Part Thirteen:

Lara raised her head at the sounds of footsteps coming down the hall. It had been about two hours since Kali had last spoken to them, and Lara figured that the reason they hadn't been back sooner was that Sam, Teal'c and everyone had been giving them problems.

Jack had stopped talking to her a while ago in order to try and get some rest. He thought he would probably need it. Lara had tried the same, but she lacked the same ease Jack had of being able to fall asleep at will. A fact she was slightly envious about.

Four Jaffa appeared at the door to the room. Cautiously they approached Lara's cell and opened it. "Come with me." One of the Jaffa said.

Lara shot a glance at Jack's cage, and saw he was awake once more and staring intently at what was going on. Before Lara could get to her feet, two of the Jaffa had entered her cell and yanked her to her feet. She struggled vainly, but their grip just tightened.

Lara was frog marched out of the room and down a long corridor to an opulent room. Standing in the centre of the room was Svarog. The guards let her go and she merely stood just inside the doorway as the Jaffa left. They couldn't be serious? Leaving her alone...with Svarog? Did they want her to escape?

Then Lara caught the look in Svarog's eyes. Ah, Svarog wasn't concerned with escape, but with something else instead. It just seemed so typically...male. Lara mentally shook her head. When would they learn? Not all women were meek, defenceless things. Especially not Lara Croft.

"Bastet." Svarog said, running his eyes over Lara's figure. "We don't need to fight, you know."

"Oh?" Lara arched a brow.

"I can put in a good word for you." He continued, walking forward. "With Kali."

"Can you really?" she asked.

"Oh, yes." By now Svarog attention was not on her face...and he was standing very close to Lara.

Svarog took the final step forward, finally dragging his eyes back to Lara's face. "So beautiful." He murmured, raising a hand to touch Lara's face.

Lara shut her eyes, not in pleasure or fear, but rather to hide her absolute disgust. That was it; the final straw as it were. Lara had not come halfway through the galaxy – if not the universe – to be beaten up and hit on by some intergalactic sleaze. Or some power mad cow.

Her mouth curved into a sneer as she lashed out. Lara viciously kneed Svarog in the balls he was so obviously thinking with, before head butting him in the face. Lara finished off by knocking him out with a quick snap kick.

Svarog fell to the ground heavily. Lara looked at him in disgust. The man couldn't even take a punch...despite claims he was some sort of God. Lara had seen gods before, and they could take their blows better than that.

Shrugging, Lara wriggled her wrists, but the chains would budge. And, sadly, Svarog didn't have any keys or bolt cutters on him. Lara sighed, and sat down on the floor. With a quick wriggle and twist, Lara manoeuvred her arms so they were now bound in front of her rather that behind her. She took a second to thank her gymnastics training.

Lara tugged uselessly at the chains, but it was no use. The chains held tight. So how was she going to get free? It wasn't as if she could just slip out of them. Frowning, Lara took a second or two to study the chains binding her wrists, and noticed something startling. There wasn't any lock!

"Well, that's great." She muttered. "How am I supposed to get these stupid things off?"

Snarling with frustration, Lara began to tug uselessly at the chains again – and, not surprisingly, nothing happened. Lara transferred her annoyed glare to Svarog's unconscious body. "Why couldn't you just go along with everything for once?" she asked him. "Why the bloody hell did you have to go and get greedy?"

Svarog didn't answer, but then he was unconscious.

Sighing, Lara examined her chains more closely. She wished she had been awake when they put them on. Then she frowned. 'Come on! Think Lara!' she chided herself. 'You've been in tougher situations than this!'

And indeed she had been. Getting out of the chains required a little thought, that's all. Lara grinned when an idea struck her. It could work. Twisting her hand a little, Lara winced slightly as the chains pinched her skin. Gradually she manoeuvred her hand until she could slip it out of one of the chains. She wriggled it, biting her lip at the pain, but then it was free. The rest of the chains went slack and they dropped to the floor at her feet after a moment.

Wincing, Lara looked down at her raw and bleeding wrist. It wasn't serious by any means – but it still stung. Lara knew that she only had a few moments to get out of there, because Svarog would be waking up soon – and she knew Kali hadn't exactly approved of this little meeting and she would be checking on her prisoners soon.

But first things first. Lara cocked her head to the side, considering. This was war...so she might as well get rid of her disguise. Somehow she didn't think she would need it anymore – or that the Goa'uld would be alive for long enough to realise anything, anyway.

Lara removed the cat headed circlet from her head and the rest of the pins from her hair. She then bent slightly and ripped off most of her flowing skirt, knowing it would just get in her way. The remainder barely covered the tops of her thighs and revealed the knife sheaths on her legs (complete with knives), but Lara didn't think it was any different than wearing those thoughts of hers.

Tearing a strip of material from the discarded skirt, she bound her raw wrist. She used another strip to secure her hair, her nimble fingers having expertly braided her hair in a few moments. Deeming herself as ready as she could be, Lara devoted her energy to finding a way out of the room.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find one apart from the door. It seemed the Goa'uld didn't believe in vent shafts. But then, Lara hadn't thought they would. It seemed Lara would have to fight her way out – again. She rolled her eyes. Why was it always the same?

But she had to smile slightly. It's not as if she didn't enjoy the adrenaline and challenge of a fight...she just wondered why it always turned out to be the only option. Was it just her?

