For the better part of a year Caeli had been searching for Katherine Marlowe, for any sign of the occult organisation she ran... and now as she stood outside of the French chateau she knew exactly why Marlowe had surfaced only now.
For who stood a mere few meters from her was none other than Nathan Drake.
"Drake's ring..." Caeli whispered to herself, seeing the silver piece of jewellery hanging from a string of leather around his neck. "The decryption device." She added, seeing a piece of the gold trinket sticking out of one of Drake's pockets. She hid in the shadows, a talent of hers, as Drake followed the correct path along some stone tiles to open the next door.
He had already taken out a multitude of Marlowe's henchmen to get to this point, a fairly impressive feat with how well Marlowe's men were trained. Caeli continued following Drake and Victor Sullivan until they all reached the next puzzle, she could only smirk as he struggled to figure out what had to be done.
"Have you bothered looking at the floor?" Caeli asked, leaning against one of the walls, her foot propping her leg up underneath her.
"Who the hell?" Sullivan asked, the both of them turning to face her, Drake's eyes widened as he realised who she was.
"Holy shit..." Nathan trailed off as she pushed off of the wall and walked towards them.
"It's been a few years, I see you're still up to your usual antics. Getting hunted by bad people while searching for treasure, risking your life for barely any reward." Caeli stated.
"Caeli Porter?" Nathan asked as if double checking.
"Um, the one and the only," Caeli replied, her hands out by her sides.
"You look a little different..." Nate trailed off, pointing to his hair as she touched her own. The last time they had seen each other her hair had gone down to her waist, now it was cropped short on the sides, a little lengthier on the top. It was still strange for there to be any at all after eleven years of having it shaved off.
"Yeah, that's a short chapter in a long story. One that involves Talbot and Marlowe." Caeli stated as she moved around to each stone carving on the wall and memorised the tile markings that would help unlock the next doorway.
"We have time," Sully stated, which made Caeli laugh as she walked to the contraption that would move tiles around to the correct places.
"I'm fairly sure 'time' is the one thing you don't have right now," Caeli stated as each tile moved into place and the small opening shuddered underneath the tile puzzle. "Besides, next room is open." She shrugged her shoulders, running towards the small opening and sliding into it. "Which dead body are you looking for exactly?" She asked next as Nathan and Sully came through, Nathan pointed to the fanciest looking coffin in the room.
"That one," Caeli smirked, pushing open the top of it and looking inside. Next to the skeleton seemed to be what was a piece of an amulet, she picked it up, turning it over gingerly in her hands before throwing it to Nathan.
"Looking for that?" Nathan caught it, looking at both sides carefully.
"The other half must be in Syria..." Nathan stated, "We have to get to Chloe and Cutter before Marlowe does." He added.
"Look, we do have to get to them fast kid but we have to get out of here first." Sully stated, then looking Caeli over, "and from what I can see she doesn't even have a gun."
"Did I ever need one? Honestly?" Caeli asked.
"We're dealing with an army here, you realise that right?" Sully asked next.
"Okay, first of all, it's not an army, it's an agency, second of all, I was raised as an assassin within this Order. I know how they work." Caeli added.
"These people are the ones who raised you as an assassin?" Nathan asked.
"Yes, they're the ones my family ran to America to get away from," Caeli answered, her eyebrows furrowing. "They're also the ones that took me back to England, the ones that kidnapped me."
"That's why you disappeared..." Nathan trailed off, Caeli nodded.
"I'll explain on the way to Syria, but we need to get out of here first," Caeli added, running back to the small exit, pausing as soon as she made her way to the other side. "Shit." She whispered, looking Talbot in the eyes.
"Nice to see you again, Caeli." He stated with his all too silvery voice.
"Wish I could say the same about you." She replied, not even taking a step as Sully and Nathan came out of the other room to see Talbot and his two henchmen at the exit. Sully immediately reached for the shotgun at his waist, but Caeli touched his arm. "Don't..." She trailed off as the two henchmen pointed their guns towards them. "You can't move that fast." She added as Talbot pointed his own handgun towards the three.
