Chapter 36: Purpose
A/N: Hello, all. There's a reason for this update being only one chapter. Currently I have the remainder of the chapters of Sequence 3 being reviewed by my proofreader, but I have been working hard to get the rest of this done by the end of August. Also, I will be going on vacation for a few days, and will be back around Wednesday, so I wanted to leave with a chapter updated.
For reasons that will soon be clear, I am changing the rating of this fic from T to M due to some of the subject matter becoming a lot darker than before. With that in mind, I thought I would give a fair warning in saying that some of what comes will include a lot more graphic violence than before, and a lot more swearing. I've felt this crossover shift from A Once/Assassin's Creed story, to an AC story with some of the Once characters in it. This is also because my rewatching of the episodes had me notice that the writing was becoming a lot more choppy, and the acting not as deep as it had once been.
Yes, I am aware of a few things that happened in the show since I quit watching, that I have not mentioned. I am aware Robin is dead, and the show is actually doing a soft reboot this season with Henry now a grown up. If this was the final season, I would be okay with this. Doesn't mean I'm going to watch. Sorry.
Also, a recent review had someone ask if I had referenced Avatar The Last Airbender in chapter 6. That was indeed a reference, and I'm glad someone finally spotted it. The exchange between Asgeir and Anna is also taken out of Game of Thrones' first season as well. (The newest episodes are ON FIRE!)
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
2 weeks later…
Chaos. It all erupted last night. Matthew let it happen, and now Asgeir had lost his last chance. If there even was one left at the start of all of this. This was clearer to me than ever, with what lay right before me. When everything was said and done, and Ingrid would be out of the picture, the noose would be all that remained for him. Not revenge, not peace for him and his sisters. Just a loop of rope. He earned that himself.
Whatever pile of flesh Asgeir had left for us, it looked almost nothing like a corpse, much less the person it once had been, Sydney Glass. Every finger on his hands were gone, and even what had been his hands were cut off and thrown to the ground when Asgeir tired of that. There were drill holes in his shoulders, thighs, and the fingerless hands on the ground. And in his feet, which he didn't get the chance to cut off before he fled the scene.
His left arm was broken severely in half, and his right arm had chemical burns all over. To be truthful, it was almost impossible that he had been able to live through half of what Asgeir had put him through. How did Asgeir torture him so much, but keep him alive all the same? Maybe, he wanted to ensure that he lived through as much pain as he wanted. Of course, not one person could survive what he had gone through to the very bitter end.
His wallet still had $75 in cash in it, and the only cards inside were his driver's license, and a recently expired Mastercard. This wasn't for money, then, we concluded. Why would it? The other Assassins that seized Asgeir's personal effects last night said he had almost twenty thousand American dollars in cash. And he had only stolen a shilling before in his life when he absolutely needed it.
Some of the Assassins had no clue what could have happened exactly to drive Asgeir to do this to an innocent man. If it was Ingrid's body that lay before us, I would understand. But not this man. But based on what we were able to gather from Elsa and Regina in the past few hours, maybe Asgeir felt he had a better reason to do this than what Matthew had led us to believe. Our Mentor would refuse to admit that his emotions were getting the better of him, but I knew deep down that he was more furious at Asgeir than ever. We all were.
Weeks ago, Regina had sealed her 'mirror' back into his glass prison, forcing him to go back to his ways as her lapdog. But then, Regina said when we questioned her, that he had betrayed her for his freedom by leading them into a trap in the woods Ingrid had rigged for them. He had wanted his freedom too soon, and Ingrid, the queen of mirrors, gave him just that.
Asgeir must have broken out of his room by then, thinking he would be able to track Ingrid down himself. Instead, he heard chatter over the radio of someone who had betrayed the Evil Queen for the Snow Queen. A bargain that he was more than happy to see turn from a deal for freedom, to a deal for death.
No one said a word as the clean-up was made. Fear or shock, they all knew that the one responsible for leaving this corpse in a pool of its own blood and severed pieces was now locked up awaiting his death when his immortality would be cured. And I hadn't even gotten to the ashen husk of a building left on Main Street still smoking from the flames that had eaten it up only hours ago.
We knew from that moment that we should have kept a closer eye on Asgeir. He broke into the hardware store minutes later. And everything he had taken resulted in a pile of blood soaked bones and Any Given Sundae burned to the ground. With the Assassin logo sprayed in red, right on the metal interior of the freezer, which had stayed somewhat intact. Asgeir thought he had killed Glass and burned down the ice cream parlor in the name of the Assassins. How could he do this?
Geoff got up from his knees in the blood. Some of it was dry, but a lot of it clung to his jeans. He looked up at me, and said nothing before walking off. There was a cleanup needed to be done here at the Outpost, but no need to find out who did it. Two Assassins picked up the burned body, and carried him off to the door.
The chair was all that remained. I could almost hear the screams of pain echoing through the cabin as Asgeir… I could barely look at it. But then I felt the rage hit me.
"FUCK!" I slammed my foot onto the chair, skittering it across the floor into the corner. It slid through the puddle of blood, spreading it across the cement floor like jam.
It was dawn when we got back to Cormac's. Asgeir was now in one of the weapon storage lockers that we had cleared out for him. Locked from the outside, no food or water. This was as much as we could for solitary confinement, and we were going to keep it that way for a while.
"Conference room." Matthew said to us as we entered the nearly empty pub. "Now."
No words. Barely even a breath. We all did as we were told, walking into the side room and taking our seats.
Matthew sat there for a minute. "We cannot let this out into the open. Not to the Assassins, yet. As for the townsfolk, they can't know. Not yet. As far as Regina will know, Glass managed to find a way out of this damned town, and is now on the run. We're going to keep it that way for as long as we can."
Hiding all of this from the citizens would be one thing. Hiding it from as many of our own brethren as we could was another. I didn't sign up for this shit. We were here to protect people, not sweep every mess under the rug. In all honesty, if Asgeir was in his right mind and hadn't put Glass through all that shit, giving him a clean and quick kill, I would be giving him a medal. Anyone who would betray this whole town for Ingrid at least deserved a blade to the neck.
It was me, Matthew, Zar, Rory, Keaton, Marc, Willis, Geoff, and the few other Master Assassins we had here. Zar and Rory still looked shaken from what they had seen, breathing quite loudly through their mouths like they were civilians that had ran three blocks. Keaton kept his regular gruff but well-meaning composure, and the rest only remained silent.
"I want all of Asgeir's personal effects seized immediately."
"We already did that, Matthew." Keaton replied.
"Anything we may have missed that we grabbed from him before. Everything. Geoff and Keaton, head up to his room and into his truck. Find anything that you can there. The bastard's told me most of what went on in The Gates, but I want to know everything. Everything. Starting with why he was even there in the first place."
Zar looked at Matthew in horror.
I stood up, in fury. "You would dare call him that word?"
Matthew looked up, fire in his eyes. "Jason, don't you start now."
