hey sorry for the very very very late update but i had some pc problems i hope you enjoy and also the next chapter will be up within the next week i just have to check for grammer mistakes and yeah so enjoy and i hope your eyes become square from staring at the compuet screen mwuahahahah

The previous day in Paris

Gunderson cursed the woman for locking him in here. Now her corpse lay in a heap near the empty altar. The croft woman along with Trent escaped, forget the master being pleased, he was going to be furious when he heard of the news. The only good thing was that the creature he brought with him, even though it helped the croft woman, it had strength, no more than Karel but he was strong enough to get rid of the concrete blocking their way. Why that wretched woman always slipped through his hands, it infuriated him greatly but even more the master. He should've killed her when he had the chance but then again the master wouldn't approve of it, he had plans for the croft woman, plans that no one but the master knew of, plans according to the master beyond anyone's understanding. Why did the master have such hatred toward humans? He used them, so why couldn't he bear them. Gunderson demanded the creature to rid them of the obstacle before him, so the creature did, by sending an orb of green energy into the door. The door broke into pieces, rubble flying everywhere and dust covering the air. Just outside the door Gunderson crouched near a few tiny shards of glass and in the corner laid a photo frame, croft must've dropped it on her way out. He took a closer look by pulling the photo from the frame and as his eyes narrowed to see more clearly, he saw the sketch of a young girl. This was certainly going to be useful. Gunderson walked forward in a military stance, as they reached the cool night breeze outside Gunderson took the keys to a van from one of the dead mercenaries and drove toward an abandoned warehouse. Later that evening he stood before Karel. His one knee was resting on the ground while the other one was parallel with his shoulders, his head hung low until Karel had accepted his apology.

"Speak what you must" Karel's voice echoed throughout the office Karel now had

"We have lost the lady croft and the male unfortunately the grail was lost to begin with"

"Explain yourself Gunderson"

"I know just that the grail was not there but I have no doubt that miss croft will lead us right to it"

"Don't stop them this time, wait for them and then take it if they do not have it then I will be waiting, understood"

"I will do as you ask master"

"You'd better not fail me again Gunderson"

"I will not, that I oath" Gunderson was fearful of Karel but he never showed it

"Leave now" Karel waved his hand in dismissal and walked toward the desk

"But sir with all do respect, would it not be best to go to the women's home and dispose of them"

"Under no circumstance, I need her alive and we need them to do the hard work. . .we've lost too many men already"

"As you wish Joachim" Gunderson turned and left through the door. He had decided to keep the news about the photo to himself and do his own interrogation He did not understand the master's requests, why let a liability like croft and Trent walk and strive to ruin their plans. But he was not to question the master, especially not about his motives, that could be the end of Gunderson.

"Bloody hell" Lara said in frustration seating herself on the ground next to the coffee table. Kurtis joined her when he finally caught his breath. He'd fight the devil himself for Lara, he would run to the end of the earth, in summary he would do anything for her. He wanted to kick himself for saying it, but could it be true, could he, kurtis Trent, be falling in love? He wasn't even going to think about it, Lara was right feelings are a liability, they get you killed. It saddened him somehow.

"I lost it, I lost the sketch. . .damnit"

"Don't be too hard on yourself, things happen, well get it back"

"its not about getting it back, its about what its meant for, he left it for me and my father rarely leaves me something that's exactly what it seems" Lara calmly said

"Maybe this time it is maybe it's another clue. . .you'll figure it out I'm sure of it" he smiled reassuringly

"Lunch is ready my lady" Winston repeated behind him, zip was already on his way to the kitchen but Alistair on the other hand, he was probably still in the study.

"Is Alistair still in the study?" Lara started standing up and dusting herself off

"Yes I shall call him quickly" Winston was turning when Lara stopped him.

"No leave him, I'll take some food up and then I can finally hear if he found anything" Winston accepted the orders and also proceeded to the kitchen. Winston was already on his way back to the tech room when Lara and kurtis entered. Winton on the other hand was already elsewhere in the manor. Same old Winston, he knew Lara love'd lasagna, and that is what he made almost every day. Lara smiled at the thought while she and kurtis both dished up. Lara, instead of just one plate, took two and slowly made her way to the study. The door opened easily, Alistair was reading through various journals when he looked up to see Lara. Lara put the plate with lasagna in front of him, then taking a seat opposite him, placing her own plate on the desk.

