As the glowing embers of the large flame die down, so does the festivities. The travellers grew wary, voices hushed as whispers of encouragement to rise and head to bed was spread around. Children of the camp would reluctantly groan as they feebly shuffled away to shelter, couples held their partners hands, heading away to find protection from the bitter cold of the desert's fury.
As silence enveloped the area, Lashay shifted uneasily in the soft makeshift bed ; Hawa and Asim had yet to come back, saying that they wished to speak with the head of this beduin tribe. The icy eyed female snorted as a thought crossed her mind, 'I wouldn't be surprised if Asim's trying to convince the chief to let Hawa marry his son. Those two are practically made for each other.' Her eyes fell downcast, as a frown made it's way onto her pale face. Jealousy evident in her heart.
'No,' she shook, 'I shouldn't feel envy towards my sister finding love. Hawa deserves it..', shifting her gaze back to the red walls of the tent, her eyes glazed over, 'Besides, I am to become an Assassin, I will have no time for such pitiful things like love.' The girl bit her lip, thinking about how her mother would've scolded her for saying such things. Love was a powerful force that held two people together, but finding true love was scarce and rare.
As the thoughts seemed to consume her mind, the sudden movement of the tent flap snapped her out of her reverie.
Sharply twisting her upper body around, she saw a familiar hooded man standing there, his posture tense and alert,causing worry to wash over her. Rising up with the supports of her upper arms, she whispered hoarsely, "Altaïr?" The man looked up, his golden orbs were narrowed as always, but there was a hint of an emotion hidden behind his hard stare. Fear. Pulling herself up the female tilted her head at him, "What is wrong? Is there anything you need from me at such a late hour?" The male only remained tight lipped, causing the female to sigh in aggravation, running a hand through her slightly knotted mane.
"They're coming." Looking up, the female inquired, "And who are these people?" The male shook his head, roughly grabbing hold of her wrist and pulling her along with him, out into the chilly night. Lashay was confused, first he came to her at such an odd hour at night and now he's dragging her out into the cold without an explanation? She was about ready to break the assassin's nose with an uppercut to the face, but stopped when he gestured her to scale the wall before them, to which she begrudgingly did, him falling right after her.
Grabbing hold of the top, she hoisted her self up before lending a hand to the male, who froze at the sudden offer, but still accepting it with a somewhat confused gaze. With a grunt, she pulled the taller being up before dusting herself off with a huff. Her bare feet felt cold against stone wall, a harsh reminder on how she utterly forgot to put on her sandals or boots before she exited. Altaïr walked towards the end of the wall, standing dangerously close to the edge before he signalled her to join him.
"Now what is it that you wanted to show me? Or tell me?" She questioned softly, the slight breeze rustling her long hair. The assassin beside her pointed towards the horizon she had yet to look upon. "The Templars, they're coming for you." The girl blinked in confusion before shifting her gaze only to feel her jaw-drop and an inaudible gasp to escape her. Over the wall, a large army of armoured soldier were led by a man on a rather fine and strong looking stallion. The direction they were marching in was straight towards the silent camp.
Hand clenched into a fist, she spun around, ready to climb down the wall, only to be stopped by a warm hand on her shoulder. Altaïr's usually calm stare was narrowed into a harsh glare. "Did you not hear what I just said, woman? They are here for you. If you go down there, you'll be as good as dead.", with a deep breath her nails dug into her palm as her expression grew into one of frustration. "Then what do you expect me to do? To turn tail and run? Like a coward? I think not, assassin." her words dripped with venom, fury burning behind her once soft gaze. "I will not stand by and watch my family get slaughtered by some 'Templars', just because I'm not supposed to let them find me. I'd rather go down with a fight than be caught fleeing like a heartless fool."
The male loosened his grip on her shoulder, taking a step back, his glare replaced by his usual stare.
"If you wish to throw yourself into a fight you clearly cannot win in, than be my guest." The female huffed, ready to storm away from the infuriating male only to stop at his next words,
"However, I will not let you go alone. You, though not officially, are apart of the Brotherhood and it would not be right of me to let a Sister of the Creed fight alone."
