NOTE: PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF A HEADACHE OF CONFUSION AND READ THIS - This chapter has been re-written. For those of you who have no idea of what happened, allow me to brief you: the previous version of the chapter came out too similar to chapter 7 of AKKON's Folly, who wrote it long before I did. We talked this matter out and settled on the point that I would put a note at the beginning of the chapter stating exactly this. That note has been there for almost a month, but I thought it was best to also re-write the whole thing. It was also AKKON's idea that I use the treasure room in TR2 (many thanks ;), so that the chapters could properly differ. And yeah, I've made some minor alterations to the original room, namely adding a light switch (I'll have a fit if someone tells me there was actually one there and I didn't find it. GAH I ran out of flares so many times) and a subsection with display cases because it just didn't seem right that important artifacts like theDagger of Xian and the Iris rested in a huge heap of random treasures.
WHAT HAS CHANGED: Well, this entire chapter, to start. And all the stuff that implies, aka: parts of chapter 2, 8 and 10.
WHAT MUST BE RE-READ: I'd advice re-reading all the chapters mentioned, but you can skip chapter 2 and 8 as the only things that have changed are the characters actions and dialogues when referring to the treasure room, since it hasswitched places. DO RE-READ this chapter and chapter 10, this re-write actually gave birth a to atiny huge detail. Details do matter, please don't ignore the changes that have been made or later in the story you'll probably be left with that nasty "wtf?" feeling.
I love you to bits for actually reading this, thank you :)
"Yes, I definitely think it bothers her" Lara replies, dismissing that part of the conversation with a pointed look.
Kurtis shifts uncomfortably in his seat. He feels awkward for some reason and then there's that annoying pull…
"Lets cross that bridge when we get to it, ok?" he speaks without thinking, more out of need to rush the conversation.
"You mean… just stay here and wait for things to start happening? With Nephilims on the loose and the Cabal still active?" Lara retorts, confused.
He shifts again, showing clear signs of impatience. It's pulling so hard… Calling out… to him. To him! How could he have been so stupid?
"Lara" he speaks suddenly, a little harshly due to the impatience, but hurries to soften his tone "Where is my Chirugai?"
Taken aback by the question, Lara looks stunned for a moment, but quickly composes herself, perfectly blank expression set in place.
"Your what?" she inquires, even though she is perfectly capable of deducing what he is talking about.
"My Chirugai, my weapon, my frisbee thing!" She takes too long to reply. Way too long, and that pull is driving him insane… He jumps up from his seat "Where, Lara? I know you picked it up at the Strahov!"
Her eyes narrow slightly. His voice is a notch too loud for her liking.
"I picked it up alright. It was lying there. In a pool of human blood"
Of course.
He'd be surprised if she didn't steer the conversation that way.
He takes a deep breath.
"I need my Chirugai, Lara. Where did you put it?"
"It's safe"
"It's safe…" pacing the room with deep breaths "Where?" he insists, in between gritted teeth.
"I wonder what it was doing there…" she comments, coolly standing up and wandering about the room with a thoughtful look "…just lying there, blood all around… no body to go with it…"
"LARA, WHERE?"
"You know what? You talk too loud. Way too loud" Lara informs in an ice dripping tone.
Kurtis takes another deep breath.
"I-just-want-my-Chirugai"
"Sure you do" she finally stands up, losing her temper "You want everything! You want a partner to do your dirty work for you, you want her to sod off when you don't need her anymore, then you want to crash at her place and want her to smile and not ask any questions! And, of course, you want your Frisbee! That's all you came back for, isn't it? "
"Was I meant to come back for anything else?"
A small pause. A second too long. Then he bursts again.
"ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE IT BACK OR NOT?"
"GIVE IT BACK? You show up here, break into my house, act like you own the place, bring a goddamn nephilim on your tail and refuse to give any kind of explanations, AND YOU STILL MAKE DEMANDS?"
"That's a 'no', then?"
"YES! You go find it and then get your ass out of here"
"Fine! Gladly!"
"FINE!"
And with that he storms out of the room.
An angry shout makes its way into the room as he walks away through the corridor.
