Darin sat at his laptop. His eyes were totally stuck on it. He was going to finish, he was going to finish. His room was pitch black, except for the bright light that was coming from the screen. All 13 curtains of his gargantuan windows were closed. He needed silence. Total silence.

The calculations were the hardest. He needed to remember every mathematical formula in his mind. It was hard. One mistake, it could be all over. He needed to concentrate…….

Designing a droid was hard. Extremely hard. He had only created two in the past 5 years. But this one was going to be different. This one, was going to be powerful. He finally gave up for the night, deciding that he could do more work tomorrow. He had just gotten off school, because it was his vacation.

The boarding school was very tough, but it was summer vacation now, which means he could get enough relaxation at his mother's mansion to last him the rest of the year. Suddenly, he heard a knock on the door. He glanced to right and looked at the slight crack at the bottom of the door. It was Hillary.

"Yeah, come in." he called. He went back to his typing. Hillary opened the door and went up to Darin. "Master Darin……"

"Please Hillary, I think you know me well enough to call me Darin."

"Sorry, Darin. Dinner is waiting for you in the dining room. Your mother and your sibling are waiting for you."

"Ugh," Darin muttered, rubbing his forehead. "Dinner already? Can't it wait?"

"Sorry Darin. Your mother gave me strict orders to bring you down. She told me that if you don't, it's four hours at the obstacle course for you." He said. Darin punched his desk. He knew that his mother knew that he absolutely hated the obstacle course. It wasn't his style. He hated all the jumping and the monkey bars. He was more of a techie. The obstacle course was more of an Anna sort of thing.

"Dammit, she never stops does she?" he screamed as he got up from his chair. "Oh, sorry for the language Hillary."

"Oh no no. It's fine with me. Just go on to the dining room."

"Thanks." Darin muttered as he slowly walked out of his door. He sighed as he paused to stop and look at the amazing house. Darin leaned on the balcony, just stopping to breathe. He closed his eyes, and imagined things. Memories. He had had a pretty rough life here, the mansion brought too many memories if you ask him.

He finally got the nerve to go walk down the stairs to the dining room. A long walk it was, going from his room to the dining room. It was at least a 10 minute walk. He thought about protesting to his mum but then realized all his mum would say was "It's good exercise for you Darin. Honestly, it's like you're dead. Always stuck in your room doing crazy things."

Darin clenched his teeth and made fists out of his two loose hands. He was almost to the dining room. Would dad be home? He wouldn't know, and he wouldn't care. All he knew, was that he hated it at home. He hated his stupid sister, and mostly he hated his parents.

Why you ask? First of all, they weren't even his parents.

Darin stopped in his tracks and stood over the railing of the second floor, looking out to the big manor, wondering if everything was all....worth it. He sighed, and blew a strand of his ruffled hair out of his face.

Years ago, young Lara Croft and Alex West, being the dynamic duo of tomb raiders in the whole continent of Europe, never the less the whole WORLD, went out on a mission placing in the coasts of Western Austrailia. If Darin remembered his stories right, they were searching for a lost map that showed the hiding places of great treasures that belonged to a ruler in China of the Chang Dynasty. They had somehow traced the location of the map to Austrailia somewhere in the forests of the Shark Bay.

Along the way.....cruising through the forests looking for the lost map, a crying was heard echoing through the whole forests and it turned out that a little baby boy had been abandoned. No one knew he was there, and no one knew who he belonged to. The next town was miles and miles away from where Lara and Alex stood, when they found the boy and cared for him. Only a little name was embroided onto his blanket.

Darin.

They both of course took the boy in with them, they couldn't let it die all alone with all the dangers in the forests. They went to almost all the social service agencies and police stations and orphanages in the whole country, yet failed to find who Darin really belonged to. That was when Lara agreed to take him in as her own and raise him as if he were her own son. Alex being a part of his discovery and Lara's own love, decided he would be the father figure in Darin's life.

This was all before Anna was born 4 years later after they found Darin, and he'd been with Lara and Alex ever since.

Darin sighed and held his head as he leaned on the railing. Many thoughts have raced through his head since the moment he was old enough to know about his story. Mostly negative, some a little positive although most of them ended up in hatred for his parents. Lara's training had put him through hell and Alex's criticism had lingered in his mind for so long. They never seemed happy with him.

Only with Anna.....

'She's really their kid. That's why....it's cause I'm not.' he thought. He didn't really blame Anna for everything, the kid could be okay most of the time if not acting like the annoying little sister she was, but the discriminating thoughts in his head were something he couldn't ignore for the past few years. He would never please his parents and he would never be their real son. Only a charity case. Only a sign of pity.

That empty hole in his heart would stay a hole forever.

He finally gave a final sigh and ran down the stairs and through the many halls to get to the dining room where Lara and Anna sat eating. He walked in quickly, sitting down at a far end of the long table so that there were a lot of empty spots between him, Lara and Anna. As soon as he sat down, he could feel Lara's cold glare at his face. He turned towards her and saw that she had stopped eating and had her arms crossed. She stood up.

"Where have you been?"

"Working."

"On what?"

"Something."

"I called Hillary up to you, probably hours ago and you still haven't shown up. How many times do I have to lay down the rules for you Darin? You come home from vacation and you expect to be cut some slack everyday of the summer? You're wrong."

