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Avapithecus — Aphelion: Chapter 14
#animus #aren #arlie #assassin #ava #baby #creed #fanfic #kiki #modern #assassinscreed #nesher #wanbli
Published: 2017-11-18 15:50:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 1332; Favourites: 0; Downloads: 0
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“So… We may have a problem.”“No. Really, Chels? Do tell.”
“I'm serious, Rubes. We found something that could get really bad.”
“Ugh… of course. What is it now?”
“It's Morgenster.”
“What about the bastard?”
“We've discovered that he's been leaching data from our Animus sessions. He's got Ava's DNA files.”
“What? How?”
“I don't know… They must've gotten a virus into our systems somehow. Maybe during the trouble downtown.”
“Dammit… Well, why though? What does he get from stealing our data?”
“I think he's looking for something.”
“Aveza’s Key?”
“I don't think so. He knows we already have that. I think he's after Apsarini's Pick of Eden. The one that opens the portals to wherever.”
“Why would he want to have that though?”
“I dunno. Teleportation is pretty sweet on itself.”
“No… it's gotta be more than that. He wouldn't go through all this trouble to ruin us, crush us, just to get a bit of DNA and find a glorified guitar pick.”
“Maybe it'll lead him to another Piece of Eden somehow.”
“Maybe… Goddammit. I bet Ava would know if she was awake…”
“Just focus on bringing her back to us, okay? We'll all get through this.”
“Thanks Chels. I needed to hear that… I'll go ahead and start running a raw recording session from my own samples of Ava's DNA. Maybe I can sort through those stolen memories and try to find what Morgenster is after.”
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May 30, 2016; Animus Island
“Gotta say, that's a bit creepy, Des.” Ava half-joked, half-groaned as she looked up and saw Desmond looking right down at her after she had awoken.
Desmond laughed and gave her a hand with getting back to her feet. “You enjoying ancient history so far?” he asked her.
“Oh yeah it's great. I love getting trampled by mammoths and having lasers shot all around me.”
“Sounds like a blast.”
“Your puns are worse than Ruby's.”
Desmond simply smiled and shrugged. “So hey, good news: another one of those repressed memory columns is opened up. I think you'll feel a lot more comfortable in this one.”
“Why's that?”
“Because you'll be in your own body for this one.”
Ava's eyes widened. She looked over to the other side of the Island. Another corridor had opened up, sure enough. “So… this is going to be one of my memories?”
“Mhm.”
“I'm gonna be pretty young in this one if my dad is still in it. Not quite sure how I feel about being a rugrat again.”
Desmond laughed. “Not exactly many other options here, kiddo,” he said.
Ava let out a faint chuckle. “I know, I know…”
“Best of luck, Ava. I'll be in the void if you need me.”
“You always seem to be in the void.”
“Well hey, that must mean you've got this in the bag all on your own.” He gave her one last cheeky smile, and then he disappeared in a flash of light once more.
Alone again, Ava made her way over to the new set of columns. She took a deep breath as she started stepping through. “Alright… here we go again,” she told herself, and then she fully immersed herself in the digital doorway. She felt that familiar sense of warping and twisting, in both mind and body. But this time was different. This time, she reformed into herself, a smaller version of herself, grant it, one that could barely even walk, but still herself. For the brief moment that her mind was still that of the present day Ava, she was able to find a bit of relieving comfort in that.
And then she started crying.
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August 17, 1997; Minneapolis, Minnesota
“Oh no no no! Honey don't cry,” Kiki coed to her baby when she started to wail. She grabbed a pacifier out of her pocket and stuck it into her daughter's mouth. Ava immediately began to suck and calm down. Kiki brushed her fingers gently through Ava's velvety hair and calmly shh-ed her and bounced her.
“What happened?” Aren said, rushing in from the other room when he heard his daughter crying. “Is she alright?”
Kiki giggled at his anxiety. “She's fine, Aren. Just a random fit. She's probably just hungry.”
