Note: So sorry everyone that I disappeared for a few... years. I guess that's what happens when you start your "grown-up job". I will confess that I still thought about my story just about every day and contemplated all the different ways to end it, and I honestly only see one way to do so. So let me start with a disclaimer (without spoilers). The next few chapters will contain dark/intense content as well as religious references. I in no way mean to push certain views or opinions, and mean this to be a work of fiction for the purpose of entertainment. If I offend anyone, I'm sorry, but this is my fanfiction story and it is meant to be just that. Fiction. So now that that is out of the way, please enjoy the rest of Angel's of Death and THANK YOU for your patience. PS: before you freak out... this is NOT the last chapter. There is still more to come.
Chapter 35
"You had that man murdered," Alcina gasped aloud at her interrogator.
"Ah good, you remember." She could not see him, but she somehow knew he was grinning mischievously at her pain.
"Why! Why would you do such a thing! He was innocent!"
"Anyone caught aiding the enemies of Rodalpho Salvatorre is a traitor and will die as one."
"NO! Salvatore is dead! I watched him die..." she snapped back. The sudden sounds of tinkering keys and the opening of a heavy door boomed down the hallway. The flickering light of a torch grew brighter the closer it neared, as loud footsteps approached her barred cell. She recognized the armored body guard from the square, coming to join his master in her interrogation.
"Who... who are you?" she blurted aloud to the stranger in the corner, the fog from her breath billowing with heat. The owner of the two boots knelt forward and into the light, raising his dark eyes to hers. His face was marked with nicks and scars and aged from battle experience. His mouth a hardened and angered line.
Her hand slapped to her mouth, "Donato no..." she clenched her teeth to keep from weeping. "It's you that has taken the city in Salvatore's name..." just as Ezio feared. She cursed herself for doubting the man she trusted, but she cursed herself even more so for ever letting herself have hope; hope that Donato could somehow become her once innocent little brother again.
Hope was the one thing that had pushed her on, and now it was all but smothered.
"Honestly, I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out," he scoffed at her.
"Why Donato! Why would you do this to our home! These people are suffering! Why hide behind the name of a dead and evil man!"
Donato quickly rose to his feet and slammed his fists against the bars of her cell in sudden rage. "Watch your tongue or I'll slice it out myself! This is YOUR fault! It is because of the Assassin's and your new found order that we have to hide ourselves and these people within the walls of Firenze! All because of the plague your people created... for no other reason than to spread your message of hatred!" His finger pointed accusingly at her mortified expression. His eyes were overpowering and full of disgust, and it was directed at her. Alcina could feel the steaming tears fall silently and helplessly to the floor without her consent as every question she could think of burned in her throat.
"The Assassin's spread the plague? I... I had no idea Donato... I swear. No-no... they couldn't have... they wouldn't..." she found herself lost and dumbfounded, barely clinging to her composer. Had she been lied to? Was the order not what they had led to her believe it was? But why? What gain would they have by releasing a plague to destroy all of Italy? Were they trying to exterminate the Templars at the risk of wiping out thousands of innocent lives?
Donato retracted his clenched fists and adjusted his gloves with short tugs at his sleeves. He let out an exasperated sigh. "Since you never answered my question, I believe it is safe to assume that you returned to Firenze to murder me... which as you can imagine, is punishable by death. I would have challenged you to trial by combat, but seeing that you are already halfway to death's door, that would not be very honorable of me." Donato's flowing red cape flowed behind him as he turned to leave. "And unlike you, I would like to maintain my honor. I will leave your sentence in the hands of someone who has a few questions of his own."
The shocking realization came that this would be the very last time she ever saw her brother, and without a second thought she called after him, "Donato... everything they ever told you was a lie. From the day you were a child... you were told you were insane. But you weren't brother. I know now, without a doubt, that you were never crazy." She clambered in a broken heap to the edge of her cell following him toward the door, twining her shaky fingers around the freezing bars. "I always defended you as a child, not just because I loved you, but because I knew it wasn't true. You were tormented by something... by someone. Do you remember? Do you remember what you would tell me?"
Her words had struck a silent nerve as the man stopped, frozen in the walkway, his cape fluttering back down to his sides. His bodyguard turning swiftly in surprise, making the light of the torch crackle and send elongated shadows across the damp walls.
"You told me that voices would talk to you in your sleep and show you things... terrible things. Of robed men and bloody battles... you even said you saw the face of God. You told me a woman would speak to you in your sleep and that you could never rid her from your mind." She watched as Donato clenched his hands into fists, but refused to turn around and look at her. "How could I know that if I wasn't who I say that I am?" She placed a trembling hand over her chest as if making a promise, "I am your sister. Please, just let me go and we can leave this place and go where it is safe! Please just listen to what I say. Please just trust me."
