"Come on, Torstein, I know you can do better than that." Eluveitie sat on a tree stump as he watched his best friend sparing with his girlfriend.

Four days into their trip to New Zealand, and they had already made it the southern part of the island. They had spent their days exploring the film locations for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings movies. This late afternoon, they found themselves in a forest training, dressed in costumes. Eluveitie was dressed like Kili while Vera sported Tauriel's look. Torstein decided to be 'brave' and dressed as Thranduil. The blades Vera and Torstein wielded were the same weapons used by their characters; only the blades weren't replicas found online, they were real life weapons that could wound or kill a person. The clash of steal rang through the forest, but they were too far in that no one in the local town could hear it.

"Excuse me, but I don't want to be known as the guy who wounded his friend's girlfriend." Torstein was quick to block a blow from Vera's blade.

"You will not hurt me." Vera reminded him as she took a step back and repositioned herself for their next go around, "Give me everything you've got."

"Can I take a moment?"

"Um…no." Vera quickly lunged at him.

"Remember, my friend, breaks are not permitted when fighting Templars." Eluveitie reminded Torstein as he leaned back slightly, enjoying the scene in front of him.

"That sort of defeats the 'nothing is true, everything is permitted' philosophy we go by in the Brotherhood." Torstein grinned slightly as he fought Vera with all he had. The battle was starting to turn as he moved her back.

Eluveitie couldn't help but laugh at his own remark, "I guess I should have chosen a different word to use, then."

"Perhaps you should have."

Vera jumped slightly when she heard her phone go off. She had left it by Eluveitie, so it wouldn't be damaged during her session with Torstein, "I'm not going to answer that."

Eluveitie leaned over and looked down at the ground to see who was calling her, "It's Hawk. Want me to take it?"

Vera sighed a little as she dodged out of the way of Torstein's sword, "Yeah, why not. Better you than me. I'm still upset with him about last time."

"What could he have possibly done to upset you?" Torstein prepared himself for her next strike.

"I'll explain to you later."

Eluveitie leaned over and picked up the phone. He answered it just as it was about to go to voice mail, "The Mistress of Death is busy right now."

"Really?!" Vera hissed slightly when she heard his remark to Hawk.

"Busy with what, I wonder?" Hawk replied, a bit of amusement in his voice.

Eluveitie's face flushed slightly. He was glad that Hawk had decided not to use Face Time, or he was sure to see it, and laugh, "Sparing with Torstein."

"What did he say?!" Vera called to Eluveitie just as her blade met Torstein's, the slate making a loud clash sound that harmed not only her ears, but Torstein's as well.

Torstein felt the awful vibration go down his arm. He quickly 'surrendered' by pulling back. He allowed the sword to drop to the ground as he threw his arms up to his ears, his fighting arm shaking slightly from the pain still running through it.

"Worst…pain…ever!" He groaned while shaking his head slightly to get the sound out.

"You have pissed off the living dead." Eluveitie watched as Vera walked up to him, then snatched the phone out of his hand.

"Hawk! What did you say to him?!" Vera grunted as she gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.

Eluveitie quickly moved away from his seat and went over to his friend to make sure that he was alright.

Hawk laughed a little, "I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help it."

"Listen to me! I have a blade in my hand that's the length of your arm! I will not be afraid to ram it through this phone and hope that it goes through your ear!"

"Am I still on your bad side?"

Vera held the phone out, then smacked the blade of her sword into the tree stump, "Did you hear that?!"

"Maybe."

"That was your head I just crushed! Now, before I feel the need to truly ram this sword through my phone, what do you want?!"

"I take it you haven't run into any problems yet."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm trying to think how to put this…"

"Oh come on! We ran into some fucking rogue Assassins!" Lucy's voice could be heard in the background.

"What…?" Vera made a strange face as Eluveitie and Torstein walked up behind her. She pulled the sword out of the tree stump, then sat down, "Are you sure they were Assassins?"

"They had hidden blades on them." Hawk replied, "But, their eyes were red. Almost as if they were under a 'spell' or trance or something."

"What became of these 'rogue' Assassins?" Vera saw her fellow Assassin's looking down at her with the same confused looks on their faces. She put the call on speaker so they could listen.

"Sad to say, we took them down. All, but one. We knocked him out and dragged him back to Tiber Island. He's still here and restrained."

"You're still in Italy?"

"For the time being. Might be here longer than I expected. Anyways, he did wake up about an hour ago and his eyes weren't red anymore. We questioned him, and he said he's not sure what happened. Said he was out with a group and 'felt something tugging at his heart'. Thought he heard a voice in his head. After that, he doesn't remember what happened. We're keeping him under lock and key, just to be on the safe side."

A serious look appeared on Vera's face as she began to think, "And, why are you calling me?" She asked, even though she was already sure of the answer.

"Just on me, I believe this has something to do with…" His voice went quiet, "…something your ancestors made."

Vera's eyes shot up to Eluveitie and Torstein, who were giving her a serious look in turn, "Did he say where they were at when all this happened?"

"Said they were further down in the country, but not near the ocean. Didn't give me the name of the town."

