AN: I'm just testing the waters with this, most of the characters I do own. I do not own any characters that you may come across that are seen in the games, those characters belong strictly to Ubisoft and Bathesda respectively.
Prologue
Kestrel laid on her bedroom floor, the nice warm glow of the morning sun on her back, her legs crossed and swinging in the air slowly. She was reading one of her favorite books. It was early morning, her parents had not gotten up yet.
"'Captain Jackie Locke' he purred-"
A flicker of movement past her window. She glanced back at it, having not seen anything she turned back to her book.
"'William Todd Smith, how surprising' she said simply-"
Something outside interrupted her, she got up and peered out the window.
'Nothing,' she thought.
"Probably just a bird…" she mumbled to herself, pulling her hair over her shoulder. She made to go back to her book, but something just didn't feel right. It felt as if everything suddenly had eyes. She listened, the usual song birds weren't singing their morning tune. It was too quiet. She closed her book and tossed it onto her bed, and stood listening.
She heard them before she saw them six black SUV's, unmarked with tinted windows came speeding up her neighborhood road. They came screaming to a halt right in front of the house.
CRASH!
Just as she jumped up to run to her parents room, a small black ball came through her window. It rolled to a stop, the top turned and a white gas streamed from between the two hemispheres, began to fill her room. She covered her face with the neck of her shirt, coughing, and shot a quick glance out the now broken window, there were people getting out of the SUV's in groups of five, all dressed in black tactical gear with the letters 'A.T.U.' in bold white on their backs complete with AR-15's. They were running towards the house, spreading out. She stumbled towards her door, coughing. Kestrel saw her father come running up the hall, he was wearing strange hooded robes of a peculiar fashion, and was fashioning something to his forearm but she couldn't see it very well because of all the smoke. When Kestrel reached the door, she could tell that they had thrown the smoke bombs through all the windows. Her mother came running up to her from her room, she was wearing something similar to Kes's father.
"Are you okay?!" she asked urgently. Kestrel nodded, which sent her into another coughing fit. Her mother ran in the same direction as her father. In which, Kes could hear the sounds of a struggle.
She took off after her parents. Skidding to a halt when she reached the living room, she saw them fighting a group of about sixteen. She stood awestruck as her father took out a particularly large one. Some of them had their uniforms cut and there was blood spattered all over the carpet. Both of them moved with such grace and ferocity, and each of them seemed to be wielding a knife, but one second it'd be there the next it would either vanish into the armor of one of the A.T.U., or into what seemed like thin air. It all looked like one big deadly dance, with the tactical team's guns rendered useless because of the close combat.
Suddenly, someone grabbed Kestrel from behind, she felt the cold metal of a gun pressed to the side of her neck. She blinked and swallowed hard, rooted to the spot, the gas was finally clearing up. She noted the two men holding her hostage, one was holding her with his gun jammed into her neck. Ever so rudely. He had a strange symbol on his uniform, it looked like a triangle that had been sliced diagonally at all the corners, with the pieces sliding in on each other. But she couldn't place where she'd seen it.
The other, was wearing a very expensive looking suit. He cleared his throat, adjusting the cufflinks on his wrist, which bore the same symbol.
"Ahem!" He said a bit louder over the grunts and cries, Kes's mother heard him, and her opponent took advantage of the glance she stole in his direction and kicked her legs out from underneath her. Then another kicked her in the stomach knocking the wind out of her.
"MOM!" Kes screamed, and made to go to her but was jerked back and rewarded with the gun pressed almost painfully, into her neck.
Her mother's hands were zip-cuffed behind her, and she was dragged into a kneeling position, with three of the A.T.U. guarding her, the rest went to join in fighting her father. Two of them fell dead after a quick jab towards their heads from him and his disappearing knife. But there were too many of them, and with no room to move, they quickly started to overwhelm him. One was able to steal a punch to his left side, another went for a taser but missed and ended up tazing a fellow teammate. Finally, two of them were able to grab his arms and with one swift move another punched him in the stomach with their whole weight. Her father's knees were kicked out from behind, and he was dragged over to her mother and forced to kneel next to her. One of the guards walked behind them and pulled their hoods off, those still breathing had their rifles pointed at them. Panting, Kes's father looked up as the suited man approached him, recognition blooming on his face.
"Wayne Rykov." He grunted, glaring at him.
"You're a hard man to find Mr. Beckett." He drawled, a look of triumph of his smug face "And such a lovely wife you have Damien, nice to see you again Thea…" he said, squatting down to look her in the face, she glared hard at him.
"How long has it been now?" He asked ignoring him. Straightening up, he ran a hand through his slick black hair, it looked as if he got a little liberal with the hair gel when he was slicking it back. He had a pointed face with a chiseled jaw. He paced back and forth in front of them mockingly. He turned his back to them and looked Kestrel in the face.
