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“Ben, you're getting that look again. Come on man, she'd want you to stay strong.”

“Ruby… my whole life has revolved around losing the people I love…”

“Ben please man…”

“My parents... my sister… And now Ava. I try so hard but it never seems to be enough to save them…”

“Ben, listen to me. We haven't lost her yet. She's still breathing. We will get her out of this coma, I promise. I refuse to lose her. If there's a way to get her out, I will find it.”

“Alright…”

“...Ben, what aren't you telling me?”

“...”

“What?”

“I… I called her…”

“...You didn't…”

“She's on her way here now.”

“I… Ben what the hell! I said to wait!”

“And I did wait! And we've got nothing still! She has a right to know, Ruby!”

“Goddammit Ben… I… uggghhh. Fine. You know what? Whatever. If she wants to watch over my shoulder while I work day and night to get my girlfriend out of this mess, let her.”

“Sorry Rubes… I just wanted to do the right thing.”

“So did I.”

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

June 2, 2016; Animus Island

“Up and at’em, sleeping beauty! Rise and shine,” Desmond said as he found himself looking down at Ava yet again.

“Just five more minutes, mom,” Ava jokingly groaned.

Desmond just smiled and rolled his eyes and helped her to her feet. Ava rubbed her head and looked over towards the other side of the island to see if her expectations had been met. Sure enough, she wasn't disappointed. Another set of repressed memory columns shining like the moon.

“Only two more to go,” Desmond pointed out. “Think you're ready?”

“You doubting me?”

He smirked. “I never doubted you.”

“Good. I think I've had enough doubt for a while.”

“You going in then?”

“Full charge.”

“Good luck, kiddo.”

Ava nodded, and Desmond faded away into the matrix once again. She puffed up her chest with confidence and strolled right over to the next set of columns. She gazed into the corridor beyond, took a deep breath, and wasted no time stepping through. She felt herself shrinking down, not quite as much as last time, but still by quite a lot. She sat down as her mind warped back to another time, a time long past, a time when she was sitting gleefully on the floor of her parents’ house in Minneapolis. A time when her father was smiling down at his little princess.

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

November 22, 2000; Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Can you do it again, daddy? Please!” Ava begged, bouncing up and down and giving her biggest puppy dog eyes to her father.

Aren chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Of course, sweetheart!” he said.

“Yay!”

Aren smiled and grabbed another sheet of paper off of his desk. He quickly crumpled it up in his hands and closed his palms tight. Ava watched in eager anticipation, and a few seconds later, her father opened his hands again. And what sat neatly in his palms was a cute little origami flower. Ava giggled with glee and clapped her hands. Aren chuckled and gently put the flower onto her hairband, making the little girl giggle even more.

“There you go, princess! Aren't you just a little bundle of sunshine!”

“Now what do you say, Ava?” Kiki asked from her spot on the couch.

“Thank you, daddy!” Ava said as she rushed up and hugged her father. He hugged her right back and gently tossed her into the air.

“You're welcome, Ava!” he said as she laughed with glee as he threw her up and down.

“I love you, daddy!” she told him before hugging him again.

“And daddy loves you too, sweetheart.”

He put her back down on the floor. Ava grabbed one of her dolls and brought it over to her father. He was about to start playing pretend with her, but one of the phones started ringing. Not their usual house phone, but the one that Aren used when he needed to contact his “business partners”. He sighed and gave his daughter an apologetic look. “Sorry sweetie. You'll have to go play with mummy. Daddy has to go make one of his special calls.”

“Aw… okay daddy.”

He ruffled her hair and stood to go answer the phone. Ava picked up her doll and took it over to her mother. Kiki smiled and lifted her daughter onto the couch.

“Bill! Hi!” Aren said to the other person on the phone. “Sorry, but can this wait? I'm in the middle of playing with my daughter and-”

He suddenly froze. Kiki looked over at him, a worried look creeping onto her face.

