I know this took a while to get out, but in my defense, look at the length of this chapter. This is also the chapter where we finally get to see some action, and I think I'm less graphic than the games so just a heads up there. I made up a few Templars for this chapter and basically put the English versions of French names with French last names.

"Why do we need to leave?" Maria asked, frowning.

"It is not safe here," Desmond said, shutting down his Eagle Vision to try and show her any of the blood she'd be able to see. The furniture and walls had been cleaned, and the bedclothes and rush flooring replaced. He began pulling up the flooring. Maria stepped back as he began to reveal the stained floor beneath the rushes. "I believe William is dead."

The blood spatter had been quickly cleaned off the furniture and walls preventing them from staining. They must have left the body on the ground for some time though given the size of the stain he revealed in the middle of the room. Desmond guessed that their attack hadn't been well thought out, and they hadn't known what to do with the body at first.

Maria knelt down beside the stain, judging the size of it for herself. "Why would they do this?"

"They must have seen you with us and are trying to cut your ties," he said.

"No, that doesn't make any sense. We're always short on men, especially squires," she said, shaking her head. "Even if they knew for certain that I was working with Assassins, and I'm not convinced they do, killing a squire is excessive if they want to isolate me. They could just bar me from the castle or give him orders not to speak to me. Why go that far?"

"I don't know, but we can figure it out away from here," he said, putting the rushes back over the stain.

Maria watched him do it before slowly getting up. Desmond felt for her, but it wasn't the time to get distracted over grief. "Is there a back way out?" he asked.

"Yes, follow me," she said, seeming to shake herself back into focus. She led the way back out of the room, continuing down the hall they had used to get to William's quarters.

A man stepped into the corridor, and Desmond tensed for a fight. The man didn't go for his weapon though. Instead, he said, "Matthew, have you found William? I still haven't seen him myself. It's unlike him to be so scarce."

"No, and I don't think we will find him," she said, and Desmond can hear the anger in her tone. "There was blood in his chambers, Anthony."

"What?" the man, Anthony, asked, staring at Maria in shock. "What do you mean there was blood in his chambers? What's happened?"

"I don't know, but you can see for yourself under the rushes," she said, beginning to move past Anthony. "I'm leaving tonight, and I'm not coming back. I'd suggest you do the same."

"My God, you're serious," he said then hurried towards William's chambers.

"Who was that?" Desmond asked as Maria led him down the hall Anthony had come from.

"Anthony, another squire. I worked with him plenty, but William was his friend. They came here together," she explained as she walked quickly down the corridor.

Desmond had to admit it would suck a lot to go to war with a friend just to find out the people in charge of you had killed him rather than the enemies. He would definitely quit after that.

Maria led him through the bowels of the castle, and just as he thought they surely had to be reaching the other side of the building, they found a man waiting for them in the corridor. He pushed off the wall he'd been leaning against to block their way and revealing that he'd come fully armed. "Matthew," he said, a little too pleasantly for his aggressive stance. "I was beginning to worry you weren't going to show. Anthony was telling me all about your search for William today."

Desmond glanced over at Maria to see him glaring at the man.

"You haven't seen him, have you?" she asked like this was a normal conversation, but Desmond can see her clenching her jaw.

"Not since yesterday," he said nonchalantly before glaring at Maria. "When we discovered he was speaking to a traitor who has thrown their lot in with the Assassins."

"So you had him killed?" Maria asked sharply, essentially accusing him of doing the deed himself.

Desmond wasn't familiar enough with the Templar structure to tell who the man was, but if Maria believed he had the authority to kill a squire, he figured it was a safe bet to think the man was pretty high up in the ranks.

The man ignored the question to give Desmond a once over. "Is this the man who killed de Sable along with so many of our allies? Very bold of you to sneak into a castle held by your enemies."

"Why?" Maria asked. "He's served the order loyally. All he knew was that I was looking for a new knight to serve. He'd done nothing wrong!"

"And let you pass any information he gave you onto the Assassins? He was a liability that had to be eliminated. Now's not the time to be giving Assassins information on our deployments when they've already taken one of the treasures. We can't be handing any information over to traitors."

Desmond raised his brows at that one. That sounded like the Templars had already found the Piece of Eden on Cyprus. He thought they hadn't been close to finding it at all which is why it had taken until Ezio's time to retrieve it. Had the time travel messed with things beyond just what he, Connor, and Ezio had been doing? In any case, this Templar knight was more aggressive than he was smart to say any of this in front of an Assassin.

"You won't stop me from leaving," Maria warned him. "And I'll be more than happy to deliver justice for William."

For a brief second, Desmond worried that Maria and this knight were going to pull out their swords in the corridor and try to fight it out without nearly enough room. Instead, she unsheathed the dagger that she wore beside her sword on her belt. That would leave Desmond enough room to actually help in the constrained space.

The knight laughed, pulling out his own dagger. "You're just a squire. You have no hope of getting out of here."

Much like she had with Altaïr, Maria began attacking aggressively rather than speaking. The knight looked shocked for a moment before dodging her slashes. Desmond ended up mostly behind Maria with how aggressively she fought, but the knight's defenses held against her. He saw an opportunity to give Maria a proper opening, and kicked at the knight's knee. His knee gave a satisfying crack, and Maria landed her attack, mortally wounding him.

Maria roughly pulled her dagger from him, letting the man bleed out sluggishly on the floor.

"They'll assume it's you, but we should at least give ourselves a little more time by hiding the body," Desmond suggested.

Maria sighed then said, "You take the arms, I'll take the legs?"

Desmond frowned. He didn't really want to take the bleeding part, but he could do it. "Who was he anyways?" he asked as Maria began walking backwards down the hall to hide the body.

"He's Armand Bouchart's right hand man, Cornelius Hurrell. He never liked De Sable or me all that much. Anthony is his squire so if he wasn't going to leave before, he definitely will now."

Desmond considered the dead body in his arms. "Is Anthony the type of friend who would take revenge?"

