Andy, Sol, Diego, and the Mysterious crazy lady caught a cab back to the den. As they entered the den, they were greeted by the other half of their team. Lightning and Nerida were fine and grinning. They congratulated Andy and Sol on a successful rescue mission. Lightning patted Diego on the back and welcomed him home. The leader of the den came over with a small team of medics to help Diego and the lady. Sol seemed reluctant to give her up. Andy noticed her hesitation.
"Sol, give that lady to our medics," Andy said cautiously. "She needs help."
Sol nodded slowly. One of the medics carefully took the woman's hand and walked her upstairs to the infirmary. Sol and Andy returned to their side of the den. Sol instantly sat down on the couch.
"Man," Sol muttered. "What a day."
. . .
"SUN BORN FROM THE ROSE IN THE PORT OF THE RICH!" The lady screamed. "THE WHITE SUN LOOKS FOR THE BLACK STAR IN THE FLOOWERBED."
"Looks like she's been beaten and put through a lot of mental torture, Templar style," Ben, the lead doctor of the Montreal assassins explained to Sol, Andy, and Diego.
A two hour after their return to the den, Ben had called to the members of the rescue team to explain to them the state of the woman they had found. Diego's wounds had already been treated, but the woman was beyond help. Even through the door, her screaming could be heard clearly.
"What is she saying?" Diego asked.
"The sun born from the rose in the port of the rich," Andy repeated. "She just keeps repeating it."
"Should we gag her?" Diego shrugged. "Or leave her in a locked room for the night?"
"No, no," Andy waved the idea away. "Let the doctor's take care of her. I was wondering, Sol, why did you want to take her with us?"
"Well," Sol sighed, looking uncomfortable, deciding to skirt the truth. "It's those lines she keeps repeating."
"Explain."
"In Spanish it's 'el SOL nacido de la ROSA en PUERTO RICO'," Sol looked away. "My mother's name was Rosa. And that stuff she was saying about the Black and White Roses..."
"Yeah," Andy spurred her on, his curiosity growing. "What about the roses?"
"The White Rose refers to the flintlock I'm always carrying," Sol began to explain.
The gun had been passed down in her family for generations. The story goes that the first Assassin in her family had received the gun from his Templar father. When he became an assassin, the man scratched a line threw the Templar cross on the butt of the gun. A symbol of his defiance, and promise to protect the freedom the Templars wanted to destroy. The Black Rose he had given to his childhood best friend; the man who was to become his biggest enemy. The Black Rose was fabled to still be in the hands of Templars to this day. Sol showed Andy and Diego the White Rose.
"We need to discuss this further," Andy's mind whirled. "How this lady knows about you is beyond me, but if I'm going to figure this out, I'll need to know more about your past."
"Sure," Sol avoided Andy's eye. "But I can't say I've had a happy life."
"First I'd like to know about that lady," Sol flinched as he said this. "She clearly recognizes you. Can you say the same?"
"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.
"Look, I'm tired," Sol sighed. "We can talk about this more in the morning."
Sol trudged down the hallway, eager to get back to the solitude of her bed. Andy stared after her, unsure of what to do and how to comfort her. He hated seeing anyone on his team suffering.
"Night," he mumbled to himself.
. . .
The next day was spent resting in the den. A small team from the Montreal Assassins had offered to attack the Abstergo building to keep the Templar's thinking the attacks where random. And so, the majority of the day was spent by each member as she or he pleased. Lightning stayed on her bed, reading; Ann was nowhere to be found, apparently no one had seen her since they arrived in Canada; Nerida spent the day drinking, and then trying to sleep off the effects; Diego went home, his mentor eagerly awaiting his return; and Sol spent the day watching TV, attempting and failing to not think about her mother. She kept flipping between How It's Made and Looney Tunes. And as for Andy, He strutted into the room that afternoon with his laptop open and balanced on one arm.
"Okay, so I did some research on this Vincent guy," He said as he plopped down on the couch next to Sol. "Apparently, he was a high ranking member of Sigma team until he went crazy on one of his missions. He was demoted and repositioned to hunt small sects of the Assassins who were becoming infamous in Florida."
"Oh, now I don't feel so bad," Sol shrugged, her eyes glued to the TV screen.
Andy was annoyed at her sulking. It's not like you killed an innocent person, you killed a deranged killer! He wanted to yell, but before he could, Ben ran into the room. The second he announced his prescience, Sol turned off the TV. Her expression betraying nothing, but her eyes filled with a longing to know how her mother was.