"Find anything?" Lara asked and Alistair's half smile immediately disappeared.

"No, sorry" he replied shaking his head and taking the knife and fork in his hand

"Its fine just keep trying" he nodded and they sat eating in quiet.

One week later

"Its hopeless kurtis" Lara declared on the balcony overlooking the grounds

"You shouldn't give up hope so soon"

"Why not, it's been an entire week and still we have no leads" Lara was getting impatient of the lack of information

"I know but well find something, we always do" he reassured her even though in his own head he was struggling to stay positive, struggling to keep hope.

In the past week Lara and kurtis have become closer. Yet not close enough for them to trust each other with their past. Kurtis had started owning a sofa in Lara's room, always sleeping there or downstairs with zip in front of the computer or the TV and rarely in his own room. Kurtis and Alistair have also become friends, still snapping at each other every once in a while. Lara's feelings for kurtis have grown stronger, the more she tried pushing them aside, the more they grew intense. She never felt love but she just knew, she was falling in love with kurtis. Kurtis tried avoiding Lara but he couldn't, he was falling for her and he was falling hard. When this was over he wouldn't want to leave he was in love with Lara, he was prepared to do anything for her, he would give his life for hers. Lara was also prepared to do anything for kurtis. Kurtis had learnt to respect Lara's privacy and stopped listening to her thoughts. Suddenly Alistair stood behind them, breaking them from their thoughts and waving his hand for them to follow. They did as he asked and when they came downstairs smiles crept on both their faces. Zip had a map on one of the screens and Alistair waved a journal in the air.

"where to next?" Lara asked excitedly

"England" zip said not lifting his face from the screen to look at Lara

"lovely"

"Yeah lovely, another tomb how good to know. Haven't they ever heard of a safe hidden behind a portrait, why bring in darts and flames and who knows what else is in there" kurtis also added before Alistair joined in the conversation

"Sorry chap but they were a tad bit overprotective over their possessions"

"No shit" he loved doing what he did but tombs never interested him much, but with Lara there, it made everything different.

"Remember Excalibur, when you thought that the real tomb was nearby well you were right. It was under my nose all this time, in one of the journals I found on Excalibur. Apparently the knights had the real king Arthur buried elsewhere, elsewhere meaning another cover up, I'll give you one guess"

"Its either big Ben or Buckingham palace" Alistair was astonished that she was so quickly, so correct about it.

"Obviously, but not so precise, its close to Buckingham palace, zip has the coordinates"

"Zip?" Lara asked

"Already in the GPS"

Zip was truly strange this morning, perhaps just a bad day Lara thought "right well be on our way then"

Kurtis had already taken his gun and a lot of extra ammunition, Lara grabbed hers on the way out. Both of them got on the bikes, finally kurtis could take his own. Lara was in her usual raiding clothes, ready for anything. She was looking forward to the tomb but perhaps she was just trying to block out the fear, she was afraid of Karel, the dreams, the fact that he could be anyone and she probably wouldn't know of it, and then of course he was taunting her, taunting her with ghosts of her past. She had little but she did have a conscience other than Karel, he had nothing, he killed and mutilated people, he tried to enslave the human race by bringing back the nephilim and he's still trying. It's as if it's impossible to kill him. Still, Lara wasn't going to let anyone know what she felt, not even kurtis, she was going to be the hardcore tomb raider that she was. Before she knew it, they pulled up to a large oak tree near the woods.

"This is Gonne be fun" kurtis commented once of the bike. Lara joined him, overlooking the oak tree, the exact coordinates were the oak tree.

"it's going to be interesting" Lara started walking around the oak tree. On the bottom there were initials carved out, ST-SK-SL-SG-SP-SG-SB-SG-SG-SG-SL-SG-SB-SB-SA-SS A.P L.M

Lara inserted her earpiece and kurtis did the same. "We've got it" Lara declared

"Good for you now get the grail" zip said almost in a harsh voice

"What's up, you're never this irritated?" kurtis asked

"Nothing I just didn't sleep very well" he replied dryly

"if you say so" Lara said, pausing for a second and then continuing "Sir trystan, sir Kay, sir Lancelot, sir Gawain, sir Percival, sir Galahad, sir bors, sir Geraint, sir Gareth, sir lamorak, sir gaheris, sir bedivere, sir agravaine, sir sagramore, Arthur pendragon and David montsegur" Lara said aloud enthusiastically

