Voci nel Vento.
Chapter 1: Nightmares and Greetings.
A.N: So recently my brain has begun to give me a ton of ideas and this one sprung up when I pre-ordered my copy of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I have loved these games since the first one and even though I loved the Crusade's setting and the character of Altair, isn't he just such a loveable arsehole? :) I found something so much more satisfying in the Renaissance setting and Ezio's character. And so, now that I have become 'mildly' addicted to Assassin's Creed , again, I have decided to write a story for it. Yes it is OC and there will be pairings, definitely EzioOC at some point and maybe DesmondOC later on but that is not definite. By the way the title means Voices in the Wind, or at least it should do as I am very limited in my knowledge of the Italian language. Spanish, French and a little bit of Portuguese I am fine with but my Italian is incredibly shaky and translators are not always correct so if I get something horribly wrong let me know.
This has now been edited at a time that isn't 1am and should now (hopefully) be free of typo's. (hopefully)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Assassin's Creed franchise but I do own my OC's
Watching: Mock the Week. Best. Comedy. News. Panel. EVER!
On with Chapter 1!
Blackness.
Voices surrounding me.
Bodies crushing me against a cold stone wall.
Why was I in here?
I had done nothing wrong.
Help me!
What's that hissing noise?
It is coming from the walls!
I can't breath!
Help!
Why won't someone help me!
I can hear choking coming from the people I can't see.
It feels like I am drowning on land.
Help.
Help!
HELP!
I bolted upright in my bed, breathing hard and with a light coating of sweat on my brow. That dream again. It had been haunting me ever since I tested that blasted machine. I rolled over onto my side and glanced at the glowing red numbers of the alarm clock on my bedside table.
3:30 am.
I groaned and turned back over, knowing that it was useless to try and get back to sleep now. With this knowledge in mind, I stretched and climbed out of the double bed that was my temporary sleeping place and started shuffling towards the door and out into the corridor. Moving down the furbished hallway of the warehouse I found myself in front of the bathroom. I went inside, locking the door, then wandered over to the sink to take a look at my bedraggled appearance in the mirror. I was quite sure, when I looked at my reflection in the mirror, that if anyone had come across me while I was shuffling down the hallway they would have though I was a ghost of some sort and probably would have immediately run off in the direction that they had come from. My naturally pale skin looked sickly and transparent under the harsh fluorescent lighting in the bathroom and this only helped to emphasise the deep purple shadows that had recently made themselves permanently at home underneath my sleep clogged, forest green eyes, which, for the past week, had seemed duller and seemed to lack the shine that was usually found in them. My hair did not help matters. The dark brown curls were now doing their best impression of an afro as they stood out, frayed and knotting, from my scalp. I sighed and rubbed my eyes with one hand. It was safe to say that I looked positively shite from my lack of sleep.
Stripping off the light grey tank top and baggy tracksuit bottoms that I always wore to bed, I switched the shower on and set it the tempurature as hot as it would go and activated the power setting. I got in and closed my eyes as I let the hot water cascade over me and finally, after about ten minutes, I could feel the heat of the water washing away the soreness from my body. I got out and dried off, dressing in a clean pair of tracksuit bottoms and a white tank top, setting off for the kitchen, once I had managed to make myself look halfway presentable, and tried to decide if I was going to have coffee or tea. Having coffee would allow me to intake enough caffeine to ensure that I could make it through to lunch without needing to go back to sleep but only make me more tired when I came down from the high, but if I brewed myself some tea it would calm me down and help me sleep but meant that I would have to confront the nightmares sooner or later. So in all reality it all came down to how much of a coward I decided that I was going to be. By the time I reached the kitchen I had decided that I was going to be a total coward and drink enough espresso to make sure that I would be sky high until at least early evening.
Walking into the kitchen I noticed two things, one, the coffee pot was already on and brewing, and two, there was someone already in the kitchen waiting for me. I could tell immediately who it was from our 'happy' little group, despite them having their back to me, purely from the fact they had known I was coming here and would eventually choose coffee over tea.
"Hello Rose."
I groaned and moved into the room to sit on one of the kitchen stools.
"It really is bad to develop irregular sleeping patterns you know."
I glared up at the man now standing over me with my very early morning espresso held in one hand.
"Piss off Shaun. There is nothing irregular with my sleeping patterns. If anything, they are regularly irregular which would then make them regular sleeping patterns."
