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Description
June 13, 2016; Indianapolis, Indiana

Lucifer sat at his desk, grumbling. The whole base looked like a tornado had just passed through. Papers were littered everywhere, as well as the bodies of guards that stained them red all throughout the wrecked hallways. Their tech was in shambles too, though Sheol’s Tetris game still seemed to be well intact.

“Dang, that guy sure could fight, huh boss?” Sheol said, nudging his shoulder like some playground kid without any care.

Lucifer promptly responded by grabbing his gun off the table and aiming at her, his eyes still fixed on the wood of the desk.
Sheol put her hands up. “You know you really could benefit from a sense of humor, boss.”

“I have a sense of humor,” he told her.
“But I also have very low tolerance for idiots.”

“That's discrimination and I demand compensation.”

He cocked his gun.

“Aight fine. Mr. Party Pooper.” She pouted. “What's the big deal anyway? So what, the Singer kid escaped? We can just blow him up with the other twerps.”

“I don't think you understand the odds we're facing, Ms. Sheol. I've had many chances to set my plans in motion over the past 75000, and I'm very quickly running out. Based on all the calculations I've done, this little incident only leaves me with a few more chances before I have a 0% chance of succeeding at all.”

“Sounds like it sucks to be you.”

“You do realize this gun is loaded, right?”

“I live as a squatter in the basement of a donut shop, boss. I don't exactly have much to live for. Why do you think I'm such a smartass?”

“I don't have time for this. I need to organize an attack party against the Assassin hideout.” He stood from his chair. “You stay here. At this point I honestly don't care what you do. Just wait for me to come back and tell you the plan of attack.”

“I normally just go in guns blazing with whoever I'm assigned to lead.”

“Just stay in this room and try to cause minimal trouble.”

He stormed out the room, slamming the door behind him. Sheol listened to him grumble down the hall. She sat down in a chair and did a little twirl before twiddling her thumbs and looking around the room for stuff to cure her boredom with. Her eyes landed on the Animus headset. The Cain memories were still loaded up and ready to be played. Sheol grinned. She hopped out of her chair and jogged over before bringing the headset back with her and plopping it over her head.

“Might as well see how this little story really went down,” she said to herself as she loaded up the program and the machine took hold of her brain, sending her mind out of the present day and into the distant past, right where Singer had left off.

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

November 21, 74984 BCE; Purgatory

“So do you have the Apple on you now?” Cain asked his brother.

“I do!” Abel said, patting his pouch. “It never leaves my side. I refuse to risk it falling into the hands of any scoundrels who wish to use it.”

“I see.”

Cain fell behind a couple paces. His hand silently reached into the black depths his robes and grabbed the handle of his dagger. He slid it out slowly and kept that hand behind his back.

“You're gonna have to be on your guard quite a bit carrying something like that around,” he told Abel.

Abel chuckled and shrugged. “True,” he said. “But for now I'm in the company of my brother, my friend, my fellow Assassin. I don't have much cause for worry right now.”

Cain’s brotherly smile turned into a dark frown. He stepped up to Abel as his little brother turned to observe some birds that were flying overhead. Cain’s dirty knuckles turned white as he gripped the knife handle tight. “And that, little brother, is the exact optimism that has caused your downfall,” he said.

And before Abel could respond, Cain grabbed him tight by the shoulder, ignored the look of shock in his Abel’s bright eyes, whipped his blade out from behind his back, and in one swift movement, he raised it high…

And he drove it straight downwards into Abel’s heart.

Abel screamed a shrill cry of pain. Cain ripped the knife out, and drove it into his brother's flesh again and again and again. Human consciousness faded, replaced by animal instinct as he literally ripped the life out of his younger brother.

Abel’s bleeding body collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain and whimpering in shock. He painfully looked up at the emotionless dead stare of his older brother. Tears immediately blurred his vision.

“Cain… my brother… why…?” he sobbed.

“So that order may finally be enforced onto this world,” Cain replied. He bent down and ripped the pouch off of Abel’s belt, despite the younger brother's weak movement to try and stop him.
“Brother… please…” Abel choked, coughing blood as he did.

