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August 18, 1590; Roanoke Island

Ava groggily awoke and looked around. Her vision was blurred by her tiredness, but eventually her eyes adjusted. And when they did, they widened in shock. She almost fell backwards when she saw that she wasn't in her room anymore. She was sitting on a tree branch, in the middle of a forest, looking out over a beach.

Ava freaked out. How did she get here? Where was here? She tried moving her head around to look at her surroundings, but she found she couldn't move it. She just kept overlooking the beach as two large ships came sailing into the shore. They looked very old-fashioned.

Ava found she was still able to shift her gaze a bit, and she looked around at what she could. She received another shock when she looked down at herself and saw a familiar sight. She was wearing Kahente’s robes. Her mind raced with questions. She looked at the rest of her body. And she quickly realized it wasn't her body. It was her ancestor’s body.

But how? she wondered. She wasn't in the Animus. She hadn't even been near it for days. How was she reliving Kahente’s memories? She thought frantically of the last events she could remember while dozens of men began stepping off the ships ahead of Kahente.

She thought back. She was in the hideout. She'd just gotten ready for bed when all of a sudden she had a terrible headache. She heard a bunch of voices… and then passed out on her bed.

So that meant this was…

Just a dream… she thought with a mental sigh of relief. Ava had never been a lucid dreamer, so the clarity of her environment freaked her out. But once she put together that she was just dreaming, she calmed down. She started to just let her gaze follow Kahente’s. She figured she might as well watch the show while it’s going.

Kahente stayed perched high in the treetop. She looked over every single man that stepped off the ships, seemingly scanning for someone in particular. Eventually, her eye caught sight of that someone. She eyed the man. He was old, around fifty probably. He had on a semi-formal waistcoat and cloak, with stockings and a hat to match. He turned to the soldiers that accompanied him and started speaking something to them. Soon enough, they started walking down a trail away from the beach. Kahente watched them go. She squinted her eyes at them and darted into the forest, disappearing from the trees.

She leapt through the woods with lightning speed, getting far ahead of the men. Eventually, she stopped when she came into an eerie clearing. Ava felt chills when she recognized what this clearing was. It was the burnt ruins of the Roanoke Colony, the one that Kahente had failed to save. Ava could feel Kahente trying to hold back painful tears.

Kahente kept it in as much as she could. She carried on into the ruins, passing by the post that she had carved the word “Croatoan” into just a year and a half ago. She went into a collapsed house, dug through a pile of items, and pulled out a loaded wheellock.

She gripped the gun tight and left the ruin. Then, she stood behind a nearby tree, and waited.

Eventually, she heard approaching footsteps as the men from earlier started marching into the ruins. Kahente’s target looked in horror at the empty, charred state of the colony. He and his men started frantically looking around.

“Eleanor!” the Englishman called out. “Ananias! Roger!” But he got no response aside from the lonely wind. Suddenly, he spotted the engraving on the post. He eyed it curiously, motioning for his men to come look. The soldiers gathered around him as he studied the word. He looked at it at every angle, trying to piece together who carved it.

His answer came in the form of Kahente’s wheellock aimed at his head as she stepped out of her hiding place.

The men raised their weapons, ready to defend themselves. Kahente just stared at her target with cold, hateful eyes. Her gun arm didn't move. She kept it aimed.

“Where were you?” she said quietly to the man. She was trying desperately to hold back her tears.

“Who in God's name are you, savage?” said the man. Kahente scowled and took a vicious step forward. The men fearfully stepped back in response.

“I said where the hell were you?” she shouted.

“I… what?” stuttered the man.

“They trusted you to come back! They trusted you to return with supplies! But you never came, you dog! They trusted you and they perished because of it!”

The men just stared in silence. The man stuttered, unable to think of what to say. Kahente took another step.

“Where. Were. You?” she said, losing the fight to hold her tears back.

The man stuttered. “We… I… Our return had been halted by the Spanish Armada. The Queen would not allow us to make the voyage back until recently.”

Kahente scowled. She wasn't satisfied with his answer. She kept her gun raised.

“Wh… who are you?” asked the man.

“My name is Kahente,” she responded. “I'm the Assassin that defended your people from the Templar dogs that you left in charge.”

