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June 15, 2016; Battle Ground, Indiana

The team arrived back at the temple a few hours later. Ava felt like she was about to collapse from how tired she was. She'd pulled all-nighters before, sure, but never like this. Late hours at Abstergo didn't generally involve high-stakes dance numbers with blades being a part of the ballet. She rubbed her head. It had to be at least 3 in the morning. She needed to go right to bed and then drink her usual 3 cups of coffee when she woke up. Grant it, she’d be conched out for most of tomorrow, but her brain with still be going a million miles an hour as Evelyn. She needed her rest while she could get it.

The team all descended back down into the Temple of the Angels, re-entering Gabriel's chamber and seeing their friends doing just fine. Jess was staying guard while Carter was collapsed on the desk, snoring heavily and drooling over some laminated blueprints. Ruby was laying in her and Ava’s bed, also fast asleep and drooling slightly.

“I am not washing those pillows,” Ava tiredly joked.

“Hey guys!” Jess said as they all came in.

“You're up late,” Ben remarked.

“Eh. I'm used to pulling all-nighters, so I went ahead and volunteered to stand guard while you guys were out. How'd the mission go?”

“Funky,” Jacob replied.

“Uh…”

“He's not wrong,” Ava laughed. She let out a yawn. “But yeah, everything was taken care of. Sheol's dead.”

“Awesome! Now we just gotta bring down Lucy.”

They all nodded. “First some sleep though,” Ben said. “It's gonna be a long day.”

“Damn straight. Go ahead and turn in for the night, guys. I'll stay up and keep watch.”

“Thanks Jess. You're awesome.”

“Well, I learned from you guys.”

Ava and Ben smiled, and Jess smiled back before returning to her paperwork.

Chelsea and Jacob turned in first thing, hopping into their beds and dozing off. Ava and Ben lingered for a bit though.

“Hey Ava,” Ben said, “I just wanted to say you did really awesome out there. It was a lot of fun getting to go on a real mission with you again.”

“Thanks Ben, that really means a lot. It was fun hanging with you too.”

“Yeah. You've really grown into your dad's shoes. You're one of the best Assassins I've ever seen and I bet he'd be really proud of you. I know I am.”

Ava smiled as bright as she could in her drowsy state. “Thank you, Ben. I hope he is proud.”

“He is. You've done so much to help a lot of good people. Heck, you've helped me through a lot just by being at my side and being my best friend. I guess what I'm trying to say is… thank you. For everything.”

Ava smiled. “Well hey, don't thank me yet. We still have to kill the Devil. Then afterwards we can do all the celebration stuff.”

Ben laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “I'll have to take you to New York once we're done with all of this. You ever been?”

“Nah. I'd like to though.”

“Then I'll take you to New York.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Ben smiled and nodded. “Well… we need to hit the hay. If we stay up talking too long we'll never get to sleep.”

Ava laughed. “True. Alright Ben, I'll talk to you in the morning. Night man.”

“Goodnight Ava.”

And with that, Ben walked over to his bed and crawled into his covers after taking off his coat and tossing it to the side. Ava yawned and grabbed her pajamas to change into. She went over past the entrance hall to change privately, even though she knew everyone but Jess was dead asleep. She quickly changed into her more comfy outfit and then gently folded up her Assassin clothes. She was about to head back into the temple and head to bed herself when suddenly she heard a noise coming from the hallway leading toward the exit. She froze, going silent looking into the darkness. In the dim lights of the temple’s hieroglyphics, she saw a figure walking into the hallway. Ava’s hand automatically went towards her hidden blades, but she quickly relaxed when she realized that it was a figure she recognized.

Kiki came quietly walking towards the entrance with her purse at her hip. She looked up at Ava and gave a weak smile.

“Oh sweetheart you're up!” she said. “I… I need to talk to you. If… if that's okay…”

Kiki’s smile quickly vanished, being replaced with an expression that Ava could only describe as nervous puppy dog. It broke her heart. It was her fault. Her mom wouldn't be such a wreck if she hadn't lashed out so harshly.

“Yeah Mom, it's… it's okay…” she told her.

That made Kiki’s small smile return. Kiki looked around until she laid eyes on a relatively flat rock. She looked at her daughter and offered her a seat. Ava accepted, walking over and taking a seat next to her mother in the sun golden glow of the Temple walls.

“I uh… I just got back from Minneapolis,” Kiki explained after a moment of awkward silence.

“I can tell,” Ava tiredly chuckled.

