Chapter One: New Beginnings

Ezio

"You wanna what?" Jenna looked at me with murder in her blue eyes.

I looked at her with a bored expression. "You know it has to be done. We have not heard from him in six years. All I know is that he has been causing trouble in the north. He has to be stopped, or he will expose us all."

Altair had been on a rampage now for ten years. He said his goal was to take out everyone that had contributed to the death of Alanna. Come hell or high water, they would all pay the price like she had. They would die from his blade. I tried to talk him down, but once the man had something in his head, he was like a pit bull. He would not release until his prey was dead. That was what made him an excellent assassin, but now, it could potentially bring everything down around our ears.

"Ezio, this is insane! Even you can't get him to stop. You tried ten years ago. He is going to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it." She threw her hands in the air and turned her back to me. "I think you are insane."

She walked away, and all I could do is sigh, and hang my head. She was going to make my life a living hell. Well, here I am now. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I went after Altair, Jenna was going to make sure I regretted it, but if I stayed here with her, the damned fool would destroy what I had been working on to cover up.

"Jenna wait!" I called out to my wife. I prayed to anyone that was listening to protect me from her rage. "He has to be stopped, and I have to do this, but I will not be doing this alone. Dawson has been trying to keep tabs on him. They have been working together. He has been playing Altair's sniper on a few cases."

She turned and her eyes were slits. "You have been working on this behind my back, haven't you?"

Oh shit, I was going to get killed. Well, not really, but it was going to come down to me sleeping on the couch or in the guest room. Hanging my head, I sighed. "Yes. I did not want to get you involved. You have enough on your plate with the kids and your business. I did not want to drag you down into this."

"Damn it Ezio. You know I am worried about him as well. Ever since that night he has been not right. I told you that then. If you had listened to me then, this may have been prevented. You are really asking for it now." She walked back over to me. "Fine, go find him. Keep this as quiet has you can."

A smile broke out on my face. "You are the best thing in my life, Jenna." I gave her a kiss. "I will make this up to you."

"Uh huh, you had better. Now, get going or I will do it." She smiled back and shook her head.

Rebecca

"Computer Anonymous, this is Becca, how may I help you?" I answered the phone.

'Hi, I was wondering if you fixed all laptops.' The woman on the other line asked.

I chuckled. There was not a computer out there that I could not fix. "Sure do. I can fix anything. Do you know what's wrong with it?"

There was a pause on the line. 'I don't know what is wrong with it. I don't really know much about it.' She chuckled a bit.

I laughed along with her. "If you would like, you can bring it in, and I will take a look at it. Do you know where we are located?"

'Yes. I will be sending my daughter. When would you like her to come down?'

"I will be here all day. Anytime will be fine, and have her ask for Becca." I leaned against the counter and looked out the window at the people that passed.

'Thank you Becca. I will have her come down when she runs to the store for me. Have a good day.'

"You too ma'am. Bye." I hung up the phone and watched Shaun walk in the front door. He held up a cup from the smoothie shop down the way. "Now how did you know I was craving one of those?"

"You are usually in here all day. You do not leave and when you do, you head home and sleep. When Dawson is out of town, you don't do anything but work." He sat the cup on the counter and looked at me. "You need a hobby besides fixing that damn chair."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Whatever. Anyway, what brings you to town?"

Since our small stint in Montana, we had all gone our separate ways. Jenna and Ezio got married and moved to California where Jenna opened her own auto repair shop. I moved down south in Colorado, and opened a computer repair store. Dawson ran the local gun shop and firing range. There was not one person that could match him in sharp shooting. Of course he could not tell anyone that he was a sniper in the military.

Shaun had finally found the woman for him. Kimberly was a professor at Berkeley, and also an undercover assassin. So at least they were on the same wavelength with each other. Then there was Altair. He had gone off the deep end since that night ten years ago. He had taken to killing anyone that worked for Abstergo, or had any connection to the Templars.

