Greetings!
So here is the re-written first chapter of "Welcome to the Future Present" now under the title "Path to Eden" (wow it went from a stupid title to another stupid title lol)
It won't be THAT much different but I've planned to change a few things and I hope I've gotten a bit better in writing, too.
Also I will be posting this and probably future stories as well on AO3 ('cause I really like the tagging option heh)
The game story and characters aren't mine I don't get any profit of it bla bla blubb
WARNING: This is man x man action so go away if you don't likey, shoo shoo! Also Spoilers for AC3 in later chapters!
The clear sounds of people talking and birds chirping was beginning to become dull and through came the sound of fingers tapping down on a keyboard and the working of computers. The fresh smell of rain and dirt shifted to dry and stony. Desmond's vision went white and blury when he was ejected fom the Animus. He groaned and pinched his nose as he already felt the next headache forming at the back of his head.
He appreciated that Rebecca improved the Animus so that the Bleeding Effect wasn't going to get to him as fast as he would with the one at Abstergo but it still left him with a feeling of uneasiness when lying down and he felt like shit after finishing a session. A headache was almost always inevitable but he could live with that.
"How do you feel?" Rebecca asked from where she sat on her chair typing on her computer.
"Alright. Could be worse." Desmond replied reliefed that his headache was not as bad as it was most of the time. Maybe it was because it was a quite relaxing session. He was currently reliving Connor's memories as he was already finished with Altair and Ezio. And today Connor was mostly talking to people or scanning the area and less skinning some animals or slitting people's throats.
"Go get some sleep. It got pretty late." the raven-haired woman smiled at him and he returned it before turning to leave the room.
His room was not big but it was enough. Apart from a bed, a simple old and dusty wooden table with a mostly broken chair and a long wooden commode, there was nothing. It was an old building. The Auditore villa to be precise. Not only old but mostly in ruin, too, so he was happy to at least have a soft bed not like the hard, cold bed back at Abstergo. Desmond shuddered at the memory of his time held captive at Abstergo as one of the Subjects. Fortunately Lucy and the others got him out of there before worse happened to him. He saw the blood on the walls. Cryptic symbols written with the former Subject's own blood as they went crazy. He knew what the bleeding effect felt like. What it's like to not be able to tell the difference between then and now, reality and virtual reality or even if you are that person that kills all those people before remembering your own name again.
With a long sigh Desmond lies down on his back on the bed with an arm over his eyes. His thoughts drifted off to the time when he lived through the lifes of Altair and Ezio. It sounds strange but he's been through so much with them, saw what they saw, got angry with them, mourned with them. Sometimes he had the urge to console them but couldn't do anything but watch them cry silently when they thought they were alone. He had felt closer to his long dead Ancestors than to his own father. He couldn't help but snort at the thought.
Shoving those depressing thoughts aside he rolled onto his side and tried to get some sleep before he had to go back into the Animus.
The next session was again kind of boring. Connor was gathering information on mostly uninteresting people for a mission. He lived in hard times and thus were many innocent people in need of help. Desmond let his mind wander once again. He often did that when sessions got boring. Not that he wanted to see Connor brutally murder people or something. More often than not did he find himself thinking about his two Ancestors. More than was healthy for him really. First, they are long dead. Second, they were his Ancestors for gods sake, they're related! Well if you look at it that way and go back far enough all people are somehow related right? Right? Maybe he was finally going crazy, crushing on dead people he saw in some virtual reality past thingy.
Yup, definitely going crazy.
"Are you sure?" he heard faint voices. No, more like he felt them in his head. Does that even make sense?
"Yes, I have to do this." it sounded familiar but foreign at the same time.
"Okay, get him out!" the voice changed. Changing from high to low and back again while becoming scratchy like static but different, making his head ache.
"Desmond!" the now clear female voice shouted. Rebecca!
His eyes snapped open and he bolted into a sitting position. He was still on the Animus.
"What- what is it? What happened?" Did he fall asleep? While in the Animus? Was that even possible? Until now, no matter how tired he was, he only ever noticed it when he was out. He raised his head to stare expectantly at Rebecca, Shaun and Lucy who stared right back at him with similar looks.
"We hoped you could answer that." Lucy said in her usual calm tone.
"You- I don't know. You were not responding and suddenly you were desynchronising and the screen showed warning signals so we had to pull you out but you didn't wake up." Rebecca looked a bit out of breath.
"How long was I out?" Desmond asked just to break the thick silence that had come over the room.
"Only for about 10 minutes." it was Shaun who answered while raising a finger to his glasses to straighten them. "Don't tell me you fell asleep." he narrowed his eyes on the American in accusation as if he was at fault.
"Don't look at me like that! I have no idea what happened. Besides, falling asleep in the Animus is impossible, right?" he looked between the trio in front of him.
"What do you remember?" Lucy asked.
"Connor was gathering some information on boring people so I got lost in thought." he heard the Brit snort at that, earning him a glare. "I.. think I heard voices but I think that was only you guys when you pulled me out. I'm really not sure what happened." his gaze fell on the floor, eyebrows crunched together as he tried to make sense out of this.
"We'll figure something out. Just to make sure there won't be any problems, we will stop for now and Rebecca will run some tests. You can rest a bit until we're sure it's alright for you to go back in." Lucy gave him a reassuring smile and he nodded at her. Grateful that they didn't force him back in.
He made his way back upstairs towards his room while thinking about what happened. He couldn't have fallen asleep. Had he been unconscious maybe? But why? Maybe the apple did something strange again? But he wasn't even near the thing at that time. It's in his backpack which has been in his room all the time. Or maybe he didn't even have to be near it to be able to use it? Desmond let out an exhausted sigh, they still knew so little about that artifact it's scary. They're playing with unknown powers here but they didn't have any other choice.
Suddenly he felt a sting in the back of his head which signaled an oncoming headache so he went to lay down, before he reached the bed, his fision blurred and the stinging in his head got worse. He closed the last bit of distance between the bed and himself by stumbling towards it and flopping down on the soft mattress, holding his head in pain. He hasn't been in the Animus that long today, what's going on? He opened his eyes to try and focus on anything, fighting against the darkness, with his last grip on consciousness his eyes fell on his backpack, noticing a slight hint of a glow from inside. Great.
I thought I won't post the next chapters right away but wait until I get a certain amount of reviews before I post them, you know, to look if people even LIKE and WANT it before I waste my energy on writing a story for myself only. I was really happy about the reviews my old story got and I really don't want to leave you people hanging.
Just tell me what you think, what could be better and all that, it really helps and if you tell me honestly that you liked it... or didn't *cries*