“Y… you can't be serious?” Aren said. “No… he couldn't have… Oh my god…”

Kiki felt like her heart had stopped. Even Ava paused when she heard her father sound distressed. They noticed him visibly shaking in fear.

“Yes… I understand. Thank you, Bill. Right away…” Aren hung up the phone and leaned on the table with his head hung. For a moment, there was nothing but dead silence. Kiki licked her dry lips. “Um… Aren? Everything alright, honey?”

Aren slowly looked over his shoulder at his wife and child. He looked like he was on the edge of crying.

“Kiki…” he said. “I need to speak with you. Now.”

Kiki went pale, but she nodded. “Ava, stay here, sweetie. Mommy and daddy will be right back.”

“Okay mommy.”

Kiki stood up from the couch and quickly followed Aren into the kitchen. Ava watched them go. She didn't want to stay there on the couch. Her mommy and daddy were upset. Her mommy and daddy never got upset. Grandma Wanbli did sometimes, but not her parents. They were always happy, always smiling. She wanted to help. She wanted to know what was wrong. She quietly climbed down off the couch and waddled towards the kitchen doorway. She stood behind the frame to listen, not wanting to upset her parents more by not following the rules.

“What do you mean we have to leave?” Kiki said, sounding terrified.

“Kiki, something awful has happened. Something that has put us, the Brotherhood, and the entire world in danger!” Aren said.

“What though? What was Bill going on about?”

“Daniel Cross, Kiki.”

“What about him? He's a nice guy. Did something happen to him?”

“No no no, you don't understand! He is what happened!”

“Aren, I don't understand...”

“He was a spy, Kiki. Cross was a bloody spy for Abstergo! All the time he spent with us, all his campaigns around the world, it was all part of the Templars’ plans!”

“How though? What happened?”

“It… it started a couple weeks ago. Cross had been summoned by the Mentor himself. You know how high we all thought of him. You met him that one time.”

“Yeah, he was a really nice guy. Very friendly.”

“Yes well, the Mentor thought so too. He arranged a meeting personally with Cross. Wanted to train him to take his place.”

“That sounds awesome though. Good for him.”

“Kiki… he killed the Mentor.”

A pin-drop silence.

“I… what?” Kiki stammered.

“He bloody killed the Mentor! With the Mentor’s own hidden blade no less!”

“Oh… oh God…”

“Yes… but that isn't even the worst part…”

“You're kidding.”

“The traitorous bastard ran away, escaped out the window. He walked all the way to the Abstergo headquarters in Philadelphia. The Templars have him with them now. They have the Animus too.”

“And…?”

“And that snake has been to every single one of our hideouts across the planet. He knows exactly where we are and how to access our hissing spots. They can rummage through his memories, Kiki. The Templars know literally everything about the Brotherhood’s movements now! Do you realize what this means? It means they're about to lead a witch hunt across the world! They're going to hunt us all down and won't stop until us and everyone we know and love is dead!”

“Oh my god…” Ava could hear her mother starting to break down and cry. She heard her tears get muffled as her husband hugged her tight and cried too. Ava didn't know what was going on. She didn't know what any of that meant. She remembered her daddy's friend Daniel. He was a nice man. He gave her candies from all around the world when he visited last time. Did he really kill somebody? How can that be?

“What the hell are we going to do, Aren?” Kiki sobbed. “We've got nowhere to hide! He's been to our house, Aren! They know where we live! Oh god… what if they come for Ava!”

“No, I won't let that happen! I refuse to let those bastards anywhere near you two! I promise, Kiki, I promise I'll work something out. We'll take your mother and Ava and we'll all hide out somewhere safe until this mess dies down.”

“Where though?”

“I don't know… Tim is still living in Indianapolis. No doubt he's going to start planning for an attack too. He and his wife just had their son Carter afterall. I'll call him up and ask if he has any plans. I'll do the same with my mum in England too.”

Kiki started crying hard again. Aren hugged her tight. “Dammit… I am so sorry, Kiki…”

“What are we going to tell Ava? She's not going to understand, Aren.”

