I'm sorry it's taken so long to post this chapter, I've been really wrapped up in my YouTube mini series, but now that my hubby and I are preparing to move into our first house I have more time to focus on the sequel ^_^ The next couple of chapters have already been written.


Blinking the sweat from her eyes, the heat and humidity is beating down on her, regretting not wearing shorts as her form fitting cargo pants are not releasing the heat. Her upper chest, belly and all down the middle of her back are glistening in sweat. Hands are dirty from the tree branches and rocks she's been holding for support, her pony tail is swishing back and forth on her upper back and her bangs are curling and getting stuck to her forehead.

She reaches up to wipe at her forehead, and thus rubbing some dirt on there as she looks out at the new view. Some bushes on this very steep climb down, lots of rocks and boulders, tall weeds and the odd tree here and there, the terrain looks quite uneven as it goes up and down in juts here and there all the way to the bottom. Across from the bottom is a stream leading to the next giant hill full of lush forest, the next mountain that the waterfall should be within.

"Phew… he wasn't kidding," Liam says as he too is soaked in sweat and regretting his attire, having unbuttoned his khaki shirt and tied it around his waist to wear a navy, sleeveless shirt under and cargo pants like herself. "I should have learned from our last adventure together… technically together," he waves off the last bit and reaches to his belt to pull off his water bottle and takes a few gulps. Making sure to conserve.

Lara removes her own bottled water to take a couple of gulps, savouring the taste, feeling uncertain about replenishing in the creek. However she knows she'll take a dip in the creek to help cool herself off, with her clothes already sticking to her all over, why not dive in?

I could call and ask about the water here, I don't know if they need to boil their water here or not, I forgot to check… I was in such a rush to get here before Trinity and Frutana Corp. Mentally she kicks herself, "I forgot to check to see if we need to boil the water here before we drink it or not."

Smirking at her back as they start to step around the rocks, he keeps his hands up and manoeuvres himself to balance with some of his steps due to how uneven the ground is. "We sadly have no way of boiling it," he answers and watches her hop onto a large rock, get her balance right away and step down carefully. "What do you plan to do with it?"

Side stepping around a large rock, and moving around a large thick bush, Lara crouches down to place her hand on the rock she's standing on to do a small jump down to the dry grass below. "I don't know honestly… knowing that it is responsible for hundreds of deaths over time doesn't exactly keep it in the favour of staying in tact for long. At the same time… do I have the right to go and destroy my third artifact in a row?"

Chuckling, Liam follows behind her but jumps down next to her, slipping slightly, "technically the Wings of Light are your third artifact and you haven't destroyed them the last time I checked." At this Lara nods in recognition.

"True… I threw away the Golden Hand of Midas to keep it out of greedy hands, now I have two companies on the hunt for the Wings of Darkness that is far worse than the hand. I wish I could protect it from anyone using it ever again," Lara says and at the same time hears and watches a bullet ricochet off the rock in front of her. "Shit! Where are they?" she asks and hurries to the boulder in her path just ahead of her, leaping over it to the other side for cover and whips out her bow.

Liam follows behind her, leaping on top and then jumping down gracefully on the other side, no sense in doing a flip when you don't know what you're about to land on. He spins around, pulling out his gun and looking over the rocks, surveying the area above them, in the corner of his eye he sees Lara is doing the same thing with her bow, two arrows drawn and pulled taught.

Both of their eyes widen, out of the tree line, 21 soldiers step out with guns, Lara's heart starts to race at the implications before her. "We can't take them all on… we can't fight them here… we have to run," Lara whispers to him and he looks at her.

Feeling an adrenaline rush starting to pump into his system, fight or flight, his eyes dart back to the men starting to walk towards them. "We need to take out as many of them as we can, take turns; shoot then turn and start to run, hear the next shot then you turn and shoot again. We cannot afford to trip up on the way down, got it?" he asks, feeling his training kicking in, knowing that it is going to be risky to put their backs to the men ahead of them. At the same time they're sitting ducks.

"Got it… I'll go first, I've already got two arrows drawn… when I say go," Lara says and Liam nods, knowing she'll be able to see the nod in the corner of her eye. She lines up her arrows with the two that are in plain sight, nothing to obscure her marks, feeling a bead of sweat drip down along her left temple and she releases.

