Consequences.

"I declare the result of each of our battles before it happens. For, I learn about the enemy and their preparation and work with my sons according to it. I know my side and prepare accordingly, so unless Mother Nature is angry at us, Victory is ours to follow."

The voice echoed inside Edward's head for a while he headed for the nearest weapon store he knew. The teaching of Assassin's father followed inside this mind steering him at all times, something he knew he was ever indebted to him, no matter how much hate for him he encapsulated in his heart towards him.

He was hiding in the middle of a land that his enemy knew better than him, even though the land was of allies. Now, it was the land where their blood bled like a river.

He ran and jumped on the rooftops the choking smell of smoke was mixed with the smell of burning leather, meat and wood alongside a sweet smell of the broken fragrance bottles as Edward passed one of the shops. The smell of blood was hidden below these other fragrances.

The smoke distorted his vision as Edward changed his course multiple times. Guiding himself through the route, the wall of the city was now visible to him in the blinding darkness signalled he was close.

" What?!"

For a second the light surrounded Edward, the wall, and the burned building were all illuminated. Edward saw his shadow fall in front of himself on the building for a quick second, he looked at the sky above where the light came from.

"Lightning, the storm will get worse very soon." 

Remembering the advice from his elders, Edward came down to the surface." A man on the roof had a thousand times more chance of being struck by lightning than a man walking on the ground", was told by the old folks of the Caribbean Island. He did not know where or how it came from but he took no chances, a man standing inside the deck was never struck by lightning but the people on the deck were.

But there were entire ships sunk by lightning. No one of safe then.

The building was not far away to his memory, he moved building from building now, and he sensed no presence of any soldiers. 

Edward tested this by throwing rocks in different directions. He even broke a window from afar for a good measure but no response came, then he moved swiftly but dared not come out of his cover.

A few metres passed, and he was standing in front of the shop he intended to be at but it could hardly be called a shop anymore. Not burned down but trashed to the very bottom, to the point the soil under the wooden flooring showed only the trading table was left standing.

He grabbed a lantern which lay on a wall nearby and made his way to the ruins of the store.

The weapon store was empty with no rifles or gunpowder to offer him. He had expected since the shop was in such a remote region might it be spared, but it wasn't per his expectations. He still made an effort to look for anything that could help him.

 Edward looked for any weapons left, not much was left to search his best hope was if, under the trading table, there was underground storage for gunpowder or weapons. 

So, Edward first checked the drawers for anything, and to his surprise he found green baggage lying inside. Three in total, brought out one, from the contact it left like leather meaning whatever was inside should remain dry in this rain. 

 He brought out the first baggage and opened it. found the baggage filled with rifle shells, he opened the second one and it was filled with flintlock pistol shells. Edward could stock back his bullets, it seemed Isabella had taken some of his bullets or he had dropped them while escaping the hospital.

"Fortune is on my side. If I somehow get smoke bombs in the last one. It might just be my luckiest small treasure hunt. In a long while."

He brought out the last one and opened it, to his fortune something even better was lying inside. Paper cartridges with a good amount of them, filled with gunpowder, Edward could makeshift a bomb with enough of these. A fruitful exploration.

"Edward!!!! Edward!!! Are you here?!!"

"!!!?" From no distance a scream called out his name the cry was loud and full of fear. Edward extinguished his lantern and hid behind the table, he reloaded his guns and checked for anything in the other two drawers which were just empty. His name called out in the open was biting at his head.

"Edward???!! Please answer me if you're here. I am alone I promise you. Please come out!"

The voice cried of desperation and sadness and the screaming man and from the increasing loudness of the screams the man was running towards this street but how did he know that Edward was hiding here? Was he spotted earlier and being baited right now?

"He is coming from the west, that's where Thomas's group went." Dread filled Edward's heart for a second, Thomas was to capture and destroy the gate, was he found out… was he alive?

Edward immediately left the table behind and began moving but this time, he crawled. If there were people on the outlook out around this man Edward wanted to know that first.

So, Edward silenced his ears to the scream and let the person cry, he sniffed on the smell of the few embers of the burning woods of the nearby shops and rubbed his clothes against stone and soil alike. The voice came faster towards Edward than he thought.

"Help me!!! Those men need you!!" Soon Edward realised that the man was right at this on the other side of the shop where he crawled and moved passed him. He stayed still observing for anyone following him.

