Black Forest, Germany – 6 May 1943

The sun was high in the sky, and there were few clouds. A not uncomfortable silence enveloped the forest. No bird was heard, and no animals moved about the forest floor covered in greenery and fallen logs where insects and mushrooms had made homes for themselves. As far as the eyes could see were trees, some older than the seven Assassins making their way through the forest.

Jan and Elisabeth walked at their head. All the Assassins wore their coats with their hoods pulled back. Caspar walked slightly behind them and following him were four other Assassins. This was supposed to be the same team that hit Hauschka's compound. Out of the thirteen Assassins who had gone, two had been killed and four had been injured. Only these seven were in good enough shape to join the mission. As they reached a creek, Jan and Elisabeth stopped.

"This is probably the creek Neuner talked about."

Jan crouched down and looked into the clean, clear water flowing through the creek. He turned his head up and looked around, analysing the scene around him. The immediate surroundings of the creek were mostly flat, composed of trees, fallen logs, and a ground covered with green underbrush. But further afield the terrain became less uniform, with hills here and there.

"We should split up, cover more ground. Elisabeth and I will go that way," he said, pointing towards the west. "Caspar, you and Laurenz cover the north. The rest of you, south. If you don't find anything, go back here and wait. Be careful. It's not impossible that the Templars might've somehow figured things out and gone here to snoop around."

The Assassins nodded and went their separate ways. Jan and Elisabeth were the last to leave, and just as Jan said they crossed the creek and went north. They went at a slow pace, looking at any and every little thing to find some sort of clue to… whatever it was the key opened.

Suddenly, something rattled some nearby bushes. Elisabeth reacted in an instant and took out her handgun. She aimed it at the bushes.

"Who's there?!"

"Wait!" Jan shouted.

Just as Elisabeth was about to shoot, Jan held her hand down. Then a rabbit hopped out of the bushes, and the two of them relaxed, breathing sighs of relief. Elisabeth holstered her gun once again.

"Sorry," she apologised. "I don't like forests."

"Why is that?"

"Bad memories," she said as they continued on their way.

Jan realised that despite having fought together with her for several years now, Jan barely knew anything about her. Sure, he knew she was tough, dedicated to the cause, and could more than hold her own in a fight. But beyond that, Jan didn't know anything. He didn't know anything about Kevin either. And now he never will, not directly from Kevin himself anyway. Remembering Kevin, he sighed. He wasn't going to make the same mistake.

"What happened?"

Elisabeth didn't answer for a few moments, which made Jan worry. Jan was about to tell her she didn't need to answer when she did.

"It reminds me of when I was rescued by the Brotherhood."

"Rescued by the Brotherhood?"

"Yes. I wasn't born an Assassin like you. My parents weren't Assassins. They ran an inn on the outskirts of Dessau in Anhalt."

"An inn? That's quite quaint."

"It was," Elisabeth said, smiling.

Jan rarely saw her with a warm, sincere smile.

"It was traditional-like too. I remember we served drinks and food, and the locals were regular customers. I helped out, though at that age I wasn't much help. We weren't rich, but we did get by. My parents ran it together. My father would cook, serve drinks, entertain the customers. My mother managed the lodgings. Sheets and all. Everyone in the community knew them."

"They sound like warm, kind people."

"Yeah. Yeah, they were." Elisabeth paused. "Which is why I don't understand why it happened."

"It?"

"The attack. It was night, but I couldn't sleep. There was a storm outside. Lightning and thunder and all. I was scared, so I went out of my room to try and find my parents. They weren't in the bedroom, so they were still on the first floor probably cleaning up. It was a slow day. We didn't have any guests, and due to the rain, few of the locals came.

"But several men came in. They were wearing black trench coats and black hats. Drenched from the rain. I was about to go down just as they came in. I was a kid, so I didn't like to be in front of strangers. So, I waited at the top of the stairs, debating whether I should go back to my room to try and sleep.

