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Description
December 6, 2015; Indianapolis, Indiana

Ava was pulling the Animus off of her face before Ruby had a chance to do it herself. Her head was spinning, and she was about to fall over, but was quickly held up by Ben and Ruby.

“Easy, easy, Champ,” Ruby said.

“Oh God…” Ava sputtered as she rubbed her aching head.

“Just try not to move too much, okay Ava?” Ben said, more concerned than anyone else in the room.

“I'm fine, Ben,” Ava said. “I just… I just need a second…”

Meanwhile, Chelsea rushed up to Carter, who had also apparently been ripped out of his simulation.

“Did… did Abstergo get us?” Ava asked her friends.

“Nah, we made it out… albeit barely,” Ruby said.

“How did they even get in?”

“They hacked into our systems before we could fully firewall them,” said Ben.

On the other side of the room, Ava saw Chelsea trying to help Carter regain his bearings. She was explaining the same stuff to him.

“Crap. What do we do?” Ava asked.

“I don't know,” said Ruby.

“Can't you counter-hack them?” Ben asked.

“I tried! But they hit us hard with some real complicated virus. I can't get into the code from an outside program…”

They were all quiet for a moment, each thinking of what to do.

“What if we tried to take it down at the source?” Carter suddenly asked. “Like, can you at least track the program back to where it originated?”

Ruby seemed to consider. “It's gonna be a royal pain to do,” she said, “but I guess it wouldn't be impossible…” Suddenly she smiled, her own plan starting to form alongside his. “Yeah. Yeah! I can totally do that!”

She quickly grabbed her laptop and her phone. “I had some old friends back in New York I used to run with. Guys were part of a hacker group called DedSec. Best hackers I've ever seen, taught me everything I know about code. Let me go see if I can contact them and ask for help.”

The others all nodded and Ruby dashed out the door with an excited smile.

“What're we gonna do when we find the source of the program?” Ava asked.

“We’ll probably make our way over to wherever it is and shut it down from the inside out,” said Chelsea.

“Oh. Cool.”

“You okay, kid? You look a little pale.”

Ava suddenly had an expression like a deer in headlights.

“Hmm?” she said. “Oh... Yeah. I'm fine. Still not really used to the whole becoming someone else inside a machine thing.”

“It takes a while to get used to, admittedly,” Carter said, laughing a bit. Ava chuckled back at him, his positive attitude making her feel a bit better.

“Guess so,” she said.

Truth be told, she wasn't feeling very up to par lately. Ever since they had left Montreal, she'd been feeling very off. She figured it was just the Bleeding Effect screwing with her head, given all the visions and occasional voices. Not to mention all her migranes. Even with her usual dose of coffee, her head wouldn't stop pulsing at certain points of the day. But she shrugged it off. It couldn't be anything major, right? And even if it was, she was on a mission. An important mission She had to power through her problems for the greater good, right? Right. So, she shrugged it off. It probably wasn't as important as she was thinking it was.

“So, who were you in there?” Carter suddenly asked her.

“Her name was Apsarini,” Ava told him. “She was an Assassin in Indonesia in the 1880s.”

“Oh cool.”

“Yeah.” She gave a soft laugh. “She’s got a lot of spunk.”

They all laughed together.

And then about twenty minutes later, Ruby came back. “Alright,” she said. “I managed to get in touch with my buddies in DedSec. And luckily, they say they should be able to help us out.”

“Great!” said Ben.

“They say it may take them a while, the program’s a bit more complex than they’re used to, but they say it can definitely be done. Just a matter of waiting.”

“Awesome,” said Chelsea.

“They do need us to do something to help out, though.”

“Oh?” Carter asked.

“Abstergo’s been making some deals with with another company lately. You guys ever heard of the Blume Corporation?”

“Weren’t they the ones that got hammered down with corruption charges in Chicago after some hackers exposed them last year?”

“That’s them. They’re in the business of spying on people. They’ve been working to establish citywide surveillance systems across the country, invading privacy, watching everyone’s every move, and blackmailing everyone all in the name of ‘peace and order’.”

“Sounds like people the Templars would really love,” Chelsea joked.

Ruby chuckled. “They definitely do. And that’s why Abstergo’s been making a whole bunch of deals with them lately. Blume’s ctOS surveillance system has had Templar backing ever since they caught wind of it, and they’ve already brought it to Indianapolis. Grant it, the project slowed down after you guys took out Natasha Wolfgang, but they've sped back up and now it’s blocking our hacking efforts.”

