Alright, this is going to be a marathon chapter compared to the others but I felt like a lot of context was missing and I wanted to add just a touch of drama. Besides, everyone knows Kenways just attract drama.

The scent of the damp woods was intoxicating for me. I sprinted around the trails I used to run around and imagined all the times I ran here. I got faster and faster over the years so now I could run circles around my old self. The terrain made me focus on where I stepped and now I almost never lost my footing on any surface. I didn't even slip when I jumped from the mossy river rocks to the old trees. The wind blew against me as I raced through the branches, sometimes I felt like I could have lived off these types of nights forever. Eventually I reached the giant tree that stood on the edge of the property. It was big enough to hold a house and was old enough to have been a sapling in the Revolutionary War. I climbed up its limbs until I was poking my head over the canopy to see the town a few miles out from the house.

It looked beautiful covered in little lights but I couldn't get myself to believe it was as promising as it looked. I knew too much about its bad neighborhoods, would-be-gangs and thugs, and how hard sick my mother was when we lived in a terrible apartment. It was a one-bedroom place that creaked at every step and was the recently cleaned site of a double homicide. Mother would have moved anywhere else if the cost of her treatment wasn't more than she made in a year.

"Just one look at it. Then I can forget about it forever," I said, I was already close to the town so I might as well see if it had changed. Maybe it had been cleaned up and the trouble had cleared.

It hadn't.

I stood outside the rotten apartment and saw the windows were boarded up. Somehow it managed to get worse after we moved out but I guess I was the only one doing anything to keep it safe back then. Just for nostalgia I thought I would go on my old "patrol" again, I pulled my hood up as I walked around the neighborhood. There were still small general stores, (no big chain business would be dumb enough to put a store here) they likely sold to the people who couldn't afford to get out of here and the thugs that harassed anyone to make a profit.

I remembered within the first week of living there some huge guys knocked at our door and introduced themselves as the "law" of the slums. I don't know how she did it but mother managed to scare them off during the day, but it didn't stop them from trying to get us during the night. Those guys would never remember me but I would always remember how they made me scared for my mother's life. They would always be the faceless enemy that made me carry weapons into what should be safe places. Ironically, they made me the enemy they wanted to avoid. I started to deal with them myself. I got to be a pro at sneaking out because of the noisy floor, I found learned to box and wrestle, to shoot accurately, to stab viciously, and to never let my guard down. I want to call myself the good guy, but I know not everything I did could be forgiven. Well, Achilles forgave me but I doubt a lawyer father would. I was almost back to the apartment when I saw the worst mistake in history.

Some idiot brought their fancy Rolls-Royce Wraith to this dump and had the door open. I wanted to let the idiot get what was coming to him but my feet were already moving towards the man standing in front of it. He faced the building but even from the side it looked like he was wearing a nice black suit so I assumed he was the owner. But seriously, who on Earth would be cocky enough to even think about this?

I made sure to kick the broken bottles to signal I was walking closer and the man turned his head. "Oh, you again."

I couldn't see his face well since he was standing in front of the car's headlights but the Irish accent was unmistakable. "Shay? Are you kidding me? What are you doing out here?" Maybe he wasn't as perceptive as I thought he was. I didn't think anyone was this dumb but maybe he was an exception.

"Shay, I didn't find anything inside," a familiar voice said, sure enough my father walked out of the door that led into the apartment. He walked out and saw me immediately. "Connor? It's close to eleven, shouldn't you be at home?"

"I could ask you the same question."

Shay looked at my father and said, "Well, you've got no reason not to tell him."

Haytham was silent but didn't look concerned. "Never mind that, just get in the car and we'll take you back to Achilles."

"Look, I don't need an escort but apparently you two don't know anything about…" I was trying to talk but something was off, the usual city hum got quieter and voices in the distance were whispering back and forth. Shay and my father picked up on the voices too; they turned their heads to find the sound and motioned for me to come closer but I only made a step when I saw a glint of light around the corner of the building.

