A Long Way to Fall

by Cinders of War

Chapter 77: I am the Darkness

"So, you and Keila, Morning Blade," Twilight Sparkle said, stopping the ex-Assassin's storytelling. "Did you two get along well?"

"I never did quite talk to her enough to get to know her better, but we were on rather okay terms until the recent events." Morning Blade pulled at her braid unconsciously. "She left us when we needed her the most. Truthfully, I resented her then, but she did come back to help us, after all. And I don't want to hold grudges after everything's over. I guess, yeah, I have nothing against her, Twilight."

"So Keila, she's... nice?" Twilight wanted to confirm.

Morning chuckled and wiped at her cheek. "Yes. She generally is. She just got a little grumpy every time she talked to Frigid. The two of them are the ones who don't get along."

"That's a shame. Were they always like that?" Twilight leaned closer. "Were they always at each other's necks?"

The ex-Assassin smiled and held up her book to the pony princess. "We'll get there, princess. We'll get there."

---

---

“Simple plan, don’t you think?” Keila asked her partner as the briefing came to a close.

“Maybe a bit too simple…” Ikram mused as he sheathed both scimitars at his sides. “This is the Grand Master we’re talking about. A surprising one too. If he’s anything like the old king…”

“Ikram, you worry too much!” Feather Duster walked in, a fellow Assassin with short light yellow hair, loading a bullet into her sniper rifle. “See this gun? I can take down at least a troop of Templars from afar before they figure out where I am. If this Grand Master is protected, then so be it! I’ll just find a good spot and end it.”

“Well, if you could do that, why are there still so many high-profiled Templars around?” Ikram challenged. “I mean, you could easily just shoot all your targets right?”

Keila frowned. Sure, it sounded like they could easily take down this Grand Master with little problem, but it probably wasn’t going to be that easy. The black haired Assassin figured she would have a look after inspecting the Templar base down near the center of town.

Shadowstrike, Feather Duster’s partner entered the room and beckoned for them to leave. “The rest are already going. What are you three still doing here?”

“Right, sorry!” Feather Duster grabbed her scimitar and a satchel of throwing knives before heading out with her partner.

“Come on, Keila. I want front row tickets for this,” Ikram smiled and bounded out the door.

Mentor Shamal had gathered ten Assassins and sent them to raid the Templar stronghold, their objective to take down their new leader, Sombra, and to prevent them from ever finding the other artifacts buried within Masyaf. The new Grand Master’s name still puzzled Keila. Something was warning her at the back of her head that this man wasn’t quite what she thought he was, but she had no idea what else to think.

The group of Assassins had left through the top of their bureau, using the roof to get down to the other roofs before sprinting their way over to the Templar base, all the while sticking to the shadows.

As was usual for Saddle Arabia, the sky was mostly clear and free of clouds, but without much of the light pollution that major cities suffered from, the Assassins were able to easily slink from one pool of shadows to the next, completely invisible to anyone who might have been looking out for them, Templar or otherwise.

Since the enemy was in the same city, the Assassin crew soon found themselves outside the Templar perimeter, looking down into the compound from above.

“I got this covered.” Feather Duster quickly got on her belly and propped her sniper rifle in front of her face, flipping the scope covers open and loading the bullet into the chamber, all set to go. “I’ll let you know if I see anything noteworthy.”

The Templars had dug in deeply here, setting up their camps and expanding their perimeter. As they watched, a handful of guards gathered round a bonfire and began to eat their dinner. The entire camp was lit with numerous halogen lamps. These were the grunts, however. The important people were most likely sequestered within two imposing metal structures that were encircled with tents, lookout towers, and smaller buildings.

Keila and Ikram had already been here before, remembering the old way in. Unfortunately, the Templars had upgraded their gates since their last visit. Besides the two guards stationed outside the gate, a new sentry nest was positioned next to it, a man inside holding on to a shiny new machine gun of sorts with a metallic roof over his head, preventing any projectiles or air assassinations from reaching him.

