It has been a long time since I started with my first story, which had to very creative title 'The new adventure of Lara Croft'. As some of you supported me with that a sequel would a good idea, now here it goes. You will see that this one will differ quite much from the first part but things are not always as dark as they look like on the first sight :)

There is no need to know the first story to understand this one, only the characters are the same. But if you want to know their history, feel free to read the first one too.

I tried to follow the first one in a sense that there is a much higher emphasis on emotions here, but I hope that you also get enough action and adventure that you would not find it boring. After writing the very much action based crossover story, I felt like I want to get back to my romantic side and give Simon a hard time with Lara :)

So have fun reading this and I am always happy to hear your opinion. I even ask for it! Don't forget, reviews mean so much to any writer!

My plan is to update every Sunday, so keep looking for the new parts!

As always.. HUGE THANKS to Lara Anne for beta-reading, giving me ideas when I was stuck and bearing the emotional torture! :)

The small room made a depressing and stern impression, as the neon lights illuminated the pale green walls and the few pieces of metal furniture, which were placed in the room. The table and two chairs were carefully fixed to the floor, so that not by chance they could be used as weapons. Lara stepped close to the mirror that covered the whole left wall, but only her rather annoyed mirror image looked back at her, despite the fact that she knew that from the other side she could have been watched without her noticing. They had been making her wait slowly for an hour already, she did not understand why she was there at all. She slowly reached the point where she would not care anymore and just would go home but something did not let her rest, the growing curiosity triumphed over her impatience. Although she did not want to come here on the first place...

...

This morning started the same way as all the others ... After a quiet knock Winston stepped into Lara's bedroom and with a sudden movement he pulled the curtains open. Lara turned grumbling to the other side, not wanting the light to beat out the sleep from her eyes, cursing under her breath, although Winston only fulfilled her own request not to let her sleep longer than nine in the morning. In the recent weeks, Lara was not in a good mood, and Winston knew exactly why but he did not want to let the woman immerse in the self-pity that she very cleverly tried to hide even from herself. The butler waited until Lara sat up in the bed to make sure that she would not go back to sleep.

"All right, Winston. You can go now." - Lara groaned out with great difficulty, as she put her feet on the ground. The man looked at her for a moment, querying, but then he turned and left her alone without a word. Lara's hand moved towards the bedside table, and without even looking over there, she began to rummage in the drawer after a painkiller. The previous night she had been a little lost in her thoughts, which ended up that she managed to consume a little bit more wine than necessary, which now had the unpleasant aftermath. As her hands still did not get hold of the pills among all the rubbish she kept there, she angrily turned her look towards the drawer, when something caught her eyes. Almost involuntarily she reached for the photograph, the corners of which had gotten utterly crumpled during her previous search. With expressionless face she watched the two figures, who seemed so happy, with their faces close together, smiling and looking into the camera. She did not even remember who took the photo but she knew exactly what she had felt then. A lot of things she had not ever since, and this she could thank to only one person. To the one who laughed on the picture there, who then made her so happy, and now everything had become so empty, just as suddenly as he entered her life, just as quickly he disappeared from it again. Her two hands suddenly grabbed the upper edge of the photo but she was not able to do so, she could not tear the photo apart. Maybe it was the only thing that reminded her of those days, not that she could have ever erased them out of her mind. Despite having tried, God knows how much she tried. "Goddammit!" - she exclaimed bitterly. Angrily she threw the picture back into the drawer, and she slammed it, which snapped loudly, as the entire nightstand shook. Lara, not caring about the headaches anymore, furiously jumped up and walked towards the bathroom when she heard the door bell from the ground floor. Who the hell can this be? - the thought crossed her mind but she did not deal with it any further. Winston will take care of it, he knows very well that I do not want to see anyone. With a deep sigh, she was watching her wet face in the mirror, when a faint knock on her door caught her ears again. When she turned around, Winston was standing expectantly in front of her.

"I told you I did not want to see anyone." - Lara walked up to him, while wiping her hands. She ran her fingers through her hair slowly, and put it together in the usual ponytail. "I do not feel like talking to anybody." - she added as she passed near her butler.

"Lady Croft, the gentlemen came from the MI6 and they urgently want to speak with you." - Winston said softly but confidently. Lara paused for a moment when she heard the words. Suddenly an unknown fear and impotent rage ran through her that she was unable to hide from her servant even with the greatest efforts. He had known her for too long. "It is not him." - he added as he noticed the woman's emotions on her face. Lara irritably threw the towel from her hands to a nearby chair when she realized that Winston so easily read on her face, as if it had been an open book. She hated when anyone could see her weaknesses, even if it was someone so close to her like the old man, who had been there for her all her life.

"Tell them that I am not interested in anything they want to say." - Lara replied as she stared out of the window so that Winston could not see her face. MI6? What do they want here? Already mentioning them brought Lara out of her temper and only because of one man. She hated that she still could not get rid of his memory, that he still stirred up her emotions in such a level, that she could not close up the happenings in her. But how could she have done that when everything stayed open between them?

