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Description
“Hey Carter, you're back!”

“Hey Rubes. Sorry about disappearing like that… After all this stuff with Jacob and now Ava too, I just needed some time to think.”

“Nah man, it's fine. We're all on edge after all this went downhill… I'm just glad you're back. We're gonna need everyone together in order to work through this.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“I don't know… I've been monitoring her progress and… well…”

“What? What is it?”

“It's weird. See, the Animus is reading out a massive surge of brain activity, but she's completely out cold. It's just… odd.”

“Maybe it's her fighting to come back?”

“Maybe… After all she's been through though, I sometimes wonder if she'd even want to come back…”

“Well… let's just hope she does. That's all we can really do at this point: hope.”

-----------

May 24, 2016; Animus Island

Ava sat up and rubbed her aching head. She was getting really sick of waking up to feeling like her brain got run over by a locomotive. She groaned as she painfully sat up.

“I take it you're not a morning person?” she heard. She looked to her side, and she saw Desmond casually sitting on a rock.

“Not without my coffee,” she said.

He laughed. “You really are a college kid.”

“Well to be fair, I never actually got a chance to enter college before all this crap got pushed on me.”

“Not really fair to say it got pushed on you. You had a choice.”

“Please. I never had a choice.”

“We've always got a choice, kiddo.”

She shrugged him off and rubbed her head again. “God, that was such a hard exit,” she groaned. “What even happened? I thought I had good synchronization?”

“Well you did, but that had nothing to do with it.”

“Care to explain then, Mr. AI?”

“Put simply, the Animus caught you snooping and didn't really like that.”

“Oh how rude of me. I'll be more considerate of its feelings next time.”

Desmond laughed at that. “Like I said before, kiddo, this isn't the normal programming. The machine has been told to hold what little of you it can make out safely in here. You're not meant to be clawing your way through memories like that.”

“Whatever happened to everything being permitted?”

Desmond simply smirked. “It's going to keep doing that as you go along, but I'll do my best to keep it from screwing you over too much. I'll do a little snooping of my own and keep it distracted.”

“Cool. Thanks man.”

“Eh, it's what I do.”

Ava nodded and looked around a bit. Animus Island still looked the same, blank and reality-defying. She did notice something different though. One of the sets of pillars on the other end of the island was glowing. She wondered if that meant anything. But as she recalled the memories she had just lived, far more pressing questions started forming in her mind.

“So um… question,” she said to Desmond.

“Shoot.”

“When you said mitochondrial Eve… you meant like, the Eve? Because that right there was right out of a Bible story.”

“Are you really surprised? I mean, you've already seen all the First Civ tech they hide in their temples. You've even met a couple of them. Angels straight out of the Bible stories.”

“Yeah but… I guess it was just kinda surprising to actually see it there and then. Like, I never honestly believed I would come to discover that the nutjobs on Ancient Aliens were right.”

“Well, to be fair, they weren't aliens. They evolved on Earth.”

“Same difference. They might as well be from outer space with all the technology they had. Like… how the hell did they ever go extinct? They seem like they were prepared for anything.”

Desmond gave a sort of cheeky but sad smile. “You'll find out eventually,” he said.

“Really? You gonna keep secrets from me too?”

“I prefer to think of it as withholding spoilers.”

Ava couldn't help but smile a bit and suppress a laugh. “Oh, and one other thing?”

“Yo?”

“How freaking old are the Assassins anyway? Like… your insignia was plastered all over that cave wall! Wamuneq’s robes were really hard to miss! I mean, the oldest story I was able to find about the Assassins was some guy in Persia named Darius.”

“First guy in history to use a hidden blade.”

“Yeah. But… this is proof that you guys are prehistoric! Like… how even? Where did you come from?”

Desmond got that same cheeky smile again. He tapped the side of his nose. “Spoilers,” he said, rewarding him a groan from Ava.

“Fine,” she said. “I guess I'll just have to hop back into Arktalaki’s memories and find out myself.” She stood from her place in the grass and began walking towards the gateway into the memory corridor.

“Actually, I'd hold off on that if I were you.”

She spun around. “What do you mean?”

“Well… I may have left out a little detail last time we talked.”

“Great. Thanks buddy. Glad I have a friend I can trust in this mess.”

“Ah come on, don't be like that. I just wanted to make sure you were willing to step up and take action at all.”

