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Small conversing groups of people were scattered across a wide room, illumined by a couple of crystal chandeliers. Voices were melting into a loud murmur, blending together with calm music. Gentlemen dressed in expensive suits and ladies wearing long gowns and shining jewellery were enjoying the late evening party, holding glasses of wine or Martini.
To the side of the dazzling crowd stood a young woman with long, dark brown hair, let loose for this occasion so it fell over her shoulders and down her back in soft curls. She was leaning on a wall, dressed in a flowing dark turquoise dress, and observing the gathered guests with mild disinterest. Once in a while she sipped from her glass of wine and discreetly glanced at the heavily decorated clock on the other side of the ball room.
Then someone piqued her interest. A young man seated at a table almost in the middle of the room, yet alone. He was resting his legs on a neighbouring chair, with his suit jacket unbuttoned and his tie thrown over the backrest. The glass in his hand was empty and he was twisting with it absent-mindedly. His short brown hair didn't seem to be groomed in any way, as if he forgot to use a hairbrush. And most importantly he, too, didn't seem very interested in the party.
And then his hazelnut eyes met with another pair, the colour of brilliant blue, owned by a woman in a blue-green dress. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she drained her glass and approached his table. She sat down without asking.
“You do not seem to care much about societal conventions, do you?” she remarked, looking at his discarded tie.
“Should I?” he asked and put his glass on the table.
She cracked a smile. “I did not say that. It is merely a little surprising – in this... company,” she gestured to the other guests of the party.
He inspected her more intently. “Hmm, you seem a little surprising too.”
She cocked her head and gave him an innocent, wide-eyed look. “What do you mean?”
“I know the list of guests, I am familiar with all the names and the faces they belong to,” he tipped his chair back to balance on its hind legs. “But I've never seen you before. I get the feeling that you shouldn't be here.”
For a moment she stared somewhere over his left shoulder, thinking, and then she looked him back in the face. Her eyes were shining with mirth. “And if so?”
He blinked as she all but confirmed his suspicions. But his point still stood. “Then I suppose it would be better for you to quickly and quietly leave the building before you regret it. There is security all around.”
“Aww, you are trying to scare me away,” she grinned. “I just came here to have fun, what could go wrong?”
“It was just a fair warning,” he shrugged. “But I can tell that you don't seem like someone who gives up her fun so easily.”
The woman glanced somewhere behind him again and then, as if remembering something, got up and assumed a most polite tone. “You are right though, I should not be here. Good bye.” She turned to leave but for one last time glanced over her shoulder and with the same polite tone added: “I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the evening.”
He stared after her, perplexed. Why did she leave now? It wasn't because of what he said, he didn't think so. And... he wanted to talk to her more. Even if they met for just a minute, it was– he wanted to– But she already disappeared among the chattering groups of people.
He set his chair back on all four legs with a dull thud and hurried the way she went, but ended up clueless in the middle of the vast ball room. He looked frantically around, hoping to see a strand of brown curls or a hem of the dark dress. He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration.
As he was scanning the surroundings, his sight fell on the clock on the opposite wall. Oh, right. He stopped in his tracks and swore under his breath. Without hesitation he started walking towards the exit, shaking his current thoughts from his mind and adopting a focused expression, careful not to run and bring any unwanted attention towards himself now that there was finally time to do what he came for. He quietly stepped out of the room and made his way deeper into the building.
He proceeded as quickly as he could while making sure to keep quiet. He knew that now was his best chance, according to his information the current guard was about to leave any minute and if he timed it just right, he could use the little gap to move through unseen before a new guard took the previous one's place. Good thing they were so sloppy about security, confident in their vast numbers that no-one would actually try to steal anything from here, despite their employer's worries.
He slowed down. He stood at the end of a long, sparsely furnished hall and before him was only one door, plain but securely locked. He used a keypad on the wall to enter the code but what happened disconcerted him – nothing happened. Could they change the code? He hated such surprises. But there was no time to look into it now, he had to go another way.
He moved back through the hall and noticed a broom closet at its other end. Inside he quickly found what he was looking for – a grate covering an entrance to the ventilation shaft. He tore it off carefully and took off his suit jacket to make his movement easier, fully revealing the light green shirt underneath. Pulling himself into the shaft he regretfully noticed that with his wide shoulders and tall frame there wasn't much space to move quickly and the dull metal sounds his knees and hands made were echoing in all directions. This is why he didn't want to go this way.
He stopped at a crossroad. He knew he was supposed to go right, but on the left he noticed another entrance to the vent – and the grate was removed. Maybe it was just opened because of some maintenance but if not... he hoped no guards would come across it and find him during a hunt for another intruder. But neither this was something he could spend time on contemplating so he continued on his way.
