Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Lady Lara Croft, Samantha Nishimura or Slenderman. Quotes have been referenced.

Author's Note: So this is it, everyone! The final chapter. As mentioned before, there will be an epilogue but this is the real end to the story. I've enjoyed every minute of writing this and I really hope you've all enjoyed reading it just as much. It has been hard sometimes and I've suffered from writer's block here and there, but the great feedback has made it so worth it. I've worked so hard on this chapter and I really hope it pays off so please let me know what you think and don't hesitate to PM me if you have any story requests that you'd like to see me write, I'mm open to anything I think I can make a good job of! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story to the end. It means a lot to me. For the final time, enjoy!

The last thing Lara Croft saw before she was plunged into nothingness was the towering, lanky figure of Slenderman grinning down at her. He didn't have a mouth but Lara had no doubt he was grinning as his face lowered itself to her level. She stared at his literally blank face for no less than two seconds before letting out a deafening scream as she felt an intense shooting pain radiate around her bones, originating from a sharp stabbing in her stomach. Lara saw a flash of red as her face flopped to her chest before everything was white.

This was strange. Lara could see, but there was nothing to see. She couldn't move. She wasn't a body, or any kind of being in fact. She didn't have to blink or breathe. It was kind of like being in a dream because Lara was looking around at the scene in its entirety, despite there being very little to see. Everything was white. Absolutely everything. There were no objects or props of any kind and Lara, although she had sort of lost the ability to think, couldn't tell whether she was in a room or outside somewhere- the whiteness had no boundaries. It was just white.

The scene looked very boring indeed. And yet Lara was in bliss. Despite not being able to think exactly, Lara could still feel- mentally at least. She could feel what was right and what was wrong, almost like an instinctive nature had taken over her mentality and was making decisions for her. And this nature- whatever it was- was telling Lara that everything was okay. Here she was safe; she was safe from everything and anything that could attack her or hurt her or make her feel bad on that grotesque planet she was on only moments ago. Lara knew that as long as she was here she didn't have to face anything else. This place was Lara's and, although she couldn't move or do or talk or feel or be, she could stay and she would never have to make decisions or work or think about other people. It was a kind of paradise that couldn't be felt on Earth, regardless of the situation. No delight compared to this- not in warmth or sex or drugs or even love. Nothing could replicate this feeling of ecstasy that filled every inch of Lara's non-existent being. It wasn't heaven or hell or anything in between. It was just nothingness. And Lara had never felt such happiness. And as she watched the white do nothing for an amount of time that wasn't recognisable, she realised this was the place she had always meant to be. This was where she was supposed to end up all along because this was where there was no worry or stress- only harmony. This was Lara.

Lara Croft was dead. She had to be. It was the only explanation for what was happening to her. This kind of pleasure wasn't possible on such a corrupted planet as Earth- she had to be in some other dimension that wasn't connected to her home planet. Lara didn't think of any of this- she didn't have the ability to. But this was fact. It had to be. Hadn't it?

"Lara."

Bliss.

"Lara!"

Paradise.

"Lara, please!"

Ecstasy.

"Lara! Lara, please. Lara!"

Lara could hear? But there was nothing to hear. There was nobody else around. This place was Lara's. Who was trying to take it away from her? How dare they?

"Lara. I need you."

Sam. It was Sam. And suddenly, all at once, a revelation flooded over Lara as she realised this blissful nothingness was the devil here. It was this place- whatever it was- that was trying to take her away from her life, not the other way round. It was with Sam that she belonged. Wherever Sam was, Lara must be. She had to get back.

Lara had started to regain her thought process, if only a tiny bit. But as time went by and Sam failed to speak again, Lara started to slip away. She needed Sam to say her name. Lara knew that was the only way she could convince her being to drag herself away from this paradise.

"Lara?"

Lara flinched in her catatonic state. It was enough. She knew she had to get out of here. It was enough to tell her to get back to Sam and finish what she'd started. As long as she could leave, it would be okay.

The task seemed impossible. No matter how much Lara told herself to pull away and detach herself from this extraordinary space, she couldn't do it. Even after acknowledging that her place was on Earth, Lara's mind fought against itself. It was like there were two Laras, both desperately trying to win happiness- only one was wrong. One Lara was convinced she had to stay here; it was so easy to stay in the whiteness. But the other Lara had to get back. She had to. And that's when Lara realised.