"I think I have a right to do so, Mentor." I snarled. "You can't seem to look past your own ego and self-righteousness to notice this entire operation is falling apart! Arendelle's and the Enchanted Forest's branches are doomed. Ingrid doesn't need to cast her curse on this town! All she needs to do is wait. It's your leadership here that's going to end with all of us rotting in the ground. Especially when you try to hide this innocent man's death to everyone here and call Asgeir a bastard! A bastard! He never was to me! He was my brother! And Zar's! And…" Their names caught in my throat. Even if they may still have been alive. "And Troy's. And Rabbit's. And Anna's and Elsa's especially. And he was our real Mentor's son! Whatever happened to Asgeir in the Gates, whatever hell he was dragged through, you can't cover it up like this! Then we're no better than the Templars!" I started for the door. "Keep me out of your plotting, Matthew! If following you is the price I pay for keeping my hood, then I am done when the Snow Queen is dead!"
For two weeks he had been locked up in his room, and then he busts out all of the sudden. I didn't see any windows on Asgeir's new cell as I walked down into the Bunker with a mug of coffee. It was only a door with every lock we could spare keeping it shut. Two Assassins with tranquilizer guns kept it sealed shut, and there was nothing I could do to go in.
I was hating Matthew more and more for the carelessness I was seeing. Asgeir, I only hated for what he had become. Regardless if it was his own fault or not. Why couldn't Ingrid put him out of his misery? Was it in her nature to make people suffer for so long? Why?
"Jason?"
I looked up. Elsa stood before me. She gave a curious glance at the guards.
"What's in there?" She said, giving a small smile.
I didn't want to tell Elsa the truth. But shutting her eyes to the chaos around her wasn't fair, either.
"Asgeir." I replied. "We had to move him there, Your Majesty."
"Why? Has he done something wrong?"
Something wrong was done, but it wasn't by him. Or rather, the man that used to be my best friend. "No, Your Majesty. It's only that he is a danger to himself and everyone else. He can't be let out."
"Well, can I at least see him?" She asked.
A guard at the door was about to say the negative, but I held my hand up. "No, Your Majesty. I'm sorry, but it's in everyone's best interests, yourself included, that Asgeir remain in solitary for the time being."
I hated how Matthew planned on hiding everything to the Assassins, but Elsa was a different story. Could she truly process that her brother had taken a life that didn't deserve to go out the horrific way he did? Sydney wasn't the first innocent life he had taken, if Ingrid was to be believed in whatever she told Elsa.
"I noticed one of the buildings in town burned down overnight; The Snow Queen's ice cream parlor. Is Asgeir responsible for that?" She said, more serious than I thought was even possible from her.
I could barely look at our Queen. Such responsibility placed on her at a young age, and here I was seeing nothing but a green, scared girl trying to understand why her brother was acting the way he is.
"Yes." I said.
She took it as best as I expected her to. "And… what does this mean for him? I saw him get shot in the head and get right back up. What are you planning to do?"
I shook my head. What Matthew planned to do wasn't possible right now. "I'm not sure, Elsa. I wish I did."
My cell suddenly rang. Elsa jumped with shock, eyeing my phone as I took it out. Caller ID was a number I didn't recognize. I picked it up.
"Yeah?"
"*Jason, this is David. *"
"David? How'd you get this number?"
"*Matthew gave me all the burner phone numbers after the Curse lifted. *"
I doubted that. Maybe not all of the numbers, but enough so he could call one of us. Still using all the tricks from any criminal ring.
"*I tried calling Asgeir's cell, but he's not answering. *" He continued.
"Asgeir's out of commission for the moment. What's going on?" I said.
"*Emma's called most of us to the Sherriff's station. Bring Elsa, and anyone else from Cormac's. *"
"Alright." I replied. "We'll see you there." I hung up.
"What did the enchanted box say?" Elsa said curiously.
I chuckled a bit. "It's called a phone, Your Majesty. And it said that David wants us at the Sherriff's station right now. Let's get going."
We started to climb the stairs out of the Bunker. Matthew was at the top with Rory in the doorway of the freezer, still looking as angry as he had been in the conference room.
"Just got the call from David?"
"Yeah." I replied, curtly.
"Let's get to it, then. Now." He ordered, heading out the door into the kitchen.
Rory looked back, waiting for us at the top. "Jaysus. He's bein' quite the shite."
"Like you wouldn't believe, Paddy." I muttered.
When we reached the top, Rory took a quick bow, taking Elsa's hand.
"M'lady." He said, chuckling.
Elsa smirked. "Nice try. It's actually Your Majesty."
"Ah shit!" Rory exclaimed. "Now I owe Zar a fiver."
"*Give it back, Kevin. The camera is Emma's not yours.*"
And the secrets kept piling up. We were at the sheriff's station, watching an old video Emma had found in her personal belongings.
"Emma that's you!" Snow whispered as she eyed the footage. "You must have been-"
"Thirteen, maybe fourteen." She replied, her eyes still glued to the screen.
No memory of Ingrid with her before all of this started a few weeks ago, yet here it was, video footage of her as some surrogate mother to her at one point. A younger Emma in a home of foster kids, one of them with the camera in his hands. I glanced at Matthew, who still had his eyes to the screen.
"Are you missing the part where she's with the Snow Queen?" Regina said, confused. "Emma, you knew her before you came to Storybrooke?"
"Apparently, my run in with her in town wasn't the only memory that she erased." She said. "All this time in that foster home, or wherever that place was. It's all gone."
"Ok, so can someone please explain to me how she even got to this world?" I asked.
Emma turned in her seat. "We were hoping Gold could tell us that. You spent more time trying to get here than anyone." She said to him. "How the hell'd she do it?"
"Considering the time I spent on the same task, I'd love to know." He replied.
"Does it really matter about how she got to Emma?" David asked. "I mean, shouldn't we be more concerned about why?"
The rest of them didn't know why. But we, the Assassins, at least still remembered what happened in Arendelle. And there was something at the back of my mind, bugging me. An itch of sorts. This was all connected in some way. Ingrid trying to turn Asgeir and Anna on Elsa, and now her appearance in town here, now showing interest in Emma. I remember Asgeir even looking shaken when we mentioned that Ingrid seemed to know Emma before. There was a real reason as to why it was all happening. Asgeir likely knew what this was all headed to, but I wasn't sure about Matthew.
"Obviously, she needed her for something." Regina replied. "But what?" She smirked humorlessly. "Well, that's our next problem."
"Well, we know she's hiding somewhere in the North Woods." David said. "We combed every inch of her home." Then he looked at us. "And we checked her shop before it burned to the ground. She must have cleared it out days before."
"So then, she's hiding something." Hook said.
"But where?" Emma said.
David moved on Matthew. "What have the Assassins found?" He asked. "You guys seem to know an awful lot more about what the Snow Queen is doing here. And then a house on the outskirts of town goes up in smoke two weeks ago, and her shop just last night."
"Ask Asgeir if we let him out." Matthew replied. "He's responsible, not us."