"Look mum, leave it be alright? I wasn't doing anything stupid....these things happen to be important for ME. Not you. You're never interested in what I have to say or do."

"I'm interested in you coming down for dinner. THAT'S what i'm interested in. If you don't straighten up.....I swear you'll regret it. Don't test me Darin. I'm your mother and I am capable of a lot. Now sit down and eat your dinner.....since you'll be needing energy for doing rounds of training for 3 hours." she said, sitting back down. Anna smirked and kept eating, not wanting to be in the middle of their arguement.

Darin looked surprised and stood up. "NO! Just for being late for dinner? That's ABSURD! You can't do this to me? I'm 18. I'm practically an adult. I can drive. I can live on my own if I wanted to. You can't keep making me train for punishment. I'm TOO OLD for this."

"I'll double it if you really want me to. Don't, push me Darin." she said angrily. Darin gave a frustrated moan and sat back down to eat his food. He had a hard, mean look on his face since he felt very angry about his situation at hand.

Anna kept quiet, eating her dinner sighing at another argument between her brother and her mother. Both of them were exactly alike, they both had no tempers at all and were always at each other's throats. There was never a moment's peace in the house since there was always guns firing or their voices shouting and echoing throughout the manor. Anna quietly wished her father were home more to settle the arguments.

****

Darin caught his breath as he quickly climbed a rope attached to a wall and struggled to get to the top of the slanted wall. As soon as he got on top, he rested a bit and wiped the gallons of sweat that lingered on his forehead. A loud *BEEP* signaled to him that the sensors sensed that he had been stopping for more than 20 seconds. He sighed and started moving down the wall to the rope monkey bars.

He swung off each one, his palms getting more irritated and red with blisters with each strand of rope. As soon as the ropes ended he dropped down to another mat, where he had to run like mad through a bunch of swinging punching bags to avoid shooting hot paintballs that came out from the side walls. He ran, trying to avoid them all but orange paint painfully caught up to him and splashed right onto his bare shoulder and burned him badly.

As a gasp of pain escaped his lips he kept on going, knowing if he slowed down he would get hit once more. As soon as he got from that obstacle, cardboard dummies started going back and forth right in front of him with targets on their chests. He quickly took out his paintball pistol from his belt and stood in the right position and adjusting his burning shoulders before shooting a couple paintballs into the cardboard dummies.

After his ammo was done, he sighed as another beep signaled he was done with the course once more. He went outside the whole obstacle to the couch that was near it. The training room he was in was gigantic and took up at least a quarter of his HUGE house. He had gone through every single course about 6 times each until his three hours were over.

He tried to catch his breath, and beads of sweat sparkled all over his muscled arms and legs as the spotlights from the ceiling shone onto him. He looked over to his shoulder and realized that the paint shell was still on his shoulder. He cringed in pain as he flicked it off, and poured water on his paintball burn to keep it from stinging.

"Geez, you look like a wreck."

He looked behind him and saw Anna walking towards him, dressing in her usual sleevless tight top and sweat pants. Her hair was tied up in a bun and she walked over with two cans of pop in her hand and plopped next to Darin on the couch. She handed him the can of pop and he thanked her as he gulped the whole thing down.

"I think you lost about 5 pounds on this thing, you look dehydrated. Ouch, and the paintball stains everywhere aren't helping with look of style either." she pointed out, giving him an icepack for his burns. He shrugged as he enjoyed the comfort of the couch.

"Mom's such a dramatic fool. I swear....doing these training rounds are useless....."

"She was just pissed off cause you guys were fighting again. I wouldn't blame her."

"Well it's not like you ever got this kind of punishment whenever you talked back or did something wrong. This is what I come home to after a year of school....just hours of training courses and some paintball burns. Jesus Christ, she drives me nuts Anna." he said angrily, taking sips of his pop in between.

Anna sighed and rolled her eyes. "I've gotten deprived of my bungee jumping privilages and it's a lie that I don't get same punishment....I've gotten two hours of the courses for a week." she said in defense. Darin's frown got angrier and he shook his head. "She totally spoils you....all cause you're the youngest and you're her kid."

"Darin....don't be thinking like that again. It's bloody crazy, you know despite the past she still loves you. You're my brother and you'll always be." she said. "Which sucks but heck, I have to live with it right?" she included last minute for a little humor. She heard Darin smirk a little.

"Sure Anna....I'm not saying that I'm denying myself as your brother okay? I'm saying that I'm not her son.....and it sure as hell will stay that way for all of eternity. There will always be a difference in her eyes when she looks at me. 'Oh look, there's Darin. The failure....god I'm glad he's not my blood.'" he said. Anna tried to say different, but didn't really know what to say.

"I'm out. I still have to finish my droid. G'night sis." he said, getting up from the couch and heading to the door. Anna got up quickly and put her can of pop on the table.

"WAIT! If you're not too tired, I'll do some shooting rounds with you. I need practice anyway. Come on, you against me like old times. Winner runs laps around the house." she said, grinning. Darin rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"That's okay....I'm done for the day." he said, walking out of the room. Anna felt a little hurt but knew that it was normal behavior for her depressed older brother. She sighed before grabbing her can of pop and shutting down the lights of the training course room.

A/N: Hope you like it....after watching Tomb Raider the movie a bunch of times, I got my inspiration back for my story. Read and Review please?