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Description
March 8, 1870; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Evelyn found herself in the States a few years later, at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. She didn't have many chances to visit this hemisphere. The only other times she's really been here were the occasional visits to her grandmother in Toronto or Aveza’s apprentice Priscilla, who tragically had passed away from an illness 3 years ago. Other than that, her business was mostly in the United Kingdom and Europe. That was where the big fossil activity was.

Or at least… that's where it originally was. Recently however, an abundance of fossils have begun to get unearthed on the North American continent, and paleontology here was beginning to boom. And wherever paleontology boomed, it opened the door for Evelyn to get more frequent visits there.

It was also extremely helpful that the Assassin embargo in England was finally lifted. The Templar Grand Master in London, that rotten old businessman, Crawford Starrick, was killed by two Assassins named Jacob and Evie Frye just two years back in 1868. With him gone, so was Templar dominance over England. The Assassins ran the show now, and Evelyn was free to travel off and on the island as she pleased. It was quite a liberating feeling.

Her current journey to Philadelphia began on invitation from her old friend, Othniel Marsh. The Academy of Natural Sciences was holding a grand meeting of the minds and a wide display of fossil skeletons for the building's guests to observe and analyse. It was an offer she couldn't refuse.

She glided through the halls of the Academy, slipping past different well-groomed scientists and their wives as she looked for Marsh. She took in the sights of the various bones that were on display for all to see, even managing to catch a glimpse at Benjamin Hawkins’ Hadrosaurus skeleton, the first dinosaur to be mounted in such a fashion. Evelyn eventually spotted Marsh talking with another man with a beard that rivaled Marsh’s own. She smiled and strode over to them, waving and smiling to get their attention.

“Ah,” Marsh said as she approached. “Ms. Arlie. I'm glad you were able to make it.”

“It's a pleasure to be here, Dr. Marsh!” She said, shaking his hand. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“I figured no meeting of the minds was complete without Lyme Regis’s brightest brain.”

Evelyn blushed and smiled. “You're too kind, Dr.” she chuckled. She looked over to the man he was talking to and offered him a handshake. “Terribly sorry if I was interrupting anything, sir,” she apologized.

“No worries, ma'am,” he replied, shaking her hand with a surprisingly firm grip. “Joseph Leidy, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Same to you.”

“I've heard much about you in my circles, Ms. Arlie.”

“That so?”

“Yes. I'm quite impressed by your accomplishments.”

“Well, I'm honored to hear it! I've heard quite a bit about your studies as well! Rather impressive work, I must say.”

“Thank you.”

Evelyn nodded. “So what's the main event?” she asked.

“An interesting fossil, to say the least,” Marsh explained. “Dr. Cope intends to bring his specimen of Elasmosaurus platyurus to our convention here. The descriptions I've read are certainty… unique.”

Evelyn felt a sudden lump in her throat. “Edward…?” she squeaked. “Edward is coming here?”

“Well of course,” Leidy said. “He's getting set up in the other room as we speak. Dr. Marsh and I will be the first to take a look at his specimen once it is ready.”

Evelyn’s brain started racing. Oh god, why did Edward have to be here? Their last interaction wasn't exactly… benevolent. She doubted he'd ever want to talk to her again. She tried to take deep breaths and clear her mind. That was six years ago, she thought. Surely he couldn't still be bitter. He had a wife and daughter now, so surely he's moved on from his angst.

Right…?

She swallowed her fears. She was an adult, she could handle a meeting with him. What trouble could it truly cause?

“We should make our way over there now, actually,” Marsh recommended. “He'll likely have his reconstruction set up any minute now. Care to join us, Ms. Arlie?”

After swallowing the last of her hesitation, Evelyn smiled and nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I'd love to.”

“Then let's be off. I have a few inquiries based on the descriptions I've read of this specimen.”

The three made their way into the next room, where a small crowd of ladies and gentlemen had gathered around an exhibit, a large skeleton of an animal maybe 30-35 feet long, with a long tail and stubby neck, and four flippers that extended from its torso. At the front of it all stood none other than the animal's discoverer, Edward Drinker Cope, older and just as smug as ever. He ushered the people in the room to gather around like some sort of showman, antsy to get as many minds to witness his work as possible. Marsh and Leidy approached him first, with Evelyn a couple paces behind.

Marsh and Cope shook hands, and Leidy offered the same gesture. “It's a pleasure to see you again, gentlemen!” Cope said heartily. “I'm glad the only minds that could rival my own could be here to observe my hard work.”

