I'll be honest, this chapter took way to long to write, and god it feels short and WELL HERE YOU GO ANYWAY. Thanks for all the reviews and favs and stuff I've been getting for this story. Fellow readers, your wait is over!

Disclaimer: I do not own AC or any of these characters. Ubisoft does.

BOOM!

"Fuck shit!" Desmond cursed, startled awake by the loud explosion that made the whole house rattle. He sat up in bed, clutching at his chest, heart pounding wildly. Sunlight streamed through his window, and after a mad scramble for his cellphone, he found it was only just after ten in the morning. He should have been up two hours ago. Another BOOM shook the house, causing the young assassin to drop his phone in surprise.

What the hell was that?

Throwing the covers aside, Desmond jumped out of bed and his room, not even bothering to put some clothes on (boxers were sufficient enough). He headed downstairs to find nothing. The living room was completely empty. A quick stop into the kitchen yielded empty cereal bowls and the box of Cheerios on the counter but nothing else.

BOOM!

Desmond looked out the kitchen window in time to see a dark shape shoot over the barn and into the heavily forested mountain side. Swearing, he made his way outside and around to the side of the house. The long, black barrel of a cannon greeted him, making the assassin freeze in his tracks. Well, that solved the mystery of the mysterious dark shapes flying about and the accompanying noise. Desmond knew next to nothing about cannons, but he knew standing in front of one was not a good idea. Especially when Altaïr was shoving a big, black ball into the butt of the cannon.

Both men worse big, red earmuffs to muffle the shots, and oh, Altaïr brought a long, smoking stick that he used to light the cannon. Both men jumped away from the now live over-sized gun, and Desmond did the same, finding solace in the wall of the house and curling up into a tight ball, ears covered.

BOOM!

His entire body bounced into the air, ears ringing, head spinning, all sense of direction, gravity, gone. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, sounds were muffled and heavy, he couldn't make out what he was supposed to be hearing. Desmond carefully lifted his head up, vision swimming for a bit, Altaïr and Malik hovering over them.

"Desmond! Hey, Desmond!"

"Fuck, is he okay?"

"Don't know. Desmond! Cousin, please answer"

Their voices were so disoriented, far off, and like they were trying to talk to him underwater. He kept blinking, god nothing seemed right and then suddenly, proper sound came rushing in like a tidal wave, and it felt like his head was spinning again from the sheer force of that. Someone hauled him to his feet, but crap even that was difficult, his legs felt like jello and didn't want to hold him up. He leaned against the side of the house, that was a mind fuck that he did not need to experience again.

"Here, wear these" Altaïr said to him, shoving a pair of earmuffs into his hands before bouncing back over to the cannon to help Malik reload it. Desmond blinked at them, the message hitting home a few seconds later as he shoved the earmuffs onto this head. He was ready for the next firing, he had to be this time. The earmuffs gave him that underwater feel again, he could barely hear the boys bickering with each other before finally lighting the cannon.

Boom.

A dull thud was the only sound he heard, and he silently watched the big black cannonball soar out above him. Taking the earmuffs back off, sound returned, and everything seemed normal again. Except his legs, they didn't like being this close to an explosion, and they buckled beneath him.

This was why he was all about stealth, and not about being right there on the frontline.

"Guys, get in the car"

They didn't move.

"Guys, get in the damn car"

They still didn't move. Desmond didn't get it. They said they needed more ammunition for this rifles and shotguns, there was a store in town that sold some. So Desmond (after dressing and getting his chores done) said he would take them down to this place. Yet they refused to so much as get a foot near the truck.

"Guys, come on!" Desmond urged.

"Take it out first" Malik demanded.

"Take what out?"

"Glove compartment, Connor keeps it in there. Hurry"

Confused, Desmond slid into the truck, reaching over and clicking the compartment open. It hung down, a long, metal bar sitting inside. No, not metal, it was way too shiny for that. He lifted it out of its holding place, letting out a small "oof" and its weight, sliding back out of the car.

"This thing?" the young assassin asked, holding it up for them to see. Altaïr and Malik immediately started growling at the sight of the bar, growling like mad but backing up away from it. The hell? It was just a shiny metal bar, what the hell was so bad about it? Without asking them though, Desmond tossed it off to the side where the bar thumped to the ground some ways away from the truck. The boys growls quieted, but they still looked wary.

"Okay guys, inside, come on" Desmond said, and they finally edged over to the truck, Malik sitting up front and Altaïr in the truck bed (there was only room for two people up front). He started the truck up and away they went to town. "So…what was that all about exactly?" he inquired, glancing at Malik.

