Chapter 15

Atlantis

Her mouth was agape as she stared in awe at the sac, huge in size and girth. She drew both of her pistols, slowly aiming them at the thing moving around inside. Finally the bottom of the sac broke open, blood and fluids covering the entire area around it.

A giant legless, skinless Atlantean abomination fell out, his weight causing the entire cavern to rumble. His large, hideously deformed face was covered for the moment as the monster reached up and covered it with his large, muscle-bony hands.

She finally snapped out of her trance and open fired, the Atlantean giant screaming and bounding toward her with one single, fluid movement. She dived to the side, several of the bullets connecting with the things head. It rolled off the ledge, Lara relieved for a moment that the thing went down that easily-

-but had to quickly perform an athletic backflip as beast suddenly vaulted back up on to the platform, landing where she had stood moments before. She continued to fire, the thing taking several swipes at her as she ducked and dived, barely missing them. Finally I reared up and went to grab at her, bringing its hand down with frightening force.

She heard wet-snapping sounds as thick black blood suddenly spewed from its wrist, the large hand getting caught in a crack near the ledge.

Lara brushed several locks of hair from her eyes and quickly open fired, trying to sever its huge, monstrous hand. It used its free arm to slam the ground, causing her to stumble and lose her balance. Finally the abomination tore its own hand off, wanting to free itself and kill her as quickly as possible.

Natla had used the Scion to create some pretty disgusting monsters, but this thing was definitely the worst of them all. She continued to fire at it, moving backward toward the edge as much as she could, a plan forming in her mind.

"Timing has gotta be perfect…"

She emptied the clips into the beast, reloading them to continue the process. Finally, just as she expected, the Atlantean came barreling toward her, and she dived away, the thing rolling off. She open fired on its hand that held on, breaking off its thick, slimy fingers with the hot lead.

Finally the creature's remaining hand shattered, and it fell from the platform screaming and thrashing into the hot molten lava below, drowning pathetically in the sea of magma. She turned back toward the large opening that the sac was now hanging above, careful to avoid as much of the amniotic fluid as possible.

Ahead she saw a flowing river of red-hot magma, and the corridor came to a stop. She saw a circular rock platform sitting in the middle of the lava, and saw to the right another platform a hop away, then there was a small 'lavafall' where she could no longer go.

But thankfully, protruding high from the molten rock was a pole she could perch on, then the cave turned left and she couldn't see anything further. She jumped to the first rock, worried at first that it might sink into the lava, then jumped to the one near the edge, now able to see around the corner.

There was a platform, with a switch on the wall. At the far end of the room she saw an opening on the right wall and a passageway that extended further. She eyed the pole closely, watching as it swayed slowly as the lava rocked the base of it.

"Better make this quick…"

She jumped to it, extended her arms to help her balance-

-when suddenly the pole started to sink further, dipping down very quickly. She jumped toward the platform one handed, hoping for the best-

-and caught, pulling herself up as the wooden pole slid smoothly underneath the lava flow. She pulled the switch here, the platform she was standing on starting to slide into the wall. But as it did this, another ledge started coming out of the far wall ahead, allowing her to hop over and continue through the connecting corridor.

Here the chamber opened up, and she could see a large door to her left. She walked carefully over to it, peering inside. There was an octagonal shaped pool of water, glowing hieroglyphics going up all sides of the cavern wall, casting a soft orange and amber glow.

She heard the distinct sound of the hooves, and jumped back as an Atlantean centaur came bounding out, neighing like a horse.

It skidded to a stop, but not soon enough, as it tripped and fell into the lava pool at the end of the room. She felt relieved, but couldn't watch the poor creature slowly burn to death. She headed into the inner cavern, seeing an underwater tunnel extending further into the caves, blocked off however by two circular gratings.

She saw on the far wall there was a device made to slide downward on the cave wall, a pressure point above it. She strode over and pulled down on it, drawing a pistol with the other hand to shoot the now fully exposed bull's eye. One of the gratings slowly slid open, creating pockets of air bubbles that rose to the surface of the pool.

Over near some streaming magma was a pile of rocks, which she clambered over to find another hidden wall sliding device, this one broken and the amber runes not glowing anymore. She shot the pressure point several times, finally activating it.