"And stop calling yourself 'my partner', you were a goddamn bump in the road that'll I'll be more than happy to forget!"
The sun is by now rapidly setting in the sky and Aysha's eyes are slowly starting to get used to the spreading twilight. Said eyes are also to receiving a permanent imprint of the dark green pattern of the foliage, as she drags her bored being through the maze's interior, getting a glimpse of the eastern wall for what seems like the fiftieth time.
In the beginning, she could even say that she was having a blast, extremely excited about defeating Croft's maze and uncovering what was in the centre… Because there had to be something in the centre, right? Why else would someone go through the trouble of reserving a patch of their garden to grow gigantic bushes?
Now, after a good half an hour of looking, she is actually beginning to think that the true purpose of the whole things is to lure people inside with the promise of some pot of gold or whatever in the middle, drive them insane and watch them perish in its innards.
She wouldn't put it past Croft to have a nice little arena in the centre, littered with rotten bodies, perhaps even a bull man to go with it… And the butler, of course, is her accomplice, telling unsuspecting gullible visitors about the wonders of the three foot tall maze… Years to grow, he yapped… OH SHIT!
Her first thoughts are for the acute pain in her backside which so unceremoniously landed on what feels like hard rock. Then her senses take notice of the darkness around her. After two seconds and a half of unspeakable curses, her brain clicks: hole. In her half-asleep pacing through the maze, she fell into a hole.
More cursing as she pulls herself up on her feet, forcing her pupils to widen like a cat's and scrutinize the length of the tunnel before her.
About fucking time!
She presses on through the damp darkness, marking a left turn at the end and picking up her pace as she spots a patch of light ahead.
Through the rabbit hole.
Your wonderland better be worth it, Croft…
As her head pops up to ground level again, a broad grin widens on her lips. Before her, two huge statues rise towards the skies (never surpassing the height of the maze's bushes, conveniently. Wouldn't want to give the lost visitors any clues, oh noooo), standing side by side on top of a heightened stone platform which gives the scene the feel of an altar.
And hell, is she willing to pay religious homage to switch that stands innocently in the wall between them… She settles for a friendly punch, instead.
The feeling of accomplishment slowly leaves her as her grin falls to pieces. Now all she has to do is pray very hard that the wooden door has opened… and find her way back through a trap worthy of Dedalus himself.
Aww for fuck's sake!
The returning journey is surprisingly quick compared to the previous one and Aysha throws a last smug glance back at the evil maze. Alright, so maybe she wrecked a few bushes on the way, created a few shortcuts… But she doubts a three meters tall maze will have trouble in regenerating, anyway.
Grinning like the Cheshire cat, she makes her way back into the mansion. Her eyes gleam with delight as she sets foot on the main hall and gets a view of the open door. In less than ten seconds, she's gone through it and stands in a dimly lit tunnel that strongly resembles the one she felt into just a few minutes ago.
She cautiously takes a step forward, minding the steps as she proceeds. She hasn't walked five feet inside when the 'thud' of the closing door makes her jump around in surprise.
She blinks a couple of times. Never did it cross her mind that the stupid thing could be timed but, boy, is she glad she made those shortcuts in the maze…
Shrugging the matter aside, she walks on down the stone steps.
Cat eyes can do a good job in dim light, but they aren't of much use in the pitch-black darkness. She reaches the end of the descent and proceeds to feel her way around the walls, praying and hoping that Croft isn't deranged enough to have a bloody dungeon in the bowels of her house with no kind of light source at all.
A few minutes of tapping the walls reveal a God-sent switch that she promptly flicks on.
Blinding white light fills the room and Aysha shields her burning eyes at once eyes. As her vision begins to adapt to clarity, her jaw drops in disbelief and comptemplation.
Oh. My. God.
Kurtis hurries down the staircase, dragging his feet all the way. He curses every inch of his idiotic self for not having shot Croft in the Louvre, or straight away when he first set eyes on her at Café Métro. If anything, he should have realized she was nothing but trouble when she turned off the power and set loose Boaz's puppy on that damned Sanitarium…
But noooo! A pretty face adorned by full, pouty lips, a nice figure, a sharp tongue and a nice pair of… eyes… and there goes Kurtis, head over heels, dying to please the lady.