Except Rory was the one who blew up the house, or as these fools were too blind to know, one of George's labs.
"Yeah, I figured as much." He said. "And I will be talking with him soon enough. Make no mistake."
There was silence for a moment until the kid, Henry, piped up.
"What about her ice cream truck?" He said, getting back on topic.
Emma looked surprised. "Whoa, Snow Queen has an ice cream truck?" She asked.
He shrugged. "I'm a kid. I notice these kind of things." He said.
Emma was impressed. As was I, though only a little.
"Then we split up into groups." David ordered. "We search the town, the woods. Hook, Regina, Emma you take the west, Gold and Jason, you're with me for the east."
"Roger." I replied, just glad to have a reason to get away from Matthew's command for a while.
"I think we all know I work best alone." Gold countered.
No, I realized. Even Matthew could see what was really going on. Rumplestiltskin was hiding something. We'd need to keep an eye on him, too, if we could spare the eyes.
"No time to argue that." David admitted. "Belle, how are you at tracking?"
Belle shook her head. "Actually, I-I think I'll be more helpful at the library." She replied. "Maybe I can dig something up on the Snow Queen."
"Okay." David said. "Rory?"
"Aye. I can help." He said.
Elsa got up, turning to the brunette. "I'd like to come with you, Belle, if that's okay. Maybe something about my sister will be there, too." She said to her. "Unless… you'd rather not have the company?"
Belle looked a little surprised, but shook it off. "No. N-not at all. I'd love some."
Elsa beamed, and they both headed out.
David jerked his head aside. "Let's go."
Matthew followed close behind as we walked down the hall.
"I'll be keeping an eye on the toad, meanwhile." He muttered behind me.
I didn't look back, still furious at him, but gave a short nod. It needed to happen. With Ingrid and George both closing in, the last thing we needed was the Dark One getting set loose as well. He claimed that Belle had his Dagger, but all the Assassins at Cormac's knew it was bullshit.
"Are we going to talk about the ice cream shop burning down, last night?" David asked.
Rory remained silent, completely out of his character. I glanced back at David.
"I'm not going to try to cover all of this up as a gas leak, Jason." He said. "Asgeir burned it down, didn't he?"
"Even I don't want to admit it, David. But Asgeir has finally pushed Matthew over the edge. He's not waiting for his release anymore, after the Snow Queen is found. He's waiting for his execution."
David's eyebrows shot up. "You all make that decision?"
"The lad's not well, mate." Rory replied. "If you had been in Arendelle when she were on 'er last legs, you'd at least understand what he's gone through. That Snow Queen woman is the whole reason why he can't die."
"And he wants vengeance for it, is that it?"
"I can only hope, David. I once thought it was because he thought Anna and Elsa died at her hands, but now that we know that they are both alive, he's only got himself to blame for what he has done."
"Be that as it may, is killing one of our own really the right decision? Especially now?" He replied. "We're supposed to be the heroes, here."
I turned back to him. "We are not the good guys, David. We're Assassins. We assassinate people. History speaks of us as murderers. Rapists, thieves, cutthroats. It's not that far from the truth, isn't it?"
"And so, you think of it the best course to prove them right?"
"It's not about that." I replied. "It's one of the ironies that the Creed points out. 'We seek to promote peace and freedom, but we do so through violence.' I don't know what else to tell you."
"Just tell me that you give Asgeir a second chance." He said. "Despite all that he's done, please. Let me talk to him. He's my friend."
I looked back at him, almost feeling my breath catch in my throat. He was right, but as much as I hated to admit it, so was Matthew.
"He was mine, too."
David's radio suddenly lit up. "*David, call off the search party. We found the truck near the Merry Men's camp.*" Came Emma's voice.
He grabbed his radio. "I'm on my way, Emma." He looked up at me and Rory. Uneasily.
"Any more need of us?" I said, taking the hint.
"No." He replied. "If there's anything there of interest that Asgeir didn't burn, I will let you know. In the meantime, stay out of this. Do… whatever else it was you were doing without us." The Prince trudged off, leaving me with the Irishman.
"He's got quite the shite attitude as well, that he does." Rory slurred, pointing his finger in his direction.
I scowled back at him. "How can you be so laid back about this, Rory?" I said, starting for the town. Heading back to Cormac's would be the best course. Maybe Robin would have been open to pass the intel along to us.
"Whoever said that I was?" He replied.
"Oh, please. Everyone else at Cormac's has seen what Asgeir has turned into. They all saw what remained of Glass after Asgeir got to him. Every one of us are on the edge about this for good reason. How can you still be acting like it's all so peachy?"
Rory looked over at me, finally beginning to look serious.
"Well, if what I heard out of Lady Blizzard Braid is all true, she said that optimism was what kept her sister goin'." He said. "I'm sure me and lil' Anna might get along just fine if we ever met."
"I'm sure you would." I shot back.
"In any case, I take a few pages out of Jacob Frye's book. Man might not have been the best Assassin in our war, but he knew optimism. You honestly expect that Matthew is gonna kill the prodigal son o' the Arendelle Assassins when we cure him of what ails him?"
I turned around and jabbed a finger into Rory's chest. "If you even knew what kind of man Matthew was, you would know that he knows no humor. When he makes a threat, he'll act on it, one way or another."
"And is that what you want?" He asked. "You seem to be rooting for the guy to take out your best friend when this is all over."
I pulled my finger back, still holding the other fingers in a fist. We continued to walk. Instinctively, my thumb brushed over my ring finger. I was marked three months after Asgeir was. While Matthew had been displeased how I used my rifle more than my blade in my trials, he commended me on how I never missed a shot. Years later, the title that Ryan of Corona carried would pass on to me, thanks to my best friend. Thanks to Asgeir, people knew I would go on to be known as the one who never missed a single shot.
What did the Creed mean to me, I asked myself, suddenly. What had it meant, and what did it seem to stand for, now? With all these secrets piling up, the pressure mounting, it wouldn't take much for this whole thing to burn to ashes.
Nothing is True. It meant that everyone else was going to tell me what to think. I had to decide what was real for myself.
Everything is Permitted. But is it really, when I follow the orders of a bloke like Matthew?
"I don't know. If I knew what had happened that drove Asgeir to what he did, I'm sure I would know."
"I figured out what he had discovered. Not anymore of what had happened to him after Arendelle fell, but of what Matthew is trying to hide. What his father tried to hide. Everything that matters."
So, the leprechaun who waltzed into our ranks got to learn those secrets before I did? What right did he have, to know them?
"Do you think that they should be revealed, then? What Asgeir learned?"
"No." He replied, finally looking like he was taking this seriously. "I don't. Not for a long time. Maybe once, when this branch wasn't so fractured. But not now. Matthew isn't leading the Assassins the way they should. Asgeir could, but not as a violent psychopath."
I looked off, through the trees. Hope was trickling away with every second. Like an hourglass full of bullet holes.
