He had been a monster back then, reveling in Connor’s pain and savoring the anticipation of destroying the young man. That had been the plan all along. Break down the Assassin into impressionable parts and then build him up in the image that the Order needed.
No. That wasn’t exactly right. It was not the Order that needed the Assassin to be thus. They could easily have killed him from the start. It would have been clean and respectful of their ancient enemy.
It was Charles that wanted his enemy reduced, Charles that came up with the idea of breeding him. Charles that, once he realized what it meant to have Master Kenway’s son, embarked to systematically crush Connor.
He opened his eyes.
The screaming and pleas had stopped. The mocking comments of his other self and his men had ceased. Connor lay still and bleeding on the ground, staring right at Charles.
Charles knew that Connor was really looking at Washington, that he just happened to be in the way. But that did not stop the feeling that those amber-brown eyes were silently accusing him. Glossy with traces of tears...and Charles could see the very large crack that was beginning to form in them.
It was this moment that began to bring out his wife’s suicide. It was this moment that things truly began to fall apart.
His other self suddenly leaned over to kiss those slack slicks, and Charles felt bile rise in his throat.
He had really been a right bastard. He’d planned out every single detail of this humiliation and truly did everything he could to annihilate Connor’s spirit.
His other moved away from Charles’s wife and made to re-clothe Charles’s wife. Connor did not move all the while. Not as his undergarments were roughly pulled up, as his robes were drawn closed and fastened or as his trousers were brought back up to his hips.
He lay insensate and dead to the world and looked so vulnerable that Charles could not help but stagger over to him.
Charles lay a trembling hand to Connor’s head and gently stroked that damp brown hair.
Connor looked—wrong. Now that Charles had seen him vibrant and commanding and alive and powerful, he looked wrong now. Connor was not helpless or weak. He didn’t get hurt and very rarely needed saving. He steered ships and barked orders to his crew of Alphas. He took on multiple enemies at one time without a single scratch and handled an entire room full of prison inmates while in heat. He had the self-confidence and force of presence to ignore Master Kenway’s criticisms. And he had the humility to admit when he made a mistake and endangered everyone.
He wasn’t, he wasn’t this lifeless doll.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry that I brought you to this. I’m sorry that I took pleasure in it. I’m sorry that I never knew how magnificent you were as you were until after I destroyed you. I’m sorry.”
He laid a reverent kiss on top of that dark head.
“But I’m not giving up on you.”
He stood abruptly and turned to face the white-robed woman.
“I know I was cruel to him. I know it. But that is because I hated him back then. That is because I truly did not care then. Once I came to care for him, once I began to love him—“
“Nothing changed.”
Charles felt anger boil through him.
“That isn’t true! I had the servants cook him his favorite meals. I was kinder to him. I let him play with Spado and tried not to hurt him when I took my husbandly rights.”
“And you suffocated his will to live all the while.”
The words were like a punch to the stomach, and Charles found it difficult to breathe for one agonizing moment.
“I—“
“You trapped him in your home, planted him in the middle of enemies at worst and people who were wholly unconcerned with him at best. You denied him the environments he was most familiar with and kept his friends hostage.”
“I—“
“You turned each and every day into a slow misery and did not even notice how close you were to losing him far before the birth of your son.”
“No,” Charles whispered. “You lie. I would have seen it. I would have seen it if he was in such terrible straits.”
The woman said nothing to that, but the world around Charles shifted again.
He looked around and found them to be in his office. It was dark, clearly in the middle of the night.
He turned back to the woman. “What is this supposed to prove?”
As if on cue, the door opened, and the Charles could only jus tmake out the familiar form of his wife slip in. He was swathed in a thin robe, shivering lightly against the chill in the air, and in his hand was... Charles’s keys!
Something in Charles’s mind clicked, and he realized where they were.
“So he was responsible for the green light that Edwards and Master Kenway’s men saw,” he murmured.
The woman said nothing from behind Charles, and he watched as his wife fumbled with his drawer until it opened.
Watching his wife clutch the beads he had worn in his hair, Charles could not find it in himself to be angry with Connor. It was so long ago, and his wife was in such obvious distress over it all.
Or so he thought until he saw his wife lift the pistol out of its hiding place.
A loaded pistol. With a single round, but a single round was enough to kill someone.
“Why am I still alive then?” he wondered. “Why did he not shoot me as I slept unaware?”
“Because that was not his purpose,” the woman replied.
Charles watched with shocked and horrified eyes as his wife slowly lifted the muzzle to his own temple.
“No,” he whispered. “No, he wouldn’t...”
