HOME | DD

Description
January 13, 1883; Batavia, Java

Apsarini found herself limping through Batavia’s streets three days later. The journey back was hardly an easy one. She had to hike back to the nearest village and find some form of medical treatment. By the time she found a doctor, she had passed out from bloodloss. She woke up a day later. She was hardly in what you'd call good condition, but at least she was well enough to carry on. She eventually arrived in Yogyakarta and hitched a ride on one of the new rail lines that the Dutch were beginning to install across the islands. She stepped off here in Batavia, where she knew of only one place she could really go at this point, even though she was dreading it.

The Assassin hideout looked particularly drab and dark today, even ignoring the grey clouds darkening the sky. It felt shut off to her, unwelcoming, foreboding. Still, she had no other options, and so she snuck into the complex anyway.

She walked into the main hall of the central building, not even bothering to turn on any lights. She just wanted to walk back to her bed and wallow in her sorrows.

Then suddenly the lights came on anyway. Apsarini froze, and her heart dropped into her stomach.

“Ms. Rajawali,” a cold voice said behind her, stern and powerful.

Apsarini stood motionless for a few seconds, not wanting to turn around but ultimately finding herself forced to as the eyes of her Mentor burnt a hole in the back of her skull. She must've looked like a deer in the headlamps of a speeding carriage to Dhien.

The Mentor had a look of utter disappointment and just a smidge of burning hate in her eyes. She looked like Tambora on the verge of eruption. Apsarini returned the glare, too tired at this point to be scared and honestly just too angered herself.

“Care to explain what the Templars did to put you in such a state?” Dhien coldly asked her.

“What do you think?” Apsarini spat back, not holding back on the rudeness in her voice.

“I think—I know—that you went risking everything on some idiotic quest to kill the Templar Grand Master against all odds and without permission from anyone. I know you killed a Master Templar in the middle of a public space when you were explicitly told not too. I know you abandoned your brother with the attitude of a childish brat and spat on the tenets of our Creed! And for what?!”

“For the sake of just goddamn trying! How long have the Templars been in control of these islands? How long have our peoples been oppressed, our cultures squashed? I heard all the stories about how you fought the Dutch in the Aceh War. I was told you were the bravest among us, but clearly they were wrong! Because now that war is over and you have us sit on our asses all day long! All because you're too scared to take action!”

“Yes, I'm scared! Alright! How can you blame me for that? How? The Dutch took everything from us! They murdered my husband, our Mentor! They burnt our lands and tore apart our families! They are the destroyers of all! And now that we live in a peaceful lull, you'll forgive me for not wanting to start pulling triggers again!”

“We are Assassins! Death is our business!”

“No. Reform is our business!”

“No! Because that would only be true if we actually worked to make it so! Instead you sit here and read your stupid books and send us to do your dirty work!”

“Why, you arrogant little brat!”

“I may be a brat, but at least I'm not an incompetent worm like you, Dhien!”

“Apsarini… please just stop…”

Apsarini looked over Dhien’s shoulder to see the face attached to the newcomer’s voice. It was Jaga. He came around the corner, and his eyes looked red and soulless. He suddenly looked much much older than he was, and the depression refused to let go of his face. Apsarini almost felt her heart shatter upon seeing him.

“Please, little sister…” he said, his voice hoarse, “please… there's no point in arguing like this anymore…”

“Tell her that,” Apsarini responded, pointing accusingly at Dhien.

But Jaga shook his head. He looked like he was holding back tears. “The Mentor is right, Apsarini,” he said. “What you did… it was unacceptable. It was irresponsible and dangerous and idiotic. I… I can't back you up anymore, little sister. I just can't.”

Apsarini looked at him in shock. Her face suddenly felt very warm as it turned red and tears started pouring down her face. Her teeth and fists clenched. Her veins bulged.

“This is what I get for trying to do the right thing?” she shouted. “I get a knife in my gut and utter betrayal?! I get forced to limp home only to find the only place I know to go to doesn't even want me?!”

“I never said we didn't-”

“No! No! Shut up right now, Jaga! Just shut up!”

“Show your superiors some respect, Ms. Rajawali!” Dhien demanded.

“Diancuk!”

“How dare you?”

“Everything is permitted, Dhien. Unlike you, I'm a risk taker. I don't care what happens to me!”

“Then we'll see where that ends up getting you, you little-”

Then she was abruptly interrupted when a window shattered nearby, following the crack of a gunshot. The Assassins ducked to the floor as the bullet smacked into a bust nearby. An alarm bell started frantically ringing outside, and it was soon blocked out by the sounds of shouting, clashing metal, and guns being fired.