"Definitely," Maria said as she dropped the knight's feet to open a door.

"Then I think he will be fine that you did the dirty work for him."

Maria picked the man's feet up again and led the way into the room which turns out to be a store room of some sort. They set the body in a corner then adjust the left-over furniture and other things in the room around the body to hide it. It wouldn't cover the smell, but it would make it difficult to get to the body.

"Let's go," Maria said, leading the way out of the room again and firmly shutting the door behind them.

Getting out of the castle was easy from there as no one else stopped them. Maria took them out of a back entrance to the castle as well as a smaller gate in the castle walls. It was much farther away from the inn they had chosen to stay at, but they put as much distance as they could between them and the castle before moving in the direction of the inn. Wherever the other Assassins were watching from, Desmond hoped they had seen their departure and know to meet them at the inn.

Desmond took the lead once they made it to the inn, and found Ezio in their room waiting for them.

"Connor and Altaïr are making their way here," he said then looked Maria over. "What happened with William?"

"It's complicated. I think we should wait until everyone is back," Desmond said.

Desmond had to take a seat with the adrenaline wearing off, but Maria began to pace the length of the room like a caged lion.

Altaïr arrived first, took one look at Maria and scowled. He must not have been in place to see them leave the castle together and realized that if she was still here that something had gone badly enough for her to have not passed information on to them to be able to leave.

"We're waiting for Connor," Desmond told him before he even got started.

Altaïr huffed, but moved to take a seat to wait only to nearly run into Maria as she paced. He quickly stepped out of her way, and she resumed her pacing. Desmond hardly had to look at Ezio to know he was holding in a laugh over that.

Connor returned some time after that, sparing only a glance at Maria before asking in Arabic, "What's happened?"

"There is good news and bad news," Desmond said to begin. "Good news is we may not have to go through every old building on the island to find the Piece of Eden."

"How did you find that out?" Ezio asked.

"That's the bad news," he answered. "William has been killed because we found too much blood in his chambers for him to survive. He was killed for speaking to Maria who is now next in line to be killed which we know because some Templar Knight tried to kill us as we were trying to leave the castle. The reason they killed William and want to kill Maria is because the Templars have found another Piece of Eden and they don't want to risk any of us Assassins getting it. Now we have to go get the Piece of Eden they've found first so they can't use it."

"I thought you said they didn't know where the other Piece of Eden was," Altaïr said, crossing his arms.

"I did because I didn't think they had found it. I remembered wrong, or it's the butterfly effect or maybe they haven't really found it, but we still need to check it out anyways."

"What's the butterfly effect?" Connor asked.

"Small changes having big effects like a butterfly flapping its wings ends up causing a hurricane. We have three people who aren't supposed to be here in the past. Who is to say that our presence hasn't changed things to the point that it caused the Templars to find the treasure when they wouldn't have before?"

"What are we doing about her?" Altaïr asked without looking or gesturing to Maria so she wouldn't know they were talking about her despite how intently she was listening to their conversation. "We definitely can't get any information from her if the Templars want to kill her."

"I don't know, bring her along?" Desmond suggested. He didn't really want to be leaving one of his ancestors behind to be potentially killed. He's pretty sure they would all be safer with her anyways given her knowledge and skills. "I don't think loyalty is an issue any more considering she's the one who killed the knight."

"No," Altaïr said immediately. "Being against the Templars is not enough. We are attempting to complete a mission for a Piece of Eden, not collect recruits."

"I don't see why both can't be done," Ezio put in, probably because he wanted to see Altaïr with Maria more than anything else, but Desmond didn't care if the result was he didn't accidentally lose a great something grandmother. "Even if she does not know current formations, that does not mean she does not have other useful information about the Templars. We are meant to be collecting the Pieces of Eden and weakening the Templars. She's proven herself a valuable ally seeing as she's killed more Templar Knights than the rest of us combined so far."

"I helped," Desmond added under his breath.

"She is not a brother, and she cannot be trusted to guard our backs no matter her skill," Altaïr argued. "Besides, killing one Templar does not mean that she is ready to turn her back against the entire organization."

"Well that's easy to fix. You can just ask her," Desmond said in Arabic before switching to Old French. "Maria, do you still want to work for any of the Templar Knights?"

Maria stared at him like he was an idiot. "I'd kill the bastards before I worked for any of them," she said before spitting towards the corner of the room.

"That was gross, but I think she made her point," Desmond said, switching back to Arabic.

Altaïr then looked ready to murder him. "She can't be trusted, and while she is a capable fighter that does not make her an Assassin."

Desmond raised a brow at that because he was pretty sure she was a little better than just capable.

Altaïr then turned Maria and in Old French said, "We appreciate that you attempted-,"

"No," she said, interrupting him. "You're not getting rid of me that easily. You're the reason I'm even in this mess. I think I'd like to find out more about this treasure everyone has been going on about for these past few months, and I believe you personally guaranteed that you would be the only person to know what it really is."

Altaïr turned to glare at Desmond like this was somehow his fault. Desmond switched back to Arabic to tell him, "I did tell you she became a turncoat and worked with you before."

"What's she saying?" Connor asked.

"She politely declined Altaïr's offer to leave because she wants to know what the Piece of Eden is. She's also not happy that Altaïr has cost her job prospects."

Ezio laughed, earning himself a glare from Altaïr.

"She can't stay," Altaïr insisted in Arabic.

"We're not saying she has to say. If you can convince her to go, then it's fine," Desmond said, holding up his hands.

Altaïr turned back to Maria like he was going to convince her to walk away from all this just to find her looking at him expectantly with her arms crossed. Altaïr dropped his own crossed arms and looked away from her as he realized he'd already lost the argument. If he couldn't talk her out of it, he certainly couldn't intimidate her out of it.

"Why do you even want to do this?" he asked her.

