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November 23, 75005 BCE; Olympus

Eve kept her head down low. Her eyes darted back and forth as she walked the crowded streets of Olympus. She desperately hoped none of the Isu around her would call her out. She hoped she blended in well enough not to be recognized as human. If even one person caught on…

She shook her head. She couldn't let this get to her. She had to stay strong and calm. If she just hid in plain sight, she'd be fine. Their two species looked identical. If she just acted natural, she'd be fine.

She wandered around the city, taking in the massive glistening buildings and the different technologies that filled the streets and skies. Vehicles buzzed around in the air and people chatted the days away under the shadow of the city's main statue that sat at the center of town. Eve cast a glance up at the monument when she got the chance. It was a towering statue of the Capitoline Triad, the three greatest scientists that the Isu have ever seen: Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno. They were masters of their craft, dealing in things like quantum manipulation and speaking across timelines. They hoped to catch a glimpse of the future, to see what could be done to influence it. Especially now, when their species was in an all out war against Eve's. Eve shook her head. She had wished it would never come to this. An entire planet at war, all because the Isu were too arrogant to let her people go.

She shook the thought away for now. She had to meet up with her contact. After twisting and turning and climbing around the great Isu city, she eventually managed to come across her destination: an Isu laboratory. She hoped her contact was right when he said he'd leave an open window for her. She didn't want to have to deal with security.

Thankfully, she wasn't disappointed. In a relatively isolated corner of the building, right where her contact said it would be, was an open window. She smiled and got to work on scaling a nearby building, and then she got a running start on the rooftop in order to jump her way onto the windowsill and stealthily haul herself inside.

The room was dark, save for a few fluorescent lights that illuminated some of the major tech pieces around the place. She looked around for the object her contact told her to find, and eventually she managed to spot it: a seemingly unimportant little pedestal with a slot in the side, a slot that matched the size and shape of the little triangular hunk of metal that sat on top of the structure. Eve took the little triangle and she carefully slid it into the hole. She took a step back as the pedestal started glowing bright and the air in front it began to warp and crack. She felt a gust of wind kick up as the portal opened up wide and practically beckoned her forward. Eve braced herself, and she stepped on through.

When she opened her eyes again on the other side of the portal, she found herself in a place that was different than anything else she'd seen. Reality looked bent and broken. Everything around her was just an endless void in every direction, with floating platforms that looked like they were made of shattered mirrors being the only thing Eve could see for miles aside from the few misty clouds of foreboding fog. She never liked coming here. It gave her the chills. But this was one of the safest places to meet her contact in, and so here she was.

Tartarus, the great Isu prison. A space between the dimensions of reality, out of the way from the physical confinements of the real world. It was a place where they sent their most hated criminals and political opponents. A place where their screams could never be heard as they were tortured for their crimes. The king’s own son was sent to rot down here. Loki, the great trickster, the one man who managed to cause more trouble for humans and Isu alike than any other, had crossed the final line. He tricked his blind brother Hodr into accidentally killing his beloved brother Baldr with a mistletoe arrow. The Æsir family were furious, and they hunted Loki down and captured him. They sent him here to be punished. They used his own son's intestines to strap him down and had snake venom drip above his head. He was still locked up down there, his only comfort being his wife, who tried her best to keep as much of the venom as she could from dripping onto him. She couldn't get it all though, and he's still slowly dying, slowly hoping that the sweet embrace of death will some day rescue him from the pain.

Eve could hear the distant screams of other prisoners locked away in the endless void. She did her best to ignore them as much as she could. She just had to meet with her contact, and then get out of this horrible place.

She found him in his “office”, as she decided to call it. That was essentially what the space was, even though it wasn't much different from the rest of this otherworldly void of platforms. He sat in front of his tech, monitoring all the goings on of the prison. He smiled as he heard Eve approach behind him.

“Been awhile, hasn't it, Evie?” he said as he turned around.

“Don't call me Evie, Lucifer,” Eve joked back.

“Oh so you can call me Lucy, but I can't call you Evie?”

“Sounds about right.”

He looked at her, and then laughed, a ragged old sound. “So, what can I do for you?” he asked.

“You told me you had information? Something about a traitor amongst our allies?”

“Ah! Yeah. Give me a minute to load up the files.” He went over to his tech and started fiddling with the buttons and keys. Eve walked up next to him. She watched him type for a while, but eventually broke the silence.

“Why did you never join?” she asked as he worked.

“What do you mean?” he asked nonchalantly.

“You know what I mean. The Assassins. Why did you never join? You help out the rebel cause all the time. Hell, you were the one that kickstarted this whole thing. So why not join?”