“Oh… well that's good! Thought I'd have to get my hidden blades out to stab whoever hurt my baby girl!” He laughed at his own joke, and Kiki laughed along with him.
“Get back to packing,” she told him. He smiled at her and gave a formal bow before disappearing back into the next room. Kiki laughed again and looked down at her daughter.
“You hungry, Ava? That what's making you all grouchy? I feel ya. Let's go get some food with grandma.”
Ava just kept sucking gently on her pacifier as Kiki made her way toward the kitchen with her little bundle of joy in hand. She couldn't even begin to express how much she loved her child. Nine months of carrying this thing around, one painful night while she and Aren were visiting North Carolina, and then suddenly she was officially a mother. And oh how amazing it felt. Aren had felt it too. The only time Kiki had ever seen him cry was when his child was born that day. He bawled and held her in his arms, hugged her and his wife and cried for a good long while out of joy and love.
They had both picked the name Ava. They thought long and hard about it together. The Assassins had a tradition of naming their children with bird-themed names. Altaïr: “the flying one”, Ezio: “eagle”, etc. And so Kiki and Aren wanted to do something similar. They named their baby Ava, a simple name with a simple meaning: “bird”. That's the name they gave the doctors, and that's the name on her birth certificate: Ava Gabrielle Arlie.
Ava Arlie, not Ava Nesher. Aren took Kiki’s last name when they married. He knew that her people were traditionally a matrilineal culture, and he wanted to respect that. He didn't give it a single thought. His wife was his whole world. What did a name matter if it meant she could keep her ways? That's why she loved him so much. He'd sacrifice everything for her happiness and safety. He loved her, and their daughter, with every fiber of his being. He made her heart soar.
She walked into her kitchen with Ava. Her mother, Wanbli, was busy doing up dishes.
“Híŋháŋni ina,” she said as she walked by.
“You two still busy packing?” her mother asked.
“Yeah. Ava got hungry though, so I came to get her something to eat. Aren’s taking up my work until I get back.”
“I see.”
Kiki opened up the fridge and got Ava her bottle of milk. Once the baby was busy drinking, Kiki looked over at her mother. She hated that tone in her voice. It meant she was avoiding a subject.
“Ina, can you please stop worrying about me all the time? I'll be fine. It's Paris! And I'll have Aren with me.”
“That's exactly why I'm worried, Kiki.”
“Oh come on…”
“Hmmm.”
“Why can't you just give him a chance?”
“Because I know full damn well how dangerous it is just to be around people like him.”
“What? Because he's English?”
“Because he's an Assassin!”
The room went dead silent. The two women stared at one another. Wanbli looked right into her daughter's eyes. She didn't look mad, though. She almost looked like she was pleading.
“That's why you hate him?” Kiki asked, her voice quiet.
“Kiki, I don't ha-”
“Yes you do. You never liked him! The second he revealed his secret to you, the second you tossed him to the curb! You thought he was awesome before that! Because he is! He's the nicest man on planet Earth and you ignore all of that just because he's an Assa-!”
“Because I used to be one too, Kiki!”
Another pin-drop silence. Another intense moment of the two sides staring at one another. Wanbli sighed.
“Back in the 70s,” she began, “when you were just a toddler and I was still fighting in the Red Power Movement, I was an Assassin. They represented everything I wanted to fight for: equality, freedom, acceptance. I fought with them because I thought they could make a difference, for me and my people. But I was wrong. The sorrows that the Templars brought us just got worse and worse and worse. I kept losing everything, everyone! I lost my Mentor, I lost your father… I…” She had to pause to wipe her eyes and take a deep breath. “I don't trust Aren, not because of who he is, but because of what he is. Because I know that the life of an Assassin is a painful one. They have powerful enemies, Kiki, ones that won't stop until everything is ripped away from them and those they love. You were the only thing I had left by the time I quit the Assassins, Kiki. I can't lose you…”
As her mother wiped her eyes, Kiki tried to find the words to respond. For a while, the only noises were Wanbli’s sniffling and Ava's soft suckling.
