"Hey..." Sam said as they finally caught up with Nate and Sully. Elena had been with him and Caeli, Cassius... well, they assumed he had been with Nate or was making his own way forward. He seemed capable of taking care of himself.
"Hey," Nate replied before looking to Sam's arm, where he had taken the bullet that was intended for his brother. "How's that?"
"Oh." Sam laughed. "Bullet grazed my shoulder." He explained, even though it had felt a lot more painful than just a graze.
"Yeah..." Nate trailed off.
"You?" Sam asked, talking about the cut on Nate's head.
"Cliffside grazed my face," Nate responded, Sam noticed Caeli looking around the area they were standing in. "So, how'd you lose Rafe?"
"Cassius... he grabbed a gun, started shooting. It was enough of a distraction to lure some of them into one of Avery's traps, Rafe and Nadine must have focused on going to the treasure. Figured an army of mercenaries would take us out." Sam explained, hearing Caeli's breath beginning to quicken.
"Hey, look, about the whole Alcazar thing..."
"Hey just... we can save that for later, okay?" Nate cut him off, and Sam couldn't agree more with the delay of the conversation that would need to be had. "Which way?"
"On the beach, the other side of this town," Sully responded, Sam didn't like where this was going.
"Okay..." Nate whispered in reply.
"Good, I hope all that ruckus didn't attract any attention," Elena stated next, to which Nate sighed.
"Yeah, let's hope so."
"Woah, woah, woah. Sorry, what are we doing?" Sam cut into the conversation.
"What do you think we're doing? We're getting the hell off of this rock," Sully replied. As if it was the obvious choice.
"Right, we could do that... or we could head in that direction which is a shortcut," Sam replied, they needed that treasure... and he knew where it was and how to get to it. Why wouldn't they take the chance?
"Shortcut to what?" Sullivan asked.
"To Avery's treasure." He answered, much to the disgust of everyone else that was there. "I mean, Rafe's got to go all the way around but we could just-"
"Hey, screw Rafe," Sullivan cut him off.
"Hey, Victor, with all due respect maybe just-"
"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" The older man cut him off again.
"Look, we're all here for the same reason, right?" Sam asked next, looking to Caeli who was still looking around the area, seeming to become worried and panicked.
"We didn't come after the treasure, we came after you," Elena replied.
"And I appreciate that I do. But we're good and we've got the lead for now. We can do this." Sam tried to convince them, although it didn't seem to be working. "Nathan, c'mon. Huh, look around. Okay, Avery destroyed every last ship on this island. You know why?"
"Because he was hell-bent on keeping his treasure," Elena answered, she wasn't wrong.
"Exactly," Sam replied.
"No matter the cost to the other people around him." She added, now she was wrong.
"Because he didn't want anyone to follow him." Sam corrected her, stepping towards Nate. "Because he was leaving. Look at this." Sam showed a note he had picked up on the way to Nate. "Okay. I found his map of the island, okay?" Nate took the piece of paper from him and looked at it carefully. "That's his ship right under that mountain." Sam pointed to the mountain that was so close it would take less than an hour to reach it. "That's where our treasure is and it is exactly where Rafe is heading now while we stand around here and argue like idiots."
"Okay, what if he's already left the island and his ship sunk somewhere out in the middle of the ocean?" Sullivan asked.
"Then we find out where it got sunk," Sam replied, looking back to Nate.
"Oh boy." He heard Sullivan say under his breath, but his focus was back on his brother.
"How long we been chasing this thing, huh? You and me and Caeli. No offence to these guys, but they don't get it." Sam stated, hoping his words would be enough to convince Nate to search for this treasure. To at least go to the mountain.
"Actually, Sam, they do. They really do." Nate replied, pushing the map back onto Sam's chest.
"Okay," Sam whispered, realising he wouldn't be winning this argument.
"Trust me, they've seen this... kind of obsession before. But Sam, we're not those kids anymore. We're not, and we've got nothing to prove." Nate told him, so Sam backed off.
"Victor, where did you say that plane was?" Sam asked, tucking the map back into his pocket.
"Right this way," Sullivan stated with a gentle voice, leading the way back to the seaplane. They all moved to follow... except for Caeli.
"Caeli, are you okay?" Sam asked, noticing that her body was shaking. She was panicking.
"Where is he?" she asked, looking to Nate. "Where's Cassius?" she pushed the question to Nathan.
"Shit," Sam swore, angry with himself for not realising the kid wasn't with them sooner. Obsession. He was obsessed with this bloody treasure, so much so he was losing focus on what was around him.
"I don't know, last I saw him we were on that ship that sunk-"
"He fell into the water with you, he got stuck on the ship with you. Where is he?!" She shouted.
"Caeli..." Sam said her name carefully, walking towards her as darkness surrounded her hands. "Hey. He's just like you, he's probably fine." He tried to make her feel better but it didn't work, to say the least.