In our darkest moments, when life flashes before us, we find something. Something that keeps us going. Something that pushes us[1].

Sam.

It was like a slap in the face. Lara fought like she had never fought before. She struggled frantically, desperately fighting the pure brightness that engulfed her. She forced herself to think and to feel and to listen, silently crying out for someone to make a noise for her to hear. Nobody spoke. But Lara didn't give up. She used all of the strength she could muster and pulled herself towards Sam's voice, back to reality and physicality. That's when Lara realised it's the battles against ourselves that are the hardest.

But it was working. The white was starting to fade. It faded to a pale grey at first, before darkening until it reached a dark black. She could feel something hard beneath her back and she felt herself shiver- her body was back.

Lara's thought process had returned completely. She couldn't see, but she could think.

Talk, Lara. You have to make a noise, Lara told herself. And she had never been so relieved to hear her own head voice.

Lara tried to say Sam, but it came out like a groan: "A-am."

Speakers crackled.

"Sam," Lara tried again, managing to form the word properly this time.

"Oh my god," Lara heard Sam say over the speakers. "She's alive, you moron, she's alive!"

Lara's mouth upturned at the corners at the sound of Sam's voice. Her eyes started to open- the scene was a light blur at first and Lara worried she had slipped back into the strange unconsciousness, but after a couple of seconds, the branches above her head began to form. Then she could see again. It was light, but artificially. Lara remembered that the woods had been artificially dark when she had been awake previously. It confused her.

Her stomach was wet and once she was able to sit up, Lara looked down at it. Her jacket had a smear of blood next to a rip so she unzipped it to reveal a pool of blood across her waist.

"Oh shit," Lara whispered, looking down at the open gash in the side of her body. It had evidently bled heavily, but the flow seemed too have stopped. The wound was close to the one she had received on Yamatai and Lara doubted the knife- if that's what had caused it- had hit any important organs.

Still hazy from fighting back, Lara managed to take off her jacket and wrap it tightly around her waist. It was painful. In the extreme. But Lara couldn't give up again. As she had tied the jacket, the memories of what had happened had all come back to Lara and she knew she had to carry on. She had no choice. She had to get that page. Even if it killed her, which it may already have.

"You really are a Croft, aren't you, Lara?" Cow Blood sneered through the speakers.

Lara stumbled to her feet, steadying herself with a hand on the tree trunk.

"Yes," she said proudly. "I bloody well am."

The artificial lighting around her faded and Lara tried to get back in the zone. She had never felt more drained but motivated as she felt now. It was ridiculous and she knew she was in no state to carry on, but that didn't matter to her. What mattered was Sam. Only Sam.

Setting off at a steady pace before speeding up, Lara crashed through the greenery, her movements harsh and ungainly. The scenery was thick and unchanging and Lara thrashed about with no real plan or logic, pain searing through various parts of her body. She blocked out the pain and forced herself to continue, positive she would find something soon.

Her instincts didn't let her down. Although that familiar crinkling white noise and started to sound over the speakers, the next page was in sight. Hanging from a tree branch on what looked like a piece of string, Lara bolted for it, running as fast as she possibly could whilst in so much pain. The white noise building up rapidly, Lara dared to glance over her shoulder and noticed his figure only metres away.

"Not this time," she gasped.

She jumped and grabbed at the page, ripping it down and falling to her knees as she did so. The white noise stopped. Slenderman was gone. The lights flickered back on.

"Congratulations, Lady Croft. You have won. Though I never doubted your abilities, I have to say I started to get rather worried when your pulse stopped earlier. Still, I knew you'd pull through. Congratulations. It's over."

Lara had never been so relieved to hear Cow Blood's voice. She sobbed hysterically into the eighth page she had just collected and gasped for air as the sobs caused sharp pains along her side. Lara groaned and looked up as she heard footsteps. A man was approaching her with his hands up in submission. Lara hurried to her feet and backed away.

"I have come to take you to him and Sam," he said quietly. His accent wasn't American; Polish maybe?

Lara hesitated before following him. Somehow, Cow Blood seemed like a man who would stick to his word.

The man took Lara through the woods for a long time before they came out onto an opening. Lara wondered if it was the same opening she had stumbled upon some hours ago, but the car was missing and Lara was sure this was smaller. After walking straight across the middle, they went back into the trees where the woodland was thinner. Here seemed to be Cowl Blood's base. There was a lot of tech equipment around- computers and light and sound boards. A man sat at each instrument, but none of them looked at their technology. Each man's head turned towards Lara as she entered into the area. They looked pleased, hopeful, almost as if she had saved them from something. At one computer sat Harvey, and Lara was about to express her surprise when someone called her name.

