This is during the 1450s; I looked up old maps and, from what I can tell, Romania was in a kingdom (of sorts) that was Lithuania and Libya was a much larger nation (which I'm going to call a kingdom). I hope you like it!
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Bruce's POV
The Templars are gaining control all over Europe. More and more assassins are dying at their hands while more and more cities fall to their corruption and lies. Now, my own country has fallen and I was forced to flee to France where I sent the letter to my fellow assassins: England has fallen. I told them, in code, that I was staying with an old friend, Jacques Morel in Toulouse. Jacques is a sculptor who helped pass messages to other assassins.
About seven months after England fell, I received a letter from a fellow Assassin in Florence. The letter asked me to go to Florence where assassins from the Kingdoms of Libya, Lithuania, and Arabia would meet to plan to stop the Templars. Jacques was kind enough to give me one of his horses to ride and rations for the journey.
Even so, it took several weeks to arrive in Florence where I quickly found the Drake residence. It was a large building built around a beautiful courtyard. A young man who had been reading on one of the several benches in the courtyard looked up and put his book away. Quickly standing and smiling, he walked over to me. "Benvenuti a Firenze (Welcome to Florence), Mr. Wayne! I am Timoteo Drago, but most just call me Tim. The others have already arrived. Follow me, please." While he was talking, I had time to study him. He's young, maybe around 17. His skin is pale, showing that he comes from a wealthy family and his hair is dark, but short for the current style. Blue eyes that looked much like my own shown with friendliness, but I could see him assessing me as well.
He led me into the building and through several hallways where we came into a sitting room with a fire burning in the fireplace. My attention was immediately drawn to a tall, fairly tan man was doing a one-handed handstand on the back of a chair. The young man, around 20 years, who was sitting in the chair closer to us raised his green eyes and said "Hey, Ricardas, they're here." His accent told me he was not from any country that I have visited; his tanned skin attested to that. Broad shoulders and visible muscles told me that he was strong, but the white stripe in his black hair was odd.
"There you are!" The man, Ricardas, dropped from his handstand and into the chair. "We were wondering if you were coming back!" Ricardas said with his thick Eastern accent, grinning and brushing his long black hair out of his face.
"Tt." I heard another voice coming from right in front of the fireplace. I looked over the table to see a boy around 14 years old sitting right in front of the fireplace.
"Are you sure you don't want to sit in a chair, Damon?" Tim asked the tan boy.
"I would rather be here where it is warmer." Now that accent I know is from the Kingdom of Arabia. The last time I went there, I was forced to flee. Ra's, the king of Arabia, forced me to leave my lover, Talia. I miss her...
"Where are you all from, how old are you, and what should I call you? I can guess the regions for most of you, but what city?" I asked them, taking the seat that Tim offered.
"I am Ricardas, I'm 24, and I'm a Romani so I move often. I don't really have a city, but we tend to stay in the region of Romania in the Kingdom of Lithuania. Moving so often helps my escape after an assassination." Ricardas said, grinning.
"I'm Jazon, I'm 21, and I'm from the Kingdom of Libya." Jazon said, crossing his arms defensively.
"I am Prince Damon of the Kingdom of Arabia and I am 15." The boy sitting on the ground said.
"You all seem a bit young." I said, watching their reactions to my remark. Damon and Jazon looked angry while Ricardas and Timoteo looked sad.
"My parents were assassins, but they were killed by a corrupt politician, a Templar, from the Mongol Empire, what is now Russia. I took their place, as they had trained me to do." Ricardas told me, voice sad for the first time since I met him.
"My mother was Italian and my father was French. They both moved to Libya and... I don't really know. I guess they fell in love or whatever. I never met my father and my mother abandoned me when I was five. An assassin found me and took me off the streets. He trained me how to be an assassin and, when he was executed by a Templar, I took his place." Jazon said, looking frustrated and hurt.
