[MotokoK]

Part 1: The Pharaoh
"NNNGGFFF!! MMRRRPPHH!!" Lara Croft grunted as she struggled with her bonds.
She had awoken only a moment before and found herself naked, bound, and gagged. She was alone in what appeared to be a dark, dank ancient Egyptian crypt. The air was cool on her bare skin. A half-dozen or so torches blazed where they had been inserted into slots in the walls, providing the only illumination. There was a large, elevated stone slab in the middle of the tomb, and an empty, open sarcophagus in one corner.
Rope surrounded Lara's naked body and rendered her almost completely immobile. One length of rope bound her elbows and wrists together behind her back. Another rope wound around her slender hips, over the top of her shapely behind, and back down between her thighs before it wound around her ankles, binding her legs into a bent position. One other rope ran around the back of her neck, down to her chest, and was looped around her large breasts in a figure eight. This last binding seemed to serve no practical purpose other than to highlight Lara's magnificent breasts...and to humiliate her.
Despite her bonds, Lara had managed to awkwardly and painfully push herself to a position where she sat on her haunches. She tugged at the ropes, wrenching her curvaceous form back and forth, and pulled at the tight knots with her fingers, but it was no use. She was expertly bound and could not get free. She angrily panted through the cloth in her mouth; a glow of perspiration had appeared on her tanned skin despite the dank coolness of the underground tomb.
Lara looked around in the crypt for some sort of cutting edge--a sharp rock would do, something she could use to cut into the ropes that rendered her helpless. She saw nothing of use. There were no loose stones in the tomb, and the huge rocks making up the walls all looked too smooth to be of service.
"HRRRRRPPPHH!!" Lara growled angrily as the hopelessness of her situation sank in. The only way into or out of the tomb appeared to be through a door that was blocked by a heavy stone. She doubted she could have moved it on her own even without the bonds. She had no idea how long she'd been unconscious, where she was, or why she'd been brought here. There was no sign of the two Bedouin men who had chloroformed her. And to top it all off, she was naked--never a good sign.
Lara gave an exasperated sigh and settled back onto her haunches to wait. Sooner or later, someone would come for her, then she'd find out what this was all about. She considered the disturbing notion that she'd been abandoned in the tomb to become one of its permanent residents, but dismissed the idea. Even her worst enemies would want to gloat and leave her knowing exactly who had defeated her.
A moment later, she heard the deep, rumbling sound of stone grating against stone. Lara looked at the stone doorway and watched as it moved; someone was pushing it out of the way, obviously with great effort. The stone door must weigh several hundred pounds, Lara realized. As the door opened, she saw the hands and arms of several men appear as they continued to shove it aside.
Once the stone door had been moved completely aside, there was a pause. Then Lara watched as several men, all apparently Arabic judging by their appearance entered the room. The Tomb Raider's brown eyes went wide at their dress. All of them wore the headdress, linen kilt, and sandals typical of Ancient Egyptians! They looked like a bunch of extras from an old Cecil B. DeMille movie. She counted six of them in total. Their dark eyes glanced at her naked body briefly as they entered the crypt. They came to stand beside and behind her in a semi-circle. Their collective gaze left Lara to look expectantly at the door they'd just come through.
A moment later, a seventh man walked into the crypt, dressed like his compatriots, but more resplendently. Even in the dim light of the crypt, gold accents shimmered on his headdress. He also wore a large, semi-circular collar of gold and lapis lazuli over his upper chest. His strong arms were crossed, and each arm held a short staff, one representing the lotus, the other papyrus--the ancient symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt. He wore a tightly-braided ceremonial beard on his chin. He had dark features: the swarthy skin of an Egyptian, heavy arched brows, a long, straight nose, thin lips. His body was strong and lean. Lara had to admit he looked every inch the Pharaoh. She wondered if she'd found herself the captive audience of some bizarre historical re-enactment society.
The seventh man walked into the crypt with a slow, dignified gait. He eyed Lara briefly, almost superciliously, his face impassive even in the presence of her naked beauty. He came to stand, stock-still, barely a yard in front of her. He nodded to his subordinates; two stepped forward, each one taking one of his staffs. He let his arms hang loosely at his sides. He then looked down his long, straight nose at his captive.