Cain ignored him. He reached into the pouch and from it he withdrew the Apple of Eden. The golden sphere glowed like the sun in his hands, its light hypnotic and mesmerizing. He gazed into it, into its power, the power he now controlled.

“No…” Abel moaned.

“I am sorry, Abel,” Cain said, not even looking at his brother as he breathed his last, “but this is my destiny. It is what I have to do.”

“I… I love you…”

“Do not try to- What?”

“No… No matter how far you've fallen… You are still my brother… And I'm sorry we let you down… I love you…”

And with that, his body finally went limp. His arm splashed down into the puddle of his own blood. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he breathed his last. Cain finally tore his gaze away from the Apple. He gazed down at the body of his dead brother, his murdered brother, murdered by his own hand. For a very brief moment, his mind recoiled at the deed. What had he just done? How could he have done this? His own brother… the only one that truly cared about him…

But those thoughts were quickly shaken away. The glow of the Apple dragged his gaze back. No… no he had to do this. He had to take the Apple. It was his destiny. It was his right. With this, he would lead the world into a new world of understanding. His brother was merely the first pawn to fall in this game.

Yes…

He stared into the depths of the golden halo surrounding the Apple, feeling its power coursing through his veins… coursing… coursing…

Burning…

Burning in a terrible sting that crawled up his arm in a sudden fit of agony. He nearly dropped the Apple as he screamed. He tore off his hidden blade and gauntlet, trying to give his arm breathing room, but it didn't help. It felt like a dagger was being wiggled around in his arm. He grit his teeth and looked down at it, and was surprised to see the veins under his skin glowing just like the Apple. A patch of flesh just inches below his palm, right where the pain was the most intense, was glowing as well. It almost seemed like it was morphing into a shape, etching out some hellish tattoo into his very being. It was agonizing, but it was over very shortly. The lights disappeared, slithering back into the Apple. As he gasped for breath and his arm shook violently in shock, he looked down at his arm, and he saw the shape that the light had branded into his flesh. A small, simple cross.

He stared at it, confused and mesmerized. He tried touching it, causing both it and the Apple to glow a little. He stared in bewilderment. The only thing that snapped him out of it was the sudden sound of his mother's voice calling him.

“Cain!” she called. He could hear her pushing her way through the reeds. “Are you there, honey? I wanted to talk to you about yesterday.”

Cain acted fast. He sloppily shoved the Apple into a pouch of his own and lugged Abel’s body up before tossing it into the reeds and hoping it would be enough to fool her until he could lure her away.
“I'm here, mother,” he said, standing straight and proper as she appeared before him. She smiled and came up to hug him. His face remained expressionless. Eve could sense something wrong. She backed away and looked into his cold eyes.

“Are… are you okay, sweetie?”

“I'm fine,” he scoffed. That made her back off a little more.

“I… where is Abel? Where's your brother?”

Cain’s mouth twitched a little. “I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?” he said with a bitter snark.

Eve’s eyes started wandering. She noticed the little glow seeping out of Cain’s pouch. She saw drops of red falling from something he was holding behind his back, drops of red forming a trail leading into the reeds…

Eve’s eyes widened and she started to panic. “What did you do?!” she said, shoving past him. He didn't even try to stop her. She screamed in absolute terror when from the reeds she pulled the body of her youngest son, bloody and torn as if by an animal. She frantically cradled Abel in her arms, drenching her robes in blood as she cried violently in grief. She looked over at Cain through tear-blurred vision. She saw the knife he was holding, saw the Apple peeking out of his pouch.
“Why?!” she screamed. “How could you do this to him?!”

Cain simply frowned, taking the Apple out and holding it. The light traveled into his veins and made the cross on his arm glow. Eve stared at him with equal horror, disappointment, and sadness.

“Eve!” a voice said as new figures started rushing through the grass. “Eve are you- Oh my god!”