"My mother was an assassin and she trained me. When I was four, she was murdered by a Templar. My father had no idea she was an assassin or that I was going to become one. Uncle Slade, my mother's brother, trained me more and paid for a smaller version of the suit and weapons that were my mother's. He stayed with me until I was twelve, then left to go back to being a mercenary. When my father found out Mother and I were assassins, he was angry but he died from the Black Death when I was thirteen." Timoteo said with a nearly blank voice.
"My family has been assassins for years, but for the Templars. Mother trained me to be an assassin because she had fallen in love with my father, who was an assassin for this cause. I never met him. Grandfather was angry that Mother and I were fighting the Templars, which he supported. When the Ottomans conquered some of Arabia's land, Mother and I went into the Ottoman Empire to escape before we gained more assassins. Now we can hide in Arabia and take out several Templars." Damon said, eyes and voice revealing his anger and slight hurt.
"Did you know a Talia?" I asked. I need to know if he knows her... He could tell me how she is, if not tell her that I still love her.
"My mother's name is Talia." Damon said, looking wary. Oh.
"So she married, then?" I asked, staring into the fire. Fire always reminded me of her and the cold, desert nights we spent together by the fire.
"No. Grandfather claimed that she adopted me, but Mother, Grandfather, and the servants have always told me otherwise." Damian responded. "She told me that the only man she ever loved had been forced to leave but she could not move on. She never loved another." I stared at Damon, shocked. He's my son... "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I met Talia AlGhul years ago when I went to Arabia... I loved her." I said.
Damon's eyes widened. "You... are my father?"
"Yes. How is your mother? Why did she not come with you?" I asked.
"When escaping from Grandfather, Mother took a knife to the leg. The doctors were not sure that she would survive. She did, but she still limps. Though she does not let it stop her from going on missions, such a long journey would have taken days or weeks longer than if it was only me that came."
"Awww, family reunion!" Ricardas said, looking overly excited.
"Shouldn't we be talking about how to get the Templars out of England?" Jazon asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Right." I said. "We can talk about this later, Damon." I leaned over the map and put the Templar markers on Bristol, London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, and Norwich. "These are the main strongholds of the Templars. If we capture these, England will be ours once again."
"We could go through France and land in Hastings. Each of us could take a city." Jazon said, showing us on the map what he was talking about.
"The Templars in England are too strong for each of us to take a city. We need to stay together or at least in groups." I said.
"Groups would be faster and we don't really need all five of us in one city." Ricardas said.
"I agree." Damon said, nodding.
"Now to decide who goes with who." Timoteo said, looking around the group.
"We should split off depending on our skills. Obviously we are all skilled in hand-to-hand combat. I am also skilled with the katana and daggers." Damon said.
"Throwing knives and hand-to-hand combat." I said.
"Hook blades, throwing knives, and escrima sticks." Ricardas offered.
"Axe, mace, and hand-to-hand." Jazon said.
"Crossbow, dagger, or poison." Timoteo offered.
"Alright. I think the best plan would be for Damon, Ricardas, and I to take Bristol, London, and Norwich while Timoteo and Jazon take Edinburgh, Manchester, and Birmingham. Nottingham is their stronghold, so we'll all meet there before attacking." I said, looking around at the others.
"Bene (Good/okay)." Timoteo said, nodding. "I will go to the docks to see when the next voyage is to France. Make yourselves at home." He walked out the door, and I couldn't help but wonder what was going on at home.
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Bruce's POV, Several Months Later
Finally, I am home. I looked around Nottingham, noting how little it had changed. We are staying at the house of the sheriff of Nottingham, Gordon. His daughter, Barbara, has been leading the rebels with three of her friends: Stefanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, and Helena Bertenelli.
Barbara was an intelligent young woman with a large information network. She knew about everything going on in the city. When she was younger, her mother and brother were murdered by Templars. She remembered her father talking about how corrupt the people he worked with were becoming and devoted her life to stopping the Templars. She went to France and Spain to study under Dinah Lance and Selina Kyle, both of whom were assassins.
