Right on time! It's Saturday and here's the next chapter just like I promised it would be! Woo! I'm on time for once!

Chapter 16: Seeing for Themselves

I blinked at those words. Had he just…? No, I must be hearing things. He couldn't have just admitted that he had wings. My mind raced along with my heart as I stared up at those waiting amber eyes. "Did you just…" I whispered, trailing off when my friend nodded and reached over his head and began pulling off his robes and shirts after a brief hesitation. I struggled to keep the heat away from my cheeks and my eyes away from the smooth taut chest that I'd only seen once.

"I don't cut through my robes or shirts like you," he stated when his eyes met mine. He looked down at the ground once his last shirt was gone and hunched his back, stretching his skin like I did. Altair blew out a quick breath before I saw the top of his wings appear over his shoulders. I stared in shock as the enormous wings pulled themselves out of Altair's back and sat up slowly from where my friend had pushed me to lay down, ignoring the dizziness. I knew I shouldn't be surprised, I had wings of my own, but I had never really seen my wings besides in a blurry reflection in a water's surface. Altair's wings looked…regal and powerful as they stretched, fully out of Altair's body.

The former Master Assassin's amber eyes met my own as he folded his wings against his back. I couldn't help but flutter my wings a little and tried, and failed, to keep them from fluffing up a bit. My wings were always a key to see my emotions. I was at a loss for words as my eyes flicked from Altair's to his wings. I frowned after a moment as my brain realized something. "Your wings are bigger than mine," I pointed out, sounding a little peeved about it.

Altair smiled as he sat down next to me. "Is that all you have to say?" he asked, sounding more than a bit amused.

I perked up a bit and replied with, "I knew it."

My friend's eyes danced with laughter for a moment before he countered. "Just as I knew you had wings."

My face went carefully blank as I sat up straight. I saw apprehension flash across Altair's, but he otherwise showed no reaction to my reaction. "How did you know?" I asked quietly.

"The book," Altair stated simply. He shrugged nonchalantly, "You had a page of notes in the background comparing your wings to a bird's. Plus, I saw you use your bird eyes when we were locating the Bureau in Damascus."

I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "Bird eyes?" I repeated.

He nodded and motioned to his own eyes and they turned orange as I watched. "The ability to see farther and see things better." His eyes went back to his normal amber.

It was my turn to nod in understanding. "I call that eagle eyes," I stated, clearing up my earlier misunderstanding. "That's why I didn't understand you."

He cocked his head to the side, and I wondered if I looked like that when I did the same action. "How did you find out about me?"

I had a sense of déjà vu when I answered simply, "When we fought that first time. When I convinced you that the first and unexpected attack can win a fight. I felt your wings under your skin. And you used Eagle Vision that one time in the dining hall." I waved to my own eyes as he opened his mouth to ask what 'Eagle Vision' was. I blinked to my colored view and thought absently about how beautiful that green that Altair was. Of course the fact that he was half naked had nothing to do with that thought. Nothing at all. Nothing. "The colored vision," I explained. I hesitated before asking, "What color am I to your sight, Altair?"

I saw the man blink once to change his eyes and then blink again in surprise. I blinked back to my normal vision as Altair kept looking me over in astonishment. "You're green," he mumbled, shocked.

"Just as you're green to my eyes," I said quietly. Altair's eyes flew up to mine and I watched his pupils shrink back to normal size. "And I think I know why we're that different color." I shifted my wings to bring Altair's attention to them. "What do the both of us have that no one else does?"

"Our wings?" Altair answered absently, surprised. "We're different colors because we have wings?"

I shrugged and shifted into a better position, ignoring how the world seemed to spin whenever I moved my head the slightest bit. "It's the only thing I can think of that explains it, and I've been thinking about this for a long time." I paused and spoke again to answer my friend's unvoiced question. "For about seven years now." He blinked as his only response and I saw the gears start turning in that thick headed skull of his. Out of know where, the thought of my strange abilities came to mind. How I could heal and now how I could use my wings as shields. And how Altair could manipulate air. "Altair," I began hesitantly. I gathered my courage when his beautifully clear eyes met mine. "Do you have any…abilities?"

He frowned in confusion, though I saw a spark of understanding in his eyes. "How do you mean?" he asked, and I knew he was fishing for information on me.

I thought about outright calling him on his ability to manipulate air to avoid saying that I could heal and harden my feathers, but we were exchanging very personal and damning information. If anyone found out about our secrets, we were sure to be put to death as demons. I figured that I could tell him about at least one ability. I still didn't want to tell him I healed him after his punishment, and, in effect, that Al Mualim had really intended to kill him. "Like how I can harden my feathers like a shield," I said quietly, glancing around to see if there was anyone listening even though I knew that that was very unlikely.