“What the hell?” Dhien exclaimed. The three of them dashed to the door and opened it to reveal a horrendous battle ground beyond. Dutch soldiers were surrounding the Assassin base, lining up to fire their rifles. Many of them were charging in, muskets and torches raised. The few Assassins that were here were fighting back with all their might, but they were clearly no match. Many of them started falling immediately.

“Oh my god…” Jaga gasped.

Apsarini wasted no time sprinting forward with her mandau in hand. She hacked and slashed at every Templar that crossed her path. Flames started soaring skywards and smoke blacked out the night as the soldiers started burning down the hideout buildings with zero mercy. Apsarini slammed her blade into one man's shoulder and yanked it out just in time to slice another man's face. She ran another through and used his body as a human shield when the infantry opened fire in her direction. She had stopped thinking. She was running on instinct now, pure animal instinct. She snapped out of her rabid fury though when she heard a loud cracking noise coming from above her. She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit by a flaming balcony that had collapsed. She found herself falling into a pile of debris when her roll carried her down a hill, but a hand fell on her shoulder and pulled her back. It was Jaga.

“Come on!” he said. “We have to leave!”

She shoved him away and turned back towards the Templars. Jaga then lunged at her, grabbing her hard by the shoulders and forcibly dragging her away from the deadly chaos of dead bodies and flaming debris. She shouted and struggled to break free, but found she couldn't. She started fighting much harder once she caught a glimpse of Boumeester on the edge of the scene, watching the massacre with no remorse as he commanded his troops. He made eye contact with her, and she flipped. Jaga wouldn't let her go though. He kept pulling her to safety.

“I'll kill you Boumeester, do you hear me?” Apsarini shouted, nearly blowing her lungs out over the roar of the battle. “I'll destroy you and your entire order! You may burn our homes but I swear to you, we will have your heads! Do you hear me?”

She didn't know if he did or not. She doubted it, but she didn't care. She was too filled with blind fury, too angry to focus on anything else besides breaking free of Jaga’s grip and running a blade into the Templar.

Her brother dragged her until they were long out of reach. They found themselves on a hill that overlooked where the hideout had been. The flames tore a hole in the night sky, its fiery fingers reaching far beyond the skyline. The smoke went even higher, choking the clouds and stars. The Templars were already moving out, satisfied with the destruction they had wrought. They simply turned and left, leaving the smoldering ruins of what had been a grand Assassin base to burn and crumble into ash.

Only three made it out alive: the Rajawali siblings and Cut Nyak Dhien. Apsarini had given up her struggle, resorting instead to crying in her knees as she watched the place burn. It had never felt like home to her, but it was the only thing she had that even resembled the feeling. Now that feeling, and the thing it was attached to, and anything that made it special, had literally gone up in flames. And so she cried.

“How could this have happened…” Jaga said, more to himself than anyone else.

“I know how,” Dhien said, quietly but bitterly. “I know full damn well how.” She spun on her heels and glared at Apsarini with pure hate.

“You led them here!” she shouted. “You weren't careful enough when you returned home and they tailed you back! You brought the enemy into our home! Every man and woman we lost today, Apsarini, we lost because of you!”

Apsarini didn't even register that she had done it at first. Her mind just blanked it out. It had happened so quickly. But there was Dhien, suddenly on the ground, rubbing her cheek where a red, fist-sized mark had appeared. And there was Apsarini, tears soaking her cheeks and her hand balled up in front of her, aching from impacting something hard. Jaga looked in shock, as did Dhien. The Mentor stared for a good long moment, and then stood up, wiping the blood from her nose and making herself look tall and formal despite herself. She walked straight up to the girl, and looked her dead in the eye. Apsarini would never admit it, but she suddenly felt very, very scared.

“It seems you've forced my hand, Ms. Rajawali,” the Mentor said in the quietest but most terrifying voice Apsarini had ever heard. “You have broken the tenets of the Assassin's Creed by leading the enemy to us and therefore allowing them to destroy our home. You have neglected your duties, overstepped your bounds, disregarded responsibility, and refused to show any respect to any in our Brotherhood! So you leave me with no other choice. As Mentor of this branch of the Brotherhood, I hereby excommunicate you from Assassins.”

Apsarini froze. Her jaw dropped. But Jaga was clearly the one who was more struck with horror.

“Mentor! You can't-” he protested, but Dhien ignored him and cut him off.

