2015 - New Orleans, Louisiana

Nathan Drake sat in his small office, no more than a makeshift room down by the docks, where he and his employer, Earl Jameson, ran his salvage company, Jameson Marine Incorporated. Nathan had been working there for the last three years as Jameson's lead driver, whose job it was to identify salvage in the bays and waterways around New Orleans, with the occasional big-ticket jobs that led them overseas, which was rare unless they got the appropriate permits and paperwork. Compared to his days of treasure hunting and thieving, the older male now played by the rules. After all, he was pushing forty.

He sighed as he went through the paperwork that had piled up on his desk. Permit requests, gear requisitions, and repair orders. The stock standard he had grown used to in the last few years. Nathan had arrived early, well before sunrise, hoping to knock it all off before Jameson arrived later that morning, which would no doubt end in his pile of paperwork somehow magically getting bigger. His green eyes spared a glance at the two framed photos on his desk, one of him and his wife, Elena, on this wedding day, the other being a photo of him and his baby sister, Sara. Nathan and Elena had been thrilled when the younger brunette had decided to follow them out to New Orleans three years ago when Nathan retired, wanting to be close to her brother as she was no longer working in the shadows from her Boston apartment supporting him on his treasure hunts with information and funds. She now works as a curator at The Historic New Orleans Collection, which was a museum, research centre, and publisher dedicated to the study and preservation of the history and culture of New Orleans. Nathan partly blamed himself that she wasn't doing something more interesting with her life, but she retired with him when he retired. While she had never reached for the fame his lifestyle brought him, she had requested that her name not be added publicly to his list of achievements. He agreed, knowing the long list of enemies it had brought him. After Sam, he needed to keep her safe.

He was signing and stamping the last bits of paperwork when a heavy knocking interrupted him. Sighing, he glanced at the door. "We're not open yet!" Nathan yelled to whoever was on the other side, hoping they would go away so he could finish his work peacefully, but the persistent knocking continued. "We're closed!" he yelled again, this time getting annoyed at the sound, wanting the stranger to take a hint. "C'mon, man. All right, I'm coming! I'm coming!" He stamped the last page, tossing it into the loose pile with the others as he stood from the desk, muttering a swear under his breath, referring to the stranger as an asshole. Nathan didn't have time to deal with some idiot who couldn't read a sign or listen.

As he opened the door that separated his office from the main room, Nathan's eyes landed on the back of a large man, who was busy sifting through a stack of documents Jameson had left in the foyer. Nathan would have to talk to him about leaving that stuff around where anybody could get into it. "Yeah. Can I help you?" Nathan asked the man, waiting for him to turn around.

"Yeah, I'm uhh…" The man started, his voice heavy with a Boston accent. "Lookin' for my little brother." He turned around to face Nathan, a smirk growing on familiar lips. "He's about your height…little bit leaner.. definitely less grey in the temples." He continued to speak as he neared Nathan. Nathan could only stare, not sure if he could believe his eyes, feeling like he was looking at the ghost of his brother. "It's good to see you again, Nathan."

"Oh my god, Sam!" Nathan hugged the man, needing to know that it was real. That Samuel was real, not a ghost from his past haunting him.

"Whoa! All right, all right. Take it easy, take it easy." Samuel patted his baby brother on the back, finding the situation to be a bit too much. For Samuel, it had been fifteen years since he last saw his baby brother, but for Nathan, his brother was returning from the dead. The pair chuckled as they took each other in, Nathan needing to know how the man was alive and where he had been, as the last Nathan saw of him was Samuel being shot and falling from a rooftop. "Yes, you did." Samuel retorted to Nathan's confusion about being shot, lifting up his shirt to expose the three close gunshot scars that marked his lower left side. "The doctors they–" He stopped to gesture to doctors in quotation marks with his finger. "–patched me up… and they tossed me right back into the cell."

That had confused Nathan. "I made calls. I checked everywhere." He tried to explain as Samuel moved past him into his over, his eyes moving around to take in the small space with two cramped desks. "Everything I heard and found…it all confirmed you were dead."