"And your order? What of your precious Assassin's? You would betray them?"
"I don't care!" her voice cracked with emotion, "I will leave them! I swore to always protect you Donato. We can be a family again if you just release me and let go and leave the Templar's!"
Donato turned his head in her direction, but stared with empty eyes at the ground. "The Templar's are my family, and Rodalfo Salvatore saved me from the demons in my head. I do not need to be rescued." His words struck her harder than any blow. "I do want to know one last thing. You said you knew 'for a fact'... does that mean they torment you as well?"
Her eyes suddenly widened as her head and heart pounded in unison. "I... I don't-" was all she could choke. "Please... brother..."
Donato turned away, ignoring her pleading. "I can see it when I look into that sallow, pathetic face of yours. They are slowly eating you alive... may they have mercy on you," he muttered as he cranked open the massive door, walking away from her one last time.
"Please... Donato don't go..." she watched helplessly as her once innocent little brother turned away leaving the door to thunder close behind him. And that was it. He was gone... forever.
"Finally..." a muffled voice rumbled beneath the black helmet. Alcina ignored the interrogator as she turned away from the bars, pounding her fists against the wall in one tormented strike. She was too ashamed to cry and too hurt to care about anything else. She was going to die in that cell with or without being tortured. She no longer worried about the plans her company had for her. She simply didn't care.
"You almost ruined everything just now," the stranger scolded. "It wasn't easy teaching that boy to control his gift of sight... but it did prove rather useful in the end."
Alcina peered up slowly through strands of her hair, tangled in blood and mud. The standing suit of armor stared back blankly, still holding the burning torch.
"What are you talking about? What did you do to him?..." she hissed through clenched and chattering teeth.
"I taught him how to use his gifts. The gift given to him from Those Who Came Before."
"You make no sense," she rolled away from him, losing interest in his mind games.
"You see assassina, some call them God's, or THE God. But I know better, and Donato is proof to that... and so are you protector." Her heart lept at the word as she turned sharply, mouth beginning to fall open. "You didn't think we had forgotten about the prophecy did you?"
"Wha-what did you say?" Alcina froze in shock, trying to slow her pounding heart and chattering teeth.
"The prophecy, the war between the orders... it's all part of the master plan, and broken pieces to a story much larger than us all." Her eyes widened with every word that flowed from the cold mask as faint hisses of steam breathed from the holes in the black helmet, reminding her of some kind of evil dragon. "Don't you feel it? Do you not see it? All around us... they're speaking to us. Dying to give the worthy a taste of their power..." he gestured to the open space of the room.
Alcina had heard enough. "You are insane..." she dismissed, slumping against the stone wall, ignoring the icy shill that came with it.
"Hmmm..." was all the guard muttered. She could hear the soft clank of his armor as his helmet moved around, examining her cell. "I love what you've done with the place," he sneered.
"Shut your stupid mouth," she snapped back. "If you're going to kill me, I'd rather it not be to sound of your obnoxious voice."
He laughed darkly. "Awh come now madonne. I am simply noting your artistic abilities."
She raised an irritated brow which sparked another sharp pain to her head. The knight pointed his torch to the wall she was leaning against. Slowly and anxiously she followed the amber light of the flames. She felt her jaw go slack and her heart leapt into her burning throat as the flickering light of the torch revealed gruesome, shining red marks across the wall. Patterns, designs, and words she did not understand were scrawled across the humid stone wall, filling her cell from corner to corner. Panic stricken she fought back the urge to vomit whens he realized the paint was blood... her blood.
"I... I didn't do this... someone else must-" she gasped.
"Oh no, I am quite sure this is your work. I witnessed it." His tone changed to a sickening admiration. "The experience was fascinating... they were flowing through you as you slept, your very vocal cords spoke aloud in their language. Surely you must have known? Your brother was the same way since he was very small. It's them, trying to communicate... trying to tell you something..."
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Tell-tell me what...?" she almost whispered as her lip quivered from terror and chill.
The knight paused before speaking, clearly enjoying himself, relishing in her fear. "Telling you that your time has come."
She buried her face in her hands hoping this was all a dream she was about to wake up from. "How could you possibly know this? How could you know everything that has happened and know so much about my brother..." There was a prolonged silence as her fingers drug her forehead and into her knotted hair. She was far too exhausted to weep, feeling as though the thin thread of her sanity was about to snap. She had to escape this nightmare.
A slow breath snaked from the vents in the cold helmet, as he finally spoke, "I told you you could not kill me assassina." The bluntness of his words sent a frozen rush scrambling up her spine as her breath stopped in her mouth and her frantic heart jolted in her chest. Words were beyond her comprehension as the bodyguard removed his helmet and revealed to her his face. The frail, thin thread of her sanity began to twist...
