Phew it has been a long time and I apologize for that. I did have this chapter done back when I'd written the others but when I stopped getting reviews I stopped feeling the drive to continue. Happy though that I wrote so much in advance and only posted a chapter now and then, however the story isn't complete yet but I just finished the next chapter. Thank you RooneR for your encouraging message to continue the story.

WARNING: Torture involved.


Stepping out of the car to the front door of the house, it's 10:00 p.m. and Lara hears her phone beep and looks at it quizzically as she sees a text from Jonah okay… you didn't hear the car pulling in? She selects to view it. 'Hi Lara, we lost power about 30 minutes ago, I suggested to Winston that we go out and pick up some pizza. Figured you'd enjoy the carbs ;) '

Smirking Lara looks up at the house, "that and a hot bath," which causes Liam to give her a confused look, bag in his right hand. She smirks at him, "we lost power 30 minutes ago apparently, Jonah and Winston went out to get pizza, they figured I would appreciate some carbs."

Liam pats his stomach with his left hand, "ooooh pizza… yeah they'd better make it a stuffed crust," he blinks as he opens the front door, "wait, they didn't try the backup generator?" he looks at her from over his shoulder.

Raising her right brow at him, "I didn't think we had one, it's such a big house it would drain the power really fast," Lara comments and Liam smiles at her as he closes the door behind her and they use her cell phone to illuminate the way ahead.

Walking down the hallway, Liam turns to face her, "I guess I forgot to mention that I have two set aside, one is always plugged into my computer system," he points up at the ceiling as they reach his little office. "I didn't want to risk it, power or no, I wanted to ensure you'd be protected. But before we left in this case I had it turned off for your privacy," he reminds her and within a few seconds his monitors are lighting up. "There is another back-up, you can plug an assortment of things into it, charge your phone, plug in the coffee maker," he turns to her and winks as the camera feeds start to flicker to life.

Lara lets out a yawn, not realizing how tired she is and stretches her arms above her head, "hmmm I'll ask Jonah to pick something up, a nice hot tea would be appreciated, but first," she glances down at her dirty, torn clothes. "I think a change in clothes is in order," she smiles and glances at the bag, "better put those away," and walks out of the security room.

Going to a small register in the wall, he pulls at the corner to have the wall paper with the register come away, revealing a small safe hidden there. Turning the dial left and right for the combo, and places it inside. Careful to seal it back up and ensure no one will see what it truly is. Setting himself into his seat he starts clicking and typing, glancing around at the surroundings.

Still using her cell phone with the flash light app to guide her way, yes she knows these hallways, but with no street lights and being as tired as she is she doesn't want to risk walking into the doorframe. Touching the cool door handle, that familiar feel, a couple of days in the wilderness, she didn't even hunt this time, and it already feels like she's been gone from the wilderness for too long. I love the adventures… I love going out there… but – she looks up at the lights turning on suddenly.

Stepping into her room she is greeted by the bed sheets that beckon to her, the cushion of the mattress to just lie there and drift off, the cozy covers that she can pull across her shoulders as she drifts off. Smiling to herself she walks into her bathroom, moving to the sink she looks in the mirror and frowns at herself.

Bruising already setting in on her face from the back hands and hits, the dirt on her face and in her hair still from the grenade that went off, the scrapes, damage to her clothes from it all. It's nothing compared to Yamati she turns on the tap and makes her hands into the shape of a bowl I still have to give Sofia a call she collects the water in her hands and splashes her face. Rubbing at her forehead and cheeks, then scooping up fresh warm water to rub a little more to get the dirt off and try to feel a little refreshed.

Turning the tap off Lara reached to her right at the wall to pull the little towel from its holder, dabbing her face dry.

"LARA!" Liam shouts from down the hallway, she looks up and immediately sees a man is standing directly behind her, wearing a mask to cover his whole head and fully in black. He grabs the base of her neck and slams her head into the mirror. She gives out a small cry and grunts, her head throbbing, her nerves shot. The glass cracks on impact, creating the base of a spider web where her forehead hit, lifting her right knee she strikes out behind her to catch him in the knee.

