A/N: I really don't know how this one will go down. But here goes…
Revised 01/10/05
"Lara, freeze." At the sound of her name, Lara halted instantly, guessing what the second word would be. Behind her, Kurtis shot a glance back down the corridor they had been traversing, wary of detection.
"What?" Lara murmured, hand at her holster.
"About three paces ahead of you, there are solid laser detectors from floor to shoulder-height, to the third door down," Bryce informed them.
"Splendid. I suppose it's lucky that there happens to be a pipe hanging from the ceiling, then. Anything else I should know about?"
"Only this little ray of hope – you're almost there. This corridor turns left, and the box is in the vault at the end."
"Vault?" Kurtis cut in. "How come you didn't mention this before?"
"I didn't want you to get faint-hearted," Bryce answered lamely. "Anyway, chop-chop. And Lara, mind your ponytail."
While Kurtis muttered under his breath, Lara gathered her hair, which she had braided out of the way as soon as it began to irritate her, and slipped her braid down the back of her corset. "I'll go first, if there's no objection?"
Sliding along the ceiling pipe, gripping with hands and feet, she was able to reach the other side easily, and dropped down to relative safety. Kurtis gathered his strength and began the task himself, praying that the bar would stand his weight this time. Carefully, he dropped to his feet next to Lara, and glanced over at her. "What?"
For no discernible reason, his companion was scowling furiously, fists balled at her sides, shoulders tense. She wouldn't meet his eyes, and shrugged him off when he touched her shoulder. "Can we get on with this? We're almost there."
Bryce began to speak, but the nagging puzzlement in Kurtis' mind suddenly dissolved into clarity, and he grinned. "Hold it a second."
"Oh, don't tell me this is in your legends too." Wearily, Lara leaned against the wall and shook her head, still avoiding his gaze.
"You could say that."
"What am I missing?" Bryce asked, bewildered.
"There's a whole legend about Rosha and Rahil – the warriors, not the boxes. In life, they were in love – would have died for each other, and so on. I'm guessing, since the personalities are intact in the life forces, that since they're in such close proximity to each other… and Lara's carrying one of them…"
Catching his drift, Bryce almost choked on his laughter. "How long since these ancient warriors have seen each other?" he gasped out, as Lara kicked the wall in frustration.
"Hundreds of years." Kurtis knew he should be concerned with the effect on Lara's concentration, but the though of her subject to Rosha's sexual desires was just too intriguing to pass up.
"Puts your five-or-six to shame, Lara!" Bryce cracked over the airwaves.
"Bryce, what am I paying you for?" the tomb raider snapped, wishing desperately that she could stalk off down the hall, but wary of the traps ahead. To have Kurtis near her was tempting at the best of times, but being in contact with a very horny life force was not helping at all. If he touched her again, she was going to scream… or worse, make a pass at him in high-security enemy territory.
"Okay, okay…" She could tell from his tone that he found her plight highly amusing, but could do nothing about it. "You're trap-free if you keep to the walls, but if you step down the centre you're dealing with fire, so I wouldn't, if I were you. Other than that, you're clear all the way to the vault." Wordlessly, Lara put her back to the left-hand wall and began to move, ignoring Kurtis as best she could. The sound of his footsteps behind her sent light shivers down her back, and she promised herself that when she got out of here, she would bang his and Bryce's heads together.
Seconds later, she stood in front of a thick, barred metal door with a swipe card reader next to it. "Just out of curiosity, Bryce," she said idly, retrieving the card André had given her from her backpack, "how would you have gotten us past this door if I hadn't been given clearance?"
"It's a secret." Lara shook her head and put the card to use, holding her breath and sending silent thanks to André when the door swept open. The three guards playing cards around a small table within were dead before they registered who had entered.
"Traps, Bryce?"
"Not a one. Guess Karel didn't think you could get this far," Bryce answered with a touch of pride. "The box should be dead ahead."
"And it is." Kurtis strode over to the plinth at the back of the room and picked up the elusive object that was their goal – the Box of Rahil. Just as abruptly, he dropped it as if it were on fire, and Lara lapsed into a coughing fit that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
"Problem?" Clearly, he had had the same experience as she did. Careful not to touch him, Lara deposited Rosha next to the newfound Rahil and sighed relief when her emotional rollercoaster halted. "Bryce, how do we get out? The way we came in? The cable snapped, remember?"
"I know. I'm working on it. Let's just start back the way we came, okay, kids?"
Lara exchanged a glance with Kurtis. "If these two don't cancel each other out when I pick them both up, you're taking one," she informed him.
"Oh, god… you'll both be away with the fairies," Bryce groaned melodramatically.
"Shut up, Bryce," two voices shot back.
Gingerly, Lara suspended a hand over each box, and steeled herself for the consequences. One, two, three… She closed her fingers around each box and gasped as the feelings rushed back threefold. Using the last of her presence of mind, she shoved away from the offending objects on unsteady legs. "Fuck me!" she gasped, before realising the significance of the curse and biting her lip.