“Weeeell…” Ikram shrugged. “Maybe we should find another way in?”

“There’s ten of us,” one of the other Assassins, Sting Wing, replied. “We can take that gun nest easy!”

“At the risk of putting the base in alert?” Keila reminded him. “Bad idea.”

“Well, do you have another plan?”

“Actually, yes. There’s a generator system inside that fenced in area over there,” Keila indicated a towering rectangular box with a soft blue light on it, just on the edge of the camp. “If we shut it down, we’ll be able to sneak in until they get it back up again.”

“Feather Duster can knock it out from here,” another Assassin pointed out.

“No, if the Templars see the bullet holes, they’ll know it’s us. We’ll have to manually turn it off.”

“A few of us should head in,” Ikram suggested, pointing to the guard tower around the side. “Perhaps we can jump in from that.”

“Yeah, okay. You wanna do it, Ikram, or should I?”

Ikram unhooked a wooden crossbow from his back and fitted a special bolt on it.

“Sweet dreams,” he said, and fired. The sentry in the tower slapped a hand to his neck before slowly sinking to the floor. “See you soon, Keila.”

The turquoise haired Assassin traveled along some buildings before making his way down to the vacant guard tower. He climbed straight up to the top instead of taking the stairs, before propelling himself as far as he could, off the railing and into the compound, landing with nothing but a soft thud as he rolled to lessen the impact.

Sticking to the deep shadows that the lamps cast, none of the guards even heard Ikram zip toward the generator and press his thumb onto an emergency stop button, plunging the entire outer camp into darkness.

“That’ll buy us a few minutes.” Ikram pulled his walkie-talkie to his mouth. “All clear, Keila. Get the others here quickly. I’ll find a good spot to hide before the lights come back on.

The blue coated Assassin kept low and proceeded along to one of the nearby storage sheds and kept to the walls, sinking into the darkness. He watched as the rest of his friends enter through the side gate after the sudden blackout caught the guards there by surprise, allowing the Assassins to take them down with ease. Not a single bullet was fired from their new turret as Keila led the group in.

“Nice one, Ikram!” Keila whispered as she gave him a friendly punch.

“Thanks, but we still have a target to find.”

“Yeah well… Yeah. Let’s go.”

Keila pushed past him and headed into the building, sneaking through a room filled with crates and cardboard boxes as the rest followed behind her through the building.

There was a guard along with a blue haired man in a suit standing by some crates, inspecting the contents, but they were dealt with easily. From the darkness, Shadowstrike emerged and pulled the guard back into the shadows; the other Templar didn’t even notice the guard’s disappearance.

The purple haired Assassin swiftly stuck a katar into the man’s chest as he held another hand over his mouth, the whole ordeal sounding nothing more than a cough.

Keila dealt with the last man, stabbing one of her knives into the back of his neck before pulling him into the shadows.

“Simple as that,” Ikram smiled and patted his partner on her back. Keila really was something else. He was glad he got to work with such a talented and beautiful woman. “Alright, let’s go on. The target should be in the main building. Shouldn’t be far.”

As they left the shed, the lights around them suddenly came back on, forcing the Assassins back into the building.

“Perfect,” Sting Wing grunted and looked ahead. “What are we going to do now?”

Ikram scanned the path ahead. The base only had so many lights, still leaving plenty of shadows for them to sneak around in. They would just have to be more careful now.

“Same plan. Just stick to the shadows like we were trained to and everything should be fine.”

A group of patrolling soldiers emerged from around one of the tents, panning their flashlights and rifles across the flat space ahead.

“Great.” Ikram ducked back behind a crate and rolled his eyes. “Just what we needed. Feather Duster. What do you see?”

“I’ve got them in my sights,” the sniper replied over the radio. “But you’ve got to be ready.”