Lara shook her head. Time was slipping away. She didn't have time for analysing. She had to act. And being a woman of action, it wasn't something she was reluctant to do. Drawing her knives in each hand, Lara made her way to the door. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling the adrenaline already pumping through her body. She felt faster and stronger, her many pains fading.

Slamming the control to open the door, Lara spun out into the corridor, catching the two guards by surprise. She whipped one of the knives in an upward motion, slicing his throat as she turned again, swinging the other knife in an opposite arc. She caught the second guard in the stomach, and the second knife sliced his throat a second later. It was over in seconds, neither guard having an opportunity to utter a sound.

Lara raised an eyebrow at the easiness of the situation, and wished for her guns. She missed the weight of them in her hands, and the satisfying noise they made when she pulled the trigger. But they would have betrayed the fact she wasn't who she was pretending to be, so she had left them back on Earth. It was a shame though.

Lara began running down the corridor, her bare feet silent on the cool metal. She had to find Jack and get him out of his cage (again) so he could help her. Not even she could take on an entire mothership by herself. She grinned at the idea. It would certainly surprise her enemies.

Just before Lara reached the room containing Jack's prison cell, she skidded to a halt. She could hear the loud and precise footsteps of a Goa'uld patrol coming towards her. She looked around for somewhere to hide, but could find no rooms near her. And sooner than she expected, the Goa'uld marched around the corridor.

Since there was nothing else she could do, Lara ran forward, just as one of the Jaffa let out a shout. Snarling, she spun, whirling the blades through the air, silently thankful of all the time she had spent learning the skill. Unlike many professions, Lara knew that she might one day have to rely on a less modern for of fighting. Guns didn't always work on the things she fought.

But the patrol of six Jaffa was almost too much for her. By now, Lara was tired and sore and coming to the end of her remarkable endurance. But what Lara didn't have in endurance, she had in willpower. She wasn't the type of woman who would just give up.

Lara spun, kicking out with her feet and staying close to her opponent, trying to avoid the range of the staff weapons they carried. Another Jaffa fell as she got lucky with a slash to his unprotected throat. That only left three, but as Lara's breath was coming out in ragged breaths, she wasn't sure she could take them all.

Then Lara thought of Kali's cruel smile and arrogance; her perceived superiority. And Jack waiting in his cell. Maybe it was a flaw, but Lara had always felt the need to prove to those that believed they were superior that they weren't. She wasn't going to let Kali get away from this. And she had to rescue Jack, if he hadn't already found a way out. She couldn't just leave him behind.

So Lara gritted her teeth and drew on some strength she hadn't even known she had. Her movements got sharper and more controlled. Spinning her blades, Lara kicked one of the Jaffa, sending him stumbling backwards as she slashed up and under another. The Jaffa dropped his staff weapon with a curse, as Lara's knife bit into his wrist.

She turned the knife in her grip, thrusting it in and up on an angle. The Jaffa gasped shallowly as he stared down in amazement. Lara released the grip on the knife now embedded in the Jaffa's chest, and slashed the other at one of the two remaining Jaffa. He blocked with his staff weapon, but Lara was already moving.

She sank into a low crouch, one of her legs snaking out and sweeping the Jaffa's feet out from under him. He fell to the floor with a crash. Lara was on top of him in a second, her remaining knife slicing his throat. Suddenly, Lara was grabbed from behind and thrown backwards.

She tumbled across the floor, coming to rest face down on the ground. She pushed herself up on her hands and turned her head to glare at the last Jaffa left. He was without a staff weapon himself, and as she watched, he bent down and picked one up.

Lara rolled to her feet in a quick, graceful movement, keeping her knife held in front of her. The Jaffa twirled the staff threateningly in his hands as Lara watched. Suddenly she was reminded of the last time she had been of Earth, and the warrior she had faced in the dirt ring.

But the Jaffa looked nothing like Alvis had, and Lara was way more pissed of now than she had been then. Either way, it didn't spell good news for the Jaffa. Lara circled the Jaffa for a moment, before darting in with surprising speed. She slashed at his leg, spinning, and elbowed him in the kidneys from behind. Then Jaffa grunted in pain, and thrust the staff behind him.

Lara flipped away from the blow, and noticed something metallic out the corner of her eye. Her lip curved in a slight smile. Her other knife. She grabbed it from where it was still sticking out of the other Jaffa and whirled to face the remaining Jaffa.

It was just in time, as the Jaffa had crept forward and thrust his staff at her again. Lara deflected the blow with one of her knives, spinning out of its way. She used her momentum and the other knife to slice his stomach in a similar move to one she had used before. As the Jaffa bent to clutch his stomach, Lara thrust her knife into the back of his skull, killing him.

She ripped the knife from the Jaffa's corpse and staggered slightly, both with tiredness and the effort it had taken to wrench the knife from where it had stuck in the bone. Panting with exertion, Lara stayed in the crouch she had fallen in, her head resting on one of her knees. God, she was tired. The fight had taken a lot more out of her than she had expected.

Then the hairs on the back of Lara's neck stood on end as she heard a familiar laugh. The cruel sound seemed to echo around her. "I'm impressed, Bastet." Kali said.

Lara raised her head, glaring at the woman she found standing in front of her. "Kali." She said in a low voice, her tone promising death.

If Kali felt any fear, she did not show it. "It seems I underestimated you, and over estimated Svarog." She said.

Lara stood slowly, willing her breath to slow and her muscles to work. "Well, Kali." She said. "You forgot one thing: I was not known as the Avenger without reason."

And Lara Croft was not a woman who left enemies alive.