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January 24, 2016; Croydon, Indiana

So you'll never guess who we found at the caverns on the night we arrived. Yep. Abstergo. The Templars can’t ever just let our job be easy, can they? They had gotten there a while before we did too, based on all the equipment they had set up that was leading into the dark abyss. Oh well. We just hoped we could find the artifact before they did.

The team consisted of myself, Jacob, and good ol’ Angie, whom Chelsea thankfully managed to convince to come along. It was nice knowing we had the most experienced member of the Hoosier Assassins watching our backs.

“The Templars can’t ever just let our job be easy, can they?” she said as we stood at the cave entrance.

“That's what I was thinking,” I said.

“They've probably got this place bugged.”

I pulled out my phone. “Well, I'm getting a few signals,” I said. “But overall, ctOS seems pretty cut back. Probably didn't want to attract too much attention.”

“And yet they just leave all this excavation equipment laying around,” Chelsea said over my earpiece.

“You don’t think this could be planned, do you?” Jacob said, trying to look around the area, searching for people. “Like they knew we were coming?”

“Eh, probably not,” I said. “But if they were expecting us, it would seem rather rude to keep them waiting. Come on guys!”

“Be careful, Carter,” Chelsea said.

“We'll be fine, Chels. I promise.”

“Wish us luck, sweetheart,” Angie said to her.

Jacob hung his head. “We’re going to die.”

“Allons-y!” I shouted optimistically. And with that, we cracked our glow sticks, hung them on our belts, and carefully stepped into the dark beyond.

“It smells awful down here,” Angie said.

“I doubt they take a lot of time to clean some old cave,” I reasoned.

“You're lucky you don't have a sense of smell, kiddo.”

I shrugged. We kept on course, stepping over rocks and trying to avoid bumping into the fragile-looking areas. This cave didn't quite seem 100% stable, and with Abstergo sticking their equipment wherever they pleased, it only made things worse.

As we came to a large chamber with an underground river whose waters were lit up by a string of halogen lamps, we heard voices up ahead.

“I'm not so sure about the new guy,” an Abstergo agent said.

“He's better than Trina,” a buddy of his said.

We all ducked behind a large rock and watched them from the shadows. They stood next to the tourist boats, apparently standing guard.

“Yeah, he is,” continued the guard, “but… I dunno. There just seems to be something off about him. Like… well just a few weeks ago for example. You remember that Assassin raid on one of our buildings?”

“Yeah. Poor Mr. Lupe was killed that night.”

“Right. But Morgenster didn't seem to think much of it. When I reported to him, he just kinda shrugged it off.”

“Lupe was a good man, a good friend too, but he didn't have much to do with the plan in the end. Morgenster’s more about efficiency than anything.”

“Lupe brought the Arlie chick in, didn't he? We finished Project Roanoke because of him.”

“Yeah, and it was a dead end. The Assassins destroyed the Piece of Eden there, but even so it wasn't the artifact Morgenster wanted.”

Jacob leaned forward, listening to the conversation carefully. “Who’s Morgenster? I don’t think I’ve heard that name before.”

“Guess he's the new baddie on the block,” I said. I turned to Angie with a questioning look.

“He's a master Templar, I know that much,” she said. “Used to be stationed down in North Carolina. Guess Otso Berg had him relocated once you and Chelsea toppled Natasha Wolfgang’s regime.”

“Well if he’s looking for a particular Piece, we better find it first. Who knows what it could do.” Jacob stepped forward, attempting to get a better view of the Templars that were speaking. I held him back and shook my head.

“Hold up,” I said. I reached into my bag and pulled out a smoke bomb. I tested its weight in my palm before activating the timer and tossing it right between the two guards. There was a soft bang, and within moments they were coughing and stumbling through a cloud of smoke. I made a hand gesture to tell everyone to move. I took out one, Jacob took out the other. It was over before the smoke could clear out completely.

Jacob took a moment to check the bodies for anything useful while Angie scouted the cavern quickly to check for any more danger. I walked over to the tourist boats, looking at them, then at the river, then again at them.

“Looks like there's only one way to go from here.” I called to my friends. I hopped onto one of the boats, and pulled out my phone. To my glee, they were hooked up to ctOS. I could hack the start up controls and just move the thing remotely. Excellent.

“Oooh. Never been on a boat before.” Jacob commented, having thoroughly checked the Templars. He walked over and hopped in. Angie did the same.

“You know how to work this thing?”

“Eh… I think I got the gist of it,” I said, fiddling with the codes on my phone. I managed to get the thing started up, and after a few mishaps involving the thing's radio and roof tech, I managed to get the thing in motion. We slowly and somewhat quietly began to drift down the lazy river of the caverns.

When we reached solid ground again, we began to hear more voices than before. It wasn't long before we came across more Templars. There were a lot of them, and they were all armed and ready. Angie motioned for everyone to stay quiet and keep low. We crouched behind some rock formations along the walls, trying our best to avoid being detected.

“I'm so sick of being down here,” we heard a guard say.

“Get over it,” said another.

“There's probably bears or something down here!”

“Oh, come on. The worst you'll get in this part of the cave is bats.”

“Oh yeah because that's so much better.”

“Just sayin’ man.”

