Chapter 37: It All Comes Together

~*I~F~A~C*~

"They're moving in. Max, Valerie, and Gabby are doing their best to hold them off." Paul said.

"Zeke, Cole and Kuo should be waking up in about twenty minutes. Return immediately to your home. Pick up Kuo, Cole and MOST importantly the RFI." Jackson spoke.

Zeke nodded. He grabbed his gun, his hidden blade and left the hideout. Once he got to the surface, he ran to his car. From the hideout to his home is about fifteen minutes, just in time. But in this dire situation, Zeke couldn't help but find a little light at the end of the tunnel.

His friend was finally coming back. His friend had cheated death once more.

Leave it to Zeke to be the one to smile during life or death situations. He just couldn't help it. Even when it was certain that the plague was going to kill him, he still found the will to smile.

An endearing quality.

***IF~AC***

Zeke arrived at his apartment building and found the front door being guarded by Conney's men.

"Shoot."

He heard a sharp whistle and looked around him to find the source. He then looked up and found his fellow Assassins, Max, Valerie, and Gabby holding on to the window sills of a fifth floor apartment; most likely his. They signaled for him to climb up and meet up with them.

Normally Zeke would be apprehensive and hesitant to do this. But the training he's received these past couple of weeks has given him not only the confidence but also the skill to climb anything. He even found some joy in it, soon finding out why Cole enjoyed climbing so much.

"They ambushed us; their numbers were too great for us to engage further. We climbed up here to keep a better eye on things. If they had managed to break into the apartment, we would have jumped in and defended Cole until you arrived." Max explained.

"Has he woken up yet?" Zeke asked.

"He's stirring, but not fully awake. Not sure about Kuo though, she's been out of our sights." Max responded.

"So what's the plan?" Valerie asked.

"I'll go in and get him, Kuo and the RFI. I'll signal you guys to take care of the guys in the front. I'll take care of anyone who gets in our way."

"Are you sure?" Gabby asked. It was a little too soon for a novice to have that much confidence in their abilities. Zeke had plenty of potential but it still didn't sit right with her. He didn't want him to jump into something he wasn't ready for.

"Yeah I'm sure; this is a long time coming." Max, Valerie, and Gabby nodded their heads in understanding, though Gabby was still reluctant.

"Drop down one and move to the left a bit Zeke, I got this." Gabby said. Zeke obeyed her command and dropped down to the window sill below him and shimmied to the left.

Gabby then raised her leg and kicked the glass window to Zeke's living room. The glass shattered and the glass fell to the ground. She pulled out any remaining shards to create a clear opening for Zeke to move in.

Zeke climbed back up and crawled back into the window, landing in the room. "Thanks girl. When all this blows over, you're paying for a new one for me."

Gabby laughed and playfully rolled her eyes.

Zeke grabbed the RFI and placed it into his bag. He also grabbed Cole's amp; he took it from the memorial a little while back. They might need it. Zeke then made his way to his bedroom where Kuo was resting and found her awake and sitting up right. She held her head in her hand and groaned in pain.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Zeke spoke, making his way over to her.

"Like crap. What the hell happened? Where am I?"

Zeke chuckled. Switching from 15th century Italy to 21st century America is quite the change. "You're home. Once you're able to get up on your feet, meet us in the living room." Zeke patted her shoulder and left the room letting Kuo compose herself.

Cole groaned and placed a hand on his face; at long last he was finally waking up.

Zeke heard the sounds of his groans and immediately ran to the living room. Perfect timing. They needed to go.

"Hey brother. How're you feeling?" Zeke grabbed Cole's arms and helped him sit up.

"Like I got run over by a train a hundred times over. What the hell happened? How long has it been?"

"It's been a little over a month. And a lot has happened since then. But story time is going to have to be saved for later. We gotta go man. Pronto-like."

"What? Why?"

"Like I said, I'll fill you in on the gossip later. But right now, we gotta quit this place."

