They had the assassins on the edge now. They had discovered one of their hideaways and blasted everyone inside before the lights even flickered on, all papers, computers, confiscated. Quick job...easy job. But of course...not all of the assassins from that base had been there during the raid so there were still a few to be pecked off.

Luca exhaled, his dark brown eyes scanning the park around him. Based on the papers they had decrypted, one of the mongrels was supposed to show up here for a mission. He clenched the book he was using to hide his pistol and went back to pretending to read, his sand-colored hair tickling his nape in the wind.

Footsteps near inaudible followed close behind a man that had been keeping a post near the opposite end of the street. Out of the shadows stepped...a thin, young man with bleached hair, styled up into a mohawk, streaked with toxic green that seemed to glow in the street lamps. He seemed to simply wait there without looking at the man still pacing until, quite slowly and rather elegantly, the first man folded over on himself. Then the figure turned and made his way quite calmly down the sidewalk with his hands down at his sides. Straight toward the Templar's hiding place.

Luca's eyes widened and his lips tightened, having barely seen the flash of a blade just before it had been lodged in the man's chest with trained accuracy. He lowered his gaze and continued to pretend to just be reading, his bag lazily thrown onto the bench as he watched the younger man walk slowly toward him.

As soon as the assassin drew level with Luca's bench, he stopped, still facing forward, his hand flashing into his belt as eyes glowing with faint gold turned to the pulsing red outline the Templar presented him. With the barest flicker of motion, a blade buried itself in the wood of the bench far enough for the point to poke into the man's shoulder.

"You are waiting for me," the assassin muttered, Russian accent thick around a voice that was rather too deep to suit the feminine form that carried it.

Luca didn't even flinch at the blade, lowering his book to expose the gun pointed to the assassin's chest, "Of course," he said with a smug smile, "I'm actually surprised you still went through with this mission, knowing what we did to your little band." He saw the young man twitch and he immediately fired, purposefully hitting the assassin in the leg. If possible, he had to capture this one alive. It was unlikely, but they needed to make sure there were no others.

The bullet in his leg did little to slow down the speed of his hands, one smacking hard into Luca's solar plexus and causing him to see stars and lose his breath, the other hand wrenching the gun away from him and throwing it into the grass. As the man stumbled back and fell back onto the bench, the assassin straddled Luca's stomach with his knees pinning down his arms.

"You are a disgrace," he spat, silver eyes flashing in the starlight as his lips curled back. He held a thin, tapered blade against Luca's throat. "Give me a reason not to kill you and leave you in a sewer, rat."

Luca laughed, his head thrown back onto the edge of the bench. "How about the fact that I know the one who ratted your friends out, eh? You want revenge, right?" As he talked, he stretched his leg out, tapping the heel of his shoe against the bench, signaling to the sniper in the tree a few yards away with a tranquilizer gun. There was no fear in his eyes as he stared up at the assassin, the firm tip of the blade resting against the hollow of his throat.

Eyes narrowed slightly, the assassin's free hand flicked into his belt once more and just as the sniper pulled the trigger, another small knife buried itself between his eyes. As the body topped out of the tree to land unceremoniously on the ground in a heap, the dart lodged into the young man's neck. A thin trail of blood oozed from around the point, down his exposed collarbone and seeped into the low collar of his shirt. He pushed the blade of his knife into Luca's throat, but already he was weakening and slipping to the side, landing on his side with his eyes rolling up into his head.

Luca held his breath, feeling the tip pierce into the skin, a trail of blood flowing down his collar. It immediately pulled out as the assassin slipped to the side, his body limp on the bench. He snorted and looked over to his partner. "Great..." he muttered, shaking his head as he pushed the assassin off his lap and onto the grass. Taking out his phone, he speed-dialed headquarters and muttered, "Got the stray. Raoul is dead. Send a clean-up crew for him and the target." He closed his phone and then searched the assassin's clothes, completely stripping him of all his weapons and piling them up onto the bench before retrieving his pistol. Eventually, two vans rolled in, one team going to collect the deceased and the other grabbing and binding the knocked out assassin. The wound in his neck bruised vividly when the dart was removed, as did his wrists where he was bound.

He regained consciousness fairly rapidly, jarred awake by the motion of the van. Immediately he sprang upright, wrenching at his bonds then lunging forward and shoving his shoulder into one man's throat, an elbow into an oncoming face, then headbutted one more and succeeded in half-smashing his mohawk. He snarled quietly as he was jerked back upright and a gun held to his temple.

Luca smirked as the other man only calmed when the barrel of his pistol was cocked to his temple. "Yeah, act tough all you want, kid...you're not getting out of here any time soon." He nodded to the man holding the assassin up and he smashed the kid's face into the floor several times. "So, why don't we start over, kid…what's your name?"

