Chapter Seven:

Blizzard Attack

1205

I stood in front of A'hd's cell, my arms crossed and my hood lowered. A'hd frowned when he saw me.

"Come to gloat, have you, Assassin?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Just come to see the man who is a failed Templar."

"How dare you? I'll have your head—!"

I ignored him. "You're obviously a failed Templar. Why were you not wearing your colours? Why did you not have any weapons? And why didn't you have any other Templars come? One man who cannot even beat a Master Assassin is hardly enough to take on every Assassin in Masyaf, where we are strongest."

A'hd looked away from me, but whether it was out of shame or he just didn't want t speak to me anymore, I did not know.

"The thing I hate more than Templars are traitors," I said. "People who turn on their beliefs because their life is in danger, or they just want an easy way out."

"The Templars are right in their way, Assassin!" A'hd spat viciously. "They just did not want to attack Masyaf as much after Robert de Sable was killed by your Order! I did not agree with them!" He glared at me. "Who are you to have a face like my sister's? You, Assassin, should just die and leave that face to Ada!"

I kicked the bars of the cell. A'hd backed away, probably realizing that he'd crossed the tiny line I made for him.

"My mother was Ada, you fool!" I snapped angrily. "Chara was my older sister, and she was killed by Templars in Constantinople on this day last year! It's because of the Templars, and the people who hold the power to change things but do nothing, that I became an Assassin! So I could fight for those who could not!" I glared at A'hd. "The Grandmaster, Altair, became my father when I was seven, and now I have an entire family. I am not an Akhir an-Nahr. I am Suna Ibn La'Ahad. And you are a Templar. I'll have nothing to do with a man who is such."

A'hd's eyes were wide. "You… are the second child of Ada and Talal?" I frowned and turned away from my uncle, and I started to walk away. But I stopped once he said, "Your cousin, Ahdara, was with me at the gates. She hid once I started fighting."

"My cousin?" I repeated.

"My daughter."

I frowned. "I thought you said that all of the heirs to the Akhir an-Nahr family are dead."

"She will obviously not be able to carry on our name," A'hd explained. "The reason I came to Masyaf was because she and I had an argument. She said that the Assassins were stronger than any Templar, especially you, Suna of the Shadow-Step. I fought to show her how weak you all were." He sighed. "Or how you were supposed to be."

"Where is she now?" I asked.

"I do not know."

I hurried off, knowing that I needed to find Ahdara before she got into some sort of trouble. The problem was that I did not know what she looked like, but I was sure I'd hear rumours of a stranger in Masyaf soon enough.

1511

Ezio and I ran up the beams that jutted out of the tower in Masyaf. I had to admit, it brought back memories of Altair, Sef, Darim and I. There was a guard above us, so I shuffled around and distracted him. Luckily, he was unarmed. Ezio came up behind the guard and kicked his back, and I grabbed him and tossed him off of the cliff. I could hear Leandros screaming at his guards to find us as we continued our climb, but the blizzard around us really started to fog our vision. I was sure that was the case for Leandros' guards as well.

We finally made it to the wall of the keep, and we went into a room where our weapons were. Ezio put his hidden blades on and checked the right one, but the blade was cut-off.

I felt sorry, since mine were still intact. But he did get a new sword. All of my weapons were there, so I was fine.

"The blizzard is going to make navigation difficult," Ezio admitted. "Sofia, you remember this place?"

"Like the back of my hand." I smiled. "Do not worry, Ezio. I can help out. Just stay behind me."

Ezio nodded. We started to run down the length of the wall when we ran into some of Leandros' guards. We easily dispatched them, and kept moving. A few seconds after that, we reached the keep's main building. I started to climb, Ezio right behind me. When we finally reached the top, Ezio walked over to a statue of an eagle and kicked it down. He jumped after it, with me following only a few seconds behind. I hit the water after Ezio had killed the guard, and then I climbed out.

"I don't like swimming in winter," I said, rubbing my arms to keep warm.

"Then you should get some fur lined into your robes," Ezio replied with a smile.

I frowned. "Or I could just skin you."

Ezio chuckled and headed deeper into the catacombs. He jumped off of a beam and onto a waiting guard. I waited for the rest of the guards to get closer to Ezio before I jumped off of the same beam and killed two more. With two left, Ezio and I easily killed them both.

