Alex watched the world outside, the bright lights that never seemed to turn off, the noises of car horns and people talking and car engines, of crime and of screams of the innocent. He shudders slightly and turns away from the window, to look at the girl sleeping peacefully in bed. Megan didn't belong here no matter what the Assassins said about her doing great in her training. She wasn't a killer. She would freeze up if she ever had someone confront her with a gun or knife, she couldn't hurt another soul. She already had enough scars on her soul that re-opened over and over again as it was; more to add on would destroy her. He didn't know if he was anything like he was before he woke up in the morgue, Dana had mentioned he wasn't though he could never be sure since they had been estranged for several years, but he liked to think that she was making him better than the Alex that came before him.
He takes a few quiet steps closer to the bed and sits in the chair closets to him. He releases a quiet but heavy sigh, worrying his temples between his fingers. He didn't know what a relationship was supposed to be but he was happy with the one he had with her. Everything seemed brighter and more vibrant, considerably more so if she was there in the immediate area around him. But he also worried. There was so many things that could happen as soon as she woke up that could take her away from him. For him, she was like a shield. Warm and caring and understanding, non-judging to anyone, accepting a person for who they were. He didn't think there were people like that out there, as if people like her were stuff of legend or myth. But here she was, laying on the bed infront of him asleep without a care in the world. With him around nothing could get to her.
He was both her sword and shield. The preverbal white knight, come to save the day. Perhaps he had saved her. She seemed like she was so drawn tight when they first showed up, stretch so thin like a wire that it wouldn't take much to cause her to snap. Perhaps all of them showing up had been a good thing for her. Gave her something to fret over and care for. She had seemed to wake up and open up truly then. And now with that blasted Native Assassin having joined them, she was able to fuss over someone new. To her, they were all like children who needed to be watched and coddled.
A soft smile comes to his face as she sighs in her sleep, pulling the pillow tighter to herself while curling up into a semi-ball. As much as Altair and Malik deny it, they loved the attention the girl had given them. Taking time to stop and explain something, no matter how many times the question would come up, being patient with them; they seemed to thrive a little more. They weren't so on edge with her as the days had gone by; even seeking her out without realizing it to find an answer they didn't know. Malik was at home with her library in their house, it wasn't just her home anymore for they all lived in it, and when she had taken him to the library in town to get him new books had just about floored the man. The fact that someone would take the time to do something so trivial for another did not happen much in their time. And Altair enjoyed it when she would take him with her when she went to town, because she would allow him to go into every single store and browse and look and search no matter how much time it took.
Ezio and Leo were more comfortable with the attention they would receive from her. Leo, Malik, and Megan would have conversations for hours over what would be common knowledge for her but things neither of them could fathom; like the wars of Europe, the colonization of the Americas (she had whipped out a map to show them what the world looked like), about how the revolution would come around, slavery and the abolishment of it, the First World War and the resulting Depression, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the creation of the Atom bomb, the Cold War, and now the Afghanistan War happening right now. Of trends and music and of any little thing they could get out of her. She would watch Leo take apart things and answer any questions she could about the parts he would ask her about, even going so far as to look them up and allow him to see. Ezio would treat her like a younger sister and allow her to dote on him, but once the pranks would begin he could count on her to hold her own against him sometimes even out doing the Italian Assassin with her modern knowledge. But if Desmond started the prank war with her, you could bet that Ezio would be there to help her against the youngest Assassin. They could even come up with plots against the older Assassins that even they could appreciate and praise.
Desmond and Shaun. While they were from an era similar to the one they were currently in, there were differences that even they could spot. And the girl was game for Desmond antics, the inventive alphabetic name calling that they would come up with when one of them was cooking, the video game battles, but then the understanding that they both had of things they couldn't stop. Shaun enjoyed her verbal fighting that had them all scrambling for dictionaries and thesauruses, the way they discussed the things happening around them and even political views. He was happy to have someone around who could keep up with his intellect and that he didn't have to 'dumb down' what he said sometimes.