The click as the safety was drawn blood was enough to chill his blood, and Charles made to grab the offensive weapon only to watch his hands pass right through it.
He turned anguished eyes towards the woman.
“Why?” he asked. “Why would he—“
She stared at him.
“Why would he not? Is it not the only way for him to escape you and the torment life had become? Was that not how he escaped you eventually?”
Charles’s heart thudded painfully at her words. “That was not the same. That was him trying to save Washington. This is different.”
That alien voice came again, just as unaffected as its owner seemed. “Not so different. He merely had an additional incentive later that compelled him to ignore my advice.”
“Your advice?” Charles almost did not want to know.
The woman turned those frosty golden eyes to Connor.
“The green light that your men saw was my power at work, seeking to reach my descendant before he left the realm of the living. I spoke with him much as I with you now through the memories of his mentor and his dead comrades. It is through my intervention and my intervention alone that he lived long enough to deliver you your son.”
A green light erupted, and Charles turned back to Connor only to watch him slump to the ground in unconsciousness.
“Why didn’t you save him earlier?” Charles whispered. He turned angry eyes on the woman. “You are powerful, have the ability to send me back through time, prevented Connor from killing himself at this moment. Why didn’t you save Connor before?”
“Why didn’t I save him before you forced him to be your wife, you mean?”
Charles straightened and walked furiously towards her. “You insinuate that I’m evil for doing what I have done. And I agree. I am. What I did was inexcusable. But if I am evil, then you are no less so for having the power to prevent all of this and then not doing anything. You could have stopped me. You could have made it so that Connor did not suffer like this. You could have—”
“Yes, I could have. But there was no reason for me to. My prerogative is the survival of Minerva and my bloodlines for the final decision. My descendant’s suffering or lack thereof is not my concern.”
Charles felt his blood turn to ice in his veins.
“So this entire trip, my travel back in time, you appearing to me now—”
“—is to make it so that my descendant does not entangle himself with those that cannot give him children, and that his child survives to have a child in turn.”
She turned icy gold eyes on him.
“And now that you have accomplished both by removing my descendant from that Washington man and have not forced him into circumstances that he would rather kill himself than live, thus setting in motion the end of my line, I require you to remove yourself from his life, such that he may have his child in peace.”
In Pursuit of Happiness 34
Chapter 34 - Chill
He had been a monster back then, reveling in Connor’s pain and savoring the anticipation of destroying the young man. That had been the plan all along. Break down the Assassin into impressionable parts and then build him up in the image that the Order needed.
No. That wasn’t exactly right. It was not the Order that needed the Assassin to be thus. They could easily have killed him from the start. It would have been clean and respectful of their ancient enemy.
It was Charles that wanted his enemy reduced, Charles that came up with the idea of breeding him. Charles that, once he realized what it meant to have Master Kenway’s son, embarked to systematically crush Connor.
He opened his eyes.
The screaming and pleas had stopped. The mocking comments of his other self and his men had ceased. Connor lay still and bleeding on the ground, staring right at Charles.
Charles knew that Connor was really looking at Washington, that he just happened to be in the way. But that did not stop the feeling that those amber-brown eyes were silently accusing him. Glossy with traces of tears...and Charles could see the very large crack that was beginning to form in them.
It was this moment that began to bring out his wife’s suicide. It was this moment that things truly began to fall apart.
His other self suddenly leaned over to kiss those slack slicks, and Charles felt bile rise in his throat.
He had really been a right bastard. He’d planned out every single detail of this humiliation and truly did everything he could to annihilate Connor’s spirit.
His other moved away from Charles’s wife and made to re-clothe Charles’s wife. Connor did not move all the while. Not as his undergarments were roughly pulled up, as his robes were drawn closed and fastened or as his trousers were brought back up to his hips.
He lay insensate and dead to the world and looked so vulnerable that Charles could not help but stagger over to him.
Charles lay a trembling hand to Connor’s head and gently stroked that damp brown hair.
Connor looked—wrong. Now that Charles had seen him vibrant and commanding and alive and powerful, he looked wrong now. Connor was not helpless or weak. He didn’t get hurt and very rarely needed saving. He steered ships and barked orders to his crew of Alphas. He took on multiple enemies at one time without a single scratch and handled an entire room full of prison inmates while in heat. He had the self-confidence and force of presence to ignore Master Kenway’s criticisms. And he had the humility to admit when he made a mistake and endangered everyone.
He wasn’t, he wasn’t this lifeless doll.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry that I brought you to this. I’m sorry that I took pleasure in it. I’m sorry that I never knew how magnificent you were as you were until after I destroyed you. I’m sorry.”
