After a failed attempt to ward off Templar attacks on their den, Ezio and Yusuf find themselves locked up. As captives of their enemies, all they can do is await their fate. They can't escape, but an Assassin will never surrender. They will try to fight back as long as they can, but who's to say it won't be fun in the process? NOT Yusuf x Ezio.
Ubisoft owns all (except Skillet, who own Never Surrender, which was slightly influential). And the first chapter name is obviously a play-on-words - and the 'mocking herd' is the Templars, who are showing contempt towards Yusuf and Ezio. (Harper Lee owns To Kill a Mockingbird.)
Chapter 1: To Kill a Mocking Herd
When Ezio awoke he felt eyes on him. Looking up, he saw a face in the semi-darkness. The eyes were a steely blue-green, and a thin scar crossed the left cheek.
Moving backwards, Ezio felt his back hit metal bars. A cage wall. Yusuf sighed, running a hand through his unruly dark hair; his colourful headwrap was gone, along with the teal strip.
"Good to see you are all right, Mentor," he murmured, giving a wry smile, but his voice was hard and dull. There was no trace of the once humorous and optimistic Assassin. His expression was clouded and defeated, with no trace of the smile he had once worn. Ezio ran a hand down his face, feeling the small ridge of the scar on his lip. He had come so far, yet now he was never going to continue that journey. Never see his family and Leonardo again.
The thought of his clever friend made Ezio's mouth twist into a bitter smile, which soon slipped away. No, the last thing he would see would be Templars smirking with triumph, then the coarse darkness of a sack over his head, then the final emptiness as he took his last breath. He would probably die on the end of a rope like a fish snared on a hook.
"Merda!" he swore angrily. The Seljuk Assassin shrugged, before turning to face the Templar guarding their cell.
"Piç!" he taunted half-heartedly, hoping against hope that the man would do something - anything - that would give them a chance to escape. Instead, the man laughed and replied in Greek. He didn't seemed fazed at all that his captive had called him a bastard. Most got riled up at the mockery, but he knew they had lost. No point in giving them a chance to escape.
"Ha, παρομοίως, σκύλος!" he snorted. Yusuf clenched his fists at this brushoff.
"Same to you, dog?" Ezio heard him mutter, repeating the smirking Templar's words. "I'll show you."
Then he remembered that he'd been stripped of all items potentially dangerous.
"I can't believe they've taken my headwrap. I mean, what's so bad about it?" Yusuf growled to himself. Ezio overheard, and shrugged, as his friend had done a minute ago.
"You could use it as a noose?" he suggested. Yusuf looked at him as he had forgotten his Mentor was there. He then replied in a flat voice.
"If we are destined for one, what would be the point in an early start?"
"At least there would be no Templar crowds watching us as we hung, helpless as children," Ezio answered drily. Yusuf gave a choked, sarcastic laugh.
"A small benefit. They would also call us cowards if they found us," he told Ezio, and the Mentor agreed silently. Yusuf returned to where he had been previously standing, hands clenching the bars tightly until his knuckles whitened. They could see the gallows upon which they would breath their last, jeered at and ridiculed by their lifelong enemies. The Templars.
Ezio gave a derisive snort at the thought. They thought they had won, but the two Assassins would fight to the death ... whether it be their own or the massacre of the many men who stood in their way. Ezio and Yusuf would not stand by, meek as kittens, as a genocide of Assassins took place.
They would not fall weakly to the ropes. They would struggle, no matter how fruitless, for they never knew if they would get a split second opportunity to escape. If they did they would take it.
The heavy clomping of footsteps and loud, boastful voices pricked Ezio's ears. He looked up to see a group of Templars, a small swarm of courtesans surrounding them. Yusuf's lip curled sardonically. Ezio had never seen his friend pull such a cynical expression, and - unsurprisingly - it didn't suit him.
"At the smallest of triumphs, you indulge in debauchery," he said coldly to the Templars. One stepped forwards, flanked by two cooing brunettes and a single sultry blonde. A smile played over the man's lips, wrinkling a scar running past his upper lip. It made an alarmingly twisted furrow across the man's face that reminded Ezio of Leandros. It seemed so long ago now. And whereas his expression darkened, Yusuf almost grinned. Almost. But not quite.
The man caught the flash of contempt and his hand lashed out through the bars, catching a handful of Yusuf's dark hair. Ezio rose swiftly onto his feet, readying himself to come to the Seljuk Assassin's aid if the need arose. But first he needed to judge the situation before rushing in headlong, as he had often done brashly in his younger years.
"Do not push your luck, dog," the Templar hissed. Yusuf gave a suppressed grunt as the man twisted his hand tighter. A few courtesans giggled openly, their sounds of amusement all but drowned out by the raucous laughter and mockery of the Templars they were currently accompanying.
