The first rays of the morning sunlight timidly pierce the window's glass, tearing their way through the linen curtains and finally going to rest on an extremely tired feminine face.

Lara covers her head with an arm, a feeble attempt to block out the aggressive light. No success whatsoever. In fact, the gesture's only result is forcing her to become aware of the throbbing pain on her back.

Slowly and unwillingly, she lifts heavy eyelids and shifts slightly. The world comes into focus before blurry eyes. A fireplace… a desk… a bookshelf… a book shelf?

What the…

She sits up abruptly, only to find that she is in the library, on the same chair where she had sat in the previous night. Her book lies forgotten on the floor, apparently dropped last night as sleep took over.

She picks it up and yawns tiredly, stretching her cramped muscles as she rubs an eye.

Deciding that she needs to wake up, have a bath and change, she pulls the curtains aside in a sudden gesture, squinting at the brightness. The weather has improved. At least outside.

Bathed and refreshed, Lara walks slowly down the staircase towards the kitchen, deciding it is about time to eat something. She stops in her tracks, however, as she hears two masculine voices coming from the said division. One of them belongs undoubtedly to her butler and the other, much to her displeasure, to her unwanted guest.

Why can't the asshole just sleep till late, like a good typical male?

Measuring her options, she decides she isn't in the mood for another confrontation and turns back, heading the way she came.

She needs an excuse. Something that would give her (and him) a reason not to bring up last night's conversation.

Winston's there… hum… discretion?

Nah. Of course not. The butler would leave the moment he noticed the tension between them, deciding to let them sort things out on their own.

Definitely not an option.

The solution hits her as she passes one of the many doors that grant entrance to the various guest rooms. A door that, incidentally, still remains locked.

Surely he won't bring it up in front of a teenager… A Nephilim one, especially…

Grinning to herself, she knocks lightly on the door.

No response.

She knocks again, a little harder this time.

Nothing.

"Aysha?"

Silence.

Annoyed and a little apprehensive, she digs into her pockets for the keychain and unlocks the door. Cautiously, she pushes it open and peers into the room.

Everything seems to be in its place, nothing odd to be noted… except…

And this is just what I need right now…

In the middle of the floor lies a bundle of bed clothes composed by a thick blanket, part of a sheet (the rest of it is still on the bed) and a pillow. Under it, a sparkle of red hair can be, hardly, spotted.

"Aysha" Lara calls again, loud enough to be heard.

"Hum…" is the only reply. The bundle shifts slightly.

Lara rolls her eyes heavenwards.

"Good morning Aysha…"

"Hum…" more shifting.

"I said GOOD MORNING AYSHA!"

"HEY! Take it easy, will ya? Jeez…" An extremely dishevelled head pops out from between the clothes, eyes clouded by sleep. Aysha yawns lazily, stretching like a cat.

"Whattimeisit?" she asks in a barely perceivable dragged voice.

"9:30" Lara replies, checking the bedside-table clock "Up!" She orders, pulling the covers from on top of the lazy proto.

"Ok, ok! I'm awake! What's the bloody rush?"

"No rush. Simply, this house has schedules"

Right. And you've got a lot of moral to talk about that, don't you Croft?

"Hell, you sound like a forty year old house-wife…"

"Why thank you" Lara retorts sarcastically "Juts out of pure curiosity, may I ask what you were doing on the floor?"

Aysha looks around, as if noticing her condition for the first time. A casual shrug.

"Messy sleeper?" she offers.

"Right… Just hurry up, breakfast will be ready in ten"

With that she turns around and makes to leave the room. Just as she is about go through the door, Aysha's cough stops her.

"Yes?" she demands, turning around.

"Erhm… what am I supposed to wear?"

Lara blinks a couple of times. Then she remembers that the girl didn't seem to have brought anything along with her when they had found her in the garden.

"Don't you have any luggage on you?" she asks, surprised.

"Er… I have a couple of things lying in the garden, but none of them are clothes"

Lara shrugs, letting out a patient sigh.

