Chapter 10 – Searching for answers
"General, Capitan Cross has arrived" a Blackwatch Lieutenant said as he saluted, before moving to one side to let the man pass; Cross was a tall man and wrapped in thick black body armour, his face was worn and aged and he had streaks of grey in his hair, he looked to be in about his late thirties to early forties.
"Ah, Capitan come in" He said as the lieutenant closed the door behind the two, leaving them alone in the dim room "You should know that I wouldn't call you here if it wasn't an emergency, but we have a situation that I need you to take care of"
"Oh?" Cross enquired with a raised eyebrow; he had read the file about this particular case on the way into New York, about Mercer, but he didn't know the whole story, as of yet, or even what Randell wanted to be done, though he could probably guess.
"We have a walker, the first male to actually exist, he's destroyed a good portion of my military arsenal and consumed plenty more of my men, He was in Gentek's morgue when he woke up and busted through a 2 foot thick steel door, he's been on the run since and released Greene from Genteks secure facility; you interested?"
"Of course sir, what would you have me do?" Cross asked; Alex mercer would be intriguing prey; as a male there was no doubt he'd be stronger than Greene and she in herself was tough, considering how much of New York she had already infected in such a short amount of time.
"First and foremost, I need you to distract it" Randall said firmly his gaze watching Cross's reaction, and want surprised to see the others puzzlement.
"...Distract him?" Cross repeated, more than a little confused; that was not what he had been expecting; Alex Mercer was a walker; surely they wanted him dead didn't they? So why do such a thing as draw attention to themselves? There must be something else he didn't know yet. "I don't understand sir, why distract him?"
"...I'd kill the bastard and get it over with if I had a choice, but I don't...our financiers, the supporters of Blackwatch and Blacklight funding, are after this man" The General pressed a button on a small remote and Altair's face came up in the screen; it was a blown up picture of when he had fought together against soldiers before they had managed to subdue and drug him. "His name is Altair, he's around 25-30 years of age, he's dark skinned with unusual yellow eyes; he's tall, around your height at around 6 foot, and he is an assassin, he has skills unlike anything I have seen before; he is always armed, especially with this odd device on his wrist, some sort of hidden knife that pops out" He said softly tapping at it on the blown up image, before he turned to Cross.
"I want you to confront Mercer directly, draw it away from Altair and then when it's distracted, a team will corner Altair and drug him and take him away; by the time you make your escape Altair will be gone and Mercer will be left without any viable clues."
"I see sir..." Cross said; there were plenty of ways he could see this backfiring in his mind, but orders were orders and he wasn't about to question the other right now; not when the General seemed so stressed to perform "I'll gather some men and make a trap for Mercer, I'll give him bait that he cant refuse"
"And how are you going to do that?" Randell asked with a raised eyebrow, curious to know the others plan.
"I read Mercer's file on there way in sir, his sister Dana Mercer is still at large is she not? Though she's not a threat, I'm sure she can be located easily enough; if we kidnap her use her as bait then this, Altair is wide open" He said simply.
"Very will Sargent, I expect some real results from you" He said. Cross nodded and saluted before he left without another word. Randell huffed as he looked up at the ceiling "This better work" He growled to himself.
If it didn't he'd have a lot of explaining to do.
"So...you guys are all assassins, you ran from Italy where a company called Abstergo is chasing you...which is a front for the modern day Templars that Altair mentioned?" Dana asked with a raised eyebrow as she looked at the three assassins in front of her at the kitchen table; It was the next morning, Altair was still asleep, having done everything he could to wait up for Alex, but even he couldn't stay up all morning as well as all evening, and as such was fast asleep and oblivious to the others having breakfast in the kitchen not ten feet away from him.
"Yeah that's about right" Desmond said as he bit down on a piece of toast and began chewing on it slowly before he swallowed "Abstergo kidnapped me from the bar I was working in and strapped me in this machine called an Animus, its able to dig deep into your genetic memory" he explained.
"Genetic memory? What the fuck's that?" She asked with a raised eyebrow as she leaned forward a bit curious to know more about it.