Vera's face became more serious as she said, "Let me call you back." She hung up.

"Vera…do you know what's going on…?" Eluveitie questioned as he watched her grab the sword and rise to her feet.

"If it is what I think it is, then we have something more dangerous than that medallion on our hands." She replied. She made her way over to the three horses that they had rode into the forest. She picked up the reins of one of them, then jumped on.

"You mean…your ancestors created more of these things?" Eluveitie asked as he stood next to her once she was upon her horse.

"I'm afraid so. I wish I knew why they made these things, but I don't." She sighed a little, "Again, shows how much I've had to learn over the years, since my family wouldn't tell me."

"Vera, how dangerous is this thing?" Torstein asked as he mounted his horse.

Vera stayed silent for several moments before replying, "Dangerous enough to start a war between the Assassins." With that, she turned her horse in the direction of the town, then raced off.

Eluveitie quickly mounted his horse, then followed after her with Torstein right behind.

Upon entering their hotel room, Vera locked the door, then ran over to the desk within. She pushed it up against the door before turning to face her friends, "Make sure the window is locked." She said, then looked at Torstein, "Take your top off."

"Um…why…?" Torstein questioned as Eluveitie ran over to the sliding glass window.

"Do as I say, please." Vera went over to her bag, then began to rummage through it.

Torstein did what was asked of him. Once he removed the top of his costume, he walked over to one of the two beds within the room and seated himself. While he wasn't musclier looking, he had a bit of a built to him.

Vera found what she was looking for, then walked over to him and sat in front of him. In her hands were a black, red and silver sharpies, and her cell phone. She placed the sharpies on the bed next to her, then called Hawk using Face Time.

Eluveitie went over to them, "Um…how many of those do you have? And, why do you carry them with you?"

"A lot, and I enjoy drawing with them." She smiled at him before turning to face her phone when Hawk answered.

"Gezz! You know I hate using this stupid mode!" Hawk turned the phone away from him to revile the room he was staying in at the Assassin base in Rome, Italy.

"I'm doing this for a reason, Hawk, and I don't care what your room looks like at the moment. Plus, it's kind of dark in there. How can you see in there with those sunglasses on?"

"You learn to get use to it. Though, it does appear kind of dim in here. Maybe I should take them off." Hawk took off his sunglasses before turning the phone towards him.

Vera's eyes widened in horror when she saw his face. She was aware that he had lost his left eye to the Templars years prior and was meaning to have it put back in, but she wasn't aware that his eye became 'lost' and was replaced with a cyborg one, "Holy…"

Eluveitie leaned over to have a look, then give an equally frightened look, "What…the…"

"Wow! Doesn't look so dark in here anymore." Hawk replied as he had a look around the room.

"What the heck happened to you?!" Vera questioned.

"Long story. Good news, I live up to my name. I can see in the dark and see far distances."

"Put those sunglasses back on your face."

"What? Don't like the cool, new eye?"

"I'm not a big fan of Sci-Fi movies…please, put them back on."

"Alright, if it'll make you feel better…and not ram a sword through me." Hawk put the glasses back over his eyes, "Damn! Now it's dark in here, again."

"It was already dark in there. Anyways, back to business." Vera passed the phone to Eluveitie, but had it so Hawk could see them, "Were you able to talk to that Assassin again?"

Hawk shook his head, "Afraid not. I fear that if we keep trying, we won't get much information out of him."

"So, either he's telling the truth, or lying up his ass." Vera reached for the black sharpie, then opened it before taking Torstein's arm, "Can you repeat to me what he said to you?"

"He said that he heard a voice in his head, and that he felt something tugging at his heart." Hawk said.

Vera thought for a moment, then began to draw on Torstein's lower arm, "That's all he said? Nothing else?"

"I'm afraid that's all we've got. Other than he didn't remember what happened after, and that his eyes were red when we ran into him and his friends."

"I guess that'll have to do for right now. At least he's somewhat back to normal." Vera kept drawing, then changed up the black sharpie with red one, "If he really was a rogue, then he'd be fighting against the restrains, or wouldn't speak to you at all. Most of them would rather die than talk."

"Well, this guy did talk to us, so I don't fully believe that he's rogue. Whatever happened must have controlled him somehow."

"Well…that's not quite wrong, if the item that's doing this is the one that I'm thinking of."

"I'm not taking a liking to hearing 'quite wrong'. Vera, I'm seriously questioning what was going through your ancestors' heads when they created these things. Plus, I don't get how vampires can even do these kinds of things. I thought it was just for witches."

"Welcome to my world, Hawk. I had to learn about these items on my own…and with a little help along the way. As if my family's really going to tell me." Vera rolled her eyes slightly at the mention of her family, as she never really got along with them anyways, "And, you need to realize that whatever items are found were made long before they joined the Brotherhood. They just keep ending up in the wrong hands, is all…because no one is smart enough to hide them in places where they can't be found."

She finished up with the red sharpie, then picked up the black one once more, "And, yes. Any immortal creature can do these kinds of things, if they have that kind of knowledge. I've done my fair share of hexes and spells before. I just don't do voodoo magic. Never one for those kinds of things." She put the sharpie back down, then grabbed a silver one.

