I sat on the edge of the air mattress Altair now occupied. I sighed and handed him a bottle of water. "We have to do a food run soon." I told him.

"You are not going." He glared at me and winced when he moved too much.

"I have to." I sighed and stood. "The only ones unaffected by this is myself, Conner, and Desmond. You are not healing, and neither is Ezio." I looked out the small window and leaned my elbows on the ledge. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I have told you that." He growled and I turned my head to look at him. "You guys are most likely next. What was to happen if they ambush you while you are on a food run and you guys get into a firefight? You have a chance of dying."

Hanging my head, I knew where he was going. "It has to be done, Altair. I am not afraid anymore. If I die, then I had a good run."

"Oh like hell." He sat up fast, and cried out in pain.

I was at his side in a flash, gently pushing him back onto the pillows. "Stop it alright? I am not going to see you hurt yourself to stop me. Please believe in me and know that I can do this without being hurt." I kept my hand on his chest, and his hand came up to cover mine. "It's just a run to the market."

"Alanna, I'm just scared, alright?" He squeezed my hand. "I don't want to lose you, and my biggest fear is you leave here, you will be shot and this is the last time I will see you alive. I will have to bury you again."

I knew his fears, as they were mine as well. I was worried that his wound would get infected and I would lose him that way. It had been three days since it happened, and he had healed very little. I was not healing at all as well. I covered the bruises with makeup and the scrapes with long sleeve shirts. Poor lighting in the place helped hide my sin.

"Altair, please, let me do this. I know you are afraid and as am I, but we cannot let people starve because of that. Besides, I am the only one that speaks fluent Arabic. Desmond's passable, but not if he gets frustrated, and you know that. Conner does not know any of it." I smiled gently at him and held his hand. "I will be quick as the wind."

He met my eyes, sighed and closed his. "Very well, but please come back."

"I will." I kissed him softly and walked from the room.

Conner was standing in the hall as I walked out. He fell into step with me as I walked down the hall. "You didn't tell him, did you?"

I looked down at my hand, and shook my head. "He doesn't need to know right now. It will make him worry more. Besides, when we figure this out, we will be fine."

"Alanna, you need to see if the Apple has any answers." He grabbed my shoulder and stopped me halfway down the steps.

I shook his hand off. "And it will not work that way for me. Yeah, it showed me when I became an assassin, but that is the only time it has ever worked for me. Let's talk about this later, alright? We need to make a food run." I started back down the stairs, but he got in front of me.

"You cannot go at this if you are mortal. That is too dangerous." He glared at me.

I glared at him in return. "I did this nearly nine hundred years ago as a mortal. I did this for seven years not knowing I was immortal. Dawson, Rebecca, Shaun, and Kate do this as mortals. They take the risk every day when they step out of this fortress. If they can do it, so can I."

Conner shook his head. "But you have not had to worry about dying in eight hundred years. You want to take the risk now?"

I stood straight and held my head high. "Yes I do. I cannot hide in these walls until old age takes me. I will do what I can, when I can, even if that means risking my life. I will not hide behind my mortality. Now, either help me by guarding me, or get out of my way."

"You are insane, but I will stay with you. Just to make sure your ass stays alive to come back here." He sighed and moved out of the way.

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

Walking through the small market, I watched all the merchants peddle their wares and it made me smile. I had not been to market since we arrived and it brought back many good memories of my mother. I would go to market with her when I was younger. The smells were nearly the same, and the yelling was all the same.

"Mama!" I giggled and smiled as she poked my nose.

"Come along, my darling. We must get dinner for the night. Your father will be home soon." Catherine covered her chestnut hair with a dark blue cloth. She held out her hand and I took it with my smaller one.

"Mama, may I get a treat if I am good?" I followed her out of the house, and down the dusty street. The sun was low in the sky telling it was early morning. Daddy had been working in the night. I missed him tucking me in when it was bedtime.

"Of course, my darling." She turned down an alley that emptied into the market.

I took my hand from hers and skipped ahead. It was a cool day in Acre and everyone was out enjoying the breezes from the port. Once we reached the market, my eyes lit up and my smile got larger. I loved the market and everyone in it.

"Fresh fish! Caught this morning!" One merchant called from his stand. Another called out with his fresh baked bread and other goods.

