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Description
“Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more”

- Kansas

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

June 11, 2016; Indianapolis, Indiana

“What do you mean you're not going home?!” Kiki gasped as her daughter slowly stood from her bed with the help of her friends.

Ava looked over at her. Her mother looked baffled. The little kid inside her almost made her reel back a bit, but she knew she couldn't let something like that deter her.

“Mom, my job here isn't done,” she told her. “None our jobs here are done.”

Kiki gave a nervous smile and laughed, trying to convince herself that this was a joke. “Honey look, you've been through a lot of trauma. Let's just get you home so that grandma can cook you up some nice-”

“Hey Ruby, can you get me some water please?” Ava asked, ignoring her mother.

“Sure Champ,” said Ruby. “I'll get you a thing of coffee too.”

“Thanks.”

“Ava!” her mother said.

“Mom, I'm not going back to Minnesota.”

“Wait…” Ben said, trying to hide the excitement in his voice. “I thought you said that's what you wanted? I thought you said you were done with the Assassins?”

“I did, and I'm sorry for that. I wasn't myself. I was hurt and I felt really alone and I just really acted out of line.” She lowered her head a bit. “I'm real sorry I lashed out at you guys…”

“Eh, it's fine, Champ,” Ruby said as she came back in with the drinks. “You know we're always willing to forgive you! We're a family here.”

That made Ava smile. “Thanks Rubes.”

“Ava Gabrielle Arlie!” Kiki suddenly snapped. “Listen to your mother when she is talking to you!” Her eyes suddenly widened when she realized she had snapped. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Sorry sorry. Just… honey please. You gotta be reasonable here.”

“I am being reasonable, Mom,” Ava insisted. “Morgenster-”

“Is not your problem. He's theirs. Now come on. I've got the car all ready to go when you are.”

Ava started getting mad.

“I'm not going home, Mom!” she said. “I'm staying with my friends until we stop Morgenster and finish what Dad started!”

The room suddenly went silent. Kiki’s face went ghostly pale.

“Your dad?” Carter asked her.

Ava took a deep breath to calm herself. Everyone watched her as she locked eyes with her mother.

“I know who and what Dad was,” she told her.

“I… I… How?” Kiki stammered.

“Not much else to do when you're in a coma other than explore old memories. I know that Dad was an Assassin and I know what Morgenster did to him.” She turned to address all of her friends. “And I know who Morgenster is too. I know exactly what he's planning and I know what we need to do to stop him.”

“Ava-” Kiki started.

“Mom stop. Please… Just let me talk. Don't be like Grandma was to you.”

Kiki’s jaw dropped. Ava could've sworn she had seen tears well up in her eyes. She took a few steps back towards the door.

“I'll be waiting downstairs for you all once you're done talking…” Kiki said, and then she disappeared into the hallway, leaving the room in awkward silence. Ava lowered her head.

“Well…” Chelsea said. “That was uh… dramatic.”

“We're gonna have a lot to talk about once all this is over…” Ava said, semi-jokingly.

“So what is this anyway?” Carter asked her. “You said you've figured out everything that's going on?”

Ava nodded.

“From inside the Animus?” Ruby asked, confused.

“I wasn't completely gone, Rubes,” Ava explained. “A part of me was still able to walk around inside the code while my body was out of commission. I managed to claw through a bunch of different genetic memories and piece together all the missing parts to this conspiracy. Gabriel was in there. He told me everything.”

“Gabriel?” gasped Ben.

Ava nodded again. “He showed me exactly what Morgenster is planning. He told me who that slimey snake really is.”

“You mean he's not actually a creepy psychopath bent on world domination?” Carter joked.

“Unfortunately he's much worse than that.”

“Oh great.”

“All this time, since the very beginning, when he killed my dad and kidnapped me and mocked me in the parking lot, he was actually a bigger bad than we could've imagined. This whole time, he's actually been Lucifer!”

They all gave her surprised, somewhat disbelieving looks.

“Sorry come again?” Chelsea said.

