Desmond

I followed Ezio through the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia. Pulling my coat around me tighter, I tried to shake the cold. It had been two years since we left the others in Masyaf. Altair and Alanna stayed in the Middle Eastern area. Conner became the lone wolf again and traveled between our two groups, helping us both.

We had finally found out what happened with the immortality incident. It was actually us as a group. We could not be together for long periods of time. A few days or weeks were fine, but months? It could not be done. The best way to put it was we sucked the life out of each other.

"Desmond, stay close." Ezio looked over his shoulder at me, a frown creasing his dark brow.

I caught up and walked next to him. "What are you planning, Ezio? You haven't told me."

Flipping the collar up on the fur lined coat he wore, his scowl deepened. "I found the man that fucked with the engine on Jenna's plane. He's in hiding here."

That's what it was. He was here for his revenge. "How did you find that out?"

"William had been looking into the crash. He found the name of a man that was there at the airport and he sent someone to talk to him. The man was dead when they got there, but sorting through his things, there was a list of names of people that worked for the company that was hired to do repairs on the Cessna for Jenna. That was the only thing she could not fix.

I have already done my homework and this guy, Howard Lawner, disappeared right after the incident. He left his job and went into hiding. It has taken two and a half years to find this man. I will get my answers and I will get them today." He growled and his fist clinched.

I saw the silver blade slide from his wrist, but it disappeared as fast as it appeared. "Ezio, you can't go into this half-cocked. If you do, you know what is going to happen." I grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks. I had to be his voice of reason. He needed to calm down.

He narrowed his eyes and glared at me. "I know what is at stake. I know it better than you think. I want this guy and I want his head on a platter."

I met his glare. I had been working with him for two years now, and I had seen what he did when the Pazzi and the Borgia had his brothers and father killed by the hangman's noose. I knew what he was capable of. "And I am here to help you on that. You know I am here for you in that quest, but you can't expect me to read your mind, and just follow you blindly."

His glared softened and he sighed as he let his head drop. His anger was the only thing that kept him going. Kept him focused. I let my hand fall from his arm. He just needed to calm down.

"You are right, Desmond. I am sorry for my transgression. I need to learn to calm myself before I erupt." He shook his head slowly. "I am sorry."

"It's cool." I gave him a lopsided grin. "Now that we have that out of our system, what is our plan of attack?'

The familiar light lit up his brown eyes. The one I would see when he had a plan to destroy his enemies. "This is what we are going to do."

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

I launched myself across the rooftop and followed the man from there. Ezio was tailing him on the ground. This way, we had a better chance of keeping him in sight.

I crouched on the edge of the roof, and watched him move into the square. I pushed the talk button on my earpiece. "He's moving across the square. If you hurry, you can grab him."

'Thank you for the heads up. I will get him now.'

I watched his dark head move from the alley he was in and around the edge of the crowd. The man, Howard, turned sharply and ran right into the wall that was named Ezio Auditore. He grabbed him by the collar, and drug him down the street. I followed him from my viewpoint and to the waiting car. Climbing down, I met him at the car.

Opening the back door for him, Ezio threw him into the seat. I climbed in and pointed the Glock at him. "My best advice is to shut up and not move."

I thought the man was about to piss himself. He tried in vain to curl up by the door and hide from us. Ezio got behind the wheel and took off. He headed out of the city and to the small place he had rented.

Once we arrived, Ezio grabbed him, pulled him from the car and into the house. I followed behind. This man was not going to live through this. I knew this and accepted it. Just before I walked into the house, my phone went off in my pocket and I pulled it out. It was Altair.

"Hello?" I stopped and sat down on the steps. "Ezio, don't do anything until I get in there."

"Whatever." He shut the door on me.

I turned my attention back to the phone. "Sorry, he caught his man."

'That's what I was going to ask. When did that happen?'

"Just about a half hour ago." I sighed and leaned against the house. "How is your hunt?" They were hunting down a few of the men that were responsible for an attack on the Farm last year.

'Two are dead and the third went into hiding. Conner is in the process of tracking him down. Alanna told me to tell you hi.'

