Out of the Shadows

When Lara awoke from the darkness, she was unsure of her surroundings for a mere moment before remembering the conversation that had occurred earlier. Kaufman! Lara realized. He betrayed us! And Kurtis was so sure we could trust him. As she thought about Kurtis her eyes drifted over too his form, noticing the stirring that was a telltale sign the drugs were wearing off. She allotted him only a few moments before she explained what she saw. Kurtis was visibly upset that he had been betrayed.

"What now?" He asked, finally taking in his surroundings.

The small cell was uncomfortable. The 4 concrete walls and solid steel door left little room for hospitality. The one, small, florescent tube laced one wall casting an eerily white glow on two of the walls, leaving everything on the opposite side in darkness, including the ceiling.

"Your guess is as good as mine. We have no idea where we are, only that we are about three days away from Istanbul. We have no idea what building we are in, or why we are here. The only thing we do know is that whoever is responsible for this, they need us alive."

"Or so we hope."

Lara Croft passed back and forth, trying to reflect one what she just said, half heartedly attempting to conjure up an escape plan, while Kurtis sulked on the cot, still saddened by Kaufman's betrayal, feeling responsible for their current situation, and also thinking the same.

A scuffle outside the door caught both their attentions. A deep thud attracted their gaze to each other, and when sharp footsteps approached the door, they reacted quickly. Lara glanced at Kurtis and then next to the door, and he, returning her bewildered and plotting gaze followed it there, understanding and quietly creeping into the shadows to the right of the steel door. He readied for attack just as the electronic keypad outside beeped and the door began to slide open.

Lara looked up to see a silhouetted figure of a woman. Stepping into the cell with a cold M16 pointed at Lara, the figure moved into the room, just as Kurtis moved to attack. Sensing this, the woman grabbed his wrist just as it began to descend, twisting it around and pulling it. Now,standing behind Kurtis,she offered swift kick to the back of his knees. He slumped to the floor, flashing Lara an apologetic look as he kneeled in front of her. He was then pushed to the ground, the M16 now trained on him.

"I wouldn't do that again," the woman spoke coolly.

Kurtis was surprised to hear a female voice from his prey turned predator, and even more surprised when she allowed him to get up, gesturing that he sit on the cot next to Lara, gun still trained on him.

"Seems you have yourselves in quite a predicament," she said, with an American accent with hints of others that Kurtis couldn't place, as she stepped into the light.

Kurtis was shocked to glance, narrow eyed, at a tall, slender, woman, with dirty blonde hair and steely gray eyes, ever so slightly upturned in the corners to give her a child-like wide eyed look. She had high cheekbones, which sloped to a neat chin, underneath full, pretty lips and a straight, classic nose. Immediately his attention was drawn to her physical assets; she had modest hips and breasts, well, modest compared to Lara, he thought, the womanizer in him recognizing her as one he'd like to have in his bed, although his ego quickly chased away all thoughts as he continued glowering at her.

"And who the hell are you?" Lara asked, breaking Kurtis's thoughts while taking in the black tank top, knee length pencil skirt with a clean but recent tear resembling a slit which stretched nearly the entire length of the skirt to reveal toned and lean muscled legs resulting in a pair of pointy sling back kitten heels. A twinge of jealously coursed through Lara as she looked at the woman's physique, realizing that it wasn't helping that the woman was utterly and astonishingly gorgeous.

The blonde smiled, "My name is Alice, Alice Clarke," She flashed Kurtis a glance with her gray eyes, "and who might you be?"

Kurtis interrupted Lara when she began to respond, "What's it to you?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," the woman named Alice responded coolly. Lara was beginning to like her rescuer; she sensed something genuinely friendly and honest in her eyes, but also the hardened persona of a woman who'd endured much.

"Lara Croft," Lara said, before Kurtis could interrupt her again, "and Kurtis Trent," she said glancing towards Kurtis, who looked at Lara with a cold look. Lara averted her eyes, knowing she shouldn't trust this woman, but for whatever reason, Lara's instincts told her she should, and she generally had very good instincts.

"Pleasure," Alice said, taking the gun off them.

"You're trusting us?" Kurtis responded, noticing Alice's lack of defenses now.

"Oh no, but I could use the company," She laughed, "and the help" she added, Lara liking her even more by the second.

Lara suddenly remembering the guard outside looked at his slumped body and twisted head, the turned to Alice.

"What's your deal?" she asked, gesturing at the guard.

"CIA."

"You don't look like a field agent" Kurtis accused.

"I'm not."

"Oh?" Lara replied, looking outside and returning to Alice, with a then where-the-hell-did-that-come-from glance.

"Well, I was…I requested a transfer to, well, to a desk job." Alice said, somewhat ashamedly.

Kurtis noticed this and used it to intimidate the woman.

"Too much danger on the field?" he asked, apparently still glowering from his earlier encounter, Lara noticed as she heard the harshness of his voice.

Alice, noticing it to, flashed Kurtis a harsh and stern look with her eyes, before responding.

"Not enough thrill."