“Sounds like we need to go shut down ctOS then,” said Ava.

“Well, it’s not that simple. ctOS is broadcasted across the city via a bunch of radio towers scattered across the districts. If we wanted to completely shut it down, we’d need to hit all of them. But we don’t really have the time or resources to do that all at once.”

“I’m sure I could do it,” Carter said confidently.

Ruby clearly admired his optimism. “Well, then maybe you can go around town when you get some free time and try and shut them all down,” she said. “But right now there’s one in particular that DedSec needs us to focus on.”

She placed her laptop on a desk and spun it around to show her friends the screen. There was a map of Indianapolis on the display, and she pointed to a point on it. “Right here,” she said. “If we can hack into this tower and stop its signal, that should be enough for DedSec to slip in and do their thing. Think you can handle it?”

“Sounds easy enough,” Carter said. “That's kind of a rough part of town though. I'll gather up some friends and form a plan.”

“Sounds good. Now, toss me your phone.”

“Hmm?”

“Just do it.”

He shrugged and handed her his phone.

“Thanks,” she said. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a little chip. She popped open the back of his phone and put it in. She closed it back up and fiddled with something on the touchscreen before tossing the phone back to him.

“What was that?” asked Chelsea.

“A little program from DedSec,” said Ruby. “Specially designed for hacking into ctOS. You'll be able to stop the tower broadcast with this, and you can also hack into anything else in the city that’s hooked up to it, which is actually most electronics nowadays.”

“Sweet. Should come in handy,” Carter said.

“Hopefully.”

“Alright then. I should probably start making some calls and get to work.”

The others nodded, and he made his way out the door.

“Don't die,” Chelsea joked at him.

He smiled. “I make no promises.”

And with that, he walked out the door and closed it behind him, leaving the rest of the gang to sit around in the hideout while he set out to prepare for his mission.

“So… now we just wait here?” Ava asked.

“Pretty much,” said Ruby, who pulled up her chair, kicked her legs up onto her desk, put her laptop in her lap, and started twiddling away at the keyboard. “I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to go ahead and catch up on my shows.”

“You've got great priorities, Rubes,” Ben joked. She responded by turning her hand towards him and displaying a not so friendly gesture. Ben laughed and turned back towards Ava.

“You know, if you like, we could go get some training in for you,” Ben said. “You know, test out some of those new skills Apsarini’s been letting you borrow.”

Ava considered it. Her head had stopped pounding afterall, and it wasn't like she had much else to do. She could probably use the exercise after sitting in a chair all day, too.

“You know what? Sure,” she said, smiling. “I could go for that.”

“Alright, cool,” Ben said, returning the smile. He turned to Chelsea. “Mind if we head on down to the training room and do some stunts?” he asked.

“Go right ahead, dude,” Chelsea responded.

Ben nodded and turned back to Ava. He took her hand and gentlemanly helped her to her feet.

“Let's go,” he said.

Ava nodded and followed him into the hideout halls to prepare for a workout.

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

Ava decided to get into an outfit better suited for exercising. She donned her old high school gym clothes, a baggy t-shirt and matching shorts, and tied her hair into a ponytail. They walked into the training room, made from the enormous storage room of the hideout warehouse much like the one in Montreal, with a bag of supplies. Ben set it down and started sifting through it while Ava did her warm-up stretches. He pulled a couple things out of the bag and walked up to her.

“Alrighty then. Which one do you want to start with?” he asked. He held up the objects. One was a tomahawk, not dissimilar to Aveza's, but made of some sort of soft plastic with a dulled edge. The other was a karambit, equally dulled.

Ava looked at them both, trying to decide. Her head started pulsing slightly again.

“Can't I use your tomahawk to train, Connor? Pretty please?” she suddenly heard from nowhere. Great, she thought, more voices. Now was not the time for this. She mentally sighed. She hoped they'd go away soon.

“I think I'll go with the karambit,” she said, taking the prop from her friend's hand.

“Excellent choice, fair maiden!” he joked.

“Oh hush,” she laughed.

Ben took a step back and grabbed his own weapon from the bag. He pulled out a long wooden pole, similar to the size and shape of most batons. He twirled it around like a sword. Ava responded by spinning the karambit on her finger.

“So… what do I do?” she asked him.

“I dunno,” he said.

