The Scientist
AN: Big surprise for you in this chapter, I can tell you that!
Call me by Shinedown....some of the lyrics go, anyway
Kurtis rushed past the warehouses, searching each one for any sign of Lara and Karel. He had past the place where the fire had now burned out, and was just about to move onto searching Mason's mansion before he heard a scream coming from an alleyway. He dashed towards it, hoping to God that it was Karel screaming and not Lara. When he came to the first of the alleyway's; everything was silent, his breathing the only thing he could hear. He hugged the wall as he rounded a corner, sighing in frustration as he found nothing.
He jogged forwards, looking for any sign of life. "C'mon Lara." he groaned. "Where are you?" he ran a hand threw his hair, and gripped his gun as he saw two shadows around the corner from him. The smaller of the two were standing at the end of the alley, their arms being held in the air. The bigger figure, who was closer to Kurtis, had some sort of light around his hands, and was beginning to lift them into the air. Kurtis stealthed around the corner, holding his gun up, almost dropping it at the sight he saw. Lara was standing in front of a wall, blood decorating her hands, her face burned just on her temple and she was covered in dirt. When he turned his gaze to Karel, however, he didn't have a mark on him. The lovely advantages of being immortal, he thought sarcastically. He stood behind Karel, enough so that Lara could see him, but enough so that neither him or his shadow could be detected by Karel. But how was he supposed to stop Karel? If he shot him, he would only turn attention to himself, and that wouldn't be able to do anything; that couldn't get them out of the alley. And the only way to get Lara out was for her to walk past Karel – something that couldn't be done easily.
He watched as Karel strolled towards her, forcing her to look up at him by grabbing her face roughly in one hand, making her lips pout out. "Where is the sword fragment?" he asked, putting his face close to hers. "I don't have it." she spat, snatching her face away from his hands. "If you won't tell me willingly, I'll have to get the information myself."
"Go on." she challenged, "Does it make you feel stronger because you look like Kurtis? Does it make you think I'll give in and let you hurt him or me? Go on, do it."
"You're a strong woman, Lara. A very strong woman – both physically and mentally – and would make an excellent queen for my empire. Join the Cabal, Miss Croft, I'll only offer it one more time."
"I'd rather be road kill."
"Very well." he lifted a hand to her.
"You're not going to touch her." Kurtis said, finally having enough of standing in the shadows, watching Karel hurt Lara. He gasped as he saw Karel's appearance; a mirror image of his own."And I suppose you're going to try and stop me?" he laughed, turning back to his original form. "I want my information, Kurtis, and I'm going to get it." he turned back around, focusing his attention on Lara – or so Kurtis thought. In synchronisation, they both fell to the ground, screaming as loud as their lungs would allow them to.
Lara's lungs heaved in air, only for them to burn as the oxygen was released as a scream. She felt a presence in her mind, flying threw the memories of her entire life. Her eyes shot open and she fell to the floor on her back, trying to get the thing that was causing her so much pain to stop. "Stop!" she screamed, but then just focused on trying to take some of her harm away by screaming like she had never screamed before.
Kurtis fell onto his back, his breathing heavy, letting out a scream of agony every few seconds. Something was in his head – something that wasn't supposed to be there. His entire life flashed before his eyes as his eyes shot open. The alienating pain was going to be too much for him, and if he didn't get the unknown presence out of his mind soon, he would succumb to that pain. He stared up as part of the outside world was given back to him, and saw Lara on her back, shooting up on her knees, screaming with the same amount of energy as himself. Then he realised who was in his mind. He looked up to Karel, who had his eyes closed, one hand outstretched towards him, the other towards Lara. He could feel Karel searching threw his head, trying to find whatever information he wanted.