And then he turned his head slightly, and noticed Evelyn approaching as well.

“Oh,” he said, his smile fading. “Ms. Arlie. I didn't realize you were here as well.”

Evelyn mentally sighed. Don't make this difficult Edward, she thought, please…

She offered him a handshake, though it was denied. She slowly dropped her hand back to her side and tried her best to smile politely. “Dr. Marsh invited me,” she explained.

“That so?”

“Aye.”

An awkward silence.

“So…” Evelyn said, not entirely sure where to go next. “Have things been going well?”

“I feel my Elasmosaurus here speaks for the bounty that my work has brought me.”

“Fair enough…”

Cope immediately looked back to the other two scientists. “So gentlemen,” he said, pushing past Evelyn and gesturing towards the skeleton, “what do you think?”

“Rather impressive,” Marsh said as he walked around the exhibit, eyeing as many details as he could see. “But um… there was an inquiry that Dr. Leidy and myself couldn't help but ponder.”

Cope’s smug look suddenly dropped a bit. “Um… of course. What could it be?”

“Why is the head on the wrong end of the animal?”

Cope’s confidence suddenly vanished. Evelyn could feel all the eyes from the crowd suddenly watching.

“What are you talking about?” Cope demanded.

“Well, look at the way the vertebrae are arranged and shaped. The articulations are reversed. The head should be placed on the other end of the spine. The whole animal is wrong end foremost.”

Evelyn looked over the skeleton, noting the vertebrae in question. “Oh my god, he's right,” she observed. “Edward, you've got the animal backwards.”

He gave her the coldest look she had ever seen. Whispers started to sneak from the crowd.

“That's absurd!” Cope contested. “I have studied this animal for many months and I should think I ought to at least know one end from the other!”

Evelyn saw the shade of red he was turning. She knew how poorly Edward dealt with criticism, especially in a public space such as this. Instead of saying something further to add fuel to the fire, she instead went up to the end of the animal’s “tail” and observed the bone at the end of it. She noticed the shape of it. To her, it was unmistakable what it was. She ushered Dr. Leidy over.

“Dr. Leidy,” she inquired. “Does this not look like the atlas and axis with the occipital condyle of the skull?”

Leidy took a close look at it himself, and he nodded quietly in agreement. “Indeed it does, Ms. Arlie,” he said, promoting more whispers from the crowd. Leidy nonchalantly turned to Cope. “My dear friend, I'm afraid Dr. Marsh and Ms. Arlie are correct. You've placed the skull on this animal's tail.”

Cope stared in shock, disbelieving but at the same time unable to deny the clear proof that they pointed out right there in front of his very eyes. He said nothing as Marsh suddenly strode up, pompously removed the skull from the tail, and placed it on the Elasmosaurus’s enormous neck. Cope looked at the judging crowd, at the uncaringness of Marsh and Leidy, and finally at the apologetic face of Evelyn. He fixed her with a bitter, cold scowl that hurt her more than any blade she had ever felt before. Humiliated, enraged, dismayed, Cope simply stormed off towards the back halls of the Academy, leaving the crowds to observe his now-corrected skeleton without him. Evelyn watched him go with a broken heart, unable to think of what to say other than a stuttered and whispered, “Edward… I… I'm sorry… I didn't mean…”

But he was gone. She lowered her head. She didn't mean to shame him like that…

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

Evelyn found herself walking towards Cope’s office a couple hours later. She had to apologize. Not just for his sake, but for hers. She had probably just crushed any chance of rebuilding a friendship with him. Sure, their relationship ended poorly, but that didn't mean she wanted nothing to do with him. She wasn't that kind of girl. She always tried to be friends with as many people as she could. She didn't like having enemies. She didn't want him to hate her.

She had prepared for an outlash and she had thought over everything she wanted to say. Taking a deep breath, she rounded the corner and strode down the hall towards his office.

But she paused. She heard voices coming from inside said office. One was unmistakably Cope, and the other, to Evelyn’s surprise, was Leidy. She held back from knocking or entering, and instead decided to listen.

“The humiliation…” Cope was whining. “How dare they do that to me!”

“I am truly sorry, Dr. Cope,” Leidy said, his voice more business-like than sympathetic. “I wish there was more I could have done to prevent this, but unfortunately I cannot allow scientific change to go impeded simply for sentiments.”