“Damn animals skittering around. They sneak up on you!”

“Yeah yeah.”

Jacob’s eyes widen and he looks at me, mouthing “Bears?”

I shrugged and mouthed back, “It happens.”

Then suddenly I felt one of those aforementioned animals skitter over my shoe, a rodent of some sort. I jumped a bit but not enough to give us away.

But then another little critter came falling from the ceiling, a screeching bat. And then another, and two more, and eventually a whole swarm came out of the cavernous depths and flew by us all, screeching as they went. The Templars tried to shoo them away, as did we. Jacob started overreacting to our predicament. A few bats clawed at him when he tried to swipe them away, and he made a bit too much noise when it happened. Once the swarm was gone, the Templars turned to us, suddenly alerted, and shouted orders as they raised their guns.

“Crap…” I said.

“Sorry!” Jacob yelled, getting ready to fight. Angie drew her pistol and started firing after the Templars brought a bulletstorm down on us. I drew my baton and extended it. I leapt over the rock and dipped and dodged my way to the nearest enemy, knocking his gun away and thwacking him unconscious. As I rolled behind another rock for cover, Jacob had gotten his own gun out. Learning from last time, he took time to aim and actually hit someone with it.

I quickly reached into my bag and dug out my shock blade. I strapped it on, replacing my left hidden blade with it, and flicked it into activation. The sparks flew off of it as I leapt from cover and lunged at another guard, ending his life and sending his body spasming to the ground. I managed to take out one more before rolling back into cover.

The cave started rumbling, only a small bit. A few pebbles skittered down the walls.

“Oh, that's a good sign,” I said sarcastically over the roar of gunfire. Suddenly, a bullet smacked into the limestone right by my head. The close call brought my attention back to the fight. I leapt forward again, blade raised. But the man I lunged at had learnt from the others and drew his baton. Right as I was about to jab him with my shock blade, he hit me hard and sent me flying. I slammed into the rock wall with a painful thud. As I rubbed my head, the cave’s rumbling suddenly worsened. I heard a crack. A crack that came from underneath me.

“Oh f-”

A huge hole in the floor was suddenly ripped open as the rocks gave way, sending me, one of the guards, and some random Templar equipment falling. I heard my friends call out as they were fighting the remaining enemies, but it wasn't long before they were out of range. I went tumbling down a rough limestone tunnel, getting rather bruised in the process. Not to mention how dirty my hoodies got too. Do you have any idea how hard it is to wash these outfits? Seriously! Our outfits are stark white! Bit of a design flaw. It does look cool though…

Where was I? Oh right! A painful fall down a rock slide.

After a few moments of falling and trying to catch myself without luck, I reached the other end of the tunnel. I fell into another chamber with another lake, and went splashing into the water.

I lugged myself out breathlessly and just sat there as I regained my bearings. I looked over at the guard and the equipment whose fall he broke.

“Requiescat in pace,” I said to his body before finally standing up and looking around. Yeah. No doubt about it. I had no idea where in god’s name I was now. Thankfully, Chelsea's voice had suddenly crackled it's way onto my earpiece.

“Carter!” she said frantically. “You okay?”

“Oh yeah,” I joked. “Yeah I'm fine. I love falling five stories down a limestone tunnel and landing in some freezing cave lake. Yeah, it was great.”

“Boy, don't you get smart with me; I will smack you.”

I laughed at that. “Alright, calm down,” I said. “I really am fine, just a bit bruised. Do you know how I can get out of here?”

“Hmm… I can't tell from here. Abstergo should have this whole place mapped and wired though. Why don't you see if you can pull anything from ctOS.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Alright. I'll bring the camera drone down after you so I can keep watch.”

“Got it. What about Angie and Jacob?”

“They just took out the last guard and they're on the hunt. Don't worry kiddo.”

“Cool.”

That's about when the drone came down the tunnel, which was a relief to me. It was the next best thing to having my cousin actually by my side. It made me feel like I wasn't alone.

I pulled out my phone and used it to break into ctOS. There wasn't much there, but there was enough to get general directions back upwards.

...And enough for my profiler widget tell me there was another person in the room. I heard a gun being cocked, and I instantly ducked for cover.

I yanked out my own pistol as a folly of bullets went smacking into the rocks nearby.

“Hey! Jess!” I joked. “Long time no see! How ya been?”

“You aren't getting away from me this time!” she bitterly called back.

“Jeez, you're really set on this whole revenge thing, aren't you?”

“Carter…” Chelsea warned.

Jess fired another round at me. “You killed my mother!” she called.

“Well, I've already presented my opinion on your mother, so…”

She fired again, and I fired back. One shot, two shots, three. I heard one of my bullets hit something less solid than rock. She winced in pain but kept fighting.

“You don’t understand who my mother was!” she said.

“I don't think you understand who your mother was,” I replied. I loaded another round into my gun. “I watched her men slaughter innocent people, even children, just to get what they wanted.”

“...Shut up.”

“I watched them use any power they could get their hands on and use it to bathe the walls of the city in blood.”

“Shut up!”

“I watched them take a once beautiful city and turn it scarred and gray for no other reason than because they thought it was their right. So you'll excuse me for not wanting to support such activity.”

“You think I wanted any of that!?”