"Lara!"

Lara turned her head to the centre of the circle of computers. Sam had just been released from a chair and was running towards Lara at a million miles per hour. Lara broke into a teary smile, scooping Sam up as she reached her.

"God I love you so much," Lara said, holding Sam tightly against her despite the excruciating pain she felt as Sam's knees squeezed her injured waist.

"I love you too," Sam whispered into Lara's ear before pushing her mouth into Lara's neck. Lara kissed her head and stroked her back before sitting down on the grass, cradling Sam like a baby.

"You probably have some questions."

Lara looked around for where the voice had come from and Sam lifted her head and flinched in fear.

"Hey it's okay," Lara hushed her. "I've got you now. You're safe. I promise."

The circle of computers had a gap behind the chair in which Sam had been sat. Through the gap walked a man wearing jeans and a polo shirt. Lara recognised him instantly. The man who had been arguing with Harvey. The 'blind' man she had spoken to in the garden so long ago. He had a strange expression on his face and was holding a voice changer.

"It was you," Lara whimpered. "Don't come any closer!"

The man smiled psychopathically, but stopped in his tracks. "My name is Hunter. I'm not going to hurt you now, Lara. In fact, I've already called the police on myself. I just thought you might want to take this moment to ask some questions. Anything you didn't understand?"

"He's crazy," Sam whispered, shaking her head. Lara held her closer. She had to give him what he wanted.

"Okay. Here's a question. How did you always know where I was? You knew where I was going to be, one step ahead of me every time. How?" Lara asked frantically.

"Ah. Your friend, Harvey, is responsible for that. Come up here, Harvey," Hunter said softly, motioning for Harvey to join him.

Harvey looked hesitant, shaking his head silently. Lara could see that he was terrified.

"Come up here," Hunter said more forcefully. "I insist."

On hearing this firmer voice, Harvey jumped to his feet and joined Hunter, facing Sam and Lara with an ashamed, guilty expression.

"Explain to Lara what you did with her food," Hunter ordered.

"It was a drug. Something Hunter produced himself. I slipped it into your food and it allowed us- him- to have access to your mind. Not all of it, but it worked as a GPS, allowing us to follow you and work out where you were going to," Harvey explained, rambling slightly.

"That time I saw you two arguing… What was that about?" Lara asked, rocking Sam softly as she said it.

Hunter answered this time. "You weren't going to the café often enough. It was Harvey's job to make sure you ate enough so that the drug would never wear off. Unfortunately, for a short amount of time, Harvey failed to do so. I had to go in and let him know that wasn't acceptable."

Lara thought about this. It was like something out of a film. She couldn't believe she was actually sitting here, listening to this.

"What about that woman: Kat?" Lara asked, looking at Hunter with a frowned expression. "Was she part of your little scheme?"

"Nope," laughed Hunter. "Just a tag along you picked up along the way. And Quentin. Quite lucky, really, they helped you considerably. Have you told dearest Sam about your little snogging session with Kat?"

"What?!" Sam's head snapped up.

"Clearly not, since you've been holding her hostage the entire time," Lara retorted.

"Whoa, what snogging session?" Sam questioned.

"Good one. I didn't know you were a comedian as well, Croft," Hunter smirked.

"Lara. Snogging session?"

"Oh do go fuck yourself," Lara yelled at him.

"Hello? Lara? Girlfriend right here wanting to know about a snogging session."

"Sorry," Lara sighed, looking back down at Sam. "It's complicated."

"Oh it better be," Sam murmured.

Lara kissed her nose. "I honestly thought you'd have bigger problems weighing on your mind given the emotional trauma you've just been through."

Sam shrugged. "You sort of get used to it when Lara Croft's your girlfriend."

Just then, everybody (including the men who had been sitting quietly and patiently at the computer systems) turned their heads to the right as police sirens approached. Through the trees, Lara could see the bodies of armed policemen creeping towards them. A voice came over a megaphone.

"Everybody lay face down on the ground, now!" the voice yelled. "Now!"

Every single person followed the orders, including Lara and Sam, not letting their hands disconnect nevertheless.

