Cold sweat drenched his shirt as he flew up from the bed, his breath ragged in his own ears. The nightmares had returned, haunting his waking thoughts and his nightly dreams. He had stabbed countless people, watching their life bleed from their eyes has he laid their bodies atop the dirt, the paving blocks, the grassy ground, whatever was that his feet at the time. Sometimes it was a random Templar. Sometimes it was a Borgia spy, a Templar Crusader, a Redcoat.

Then sometimes it was a loved one. That's where the nightmares came from. He would watch the life bleed from Maria Thorpe's eyes as he laid her on the ground, her voice nothing more than a slight whisper in the wind. Strength Altair, she would always say before the life that was her left in a rush of warm air from her lips, causing his heart constrict painfully in his chest.

Holding Cristina in his arms as her life slow left her. The regrets he had to never be with her like he had wanted. Wishing he could turn back time and save everyone. To expose Uberti as the usurper, and save his family from the noose. It was a pipe dream only, and would never happen, but it was a thought that he would hold onto until his dying breath.

Staring at his mother as the fire encroached around them, the heat causing his small body to sweat profusely, and the smoke to burn his lungs. Ziio screaming for him to run, and to get out of there, but he refused to listen. He was going to save her. That was his mother! He was going to save her! But from behind, someone wrapped their arms around his waist, lifting him from the ground with ease, and carrying him away from the grizzly scene. All the while, he screaming for her.

So many memories slammed in his head. Lives that were not his own. Thoughts that were not his. Emotions of long dead men swirled in his mind like a whirlwind, dragging him into a pit of madness that he should never have been in. This was not has life. This should have never been his life, but it was now.

"Desmond." A hand reached up, and touched his sweaty back, causing him to damn near come out of his skin. A voice that he knew, and only he.

Isabella knew of the flip-outs. She knew it all, and either let him ride out the emotions, or tried to distract him from the nightmares. It was slightly getting better. They weren't as often as they were in the beginning. Being near something that grounded him to his real life was easier to distinguish between the memories of the dead, and the ones that were his. The lines began to blur when he recalled his time with Ezio. That's when it became hard to know where he stopped and the Italian began.

Exhaling the breath that was burning his lungs, Desmond felt his body slump forward, face in his hands, trying to contain the scream that he wanted to release. The bed dipped behind him, and warm arms wrapped around him, making him feel comfortable. "You don't have to hold it all in, Des." Her soothing voice was near his ear, her chin resting on his shoulder.

"I know." Was the only words that he could form through the lump that was in his throat, threatening to choke him. It was the same as all the other times. The emotions, so raw and so powerful, always stayed with him the longest. A few hours after at least. They would linger, the eyes of the dead.

Her body was pressed up against his back, fingers interlaced around his chest, and her steady breathing on the side of his neck let him know that he was alright. There was no blood on his hands. No bodies at his feet. No one counting on him, except his son, who slept peacefully in the other room, and his wife of one year, behind him.

"Come on." Isabella pressed a kiss to his cheek, and removed her warmth from his back, leaving him slightly chilled. "Let's go make something to eat. Maybe you'll be ready to talk."

Giving a slight nod, he followed her lead into the kitchen, but first, he looked into Collin's room. The boy was a heavy sleeper, and nothing short of a bomb blast would wake the child if he wanted to sleep. At nearly two, he was growing fast, and was so full of energy most of the time, he could wear both parents out without trying.

Collin shifted in his sleep, clutching the blanket around him tighter, and settled back down with a hefty sigh, causing Desmond to smile warmly at the sight of his child. His little clone. The spitting image of him as he grew up. The only thing lacking was the scar across his lip, and if the boy managed to get that sometime in his life, he would know it was fated that every male should have it.

Shutting the door softly, his feet carried him to the kitchen where Isabella was bent over, head in the fridge. She looked up when he was near, giving him a warm smile like she always did. "So, what sounds good? We have leftover Chinese, or I can make some grilled cheese?"

"Anything works and you know it. Don't you always call me the walking garbage disposal?" Slipping past her, Desmond set out to make a pot of coffee.

Once the food was warmed up, and the brew cycle finished, they took a seat on the couch. "So, what's on the agenda tomorrow?" He asked, staying away from the events in his nightmares.

The redhead shrugged. "I need to go to the store, and get a few errands done. Other than that, we have the day to ourselves."

Their daily lives didn't differ from most days. Since their abrupt departure from the Brotherhood, they had been living life completely away from what they once were. Giving up the way of the assassin was easy when the dangers to their child was too damn high. So, changing their names, at least to the public eye, they moved north. Alaska had been a good place to get lost in. Not many willingly came up to the frozen state, and so they had been safe from all influences from the past year. And that was fine with Desmond.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

"Bill, another team came up missing." Rebecca held out the report, and William rubbed his forehead.

Six teams in the last four months had come up dead. Whole families vanishing in the middle of the night. Their numbers had been effectively cut in half in the last year, and not a damn trace of any of the vanished had been found. The Brotherhood was on the edge of extinction, and there wasn't a damn thing any of them could do about it. Fighting back wasn't working. Too many heads to watch out for, and too many men to account for each day.

"You need to call them." The brunette sank down in the chair.

But William shook his head. "No. They want to be left alone, and I made my son a promise that I would not pull him back into this unless I had no other choice." Besides, he knew Desmond would run once more if he knew he was being watched.

Scott Dower owned the small bar that Desmond had become a bartender at once again. Scott was also a retired Master Assassin with more kills under his belt than any left alive. When word reached William of the direction Desmond and Isabella had ran one night, he had placed a call out to all the men that he trusted. To be on the lookout for them, and discretely help them in any way. Scott just happened to meet them when their car ended up broke down on the side of the road. Truthfully, the man had been out looking for them, when the call came in about their car being spotted on the side of the highway.