The assassin wrenched himself around and spat a gob of blood into his captor's face, causing the man to smash his head into the floor once more. After muttering a long stream of curses in three languages he turned himself over and glared directly at Luca. "You have no right to ask me anything, Templar"

Luca just rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall of the van, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "I have every right. You see, it's you, not me, who is bound like a dog and about to be processed by Abstergo. I'm just trying to be a bit pleasant while you still have time. Trust me, kid...the questions I ask will be the least of your problems. He took his cigarette and put it out on the assassin's neck, enjoying the way the younger man squirmed in pain.

Fighting to keep himself from letting any noise as the cinders were ground into his neck over the wound inflicted by the dart, the assassin stared with wide, haunting eyes straight into Luca's face. "If you knew where we were and were able to seize our records then how is it that you don't know something as simple as a name?"

Luca pulled the cigarette away and flicked it away mindlessly. "Oh we know who you are, but when I have to let someone live for a bit, I prefer to get a bit chummy with them. Makes things more interesting and less mundane." He laughed, "And please don't give me that, 'I'll never tell you anything' bullshit. You'll talk, one way or another...but unlike the people who really want the answers, I'm just a nice guy lookin' for a spot of conversation. Capice?"

"Nice guy...right," the assassin snapped, glaring at Luca then back at the man still holding him down. "At least get your ape off of me so I can breathe normally. This earned him one more smack into the floor before he was released. Blinking the thin trail of blood from his hairline out of his eye, he sat up and faced the Templar. "I have nothing to tell you that you would not have already discerned from the papers collected from the bureau...But if you can insure that this unnecessary abuse will cease you can have my name."

Luca's dark eyes trailed over the man's face for a moment. He waved his hand nonchalantly and nodded, "You have my word, but be a good boy and sit. With your arms bound, you'll tip over every time we hit a bump." He pulled out a fresh cigarette and lit it, actually smoking it this time.

"Like you care. It's Zhenya," the assassin snarled as he pushed himself back up against the wall with his head down, his bangs covering the eye that wasn't glazed over with blood. He lamented for a moment that he couldn't fix the damage to his half-squished hair but kept his silence after that.

"So that's how you pronounce that garble..." Luca said with a raised brow as he listened to the other man mumble. He laughed, "So vain...tch, expect that ugly thing to get shaved off as soon as we get you settled in." He took a long drag on his cigarette and rested his pistol across his stomach. Eventually, the van stopped and the doors opened, revealing the inside of a large warehouse. Luca jumped out along with the three guards who took Zhenya and forced him to his feet, shoving him out of the van. Luca looked him over, his eye catching the bleeding leg. "Calm down, boys...he won't be running any time soon..."

Zhenya stumbled and wrenched at the rope around his wrists, teeth bared as he stared around at the guards, who seemed to think he looked amusing; off-the-shoulder sheer black top, skinny jeans strategically ripped along the thighs, converse in toxic green to match the streaks in his hair, eyeliner around his eyes, large plugs in his ears and labret piercing. In short, he looked like some high school scene kid.

"I have nothing that would benefit any of you. You have no reason to keep me."

"I doubt you do, but we have to be absolutely sure that you're the last one." Luca nodded and the guards dragged the young man up to an elevator and blindfolded him. There wasn't much point in it as the kid was going to die, but Luca would stick to the rules at least in the building. Once they got to the holding center, they threw Zhenya in an empty room, chaining him to the opposite wall with a cot and a toilet. Luca removed the blindfold and he stuffed it back into his pocket.

Zhenya's teeth closed on Luca's hand before it got too far away, canines gritting in and drawing blood and a strangled cry from the templar. He spat blood to the side then grinned darkly and shook his hair back out of his face. Luca looked at his hand which now was littered with bloody teeth marks and he scoffed, pinching the wound on Zhenya's neck with his nails. "I almost feel bad doing this to such a kid, but honestly, you're just starting to become an annoyance now. Start behaving or this will only be all the more painful for you. Give us what we want and you'll just get a nice bullet between the eyes. Keep this up and they'll go slow, starting by ripping the nails clear out of your fingers."

"Fuck you and all of your friends," Zhenya growled quietly, nose wrinkled as he glared up at Luca, who only scoffed at him again. "The others will get word of what you did to us and you will all be put to a swift death."

"If you haven't noticed, your order is almost deceased. The rest will be hunted down and eliminated quickly." Luca tucked on his black muscle shirt and blew smoke in the kid's face. "It's pathetic that you all still try, but whatever...a cornered wolf can only bite until it's either free or dead." He stepped back, his sneakers squeaking a bit on the tile.

"You will regret this. All of you will." The assassin fell silent and would respond to no more questions, even as he was inflicted with minute tortures. Finally Luca seemed to grow bored of his obstinacy and left him alone.