The first 10 seconds passed, then 30 seconds and soon it was well over a minute, no one was following him. What was happening? There was only one way to answer.

Edward got up from his position and readied his legs while he took a final look towards the surroundings and he sprinted. Vaulting over the small wooden obstacles, he moved fast. He reached the gun shop once again in a matter of seconds and took the bag of cartridges for himself. The Edward sprinted again, behind the minimal cover of the broken buildings.

Less than half a minute later he was caught up with a man running around, he looked at his clothes from afar, he was not a soldier, a thief or a merchant of another nation maybe.

Edward ran further than him and waited the street grew narrow and it was the turn to another street at the edge, which led to the entrance gate of the city.

"Talk to me please-" Edward rushed from the side as he captured the man, covering and holding him by the chest.

"Ahhhh... Help! Help." Edward was mindful enough not to cover his mouth. To any distant listener, he made it seem like an attack. Edward picked a frail man, as thin as he was. He captured him and threw the two of them into a building.

The two crashed into the building, breaking a table and Edward threw the man on the floor. They did not scream as his lungs were bursting out from all the screaming earlier but fear and despair showed clearly on his face.

"Don't scream. I am the one you are looking for." Edward told the man and his expression changed. His face grew from despair to hope as he heard his name. Edward grew more fearful that something terrible had happened. He looked like Edward was the solution to his problems.

"Why were you calling out for me in this area? What happened? Who are you?" Edward asked the man.

The man got up from his position and got in a curled-up roll position as he hugged his legs by his chest. Edward noticed then, that the man was missing three fingers on his left hand.

"My name is Tolono. I am one of the thieves working here. I was doing my job when the explosion blasted from the south and the soldiers began coming down their watchtowers and from the ports. They told us to hide and ran off from here but soon, the men in purple came from the port. Guns I've seen in their hands, the stacked pile of bodies on the ground, we ran our den but the door was already closed."

"The men in violet took us all to the port and asked to tell us where we keep our weapons. We did not betray our motherland and didn't tell them anything. So, they began hurting, they raped the few women that were there and cut our fingers, legs, and arms and killed many."

"..."

Edward had remembered the gold family's gift to the nation's women. A Gift had made an example of the land among all and to this day was the reason that men and women stood working together.

"Then the soldiers came to rescue us, they killed all the people who were hurt. Made their blood mix into the rainwater. It put a smile on our faces to see those bastards fall and die but it was all short-lived."

The man's explanation was more or less what he anticipated. Smoke bombs fell from the sky and the men in white launched an assault. However, there was a surprising bit in all of this.

"The attackers did not kill more than 5 of them captured them all locked them with us and then picked me to look for everywhere and deliver their message."

"Tell me." The man brought out a leather bag and assigned it to Edward. Edward opened the bag and found a letter inside, he held it out and began reading.

"I am Arthur, hello Edward Kenway. I hope you are having a good time. I hold 50 thieves and 30 soldiers including your good friend Thomas. I have the simple condition, seize any activity that you are doing and meet me at the port. If you want to deny this man carries a flair, please shoot it up in the sky. If you plan on taking the flair as a weapon, don't. It is weak as a firecracker. I hope we will meet soon and if we don't. The view you receive in the morning will be very rememberable."

Edward hadn't read a letter with such percilar writing style.

"Sir, Edward. Please heed to conditions, I know they told me that they would not hurt you one bit just talk."

There it was a simple question, should he go or not? He was planning on guarding his allies only a few moments ago and now the moment presented itself. Edward was deeply inside for an answer and soon it provided itself.

"Give me the flair. Britannia needs me more." With these, he sealed the lives of those 80 men and women with nothing but miserable death. He knew very clearly.

The man's expression in front of him grew grim but he did not ask him to save his fellows, the mediation dilution overruled Edward's Brittania comment. He pulled the flair from his ragged clothes and handed it to Edward. He got up from his position and turned back with a guilty face.

"You are going back?"

"Yes, Those are men and women. I lived with him for the last 10 years of my life, their lives end what is left of further. All I will be an empty husk... Sir, Edward can know perhaps, why are you letting us die?"

"I think you don't know old man, but the Thieves and the soldiers already lost their gambits. I won't."

The man seemed to understand what Edward meant and began walking away. Edward saw him leave and soon he lifted the gun in the air.

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over 2000 words goddamn!