“Well gee, that's helpful, Ben.”

Ben laughed. “No, I mean, you literally just have to feel it out. If the Bleeding Effect is working properly, you should have picked up on Apsarini’s skills. It should be second nature.”

“Well… okay.”

“I'll come at you with this stick and you just respond however your body tells you to. Alright?”

“Gotchya.”

Ben nodded and took a step back, getting into a fighting stance. Ava hooked her finger into the karambit ring and did the same. She suddenly felt more… focused, more balanced. Her head was still throbbing though. It was mostly ignorable, but still.

“Now remember, Apsarini, keep your legs firm and your arms bent. And keep your eyes on your target,” she heard from somewhere in her mind. It was Jaga, she could tell. Well, she figured, at least this voice was helpful in her current situation. Who better than her brother… er… uncle to guide her through training.

“Ready?” Ben said. “On go.”

“Gotch-”

But she was cut off as Ben suddenly lunged at her, stick raised. Ava quickly dodged and rolled away, bringing her weapon up to fight.

“Hey! No fair! You didn't say go!” she said in a semi-joking manner.

Ben just gave her a cocky smile. “I wanted to test your reflexes,” he said simply. “Think fast!”

He spun towards her again, directing a blow at her arm. Ava swiped her blade to the side, countering the attack.

“Your opponent won't always play fair, Apsarini. You must be prepared for anything.” she heard. She appreciated Jaga’s advice, especially when she exchanged a few more attacks with Ben. But she couldn't help but shake this odd feeling of irritation… Did he really have to be ordering her around like that? She knew he was just trying to help, but still.

“Every one of your opponent's moves can be used against them. Don't pass up an chance to do so.”

Ava ducked beneath another swing, and she spun her legs around to kick Ben's out from under him. She pounced as he fell, and she pinned him, putting the prop to his throat.

“Lucky shot,” Ben laughed through heavy breaths. “Round one goes to you, Ms. Arlie.”

“Don't call me Ms. Arlie,” Ava laughed as she got up off of him and helped him to his feet. “You wanna go again?”

“You offering?”

Ava just responded by smiling and replacing her karambit with the tomahawk. She got into a fighting stance. Ben smiled did the same and twirled his stick. He stood tall and straight, pointing his “sword” at her challengingly with his other hand behind his back much like the American soldiers Aveza would’ve faced.

“You’re doing great, Aveza!” Ava heard. “You’re slightly off balance, but you’re still doing very well for a beginner. Keep it up!” It was Connor. Ava suddenly felt very different hearing his voice. Instead of irritation, she felt very excited, like her will to do well was invigorated tenfold. She smiled brightly.

“Enguarde!” Ben yelled, and he stepped forward, swinging his stick with an elegant flair. Ava thrust her tomahawk upwards, catching the blade on his and sliding it to the side. She pressed home her advantage when he stumbled off balance and swung her blade at his arm. He ducked out of the way, though, and pulled the same trick on her. He whacked her arm, though not too hard as to hurt her, and she stumbled back.

“I don’t know if I can do it, Connor…”

“Nonsense, Aveza. You’re doing great! I know it’s difficult, but you’re doing good.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Who knows, if you work hard enough, you might even become as skillful as me.”

“Okay! Let’s go again!”

“Haha. As you wish, little one.”

Ava’s grip tightened on her tomahawk, and just as Ben was about to put a supportive hand on her shoulder and call it a round, she spun around and swung it high. She caught him off guard and hit him in the chest, sending him stumbling back.

“I won’t go down that easy, lad,” she said with a smile.

“Lad?” Ben laughed.

“Er… yeah I… you hush!”

The two laughed and she ran forward. Ben took a swing with his stick, but Ava ducked below it.

“Our enemies are predictable. They organize every single aspect of their battles. We Assassins can adapt, and it makes us stronger for it. We can use every move against them.”

Ava dropped to the floor and spun her arm around, thwacking her blade into his leg. Ben stumbled and she lunged back up, never losing the momentum of her spin as she swung a second time at the bluecoat’s throat. Another soldier dead on the battlefield, another threat to her homeland-

Ben rapidly brought his hand up and grabbed her tomahawk right before it hit his neck. “Woah!” he said. “Easy easy!”

Ava blinked. “I…” she said, collecting herself.

“Don’t get too aggressive with it if you can help it,” he said, though not rudely. “These props aren’t deadly but they can still do some damage if you’re not careful.”