“They told you why I left?”

“No, they just told me that you left.”

“Okay good… good… I wanted this to be between you and me.”

Both of them went silent again.

“Mom… look I… I'm sorry for-”

“No, sweetheart, no. Don't. I… I'm the one that should be sorry. I was so blinded by my own fear of the future that I never gave you the chance to have one of your own…”

“I mean, you were only trying to protect me.”

Kiki laughed, a painful laugh that made tears start to well up in the corners of her eyes. “You don't need protecting, sweetheart,” she said. “You didn't then and you don't now. You always handled yourself so well. You were always such an open and brave kid. You always found people who treated you well and took you in as family. You never tried to get in with the bad kids for some dumb popularity contest. When people made fun of others or made fun of you you stood up for the innocent.” She sniffled and wiped her eyes. “You've filled your father's shoes ever since you were born…”

“Well… I'm hardly perfect… I turned my back on everyone a few weeks ago before I fell into that coma.”

“Yes but that wasn't your fault sweetheart. You tried so hard to do what you thought was right for the world and unfortunately that just meant you pushed yourself too far. And when you came to you realized who you were meant to be and… and you stood up to me when I tried to stop you from being that…”

There was another long pause. Kiki sat with her head down, trying and failing to hold back her tears. “I told myself I would never let myself become your grandma and yet… here I am… Restrictive and selfish…”

Ava put a hand on her shoulder, causing Kiki to jolt a bit and look at her daughter. Ava's vision was starting to get clouded by tears too.

“Mom stop,” she said. “We both did what we thought was right and we did it the best we could. If you're gonna tell me these things then you gotta give yourself the same speech.”

Kiki blinked, and she lowered her head again. “You're right… I'm sorry sweetheart I…”

She sniffled again and rubbed her tired eyes. She reached towards her purse and pulled something out, something small and wrapped in a towel.

“There were a lot of times during that drive to Minneapolis that I thought I should just turn back, but… I kept realizing that I had no right to turn around. Not until I grabbed this.”

Ava expected her to hand over whatever it was, but instead Kiki just cradled it in her hands and stared as it sat in her lap. “Your father thought the entire world of you, Ava…” she sniffled. “Aren loved you more than anything in all existence. He talked about you to every single person who would listen and everyone who wouldn't. He never complained when you cried. He never shied away from a chance to spend time with you. You were his pride and joy…” Another series of sniffles and wiping away tears. “He… he always thought you'd grow up to be the best Assassin anyone had ever seen. He knew you'd take on the Creed like a hummingbird to nectar and you'd go out and save the world with him someday…”

Kiki slowly started moving the towel over to her daughter's hands. “I had no right keeping you from that dream, that destiny… So I'm not going to anymore. I'm going to stop running from your father's memory and start honoring it, starting with this.”

“What is it?” Ava asked, almost scared to unwrap whatever was inside the fabric.

“Your father was going to tell you the truth about the Assassins and Templars on your tenth birthday. He was going to start training you to follow in his footsteps. And he was going to give you this…”

Ava glanced down at the wrapped up fabric, and slowly began to undo all the folds. Her throat was dry, her heart was pounding against her chest, her hands had to have all of her willpower pumped into them. Until finally she uncovered the last fold in the fabric, and her breath was snatched away in a single, tearful gasp.

Inside was a grey arm bracer with red straps that looped down and connected to a metal sheath of sorts underneath.

“Is… is this…?”

Kiki tearfully smiled and nodded, more looking at the bracer than Ava. “Yeah… it was his. He wanted you to have it.”

Ava stared, her hand on her mouth as she tried not to choke on her tears. She quickly tore off her left hidden blade and bracer, letting it clink carelessly onto the floor. She slipped her arm into the soft grey fabric of the bracer, and tightened up the straps so that it had a nice snug fit to it. She wrapped the ring mechanism around her finger, testing the tension first before she finally pulled her wrist backwards.

And out sprung the glimmering metal grace of her father’s hidden blade. Ava stared at it, looking at her reflection in the metal and for a split second she swore she almost saw Aren smiling back at her.

She smiled through her tears and retracted the blade, and then quickly spun around and locked her mother in the tightest, most loving hug she had ever given her in her life. Kiki hugged her back, stroking her hair to help calm her down despite losing control of her own tears as well.

“Thank you Mom…” Ava said.

“You're welcome sweetheart… You're welcome… You've earned it, baby girl.”

“I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Ava.”

