HOME | DD

Description
January 10, 2015; Indianapolis, Indiana

As the sun started coming up through the gathering clouds a small crowd was gathering near the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument downtown. They were booing their disapproval of something. I sifted through the crowd with Chelsea. And as we expected, the crowd was booing at Natasha Wolfgang. She put on a disguise, but everyone saw through it. The three bodyguards following her also kinda gave her away. She was trying to get to her car, but the crowd kept getting in her way, insulting her whenever they thought she could see them.

I looked at Chelsea and she nodded. We pulled scarfs over half of our faces. If we were about to make a public appearance, we weren't gonna let our faces be shown. We sifted through to the front of the crowd. As we did, the crowd noticed our presence. A lot of them went silent and gave us our space as they realized who we were. They seemed eager to see the vigilantes do what they do best.

As Wolfgang was trying to shoo away her protesters, her eyes fell on us. She froze in place. Her jaw dropped. She tried to stand tall and look professional, but it wasn't working too well.

“So,” she said to us as we stepped into view. “You found me. Congratulations. It's too bad you won't be able to do anything.” She looked over to her bodyguards. “Cut them down!”

The guards nodded, drew their weapons and started advancing. Chelsea and I stood completely still. The guards came closer, and closer…

...and then fell to the ground as bullets pierced their brains.

Wolfgang stared wide eyed. The crowd stood back and turned to reveal three more hooded people. It was Angie, Vienna, and Jonathan, each with a silenced pistol in their hands. They also wore scarfs.

“It’s over Natasha,” I said. “Stand down.”

She looked frantically between the five of us Assassins. The crowd seemed really excited, despite the silence which suggested otherwise.

“You can't do this,” she eventually stuttered, backing up slowly. “This wasn't supposed to go like this! You can't take my city from me!”

“This isn't your city anymore!” I said. The crowd murmured their approval. Some of them started throwing cans and other junk at the Templar, their tolerance for her kind finally gone. She tried to block the protesters’ assault with her bag, but it didn't work too well. She frantically looked around at the crowd, at my four allies, and at me. She was freaking out by then. Then, in a desperate attempt, she started sprinting to her car. Some of the crowd tried to run after her, including us Assassins.

She ran through the streets, trying to find her car. Eventually, only us Assassins still chased her, but even so we split up to cover more ground. Chelsea stuck by my side, though. We ran after Wolfgang, listening to the cheers of approval from the civilians as we passed. We started losing ground on our target, and Chelsea started heading away from me.

“Keep going!” she said. “I have a plan!”

I nodded and left Chelsea behind.

Eventually, our target rounded a corner and jumped into her now found car. She told the driver to step on it and the car started speeding away.

“Crap!” I said. I tried to run after it, but it picked up too much speed and started driving too fast for me to keep up with.

“No no no!” I said as I slowed down in defeat. I stood for a moment and wondered what I was gonna do.

Suddenly, I heard a distinctive revving engine from behind me. I spun around and saw my cousin hopping off of the Cardinal and motioning for me to hop on instead. I smiled and leapt onto the motorcycle.

“Go go go!” said Chelsea. I instantly revved the engine, put the pedal to the metal, and darted away to chase down Wolfgang’s car. It only took a few seconds to find it again, and when I did, I started to speed up. She must've seen me in the mirror or something, because soon enough, she appeared in the window with a little pistol and tried to shoot at me.

Thank God she's a terrible shot. I swerved around the traffic, honing in on the Templar as her bullets went wide. She quickly rounded a corner. My wheels squealed and kicked up a smoke cloud as I made the same sharp turn. I was right on their tail, getting closer and closer, and then…

She stopped. Her car screeched to a halt and my momentum carried me past them. I swore under my breath as I tried to turn around. As I did, I saw Wolfgang sprint out of her car and into the nearest building, which I now noticed was the Abstergo Industries building. I decided to park my motorcycle and jump off. I darted after her.

