Author's Note: This is a work of fiction using the setting presented in the Assassin's Creed world. I do not claim ownership over any copyrighted material. If you as a reader have any comments/suggestions/feedback that you would like to provide, please use the review box below. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter 1: A New Dream
New York City, NY - April 2014

The first drops of spring rain began to fall as Julius ran across the rooftop of a building on the north edge of Brooklyn. The spring storm was gearing up for a downpour and he didn't have a lot of time left to get off the roof before running and jumping became hazardous to his health. Looking ahead, Julius spotted a roof access door the far end of the building. He darted across the roof and came to a skidding halt as he rounded the corner of the shed-sized access. Julius then peeked around the edge of the wall to see if the Abstergo agent that was chasing him was still following him and saw no one.

"Rebecca, do you have eyes on the agent?" Julius asked after turning on the Bluetooth link at his ear that was connected to the phone in his pocket. He ran his fingers through his brown hair to keep the beads of sweat from his chocolate colored eyes.

"There aren't any security cameras on that roof. Sorry Julius, I'm blind." Rebecca Crane said with a huff, "Last known position was two buildings south of you."

Julius gave a sigh and peeked around the edge of the wall again and still saw nothing, "Damn he's fast. See if you can find me an exit point that leads me out to the A line."

"I'm on it." Rebecca said.

"Well you know generally speaking, the human race has continued to excel in tests of physical and mental prowess since recorded history. People of Ancient Rome would probably think of us as god-like men." Shaun Hastings interjected over the link.

"Not helpful Giles." said Julius.

"I've told you before that isn't my name. I don't know why you keep insisting on referring me to that television character." said Shaun.

Julius couldn't help but give a grin, "Because you're British."

"Ha ha, bloody funny." Shaun grumbled.

After another moment passed, Julius took one last look around the corner to see if the agent managed to catch up. It was really the worst possible day for him to run into Abstergo Security while doing his morning athletics training. Thankfully, he had been wearing his trusty white hoodie so the agent didn't see his face. He did, on the other hand, see the dual wrist blades out in the open shining off the partial morning sun. Despite what he thought of Abstergo Security, he could not say that they were dumb. From there it was a foot race across rooftops, which Julius was going to do anyway so he guessed he could thank the agent for just speeding along the exercise.

When Julius could find no sight of the agent, he stepped out from behind the roof access room and reached out to open the door. He then jerked his body backwards as he saw the handle jiggle just slightly before the door swung open and an Abstergo Security agent was standing in front of him. He looked different from the one that was chasing him, but was no less dangerous. The agent arched a brow in surprise, not expecting Julius to be standing in the doorway and then raised his hand that held his 9mm sidearm pistol to put an end to the chase.

Julius, however, was faster and pulled his head to the right to narrowly dodge the bullet while lashing out with his fist to punch the agent's wrist, causing the gun to drop from his hand. The shot echoed in the morning air and scattered the local pigeons that were nesting nearby. Without his gun, the agent took a step forward and threw a right hook that caught Julius on the shoulder. He then followed up with a left cross, but Julius managed to block the punch with his forearm and then countered with kick to the groin.

The agent crumbled to the ground in the doorway, grabbing at his groin in pain. Julius quickly hopped over the agent through the doorway and raced down the stairs; hoping to put a good amount of distance between him and the agent.

"Becca! I need that exit." said Julius as he continued down the stairwell.

"What was all that noise?" Shaun asked.

"God damn Agent Smith called in backup and nearly got me at the stairs." Julius said. He then paused and looked up the stairs to see the agent starting to make his way down the stairs.

"Julius, there is an underground access to the A line in the basement of the next building to your north." said Rebecca.

"Copy that." Julius replied and pulled away from the stairs to enter the tenth floor hallway of the apartment building. The harsh hallway lights in combination with the smell of refuse hit Julius' senses and nearly made his stomach turn. At the other end of the hallway was a window that looked over across the alley to the other building. There was no way he could get a running jump to that distance between the two buildings. He would need to climb and in a hurry as he could hear the agent racing down the stairs after him.