Stefanie was a young woman from the Kingdom of Kalmar (what is now Scandinavia) with blonde hair and a spirited attitude. Stefanie's father was a Templar, but, though she did nothing to stop him, she had never agreed with his ways. An assassin, who we just figured out was Tim, had met her and they had fallen in love, but Stefanie's father attacked Tim and Stefanie had thought he was dead. Stefanie ran away, deciding to join the assassins and fight against the Templars. She came to England where she ran into Barbara who became her mentor.
Cassandra was a young woman from Siam with black hair and a very observant gaze. Cassandra, who liked being called Cass, had escaped from Templars that had captured and trained her, coming west to escape them. She had been trained her whole life to kill without mercy but, one of her missions took her to Arabia. There, she had met Damian and she saw the freedom he had and heard whispered stories of the assassins. Cass managed to escape the building in Arabia and came to Europe where Barbara and Stefanie stumbled upon her... or so Stefanie told me.
Helena was born on the island of Sicily to a Christian, anti-Templar family. When she was five years old, Templars murdered her family and took her in. They trained her to kill and torture. Once she was 15, she found the chance she had been waiting for and killed the family, escaping the island into Greece where she met an assassin, Diana of Themyscyra. Together, they stopped the Templars from controlling Greece.
As we snuck towards the castle of Nottingham in the shadows of the night, I couldn't help but admire the skills of the others. For ones so young, they were clearly as skilled as I am. As soon as we were close enough to the castle to see the guards, Timoteo, Helena, and Barbara lined up their crossbow shots. Within a half a minute, all of the guards were dead. We all got closer before scaling up the wall and into the castle. The closer we got to the target, Jack Naiper, the Templar leader, the more guards there were. Outside Naiper's room, the hallway became larger and there were many guards there, waiting. "Probably because they know we are in England and that this is the only city they have left." Barbara whispered. I nodded and gave the hand signal to get ready to attack. Damon took out his katana, Jazon his axe, Ricardas his hook blades, Timoteo his dagger, Barbara her knives, Cass her sword, Helena her staff, and Stefanie her knives.
I gave the symbol to attack. Most of the battle was a blur of instinct, but I remember glancing at each of the others to make sure they were alright. I was proud of my son, dodging and attacking with uncanny precision as he slit throats and arteries, but he left himself open sometimes. Ricardas clearly had his back, though, flipping and dodging, piercing hearts, lungs, and slitting throats. Jazon and Timoteo were staying close to each other, sometimes even using each other to help in battle without needing to say a word. Jazon was swinging his axe, using his strength and size to his advantage. Timoteo, on the other hand, was winding and dodging, using his small size to quickly move behind people, or even wrap around them, before stabbing them. Barbara and Helena were literally back to back, slashing, hitting, and tripping people, smashing their head in or using their knives. Stefanie and Cassandra fought in complete synchronization, switching places with each other, twisting around each other to hit someone on the other side of the other.
It only took a few minutes before all of the soldiers were dead. I knelt at the door and picked the lock, walking in with my throwing knives at the ready. Suddenly, I felt something hit my head and I stumbled foreword, vision blurred. I heard a grunt of pain and a gasp from behind me and, once my vision cleared, I saw Naiper holding his stomach, crimson blood flowing from between his fingers. Damon stood in front of Naiper, his dagger covered in blood and a fierce look on his face. "No one kills my father."
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Bruce's POV, A Week Later
After Alfred's amazing breakfast, it was time for the others to leave. Ever since Naiper's death, the others have been staying at my estate, but it was finally time for them to go home. They left in a group, waving as they went. Damon, Alfred, and I watched from the windows. I know Talia won't be happy that Damon decided to stay with me, but I will make sure that he has that choice. Damon is settling well here; learning the British ways and getting to know the slang and culture. I am so proud of him. We have decided that the 9 of us decided that we would stay in closer touch. We've almost become like family and what a crazy family it is.
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I hop you liked it! Sorry for the long wait but my mom had foot surgery, I had driving school, and homework has been killer (so bad that it took up my lunch, which is when I usually write). Please review!
