The Mystery Deepens

Climbing down the wall to the arena below proved to be the quickest route back. As she re-familiarized herself with the environment down in the main battle area, Lara walked back towards the large rock formations and found a large rock next to the far left wall which she could use to return to the large stone bleachers inside the amphitheatre. Not too far away was the first of the three corner rooms that Lara had yet to explore upon first entering the coliseum.

"There's got to be something that will lead me to the tomb." Lara said. "I wonder if Pierre managed to find another one of his secret passages."

As she approached the enclosed and dark corner room, Lara was suddenly surprised by a swarm of flying bats that had been disturbed by her seemingly subtle footsteps. Luckily, the flying mammals did not take the time to attack her and possibly spread any infectious diseases they might be carrying. Looking around the room, Lara was barely able to catch sight of a small doorway leading up a dark hall. She took out a flare and decided to have a look around. In the reddish glow, Lara stepped back after almost stepping into a dark pit that seemed to lead nowhere. She looked closer and saw that was not very deep, though still deep enough to accommodate Lara's height. A faint cracking sound was heard echoing at the top of the slanted hallway, but Lara did not think much of it. Then, out of nowhere a large piece of the ceiling fell and started rolling towards her very quickly. Realizing there was not enough time for her to run out of the hallway, Lara jumped into the pit and prayed that the large piece of rock would not fall on top of her. The second the boulder passed over her, she waited for her possible fate, but then another second passed and she heard a loud crash from above. She opened her eyes again and climbed out of the pit to observe the damage.

"Another close encounter with possible death…" Lara said. "Everywhere I go, it seems like there's always someone or something out to get me. I wonder what other surprises this place has to offer."

With her flare still in hand, Lara jumped across the pit to reach the higher ledge across the way and walked up a small ways before turning left into a small room that seemed to have no significant features inside, other than a somewhat Romanesque building style that seemed to turn up alongside much of the Greek architecture Lara had seen so far. The only other connecting passage was on the far side of the room, but it did not lead to anywhere new. Rather, it lead back into the dimly lit corner of the coliseum.

"Well that was disappointing." she said. Before she decided to jump back down and check the next corner room of the amphitheatre, she turned back into the empty room and began to think.

Perhaps much of what I've seen was Roman architecture coupled with the older Greek architecture. Lara thought. Maybe this coliseum was built around the turning point between the reigns of the two civilizations. The more Lara thought about it, the more the mystery deepened. It seemed to make sense. Obviously the statues of Athena inside the arena were Greek, but the concept of a coliseum was predominantly Roman, Lara knew. What if this place was the result of a collaboration of the two civilizations? she thought. But why would certain people of these opposing cultures come together in such tight quarters? It doesn't seem to make any sense.

Lara continued going through this intense thought process as she climbed back down and started walking along the stone bleachers and past the coliseum entrance to the corner area on the opposite side. Like the first room, it was dimly lit. There were only a couple of bats for her to disturb, but once again they did not seem to recognize Lara's presence. Looking straight ahead she could see another small hallway that lead straight into a taller room where a small amount of sunlight managed to shine through the ceiling. There were a few tall and skinny Doric-style columns of varying height, obviously Greek, with huge platform sections resting on top of them. The walls of the room, strangely enough, were Romanesque.

How interesting. Lara thought. I wonder what this room used to be at one point in time. I don't see any other doorways or passages…Hmm…

Lara searched the room, but there was nothing useful inside. After admiring the architecture for just a few more moments, she exited the room and re-emerged into the coliseum and continued along the ruined stone bleachers to the third corner area located to the left of the grand spectator's balcony. With her flare still in hand, Lara illuminated the dark room and spotted a small doorway located high above the floor. She jumped up and pulled herself in and ended up inside an extremely tiny room that had a small pool of water inside. It was surprisingly deep and from what Lara could tell from the reddish glow of her flare, there was an underwater tunnel that seemed to lead somewhere else.

"Looks like I'm going to have to get wet again." she said. She took a deep gulp of oxygen and then dove into the cold water before swimming down the underwater passage. But the huge dose of air seemed unnecessary as Lara surprised herself by emerging into another small room.

"That was fast." she said out loud. With her flare almost out of light, Lara started searching the area and was surprised that find a passage that lead into another small room. On the ground was a skeleton, though he was not a warrior of any kind as far as she could tell. In an instant, she suddenly caught a glimpse of something that seemed to stand out in the red light next to the carcass' bony right hand. Upon closer examination, Lara saw that it was an old rusted key.