Don't be so hard on yourself, my boy. You were paying just a little too much attention to her attributes…
You AGAIN?
A desperate grunt makes its way out of his lips. Just when you think things can't get any worse…
As long as there's stupidity among the mortals, I'll be here.
And who exactly are you?
The voice of your insanity, boy. Your rapidly growing insanity…
Can't argue with that… Now go away!
Now now, silly, you know the procedure. I make you see the light and THEN I go away.
FUCK OFF! The light is far away from this bloody house, that's all I need to know. I'll get my Chirugai and then I'll go happily looking for it…
You won't find it.
Oh? And why is that?
Because you're an idiot.
Hey, I'm not a…
Oh sure, I'm the one talking to myself in front of a wall!
Like a literal slap on the face, reality dawns on Kurtis once again, in the form of a wooden wall with which he collides head first.
Too irrationally pissed to even rejoice over the disappearance of the voice, he curses loudly and forcefully kicks the offending wall. It sounds kind of hollow, even for something made of wood…
Past all thoughts of 'shiny' and 'this be pretty', Aysha leisurely strolls around the treasure room, ogling at the several chests that litter the place, afraid of even glancing at the blinding length of gold and artefacts that surround the section she is standing in.
She feels extremely tempted to open the chests and take a peek at what's inside, but her senses are suddenly distracted by something else. The pull is infinitely stronger in here, assuring her that the calling object is merely feet away.
Forgetting all about the shiny things, she presses onwards through the underground treasure room, ending up in a smaller square room. Unlike this previous division, where treasures litter the floor in random heaps, this one seems to have received a special attention: the floor is covered by a thick crimson carpet, a lit fireplace adorns the opposite wall which sports a few notorious paintings and, instead of gas lamps, chandeliers hand from the ceiling.
In the middle of the room, a few display cases rise in solemn guard of the artefacts they hold, all suspended in some kind of gravitational void.
Aysha takes notice of a new switch close to the entrance of this room, which, after pressed, plunges the previous one into darkness. With a shrug, she walks amid the display cases, marveling at the curious objects, all spinning around themselves in a slow and purposeless orbit. There is a dagger-like object, adorned by intricate decorations that look oriental in nature, a floating bubble of half spheres that turn around themselves endlessly, which for some reason gives Aysha a light feeling of nausea, and many other curious tokens.
But what truly draws her attention is a particular display case in the far corner of the room, the housing of a metallic disc-shaped object.
It doesn't take very long of admiring the dormant trinket for Aysha to realize she has found her target.
Her calling thing.
What started off as a curious knocking has now tuned into a kicking fest of the wooden door. Yes, because Kurtis is by now sure it is a door.
More than that, he is certain that the calling is coming from the other side of it.
Quite simply: his Chirugai is inside and the door is in the way. Things that are in the way are evil. They should be destroyed.
The glass display case reflects the pair of wide blue eyes, staring curiously at the sleeping disc inside.
The calling thing.
It doesn't seem like much… hardly worth all the hell she had to endure to make her way into that room. But then again, none of the other objects, each in its own code-protected display case, look like more than lame souvenirs, something a tourist would pick up in an Arab flee market to put on a shelf and show off to his neighbours…
Aysha wanders, however, how Croft managed to keep the objects suspended like that, swimming in space like all gravity has been withdrawn from the cases. The entire room exhales a feel of timelessness, as if it doesn't quite belong in this world, the closed red panel like a sealed portal to a reality left behind.
Her eyes are, unsurprisingly, drawn to the crackling flames in the fire place, casting orangey glows on the stone walls. She spares an amused thought to the image of old Winston performing the maze trick every other day to get into the room, to keep the fire lit.
With a hollow chuckle, her attention returns to the disc.
It may be unremarkable, but it's still calling. Her fingers wander to the keypad, eyes scanning the options with precision.
Four digits. Dozens of possible combinations.
Better start getting busy.