The two simply sat there for what felt like hours but could only have been a matter of minutes, both simply enjoying the embrace of family.

Once they were both all cried out, they finally broke apart and smiled at each other.

“Okay… we should probably get to bed now, honey,” Kiki said. “It's gonna be a big day tomorrow.”

Ava nodded in agreement and the two walked back into the main temple chamber. Kiki said a quick goodnight and kissed her daughter on the forehead before curling up in her bed and leaving Ava to do the same. Ava curled up next to Ruby, who was mumbling nonsense about sea monkeys having her money in her sleep that made Ava chuckle. She wrapped her arms around her and shut her eyes, smiling bright as she shut her brain down for the night and drifting peacefully off to sleep for the first time in ages.

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

Ava chugged her last cup of coffee and joyfully kicked the cup into a nearby trash can. Everyone was well-rested and ready to start the morning activities straight away. Ava was already hopping in her chair eagerly awaiting Ruby and the Animus headset.

“This is it, kiddo,” Gabriel told her. “Home stretch. Should only take one more Animus session and then the Scythe is ours.”

“And then it's time to kick Lucy's ass to Hell and back.”

“Let's try to keep him in Hell if we can.”

Ava laughed. Ruby hopped up and plucked the headset off of the counter. “Alright Champ! Here we go! Got Evelyn’s memories all programmed in and ready to go!”

“Sweet! Let's do it!”

“Aye aye captain!”

Ava looked over at her mother as Ruby fasted the headset onto Ava's scalp. Kiki smiled and mouthed, “Good luck, sweetheart,” and Ava smiled back and nodded just before Ruby lowered the visor over her eyes.

Ava soon found herself in the endless white void of the Animus white room once again, staring at a flashing red chunk of digital DNA as she waited to be sent back to the Bone Wars. The light blinked faster and faster until it let out that familiar all-encompassing flash of blinding white light that pushed away all of her own thoughts and feelings and memories. The gap quickly began to fill itself up with a new persona. The chipper attitude of the morning in the Temple was washed away, replaced by a sort of mental fatigue that she had acquired over the past few decades. The Bone Wars had not been kind to her… or anyone really. And as she walked down the streets of Yale towards a meeting she was wishing she didn't have to make, she wondered if there was any way to undo the damage it had done.

Description
June 15, 2016; Battle Ground, Indiana

The team arrived back at the temple a few hours later. Ava felt like she was about to collapse from how tired she was. She'd pulled all-nighters before, sure, but never like this. Late hours at Abstergo didn't generally involve high-stakes dance numbers with blades being a part of the ballet. She rubbed her head. It had to be at least 3 in the morning. She needed to go right to bed and then drink her usual 3 cups of coffee when she woke up. Grant it, she’d be conched out for most of tomorrow, but her brain with still be going a million miles an hour as Evelyn. She needed her rest while she could get it.

The team all descended back down into the Temple of the Angels, re-entering Gabriel's chamber and seeing their friends doing just fine. Jess was staying guard while Carter was collapsed on the desk, snoring heavily and drooling over some laminated blueprints. Ruby was laying in her and Ava’s bed, also fast asleep and drooling slightly.

“I am not washing those pillows,” Ava tiredly joked.

“Hey guys!” Jess said as they all came in.

“You're up late,” Ben remarked.

“Eh. I'm used to pulling all-nighters, so I went ahead and volunteered to stand guard while you guys were out. How'd the mission go?”

“Funky,” Jacob replied.

“Uh…”

“He's not wrong,” Ava laughed. She let out a yawn. “But yeah, everything was taken care of. Sheol's dead.”

“Awesome! Now we just gotta bring down Lucy.”

They all nodded. “First some sleep though,” Ben said. “It's gonna be a long day.”

“Damn straight. Go ahead and turn in for the night, guys. I'll stay up and keep watch.”

“Thanks Jess. You're awesome.”

“Well, I learned from you guys.”

Ava and Ben smiled, and Jess smiled back before returning to her paperwork.

Chelsea and Jacob turned in first thing, hopping into their beds and dozing off. Ava and Ben lingered for a bit though.

“Hey Ava,” Ben said, “I just wanted to say you did really awesome out there. It was a lot of fun getting to go on a real mission with you again.”

“Thanks Ben, that really means a lot. It was fun hanging with you too.”

“Yeah. You've really grown into your dad's shoes. You're one of the best Assassins I've ever seen and I bet he'd be really proud of you. I know I am.”