“You are stripped of all titles and ranks and ties that you once held with us, and are hereby exiled from the Brotherhood of Indonesia!”

The siblings were speechless. Neither said anything for a good long moment. Apsarini’s face started turning red again. She tried to hold back her tears, but it was a futile act. Jaga came forward and tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but she shoved him away and ran past him.

“Apsarini wait!” he pleaded. But she ignored him. She just ran. She ran and ran until her legs couldn't carry her any farther, and then she ran further. She cried and cried and ran and ran, and didn't stop until she was well out of Batavia and deep in the surrounding jungle. It started raining again, and she dropped to her knees. She just sat in the mud for god knows how long, crying. Everything she once had, everything she stood for, gone. For the first time in her life, she was completely, and utterly, alone.

The world around her suddenly quaked, And quaked hard. A mechanical hissing started overtaking the sounds of the area as the simulation started clutching out in random areas. The land almost seemed to be pulsing. A fierce wind started kicking up. Ava stood from the mud, and looked down at Apsarini’s hands, surprised by the sudden rude awakening from the memory sequence.

“Oh… Oh crap crap crap crap crap!” she heard Ruby's voice echo all around her.

“What's going on?” Ava asked, getting freaked out again. “Is it Abstergo again?”

“No, it's something different but… I can't figure out what it is. Some sort of… foreign code. It's doing the same sweep as Abstergo did though, so you need to book it out of there, Champ! I opened up a server bridge! The portal for it is nearby! Go! Hurry!”

“Crap…” Ava moaned. She looked all around her. The simulation was falling apart. Digital debris threatened to take her head off as it crashed around in the wind. She started running. She heard the sound that the last portal had made, and just followed that in hopes that she'd get out okay. Ruby told her she'd be fine, and she could trust Ruby, right?

She risked a glance behind her and saw the same threatening wall of red lasers racing towards her from last time. She started breathing heavily and ran faster. She eventually found the portal over the edge of a cliff. She knew she'd have to jump to reach it, and the wall definitely helped motivate her. Still, she was hesitant. But Ruby shouted at her to jump and so she did at last. She spread her arms and took a leap of faith straight into the glowing hole in reality. The portal snapped shut once she was through, leaving the wall to finish its sweep in a now empty server.

Ava, meanwhile, suddenly started feeling seasick.

Description
January 13, 1883; Batavia, Java

Apsarini found herself limping through Batavia’s streets three days later. The journey back was hardly an easy one. She had to hike back to the nearest village and find some form of medical treatment. By the time she found a doctor, she had passed out from bloodloss. She woke up a day later. She was hardly in what you'd call good condition, but at least she was well enough to carry on. She eventually arrived in Yogyakarta and hitched a ride on one of the new rail lines that the Dutch were beginning to install across the islands. She stepped off here in Batavia, where she knew of only one place she could really go at this point, even though she was dreading it.

The Assassin hideout looked particularly drab and dark today, even ignoring the grey clouds darkening the sky. It felt shut off to her, unwelcoming, foreboding. Still, she had no other options, and so she snuck into the complex anyway.

She walked into the main hall of the central building, not even bothering to turn on any lights. She just wanted to walk back to her bed and wallow in her sorrows.

Then suddenly the lights came on anyway. Apsarini froze, and her heart dropped into her stomach.

“Ms. Rajawali,” a cold voice said behind her, stern and powerful.

Apsarini stood motionless for a few seconds, not wanting to turn around but ultimately finding herself forced to as the eyes of her Mentor burnt a hole in the back of her skull. She must've looked like a deer in the headlamps of a speeding carriage to Dhien.

The Mentor had a look of utter disappointment and just a smidge of burning hate in her eyes. She looked like Tambora on the verge of eruption. Apsarini returned the glare, too tired at this point to be scared and honestly just too angered herself.

“Care to explain what the Templars did to put you in such a state?” Dhien coldly asked her.

“What do you think?” Apsarini spat back, not holding back on the rudeness in her voice.

“I think—I know—that you went risking everything on some idiotic quest to kill the Templar Grand Master against all odds and without permission from anyone. I know you killed a Master Templar in the middle of a public space when you were explicitly told not too. I know you abandoned your brother with the attitude of a childish brat and spat on the tenets of our Creed! And for what?!”

“For the sake of just goddamn trying! How long have the Templars been in control of these islands? How long have our peoples been oppressed, our cultures squashed? I heard all the stories about how you fought the Dutch in the Aceh War. I was told you were the bravest among us, but clearly they were wrong! Because now that war is over and you have us sit on our asses all day long! All because you're too scared to take action!”