Samuel scoffed. "Nathan, we killed a guard. They wanted to see me rot in that cell for the rest of my life...and I nearly did."

Nathan was ashamed. If he had known the truth and his big brother was alive, he would have come for him, Sara too. Nathan stopped himself. Sara wouldn't believe their elder brother was alive, as it would shock her, having only known Nathan for the last fifteen years.

"I know you would've come for me, that you would've come back." Sam turned to him, smiling at his brother's worried face. "What's important now, though, is that I'm out." The pair chuckled again.

"I found her, Sam." Nathan sighed. Samuel's brows furrowed as he listened to his baby brother, unsure of who he was talking about. "I found Sara."

Samuel jumped to his brother, gripping his shoulders with both hands. The news had almost caused the older man to double over. "When? How? Where?"

Nathan chuckled. "She was growing up in Boston and moved to Standford University. That's where I found her, a year after you…a found her through some connections. She's a Morgan, through and through." Nathan leaned against a wall, smiling sweetly at the thought of his sister.

Samuel sighed, running a hand through his thinning hair. "Air…" He stated, moving for the doorway. "I need air." He moved fast outside, gripping the railing before the bay. It was almost too much for the man. The last time he'd seen baby Sara was when she was still an infant; he had been ten years old. He still remembered sitting in the back seat of his father's rusted and beaten-up car as the man had taken his baby girl to the girl's orphanage. He had desperately wanted to bolt out of that shitting vehicle, stealing her back and feeling with Nathan, but he was just a boy then, incapable of doing anything. "She…did she have a good life?" He didn't turn around to face his brother as he spoke, staring off over the bay as the morning sun barely appeared over the skyrises.

Nathan nodded to himself. "Was adopted within months of being placed at the orphanage. Went to a good home, a really good one. Wealthy lawyers. I've met them; they're nice people." Samuel held back his scoff. Of course, the cute baby girl got to go live the perfect life while he and his brother had to suffer and live in poverty to survive. "She'll want to meet you, want to know how you got out…how did you get out? When did you get out? How did you find me?" Nathan joined him against the railing, running off questions a mile a minute.

Samuel stepped away, reaching into the pocket of his denim jacket to pull out his lighter and a pack of cigarettes, lighting one up to take the edge off. "Slow down," Samuel lectured, facing his baby brother again. "Have a seat." He gestured to a metal park bench that had been bolted into the concrete dock, sitting down first and waiting for Nathan to join him. "I want to hear about you." He said when Nathan finally joined him on the bench. Nathan didn't think Samuel would be interested that much, as there wasn't much to tell. "I called some of the old contacts…they tell me some pretty crazy-ass stories…" Samuel chuckled, relaying some of the storied he'd heard about his baby brother, like when he got shot while hanging from a derailed train in the Himalayas. "Sara wasn't there, was she?"

Nathan shook his head while laughing at the memory. "No, never let her join me anywhere after what happened with you." Samuel nodded. It was good that their sister never ran around with Nathan.

"You tell me you stumble upon yet another archaeological goldmine…and somehow you managed to walk away with nothing." Samuel was impressed that his little brother had done so much in his absence, but part of his was a little jealous. He wasn't there and didn't get to find those treasures and bask in the glory it would have brought him. Nathan just shrugged at him. Nathan wasn't in it for the riches or the glory. It was about finding it, finding something others didn't think existed, to have that discovery.

"I managed to pick up a few trinkets here and there. Managed to pay off the car, house, an engagement ring–" Nathan shot forward in his seat. "I'm married! Elena, from my stories, that's my wife!" Nathan was annoyed with himself that he hadn't even mentioned her to Samuel yet. "You gotta come meet her. Tonight, dinner. Sara can be there too."