Each of her targets gets an arrow in the chest and that opens the flood gates, every man lifting their guns and opening fire. Lara turns to put her back to the boulder, slinging the bow over her head and starts her hustle by taking two large steps and leaping, she listens to Liam fire off two rounds.

A man gets nicked in the arm and the other gets shot in the throat, his hands reaching up to try and stem the blood that starts gushing out instantly. The other soldiers keep going as though nothing has happened, pausing with shooting to move around the rocks and not wanting to get tripped up in their attack.

Lara lands on a patch of dry grass and turns around, whipping her bow out and taking out three arrows this time all while Liam is now jumping down and just catches himself in his landing. Liam drops to his side to slide off a large boulder and takes cover behind it.

She lines up her targets as fast as she can, releasing just as a bullet flies past her right ear, the sound sending a chill up her spine and sending goose bumps to rise up along her arms and her back. She only lets her eyes linger for a second as one arrow hits a guy in the middle of the chest, another in the face and making him topple over backwards as he was working on stepping onto a large rock and the third one nails the guy in the throat.

Standing up Liam pulls out his gun again as Lara turns around to see where he's at and feels the muscles in her legs pumping as she runs to jump off next to him, seeing some small chunks of grass to the left and fewer rocks she takes off. Bouncing down the mountain as fast as she can while listening to Liam firing, glancing over his shoulder to see if she's gotten cover yet. He watches her spin around with her bow; he turns around and decides to take the path to the right, a pile up of rocks almost as though a landslide happened.

He jumps, being as nimble as he can, arms out for the balancing act of stepping on rock points, then onto rocks that aren't in place and leaping onto a larger one, he stops to spin around. He watches three more of the men fall and the soldiers are not even half the distance anymore. How'd they close the gap so damn fast? His mind screams in frustration.

Lara then feels it, a bullet goes off the outside of her left thigh as she turned to start moving away, she gasps and falls to her knee briefly, planting her right hand onto her good leg she forces herself to stand up and run. She moves between two bushes and runs to fall and slide off a boulder and hit the ground with a thud to her back, hearing footsteps gaining on her as Liam fires off more rounds.

Feeling dread build up in his gut, especially when he heard Lara gasp, he watched her go down partially and then pushes herself to keep going. Keeping an eye on her in the corner of his eye until she was relatively in safety. He looks ahead to see a group of them closing in on him and getting better cover as they do so.

Firing off two more rounds before turning and immediately almost toppling over due to the oddly shaped rock he steps on, in the distance Lara has her arrows pulled and looks over at Liam. Her eyes widen when she sees a soldier climb up onto the rocks, he is scrambling after Liam, slipping and fumbling with his footing as he launches himself.

Turning her first arrow, she pulls it taught and lets it fly, watching the arrow fly, she doesn't need to watch it make its mark. Liam hears a thud and bones cracking, he spins around while whipping his gun out to see the soldier on his side, with an arrow in the side of his head, turning his attention to Lara he watches her attention for a second that she is focused on the guys in front of her.

She can hear her heart beating in her ears as she turns to view two soldiers barreling around the rocks, the one pulls his handgun out and lifts it. Using her last arrow Lara lets it fly to nail him between the eyes, but as he flops onto the ground, his friend emerges from behind and launches himself at her.

Liam turns back around, the base of the mountain is almost within their grasp, he jumps off the last of the rock pile to hear Lara grunt and to hear a thud. He looks over to see the second soldier has tackled her, hands on her shoulders into the ground behind her; she has used the momentum to her advantage and flips him up and over her head.

Lifting his gun as he gets his footing to shoot the guy, his gun is thrust upwards by a set of hands, he looks up just in time to get an elbow in the nose, blood flowing from it right away. He doesn't let it distract him, he releases his grip with his right hand and grabs the shoulder for the elbow that hit him and yanks him into him, slamming his right knee into his gut. The man wraps his arm around Liam's waist and effortlessly lifts him upside down, this startles Liam and then the man tosses him the last few feet to the bottom of the mountain. Smacking his head on the grass ground, grunting he looks up to see the man barreling down to him.

