Assassin's Creed: Winter's Falling

Chapter 9

"Yes," Sol sighed, now unable to hide the horrible truth.

"Who is she?"

"She's my mother..."

The room instantly fell silent. Even the lady, now revealed to be Rosalinda Benitez, fell quiet. Diego muttered something about needing to go report to his mentor before fleeing the room. Ben, sensing the tension in the air, excused himself and ducked back into the clinic. Andy stood stunned for a moment, and then his mind finally processed what she had said.

"Wait... WHAT!?"

"Yeah," Sol laughed awkwardly. "Sorry I didn't mention it earlier."

"But I remember, when I first met you, you told me your mother had died during a mission gone wrong," Andy was frustrated and confused. "How is she alive?"

"How am I supposed to know?" She shrugged. "She vanished without a trace, and then that guy... "

"Guy?" Andy crossed his arms.

"Remember that Templar cross I gave Diego?"

"Yeah..."

"It belonged to a guy named Vincent Ross."

. . .

Sol sat alone in her mother's study. She had been looking through these papers for two months straight, and still she had found nothing but a name and a photo. Who is Vincent Ross and how is he connected to my mom's disappearance? Sol read through her notes again, exploring the patterns. She didn't know why her mom was tracking this guy, but she was definitely going to find out. She grabbed a pair of her mother's daggers and headed out.

She found him, just as her notes told her she would, at his favorite bar. She sat in the growing shadows of the nearby alleyway and waited for her prey to leave. Two hours after sunset, he emerged; obviously drunk and stumbling. As he walked passed the alley, Sol reached out and pulled him in. She slammed him against the wall of the alley.

"Vincent Ross," Sol growled, trying to seem threatening despite her stature. "Where is Rosalinda Benitez?"

"Rosalinda Benitez..." Vincent, who was not nearly as drunk as Sol had thought he had been, shoved her off and pushed her against the opposite wall. "Now why would you want to know about her?"

"WHERE IS MY MOM?!" Sol shouted, trying to push him off to no avail.

Vincent giggled. Then the giggle turned into a crazy, out of control laugh. He laughed so hard he was forced to let Sol go to clutch at his aching sides. He stumbled away from her, his laugh fading to a triumphant grin.

"Your mommy is dead kid," His grin glowing like the Cheshire cat's. "I killed her myself. You should have seen it, the way she begged for her life as I slowly broke her arms into four pieces each. It was glorious. Hour after hour of torture, and all she did was beg for her life and cry out 'Sol! Sol! Save me!'. It was pathetic. She eventually died of her wounds; the last thing she saw was this."

Vincent pulled out a strange cross from inside his shirt. Sol watched it slowly swing in front of her. Then everything turned red. When her vision cleared, Vincent was dead in at her feet, both of her mother's daggers buried deep into his mangled body. His strange cross clutched tightly in her hand.

. . .

The hallway was dead silent as Sol finished her story. She looked up and saw the shock on Andy's face; then down at herself in shame. She tried not to think about that day. Her actions, she had always thought, where brutal and pointless. They were the real reason her life had been turned upside down.