Luca nodded to the guards, "Wake me up when the stupid fuck talks," he said, puffing away on his cigarette before leaving the room. Immediately, a hand snatched the butt out of his mouth and crushed it.

He frowned and snorted as his superior glared at him and said, "Raoul is dead, huh? Rather careless of you, don't you think?" Luca shrugged.

"It happens. The kid was quicker than I gave him credit for." He reached to grab a new cigarette, but the woman grabbed his wrist, pressing her thumb into the veins. He snarled, ripping his hand away, "One dead man. Big fucking deal. Guys like Raoul are a dime a dozen. Get a new one and move on."

"Lapdog," Zhenya sneered as he listened to the two of them, his eyes on the bindings that held him to the wall. He stared up along the chain for a long moment before smirking widely and running his tongue over his teeth. One was capped with silver and, embadded in the edge of that, a chip of diamond of the grade normally reserved for drills. After enough time left by himself to discern the weakest point in the chain, he would set to work patiently shaving off the metal.

Luca ignored Zhenya, his ire not at all aroused by the insult of some stupid prisoner. "Make it cleaner next time. You've been getting more people injured after every mission. You even got a nice nick yourself." She pointed to his throat and he rolled his eyes before sauntering out of the room, letting the interrogators have at their latest catch.

"The job's done. Who cares? At least we haven't had any escapees like your good pal Vidic. How many men has he lost trying to local that 17 guy again? Hmmm?"

"More than this one could hope to dispatch. But that does not change that you did not do your job very well," the woman waved a hand and moved off with a quiet mutter.

Zhenya lay beaten but not quite broken, though it was a close thing after the interrogators grew tired of getting nothing from the jumped up little Russian brat. As the door once more closed behind them and they reported, presumably to the woman, the assassin dragged himself to his cot and curled up on the side that didn't hurt quite as much. He could resume basically chewing through his chain later.

"I did my job. It was Raoul who only barely did his." Luca rolled his eyes and went back to his own room in the base, laying down and looking through the documents they had confiscated. It didn't look like there were any other assassins for this particular branch, but he knew he'd have to make sure...goddamnit...

Zhenya's eyes cracked open some time later as the throb in his body kept him from sleeping deeply. With a long, tired groan he pushed himself upright and felt along the links of his chain for the small divot he'd succeeded in making before his assault. He once more dug his tooth into the small rut and set to make it bigger, the tedious process making his jaw ache.

After a few hours of sleep, Luca heard a loud knock on his door. He groaned and got up, his short hair ruffled as he gripped the door and pulled it open. "What the hell?" he muttered, a hand rubbing his face.

"Your prisoner is trying to escape."

Luca blinked and followed the guard to the monitors, seeing that Zhenya was somehow slowly gnawing through the chains. "What the-" he growled in his throat and then stopped. "Let me handle this..." he went back to his room, changing into a black muscle shirt, combat boots and fingerless gloves with metal bumps coating the knuckles. "Fucking dumb brat..." he muttered as he entered the prison cell, "You think we don't have cameras on you?" he said, rubbing the metal over his knuckles as he looked down at Zhenya. "God...you really are fucking dumb."

The slumped figure of the assassin looked up lowly and lowered his hands past the point the chain would have permitted, then pushed off from the wall and rammed his shoulder into Luca's stomach, once more knocking him to the ground. He kept going, limping heavily on the leg that had been shot and colliding with the door. The lock automatically engaged as it slammed shut and he  pushed off of it then swung his foot into the side of Luca's head, knocking him cold. "Stupid Templars...you do not realize that I don't give a shit about your cameras."

As the door locked automatically, Luca gasped and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He only just saw the foot a second before it connected with the side of his face, his head jerking back violently as his body fell back onto the floor with a dull thwack. Zhenya grinned darkly and stood over Luca's prone body, fully intending to pay back some of the damage that had been inflicted upon him. He swung his foot back to deliver another hard kick to the side of the man's head, but his weight on the damaged one caused him to fall to one knee with a loud grunt. He glared down into the Templar's face vehemently then plopped himself down on the man's stomach.

Luca's body gave a harsh groan as Zhenya sat down on him, the older man's face twisted in pain even knocked out. The intercom blinked to life and a female voice sighed, "You're making this needlessly difficult, assassin..."

Zhenya's eyes scanned the room, vision going a black that was significantly darker than that of the room as he stared around. His lip curled back as he snarled hatefully in Russian for a moment then stiffened his fingers and dug sharpened nails into the wound in Luca's throat. "You have no reason to keep me," he hissed.

"Oh but we do. There could be others out there...we need to know where they are and what you know. Interrogation is only the first step. We do have an Animus though. If need be, we will go back into your most recent memories and take the information. We're just offering you an easier time of it.