"How old are you dear?" Rykov purred almost lovingly, he was enjoying this victory a bit too much. Kes looked past him and made eye contact with her father, anger crossing his features. She winced as the gun was pressed even harder into her neck, when she tried to back away from Rykov.
"Get away from her, this is between you and me, she has no part in it." said Damien softly, the danger in his voice could kill.
'Part of what?' Kes thought confused, she was still trying to figure out why her parents were wearing strange robes, and who these men were.
Thea gasped as one of the A.T.U. hit him on the shoulder with the butt of his rifle, there was a crack as his collarbone snapped from the force of it. He grunted with pain and leaned forward slightly to move away from his assailant.
"Ah, but she does." Said Rykov, looking into Kestrel's eyes. Her fear kept her mouth shut. "No matter, I'd wager it's been about eleven years since I've seen the two of you." He spun on his heel to look at Kes's parents again.
'This isn't exactly how I imagined getting my letter to Hogwarts.' Kes thought, she hated herself for trying to lighten the mood. Maybe this was all just a big joke? Her birthday was only yesterday, and they hadn't had a chance to celebrate yet, and her parents knew she liked a good adventure. Kestrel prayed she was right.
"You can imagine my excitement when one of my informants told me you'd been seen here." he said smiling. "losing your touch? Then again, we were bound to find you eventually." He looked at his watch.
"Oh my, boys would you look at the time!" He said, addressing his men. "We got what we came for…" he said with a meaningful look in Kestrel's direction.
"No." breathed Thea. That was all Kestrel needed to understand this was real, the fear in her mother's eyes was not a joke.
"Let's clean up and move out." He said looking back to her parents. Kestrel looked her parents in their eyes, she saw her own feelings reflected there. Rykov gave a half smile, turned and walked down the hall towards the door, the man who held her turned to follow grabbing her by the arm as he did so. Kes didn't dare fight them with the gun still pointed at her, she whimpered to herself. The other A.T.U. closed in around her parents.
Kestrel heard something that sounded like a sword being drawn from its sheath. She planted her feet, jerking the agents, looking back. Her parents were on their feet, the zip ties falling to the floor, having being sliced off by their disappearing blades. Rykov walked briskly to the door, trying not to let his fear show. Kes's parents took advantage of the shocked team, and cut down five of them before they realized what just happened. Damien blocked a blow from the butt of a gun with his blade, which slid the length of it, before quickly spinning and sinking it into the side of the man's neck. As the guard fell, Damien pulled his gun from his dead corpse and swung it about his head by the barrel cracking the butt of it against the next one's head. Some of the A.T.U. were firing off their guns toward the fight but kept missing.
Thea stabbed one of the guards in the eye, he fell dead. Two more replaced him, which both grabbed her arms, a third trained his gun over at her chest and fired. She fell dead. Mortally wounded as the round pierced her heart.
"MOM!-"
"THEA!-"
Damien and Kestrel had screamed at the same time. Damien fought harder than ever. Kes wrenched free and ran towards her mother, but the guard who was holding her, slam tackled her from behind. Pulling her arms behind her and zip cuffing them. He kept her pinned there with his knee, aiming his gun at Damien. He fired, hitting him in the leg. Damien cried out and fell to one knee, a hand on the wound, blood seeping through his fingers. He tried to fend off more attacks but was quickly overwhelmed. The fight ceased as he was dragged forward by two guards. The guard pinning Kes got up as two others dragged her towards her father, where they held her firmly. The guard that had pinned her then pulled out a military grade knife while walking towards her father, who was propped up between the two holding him.
"No, please!" She cried, tears streaming down her face, knowing his intentions.
"Kestrel, don't look. I don't want you to see this." Her father groaned with pain watching him approach, he tried to wrench free but the two A.T.U. held him fast. He stopped in front of Damien, meeting his gaze. Kes didn't listen, she couldn't take her eyes off her father. Silently pleading that this was just a bad dream.
"Kes look away!" Just as the guard plunged the knife into her father's heart without a second thought.
"NOOOOO!" Kestrel screamed. He cried out as the guard twisted it slowly. When the guard finally let go the other two did the same, Damien dropped to his knees he glanced down at the knife that was buried hilt deep in his chest. Then locked eyes with Kestrel, his love, fear, sorrow, and failure reflected in them. He fell gracefully to his side and didn't take another breath.
Rage filled Kestrel, angry tears streamed down her face. She screamed as the two guards holding her dragged her towards the hall, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. They started marching her to the front door. She pushed against them not wanting to leave her parent's bodies. Finally, one of them knocked her over the head with the butt of his rifle, she blacked out.
She finally came to halfway down the driveway. The one A.T.U. that was carrying her princess style, was flanked by two more carrying their guns at the ready. Her head throbbed. She rolled out of his arms, and made a break for it but the two with guns were ready and caught her. Kestrel's hands were still zip cuffed behind her. They forced her towards one of the black SUV's, whose door was open at the end of the driveway. Rykov was visible, sitting in the back seat waiting.