"But they weren't buying drinks. They were saying something to my father. I couldn't hear exactly what. But it got heated. The men were raising their voices. My father was trying to calm them down. My mother started to go up the stairs and saw me. She asked what I was doing there and told me to go back to my room, but I kept my eyes on my father and those men.

"That was when they pulled the guns out. My father tried to defuse the situation. He raised his arms to show he didn't mean any harm. They also aimed at my mother, who almost fell back onto the stairs in fear. When they did that, my father instinctively moved to protect my mother. Maybe they got jittery, maybe they just didn't care. They shot my father when he did that. Three shots. He was dead immediately. My mother screamed. She went to run towards me, but they shot her in the back."

He knew he was supposed to look at the surroundings to find what they were looking for, but he had to look at Elisabeth's expression. Because from her voice, she was telling this story as if she was just reciting facts. No emotion. No grief. No sadness. No pain. No anger. Her face was grim, but she kept looking left and right trying to find their objective.

"She reached out to me. Her last words to me before they shot her again was 'Run.' For a moment though, I was frozen. My mother and father were in front of me, lying dead. The men looked at me. I think I heard one of them say 'That's her. Get her!'. I turned around and ran down the corridor. There was no exit that way, but I just ran to the end of the hallway. The men were running after me. When I reached the wall and turned around, they were closing in. The window was open, so I jumped out into the rain.

"I fell into a puddle of mud. I vividly remember scraping my knees. I didn't look back and just started running. Our inn was at the edge of town, and it was right next to a forest. I ran towards it without really knowing where I was going. If I had gone to my neighbours, I was afraid the men would kill them too. I don't know how long I ran. It was dark and wet. My heart was beating so fast, and I was a mess. I just saw my parents get killed. I was alone. People I didn't know were chasing me.

"But it wasn't over. I heard them coming behind me. I heard their voices, shouting in the dark. And as I ran, the voices got louder and louder. They were catching up to me. I knew running wasn't going to get me anywhere, so I looked around. I found a hole at the base of a tree, just enough for me to squeeze in. I went in and hid, waiting for them to pass by.

"I held my breath as they came. They brought torches and were looking around. They started to head in the general direction I was heading, so I waited for them. But one of them stopped and called out to the others that he felt something wasn't right. They started looking around the area, shining light onto every bush and log. I was on the verge of crying. I was afraid they'd find me if I cried.

"But it didn't matter. One of them shone a light on me and pulled me out by the collar. I kicked and screamed, but I was at their mercy. They put me on the ground, headfirst onto the wet, sloppy dirt covered with leaves. They told me to calm down or they were going to hurt me. They said that I was going to come with them. I started sobbing. They hit me. I was alone. There was no one to help me."

"They took you away?" Jan asked, not believing that something as traumatic as that had happened to her. He lost his father, but his mother was still alive. To lose both parents right in front of you…

"No. That's when it happened. I heard a gunshot, and one of them fell to the ground, not far from me. His cold, dead eyes met mine. I remember it so clearly. The other two men panicked and started shooting randomly. But something like a shadow came. Unseen, moving faster than their eyes could follow. Within a few seconds, he had taken out both of the men holding me down."

"An Assassin?"

Elisabeth nodded.

"I didn't know at the time. He was wearing his hood. I couldn't even see his face. He knelt beside me and held out his hand. I crawled back, afraid. But then he pulled back his hood to reveal his face. In a soft, gentle voice, he told me it was okay. Eventually, I took his hand. He led me through the forest towards the inn. The rain was subsiding, and the closer we got the more I noticed a bright light. And then the plumes of smoke. When we got there, my neighbours were trying to douse the flames that had engulfed my family's inn. People were rushing left and right, carrying buckets of water. They shouted my father's name, my mother's name, and my name.

"I was about to shout back and run to them when the Assassin stopped me. He told me it wasn't safe for me there anymore. He said he needed to get me out of there or more bad men would come. And so, I followed him. We made the arduous journey; I didn't know where to. Several times along the way, more of those bad men were on our tails.

