HOME | DD

Description
April 30, 1891; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Evelyn found herself racing across the Philadelphia rooftops that day. She had to hurry. There was no room for any delays or diversions anymore. If her sources were correct, then she knew they had to make it there right now before it was too late. They had gotten the news from their spies that they hoped they would never ever have to hear.

Leidy’s men had located the Scythe.

Evelyn was honestly rather irritated at the universe. All that work and resources out in the west and all this time, it turned out that the vault holding the ancient weapon was right here in the city of Philadelphia. Not only that, but beneath the deepest basement of the Academy of Natural Sciences based on where the Templars were heading. It made Evelyn fume at how irritating it was that this is where her 21 year journey would end, right where it all bloody started. She sighed inwardly, knowing that she had to focus on running.

Chaytan was by her side. There was no way she was going to do this without him. She wanted him there to celebrate the end of all of this with her once Leidy was finally dead and the Scythe was out of Templar hands once and for all.

“I hope we make it in time,” he said, breathing heavily as the running took the air out of him.

“So do I. If we can catch Leidy before he gets the Scythe, we can kill him and get out without much hassle. Just like any other assassination.”

“We are getting a drink after this.”

“Many drinks.”

They both smiled, albeit briefly, and continued onwards, never losing any speed. They eventually made it to the Academy of Natural Sciences building, and sure enough, there was a team of Templars marching in the front door. Evelyn scanned them all from the rooftops, and she spotted Leidy among them looking shifty as always. Good, she thought to herself, there was still time. She looked over at Chaytan and nodded the cue to go. The two quickly leapt down from their perches and scurried around the back of the building. Evelyn knew this place inside and out, and because of that she knew an alternate pathway into the basement. The two rushed to the backdoor and quickly descended the stairs beyond, eventually finding themselves on a balcony that overlooked the basement hall below. The Templars marched below with their equipment in hand, seemingly ready to blow a hole in the floor where the temple entrance was supposed to be. It wasn't long before they had their dynamite in place, and the fuse was ignited. A deafening bang resonated through the basement and a charred hole was ripped open in the floor. Evelyn was able to spot a few chunks of glowing patterns in the resulting crater. The tell-tale sign of a Precursor temple.

The Templars kept loading in more stacks of dynamite, setting them up and igniting them as they tried to clear more and more of the rock that was making itself an obstacle to the temple entrance.

“Okay here's what we do,” Evelyn whispered to Chaytan. “Like I said before, normal assassination routine. We tail Leidy until we get a good angle to stab him from, pounce, and we walk away with the Scythe. In and out.”

“You're sure it'll be that simple?” Chaytan asked.

“That's how it usually goes in these types of situations.”

“I hope you're right.”

The Templars set up one last patch of dynamite, and after one final boom, the rock layer finally gave way and collapsed entirely. The giant gaping hole in the floor was finally cleared completely and the entrance to the temple beneath was revealed. Leidy gazed down into the eerie glowing chasm. “Alright men,” he called over his shoulder, “it's time we claim our prize. Let's move!”

On that order, the whole team followed his lead. And once all of them had descended into the depths, Evelyn and Chaytan jumped down and followed as closely behind as they dared.

The glowing hallways of the temple quickly widened out into massive chasms of platforms and pillars. Evelyn and Chaytan managed to find a sort of balcony far over the Templars’ heads that they used to stalk their prey. They all journeyed deeper and deeper, their footsteps resonating through the ancient catacombs.

“Something's odd,” Chaytan observed.

“What do you mean?”

“This Scythe is supposed to be one of the most dangerous weapons on Earth, yes?”

“That's what I've heard, aye.”

“Then why aren't there any defenses?”

Evelyn had no response to that. Realization crept onto her face. He was right. This whole thing seemed awfully easy.

Too easy…

She inwardly whimpered. Goddammit, she thought, she really wanted this to be easy.

After a long, long walk down the massive temple corridor, the Templars eventually reached the very end. At the end of the pathway was a sort of hill in the metallic flooring. Evelyn thought it looked a bit odd, despite this entire place being something she'd generally classify as odd. Something about it just seemed… out of place.

But that wasn't what her attention was really focused on. What her eyes were drawn to was the object at the base of the hill. It glowed like bright golden sunlight along it's sharp, segmented blade. It's etchings pulsed and simmered like some sort of mechanical veins. There was no mistaking that this had to be the Scythe of Michael, though given how straight it appeared Evelyn thought it was more of a sword.