“I'm serious!” Ava insisted. “You guys remember when Apsarini encountered Lucifer inside the Krakatoa Temple? Well turns out his digital consciousness has been lurking in all his ancient hideouts for millennia. When Boumeester messed with the tech inside the temple, that allowed Lucifer to break free and use him as a host. And he's been flip flopping through bodies ever since trying to carry out his plans.”

“And Morgenster is his newest face…” Carter said, taking it in.

“Exactly,” Ava said.

“Welp. That's great,” Ruby said sarcastically. “We are literally up against the Devil himself… That… that's certainly a big hill to climb…” She rubbed her head as it sank in.

“But what does he want?” Ben asked. “I mean obviously it can't be anything good.”

“It's not…” Ava said. “He's trying to dig up all his old tech so that he can craft a doomsday device and use it to destroy the entire universe! If he wins, then the entire fabric of reality will literally be ripped to shreds!”

“Fun...” Chelsea groaned.

“That must be why he hacked out servers and stole some of Apsarini’s memories,” Ruby concluded. “He must've been looking for the Pick of Eden so that he can access that weird hell dimension of his!”

“Bastard probably already has it by now…” Ava said. “We're in a race against the clock by this point, guys. We need to get to the Temple of the Angels and get straight to work before Lucifer has a chance to gather up his other tech.” She turned to Carter and Chelsea. “Did you guys manage to find the Key from Priscilla's memories?”

Carter smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the glowing artifact in question, passing the delicate little hunk of metal into Ava's hands. She looked down at it and smiled before stowing it away in her own pocket.

“Awesome,” she said.

“I guess we'd better start packing then,” Ben said. He looked to Ruby. “Think you can draw us up a map based on Aveza’s memories? Prophetstown doesn't exist anymore. Nowadays the land is part of the city Battle Ground.”

Ruby smiled and nodded. “No problem, chief,” she said. “I'll have us a map in no time.”

“Sweet.”

“We'll grab the supplies and a van to load them into,” Carter said as he and Chelsea started heading out the door. “I'll call up Jess too and let her know we're heading to the temple.”

“Jess?” Ava asked, confused. The Templar that Carter had been fighting in between exploring Priscilla's memories?

“Oh yeah. Jess. I managed to convince her that she could switch sides.”

“Wait seriously?”

“Yeah! I'm really proud of her, to be honest. Her only real reason for staying a Templar was because of all the mental scars that her mom had put on her. Now that she realizes that her mother isn't here to abuse her anymore, that she has a choice in where life takes her, she decided to come along with the good guys. To start again.”

Ava could see the giant smile growing on his face as he talked about it. He was clearly very proud of his new friend. It made her smile a bit too. Always good to discover you've got more allies than before.

They all gathered up downstairs, scrambling around the hideout for a trip to the Temple of the Angels. They gathered food and drinks and tech and a few knick knacks just because why not. Something told them they were gonna be in their new base for a while.

While the rest of the gang packed, Ava trailed off from the group. She went looking for her mother. They needed to talk. It had been too long and too much had happened to just ignore it.

She found Kiki sitting in the kitchen, clearly having just wiped her eyes of tears when her daughter came in.

“Hey mom,” Ava said, sitting down next to her.

“Hi honey…” Kiki said, barely looking up.

“Mom look… I…”

“I just wanted you to be safe… All I ever wanted was to keep you out of this… mess.”

“Is that what Dad would've wanted?”

Kiki paused. Her eyes got misty again. “Your father was a good man, but he always knew that being an Assassin is dangerous work. He was so scared of something happening to us that he never even considered what would happen if something bad happened to him. And then when Morgenster…”

She started shaking a bit. Ava held her hand.

“We're gonna kill him, Mom,” Ava assured her. “We're gonna kill Morgenster and end his evil plot for good. We're gonna avenge Dad and everyone else that Morgenster has ever hurt. I promise.”

“I don't want vengeance, Ava. I want my daughter at home and away from all this.”

Ava shook her head. “I'm really sorry, Mom…but you know I can't.”

Kiki lowered her head again. Ava felt terrible. Her mother looked so tired… so empty.

Ava stood up from the table. “We're gonna be leaving for the First Civ Temple soon,” she said. “You're welcome to come with us if you want. It's been a while since we've gotten to spend some time together.”

