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[ lara croft sure does remember dying.

what's more painful that the actual memory of her own climbing axe cutting through her skull repeatedly is the image of luke's face; the sympathy and pain... nothing short of agony could describe it. he hadn't wanted that, and what lara feels upon waking up in her bed (somehow, she knows it's her's, and she hates that, the sticky, slimy sensation of understanding something sinister), more than anything, is fury.

fury because luke castellan should not have looked down at her with regret. he should have been bearing down at her with determination, a hardened resolve to survive. she would have accepted that. perhaps, if luke had given her that, lara would even be content to lay in bed for a while and sink further into her depression and bitterness. but no, a nineteen year old boy looks down at her with apologies in his eyes and she has to get to the bottom of the situation. there isn't, she supposes, much else to do here.

but luke is not an easy person to find, and perhaps that's her own fault. storming through the streets of the neighborhood, lara shouts his name and calls for him desperately. if he answers, she isn't sure, because she hears nothing. that's fair, she thinks. she would keep to herself, too, for a while. she waits a bit; she's tired, somehow. an hour later lara takes a different approach and begins climbing the trees and looking for weak spots in the houses, poking her head quietly through each room before moving onto the next house. at worse, she'll find diva, and with the both of them dead, that's really not something she gives a damn about anymore.

this next house does not look any different from the rest, she thinks, but something feels a bit lived in about it. that's why she picks it out. there's a tree that isn't quite perfect for climbing but she makes due, crawling through leaves and leaping across to a window's ledge. slipping her fingers underneath, she pulls her head up with a grunt, and lara sees that she's lucked out this time.

she's still hanging on when she speaks, and though she stumbles a bit, her ancient greek isn't too bad. ]

I'm not your enemy, Luke.

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[He remembers everything.

He remembers why he was in the facility, he remembers his purpose, he remembers his life before...but he remembers everything he'd thought inside the complex, too. He remembers monsters and gods and broken hearts and a titan lord who promised a better world and he remembers waking up in the complex and he remembers people and ankle monitors and kind women who looked after him and beautiful boys that were a ticking timebomb.

Luke Castellan remembers everything, and he wishes he hadn't. His hand instinctively flies up to his neck to feel for a wound and finds nothing. He hears the voice of Judy from the radio and his expression falls.

This is it. This is really all that's left.

The neighborhood is quiet, or perhaps Luke is good at turning everything off as he lays on his bed and with his back to the window. He thinks maybe he hears someone calling his name, someone who sounds like Lara, but it's a dream, it's a bad memory, it's Lara begging him to stop, Lara's face as Luke brought down her own weapon.

It's enough for him to choke a little on bile creeping up his throat and he moves to burrow his head under his pillow. Couldn't death at least be kind enough to take away that memory? How about the one of breaking Elizabeth's wrist after and being killed by her own hands? No? Ugh.

He doesn't know how long he stays like that, willing himself to forget and try to go to sleep. The radio's softly playing music he barely recognizes and he's curled into himself. He's unaware he has a visitor, but suddenly he hears things he shouldn't hear. He hears things he shouldn't hear in a voice he shouldn't hear and he sits upright, scrambling back on his bed as far from the window as possible.]

Hey! [It's startled and afraid and he's not sure if this is real or a hallucination and his hand grapples for...nothing. He has nothing to defend himself and so he remains frozen and watching her warily even as he eyes the door. He could make that, right? Right. One false move and he'll bolt...good plan.]

Luke, please. You have got to listen to me. I promise I am not angry. I heard it. Judy's voice. "Innocent," the both of us. Staff member or no, you... [ the fountain water had felt cool against her skin and the two of them had been soaked to the bone. she had shouted in worry, a frenzied emotion that she knew too well these days. anxiety over another person's condition. lara remembers the first time she heard luke shout in a long dead tongue, a tongue she'd heard through the deathless ones. and she remembers him raising his feet to look at his chuck taylors, and speaking like a pouty child.

"i haven't done anything wrong." ]

You didn't do anything wrong.

[ at least, she wants to think so.

the look in his eyes had said so much for him. ]

...I want to come inside. May I?

[He's not sure how to proceed. Lara...is saying all of the right things and though he doesn't make any further moves to run he's not exactly moving to let her in either. Granted, it's Lara Croft. He assumes she'd make her way in if she really wanted to come in anyway.