"What would you like tonight, Alanna?" My mother asked as she held the basket out in front of her.

I loved choosing dinner and helping to make it. It was a treat. I hopped up and down and told her, causing her to laugh. I could listen to her laugh all day.

We gathered our ingredients and headed back home. Mama's face was already starting to get pink from the morning sun. I was tan like Papa so I could stay out longer. Her skin was as pale as the snow I once saw when they took me to see the city of Jerusalem.

Once we got home, I helped pull things from the basket. "Mama, why is your skin different from mine and Papa's?" I asked.

"I am not from the desert as you and your father are, my darling. I am from a place where if it is not snowing, it is raining. Very bleak and cold. I did not like it there and so I set off for here, and met your father."

"Can I go there someday? To see your home?" I looked at her, eyes wide with wonder.

Her gray eyes smiled at me. "One day when you are older, Alanna, but until then you are stuck here with me."

I smiled back. "I like to be with you, Mama."

I smiled at the memories. It was nice to remember my mother that way and not when she passed. I often thought of their graves and if they were still there. It had been over nine hundred and fifty years since their deaths. I knew their bodies would have turned to dust, and I did not think their headstones had fared well, if at all.

With the basket under my arm, I walked from stall to stall, looking at their wares. I was only getting enough food for a few days. Conner looked at the fruit while Desmond stayed glued to my side. "You know you can go look at things right?" I smiled at him.

He nodded, but kept looking around for someone that was going to jump from the shadows. "I don't like being here, Alanna. I feel like we are being watched."

"Is that from you, or memories of Altair?" I asked. He had come clean that he was having visions again. It started when we got back from that mission that nearly killed Altair and wounded Ezio.

He shook his head like he was trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind. "I don't know. I mean, there are times I feel it's me, and then I see things, hear things that are not there. I thought the Bleeding Effect had been stopped."

I looped my arm into his, and walked with him. "It was the immortality. When it stopped your aging, it stopped that as well. Kind of froze you in time. Now that it started back up, I think that started up as well. I'm sorry Des. I wish I had the answers for you."

He looked down at me, and sighed. "I know. I am hiding it the best I can, but if the nightmares come back, everyone is going to know."

"I know. I wish I knew what was going on, but this is new ground for all of us." I held on to him. I was scared as well. We could lose this war and everyone we know because of the loss of the one thing none of us wanted in the first place.

We walked in silence and collected our goods. Conner walked behind us, keeping an eye out for anything that could go wrong. If we were becoming mortal, then that meant so was he, and did not want to admit it. I did not want to admit it.

"Al, you driving back?" He held out the keys as we loaded our purchases in the SUV.

I snatched the keys with a smile. "Sure, but we are making a pit stop. I want to see if something is still there."

Both guys raised an eyebrow. I just rolled my eyes and shut the back door. Getting in, I fired it up and drove to the oldest section of town. The homes had not changed much and that made it easy for me to get my bearings. I turned down one narrow road and I stopped outside a small church.

"What are we doing here?" Conner asked as he looked out his window.

"I have to see a few people really quick. You two can come if you would like, or you can wait here. It does not matter. They will not mind." I got out of the car and began to walk to the back of the house of God. My mother was a Christian, and my father was a Muslim. I remember there was an argument on where he should be buried and my mother chose here. Our house had not been far from here, and she could visit him when she liked. That was until she got sick a few months after he died.

Conner and Desmond fell in behind me and followed into the old section of the cemetery. I did not need stones to know where they were. It is something you never forget. I fell to my knees in front of the two piles of stones. That was all that was left of their markers. Bowing my head, I said a silent prayer for them.

"Who are they?" Desmond asked.

I turned my head and looked at him. "To my right is my mother, Catherine Dowd, and the left is my father, Daveed Dowd." I looked back at their graves and then to the clear blue sky. "I have not been here in many years."

They stood there silently behind me as I knelt in the dirt. I smiled at the memories I could remember of them. My father's smile, my mother's kind voice. I could almost hear her voice in my head. It was the last time we came here together. She brushed the sand from Papa's stone, bend down and laid a kiss on the top.

I shook my head, kissed my hands, and laid them on the tops of the graves. Maybe I would see them again one day when my time came. Standing, I dusted myself off. "Alright, let's go." And headed for the car.

