Chapter 2 – Q&A

When Altair finally got outside he gaped; this place was nothing like he;d ever seen, buildings that almost touched the sky encased in metal and glass, and even the shorter buildings were unusual they were made out of grey stone and held all sorts of stores, many Altiar had never even heard of before, let alone seen What in the name of Allah! He breathed softly in his native tongue as he looked around; he was confused and admittedly a little scared of this place; it was all alien to him and he had a hard time letting it all sink in of course by this time Alex was already half way down the street by this point; he wasn't about to wait up for the other; and he half hoped that if he want ahead he;d lose Altiar in the crowd and they wouldn't see him again.

Despite the infections in New York city some places deemed safe had been cut off from the infection, of course no one knew Alex and Dana were living amongst the rest of the human populace and Alex always did his best not to bring his work home whenever he went out, trying to stop Gentek.

He was surprised however when eh sensed someone walking alongside him; it was Altair; how the hell he'd managed to finds him in the vast crowd he didn't know but it was kind creepy. "...If your trying to lose me you'll have to do better than that" Altair said softly from under his hood.

Alex grit his teeth; this guy got on his fucking nerves; but mostly it was because he was a total enigma, he didn't know where he stood with the man but most of all Altiar wasn't afraid of him; he wasn't intimidated and he didn't know why, because even his own sister felt intimidated by him sometimes. "Shut up" Alex grumbled.

Altair's mouth twitched with a faint smile and he fell silent as he followed Alex towards the local morgue; it was a tense silence, Alex looked really tense like he was ready to punch someone at any given moment and Altiar wondered why someone like him was so stressed, of course he didn't speak further as Alex pushed the door open into Raglans morgue room "...Ragland" he spoke.

Ragland looked up in the middle of doing an autopsy, he looked form Alex to Altiar who followed him. "Ah the wanderer returns, Its good to see you up and about though admittedly you shouldn't be considering your wounds"

"I...am fine...Dana said my...weapons were here" He said slowly as he looked at the dark room it smelled strange and put Altiar on edge, naturally the corpse on the table didn't do much to ease his feelings.

"Ah right, I'll be just s moment" The doctor snapped off the bloodied rubber gloves and tossed them in a nearby disposal bin before he opened a metal locker before he returned with all of Altair's weapons "Uhm here, I have to ask why do you need all of this?"

"..." Altiar looked at him and said nothing before he started arming himself; he slid on the straps to his weapons with practised ease and smiled faintly as he armed him self with the weapons like they were old friends; he felt naked and vulnerable without his arsenal.

"You heard the doc, answer him" Alex bit; he was curious as well; to be honest he was hoping that a the weapons and the outfit were some big joke that had gone wrong, but it just didn't fit logically in his head, and the taller (1) man was too serious for this to be a joke.

"...It's..." He broke off as he frowned trying to think of the right words "...None...of your...business" He finished simply as he strapped on his gauntlets he flicked his arms out testing how smoothly the hidden blades snapped out of their hiding place before he turned to leave "Thank you" He said softly to Ragland before he left.

"...He's such a strange man...aren't you going to follow him?" Ragland asked a little surprised Alex was still stood there; leant against the wall as per usual.

The hooded male snorted "Why should I? He's not my problem"

Ragland let out a soft sigh "Alex, look I don't know who or where this guy came from, but he reminds me of you a lot; your both stubborn, and withdrawn maybe you need someone like you to open up to...and he needs you to help him around the city because dressed like he is? The military is going to catch wind of him"

"..." Alex snorted; Altiar wasn't anything to do with him...so why did Ragland's words make him want to go out and find the other before he did something stupid with that weaponry of his? Not that Altair looked stupid, far from it, but considering the possibility he might be from the past and from a different country? It meant the slight language barrier it might cause problems.

Alex glanced at Ragland who's already gone back to work; trust the good doctor to give his opinion then leave it to Alex to decide on what to do, though admittedly the hooded male usually preferred it that way; he did his own thing usually.

But this once, he knew that despite what he wanted personally, leaving a man full of sharp pointy weapons wandering around modern day New York was not the WISEST thing to do "Ugh" Alex growled to himself; wondering when he;d suddenly become the other man's babysitter as he turned and left to search for the other male and hoped he hadn't gotten too far.

Altiar was...climbing up a building and making people stare; though admittedly back home he was used to climbing up buildings and getting the same reaction; he needed a better viewpoint and thus he was climbing up a nearby building, despite the fact his arm was throbbing horribly, he endured the pain.

Alex almost face palmed when he realized what Altair was doing (Though he had to admit he was impressed the other could climb that far up and that fast without any ropes or anything to aid him, considering he has a severely fractured arm) however it was drawing too much attention and as much as Alex would love to just run up the building and grab him he didn't want to draw attention to himself; looking around he slipped into an alleyway while the crowd were still watching Altiar.

He jumped up high and grabbed the edge of the roof before he climbed up making it around about the same time as Altiar who began looking around at his new vantage point "..."

"What the hell are you doing?" Alex asked he sounded pissed off and exasperated; Altair was turning out to be stranger and stranger the longer he was around him.

Altair half turned to him "...Looking at my...surroundings...has that become a ..crime?" He said slowly and carefully but it sounded nonchalant, as if him scaling a 4 story building within a minute was nothing, he turned back to the city the building he had scaled was tall, but there were other much, much taller buildings that surrounded him "...I've never...seen a place like this" He admitted; the tall buildings and modern scenery were jarring to the man.