After several minutes of the slow uncomfortable crawling he finally arrived to the grate he was looking for. And that one was too already opened. He narrowed his eyes and made a grimace. Then he peered out. No-one in sight. Still he didn't drop his vigilance, slid smoothly down onto the dusty tiles and quickly pulled out his dual pistols, until now carefully hidden. He stood prepared to use them at a moment's notice if he saw the tiniest movement. After a moment he decided that no-one was hiding in his vicinity, fastened holsters to his belt and put his guns into them to have them on hand next time they were needed. Then he moved out into a hall, this one even less decorated than the one he was in previously.
He carried on quickly, knowing he lost precious time using the vents to get here, but after mere seconds he heard steps. He ran back into the door he had come out of and through a crack watched the man who was walking past his hiding place. He was in a dark uniform and headed the way the one watching him wished to go as well. The hidden young man moved out after a few more steps echoed through the hall. He knew precisely whom he was following – the new guard who had just switched with his colleague and was going to watch the door leading to the artefact.
Damn it all! He spent too much time on the alternate route. And if the new guard was already there, he would have to dispose of him and possibly alert other guards who could come across the body...
No matter, no-one had to know who did it, so the plan could still succeed. As it always did.
Speeding up, he caught up to the guard, taking him into a choke hold, pulling him to the ground and punching him unconscious – or possibly dead, he didn't care much either way, but he did use a lot of force to make sure the man stayed down in the near future.
Sprinting to the correct door he saw it was already opened a crack, so he kicked his way in with guns drawn. His sight immediately fell on a slender figure in a dark form-fitting top and trousers, bending over a glass case. She straightened up quickly after this intrusion, her brown curly hair swishing away from her face. He saw her brilliant blue eyes for a moment before she turned to run away, tucking some item into her pocket, an item that had been just a moment ago in the glass case.
“Hey, stop!” he shouted after her on reflex, but he didn't want to shoot at her, so he didn't give himself much hope that the woman would listen to him. He sprinted after her through the long room and hoped she wouldn't easily find a way out. He saw her running towards a door with a heavy chain holding them closed. He smiled internally – now she won't escape him. The next moment the woman's hand sprang up before her, her palm aimed at the door. The chain and the door itself burst out and she could run through in full speed. Her pursuer hardly had time to marvel at it as he followed her through the pieces of wood and steel into another hall.
She ran as fast as she could, thoughts swirling through her head. The young man she was talking to earlier at the party, it was him!
She broke another door to pieces and hurried inside, into a spacious deserted room with expensive furnishing and heavy carpets. The large chandelier on the ceiling was not dissimilar to those she'd already seen in the ball room. She glanced over her shoulder – he was gaining on her, no question about this. She reached to her belt and gripped a golden-brown metal disc with holes for fingers and without slowing down she flung it in a wide horizontal arch. Five sharp blades sprang out of the disc during the throw and its trajectory led it directly to the chain holding the chandelier, cutting it with ease. The woman herself managed to run under the heavy construct of metal and cut glass before it all came crashing down, making something like a pirouette to catch the disk from the air before continuing forward. Her pursuer didn't have such luck. While the chandelier didn't fall at him directly, it still knocked him down and trapped his leg.
The woman slowed down to a stop, as if to ascertain that he wasn't badly injured. But now he couldn't tear his eyes away from the golden disk she was still gripping in her hand.
“Chirugai...” he whispered disbelievingly.
She offered him a raised eyebrow and then an amused smirk.
Sounds of running echoed from the hall. She regained her composure and with one last glance at the man's leg she turned around and disappeared from his sight as she slipped through the door on the other side of the room.
He knew he didn't have much time, someone must have noticed all the noise and possibly also the fallen guard. He carefully pulled out the leg from under the wreckage and hissed in pain. He could stand up, there was nothing broken nor was he otherwise badly injured, but damn if it didn't hurt. He was just thinking darkly how lucky she was that this was the only consequence, when he heard her scream. He forgot the pain and ran as fast as he could to the door she had exited through. He arrived to the middle of the hall just at the moment as one of the guards was aiming his gun at her, standing over a dead colleague with slit throat, one foot stepping on a bloodied golden disc. The guard noticed the new arrival and shot at him immediately. The young man jumped to the side, unholstering his weapons and sending two bullets at the attacker. The woman hardly had time to finally reach for her own pistol when he aimed his weapons at her. She froze for a moment and they stared into each others' eyes for several seconds.
“You are really good with those pistols, aren't you?” she spoke up first.
He held his unreadable face but answered after a while. “I learnt from the best.”
“You mean from your mum,” she smiled lightly. It wasn't a question. His expression revealed nothing so she continued. “Ethan Croft, am I right? Even if you being here didn't give you away, knowing the name of my dad's weapon already puts you into a very narrow group of people.” She flexed her fingers, Chirugai started to glow, raised itself from the ground and with a rotating motion flew into her hand.