"I have some good news and some pretty bad news," He began. "Good news is your mother is in no risk of dying. None of her injuries are fatal. However, she has clearly suffered some kind of mental torture, and, knowing Abstergo, it wasn't pretty. I can't tell if she remembers who she is or what she was. She just keeps repeating the same words over and over.
THE SUN BORN FROM THR ROSE IN THE PORT OF THE RICH.
WHITE ROSE, BLACK ROSE, ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER IS INCOMPLETE.
ASSASSINS, TEMPLARS, EZIO, JUNO, CONNOR, JUPITER; WHAT DO THEY WANT."
He read the list off his clipboard one by one. His voice betrayed the weariness of his body; he had not slept since Sol's mother had been brought to him. Sol watched him carefully, hoping beyond hope that he was lying, and that her mother was perfectly fine, returned to her as if she had never left, but she knew what he was saying was the undeniable truth. Her mother was back, but she had left her mind in the Templar torture chamber, and Sol would probably never be able to get it back.
"Alright," Sol turned back to the TV, clicking it on again. "At least she's okay."
"Maybe you should talk to her," Andy suggested, gently placing his hand on her shoulder.
Sol looked at him and then down at the ground. She knew he was right, she couldn't keep avoiding this forever. She sighed and turned off the TV.
"Guess I should..." she mumbled.
"Okay," Andy helped her to her feet and turned to the doctor. "Ben, lead the way."
Ben led them back to the infirmary. He opened the door and slowly led the group inside. Sol's mother sat in a chair by one of the open windows, eerily quiet. Sol took a step forward, bracing herself, but just as she was opening her mouth to say something, a set of mismatched pigtails skipped into the room. Ann took a long, noisy drink from the juice box in her hand and gave the group a goofy grin.
"So," she smiled. "What'd I miss?"
"Not much," Sol sighed.
"ANN," Andy yelled. "Sol was about to talk to her mother, who she believed, was dead. We should give them some time to talk." He whispered a little too loudly.
"OHHHHHHHH," Ann began to awkwardly shuffle out of the way. "Sorry."
"I'll brief you on the mission upstairs," Andy began to walk out the door.
Ann quickly dashed after him. Andy gave Sol an encouraging nod before closing the door. He marched Ann to another room and briefly told her of all the events that had occurred in her absence. Ben pated Sol's shoulder, and then left her alone with her mom. Sol watched him go, and then turned back to her mother. She was startled to see her mom had turned her chair around and was now staring straight at her.
"Hi, Mom," Sol waved slightly, unsure of what to do.
"Sun," She cocked her head to the side slightly and smiled. Sol took that as a good sign.
"Yeah, it's me, Sol," She approached her cautiously. "And you're Rosa."
"Rosa," She pointed to herself, and then at Sol. "Sol."
"Yes," Sol nodded, relieved. "Good."
"Sol born from Rosa in port of rich?"
There was that phrase once again. Sol could see that her mother's mind was horribly warped and twisted, but so far the conversation had been pretty understandable. Sure she talked in riddles, but those riddles where easy to understand and decipher. Even though she had said it in a strange way, that phrase was her mother's way of telling her that she knows who Sol is, and what their relationship had been. Maybe she'll fully recover some day...
"Yes, that's us." Sol smiled. "Do you know where you are?"
"In the room with the sun away from the pain," She replied, smiling back.
"Good, good," Sol rolled up her sleeve to show her the tattoo she had. "Now, do you know what this is?"
Rosa's eyes suddenly grew wide. She began to scream and flail. She panicked at the sight of the symbol she had once had tattooed into her own flesh. Sol gazed down at the dark pink scar on her mother's forearm, the place where her own Assassin's crest had once resided; and quickly recovered her tattoo.
"NO! NOOOOOOOO! DEATH! HELP! AHHHHHHH!" her mother screamed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Calm down, it's gone. See," Sol lifted her arms to show that the symbol had once again been covered up. "You're safe now. It's just Rose and Sun again, okay?"
"Is everything alright in there?" Andy, having heard the commotion from the other room, pounded on the door.
"ASSASSINS! NO! GET THEM AWAY! AHHHHHHHHH!"
"We're fine!" Sol shouted to Andy.
"Okay...?" Bewildered, Andy returned to the other room.