“Ina…” was all Kiki could say. “Look, I… I know you're worried. I know we've never had easy lives. But… that's exactly why Aren is so important to me. He gave me adventure. He gave me what you always wanted for me: a chance to go and explore the world, meet people from dozens of cultures, start a family with a life far away from the reservations, and help people. I mean hell, we're about to be in Paris with Princess Diana herself! The Templars are powerful, yeah, but Aren and his friends are just as determined. They'll always keep us safe, and he'll always do whatever he can to protect those he loves. I can't make you trust him… but can I at least ask you to trust me?”
Wanbli stared at her daughter for a good long minute. Her eyes went down to little Ava. She sighed. “I'll try, Kiki. I'll try.”
Kiki smiled and hugged her mother with her free hand. “Philámayaye, ina,” she said softly.
“Anything for you, sweetheart,” Wanbli told her. “Now, go on back and help your husband. Poor boy can't be doing all the work.”
Kiki laughed. “Will do. Come on, Ava. Let's go see daddy.”
Kiki made her way back to the other room, where Aren was busy filling suitcases. He smiled upon seeing her. “Ah! There's my two favorite people!”
He walked over and kissed Kiki on the cheek. She giggled. Aren reached for Ava, and Kiki handed the baby over.
“Well hello there, my cutie little bird! Did mummy give you a nice meal?”
Ava burped as he bounced her. Both parents giggled. “I'll take that as a yes,” Aren laughed. He turned to his wife. “Packing’s almost done, my dear! We'll be off to France in no time!”
“Can't wait! You think Ava will be okay while we're gone?”
“Oh I'm sure she'll be fine, darling! Your mother's a fantastic and caring woman! She'll make sure Ava's safe and sound until we get back.”
“Why don't we ever leave the baby with your mother?” Kiki joked.
Aren laughed. “Because my mum's just as nuts as I am,” he said. “Amoldine Nesher has a knack for getting into trouble. Just ask the Queen.”
Kiki laughed and started putting the last bit of her things into her suitcase. Aren put Ava on the floor. “Go on, my little bird. Go play with grandmum,” he cooed as Ava started giggling and crawling away. Aren went back to work on helping his wife.
Ava crawled out of the room and towards the kitchen. The doorway had the now familiar gateway where the kitchen normally was. She crawled through, into the digital tunnel. She felt herself growing in size and her mind rapidly returning to the present. She stood back up as she reached the end and stepped back out onto the quiet shores of Animus Island. She rubbed her head as she walked by Desmond, who yet again was sitting and waiting.
“How was it?” he asked.
“Um… odd,” Ava said. “Never thought I'd experience being a baby again.”
“Get any interesting scoops on your parents?”
Ava paused as she thought back to it. “Mom… mom loved dad so much. She was so happy. She didn't care about the risks it took. She just wanted to have an adventure. She just wanted to help save lives and have fun while doing it. I guess… I guess that's what being an Assassin is about, isn't it? Helping others… and yourself.”
Desmond didn't say anything. He just let her think.
“God…” she continued. “What have I done, man? This isn't how it should have played out… I never should have yelled at my friends. I never should have broken Kahente's necklace. I should've let them help me. I never should have said I quit…”
“You've still got plenty of time, Ava,” Desmond reassured her. “There's always hope. I'd go ahead and hop back into Arktalaki's memories if I were you. You're halfway to the end.”
Ava looked over at the large memory gateway on the other side of the Island, but she didn't move.
“Can I… can I ask you something?” she asked Desmond.
“Shoot.”
“What's the bigger picture here? I get the feeling you're not telling me everything. I mean… this stuff with Arktalaki and Eve and my dad, it just seems so random. But… it feels like there's something bigger that you're not letting me on to.”
Desmond simply smiled. “Well telling would be spoiling the surprise!” he joked.
