"Think we should do something about him?" Ezio said nudging Ryan with his boot, "Poor garcon." Altair looked up from examining his fingernails,
"What does that mean?" He questioned. Ezio leaned back on his heels,
"Lad, boy, youngster, need I say more?" Altair looked back at Ryan twitching on the floor,
"He's not a poor boy. How did he become an assassin if he faints so easily?" Altair scoffed. Ezio didn't dare touch that subject with a ten foot pole. He became preoccupied with his boot laces casting sideways glances at the older man next to him. Ezio just couldn't stand it anymore,
"Did you have any children?" He questioned, easing away slightly from Altair. Altair turned his steely glare on Ezio,
"You are aware that I do not like conversation, and you still talk. You must want to go back to the arms of death again." Altair scoffed. Ezio narrowed his eyes,
"You think you could just easily get rid of me, do you bastardo?" Altair glanced at Ezio,
"Please, I could kill you while I sleep." Altair said arrogantly. Ezio turned towards Altair mouth open to shout curses at him when he was interrupted,
"Please, gentlemen, calm yourselves. I would prefer no blood shed down here, this stone just absorbs blood and it's very tiring to get it out." Altair and Ezio both swung their gazes to an older looking man. He looked to be in his late forties, and was finely dressed. Altair studied the man trying to figure out the man's accent, it sounded European to him.
"My name is Aaric, I was the former Head Assassin before I stepped down for Ari to take my place. I assume you have meet her correct?" Aaric said. He didn't offer his hand to either of them. Something didn't feel right about him and Ezio could tell Altair was feeling the same thing.
"Yes we did." Ezio said as it became evident Altair was not going to start conversation with this man. "She sent Ryan down her but he seems to have fainted at the sight of us." Aaric looked down at Ryan on the floor and said,
"Ah so it seems, I'll have another man sent down immediately to assist in your training." Aaric gave the two men a small smile, "Ryan was never much of an assassin, and I always wondered why she chose him as her second instead of the logical choice." Ezio crossed his arms over his chest, fighting down the sudden urge to defend Ari having just met her or not.
"Who was that logical choice?" Ezio asked with curiosity. He glanced at Altair who looked bored almost.
"My son Tristan. He has asked Ari's hand in marriage several times but to no avail I'm afraid. But that matter is not the one at hand. This way to the training rooms." Aaric stuck his hands in his pockets and walked off down the hall. Ezio followed with Altair behind. Altair kept letting his fingers brush the air around his throwing knifes, no more trusting this man then Ezio. Aaric pushed open a door to a large room. The ceilings were high with wood beams crossing them. There was everything in this room for training. There were dummies in the corner and beams, ropes, and walls to practice free running on. Several weapon racks were placed around the room, some with weapons Altair and Ezio recognized and others without.
"My son will be in soon, feel free to look around just don't touch anything you don't know. I am afraid until we find a way to get both you men home that you will need to help out around here. As soon as you finish your training you will start working once again as assassins. We are stretched a little thin at the moment and need as many fighters as we can get. I will be seeing you men later." Aaric stepped out of the room closing the door behind him leaving Altair and Ezio to themselves.
"I don't like that man." Ezio stated examining the rack of knives.
"Neither do I. He was too…calm." Altair stated.
"Not to mention too clean." Ezio snorted. Altair looked the closet to being amused he had come since they had met, kind of like his son…
"I do not remember if I had children of my own. I wonder if I did and if they miss me." Ezio said looking down at his feet. Altair let out a small sigh hearing the pain in Ezio's voice,
"I cannot remember either. It seems the only thing I know of my…older life, is that I died and nothing else. Maybe it's best that we do not know therefore we cannot be distracted by feelings of loneliness." Ezio scowled. Altair had started off sounding nice and had turned nasty at the end. Ezio stuck his hands in his pocket and turned away from him trying to control wanting to punch him. The man could not say one nice thing or even civil thing for that matter. Thankfully Ezio did not have to be alone with him for too long as the arrival of Aaric's son brought him back to focus.
"The name is Tristan. I don't want to shake your hand; I'm your trainer I'm not supposed to be nice." Tristan said with the same look on his face Altair called normal. Ezio would have bet his weapons that Tristan was somehow related to Altair with a look like that. Ezio awkwardly dropped his outstretched hand and took a half step back. Altair remained quiet with a look of distaste written on his face.
"First things first, you need to learn how to shoot a gun." Tristan said.