“Marianna Trent,” he finally spoke, “I knew it was you the moment I saw you in the ball room.”
“Is this a who-recognized-who-first now?” she smirked, straightening up despite him still aiming his guns at her. “In that case I win, because I noticed you there sooner than you noticed me, and honestly, it was plain to see that you were not there to mingle.”
“That could not make you sure it was me,” he argued.
“Then you seeing me couldn't make you sure either,” she countered.
“I already told you that I knew all the invited guests.”
“There could be more than one uninvited guest.”
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Now give me the artefact.”
“Ohoho, no way,” she grinned. “And don't think your guns scare me. You know the rules: no killing each other.”
“You dropped a chandelier on me!” he swung one weapon behind him to gesture to the room they came from.
“It wasn't on you, technically,” she argued, “I dropped it before you and had enough faith in you that you wouldn't get squashed. It was to slow you down.”
“I could shoot your leg to slow you down right now.”
“You wouldn't,” she narrowed her eyes.
“You can heal like your father, right?” Ethan shrugged.
“By draining the life force from other people,” Marianna smirked, “and the only other person here right now is you.”
The thudding of feet and shouted orders put a stop to their conversation. “Not for long,” he grimaced, “looks like they found out that someone took their boss's most prized possession.”
They left their bickering for later and ran together down the hall. They heard more and more hurried steps coming from all directions now. Marianna was a little slower than Ethan – at least she could tell for sure that his leg really wasn't badly hurt, then – and he started to disappear from her sight for a few seconds at every turn. After the next turn she saw him making, there was a sudden sound of shooting that made her grit her teeth and pick up the pace, reaching for her gun. But then she saw him running towards her at full speed, gesturing frantically to turn back. She did so without thinking and they quickly backtracked the hall and made a new turn at the closest crossroad. By then they heard voices from everywhere. It was clear that unless they found a way out soon, they would have to fight for it.
“In here!” Ethan shouted and burst into a door on his left. Marianna followed him and slammed the door behind her.
“Where are we?” she asked as she turned from the door towards the dark room.
“No idea,” she heard from her right. “There must be a switch somewhere.” His search was successful after a moment and they could finally look around.
Marianna raised an eyebrow. “I don't think this part of the house is inhabited. Why's there no dust anywhere? And all the soaps and shampoos...”
“Never lived in a big house, huh?” Ethan looked around the bathroom, frowning at the barred window. “You always have to be prepared for unexpected guests. Anyway, not a good place for the kind of guests we are, we'd have no cover if they found us here. We should go elsewhere while we can.”
He reached for the doorknob but she stopped him. “Wait, it'll be better to know first where exactly they are.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” he asked impatiently, “I can't pinpoint their position throughout the house by listening to some noise.”
“Leave that to me,” she brushed him off, “just stay here and wait.”
“Wait???” he repeated, but she didn't listen any more, adopting a focused look. She moved her arms in front of her and stilled. Soon she felt her mind leaving her body and she scanned the room around her, everything coloured in shades of red. She saw herself, standing upright with eyes closed, and Ethan, watching her without understanding. Then she turned her sight towards the door and continued through it to the hall and further into the depths of the building.
It might have been a minute she spent searching their surroundings before she returned to the bathroom, wavering on her feet a little as she re-entered her body. Ethan put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. “What the hell was that? You all right?”
“Worried now?” she shrugged his hand. “Don't be, I know what I am doing.”
“Really? Because I already had to save you life once today. Turning into a statue out of nowhere could be quite fatal in a fight.”
“I'd have managed just fine even if you didn't come–”
“Of course.”
“–and this is a consciously controlled ability,” she continued with no reaction to his words, already opening the door, “now come before they change positions.”
“So whatever this was it told you where they are?” he followed her.
Marianna ran to the left, talking in hushed tones. “Yes, sadly this is the kind of information that turns old quickly.”
“So you didn't predict the future? Or read their thoughts?” he was making sure, matching her steps.
“I only saw far,” she shook her head and navigated herself through the house with confidence.
“Right, far-see,” he finally remembered what he knew from his mother. “Quite literal.”
She smirked at that.
They ran for good two minutes, Marianna leading the way, until finally they seemed to be far enough from anyone to hear any shouts, any steps. Any steps. Marianna whirled around, only to realize she was alone. Checking her pocket confirmed that the golden statue was gone as well. When did he– Oh, of fucking course, during her far-see. She gritted her teeth and turned back, looking for any turns where Ethan could've gone, but she was searching blindly. Well then, better make sure she sees again, that was what made her lose the artefact in the first place after all. Hiding in the closest door, she concentrated.