“I guess I don't have anything else to do… Your grandma expects me to bring you home one way or another.”

Ava did everything she could not to roll her eyes and sigh.

“Once all our stuff is packed, we'll be hitting the road,” she said.

“I'll follow you in the car.”

Ava nodded. She turned to leave the room.

“Ava…” her mother said just as she reached the door. Ava turned around, expecting another lecture. But instead she just saw her mother looking at her, trying to smile but not quite able to muster the energy to do so.

“I love you, sweetie. I'm glad to see you again. I missed you…”

Ava looked with a bit of surprise for a moment. Then she nodded, and said sincerely, “I love you too, Mom.”

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

The engines revved up as Ruby turned the keys in the ignition.

“Alright!” she said excitedly. “The whole gang back in action! Ooh ooh! We should totally have a name!”

“A name?” Chelsea chuckled.

“Yeah! You know, like a group name! Something cool like… uh… Thunderbird!”

“That's lame,” Carter laughed.

“Eat my ass!” Ruby joked back.

“That is kinda lame, honey,” Ava smirked.

Ruby gave an exaggerated look of mock hurt. “Et tu, Ava?” she asked, making her girlfriend giggle. “Aah,” Ruby said, smiling. “None of you have good taste.”

“How bout you drive the van?” Ben laughed.

“How bout you shove a spoon up your ass?” Ruby joked back as she put her foot on the gas pedal and the van surged forward onto the bustling, lively streets of Indianapolis.

“Jess said she'll meet us on the edge of town,” Carter said. “We'll pick her up near the Art Museum.”

“Gotchya.”

Ava leaned on her window frame and gazed out at the city. It was so good to finally be back in action, side by side with her friends. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she belonged.

Ben seemed to agree with that thought, as he leaned over towards her, smiling as he told her, “It really is great to have you back, Ava. I mean it.”

“Thanks Ben,” Ava said, smiling back. “I'm glad to be back. I'm done with cowering away. We've got a rogue angel to put down.”

Description
“Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more”

- Kansas

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

June 11, 2016; Indianapolis, Indiana

“What do you mean you're not going home?!” Kiki gasped as her daughter slowly stood from her bed with the help of her friends.

Ava looked over at her. Her mother looked baffled. The little kid inside her almost made her reel back a bit, but she knew she couldn't let something like that deter her.

“Mom, my job here isn't done,” she told her. “None our jobs here are done.”

Kiki gave a nervous smile and laughed, trying to convince herself that this was a joke. “Honey look, you've been through a lot of trauma. Let's just get you home so that grandma can cook you up some nice-”

“Hey Ruby, can you get me some water please?” Ava asked, ignoring her mother.

“Sure Champ,” said Ruby. “I'll get you a thing of coffee too.”

“Thanks.”

“Ava!” her mother said.

“Mom, I'm not going back to Minnesota.”

“Wait…” Ben said, trying to hide the excitement in his voice. “I thought you said that's what you wanted? I thought you said you were done with the Assassins?”

“I did, and I'm sorry for that. I wasn't myself. I was hurt and I felt really alone and I just really acted out of line.” She lowered her head a bit. “I'm real sorry I lashed out at you guys…”

“Eh, it's fine, Champ,” Ruby said as she came back in with the drinks. “You know we're always willing to forgive you! We're a family here.”

That made Ava smile. “Thanks Rubes.”

“Ava Gabrielle Arlie!” Kiki suddenly snapped. “Listen to your mother when she is talking to you!” Her eyes suddenly widened when she realized she had snapped. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Sorry sorry. Just… honey please. You gotta be reasonable here.”

“I am being reasonable, Mom,” Ava insisted. “Morgenster-”

“Is not your problem. He's theirs. Now come on. I've got the car all ready to go when you are.”

Ava started getting mad.

“I'm not going home, Mom!” she said. “I'm staying with my friends until we stop Morgenster and finish what Dad started!”

The room suddenly went silent. Kiki’s face went ghostly pale.

“Your dad?” Carter asked her.

