"Farley what's wrong!" I shouted while charging into the main room and looked over at my sister. She was holding Alex, who was now crying and struggling in her grasp as he tried to get free.

"Something's wrong with him," Farley whimpered.

"Something's wrong with who?" I asked, frowning. Both she and Alex looked fine, just scared. She was still sitting against a wall, rocking Alex in her lap and he was crying hysterically. Farley then pointed to the far corner of the room.

"Something's wrong with him."

I looked in the direction she was pointing, and had to bring a hand to my mouth to stifle a gasp.

Altaïr was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the room, although it appeared that he was having trouble staying on his feet, his boots scraping loudly against the stone floor as he attempted to remain standing. He quickly gave up his attempt and slunk to the ground, gasping for air. His right arm was wrapped tightly around his middle, his hand clutching his left arm, which looked dislocated and limp. Blood was swiftly pooling on the floor around him, glistening hotly in the dim light.

"Altaïr?"

I had thought that, when I broke the Matriarch's bone staff, that Altair would have just vanished into shadow, like Hanan had. it was painfully obvious to me that, I had wrong. Instead, I had left him to experience a pain greater than I could have ever imagined in my entire life, it was clear by the stiffness in his body. I quickly rushed toward him and knelt beside him.

"Why didn't you vanish, like Hanan?" I asked, more to myself than to him. I was confused. "You're free... isn't that what you want?"

I could hear him grit his teeth as he tried desperately to stifle a moan. I could barely see his face scrunched in pain beneath the hood pulled low over his face. He was trying to hide his pain, I was sure of it.

"I cant leave until…" he managed, his head falling back against the wall with a soft thud. Most of his hood flopped back against the wall, uncovering his young face. He let out a ragged breath, "Is this death? But how could it… hurt… so much?"

Do you know what it's like to die?

The words spun, danced in my head. He had asked me that very question in the car as we drove to the Wal-Mart to pick up some sunscreen, and again when we were on the airplane. At the time, I had scoffed at the question. Of course I had no clue what it was like to die. He was the ghost, after all.

Or was he?

But that just couldn't be possible, could it? If he hadn't died, that would make him almost a thousand years old…

Do you know what it's like to die?

It made sense, though, given the Sisterhood's history with alchemy and magic. For all we knew, they could have easily done it, could have easily suspended him outside of our time. He was a drifter, a wanderer, neither dead or alive.

He was Trapped.

Healthy or not, if the Matriarch decided they were unfit, all baby boys, were to be killed.

Seri had been pregnant prior to her death, and she had not kept it a secret from me that Altaïr had been her lover. What better way for the Matriarch to punish a heretic than to allow him to outlive the ones he loved?

You were never dead, I thought, you were simply… there…

Altaïr groaned softly and pressed his good hand against the open wound in his side in order to attempt to stop the bleeding. the noise and movement pulling me from my thoughts, and I reached over, gingerly lifting his head from the wall and pushing his hood the rest of the way down to his shoulders. His hair was soft between my fingers. Baby-fine. He felt unbearably hot against my touch, like someone who had run a 10-mile marathon non-stop in the desert during the middle of the day.

Infection.

He was dying.

"So...This is what it feels like to die..." His eyes opened, strange and glassy. I never really had the chance to look at them properly, as he had always kept them covered, or had always refused to meet my gaze. But looking at them now, I couldn't swallow the feeling of my heart break into a thousand tiny pieces. They were round and fierce, even as their flames were flickering. But the fierceness in his gaze was contradictory, as his eyes were the lightest, most sincere shade of honey-brown than I had ever seen. He certainly must have been more beautiful in his time – his real time – than I could have ever imagined.

"Avalar!" Alex choked out through a wave of tears as he broke free from Farley's gasp and ran over to us. He plopped down helplessly on the ground on the other side of Altaïr, looking unsure of what to do, "Mom, what's wrong with him?"

"He's..." I trailed off, unable to decide how to answer his question. My son was five years old, and I had yet to explain the facts of life and death to him. To explain it to him now seemed an impossibility. How was I supposed to make a five-year-old understand that sort of finality?

I felt Altaïr's hand on mine while I looked at Alex. It felt cool to the touch, despite the rest of him feeling warm.

The first thing the body does is restrict blood flow to the extremities as a way to preserve major organs. I thought with a lost sigh, I watched allot of medical related programs on the television back home.