The guards were mostly watching exits now, while a few patrolled the hallways. Their movements could be still used to guess where they might've heard anything suspicious though, and that helped her greatly.
She snapped her eyes open with a grin. “Gotcha!”
Ethan was walking on, checking every turn for either guards or Marianna. There was a good chance the guards didn't see his face clearly yet, so his original plan could still work. Good. It always worked in the end.
He made short use of another vent to avoid detection, slowly making his way back to the ball room, although a great distance still separated him from the destination. This was taking too long. He climbed out and went through a door, turned right at the first opportunity and found himself at one end of quite a narrow hall with no place to hide or take cover, only two doors along the length of the left wall. Well, they better not be waiting for him on the other end once he was half-way through. He inched forward with utmost caution and after mere few meters he saw something flying right at him, making him bend backwards to avoid it. With a crunch it embedded itself into the wall on the right behind him. Oh he knew very well what it was.
“First the chandelier and now nearly decapitating me?” he growled under his breath, holstering one gun and yanking Chirugai from the wall to prevent its further use, then continued stalking forward.
In a split second he turned around, kicking Marianna's pistol right from her hand and aiming at her with his own.
“Don't try this ruse on someone who already heard about it,” he smirked.
“I guess,” Marianna scowled.
And then Ethan pulled the trigger.
Marianna's eyes widened in surprise. Then she heard a thud behind her and glanced back. Two guards had rushed in from behind the corner. Ethan shot one, but with his other hand occupied by holding Chirugai, he lost a moment to realize he now needed to use the same gun twice. That left the second guard time to escape, but not before taking a good look at Ethan's face, eyes widening in recognition.
“Dammit!” Ethan swore and made to run after the guard, only for Marianna to crouch down and sweep his legs right from under him. He fell hard on his back, losing his gun with the impact, and Marianna instantly jumped atop him.
“Gimme my statue!” she hissed, but he threw her off, pulling his knees to his chest and springing back on his feet with one fluid jump.
“It's mine now,” he corrected her.
Marianna, still on the ground, grabbed for the two guns lying there, one hers and one his, aiming them at him at the same time as he pulled out his remaining one. Chirugai was still in his other hand – it was easier to hold on to than a gun, he noticed, what with the holes.
They stayed there aiming at each other. Not planning to shoot, it was more of a force of habit, a reassuring position to be holding a gun trained at the... enemy? Rival? Competitor?
Marianna's eyes slid from his face to a little pouch at the right side of his belt, shaped vaguely as the artefact. Oh, so here it was.
Ethan started to back away, keeping his eyes at her. His plan was a wreck now, but he could still find another way out eventually. Of course, that was when a sound of feet was carried to them from the way the guard escaped earlier.
As well as from the other side.
Their eyes met again and with a nod to each other they turned back to back, inching towards the closer of the two doors while watching for enemies.
Those came from her side first and she shot as well as she could with her left hand, not missing once with the right one.
“This is useless,” she spit after they were dead, lowering her left arm and holstering Ethan's gun to its place at his belt.
He snorted but the next moment just narrowly managed to kill his share of attackers with one gun, the hand with Chirugai worth nothing.
“Damn yes it is,” he agreed, handing the disc to her over his shoulder, where she promptly grabbed it.
The next few enemies came from both sides at once and were down in moments. After this round, Ethan and Marianna finally moved close enough to the door, slipping in and making their way towards the stairs. He headed to the one leading down, while she decided to make her way up. That immediately made him suspicious so he checked for the statue – and found nothing. He hardened his grip on the guns... one of which Marianna returned to him a minute earlier to the holster next to his pouch. Damn her, how didn't he feel it? He followed her, which she noticed and grinned, waving at him with Chirugai.
Emerging on the floor above, Ethan quickly got to the lead and turned, stopping her in her tracks with aimed guns. “Up? You sure?” he raised an eyebrow.
“They expect us to go down, they won't make it a priority to go up here.”
“Won't matter either way if we can't get out,” he looked around.
“You go where you want, I'll just jump from a window, it's only the third floor.”
He stared at her. “Were you so focused to get away from me, with my artefact ,” he added and she rolled her eyes, “that you forgot the little detail about the bars on the windows? 'Cause that's the only reason we actually couldn't d o exactly that a floor below!”
“You couldn't, I could blow the whole window out, bars or not.”
“...Then why didn't you?”
“Seriously?” she deadpanned and made to run past him, using telekinesis to throw a vase towards him when he tried to stop her. He evaded it, letting it shatter as it hit the wall, and kicked a decorative table at her feet. She tripped but flung a framed picture at his head, trying to regain her balance and scrambling forward.
“They're here!” they heard from further away.
