Alanna

"Do it again!"

Sweat poured down my face as I ready the fighting stance again. For two days now, Altair has been running me through some of the fighting stances that I once knew. It was of my asking, but I did not think he would be this harsh. The training went from sun up to sun down. Weapons, hand to hand, and the like was what we went through. I was exhausted by the time he released me for a shower and bed. My arms hurt, legs and back, but I pushed on. I wanted this. I needed this.

I brought the blade up once more to arm level. The weapon trembled in my weakened hands. We had been at this for more than three hours. I wanted to cry from the pain I was in, but I could not show weakness. I would not let him see I was hurting.

"Alanna, you must be on guard at all times. You cannot let your weakness become a weapon for the enemy." He stood there in front of me, arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his scarred lips. "You must push yourself until you have nothing left to push, and then find more."

A tear leaked from my eye. "I am trying. I really am."

"Then try harder. Again!" He commanded.

I lashed out at the air, Slicing and spinning, Imagining there were enemies, but yet I was alone. Then it happened. The moment I feared. I stumbled and landed on my knees, too exhausted to move. I was done. I could not finish.

"You are not ready for this life. You lack the stamina anymore." I heard the disappointment in his voice. He wanted me to make it, but he was right. I was not there yet. I could not do it.

"Give me another chance. I can do it. I swear." My voice trembled as did my legs as I tried to stand, but it was futile. I was too weak.

"You just need to stop trying to be something you are not anymore. You are not an assassin any longer."

Something in my mind clicked at that statement. I had heard something similar at one time in my life, but by a different man.

"You are not made for this life, Alanna. You should have just stayed in Acre."

"No, I will make it and I will prove to you I can do it." I bit back with all the venom I could possess in my weakened state.

"You should give up. Go home and find a husband that will have you. You are not made for the life of an assassin."

I looked up at the man who was addressing me. Not much taller than I was. Black robes neat and clean, while my gray ones were more brown at that time. His obsidian eyes narrowed on me, and shook his head slowly. Raven hair hung down over his forehead, almost to his eyes. He was my mentor, my master. I would not let him down.

"Please Malik, let me prove to you I can do this. I am not on top of it today. I shall strive to do better. Please give me another chance." I looked up at him from my place in the mud. I could do better. I wanted to do better.

"You shall have your second chance. I have some faith in you. Since you came here, you have come far. I would hate to throw all that talent out on the street. I do not think the Grand Master would like that either. He has much invested in you already." Malik stared at me, eyes never leaving my face.

I bowed my head. "Thank you Master, I will not disappoint again."

"See that you do not."

I grabbed the side of my head. The pain was unbearable, causing me to cry out. Altair was at my side in a heartbeat. I could not focus, my vision blurred. It felt like a million red hot needles had been shoved into my brain and left there to cool. Visions of the man, Malik, swam in my mind. I could not nail them down. It hurt to.

"Alanna, are you alright?" I felt him touch my shoulder. "Please speak to me."

"My head. My God, it hurts!" The pain escalated until my vision began to blacken. I could not concentrate any longer. I lost the fight with the pain. I passed out.

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

I did not know how long I was out, but when I came to, I was lying on my bed. A cool rag was draped over my forehead. The sun hung low in the sky. My eyes stung, but the pain in my head was a now a dull throb. I could live with that.

Slowly turning my head, I looked around the room and say both Altair and Desmond sleeping in the chairs I had near the window. Cracking a smile, I watched them slumber. They would not admit it, but they were similar to each other. Both had bronzed skin that shone in the evening sun, but Altair's was a shade darker from his Arab blood. Mine was like the desert sand. I did not know why I was not as dark as they were, coming from the same area, but I wasn't. That was something I would have to ask.

As I began to move, Altair's eyes opened slowly and looked right at me. "You have awakened."

"Yeah." My voice cracked from my parched throat.

"Hold on, let me get you some water." He got to his feet and walked out of the room.

I slowly sat up. Careful not to disturb my sore head, or wake Desmond. I rubbed the left temple, and closed my eyes. Malik's face greeted me. I knew him, and not from him being my master. There was something else. Something that ran deep enough in me to hurt when I remembered him. Now I wanted to remember who he was to me, even if it caused more pain.

Sitting in the bed, thinking about my recent memory, I did not hear Altair come back in until a glass of water appeared in front of my face. "Here."

I looked up at him, and took the glass in my hands. Ice sloshed in the cool liquid, clinking against the side of the glass. Sipping the water, my throat felt better after a moment. "Thank you." I gave him a small smile, and took another sip.

"What happened?" He sat next to me on the bed. His leg brushed mine.

Sighing, I sat the cup on the table and rubbed my temple again. "I began to remember. There was a man there. Malik. He was pushing me like you did, but I don't know. It was like my mind was not liking that I was remembering him. This is the first time I have ever experience pain from a memory."

He stayed silent. I looked at him, and could tell he was a million miles away. "Altair? Did you know Malik? In the memory, he spoke of you. Said you had much invested in me."

His head drooped and I heard a hitch in his breathing. "Malik Al-Sayf was one of my most trusted friends. He was your friend as well, along with your master. No other would take a woman on as an apprentice. He saw something in you when I brought you back from Acre."