“Let me handle it, darling. I'll talk to her. You stay here, okay? Take a seat and try to take a deep breath. I'll be right back, I promise.”

Ava gasped and ran back to the couch before her father walked out the kitchen door. She grabbed her doll and pretended like she had been playing with it the whole time. She looked up at her father when he walked in the room. He looked so sad. Ava had never seen him so upset before. She didn't like it at all. Her daddy was supposed to be super happy all the time.

He came over and sat down next to her. He hugged her tight and didn't let go.

“Daddy, why are you and mommy sad?” Ava asked.

Her father sniffled and looked down at her. “Something has happened, sweetie…” he said to her, in as calm and comforting voice as he could muster.

“Something bad?”

Aren gave a sad chuckle. “Yeah… yeah something bad, sweetheart. And because of that, we're all gonna have to move somewhere else.”

“Forever…?”

“No no sweetie, no forever. Just until we can fix the bad thing that happened. It won't be long, I promise. And we'll all still be together as a family while we're there. It'll be you, me, mummy, and grandma. You can take some of your toys and books too. It'll be fun, promise!”

“Promise?”

“I promise. Have I ever lied to you?”

“No.”

“Exactly. Now come here and give daddy a hug.”

“Okay.”

She did as she was asked and gave her father the biggest hug she could. Aren held her tight, as if he was afraid she'd disappear forever if he let go. He sniffled and shook as he held her. Ava could feel his tears soaking into her shirt. It started to make her tear up as well. She had never seen her father cry before…

After a minute that felt like eternity, he finally let go and stood up. He ruffled her hair after wiping his bloodshot eyes. “Alright sweetheart, you stay here and play, okay? Daddy has to go make sure mummy is okay.”

“Okay daddy.”

He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you, Ava. Daddy loves you more than anything in this world. You know that, right?”

“Yeah. I love you too, daddy.”

“Good girl. Good girl…”

He turned and made his way back to the kitchen to go comfort his wife. Ava sat there on the couch, not moving at all. She tried so hard to absorb all of this, but she couldn't. She didn't understand what was going on. It made her want to cry…

She grabbed her doll and climbed back down off of the couch. She started to waddle towards her bedroom. She didn't want to be able to hear her mommy crying in the other room. She walked up to her door and opened it with some struggle. She stepped into the digital hallway beyond, and felt herself grow as she did. Her body and mind warped back up the years until she found herself back in the present day, back on Animus Island. She exited slowly this time so that she didn't fall over from the uneasiness that the transition caused. She leaned on a rock to support herself as she took in everything that she had just heard and seen.

“Desmond…?” she called out.

“Right here,” she heard. She let out a breath of relief. She slowly turned around to face her friend. She sat down against the rock she was leaning on.

“So… explanations?” she asked Desmond.

Desmond shifted a little in his spot, his tone getting serious again. “We called it the Great Purge,” he said after a brief moment of silence. At least, the older Assassins did. I never really got told much as a kid and I kinda ran away from home before I could get an explanation. But I heard more about it when I rejoined the Assassins.”

“They said that Daniel Cross guy started a Templar witch hunt against the Assassins. I remember meeting him when I was little too… He was such a nice guy…”

“Yeah, he was. Based on what I'm told, he was the poster child for the entire Assassin Brotherhood. Guy had a real bad life before he found us. We took him in, helped him find himself, and he became one of the greatest and kindest Assassins in our entire history. Toured all around the world trying to teach the Creed and help innocent people in need.”

“But it was all just a gimmick? It was all fake?”

“Well… not necessarily.”

“But he killed the-”

“He did, but it wasn't his fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“Abstergo had kidnapped him when he was a kid. Took the poor kid right off the streets and used him for experiments. They used the Animus to poke around in his brain and did some awful awful things to him. They tampered with his head in a way that put this tiny little subconscious impulse in him. An impulse that would make him naturally try to seek out the Assassin Mentor, and then kill him when he had the chance. He had no choice. He didn't even know he was doing it when it happened. Guy was pretty proud of his Assassin work. But he wasn't strong enough to resist the Templars’ little experiment in mind control…”

“Goddamn… That's awful. Poor guy.”