Leidy smiled as he saw it. He started approaching it. Evelyn panicked and motioned for Chaytan to hurry forward. They shimmied along the balcony as fast as they could, hoping to reach a good position for an air assassination before it was too late. Evelyn sprinted ahead of Chaytan a bit, seeing her opportunity right as Leidy was starting to reach for the Scythe, his eyes lusting for its glow. She didn't waste any time. As soon she she saw her opening, she leapt down, hidden blade ejecting out from it's casing as she descended like an eagle with its talons out. This was it, she thought, this was where her arch nemesis finally died. This was the end. This was-

Suddenly she felt herself getting blasted away. She barely even had time to process what happened. One minute she was in the air, mere feet from Leidy’s throat, and the next she was flung into the ground with a hard, painful thud. As she rubbed her head and stood up, she heard the sounds of guns being cocked and aimed in her direction. She gulped when she saw the entire Templar team just a few inches away, all of them with their weapons primed in her direction.

“I take it this was a bad time to drop in?” she nervously chuckled.

“On the contrary, Ms. Arlie,” she suddenly heard Leidy say behind her, prompting her to turn around with a look of dread on her face. “You're just in time to witness the age of a New World Order. Now that I have this!”

He held the Scythe in his hands, its energy pulsing in bursts out of its hardware. Leidy was grinning, the glow pulsing into his veins. The Scythe started whirring and creaking as its parts began to move. The handle telescoped out until it was the same length as the blade, which began to divide into its different segments and curve until the entire weapon reached a state that Evelyn could now definitely identify as a Scythe.

Leidy held it maliciously, almost mockingly in front of her. “I have claimed this ultimate power in the name of the Templar Order!” he declared. “We've won, Ms. Arlie! With this, we will dominate the world! And there's no one, and nothing, that can stand in our w-!”

Then suddenly something interrupted his maniacal monologue.

The entire room started shaking. The platforms that made up the floor began to rumble. Leidy was knocked off his feet as the quaking intensified more and more beneath him. Chaytan used the distraction to rush down to Evelyn’s side, though she was struggling to stand as well. The Scythe fell out of Leidy’s hands as he fell away, and it went skittering away. One of the Assassins would've made a break for the weapon had the ground not become so unstable.

“What the hell is happening?” Evelyn shouted over the noise.

“I don't know. Maybe the defenses were finally trig-?”

Suddenly there was a horrifying noise that shrieked from underneath the floor, a low but loud booming noise that sounded like a thunderous roar from the depths of hell. The hill where the Scythe had stood suddenly started to rise from the floor. Everyone, even Leidy, started to back away in fear as a massive figure started rising up. It's mechanical joints cracked and moaned as it pushed itself to the surface for all of them to see. Evelyn gasped in terror. It looked like a beast, at least 40 feet long, completely made of metal and glowing wires. It had jaws as big as a man is tall and teeth that looked like steak knives. The closest comparison Evelyn could make was a massive theropod of sorts. A horrifying bird from hell.

It stood towering above them all, shaking it's metal structure as if awakening from a rather uncomfortable nap, and then it glared them all down, opened its massive jaws, and let out a soul-shattering roar.

Many of the Templars dropped their guns and fled immediately, but others were not so lucky. The dinosaur machine lunged forward and clamped it's jaws around them with the ferocity of a lioness. It devoured them, ripped them in half, showed no mercy. Chaytan had to pull Evelyn away out of her shocked state and to the safety of a pillar that hid them from view as the monster started ripping the Templars to shreds.

“Bloody hell what in God's name is that?!” she screamed.

“Must be some sort of Precursor machine.”

“By the Lord!”

They stood and watched the unbelievable carnage for a moment before Evelyn suddenly caught sight of Leidy cowering in hiding as well, but it was clear that he was trying to make his way towards the Scythe. Evelyn looked at him, then at the dinosaur, then back at him, and the groaned in irritation. She knew she couldn't let him get that Scythe.

