HEY EVERYBODY!

New, updated version with new story title!

Disclaimer: I don't own Assassin's Creed. Sadly.

Also, I'm fully aware of who Altair marries and blah de blah blah blah. I've played the games. Quite a bit. I know what goes on. THIS IS A FANFICTION. So please, try to enjoy it. If you don't like it, simply don't read it. Simple as that. No trolling/flaming either.

I tried to do some research on modern day Masyaf and the castle there, but it didn't turn up too much. What Aurora reads, I copied from Wikipedia. Like the taxi driver says haha. But I'm pretty sure it's accurate because they have links to other sites about it. And Masyaf and Damascus are 223 km (roughly) apart as well. Google Maps, for the win.

I hope you all enjoy this updated version of the story. It's the same, only better. :)

Hello.

My name is Teresia.

My story is a strange one, one that coincides with many others. Many have heard of true love, yet few ever experience it.

I was born in the year 1170 A.D., in the city of Damascus, but this is how my story begins.

-.-.-.-.-.-.

June 4 2012, Masyaf, Syria

I sat in the car, headphones over my ears, listening to classical music as I stared out the window at the small town of Masyaf in modern day Syria. The land was of the Orontes Valley, yet the rolling hills of the valley were lush. I was on my way to Masyaf castle, to visit.

I, being twenty three, and a graduate student from America, found this place fascinating. I was living in Italy for the next year for classes on the Renaissance (personally one of my favorite time periods ever) but I had decided to do some sight-seeing over the summer. I had merely been flipping through some pamphlets and this small one page pamphlet had caught my eye. So here I was, one boat ride, one train ride, and almost one taxi drive away from the castle that dated back to the Byzantine era. It had served to protect the trade routes to cities further inland. What fascinated me most was the history of the inhabitants.

"Can you believe all this? Evidence suggests that the lower layers and foundations of the castle are of Byzantine origin. The castle was captured by the Assassins in 1141 from Sanqur (who had held it on behalf of the Banu Mundigh of Shayzar) and was later refortified by Rashid al-Din Sinan, more commonly known as the "Old Man of the Mountain". Saladin besieged it in May 1176 but the siege did not last long and it concluded with a truce. Current research indicates it was held by the Hashshashins at that time…" I was reading a more up to date pamphlet from the town's tourist headquarters, where I had met my taxi driver.

"Ya know they only copied that from Wikipedia right?" my driver asked, and I looked up into the rear view mirror to see my driver looking at me with a "It's true" look on his face.

"But why would they have finished restoring it a few years ago then if it wasn't important?" I shot back, The driver shrugged and continued driving.

"Doesn't concern me any." He muttered. "'Ere we are, Miss Aurora," he said, and I looked up at the castle coming into view over the hill. I felt my face turn upwards in a grin; I felt….ecstatic, although I didn't know why. About ten minutes later we were driving up the hill that led to the castle; I was so focused on it I didn't see much of anything else. For some reason, my heart despaired almost, seeing the castle in such a state of abandonment, as once….how would I know, I've never been here before…

"I feel like…I've been here before…" I said quietly as he stopped the car and looked at me. I looked at him; he was a good looking man, with thick, curly black hair and tan skin, with dark brown eyes and a perfect smile.

"Would you like to look around then?" he said, waving off my last comment.

"I would, very much." I opened my car door, and stuffed my iPod and cell phone into my messenger bag, which I then tossed over my shoulder. I was wearing a pair of khaki shorts, and a white, short sleeved button down. My dark brown hair was pulled tightly back, my ponytail cascading over my right shoulder, and my aviator sunglasses reflected the bright sun. I was wearing hiking boots, and I cast a wayward glance at my driver before heading up the dirt path that led up to the castle.

"I'll stay here until you come back, then," he said nonchalantly, leaning against the taxi.

"Alright. I might be a short while." I said, and he yawned. I felt like this castle wasn't something a lot of people came to see. Somehow, the winding path up the side of the hill felt familiar, vaguely familiar. It was like I could see what it once looked like, standing there, tall and proud in its day, it's walls a cold, chilly gray against a morning sun-

I stumbled over a tiny rock I didn't see as I thought about the things that had happened here in the castle. I shook my head, and kept walking up the path, ignoring the increasing feeling in my stomach that I had been here before, even though I knew I hadn't.