“Because I like being my own man. I've never been one to be tied down. Gabriel might be willing to show that kind of devotion, same with Michael and his Garrison on the other side of things, but I'm not. I like to be able to make my own plans without anyone to answer to when I have… dirtier deeds I want to carry out.”

“I guess that's fair enough.”

“It's enough for me, Evie. That's all that matters.”

“You've really got an ego, don't you?”

“More than you know. Ah! Got the files.”

Eve looked up at the screen that Lucifer had pulled up. A profile of an old man, Isu by the looks of it, had been brought up to view.

“I'm sure you've noticed some odd activity going on in the rebel circles? Disappearing supplies, missing agents, Isu secrets getting leaked, that kind of thing?”

Eve nodded. “Yeah. It's been causing so much trouble us.”

“Well it's been causing trouble for Odin’s men too.”

“What do you mean?”

“All that stuff that's been happening to you, it's been happening to the Isu as well. Missing tech, agents gone into the blue, all of it. Whoever's been behind it seems to have it out for both sides.”

Eve mulled this over. “But… why would he do that? What does he gain?”

Lucifer shrugged uncaringly. “Some people just like to watch the world burn,” he said, a bit of a smirk hidden behind his lips. “Doing that to both sides sure is causing the hostilities to blow up more and more on both sides.”

“You think he's trying to make the war worse and worse?”

“That'd be my guess.”

“Then I need to stop him. I want this war to end in peace, not blood.”

Lucifer chuckled. “Such an idealist. So cute.”

“Just shut up and tell me who I need to kill.”

“He's one of the scientists in the quantum manipulation section of the laboratory. Word is he's been working on a little side project using specialized tech.”

“And you think he's the one behind the chaos?”

“I do. I've seen some of my own tech in his lab. He's lucky I was feeling nice enough that day not to rip off his-”

“I got it. Well don't worry, I'll take care of him.”

“He should be here in the lab, isolated from most of the other scientists.”

Eve nodded. “Got it. Thanks Lucifer. The rebels appreciate your help.”

“I'm just glad I'm getting revenge for my stuff being stolen.”

Eve rolled her eyes, and she turned to leave. She navigated the floating platforms of Tartarus until eventually she made her way back to the exit portal. She stepped back into the dark of the lab, leapt into the shadows of the upper rafters, and got to work on finding the good doctor.

She heard various noises and voices as she passed through the different rooms of the massive building. She paid them all little mind, but her ears did perk up once she heard a very familiar voice.

“This discussion is over, Minerva,” the strong, harsh voice of the archangel Michael boomed through the hallway. Eve froze in the shadows, and she looked down to see the man who matched the voice. There he was, standing in full glowing armor, walking beside another man whom Eve recognized, one she was honestly rather surprised to see.

His armor came near to beating Michael's in the flair contest, with a long velvet cape flowing behind him to top his regal look off. His long golden hair draped over his rigid bearded jaw. And most unmistakably, on his belt hung his favorite toy, a Piece of Eden deadlier on the battlefield than anything else Eve had personally encountered. The hammer of the prince of Asgard. Mjolnir.

“Thor…” Eve mumbled to herself. “What is the prince doing here?”

“You must learn to be kinder to the lady, Sir Michael,” Thor laughed, his voice loud and joyous. “We may depart in disagreement, but that doesn't mean-”

“Your Highness, please! I'm begging you!” the woman walking behind them, the one they called Minerva, said.

“I said the discussion is over, Minerva,” Michael snapped.

“But this discovery could mean the fate of the entire planet! And if we do not get the funding that we need to work on the prevention efforts-”

Michael spun around to say something in her face, but Thor quickly pulled him away and stepped forward himself with much more of a polite stance.

“Minerva, I appreciate your concern. But we're in the midst of a global war. We can't just put our fundings into side projects like this when innocent Isu lives are in danger of being caught in the crossfire. That is where our research must take top priority.”

“With a due respect, sir, innocent lives are at stake with this too, far more than this little squabble between the species. The sun is critically unstable. We may be able to stop it, but we need the funding to-”

“We'll have this war finished within the year,” Thor assured her, ignoring her pleas again. “Then once we have those rats crushed, you can have all the funding you need. I promise.”

“But sir-!”

“Goodbye Minerva,” said Michael, using the word like a threat as he and Thor turned and walked arrogantly away. Minerva was left alone in the hall, dumbfounded. She stomped her foot in irritation.

“Damn it!” she said. “Why won't they just listen? They're worse than Juno! This upcoming solar flair has the potential to destroy us all, and all they do is give us the shoulder…” She sighed. “We'll have to make do with what little resources we have… We've still five years until it hits. I hope that is enough…”

She hung her head and walked back down the hall before disappearing through a set of automatic doors. Eve, meanwhile, stood and thought about the discussion.