He laid a reverent kiss on top of that dark head.
“But I’m not giving up on you.”
He stood abruptly and turned to face the white-robed woman.
“I know I was cruel to him. I know it. But that is because I hated him back then. That is because I truly did not care then. Once I came to care for him, once I began to love him—“
“Nothing changed.”
Charles felt anger boil through him.
“That isn’t true! I had the servants cook him his favorite meals. I was kinder to him. I let him play with Spado and tried not to hurt him when I took my husbandly rights.”
“And you suffocated his will to live all the while.”
The words were like a punch to the stomach, and Charles found it difficult to breathe for one agonizing moment.
“I—“
“You trapped him in your home, planted him in the middle of enemies at worst and people who were wholly unconcerned with him at best. You denied him the environments he was most familiar with and kept his friends hostage.”
“I—“
“You turned each and every day into a slow misery and did not even notice how close you were to losing him far before the birth of your son.”
“No,” Charles whispered. “You lie. I would have seen it. I would have seen it if he was in such terrible straits.”
The woman said nothing to that, but the world around Charles shifted again.
He looked around and found them to be in his office. It was dark, clearly in the middle of the night.
He turned back to the woman. “What is this supposed to prove?”
As if on cue, the door opened, and the Charles could only jus tmake out the familiar form of his wife slip in. He was swathed in a thin robe, shivering lightly against the chill in the air, and in his hand was... Charles’s keys!
Something in Charles’s mind clicked, and he realized where they were.
“So he was responsible for the green light that Edwards and Master Kenway’s men saw,” he murmured.
The woman said nothing from behind Charles, and he watched as his wife fumbled with his drawer until it opened.
Watching his wife clutch the beads he had worn in his hair, Charles could not find it in himself to be angry with Connor. It was so long ago, and his wife was in such obvious distress over it all.
Or so he thought until he saw his wife lift the pistol out of its hiding place.
A loaded pistol. With a single round, but a single round was enough to kill someone.
“Why am I still alive then?” he wondered. “Why did he not shoot me as I slept unaware?”
“Because that was not his purpose,” the woman replied.
Charles watched with shocked and horrified eyes as his wife slowly lifted the muzzle to his own temple.
“No,” he whispered. “No, he wouldn’t...”
The click as the safety was drawn blood was enough to chill his blood, and Charles made to grab the offensive weapon only to watch his hands pass right through it.
He turned anguished eyes towards the woman.
“Why?” he asked. “Why would he—“
She stared at him.
“Why would he not? Is it not the only way for him to escape you and the torment life had become? Was that not how he escaped you eventually?”
Charles’s heart thudded painfully at her words. “That was not the same. That was him trying to save Washington. This is different.”
That alien voice came again, just as unaffected as its owner seemed. “Not so different. He merely had an additional incentive later that compelled him to ignore my advice.”
“Your advice?” Charles almost did not want to know.
The woman turned those frosty golden eyes to Connor.
“The green light that your men saw was my power at work, seeking to reach my descendant before he left the realm of the living. I spoke with him much as I with you now through the memories of his mentor and his dead comrades. It is through my intervention and my intervention alone that he lived long enough to deliver you your son.”
A green light erupted, and Charles turned back to Connor only to watch him slump to the ground in unconsciousness.
“Why didn’t you save him earlier?” Charles whispered. He turned angry eyes on the woman. “You are powerful, have the ability to send me back through time, prevented Connor from killing himself at this moment. Why didn’t you save Connor before?”
“Why didn’t I save him before you forced him to be your wife, you mean?”
Charles straightened and walked furiously towards her. “You insinuate that I’m evil for doing what I have done. And I agree. I am. What I did was inexcusable. But if I am evil, then you are no less so for having the power to prevent all of this and then not doing anything. You could have stopped me. You could have made it so that Connor did not suffer like this. You could have—”
“Yes, I could have. But there was no reason for me to. My prerogative is the survival of Minerva and my bloodlines for the final decision. My descendant’s suffering or lack thereof is not my concern.”
Charles felt his blood turn to ice in his veins.
“So this entire trip, my travel back in time, you appearing to me now—”
“—is to make it so that my descendant does not entangle himself with those that cannot give him children, and that his child survives to have a child in turn.”
She turned icy gold eyes on him.
“And now that you have accomplished both by removing my descendant from that Washington man and have not forced him into circumstances that he would rather kill himself than live, thus setting in motion the end of my line, I require you to remove yourself from his life, such that he may have his child in peace.”
Charles could only stare at her in shock.