I reached the top after a fifteen minute walk, feeling slightly out of breath (going on vacations does that to you; you get out of shape after simply walking around cities for a month or so). I stared up at the metal gate that had been placed in the doorway of the castle. I went up to it and shook the gate; locked. I took a step back and looked around. The metal gate wasn't too tall… I really hoped there weren't security cameras around…

So I climbed up, and up, and eventually, making it to the top, slipped and fell about twenty feet to the bottom of the other side.

"Ow…" I muttered, slowly standing up, wiping the dust off my butt and patting my hands against my thighs; they had gotten slightly scratched, and I ignored the stinging in my elbows and knees. It was just a few cuts. Once the dust had settled a little, I stared at the inside of the castle, taking in the great courtyard it had once been. It was a large, open, empty space, but there was a ramp, branching up from the right side of the courtyard, up to what appeared to be the great hall, as the window spaces were empty and forlorn looking. I felt….very sad, seeing it that way. I decided to jog to the empty hall, and once inside I was slightly disappointed at the size, being smaller than I thought it would be. It didn't seem big enough for a castle this big, unless this was…the library?

"What…why do I…know….?" I was only slightly confused; the only information I really had was who had conquered it when and who inhabited it at certain points in time. Yet As I walked around, noting the stone stairs that led up to another level that I wanted to check out, I walked through the door at the far end to come face to face with a breath taking view.

It was as if the mountains were right there, glistening in the afternoon light, with the fountain there in middle of the receding garden still going, and then I blinked, and it was as bleak as the rest of the castle was.

"What the heck is going on…" I muttered, blinking again, again, and it stayed the same. There was no fountain, no running water, and the mountains in the distance didn't look as pretty as they had. "I almost wish it really did look like that…" I pulled out my camera and took a picture anyway, enjoying the history of the place. When I put my camera down, there was the beautiful image again, and I took a picture of it; only on my camera, it was exactly the same as the bleak image from before. I flipped through the pictures a few times just to make sure it really was the same image I was seeing in front of me.

"What is going on?" I said loudly, angrily, walking down the stairs into the garden/courtyard area. I went to the crystal clear running water of the fountain and bent down to touch it, only to feel nothing.

"You're seeing an illusion; what once was is no more." A deep voice spoke behind me, and I, being very annoyed at this point, sighed angrily and stood up.

"Listen, buddy-"I turned to see no one there. "…alright, I am seriously freaked out now." I said to no one but the same voice laughed from behind me again. I spun around to see no one there. I was really freaked out now; I didn't know if it was a ghost or a person, but I decided to head back into the empty hall. "This is really, really weird…" I muttered, turning my camera off as I walked back inside. I wasn't paying much attention though as I ended up running into something.

There hadn't been a wall there a moment ago, so I looked up to come face to face with a hooded man, standing six feet tall, obviously all muscle, and armed to the teeth. Despite the cold, uncaring, unyielding chill that his dark brown eyes cast upon me, and the unmoving, uncaring face that stared, he was…quite handsome. I mean, other than the fact that I was running through a few murder scenes from movies in my head. He looked as if he hadn't shaved in a week, as the black stubble on his face was a testimony to that. He had a scar on his lip, about two inches long, and his skin was dark. I felt the color drain from my face as his eyes seemed to be evaluating my soul, and I numbly thought how screaming probably wouldn't help, and how running away seemed useless. It was hard to see at first, but he did shimmer a little, as if he were a ghost.

"How did you get here?" his voice was the voice I had heard; it was, deep, and thickly accented.

"Define 'here'," I said slowly, backing away from him, fearing for my life. I really hoped he wasn't one of those warrior monks who killed anyone who trespassed on his ancient order's grounds like in all the movies… "The castle-"

"Fortress," his eyes, although I'm sure I imagined it, had a flicker of amusement flicker through them.

…

I'm sure I imagined it.

"Whatever, or here?"

"Here."

"I walked. Who are you to ask?"

"I'm sure you'd like to know." He turned, and began walking away.

"Hey! I WOULD like to know!" I began to follow him, but he looked over his shoulder and smirked at me, and then began running. Running to places I figured I couldn't follow, but decided to try to anyways. He leapt onto the railing of the staircase and raced up it, perfectly balanced before leaping off to one side and disappearing down what I supposed was a corridor. I stared, wondering how the hell he had managed to run along the edge of the stairs, but shook it off and took off after him. Quickly I realized why he had used the railing; there was a gaping hole in the floor. Taking a deep breath and a running start, I leaped, scraping my elbows and almost having the wind knocked out of me as I jumped. I slowly pulled myself up, and cursing silently at the blood now running freely down my elbows, and my lost sunglasses (they fell as I jumped), I ran after the hooded man. I turned and raced down the dark hallway, wondering if this was in fact the brightest idea ever, chasing a hooded man armed to the teeth into an ancient castle.

