Author's Note: Still don't own Assassin's Creed. So, since I got a couple of reviews, here's a new chapter! :D Please keep reviewing, I love to hear feedback! Just one more chapter and we'll have Desmond back, and then things will really get interesting.

Chapter 2

I spent the next week on the computer, emailing contacts within the assassins, trying to find someone to help me. Through my researching, I learned that Desmond was the son of William Miles, a distinguished but distant assassin. I'd met the man once. I wasn't fond of him. I'd never guessed that he had been part of the line I'd been so carefully following. Maybe if I'd spoken to him about it we would have been able to stop Abstergo before this all would have gone wrong. My fist clenched in fury. I was so stupid. To think I had time.

I managed to find a link to a team of assassins that had just been reassigned to the city; team was putting it lightly. There was only three; two techies, then one that was currently a sleeper agent at Abstergo. My eyes stung. I knew about the sleeper. If she had acted sooner, Clay wouldn't have...

No time to dwell on it now. I needed to contact these Assassins, to find a way to free Desmond before he fell to the same fate. I would not fail again. I could not. But Assassins were not a trusting bunch, I would know. Knocking on their front door would get me nowhere. I would have to sneak in and make them listen to me. Besides, I could handle two techies.

I followed the lead to an abandoned warehouse. Really subtle, guys. I pulled my coat around my shoulders, hood firmly in place over my head. In the dead of night, I was nearly invisible. I slipped in through a back door, deftly picking the lock. The inside was dark, but I had always been blessed with exceptional sight; after a few moments of adjusting, I continued slinking through the shadows, listening, watching for a sign. They had to be here somewhere.

"Shaun, get up off your ass and help me pack, we've gotta be ready to move in two days!" A harsh woman's voice snapped.

"No need to get so snappy, I'm not the one with three trunks full of equipment!" A male voice, distinctly British, replied curtly, and the quiet sound of a keyboard filled the silence. I followed the gentle clicking, climbing swiftly as a squirrel into the rafters, picking up a stone on the way. At the very top, I chucked it as hard as I could. It clattered distantly to the ground. All sounds stopped.

"I'll go check it," the woman muttered, and I heard the sound of a gun cocking. Didn't anyone use the hidden blades anymore? I saw the shadowy figure appear from the one spot of light; the movement of her head told me she was expecting to be jumped at any minute. This had been an awful idea, but too late now.

I dropped to the ground directly behind her with a dull thud. She whipped around to confront me but I deftly snatched the gun from her slackened grip and threw it as hard as I could away from us. She swung a fist clumsily, uncertain in the dark of where I was. I dodged her attacks, not wanting to harm, only to have them listen. The dull light behind me brightened suddenly, and I felt cold steel meet my throat.

"Who are you?" The man called Shaun demanded. The woman narrowed her eyes at me. I recognized her from a file I had found once; Rebecca Crane. One of the brightest minds in the brotherhood, who would prefer sitting behind a desk all day to actually fighting.

"I'm a friend, an Assassin, I came to talk!" I replied with my hands up. I could tell from the 'pfft' noise that Rebecca did not believe me. I had to make them believe. "Here, look." I held out my arm to her, the arm on which I equipped my Hidden Blade. Rebecca frowned at it. Shaun didn't budge. "Oh, come on, if I'd wanted either of you dead you'd have already been dead. It's about Desmond." Rebecca glanced over my shoulder, nodded, and I was released. I rubbed my neck for a moment, then continued my explanation.

"My name's Rae. I've been an Assassin for... a long time. My current mission was to find Desmond and bring him into the Brotherhood. I don't know much beyond that, just that it's imperative that I find him again. He was taken right in front of me... I know what they'll do if we give them the time, and we must not let it happen!" Shaun started speaking before I'd even finished, leading our group inside of the little hideout. It was obvious they were leaving soon, chests lay open with all kinds of content thrown inside.

"We know, we were notified a few days ago about it. Bill's been searching for Desmond ever since he left home. You can imagine his surprised when Abstergo managed to find him first. So now, we follow, get him out, simple enough. On the way I'll be sneaking into their databases and collecting any information I can find about him. Day after tomorrow... or, looking at the time, tomorrow, we'll be flying to Italy to prepare for his escape. Abstergo will be looking for us once he's out, so we have to be well hidden," he explained very quickly.

"Why haven't you gone before? It's been nearly two weeks since he was abducted! You could've already had him out by now!" I shouted. Shaun grumbled and sat back at his computer as Rebecca continued the explanation.

"We would have, we really would, but Abstergo has infinitely more resources at their disposal. We had to get fake passports, get the money for the tickets, and for all of our cargo. Flying to Italy isn't cheap, we couldn't just get up and go," she finished by chucking a piece of equipment unceremoniously into one of the trunks. I sighed at the logic. Unfortunately, it was very true.

"Here, I'll help you pack," I offered, arranging things much more neatly to make room for more of the equipment. Rebecca blinked gratefully at me.

"Thanks, Rae. A lot more helpful than the lazy ass I call a partner!" her tone turned prickly as she glared at Shaun.

"Watch who you're calling a lazy ass! How would you like to tip toe into the Abstergo database, knowing a single wrong move could have Templars knocking down our door?!" he protested loudly, going back to his computer. "Good news is Desmond is alive and well; he's cooperating so they won't harm a hair on his head until they have what they need. After that... Well, hopefully we'll be there before we have to worry about that." He cast a glance to the side. "I hope you have a plan to get on board that flight with us or you won't be going anywhere." I smirked.