“Damn Marsh and Arlie to hell! I'll show them! I don't know how, but I will show them! I am Edward Cope! My name is renowned in the scientific community! I'm better than the both of them combined!”

“Indeed you are, Dr. Cope. And I believe I might actually be able to assist you in your quest for revenge.”

Evelyn started getting a bad feeling in her gut. She hid behind a plant and peeked in through the crack in the door.

“Oh?” Cope pondered. “How so?”

“I have connections with some very powerful people, Dr. Cope. An Order, if you will, dedicated to the betterment of mankind through the utilization of certain… artifacts.”

Evelyn’s eyes widened as she listened. Her heart sank. No…

“Artifacts?” Cope asked.

“Yes. Ancient artifacts with near-mystical powers that my Order is highly interested in. The one I'm personally after is a device known as the Scythe of Eden, which we believe to be somewhere far out west. Now, there are also an abundance of new fossils being found out there, plenty of opportunities to discover dozens of new species.”

Cope seemed to think it over. “You want me to excavate out west looking for this… Scythe of Eden?”

“Unofficially, yes. And in return, my Order will fund all your digs and give you the opportunity to discover dozens upon dozens more fossils than Marsh and Arlie ever could combined. You would be a legend in the scientific community, more than ever, and this little incident will be wiped from the history books along with Marsh and Arlie’s names. Forever.”

Leidy reached into his pocket and from it, he withdrew a small silver ring, one with a bright red cross etched into it. He offered it to Cope. “What do you say, Dr. Cope?”

Cope looked down at the ring, thinking over the deal, and after a minute or two, he smiled and took the ring with eager glee. “I say you have a deal, Dr. Leidy,” he decided.

Leidy grinned, and shook his fellow scientist's hand. “Excellent,” he said.

Evelyn practically ran down the hall and out the door. She fled to the gardens, feeling like she was going to throw up. She started crying. How could this happen? How could her old friend fall this far? She couldn't believe it. She tried to force herself to believe this was a dream, a nightmare, but she couldn't. This was really happening. Not only was her old friend falling in with her greatest enemies, but he was also out for her blood now too, and those very Templars recruiting him were using his talents to unearth a weapon with which they could destroy all hopes for humanity. She could barely handle it all at once. What was this mess she found herself stuck in?

What else could go wrong?

Description
March 8, 1870; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Evelyn found herself in the States a few years later, at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. She didn't have many chances to visit this hemisphere. The only other times she's really been here were the occasional visits to her grandmother in Toronto or Aveza’s apprentice Priscilla, who tragically had passed away from an illness 3 years ago. Other than that, her business was mostly in the United Kingdom and Europe. That was where the big fossil activity was.

Or at least… that's where it originally was. Recently however, an abundance of fossils have begun to get unearthed on the North American continent, and paleontology here was beginning to boom. And wherever paleontology boomed, it opened the door for Evelyn to get more frequent visits there.

It was also extremely helpful that the Assassin embargo in England was finally lifted. The Templar Grand Master in London, that rotten old businessman, Crawford Starrick, was killed by two Assassins named Jacob and Evie Frye just two years back in 1868. With him gone, so was Templar dominance over England. The Assassins ran the show now, and Evelyn was free to travel off and on the island as she pleased. It was quite a liberating feeling.

Her current journey to Philadelphia began on invitation from her old friend, Othniel Marsh. The Academy of Natural Sciences was holding a grand meeting of the minds and a wide display of fossil skeletons for the building's guests to observe and analyse. It was an offer she couldn't refuse.

She glided through the halls of the Academy, slipping past different well-groomed scientists and their wives as she looked for Marsh. She took in the sights of the various bones that were on display for all to see, even managing to catch a glimpse at Benjamin Hawkins’ Hadrosaurus skeleton, the first dinosaur to be mounted in such a fashion. Evelyn eventually spotted Marsh talking with another man with a beard that rivaled Marsh’s own. She smiled and strode over to them, waving and smiling to get their attention.

“Ah,” Marsh said as she approached. “Ms. Arlie. I'm glad you were able to make it.”

“It's a pleasure to be here, Dr. Marsh!” She said, shaking his hand. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“I figured no meeting of the minds was complete without Lyme Regis’s brightest brain.”

Evelyn blushed and smiled. “You're too kind, Dr.” she chuckled. She looked over to the man he was talking to and offered him a handshake. “Terribly sorry if I was interrupting anything, sir,” she apologized.

“No worries, ma'am,” he replied, shaking her hand with a surprisingly firm grip. “Joseph Leidy, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Same to you.”