"Lady Lara Croft," he pronounced in perfect English that held the barest hint of an Arabic accent. One of Lara's brows rose in response. "No doubt you are wondering why you have been brought here, who I am, and what my plans are for you." He sounded almost bored as he said the words. "Though I owe you no explanation--especially since your actions make you little more than one of the grave robbers my ancestors regularly sentenced to death--I will give you one, only because we are both aristocrats."
Lara snorted derisively in response, but the man ignored her and went on.
"The name by which I am known in modern society would have less meaning to you than it does to me," the impassive Egyptian said. "My true name is Rameses the Twelfth. I am the descendant of the God-kings of the 20th dynasty." Lara gave another derisive snort, indicating her opinion of his claim. "I care not whether you believe me or no. High-born though you are, you are still beneath me. You will serve your purpose to me, then your fate is of no consequence."
Lara suppressed a shudder at his words, which were delivered so quietly and evenly. She'd encountered many adversaries in her adventures and had made many enemies. She'd lost track of how many people wanted her dead. But all of her foes had felt some emotion when it came to her--anger, hatred, rage, and, as often as not, lust. But Lara had never encountered an enemy who seemed as truly cold-blooded and reptilian as this ersatz Pharaoh.
"You will be a ceremonial sacrifice to the ancient God-Kings," the man continued in his eerily calm monotone. "If they are pleased with my sacrifice, I hope to be granted their divine power so I can ascend to a renewed throne of modern Egypt. Then the land of the Nile will once again have a Pharaoh, as it should, and I can restore her to her true glory."
Though the whole "ceremonial sacrifice" part made Lara somewhat nervous, she couldn't help rolling her eyes when her talking-villain-of-the-week revealed his grand plan. Yet another would-be ruler with delusions of grandeur, she thought to herself. Why can't I meet any normal blokes?
"You are here, in fact, because you are an aristocrat. I have attempted the ceremony before with common whores, women who would not be missed, but I should have known they would not be worthy sacrifices for the ancient God-Kings. You, Lady Croft, will be a worthy sacrifice, but no more missed than a common whore, I'll wager. People will simply accept your disappearance as the inevitable result of one of your misadventures." Rameses sighed. "Enough. I weary of this tedious conversation," he declared, then glanced at his underlings. "Prepare the sacrifice for the ceremony," he said, then turned and walked away from Lara, followed by two of his attendants.
The other four men grabbed Lara by her bound and naked arms and legs and lifted her from the ground. As she grunted and wriggled in protest, the four burly men carried her to a large, rectangular, elevated stone slab in the middle of the tomb. They set her naked body down on the slab, which was about as high, and twice as wide and long, as an examination table in a doctor's office. Lara shivered as her naked skin contacted the cool, smooth surface of the stone.
The men pushed her into a sitting position on the slab. Then one of the men stood in front of her while the other three held her bound limbs. He reached down to his right side and pulled a large ceremonial dagger from a leather sheath on his belt. He held it in front of Lara's eyes, which went wide with trepidation. She looked in the man's dark eyes and silently cursed him for the sadistic amusement she saw there.
The man slowly moved the knife tip towards Lara's chest. She grunted and writhed in protest, but the other three men held her firm. A malevolent smirk came to the knife-wielder's cruel lips. He brushed the sharp tip of the knife blade over Lara's right nipple, making the helpless Englishwoman gasp anxiously. Then the man did something unexpected: he pushed the knife blade beneath the rope around Lara's breasts, right where it crossed over itself at her sternum, and began to saw through it.
Once he finished cutting the rope, he pulled it harshly from Lara's body; she inhaled through clenched teeth as the abrasive hemp burned her tender skin. The knife-wielder then drew the knife down over Lara's taut, quivering tummy. She swallowed hard as she felt the cool tip of the knife scraping the downy hairs that adorned her sex. Then the sadistic knife-wielder pressed the blade beneath the rope that bound her ankles to her thighs and cut through it.