Less than three minutes afterwards, her head jerks up as a loud 'bang' echoes in the stone tunnel far behind her.
What the hell…
Fast steps follow.
Shit, someone's coming…
Quickening already feverish motions, hurriedly inserting numbers on the keypad.
0211, 0212, 0213, 0214… 'click'.
'Click'?
The glass surface detaches itself slowly from its pedestal, the disc inside silently falling back into the world of gravity.
With a satisfied grin, Aysha hurries to lift the cursed glass. She hesitates, however, in taking the object itself. For some reason, it feels off-limits, as if touching it would be, more than an invasion of property, a dangerous action.
She shrugs the hesitation off, telling herself that she didn't go through that entire hell of finding levers, dashing through closing doors and guessing codes to give it all up now.
Thank God she turned off the lights…
By the time Kurtis finds the cursed light switch, he is in absolute killer mode. Anything that stands in his way will probably have the same fate as the unfortunate door that so impolitely blocked his passage.
The pretty golden length of treasure may have a relative effect in calming his anger, but not enough to slow down his march. He is there for one purpose and one alone
Oblivious o the lights that have flicked on once again behind her, Aysha reaches out an unsure hand for the metal disc which, despite the heat of the room, is as cold as ice. Her wandering fingers find their way into the five holes and an even stronger feeling of unease washes over her.
A disc with finger holes? What exactly is the point of that thing?
The smaller room comes into view of an extremely pissed Kurtis, as well as the kneeling proto inside. She has already turned around, attracted by the noise and is looking straight at him. More than caught, she looks a bit startled. And judging by what rests in her hands, she has every reason to be.
Eyes twitching like mad, he growls.
"Give me that, proto! RIGHT NOW!"
Aysha irks an eyebrow at his apparently random behaviour.
"Why should I? I was the one who found…"
"It's MINE! Hand it over!" And, without waiting for a reply, he holds out a hand and the Chirugai's blades spring to life, drawing a yelp from Aysha who promptly drops it.
The flaming weapon flies to meet its owner, lodging itself perfectly around his outstretched fingers.
Surprised by the pain a simple blade can cause, Aysha grabs her bleeding hand and throws the Lux Veritatis a withering look.
Kurtis, however, doesn't stick around for the retaliation. Like an angry bull that only sees the way forward… or backwards in this case… he bolts out of the room and makes a beeline for the tunnel exit, leaving a plain "shouldn't mess around with sharp things" hanging in the air.
"Lara, dear, are you aware that he has left?"
"Yes"
"And are you aware that he also somehow wrecked the treasure room door?"
"Yes"
"'Yes'? And don't you intend to do anything about it?" the butler frets.
With a controlled sigh, unleashing just a very tiny part of the anger that is pilled up inside her chest, Lara snaps shut the book she has been pretending to read and looks up at Winston.
"Why should I?" She has been expecting this. If anything, it only happened faster than she had planned… But that only means she's free of the American, so why be bothered?
"But… but Lara!" Winston's face shifts from 'lost and confused old man' to 'wise advisor', something he does very often and a little too quickly for Lara's liking "Whatever argument you had, no matter how serious it was, no one should take decisions with a hot head! That boy might be getting himself into some serious trouble by leaving like that, without a second thought…"
"And why should I care?" Lara shouts, loosing patience at last "I don't give a damn if he never comes back, I hope he'll shove that stupid bike down a cliff! AND I HOPE HE STAYS THERE THIS TIME!"
The door suddenly bolts open and a gasping Aysha enters the room.
"Lara, Trent's left!"
"I know" Lara replies, taking dozens of deep breaths.
"You know?"
"I know"
"And you're not gonna do anything about it?"
"He left without you?" Winston interrupts, back to the confused old man. Aysha looks at him strangely, too confused herself to even remember the stupid 'sister lie'.
"Lara!" she insists.
"Why don't the two of you just LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE?" Lara bellows, rushing out of the room.
Aysha follows suit, giving Winston just enough time to catch a glimpse of her bleeding hand.
Well yeah, it's not much of a chapter, but the point wasn't to make it good, it was to make it different. Thank you all for reading and, again, sorry AKKON!