Ava took a deep breath to calm herself. Everyone watched her as she locked eyes with her mother.

“I know who and what Dad was,” she told her.

“I… I… How?” Kiki stammered.

“Not much else to do when you're in a coma other than explore old memories. I know that Dad was an Assassin and I know what Morgenster did to him.” She turned to address all of her friends. “And I know who Morgenster is too. I know exactly what he's planning and I know what we need to do to stop him.”

“Ava-” Kiki started.

“Mom stop. Please… Just let me talk. Don't be like Grandma was to you.”

Kiki’s jaw dropped. Ava could've sworn she had seen tears well up in her eyes. She took a few steps back towards the door.

“I'll be waiting downstairs for you all once you're done talking…” Kiki said, and then she disappeared into the hallway, leaving the room in awkward silence. Ava lowered her head.

“Well…” Chelsea said. “That was uh… dramatic.”

“We're gonna have a lot to talk about once all this is over…” Ava said, semi-jokingly.

“So what is this anyway?” Carter asked her. “You said you've figured out everything that's going on?”

Ava nodded.

“From inside the Animus?” Ruby asked, confused.

“I wasn't completely gone, Rubes,” Ava explained. “A part of me was still able to walk around inside the code while my body was out of commission. I managed to claw through a bunch of different genetic memories and piece together all the missing parts to this conspiracy. Gabriel was in there. He told me everything.”

“Gabriel?” gasped Ben.

Ava nodded again. “He showed me exactly what Morgenster is planning. He told me who that slimey snake really is.”

“You mean he's not actually a creepy psychopath bent on world domination?” Carter joked.

“Unfortunately he's much worse than that.”

“Oh great.”

“All this time, since the very beginning, when he killed my dad and kidnapped me and mocked me in the parking lot, he was actually a bigger bad than we could've imagined. This whole time, he's actually been Lucifer!”

They all gave her surprised, somewhat disbelieving looks.

“Sorry come again?” Chelsea said.

“I'm serious!” Ava insisted. “You guys remember when Apsarini encountered Lucifer inside the Krakatoa Temple? Well turns out his digital consciousness has been lurking in all his ancient hideouts for millennia. When Boumeester messed with the tech inside the temple, that allowed Lucifer to break free and use him as a host. And he's been flip flopping through bodies ever since trying to carry out his plans.”

“And Morgenster is his newest face…” Carter said, taking it in.

“Exactly,” Ava said.

“Welp. That's great,” Ruby said sarcastically. “We are literally up against the Devil himself… That… that's certainly a big hill to climb…” She rubbed her head as it sank in.

“But what does he want?” Ben asked. “I mean obviously it can't be anything good.”

“It's not…” Ava said. “He's trying to dig up all his old tech so that he can craft a doomsday device and use it to destroy the entire universe! If he wins, then the entire fabric of reality will literally be ripped to shreds!”

“Fun...” Chelsea groaned.

“That must be why he hacked out servers and stole some of Apsarini’s memories,” Ruby concluded. “He must've been looking for the Pick of Eden so that he can access that weird hell dimension of his!”

“Bastard probably already has it by now…” Ava said. “We're in a race against the clock by this point, guys. We need to get to the Temple of the Angels and get straight to work before Lucifer has a chance to gather up his other tech.” She turned to Carter and Chelsea. “Did you guys manage to find the Key from Priscilla's memories?”

Carter smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the glowing artifact in question, passing the delicate little hunk of metal into Ava's hands. She looked down at it and smiled before stowing it away in her own pocket.

“Awesome,” she said.

“I guess we'd better start packing then,” Ben said. He looked to Ruby. “Think you can draw us up a map based on Aveza’s memories? Prophetstown doesn't exist anymore. Nowadays the land is part of the city Battle Ground.”

Ruby smiled and nodded. “No problem, chief,” she said. “I'll have us a map in no time.”

“Sweet.”

“We'll grab the supplies and a van to load them into,” Carter said as he and Chelsea started heading out the door. “I'll call up Jess too and let her know we're heading to the temple.”

“Jess?” Ava asked, confused. The Templar that Carter had been fighting in between exploring Priscilla's memories?

