InsaneJournal

Who: Lara and Bo
What: Bo regains some memories in her dreams and in real life from when she disappeared. She also realizes she's been marked by the Wanderer.
When: Today
Where: Croft Manor
Warnings: Family friendly, unless a creepy glowing handprint on someone's skin is upsetting



The dream had been...quite the dream. It had started off at the Dal with Kenzi, then a woman had entered, obviously in need of help. A woman who had sworn that she’d seen Bo before, had sung for her, spoken to her, but Bo had no recollection. At least until Ianka had sung again, unlocking a memory that Bo had lost. There’d been a headache figuring out the love birds and stopping a genocide from happening. And then Ianka had died in Bo’s arms after she’d watched Ianka sing the death note to kill the man she loved in order to stop said genocide. But Ianka had given Bo a gift before she’d died. It unlocked another memory, one that came with a frightening revelation. One that she’d also gotten with Dyson. She had a handprint on her chest, and she had no idea where it had come from. The Wanderer, Rainer, had marked her, she thought, and she thought he might be her father.

Waking up, Bo groaned softly. She had a headache. There was a dull pain just under her collarbone on the right side of her chest, but that was a distant second to the pounding in her head. She rolled out of bed, grabbing her kimono and pulling it on.

“Jesus,” she muttered as she rubbed her forehead a bit and made her way into the bathroom. The memories about being on the train were strange and vague, but they were more than she’d had before. She’d made it as far as the doorway when a memory came flashing back to her.

She was in an endless cave, it seemed. A maze, perhaps a labyrinth. And she was alone, but she could feel someone watching her. Bo kept looking over her shoulder, but no one was ever there.

“What…” She shook her head a bit. Had that been where she’d been during the few days she’d disappeared from this world?

Lara rolled over, feeling the bed for Bo, but her fiance wasn’t there. She sat up, tilting her head and listening for any clear signs of distress. When she heard nothing, she started to lay down again. She couldn’t be on alert 100% of the time for one or both of them to have some horrible dream. It was exhausting. Still, she called out, “Bo?” As her head hit the pillow again. Just in case.

Hearing Lara, she snapped out of her haze a bit, shaking her head slightly. “I’m alright, just a headache from a dream.” Her brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of the memory she’d just seen. It was like having one hell of an out of body experience. Despite her mission to go into the bathroom and get some aspirin, she hadn’t moved beyond the doorway into the bathroom.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lara rolled over to face the bathroom, the sheets falling down off of her shoulder. She sounded more awake than she actually was at the moment, and was trying very hard not to go into emergency mode. But she worried about her fiance frequently, and now was no different.

Bo brushed some hair behind her ear as she turned back towards Lara. “When you’re more awake. It’s...very confusing. In the dream, I had some memories brought back of when I’d disappeared. And I think I just had a memory return for when I disappeared here.” It made her head hurt, and she wondered if that was because of the two lives and her memories getting blocked in both of them.

“Ah…” Lara got out of bed, searching for a robe. “I’ll make us some tea, and maybe some toast.” She’d need it to wake up this morning, and it would give Bo some time to compose her thoughts. She gave her a kiss on the cheek, before heading downstairs to make the tea.

“Thank you,” Bo responded with a little smile, kissing Lara’s cheek back. While she busy making the tea, Bo went and took some aspirin. At least it’d help her concentrate better. She took a couple minutes before she went downstairs and joined Lara in the kitchen. “Did you sleep okay?”

“I got in late.” Lara set a mug down at Bo’s seat, then went to save the toast before it burnt. After she’d upgraded the toaster it hadn’t worked right so it had to be babysat. “But I did sleep well when I slept. Did I wake you when I came in?”

“No, you didn’t. Or if you did, it wasn’t enough for me to remember.” Though it was probably the former considering Bo had dreamed and it seemed like it was difficult to wake in the middle of those dreams. Taking her mug in hand, she sipped at it. “Where you busy with work?”