“What?”

“Your men went insane without their supplies, Mr. White. They went to malicious lengths to find the Shroud of Eden that you Templars were looking for. And it led to the destruction of everyone on the island, everyone I swore to protect. Including your daughter and granddaughter. And it's all your fault!”

Her gun arm started shaking. “They're all dead and it's your fault you son of a-!”

“Dead?” said White. “No… Oh God no. It can't be!”

“I watched what happened myself! I watched as the Piece of Eden disintegrated them! I watched the agony it induced on these lands before it slaughtered everyone! Everyone but me! And now I have to live with the guilt of my failure every single day! And it's all your fault!”

“No… they can't be dead! They just can't! My beloved Eleanor and little Virginia can't be lost to me! They must've gone somewhere else, moved away.”

Kahente’s tears burnt her red-hot face. She couldn't believe he continued to deny the horrible tragedy that she had witnessed.

“I should kill you right now,” she said. “I should just stick this gun between your eyes and pull the trigger.” She paused. “But I won't,” she said, lowering her gun. “I won't. Because I know Eleanor wouldn't have wanted me to. She'd want me to spare you. And so I will.”

White just stared. Kahente looked at him through her tears. “Go,” she said. “Leave this island and never return. For if you do, then I won't hesitate to reunite you with your daughter.”

White stared. He nervously looked at his men, who seemed just as scared and unsure as him. Eventually, he lowered his head and nodded.

“Very well,” he said. “We shall leave. But I will look for them, Assassin. I refuse to believe they are dead like you say. I refuse. I will find them, I swear.”

“Go.”

The two glared at each other. White turned to his men and ordered them to leave the ruins. Eventually, Kahente was left alone again. And once the last man had left, she started to shake as the wall that held her emotions back crumbled.

She dropped her gun and fell to her knees. And then she started crying without restraint. The memory of her loss, of her failure, flooded into her brain. She cried as she mourned the loss of her friends.

Ava kept watching the dream play out, and she herself felt like she was going to cry. She felt bad for her ancestor. She remembered how close Kahente had become with the Roanoke colonists. She remembered the terrible, terrible way that they all died, leaving Kahente to live with her guilt. Ava wondered, how long had she been waiting? How long had she been on that island, waiting for that man to arrive on its shores? How long had she been waiting to shout at him like that?

Ava kept watching as Kahente stood from her place on the ground, and began hiking away from the ruins. She walked like a ghost through the forests of the island, until she eventually stopped in front of a cave. Ava immediately recognized it. It was the cave that had the Shroud in it. The one that those Templars activated and accidentally killed the island with. The cave that Ava and her friends had blown sky high not long ago.

Kahente stood in front of the entrance, her face still soaked in tears. She stood motionless for a while. She clenched her fists until they turned bright red. She grit her teeth as sadness briefly became fury. With a shout of rage, she slammed her fist into the stone of the cave. She ignored the pain, dropped her arm, and started crying again with her head hung. She let herself drop into a sitting position on a rock. She held her head in her hands, and sobbed. All Ava could do was watch. She felt terrible. She wished she could actually comfort her, be by her side and say, “It's okay, grandma.” But she couldn't. Her dream wouldn't let her. All she could do was watch as she mourned.

Suddenly, the world started slowly fading away to black. Ava watched as the dream came to its end, and then her eyes shot open.

She sat straight up in bed, looking around her room. Satisfied that she was back to the real world, she rested her head in her hand. It was just a dream, but she still felt bad. She didn't just feel empathy, she legitimately felt Kahente’s sorrows. She'd relived it. She was starting to realize the impact these Animus sessions were having on her. Kahente, Aveza, she'd felt both their emotions on a far bigger level than any other person. People who had been dead for centuries still inspired Ava to connect with them. Ava tried to wrap her head around it, but she was tired. If she was going to think any further, she'd need another thing of coffee. And so she lugged herself out of bed, and walked to the kitchen.

Ruby and Ben were already in the room when Ava walked in. They smiled and waved.

“Nice hair,” Ruby teased. Ava looked up. Her bedhead was awful. She gave a tired laugh.

“Thanks,” she joked back.

