Hi everyone,

Here is a TR AOD sequel on which I've been working for a while now.

This is my first 'Big' fanfic about Lara Croft, with a real plot. As lots of fans, I felt really frustrated (and I still do, haha) for not knowing what happened after AOD... I really, really like the story of this TR with its gloomy atmosphere and I just love the development of the characters. I've made lots of research so that I could imagine what the continuation of AOD could be... So I'm giving it a try with this story of mine :)

One thing before you start reading : I helped myself with Murti Schofield's official TRAOD notes to write this story, I used lots of information from them to know what direction I could give to this sequel, BUT I chose to consider Lara and Kurtis DON'T KNOW about the Nephilim cradle in Turkey. I prefered considering that's what they're looking for throughout the story, as a final destination and final fight. I deliberately decided to put some of TRAOD elements and clues about Turkey aside, as they were not really exploited anyway.

I'm not a native English speaker, I really, really want to thank Tales From A Fallen Star from the very bottom of my heart, who kindly offered me her help and corrected all the mistakes in my text to make a better version of it :)

(I do not own anything from Lara Croft, the Tomb Raider series nor the Angel of Darkness, the only thing I own is some of the characters, who I imagined as for my own imagination )


BEYOND THE DARKNESS

KRIEGLER CASTLE, GERMANY - 1945

The butler's gaze gets lost in the dancing flames of the imposing fireplace. He's sitting comfortably in a large armchair in a spacious bedroom. He takes a look at a photograph hanging above a small desk, just one of the many ornaments in the room. He remembers that day when he had gone fishing with his son and smiles gently.

Far outside, he suddenly hears a muffled noise, like a rumbling sound resonating in the bowels of the earth. It's a quiet night tonight, and he knows that the noise isn't coming from within the castle.

Quickly he stands up and goes to the large window. With his fingertips, he pushes back the velvet curtain, bending slightly to try and see outside. He can't see anything through the dark night except for the immense black pine forest stretching to the foot of the castle.

The butler hears someone knocking at the door.

Surprised, he slowly turns around and heads carefully to the door. The handle emits a squeaking sound when he pushes it. The door opens slowly, and the butler finds himself facing Sir Kriegler. His gaze is serious, he seems alert.

"What is going on, Sir?", the man asks, an uncomfortable feeling creeping over him.

"Someone betrayed us."

The butler frowns with incomprehension.

"We need to go down to the crypt to make sure he's not getting out of there."

The answer feels like a sharp blade, turning the butler's face pallid. He can read the fear and anguish in his master's eyes.

Sir Kriegler turns round and starts walking down the long corridor plunged into darkness. The butler rushes after him, trying to catch up. He can feel the anxiety in his master's footsteps. The rumbling sound gets louder above their heads as a heavy cloud is coming their way.

"What happened Sir? What's going on?"

They keep walking fast for a long while before his master dares to respond. They enter the staircase that leads to the basement.

"We've been betrayed, Gerhardt. And we are under attack now. They want him."

The man's blood freezes in his veins.

"It's only a matter of time before he escapes."

The heavy gate blocking the access to the dungeons is now open. They go down into the darkness, guided by the few torches hanging on the walls. The butler realises that it has been an eternity since he went down here. Moisture fills the air and he feels the floor slipping beneath his feet. They finally reach a small cavity, at the bottom of which is an enormous bronze door with complex mechanisms. For a moment, the butler feels like he is locked in a bunker.

Lady Kriegler is already there, working on the door mechanism. A terrifying sound comes from behind the gate.

"Eva…"

The woman gasps in surprise and runs into her husband's arms. They hold each other close, trying to comfort each other. She grabs him by the arm, looking at him with an imploring gaze.

"Where's Jordan, Almarich?"

Sir Kriegler takes his wife's face into his hands and shakes his head in sadness. She breaks into tears.

"How could he...?", she articulated between two sobs.

"We need to stop him", Almarich replied firmly, holding back his own tears.

Suddenly, an explosion sounds above their heads. The walls begin to crumble.

"They are bombarding us, we've got to hurry!"

Sir Kriegler lets go of his wife and turns back to the gate. They hear a new series of explosions and the walls around them crackle loudly this time. An awful cracking noise alarms them that some of the walls must have fallen down somewhere in the distance.

"Did you manage to open it?"

The lady shakes her head, wiping her tears away. The count turns to give a nod to the butler.

"Come and help me."

The butler approaches the door and Sir Kriegler turns one of the latches. They hear an audible clicking sound. With mirrored movements, the two men grab the handle and pull the heavy door open.