"Is this the key that opens that gate inside the spectator's balcony?" she asked herself as she tried to remember what the keyhole next to the gate looked. As far as she could remember, the size of the key and the size of the hole were very much the same. But if she wanted to know for sure, she would have to retrace her steps again. Putting the key in her backpack, Lara reluctantly dove back into the water and swam her way back into the previous room and dropped back down into the coliseum.

After dropping back down into the arena, navigating the underground passages and the spike pit, climbing back up on top of the rocks, and climbing along walls, Lara pulled herself back up into the spectator's balcony and walked past the old furniture before reaching the gate. She reached for the key in her backpack and brought it next to the keyhole before she tried to insert it. Just as she suspected, the key and the slot matched.

So far so good.

Once that was taken care of, Lara went to insert the key into the slot. Amazingly, as if her exemplary karma was everlasting, the key fit perfectly into the slot. She held her breath as she turned it, hoping that the gate would open and lead her to new and unexplored areas.

CLICK.

The gate swung open and Lara's excitement started to kick in once again.

"Now to see where this will take me..." she said, dropping down into the cold water below where a small current started dragging her along down a dark watery passage…

Meanwhile, a world away from the ancient Greco-Roman ruins, Natla was sitting inside her large luxurious office with Larson in her Los Angeles headquarters. It was still very early in the morning, and they had both just returned from Peru where Natla found herself on a wild goose chase to recover Larson from the caves leading to the now destroyed Tomb of Qualopec. She did not have to walk very far before she spotted Larson trying to find his own way out of the caves, trudging along inside the main entryway with blood running down his arm. It was obvious to Natla that it was Lara's doing and she was not surprised to find that her office had been robbed of the things that pointed to the second piece of the Scion. She knew that Lara was trying to beat Pierre to it, but that did not stop her from taking further measures to ensure that all three pieces of the artefact would end up in her possession.

"One more stitch, Larson." Natla said as she continued fixing his already infected wound. "There, that should do it. Lara sure did a number on you. I still don't still see how you could let her get away with the first piece. You were too close!"

"She's more powerful than you think, boss!" Larson replied. "If I were you, I wouldn't try to mess with her anymore. She's already shown to be very dangerous to your operation. To be perfectly honest, I don't see why you allowed her to be part of your search effort. I think you should've let me handle the entire search effort in Peru."

Natla glared at him. "One more statement like that and I'll reopen your wound and have you fired immediately!"

"Sorry, ma'am."

Natla got up from her chair and looked out towards the L.A. skyline. Then, she turned toward Larson almost suddenly when started speaking again.

"Yes, Lara may have the first part of the Scion and butting heads with Pierre to retrieve the second piece. However, I have an interesting surprise for Lara that will ensure that the Scion gets into our hands."

"Might I ask what it is?" Larson inquired.

"I've hired two other men to hunt down and kill Lara Croft." Natla said. "Their names are Colonel Arthur Hamilton Graves and Willard Stirling. I've already given them the coordinates for St. Francis' Folly and they are on their way as we speak."

"What makes you so sure that they'll be able to take her down?" Larson asked.

"Well, for one there's two of them." Natla said. "Not only that, but they have years of military experience behind them, so they're very well-trained in combat. There's no way that Lara can get past them."

"Well, hopefully they find her." Larson said.

Well, I am happy to say that the Coliseum level is finally finished and Lara is finally making her way into the next area! I hope it was worth the wait, because I can't to work on the next level!

The conversation between Natla and Larson at the end of the chapter is something that I just recently thought of. While still reminiscing over the events in Peru, Natla mentions that she has a surprise for Lara in Greece. Apparently she has taken the taken the time to hire two more people to hunt down and kill Lara in order to get to the piece of the Scion she already has. Believe it or not, Colonel Arthur Hamilton Graves and Willard Stirling (not to be confused with Dr. Willard from Tomb Raider 3) aren't characters that I randomly generated. I did a little research and came across an article that talked about and showed some of the proposed plots during the development of the game's story. Apparently, these characters were the original proposed villains of Tomb Raider, but were later replaced by Natla in the finalized version. There's even a youTube video showing a deleted cut scene from this original story line that proves it. As a result of my own reconnaissance, I was inspired to implement this into the story. I plan on having a scene after the Tomb of Tihocan that involves a confrontation between Lara and these two characters. Let me know what you think! In the meantime, I will start working on Palace Midas. See you in the next update :)

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