The man groans and staggers back for her to turn around, he grabs for her arms, but in return she slams her forehead into his nose. Crying out, he loosens his grip on her just enough for her to yank free, she grabs his right shoulder and yanks hard while thrusting her right knee up into him. He grunts and bends over for her to get a grip on a belt loop for his pants with her left hand, then planting her right hand onto his upper back she shoves him head first into her bathroom mirror.

Shards of the mirror fall on impact and he falls to his knees, groaning with his head resting on the rim of the sink. Taking the back of his mask with her left hand, right hand on the rim she slams his head into the rim, she watches his body slump to the floor, her eyes linger briefly on the sink at the blood from his face that is left.

Turning around she races to her bedroom door, a figure climbing in through her bedroom window where is Liam? I need to get to my weapons to better defend myself against these people! She reaches the door just as the figure lands in her room, swinging the door open she stops in her tracks, her eyes widening in shock.

Liam has a cut to his left eye brow, blood trickling down next to his eye; he looks at her apologetically as the nozzle of a shotgun is resting against the back of his head. "I'm sorry… I saw them too late on the cameras," his pride wounded and now at the mercy of whomever the intruders are.

Feeling a gun nozzle to the back of her own head, Lara notices each of the intruders are fully covered in black.

"Where is Raph?" an older sounding voice comes from the hallway where she cannot see but knows it is to her right.

"She took him out," the man behind her says in a Russian accent, she then hears clapping coming from the man who spoke and she then watches him come into view, walking around from behind Liam.

Sporting a 5 o'clock white beard, his hair is white and grey combed back, a midnight blue dress shirt, beige slacks and dress black leather shoes. "Come, let us talk in the Library?" he suggests and she watches as Liam has his arm tugged on to walk down the hall, the nozzle is pressed into her upper back and she follows after him.

Walking down the brightly lit house and once at the split off to the front door on the right, the kitchen ahead, study/library on the left, they turn and are met with two more men who are waiting there with AK47's. How long until Jonah and Winston get back? She looks between the men as she gets closer and watches the older man stand between them.

The picture window overlooking the backyard is to her right, her phone for Sofia is behind the one new man on her right behind him, a wall of books behind her and a couple of shelving unites across from her. A few cozy chairs are in the room, one next to the phone, another behind her to her left and looking to the left corner nearest the hallway is another. The pizzas could take 30 minutes, so it could take them… 20 more minutes until we have help arrive?

Taking the chair that is furthest from her; Liam is being held in front of her, two guns on each of them to keep them from doing anything dumb. She watches the older man as he moves the chair to sit off to the side between them.

He clears his throat, "Where are the Wings of Darkness and Light?"

Liam keeps his eyes on the floor; Lara stares at the man and takes a deep breath.

"Who are you?" Lara asks and the older man lifts his right hand to stop the one directly behind her from hitting her with his gun in the back of the head.

"My apologies, I forgot my manners," he straightens his back, sits back, crosses his right leg over his left, places an elbow onto each rester, and clasps his fingers together cooly. He knows he is in control and isn't afraid to show it, "my name is Alister Star, I work with Trinity and I'm here on their behalf to obtain what we know you have in your possession. I ask again," he looks at each of them. "Where are the Wings of Darkness and Light?"

Shit… I should have known they'd make a comeback… I did the leg work and now they'll just swoop in while we're drained from our little mission Lara and Liam remain silent this time, her eyes are locked on Liam's shoes.

In the corner of her eye to her right she sees feet moving towards Liam and listens to him give out a grunt as the butt end of the AK47 strikes him in the abdomen. Her eyes go up to his face to see him doubled over, then she feels a sharp jab to her ribs from her left and she falls to one knee, clutching at her rib. The sudden jerk to go down to one knee caused the pain in her forehead to flare up, groaning she touches her head.

"The Wings of Darkness were destroyed," Lara says and Alister sighs in irritation.

"Is that so? But you brought them back, we saw him carrying a bag into the house. Where is that?" Alister asks and he looks at Liam for the answer. "Lara left the security room without them, so where is the bag?"