I reached into my coat and pulled out the gun, "COME OUT NOW!" Father and Shay looked at me in disbelief but I stepped past them toward the building. Then I heard someone running up behind us. A woman with a pipe hit Shay hard across the back. I whipped around and shot her in the leg, it was only a bit deeper than a grazing shot but still she writhed around and cursed with everything she had. Two more people were coming out from around the corners. One was huge and burly while the other was holding a knife.

"Connor stay in the car," to my surprise Shay had recovered and lowered his stance. Haytham turned to the one with the knife while Shay and I were staring down the brute.

"Better do what your sugar daddy says pipsqueak," the big one laughed, he pulled out a baseball bat and charged at us. I was about to fire when Shay rushed forward, disarmed him, and punched him in the gut. His sent the big guy backwards a bit and took then gave him a quick knock to the head. He tossed the bat aside and continued to beat the man into submission. Looking behind me Haytham already the other guy in a headlock. He was either asking questions or intimidating him. I was a bit surprised when he knocked him out cold and propped the body against the wall. Shay had finished off the other one and came back to where we were.

"So, what do we do about that one," he gestured to the one I shot, "She's not losing much blood since Connor hit mostly flesh but she would be a witness."

I blurted out something I wish I could take back, "Actually those kinds of things are common around here. I ran into a lot of these situations before so it wouldn't be my first time having this happen." My father just face palmed.

"Did you really have to say that in front of Shay and I?" Perhaps saying that in front of two people who needed to represent law and fairness wasn't the right move.

"Don't worry, I'll handle her, you just need to, uhm, look away I guess." He rolled his eyes and faced the other direction. I told Shay, "Get in the car and rev the engine when I say drive, don't actually go forward though." He gave me a concerned look and said he hoped I knew what I was doing. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had to intimidate a lot of people in the past.

Third person POV

Connor bent down to the woman's level, "No! Get away from me!"

"Quiet" he growled. He took both wrists behind her back in one hand and held her neck in the other. "Now, you won't go saying a word of this to anyone, got it?"

"Fuck you, you shot me! I have rights and- ow, wait what are you doing!" the woman squirmed when she felt herself being pushed onto the pavement. Connor gripped the back of her neck to force her to look at the car's tire right in front of her.

"If you don't want to play along, then you can have it your way. Shay! Drive!" The engine roared on and the woman screamed.

"Okay, okay, I'll stay quiet," she began to cry as she started to fear for her life, "But what about the others? A-are they d-dea-"

"Don't worry about them. They'll be thankful enough that they didn't get put in the hospital," Connor pushed her face across the road and closer to the tire, "Besides, do you want to admit you tried to beat the three of us and take our car?"

"We didn't mean-

"Drive!"

The engine roared again and Connor shoved her face forward for effect. "Okay!" she was gasping between words as she said, "W-we did tr-ry to do that, I adm-mit it, just please, please let me go…" her sobbing got louder and Connor let go as she cried into the pavement.

Connor leaned down to whisper, "Good, now leave." That was all it took to send her quickly moving down the street, as much as her leg would allow anyway. Connor looked back at Haytham, "We should get going too," his voice was back to the quiet tone it usually had. Connor got into the back as Haytham joined Shay in the front. They took off immediately and were reaching a red light when Haytham signaled to go a different direction.

"You're not going the right way," Connor said.

"I know, but you have to answer for some things," Haytham didn't raise his voice but both people in the car knew he was serious. "For starters, how often did you encounter something like that?"

Connor sighed. It had been a long time since he counted each time as a separate event. "I did a patrol around the neighborhood almost every night. I got in fights too often to count." Haytham signaled to keep driving around.

"Why? Were you an officer of the law?"

"No, but I was more effective than the police in the town. They usually keep to the good places and avoid calls from this area. Are you going to be asking a lot of questions?"

