A/N: I've been quite out of the fanfiction scene but then I watched SOTR-gameplay about ten weeks ago. In those weeks, I've made complete chaos of my life but managed to write circa 104k words on Lara/Jacob without originally even meaning to ship it. I gave myself a deadline until December but I'm still missing a lot. Oh dear. And what did my Muse say when I rewatched the gameplay to check facts: you know… what about an alternative ROTR-ending…? And I was sucker enough to comply.

But yeah, I think Ana shooting Jacob was corny and unnecessary. And they could have let Jacob live his life till the end even with the Divine Source destroyed.

And I just can't wrap my head around the fact that there are 1,7k Tomb raider fics and only 14(!) have Jacob tagged as a character. That's not even 1 %... Well, here I am with a pen and a paper to add my works onto the list. A lot of One-Shots coming to your neighborhood in the not so distant future.

Hope you enjoy!


He knows that he is running out of time. He dashes through the old pathways, he should have long forgotten but they have been etched into his memory as if waiting for this very battle. The center building is falling apart and from the corner of his eye, he catches Sofia and the warriors' incendiary fly through the air towards the upper levels. There are screams, shouts, and the unmistakable sound of metal clashing against metal amidst the rumble from the collapsing stone structures. It's the fall of Kitezh all over again and it's not only the layout of the city that is carved into his mind as the terror resonates in his heart.

However, he hasn't lived through countless battles in vain and can easily sidestep the soldiers and the Deathless coming to his way and lure them against each other.

The only thing that matters to him is finding Lara, and preventing the Divine Source from falling into Trinity's hands.

The tower is disintegrating with each second, and he has to change direction in flight as the stairs and landing collapse in front of his eyes.

He's getting higher now and he steals a shotgun from one fallen Trinity soldier. And he runs and climbs like hellfire.

A boom resounds from atop of the structure and the following shockwave forces him to extend his free hand to seek balance amidst the crumbling stone.

He is almost there.

He has an idea on how this will end, and it's the same idea that meeting Lara for the first time had planted in his head. He only hopes that he is right.

Another projectile flies past him into the open staircase and he briefly wonders if his last wish for Sofia to stay safe will be the last time they saw each other. But she is strong and can lead his people – if they have anyone left at the end of this.

True to his original plan, Trinity isn't faring well against the Deathless. He can easily remember the night when he turned his men and women into these monsters. It's a sight and a decision that has been branded into his mind to burn him on every sleepless night. Right now, his past mistake works for their favor though as the two enemies are so focused on each other that he can enter the Chamber of Souls from the balcony.

He is not in time, but luckily Lara is made of stronger stuff than most people. She and Ana are being surrounded by the Deathless and he jumps over the fallen Trinity soldier whose blood is still flowing from the butchering.

He sees Ana uncover the Source, and in his panic, his eyes only search for Lara who, to his utmost relief, covers her own eyes from the damnation.

"Lara! Destroy it!" He shouts while running closer and shooting past her to the closing in Deathless.

Lara is quick on her feet but gives him one worried glance as she raises the Source above her head.

"It's okay, do it!"

There's a primal cry from Ana and roars about the end of the world from the Deathless but all of that is deafened by the sound of glass shattering. And in less than a second, Lara does what he hadn't had the guts to do in over a thousand years.

Pain rips through his body and forces him onto his knees as the Deathless around them disintegrate into dust. But he is still there, and Lara is kneeling next to him in a heartbeat, worry and fear clear in her voice and in the hand she puts on his arm.

But the pain is over as soon as it began and on its place is a dull ache and something else. It takes him a minute to decipher the feeling as it is so foreign to him – physical weakness, humanity. Without a single doubt, he knows that the power of the Divine Source has stopped sustaining him and left him as what he had been a long time ago before he first picked it up in a mountain cave in Greece.

"I'm so sorry," Lara is pleading in front of him, "Hold on, Jacob. Just hold on."

He raises his other hand to grasp hers on his arm and squeezes it to say that it's okay. The darkness is starting to overwhelm him and he manages one last smile to assure her before the tiredness takes him.


It's been five days since the battle, and he is still mostly confined to his home. His men, Lara and Sofia had managed to carry him back to the Valley, where it had taken two whole days for his body to muster enough energy to push through the haze. Sofia has kept him on close watch, and he doesn't doubt that every villager would walk him back to his cabin and bed if he was to try for an escape. His restlessness to know how many have been lost, how their villages are faring, is only attenuated by the tiredness that, for the first time he can remember since his self-induced fever at his exile, has spread to his mind and is slowing him down. It's a different kind of tiredness than the emotional burden he has learned to carry with him.

He is pulling the pelt better on himself as a knock comes from the door. Lara takes only a second to answer his call and he is once again taken by her will not to hesitate or worry around him. With all that has transpired during the last few weeks, it wouldn't have surprised him if she'd never wanted to see him again.

"Sofia said you're doing well enough to be visited," she begins lightheartedly and walks to him with her posture slightly inquiring, "She told me not to rally you too much though."

He manages a dry chuckle that leaves him coughing and Lara's eyes turn sympathetic. "How are you?"