“Solar flair in five years? Destroy us all? Well that sounds… great. Just… that's just great. Because yeah, that's the kind of thing I wanted to have to deal with…” She sighed. She didn't have the luxury of thinking about it right now. She had to find the isu doctor. She continued her sneaky climb through the rafters.

She eventually managed to find the good doctor's isolated lab, and she hopped back down to ground level to quietly slip through the door.

The place was dark, darker than the rest of the building so far. There were a few flickering lights Eve could use to navigate, but that was about it.

“Yep. This definitely looks like the lab of someone who's got something to hide,” she whispered to herself. “Alright doctor, where are you hiding?”

She slowly, carefully, crept through the darkness. She didn't want to admit it, but this place definitely gave her the creeps. She couldn't help but flinch a bit at all the little bleeps and creeks that echoed through the room.

And she jumped when she heard a mechanical wheezing start sounding from the other side of the room. She hid behind a pillar, and carefully followed the noise. And to her surprise, she started hearing the voice of a young girl.

“Grandfather, what's wrong with the machine?” she asked.

“Well see I… I don't really know, child, if I'm being honest. I uh…”

“Did you check the-”

“Yes yes I checked the capacitors.”

“Grandfather please! We must hurry!”

“Yes yes I… I'm trying. We'll be out of here in no time. No time at all, I promise.”

Eve stepped out from her hiding place, and activated her hidden blade. The golden beam shot out of it's casing with an electric pop, a sound that made the two people she found in front of her. She was just as surprised as they looked, though she didn't show it.

In front of her stood two people, two people that certainly didn't look like masterminds of war chaos. One was an old man, skinny and frail. He wore the long coat of a scientist and had a head of white, slicked-back hair. Beside him stood a girl, barely into her teens, with black hair all done up in a fancy style and a cheeky face that looked terrified. The old man held her close, protecting her. Eve looked behind the two of them. Behind them was a large cylindrical piece of equipment that looked like some sort of entangled mess of parts from other devices.

“I say! What is the meaning of this?” the old man demanded of Eve.

“I'd ask you the same thing, doctor,” Eve said, never taking her eyes off of the two of them. “I know what you've been doing. Stealing tech and taking agents from both sides of this war, stirring up more and more chaos for your own sick pleasure. Well no more!”

“What on Earth are you talking about, child? I'll admit to the theft of technologies but certainly not to the rest of these accusations!”

“You stole Lucifer's tech. He's not too pleased with you, and he made sure he dug up all the dirt on you, enough to send me to end your life.”

“No please don't!” the girl pleaded. She started breaking down into a fit of tears. Eve's strong expression quickly started breaking down. This wasn't right… something wasn't right at all.

The doctor held his granddaughter as she cried into his coat. He fixed Eve with the most bitter look she had ever seen.

“Let me tell you this, Assassin,” he said. “You've been told forged truths. It's true that I stole technology from both sides of the war, but I did so just to rig up this teleportation contraption here. Nothing more. I am a man of peace, and I intend to use this device to escape this hellish world with my granddaughter. Your missing agents are not my fault. You have a traitor in your midst, Assassin, someone with much worse intentions than you can dream. If you'd open your eyes a bit wider than the surface value, then maybe you'll finally see the truth.”

The doctor pressed a button on the cylinder, and a door whooshed open in the front of it. He ushered his granddaughter inside and followed her close behind.

“Wait!” Eve begged. “Who is it? What are they planning? If you're going to make an accusation like that, at least tell me the stakes!”

The doctor fixed her with another stare. “My child, our species has tampered with things we never should have tampered with. We have learned to crack open the fabric of reality itself, to twist and bend it to our whims. Putting that kind of power in the wrong hands though… Let's just say that the solar flare that Minerva is in a fuss about would be the least of our worries.” He turned to face Eve. “You've got the wrong people on your side, child. I hope you will come to realize that in time.”

He pulled a little pen-sized device out of his pocket, and aimed it at a control panel on the wall before slamming his hand down on the close door button. Two sets of noises suddenly filled the room. The first came from the cylinder: a loud rumble followed by a rhythmic mechanical wheeze that faded away along with the cylinder itself. Eve watched in awe as the entire device suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, gone into thin air along with the Doctor and his granddaughter. Eve didn't quite know how to respond.

But on the other hand, she didn't really have time to even think about responding. Because the second set of noises was a security alarm that blared throughout the building, followed by the approaching sound of footsteps and Eve's violent swearing.