“A little. There was an opening at the museum where I was able to lend my expertise, but if i’m honest I was there for other reasons. I wanted to look at a rare, priceless artifact. The kind of thing that would get me laughed out of the field if anyone knew why I wanted to look at it.” Lara winked. “Atlantis stuff.”

“And Lara Croft the archaeologist strikes again,” Bo teased with a smile as she sipped her tea. She was gaining a taste for it, but it was hard not to when living with an English woman. Bo did still love her coffee, but she at least drank tea more often than she used to. “Was it everything you’d expected it to be?”

“Well, I have to keep it up or else I’ll get rusty!” Lara laughed, wrapping her hands around her tea and sighing in contentment. This was so mundane and domestic and she was beginning to treasure moments like this. “It answered one question and gave me three more.”

“I suppose any good artifact would leave you with more questions than answers. So what was this artifact?” Bo asked, getting comfortable in her seat. She liked hearing about Lara’s work, and she seemed to be truly into whatever this artifact was.

“A plate. Very elaborate. It was found in Greece, but doesn’t fit either the location or timeline, yet it had very clearly been there for a long time. It wasn’t even Greco-Roman.” Lara savored her tea. “I’m still on the fence on Atlantis existing outside of my dreams, but this is another piece of the puzzle.”

“What makes you doubt that Atlantis was a real place here, too?” Bo asked curiously. “I mean, all legends had to come from somewhere, right? So why couldn’t Atlantis be an actual place here as well? It may be very different from the stories or from the one in your dreams, but something about it must be true.” She recalled her and Lara had once talked about all legends coming from some kernel of truth. Everything came from somewhere!

“We know there are numerous potential locations where an island civilization might have existed. I doubt it was continent sized, but they could have definitely influenced numerous cultures.” Survivors fleeing to the four corners of the Earth, integrating until nothing was left of what they once were.

“And the mystery continues, one that clearly has you intrigued enough to poke at it. And if anyone can find the truth, it’s you.” Bo said with a smile. She had the utmost confidence and faith in Lara, and she knew that she’d get to the bottom of it.

“I just hope there aren’t some kind of ancient priestess I’ll have to fight.” The last thing Lara wanted to ever deal with would be Natla. She’d have to fight her alone, she’d have no other choice. She couldn’t drag Bo or Kenzi into that war.

“And less people trying to shoot you while you’re investigating.” Bo hoped that at the very least, there would be less guns involved in the process. She sipped her tea, thankful that her headache was beginning to fade. “So what’s the next step? Or do you not know what that is yet?” It may sound like she was avoiding talking about her dream, but she really was just waiting for her head to stop pounding and giving Lara a chance to wake up enough for that conversation.

“Where’s the fun in not getting shot at?” Lara winked, and took a bite of her toast. As for her next step, she could only shrug. “I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out, or something will land in my lap. Possibly both.”

“Another date to celebrate not getting shot at?” Bo retorted with a grin. “Knowing you, probably both. And if you need an outside opinion on anything, you can always ask me. Or if you just want a witty comment, I can do that, too.”

“You know I always need you,” Lara said. She reached over, taking Bo’s hand and squeezing it. She meant that. Not just as a lover, but as a friend and as someone that she valued the opinion of.

Bo smiled, squeezing Lara’s hand back. “The same goes for you.” Bo needed some grounding, and also needed someone to love. She was strongest when she could love and not have her heart broken. And she valued Lara’s company and her mind.

Lara never planned to break Bo’s heart. She meant too much to her. “Are you okay? After your dreams? How is your head?”

“My head’s better, the aspirin’s kicking in. And physically I’m okay, I’m just kind of confused.” She tucked some hair behind her ear. “In the dream I met a woman, a fae, who was running from someone and she recognized me and called me her savior, but I’d never seen her before in my life. Turns out that she met me during the time I’d disappeared.”

Lara nodded, leaning her chin on her hand as she listened to her soon-to-be-wife. “So that means that you were some place, then. And not just in some kind of non-existent limbo.”