I rushed into the building. When I did, half of the employees looked at me in fear. The other half, the ones that saw me as “the vigilante” instead of “the Assassin”, seemed excited.

I ran past the receptionist desk. Some of the employees pointed me to where Wolfgang went. I nodded to them and followed their directions to the CEO office on the top floor. The only way in there was through the elevator, so I had no choice but to risk it. Thankfully, I didn't get trapped in there, and the doors opened on the top floor.

I walked into the giant office, which was lined with shelves and screens and, on one wall, a giant balcony overlooking the city. To my surprise, the place was empty. I cautiously walked in, suddenly sensing that something wasn't right.

“Come on out, Wolfgang!” I said. “No point in hiding. It's over. We've won. Come on out!”

I looked around some more, slowly, cautiously. Something wasn't right at all.

“Where are you Natasha?” I called.

“Gone.” I wheeled around to face the owner of the suddenly new voice in the room. My eyes widened as I saw that on the other side of the office, which suddenly felt more like an arena, was my mother. We both stared daggers at each other for a moment.

“So,” I said. “This is it then, huh? You couldn't control me, you couldn't fight me, you couldn't experiment on me, and so you trap me and try to kill me.”

“I'm not going to try, Carter,” she said coldly. “I'm going to. I have to…”

“You don't have to do anything.”

“For the good of the city, for the good of the Templars, and for the good of the world, the Assassins have to be stopped. You have to be stopped.”

“I'd say the same to you.” She kinda scowled a bit. She started reaching into her coat. I reached into my hoodie.

“I'm sorry,” she said.

“No,” I said. “You're not.” And she wasn't. We both knew she was ready, willing, and able to cut me down where I stood. She held no remorse.

Mom pulled a baton from her coat, similar to mine, but much more polished and reinforced. And, when she flicked out the extendable part of it, the end lit up in a series of crackling electric sparks. I stared silently as I pulled out my own baton and flicked it to full length. We stared at each other in a fury of silence. I noticed a storm was starting to pour outside. After what seemed like forever, we made our moves.

We charged at each other, shouting with our weapons raised. We clashed in the middle of the office, sparks flying as the batons collided. We swung hard and fast. I swung. She countered. She swung. I countered. We swung in unison, and we pushed our batons against each other.

“It’s over,” I said. “The Templars have lost!”

“No!” She shoved hard on her weapon, throwing me off balance. I stumbled back but stabilized myself as fast as I could.

“The Templars,” she said, “ will rise again. We’ll rebuild. We will control this city. We’ll have the power!”

“The people will have the power, as they should!” We clashed again. My hair stood on end for a second as she swung her baton and barely missed my head. Sparks went flying everywhere. Mom coldly chuckled. “Please,” she said. “The people never have the power. There’s always someone pulling the strings, and it’s usually us.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

“You won’t. Not when I’m done with you.”

Our weapons met again. We swung faster and faster, our batons blurs as we fought. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky outside. We started landing blows at each other. My lip bled and her face bruised, but we kept fighting. With a yell, she took her baton in both hands, raised it over her head, and swung it hard towards my head. Thinking fast, I grabbed each end of my own baton with both hands and brought it up just in time to block the blow. We pushed our weapons against each other, trying to push each other off balance. I felt the heat of the electricity on the end of her baton. Our weapons stayed locked, until eventually I managed to kick her in the gut and push her away.

“The Templars will never control Indianapolis again, not as long as we’re here!” I said. “The Assassins will make sure that everyone is free and equal once again!”

“And when you do, the world will burn,” said Mom as she got back up. “People are stupid. They need someone better then them to keep them in line.”

“And who, pray tell, would that be?”

“Me!” She charged at me again and we clashed again, sparks flying with each blow. We pulled apart for a moment and stared angrily at each other’s bloodied, scarred faces. And then, with a yell, she charged again. Before I could fully prepare to counter, she rammed her shoulder into me and sent me flying backwards. I fell onto and slid over the large office desk, breaking and scattering everything on it onto the floor as I fell. I winced in pain as I struggled back to my feet. I noticed that I had dropped my baton when she hit me, and that it skidded out of my reach and across the office. I flicked out my hidden blade and shock blade. I launched myself over the desk and back into the fight.