And him, he now had some humanity that he could use to sympathize and empathize. It allowed him to now understand others, atleast somewhat. The longer he remained here; he found that the only person he really wanted to understand was her. She made herself into something each of them needed to be without care of what happened to her. And when he realized what she had meant to him, what she really meant, he couldn't stop himself from wanting to do the same for her. And when they went to Seattle and saw her in that dress, he felt like he really saw her for the first time. And when she had come back, drunk as could be but happy, and she had kissed him like she did he knew she felt something for him too. And then when Thanksgiving rolled around and he had initiated it but she reciprocated it, he knew for sure that she felt something for him that wasn't induced by alcohol. It was what solidified the decision he made on Christmas to start something with her. He just never planned on his feeling to grow as they have, to well up inside of him like they were going to burst out at any moment.
"Alex?" Comes the sleepy voice of the girl as she sits up in the bed, eyes at half-mast and searching for him. She skips over him twice before really seeing him sitting in the chair. She smile at him in that same sleepy way. "What are you doing up?"
He gives a soft chuckle to her, gets up and crawls into the bed with her. "Was just thinking."
She ditches the pillow and lays halfway on top of him, twining her legs with his into a tangled mess. "About?" She questions and yawns, eyes closing as she scoots as close as possible to him as if she wanted to wear the same skin as him.
"Nothing you have to worry about." He whispers to her and she makes an agreeing noise before relaxing as she falls back asleep. He finds that he follows soon after.
The princess was gone for too long. A day, maybe two she could handle but this was now the fourth day. She needed to find her princess, needed to find the weakness. She couldn't study the hydra when it was gone. Couldn't study the black knight. She needed to know if the princess was still alive. Only she could set her free. If they killed her, her soul would be damned for all time. That is what the other princesses tell her as they float around her, telling her what she needed to know about how to save them. What happened to them when they were killed by her and how they realized that they needed to be saved by her. She was the Savior, and she had lost princesses before when she didn't know what all she was doing. It was hard to figure out the correct way because the ritual had to be different for each one. The princesses had to be treated differently because they were not the same.
She twitches harshly, the jerking motion causing her body to seize up.
She needed to get inside the house and find her princess. She needed to get any information she could to save her and protect her from them.
She looks into the clear baggy tucked into the front pocket of her dirty, torn, overly large jeans. She would need to get more crystals as well.
Altair sits in the bed, cleaning his hidden blade. It has been so long since he last used it, since it really needed cleaning that he couldn't remember when that had been. Malik sat in the bed opposite of him just watching.
"There really is no need for something like this anymore in this day and age. What had seemed so 'high-tech', as Megan likes to say, to us back then is no obsolete now. And to think that we no longer have to kill, that is something new. It's strange, don't you think?" Altair says pausing in his cleaning to look at his oldest friend. Malik gives a humorless chuckle and shrug of agreement.
"It is. For us to no longer need to do something we have always done, that was our livelihood, is an incomprehensible thought. Now we can do the things we never thought that we would be able to do, we can be truly free. It is somewhat daunting." Malik responds to him, turning look out the window and gaze at the city they were in. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought of a place like this. So many people and so many cultures, co-existing so easily. The lights and the noises were another thing. Back in their time, it was near impossible to even get genders to co-habit without problems. Now, everyone was equal. All genders, races, religions, they could sit side-by-side. Even though he knew that there was still crime, there was little corruption to the police. It was handled without the need of someone like them, and for once Malik was glad. His only wish was that his brother could have joined him in this. He never would have to become cold and hardened like himself or Altair or Ezio.
"Yes, we can. And while that is true we have never been ones to turn down a challenge, have we Brother?" Malik turns back to Altair and gives him a dark look for a second before a small smile breaks out over his face.
"How do you think the rest of them are doing? New York is a lot to take on, Seattle was nothing compared to here." Desmond questions Shaun, who was sitting at the desk, when the younger man emerges from the bathroom. His hair hung limp with damp, dripping the water onto the towel around his bare shoulders. Shaun stops typing and turns around to face the man.
"Hard to tell really. Other than Leonardo, their all masters at hiding their emotions unlike us. Or rather, you." Was the snide remark and smirk directed at him. Desmond rolls his eyes and flops on to the bed designated as his tonight. Leonardo had wanted to switch rooms for the night and had pulled a rather unnerving move on the young Assassin that had him sputtering and unsure as he stood in the current room with the card key he was holding having been switched. Shaun had laughed until he nearly turned blue in the face.
