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Description
November 22, 2015; Montreal, Quebec

The Animus’s white void flashed in a malicious red as the sea of ones and zeroes violently thrashed around Ava's vision. Her mind was racing. Her breathing was rough and loud, her body was shaking hard, her skin was sweating terribly. She could hear her friends scrambling to disconnect her from the machine.

“Ruby hurry!” Ben said.

“I'm trying! Okay… okay come on, come on! Almost… There! The program's shut down!”

The view inside Ava's headset went completely black. It wasn't long before her friends were pulling the machine off her eyes. Ava nearly jumped out of her chair.

“Oh God!” she screamed. Her body was still shaking. She looked like she'd just been thrown in front of a pack of vicious wolves. She felt terrible. She was certain she was going to throw up. Her head spun. “Oh God oh God oh God…” she frantically repeated. Her friends tried desperately to calm her down.

“Ava! It's okay! It's over! It's okay!” they said. It took Ava a while to calm down enough to be able to look at her friends’ reassuring but worried faces. They both held her shaking hands. Ava held them tight. Her breathing started to steady as her friends kept comforting her.

“I'm… I'm okay… I… I think,” she eventually said, slouching back a bit in her chair.

“You sure, Champ?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah… I think…” She was clearly still upset, but now she was stable. She held her head in her hands. Both her friends looked guilty. “I'm so sorry Ava…” said Ben. “We didn't know that would happen…”

“It's okay… W… What did happen?”

“You hit a trauma-centered memory, and you hit it hard,” said Ruby.

“Meaning?”

“You reached a point in Aveza's memories where her emotional and physical states were in such a horrible spot that the shock of it transferred onto you. Your body got overloaded with a pain that wasn't actually there.”

Ava looked down at her shaking hands.

“That really sucked…” she said.

“I’m sorry Ava.”

“It's cool guys…”

“It's not cool to us,” said Ben. “Come on, let's get you to your room. You need rest.”

Ava nodded. She wobbled to her feet, and avoided collapsing to the floor just long enough for her friends to support her and help her get to bed.

Her friends apologized again, and promised to try their best not to let this happen again. Ava told them it was okay again just before they left the room and let her rest.

Ava curled up in her blankets. She knew this was going to be rough, but she especially dreaded the thought of something like this. But she trusted Ben and Ruby. She knew they didn't know this would happen, and she knew they'd keep her safe in the future. So for now, she just layed in bed, thinking of the events.

It felt so real. The environment, the people, the pain, it all felt like she was there, like she was Aveza. And when Tecumseh died like that, Ava could feel Aveza's pain, her soul-crushing loss. It was so bizarre.

She continued to think on it until she fell asleep. She probably wasn't going back into the Animus any time soon, so she figured she'd get the rest while she could.

------------

November 27, 2015; Montreal, Quebec

Ava was having her morning coffee in the hideout kitchen when Ruby walked in. Ava tiredly smiled as her gaze met Ruby’s gorgeous eyes.

“Hey Champ,” said Ruby with a smile. “How you holding up today?”

“I'm doing fine,” Ava said in her normal shy tone.

“That's good to hear. You’re a tough chick, Ava. I like that.”

Ava blushed a bit, but hid it. She smiled and said thanks.

Ben walked in soon after. “Hey guys,” he said.

“Hey,” the girls said.

“How you holding up Ava?”

“I'm fine. Thanks.”

“That's good to hear. Hey, wanna try something out when you're more awake?”

“Like what?”

“Well, I figured since you're going on an Animus hiatus, we might as well see if the Bleeding Effect actually did the things we wanted it to do.”

“So, we're gonna go train?”

“If you're up to it.”

“Sure. I'm down with that.”

“Alright. Cool. Meet me in the warehouse storage room when you're ready.”

Ava nodded. The three finished up their business in the kitchen, and eventually Ava and Ben met up in the massive training room.

“Alright,” said Ava. “What do I do?”

Ben swept his hand to indicate the room.

“Well, I set up a little course,” he said. “Ruby helped me set up a bunch of flags around this place, some high, some low, some easy to get, some a royal pain. Let's see if you can get to them all.”

Ava nodded. “Alright.... how?”

