Eh. Not sure what I think, but I did manage to meet my goals. So enjoy!
Strange Fates
Chapter 30 - Endings
Charles paced restlessly in his tent.
He was to meet one of his agents for some reconnaissance and the man was late.
Normally, Charles would have sent another one of his agents in search of the man, but...
Charles went about his duties these days with a distracted air.
He was still both a general in the continental army, seeking to eliminate the influence of the crown in the new world, and second-in-command of the colonial Templars. He had many tasks to oversee, his own battalion to lead, agents to supervise...
But his heart wasn’t in it.
He and Master Kenway were like a pair, each weighted down with moroseness.
He for the child and Master Kenway for his own child.
Charles considered it strange, that his mentor could grieve so when he was the cause of that grief.
But Charles’s mentor had always been a man of great conviction and principle.
He put the Order above anything and everything, even his own heart.
Even his own family.
Charles could not believe it when Master Kenway’s missive had arrived.
He had hoped that, with his willful blindness into the matter, with his one act of disobedience, that the boy, that his child...
Well.
It was no use dwelling on could-have-beens and should-have-beens now.
Master Kenway had shot the Assassin. The boy had fallen from no small height. The other Assassins and Washington had carried off the body, no doubt to give the Master Assassin a proper burial.
There had only been a deep stain of blood left.
Charles’s longed-for child was dead now, his intentions be damned. And he didn’t even have any physical reminder to mourn over.
How vexing.
To fall in love with the child so that he’d even betrayed the Order.
And it had all come to naught.
Charles glanced at the timepiece in his tent and growled.
His agent was very late. He’d have to discipline his men for this.
He was in no mood to suffer incompetence.
Master Kenway was in a foul state after he was forced to kill his son, and the duties of leading naturally fell upon Charles.
He was acting Grandmaster until his mentor regained himself, even if he felt like withdrawing from the world to rage himself.
It was punishment, it must be punishment for wishing to keep the Assassin’s plans secret, for wanting the child that once grew in his belly.
It was too perverse to be anything else and...
A footstep behind him.
Finally, his agent had arrived.
With a growl, Charles whirled around, prepared to verbally lash the man and...
Pain.
Charles choked, doubling over and collapsing and...
His hand automatically went to his throat and came away wet.
He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t...
He stared at his hand, at the red painting it.
Why was it red?
Why...?
Another stab of pain, this time through the heart.
A soft voice whispered in his ear.
“You have caused a lot of harm, Charles Lee. But you have also attempted to do better in the end. Thank you for that. I cannot forgive you, but I will make your end faster than it might have been.”
And with that, the blade twisted, resulting in agony raging through Charles’s body before he mercifully sank into darkness.
He wondered if he would meet his child in an afterlife.
----
George finished penning the missive to General Putnam. Such a tragedy, that the late Charles Lee had been murdered in his own tent by a renegade Redcoat.
They would need to schedule a funeral for the decorated general, as was proper.
Even if George enormously disliked the Alpha for what he’d done to his beloved Wolf, it was important that morale be maintained.
It would demoralize the troops to learn that one of their trusted Generals had been working against them on his own agenda.
George had toyed with the idea of going along the original plan and exposing the man, but, after consulting the Brotherhood on the threat against his person, had decided against it.
The Templar Order was almost entirely defanged, having lost most of its Inner Circle and both Gerhard von Stantten and Frederico Perez besides. The new Inner Circle members were all relatively inexperienced and would worry about succession and internal politics rather than bothering George.
While their accursed Grandmaster was still alive, the man was aging fast. His chosen successor was dead, and many eyes were on the position of second-in-command.
Besides which, the only Templar capable of truly usurping his position was the late Lee. There was no point in exposing the man now.
George sighed.
He felt remorseful, that things had ended the way they did, that he would have to plan the loathsome Lee’s funeral.
After all the Alpha had done to his beloved Wolf, after he had single-handed brought his beloved to this pass, it seemed a bit too easy and too unjust that his death was quick and he would be buried with full honors.
George was not normally a vindictive man, but...