"Lara Croft and Samantha Nishimura stand up with your hands above your head!" the megaphone ordered.

The women did so, reluctantly pulling away from one another to show their innocent hands. As they did, a group of around eight armed officers ran to their position and surrounded them in diamond formation, guns pointing out as a form of protection. They put their hands down and let the diamond escort them to an ambulance nearby. As they got there, the officers helped them into the van. There was a man sitting in the driver's seat, another by his side, as well as two paramedics in the back department which Lara and Sam had just been taken into. As soon as they were in, the doors shut and the engine started. Sam sat on the bed next to Lara, cuddling up to her for comfort.

"Hi there. My name's Tanya and this is Gary. We're just going to issue some standard first aid until you get to the hospital," the female explained.

Gary started looking Sam up and down, taking in all the different injuries and how to go about mending them. As he started to temporarily patch her up, Tanya started on Lara.

"Let's take that jacket away from your waist, darling. Looks like a nasty wound underneath."

Tanya reached around Lara's waist, receiving a scowl from Sam as she did so, and pulled the jacket away from her.

"Well there's certainly a lot of blood," Tanya remarked. "I'm just going to wrap a tight bandage around your torso over your top until we get to hospital. Then they'll give you some stitches, okay?"

Lara nodded and sat up straight to let Tanya wrap the bandage around her properly. After that, she wiped a few of Lara's smaller cuts and applied plasters to them before giving her a drink of water. Lara hadn't realised how thirsty she was until she downed a pint of water. Sam was equally thirsty, having been starved of her basic human needs for the last day.

On arriving at the hospital, the paramedics insisted on wheeling both Sam and Lara inside in the foldup wheelchairs they kept in the back of the van.

"Standard procedure," Gary explained as he pushed Sam's chair. "I think more than anything it just looks a little stupid rolling up in an ambulance and walking out of it."

He has a point, Lara thought.

As they were wheeled through the A&E entrance, Lara had to be taken to a separate ward in order to get stitches.

"Can't I go with her?" Sam asked Tanya, looking up at her with wide eyes.

"I'm afraid not, honey. You need to get that bullet wound sorted out, it looks infected," Tanya said, smiling sympathetically.

Lara felt a pang of guilt in her stomach, realising she must have stitched it up incorrectly. She turned in her chair and looked up at Gary.

"Don't let her out of your sight," she warned, before allowing the paramedics to wheel them in separate directions.

Tanya took Lara to a waiting room filled with people in similar positions- most people were in wheelchairs or laid on beds and had bandages wrapped around them tightly. Tanya left her there with another nurse, who wheeled her into a different room when her name was called.

It took a good half an hour to get the stitches done, especially as Lara had to have local anaesthetic. Still, the nurse managed to keep Lara entertained whilst the doctor worked. It was his first day on the job and Lara had to feel sorry for him with the amount of times he dropped something or got the patients mixed up.

As soon as Lara's wound was seen to, the doctor insisted on taking her to the plaster ward to get her wrist sorted out properly. Aching to be reunited with Sam, Lara begged the doctor to let the wrist heal on its own.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Lara argued. "It's actually been okay for the past day or so."

The doctor smiled. "I'm sorry but we have to give you a cast, we can't just leave it. Don't worry, it doesn't take long."

Now allowed to walk, Lara reluctantly followed the doctor to the plaster ward where she was greeted by a surly faced woman who didn't seem to talk. The doctor explained the break and the woman just nodded before applying the plaster to Lara's hand up to the halfway point of her forearm. The doctor had been right- it didn't take long. In fact, not twenty minutes later, Lara was being directed to the main reception, ready to be discharged, where Sam and three police officers waited for her.

"Lady Croft?" asked one of the police officers, his eyebrows raised.

"Call me Lara," Lara replied, shaking his hand before kissing Sam as she stood up.

"I'm Inspector Doan. We're just gonna have to take you to the station to ask you a couple of questions. We know you've had a rough ride but do you feel up to it?"

Lara was more exhausted than she could ever recall and, judging by the bags under Sam's eyes, her girlfriend was too. However, she decided it was better to get this over and done with now so she could sleep better when she got home. It was late at night now and she doubted the questioning would be over by sunrise, but she knew she wouldn't be able to rest without knowing Cow Blood- or Hunter as he was apparently known- had been locked up for good.

"Yes," sighed Lara. "I'm up to it. Let's go."