“That's the problem with you Templars,” I said as we clashed. “You're too damn arrogant. You think just because you want a better world, that no one else could possibly want that too.” We struck again. The electric bolts of our weapons tangled as we did. “You spend so much time complaining about people that you forget that you're just as human as anyone else,” I said. We struck a few more times.

“It’s not about a better world,” said Mom through her teeth. “It’s about controlling the world. It's about making sure that we come out on top. It's about making sure that everyone does as we say!” We clashed. We wounded each other further. Another lightning bolt thundered across the stormy sky.

“Are you sure it's not just for you?” I bitterly said. “That it's not just making sure that you stay on the little throne that you've built for yourself?”

“Better me than anyone else,” she said.

“Better everyone else than you.”

“I deserve to control this city!”

“No one should be in that position! The people must be free! Only then can the world move on to a better place!”

“Shut up!” She thwacked my face again. I did the same to her. I slashed her arm. She bruised my leg. We fought, and fought, and fought, until eventually, we both could barely stand. We were both breathing heavily, covered in blood and scars. We stared angrily at each other with what little energy we had. Mom tried to limp over with one last yell, baton raised. I gritted my teeth hard and with a yell, I knocked her baton away and kicked her to the ground. She tried to get back up, but she couldn't. She just laid there, staring at me as the revelation finally struck her: I had won.

I struggled painfully to stand up straight, but I managed it… kinda. I stood over my mom, still trying to catch my breath. My hidden blades were still out, stained red with blood.

“Go on then,” Mom said weakly. “Just do it. If you're so set on ending this, then just do it.” I stared at her bitterly. Suddenly, she got surprisingly angry. “I said just do it goddammit!” she managed to yell.

I looked down at her. This was the woman who made my life miserable for years. This was the woman that drugged me, mentally abused me, manipulated me, tormented me, and lied to me. I thought about every godawful thing she ever did to me. I leaned down a bit closer. I raised my hidden blade. I pulled it back, ready to strike, and then…

“No,” I said plainly. I retracted my blades, and I stood back up. She stared shocked at me.

“What?” she croaked.

“I said no,” I repeated. “I'm not going to kill you. Even after all the crap you pulled, I'm not going to do it. I'm not like you.”

She couldn't believe it. “You're actually showing mercy?” she asked.

“I'm not like you,” I repeated. “I'm not going to keep this crap up. I'm not gonna stay up all night trying to think of all the ways to hurt you. I'm not gonna waste my brain space trying to plot up all the ways to get revenge. I'm not. Because even after all the crap you put me through, after all the hell you dragged me through, I don't care. Because it's in the past. I'm out now. I'm in a happy place, and it's all because of my hard work and the help of my friends. And now, I couldn't give less of a damn about what happens to you next. You'll be the cause of your own undoing. The path you've been going down has and will continue to cause your own suffering. And I'm not gonna waste my time watching and waiting for you to suffer. I'm gonna focus on my life. My happiness. And that's it.”

Tears were forming in her eyes. She knew I was right, and she hated it.

“I'm done,” I said. “I'm done with having you linger in the back of my head. I'm done with hearing your voice constantly telling me I can't do anything. I'm done being trapped in this endless conflict that we seem to be in.” I stood, swept up my baton, and turned to exit. “We part as enemies,” I said to her, “but I'm not gonna fight you anymore.” I started walking towards the exit elevator.

“White River warehouse,” I heard Mom say behind me through her tears. I stopped. “Natasha’s hiding in the Abstergo warehouse by the White River.” I took note of that, and then entered the elevator without saying anything. I didn't even look back.

The elevator stopped on the ground floor and I walked out to see Chelsea and the other Assassins rushing into the building. They came up to me and helped keep me on my feet.

