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The Creed

Chapter 2: What Is Reality?

The Assassin regained awareness and groaned in pain. It felt as if he was in some soft padded bed. He forced his eyes open and closed them again swiftly as he was bombarded by harsh white light. That made no sense; his mask should have protected him, dimming to compensate. He attempted to move his arms and became worried when they would not move. He strained himself against whatever it was holding him down, but it did not budge.

After several more tries to escape his bonds, he sighed in defeat and lowered his raised body to the bed he was confined to, pained and weakened after the efforts. He opened his eyes and glared past the blinding light to see that he was in some sort of stark white room full of what could only be medical tools, if a little outdated. It would seem that he was in a hospital. But how did he get here? And where was his suit? He thought as he looked down to see that he was in some sort of thin pale gown and that his arms and legs had been restrained to the bed he laid on with leather straps. The Assassin racked his brain as he tried to recall the incidents previously that must have led him unknowingly to this situation he was faced with.

He had woken up with a terrible pain in his lower body and looked to be in some strange room full of Eden artifacts. How he got there he was uncertain, but he suspected that the odd staff he stole from the Templar was responsible for that. His guts felt like molten led and his legs failed him. The bullets must have done some serious damage to his innards and he had thought he had met the end of his road.

He had tried to drag his body to a corner so that he could try and plan what to do next, or to at least die with some modicum of comfort. He had medical supplies in his armor, but they were insufficient for injuries of the severity that he faced. He remembered that he had been near a large display when a female voice echoed in the chamber. He had then tried to hide behind the display fearing that she may have been working for the Templar, but the noise he made must have garnered her attention as she neared his location.

From there he recalled little as he was assaulted by pain and blackouts, although he did distinctly remember his wounds being tended, albeit in a rough manner. After that many hands had picked up his delirious body and taken him down around three flights of stairs. He could hardly see at that point and could only make out vague shapes, as everything else looked odd and the people fuzzy.

One thing ran through his mind, around and around like train with a circular track. The female that had first found him had grabbed his hand, and her hand had felt weird, like it was wrapped in a soft layer of velvety carpeting and her palms felt off, not only that but her nails had been long and sharp, like claws. Her voice also stuck with him, it soothed his pains and had a sort of Latino accent to it. Yet she spoke English, as he remembered her pleading him to take off his mask.

That meant that he was probably still in America, and that the Templar had not found him, as they would not have been nearly as kind. He supposed that he had been taken to the nearest hospital and tethered up because he was certainly no civilian, especially with his gear.

Where did they put his gear? And where was the Eden staff? If he was to breakout of this hospital and get underground before the Templar could find him, he would need it and its resources, and there was no way in hell he would leave without the artifact. He strained at the ties a few more times, getting a feel for his imprisonment, testing its strength.

A few tugs and he concluded that they were weak and he could break out if he worked at them in the right way. Now all he needed was to find out where his stuff was and he could escape. It would be difficult with his injuries, but he had to try.

For now he would bide his time and gather his strength. The Assassin regulated his breathing and entered a coma-like state, still able to hear things on the outside, but for all intents and purposes, looked as if he was sleeping. He waited like that for until he heard the doors to his room open and someone step inside, he distinctly picked up the deep clipping noise of a pair of boots. And his nose was treated to fine feminine perfume. He decided to listen in on his female visitor and discover her intentions.

*********

Carmelita strode into the small hospital room and eyes the figure restrained to the bed. The strange man was still asleep and the bed was somewhat mussed up, perhaps he moved in his sleep?

She moved to the side of his bed and maneuvered a chair to sit near him, placing her tail in her lap.

The doctors had discovered his blood type and managed to balance him, patch him up, and run a few tests at the same time. From what they could tell, he was healthy, surprisingly so if you did not count his recent wounds. But they could not figure what he was, and were surprised that he had a blood type that they recognized.

From a closer distance she examined the odd man. He looked like no animal she had ever seen in her life. Most likely he was from some distant country she never heard of. But why was he here? His strange armored garb and lean but firm muscles ruled out that he was anything but some sort of PMC or well-equipped thief. After taking his equipment to the precinct, they had discovered two large handguns, a small cylindrical tube, a frightening amount of knives, two blades around the wrists of the suit, components for what could only be a rifle, and god knew what else. It was also possible that he was some sort of criminal, hired for what purpose remained to be seen.

Yet if he was any of these things, what was he doing at a museum, and how did he get those gunshot wounds? This was perhaps the greatest mystery of her times. It had been two days since they found him and already the news had the story plastered all over the headlines.

She hummed and stroked her muzzle, deep in thought as she looked at the man. "What and who, are you?" She muttered quietly. At the moment thoughts of Sly were far from her mind as she was occupied with this issue in front of her.