He watched as closer memories became remembered, Karel lingering on one during the events in the Stronghold – when Kurtis was fighting for his life. Desperate to stop him, he tried anything to stop him, find all solutions of cos8k = 1/4 was the first thing that popped into his head, remembering some maths he had done in his early years of secondary school. He fell flat onto his front as the presence left his mind. He looked up as Lara arched her back forward, her eyes swamped with tears, silently begging him to relieve her of her pain. Kurtis, he heard her in his mind, bringing the link that was between them bigger. He stood up, spiting on the ground before un-holstering his gun, lifting his Chirugai off his belt, standing in a fighting stance, "Leave her, take the information from me." he sighed, glaring at Karel as if he were nothing bigger than scum. Of course – Karel was smaller than scum. He watched as Lara collapsed fully to the ground, no longer screaming. If he was honest, he was thinking the worst. Karel turned to him, a smug grin growing on his face. "I have all the information I need." his hand lit up with the now familiar green energy, almost hypnotising Kurtis. He quickly shot a bolt of energy in Lara's direction, but Kurtis managed to steer it back to Karel before it hit her.
He slowly circled Karel, stopping as his back was faced to Lara. He trained his gun at Karel as he recovered from the impact of the energy bolt. Kurtis slowly backed towards her, keeping the Boran X trained at Karel. He crouched down beside Lara, checking for a pulse, sighing with relief as he found one. He stood back up as Karel stood before him, all his pain seizing to exist. Kurtis was suddenly forced away from Lara, the wind being knocked out of him as his body was forced up against the wall, "Such foolish traditions your kind have." Karel chuckled harshly, beginning to walk forward. "The male of you kind always trying to protect the woman he loves. Love is a pointless emotion, Kurtis. Especially loving someone like Lara." he dropped Kurtis to the ground, "You don't know anything about love, Karel. Nothing as worthless and heartless as you could ever love. It may be weak to you, but when I look at her, she makes me stronger. Love is more powerful than anything you could ever control or become." he smiled as someone else entered the alleyway. Whether this person was a threat or not; Kurtis wasn't sure, but he could possibly use it to his advantage.
"Love and any other emotion is irrelevant. It will be the death of your race." Karel laughed. "And she will be the first to die." he threw a quick bolt of green energy in Lara's direction. Her body shot upwards, her eyes opening for a brief second before she fell motionless to the ground, her breathing softer than what it had been before. Kurtis didn't know what he could do – it wasn't as if it was easy to harm an immortal being. Anything he did would only slow Karel down, but if he didn't try to stop him soon, he wasn't sure whether him or Lara would make it out of that place alive. "Stop, Karel!" he heard the stranger shout farther up the alley, and sighed with relief as Mason came from the shadows. "This is not Lara's battle. You should be wise to leave her out of it."
Karel turned his attention way from Kurtis and Lara, laughing at Mason's comment. "Mason DeComble – I must say, the last time I saw you; you were just a boy. How have you been coping after your fathers death?" he laughed hollowly.
Mason clenched his teeth, but kept business straight, "Don't mention him. We know what you want. We know who you want – and you are not going to get them. Leave Lara out of this, this is not her fight to be lost."
"If it is not her battle, then why is she fighting your war?"
Kurtis crawled over to Lara, pulling her up to him in his arms. He wiped away the stray hairs that lay on her forehead, pressing two fingers to her neck, checking for a pulse, C'mon, Lara. Stay with me, he thought, sighing with relief when he found as faint pulse. He wiped the sweat away from her forehead, holding her closer to him and he never wanted to let go. Why had he let her go ahead and fight Karel in the first place? What he was really letting her do was have an early death. Never – never again was she doing something so idiotic without him. He watched Mason circle Karel, finally stopping just in front of him and Lara. "We'll give you what you need." he said, throwing Karel the first part of the sword.
"What the HELL are you doing?" Kurtis shouted, standing up with Lara in his arms, gently holding her, but with a tight grip so that she wasn't going anywhere soon. "If we give you what you want; we're equal. We leave it at this until Cappadocia."
"I'm a man of my word, Mr DeComble, but you should know, I will get the rest of the pieces and you shall deeply regret your choice." he sighed, pocketing the sword before walking away. "Mason, please do not tell me you actually think that what you did is helping us?!" Kurtis screamed, staring in shock at his fellow Lux Knight.
