by, inches from her. In one second she could see the delicate feminine features, the smooth stone skin, blue eyes glowing brightly with rage and determination. A dull crumbling sound carried from behind her through the water and Lara felt something sink deep in her stomach, sparing a glance behind her.
The carved Oceanid figures were pushing themselves from the rock of the island, bits of stone falling to the bottom of the ocean as they separated themselves with a dull cracking noise. A dozen glowing blue eyes glared at her, almost staring her down for a moment, before the group of statues burst into a seething fury, churning the water around them as they sped straight for her.
She spun around in the water, kicking furiously with her fins for the surface, pointing in the general direction of their boat. She focused on the surface glittering about twenty feet above her head, her resolve to reach it iron-hard. Her arms stretched up, sweeping through the water, fingers almost straining to break through to the air above.
Lara's hand broke the surface, grasping at the air above just as hard, stony hands closed around her ankles, her legs, dragging her down.
They set upon her like hounds on the fox, circling around her in a dense pack. The air was filled with fists and grabbing hands and her legs thrashing out at the militia soldiers, trying to find a way out. Always fighting; she no longer knew how to give up, forgotten years ago, didn't even consider it—
Pointed nails and granite fingers dug into her wetsuit, tearing furrows through the neoprene and shallowly down her back. Hands clawed at her braid, her arms, pulling and dragging her in different directions all at once.
A pair of hands latched onto her shoulder, fingers digging purposefully into the bloody exit wound. She couldn't stop the dull scream that tore from her throat, almost hating herself for it as she swung with her good arm towards the body connected to those hands, those fingers curled inside of her—
A hand scrabbled at her hip pouch, she kicked out, knocking it away, her hand instinctively brushing against the statue to make sure to was still there.
One of the rebels grabbed her hand in midair, forcing it to the dirt and pinning her while her tormenter took his fingers from her wound, pinning her other side to the cold ground. She twisted and writhed for a few seconds, hoping for freedom, then lay still, realizing it was useless. Anger and pain burned in her eyes as a head appeared over the ring of militiamen surrounding and pinning her, followed by a body, clothed in camouflaged fatigues. The man looked down on her, his face as blank as stone, eyes searching her. The gold star embroidered on his collar glittered a little in the last scraps of light as he crouched beside her, his hand delving into her pack. He came up with the statue, looking at it critically, and then at her, still silent—
The regulator was ripped from her mouth and she held her breath as she lashed out at the stone nymphs, her hands slicing through the water in practiced maneuvers. Lara's hands went numb after colliding with the rock, doing absolutely no damage. A nymph brought her face within inches of Lara, gnashing her teeth with a cruel smile before darting off, her companions tugging on Lara, harder and harder each time. Their frenzy had increased: they weren't going to stop until they had quite literally torn her apart. Her hand flew to her waist, slipping into the pouch, gripping the statue with her hand as she was pulled in every direction. She closed her eyes, trying to focus.
The officer kept looking at her for the longest time before he spoke. She caught a few of the words, her head pounding from the pain. He called her foolish, a thief. She just glared at him, her lips pulled into a thin, taunting smile.
And then he nodded at one of the soldiers and the fists flew through the air, pummeling her as the men laughed at her, calling out to each other. She thrashed against the ground, feeling more hot blood on her skin each time she moved, but she kept trying to fight them. The fist looming square in her vision only stayed there for a moment, and then there was nothing.
A single thought. Elements of a hope, a wish, a last desperate gamble, maybe, except for the fact that she never entertained either of those three. Just her hand on the statue, concentrating with her eyes closed as the nymphs shot away from her as if burned, scraping against each other in stony confusion before racing into the distance, leaving Lara as quickly as they could.
Placing her regulator back between her lips, Lara swam towards the surface, trailing a thin, thin film of blood from the scratches on her back, a tiny bit of fearful awe starting to grow in the very deep depths of her heart, germinating as her head broke the surface of the sea.
a/n: Again, I want to point out that I started this well before the current 'Iraq situation'—I did not write this to put Lara in modern events, and especially not entertain the muse with the current conflict.
And how ABOUT that TR2 trailer??!!