The glare from the rising sun was blinding as Lara climbed out of the narrow tomb entrance. The smell of burning rubber and plastic hit her in the slight breeze. Looking towards the ridge where she'd parked her jeep, Lara could see dark smoke rising from a mass of charred metal.

Noticing the direction of her gaze, the now recognizable blonde gave her a sympathetic look and said "That's what brought us here. We were headed up the valley when we saw it burning and stopped to check it out. None of your things survived. Sorry."

Groaning in dismay, Lara pulled her cell phone out of a pocket to give Bryce a call, only to find it hadn't survived the trip into the tomb. She couldn't remember anything getting that close but it must have been destroyed by a glancing blow at some point in the long fighting.

"So... Miss Summers, do you have a phone I could borrow?" Lara asked her, making it clear she recognized the blonde.

"Buffy, please." she said after acknowledging Lara's request. "Lady Croft, just a second." She pressed several buttons on the phone before handing it to Lara. "That'll give you a secure line to our Tokyo office. Just enter your number and the switchboard will forward your call from there."

Lara raised an eyebrow at that and she shrugged before explaining.

"The Chinese government has this annoying habit of monitoring our calls when we're here. Not a big deal for us. It's to their benefit to not interfere with us but you probably don't want to draw their attention if you were doing what I think you were doing."

"Thanks." Lara looked at the unfamiliar phone for a moment, noting the only identifying mark on the nondescript device was a small embossed number and a familiar symbol that looked like an hourglass. She filed this information away for later consideration.

After telling Lara they would be leaving in a couple minutes, Buffy and the other two women moved further down the hill to give her some privacy for her call.

"Bryce? This is Lara. No, this isn't my phone. It and the rest of my equipment seem to have suffered from a major malfunction."

"Yes, everything except for my clothes back at the hotel. If you could let Hillary know that I'll need another vehicle sent over to my hotel? Yes, that also. I can pick everything else up at the usual place tomorrow." Suddenly it occurred to her where she'd seen that symbol on the phone before. "And could you tell Hillary that I seem to have run into several women from that research company from last spring? Yes. When I was in the States investigating that ghost. And one of them is the short blonde from Sunnydale. He'll know whom I mean."

Lara noticed her companions starting to get restless.

"It looks like I have to go now if I don't want to walk back to the hotel. Yes. It looks like we're finally getting enough information to start connecting the dots. I'll tell you both about it tonight."

Closing the phone, Lara followed the other women down the hill, catching up with them as they reached a dirt road and started to get into a rugged looking all terrain vehicle she didn't recognize.

"We can give you a ride if you don't mind waiting while we make several stops. You probably don't want to walk from here." Buffy commented as she climbed into the front passenger seat.

"Okay." Lara said, following the young woman, referred to earlier as Yumiko, into the back seat. She wasn't about to pass it up an opportunity to learn more about these women.

Buffy turned and watched her expectantly from the front while the third young woman started the vehicle and headed them further up the valley.

Lara raised an eyebrow at this attention.

"Lady Croft, I'm sure you have questions for us." she smiled encouragingly at Lara.

"While we've met, I don't believe you've really introduced your companions." Lara asked in an attempt to confirm names she'd heard earlier when they were in the tomb.

"This is Xia." Buffy gestured at the woman driving. "And that's Yumiko in the back with you."

"Oh." Lara wasn't sure what to make of the lack of surnames for the other women. "Do you have a younger sister? Dawn?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow herself at the obviously unexpected question. "Yes."

"I believe I met her last spring." Lara frowned. "She was travelling with someone else from your organization. I believe her name was Faith. An unusual woman."

"Yes. Faith does work with us. One of our senior people." Buffy frowned. "That must have been right after she helped you with that ghost problem."

"Yes. She seems to be very enthusiastic about some things." Lara frowned as she thought about her own reaction to Faith. "She's very overwhelming when she's in the middle of something. You can't help letting her take charge."