Ben passed her a cup of coffee as she came and sat down at the table with them. Ava gladly accepted and chugged the drink down.

“You okay?” Ben suddenly asked.

“Hmm?” said Ava.

“You look out of it, like more than usual.”

Ava just shrugged. “Oh nothing,” she said. “Just weird dreams.”

“I've been there,” Ruby laughed.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I had this one dream where I was flying through space on robot shark that vomited rainbows.”

Ava and Ben looked at her.

“You sure that wasn't a drug trip?” Ben joked.

“It wasn't.”

“It wasn't?”

“...No…”

“You sure?”

“...You don't know my life.”

Ben smirked and rolled his eyes. “If you say so,” he said. Ruby stuck her tongue out at him again. And Ben did the same in response. Ava chuckled at them.

The three laughed and went on with their breakfast. Ruby had her laptop out, and would type on it between bites. Ava, curious, looked over at the screen.

“Woah,” she said. Hundreds of lighting fast numbers and codes darted across the screen every which way. Ava couldn't keep up with it. “What's all that?” she asked.

Ruby smiled and pointed at her work. “That,” she said proudly, “is the Abstergo Cloud. Every single piece of data that the Templars have gathered is in this sea of numbers. And I hacked into it.”

“Wow.”

“I know, right? I'm awesome.”

“You wish,” Ben joked.

“Hush you,” Ruby joked back. Ben laughed.

“Anyways,” continued Ruby. “I hacked into the Cloud to see if they have any leads on the key. Just in case Aveza's story doesn't go far enough for us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the Animus works through your DNA. It follows your genetic family tree until it finds the ancestor you want. So once that specific ancestor passes on their genes, i.e. having kids, then the session quits following them and starts following their kids instead.”

“Is there a way around that?”

“There is… for Abstergo. They've got a whole database full of genetic material they've gathered. They have all sorts of samples to put into the Animus. With those, you could follow the person's memories until their death. Unfortunately, we don't have something like that with Aveza. And that's why I'll be digging through this mess while you're taking your trips to 1813. Just in case.”

“I see.” A question dawned on her. “So, when are we throwing me back in?”

“I've got a few more adjustments to make on the Animus before you can use it again. Sorry Champ,” said Ruby.

“Besides,” said Ben, “you still need to take a break for a few more days. Just to make sure the Bleeding Effect doesn't do any damage.”

Ava nodded. “Hey uh… thanks for looking out for me guys,” she said. “I know I don't say it a lot, but I really appreciate what you guys have done for me.”

“Ah, no problem Champ!” said Ruby. “What're friends for?”

“Drug trip stories,” joked Ben.

She smirked at him. “I will stab you with this spoon,” she joked. Everyone laughed. Ava took another sip of coffee. She was really glad to have her friends.

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

November 30, 2015; Montreal, Quebec

“Alrighty Ava! It's finally ready!” Ruby called to Ava.

Ava walked into the room. “You got the Animus ready?” she said.

“That's what I said.”

“Cool! Let's get to it then!”

Ruby smiled at her. “You've really been getting used to this, huh Champ?” she said. “I mean, when you first came here, this thing scared the crap outta you. And now here you are, ready to go.”

Ava smiled and shrugged. “I guess some of Aveza's love of adventure is rubbing off on me,” she said.

“Guess so. Welp, hop on in then.”

Ava nodded and sat down in her chair. Ruby grabbed the headset and brought it over to her. Ava got one last look at Ruby’s gorgeous eyes before the headset covered her vision. The Animus’s white void returned again. Ava could hear Ruby typing up the program. “Good luck, Champ,” she said.

“Thanks.”

A DNA strand lit up in front of Ava's vision. A single piece of it flashed, ready to be selected. When it was, it flashed white, filling Ava's vision with pure white nothingness. The white quickly became black. All she could hear was silence at first, but soon faint mumbles hit her ears. She tried to open her eyes, but she barely could. She could only see blurred figures looming over her. The sounds got clearer, as did the sights. She looked up at the figures, whom all seemed relieved.

“Thank God!” said the familiar voice of Arnold. “She's waking up!”

Aveza looked up at him. Her eyes focused on him first. The sight of him dulled all the pain she felt for a moment as she looked into his caring, worried eyes.