"I have seen and put up with so much over this past summer for this stupid treasure, I may as well see the end of it," she answered which while it sounded flippant, she looked like she expected the treasure to give her satisfactory answers and be worth all the trouble it had created.

"I think this is a good start," Ezio said in Italian, putting his hand on Desmond's shoulder. "I'm not sure what they said, but he already knows when he's lost an argument to her."

Desmond couldn't totally hold in his laughter on that one.

"She can stay, but we're not telling her the full story," Altaïr said in Arabic like that was going to give him back command of the situation.

"No, it takes too long," Connor said, accidentally wiping away whatever prestige Altaïr had left as a leader of their group.

Maria hadn't learned how to do a stake out as part of her squire training, but she knew a lot about the knights themselves and which men worked for which knights. Getting her into a position to see the men without her being seen took effort, but once she was there, she was invaluable. She quickly pointed out the two knights that would be mostly likely to lead them to where the Templars believed the Cyprus Piece of Eden might be. One was a man who had collected much of the information necessary to find the Piece of Eden in Solomon's Temple before he'd been sent to Cyprus to find a replacement named Edgar Imbert, and the second man was charged with hiring any laborers the Templars would need named Stephen Lalonde.

Working out how to do the stake outs after that was more difficult due to the language barriers between them all. Connor's Arabic had improved greatly for such a short time frame, but he was still a beginner in the language. Maria, knowing only Old French and Latin, could only speak to Altaïr and Desmond and they couldn't communicate that well with her.

Eventually, they landed on Desmond and Connor as one team staking out Lalonde, the knight who dealt with laborers, with Ezio, Altaïr, and Maria taking the other knight, Imbert. He required the greater language capacity as the Templar's researcher which had essentially decided the teams for them. Connor would be the least useful when it came to intercepting his messages or deciphering his research, and as only Desmond fluently shared any languages with him, he had to go with him. Desmond was secretly pretty happy about that because he was sure to suck on any stake out given what the internet had done to his attention span, but he could at least occupy himself by teaching Connor more Arabic. That said, it was probably a bad idea to have Ezio working with Altaïr and Maria, but it's not like Desmond could just tell Altaïr why that was.

It took some time to figure out where the Templars thought the Cyprus Piece of Eden was hidden. Desmond and Connor had to steal a lot of messages as well as what were basically invoices for the laborer's wages as Lalonde was surprisingly smart about how he hired and used the laborers. It reminded Desmond a little bit of H. H. Holmes, hiring different groups of laborers so that no man hired could see the project all the way through as well as hiring them in small numbers so that they wouldn't stand out when they traveled to the Piece of Eden's site. Finding the right group of five or so laborers to follow to discover the dig site was like trying to play a shell game as they looked the same as any other group of five or so laborers out to do legitimate work. At least one Templar had learned their lesson from Altaïr hunting their men down over the summer. Altaïr did not find Desmond's joke about it funny.

"We think we've found the building," Connor announced once they'd returned to the inn. It was actually a different inn than the one they had first stayed in when they'd reached Cyprus to make sure the Templars wouldn't catch onto them. "Have you made progress?"

Maria glared up at him from the papers she was working on, knowing what he was asking despite not knowing the language because it was the same question they always asked.

"Not enough," Altaïr admitted with a sigh, leaning back from his own work.

"We're bad code breakers," Ezio said sourly.

While Connor and Desmond had been playing a shell game, the other team had hit a wall trying to figure out Imbert's notes. It hadn't taken more than two nights of Altaïr sneaking into his study and reading his research materials to realize that they wouldn't get useful enough information from that. They'd needed the knight's notes and messages to figure out how to get to the treasure itself or at least find what was blocking the Templars from getting it. The only problem was that Imbert's notes were written in coded Latin so despite Altaïr, Maria, and Ezio all knowing Latin, they hadn't actually gleaned much from the notes and messages. So really, two Templars had learned their lesson from the summer.

"I still think we just need to get our eyes on it," Desmond said. He was pretty sure their Eagle Vision would be the difference between them getting it and the Templars. They also wouldn't find that information in the notes because the Templars weren't aware of Eagle Vision.

"I don't doubt that would help, but we don't have enough information for that," Altaïr said, flipping through his pages again. "There's little use to getting out eyes on it if we get killed in the process."

Desmond really wished he could use the code breaking program on his phone as he doubted any kind of code from this time period could hold up against it. Problem was that despite still having his phone on him, it didn't matter without battery and with hand written rather than computer code. So, they continued their work.

Connor and Desmond confirmed which building the Templars believed the Piece of Eden to be hidden within. It matched a lot of what Desmond had seen of buildings housing Precursor artifacts. In other words, it was already really old in the 12th century. Desmond and Connor hadn't gone into it yet, but with its low profile despite the subtle elegance of the building's architecture suggesting that superior building techniques went into compared to the average building, he was willing to bet it went pretty far underground.

Desmond and Connor mapped the exterior of the building as well as learning the guards' and the laborers' schedules in and around the building. Their best bet would be to sneak in at night when the laborers were asleep at home and fewer guards were posted. The interior remained unknown as they continued to struggle with the coded information. They had managed to crack a few of the words, which led to understanding some of the code, but it still wasn't enough to get an idea of the lay out or what was protecting the Piece of Eden.

"I say we risk it," Ezio said as their progress on the code stalled again. "At this rate, the Templars will find their way to the Piece of Eden while we continue to sit and struggle with this code."

Altaïr looked over the papers they had spread all over the table and what little code they had translated thus far and sighed. "Fine. We'll go put eyes on it."

"Finally," Desmond said, getting to his feet despite having been on them all day for the stake out.

"What's happened?" Maria asked in Old French as she noticed him standing.

"We're going to infiltrate the building we think the treasure is in," Altaïr answered her then frowned. "What do you know about stealth and infiltration?"

She shrugged because clearly that wasn't part of a squire's job.

"Nose goes," Desmond said even though it didn't work right in Old French and touched his nose.