"If anything, I just want my friend to see an end to all this pain." I said. "His sisters, they spent over 15 years apart, alone. Ingrid, she was sealed in that urn for thirty years. But Asgeir… most of what he endured came after we were cursed, but I knew him to be one of the greatest Assassins ever. Whatever broke him, he didn't deserve. I don't know what happened, but if it was enough to break him, he didn't deserve it."
"Then we tell Matthew that. Tell him that it was the Spell of Shattered Sight. We tell him the truth. He needs to see that."
"He wouldn't believe us." I simply replied.
The end of the trail brought us out to Asgeir's truck, which we were borrowing. Rory took out the keys he had taken from him, and got in, ready to head back to Cormac's.
Down in the Bunker, Zar went over more of the plans for Project Boden.
"If Rory's intel he got us last week is good, this meeting area needs to be surveyed today."
"You sure that George will be there?" I asked Rory.
"I can't be completely positive that it will happen, but I remember hearin' one of those cooks, high on their own product. Made some ramblin's bout the 'boss' settin' up a meeting. A warf at a few minutes north of the harbor. Private beaches and everything. It'll be guarded and it'll be dangerous since George hasn't shown his face to the light of day for months."
"Over a year." Zar corrected. "Whatever this meeting is about, or with who, someone need to be there. It might be a chance to kill George, if anything. Failing that, at least try to gain more intel on his operations"
"Agreed." I said. For the first time in a long time, we were the real power in this town, not the Templars. But was George even ours to kill? For years, Ingrid had been Asgeir's to kill, and likewise, George was the Brothers'. Troy and Rabbit had faced real brutality at the hands of slave runners paid by George's gold. If anyone should have been the one to kill George, it was them. But we didn't know where they were.
Torren came through the door, into the room. "Geoff told me what you guys are planning. George to show his face? Count me in."
I glanced over at Zar, and got the answer after reading his expression.
"Not this time, Torren. We'll need a bare minimum of eyes on the meeting." He glanced at the Irishman and me. "Rory did a good job infiltrating those labs to sabotage their systems. Think you can do it again?"
"I'll do what I can, mate." He replied, shrugging. "And Jase?"
I shook my head. "Still waiting on Robin to deliver the information out of Ingrid's truck. David doesn't trust us enough to give it to us, so we'll have Robin pass it on."
"Fair enough." He said, heading for the door.
"Wait, you're leaving already?" Zar said.
"Nay, mate. I'm gonna head up to the pub for a nice Guinness, then I'm gonna head to the meetup spot. I've got a thirst."
Torren chuckled as Rory headed out the door, taking a seat at the table beside us.
"When doesn't he have a thirst?" The kid wondered aloud.
A few minutes later, Robin came into the room with Matthew, crossbow in hand.
"Find anything?" Zar asked.
"Plenty." Robin replied. "I was only able to get pictures of what was in the truck, but at least they let me take them."
"You told them that they could use extra copies, right?"
"Exactly." Robin said. "Some wonders they have made in this world."
Robin only knew how to take photos with the smartphone he borrowed from us, so it took us a few minutes to back the photos up to the servers. Matthew then had us queue them up on one of the computers nearby, where they were much easier to read.
"Plenty" was right. Binders and files were stacked high within a cooler in the truck, where it turned out they all pointed to a single person of interest in the subject lines.
"The Swan?" I asked. "This is all pointing to her?"
"That might not be too farfetched, Jason." Matthew told me. "Remember a few weeks back, Ingrid speaking to her in such a way? It's as if she knew her this whole time."
"And the photo." Zar pointed out. "The photo that lured Asgeir here to begin with was taken by…" He gulped. "By the publisher when she first arrived here. Emma had spoken to Ingrid before, so who's to say they haven't seen each other before?"
"Before Storybrooke?" I asked. "Why? Why was Asgeir spending all his time looking for this town and following Ingrid, and it turns out she was following Emma?"
Robin cleared his throat. "Pardon me, but I think there is only one person who will be able to give us those answers."
The silence was deafening. Matthew turned on Robin with blazing eyes.
"Are you aware of the mess that we have been mopping up since three in the morning, last night?"
Robin looked surprised. "No, Matthew. The Merry Men have been busy looking for the Snow Queen like you asked of us."
"Sydney Glass is dead." I said, not bothering to beat around the bush.
Robin's eyes became dinner plates. "…who…?"
"Who do you think killed him?" Matthew snapped. "He was selling secrets to Ingrid for his freedom from Regina. When we caught wind of it the other night, we started swarming the woods for him to try to take him in alive and question him. But someone wasn't keeping a better eye on our Reaper. He must have heard on the chatter, somehow, and opted to dole out his own twisted version of justice on the rat."
Robin was silent with shock as I remembered the rest of what happened.
It was close to fifteen minutes after his breakout before the guards realized that Asgeir had escaped his room through the window. It had been barred up, but he must have beat his hands bloody to pry the bars off on his own, because that's what we found. Not long afterwards, the hardware store on Main Street was broken into, which we realized Asgeir had gone there to steal makeshift weapons from.
Glass was alone for close to an hour, trying to figure his way back home in the dark woods. Most of us were busy combing the woods looking for him on the inner parts of the woods, but we underestimated the kind of distance he was making. Asgeir didn't. He tracked the poor guy down, beat him, and dragged him kicking and crying to the Outpost. We could figure out the rest.
"Make no mistake, we will be questioning him, Robin." Matthew said. "But don't expect full cooperation from him. He's thrown away his last chance. Once we kill Ingrid, he will hang for his crimes."
Robin looked uncomfortable, then pulled a large yellow envelope out of his pack.
"This was in the cooler, but it was not meant for Emma or anyone else to find. I made sure they didn't see me take it."
Sure enough, it was marked as such. Our insignia, crudely drawn on the envelope, almost as though to mock us. I took it from Robin, not letting Matthew put his hands on it.
"Jason-"
"Enough secrets, Matthew." I said. "Ingrid wanted us to find this. Not you. Us."
I extended my blade, ripping open the envelope, and then dumping the contents out.
Papers, much like the ones that Emma had found in the cooler, but not of her. The one that stood out was a document holding Asgeir's photo. He glared at the camera in the shot, which looked as though it was taken as a mugshot. The paper it was attached to contained a basic profile of him. The whole heading of the profile was marked "Animus Subject 11." I saw the stylized "A" logo of Abstergo Industries at the top.
Zar and Torren looked at the paper, too. "Animus. What is that?" He asked.
I felt like I heard something like this before. Robin eyed Matthew with suspicion, who sat down at the table after having Torren get up.
"A computer." Our Mentor replied. "One that the Templars have been working on for close to the last seventy-five years, or so. But this project of theirs was given a big jump in progress thanks to their efforts since the 80s."
"How do you know all of this?" I asked.
"Since Asgeir arrived here, I was in contact with William Miles on a few occasions. He's gone completely underground since then, but he gave me everything I was missing."