It made some kind of sense, at least to Lara. Not existing was a scary thought.

“Yeah. Thing was, she had the power to unlock memories by singing. She was kind of like a nightingale, only she also had the power to kill with her voice. Anyway, when we were first talking, she sang and brought back a memory. It was really vague, but I was in a white dress, and there was a covered silver platter in a room. When I took the lid off, there was a crown sitting on the platter with Isabeau inscribed in it.” Bo frowned a bit, remembering it. “That was all that came back at that point. I’d apparently hatched a plan with her to free her from her captor, and to prove it to myself, I’d written a note saying as much and hid it inside the hilt of my dagger. Apparently while I was in this limbo place, I knew I wouldn’t remember anything once I left. Thus the note. Still can’t figure out why the hell I aligned myself with the Dark Fae during that period.”

“That’s freaky.” Lara could name a number of myths like that, but she kept it to herself rather than distract Bo. “Isabeau...interesting. And I’m sure you’ll start remembering that soon enough. For all we know it was under duress.”

“Tell me about it,” she responded and shifted a bit in her chair. “I’d arranged for her to sing for an audience as she was starving and she fed while singing to audiences of people. When she began singing, she unlocked another memory of mine. I was on a train of some sort, but I didn’t get much there because her performance was cut short. Eventually, I discovered she wasn’t as innocent as she seemed to be, and she was in love with a man that had nothing but genocide on the mind. So she sang her deathnote, as it were, and killed him. She...died in my arms, but not before giving me a gift and saying that in those last moments, her heart was free.” It had been sad, but Ianka had been happy in her last moments, even if she’d just had her heart broken by a man she loved.

That was awful, but also not. At least that woman had done the right thing. To kill a man she loved rather than let him do terrible things? IT spoke a lot about her character. “A train, though? A lot of myths involve various vessels to the after life or underworld. Norse ships, boats, even some kind of flying machines in a few.”

Ianka was a good woman, and idealist who wanted love and freedom. Bo had managed to give her freedom, even if it wasn’t the ending that Bo had wanted. “Can’t say I know for certain where the train was going, all I know was I was on one. Though the gift Ianka gave me was some sort of music box thing. She’d recorded a song on it, so when I got back home, I opened it and another memory came to me.” Her brow furrowed a bit. She didn’t exactly like thinking about that handprint, but she needed to mention it.

However, before she could actually say what the memory was, she felt the pain just below her collarbone on the right side of her chest. She groaned in pain, pressing a hand over the area. “Ah shit,” she said through clenched teeth. She then pulled her robe aside to reveal a glowing handprint on her skin. “This...this is what the memory was. I saw this mark.” It was impossible to determine what the mark was for and why Bo had it, but it seemed to have some sort of claiming behind it, like she was property or something.

Lara fell silent, trying to think about where that train could be going. She hadn’t expected anything else to happen, but sat up straighter when Bo groaned and then stared at the hand print. “What the fuck!?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know where it came from, but the Wanderer, I think he marked me. And I think he’s my father.” She looked down at the handprint that remained glowing. “I’m not hurt, but this is hurting me right now. I don’t know why it’s there or what it’s for, but it feels like the Wanderer put his mark on me to mark me as his.” What Bo didn’t know was if the handprint appeared because of her dreams, or if she’d gotten the handprint put there while she’d disappeared from this world.

There was nothing to shoot, or yell at, or hit, but Lara wanted to do all three of those things and aim them right at Bo’s dad. “You’re not anyone’s but yourself!” She gripped the table. “And mine. Figuratively.”

Bo pulled her robe back into place, covering up the mark. Lara’s anger was surprising, but not entirely so. She understood the anger, and had even felt it in the dream. She’d lashed out at Dyson in the middle of sex because of it. Though that had mostly been due to him seemingly telling her what to do, but it was along the same lines. “I know, but I don’t know what this mark is for or what it does. I have no memory of how I got it, just that I had it on the train.”