“Are you okay?” asked Chelsea.

“Yeah,” I said. “I'll be fine. Just need some stitches and all that.”

“Did you get Wolfgang?” asked Angie.

“No,” I said. “It was a trap. Wolfgang escaped and my mom attacked me.”

The four stared at me.

“Carter,” Chelsea started to say. “Did you…”

“No,” I said. “No. I let her live. But trust me, she's not going to be a threat anymore.”

My friends stared at each other and nodded. They started helping me get outside. I saw that the rain stopped and that the clouds had parted. The sun shined bright in the sky as it rose.

“Wolfgang’s at the White River Abstergo warehouse,” I said. “This is her last stand.”

The others nodded. Chelsea and Angie helped me into their car. We said goodbye to the other Assassins and started to drive off. Chelsea started fixing me up as we drove.

“You sure you're okay, squirt?” she caringly asked me. I smiled weakly and nodded.

“Yeah,” I said. “But I'll feel a lot better when this is officially over.”

------------

I walked through the warehouse halls, stitched up and bandaged up. Any guards that stood in my way got a bullet through the skull. They learned pretty quickly to just run away. I eventually reached a large, rustic office room, and I silently walked in. Wolfgang was at a desk, frantically talking with someone on the phone.

“What do you mean ‘expendable’?” she said to the person on the other line. “Mr. Berg! I… No! I… You can't be… You can't do this! I…” She went silent as the other person hung up on her. She dropped the phone and angrily swiped her hand across the desk, knocking everything over. “No good son of a-”

“Business going bad, Natasha?” I said as I closed the door behind me and locked it. The former Grand Master spun around to face me.

“How did-?”

“It's over, Natasha,” I said. “This is it, and I think you know it.”

She stared at me. She closed her eyes and lowered her head. “This is it then?” she said. “All my hard work, everything I did to bring order to this city, and now it's all fallen to the Assassins.”

“What you brought was far from order. You oppressed the people, manipulated them, controlled them.”

“All to make sure things stayed in line. That's all we wanted. An orderly, peaceful world.”

“Power doesn't lead to a peaceful world. Freedom does.”

“People use freedom selfishly. It's going to burn the world.”

“People are responsible. They'll use their freedom to make the world a better place. Will there be hiccups? Yes. Will people disagree? Absolutely. But no matter what, people will get through it. Just as a single person overcomes their hardships, so will humanity.”

“You don't realize it. There are always going to be people to screw it all up. People who steal, murder, destroy.”

“But what you don't realize is that there'll always be people to stop those monsters. There'll always be people to stand up for what is right. For freedom, kindness, and equality. So yes, there will always be people like you, but there will also always be people like me to put a stop to it.”

“You have too much faith.”

“You don't have enough.”

Natasha stood there, not looking at me, taking in my words.

“Go on then,” she said grimly. “End this.” She spread out her arms. I slowly walked over to her. I grabbed her by the shoulder. She looked me in the eye. “Just know that this is only one battle,” she said. “The war is far from won.”

“I know.”

She stared at me and nodded. She braced herself. I flicked out my hidden blade. I raised it up. And in one, quick movement, I rammed it into her heart. She let out her last gasp. She choked a little as her body started going limp. “Requiescat in pace,” I said. The last drop of life left her body. I lowered her corpse to the floor and laid her down nicely. I closed her eyes and placed an eagle-patterned post-it note on her chest. I stood and stared at her. It was finally over.

I turned and left. I walked out of the warehouse. All my friends and family were standing outside, waiting for me. Chelsea, Angie, Dad, Misty, Vienna, Henry, Jonathan. All of them stood there, smiling. I smiled back. My look was all they needed to know that I won. Chelsea walked up to me. She put a hand on my shoulder.

“You did good, squirt,” she said. I smiled.

“Thanks, dweeb,” I said.

She chuckled, and then hugged me tight. We stood motionless like that for a moment, on the verge of tears as our victory sunk in.

And then she whispered to me, “I'm proud of you...”