Ezio approached a man trying to break through Altair's library door and started to speak with him. I smiled as I looked at it, remembering when Altair had shown me it for the first time. I went in there many times to read.

"We need some sort of keys," Ezio said to me, snapping me out of my daze, "or else we won't be able to enter."

I tapped my chin. "I remember Altair mentioning something about giving some glowing disks to Niccolo Polo. From the looks of it, they should fit into the door. But…" I squinted to examine the door. "There are so many holes. It is obviously a puzzle."

Ezio nodded. "Let's go. The worker mentioned that Leandros had a journal that could help us in our search."

I nodded. "Va bene. Let's hurry."

2012

"So… Mason, right?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah. That's my name, don't wear it out." Mason cleared his throat. "So what do you guys want?"

"We just want to check some things out," I told him. "Don't worry; we won't do anything bad."

"I hope you won't! I thought I was on for good-behaviour!"

I smiled. "Smart-ass. We're coming in."

Rebecca unlocked the door to my room and opened the door. Mason was a pale, clean-shaven guy of average height (which was pretty tall), with really, really dark eyes and hair. He was wearing faded blue jeans with holes in them, a black T-shirt with white trim, and a silver necklace. I had to admit, the smile on his face made me think he was a cat. It just looked a lot like a cat's smile!

"Hey! You're the one who tackled me and threatened to bite my ear!" Mason exclaimed, pointing at Rebecca.

Rebecca laughed. "Sorry about that. I was just trying to get you to stop running."

"Like that'd help!" Mason smiled when he saw me. "And you must be Sam."

I nodded. "Nice to see you, face-to-face."

"Well, not really. You're wearing a hood." After a few seconds, he put a hand on top of my head. "You're really short."

I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. "For God sakes! Just once, I want a guy to stop pointing out how short I am!"

Mason laughed at me. "Well, guys like short girls. They're cuter that way."

Rebecca was laughing at me as my face went red. Mason realized then that Rebecca had some needles with her.

"What's that for?' he asked suspiciously.

Rebecca held it up for him to look. "This is just to run a few tests. You said you didn't remember much, so we're gonna run a DNA scan and find out who you are. This'll most likely tell us if you're a Templar or not."

Mason tipped his head to the side. "What're you gonna do with me if I'm not?"

Rebecca shrugged. "We're gonna leave that up to Bill."

Sighing, Mason nodded and sat on the bed. "Well then, do your worst."

I took the equipment from Rebecca. "Hey, I'll do it. I have enough experience."

Rebecca smirked. "Okay. Just don't accidentally kill him or anything."

"Pfft. Like I'd do that…" I got out a needle and quickly did my thing, and then filled up a second vial.

"Why d'you need two?" Mason asked.

"Just in case we screw-up the first time," I replied smartly. "Better safe than sorry, right?" I handed the vials to Rebecca, who smiled and walked out of the room. "It'll also tell us why Abstergo wanted you." Mason tilted his head, like I usually did whenever I was confused. I smiled. "Abstergo is a company owned by the Templar Order. They've created these machines that let you look into your ancestor's memories. Genetic memory. It's called an Animus. The people I work with also use about two that I know of. We need them if we want to stop the Templars."

"Why?"

"The Templars are trying to enslave the world," I answered honestly. "They want everyone to… well, they practically want them to share one mind. They want peace."

"That's a good thing though!" Mason argued.

I nodded. "Peace is what we're striving for too—the thing is, the Templars, in making everyone think the same things, it takes away free-will. What I, and the people I work with want, is for everyone to retain their free-will. That gives way for new ideas. We wouldn't have New York City if we were all one mind, would we? Because we would never want to look for new places."

Mason considered this, and then nodded. "I see… So in other words, you're trying to save the world."

I nodded. "Bingo. Now, I'd better get back to Rebecca and help her out."

Mason got up as I did and walked with me to the door. "I'll just stay here then," he said.

"I'll come back soon enough. Hopefully, we'll have good news."

"You're hoping that because you can't stand to be away from me, can you?"

I think I almost hit him, he ticked me off so much. "You idiot! Is that all that's on your mind?"

"No. I think about many other things… like what I'm going to do if I even get out of this place." Mason smirked. "And about how dirty your mind is."

I rolled my eyes and left the room, closing it and locking it behind me. "Idiot…" I muttered as I walked to Rebecca.