"You didn't have any better ideas, did you Kurtis?! They took Morgan, Kurtis. Gunderson took her, and we have no way of finding her. That agreement with Karel might have just saved her life. You should realise that it should be you looking out for Morgan and not me." he said.
"How could you let them take her?" he said, hushing his tone.
"We can track her down, surely. We'll have plenty of run-ins with Karel for that, I just gave him one piece of the puzzle." he began to walk away, leaving Kurtis to control his anger. He quickly caught up to Mason and followed him towards his car. He sighed as Mason opened the door to the back seat and Kurtis lent in, slowly placing Lara down on the three seats horizontally. He got in afterwards, sitting on the floor of the car, watching over Lara in case she suddenly woke up. Mason put his seatbelt on, switching the engine on before he quickly swerving around in the opposite direction before driving off, heading in the quickest direction of Surrey.
Kurtis stroked Lara's cheek, looking at her unconscious form. "I'm so sorry, Lara." he whispered, taking in the cuts and bruises on her body. "I should have never brought you into this." he looked up and out of the window, finding Mason practically on the verge of tears. "What did you mean about Cappadocia?" he asked, climbing into the passenger seat of the car. Mason sighed, "Alister found some information that can link the Nephilim Stronghold to Cappadocia. That's where the Hebrew legend says they were sent to; only to escape when someone powerful – or psychotic – enough can set them free."
Kurtis sighed, "We're going all over the place." he glanced back at Lara. "We better be quick; I want her safe and I want to find Morgan as soon as possible."
Lara shot bolt upright in the bed, gasping for breath as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. She grabbed her abdomen and looked down at her hand, only to see a bandage dressing it. Her head was swarming with both pain and emotion, the recent events of the day just a blur in her mind. She felt like she should throw up, which actually sounded like a good thing to do at that moment – she felt like someone had just lifted her out of a rubbish bin and thrown her into a skip. That awful.
She flung her legs over the side of the bed, sitting up only to groan, lying back down. She lay down vertically, staring up at the patterns of the library ceiling. Wait, library? She shot back up, much to her body's protest. Looking around, she found herself in her Manor's library, gazing over the precious and priceless books she owned. And the bed she was lying on was nothing more than the settee. How did she get there? The last thing she remembered, she was facing her death. Karel, definitely remember him.....in some sort of alley....and then Kurtis. She gasped as she remembered more clearly than before, the fact that Karel had invaded her mind sticking out like a sore thumb. He was there, heck, that was the part she remembered the most, but something strange happened....something she couldn't put her finger on.......
She looked over to the door as someone knocked, before seeing Kurtis enter. She stood up, trying to suggest that there was nothing wrong with her; that she still came out on top after her fight. But her body had other ideas. Her legs suddenly turned to jelly, and she soon found herself falling, only for Kurtis to catch her. "Hey, take it easy, you took some beating back there." he smiled, seating her down on the couch. She sighed, laying down and leaning her head on the arm rest of the sofa. "What happened?" she asked, looking up at Kurtis who was sat next to her, Lara's knees bent, her feet resting just beside his lap. "I thought you would have remembered." he ran a hand threw his hair, giving it more of the familiar messy, sexy edge that Lara always loved about it.
"He hurt you, Lara. He hurt both of us. He was in us. In our minds, in our heads, messing up and screwing over any little happy memory that was ever there." his expression suddenly darkened, and he roughly shoved Lara's legs away from him and stood up, beginning to pace the room. "What do you mean?" Lara asked, also standing up, holding her abdomen as her body screamed out for rest.
"He invaded our minds and got what he wanted because we gave up. He was killing us, both physically and mentally. We got out just in time." he suddenly became angry, throwing books off of Lara's bookcases and punching a wall, almost making his knuckle crack. Lara stared at him, almost frightened by the anger this man was showing; she had never seen him like this before. He leaned his head against the wall, his breathing heavy and chocked, as if he had just run a marathon. "Mason gave Karel the sword."