She ran towards the exit and made her way back into the rafters as fast as she could. She sprinted through the building until she managed to get back to her escape window and onto the rooftops outside. She planned to just keep running with her momentum, but that plan was foiled by the two massive armored figures that landed in front of her. She gulped. Of course she had to get cornered by Thor and Michael…

“Ah! Eve, is it?” Thor laughed. “I've always wanted to meet you, I must say. You've caused a lot of trouble for my species.”

“Well hey, what can I say? It's what I do best,” Eve said.

“And she has a sense of humor! I must admit, it surprises me every day all the new tricks you humans learn.”

“You wouldn't happen to reconsider the whole oppressing my people as slaves and unequals then?” Thor laughed hysterically, and Eve's heart dropped. “Yeah didn't think so…” she sighed.

The thunder god grabbed his hammer and started spinning it in the air. Little crackles of electric bolts started jerking out of the weapon, each getting bigger and bigger.

“You're lucky the prince wanted your head himself,” Michael told her. “Otherwise I'd turn you into charcoal right now.” He held up his sword for emphasis. Eve started slowly backing up towards the edge of the building. She held up her hands in front of her.

“Now come on, let's not be so hostile,” she nervously giggled.

The started running forward, he gripped Mjolnir in his hand. He held it high.

“Oh come on…” Eve groaned.

“For Asgard!” Thor shouted at the top of his lungs. Suddenly, a giant bolt of lightning came streaking down from the sky and it connected with his hammer, supercharging the weapon. He swung his arm back to swing, Eve screamed in fear and instinctively put her arms in front of her face. Thor swung his hammer forward, practically using it as a slingshot for the lightning bolt. The massive spark came streaking forward. Eve prepared for the sudden end.

Except, it never came.

She allowed herself to open her eyes, and she let out a cheerful gasp when she saw the caring face of Gabriel looking down at her. The bolt had bounced off the back of his wings when he came down to act as her shield. He reached out his hand for her to take, and she gladly did. He pulled her back up to her feet, and lifted her into the air as he took flight.

“Glad you could drop in,” she told him

“Well, I always had a thing for damsels in distress.”

“Oh shut up. I'm married.”

The two of them laughed, but their laughter was cut off when a bolt of energy surged past them, barely missing. They looked down at the two Isu. Michael had the most hateful look on his face.

“Is this what it has come to?” he shouted up to Gabriel.

“Michael…” Gabriel pleaded.

“You were one of the top archangels in the Garrison, Gabriel! You abandon it all, abandon me! And for what? A pile of cockroaches?”

“For equality, Michael. For love and freedom. For hopes of a better world that isn't dominated by arrogant asses like you.”

“You will pay for your betrayal!”

“As far as I'm concerned, you're the traitor, Michael. You betrayed the love that dad preached.”

That shut Michael up, froze him in place, just long enough for Gabriel to turn around with Eve in hand and kick his thrusters into full gear. The two Assassins went blasting off into the sky, disappearing behind the clouds.

“I'm sorry…” Eve said once they were in the clear.

“For what?” Gabriel asked.

“Everything. I know your brothers mean a lot to you… And if I hadn't come along and screwed things up, you'd still be with them.”

“Hey, I chose this path. I wanted to help your people. I wouldn't change that for the world. We're doing good, kiddo. Don't forget that.”

“I guess…” Her mind wandered back to the Doctor and his words. “But… maybe not all good.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think… I think we have a traitor.”

“Right. The one Lucy told you about, right?”

“No, Gabriel. Not him. That was a dud.”

“What?”

“I think there's someone who isn't telling us everything he knows.”

Gabriel didn't know what to say. Both knew what she meant, but neither wanted to say it. For now, they decided to swallow their words and focus on getting back to headquarters.

Eve's mind went so many places. To the doctor and his granddaughter, to Minerva’s pleas to Thor and Michael, to Lucifer, to the changing world around her that was warping and twisting until eventually all that was left was a blinding white light and consumed her whole vision. The winds started picking up again as the blizzard returned to assault her senses as she sat in her tent. The light from the memory disk faded away again, leaving Arktalaki back in the present day. She blinked and rubbed her head as the process came to an end, and then she stored the device back into her satchel. She yawned and laid down onto her sleeping mat.

Even the first Mentor had trouble figuring out her life, she thought. She shouldn't work herself up over her own struggles as much. She had to be responsible. Her new tribe needed her just as much as the old one did. She couldn't let this one down. They would leave in the morning, and she needed to rest up in order to help guide them through the snow. She curled up and closed her eyes and let the darkness of dreamland take her. The dark behind her eyes soon started to become the dark of the Animus Black Room. She felt her mind and body twisting back into its proper form once again. The mechanical hum of the void became the gentle hum of the Island.

Ava found herself laying on her back once again. And sure enough, Desmond was standing over her.