"Near our destination, the car broke down. We had to proceed on foot through another forest. That's when I heard them coming. The ones coming after me had caught up. I couldn't run fast enough, so the Assassin carried me on his back, and he ran as fast as he could. But it was too late. I looked back, and I saw them coming right on our heels. Maybe ten men, armed with guns. No matter how fast he ran, the ones chasing us were quicker.

"Finally, he stopped and put me down. He told me to keep running in a certain direction. He told me not to look back and to keep running until I found other Assassins who were waiting for us. I didn't want to leave him, but he was almost shouting at me to go. I remember that when I looked back, he had turned around and was about to face the ten men coming after us. He took out his gun, and he extended his hidden blades. Not long afterwards, after I had lost sight of him, I heard gunfire in the distance.

"Eventually, I reached the Assassins. When I told them what had happened, half of them went to him. But he didn't come back with them. Not alive. They carried his body into the car, and we went away. They took me to the hideout in Essen, where I was practically raised from then on as an Assassin."

"But why did they try to take you?" Jan asked her.

"I don't know. Nobody knew. Apparently only he did. He was investigating something and apparently that led to me. He died before he could tell any other Assassin."

"Is it fine if I asked what his name was?"

"Augustin. Augustin Schieffer."

"Wait, I know him."

"You do?"

"Well, not personally. But I've heard his name. He was a good friend of my father. They often spoke on the telephone. And maybe I met him when I was little, but I don't remember anything. He was killed by Templars, wasn't he?"

"Yes."

"So, the Templars wanted to kidnap you."

"And I don't know what for. They killed my parents, who didn't know anything. They killed Augustin too. He died for me. Sacrificed his life for me. I'll never forget that for the rest of my life. That's why I've dedicated myself to the Brotherhood, and why I followed Lutz. I don't want his death to be in vain. I want us to succeed in fighting against those people who killed my parents. I have a debt to him that can never be repaid, but I will try to pay for it either way."

Jan simply nodded, even though Elisabeth wasn't looking at him. He didn't have any other words to say after that story, the story of how Elisabeth became an Assassin. They continued looking wordlessly, but Jan wasn't paying attention and was deep in his thoughts. What did Augustin know? Why did they try to take Elisabeth? Those thoughts floated around in his head.

"There! I see something!" Elisabeth suddenly shouted as she pointed at a hill.

They went over to it. It looked like a large boulder that was covered in grass, but there was nothing to suggest it wasn't just a hill.

"There's nothing here," he said. "Why did you lead us here?"

"I… don't know," she said, her brows furrowed as she thought hard. "I just felt like this was it."

"Intuition?"

"Something like that, but much stronger. It's like I'm drawn to it, like it's calling to me…"

Something similar had happened back in Pilsen. When they went through the Gestapo headquarters there, Elisabeth just knew where to go, despite never having been there. But she was right then, and it was likely she was right this time around too.

They touched the moss-covered stone, trying to find any sort of clue.

"Jan!" shouted Elisabeth. "I found something."

She tore away a bit of moss. And lo and behold, there was a circular shaped incision in the stone. Jan took out the key he was wearing around his neck and compared it to the incision.

"A perfect fit," he said as he slowly put the key in.

The key started glowing, and Jan and Elisabeth moved back in surprise. Then there was a loud rumbling, as if the stone itself was being moved by some unseen force. But it wasn't the stone, but rather one side of it. It was slowly sliding down as if it were a gate opening. It took a few seconds for it to fully open, but once it did the mouth of a cave opened to them and the rumbling stopped.

Jan and Elisabeth cautiously moved towards it and looked into the darkness. As they did, lights suddenly appeared on both sides of the cave which revealed stairs going deep underground. Elisabeth was completely overtaken by the strange turn of events, but half of Jan's mind was still occupied with the story Elisabeth told.

"Elisabeth."

Elisabeth turned to him.

"When this is all over…"

Jan thought his words through. But he didn't know how to say what he wanted to say.

"What?"

"Never mind."

There would be time later for him to say it.

"Should we go in?"

Elisabeth nodded, and the two of them descended into the dimly lit cave.