Chapter 1

The Lost Child

Date : 13/05/1870

Time : 11;36 pm

Location : London

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark

the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Plato

The moon was obscured by dark clouds and the streets of London were now obscured by the shadows that coated the city beyond the faint orange glimmer of the gas lamps. This world renowned city had been the stage upon which Templars and Assassins had fought over for centuries. for the uninitiated the Assassins were a collection of well-trained warriors and wise mentors fighting in every shadow across the world for peace and liberty, with blades and bullets. They are often feared and misunderstood but what we do know is they are an influence for hope, "nothing is true, everything is permitted." Templars have a rather contradictory attitude using political power and stolen technology to turn the minds of the world, molding our society under our noses, spreading slavery and prejudice behind our backs. A truly insidious and powerful foe, they have even been known to tamper with the pages of history creating and destroying whole centuries we in the present believe to be true. Hated and feared but in this part of history they all but ruled England, we just didn't know it.

Tonight marked their greatest triumph for within the streets of London the silence was broken by the sound horses' hooves and the heavy daunting footsteps of what could be mistaken for ordinary police officers but were in fact servants of the Templars, one of the Templar grand Masters had formed this secret police force to do the things ordinary enforcers could not be trusted with. The force was now converging on their hideout. The masters of disguise had made their home in a functioning and rather convincing funeral parlour now surrounded by officers pointing guns and setting perimeter.

Smash! The officers cracked to door open and pulled out the defenceless owner, not a true assassin but an ally they had relied on. The guard threw the man to the cold brick path, onlookers to this situation turned away they knew better than to get involve with this. The quivering owner looked up to see a tall slender man wearing a dark suit and jet black overcoat, fine gloves hid his hands, his hair was a cold blonde and azure eyes which glistened slightly as if relishing in the man's fears, the enemy the secret ruler of London.

Near frozen with fear the owner dared utter "Lu… Luka…"

"Speak up." he said in a cold calm voice "Say my name."

"Lukas Nightingale."

Lukas did not reply but strode into the parlour and looked around at the dusty cobweb riddled room, the officers were not far behind dragging the defenceless owner. Lukas then turned back at the poor struggling man. "What is your name?" He said nothing but looked down. "Look at me. LOOK AT ME!" The owner looked up trying to hold himself back. "What is you name."

"Mitchel, Mitchel Crowdour."

Lukas turned his back on him "Mitchel Crowdour. Mitchel you are under arrest. I will give you two options. If you help me, betray your falling 'Assassins' and lead me to their lair I will spare you of all your crime, We will of course keep a more watchful eye on you actions but you can consider yourself a free man."

"And if I don't."

A grin smeared Lukas's face "Need I say. Or did they not tell you what happens to them?" Mitchel remained silent. "They didn't did they. My oh my Mitchel how can you trust these men you so blindly associate yourself with." Lukas peered at the desk searching through the scattered papers "Let me put it this way, death may seem a great relief when it comes to it, under my rule criminals are shown no pity. I lock them away in the dark with no food no water and no light, I often come to them to listen. Oh the things they say. You see when there is no hope people bare their soul and forget all false personalities and they beg, I hear prisoner saying they will do anything, kill, serve, betray all they hold dear." The guard threw Mitchel to the floor. "Now mister Crowdour if you hold to your honour tighter than you clutch your lust to see tomorrow remain silent. If not then tell me how to find the Assassins!"

He could not speak for a moment, the thought of treachery blocked his throat. But lesser fears had destroyed stronger men and he could not subject himself to the hell Lukas had described "Open the black coffin." Lukas smiled at him. An officer mover towards and black coffin in the corner he opened the lid to find no obvious leads to the Assassins "The blue stone at the top." muttered Mitchel. The officer saw the stone and pressed it. There was a sudden creaking and the bookcase aside the coffin slid upon its axis revealing a passageway.

There was an expression of glee on Lukas's face and he reached into his right pocket "Thank you Mr Crowdour for your cooperation." As he turned to show his revolver Mitchell uttered something close to 'stop' but the crack of the bullet silenced the plea.

The secret police stormed the dungeon, the path had lead into the sewers a foul place but secret and undisturbed, just what Assassin's needed. As the secret police force was sent running with guns firing and swords slashing Lukas strode calmly and quietly through the dank halls and wandered into their lair as if the place belonged to him. He glanced across their hall a fire lit stone tomb (not homely), weapons and supplies were piled up against walls, puddles of water coated most of the floor and not but a rotting unorganized desks and decaying files organised the group.

"Disappointing Arthur. Very disappointing." Lukas uttered to himself looking at the mess. Soon the hall was littered with the bodies of Templar officers and Assassin's. But in the darker tunnels there was still life, as the lights and barks of gunfire. Lukas remained in the main hall looking into the chaos. Suddenly out of the gloom arrived the Chief of the secret police.

"Sir we've found him."

"And?"

"He's ordered surrendered."

Lukas looked into the dark tunnel "How many are left."

"Five including him."