I glanced up at him again and I could tell by the very straight and neutral expression on his face that he did not, in any shape or form, find my slightly sarcastic and smart-arsed response amusing at all. I could also tell from that combination of expressions that I had just earned myself one of Shaun's famous lectures and, if the person on the receiving end, which was usually myself or Rebecca, had any sense at all they would have run for the hills before he could even start pronouncing the first syllable. But I was tired and I couldn't quite frankly bring myself to move from the kitchen stool and so I would have to suffer nobly in silence for the next, oh I don't know, half an hour or so.
"This has got to stop Rose. These nightmares are stopping you from getting sleep. That in turn means that you are far too tired to preform regular functions, much less fight or be of any practical use at all. This means that you cannot properly protect yourself but you also cannot protect anyone else as well and this WILL get you killed."
"I know Shaun," I replied slowly, "It's just terrifying. More so than anything else I've experienced. It isn't like being surrounded by a large group of Templars. When I'm put into a situation like that I know that I can always think of plan to escape or at least try to. There's still hope, you know? But this, this is different. I just feel so helpless, there is nothing I can do. No hope that it won't happen or that I can stop it. It's inevitable, and that terrifies me."
I paused, and was about to carry on with my somewhat depressing monologue, when I let out a loud and unexpected yawn. This made me pause. I was drinking coffee, I should not be getting more tired and drowsy. I should be awake and alert. I gazed down at my now empty coffee mug and then up at Shaun only to find a very smug grin had taken up residence on his face. Now I was concerned.
"Shaun. What the fuck did you put in my coffee?"
"Oh you know," He said in a light-hearted tone while shrugging his shoulders, "only half a bottle of Night Nurse. I wouldn't have had to have added that much if you didn't have that ridiculously high resistance to drugs and poisons."
"Oh, you're a dead man." I ground out while trying to keep my eyes open.
I was already coming up with many varied and painful ways to get revenge for this 'little' drugging incident.
He laughed, "I'd like to see you try, you look about ready to drop off. You can carry on planning how you're going to murder me when you wake up."
And with that statement, I found myself drifting off into an empty and uninterrupted sleep.
I woke up, back in my bed, to find that I had been asleep for a whole day. It was when I realised that I had slept so long without a single nightmare and that Shaun was the cause of this most needed 'beauty sleep', that I realised that I would not have the pleasure of murdering Shaun in a painful and drawn out way and that I would have to thank him instead. With this thought dampening my mood, I made my way to the bathroom for a refreshing shower. Now showered and dressed in my usual royal blue t-shirt, black skinny jeans and black low top Converses, I made my way to the kitchen and brewed myself some Earl Grey tea. Seeing as there was nobody in the kitchen, which was the usual gathering area, I figured that they must be setting up in the Animus room for today's arrival.
Wandering into the room containing the two Animuses, or Animi as they would be in plural, I found Shaun and Rebecca arguing in the centre of the room.
"I can't believe that you were out for twenty four hours! What the hell were you doing?"
"Chill Shaun. I wasn't doing anything dangerous. I was just having a good time."
I walked over to one of the chairs nearby, sat down, and placed my mug on a table beside it.
"Shaun, lay off Rebecca. As she said she wasn't doing anything dangerous or compromising to the mission. If anything, I would say that you were jealous that she was getting some last night and that your 'well of potential' has completely dried up." I spoke and looked at Shaun with a satisfied smirk. Just because I couldn't cause him physical harm didn't mean that I wasn't going to take the opportunity to annoy him.
Shaun sent me a glare the was set at around DeathCon 5. "Well if it isn't sleeping beauty. Glad you could finally join us."
Now it was my turn to glare at him. "Well I would have been up earlier but someone decided that it would be a brilliant idea to spike my 4am coffee with half a bottle of Night Nurse. I may be well equipped against drugs and poison but I'm not fecking Wonder Woman."
Rebecca started laughing at this. "He had to spike your coffee with half a bottle of Night Nurse just to get you to sleep?"
"Yes." Came my very short reply.
This cause Rebecca to laugh even more and, with a sigh, Shaun sat back down to carry on ordering his research. Once Becca had finished cackling like a hyena, she turned to me and grimaced when she cause sight of my plain Earl Grey that I was drinking.
"How can you even drink that stuff without any milk and sugar?"
I rolled my eyes at this. Honestly, from the way she was eyeing the cup and her tone of voice, it was like she expected the tea to suddenly jump out of the mug and kill me just because it wasn't swimming in milk and sweetener.
