Lara had awakened in soft warm sheets in a bed, but not anyplace like her and Sam's hotel room.
"SAM!?" she suddenly realized as they both get knocked out by the pale figure from the strange underground cavern. Her head felt like it had the worst hangover since being at the 3 Bells pub.
It was not a good thing ether way as she suddenly found that someone had already dressed her.
Looking in the mirror, she saw a white mid century looking dress with swans and fairy designs altering through it. Her hands had on long green gloves, her hair done up into a more old fashioned pony.
Her lips had the taste of red peppermint favored lipstick, with her the sides of her eyes filled in sprinkled eye shadow.
This was even confusing then what she had experienced within the subway tunnels.
Suddenly a figure dressed up as a butler but still wearing a gas mask, bowed before her
"Madame, dinner is served"
Going down the stone staircase, she spotted many odd details of her new surroundings.
For one thing the numerous stone lions looking straight at her, with there jeweled crusted them black marble gargoyles with sharp wings and claws. None of this don't seemed to give the feeling of a warm welcoming place at all.
She couldn't shake the fact ether as to how the solders even found both her and the mysterious Sam so quickly.
There wasn't anything about Sam that she don't trust yet and fore all she know, was working of with these strange solders.
Then again she had a good idea as who these solders basically served as well...
Entering the dinning hall seemed to give off a warm if not once again a friendly vibe...
Such as the spiked ball chandeliers above her or the nasty looking black spider legged dinner plates across the white marble table. Lara still don't quite understand as where she was. And the dining room seemed to be filled with some even more odd scary details.
Such as each panting around it was featuring various people in armor get implied or in others a skull faced knight screaming silently in pain.
"I happen to like that one..."
She turned to see a strange figure standing across from her as well as...
"SAM!" Lara yelled as the figure stood grabbed her hand and began laughing
"AHAHAHAH, That is not how you treat a welcoming host, wouldn't you say so...Moor?" questioned the figure as they seeming neared Lara
The gas mask butler answered "Of course...sir simply not right"
Out of the shadows of the candle light emerged a figure...
Wearing the same type of gas masks as the others, Lara saw. This figure was way more elegant and yet unhinged in terms of looks. With them just wearing a red 17th century coat and poured wig. She noticed there right arm wear a black knight's gauntlet that don't seem to fit the rest of the general look...
Lara noticed the voice of this strange figure sounded oddly feminine in tone as well as...almost familiar
She saw that Sam was dressed up in a more medieval style red laced dress with a flower cap.
Lara also noticed that the pale woman was sitting lazily, doing her nails with a sharp dinner knife.
The "host" beckoned her to the nearby table as guards emerged to forced Sam to sit as well.
"Where the hell am i?" Lara questioned blankly to them as the host simply laughed eerily
"Ohhhh that's what i like about you Lara...getting to the point, but where are my manners.
I welcome you to the most terrifying castle in all of Hamburg...Castle Kriegler!"
Now it was Lara's turn to laugh "AHAHAHA that's insane, the castle doesn't exist..."
"Basically YES, but then again Doctor Croft, you should try reading more into your're German ghost stories.." The host sounded more arrogant then she ever did. As Sam give a odd look on her face still not having a clue as what was going on.
Lara looked across the table at Sam as she spoke up again "Castle Kriegler was said to be build by a deserter of the later Crusades, the man was said to need "companionship".
Yet everyone around him kept dying, and in the moment of his sorrow decided to build himself a castle...
Where he would "keep" here with him, first by creating full Automatons to fill it with merriment..."
The sinister host laughed abit "Your're forget the best part of the castle!.."
"Oh you mean the death traps, he build into every inch of the castle and which he ended up being the first one to get kill by them!" Lara intoned toward the host as they come closer to her.
"Such a smart woman much like her mother!.." they whispered in her ear "How the hell do you know my mother?"
The figure seemed silent for a moment before touching Lara's face. As if they were touching a work of art but the strange feeling come over her like it was a familiar gesture and felt like only one person had ever done that before.
"Wouldn't you like to know" as the figure take out the golden blade of Excalibur into Lara's dinner plate
The figure wiped there hands as both Lara and Sam give these people dumbfounded looks...
"You see, the Mad Crusader was said to have hidden within this caste a great treasure..."
