Lara stubbornly tried to hang onto consciousness. She wasn't going to pass out again. She risked a look at the Colonel hanging beside her. She could she the right side of his face was already beginning to swell, and he had been stripped of his weapons - as well as his jacket and watch. He now wore only his pants and a black T-shirt, and Lara got a glimpse of his well muscled arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked after a minute.

"I'll live." Lara said hoarsely.

The Colonel turned to look at her. She could see he was cataloguing every injury and she bit back a wince. She knew she must look pretty bad. "Yeah." He agreed. "You will."

At his tone, Lara glanced at his face and raised an eyebrow. "A little sympathy too much for you?" she asked.

Jack glared at her. "You shouldn't be here."

Lara grinned wickedly at him. "I don't take orders very well."

"No." Jack said. "You don't."

Lara felt herself getting angry. The Colonel's tone was condescending and sarcastic. "What is your problem?" she snapped.

"Nothing." Jack replied. "I just don't like mercenaries."

Lara felt her eyebrows rise at his condemning tone. "A mercenary?" she asked.

Jack looked at her. "You travel the world 'gathering' artefacts for a price. You're a mercenary." He said.

"You're wrong." Lara said softly. "I don't do it for a price. I do it for the challenge and the adventure. I don't work for anyone but myself and I don't care about the money."

The quiet conviction of her words startled Jack. He had not expected the honesty he heard in her voice. Even though she was looking at him, Jack didn't think she was talking to just him anymore. "Then what is important?" he asked gently.

"What?" Lara blinked and lost the distant look in her eyes.

"You said you don't care about the money. So what is important? Why do you do it?" Jack asked.

"The challenge." Lara said. "It's one of the few times I feel truly alive. I like proving to myself that I can take on anything and survive." A look of sadness passed over her face. "And my father was an archaeologist. He taught me to respect the past. I stop people destroying it in their greed or using it to destroy the future."

Lara raised an eyebrow at Jack. "What about you?" she asked. "Why did you join the Air Force?"

Jack looked at her and then away. "The freedom, I guess." He answered. "I wanted to fly and my father was being really tough on me about it. So I escaped."

Lara smiled softly at him. "It seems we're more alike that you would like to believe, Colonel."

"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow.

Lara's smile widened mischievously. "Well, we're both independent, strong and like our freedom. And despite everything, Colonel, you don't like taking orders as much as you claim."

Jack grinned back. "Only when the orders are stupid." He said. "And the name's Jack."

"Well, Jack." Lara said, emphasising his name. "Got any ideas on how to get out of here?"

"I'm working on it, Lara." Jack said, drawing out her name in return. "You?"

Lara smiled wryly. "Not yet."

The pair lapsed into companionable silence. Lara took a moment to ease her throbbing shoulders, but nothing worked. The clinking of metal chains echoed around the room. "Bloody Hell!" she cursed under her breath.

At that moment the door swung open, and the tall blond man with the funny voice entered. When Lara saw the figure standing behind his right shoulder, she tensed and began to struggle against the chains.

"Ah, I see you remember each other." The man said when he saw Lara gazing coldly at the woman.

Lara continued to struggle. The man shook his head. "Now, now. If you don't stop that, I will be forced to subdue you, Lara."

At the sound of her name Lara stilled. "How did you . . . " she trailed off.

"Know you and Jack here were friends?" he asked in his eerie voice.

"You've bugged the room." Lara said with absolute certainty.

"Of course." The man said. "Although you have very basic technology. Barely enough to do anything." He said condescendingly.

Lara looked puzzled at that. What technology? What was he talking about?

The man didn't wait around to explain. "Bring him." He ordered.

The guards that had accompanied him complied quickly and efficiently without saying a word. Jack struggled as soon as he was out of his chains, but one of the guards grabbed his hands and tied them behind his back.

Jack lashed out with his feet, but the blond man hit him across the face with enough force to make him sag in the arms of the guards. Lara winced at the blow and watched Jack try and shake off the dizziness.

Satisfied, the man turned and led the way out of the cell, stopping only to say two words to the woman. "Have fun." He said.

Lara watched warily as the guards left and shut the door, leaving Lara alone with the woman. Her black hair was pulled harshly back from her face, and two guns glinted in the light at her waist. Lara growled softly when she noticed them. They were her guns!

The woman stroked them. "Do you want them back, Croft?" she crooned.

Lara just glared coldly at her. "Do you even know who I am?" the woman asked Lara.

"Adriana Williams." Lara answered shortly.

"Oh no." Adriana said in a voice tinged with something close to madness. "I am the First Prime to my God!" she cried.

Lara continued to watch her warily. Adriana cackled, and walked up until she was standing right in Lara's face. Adriana bent down until they were ey to eye. "And you are nothing."

The woman cackled again and bent down to unchain Lara's legs. "And I'm going to prove it to you." She said. "You'll see just how powerful he is when he turns your friend into one of us!"

By now, Lara's feet were unchained. She did not hesitate, but drew her feet up to her chest and slammed them into Adriana's face. Adriana stumbled back. While her muscles screamed in pain after being abused for so long, Lara swung upwards until she was hanging upside down from the chain and wrapped her legs around the top. She quickly pulled the chain binding her hands free from the other one, through a slightly open link.

As Adriana screeched in rage and stumbled to her feet, blood dripping from her broken nose, Lara somersaulted to the ground and lashed out in a roundhouse kick, catching Adriana in the side of the head. Adriana stumbled backwards again, and Lara kicked her in the stomach, before kicking her in the head with a spinning kick, with enough force to knock her out. "Bitch!" she muttered.

Lara quickly unchained her hands, and bent over Adriana. She was out cold. Lara gave a wicked smile and grabbed the guns from the woman's belt, placing them back in the holsters in which they belonged. "Time to get out of here." She said.