"Desmond!"
Tori held up a hand to stop Seth. "Wait, did you hear that?" She whispered as they listened again. It was a female's voice, but it echoed so badly that she couldn't tell if that was Isabella or not. She had only met her a few times, but Tori remembered everyone she met.
Seth closed his eyes and listened once more, and they were not disappointed. The scream came again, and she watched his face light up. "Isabella!" He called into the semi-darkness, but nothing else was returned. "Come on." He grabbed her hand, and pulled her forward.
"Seth, you need to slow down. You don't know what's in front of us." She tried to caution him, but she knew from their time dating, once he had something in his head, there was not a damn way to get it out unless you beat him over the head with something blunt. Right now that was becoming an idea.
"Yeah I do. My little sister." He began to move forward, but she pulled him to a stop. He glared at her in the dim lighting, but she gave him a blank look. "She could be hurt."
"And we will get there, but I would advise using caution at this point. Hell, for all we know it could be a trap." Tori shook her head. "For the love of everything, use your head for once."
And that got a reaction she thought she would never get from him. A low growl came from somewhere deep in him, and before she could blink, all the air rushed from her lungs as he slammed her into the wall behind where she stood. Her eyes widened as he got in her face. "I'm not an emotionless freak like you. My family is the only thing I have in this world, and if you don't like it, got back outside. I can handle this on my own." Then he released her, allowing her to fall to the floor on her knees, trying to get air back in her lungs.
"Seth," she squeaked out, then when she had enough air, she coughed and cleared her throat, "I was just meaning to use caution, not go barreling in there. We don't know what else is in there."
"And I don't care. Izzy is my baby sister, and it was my job to keep her from danger. I should have," he lowered his head, and she could see the guilt so plain. He was still beating himself up over what happened. Something he could have not controlled. "I should have been able to stop the Templars from taking her. I should have known."
Stepping completely out of character for her, she took one step forward, and wrapped her arms around him. He went rigid in her embrace, but it was something he needed in that point of time. "You couldn't have stopped what happened. Hell, maybe it happened for a reason. Who knows what the universe has planned for any of us, but for right now, you need to calm down, and just take it one step at a time."
He began to relax, and she could hear the breath leave him in one long rush. "You're right. I can't run in there, half-cocked, hoping in some miracle. I am an assassin, and I have to get my head screwed in right."
Taking a step back, her hands stayed on his shoulders. "I know you can do it. You're a lot stronger than you think you are. Now, let's get in there and find out what's going on."
He nodded once quickly, and turned, then began to walk towards the small amount of light that lay before them.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
Isabella's head felt like she had been hitting the wine too hard, but she knew she hadn't been drinking anything. Slowing, she began to see if everything was working. Her fingers and toes moved on command, along with her wrists, ankles, and knees. Everything seemed to move, and function, but something was off. Something she couldn't put her finger on. So, ever so slowly, her eyes opened, and took in where she was. The Grand Temple.
Sitting up too fast, the room began to spin, and bile rose up in her throat, but with will she didn't know she possessed, she prevented herself from throwing up the small amount in her gut. Slowly, breathing in the nose, and out her mouth, she managed to keep control and regain her equilibrium.
When she felt comfortable in opening her eyes once more, she looked around the room. The orb sat where she remembered, as did Steve's body. He had been dead to her for six years, but in the here and now, it had only probably been an hour at most.
Had she come back by herself? "Desmond?" She whispered into the silence, listening to the small voice bounce around the chamber, but nothing but the sound of her own vocals greeted her ears. "Please be here."
Placing her hands on the ground, her fingers brushed cloth. Looking down, she gingerly picked up the white hoodie that she knew Desmond owned. Had he…? No, he wouldn't do that, would he? Would he had placed her here in the present, but stayed in the past without her? Tears pricked at the back of her eyes as she raised the white fabric from the dirt, getting a better look at it. He wouldn't do that to her. He said they were a team, but that dark voice in the back of her head began to cackle and tell her she was an idiot for trusting another man.
Making it to her feet, the jacket still clutched in her stiff fingers, she took in the cavernous room. It was the first time she had ever got to look around. Her first time here, she woke up in a cold panic when she heard the Firsts arguing. That was when her journey began, and here was how it ended. She began alone, and now, it seems, was ending it alone.
Taking a few tentative steps, she let her feet carry her towards the exit, but something in one of the side chambers caught her attention. Turning her head, nothing was there. "There you go again, Isabella, jumping at ghosts." Shaking her head, she sighed and began to walk again, but before she could even think, she felt herself falling.
Her brain kicked in right before she did a full on face plant into the perfectly carved stones, and allowed her to tuck into a roll and come back onto her feet. "What the…?" Turning to see what she tripped over, her heart began to race as she looked onto the prone body of Desmond.
Dropping to her knees, she rolled him over. His skin was the shade of reed paper, and his lips were the color of ash. "Oh please, please no." She choked through the sob that ripped at her throat.
With a shaky hand, she rested two fingers on his neck, trying to feel a pulse, anything to signal that he was still there with her. That he had lived, and this was not the end, but she felt nothing. "Please don't leave me. Not like this." Running her fingers through his hair, she choked back the scream that wanted to be let out, but this was not the end. No, it couldn't end like this.
Cradling his head in her lap, the tears poured down her cheeks, splashing onto his face and the skirt of her dress. "You were right. You told me that you would be dead if you came back, but I didn't want to believe it. I couldn't believe it. Damn it Desmond, why didn't I just stay? We could have had a life together. Could have thought about this as a distant memory."
And that was how her brother and his ex-girlfriend found her, crying over a man that no longer took breaths. "Isabella?" She heard Seth call her name softly, and she didn't turn to look at him. She didn't want to be back here. Not like this. She wanted her life from before back. Back before they had found the Apple and they were comfortable with each other.