Description
November 23, 75005 BCE; Olympus

Eve kept her head down low. Her eyes darted back and forth as she walked the crowded streets of Olympus. She desperately hoped none of the Isu around her would call her out. She hoped she blended in well enough not to be recognized as human. If even one person caught on…

She shook her head. She couldn't let this get to her. She had to stay strong and calm. If she just hid in plain sight, she'd be fine. Their two species looked identical. If she just acted natural, she'd be fine.

She wandered around the city, taking in the massive glistening buildings and the different technologies that filled the streets and skies. Vehicles buzzed around in the air and people chatted the days away under the shadow of the city's main statue that sat at the center of town. Eve cast a glance up at the monument when she got the chance. It was a towering statue of the Capitoline Triad, the three greatest scientists that the Isu have ever seen: Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno. They were masters of their craft, dealing in things like quantum manipulation and speaking across timelines. They hoped to catch a glimpse of the future, to see what could be done to influence it. Especially now, when their species was in an all out war against Eve's. Eve shook her head. She had wished it would never come to this. An entire planet at war, all because the Isu were too arrogant to let her people go.

She shook the thought away for now. She had to meet up with her contact. After twisting and turning and climbing around the great Isu city, she eventually managed to come across her destination: an Isu laboratory. She hoped her contact was right when he said he'd leave an open window for her. She didn't want to have to deal with security.

Thankfully, she wasn't disappointed. In a relatively isolated corner of the building, right where her contact said it would be, was an open window. She smiled and got to work on scaling a nearby building, and then she got a running start on the rooftop in order to jump her way onto the windowsill and stealthily haul herself inside.

The room was dark, save for a few fluorescent lights that illuminated some of the major tech pieces around the place. She looked around for the object her contact told her to find, and eventually she managed to spot it: a seemingly unimportant little pedestal with a slot in the side, a slot that matched the size and shape of the little triangular hunk of metal that sat on top of the structure. Eve took the little triangle and she carefully slid it into the hole. She took a step back as the pedestal started glowing bright and the air in front it began to warp and crack. She felt a gust of wind kick up as the portal opened up wide and practically beckoned her forward. Eve braced herself, and she stepped on through.

When she opened her eyes again on the other side of the portal, she found herself in a place that was different than anything else she'd seen. Reality looked bent and broken. Everything around her was just an endless void in every direction, with floating platforms that looked like they were made of shattered mirrors being the only thing Eve could see for miles aside from the few misty clouds of foreboding fog. She never liked coming here. It gave her the chills. But this was one of the safest places to meet her contact in, and so here she was.

Tartarus, the great Isu prison. A space between the dimensions of reality, out of the way from the physical confinements of the real world. It was a place where they sent their most hated criminals and political opponents. A place where their screams could never be heard as they were tortured for their crimes. The king’s own son was sent to rot down here. Loki, the great trickster, the one man who managed to cause more trouble for humans and Isu alike than any other, had crossed the final line. He tricked his blind brother Hodr into accidentally killing his beloved brother Baldr with a mistletoe arrow. The Æsir family were furious, and they hunted Loki down and captured him. They sent him here to be punished. They used his own son's intestines to strap him down and had snake venom drip above his head. He was still locked up down there, his only comfort being his wife, who tried her best to keep as much of the venom as she could from dripping onto him. She couldn't get it all though, and he's still slowly dying, slowly hoping that the sweet embrace of death will some day rescue him from the pain.

Eve could hear the distant screams of other prisoners locked away in the endless void. She did her best to ignore them as much as she could. She just had to meet with her contact, and then get out of this horrible place.

She found him in his “office”, as she decided to call it. That was essentially what the space was, even though it wasn't much different from the rest of this otherworldly void of platforms. He sat in front of his tech, monitoring all the goings on of the prison. He smiled as he heard Eve approach behind him.

“Been awhile, hasn't it, Evie?” he said as he turned around.

“Don't call me Evie, Lucifer,” Eve joked back.

“Oh so you can call me Lucy, but I can't call you Evie?”

“Sounds about right.”

He looked at her, and then laughed, a ragged old sound. “So, what can I do for you?” he asked.

“You told me you had information? Something about a traitor amongst our allies?”

“Ah! Yeah. Give me a minute to load up the files.” He went over to his tech and started fiddling with the buttons and keys. Eve walked up next to him. She watched him type for a while, but eventually broke the silence.

“Why did you never join?” she asked as he worked.

“What do you mean?” he asked nonchalantly.

“You know what I mean. The Assassins. Why did you never join? You help out the rebel cause all the time. Hell, you were the one that kickstarted this whole thing. So why not join?”