“You guys all set?” Ikram whispered to his little team, receiving nods from all of them. “Alright. On my mark, we neutralize them all. Feather Duster.”

There was the sound of glass cracking along with the impact of something into the cement floor behind. One of the soldiers dropped dead as Ikram and the other Assassins left their cover, running straight for the other soldiers. Ikram hit the first Templar, drilling a knife right under his chin, while Keila slashed at a man’s legs before stabbing him in the neck after he fell. The other Assassins had pulled out their daggers and got to work on the remaining soldiers. The Templars didn’t manage to fire off a single bullet.

Silently and efficiently, the Assassins shifted the bodies into the shed before proceeding towards the main structures. Many of the windows were lighted, with some having Templars walking about inside. Ikram and Keila made especially careful observations at the windows, hoping to identify the Grand Master before arriving, allowing Feather Duster to take the shot, saving the Assassin team any trouble they might face on the way in.

“What does he even look like?” Sting Wing asked from behind as they crept behind a dumpster in between two tents.

“No one’s seen him yet, Sting,” Shadowstrike told the green haired Assassin.

“And we’re taking him down before he can do any damage,” Keila murmured over to them. “We’re not letting him learn the location of the other artifacts.”

They were about to go on when Ikram felt Keila grab on to his arm. “What?”

“Something’s moving.” He followed Keila’s finger to a portion of the floor as it rippled and bent like it they were standing in a pond of sorts.

Before they knew it, something began rising out of the darkness, wearing a long red cape over glinting steel armor with a large Templar cross on its chest. It was a grey-skinned man with flowing black hair which seemed to move on its own and glowing green eyes with red pupils. The man’s appearance alone forced Keila and Ikram a step back, the Assassins already feeling something off from the man before them.

Then they noticed something else: A bronze coloured sphere in his hand.

“The artifact…” Keila gasped as the man stood there, looking at them, his eyes glowing like fireflies.

“And just who might you be,” the man hissed and raised his left hand, the one holding the artifact. In an instant one of the Assassins standing next to Ikram burst into dust, quickly blown away by the wind. “This is my domain. You are not allowed here.”

The remaining Assassins sensed the danger and took a few steps back, their weapons raised and ready to fight.

The grey man bent back in laughter before flashing them a smile full of white teeth. “You think those puny weapons will hurt me? Bow before your new king, and perhaps I’ll let you live as my slaves.”

Immediately, the Assassins all knew who this mysterious figure was.

“Sombra…”

Sombra fixed his glowing eyes, which began emitting purple smoke, on the Assassin who said it and immediately disintegrated him with another blast of his weapon. “That’s Grand Master Sombra. As Grand Master, I ask you. What are you doing here?”

The Saddle Arabian Assassins quickly scattered, running back to the shadows as Templar guards began running in, attracted by the battle.

That was when Keila and Ikram realized their mistake. They had snuck in, avoiding as many of the Templar forces as they could, who now began making their way to the center. Now close to the middle and facing off against the Templars’ new Grand Master, the guards on the outer sections of the base now had them boxed in, meaning they were trapped.

---

Keila and Ikram had gotten separated from the others when the Assassins dove in different directions, doing their best to get away from the Templar Grand Master and the other Templars, now homing in from around them.

The two of them had managed to get back to one of the storage sheds, but the black haired Assassin turned back just in time to see another Assassin gunned down by some of the guards.

Keila gritted her teeth and gripped her blades tighter, but Ikram was there to stop her before she could run back out there to get vaporized by the artifact.

“Keila, we have to go,” he told her softly. “There’s nothing we can do. Our priority is to make it out and hope the others do the same. Don’t worry. We’ll stick to the shadows like we normally do and we’ll be out in no time.”

“But what if the shadows are not yours to use?” a dark voice boomed behind them. Both Assassins turned around in time to see Sombra melt out from the shed wall. “You think the darkness is your ally? I am the darkness!”