“Yeah. Then in 2012, I… or at least the me that was flesh and blood… killed the poor bastard and ended his suffering. He had the Bleeding Effect really bad too. It ruined his brain.”

“Damn…”

“That's the big difference between us and the Templars I guess. We care about people. They don't. People are just pawns to them. Things to be used in order to ascend to the throne. They don't care if they ruin people's lives. All they care about is getting power. God, the stories I heard about the Purge… They took no prisoners. They even machine gunned down all the children they found in the hideouts…”

“That's terrible…”

“Yeah… But, at least it's in the past now. We've rebuilt since then. We're not quite what we used to be, but we're back on our feet at least. We've got awesome people like you on our team.”

Ava looked at him, saw his smile. She smiled back. “Well… I'm kinda useless to the Assassins while I'm stuck in here,” she joked.

“Well hey, you know the way out.” He pointed towards the gateway on the other side of the island. It was practically beckoning her forward. Ava nodded and got to her feet. She looked behind herself at the repressed memory columns. She saw the very last one, the one that hadn't been unlocked yet. It looked ominous, unwelcoming. It gave her a chill up her spine.

“What am I gonna see when I step through that last one...?” she timidly asked Desmond. She got no response. She turned around. Desmond had disappeared again. She sighed. Of course…

She gave that last column one last timid glance before looking away and walking back towards the main gate. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Almost there, Ava,” she told herself. “Almost there…”

And with that, she pushed herself through, into the depths of the Animus memory corridor. The digital void surrounded her, took her in and began to warp her body and mind into those of someone long gone from this world. The world turned bitterly cold again as she started to trudge through the snow and ice. The winds howled around her and the waves of the nearby ocean crashed over one another in a constant woosh. She looked over her shoulder at her tribe. They were clearly feeling as uneasy as she was. She didn't blame them. Crossing this ocean was as difficult as she had been told.

She just hoped they'd be able to do it.

Description
“Ben, you're getting that look again. Come on man, she'd want you to stay strong.”

“Ruby… my whole life has revolved around losing the people I love…”

“Ben please man…”

“My parents... my sister… And now Ava. I try so hard but it never seems to be enough to save them…”

“Ben, listen to me. We haven't lost her yet. She's still breathing. We will get her out of this coma, I promise. I refuse to lose her. If there's a way to get her out, I will find it.”

“Alright…”

“...Ben, what aren't you telling me?”

“...”

“What?”

“I… I called her…”

“...You didn't…”

“She's on her way here now.”

“I… Ben what the hell! I said to wait!”

“And I did wait! And we've got nothing still! She has a right to know, Ruby!”

“Goddammit Ben… I… uggghhh. Fine. You know what? Whatever. If she wants to watch over my shoulder while I work day and night to get my girlfriend out of this mess, let her.”

“Sorry Rubes… I just wanted to do the right thing.”

“So did I.”

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

June 2, 2016; Animus Island

“Up and at’em, sleeping beauty! Rise and shine,” Desmond said as he found himself looking down at Ava yet again.

“Just five more minutes, mom,” Ava jokingly groaned.

Desmond just smiled and rolled his eyes and helped her to her feet. Ava rubbed her head and looked over towards the other side of the island to see if her expectations had been met. Sure enough, she wasn't disappointed. Another set of repressed memory columns shining like the moon.

“Only two more to go,” Desmond pointed out. “Think you're ready?”

“You doubting me?”

He smirked. “I never doubted you.”

“Good. I think I've had enough doubt for a while.”

“You going in then?”

“Full charge.”

“Good luck, kiddo.”

Ava nodded, and Desmond faded away into the matrix once again. She puffed up her chest with confidence and strolled right over to the next set of columns. She gazed into the corridor beyond, took a deep breath, and wasted no time stepping through. She felt herself shrinking down, not quite as much as last time, but still by quite a lot. She sat down as her mind warped back to another time, a time long past, a time when she was sitting gleefully on the floor of her parents’ house in Minneapolis. A time when her father was smiling down at his little princess.

