Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines

Story

Shortly after the end of the first game, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad learns of a plan by the remaining Templars to flee to Cyprus, so he infiltrates one of their strongholds in Acre to prevent them from doing so. He does not succeed in this, but he defeats and captures Maria Thorpe, who is trying to avenge her former master Robert de Sablé, who died at Altaïr's hands. After chartering a ship, Altaïr sets off for Cyprus with Maria in tow to find the apple. Once there, he learns that Armand Bouchart, the successor to Robert de Sablé, is Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Altaïr also learns of a resistance movement in the town that opposes the presence of the Templars, who bought the island from King Richard and formed a repressive government to control the land and the people. He also learns of a Templar "archive," a treasure trove of Templar knowledge and artifacts hidden somewhere on the island. True to the spirit of the Assassins, Altaïr sets out to find the archive and free Cyprus from Bouchart's grip, first by killing his subordinates: Frederick "the Red," Moloch "the Bull," Shalim and Shahar "the Twins," and the Dark Oracle "the Witch." Finally, he confronts and defeats Bouchart in the Archives, whose contents have been evacuated and relocated by Templar soldiers. After Bouchart's death, the archive begins to collapse, but Altaïr manages to escape. The game also depicts the relationship between Altaïr and Maria. At first, Maria is hostile and sarcastic toward Altaïr (in her own words, "the man who spared my neck but ruined my life"), but as the story progresses, she gradually befriends the assassin, who, despite her repeated attempts to escape, always saves her from harm and does not punish her. Eventually, she decides to help Altaïr by killing a Templar informer in the Resistance when he tries to kill Altaïr, and in the final battle she faces Bouchart at his side, who by this time has fallen in love with the assassin. After their escape from the Templar archives, the two decide to head east towards India.