“Go!” Ikram pushed Keila and the two Assassins took off sprinting out of the shed and straight into a group of guards. Ikram instinctively threw down a smoke bomb, blanketing the area in thick smog as they ran for the outer wall. Gunshots could be heard from behind them, but they couldn’t stop. Not now. There was nothing they could do for their friends that were still behind them.

Then Keila was falling, sticking a hand out to break her fall as pain began flaring up her leg. Something had hit her, and it took all her strength in her leg to push herself back up. Her scream turned Ikram back around who hauled her up and over his back like little kids being given piggyback rides by their parents, only that this wasn’t a fun time at all.

“You’ve been shot!” he told her as she held on to him tightly. “Hang on! I’ll get us out of here!”

Ikram was still surprisingly fast with the weight of another person on his back. Keila guessed all those years of training as an Assassin in the dunes had paid off.

One guard stood in their way, his pistol drawn, but Keila still had her hands. Before the guard could pull the trigger, Keila’s knife had found its way into the Templar’s forehead, sending him down as Ikram hopped over his body.

“Good hit, Keila!” her partner smiled and sprinted on, holding firmly to Keila’s legs to keep her from falling off. When she got out of this, Keila was going to start respecting her partner more for taking her weight on his shoulders. Literally.

The turquoise haired Assassin was about to leap into the shadows again when hands suddenly pulled him and Keila back.

“Avoid the shadows!” It was Shadowstrike. He pointed to the gate and pushed Ikram to run, moving alongside him. “Their Grand Master now controls the darkness. I saw Desert Storm move to the shadows, only to be pulled deeper by that man or whatever he is. We cannot use them anymore. We’ve got to stick to the light!”

Keila felt Ikram tense up, but her partner did as Shadowstrike said, running right across the expansive space to the gate. Two soldiers stood by the metallic door, pointing their guns for the Assassins. Keila was about to ready another knife, but Shadowstrike and Feather Duster were faster. One soldier dropped almost immediately while Shadowstrike slid at the other one and kicked his legs from under him, allowing Ikram to push the gate open with a shoulder and rush out into the city.

Keila looked back to see Shadowstrike and Sting Wing, close behind her and Ikram.

Safe. At last, Keila thought and let herself relax. “Thanks for carrying me, Ikram.”

“I couldn’t leave you behind, Keila,” he grinned as he set her down by an oil drum, a good distance away from the Templar stronghold.

The Assassins made sure to avoid settling down in the shadows, just in case. It felt weird, not being able to use the shadows, but if the Grand Master had that kind of power, then they had no choice.

“What are we going to do now?” Keila asked the others as she began to deal with the bullet in her leg. She cringed as she finally managed to get it out. “We can’t attack them like that again. Not at night.”

“But that’s what we’re trained for!” Shadowstrike replied, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration.

Feather Duster returned, hopping off a building above and landing in a dumpster just opposite the Assassins. “I saw Ghazi take a bullet to the back of his head. So this is all of us, huh?”

Keila looked around and nodded. They had lost five of their brethren today, and who knows what might’ve happened if they had brought more. “Things don’t look good. That Grand Master… Sombra. He has the artifact. Not just that. He can use it!”

“I think we need to get Mentor Steel Shine down here,” Ikram said as he helped bandage up his partner’s leg. “She’s the only other person in the world that has an artifact. She’ll know how to handle this.”

“We’ll have to get back to the bureau,” Sting Wing got up after bandaging up an arm. “Tell Mentor what’s going on. This is not something we’ll be able to handle alone.”

Comments

[Jaxxon Markus Citadel]

Sombra certainly knows how to make an entrance. It's a good thing he can only do that thing with the shadows during the night (I assume), or they would really be in trouble.

[Marcthelightspark2004]

8932863
Well..... for a being of his species and power-level, one can assume he can do it with any shadow, not just at night.

[MoonlightRift]

Som🅱️ruh