Pacing outside his own room, Ezio paced the hall as his thoughts stormed and raged through his mind. His friend was found unconscious and torn up, and without a cause of the issue, it was hard to deduce how to help his feline-turned-friend. It was soon his impatience got the better of him, and he punched a wall with frustration. What could he possibly do?

That was when Annete stepped out of the room and looked up hopefully, that look alone brought soon relief to him. Maybe his friend would be okay after all.

"How is he?" Ezio asked, unsure wheither he should tell her the truth.

"The cat, I cleaned and stitched up the wounds as best I could," She answered. "The pour little thing's weak, but there's a chance that he can recover. Maybe." Then she sighed and whipped her hands on her robes. "Mentor, I have a question for you, why do you care so much about this one cat?"

Okay, now if Ezio were going to tell her, now would be the time, right? It was only the best moment he could think of. He took a breath and walked into his room, gesturing for her to follow. Yusuf was asleep on a pillow, twitching every now and again as somewhat active dreams seemed to bring some small movement from him. Ezio sat on the edge of his bed and gestured for Annette to do the same.

"Now what I tell you might be difficult to believe," he said causiously, waiting for the nod that he was given in responce, "but Yusuf isn't with the Egyptian Assassins, and he had not even left."

"What do you mean?" She lowered an eyebrow, staring at him. "Is he dead?"

"No, he more or less... changed..." Ezio told her, unable to find the words to opening admit the truth. "But he is with us, he is still alive. Hurt but alive."

That said, the conclusion slowly begun to settle in on the recruit, her mouth begun to drop before she stood up. "But that's-! That's impossible! That cat couldn't be- you must be mistaken! I don't believe this!"

"Please, Annette," he said assuringly. "I did not believe it when I first found out either, but... that cat, Yusuf made a mistake in not listening to my warning, he did not stay away from the keys like I had asked. They changed him physically, and possibly mentally as well, this I am not yet sure."

"Do you have any sort of proof?" She asked as she swallowed hard.

"You know how Elif was found passed out the other day?" Ezio brought up. "It wasn't a guard in a fight. I hit her over the head with my own bracer simply to avoid her from finding out the truth of what happened to Yusuf. It was ilrational, pourly thought out, and I still have yet to apologize."

"She really does think a guard knocked her out, Mentor." Annette stated. "Maybe it's better that way."

"Who knows, but it would be better to know the truth sooner, than for me to hoard this secret for too long and allow it to fester like an infected wound left alone." Ezio explained. "It's best to tend to it now, straighten it all out, and work to fix him."

"Are you still going to be looking for keys? Or even doing anything envolving the Ottomans or Byzantines?"

"Not until Yusuf is returned to his semi-normal state." He answered. "But I felt that I needed one person besides me who knew the real story behind Yusuf's sudden disappearence, or why I care so much for this 'cat's' safety."

Little did Ezio or Annette know that outside the door, Yerman had overheard Ezio's last couple of sentences. He stood outside for another moment trying to figure out what he meant, or why tell Annette for that matter. One thing was certain, he would find out one way or another.

MEANWHILE!

The door flew open with a brush of air as Mirela entered the Templar headquarters dressed in an assassin's clothes and a bundle held to her chest. A smile had crossed her features breifly as she came to Manuel, who sat in his office, staring at a parchment. To gain his attention, she knocked on the door a couple of times.

The old man looked up and raised an eyebrow at her in questioning. "Mirela? Why are you wearing assassin robes?"

"Vali 'borrowed' some to sabotage the South Assassin Den," she explained. "And he dragged me along."

"Well, what did you do?"

Again that sinister smirk came to her lips. "We planted a bomb."

This brought some more interest to the subject. "A bomb? And how will this help us?"

"It's a coal bomb that we hid inside a pie," Mirela told him. "It will explode and they will have to clean up the mess. While they are busy with that, we'll have the opprotunity to attack the North Den and take it for ourselves."

"What kind of pie did you hide this bomb in?"

"Cherry."

"Oh no, that's horrible." Manuel gasped. "Such a waste of pie."

"A good waste."

A long few moments of silence passed through the two before Mirela ajusted her hold on the bundle she held to her chest. To this, her superior stared at her curiously. "What is that thing you're holding?"

She put the bundle down on the desk, and let the fabric fall to reveil a limp cat. A semi long furred creature with a patchwork of black, tan, and white. It's pelt though was coated with dried blood in some spots, obscurring some of the details of it's fur. And around it's neck was what seemed to be two long strips of fabric- a teal one wrapped around orange and gold- used to fashion a sort of collar. The teal piece had a part that extended down from the rest, reaching down to around it's chest.

"A cat. I found it at the docks." She explained.

Manuel hummed, a hand stroking his white beard. "Why not you see what you can do to patch it up, it could stay with us."

"Really?" She asked excitely.

"What's the harm?" He answered.

Happily, the trickster collected the cat in her arms and left to heal the wounds and change out of the assassin robes. Leaving Manuel to continue his reading a letter from Prince Ahmet. She walked over to her room, she had to share with Oksana and Lysistrata, so it wasn't like she would get any sort of privacy. When she walked in, the actress narrowed her eyes.

"Looks like we're going to need to find another agent." She snorted at the sight of the robes that Mirela still wore.

Putting the cat down, she crossed her arms, "It's not my fault! Vali dragged me along to sabotage a den, I had to wear these."

"Well change out of those rags soon, their quite the eyesore." Oksana retorted.

"Fine, I don't care." With that, she tugged off the belt and armor and threw them down on the ground, soon she was back in her Romani clothes. Then she turned back to the still sleeping cat, and begun to patch the wounds all across it's body, wondering what had happened to it when she fished the pour thing out of the water.

Ain't this just the plot twist? THIS IS WHAT LISTENING TO BECK DOES TO MEH!
SOOOOOOY UN PENIDOR! I'M A LOSER BABY! SO WHY DON'T YOU KILL ME?
Yusuf: *facepalm*
Ezio: *facebook*
Annette: *facewall*
Yerman: *facefloor*
Elif: *facebracer*
Malik: Novice...