"It is what it says darling, genetic memory is memory passed through ones DNA, it doesn't just record your memories, but those of your ancestors as well" Shaun said as he sipped some tea with a smirk at Dana's glare "Abstergo, or the Templars to us, FORCED Desmond here to relive Altair's memories before Lucy broke him out of there, if she hadn't he'd be dead by now" Shaun said with a shrug.
"So you guys are on the run, and you came to see Altair cause he's important or something?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"He's my ancestor" Desmond said quietly.
"What!" Dana said wide eyed at the other, not quite believing it; not that you could blame her; after all it was an unusual thing to say! "Are you fucking serious?" she asked before she paused and leaned closer to Desmond, taking in his features now she was closer to him "...Wait,you do look a little bit like him...you even have the same scar"
Desmond grinned a bit "Yeah, I got that from your brother too, he didn't say anything but he looked at me and it seemed to click were alike" He said with a soft laugh before he looked over at Altair who was still asleep "He looks exhausted though, did he get any sleep at all?" Desmond asked as he pointed to the passed out Arabian on the sofa.
"He probably sat up all night waiting for Alex, he was still awake half an hour ago I guess he finally passed out once he realized we were all up" Dana said with a shrug; she had to admit despite her initial annoyance to begin with, the sudden calamity of so many people in the apartment was a nice change, even if one of them was a sarcastic prick. Speaking of sarcastic pricks... "Well it seems we have a problem either way, because time in itself has changed" Shaun interjected.
"Meaning?" Dana asked with a raised at the other; god Shaun was so...full of himself!
"Meaning, that Altair in the time line we have followed through genetic memory, was supposed to kill Al Maulim, take over as Grand Master of the assassins, complete the Codex, upgrade the assassin weapons and techniques, marry a women named Maria, have kids and die at a ripe old age" Shaun said, counting each event off with his fingers "He was not supposed to come to the present and fall for your brother...Altair's whole future bloodline revolves around him having at least ONE child in the past with Maria"
"Well...Desmond's still here so maybe he had a kid beforehand?" Dana asked with a raised eyebrow as she poked Desmond just to check he was still here. Yup, he was still solid.
"Mhmmm well...he did love another women once before, but she died...its not impossible for him to have borne a child from her I suppose" Shaun said with a shrug "What was her name...Abda I think it was I believe they were childhood friends or something similar they seemed to have met before Altair ran into her during a mission"
"What happened to her?" Dana asked.
"The Templars took her, Altair tried to hunt her down in Greece but by the time he located her she was already a corpse" Shaun said softly "He got so pissed off about it, that he personally hunted down everyone involved in her capture and murder, and killed them in cold blood"
"Whoa...seriously he...doesn't look like he;d do that" Dana said softly as she paled a bit; Altair was so...well not exactly nice, but polite and while guarded and suspicious, he was friendly enough to her.
"Oh he would, don't forget he kills people for a living as do we all" Shaun said simply as he finished his tea "He loved Abda and he got revenge for her; I'm sure he;d like that with anyone he cares about"
Dana looked over at Altair; would he be like that if Alex got hurt? Hell if Altair was the one that got hurt there would defiantly be hell to pay; she couldn't speak for Altair but she knew her brother; he took betrayal and manipulation against him seriously; he murdered his ex-girlfriend for selling him out and had already killed a strike team just because they DRUGGED Altair let alone psychically hurt him!
Alex really liked Altair he was even possessive of him, hell Alex probably loved Altair and just didn't know it yet. And Dana didn't think Altair fully realized any of it just yet "Okay enough of that, who wants more coffee?"
Alex frowned as he watched the Gentek building from a distance, they wanted Altair...but what for? It didn't make any sense! How could they know that Altair was an assassin? How could they know he was from the past? The assassins found out because they traced their IP address, because Altair had been doing nothing BUT searching for assassins, but Gentek and the military...they shouldn't even know Altair exists other then knowing he associated with Alex, and they even wanted him dead at one point...something had obviously changed and he was determined to find out what.