Samuel stood up, returning to the railing as his brother continued to ramble. "Nathan…" Samuel cut his brother off, distracting the younger man from his thoughts. "I'm in a lot of trouble here." That statement confused Nathan. He stood, coming up beside his brother. He needed Sam to explain. Samuel sighed, unsure of how to tell his brother. "Does the name Hector Alcazar ring a bell with you?"

"Yeah, he's the drug lord, the 'Butcher of Panama', right?" Nathan began to eye off Samuel, even more, curious about what type of trouble Samuel could have gotten himself into from prison where Hector Alcazar was concerned. But trouble always did have a way of finding Samuel Drake. "Why?"

"It's a funny story, but um…for the last year, he was my cellmate." Samuel sighed as he began to fill Nathan in on what had happened over the last month, how Hector Alcazar had organised a prison break, getting Samuel out with him. But Hector Alcazar demanded payment for his actions. Samuel had been foolish enough to run off his mouth about Henry Avery to Hector Alcazar, and now the drug lord wanted it. Samuel had tried to reason with the man, but he gave Samuel three months. Three months to find the treasure so that Hector Alcazar could claim half of it.

"This is bad," Nathan grumbled, picking at the skin around his nails. He didn't know what to do. He had only just gotten Samuel back, only to find out he would lose him again in three months. Samuel argued that they could pick up the trail where they had left it fifteen years ago, but there was no trail. Nathan had to explain to Samuel that Rafe, their old business partner, had bought up all the land around the Saint Dismad cathedral, that the two of them had combed that place for weeks and found nothing. No treasure. But it hadn't stopped Rafe. The man was still looking.

"Not really surprised," Samuel stated lightly. His tone was almost humorous.

Nathan eyed him again. "What does that mean?"

"Well, I just, you know, happened to do a little digging of my own…" Samuel reached into the inner pocket of his jacket, pulling out a slip of paper and handing it to his brother. "And uh…I bet you Rafe doesn't have this."

Nathan took the folded paper, opening it up to stare at a black and white photo of the Saint Dismas cross. Samuel had found it while looking around on the internet. Nathan was confused. It was just the cross he had found scaling that old tower as the prison. Samuel chuckled, explaining to Nathan that it was a different one. The one Nathan had found was broken and hollow. This one was intact. This meant that whatever had once been hidden way in the one Nathan had discovered would still be in this one. Nathan felt the familiar chill of adventure finds its way down his spine, something he hadn't felt in three years. He had missed the feeling. "Where is this?" He asked, gesturing to the paper.

"Oh, this exquisite piece is going up for auction in three days at the Rossi Estate." Samuel nabbed the paper from his brother's hands, dangling it in front of his brother's face, before folding it up and tucking it back into his pocket.

"The Rossi Estate," Nathan repeated the words with more emphasis. Samuel was impressed that his brother knew about the place. "How do you plan on securing an invite to an exclusive, heavily guarded black market auction?" While a genuine question, Nathan's tone was sarcastic.

Samuel chuckled. "Well, you don't necessarily need an invitation, per se." Samuel's old thieving days from his youth never seemed to escape him, even after all the times they landed him in prison.

"Yeah," Nathan rolled his eyes, already knowing what his brother was planning. "And where are you gonna get the money to outbid all the high rollers? I could take a second mortgage out on my house and get Sara's trust fund drained, and it still wouldn't be enough to…" Nathan began to ramble again, only stopping when he saw the smug look on Samuel's face. "Yeah, you're gonna try and steal it." It wasn't a question. Nathan knew the answer.

"No," Samuel said, earning a look from Nathan. "We are."

Nathan's smile dropped. "Oh no. No, man, listen. I can't. I'm out." He tried to explain as he backed away from his brother. This shocked Samuel, as he wasn't expecting the response. "No, I just don't do that kind of thing anymore. Besides, there are plenty of other guys that are much more equipped to handle this kind of thing."

Samuel snorted. "Like who?"

Nathan was at a loss for words. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and began to look through his contacts from his adventuring days. "Uhh…Charlie Cutter?" Nathan offered, but Samuel wasn't impressed by the idea. "He's my go-to guy for this sort of thing."