"Asgeir helped Abstergo develop this?" Zar said, sounding the same way that I was thinking: He had betrayed us.
"Not by his choice." Matthew said. "A lot of people, these 'Subjects' put through the Animus, were put in there against their will. One of their last Subjects killed himself after he went nuts from the exposure to the program. Painted symbols on the walls or some shit."
"Why did Ingrid want us to find this, then?" Zar asked. "She wants to tear us apart from the inside, but if Asgeir didn't betray us-"
"What Ingrid is taunting us with is what happened after Asgeir was Animus Subject 11, boys. Not long after, he was sent to The Gates. Mere months, in fact. William told me as much."
Enough was enough. "Tell us everything, Matthew. And tell us now."
The old man opened his mouth, about to speak, when Willis walked in. With an unwelcome guest behind him.
"I was not aware of the fortress the Assassins have built under the pub, Matthew. But we'll talk about that later." David said in the main room of the Bunker. "Right now, I need to discuss things with Asgeir."
"He's under a 24-hour guard." He shot back. "How can you expect me to let him go?"
"I'm not asking for that, yet. All I want is to question him on the circumstances. This involves Sydney Glass' murder, not the Snow Queen, but I want to touch on that, too."
Matthew glimpsed over at the door where my brother was kept. Then to Prince Charming.
"Two guards will go in with you."
"I doubt he's going to try to kill me, too." David said.
"You don't know what he's turned into in such a short time." Our Mentor replied. "Go on." He nodded to the guards, who unlocked the door for David to step inside as they followed.
I still stood by, waiting for Matthew to go on with what had happened. He knew what I wanted out of him, but gave me a solemn look.
"It is a lot of stuff to take in, Jason. Give me a day or two, and I will be able to tell you everything. Alright?"
I shook my head. "I'm not letting you order me to wait longer, 'Mentor'." I snapped.
"I'm not ordering you to." He replied. "I'm asking you. Please?"
The look the old man gave me. It was one I hadn't seen for so long. One that reminded me of when things were simpler, when it was only Arendelle we had to worry for. As though there was still hope for that old warrior to still be there, still with the wisdom and foresight to lead us in the right direction. I prayed this wasn't a ruse. He was the closest I had to a father, since I never truly knew Daniel Swortssen.
"Alright." I said. "If you say so."
Matthew's radio suddenly went up.
"Mentor, calling the Mentor."
He pulled his radio out and held the button.
"Go ahead."
"Her Majesty is up in the pub, wanting to speak to you. She says it's urgent, and has ordered you and Asgeir to both be there."
"Her brother will not." He replied. "Tell her that as much."
There was a pause before he got an answer. "S-she… she wanted me to remind you… who your queen is."
Matthew glared off at Asgeir's door, thinking. The Assassin on the other end sounded like he was freezing, which is exactly what I bet he really was. I gently took the radio out of Matthew's hand, and held the button.
"This is Argon." I replied. "Give us ten minutes and we will be up there with Reaper."
I shrugged as Matthew looked at me.
"I'm not about to do anything that might piss her off, Mentor. I think it'd be wise for you to do the same."
Seven minutes later, David was finished with his questioning. He gave brief goodbyes before the guards took him to the door up into Cormac's. Matthew then called in Keif and Kevan.
"Get the snare poles." Matthew said. "No sudden movements, or you have full authority to zap him."
"Aye." Kevan replied. They grabbed the tasers and poles, then headed in.
The door was barely closed twenty seconds when they brought Asgeir out.
Every day was just another test to me dedication to the brotherhood. This showed just how much it was paying off. Most of the blood from Glass we didn't see in the cabin ended up all over Asgeir's face, and even his hoodie, which had turned a sickly crimson with some patches crusted up on him. Kevan and Keif both held a snare pole, each wrapped around Asgeir's neck, his hands still handcuffed behind him. They led Asgeir out of the room and towards the stairs, Matthew and I following behind.
When we brought him out into the pub, it was almost completely empty, with the exception of Elsa sitting in a booth, along in the corner. When she saw Asgeir, the room dropped a few degrees, her breath catching in her throat. A portrait of Shay Cormac was on the wall, right above her. Matthew took a seat next to her, the other two setting Asgeir down across from them.
"Any sudden moves, Asgeir." Matthew warned, holding up his finger as Kevan pulled out his taser from his hoodie pocket. They both set the poles down, but remained just as tense.
"Why are you doing this to my brother?" Elsa said, her voice cracking. I could start to see my breath as Keif shivered.
Asgeir was as unpredictable as ever, and what he did next still surprised me: He laughed.
"They're doing it to me because they don't understand I see more clearly than ever now, sister." He sneered. "I killed someone who was unworthy of his life, and they locked me up for it."
Matthew closed his eyes, shaking his head. What was he thinking? Was he furious? Or was he just disappointed in his old pupil.
"We're not here to discuss Glass's death, Asgeir. David questioned you enough on that." Matthew said. "You're going to tell us everything you remember from Arendelle after the rest of us left. Everything."
Asgeir looked away, glaring up at Shay's portrait. "…No."
Matthew was about to speak, but Elsa held up her hand.
"There's no use lying to me anymore, Asgeir. Ingrid left everything in her truck."
Her brother's gaze drifted to her; he was there, but only just. Elsa continued.
"You made it back to Arendelle from Misthaven, didn't you?"
No response. What was going on in his head?
Elsa then turned to me. "Jason. Care to fill in any blanks? What do you remember?"
"Your Majesty-"
"Not you, Matthew." Elsa snapped. "I want to hear it from him."
I cleared my throat; I knew I needed to mind my Ps and Qs.
"Asgeir and Anna indeed returned from their voyage, Your Majesty. But not until after Hans tried to take Arendelle by force with his brothers. They sought an urn in a cave somewhere in the Eastern mountains of Arendelle and they found it. It was said to be able to imprison anyone who could use magic."
"I see. Hans wanted to use it on me." Elsa said, understanding the bits and pieces.
"Yes. But you and Kristoff headed there to stop him. From what you told us, there was a struggle to get the urn, but Hans ended up grabbing it and opening it. Opening it to reveal Ingrid already in it."
"And she's my aunt."
I took a breath. One of the bitterest of truths here. "Yes, Your Majesty. Aunt to you and Asgeir."
"LIES!" He roared.
Matthew got up, pulling his gun out and jamming it right towards his pupil's face. "Enough, you bastard. You've wasted your chance to speak any further." He sat down, placing his gun on the table, out of Asgeir's reach, but still pointed at him. "Continue, Jason."
"Hans was frozen by Ingrid and brought back to the castle. A few days later Asgeir and Anna returned, and then we were getting orders to evacuate Arendelle from Asgeir and Matthew."
Elsa's brow creased with worry. "Did you do so?"
"We did, Your Majesty. The last ship reached Corona safely. But we haven't been back to Corona since before the First Dark Curse brought us here. We don't know what happened to them."
She nodded. "But at least they're safe as far as we know."