"Just wear something of mine then. I'll go get it…" she is, once again, stopped by a pointed cough. A little more than annoyed, she again turns to face her guest.

"Yesss, Aysha?"

"Humm… no offence or anything… but I'm not sure if something of yours would fit me" she seems kind of embarrassed in pointing this out "Coz, you know, with you being taller and bigger…"

"Bigger?"

"Well, yeah, mostly up there…" Aysha gestures vaguely to her chest.

Lara glares at her, incredulous with the little brat's nerve. If looks could kill, Aysha would certainly be ten feet under right now…

"I'll be back with the clothes in a second" Lara replies, her tone as icy as ever.

She walks through the door promptly, leaving a very embarrassed Aysha looking at the ground.

"Yeah… thanks"

The breakfast goes by without any incidents. As Lara has predicted, Kurtis doesn't bring up their disturbing late night conversation in front of Aysha. Actually, he doesn't even seem to be willing to talk much… except for that comment on the proto's 'oversized outfit'.

The other thing to be noted, this one with a little surprise on Lara's behalf, is that Winston and Aysha seem to be getting along quite well. They have spent the whole morning talking and sharing jokes, just out of the blue.

Winston appears to find her quite amusing and she seems to like the old butler as well. And then, Lara knows, they share the liking for that beast of a cat of hers.

Speaking of which…

The little pest has been too quiet this morning… what's it up to?

Curiously, Lara peeks out of the kitchen door into the main hall.

This is way too quiet.

She takes a cautious step towards a small area where she has recently placed a couple of couches (in pretty bad shape by now) and her jaw drops in disbelief.

There, among shreds of fabric, a river of feathers and remnants of cushions, sits The Cat with the most satisfied look in the world. It sits on what's left of a satin cushion, proudly standing on it as if it were a trophy.

Lara just can't believe her eyes.

It's purring. The little beast is PURRING!

"WINSTON!"

The scream echoes throughout the entire house and the three people in the kitchen immediately rush to the main hall to check what is wrong.

Aysha is the first to get there and, after a few moments of processing the sight, she bursts in laughter, covering her mouth to no avail.

Kurtis is a little more discrete, but he can't stop a grin from pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"Dear Lord!" Winston gasps, taking in the scene before him.

"Winston" Lara begins with lethal calm, rubbing her temples "There's something very wrong with this thing you brought home…"

"But… but there must be some explanation, I mean she wouldn't just…" the old butler chokes out, only to be promptly interrupted by Lara.

"I don't see any explanation. All I see is that the bloody thing has completely destroyed what was left of my couches and now is sitting on her own massacre and purring!" she has a murderous gleam in her eyes as she looks up "PURRING, WINSTON! She's proud of it!"

"Well… I… Lara…"

"WHAT? Can you give me an explanation for this? Is she mental? Coz I can't find any reason for this, not a single one!" She rolls her eyes, voice dripping sarcasm "Oh no, wait! She's possessed, right? That's the excuse, isn't it?"

"Lara dear, lets just calm down and…"

"I AM PERFECTLY CALM!" Lara yells. Voice a little more controlled now "I just wish you'd tell me what a hell were you thinking when you brought this little furry devil into my house! AND YOU, STOP LAUGHING, IT'S NOT FUNNY!" she snaps at Aysha who is, by this point holding her aching stomach, completely subdued by laughter.

With an exasperated exclamation, Lara storms out of the place, heading towards the front door out to the garden.

Winston rushes after her, stammering excuses.

Kurtis just waves his head with a chuckle and returns to the kitchen where he resumes reading his paper.

Aysha, however, remains on the spot, the laughing fit now gone.

She stares curiously at The Cat which, throughout the entire lecture, has been sitting on its prized loot, standing its ground, only occasionally hissing at Lara.

"Devil, is it?" Aysha muses.

After a long time of taking deep breaths and completing her assault course, Lara enters the house once again, the impulse of strangling the dear little hell kitten having somewhat subsided.