“Because I like being my own man. I've never been one to be tied down. Gabriel might be willing to show that kind of devotion, same with Michael and his Garrison on the other side of things, but I'm not. I like to be able to make my own plans without anyone to answer to when I have… dirtier deeds I want to carry out.”

“I guess that's fair enough.”

“It's enough for me, Evie. That's all that matters.”

“You've really got an ego, don't you?”

“More than you know. Ah! Got the files.”

Eve looked up at the screen that Lucifer had pulled up. A profile of an old man, Isu by the looks of it, had been brought up to view.

“I'm sure you've noticed some odd activity going on in the rebel circles? Disappearing supplies, missing agents, Isu secrets getting leaked, that kind of thing?”

Eve nodded. “Yeah. It's been causing so much trouble us.”

“Well it's been causing trouble for Odin’s men too.”

“What do you mean?”

“All that stuff that's been happening to you, it's been happening to the Isu as well. Missing tech, agents gone into the blue, all of it. Whoever's been behind it seems to have it out for both sides.”

Eve mulled this over. “But… why would he do that? What does he gain?”

Lucifer shrugged uncaringly. “Some people just like to watch the world burn,” he said, a bit of a smirk hidden behind his lips. “Doing that to both sides sure is causing the hostilities to blow up more and more on both sides.”

“You think he's trying to make the war worse and worse?”

“That'd be my guess.”

“Then I need to stop him. I want this war to end in peace, not blood.”

Lucifer chuckled. “Such an idealist. So cute.”

“Just shut up and tell me who I need to kill.”

“He's one of the scientists in the quantum manipulation section of the laboratory. Word is he's been working on a little side project using specialized tech.”

“And you think he's the one behind the chaos?”

“I do. I've seen some of my own tech in his lab. He's lucky I was feeling nice enough that day not to rip off his-”

“I got it. Well don't worry, I'll take care of him.”

“He should be here in the lab, isolated from most of the other scientists.”

Eve nodded. “Got it. Thanks Lucifer. The rebels appreciate your help.”

“I'm just glad I'm getting revenge for my stuff being stolen.”

Eve rolled her eyes, and she turned to leave. She navigated the floating platforms of Tartarus until eventually she made her way back to the exit portal. She stepped back into the dark of the lab, leapt into the shadows of the upper rafters, and got to work on finding the good doctor.

She heard various noises and voices as she passed through the different rooms of the massive building. She paid them all little mind, but her ears did perk up once she heard a very familiar voice.

“This discussion is over, Minerva,” the strong, harsh voice of the archangel Michael boomed through the hallway. Eve froze in the shadows, and she looked down to see the man who matched the voice. There he was, standing in full glowing armor, walking beside another man whom Eve recognized, one she was honestly rather surprised to see.

His armor came near to beating Michael's in the flair contest, with a long velvet cape flowing behind him to top his regal look off. His long golden hair draped over his rigid bearded jaw. And most unmistakably, on his belt hung his favorite toy, a Piece of Eden deadlier on the battlefield than anything else Eve had personally encountered. The hammer of the prince of Asgard. Mjolnir.

“Thor…” Eve mumbled to herself. “What is the prince doing here?”

“You must learn to be kinder to the lady, Sir Michael,” Thor laughed, his voice loud and joyous. “We may depart in disagreement, but that doesn't mean-”

“Your Highness, please! I'm begging you!” the woman walking behind them, the one they called Minerva, said.

“I said the discussion is over, Minerva,” Michael snapped.

“But this discovery could mean the fate of the entire planet! And if we do not get the funding that we need to work on the prevention efforts-”

Michael spun around to say something in her face, but Thor quickly pulled him away and stepped forward himself with much more of a polite stance.

“Minerva, I appreciate your concern. But we're in the midst of a global war. We can't just put our fundings into side projects like this when innocent Isu lives are in danger of being caught in the crossfire. That is where our research must take top priority.”

“With a due respect, sir, innocent lives are at stake with this too, far more than this little squabble between the species. The sun is critically unstable. We may be able to stop it, but we need the funding to-”

“We'll have this war finished within the year,” Thor assured her, ignoring her pleas again. “Then once we have those rats crushed, you can have all the funding you need. I promise.”

“But sir-!”

“Goodbye Minerva,” said Michael, using the word like a threat as he and Thor turned and walked arrogantly away. Minerva was left alone in the hall, dumbfounded. She stomped her foot in irritation.

“Damn it!” she said. “Why won't they just listen? They're worse than Juno! This upcoming solar flair has the potential to destroy us all, and all they do is give us the shoulder…” She sighed. “We'll have to make do with what little resources we have… We've still five years until it hits. I hope that is enough…”

She hung her head and walked back down the hall before disappearing through a set of automatic doors. Eve, meanwhile, stood and thought about the discussion.