Sol turned back to her mother. She had stopped attempting to flee and was instead curled into a ball in her chair, gently crying. Sol brought another chair and placed it in front of her and sat down. She gently stroked her mother's hand as she tried to console her.
"Shhhhh," Sol gently whispered. "They won't come in. I promise."
"Assassins only bring pain," Her mother moaned.
"Why? What's wrong with them?"
"Pain. Pain. Pain. Terrible pain. Death. The Templars are right. They are right... the father of understanding will guide me."
Sol tried to help her mother, but could not reach her in this state. Her mother continued to cry and moan. I need to try something new. It was time to change topics.
"Okay, let's not talk about things that hurt," Sol sighed in relief as her mother's crying quieted. "Tell me about what doesn't hurt. What DOESN'T hurt?"
"The Sun," she replied instantly. "Only the Sun doesn't hurt. And the Roses as well."
"Do you mean this?"
Sol pulled the White Rose from the holster at her hip and extended it out to her mother. Rosa instantly stopped crying at the sight of the gun. She snatched it quickly from Sol's hand, and began to examine it.
"The Rose. My Rose. Your Rose." She marveled at it.
"Yes, our Rose. The Rose and the Sun are right here. So no more pain, okay." Sol gently took the gun back.
As Sol put the White Rose away, Rosa's face suddenly became very serious. She stared straight at Sol with an expression filled with so much determination and focus, Sol could almost see a little bit of her real mother shining through the cracks in her insanity. Perhaps her mother was not as far gone as everyone had originally thought.
"Black Star," Her mother spoke. "Black Star has the Rose."
"Who's Black Star?" Sol asked.
"A soul darker than any sunlight, and does not wear the cross, but THAT!" she pointed at the small Assassin's symbol carved into the small leather wrist band she had taken to wearing on her right wrist.
"So he's a traitor," Sol concluded as she pulled the sleeve of her jacket subconsciously over the band. Then she sighed. "What happened to you, mom? Where have you been?"
"In the heart of the Cross, serving them."
"Can you explain yourself?"
"NO! It brings more pain." Rosa suddenly began muttering, "Juno, Ezio, Jupiter, Connor; what do they want."
Sol gently took her mother's hand once again. The action seemed to calm her, and after a moment she stopped muttering. Sol sighed in relief. She wanted nothing more in that moment then to help her mom, but she didn't know how to do it.
"Tell me what you're thinking," She whispered. "Let me take the pain away."
"Just these names: Juno, Ezio, Jupiter, Connor, Juno, Ezio, Jupiter, Connor..." She trailed off.
"Okay," Sol interrupted her chanting. "How about a new name, do you remember Ben?"
"Kind Ben," She nodded. "Kind words. Helped me talk."
"Okay and what about Harry?" Sol asked, encouraged by her answer. "Do you remember Dad?"
"The Sun's creator and the moon," She began to cry again. "Lost to the blackness; to THAT!"
Sol was confused by her reaction. She was sure her dad was safe from harm now that she had left. The Templars had always been after her, not her dad; or at least that's what she had thought when she left. He wasn't involved in all of this.
"He's fine, mom. I protected him while you were away." Sol reassured her. "You'll be with him soon."
"Sol!" Andy knocked loudly on the door. "It's Andy, we found something. Can you come out?"
"I'll be right back," Sol whispered to her mother before heading back out into the hallway. "What's wrong?"
"We found the room Diego told us about on the Plans," Andy explained. "It's a massive conference room on the 60th floor of the building. It's in a heavily restricted area with very few access points. That has to be where the observatory's location is."
"Alright," Sol nodded looking distracted. "That could work."
"Is everything alright?" Andy asked. "You look shaken up."
"She says the Black Rose is held by an enemy, but that he's also an assassin." Sol sighed. "Some guy she keeps referring to as Black Star. And she keeps mentioning Juno, Ezio, Jupiter, and Connor. But what worries me is that she thinks my dad is dead."
"It could be that they brain washed her to weaken her morale?"
"I think it's more than that, Andy. I think they tried turning her against us."
"Like a sleeper agent?"
"Possibly," Sol sighed. "She seems to think we are the enemy."
"We'll have to discuss this more some other time. Right now we all need to rest. Tomorrow we're going to the 60th floor, and then we're leaving this city."
Sol looked back at the infirmary door. She knew they couldn't take her mother with them to where ever the observatory was. She would have to say goodbye to her mother once again, but this time, it was she who might not return.
"Gotcha," Sol turned back to the infirmary. "Tomorrow then."