She rolled her eyes. “Alright fine. Fair enough. As long as I get out of here. What is it?”

“There's one other thing you have to do in order to get out of this place. One last key to the lock, if you will. One last set of memories you'll have to synchronize with. One other person whose story you'll have to explore.”

“Who's?”

“Your own.”

Ava gave him a confused look. “What? My own? Can't I just think about my life and be done with that? I mean, I have all my memories already.

“Actually, you don't. There's something you've forgotten about from a long time ago.”

Ava felt an uncomfortable lurch in her stomach. She had a bad feeling she knew where this was going.

“You don't mean…?”

Desmond didn't say anything. He just pointed towards the set of glowing columns.

“Right through there, kiddo. Your journey is far from over.”

And with that, he began to phase away again. Despite Ava's protests, he was soon gone into the ether, and she was left standing there alone. She spun around and stared at the glowing columns that looked for all the world like a beckoning doorway. So many thoughts were racing through her mind. She was scared of what she would find beyond, but she knew she didn't have much choice. She wanted to get out of here and back to the real world as soon as possible. She wanted to go home. And so she took a deep breath, and forced herself to walk across the Island.

She heard noises reverberate through the sky as she walked. At first she welcomed the white noise to distract her thoughts, but her heart sank again when it cleared out and became oh so familiar voices.

“I hear Morgenster's been plotting again while all this crap is screwing us over.”

It was Chelsea.

“Of course he is,” said the voice of Ruby. “Bastard's probably having a good old laugh at her pain…”

“I'm honestly surprised you're being as level-headed as you are about this.”

“Right now, all I care about is getting Ava back to us safely.”

“What if she doesn't want to come back, Rubes? I mean, she lashed out pretty hard at us. She clearly doesn't seem to care if-”

“Shut your goddamn mouth right now, Patterson, before I shove my boot in it.”

“Jeez hun, calm down. I'm sorry, alright? I'm just trying to say-”

“I don't care, Chelsea. As her friend and her girlfriend, it's my responsibility to be at her side no matter what. I'll drag her ass back from heaven if I have to. If she wants to leave us, fine. That's her choice. But I'm not leaving her.”

“...Alright. Fair enough, hun. I'm sorry. Just… be careful okay? I don't want you tearing yourself up over this. We've already got Ben having an anxiety attack every five minutes.”

“I know… I'm sorry too. I just… I just wish things could've gone better…”

“We all do hun. We all do.”

The voices fizzled out into white noise again before the air turned silent. Ava was left standing there, almost in shock. Her heart was in her throat. She lowered her head as she really started to think hard about what she said to her friends. She was really hard on them. She said some terrible things. The worst part is, she wasn't sure if she meant it now. Maybe she was just blinded by her anger and pain? Afterall, her friends have been some of the best she's ever had. Ruby… Ruby was amazing. Even after all she did and said, there she was at her side to defend her. She still called herself her girlfriend.

Ava felt so guilty…

But no, she thought. She meant what she said, even if it was harsh. She didn't want to be a part of something she felt she had no place in. She just wanted to go home and live a normal life. She'd make sure she apologized to everyone when she got out of here, but she was still leaving the Assassins behind.

She nodded, confident enough in that plan to shrug off her uncomfortable conflicting thoughts and push herself further towards the pillars. She walked up the the first set of the massive sky-piercing stones and gazed at the space in between. Beyond lied a space that she could only see from this angle. There was still just island behind the pillars. It was like an effect from a sci-fi show.

“Just keeps getting weirder and weirder…” she mumbled to herself. She took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare herself for whatever lay beyond. She closed her eyes, put her foot forward, and she stepped through the doorway, down the rabbit hole.

She felt that same bizarre feeling as before. She felt her body fading away, leaving behind only her consciousness for the machine to bend and twist into whatever realm it wanted it to adhere to. The mechanical whir of the machine quickly evaporated, quickly being replaced by the sounds of the world hidden in her DNA. She began to feel the breeze of the city that rose from the void brush gently against her skin. She opened her eyes, seeing the magnificent sight for the first time. She saw buildings towered high in the sky when she finally walked out of the airport. She barely even noticed the weight of her bags anymore. She was too focused on smiling and keeping her excitement contained. This was it. She was finally here. She was finally out on her own adventure in life. This was the sight she had been waiting to see for her entire life.

Kiki had arrived in London.