“Solar flair in five years? Destroy us all? Well that sounds… great. Just… that's just great. Because yeah, that's the kind of thing I wanted to have to deal with…” She sighed. She didn't have the luxury of thinking about it right now. She had to find the isu doctor. She continued her sneaky climb through the rafters.

She eventually managed to find the good doctor's isolated lab, and she hopped back down to ground level to quietly slip through the door.

The place was dark, darker than the rest of the building so far. There were a few flickering lights Eve could use to navigate, but that was about it.

“Yep. This definitely looks like the lab of someone who's got something to hide,” she whispered to herself. “Alright doctor, where are you hiding?”

She slowly, carefully, crept through the darkness. She didn't want to admit it, but this place definitely gave her the creeps. She couldn't help but flinch a bit at all the little bleeps and creeks that echoed through the room.

And she jumped when she heard a mechanical wheezing start sounding from the other side of the room. She hid behind a pillar, and carefully followed the noise. And to her surprise, she started hearing the voice of a young girl.

“Grandfather, what's wrong with the machine?” she asked.

“Well see I… I don't really know, child, if I'm being honest. I uh…”

“Did you check the-”

“Yes yes I checked the capacitors.”

“Grandfather please! We must hurry!”

“Yes yes I… I'm trying. We'll be out of here in no time. No time at all, I promise.”

Eve stepped out from her hiding place, and activated her hidden blade. The golden beam shot out of it's casing with an electric pop, a sound that made the two people she found in front of her. She was just as surprised as they looked, though she didn't show it.

In front of her stood two people, two people that certainly didn't look like masterminds of war chaos. One was an old man, skinny and frail. He wore the long coat of a scientist and had a head of white, slicked-back hair. Beside him stood a girl, barely into her teens, with black hair all done up in a fancy style and a cheeky face that looked terrified. The old man held her close, protecting her. Eve looked behind the two of them. Behind them was a large cylindrical piece of equipment that looked like some sort of entangled mess of parts from other devices.

“I say! What is the meaning of this?” the old man demanded of Eve.

“I'd ask you the same thing, doctor,” Eve said, never taking her eyes off of the two of them. “I know what you've been doing. Stealing tech and taking agents from both sides of this war, stirring up more and more chaos for your own sick pleasure. Well no more!”

“What on Earth are you talking about, child? I'll admit to the theft of technologies but certainly not to the rest of these accusations!”

“You stole Lucifer's tech. He's not too pleased with you, and he made sure he dug up all the dirt on you, enough to send me to end your life.”

“No please don't!” the girl pleaded. She started breaking down into a fit of tears. Eve's strong expression quickly started breaking down. This wasn't right… something wasn't right at all.

The doctor held his granddaughter as she cried into his coat. He fixed Eve with the most bitter look she had ever seen.

“Let me tell you this, Assassin,” he said. “You've been told forged truths. It's true that I stole technology from both sides of the war, but I did so just to rig up this teleportation contraption here. Nothing more. I am a man of peace, and I intend to use this device to escape this hellish world with my granddaughter. Your missing agents are not my fault. You have a traitor in your midst, Assassin, someone with much worse intentions than you can dream. If you'd open your eyes a bit wider than the surface value, then maybe you'll finally see the truth.”

The doctor pressed a button on the cylinder, and a door whooshed open in the front of it. He ushered his granddaughter inside and followed her close behind.

“Wait!” Eve begged. “Who is it? What are they planning? If you're going to make an accusation like that, at least tell me the stakes!”

The doctor fixed her with another stare. “My child, our species has tampered with things we never should have tampered with. We have learned to crack open the fabric of reality itself, to twist and bend it to our whims. Putting that kind of power in the wrong hands though… Let's just say that the solar flare that Minerva is in a fuss about would be the least of our worries.” He turned to face Eve. “You've got the wrong people on your side, child. I hope you will come to realize that in time.”

He pulled a little pen-sized device out of his pocket, and aimed it at a control panel on the wall before slamming his hand down on the close door button. Two sets of noises suddenly filled the room. The first came from the cylinder: a loud rumble followed by a rhythmic mechanical wheeze that faded away along with the cylinder itself. Eve watched in awe as the entire device suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, gone into thin air along with the Doctor and his granddaughter. Eve didn't quite know how to respond.

But on the other hand, she didn't really have time to even think about responding. Because the second set of noises was a security alarm that blared throughout the building, followed by the approaching sound of footsteps and Eve's violent swearing.