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

November 22, 2000; Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Can you do it again, daddy? Please!” Ava begged, bouncing up and down and giving her biggest puppy dog eyes to her father.

Aren chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Of course, sweetheart!” he said.

“Yay!”

Aren smiled and grabbed another sheet of paper off of his desk. He quickly crumpled it up in his hands and closed his palms tight. Ava watched in eager anticipation, and a few seconds later, her father opened his hands again. And what sat neatly in his palms was a cute little origami flower. Ava giggled with glee and clapped her hands. Aren chuckled and gently put the flower onto her hairband, making the little girl giggle even more.

“There you go, princess! Aren't you just a little bundle of sunshine!”

“Now what do you say, Ava?” Kiki asked from her spot on the couch.

“Thank you, daddy!” Ava said as she rushed up and hugged her father. He hugged her right back and gently tossed her into the air.

“You're welcome, Ava!” he said as she laughed with glee as he threw her up and down.

“I love you, daddy!” she told him before hugging him again.

“And daddy loves you too, sweetheart.”

He put her back down on the floor. Ava grabbed one of her dolls and brought it over to her father. He was about to start playing pretend with her, but one of the phones started ringing. Not their usual house phone, but the one that Aren used when he needed to contact his “business partners”. He sighed and gave his daughter an apologetic look. “Sorry sweetie. You'll have to go play with mummy. Daddy has to go make one of his special calls.”

“Aw… okay daddy.”

He ruffled her hair and stood to go answer the phone. Ava picked up her doll and took it over to her mother. Kiki smiled and lifted her daughter onto the couch.

“Bill! Hi!” Aren said to the other person on the phone. “Sorry, but can this wait? I'm in the middle of playing with my daughter and-”

He suddenly froze. Kiki looked over at him, a worried look creeping onto her face.

“Y… you can't be serious?” Aren said. “No… he couldn't have… Oh my god…”

Kiki felt like her heart had stopped. Even Ava paused when she heard her father sound distressed. They noticed him visibly shaking in fear.

“Yes… I understand. Thank you, Bill. Right away…” Aren hung up the phone and leaned on the table with his head hung. For a moment, there was nothing but dead silence. Kiki licked her dry lips. “Um… Aren? Everything alright, honey?”

Aren slowly looked over his shoulder at his wife and child. He looked like he was on the edge of crying.

“Kiki…” he said. “I need to speak with you. Now.”

Kiki went pale, but she nodded. “Ava, stay here, sweetie. Mommy and daddy will be right back.”

“Okay mommy.”

Kiki stood up from the couch and quickly followed Aren into the kitchen. Ava watched them go. She didn't want to stay there on the couch. Her mommy and daddy were upset. Her mommy and daddy never got upset. Grandma Wanbli did sometimes, but not her parents. They were always happy, always smiling. She wanted to help. She wanted to know what was wrong. She quietly climbed down off the couch and waddled towards the kitchen doorway. She stood behind the frame to listen, not wanting to upset her parents more by not following the rules.

“What do you mean we have to leave?” Kiki said, sounding terrified.

“Kiki, something awful has happened. Something that has put us, the Brotherhood, and the entire world in danger!” Aren said.

“What though? What was Bill going on about?”

“Daniel Cross, Kiki.”

“What about him? He's a nice guy. Did something happen to him?”

“No no no, you don't understand! He is what happened!”

“Aren, I don't understand...”

“He was a spy, Kiki. Cross was a bloody spy for Abstergo! All the time he spent with us, all his campaigns around the world, it was all part of the Templars’ plans!”

“How though? What happened?”

“It… it started a couple weeks ago. Cross had been summoned by the Mentor himself. You know how high we all thought of him. You met him that one time.”

“Yeah, he was a really nice guy. Very friendly.”

“Yes well, the Mentor thought so too. He arranged a meeting personally with Cross. Wanted to train him to take his place.”

“That sounds awesome though. Good for him.”