Description
“Hey Carter, you're back!”

“Hey Rubes. Sorry about disappearing like that… After all this stuff with Jacob and now Ava too, I just needed some time to think.”

“Nah man, it's fine. We're all on edge after all this went downhill… I'm just glad you're back. We're gonna need everyone together in order to work through this.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“I don't know… I've been monitoring her progress and… well…”

“What? What is it?”

“It's weird. See, the Animus is reading out a massive surge of brain activity, but she's completely out cold. It's just… odd.”

“Maybe it's her fighting to come back?”

“Maybe… After all she's been through though, I sometimes wonder if she'd even want to come back…”

“Well… let's just hope she does. That's all we can really do at this point: hope.”

-----------

May 24, 2016; Animus Island

Ava sat up and rubbed her aching head. She was getting really sick of waking up to feeling like her brain got run over by a locomotive. She groaned as she painfully sat up.

“I take it you're not a morning person?” she heard. She looked to her side, and she saw Desmond casually sitting on a rock.

“Not without my coffee,” she said.

He laughed. “You really are a college kid.”

“Well to be fair, I never actually got a chance to enter college before all this crap got pushed on me.”

“Not really fair to say it got pushed on you. You had a choice.”

“Please. I never had a choice.”

“We've always got a choice, kiddo.”

She shrugged him off and rubbed her head again. “God, that was such a hard exit,” she groaned. “What even happened? I thought I had good synchronization?”

“Well you did, but that had nothing to do with it.”

“Care to explain then, Mr. AI?”

“Put simply, the Animus caught you snooping and didn't really like that.”

“Oh how rude of me. I'll be more considerate of its feelings next time.”

Desmond laughed at that. “Like I said before, kiddo, this isn't the normal programming. The machine has been told to hold what little of you it can make out safely in here. You're not meant to be clawing your way through memories like that.”

“Whatever happened to everything being permitted?”

Desmond simply smirked. “It's going to keep doing that as you go along, but I'll do my best to keep it from screwing you over too much. I'll do a little snooping of my own and keep it distracted.”

“Cool. Thanks man.”

“Eh, it's what I do.”

Ava nodded and looked around a bit. Animus Island still looked the same, blank and reality-defying. She did notice something different though. One of the sets of pillars on the other end of the island was glowing. She wondered if that meant anything. But as she recalled the memories she had just lived, far more pressing questions started forming in her mind.

“So um… question,” she said to Desmond.

“Shoot.”

“When you said mitochondrial Eve… you meant like, the Eve? Because that right there was right out of a Bible story.”

“Are you really surprised? I mean, you've already seen all the First Civ tech they hide in their temples. You've even met a couple of them. Angels straight out of the Bible stories.”

“Yeah but… I guess it was just kinda surprising to actually see it there and then. Like, I never honestly believed I would come to discover that the nutjobs on Ancient Aliens were right.”

“Well, to be fair, they weren't aliens. They evolved on Earth.”

“Same difference. They might as well be from outer space with all the technology they had. Like… how the hell did they ever go extinct? They seem like they were prepared for anything.”

Desmond gave a sort of cheeky but sad smile. “You'll find out eventually,” he said.

“Really? You gonna keep secrets from me too?”

“I prefer to think of it as withholding spoilers.”

Ava couldn't help but smile a bit and suppress a laugh. “Oh, and one other thing?”

“Yo?”

“How freaking old are the Assassins anyway? Like… your insignia was plastered all over that cave wall! Wamuneq’s robes were really hard to miss! I mean, the oldest story I was able to find about the Assassins was some guy in Persia named Darius.”

“First guy in history to use a hidden blade.”

“Yeah. But… this is proof that you guys are prehistoric! Like… how even? Where did you come from?”

Desmond got that same cheeky smile again. He tapped the side of his nose. “Spoilers,” he said, rewarding him a groan from Ava.

“Fine,” she said. “I guess I'll just have to hop back into Arktalaki’s memories and find out myself.” She stood from her place in the grass and began walking towards the gateway into the memory corridor.

“Actually, I'd hold off on that if I were you.”

She spun around. “What do you mean?”

“Well… I may have left out a little detail last time we talked.”

“Great. Thanks buddy. Glad I have a friend I can trust in this mess.”

“Ah come on, don't be like that. I just wanted to make sure you were willing to step up and take action at all.”