"what?" was all kurtis cold say

"Its Arthur's knights, and montsegur must've found them but why didn't he return it?" Alistair added

"I don't know but we'll find out" Lara knelt down and took a switchblade from her boots, then cutting in the exact lines of the engravings. When she scratched over Arthur's name she cut something hard and solid. She saw n thin glint of gold behind the bark. She smiled in satisfaction and cut at all directions until a button was visible. Kurtis stepped closer, she looked at him briefly, then pressed the button which caused the ground beneath their feet to shake violently, then sending them down what seemed to be an endless slope. Both of them were breathing heavily as their footing got lost and both ended face first to the ground. Still there were no sign as to this being a tomb, just a big, dusty cave with the smell of death filling the air around them, making it unwanted to breath. Lara reached to the ground with her palms flatly open; she pushed herself up in a sitting position with her legs folded under her. Would they find the grail today? Was Karel on their heels or not? Were the others safe? Were they safe? Hopefully most of their questions would be answered, neither wanted to but both of them knew that they had too many questions to be answered all at once, in some way it scared the living daylight out of them. A question that would probably never be answered was the question that dwelled in their heads since all this started seven years ago, why was it them that always had to save the world, to stop evil beyond imagination, to be strong and keep their heads up and to never back down, someone upstairs had a nice time letting all this happen. Kurtis was already on his feet and outstretched his hand for Lara, she accepted and he pulled her to her feet.

"Now what? Down the rabbit's hole to wonderland" kurtis asked

"That's hardly a fitting concept for one she fell down a rabbits hole where as we already fell through and are now standing in a cave, so to work with your theme then we must already be in wonderland"

"Yeah you're just the smartass aren't you?"

"True, come on" she replied gesturing to the darkness in front of them

"I'm rather going to keep quiet" Alistair said

"You do that" kurtis said looking at Lara then starting to walk forward.

Kurtis had been thinking about Lara nonstop, hoping that she was doing the same. He had never fell in love, well once when he was a young teenager, it was with another girl from the order. He couldn't even recall her name but she and her whole family was slaughtered by the cabal as was his but it was for the better. Now he had Lara, he didn't want anything to happen to her but he wasn't going to admit that to her either, as all men he had his pride and would not say a thing until she broke the ice and admitted to having feelings for him, first. For the first time since he was nineteen, since he ran and joined the legion, he felt he was where he needed to be. He felt at peace, he felt that he had a home. A family so to speak, not literally but he and zip were getting along very well as well as Alistair. It was still a lot of fun to get Alistair to snap, but it didn't ever go too far. Winston on the other hand, they weren't very close but close enough, Winston knew it was about time that Lara took someone with her to help. Winston felt more at peace with someone looking over Lara, making sure she didn't kill herself but then again he also knew that Lara could take care of herself. Then the most important person of all was Lara, he loved being around her no matter how cheesy it sounds. Somehow they always ended up together, seven years ago it was the death of his father and her mentor that by vengeance for Eckhardt brought them together. First in the Louvre where they sought the same obscura painting, and then again in the strahov where they first decided to work together. And now, when after seven years fait has brought them together again to kill Karel. Hopefully this time it would be successful. They were walking for n long time in the cave when an archway awaited them with multiple spikes covering the entrance in such a way that not even a fly could go through. But then again there's always a way. At each side of the archway were both a shield and a sword which had the same markings as Excalibur but the sword looked nothing like Excalibur. A ceremonial copy of course. Lara and kurtis had the same idea and inserted the shield on one arm while holding the sword in the other. Lara took a deep breath and walked toward the spikes, as soon as the sword touched it the blades retracted and gave passage, barely long enough for Lara to get through before they shot out again. Lara had put both the items down when kurtis stepped through, doing the same and joining her where she was examining the wall. In the coldness of the cave Lara could feel the heat radiating from kurtis as he stood next to her. She chose not to think about it. The inscription read:

To the worthy may the worthy the answers see

To leave their baggage for the open hand

To receive the chalice wonder that lies beyond

To the worthy the answers see

Lara read it over and over, just to be sure that she didn't miss anything important. "Baggage?" kurtis asked more to the inscription than to Lara.

