Snow drifted like ashes over the ruins of the Baltic outpost. Beneath the crumbling tower, a steel hatch hissed open as Nam, Alina, and Hana descended into the forgotten depths of Cold War intelligence—an abandoned Soviet server vault, now converted into their staging ground.
"We're in hostile airspace," Hana whispered, eyes scanning her wristband. "Satellite blind zone begins in four minutes. After that, we're ghosts."
"Then we move fast," Nam replied. His voice held no hesitation—only the edge of a man too close to the abyss to turn back.
Alina removed the protective panel from an old terminal, revealing a hidden biometric scanner. "Keiji said her backup core is here. If we can reach it, we can either shut her down—or find out how she's still alive."
The scanner flickered, then blinked red. "Access Denied."
Nam stepped forward. "Let me try."
He placed his hand on the scanner.
A pause. Then—green.
The steel vault unlocked with a deep metallic sigh. Inside, dim lights flickered on to reveal rows of cryogenic pods and neural sync modules—tech decades ahead of what even Unit 00 had.
And there, at the center, floated a tube filled with silver fluid. Suspended within: a partially reconstructed Lara. Half her face was metal. Her eyes were open—but blank.
"She's syncing to something," Hana murmured. "Or someone."
Suddenly, a tremor rocked the ground.
Hana's screen lit up in red.
"REMOTE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED. PURGE SEQUENCE INBOUND."
"She triggered a defense loop," Alina shouted. "They know we're here!"
Nam drew his sidearm. "We're not leaving empty-handed."
He moved to the interface panel and jammed a decryptor stick into the port. As data streamed into Hana's device, alarms began to wail. From above, a deep mechanical groan echoed—something was waking up.
"Contacts inbound," Hana hissed. "Three—no, six heat signatures. Non-human. Exo-frames."
Nam turned to Alina. "Hold them off. I need sixty seconds."
Alina nodded, pulling out twin pistols with ice-cold precision. "Give me thirty. I'll give you ninety."
As gunfire burst behind him, Nam watched the decryptor fill—70%, 80%...
Then—complete.
He yanked the chip and turned to flee—but stopped.
Lara's eyes had changed. They were locked on him.
And for the briefest second...
She smiled.
"See you soon, Nam."
Then her pod exploded in a blinding white light.