She sprinted out from her cover, despite the protests of Chaytan, and she bolted towards Leidy. The dinosaur spotted her as she zipped by, and tried to make lunch meat of her as well. She lunged out of the way of its bite, however, and fell into a roll to keep the momentum she needed to keep running. Leidy made a mad dash for the Scythe, and Evelyn tackled him just as he was about to grab it. The two went into a tumble and wrestled. The commotion attracted the dinosaur, which made a lunge at them. The monster stopped, however, as suddenly it was distracted by Chaytan shooting at it with his rifle. The machine roared and spun around to attack him. It's tail smacked into the Scythe, sending it flying up onto the upper balcony. Evelyn gasped as she watched it go. She swiftly socked Leidy in the face, disorienting him long enough for her to break away and run across the room.

“Chaytan! Lead that thing over there!” she called out, pointing to the balcony.

Chaytan looked and nodded, firing another round into the creature’s massive jaws before sprinting beneath the balcony. The dinosaur roared again and stomped after him, lining its body up just the way Evelyn was hoping. She sprinted towards the tail and leapt up onto it, balancing along the metal structure as she made her ascent up its back. She suddenly found herself tripping face first onto the creature’s back as a hand grabbed her foot. She looked back and saw Leidy there, scowling. She swiftly kicked him away and got to her feet. Leidy stood as well and tossed a punch her way. She recoiled from the impact and wiped the blood from her nose before swinging right back at him. He grunted in pain and swung back, one fist after the other. Evelyn ducked and dodged and boxed right back, trying to keep her balance as the machine tried and failed to bite at her boyfriend.

She let out a shout and then landed one mean punch directly into his face. Leidy recoiled and stumbled back, and his disorientation gave Evelyn the chance to sprint up the machine's neck and across its snout before lunging onto the balcony and making a mad dash for the Scythe. She lunged and slid directly at it until her hands clamped tightly onto the handle.

“Yes!” she exclaimed. But her victory was short-lived. Leidy suddenly tackled her, grabbing the Scythe as well. The two tumbled and wrestled for possession of the weapon, pushing and shoving against each other as hard as they could.

“Give up, Ms. Arlie!” he demanded. “You cannot defeat us! The Templars will live on for the rest of eternity!”

“I will not stop until all of your kind are extinct!” Evelyn declared.

They continued to wrestle, until suddenly the floor beneath them cracked and collapsed as the dinosaur reared up and busted a hole in the structure with the sheer force of its might. Evelyn and Leidy went tumbling into the stone floor below, landing with a painful thud. The dinosaur tried to lunge at them while they struggled to stand, but it was lured away once again by a rifle shot from Chaytan on the other side of the room.

Evelyn rubbed her aching head. “I'm getting too old for this, I swear,” she moaned. Then suddenly she realized that she still had something in her hand, and when she looked down and saw it was the Scythe, she was overjoyed.

Then suddenly Leidy heaved himself out of the rubble, and glared furiously at Evelyn. She stood ready for him as he let out a yell and charged at her full speed. Evelyn braced her feet, and tightened her grip. She waited, letting him come closer and closer in his blind rage.

And then the second he was in range, she stepped to the side, tripped him to the ground, and, using the Scythe as a spear, thrust the ancient weapon down and impaled him through his spine. Leidy let out his final painful shout, Evelyn ripped the blade out of his back, and the world around them began to slow and collapse into the blank white silence of the Animus void.

Leidy struggled and failed to get up, quickly giving up and simply collapsing to the ground. Evelyn finally caught her breath and sat down, Scythe clutched firmly in her hands.

“So this is it then?” Leidy asked. “This is my destiny? To fall at the hands of some girl running around in a hood and end up in the dirt like all the other animals I've dug up?”

Evelyn didn't answer for a moment. She simply tuned him out, staring into the endless sky and feeling the relief wash over her.

“It isn't my fault you devoted your life to a dead cause,” she told him.

“How dare you,” Leidy spat. “I sought to bring this world into a new age of order and enlightenment.”

Evelyn laughed. “Enlightenment?” she chuckled. “Really? That what you call it? All that squabbling you started between Marsh and Cope was enlightening was it?”

“A temporary kink in the road,” Leidy said. “They were but a means to an end. And once we claimed the Scythe, they would've been cast into subordination like the rest of humanity.”

“You sacrificed the good name of the scientific community for the sake of subverting knowledge, Dr. Leidy. Your kind do not enlighten, you destroy.”

“We do what we do for the good of mankind. The human race is an animal just as all of those dirty bones we dug out of the ground were. That's all we amount to in the end: ashes to ashes and dust to dust.”