"Don't you worry about me," I assured them. "Just keep me posted. I'll be back tomorrow night." I turned and vanished out the door, slipping silently out the way I came before either could protest.

I spent the rest of the day hunting down a woman with a ticket. I lifted her whole wallet, wrote down the information I needed, then slipped it back into her pocket before she even noticed it was gone. The ticket, however, was now residing in my inner breast pocket. The weather had turned suddenly chilly, heralding the beginning of fall, making my hooded coat all the more appropriate. I returned to my apartment, used my few resources to quickly forge the documents I needed, and packed up my necessities. I looked at the other niceties I'd enjoyed during my extended stay, and sighed. I sprayed hairspray over and in everything I intended to leave behind, then lit a few small fires. They would spread soon enough. Halfway down the block, I heard the alarms go off. No Templar would find anything of use there when that fire was through, that I made sure of. I left various flammables amongst the slow moving flames, making sure that once it took hold, it devoured everything. One backpack was all I took; my computer, a few weapons, and a couple of changes of clothes. I was used to saying goodbye to belongings. I returned to the pair of assassins that evening.

"Heard about a fire about a mile from here. You I take it?" Shaun questioned. I nodded. "Police say it was just an accident, too much hairspray and smoking. Impressive." It hadn't been much, but I felt a glow of pride all the same.

"Thank you. I hate to ask, but is there anywhere here I could rest tonight? Obviously my bed is a pile of ash and I haven't slept in a day and a half," Exhaustion pulled on my limbs and eyelids, making me feel heavy and clumsy. Rebecca nodded and motioned for me to follow. A couple of well worn cots stood near each other, covered by thick throw blankets.

"You can share mine," she told me. "I'm gonna keep watch tonight and get the rest of the packing done, at least for a little while. I bet Shaun'll watch the rest of the time to get in a little more work before the flight. It's scheduled for eight, we'll wake you." I gave a tiny bow of thanks and placed my stuffed backpack next to the little cot.

"Rebecca?" She glanced back. "Thank you." She smiled.

"Hey, it's no problem. After all, you're one of us! We've gotta watch out for each other," she walked away. I smiled and laid down, closing my eyes and falling into a fitful and restless sleep.

The next morning we woke early. I had not slept well, thus it made no difference to me whether we woke early or late; either way, I would've still been tired. Shaun was already well awake, having swapped with Rebecca partway through the night. Rebecca, however, immediately demanded we stop at a Starbucks for a strong cup of coffee. We loaded up a rental van with the trunks and headed for the airport. We dropped our luggage and arranged for it to be loaded(after many security checks), then Shaun left to return the van at the nearby rental place, leaving Rebecca and I searching for a coffee place in the airport. When we found one, it was unimpressive. We could either get black, or black with cream and sugar. Rebecca took the former, I the latter, and we sat sipping in silence, each of us carrying a pillow for the flight. She'd brought an e-book reader with her; I brought a plain journal. It was many in a long line. I always ended up having to burn them - too many useful secrets should the Templars capture it - but I enjoyed having something for my hands to do when I had the opportunity.

Shaun soon returned by taxi, also bringing with him the gift of doughnuts, sweet delicious doughnuts. Rebecca mumbled a sleepy thanks as she tucked in. My thank you was a little more coherent, and he nodded. Perhaps an apology for threatening to kill me, but it was not needed. He left to finish checking himself in, though once he was back, we still had thirty minutes to kill, so he took up a few doughnuts as well. Before long we had devoured the whole box-worth. Rebecca's head drooped until she was snoring on her pillow again. Shaun and myself simply sat in silence until our flight was called, when we dragged Rebecca to her feet and boarded the plane.

The flight was long and boring. I miss the days when crossing an ocean involved a ship, the spray of the water and wind on my face, the excitement of the waves as they lifted the hull up. But those days were long gone. Besides, that would have taken many many days, days we didn't have. The flight was faster by far, but that didn't make me any less anxious to land. When we finally did land, the three of us gathered up the cargo and Shaun went to go acquire another van. Once we were loaded up, we drove. We finally parked at what seemed to be a recently vacated warehouse of some kind. It could have also been an office building, or some kind of merging of the two. We unloaded and set up the new office. While I helped Rebecca with her equipment, Shaun jumped straight back on his laptop to give us an update.

"Everything's fine for now," he called over his shoulder. "But I think they're getting close to whatever they're looking for. We should prepare for them to show up any day."

"Yes, your Majesty," Rebecca grumbled, piecing together her computers and hardware. Shaun glared furiously at her. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you thought you were the queen of England. Ass." I snorted, but interrupted before the bickering could continue.

"What is this Rebecca?" I ran my hand along a familiar device. "It looks like an Animus, but no one outside of Abstergo has that technology yet. Right?" Rebecca laughed.

"That's what they'd like you to think!" she declared. "Baby here is the Animus 2.0, better than anything at Abstergo. However, it's not quite complete yet, still a few bugs to work out, I'll be able to finish it once I get in contact with our agent, after we get Desmond out." She turned and went back to her work while I went for a little air in the open 'warehouse' space. The huge room was wide and for the most part open, with several things to climb on. I shimmied up to the top catwalks, then sat with my legs dangling over.

Just a little longer.