"No, no, no, absolutely not. I don't trust Charlie or anybody else you got on that with my life. Okay?" Samuel stepped up to his brother, pulling him close to him by his shoulders. "I need you on this one. There's no other way, not with the time I got left." His voice was a broken whisper as he struggled to make Nathan understand. "And certainly not with Alcazar." He stepped away to light up another cigarette, leaving Nathan to think.

Nathan fought with himself, staring down at the phone in his hands. He swore as he lifted it to his ear, listening to the ringing tone while waiting for the person on the other end to pick up. "Hey, hon, it's me." He smiled into the phone with Elena answered, her voice soothing to him. "Yeah, listen, you're not gonna believe this. Jameson just walked in here with the permits." While he lied to her, it was good to hear her cheerful voice, thrilled for him about the promise of a worthwhile scavenging job. "I know, I know, but uh, looks like I'm going to take the Malaysia job after all." When Nathan looked at his brother after ending the call, Samuel was smiling smugly at him. "Listen, Sam, if we're gonna do this, we do it my way."

Samuel nodded, not wanting to fight his brother on this. "That better be just us."

"We need to talk to Sara. She'll arrange everything."

Sara Evelyn Briggs had arrived early to work that day at The Historic New Orleans Collection, busy cataloguing a new inventory of books that had been donated by some local family, no doubt trying to make themselves look good in the public eye. It's what a lot of affluent locals did. Donate either something of value or money to a museum or charity, and get your name in the paper with high praise. She snorted at the thought. While she had been raised in money herself, Sara's adoptive parents didn't care for flaunting their wealth. Most who looked at them would assume they were middle-class until they saw the real value that the couple had kept in their home: priceless books, historical art, and cultural artefacts. Those things partly caused Sara to develop a love for history. That, and her mother's blood was flowing through her veins. Her phone had pinged for an unknown time that day, the unique tone she had set for her to know that it was Nathan. Sara's brows furrowed as she wondered why the man had been bugging her all day was she was working. He knew she was working.

When it pinged again, she sighed, resisting the urge to slam the book in her hands down in frustration. She would regret it later if she damaged it in any way. Pulling the device from the back pocket of her jeans, she stared at the screen. Thirty-three missed texts from Nathan. She was going to smack him upset the head when she saw him. As she quickly read through the messages, she learned that he was at her apartment, waiting with a surprise for her. Well, that scared her. Unless Elena was pregnant, yet there was no mention of her sister-in-law being at her apartment, just Nathan. Damn that man, piquing her interest. She texted him, promising to be there before four, as she still had a lot to do before she could leave, and it was only just a quarter to three now.

"Simon!" She called out from her office to her assistant, who was somewhere out in the hallway. The young Latin man came in, eyes wide and a look of fear on his face. Sara rolled her eyes as she studied him. "Relax, I just need these books to be documented into inventory before the day is out." She tapped one of the trolleys behind her that held the least amount of books. After seven hours of work, she still had about thirteen books to go out of a stack of three hundred.

Simon Cruz stepped forward, eying off the large stack his boss had already managed to finish. "You sure knocked many of them off. We only received the donation last night."

She shrugged. "Can't have the work piling up now, can we?" Sara muttered. "I got a family thing, so I need to leave early. Think you can handle it?" He flinched at her words, eyes darting back between her and the last of the books. She sighed, pinching the bridge between her eyes. "Simon," His name rolling off her tongue in the beginning of a lecture. "I'm not asking you to disarm a nuke. Just catalogue the books."

"Right." He mumbled, moving forward to the smallest pile. "I can do that."