“Oh… Sorry Ben… I didn’t…”

He shrugged. “Ah, don’t worry, Ava. I know you didn’t mean it. Just be a bit more careful around your friends, okay?”

“Okay. Sorry…”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be sorry. I mean, hey, at least we know you’re really getting the hang of this!”

Ava smiled. “Should we.. should we try something else?”

“Do you want to?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Alright. No problem. Wanna do some more practice with freerunning?”

“Sure!”

“Okay then. I’ll go see if Chelsea has any flags we can use and I’ll get you started on that exercise we did in Montreal.”

“Cool.”

With that, Ben left the room in search of his friend, leaving Ava behind, alone with her thoughts. She walked over to a crate and took a minute to catch her breath.

“You did well, Apsarini. There’s a lot you need to improve on, but we’ll work on it. Okay?”

“Yeah… sure… okay…”

“Don’t let it get you down, little sister. You’ll be a great fighter one day, I promise.”

Ava rubbed her head. It was starting to really bother her again. But after a minute, it finally dissipated. She finally sat there in silence, allowing her to think over what had just happened. She had entirely blanked out during that last fight. She just let instinct take over. But… it wasn’t her instinct. She could still feel her surroundings, and it definitely felt like the Battle of New Orleans. The blood, the grass, the smoke, everything. And Ben… she didn’t see him as Ben. He was just another soldier, another of Andrew Jackson’s men trying to claim the lives of her people. Her instinct was to actually slice his throat without remorse.

But it wasn't her, right? It was Aveza. It was just a vision, and a short one at that. It was just a badly timed one, surely. No real harm. Right?

Right. Of course. She was fine. Ben said it was normal to have little spurts like that. And besides, she snapped out of it. She was still in her right mind. Right. She couldn't let that distract her. She had a mission to complete, and that was certainly more important than her own little worries.

"Good news!” she suddenly heard. “I've got some flags.”

She looked up at Ben as he walked in holding about ten flags.

“Cool,” she said.

“I'll go ahead and get them arranged around the room. No peeking, got it?”

Ava laughed. “Got it.”

She stood from the crate and walked into the next room so that Ben could hide the flags. She smiled to herself. Yeah, she was fine.

Description
December 6, 2015; Indianapolis, Indiana

Ava was pulling the Animus off of her face before Ruby had a chance to do it herself. Her head was spinning, and she was about to fall over, but was quickly held up by Ben and Ruby.

“Easy, easy, Champ,” Ruby said.

“Oh God…” Ava sputtered as she rubbed her aching head.

“Just try not to move too much, okay Ava?” Ben said, more concerned than anyone else in the room.

“I'm fine, Ben,” Ava said. “I just… I just need a second…”

Meanwhile, Chelsea rushed up to Carter, who had also apparently been ripped out of his simulation.

“Did… did Abstergo get us?” Ava asked her friends.

“Nah, we made it out… albeit barely,” Ruby said.

“How did they even get in?”

“They hacked into our systems before we could fully firewall them,” said Ben.

On the other side of the room, Ava saw Chelsea trying to help Carter regain his bearings. She was explaining the same stuff to him.

“Crap. What do we do?” Ava asked.

“I don't know,” said Ruby.

“Can't you counter-hack them?” Ben asked.

“I tried! But they hit us hard with some real complicated virus. I can't get into the code from an outside program…”

They were all quiet for a moment, each thinking of what to do.

“What if we tried to take it down at the source?” Carter suddenly asked. “Like, can you at least track the program back to where it originated?”

Ruby seemed to consider. “It's gonna be a royal pain to do,” she said, “but I guess it wouldn't be impossible…” Suddenly she smiled, her own plan starting to form alongside his. “Yeah. Yeah! I can totally do that!”

She quickly grabbed her laptop and her phone. “I had some old friends back in New York I used to run with. Guys were part of a hacker group called DedSec. Best hackers I've ever seen, taught me everything I know about code. Let me go see if I can contact them and ask for help.”

The others all nodded and Ruby dashed out the door with an excited smile.

“What're we gonna do when we find the source of the program?” Ava asked.

“We’ll probably make our way over to wherever it is and shut it down from the inside out,” said Chelsea.

“Oh. Cool.”

“You okay, kid? You look a little pale.”

Ava suddenly had an expression like a deer in headlights.

“Hmm?” she said. “Oh... Yeah. I'm fine. Still not really used to the whole becoming someone else inside a machine thing.”