She heard their footfalls on the stone, but still made no effort to move. She didn't want to move. "Come on Izzy, we need to get out of here." Her brother spoke to her, and she felt his hand rest on her shoulder.
"You shouldn't have come, Seth." Her voice was hoarse from crying, and her eyes could shed no more tears. It was as if everything in her was dying. "I should have listened to him. I should have."
Something was placed on her shoulders and wrapped around her. "Did you know him?" He asked.
"Better than anyone else in this world." Running her fingers across his cold cheek, she still didn't want to believe that he was gone.
"Come on, sis. Let's get you out of here." Releasing her, he tried to pull her to her feet, but she knew that it would be like picking up a dead weight. She had no strength left.
But slowly, he got her standing, then walking. The journey back to the living was something she did not remember, but the chill was unbearable. She had become so acclimated to the warm Italian weather that the bitter cold of the New York winter cut through her like a blade. Her teeth began to chatter, and she pulled to a stop before they came into a cavern. "Wait. I…I have to get warmer clothes on." That was when she realized she left her bag behind.
Tori held out a bag, but it wasn't hers. "This what you forgot?"
She shook her head. "That's Desmond's. Mine was the other one." She began to turn around. "I have to get it. I have to go back."
The older woman stopped her. "I have the other one too." And she slid it off her shoulder. "Here."
"Thanks." Taking it, she knelt down and began to pull Paola's robes from her pack. It was the thing she had. In the six years that she was in the past, her original clothes had been destroyed.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
Seth turned his head as Isabella began to undress right there in the cave. "Why did you come in here in a dress like that?" He asked as he stared at the walls.
"I didn't." Isabella answered back.
"What the hell?" Tori spoke and he turned just in time to see a scar running just below Isabella's ribcage. It couldn't have been no more than a few months old from the coloring. Could've Abstergo given it to her? The thought didn't sit well in his stomach.
"How the hell did you get that?" He asked walking over to her, as she began to pull a shirt on over the scar.
"A fight." Her answers were evasive, but once he began to look at the clothes she was putting on, he had more questions, and he needed more than a two word answer.
"Izzy, what happened in there? And tell me the truth." There was something that they were really missing.
She shook her head, and took a seat on a rock nearby. "Not right now, Seth, please. You will have your answers, but for right now, please don't ask. I just… I just need to get out of here, and get the hell away from this place."
He nodded. "Fine, but when we get somewhere that it's safe, you had better start talking."
"I'll talk when I'm damn good and ready, and not until then. Too much shit has happened, and I really don't want to talk about it. Three people were left in that temple. One came out. I lived when I didn't want to." She pulled her boots on, and pulled the crimson hood on as she stood. "I need to get out of here." And after she gathered both bags, the jacket he had found and placed over her shoulders, she ran like the hounds of hell were biting at her ankles.
"Isabella!" He called after her, but to no use. She was gone, and when they came out into the night, it seemed that a few of the people that were there went after her. Their father walked over with William Miles.
"Who was that?" His father asked looking in the direction that Isabella had ran.
"Izzy. She's… she's not right. Something happened in that place that she won't talk about." Seth shook his head. He then looked at William. "And I hate to tell you, but your son's dead. Something about his death caused my sister to go crazy."
Both men looked at each other. "I didn't know Desmond knew Isabella? Could they have met when Abstergo held both of them?"
William shook his head. "No. He never talked about any other assassins being there. I didn't even know they had her until you said something earlier, but we will have to figure this out…" And before he could finish his sentence, a scream pierced the silence of the night, sending them all running in the direction it came from.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
Damien found his daughter curled in a ball, screams filling the night air, sending the animals that called that forest their home, scurrying for their burrows. He knelt in the snow, laying a hand on her arm. "Isabella." He called name gently, and the screams died down to small whimpers. "Let's get you out of this cold, and away from this place."
She did not attempt to move, and so with the help of his son, they got her to her feet. She leaned heavy on him, and his arm wrapped around her. "William, I must see to her now. I will call you if she tells us anything."
The man nodded. "She may hold the only answers that we need. If she doesn't speak on her own, there is another way to get them."
"I will not let you place her in another Animus. She told me on the phone that was what the Templars did to her. I will not allow that to happen once more." He knew the dangers of the machine. When Seth and Tori managed to get into the cave, he began to talk to Rebecca about the machine and the side effects. "Don't you think that may be why she is the way she is?"
William shrugged. "It could be, but maybe there was something else that happened. Just keep me informed."
As they began to make it to the cars, Hastings ran over. "We need to get out of here. Abstergo found out where we are, and they are on their way. We have maybe a half hour tops."
While they were talking, Damien led his daughter to their car. "Let's get you home, and go from there."
"Daddy, could this all be a dream?" She whispered to him. "Why did this all have to happen?"
"I don't know, Izzy, but we will help you figure it out." Opening the door, she climbed in, and leaned against the other door, staring off into oblivion. It hurt his hear to see her in such a shape, but as a family, they would help her though the madness that was set in her mind. And if they couldn't, he would hire the best medical help he could afford.
Seth came up to side, and gave him a hug. "Think she will come back from this, Dad?" He asked as he looked through the window at his little sister as she pulled the white hoodie around her tighter.
"I don't know, son. It will take time, but she may come back." And he hoped that he spoke the truth. He didn't want to put another child in the ground. He had already done it once, and he would not do it again.
Okay, this is the shortest chapter by far, but the conclusion will come next. I am going to make a part two and incorporate Black Flag into it. Isabella will return, and so will a few other people. *Smiles* I found a great song that goes along with this chapter and that's "Just a Dream" by Carrie Underwood. If you know the song, you will get it. If not, you should listen to it. It's so sad! See ya!