She said it with such a fury, such a suddenness, like a bottle that had been shaken up after being corked up. I could hear her crying through her anger “You think I wanted to take all the pain and beatings? You don't know what it's like to
… to... I… I...”

I went dead silent. “Wait, what?” I said, dropping any sarcasm I had before, and replacing it with… intrigue? Curiosity?

No… concern. That's what it was.

“Jess…” I said.

I could hear her crying. But she flared up through her tears. “It's my job to serve the Templars and keep order no matter the cost,” she said. “I… I am a Huntress, and it's my job to get rid of rats like you!”

“Jess wait!”

But she was already charging at me, screaming with her baton raised high. I rolled out from my cover and drew my own weapon, clashing it against hers. I got a good look at her tear-stained face. I could see the gears screeching behind her eyes, like they were trying desperately to stop themselves from turning a certain way. That was the first moment I realized: she was different. She had doubt.

But as much as I wanted to stop fighting and try and talk to her, her fury had blinded her, and she wasn't going to stop trying to hit me with her baton any time soon. And so I did the only thing I could do. I dodged her next attack, sending her off balance and used that to grip her tight. I flicked out my shock blade and quickly but gently pressed it against her skin. She spasmed as the electricity went through her and within moments she fell to the ground, motionless.

She wasn't dead, far from it. I just tased her unconscious. After learning what I just did, there was no way I was going to kill her. Course, I told Chelsea she was dead when she asked over my earpiece.

“You can put this nightmare to rest, Chels,” I told her with fake confidence.

“Thank God…” she said. “You have no idea how good that makes me feel, Carter. Thank you.”

“No problem, cous’. Now, how do I get out of here?”

“I checked through the map you found on ctOS. Looks like there's a path that converges with the one the others are on not far from here. Just follow that, and you all should meet up again.”

“Sweet. On my way.”

I gathered up my things and made my way to the chamber exit, taking one last look at poor Jess before leaving. We'd meet again, I knew we would.

We had to…

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

“Guys!” I said to Angie and Jacob as I met up with them at the convergence point. Angie smiled brighter than the sun and hugged me tight.

“Carter!” she said. “Thank god!”

“Good to see friendly faces again.”

Jacob frowned slightly. “Friendly? Run into some trouble?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Yeah, you know. Ran into Jess Wolfgang again. But that's over with now, so yeah.”

He eyed me for a second, then said, “You kill her?”

“I did,” I lied. I wasn't going to tell them either. Angie would have my head, and Chels would probably have my… well... nevermind.

“Thank god for it too,” Chels said over our earpieces.

“So,” I said to my friends. “Any luck finding the Piece of Eden?”

Angie nodded. “Based on that map Chelsea sent us, the entrance to the temple should be right up ahead.”

“Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!”

The others nodded, and we set off down the nearest corridor.

As we walked, we noticed the shift in atmosphere. The limestone walls slowly started being replaced with bizarre metallic shapes that jutted out at various angles. The farther we went, the more the corridor was encased in an eerie blue glow. We started seeing glyphs along the walls, ancient glyphs of ancient people. Jacob let out a whistle at the change in scenery. I agreed with a nod.

“Certainly impressive,” I said. “Bit trippy too.”

“These places definitely have a certain… allure to them,” Angie said.

A little too eager to find the Piece of Eden, Jacob began to rush forward into the next room. Angie and I quickly followed.

And there it was, sitting atop a glowing pedestal in the chamber beyond. There sat a golden Staff. It had the same glow as everything else, albeit a different color. At one end, four perfect circles were carved out of it. You know the Precursors must've been advanced if they can make freaking perfect circles. Do you know how hard it is to make those? ...Anyway.

Next to the Staff sat the things I assumed were meant to go into the slots. Four little golden Marbles. Each one had a different pattern on it, and a different glow color. White, blue, red, and green. I clicked on my earpiece.

“This the thing, Chels?” I asked.

“That's the thing…” she said, a hint of discomfort in her voice.

Then suddenly, Jacob laughed victoriously and ran up the stairs to the pedestal before we could say anything, and he snatched the Staff up. He twisted it around in his hands admiring it. “It’s… a staff.” He turned toward us, posing. “This would go great with my duster!” And then he saw the worried looks on our faces.

“Yeah, well,” I said. “Sorry to say you won't be taking that thing to any cons.”

He smiled. “I wouldn’t take my duster either. Too valuable.”

I let myself laugh a bit at that. “Yeah yeah,” I said. Now come on. Let's get that thing out of here so we can bury it.”

“Bury it? You want to bury it!?”

“Well, Chelsea wanted to blow it up, but that tends to be a bit messy.”

He blinked at that and scowled. “Blow it up? We should use it! It would give us the edge!”

“No man deserves to wield such a power. Not even the Assassins,” I said simply. “It's too dangerous.” I stepped forward a bit. Was it me, or did the lights around us start flashing a bit?

Jacob grimaced and turned his head, leaning away from the staff. “Right…” he said, though a bit hesitantly. “Those who seek power are not worthy of that power…” He sighed and began to retrieve the Marbles.

“Exactly!” I said, smiling. “So let's gather these up and-”

“They're over here! Hurry!”

We all turned towards the entrance. The sounds of rushing footsteps was quickly approaching.