She says that she's not angry, that he didn't do anything wrong. Is that true? Maybe he didn't--he wasn't responsible for Rayfa's death, that was--well. It wasn't him. It wasn't him, but he was paying the price for someone else's murder and he's almost sure that the rest of them aren't even sad he's gone. At the end of the day it was about business. His shoulders are hunched to guard himself but he nods, gesturing with his head.]

I guess so. This place is pretty creepy anyway. [Mostly because he doesn't quite understand all of it, but that's okay. There's progress.] Have you been here the whole time?

[ lara is saying all of the right things because it's clear something is deeply wrong here. luke did nothing wrong, and fought to live, and to lara, that means there's some common ground to be found. there's more to talk about, and she's worried that luke's wrapped himself up in something beyond his control - she thinks about trinity and the way it's men were dispatched so easily, and it chills her to think he could be the same. men that lara had killed so mercilessly.

but she'll take what she can get. she would have come in regardless, she would have made her way inside no matter what he said, but asking is a show of faith. in a quick movement, lara hauls herself inside, and turns to shut the window.

she pauses before answering. ]

It's peaceful. [ it's said with a sigh. ] The others have no idea how peaceful things could be. [ but he asked her a question, she knows, so with her back to luke, still, lara responds. ] I woke up, and I went looking for you. I don't know how long ago that was... hours, maybe. Wish we had a clock... either way, I've been here. Not in the tree, in... this place.

Maybe death is supposed to be this way. [It's a short, albeit bitter answer. He's watching her curiously and he's ashamed to think that he's eyeing her to make sure she didn't come with her axe, too. That's what people would want, isn't it? Revenge? He's worked on the idea of revenge for a while. Maybe people aren't as unbalanced as he is.

But that sounds familiar.] I woke up here, too. I'm confused because this...I don't think this was supposed to happen? Not really, anyway. I'm not even sure where we are or if Charles and Diva and Rayfa are here or what happens next. They didn't tell us this part.

[There's a pause.] I don't...think I'm supposed to be here.

[ lara listens and waits for him to finish. if she has her axe, it isn't on her thigh this time, perhaps tucked away in her hoodie, or hidden in her sleeve. but luke knows how heavy and dangerous that item is. if she hid it in her pocket or her sleeve, there would be a sag of fabric, a telltale sign of her desire to revenge. instead, she looks light. thoughtful. ]

You, specifically? Or both us.

[ when she turns, there's a hardened quality to her expression, as if she's wondered the same. ] And yet we're both here... maybe because we've things to talk about. [ there's a pause, and lara looks down, tugs at the sleeves of her jacket. only her thin fingers peek out of them, then. she looks small, perhaps like a child that's been scolded. ]

You were right. Not a one of them are innocent. We didn't deserve that.

[It's paranoia mostly, thinking maybe she has a different blade stashed somewhere. He doesn't have his items, doesn't have weapons on him, but he'd be stupid to think someone like Lara isn't prepared. Or maybe he's just overwhelmed by everything. Both are possible.

But…there are no tells and he's doing his best to keep his expression as neutral as possible even as his hands twitch and his stomach jumps out of nerves. Are the dead really supposed to have things to talk about? But Lara seems to be just as lost as he is which is both troublesome and a relief.]

…it wasn't supposed to be you. I didn't…it's part of why we were there, yeah, but I wasn't supposed to be the one to kill you. I never would have--you and Adam, never. [He's starting and stopping several sentences.] I could have picked, someone else could have done it, nobody was supposed to vote for you and Adam and I had a deal and I don't know what the rest of them are going to do.

[He stops long enough to run his hands through his hair.] …it's going to get worse in there. You know that, don't you? Maybe this is actually better. [A beat.] I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to die yet.

[ lara's prepared, of course, but she comes prepared in multiple ways. not in the way of weapons, of blunt objects meant to carve out a path on steep rock climbs, but with her mind and willingness to learn at the ready. in this way, perhaps, she's more dangerous - they say nothing is more dangerous than a curious miind.

his words are confusing but she thinks that's because luke is at a loss of what to do, and she understands. better than anyone, lara knows what it's like to be young and unprepared, plopped down in a dangerous situation. maybe that's what made her think to tell luke not to blame himself in her last moments: she thought of the girl on yamatai who had said she didn't want to become a murderer, too. now, she holds men down until they're blue in the face and dead, shoots them in the face with their own guns. don't be lara, luke. ]

Yet... what a vote of confidence. [ even the dead have a sense of humor. ]

Were you protecting people from the inside? Is that what you're saying? [ her strides toward him are long, but they're soft, slow. like she's approaching a wounded animal. perhaps luke feels as much. ] You had a deal, what about? Let me h... [ well. they're both dead, she remembers. not much help to be given, now. ] There wasn't a way out in that chamber I could see. If I had seen it, I would have taken all of us out. I can promise you that.