She hurried hastily over the rocks, and saw the second and final grate had opened halfway; enough, however for Lara to fit through.

She heard one of the fluid sacs hatch, and saw a bat Atlantean soldiers fly down. She peppered it with bullets, tearing the wings as it was in mid air. She dived to the side as its carcass came tumbling toward her, slamming against the pile of rubble, dead. She stood up, reloading and then holstering her pistols, then approached the pool of water.

She dived in, passing through the tunnel after lighting a flare to see. It winded past some broken fragments of onyx, and she had to swim past some rocks to squeeze her way through the underwater path, but finally was able to surface in a quiet, gloomy chamber. Ahead she saw more streams of lava pooling from the ceiling, adding to the already steady flow going right.

She walked down the corridor, the heat and temperature increasing alarmingly, and saw that down below the scalding lava room was a ladder, extending into unexplored territory.

There were some stone pieces still showing in several places, and from what she could see below was a ladder, still standing against the extreme heat.

Several flaming balls of rock would occasionally fall from the stalactites above, causing for some extra bit of caution as she lowered herself down from the ledges, trying to keep several feet between her and lava flow. She dropped, landing on a stone rock in the middle of the lava pool.

It began to tremble, and she heard the deep wet sloshing sounds as it slowly started to sink into the molten rock. She jumped forward, landing on another smaller rock, and it to started to sink.

She then jumped to a lip jutting from the wall above, flame piece now falling inches from her body. She saw the Atlanteans had set up a flame trap around the corner, making the otherwise simple hop to the end much more difficult.

There was a gold and onyx bar that would occasionally come out from the wall for a short period of time, and if she timed it right past the flame trap then she could jump, do a nice spin and land on the other ledge no problem. She waited, then leaped forward, grabbing the pole-

-but one hand slipped as a piece of flaming debris fell on it, making her quickly let go and land haphazardly on the ledge. She patted her hand off, looking around to make sure she wasn't in any more immediate danger.

"Not your average child's tea party, but I think I could get used to this…"

She climbed up the ladder, finally seeing light shining in from the impossibly high ceiling.

"The tip of the pyramid…?"

Lara strode into the ceremonial chamber at the top of pyramid, eyeing her surroundings. Several stone pillars were circling the room, accented with glowing symbols.

She heard the flapping of wings, followed by a deep red glow that came speeding in from the opening in the ceiling. The strange, bat-like creature swooped in around the skylight, hovering to stop.

It was Natla! Her skin was charred and red, glowing markings going the length of her body. Her long blonde hair was now replaced with a terrible mystical red flame shooting up from her skull, piercing beady red eyes replacing the fake human ones.

"Thousands of years I've waited for this moment! Do you realize what you've done?!" She screeched, throwing her hands up in a fit of rage. Lara drew her pistols and aimed them toward the Atlantean Queen.

"The blood on your hands! Do you believe it was spilled for the good of all man, or for your own selfish desire?!" She looked away in a moment of thought.

"Look inside yourself Lara, your heart is as black as mine!" the queen barked.

In a blinding white light Natla shot three fireballs simultaneously, each one exploding right after the other. Lara did several spins, followed by a forward dive, missing each ball of inferno by mere inches.

She began firing toward Natla's mutated, true form, trying to destroy her wings as she flew around Lara, almost like a vulture circling something dead. In red streak Natla had flown overtop of Lara, growling and swiping at her. She shot up several times blindly, trying feebly to knock the bat demon from hell away. She heard Natla screech, and saw she was now flying lopsided, and much much slower.

"No just get the other wing, and she's done for…!"

She ejected the magazines, quickly loading in fresh ones to send another torrent of the 9mm shots. Natla launched several more white-hot balls of energy at Lara again, this time the projectiles slamming into one of the large, Atlantean columns that supported the top of the pyramid.

The structure rumbled again, becoming weaker now that the Scion had been destroyed. Natla spiraled to the ground, skidding to a stop on the ground. She emptied the rest of the clips into the fallen Atlantean, then reloaded quickly, keeping her eyes locked on her unmoving figure. She leaned up, and Lara quickly aimed her guns back toward the demon-

-and she suddenly sprung forward, wrapping a single hand around her neck, lifting her up off the ground and close to her demonic face.

"I cannot die you ignorant fool." Natla said, smiling. She tossed Lara easily across the room. She rolled, then skidded to a halt, crouched.