Description
January 10, 2015; Indianapolis, Indiana

As the sun started coming up through the gathering clouds a small crowd was gathering near the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument downtown. They were booing their disapproval of something. I sifted through the crowd with Chelsea. And as we expected, the crowd was booing at Natasha Wolfgang. She put on a disguise, but everyone saw through it. The three bodyguards following her also kinda gave her away. She was trying to get to her car, but the crowd kept getting in her way, insulting her whenever they thought she could see them.

I looked at Chelsea and she nodded. We pulled scarfs over half of our faces. If we were about to make a public appearance, we weren't gonna let our faces be shown. We sifted through to the front of the crowd. As we did, the crowd noticed our presence. A lot of them went silent and gave us our space as they realized who we were. They seemed eager to see the vigilantes do what they do best.

As Wolfgang was trying to shoo away her protesters, her eyes fell on us. She froze in place. Her jaw dropped. She tried to stand tall and look professional, but it wasn't working too well.

“So,” she said to us as we stepped into view. “You found me. Congratulations. It's too bad you won't be able to do anything.” She looked over to her bodyguards. “Cut them down!”

The guards nodded, drew their weapons and started advancing. Chelsea and I stood completely still. The guards came closer, and closer…

...and then fell to the ground as bullets pierced their brains.

Wolfgang stared wide eyed. The crowd stood back and turned to reveal three more hooded people. It was Angie, Vienna, and Jonathan, each with a silenced pistol in their hands. They also wore scarfs.

“It’s over Natasha,” I said. “Stand down.”

She looked frantically between the five of us Assassins. The crowd seemed really excited, despite the silence which suggested otherwise.

“You can't do this,” she eventually stuttered, backing up slowly. “This wasn't supposed to go like this! You can't take my city from me!”

“This isn't your city anymore!” I said. The crowd murmured their approval. Some of them started throwing cans and other junk at the Templar, their tolerance for her kind finally gone. She tried to block the protesters’ assault with her bag, but it didn't work too well. She frantically looked around at the crowd, at my four allies, and at me. She was freaking out by then. Then, in a desperate attempt, she started sprinting to her car. Some of the crowd tried to run after her, including us Assassins.

She ran through the streets, trying to find her car. Eventually, only us Assassins still chased her, but even so we split up to cover more ground. Chelsea stuck by my side, though. We ran after Wolfgang, listening to the cheers of approval from the civilians as we passed. We started losing ground on our target, and Chelsea started heading away from me.

“Keep going!” she said. “I have a plan!”

I nodded and left Chelsea behind.

Eventually, our target rounded a corner and jumped into her now found car. She told the driver to step on it and the car started speeding away.

“Crap!” I said. I tried to run after it, but it picked up too much speed and started driving too fast for me to keep up with.

“No no no!” I said as I slowed down in defeat. I stood for a moment and wondered what I was gonna do.

Suddenly, I heard a distinctive revving engine from behind me. I spun around and saw my cousin hopping off of the Cardinal and motioning for me to hop on instead. I smiled and leapt onto the motorcycle.

“Go go go!” said Chelsea. I instantly revved the engine, put the pedal to the metal, and darted away to chase down Wolfgang’s car. It only took a few seconds to find it again, and when I did, I started to speed up. She must've seen me in the mirror or something, because soon enough, she appeared in the window with a little pistol and tried to shoot at me.

Thank God she's a terrible shot. I swerved around the traffic, honing in on the Templar as her bullets went wide. She quickly rounded a corner. My wheels squealed and kicked up a smoke cloud as I made the same sharp turn. I was right on their tail, getting closer and closer, and then…

She stopped. Her car screeched to a halt and my momentum carried me past them. I swore under my breath as I tried to turn around. As I did, I saw Wolfgang sprint out of her car and into the nearest building, which I now noticed was the Abstergo Industries building. I decided to park my motorcycle and jump off. I darted after her.