Liam stares at the floor, and one of the men lift him onto his feet and punch in him the jaw, Liam staggers back but keeps his lips sealed. Liam won't give them up, I know he'll take a beating… the question is. When they chose to turn to me… how long will he hold out? Watching him from a couple of feet away.

The man who had the shotgun on him earlier slams it into Liam's left knee; he gives a cry of pain and falls onto his side, grasping his leg, perspiration on his forehead and in his hairline. Lara looks at the guy next to her with his own assault rifle and glances at Liam I need to do something; I can't just stand here and do nothing!

Clenching his jaw he tries to use his other leg to kick at the attacker, the guy stumbles back and Lara turns to her one gunman but he quickly pulls his gun up and points it at her head. "Nice try Lara… they've read your file and know how capable you are… well at least most of them did," Alister comments as the guy attacking Liam kicks him in the ribs.

He must be referring to the guy in the bathroom… trying to take me out instead of apprehending me she smiles inwardly but watches Liam in worry as the man continues to kick him in the ribs. To her surprise, Liam grabs his leg on the fourth kick and punches him between the legs making the attacker howl before collapsing onto his back clutching his groin.

The man with the AK47 nearest to him gives Liam a kick to the back, "get up," he orders, his voice having an Australian accent.

"You can go f-" Liam is cut off by the man stomping on his bad knee making Liam scream.

Lara's eyes dart between each of the guys in her field of vision I have to do something! Jonah and Winston are taking too long! Her eyes shoot wide as lightning fills the room; goose bumps line her skin at the upcoming storm as she looks out the window. He doesn't care about what he does to us… he could have men guarding the front door but the way he's behaving, fully relaxed… he knows he won't be disturbed. This can only mean one thing. "You cut the power on the house," Lara says and listens to Alister chuckle.

"Yes… I was hoping your friend and butler would leave, if they didn't then there'd just be more participants but that means keeping more people in line, watching more twitches," Alister waves his right hand off like the whole thing is a nuisance. "I always get what I want in the end," he grins wickedly.

Hugging his side, looking a shade paler, most likely a broken rib that he's trying to protect, he keeps his eyes on the ground. "Where is the bag?" Alister asks again and Liam says nothing.

Looking over at Lara, Alister wets his lips in thought, looking at the man with the AK47 he gives him a nod, without warning he strikes her in the lower ribs on her right with the butt of his gun. She almost goes down, Liam watches in alarm as he realizes they've changed tactic. She clutches her side and looks at the man as the other one kicks out the back of her left knee, she goes down on her knee fast and feels him grab her pony tail and yank down before hearing steel getting pulled out of a sheath. Within a second feeling it pressing into her lower base of the neck I won't go down that easily! She turns without a care of the blade cutting her upper chest as she does so and elbows the guy behind her with her left elbow to the inside of his thigh.

He lets out a yelp, taken off guard and loosens his grip enough for her to grab his knife arm with her hands and using her upper body strength she heaves him up and over her shoulder. His feet hitting Liam's but he ignores this and watches the other men who are close by. Liam rolls away from the group to get onto his knees, even though it sends scorching pain through his leg he twists around for one of the guys coming at him to bring his weapon down at him, "that's getting old!" he says as he grits his teeth, dodging the attack, grabbing the man's wrists and yanking him down next to his friend.

After Lara had tossed her guy onto his back, her adrenaline pumping, she quickly spun herself to roll him onto his stomach and twist his knife out of his hand while pinning his arm behind his back. Looking up just in time to see the AK47 guy come rushing at her, she brought the knife hand up, blade down and slashes at him as he attempts to tackle her off his partner, catching him up the thigh, up the hip and to his lower waist.

The man collapses onto his side while she continues to hold the other guys arm pinned down, she looks up in time to get the other man charging for her, the one Liam had nailed in the groin. He wraps his arm around her throat as he pushes off from a kneeling position and shoves her onto her back, making her lose her grip on the other guy.