Picking up the phone, he dialed Scott's number, and within three rings it was answered by Charlene, Scott's wife. "Hello Charlene, is Scott around?"

'Just a sec, Bill, I think he's out back talking to your son. That boy makes a lousy mechanic.' She chuckled into her end of the phone, causing William to crack a smile. Rebecca watched him like a hawk.

"I was just calling to see how they were doing? If they had everything under control." He had kept his word that he would keep his distance, but that didn't mean he didn't know what was going on at all times.

'They're doing fine. Desmond helps out around the house with jobs Scott is too stubborn to see he can't do himself, and works at the bar at night. Isabella is a joy to talk to on most days, but she misses her folks something awful. They're alright, right?' Charlene asked and he could hear a few voices getting louder in the background, then it got quiet once more, telling him she had moved their conversation to another room.

"They're fine. Talked to Sarah just the other day. Any activity up there to report?" The Templars had become bolder by the day, but so far no signs of them in the area they were hiding out in.

'Quiet so far. Dylan and Derik have been watching their coming and going. Two safe houses in Anchorage have been hit, but that's miles from here. If we hear anything local, you'll be the first to know.'

"Thank you, and if I hear anything, I'll pass it along." And with a final goodbye, he hung up the phone, then turned to Rebecca. "I'm not calling them back in. Not until Juno shows herself."

Rebecca shook her head with a sigh. "Bill, I know I thought I would be the last one to say this, but Desmond and Isabella are the only ones that can save the Brotherhood. Juno isn't going to come out unless she finds him, and with her working with the Templars now, it's just going to get more dangerous for us."

He knew what she was saying. Desmond, for some reason, was a thorn in Juno's side and would stop at nothing to kill him. Now that he had a son, she was going to go after him as well, and like hell William was going to let that happen. That was his grandson, and come hell or high water, he was going to protect that boy with everything he could.

Looking at Rebecca, he was afraid to ask. "Whose team is missing now?"

"Seth's. Three dead, but he's unaccounted for. His safe house in Washington was hit last night. Chambers, Rother, and Hind's bodies were found, but Seth is gone. From the buzz from Abstergo, he's still out there." She replied, and William felt a shiver go down his spine. "As of this morning, no one's heard from him. He's gone dark."

"Shit. I want him found. If he gets killed, there's nothing going to stop Damien from coming after me. Then he'll turn his focus onto Abstergo." Standing, he placed his hands on his desk. "I want hourly reports on progress. If a stolen car comes up in the area, I want to know make, model, year and color."

Rebecca nodded, stood and walked out of the room, leaving him standing there, his eyes drifted to the phone, and wondering if he should call them back in.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Seth didn't know which way was up from the world spinning around him as he drug his battered body through the woods. An ambush at a safe house, and he barely made it out with his life. A hit squad of ten Templars caught them off-guard, throwing him and the three men he was with into chaos shortly after midnight. Jason and he managed to make it to the roof and across to the adjacent building, but Sam and Roland weren't so lucky. They were cut down before they could get off a shot.

The two of them ran for what felt like hours, their bodies pushed beyond the brink, but they still ran. Then they were found about fifteen miles outside an informant's house, and Jason had covered him long enough to escape. One lucky shot entered the back of his right thigh, and exited through the front in a spray of bullet fragments, blood and tissue.

That that was how he ended up in the middle of the woods, wounds burning, and blood pooling under the injured leg. It had already bled through the bandage he had placed around it once he had the chance. Seth rested against the tree, trying to get his breathing under control. His body was beaten to the point he wanted to give up, but the information he had in his pocket had to get back to someone that could decrypt it.

"Get up." He growled to himself, and with much effort, he managed to get to his feet. His right leg was about useless. The feeling almost completely gone. Knowing without proper care soon, he was going to lose it, and so he pressed on.

Finding a rather thick branch, he broke off the smaller twigs and fashioned himself a walking stick. Lights could be seen from his position, and with strength that even he didn't know he had left, the redhead limped through the trees, blood running down his leg, collecting in his boot.

When he made it to the edge, he saw the back of a buy here, pay here lot brimming with cars. There were a few sitting on the back lot with license plates, but there was no telling if they were there for service or if they were repossessed. Growling to himself, he knew he needed one of them, and his eyes scanned the lot. A small truck sat off away from the others and upon further inspection, he saw it carried dealer tags. Possibly a work truck for the lot.

With it being decided, he limped across the lot, opened the door, and began to hotwire the truck. It took only a minute before the truck roared to life, and he was on his way. Dodging every small town, he only stopped when he had to, gassed up at the farthest pump from the prepaid credit card he carried, and continued on. The only time he smiled was when he saw the sign for Alaska.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

"Report."

"One escaped, but the other three were taken care of." The man in charge of the mission bowed his head.

"Who is unaccounted?" She asked as they made their way towards the building. Two men stood inside the door, and inclined their heads as they passed.

The man looked at his paper. "Bellucci. Chambers was caught twelve miles from here. Bellucci was wounded though. We tracked the trail of blood into a thick wooded area, but he covered his tracks well as he went. He's the one that has the information that was stolen."

A low growl came from his superior, but her voice went back to being unnaturally cold. "I want him found, and I want him alive. That information must not make it back to William."

With a small bow, he understood. "I will put everyone I can get on finding him. The question is, what if he runs to his sister?"

Pushing the short strands away from her face, her ice blue eyes locked onto his, causing him to take a step back. "I know he will. They are a tight family. There has been no trace of his mother or father, but they're unimportant. Juno wants Desmond, Isabella, and their son, but even with all my connections, their location is a closely guarded secret that only a few are privy to. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them."

The guard nodded. "I'll make sure he's found."

"Good."