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Avapithecus — Cinder Fall: Chapter 9
#animus #arlie #assassin #ava #bleeding #carter #creed #effect #fanfic #george #indianapolis #infiltration #lupe #mission #modern #assassinscreed #abstergo #spainhower
Published: 2017-06-02 17:21:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 1055; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 0
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December 19, 2015; Indianapolis, IndianaShe was not fine. She was not fine at all.
Ruby's old friends from DedSec had been good on their word, and finally managed to track the program to its source after Carter took down ctOS in that area. The Templars were apparently hacking them from their main skyscraper downtown. And so he decided to make his way down there as soon as he was able. He took Ava along with him. Ben and Ruby said that it would be good if she got some more field experience, despite her nervous protests.
Ava was terrified, somehow more so than the last time she was here. Sure, she got out without a scratch last time, but what if she just got lucky? There was no way she'd make it out okay a second time, right? They were screwed. They were so screwed!
“I don't like this…” Ava nervously said to Carter as they approached the building in the dead of night.
“We'll be fine,” he reassured her.
“We're gonna get caught…”
“No we aren't.”
“I should've stayed in bed…”
“Ah, but then whose company would I be able to enjoy out here?” he joked. He gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Don't worry, Ava. I'm right here. You'll do fine.”
She looked at him. He had a bright smile. He seemed very sure of what they were doing. She let that comfort her as much as it could.
“Well… okay…” she said.
“That's the spirit! Come on, let's go find their servers so we can head back to the nineteenth century!”
Ava nodded a bit reluctantly and followed his lead as he pulled up his hood and scarf and made his way to the building's fire escape stairs in the adjacent alleyway. The two climbed up the ladder and onto the metal structure. They made our way up about a dozen floors before Ruby chimed in on their earpieces and told them to go ahead and step inside.
The place was quiet. That couldn't be a good sign… They looked all around the hallways, eyes and ears open for guards.
“Ruby, we're in,” Carter said into his earpiece. “Where’re the servers at?”
“There's two,” Ruby said, her voice crackling into clarity. “One's two floors down, in one of the offices. The other is two floors up, in a special room. The one above you looks like it's locked, but I should be able to hack it by the time you get there.”
“Got it. We'll let you know when we're there.”
“Good luck guys!”
Carter smiled and thanked her and then turned to Ava. “Right,” he said, “I'll take the server upstairs. You take the one downstairs.”
Ava’s eyes widened. They were splitting up?! No no no no no, that was not okay.
“What? Why?” she asked.
“We'll cover more ground and the one upstairs will probably have more security. You're still new, so you should take the easier one.”
Ava started rubbing her shoulder out of a nervous tick.
“But…” she stuttered. “What if I run into trouble?”
“Well, you've got your blade and gun,” Carter said simply.
“But…”
“Just remember your training.”
“I never had training.”
“No.” He smiled. “But Aveza did.”
Ava didn't say anything for a moment. She nervously whined in defeat.
“...Fair enough,” she said.
“You'll do fine, Ava,” Carter reassured her. “I believe in you.”
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely!”
She smiled at that. She liked knowing that at least somebody had her back, even if she herself had no confidence. It was a semi-calming thought, and she latched on tight to it.
And with that, she and Carter split up and began to make their way to their respective servers.
Ava scurried down two flights of stairs, eyes darting frantically in every direction for guards. She was doing everything she could to keep her heavy breathing from being audible. Eventually, with the help of her Eagle Vision, she found the door.
“Alright, Champ,” said Ruby. “The server's right inside that office. Just pick the lock and I'll guide you from there.”
“Gotchya.”
Ava ruffled through her bag until she found a set of lockpicks. She stared at them for a moment, then at the keyhole. What was she supposed to do? Could she… could she just let Aveza take the wheel again?
“Don't tell Connor I said this, Arnold, but I do prefer these picks to his. They're much easier on my wrists.”
“Haha. No problem, my dear. My lips are sealed.”
Ava’s hands glided forward and stuck the picks into the hole. She clanked them around, not knowing what she was doing, until she heard a satisfying click about a minute later. She let herself feel a brief moment of accomplishment before opening the door and stepping into the office beyond.
“Go ahead and get to that desktop over there,” Ruby said. “I'll work on hacking into it, don't worry.”
“Thanks, Rubes. I doubt my ancestors would've been able to help me with that anyway.”