Her chin at his elbow, he tightens his grip and plants his other arm behind the back of her neck and squeezes while wrapping his legs around hers, rolling onto his back. Her air flow cut off completely, she reaches her knife hand up and thrusts it down to his side, but is stopped, her eyes search frantically to see Alister had grabbed her wrist and is kneeling down on her right. She tries to swallow, but due to his man's arms she can't get anything up or down, the loss of oxygen causes her to start to squirm. Oh no! Releasing the knife she wraps her hands around the beefy arm, she pulls frantically and tries to pull her knees up to kick but his legs have her pinned.

Alister looks up at Liam who has just set his eyes on Lara's predicament, "let her go or you get nothing," Liam warns and that's when Lara feels the blade slide across her abdomen. It doesn't cut but she can feel the sharp edge move along her shirt, the edges of her vision start to darken as her lungs are burning for air.

"Tell him," Alister indicates the guy that Liam pulled onto the ground who then stood up, "where the wings are, and then I'll let her go." Looking down at Lara to see her eyes are rolling up, "you really aren't in a position to be making demands young man," he moves the tip of the blade to hover over her stomach, holding it straight up, the tip tugging on the fabric of her shirt as her chest is heaving for air.

Liam's eyes dart from her struggling body to Alister, and back, watching as her legs finally stop bouncing under the larger mans legs and her grip is loosening on the huge arm. His heart is hammering against his ribs, he can hear it in his ears I don't want them to get the wings… but I can't let her die for them either! ARGH! "They're in a safe to the left of my desk hidden behind a fake vent in the wall!" he yells in his frustration.

He watches as Alister pulls the blade away from Lara and the man holding her releases his choke hold on her, his heart lifts in his chest at the sound of her gasping and coughing for oxygen. Rolling onto her hands and knees, each of Alister's men are on their feet and the man who'd pinned Lara down pulls Liam to his feet. The others wait patiently for Lara to stand up, Alister starts making a tisking sound with his tongue.

"I've got to hand it to you, I picked out these guys as I felt they could handle you Lara… but she managed to get the jump on Dimitri, you continue to surprise Trinity," Alister comments as his man returns.

"There is a safe, but it has a combination… not digital," the guy says and to this Alister starts tossing the blade into the air above Lara, catching the tip of the blade, and tossing it again to catch it again.

Staring at Liam as he continues to toss the knife into the air, Lara takes a few slower breaths as she feels her body regaining the control she needs. She looks up to see the fear and anger in Liam's eyes, her head turns up to see Alister is standing directly in front of her. Behind him is the hallway to her front door, she purses her lips and stands up, he stops tossing the knife as she is now face to face with him.

"Your quarrel is with me," Lara's voice is slightly raspy, but she keeps her back straight, "leave him out of this," she stares into Alister's eyes, he grins back at her just before using the butt end of the knife to punch her in the left cheek. She staggers back a step, feeling her teeth having cut the inside of her cheek with that hit, blood pooling around her tongue this bruise is feeling better and better she thinks dryly before turning her head to face Alister.

Without warning she takes a step towards him and spits the fresh blood into his face, this earns a strike to her lower back with the sole of a boot, the force knocking her to fall to her hands and knees. Liam is shaking with anger making the muscle guy wrap his arms around Liam's under arms tightly.

Alister reaches up slowly to wipe the blood from his face, looking at it in amusement; he takes out a handkerchief and cleans his hand off. "The code, if you please," he says casually, the one who'd returned stands before Liam and punches him in the stomach, again and again, earning grunts and groans with each hit.

Turning her head she watches as blood starts to trickle out of the corner of his mouth internal bleeding… these bastards! Clenching her fists, "its 55, 10, 18," the hits stop and she listens to the footsteps as they fade away.

"Why do you do this to yourselves? You put up a front but because you care about each other, you're not about to let the other get hurt for the things we're after. Now…" Alister kneels down in front of Lara, placing his fingers under her chin, forcing her to look up at him, "where are the Wings of Light? We've already checked your security footage; you were smart to shut it all down before leaving." A wicked, chilling grin spreads on his face, reaching his eyes. "Did you share this information with him?" he points his thumb at Liam.

