Crypt Raider

By Verbosity

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Well, I own, nothing, except the plot. All
characters are the properties of their respective owners, who are
not me...I make no profit, nor do I dig into anyone else's, at least
not that I know of, so don't sue.

As always, the more feedback, the happier I am. So please, make me happy.

Chapter 3

Drying himself off with the towel, Xander tried not to think about who had just used it. He didn't need to embarrass himself any further. When she had walked out of the bathroom clad just in the towel…Holy God! No, no, he wasn't going to think about that. He was no longer a teenager and had gotten all that hormonal behavior out with Anya.

In spite of the startled urge to turn when the towel had landed on his shoulder, he had managed not to look. A minor miracle considering what he had seen with the towel on; in spite of the similarities Lara was definitely not Angelina Jolie. This lady was in jaw-dropping shape! She…

No! Stop it! Think about other things: like how the hell she's even here, or you're here, or something. Its gota have something to do with the statue.

He hung the towel over the shower curtain rod, looked down at his dirty clothes, and then sighing, he began to pull them on. Trying to remember what he knew about Lara Croft, he pondered over all the movie and game information tucked away in his head.

            Daughter of English Lord…finishing school…plane crash…father killed by illuminati. Humm. The information differed between the movie version and the game version. Which one was she?

            Well, she looks like Angelina Jolie. I'm betting the movie. So that means she has a butler named Hillary and a techno geek named Bryce. 

            Completely dressed now he stared at his reflection in the mirror and thought, I'm either hallucinating or in another dimension. If I'm hallucinating there's not much to do about it.

An unpleasant idea occurred to him. Or maybe the First is screwing with my head. Shaking himself he thought, there's not much I can do about that either. So I might as well tell her what I think is going on and see where the chips fall.

Sighing at his reflection he said, "Everything will work out Xand-man. You'll get back to good old Sunnyhell and everything will return to that nightmarish thing that currently parades as normal." He shook off thoughts of the hideous parody that life had become lately and turned toward the door. "Time to talk to the Tomb Raider."

In the outer room he discovered Lara casually slouched in her chair, and resting her feet on his. Her gaze was fixed on him, seemingly perfectly relaxed, but something told him that though she looked relaxed, she wasn't.

Seeing the satellite phone on the table next to her he put two and two together, and took a stab, "Talked with Bryce hunh?"

One elegant eyebrow lifted at Xander's use of the other man's name. "Apparently, Sunnydale California doesn't exist."

Xander winced, "I was afraid of that." He gave a little chuckle. "Of course, speaking in terms of your world, that's actually a comforting thought."

Lara's head cocked to the side and he heard her murmur, "My world…" She held up one hand and began to tick points off on her fingers. "You appear out of nowhere, apparently due to the activation of an artifact know for causing the unknown and unusual to appear. From how you keep looking at me I'm beginning to think you recognize me. You claim to come from some place that doesn't exist. You know about Bryce. And you refer to "my world."  All of that adds up to a very odd conclusion."

She stopped, apparently waiting for his response to that. Brushing his hand nervously through his hair he gave a chuckle that lacked humor. "Yeah, that's the story of my life." He stared at her, trying to figure out the right words to explain. "Well, this started, for me, when I was in Sunnydale. It was evening, and I ran into a group of vampires dragging a girl into a warehouse. They were doing some kind of ritual involving a gold statue, exactly like the one you had, and in the process of freeing the girl it broke. Next thing I knew I was landing on you."

Both of her eyebrows had gone up.

Xander groaned, "Yes, vampires are real. So-"

She cut him off with a slight smile, "I'm aware vampires are real. That wasn't what the expression referred to. It referred to you trying to save the girl. You do remember telling me you laughed in the face of danger then ran away, don't you?"

"Ahh, well…there was no one else there, and…" he trailed off at her growing smile. "What?"

"It just confirms a suspicion." The smile vanished and her expression became intent again. "Now, I don't think that you're one to read much about archeology, so how do you know me?"

"You…," how did you tell someone this? He drew in a deep breath, "You're a fictional character."

Her only response as she processed that, was a blink, and then, "Pardon?"

"You are a movie and computer game character. Well, computer originally."

There was a very long silence. "That is…bizarre." She stared into his eyes for a several seconds and then sat back even farther in her seat, her expression baffled. "I don't think you're lying to me and you're not joking."

Xander nodded. "More serious than I usually am."

"Even on the list of things I've encountered, this is strange."