Gabriel the archangel rounded the corner and looked in shock at the scene, at Eve cradling her lost son, and the boy who took him from her. He scowled. “I always knew you were trouble, Cain!” he declared, drawing his sword and unfolding his wings. “But this is too far!”

Cain clutched the Apple and just as the angel darted forward, and with it he generated an orb of crackling energy that blasted Gabriel backwards. Then Cain turned and ran. He darted into the reeds, knowing what the Assassins would have in store for him for such a betrayal. He ran with the Apple in his hand, not daring to look behind him. He heard the alarms going off all across the complex. He heard footsteps rushing in his direction from all sides. Lights went on all around him. He actually started to panic.
But he kept running, even as Gabriel took to the air above him and started throwing down both lasers and threats.

“You aren't going to get away with this, Cain!” he called. “You think you can just betray us all like that and run? Hell no!”

He punctuated each of his sentences with a thunderous bolt fired down from his sword. Cain kept running, trying to take cover in ruins and foliage.

“Your brother's blood cries out from the soil, Cain!” Gabriel scolded. “Do you feel it?! Do you feel the guilt?! Or have you lost so much humanity that you don't even care that you just murdered your own brother!”

Cain said nothing. He wouldn't give Gabriel the satisfaction of a response. He knew where he had to go, he just had to get away from here first. He ran and ran, bashing in the skulls of any Assassins that tried to attack him from their hiding places. He could deal with them fine. It was Gabriel he had to ditch. He kept ducking and dodging through jagged ruins and tight foliage, until he finally broke the line of sight. He managed to tear open a tunnel entrance and slip inside, sliding far down into what remained of the old sewers. He didn't lose his momentum. As soon as his feet were on solid floor again, he sprinted forwards, going and going until the shouting and footsteps and firing of lasers was long long behind him. And even in the silence, he didn't stop. He kept running.

He had to make it back to Mount Toba.

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

November 23, 74984 BCE; Mount Toba

Cain was slowly limping by the time he made it back to Lucifer's dark, decaying temple. He was out of breath and clutching his aching side. He crept up to the pedestal, watching a flickering figure of light morph into the shape of the devilish man who started this all.

Lucifer immediately started clapping as he saw Cain approach. “Hot damn, kid!” he said. “That is a lot of blood!” He was practically laughing his words. “I take it that means the little twerp is dead?”

Cain held up the Apple of Eden. It glowed in his hands. His sunken eyes locked with Lucifer's as he gasped for breath.

“Nice work, kid,” Lucifer praised. “Didn't think you had it in you.”

Cain fell to his knees. “I… I have ultimate power now… but… but the cost is too much!” he screamed. “My punishment is too great to bear! I'm the most wanted man on the planet now! I'll have to hide from everyone and anyone! I'm going to be a restless wanderer for the rest of my life because anyone who finds me will kill me!”

Lucifer smirked. “Yeah, you got that last part right,” he said. “Anyone who finds you will kill you.” Lucifer pointed to the mark on Cain’s arm. “That thing right there? That's a target for anyone who opposed you.”

“That isn't helpful!”

“So you know what I say? Make it something to fear.”

“What?”

“Make that mark a symbol for you and the army that you can build by using the Apple of Eden to press the weak-minded into your servitude. Use it as the beacon of your cause. Use it as the banner you fly above the heads of all the troops you command against the Assassins.”

“I… yes… you're right. I… I have power now. Ultimate power! I can finally use this to shape the world the way I want it to be! I can create a new society, a new Order! One that the Assassins will be running scared from every time they see the cross that embodies us, that embodies me! The Father of Understanding!”

“That's a lame title but hey, you do you.”

“I'll go out to the lands east of Eden, to Nod, and it's there my Order will begin. The Assassins will not stand a chance against… against…”

He thought of what to call his Order. He thought of the goal of control, of strict order through his power. He thought of what name would best go with the cross symbol that was branded permanently into his arm. He stood tall, eyes dark, and a toothy, evil smile appeared on his face as he held the Apple aloft and made his declaration.

“...the Templars.”

