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Avapithecus — Aphelion: Chapter 23
#age #animus #apple #arlie #assassin #ava #creed #deletion #desmond #eden #fanfic #fight #ice #iceage #island #miles #prehistoric #assassinscreed #scheduled #arktalaki #iwakuk #tanaguq
Published: 2017-12-06 15:51:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 1256; Favourites: 2; Downloads: 0
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“Holy-!”“What? What's wrong?”
“Ava's vitals are going through the roof!”
“What?”
“I don't know! The brain readings are lighting up like a Christmas tree!”
“Is that good, bad, what?”
“I… I don't know. Something is definitely going on inside her head. Fingers crossed it's something good...”
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June 8, 2016; Animus Island
Ava's vision slowly unblurred as she stood up from her wobbly daze. Her head was spinning. She felt like she had just gotten off the toughest roller coaster of her life. It took her a moment to regain her balance and firmly plant her feet.
But then the ground shook. It shook hard. Ava snapped out of her haze pretty quickly when she almost got knocked back to the ground. The ground kept shaking. It wouldn't stop. She frantically grabbed a rock to help her stay steady. She frantically looked around, beginning to panic. What was going on?
The earth started to crack under her feet, tears in reality that seemed to glow bright blue. Little fragments of data poured out of the cracks as Ava jumped to more stable ground. She looked all around her. The entire Island looked like it was collapsing into the void. The endless sea disappeared, leaving the landmass to just hover in eternity as it and everything on it started to crack and disintegrate, fading away into nonexistence. Ava heard a cracking above her. She looked up just in time to see a section of one of the repressed memory columns crumble away and start falling right towards her. She gasped and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed. Debris from the island started falling all around her. The island itself started ripping into different floating chunks.
She swore and panicked, trying to assess her situation. “Desmond!” she cried out. “Desmond please! Help!”
She suddenly felt a hand on her own, and she soon found herself getting pulled along for a run.
“Desmond!” she shouted in relief. “What the hell is going on? What's happening?”
“This is the end, Ava!” he told her, the panic and sorrow clear in his voice. “Scheduled for deletion, just like I warned.”
“What?!”
She started to hyperventilate. No no no no no, this couldn't be the end! She had made it so far! She was so close! She couldn't die now! Not like this!
“Ava listen, you have to run!”
She looked at his arms and legs. She noticed them cracking and glowing too as they slowly faded. She put her hand to her mouth.
“Ava! Run now! Go! You still have a chance! Get to the memory gateway and finish this before it's too late!”
The ground in between them cracked apart, splitting them onto two different floating hunks of land. “What about you?” she asked him as he drifted away. He shook his head.
“I've played my part, Ava,” he told her. “This version of me is done.”
“No! We can get you out of here too! I won't leave you!”
“Yes you will! You stay here, you die! You have to go, Ava! You're the only one who can save the world!”
“But-!”
“Go!”
She looked at the memory gateway. Even it was starting to crumble apart. She looked back at Desmond. His body was getting consumed by the void. His face started cracking and disappearing. “Make me proud, kiddo,” he told her. And with that, the void took him. He faded away into the ether for the final time. Ava stared, unable to say anything in response. She lowered her head and closed her eyes. Then, she spun around on her heels, and she took off sprinting.
She used every ounce of strength she had to run across all the floating hunks of crumbling ground that carried her closer towards the memory gateway. She jumped and climbed, using all the skills she had gathered over the past few months to save herself from this mess. She dipped and dodged over and under falling debris that threatened to slow her down. She ran and ran, getting closer and closer to the gateway. The earth around it began to crumble, sending it falling downwards. She gasped. She saw her exit start to fade out of existence. She had to move faster. She had to make it. She jumped onto a platform that was floating high above it. She cursed. She had no way down, and her escape was fading away quickly.
Then an idea.