Then Lara begin to realize what the aim of these solders and what they truly wanted "Am NOT getting Trinity the ultimate power of King Arthur"
Everyone around Lara laughed through there gas masks including the host "TRINITY!?, these foolish pack of idiots who want to change the world.
Ohhhh no am not with them. There aim is...small.
Mine is much bigger more focused. The power of Arthur is one way of doing of just that..."
"And you think am just going to hand over the rest of the sword to YOU!?" Lara spoke up more mad then ever to her "host"
"Ohhhh your're have no choice in the matter, with that power i going to start reshaping the world.
Much like when the king reshaped the whole of England, it will be a beautiful sight..."
What the host said was very upsetting to Sam as she now spoke up "You and your're insane army were never supposed to rule the world, much less Avalon.."
"...And your're a BORING NUN who wasn't supposed to leave her place within it. Its going to such a joy to finally make everyone you ever love suffer because you don't do your job!" they intone toward Sam as she suddenly know what they meant
"GO TO HELL MORDRED!"
Lara lit up with even more confusion as the figure now known as "Mordred" suddenly laughed in a more sinister tone toward Sam. While everyone was looking toward her...whatever "partner", she eyed the blade on the table
"AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
that's Sir Mordred to you witch, i will now allow Doctor Croft to see how well you can talk when i broke every single bone in your're body.."
Before the host could move there hands toward Sam, Lara suddenly moved over to her side of the table..
"Why don't you just fucking shut up for once!"
As she held the golden blade and stab it into the nearest one of Mordred's solders
Grabbing Sam, Lara run into what was basically the entry hallway of Castle Kriegler. As both of them avoid the machine gunfire that rung out from the dinning area. One of the solders give chase after her and as the girls near a strange looking carpet...
The solder fell into a bed of spikes across a spinning tile within the hallway
"Oh...ummm i don't think this through.."
Sam faced Lara with a look of anger on her face "Ohhh DON'T THINK THIS THROUGH?, your're fucking kidding me here. I had everything under control until YOU decided to stab somebody..."
"Listen SWEETIE, i don't think your're realize but WE'RE IN A DEATH CASTLE!"
She turned to see that whole parts of the floor begin spinning but only ones featuring a red tile. The carpet was non moving blue tile, somehow she and Sam had to think like the Mad Crusader in getting past his traps.
First thing was stepping on the non moving areas which was difficult given that the red tiles moved at random times.
Lara was figuring out the pattern as she quickly moved around the entry hall while Sam seemed to have also figured out, somehow more faster then her.
Still angry though but not talking, both women were trying get out of this alive...
As both finally stepped on the strange carpet
The moment they did so seemed to triggered something as suddenly the red tiles spin into solid blues deactivating them...
And opening a door in the huge fireplace nearest to them...
Lara smiled toward Sam but she wasn't amused one bit by her
Entering into the fireplace proved that there safe passages to through within this one twisted man's idea of a castle.
Walking past strange almost human looking Automatons acting out various medieval customs or dancing among themselves completely oblivious to viewers like Lara.
To say this castle was weird was understatement and like a theme park attraction gone horribly wrong, she noticed things like a tall male skeleton impaled by the non working Automaton King whose was supposed to be "knighting" him...
Or the fact that both Lara and Sam's dresses come from a huge scene of noble women dancing and non singing in a festival
Then coming across a eerie scene to Lara within these various displays.
The figures of knights all gathering around a sleeping figure covered in a black cloth. Sam seemed to be kneeling as she did before in the underground area, as Lara looked more closely at the details of these Automatons...
They seemed more detailed then the simple wooden ones they passed on the way
She noticed they were wearing what like actual armor on the robotic forms, several of them spotted what looked to be actual human hair within the helmets...
And they were all female with the sounds of there rusty parts.
Sam was kneeling and once again speaking in old Welsh to them like old friends as it were.
Lara still don't who Sam was since just saying "yes" to this whole thing. But she was the only strong but strange link toward finding what happened to her mother. It was becoming apparent that the Japanese video game heiress had somehow been allowed to stay on the mythical isle of Avalon.
That she had somehow forget the trauma of being the only survivor of the Archaeology group and had "gone native" as it were.