It is terribly hot inside. The room is huge but incredibly empty. In its center stands a man, half sleepy, or maybe half dead, held by heavy chains around his neck, wrists and ankles. The rust has rubbed off on parts of his body and his skin is very pale, almost translucent. Around him are, arranged in a circle, three blocks of stone inlaid with daggers. They seem to emit a kind of pentacle of a protective energy barrier, but it seems strangely deconstructed, as if fissured and torn apart in some areas.

When he looks closer, Kriegler realises with horror that one of the daggers is missing, while the two others, although planted in their respective bases, vibrate dangerously, as if they are about to explode. The monster raises one hand, which is covered in a thick glove.

"The glove…", whispers the butler.

In a corner of the room, they suddenly notice the body of a young man, slumped against the wall. Blood streaks run across the walls, probably from the body, which has been almost cut in half. His entrails have been spilled on the floor, his face frozen in a scream of terror. He's clutching the missing shard in one of his hands. Kriegler feels his heart break into two.

"Jordan!", the young lady yells, throwing herself forward.

Her husband stops her with an arm. The man in the center of the room, his hands full of blood, suddenly wakes up. He shakes the iron chains that are holding him back. Slowly raising his head, he looks at the three people who have just entered, staring at each of them. An unhealthy smile appears on his face. The muffled and repetitive sound of the bombs continues to resonate above their heads.

"Your son served me well. Thank him for me."

The countess frees herself from her husband's grip, pushes him aside and runs to the dagger that is lying in one of the corpse's hands. She straightens up and throws herself towards the monster. She screams even louder as she almost reaches the unmoving creature.

When the countess lowers the weapon, a powerful light invades the room. The creature grunts and its whole body seems to protect itself with a kind of overpowering magnetic field. The monster raises his hand and a jet of energy suddenly shoots across the cell in the lady's direction. It hits her right in the chest, and she collapses as she's thrown backwards.

The monster laughs.

"You stupid mortals."

Kriegler and the butler step back in shock. The protection pentacle is growing weaker as the creature seems to consume the energy emanating from it.

One of the chains breaks and falls to the ground. The three blocks of rock holding the daggers suddenly explode.

The butler and the count have just enough time to duck and avoid the dagger flying towards them, which then gets stuck in the wall behind them instead. As they stand up, Sir Kriegler rushes to retrieve the shard that has fallen next to his wife's lifeless body.

"Take the other shard!", he yells to his butler.

The man pulls his arm off the wall, covering his face with a hand to protect himself from the light shining brightly from the creature. They hear it growl once more. Kriegler runs to the butler and pushes him outside the cell. They run down the tunnel, trying to get back up to the castle. When they finally reach the access gate to the basement, Sir Kriegler stops them.

"Sir…"

The count is breathing with difficulty. He takes the shard he has picked up and puts it into the butler's hands, forcing him to take it. With his hand he points to the tunnel on their left.

"Just go, Gerhardt. Save your life and your beloved ones. I know your son started his training already…"

Another missile explodes somewhere in the courtyard. A loud grumble is coming from the depth of the basement and echoes through the icy stones of the old walls. A wave of dust falls from the ceiling, blurring the two men's view. Sir Kriegler steadies himself on the wall, panting.

"...thus we need to make sure he receives all the tools and all the information he needs to end this war, whatever the price. Konstantin is our only hope now."

The butler sees the shadow of sadness in his master's eyes. Sir Kriegler grips one of his shoulders, pressing it gently.

"We'll see each other soon, my dear friend."

Gerhardt puts the precious object in the inside pocket of his coat.

"Now, go Gerhardt, go! Before it's too late!", Sir Kriegler yelled over another plane's motor vibration above their heads.

Another explosion, much bigger this time, tears up some of the walls. Stones start falling from the ceiling again and block the tunnel. One of them falls on Gerhardt's arm, but he finally manages to step away. He can't see Sir Kriegler anymore. The butler stands up, gripping his hurt arm, and starts to run. His shape slowly disappears in the weak light emanating from the fires of all the bombings in the castle.

He can now clearly hear the planes flying over the domain. Through the darkness, he tries to retrace all the moves and all the footsteps they had made years before, when Sir Kriegler had shown him the way through this secret tunnel.

Some meters away from him, he finally sees the end of the suffocating tunnel. He runs even faster, the ground trembling beneath his footsteps. Again, he can hear the growling scream of a monster coming out from the dark corners of the castle. As he reaches the end of the corridor, he finds himself blocked by a metal gate. He pushes away the greenage and all the branches to get access to the door lock system. Fortunately for him, it is completely rusty, and it only takes him a few seconds to break it open.