“Kiki… he killed the Mentor.”

A pin-drop silence.

“I… what?” Kiki stammered.

“He bloody killed the Mentor! With the Mentor’s own hidden blade no less!”

“Oh… oh God…”

“Yes… but that isn't even the worst part…”

“You're kidding.”

“The traitorous bastard ran away, escaped out the window. He walked all the way to the Abstergo headquarters in Philadelphia. The Templars have him with them now. They have the Animus too.”

“And…?”

“And that snake has been to every single one of our hideouts across the planet. He knows exactly where we are and how to access our hissing spots. They can rummage through his memories, Kiki. The Templars know literally everything about the Brotherhood’s movements now! Do you realize what this means? It means they're about to lead a witch hunt across the world! They're going to hunt us all down and won't stop until us and everyone we know and love is dead!”

“Oh my god…” Ava could hear her mother starting to break down and cry. She heard her tears get muffled as her husband hugged her tight and cried too. Ava didn't know what was going on. She didn't know what any of that meant. She remembered her daddy's friend Daniel. He was a nice man. He gave her candies from all around the world when he visited last time. Did he really kill somebody? How can that be?

“What the hell are we going to do, Aren?” Kiki sobbed. “We've got nowhere to hide! He's been to our house, Aren! They know where we live! Oh god… what if they come for Ava!”

“No, I won't let that happen! I refuse to let those bastards anywhere near you two! I promise, Kiki, I promise I'll work something out. We'll take your mother and Ava and we'll all hide out somewhere safe until this mess dies down.”

“Where though?”

“I don't know… Tim is still living in Indianapolis. No doubt he's going to start planning for an attack too. He and his wife just had their son Carter afterall. I'll call him up and ask if he has any plans. I'll do the same with my mum in England too.”

Kiki started crying hard again. Aren hugged her tight. “Dammit… I am so sorry, Kiki…”

“What are we going to tell Ava? She's not going to understand, Aren.”

“Let me handle it, darling. I'll talk to her. You stay here, okay? Take a seat and try to take a deep breath. I'll be right back, I promise.”

Ava gasped and ran back to the couch before her father walked out the kitchen door. She grabbed her doll and pretended like she had been playing with it the whole time. She looked up at her father when he walked in the room. He looked so sad. Ava had never seen him so upset before. She didn't like it at all. Her daddy was supposed to be super happy all the time.

He came over and sat down next to her. He hugged her tight and didn't let go.

“Daddy, why are you and mommy sad?” Ava asked.

Her father sniffled and looked down at her. “Something has happened, sweetie…” he said to her, in as calm and comforting voice as he could muster.

“Something bad?”

Aren gave a sad chuckle. “Yeah… yeah something bad, sweetheart. And because of that, we're all gonna have to move somewhere else.”

“Forever…?”

“No no sweetie, no forever. Just until we can fix the bad thing that happened. It won't be long, I promise. And we'll all still be together as a family while we're there. It'll be you, me, mummy, and grandma. You can take some of your toys and books too. It'll be fun, promise!”

“Promise?”

“I promise. Have I ever lied to you?”

“No.”

“Exactly. Now come here and give daddy a hug.”

“Okay.”

She did as she was asked and gave her father the biggest hug she could. Aren held her tight, as if he was afraid she'd disappear forever if he let go. He sniffled and shook as he held her. Ava could feel his tears soaking into her shirt. It started to make her tear up as well. She had never seen her father cry before…

After a minute that felt like eternity, he finally let go and stood up. He ruffled her hair after wiping his bloodshot eyes. “Alright sweetheart, you stay here and play, okay? Daddy has to go make sure mummy is okay.”

“Okay daddy.”

He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you, Ava. Daddy loves you more than anything in this world. You know that, right?”

“Yeah. I love you too, daddy.”