Altaïr gave him the look that he was going to have to get patented for when Desmond said things normal 12th century people didn't say.

"Last person to touch their nose has to do it," Desmond explains. "So, you get to train her."

Maria looked amused by this while Altaïr sighed.

"No one thought you were going to do it, Desmond," he said with the sigh.

"That sounded insulting," Desmond said then asked Maria, "Did that sound insulting to you?"

Maria grinned. "Not at all. He's the master, isn't he?"

Desmond narrowed his eyes at her. "Definitely an insult then."

She laughed while Altaïr rolled his eyes.

Altaïr spent the following day giving Maria a crash course in breaking and entering without drawing any attention while Ezio, Desmond, and Connor made preparations for the missions. It mostly meant making sure their gear and weapons were fully prepared as well as having anything that might help break into a Precursor structure. It actually left a lot of time to watch Maria flounder in her stealth training which made Desmond feel better about his own training. The upside to all the stake outs and running all over the city was that Desmond was finally completely in shape again even if he wasn't up to his ancestors in terms of fighting prowess.

The downside to watching Maria train was that it made Desmond think of the Mission Impossible theme.

"Will you stop humming?" Connor asked.

"Can't, it's stuck in my head," he said.

"What even is it?"

"Theme song to a movie though I think it was a TV show first," he answered, squinting as he tried to remember without Google. Thankfully he could say all those words because Connor had asked in English.

"I don't know what any of that is," he said.

"It's the song they play when the main character does cool stuff like sneaking into places no one should be able to get into," he explained briefly. "I mean, I guess I could switch to the Pink Panther theme, but I think that's a little comedic for what we're doing."

Connor sighed. "I wanted you to stop humming."

Desmond tried just to end up humming the Pink Panther theme ten minutes later anyways.

They stayed up as late as possible that night to shift back their sleep schedule to be rested and ready for a night time infiltration. They also go over the map of the exterior and the guard shifts one last time before leaving, and Desmond and Connor make sure to point out the point of entrance which was a window on the back side of the building out of view of the majority of the guards' patrols. They'd be on their own once they got in, but Desmond figured just making their way down couldn't be too difficult.

They left the inn at dusk and arrived at the old building after nightfall. Altaïr led the way to the window, giving a wide berth to the guards. Desmond half wished the guards used lanterns or lights of any kind to more easily see their position, but they relied on night vision instead. Desmond used his Eagle Vision to keep an eye out as they drew closer to the building.

"You didn't say the window was so high up," Maria hissed quietly when they arrived at the window.

Part of the reason that Connor and Desmond had picked the window was due to it being above head height and barely large enough for a grown man to pass through. It would be difficult to enter the building through which meant the guards would not pay any special attention to it. Desmond was fairly certain it went into whatever counted as an attic which would help them keep out of the sight of any guards within the building.

"We'll help you up," Altaïr told her quietly, keeping his voice calm.

Connor went in first when he received a nod from Altaïr. Desmond kept an eye out for guards as Ezio went through the window as well.

"Help her from the top," Altaïr whispered to Desmond when it was his turn to sneak in.

Desmond made it to the window without trouble, but squeezing through was a little difficult between the tight fit and because he had been right about it being some sort of attic space. It was more of a crawl space than a proper attic, and there wasn't much room to maneuver or anything to grab onto to pull himself through with the window sill being basically level to the crawl space's floor.

Once he made it through, he carefully turned around to help Maria up. Altaïr gave her a boost from the ground, lacing his hands together to give her an extra foot hold, and Desmond helped pull her through as he got high enough.

"Found a way down," Connor announced quietly from further back in the room, minutely moving aside the lid to the crawl space's entrance.

Connor checked the room below them while Altaïr climbed into the crawl space. "We're clear," Connor announced.

Altaïr nodded, "We can go then."

Connor removed the lid and dropped down into the room below them without another word, and they followed down after him. The building was more open than Desmond had expected it to be, with pillars to support the roof rather than walls. Ruined furniture and other debris of an abandoned building had been haphazardly shoved aside against the walls to create a path through the building. They followed it to a set of stairs.

"Too dark to see anything," Altaïr said as they descended the stairs, away from what natural light came in on the first floor.

That led to everyone getting out their rush lights and quickly and easily lighting them while Desmond impatiently waited for Altaïr to light his and hold it out so Desmond could have his own light without embarrassing himself spending forever trying to light it on his own.

"Do you not know how to light a wick?" Maria asked, in a tone that was freakishly similar to the one Altaïr used when he was subtly insulting people. Desmond frowned because that meant they either had similar senses of humor to begin with or that Altaïr was insulting him frequently enough that Maria was subconsciously picking up on it. It was friendly insulting, but Desmond still didn't want to add another person to it.

"We use different methods where I'm from," he said defensively.

Using a rush light definitely wasn't as effective as a flashlight, not even with five of them lit, but it was enough for their Eagle Vision to be able to pick things up if they found anything.

There were branching hallways from the stairs, but the cleared path continued down another floor which they followed down that flight of stairs. They found the Templars excavation there with the stone wall across from the stairs damaged and ripped away to reveal the metallic stone common at Precursor sites.

"This isn't the entrance," Desmond said, touching the wall to feel the shallow grooves made by the laborers who had been attempting to break in. "They can't get to the Piece of Eden because they can't break through the wall."

"So, is it like Juno's Temple in Rome?" Ezio asked.

"I don't think so. The building isn't large enough. Could be Precursor or maybe humans used what Precursors had left to keep the Apple safe and hidden."

"Any ideas on what we should be looking for?" Connor asked.

"Symbols? Buttons to press? Anything that shows up in Eagle Vision," Desmond answers with a shrug. "Hopefully it's not a climbing puzzle, but all of these places are annoying to get into."

"It's always a climbing puzzle," Ezio said with a sigh. He would know since he'd done the most out of any of Desmond's ancestors.

