Based on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Series
1782, London
I can see nothing…I can't hear…and I feel nothing. Pure Darkness engulfs me.
German "World of Players"-Assassin's Creed-Forum presents
A whistling sound is the first thing I can sense again after a while. It hisses through my ears.
Burning wood and roasting flesh infuses my nostrils.
I sense wetness on my face.
A Rabenkopf Story
Burning pain stabs through my body. It concentrates on the left half of my face, my left arm and in my chest…I believe few of my rips are broken.
The wetness on my face and in my hairs…is that rain?
I try to open my eyes, but the left one stays closed.
Starring (among others):
Napoleon Bonaparte
I sense warmth in front of my feet. The whistling sound in my ears disappears slowly, while my blurred view becomes clearer.
Rain beats down on my face and I seem to lie in a puddle.
At the lower edge of my view I recognize the flaring of fire.
Arno Dorian
I try to sit up…no easy task with these wounds. The left half of my face…I don't know what is going on with it, but it burns like hell. But looking down at my left hand is enough to make a supposition: Ring and little finger are missing, as well like this part of my hand. They seem to have been…blown away…the returning pain is infernal.
Connor alias Ratonhnhaké:ton
A splinter of wood is pierced inside my left underarm, but I feel no pain from there. My Hidden Blade seems to have prevented that, but it doesn't work anymore apparently.
I get into a sitting position finally…only to spit blood one moment later.
I lift my glance away from my right hand, bathed in blood, and see the inferno: a burning house, once headquarters of the Brotherhood, is blazing fiercely despite the strong rain.
Assassin's Creed
Vive L'Empereur!
The whole building is burning and when the rain has done its work, only a smoking ruin will remain. I look at the spectacle with horror, while tears wriggle down from my healthy eye.
I look around…is somebody still alive…somebody who wasn't inside, like me?
I see nobody around my position, but there for inside the building: one burning figure jumps through a window, screaming loudly with pain and landing only few meters away from me in another puddle.
The fire doesn't want to stop first, but that is meaningless anyway: the survivor struggles at the beginning, before stopping to move ultimately.
I stare at him bewildered. Was that Damian? Or Luke? Perhaps Jimmy…my eyes start looking at the burning house again. Each of them is…dead?
I close my healthy eye in pain, while I try to get on my feet. They don't seem to be affected by the explosion, which has ripped the house apart, but still it hurts to regain my feet – and still I am not able to get into a straight up posture.
My eyes look up again and other emotions join my grief: frustration, wrath and hatred.
Who did that?! The Templars, who else! But how did they do it?! From where they knew this hideout and how could they place a bomb inside…? Above all such a big one to cause all that!
…our black powder supplies…was the bomb there? But who and how was it placed there? Only our brothers had access…
"Cole!", I hear a familiar voice. I look around and realize not before now, that more and more bystanders gather around the burning house. I gnash my teeth, while my brother runs towards me: Alan Bridges, my biological, older brother. He looks almost as me…at least as I looked before the explosion…only older. He wears the blue-white uniform, which proves his affiliation to the British Navy, as well like its forward-poking bicorn.
He runs to me with a worried face and helps me up, so that I get into a straight posture. "What happened?!", he asks lightly in panic, looking from me to the house.
"Not here…where we are among us only…", I murmur as loud as I can. The pain in my face gets stronger thanks to this.
He looks around for a moment and then nods only. He carries me off from here, while more and more people, despite the rain, appear to watch. Even the first redcoats are seen already.
He leads me through the many alleys of the city, away from everyone's eyes. "What happened, Cole?", Alan asks me murmuring now as well.
"I don't know…", I answer, trying to ignore the pain in my face, "…something exploded inside this building in the moment I wanted to enter it…I was thrown away apparently…", I look up to him, "…how bad is it?"
He stops and examines me, apparently more properly this time. He tries to smile.
"Nothing what will not heal.", he answers finally, "I have seen worse at Chesapeake Bay and these people live till today."
"As cripples…", I reply only and Alan becomes silent first, while continuing to move.
"No, some…many of them serve again or have got it made in a different way for their lives…you will be your old self again, promise.", is his answer after this break, within we brought more meters between us and the burning house.
"I will never be my old self again…", I reply only, while the faces of everyone I lost cross my mind: Damian, Luke, Jimmy, Alex, Old Jack, Bloody Mary, Sarah, the Mentor…and so many more…
We turn around on a main street, close to the harbor. The sea of masts towers in front of me and I start to ask myself… "Where are we going?"