Ava groaned. “Yeah… I should've guessed you'd say that.”
He shrugged. She decided to just laugh. “Oh well. Fair enough. I'll figure it out on my own,” she said.
“Better get started then! Clock’s a tickin’!”
Ava nodded and made her way over to the other gateway, much more determination in her strides than she did at the beginning. She walked right up to it and didn't waste any time waiting. She stepped right in and let the transformation overtake her mind and body once again. The world around her grew colder and colder. She pulled her furs tighter against her skin as she walked. She looked ahead into the snow. She saw the mountain ridge in the distance. They were so close...
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Comments: 16
see yourself in animus is so strangely just like paradox *damn it barry ?!?
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yestarday i saw you in my dream *i saw your face in photo and hear your voice
you were too rageful because of you lost your cousin was killed by a grabber
and you punch him until his skull seen
also it happaned to me but i lost my best friend but dont worry that means your are live long (dreams says oppositely)
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It is so nice Ava's mom was so supported of being a Assassin.
And come on Ava. You seen Lucifer in those memories! You should know he is using everything to come back into the real world, and using Morgenster as his power hungry bitch.
That, or Juno is using EVERYONE as a pawn. (As in the series itself, she is the real Satan. Juno is the one responsible for the war between Assassins and Templars, and also all conflicts and tragedies in human history that, in the game's lore, had a Piece of Eden involved, and her control over them.)
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Well to be fair, Juno has kinda seemed to exist outside of the Assassin-Templar War, only interfering when it benefits her. For most of human history, she's been sitting in the same void of doing nothing that Thanos from the MCU has been XD
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Eh. That is the point, and how MCU does it right. It is the slow buildup to the final showdown between the heroes, new, and old vs Thanos, and the Infinity Stones is a key part of it all. (And Thanos put a lot of stuff into action, like Guardians of the Galaxy.)
Unlike the DCEU, who try to rush everything, made Steppenwolf look like a Playstaion 2 bad guy of the worst, the worst CGI and cut up and scenes that makes little sense, and made Superman more unreasonable then the HULK! (Yes, MCU Hulk is far more understanding and reasonable then the the DCEU Man of Steel!)
MCU LOKI is a better bad guy then your Lucifer. I mean, you said yourself Lucifer started the Isu-Human War just for the chaos, and war. And the whole point of him coming back is simply more chaos and some power without rules.
Loki had good reason for his actions. He was taken as a baby, lied to his whole life, rise to hate his own race by Odin, Thor before being sent to Earth was conceited, arrogant, immature and stubborn, and put both Asgard and the Nine Realms in danger for his lust of war, and combat, not thinking Asgard was not ready, nor the threat it puts the other Realms. (Like Earth.) . Loki would have been a far better king if he had not try to murder the Forster Giants, or if Thor never learn the humility and wisdom he was lacking.
Loki deception and scheming (such as pretending to be Odin) is compulsive behaviour, like an addiction.
AC Lucifer....he is a trickiest, but it is chaos, and power for the sake of it, and his own ego. They is no bigger plan, no real reason for his action, no why to say 'Hm, I feel bad for him.'
JUNO is better then him. She has no reason to hate Humans. The death of her father Saturn, the death of her husband, Aita. And how she what to control them.
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Well to be fair, is the Devil really someone you're supposed to feel bad for? XD Like, I feel like it comes with the job. He's the living embodiment of evil and bad things. I feel like less is more in this scenario
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But not in everything.
"An apology for the Devil — it must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all of the books."
— Samuel Butler
The TV series Lucifer, he may be a amoral, and self-centered, but he works with a female cop in LA and very dedicated to punishing wrongdoers and saving innocents. (And I already told you about Sandman.)
William Blake's Prophecy epics heroicise Satan, or rather his allegorical equivalent the Orc, against the tyrannical Angel of Albion.
Mark Twain wrote that Lucifer never gotten a fair trial and deserved to be able to tell his side of the story.