"I really do not want to interfere, but maybe you should listen to them." - Winston said quietly behind her. Lara closed her eyes for a moment, she did not want to answer by anger. No matter how bad she felt like she did not want Winston to suffer her mood swings. Her hands clenched by her side as she held them close. "It would do you good, if something diverted your thoughts from what had happened." – the man added cautiously. After all he knew that Lara did not like to be instructed, but Winston thought, their relationship over the years was strong enough to attempt the impossible. Lara had always been self-opinionated, ever since her childhood, she never allowed herself to be influenced, so she always tried to work off the bad things torn inside, ravaged by grief, and Winston could only helplessly watch her suffer. Fortunately this was uncommon in the past, but he knew that the current situation had deeply hurt Lara, despite of her trying to appear tough and strong. Though he would have given everything for it, to finally see her happy and content. "The gentlemen are waiting downstairs in the study." - Winston said objectively and then withdrew respectfully. Lara did not even want to believe what she heard, would her butler now decide who she had to see and who not? Finally she resignedly set out in the direction of her dressing room. Let's get through it, the sooner they leave the better. I do not care anyway, whatever they want from me - she decided to herself.

According to her mood she chose a black shirt, which nicely emphasized her figure nevertheless she had no intention to do so. She took the first pair of trousers, which her hands grabbed and after a quick glance into the mirror she started towards the staircase. She stopped for a moment in front of the study door, holding the door handle, and took a deep breath. When she entered the door, that mysterious half-smile was sitting on her face already, which always made her look a little bit mysterious.

"Gentlemen! How can I be at your service so early in the morning? "- she said as she noticed the two men who were standing in front of the fireplace. She had not had much to do with the agency before, she always tried to avoid them, and not to make a big fuss about her work, of which not many people apart from Winston knew. She could not imagine what the two men now wanted from her. One of them was a little older, apparently he was the senior, while the other man seemed hardly more than twenty-five, he looked surprised at Lara, the expression on his face was something like 'do I see well?'. Lara smiled slightly when she noticed the young man's astonished gaze running over the figure.

"Lady Croft! Thank you for seeing us at such short notice." - the older man said, who came closer to Lara, but waited until the woman made the first move. She shook hands with him, it was impressive that the man knew the etiquette. "I'm agent Beckburg, my partner is agent Clarence." - he introduced himself as he gently squeezed her hand. Lara nodded her head with a barely perceptible gesture, she no longer saw the necessity to introduce herself.

"Please have a seat." - Lara pointed to the comfortable armchairs, while walking towards the fire and sat down in one of them. She crossed her legs slowly and watched the faces of the two men inquiringly. The young man was still observing her, seemed to have forgotten about himself. Agent Beckburg finally cleared his throat and began.

"We want to talk to you about a very delicate matter." - the man began with some uncertainty in his voice. "It's a national security issue, which we would need your help with." Lara was listening to the man with growing interest, not really understanding how she would come into the picture when it came to such things. For now, however, she said nothing, waiting for the continuation. "Something attracted our attention, which seriously endangers the safety of not only England, but may affect the whole world. Solving this threat would need your experience." - he looked at her expectantly. Lara raised her eyebrows slightly, though she tried not to show surprise.

"Exactly what are we talking about here? Could you explain me how I can help you? "- she asked back, she did not like this secrecy, she could not understand why he did not say clearly what was expected of her. The fear was growing in her that once again she would get involved into something that she rather had not but her curiosity did not let her rest.

"For now, unfortunately I am unable to say more. However, I would like to ask you to come with us to the headquarters, where you get all your questions answered if you decide to help us." - the man replied. He seemed to be under pressure, apparently he was ordered to convince her of this matter and now he was worried he would not succeed.

"Do I see it well that you expect me to say yes to something I do not know anything about? Do I understand it correctly? "- Lara frowned slightly at him, while her fingers clasped in front of her. She turned her gaze to the young man for a moment, who looked away embarrassed though, then she looked back at agent Beckburg again, who held her gaze stiffly.

"Please understand, even if I wanted to, I could not say more." - the agent explained himself, but it was obvious that he did not come up to the scratch. Lara was still watching his face, trying to determine whether she should believe him. Suddenly she stood up and walked to the window, whereupon the two men rose from their chairs in embarrassment. Even in this situation they did not forget their manners.

"All right, I will inform you about my decision very soon. Winston will escort you out." - Lara replied, then turned away from the two men making clear that the conversation was over.