"To a friend.", Alan explains only, "He is a doctor…a really good doctor…he will get you healthy again…"
I say nothing to that. Instead my strength leaves me and I doze off…for how long, I don't know, but I wake up in a bed again.
The pain pierces through my face, hand and body, but it doesn't feel as bad as earlier. I notice an oil lantern to my left side, the only light in this swinging room…I seem be on a ship…
I lift my left arm, which seems to be heavier, and see that it was treated. Still blood is seen at few spots of the bandage.
My eyes, focused on my injured hand, notice one moment later that something is happening behind it. At the doorframe of the cabin two men, talking with each other, are seen. One of them is Alan, while I don't know the other: older, with half-bald head, whereby the grayish rest of his hairs is tied together to a ponytail. He wears glasses as well like a yellow-green jacket and his face – at least his profile – is full with wrinkles.
They talk too quietly, as if I could hear them…above all they are turned to my left side and I bet my left ear isn't a much better condition than the rest of this side.
They stop talking and the older man leaves us, while Alan comes to me with a serious mien. He tries to smile now, but he never was a good actor. He sits down on my bed and before he can say only one syllable, he sighs.
"Good news?", I ask and need to realize how hoarse my voice sounds – there for it doesn't hurt to speak anymore.
He looks at me with a crestfallen mien. And then the smile comes back, before he answers: "Partially good. The major parts of your wounds will heal, with time, but hand and face…"
"…will stay ugly forever probably.", I finish the sentence and try to smile now as well…that hurts much more than speaking, which is why I stop it instantly.
He smirks and looks straight forward again…he stays this way for a while, till he turns back to me with a serious mien. "What has happened there, Cole?", he asks and sounds as worried as curious, "What was that place?"
I look down and think. How much should I tell him? "It was a place where I met my other…brothers."
His eyes become strict. "These people…you never told me, what kind of a bunch they were…"
"They were good people, Alan.", I answer, "People, who had only good deeds in mind."
"I doubt that…", he explains and stands up, only to go back and forth in the room.
"What you mean?", I press.
He stops and looks at me with anger on the face. "The fire was yesterday, Cole. You slept over a day."
What?!
"The redcoats have inspected the building in the meantime…the remains of it, at least. Beside a bunch of corpses, they found a bunch of weapons…very many weapons, from bayonet to cannons."
I look at Alan with a serious face. "What are their assumptions who the corpses were?"
Alan snorts. "Terrorists. Putschists. Rioters…take one. And many people have seen us at site."
My eyes narrow. "We were nothing of all that…we wanted liberty for the people…"
"And you don't think that that's the same?", Alan asks angrily and goes back and forth again, "Jesus, Cole! Chesapeake Bay is not even a year ago. The mood in the government is on the edge in the extreme, because we lost a war against people, who demanded the same! Believe me, when the government hears about who you were, their opinion will not change even one bit."
"What does that mean anyway?", I respond only and feel the grief rising again, "They are all dead."
Alan stops and looks on my face. "But not you.", are his sad words, "And they are looking for you."
I breathe in sharply. "What will happen now?"
"You disappear.", Alan answers, "I have arranged everything already. Called in some favors and bribed the rest. You are leaving London, tonight."
No…I try to sit up, but Alan presses me down with soft force. "Don't sit up, Cole.", he orders almost.
"I can't go.", I explain him, "The guys, who did that…they are still running free…I need to get them…at all costs."
I don't know if my words did that or my eyes, but Alan's eyes become sad now.
"Right now you couldn't harm even a fly.", he replies simply, "And believe me that your healing will not be over so quickly. You need to recover first.", he smiles, "And when this day has come, I will help you…but till then, rest."
I don't know what to say. In the end I nod only and allow myself to fall in the bed again.
Alan nods back. He turns around and goes to the exit of the cabin. There he stops once again and turns around partially. He smiles again. Then he disappears in the corridor.
And that was the last time, I've seen my brother.
And here comes a new story of mine ^^
Few words: I always thought that Assassin's Creed Unity has wasted much opportunity with the French Revolution and these times in total actually :-) So I decided to write a Fanfiction about it - see the story as sequel to Assassin's Creed Unity and its DLC Dead Kings ^^
This here is the English Version, but I want to upload a German as well, so here for German Readers:
Die Deutsche Version wird morgen Abend hochgeladen, da ich keine Vermischung der beiden Versionen möchte :-) Alternativ, wer möchte kann die Geschichte auch im World of Players Forum von Assassin's Creed nachlesen - dort ist auch schon mehr hochgeladen ^^