Sure enough the interrogation continued for almost an hour. The men learned that Connor and his mother moved there to be closer to the hospital since the reserve was almost thirty miles away. Ziio had almost been crushed under a burning building at the time and after going to the ER and being hospitalized for a few months they found she was in need of tons of surgeries and rehab to repair the damage to the spine. It drained most of the money she made and Connor had not only defended the house from everyone but also started to, in his words, "become a Robin Hood type person." (Haytham didn't want to know exactly what he did but he could guess robbery was on the growing list of Connor's shady activities.) At some point this lead to him trying to rob Achilles himself but he was caught in the act. Instead of reporting him immediately he asked what he was doing it for. Soon after that Achilles started to teach him how to fight better and helped pay for Ziio's treatment by teaching Connor how to run Davenport Shipping. Soon they had done enough for he and his mother to move out of that place. Connor had been uninvolved in the area ever since then.

"You know, I though trouble always seemed to find me but you, Connor, you seem to just have been surrounded by it," Shay said, it was as close to saying 'your life sucked' as he thought he could get. He turned the car onto the right path to get back to Achilles manor while the others sat in silence.

Haytham now had most the answers he was looking for and a ton of knowledge on things he wish hadn't had happened. All those terrible days and he was nowhere to help. Had he known about it he could have paid for Ziio's medical bills, he could have kept them with him and out of the neighborhood where his son would get beaten and threatened, he could have done more than accepted Ziio's rejection.

"Father?" His son's voice brought him back to attention. "Please don't feel bad about it. It's all in the past now, everyone's okay," the boy smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, "I know you would have done anything if mother just asked you." He was a kind one, Haytham could see why Achilles and Ziio were unwilling to let him go.

"Thank you," Haytham smiled. It had been a long time since anyone made him genuinely happy.

"Is this an awkward time to remind you I'm still here?" Damn it Shay, Haytham thought. Connor just chuckled. They soon got to the manor where they saw the porch light was on for its irresponsible resident.

Haytham stretched and said, "Shay, would you walk Connor up to the door? I feel like driving home as well so I'll be switching seats." Shay agreed, although he thought the boy could walk himself the twenty or so feet from the curb to the door. However, he did

"Hey Connor, I have one question of my own."

"What is it?"

"When you were trying to show me what was in your jacket, that was the gun right?" Connor stared at him incredulously.

"Of course," Shay sighed in relief, "what else would I carry?" They got to the porch where Shay was about to say goodbye but stopped when Connor held his hand.

"You alright boy?" Shay felt Connor's other hand around his neck right under the hairline. "Connor?" He pulled Shay closer until he was sure it was even closer than they had been in the office. Shay noticed that nothing in his expression was the man that fought crime in the streets or ran a company with skill beyond his years; instead it was a young man that was reckless and scared. Since finding out he was Haytham's son he knew why Connor was familiar but now he could see the differences were just as striking. His skin hid his fawn like freckles unless you were this close, he wore no cologne but smelled inviting, and everything about him was warm. Even his eyes were hypnotic and he thought he would melt into them if he looked too long. "Con-"

"Shh…, Shay, will you answer me one question?"

He sighed, "yes."

Connor returned to his normal voice and position. "So all you have to do is look at someone and relax?"

"What?" Shay got pulled out of the moment instantly. Only now did he realize his pulse was faster than normal and that the kid was messing with him.

"Honestly I thought there was some cool mind trick to it but now it's boring," he started to pout about it as he unlocked the front door. "By the way, someone looks really unhappy with you." He pointed as Haytham closed the distance between himself and Shay.

"I advise we go now, make sure not to fool around with my son like that again." He dragged him away while Shay tried to explain the situation and how Connor started it but none of the words seemed to get through. Connor himself felt a little bad for knowing that his father would be watching but now he felt like things were even.

Nobody embarrasses him in front of his mentor and gets away with it.

Poor Shay, he might win some day but that isn't today.

Thanks again for reading so far :)