“Oh yeah. Jess. I managed to convince her that she could switch sides.”

“Wait seriously?”

“Yeah! I'm really proud of her, to be honest. Her only real reason for staying a Templar was because of all the mental scars that her mom had put on her. Now that she realizes that her mother isn't here to abuse her anymore, that she has a choice in where life takes her, she decided to come along with the good guys. To start again.”

Ava could see the giant smile growing on his face as he talked about it. He was clearly very proud of his new friend. It made her smile a bit too. Always good to discover you've got more allies than before.

They all gathered up downstairs, scrambling around the hideout for a trip to the Temple of the Angels. They gathered food and drinks and tech and a few knick knacks just because why not. Something told them they were gonna be in their new base for a while.

While the rest of the gang packed, Ava trailed off from the group. She went looking for her mother. They needed to talk. It had been too long and too much had happened to just ignore it.

She found Kiki sitting in the kitchen, clearly having just wiped her eyes of tears when her daughter came in.

“Hey mom,” Ava said, sitting down next to her.

“Hi honey…” Kiki said, barely looking up.

“Mom look… I…”

“I just wanted you to be safe… All I ever wanted was to keep you out of this… mess.”

“Is that what Dad would've wanted?”

Kiki paused. Her eyes got misty again. “Your father was a good man, but he always knew that being an Assassin is dangerous work. He was so scared of something happening to us that he never even considered what would happen if something bad happened to him. And then when Morgenster…”

She started shaking a bit. Ava held her hand.

“We're gonna kill him, Mom,” Ava assured her. “We're gonna kill Morgenster and end his evil plot for good. We're gonna avenge Dad and everyone else that Morgenster has ever hurt. I promise.”

“I don't want vengeance, Ava. I want my daughter at home and away from all this.”

Ava shook her head. “I'm really sorry, Mom…but you know I can't.”

Kiki lowered her head again. Ava felt terrible. Her mother looked so tired… so empty.

Ava stood up from the table. “We're gonna be leaving for the First Civ Temple soon,” she said. “You're welcome to come with us if you want. It's been a while since we've gotten to spend some time together.”

“I guess I don't have anything else to do… Your grandma expects me to bring you home one way or another.”

Ava did everything she could not to roll her eyes and sigh.

“Once all our stuff is packed, we'll be hitting the road,” she said.

“I'll follow you in the car.”

Ava nodded. She turned to leave the room.

“Ava…” her mother said just as she reached the door. Ava turned around, expecting another lecture. But instead she just saw her mother looking at her, trying to smile but not quite able to muster the energy to do so.

“I love you, sweetie. I'm glad to see you again. I missed you…”

Ava looked with a bit of surprise for a moment. Then she nodded, and said sincerely, “I love you too, Mom.”

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

The engines revved up as Ruby turned the keys in the ignition.

“Alright!” she said excitedly. “The whole gang back in action! Ooh ooh! We should totally have a name!”

“A name?” Chelsea chuckled.

“Yeah! You know, like a group name! Something cool like… uh… Thunderbird!”

“That's lame,” Carter laughed.

“Eat my ass!” Ruby joked back.

“That is kinda lame, honey,” Ava smirked.

Ruby gave an exaggerated look of mock hurt. “Et tu, Ava?” she asked, making her girlfriend giggle. “Aah,” Ruby said, smiling. “None of you have good taste.”

“How bout you drive the van?” Ben laughed.

“How bout you shove a spoon up your ass?” Ruby joked back as she put her foot on the gas pedal and the van surged forward onto the bustling, lively streets of Indianapolis.

“Jess said she'll meet us on the edge of town,” Carter said. “We'll pick her up near the Art Museum.”

“Gotchya.”

Ava leaned on her window frame and gazed out at the city. It was so good to finally be back in action, side by side with her friends. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she belonged.

Ben seemed to agree with that thought, as he leaned over towards her, smiling as he told her, “It really is great to have you back, Ava. I mean it.”

“Thanks Ben,” Ava said, smiling back. “I'm glad to be back. I'm done with cowering away. We've got a rogue angel to put down.”