“Crap…”

It wasn't long before the room was full of Templar scumbags, all of them aiming rifles at us three.

“Stand down, Assassins!” their leader called. “We've got you outgunned and outnumbered!”

“Hmm… yeah, that's pretty rude of you,” I said jokingly, trying to buy time with banter as I analysed the environment for a way out.

“Stand down and hand over the Piece of Eden,” the Templar called.

“What Piece of Eden?”

“The Staff.”

“What's a Staff?”

“I… erg… the glowing stick!”

“The only stick I see is up your ass, good sir.” I probably would've laughed at my own joke if I wasn't focused on looking around. The lights definitely seemed to be flickering a bit. Why? I know this tech is old, but that didn't seem to be enough of an explanation…

“Just hand over the Piece of Eden before my men shoot you down,” the guy said, clearly not too fond of my joke. Tough crowd.

“Pieces, actually.” Jacob interjected, stepping between us and the Templars, the Staff of Eden held in front of him. “And my friend’s right. You need to chill out.” The Blue Marble lit up as he thrust the Piece forward, and suddenly a burst of light and a pulse of arctic-cold air exploded from the Staff.

The Templars were sent flying into the wall behind them, and the blast was strong enough to knock them all out. The lights were flickering pretty intensely now. Angie and I looked right at Jacob, who seemed to be enjoying himself a bit too much. He shivered and turned to us, smiling.

“Hey! It works!” He laughed, eyes twinkling.

We said nothing. We just looked at him. The Staff was still glowing bright.

“You shouldn't have done that,” I said. “We could've escaped another way.”

“They had the exit blocked,” he said, “and were about to shoot. There was no way to get around them, and we’re good, but even we couldn’t have gotten through them all and held onto the Piece.” He gestured to the Templars, still smiling. “Problem solved, Piece in hand. I’ll give it back.”

I scowled, as did Angie, and likely Chelsea too. He handed the Staff to me, and I snatched it away with gloved hands. “That's not our way though,” I argued.

He scoffed and walked to the door. “Your way would have gotten us killed. I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

He walked out of the room, full of confidence. We watched him go. “Neither was I,” I said under my breath. And then my cousin and I followed him, stepping over the Templars as we did.

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

January 24, 2016; Indianapolis, Indiana

“Honey, we're home!” I joked when we walked into one of the hideout living rooms.

“You're such a dweeb,” Chelsea said.

“Takes one to know one.”

She stuck her tongue out at me, and I did the same to her. Then we both laughed.

“So,” she said to us three. “You have the weather thing?” The thing was obvious, sticking out of my bag strap like it was, but she asked anyway.

“We do indeed,” I said, smiling. I grabbed the thing and showed it to her. I could see discomfort slowly slip onto her face.

“Good. Let's blow it up,” she said, reaching to grab it. I pulled it away.

“Woah there! Hold up. You know we can't just blow it up here and now. You know what happened at Tunguska.”

She reluctantly drew her hand back. “Fine…” she said. “But we're destroying that thing the second it's safe to do so, got it?”

“Got it.”

“What happened in Tunguska?” Jacob asked, stepping into the room behind us.

I looked over at him. “1908,” I said. “The Templars in Russia were using a Staff of Eden for research in a secret laboratory. So, we called up our buddy Nikola Tesla and asked him to pretty much blow the place up. But, turns out when you shoot a Piece of Eden with a laser beam, the thing creates an explosion big enough to disintegrate an entire forest.” I paused. “There was only one survivor…”

“That's why we need to be extra careful with these things,” Ben said from his desk. “One wrong move and…”

“Boom,” Ruby finished.

“Oh. Boom.” Jacob said, glancing at the Staff. “And you’re going to blow this one up when you get the chance? Why not blow it up in a Templar base?”

“None nearby are isolated enough,” Angie said. “Innocent lives would get caught in the blast.”

“All scientists have sublabs.” Jacob shrugged. “Blow it up underground.”

“He's got a point,” Ava said.

“Well, tell you what,” I told Jacob. “Why don’t you go out and look for one while I hop back into the Animus. You'll find it's easier said than done.”

“Actually,” Ruby said. “We're all taking a break from the Animus stuff. We already had one really bad Bleeding Effect incident when Ava was exploring 1812. We don't want to risk a repeat.”

I paused. “Well alrighty then,” I said. I looked at Jacob. “My point still stands,” I joked.

“Damn Canadians.” Jacob chuckled, clearly joking. But even so, I couldn't help but feel a twinge from Priscilla, a little need to defend her mentor. I shook it off. Maybe a break from the Animus wasn't such a bad idea. Then Jacob yawned, rubbing his eyes. He groaned. “I think I’m going to get something to drink and go rest. Thanks for taking me along, Carter.”

“No problem,” I said, smiling. “Novice.”

Jacob tilted his head back and laughed, leaving the room.

“Do you trust him?” Chelsea asked when she was sure he was gone.

“I do,” I said.

“Even after what he did?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I hope you're right. Just know if he keeps that up…”

“I know Chels.”

“Just sayin.”

“I know.”

“So, you gonna hit the hay too?”

“Eh, not just yet. I have to head into town. There's someone I have to arrange to meet...”