"I can drink it because it is nice and refreshing." I said, putting emphasis on why I liked to drink tea without milk and sugar.
"Also it is a lot healthier than coffee when tea is drunk straight and it has relaxing properties on the body and mind." Shaun piped up from his seat.
Becca just stared at us as if we had grown two heads and multiple other limbs. She then sighed, shook her head, and turned around to carry on tinkering with the circuits on the Animus.
"Crazy British" My sensitive ears heard her whisper over the sound of clanging metal.
"Hey we're English. Not British. Your lucky that you didn't say that to a Scot. They really tale offence at that." I replied in an indignant tone.
All I got in reply was a non committal "Whatever" and so I turned to Shaun with a look of exasperation on my face.
"It isn't that difficult to grasp. Calling us British is like calling someone from the USA 'North American' or 'Canadian' and I know for certain that they would not be happy."
Shaun just nodded in agreement as he reached across the desk and handed me a manilla folder.
"What is this for?"
"That, Rose, is the profile of the ancestor that you are going to be living through when you journey into the Animus with Subject #17."
"WHAT?" I was pretty that all the dogs in the surrounding area had been able to hear the high pitched shriek I let out when I was given this tiny titbit of information.
"We have found out that one of your ancestors, Aria della Valle, was closely linked with Ezio Auditore and his family. Therefore, you shall be going into the Animus to help Desmond and to hopefully get more information on the Pieces of Eden."
"You really are serious about sending me back into that horrible machine aren't you?" I said, "Have you really forgotten what happened last time, when I was testing the bloody thing to make sure it was safe for #17?"
Becca had wandered over during the conversation and, at this statement, both of them looked guilty.
"Look Rose," Becca started, "Last time was just a miss calculation on our part. We had the realism set too high. This time we have everything pre-programmed everything before hand so that nothing goes wrong. We've learned from our mistakes. I can assure you that it will be safe."
"It would also be quicker if you went in with #17. You have the most experience as an Assassin in the field out of all of us, even Lucy, and the fact that one of your ancestors was so closely linked with the Auditore's makes you the perfect candidate."
I looked at both of them. I really couldn't argue at their logic and I knew that this time they really did plan and double check everything to make sure that it was as safe as possible. I knew I had no choice, but, that didn't mean that I had to like it.
"Fine." I huffed.
I snatched the folder from Shaun's hand and plopped down on the chair at my desk to read through it.
It was mid afternoon when the sound of a phone ringing broke through the silence. Becca jumped up and placed it on speaker phone as we all gathered round.
"Hello?"
"Hi guys." The voice of Lucy Stillman came out of the phone and I could feel a large grin work its way onto my face.
"Not dead yet then Luce?" I asked her down the phone.
I could hear her laughing at my statement. "Well I hope not, but, for all you know, I could be speaking to you from the other side of the grave."
I couldn't help but chuckle at this statement.
"We both got out of Abstergo without too many problems."
"Cool. So where's the 'saviour' then? Not making himself too noticeable I hope."
"Don't worry he's in the trunk. Nobody will even know that he's there." came the reply.
The absurdity of the statement got to all of us, even Shaun, who never really laughed in high pressure circumstances.
"You, my friend, are muy loco. I hope you realise this." I told her.
"Rose, your mixing languages. You only do that when nervous or tired. You haven't been sleeping have you?" I could hear the concern in her reply and, before I could answer, Shaun did so for me.
"No she hasn't. However I was able to give her enough sleeping drugs to get her rested enough for today."
Lucy sighed. "I guess that will do. Look, I will speak to you all when we arrive. We should be with you in about thirty minutes."
"Alright Luce. We'll see you then." I replied and clicked the phone off.
"I guess all we can do now is wait."
I heard the footsteps that were coming up the hallway and the voices that accompanied them before the other two.
"Guys. They're here."
Shaun and Becca both looked at me and then at the door as we waited for Lucy and #17 to enter. If I wasn't feeling quite so bitter about him being the cause of me having to re-enter the Animus, I probably would have addressed him by name but I wasn't, so therefore, until he actually spoke to me, he was going to be labled as Subject #17 in my mind. Until he made a good impressionon me I would only address him as Desmond out loud. What? I know I maybe pissed but I'm not uncivil.