An impish smile grew across her face, adrenaline rushing through her veins, "What're we waiting for, brother? Shall we teach those Templars a lesson for messing with the wrong people?", A slight smirk spread across the man's tanned features as he darted forward, leaping off the wall with grace, his words floating through the midnight air,
"It is our duty to the Creed to do as such, Lashay."
The female grinned, before she too, dived off the edge, only to land into a large pile of hay.
Gasping slightly as she shot out, she saw the smirking male standing there with his arms crossed, causing her to pout as she pulled herself out, muttering, "Couldn't you've helped me? Idiot." Altaïr made no move to retort at her comment as the duo speedily made their way towards the chief's tent to inform them of the coming danger.
But it seemed they were already too late.
The Templars had surrounded the area, forcing the sleeping caravan members to rise and stand out in the freezing wind. At the centre of it all, the old man and his son, Emir stood alongside Hawa and Asim, who both looked about ready to tear through the masses, without an ounce of fear in their eyes.
Though if the blonde female and the chance to question it, she would, but this was clearly not the time nor place to ask such a question. Altair had grabbed ahold of her upper arm, pulling her down behind some large boxes, before eavesdropping on the conversation.
"We know she is here! Hand her over and you will all be spared." The supposed head honcho yelled.
"We will not do such a thing, as you can see, she is not with us. We have no idea of what you speak of." Emir spoke clearly, as his grip on Hawa's hand , which Lashay just noticed, tightened noticeable. The leader laughed darkly, as he lifted up an object that was covered by a brown cloth, a very dim and barely visible glow was emitted from it, "Oh really now, oh foolish boy? This holy artefact says otherwise!" Unraveling the cloth, the man raised up spherical object, an orb of sorts that emitted a bright glow.
The orb itself was just a casing, the thing within it that emitted the glow was the true treasure. A golden ring, with engravings of unknown origins etched into the fine piece of jewellery. At the top of it sat a precious jewel of sorts, it's name unknown to the people who gaped openly at it.
Lashay suddenly felt every part of her grow numb. How could she possibly know what was inside that sphere? The light was blinding, yet she looked directly at it and could see right through it. A tug at her heart caused the sudden lack of sensation in her limbs to come rushing back at her. Whatever that 'artefact' was, it was pulling at her, calling to her if you would. The urge and need to take hold of the artefact and protect it from prying eyes overcame her being.
And she would've done exactly that if it weren't for the male beside her having a tight grip on her wrist, his eagle like gaze held a warning of sorts within it. It was a trap and he knew his silent message didn't seem to get through to the rambunctious vigilante. Her eyes were glazed over, as her mind was elsewhere.
Clicking his tongue, he knew this was a very bad situation for her to zone out in, but the girl had somehow managed to do so, all because of that stupid sphere.
Then it clicked.
Whatever was in that orb had seemingly possessed Lashay, trying to bait her out into the open area and leave her defenceless. Sighing slightly, he knew he was going to deeply regret his next action after this was all over, but it was the only way he could awaken her from her 'slumber'.Raising his hand, he slapped her, hard. Her eyes to widened, and lost the glazed expression, as she looked up at the assassin in shock before stuttering out, "What happened..?"
"You were being controlled by that 'thing', I thankfully snapped you out of it before you went strolling over to your death bed." Was his simple and curt reply.
She swallowed thickly before looking back at the scene, this time ignoring the light that seemingly called to her. "What is our plan of action?" The male huffed, "There is no plan, we will have to go in headfirst." The female stared at him incredulously, "You can't be serious! I am literally unarmed, is there no other way to take them down then running in like mindless animals on the hunt?"
Her sudden outburst caught the attention of the leader, "Over there! They're hiding behind those crates." Altaïr cursed at his luck, of course the girl had to yell in the most risky situation. Pulling himself and Lashay up, he handed her a throwing knife, "Make use of this and see if you can grab ahold of any of their weapons to use as your own. It seems we will have to go with my plan after all." There was a slight smugness to his tone, but the platinum blonde chose to ignore it, for now as she leaped over the crates, slashing at the unarmored Templar that had come to retrieve them, before stabbing him directly in the heart.