I chuckled and looked up at the gray clouds that rolled in. The snow would start to fall soon and blanket the land in a few feet of the white stuff. We had been here since the middle of summer. "Tell her hey. Hopefully you get your man, and make him pay." I may not live on the Farm any longer, or talk to my dad, but at one time that was my home. A few of the people that I grew up with had been killed in that attack.

'Oh he will. Don't worry about that. I had better get off here. We are about to head out to meet with Conner. Call me later and let me know how it went.'

I heard a boom from something heavy hitting the wall or floor and the man screaming. "I think I had better get in there. If not, we're not going to get any information from this guy."

Standing, I brushed off my jeans and grabbed the door handle. 'Good luck on that, boy. You know how he can be when he is motivated.'

Oh I knew. Believe me I knew. "I'll call you later." And hung up the phone.

Stepping in the house, I quickly ducked when a lamp flew across the room and broke apart against the wall to my right. "Holy fuck! What the hell are you doing?" I looked at him, to the lamp, then back to him.

"It was either throw it or punch him. I chose to throw it." He growled.

"So punch him. He had information you want, and is not going to open his mouth any other way." I glared.

"And if I punch him, I'm not going to stop." He turned his back to me, and walked out the back door.

Screw this! I pulled the Glock out of the holster and walked into the room Howard was in. The smaller man looked up when I walked in, his beady dark eyes widened as he saw the gun in my hand. "Two and a half years ago, you sabotaged a plane that killed that man's wife and a friend of mine. You have a choice right now," I slid the slide back and chambered a round in the matte black gun, then pushed it to his forehead, "you either start talking to me about that day, or I will repaint these walls with your brain. Do you understand me?"

Howard visibly shook. "I was paid to cause the engine to blow. Some guys came and handed me a lot of money to do it. I was in debt up to my ears and I needed the cash."

I ground my teeth and ground the gun into his head. The man's eyes were closed tightly and he started to cry. "You took cash to kill someone. Someone that had a son, a husband and a family. You killed a woman that meant the world to many people in this world. Now, you had better cough up some names or I will kill you."

"Jason Carmichael and Franklin Stevens. They are the ones that brought the money to me." He cried out.

"Who sent you here?" I yelled. I was pissed.

"Alan Rikken. He's the one that sent me here to work on their planes." Tears streamed down his reddened face. "They were going to kill me if I stayed in the States."

I pulled the gun off of him and grabbed him roughly by the chin, forcing him to look at me. "You don't have to worry about them now. You have to worry about me. You are going to tell me everything you know right now, and I will decide what to do with you afterward. Understand that?"

He nodded the best he could with me holding on to his chin. I looked down and shook my head as I saw a wet spot in the man's pants. He had pissed himself. "So talk." I growled.

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

I walked out back to find Ezio sitting under a tree looking down at the picture he always carried on him. I had seen it a few times. It was the last picture they took as a family. Jenna, with her smiling blue eyes and long sandy hair, sat next to him with her head on his shoulder. Marcus sat on their legs and smiled up at his parents.

He didn't move as I walked over to him. "I promised to keep her safe. I promised to be with her forever. I lied to her. I couldn't even get the information from that man for her without wanting to rip his head off."

I sat down next to him and stretched my legs out in front of me. "I got the info for you."

His head shot up. "You what?" Disbelief was in his brown eyes. The one thing we had in common was we had the same eyes.

"I put a gun to his head and made him talk." I looked over at the cottage. "I was leaving him for you. You can do what you want to do now."

"Des, you didn't have to do that." He slipped the picture back in his jacket pocket.

"Yeah I did. Ezio, we are a team. We have been for two years. I know you would have rather had Altair, but you know how he is now." I looked down at the ground.

"No, I am glad I have you as a partner." He sat a hand on my leg. "I understand Altair has Alanna now and there is no separating them from each other. It's too dangerous for all of us to be together. You stepped up where I could not and that is what a partner does for the other. Thank you."

I waved him off, but it was nice to hear the praise. "Don't worry about it. Now, can we finish this and get out of this frozen wasteland before we are snowed in?"

"Sounds good to me."

Conner

I stepped up on the porch of the house Altair and Alanna bought in the outlying areas of Athens, Greece. It was a small house on the outskirts of town, and did not stand out from any of the others around. "Hey, anyone home?" I called as I walked into the house.