“Damn!” they swore as one and sprinted away from the mess they made, to a door few turns away, hoping to disappear before they could be spotted. The room they ended up in was well-lit by the moonlight, they didn't even have to switch the lights on as their eyes slowly got used to the surroundings. They stood several metres away from each other, shooting angry glances but not daring to resume their fight and alert the guards.
“Because,” Marianna spoke in clipped, shushed tones, deciding to answer his earlier question, “the whole part of second floor not occupied by the fancy party has all its windows on the eastern or northern side, leading to–“
“The cliff side,” he groaned.
“Wouldn't count on our chances jumping from there,” she nodded. “How sloppy your escape plan was that you didn't even know that?”
“I knew, I just didn't realize,” he walked to the window only to see it was facing east. “My plan was to not alert any guards,” he shot her a look, “get back to the party and leave as any other guest. They messed up my timing by changing the codes and you held me up and let the guards notice me.”
Marianna pressed her ear to the door, checking if their pursuers already left the area.
“Boo-hoo-hoo,” she turned to Ethan, her voice low, “you can't go into action without a plan B.”
“I never needed a plan B!” he huffed but remembered to keep his tone down.
“Well you should've had one this time. We agreed on “no” to killing, but “yes” to sabotaging.”
His face cleared up with realization. “You changed the codes!” he hissed.
“All part of the game,” she winked.
He pressed his face to his palm but then couldn't help a self-deprecating smirk. “I shouldn't have underestimated you.”
“I'm honestly insulted that you did,” Marianna frowned at him. He started to pace slowly through the room.
“Anything I found about you and your exploits just seemed so... sloppy,” he tried to explain, gesticulating wildly with his hand, “it lacked finesse.”
“It's called improvising, didn't fail me yet, isn't gonna fail me today,” Trent said with conviction and gestured for Croft to be quiet, again pressing her ear to the door. Her eyes widened. “I think they're checking the doors!”
“Dammit!” He looked again to the windows, now operating with the new knowledge they could get through. “We could still climb the walls...”
“Too slow.”
“They'd shoot us from a window,” he agreed.
“Or possibly from the roof,” she nodded and without any further words they assumed positions behind pieces of furniture about five metres apart, weapons in hands.
They waited in breathless silence for what could've been a few seconds or a few minutes, the tension made it hard to perceive time. Then the door creaked open.
Three pairs of boots made soft noises as they dared first steps across the thick carpet. They would find them, it was clear now – the worst case scenario they had tried to avoid. Not that it wasn't clear even before the guards came in, there wasn't a proper place to hide in the room, so Ethan and Marianna went for places that worked better as a cover against gunfire.
Two guards were nearing them, the third one was blindly patting the wall for a light switch while keeping his eyes on the room, and there really was no reason to waste the element of surprise. With a nod to each other, they peered out, Ethan shooting one guard with each pistol, Marianna killing the third one with her own gun.
Ethan didn't have time to wonder about what her strange gun was when he heard it shoot, as angry shouts from the outside asked for his full attention. Another two men peered in and their dark silhouettes against the light of the hallway were targets so laughably simple it was almost sad. After they fell, there were a few more shouts and then a small object was thrown into the room, hissing menacingly. Marianna wasted no time and with a flick of her wrist from afar sent the tear grenade back where it came from, throwing Chirugai into the smoke-filled hall for good measure. Many screams were heard before her weapon came back, covered in blood.
There was a second of total silence. “Now I pissed them off,” she muttered with deceptive calmness.
A moment later the room was showered in bullets, both intruders ducking quickly behind their chosen sofa and armchair, hoping for the furniture to be sturdy enough. The loud noise was never-ending and they decided to retaliate blindly, waiting for a lull in the enemy fire. Greatly outnumbered they might have been, but they still had the better vantage point – the guards couldn't step inside without facing a great probability of being hit, the entrance was only a regular-sized door frame, after all. On the other hand, the guards had all the time in the world and more ammo, all they had to do was stay where they were, while Marianna and Ethan needed to get out.
Trent sent Chirugai for another spin, hoping for a blind success. It didn't sound like it hit anyone, but the guards decided to shoot at it instead, which gave the two thieves a chance to peer out and aim. This ruse didn't last long and Marianna too called Chirugai back, looking it over for scratches with a serious expression. She must've find some, Ethan concluded as her eyes narrowed. She clipped the disk back to her belt and holstered her gun.
“Get ready,” she mouthed at him over the never-ending noise of gunfire and twisted to a more comfortable position behind the armchair. She put her bent arms in front of her, palms facing forward, and concentrated with closed eyes. It looked a little bit like her far-see earlier, Croft mused. What could she do with it now? It was useless to know what was outside as long as they couldn't get through the–
Marianna jerked her hands forward and the door frame, along with the whole wall it was set in, crashed outwards. Ethan flinched in surprise at the sound of shattered bricks and metal but recovered quickly, peering out and then standing up, sending the disoriented and injured guards to their deaths with well aimed shots now that he didn't have to take cover.