"Connor keeps it in here to make sure we don't steal the truck" was all the one-armed Syrian said and left it at that. Why the hell would Connor put something like that in here? Nothings stops two werewolves from doing whatever the fuck they wanted, right? Maybe except silver but-….And that was it. That was a bar of silver. That made more sense now.

xxxxxxxx

"Altaïr, I'm gonna get a coffee, want anything?" Desmond asked him, ready to die of sheer boredom and exhaustion. Malik was inside the gun store getting whatever they needed while Desmond and Altaïr sat outside with the truck.

"Sure, just tell them to make our regular. They'll know what that means" his cousin replied. Nodding, Desmond made his way down the street, arriving at the local (and probably only) coffee shop in town. So it wasn't a surprise that it took a while to get through the line of people and make his order.

He told the baristas what he wanted, adding in the "Altaïr and Malik regular". They knew exactly what he was talking about, and a short time later, he had his coffee, and he had tea for them. That figured really, all they ever drank at home was tea like it was going out of style. It was a simple walk back to the truck, surely he hadn't been gone too long, not enough to make a huge difference.

And thankfully he didn't drop the travel tray of hot drinks in pure shock when Altaïr wasn't in the same spot he left him in. He wasn't in the bed, the cabin, or around oh no, he was gone gone.

'Oh shit, where'd he go?' Desmond panicked mentally, glancing wildly up and down the street in search of him. 'Good job Desmond, you lost the six foot tall wolf man, Fan-fucking-tastic' he scolded himself, not even knowing where to begin looking for him.

"Desmond" Malik's sounded from behind him, and he whirled around to face the man. "Where is Altaïr?" he asked, shifting his big bag of whatever to his elbow as he opened up the passenger door and dumped it into the seat of the truck.

"That…is an excellent question, I'm gonna have to get back to you on that"

"You don't know, do you?"

"Ah…no"

"Follow me then…and give me some of that tea"

Desmond obliged and followed Malik across the street, there weren't really any cars and any that were around were farther up the street. So across they went and a couple shops down to oh this was good, a martial arts studio. Something that had to do with fighting and showing what a fantastic fighter he was, that really figured.

Inside, it was a mostly empty building with a large training square, and small sidelines for students and spectators alike. Presently everyone was crowded along said sidelines, watching and cheering intently as Altaïr and some kid went at in the ring. Malik stalked over to a man wearing a black gi and a big, bushy beard on his face.

"Rauf!" Malik growled a greeting at the man.

"Ah, Malik, so good to see you. Hope you don't mind, your wayward dog there wandered in to show my students how to fight…again" Rauf chuckled, grinning at the one armed man. So this was a regular thing then. Desmond let out a silent sigh of relief, so he wouldn't be in trouble for losing Altaïr, the man could do that himself.

"Rauf, I don't care how bad your students are at something, Altaïr is the worst person to pick to show them what he knows" Malik scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"But he's so good at fighting. Not all my students are going to up and join the military you know" Rauf pointed out. Military? That was their cover story then. It was a good lie because it could explain the guns, the skills, Malik's lack of arm, their…attitudes and behavior.

"Well maybe if they did, they wouldn't be such pussies that needed someone else to show them how to-" Malik was cut off when a loud whump sounded and everyone was suddenly cheering and yelling. Looking over at the ring, the kid Altaïr was sparring with was flat on his back on the ground, Altaïr standing over him and acting like some wrestler who had just won his fake match on WWE.

"Ohhh, what now, son? What now? Told you couldn't handle this!" the Syrian was jeering at the kid, laughing flaunting his apparent awesomeness. The kid slowly eased himself up and off the ground, his face flushed in embarrassment and he quickly vacated the ring. Altaïr sauntered out after him a few moments later, head held high, back straight, a smug grin on his face. "Oh good, you got me my tea" he cooed at Desmond, swiping up his mug from the travel tray.

"Cold tea, you show-off" Malik snorted at him, nudging him towards the door. The three of them bid their goodbyes to Rauf, the bearded man reminding them of the upcoming Fourth of July celebration next week. Altaïr and Malik promised to bring their cannons, same as every year.

"Every single year you've lived here?" Desmond questioned them once outside.

"You Americans love blowing shit up, so why not?" Altaïr fired back.

Good point

The ending was terrible I know.

I just really wanted to include Rauf and having Altaïr teaching his students what he knew

Safety and peace!