Ari felt the sensation of falling and knew there was little to nothing she could do about it. Glass broke and wood splintered as she was flung threw the window with a hard kick to her chest. She twisted around in midair desperate to grab onto something, anything. Ari punched her finger tips through one of the window panes feeling the contact of wood and glass into her hand. She swore softly as she hung there blood running down her forearm. Ari had found the Novice she was looking for. She grimaced at the image of him hanging from the stairs the noose around his neck and the carvings into his body. Someone was hunting her Novices this was the third this month that had been killed and butchered. And she certainly didn't want to become the fourth. She looked down to the street; if she landed just right she could get away with maybe a fracture to her leg. Ari sighed, hearing the cocking of a gun. There was a man at the window his gun pointing at her head the Templar cross gleaming around his neck.
"These can never be easy can they?" She said to herself. In one swift motion she pulled her Glock with her left hand and brought it up firing twice into the man. He fell back with a yelp and Ari braced her feet against the wall,
"One for the money…" She murmured hearing the guards coming down the stairs. She slammed her gun back into its holster angry.
"Two for the show." Ari eased her wounded hand off the shards of broken class some staying in and ripping out of the wood frame. She grimaced,
"Three for the show, four to get ready and here we go." She jumped back as gun blast burst through the window. Her back arched as she brought her gun up, her perfectly executed back flip leveling her with the window. She squeezed off four shots before her momentum carried her below the window. She bent her knees waiting for impact. She smacked into the ground with thud, Ari lay on the ground for a moment not being able to breathe, her head spinning. She had hit hard and she knew she was going to pay for it. She crawled onto her hands and knees wincing at every movement. She shakily got up going into a run before the guards could make it down the stairs of the building. She didn't want to go to the medical bay as she slipped silently into base. It would be embarrassing for the Head Assassin to be so injured. She stumbled going down the hall to her room and swore. The door opened to her left and Ari swore again. She turned and came face to face with Altair. Ari raised a bloody finger to her lips and started to walk away not liking the high school crush feeling that Altair gave her. Altair grabbed her wrist on her left hand,
"Why did you not go to your medic?" He said keeping his voice low. Ari shook her head sighing,
"Because it's embarrassing, I have medical supplies in my room. I'm fine." Ari slipped her wrist through his grip and turned her knee giving way. Altair caught her waist before she fell,
"You're fine?" He asked her. Ari grimaced,
"Oh shut up." Altair helped her to her room where she collapsed on her bed.
"Where's the medical supplies?" Altair asked. Ari opened her eyes to look at him,
"Under the bathroom sink, you're not going to recognize half the stuff though." Altair turned,
"Then you'll have to tell me." Ari sighed holding her right hand at her wrist close to her chest. She bowed her head groaning as pain washed over in a new wave. Altair came out with her medical kit and set it on the bed next to her,
"Why are you doing this?" Ari asked as Altair took her damaged hand. He started pulling the broken glass out of it. Altair remained quiet before talking,
"I know what it's like to be injured and trying to preserve your image as the Head Assassin." Ari looked at his face as he pulled more glass out. He didn't look more than her age and a nerve in his jaw was twitching. By what she had read about him and how he had acted in her few hours with him that was probably the nicest thing he had said to someone in a while. No scratch that…probably his life. Ari closed her eyes against the pain and everything turned black.
Altair was pulling glass out of Ari's hand when she slumped against him. Her head touching his chest, he inhaled sharply at the tingling sensation of that one touch. What was it with this girl? First she has him tending her wounds and next he's acting like a love sick teenager. He shifted her body weight around putting her more comfortably up against him so he could go back to working on her hand. The breath on his neck from her was making him nervous. He hurriedly wrapped her hand and started disarming her. He took the clips out of the guns like Tristan had shown him and laid them on the table next to her bed. Altair removed her Kevlar and felt along her ribs, she had dislocated one. He could put it back but he would rather the medic do that. Altair froze as a figure poked his head in the door.
"Hey Ari? Oh! Wow um…I'll come back…" Ryan said going to close the door.
"Get in here." Altair growled. Ryan obeyed the older assassin without question and closed the door behind him.
"What are you doing here?" Altair snarled removing Ari's boots. Ryan looked on with one eyebrow raised in question,
"It's hard to ignore the bloody handprints in the hallway." Altair examined her swollen ankle feeling for breaks,
"What happened? Why isn't she in the medical bay?" Ryan asked going to Ari's side. Ryan lifted one of her eyelids to look at her eyes,
"She's out cold! She needs to see the medic." Ryan insisted going to pick her up. Altair stopped him with a hand,
"No. I heard your Order is weak. It's not good for your assassins to know that their Head Assassin was injured. I have experience in these things." Ryan looked at Altair,
"She told you not to take her." He said.