"We'll need to split up if we want to find the entrance, get in, and get out before night is over," Altaïr said. "Be careful and keep quiet. We'll meet here before leaving and to check in a couple hours from now. Are we clear?"

"We're good," Desmond said as Ezio said "Yes."

Connor nodded.

Altaïr turned to Maria and said, "We're going to look for the entrance, and you're staying with me."

Maria huffed, but she seemed to realize that it would be a bad idea for her to go off on her own without knowing the Assassin's system.

Desmond and Ezio went up a floor while the others stayed on the lower floor to search for any hints. Desmond had never considered his night vision all that good, and even using Eagle Vision and the light he felt mostly blind. He kept running into things or kicking whatever was left on the ground. Nothing lit up in his Eagle Vision to guide the way either. He just blindly wandered the hall and rooms off of it, moving things out of the way to see if they were hiding any marked areas.

After what felt like it could have been an hour or two, Desmond went back to the area the Templars have been excavating. He found Connor there, and Altaïr and Maria arrived shortly after.

"I didn't find anything," Connor said.

"Neither did I," Desmond said.

"We found nothing either," Altaïr said.

Ezio took a few minutes to join them, and Desmond could hear the excitement in his voice. "I think I've found it. We need to move some things out of the way, but I think it's the way in."

"Lead the way," Altaïr said.

They follow Ezio up a floor and in the opposite direction of where Desmond had been searching. Some "things" in the way turned out to be both abandoned furniture as well as the decorative stone slabs that had fallen from the ceiling and blocked the end of the hallway. Still, if Desmond used his Eagle Vision and moved his head around a bit, he could something glowing on the other side of the debris.

They began moving the stone and the furniture out of the way. They didn't move all of it, just enough to get to the back and not having something fall and crush them. The item of interest turned out to be a stone brick that didn't look any different from the ones surrounding it aside from how it lit up with Eagle Vision. Ezio fiddled with it for a few moments before it shifted. They could all clearly hear whatever mechanism behind it shifting and groaning as it moved.

The sound stopped to their left with the click of a lock releasing.

"We're going to need to move things out of the way," Altaïr said.

Desmond sighed as they got to work shifting the stone and furniture they had just put on the left side of the hall somewhere else. "The other vaults were a lot less tedious."

"No kidding," Ezio said as he had been the one to actually do them. "At least there's not a timer on this one."

"Don't even say it," Desmond said as he put the stone slab he was holding down just to have it crack apart and the bottom half nearly land on his toes.

Everyone froze as the sound of the fallen stone echoed through the mostly empty stone building.

"Please be careful setting things down," Altaïr said.

"Got it," Desmond said. "My toes aren't crushed, by the way."

It took Altaïr shoving all his weight into the door disguised as a wall to get it opened after being locked closed for so long. It made a terrible grinding noise as it moved so Altaïr stopped once it was wide enough for them to slip through instead of opening it all the way. They filed in after him, one by one.

Desmond tried not to touch anything as they examined the walls of the narrow hall because it was dusty, filled with cobwebs, and he could definitely hear little things scurrying around where he couldn't see them.

"I think we have to push them in the right order to get the next door open," Ezio said as he examined one of the lit up bricks. There were four total along the length of the hall so the Assassins spread out one person to each stone to work the puzzle out. They could tell when the combination didn't work by the lack of any sounds of moving mechanism and by the squares shifting back out to be flat with the rest of the wall.

"How do you know which ones to press?" Maria asked as they worked out which order to press the stones in.

"By looking carefully," Altaïr said, and Desmond had to bite down on his laugh. Maria raised her rush light to make sure that Altaïr could see the unimpressed look she was giving him.

"I really hope every square can be used once or we will be here a very long time," Desmond said as their attempts began to number over ten tries. "If we get over 24 tries, we know it's more than one press per block."

"I don't think it can be pressed more than once," Connor said. "I don't think the stones go back any farther."

"Quiet," Ezio said. "I'm trying to keep track of what we've tried."

It took 22 tries to get something to unlock, but it was not a door that opened near Desmond a little below shoulder height. Desmond held his light up to it and still couldn't see what was in it.

"What is it?" Ezio asked as they all gathered around the opening.

"I don't know. I can't see anything," he answered. "I'm not sticking my hand in there."

"Why not?" Connor asked.

"Because it's a suspicious hole in a wall, any kind of bad things could happen in there. There could be bugs or something gross or you could get your hand crushed or cut off."

"Move," Altaïr said then shoved his hand right into the hole once Desmond had taken a step back. Desmond stared at him gob smacked because Altaïr used his left hand which was already missing a finger and in Desmond's opinion a bold choice on which hand he'd risk losing.

Nearly his entire arm disappeared into the wall before he said, "It's a lever."

They all can hear it as the mechanisms move and shift to open the next door.

Altaïr pulled his arm out of the wall and gave Desmond a look.

"I could have been right, and you wouldn't be making that face if you were down a hand," Desmond said.

"But you weren't."

"Fine, lose your hand in a black hole in a wall we know moves heavy sounding mechanisms and could be home to any number things that could bite or sting you."

"You worry about very strange things," Ezio said.

"My concerns are perfectly valid," Desmond argued.

"Worry about them in the next room," Connor said, nudging him forward.

Desmond followed Ezio and Altaïr into the next room and held his light up higher to get a better look at the place. They faced a section of the room that was made of the same metalloid rock the Templars had been attempting to break through. "I don't think this was made by Precursors."

"What makes you say that?" Ezio asked.

"Look at the carvings in the stone," he said, tracing one with his hand. "They don't line up. They're also not glowing so they have no power source. I think humans took what Precursors had left behind to hide this particular Piece of Eden. It's a good idea since no one can get through the stone or whatever it is, and it probably blocks any signals the Piece of Eden would send."

"Would this be a good place to hide away the Pieces of Eden then?" Connor asked. "All we have now is a lock box for the other one."

"No, it's compromised by the Templars knowing where it is," Altaïr argued. "We know we can defend our fortress. We could not defend this building while the Templars hold Limassol. I think all the Crusaders would have to be expelled for us to even have a chance at it."