“Yes, I'm scared! Alright! How can you blame me for that? How? The Dutch took everything from us! They murdered my husband, our Mentor! They burnt our lands and tore apart our families! They are the destroyers of all! And now that we live in a peaceful lull, you'll forgive me for not wanting to start pulling triggers again!”

“We are Assassins! Death is our business!”

“No. Reform is our business!”

“No! Because that would only be true if we actually worked to make it so! Instead you sit here and read your stupid books and send us to do your dirty work!”

“Why, you arrogant little brat!”

“I may be a brat, but at least I'm not an incompetent worm like you, Dhien!”

“Apsarini… please just stop…”

Apsarini looked over Dhien’s shoulder to see the face attached to the newcomer’s voice. It was Jaga. He came around the corner, and his eyes looked red and soulless. He suddenly looked much much older than he was, and the depression refused to let go of his face. Apsarini almost felt her heart shatter upon seeing him.

“Please, little sister…” he said, his voice hoarse, “please… there's no point in arguing like this anymore…”

“Tell her that,” Apsarini responded, pointing accusingly at Dhien.

But Jaga shook his head. He looked like he was holding back tears. “The Mentor is right, Apsarini,” he said. “What you did… it was unacceptable. It was irresponsible and dangerous and idiotic. I… I can't back you up anymore, little sister. I just can't.”

Apsarini looked at him in shock. Her face suddenly felt very warm as it turned red and tears started pouring down her face. Her teeth and fists clenched. Her veins bulged.

“This is what I get for trying to do the right thing?” she shouted. “I get a knife in my gut and utter betrayal?! I get forced to limp home only to find the only place I know to go to doesn't even want me?!”

“I never said we didn't-”

“No! No! Shut up right now, Jaga! Just shut up!”

“Show your superiors some respect, Ms. Rajawali!” Dhien demanded.

“Diancuk!”

“How dare you?”

“Everything is permitted, Dhien. Unlike you, I'm a risk taker. I don't care what happens to me!”

“Then we'll see where that ends up getting you, you little-”

Then she was abruptly interrupted when a window shattered nearby, following the crack of a gunshot. The Assassins ducked to the floor as the bullet smacked into a bust nearby. An alarm bell started frantically ringing outside, and it was soon blocked out by the sounds of shouting, clashing metal, and guns being fired.

“What the hell?” Dhien exclaimed. The three of them dashed to the door and opened it to reveal a horrendous battle ground beyond. Dutch soldiers were surrounding the Assassin base, lining up to fire their rifles. Many of them were charging in, muskets and torches raised. The few Assassins that were here were fighting back with all their might, but they were clearly no match. Many of them started falling immediately.

“Oh my god…” Jaga gasped.

Apsarini wasted no time sprinting forward with her mandau in hand. She hacked and slashed at every Templar that crossed her path. Flames started soaring skywards and smoke blacked out the night as the soldiers started burning down the hideout buildings with zero mercy. Apsarini slammed her blade into one man's shoulder and yanked it out just in time to slice another man's face. She ran another through and used his body as a human shield when the infantry opened fire in her direction. She had stopped thinking. She was running on instinct now, pure animal instinct. She snapped out of her rabid fury though when she heard a loud cracking noise coming from above her. She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit by a flaming balcony that had collapsed. She found herself falling into a pile of debris when her roll carried her down a hill, but a hand fell on her shoulder and pulled her back. It was Jaga.

“Come on!” he said. “We have to leave!”

She shoved him away and turned back towards the Templars. Jaga then lunged at her, grabbing her hard by the shoulders and forcibly dragging her away from the deadly chaos of dead bodies and flaming debris. She shouted and struggled to break free, but found she couldn't. She started fighting much harder once she caught a glimpse of Boumeester on the edge of the scene, watching the massacre with no remorse as he commanded his troops. He made eye contact with her, and she flipped. Jaga wouldn't let her go though. He kept pulling her to safety.

“I'll kill you Boumeester, do you hear me?” Apsarini shouted, nearly blowing her lungs out over the roar of the battle. “I'll destroy you and your entire order! You may burn our homes but I swear to you, we will have your heads! Do you hear me?”

She didn't know if he did or not. She doubted it, but she didn't care. She was too filled with blind fury, too angry to focus on anything else besides breaking free of Jaga’s grip and running a blade into the Templar.