Altair straightened in shock and demanded, "Like a shield? Can you show me?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. I only learned about that tonight when I was carrying us away from the bandits."

"Can you try?" Altair persisted.

I shrugged in response and opened my wings a quarters of the way and tried to find that 'muscle again. After a full minute of trying I sighed and shook my head. I jumped a little when I felt Altair's hands fall on to my shoulders. I blinked up at those amber eyes and couldn't help but blush a little when I realized how small I felt with him towering over me slightly. "I can't," I stated with a shake of my head.

Altair thought for a moment before offering, "Try recalling the first time you used it. Speak aloud what happened so you can hear it as well as think it." I hesitated and Altair gently brushed my eyes closed. "Don't worry. Those bandits aren't anywhere near us. They can't hurt us." I blinked in surprise that Altair had so easily read the reason behind my hesitancy before throwing my mind back into the memories. When I didn't say anything right away, Altair tapped my jaw, "Talk me through what happened. Start with just before the bandits showed up."

I nodded a little and quietly began. "We were talking about armor. I thought that light leather armor was best while you thought that light metal plating was best even though it weighs the wearer down too much in my opinion. You were in the middle of talking when you suddenly stopped and I could sense why you stopped as well. I could feel the eyes watching us." I opened my eyes and frowned at the man. "Can you do that too? Are you able to just tell when someone is watching you?"

Altair nodded, "Yes. I often wondered about you having the same ability back at the castle. Now back to the story."

I obligingly closed my eyes and continued. "When I looked up I could see a dozen archers on each side of the cliff aiming arrows down at us. I remember feeling…nervous and excited at the same time. The leader of the bandits irritated me with how he thought he was superior and while we were speaking back and forth I moved my hands closer to my throwing knives, knowing I would have to take out the archers before anything else. I remember how I looked at you and you looked at me and I felt as if I could read your mind and you could read mine. We just…understood what each of us were going to do. When the horsemen came around the curve in front and behind us, I threw my knives. I remember focusing on getting them right because the archers were so far away and I had to get the angle of my throws just right or I'd miss altogether. The archers fell and the horsemen were on us." I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart as I immersed myself in my emotions and thoughts as much as possible. There was a reason I didn't look back on my battles: I could deal with the threat of death and injury thanks to adrenaline, but when I looked back with a clear mind I could so many incidents where I came close to losing my life. And here I was practically reliving it. "Everything happened so fast. I was only moving out of instinct, trusting my sense to tell me when someone was striking at me. I don't know how long you and I fought back to back, but I heard you cry out. I spun around to see you stumble and a bandit standing behind you, having struck you on your head. I recall trying to call your name, to bring you out of the stun the hit put you in, but I got my own blow to the head when I tried. I had a moment where I was able to stop myself from collapsing, and in that moment I saw you go down as the bandits pinned you. I didn't have time to react to that before I was pushed to the ground. I fought them as much as I could, but they had pinned my left arm so I couldn't use my hidden blade and wouldn't let me reach my other knives. I remember yelling curses at them before someone kicked me in the head. After that… it's fuzzy. I can't tell if what I remember actually happened, but I felt myself being dragged across the ground, and someone yelling my name. I thought I heard you yelling my name. And I couldn't move. I couldn't move a finger. It was like…I no longer in control of my body. Eventually, I felt myself being thrown to the ground and I was getting my vision back. Everything was so blurry and I couldn't remember how I'd gotten to lay on the ground. When I tried to get to my hands and knees, someone kicked me down again. I got him back by stabbing him in the leg. Then two men grabbed me and hauled me to my feet. I could hardly think at all. I remember looking around and seeing a group of men standing by the cliff's edge and after a moment I was able to tell that you were talking to the leader of the bandits." I felt my eyes begin to move fast under my eye lids, my heart race, my breathing pick up as I sensed that something bad was coming. I was too far into my memory to realize that it was that, a memory. I could hardly feel as Altair ran a soothing thumb across my cheek. I began to aimlessly talk as the memory played out. I hard realized when I switched from 'you' to 'Altair'. "The leader of the bandits yelled at Altair and Altair said something I couldn't hear. And then the leader punched Altair in the head, stunning him. The leader said something to the men and motioned to the cliff's edge. I was so scared. I knew they were going to throw Altair over the cliff and kill him. I couldn't let that happen. I twisted out of the hands that were holding me and tried to run at the bandits to try and stop them. But I was still dizzy and I stumbled and wasn't fast enough. I wasn't fast enough. When the bandits threw Altair over the edge, I couldn't think. Something hurt in my chest and I screamed. I screamed out Altair's name and ran to the edge as my wings ripped out of my back. I dove off the edge and fell after Altair. I could see the ground coming closer and I thought I wouldn't make it. I wouldn't be able to save Altair. I grabbed his hand and pulled him closer to me and opened my wings to stop our fall and I just barely stopped up from crashing and flew up. But when I thought we were in the clear, that we were safe, the bandits shot arrows at us. I noticed them too late. I couldn't drop out of the way or dodge. I remember wrapping myself and my wings around Altair to try and protect him from the arrows. And then I felt that 'muscle'. It felt like I'd never used it before and it hurt so much to use it. It was like purposely working a severely pulled muscle. For a second my wings felt so impossibly heavy and I heard these high pitched ringing sounds. The arrows never hit. When I started to fall and opened my wins I saw the arrows falling away as if they had been deflected. I flew away as fast as I could. I couldn't think of anything else besides getting somewhere safe. But Altair weighed so much and that 'muscle' and my wings hurt. I couldn't stop from crashing. I tried my best to take the impact by protecting Altair again and I remember trying to stay awake because I needed to do something. Something about Altair, but I couldn't stop myself from falling asleep."