Description
August 18, 1590; Roanoke Island

Ava groggily awoke and looked around. Her vision was blurred by her tiredness, but eventually her eyes adjusted. And when they did, they widened in shock. She almost fell backwards when she saw that she wasn't in her room anymore. She was sitting on a tree branch, in the middle of a forest, looking out over a beach.

Ava freaked out. How did she get here? Where was here? She tried moving her head around to look at her surroundings, but she found she couldn't move it. She just kept overlooking the beach as two large ships came sailing into the shore. They looked very old-fashioned.

Ava found she was still able to shift her gaze a bit, and she looked around at what she could. She received another shock when she looked down at herself and saw a familiar sight. She was wearing Kahente’s robes. Her mind raced with questions. She looked at the rest of her body. And she quickly realized it wasn't her body. It was her ancestor’s body.

But how? she wondered. She wasn't in the Animus. She hadn't even been near it for days. How was she reliving Kahente’s memories? She thought frantically of the last events she could remember while dozens of men began stepping off the ships ahead of Kahente.

She thought back. She was in the hideout. She'd just gotten ready for bed when all of a sudden she had a terrible headache. She heard a bunch of voices… and then passed out on her bed.

So that meant this was…

Just a dream… she thought with a mental sigh of relief. Ava had never been a lucid dreamer, so the clarity of her environment freaked her out. But once she put together that she was just dreaming, she calmed down. She started to just let her gaze follow Kahente’s. She figured she might as well watch the show while it’s going.

Kahente stayed perched high in the treetop. She looked over every single man that stepped off the ships, seemingly scanning for someone in particular. Eventually, her eye caught sight of that someone. She eyed the man. He was old, around fifty probably. He had on a semi-formal waistcoat and cloak, with stockings and a hat to match. He turned to the soldiers that accompanied him and started speaking something to them. Soon enough, they started walking down a trail away from the beach. Kahente watched them go. She squinted her eyes at them and darted into the forest, disappearing from the trees.

She leapt through the woods with lightning speed, getting far ahead of the men. Eventually, she stopped when she came into an eerie clearing. Ava felt chills when she recognized what this clearing was. It was the burnt ruins of the Roanoke Colony, the one that Kahente had failed to save. Ava could feel Kahente trying to hold back painful tears.

Kahente kept it in as much as she could. She carried on into the ruins, passing by the post that she had carved the word “Croatoan” into just a year and a half ago. She went into a collapsed house, dug through a pile of items, and pulled out a loaded wheellock.

She gripped the gun tight and left the ruin. Then, she stood behind a nearby tree, and waited.

Eventually, she heard approaching footsteps as the men from earlier started marching into the ruins. Kahente’s target looked in horror at the empty, charred state of the colony. He and his men started frantically looking around.

“Eleanor!” the Englishman called out. “Ananias! Roger!” But he got no response aside from the lonely wind. Suddenly, he spotted the engraving on the post. He eyed it curiously, motioning for his men to come look. The soldiers gathered around him as he studied the word. He looked at it at every angle, trying to piece together who carved it.

His answer came in the form of Kahente’s wheellock aimed at his head as she stepped out of her hiding place.

The men raised their weapons, ready to defend themselves. Kahente just stared at her target with cold, hateful eyes. Her gun arm didn't move. She kept it aimed.

“Where were you?” she said quietly to the man. She was trying desperately to hold back her tears.

“Who in God's name are you, savage?” said the man. Kahente scowled and took a vicious step forward. The men fearfully stepped back in response.

“I said where the hell were you?” she shouted.

“I… what?” stuttered the man.

“They trusted you to come back! They trusted you to return with supplies! But you never came, you dog! They trusted you and they perished because of it!”

The men just stared in silence. The man stuttered, unable to think of what to say. Kahente took another step.

“Where. Were. You?” she said, losing the fight to hold her tears back.

The man stuttered. “We… I… Our return had been halted by the Spanish Armada. The Queen would not allow us to make the voyage back until recently.”

Kahente scowled. She wasn't satisfied with his answer. She kept her gun raised.

“Wh… who are you?” asked the man.

“My name is Kahente,” she responded. “I'm the Assassin that defended your people from the Templar dogs that you left in charge.”

