Hope this is clear. Enjoy.
The girls body still hung in its crucifixion pose before the 'altar' of the Solari church the two lovers entered. The sight caused Lara to look away in embarrassment at her earlier mirth.
"Sick sons of bitches." Evan snapped, "What crime did SHE commit?"
"Being a girl," Lara said softly, and squeezed his hand gently, "The leader was burning them alive to see if Himiko would 'choose' the girl as a vessel by saving her. She was one of too many. Lets go. I feel like I'm desecrating her grave."
He stared at the burned body of the girl for a moment, his eyes coming to rest on her right hand, the flesh burned, but not as extensively as the rest of her body; he shined a penlight at it. "You are fucking kidding me," he muttered in disbelief. He stepped closer, reached out, and turned the wrist to him.
"What is it Evan?"
He turned and looked at her, "I'm not certain, but if it is who I think it is, I'm going to need to get a DNA sample, as well as make a private pyre just for her." He pulled out his cell, and snapped a picture of the girls wrist, and downloaded the picture.
"Who is she? Did you know her?"
He shook his head, "I only heard of her," his phone hummed. He stared at the text, his eyes went wide.
"What?"
"You just made a very powerful friend Lara, and a very annoying enemy. This poor girl's name was Madeline Dupont; she was heir apparent to Rene Dupont, THE big dog in the EU 'underground economy'.The mark on her wrist was a bar code, a very specific tatoo given to her at birth. It was colored the same as her skin, and would only become visible post-mortem."
She was impressed, but given what he had already shown her, she wasn't surprised, "The Black Market?"
Evan nodded, "He has looked for her for over three years. She was his favorite: brilliant, beautiful, reasonable, compassionate; the light of his life. He has a standing reward of five billion Euros for the safe recovery of her; and a two hundred fifty million Euro reward to anyone who, on finding her dead, tortured, raped, or maimed... kills those responsable, and avenges his daughter. He has an expensive passion for antiquities, and a walking ulcer of a son named Pierre; That little pissant ponce thinks he's a mix of Micheal Corleone and Indiana Jones. Rene calls him 'it', despises him. But since he is his son... no one can touch him, and he is next in line to inherit the family fortune. That is, unless, someone was to find Madeline, or if she was avenged by a young woman so like his murdered daughter..."
Lara looked at the girl as if for the first time and began crying softly as she spoke her name, "Madeline."
Evan just stared at her in quiet adoring wonder; a sad, sympathetic smile on his handsome face.
She glanced at him, and sniffed back her tears, and bowed her head in self-conscious embarrassment, "Sorry, " she started, but never finished as he lightly kissed her lips before kissing her tear streaked cheeks.
"Never say that again, please." he sighed lovingly into her ear.
She let her tears fall, and kissed him back softly, her head spinning with thoughts, feelings, dreams she never contemplated before; all made possible by a night in a hotel bar. She lifted her lips to his ear, "Thank you for coming into my... " she sighed, then caught herself mid-sentence, trying to keep herself from sounding too needy.
He seemed not to have noticed, and kissed her head reassuringly, "Ah... no need to thank me for THAT. Thank YOU, for the invite."
She gasped in a breath and tried to down play the moment, "Heh. Some badass I am. Here I am bawling; and you coming to this island to kill this fucking wizard for me..." she stammered.
He kissed her mouth again, and smiled into her eyes, "I came here for you, THE Lara Croft: the staggeringly beautiful human being... who happens to have a remarkably lovely face. You are a wonderful girl Lara, don't ever forget that. You're easily worth two times more than half the people I know, and haven't killed - yet."
She smiled and sniffed back her tears, "I doubt that. I was just so lost, scared, angry the last time - I shut them, and so much else out. I just never let myself think of them as people. Poor girls."
"Part of you did," he sighed softly, "and it justifiably took pleasure in the fear, and terror you brought to these piles of trash we've been burning; and now it's showing it loves her, and mourns her loss. This is also nothing to apologize for. No one standing here cried for her, till you. Rene will bow before you - more for this than the killing; and once word gets out that you slaughtered two hundred armed men: butchered them cold and dead for his daughter... giving you carte blanche with his backing... every scumbag in the western hemisphere will shit themselves at the meer utterance of your name - all for those tears."