Desmond was a bit different. Since we could not really go near anyone we once knew, he lived on the fringes of society. He had stayed the longest at the ranch. Now, he drifted from town to town, gathering information for us.

Tom disappeared shortly after a split. No one had heard from him in many years. I had always wondered where he had gone.

"I actually was hoping to talk to that husband of yours. I have been working on a piece on the military and I wanted his input." He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

I took a sip from the cup and sighed happily. He still knew my favorite flavor. "He is up north right now. Working on something for Ezio. That's all they would tell me. He should be back in a few days. Now, if you want to talk to me, if will have to follow me to the back. I have to finish this netbook before my client gets here later."

He nodded and followed me back to my work area. Looking around, he shook his head and took a seat in the vacant chair. "Have enough spare parts in here?"

I sat down at the bench and picked up the small screwdriver. "Nope, and never will. Most of these a busted in one form or another. I really need to clean this place up. Dawson normally does that, but he has been gone for a week now."

Taking the small screen, I carefully slipped the ribbon wire into the fastener on the motherboard and slid the small lock into place. Shaun watched me as I began to put it back together. "Isn't these small repairs beneath you? Bloody hell Rebecca, you built the Animus. You are better than this."

Stopping what I was doing, I looked back at him. "I can't build Animus' for the rest of my life, Shaun. Besides, I am lying low. If I did anything like that, it would draw the wrong type of attention. I do not need that."

All he did was shrug and sit back in the chair. I continued with my repairs. Of course, when I began to put the cover back together, the door rang, letting me know someone had come in. "Hey Shaun, will you go help them? I will be done in like five minutes."

"Sure, but you owe me for this. You know how I am with people." He stood and walked out front.

I sat there and put a few more screws in. I was almost done when he called for me. "Becca, I think you need to get out here."

"In a minute, I am almost done." Damn that man and his hatred for normal people.

"No, I think you need to come here now."

Sighing, I placed the screwdriver down and stood up. "This had better be good." Walking out to the front, I looked at the man that I wanted to throttle. "What is going on?"

He pointed to the woman that was looking at the iPads. "Ma'am?"

The woman turned around and smiled at me. My brain stopped working. My voice left me. A ghost had walked into my store. Gray eyes smiled at me, and a tan hand pushed a stray piece of chocolate hair behind her ear. "Are you Becca?" I nodded. "My mother called and told me to bring this down to you. It quit working yesterday."

"Alanna?" The name slipped from my lips like a whisper. No, the building blew up with her in it. She was dead. This could not be her.

She raised an eyebrow. "You look familiar. Do I know you? And who is Alanna?"

Altair

"Really? You can't be serious." Dawson's eyebrows shot up into his hairline when I told him my plan.

A sadistic smile spread across my face. "Oh I am dead serious. I am going to take them all out at that party."

His hand grabbed my arm. "Not everyone there are Templars, Altair. You can't do that. That is insane."

I let the smile say on my face, but my voice took a hard edge. "Not everyone they have killed was assassins. They will pay for every life they have ever taken. Every child they have made orphans. Every life they have destroyed. They will pay for their crimes."

Releasing my arm, he stepped back from me. "You cannot do that. That is mass homicide. You are supposed to protect the innocent, not kill them. I'm sorry, but this is one thing I cannot help you with. You are on your own."

Before I could say anything, his phone went off. Pulling it from his pocket, he answered it. "Yes Becca?"

I stepped away from him. I did not want to listen to his conversation with his wife. My own was dead. My first for nearly a thousand years and my second, a little over ten. They were the reason I was doing what I was doing. I would kill all that alined themselves with Abstergo.

"What!" Dawson's voice reached a high pitch causing me to look at him, eyebrow raised and a question in my eye.