"That won't happen anytime soon," Desmond said. "The Crusades end in 1291."

"So, we get this Piece of Eden out and bring it back to Masyaf. We just need to get in," Ezio said.

"I'm not sure how. I haven't seen this particular mix of Precursor and human construction before. With no power, it means there won't be passwords or keys or switches to get in. It'll be something else," Desmond said.

"Nothing stands out," Connor said.

Desmond frowned because he couldn't see anything standing out in his Eagle Vision either, and his seemed more finely tuned to objects compared to his ancestors'. "Do we start knocking on walls to see which is hollow then?"

They start knocking on the walls, quickly determining that the middle panel of the metalloid rock wall was the one that had the hollowest sound to it.

"If the Templars can't break through it, how are we going to be able to?" Ezio asked. "Do we need one Piece of Eden to be able to get to this one?"

"No, it's not made by Precursors, just using the materials left behind. There has to be something to open it, probably mechanical like the rest. I also think it's thinner than the one the Templars have been trying to dig through so we'd have a better chance if we do have to break it," Desmond said, beginning to examine the edges of the stone panel.

"Do you think it's possible we've missed something outside?" Altaïr asked.

"Let me try something," Desmond said and passed his rush light off to Connor.

He pulled out his short sword to use it to feel out the edges of the panel.

"That's not what that's for," Altaïr chided him.

"Do you have something else long and thin to stick in there?" Desmond asked. "Maybe if you were missing a second finger you could use your hand to do it."

"Very funny, Desmond."

"Anyways, there's no seal or mortar or anything around this panel, but you still can't shift it. It's locked into place, not built into place. There has to be a way to unlock it," he said, continuing to search around the edge of the panel to figure out where the locking mechanism was.

The only place the short sword came into contact with anything was right at the top of the panel in the center. "I think we need to go up a floor."

"Wait, we're leaving?" Maria asked as they began to file back out of the room.

"We think the lock for that door is upstairs," Altaïr explained.

"I didn't think it would be this difficult to get into," she said.

"Was it easy for you to get into Solomon's Temple?"

"Yes, but I walked in. I didn't have to go dig it out."

Desmond had to bite down on a laugh as Altaïr sighed.

He barely heard it when Maria muttered under her breath, "It's not like you dug your way in either."

"You really haven't been missing much," Desmond said.

"Does it always take this long?" she asked.

"Depends," he answered honestly. On some of the vaults Ezio had to get into, it would take a lot longer than this if he took too long on the timed parts.

When they get to the first floor, they spread out again looking for any clues to the locking mechanism.

"I think it's designed for Eagle Vision," Desmond said.

"What makes you say that?" Connor asked.

He pointed up to a stone at the corner between two walls and the ceiling in one of the few rooms on the ground floor. On it was etching of what looked like an eagle's eye. Whether it was so faint by intention or due to wear, it was near invisible without Eagle Vision.

"We were already using it," Ezio said.

"Tell me about it," Desmond said. He was definitely going to have a headache after using Eagle Vision so much in such shit lighting conditions.

It took a lot more furniture and debris shifting, but eventually they discovered that the eye signaled which wall the stones that controlled the mechanism were along. Desmond pressed on the first stone they got cleared, and unlike the ones a floor below, the stone popped back up before any others were pressed.

"We need to get another cleared. I want to check something," he said, and they started clearing the wall.

Even after pressing two stones, neither stone stayed down.

"Does that mean we have to press them more than once to unlock it?" Ezio asked.

"I don't think this is like downstairs. Why would they have made it easy by just lining them up like this if it was just about the order?" Desmond asked. "What if it's like a pin tumbler lock?"

"If it is, how do we turn it?" Connor asked.

"I don't know. Maybe something under the eye?" he asked. "Or even further that way? It's got to be in line with these stones."

Altaïr continued down the length of the wall then paused not far past the end of the row of stones. "It's raised here. I think we need to lift this stone."

"Let me help," Ezio said, going to the other end of the stone.

Like the panel down a floor, it's not mortared into place like it should have been. Instead, they're able to carefully tease up the floor stone to reveal a gap in the sub-flooring.

"Here," Ezio said, moving a thin lever from within the gap in Altaïr's direction. The handle, if it could be called that, came out past where the stone they'd moved had been, and they could hear something shifting under the floor. The handle didn't reach the full length of the gap.

"Good, hold it there. Connor and I should be able to move the pins," Desmond said.

He and Connor both kneel down beside the stones to start 'picking' the lock. It's a lot harder to tell when the pins are moved out of the way than with the smaller locks found in normal doors or on chests. Desmond tried not to panic and rush as the sky began to lighten outside with how long they were taking.

There was a thudding noise as the last pin dropped out of the way of the tumbler, and Ezio shoved the lever the rest of the way. They could hear further shifting beneath the floor and in the direction of the vault door below them.

"Let's go, quickly," Altaïr said, leading the way back down to the vault.

It only took some shoving to get the door to the vault open. Behind it were a set of normal stone stairs protected by more of the Precursor stone that they quickly descended to enter the vault proper. It was much more clearly human made from the inside as it was much smaller than any place Desmond had seen built by Precursors. Whoever had made it had taken thick panels of stone somehow to assemble the room and stairs to protect the Piece of Eden with mechanical rather than powered or voice activated locks and leaving a very small room in the center of a building that looked as if it was only one floor to begin with.

"That's the treasure?" Maria asked as she took in the sight of the silver and gently glowing Apple. "It glows?"

"Yes, that's it," Desmond said as he began pulling out the piece of cloth he'd made sure to pack specifically for this part. He'd be damned if he'd touched it with his bare hands at this point. He could end up in some other time which would be really inconvenient for their current plans. He was not really what you could call good at tying balls securely in squarish pieces of cloth, but he did his best. He switched to Arabic "Let's go before we run into any trouble."