Ruby laughed at that. Ava smiled. She had such a beautiful laugh. She really wished she could work up the courage to tell her that.
But for now, she had the problem of Abstergo to deal with. She hurried over to the computer and turned it on. Before long, Ruby's intrusive program was being displayed on a screen. A blue bar was showing how far the counter-hacking process was coming along. Ava sat back in the chair and sighed. Now it was just a matter of getting ou-
“Hello, Ms. Arlie.”
Ava jumped straight out of her chair with a yelp. She stumbled back to the other side of the room and spun around to face the owner of the voice. She froze. Her eyes widened.
“Mr. Lupe?” she stuttered in disbelief. It was him. It was definitely him. Her old boss from when she was a clerk in Raleigh, George Lupe, the man who she met with the day before the Templars kidnapped her and who asked her about…
Who asked her about her necklace…
The day before…
When she delivered the Project Roanoke files to him…
Oh...
“It's been a while, Ms. Arlie,” said Lupe. “You never even left a resignation notice.”
Ava suddenly felt her blood boil and her fists clench.
“You… you bastard!” she suddenly shouted. “You sold me out to the Templars! You kidnapped me for your sick experiments!”
Lupe seemed to give her a saddened look, the same one a parent would give a child before a lecture.
“Yes, we did do that, Ms. Arlie, and I apologize. But we didn't have much choice. We had a deadline that needed to be met.”
“I… Deadline?! That's all my life meant to you?! Meeting a deadline?!”
Her head started throbbing again. The voices started chiming in again.
“Templars are ones without hearts,” she heard. It wasn't a voice she recognized herself, but some subconscious instinct told her it was Kahente's mother. “They care not what happens to anyone else. They are only out for themselves in their quest for power. Do not fall for their lies, Meeaquous.”
“Ms. Arlie,” Lupe said. “You must understand, that Piece of Eden could've been of great value to us. Admittedly, it wasn't the one we were after, but still.”
“Well quite frankly, I don't give a single damn about your plan to take over the world.”
Ruby suddenly crackled in on her earpiece. “Ava…” she warned. “Be careful, Champ.”
Lupe sighed. “I realize you've many reasons to disapprove of our Order,” he said. “But you must realize the necessity of our actions.”
“They'll try to tell you they are just and godly, but these are deceptions born of arrogance, Meeaquous. A lie so tempting they've even convinced themselves of it.”
“I'd hardly call genocide and citywide corruption necessary,” Ava spat back.
“The world is a chaotic mess, Ms. Arlie. Our methods are cruel on occasion, true, but they are necessary to maintain order.”
“There is never any justification to excuse the spilling of innocent blood. That is a founding ideal of our Brotherhood. That is the cause your father fought and died for, Meeaquous.”
Ava turned bright red in fury. She didn't realize it, but she was instinctively flexing her fingers in anticipation.
“What the hell do you want?” she asked him.
“Well, I came here in hopes of persuading you to end this little scheme of yours,” he responded.
“Too late for that,” Ruby told Ava. “I just finished up the counter-hack on this server. Hurry up and get out of there, Champ!”
“I won’t let the Templars win,” Ava said firmly. “There's nothing you could say to convince me otherwise.”
“You're on the wrong side of history, Ms. Arlie. Once Morgenster finds what he needs, all hell will break lose, and he will destroy anyone that stands against him in our New World Order. You don't have to endure that suffering when he succeeds.”
“Succeeds at what?”
Lupe smiled. A creepy grin. “What he started a long time ago.”
“He's losing his mind,” Ruby said into Ava's earpiece. “Just get out of there!”
“I don't care what that snake has to offer!” Ava told Lupe. “I'll never join your side!”
Lupe gave a sad nod. “I see… Well, unfortunately you've left me with only one more option. It was a pleasure working with you, Ms. Arlie.”
Ava caught a glimpse of him moving his hand to the side of his belt and grabbing something from under his jacket.
“Aveza! Look out!”
Ava’s eyes widened. She instinctively grabbed her pistol and fired at Lupe, who yelped in pain as the bullet smacked into his hand and sent his gun skittering away.
The shot rang in the air for a few seconds before being replaced by the sound of security alarms.
Blood dripped out of Lupe’s wound, and Ava froze when she looked at it. Her hand went to her mouth. She just shot someone. She never thought she ever would. She never thought she'd have someone else's blood on her hands, even if it was Templar blood.
