Archeologists Love History. Right?
Summary: Our favorite tomb-raider (accidentally) travels back in time and (accidentally) meets up with our favorite archeologist, Indiana Jones. Now it is a race against time to keep a radical 21st century New-Nazi party from using ancient time-traveling arches to bring Hitler into the modern-day time and allow the Third Reich to reign once more. While Lara is bush-whacking around the 1930's with Indie, her second cousin twice removed, Rebecca Hayes, has to keep Nazi fanatic Wolfgang Sputznicks from finding the arch through which Lara (accidentally) traveled. Add one über-snake, and you've got chaos. Right? Enjoy!
A/N to dates and other important things: Ok, firstly, Lara's little adventure takes place before the first Tomb Raider game. This way I don't have to worry about details from the games (since I've only played the first one) or from the movies (since some details in the movies and games contradict). As to Indiana Jones, I was very small when I saw the movies and about 13 when I last played the game 'Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis', so bear with me if there are any mistakes.
Further, when Lara is with Indie, I will be using the 1930's names for countries as much as possible to help keep the authentic feel. So, if you see a place you've never heard of, check at the bottom of the page for the 'new' name.
I have also tried to use as many places with actual archeological sites as possible, and I will also give a small description/location of the place at the bottom of the page.
Then, lastly, this is my first Lara Croft fan-fiction, so please don't be too harsh on me. But, please, please, please read and review! I promise to update very quickly (since I have 7 weeks holiday coming up) and reviews make me type faster!
Disclaimer: I do not own Lara Croft, Indiana Jones, Barnett College, Britain, America, South Africa, Russia or any other countries/characters/archeological sites that belong either to movie companies, game-manufacturers or themselves. I do, however, own Rebecca Hayes, Wolfgang Sputznicks and madam über-snake (don't ask) and all other characters you don't recognize. The plot is mine also, so leave it alone.
Oh, and I do NOT own Hitler! Got that?
Thanks: Lastly I'd just like to thank a few people for their help. Firstly, my archeologist of a father who first got me into Indiana, Lara and all things history, who has also volunteered to help me with any technical details in this story. And then secondly to all my German-speaking friends who have been so kind as to help me with a few German words.
Ok, now all that's done, let's get down to the story! Please read and review.
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1995
"Are you sure this was such a good idea, Lara?" Becca Hayes called to her second cousin twice-removed, Lady Lara Croft, as she wormed her way through a long, narrow tunnel. "This looks like the road to something's lair, and I don't think we want to know what it is."
"Of course it is a good idea. I wouldn't have come in here if it wasn't, would I now?" Lara's accented voice drifted back to Becca around the bend of a tunnel. "Besides, the creature can't be very big, now can it?"
She did have a point. The tunnel was only about four feet high and five feet broad, but that didn't make it any less spooky.
Becca sighed and continued to push her backpack ahead of her, crawling on her hands and knees across the smooth lime-stone floor. Her knees were starting to hurt and her palms we stinging, but Lara insisted that it would be further to turn back than to continue. She was going to sound like a child when she said it but: "How long till we're there?"
Her only response was the sound of Lara's booted feet hitting a stone floor, and moments later, Becca almost fell out of the tunnel face first as the floor suddenly gave way under her hands and opened into a huge, circular room. Catching herself just in time, Becca managed to sliver out of the tunnel and land awkwardly on her feet, missing her camera-filled backpack by inches.
The cave appeared to be naturally cut in the lime-stone mountain, perhaps having been eroded away over the ages by the slow trickle of water that even now slicked the walls. The cave's roof was lost in shadows hundreds of feet above their heads, and even when Becca switched on her powerful torch and pointed it upwards she couldn't see through to the top.
Lara was already making her way over to the far side of the cave, and strangely, something crunched under her boots with every step she took. Interested, Becca pointed her flash-light downwards.
"My God." She murmured as she saw the bones littering the floor of the cave. There wasn't an inch where the natural floor showed through. "What do you think killed all these…" she was about to say "animals" when her torch lighted on a cracked human skull. "Sweet Isis."
"I'd say whatever lay those eggs did." Lara flashed her own beam of light to the right, where hundreds of white eggs were neatly placed in a rough circle. Becca squashed her natural curiosity and moved after Lara, unwilling to think of what inhibited those eggs. They were each roughly the size of a large cooler box, although she had the idea it didn't contain beer.
"Ah ha!" Lara exclaimed as she reached the wall she had been moving towards. Set in it was an exquisitely carved doorway of stone. "Take a picture of this, won't you?"
Nodding, Becca pulled out her digital camera and snapped a few pictures of the door before moving closer.
"Can you read it?" Lara traced her finger over a set of ruins carved on the door. Becca nodded and moved closer, taking another picture as she went.
"Those who seek the…" Becca frowned. "Either magic or knowledge, it's hard to tell. Anyway, those who seek the knowledge of the past beware, the veil is thin and the future cannot withstand the past…"
She moved her flashlight down a bit farther. "All that was can change what will be, nothing can bar the call of the ancient." Becca tilted her head to the right, trying to make out the last few ruins. "That's all I can read, the others are too damaged by the wet… perhaps if we send a picture of it to Bryce, he could recreate it for us on the computer."
Lara nodded. "How do we open it?" Her eyes were lively with a glint that Becca knew spelt nothing but trouble. The prize was near, they both knew it.
"Hmmm, I don't know… wait!" Becca's hand came into contact with a slight cylindrical depression. "Hand me the smallest seal!"