Evelyn simply smiled nonchalantly and nodded no. “Your lack of faith in humanity is exactly why you Templars always lose in the end,” she said. “You only focus on the bones and never the hearts. Never the love that holds this world together, never the hope that keeps the planet turning even in the worst of times. Love will outlive us all. Humanity will live beyond the bones we leave behind.”

“You're an idealistic fool, Ms. Arlie.”

“I hope to create a world where there are no longer men like you who say that hope is foolish.”

“You can try, Ms. Arlie. You… can try…”

His body went limp. His breaths went silent. His mind left this mortal realm. After all of these years, Evelyn’s arch nemesis was gone from this world.

And with that, she could feel her own soul finally feel at peace. She stood to her feet, and looked down at him.

“We work in the dark to serve the light,” she said. “Requiescat in pace.”

The void began to collapse back in on itself, twisting and warping until the sights and sounds of history reclaimed her surroundings once again.

And immediately she was met by the sound of Chaytan shouting.

“Evelyn look out!” he screamed.

Evelyn’s eyes widened and she looked up just in time to see the dinosaur mere feet away from her. She jumped in fearful surprise and looked in every direction, looking for an escape route.

There was none.

She looked in terror at the monster that loomed over her. Chaytan was trying to thwack it's leg with the butt of his gun to distract it, but it seemed to lose all interest in him. For a moment it simply stared menacingly at her. She expected it to pounce at any moment and engulf her in one single bite. It slowly inched its snout forwards until it was mere inches from her face. Evelyn whimpered, paralyzed with fear.

But then she noticed that it seemed to be looking at the Scythe more than anything. It's eyes glowed various shades of gold, as if some mechanism was going in it's mechanical brain. It looked at the Scythe up and down, then slowly shifted to looking her up and down. And then suddenly it started backing away, as if satisfied by what it saw. The creature calmed and slowly started to lumber back towards its original spot in the floor. It nestled down in its little hole like a giant bird, dipping its head down into the original position, and then going completely still, as if nothing had happened.

Evelyn stared in shock for a moment until Chaytan came rushing up and hugged her tight.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he frantically asked her.

She nodded, hugging him back. “I'm fine, promise,” she assured him. She took a deep breath and a sigh of relief. “It's over now,” she declared. “Two long decades are finally over.”

She smiled weakly, tears starting to fall over her cheeks. Chaytan hugged her again, and she gladly welcomed the embrace.

“What do we do now?” he asked her.

Evelyn looked at the Scythe that she held in her hands. “We hide this thing,” she said. “Where no one will ever be able to find it. Not Assassin or Templar or anyone.”

Chaytan nodded. “Then let's hurry and do it quickly so that we can go home and get some well-earned rest.”

Evelyn nodded, and she began to walk back towards the exit with Chaytan’s arm around her shoulder and the Scythe in her hand, leaving the chaos of Leidy and his Bone Wars schemes behind her once and for all.

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

May 2, 1891; Lyme Regis, United Kingdom

It had been ages since Evelyn visited her childhood home. The sight of the old cliff sides that bordered Lyme Regis almost brought nostalgic tears in her eyes. She and Chaytan had dropped by her parents’ house when they first arrived, telling them the good news and asking for help with the Scythe.

The four of them all gathered in a relatively remote area on the cliffs, down towards the crashing ocean waves with pickaxes and shovels in hand. They all chipped and dug away at the rock and soil, until finally they had a deep enough hole to store the ancient weapon in. Evelyn gently put it as deep in as it would go before she emerged again and helped her family cover it back up. They piled on as many layers of earth and rock as they could until it was completely flush with the surrounding sediment. No one would see anything off about the stones. No one would think anyone had even come here.

Once they were all satisfied that the Scythe was hidden for good, they all climbed back up to the town, returning back to the house. And for the first time in forever, they relaxed. Evelyn’s mother began to make lunch for them all, while Evelyn and Chaytan simply sat down on the couch. Evelyn leaned against Chaytan’s shoulder, and after taking a much needed deep breath, she closed her eyes, and smiled.

Everything was finally at peace. For now. And that was all she needed.

She felt herself drifting off to dreamland. She saw her vision collapse into white. Lines of 1s and 0s started zipping all around her. The sounds of the birds chirping outside was replaced by the gentle hum of the temple walls. She smiled as bright as the sun. She reached up and practically had the Animus off of her head before Ruby could remove it. The whole team was gathered around her, eagerly awaiting what she had to say. She looked at them all, and grinned ear to ear.