Lara meanwhile looks up to see her assailant flip to his feet and charge at her just as she gets to her feet, her mind racing as he swings his right fist for her head, she evades and he oversteps. Taking advantage of this she spins to kick him in the back with a sideways kick; he staggers further and braces himself against the boulder she was using for cover. She goes for her gun, pulling it out as he barrels into her, knocking her onto her back and her gun falls to topple a couple feet away. He then straddles her and looks down at her with a grin.

Fear creeps into her mind, this guy is huge and he has total advantage over her, "well Croft… looks like my employer over estimated you," he sneers and pulls back his right fist. Fear gripping her heart, her blood running cold as her hands feel around the ground frantically, her left hand finds a pointed rock. Wasting no time she smashes it into the side of his head as he brought his fist down to punch her, her hit knocking his head to the side and making his fist miss easily. He partially falls onto her and slumps back to look at her, dazed, she forces herself to move onto her right side and looks up at her gun.

Meanwhile Liam has been rolling on the ground with the last soldier, the man pulls out his knife and Liam shoves him off, flipping to his feet as the guy does the same thing. His hands open, legs apart in a stance ready for whatever the other guy throws his way. Come on… come on… we need to finish this he thinks and the guy finally lunges at him, bringing the knife down.

Catching his wrists, Liam clenches his teeth as he feels the guy is stronger than himself, but he still pushes, the soldier putting more force into bringing it towards Liam's head. Thinking fast, Liam side steps on a set of rocks, moving to the side and letting the guy use his own force against himself. Swinging and shoving the knife into the soldiers abdomen, the guy grunts and tumbles forward onto his face.

Liam then steps over him and onto a rock as he turns to check on Lara, the rock he is stepping on shifts, flopping over and his ankle twinges, making him go down onto his knee awkwardly.

Digging her toes, knees and fingers into the ground as she pulls out from under him, feeling breathless as he grunts and grabs for her right thigh. "You're not going anywhere!" he cries, but his speech is slurred, her fingers grasp for the gun frantically, brushing against the steel of the handle, she feels him holding her down again, putting pressure onto her lower back. Her heart feels like it is going to burst through her chest, a gunshot rings out and she hears the man fall to the ground with a thud.

Resting her head on the ground briefly she looks over at Liam to see him kneeling on the ground awkwardly. "Thanks… are you okay?" Lara asks and sits herself up, checking on her leg to see only a bit of blood coming out, nothing serious.

Grunting, Liam looks up the mountain that they were rushed down, "I did a dummy… get all the way to the bottom and that's when I pull the dummy," he stands up and hobbles along. Lara stands up slowly, brushing herself off, she feels her heart rate start to slow but her adrenaline is still on a high, she looks at him and raises her right brow.

"You twisted your ankle?" Lara asks and he nods, turning around to see the creek just a few more feet away she walks over to Liam, taking his left arm and moving it around her shoulders. She helps walk him to the creek, he doesn't grunt, he doesn't whimper, he pushes through it like she knows guys do.

Within less than a minute they reach the flowing creek and she helps him to sit down, before them in the thick woods again. He undoes his laces, tugs the boot off and grunts at the discomfort while removing his sock, placing his foot in the cold water, relieving the pain that was beginning to build up.

He sighs happily, looking up at Lara as she heaves a sigh, stretches her limbs as she stands up, "soak your ankle," she looks behind them at the mountain they left. The sun is causing a beautiful amber glow to be cast over everything as it is setting, for the first time since getting shot at she's feeling the temperature dropping. Returning her attention to Liam, "I'll get you a crutch, keep soaking your ankle," she starts into the woods.

Doing a solute, "yes Ma'am!" he smiles, sitting back a little, feeling the sweat that soaked his clothes now feeling a refreshing cool as well. He unties his shirt from around his waist and drops it into the water, soaking it up to wring out above his head and clean up his face.

As Lara walks into the woods, she can hear the crickets chirping, the little feet scurrying about, the flashes of some of the eyes as they spot her in the dark. Slipping into the creek she kneels in it, letting the cool water help wake her and allow her adrenaline to ease away. The sound of the water flowing is soothing to her ears, nothing else around her but nature.