Description
January 24, 2016; Croydon, Indiana

So you'll never guess who we found at the caverns on the night we arrived. Yep. Abstergo. The Templars can’t ever just let our job be easy, can they? They had gotten there a while before we did too, based on all the equipment they had set up that was leading into the dark abyss. Oh well. We just hoped we could find the artifact before they did.

The team consisted of myself, Jacob, and good ol’ Angie, whom Chelsea thankfully managed to convince to come along. It was nice knowing we had the most experienced member of the Hoosier Assassins watching our backs.

“The Templars can’t ever just let our job be easy, can they?” she said as we stood at the cave entrance.

“That's what I was thinking,” I said.

“They've probably got this place bugged.”

I pulled out my phone. “Well, I'm getting a few signals,” I said. “But overall, ctOS seems pretty cut back. Probably didn't want to attract too much attention.”

“And yet they just leave all this excavation equipment laying around,” Chelsea said over my earpiece.

“You don’t think this could be planned, do you?” Jacob said, trying to look around the area, searching for people. “Like they knew we were coming?”

“Eh, probably not,” I said. “But if they were expecting us, it would seem rather rude to keep them waiting. Come on guys!”

“Be careful, Carter,” Chelsea said.

“We'll be fine, Chels. I promise.”

“Wish us luck, sweetheart,” Angie said to her.

Jacob hung his head. “We’re going to die.”

“Allons-y!” I shouted optimistically. And with that, we cracked our glow sticks, hung them on our belts, and carefully stepped into the dark beyond.

“It smells awful down here,” Angie said.

“I doubt they take a lot of time to clean some old cave,” I reasoned.

“You're lucky you don't have a sense of smell, kiddo.”

I shrugged. We kept on course, stepping over rocks and trying to avoid bumping into the fragile-looking areas. This cave didn't quite seem 100% stable, and with Abstergo sticking their equipment wherever they pleased, it only made things worse.

As we came to a large chamber with an underground river whose waters were lit up by a string of halogen lamps, we heard voices up ahead.

“I'm not so sure about the new guy,” an Abstergo agent said.

“He's better than Trina,” a buddy of his said.

We all ducked behind a large rock and watched them from the shadows. They stood next to the tourist boats, apparently standing guard.

“Yeah, he is,” continued the guard, “but… I dunno. There just seems to be something off about him. Like… well just a few weeks ago for example. You remember that Assassin raid on one of our buildings?”

“Yeah. Poor Mr. Lupe was killed that night.”

“Right. But Morgenster didn't seem to think much of it. When I reported to him, he just kinda shrugged it off.”

“Lupe was a good man, a good friend too, but he didn't have much to do with the plan in the end. Morgenster’s more about efficiency than anything.”

“Lupe brought the Arlie chick in, didn't he? We finished Project Roanoke because of him.”

“Yeah, and it was a dead end. The Assassins destroyed the Piece of Eden there, but even so it wasn't the artifact Morgenster wanted.”

Jacob leaned forward, listening to the conversation carefully. “Who’s Morgenster? I don’t think I’ve heard that name before.”

“Guess he's the new baddie on the block,” I said. I turned to Angie with a questioning look.

“He's a master Templar, I know that much,” she said. “Used to be stationed down in North Carolina. Guess Otso Berg had him relocated once you and Chelsea toppled Natasha Wolfgang’s regime.”

“Well if he’s looking for a particular Piece, we better find it first. Who knows what it could do.” Jacob stepped forward, attempting to get a better view of the Templars that were speaking. I held him back and shook my head.

“Hold up,” I said. I reached into my bag and pulled out a smoke bomb. I tested its weight in my palm before activating the timer and tossing it right between the two guards. There was a soft bang, and within moments they were coughing and stumbling through a cloud of smoke. I made a hand gesture to tell everyone to move. I took out one, Jacob took out the other. It was over before the smoke could clear out completely.

Jacob took a moment to check the bodies for anything useful while Angie scouted the cavern quickly to check for any more danger. I walked over to the tourist boats, looking at them, then at the river, then again at them.

“Looks like there's only one way to go from here.” I called to my friends. I hopped onto one of the boats, and pulled out my phone. To my glee, they were hooked up to ctOS. I could hack the start up controls and just move the thing remotely. Excellent.

“Oooh. Never been on a boat before.” Jacob commented, having thoroughly checked the Templars. He walked over and hopped in. Angie did the same.

“You know how to work this thing?”

“Eh… I think I got the gist of it,” I said, fiddling with the codes on my phone. I managed to get the thing started up, and after a few mishaps involving the thing's radio and roof tech, I managed to get the thing in motion. We slowly and somewhat quietly began to drift down the lazy river of the caverns.

When we reached solid ground again, we began to hear more voices than before. It wasn't long before we came across more Templars. There were a lot of them, and they were all armed and ready. Angie motioned for everyone to stay quiet and keep low. We crouched behind some rock formations along the walls, trying our best to avoid being detected.

“I'm so sick of being down here,” we heard a guard say.

“Get over it,” said another.

“There's probably bears or something down here!”

“Oh, come on. The worst you'll get in this part of the cave is bats.”

“Oh yeah because that's so much better.”

“Just sayin’ man.”