“I got it!”

Description
April 30, 1891; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Evelyn found herself racing across the Philadelphia rooftops that day. She had to hurry. There was no room for any delays or diversions anymore. If her sources were correct, then she knew they had to make it there right now before it was too late. They had gotten the news from their spies that they hoped they would never ever have to hear.

Leidy’s men had located the Scythe.

Evelyn was honestly rather irritated at the universe. All that work and resources out in the west and all this time, it turned out that the vault holding the ancient weapon was right here in the city of Philadelphia. Not only that, but beneath the deepest basement of the Academy of Natural Sciences based on where the Templars were heading. It made Evelyn fume at how irritating it was that this is where her 21 year journey would end, right where it all bloody started. She sighed inwardly, knowing that she had to focus on running.

Chaytan was by her side. There was no way she was going to do this without him. She wanted him there to celebrate the end of all of this with her once Leidy was finally dead and the Scythe was out of Templar hands once and for all.

“I hope we make it in time,” he said, breathing heavily as the running took the air out of him.

“So do I. If we can catch Leidy before he gets the Scythe, we can kill him and get out without much hassle. Just like any other assassination.”

“We are getting a drink after this.”

“Many drinks.”

They both smiled, albeit briefly, and continued onwards, never losing any speed. They eventually made it to the Academy of Natural Sciences building, and sure enough, there was a team of Templars marching in the front door. Evelyn scanned them all from the rooftops, and she spotted Leidy among them looking shifty as always. Good, she thought to herself, there was still time. She looked over at Chaytan and nodded the cue to go. The two quickly leapt down from their perches and scurried around the back of the building. Evelyn knew this place inside and out, and because of that she knew an alternate pathway into the basement. The two rushed to the backdoor and quickly descended the stairs beyond, eventually finding themselves on a balcony that overlooked the basement hall below. The Templars marched below with their equipment in hand, seemingly ready to blow a hole in the floor where the temple entrance was supposed to be. It wasn't long before they had their dynamite in place, and the fuse was ignited. A deafening bang resonated through the basement and a charred hole was ripped open in the floor. Evelyn was able to spot a few chunks of glowing patterns in the resulting crater. The tell-tale sign of a Precursor temple.

The Templars kept loading in more stacks of dynamite, setting them up and igniting them as they tried to clear more and more of the rock that was making itself an obstacle to the temple entrance.

“Okay here's what we do,” Evelyn whispered to Chaytan. “Like I said before, normal assassination routine. We tail Leidy until we get a good angle to stab him from, pounce, and we walk away with the Scythe. In and out.”

“You're sure it'll be that simple?” Chaytan asked.

“That's how it usually goes in these types of situations.”

“I hope you're right.”

The Templars set up one last patch of dynamite, and after one final boom, the rock layer finally gave way and collapsed entirely. The giant gaping hole in the floor was finally cleared completely and the entrance to the temple beneath was revealed. Leidy gazed down into the eerie glowing chasm. “Alright men,” he called over his shoulder, “it's time we claim our prize. Let's move!”

On that order, the whole team followed his lead. And once all of them had descended into the depths, Evelyn and Chaytan jumped down and followed as closely behind as they dared.

The glowing hallways of the temple quickly widened out into massive chasms of platforms and pillars. Evelyn and Chaytan managed to find a sort of balcony far over the Templars’ heads that they used to stalk their prey. They all journeyed deeper and deeper, their footsteps resonating through the ancient catacombs.

“Something's odd,” Chaytan observed.

“What do you mean?”

“This Scythe is supposed to be one of the most dangerous weapons on Earth, yes?”

“That's what I've heard, aye.”

“Then why aren't there any defenses?”

Evelyn had no response to that. Realization crept onto her face. He was right. This whole thing seemed awfully easy.

Too easy…

She inwardly whimpered. Goddammit, she thought, she really wanted this to be easy.

After a long, long walk down the massive temple corridor, the Templars eventually reached the very end. At the end of the pathway was a sort of hill in the metallic flooring. Evelyn thought it looked a bit odd, despite this entire place being something she'd generally classify as odd. Something about it just seemed… out of place.

But that wasn't what her attention was really focused on. What her eyes were drawn to was the object at the base of the hill. It glowed like bright golden sunlight along it's sharp, segmented blade. It's etchings pulsed and simmered like some sort of mechanical veins. There was no mistaking that this had to be the Scythe of Michael, though given how straight it appeared Evelyn thought it was more of a sword.