“Good girl. Good girl…”

He turned and made his way back to the kitchen to go comfort his wife. Ava sat there on the couch, not moving at all. She tried so hard to absorb all of this, but she couldn't. She didn't understand what was going on. It made her want to cry…

She grabbed her doll and climbed back down off of the couch. She started to waddle towards her bedroom. She didn't want to be able to hear her mommy crying in the other room. She walked up to her door and opened it with some struggle. She stepped into the digital hallway beyond, and felt herself grow as she did. Her body and mind warped back up the years until she found herself back in the present day, back on Animus Island. She exited slowly this time so that she didn't fall over from the uneasiness that the transition caused. She leaned on a rock to support herself as she took in everything that she had just heard and seen.

“Desmond…?” she called out.

“Right here,” she heard. She let out a breath of relief. She slowly turned around to face her friend. She sat down against the rock she was leaning on.

“So… explanations?” she asked Desmond.

Desmond shifted a little in his spot, his tone getting serious again. “We called it the Great Purge,” he said after a brief moment of silence. At least, the older Assassins did. I never really got told much as a kid and I kinda ran away from home before I could get an explanation. But I heard more about it when I rejoined the Assassins.”

“They said that Daniel Cross guy started a Templar witch hunt against the Assassins. I remember meeting him when I was little too… He was such a nice guy…”

“Yeah, he was. Based on what I'm told, he was the poster child for the entire Assassin Brotherhood. Guy had a real bad life before he found us. We took him in, helped him find himself, and he became one of the greatest and kindest Assassins in our entire history. Toured all around the world trying to teach the Creed and help innocent people in need.”

“But it was all just a gimmick? It was all fake?”

“Well… not necessarily.”

“But he killed the-”

“He did, but it wasn't his fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“Abstergo had kidnapped him when he was a kid. Took the poor kid right off the streets and used him for experiments. They used the Animus to poke around in his brain and did some awful awful things to him. They tampered with his head in a way that put this tiny little subconscious impulse in him. An impulse that would make him naturally try to seek out the Assassin Mentor, and then kill him when he had the chance. He had no choice. He didn't even know he was doing it when it happened. Guy was pretty proud of his Assassin work. But he wasn't strong enough to resist the Templars’ little experiment in mind control…”

“Goddamn… That's awful. Poor guy.”

“Yeah. Then in 2012, I… or at least the me that was flesh and blood… killed the poor bastard and ended his suffering. He had the Bleeding Effect really bad too. It ruined his brain.”

“Damn…”

“That's the big difference between us and the Templars I guess. We care about people. They don't. People are just pawns to them. Things to be used in order to ascend to the throne. They don't care if they ruin people's lives. All they care about is getting power. God, the stories I heard about the Purge… They took no prisoners. They even machine gunned down all the children they found in the hideouts…”

“That's terrible…”

“Yeah… But, at least it's in the past now. We've rebuilt since then. We're not quite what we used to be, but we're back on our feet at least. We've got awesome people like you on our team.”

Ava looked at him, saw his smile. She smiled back. “Well… I'm kinda useless to the Assassins while I'm stuck in here,” she joked.

“Well hey, you know the way out.” He pointed towards the gateway on the other side of the island. It was practically beckoning her forward. Ava nodded and got to her feet. She looked behind herself at the repressed memory columns. She saw the very last one, the one that hadn't been unlocked yet. It looked ominous, unwelcoming. It gave her a chill up her spine.

“What am I gonna see when I step through that last one...?” she timidly asked Desmond. She got no response. She turned around. Desmond had disappeared again. She sighed. Of course…

She gave that last column one last timid glance before looking away and walking back towards the main gate. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Almost there, Ava,” she told herself. “Almost there…”

And with that, she pushed herself through, into the depths of the Animus memory corridor. The digital void surrounded her, took her in and began to warp her body and mind into those of someone long gone from this world. The world turned bitterly cold again as she started to trudge through the snow and ice. The winds howled around her and the waves of the nearby ocean crashed over one another in a constant woosh. She looked over her shoulder at her tribe. They were clearly feeling as uneasy as she was. She didn't blame them. Crossing this ocean was as difficult as she had been told.

She just hoped they'd be able to do it.