"Probably the sword and shield, they knew it would make it harder but I can't help to think that there might be more to it than we think"

"Yeah well I ain't dropping my guns and neither are you and I'm sure you'll figure it out if there's something to it"

"I know" Lara doubted for a second then continued.

Systematically the scenery changed, more and more torches filled the brown rock walls of the cave. The temperature started to drop. The brown, uneven walls became smooth, looking all the more like a wall you'd find in a place like this. Lara and kurtis both stopped as soon as they saw the clearly littered floor before them. Knowing by the skeletal bones that they should be careful or death might e popping up very soon. A skeletal bone lay out of place before Lara's feet, with the slightest movement of her foot she kicked it forward and out of nowhere thousands of spikes sprang to life before them. Apparently it wasn't all a sudden red flame sprang up and danced its way between the spikes. Lara looked all over the room, searching for a way to cross. On the other side of what she guessed to be about two meters of spikes and flames was a lever.

"You think you can. . . ?" Lara asked turning to kurtis, he already had his hands stretched forward to pull the lever with his telekinesis.

"No good, it's stuck" he replied and pulled the chirugai from his belt, "but I have another idea" he smiled then threw his chirugai a good distance above the flames, cutting at the wall, making a thin outline of a crevice.

"Wow that's brilliant" Lara crossed her arms in disbelief.

"I thought of you"

"What?" Lara was truly confused

"You like climbing don't you?" he smiled at the thought

Lara was finally catching on "mind giving me a boost?" he nodded and held his hand out like a bucket.

Lara stepped onto his hands and he pushed her upward, she reached out and grabbed hold of the newly made crevice. Nearly in the fire she pulled her feet up and slowly pulled herself to the other side. Halfway through she heard kurtis call her name, a wall had fallen behind him, trapping him between three walls and the flames. Lara knew that wasn't a good thing, and right she was. The walls started to close in on kurtis. She climbed as fast as she could, dropping down close to the lever she quickly reached out and pulled. At first it wouldn't budge but she started pulling with all her strength and slowly it began to pull down. Lara moaned as her arms willed her to stop but she refused. After what felt like an eternity of pulling she finally did it and the walls retracted, leaving kurtis unharmed. He cautiously walked over the now spike- and flame free floor. 'that was too close' he told himself while joining Lara in the archway that led into what seemed to be another endless hall, as little experience as he had, he still knew that it was never a good thing. Lara took the lead and walked cautiously down the narrow hall. Her ears were listening intently for any noise that may reveal some sort of surprise. Not too far into the hall Lara heard a clanking noise, she quickly ducked through the sword that cut below and above her head. Kurtis followed after her and tried taking the lead.

"You really think you can handle it kurtis?"

"We'll just have to find out wont we" he smiled as he walked forward

He took one step at a time, listening and looking constantly for something that seemed out of place but suddenly Lara grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling him back. When he turned to look at her she showed him to the canyon like hole he was about to fall in.

"Thanks" he breathed heavily through his words

"Guess you're not ready yet"

"Guess not" he looked intently on the deep black hole where he could've been in if not for Lara "what now?"

Lara sprinted past him jumping into the hole, whilst in mid air she threw her grappling hook to a golden ring at the top, presumably there to hold up a bridge that was now long gone. The hole looked to never end. Seeing no bottom Lara returned to the task at hand. She swung until kurtis's hand was reachable. He grabbed on, letting her carry him to the other side. She did as planned and he landed on his feet just beyond the hole that earlier threatened his life. Lara swung herself this time, barely making it but still remaining upside. Lara and kurtis both heard a loud banging from afar but as they neared the sound, four blocks of cement were constantly dropping down to the floor below crushing even the air that might be there. Kurtis wasn't prepared to let Lara get to the other side first and timed his run. He sprinted forward, stopping in between the first two blocks, them on to stopping between the second and third block. Then onto the third and forth, it wasn't long before Lara joined him on the other side. Still this was a bit too easy, both Lara and kurtis felt the same. Lara walked toward the light that shone through the open door in front of them. Both caught site of a man on horseback in the middle. He seemed to sense their presence and lifted his head. He looked almost identical to the undead knights from the hall of seasons but he didn't move an inch. Lara and kurtis looked questioningly at each other than pulled out their guns, slowly walking toward him. The knight stepped off from his horse slowly approaching Lara.