“Damn animals skittering around. They sneak up on you!”

“Yeah yeah.”

Jacob’s eyes widen and he looks at me, mouthing “Bears?”

I shrugged and mouthed back, “It happens.”

Then suddenly I felt one of those aforementioned animals skitter over my shoe, a rodent of some sort. I jumped a bit but not enough to give us away.

But then another little critter came falling from the ceiling, a screeching bat. And then another, and two more, and eventually a whole swarm came out of the cavernous depths and flew by us all, screeching as they went. The Templars tried to shoo them away, as did we. Jacob started overreacting to our predicament. A few bats clawed at him when he tried to swipe them away, and he made a bit too much noise when it happened. Once the swarm was gone, the Templars turned to us, suddenly alerted, and shouted orders as they raised their guns.

“Crap…” I said.

“Sorry!” Jacob yelled, getting ready to fight. Angie drew her pistol and started firing after the Templars brought a bulletstorm down on us. I drew my baton and extended it. I leapt over the rock and dipped and dodged my way to the nearest enemy, knocking his gun away and thwacking him unconscious. As I rolled behind another rock for cover, Jacob had gotten his own gun out. Learning from last time, he took time to aim and actually hit someone with it.

I quickly reached into my bag and dug out my shock blade. I strapped it on, replacing my left hidden blade with it, and flicked it into activation. The sparks flew off of it as I leapt from cover and lunged at another guard, ending his life and sending his body spasming to the ground. I managed to take out one more before rolling back into cover.

The cave started rumbling, only a small bit. A few pebbles skittered down the walls.

“Oh, that's a good sign,” I said sarcastically over the roar of gunfire. Suddenly, a bullet smacked into the limestone right by my head. The close call brought my attention back to the fight. I leapt forward again, blade raised. But the man I lunged at had learnt from the others and drew his baton. Right as I was about to jab him with my shock blade, he hit me hard and sent me flying. I slammed into the rock wall with a painful thud. As I rubbed my head, the cave’s rumbling suddenly worsened. I heard a crack. A crack that came from underneath me.

“Oh f-”

A huge hole in the floor was suddenly ripped open as the rocks gave way, sending me, one of the guards, and some random Templar equipment falling. I heard my friends call out as they were fighting the remaining enemies, but it wasn't long before they were out of range. I went tumbling down a rough limestone tunnel, getting rather bruised in the process. Not to mention how dirty my hoodies got too. Do you have any idea how hard it is to wash these outfits? Seriously! Our outfits are stark white! Bit of a design flaw. It does look cool though…

Where was I? Oh right! A painful fall down a rock slide.

After a few moments of falling and trying to catch myself without luck, I reached the other end of the tunnel. I fell into another chamber with another lake, and went splashing into the water.

I lugged myself out breathlessly and just sat there as I regained my bearings. I looked over at the guard and the equipment whose fall he broke.

“Requiescat in pace,” I said to his body before finally standing up and looking around. Yeah. No doubt about it. I had no idea where in god’s name I was now. Thankfully, Chelsea's voice had suddenly crackled it's way onto my earpiece.

“Carter!” she said frantically. “You okay?”

“Oh yeah,” I joked. “Yeah I'm fine. I love falling five stories down a limestone tunnel and landing in some freezing cave lake. Yeah, it was great.”

“Boy, don't you get smart with me; I will smack you.”

I laughed at that. “Alright, calm down,” I said. “I really am fine, just a bit bruised. Do you know how I can get out of here?”

“Hmm… I can't tell from here. Abstergo should have this whole place mapped and wired though. Why don't you see if you can pull anything from ctOS.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Alright. I'll bring the camera drone down after you so I can keep watch.”

“Got it. What about Angie and Jacob?”

“They just took out the last guard and they're on the hunt. Don't worry kiddo.”

“Cool.”

That's about when the drone came down the tunnel, which was a relief to me. It was the next best thing to having my cousin actually by my side. It made me feel like I wasn't alone.

I pulled out my phone and used it to break into ctOS. There wasn't much there, but there was enough to get general directions back upwards.

...And enough for my profiler widget tell me there was another person in the room. I heard a gun being cocked, and I instantly ducked for cover.

I yanked out my own pistol as a folly of bullets went smacking into the rocks nearby.

“Hey! Jess!” I joked. “Long time no see! How ya been?”

“You aren't getting away from me this time!” she bitterly called back.

“Jeez, you're really set on this whole revenge thing, aren't you?”

“Carter…” Chelsea warned.

Jess fired another round at me. “You killed my mother!” she called.

“Well, I've already presented my opinion on your mother, so…”

She fired again, and I fired back. One shot, two shots, three. I heard one of my bullets hit something less solid than rock. She winced in pain but kept fighting.

“You don’t understand who my mother was!” she said.

“I don't think you understand who your mother was,” I replied. I loaded another round into my gun. “I watched her men slaughter innocent people, even children, just to get what they wanted.”

“...Shut up.”

“I watched them use any power they could get their hands on and use it to bathe the walls of the city in blood.”

“Shut up!”

“I watched them take a once beautiful city and turn it scarred and gray for no other reason than because they thought it was their right. So you'll excuse me for not wanting to support such activity.”

“You think I wanted any of that!?”