"Shahin," a soft male voice called as if from far away, and I opened my eyes, blinking away the blurriness until Altair's face became clear. I struggled to control my breathing as Altair surprised me by pulling close for a hug and rubbing soothing circles right between my wings. They unconsciously fluttered in pleasure, or tried to. They seemed to be incredibly heavy at that moment. I clung to Altair without thought, trying to shake the horror and fear that followed me from my memory. I ran my fingers through the soft feathers of Altair's wings and tried to focus on the sensation and not on thinking. Altair made comforting sounds that I barely heard as my eyes darted around, searching for those bandits. "Shahin," Altair called again and I made a sound to show that I was listening as I began to unwind. "Look at your wings."

I turned my head a little and looked out of the corner of my eye to do as he ordered. I gasped a little in amazement. My feathers were golden. Like metal gold, not bird gold. And when I tried to move my wings I found I could hardly because they weight was too much. I was aware of that 'muscle' and where it was. I could tell that the 'muscle' still hurt to be used and when I relaxed the 'muscle' my wings slowly turned back into black as the weight disappeared.

"Can you find the 'muscle' again?" Altair asked quietly. In response I slowly coaxed the smarting 'muscle' into working again and my wings turned gold for a moment before I let it go and they returned back to black. Altair suddenly pulled back, leaving me to reel a bit.

I looked up to ask why he'd done that when I saw the twisted guilty look on his face. "What's wrong, Altair?" I asked quietly as I reached to rest a hand on his shoulder, but he pulled away much to my surprise and hurt. He wouldn't meet my eyes and I watched as he struggled with something internal. I wanted to say that he could trust me, but I had a feeling that that would only push him to remain quiet, so I left him to decide.

Altair finally bowed his head deeply and said in a voice deep in shame and guilt. "I'm sorry, Shahin. You have my deepest apologies."

I blinked in confusion and resisted the urge to reach out and try and reassure him. "What are you apologizing for?" I asked. Was it for making me relive that memory? He shouldn't be. It's thanks to his suggestion that I know how to use that ability. And why would he feel such shame and guilt for that? What would make the proud and arrogant Altair apologize so sincerely?

Altair tried to make himself smaller as he repeated he was sorry over and over again. "Altair," I called, halting his endless apologies, genuinely worried and scared now. What could make Altair apologize so fervently? "What did you do?" I half demanded half asked.

Altair winced and hesitated before beginning softly. "I had a suspicion since the old man told me you wanted the comb for a girl that matched your description." I felt my blood run cold, but didn't say a word. "I wanted to know for sure," he whispered, almost painfully. "When you were unconscious… I looked under your robes."

I unconsciously hugged my arms tightly to my chest as I shivered, feeling cold all over. He couldn't have… He couldn't know. He couldn't.

Altair's shame-filled eyes peeked up to look at my horrified ones. "I know you're a woman," I whispered.

Everything went blank.

I know. I'm evil with the cliffhanger and horrible [lace to stop, but I want to quickly write a chapter for my second story so I can get back to working on my third story. It's a transformers fanfic and right now im just wanting toprewrite it and see where it goes. I should probably publish it in a week or two once I get 5-10 chapters finished. If you like transformers and my writing keep on the lookout for my third story. And thank the evil idea bunnies because they bugged the hell out of me until I began to write the new story down. I hope the chapter above was okay for my hurry to get back to my new story.

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Safety and Peace, Brothers and Sisters.