Lara can't imagine herself ever being like that, yet in the back of her mind she could.
She still had the sad fact that her own uncle hated her very guts for just about everything. Even if proving that her mother was somehow still alive wouldn't do make things easier.
But that was nothing compared to the fact that like her other discoveries that there truly was at one time, a real King Arthur...
...And Sam was worshiping him?
Merlin had build a secret city underneath the busy streets of Berlin!?
There was also some lunatic in a gas mask going around calling himself "Mordred"!?
Yeah none of this sounded completely utterly insane at all
Going up to the black cloth figure itself, Lara had noticed a inscription in German
Let those who are brave in spirit, touch the lips of the Once and Future...
The rest of the words were fated and hard to make out whatever it was felt around the statue for any other clues that would lead to the other piece of the sword.
Then lifting the veil of it, she saw a outline near the face of the figure. Pulling out the blade, she pushed it right into it.
Suddenly the statue slide aside to a open passage below. Sam was smiling as expressed happiness in her voice
"This is it, the path leading to the Lost Dominion!"
Lara had begin to rip off the helm of the dress, that she wore for the sake of not overheating. Given the fact that it seemed there was a sudden change in temperate, yet it don't seem to even bother Sam one bit.
Personally she felt a bit stupid for even kissing this woman in the first place like some insanely dumb teenager.
Still it felt like the same warm feeling she had with Amanda a long time ago...but why was she even thinking about her again?
She usually separate her lesbian feelings to herself and not when "work" happened. She never get ashamed of eyeing women in every possible way, but then again not every woman looked back. Lara was someone who also "scared" a number of those same women without meaning too.
Amanda seemed to the only one who match her in terms of being at least a long time ago, being "Miss Right" to the then young school girl. But that school girl had still dead a long time ago as well. Along with Amanda and her mother!
Lara had to surpass any feelings she had because there was no way in hell,
people like Sam could be an replacement to Amanda Evert within her own guilt ridden heart.
"You seem to know where we're going" Lara said straight forwardly to Sam
Taking out a small piece of paper, Sam looked down and pointed her finger to the right side of the new dark hallway "The sword is this way"
Lara smirked a bit at her "Thanks for that little insight Sister..."
Suddenly Sam had an annoyed look on her face "ME being a nun has nothing to do with you or what happen!.."
"Ohhhh i am sorry if you think that kiss back in Berlin was basically a MISTAKE.."
"Well maybe it was MS CROFT, because you know back there i had EVERYTHING under control with Mordred!..."
Lara laughed a bit "Oh yes, he was ready to kill you if i hadn't step in and now i don't feel like trusting you now.."
Now it was Sam who was laughing mockingly at Lara "AHAHA, i don't trust ether your're know given that infamous reparation you have among explorers and there fans"
"Please if i were to listen to half of them, i wouldn't be in this job in the first place and.."
Suddenly the ground beneath them give way
Waking up several hours later
Both Lara and Sam had some very rough headaches among other parts of there bodies.
"DAMN IT!, what was with this crazed moron and his love of traps?" Lara said rather angrily as Sam lit up a nearby torch
Sam suddenly take interest in a elegant medieval fresco style painting on one side of the chamber, they had fallen in. A scene of numerous vessels heading toward a island with a gigantic pyramid in the center.
"What kind of city is this?" Sam questioned as Lara bitterly laughed
"That is the lost city of Atlantis.."
"Are you sure?"
Lara couldn't forget that city if she tried as she answered Sam again "Am pretty sure"
As they both walked carefully through the darkness of the area known as the Lost Dominion. This place was looked far older then the castle above them, possibly the real reason as why someone like him would even put up traps. She noticed that Sam was still pretty mad at her and for good reason.
But she need not focus on that now as she saw as she saw a whole room filled to the brim with gold and jewels
And in another inaccessible area a entire library filled with old books scattered along with scrolls
In another area, a room filled with statues including Egyptian, Japanese, Native American,Chinese,Polynesian and as yet unknown type with black eyes
This must have been a storehouse of for someone well before that of a German nobleman. And yet it seemed by the looks of it, he never touched nether was interested in what lay around here.
This place was an Archaeologist's dream come true for Lara Croft and yet Sam much like the city beneath the subway know about it!?