She rolled her eyes. “Alright fine. Fair enough. As long as I get out of here. What is it?”

“There's one other thing you have to do in order to get out of this place. One last key to the lock, if you will. One last set of memories you'll have to synchronize with. One other person whose story you'll have to explore.”

“Who's?”

“Your own.”

Ava gave him a confused look. “What? My own? Can't I just think about my life and be done with that? I mean, I have all my memories already.

“Actually, you don't. There's something you've forgotten about from a long time ago.”

Ava felt an uncomfortable lurch in her stomach. She had a bad feeling she knew where this was going.

“You don't mean…?”

Desmond didn't say anything. He just pointed towards the set of glowing columns.

“Right through there, kiddo. Your journey is far from over.”

And with that, he began to phase away again. Despite Ava's protests, he was soon gone into the ether, and she was left standing there alone. She spun around and stared at the glowing columns that looked for all the world like a beckoning doorway. So many thoughts were racing through her mind. She was scared of what she would find beyond, but she knew she didn't have much choice. She wanted to get out of here and back to the real world as soon as possible. She wanted to go home. And so she took a deep breath, and forced herself to walk across the Island.

She heard noises reverberate through the sky as she walked. At first she welcomed the white noise to distract her thoughts, but her heart sank again when it cleared out and became oh so familiar voices.

“I hear Morgenster's been plotting again while all this crap is screwing us over.”

It was Chelsea.

“Of course he is,” said the voice of Ruby. “Bastard's probably having a good old laugh at her pain…”

“I'm honestly surprised you're being as level-headed as you are about this.”

“Right now, all I care about is getting Ava back to us safely.”

“What if she doesn't want to come back, Rubes? I mean, she lashed out pretty hard at us. She clearly doesn't seem to care if-”

“Shut your goddamn mouth right now, Patterson, before I shove my boot in it.”

“Jeez hun, calm down. I'm sorry, alright? I'm just trying to say-”

“I don't care, Chelsea. As her friend and her girlfriend, it's my responsibility to be at her side no matter what. I'll drag her ass back from heaven if I have to. If she wants to leave us, fine. That's her choice. But I'm not leaving her.”

“...Alright. Fair enough, hun. I'm sorry. Just… be careful okay? I don't want you tearing yourself up over this. We've already got Ben having an anxiety attack every five minutes.”

“I know… I'm sorry too. I just… I just wish things could've gone better…”

“We all do hun. We all do.”

The voices fizzled out into white noise again before the air turned silent. Ava was left standing there, almost in shock. Her heart was in her throat. She lowered her head as she really started to think hard about what she said to her friends. She was really hard on them. She said some terrible things. The worst part is, she wasn't sure if she meant it now. Maybe she was just blinded by her anger and pain? Afterall, her friends have been some of the best she's ever had. Ruby… Ruby was amazing. Even after all she did and said, there she was at her side to defend her. She still called herself her girlfriend.

Ava felt so guilty…

But no, she thought. She meant what she said, even if it was harsh. She didn't want to be a part of something she felt she had no place in. She just wanted to go home and live a normal life. She'd make sure she apologized to everyone when she got out of here, but she was still leaving the Assassins behind.

She nodded, confident enough in that plan to shrug off her uncomfortable conflicting thoughts and push herself further towards the pillars. She walked up the the first set of the massive sky-piercing stones and gazed at the space in between. Beyond lied a space that she could only see from this angle. There was still just island behind the pillars. It was like an effect from a sci-fi show.

“Just keeps getting weirder and weirder…” she mumbled to herself. She took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare herself for whatever lay beyond. She closed her eyes, put her foot forward, and she stepped through the doorway, down the rabbit hole.

She felt that same bizarre feeling as before. She felt her body fading away, leaving behind only her consciousness for the machine to bend and twist into whatever realm it wanted it to adhere to. The mechanical whir of the machine quickly evaporated, quickly being replaced by the sounds of the world hidden in her DNA. She began to feel the breeze of the city that rose from the void brush gently against her skin. She opened her eyes, seeing the magnificent sight for the first time. She saw buildings towered high in the sky when she finally walked out of the airport. She barely even noticed the weight of her bags anymore. She was too focused on smiling and keeping her excitement contained. This was it. She was finally here. She was finally out on her own adventure in life. This was the sight she had been waiting to see for her entire life.

Kiki had arrived in London.