"Sooner or later, you'll run out of bullets." She said, an evil smirk on her face.

She open fired, a hazy red orb forming around her, causing the bullets to bounce like rubber. She then raised her arms, a single bright white ball forming above her head-

-and was instantly shot forward, Lara scrambling to the ground, covering her head with her hands. She felt the giant projectile whiz past her pack, exploding a huge section of stone from the wall behind her in a deafening BOOM. She stood up, ejecting the magazines, her pistols becoming hot. Natla reared back as she reloaded her final clips, flinging one of her damaged wings forward. Lara aimed the weapons forward-

-but was taken by surprise as her wing sent both pistols flying from her grasp. Natla reared back-

-and Lara flipped over as she leapt at her, claws extended. She landed and turned to see Natla spring off one of the pillars and leap at her again, this time grasping each of Lara's shoulders in her firm grasp. She lunged her backward, making her crash sideways painfully into a column. She was on her stomach, and managed to lift herself up off the ground.

"What have you really accomplished here?! Nothing! Just a temporary stay of execution for your kind."

Lara felt her lip curl up in anger, her breath coming in shallow.

"This island is only one remnant of Atlantis! I will find another! But you Lara, you have lost everything!" Natla put her hands together, a bright fire forming between them as she prepared another fireball. Lara looked up and saw her pistol lying a few feet away. She jumped up, diving forward to barely miss Natla's projectile.

She grabbed the gun and stood up, aiming it directly toward her face. She fired, the bullet catching her temple. She howled in pain, clutching her head.

The entire pyramid began to rumble, and Lara spotted a pillar shaking dangerously behind Natla. She reached back and grabbed her grappling hook and threw it as hard as she could, getting it caught on one of the edges. She pulled back with all her might, causing the giant column of stone to fall forward. Natla looked up, anger flooding her face. Lara smiled as the Queen looked back-

-and her scream was silenced as the pillar crushed her entire body with a deafening explosion.

"No, I haven't lost everything…" She whispered. The whole structure began to crumble, lava spewing from multiple cracks quickly spreading throughout the onyx pyramid. Another giant column fell, breaking a hole open near the ceiling. She quickly started up the column, the smooth onyx becoming hotter and hotter to the touch.

"…This place is gonna blow…"

She reached the opening and stood up running, the corridors going by in a blur. She jumped and grabbed a ledge high up, quickly vaulting and continuing her sprint, barely breaking stride.

Finally light hit her eyes, and she was suddenly careening downward as trees and vegetation went by in a blur, the ocean overlooking the mountain as the pyramid began shaking tremendously. Several humongous boulders rolled past her as she was sliding downward, crashing into the ground below and exploding into millions of tiny rock fragments.

She jumped the last several feet, rolling as she hit the ground and jumping up as the pyramid was suddenly engulfed in flames. She heard an earth-shattering explosion, hundreds of fiery debris launched into the sky.

The explosion propelled her forward, giving her just enough time to slide smoothly into the cold ocean water in a swan dive. She heard rocks crashing all around her, entering the water by the dozens, and was swimming on pure adrenaline as Natla's yacht came into view.

"My last escape…My only hope…!"

She climbed up the ladder, scrambling over to rev up the engine. It took several minutes to slowly pick up speed, all the while Lara glancing back as the entire island was slowly transformed into a hellish inferno.

There was a great volcanic eruption of lava where the pyramid had once stood, Lara fearing that the entire island may soon explode. She hit down full throttle and locked in cruise control, looking back as the Lost Island of Atlantis slowly burned in the explosion of the Great Pyramid.

No one could ever go on her word alone that she had unearthed the Atlanteans most prized artifact, the Scion, and destroyed it in order to protect the human race from certain destruction by Natla's evil scheme to bring about the 'Seventh Age'. She had killed a man in there, and now realized that it was the right and only just thing she could have done.

She removed her favorite round sunglasses from her backpack, hiding her brown eyes as she stretched out on the yacht, drawing a pistol and staring as the island exploded in one final eruption, the boat speeding into the clouds of an upcoming storm.

"Its gonna be a long trip back home…"

But somehow, after all she had seen and been through, Lara Croft was content and eagerly awaited to arrive home to tell of her exploits.