Julius bolted down the hallway, dodging debris as well as an elderly lady walking out from her apartment in her nightgown, pink hair curlers and a cup of coffee. Just before reaching the closed window, he could hear a scream from the old lady and the drop of her coffee cup. Julius didn't need to look behind him to know that the agent was now in the hallway and most likely had his gun out in the open. Two doors before the window, Julius spotted a baseball bat leaning against the wall. As he ducked to grab the bat, just in time to avoid the gunfire from the agent behind him. Julius then threw the bat end of end at the window, where the head shattered the glass on impact and onto the metal fire escape.

Without slowing down, Julius dove through the broken window with his arms outstretched. He then grabbed onto the railing of the fire escape as his forward momentum brought the rest of his body over the edge. Julius gave a grunt as he slammed into the metal bars, but managed to hold on to the railing just as more gunfire whizzed overhead. A quick look down told him that falling more than a hundred feet was a bad idea and instead looked across the open air to the building that was only eight feet away. He turned around and used his upper body strength to bring his feet up against the metal bars. Julius then let out a steady calm breath before using his legs to launch himself off the fire escape and into the air.

Time seemed to slow down as Julius twisted his body in the air to watch the neighboring building rush up to him. He quickly scanned the building for handholds and found a window ledge just slightly to his left. He reached out with his hands and grabbed hold of the ledge with his fingers as the rest of his body impacted against the hard brick wall. Only through sheer force of will and strength was Julius able to keep his hold on the ledge against the inevitable pull of gravity. Now that he was sure he wasn't going to fall, he began to scale the wall using the ledges until he reached the building's fire escape.

Once Julius was on a firm landing again, he turned to start heading down when a bullet hit the metal bars of the fire escape. Julius ducked his head and looked to the window next to him and saw that it was closed. With a swift kick he broke the glass and dove into the apartment hallway just as several more shots hit the brick wall around the window. Now that he was in the building, it was now a foot race with the agent down to the bottom floor. The advantage went to Julius as he didn't have to exit the building, he just needed to get into the basement and find the underground access panel.

"Becca, I'm in the other building." said Julius as he ran down the hall to the stairwell.

"Already?" asked Rebecca.

"I sort of just jumped over. Don't worry about it; just find me the underground access panel. I should be in the basement in a couple minutes." said Julius.

"And once again, I'm ahead of you Julius," replied Shaun over the link, "You'll find the access panel in the northeast corner of the basement. It should be next to the furnace and what looks to be a janitor's office."

"Got it." said Julius as he ran down the stairs.

"Be careful. There's still another agent around somewhere." said Rebecca.

It only took Julius a few minutes to descend down the ten flights of stairs to reach the basement. There was a musty smell in the air, a mix of old socks and mildew as Julius cautiously stepped into the open room. Most of the walls were lined with wire cage storage lockers filled to the brim with random useless clutter and the most likely candidate for the lovely smell. At the other end of the basement was the maintenance room and office with its door shut and the lights off. It did not take Julius long to find the access panel that led down into the subway tunnel. He unscrewed the panel, crawled inside, and then put the panel back in place just in time to see a person's shadow precede them into the basement. What followed was the man who initially spotted Julius on the rooftop and chased him across several before apparently going street side in case his partner wasn't able to finish the job.

The agent stepped cautiously into the basement, moving more graceful than his large linebacker-build would indicate. His suit of black with white shirt and tie did little to disguise the man as a corporate player. Instead, the man looked like a UFC reject with his short cut blonde beard along his strong jawline that matched his short cropped dark blonde hair. His nose looked like it had been broken more than once and his brow was slopped over quizzical blue eyes. Despite what Julius may have thought of the man who began looking around the basement based on appearances, he was not a man he wanted to get into a fight with just yet.

Like a tiger stalking prey, the blond haired agent inspected the floor with intense scrutiny, but in the end, he failed to look inside the access panel to see Julius watching him. A few minutes later, the agent gave a grunt of disappointment and left. Julius waited a few minutes just to make sure the agent wasn't secretly waiting for him to emerge from his hiding spot.