I rushed into the building. When I did, half of the employees looked at me in fear. The other half, the ones that saw me as “the vigilante” instead of “the Assassin”, seemed excited.

I ran past the receptionist desk. Some of the employees pointed me to where Wolfgang went. I nodded to them and followed their directions to the CEO office on the top floor. The only way in there was through the elevator, so I had no choice but to risk it. Thankfully, I didn't get trapped in there, and the doors opened on the top floor.

I walked into the giant office, which was lined with shelves and screens and, on one wall, a giant balcony overlooking the city. To my surprise, the place was empty. I cautiously walked in, suddenly sensing that something wasn't right.

“Come on out, Wolfgang!” I said. “No point in hiding. It's over. We've won. Come on out!”

I looked around some more, slowly, cautiously. Something wasn't right at all.

“Where are you Natasha?” I called.

“Gone.” I wheeled around to face the owner of the suddenly new voice in the room. My eyes widened as I saw that on the other side of the office, which suddenly felt more like an arena, was my mother. We both stared daggers at each other for a moment.

“So,” I said. “This is it then, huh? You couldn't control me, you couldn't fight me, you couldn't experiment on me, and so you trap me and try to kill me.”

“I'm not going to try, Carter,” she said coldly. “I'm going to. I have to…”

“You don't have to do anything.”

“For the good of the city, for the good of the Templars, and for the good of the world, the Assassins have to be stopped. You have to be stopped.”

“I'd say the same to you.” She kinda scowled a bit. She started reaching into her coat. I reached into my hoodie.

“I'm sorry,” she said.

“No,” I said. “You're not.” And she wasn't. We both knew she was ready, willing, and able to cut me down where I stood. She held no remorse.

Mom pulled a baton from her coat, similar to mine, but much more polished and reinforced. And, when she flicked out the extendable part of it, the end lit up in a series of crackling electric sparks. I stared silently as I pulled out my own baton and flicked it to full length. We stared at each other in a fury of silence. I noticed a storm was starting to pour outside. After what seemed like forever, we made our moves.

We charged at each other, shouting with our weapons raised. We clashed in the middle of the office, sparks flying as the batons collided. We swung hard and fast. I swung. She countered. She swung. I countered. We swung in unison, and we pushed our batons against each other.

“It’s over,” I said. “The Templars have lost!”

“No!” She shoved hard on her weapon, throwing me off balance. I stumbled back but stabilized myself as fast as I could.

“The Templars,” she said, “ will rise again. We’ll rebuild. We will control this city. We’ll have the power!”

“The people will have the power, as they should!” We clashed again. My hair stood on end for a second as she swung her baton and barely missed my head. Sparks went flying everywhere. Mom coldly chuckled. “Please,” she said. “The people never have the power. There’s always someone pulling the strings, and it’s usually us.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

“You won’t. Not when I’m done with you.”

Our weapons met again. We swung faster and faster, our batons blurs as we fought. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky outside. We started landing blows at each other. My lip bled and her face bruised, but we kept fighting. With a yell, she took her baton in both hands, raised it over her head, and swung it hard towards my head. Thinking fast, I grabbed each end of my own baton with both hands and brought it up just in time to block the blow. We pushed our weapons against each other, trying to push each other off balance. I felt the heat of the electricity on the end of her baton. Our weapons stayed locked, until eventually I managed to kick her in the gut and push her away.

“The Templars will never control Indianapolis again, not as long as we’re here!” I said. “The Assassins will make sure that everyone is free and equal once again!”

“And when you do, the world will burn,” said Mom as she got back up. “People are stupid. They need someone better then them to keep them in line.”

“And who, pray tell, would that be?”

“Me!” She charged at me again and we clashed again, sparks flying with each blow. We pulled apart for a moment and stared angrily at each other’s bloodied, scarred faces. And then, with a yell, she charged again. Before I could fully prepare to counter, she rammed her shoulder into me and sent me flying backwards. I fell onto and slid over the large office desk, breaking and scattering everything on it onto the floor as I fell. I winced in pain as I struggled back to my feet. I noticed that I had dropped my baton when she hit me, and that it skidded out of my reach and across the office. I flicked out my hidden blade and shock blade. I launched myself over the desk and back into the fight.

