AN: As promised, a chapter towards the end of the week, after two weeks. Enjoy Ch 26.
The Assassin's headquarters was a large castle like building outside the borders of Atlas. The winter season meant there was light snowfall in the area. Richard had been here before when Connor had brought him for previous councils that had been held. He walked the halls silently by his mentor's side. Though the castle was ancient, the assassins had done a fine job preserving it. Richard and Connor came to a large door at the end of the hall.
"You know the drill."
"Wait for you, I know," Richard replied to his mentor. Connor entered through the large doors and closed them behind him. Richard let out a sigh and turned to start walking back. On his walk he could see assassins of all kinds coming in, from the other three kingdoms, and from some lesser know cities outside their borders. Richard walked up and down the halls waiting as he usually did when a familiar face appeared to his surprise.
"Richard!" Richard turned to see the supposedly retired assassin Arno Dorian.
"Arno?" Arno walked up to Richard with open arms and gave him a bear hug.
"Ah it's been so long, seemed only yesterday we went on your first mission. Ah, memories."
"Arno that's great, but you're squeezing my lungs." Richard said with little breath.
"I thought you were stronger than that." Arno said letting go of Richard.
"Arno what are you doing here?" Showing some happiness seeing an old friend, "I thought you were retired."
"I am...aasss soon as this council is over."
"Really? So what did you do before?"
"Oh nothing much, just secretly looked into the abstergo industry, nothing too big."
"Well did you find anything?"
"That is to be discussed with the council, speaking of which I'm late for, until we meet again."
"Bye Arno," Richard waved off to his old friend. Arno walked into the council room; all the other assassins were already gathered around, waiting. They sat around a large round table with the grandmaster Altair in the center.
"Your late again Arno." Ezio, an assassin from Vacuo, mocked.
"At least I have arrived, unlike that pirate Edward."
"Oi! I'm right here you bag of sh-"
"Edward! please control your cursing in the council room." Altair shushed the pirate from Minstral.
"Arno take a seat, we'll begin right now." Altair told Arno. If Edward was here that meant this meeting was defiantly important enough for him to come out of retirement. Arno took a seat at the large round table.
"Let's get straight to the point." Altair started with. A screen popped up in front of each assassin.
"We've just received word that the apple of Eden has been stolen from the sanctuary in Atlas, I personally take blame in its lack of protection but that isn't the main point, we have to track it down and reclaim it before the Templars can plan anything extreme."
"Do we know who took it?" Connor asked.
"No, the main guards were found dead at the scene, no one reported seeing anyone."
"So we don't have a lead?" A random assassin asked.
"We have one." Altair taped his screen and an image of a person appeared on each assassin's screen.
Richard was outside the HQ, it was lightly snowing outside, though the cold didn't bother him. He watched the lower ranks practice using their weapons in the small-snowcleared arenas: sparring, firing, and cleaning them. They were almost like huntsmen to Richard, each having a unique weapon and fighting style. "Hey wolf ears!" Richard heard a voice call from behind. It was from an assassin that seemed to be the leader of a small group. "Wanna go a couple rounds!?" He offered extending his collapsable pike. Richard smirked and walked their way.
"So where is he now?" Ezio asked.
"We don't know for sure, but we assume he has fled to Vale, from what we know he has some affiliation with the white fang, and from recent events we can put two and two together."
Richard rolled under the assassin's swing; he got back into his stance and prepared for another attack. The assassin grounded his pike, he raised his arms and the snow that was falling gathered into a cluster and turned into a shard of ice. The assassin thrusted his arm forward and the shard hurled towards Richard. He reacted quickly by taking out his bow and drawing a red tipped arrow, he let go and the shard burst on impact with the arrow. From the smoke the assassin jumped in front of Richard. He changed his bow into a sword to block, the two got into a stalemate.
"So then why don't we just move now if that's the case?" Connor said.
"From what we know the templars haven't made any moves against us in the past few months; it would be unwise if we attacked prematurely." Altair explained.
Multiple small ice-shards were floating around the assassin, he jabbed his pike forward and the shards flew towards Richard. Richard managed to block a few before one sliced his arm. He rolled out of the way of the projectiles. Richard saw the assassin prepare another wave of shards, he rushed the assassin and quickly swung upwards with his tomahawk. It caught on to the assassin's pike, bringing it to face the sky. The shards all shot upwards and a few seconds later they rained down around the two. Quickly they scrambled away from each other to avoid the barrage of shards. The two were about to clash once more when the ground vigorously shook.
"No,no,no," Altair mumbled to himself. "The precursor site; it must have been disturbed!"
"What should we do grandmaster!?" an assassin asked.
"Gather your apprentices and any others and get them to the bunker," Altair ordered. All of the assassins bolted out of the council room.
Richard was outside, the ground was still shaking violently. He looked over to the other assassins all making a mad dash for the cathedral. He heard some of the elder assassins calling out.
"Everyone get to underground bunker!" He heard another call out.
"Watch out! The tower is coming down!"
Richard looked up at the main tower of the cathedral, it slowly began to tilt forward, crumbling and cracking on its way until it finally split in half and fell in front of the main gate. On impact a large cloud of dust came his way. Richard quickly raised his arms in front of his face, shielding him. The cloud blew past Richard at great speed, as quickly as it came it past.
Richard lowered his arms and saw the main gate blocked by rubble and debris. Richard tried to find another way into the HQ. He saw an open widow on the third floor of the cathedral and quickly ran over to the cathedral along with the few assassins still outside. He scaled the rubble and began to climb the building using the forming cracks as help. He looked up and saw a large chunk of granite begin to slide out of the wall. Richard quickly jumped to the side and grabbed on to another ledge. He saw the large piece fall out and down to the base of the building. Richard continued to climb this time aiming for the hole that formed from the granite that had slid out of the wall. He entered the building the second floor as he started moving through the halls he met Connor at the stairs.
"Richard! Quickly we have to move!" Connor yelled.
As Richard ran down the stairs he heard a loud explosion, the part of the stairs he stood on began to crack and he soon found himself falling through them.
"Richard!" Connor shouted as he extended his arm to try to catch Richard. Richard crashed to the ground onto his back, with ringing ears and blurred vision he looked up a hole in the roof and was able to make out a mortar shot hurling down on him. He quickly tried to get up, he managed to get to his feet before the mortar struck several feet behind him. The burst caused him to go crashing out the window into the now forming snow storm. Richard landed in a small bed of snow, all he felt was pain all over his body. He slowly pushed himself up, he could see blood in the snow though he couldn't tell from where on him it was coming from. He looked up into the storm and saw a silhouette slowly growing. Richards first thought was that it must be Connor.
"Connor," Richard attempted to call out, his vision was slowly fading as he blacked out soon after.
He woke up again this time he was covered in snow from the storm, the figure now stood above him. Richard could see a man in a black and red coat, he also saw him cover his mouth with what seemed to be a scarf or handkerchief. Richard cringed at the sight remembering Cyrus all to well.
"Well, another fly escaped the trap," He raised his sword, "good thing I come well prepared." The stranger was about to strike Richard when someone else parried it away. Richard couldn't see who, but he could hear the clashing of swords. Richard could hear a cry of pain and then quick steps running away. After which someone came closer to him.
"Richard, oh god," it was Arno, but Richard could see only his face as he bent down beside him. "Come on" Arno struggled to say as he tried to pick up Richard. He carried him on his shoulder with Richard facing behind.
Richard looked back and could barely make out the cathedral; it was crumbling to the ground still burning. The smoke was still climbing higher towards the sky. Richard could feel himself beginning to black out again, just as he did he could hear Arno say, "come on, we're the last of us."