When they reached the car she was forced inside along with the A.T.U. that had stabbed her father and the one who had shot her mother. Kestrel sat between them facing Rykov, tears still streaming down her face.
"Alright," he said looking Kes over, "Kestrel here isn't going anywhere, please remove the cuffs" He ordered.
"The rest of the 'clean-up' crew will be here shortly." He said as he watched one of the guards remove the zip ties. She rubbed her wrists absentmindedly.
"Let's get a move on. So much to do, so little time!" He finished clasping his hands together. The door closed, and the engine roared into life. Kestrel glanced out the window just in time to see three people dressed like her parents jump from the roof of a neighboring house to hers, two of them disappeared behind the house, the third watched the SUV drive away.
'I gotta get away.' She thought to herself, sniffing. Resolving to stare at Rykov the whole time, wanting to annoy him.
The man watched the caravan peel away, dread sank its icy claws in his gut. He turned towards the house and ran inside. He followed the path of destruction to the living room. He stopped in the threshold, his friend was dead. Laying on the floor in his robes with his wife. He'd been too late.
"Dammit, Damien." His Italian accent was thick, and full of sadness. He'd warned his friend that this would happen, he warned that keeping his daughter ignorant to them would be dangerous. Nevertheless Damien took the risk, and now his family had paid the price for it. He knelt by his friend's bodies, removing his hood out of respect for the dead.
"Requescat en pace." He murmured as he closed their eyes for the last time, tears threatening to break free. He felt a disturbance, behind him.
"Mentor Aquila?" said a husky voice, he tilted his head towards the voice. It was one of his apprentices. "There is no sign of her."
The Mentor looked to his son, who'd come up the hallway from the bedrooms. He shook his head, taking in the question on his father's expression.
"We must find her, we owe that to Damien and Thea." He said standing, "Contact the hideout, tell them to prepare for their bodies." The apprentice nodded and left.
"What should I do, Mentor?" his son asked.
"Put together a team, I trust you to pick only those who will work best with you. You will lead them to find the girl, we must get her back." His son looked confused, such a responsibility was way over his current rank of novice.
"But signore, isn't that above my rank?"
"Indeed, but you knew Damien and Thea as well as I did, would you think they'd want anyone else to find their daughter?" He asked.
"No, sir." He said, his father's reasoning was sound.
"Good, then I expect you to report to me who you are taking with you by dawn. Tonight we'll bury our fallen brother and sister."
They had been on the road for a while, when they finally exited the freeway, and were entering the city. Kestrel had stopped crying, her eyes puffy and red. They drove for a few minutes, occasionally stopping for red lights. Kes had been watching out the window, when she had an idea. She silently prayed that it would work. She cast a sidelong glances at the guards next to her. One was dozing off, the other was cleaning his gun. Rykov was scrolling through his phone, he finally put it up to his ear.
"Yes, sir we'll be there in about fifteen minutes." he said glancing at Kestrel, "No sir, we didn't have too much of a problem retrieving the subject-" He paused his brow furrowing "Oh of course sir, of course, they won't be bothering us anymore-" Kes had half a mind to try and kill him. "Yes sir, see you there-" The car stopped for another red light. That's when Kestrel hatched her plan. She dived for the door, opened it, and fell out into the stopped traffic, having been tripped by the guard nearest to the door
"Good….SHI-" Rykov made a grab for her but she rolled away scrambling to her feet. He jumped out after her, jamming his phone into his pocket. She took off towards the crowded sidewalk, he was on her tail. The light turned and the car made a hard U-turn and parallel parked by the sidewalk. She streaked through the crowd with ease because of her size. Running past a couple who were looking through a window, and between the legs of a street performer on stilts. She rounded a corner and ducked behind a closed newspaper stand, rolling under its desk. Rykov slid to a stop, right next to it.
"Damn." He puffed, smoothing his hair "little turd's fast." Kes peered between the spaces in the wood at Rykov's overly polished shoes.
"All units, the subject has escaped." He said, She guessed that he had an ear-worm to talk with the team. "I want a five block radius from Fifteenth and Third to Jefferson and Eighth, search everything, she shouldn't be able to get too far, we need to find her before anyone else does." He said, walking back the way he'd come. Kestrel hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath, she let it out and slipped out of her hiding place. She ran in the opposite direction, hoping against hope that she be able to clear the search teams before they caught up with her.
Kestrel had traced her way through back alley ways, and side streets until it was dark. Finally settling in for the night in an old abandoned building. She climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, where she leaned against a pillar, and cried, she wept for the loss of her parents, she cried about her loneliness, she had nowhere to go, her whole world had been turned upside down in a matter of minutes. She was angry and frustrated and confused about everything that had transpired that day. She was, after all, only eleven years old.
