Disclaimer: None of the characters appearing in the Tomb Raider games or movies belongs to me. Only the plot is mine.

Thank you for reviewing. It warms my heart to know that someone is enjoying my work. Please keep reviewing and I'll keep on writing. By the way thank you for letting me know how it's supposed to be written. I really couldn't tell myself.

Sorry about the delay but I was on sort of a holiday and had no access to internet during last week.

A Secret Revealed

Lara could do nothing more than stare at Konstantin. The scales really existed? It wasn't so surprising now that she began to think of it. She had seen an Egyptian god or at least a form of one alive and it had sucked all the darkness and evil she had set free by not controlling her will to touch every ancient and mystical object she discovered during her expeditions. If it was real what else could be?

"Are we talking about the same scales here? The one that was used to judge people and send their souls to the underworld or into the better place?"

"The one and only that exists in the Egyptian mythology. I don't know why Karel wants it but I'm sure not to measure rice or a kilo of tomatoes", Konstantin snapped back but regretted doing it as soon as he saw Lara's eyes flung open and a questioning look rising in them. "Sorry…I didn't mean it to come out like that"

To her surprise Lara understood him or at least tried to. She had now idea how it felt to be locked up in an ancient town built by your very enemies. "Don't be", she said quickly and looked straight into his eyes at the same. Had there been a doubt in Karel's mind for not letting his slave to know his world domination plans? Had he believed deep down that one can never completely own another human being or was it just caution that had driven him into that? It was that or the other options and deep inside her she hoped it was this one…or Karel was the first evil person that had learned his lesson and even done the homework. She thought the best way to get ones plans work was not spreading the knowledge around.

"I don't know what he wants it for" Lara snapped out of her thoughts at the very moment she heard Konstantin speaking again. She looked at him for a small while and realized he hadn't looked at her while saying that.

Why would Karel want some ancient artifact that would do him no good? On the other hand he had to benefit something of this relic because he wanted it so badly. Lara didn't notice the glance Konstantin gave her. She was in so much thought at the very moment that even someone yelling right next to her couldn't make her come back to reality. There was no connection between Karel and the scales or at least none that she could find and she found the picture of the pale woman coming clearer.

"Who is she?", Lara asked suddenly and saw that her question had hit a nerve or near one. Konstantin gave her a quick glance and then muttered something in a voice hardly audible. Don't know who you mean was all that Lara heard or thought she had heard. "You know of whom I speak. I saw it in your eyes"

"And what did you see?", Lara could hear the slight rage in his tone but had already made up her mind. She would find out who the pale woman was and why had she once meant so much to the man in front of her.

"Longing…pain and agony. Distortion and most of all loss and don't act like it was nothing and tell me that I saw what I wanted to see. It was there for a second or two but that was a second too long"

"He will never know", Konstantin said quickly and the little smile that had been spread over his face vanished. "Promise me that he won't find out"

Promise him who won't find out? Was he talking about Kurtis and how could she promise not to tell something that she hadn't heard yet and how exactly she could promise not to tell Kurtis something that could change his life forever?

"I'm sorry but the promise isn't mine to make", she answered in a colder tone she had meant to but did nothing to correct her mistake.

"Then the secret isn't mine to tell Ms. Croft"

"The secret?", she couldn't help herself but everything secret had always claimed her interests and this time was no different. It couldn't be all that hard to keep the promise and the secret couldn't be that great either. She had the mind of an archeologist and all that hadn't been discovered and brought into the daylight touched the part in her that she had found harder and harder to control – the part that wanted to touch the magnificent pieces of art created by human hand or other and seal them from the daylight into her secret room where they could be only hers. "Sure I can keep a secret"

Pleased to see her mind struggling to decide what to do Konstantin just nodded.

"Well aren't you going to tell it to me?", she could almost hear her heart pounding against her chest. It was the curiosity waiting to be satisfied. It was the only want she had been able to satisfy during her years.

Konstantin let out a small laughter and then for a moment turned to look at her and his laughter died. Sadness took the control of his eyes and they grew dimmer like someone would've pulled a curtain of mist in front of them.

"She was my wife" , he answered. To be honest he really didn't want to discuss the matter more than was needed to. It had been a long time since he had seen a sparkle of life in his wife's eyes but he could still remember it as clearly as what happened in this morning.

