"Mentor!"

Quickly, Ezio threw a blanket over the cat-woman who sat on his bed as Annette stood in front of the lump in the fabric, and Yerman pretended to act casual. It took a moment, but the door opened to reveal one of the more experienced recruits, Ibrahim. He appeared out of breath from running and he held much of his weight against the doorframe.

"Mentor, the Constantine North Den..." He panted.

"What happened?" Ezio questioned, arching an eyebrow.

The recruit took a breath before announcing, "A bomb exploded in the den."

Annette was quickest to respond. "A bomb? What kind? Is everyone alright?"

"Evet, everyone is." Ibrahim assured. "But the bomb had been hidden inside a pie, it's a big mess."

"A pie?" Ezio repeated.

"Yes."

"What kind of pie?" Yerman asked in little more than a joking manor.

The older recruit stared from each person before he announced the flavor with much seriousness. "Cherry."

"Dios mio... such a waste..." After another long moment, Ezio then told him, "Round up some of the younger recruits to clean this up and return to the den."

"Mentor, do you wish for me to help as well?" He seemed curious, but also was unsure he was happy with asking.

"Yes, you will." Ezio told him. "Or at least make sure that it gets cleaned up."

He nodded, slightly disappointed, before leaving the room. When he was gone, Ezio uncovered the former feline and sighed heavily.

"I need to start thinking of better places to hide things..."

Annette hummed her agreement as she paced. Their "guest" watched her with slight curiousity before she turned to something that no one else had. "Hide."

Annette stopped pacing, Yerman looked up, and Ezio stared at her in confusion. "What?"

She pulled the blanket back over herself as she repeated, "Hide. Hide!"

That was when the door opened again, Elif was standing there holding her side, the fabric of her robes clung with blood. Her legs were quaking under her own weight, and she shook with a chill that was not in the air. Small scarlet drops trailed down her hands, to her fingertips, and fell to the floor where they splattered. Her breathing was harsh and labored.

Right away, Ezio was on his feet and let her lean agaisnt him, taking some of the weight from her unstable frame. "What happened to you?"

Through unsteady intakes of air, she managed to say, "Byzantines... was spying... they found me..." She then stumbled forward, and would have fell to the floor had Ezio hadn't been supporting her. He took an arm over his shoulder as he opened the door with his free hand.

"Calm down, it will be alright." He told her. "You can tell me when I manage to fix these wounds." And with that, he half-carried her down the hall and to her room.


"So, you aren't a cat."

Yusuf shook his furry head. Not only had he spent the entire night up explaining the WHOLE STORY to Sevmek, Hoca was actually interested enough to bombard him with questions. Soon the old cat fell asleep, but Sevmek still was swarming with questions. Most of them envolved repeating bits of the story.

"And this 'key' turned you into one."

"Evet," He confirmed. "That's basically what happened."

"And that collar you're wearing?" She asked.

He craned his head a bit to look down at the orange and gold striped fabric. "It normally would be a headband, but my friend wanted to be able to find me again, so he made it look like a collar."

She nodded, staring down at her paws as she grew quiet. "I thought that... I'm sorry..." She then stared to stand up, but he got to his feet first.

"No, if this is anyone's fault," Yusuf told her, "then it's mine. I could have, and should have, told you and Hoca when you first found me. But I let it all slide by as unimportant." In his mind, he wondered if Ezio would know how to handle this situation any better. But then again, what was he thinking?

Sevmek didn't even look at him, she just continued to walk away with her head down and ears drooping in the classical "DERPressed" look. He wasn't sure if he intended to say what he said next, or if it were all a reflex with guilt and his nagging conscience.

"You could come with me, help me get out of here and back to the headquarters." He told her, but quickly bit his own tongue in attempt to shut up, but what was said was said. It was too late to take his words back.

She stood frozen for what seemed like an hour before her ear twitched before both perked up and she turned to face him. "You're not lying about this, Yusuf? Can I?"

This was one of those situations where you HAVE to say yes unless you want to risk looking like a total jerk. He nodded, which she immediantly ran bck over and tackled him over playfully. He rolled over and got back up to his feet as she laughed.

"Thanks. How do you expect to get out of here?" Sevmek asked.