Sara fought against rolling her eyes. The young man, barely out of his teens, had taken on the assistant job to stay close to his family after finishing university, but the boy has as much confidence in himself as a wet noodle. How he'd survived four years of a University must have been a miracle, let alone getting accepted to one. With a final nod at him, she began packing up her things, reminding him to ensure her office was locked after he left, even handing over the spare key hidden under the large potted plant in the hallways outside her office. She was slightly afraid to leave Simon alone, but she had to have faith in him. It had taken almost half an hour for her to finally get out of work, having been stopped by other staff with their questions. That left her with only another forty-five minutes to drive back to her apartment in peak New Orleans traffic. She knew the job of a curator would be tough when she took it three years ago, and she had been up for the challenge, but she missed the days when she got to sit at her Boston home, supporting her brother Nathan with research and connections. That had been simpler.

No neighbours had been parked in her spot as she pulled her car into the underground carpark of her apartment complex, something she had been thankful for, as some neighbours thought they were entitled to other people's reserved spots. She passed some neighbours on the way to her apartment and greeted them. Nathan had left her front door unlocked for her.

"Okay, brother, whatever surprise you have for me, it better be good." She sighed, tossing her keys into a bowl and sitting on a small table by the front door as she flicked the latch closed. "We received a massive donation of books last night, and I have yet to finish cataloguing them. I had to leave the task with Simon, and you know how that boy operates." She dumped her purse down next, moving from the entryway into the open floor kitchen and living room. Sara had stopped when her eyes landed on a man standing in her living room, staring out over New Orleans and a beer from her fridge in his hands. When he turned to face her, his eyes widened as he took her in. Sara knew his face but couldn't remember how.

"Sara!" Nathan had come out of her bedroom, tucking his phone into his back pocket. He had just gotten off the phone with Jameson, arranging to go on leave while he handled matters for the next few weeks. Nathan rushed to her, pulling her into a hug.

"Nathan…" The unknown man mumbled. He had taken a few steps towards them, reaching out for Nathan.

Nathan pulled back from Sara but kept an arm on her shoulder as he turned to the man. "Sara, meet Sam." Her eyes widened as she took in the man Nathan had introduced her to, her mind running back to the photo she had looked at fourteen years ago. It was Samuel. Her brother Samuel Drake. She couldn't believe it. He was meant to have died fifteen years ago in Panama, but now he was standing in her apartment.

Sam swore, taking another step towards them, his hand reaching out to Nathan to steady himself. "Fuck Nathan…she looks just like mum." Nathan and Sara sucked in a breath. Neither knew what Cassandra Morgan looked like when she was alive, the pair having no memories or photos of her. Samuel had been ten when she passed, enough years to have their mother's face burned into his memory. It shocked Sara that she resembled her deceased mother so much that when she looked into a mirror all these years, it was her mother's face, unknowingly staring back at her.

"Hi, Sam." Sara mumbled, offering a hand to the older man. He grabbed it, using it as leverage to pull her into a tight embrace. Nathan was chuckling as she watched the pair. "How? Nate said you died." Samuel released, sparing a glance at their brother as he began to tell her how the doctors at the jail saved him, only to lock him back up. "Prison?" She eyed Nathan as he looked sheepishly away from her. He had never gone into the details surrounding Samuel's death, and now it just raised more questions.

Samuel chuckled at the look she sent Nathan. "Yeah, an old fort in Panam that had been turned into a prison. The brothers had gotten themselves arrested just so they could sneak into an old tower on the premises as they hunted for clues towards Henry Avery's lost treasure, and as they were escaping, Samuel was shot. Sara sighed, moving away from her brothers to get herself a beer from her fridge. Nathan had been right when describing Samuel as a magnet for trouble.

"There's a problem, Sara," Nathan said, leaning on the opposite side of the kitchen island, facing her. She barely got a sip of her beer when the words left his mouth. "Sam got out just days ago. Hector Alcazar helped him."

Sara choked on her drink, coughing as she tried to fix her breathing. "The fucking drug lord?" Her gaze shot to Samuel, the man frowning at her. "A man like that doesn't just help people. What did he ask for in exchange?"

"Avery's treasure." Nathan stated while staring into his sister's eyes.

