Tomb Raider

"That bastard," Arun screamed as they landed in the western desert. Lupin fell away from her. "That no good, double-crossing, bastard!" She kicked at sand and rock, "He's made it twice as hard now! Twice as hard!"

"Arundel-"

"And now the ministry know don't they, they know about the werewolves and they know about me and the Americans and the trade. They know and they will go blundering in and they will get my sister killed!"

Arundel-"

"We have to attack them, we have to get my sister back, Sod the Artefacts!"

Lupin collapsed onto his side. Arundel's eyes widened and she ran to him. His leg was bleeding, a small round hole penetrated the front but the back was shot away. Lupin was going pale, he was shaking and his eyes were rolling into his head. Arun dived into her travel trunk and pulled out potions. She used the Vulnera Sanentur spell to stem the bleeding and mend the worst of the damage, alongside a blood replenishing potion and she dragged him into her shrunken case and sat him on the sofa. Lupin drifted in and out of consciousness. "Have you anything for the pain?" he gasped. She gave him ibuprofen and paracetamol; sometimes Muggle drugs did the trick.

She sat with him throughout the night, reading old books and silently fuming about being double-crossed. Lupin woke up in the early hours of the morning but Arun hadn't managed to get any sleep and when he turned onto his side she looked up at him. "Sorry, today was not…"

"Don't apologize, He didn't get the spike, the artefacts or the location of the werewolves. We most likely gained more than we lost."

"You nearly lost a leg."

"Muggle weapons hurt."

"Yep, yes they do." Arun closed her book and scratched the back of her head. Lupin watched her for a moment, then he tried to sit up.

"I haven't taken my wolfsbane."

"I know."

"I'm going to be useless in this fight."

"Maybe if you take today's and you might have some ability to direct your rage…"

"It's a risk."

Arun didn't answer him. She studied her nails as she thought about what to do. "How much do you think James Deacon told the Ministry?"

"He's like you right? A tomb robber?"

"Mercenary," Arundel corrected. "But yes. He wants the Oran Spike, but he's not inclined to work for Dark Wizards, I do believe that."

"You think he's got a plan?"

"I think he's offered the Ministry the Grants Artefacts in exchange for the Oran Spike, and he's banking on the ministry running the Americans out, but in the process he condemns my sister. He wasn't expecting me to turn up today with you. The quantity of Wolfsbane we stole will be enough proof to make the ministry aware that I have reinforcements."

"Do you know anybody who works for the Aruas here?"

"No."

"I do."

Arun tilted her head, "who?"

"Albus Dumbledore has a friend, Babajide Akingbade who is-"

"I don't want to involve Dumbledore."

Lupin scratched the back of his neck. Arun studied him with wide eyes, "Seriously Lupin?" she screeched.

"Without his orders there is no way in hell I would go anywhere near Fenrir Greyback." Lupin told her, he leaned in. "Arun listen to me," he took her by the shoulder and forced her round to face him. "If you want to win you have to trust us to help."

Arun stood up and backed away from him, "What is wrong with him?" she shouted.

Lupin threw his hands up, "He's a good man!"

"He is not a good man. He's a manipulative bastard who uses people like chess pieces. He wants me to be compromised, he wants to force me to pick a side. To alienate myself from the alys of the dark lord so I am forced to fight with him. Forced to turn against my friends. How DARE he."

"Your Sister!" Lupin shouted back. "Your sister is being held."

"I will get her back. I will. Not Dumbledore, not his friends, not his followers. Me."

Lupin hung his head. "If we convince Akingbade to back us we will have reinforcements should the exchange go wrong. It gives us options Arun."

She stood up. "I'm going for a walk." she got up and crawled out of the travel trunk, then she put it around her neck and stood breathing deep in the still desert air.

It was quiet in the desert, the stars winked and the air was ice cold. She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. She should have seen that one coming; Lupin was Dumbledore's loyal pet. In her rush to save her sister, in her blind desperation, she was getting sloppy. If her sister was removed from this bargain what would she do? There had to be a way, she just needed to be as ruthless as Dumbledore.

Hix and Lace stood outside the Temple of Khenti Amentiu surrounded by an army of american dark wizards and witches. Above the towering face of the temple entrance, the full moon shone like a desaturated sun. She could feel the protections shimmering in the air. The americans had created a killing field around the temple, a protective bubble that would deflect all spells and rappel all magical beings who were not already inside or invited. Every single wizard, in full ceremonial robes, looked in one direction. At her. As she stood bathed in the light of the moon and the fire, alone, and carrying the full sized travel trunk, dragging it across the ground until she stood in front of Hix and Lace. Surrounded. Outnumbered. Alone.

