Luna woke up sucking in air and feeling weak. Her lungs burned while tears started to roll down her cheeks in streams. She laid on her back for a full minute catching her breath and looking around the room. She was in a storage room, the lights from the hallway flashing like some wild disco cast some wicked shadows, but she soon figured out what she was seeing. She slowly got to her feet fighting the urge to vomit and stumbled out into the hallway, hoping like hell that Haythem had made his way back down towards the prison cells. She rounded the last corner and her stomach lurched. Haythem had been this way alright, Jacob's body laying in the hallway was evidence of that. She looked down at the disembodied head that lay at her feet and she was filled with a mixture of rage, remorse and sorrow. She stepped over the head and walked towards Scarlet's cell.
The woman was pressed back into a corner with a looked of pure horror on her face. Luna slowly opened the door, and the sight of Toby laying in the floor stopped her in her tracks. He had been split open across his stomach, laying under him was a pond of blood and his intestines piled on top. She couldn't hold back this time, turning and emptying her stomach by the wall. She had seen far to much death already. She wiped her mouth of with the bottom of her shirt before she turned, here eyes raking across the body again. She felt that lurch in her stomach again but fought it as she held her hand out to Scarlet.
"Come on, you can't stay in here." Scarlet skittered across the floor like it was covered in mice and once in the hallway she screamed at the sight of the headless body. Luna pushed her into another room and soon she had her seated on a bed.
"When I leave I want you to close this door behind me and push the bed against it alright. How long from the time I shut your cell to when I came back." Scarlet was going into shock but Luna needed to know. "HOW LONG?"
"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes." Luna nodded, that put her out for about three or four minutes.
"How long since you saw Haythem kill Toby?" Scarlet had started to tremble and soon she was hunkered down, rocking as she started to sob.
"I don't know, two minutes before you came." Luna knew that Scarlet was now scared for life and that nothing would ever be the same for her, and that broke her heart a little, but there was nothing she could do.
"You did good, now don't let Haythem through this door, not if you want to come out of this room alive."
Luna turned and checked the hall before closing the door and watching Scarlet pushing the bed so that the door would be harder to open. She nodded to the scared shell of the woman in the room before she went off in search of Haythem, praying he hadn't found the stair case down to the vaults. Luna made her way through the hallways, looking for any signs of him but she saw nothing. Just as she came to another hall she saw a shadow cross from one of the rooms to her left. She backed against the wall, staying within the shadows as she moved closer to the doorway. She listened for the footfalls, hearing them grow closer while she waited with blade drawn. She can now see a faint shadow on the floor coming from the door. She waited until a figure appeared next to her then she acted quickly, pressing her blade to their throat while she pressed the body against the wall, but it wasn't Haythem.
"Luna, what the hell are you doing?" It was Harmony, a very skilled researcher, able to speak and translate six languages as well as the uncanny ability to coerce information out of people.
"Haythem Kenway is down here and he's armed. I thought I could get him to help, but I was stupid. He's killed Jacob and Toby, you need to get back in that room and lock it, I don't want anyone else dead tonight." Harmony nodded as she backed into the room she was about to leave and Luna turned back towards the hall. She stood still and listened, a door closed softly not to far away and she made her way down the hall. She turned and saw the stairwell door and panic overtook her. He was on his way down to the vaults, she had to stop him. She slowly crept through the door, closing it herself to avoid being heard by him. She started down the stairs and soon she heard the door close on the lowest level. She made her way down the steps, quicker now but still cautiously, and soon she got to the bottom level.
Coming out of the south stairwell she was happy to know that most of the artifacts, the relics left from those before were kept on the north side of the building. Luna tried to steer clear of the cameras, not knowing if Juno could use them to watch her or not. She used the shadows as her cover, but there were times when the cameras just couldn't be avoided. Each time she would get spotted by one, the floor would be drenched in darkness and she knew Juno was watching. Luna had to rely on memory alone to navigate through the floor, and she manged to do so without to many bumps. Two times she sought refuge inside one of the vaults, thankful those rooms had no cameras that were linked up with their core system. Each vault had its own internal closed circuit system that was only accessible from inside each room. Hopefully Juno wouldn't be able to find a way in. She could hear steps outside in the hallway so she backed further into the room, watching the light shining through under the door. There was a shadow cast, then the light was gone completely.
Luna held her breath waiting to see what was going on, if this shadow would come into the room she was waiting in or not. There was a creak in the door and Luna peered around two shelves, she could make out the figure of a man. The room was once again plunged into darkness as the door closed slowly. Luna found herself preparing to strike, but the footfalls sounded as if the man were walking around the other side of the room. Luna listened, moving towards the center walkway of the room. She could hear him hesitate, maybe letting his eyes adjust to the darkness, either way she needed to keep surprise on her side if she wanted a chance to stop him. The footsteps where closer now, just a few feet to her left. Luna squatted down and steps lightly through the darkness, but she hadn't done so in quite a while. It took her a few moments to get her rhythm back, but once she did she moved quickly, but her target was also moving. She had been crouched too long and now her thighs were starting to burn, how much longer would she have to stay like this, how much longer could she?
The footsteps got slower, but louder, he was getting close. She stilled her position and waited for him to walk by close enough. Her eyes had adjusted enough, but there were no windows in the room, no lights anywhere and all she could make out where vague outlines of black against black. Another step, only four feet away now, so she shallowed her breathing. Three and a half feet, now three and a long pause. Her legs were on fire, her back beginning to ache from the muscles being tense and her throat still stung from the hands that tried to crush the life from her. Another step and she didn't bother waiting, lunging at the man who was just a step away.
He caught her hand and directed it away from his neck, his strong arms grabbing her by the waist and lifting her from the ground. She could feel his breath in her ear and she brought her elbow back to meet his ribs with a forceful blow. Once impact was made he grunted as he leaned forward, her feet back on the ground while he sucked in a deep breath but Luna wasn't done. She threw her elbow back again, this time landing on the bridge of his nose hearing him cry out from the pain. She pulled from his arms, his hands now going up to his broken nose and Luna took advantage by pivoting on her right foot and kicking him in the chest with her left. He was knocked back a few feet until his back collided with a bookcase. The shelves teetered and fell with him over it and Luna made her move, lunging out over him with her blade drawn.
"Still your blade Luna." His thick Italian accent said and she stopped dead.
"Ezio, what the fuck were you doing sneaking around?" She felt him shift under her and she realized she was straddling his torso, holding him down. She stood up and offered the older man a hand, surprised at how spry he was for a man of his age, no wonder Ruth liked him so much.
"I was not sneaking, did you not here me walk in? Why were you sneaking around? You were the one being silent." She tore off a piece of her t-shirt and handed it to Ezio, sure that his mouth and chin were covered in his own blood.
"I thought you were Haythem Kenway. I fucked up and now he's lose with his blades." Ezio wanted to yell, to scream at her but now was not the time. They had to find Haythem and they had to stop him before he got to the artifacts.
"I think the time for stealth has past. Now we do anything we must to put an end to this, do you agree." Luna put her hand on his arm, her fingers following it up to his shoulder.
"I agree, let's go stop this now."
The two fumbled their way to the door and once they were back in the hall Luna could see the blood running down Ezio's shirt. His eyes hadn't swollen yet, and that was good, she needed him to help and black eyes can make seeing a bit tricky. They both started running, Luna out two steps ahead of Ezio and soon she rounded a corner and halted to a stop. Ezio nearly ran her over as they looked at the last door, a golden glow shimmering in front of it, Juno.