"Please reconsider!" – the man still added softly, and then Lara heard them walk out of the room and the door closed behind them. As she looked back at the previous place of the conversation, she noticed an envelope on the coffee table, which the man had left there. The whole situation started to become strange, a kind of uncertainty was lingering in the air. Lara buried her face in her hands and rubbed her still aching temples. Common sense told her to avoid all this from afar, not to touch the envelope at all, which was lying on the table so luring. All experience told against it, the MI6, the secrecy, that her brain was revolving around only one thing for weeks and she could not concentrate on anything else, but Lara still slowly moved towards the sofa. She descended on the couch and just stared at the piece of paper, as if she expected it to speak. She did know it very well that if she picked it up, there would be no way back. She already knew herself that much. After all she was not at all sure if she was ready for any task but maybe Winston was right and it would do her good. Her fingers gently touched the envelope, as if she feared it could burn her hands. The message consisted of only a few lines and answered none of her thousands of questions, yet it made her wonder. She carefully placed the sheet back to its former place and for a long time she was just watching the fire, which playfully crackled in the fireplace. The flames danced merrily in front of her eyes but she did not see them, her mind was entirely somewhere else. Finally, with a sudden but very confident movement she sprang up and swept out of the door.

"Do not wait with the lunch for me!" – she said to Winston on the way out of the house, who had a faint smile crossing his face, not even knowing that Lara's ordeal had just begun.

...

Lara sat back on the uncomfortable chair and began drumming her fingers impatiently on the table. She tolerated it very badly lately, if she was left alone with her thoughts, and in this case there was nothing else that could have diverted her attention. Trying not to think about him she forced her mind in another direction, but she succeeded less and less. Why is it that if you want to forget about something, then almost everything reminds you on that one thing, even if things have nothing to do with it directly? She shook her head to get rid of her demons and again she took the short note out of her pocket. A faint creaking of the door brought her round from her contemplation, as a man in a suit joined her, whom Lara had never seen before.

"Lady Croft! Thank you for coming." - he welcomed her stiffly as he stepped closer.

"Do not thank me for anything yet." - Lara rose from the chair and looked at the man with investigative eyes. It was crying that he was very much aware of his importance, the tailor-made suit fit him like a glove.

"Excuse me that I see you here but I do not want anyone to eavesdrop on us." - he added quickly. "My name is Delaney." Lara was not surprised that the director of the MI6 was standing in front of her, the message came from him as well that the agents had left her.

"Tell me then what I am doing here?" - Lara asked as she settled back on the chair when the man offered her a seat, then he himself sat down opposite her. He ran his eyes around the interrogation room, as if this had been the first time he was there and had been surprised that this room existed.

"As I wrote in the message, it would be very important that you help us. We are facing a problem, for which your expertise is needed." - he began the usual speech. Lara began to lose her temper, no matter how she was trying to restrain herself.

"Look, I think we are just wasting each other's time. That much I already know from your agents, if you have nothing else to say, there is nothing we can talk about." - Lara said and moved swiftly towards the door.

"Wait!" – Delaney said. "You are right there, please, sit back." - the man continued quietly. Lara came to a halt with the handle in her hands and after a brief hesitation she turned and went back into the chair. He waited until she settled again opposite him and embarked with great difficulty. "We have long been following this man, his name is Kowalski. Probably you have not even heard about him, because he has been working quietly in the crime scene. Over the years we managed to get in an undercover agent into his group who still reports to us. The last two reports, however, caused concern."

"And what do I have to do with all this?" - Lara asked.

"Please, let me finish." - the man looked at her resignedly. "Unfortunately, I can not offer details because we do not know ourselves what's going on in the background but our agent reported that Kowalski made a very important discovery and he is desperately searching for something that can change everything."

"Could you explain finally how I come into the picture?" - Lara began to have a bad feeling about the whole thing, she was afraid that facts would come to the surface that she rather had kept to herself.

"Some recent events made us become attentive to your activities and learned a few things about you that you had successfully concealed so far. If I'm not mistaken, you have a certain knowledge and experience in this field, which in this case would be very important to us." - Lara's eyes narrowed as she listened to the older man's words. She was well aware what these recent events could have been, or who she owed it to that the Secret Service had noticed her. It was not enough that he was hovering in every of her thoughts, he still wanted to ruin her work as well? "If you are willing to help us solve this problem, then in return we turn a blind eye on your activities and we will not cross over each other's paths in the future either." - he continued, while not taking his eyes off the woman.

"Is this something like a threat?" - Lara looked back at him sharply.

"Please, do not feel I am forcing you to anything. This is an offer that is beneficial for both of us." - Delaney leaned back in his chair and waited for the woman's answer. Lara thought out all possibilities but it was not to her liking to get involved in this affair. However, she did not fancy that idea that the agency would follow her every move in the future, whatever she did.

"What am I supposed to do?" – she asked back suspiciously.

"A small team has been working on the case, please travel over there and join them. Find out that what we are facing and how to stop this insane. We are confronted with some ancient threat, which only you know to handle." - the man said so easily, as if he had invited her to a holiday. Lara did not want to believe what she had heard.