Carmelita was still curious as to what he was and so she brought a furry digit down and softly brushed across his face. The texture felt odd on her padded finger and it was not an unpleasant one. Rather it felt like smooth and slightly warm, it was actually kinda nice.

But as she was probing his face, she accidently pushed too hard and nicked his cheek with her sharp claw, drawing blood. "Shit." She muttered as she watched the small pearl of crimson liquid run down his cheek. The vixen looked around and could not find anything to clean it up. She had a brief internal dilemma before reluctantly deciding to clean his face with her tongue, lapping up the blood and stopping it from coming out.

His skin was oddly salty and tasted strange when combined with his blood. When she had finished, she walked over to the sink and washed her mouth out repeatedly, removing the metallic tang from her mouth. When she was satisfied she wiped her mouth dry with a paw and went to sit back on her chair.

********

The Assassin was dumbfounded, had the women just licked his face? She had placed some sort of sharp fuzzy implement on him and had cut his cheek. After hearing a quick swear and a minute or so of silence, he felt a tongue brush against his cheek. But it did not feel like a human tongue, more like a dogs. It was long and broad and felt weird.

But the bigger question was why the hell did she do that?

At this point the assassin decided that he should do something, before anything else weird happened. So faking that he was just waking up, he shook his head slowly and opened his eyes.

And he looked right at an animal.

Not just any animal, but one that was sitting on a chair like a person, shaped like a person, and was dressed like a person. It took all of his training and will power not to openly stare and drop his jaw in disbelief.

Instead, he stared awkwardly at the animal as it stared back at him with large amber eyes. Eventually it further surprised him when it spoke. "Hello." It greeted softly and gave a smile that he thought was supposed to be disarming but had the opposite effect with the sharp and intimidating teeth. And he was stunned again when he realized that it not only spoke English, but was in fact the owner of the female voice from before.

He studied it quietly and noticed that its body was feminine in form, marking it as a female. He must have been staring oddly because it-she, looked uncomfortable and repositioned on the chair, coughed anxiously, and spoke again. "Hello, do you speak English?" She tried again.

He pondered on whether he should admit that he could, and after a few moments decided that he would get farther that way. "Yes." He responded and nodded his head.

The animal girl, which he now identified as a fox by her coloring and long fluffy ears, exhaled in relief and continued. "Good, that makes this much easier. My name is Carmelita Fox, and I work for Interpol."

As she spoke he began to think. Where was he? What kind of place is this? And why was he talking to a humanized animal? It seemed that the staff had taken him farther than he predicted it had. There was little chance he was on the same planet. He would have heard about these animals.

"What's your name?" He heard the vixen ask him, dragging him out of his inner thoughts. He looked up to see that she was staring at him hopefully, with her soft amber eyes. They would have been rather nice he suspected, if she did not look like that.

At this point it mattered little if he lied, so he didn't. "My name is Avitus."

"Avitus.......?" She lingered on the name.

"Just, Avitus." He grunted, he had given up his last name when he had reached the age to pledge.

"Okay then....Avitus." She relented, not willing to push so far yet. "Tell me what you were doing at the museum."

The Assassin sighed and leaned back on the bed. "I don't know, I don't remember how I got there." It was partial truth, and half lies. He knew....sort of, how he got there.

She looked at him skeptically and switched the angle of her investigation. "What are you?"

"I am a human." He answered simply.

"A....human you say?" She asked, genuinely interested.

"Yeah we are descended from apes, and all that crap." He rolled his hands in their bonds.

"Apes...." She trailed off thoughtfully. Carmelita could somewhat see the similarities.

"I don't suppose I can just go huh?" He sighed, already knowing the answer.

"I am afraid not, you are under investigation. We found you at a potential crime scene and it seems like someone or someones, tried to kill you. Why is that?" She inquired, giving him a hard look.

"I can't say." He retorted. Not only would he not, but she would not understand.

"Why did you have some many weapons?"

"I can't say."

"Why did you have armor?"

"I can't say."

"What were you doing before this?"

"No comment."

The vixen huffed in annoyance and crossed her furred arms. "You have to tell me something, you're staying here until I get some answerers."

He shrugged and looked at her with an amused and confident smile. "Not really."

"What?" She asked in confusion.

He flexed suddenly and his bonds snapped, she stood up to grab him and he shoved her backwards. The vixen fell and rolled to get up. By that time he had already released his legs and was standing on the other side of the bed,

"Don't make this hard on yourself." She sighed. "You're weak, and I know I can beat you. Just get back in the bed."

He chuckled and cracked his neck. "Sorry lady, no can-do. I have to go."