She said it with such a fury, such a suddenness, like a bottle that had been shaken up after being corked up. I could hear her crying through her anger “You think I wanted to take all the pain and beatings? You don't know what it's like to
… to... I… I...”

I went dead silent. “Wait, what?” I said, dropping any sarcasm I had before, and replacing it with… intrigue? Curiosity?

No… concern. That's what it was.

“Jess…” I said.

I could hear her crying. But she flared up through her tears. “It's my job to serve the Templars and keep order no matter the cost,” she said. “I… I am a Huntress, and it's my job to get rid of rats like you!”

“Jess wait!”

But she was already charging at me, screaming with her baton raised high. I rolled out from my cover and drew my own weapon, clashing it against hers. I got a good look at her tear-stained face. I could see the gears screeching behind her eyes, like they were trying desperately to stop themselves from turning a certain way. That was the first moment I realized: she was different. She had doubt.

But as much as I wanted to stop fighting and try and talk to her, her fury had blinded her, and she wasn't going to stop trying to hit me with her baton any time soon. And so I did the only thing I could do. I dodged her next attack, sending her off balance and used that to grip her tight. I flicked out my shock blade and quickly but gently pressed it against her skin. She spasmed as the electricity went through her and within moments she fell to the ground, motionless.

She wasn't dead, far from it. I just tased her unconscious. After learning what I just did, there was no way I was going to kill her. Course, I told Chelsea she was dead when she asked over my earpiece.

“You can put this nightmare to rest, Chels,” I told her with fake confidence.

“Thank God…” she said. “You have no idea how good that makes me feel, Carter. Thank you.”

“No problem, cous’. Now, how do I get out of here?”

“I checked through the map you found on ctOS. Looks like there's a path that converges with the one the others are on not far from here. Just follow that, and you all should meet up again.”

“Sweet. On my way.”

I gathered up my things and made my way to the chamber exit, taking one last look at poor Jess before leaving. We'd meet again, I knew we would.

We had to…

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

“Guys!” I said to Angie and Jacob as I met up with them at the convergence point. Angie smiled brighter than the sun and hugged me tight.

“Carter!” she said. “Thank god!”

“Good to see friendly faces again.”

Jacob frowned slightly. “Friendly? Run into some trouble?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Yeah, you know. Ran into Jess Wolfgang again. But that's over with now, so yeah.”

He eyed me for a second, then said, “You kill her?”

“I did,” I lied. I wasn't going to tell them either. Angie would have my head, and Chels would probably have my… well... nevermind.

“Thank god for it too,” Chels said over our earpieces.

“So,” I said to my friends. “Any luck finding the Piece of Eden?”

Angie nodded. “Based on that map Chelsea sent us, the entrance to the temple should be right up ahead.”

“Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!”

The others nodded, and we set off down the nearest corridor.

As we walked, we noticed the shift in atmosphere. The limestone walls slowly started being replaced with bizarre metallic shapes that jutted out at various angles. The farther we went, the more the corridor was encased in an eerie blue glow. We started seeing glyphs along the walls, ancient glyphs of ancient people. Jacob let out a whistle at the change in scenery. I agreed with a nod.

“Certainly impressive,” I said. “Bit trippy too.”

“These places definitely have a certain… allure to them,” Angie said.

A little too eager to find the Piece of Eden, Jacob began to rush forward into the next room. Angie and I quickly followed.

And there it was, sitting atop a glowing pedestal in the chamber beyond. There sat a golden Staff. It had the same glow as everything else, albeit a different color. At one end, four perfect circles were carved out of it. You know the Precursors must've been advanced if they can make freaking perfect circles. Do you know how hard it is to make those? ...Anyway.

Next to the Staff sat the things I assumed were meant to go into the slots. Four little golden Marbles. Each one had a different pattern on it, and a different glow color. White, blue, red, and green. I clicked on my earpiece.

“This the thing, Chels?” I asked.

“That's the thing…” she said, a hint of discomfort in her voice.

Then suddenly, Jacob laughed victoriously and ran up the stairs to the pedestal before we could say anything, and he snatched the Staff up. He twisted it around in his hands admiring it. “It’s… a staff.” He turned toward us, posing. “This would go great with my duster!” And then he saw the worried looks on our faces.

“Yeah, well,” I said. “Sorry to say you won't be taking that thing to any cons.”

He smiled. “I wouldn’t take my duster either. Too valuable.”

I let myself laugh a bit at that. “Yeah yeah,” I said. Now come on. Let's get that thing out of here so we can bury it.”

“Bury it? You want to bury it!?”

“Well, Chelsea wanted to blow it up, but that tends to be a bit messy.”

He blinked at that and scowled. “Blow it up? We should use it! It would give us the edge!”

“No man deserves to wield such a power. Not even the Assassins,” I said simply. “It's too dangerous.” I stepped forward a bit. Was it me, or did the lights around us start flashing a bit?

Jacob grimaced and turned his head, leaning away from the staff. “Right…” he said, though a bit hesitantly. “Those who seek power are not worthy of that power…” He sighed and began to retrieve the Marbles.

“Exactly!” I said, smiling. “So let's gather these up and-”

“They're over here! Hurry!”

We all turned towards the entrance. The sounds of rushing footsteps was quickly approaching.