She kissed him as intensely as she ever did, sobbing as she smiled weakly, "I love you. Please, please stay. Everyone I love goes away from me... please stay. I can keep you safe... just teach me, teach me how to kill like you do."
"'L'," he sighed, "I'm a killer, I am not a decent man. I..."
She pulled her face away from his, and stared unflinching into his sad eyes, "This place is filled with 'decent men'," she sighed, her eyes growing sterner as she continued to look into his, "Men who died, tethered like sacrificial lambs, by the dozens to distract an animal from raping me; decent men who fearlessly died to keep a girl from throwing away her weapons in panic of them dying with a cowards blade at their neck; dying to... impress her; to save her life from an axe. I don't want any decent men to die for me, ever again."
He watched as she walked to the girl and composed herself, before going on.
"I want the baddest, coldest son of a bitch in the valley of death to live, and lay with me; the one who grins as he strides into the face of three men armed to the teeth in a strange girl's hotel room, and kills them with his bare hands faster than they can reload. A man who can look at the Solari and all he thinks is... 'good variety of targets! I was getting bored thinking of ways to get Lara and Sam to shower together'..."
He smiled in spite of her sincere demeanor, "mind reader," he interjected.
"Who offhandedly remarked, laughing, as he hung by one hand from the under-hang of a hotel balcony, 'Do I get extra boss pimp points for tea-bagging these psycho's corpses as I choke the life from them?'"
He coughed back a snicker, and blushed.
She turned her eyes to him. "I want you. Because, maybe, one day, if I ever have a little girl of my own - she'll be yours; and I'll know she won't suffer poor Maddy's fate. She'll come back to me, twenty-one, humming happily like her father as she cleans the blood off her knuckles. I'll scold her, and say,'Who do you think you are!?' and she'll fix me with your blue eyes, and say to my middle-aged arse, 'I'm you mother... with all the weaknesses taken out.' before ignoring me as she walks to the main entry to see where to mount Whitman's severed head."
He just stared.
She stared back, cocking one eyebrow, "Of course SHE'LL be dressed in a Parka; you'll never like her dressing like you did me."
"Course not," he stammered in disbelief, "... that's our daughter."
She smiled, "Our daughter," she sighed.
He smiled, "Having my baby," he shrilly started to sing.
She shook her head and smiled as she clamped a hand over his mouth, "I said 'maybe', 'someday'. Now there are just too many targets, most painted on me."
He smiled, "You're on... mum."
She smiled happily.
"First things first. If you're going to do this correctly, ie: with style, you'll need gloves, leather, with thick palm padding, and velcro straps... and fingerless."
"Got it," she chimed happily, "more gym wear."
He smiled, "Very funny. Once I take care of Maddie's funeral pyre..."
"Once WE, take care of it. What say we give her due respect, and make this whole city her pyre? Burn it fucking all to ashes; for her, and all their victims."
He smiled, "We really must bring Doppy here for holiday."
Lara stared at him, bewildered, "I know I'm going to regret this, but who is 'Doppy'?"
"Our little death-dealing darling daughter: Doppy Ganger Carter-Croft."
"Doppy Ganger? You mean Doppelganger?"
"Well, she'll doubtless take after you; borrow your clothes; bludgeon me with sarcasm; blow up the house for grounding her..."
She kissed him on the cheek, "You are so damn funny... thank you."
"Then after she turns ten..."
She shook her head, "And if we have a boy? Twins?"
"Feeling fertile? I was just thinking you were looking especially 'pert'."
She smirked at him, "I always look 'pert', as if you didn't notice. Why do you think I don't like to wear bras? Every day... 'Hello world! I'm Lara Croft, twenty one years old; I have a doctorate; I speak six languages; can read hieroglyphics; and the most amazing, singularly important fact about me, yes... they're real.'"
He laughed till he coughed.
"Hang in there James, we're years from kids."
"Cruel... threatening me with responsibility. That said..."
She rolled her lovely eyes as he continued on
"I can see it all... the tribe right here, a regular Croft Family Christmas."
"Don't forget, we'll need a tree, and a new darling gang of Solari to keep the kids busy. Or a decent first person shooter, with a good multi-player. You don't always get that."
He smiled as the two began to burn the shanty town down; a feat that would prove both cathartic, and enlightening, as the hidden influence of Trinity comes to light, and the full power of the agent gets unleashed.