Ben just shrugged. “I don't know,” he said. “You're the one with the skills. Just let your instincts move you around.”

“...Okay.”

“Good luck.”

And so Ava walked into the course. The first flag she saw was up on a tall shelf full of crates. She just stood there for a moment, thinking of how to get to it. But her first move was more instinct than thought. She placed her foot onto the metal of the shelf, and climbed up like a gecko. She made it to the top within seconds, and grabbed the flag. She leapt back down to the floor with the grace of a cat. Once she did it, the realization of her new-found agility clicked in her head.

“Woah!” she said, surprised with herself.

“You're doing great, Ava!” Ben said. “Looks like Aveza's skills are already rubbing off on you.

Ava was just as impressed with herself as her friend was. It initially freaked her out a bit, but she also found it exhilarating. She wondered what else she could do. She assumed that she'd be able to do anything Aveza could do. She decided to put it to the test.

The next flag she saw was much, much higher. Up on a scaffolding near a lower part of the ceiling. Ava looked around for a route up. She found a series of metal beams attached to the wall above one of the storage shelves. She ran over and climbed up the shelves and the beams, her ancestor’s speed and agility guiding her way. She neared the scaffolding, but it was just out of reach. And so Ava did what her instincts told her and jumped backwards off of the wall and landed onto the scaffolding. Once she regained her balance, she ran over and grabbed the flag. She smiled and lifted it to show her friend.

“Great work, Ava!” called Ben from below. “Keep going!”

Ava nodded. She scanned the enormous room for the other flags, using her Eagle Vision to find a few. They were all scattered about in unique ways in a variety of locations. She counted eight more in total. She mapped out a route along the scaffoldings and got to work.

After getting a few flags, Ava started making small talk with Ben.

“So who's Chelsea Patterson?” she asked as she climbed like a monkey around the room.

“She's an Assassin,” said Ben.

“Ya don't say,” Ava joked.

Ben laughed. “She's one of our agents in Indianapolis. Daughter of the leader of the Hoosier Assassins. Great girl to work with. One of our best.”

“She cute?”

“Sorry, she's taken. Got a husband and a kid.”

“Aw,” Ava joked. Ben laughed.

“She's helped us out a lot. She brought her cousin into the Brotherhood a few years back, and the two of them have been great people to have on our side.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Her cousin killed the Hoosier Templars’ grand master back in January. Pretty much toppled their empire in Indianapolis with the help of all his friends.”

“Sounds cool.”

“It's definitely a nice change of pace after the Great Purge.”

“The what?”

“The Great Purge. Back in 2000, one of our men, Daniel Cross, who at that point had become one of the most amazing Assassins in our history, betrayed us. The Templars did something to his brain when he was a kid before throwing him out on the streets with a wiped memory. Guy eventually joined us, rose through the ranks, and eventually was granted with a visit from the Mentor himself. Except, because of the unconscious instinct the Templars put in him, he killed the Mentor. And then he went back to Abstergo.”

“Oh…”

“Cross had been to pretty much every Assassin hideout we had at the time, and Abstergo had their Animi to sift through his memories.”

“...Oh…”

“It was awful. They sent their men on a worldwide genocide run against the Assassins. It's a miracle any of us survived. I was only five when it happened.”

“I'm so sorry…”

“Ah, it's fine. Not your fault. Besides, its ancient history now. We need to start looking ahead. I mean, hey, we won back Indianapolis. At least now we know we still have a chance.”

“That's good.”

“Yeah.”

Ava had gotten three more flags, totalling eight so far. Two more to go.

The next one was on ground level, so she leapt down from the walls and started jogging to the other side of the room.

But suddenly she stopped…

Her head started to hurt a bit, not too badly, but enough to be noticeable. She felt a bit dizzy, like when she did with her Eagle Vision.

She stood there for a moment, and suddenly heard voices.

“Aveza, watch out!”

“I have something important I want to ask you…”

“She's very cute, Eleanor.”

Ava held her head. She closed her eyes a bit, and when she opened them, she nearly fell over.

For a brief, brief moment, she saw flashes of images around her. Sights of horses and carriages passing by before disappearing. Sights of trees swaying in the wind for a moment. Sights and sounds of people in 19th century dress chatting away. Most of the visions were blurry, and all were gone within a few seconds.