"Back here, Conner." I heard Altair call from the back of the house.

I walked deeper into the house and found them in the back room, bent over a map of France. It was the next place they were hitting. "What are you two up to now?" I sat my bag on the floor and stepped closer.

They were speaking rapid fire Arabic and glaring at each other. Alanna pointed to the countryside outside of Paris, and said something that her husband did not like. He threw his hands up and yelled at her. I was completely in the dark and hated it.

"HEY!" I yelled at the two. They turned their heads in sync and that was kind of creepy. "What the hell are you two doing?"

"Debating on where to strike after we get done here." Altair stepped away from Alanna and shook his head. "I think we need to strike at the heart of Spain, but she thinks we need to hit France."

I lifted an eyebrow at them. "That's what has you two in an uproar?" They nodded. "That's dumb."

"Well, oh master planner, what do you think?" Alanna sat down on one of the stools.

"How about you concentrate on the man I found for you." I pulled a slip of paper from my jeans pocket and sat it on the map.

They both smiled and looked at me. "You found him?"

I nodded. "I am the best tracker out there." Out of the group, they used me when they needed someone found that went underground. I was the best at finding anyone.

We all had our special talents. Altair had a mind like a computer. He could spot a flaw in anyone's stance or demeanor. Alanna was the swiftest and the best infiltrator. She could slip into a mouse hole and out before anyone knew she was there. Ezio was the best at crowd control, or well he was when he was calmer. Right now, he was fixated on finding the last remaining people that killed Jenna, his wife.

Desmond was a special case. He had not come into his own yet, and he had not developed his own talent. Now, I'm not saying the boy wasn't a good assassin. All I was saying was that he did not have a talent as of yet.

Alanna picked up the paper and looked at it. "That's in Cairo." Her eyes turned to me. "How the hell did this guy get that far from here?"

"Don't really know. All I know is that he resurfaced there about a week ago, and joined up with a Templar mercenary group." I walked over to the fridge, pulled out a beer and cracked it open. "You were right. They are getting ready to do something big."

Altair cursed in Arabic and shook his head. "How many men are we talking?"

"Fifty at least. They know we are hunting them now." I took a swig and sat the bottle down.

Alanna stood and looked out the window at the Saronic Gulf that laid a mile or so from here. "We need to head there and wipe them out. Stop them from hurting anyone else."

I knew she had a personal vendetta with Abstergo. She had remembered more of her time in their "care". Blood work and the days in the Animus, she remembered being shocked and shot up with different cocktails that would either make her sick or knock her out. From her recounts, she believes she was there for a few months. They only recorded the first Animus sessions. When she finally shut down was when they dumped her back in the hole.

"Al, I don't think that's the best idea. Three of us versus fifty or more of them? That is not the best odds for us." I took a step towards her, but she turned and looked at me.

"Are we, or are we not assassins? We have taken on armies and won. We have killed diplomatic leaders and kings. Stopped rebellions and captured cities with only a few men. We would just have to change gears on the tactics. Nothing straightforward and nothing that they would see coming." She tapped the end of her finger to her chin.

Altair seemed to get in her wavelength, leaving me in the dark. "They cannot all be on base at all times. There will be training and supply runs. Inspections and the like." He actually smiled. "You have a good idea there."

I took another swig of my beer. "Want to fill me in on what you two plan on doing, and I have a feeling I am going to get drug into this, aren't I?"

She walked over to me and wrapped her arm around my waist. "You will love it, little brother. Some Templar bashing and infiltration. Just think of this as a day at the beach."

I looked down at her like she had lost her mind. "The day at the beach for me is a bunch of girls in skimpy bikinis lying in the sand, not hacking our way through a Templar base. You have been with him too long." I pointed to Altair, who was already pouring over a map of Egypt.

"Well, why don't you walk down to the beach right now? Get yourself some r and r, and then come back here so we can go." She walked over and leaned against the counter.

That idea I liked. "You know, I have worked hard. I think I deserve a few hours off." I walked over, grabbed my bag and headed for the room they had given to me when I stopped in. I was going to enjoy this trip to Athens and the beach for once and not have to deal with the troubles I knew I was about to find when we headed to get this guy.