"Was?", was all Lara could blurt out. Something in the word had struck her hard, not in the head but in the heart. Konstantin had said it in a tone that lacked hope like everything was at loss and the worst thing was that she could swear that he had meant it. For the pale woman hope wasn't an option anymore. Maybe it hadn't been one for a long, long time.

"A long time ago she was my wife. Now…she's just a victim of a cruel experiment"

Lara found nothing to say anymore. Even if her mind had created a sentence with words of wisdom in it her lips didn't seem to be able to move. Cruel experiment he had said. Not his wife anymore he had said. Something had happened to her. Perhaps she had hit her head and lost her mind but that didn't explain the experiment part.

"For a long time I thought she walked out on us, me and Kurtis", he started slowly and Lara could see the tears glimmering in his eyes. She also knew there was something weighing on him that he would be glad to be rid of. She didn't know if glad was the right word to use. Perhaps relieved was a better one. He had an urge to say something he had been forced to close in his heart during the time he had spent as Karel's slave.

"It all changed when he came for me and for the first time in my life I realized just how cruel a creature a Karel is. I didn't need to look at her longer than a second before I realized that all had been lost the very same day she had left or been taken and even now I can not be sure which option is the correct one"

Thoughts ran through Lara's mind. Just how long had she been like she was now? How long had Konstantin been imprisoned? Kurtis had never really told her anything about it and probably didn't even know the exact time of his father's 'departure'. Something in her wanted to hear how his story…or not story…she couldn't find a word to describe it would end. The other part, larger part, almost screamed Konstantin to stop.

"You saw the men with Karel?", Konstantin asked in a voice no louder than a whisper. Lara could only nod. "They…are Kurtis' half brothers…from his mother's side"

Lara didn't need to know anymore. Konstantin had raised enough of the fog covering the horrible truth. How could a living being do something like that to another? Suddenly she understood what had stolen the light from the pale woman's eyes. Each of the devils she had given birth  ripped a part with them until there was nothing to take anymore. No soul left to spare.

"H-how?" was all that Lara could utter out. Her mind was elsewhere though. It wasn't in the car anymore for it tried to think all the pain that had been caused on the poor woman. All her beauty and spirit removed in most horrible way. Then it dawned to her. Karel didn't need the sleeper, he never had. "H-how could he do that?" Lara felt something wet and warm running down her cheeks.

"How could he do that?", Konstantin asked. Lara thought that the man controlled his pain all too well. It would just be packed inside waiting for a time to explode. "How much…do you know about the nephilim?"

"I have only a few pieces of information, nothing much" It had surprised her how very little she knew about the beasts she had confronted for the first time in the Strahov Fortress.

"They, unlike us, have very little of what we call humanity", he said slowly to be sure that every single word found their way to her mind.

Lara understood him very well. Humanity, as she had always thought, was mostly made of the ability to feel compassion and other feelings compared to it. Unlike most of the people she knew she believed full-heartedly that also animals were able to feel. What had made these beings called the nephilim so wicked and cruel? What had eaten their soul? Her mind ventured back to the thought of Karel not needing the sleeper. He didn't need it to reproduce and he hadn't needed Eckhardt to that either. Had it all been a scam to get rid of the alchemist? The scales. What had the scales to do in this if Karel had found a way to reproduce his kind?

A horrible thought crossed her mind. You could rule one's faith with the scales and Karel probably didn't have any use to the feather. He could use what he wanted as a weight. It wouldn't matter how hard crimes had the poor soul committed. With Karel's help they all would have an equal share of the stairway to heaven and for that people were ready to obey his every command. He would get his own private army as well as breeding pots but no one could be sure the people would get what they wanted.

Indulgences. That was the reason. That was everything it was about. How much would a human being be ready to pay to get to the better place? Some of them everything. Only a few could think getting there on their own but even that was impossible now. Karel wouldn't let them leave.

She hadn't noticed that they had turned to the road where the hospital was situated. The whole place was full of blinking blue lights. Police.

"What is going on in here?", Konstantin asked slightly panicked.

"Some patient jumped through the glass and ran away not more than twenty minutes ago", the young officer answered. Lara could only look at him and to her relief the policeman didn't seem to recognize her. Konstantin on the other hand was far from calm. Inside him there was a fear and he could only hope it wasn't true. Deep down he knew who had jumped through the window. No one paid attention to the man across the street getting in taxi.