“Oh I hope I can manage this…” she said. She stepped back, tensing her muscles as she did, and then she sprinted forward. Her feet took her all the way across the platform, one of the last chunks of island to start fading away into the void. She ran until she hit the edge. She spread her arms wide, looking down at the gateway underneath her and hoping she would be able to fall right into it.
She shut her eyes tight.
And she took her leap of faith.
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June 20, 12984 BCE; Alaska
When she opened her eyes again, she was sitting in her tent.
Arktalaki reached down into her bowls of paints. She gently dipped her fingertips into the colors and brought them up to her face. She started to carefully cover her face in elaborate and colorful designs. This war was soon to be over. She was about to confront her greatest foe. She decided if any time was the right time to dawn her war paints, it was now.
They had reached the edge of their Promised Land. It was beautiful, even just from this initial glimpse. The snow was left behind them all. Patches of green peaked out from the ground, and the trees had bright leaves twinkling with dew on them. The land itself almost felt like it was embracing their people. The tribe could feel it. After all this time, all this travelling, they had made it home.
But there was still one problem: the Templars had made it here as well. Arktalaki had sent out a few scouts to sweep the immediate area once they had arrived, and they came back with a disturbing report. They had seen a horde of Templars digging up a cave not too far away, a team of Templars led by Tanaguq. Arktalaki knew they would only stop and start such an operation for one reason, a reason she dreaded.
They had found the Apple.
They would be going to war soon. They couldn't allow the Templars to win. They couldn't allow them to hold such an evil and powerful device. If they did, all the world would turn to ash and misery.
So the entire tribe was preparing, preparing for the fight of their lives. Arktalaki spent the night sharpening her blades and repairing her bow. She made sure Iwakuk’s claws were filed and her fur was painted for war as well. Arktalaki looked down at herself in a small puddle, looking over her reflection and checking to make sure everything looked right. For a brief moment, she almost saw her father in her reflection.
That made her smile.
She took a deep breath and pulled her hood up over her head. She gathered up all her supplies. Come midnight tonight, Tanaguq would be no more.
The Templars would breathe their last.
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June 21, 12984 BCE; Alaska
She slit the guards’ throats as she crept through the woods towards where the Templars were digging. The whole tribe moved like ghosts through the foliage, silent and unseen. They all lurked in the shadows of the forest, hiding on the edge of the excavation site. Arktalaki scanned the area below, and she spotted Tanaguq. The Templar Grand Master was busy barking orders at his minions when one of them came running out of the cave towards him.
“Grand Master! Grand Master! We've found it!” he said, making Arktalaki’s heart sink. Tanaguq didn't even look at the man. He simply turned on his heals, shoved him out of the way, and sauntered into the inky blackness of the cave. Arktalaki swore under her breath.
“We must act now,” the Mentor advised. Arktalaki nodded in agreement. She turned to all her tribespeople and made an eagle sound with her hands and mouth as the signal to move forward. They all swept around the perimeter, silently as they could. Arktalaki draw her bow and killed a few guards that would've called out for help before the tribe could silence them. The whole tribe working together managed to have the area clear in mere moments. They all stood at the entrance of the cave, and Arktalaki stood in front of them all. She took a few daring steps into the darkness, listening for any sounds. It was silent.
She took a deep breath. “Alright,” she said. “Here's what we'll do. We'll have a line of archers stationed in the trees, and then me and a few other spearmen will-”
Suddenly Iwakuk started barking. Arktalaki jumped a little at the sudden noise. She looked down at her wolf, and she clearly wasn't a happy animal. She wasn't barking towards the cave though. She was barking behind Arktalaki. At first, Arktalaki took that to mean there was a threat sneaking up behind her, and so she spun around with her bowstring pulled taught. But what she saw instead made her gasp.
All of her tribespeople, all the warriors and volunteers, and even the Mentor herself, were completely frozen in place. Unnaturally still, as if they were made of stone. All of them stood motionless, with a bizarre golden halo of light around their bodies.