Returning with the bag, he dumps the contents out onto the floor to prove what was said was true, Alister sighs and looks at the man. Giving a curt nod, he walks over to Liam again and reaches to his back pocket to pull something out, Lara can't make out what it is, but watches him take Liam's left hand and grips his wrist to keep him from squirming. "I'm going to get my results."

Lara looks at him and stands up, she tries to get to the man to stop him but the other two guys grab a shoulder of hers each and hold her back easily. Fists clenched, she feels fear gripping her veins as she watches them slip a metal thing over his finger, her eyes widen in recognition. No… I won't let this happen! She locks her eyes with Liam; he's shaking his head and mouths the word 'no'.

'I'm sorry' she mouths back, watching him pull and kick harder to try and get free, but they hold him firmly, the guy is about to squeeze to break his index finger. "He doesn't know where the Wings of Light are and if you harm him," Lara turns and presses her index finger into his chest. Staring into Alister's eyes as his man pauses from breaking Liam's finger, "I promise you'll never know because I will never tell you where they are. I am the only one in the whole State who knows where they are. Harming him will get you nowhere."

Lifting his right hand he snaps his finger, a set of hands take hold of each of her biceps and holds her firmly, she looks at each of the men who are holding her. Liam struggles in the larger mans arms to get free but he cannot, "you leave her alone! I'll tell you where it is!"

Getting pulled away from Alister and turned to be across from Liam again, lightning flashes through the room a few times for rain to start pouring hard against the window to her right. Lara watches as the guy who was about to harm Liam turns to her and punches her in the stomach. She grunts instantly, but is unable to bend over to the pain due to the other two holding her up effectively. Glaring into the eyes of the man before her, "your all cowards," she spits.

"Three guys on one woman! Seriously! This is taking it too far!" Liam shouts and Alister steps up, tisking the man before her.

"I like a challenge," Alister says to Lara, "I've read the notes as to what Liam did with you for your first round of torture," his eyes turn to see Liam pale at the mention of it. "He and his partner… beat you pretty good… a crow bar… cold water… electrocution," he turns to Lara and can see the gears are turning in her mind. "He never broke you my dear," Alister moves in real close to her, she can feel a chill go up her spine at the proximity and his words, "I fully intend to break you… in your own home," at this the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and Liam struggles harder in the man's arms.

"Don't you f-" the guy who'd been doing the harming pulls a gag out of his pocket and places it over his mouth to keep him from talking. This makes Liam enraged, kicking, dropping his weight, twisting, anything he can try but the man holding him doesn't budge.

Alister stands before Lara what're you going to do? What must I endure to keep this secret? To keep that which does not belong to you, out of your hands and protect everyone else? Jonah… I wish you could come smashing through the back window... I need you. She watches Alister walk out of the room and return with a black leather, zipper close the top bag. He sets it onto the chair he'd been using earlier and opens it up nice and slowly, pulling a lighter out along with a combat knife.

I need you Sofia… but the last thing I want is this monster hurting you. She watches as fear starts to set in, panic, her biceps feeling a little slick under the men's sweaty hands but not enough to get free. Their massive hands hold her tightly, she pulls hard, then harder and tries to kick at their legs or Alister's as she watches him ignite a plain silver zippo lighter with a black gripping rubber around the middle and place the knife over the hot flame.

His eyes boring into her, watching her squirm in delight, holding the blade and very slowly moving it along a quarter of the length of the blade and going back to the tip. Lara can feel sweat dripping down from her hairline, to her jaw and down her neck, her eyes on the zippo as the flame is blown out and he holds the knife expertly.

"I won't lie, this is going to hurt… a lot," Alister warns and faintly she can hear Liam's muffled screams, she does everything in her power to try and pull away from him, but his men keep her in place.

Lara belts out an agonized scream, a sharp cutting, and fiery explosion of pain to her left side, cutting through her shirt just above her bottom rib. No matter how much she tries to pull free, kicking at Alister, nothing works as he takes his time with her to do something particular. Her eyes turn to Liam to see his face is beet red, his veins look like they're about to burst from his arms and forehead, but her vision goes blurry.

