- Back Into The Otherworldly Dimension
No longer within the depths of the North Sea, Lara was now floating on her own within a space of unknown zero reality. This would be the third time she had been brought to this odd surreal place, not of her own decision or accord. A woman dressed in sapphire blue robes stepped forward out from somewhere in the empty dimension. She stared with her green emerald eyes straight into Lara's eyes, as if she was reading her mind and learning everything about her.
"Greetings Lara Croft, my name is Cathalina, guardian of the third artefact which you recently acquired. I can see in your mind that you've been in this realm twice before with the other two guardians, and they left you with some open questions that you would like answering."
"Yes."
"Very well, I can tell you what you want to know, but we have to be quick as time is short and I will soon disappear from this world."
"Okay my first question, what happened to the ship that was delivering the artefact to England, were you part of the crew that was on-board?"
"No...The artefact was stolen from me...I made it my mission to get back and guard what was taken from my possession. I will show and tell you how the relic came into my care and what happened to that ship..."
Cathalina closed her eyes and began to hum a beautiful tune that Lara hadn't heard of before, and at once the surroundings all around them had changed. They were now back in the 1800's, where two cloaked people were walking across the street to one of the houses of the built up residential area of the city. One of the cloaked figures knocked quite harshly on the door.
"Hello, how can I help you?" The person who answered the door inquired to the duo.
"We have come from a long way to deliver this very important object to Cathalina, may we see her?" One of the cloaked figures whispered almost like a hiss, so no one else would overhear the conversation taking place between them.
"Ah yes, we have been expecting you, please come in."
"...Who are you exactly?"
"I'm Cathalina's husband."
"I see, I do hope you understand the significance of her responsibility to this relic, it must be kept a secret!" The other cloaked person warned angrily at him.
"Yes I know and I've promised Cathalina to keep this a secret. She's put her trust in me and I would never betray her as I love her too much to do such a thing."
"Very well." The first hooded figure said, accepting his answer but not thoroughly satisfied with it.
The man brought them to the living room which Cathalina was in, she was sitting by the fireplace. The mysterious cloaked duo bowed to her, then placed the concealed third artefact on the table in the middle of the room.
"Ah so you've arrived, I sensed that you were on your way here." Cathalina said to the newly arrived duo.
"Yes, you know that you are responsible for guarding and hiding this relic from the public."
"I do."
"It cannot by any means fall into the wrong hands."
"Don't worry, if anything should go bad I would do everything in my power to resolve it."
"Good to hear, we shall make our leave now. Farewell Cathalina." The flashback ended and Cathalina retuned her attention to Lara and spoke to her within the realm.
"Everything was going well a year after the relic was brought to me, but then things took a turn for the worse as you will see here." The environment changed again, this time showing Cathalina coming back to her house after a trip out that morning.
"I'm..." She began to shout whilst opening the front door, however she sensed something was wrong. Thinking she would then hear the sound of her husband, but she was instead welcomed by a terrible sight.
The house was ransacked, all of their belongings were in a mess all over the premises. She didn't say a word. Immediately she saw her husband laying on the floor heavily wounded and she went over to him.
"No! What happened!?"
"I'm sorry my love, I tried to stop them but they overpowered me... They took the relic...I'm so sorry I failed you."
"Shhh, save your strength, you did your best..."
"Cathalina, I love you with all my heart, I'm..." He struggled to say anything after that, and not another word was heard from him a few seconds later...
"NO!" Cathalina cried screaming out. Straight away the memory faded out, and Lara could see the sadness in Cathalina when she replayed that memory.
"I'm sorry for your loss of your husband back then." Lara said to her in a soft and understanding manner.
"Thank you Lara. From then on I vowed to take revenge for what they had done, left what I had behind and did whatever I can to get back what I was meant to protect and guard. I hunted down the thieves and found out that they were working for a client who ordered the robbery from overseas. How they discovered where the relic was I do not know, but when the shipment was going to take place that's when I made my move." She explained.
The scenery altered again showing the North Sea with the ship she was talking about sailing upon its waters.
"Are we on course for Port Tyne?" The captain of the ship asked his quartermaster.
"Aye Captain, I'd say about a day and we should be there according to the map."
"Excellent."
Cathalina had managed to stowaway on-board before the ship had set sail, and waited until the time was right and the ship was quite away from land. With anger and rage burning inside, she dived into the sea and slowly began to transform into a shark. Once the transformation was complete and fuelled by her fury she started to viciously attack the ship. Time went on and from Cathalina's many furious bites that created holes to the ship it began to sink. Some of it's crew members abandoned ship, while others had fallen victim to Cathalina's wrath. The captain along with two other crew members had locked themselves in his quarters with the third artefact inside, never to come back out again.
"That was how the ship sank, and for years no-one had ever explored that far down in the sea. That was until you and your friend came along." Cathalina said to Lara.
"Gosh, so you've been watching over the relic in that ship for all these years!"
"Indeed, it was my duty as a guardian."
"Hmmm, okay. My next question to you is why did the Lux Veritatis give each artefact to a guardian in different time zones?"
"Aha well I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the Lux Veritatis had kept hold of the third relic for many years until they saw the time was right to give it to it's destined guardian. I'm positive that it was the same for the other guardians. Now Lara I'm afraid we are running out of time, so I will portray my message to you. I know you've heard this before, but what I'm about to tell you is the full version of the passage, listen carefully..."
"Long ago there were three...Three mysterious relics, unnatural power hidden within, believed to be not of this world...They were separated from each other by the Lux Veritatis and were given to three trustworthy guardians to look after...For those who have defeated the appointed guardian of each relic would obtain the power they hold...One in India … One in Egypt...One in France...They all combine into one to form a monstrous unknown creature of considerable might...Though stoppable for a short period of time, the longer it exists and draws more power through it's hunger and will, the more unstoppable it will become...This would mean tragedy and an end to the world if no one is capable of stopping it...To whoever finds a way of destroying the monster or the three artefacts will need to do so with haste for the sake of the world and all living beings...It will be a race from oblivion."
'Just as we expected! The three artefacts are a living creature!' Lara remembered Jane explaining that theory to her a couple of days ago.
"Is there any way of destroying these relics?" Lara inquired the guardian, but she shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know, the Lux Veritatis have sought an answer to that since they discovered and found out about this horrible truth about them centuries ago. You must find a way and stop this creature reaching it's full potential if you can. I can sense that someone else is after these relics and planning to use it for their own ideals..."
"Eric Copper." Lara answered and Cathalina nodded in response.
"Yes, if you want to save your world being torn apart by this person, you'll have to stop him at any cost. But let me give you a piece of advice, should this monster be unleashed you only have a small window of opportunity of defeating it, and that would only last for around 20 minutes...Do whatever it takes to bring the creature down. Good luck and good bye Lara Croft."
"Thank you Cathalina, good-bye."
After Lara's sentence Cathalina vanished and the otherworldly dimension began to swirl away and Lara felt herself waking up back in the North Sea.