"No... you're dead. I swear watched you die... I ran that blade through your chest..." she barely muttered in terror.
He shook his head as his hauntingly familiar eyes stared back her like a ghost. His eerily handsome face was scar free and hadn't aged a day from breathless last seconds she saw him in years ago.
"But how?" Her fingers touched her own cheek, "Ezio drove that brand into your face and I ran my blade into your heart! No man could have survived that! You should be mutilated!"
Salvatore smiled proudly and plucked through the chain of keys in his hand, "Indeed, you are right. But I am no longer an ordinary man." His casual voice deepened to much more serious tone, "I am the savior this world has been crying out for, and I am so very close to my goal..." the torch in his hand drowned his face in an orange and red glow as every word plunged her deeper into the nightmare. The monsters of her dreams taking tangible form in front of her wide and shimmering eyes. "You have something I want and I am going to take it back Assassin. I've been searching for the piece of Eden my entire life. I have slain every enemy in my way and traveled all across this earth constantly searching, and I have come too far to let you just walk away with what is rightfully mine."
Alcina stared back in shock and confusion. She didn't have the artifact... It was stolen from them months ago by the Templar spy. Did he not know this?
She gasped and tried to fumble to her feet as her enemy turned the heavy key with a heart stopping click and swung open the door to her cell. He stepped loudly into her blood painted prison. He looked down at her, enjoying every moment and every grimace of fear that pained her face. Nothing stood between them now. The heavy chains at her feet kept her feebly on the ground, but even if she wasn't chained, her fear left her numb and paralyzed. She was helpless, and all her greatest demons stood poised before her and ready to strike.
"I will admit, you did make this far too easy for me. All good things to those who wait I suppose..." He applauded himself as his dark smile upturned the corners of his mouth. That handsome, polite, but always evil smile. "I had heard rumors in the streets of Firenze of a child who spoke in tongues and saw apparitions, and from what they described, I knew this boy would be my key to finding the prophetic pieces of Eden. The lost instruments of power. I knew I had to have that boy to guide me and help solve the mystery of Those Who Came Before. And I was correct... so very correct. I raised him as my own son and taught him to harness his visions and listen to the voices in his tiny, tortured, head. Your brother lead me right to my prize." He sighed with satisfaction, "You think you escaped me all those years ago when you fled from that burning building... but you were right where I wanted you. I knew that you would fall right back into my hands, hopelessly trying to take him back. And here you are. I am so close to fulfilling the prophecy... all I have to do is reach out and take what is mine." He peered down at her, "And now, for the final step... to finish you assassin."
Her trembling hand recoiled as she felt herself wishing she could melt away into the cracks of the wall pinned to her back.
"Do you still doubt? Do you not see how they flow through you and speak through you?" he gestured to the bloody scratches painted on the wall. "They have claimed you, marked you, and now it is time for the prophecy to be realized! All the pieces have been gathered and the key is literally laying here at my feet... your blood will open the door to the vault, and I, the prophet will receive the greatest blessing known to man. My chosen right... the gift of immortality. I will be the messiah this world has been waiting for, resurrected from the dead, and the leader of this whole world!"
Alcina refused to look away as she stared her death in the face. With a silent, deep breath, she gazed calmly at the man who killed her parents, stole her brother, and destroyed her world. He reached his open hand for her, as she smacked it away just as quickly, spitting sharply into his face. She had only one chance left.
Her hand dove into her boot and withdrew the her father's blade, swiping it in his direction with all her strength. She gasped aloud in sharp pain as his vice grip latched down forcefully onto her wrist, making the blade clatter to the ground, shattering her hope. She was far too weak... too broken to fight. She had nothing left to fight with as the last bit of her strength and energy began to flicker out.
"Defiant until the end... just like your pathetic family." Her eyes began to glisten as her body trembled from the inside out.
"So this is how it was meant to end..." she thought. She felt an unexpected wave of calm overtake her as she stared into her enemies eyes. His form began to blur as if she could stare straight through him, looking past her fate.
She had always wondered if she would feel regret in her final moments, but to her surprise there was only one thing she wished for. She wished dearly to see Ezio one last time. To tell him that he was the only man she ever loved. And now she would never have the chance. She prayed under her last breath that he was safe, and that he was miles away from that terrible place, and that he would somehow find happiness without her in his life. She hardly noticed her killer raise his arm above his head and bring down the metal helmet in his hand toward her skull.
Her eyes never left his as the blunt object broke across her face, sending her to the ground, but to her, it felt as soft and smooth as Ezio's loving finger tips trailing across her cheek, wiping away her tears and releasing her from the nightmare. It was over, and she lay motionless in the broken shell of her body as her entire world went black.