“Crap…”

It wasn't long before the room was full of Templar scumbags, all of them aiming rifles at us three.

“Stand down, Assassins!” their leader called. “We've got you outgunned and outnumbered!”

“Hmm… yeah, that's pretty rude of you,” I said jokingly, trying to buy time with banter as I analysed the environment for a way out.

“Stand down and hand over the Piece of Eden,” the Templar called.

“What Piece of Eden?”

“The Staff.”

“What's a Staff?”

“I… erg… the glowing stick!”

“The only stick I see is up your ass, good sir.” I probably would've laughed at my own joke if I wasn't focused on looking around. The lights definitely seemed to be flickering a bit. Why? I know this tech is old, but that didn't seem to be enough of an explanation…

“Just hand over the Piece of Eden before my men shoot you down,” the guy said, clearly not too fond of my joke. Tough crowd.

“Pieces, actually.” Jacob interjected, stepping between us and the Templars, the Staff of Eden held in front of him. “And my friend’s right. You need to chill out.” The Blue Marble lit up as he thrust the Piece forward, and suddenly a burst of light and a pulse of arctic-cold air exploded from the Staff.

The Templars were sent flying into the wall behind them, and the blast was strong enough to knock them all out. The lights were flickering pretty intensely now. Angie and I looked right at Jacob, who seemed to be enjoying himself a bit too much. He shivered and turned to us, smiling.

“Hey! It works!” He laughed, eyes twinkling.

We said nothing. We just looked at him. The Staff was still glowing bright.

“You shouldn't have done that,” I said. “We could've escaped another way.”

“They had the exit blocked,” he said, “and were about to shoot. There was no way to get around them, and we’re good, but even we couldn’t have gotten through them all and held onto the Piece.” He gestured to the Templars, still smiling. “Problem solved, Piece in hand. I’ll give it back.”

I scowled, as did Angie, and likely Chelsea too. He handed the Staff to me, and I snatched it away with gloved hands. “That's not our way though,” I argued.

He scoffed and walked to the door. “Your way would have gotten us killed. I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

He walked out of the room, full of confidence. We watched him go. “Neither was I,” I said under my breath. And then my cousin and I followed him, stepping over the Templars as we did.

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

January 24, 2016; Indianapolis, Indiana

“Honey, we're home!” I joked when we walked into one of the hideout living rooms.

“You're such a dweeb,” Chelsea said.

“Takes one to know one.”

She stuck her tongue out at me, and I did the same to her. Then we both laughed.

“So,” she said to us three. “You have the weather thing?” The thing was obvious, sticking out of my bag strap like it was, but she asked anyway.

“We do indeed,” I said, smiling. I grabbed the thing and showed it to her. I could see discomfort slowly slip onto her face.

“Good. Let's blow it up,” she said, reaching to grab it. I pulled it away.

“Woah there! Hold up. You know we can't just blow it up here and now. You know what happened at Tunguska.”

She reluctantly drew her hand back. “Fine…” she said. “But we're destroying that thing the second it's safe to do so, got it?”

“Got it.”

“What happened in Tunguska?” Jacob asked, stepping into the room behind us.

I looked over at him. “1908,” I said. “The Templars in Russia were using a Staff of Eden for research in a secret laboratory. So, we called up our buddy Nikola Tesla and asked him to pretty much blow the place up. But, turns out when you shoot a Piece of Eden with a laser beam, the thing creates an explosion big enough to disintegrate an entire forest.” I paused. “There was only one survivor…”

“That's why we need to be extra careful with these things,” Ben said from his desk. “One wrong move and…”

“Boom,” Ruby finished.

“Oh. Boom.” Jacob said, glancing at the Staff. “And you’re going to blow this one up when you get the chance? Why not blow it up in a Templar base?”

“None nearby are isolated enough,” Angie said. “Innocent lives would get caught in the blast.”

“All scientists have sublabs.” Jacob shrugged. “Blow it up underground.”

“He's got a point,” Ava said.

“Well, tell you what,” I told Jacob. “Why don’t you go out and look for one while I hop back into the Animus. You'll find it's easier said than done.”

“Actually,” Ruby said. “We're all taking a break from the Animus stuff. We already had one really bad Bleeding Effect incident when Ava was exploring 1812. We don't want to risk a repeat.”

I paused. “Well alrighty then,” I said. I looked at Jacob. “My point still stands,” I joked.

“Damn Canadians.” Jacob chuckled, clearly joking. But even so, I couldn't help but feel a twinge from Priscilla, a little need to defend her mentor. I shook it off. Maybe a break from the Animus wasn't such a bad idea. Then Jacob yawned, rubbing his eyes. He groaned. “I think I’m going to get something to drink and go rest. Thanks for taking me along, Carter.”

“No problem,” I said, smiling. “Novice.”

Jacob tilted his head back and laughed, leaving the room.

“Do you trust him?” Chelsea asked when she was sure he was gone.

“I do,” I said.

“Even after what he did?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I hope you're right. Just know if he keeps that up…”

“I know Chels.”

“Just sayin.”

“I know.”

“So, you gonna hit the hay too?”

“Eh, not just yet. I have to head into town. There's someone I have to arrange to meet...”