Blinking she feels tears streaming down her cheeks, into the corners of her mouth and others down to her ear, around her ear lobe, and down to her neck with the sweat that has accumulated. She can't help but to whimper as Alister finally pulls the knife away and smiles to himself, watching her hang her head and slump forward. The pain is still there, scorching through her whole left side, her nerves shooting pain up through her left arm and across her torso, she turns her head to see blood soaking through her shirt, the smell of burnt flesh wafts through her nose and makes her want to gag. She finally notices a particular design he did. Those aren't just cuts… she swallows a lump in her throat what did he do to me?

"I like to sign my name on those who get my… special treatment, if you survive through this," he waves the knife around in the air as though discussing a theory, "you have something to remember me by. You can't say that 'STAR' etched into your side doesn't sound like the new… hip thing?"

Lara feels bile rise up in her throat, she stops herself from letting it come out, swallowing it back down, her body trembles, feeling the cool air from the storm outside meet the sweat that now covers her body from the fear that is starting to take hold of her. No one can get me out of this… not this time… Roger is in Japan… she feels more tears spill down her cheeks unwillingly and Alister stands before her chuckling.

"This doesn't have to go any further, just tell me what I want to know and I can get you patched up… you'll never see me again," Alister grins and turns to Liam who has tears down his face and soaking the gag. "That does sound marvelous, doesn't it?" he turns back to Lara acting as though he's come up with a grand idea.

She feels another round of bile rise up in her, this time she holds it for a moment before spitting it into his face. The smile fades away and he reaches his right hand up to angrily wipe it off his face. "Go to hell!" Lara spits and to this he back hands her in the right cheek, her head shoots to the side from the impact and then feels both men let go of her arms just in time to get a blow to her stomach.

This added with the still bleeding and burnt side makes her double over, a fiery pain is sent scorching through her whole mid section and she is hit square in the middle of her back with his elbow. Going down head first to the hardwood floor, she coughs and groans as her vision blurs and goes double, her body on fire from the abuse it is enduring and not having the chance to recover from her last trip.

Alister presses his shin to the back of her head, pressing her right temple hard into the floor, the sweat from her hairline making her skin slide harshly against the floor. He grabs her left arm and twists it around painfully behind her back to pin her down further, she groans as she feels her shirt getting soaked from the blood oozing out, her head buzzing from the hits and Liam manages to get the gag out of his mouth.

"STOP THIS! LEAVE HER ALONE! SHE'S BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH!" Liam screams as Lara feels something move around her pinky, she doesn't even notice that it's cold steel sliding along her finger. What she feels is the bone being snapped like a twig and howls out a scream that makes her mouth go dry, moving her right arm around to try and grab for anything but nothing is within her grasp.

More tears slide down her cheeks and pool out onto the floor as her face is rubbed harshly against it. The cold steel moves away from her pinky and goes to her ring finger, "I will break you," Alister says.

A ringing comes through the air and the movement of the steel stops, Lara swallows and lets out an involuntary whimper, her tongue feeling like sandpaper, and the ringing comes again. Alister looks at the phone behind him to his right quizzically and glances around the room to the hallway, another ring comes from the phone and he looks back at it. He gestures for the phone to be handed to him.

One of the men pick it up and hand it to Alister, Liam watches, sweat from his anger having soaked through his clothes as bad as the heat from the woods the other day. Alister places the speaker end of the phone to Lara's ear and the microphone to her mouth.

"Lara? Jackie told me you were going to call in about an hour or two; I hope I didn't wake you. I was about to hang up when you picked up, I'm sorry… I just wanted to hear your voice," Sofia says through the speaker and Lara feels her jaw tremble.

Squeezing her eyes shut, all she wants to do is talk to her, tell her to go to bed, that all will be fine and to stay strong for her, but she knows as soon as she utters any words, everything goes out the window. Her heart is hammering loudly in her ears as she focuses on what to say he's not going to take it away till I say something… shit! What do I say?

Swallowing again, and preparing herself she chokes out, "Sofia –" and Alister snaps her ring finger bone, causing her to have another scream rip out of her throat and spill past her lips.