The hallucinations vanished, and so did her headache, over as soon as it started.

“Ava?” asked Ben, worried. “You okay?”

“I… I saw things…”

“...Like what?”

“Like… Aveza things. You know, horses and soldiers and stuff... I… It's gone now but… What was that?”

“Another good reason why you're taking a break from the Animus.”

“Huh?”

“We told you, the Bleeding Effect has side effects. Did the visions last more than thirty seconds?”

“No.”

“Okay. Good. Than that's normal. Little visions like that are expected. It's like when you stare at a bright light for too long and the image stays there even after you look away. Still, we need to be careful if that stuff’s starting to happen. Because it can easily turn ugly.”

“I see…”

Ben saw her worried expression, and felt bad. He walked over to her to comfort her. “We'll keep you safe, Ava. As much as we can, we'll keep you safe. I promise.”

Ava looked at him. She trusted him. And so she tried her best to smile and push back her fears.

“Why don't you grab the last flags and go relax?” Ben said. “You've definitely earned it.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Ben smiled and nodded. Ava set off and retrieved the last two flags, bringing them all back to Ben, who congratulated her. The two smiled and walked out of the room.

------------

Everyone was pretty tired by the end of the night, and so after saying goodnight to each other, the Assassins all went to their rooms and got ready for bed.

Ava threw on her pajamas and started heading to her bed. But she stopped in her tracks. She felt the same headache as before, but it hurt a lot more. A lot more. She grit her teeth and clutched her head as she slowly stumbled toward her bed.

Visions clouded her thoughts. The same ones as before. The voices echoed through her head.

“Pocahontas, you traitor!”

“Aveza dear, your mother wants you.”

“Give up, savages!”

“I sank that Apple for a reason, Aveza!”

Ava gripped her skull. It hurt so badly. She could barely concentrate. She stumbled her way to bed. The visions hit hard, fast. They just kept getting faster and faster, until eventually they stopped when Ava fell flat onto the bed and passed out.

And a bit later, she awoke to the sounds of the forest.

Description
November 22, 2015; Montreal, Quebec

The Animus’s white void flashed in a malicious red as the sea of ones and zeroes violently thrashed around Ava's vision. Her mind was racing. Her breathing was rough and loud, her body was shaking hard, her skin was sweating terribly. She could hear her friends scrambling to disconnect her from the machine.

“Ruby hurry!” Ben said.

“I'm trying! Okay… okay come on, come on! Almost… There! The program's shut down!”

The view inside Ava's headset went completely black. It wasn't long before her friends were pulling the machine off her eyes. Ava nearly jumped out of her chair.

“Oh God!” she screamed. Her body was still shaking. She looked like she'd just been thrown in front of a pack of vicious wolves. She felt terrible. She was certain she was going to throw up. Her head spun. “Oh God oh God oh God…” she frantically repeated. Her friends tried desperately to calm her down.

“Ava! It's okay! It's over! It's okay!” they said. It took Ava a while to calm down enough to be able to look at her friends’ reassuring but worried faces. They both held her shaking hands. Ava held them tight. Her breathing started to steady as her friends kept comforting her.

“I'm… I'm okay… I… I think,” she eventually said, slouching back a bit in her chair.

“You sure, Champ?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah… I think…” She was clearly still upset, but now she was stable. She held her head in her hands. Both her friends looked guilty. “I'm so sorry Ava…” said Ben. “We didn't know that would happen…”

“It's okay… W… What did happen?”

“You hit a trauma-centered memory, and you hit it hard,” said Ruby.

“Meaning?”

“You reached a point in Aveza's memories where her emotional and physical states were in such a horrible spot that the shock of it transferred onto you. Your body got overloaded with a pain that wasn't actually there.”

Ava looked down at her shaking hands.

“That really sucked…” she said.

“I’m sorry Ava.”

“It's cool guys…”

“It's not cool to us,” said Ben. “Come on, let's get you to your room. You need rest.”

Ava nodded. She wobbled to her feet, and avoided collapsing to the floor just long enough for her friends to support her and help her get to bed.