Eventually, the Templar let Yusuf go, but not before a redheaded courtesan was allowed to reach in and traced the scar of the Assassin's cheek, almost gently. Yusuf watched her warily.
"I bet that hurt," she purred in a richly accented voice. Before she slapped him with stinging force.
Ezio winced as the sound resounded and the Templars gave a roar of approval; he watched with disgust as the woman sashayed back to her Templar with a smirk.
A Templar captain pushed through the crowd, unlocking the door. He looked at a few of the others, who drew their weapons expectantly. Next he looked at Ezio.
"Usually, I'd give my prisoner the option to come quietly," he chuckled in a gravelly voice, "but since you are Assassin, you do not get the kinder treatment."
He jerked his head in Ezio's direction and four Templar guards advanced, each holding a cruel-looking saber.
"Time to die, old man," one sneered. Ezio watched them, unmoving, before responding to the one who had spoken.
"You seem to think of yourself very highly," he said coolly. "Yet you underestimate me."
Then the 'old man' simply kicked the Templar guard in the stomach, before twisting him backwards and breaking his neck with an audible crack. The second he dispatched by clapping his hands over the man's ears, before flipping him onto his back and crushing his face in with a hard stomp. The third ran at Ezio with a cry, only to find his left eye suddenly blinded. His scream became a strangled gurgle as Ezio calmly slammed a fist into his throat. He went down choking, unable to breath. He soon stopped kicking.
The fourth nearly got his blade into the preoccupied Mentor's unprotected side, but as Ezio dodged he saw Yusuf grab a fallen Templar's saber and throw it to him.
"Ezio, catch!" he called. Momentarily distracted, the remaining Templar looked round. This was all Ezio needed.
With force he rammed the blade straight into the man's face, before spinning it so hard the Templar's head spun backwards, blood spraying from the wound. Ezio casually removed the saber, readying himself for the next wave. Yusuf grinned, genuinely this time. He was almost shouldered aside as all the courtesans ran screaming from the carnage.
"Now," he shouted over the commotion, "this is fun!"
Ezio couldn't help smiling back as he parried a roaring enemy's blow, before punching the man in the chin. Caught off guard, the man reeled backwards. Impaling himself on his allies' blades. He looked down, almost surprised before looking back at Ezio. He slumped to the floor, blood pooling around his body.
A sudden sharp pain shot through Ezio's arm, and he gave a grunt, involuntarily dropping his weapon; glistening red dripped from a small and narrow but deep gash that passed over the inside of his wrist. Ezio grimaced as he staunched the unrelenting flow by pressing it firmly against his Assassin gear. The stinging reduced to a dull throb, which made his hand clench automatically. He gritted his teeth and picked up the bloodied saber with his left hand, determined to keep fighting.
Yusuf glanced at his Mentor and was alarmed to see Ezio's slashed wrist, which was smearing his clothes with fresh blood. He fought his way over to Ezio, and wiped his brow. He motioned towards Ezio's injury.
"You need immediate medical attention. It may have hit the artery, and that could be very serious," he told Ezio sharply, before stopping to counterattack a wild slice. After killing the offending Templar he turned back to Ezio, readily holding a strip of material he had torn from the hemline of his tan Assassin getup. Ezio took it with a short word of thanks.
"Grazie," he panted, binding his lacerated wrist tightly. Trying to ignore the faint sight of dark red already soaking through the makeshift bandages, Ezio turned his attention back to the fray.
Yusuf was surrounded by a few bodies, and Ezio froze as he saw a Templar approaching the Seljuk Assassin's unguarded back. He was holding a newly sharpened dagger in his fist. He wouldn't get there in time, but began sprinting anyway. As he ran, Ezio shouted a warning.
"Yusuf! Behind you!" he managed to cry, before his way was blocked by a pair of big Templars. His way was obscured, along with his vision. Even now Yusuf could be stabbed mercilessly, and he was unable to help.
Ezio smashed his foot into one Lana's shins, before taking his halberd and driving it hard through its owner, impaling both men on the single spearhead, before withdrawing it. He pushed past with his new weapon, and saw the Templar and Yusuf locked in a fierce struggle. But it was going badly: the enemy had the upper hand, and had straddled the Seljuk Assassin's midriff. Yusuf was straining to stop the man's hand, which was slowly pushing the blade closer. Closer. Closer. It was now nicking the skin, drawing blood, nearly puncturing-
With a roar of exertion, Ezio plunged the bloodied halberd through the side of the man's neck. The limp body rolled off, carried by the momentum of the furious stab. Yusuf gratefully thanked Ezio, standing and rubbing his throat. He looked with concern at Ezio wrist, which was still soaking through.
"We must hurry," he said, stepping quickly around the bodies of the Templars. "They will soon arrive with reinforcements, but you need treatment."
Ezio didn't argue with the Seljuk Assassin. He simply followed Yusuf through the bodies of their enemies, relieved it was all over. Not yet. But for now.