Out Of Time

AN: Yes, another late update. So from now on, to stop that, I've decided to update every Monday, which will make it a HELL of a lot easier for me.

Imaginary by Evanescence

Lara stepped off her Ducati, Kurtis mirroring her actions. She tightened her fingerless gloves on her hands and looked behind her as a black van also pulled up beside them. Zip rolled the window down of the tech van, letting Lara see in to where him, Alister and Mason were sitting. "You sure this is the place?" he asked as Kurtis and Lara walked up to them, "Positive." Kurtis said. "Hey, you're the psychic, just making sure." Zip laughed. "It's just too close." Alister said, moving so he was in everybody's view. "We've seen worse, Cornwall, remember?" Zip smiled.

"Ah, the most distinct route for trying to discover Avalon. A dual carriageway." Alister laughed. "This isn't so close if Karel actually wants us to find Morgan or not." Lara sighed, tightening her holsters around her thighs. Rain splattered onto the ground beside them, making mud cover her boots. "Well we're going to find her either way – and we're going to get her back." Mason said, coming from the back of the van where he had been sitting with the box of Heissturm. He was watching over it carefully, as Kurtis had instructed, in case it made any unexpected connections with Morgan for any reason. "Should we get going, then?" Lara asked, sounding somewhat cheery for the situation. "There's nothing like breaking into a building to cheer you up on a typical British day – weather wise, of course." she smiled. "If you say so," Zip said. He turned back and reached into a small duffel bag he was carrying with him and pulled out two sets of headsets. "There's a camera joint onto it, use these to keep in contact with us at all times, we can see what you see through the camera's, kay?" he asked. "Will do." Kurtis said, accepting his pair of equipment. "Let's get going, the sooner we get Morgan back, the sooner I can get back to killing Karel." he laughed. "Right, on we go then." Lara said, rubbing her hands together to try and get some heat flowing through her body.

Her and Kurtis turned away from the van, scanning over the area for the quickest way to get in. The building was just like any other abandoned one – a warehouse, with walls that still stood well and it was located in the middle of nowhere, so no one would even think of looking there for anything suspicious. But Lara and Kurtis had been through their fair share of 'unexpected locations' during doing the jobs that the did. The warehouse had seemed a bit too close for comfort for both Lara and most of the rest of the group; practically being around the corner from Croft Manor. She walked towards a drain pipe nearby, jumping up to grab it. She let go of one hand, looking down to Kurtis who was beginning to make his way towards it, "This is probably our quickest entrance." she said, before climbing back up. "What happened to the good old fashioned front door?" he asked sarcastically as he caught up with her. "Dying." she rolled her eyes as she continued upwards. "Why can't we just kill them instead of them killing us?" he laughed. "Because it's most likely Gunderson guarding the door, and I would prefer to kill him on a one to one battle." she grunted as she pulled herself up from the drain pipe, standing up on the roof. She looked down as Kurtis got closer to the roof, "Now you're just taking all the fun out of it – and the piss. I wanted to kill that bastard, you can take Karel." he pulled himself up, standing beside Lara as she looked down at the glass roof of the warehouse.

She smiled as she looked up at him, "Oh, how generous of you, Mr Trent, how gentlemanly of you to give me the immortal one to dispose of."

"I do try my best." he waved his hands up in the air, his signature smirk decorating his mouth. "Is that our way in?" he asked, leaving the joke as it was. Lara sighed, "It's my best guess."

"Nobody's down in that area," Alister informed them over the headset, "How are we getting in?" Kurtis asked, hugging his jacket as the rain became heavier. Lara simply pulled one of her pistols, firing several shots at the glass before kicking some shards of glass away with her boot, she looked up at Kurtis before she jumped in, landing with a grunt before looking back up. "Like that!" she shouted up to him. Kurtis rolled his eyes before following after her. He looked around as he landed, "Are you sure that was a good idea? What if someone heard us?" he asked, checking to make sure they were alone. "Coming from the man who just insulted my decision to make sure we weren't seen my anybody?" she chuckled before tapping into her headset. "Zip, where do we go from now?" she asked. "I don't know, there's some interference with the camera signal, I can only hear you."

"We're not even a mile away from you....?" Kurtis reminded them while moving forward to check the halls for any mercenaries that might have heard the glass shattering. "These guys are good, real good, they know what they're doing, so they have skill in keeping me blocked with some signals." he sighed. "Why can we still hear you, then?" Lara asked as she caught up with Kurtis. They checked that the coast was clear before they stealthed forward, their guns in their hands in case they needed to use them on any threat. "I've not worked that out – it might not even be them causing the gap, it might just be a bad signal, but you have to stay with us at all times. If something happens to you, we have no way of figuring an escape route for you."

