Blood relatives

AN: Sorry for the late update peppulz!!! I'll make it up to you!

Lara stared at Kurtis in disbelief. Was she hearing right? Did Kurtis actually say what she thought he said? She looked around the room, not wanting to make eye contact with him. She sighed several times before her eyes met his, and she gazed there, wide eyed. Morgan was Kurtis' sister? How could he not have told her this? Something so important and he never even suggested they knew each other in any way – let alone even related to each other. How could he not tell her something as important as this? "What?" she looked at him, gazing deep into his eyes, her own wide with shock.

He sighed, turning away from her and walking over to the couch, making her turn 'round to face him, "Morgan is my younger sister."

"And you thought of telling someone this....when?" she crossed her arms against her chest, nodding for him to tell her everything that she wanted to know. "I couldn't tell someone without realising what I had done. Mason already knows, and that seemed like enough to do what we needed to do. But I had to tell you."

"So you leave it until Morgan goes missing? I've had my fair share of bombshells, believe me, but at least I admitted the truth."

"Who's saying I didn't admit the truth? Whenever I look at her, I only see my mother. My dead mother. That, more than anything else, is what makes me realise she's my sister."he stood up to face Lara. "I'm sorry, Kurtis, you're obviously still trying to get your head around this, but unless I know what happened, I can't give you any sympathy." she put a hand on his shoulder, looking him straight in the eye, trying to get him to explain what was going on.

He brushed her hand away from him, sighing again, "I left her when she was a child. I was only nineteen, I didn't know how to take full responsibility for a baby." he sat back down again, resting his head in his hands. "My mother and father were off doing whatever the hell they were doing, and I was left looking after my baby sister."

"If you weren't capable of caring for her; then why did your parents leave Morgan in your care?"

"How the hell should I know? I didn't ask to look after her!"

"Nobody asks for something like that to happen to them. What happened, though?" if she admitted the truth to herself, Lara was getting a little fed up with Kurtis giving her simple answers. He left that girl – who was now in her early teens – and went off to do whatever the hell he did, but he must have had a good reason. A reason, that if Lara didn't press for straight away, she wasn't going to get. She sat down next to him, putting her hand back on his shoulder, giving it a small squeeze, trying to reassure him that things were going to be okay. At least, she hoped they were. She couldn't promise anything; not from their current position. They were sitting ducks, Morgan was missing, Karel had the first part of the sword, and, if it was any relevance, the Bamburugh Beast. They had no idea whatsoever on how to get even close to discovering where Gunderson had taken Morgan and they still couldn't move onto Spain without having Morgan to keep safe. And even then, she still wouldn't be safe. Karel was hunting them down, like dogs chasing foxes for sport, and if he knew what importance Morgan was in any of this; he would most likely 'dispose' of her. Even when Morgan had someone like Kurtis Trent as a brother, that couldn't save her. And even when she had someone like Lara Croft looking out for her, like an older sister. But Lara could still change what the future held for them all. She just needed to get straight to business, putting all other thoughts at the back of her mind. Except one.

"It was in the middle of the war. My father had given up trying to run with us all, so he put my mother, Morgan and I into one of his 'safe houses' to make sure we didn't get harmed. When Morgan was one, my mother left to join him; not in the actual war, just trying to create a diversion away from me and Morgan." he looked up again, clearly finding it difficult to replay the events through his head. Lara gave him a grateful smile, and nodded for him to continue. "I had to take full responsibility for her; I was like more than a brother to her. While my father was fighting, and my mother was trying to lure them away from us, I had to look after my baby sister; and fend off any of the Cabal that actually managed to find us."

"Then how did she end up where she is now?" Lara asked, not trying to make him feel bad, just trying to do what an archaeologist did; dig up the past.

"I did what any teenager in that position would most likely do; rebel. I'm not proud of it, but I left her where she was safer; with Mason's family. A few years later, I heard my mother had passed away, and I juggled the decision of going back to look after Morgan, but I just couldn't. I was waist deep in my own crap – something that I was meant to call my life – I had business with people that weren't meant to be messed with, I couldn't bring a kid into that."