“It takes a while to get used to, admittedly,” Carter said, laughing a bit. Ava chuckled back at him, his positive attitude making her feel a bit better.

“Guess so,” she said.

Truth be told, she wasn't feeling very up to par lately. Ever since they had left Montreal, she'd been feeling very off. She figured it was just the Bleeding Effect screwing with her head, given all the visions and occasional voices. Not to mention all her migranes. Even with her usual dose of coffee, her head wouldn't stop pulsing at certain points of the day. But she shrugged it off. It couldn't be anything major, right? And even if it was, she was on a mission. An important mission She had to power through her problems for the greater good, right? Right. So, she shrugged it off. It probably wasn't as important as she was thinking it was.

“So, who were you in there?” Carter suddenly asked her.

“Her name was Apsarini,” Ava told him. “She was an Assassin in Indonesia in the 1880s.”

“Oh cool.”

“Yeah.” She gave a soft laugh. “She’s got a lot of spunk.”

They all laughed together.

And then about twenty minutes later, Ruby came back. “Alright,” she said. “I managed to get in touch with my buddies in DedSec. And luckily, they say they should be able to help us out.”

“Great!” said Ben.

“They say it may take them a while, the program’s a bit more complex than they’re used to, but they say it can definitely be done. Just a matter of waiting.”

“Awesome,” said Chelsea.

“They do need us to do something to help out, though.”

“Oh?” Carter asked.

“Abstergo’s been making some deals with with another company lately. You guys ever heard of the Blume Corporation?”

“Weren’t they the ones that got hammered down with corruption charges in Chicago after some hackers exposed them last year?”

“That’s them. They’re in the business of spying on people. They’ve been working to establish citywide surveillance systems across the country, invading privacy, watching everyone’s every move, and blackmailing everyone all in the name of ‘peace and order’.”

“Sounds like people the Templars would really love,” Chelsea joked.

Ruby chuckled. “They definitely do. And that’s why Abstergo’s been making a whole bunch of deals with them lately. Blume’s ctOS surveillance system has had Templar backing ever since they caught wind of it, and they’ve already brought it to Indianapolis. Grant it, the project slowed down after you guys took out Natasha Wolfgang, but they've sped back up and now it’s blocking our hacking efforts.”

“Sounds like we need to go shut down ctOS then,” said Ava.

“Well, it’s not that simple. ctOS is broadcasted across the city via a bunch of radio towers scattered across the districts. If we wanted to completely shut it down, we’d need to hit all of them. But we don’t really have the time or resources to do that all at once.”

“I’m sure I could do it,” Carter said confidently.

Ruby clearly admired his optimism. “Well, then maybe you can go around town when you get some free time and try and shut them all down,” she said. “But right now there’s one in particular that DedSec needs us to focus on.”

She placed her laptop on a desk and spun it around to show her friends the screen. There was a map of Indianapolis on the display, and she pointed to a point on it. “Right here,” she said. “If we can hack into this tower and stop its signal, that should be enough for DedSec to slip in and do their thing. Think you can handle it?”

“Sounds easy enough,” Carter said. “That's kind of a rough part of town though. I'll gather up some friends and form a plan.”

“Sounds good. Now, toss me your phone.”

“Hmm?”

“Just do it.”

He shrugged and handed her his phone.

“Thanks,” she said. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a little chip. She popped open the back of his phone and put it in. She closed it back up and fiddled with something on the touchscreen before tossing the phone back to him.

“What was that?” asked Chelsea.

“A little program from DedSec,” said Ruby. “Specially designed for hacking into ctOS. You'll be able to stop the tower broadcast with this, and you can also hack into anything else in the city that’s hooked up to it, which is actually most electronics nowadays.”

“Sweet. Should come in handy,” Carter said.

“Hopefully.”

“Alright then. I should probably start making some calls and get to work.”

The others nodded, and he made his way out the door.

“Don't die,” Chelsea joked at him.

He smiled. “I make no promises.”

And with that, he walked out the door and closed it behind him, leaving the rest of the gang to sit around in the hideout while he set out to prepare for his mission.

“So… now we just wait here?” Ava asked.

“Pretty much,” said Ruby, who pulled up her chair, kicked her legs up onto her desk, put her laptop in her lap, and started twiddling away at the keyboard. “I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to go ahead and catch up on my shows.”