"So." I said. "What is it that you found?"
Elsa pulled out from the seat beside her a large book, and a file.
"This I found in the library." She said. "It's a history of the royal families of Arendelle. There makes mention of my mother here, but it's strange. It mentions she was the youngest of the family, really. She had two sisters. Ingrid was the oldest, then there's mention of another, Helga."
I noticed Asgeir glare at Matthew as Elsa went on. I remembered that they had a long talk before all of this happened. The day after they had returned, Asgeir and Anna went off in separate directions. Anna told him she went to go see the rock trolls, while Asgeir had questions for Matthew. I was only there for a brief time, but remembered hearing that name for a moment. Helga.
"Emma lent this to me." Elsa went on, holding up the dossier. The same one Robin took pictures of, which we had already read. "They found this in Ingrid's truck. It's a whole file on Emma. Ever since she came to this world. All compiled by her. She was obsessed with finding Emma." She looked at her brother. "What aren't you telling me, Asgeir? Don't you remember that I was like this to you the first time we met?"
Asgeir looked back at Shay's portrait. "Why would you listen to me, now? You trusted that freak instead of your own blood. You let it roam our halls and set us up to die." He looked down at Elsa with piercing eyes. "It wanted to prove to you that mortals are vicious and unforgiving. Try to turn you against us so you would be justified in killing us."
"Did she use this on you?" She pulled out a page from the file. An illustration of a cracked mirror surrounded by many ancient Arendelle runes was on it. "The Spell of Shattered Sight?"
"Where did you get that?" Matthew questioned.
"I told you, the library here, Matthew." She replied. "Now I ask you, did she use it on Anna? On you?"
Asgeir glanced at Kevan. "I could use a cigarette. Get me one. Now."
Kevan did not respond, as I expected. Asgeir was not giving orders here.
"You're not listening to me, brother." She exclaimed. "And you don't even smoke!"
Matthew coughed. "If I may, Majesty?"
"Fine."
Matthew pointed at Asgeir. "Thirty years in this world and he hasn't aged, hasn't sustained any wounds, not one scratch. What does that page tell you about the Spell?"
"Uncontrollable rage. It makes people only see the worst in each other." She said.
"Look at him, Elsa. Whatever fragments of the curse Ingrid tried to use on him, they didn't leave. They lingered and grew when he tried to fight the influence it brought on him. And then there's what happened when Ingrid tried freezing his heart. Same result. He's tried to resist what the Snow Queen did to him, but it's been too much for him, for anybody."
Asgeir coughed, and chuckled. A few strands of his hair began to turn white. His expression began to soften. "If you think this is all about Ingrid, Matthew, you're as foolish as I ever was. After the curse, I sought this town for years. Fifteen long years before I decided to give up. I decided to move on. Make a life for myself. Start anew. I did, even. Not once, but twice. And both times, monsters came and ripped away that which was most precious." Then his glare returned. "They took what I cared for from me, so I did the same to them the second time, and then some. Didn't I deserve some retribution for what injustice befell me?"
"That's enough, Asgeir." Matthew nodded to Keif.
"They're all dead, now." Asgeir laughed as Keif grabbed his snare and wrapped it around his neck. "Every one of them who took it all from me, they're dead. Every one of them except that freak. And I. WILL. DESTROY HER!"
Snowflakes began to float through the air around our table.
"You think that this is what we fight for, anymore?" Matthew snarled, standing up. "You think this is what your father would want? What Ruthe would? You think she'd be proud to see the monster that you turned into?"
There was a beat. Then Asgeir screamed and lunged for Matthew as Elsa backed in fright. I heard a sharp crack, and he fell backwards; Kevan's Taser shot its wires into his head, the cartridge's pieces scattering across the table. Asgeir slumped down on the ground, unconscious and beaten for the day, as we heard the zapping of electricity from the Taser.
"No more for him." Matthew said. "Keep him there until his execution."
"Yes, Matthew." Kevan said. He pocketed his Taser after cutting the wires, and grabbed Asgeir's unconscious body. Keif, still holding onto his snare, helped him haul my best friend away.
I was confused. "What did you say to him?" I asked. "Who's Ruthe?"
Matthew glanced at me. "You'll see. I've had his stuff brought up to your room."
"What?"
He shook his head, sadly. "I'll fill in the blanks for you soon enough, Jason. First, look into what Asgeir is hiding himself. I had Marc and Willis tear apart his truck before you borrowed it and searched his room for anything he had. They found plenty. He's got just as many skeletons in the closet as you think I do."
Elsa glanced at Matthew. "I would like to see his things as well, Matthew."
"I respect that, Your Majesty, but I would like Jason to see it first. Let him understand that I'm not keeping everything from him."
Right. This reeked more of Matthew trying to get me to turn on Asgeir just as he had gotten the rest of the whole of Cormac's to do so. Turning all of us against each other just like a rat would. Still, what broken pieces of Asgeir's past he brought with him to Storybrooke meant I might get some answers to my many questions. With nothing left to really say that I wanted Matthew to hear, I got up, gave a polite nod to Elsa, and headed towards the inn.
The trunk stood in front of me, a long-forgotten chest. Not of gold, but of secrets that likely should have stayed buried, but of which my curiosity was getting the better of. Even without the influence of the Spell of Shattered Sight, what anger and pain that Asgeir reflected was real, and what was only enhanced by the curse? Whatever he had here, it hopefully pointed to what sent him to the Gates. I needed to know more.
I noticed the lid had been pried open, the lock broken. Asgeir had hidden the key somewhere, so Matthew was forced to use other means to get it open.
Inside were boxes. Smaller boxes, and a few bundles. Some of these were older notebooks. Filled with notes in Asgeir's handwriting. I counted five of them in there, though I wasn't sure what answers they would give me; the most recent one's last entry was in early March 2006. Asgeir had said he had been in the Gates for about seven years. That would put it right on the dot, if not really close.
The entry radiated not rage, but sorrow. Something happened to Asgeir in the months before he had been sent to the Gates. He was living in New York at the time of this entry's writing.
"What is it that they say about revenge? Something about digging your own grave. But what happens when the trail goes cold, and you're the one who runs out of it? I'm at the end of my rope, now. I'm staring into the dark void, feeling the cold embrace of it. So many people I have cared for are gone. Dead, most of them. And one of them left me. Because I drove her away with my choices. Because I know it's my fault. I know that I'm what's wrong.
That's what it all boils down to, doesn't it? Choices. Was this all because of a choice that I made? Everything that had to happen for the last 25 years? Maybe it was the choice from the beginning to reach out to Anna and Elsa. We as the Assassins had no real reason to do so. Plenty to lose if done incorrectly, and nothing gained that we still have, now. They're dead along with Troy and Rabbit, and the Enchanted Forest and Arendelle branches are now lost forever.
The Masters asked too much of me. It started with something so simple. Kill this man in that country, because he's a Templar. Kill that CEO by this time, because he's a Templar. Then they asked of me to go to another world and let more people I cared for die, because I'm an Assassin, and I am made to suffer.