The police took Lara and Sam to the police station, informing Lara that one of the police officers at the scene had taken her car back to her house for her.

"Your address was on our system," Inspector Doan explained.

Once they arrived there, a couple of officers brought the two women a sandwich each as well as a drink. Lara was grateful- the food gave her a small energy boost and made her feel up to talking to the police.

It wasn't long before they were called in, both together at the same time. There seemed to be an endless series of questions as pictures of each suspect flashed up on a screen beside the inspector. Each time he asked 'Was this man involved?' or 'Do you recognise him?' or 'Do you think you might have seen this man recently?'

Eventually Harvey's face flashed up and Lara looked at Sam helplessly. She didn't want to turn him in because she knew he didn't want to participate in any of that- she remembered the look of terror in his face as Hunter had asked him to stand in front of them and explain his drug system. Harvey didn't deserve to be punished. But she couldn't lie to the police.

The inspector clocked the look on Lara's face. "You know him personally?"

Lara nodded. "He's a friend of ours. We've known him for a while now, he runs a special café just round the corner from where we live."

"He was involved though right? I mean, we saw him at the scene of the crime."

"He was," Sam answered. "But he was forced into it. I heard Hunter threatening him about it whilst I was tied up. They thought I was asleep but I wasn't. I heard the whole conversation: how Hunter had called upon him to do a great task and that Harvey had to forget about his relationship with us and do what was for the 'greater good'. It sounded kinda ridiculous, but we both knew he wasn't messing around."

The inspector nodded. "We'll listen to his side of the story. If he recalls the same conversation with Hunter, his sentence will be shorter."

Once all of the suspects had been identified, the police asked Sam to leave the room whilst Lara recalled all of the events that had occurred, starting with the man who shot Sam and finishing with the moment the police arrived at the woods. It was a lengthy conversation- though very one sided- and Lara had a rather weak voice by the end of it.

As Lara had predicted, Sam was next. They swapped places, Sam re-entering the questioning room and Lara finding herself in a temporary cell.

"Obviously we're not holding you," Officer Jane Moore explained as she took Lara there. "But the cells are the only places with a cushioned seat. We thought you could use a nap."

Lara, now thoroughly drained, just nodded and thanked the officer before laying on the bench and falling asleep. About an hour later, Sam was shaking her awake.

"We can go," Sam whispered, smiling. "Hunter has been arrested. There's gonna be court stuff, but the inspector says there's no doubt he'll be charged and imprisoned for life. It's over."

The police took Sam and Lara home, giving them a private number to call should they have any problems regarding any other people, missed out information or even psychological problems. Having dropped them both off at Lara's house, there was no question as to whether Sam would stay for what was left of the night- maybe a couple of hours or so.

After changing into pyjamas, both wearing Lara's, they flopped into bed, lost for words. Eventually Sam spoke.

"Can you believe that actually just happened to us?"

Lara sighed a laugh. "Yes, actually. We're not exactly known for avoiding adventures."

"True… I'm not used to them being so close to home, though. I can't say I was a huge fan of it," Sam smiled, staring into Lara's eyes.

"I'd have to agree with you on that one. I think maybe we'll learn to keep our heads down a bit more. At least archaeology didn't cause this one," Lara pointed out.

"No, this time it was just a psychopath," Sam retorted.

Lara smiled and took Sam's hands, bringing one up to her lips and kissing the knuckles delicately.

"I really love you," Lara whispered.

"I believe you," Sam murmured, shaking her head as she thought of all the trauma Lara had put herself through just for her. "I love you too, Lara."

Lara leaned in and kissed Sam's lips softly. It felt like a privilege. Like Sam's lips were the lust of the entire world yet they were reserved for Lara. They always had been, really. And as they kissed, Lara got the feeling- just as she had done as she fell into the white abyss, only with more love- that this was right. Love was right. The pain, the heartache, the broken bones, the mental exhaustion… None of it amounted to the strength of love that these two women felt for each other. None of it could outweigh the passion and excitement that they felt when their bodies touched or their eyes met. And although love had the power to hurt in a way nothing else did, it also had the power to give like nothing else. Love could give encouragement, reliability, hope and, most importantly, life. Love could give life. And resting beside Sam with her ear on her chest and her hands on her waist, Lara could think of no other way she would like to spend her life than with Sam. Sam was right.

[1] Tomb Raider 2013