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Reins of the Tomb Raider	By : HunterOpera Category: +S through Z > Tomb Raider (all) > Tomb Raider (all) Views: 38203 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Tomb Raider and make no money from this. Also, this is not a happy story. It will not have a happy ending. You have been warned.

Chapter List
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Duchess slowly came back to consciousness.

Something soft and light was pushing against her skin. She shrugged her shoulder, whining, and realized her arms were free. She blinked open her eyes, looking around, and realized she was inside a room. That she was lying down. That was strange – she could not remember the last time she had been inside a room, the last time she had been left unbound, the last time she had been permitted to lie down when one of the owners was not using her..

And she was unbound. Her eyes widened, surprise flooding her. She brought up her hands and looked at them, stretching her fingers. There was no harness around her torso, no boots holding her feet, nothing filling her. She sat up, looking around, the softness below her supportive and comfortable. Mattress. The word was foreign in her mind, her palms touching it, fingers curling in the fabric. Her face hurt for a moment, moving in a way that she was not familiar with.

It took her a moment to realize that she was smiling.

She cried for a while, holding herself.

Duchess felt curiously empty. Her fingers reached downwards and found that there was nothing plugging her. She gasped, mouth opening, and her hands flew to her face – where was the bit? She threw aside the soft lightness blankets that had covered her, standing up and breathing heavy, feeling strange and alien and wondering what was happening.

There was a sound that came from a panel of the wall. Door. She frowned, staring at the panel. It repeated. Knock. The sound was a knock. She opened her mouth, some distant memory telling her that this was the correct thing to do, but no sound would leave her throat.

The panel shifted and she skittered back, raising her arms. A small girl entered the room, her expression grave. Duchess took more steps backwards, looking for some place she might flee to, but there was nowhere for her to go. Reluctant, scared, she looked at the newcomer. Something about the girl that tickled some far distant memory. She knew this girl. Loved her. Something bad had happened between them and then...

Lightning flashed in the girl's eyes and Duchess jumped backwards, skittish, putting the thing with the soft bed that she had been lying on before between them. The girl watched her, eyes gentle, her hands spread by her sides.

“Lara?” the girl said. Duchess shook her head. That was not her name. That name was a trick, an invitation to suffering, and she would not acknowledge it. “Lara, it's Sam. Do you remember me?”

There is a haze in her mind. The words forged themselves out of the static in the air. Duchess looked around for their source, found nothing. She crouched down behind the bed, looking at the still open panel. She could run. No one could catch her, not even the people in the Village of the Damned, not now.

“Lara, it's okay now,” the woman named Sam said. Duchess tried to hide, wondering where her owner was, wondering what new game this was. She would not fall for it. “Lara, do you remember Yamatai?”

Duchess frowned. That name was familiar. Who was this girl that called lightning from the skies? Something there tickled a memory.

There, the static voice said.

Electricty danced around her.

Lara screamed.

When the pain stopped she was curled on the ground and Sam was holding her, rocking her back and forth and whispering comforting lies to her. She tried to speak but words were still beyond her.

“Lara, it's okay,” Sam said, and Lara wanted to believe this, wanted to believe it so bad she started crying. Sam cried with her, the two of them holding one another.

Later, the two of them went downstairs. Lara was naked – it felt strange to wear clothing and she knew she would have to get used to it again, but Sam said that was okay. She could take what time she needed to recover.

“H-home?” Lara said. Her voice cracked at the word, her tongue stumbling over the sound as she sadly looked at where they were - Croft Manor, the home she had lost. Sam nodded understanding, reaching for Lara but not touching her, cautious.

“Croft Manor is yours again,” Sam said. “I had some physicians come to examine you while you were out. It's been a month, Lara. We've been providing you home care, but you're alive, your will was contested and everything that was yours, is yours.”

“...?”

She wants to know who I am.

Lara shuddered. That voice was a remnant of nightmares that now seemed pleasant compared to the last four and a half years of her life. Himiko. The name was a word, one she whispered with fear and trembling. Sam nodded, pulling her hand away. Lara stared at it, wanting the touch, not wanting the touch. She frowned, hugging herself, confused.

“The Empress and I have come to an agreement,” Sam said. “We're working together now. She needs my help to find an heir, someone she can inhabit once I'm dead. We're going to find a coma patient, eventually, and perform the ritual.”

Such things did not exist in my time, Himiko hissed. With your resources we will fake an identity for me. For now, this is enough.

"Thanks," Sam said, a smile flickering across her features. The hissing around them sounded smug.

In the meantime, I need to learn about this world and have agents in it, Himiko said, her voice a static hiss that leaked out of every outlet, along every copper wire. Before I was merely the storm. Now, I am electricity and wind and water. This world should be mine.