Her friends apologized again, and promised to try their best not to let this happen again. Ava told them it was okay again just before they left the room and let her rest.

Ava curled up in her blankets. She knew this was going to be rough, but she especially dreaded the thought of something like this. But she trusted Ben and Ruby. She knew they didn't know this would happen, and she knew they'd keep her safe in the future. So for now, she just layed in bed, thinking of the events.

It felt so real. The environment, the people, the pain, it all felt like she was there, like she was Aveza. And when Tecumseh died like that, Ava could feel Aveza's pain, her soul-crushing loss. It was so bizarre.

She continued to think on it until she fell asleep. She probably wasn't going back into the Animus any time soon, so she figured she'd get the rest while she could.

------------

November 27, 2015; Montreal, Quebec

Ava was having her morning coffee in the hideout kitchen when Ruby walked in. Ava tiredly smiled as her gaze met Ruby’s gorgeous eyes.

“Hey Champ,” said Ruby with a smile. “How you holding up today?”

“I'm doing fine,” Ava said in her normal shy tone.

“That's good to hear. You’re a tough chick, Ava. I like that.”

Ava blushed a bit, but hid it. She smiled and said thanks.

Ben walked in soon after. “Hey guys,” he said.

“Hey,” the girls said.

“How you holding up Ava?”

“I'm fine. Thanks.”

“That's good to hear. Hey, wanna try something out when you're more awake?”

“Like what?”

“Well, I figured since you're going on an Animus hiatus, we might as well see if the Bleeding Effect actually did the things we wanted it to do.”

“So, we're gonna go train?”

“If you're up to it.”

“Sure. I'm down with that.”

“Alright. Cool. Meet me in the warehouse storage room when you're ready.”

Ava nodded. The three finished up their business in the kitchen, and eventually Ava and Ben met up in the massive training room.

“Alright,” said Ava. “What do I do?”

Ben swept his hand to indicate the room.

“Well, I set up a little course,” he said. “Ruby helped me set up a bunch of flags around this place, some high, some low, some easy to get, some a royal pain. Let's see if you can get to them all.”

Ava nodded. “Alright.... how?”

Ben just shrugged. “I don't know,” he said. “You're the one with the skills. Just let your instincts move you around.”

“...Okay.”

“Good luck.”

And so Ava walked into the course. The first flag she saw was up on a tall shelf full of crates. She just stood there for a moment, thinking of how to get to it. But her first move was more instinct than thought. She placed her foot onto the metal of the shelf, and climbed up like a gecko. She made it to the top within seconds, and grabbed the flag. She leapt back down to the floor with the grace of a cat. Once she did it, the realization of her new-found agility clicked in her head.

“Woah!” she said, surprised with herself.

“You're doing great, Ava!” Ben said. “Looks like Aveza's skills are already rubbing off on you.

Ava was just as impressed with herself as her friend was. It initially freaked her out a bit, but she also found it exhilarating. She wondered what else she could do. She assumed that she'd be able to do anything Aveza could do. She decided to put it to the test.

The next flag she saw was much, much higher. Up on a scaffolding near a lower part of the ceiling. Ava looked around for a route up. She found a series of metal beams attached to the wall above one of the storage shelves. She ran over and climbed up the shelves and the beams, her ancestor’s speed and agility guiding her way. She neared the scaffolding, but it was just out of reach. And so Ava did what her instincts told her and jumped backwards off of the wall and landed onto the scaffolding. Once she regained her balance, she ran over and grabbed the flag. She smiled and lifted it to show her friend.

“Great work, Ava!” called Ben from below. “Keep going!”

Ava nodded. She scanned the enormous room for the other flags, using her Eagle Vision to find a few. They were all scattered about in unique ways in a variety of locations. She counted eight more in total. She mapped out a route along the scaffoldings and got to work.

After getting a few flags, Ava started making small talk with Ben.

“So who's Chelsea Patterson?” she asked as she climbed like a monkey around the room.

“She's an Assassin,” said Ben.

“Ya don't say,” Ava joked.

Ben laughed. “She's one of our agents in Indianapolis. Daughter of the leader of the Hoosier Assassins. Great girl to work with. One of our best.”

“She cute?”

“Sorry, she's taken. Got a husband and a kid.”