Raising an eyebrow, Lara took the small, cylindrical seal out of her backpack, handing it to Becca. "What have you found?"
With a small smile, Becca rolled the seal around in her hand, looking at the exquisitely carved figures on the side. "It just hit me, suddenly." She explained. "These figures are the Gate Guardians." Becca held the seal under her flashlight. "You see those things they hold in their hands?"
Lara nodded and peered down at the figures in their comical feather caps.
"Those are the seals that open the doors!" Grinning in triumph, Becca continued. "You see, when we found this one in the tomb in the Beycesultan* site it was placed next to the carving of the door to the after-life. The Gate Guardians not only open the door to the next life, but also to the past and the future."
"Very impressive. Now, put it in." Lara made a small motion with her hand, giving away her impatience. As much as Lara loved history and archeology, she loved the thrill of a finding even more.
Softly placing the seal into the depression, they were rewarded with a soft click before the door slowly started to move inwards. Half-way it got stuck, but there was just enough space for them to squash through if they took of their backpacks. With a grin, Lara took her .9mm out of their holsters and Becca readied her Magnum. She preferred her shotgun, which was strapped to her back, but it took too long to reload. It had taken her some time to get used to the lighter, "faster" Magnum, but Lara had insisted. At least Becca had always been a good shot.
The smaller room they found themselves in was about twenty feet in diameter and appeared to be man-made.
"Bingo." Lara said as she directed her beam to the east wall. Carved into the wall with seamless perfection was an arch roughly man-height. Made of a strange white-and-gold coloured stone, it was a perfect creation of stone masonry. Solid rock showed through in the middle of the arch, highlighted only by a cylindrical depression in the centre and a band of ruins around it.
"Which seal would go in here?"
"Just a sec, Lara." Becca had her flashlight on the west wall, and she slowly inclined her head to the statue carved into the rock before reverently placing some of her freeze-dried fruit on the rock shelf sticking out from under it.
"It is the Eye Goddess*." Her voice was filled with awe. "I have never seen traces of her anywhere but in Brak, where there was a temple dedicated to her."
The statue was truly magnificent, standing roughly the same height as Becca. In typical Goddess fashion, the body was that of a voluptuous woman with Her hands folded over Her left breast in a sign of life and blessing. No mouth or nose was visible in the face, although the Eyes were done in perfect detail. Two large crystals sat between heavy lids traced in gold, while the eyebrows were two arched streaks of inlaid ebony.
Seeing Becca lost in the thing she loved the most, Lara cleared her throat. "Sorry to rush you, but I think it's just a tiny problem when you think that those Nazi freaks are not far behind us."
"Sorry." With a last bow, Becca turned away from the statue. "Ok, now let's think. Put the seals down on the ground."
Kneeling beside the seals, the two women tried to puzzle out which one of the keys would fit that particular door. The remaining four seals each weighed the same amount, looked alike and appeared to be mirror copies of each other. Becca sat back on her heals, thinking hard.
"Any ideas?" She asked after a while, looking at Lara.
Shrugging, the tomb-raider continued to stare at the stones. "I've been wondering, couldn't where we found them give us some clue as to where they go?"
"It is possible, if we take into account that they may have been moved from their original spot. But it might be worth a try." Becca fell quiet again, running over the sites in her mind. "Got it!"
Lara clapped. "Super, which one is it?"
"This one." Becca picked up the seal marked with a small label reading: Paestum*. "We found this one close to the ceremonial tomb of the Goddess Persephone, didn't we? Well, it is the only Goddess that would have a possible link to the Eye Goddess. Persephone's symbol is the pomegranate, which kind of resembles the eye if you think about it."
"Shall we try it?" Lara reached for the seal and snatched it out of Becca's hand before the younger woman could stop her.
"I don't think that's a good idea, Lara. We have no way of controlling it or even know where it will take us. We could be spit out before creation began and there is nothing we could do about it." Becca felt as if she was speaking to the walls. Lara Croft would never let such an opportunity pass.
"Remember, if anything should happen to me, get out of here as quickly as you can, ok? Don't wait around to see if I'll come back. If I do I'll find my own way out, but I won't have you starving in here waiting for me." Lara was reaching out to place the seal in the depression as she spoke; her attention fixed solely on the object in her hand.
"Lara…" Everything happened so fast. Just as Lara placed the seal in the depression, a rumble could be heard from the mountain and the ground shook. Becca, who was half-way to standing, was thrown right over. A brilliant white light shone from within the arch, and Lara, losing her balance tumbled through head first.
"Bloody miners!" Becca let fly a string of curses as the shaking stopped and she made her way steadily to her feet. The light from the arch had vanished, and with it Lara and the seal.
"You're dead, Lara Croft. I'll kill you with my bare hands when you get back!"
*Beycesultan: Site in West Turkey which may have been the capital of the Arzawans (2300-1300 BC). The Gate Guardians are my own creation drawn from various myths.
*Eye Goddess: The only traces of Her that I could find was in Brak, a site in East Syria where there was a temple dedicated to this virtually unknown Goddess. The statue is my own mental image of Her. Could find no dates, but still looking.
*Paestum: Greek colony on the West coast of Italy. A totally enclosed tomb which is believe to be a ceremonial tomb to the Goddess Persephone has been found here. Dates to round about 5th century BC.
Well folks, that's the first chapter. Is it any good or am I just wasting my time? Let my know by pressing that little button that says: Go!