Eyes adjusting to the dark, Lara knows she'll need more than night vision to help her in these thick woods and pulls out a glow stick, snapping it and shaking vigorously she holds it up. Stepping out of the creek which is flowing through many large rocks, she smiles as she spots a large tree branch lying across the rocks. Snapping the glow stick to her hip she walks through the water, not caring that her shoes are soaked you've been through worse.

Picking up the branch, she gives it a quick look over to be sure it isn't about to snap as soon as he puts pressure onto it, turns and walks back to find him dabbing himself off with his soaked shirt. "Where's the concierge soap?" Lara asks and Liam makes a thinking face and looks over his shoulder at the mountain.

"Shit, I think it must have fallen out of my pocket somewhere on the hill," he runs his left hand through his hair and in the corner of his eye watches Lara scoop up water into her hands and splash her face. Turning to look at her, "you can use my shirt if you want, it isn't covered in sweat like this one is," he indicates his sleeveless.

She shakes her head, "I'll be fine," she looks over at him and smiles, the amber glow giving him a nice outline, his smile relaxes her. He's got my back and I've got his… he proved that today. Not that I doubted it she reminds herself and splashes herself again. She looks back into the woods and frowns, "we need to keep moving," she looks at him and he nods.

He stands up slowly while taking the branch from her and moving it under his armpit, and picking up his shoe and sock with his other hand. They start to go up along the creek, following the outer edge of the rocks and into the dark woods. Having her gun drawn, Lara keeps an eye ahead of them for any animals or anyone from Trinity, not wanting to get ambushed, her eyes darting left, up and right.

The deeper they get the more the ground starts to slope up and she can hear the waterfall in the distance, the light of the sun escaping with only the light from the glow stick to show her the way. Hands are steady, she listens to his steps behind her, his breathing is even and they stay quiet.

Lara gives a small shudder as the night air feels like it wraps itself around her, sending chills up and down her spine, hearing the waterfall getting closer. A rustle of leaves to the left startles her, she swings her gun out in the direction to see nothing there could have been any number of little critters coming out at night.

Feeling the cool mist of the waterfall Lara finally sees the pool of water and glances around to be sure no one is watching. "I'm going to dive in to see if there are any passages," she turns to face him, "think you'll be okay on your own for a little bit?"

Chuckling, Liam nods, "yeah, I'll enjoy the view. Don't worry about me," he sets himself down onto one of the large rocks that are surrounding the pool of water to pull his sock and shoe back on.

Holstering her gun she takes a step onto one of the large rocks. Moving to the edge she looks into the pool, no idea how deep it is she takes a deep breath before diving in. The icy waters hitting her like doing a belly flop off the diving board, but not nearly as bad as jumping off the train tracks and into the ice water in Syria to avoid being shot up by a helicopter. The cold water chills her to the bone, but in a way that it almost soothes her. Technically getting cleaned off from all the trekking and running today in the heat.

Feeling thankful again for the glow stick as she swims around the pool of water and looks for any sign of a gap in the rocks. Lara feels around and starts to get pushed away from the far end due to the rush of the water from above, she goes lower, and lower till her hands touch the bottom and she looks up. Smiling to herself as she sees what looks to be a spot of black ahead, using the floor to help guide her she swims along to the opening that is a tight fit.

Extending her hands she grips the rock on both sides and pulls herself through and along the little tunnel until she sees the water starting to brighten up just a tad. Looking up she sees she is in a small cave behind the falls how is it I keep finding caves or cave systems behind waterfalls? She wonders as she angles herself up and kicks till her face is met with air. Gasping she looks around, seeing her breath just a tad in front of her as she glances around at her surroundings. There is a jagged edge to the far side which is probably about a 10 by 10 foot little cave, she swims over to the ledge and her eyes land on it.

An aluminum box latched shut with a lock; she reaches up to pull her bangs behind her ear as she gets closer and examines the ledge. "You aren't overly long or wide… but for the time being you'll be our bed for tonight," she shudders, takes a deep breath and goes back into the water.