The man beside the fallen knight immediately yelled, "Assassins!" Only to be silenced by Altaïr's hidden blade meeting his throats. The male gagged and coughed blood, before Altair forcefully shoved him back while removing the blade. Lashay grabbed hold of the short sword that was on the first male before taking on a rather decent swords stance, ready for any incoming attack.
The leader from earlier growled in anger before barking out orders, "Kill the assassin and get the girl. I want her alive." Thus began the never-ending waves on armoured men and the onslaught of dread. Altaïr easily held up on his own, he was after all, a trained Master Assassin. However his female counterpart struggled to keep up and maintain her stance. She was used to the simple city guards, not trained knights who's only goal at the moment was to capture her. She hacked and slashed, slaying anything and everything that crossed her path. Though her offence was ruthless and unyielding her defence was sloppy leading to the amount of cuts and bruises that soon began to litter her pale skin in return of her carelessness.
Her feet grew numb under the cold wind, her movements becoming slower and more anticipated.
She was bleeding and badly at that, the cut across her lip stung achingly, her muscles tired and worn from the sudden usage of strength, around her, the able bodied helped fight in pushing back. Hell, she saw Asim and Hawa put up a much better fight than she herself did. A tired smile bloomed upon her wary features, but as she did that, she had yet to realise her guard had been lowered, allowing a man to sneak up behind her, a large boulder in hand.
As Altaïr freely dodged, his gaze shifted slightly to check on his ward, only to see her weakened state and the man standing behind her, and without even realising it, he had yelled out her name,
"Lashay!"
The said girl turned around only to be met with a boulder being smashed into her face, causing her to stumble back, loosing the grip on her short sword and tumbling onto her bottom. Vision hazed she feebly attempted to crawl away only to be stopped by a foot slamming down on her chest, causing a pained gasp to escape her. The last thing she saw was the male lifting the boulder once again, to smash down onto her head and a sudden blur of white.
"Lashay!"
System override
Subject has been pulled out of sequence.
"Too much drama in one day, don't you think, Guardian?"
"Raven."
A gruff voice called to her causing the female to weakly open her eyes, blindly adjusting to her surroundings once again. She was back here again, possibly had fallen asleep, she mused. Turning her head her eyes grew wide by a slight fraction, before her was the assassin from before. "Altaïr?" She softy called out, to which the male nodded in response. "You had us worried again, Tubais said you had awakened earlier and when we came to check on you, you were out cold with a slight fever and wouldn't wake up, no matter how many times we called you."
Rustling her hair slightly, she sat up in the bed, eyes downcast in thought, "I see and who do you mean by 'we'?" Memories of this life slammed into her mind, though the only figures she could make out was her brother,Tubais, her sister , Jessica (who oddly enough looked exactly like Hawa and Asim) and Altair. In other memories, the figures were just black shadows, their faces were like static that continuously flickered in her mind.
The Syrian male stared at her for a moment, a flash of worry seemingly fleeting across his gaze, "Do you not remember, Raven? There's a group consisting of you, myself and-" Though his mouth seemed to moving, the words he was supposedly saying were not audible to her ears, causing her to tilt her head as the male seemingly finished, "Do you remember now?" The female shook her and asked him to repeat again, only to get the same result.
Just as the golden eyed male was about to seriously question her, the room door suddenly burst a male who's face was seemingly containing that familiar static like the ones in her rather hazy memories. "Raven! Bella, is she awake?" Though the voice was distorted, it held a clear accent to it, possibly..Italian?
Her mind began to spin just as Altair spoke, "Can't you see that she is E-"
Darkness consumed her vision, 'Oh boy, here we go again.' The female thought dully before passing out, a knowing voice reverberating within the depths of her mind, "In due time, you will learn the truth, Raven. Or should I call you Alessandra now?"
Loading new sequence
Preparing subject for the next time line
A smile spread across the being's face, their watchful gaze never leaving the screen,
"Next stop, Rome, Italy."
