Kurtis sensed there was something wrong. 'What now?' Kurtis asked himself, wanting to know what was happening; he initiated farsee and saw a glimpse of what was happening. He attempted to get up as all of his muscles protested. He tried calling out.
"Croft!" Kurtis shouted as loud as he could. The only reply was the thud of something hitting the floorboards. Kurtis sleepily made his way into the lounge where he was confronted with the sight of Lara, on her knees, disorientated. She had blood running down one side of her face from the new gash on her forehead and had the butt of a gun at her temple. Kurtis released the Boran X from his holster and unclipped the chirugai from his belt. Slowly he advanced closer to them.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Kurtis asked; his tone serious.
"Who I am is none of your business but what I want is her" the assailant said pressing the butt of the gun to Lara's temple. She let out a wince.
"Why do you want her?" Kurtis asked, wanting to know why they would want Lara.
"Because she is the only one who can stop Mr Coyle's plan, she is to be disposed of; permanently" the assailant said, releasing the safety of his gun.
"I can't let you do that" Kurtis said confidently. Lara looked up to meet Kurtis' gaze.
"Oh? And why is that?" the assailant asked sarcastically.
"Because she is my friend and I'll be damned if I let you kill her" Kurtis said as he was about to pull the trigger on the assailant. The assailant was quicker however and pulled the trigger on his gun. Kurtis shoved Lara out of the way at the last minute, unharmed, or so he thought.
Kurtis had his body placed protectively over Lara. He only knew something was wrong when she didn't respond to his call. After getting off of Lara, Kurtis tried to talk to her but she didn't reply, or even twitch. He looked for the obvious signs of injury but the only injury she had was a new bullet graze to her left thigh, then he realized that her head may have hit the floor. Hard. The assailant hastily left the hut. Kurtis crouched next to Lara.
"Lara? Lara? Can you hear me?" Kurtis enquired, looking down at the pale body of Lara Croft. He gently slapped the side of her face to rouse her, to no avail.
Carefully, as not to cause her more pain, Kurtis placed a firm hand on Lara's thigh to stop her bleeding out. It was bleeding pretty heavily so Kurtis grabbed a cloth off of the table nearby and pressed it onto her graze. He needed to get her out of the hut to safety. Kurtis picked Lara up and cradled her in his arms before carrying her out of the hut. Absent-mindedly Lara rested her head on Kurtis' shoulder with one hand clutching his shirt. They emerged from the hut and Alex jogged up to them.
Lara was having a flashback in her subconscious. She was reliving meeting Alex when she was enquiring about the 'clock' that was found in the secret room under the staircase at Croft Manor.
"Lara Croft" A man said walking up the stairs clad in a black shirt and grey suit. Both Lara and Mr Wilson turned to look at the advancing man.
"I'll just be a minute" Lara said to Mr Wilson. He left with the briefcase and retreated to his office. Lara turned back to the man whilst awkwardly leaning on the banister.
"You still pretending to be a photo journalist?" the man, Alex West, asked sarcastically. "Y'know I think it's really cool that we still have a day job, even though it's obviously just for show". Lara looked up and playfully smiled.
"So, Alex, are you still pretending to be an archaeologist?" Lara asked with an innocent smirk. Alex looked around uncomfortably and then leaned over to Lara.
"Lara, do we always have to fight like this? I mean maybe we don't" Alex asked sentimentally.
"Hmm, maybe we do" Lara replied. Her tone becoming serious.
"Why?" Alex asked, clearly unknowing.
"You stole my prayer wheels" Lara said defiantly.
"Stole? Stole! From you, y'know that's funny, y'know it's not like you really owned them or anything" Alex said, becoming agitated. Lara gave him a questionable glare. He softened slightly. "Hey, you're the tomb raider." Before Lara could say anything someone shouted Alex over.
"Oh, I think your clients need you," Lara said bitterly. He glanced at her, his expression full of regret. Lara continued. "Go; go ahead, you're wanted on the floor. After all as you once said so memorably it's all just a business, right? So go do business." With that Lara began walking off, Alex tried going after her.
"Lara" Alex said, trying to prevent her from leaving. "Lar-". She just completely ignored him and strolled into Mr Wilson's office. After that he walked off to see his clients, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration.
Lara woke up slightly when she was passed into Alex's arms. She saw Alex looking down at her, he was saying something, and she didn't hear him before she went back into unconsciousness.
Alex cradled Lara in his arms for what felt like hours, her body unmoving because of her loss of consciousness. He didn't know what he would do if he lost Lara, he thought the incident with the prayer wheels had been bad enough but then they had met up again whilst he was working for Powell. Alex was surprised when he saw Lara. She was still looking youthful as ever, and still contained the fiery personality that he loved so much. Alex had always loved Lara; it just took the prayer wheel incident to make him see that every morning he wanted to wake up to Lady Lara Croft, tomb raider and adventurer.
Alex knew that not to long after the incident, something happened to Lara in Egypt. Not to long after that, Alex had wanted to see Lara but Hillary had said she had gone to Paris on personal business. He didn't know how personal that business got until he met Kurtis Trent. Kurtis was the last of the Lux Veritatis and had helped Lara overcome her 'sadness' over losing Werner. Alex wished he could have been there for Lara. All those times he wished he had been there, there was always someone there to hold her; help her though the bad times.
Alex had observed that Kurtis had fallen for Lara, the same way Alex had done - just by seeing her face. Alex vowed to himself that he would never leave Lara now, especially after what happened the previous year. Alex and Lara had been put through the worst of times – Lara had lost a child but that hadn't stopped Alex from loving her, it just made him love her more.
He was too lost in thought to notice that Hillary had stepped into the room, and was bearing some of the worst news. Kurtis was missing but so was Bryce.