She noticed among the main hallway walls paintings showing off
The Temple of Xian
The lost city of Tinnos
The Bankhang Monastery
The Kingdom of the Golden Mask
The Temple of the Cat
And finally...
"AVALON!?" Lara shouted as Sam just smiled warmly as both looked at the huge painting. Sam guided Lara toward a nearby doorway
"That isn't the only surprise here.."
As Lara with her gloved hand swapped the dust off to see a name under it...
Here be the final resting place of the brave knight of Camelot
Sir Gard Croft
Her mother always spoke of a knight somewhere within the Croft family tree. Not that she know much about him or the stories surrounding this relation, just that he disappeared sometime after the Crusades ended.
The official story being that he had dead somewhere around Cairo
But now it seemed that wasn't the case at all, as Lara touched lightly on the CROFT stone at the side of the door
Much like the room before them in Berlin, this one too was well lit. But different since she noticed Sir Gard's tomb in the middle of it.
Beautifully designed in marble that shouldn't have been possible given what was happening around Germany at the time. She never figured he was also somehow a very late "Knight of the Round Table" and yet she was standing within his tomb.
"I had no idea why you even brought me here.."
Sam give a serious look to her as they walked past the tomb to see something even more amazing
A giant stone sit in the middle of the room, inside lay the golden halt of Excalibur
"I needed someone "heroic" to pull that out" she said in a straight forward manner to Croft
She laughed nervously a bit toward Sam "And what if it doesn't think am worthy?"
Sam lowered her head as she answered "You DON'T want to found out what happens if you piss off Excalibur, believe me.."
"Well then that's...basically terrifying, no pressure then!"
She cranked her fingers as she slowly walked toward the stone
Leading right hand into the tip of the handle was stunning to say the least. It felt like a bolt of energy was going through her body as she hold tightly around with other hand and saw a million different images going through her head.
All of them confusing to make out as to what was happening to her
Trying to surpass that, she finally pull out the broken halt of the most powerful sword in all the world
Sweat pouring down her face as she lift it above her head. Laughing with glee as Sam run to hug her
"My god Lara that was totally cool...Now with Merlin's key the two halves become ONE!.."
Suddenly Lara give Sam a confused look as she said "THE KEY!?, i thought you had it!"
"I have Merlin's Key ladies, come and get it!"
Both them turn to see that Mordred and there mysterious companion had been watching them from the doorway. With the snap of Mordred's fingers, the eerie gas masked solders were seen crawling among the walls of the Lost Dominion.
Mordred walked toward the tomb of Sir Croft
"At last, the Lost Dominion the storehouse for the knights who raided the forbidden and forgotten tombs of old...much like you my dear"
Lara was again tightening up in front of this strange but oddly familiar "host" of hers "My great ancestor must known how dangerous it was if you get ahold of this bloody damn sword.."
"HE WAS NOTHING MORE THEN A FOOL, denying me my birth right. You Lara don't have to be one ether.
Stand beside me as i will grant you the power of the gods themselves"
She was eyeing right into the mask as Mordred begin to laugh "Your're NOT god.."
"Well then, am going to personally see to your're path to damnation then!"
Lara just smiled as she just answered "You first.."
Unleashing the golden blade against Mordred's head, only to be blocked by the menacing steel gauntlet. Just as Sam used her magic to flung one of the solders off the walls. Until the pale woman forced herself into Sam's back hitting one of the back walls.
Lara had during the near struggle with Mordred, get the blade kick out of her hand. Forcing to just punching out the figure out
As she run toward where the blade had fallen...
Only to be overtaken by a nearby solder. Kicking him out with enough force to sent him into the depths of the mysterious Dominion
Lara grab a hold of one of the rifles, starting to take aim at the various solders whose movements wouldn't human at all. Firing shot after shot against the endless wave of creatures or whatever these were.
"Miss me.." Mordred said mockingly as the sinister figure near her, punching her this time and then disappearing again
With the rifle she kept trying to hit the figure but couldn't given how fast they moved around
But then with just a lucky shot, aim at Mordred's gas mask as they back into a center area...
Seemingly the force sent Mordred back as there mask become broken from the powerful bullet. Lara smiled again as seemingly the solders back away from her
Grabbing onto the blade, she saw the bits of what remained of the gas mask...