He emerges from the depths of the castle in the open, but ice-cold air. His footsteps echo into the snow. After more than a mile wandering into the forest, he finally stops by a little hill to catch his breath.

He takes a look down at the objects held tightly against his chest.

The shards' handles were made of ivory and their silver blades, as dark as the night, are shining brightly in the flames that come from the castle's burning ruins behind him.

Looking one last time over his shoulder, the butler holds back a cry of pain and finally disappears in the depths of the dark forest without ever turning back.

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - TODAY

Her footsteps echoed on the old tiles. She walked down the long and cold corridor, watching her steps and looking around constantly. On her way, she looked hard at every nurse that was passing her by, one hand on the gun hanging in the holster stuck to her thigh. She knew she was not exactly safe in here, or would be only for a few days.

Through the faded window glass, she could feel the warmth of the early morning light. The building was not really modern: she couldn't have imagined this was one of the most important East European cities' hospitals here. Walls were full of mould, the wall paint was clearly flaky. Lots of medical materials were abandoned in the corridors, such as old stretchers. For one second, the young woman thought she had entered a post-war hospital. After walking down another corridor, she finally reached room 316, the one the woman from the reception desk had told her. She stopped in front of the door. She took her time observing the room: it was small, almost void of any furniture. There was only one bed, right in the middle of the room, on which was laying a young man.

She was holding her breath. Her heart felt weak when she saw all the cables, the catheter and medical tubes that went into his body. His chest, full of bruises, was slowly moving. Some parts of his face were puffy, and he had a huge cut on one of his cheeks. His abdomen was wrapped with a thick bandage.

Gosh...

A young woman dressed in a light pink coat suddenly appeared. The nurse walked into the room and past the other woman in the room. She stepped to the bed and started manipulating some of the drips. After a stressful moment, Lara realised the nurse was only there for a medical check up. The nurse picked up some stuff and rearranged the pillow on which the man was laying. She turned to Lara, talking in a language she couldn't understand. They watched each other for a second, and when the nurse understood the other woman wouldn't respond, she just walked away with a doubtful look.

Once she was gone, the young woman sat down on the old sofa that was left in one of the room's corners next to the bed. She wrapped herself into her thick coat and tried to get as comfortable as possible on the worn-out leather. Her head resting on her hand, she just let her gaze trace the still body laying next to her. She took his cold hand into hers. She suddenly felt sad and terrorised at the thought of him not surviving. For a second, she thought she might have to keep going by herself, leading this fight alone. If she had to go on her own into the darkness, she knew she wouldn't have the strength to resist it.

I don't want to lose you into this darkness

She took something out of one of her jacket pockets. It was a small disk made of golden metal. It was surprisingly light, and as cold as ice. She observed it for a long while, trying to remember how to make it work. It had attacked her in the Louvre, but it had helped her find her way out of the Strahov. Once she had found the exit, it just stopped working and fell onto the floor. Slowly, she put it onto the bedside table, right next to the young man.

She rubbed her tired face. Her eyes were burning and she had the impression her head was about to explode. She hadn't slept for days now. A sigh of despair escaped her. She pushed herself back onto the sofa and after several long minutes, she finally fell asleep.

Agitation filled the air. She woke up at the sound of voices in the corridor, followed by several stretcher wheels that echoed into the small room. She also heard a man cry in pain somewhere. Nurses were talking loudly. She got up from the sofa and massaged her neck, it was hurting like hell.

Then she realised the bed beside her was empty. The man had disappeared, and so had all the medical equipment in the room. The nurse from the day before appeared again. The visitor looked up at her.

"Where is he?", she asked in surprise.

The nurse responded in her own language once again. The young woman stood up.

"Has he been transferred to another station? What happened? How long have I been sleeping?"

The young nurse shook her head in disbelief. The woman understood she had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"He's gone, isn't he?"

The nurse looked sorry for her. The young woman looked down at the empty bed. There was absolutely nothing left, as if he had never been there. The metal disk on the bedside table was not there anymore either.

Prague slowly appeared in the early morning thick fog. The woman's gaze got lost in the deep grey skies. She took a deep breath. The air was cool, but did not bring any kind of comfort to her. She walked down the steps of the hospital main entrance and stepped onto the Vltava quays. Little by little, she disappeared into the morning mist, just like an angel. An angel of darkness.