He made his way over to sit on the corner of the bed while she stared absently at the wall. Sitting there, he studied her face; she really did look like Angelina Jolie. Though the cheekbones were just slightly narrower, and her eyes were a darker shade of blue. The lips were the same and she was currently chewing on the bottom one, lost in thought. She was beautiful. Admittedly he'd been around beautiful women a lot: Buffy, Cordelia, Willow, and Anya…Anya.

How screwed up things had gotten. Not just between him and Anya, though that was one of the hardest to bear, but for everyone. Buffy and Spike. Tara dying, Willow going insane. Then the madness that had happened more recently: the First Evil itself deciding to go all or nothing, and everybody seemed to be losing it.

It was almost enough to make him not want to go back. I mean if this was a different world…well no end of the world going on here. But the other part of him, the part that kept him going in the face of all the crap that had been thrown at him said, no. No, you're not quitting. You're not giving up on Buffy, or Wills, or Giles. You'll get back there and everything will get worked out.

He almost believed it.

Staring down at his hands he abruptly became aware of Lara's gaze resting on him.

"Based on the evidence so far, I think it's safe to say that you're not from around here." A slight smile crept onto her face, "Because I am certainly not a computer game."

He felt an answering grin form on his face, "How about a movie?"

She considered it for a moment. "Perhaps, if it had a certain level of class and style."

"I don't know about class, but it was certainly fun to watch." 

She absorbed that. "How much do you know about me?"

He considered for a moment. "Broad general knowledge, plus a lot of detail on a few…adventures."

"Then it appears you have the advantage of me."

"I suppose being from an alternate world does have its perks."   

*          *          *

They hadn't the time to do much more in the way of talking at the hotel. Lara had seemed to take most of the evening to chew on the revelations he had already made. Encountering someone from a parallel world, a world in which you were a computer game heroine, was something guaranteed to make even Lara Croft take a momentary step back. She had asked a few more questions about what Xander knew of her, or rather the characters of her, and had spent the rest of the evening cogitating.

Come morning, she had declared that he would accompany her back to England, where she had access to many more resources, and that she would do her best to get him home.

Xander, feeling a vast sense of relief at having someone to help him, took refuge in his usual method of responding.

"Cool, I always did want to visit the land of tweed."

"Tweed?"

            "Yeah. It's like your national cloth or something isn't it?"

"Not in this universe."

*          *          *

When they reached Cuzco city in the afternoon Lara declared that he was to get a new wardrobe for his stay in this world. She dragged him off into the city past all of the obvious shops. Dismissing them, when Xander inquired, as tourist traps. She pulled him into a small shop on one of the side streets. To be greeted warmly by the shopkeeper with an unintelligible, to Xander, burst of Spanish to which she replied in kind.

The shopkeeper, an aging South American gentleman with a laugh-lined face and streaks of white hair at the temples, took his measurements. Proceeding to retrieve various articles of clothing from the back rooms of the shop, which were then approved or vetoed by Lara.

When Xander asked if he got any input in this Lara's answer was a pointed glance at his current clothes and an amused "No."

He left the shop with a small duffle full of clothes, wearing the part of his new wardrobe that was designed for warm weather.

An hour or so later Xander stood in the Cuzco airport, waiting while Lara finished up with the ticketing arrangements. The new shirt and pants still felt a little odd: too…crisp. After a few minutes of speaking to the ticketing clerk Lara turned from the counter and handed him the small packet of papers.

"Lara?"

"Humm."

"For the clothes and the ticket…thank you. I don't quite know how I 'm going to manage to pay you back for them yet, but I'll figure something out."

"Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"Xander, I have more than enough money to spare for a ticket and a few extra clothes. Don't worry about it." They left the ticketing area and moved toward the gates.

"What I do worry about." She continued as they approached their plane's gate. "Is getting you through customs at the other end."

"Crap. I hadn't thought of that."

"Oh, don't panic quite yet. I have a couple strings I can pull if I have to."

*          *          *

Settling in on the plane, Xander stretched out in the seat. Oh, God yes. First class. Lara seemed to be highly amused by his expression of hedonistic delight.

"Hey, it's my first flight in first class, ever." He said, assuming an injured expression. "Not all of us are millionaire heiresses."

"Did you hear me saying anything?"

"No, but you were thinking it."

"Perhaps just a bit. Though it's nice to see things from a perspective of someone who doesn't have what I do. It keeps my head where it should be." She turned her head to the window as the engines powered up and the plane began to race down the runway.

Turning to Xander when the city was just a distant patchwork on the ground behind them, she studied him seriously for a moment. "Most people don't believe in the existence of real vampires any more than they believe in the multitude of other thing crawling around the world. What happened that you do?"