Lara and Kurtis exchanged puzzled glances, which were returned by Alice with a slight eye roll before she indulged them.

"I hated being told what to do, so I requested transfer to Operations Targeting Officer, so I could essentially tell people what to do, when to do, where to do it and how. I nice little shift in power—"she glanced outside, and then motioned to them to be quiet. She moved so she was just insider the doorway, picked up her gun and aimed, the shot stifled by the silencer attached to the gun.

Kurtis looked at Lara, slightly confused, before looking out at the door. About 100 yards down the empty corridor lay another guard, one bullet hole squarely between his eyes,

"They taught you to shoot like that at the academy?" Kurtis charged Alice, who turned to him, flashing her eyes at him.

"I was an assassin for 7 years before the CIA got me with one in the shoulder. They didn't want to loose my expertise, so they took me in.

"Interesting career choice," Kurtis mumbled, knowing that he'd done something very similar with a lot less skill.

"It got me through college" was Alice's curt reply. Kurtis's mind did the math. If she was an assassin for 7 years… he suddenly figured out that she was no older than 30, probably around 28 or 29, and realized that she had accomplished a lot for being so relatively young to his 33.

Lara, who had recognized Kurtis's still hostile words toward Alice, cut in.

"How'd you end up here?"

"I was researching the shield for a recon mission. It was suddenly called off, but I kept up my research. I found some shady relations to the Organization. Guess I found out too much. They abducted me and brought me to a cell. I got out through the ventilation shafts, saw this cell was guarded and figured I could use the help. You?"

"Unfinished business," Kurtis responded.

"How much do you know?"

Kurtis glanced at Lara, letting the incident earlier go,

"Not much, just that the Shield makes the wearer powerful and physically very strong as long as they wear it, and we assume that the Cabal want it so they can have another Ekhardt-like program."

"The Cabal? Eckhardt?" Alice glanced at him, admitting she didn't know these people.

"All I know is what you said about the shield, and then that the Organization, a group of some mafia like members, want it so they can revive some sort of ancient evil."

"Right. The Organization is the same as the Cabal. They want to rebreed the Nephilim race," Lara explained.

"Nephilim? The half breeds between humans and Angels?"

"You got it," replied a now fully cocky Kurtis.

"Right. They are somewhere in this fortress." Lara mentioned

"So we need to find them before the Organization, or rather, the Cabal get their hands on it."

"And destroy the sleeper, the last pure Nephilim." Lara continued, noticing Alice's cool, undisturbed face. As if reading her mind, Alice responded

"I see a lot of weird things in my job" She and Lara exchanged a smile.

"Then lets go" Kurtis said, missing the moment between the two women.

"Right." Alice said to Kurtis before turning to Lara, "But first, do you have any extra clothes?" Alice said innocently "These heels aren't very forgiving." She smiled. Suddenly remembering the clothes left for her on the bed, Lara reached for the black shorts and boots.

"It's your lucky day," she said, tossing them to Alice, who caught them in one fluid motion. Alice retreated into the shadows of the room to put on the shorts. Never one for modesty, she ripped her skirt the rest of the way, letting it fall to the ground around her, and slid the rather short-shorts on.

Kurtis could not help but stare. He couldn't see much, but he did see her figure as she changed. Suddenly, Alice stepped out of the shadows, staring at Kurtis with a look that seemed to say I-know-I'm-hot; you-are-such-a-perv; and merely caught-you, at the same time. Kurtis averted his eyes as he realized he didn't know which interpretation was true.

"Almost ready," Alice said to Lara, turning her glare at Kurtis to a friendly one to Lara,

"Just need some guns."

"Alright, I'll go check around the corner for guards while you get those from our friend here," she glanced at the guard before taking off down the hall.

Alice took the shoulder holster off the guard, as well as his Desert Eagle. Putting them both on she turned to Kurtis, who was getting up ready to follow Lara. Alice started walking towards him; he locked eyes with her as she did, stepping backwards until he was up against the wall.

"Careful," Alice said to him, drawing ever closer. Cornered, Kurtis stood there as Alice drew in really close, putting one hand on his cheek and pulling her face close to his, her lips brushing his other cheek as she drew her face to whisper in his ear, "I sting," She said, before turning and walking out of the room, leaving Kurtis panting at the proximity of her, both intimidated and allured.

A/N: well, what do you think of that? I really like this character, and although I have plans for her, let me know what you think of her, After all you all are the ones reading it!

I didn't have this chapter betaread-- i tried to edit it myself, but there are bound to be mistakes, so just let me know if you catch any!

I'll try to get the next chapter up soon, but in the midst of school and field hockey i have very little time on my hands! please keep on reading and reviewing and i'll do my best!

Froggie- yeah, sorry my extent of languages other than English is limited to high school spanish and what Russian i tried to teach myself over the summer, and random phrases in european languages, but no latin. Sorry about the translations, I've only been able to find one website that offers free english to latin translations, so if you know of any good ones, let me know!
Ellethiel- thanks for the review! glad you are enjoying it!

thanks again to everyone who's read my story!