“That's the problem with you Templars,” I said as we clashed. “You're too damn arrogant. You think just because you want a better world, that no one else could possibly want that too.” We struck again. The electric bolts of our weapons tangled as we did. “You spend so much time complaining about people that you forget that you're just as human as anyone else,” I said. We struck a few more times.

“It’s not about a better world,” said Mom through her teeth. “It’s about controlling the world. It's about making sure that we come out on top. It's about making sure that everyone does as we say!” We clashed. We wounded each other further. Another lightning bolt thundered across the stormy sky.

“Are you sure it's not just for you?” I bitterly said. “That it's not just making sure that you stay on the little throne that you've built for yourself?”

“Better me than anyone else,” she said.

“Better everyone else than you.”

“I deserve to control this city!”

“No one should be in that position! The people must be free! Only then can the world move on to a better place!”

“Shut up!” She thwacked my face again. I did the same to her. I slashed her arm. She bruised my leg. We fought, and fought, and fought, until eventually, we both could barely stand. We were both breathing heavily, covered in blood and scars. We stared angrily at each other with what little energy we had. Mom tried to limp over with one last yell, baton raised. I gritted my teeth hard and with a yell, I knocked her baton away and kicked her to the ground. She tried to get back up, but she couldn't. She just laid there, staring at me as the revelation finally struck her: I had won.

I struggled painfully to stand up straight, but I managed it… kinda. I stood over my mom, still trying to catch my breath. My hidden blades were still out, stained red with blood.

“Go on then,” Mom said weakly. “Just do it. If you're so set on ending this, then just do it.” I stared at her bitterly. Suddenly, she got surprisingly angry. “I said just do it goddammit!” she managed to yell.

I looked down at her. This was the woman who made my life miserable for years. This was the woman that drugged me, mentally abused me, manipulated me, tormented me, and lied to me. I thought about every godawful thing she ever did to me. I leaned down a bit closer. I raised my hidden blade. I pulled it back, ready to strike, and then…

“No,” I said plainly. I retracted my blades, and I stood back up. She stared shocked at me.

“What?” she croaked.

“I said no,” I repeated. “I'm not going to kill you. Even after all the crap you pulled, I'm not going to do it. I'm not like you.”

She couldn't believe it. “You're actually showing mercy?” she asked.

“I'm not like you,” I repeated. “I'm not going to keep this crap up. I'm not gonna stay up all night trying to think of all the ways to hurt you. I'm not gonna waste my brain space trying to plot up all the ways to get revenge. I'm not. Because even after all the crap you put me through, after all the hell you dragged me through, I don't care. Because it's in the past. I'm out now. I'm in a happy place, and it's all because of my hard work and the help of my friends. And now, I couldn't give less of a damn about what happens to you next. You'll be the cause of your own undoing. The path you've been going down has and will continue to cause your own suffering. And I'm not gonna waste my time watching and waiting for you to suffer. I'm gonna focus on my life. My happiness. And that's it.”

Tears were forming in her eyes. She knew I was right, and she hated it.

“I'm done,” I said. “I'm done with having you linger in the back of my head. I'm done with hearing your voice constantly telling me I can't do anything. I'm done being trapped in this endless conflict that we seem to be in.” I stood, swept up my baton, and turned to exit. “We part as enemies,” I said to her, “but I'm not gonna fight you anymore.” I started walking towards the exit elevator.

“White River warehouse,” I heard Mom say behind me through her tears. I stopped. “Natasha’s hiding in the Abstergo warehouse by the White River.” I took note of that, and then entered the elevator without saying anything. I didn't even look back.

The elevator stopped on the ground floor and I walked out to see Chelsea and the other Assassins rushing into the building. They came up to me and helped keep me on my feet.

