Hello :)

This fanfiction is actually another version of my first fanfiction "Freedom". Written in Connor´s POV this time. It is based on a project on the German fanfiction site, called "I don´t want you". For this project you got 30 sentences, which had to be included in each chapter of a whole story or in oneshots. It didn´t matter if you expressed them in direct speech, thoughts or if you just paraphrased them. I took this project as an opportunity to rewrite "Freedom", also because I think that this whole "I don´t want you" suits perfectly to Connor. ;P It was a bit difficult to write in his POV, especially when it came to love, etc. So I´m sorry, if you should think that he´s OOC.

Maybe it´s needless to say that this fanfiction is originally written in German and I do the translation on my own. So I´m sorry again, if there are any mistakes. Thank you MohawkWoman by the way, for reassuring me that it could be interesting to "reread" "Freedom". ^^


1.

I do not want to ask you

January, 1783

The ice cold wind was blowing the snowflakes forward. A white veil had already covered the whole landscape, laying in complete darkness. The only light came from a lantern which was waving back and forth with every step of its bearer. He had a close eye on everything. Looking into every corner of his environment. Nevertheless he neither noticed that his comrade hadn´t crossed his way for a very long time already, nor the shadow high up in one of the trees, staring down at him. It would have been easy for the shadow to kill the careless guard. He just had to jump down and thrust his blade into the man´s nape. But he, Connor, restrained himself.
The reason was her. A young woman who had just appeared by an open window and kept staying there despite the coldness and seemed to watch the guard, too. If she saw Connor, she would certainly begin to scream. Jarvis, the templar he was following for days now and from whom he hoped that he could get information he needed, would be alarmed and he would certainly gather all his guards around him, who still had to be somewhere.

Connor was actually surprised that he had only seen these two men until now. He had already killed one of them. There was only the man underneath him left, but the woman was still standing by the window.
Go at last, Connor thought and shortly loosened a hand from the branch he was sitting at. The cold was already nagging through his thin gloves and he didn´t need numb fingers, if he had to climb again. The guard came closer again, the next chance to kill him, but Connor was still staring at the young woman. But then she finally turned away and disappeared in the shadows of the room behind her. Connor didn´t even wait until she returned. He jumped off the branch and while he landed on the man´s back, he thrust his hidden blade into his nape. The man wasn´t able to make a sound anymore. He was dead in an instant. Slowly Connor stood up and looked shortly to the window. Nobody was to be seen. The assassin grabbed the dead man´s arm and pulled him to the edge of the courtyard, where he laid him into the shadow of the stable. He took a handful of snow and while he sneaked to the main building, he washed the blood off his hands. Even after all these years and all these people who had found their death through his blade, Connor couldn´t and didn´t want to get used to this feeling on them. Not because of regret or disgust, but because he just didn´t want to literally carry certain deaths longer with him than it was necessary. He didn´t know the names of his last two victims, but to see that they were beating defenceless men, women and even children, just to make them do what they were told, was reason enough for him that they deserved death. Now they were dead and nothing of interest for Connor anymore. He had to look forward. To his actual target.

The assassin stopped in front of the house´s veranda. He had already checked it in daylight and had tried to see where he could get inside. All of the doors and windows were closed and probably locked. He could have cracked one of the doors but he wanted to prevent that he made some unpleasant meetings on his way through the house. Certainly Jarvis was somewhere on the upper floor because nowhere was light, which told him that the house´s occupants were sleeping and after everything he had seen in the last few days, only Jarvis' men, the slaves, the templar himself and the young woman, he had just seen by the window, were living here. He hoped to find Jarvis quickly without drawing the other´s attention. Connor shortly stretched his arms, cracked his knuckles and finally ran towards the house´s wall with wide steps. With precision he grabbed the upper frame of a window and used the drive of his run-up to climb up the wall just to support his feet on the lower frame, leap up and skilfully climb to the canopy of the veranda. There he stayed for a moment and let his gaze roam over the windows above him. He had to get inside somewhere and he tried to find a window that could be cracked easily and silently. But he found something better. An open window, but he quickly remembered why it was open. It was the window behind which he had seen the young woman. She could still be inside the room behind it, but he had to use this chance.

Determined Connor climbed to the window, but before he climbed through it, he glanced into the room. It was dark, but in this moment the moon appeared behind the clouds and shrouded it in its faint light. It was a bedroom. The broad bed was untouched, except of the fact that the blanket was missing. Connor´s gaze slid to the fireplace where the ashes were just blazing faintly and in the armchair in front of it, he saw a slumped figure. It was the woman. She was wrapped in the blanket and seemed to be sleeping.
Carefully, to not make a sound, Connor pushed the window further up with one hand and finally heaved himself through it. He glanced to the woman shortly, but it seemed like she was still asleep. Entirely silently the assassin stepped to the window, leaned against the wall and peeked outside. Now that the moon was illuminating the courtyard, he wanted to see if he had missed a guard. But until now everything was silent and Connor just wanted to turn to the room again, as he heard a rustling coming from the armchair behind him. It sounded as if the woman was sitting up and only one glance was enough for Connor to see that she really did.