"Still, kinda hard to believe we're not ever going back. I know they all thinks we are but I don't know. If we were, we should have left already thinking it was a bad dream caused by bad take-out." He folds his hands behind his head, looking at the ceiling with a hard stare. Shaun turns back to the laptop he had commandeered, returning to whatever he had been in the middle of.
"I haven't given up." Was the quiet response from the Brit.
"Leonardo, what will you do if we aren't able to return to Venice?" Ezio asks his blonde friend as they stand in the elevator, waiting for their floor to light up. Connor stood opposite of them, sullen and quiet. They had explained their findings to the Native and he hadn't spoken since then, which had both of the Italians worried. Granted having Altair or Malik or Alex remain quiet wouldn't have worried them any but the newest member to their rather impromptu family had spoken near as much as they did. And for him to now be quiet was rather vexing.
Leonardo shrugs. "Perhaps return to painting. Megan had told me about several things I could do instead if I so chose, such as working as a painting restorer or at a museum or some kind to name two." He smiles at him which Ezio returns somewhat. "What will you do?"
Ezio stops, his brain mulling over the question. He hadn't really thought about it. Could he return to banking like he had planned on doing when he was young? "I… do not know mio amico." He answers, eyes drifting to Connor. His own eyes were down casted and his brows furrowed heavily.
"How can you talk as if you will never return home?" The Native asks two floors below their floor, looking up and locking eyes with the elder men. Both look at one another then back to him.
"It's not that we don't want to return home Connor, it's that if there is the possibility of us not being able to what could we do with ourselves then. We can't sit around all day at Megan's home, wasting our lives. We cannot put such a burden on someone like her. She has already done so much that you cannot fathom. And for her to have gone through a terror as she did not two years ago when she was barely 21 and come out with an outlook so happily is astounding. She will always know the truth of us, even if others do not. And that luxury alone is more than any of us deserve with what we have done. She has not judged us for our past deeds." Ezio says to him in response which Connor just nods at and goes back to being quiet, thinking over this information. He did not know the woman as they did but from the small amount of time that he had spent with her, he could see why they held her in such a high regard.
While yes she was a woman, she was tough and could hold her own against them be it verbal or physical (though he knew the other men were going easy on her). But then there were times when he had seen her be gentle and caring to them, such as the time he had seen her sit there and allow Altair to lean against her without questioning why and listen to him tell her about something that was haunting him at the moment. The love he saw in her eyes when she and Alex would look at one another when they thought no one noticed. They were right in that she didn't judge past transgressions, just accepted them for who they were right then. He could only hope that maybe, someday, he would get to know her in the same way that they did. The thought alone gave him some hope for this new frame of time he had been thrust into.
He remembered when he first came here, unsure of what had happened. One moment he was out looking for animal meat for him and Achilles to eat since he had just returned to the homestead for a brief reprieve, the next he was lying flat on his back in some unknown forest full of unrecognized trees. He had tried to find the homestead but found her home instead. At first he had only gone in to attempt to find out where he was but then he had started to take things to eat and a blanket because it had started to get colder and he didn't want to risk being in enemy territory and giving them a beacon right to where he lay sleeping. He had avoided the house when he knew they were awake and only came to it when they were asleep or gone. Not often did he find the house empty during the day so he would be sneaking in at night most of the time. Had he of known they were like him, he would have come to them sooner than he did.
Megan exits the bathroom, giving a silent sigh of content. Her damn bladder had decided it wanted to wake her and have her scramble for the toilet. Megan looks the sleeping man, really looks at him. Past the good looks and who he really was.
She still thinks of him as human (damn those men who kept calling him an it and ZEUS) and that would be it on that. He was kind and thoughtful, quiet, strong. He saw the world as it was, accepted it as well, but didn't let it stop him from doing what he needed to. It had taken a little time but he had warmed up to the Assassin save Connor, their newest member to the group. He had fought tooth and nail for her when she had been kidnapped and when they had walked in on Connor sitting on top of her. She gives a soft smile at the thought.
He still didn't trust the man to some degree because of that. Eventually he would, once she was finally able to drill into his rather thick skull that Connor had only reacted to her pushing him away from her person. Sometimes she wondered if this was all a dream, an elaborate dream of some kind. She was afraid she would wake up and that none of the wonderful things that she had gone through with them. All of the memories they had made would be fake. She found that she prayed, to anyone who listened, that it wasn't so that all of this was real and not an extravagant dream concocted by an ill mind.