Buffy grinned and leaned over and said something to Xia, too low for Lara to catch, causing her to giggle. "That's one way to describe the Faith experience. She has that kind of effect even on those of us who have known her for years."

"Do you all work together?" she asked curiously.

"I drop in occasionally. Xia grew up near here and works with Yumiko in our Tokyo office."

When she stopped, Lara noticed that Buffy hadn't said anything that really explained her own presence. "What brings you here?"

"Just the usual. Things were a bit slow in Tokyo this week and the local government requested help with a small problem so we thought we would check it out." She shrugged. "They can be a bit prickly but they're good people once you get past the whole 'my culture is older than your culture' thing some of them have going. And they normally only ask for our assistance when it is something they really can't handle."

An hour north of the tomb they'd rescued Lara from, Xia pulled onto a narrow, stone paved road. Barely a kilometer later the road terminated in front of a pair of large stone doors.

"This is our first stop." Buffy told Lara. "They'll tell us what we need to know for our next stop. If you don't mind waiting here? They are expecting only the three of us."

"Okay." Lara tried not to sound too disappointed as she watched the other women remove several weapons from the back.

They'd been gone almost an hour and Lara was starting to consider going in after them when the stone gate opened and the three women reappeared. Returning their weapons to the back they climbed back in without saying anything to Lara.

They'd been travelling for ten minutes before Buffy broke the silence.

"That was a bit disappointing." she said with an exasperated sigh. "A little better communication could have saved us a trip. Not that I'm not glad we helped you with your small vampire problem, Lady Croft, but it looks like there was no real reason for all three of us to be here. From the description, Xia could have handled things all by herself."

"I won't complain about your assistance," Lara said, "but I was wondering why you were here."

"Well... that..." She pointed back the way they'd come, "is a temple dedicated to the Yangtzee River spirit. Someone seems to have kidnapped their sacred mascott and they can't bless the dam for the coming year without it. Someone in Bejing misunderstood the request for help. They thought it was the end of the world and asked for our help in stopping it."

"You do that often? Stop the world from ending?"

"Only the mystical, apocalyptic kinds of world endings. We don't usually get involved in apocalyptic pet-nappings." Buffy rolled her eyes at Yumiko's giggle.

"What kind of pet?" Lara asked curiously.

"Some kind of large lizard. What did they call it?"

"Gong Fu" Xia answered.

Lara blinked in surprise. "They named a lizard after one of the nine sons of the dragon?"

"Yes. Xia thinks it might actually be a real dragon." Buffy grinned, seemingly amused at the thought. "This might take a while but you're welcome to come with us and find out if she's right. Or we can take you back to your hotel."

Lara didn't have to think very hard about this. If it really was a dragon it would be worth seeing. If it wasn't she would have longer to observe these young women. "I'll go with you."

"Great! You'll want to wear this. It's from the temple." She handed Lara a small bronze amulet on a silver chain. "The 'dragon' won't go with us, once we find it, unless we're all wearing one."

Lara examined it before putting it on but couldn't see anything special about it.

"Did they say how it works?"

"No. I'm assuming some kind of magic." She shrugged. "And magic types tend to get anxious if you question them about how they did something and things can go a bit wonky. So we didn't bother asking."

"How are we going to find this so-called dragon?"

"They gave Xia a charmed compass that is supposed to point right at it."

As they continued into the hills above the river, Lara hoped the vague feelings of impending disaster she was feeling were wrong.

Notes:

• I was stuck in a rut with this fic. The last two parts really need to be expanded/revised. Someday.
• The Chinese Zodiac... I had to look this stuff up... so it might be wrong. But lets pretend for now that it is correct.
  • Buffy's Chinese Zodiac element = Metal, sign=monkey, yin = Ka'no-to+Saru (She should have an affinity with dragons if I understand the stuff I read correctly.)
  • Lara's = fire, goat, yin = Hino-to+Hitsuji
  • Dragon names - KungFu, Gong Fu, and Baxia seem to be the same son of the dragon (there are nine)(the one who liked water)