She shrugs as expected, "Alive," she states as that would be the only thing that matters, "Little sore here and there, but nothing major."

He cannot express how grateful he is to hear her admission. They have lost so many, and he is relieved that she isn't on that list, especially as an outsider who came to their aid by her own will.

"You have an impressive list of get-well gifts," she smiles nodding at the small baskets of miscellaneous items and herbs that Sofia has transported to him from the villagers. He would prefer if the Remnants saved their energy for the rebuilding and healing the injured but he doubts that his dissenting opinion would be heard.

"I'm sorry," Lara eventually says somberly once the mood turns awkward.

"It's okay, Lara."

She shakes her head, "But you'll die now."

"Maybe that isn't such an unbearable thing. I've already held on for much, much longer than it would have been wise," and when she doesn't look convinced, "Believe me, you did the right thing." And he means his words, because despite being scared to move on, he has been even more scared of the idea of having to bury Sofia.

She sighs at his words but accepts them with a nod anyway. "Ana didn't wake up, anymore."

He searches for a better position against the pillows, "It was to be expected. She gave her soul to the Source and when it was broken... – I'm sorry."

"Don't. She... For all she did... There is nothing for you to be sorry about. – How are you, really?"

"A mortal man," he replies, and the words fill him with an unexpected sense of peace. "I believe my body is trying to come to terms with not having the powers from the Source. After that... maybe I'll age as God intended. I hope, I do."

"You don't look a day over... thirty-six, forty-one?" she prods lightly.

"Something around that," he simply answers; the exact number has escaped his mind a long time ago and it's only likely that the trauma and this change have added more years to his body than his original age. "No spring chicken," he says and nods at the walking stick leaning against the night-table. Lara chuckles at that and it sounds wonderfully heartening after everything. He cannot help but act on his curiosity, "What are you going to do now?"

"Shouldn't I be asking the same thing? – I don't know. Jonah and I are... I think, we'll stick around for a few days to see that everything starts running smoothly – if we can be of any help in the immediate stage. And Jonah is still recovering. After that... England calls to us. Jonah actually has people and a life around this and I... I was fighting with my Uncle about my family property before coming here. I managed to save it under my name just before leaving, but the paperwork is still a mess and the house itself will need serious renovations," she muses until her voice fades and she bites the inside of her cheek. He lets her sort out her thoughts in silence. "Konstantin..." she starts tentatively as if worried that he will have a heart attack at the first mentioning of the battle, "said to me that Trinity killed my father. That it wasn't a suicide. He might have been just making a last-minute ruse to mess with me but... if there is any truth to his words... I have to find out. For myself. I can't... I need to know the truth." Lara admits and absent-mindedly fiddles the wood from a larger bowl he has been gifted with.

She has come such a long way in the short time they have known each other, but he can easily remember how affected she had been when telling her story – plus, her actions have shown nothing but the pain inside her that she tries to heal.

"I know you said that I need to learn to let the emptiness go, but I need to know."

He nods in understanding and leans to give her hand a squeeze. Lara pulls herself together from her wariness, swiftly as always, "So, your plans?"

He gives an indistinctive sound from the back of his throat and it voices his feelings perfectly. He can already predict how the Remnants will be at a difficult crossroad after the destruction of the Source. Those with young children and the elderly will most likely decide to stay but many will leave to search for the life out there. And even if it will be another nail to his coffin of creating his people a safe place here, he knows that it's the only, and the best, outcome. It's not only he and the Deathless who have been held imprisoned by the Divine Source and his cowardice.

"I owe it to my people to support them in bringing the Valley back to life. Sofia is starting to be ready to take the lead, but she lost Elias to Trinity."

"Your plans?" Lara repeats her earlier question with a knowing nod, and he can't help the smile that tugs his lips at her persistence to get information out of him.

Still, nothing is easy, and he is in the same murky waters he had been when Lara had found the Atlas. "I don't know." This place has been his home for so long, but for almost as long, it has been a graveyard for his dreams and hopes, an epitome of his failures.

Lara looks at him with so much understanding and sadness that he is forced to continue, "I'd like to keep in contact with you, Lara." Despite having a dated but frighteningly more open future ahead of him now, he knows that he wants to see what Lara can become. There is lightness mingled with her sadness and her tenacity intrigues him. Still, she is young, raw, and still uncertain of herself and her place in the world. Thus, he feels that neither the time nor the place is right for the feelings she has planted inside him. And he is scared, praying mercy on his knees scared, that his past is too much for her to accept.

"I'd like that too," Lara says but there is no telling from her expression if she reads into his emotions. And he thinks, it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise: she has been on a gunpoint more times than she can count on the last few weeks, her friend has almost died in Trinity's hands and a person she has thought to have been her family has betrayed her and died. "And if any of you need any help whatsoever with the modern world, I'll be happy to do all I can to help."

"Thank you, Lara," he replies and repeats his words with all the meaning he can pour into them for her actions here. He cannot be sure if he'll ever see her again once she leaves. She is a risktaker and has set her target on Trinity. He has fought against them for over a millennium and only taken losses. But he has faith in her. He just hopes that if, and when, they see each other the next time, she has managed to keep her heart pure. Because what he sees in her, is nothing short of extraordinary.