Chapter - 27

"The order of Assassins is not as old as the other civilizations, we don't come from this one nor the previous but we also don't come from one of the very old ones. In our civilization, the Honkai appeared quite early in forms of natural disasters but since they weren't killing humans as fast as the Honkai God would have liked, Honkai Beasts started appearing everywhere. This turned several nations into anarchies, like in Cairo."

"The place where the creed was created" Anastasia said as Altair nodded

"Our objective was to protect the freedom of those who couldn't find on their own while also creating weapons to fight the honkai" Altair explained "Which we succeeded but we didn't keep those for ourselves, every time we took care of a corrupt government, we would replace its empty ranks with our own assassins and then we would arm the warriors with Honkai powered weapons. This kept the Honkai at bay for quite a while. While researching, we discovered the way to keep our best Mentors alive indefinitely, this was both my case and Ezio's. With the centuries passing, the creed and another organization called the Templars fought against each other. We both had the same objective but while we wanted to preserve free will, they wanted full control over the people in order to achieve peace and defeat the Honkai" he said

"Unfortunately, this whole war distracted us from our main enemy and so the first Herrscher destroyed an entire nation before we could do something about it" Ezio said as he looked at his hand "I was the one who put it down...unfortunately, what followed was an escalation of disasters which led to the death of people including lots of good mentors" he said with a sigh "when we understood that we would have died soon your advisor, Merlin, told us to go into hiding and pointed us towards the bunkers of a previous civilization...regretfully we did but unlike how he told us, instead of waiting for you, we decided to help him with the gathering of allies and arsenals."

"We kept an eye of any person who Merlin injected with the Primarch Gene-seed" Altair said "Putting them down if they showed themselves to be bloodthirsty monsters. At first, we thought that you were not going to make it but then New York Happened and so we gave your position to the Space Marines who did their thing"

Anastasia slowly nodded "Why haven't you joined forces with Schicksal?"

"Because, Schicksal are Templars" Ezio said "Their organization and leader are all templars just with another name...but the enemy of my enemy is my friend and so..."

"You allied with Anti-Entropy" Anastasia concluded as the men nodded "To think that I beat the shit of Einstein" she said sighing as she suddenly felt guilty

"Kinda, we have a deal with Welt...he wasn't really happy but we managed to convince him to not go after you in New York" Ezio said "The Brotherhood created several industries to cover up our activities and to justify the influx of money we have"

"While I still have many questions for you" Anastasia said as she looked at the time on the clock and to Integra "I want to hear your story"

Integra smirked "There's not much to say, we used to fight in out old all kinds of shit including ghouls, vampires and Honkai. Everything went downhill with the Herrschers, we made contact with the Brotherhood and they were kind enough to keep me alive this far. Officially our organization is a...private security company"

"Are you even human?" Alucard suddenly asked causing everyone to freeze and Integra to facepalm and sigh "No sorry, let me change the question, you were born this way, it would be unfair to ask you something like that...Do you consider yourself as a human?"

Anastasia looked at her hands in silence before starting speaking "My body is made of machines and is genetically engineered to be way stronger than any normal being. I have no internal organs, I don't have to drink, eat or rest. I can change the shape of this body into weapons...but even so, I still feel the need those normal things...just like I feel the need to protect humanity...as long as this feeling harbors inside of me, I'm human even though my body says otherwise"

Alucard lowered his hat and leaned against the chair without uttering a word as Integra smirked

"If there aren't any other questions about my humanity, I would like to speak about the current situation" Anastasia resumed looking at the two assassins

"What do you wish to know?" Altair said

"What's your situation in the soviet union?" Anastasia asked

"The Union is one of the places where our presence is extremely necessary, the communism regime is slowly falling apart and the poor people are suffering because of it, we have several agents inside the Kremlin and our adepts are trying to help the population as best as they can" Ezio said "May I ask why are you ask this?"

"The Union is full of hidden arsenals of the previous civilizations and it's one of the few nations big enough and out of Schicksal's control for us to occupy" Anastasia said as the other two tensed up "I want to use it for the debut of the Imperium"

"That's not going to be easy" Altair said "Imperialism and Russia don't go well together"

"But if it keeps going like this, the population will suffer immensely" Anastasia replied "Me, my sisters and the former Empress of Mars are building a regime that will drastically improve the conditions there...this is why I would like to ask you to start...whispers of a possible revolution..."

Altair and Ezio paled a bit "The KGB and USSR officials will start a witch hunt if we are discovered"

"No if your agents inside the Kremlin make everyone realize that soon they will be all gone" Anastasia replied "We also have to speak about Neo Tokyo 3 and South America" she said crossing her arms "These places are of critical importance in our plans and I don't like the idea but we'll have to conquer Japan"

"The new Japanese government is composed of many of our agents. It will take a while but we could arrange something that will not require a war" Altair said with a nod "for the South American nations, unfortunately, they are under military dictatorship. We made several attempts to free them but due to the Honkai attacks, the citizens are always forced to give political power to military figures"

"The Imperial Army will take care of those" Anastasia looked at the clock once again "Lastly, have you found Rapture?"

Altair shook his head "No but we have found someone who knows its location" he said as he grabbed his phone "Her name is Eleonor Lamb, she is a former inhabitant of the city until 1968 when she returned to the surface along with several other little girls and now she manages an orphanage in Venezuela..."

"And?" Anastasia asked noticing how Altair didn't continue his introduction

"She also has a secret identity known as the 'Grande Hermana' or 'Hermana Mayor by the locals" Altair said

"Big Sister..." Anastasia translated

"Yes, she basically fights the Honkai and the cartels on her own along with a few of those little girls from Rapture, those who didn't return to their families that is, Schicksal and Anti-Entropy has kept a close eye on her but they never managed to discover her real identity...fortunately, she's a believer of our cause"

"How do you know?" The Empress asked raising an eyebrow

"Well, I paid her a visit after we discovered her identity, she's a very kind and caring woman...well, she does speak to a syringe sometimes but it seems like her moral compass. She accepted to join us on one condition" Ezio said with a chuckle

"Which is?" The pink-haired woman asked

"To speak with you" The Italian assassin replied

Anastasia remained silent for a few moments before nodding "Tell, I shall go to speak with her after dealing with the matter at hand...can you inform her? I don't want to barge in her house almost unannounced" she said as the two chuckled while nodding "It seems like my time here is over gentlemen. I must go"

"Arrivederci" Ezio said

"Goodbye" Altair, Integra, and Alucard said as Natalia entered the room and gestured Anastasia to follow her.

"Ehm...your highness, I know you didn't want me to check but Schicksal has just transferred a valkyrie in a nearby hospital" she said

Anastasia made a small smile "I know" she replied causing Natalia to frown. The Primarch left the Assassins' hideout and went to the hospital were Cecilia was.