"If that was a question then yes. You don't know what it's like to be the one people look up to and be injured. You have to keep up an image, that's strong so that the rest will stay strong also. " Altair said putting a blanket over the top of her. Ryan pulled up a chair from the desk,
"I'll stay with her." He said simply ignoring what Altair had said. Altair nodded his head in agreement and walked down the hall to his room. He closed the door and leaned against it sinking to the ground. He was sharing the room with Ezio and didn't really care if he woke him up with the slamming of the door. Ezio rolled over, sighing heavily, but not opening his eyes. Altair rubbed his hands against his thighs, Ryan had given him pants that he called "sweats", the material was soft enough but they just bothered him. He gripped his biceps feeling the warmth of his bare skin. He closed his eyes trying to access any memory he could but nothing was coming to the surface besides waking up in that room with Ezio. Altair opened his eyes getting up running a hand through his hair. He flopped down on the bed and Ezio sat straight up.
"Wha-what was that?" He said half asleep. Altair rolled his eyes,
"Nothing princess, go back to sleep." He growled, Ezio frowned stretching his arms,
"Altair it's too early to deal with your snarkiness."
"Then go back to sleep." Altair snarled. Snarky…I'll show him snarky… he thought turning his back on him.
Ezio walked into the training room to find Ari trying to kill a punching bag. Ari didn't pause punching as she said,
"Where's Altair?" Ezio sat down on one of the benches,
"Still sleeping. He looks funny when he sleeps, he twitches." Ari snorted as she brought her leg up into a round kick across the punching bag, she grimaced and rubbed her leg. Ezio looked at her with concern,
"What's wrong?" Ari grimaced stretching her legs out,
"Screwed it up pretty bad last night. Jumped from like seven stories or something like that." She said nonchalantly. Ezio looked her face over. She looked familiar and talking to her was easy, almost like he had known her for most of his life. She smirked at him again he saw himself in her face.
"Who are your descendants?" Ezio asked catching Ari off guard. She stopped and looked at him,
"Um well…" Ari looked down, "Do you really want to know?"
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to." Ezio said matter-of-factly. Ari looked down at her bare feet.
"Well I'm from the Auditore family." Ezio looked at her,
"My family?" Ari nodded her head going back to the punching bag,
"Yes, your family." Ezio looked at her with a curious stare,
"How did your last name end up being Roshanak?" Ari punched the bag hard wincing,
"I never knew my parents, I was…or still am…an orphan, and I chose the last name for myself when I became an assassin." Ezio could tell the tension in her voice meant to not talk about it. He eyed the punching bag,
"Anybody tell you that you hit like a girl?" Ari stopped dead and turned her head towards Ezio,
"They don't call me the Angel of Death because I hit like a girl." Ezio smiled innocently at her,
"Hmm interesting…" Ari sighed,
"If you're challenging me to a fight, you'll lose sorely with or without a weapon." Ezio cracked his knuckles,
"Really?" Ari rolled her eyes and held her arms out,
"Come at me bro." Ezio charged her stepping in to undercut her jaw. Ari moved back making him overstep and miss, she turned bringing her hand down into his kidney.
"I told you that you would lose." Ari said, Ezio smirked,
"Or will I?" Ari rolled her eyes. Ezio took that as an advantage and creamed her in the side of the head. She hit the ground, and she thanked herself for putting in the new mats on the floor. Ezio laughed,
"Some Angel of Death you are." Ari jack knifed to her feet letting her forward motion carry her upward. Her feet slammed into Ezio's chest and she pushed off flipping. She rotated once and landed on her feet. Ezio was sprawled out on the floor; he coughed once before saying,
"Alright I believe you Angel." Ari stuck out her hand to Ezio, he grabbed it and she helped pull him to his feet,
"I like you better than Altair." Ezio said laughing,
"That does not surprise me." Ari said laughing herself, "So Ryan is going to take you and Altair out in the city today, but as innocents to get you used to the layout, then as soon as you learn it get better with the weaponry and what not you'll start working as assassins again under me. You better get Altair up." Ezio sighed,
"That's going to be lovely." Ari snorted,
"Try not to lose any body parts." Ezio waved her off as he walked off.
Hi guys! Sorry this took so long to update I started school and I'm playing two sports so I haven't had much time. The chapters are going to move a little slow but the events are going to progress faster so bear with me! Enjoy please review! Criticism is welcome; I'd like to become a better writer so I need to know what I can do better or do completely different!