"Usually people don't scale the walls of a building on order to reach the roof" Alex said with a frown "Your drawing attention to yourself, attention I don't need"

"I did not ask you to follow me" Altiar pointed out his mouth set into a thin frown "You came all on your own...accord" He finished

Alex growled as he approached him and turned him around almost shoving him a little "Listen you! I don't know who you are or why your here, or whatever, but you cant go around scaling walls!" He bit "Not only that your armed to the teeth which people are going to notice seen as most people don't go around with any weapons on, and your outfit is just...stupid!"

"..." Altiar did nothing, most of his expression was hidden by the white hood. but he probably raised an eyebrow at the older man's outburst.

"If you are so curious then ask, Or is that...difficult, for you?...however... I cant guarantee I will answer all of your...questions" He said slowly as he folded his arms over his chest as he waited for the other's response to this; true it had only Dana that had asked him anything Alex had just wanted rid if him.

"...Who are you really? Why all the weapons and the weird clothing?" He said with a frown.

"...My full name is Altiar Ibn Al'Ahad, the weapons are for protection and to carry out my duty" He said simply; he hoped that this explanation would be enough for the other but he doubted it; While Dana was just plain curious, and admittedly a tad nosy; Alex seemed the type to not stop until he got to the bottom of things.

"Which is?" Alex prompted, this time it was more out of curiosity than anything; he hated to admit it but He was curious about Altair and his origins as well; they're was just too much wrong with him and his appearance NOT to get curious. "Come on, out with it, if your going to tell me something tell me everything"

He paused, as if wondering if it was a good idea to trust the other with such information, after all this place was alien to him and Alex Mercer wasn't the BEST person to hold a conversation with, but after a minute or two he told the other anyway; this yellow eyes glowed softly as he used his eagle vision; which confirmed this man was not a templar "...I am an...assassin"

Alex stared at him before he snorted in disbelief "Yeah, right and Gentek is going to let me live in peace" He grumbled to himself; he was a little insulted the other was trying to fool him with such a ridiculous answer "Your lying, there's no such thing as assassins!"

"What about Templars?" Altiar asked curiously "Have you heard of them?"

Alex paused as he searched Alex's memories; he vaguely remembered learning about it in school, then again he- no, Alex had never been fond of History "Sure I have, I think everyone studies about the templars at some point in school, and about the holy crusades...why what difference does it make?" He said

"...ah" There was silence before Altair spoke again "Whatever you know of the templars, its a lie" He said softly.

Alex blinked from under his hood...okay that was the last thing he was expecting to hear considering he didn't know where this was going "What do you mean?" Why the heck does it matter?"

"...What year is it?" he asked suddenly changing the whole conversation and turning it on it;s head; he didn't want to talk about the Templars, not yet it would be revealing too much.

"What! You don't know what year it is?" Alex grumbled.

"Just answer the question!" Altair bit; he had a sinking feeling in his gut; he'd had it since he'd left Ragland's; that it wasn't only some strange country the piece of Eden had transported him to but to another time too.

"...Its 24th August 2008" Alex replied after a moment, surprised at the usually stoic man's outburst and demands to know such a thing.

"...2008?...I moved forward that long? Impossible" He said softly to himself; if he was in 2008 that that meant he'd travelled over 800 years forward in time!

Alex noticed colour drain form the others tanned face and frowned; okay he wasn't expecting a reaction like THAT "...hey what's the problem?"

"The problem is I'm stuck in the...the" He struggled to say the right word for a moment "The future!" He continued to curse in Arabic which meant the other didn't have a clue what he was saying as he started to pace around muttering to himself.

"...Wait, wait, your telling me, your from the PAST?" He said half of him wasn't surprised; because as crazy as it sounded his brain had logically clarified that that was the only possible conclusion other then Altair being a deranged mad man in cosplay. The other half of him was...strangly excited and curious despite himself. "...What year did you live in? And where... Before you came here I mean"

"In Jerusalem...in 1195...during the...third crusade" He said softly struggling to say some words properly in English; it was a miracle he'd carried a conversation this long.

Alex stared; that was...a LONG time "...You really are a long way from home... He said softly; wow he almost felt SORRY for the other how weird was that! "...Come on" He said softly.

"...Where?"

"...Dana is going to be smug when we get back..." He muttered to himself "Your coming back with me- Not because I feel sorry for you, but its probably safer for the public that way" He said softly.

"..." Altiar said nothing for a moment before his mouth twitched and spread into a smiled "lead the way then, Alex" he said softly the others name sounded strange, but he liked the way it rolled off his tongue.

Alex grunted softy before he turned and jumped off the building, knowing that Altiar was following him closely.

He just hoped Dana didn't rub his change of heart in his face too much.

2nd chapter done! Wow two in one week! I'm defiantly on a roll XD I did my best to correct all my horrible misspelling of Altair's name (I miss spell it ALL the time . and make sure any typos were cleaned up! Enjoy and leave a comment!

Alex Mercer is 29 in Prototype, and as far as I know in AC1 Altiar is about 26; also Altair happens to be taller than Alex, Altair being around 6 foot and Alex around 5 foot 8 inches; which I find hilarious XD.