"Mom, can't you help him? Like that time I scraped my knee on the bike?"

I couldn't hold back the chuckle in my throat. Alex had decided to ride his bicycle in the yard while I was taking a nap once. A tiny rock from the driveway had jammed one of his tires and sent him flying into the side walk. His knee, thought it hadn't been cut deeply, bled profusely for a long while. At the time he had been hysterical, telling me he thought he was going to bleed to death. Such an innocent boo-boo now made this all look like an atrocity.

So I decided not to answer him, as I had noticed Farley approaching us out of the corner of my eye. She crouched beside Alex and then scooped him up, "Come on, Alex," she whispered.

"NO!" He screamed violently, kicking in protest. "I want to stay and help Avalar! I WANT TO STAY AND HELP AVALAR!" Farley calmly ignored him and carried him away. I wasn't sure where she had taken him to, only that his screams died down very quickly. I squeezed Altaïr's hand, brushing my thumb against his knuckles.

"Will he… be all right?" Altaïr managed weakly, "He gets… into so much… trouble…"

I hushed his forced attempts to speak by putting a finger to his lips. They were warm and soft to the touch. then when I brought my hand back, I noticed I was still clutching the little vial that Seri had given me in my hand.

'It is something that may help.'

Seri's words danced and twirled in my head. She had said it was something that could help. May help. Or may not. But what was there to lose? He was already dying. I weighed the small bottle in my hand. 'it is something that may help, think of it as a test, its up to you if you use it or not..'

I was willing to try anything, hoping perhaps for a miracle.

"Seri said this will help," I said, grunting as I pried the bottle open and held its mouth to Altaïr's lips. He turned away from the bottle, using his good hand to push it away.

"No. This isn't my world any more. There isn't anything for me here."

I felt a twinge of anger race up my spine, and I clutched the bottle between my fingers. There isn't anything here for him? How can he say that? What about Alex?

"Seri told me…"

"Rio…" he panted, "Seri…"

"No, Altaïr. You're wrong. Alex is here for you. That should mean something."

I took his chin in one of my hands and forced his head back, tipping a portion of the liquid inside the bottle into his mouth. It was much like forcing Alex to take cough syrup when he was sick. A dribble of the strange copper toned liquid spilled down his chin, and I brushed it away with my finger. Altaïr grimaced and turned his head, spitting it to the ground.

"Altaïr," I growled, "Stop that."

What was I doing? He wanted this. He wanted to die. How did I even know if this was going to let him live? For all I knew, it could just ease all the pain to make the transition into death more comfortable.

Either way, Seri had given it to me. She seemed to have had wanted me to use the potion in the vial, whatever it was.

"Alexander…" Altaïr wheezed, coughing. He looked up at me, his eyes hazy with delirium. Without thinking, I put the bottle to my lips and tipped back a small mouthful. The liquid inside was strangely sweet, delicious. Altaïr was going to drink it, whether he wanted to or not. I had seen this on television, and it worked for the actors; hesitating for a moment before I took his face in my hands and kissed him, forcing the liquid into his mouth. His lips were warm and dry, almost chapped, but they were full and unexpectedly gentle. I heard him swallow the mouthful of the potion, but his lips continued to ripple against mine. I hadn't at all expected him to kiss back. Either way, I hadn't wanted the kiss to end. He roughly broke free from me as he fell back against the wall, coughing.

At least I knew he had drank it.

"Seri..." He retched, grimacing, and released my hand. His glassy stare washed over me. He must have thought I was her. I flinched as he placed his cold hand on my face, "Seri don't cry." His thumb brushed at a tear that I hadn't realized was making its way down my face.

"Seri..." He whispered, struggling against his constraints.

He was chained by his wrists to a wall in a holding cell near the Grand Hall. It had been difficult to sneak in without being caught, but I had managed. He suddenly became blurry behind a wall of tears.

"Oh, Altaïr, what have they done to you?" I whimpered.

"Seri don't cry," He said as I looked away from him.

This was all my fault.

"I'm… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

I couldn't tell him that they weren't going to kill him.

They were going to do so much worse.

"I'm not Seri," I told him, touching his thigh as what was apparently the last of Seri's memories flicked through my mind, it had been triggered by the words he had spoken. Altair grimaced as he lightly pushed himself off the wall and leaned forward so that his face was inches from me.