Bryce was in hysterics, but Kurtis wasn't laughing any more. When she glanced over at him, he broke off his scrutiny of her abruptly, and she sensed his response to her exclamation, if he chose to speak, would be "Don't tempt me." The residues of the boxes' influence were still strong enough to make that a reasonable proposition, and Lara hated it.
"Take Rahil," she told him quietly, eyes averted, picking up Rosha again and dropping it into her backpack. "Bryce, let's get out of here."
"And unless you have company, you're clear to the door." Lara drew her Desert Eagle – she hadn't come all this way, endured this infuriating sensation for so long, to be gunned down by a semi-alert guard on her way out the door. Aided by Kurtis' Chirugai, three enemies fell, and another four were annihilated by rapidly fired bullets. Lara shouldered open the door, and stepped cautiously into the side alley that they had hung suspended over just an hour before. Kicking aside the bodies of the guard and dog Lara had felled earlier, Kurtis took the lead as the door, able to be opened by the inside only, slammed shut behind them. A few deft movements with a pair of wire-cutters later, they stepped out into the street.
"Mission accomplished, Bryce."
"Don't be so sure," a dry voice commented.
Lara's heart sank. Beside her, Kurtis gritted his teeth at the sound of Joachim Karel's voice, and muttered, "Just run. Don't look back." As one, they moved into a sprint, surprised and suspicious when no footsteps pounded after them.
"This has to be a trap," Lara gasped as they passed without a sign of pursuit into the temple district. "He'll have a workforce of fifty waiting for us somewhere – all he has to do is steer us into them. Double back."
"Are you crazy?" Kurtis shot back.
"Possibly. But this seems too clean and easy for me." Not slowing in the slightest, Lara shrugged her backpack off her shoulder and extracted Rosha. "Take it. I don't care what effect it has. Take it and get out of here, call me in a couple of days with your location." Before he could protest, she had pressed the box into his palm. Strangely, the tickle of desire that had been bothering them both since locating Rahil was instantly nullified, almost as if the boxes themselves realised the importance of the need to think clearly. "Bryce," Lara continued, "Pack up and leave. My credit card's in my bedside drawer, I think if you tip them a couple of hundred they'll turn a blind eye to the fact that you're not me. I don't know whether you want to go back home, or meet up with Kurtis somewhere… that's for the two of you to work out."
Bryce, who had been waiting, every muscle tense, to see what he could do to help, agreed. "But Lara, from what you've told me, he can crush you like an ant. The fucker doesn't die, Lara. You can't stay and face him alone. It's suicide."
"Watch me." She pulled her earpiece out and tucked it into her pocket to quash further objections, and turned her eyes back to Kurtis. "Go." The word was a quiet, firm command, reinforced by her resolute expression and eyes that pleaded with him to understand.
"I can't. Bryce is right – it is suicide. I'm not leaving you here to die."
Using impatience to mask her growing emotional turmoil, Lara sighed. "You're the only Lux Veritatis warrior left, the only one who can control the Black Angel when it's released. To the world, I'm expendable. You're the one they need to save the day. I'll buy you the time you need to escape – and if you argue with me for one more second," she added, her tone growing hard, "there's no point in me laying down my life, because he's coming closer, and he'll get you too."
Kurtis knew she was right, but still he hesitated. Words failed him, and in desperation he crushed her to him, finding her lips and kissing her deeply. She responded with equal fervour, knowing within her heart this would be the last chance she would get to hold him, accepting her impending death. The kiss was too brief; she broke it hours before she wanted to. Opening her eyes, she gazed into the intense blue depths of Kurtis' for a long moment. The expression in them took her breath away – bitter resignation mingled with grief, and something powerful she had never seen at such magnitude.
"Go," she whispered helplessly, sorrow coursing through her bloodstream, cancelling out the adrenaline she would need for the battle. "Good luck."
When he spoke, his voice was tinged with inexplicable anger. "I love you, Lara Croft."
A jolt of shock left Lara breathless, speechless. By the time she had the words to respond, he had turned on his heel and begun his reluctant flight from the battlefield. As she watched, he approached the boundaries of the temple district – just as a wall of green fire began to rise up from the ground to block him in. Kurtis saw it, and sprinted towards it, hoping to reach it before it became too tall to leap over. He only just made it; as it was it caught his trailing leg and he fell to the ground on the other side, mildly burned. "Get out of here," Lara breathed, willing him to get up. Favouring his good leg, Kurtis hauled himself to his feet again and jogged into the distance. As he reached the corner, he hesitated, as if debating whether or not to look back, but disappeared around the bend without a backward glance.
Letting out a sigh of relief, yet mourning for a love that never would be, Lara turned to face her doom.
Don't kill me… it's only a cliffie… ;)