Lupe looked at her as he clenched his hand, then at the laptop on the desk, then back at her. She snapped out of it just enough to realize what he was thinking, and what she had to do. The two of them ran at the desk. Other footsteps from outside joined their own. Guards were on the way.
Ava jumped and grabbed the computer, but she dropped it as she stumbled to the floor. Lupe quickly grabbed it himself. Shouting could be heard outside as the guards started banging on the door.
“I'm afraid I must take my leave, Ms. Arlie,” Lupe said before turning to run.
Ava gasped and frantically reached for her bag. She pulled out a rope dart and from her place on the floor she tossed it at him. It whirred in the air until it smacked into his leg. He yelled in pain and fell just before reaching the door. Ava immediately started pulling the man towards her, ignoring his struggle to get free. She grit her teeth as she pulled him across the ground, staining his military coat green and brown against the foliage. She reached for her karambit and twirled it into her hand. When the Templar was close enough, she pounced on top of him and began slashing methodically. It was only a couple seconds, but that's all Apsarini needed. He lost his grip on his parcel and began to bleed out.
He looked up at her painfully. She was breathing heavily. She glared down at the soldier with a burning fury.
“I must say,” he said. “I'm impressed, Ms. Arlie.”
Ava suddenly blinked. She looked around her. Her arm was soaked in blood, as was her karambit. She looked down and saw Lupe, his suit and torso sliced up and bleeding out. Her eyes widened as she realized what she had just done. Her body started shaking.
“The Assassins have clearly trained you well,” he said, his voice ragged and his gaze distant. “It's a shame our relations had to end on such… bloody terms…”
“I… I… I…” was all Ava could stutter.
“We should've come to you properly. Perhaps if we had taken the time to explain… you could've been on… the right side of things…”
His head fell back and his body went limp. He was gone. By her hand. She stumbled backwards, frightfully scrambling away from the body. She was starting to hyperventilate. She looked down at her now-red arms.
“Oh god…” she stuttered. “Oh god oh god oh god!”
“Ava! Champ? You okay?” Ruby said.
“He's dead… I killed him… Oh god!”
“I know it's not easy Ava but-”
“Oh my god Rubes!”
“Champ please listen! You gotta get out of there before-”
Then suddenly the door came crashing down, and the security guards came charging in with guns and batons ready for use. Ava screamed in surprise and jolted to her feet. She held up her karambit defensively, though her arms were still shaking in absolute terror.
“Stand down, Assassin!” one of the guards said. “Get on the ground!”
“St… stay back!” she pleaded.
“Get her!” one of them yelled. Another guard came running at her with her baton and Ava panicked. She swiped her karambit to the side in an attempt to block, but failed miserably and ended up getting quite banged up by the Templar before instinctively rolling away and returning an attack. She sliced up the guard relatively well and sent her reeling back. Ava backed up towards a wall, holding her karambit up again. The Templars scowled and moved in closer. This was it, she thought. This was where she died. She was screwed. She'd never see her mom or grandmother again. She'd never see the gorgeous snowcaps of Minnesota or the hills of Raleigh again. She was going to die here, in a puddle of blood on the floor with her throat ripped open. She was so unbelievably screw-
“Hey!” someone suddenly shouted from behind the guards.
The guards immediately turned to see the newcomer and two of them fell dead with bullets in their skulls. Ava looked over and caught a glimpse of her savior. It was Carter. The Templars quickly opened fire on him and he ducked for cover. Ava decided that was a good idea and followed his lead by jumping behind an overturned desk.
“You okay?” Carter called to her over the roar of gunshots.
“No I'm not okay!” she said. “Does it look like I'm okay?!”
“...No not really.”
“Exactly! Aah!”
She ducked down as a guard spun to shoot a few rounds at her. Carter took his chance and shot that guard dead while he had his back turned. He moved to a different cover, dodging bullets as he did. Ava just sat behind the desk, quivering with her hands over her head.
Carter looked over at her and nodded towards a guard that was standing by her cover, but was too distracted to notice her. She could tell what he wanted her to do. She looked down at her karambit, which was still soaked in Lupe’s blood. She looked up at the guard. She knew she had to. She knew she had to get the hell out of there and get somewhere safe. And there was no way she'd be able to do that with these guys trying to turn her into Swiss cheese. But…
But…
No… she had to...
She lunged forward. She grabbed onto the guard and slid her karambit across his neck in an eerily natural and fluid motion, just like Apsarini would do it. She shoved the body away with a terrified yelp and ducked back to her cover. She started shaking again.