“I've heard much about you in my circles, Ms. Arlie.”

“That so?”

“Yes. I'm quite impressed by your accomplishments.”

“Well, I'm honored to hear it! I've heard quite a bit about your studies as well! Rather impressive work, I must say.”

“Thank you.”

Evelyn nodded. “So what's the main event?” she asked.

“An interesting fossil, to say the least,” Marsh explained. “Dr. Cope intends to bring his specimen of Elasmosaurus platyurus to our convention here. The descriptions I've read are certainty… unique.”

Evelyn felt a sudden lump in her throat. “Edward…?” she squeaked. “Edward is coming here?”

“Well of course,” Leidy said. “He's getting set up in the other room as we speak. Dr. Marsh and I will be the first to take a look at his specimen once it is ready.”

Evelyn’s brain started racing. Oh god, why did Edward have to be here? Their last interaction wasn't exactly… benevolent. She doubted he'd ever want to talk to her again. She tried to take deep breaths and clear her mind. That was six years ago, she thought. Surely he couldn't still be bitter. He had a wife and daughter now, so surely he's moved on from his angst.

Right…?

She swallowed her fears. She was an adult, she could handle a meeting with him. What trouble could it truly cause?

“We should make our way over there now, actually,” Marsh recommended. “He'll likely have his reconstruction set up any minute now. Care to join us, Ms. Arlie?”

After swallowing the last of her hesitation, Evelyn smiled and nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I'd love to.”

“Then let's be off. I have a few inquiries based on the descriptions I've read of this specimen.”

The three made their way into the next room, where a small crowd of ladies and gentlemen had gathered around an exhibit, a large skeleton of an animal maybe 30-35 feet long, with a long tail and stubby neck, and four flippers that extended from its torso. At the front of it all stood none other than the animal's discoverer, Edward Drinker Cope, older and just as smug as ever. He ushered the people in the room to gather around like some sort of showman, antsy to get as many minds to witness his work as possible. Marsh and Leidy approached him first, with Evelyn a couple paces behind.

Marsh and Cope shook hands, and Leidy offered the same gesture. “It's a pleasure to see you again, gentlemen!” Cope said heartily. “I'm glad the only minds that could rival my own could be here to observe my hard work.”

And then he turned his head slightly, and noticed Evelyn approaching as well.

“Oh,” he said, his smile fading. “Ms. Arlie. I didn't realize you were here as well.”

Evelyn mentally sighed. Don't make this difficult Edward, she thought, please…

She offered him a handshake, though it was denied. She slowly dropped her hand back to her side and tried her best to smile politely. “Dr. Marsh invited me,” she explained.

“That so?”

“Aye.”

An awkward silence.

“So…” Evelyn said, not entirely sure where to go next. “Have things been going well?”

“I feel my Elasmosaurus here speaks for the bounty that my work has brought me.”

“Fair enough…”

Cope immediately looked back to the other two scientists. “So gentlemen,” he said, pushing past Evelyn and gesturing towards the skeleton, “what do you think?”

“Rather impressive,” Marsh said as he walked around the exhibit, eyeing as many details as he could see. “But um… there was an inquiry that Dr. Leidy and myself couldn't help but ponder.”

Cope’s smug look suddenly dropped a bit. “Um… of course. What could it be?”

“Why is the head on the wrong end of the animal?”

Cope’s confidence suddenly vanished. Evelyn could feel all the eyes from the crowd suddenly watching.

“What are you talking about?” Cope demanded.

“Well, look at the way the vertebrae are arranged and shaped. The articulations are reversed. The head should be placed on the other end of the spine. The whole animal is wrong end foremost.”

Evelyn looked over the skeleton, noting the vertebrae in question. “Oh my god, he's right,” she observed. “Edward, you've got the animal backwards.”

He gave her the coldest look she had ever seen. Whispers started to sneak from the crowd.

“That's absurd!” Cope contested. “I have studied this animal for many months and I should think I ought to at least know one end from the other!”

Evelyn saw the shade of red he was turning. She knew how poorly Edward dealt with criticism, especially in a public space such as this. Instead of saying something further to add fuel to the fire, she instead went up to the end of the animal’s “tail” and observed the bone at the end of it. She noticed the shape of it. To her, it was unmistakable what it was. She ushered Dr. Leidy over.

“Dr. Leidy,” she inquired. “Does this not look like the atlas and axis with the occipital condyle of the skull?”