"There was a group of mercenaries behind us, they must have grabbed him. They would have taken him to Rafe, I have to-"
"It's not safe," Nate stated simply, cutting Caeli off as tears began to fill her eyes. "You can't go after him, you're good Caeli, but you can't take on an army by yourself. We barely made it out of that alive. Rafe wouldn't kill Cassius, not without reason. Cassius can still be used against you, is one of the few things that can be used against you, he won't throw that away carelessly." He added. Sam, held Caeli's hands to steady them, the darkness that had surrounded them didn't disappear, it just encased his hands too. "We can get Cassius when Rafe isn't surrounded by Shoreline. When he's back home after all of this is done."
"Nate's right," Sam stated, even though he didn't fully agree.
"Come on, we aren't going to abandon him if that's what you're feeling, Caeli," Nate added, she looked to the brother. "We're just trying to keep ourselves alive so that we can save him when a better opportunity arises."
"We're no use to him dead," Sam stated, and that line seemed to be enough to snap Caeli back into the situation at hand. She nodded.
"We're no use to him dead." She repeated the words, the shadows around their hands disappearing as her face became passive.
"Hey..." Sam let go of her hands to hold her face carefully, all emotion had flooded from her expression. She was compartmentalising, he had watched her do it many times before, to this extent it was only when he or Nate had been in a grave amount of danger and she was the only one who could get them out of it. She shut down her emotions, turned into the cold, calculated killer that she was raised to be. "Don't shut down on me." He stated, her eyes filled with pain again at his words. He had said that once to her, a long time ago, when she had shut everything out, shut her human side down to become just a weapon. But they didn't need that from her now.
"What else can I do?" She asked quietly. "We're abandoning him."
"We aren't abandoning him. He was taken from us, again. We don't need 'Assassin Caeli', we just need 'Caeli'." He told her, she nodded once again and put her hands on top of his, still holding her face in a steadying way. Her eyes closed for a moment and she took a deep breath, he kissed her forehead before letting her go. She would be okay, for now.
"Not to interrupt the moment here..." Sullivan started, pausing as Caeli looked towards him. "Who the hell is Cassius?" Caeli grimaced and looked to the ground, she was about to respond but Sam did it for her.
"Our son." He told the man, the man who had set them up from the beginning with the bloody Romanoff music box. Sam should probably thank him for that at some point.
"Right. Well, Nate's right, Sam's right. It's best that we get away, make a plan and go back for him later with more guns, more people." Sullivan stated, to which Caeli nodded.
"Yeah... I guess so." She agreed half-heartedly, they then began working their way through the port town before coming across something that seemed similar to a Skyrail, the problem was there were no controls for it and the only idea they had so far was for Nate to get down onto a different platform and pull the Skyrail across with his rope. Next problem was getting him down to the platform.
"I think I've got an idea, Nate, give me a hand," Sam stated, they pushed a large wooden plank so it was hanging over the ledge, with Sam and Sullivan's weight holding one end, Nate was able to jump off of the other and reach the other platform. The rest of them climbed onto the sky rail, waiting for Nate to pull them across.
It swung at the end of the rope the Skyrail was hanging from. Caeli, Elena and Sullivan all jumped across to the other side in time, Sam didn't make it. Although that wasn't a problem as it was helpful for Nate and his ascent back up. Once Nate made it to the Skyrail the brothers were about to jump to get to the other side with the others, but the Skyrail platform broke, and they were suddenly hanging on for their lives.
They climbed to the top of the platform, Nate jumped to the side with the others, the momentum from that jump sent the platform swinging the other way where Sam found a different section of ground to land on... it gave him an opportunity.
He looked back at the other four, although his focus was on Caeli. She looked truly exhausted and defeated, her eyes had dark circles around them, and she still looked distressed about having to leave their son behind.
"Sam!" Nate shouted across to his brother. The gap between where he was and where he needed to be was jumpable, but...
"Sam, c'mon! Jump, I'll catch you!" Nate shouted and just as he was about to jump he noticed Caeli once again. She was out of it, staring blankly at the broken platform, unaware that he was safe and separated from them. He couldn't let her live like that, even if it wasn't forever. Her heart was shattered, and it was showing far too much. It was affecting her far too much. He saw Nate look to Caeli as well, shaking his head as he turned to look back at Sam.
"No..." Nate started, Sam looked behind himself to the mountain where Rafe was heading, where both Cassius and the treasure would be. "No, no, don't you even think about it, you hear me?" Nate warned, but Sam had already made up his mind.
"I'm sorry I got you into this... all of you," Sam stated, finally Caeli's eyes made it from the platform to him. The pain in her eyes...
"Sam..." She said his name in a tone so shattered it finalised his decision.
"Hey, all of that doesn't matter anymore okay, let's just-"
"Look at her, Nate," Sam said simply, gesturing to Caeli who seemed to be unable to speak. "I can't leave him behind, not if it's going to hurt her that much," Sam stated, Caeli furrowed her brow at him.
"Sam, I swear to god..." She trailed off, but it was too late.
"I've got to see this thing through." Sam finished, looking to Caeli who was shaking her head.
"Hey listen to me, if you do this I'm not coming after you!" Nate shouted, but Sam didn't care. He would run that risk. "You hear me?!" Sam froze for a moment and gave them one last look.
"I'm sorry." He said before running off. He had to get to that mountain before Rafe did, he had to get ready to get Cassius out.
He had to.