"He did what?" she asked, now becoming more alarmed.
"We screwed over, and Mason let Karel take it. Karel didn't just take it, Lara; he was given it. Mason gave Karel the sword fragment." he sighed, turning around so that he was now facing her.
"Why would Mason give him the sword fragment? He knows that is jeopardizing what we're trying to do!"
"How the hell should I know!" he sighed, bowing is head. "We screwed up, Lara, big time." he felt so guilty. How could he let the one person that was important to him get hurt? And better yet, Mason wasn't helping. If he was really on their side, then why had he given Karel the sword? To Kurtis, that just sounded like Mason was asking for everything to go spiralling out of control. As if he was actually asking for the Human Race to become extinct. It was down to the four of them to stop Karel, but they had one hell of a journey ahead of them if they wanted to do so. Mason hadn't helped that fact. And neither was the fact that they had lost Morgan. "He could have just given him it to make us even. I would have done the same – and I'm sure you would have. Mason isn't an idiot, he would have had a good reason for giving something so valuable away. But this isn't what's bothering you, is it? What else is their to be angry about? I almost died, you don't see me moping around like some lifeless thrall!" she screamed, having enough of Kurtis' attitude. "Mason knows what we're doing, just as much as you and I do. I'm not taking sides, Kurtis, but I think you need to stop throwing your dummy out of the pram every time something small turns up!"
"Small? Small?! You're saying that because of you, Mason could have endangered the entire Human Race is something small!"
"Because of me?! What did I do, or am I just something you can blame because you don't see your cuddly toys about? Grow up, Kurtis. Stop acting like a child and take some responsibility for yourself. You know what; I think Mason did the right thing. I don't remember you trying to do anything to stop Karel."
"I wasn't doing anything to stop him because I was busting my ass to keep you alive! You were unconscious and I was partially demented because of Karel's 'fun games'. I saved your ass, Lara. The least you could do is act like you care."
"Act like I care?! Kurtis, you're the one who causes an argument every five minuets when we're alone! Not me. You won't let me get close to you! God, why are you so difficult to talk to? You know what I think you should do. I think you should go get drunk; have a hangover tomorrow morning so you know what it's like to live with you." she turned around and lifted her blanket that had been resting on the arm rest of the couch and walked towards the door, not wanting to be given a headache because of the slug that was Kurtis at this moment.
"We've lost Morgan." he sighed, sitting down in a close-by armchair, resting his head in his hands. Lara quickly spun on her heels, staring at Kurtis like she didn't believe what he just said. "What do you mean you've lost her?"
"Gunderson attacked them on their way here. He knocked Mason out and took Morgan." he looked up at her before hitting the arm rest, standing back up. "We need to get her back as soon as possible. If Karel finds out that she is of any importance in this – that's it. He'll use her and then get rid of her. Morgan spoke to me like a sister, Kurtis. She knows she's important and she knows that she's in danger." she sighed.
"Do you not think I already worked that out? Morgan is INCREDIBLY important in this war, Lara. In fact, she's just about as important as me. There's so much I haven't told you about her. Her smile when she was a kid, her energetic personality, her everything. Believe it or not, Morgan was a nice person a few years back. But I didn't stick around to find that out." he sighed.
"We'll get her back, Kurtis. We can't let Karel win. It's just something simple. We've came up against things like this before, so it won't be that different! You're really starting to piss me off with this. If we sit tight for long enough, then we might find a way to locate her."
"But we can't just wait! If we want to get her back, we need to go find her now! Before Karel tells her something that she shouldn't be told by him. I've been so stupid. I should have told her to not get involved while I could have; but it's too late. It's my fault that she's in this mess."
"What is it with you and Morgan?! One minuet you can't stand her, the next you're acting all over-protective of her! We all know we need to get her back, Kurtis. But why is it that you insist that we make it our prime objective? Why is it that because she's went missing, everything else has been wiped from your mind?!"
"Because she's my sister!"
AN: Bet you didn't see THAT coming!!!! I'll update on Monday