She wraps her arms around her stomach, a motion she hadn't found herself doing so often as a defense. She was really truly happy with all of them.
Found her. Gone to the worst place imaginable, to the place where monsters thrived and feed upon the innocent. Killed all those princesses just because they could, fed upon their souls to corrupt them into creatures like her. She had escaped there after she had found her calling. She would have to be careful, watch what she did. Those foolish men would be looking for her because of the things she had done there before she left. All those princesses she had saved before they had decided she was doing something evil in their terms. She was doing the correct thing, saving them before they could be damaged or even killed.
She twitches as she drives, having stolen money to get there. She needed to watch out for the princess, to keep her in sight was important.
Alex stands there confused. Megan stood with him. Both were loaded down with tickets the girl had won while playing skeet ball and several other games. It had happened just by chance that they would pass by an arcade while getting something to eat. After Leo, Des, and Megan begged (while they got their food) to play some games to pass time and to feel like kids again (Megan and Desmond used this one) Alex and the rest of them folded and agreed to go for an hour, two at most. Instead they had been there for nearly 5 hours when Megan had stopped and checked the time. She had planned on seeing how the others were doing, turning in her tickets for crappy prizes, and leaving for food again. Then it would be back to the hotel and relaxation while watching a little TV with the rest of them and then finally sleep. They had found the library and had spent most of the morning there and they had to pry Leonardo and Malik from there to get food.
But the reason they were staring was because Malik and Altair were tag-teaming on Whack-A-Mole, Shaun and Desmond had taken over a racing game, and Ezio and Connor were decimating on several different games. There were crowds gathered around them all, Leo cheering on his Italian friend, and the competitions had turned into something that she would call protecting their honor.
Megan wanted to find the nearest hard surface and beat her head against it.
"Do we even want to know how this all came about when they finish?" Alex questions while turning to the smaller female. She looks up at him and, after a moment, shrugs.
"We could go turn these tickets in and just act like we don't know them. Let them find their own way back."
Alex smirks. "A quiet dinner for two then?"
Megan smiles and nods, turning to the prize counter with the large man in tow.
Not once did the Assassins realize they had been left until they ran out of quarters and ran out of money to make change. Once they had started to search for the girl and Alex did the realize they had been ditched. Frustrated they head back to the hotel to wait for them to return and hopefully with food for them since they had spent all of it on the games. Of course Ezio and Leo had taken all the tickets and gotten some rather humorous toys to entertain themselves with until such a time. Instead they ended up falling asleep waiting for the two.
Megan quietly closes the door to Ezio, Connor, and Desmond's room (the young Assassin having gotten his room back) and returns to her's and Alex's. The man was pulling off his shirt when she walked in and, giving in to the urge, she leaps onto his back knocking the both of them onto the bed. This then resulted in a gentle wrestling match which then turned into who could get who's clothes off quicker.
Alex cheated.
After a rather heated session, just before giving into her exhaustion, Megan sits up in the bed (using the sheet to cover her upper half) and looks down at him. He gives her a tired smile, breathing heavy, and his hand comes up to rest against her cheek. She returns the smile with her own. She had thought over what she wanted to say to him for a while and she couldn't hold it back anymore lest she burst.
"I love you."
Yay, I finally got a chapter out! I plan on doing a double update this week so expect another chapter later on this week. And I left it with a cliffy again! -gasps- Lol, wonder what Alex is going to do?
Zorro: Your reviews always bring a smile to my face. And your not the only person to have told me that I need to get something published, my family says the same. It's also the reason why I'm going to take a Creative Writing course. But thank you on thinking that this needs to be published! And don't worry, you can review at any time I don't mind.
Raychaell: I'm glad that you still love this story. And I hope you like this one too!
I'm sorry that this chapter is a week late. We just moved in and have been getting things out of storage and moving things around and all sorts of craziness has been abound. -shakes head- I have to start looking for a job. I need money for more games, specially AC 4. Hello Piracy! -dresses up like a pirate- What's your favorite pirate movie? Mine's Pirates of the Caribbean. Cap'ain Jack Sparrow, you can save me any time!