At night, when Altaïr was preparing himself to go Mosul, Maria and he were in the bedroom, arguing:
"I wish you just trust me…" Maria said, leaning on the table.
"Maria, I trust you… I don't trust them…" He said, turning to her. "Besides, Raouf won't get in your way… he will just follow you from a distance to let me know what's going on…"
"Maria, I already lost someone I loved in their hands and I won't make the same mistake again…" He said.
"Who?" Maria asked.
"Adha…" He said. "We didn't even had the time to be together…"
"I'm sorry…" She said. "But I guess she wasn't a fighter like me…"
"No, she wasn't…" Altaïr said. "But this doesn't mean anything… if they know we are together they will kill you in an instant…"
Maria sighed and looked down. Altaïr walked to her ad knelt in front of her.
"Maria, I need to do this…" He said. "Please…"
Maria looked at him and nodded. Altaïr got up.
"Come here…" He said, putting her in his arms. "When all of this is over, we will be alone…"
"Promise?" She asked, looking at him.
"I promise…" He said, hugging her and kissing her head.
"I'm sorry to bother, master, but we are ready to go…" Abbas said, then went away.
"Ok…" Altaïr said.
They both walked outside, where all the Assassins were reunited. Raouf and Aisha would stay behind, with her and Brian.
As Altaïr mounted his horse, all of the mounted too. He looked one more time to Maria, before they galloped away into the night.
Maria sighed.
"Tomorrow is going to be us…" Raouf said and Maria nodded. "Try to sleep…"
"Not now… I want to talk to my brother first…" She said.
X ~ X ~ X
Maria found Brian in one of the rooms Kahlil gave them. He was sitting on the bed.
"What're you doing?" She asked.
"Thinking…" Brian said. "I can't believe I found you after all these years…"
Maria nodded and sat beside him.
"I know…" She said. "I always prayed about meeting you all one more time when I was a Templar, but I know it was almost impossible…"
"So did we… but we didn't know you were alive or not…" Brian said.
"I'm sorry for everything…" Maria said, looking at her hands. "About leaving the way I did… I know that father was disappointed at me, but it was no excuse for what I did…"
"Yeah, we went through hell in the time…" Brian said. "Father didn't know how to pay back the money for Sir Hallaton, so he agreed for us to work for him…"
Maria nodded sadly.
"But we could pay the doubt and we were free in five years…" Brian explained. "Then last year, the roman attack came… we didn't expect because it was night and it happened city…"
"Romans?" Maria asked. "They left England more the a hundred years ago…"
"Yeah, but they were refugee… or so we believed…" Brian said. "And then, they attacked us… most of the city died…"
"I'm sorry…" She said.
"So do I, but if you were there, maybe you would be dead too…" Brian said. "Anyway, when I was in London I heard that the king ordered to kill them afterwards… they deserved it…"
"Yeah…" Maria agreed. "My life with the Templars wasn't easy too, but I survived…"
Brian nodded.
They remained quiet for a moment.
"Mother would have an epiphany if she knew you are with an Arab guy…" He said.
Maria smiled.
"So, you and Altaïr, uh?" Brian said hitting her playfully on the shoulder. "Is he any good?"
"Yeah…" She said, smiling. "Very much… much better than Hallaton… anyway, did he survived?"
Brian denied.
"Figures…" Maria said.
"How did you meet him?" Brian asked.
"When I was a Templar, I fought with him…" Maria said. "He almost killed me in Jerusalem, but he didn't…"
"Why?" Brian asked.
"I wasn't his target…" Maria said. "So, one month later, I was in Acre when me met again… he made me his prisoner and he showed me the truth about the Templars… everything I had believed was a lie, I was disgusted and I wasn't welcome among them anymore, so I just quit…"
"And?" Brian wanted to know more.
"We decided to travel together, but an attack on Masyaf, where the Assassins fortress is stopped it and here we are…" Maria said.
Brian nodded.
"You passed through hell to come here, didn't you?" Maria asked.
"Yeah…" Brian confirmed. "But I keep saying to myself that if I could see you one more time, it would be worthy…"
Maria nodded.
"Well, let's sleep, because tomorrow will be hard…" She said after a while, when she got up. "Good night…"
"Why did you volunteered?" Brian asked.
"I had too…" Maria said. "I need to see the Templars one more time to revenge all that happen, to me and to you…"
"And to protect Altaïr…" Brian said, remembering what she said before.
"Exactly…" Maria said.
Brian nodded.
"Good night…" He said, as she exited.
X ~ X ~ X
PS: That attack on the city of Leicester doesn't occurred in out world... it was just in the story...