"Who said we'll need the help?" Lara chuckled as she walked ahead of Kurtis, checking around a corner before moving around it. She looked as she saw a door to her left, scanning through it, she didn't see anything important – at first. After walking forward a few steps, she returned to her previous position, looking hard at the room as if she knew something was there, but she just couldn't see it. Her eyes landed on one spot, the Bamburugh Beast striking out to her. "See that?" she asked Kurtis, moving to the side so he could see. "Karel mentioned something about it before he took off. Do you think we should take it?"

Kurtis ran a hand through his hair, "I think we should do what we came here to do, then we can worry about anything else."

Lara nodded her head and sighed, "You're right, we should get Morgan." But something was nagging her in the back of her mind, like she shouldn't be giving up so easily. It was that small voice again – something she was supposed to call her conscience. That artefact stood out to her, and whether it was for the right or wrong reasons, she wasn't quite sure. "Lets go." She turned away from the door, putting her pistols back in their holsters. She tapped into her headset once again, "Zip, any luck with the signal?" she stopped again, turning to face Kurtis who was slowly walking towards her. "We can find your location from the tracker on your headset. We still can't see where you are. We can still direct you to where you need to go, if Kurtis can describe the route his mind took to find Morgan once connected with the box." Zip sighed at the other end. Lara looked behind her as footsteps were heard coming closer and she looked up onto the ceiling. "Would the vent be a good place to start?" she asked. "As good as any, yes." Alister said.

Lara reached up above her, pulling the handle of the vent grate before it eventually came hanging down. She looked to make sure that no one was coming again, and then back at Kurtis, "Ladies first." he smiled. "On you go then." Lara shot back with a smile. Kurtis rolled his eyes, before moving to the side to let Lara get up to the vent. He bent down, cupping his hands as Lara placed her foot between them. He grunted as he pushed her up and stood up straight to see her crawl into the vent. He jumped up and grabbed the edge of the vent, pulling himself up behind Lara. He quickly reached down, pulling the grating back up from where it hung at the entrance to the vent. He watched through the holes of the grating as a group of three mercenaries passed below them. He sighed as they passed through, not noticing anything above them.

Kurtis turned around to face Lara. "Close one."

Lara got down on her knees, "This is only ten percent luck. Where do we go from here?" she asked, sitting still. "Erm, try going straight for a while and drop down at the opening. Turn right and follow the corridors until you find an opening. From what Kurtis told Mason, that looks like the place where his mind started off."

"Thank you." she said as she crawled forward, Kurtis sighing before following close behind. Several minuets later, they found themselves at the second grating. Lara peered down the slits in the metal, making sure it was safe to go down before she opened it, jumping down. She bent her knees as she landed, and looked up to Kurtis as he also jumped down, joining her on the ground. They both turned right, and looked down at a dark hallway. "Is this ironic or what. You're on a 'rescue mission' and you have to travel down a dark, spooky hallway."

"It's hardly a spooky hallway when you have guns and you know how to use them." Lara laughed. "What's going to be there, a scary monster?" Kurtis rolled his eyes, "Hey, I'm supposed to go to an effort to make this stuff up." Zip said over the headset. "Uh-oh, you better get to somewhere safe, and quick, someone's coming."

Lara hid herself behind a corner, Kurtis close behind her and she peered around the corner, "I don't see anything." she whispered. "That's because it's an invisiblescary monster and it's a dark, spooky, hallway." Kurtis rolled his eyes, making Lara laugh. "You take the piss out of me, and I'm not going to help you down the hallway." Zip warned, but he was still laughing. "Okay, your monster is about there." Lara looked back behind the corner, this time seeing a guard coming towards them. She pushed her back up against the wall, balling her fists as the guard walked out of the hallway. She stealthed up behind him, covering his mouth with one hand as she wrapped her second one around his throat. Quickly and cleanly, she snapped his head to the side, dropping his body to the floor as it lay still. "Some monster." she laughed. Kurtis began to walk down the hallway, removing his gun from it's shoulder holster as he advanced. "This is it." he nodded, "This is where the box brought me."

"She's going to be safe, and we're getting her back." Lara reassured him. "Where do we go from here?" she asked him. "This carries on straight for a while, only with a couple of doors. I think there's a T junction at the end, and if we turn left and follow the other corridors we come to a door. She's in there." he sighed, "What am I supposed to do once we find her? How am I supposed to tell her?"

"You'll be fine – I'm sure she'll understand." she nodded. "But if we don't get going soon, there might not be a Morgan to tell." she squeezed his shoulder. "As lovely as this is, shouldn't we be getting back to business?" Alister said. "Yes, lets go." Kurtis sighed, walking forward.

Lara followed after him, looking around the corridor as they progressed. "Has anything strange happened to the box?" she asked. "No, not yet." Mason's voice came from over the headset. "But I'm still on the look out. We don't know if Morgan's adrenaline levels will rise again, and if it does – and if what Kurtis said is true – then it would trigger a reaction with the box. We'll keep it safe, don't worry."