Sara swore. How could Samuel have been so stupid to agree to such a thing? Nathan had told her all about Rafe and how they had spent weeks, nearly months, digging up Saint Dismas' cathedral and found nothing. Not a drop of the treasure or another clue.

"Hey," Samuel barked, stepping forward. "He demanded it after he helped me escape."

"And you're an idiot thinking a man like that would help you without getting something for it. How did he even know about the treasure? Did you brag about it?" Sara lectured, moving around the counter to jab a finger into the large man's chest. Her beer was forgotten on the counter.

"Hey, hey!" Nathan moved between them, keeping the siblings separated. "We have three months to find the treasure, so I came to you." Sara breathed heavily as she glared at Samuel, only finally turning to Nathan when he began to pester her by repeatedly saying her name.

Sara eyed Nathan, moving back around, away from Samuel. "We have a lead?" She reached for her beer, hoping to dull her senses a bit and free herself from the stupid of her eldest brother.

Nathan looked to Samuel, nudging his head to Sara at the man. Samuel sighed, reaching into his jacket and pulling out the same folded paper he had shown to Nathan that morning, sliding it across the counter. She picked it up, staring at the two images on the paper. Saint Dismis' cross. But it wasn't the same one Nathan had stored away in his attic. This one was unbroken. Her brows shot up as the realisation hit her. "This one's intake. This means whatever was originally in the broken one should still be inside this one. Where is it?"

Nathan nodded, proud of his sister for having the thought so fast. "The Rossi Estate, black market auction in three days." Sara began to laugh, earning odd looks from her brothers. "I know it's ridiculous, but we must get in and steal it."

"No, no," Sara tried to calm herself. "It's good timing." She stated, smiling as Nathan eyed her. "You'll never guess who's currently in Italy, about to attend that little soiree."

The smile slowly spread across Nathan's face. "Sully."

Sara was laughing again. "He actually invited me to join him, I told him I was too busy with work to go, but now I have an excuse."

"Whoa," Samuel spoke out, moving towards her, his tone commanding. "You're not coming. It's way too dangerous."

She glared again at her brother. "I have sat back far too long while Nathan has been out risking his life. And now, you expect me to do nothing as you ask him to risk his life for you. Fuck no. This is a family matter, and I'm going that's final." She slammed her beer down with enough force to make the boys jump. Nathan had known her long enough to know that there would be no arguing with her when she got like this—stubborn woman.

"You'll come," Nathan said, earning an unhappy retort from Samuel, but he didn't care. Sara was right. Right now, Samuel's life was in the balance, and he needed the help of his siblings to keep him alive and out of the clutches of Hector Alcazar. "But if I tell you to do something, you do it."

"Wonderful." Sara beamed, agreeing with her brother and her mood doing a total one-eighty. "I'll contact Sully and arrange the transport and hotel." She moved passed Samuel, pulling out her phone to contact Victor Sullivan and begin packing. "Oh, by the way." She called out over her shoulder as the boys made to leave her apartment, Nathan knowing she'd forward him all the details when she was done. "Sully can only get me in as a plus one, so you boys are going to have fun sneaking in." The two Drake boys said a look at what she'd said as she left them alone in the main room of her apartment. They knew what she meant—scaling the cliffside manor and sneaking inside the event where there would be armed guards. While they had planned to steal the cross, they hadn't actually planned on how they would get in or how they would attempt to steal the artifact. Sullivan and Sara would come up with that.

Samuel swore as he took the lead, Nathan following after him and locking the front door behind him. Nathan had dropped Samuel off at some small dingy motel, promising to pick him up in the morning And once again, he would have to lie to Elena about everything. While his wife knew Nathan longed for the days of adventure and treasure hunting, Nathan had also made a promise to her—a simple life.

"Just need to do this last job." He mumbled to himself while alone in the car, thinking about what he would need to pack and what he would say to Elena. His phone dinged from where it sat in the centre console. A single message from Sara flashed on the screen.

'It has been arranged. Meet me at mine with Sam at 8.00 am.'