"So you left Morgan wondering who that fun, intelligent, handsome, fantastic man was? A little girl thinking back to her past, who instead of seeing 'mummy or daddy', saw a man that she had no clue who he was. You were one of the first people she ever loved. You were the one person that ever truly showed her love, but you let that go and left it unrecognised when you left to rebel. What was it? Fight in the Foreign Legion? You'd rather fight for someone else's country than the war between the Cabal and the Lux Knights? And then go off and join a mercenary recruitment? Whatever happened, Kurtis, must have hurt you bad." she sighed, releasing her grip on his shoulder and standing up, making her way over to the library desk, leaning her back on it, still facing Kurtis.

"They didn't screw me up, I just didn't want to follow my roots. Perhaps I regret it now, but the matter of the fact is, I would still do it again and again if I had the chance. Morgan being stuck with me, not knowing her mother and father wasn't a proper life for a baby. I left her in Mason's care, and he happily took responsibility for her."

"By the sounds of it, you didn't leave her with Mason, you dumped her on Mason, to go away and cause chaos wherever you went." she crossed her arms against her chest.

"That's the whole point. If I hadn't left Morgan, she would have gotten killed. She wasn't safe with any of her true family members. My father was fighting in the war, my mother was hiding, and I was getting hunted down. They didn't call me the Demon Hunter for nothing."

"I don't doubt it." Lara muttered under her breath. "How old were you when you left Morgan?"

"I left to join the Legion when I was nineteen, she was only two."

"What if she does remember you?"

He looked up at her this time, "What?"

"Well, I have memories from when I was two, and how could someone ever forget you?" she smiled, trying her hardest to make Kurtis smile. "I wish I could forget me." he chuckled, and Lara sighed, feeling that she had at least done something to make him not feel so bad on himself. "But now that Karel's got her, I feel like it's my fault. That if I hadn't left her all those years ago, she might still be safe."

Lara shook her head, "No. You can't blame yourself for what's happening now, you may have done wrong in the past, but you can still change the outcome. Who else knows?"

"Mason, you." he sighed "And Karel." he stood up again.

"Karel? How does he know?" she pushed off the desk. "He hunted the Lux down, remember, and he's not an idiot. He knows what he wants, and everything about what he wants." he said, walking so that the distance between them closed a little. Lara rubbed the back of her hand, scratching at the dressings that covered her wound from earlier that night. "We'll get her back, Kurtis. We've done stuff like this before, this shouldn't be that bad."

"You seem to forget that Karel is immortal, he knows that Morgan is my sister and that we don't have any lead to where they are."

"We'll just have to keep working until we do. We'll get her back."

"I know we will, I'm just worried about what Karel will tell her."

"It's a little late to be worrying, is it not? You had all that time to tell her, but you continued to let it pass away. You seemed like the brother and sister type, though." she chuckled. "We'll get her back, we might not have any information at this moment, but we still have time, we'll find something eventually."

Darkness surrounded her senses, nothing open but her hearing. Some sort of light was coming from somewhere, but only a hint of it was being let in, forcing her to let it pass over. She felt something around her wrists and wriggled her hands in it's grip, only to find that her hands were bound together. Her breathing was heavy and her hearing was heightened, knowing that something bad was happening. "Get the lights." Morgan heard an all too familiar voice say. A burst of light entered the room, and she scrunched her eyes up as it hacked into her head, seemingly trying it's best to make her head pound the most it could.

Surprisingly, she could open her eyes without a problem, seen as no-one had covered them with a blindfold. Her blue eyes immediately set on Karel's figure who was standing smugly beside his group of mercenaries. She glared up at him as he continued to smile, "What am I doing here?" she spat, earning a disrespectful look from the rest of the people in the room. "We need your help, Morgan, and you're going to give us it regardless of whether you want to or not." he sat down at a table opposite the chair she was tied to, lifting his feet up onto the desk. "I'm not doing anything to help you." she hissed, trying to get a mental grip on the ropes binding her hands. "Hear my offer first, and then you might change your mind." he folded his hands, his fingers interlocking together and he rested them on his lap. "Offer?! I'm a fifteen year old hostage! What sort of offers would I want to listen to? Go and nick a packet of Monster Munch from the shop for you?! It's not as if I can help you and your overgrown apes here do anything! And what would I do? Nothing. There is no way I'm helping you unleash Hell on Earth. I'm fighting this fight my ancestors lost, and you can't stop me!" she screamed at him, focusing all the pain she had gathered throughout her life on this one man, while focusing her mind and thoughts on trying to get her hands free.