Shape-shifting into a soldier he'd consumed earlier, he slipped into the base, sabotaging the sensors that always detected him (He hated those fucking things) as he want, he then consumed the commander without being seen and entered the army base; ONE of these fucking bases had to have some sort of clue as to what was going on.
The base was quite empty, save for the odd soldier on patrol and a few army trucks; he looked around with a frown; he saw some sort of computer engineer, he was fiddling around with another soldiers laptop.
"Can ya fix it?" The solider, obviously who owned the laptop asked curiously as he hovered around the other guy.
"Yeah, yeah give me some space man, go clean your gun for five minutes or somethin'!" He said shooing the other off as he fiddled with the ting while it was propped up on a stack of crates "Dunno why he brought the stupid thing into a war zone anyway...probably to jerk off with his fucking boyfriend" the soldier grumbled to himself, absorbed in his work.
No one saw Alex sneak up behind the man and consume him; instantly all of the man's knowledge was his and he fixed the laptop easily within 10 minutes before he turned it on; maybe this thing had access to Blackwatch's database! He frowned when he realized it required a password, the man he'd consumed fixed computers but he wasn't a hacker, leaving him stuck.
"Hey you fixed it! Thanks man!" The solider said; he was youthful looking and had a British accent, he didn't look much older then 19 or 20 years of age and was obviously a rookie "Now I can see my girlfriend online tonight! Your a star!" He said with a thumbs up as he took the laptop and walked off.
"..." Alex didn't follow; the kid...he was in the army but...he was just that, a kid...and had a girl friend and- wait why did this suddenly bother him NOW! Before he didn't give a shit about the relatives of anyone he consumed! So why did he NOW suddenly gain a conscience!
"..." Alex grit his teeth; this wasn't working, he didn't have time to question his sudden change of morals, he needed to find a computer room in this base and consume someone high up with the passwords to the Blackwatch files, not some rookie kid.
He walked around the room trying to spot anyone that could be useful in gleaning information from. Silently, Alex slipped into a large communications room where a few soldiers and communications officers were milling about and working Alex frowned; one of these guys had to have the ability to access the Blackwatch database.
He made sure no one was watching before he consumed the most important looking guy there before he sat in front of a computer; this guy had a lot of information rattling around in the brain, he had all the passwords too. Perfect!
Cracking his fingers he grinned a bit as he typed in the passwords needed and began accessing the more classified area of the whole database.
'Loading...loading...access granted' the computer screen flashed up cheerily in green, opening up all the directories in the classified section for him; smirking in triumph, Alex began flicking through the various files, searching for information about Altair. When he found it he wasn't surprised that files on Altair had a very high security clearance and required yet another password, lucky he knew the password and accessed the files.
Unluckily the whole thing was encrypted, making it currently unreadable to him. Alex frowned not sure what to do now...until he spotted a USB stick nearby, smirking he swiped it, plugged it into the computer and emptied the flash drive of whatever other contents it had, before he started to download all the files on Altair.
Once the download was complete, he took the USB stick and shoved it into his pocket before he left the communications room., after he slipped out of the base unseen, he changed his form back to normal before jumping up against a building and running up to the roof; he was no good with encrypted files; hacking and all that crap had never been his speciality, but maybe Dana or Altair's assassin friends could help.
Altair opened his eyes slowly before he blinked; when had he fallen asleep? It can;t have been very long, he could hear the sounds of someone washing up, an indication breakfast must have only just finished. He yawned softly and stretched over the sofa before he sat up slowly; it seemed Alex had still not returned, which made Altair frown; Alex had said he would back at Dawn but he had not, and the Arabian male tried not to be concerned, after all Alex was more then capable of taking care of himself, so he supposed something big had come up and the other was taking care of it; Dana seemed used to him being gone for days on end anyway.
"Hey your up" He looked up to the blonde girl Lucy, who offered him a cup of coffee "Dana said you liked coffee so I thought I'd pour you one" she said softly Altair smiled a bit in return as he took the steaming cup and gave her a nod of thanks before he sipped it slowly letting the hot, bitter liquid slide down his throat; ahh caffeine, the best discovery of the future in Altair's opinion.