Why do I even keep their things? It's like they're trophies or treasures. It only brings me more pain. Oh, well. I've got my plans set to clean out the apartment next Wednesday. I'll find a way to dispose of my 'treasures' then."
That being the last entry, I reckoned the treasures were among all the rest of the things in here. I hoped they weren't in the assets William Miles ended up disposing of after Asgeir's exile. Who knows what he would have ended up doing to them?
A shoe box underneath the stack of journals caught my eye. On it in a Sharpie was one word: "Ruthe". The name of the girl that set Asgeir into a rage. Curious, I grabbed the box, flipping it open. Most of the objects inside didn't make much sense to me; A quarter, a set of keys, those sorts of things. Then I saw a stack of polaroid photos in a rubber band. The first one was of a girl. She was up really close to the camera, smiling. She had dark hair pinned in a bun behind her head, and I easily recognized what her white hoodie meant. The next photo told me more.
"Well, Asgeir. I guess you found love after all." I whispered, looking down at it. It was of him and "Ruthe" kissing.
Another photo of her and Asgeir, their faces pressed close in the photo. One of them had held it a little too close to their faces, but it was a sweet photo regardless. There was a chain hanging around Ruthe's neck, I noticed. It was a Templar ring. She wore it almost like Asgeir did his trophies. Except it was just one, and I can remember Asgeir having at least four chains of about a dozen rings, each.
The next photo surprised me so much, I laughed at. It was so hard to believe that Asgeir had once been this happy between now and Arendelle freezing. Yet I saw him and this Ruthe girl flipping off the camera with their burned ring fingers, laughing. I even saw the diagonal slash across Asgeir's hand with that, to show the world that he was born a bastard.
Was she the one who left him? Or was she dead? Either way, she was gone from Asgeir's life before the Gates.
I set the box aside, along with the journals. I'd be doing some reading tonight before bed.
I was about to close the trunk, when the light caught on something shiny. I began to open it up again and dig down when I heard a knock at the door.
"It's open." I said, keeping my eyes glued to the trunk.
The door opened and I felt the air get a little colder.
"Hello, Your Majesty." I replied.
"How did you-?" Elsa stuttered. "I get it. Assassin trick?"
"Nope. You make the room colder."
"Oh." She chuckled, lightly. "That makes sense, too."
She came up closer behind me. "Are those his things?"
"Yes." I replied. I handed her the Polaroids. "Look."
She undid the rubber band, then spread the photos out in her hand like a hand of playing cards. I saw tears gradually well up in her eyes as she looked through them.
"He looks so happy." She whispered. "I don't even remember him looking that way when he was with me and Anna."
"Indeed." I said. "Hard to believe this happened after everything went to hell."
A few snowflakes formed in the air as I heard her sob a bit. I turned and went back to what I had seen at the bottom of the crate. I pulled it out, and eyed it with interest.
It was a ruby. A large ruby. Only a smidge larger than a chicken's egg, but flatter in shape than round. It wasn't the last one, though.
I shifted a few of the other things in the box. A white bundle at the bottom had unfolded in one corner, and that was where the ruby had fallen out of. I carefully pulled the whole thing out, then unfolded it, emptying its contents out.
The bundle itself had a story to tell. It was a white surcoat like one worn during the Crusades. It looked like the one Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad worn, but the biggest difference was that this one had a coat of arms sewn on the front. A white eagle on a deep red field, it's wings spread out in flight with the unmistakable Assassin insignia on its chest. Numerous stab holes covered it, and even a large slash across the back of it. Elsa's interest in the photos shifted over to the bundle and its contents. She grabbed one of the objects, then suddenly dropped it on the surcoat.
"That's hot!" She cried, wagging her hand.
I raised my eyebrow, carefully taking what she dropped. It was a glass vial of a green liquid. No poison I had ever seen before. I felt like I had heard of something like this before, as I eyed it closely. It did feel warm, but I knew Elsa was being overly sensitive to the heat coming from the vial. Something about it told me I needed to be more careful setting it down, as I leaned over, and placed it on my nightstand, gingerly.
There were six more rubies in the surcoat bundle. Along with that were a couple of broken strings of a guitar or a lute, and a chipped drinking horn. The last few items caught my eye the most. A torn piece of black cloth. It looked to be part of another coat of arms like the one on the surcoat; the head of a red dragon on the black cloth. A lastly, a Ziploc bag, which held a small bouquet of dying blue roses.
These objects all seemed familiar to me, but not to the Jason side of me. Aaron Milburn had seen something like this a long time ago. I just didn't know where.
"I don't understand." Elsa said. "Why did Asgeir keep these things? What does it all mean?"
I looked back at her. "I'm not sure about these things, but I'm sure it means that Asgeir has gone through too much that any Assassin has had to endure."
Matthew wasn't seeing it. Whatever had happened to Asgeir had been enough to drive him over the edge. Who these "Masters" were, escaped me, but it seemed as though they ordered him to do so much for them, only to abandon him in the end. How could these people call themselves Assassins if that was who they were?
Did I believe that his actions were justified, then? No. Not yet. I still didn't know why he was sent to the Gates. What I had read here didn't show someone who looked to be on the warpath, who was now locked under our basement. It was someone who had lost all hope after everything he had been through. So, what changed?
Later, after dinner, I was down in the Bunker with Zar, waiting for Rory. After going through the trunk, Zar called me saying that Rory was on his way back from eavesdropping on the meetup. But he had been gone for most of the afternoon, and it was far past dark, now.
Eventually, we heard the leprechaun's voice on our radios, and the acknowledgement that he was back at Cormac's. Five minutes later, he was walking through the door carrying two pint glasses. One he was waterfalling the familiar black beer, the other covered in foam all over on the inside; He had chugged the first one on his way down.
"Rough night, honey?" Zar joked.
But when Rory stopped drinking for a second, we saw the look on his face. He wasn't amused, he was spooked. And he was also uncharacteristically silent.
Quickly, Rory took the tablet he had taken with him out of his backpack. Zar hooked it to a nearby PC, and transferred the data over.
"What is it?" I asked.
Rory didn't say anything. So Zar had to figure it out himself.
"Voice recordings." He said. "The last files added to the tablet were voice recordings." He looked over at the Irishman. "Did you manage to get any intel from them?" He asked.
Rory remained silent, then threw back the rest of his pint.
"Forget it." I said. "Let's open the recordings and find out what we missed up there."
Rory seemed to have at least had the capacity to mark what we needed to hear. Collectively, the numerous recordings amounted to about half an hour, but he had highlighted only three of them to shave it down to about ten minutes. Zar opened the first highlighted file, and hit play.
"The Assassins' sabotaged those labs, George." A man's voice said.
"Impossible." A familiar voice replied. "They're too busy dealing with the current threat to this town. This…Snow Queen."
That was George's voice. The other one I didn't recognize.