"I'm Ri..." he cut me off as he clumsily pushed his lips against mine. The taste of copper from the blood in his mouth danced on my tongue, but yet I couldn't bring myself to pull away. Just like before when I had not expected him to return my kiss, I had not expected at all him to kiss me first. And yet, this second time left me yearning for more; I desperately did not want him to stop.

His lips left the tiniest smacking sound as he pulled away and put his other hand to my cheek even though it was obvious that it hurt him to do so. He blinked wearily, cupping my face in his hands.

"Seri… our son… he would have been so beautiful…"

It was like every ounce of energy had left his body then, and he fell limp against the wall. I swallowed hard, trying to blink away the tears that had sprung to my eyes.

"Altaïr?" I managed, giving his leg a slight shake. His head fell forward, like that of a rag doll that had been thrown into the corner.

He was dead.

I squeezed my eyes shut and bowed my head, "I'm sure he would have been beautiful." I heard Alex sniffle from across the room, it seemed he had watched the entire thing with Farley.

before I gave them my attention, I pressed the bottle to my lips and drank what was left inside it. It seemed like an appropriate thing to do.

It felt like ten years had passed before I could find my voice again. I took a deep breath and called out Farley's name.

"Farley!" my voice echoed in the cavernous room, "Farley! Come here!"

"Rio?" She asked meakly as she made her way over from the far doorway, Malik at her heels. I could barely make out Alex's face behind her. Both looked like they had been crying very hard. Though at that moment I felt like I had no energy left, I pointed at Altaïr's lifeless form against the wall.

"Farley, can you lend me a hand?" It was hard pushing the words out of my mouth. I felt like I had gone weeks and weeks without sleeping. The adrenaline rush was now over, and I was left feeling like a puddle of wasted energy, "I need your help."

"With what?" she asked lightly. I pointed at Altaïr again.

"Just, help me."

Farley looked confused as she came closer. with a shaky sigh I climbed to my feet, resisting the urge to fall back down due to the lack of energy, and I led her to Seri's coffin. Together, we pulled the lid back. Farley looked down into Seri's beautiful, unmarred face.

"She's so pretty," she marvelled. I could tell she was trying not to reach out to touch her. so before she could, I grabbed her hand and shook my head. Farley understood, but I knew it was hard for her not to explore, this was probably the only room she hadn't been in. She squinted down into Seri's face. "It's kind of scary how much she looks like you."

"Yeah. I know. Let's hurry up..."

It was hard, but after much grumbling and groaning we managed to balance Altaïr between us in order to bring him to the coffin to rest him alongside Seri. There had been just enough room to lay Altair beside her. I pulled his hood back over his face, and placed the key to the tomb in Seri's hand. As we pushed the lid back into place, the air tight seal reset itself, making almost a mechanical hissing sound. We looked through the crystal at the two bodies sealed within.

"Do you want to let Alex have a look?" Farley asked. Neither one of us looked up from the lovers inside the coffin. I shook my head.

"Let's just go."

I picked Alex up as we made our way out of Seri's tomb, listening as the doors relocked themselves. I felt numb, listless, and unable to answer Farley's questions as we followed Malik out of Narmein. my mind wondering if the phial had held something to numb the pain, as every thing to me felt like I had thick cotton wool wrapped around my head. As soon as we had climbed out of the tunnel, there was a loud rumbling implosion as Narmein crumbled and the land that concealed it sank. The city had collapsed in on itself.

Shouts drifted on the wind from the farmhouse as the archaeologists inside had felt the earth move under them and came scurrying outside like ants to see what was going on. I smiled as I looked over at my sister, She was grinning and hiding something behind her back. I wasn't sure what, and really, I was too tired to care. All I knew was that it made jingled and rattling noses as we made our way back to the farmhouse.

..xoxoxox..

Things for the next three weeks after had been a whirlwind. My father had not wanted Alex and I to leave Syria on our own, even if we were just going to board a plane for France that would take us back home to the States after a switch.

Jessica's death it seemed had proven the dig unstable, ceasing my father's research immediately. Afterwards, we had to wait for the papers retracting the University's funds for the dig to go through before everything was packed up and shipped out. Luckily, it did not take long for the University to pull its funds. In a way, I was relieved that no one would learn more of the Sisterhood, some things were better left alone.