“Are you okay?” asked Chelsea.

“Yeah,” I said. “I'll be fine. Just need some stitches and all that.”

“Did you get Wolfgang?” asked Angie.

“No,” I said. “It was a trap. Wolfgang escaped and my mom attacked me.”

The four stared at me.

“Carter,” Chelsea started to say. “Did you…”

“No,” I said. “No. I let her live. But trust me, she's not going to be a threat anymore.”

My friends stared at each other and nodded. They started helping me get outside. I saw that the rain stopped and that the clouds had parted. The sun shined bright in the sky as it rose.

“Wolfgang’s at the White River Abstergo warehouse,” I said. “This is her last stand.”

The others nodded. Chelsea and Angie helped me into their car. We said goodbye to the other Assassins and started to drive off. Chelsea started fixing me up as we drove.

“You sure you're okay, squirt?” she caringly asked me. I smiled weakly and nodded.

“Yeah,” I said. “But I'll feel a lot better when this is officially over.”

------------

I walked through the warehouse halls, stitched up and bandaged up. Any guards that stood in my way got a bullet through the skull. They learned pretty quickly to just run away. I eventually reached a large, rustic office room, and I silently walked in. Wolfgang was at a desk, frantically talking with someone on the phone.

“What do you mean ‘expendable’?” she said to the person on the other line. “Mr. Berg! I… No! I… You can't be… You can't do this! I…” She went silent as the other person hung up on her. She dropped the phone and angrily swiped her hand across the desk, knocking everything over. “No good son of a-”

“Business going bad, Natasha?” I said as I closed the door behind me and locked it. The former Grand Master spun around to face me.

“How did-?”

“It's over, Natasha,” I said. “This is it, and I think you know it.”

She stared at me. She closed her eyes and lowered her head. “This is it then?” she said. “All my hard work, everything I did to bring order to this city, and now it's all fallen to the Assassins.”

“What you brought was far from order. You oppressed the people, manipulated them, controlled them.”

“All to make sure things stayed in line. That's all we wanted. An orderly, peaceful world.”

“Power doesn't lead to a peaceful world. Freedom does.”

“People use freedom selfishly. It's going to burn the world.”

“People are responsible. They'll use their freedom to make the world a better place. Will there be hiccups? Yes. Will people disagree? Absolutely. But no matter what, people will get through it. Just as a single person overcomes their hardships, so will humanity.”

“You don't realize it. There are always going to be people to screw it all up. People who steal, murder, destroy.”

“But what you don't realize is that there'll always be people to stop those monsters. There'll always be people to stand up for what is right. For freedom, kindness, and equality. So yes, there will always be people like you, but there will also always be people like me to put a stop to it.”

“You have too much faith.”

“You don't have enough.”

Natasha stood there, not looking at me, taking in my words.

“Go on then,” she said grimly. “End this.” She spread out her arms. I slowly walked over to her. I grabbed her by the shoulder. She looked me in the eye. “Just know that this is only one battle,” she said. “The war is far from won.”

“I know.”

She stared at me and nodded. She braced herself. I flicked out my hidden blade. I raised it up. And in one, quick movement, I rammed it into her heart. She let out her last gasp. She choked a little as her body started going limp. “Requiescat in pace,” I said. The last drop of life left her body. I lowered her corpse to the floor and laid her down nicely. I closed her eyes and placed an eagle-patterned post-it note on her chest. I stood and stared at her. It was finally over.

I turned and left. I walked out of the warehouse. All my friends and family were standing outside, waiting for me. Chelsea, Angie, Dad, Misty, Vienna, Henry, Jonathan. All of them stood there, smiling. I smiled back. My look was all they needed to know that I won. Chelsea walked up to me. She put a hand on my shoulder.

“You did good, squirt,” she said. I smiled.

“Thanks, dweeb,” I said.

She chuckled, and then hugged me tight. We stood motionless like that for a moment, on the verge of tears as our victory sunk in.

And then she whispered to me, “I'm proud of you...”