[It's the same reason he was wary of Elizabeth, a girl whose wits were sharper than the blade she used to end his life. He knows Lara's a survivor, knows Lara would have been hard to take out on her own, but this still isn't what he would have chosen for her. He doesn't say anything for a moment, staring at his hands instead like they're the ones responsible for everything. Then again, in a way, that's true. There's a difference between pulling the strings and actually executing the act himself. One is easier than the other.

The assumption that he feels like a wounded animal isn't entirely wrong either. He's lost and fumbling without purpose now, nineteen and pulled out of a life that may or may not even have truly been his.]

Yet. I'm sorry, Lara, but that's the whole point. We're the only people who could pull this off, that's what we needed to do. That's why you're all here, we're making the world out there better. [The scary thing is that he truly sounds like he believes that.] We're doing this to make a better future for people.

There's a way out. You guys just don't know it, and even if I told you you wouldn't like it. [He takes a deep breath and seems to hold it for a moment to clear his head.] …you were all supposed to be expendable. Every single one of you. Most of you still are, there are some of you I don't give a shit about at all. But…people like you and Adam were unexpected. An anomaly? Yeah. [He licks his lips nervously.] …I told Adam I would keep him safe if he would do the same for me. He didn't know I was partially responsible for everything happening. And you…you remind me of someone. You were one of the few people who took me seriously here. I wanted to do my best to keep you two for as long as possible.

But hey, they lied to us, too. If that makes you feel better.

I'm not looking to feel better.

[ lara's not really looking for anything, she realizes, but to make sure luke's here and lucid and that she isn't alone in what feels a lot like purgatory. there's no rushing forward now, is there? what a strange thought, she thinks, looking at a nineteen year old boy who seems disturbed by the sight of his own hands. hands that had just... what, hours ago? delivered the final blow to her skull, killing her. hands that were covered in blood.

but what's the difference between luke castellan and lara croft? age, obviously. where he is not even out of his teens, lara is approaching her mid-twenties. they grew up differently, she assumes, but she still thinks that perhaps luke was the sort of child to dig up things in the dirt. he didn't have the options she had, no, but he speaks so clearly about making the world better and her expression softens to something so deeply concerned. nostalgia is what brings her brows together, and she thinks about it. she remembers her own words: "we can make a difference... the right difference." ]

Of course I took you seriously. You've a great brain and you deserve to be spoken to like a person, Luke. Your theory about us not being the only ones there, about there being people before us - I think it was the right theory to propose. True, even... The two of you had so much to offer to us, as a group. You'd be a genuine asset on an expedition, at least. I don't know who I reminded you of, but if you thought so well of them, then... it's a compliment.

[ and she can't help but sigh, looking down and closing her eyes. it all seems so pointless now, she knows, but if this is all they have - conversation - then she'll indulge it as far as it will go. ]

Try me, Luke. Tell me anything you want to tell me, no matter how incredible it is.

[ she's probably heard stranger, she reasons, and maybe that's apparent in her eyes, the way they narrow. perhaps to convince him, further, that yes, no matter how deep into the shit they've fallen, they've fallen together and lara is here, now, and not going anywhere unless it will benefit him. ]

[Would it benefit him? He doesn't know. He doesn't even know if they can contact people back in the complex, if the rest of the team even cares he was the first to get taken out. Who does he really have now besides Adam (maybe) and Lara? He remains curled up on his bed with his knees tucked to his chest, chin resting on them and eyes trained on Lara for the time being.]

...Franziska didn't seem to agree. [The tone is light but dangerous. He hates feeling stupid, and she had made that possible.] Seemed to be of the opinion people would listen to her because she was much smarter than I am, and maybe that's true considering I'm here and she's not. Doesn't change that you shouldn't be. [A pause.] ...there's this girl I know. My best friend. She's...very important to me, I hadn't realized it, but she's kind of like you. She pushed me to be something better. [A smirk.] She probably would have called Franziska a cunt, too.

[He chews the inside of his cheek for a moment.] They told us that our memories weren't altered inside the complex, but that wasn't true at all. They tricked us. And made us sign an NDA anyway. It's pretty shady business over there.

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