“What?”

“Your men went insane without their supplies, Mr. White. They went to malicious lengths to find the Shroud of Eden that you Templars were looking for. And it led to the destruction of everyone on the island, everyone I swore to protect. Including your daughter and granddaughter. And it's all your fault!”

Her gun arm started shaking. “They're all dead and it's your fault you son of a-!”

“Dead?” said White. “No… Oh God no. It can't be!”

“I watched what happened myself! I watched as the Piece of Eden disintegrated them! I watched the agony it induced on these lands before it slaughtered everyone! Everyone but me! And now I have to live with the guilt of my failure every single day! And it's all your fault!”

“No… they can't be dead! They just can't! My beloved Eleanor and little Virginia can't be lost to me! They must've gone somewhere else, moved away.”

Kahente’s tears burnt her red-hot face. She couldn't believe he continued to deny the horrible tragedy that she had witnessed.

“I should kill you right now,” she said. “I should just stick this gun between your eyes and pull the trigger.” She paused. “But I won't,” she said, lowering her gun. “I won't. Because I know Eleanor wouldn't have wanted me to. She'd want me to spare you. And so I will.”

White just stared. Kahente looked at him through her tears. “Go,” she said. “Leave this island and never return. For if you do, then I won't hesitate to reunite you with your daughter.”

White stared. He nervously looked at his men, who seemed just as scared and unsure as him. Eventually, he lowered his head and nodded.

“Very well,” he said. “We shall leave. But I will look for them, Assassin. I refuse to believe they are dead like you say. I refuse. I will find them, I swear.”

“Go.”

The two glared at each other. White turned to his men and ordered them to leave the ruins. Eventually, Kahente was left alone again. And once the last man had left, she started to shake as the wall that held her emotions back crumbled.

She dropped her gun and fell to her knees. And then she started crying without restraint. The memory of her loss, of her failure, flooded into her brain. She cried as she mourned the loss of her friends.

Ava kept watching the dream play out, and she herself felt like she was going to cry. She felt bad for her ancestor. She remembered how close Kahente had become with the Roanoke colonists. She remembered the terrible, terrible way that they all died, leaving Kahente to live with her guilt. Ava wondered, how long had she been waiting? How long had she been on that island, waiting for that man to arrive on its shores? How long had she been waiting to shout at him like that?

Ava kept watching as Kahente stood from her place on the ground, and began hiking away from the ruins. She walked like a ghost through the forests of the island, until she eventually stopped in front of a cave. Ava immediately recognized it. It was the cave that had the Shroud in it. The one that those Templars activated and accidentally killed the island with. The cave that Ava and her friends had blown sky high not long ago.

Kahente stood in front of the entrance, her face still soaked in tears. She stood motionless for a while. She clenched her fists until they turned bright red. She grit her teeth as sadness briefly became fury. With a shout of rage, she slammed her fist into the stone of the cave. She ignored the pain, dropped her arm, and started crying again with her head hung. She let herself drop into a sitting position on a rock. She held her head in her hands, and sobbed. All Ava could do was watch. She felt terrible. She wished she could actually comfort her, be by her side and say, “It's okay, grandma.” But she couldn't. Her dream wouldn't let her. All she could do was watch as she mourned.

Suddenly, the world started slowly fading away to black. Ava watched as the dream came to its end, and then her eyes shot open.

She sat straight up in bed, looking around her room. Satisfied that she was back to the real world, she rested her head in her hand. It was just a dream, but she still felt bad. She didn't just feel empathy, she legitimately felt Kahente’s sorrows. She'd relived it. She was starting to realize the impact these Animus sessions were having on her. Kahente, Aveza, she'd felt both their emotions on a far bigger level than any other person. People who had been dead for centuries still inspired Ava to connect with them. Ava tried to wrap her head around it, but she was tired. If she was going to think any further, she'd need another thing of coffee. And so she lugged herself out of bed, and walked to the kitchen.

Ruby and Ben were already in the room when Ava walked in. They smiled and waved.

“Nice hair,” Ruby teased. Ava looked up. Her bedhead was awful. She gave a tired laugh.

“Thanks,” she joked back.