Cole had noticed a distinct change in Zeke. His attire now consisted of a crisp white hooded jacket with blue markings on it, black jeans, and sneakers. Not to mention that Zeke had lost quite a bit of weight.

But he still wore his vintage sunglasses.

"Oh shoot Kuo!" Zeke immediately ran to his bedroom and found Kuo at completely on her feet, making her way out of the room. "Oh good, you're up. We need to-"

"I know." Kuo interrupted. "Is Cole up?"

"Yeah he is."

Kuo said no more and walked out of the room to see Cole.

As soon as Cole saw her; he had an instant déjà-vu. His vision briefly switched to an image of Luisella…

While Kuo's brain had unconsciously flickered to an image of…

"Ni-uh…Cole?"

"Lucy…Kuo…"

Zeke was heavily confused by their interaction. It was as if they were seeing each other for the very first time.

He would have to ask Jackson about this later.

Loud knocks on the door brought everyone back to the growing situation at hand.

"Open up! We know you're in there!"

Zeke went to the window and signaled Teo, Violet, and Gabby to make their way to the front of the building. Once they were out of sight, he went back over to Cole and Kuo.

"Alright, guys we're going to be in for a fight. Y'all up to it?"

"You know I always am."Cole smirked.

"As am I."

"Alright." Zeke cocked his gun. "Let's do it then."

Just then, Conney's men broke down Zeke's apartment door down. The three men walked into the apartment and pointed their guns at the trio. These were certainly not the militia.

Cole's eyes nearly popped out his head. "Zeke, who the hell are these guys?"

"Like I said, story time is for later. We got some business to handle." Zeke pulled the trigger on his gun and killed one of the men. In return, the two men fired at Cole and Kuo, but because they were conduits, the bullets did not affect them as much as it would Zeke

Cole fired lightning bolts while Kuo fired ice particles. Cole continued to fire until the man was overwhelmed and fell over. The other man eventually turned to ice and fell on the ground with a deep thud.

"Nice, let's move. Taking the elevator is obviously out so we're getting in some cardio today." The trio ran out of the apartment and to the staircase. Zeke opened the door and just as one of Conney's men made it to his floor, Zeke shot him in the head. The trio quickly ran down the steps.

When they got to the third floor, one of Conney's men busted through the door and pointed his gun directly at Zeke.

"Zeke, look out!" Cole yelled out.

From the middle of the staircase, Zeke leaped into the air and landed on the man, plunging his hidden blade into his neck.

"Holy shit!" Cole exclaimed. Where did Zeke learn that?

And just where did that weapon come from?

"Keep it moving you two!"

The trio finally made it to the bottom floor. When they opened the door they were met with a wall of Conney's men. There was no escape.

"Damn it, what now?"

"We do what we always do man, we kick ass." Zeke reached around and pulled out Cole's amp and tossed it at him. "This should help."

"Oh-oh hell yes."

Zeke gave two shrill whistles and in almost no time at all, Max, Valerie, and Gabby had shown up behind the wall of Conney's men. But they arrived silently, no one wise to their arrival except Zeke.

"Wait who are those three?" Kuo whispered to Zeke.

"You'll find out." Zeke nodded at the three of them and they proceeded to jump at and kill three of the Templars.

"What the-" Cole began.

"Let's roll!"

Cole, Kuo, and Zeke ran at the remaining men and after some time, with the aid of Max, Valerie, and Gabby, the Templars laid dead. It was a gruesome sight, but it had to be done.

"Seems like I'm always saving your ass Zeke." Gabby spoke.

"Well it is an ass worth saving." Zeke responded with a chuckle.

"Just don't make it a habit. We brought your truck out front. We'll stay back and cover you while get back to the hideout. Leo and Nikki are on the rooftops so you know you're covered there." Gabby winked.

"Alright, sounds good."

"Let's haul some ass!" Gabby, Valerie, and Max ran out of the building and went to their planned posts.

Zeke turned around and were met with the confused glances of Cole and Kuo.

"So…what the hell was that about?" Cole asked.