Leidy smiled as he saw it. He started approaching it. Evelyn panicked and motioned for Chaytan to hurry forward. They shimmied along the balcony as fast as they could, hoping to reach a good position for an air assassination before it was too late. Evelyn sprinted ahead of Chaytan a bit, seeing her opportunity right as Leidy was starting to reach for the Scythe, his eyes lusting for its glow. She didn't waste any time. As soon she she saw her opening, she leapt down, hidden blade ejecting out from it's casing as she descended like an eagle with its talons out. This was it, she thought, this was where her arch nemesis finally died. This was the end. This was-

Suddenly she felt herself getting blasted away. She barely even had time to process what happened. One minute she was in the air, mere feet from Leidy’s throat, and the next she was flung into the ground with a hard, painful thud. As she rubbed her head and stood up, she heard the sounds of guns being cocked and aimed in her direction. She gulped when she saw the entire Templar team just a few inches away, all of them with their weapons primed in her direction.

“I take it this was a bad time to drop in?” she nervously chuckled.

“On the contrary, Ms. Arlie,” she suddenly heard Leidy say behind her, prompting her to turn around with a look of dread on her face. “You're just in time to witness the age of a New World Order. Now that I have this!”

He held the Scythe in his hands, its energy pulsing in bursts out of its hardware. Leidy was grinning, the glow pulsing into his veins. The Scythe started whirring and creaking as its parts began to move. The handle telescoped out until it was the same length as the blade, which began to divide into its different segments and curve until the entire weapon reached a state that Evelyn could now definitely identify as a Scythe.

Leidy held it maliciously, almost mockingly in front of her. “I have claimed this ultimate power in the name of the Templar Order!” he declared. “We've won, Ms. Arlie! With this, we will dominate the world! And there's no one, and nothing, that can stand in our w-!”

Then suddenly something interrupted his maniacal monologue.

The entire room started shaking. The platforms that made up the floor began to rumble. Leidy was knocked off his feet as the quaking intensified more and more beneath him. Chaytan used the distraction to rush down to Evelyn’s side, though she was struggling to stand as well. The Scythe fell out of Leidy’s hands as he fell away, and it went skittering away. One of the Assassins would've made a break for the weapon had the ground not become so unstable.

“What the hell is happening?” Evelyn shouted over the noise.

“I don't know. Maybe the defenses were finally trig-?”

Suddenly there was a horrifying noise that shrieked from underneath the floor, a low but loud booming noise that sounded like a thunderous roar from the depths of hell. The hill where the Scythe had stood suddenly started to rise from the floor. Everyone, even Leidy, started to back away in fear as a massive figure started rising up. It's mechanical joints cracked and moaned as it pushed itself to the surface for all of them to see. Evelyn gasped in terror. It looked like a beast, at least 40 feet long, completely made of metal and glowing wires. It had jaws as big as a man is tall and teeth that looked like steak knives. The closest comparison Evelyn could make was a massive theropod of sorts. A horrifying bird from hell.

It stood towering above them all, shaking it's metal structure as if awakening from a rather uncomfortable nap, and then it glared them all down, opened its massive jaws, and let out a soul-shattering roar.

Many of the Templars dropped their guns and fled immediately, but others were not so lucky. The dinosaur machine lunged forward and clamped it's jaws around them with the ferocity of a lioness. It devoured them, ripped them in half, showed no mercy. Chaytan had to pull Evelyn away out of her shocked state and to the safety of a pillar that hid them from view as the monster started ripping the Templars to shreds.

“Bloody hell what in God's name is that?!” she screamed.

“Must be some sort of Precursor machine.”

“By the Lord!”

They stood and watched the unbelievable carnage for a moment before Evelyn suddenly caught sight of Leidy cowering in hiding as well, but it was clear that he was trying to make his way towards the Scythe. Evelyn looked at him, then at the dinosaur, then back at him, and the groaned in irritation. She knew she couldn't let him get that Scythe.

