Hello! This story is based on the Tomb Raider 2 movie! Of course all these character's don't belong to me, and that's why it's a fan-fiction :)

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Prologue

Coming to the cliff's edge, Lara Croft slowly lowered to the ground then hugged her knees to her chest. From her vantage point, she gazed reflectively towards the horizon. The sky was fading into shades of red and purple as the sunset, causing shadows to stretch across the golden grassland. She let out a sigh as a breeze ruffled through strands of her unbound hair.

The majesty of the African Savannah was timeless – as if nothing had changed in thousands of years.

Lara mused that this would be the land where life began.

"The cradle of life," she said reverently to herself.

Yet only a few hours ago, she had taken a life. Terry Sheridan's.

In her time she had killed many. She lived in a world that was "kill or be killed" and she never lost any sleep over it. Yet today's event, killing Terry, had affected her. She recalled with irony that he had saved her life, having come moments before Jonathan Reiss was about to pull the trigger on her.

Lara recalled the sense of elation she felt at his arrival. She had no idea that he was coming – she thought he was out of her life forever. But he wasn't. At that moment, when she realized that he had followed her all the way to Africa and down the cave depths of the cradle of life, he erased all doubts that she had of him. After killing Reiss, Lara thought that they had defeated the enemy and Pandora's Box was safe from evil hands. She and Terry had saved the day, and they would go home -- together. But she was wrong.

Terry's worse enemy was himself.

Terry Sheridan had given her an ultimatum – side with him and let him take the box or side with "the others" – literally the people of the world - and kill him. Lara couldn't let Terry have that box – a weapon so powerful it could destroy the world.

She had no choice but to end his life before his greed would take far more. She shot him.

The final look in Terry's eyes haunted her. They weren't filled with anger, but betrayal, then sadness.

And then his body fell to the cave floor.

The same male body that had once held her and the same hands that once gently grabbed her right one - the first time they met - and lifted to his lips to kiss.

Lara's gut told her that if she hadn't done what she had done, it would be her dead on the cave floor. Yet only moments before he had saved her…

'Was he really going to kill me….?' The question hammered in her head in-between images of their short, but happy relationship.

A sharp sear of pain shook Lara out of her reverie. "Bugger," she whispered to herself. Blood was pouring from the top of her right hand.

In her daydream she hadn't noticed that she was applying pressure to a wound she had acquired earlier that day. She rubbed the wound with a tinge of irony.

This was the second time Terry Sheridan had caused her to stare at the back of her hand in shock.

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Thanks for reading! Reviews are most welcome -- even critical ones!