Good question... he didn't even know...

"The window in the kitchen. We can get out through there." Yusuf told her, it could work right? Right. All they needed to do was wait for Hoca.

Speaking of which, that Romani woman, Mirela had just opened the door and dropped the old cat in the room. Yusuf came up to him right away, but Sevmek paused breifly.

"Hoca, we're getting out of here," He told him.

The old short-haired cat blinked dazily before laughing, "You're leavin'? But it's so nice here!"

This brought a shock through both of them, Hoca was the one who grumbled about being a housecat since he got here, what could have happened in his time with Manuel (the most possessive man Yusuf had met in some time) to change his mind? Well he looked CLEAN for once, that was a start. But there was something about those glassy eyes that reminded him of a drunk man. But it was clear that Sevmek caught onto the issue.

"Hoca, what have they done to you?" She questioned. Then she stepped back, repulsed. "Hoca, they didn't-!"

Hoca purred and brushed past her before bouncing around like a kitten, meowing with delight. "I didn't feel this young in a long time!"

Yusuf would have arched an eyebrow had he been human. "What's wrong with him?" I haven't seen someone this strange since one of the recruits were messing with incense, he thought.

Sevmek sighed heavily with annoyance, disgust, and unease. "The notails must have given him catnip, because I don't know what else would make him like this."

"Can we still take him with us?" He wondered aloud.

Sevmek stared at Hoca, who was rolling around on his back purring loudly as he rubbed his head to the floor. "Probably not." She looked to him guiltily. "We'll have to leave without him, or risk him hurting himself."

"Fine. Then we should go." Yusuf told her, and when he was sure she listened, he paced to the door. Once again that roadblock stopped him. How did he plan to get out? An idea came to mind and he clawed at the wooden surface until it opened.

Mirela stood over him before a smile crossed her face, but Yusuf and Sevmek quickly ran out the door and down the stairs scurrying for the kitchen. Yusuf found himself almost stepped on, but thankfully Vali got out of the way as he ran past. Shock turned into retaliation as the Romanian chased after the two felines shouting, "Stop! Get back here!"

In the other room, Yusuf could hear Cyril speaking with Manuel. He heard one thing that made him freeze momentarily. "I was almost killed by an Assassin trying to spy on him. But the guard gave that coward the beating, and she ran away with her tail between her legs."

To him, the stakes were only higher now. He needed to get back to the Assassin Headquarters as soon as possible. And Vali chasing him wasn't helping either. There was only one shot at this, and this was it. Last thing he needed was to fail and get locked up.

With a strong leap up, he landed on the tabletop with Sevmek behind him. Early morning light inked the room, bathing them in orange and red as Vali came rushing in. He was too late to stop them at the table, they jumped to the counter and he, without time to correct himself, crashed into the wooden furniture and knocked it over. He sat awkwardly in a daze for less than a couple of moments before getting back to his feet in one last effort to stop the two, but Yusuf and Sevmek jumped out of the window racing across the tile roof to escape the building.

The former assassin clamored out of the window to get to them, but they had already put so much distance now as their paws scrapped over the rooftops. He dared to look back, just once, to see Vali in hot pursuit gaining on them. Fear of sharing the same fate as Hoca, and for the welfare of his brothers pushed him to run faster, just enough to outrun the man.

Almost to the edge, where he remembered the path down, he chanced a glance back to see Vali sink to his knees in defeat as he just watched them. They stared at each other for the longest of moments, both breathing hard from the chase. Pity seemed to settle into Yusuf, the guy probably wanted something to hold close to him. It didn't seem so unlikely. He sort of wanted to turn back and give him one last goodbye, to assure that he didn't completely hate him or something.

"If you show your remorse, and you go back, you will never leave. Go while you still can." His mentor's words buzzed in his mind. He looked down at the wooden beamed, then back at Vali apologetically before hopping down to the first one. Maybe he'll get over it, but at least he still had Hoca. He could show that old cat some compassion. But no matter what reasons he could come up with for staying, the few reasons he had for leaving always outruled the rest. This was for the best.

Alright! Sweet! Got this chapter done! Yusuf has just escaped the Templar headquarters! YAY!