Ava smiled as bright as she could in her drowsy state. “Thank you, Ben. I hope he is proud.”

“He is. You've done so much to help a lot of good people. Heck, you've helped me through a lot just by being at my side and being my best friend. I guess what I'm trying to say is… thank you. For everything.”

Ava smiled. “Well hey, don't thank me yet. We still have to kill the Devil. Then afterwards we can do all the celebration stuff.”

Ben laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “I'll have to take you to New York once we're done with all of this. You ever been?”

“Nah. I'd like to though.”

“Then I'll take you to New York.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Ben smiled and nodded. “Well… we need to hit the hay. If we stay up talking too long we'll never get to sleep.”

Ava laughed. “True. Alright Ben, I'll talk to you in the morning. Night man.”

“Goodnight Ava.”

And with that, Ben walked over to his bed and crawled into his covers after taking off his coat and tossing it to the side. Ava yawned and grabbed her pajamas to change into. She went over past the entrance hall to change privately, even though she knew everyone but Jess was dead asleep. She quickly changed into her more comfy outfit and then gently folded up her Assassin clothes. She was about to head back into the temple and head to bed herself when suddenly she heard a noise coming from the hallway leading toward the exit. She froze, going silent looking into the darkness. In the dim lights of the temple’s hieroglyphics, she saw a figure walking into the hallway. Ava’s hand automatically went towards her hidden blades, but she quickly relaxed when she realized that it was a figure she recognized.

Kiki came quietly walking towards the entrance with her purse at her hip. She looked up at Ava and gave a weak smile.

“Oh sweetheart you're up!” she said. “I… I need to talk to you. If… if that's okay…”

Kiki’s smile quickly vanished, being replaced with an expression that Ava could only describe as nervous puppy dog. It broke her heart. It was her fault. Her mom wouldn't be such a wreck if she hadn't lashed out so harshly.

“Yeah Mom, it's… it's okay…” she told her.

That made Kiki’s small smile return. Kiki looked around until she laid eyes on a relatively flat rock. She looked at her daughter and offered her a seat. Ava accepted, walking over and taking a seat next to her mother in the sun golden glow of the Temple walls.

“I uh… I just got back from Minneapolis,” Kiki explained after a moment of awkward silence.

“I can tell,” Ava tiredly chuckled.

“They told you why I left?”

“No, they just told me that you left.”

“Okay good… good… I wanted this to be between you and me.”

Both of them went silent again.

“Mom… look I… I'm sorry for-”

“No, sweetheart, no. Don't. I… I'm the one that should be sorry. I was so blinded by my own fear of the future that I never gave you the chance to have one of your own…”

“I mean, you were only trying to protect me.”

Kiki laughed, a painful laugh that made tears start to well up in the corners of her eyes. “You don't need protecting, sweetheart,” she said. “You didn't then and you don't now. You always handled yourself so well. You were always such an open and brave kid. You always found people who treated you well and took you in as family. You never tried to get in with the bad kids for some dumb popularity contest. When people made fun of others or made fun of you you stood up for the innocent.” She sniffled and wiped her eyes. “You've filled your father's shoes ever since you were born…”

“Well… I'm hardly perfect… I turned my back on everyone a few weeks ago before I fell into that coma.”

“Yes but that wasn't your fault sweetheart. You tried so hard to do what you thought was right for the world and unfortunately that just meant you pushed yourself too far. And when you came to you realized who you were meant to be and… and you stood up to me when I tried to stop you from being that…”

There was another long pause. Kiki sat with her head down, trying and failing to hold back her tears. “I told myself I would never let myself become your grandma and yet… here I am… Restrictive and selfish…”

Ava put a hand on her shoulder, causing Kiki to jolt a bit and look at her daughter. Ava's vision was starting to get clouded by tears too.

“Mom stop,” she said. “We both did what we thought was right and we did it the best we could. If you're gonna tell me these things then you gotta give yourself the same speech.”

Kiki blinked, and she lowered her head again. “You're right… I'm sorry sweetheart I…”

She sniffled again and rubbed her tired eyes. She reached towards her purse and pulled something out, something small and wrapped in a towel.

“There were a lot of times during that drive to Minneapolis that I thought I should just turn back, but… I kept realizing that I had no right to turn around. Not until I grabbed this.”