“You've got great priorities, Rubes,” Ben joked. She responded by turning her hand towards him and displaying a not so friendly gesture. Ben laughed and turned back towards Ava.

“You know, if you like, we could go get some training in for you,” Ben said. “You know, test out some of those new skills Apsarini’s been letting you borrow.”

Ava considered it. Her head had stopped pounding afterall, and it wasn't like she had much else to do. She could probably use the exercise after sitting in a chair all day, too.

“You know what? Sure,” she said, smiling. “I could go for that.”

“Alright, cool,” Ben said, returning the smile. He turned to Chelsea. “Mind if we head on down to the training room and do some stunts?” he asked.

“Go right ahead, dude,” Chelsea responded.

Ben nodded and turned back to Ava. He took her hand and gentlemanly helped her to her feet.

“Let's go,” he said.

Ava nodded and followed him into the hideout halls to prepare for a workout.

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

Ava decided to get into an outfit better suited for exercising. She donned her old high school gym clothes, a baggy t-shirt and matching shorts, and tied her hair into a ponytail. They walked into the training room, made from the enormous storage room of the hideout warehouse much like the one in Montreal, with a bag of supplies. Ben set it down and started sifting through it while Ava did her warm-up stretches. He pulled a couple things out of the bag and walked up to her.

“Alrighty then. Which one do you want to start with?” he asked. He held up the objects. One was a tomahawk, not dissimilar to Aveza's, but made of some sort of soft plastic with a dulled edge. The other was a karambit, equally dulled.

Ava looked at them both, trying to decide. Her head started pulsing slightly again.

“Can't I use your tomahawk to train, Connor? Pretty please?” she suddenly heard from nowhere. Great, she thought, more voices. Now was not the time for this. She mentally sighed. She hoped they'd go away soon.

“I think I'll go with the karambit,” she said, taking the prop from her friend's hand.

“Excellent choice, fair maiden!” he joked.

“Oh hush,” she laughed.

Ben took a step back and grabbed his own weapon from the bag. He pulled out a long wooden pole, similar to the size and shape of most batons. He twirled it around like a sword. Ava responded by spinning the karambit on her finger.

“So… what do I do?” she asked him.

“I dunno,” he said.

“Well gee, that's helpful, Ben.”

Ben laughed. “No, I mean, you literally just have to feel it out. If the Bleeding Effect is working properly, you should have picked up on Apsarini’s skills. It should be second nature.”

“Well… okay.”

“I'll come at you with this stick and you just respond however your body tells you to. Alright?”

“Gotchya.”

Ben nodded and took a step back, getting into a fighting stance. Ava hooked her finger into the karambit ring and did the same. She suddenly felt more… focused, more balanced. Her head was still throbbing though. It was mostly ignorable, but still.

“Now remember, Apsarini, keep your legs firm and your arms bent. And keep your eyes on your target,” she heard from somewhere in her mind. It was Jaga, she could tell. Well, she figured, at least this voice was helpful in her current situation. Who better than her brother… er… uncle to guide her through training.

“Ready?” Ben said. “On go.”

“Gotch-”

But she was cut off as Ben suddenly lunged at her, stick raised. Ava quickly dodged and rolled away, bringing her weapon up to fight.

“Hey! No fair! You didn't say go!” she said in a semi-joking manner.

Ben just gave her a cocky smile. “I wanted to test your reflexes,” he said simply. “Think fast!”

He spun towards her again, directing a blow at her arm. Ava swiped her blade to the side, countering the attack.

“Your opponent won't always play fair, Apsarini. You must be prepared for anything.” she heard. She appreciated Jaga’s advice, especially when she exchanged a few more attacks with Ben. But she couldn't help but shake this odd feeling of irritation… Did he really have to be ordering her around like that? She knew he was just trying to help, but still.

“Every one of your opponent's moves can be used against them. Don't pass up an chance to do so.”

Ava ducked beneath another swing, and she spun her legs around to kick Ben's out from under him. She pounced as he fell, and she pinned him, putting the prop to his throat.

“Lucky shot,” Ben laughed through heavy breaths. “Round one goes to you, Ms. Arlie.”

“Don't call me Ms. Arlie,” Ava laughed as she got up off of him and helped him to his feet. “You wanna go again?”

“You offering?”

Ava just responded by smiling and replacing her karambit with the tomahawk. She got into a fighting stance. Ben smiled did the same and twirled his stick. He stood tall and straight, pointing his “sword” at her challengingly with his other hand behind his back much like the American soldiers Aveza would’ve faced.