She looks left and right, praying that no one is in her way (for their own good) and walks towards the kitchen for a glass of water.

As she approaches the door, she picks up the intriguing last remnants of conversation between Winston and Aysha, coming from inside the division. Her curiosity forces her to eavesdrop… ahem, listen for a bit longer.

"But you can't call her that!" The butler argues desperately.

"Why not?"

A small pause ensues. He's looking for a good argument.

"Because she's a girl! Lucifer isn't a female name!"

"Says who?" Aysha's impertinent tone "How would you know? Lucifer was a fallen angel, aren't angels meant to have no defined gender?"

Another pause.

"Well, you have a point… but to name a little kitten 'Lucifer', Aysha, honestly!"

"She's not a kitten, she's a hellcat. According to Lara, at least"

Winston sighs resignedly.

"Look, you don't like it, you can always call her Lucy or something. But it's settled" Aysha concludes.

Lara grins amusedly on the other side of the door.

Fitting name, no doubt…

Finally deciding that she's heard enough, she pushes the door open and steps into the kitchen with a decided stride.

Winston looks up from the stove where he's cooking some kind of greenish soup.

"Good afternoon my dear" he greets, a bit unsure "…feeling calmer?"

"As one can be after having their couches shred to pieces by a psychotic cat" she replies.

Aysha sniggers from her seat, perched on top of the kitchen counter.

"You think that's funny?" Lara demands in an uninterested tone.

"Yeah. Hilarious" the girl replies. Lara glares at her for a moment.

"Sure. Downright hilarious" She opens a cupboard door casually and takes out a bottle of water "So… come up with a name yet?"

"Actually, yeah" Aysha answers, jumping down form the counter "What do you think of 'Lucifer'?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Lara picks up Winston's hopeful expression. She smirks slightly.

"Sounds good" is her reply. The butler's face breaks.

"Lara, please! You can't let her name the kitten that!"

"Why not? Sounds perfectly fitting to me…"

Winston throws up his hands in defeat and resumes his stirring of the soup.

Aysha chuckles and mutters a 'thanks'. As she prepares to leave the kitchen, however, Lara stops her.

"What's the rush?" she calls "Hold on a second, I'd like a word with you…"

Aysha stares at her for a moment, expression completely blank. Then she mouths a little 'oh' and nods.

Before Winston's confused glare, they both leave the kitchen through the back door, heading outside.

"Time for 'the talk' then?" Aysha asks with a smirk, taking a seat on top of one of the crates of the assault course.

Lara simply nods, leaning against another one.

"Thought you wanted to wait for your friend"

"My friend is busy" she replies, determined to ignore the insinuation.

"Yeah, he must be… haven't seen him since breakfast"

Isn't that a shame.

"Whatever"

A small pause.

"So… what do you want to know?" Aysha finally asks, her tone a bit lighter than it had been in the previous night.

"First of all, I'm worried about the rest of them. The other protos" Aysha shifts uncomfortably and Lara knows right there and then that she hit a nerve "How many are there?"

"We were seven…" her eyes assume a faraway quality, voice tinged with sorrow and… is that bitterness? "The only ones who survived the breeding process… three males and four females. My unit. My siblings. My family."

"Tell me about them" Lara asks. Aysha gulps uneasily, but decides to humour her.

"There was Sam, Chris, Claire and me, the females… And then the boys: Jack, Charlie and… Ethaniel" clear sorrow in pronouncing the last name "He was the commander of the unit. The best of us"

"How did they breed you? I mean, you're what, eighteen? I know for sure that the Cabal had only gotten the Sleeper recently…"

"Seventeen. I… I don't know" Aysha admits "They never told us about that kind of stuff… We were just soldiers, meant to do the dirty work without asking any questions, clearing the path to the great work"

"Did you… do many dirty works?" Lara asks, apprehensive.