“What?” Arktalaki gasped. Then Iwakuk spun around towards the cave and started barking even more. Arktalaki didn't get the chance to turn around before she found herself in a sudden fit of agonizing pain. She screamed as a similar halo of light engulfed her and seemingly blasted her to the ground. She stumbled back to her feet and turned, drawing her wrist blades. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
Tanaguq was walking out of the cave, slowly, maniacally. He had a toothy grin on his face, and a glowing golden orb in his hands. An orb that Arktalaki recognized all too well from her journeys in Eve's memories.
The Apple of Eden.
“You've lost, Assassin,” Tanaguq announced, holding the Apple high as its light pulsed in his hands. “I have obtained ultimate power at last.”
He held the Apple forward, and Arktalaki turned around to see her frozen tribespeople being lifted into the air and pushed backwards, forming a wall of people stuck in time that formed a nice little arena for the two masters to decide their fates.
“What have you done to them?” Arktalaki demanded to know.
“I have simply frozen them in time,” Tanaguq said as he continued to approach. “I wanted to deal with you first, kill you and maul your body right here so that they could see what a failure you are once they are unfrozen. And then I will kill them all as well.”
“No! I won't let you! This is my tribe! My family! I won't let you take that away from me again!”
“You say that as though you have a choice. I am the one with the power here, Assassin. You are but an insect.”
He lifted the Apple again, and Arktalaki found herself engulfed in light and agony once more as she was lifted into the air. The pain felt as though it was sinking down into her very soul, threatening to rip it out. She winced and struggled to move her arms back towards her quiver. Iwakuk barked and ran at Tanaguq, who moved his wrist slightly and sent a pulse of energy blasting out of the Apple, sending the wolf flying backwards in a painful thud. The clouds above them began to swirl and darken and spit lightning out in thunderous crackles. Violent snows began to rain down, tainting the beautiful green landscape and making it bleached white.
“No!” Arktalaki cried. She couldn't let this happen. She had to stop Tanaguq. She pushed against the force of the Apple, reaching back with all her might and grabbing her bow and an arrow. She drew her string, aimed at Tanaguq, and sent the arrow flying into his chest. He recoiled back and grunted in pain. The light disappeared from Arktalaki and she fell to the snowy ground. She painfully stood back up, ready to fight. Tanaguq scowled at her.
“You can resist it! I'm impressed,” he told her. “Not many people are able to do that. It doesn't matter. You'll be dead soon enough.”
She drew another arrow and aimed it at his skull. “Final warning,” she told him. “Surrender, and I'll give you a swift death.”
But he merely laughed. He held the Apple in both hands. “Ah, but how will you kill me if you cannot find me.”
Arktalaki gasped as suddenly figures walked out of the Templar like spirits, all of them identical copies of himself. There were a dozen at least, all of them with that evil toothy grin. They scrambled and surrounded Arktalaki, putting their Apples on their belts and drawing their daggers. Arktalaki spun around in every direction, trying to figure out which was real, if any of them. She grabbed her spear as they charged, and the battle began.
One of them charged, and Arktalaki immediately ran him through. The Tanaguq yelled in pain before suddenly fading away in a halo of light. Alright, Arktalaki thought to herself, that one was a phantom. Another Tanaguq charged at her, and they exchanged blows. She countered and parried with her spear before running him through and making him evaporate into the light as well. Another fake.
Two rushed her from opposite sides. She rolled out of the way just in time, causing them to crash into one another. She then ran around behind one of them and rammed her spear through the both of them. Both disappeared, both phantoms. Another set of Tanaguqs came, each putting her spear skills to the test, until eventually all of them disappeared into a flash of light, all except for one.
“Even twelve of you are not enough to best me,” she boasted.
“Well, there's nothing like the original,” he mocked back. He held up the Apple again, and out from it came another pulse of energy that sent Arktalaki straight into the stone of the cave entrance. She hit it with a painful thud before skidding to the ground. Then the pain came again as she was lifted up by the light.
“I am the master of the Earth!” Tanaguq shouted. “I am the ruler of all men! I am the-!”