Karel shot up, fire in his eyes, giving an almost unnoticeable nod of his head. As soon as he did so, a guard quickly came to Morgan's side, backhanding her. "You have some mouth on you for a Heissturm, nothing like your father or brother." he bit his bottom lip, trying to think of a strategy to get the information he wanted out of Morgan without having turned deaf. "What are you talking about?" she asked, quieter, a lot quieter than the tone she had used before. "Oh, did I mention something you didn't know?" he smiled smugly again, happily telling Morgan something that he had no right telling. He walked closer to her and she leant back, still trying to get her hands free. "If you give me what I want, I'll leave Mason, your brother and his little girlfriend alone."

Morgan snapped her head up at him, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You can stop your loved ones getting hurt, Morgan. Help me achieve my goal and they won't be harmed."

"I won't help you, I've already told you. But what are you talking about? I don't have a brother!"

"Kurtis, Morgan." he laughed, sitting down on the table while two guards stood behind Morgan in case she needed to be restrained; something that would more likely happen than her keeping calm. "He's your brother, not that it matter's now, of course." he grinned smugly again, making goosebumps find their way onto Morgan's skin. She looked down at the ground, not really caring about what else was going on. This man had obviously cracked his pot, there was no way Kurtis could be her brother. Someone would have told her. No one would have lied to her about something as important as that, would they? "Give me what I need and no harm will come to them."

"You're lying. There is no way on this Earth he is my sibling, and I'm not helping you. I'm a pawn in this little game, running around after Lara and friends., running away from you, not even being given the option to fight or not. They can take care of themselves, what would losing me matter?"

Karel pushed off the desk and began to pace the room. "I'm losing my patience, Miss Heissturm. Where are they? You are very relevant in my task, and I'm positive your brother shan't give me what I need. You both, are remarkable people among the physic world. And that could all change in the words you speak in these few moments. I need you. And your resistance would be futile."

"He's not my brother!"

"Then explain this, why is it that only you and Kurtis can open the box of Heissturm? Why is it your surname is Heissturm, and Kurtis' father had the exact same surname. Kurtis' last name is not Trent, it's Heissturm. A drop of you or your brother's blood is the only thing on Heaven, Hell and Earth that can open that box, and I want it open."

"How do you know about that box? Mason has had it under lock and key since I've known him."

"Things spread when you need them to. I'm growing impatient, where is your brother, Lara and Mason?!" he was getting fed up and his temper snapped. He had tried to get what he wanted gradually, but Morgan wasn't the type of person who would make that easy for someone else. "I don't know!"

"I've had enough of this." he sighed in frustration and turned to exit the room, waving his hand in the air on the way out. Morgan looked to her right as a guard smiled, before he lifted a gun to her head, striking her with it, the last thing she saw before she blacked out the butt of the gun.

"What is it, Alister?" Lara asked as she entered the tech room, Kurtis following her. Alister had shouted for them to come down, sounding rather excited about what he had found. "Take a look at this." he beamed as he moved away from the metal desk, pointing at the object that lay there. The box of Heissturm was sat on the table, Zip sitting in his chair just in front of it, edging back slowly as if he expected something to jump out at him. Mason stood on the other side of the desk, nodding for Lara and Kurtis to take interest in the box. "What about it?" she asked, moving to the side so Kurtis could see. "Touch it." Alister said, making Lara look at him as if he were mad. "Why?" she asked. "It's generating some sort of energy that is keeping itself from causing or receiving harm." he said. "What type of energy?" she asked. "The type that tries to kill you if you're not Lux." Zip said. Lara turned back to the box. "We tried to scan it for any way to open it, and it triggered a self-defence mechanism. Except, not the type of self defence you two might use." Mason chuckled, looking up at Lara and Kurtis, "More of the self defence that doesn't harm anyone. It wouldn't let us touch it, so I'm guessing that's the shield of protection." he gazed down at the box again.

