Disclaimer: I do not own Lara Croft or anything else connected to the games.
Summary: After an adventure in India, Lara runs into a man who claims to be a very good friend of Kurtis Trent.
Chapter one, Back into the belly of the beast.
Lara Croft lunged through the air as the cave behind her collapsed. Her landing wasn't soft, she landed on her stomach and felt some skin on her arms and legs gash away. They were just a few scratches, nothing serious Lara saw. She crawled back on her feet, wiping the dust and dirt from her clothes. She picked her sunglasses and checked to see if it was still in one piece. Except for the dust it was in perfect condition.
Lara blew the dust from her glasses and put it back on her head. She reached for her backpack and removed the artifact she had just found. The black rose, a beautiful black diamond. Created by the Babylonians to protect their king from evil spirits. Lara gave it one last look and then put it in her bag.
"Well that was fun, but time to go, I'd love to be back in Delhi before nightfall." she said with a smile on her face.
It was still two hours driving to get back to Delhi. Lara stepped into her jeep and placed her backpack on the passenger seat. The engine of the jeep was started and Lara took it through the jungle. After an hour driving she had found the road back to Delhi, Lara looked at her GPS and saw she was still going into the right direction.
The infrastructure here is not as in England, the roads are tricky and full of bumps and holes. Nothing Lara's jeep can't handle though. She had driven through all kinds of roads and jungle's and it had never failed on her.
Neither had it this time, after a little more then two hours Lara arrived in Delhi, a complete difference from the jungle. Skyscrapers, busy streets and traffic that forced Lara to a halt.
"Well at least I made it to Delhi before nightfall." Lara said.
She let out a deep sigh as she saw the reason behind the traffic.
"But it will take a while before I'll reach my hotel."
A hanger full of sheep that had been attached to a small truck had collapsed and now a group of about ten sheep was blocking the road. Everyone was yelling at the driver of the truck. It seemed the police still hadn't arrived.
"Excuse me…" A girl's voice suddenly said.
Lara looked around and saw a girl standing next to the jeep, Lara smiled at her.
"Yes?"
"Are you Lady Lara Croft?" the young girl asked.
"Yes I am, what can I help you with?" Lara asked but was a little confused about the situation.
"My daddy wants to talk to you he says it's important." The girl pulled out a picture and handed it to Lara.
Lara accepted it and gave it a close look. Her eyes widened, this was the last thing she expected to see. It almost seemed to be impossible but Lara's eyes weren't deceiving her, it was indeed the sign of the Nephilim race.
"How did you…" Lara looked up but the girl was no where to be seen. "get this…"
She looked around, hoping to find a glimpse of the young girl. It has no use, the streets were packed with people, impossible to find a little girl in this crowd.
"Bugger…" Lara softly cursed.
She looked back at the paper and turned it around. She cocked an eyebrow, there was an address written on the back of the paper. Was someone trying to lead her in a trap, or was this little girl really telling the truth.
"Well Croft, you know there is only one way to find out." Lara told herself.
She entered the address in her GPS to see which way she had to go. The GPS showed her a route of five minutes driving.
"Well at least I won't have to stay in traffic now."
Lara turned her jeep out of the large row of cars and followed the route her GPS shows. After five minutes Lara reached the address that the girl had given to her. She could see that this was clearly one of the poorest area's in Delhi. Lara parked the jeep, she took her backpack and got out of the car. She knew her guns were in her bag, if it was a trap Lara certainly was going to need them.
She looked at the house, it looked quiet inside. The windows were covered with a few old rags. The staircase leading to the door seemed ready to fall apart and the front door looked just about to be in the same condition. Even so, this house seemed to be in the best condition if you compare it with all the other houses in this street.
Carefully Lara walked up the wrecked staircase, once upstairs she knocked on the door. It took a moment before the door opened. Lara looked down and saw a little boy from around the age of nine. Not much later a man arrived. He was tall and skinny, there was barely any hair left on his head but he had a fully grown beard and through it appeared a smile.
"Lara Croft, I'm glad you could make it, please come inside." The man said with a deep voice.
"Who are you, and how do you know my name?" Lara demanded to know before she decided to enter this house.
The man nodded.
"I understand your anger Miss Croft, my name is Ihsmir Omer. I was a former member of the Lux Veritartis and a very good friend of Kurtis Trent."
Kurtis? Does this man know where he is? Or is he telling me nothing but lies.
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"You can't…" he said, completely anticipating Lara's words.