He suddenly screamed in pain as Iwakuk sunk her teeth into his leg and shook it violently. Arktalaki dropped out of her hold and grabbed her daggers again. She sprinted forwards just as Tanaguq kicked Iwakuk off of him.
“You mangy mutt!” he shouted, but he screamed again when Arktalaki rushed him and drove her dagger into his armpit. His fingers went limp and the Apple flew out of his hands. Arktalaki wrestled the Templar to the ground and started slashing at him. He grabbed his own knife and fought back, their tussle rolling them across the snow and staining their bodies with blood and scars. Tanaguq let out a shout and kicked her off of him before getting up and running towards the Apple. Arktalaki gasped and tossed a knife at the orb, sending it flying away before the Templar could grab it. She got up herself and sprinted at the artifact. Both she and Tanaguq collided and wrestled for control of the Apple. The artifact pulsed and glowed in both their hands as they pulled back and forth. It pulsed harder and harder until it suddenly let out another blast of energy that sent the two of them flying backwards in opposite directions. Tanaguq slammed into a rock and Arktalaki into a tree. They both winced in pain and held their bleeding wounds. They struggled back to their feet and half-ran, half-limped back towards the Apple. Tanaguq almost managed to reach it first, but Arktalaki quickly drew another arrow and launched it straight into his chest, sending him back into the red-stained snow. Then, with an animalistic cry, she used every ounce of strength she had to sprint forward with her wrist blade bared, and she lunged on top of him. She raised her blade high, and she thrust it straight down, sinking it deep into his chest, cracking his ribcage, and impaling his heart. The Templar let out his final shout, and he went limp. Time seemed to slow again. Arktalaki was breathing heavily. She looked into his eyes as she yanked out her blade and staggered back to her feet. She stood tall. She was victorious.
“No…” Tanaguq said in a whispered choke. “It cannot end like this… It was my destiny to find the Apple. I was meant to rule over this land…”
“No,” Arktalaki said calmly. “No man who seeks such power deserves to wield it.”
“I could've used it to shape the world in my image. There would be no war or inequality.”
“No freewill either. You'd make us all your miserable slaves.”
“For the sake of order.”
“That's the lie that all you Templar’s tell yourselves, isn't it? That what you do is all for the greater good? No. You do it because you all thirst for dominance. You do it because you crave the taste of tyranny. You are monsters, not saviors.”
“And what, pray tell, will you do with this artifact? What will you do with the power it holds?”
“Nothing. I will destroy it. I will set these lands free.”
Tanaguq gave a blood-stained grin as his eyes glossed over. With his final breath, he said, “We shall see.”
And then he died, leaving the world behind and taking his reign of terror with him. Arktalaki looked down at him. She knelt and crossed her arm. “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted,” she said to his body. “Let your soul walk free.”
She stood back up, and she looked around at the area. Her tribespeople were still frozen, and the world was still covered in snow. She looked over at the Apple as it pulsed and shined in the snow. She knew what she had to do. She limped over to it, clutching her bleeding shoulder. She bent down and picked up the artifact, feeling its warmth in her hands. She gazed into its glow, pushing back the instinctual temptation that threatened to crawl out of her mind. She pushed that demon deep deep down into her brain. No, she thought, she had to end this. She carried it over to a rock, one with a sharp top that ended in a point. She took a deep breath. She raised the artifact as high as she could, tensing her muscles to summon all her strength. She grit her teeth, grunted, and then-
“Wait!”
She froze, just as she was about to bring her arms down. She gasped. She recognized that voice. She slowly turned around, and noticed all the lines of light that were hovering around her. She saw a figure standing behind her, one who seemed to be made of the light, one with golden armor that shined like the sun, and wings that outstretched behind him. He looked at her, arm outstretched, eyes pleading. It was Gabriel.
“Please, wait!” he begged her.