They make their way back up into the attic crawl space and the window they had used to get in to find dawn waiting for them. It didn't feel like it had taken all night with all the damn puzzle solving and adrenaline over getting caught, but it's not like the sun lied about when dawn was. Maria, thankfully, didn't need any help to get down like she had to get in.

"Hold it," Ezio said as he looked around the edge of the building. "We've got Templars approaching."

And then they all proceeded to stick their heads around the corner of the building and collectively made themselves easier to spot because while the majority of them might be trained in stealthy sneaking, everybody wanted to see exactly who they're dealing with.

"It's Bouchart," Maria growled in a tone that Desmond was more used to hearing from Altaïr. Then again, in Altaïr's memories Maria had always believed she had the upper hand in the situation and hadn't been coming off a betrayal from her order the way Altaïr had. Bouchart may not be Maria's personal mentor, but Desmond's pretty sure anyone would take the betrayal and murder of a friend and colleague personally.

"We need a different way out," Altaïr said in Arabic as he pulled back from the corner of the building.

"Should be fine if we wait for them to go inside," Desmond said. "They're coming to inspect progress, right?"

"Most likely," Altaïr agreed.

"Do we stay to listen or leave?" Ezio asked. "We didn't exactly put everything back where we found it. They'll know we've been through."

"I saw we stay and get more information," Connor said. "They might say something about their plans or how much they know about us."

"No, we should go," Altaïr argued, shaking his head.

"Guys?" Desmond asked quietly.

"They'll head downstairs right away so we won't hear anything if they do say anything," Altaïr continued.

"Guys," Desmond hissed again. "Maria."

"What?" Ezio asked, looking to Desmond, while Altaïr did the right thing and looked to Maria right as she edged out past the corner of the building and out of cover.

Altaïr reached for her as if he'd be able to grab and pull her back, but stopped himself halfway out of the instinct to keep himself hidden as she walked out into the open.

"Why didn't you say or do anything?" Ezio asked.

"I was trying, and you were all in the way," he said.

"We fight then," Connor said, and Desmond can hear Maria unsheathing her sword from around the corner of the building.

"I told you she was a liability," Altaïr said.

"She's a liability we need to keep alive," Ezio said, drawing his own sword as Maria started shouting something about revenge and being a bastard at Bouchart.

"Why do we need to do anything?" Altaïr asked as both Ezio and Connor left cover to give Maria back up. "She's just a temporary ally."

"Keep telling yourself that," Desmond said in English on the off chance he wouldn't understand it. As much as he wanted to keep his great whatever grandmother alive though, there was still one major issue. He switched back to Arabic to say, "But I'm still not good at sword fighting."

"Just protect the treasure," Altaïr told him, joining the others as he drew his own sword.

Desmond stepped around the corner to find chaos. Maria charged ahead aggressively, just as she had when fighting Altaïr, with Ezio and Connor flanking her. Altaïr quickly joined the fray to help out, and Desmond just watched as it all fell apart.

Maria, though skilled and aggressive, was a squire unused to fighting in coordination with others, and it showed as she paid no attention to the Assassins with her. Ezio was used to fighting with other Assassins, but they were all people he had recruited to serve as his subordinates. He fought like a tank waiting for other people to deliver finishing blows to the knights he knocked off balance or otherwise hindered. Connor, while also used to fighting with recruits, was used to fighting with specialized recruits not others with similar skill sets. He could have been a finisher to Ezio's tank except he wasn't fighting anywhere near him. Then there was Altaïr fighting defensively and nominally protecting the others backs, but mostly just allowing the four of them to get hemmed in by the knights against the building as he gave up ground.

Basically, Desmond was watching a badly coordinated team with no chemistry and no communication get their asses kicked despite their individual talents. They definitely should have discussed their roles within the group as a fighting force before they did this.

Desmond set aside the Apple because he was definitely not going to be able to help with it occupying one hand. Then he moved in to start attacking the knights' backs to give the others a chance. He felt awkward and ungainly attacking with a sword, but Connor picked up on the opportunities immediately, finishing the knights or guardsmen that Desmond incapacitated. Altaïr even began to add a second attack to Desmond's initial attacks instead of relying on his enemies attacking him first.

"I've got the treasure!" someone yelled.

They all froze, Templars and Assassins, to see a young-looking knight holding the half-uncovered Apple up in the air.

"Run! Protect it!" Bouchart yelled, waving an arm for the man to get going.

Maria seized upon the opportunity to run Bouchart through with her sword. Desmond turned to follow, but had to dodge a wild swing from the knight he'd been fighting. Altaïr incapacitated him with a strike to the knight's leg, and then they were both running as the others were caught behind the rest of the knights.

The young knight who had taken the Apple had a head start and faster than he looked, but Desmond didn't waste his breath telling Altaïr that. He also hadn't been up all night trying to break the locks into an old vault. Altaïr was quick and gaining distance over Desmond, but he wasn't making ground against the knight. They weren't going to be able to catch up to him.

Then the knight turned onto a straight road through that area of town and just kept going straight despite the early risers beginning to fill the street. It would have been a wise move if he had only Assassins on foot to worry about.

"Get down!" Desmond commanded, startling whoever hadn't already been brushed off by the running knight, and pulled out his gun from under the Assassin uniform. People gasped and moved out of his way just by the tone of his voice, including Altaïr.

Desmond stopped running to get as steady a shot as possible, turning off the safety, and focused on his target. He made a split-second decision on where to aim on the knight given that he wore mail which Desmond had never shot at before, but he aimed for the body, for the largest area on a moving target. He took a breath, recalling all his training on firearms usage, and squeezed the trigger.

The shot rang out loudly causing people to scream and even Altaïr to startle, but the knight with the Apple went down. Desmond advanced on the knight, keeping his gun out and trained on him in case he hadn't been killed. The knight didn't move as he advanced on him. He wanted to shoot a second time and ensure that he was dead, but he only had so many bullets. Instead, he nudged the body with his foot, and only after it didn't move, he went for the Apple.