It wasn't until the day we were to board the plane for France that I had learned how Paul had managed to find us in Syria. A thorough investigation into the dig revealed Jessica to be Paul's sister, who had stayed with his mother in England while his father took him back to the states upon their divorce six or seven years before I had met him. When she had discovered that I was coming out to the dig to visit my father, she had immediately called Paul, who immediately boarded the next plane out in order to catch up to us. Apparently, his debts ran deeper than that for the car. I never quite knew whose debt he had planned to use Alex to pay off, and I never wanted to find out.

Paul had managed to get a hold of our location before Jessica had been killed, and apparently had not known that his sister was dead. When he arrived, he blamed my father, thinking she had died due to heat exhaustion. A quarrel between them resulted in a few broken bones on my father's part, though none were too serious. As Paul stomped away in search of both his son and myself, a few of the archaeologists had phoned the authorities, who had then taken my father to a hospital in the city. Afterwards, there were attempts to find Paul, but Narmein's collapse proved it impossible to uncover him, and the ground had been labled as to unstable to excavate.

I couldn't have been more pleased. Somehow, I felt like Narmiens collapse it had all been Seri's doing.

"Mom, look!" Alex shouted as he ran over to me and pointed at a nearby fence. We were helping my father and the archaeologists load the cargo they had managed to find in the early days of the dig onto a private jet. It was all they were allowed to take back with them from the dig site, "It's a big Avalar!"

I followed his finger. Two large birds, they looked like eagles or hawks, were sitting side-by-side on the fence. They were both watching us. The smaller of the two was darker in colour than the other, while the larger one was white with a few golden hues, They were the most unusual-looking birds I had ever seen and I felt a smile tug at the corner of my lips.

Seri, I thought, Altaïr.

They both took flight a few moments later and I noticed something fall to the ground. Walking over and picking it up, I noticed it was the ivory cow necklace that Altaïr had taken from me that day at the farm.

"No," Altaïr said, snatching the pendent from my fingers, "I gave it to Seri."

suddenly one of the birds screeched, its voice echoing clear through the air like music on a breeze and I smiled, running my thumb over the smooth ivory.

"Alex, come here," I held my arms out. He skipped toward me and I picked him up, balancing him on my hip, "You know, I think everything is going to be okay..."

Together we watched the two birds fly away, becoming two specks of black in the distant sky. Alex hugged me tightly. I felt him push a kiss into my cheek.

"Everything will be okay," he chirped, "trust me on this..."

I blinked at him, but laughed anyway, watching as Farley wrestled Malik into an animal carrier in order to allow him onto the plane. Kadar the horse was to be flown over in a few weeks after a vet from America had taken him through quarantine both in Syria and in the States. I wasn't sure where Mom or Dad were going to keep him, but I was glad that they had decided to, it saved us allot of future arguments with Farley about it.

"will he come back?" Alex then asked me, he was looking down at the metallic eagle between his fingers.

"I don't know Alex...I just don't know..."

I ran my fingers through his hair as he waved the eagle through the air, making it fly. I could feel my heart crack slightly with my words, I couldn't bring myself to explain to him how it would be impossible for Altaïr to come back.

Oh well, I told myself, I wouldn't really need to. In a few months, Alex was going to start school, and I hoped he would soon forget the whole thing. Or, at the very least, it would all seem like a hazy dream. A few years after that, I decided that if I were ever to be brave enough to tell the story of his "invisible" friend, "Avalar the Ninja Lion," to the schoolmates he brought home for after-school cartoons, he would get indignant and insist I was lying, that he didn't have any "invisible" friends.

I felt that I would really only remember, and I secretly enjoyed knowing that it would only be me pondering what in God's name had truly happened to Altaïr, to Seri and to Numair, who I had the feeling wasn't going to simply vacate our plain of existence just because she had killed Paul..

with a sigh I stroked Alex's cheek and kissed his forehead.

"Want to know something something,Trouble?"

"What's that, Mom?"

"I really can't wait to go home, and eat some of your Nan's famous peanut butter cookies."

"Mm, cookies!"

I smiled at him.

The memory was apparently fading already...

The end!

Finally.

And now i apologise to you all, there was going to be a sequel, but Ive been unable to write it, i have no ideas for it that i can string a long story out of.

UPDATE OF 2019:
As the owner of this story, I've decided to rework the plot and replace the use of the Assassins Creed characters with OCs. As the only fic I've ever completed, its still very personal to me, and so I'm hoping I can make something more of it in the future.
If you'd like to see anything I potentially come up growing from this I can be found as StealthCrispies on instagram, tumblr and deviantart. (most active on the first two)