Yet…there was that feeling again, that I knew this place. I took a random right turn, and then a random left turn, on occasion seeing the outside world flash by through an empty space where a window once stood, and each time I saw it I swear it was the same kind of beautiful image I had seen in the garden. Suddenly, I ran into something again, in a hallway that had shafts of light illuminating it.

"Ow…" I muttered, and I looked up to see the hooded man there. I swallowed nervously as he bent down, grabbed me by my arms, and hauled me to my feet. Not saying anything, he inspected my elbows, and for some odd reason I felt myself turn red. "Listen, I don't even know who you are and all, but this is really freaking me out. Like-"

"Calm down, silly girl." He said quietly, loosening his grip slightly. "I thought you would eventually make your way here."

"What are you talking about?" I stood there, dumbfounded, staring at this man.

"Why else would you have run after me?"

"Because I want to know more about this place, and you seem to live here."

"Is that so?"

"I mean, relatively speaking, I'm wondering how you know English and why you haven't killed me yet-"

"I could." He still hadn't let go of my elbows, and he tightened his grip a little as he probably saw the look in my eyes at that. Then, however, he released me. "I won't hurt you."

"How can I be sure of that?" The man sighed, and removed his hood, revealing his shaven head. So he was a monk. Excellent…

"What is your name in this life?" he asked gently, extending his left hand to me in what I assumed was a gesture of peace, and I noticed the intricate device attached to his forearm, along with his missing ring finger.

"I'm Aurora. Aurora Korilee." My instincts were telling me to run, to get the hell out of there, yet my mind was telling me this warrior monk meant me no harm.

"That is a lovely name," the man bent down, took my hand in his, and kissed it, which left me baffled. He drew away, and he was….smiling at me…

"I am Altair Ibn La-Ahad," he said, "I was also Ezio Auditore di Firenze, among others." He cracked a smile at me, which somehow I felt was a rarity for this man, "Yet to you, you will always call me Altair, the annoying idiot who was always better than you."

"I still don't know what's even going on here, first you show up and I keep seeing things outside and-" I didn't even see it coming, but he grabbed me and pulled me into a kiss, a kiss unlike any other I had ever had before…it was like electricity had shot through my whole body as he kissed me. It just felt so real, and it made me feel alive, as if I'd never really lived before. Then the memories started coming. Different lives started pouring into my head, flashes of times long past, and the last thing I remembered before blacking out from it all was Altair holding me as I collapsed.

"Everything will be alright Teresia….just let them come…"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

June 4 1176, Damascus

"Child. Come here." I looked at the hooded man standing in the alley, beckoning me to him. I'd been living on the streets for almost two years now, and I skeptically looked at him. I used my finger to point at myself, and he motioned me over with his hand. What this man wanted with me I wasn't sure, but I warily walked over, stealing someone's money bag off them in the small market crowd as I did so. I smirked inwardly as I then quickened my pace over to the shadows of the alley, and the man kneeled down beside me.

"What do you want?" I asked bluntly. He laughed softly at me.

"I want to teach you something." He said, resting his elbows on his knees. We were eye level, and I stared deep into his eyes, searching. Most of his face was covered in the shadow from his hood, but he was definitely an older guy.

"Why would you be willing to each a street urchin anything?" I asked warily.

"I happened to notice you stealing from these good people here today." I stared. No one had ever caught me before.

"You're not going to turn me in, are you?!" I let my fear get to me. He merely laughed.

"Oh no, there's not a whole lot you can really do to change your situation I'm assuming. But if I teach you something, you have to do a favor for me that, in reality, will help you out in the long run."

"What is this favor of which you speak?" I asked, crossing my arms, still clutching the stolen money bag.

"I offer you a life where you are fed every day," already, it sounded promising, "you'll be taught how to defend yourself properly," beginning to like it more and more," and you'll have a place to call home, and a family to support you."

"What's the catch?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"Nothing. I teach you how to put something into someone's pockets without them noticing, instead of just stealing something."

"Why in the world would I want to do that?" I asked, bewildered, and the man winked at me.

"Watch and learn, young one." He stood up, leaving me in the alley, as he strode out into the crowd. I watched as he easily picked off someone else's money bag, and then, amazed, watched as he put the bag into another man's pocket not too far away. Then he bumped the man he had stolen it from in the first place on the shoulder, and ducked and rolled behind one of the stalls back to where I was waiting.