"Arundel Granville, you have given us quite the run around," Lace shouted across the gulf between them

"Where is my sister Mr Lace?"

"Where are the artifacts Miss Granville?"

"In this trunk."

Lace didn't seem convinced. Arun looked around but the other artifacts were not at the temple. Lace nodded to one of the guards who crossed to her. "Show me," he said.

Arun opened the case, showing him the eight compartments and she drew open each one, the sword, the horseshoe and the flag. The guard looked up at Lace and nodded.

"Now show me my sister, or I leave and I dare you to try and stop me Lace, how many of your men do you think I can take with me?"

Lace turned to Hix, "what an unpleasant woman," he sighed. "Bring her sister."

Hix motioned behind him, and from the temple depths Amber was frogmarched out, her hands were tied, there was a rope around her neck and she had been beaten badly but it was her. Ambers eyes connected with Arundel's what have you done? Her sister was devastated.

"Where is her wand Lace?"

"Her wand?" Lace looked at Hix. "Do we have that too?"

Arun's grip on the full size travel trunk tightened, "Returned to me without harm means with her wand intact."

"Move forward with the trunk, stand by the fire pit in the center of the walkway." Lace commanded, "Then drop the Trunk to the right and take three steps back."

"Will you do the same?"

"Yes, we'll do the same."

Arun started to walk forward, the woman with the dark eyes gave Hix Ambers wand and he also walked forward with her. Arun left the trunk on the right, Hix left Amber to the left. They regarded each other coldly for a moment and he straightened up and looked at her over the fire. "All this, for what?" he asked. "Help me understand Arun?"

"His power is not yours to take, Hix. You are not worthy."

Hix started to laugh, "You did this out of loyalty?"

"Out of necessity."

"Well, we've won now, and you have lost everything. Perhaps you are the one who is unworthy."

"Blood comes first."

"We've apprehended your werewolfs, by the way, found them trying to attack the northern quarter of the temple. And the ministry isn't coming to stop us. You've lost Arun,"

Arun turned away from him, her eyes glistening with tears. "I've got my sister back Hix," she muttered.

"Here," Hix passed Arun Ambers wand and then he picked up the case. "I would love to say it was a pleasure doing business with you but…" He nodded, picked up the travel trunk and dragged it away with him. Arun took Amber's hand and they started to walk back the way they came, but the dark wizards had closed ranks around them.

"Oh shit Arun," Amber muttered.

"Hold on to me," Arun tried to fly but she felt the weight of the protection spells stopping her, she could only fly a few feet from the ground and thirty dark wizard wands pointed in her direction. It would be moments before they used the killing curse, She shouted to Amber to cast a protective shield and she took a deep breath. The ground under her began to crack and shake, the air shimmered and Amber whimpered. Arun pointed her hands directly above her, a shock of blue light blasted from her and split open the protective spells then she launched herself into the sky again with Amber on her back.

They landed near the temple of the Snake Eyed King. Amber staggered and fell back against one of the sandstone pillars and she hung her head.

"Amber, you ok?"

"You should have left them to kill me, Arun," Amber spat. "They have everything now."

Arun sat back and studied her, "What did they do to you?"

"They tortured me. They wanted to know about you, about what you planned to do, about your relationship with me. About your relationship with the Death Eaters."

"Did you tell them?"

"Half truths and lies," she told Arun, "But they know about the Oran Spike, they know about the werewolfs. And now they have all seven artifacts, so they are unstoppable."

"Do they know how to make the artifacts work?"

"Yes. Seven people each hold an artifact whilst standing in a circle, when the seven artifacts are united they can use it to resurrect and control any number of things. To make it work, on the waning of the full moon the seven must each bleed onto their artifact to make it their own, then there is an incantation that all of them say together and they need an object from the person or people they wish to resurrect."

"What do they have that belonged to the Dark Lord?"

"A toenail clipping."

Amber pulled a face, "Somebody kept-"

"Yes."

"How does the Oran Spike work then. Do I have to kill all seven people and drive it through the artifacts one by one?"

"The Oran spike needs to be driven into the 'heart' of the thing it is destroying. But the Grants artifacts need to be destroyed at the same time."

Arun nodded.

"It's over now, isn't it?" Amber asked. "I mean everything, my job, my life, My professor betrayed me."

"I know."

"You know?"

