- You thought it was all over, it's not :) -

A second chance

The assassin woke up the next morning, and immediately felt a stabbing pain going all the way up his leg, grappling the leg swiftly to try to stop the pain he waited what seemed ages before it stopped. Once it stopped he took a deep breath and relaxed back on the bed he was in. The room he was in was pretty small. It was quite dull with few decorations. A flower pot stood on the windowsill, rays shining on the flower, and a painting of the docks in Acre were on the wall to the left. Either than a stool and the bed there were no furnishing in the room. Hearing a nock at the door he quickly pulled the covers over him and pretended to be asleep.

As the door opened a woman walked in with a wash basin, the woman couldn't have been older than 20 she was wearing a brown apron above her grey clad dress which was ripped in places. As she placed the basin by the floor next to the assassin's bed, he got up as quickly as his broken leg would let him and seized her by the throat.

"Who are you?" he asked in his most menacing voice. The woman gave a squeak before replying.

"M-Maria sir, my name's Maria, my mother found you on the street all covered in your own blood and brought you in", she seemed to regain some of her composure after he let go of her throat, "You're lucky we brought you in when we did, there's an assassin running loose, the guard's been looking for him everywhere, they don't what he looks like though so they don't really know what they're looking for". So the guards hadn't killed him, the assassin didn't know what was worse, living in shame or being killed by those pathetic excuses for guards.

"How long have I been here", he asked, while sitting back down on his bed.

"A week sir, ma wasn't sure you were going to make it, you'd lost a lot of blood."

"Thank you for helping me, not many people would have stopped to help a wounded man", she gave him a big smile then.

"Sir if you don't mind me asking, what is your name?", the assassin stayed silent for a few moments then decided it was safe for her to know his real name.

"I am Jaime Ibn'al -Lahad"

"Oh that's a mouthful, can I call you just Jaime?", he nodded.

"Maria, did anything happen in the week that I was asleep?"

"Well let me think, well someone tried to kill the baron and guards have been looking for that person ever since"

Jaime's jaw almost dropped at the mention of the baron, why was he not dead, he remembered clearly stabbing him in the throat, he couldn't have missed, could he?

That settled it, he had to get out of this house and finish his job.

"Thank you for your hospitality, but I must no go now, my father will be worried sick about me" that was a lie, Jaime's father was killed when he was only ten and his mother died three years after at the hands of templars, which led him to become an assassin. As he tried to get his leg wouldn't let him and he fell back on the bed again.

"See you can't even stand let alone walk, no you stay here for a few more days, your father would want you fit and healthy when you got back." huffed Maria.

At the moment the window shutters exploded into hundreds of tiny fragments, which splattered on the floor, and two hooded figures stepped in, blades at the ready. Jaime's first reaction was to reach for his sword but that wasn't there.

He heard a scream come from Maria as one of the intruders seized and pushed her up against the wall, then, silence was all that he heard and Maria's body was lifeless. She fell to the floor and the hooded man pulled his sword from her body.

Seeing that Jaime lost all control of himself, he lunged for the closest guard, not caring about his still healing foot, and grabbed the weapon wielding arm, punched his elbow upwards so the bone broke and poked out of the flesh. The guard dropped his sword with a shriek of agony, Jaime picked it up swiftly as a cobra and jammed it down the man's throat to stop the scream. The other guard barely had any time to respond before Jaime's sword met his, and they danced the dance of death which only one would walk away from. The guard was a competent fighter but he made a fatal mistake by trying to spear Jaime, which he dodged, spun on his hell so he faced the guard from the side and took one great swoop to cut the guard's head off.

The head fell to the floor with a dull thud and Jaime dropped his sword, which clattered, and limped over to Maria's body. Kneeling down he picked up her head and placed it on his knee. She looked almost peaceful, eyes closed and face expressionless. Reality hit him then and questions burst into his head, Who were those men?, How did they know where to find me, Where are my weapons?. All he knew now was that he had to get out and make his way to the assassin's bureau and find some answers. Bur first, he picked up Maria and placed her on the bed where her mother would find her thinking she was asleep. Taking one last look at her he climbed out the window and limped towards answers.