"Wait, if you're Lux Veritatis, then why is it not letting you touch it?" Lara asked, reaching her hand out, slowly running it over the metal desk that the box lay on. "I'm not a Heissturm." everyone in the room then looked up at Kurtis, expecting him to know what to do. "How could you not touch it?" Kurtis asked, slowly reaching his hand forward, as if he were debating silently to himself whether to touch it or not. "We just...couldn't. It's sort of hard to explain, like it started radiating this energy and our...my first instinct was to touch it. There was this barrier that just....appeared when we reached for it. Alister tried it, with the same outcome as me and then when Mason tried, he could touch it, but not without getting a nasty burn." Zip sighed, putting his hands behind his head. "Is that why you think this has something to do with Lux members? The Knights can get farther, but not far enough." Lara said, rather matter-of-factly. "Exactly."

"I think Morgan might have something to do with this." Kurtis said, turning his attention away from the box and to his peers. "When I was about fourteen, I was getting chased down by a group of the Cabal. I can remember my father coming in with the box and it started giving off the same sort of energy you're describing. It only happens when a member of my family has a major adrenaline rush. Either her adrenaline levels have kicked in to try and keep herself safe, or she's incredibly scared. She might be making the box giving off this energy without knowing she's doing it."

"And hence the reason why it's called the box of Heissturm." Lara smiled.

"Yes." Kurtis reached out for the box again, "But what if it's not just to keep itself safe. What if we can use this to find Morgan?"

"I'm listening." Lara said, turning to face him. Kurtis took his hand back, putting it by his side, "If Morgan is causing this, then she might be connected to it somehow. I'm not sure, but if I go into farsee, maybe I can connect with the box to reach Morgan."

"But that still doesn't explain how it can actually connect with your blood relatives. If it can't be open, then how can we...use it?" Alister asked. "Because it can be opened. Only with blood." Mason said. "With blood?" everyone looked up at him. "I stayed up last night, looking over the box. Of course, it has similar markings to other Lux artefact's, but this one cannot be controlled by any psychic. It was passed down through Kurtis' generation, meaning that it has never strayed away from his family. If any of the Heissturm's blood spills on that box, it will open."

"Then why don't we open it now?" Zip asked.

"Because if we open it, we would be doing exactly what Karel plans to do. It opens a portal in Cappadocia that is the gateway to Hell."

"Or in our case, the gateway to Hell and the thing that will let the Nephilim roam the Earth." Alister sighed. "That's exactly why we can't open it, not yet anyway."

"Then let's see if it let's anyone but Kurtis in." Lara reached her hand out, trying to wrap it around the box to pick it up, but she quickly snatched it back, shaking it as a burn began to form. "It doesn't seem like it. How long do you think it will take to find Morgan?" she asked Kurtis. "Not long. Five minuets at the most, it depends on how long I can hold the link with the box." he shrugged.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"If I don't then we might not get Morgan back. I can't risk that." he sighed, stretching his arms out in front of him. He felt his mind escape his body, his presence lingering in the room before he went for the box. He felt his being getting pulled in, and then everything was black.

Lara watched, ready to rush to Kurtis' side in case he suddenly collapsed. The only thing she could see of his eyes, were their whites. She stood and watched as he swayed backwards and forwards, but there was always some sort of breeze near her, like he was suggesting he was still there. She looked behind her to Alister, who was standing with his mouth on the ground, grinning as much as his face would allow him to. She turned her attention back to Kurtis as Zip shot up and Mason made his way to the other side of the desk. Kurtis was shaking violently and suddenly collapsed to the floor, his breathing heavy. Lara rushed to his side, kneeling down beside him as he opened his eyes. "Are you OK? Did you find her?" she asked, helping him up.

"I've found her." he smiled.

AN: I'm sooooo sorry for the late update!!! Believe me, I had to re-write this chapter LOTS of times, but I finally settled on one. It was the starting of it that I never really liked. Anyways, I WILL update on Tuesday. :-P