Altair

I awoke to tightness in my side where the stitches were. It did not hurt as bad as it did earlier that day. Slowly sitting up, I raised my shirt to see that skin had begun to grow over the stitches Ezio had carefully placed in my side. My eyes widened in amazement at what I was seeing. I was healing once again.

I was about to get up when my door opened and Ezio walked in. "Are you healing as well?" He asked.

I nodded and noticed that he was not limping as he been a few hours previous. "Are you?" I knew the answer. He would ask if he was not.

"It is completely healed. Well, for the most part. I took a nap and when I woke up, skin had grown over the stitches." He took a seat on the air mattress and showed me his leg. "I thought of you when I saw it."

I showed him my side. "Mine was a bit worse than yours, but it is healing as well." I felt the stitches pull again. "You think you can dig these things out now?"

Nodding, he pulled a small pair of scissors from his pocket. "Look, I came prepared."

I laid on my good side and let Dr. Auditore at the stitches. He swiftly removed them, and I felt relief from the pulling. "So, do you know what just happened?" I asked as I stood up straight for the first time in three days. I was still stiff, but that would go away in time.

He shook his dark head. "I don't know. I mean, we were immortal, then we went on that supply run, got shot and stabbed, then we were mortal. It doesn't make any sense at all."

Moving around, I was enjoying the freedom of movement that I had not had in a few days. "If we are back to normal, do you think the others are as well?"

Standing, Ezio shrugged. "Maybe, unless their immortality is gone and we are back to normal."

That thought was not one that sat well with me. I did not want to be everlasting and not Alanna. "I hope you are not right. That thought is not something I want to even think about."

I heard Alanna's laughter coming from the hallway and I walked out to greet her with Ezio at my heels. She was smiling at Kate and laughed at something the woman had said. Then she saw me, and a frown replaced the smile. "What are you doing walking around? You are going to tear out your stitches, Altair."

She marched over to me, and I raised my shirt to show her. "I healed."

Lightly running her fingers down the pink line, I laughed a bit. I was a bit ticklish there. "How is that possible?" She looked up at me with amazement on her face. Kate stopped at her side. "I don't understand."

"Neither of us does as well, but we have gone back to normal. Maybe it was a fluke?" Ezio looked at all of us. "Either way we should not look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I will agree with you, Ezio. Now, the real question is, will you five stay like this, or go back?" Kate raised the question.

The three of us looked at each other for an answer. "I cannot answer that one, Kate. I guess we will just have to take it one day at a time." I spoke honestly. We could stay immortal or we could become mortal once more. Either way, we had to figure out why this was happening now.

Alanna spoke up. "Do you think it might have something to do with this place? I mean, this was where it all began for the two of us. Well really, all of us."

I shook my head. "We were slain almost a hundred miles from here. We may have trained here, but the Apple created us elsewhere."

"But we were brought back here, with the Apple mind you, to be laid to rest. Maybe it did something that day." She countered.

I was still not buying it. I did not think Masyaf had anything to do with the fluxuation in our immortality. "That may be, but if it was this place, why would it take six months to affect us? Desmond fell off the jump tower a few days after we arrived and healed in hours like normal. Conner and myself got cut a month after we came from practicing with blades and we healed. You cut your arm when we were clearing out some debris and you were fine."

Sighing, she nodded and accepted the fact that I was right. Ezio stepped in. "If it wasn't Masyaf, then what the hell is causing this?"

"Could it be the Apple itself?" Kate asked.

I was about to counter that question, but I could not. It was a likely idea and the best one so far. "It could be. I mean, we have never had the Apple with us for this long. A few days to a few weeks. Now when we were mortal I had it for years. Alanna was around it then too."

She shook her head. "Not really. I did not like the thing then, and still have the same feelings for it now. Just a bit stronger." She smirked at me. "But, back to the problem at hand. What the hell is going on?"

None of us had a good answer to that. "I think it is time for another round table talk with everyone, and I mean everyone." Ezio just shook his head.

So, they are back to normal. Sort of. The question about the immortality will be answered in the chapters to come. Sorry about the delay on the chapter. I lost my muse for a little bit. Now, I think I have it back thanks to a few new songs I got for my birthday. I got an iTunes card and got new music. Yea! Hope you liked it. This was really just a filler chapter.