Disclaimers:
Lara Croft and Natla © Core Design
Doctor Who (and all related characters and items) © BBC
All other characters (historical ones like the city of Babylon and their famous king) are from real life
Pride of Babylon
By Timon Constantine
Part II
The TARDIS rematerialized within the heart of the Hanging Gardens. Lara came out first, having not found the Holy Grail giving her ambition to find the secret of the Hanging Gardens. But then she saw a peculiar drawing on a nearby wall. It was of Natla!
Perplexed, Lara approached to view it closer. Suddenly, the floor underneath her flew open and Lara fell through!
"Lara!" The Doctor and Romana approached the trap door and peered down into it. It was pretty dark and they called out for Lara once more.
Lara shook her head and lit a flare. She was surrounded by writings on the wall in the ancient tongue of Babylon. She knew the bare basics of the tongue, but she would need experienced help to decipher it all.
"Lara!" The Doctor's echo reached her. She looked up to see she had gone down a soft of primitive slide.
"Doctor!" she called back up.
"Lara! Are you ok?"
"Yeah, there's a slide. Grab a lit torch and come on down."
"Alright, hold on a sec!"
"Ok, Romana, I want you to go back to the TARDIS and make sure it's ready for departure as soon as we come back." The Doctor said, lighting up a torch that he grabbed from a nearby torch hold.
"Can't I come with you?" Romana asked.
"I'm afraid that it is much too dangerous, Romana." The Doctor said sternly.
"But Doctor—"
"I don't wish to argue. Just please get to the TARDIS."
"Alright, Doctor…"
The Doctor slid next to Lara, picking up his hat and waving the torch about.
"You don't happen to know Babylonian, do you, Doctor?" Lara said half-hopefully.
"Here lies Lord Nebuchadnezzar with the Lady Natla who helped our lord in many battles to come," The Doctor read aloud, "On one fateful day, Lady Natla just disappeared – with the secret of our Hanging Gardens."
"Ah, bloody hell… she either took it elsewhere or kept it here, waiting for me." Lara muttered, mostly to herself.
"Why wait for you?" The Doctor asked.
"We've met before. I spoiled her plan to gain the power of Atlantis and create a new race that would destroy all humans." Lara explained briefly.
"Ah, perhaps it's a sort of revenge plan?" The Doctor muttered to himself.
"Oh, why's he always put me in the TARDIS?" Romana said to herself.
"I'm sure he was just looking out for you, Mistress." K-9 answered.
"I hate waiting around… what if the Doctor's in trouble?"
"He shall call for me with the whistle. You may come with me when he does."
The Doctor and Lara inspected the other walls, trying to find secret doors that could led them back up.
"I can't find any clues, Doctor…" Lara let out.
"There aren't any obvious clues, no." The Doctor said back, investigating the far wall quite closely. Lara walked up to him, looking over the wall as well.
"What's so special…" Lara started, but the Doctor silenced her. He reached out and touched one of the symbols. The wall then slid away to reveal a corridor.
"How'd you figure that out, Doctor?" Lara asked.
"That symbol didn't mean anything at all in Babylonian. It was just a symbol. So I decided why not? Now come on!" The Doctor explained briefly before heading down the corridor.
Lara pulled out her pistols and took the lead as the Doctor blew on one of those dog whistles Lara had heard about. She saw two corridors up ahead.
"Which way do you think we should go, Doctor?" Lara asked as he appeared beside her.
"Well, I'm going to wait for my dog. You chose one now and I'll head the other way." The Doctor suggested, sitting down and wiping dust from his hat. Lara sighed, pocketed one pistol to replace it with a flare, and headed down the corridor to the right.
Lara kept her wits about her, trying to go slow enough as to not run into any traps but yet fast enough so as to use the flare to its full potential before it would go out. It was trying business and Lara was heartened that no traps had sprung ever since that trap door. She approached a huge door with more writings. No door knob or any other conventional way to open the door was seen, which was quite typical. But within reach was a bigger version of the same symbol the Doctor touched back in the other room. Lara pushed it and watched as the huge doors slowly swung open.
K-9 and Romana zoomed down the slid. K-9 composed himself quickly and kept going, Romana taking a little longer as her eyes were not yet adjusted to the dark.
"Master?" K-9 called out as soon as it came within seeing distance of the Doctor.
"K-9, I'm glad you could make it." The Doctor said, getting up and then seeing Romana.
"Hello, Doctor." Romana said meekly. The Doctor just smiled.
"Well, Lara went down the corridor to the right, leaving us with the corridor to the left. You ready?" The Doctor said, heading down the corridor without waiting for an answer.
Lara entered into the well-light cavern, a huge golden palace standing before her. She was still trying to figure out how Natla fit into all of this when two skinny monsters appeared from the shadows and grabbed her arms. Her guns fell to the ground and she tried to fight back, but the monsters were way too strong.
"Ah, Lara, how nice of you to join us." Natla said as she walked out from the palace doors.
To Be Continued…