Well, the events of the past few months were enough to try anyone’s patience.
Speaking of which...
He heard a soft football behind him and turned to embrace that white clad figure behind him.
“Connor, you are doing well.”
The Omega smiled and gently grasped his hand.
George laid his head against that rounded belly.
“How is the child?”
A grunt.
“Excitable. I am kicked constantly.”
George grinned as he felt one of those kicks against his cheek.
How lucky he was to have this.
How lucky he was that—
“Your magic ring is a blessed miracle.”
Connor snorted.
“It is hardly a magic ring, merely a trinket from my travels.”
George sobered.
“It saved your life. If you hadn’t been wearing it, then—“
“—The bullet would have killed me, I know, as was my father’s intention.”
And what a chilling thought, that the Templar Grandmaster had been determined to end the life of both his son and that of his grandchild’s.
“Do you blame me?”
George looked at that beloved face.
“Blame you? How can I? If you had not done as you did, then they would have known you were alive. We would never have escaped.”
A clever ploy it had been.
His Connor had realized the opportunity presented by the repelled bullet and used the distraction to drop into the haystack to safety. It was unfortunate that he hadn’t quite fallen correctly due to the weight of the child and managed to stab himself on some sharp implements resting beside it, but it was probably for the best anyhow.
The Templars had evidently seen the blood and concluded that he had died. It allowed his beloved Wolf the time to heal, and then to take out their second-in-command.
George went back to stroking that taut belly.
“Paul is pleased about the news of our wedding,” he murmured.
“You told Paul Revere?”
George chuckled at the grimace in that voice.
“He unfortunately found out when he mistook my correspondence with his own. I hope you don’t mind him being one of our guests?”
The Omega didn’t look too put out.
“If we must.”
It seems that his Omega never forgave his friend for that rather eventful horse-ride.
George didn’t blame him, and if he ever learned that those gropes had been on purpose...
Paul Revere ought to tread carefully.
But now was not the time for such thoughts.
George rested against his beloved Omega.
To finally have Connor, to be safe, to soon be named father to Connor’s child...
Strange Fates 30
Strange Fates
Chapter 30 - Endings
Charles paced restlessly in his tent.
He was to meet one of his agents for some reconnaissance and the man was late.
Normally, Charles would have sent another one of his agents in search of the man, but...
Charles went about his duties these days with a distracted air.
He was still both a general in the continental army, seeking to eliminate the influence of the crown in the new world, and second-in-command of the colonial Templars. He had many tasks to oversee, his own battalion to lead, agents to supervise...
But his heart wasn’t in it.
He and Master Kenway were like a pair, each weighted down with moroseness.
He for the child and Master Kenway for his own child.
Charles considered it strange, that his mentor could grieve so when he was the cause of that grief.
But Charles’s mentor had always been a man of great conviction and principle.
He put the Order above anything and everything, even his own heart.
Even his own family.
Charles could not believe it when Master Kenway’s missive had arrived.
He had hoped that, with his willful blindness into the matter, with his one act of disobedience, that the boy, that his child...
Well.
It was no use dwelling on could-have-beens and should-have-beens now.
Master Kenway had shot the Assassin. The boy had fallen from no small height. The other Assassins and Washington had carried off the body, no doubt to give the Master Assassin a proper burial.
There had only been a deep stain of blood left.
Charles’s longed-for child was dead now, his intentions be damned. And he didn’t even have any physical reminder to mourn over.
How vexing.
To fall in love with the child so that he’d even betrayed the Order.
And it had all come to naught.
Charles glanced at the timepiece in his tent and growled.
His agent was very late. He’d have to discipline his men for this.
He was in no mood to suffer incompetence.
Master Kenway was in a foul state after he was forced to kill his son, and the duties of leading naturally fell upon Charles.
He was acting Grandmaster until his mentor regained himself, even if he felt like withdrawing from the world to rage himself.
It was punishment, it must be punishment for wishing to keep the Assassin’s plans secret, for wanting the child that once grew in his belly.
It was too perverse to be anything else and...
A footstep behind him.
Finally, his agent had arrived.