"Just watch." He said quietly, and I did watch, intrigued. The man he had stolen the bag from started freaking out, and called the guards over. The men were looking everywhere, and they started searching people's bags. They found the money bag in the innocent man's pocket, and clapped him in irons before taking him to jail, probably to cut his thieving hands off.

"What….was the point in that?" I asked, half amazed and half like "Why did you do that…?"

"It's very useful for dealing with people you don't like. You don't even have to steal first, but you can cause a scene by saying you've lost something after planting it on someone else. See?" this guy obviously thought he was a genius for it.

"Yeah but, I'm a street urchin. All I do is steal really." The man ruffled my hair before I pushed his hand away.

"That could change, if you want to do something for me."

"Yeah right. You just showed me a completely worthless 'skill'."

"You're quite rude for a child."

"My mother died two years ago, and I don't have a father, no one to teach me. Like I care what other people think anyway."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"You and everyone else." With that, I left the man standing there in the darkness.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.

That night, as I was walking back to the slums outside the city of Damascus, I became acquaintances with the ground as I was roughly pushed into it and out of someone's way. My bag of food that I had bought with my stolen money fell as well, luckily nothing spilled out though.

"HEY! Watch where you're going!" I yelled, spitting out dirt, but the guard didn't hear me and neither did whoever he was chasing. I moaned, standing up, brushing more dirt off as I did so. I picked up my bag of food, opening it, and making sure nothing had been damaged. I continued walking, past the fires of the other homeless, ignoring the bouts of laughter followed by bouts of crying. The slums weren't a nice place to live. So I lived just outside the slums, in a small, hidden cave that was easy to keep cool in the summer and easy to stay warm in when the sun went down. It was a little bit further of a walk, but I knew it was safe since guards had regular patrols outside of the city and the slums as well. As I continued walking to my humble abode, the guard who had knocked me over went running back towards the city, almost knocking me over again.

"YOU-ARGH." I shut my mouth, knowing better then to really yell at a city guard in anger. Twas not a good idea if one wished to survive. I shook my head, annoyed, but continued on, the sun having gone down about an hour ago. I finally made it to my cave, and I think "shocked" is an accurate way to describe how I felt when I saw the scene before me.

The old idiot man from earlier was lying on his back outside my cave in a pool of blood. He was barely breathing, and there was a horse standing not too far away, being tethered to a rock. Being on the streets as long as I had been, blood didn't bother me too much anymore. I cautiously walked up to the man, warily eyeing a discarded, blood stained sword.

"Child…" he rasped, scaring me. Our eyes met, and I gulped.

"Yeah old guy?" I asked meekly. The man lifted his arms up, and removed the strange device on his left hand and handed it to me.

"Take this…to Masyaf…..and ask for Al Maulim. Tell them" he coughed up some more blood,"Abd Al-Karim sent you…take my horse….and go…before they come back…." I gingerly took the blood stained, steel device.

"Where's Masyaf?"

"It's north of here, just over 200 kilometers….the horse will know where to go….it will only take half a day to get there…"

"I don't know how to ride a horse though!" I said, and the man glared at me. If looks could kill, I'd be dead.

"Just get on it and hold on." He coughed some more, but before anything else could be said, a sword was suddenly in my face.

"Give me that bracelet and no one gets hurt." The guard said, his sword mere centimeters from my face.

"Leave the child alone." The old man said darkly, trying to sit up but another guard shoved the end of his blade into the man's chest, causing me to gasp as I got splattered with his blood. The guard with his sword in my face also moved, slicing my face open (or that's what it felt like) from above my eye down my chin.

"Ow!" I yelled instinctively before kicking the guard in the shin and picking up the old man's sword and throwing it at the other guard.

"Hey! Get back here!" The sword had only distracted the guard, but that was all I needed as I shot off for the horse, scrambling up onto it's back, my bag of food slung on my back and the weird steel thing in one hand.

"Go horsie go!" I yelled, clutching onto its mane, but it merely nodded its head. Then, out of nowhere a knife came flying and cut the horse's reins that had it tethered, and with that it bolted. The last I saw of that old man and the guards was the old man looking at me, somehow having managed to throw a knife to let his horse loose, and the guards chasing after me but quickly falling behind as the horse powered over the rocks leading north away from Damascus.

Before long the horse slowed to a trot, and I finally had time to feel my face where I had been cut. It hurt, but the blood had stopped, so it must not have been deep. Good. I leaned into the horse's mane, clutching the strange device the man had given me, and I felt myself drifting off to sleep.

"To Masyaf horsie…" I whispered before drifting off into sleep…