“Come on, there will be more soon,” he urged his companion when the last guard fell. Marianna breathed deeply a few times with her head hung low, bracing herself with one hand on the armchair, and then nodded, standing up on wobbly legs.
“Yeah, I'm going,” she shook her head to clear her mind.
“Are you all right?”
“Stop asking me that,” she chuckled, “just a little tired, didn't try something like that before.”
“Come on,” he repeated, grabbing her upper arm and dragging her out. He lead them blindly to the south, keeping his other hand armed and ready. He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally looked out of a window that lead to the gardens. Of course, there were bars on it.
“You up for it?” he asked Marianna who didn't seem to be very conscious of her surroundings for the last ten minutes.
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” she nodded and tried to straighten up. Ethan put hands on her shoulders from behind for support and with a sigh she decided not to shrug him off. Aiming both hands at their best shot out of the house, she took a long, deep breath and pushed.
The whole frame cracked and bent, but stayed in place.
Frustration crept into Marianna's tired face and if he didn't hold her, she would sink to the ground. “I'm running on fumes. And any use of mental energy is taking a toll on my body too. That was a damn stupid idea back there.”
“It was the best idea either of us probably had,” Ethan said and let her carefully drop to the ground before stepping to the window and giving the bars the strongest kick he could.
“Goddammit!” he hissed and hopped on one leg, holding the other which already survived a chandelier that night.
“Sorry,” Marianna grinned weakly, slumped on the floor.
He shot her a look and then turned to the window, still holding but noticeably unstable. He pushed at it and it fell out without much effort.
“You know that I could be an arsehole, grab the artefact from you now and leave you here to fend for yourself,” he raised an eyebrow at her.
“Unless it's a part of your original, awesome, never-failing plan, then yeah, it might just work,” she agreed.
“You're really not giving a compelling argument for me not to do it.”
“What if they find me here before I get out? You'd have no-one to gloat to that you won our race.”
“Better,” he allowed, then stared blankly at her for a moment before blowing a strand of brown hair from his face. “Fine, fine. Can you make the jump?”
“Let's try and see,” Marianna chuckled.
He helped her to her feet and they stood on the edge, looking down at the meticulously cared for lawn. He grumbled. “Not much of a choice where to land.”
“Just jump, man.”
They fell to the ground, Ethan into a combat roll, Marianna rather ungracefully. “Ugh,” she massaged her hip as she knelt in the grass.
“Nothing broken yet?” he asked.
“Just my pride.”
“Well then let's not wait around for more guards,” he helped her up again and they half-ran half-stumbled towards the nearby bushes to hide before deciding on the best way out. It was April so the night was not overly cold and more importantly the bushes already had leaves to provide a somehow better cover than they would a month ago. Peering out, they soon agreed on the course but also noticed one lone guard, obviously lured by the dull sound of the window falling out. And he was going to walk right past their not-that-perfect hiding spot.
Ethan pulled out his guns again but Marianna stopped him with a hand on his arm, shaking her head meaningfully. He threw her a questioning frown with all the impatience he couldn't suppress and she retaliated with a wild look he could only describe as pure hunger.
The guard was right at the bushes by then and Marianna's hand sprung out and grabbed his leg, without ever cutting eye contact. Her victim made a strangled gasp of surprise and then a nasty choking noise while Ethan watched with morbid fascination as the woman's wide-opened eyes glowed white. It stopped in an instant and the next moment she was jumping at the guard with renewed vigour, pushing him to the ground face first and cutting his neck with one jab from Chirugai.
“You bloody vampire...” Croft breathed out after a second of silence.
“Bloody?” Trent commented his choice of words with a smirk.
“Non-blood-sucking bloody vampire,” he stared at her, not yet making a move.
“Let's go?” she offered.
“You could do this to me the whole time,” he said instead.
“Every time we touched, yeah,” she agreed, “guess neither of us is an arsehole,” she mimicked his British accent.
“You're the arsehole here,” he got up and finally followed her through the garden, “now the song's stuck in my head.”
She sputtered a surprised laugh at that admission. “Cause every time we touch,” she started to sing under her breath, much to his irritation, “I get this feeling... to suck your life force out, I swear I will try...”
“You're damn creepy, did anyone ever tell you that?” he growled, peering from behind a statue at the wide expanse of the garden with low bushes and gravel paths. “Let's try to get to that garden shack, the security cameras shouldn't spot us if we stay to the left.”