Meanwhile Liam has been enjoying the sounds of the forest, his gun drawn as the last thing he wants is to be rushed by a wild boar. Not having seen Lara pop up within less than a minute told him that she found something, he wets his lips please be safe Lara… I know you work fine on your own, but now that I'm a gimp I don't like being unable to protect you. He almost jumps when her head emerges from the water, "I take it you found a room for us?" he jokes, remembering her comment about the soap.

Nodding, "yes, come on in," she smiles and goes back under. He wastes no time to dive in, happy to have the cold water on his ankle again. When his head breaks the surface on the other side he almost whistled, but knows it'll echo and alert anyone who could be trying to find them outside to get a closer lock on their location.

Lara hoists herself up on the ledge and moves so her back is to the wall, watching Liam pull himself out of the water, giving only minor grunts as he gets onto his knees and sees the box. He does a double take and looks at Lara, "really?" he whispers and she nods, "have you looked inside?" Turning himself he pushes the box closer to the back corner to give more space to lie down.

Placing her hands onto her lap, Lara shakes her head, "no… I will in the morning," she answers and he looks at her quizzically.

Propping himself up on his elbows and letting his bad ankle go over the edge to sit in the cool water, "you trust Tahir that much?" he asks in curiosity.

Looking down at the pool of water they just swam through, her mind going back to the conversation she had earlier that day with Tahir and his father. "Yes…" she reaches into her left thigh pocket to pull a granola bar out, opens it and takes a bite out of mint chip, Cliff bar. "I saw it in his eyes, and even when we left I continued to see the fear in their eyes. They're terrified of the Wings of Darkness and they're terrified for their own people… his father wants it gone and in the morning I'll make that choice."

Taking out his own granola bar they both eat in silence, not realizing how hungry they are until taking their first bites. Taking only a couple of mouthfuls of their water to preserve it, knowing there is still the trek back to deal with.

Her adrenaline rush gone, her body feeling fatigued even though she hasn't done nearly as much as she usually does while out on an adventure. I haven't been chased by a helicopter, a gun torrent, missiles, a bear… no hanging on by the skin of my teeth to survive she unlatches her glow stick to move it to the wall. Thankfully those things can go for over an hour usually she looks down at Liam as he pulls his foot out of the water and rotates his foot.

"Come and lie down with me, we're both soaked and need to rely on each other's body heat to stay warm," Liam says and Lara nods knowing there's no way to make a mini fire in there. That and there's nowhere for the smoke to go so they'd be suffocating themselves for heat brilliant deduction.

Lara moves onto her left side along his right side and smiles down at him, he smiles back and for the first time in a while she takes in his cute smile. Resting on her elbow she continues to look at him, her eyes traveling along his jaw line, his lips to his nose and resting on his eyes. Even though she cannot see every detail in the dim glow of the yellow glow stick, she will admit she does find him quite handsome.

His dark hair, five o'clock facial hair, chiseled body, and as her eyes come to rest on his she stares into them. These eyes once held a job… chained to the ceiling and his hands moving my shirt up to threaten to sexually assault me for information… then his words 'I don't do that' before lowering my shirt. Now… I see something different in his eyes… he's dedicated to helping me, to protecting me. But there is something else there too she continues to stare into his eyes as he stares right back.

"You're attracted to me…" Lara whispers and Liam nods, reaching up his left hand to caress her right cheek. But as his hand touches, her heart aches, watching his eyes she reaches her right hand up to take his hand. She holds it for a moment before gently pulling it away and seeing a small look of confusion in his eyes, "my heart is with Sofia."

Giving a soft smile, Liam nods, "I understand… come, let us get some rest," he lets his left hand rest on his chest. He watches her lower her head onto his chest and he wraps his right arm around her back, it doesn't take long for Lara to feel the comfort of his body heat and her eyes already growing heavy. "She is a lucky woman," Liam whispers.

Lara smiles, her hand resting on his chest as her mind forms Sofia's face, feeling a longing to look into her eyes and get lost in them. "We're both lucky."

To Be Continued…


Phew! I hope you liked what happened here. In the end I feel too strong a pull towards Lara and Sofia, but for those who'd like to see Lara and Liam there will be an alternate ending for this chapter. Please review! I love reading them! While I was writing the action scene I kept playing "Remains" by Algiers over and over, I heard it on The 100.