"Not me, no" embarrassment clear in her words now "I was still in the training stage, not given too many missions… But some of the older guys were already being dispatched on assignments with murder purposes. Getting rid of the Cabal's enemies, mostly…" the rest of the sentence dies in her throat and Lara promptly understands why.

"Lux Veritatis?" she completes for her. Aysha nods sadly. Lara only sighs. Then she turns to the proto, eyes burning with intensity.

"Don't ever tell that to Kurtis, you hear me? Ever"

Aysha complies, noticing the urgency in the tomb raider's voice. Lara settles down, expression once again one of simple and pure interest.

"Then you have no idea of what's in the base of your genes?"

"I know there's Nephilim, human and animal"

"Animal?" curiosity clear in her words, supported by widened eyes.

"Yeah… The DNA structure wasn't stable so they had to add more stuff. Like genes from different animals…" Aysha sounds dismissive in explaining this.

Either she doesn't know anything else, she doesn't think it's important or she doesn't want to talk about it.

Lara suddenly remembers something.

"Can I see your tattoo?"

Shrugging, Aysha complies.

"Just don't touch it" she warns, hopping off the block and tuning around. She parts her hair so Lara can get a better view. The tomb raider frowns as she recognizes the symbol on Karel's palm.

A sudden flashback takes her to Eckhardt's lab, the alchemist now dead on the floor. A figure stands before her, palm outstretched, offering gifts beyond mortal imagination. Offering her reasons to trust him. Familiar faces, lost ones. Fake shadows of a twisted truth in an artificial dream.

But trust is too expensive. More expensive than a pair of blue eyes. And dreams have the lifespan of sand castles, gone as soon as the tide comes.

She returns from her insight, focusing on the tattoo before her. A bright red inscription, part of the very skin.

"Do all protos have it?"

"Yeah. Since birth"

"A birthmark? Like the pure blood Nephilims?"

Aysha chuckles humourlessly.

"No. A brand. Like cattle" she turns around and returns to her seat on the vaulting block "They burn it onto our necks as soon as we're born. Kinda like farmers, to identify the herd…"

Lara is slightly taken aback by the simplicity in which the girl exposes the issue, but says nothing.

She feels it's time to ask what she really meant to. No point in stalling any longer.

"Your siblings, they…" she seems unsure of how to put it, carefully measuring the words "…do they share your philosophy towards the human population?"

"My… philosophy?"

"Are they willing to fit in just like you did? To cohabitate with the humans?"

There. She said it.

Aysha seems momentarily taken aback, but Lara doesn't think it was because of her frankness.

"I… honestly don't know…" she bows her head, staring intently at the ground.

So that's it then.

Aysha had, obviously, been asking that same question to herself ever since she had been freed.

"I've been trying to find them… It would be better if we were together, we could work things out better… Nobody would be feeling lost and end up doing something… something…" She is by now gripping the seam of her top so tightly that her knuckles have turned white. Lara realises she has pushed her far enough. But she has to ask…

"Do you think any of your brothers represents a threat?" she leans forward, voice barely above a whisper.

Aysha shivers slightly. She lifts her head to look up at Lara, eyes gleaming with a mixture of concern and sadness. Then she speaks three words, completely inaudible had Lara not been standing so close.

"Ethaniel hates humans"

And that is more than enough for Lara. They have a problem.

I like to think about this chapter as the end of the beginning... I'm done with introductions and explanations, so things are actually going to start happening on the next chapter.

Thanks for all the reviews and for the suggestions for the cat's name! Lucifer came up due to a little private joke of mine and my friend's... lol all I can say is that it involves that cat from Walt Disney's Cinderella and a rather peculiar name my mother had wanted to pick for me before I was born :P

It has been brought to my attention that I can't reply to reviews in the chapter, according to a new policy, but does anyone know if it's also forbidden to simply thank the reviewers? I mean, do I actually have to use the reply feature just to say 'thank you'? I'd apreciate it if someone could clear this up for me...

Again, please review if you: hate it, love it, get confused, bored, surpised with it... All critics welcome, constructive ones greatly apreciated!