I'm Shattered Alive

Chapter 1

The Madness Starts

A collaboration story between ColdHiddenBlade and Hack Generation

The strange object glowed a brilliant blue, a cube that looked like an ocean of stars with faint white lines rippling over the surface in many triangles making the cube look like it's surface was changing shape, though it stayed smooth. The Templar's had it up on an wooden altar with red silk beneath it to protect the hands of anyone who had to transport it, they did not wish to touch it without knowing what it did.

So the higher ups decided a 'test' was in order, they called upon their brother who just finished his Master Templar trials. They put the experiment under the guise of the final test every Templar went through before joining the Inner Circle.

Krosis Alonso kept his face as blank as he could as he was led into the room, although he twiddled his thumbs from where he had his arms folded behind his back. He was so happy and nervous to be let into the orders deepest heart after so many years of training and trying to rise through the ranks as quickly as he could.

All he needed was to complete this one last test before he was free to go off and spread the Templar dream, and maybe find the Assassin who murdered his parents.

"Commander Alonso, touch the cube. It will decide if you are Master Templar material." A small dribble of caution filled Krosis; he noticed the men circling him all eyed him oddly. Something wasn't right.

"Sir…?" As he stopped before the altar to look at the Grand Master cautiously, the cube hovered over the silk in mid-air and made everyone back away, there was a gentle hum in his skull that seemed to be silently calling to him.

"Touch the cube, Alonso." The Grand Master repeated in annoyance, not wanting to displease his superior even if he felt anxious, Krosis took the last step to the altar and slowly touched the beautiful surface with his palms. At first everything was fine as the blue lights reflected from his eyes and lit his face with blue, then he screamed in terror and pain. He felt like his mind and eyes were burning.

"No don't touch him, you will ruin the experiment!"

'Experiment? This wasn't any part of the Order's test?' Krosis felt anger, betrayal and fear fill him along with the tearing pair as he closed his eyes tightly, he was only twenty-one. He didn't want to die, he was afraid.

""Don't be afraid, Krosis Alonso. You are not alone."" The strange male voice was many together speaking different languages while an English voice spoke the loudest, and it was both beautiful and frightening.

Slowly Krosis opened his eyes and his chin hit his toes as he stared, he looked around with wide eyes. It was like he was inside the cube standing atop water like Jesus, he watched the water ripple beneath him in slow pulses sending waves of colour through the sky. Watching the pulses he felt a shiver as he realized what they were pulsing to, it was his heartbeat.

Looking away he peered back to the bright blue around him, slowly galaxies rotated around when he stood, greens and oranges of planets along with the twinkle of silver stars glowed and reflected in his blue orbs. Was he dead?

""No you are still alive."" More voices, female, spoke to him again but looking around Krosis saw no one, it was like the voices were in his head and also in the universe. ""We brought you here; you are the only one that hears us, that listens to us. We have waited a long time for help and we have chosen you to be the avatar.""

"H-help with what? Who are you?"

""We are ones who came before; we are the forefathers of your fathers and mothers. But we feel… conflicted about that which we have created.""

"What?" This was so confusing, they were not giving him answers but just speaking with more riddles. And were these odd voices the voices of humans oldest possible ancestors?

""We wish you to answer our questions, answer with only one word. How you answer depends on what we three decide. Answer wisely and with feeling, we shall consider among ourselves if it is acceptable."''

"Decide for what?" Krosis blinked, he felt a small throbbing pain in the back of his skull and a clench in his heart. Four bright shooting stars streaked across the world along with smaller ones as the pain faded and Krosis couldn't help but feel like he just lost something important. He felt a cold inside creeping up slowly towards his mind.

""You have been shattered; you can not answer your questions with just your one short life. We have saved pieces of your soul and scattered them through time at the expense of your mind.They must be put together again.""

Time? His soul? Was that what he lost? What gave them the right to suddenly break him apart like that without proper answers?

""You will live in the times, never remembering until you die else it ruin time and your answers. And when you are completely whole once again at the end of time, then you will ask us a question, and we shall answer it.""

"Wait!" Krosis reached out as the world shattered in the white lines like a mirror, the shards were filled with the blue stars but the rest between the cracks was black and full of whispering voices of thousands of men and women through time.