It had rolled free from the cloth, and Desmond picked the cloth up before he reached out for the Apple. He knew he'd messed up when he felt his pinkie finger hit cold metal rather than cloth. The ground dropped out from under him just like the last time he'd touched an Apple and ended up in 1191 Masyaf.

Ground rushed up towards him again, but this time it wasn't soft grass coming for him. He slammed hard onto stone, the breath rushing out of him. "Ow," he groaned and rolled onto his back.

He blinked in surprise to see the familiar ceiling of Monteriggioni which he'd never expected to see again. It was also a lot nicer looking that the last time he'd seen it. He turned his head to see the statue of Altaïr where it had always been, but the gate in front of it was down with the armor still safely behind it. It gave Desmond a better idea of when he'd landed, but there was still any number of years it could have been.

"Where are we?" Altaïr asked.

Desmond sat up to see the non-statue version of Altaïr and Connor, but no Ezio. In his place sat Maria Thorpe with a very confused expression and her hands up around her head as if she could just shove some information in there everything would make sense again.

"What just happened?" she asked as she continued to look around.

"That's why we don't touch the Apple," Desmond said in Old French, wrapping it up more carefully this time.

"Desmond," Altaïr said in a tone that strongly suggested he should answer him immediately. "Where is Ezio, and why is she here?"

"Considering this is Monteriggioni sometime probably before the year 1490, this is his time, and he's exactly where he should be unlike us. As for her," Desmond said then trails off to look at Connor for support.

Connor shrugged, basically telling him he was on his own.

Desmond cleared his throat to stall and pray for mercy because he had no other explanation for why Maria was there. "Well, she's probably here for the same reason as the rest of you."

"Desmond," Altaïr said warningly because it's not like he's stupid.

"Which is to say she's related to me and my great-whatever grandmother."

"Desmond," Altaïr said again with more of an edge to his tone.

"Or in other words, she's going to be your wife, congratulations on the future nuptials."

"Desmond! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he asked.

"You wouldn't have believed me even if I'd told you," he pointed out. "You barely believed us when we said you had a wife back in Masyaf."

Altaïr made a growling noise of frustration, clearly able to tell that Desmond was right.

"Hello?" Maria called out to them with a harsher tone. "Is anyone going to tell me anything about what just happened?"

Desmond turned to her and said in Old French, "The short version is the Apple just made us travel in time to Monteriggioni, Italy probably before the year 1490 because we're on a quest to collect a bunch of Pieces of Eden to prevent humanity from falling into war so we can instead stop the sun from burning us to a crisp in the year 2012 which is when I'm from."

She stared at him in shock for a few moments then said, "You're lying."

"I mean, you experienced the time travel for yourself, but if you don't believe me," Desmond said then pointed over to the statue. "That's a giant statue of Altaïr which he would never let be made in his own lifetime."

It was quiet something to watch Altaïr full body cringe at the sight of a statue of himself while horror at the reality of the situation also dawned on Maria. Or maybe just horror at the giant statue.

This chapter was difficult, not gonna lie. I went back and forth on how I wanted to basically translate from video game to prose. Firstly, with escaping the castle you normally have people chase you down in the games so I wanted to keep a little bit of it, but because I made Maria a squire I switched it around. Instead of the grunt squires getting killed by the good guys, the good guys kill the grunt's asshole boss. I also think you hide bodies a grand total of once in the Ezio trilogy so I brought it back because I think in a stealth game you should maybe be more concerned about where you leave bodies sometimes.

The puzzles to get to the Apple were more difficult in addition to including how they would find the building. I obviously wasn't going to have them just search Cyprus, that's boring so the Templars have to find something, but I didn't want it to be too easy for the Assassins to breeze in and take it. They don't do much code breaking in the games despite being games about stealth and secret societies and Leonardo Da Vinci literally being famous for his codes so obviously they must all be bad at it. For the actual puzzles, I definitely went more Indiana Jones on it because pretty much all the vaults or tombs Ezio gets into are straight climbing puzzles which is great for a 3D game, but not great for prose (or Maria). I went for somewhat more realistic mechanical locks instead, just big ones you can only find with Eagle Vision. Only Desmond and Connor get to do lock picking because it doesn't appear in the games until AC3.

Now we have historical notes. European style castles and here I am including Crusader held castles did not have bare floors ever hence the rush flooring. Rush is a type of reedy plant used for flooring in the British Isles, but no one even knows if they just threw it on the ground or made mats out of it so I don't know. It's not really rush in Cyprus because I'm sure they couldn't have found the same plant, but the point is they put something on the ground in general, but also to cover up the blood. I also used rush lights later even though as far as I can tell they were only used in the British Isles, but again I couldn't find anything on what kind of lighting they would have used similar to that. I picked rush lights because it's basically a wick dipped in animal fat so they're very small and easy to make and cheap compared to candles so it's like the 12th century equivalent of carrying a lighter because it's smaller and cheaper than a proper flashlight. Again, they wouldn't have rushes, but I'm sure they could have found some material to make the wick out of. They would not being using torches because they burn out too fast and make a mess.

As for armor in the 3rd crusade, you could definitely use a modern gun to shoot through it. Knights were wearing hauberks (mail) and padded jackets for armor at that time so yes they could move quickly, and it wasn't that great at stopping contemporary ranged weapons like bows and crossbows. There's a reason they later upgraded to plate armor.

Poor Maria did end up a liability only because her life was spiraling out of control even before any time traveling shenanigans what with her boss getting killed by an Assassin and then his replacement not only not hiring her but also killing a friend a colleague and the only guy willing and able to help her out is the guy that killed her boss so of course she wants to see the damn thing that's basically ruined everything and why not kill the guy who refused to hire you while he's here?

And then Altaïr has so much awkwardness ahead of him. Ezio is fine, by the way, just not in the last scene.

Hope you enjoyed!