"You're not going anywhere." She growled, getting into a fighting stance, he picked up on it in a flash.

"Huh, they have taekwondo here. Too bad I took that when I was twelve. I myself fancy Krav Maga." He readied himself and sidestepped around the bed to face her.

She waited for him to move. And when he stood there so long she got impatient and tried to scissor kick him. But he caught her booted foot and twisted it, sending her to the floor. He tried to walk past her but she shot back up to land a slash on his neck. He leaned backwards and let the paw sail past, grabbing her shoulder and wrapping an arm around her furred throat for a quick takedown.

At that she became desperate, lashing out with claws and snapping her teeth almost rabidly. Avitus reared back in shock at the violent shift and got smacked in the face by her arm, sending him reeling. She squirmed out of his grip and flipped to face him, a furious expression on her snout as she bared her fangs and snarling.

It made the Assassin feel a little bad. "Look, sorry about the throat grab, but I really need to go." He sighed as he semi-exited his stance. He never liked fighting women, even if they were furred ones. He decided that he could take a less violent route....for now.

She glared at him with blazing eyes before slowly lowering her bared claws. "I can't let you go. You are a part of the investigation." She panted, catching her breath from the brief skirmish.

"Well there is nothing to investigate. I wasn't trying to rob the place, I just woke up there." He muttered.

"I would like to believe you, but there's a process that must be done, even with your unique circumstances." She retorted repetitively. "Besides, you have a lot of questions to answer. Like what a human is, why you have all that stuff, and who you are."

"Some of those things I can't tell you." He said quietly, giving her a serious and pained look.

She heaved in exasperation and threw her paws up. "What the hell can you tell me?"

"Tell you what." Avitus said, sitting on the bed and clutching his stomach painfully, after having irritated his wounds in their scuffle. "I'll tell you everything I can, and you let me have my stuff back."

She thought about it. "You would have to come back to the precinct with me and submit to my authority. And there is no real guarantee you would get your stuff back." She warned.

Avitus thought about it. He could always break out if he needed to, and his gear was probably there. He supposed he could let her have that much for now. "I...will take your deal" He stood up and walked over, holding his hand out.

She looked at him intently before grabbing it in her paw and shaking. He could feel the soft pads and it made his skin tingle peculiarly. He was not sure if he liked it. "Alright than, I assume you're ready to leave?'

"Been ready." He replied with a grin.

**********

The hospital had clothes he could use, although the pants had a hole in the seat and the shoes were a tight fit. But he managed to find a grey shirt and brown pants that fight on his frame. He got many odd looks from the staff, but this world was full of animals and he was not exactly the strangest looking so the eyes did not linger very long. As he followed the Inspector he could not help but stare at all the animals as they walked around about their business, just like humans.

It was so strange....

He watched as a lemur was wheeled across the hall by a portly pig fellow. This world was far different then his own, and yet so similar. Where had the damn staff taken me?

"Where are we?" He asked his companion as they walked towards the door, he limped slightly due to his injured legs. His condition did not exactly advocate walking.

Just now he had taken note of her clothes and saw that she was wearing a blue top that left her fuzzy midriff and shoulders exposed. Her slender legs were covered in a tight pair of blue pants and her brown and tan boots ran to just below the knees.

"We are in Paris, France." She replied simply, stunning him.

"Paris, France." He muttered quietly in confusion. But he already knew off a Paris, and had been there in person on a few missions. And last he checked Paris did not look like this, and there definitely were no animal people. Also judging by her reaction to him, humans were not exactly common here either. Avitus was deeply confused.

Her furred head bobbed and her ears followed in a cute way and she turned to usher him down the hall. Avitus quickened his pace and followed her, still bemused. It seemed even as he got answerers, he needed many more.

They took an elevator and arrived at the ground floor, the smell of antiseptic was less intense down here and there were more people....animals.

Many of them stared as he walked across the lobby with Carmelita and headed out of the building. She continued to walk down the steps but he stopped and looked around. Indeed it was Paris, although not exactly as he recalled.

There was the Eiffel Tower and it all looked similar. But there were varying differences that were almost unnoticeable. Even in his world Paris remained relatively unchanged with the tide of technology, and here it looked alike. Although he noticed that this place was not on the same scale as theirs, more along the lines of the 80's or early 2000's if he could remember pictures from those times accurately.

"Hey, Avitus!" He looked down the steps to see the vixen gesturing him over hurriedly with a paw. She was standing by a car with the standard blue and white coloring of the French police. It was a little difficult getting down with his legs like they were, but he managed. At the bottom of the stairs he turned and walked over to Carmelita.

She opened the back door and he looked at her with an unamused grimace. "This is where the criminals go."