She sprinted out from her cover, despite the protests of Chaytan, and she bolted towards Leidy. The dinosaur spotted her as she zipped by, and tried to make lunch meat of her as well. She lunged out of the way of its bite, however, and fell into a roll to keep the momentum she needed to keep running. Leidy made a mad dash for the Scythe, and Evelyn tackled him just as he was about to grab it. The two went into a tumble and wrestled. The commotion attracted the dinosaur, which made a lunge at them. The monster stopped, however, as suddenly it was distracted by Chaytan shooting at it with his rifle. The machine roared and spun around to attack him. It's tail smacked into the Scythe, sending it flying up onto the upper balcony. Evelyn gasped as she watched it go. She swiftly socked Leidy in the face, disorienting him long enough for her to break away and run across the room.

“Chaytan! Lead that thing over there!” she called out, pointing to the balcony.

Chaytan looked and nodded, firing another round into the creature’s massive jaws before sprinting beneath the balcony. The dinosaur roared again and stomped after him, lining its body up just the way Evelyn was hoping. She sprinted towards the tail and leapt up onto it, balancing along the metal structure as she made her ascent up its back. She suddenly found herself tripping face first onto the creature’s back as a hand grabbed her foot. She looked back and saw Leidy there, scowling. She swiftly kicked him away and got to her feet. Leidy stood as well and tossed a punch her way. She recoiled from the impact and wiped the blood from her nose before swinging right back at him. He grunted in pain and swung back, one fist after the other. Evelyn ducked and dodged and boxed right back, trying to keep her balance as the machine tried and failed to bite at her boyfriend.

She let out a shout and then landed one mean punch directly into his face. Leidy recoiled and stumbled back, and his disorientation gave Evelyn the chance to sprint up the machine's neck and across its snout before lunging onto the balcony and making a mad dash for the Scythe. She lunged and slid directly at it until her hands clamped tightly onto the handle.

“Yes!” she exclaimed. But her victory was short-lived. Leidy suddenly tackled her, grabbing the Scythe as well. The two tumbled and wrestled for possession of the weapon, pushing and shoving against each other as hard as they could.

“Give up, Ms. Arlie!” he demanded. “You cannot defeat us! The Templars will live on for the rest of eternity!”

“I will not stop until all of your kind are extinct!” Evelyn declared.

They continued to wrestle, until suddenly the floor beneath them cracked and collapsed as the dinosaur reared up and busted a hole in the structure with the sheer force of its might. Evelyn and Leidy went tumbling into the stone floor below, landing with a painful thud. The dinosaur tried to lunge at them while they struggled to stand, but it was lured away once again by a rifle shot from Chaytan on the other side of the room.

Evelyn rubbed her aching head. “I'm getting too old for this, I swear,” she moaned. Then suddenly she realized that she still had something in her hand, and when she looked down and saw it was the Scythe, she was overjoyed.

Then suddenly Leidy heaved himself out of the rubble, and glared furiously at Evelyn. She stood ready for him as he let out a yell and charged at her full speed. Evelyn braced her feet, and tightened her grip. She waited, letting him come closer and closer in his blind rage.

And then the second he was in range, she stepped to the side, tripped him to the ground, and, using the Scythe as a spear, thrust the ancient weapon down and impaled him through his spine. Leidy let out his final painful shout, Evelyn ripped the blade out of his back, and the world around them began to slow and collapse into the blank white silence of the Animus void.

Leidy struggled and failed to get up, quickly giving up and simply collapsing to the ground. Evelyn finally caught her breath and sat down, Scythe clutched firmly in her hands.

“So this is it then?” Leidy asked. “This is my destiny? To fall at the hands of some girl running around in a hood and end up in the dirt like all the other animals I've dug up?”

Evelyn didn't answer for a moment. She simply tuned him out, staring into the endless sky and feeling the relief wash over her.

“It isn't my fault you devoted your life to a dead cause,” she told him.

“How dare you,” Leidy spat. “I sought to bring this world into a new age of order and enlightenment.”

Evelyn laughed. “Enlightenment?” she chuckled. “Really? That what you call it? All that squabbling you started between Marsh and Cope was enlightening was it?”

“A temporary kink in the road,” Leidy said. “They were but a means to an end. And once we claimed the Scythe, they would've been cast into subordination like the rest of humanity.”

“You sacrificed the good name of the scientific community for the sake of subverting knowledge, Dr. Leidy. Your kind do not enlighten, you destroy.”

“We do what we do for the good of mankind. The human race is an animal just as all of those dirty bones we dug out of the ground were. That's all we amount to in the end: ashes to ashes and dust to dust.”