"Altair, may I ask you a question?" He turned his gaze on me. "How old are we?"

"It is time you knew. We are older than you think. I was born in 1165. You were born five years later in 1170. We are immortal. You, myself, Desmond, and Ezio. We were changed in a way none of us have yet to understand. I took it the hardest, but you have been awake the longest." He leaned against the headboard. Desmond slept on in the chair while we talked.

I let the information he had just told me sink in. I was immortal. That was why I survived the blast that claimed my memories. I would live forever with the three men I knew at my side. "Can we ever die?"

"I do not know. You survived a blast that leveled a compound. I have survived two world wars and a plane crash." I brow rose on that one. "I was on a plane bound for California in the sixties when it went down in the desert. I woke up in a morgue four days later. But we are not talking about that right now."

Tears came to my eyes when I realized I have forgotten nearly a thousand years of memories. "I have forgotten everything. There is so much that I do not know and yet I should. How could that of happened? Has this ever happened?"

I could tell he did not know how to comfort me, but he put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to his side. I buried my head in his chest, letting the tears come. "None of us have ever done what you have done. We have not lived through something so tramatic. I believe you had resigned yourself to your fate of dying. Maybe that was why when you came to, you had no clue who you were because that Alanna, the one that saved us, died in that blast. Somehow, you were born that moment."

"But, now she is clawing her way out of my brain. She wants to come back from the dead. Can I be me and her at the same time? Or will she come back and I fade into the background?" I sobbed into his shirt, soaking it with my tears.

He gently ran his hand through my chocolate locks. "I do not have the answers you want, Alanna. I just do not know."

Altair

Alanna fell asleep in my arms after crying herself to sleep once more. I held her close. I had missed having her in my arms for so many years. Granted my short was slightly damp now, but I didn't care. If that was what it took to have her next to me again, I would take it.

Desmond yawned from the chair. "She woke up?"

"Yeah." I looked down at her. "I told her, Desmond. I told her about her immortality."

"You what?" He woke up instantly. "I thought you were not going to tell her until she started to remember on her own."

I looked down at her, finally peacefully sleeping. "She had a memory of Malik when she passed out in the barn. She knew she was old. I had to tell her."

He stood and stretched, and I heard a few things pop. "Ah, much better. Anyway, how did she take it?"

"Well at first, then she had a slight meltdown. It was not how I thought it would go, but she is going to have to deal with it." I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. I soaked up her warmth like the noonday sun.

"I see you two have gotten cozy with each other." I heard the distain in his voice.

I opened my eyes once more. "I am not getting into that with you, boy. I have said my mind on that subject and that is final. You will not have her, unless I am dead. End of story."

His eyes narrowed. "You are an asshole. She could do better."

I chuckled. "I will not argue with you on that one, but you are no better than myself. Just remember that. Now, go away, I want to take a nap." I let my eyes drift shut again.

I heard him walk out the door, and down the hall. I knew he was pissed, and frankly I could care less. I was not happy with him. Like hell he was going to move in on my wife. Well, I guess we were still married. I mean, I never did anything about it after the accident.

"Did Des just leave?" Alanna's sleep heavy voice reached my ears.

I smiled down at her. Gray eyes looked up at me, blinking slowly. She was not quite awake. "Yeah, he just walked out."

"Oh, okay." A yawn escaped her. "I was just wondering. I thought I heard his voice, but I didn't know if it was real or in my dreams again."

"You had a dream about him?" Now I was curious.

Another yawn. "No, about someone else. Someone who looked like him. His name was Conner and someone I used to know. I also saw this golden orb with us." She snuggled down into my chest. "I will ask you about it later." And she fell back asleep. Her breathing slowed and her face relaxed.

The problem was, her dream, or memory, just woke me up completely. Who was Conner and why did she and he have the Apple? I thought after Ezio, it was hidden. Then it hit me. There was two at one time. Ezio found mine under Masyaf where Darim hid it before his death, and he hid his in Rome. That meant mine was running around the States. Son of a bitch. That was not good at all.

General POV

"Stay on I-65 for sixty seven miles." The mechanical voice of the GPS echoed in the cab of the small truck.

"Why in the world do they have to live so far off the grid?" The man behind the wheel grumbled to himself as he watched the mile marker pass him on the left. The drive was exhausting to say the least, but it had to be done. He needed to get to them. Before the past came back to haunt him like it always had done in the past.

The coffee he had just gotten filled the cab with its rich aroma. He took it into his free hand and drank deeply. The liquid warmed his stomach as it settled in. He knew he still had several more hours until he got close to his destination.

"One day I may get done with all this running, but it will not be anytime soon." He shook his head, and watched the road fly by. It was a road he was familiar with. Driving it a few times a year, but never to where he was going. He had only been to his destination once before and that was with someone.

"Look out Alanna. I am coming home." The golden orb lit up slightly at her name. It was hers after all. It was time she got it back.

So, who is the new guy and what does he want with Alanna? Things are starting to heat up and they will come to a head in the next chapter. Ezio will return and the new guy's identity will be revealed. I may not have a chapter posted for this again until next week. I am finally starting to work on one of my other stories again after a few years. I guess I just lost interest in it for a bit, but now I am back into the swing and will finally finish it. Night everyone!