Obviously she had wanted to reach out for the poker next to the fireplace, but Connor was already beside her. He grabbed her shoulder with one hand, pushed her back into the armchair and held the hidden blade against her throat. Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent, that was what the creed had taught him, but he surely didn´t intend to kill her. He had to prevent her from screaming and if he had to threaten her to do so, he had no other choice for now. But she didn´t utter a sound. He just heard her breath quicken up and in the faint moonlight he could see the shine of her wide open eyes. She was afraid and he had the feeling that she wouldn´t do anything that could make him harm her. The hidden blade slid back into the bracer with a quiet scraping and Connor saw how the woman instantly touched her neck.
"I will not harm you", the assassin said calmly, but her voice was a terrified croaking when she reacted.
"What...what do you want here? You have no right to be here!"
It was strange how some people insisted on their actual safety of their home when it had been disturbed already. Of course Connor had no right to be here. But it wasn´t to her advantage when she pointed it out to him. He was standing in front of her, armed and he could still kill her, if he had this intention. Nothing could stop him, not even this hidden reproach and although he didn´t want to kill her, he wouldn´t go. Not even in face of her growing panic.

He wished he had chosen another way than the window to her room, because until now she was holding him up and he didn´t know how to solve this situation without endangering his plan.
I do not want to ask you, he thought grimly as he looked into these fearful eyes. The longer he stayed here, the bigger the chance was that someone detected him or that she started to scream. Connor took a step back from her and raised both hands, to show her that he wasn´t carrying any other weapons. He hoped that it would calm her and that she didn´t start to scream.
"I will not harm you. I just want to know where they are", he said but it didn´t seem like his words were reassuring her. She appeared rather confused.
"Where who is?"
"Robert Faulkner, David Walston and a man called Norris. I know that they were brought here, but I cannot find them. So, where are they?"

With every spoken word he became more and more serious because it felt like he was reminding himself of the importance of his plan. By now it was a week ago since his three friends had disappeared and until now he hadn´t been able to find a trace to them. At least until he had learned that they had been brought here. To Richard Jarvis, a slave trader. But Connor had already searched the property tonight and it looked like the information had been wrong or Jarvis had brought Faulkner, Big Dave and Norris away already. He had to find it out now, but he didn´t have the feeling that the woman was going to be a help.
"I...don´t know", she stammered and Connor was willing to believe her. She was still afraid and if she wasn´t an excellent actress, it was unlikely that she was lying.
"But the man, you are living with knows it. He engineered it, did he not?", the assassin asked.
"Yes, but...he´s not here. He´s in Boston. He´s not going to come back before tomorrow."
Jarvis wasn´t here? How could he not notice it? He must have set off when Connor had shortly left his usual lookout. The assassin could have reprimanded himself for it. He was here for nothing. Or maybe not?

Thoughtfully he looked at the woman who was still staring at him, as if she feared for her life. Certainly she did. If she was so afraid of him, she could be an unexpected help for him.
"Good, then he will explain everything to me tomorrow and you will help me make him doing so."
Connor stepped past her to the window and closed it. "Do not think, you could jump out. You would break all your bones."
He doubted that she would be so stupid, but he had to make sure that she wouldn´t try to escape. If Jarvis wasn´t here, she was probably Connor´s only possibility to get close to the templar. If she was fearing for her life, Jarvis would do the same and would tell Connor what he wanted to know to safe her. Her life against the lives of his friends. The assassin stepped to the door, pulled the key out of the keyhole and opened the door a bit. Shortly he glanced into the hallway and listened if someone was close. He still couldn´t be certain that there were no guards nearby. Slowly he turned around to the woman and said entirely calmly and expressionlessly:
"To scream would not help you either. No one is here who could come to your help. I propose you stay quiet and everything will be over tomorrow. Nothing will happen to you."
Connor hoped that she was going to believe his words and really stay quiet. He had to search the house for other guards, but he didn´t need a hysterical woman who could draw somebody´s attention to him.

Connor left the room, closed the door behind him and turned the key in the lock. He heard her steps, hurrying to the door, but he had already turned away when she hit against the closed door and angrily called after him. Obviously she had forgotten her fear for now, but Connor didn´t care. He was already thinking about the new way he had to go. Everything had developed different than he had expected it. He had wanted to face Jarvis directly, without further detours. He had never planned to involve the woman somehow, because she had nothing to do with Jarvis' businesses. He had never wanted to concern himself with her and so he had never wanted to ask her for his friends, because in the end she could cause more problems than he needed. But because of her he had learned that Jarvis wasn´t here and because of her he was going to learn where is friends were and would bring them back home soon.