Chapter 9

The skirmish in Turkey

March 15th, approximately three days had passed, just like Jake had said, we would be taking a trip to Turkey so we could assassinate another Templar on the list, two Templars if at all possible. In all honesty, I didn't care if we took out one or both of them, just so long as I could get the chance to drive my blade into Abelard's gut for killing my family and relatives and taking my sister away.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, during that three-day time span Gabriel managed to finish up my new Assassin attire, and it was exactly the way I wanted it… and more.

"Gabriel… what did you do to my new armor?" I asked as I looked at it on the display stand.

"I threw in a few tweaks of my own," he said, "I figured that since this was new armor for you I thought, "Why not make it extra special for her"?"

I walked over to my new armor and put a hand on it.

"A vest?" I asked.

"Made out a light, yet sturdy material to provide you with added protection from sidearm fire, however, you're still going to be vulnerable to automatic weapons such as assault rifles, and high velocity weapons like sniper rifles," said Gabriel.

"Gauntlets?" I asked.

"Made out of the same material as the vest, allowing you to take hits from knives, swords and small arms fire," he said, "however, while the gauntlets won't wear down from numerous knife attacks, take too many hits from swords and the gauntlets will start to wear down and leave your hands and wrists unprotected."

I looked at my armor and say that there was some kind of wrap that looked like it was meant to be wrapped around my neck like a scarf.

"Nice um… tiny scarf," I said.

"That's a snow mask," said Gabriel, "it's insulated and made out of the same material as the gauntlets and vest. I also added a pair of new boots that will make traveling through snow a lot easier."

I opened up the coat and noticed that there was a pair of holsters for my pair of Colts along with a belt for my grenades and a belt for my knives.

"Go on," said Gabriel, "put them on."

I turned and saw Gabriel had turned around, allowing me to slip out of my old armor and put on my new armor without the fear of being gawked at by him. When I had gotten dressed, I looked at myself in my bedroom mirror. I smiled as I admired my new attire.

"This is perfect," I said as I pulled my hood over my head, "this is just what I wanted."

Gabriel turned and smiled at me.

"I'm glad you approve," he said.

Unable to contain my excitement, I jumped at Gabriel and hugged him.

"Thank you Gabriel," I said sweetly, "thank you so much for this."

"Uh… s-sure thing Ariela," he said as he hugged me back.

"Hey, Ariela, are you ready yet? We're about to-"

But I turned around as Jake walked in and went silent practically in an instant, he looked at me, then he looked at Gabriel and finally back at me.

"Jake!" exclaimed Gabriel, "i-it's not what it looks like."

Jake put his hand up, Gabriel went quiet. I watched as Jake motioned for Gabriel to hit the road, which he did without question, when I looked at Jake, I saw something… something in his eyes that I've never seen before… was he…?

"Jake, I can expla-"

"Don't," he said with a small smile, "I… can see why Gabriel was doing some late hours in his office. I thought he might've been doing repairs to a lot of armor brought in by our operatives… but clearly he was simply doing you a favor."

I blushed with embarrassment.

"Are you mad?" I asked.

Jake shook his head.

"Why would I be mad?" he asked, "he just did you a favor and you gave him a hug right? I don't have a reason to be mad."

Jake turned and the walked out, I followed him through the base and towards our destination.

"That was weird, I've never seen something just appear and disappear almost instantly in someone's eyes," I thought, "could Jake might've been jealous or something?"

We had arrived at our destination: An underground airfield!

"No way, why would he be jealous of me hugging Gabriel?" I thought, "Ariela old girl, you're talking crazy."

Jake and I boarded a… fairly large plane that was ready and waiting to take off. Inside there was a few other Assassins waiting on us, one of them looked like a French guy, roughly in his mid to late 30s, wearing a set of navy blue robes with white accents. Judging by the number of scars on his face, I could tell this guy must've been through some pretty intense fights.

The other Assassin was female, wearing a set of red robes with white accents, she appeared to be British… or Irish maybe, roughly in her early to mid-30s. When she looked up at Jake and I, she gave us a small grin and let out a soft giggle.