In the comic Nancy in Hell, Lucifer is basically The Load. He was cast into the Primordial Chaos for showing free will, and Hell grew up around him independent of his wishes. All he wants to do is get back to Heaven, but Hell needs him to stay put to maintain its existence, and clouds his mind with doubts to ensure that he stays put.
In the Japanese Visual Novel Video Game Tears to Tiara, he is the Hero, and son of a Prometheus stand-in, and the Angles are all genocidal jerkasses who already mass murder the elves, giants and dragons, and now it is Humanity turn to get murder.
Paradise Lost anyone?
And even in Judaism, he is not a fallen angel, but rather a regular angel whose job is to spread sin, which he heavily implies he does not enjoy the job.
And the Yazidis, the chief angel in charge of running the world on God's orders the Peacock Angel, Melek Tawuse. They consider him an intermediary between humanity and God.
I could go on, but the point is, the Devil is often wrongly view as a bad guy in fiction.
Check it out.
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php…
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I understand, but I don't feel like any of those interpretations really fit this specific narrative. There are traces of each of them, like how Michael is kind of an arrogant ass who's stuck in his ways in the isu fight against the humans. But I feel like the Devil kinda needs to be a villain here to suit the narrative of the whole angel war thing. Like, maybe I'm just a simple man with simple needs XD but sometimes a simple hero/villain story is more refreshing than a massive and complicated novel.
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Even then, I feel like the same specific narrative is over done just too much, even in a simple hero/villain story.
The Devil can be the villain, but only if he is more then a cutout. To be more then just simple chaos, and simple evil. If he was maybe truly supported Human Rebels, but took it back when the Earth get mess up. Or was playing his own games, and wanting power, and not just death, and doom.
If anything, there need to be a twist. Make Ava the villain. The Fallen Hero. Make the Devil have a crisis of faith in everything he have done, and simply what to died, and see if they is some kind of afterlife.
Or if anything, go back, and remake the story somehow with Lucifer being a Anti-Hero, and Ava's real daddy.
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Eh, that's not my type of story though 
I dunno. Maybe I just have softer tastes lol
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But even then, the series has show us the Assassins are not the best, and that the Templar are sometimes in the right for some of their actions.
Think about it. EVERYTHING you knew in history, all the ideals being fought and died for, all religion, all creeds, all ideologies, were nothing but lies; Every technological or cultural achievement were nothing but an illusion or a smokescreen, to serve some other ends in the eternal conflict between two ancient conspiracies that goes back to before recorded history.
Are the Assassins and Templar not the real bad guys?
That is some Serious mindscrew, and Cosmic Horror.
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Well yeah, but that started more later on in the series, like AC3 and after. The Desmond Saga always had this sort of inspiring narrative about having hope for humanity and how tyranny can always be fought and all that good feely stuff like that, which I find really appealing 
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And I like that. I like there is a moral grayness/Grey and Gray Morality/Black and Gray.
I like how the heroes may not being doing right, or how the bad guys has some points, or a well intentioned extremist/The Extremist Was Right, or is in the right, but we still have to fight them.
Killzone Shadow Fall got it right. Battlestar Galactica between the Clyons, and Humans. Deep Space Nine was big on it. (See "In the Pale Moonlight".) The Succession Crisis in Dragon Age: Origins. Fire Emblem Fates and World of Warcraft.
But I can understand, and I do like the normal hero vs villain as much as the next guy. And Sorry if this is bugging you, or anything.
So maybe next time...you take the deep step, and jump into the chaotic world of hard choices, mess up families, and both sides are right in their own right.
(Maybe talk about it in PM?)
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Nah, you're cool bro ^^ It's no bother at all. I always enjoy a good conversation, even if we don't agree on everything
I do have a second arch planned after Project Thunderbird, and that does delve into more morally graying and dark places, so hopefully that'll be more your cup of tea ^^
And sure. Send me a note anytime
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