Ihsmir stepped aside, waiting for Lara to make her decision. Lara nodded at him and walked inside. The young boy immediately grabbed Lara's hand and showed her to the living room, or better said, an attempt to create a living room. There were two wooden chairs, both in rather good condition, a small cupboard was standing under the left window and a table stood on the opposite side of the two chairs.
The boy dragged Lara to one of the chairs and after she and Ihsmir had seated themselves he sat down on the floor, close to Lara as if he was watching her and wanted to protect her in case there was any danger. Lara smiled at the boy but then looked at Ihsmir.
"Mr Omer, what do you know about Kurtis, is he still alive?"
"Let me tell you what I know Miss Croft." He said. "Six months ago Kurtis came to me and asked me for my help. He said that a man named Eckhard was planning the rebirth of the Nephilim. I told him I couldn't help him because of my family, I couldn't put them in danger, that's why I left the Lux Veritartis. He understood and left."
Ihsmir moved around in his seat, he seemed to be a little uncomfortable.
"About a month later I received a phone call, it was Kurtis and he seemed to be stressed. Kurtis told me he would come and visit me in two weeks, if not, something happened to him and he told me to contact a woman."
"Me…" Lara said.
"Yes, you. He didn't even give me time to answer and just hang up the phone. It was the last time I spoke to him."
"How did you know where to find me?" Lara asked.
Ihsmir stood from his chair and walked to the cupboard, he opened the top drawer and removed a small notebook. He walked back and handed Lara the notebook.
"I received this a few days after our phone call."
Lara opened the notebook, she raised her eyebrow when she saw a picture of herself. She looked further through the notebook, Kurtis had filled it with notes about the occurrences in Paris and Prague.
"I don't have the same contacts as Kurtis, I've been looking for you for months and then all the sudden you show up here in Delhi. I saw you walking over the market two days ago."
"Two days ago, why didn't you contact me then?" Lara asked.
"I thought it was too much of a coincidence. There was this voice in my head that told me it was a trap, that you were a member of the Cabal send out to kill me."
"What made you decide to contact me after all?"
"Because Kurtis asked me to, and because I feel that in a way I have been responsible for his death."
Lara frowned "You think he's dead?" she asked.
"I fear he might be dead, but I don't know what happened in Prague."
"Eckhard managed to capture us, he locked us up with a genetically altered beast. Kurtis let me escape and gave me the shards to kill Eckhard while he fought Boaz, the beast. I managed to kill Eckhard and the Sleeper but when I returned all I found was Kurtis his chirugai."
"No Miss Croft, don't you understand, you never killed the Sleeper, Joachim Karel still lives."
"What? How do you know?"
"I used to be a member of the Lux Veritartis, together with Kurtis we are the only ones left. Every night I have nightmares, Kurtis has them too, they will not end until Joachim Karel is dead. The nightmares are our connection to him, they are our knowledge about his existence."
"Then if he is still alive, how can we kill him, the shards were destroyed in the Strahov."
"There is one more, but only one, the last page of the notebook."
Lara turned the pages until she reached the final page. There was a drawing of a shard. She hadn't seen this one before. A rose was wrapped around the handle and there was something written on the blade, but the drawing wasn't sharp enough for Lara to read it. She looked further down and saw Kurtis had made some notes.
Father had told me once that the Shard was hidden in a temple south east of the dead river in India. The river lies in the jungle near Delhi. But he told me I was never allowed to find this one. "This shard is dangerous son, you must never try to retrieve it, leave the shard where it is so that its dangers can never be released." He never told me why the shard was so dangerous, but I know that if there is no other option I have no choice but to find it.
"We must find the shard." Lara said.
"No Miss Croft, you must find the Shard, I can not endanger my family." Ihsmir said.
"I understand." Lara said. "I will need the notebook."
Ihsmir nodded.
"Yes off course, take it, it is yours. You will need to travel the dead river and to do that you need a captain that's willing to take you there. Not many boatmen want to travel the dead river, but I know a man who is more then willing to take you, for the right price. His name is Khoa Yune and you can find him in the Golden monkey."
Lara put the notebook in her backpack and nodded at Ihsmir.
"Thank you for the help Mr Omer."
Ihsmir held his hand up.
"No thank you Miss Croft, thank you for helping against Karel."
"Not a problem at all." She said.
Lara stood from her chair, ready to leave.
"I don't think I should waste any time, I'll go to the Golden Monkey immediately."
"Yes, off course, good luck Miss Croft."
Ihsmir showed Lara outside. She walked down the wrecked staircase and found her way back to the jeep. Lara started the engine and with the help of her GPS she was on her way to the Golden Monkey.
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Well what do you think, is it good, does it need some changes, please tell me and let me know if I should continue this story.