"About time you two got here," she said, "what took you both so long?"

"Save it Wendy," said Jake, "Ariela was just making a quick… costume change."

The French Assassin looked up at Jake and I, he let out a small chuckle.

"Nice new robes, didn't you get those off of that Templar, Emil Burke?" he asked.

I nodded.

"I thought as much," he said, "I must say, you don't look too bad in a trench coat, it suits you."

"Thank you," I said.

"Ariela, let me introduce you to Wendy Parker, a British woman who joined our cause after she heard about the tragic invasion of Poland," said Jake.

"A pleasure to meet you," said Wendy, "my condolences for the loss of your family."

"Thank you," I said, giving Wendy a nod.

"And this is Armand Belmount," said Jake, "a soldier of the French military who joined our cause after hearing about the invasion of Poland as well."

"Il est un plaisir de vous rencontrer, jeune Assassin," said Armand.

I blushed nervously.

"Musisz mi wybaczyć, nie mówię po francusku (You'll have to forgive me, I don't speak French)," I said, "jedynym polskim i niemieckim (only Polish and German)."

Armand smiled.

"That's alright, just so long as your fluent in English like me, all is good," he said.

I smiled back at him.

"Well alright then," I said.

I sat down in a chair across from Jake, who sat next to Wendy. I might not be expressing it physically; but on the inside I was actually antsy for the trip to Turkey.

"I didn't get a crack at Abelard because I didn't have the proper skills to take him on," I thought, "but I will now."

"Pilot! Take us to Turkey!" Jake called out.

And with that we were off.

"Ariela."

"Ariela."

"ARIELA!"

I woke up fast, letting out a loud scream and looking around fast, only to see Wendy standing next to me. I frowned at her.

"What? What is it?" I asked irritably.

"We're here," said Wendy.

I blushed and looked around, seeing that Jake and Armand weren't onboard.

"Oh," I said as I hopped out of my seat and followed Wendy outside. Jake was grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Hiya sleepy," he said with a chuckle.

I blushed with embarrassment.

"Um… hi," I said.

"Now that we're all here, we can get this mission started," said Jake, "everyone follow me and stick close."

And that's exactly what we did, the four of us made our way into city and took to the rooftops, leaping from building to building as we searched for the Templars in Istanbul, all the while, keeping an eye out for any possible sharpshooters. I didn't know much about Istanbul, but from what I understand, Jake said it used to be an ancient battleground between the Assassins and Templars many years ago… or as he put it, "A battleground between the Assassins and the Byzantine". I didn't really care what they were called, all I knew was that I hoped the Assassins whooped some major Templar ass during their time here.

…Sorry, I was getting sidetracked. Anyway, like Jake said, the Templars believe that due to this city's past history, the crest might be located here. I wasn't particularly interested in finding this artifact, this… "crest" before the Templars got to it first, all I knew was that if Abelard was going to be here, it was good enough reason for me to tag along.

"Sharpshooter," Armand pointed out.

Without even hesitating, I drew a knife and tossed it at my target, striking him in the chest and causing him to fall to his death. Jake turned towards me and smirked.

"Nice arm," he said.

"I learned from the best," I said.

The four of us kept moving from rooftop to rooftop, keeping an eye out for the Templars or any sharpshooters, it wasn't until Jake motioned for us to stop, and I soon picked up… voices.

"Sen bunu buldum emin olun?"

"Ben erkeklerin emin olmak için defalarca görüş keşif yaşadım. Onlar kret burada pozitif olduğunu söylemek."

Jake motioned for us to slowly follow him. We all looked over the edge of the rooftop we were on and saw them… the Templar task force… and the man who was leading them.

"Abelard Berand, you snake," I thought angrily.

"There they are," said Wendy.

"I've never seen so many Templars in one spot," said Armand.

"What's the plan Jake?" asked Wendy.

"There's too many Templars, if we drop in from above, we'll be caught right in the middle of a massive firefight," said Jake, "I recommend that we follow them to the sight, see if the crest really is there and… Wait a second… where's Ariela?"