“You’re doing great, Aveza!” Ava heard. “You’re slightly off balance, but you’re still doing very well for a beginner. Keep it up!” It was Connor. Ava suddenly felt very different hearing his voice. Instead of irritation, she felt very excited, like her will to do well was invigorated tenfold. She smiled brightly.

“Enguarde!” Ben yelled, and he stepped forward, swinging his stick with an elegant flair. Ava thrust her tomahawk upwards, catching the blade on his and sliding it to the side. She pressed home her advantage when he stumbled off balance and swung her blade at his arm. He ducked out of the way, though, and pulled the same trick on her. He whacked her arm, though not too hard as to hurt her, and she stumbled back.

“I don’t know if I can do it, Connor…”

“Nonsense, Aveza. You’re doing great! I know it’s difficult, but you’re doing good.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Who knows, if you work hard enough, you might even become as skillful as me.”

“Okay! Let’s go again!”

“Haha. As you wish, little one.”

Ava’s grip tightened on her tomahawk, and just as Ben was about to put a supportive hand on her shoulder and call it a round, she spun around and swung it high. She caught him off guard and hit him in the chest, sending him stumbling back.

“I won’t go down that easy, lad,” she said with a smile.

“Lad?” Ben laughed.

“Er… yeah I… you hush!”

The two laughed and she ran forward. Ben took a swing with his stick, but Ava ducked below it.

“Our enemies are predictable. They organize every single aspect of their battles. We Assassins can adapt, and it makes us stronger for it. We can use every move against them.”

Ava dropped to the floor and spun her arm around, thwacking her blade into his leg. Ben stumbled and she lunged back up, never losing the momentum of her spin as she swung a second time at the bluecoat’s throat. Another soldier dead on the battlefield, another threat to her homeland-

Ben rapidly brought his hand up and grabbed her tomahawk right before it hit his neck. “Woah!” he said. “Easy easy!”

Ava blinked. “I…” she said, collecting herself.

“Don’t get too aggressive with it if you can help it,” he said, though not rudely. “These props aren’t deadly but they can still do some damage if you’re not careful.”

“Oh… Sorry Ben… I didn’t…”

He shrugged. “Ah, don’t worry, Ava. I know you didn’t mean it. Just be a bit more careful around your friends, okay?”

“Okay. Sorry…”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be sorry. I mean, hey, at least we know you’re really getting the hang of this!”

Ava smiled. “Should we.. should we try something else?”

“Do you want to?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Alright. No problem. Wanna do some more practice with freerunning?”

“Sure!”

“Okay then. I’ll go see if Chelsea has any flags we can use and I’ll get you started on that exercise we did in Montreal.”

“Cool.”

With that, Ben left the room in search of his friend, leaving Ava behind, alone with her thoughts. She walked over to a crate and took a minute to catch her breath.

“You did well, Apsarini. There’s a lot you need to improve on, but we’ll work on it. Okay?”

“Yeah… sure… okay…”

“Don’t let it get you down, little sister. You’ll be a great fighter one day, I promise.”

Ava rubbed her head. It was starting to really bother her again. But after a minute, it finally dissipated. She finally sat there in silence, allowing her to think over what had just happened. She had entirely blanked out during that last fight. She just let instinct take over. But… it wasn’t her instinct. She could still feel her surroundings, and it definitely felt like the Battle of New Orleans. The blood, the grass, the smoke, everything. And Ben… she didn’t see him as Ben. He was just another soldier, another of Andrew Jackson’s men trying to claim the lives of her people. Her instinct was to actually slice his throat without remorse.

But it wasn't her, right? It was Aveza. It was just a vision, and a short one at that. It was just a badly timed one, surely. No real harm. Right?

Right. Of course. She was fine. Ben said it was normal to have little spurts like that. And besides, she snapped out of it. She was still in her right mind. Right. She couldn't let that distract her. She had a mission to complete, and that was certainly more important than her own little worries.

"Good news!” she suddenly heard. “I've got some flags.”

She looked up at Ben as he walked in holding about ten flags.

“Cool,” she said.

“I'll go ahead and get them arranged around the room. No peeking, got it?”

Ava laughed. “Got it.”

She stood from the crate and walked into the next room so that Ben could hide the flags. She smiled to herself. Yeah, she was fine.