"Thank you." she gazed around the dark hallway, switching her LED light on. She hugged her jacket and looked up as droplets of rain leaked through a hole in the ceiling. "Not a very secure building." she sighed. "Maybe that's why Karel's using it." Kurtis suggested, also switching his LED light on to light the passage in front of him. "He could have cleaned it up a bit." Alister chuckled. "Well, when you're trying to bring Hell to Earth, Alister, it does take up some of your free time." Lara said.

Lara and Kurtis continued down the hallway, just walking straight until they came to the T junction. "Are you sure it's left?" Zip asked. "Positive, why?" Kurtis said. "I just can't see anything to the left, but if you saw her there, then on you go."

"Actually, how is the signal now?" Lara asked, stopping to adjust her camera to see if it helped Zip with the signal. "It's getting better, but I'd rather use the way we're keeping in touch with you now than risking it just to see what you see."

"Very well." she began to walk again, jogging up to Kurtis. They both turned left down the hallway, being able to see better from the lights hanging both on the walls and from within the rooms the corridor held. She hesitantly began to walk down, but stopped again when she saw something that might be of importance – again – in a room. She looked over the desk that was in the centre of the room, resting her alerted gaze. Scanning over the sheets of paper, she saw archaeological blueprints for what looked like an underground passageway, and also some notes beside it. She looked harder, but to no avail, as she was too far away. The only thing that seemed to stick out to her, though, was 'Cappadocia' written in the only font big enough to read. Something else was written underneath it, which seemed to be of more importance due to it was underlined.

"What is it, Lara?" Alister asked, Kurtis walking up to her. "There's something written on that sheet of paper, but I can't make it out."

"I would take a look if we had time, but we are racing against the clock here." he sighed, rubbing his head. "You go ahead then, she's your sister. I'll see what it says myself, I didn't say anything about needing your help." Lara said, taking a few steps back. She kicked her leg up, breaking the door off it's hinges as Kurtis sighed again. "We don't have that much time, be quick." he explained, turning away from her. "When have I ever lacked on a time trial?" she shouted after him, chuckling. Kurtis turned around, smiling. She returned the gesture, leaning against the wall. His smile grew, and she found herself placing her hands against the wall, just trying to support her legs that threatened to turn to jelly at the sight of it, "Oh I don't doubt it, Ms Croft." he turned around again, swaggering slightly, over-exaggerating the length his arms swayed, similar to the way she had seen him walk in Prague before he turned around again waving a two fingered salute, "Happy snooping." and that half-smile of his was back. A smile she hadn't seen in months.

Lara rolled her eyes as she entered the room, quickly jogging up to the desk. She smiled as she picked the sheets of paper up. Scanning through it, her smile immediately dropped. Having a hint at what she might be reading, she scanned through the few paragraphs. This was what they needed Morgan for – they wanted her blood; and then they wanted her dead. But there had to be more to this, they wouldn't just kidnap someone, take something as little as blood and kill them. Or maybe they would. But something was missing, something she couldn't quite figure out. Why did they need Morgan's blood? What use would it be to them? The possibilities and theories raced around in her head, and searching for an explanation, she turned her head to the top of the page. Looking over the words, she read aloud, "Cappadocia – Nephili Veritatis."

"What, Lara?" Alister questioned over the headset. Nephili Veritatis? Was this some kind of a joke? Was there a cult of Nephili considerably exactly like the Lux Veritatis. Underneath it, there was a brief note, that when everything was explained to her in those few sentences she read, she feared the worst for the girl that was sitting in that room; being held captive by Karel. They were going to turn her into a Nephilim. They weren't planning to kill her as a being, but her as a Lux. From the notes that were scribbled on this, she could tell that they were in deep trouble. She startled as she felt the cold steel of a gun at the back of her neck. She gritted her teeth as a thick German accent came from behind her. "Ms Croft, it's been a while. Didn't anybody ever teach you to mind your own business." Lara closed her eyes as she felt him reach down and disarm her of her pistols, then pushing his gun harder into her neck. "Didn't anybody tell you not to experiment on young girls?"she raised an eyebrow at him, her hands balling into fists. "Of course, that's left to imaginative teenage boys." she could hear the smirk on his face in the tone in his voice. That was enough to make Lara's rage levels hit the roof. She quickly spun on her heels, lifting her fist to strike it across Gunderson's face, but she gulped when the solid steel of the gun came into contact with her chest and before she knew it, a bullet ripped it's way into her flesh.

AN: Well, if you know me but AT ALL by now, you know that I love my cliffies!!! So on Monday, there WILL be an update, and from now on, I'll update every Monday, which will make it A LOT easier for me. So, see you all then :-)