Marianna nodded and they sprinted over to the wooden hut, finding it unlocked and slipping inside. They were met with a predictable mix of gardening tools, cans of fertilizers and herbicides, empty flower pots and many other things they didn't care to identify.
“Well, the garden wall is not far away,” Ethan looked out of a small dirty window. “We still need to get over it though, that could be tricky. How would you feel about blasting that one off? Just a hole through, shouldn't be as tiring as a whole wall, right?”
“No way,” she refused firmly. “I healed my physical fatigue – and that stupid hip –” she suddenly realized, touching her no longer sore spot, “but mentally I'm not moving a pebble until I take a nice long nap.”
“You can take a nap here.”
“You're out of your mind.”
“You're out of your mind power,” he reminded her. She just gave him a look.
“Let's find another way.”
“I already had to find way too many “other ways” for my liking tonight,” he raked his fingers through his hair.
“New experience and all that,” she shrugged, “it's been pretty fun so far, don't you think?”
He stared at her for a minute like she was crazy. “I can't believe I actually agreed to this.”
“We both wanted the artefact and we still hadn't met each other after three years of exchanging e-mails. It was the perfect opportunity!” she reminded him.
“We could've cooperated from the start instead of making it a race.”
“Not. Fun.”
“Isn't your father's big life story all about reclaiming responsibility? You should try that.”
“Isn't your mother's life philosophy all about “fuck everyone, life's a game”? You should try that.”
He snorted and leaned on the wall. “Maybe we're really siblings and parents didn't tell us.”
“Wouldn't that be a twist,” she grinned. “But nah, I'm pretty sure my mum was my biological mum.”
“I know my father only as “the bloody bastard,” alternatively “my biggest mistake,” as my mother likes to call him, but considering she speaks quite fondly of Kurtis Trent, I'll assume it's not him. Honestly I don't even know if he still lives.”
“Hmm,” Marianna nodded thoughtfully and they stayed silent for a minute.
“So about our original problem,” Ethan finally spoke up, looking through the tools, “maybe we can use something from here.”
“Ooh, improvisation! I'm so proud of you!”
“Shut up and take this seriously,” he shot her a look.
“You know, you were more laid back at the party,” she pointed out as she watched him inspecting various rakes and forks before settling on a weeding hoe.
“I may have a different persona when not in life-or-death situations,” he shrugged and grabbed a rope from the wall. “You were more polite back there,” he reminded her, snapping the hoe's handle off with some effort and tying one end of the rope to it to create a grappling hook.
“Couldn't afford standing out, being an uninvited guest and all. Huh, good job,” she commented on the result of his work.
“Let's hope it holds,” he gave the rope a tug.
“Only one way to find out,” she said in a sing-song voice and made for the door, Ethan following her. They walked past the wooden walls to get a straight view at their last obstacle. It was only a little over ten metres away but was watched with cameras, just like every other spot of the tall wall.
“Question remains,” Ethan watched the damned device, “do we shoot the camera and let them know we're around here, or do we let it be and hope they won't notice us.”
“I bet they're watching the monitors pretty closely now.”
“Hm, yes... all right, can you shoot that one on your left and possibly the one further too?”
“Where... oh,” Marianna spotted both, “yeah, sure.”
“I'll shoot the one nearest to us and the one over there, that'll give them a little bigger area to search. On count to three. One, two-”
Four shots were heard, followed by distant barking.
“Hope those dogs aren't from here!” Marianna said as they sprinted to the wall, Ethan promptly spinning the makeshift tool and hooking it on top the wall on the first try.
“Want to go first?” he asked after pulling on the rope to test it out.
“Get you ass up there, you gentleman, I'm right behind you.”
“You'll be the one crushed beneath me if it breaks,” he shrugged but wasted no time climbing up.
“I might deserve it for the chandelier,” she chuckled and was about to grab the rope when they heard barking again and getting unmistakeably closer. “Shit! Move, move!”
Ethan climbed the rope nimbly, balancing atop the wall, trying not to scratch himself on the sharp spikes that adorned it. Looking down he started shooting at the dogs that came running and attacked Marianna's ankles, jumping at her with more furious barking. She quickly pulled herself out of their reach and joined Ethan at the top just as they heard human footsteps rushing to them.
Not waiting to be shot at again, the intruders leapt down the wall, running to the trees and vegetation on the other side of the wide road, not looking back. After running for five more minutes, they gradually slowed down on a clear patch of ground bathed in moonlight, bracing themselves on tree trunks and catching their breath.
Marianna looked down at her leg where a dog's teeth grazed her. “Ouch.”
“Welcome to my world,” Ethan smirked.
“Yeah, yeah, karma works impeccably.” Then she corrected herself: “At least for this, or I wonder how we're not dead yet.”