"So, you can do stuff like in Harry Potter?"

"Um…sure why not."

"Man! I knew you were a vampire, but I never knew you could do those kinds of things as well! Can you make me levitate off the ground when I see you next?!"

Vera turned her head so she was looking at him, and gave him a dead eye stare, "I can't do those kinds of spells. Sorry to burst your bubble."

Hawk pouted.

Eluveitie grinned as he could just imagine the disappointment on Hawk's face at this point in time.

Vera turned her attention back to her work, then finished up. She placed the sharpie next to her, then took the phone from Eluveitie and showed the drawing on Torstein's arm to Hawk. The drawing consisted of a black medallion with five red Celtic symbols inside, but it was hard to see them as they were suppose to appear hidden. The chain on the medallion was black, but there was silver in it, to give off the illusion that it was glowing.

"If I'm correct, then this is the thing we're dealing with." She said as Eluveitie leaned over to have a look, "In a sense, it's a 'mind control' item, or, in real sense, makes the wheedler of the medallion see what they want to see. In this case, it sounds like it's in the hands of the Templars, no doubt. What's a Templar going to want to see? A world without Assassins to stop them from taking over the world. How do they deal with Assassins who can easily out gun them? Turn the Assassins on themselves. How? By picking out the rogues amongst us. Not only that, but turning the 'weak hearted' ones against us as well. And, turning creatures, like myself, who aren't apart of this war between our sides, against us, too."

"Shit! We're screwed!" Hawk said as he observed the medallion.

"Not if you let it get to you. It picks at your mind and heart and can easily turn you if you're a rogue, or will find a reason to turn you. Only true Assassins will withstand the test of this thing. But, like all of these objects that my ancestors have created, it will come back to bite you in the end. I don't expect the Templar who has it to last long with this thing."

"Who do you think has it?" Torstein asked, "I mean, is it just a normal Templar agent, or someone more powerful, like a Grand Master?"

"My guess is it's a Grand Master." Vera replied to him, "I don't think an agent would get that far before someone decided to kill him. Templars don't treat their agents as kindly as we treat our fellow brothers. They will kill their own, if necessary."

"So, what's your plan?" Hawk asked.

Vera thought for a few moments before turning the phone to face her, "Give us two days to get down there. I need to take care of some business really quick. With luck, we should be able to get a flight out of here by tomorrow night. Keep that Assassin there until we arrive. I want to know where he was when this happened. Should be able to give me a lead on where to start the search. But, be warned, if you happen to run into any more of these Assassins, try your best not to kill them. Knock them out and question them later. But, if one of them is a true rogue, don't be surprised if he decides to kill himself. Like I said before, most of them would rather die than talk."

"I'll keep that in mind. I don't have any plans to leave the base at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them try to 'break in'. We'll be on the look out."

"Right…we'll see you in about two days."

"Vera, whatever business you have, do me a favor, and be careful, alright? I don't need you almost dying on us…again."

"I will be alright. See you soon, Hawk." With that, Vera ended the call, then got up and went over to her bag.

Eluveitie and Torstein watched her before going over to her.

"Vera, what are you going to do?" Eluveitie questioned as he watched her pull out a hight neck leather vest, black pants, then go into the bathroom.

"I will explain when I get back." She said through the bathroom door. It wasn't much longer before she stepped out, then placed her costume on top of her bag. She put on her boots before strapping on her hidden blade, and hiding a few throwing knives on her belt, which was covered by the vest. She grabbed her hood and hooked it to her vest before grabbing a black satchel and throwing it over her shoulder, "But, I need you two to stay here. Keep the door closed and the window locked."

"Why can't we come with you?" Torstein questioned as he watched her make her way towards the window, "You'll have back up in case there's any of those rogues running around."

Vera turned and looked at them, "Where I'm going the two of you will get killed. I can't risk that, not with the way things are going right now. I need you two for when we hunt for that thing."

"How are we suppose to know it's you when you return, if we have to keep this place under lock and key?"

Vera turned her head slightly, so she was looking by the window, "Trust me, you'll know." She looked back at them, "Give me until midnight, though I don't believe I'll be needing that long."

"Be careful." Torstein said before walking into the bathroom, so he could remove the drawing that was on his arm, or try to, at least.

Eluveitie walked up to her, then removed the Evenstar, which had been tucked into his costume, from his neck and placed it around hers, "If you're not here by midnight, then we'll come looking for you. That is an order."

Vera grinned slightly, "I don't need that long. I already know what I'm looking for, so it'll make the trip quicker." She leaned up, then kissed him on the cheek. With that, she turned to the sliding glass door and opened it. She stepped out onto the balcony, then felt the wall next to her. With a nod of her head, she gripped it and began to scale down.

Eluveitie stepped out and watched her ascend from the fifth floor of the hotel to the ground below. Once he saw that she was safely hidden in the shadows of a nearby tree, he stepped back inside and locked the sliding glass door behind him.

Vera tucked the Evenstar into her vest before raising her hood. She observed her surroundings before making her way into the town.