“Aw,” Ava joked. Ben laughed.

“She's helped us out a lot. She brought her cousin into the Brotherhood a few years back, and the two of them have been great people to have on our side.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Her cousin killed the Hoosier Templars’ grand master back in January. Pretty much toppled their empire in Indianapolis with the help of all his friends.”

“Sounds cool.”

“It's definitely a nice change of pace after the Great Purge.”

“The what?”

“The Great Purge. Back in 2000, one of our men, Daniel Cross, who at that point had become one of the most amazing Assassins in our history, betrayed us. The Templars did something to his brain when he was a kid before throwing him out on the streets with a wiped memory. Guy eventually joined us, rose through the ranks, and eventually was granted with a visit from the Mentor himself. Except, because of the unconscious instinct the Templars put in him, he killed the Mentor. And then he went back to Abstergo.”

“Oh…”

“Cross had been to pretty much every Assassin hideout we had at the time, and Abstergo had their Animi to sift through his memories.”

“...Oh…”

“It was awful. They sent their men on a worldwide genocide run against the Assassins. It's a miracle any of us survived. I was only five when it happened.”

“I'm so sorry…”

“Ah, it's fine. Not your fault. Besides, its ancient history now. We need to start looking ahead. I mean, hey, we won back Indianapolis. At least now we know we still have a chance.”

“That's good.”

“Yeah.”

Ava had gotten three more flags, totalling eight so far. Two more to go.

The next one was on ground level, so she leapt down from the walls and started jogging to the other side of the room.

But suddenly she stopped…

Her head started to hurt a bit, not too badly, but enough to be noticeable. She felt a bit dizzy, like when she did with her Eagle Vision.

She stood there for a moment, and suddenly heard voices.

“Aveza, watch out!”

“I have something important I want to ask you…”

“She's very cute, Eleanor.”

Ava held her head. She closed her eyes a bit, and when she opened them, she nearly fell over.

For a brief, brief moment, she saw flashes of images around her. Sights of horses and carriages passing by before disappearing. Sights of trees swaying in the wind for a moment. Sights and sounds of people in 19th century dress chatting away. Most of the visions were blurry, and all were gone within a few seconds.

The hallucinations vanished, and so did her headache, over as soon as it started.

“Ava?” asked Ben, worried. “You okay?”

“I… I saw things…”

“...Like what?”

“Like… Aveza things. You know, horses and soldiers and stuff... I… It's gone now but… What was that?”

“Another good reason why you're taking a break from the Animus.”

“Huh?”

“We told you, the Bleeding Effect has side effects. Did the visions last more than thirty seconds?”

“No.”

“Okay. Good. Than that's normal. Little visions like that are expected. It's like when you stare at a bright light for too long and the image stays there even after you look away. Still, we need to be careful if that stuff’s starting to happen. Because it can easily turn ugly.”

“I see…”

Ben saw her worried expression, and felt bad. He walked over to her to comfort her. “We'll keep you safe, Ava. As much as we can, we'll keep you safe. I promise.”

Ava looked at him. She trusted him. And so she tried her best to smile and push back her fears.

“Why don't you grab the last flags and go relax?” Ben said. “You've definitely earned it.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Ben smiled and nodded. Ava set off and retrieved the last two flags, bringing them all back to Ben, who congratulated her. The two smiled and walked out of the room.

------------

Everyone was pretty tired by the end of the night, and so after saying goodnight to each other, the Assassins all went to their rooms and got ready for bed.

Ava threw on her pajamas and started heading to her bed. But she stopped in her tracks. She felt the same headache as before, but it hurt a lot more. A lot more. She grit her teeth and clutched her head as she slowly stumbled toward her bed.

Visions clouded her thoughts. The same ones as before. The voices echoed through her head.

“Pocahontas, you traitor!”

“Aveza dear, your mother wants you.”

“Give up, savages!”

“I sank that Apple for a reason, Aveza!”

Ava gripped her skull. It hurt so badly. She could barely concentrate. She stumbled her way to bed. The visions hit hard, fast. They just kept getting faster and faster, until eventually they stopped when Ava fell flat onto the bed and passed out.

And a bit later, she awoke to the sounds of the forest.