The Templar's backed away as Krosis fell to his knees screaming and crying as the cube shattered in his hands, he held his face like it was burned and staggered away from the shards. This lasted for an age as he scrambled around the floor screaming almost demonically, then as suddenly as it happened he went silent and still.

Slowly Krosis lowered his hands and looked around, his eyes almost cold and there was a tiny cut in his cheek from a shard deep in his hand. The Grand Master looked at the young man cautiously. "Alonso, how do you feel?"

Krosis looked at him, the spark of the galaxy world faded leaving his pale blue eyes normal again. "I am fine…" He twitched and held a temple with his shard free hand as he muttered to himself, "Shut up!"

Everyone flinched at his sharp tone and eyed each other, was it really going to be all right? Should they put him out of his misery or observe him?

"Alonso?" Krosis looked at the Grand Master, his face like it had been when he originally came in. "What do you remember?"

"What do I remember? You said there was a test and there was a cube… now I hear voices, they wont stop whispering. Apple of Eden, the Apple of Eden…" Krosis spoke almost normally but with a small tremble in his voice, "Apple of Eden it is so close…"

"What, where is it?" The Grand Master leaned forward along with the others with anticipating eyes, did this artifact possibly give them the location to their most sought after treasure? If so they didn't care if Krosis was mad.

""Patience, let it come to you. Or it will never be found."" The voices whispered to Krosis, he rubbed his forehead as a headache rose.

"No, no… will find it but not yet ready for it. The voices say it is not time, the Apple will be found when it is time." Krosis wobbled on his feet and blinked at his hand, he finally noticed the shard of the cube had stabbed into his palm. The shard was as black as night.

He pulled it out without a wince and threw it to the ground where it shattered into dust, his face began to grow cold as if a sudden calm overtook him, "I will return to my room. Yes… that is a good idea. Must go to my room and await the end, answer… must find an answer. What is the question?"

One of the other Templar's slowly led Krosis out at the Grand Master's nod, they will let him live and watch him in hopes that the Apple will be found. Once it gets in their hands they will dispose of him.

Through the week the man seemed to return to himself. The Artifact seemed to be lost deep in his mind and only rose every so often.

And they all noticed as the years went by, that slowly they seemed to be losing the man slowly to insanity.

-A-

Altair hadn't found the world all that odd, like the youthful Assassin had seen it all before. They said their goodbyes, and Krosis apologized for everything he did to the young man in the past two weeks. He sighed as the young Assassin faded away, now what?

He was free of the madness but lost in a strange world, he felt like he had been here before but could not remember anything but the sound of shattering glass and the voices.

""Krosis Alonso."" A shiver ran down his spine at the return of the voices that haunted him for so many years, yet they seemed clearer and less maddening. Slowly memories from the last time he was here returned, like he had just opened an old dusty book and read all he had forgotten in its pages. ""What drives humanity?""

Krosis looked around with a dry mouth. The world seemed to be losing stars, or was that his imagination? Stars couldn't die off that fast right?

Remembering what he was here for, Krosis thought over the question. What drives humanity?

One word. These voices asked him to answer them with one word and each answer decided the fate of the world, what was the perfect word? What if he got it all wrong? He looked at where he last saw Altair standing and one word came to his mind, one word easily explained what drove both the Templar's and Assassins, and all the common folk.

"Desires." The voices were quiet for a while, Krosis thought he said something really wrong. It did sound quite mistaken when he said it out loud.

""We take that answer into consideration, go join with the next part of your soul. A new memory and a new answer, we will watch over you.""

Everything buzzed and faded, there was a crying baby and a fading female voice. A woman lay in an awful bed looking like she was dying from some illness. Childbirth? A man held the baby but it wasn't the father, he looked like a bad man. Maybe one who was taking the baby due to a debt?

"No I want to name him before you take him please! Krosis Alonso… live strong."

Was that his mother? No her voice was different to how he remembered and she looked different even though it was hazy. But that was him crying wasn't it? Everything turned black as Krosis felt like something was filling his chest and slowly piecing him back together.

And while swinging tiny arms he opened his wide bright eyes to another life, another time. And with a new blank slate of memories.