“Wait?” she asked him, flabbergasted. “What the hell do you mean wait? This thing must be destroyed! The suffering that it would cause-”
“I know I know. But please, you have to listen to me. You can't destroy it. Not yet at least. There's still one more thing that has to be done, and I need that Apple to do it.”
She gave him a distrustful look.
“Please… Arktalaki… You devoted your life to end all suffering, right? To protect the people?”
She nodded. “Yes,” she said.
“Well here's the thing: this world is a big place.” He outstretched his hands, and suddenly floating images began to surround them, images of floating spheres, each with their own patterns and textures, some even with rings and smaller spheres around them. Gabriel focused in on the third sphere from the giant central one.
“This is the planet we live on,” he told her. “It's massive. You and your people live on this tiny sliver.” He pointed to a patch of land and ocean towards the top of the spherical map. “But all across the globe, there are hundreds upon thousands of other human beings, each with their own cultures and backgrounds. He made the images shift to different scenes of people laughing and playing, each scene with different kinds of lands and clothings. Arktalaki stared in awe at all of them.
“Your species is one of the most fascinating things I've ever had the privilege of witnessing,” Gabriel continued. “Even after all of my kind went extinct, yours carried on. Through the catastrophe, through the ice, and onwards to your own civilizations." He made the scenes move faster, days and nights flashing by in each of them. Arktalaki watched as he revealed the future to her, thousands of years after her passing. She saw people in the desert building up enormous monuments of stone to dedicate their kings. She watched as massive ships with poles and fabric sticking up from them sent hundreds of men in metal armor and feathered helmets clashing against one another. She saw stone houses being replaced by wood huts and cabins. Clothing became neater and more colorful with each generation. People in with sticks that launched fire from their ends stood on opposite sides of each other waging a battle. Enormous buildings of stone rose from the ground, spewing smoke from their towers. Bizarre contraptions carried people fast along the roads that they crafted themselves. Buildings scraped the skies as metal birds seemed to transport people around the planet. Gabriel slowed time back down. He zoomed in on one particular scene, one of a girl in a white hood sitting in a chair with some sort of device across her face. Arktalaki stared at her.
“Her name is Ava,” Gabriel told her. “She's your descendant. And she's up against something big, something that could destroy everything. Every single human being, every single culture, every single instance of love and companionship and freedom and goodwill towards men will be vaporized if she doesn't escape this trap that she's in. She needs you, Arktalaki. She needs you not to destroy the Apple. I just need enough time to give her a message. One last thing to give her before she can finally break free and save the world.
Arktalaki looked at the image of Ava. Her descendant? Her lineage would live on across tens of thousands of years? Was such a thing even possible? And could this girl really have such a massive impact on the world?
She looked over at her people, still frozen in time. “And what about them?” she asked Gabriel. “What will become of my people?”
“Your people will live on,” he told her. “Maybe not exactly as you are now, but you will live on.” He went back to the image of the Earth, and spun it around to show her the continent. “Your people will branch out into hundreds upon thousands of different cultures across this landmass. You are the descendants not just of individual people, but of rich and diverse societies. By Ava's time, there will be countless people in the land they call the Americas. The Inuit, the Mohawk, the Shawnee, the Lakota, the Aztecs. All of them will come from your people once this is done. You are the first peoples on this continent. You are the origin of it all.”
Arktalaki watched and stared at the images that came up, of all the different cultures and peoples that would inhabit these lands.
“Your friends and family will be broken free from their frozen state once I finish my message to Ava. Then everything can go back to normal for you. And you can do whatever you want to do with the Apple afterwards. I promise.”
Arktalaki looked down at the Apple, then at her people, then at Iwakuk, who gave her a whine. She looked at Gabriel, lowered her head a bit and sighed. “Very well,” she said. “I trust you. Take it.” She outstretched her hand, offering him the Apple. It started glowing brighter and brighter, engulfing her vision just like the memory disks had. The last thing she saw before her vision went entirely white was Gabriel smiling at her as he touched his hand to the Apple and ushered his last words to her.
“Thank you.”