"Thank you" He said softly "I presume Alex isn't back yet?" He said softly as he looked around; there was no sign of the other but maybe he'd missed him while he'd been passed out asleep and he'd slunk into his room? Dana said Alex was never good with crowds, his paranoid behaviour meant he cared little for groups of people he barely knew.
"Uh no not that we know of, his sister said he hadn't come back..."She said softly "...are you worried?"
"...Only that he might be biting off a bit more than he can chew" Altair said softly, a little disappointed that his faint hope of Alex being home was dashed. Sighing softly, he drank his coffee finishing the cup before he stood; as much as he could drink coffee all day he needed to eat; he wasn't so used to the modern day foods like bacon and sausage; he avoided those mostly because he wasn't never allowed meat unless it was blessed as akin to the Muslim culture he was raised in.
That's not to say Altair was religious; he didn't pray five times a day, or read to Quran, after all he was an assassin and killing others went against he Muslim religion as a whole, but some aspects of it were still installed into his culture, like not to drink alcohol or eat meat that wasn't blessed.
Altair just stuck to fruit for breakfast, it was something he was used to and bit into the apple chewing lazily as he watched the others around the table talk about this and that, Altair wasn't really listening as he watched them all interact; apart form Dana and Shaun giving each other scathing, sarcastic comments they all seemed to be getting along rather well.
The Arabian male looked up when he heard the window slide open and Alex slipped in through the window a moment later which made everyone else turn to look, the older male didn't look any more worse for wear but he did have a scowl on his face; it seemed whatever Alex had been doing hadn't turned out as well as he'd hoped "Alex, welcome back" Altair said with a little smile, Alex however, didn't smile back and just got bluntly to the point.
"Okay, which one of you is good at decoding highly classified files?" he asked
The assassins all blinked at him, a little stunned at the sudden question, before it was Shaun who raised a hand "That would be me, I'm the master of decryption" He said with a smirk.
"Show off" Lucy said with a roll of her eyes amused as Alex tossed a flash drive on the table where it skidded to a stop in front of the historian.
"Decode this for me; it's...important" He glanced at Altair who was stood leaning on the kitchen counter before he said nothing more and retreated to his room. The tanned male looked at Lucy then the others confused before he pushed himself off the counter, tossing his half eaten apple into the bin and followed Alex.
"Just another day in the Mercer household" Dana said with a shrug when everyone turned to her with a confused look.
"Alex?" Altair slid into the others room; he remembered the last time he'd been in here when Alex got mad at him; he doubted the same would happen this time, a lot had changed after all "...You didn't return at dawn...did something happen?" He asked.
"..." Alex didn't answer at first; he sighed softly as he rubbed at his eyes tiredly and maybe even in a bit of frustration, before he turned to the other "I was looking for answers..." he said simply not revealing anything more than that.
Altair sighed "Your always looking for answers Alex...when are you going to stop and take a break?" Altair asked as he places a hand on the shorter males shoulder"Your tired"
"I can't stop, I need to-" He broke off when Altair grabbed his arm stopping him his grip in the leather jacket was firm but not rough just enough to make him stop "...Altair-"
"Don't run off again today...stay" He said softly "I don't know what it is you found but its enough, your tired, and worn out, and you won't be able to think clearly in such a state, not even assassins do everything all at once" He said softly. "We relax before a mission and take time to prepare...doing things all at once means you will make mistakes, and that might cost you dearly"
"..." Alex watched Altair, who was still wearing an old shirt and PJ bottoms as a form of sleep wear "I...don't know what to do to relax...I can't sleep Altair, even when I want to...the voices..." He winced suddenly and gripped at his head through the hoodie with one hand.
"..." Altair reached up and tugged the others hood down revealing the others dark brown mass of curly hair "Sit" He ordered softly as he gave the other a gentle nudge, to his surprise Alex obeyed and didn't bother questioning Altair's actions, what did surprise Alex was when the younger male crawled onto Alex's bed behind him and began to rake his hands through the others short curly hair, his fingers gently massaging his scalp.