Description
June 13, 2016; Indianapolis, Indiana

Lucifer sat at his desk, grumbling. The whole base looked like a tornado had just passed through. Papers were littered everywhere, as well as the bodies of guards that stained them red all throughout the wrecked hallways. Their tech was in shambles too, though Sheol’s Tetris game still seemed to be well intact.

“Dang, that guy sure could fight, huh boss?” Sheol said, nudging his shoulder like some playground kid without any care.

Lucifer promptly responded by grabbing his gun off the table and aiming at her, his eyes still fixed on the wood of the desk.
Sheol put her hands up. “You know you really could benefit from a sense of humor, boss.”

“I have a sense of humor,” he told her.
“But I also have very low tolerance for idiots.”

“That's discrimination and I demand compensation.”

He cocked his gun.

“Aight fine. Mr. Party Pooper.” She pouted. “What's the big deal anyway? So what, the Singer kid escaped? We can just blow him up with the other twerps.”

“I don't think you understand the odds we're facing, Ms. Sheol. I've had many chances to set my plans in motion over the past 75000, and I'm very quickly running out. Based on all the calculations I've done, this little incident only leaves me with a few more chances before I have a 0% chance of succeeding at all.”

“Sounds like it sucks to be you.”

“You do realize this gun is loaded, right?”

“I live as a squatter in the basement of a donut shop, boss. I don't exactly have much to live for. Why do you think I'm such a smartass?”

“I don't have time for this. I need to organize an attack party against the Assassin hideout.” He stood from his chair. “You stay here. At this point I honestly don't care what you do. Just wait for me to come back and tell you the plan of attack.”

“I normally just go in guns blazing with whoever I'm assigned to lead.”

“Just stay in this room and try to cause minimal trouble.”

He stormed out the room, slamming the door behind him. Sheol listened to him grumble down the hall. She sat down in a chair and did a little twirl before twiddling her thumbs and looking around the room for stuff to cure her boredom with. Her eyes landed on the Animus headset. The Cain memories were still loaded up and ready to be played. Sheol grinned. She hopped out of her chair and jogged over before bringing the headset back with her and plopping it over her head.

“Might as well see how this little story really went down,” she said to herself as she loaded up the program and the machine took hold of her brain, sending her mind out of the present day and into the distant past, right where Singer had left off.

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

November 21, 74984 BCE; Purgatory

“So do you have the Apple on you now?” Cain asked his brother.

“I do!” Abel said, patting his pouch. “It never leaves my side. I refuse to risk it falling into the hands of any scoundrels who wish to use it.”

“I see.”

Cain fell behind a couple paces. His hand silently reached into the black depths his robes and grabbed the handle of his dagger. He slid it out slowly and kept that hand behind his back.

“You're gonna have to be on your guard quite a bit carrying something like that around,” he told Abel.

Abel chuckled and shrugged. “True,” he said. “But for now I'm in the company of my brother, my friend, my fellow Assassin. I don't have much cause for worry right now.”

Cain’s brotherly smile turned into a dark frown. He stepped up to Abel as his little brother turned to observe some birds that were flying overhead. Cain’s dirty knuckles turned white as he gripped the knife handle tight. “And that, little brother, is the exact optimism that has caused your downfall,” he said.

And before Abel could respond, Cain grabbed him tight by the shoulder, ignored the look of shock in his Abel’s bright eyes, whipped his blade out from behind his back, and in one swift movement, he raised it high…

And he drove it straight downwards into Abel’s heart.

Abel screamed a shrill cry of pain. Cain ripped the knife out, and drove it into his brother's flesh again and again and again. Human consciousness faded, replaced by animal instinct as he literally ripped the life out of his younger brother.

Abel’s bleeding body collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain and whimpering in shock. He painfully looked up at the emotionless dead stare of his older brother. Tears immediately blurred his vision.

“Cain… my brother… why…?” he sobbed.

“So that order may finally be enforced onto this world,” Cain replied. He bent down and ripped the pouch off of Abel’s belt, despite the younger brother's weak movement to try and stop him.
“Brother… please…” Abel choked, coughing blood as he did.

