Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lara Croft x Reader AU

Chapter 7: Aftermath

Kneeling down to the water they submerged from, Lara let down her lit candle to join all the others floating on the surface, she returned back to Sam's side to look back at the sea of candles, choosing to stare at them rather than Whitman as he began his speech.

"Seven hours ago, we started this expedition with 200 of the finest men and women I've ever known. We're all that's left. I won't sugar-coat it, gentlemen. We have a crisis on our hands.

But we've been up this particular creek before and we've always come through, paddle or no paddle. I see no reason to change that policy now." He turned away from the water to look back at the remaining crew in the eyes.

"From here on in, everyone pulls double duty. Everyone drives, everyone works. Looks like all our chances for survival rest with you, Miss Croft. You and that little book." He said, momentarily placing his hand on her shoulder and giving her a nod before moving into the crowd.

She tried to ignore of the looks of accepted defeat that washed over most of the faces there when that sentence was spoken, focusing on trudging her way up to one of the trucks along with everyone, sitting in the drivers seat as she absent-mindedlyfiddled with a small horn attached to the frame of the door. "Are you sure you're checked out on this type of vehicle?" Came a voice from beside her, startling her turning around to see Whitman as she gave him a bewildered look. "Can you drive a truck?" He rephrased to which she gave a playful scoff.

"Of course I can drive a truck." She began to point and list the more obvious functions like the steering wheel and brake. Noticing the skeptical look he gave her she sighed. "Ok the most experience I have was a bumper car in Blackpool back when I was seven but the basic principles should be the same."

Needless to say they were not. Shoulders drooping, Lara forlornly thumbed at the steering wheel as her truck was towed up by the large drill. As the expedition went on she started to become less and less enamoured with it whole situation.

Between the pranks pulled on her like Abby pretending to swap her water for nitroglycerin, scaring the life out of her, convinced she was set to blow. And their utter disrespect for the artefacts; she had been marvelling over an intricately carved pillar, marvelling over how long it must have taken to carve when the base of the pillar was blown up, keeling it over as they joked about making a bridge in five seconds instead.

Later down the road, after almost getting lost (once Lara actually had read the book wrong and almost sent them into a deadly trap), a lot of hiking, and some questionably meals which Lara chose to only pick at as she sat away from the group, focusing of the book instead: the crew came across what looked like a wall of dirt blocking the road. Turning to Abby, Whitman inquired about blowing up the blockage. "I could get rid of that if I had about 200 of these." The Peruvian said holding up a stick of dynamite.

"Problem is I only have about... 10. Plus, you know, five of my own, a couple of cherry bombs and a road flare. Hey, too bad we don't have some nitroglycerin, eh, Lara?" Lara glowered at her from her seat in her towed truck at her reference to the earlier prank.

"Then we dig." The exited Scotsman said, receiving the nod from Whitman as he activated the large drill and got all of two inches into the wall before the engine started making concerning spluttering noises, and then cutting out. Grim started to yell profanities at the vehicle as Reyes opened up the back to reveal the engine paired with some kind of panel.

"It's bust again! I'll need to grab a few more things." The engineer called out, turning to leave.

"May I?" Lara asked approaching before getting shot a stern look.

"Don't even think about it." She replied before walking off to get her supplies. Deciding to ignore her warning, as soon as she was out of earshot Lara turned to the panel before flicking a few of the switches, taking out one of wires before replugging it, the engine roared back to life.