"I told your friend already, there is nothing you can learn from me that you couldn't by reading what you took from our bureau. This is senseless." Zhenya's nails dug further into Luca's throat as he spoke, drawing a new wave of blood.

Luca coughed, his body forcing itself back to life as the younger man cut into his throat. "Fuckin'-" he flung himself up, shoving Zhenya back into the wall. He grabbed the boy by the throat, holding him against the wall as he brutally slammed his metal gloves into the other's stomach. "You little shit!" he growled as the woman over the intercom sighed again.

"Luca, stop beating him senseless and bring him to the Animus. Let's get this over with." Luca stopped punching Zhenya long enough to flip off the camera before he lowered the other, keeping a firm grip on his throat as he dragged him out of the room. The assassin coughed, spitting mixed bile and blood on the floor as he was dragged. He hung dead weight in Luca's hands, staring up at the hazy face with pure hatred. When he was shoved down on a cold silver bed he tried to roll off, only to be shoved back down and punched in the stomach once more. "Luca, that's enough," the voice of the woman snapped as she approached.

Luca glared at her, snapping the assassin's arms into the restraints as calmly as possible. "The little bitch kicked me in the face!" He touched the bruise on his cheek and snarled, spitting in Zhenya's face before he lowered the screen and hissed, "Take care of it fast. I want to enjoy killing this little faggot."

The assassin shook his head violently then arched his body up and curled his legs up over his head, flexing and supporting himself on his elbows as his thighs wrapped around Luca's throat and clamped down tight. He only pressed down harder as he felt hands clawing at his legs. Luca dug his nails into the assassin's legs, the muscles of his arms bulging as he fought to rip apart the muscles clamping over his throat. His teeth gnashed as he dug his nail into the bullet wound on Zhenya's calf and the younger man cried out in pain, his left leg falling to allow Luca to escape. "Let me bash his fucking kneecaps in, Trisha...god, let me," he growled as he forced both legs down with his body weight, locking them in as well as the Animus was turned on. Trisha just rolled her eyes and started up the machine, flipping through the DNA strand.

Zhenya let a long, violent stream of swears as he glared at the two of them, his energy tapering off quickly as he struggled fruitlessly against his bonds. His eyes flicked to the screen over his head, brows furrowing as he stared along the information then renewed his struggle.

"Here we go..." Trisha murmured, locking onto the memory and opening it up. Suddenly an alarm blared, red lights flashing as the windows around them were shielded shut with metal. Luca ripped his gun out as guards entered the room, doors bolting shut. "What the fuck happened?" Luca demanded, glaring at the men who were fixing their guns at the door. "Assassins...who else? We've got the first load at the bunker. It's unlikely they'll reach us, but it's still possible." Luca swore and went to his room, grabbing knives and an M-16.

"Told you, fucking Templar scumbags..." Zhenya wrenched harder at his bonds, grimacing as he managed to dislocate his thumb then slip his hand through one of the straps then yank the other up just high enough to free the other hand as the rest of the room's occupants scrambled to their positions. He shoved his thumb back into place with tears streaming down his cheeks from pain then freed his feet and swung his legs down from the bed to make a fast, if somewhat hobbled escape.

Luca reentered the room just as he saw Zhenya try to run away. He grabbed the other man, flipping him around, "No you don't," he growled as a loud bang echoed against the door. Both men turned to stare as another bang broke the silence. "Trisha, get to the exit. I'll cover you." He threw Zhenya to one of the guards and hissed, "Buy as much time with the brat as you can. We've got the memory on our network so we've got what we wanted."

Zhenya swung a knee into one crotch, his heel into another, and headbutted a remaining guard, breaking his nose. When he was released he turned and grabbed Luca's sleeve just as the man made a break for it and turned him around. His hand clamped tight around his windpipe, nails digging in on either side as he marched the man up against the wall then threw several hard punches into his solar plexus while he was still surprised. Behind him, the doors slid open and a small group surrounded them. One embraced Zhenya and muttered quickly to him then kissed each of his cheeks before pulling his arm over her shoulder and helping him out. As Luca watched, more men invaded the complex, until a hard fist to the base of his skull knocked him unconscious.

Trisha had managed to escape, but almost all of the guards had either been captured or killed, very few escaping. The assassin that had kissed Zhenya exhaled looking over their catch. "Thank god...we were so afraid that we wouldn't get to you in time." She hugged him again and smiled before looking at the knocked out Luca on the floor.

"Do with him as you wish," Zhenya snapped, wincing as his leg bumped into the woman's. "Just...leave him alive. I want to kill him myself." The men surrounding Luca picked him up without particular care, the biggest of them carrying him over a shoulder.

Luca woke an hour later, his head throbbing hard from being physically knocked out twice within less than a 30 minute period. Groaning, he blinked open an eye, finding his arms tied behind his back. "No..." his teeth gnashed as he began to struggle. "Fuck!"