Cain ignored him. He reached into the pouch and from it he withdrew the Apple of Eden. The golden sphere glowed like the sun in his hands, its light hypnotic and mesmerizing. He gazed into it, into its power, the power he now controlled.

“No…” Abel moaned.

“I am sorry, Abel,” Cain said, not even looking at his brother as he breathed his last, “but this is my destiny. It is what I have to do.”

“I… I love you…”

“Do not try to- What?”

“No… No matter how far you've fallen… You are still my brother… And I'm sorry we let you down… I love you…”

And with that, his body finally went limp. His arm splashed down into the puddle of his own blood. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he breathed his last. Cain finally tore his gaze away from the Apple. He gazed down at the body of his dead brother, his murdered brother, murdered by his own hand. For a very brief moment, his mind recoiled at the deed. What had he just done? How could he have done this? His own brother… the only one that truly cared about him…

But those thoughts were quickly shaken away. The glow of the Apple dragged his gaze back. No… no he had to do this. He had to take the Apple. It was his destiny. It was his right. With this, he would lead the world into a new world of understanding. His brother was merely the first pawn to fall in this game.

Yes…

He stared into the depths of the golden halo surrounding the Apple, feeling its power coursing through his veins… coursing… coursing…

Burning…

Burning in a terrible sting that crawled up his arm in a sudden fit of agony. He nearly dropped the Apple as he screamed. He tore off his hidden blade and gauntlet, trying to give his arm breathing room, but it didn't help. It felt like a dagger was being wiggled around in his arm. He grit his teeth and looked down at it, and was surprised to see the veins under his skin glowing just like the Apple. A patch of flesh just inches below his palm, right where the pain was the most intense, was glowing as well. It almost seemed like it was morphing into a shape, etching out some hellish tattoo into his very being. It was agonizing, but it was over very shortly. The lights disappeared, slithering back into the Apple. As he gasped for breath and his arm shook violently in shock, he looked down at his arm, and he saw the shape that the light had branded into his flesh. A small, simple cross.

He stared at it, confused and mesmerized. He tried touching it, causing both it and the Apple to glow a little. He stared in bewilderment. The only thing that snapped him out of it was the sudden sound of his mother's voice calling him.

“Cain!” she called. He could hear her pushing her way through the reeds. “Are you there, honey? I wanted to talk to you about yesterday.”

Cain acted fast. He sloppily shoved the Apple into a pouch of his own and lugged Abel’s body up before tossing it into the reeds and hoping it would be enough to fool her until he could lure her away.
“I'm here, mother,” he said, standing straight and proper as she appeared before him. She smiled and came up to hug him. His face remained expressionless. Eve could sense something wrong. She backed away and looked into his cold eyes.

“Are… are you okay, sweetie?”

“I'm fine,” he scoffed. That made her back off a little more.

“I… where is Abel? Where's your brother?”

Cain’s mouth twitched a little. “I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?” he said with a bitter snark.

Eve’s eyes started wandering. She noticed the little glow seeping out of Cain’s pouch. She saw drops of red falling from something he was holding behind his back, drops of red forming a trail leading into the reeds…

Eve’s eyes widened and she started to panic. “What did you do?!” she said, shoving past him. He didn't even try to stop her. She screamed in absolute terror when from the reeds she pulled the body of her youngest son, bloody and torn as if by an animal. She frantically cradled Abel in her arms, drenching her robes in blood as she cried violently in grief. She looked over at Cain through tear-blurred vision. She saw the knife he was holding, saw the Apple peeking out of his pouch.
“Why?!” she screamed. “How could you do this to him?!”

Cain simply frowned, taking the Apple out and holding it. The light traveled into his veins and made the cross on his arm glow. Eve stared at him with equal horror, disappointment, and sadness.

“Eve!” a voice said as new figures started rushing through the grass. “Eve are you- Oh my god!”