"Lara! Lara? Who's hurting you? WHO ARE YOU?" Sofia demands as Alister brings the phone to his ear, Sofia can hear Lara continuing to whimper on the floor beneath him.

"My name is Alister Star, I work for Trinity," Alister says coldly and very smoothly, "judging by the fact that none of the other phones in the house rang when you called tells me that you are special to our Lara. Which makes me wonder… where is the Wings of Light?"

There is a pause on the other line, "I don't know what you're talking about," Sofia lies; it pains her to do it and she knows that Lara doesn't want her to give out their mutual secret.

"Oh I am confident that you do, and I am even more confident that you don't want me harming Lara any further, now do you?" Alister asks.

"HANG UP SOFIA!" Liam screams, "HE'S-"he gets cut off by a sharp hit to his stomach, reminding him of his internal bleeding and spitting blood out.

"Don't hurt them!" Sofia shouts into the phone and Alister smirks.

He places the phone next to Lara's ear again, "talk!" Alister says harshly and gives a smack to her side, sending a shockwave of pain to shoot out through her body.

Lara gives out a sharp cry to the pain as it shoots through her, moaning she sniffles, "Lara… what do you want me to do?" She can just picture Sofia clutching the phone I want to reassure you that everything will be okay, that I'll be fine, that'll I'll be on the first flight to see you in a couple of hours. But I don't have that kind of luxury right now and you know it'll be a lie. Taking a deep breath, she knows that Sofia is waiting anxiously and that Alister is waiting to hear his answer. I have to protect you, if Alister is as smart as I think he is then I have to cover my basis… he'll know your special just from having a direct line.

Taking a breath, "listen to me very carefully Sofia," Lara says, fighting to keep her composure, moving her right hand around and reaching up to feel the fabric of his slacks. Thankfully the goons aren't watching over her right now and their focus is on the storm that is now only pouring rain.

Closing her eyes shut tight for a moment, ready to grab his leg, letting a breath out, "I love you," Lara says, she then grabs his leg to yank him off of her. He didn't expect her to start getting mushy, he drops the phone as he rolls off onto his back, and she catches it with her injured hand. Shifting herself to sit on her butt quickly, taking the phone in her right hand she chucks it as hard as she can at the window, all five of the men watch it smash through the window and get soaked in seconds. Liam has his eyes trained on Lara, taking in her terrible condition, filled with guilt that he couldn't protect her as he'd been hired to do.

The phone clatters onto the brick interlock and breaks open; Alister stands up slowly and looks down at Lara. Straightening his clothes out he grins at her, "Dimitri, get to the computers and find out where the phone call came from," he takes Dimitri's gun and walks up to her, using only her right hand to get herself standing.

Just as I'd feared she takes a step away from him, cradling her left hand glancing at her broken fingers, adrenaline fading, registering that her face is throbbing, head is pounding, feeling light headed, her left side is on fire, her legs feeling as though they're going to give out soon. Her body feeling the weight of the trauma it's been undergoing all at once now, left hand is shaking and going all the way to her elbow, her tongue feeling the cut to the inside of her cheek she looks up to see Alister standing before her, bringing up the gun he slams it into her right temple. Knocking her out instantly, her body slumping to the floor with a thud at his feet, lightning flashes through the window to illuminate her unconscious form.

To Be Continued…


What are your thoughts? What did you like and dislike the most? What would you have wanted to see more of? As much as movies are showing women kicking butt against guys, I wanted to keep it realistic. Not that women don't kick butt, but there are scenarios in which things are made out that the woman is invincible against guys who should be able to take her down. I wanted to be sure to give Lara credit; Sofia would have given her training in the prior fanfic for combat. I wanted to give her chances at doing manoeuvres that in the games she hasn't had the chance to do. Nothing crazy, certain sequences took a lot to map out as I wrote them and then the closer I got to the end, things just started to flow together. Parts of this chapter I have had in my head since I started coming up with ideas for the sequel, particularly the phone conversation with Sofia. Anyways, I hope that those of you who read this chapter enjoyed it for the story.

Please review!

-SLITH