"I'm not going home."

Lara spoke, mostly to herself as she closed her book and looked off into the sea. The endurance we're now on their way back to civilisation and back home to get clean and well. Sam, Reyes and Jonah stayed below, talking about families and what they're going to do once back home, while Lara remained up deck in solitude thinking to herself. With both the gains and losses from her adventure, the survivor didn't know how to feel. Sure, she was devastated that Grim, Roth and Alex weren't able to make it home with everyone, but she couldn't let her emotions out. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't. The island has cursed her forever, and has made her even worse with her emotions than she was before. Not to mention the life threatening wounds it had given her as a welcome gift and a parting gift. She was grateful however, for the ones that have survived and who she can still remain in contact with. She looked over at the remaining survivors of the endurance – No, her friends, that have survived with her. Jonah, the brave and supportive man to Lara, giving her the confidence she needed to trust her instincts. Reyes, the smart and aggressive women who didn't take any shit from anyone, and despite the feud the two had, in the end her and Reyes were able to trust each other and work together, making the relationship between the two better. And lastly, the young but older woman who Lara had gone through hell a thousand times for to ensure her safety, Sam. The beautiful, trusting- too trusting, strong girl who helped her on the ship, giving her the motivation and courage to give her ideas and the one who was there to comfort and stick up for her. The one who reassured her when things looked dark, and who promised not to leave without her. The one who was taken from her too many fucking times, but thankfully returned. The one who was strong enough to fight the powers of Himiko, and stayed alive to wake up in her arms. The one, who had undoubtedly, stolen Lara Croft's heart.

Everyone was obviously scarred from this event. Losing valued members of the group, seeing how insanity was taken to a whole new level and seeing deaths after deaths after deaths. For Lara, it was more horrific to say the least. The amount of kills, the easiness of some of the kills, but the amount... Lara couldn't escape the fact that she was a murderer. She had killed all those men, she even killed a pilot. She had ended countless lives on that island, and she knew she'd have to suffer the consequences. What they would be exactly was unclear. Well, not fully, as she did have the agonising wounds to suffer from, not to mention probably broken bones. She knew she'd suffer through emotional hell, probably playbacks of the horrific things she saw, and she alone, had to handle. That was the worst part of the island; her being alone. As soon as she made it back to the endurance ship, seeing her picture of her and Sam and then looking in the mirror... She saw just how much she herself had changed. Not just the obvious changes of being down right filthy and having loads of weapons, but she had lost a lot of weight, which wasn't very surprising, she had become more muscular, she had become... A survivor. She became someone so different than what she wanted to be. She wanted her work to be recognised, maybe put it museums or something, but not famous. Sure, Sam would joke with 'the soon to be world famous archaeologist' stuff, but she never really wanted fame. Lara just wanted to find the lost kingdom. She wanted to find the secrets it had, to find relics and documents, and a part of her wanted to prove her father wrong. She followed the crowd for so long, agreeing he was a fool and all his accusations and theories were downright silly, but he was right. In a way, a small part of Lara knew he was, but she didn't know who to believe. She felt so foolish and cruel, looking back on how much she doubted her father, and wished she could apologise to him, to say everything she found out from the island. Maybe Grim, Roth and Alex could tell him for her? Lara let a chuckled of both foolishness and sadness escape. Hopefully, all would be reunited, and be chatting like old times and catching up on the new. Maybe. All that mattered now was getting everyone medical attention. Seeing her friends now, filthy, bloody and bruised all needing medical attention soon. Though now, everyone was chatting as if none of this occurred. As if the island was nothing more than a dream. Well, a nightmare. How have they moved on so quickly? Sure, Lara made herself seem like nothing more had to be discussed on the island, but has everyone been able to let it go so easily? Just how long would it take for her to get over it as well? Days? Weeks? Months? Maybe even years.

Suddenly a sharp pain occurred, and Lara fell to her knees. Shit. Maybe I'll be seeing the others sooner than I thought.

"Lara!"

The other three, starting with Sam's voice first, then Reyes and finally Jonah; all shout her name and immediately run up to her. She felt Sam place her hands on her bare shoulders, making her tense, but keeping her from falling.

"Lara! Sweetie are you okay?"

Lara doesn't respond. She wanted to, but the pain was too much and soon she collapsed fully. Luckily not landing hard and Sam's arms were there to catch her, and Lara starred up at the terribly worried women, seeing the fear in her eyes. She'd seen that look in Sam's eyes before on the island, and wished to give her a hug, or some form on contact, or even a sign to show she was alright. Though if she did, Lara knew she'd be lying, and knew the others would've figured that too. Oh Sam.

"Lara! Lara!"

The voices seemed to become quieter, and everything began to get darker. No. This can't be it. Can it?