"Lara"
Suddenly she turned to see a woman with short blonde hair staring back at her. The woman appeared to be a bit younger then she was, her face had big blue eyes and blackened lips.
Her face covered in strange green colored tattoos
Lara know who this woman was...
"Amanda!?, is it really you?"
With the black gauntlet around her right arm, she begin tearing at the 17th man's shirt she wore. Reveling that she been working out even intensively then Lara. Getting rid of the shirt had given her the outline of toned abs.
She showed off her breasts as the remains of the shirt fall away. Leaving just her wearing red leather pants.
Her being topless showed off more of the strange green tattoos that were pulsing through out her body. Like blood but moving shifty as if it were alive as well.
Lara couldn't stop breathing hard as tears come down her face "I...i thought you were dead!"
The black gauntlet grabbed ahold around Lara's neck as Amanda smiled widely
"...You have no idea! my dear. Tibet was just the beginning to something wonderful and great...
But on Avalon ohhhhhhh i become a GOD REBORN.
You think because of guilt that i need to pity me...well my dear that is where your're wrong
With the power of Excalibur, i am going to start tearing this world apart piece by bloody piece until it bows before me in UTTER PAIN!
And it's all thanks to you...Croft"
Amanda stabbed Lara into the side of her stomach as she next felt like she was flying into the tomb.
And into the arms of Samantha. Grabbing ahold of the golden blade and the halt, she beginning a strange chant that echoed through out the tomb. As the key glowed green making Amanda yell in complete pain along with the rest of the solders.
With just the twist of Sam's wrist, Lara through willpower of the pain watched as the three pieces of the sword become one
Laying right into Sam's hands, glowing in a mixture of bright golden light with green shining through as well
The pain that gone through Amanda vanished as she run toward both Sam and Lara...
Sam just smiled as she nearly reached them "You lose again Mordred!"
As she pushed the completed Excalibur into the center of the stone, encasing them in bright light that knocked out Amanda...
"She's waking up, the Mother Superior must know... "
Spoke a lone figure in black who quickly rushed out as Lara get up startled and dazed in confusion
Her head felt like a billion needles had pass through with the worst headache in the world. As she went seemingly over to a nearby mirror
Her eyes were coming into focus again, as she saw herself in the old fashioned mirror
She was topless with the bottom of her belly button covered a fresh row of bandages. Seemingly by the look of the wound, she had possibly been here for the past three to four weeks.
She looked around to see a bowl filled with bloody water on a nearby chair.
As the sounds of bells filled her ears, getting curious as to where she was. She went toward her closed window...
Opening to see it was bright morning over a large village the likes of which she don't see before...
There was old fashioned buildings that wouldn't be out of place in the prime Medieval era of London. And yet there was black sleek metal framed buildings like modern sky scarpers of unknown type of shapes and sizes.
Just then Lara heard the sound of rumbling as something like a subway train flew passed her window
"Where the hell am i?.."
"...This is the city of Carbonek"
A voice suddenly answered from behind her, Lara turned to see a tall dressed in nun's robes. Yet she was wearing a bow string along with the holy long habit.
The nun's head was lowed as if not to directly look at Croft
The voice spoke with a familiar deep tone as they neared Lara
"Your're wound was nearly fatal, Mordred's glove was filled with a rather nasty poison...if Sister Samantha hadn't..."
"SAMANTHA!?, where is she and where in the world am i?" Lara questioned in confusion toward the nun
As the nun raised her head, smiling as Lara saw a female with a bright red eye patch on her left eye.
Once again Lara was left more dumbfounded then even whatever happened back in Germany..."Mother!?"
Amelia begin to hug her now overly tearful daughter as spoke happily again
"Welcome my beautiful daughter to the Isle of Avalon"
Author's note: This is interesting in just trying to combined elements from several TOMB RAIDER games mainly LEGEND and UNDERWORLD,as well as something newer to do with them.
Including some sort of explanation for Sam and a surviving toughed version of Amelia Croft or why Amanda is possessed by the evil Mordred
Also into just the amazing dangerous world that is the lost city of Avalon
As a added note:Please review and see what you think so far of this story
NEXT CHAPTER: THE WOMAN OF BRONZE