Ava expected her to hand over whatever it was, but instead Kiki just cradled it in her hands and stared as it sat in her lap. “Your father thought the entire world of you, Ava…” she sniffled. “Aren loved you more than anything in all existence. He talked about you to every single person who would listen and everyone who wouldn't. He never complained when you cried. He never shied away from a chance to spend time with you. You were his pride and joy…” Another series of sniffles and wiping away tears. “He… he always thought you'd grow up to be the best Assassin anyone had ever seen. He knew you'd take on the Creed like a hummingbird to nectar and you'd go out and save the world with him someday…”

Kiki slowly started moving the towel over to her daughter's hands. “I had no right keeping you from that dream, that destiny… So I'm not going to anymore. I'm going to stop running from your father's memory and start honoring it, starting with this.”

“What is it?” Ava asked, almost scared to unwrap whatever was inside the fabric.

“Your father was going to tell you the truth about the Assassins and Templars on your tenth birthday. He was going to start training you to follow in his footsteps. And he was going to give you this…”

Ava glanced down at the wrapped up fabric, and slowly began to undo all the folds. Her throat was dry, her heart was pounding against her chest, her hands had to have all of her willpower pumped into them. Until finally she uncovered the last fold in the fabric, and her breath was snatched away in a single, tearful gasp.

Inside was a grey arm bracer with red straps that looped down and connected to a metal sheath of sorts underneath.

“Is… is this…?”

Kiki tearfully smiled and nodded, more looking at the bracer than Ava. “Yeah… it was his. He wanted you to have it.”

Ava stared, her hand on her mouth as she tried not to choke on her tears. She quickly tore off her left hidden blade and bracer, letting it clink carelessly onto the floor. She slipped her arm into the soft grey fabric of the bracer, and tightened up the straps so that it had a nice snug fit to it. She wrapped the ring mechanism around her finger, testing the tension first before she finally pulled her wrist backwards.

And out sprung the glimmering metal grace of her father’s hidden blade. Ava stared at it, looking at her reflection in the metal and for a split second she swore she almost saw Aren smiling back at her.

She smiled through her tears and retracted the blade, and then quickly spun around and locked her mother in the tightest, most loving hug she had ever given her in her life. Kiki hugged her back, stroking her hair to help calm her down despite losing control of her own tears as well.

“Thank you Mom…” Ava said.

“You're welcome sweetheart… You're welcome… You've earned it, baby girl.”

“I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Ava.”

The two simply sat there for what felt like hours but could only have been a matter of minutes, both simply enjoying the embrace of family.

Once they were both all cried out, they finally broke apart and smiled at each other.

“Okay… we should probably get to bed now, honey,” Kiki said. “It's gonna be a big day tomorrow.”

Ava nodded in agreement and the two walked back into the main temple chamber. Kiki said a quick goodnight and kissed her daughter on the forehead before curling up in her bed and leaving Ava to do the same. Ava curled up next to Ruby, who was mumbling nonsense about sea monkeys having her money in her sleep that made Ava chuckle. She wrapped her arms around her and shut her eyes, smiling bright as she shut her brain down for the night and drifting peacefully off to sleep for the first time in ages.

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

Ava chugged her last cup of coffee and joyfully kicked the cup into a nearby trash can. Everyone was well-rested and ready to start the morning activities straight away. Ava was already hopping in her chair eagerly awaiting Ruby and the Animus headset.

“This is it, kiddo,” Gabriel told her. “Home stretch. Should only take one more Animus session and then the Scythe is ours.”

“And then it's time to kick Lucy's ass to Hell and back.”

“Let's try to keep him in Hell if we can.”

Ava laughed. Ruby hopped up and plucked the headset off of the counter. “Alright Champ! Here we go! Got Evelyn’s memories all programmed in and ready to go!”

“Sweet! Let's do it!”

“Aye aye captain!”

Ava looked over at her mother as Ruby fasted the headset onto Ava's scalp. Kiki smiled and mouthed, “Good luck, sweetheart,” and Ava smiled back and nodded just before Ruby lowered the visor over her eyes.

Ava soon found herself in the endless white void of the Animus white room once again, staring at a flashing red chunk of digital DNA as she waited to be sent back to the Bone Wars. The light blinked faster and faster until it let out that familiar all-encompassing flash of blinding white light that pushed away all of her own thoughts and feelings and memories. The gap quickly began to fill itself up with a new persona. The chipper attitude of the morning in the Temple was washed away, replaced by a sort of mental fatigue that she had acquired over the past few decades. The Bone Wars had not been kind to her… or anyone really. And as she walked down the streets of Yale towards a meeting she was wishing she didn't have to make, she wondered if there was any way to undo the damage it had done.