He looked at me, eyes wide and face paling. "Becca, are you sure? Yeah, yeah, I'll bring him. I said I would, didn't I? If I have to hog tie him and drag him behind the truck I will have him there. I will see you in a few hours. Love you too, bye." He hung up the phone, hands shaking and slightly panting. "We need to get down to Becca. There is a slight emergency."

I nodded. "Go on then. I can handle this myself."

He shook his head, and sighed. "No, you need to come too. It involves you as well. Hell, it involves everyone."

I did not like the sound of that. "Alright, spill. What is going on? And I want all of it."

"I… I can't say anything until we get there. We just need to go, like now." Dawson grabbed his bag and began to throw clothes into the bag. "Do you know how to get a hold of Desmond?"

Following his lead, I began to pack. "Yeah, I will call him on the road. You owe me for this. On the four hour drive, you had better tell me what is going on."

"I will, I promise."

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

Well, Dawson filling me in did not happen because we ended up taking different cars. I refused to leave the Mustang and he would not leave his truck. I had made the call to Desmond and told him to meet up with us. He was actually on his way to meet up with Ezio and Jenna, but would divert to Colorado. He would call Ezio and tell him to meet us.

We showed up four hours later, and I was tired. All I wanted to was sleep and plot my next mission. Since the last one was interrupted by this, there was much work to be done. I had many things to do and a long life to do it. Tearing apart a company took a lot out of you.

Walking in behind Dawson, I saw Shaun and Rebecca standing behind the counter with Ezio and Desmond. "Well you guys made it here fast." I commented as I removed the dark shades from my face.

They looked up at me. "Wow, you actually came. I am in shock." Ezio smiled at me.

"Yeah, don't be so surprised." I frowned and looked around. "So, what is the big emergency that you had to have all of us here?"

"Follow me to the back. I have something on the cameras that you all have to see." Rebecca waved us towards the back of her small shop.

Everyone followed, and I trailed behind. I did not want to be here. I wanted to be on my own and away from the group. It was safer that way. For me and for them. They wanted normal lives. There was no normal for me. There never would be.

Rebecca sat down at the main computer and began to type on the keyboard. "Now, what I am about to show you may come as a shock, but I needed a few second opinions."

I looked at the screen. A woman walked on and Rebecca paused it when her face was clear. My heart dropped, but sped up at the same time. On the small screen was a face that haunted my dreams and my waking thoughts. The reason I did what I did for so long. The reason for my revenge. Alanna smiled back. She was alive.

"Altair, is that really her?" I heard someone say.

Blinking my eyes, I looked at the group. Their eyes were on me. "Where is she?" I focused my gaze on Rebecca.

"I have the address of where she is staying, but there is a problem." She pushed her dark hair out of her face.

"And what problem is there? That is Alanna. I want to see her. I thought she was dead. Why did she not come back?" I wanted answers.

"She doesn't remember anything, Altair. She does not know her name, or who she is. I let her go, and called you guys. I wanted to know if that was her or someone that looked just like her. Are you sure that is her?" She looked at me.

I glanced back at the computer screen. "The scar on her right cheek. It's small, but you can see it. She got that her first day of training. One of the younger novices were not thrilled in training with a woman, so he cut her." I knew one of other scars she had. The one on her back and abdomen. "She has another scar on her stomach and back from when she was ran through. Now give me the address. I want to go see her."

Ezio's hand appeared on my shoulder. "I do not think that is wise. If she does not know who we are, or even who she is, this is a delicate situation. You must proceed this caution. You can not barrel your way into this."

I closed my eyes and breathed in, then let the breath out slowly. "I just want to make sure. I have to see her."

I have finally started working on the sequel of Reawakening. I have been trying to work on this for month now, but between moving and getting enrolled in college, I have not had much free time. Now that I am done with enrollment and the move is done, I can sit down and get some of these ideas out of my head.

My writing style may have changed a bit. I have been working on it, but you may still find some errors. Sorry about that. Anyway, enjoy and tell me what you think. Later!