Puzzled Lukas strode into the tunnels, Arthur was one of the most feared and notorious Assassin's in London, why would he surrender so easily? The answers drew nearer as a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. The room that he walked into was not something he was anticipating. Lukas was expecting to find such a vicious man in well-lit and inviting quarters or perhaps an armoury where he had ran to for his final stand. What he ran into seemed to be a medical center, beds layout in reasonably neat lines some had bodies in them., various tools and equipment were poorly stacked on tables, blood stains coated nearly every bed and wall. Three Assassins stood disobediently on guard with hidden blades drawn. Behind them two figures huddled together.

"Kill the guardians." Lukas ordered. The Assassins attempted a charge but too fast the bullets pierced their armor. "Mr Arthur James Tyler, at last we meet. And this other trembling wreck must be your wife." Lukas rolled his arm down her trembling face. "Oh don't be nervous." He then reached out and grabbed her hair, pulling her towards him and held his pistol to her head "What are you hiding down here. You wouldn't face me like a true assassin would, so you must be protecting something." Arthur did not speak "Is it her?" he shook his head and the gun fired.

Arthur razed up as his lifeless lover hit the floor "Why did you need to kill her."

"She was no longer of any use beyond proving to you that I don't bluff." he them pointed the gun at Arthur "We will find whatever is down here with you alive or not. So here's what I will suggest, tell me what and where it is and I won't spare you. Refuse and I will let you watch as I deconstruct it and use it to my own ends."

"NO!" Arthur now crying shouted. "Something that precious does not belong in the hands of people like you!" Lukas prepared to fire his gun but suddenly an officer came into the room in a hurry "Master Lukas."

Lukas gritted his teeth at this inappropriate interruption "What is it." he hissed.

" There's something behind this wardrobe. It's part of the structure. I think it's a door."

Lukas smiled "Open it."

The police enforces started hacking away at the wardrobe, Lukas still holding the gun to Arthur's head

"Pull the Red and Purple Book" Arthur had snapped and gave in.

"Thank you." Said Lukas

The officers went into the room finding a nursery, there were children's toys and books scattering the floor and in a cot in the corner of the room wrapped in blankets was the thing most precious to Arthur.

"Sir. It's a baby."

"Bring it to me." The officer handed him over to Lukas who held the child in one arm still pointing the gun at Arthur. He then proceeded to remove the blanket covering the baby's face to discover it wasn't a normal child. The baby had skin as white as the snow and eyes were only a faint blue Lukas was not pleased with the child as it did not stick to his ideal image.

"Guards leave us." He looked again at the child "What is this creature."

"She is my daughter! Not a creature." Said Arthur in fury.

"Really. This thing is pale. Ghostly. I am not so sure such a freakish being could be considered human."

"Such discrimination. I'm not sure that is human. No man is inherently cruel."

Lukas was now fed-up with the conversation and had decided that his opponent deserved a more dreadful punishment than a gunshot from his enemy and conjured up a truly despicable torture. Lukas emptied his pistol of all but one shot and threw the gun to Arthur

"What are you doing!"

Lukas said nothing her then proceed to walk back to the other side of the room away from Arthur and held the now crying baby upside down just over his head "Decide what to do Mr Taylor. Twenty seconds." The final moments of a man's life should not be this harsh but Lukas knew nether mercy or pity and Arthur knew what he meant. He wanted Arthur to ether shoot himself and let his arch nemesis escape with his child or kill Lukas and drop his child and on the concrete floor. Shooting his ultimate enemy meant losing his child as the fall would easily kill her making him responsible as well.

"Ten seconds!" Arthur readied the shot and aimed for Lukas knowing he should sacrifice to do what must be done but he could not pull the trigger. "FIVE! FOUR! THREE!

Arthur could take it no more he held the gun to his own head and uttered only "Goodbye."

Lukas placed the baby on the nearest bed and walked over to his valiant foe his face was now covered in blood. Lukas closed Arthurs still open eyes "May you find the peace in the next world so scarce in this world". He then picked up his pistol and shook it once to rid it of some of the blood, His mind then turned to the child he slowly walked over to the crying infant "Now what to do with you." He would normally honor his word to Arthur and use the child to his own ends but this child was not normal and a pail albino child had no place in his ideology, he loaded his gun and prepared to fire "Good bye deviant." But as the defenceless child cried something happened. Maybe the baby had awoken another side to Lukas or a spell struck his heart. No matter how much he wanted to kill the little deviant, his soul could not harbour the guilt of this child's destruction. And so he made the decision to keep the child and raise it as his own. He placed his pistol in his holster and picked up the baby and whilst holding her in his arms he spoke softly and looked at her father "I think I'll call you Stella, Stella Nightingale. You are going to be a very special child. I will hold my word to your deceased parents to deconstruct you and use you to my own ends. I will make you something your father would most surely be very proud of. Well what does it matter you won't even know it."

Hello Reader

Well that was my first attempt at a fanfiction. Thank you so much for reading this.
For those wanting to review this story please tell me if you think the T rating is ok. I've put it at T for now but I'm not sure. It may become M rated later when I make final decisions on the contents of later chapters.

Hope you enjoyed the story. Have a good day.

Disclaimer : I do not own the franchise Assassin's creed, I do own the OC's in this story