Evelyn simply smiled nonchalantly and nodded no. “Your lack of faith in humanity is exactly why you Templars always lose in the end,” she said. “You only focus on the bones and never the hearts. Never the love that holds this world together, never the hope that keeps the planet turning even in the worst of times. Love will outlive us all. Humanity will live beyond the bones we leave behind.”

“You're an idealistic fool, Ms. Arlie.”

“I hope to create a world where there are no longer men like you who say that hope is foolish.”

“You can try, Ms. Arlie. You… can try…”

His body went limp. His breaths went silent. His mind left this mortal realm. After all of these years, Evelyn’s arch nemesis was gone from this world.

And with that, she could feel her own soul finally feel at peace. She stood to her feet, and looked down at him.

“We work in the dark to serve the light,” she said. “Requiescat in pace.”

The void began to collapse back in on itself, twisting and warping until the sights and sounds of history reclaimed her surroundings once again.

And immediately she was met by the sound of Chaytan shouting.

“Evelyn look out!” he screamed.

Evelyn’s eyes widened and she looked up just in time to see the dinosaur mere feet away from her. She jumped in fearful surprise and looked in every direction, looking for an escape route.

There was none.

She looked in terror at the monster that loomed over her. Chaytan was trying to thwack it's leg with the butt of his gun to distract it, but it seemed to lose all interest in him. For a moment it simply stared menacingly at her. She expected it to pounce at any moment and engulf her in one single bite. It slowly inched its snout forwards until it was mere inches from her face. Evelyn whimpered, paralyzed with fear.

But then she noticed that it seemed to be looking at the Scythe more than anything. It's eyes glowed various shades of gold, as if some mechanism was going in it's mechanical brain. It looked at the Scythe up and down, then slowly shifted to looking her up and down. And then suddenly it started backing away, as if satisfied by what it saw. The creature calmed and slowly started to lumber back towards its original spot in the floor. It nestled down in its little hole like a giant bird, dipping its head down into the original position, and then going completely still, as if nothing had happened.

Evelyn stared in shock for a moment until Chaytan came rushing up and hugged her tight.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he frantically asked her.

She nodded, hugging him back. “I'm fine, promise,” she assured him. She took a deep breath and a sigh of relief. “It's over now,” she declared. “Two long decades are finally over.”

She smiled weakly, tears starting to fall over her cheeks. Chaytan hugged her again, and she gladly welcomed the embrace.

“What do we do now?” he asked her.

Evelyn looked at the Scythe that she held in her hands. “We hide this thing,” she said. “Where no one will ever be able to find it. Not Assassin or Templar or anyone.”

Chaytan nodded. “Then let's hurry and do it quickly so that we can go home and get some well-earned rest.”

Evelyn nodded, and she began to walk back towards the exit with Chaytan’s arm around her shoulder and the Scythe in her hand, leaving the chaos of Leidy and his Bone Wars schemes behind her once and for all.

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

May 2, 1891; Lyme Regis, United Kingdom

It had been ages since Evelyn visited her childhood home. The sight of the old cliff sides that bordered Lyme Regis almost brought nostalgic tears in her eyes. She and Chaytan had dropped by her parents’ house when they first arrived, telling them the good news and asking for help with the Scythe.

The four of them all gathered in a relatively remote area on the cliffs, down towards the crashing ocean waves with pickaxes and shovels in hand. They all chipped and dug away at the rock and soil, until finally they had a deep enough hole to store the ancient weapon in. Evelyn gently put it as deep in as it would go before she emerged again and helped her family cover it back up. They piled on as many layers of earth and rock as they could until it was completely flush with the surrounding sediment. No one would see anything off about the stones. No one would think anyone had even come here.

Once they were all satisfied that the Scythe was hidden for good, they all climbed back up to the town, returning back to the house. And for the first time in forever, they relaxed. Evelyn’s mother began to make lunch for them all, while Evelyn and Chaytan simply sat down on the couch. Evelyn leaned against Chaytan’s shoulder, and after taking a much needed deep breath, she closed her eyes, and smiled.

Everything was finally at peace. For now. And that was all she needed.

She felt herself drifting off to dreamland. She saw her vision collapse into white. Lines of 1s and 0s started zipping all around her. The sounds of the birds chirping outside was replaced by the gentle hum of the temple walls. She smiled as bright as the sun. She reached up and practically had the Animus off of her head before Ruby could remove it. The whole team was gathered around her, eagerly awaiting what she had to say. She looked at them all, and grinned ear to ear.

“I got it!”