Lucy pushed open the door and strode into the room, greeting everyone with a smile and a hug. It was then, out of the corner of my eye, that I saw a man enter into the room behind her. He was tall, well, taller that my height of 5 foot 8 inches, which was quite tall for women, and so I placed him at about 6 foot. I knew that he was about 5 months older than me at the age of 25 but at the moment he looked older due to the obvious lack of sleep and the prevalent five o'clock shadow on his chin. He had a small vertical scar that ran over the right side of his lip and was emphasised by the fact that the stubble on his face didn't grow over the area. His dark brown eyes seemed wary, despite his crumpled appearance, as he surveyed the room and the people in it.
While I had been building my own mental profile on him I noticed that Shaun had approached him and they had immediately started to rub each other up the wrong way. Shaun had probably addressed hin as Subject #17 to his face. He never was any good when it came to meet and greet's. I sighed and made my way over once I caught sight of the pleading look that Lucy was sending me.
"Shaun. Don't you need to be finalising the historical data for the Animus entry?"
Shaun looked at me, and seeing my carefully mastered expression along with the slightly dismissive tone in my voice, he took the hint and walked away grumbling, no doubt about how stupid #17 was and why he couldn't be more competent. Rolling my eyes at his back, I turned back to #17 and smiling, held out my hand for him to shake.
"Hello. It's nice to finally meet the one that this whole operation is for. My name is Rose Alburns and I'm one of the field Assassin's that has been assigned to this mission."
He looked a little taken aback by my friendly and normal greeting. Well 'friendly and normal' in comparison to Becca's highly enthusiastic greeting and Shaun's barbed tongued one, and if I was truly honest, I could see him look slightly relieved at this fact.
He took my hand in a firm shake. "Hi. Great to meet a normal Assassin. I didn't think there were any. I'm Desmond but I guess you already knew that."
I couldn't help but grin at his sarcastic response and he immediately went up in my books. Anyone who could wield sarcasm like a sword was a friend in my books. Maybe that sort of verbal warfare was the reason that Shaun and I got on so well.
"Well I wouldn't say I was normal. After all, what sort of normal person has 'Assassin' as their job description."
I saw him smile slightly at this and some of the wariness left his posture as he relaxed.
"I guess you're right there." He replied.
"I'm going to let Lucy explain the rest of what is going on to you while I finish some last minute work O.K.?"
I walked back to my desk, but not before seeing the thankful smile that Lucy sent my way. I sat down and finished reading the information that was in the file on my ancestor. Like Ezio, there wasn't a whole lot of information on her. All I had was that her name was Aria della Valle, which I knew meant Air of the Valley, and that she had close ties with the Auditore's. After that, the information on her seemed to dry out at almost the exact same time as Ezio's. It was no wonder they wanted me to do this. Just by looking at the two files together it was simple to assume that whatever it was that Ezio got himself involved in, Aria did as well.
"I was told that you were also going into the Animus and that you would be working with me in there." The voice from above me caught me by surprise, as I hadn't noticed the person approach while I had been immersed in the folders, and so I almost jumped out of my seat in shock.
"Sorry." the voice chuckled, "I didn't realise that paperwork was so interesting that I would be able to sneak up on the resident Master Assassin."
I looked up to find Desmond standing above me with a smirk on his face. I sent him a withering look.
"This 'paperwork' is all the information that we have on the ancestor that I shall be shadowing. I have learnt that it pays to learn as much as possible about a mission, even if it isn't overly dangerous."
"Overly dangerous? The Animus isn't dangerous at all! A little disorientating at first, but definitely not dangerous."
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "And you know that for certain do you? You must always assume that there will be danger involved in a mission even if it does not seem like it."
He looked a little taken aback by the statement and I could see him staring at me, as if doing so would reveal why I thought that the Animus was dangerous. Well, as far as I was concerned, he could keep guessing. I certainly wasn't telling him. We continued our staring match for another few minutes before Becca's voice brought us back to reality.
"The Animi are up and ready to go. Let's hurry it up people."
Desmond and I broke eye contact and walked over. We both climbed on, and, as the straps closed and the program started, I heard Luce whisper in my ear before this reality was replaced with another.
"Don't worry. We will keep you safe this time."
Chapter 1 done!
Chapter 2 has been planned and I am about to start writing it up. As soon as I finish my mini Physics essay on Quarks. Aren't A-Levels a load of fun?
The next chapter will be the first within the Animus. There will not be any appearances from our resident Italian assassin until (maybe) the end of the next chapter. It really depends on where I decide to cut the chapter off.
R & R Please!