Julius let out a sigh of relief once the man was gone before turning around and making his way down the passage until he reached the underground subway system. From there, it was a quick run over to the station where he boarded the A train and made his way into Manhattan. The train was lightly populated, giving Julius a chance to take a breather from the morning's extra workout. He then chatted briefly Rebecca and Shaun about the incident and that hopefully the agents didn't get a good look at his face with all the commotion. The conversation did not go much further; Shaun wanting to wait to have the rest of the conversation after Julius finished work at his day job when it would be more private.

When the train came to a stop, Julius filed out of the train and made his way street side to find that the morning rain that was threatening earlier had given way to a full downpour. He popped up his hoodie over his head and quickly made his way down the street through the morning commute crowd until he finally reached his job as a Game Developer at Abstergo Entertainment, New York Branch. Ever since the strange and dangerous encounter with James at the Canadian office, Abstergo decided to move part of their game development operations to New York.

After successfully unlocking the genetic memories of Edward Kenway, Julius was something of a celebrity within his management team as the game he helped create went on to become a blockbuster hit. Since the alpha development team was going to New York, they decided to relocate Julius to New York to begin work on another project. That had been three months ago and while waiting for the office to be finished, Julius was given a paid vacation to settle in and enjoy the city before getting to work.

Instead of relaxing, Julius spent his time with Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings learning the ways of being an Assassin. He thought it would be easy, after all, he spent so much time in the Animus being Edward Kenway, and it made sense to him that he could carry over the knowledge to real life. Unfortunately, his body seemed to disagree with him. First he had to get in shape, which was still a work in progress. Next he had to train his body to work like an Assassin from memories that were not his own. Though he could somewhat duplicate the ability to climb, fight, and blend into crowds, most of the time it only worked on a rudimentary level. He had a long way to go before he could be as good as the Order hoped he could be.

Today was the first day that employees were allowed in the new Abstergo Building. It was spacious and modern in its design with lots of plants scattered throughout the building. The reception area was partially filled with employees, many of which he remembered from the Canadian branch. Julius made his hellos and made small talk until it was his turn to register with security. He approached the desk and was relieved to find that the large agent that was chasing him earlier was not present, just the always smiling Linda Clark, receptionist extraordinaire.

After swiping his badge, Linda handed him his new Abstergo tablet and updated his credentials for access to the employee lounge and the 23rd floor, which would be where his new workstation was located. Like the other office, access to virtually the rest of the building was off limits except this time he didn't have a crazy tech guy trying to get him to hack every company in the company.

Julius stepped off to the side and turned on his tablet to see what his assignment would be, but the only message was to report to James Masters, the Game Development Director. A chill ran down Julius' back as he wondered if the agent did manage to make out his face after all, but he then quickly dismissed the idea. If he had been made, security wouldn't have even let him in the building, let alone given him a tablet.

The email from Director Masters showed his appointment at 8am sharp on the 25th floor. It also contained a temporary access key so Julius could access the floor via the lift. Checking the time on his tablet, there was only a few minutes before he needed to be at the meeting and so Julius hurried over to the lift and brought up the temporary access key for the 25th floor. The elevator acknowledged his access code and immediately began its ascent to the Directors office. The lift then came to a stop a few moments later to a spacious office with a large desk in front of a glass wall overlooking downtown. A middle aged man of black hair and eyes in a button up shirt and slack looked up as the lift chimed his arrival.

"Ah! Mr. Kaiser! You're early, I like that." James Masters said with full smile showing a set of perfectly white teeth.

Julius stepped into the office holding his tablet close to his chest, "Thank you sir. I'm just trying to do my best."

James stood up from his desk and made his way over to shake Julius' hand, "It is your best that brought you here Julius and the reason I asked you here this morning. Your work on the Kenway project was masterful and the game's success is in large part because of your work."

"Thank you sir." said Julius, trying not to let his fake enthusiasm get the best of him.

James, still smiling, turned and walked back over to his desk to pick up a flash drive, "With your great success, we have high hopes for you moving forward. I'm sure you are curious to know what our next project will be. Care to take a guess?"

"Um, perhaps ninjas sir. They are always quite popular." said Julius.

"Sadly no. That is a future project we are still looking into." said James, shaking his head and then held up the flash drive, "We're looking into doing a sort of sequel to the infamous pirate Edward Kenway. Except this time, we want you to dive into the memory of his daughter, Jennifer Scott."