She ran towards the exit and made her way back into the rafters as fast as she could. She sprinted through the building until she managed to get back to her escape window and onto the rooftops outside. She planned to just keep running with her momentum, but that plan was foiled by the two massive armored figures that landed in front of her. She gulped. Of course she had to get cornered by Thor and Michael…

“Ah! Eve, is it?” Thor laughed. “I've always wanted to meet you, I must say. You've caused a lot of trouble for my species.”

“Well hey, what can I say? It's what I do best,” Eve said.

“And she has a sense of humor! I must admit, it surprises me every day all the new tricks you humans learn.”

“You wouldn't happen to reconsider the whole oppressing my people as slaves and unequals then?” Thor laughed hysterically, and Eve's heart dropped. “Yeah didn't think so…” she sighed.

The thunder god grabbed his hammer and started spinning it in the air. Little crackles of electric bolts started jerking out of the weapon, each getting bigger and bigger.

“You're lucky the prince wanted your head himself,” Michael told her. “Otherwise I'd turn you into charcoal right now.” He held up his sword for emphasis. Eve started slowly backing up towards the edge of the building. She held up her hands in front of her.

“Now come on, let's not be so hostile,” she nervously giggled.

The started running forward, he gripped Mjolnir in his hand. He held it high.

“Oh come on…” Eve groaned.

“For Asgard!” Thor shouted at the top of his lungs. Suddenly, a giant bolt of lightning came streaking down from the sky and it connected with his hammer, supercharging the weapon. He swung his arm back to swing, Eve screamed in fear and instinctively put her arms in front of her face. Thor swung his hammer forward, practically using it as a slingshot for the lightning bolt. The massive spark came streaking forward. Eve prepared for the sudden end.

Except, it never came.

She allowed herself to open her eyes, and she let out a cheerful gasp when she saw the caring face of Gabriel looking down at her. The bolt had bounced off the back of his wings when he came down to act as her shield. He reached out his hand for her to take, and she gladly did. He pulled her back up to her feet, and lifted her into the air as he took flight.

“Glad you could drop in,” she told him

“Well, I always had a thing for damsels in distress.”

“Oh shut up. I'm married.”

The two of them laughed, but their laughter was cut off when a bolt of energy surged past them, barely missing. They looked down at the two Isu. Michael had the most hateful look on his face.

“Is this what it has come to?” he shouted up to Gabriel.

“Michael…” Gabriel pleaded.

“You were one of the top archangels in the Garrison, Gabriel! You abandon it all, abandon me! And for what? A pile of cockroaches?”

“For equality, Michael. For love and freedom. For hopes of a better world that isn't dominated by arrogant asses like you.”

“You will pay for your betrayal!”

“As far as I'm concerned, you're the traitor, Michael. You betrayed the love that dad preached.”

That shut Michael up, froze him in place, just long enough for Gabriel to turn around with Eve in hand and kick his thrusters into full gear. The two Assassins went blasting off into the sky, disappearing behind the clouds.

“I'm sorry…” Eve said once they were in the clear.

“For what?” Gabriel asked.

“Everything. I know your brothers mean a lot to you… And if I hadn't come along and screwed things up, you'd still be with them.”

“Hey, I chose this path. I wanted to help your people. I wouldn't change that for the world. We're doing good, kiddo. Don't forget that.”

“I guess…” Her mind wandered back to the Doctor and his words. “But… maybe not all good.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think… I think we have a traitor.”

“Right. The one Lucy told you about, right?”

“No, Gabriel. Not him. That was a dud.”

“What?”

“I think there's someone who isn't telling us everything he knows.”

Gabriel didn't know what to say. Both knew what she meant, but neither wanted to say it. For now, they decided to swallow their words and focus on getting back to headquarters.

Eve's mind went so many places. To the doctor and his granddaughter, to Minerva’s pleas to Thor and Michael, to Lucifer, to the changing world around her that was warping and twisting until eventually all that was left was a blinding white light and consumed her whole vision. The winds started picking up again as the blizzard returned to assault her senses as she sat in her tent. The light from the memory disk faded away again, leaving Arktalaki back in the present day. She blinked and rubbed her head as the process came to an end, and then she stored the device back into her satchel. She yawned and laid down onto her sleeping mat.

Even the first Mentor had trouble figuring out her life, she thought. She shouldn't work herself up over her own struggles as much. She had to be responsible. Her new tribe needed her just as much as the old one did. She couldn't let this one down. They would leave in the morning, and she needed to rest up in order to help guide them through the snow. She curled up and closed her eyes and let the darkness of dreamland take her. The dark behind her eyes soon started to become the dark of the Animus Black Room. She felt her mind and body twisting back into its proper form once again. The mechanical hum of the void became the gentle hum of the Island.

Ava found herself laying on her back once again. And sure enough, Desmond was standing over her.