They couldn’t do anything about it, that was what made Lara the most angry. She sank back into her chair, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Perhaps talk to that magical guild. Or whatever they’re calling themselves.”

If all else failed, find some experts.

“Yeah, that might be my best bet if my missing memories don’t tell me how the fuck I got it in the first place.” Bo sighed, frustrated by her missing memories. “I could also see if Clara and Duncan can get anything on it as well.” Two different angles could actually get her some answers. Or it could just confuse her even further.

Putting her cup down, Lara stood and walked around the table. She leaned over behind Bo and hugged her, resting her head against the back of Bo’s. She sounded tired. “I don’t like any of this. I can only guess at what you’re feeling.”

Closing her eyes, she lifted a hand and set it on Lara’s arm. “Frustrated, angry, confused. Kind of a mix of everything. I kind of bit Dyson’s head off in the dream because of it.” Bo just hoped she didn’t bite Lara’s head off here.

“Well, he probably deserved it a little bit. He doesn’t seem the particularly insightful sort.” Lara chuckled, and nuzzled her face into Bo’s hair. “But just make sure you talk about it. Don’t keep it in.”

“Well...he didn’t mean it the way I took it, and we were kind of in the middle of sex when I flipped out. So…” Bo admitted. Really, it could’ve been worse! “I will. Hopefully I find answers for it soon enough because it’s really frustrating not knowing what it’s there for.” She’d definitely be informing Kenzi of this, and see if her dreams had progressed at all to potentially shed light on this.

“He still deserved it.” Lara could be petty when she wanted to be, and a little jealous, at least when it came to Dyson and Lauren. She let go of Bo, and walked over to the fridge. It was probably too early for this, but she thought they both needed a beer.

“He does need a good kick now and then, yeah.” Bo couldn’t help but to chuckle a bit. Dyson and Lauren deserved the pettiness at times, but Bo knew they had their usefulness as well. That just tended to get overshadowed by the terrible things they did. “Do you have anything on the schedule for today?”

Lara shook her head. “Nothing I can’t postpone for another day. I’d rather stay in with you today.” She felt like Bo needed that kind of reassurance. Hell, she needed that kind of reassurance. “Plus side of working for myself, I can take days off when I need it.”

“That is definitely a plus side for you.” Bo said with a smile. It was definitely something she needed with so many questions up in the air right now. But she was determined to not let them dampen the impending wedding. “Oh and I got a memory from when I disappeared here. I was in some cave or something, in a maze or a labyrinth. I was alone, but I felt like someone was watching me.” It gave her the creeps just thinking about it. But it was important that Lara know that.

That gave Lara the creeps too. She handed Bo a beer, then opened hers with her teeth. She hoped that was it. A few hours with nothing creepy was welcome now. “Perhaps you had an audience?”

Taking the beer, Bo was about to open it when she got distracted by watching Lara open hers with her teeth. “Hot,” she commented before she went about opening her beer. “Maybe. I guess I’ll find out at some point.” She took a drink. “But I think we should turn to lighter subjects. Our wedding is only a couple days off.”

“Don’t remind me.” Lara grimaced. When she wasn’t knee deep in work she was knee deep in wedding preparations. She just hoped it didn’t go off without a hitch. No dragons, no aliens, no gods or angels attacking. Just them, their friends, and their love. “I hope everything goes according to plan.”

“I hope so, too.” Bo had tiptoed around that particular part of the equation simply because Orange County was unpredictable. Bo didn’t want to accidentally jinx it or something. “Though look at it this way, this time next week we’ll be on our honeymoon?” Which should be stress free. And if it wasn’t, then they weren’t doing it right.

“Yes, we will be. And we are going to concentrate on India, and each other, and nothing else.” She raised her eyebrows. They could pretend nothing else mattered for a week or two couldn’t they?

“I’ll drink to that,” Bo said with a smile and lifting her beer in a toast. It would be good to get out of Orange County for a while. And with any luck, her dreams wouldn’t ruin the honeymoon because she really just wanted to enjoy the vacation and the time with Lara and seeing new sights.