Her brother dragged her until they were long out of reach. They found themselves on a hill that overlooked where the hideout had been. The flames tore a hole in the night sky, its fiery fingers reaching far beyond the skyline. The smoke went even higher, choking the clouds and stars. The Templars were already moving out, satisfied with the destruction they had wrought. They simply turned and left, leaving the smoldering ruins of what had been a grand Assassin base to burn and crumble into ash.

Only three made it out alive: the Rajawali siblings and Cut Nyak Dhien. Apsarini had given up her struggle, resorting instead to crying in her knees as she watched the place burn. It had never felt like home to her, but it was the only thing she had that even resembled the feeling. Now that feeling, and the thing it was attached to, and anything that made it special, had literally gone up in flames. And so she cried.

“How could this have happened…” Jaga said, more to himself than anyone else.

“I know how,” Dhien said, quietly but bitterly. “I know full damn well how.” She spun on her heels and glared at Apsarini with pure hate.

“You led them here!” she shouted. “You weren't careful enough when you returned home and they tailed you back! You brought the enemy into our home! Every man and woman we lost today, Apsarini, we lost because of you!”

Apsarini didn't even register that she had done it at first. Her mind just blanked it out. It had happened so quickly. But there was Dhien, suddenly on the ground, rubbing her cheek where a red, fist-sized mark had appeared. And there was Apsarini, tears soaking her cheeks and her hand balled up in front of her, aching from impacting something hard. Jaga looked in shock, as did Dhien. The Mentor stared for a good long moment, and then stood up, wiping the blood from her nose and making herself look tall and formal despite herself. She walked straight up to the girl, and looked her dead in the eye. Apsarini would never admit it, but she suddenly felt very, very scared.

“It seems you've forced my hand, Ms. Rajawali,” the Mentor said in the quietest but most terrifying voice Apsarini had ever heard. “You have broken the tenets of the Assassin's Creed by leading the enemy to us and therefore allowing them to destroy our home. You have neglected your duties, overstepped your bounds, disregarded responsibility, and refused to show any respect to any in our Brotherhood! So you leave me with no other choice. As Mentor of this branch of the Brotherhood, I hereby excommunicate you from Assassins.”

Apsarini froze. Her jaw dropped. But Jaga was clearly the one who was more struck with horror.

“Mentor! You can't-” he protested, but Dhien ignored him and cut him off.

“You are stripped of all titles and ranks and ties that you once held with us, and are hereby exiled from the Brotherhood of Indonesia!”

The siblings were speechless. Neither said anything for a good long moment. Apsarini’s face started turning red again. She tried to hold back her tears, but it was a futile act. Jaga came forward and tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but she shoved him away and ran past him.

“Apsarini wait!” he pleaded. But she ignored him. She just ran. She ran and ran until her legs couldn't carry her any farther, and then she ran further. She cried and cried and ran and ran, and didn't stop until she was well out of Batavia and deep in the surrounding jungle. It started raining again, and she dropped to her knees. She just sat in the mud for god knows how long, crying. Everything she once had, everything she stood for, gone. For the first time in her life, she was completely, and utterly, alone.

The world around her suddenly quaked, And quaked hard. A mechanical hissing started overtaking the sounds of the area as the simulation started clutching out in random areas. The land almost seemed to be pulsing. A fierce wind started kicking up. Ava stood from the mud, and looked down at Apsarini’s hands, surprised by the sudden rude awakening from the memory sequence.

“Oh… Oh crap crap crap crap crap!” she heard Ruby's voice echo all around her.

“What's going on?” Ava asked, getting freaked out again. “Is it Abstergo again?”

“No, it's something different but… I can't figure out what it is. Some sort of… foreign code. It's doing the same sweep as Abstergo did though, so you need to book it out of there, Champ! I opened up a server bridge! The portal for it is nearby! Go! Hurry!”

“Crap…” Ava moaned. She looked all around her. The simulation was falling apart. Digital debris threatened to take her head off as it crashed around in the wind. She started running. She heard the sound that the last portal had made, and just followed that in hopes that she'd get out okay. Ruby told her she'd be fine, and she could trust Ruby, right?

She risked a glance behind her and saw the same threatening wall of red lasers racing towards her from last time. She started breathing heavily and ran faster. She eventually found the portal over the edge of a cliff. She knew she'd have to jump to reach it, and the wall definitely helped motivate her. Still, she was hesitant. But Ruby shouted at her to jump and so she did at last. She spread her arms and took a leap of faith straight into the glowing hole in reality. The portal snapped shut once she was through, leaving the wall to finish its sweep in a now empty server.

Ava, meanwhile, suddenly started feeling seasick.