With a growl, Charles whirled around, prepared to verbally lash the man and...
Pain.
Charles choked, doubling over and collapsing and...
His hand automatically went to his throat and came away wet.
He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t...
He stared at his hand, at the red painting it.
Why was it red?
Why...?
Another stab of pain, this time through the heart.
A soft voice whispered in his ear.
“You have caused a lot of harm, Charles Lee. But you have also attempted to do better in the end. Thank you for that. I cannot forgive you, but I will make your end faster than it might have been.”
And with that, the blade twisted, resulting in agony raging through Charles’s body before he mercifully sank into darkness.
He wondered if he would meet his child in an afterlife.
----
George finished penning the missive to General Putnam. Such a tragedy, that the late Charles Lee had been murdered in his own tent by a renegade Redcoat.
They would need to schedule a funeral for the decorated general, as was proper.
Even if George enormously disliked the Alpha for what he’d done to his beloved Wolf, it was important that morale be maintained.
It would demoralize the troops to learn that one of their trusted Generals had been working against them on his own agenda.
George had toyed with the idea of going along the original plan and exposing the man, but, after consulting the Brotherhood on the threat against his person, had decided against it.
The Templar Order was almost entirely defanged, having lost most of its Inner Circle and both Gerhard von Stantten and Frederico Perez besides. The new Inner Circle members were all relatively inexperienced and would worry about succession and internal politics rather than bothering George.
While their accursed Grandmaster was still alive, the man was aging fast. His chosen successor was dead, and many eyes were on the position of second-in-command.
Besides which, the only Templar capable of truly usurping his position was the late Lee. There was no point in exposing the man now.
George sighed.
He felt remorseful, that things had ended the way they did, that he would have to plan the loathsome Lee’s funeral.
After all the Alpha had done to his beloved Wolf, after he had single-handed brought his beloved to this pass, it seemed a bit too easy and too unjust that his death was quick and he would be buried with full honors.
George was not normally a vindictive man, but...
Well, the events of the past few months were enough to try anyone’s patience.
Speaking of which...
He heard a soft football behind him and turned to embrace that white clad figure behind him.
“Connor, you are doing well.”
The Omega smiled and gently grasped his hand.
George laid his head against that rounded belly.
“How is the child?”
A grunt.
“Excitable. I am kicked constantly.”
George grinned as he felt one of those kicks against his cheek.
How lucky he was to have this.
How lucky he was that—
“Your magic ring is a blessed miracle.”
Connor snorted.
“It is hardly a magic ring, merely a trinket from my travels.”
George sobered.
“It saved your life. If you hadn’t been wearing it, then—“
“—The bullet would have killed me, I know, as was my father’s intention.”
And what a chilling thought, that the Templar Grandmaster had been determined to end the life of both his son and that of his grandchild’s.
“Do you blame me?”
George looked at that beloved face.
“Blame you? How can I? If you had not done as you did, then they would have known you were alive. We would never have escaped.”
A clever ploy it had been.
His Connor had realized the opportunity presented by the repelled bullet and used the distraction to drop into the haystack to safety. It was unfortunate that he hadn’t quite fallen correctly due to the weight of the child and managed to stab himself on some sharp implements resting beside it, but it was probably for the best anyhow.
The Templars had evidently seen the blood and concluded that he had died. It allowed his beloved Wolf the time to heal, and then to take out their second-in-command.
George went back to stroking that taut belly.
“Paul is pleased about the news of our wedding,” he murmured.
“You told Paul Revere?”
George chuckled at the grimace in that voice.
“He unfortunately found out when he mistook my correspondence with his own. I hope you don’t mind him being one of our guests?”
The Omega didn’t look too put out.
“If we must.”
It seems that his Omega never forgave his friend for that rather eventful horse-ride.
George didn’t blame him, and if he ever learned that those gropes had been on purpose...
Paul Revere ought to tread carefully.
But now was not the time for such thoughts.
George rested against his beloved Omega.
To finally have Connor, to be safe, to soon be named father to Connor’s child...
George felt content.
He was looking forward to the future.
Finis