Leidy took a close look at it himself, and he nodded quietly in agreement. “Indeed it does, Ms. Arlie,” he said, promoting more whispers from the crowd. Leidy nonchalantly turned to Cope. “My dear friend, I'm afraid Dr. Marsh and Ms. Arlie are correct. You've placed the skull on this animal's tail.”

Cope stared in shock, disbelieving but at the same time unable to deny the clear proof that they pointed out right there in front of his very eyes. He said nothing as Marsh suddenly strode up, pompously removed the skull from the tail, and placed it on the Elasmosaurus’s enormous neck. Cope looked at the judging crowd, at the uncaringness of Marsh and Leidy, and finally at the apologetic face of Evelyn. He fixed her with a bitter, cold scowl that hurt her more than any blade she had ever felt before. Humiliated, enraged, dismayed, Cope simply stormed off towards the back halls of the Academy, leaving the crowds to observe his now-corrected skeleton without him. Evelyn watched him go with a broken heart, unable to think of what to say other than a stuttered and whispered, “Edward… I… I'm sorry… I didn't mean…”

But he was gone. She lowered her head. She didn't mean to shame him like that…

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

Evelyn found herself walking towards Cope’s office a couple hours later. She had to apologize. Not just for his sake, but for hers. She had probably just crushed any chance of rebuilding a friendship with him. Sure, their relationship ended poorly, but that didn't mean she wanted nothing to do with him. She wasn't that kind of girl. She always tried to be friends with as many people as she could. She didn't like having enemies. She didn't want him to hate her.

She had prepared for an outlash and she had thought over everything she wanted to say. Taking a deep breath, she rounded the corner and strode down the hall towards his office.

But she paused. She heard voices coming from inside said office. One was unmistakably Cope, and the other, to Evelyn’s surprise, was Leidy. She held back from knocking or entering, and instead decided to listen.

“The humiliation…” Cope was whining. “How dare they do that to me!”

“I am truly sorry, Dr. Cope,” Leidy said, his voice more business-like than sympathetic. “I wish there was more I could have done to prevent this, but unfortunately I cannot allow scientific change to go impeded simply for sentiments.”

“Damn Marsh and Arlie to hell! I'll show them! I don't know how, but I will show them! I am Edward Cope! My name is renowned in the scientific community! I'm better than the both of them combined!”

“Indeed you are, Dr. Cope. And I believe I might actually be able to assist you in your quest for revenge.”

Evelyn started getting a bad feeling in her gut. She hid behind a plant and peeked in through the crack in the door.

“Oh?” Cope pondered. “How so?”

“I have connections with some very powerful people, Dr. Cope. An Order, if you will, dedicated to the betterment of mankind through the utilization of certain… artifacts.”

Evelyn’s eyes widened as she listened. Her heart sank. No…

“Artifacts?” Cope asked.

“Yes. Ancient artifacts with near-mystical powers that my Order is highly interested in. The one I'm personally after is a device known as the Scythe of Eden, which we believe to be somewhere far out west. Now, there are also an abundance of new fossils being found out there, plenty of opportunities to discover dozens of new species.”

Cope seemed to think it over. “You want me to excavate out west looking for this… Scythe of Eden?”

“Unofficially, yes. And in return, my Order will fund all your digs and give you the opportunity to discover dozens upon dozens more fossils than Marsh and Arlie ever could combined. You would be a legend in the scientific community, more than ever, and this little incident will be wiped from the history books along with Marsh and Arlie’s names. Forever.”

Leidy reached into his pocket and from it, he withdrew a small silver ring, one with a bright red cross etched into it. He offered it to Cope. “What do you say, Dr. Cope?”

Cope looked down at the ring, thinking over the deal, and after a minute or two, he smiled and took the ring with eager glee. “I say you have a deal, Dr. Leidy,” he decided.

Leidy grinned, and shook his fellow scientist's hand. “Excellent,” he said.

Evelyn practically ran down the hall and out the door. She fled to the gardens, feeling like she was going to throw up. She started crying. How could this happen? How could her old friend fall this far? She couldn't believe it. She tried to force herself to believe this was a dream, a nightmare, but she couldn't. This was really happening. Not only was her old friend falling in with her greatest enemies, but he was also out for her blood now too, and those very Templars recruiting him were using his talents to unearth a weapon with which they could destroy all hopes for humanity. She could barely handle it all at once. What was this mess she found herself stuck in?

What else could go wrong?