Carter shot another guard dead and sprinted over to her. Ava barely had time to react before he gripped her arm tight and yanked her towards the exit, firing back as they made their escape.
The two ran as fast as they could down the hallways. More and more guards started chasing after them, each shouting orders to one another. Ava decided that, as much as she hated it, she had to fight back. She pulled out her gun and glanced over her shoulder. They kept coming, those blasted soldiers. They were hot on her tail. She held up her flintlock and aimed at the nearest one to her. Aveza pulled the trigger and put a hole in his skull before dropping her empty gun and sprinting onwards down the battlefield with Arnold at her side.
“Aveza, what the hell?” he said as they ran. He suddenly doubled back towards the heat of battle and and swiped up her pistol from the floor. Aveza gave him a look that clearly expressed how bloody confused she was at what he was doing.
“What?” she asked when he caught up with her.
“You dropped your gun!”
“Yes.”
“You only fired one shot!”
“Yeah. And now it's-” she paused.
Ava blinked again. She looked down at her gun in Carter's hand. She still had at least five bullets in there, right? Why did she…
She shook her head. Now was not the time to worry about it. She grabbed her gun from her friend.
“Yeah… Yeah… Sorry…” she said.
“It's okay, don't be sorry! Just shoot!”
She did. They both did until they found the exit and sprinted out the door. They raced into the alleyway, taking every twist and turn they could find until eventually they couldn't hear the sounds of gunfire and footsteps behind them anymore. When they were certain we were safe, they stopped and sat on a city bench to catch their breath. Ava let her head fall back onto the back of the bench in exhaustion. She was still shaking pretty badly, but at least it was finally dying down.
Beside her, Carter was having the opposite reaction. He smiled and laughed.
“You did good for a rookie, Ava,” he congratulated her. “You did good.”
Ava looked at him. She smiled, despite how absolutely atrocious she felt. “Thanks...” she said. He nodded.
After a while, they both just laughed lightly with each other over their victory. At that point, it was all Ava could do to keep her mind off of what just happened. She wanted to think of anything else besides what she just experienced.
“Did you manage to get your server hacked?” Carter asked.
“Ruby said I did, so I guess I did,” she said.
Carter nodded. Then suddenly Ruby’s voice came through on Carter's earpiece.
“She got it alright,” she said happily. Ava's hand went to her ear. She realized she had lost her earpiece during the fight. Carter must of noticed too, as he put his mic on speaker for her
“So we're good to go?” he asked Ruby.
“Yep!” Ruby said. “The Animi should be ready to go by the time you guys get back!”
“Well, we probably shouldn't jump in right away. Ava took a pretty bad beating and she's kinda shaken up. Might want to give her a chance to rest first.”
“Yeah...” Ava agreed. “A break would be nice.”
“Alright Champ,” Ruby said. “No problem. Take your time. Why don't you two head on back to the hideout?”
“We'll do that, thanks Ruby.”
“No problem. See you guys!”
“Bye.”
He clicked off and he turned to Ava. “Right,” he said with a smile. “Let's go home.”
------------
January 9, 2016; Indianapolis, Indiana
Ava thankfully was able to get a long break from doing Assassin stuff. The holidays had passed, and they all celebrated cheerfully in all the classic ways. She had a few weeks to relax for the first time in forever, and she savored every moment of it. Especially after the trauma of her last misadventure…
But the time did eventually come for her to get back into action again. Ruby had gotten the Animi all hooked up and reprogrammed and properly firewalled, and it wasn't long before it was time to hop back in.
“You sure you're ready, Champ?” Ruby asked her when she sat down in her chair.
“Yeah,” Ava said. “I… I think I'm ready.”
“Alright then. In that case, Apsarini awaits!”
Ava smiled as Ruby put the Animus headset over her eyes. The inside of the visor lit up and Ava found herself in the raw digital void of the Animus menu once again. Ruby clacked a few keys on her keyboard and the next segment of digital DNA started blinking in front of her. A second later, it flashed a blinding white light into her eyes, overtaking her vision.
Soon she began to hear the chirping of birds alongside the fading noises of the hideout. The smell of the city wafted into her nose. The hot Buitenzorg sun beamed down on her as she and Jaga wandered the city looking for their friend. Apsarini was still peeved over what had happened over the past few months, but she still stuck to her mission nonetheless. Especially after how much trouble she got in last time...