Ben passed her a cup of coffee as she came and sat down at the table with them. Ava gladly accepted and chugged the drink down.

“You okay?” Ben suddenly asked.

“Hmm?” said Ava.

“You look out of it, like more than usual.”

Ava just shrugged. “Oh nothing,” she said. “Just weird dreams.”

“I've been there,” Ruby laughed.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I had this one dream where I was flying through space on robot shark that vomited rainbows.”

Ava and Ben looked at her.

“You sure that wasn't a drug trip?” Ben joked.

“It wasn't.”

“It wasn't?”

“...No…”

“You sure?”

“...You don't know my life.”

Ben smirked and rolled his eyes. “If you say so,” he said. Ruby stuck her tongue out at him again. And Ben did the same in response. Ava chuckled at them.

The three laughed and went on with their breakfast. Ruby had her laptop out, and would type on it between bites. Ava, curious, looked over at the screen.

“Woah,” she said. Hundreds of lighting fast numbers and codes darted across the screen every which way. Ava couldn't keep up with it. “What's all that?” she asked.

Ruby smiled and pointed at her work. “That,” she said proudly, “is the Abstergo Cloud. Every single piece of data that the Templars have gathered is in this sea of numbers. And I hacked into it.”

“Wow.”

“I know, right? I'm awesome.”

“You wish,” Ben joked.

“Hush you,” Ruby joked back. Ben laughed.

“Anyways,” continued Ruby. “I hacked into the Cloud to see if they have any leads on the key. Just in case Aveza's story doesn't go far enough for us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the Animus works through your DNA. It follows your genetic family tree until it finds the ancestor you want. So once that specific ancestor passes on their genes, i.e. having kids, then the session quits following them and starts following their kids instead.”

“Is there a way around that?”

“There is… for Abstergo. They've got a whole database full of genetic material they've gathered. They have all sorts of samples to put into the Animus. With those, you could follow the person's memories until their death. Unfortunately, we don't have something like that with Aveza. And that's why I'll be digging through this mess while you're taking your trips to 1813. Just in case.”

“I see.” A question dawned on her. “So, when are we throwing me back in?”

“I've got a few more adjustments to make on the Animus before you can use it again. Sorry Champ,” said Ruby.

“Besides,” said Ben, “you still need to take a break for a few more days. Just to make sure the Bleeding Effect doesn't do any damage.”

Ava nodded. “Hey uh… thanks for looking out for me guys,” she said. “I know I don't say it a lot, but I really appreciate what you guys have done for me.”

“Ah, no problem Champ!” said Ruby. “What're friends for?”

“Drug trip stories,” joked Ben.

She smirked at him. “I will stab you with this spoon,” she joked. Everyone laughed. Ava took another sip of coffee. She was really glad to have her friends.

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

November 30, 2015; Montreal, Quebec

“Alrighty Ava! It's finally ready!” Ruby called to Ava.

Ava walked into the room. “You got the Animus ready?” she said.

“That's what I said.”

“Cool! Let's get to it then!”

Ruby smiled at her. “You've really been getting used to this, huh Champ?” she said. “I mean, when you first came here, this thing scared the crap outta you. And now here you are, ready to go.”

Ava smiled and shrugged. “I guess some of Aveza's love of adventure is rubbing off on me,” she said.

“Guess so. Welp, hop on in then.”

Ava nodded and sat down in her chair. Ruby grabbed the headset and brought it over to her. Ava got one last look at Ruby’s gorgeous eyes before the headset covered her vision. The Animus’s white void returned again. Ava could hear Ruby typing up the program. “Good luck, Champ,” she said.

“Thanks.”

A DNA strand lit up in front of Ava's vision. A single piece of it flashed, ready to be selected. When it was, it flashed white, filling Ava's vision with pure white nothingness. The white quickly became black. All she could hear was silence at first, but soon faint mumbles hit her ears. She tried to open her eyes, but she barely could. She could only see blurred figures looming over her. The sounds got clearer, as did the sights. She looked up at the figures, whom all seemed relieved.

“Thank God!” said the familiar voice of Arnold. “She's waking up!”

Aveza looked up at him. Her eyes focused on him first. The sight of him dulled all the pain she felt for a moment as she looked into his caring, worried eyes.