Carmelita sighed and closed the door, opening the passenger side one instead. "There, happy now?" She muttered, but she did give a smirk, however small and grim.

"Yes." He replied before easing into the car.

The vixen climbed into her seat and made sure they both were belted in.

"Thanks mom." He rolled his eyes, earning a smack in the arm and a broad playful smile.

"Shut up." She growled spiritedly and placed the key in the ignition. As he watched her he pondered on why he was acting like this. Usually he was withdrawn and was not one to joke. But something about her made him act differently.

He didn't like it.

Within moments the car started and slowly pulled away from the hospital. As she drove, he took in the sights, watching as families of these animal people walked about their daily lives. "Unreal." He muttered to himself.

"What?" The vixen asked, picking it up with her rather large ears, eyes still focused on the road.

He looked at her and tried to explain, but could not find the proper words. "Nothing, I'll tell you when I can actually find out how to describe it."

She shrugged and dropped it. But a few minutes later her curiosity won out. She wanted to know who this stranger was, everything she could find out she wanted to. "So...." Carmelita began, thinking up a question to ask. "Do you have a family, wife, kids, parents, siblings?"

At that his expression hardened. His family was long gone, killed off by the Templar in their desire to purge the order, and he had not had time to start a family, and chances of that were probably long gone. "My family's dead and I never got to do the rest." Avitus sighed gloomily and returned his attention to the outside window. As he did he looked at the palm of his left hand where an old scar lied. It took up most of his palm and looked whitened with age.

The vixen looked at him and frowned. That had not been her plan when she asked. "Sorry, about probing."

"It's fine." He replied with as much kindness as he could. "It's all in the past now." Avitus had a melancholy tone.

"No plans for the future then?" She asked, looking to him for an answer, studying his face with amber eyes.

"No, not anymore, I thought I had something to do, to fight for. But now after this....well that's in the past too." He tore his gaze from the window and leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes. "I suppose nothings left for me anymore. Pretty sure I can't return home and even if I did, there's nothing really to go back to."

"Why?" Carmelita asked curiously. She was interested to hear more of this, and perhaps could unearth some of the answers she wanted.

Avitus thought about telling her and basically said fuck it. Telling her wouldn't matter anymore. But he did decide to dumb it down some so as not to confuse her or have to go into too much detail. "Most humans lived in peace and the bliss of ignorance. But a few knew that something was wrong with our society. A group, called the Templars, sought to control all of humanity. But my group...fought to keep that from happening." He didn't tell her the name of their order, as it could be taken the wrong way out of context.

The vixen on the other hand was enthralled in the tale; between listening and driving she had almost forgotten about the storyteller himself.

"Ever since time immemorial we have waged this war. And in more recent years we have been losing. I was sent on a mission to hopefully gain an advantage we could use, something to even the odds, but it was a trap and I was wounded before finding myself here. Without that advantage I fear that we have lost the war. Even if I were to somehow get back, what would be the point? I have fought for most of my life, since I was seventeen. And in that time I have done many things, some would find them monstrous or immoral. My order has always waged war in the shadows. We work in the dark to serve the light." He said that with a small hint of distaste. As if it was an unpleasant reminder of something, off what he had sacrificed in his duty...and what he had lost. "But that's all in history now, none of it matters." He added, turning away to look at the window once more. He didn't want to seem weak if she saw his reddening eyes. Thoughts of the past were rather painful at times.

Carmelita stopped at a red light and looked at the human sitting across from her. She had never met someone like him before, not just in looks. He was far more complicated then he seemed. And from what she had just learned, may not be from around here, as if she had not suspected that already.

She had never heard of humans before, and the vixen was certain she would have if what he told her was true...and yet. The vixen had a gut feeling that he was telling her the truth. She studied his back as he had turned away from her, and placed a paw comfortingly on his shoulder, squeezing it softly. She could pick up on his emotional state, and he reeked of misery and despair. She was not stupid enough to believe that he had told her the entire story, but telling what he did, had a major impact on him.

She kept the paw there as she drove the rest of the way to the station. And after she parked the car in the underground garage she removed it and turned off the vehicle, storing the keys in her pocket.

Avitus unbuckled his seatbelt and exited the car, closing the door behind him. She followed suit and was surprised when she saw him with a smile on his face. "Come on, let's go introduce me. I'm sure I'll be the life of the party." He chuckled softly and began to walk to the exit of the garage leading into the main building.

As she chased after him she frowned sadly. He may have been smiling and laughing, but she could still smell the rankness of hopelessness and despair.

He stopped at the door and waited for her; she walked ahead of him and opened it, letting him in.

Avitus stepped inside. He wanted to get his stuff back, but after that, what would he do?