"..." Alex moved his hand from his face startled; it was odd; even though it did little to deal with the voices, the others touch seemed to sooth the pain away a little, at least until it was bearable. Slowly he started to relax and melted into the assassin's touch.
He actually let out a soft groan when Altair's hands moved from his head down to his neck and shoulders the 'muscles' they were tense and strung tight like on the string of a guitar, but slowly they started to loosen and relax and unwind under Altair's fingers. "Please tell me this was a part of your assassin training "Alex said; his tone suggested it was a joke which surprised Altair: Alex Mercer? Make a joke? The world was about to end he was sure!
"Well it wasn't part of the official training...in a way we all picked it up off each other; assassins need rest and relaxation to perform to their best, it's why we sleep and meditate before missions to have a clear head before going into dangerous territory" He said softly "Often times the Dai's in the Assassins bureau would assist others in relaxation by giving massages or lighting incense to help with meditation, no one tells us to learn this, it's just something you do to help your fellow assassin" he said with a chuckle.
Alex let a small smile spread onto his face Altair's hands worked like magic on his stressed and tired body; hell he almost felt like he could actually sleep like this; the others fingers were calloused, and rough from training, but the touch was firm yet gentle, coaxing his body to relax and melt into his fingers.
It made Alex think what else Altair could do with his hands.
Alex jerked out of his dirty little day dream before it could go anywhere, when he realized Altair had stopped rubbing his shoulders "Huh?"
Altair smiled "I thought you were going to fall asleep on me so I stopped" He said amused as he sat cross legged on the bed "You seem more relaxed now" He said softly before he held a hand up to his mouth and yawned "I think, I'm going to go back to sleep for a little while"
"...You stayed up all night waiting for me didn't you?" Alex asked feeling a little guilty for letting Altair lose sleep like that; the man was only human after all.
Altair nodded "Mhmm I only fell asleep around an hour ago" he said softly his eyes already starting to droop as he fought sleep for a little longer; it didn't help that Alex's bed was really soft and almost called at him to be snuggled into. "I'll see you later when I've caught up on sleep" Altair said as he shifted tog et off the bed...when Alex caught his hand "...!"
"Stay...I mean you can sleep here with me, uh... I -I mean if you want to" He said now looking rather awkward as he let Altair's hand go; where the hell had that come from! The words had slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them; and in truth not being alone when he was supposed to be sleeping would be a nice change.
He'd have something nice to look at at least.
"Are you sure?" Altair asked but he was hardly objecting as he let out another yawn; he was ready to fall asleep where he sat anyway.
"...yeah" Alex said softly "Get in" He said softly as he pulled the covers back for Altair who literally fell into the others bed, exhausted; Alex paused before he decided he'd join the other; he kicked off his shoes , hoodie and jacket before he slipped into bed with the Arabian male.
He noticed by this point Altair was already curled onto his side fast asleep; he'd been so tired he hadn't even had the chance to say good night; and for some reason that made Alex smile rather than make him annoyed "...good morning to you too" He mumbled amused.
He wondered if Altair would mind if he held him in his sleep? Would he get mad? He didn't think the other would, but what if he did? Alex frowned to himself; maybe he should just leave the other alone?
In the end Alex, slowly, shyly wrapped an arm around the others waist under the covers a soft blush tingeing his cheeks as his fingers brushed over hard muscle through the others clothing. Once he had an arm around the other and Altair didn't so much as stir, let alone wake up, he relaxed and closed his eyes, he was tired but he doubted he would sleep; sleep was for those who deserved it.
But for Altair, he would try.
DONE! WHOOOOOOO! This one is eight pages long! Its even longer than the last one O.O I did some major editing to this one and added loads of detail at the last minute mainly because I wanted to add more description rather than to be lazy.
Ahhh Alex, how I DO love digging into your brain! Its so much fun to think how he thinks XD Sorry! Theres no sex in this one It'll probably be in the next chapter or the chapter after that and there will be two visrions; one will be the clean version with cuts out most of the sex and the other will be downright dirty XD its up to you which version you preffer XD