Gabriel the archangel rounded the corner and looked in shock at the scene, at Eve cradling her lost son, and the boy who took him from her. He scowled. “I always knew you were trouble, Cain!” he declared, drawing his sword and unfolding his wings. “But this is too far!”

Cain clutched the Apple and just as the angel darted forward, and with it he generated an orb of crackling energy that blasted Gabriel backwards. Then Cain turned and ran. He darted into the reeds, knowing what the Assassins would have in store for him for such a betrayal. He ran with the Apple in his hand, not daring to look behind him. He heard the alarms going off all across the complex. He heard footsteps rushing in his direction from all sides. Lights went on all around him. He actually started to panic.
But he kept running, even as Gabriel took to the air above him and started throwing down both lasers and threats.

“You aren't going to get away with this, Cain!” he called. “You think you can just betray us all like that and run? Hell no!”

He punctuated each of his sentences with a thunderous bolt fired down from his sword. Cain kept running, trying to take cover in ruins and foliage.

“Your brother's blood cries out from the soil, Cain!” Gabriel scolded. “Do you feel it?! Do you feel the guilt?! Or have you lost so much humanity that you don't even care that you just murdered your own brother!”

Cain said nothing. He wouldn't give Gabriel the satisfaction of a response. He knew where he had to go, he just had to get away from here first. He ran and ran, bashing in the skulls of any Assassins that tried to attack him from their hiding places. He could deal with them fine. It was Gabriel he had to ditch. He kept ducking and dodging through jagged ruins and tight foliage, until he finally broke the line of sight. He managed to tear open a tunnel entrance and slip inside, sliding far down into what remained of the old sewers. He didn't lose his momentum. As soon as his feet were on solid floor again, he sprinted forwards, going and going until the shouting and footsteps and firing of lasers was long long behind him. And even in the silence, he didn't stop. He kept running.

He had to make it back to Mount Toba.

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

November 23, 74984 BCE; Mount Toba

Cain was slowly limping by the time he made it back to Lucifer's dark, decaying temple. He was out of breath and clutching his aching side. He crept up to the pedestal, watching a flickering figure of light morph into the shape of the devilish man who started this all.

Lucifer immediately started clapping as he saw Cain approach. “Hot damn, kid!” he said. “That is a lot of blood!” He was practically laughing his words. “I take it that means the little twerp is dead?”

Cain held up the Apple of Eden. It glowed in his hands. His sunken eyes locked with Lucifer's as he gasped for breath.

“Nice work, kid,” Lucifer praised. “Didn't think you had it in you.”

Cain fell to his knees. “I… I have ultimate power now… but… but the cost is too much!” he screamed. “My punishment is too great to bear! I'm the most wanted man on the planet now! I'll have to hide from everyone and anyone! I'm going to be a restless wanderer for the rest of my life because anyone who finds me will kill me!”

Lucifer smirked. “Yeah, you got that last part right,” he said. “Anyone who finds you will kill you.” Lucifer pointed to the mark on Cain’s arm. “That thing right there? That's a target for anyone who opposed you.”

“That isn't helpful!”

“So you know what I say? Make it something to fear.”

“What?”

“Make that mark a symbol for you and the army that you can build by using the Apple of Eden to press the weak-minded into your servitude. Use it as the beacon of your cause. Use it as the banner you fly above the heads of all the troops you command against the Assassins.”

“I… yes… you're right. I… I have power now. Ultimate power! I can finally use this to shape the world the way I want it to be! I can create a new society, a new Order! One that the Assassins will be running scared from every time they see the cross that embodies us, that embodies me! The Father of Understanding!”

“That's a lame title but hey, you do you.”

“I'll go out to the lands east of Eden, to Nod, and it's there my Order will begin. The Assassins will not stand a chance against… against…”

He thought of what to call his Order. He thought of the goal of control, of strict order through his power. He thought of what name would best go with the cross symbol that was branded permanently into his arm. He stood tall, eyes dark, and a toothy, evil smile appeared on his face as he held the Apple aloft and made his declaration.

“...the Templars.”