"Harris, would you relieve Drake of the artefact," Talbot instructed, and the man to his left began walking towards Nathan who put up a minor fight, only until he realised that Sully would be shot if he made another move. With the artefact now in Harris' hands, the man began walking away and back to Talbot.
A hissing suddenly filled the room. Caeli looked to the ceiling, to the walls, the pillars, the floor, seeing hundreds, maybe thousands of spiders larger than her head swarming the room like a flood.
"What the hell?" Nathan whispered, but Caeli was focused on Harris as the spiders began crawling over his body, and he immediately fell to the ground. Dead. She stayed close to Sully, the spiders seeming to dislike the light from the fire torch that he was holding. She couldn't hear as Talbot took the piece of the amulet from Harris, as she slipped into a familiar calm she knew only ended badly.
Immediately she began looking around the room for other potential exits, assuming Talbot wouldn't let them leave through the front door. There was a potential exit, but they would have to wait until that other door was closed to find out for sure. She was snapped back to reality with one sentence.
"Your torch seems to be dying out. Good luck with that."
Caeli turned towards Sully, seeing the flame slowly becoming weaker. They wouldn't have much time.
"God, what a dick," Sully stated.
"Doesn't even sum up the half of it," Caeli replied, watching as the door closed.
"We gotta find a way out of here fast," Nathan added as if they didn't already know.
"Stay close," Sully stated as he began walking around the room, but Caeli immediately pointed where she had seen an exit.
"Over there, there's a little bit of sunlight," Caeli stated, so they immediately began running towards it, Sully was lifted into the hole first, Caeli next and Nathan jumped in last with help from Caeli to pull him in, the torch dropped on the floor in their wake as it finally blinked out. Running through the strange tunnel the spiders continued following them, flooding the walls, the floor and the ceiling.
"Jesus Christ, they're coming from everywhere."
Sully tripped over, but Nathan helped him back up as Caeli stayed behind them, the spiders doing their best to crawl onto her body but failing. Getting to the end of the tunnel, Caeli closed the door behind them, they thought it would keep the spiders out but then they began crawling out from the gaps in the ceiling.
"Oh god, they're coming through the ceiling!" Sully exclaimed, Caeli just turned to look at him.
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock!" She shouted as her feet began to run faster than before, making sure she was still behind the other two.
"Come on – Run!" Nathan shouted.
"What else are we supposed to do?!" Caeli was beginning to remember why she felt that she had always been surrounded by idiots when working with these two previously. Finally, they broke through the tunnel and made it through to a spiralling staircase, which was quickly scaled before they jumped out of the turret. Caeli ignored as they carried on, getting the spiders off of their bodies now they were in sunlight, the few that were on Caeli ran off of their own accord, averted to the light itself much like she was.
Although she had to ignore that as they escaped the chateau, through fire, both of its elemental form and of a bullet rain, and had to push down the urge to go after Talbot without any kind of preparation. It wasn't until they were in the safety of the forest surrounding the burning chateau behind them that they were able to greet each other properly.
"It's been a while..." Nathan trailed off as he hugged her.
"Twelve years." She stated, pulling away from him. "I'm sorry about what happened in Panama." She added, looking to the ground before meeting his eyes again. Nathan didn't reply to her. "I miss him too." They all started walking through the forest, to the car that Sully and Nathan had come in and the motorbike she had brought.
Before the Order had taken her back, she had worked closely with the Drake brothers and Sullivan, she rarely left their sides since running into Sam during her own escapades. Eleven years... she had been by their side for eleven years before she had been ripped away from it all. Nathan was like a brother to her, Sam... that had been a different story entirely.
Once they made it back to the car, her motorbike lifted onto the back of it as she took the back seat Sully turned to look at her.
"You're going to tell us what happened, right?"
Caeli smiled weakly before giving her story to them.