What Jake and the others didn't know was that while he was talking, I made my way down to the ground below. I wasn't going to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to get revenge on the man who wronged me by waiting on how we're going to plan out some attack. That's not how I work… okay, I wouldn't take it that far but still.

"Abelard Berand!" I called out.

Abelard and the other Templars turned and gasped when they saw me.

"Sie und ich haben eine Rechnung offen (You and I have unfinished business)!" I called out again.

Abelard gave me a surprised look and cocked his head curiously, then he gasped and started laughing.

"Well isn't this one big family reunion?" he asked, "if it isn't little Ariela. And it seems that you've found a calling."

"I'm with the Assassins," I hissed, "they taught me everything I needed to know on how to fight you guys. And while your plans are notwithstanding, I'm here for one thing and one thing alone."

"Oh? And what's that?" asked Abelard.

I clenched my fist.

"To see you dead," I snarled.

"Ariela!" someone called out.

In an instant, Jake, Wendy, and Armand jumped down from below, killing two Templars each and drawing their weapons.

"Assassins!" one of the Templars called out.

"Kill them all!" ordered Abelard, "leave Ariela to me."

Music to my ears. I drew my Karabela and Dirk, Abelard drew his sword and marched over to me, I charged and met him in the middle, our blades quickly crossed. This man might've spent, who knows how many years, honing his skills in combat; but that wasn't going to stop me, I was going to take him down… no matter what.

"You're fast Ariela," Abelard said as he blocked each of my hits, "but the question is, if you're good?"

Abelard swung at my neck, I ducked and swung at his stomach, forcing him to jump back and allow me to lunge forward, delivering a flurry of large sweeping attacks towards my enemy. Unfortunately, when I went for another sweep, Abelard stepped to the left and swung at my face; I jumped back… but I still received a small graze from his sword. The pain from the cold steel shot through my cheek, I started to feel blood trying to seep through, but I ignored it.

"My, my, aren't you the little Spitfire?" asked Abelard.

"Shut up!" I roared.

I lunged again, my blade colliding with his, the loud ring of cold steel echoing through the streets as I battered Abelard's defenses until he stepped to the side and swung upward. Seeing the blade coming up, I kicked it back down with my right foot and prepared to retaliate; only to take a punch to the face, which caused me to stumble.

"Skurwielu (You fucker)," I hissed as I spat out a drop of blood.

"Commander!" I heard someone call out.

I turned and saw a group of Templars come towards me, each one was wielding a small short sword in their hands. I growled and gripped my weapons tightly.

"I thought I told you-"

But I already jumped at Abelard's men before he could even get a chance to finish his sentence, swinging my blades wildly, I hacked and slashed at the Templars, blood sprayed from my enemies as my Karbala tasted the flesh from their throats and their chests. I turned my attention back towards Abelard, who seemed to have an amusing smile stretch across his face.

"It's you and me now," I hissed.

Abelard chuckled.

"No, it's just you and Klaus," he said.

"Huh?" I asked.

Suddenly, I heard a gunshot, something hit me from behind and I went down, letting out a pained grunt. I turned and saw Klaus, the Templar's Field Agent, holster his weapon and march over to me with his sabre drawn. I reached behind my back and pulled the bullet out of my back, I smiled seeing it looked smashed up… bad.

"I owe you one Gabriel," I thought as I rose to my feet.

"It's your choice Ariela, you can either take on me or Klaus," said Abelard, "take on me, and Klaus's next shot might get you in the head… or somewhere else that's vital."

I turned towards Klaus, who had a sinister smile on his face.

"Take on Klaus, and you lose your chance at getting your revenge," said Abelard, "either way, I see this as a lose-lose situation."

I looked at Abelard, then I looked at Klaus, then back at Abelard and finally back at Klaus. I gripped my weapons tightly and cursed.

"Du bist ein toter Mann, wenn wir Wege wieder kreuzen (You're a dead man when we cross paths again)," I growled.

"Ich zähle auf sie (I'm counting on it)," said Abelard.

I turned to the sound of Abelard fleeing with a few Byzantine Templars. I shook my head.

"You'll get him again… You'll get him again," I thought.

"A wise choice kid," said Klaus, "now… let's dance."