Ethan snorted loudly. And then laughed, making Marianna laugh too. He tried to stop but her giggle made him start once again and they kept spurring each other to more bouts of laughter each time one of them tried to get it under control, their lungs soon grasping for air.
After a while they managed to mostly calm themselves, still grinning at each other in mirth, faces suddenly flushed and much closer than they were originally.
“Probably genetics,” Ethan chuckled, staring into the large blue eyes, sparkling silver in the pale light, noticing the dilated pupils. “The bloodthirsty half of our parents is still definitely alive and kicking.”
“More like kicking your arse, young man.”
“Holy shit!” Marianna jumped up and whirled around, squinting at the two shadowy figures at the edge of the lighter patch.
“Mother?” Ethan gasped in horror. “What are you doing here?”
“We were curious about the results,” the other figure said as both newcomers stepped into the light.
“Dad???” Marianna squeaked. “Wait,” she whirled to Ethan, “did you tell your mum?”
“Apparently you told your father,” he shot back.
“'Cause I wanted him to know when I win. And I did!” she beamed, waving the artefact in front of their eyes.
“Clearly,” Lara agreed. “Pretty pathetic,” she arched an eyebrow at her son. “Maybe you need more target practice. And maybe you need to be the target.”
“Not again!” Ethan groaned.
“Harsh,” Kurtis winced. “Mari, you're grounded by the way.”
“Wait wait what?” she babbled. “You can't ground me, I'm twenty! And why???”
“Grounded from Chirugai then. For a month. Don't think I don't sense the scratches,” her father clarified and with one subtle flick of fingers called the weapon into his hand. “Be glad I let you keep Boran X,” he added before hunching over the golden disc. “Poor baby,” he mumbled, rubbing the dents.
“You're so soft with her,” Lara commented and crooked a finger at Marianna. “Show me what you found.”
“Huh?” the younger woman blinked, tearing her eyes away from her father and finally realizing she was standing face to face with the famous – or notorious – Lara Croft. “Oh... okay,” she handed her the artefact meekly.
“Pretty, I suppose,” Lara grinned and proceeded to study every millimetre of the golden statue as well as she could in the poor lighting.
The two young people watched their parents fussing over non-living objects instead of their bloodied, tired children. They exchanged a long sympathetic look.
“You know, Ethan almost got to it first,” Marianna spoke up suddenly, “even actually had it for a while... and I sure as hell wouldn't be able to get out of there without him.”
“Yes, we were in mortal danger most of the time,” Ethan added, “it would make sense that weapons get damaged too.”
“Almost is not good enough,” Lara shrugged.
“Chirugai is made for mortal danger, it'd be way more scratched if I used it with that mindset,” Kurtis followed.
“Ugh, fine,” the younger Trent threw up her hands, “I messed up Chirugai, I won't get to use it for a while, that's fair. But we still worked together to get the artefact, so I'd call it a draw.”
Ethan shot her a surprised look and then smiled. “It's true that we had to start relying on each other to survive and escape. Shared victory then?” He held out his hand.
“Sure,” she grinned and grasped his hand firmly.
Kurtis sniffled. “Aww, look, our kids are all grown up and reasonable.”
”Touching,” Lara deadpanned, raising her eyebrows.
“And didn't even need a world domination attempt as an incentive,” Kurtis elbowed her. Lara elbowed him harder, making him yelp, and nodded at the youngsters who were now watching them in bemusement. “They might still like some potentially world-ending danger though, what do you say?”
“Guess they are ready. So what about you guys? The two of us planned to go together for old times' sake, but it could be more fun if you join us.”
“Actually preventing the end of the world?” Ethan's eyes sparkled. “That would need a lot of planning.”
“Or a lot of improvisation,” Marianna rubbed her hands in glee.
“Planning first,” he turned to her sternly. When she narrowed her eyes at him, he grinned. “And if that fails, you are our plan B to Z.”
“I'll work on my wall-breaking skills then.”
“And I'll lure unsuspecting victims to you and shoot the rest.”
They both turned to their parents in excitement.
“Look at these little monsters, imagine if we had a child together,” the tomb raider cocked her head.
The demon hunter hummed. “Having regrets?”
“Shut it, Trent,” Lara turned to leave. “Come on, the world is waiting to be saved – or possibly doomed, we can decide on the way.”
“Makes me nostalgic already,” Kurtis sighed and followed.
After some distance, the older Croft and Trent noticed the absence of two more pairs of feet rustling in the dead leaves and glanced back.
“Kurtis?”
“Yes, Lara?”
“Your daughter is snogging my son.”
“Looks like it.”
A moment of silence.
“Why did it never work out between us, Kurtis? I can't recall.”
“Too busy, no time? We can always turn this new adventure into a double date, if you wanna try again.”
“The children would be horrified.”
“Yep.”
“Damn, let's do this.”