"I'll say this once more, you'll find out. Come on now." The trio ran out of the building and into Zeke's truck. As per usual, Cole had to stay on the back of the truck to avoid an explosive consequence.

"If you feel you need some electricity, I set up a generator back there. Endless amount of energy there for you."

"Awesome thanks." Cole responded. He absorbed the energy from the generator and felt instantly rejuvenated.

Zeke's phone rang and he answered it, setting it on speaker phone.

"Zeke, they went through us, going to be a rough ride for you!" Leo said, hanging up immediately afterwards.

"Great…Cole I promise your questions will be answered later but right now I need you to take care of some nuisances coming our way. Protect the truck and make sure none of those guys are still tailing us when we get to the hideout." Zeke spoke.

Cole sighed but complied. "Alright."

~I*F~A*C~

The trio finally arrived at the hideout. Cole did his job and made sure that there weren't any more of those strange men following them.

"Uh Zeke are you sure this is the place?" Cole was confused by the simple shack.

"Yeah, we got the place." Zeke chuckled.

After some time, the trio finally arrived at the hideout. Cole was perplexed at the grand room he had just walked into. How could all of this come from a simple shack?

"Ah Zeke thank goodness. I was beginning to worry." Jackson spoke.

"Yeah it got a bit sticky a few times, but got through it." Zeke responded.

"Lucy Kuo, Cole MacGrath, please take a seat, rest." All of them took a seat on the sofas.

"Now I understand you two had quite the adventure?" Jackson spoke with a smile.

"Yeah that was one hell of a dream." Cole responded.

"Well…that wasn't exactly a dream." Jackson said. "Do you have it, Zeke?"

"Right here Jackson." Zeke reached into his bag, pulled out the RFI and handed it to Jackson.

"You see Cole, Lucy, this did more than rid the world of the plague and the monsters made by Bertrand." Jackson began. "This opened a door; a door to the past."

"Meaning?" Kuo asked.

"You two have been reliving the memories of your ancestors. Two very prominent Assassins in all of Italy's history. Nicola MacGrath and Luisella Cadone."

"Assassins? What-" Cole's question was cut off by a sharp pain that ran through his head. Images of what he went through flashed quickly through his mind.

"Oh right, Assassins. Those guys were Templars right? And I guess you guys are the Assassins? Even Zeke?"

"Affirmative." Jackson responded.

"But Nicola MacGrath? I remember him going by Cole rather than Nicola."

"We don't have much detail about it but something happened in 1481 that caused him to take the alias of Cole."

"What happened?"

"We don't know. Each time Jefferson tries to delve into it, he kept getting rejected. As a matter of fact there's a large gap between your ancestor's birth in 1461 and where you picked up in 1486. Of course insignificant memories wouldn't apply, but there had to be a few significant ones between that timeline."

"So what then? Do I just fire up the RFI and let you guys do your digging?" Cole asked.

"Yes and no."

"Why?"

"For one it's too soon for you to activating the RFI after just waking up from a session."

"Why not? I feel good to go."

"Physically yes, but mentally no. Like its corequesite the Animus, over exposure can have dangerous side effects. That headache and those visions you had? Those were only parts of the side effects you can suffer. Continued use could mean that you wouldn't even need to activate the RFI to experience your ancestor's memories."

"So I'd basically go crazy?" Cole asked.

"Simply put, yes. I would say a good week needs to pass for it to be safe. But if your symptoms worsen, it may take longer. Which means if you feel anything, anything at all, tell anyone you see here and they'll pass on the message. Same goes for you Lucy."

"But why all this caution?" Kuo asked.

"We can't risk losing either one of you two. We are losing this war and we need some answers to some of our many questions. You two are the catalysts to those answers. Moreover, if you lose either one of you, it can spell the end for us."

"I understand."

"So do I."

"Good. Now on to other matters. Subject 16 and Kessler."

12K hits! Thank you all! :3

One more chapter left folks! My, this has been quite the journey XD

Thanks for reading & please review =)