"Yes, fairy tales here." The other man replied. "I've heard a few things. Quite a few surprises among them, too. The Assassins are the real power in this town, and now Subject 11 is here."
Subject 11… Asgeir! Zar looked similarly horrified as well.
"I'm sorry?" George said.
"Asgeir Swortssen." The man replied. "Subject 11 of the Animus program Warren Vidic was running."
"I know who that is, but not by that title. Subject 11, eh? What does he have to do with this?"
There came a chuckle from the man. "It seems strange, doesn't it? Seven years pass after he escapes the labs and kills our men and he just disappears. Like he never existed. Then he suddenly surges back into the fight in less than three months, and then we're getting daily alerts on him. Blowing up farmhouses, and then killing the publisher of the local paper, last we heard. We only got that memo this morning."
Memo? How did they even know of this already? Or about the farmhouse?
"I've heard similar stories." George said. "But how is it that you know this, too?"
"The mole we installed in their ranks has been working hard."
Zar's eyes grew wide. I felt my heart stop. Then the recording ended.
We both sat in silence for a minute, Rory still breathing heavily in the corner, both his pints now coated all over with foam, and nothing else.
"Who was that?" I asked. "The other man?"
Zar shook his head. "He was in town… Otso Berg was here."
"Who?" I asked.
"He's gaining a name, Jason. I've seen footage of the psycho. One in the recent years as a Templar enforcer much worse than Daniel Cross." He said, fearfully. "If he was here, we've caught his attention."
"He's a Templar, Zar. We'll kill him like the rest of them."
"SHH!" He said, raising his hand to me. "There's a mole here!"
Rory coughed in the corner.
"Yeah." I grimly replied. "We have a traitor."
"One who's been keeping tabs on us for Abstergo. Not George. They planted him here and now we can't trust anyone."
I shook my head in disbelief. "What are you thinking?"
"Geoff. Kevan. Someone."
"Maybe." But those weren't who I was thinking of.
He was leading us right down into the ground. Every choice he was making was tearing us apart from the inside. Matthew made better sense than anyone lower than him. But it could be anyone. Who throughout the entirety of Cormac's could have been the one who sold us out for the Templars?
It seemed like a whole poetic mockery of us. As Regina had made clear to us after the First Curse broke, we lived here because she wanted to remind us of the one who betrayed us in the first place, destroying the roots we had established here in New England during the Seven Years War. Ever since his betrayal, we all had been raised to know of him as the worst Templar who ever lived, rivalling even those magnificent bastards like Robert De Sable and Reginald Birch.
I hated Shay. I was raised to do so. Mostly, I felt it because of how he killed Adewale in cold blood. Someone who pulled himself out of slavery to become an Assassin, even before someone like Edward Kenway. He was an inspiration of mine. As well… as well as one to the Broken Chain Brothers.
I hated the Rogue, but with Asgeir, it was something different. He saw Shay as much more than a traitor. Like he was a demon sent by whatever lied beyond to punish the Assassins for something. He didn't just hate Shay. He hoped that every day he spent in hell was a day of infernal suffering. He never knew him, but he always saw his betrayal to the Assassins as something personal. When was the last time anything wasn't personal with him?
A commotion outside the door caught my attention. Curious, I peeked my head out of the door, cracking it open while Zar opened the other two audio files, plugging a set of headphones in, and slipping them on.
Marc passed by as a couple other Assassins followed, carrying various beams.
"What's going on?" I asked, opening the door further as they passed.
"Matthew's orders." One of them replied. "Since we aren't finding a way to counter the Snow Queen's curse, the next step is to protect ourselves from it. Or at least try to."
I understood as I saw what some of them were putting together with the supplies they were carrying into the main room of the Bunker. Assassins under the influence of the Spell of Shattered Sight wouldn't just try to hurt each other. They would go all the way with it.
Every night it seemed to end this way. Every night it ended with it being more and more clear that Ingrid was going to destroy this town long before the Curse might even show up. We were all fucked.
Zar suddenly leapt from the table, the headphones clattering off his head.
"JESUS!" He cried, grabbing his ears.
I spun around. "What happened?!" I could hear loud noises coming from the headphones still going off.
Zar stared at me. "Jason… George is… He's-"
"Dead." Rory finally piped up. "I saw it happen right before me, lads. This guy, Otso Berg, had brought only a small team with him on a yacht into town, but it was enough. He shoved a gun right through Old King Cole's eye and liberated his brain from his head. They massacred everyone at the exchange and took the drug shipments. Then they packed up and left."
I was dumbstruck. "King George… is dead?"
"Aye." Rory said. "I knew this was supposed to be what we wanted, but…"
"Yes and no." I replied, walking over to the bulletin board. "All the resources and time that we poured into this while the other Assassins were out fighting Cora, Zelena, and Ingrid. It's all gone to waste even though it ended with George's death." I turned to the Irishman. "Is that why you were gone so long?"
"Aye." He repeated. "I went to every lab we had marked on the map to find out what happened. Bloodbaths. Everywhere. Abstergo sent their men into town to clean house on these fuckers and pack up. All that product and everythin' else, gone. Enough product to make into small fortunes."
Zar glanced at me. "You think they're coming back? If they killed all those hands working for them, then it means they may be coming back with more."
I gulped. "I'm not sure." I replied. "But even if they are, they aren't the threat anymore in this town. Now we got one person left in our sights."
The bulletin board had everything. Everything we had spent so much time on, gathered up. And now it was all useless. Zar got up from his chair, yanking the cap off a red marker. Every little string tangled up on the board connected to a single portrait near the top. All it took was one quick stroke of the marker across it to truly highlight how everything was falling apart.
A/N: Extra long chapter, I know. Also, while some may not approve of the offscreen death, it has a special story behind it.
Three years ago, before I started this fic, Asgeir was becoming an idea of a character of mine that I wanted to put into Once as an Assassin. I hadn't decided how he would fit in, but I was coming up with some ideas.
This was during Season 3 was airing, and I was attending a convention that spring. I met Jennifer Morrison herself there, and told her how I adored her acting on both Once and HIMYM (even if I didn't like her character on HIMYM, she was nothing short of excellent). I also met Giancarlo Esposito, who I recognized better for his work on Breaking Bad, as well as Once. He surprisingly didn't have many people lining up to see him, so I got the chance to talk to him about his work on both those shows, as well as Revolution, which was a great sci fi show that tragically ended too early. Eventually I told him a few of my ideas for the fic, and he jokingly said that I had his permission to kill his character off since he hadn't been on the show in so long, and he wasn't sure if he was coming back. While he did end up coming back, Glass' betrayal of Regina felt like a natural reason for Asgeir to try to find Glass and put an end to his character. Especially since (as far as I have watched in the show), he hasn't returned since Ingrid let him go.
Also, the items in the trunk are hints at a potential fic I had considered working on before, but want to tease to see if anyone is interested. Hopefully some of you have caught the references.
All the same, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter, and more is coming very soon!