“I've seen the Empress' soul,” Sam said, leading Lara into the kitchens. “Not all of the stories were false. She was fair, if harsh, but that was what her times made her.”

This is a new world, Himiko said. I will master my part of it, cultivate a new kingdom. You will serve me.

Lara froze at that, shuddering.

“It's okay, Lara,” Sam said. She held open her palm and Lara reached for it, tentatively rested her own hand against Sam's. The touch was warm, soft, undemanding - so unlike all the touches she had known for such a long time. Sam didn't pull Lara anywhere, was careful about touching her - every hesitation a request. “Look, Croft Manor is yours again. Your things have been returned to you. People know you're alive and that you were hurt, so some people may come to check up on you, but we're controlling access as best we can.”

“O-wn... owner.” Lara struggled with the word.

“Do you mean James?” Sam asked. Lara nodded. “I wouldn't worry about him.”

"W." Lara swallowed. "W-what?"

I have had a thousand years to contemplate fates worse than death.

Lara starred at nothing, remembering the dried and withered bones of the Empress.

I boiled his blood and made his muscles explode, but I protected his brain and other organs, Himiko hissed, and there was satisfaction in her tone. Not his eyes. I boiled them in the sockets. Not his tongue. I seared the buds away. He can hear. Perhaps smell. His nervous system will feed him pain unending.

Lara shuddered, bowing her head so that neither Sam or Himiko would see her smile.

"That bitch Steph and the foriegn guy dragged what was left of him away," Sam said. "He'll never recover from what we did to him."

It was a punishment well dealt. Himiko sounded smug. You are both mine and mine alone, my agents in this world. Anyone that harms one of my servants will suffer the consequences.

Lara was not sure how to respond to that. She followed Sam into the kitchen, allowed Sam to cook for her. The taste of real food after so long without made her cry, driving her to the ground, the sensation overwhelming her. When she sat there, dumbstruck and shuddering, Sam offered a hand. Lara clung onto her, sobbing heavily.

“You're free, Lara,” Sam repeated, stroking her hair.

“Oth... o... others,” sobbed Lara.

“We know,” Sam whispered.

This world is wrong, Himiko added. I can sense it in ways you cannot. We will fix this world, the three of us. We will find who is responsible for this and we will boil the blood in their veins. The fate your betrayer suffers will seem a pleasant dream compared to what we three will inflict upon that enemy.

Lara remembered that Himiko had good reason to despise traitors. She nodded. This, she could understand.

“We need you to do it, Lara,” Sam added. “We need the Tomb Raider.”

Lara sat back and hugged herself and shook her head. She wasn't sure she had that in her anymore.

You survived Yamatai, Himiko said, and Lara could feel electricity dance along her skin. You found my home and defeated me in my lair. You are a warrior, Duchess Croft. Your rank means 'Warlord,' and you will be my Warlord, my sword in this world. You will find my enemies. We will have our revenge.

“She needs time to recover, Empress,” Sam said, “if she agrees to do it.”

“I,” Lara said, swallowing, looking around the room. “Do.”

Take Parmistan into your soul the way you did Yamatai, the way you did Syria and Russia, Himiko said. Use what you have survived to make you stronger. You have beat back horror in the past. You will do so again. You are not alone.

“Need,” Lara said, standing and struggling with the word, the concept. Her muscles screamed at her as she moved, aching from disuse. She shook her head, hissing, forcing herself to stand tall. “Run.”

“Run?” Sam asked.

She needs to be exercised the way the Parmistani people exercised her, Himiko said. She is in the best shape of her life. We will keep her physically like this while rebuilding her mind.

“We will not do that to her,” Sam spat.

It will be different, Himiko hissed. The Parmistani people acted from the sickness they were set to protect the world from. There is another like myself there, but his influence is weak this far from his home. This will be our temple, and your motivation will help Lara heal while playing into something that she is familiar with.

“My motivation?” Sam asked, looking at Lara. Lara met her eyes. “What is my motivation?”

“Love.” The word was wet and warm on Lara's lips. Sam stared at her, and when she offered a hand Lara took it.

Around them, Himiko hissed approvingly.

*

And that's it. The end of this first bit of... something. I know not what. I'm going to give backstories on the other ponies, I think, and then tie them into Lara's exploration of this strange world. Bergman, Masque, and a pony one-shot are next. There's some interesting conversation about this story, writing, and other stories over at http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/36931-metroid-the-bergman-affair-feedback-comments-and-workshopping/page-12 and I'd like to invite you to join in the discussion. All reviews, comments, and feedback will be responded to. Thanks for reading~!
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Reins of the Tomb Raider