"James Deacon wanted his book and map back."

"I warned you about him."

"Painting Amber did not warn me she said 'find him'."

"Yeah, find him and beat the information out of him, he's a slug."

Arun looked away, "it's not over."

"Did Hix say something about werewolves?"

"Yes."

Amber nodded and looked at the moon. "It's not over?"

"Come with me."

She walked into the temple of the Snake Eyed King where a mass of black vipers had congregated just in the doorway, Arun spoke to them and they moved apart to let her through. At the bottom of a statue of the pharaoh, Arun had placed Portrait Amber.

"You made me a shrine?"

"I made something better than that."

Portrait Amber smiled, turned and walked away and behind her a doorway formed. Together they rushed down the dark tunnel and came out into Arun's travel chest, where three werewolves passed. Amber pressed into Arun as three heads snapped in their direction and three sets of jowls drew back into snarls. They didn't attack though, and when one lunged, the other two darted in front of it and pushed it back.

"Wolfsbane," Arun told Amber. And she pointed to a painting that showed the world outside.

"We just need to…"

"You think they will put all the artifacts in the case because it's more convenient?"

"That's what I'm hoping."

Amber started to laugh, but when the wolf's snarled she stopped. "It better be quick."

They waited by the painting, watching as Hix paid off the Ministry and the mercenaries and then was paid himself by Lace and he departed. Amber drank a restorative potion. Arun meditated. All the dark wizards congregated and then disapperated to America. The trunk was placed on the floor in front of a colonial mansion. Then they watched the other Artifacts being brought towards the travel case, they felt it rock as the lid was opened and they counted until all of them were together, stored safely.

Lace gave a command to somebody, Amber lip read, "Put a guard on the trunk, put it in the armoury and prepare for the- blood- for the blood ritual."

"They are doing it tonight?"

"Maybe they don't need a waning moon?"

Arun looked across at the werewolfs, "Sooner or later they will attack us from sheer frustration, they are hardly keeping it together."

The trunk was taken into the house, they noted each twist and turn of it. Amber spoke quickly, "As soon as you drive the spike into the chest you will unlock the curse. You'll have to fight it, I will go with the werewolves and take on the americans. We just have to hold the Armory right? As soon as you are done we need to get out of there."

"With the wolves."

"How?" Amber looked across to them. The wolves were listening.

Arun looked too, then she picked up a blanket from the sofa and muttered "Portus," She looked at them all, "This will go in thirty minutes time."

"Is that long enough?"

"It better be."

The guards put the trunk down, then Arun watched them start to walk away, she looked at everybody. "Ready?" she asked.

The wolf's snarled. Amber nodded. Arundel pushed the lid open. The werewolf's shot up the stairs and burst out of the trunk, Amber followed but from that point on Arun stopped paying attention to them. Spike in hand she slammed the lid of the trunk and shrunk it, then with the spike she lifted it up and drove it as hard as she could into the lid. The spike made a deep clang which reverberated around the whole chamber, and then with a deathening crack, the trunk broke apart and a deep white mist flowed from it. The room filled with whispers, Arun stumbled and grabbed the spike again. The whispers turned to laughter and the laughter turned into the ghosts of the people she had killed. There were so many of them. More than she had expected, The security guard, the muggle girl, the messenger, and more and more who crowded her and whispered to and then they attacked. She parried curses and deflected cutting and stinging attacks, she was slashed in the arm and chest, she used Fire and Ice and water to try and dissipate them but they just kept coming, and then she used the spike, which drove them back but did not stop them. She conjured her patronus, hers was a huge snake, it reared up and striked at the ghosts over and over.

"Arun!" Amber screamed from some distant place. "We're running out of time!"

A hex shattered her arm and span her round. She landed on the floor by the trunk, spike still in hand, whilst her Patronus battled above her. Fire racked across her back, she deflected it but felt her skin bubble. In desperation she stabbed the trunk again, The Ghosts screamed, and the attack became ever more furious. Again and again and again she drove the spike into the chest, and on the seventh time as the spike drove down into the wood the air rushed from the chamber and Arun realised in horror that it was about to explode.

She looked at the portkey, Two of the wolf's and Amber were waiting, holding it looking at her in horror, a third wolf lay dead just outside the door. People were screaming in the corridor and she rushed and took a corner of the portkey too, but it was not going, it was not time. "Shields!" Arun screeched and she cast the best protective bubble around them that she could muster. The ground was shaking, the ceiling was cracking then everything went still.

Arun swallowed.

And everything turned golden white.