Assassin's Creed: My Father's Eyes.
The following is a fan fiction based on the Assassin's Creed Universe I make no claim of ownership other than the characters that I have invented for this story however if any other author wishes to make use of those characters please feel free to do so on the condition that you inform me beforehand and brief me on what you wish to do with said characters.
The subject matter came from a discussion I had with a friend which basically boiled down to the fact that whilst we know a lot about the other three Assassin's lives we know comparatively little about Lucy Stillman's. This Fan Fic was my attempt to fill in some of the blanks. Thank you, I hope you enjoy my story.
...
Lucy stood alone against the abyss of a naked night's sky. The moon dominated the skyline above Monteriggioni, it like her stood alone on a field of darkness; the moon in the heavens and her on Earth.
Desmond was doing well in the Animus, making progress much faster than he had before the move, Rebecca and Shaun were getting on for once and yet...it wasn't satisfying at all. No matter how much she tried she couldn't escape the feeling that no matter what they did, or whether or not they actually succeeded against Abstergo, that it would never end. The war between her people and the Templars had stretched back since before the start of recorded history. She couldn't imagine it ending just because The Brotherhood had foiled the latest little scheme.
"Lucy?" She turned around to see Desmond standing behind her. She had no way of knowing for certain but she could have guessed that he had been free running. She thought it was a stupid idea, if he woke up anyone in the city he could seriously risk the whole operation. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"You've been quiet for the past couple of days, and you've been going out a lot. We're all worried." He said simply, elegantly.
"It's nothing." She said weakly. "I just want some space. I'm just thinking." Desmond put his hand on her shoulder in an effort to comfort her.
"Lucy. I never said thanks." Desmond said unexpectedly.
"For what?" Lucy asked. Before he replied Desmond brought up his left arm.
"For this, the hidden blade."
"Don't worry about it." She replied unemotionally. "It's nothing."
"Where did you get it from? It doesn't look like Hidden Blades are standard issue anymore."
"It's not like that. They're still issued but because with everything that's happened it's rare that they're actually used in combat."
"Yeah, I can imagine that they'd be a bitch to take into airports as well." He said somewhat jokingly. "Before, before I took the bracer off it looked just looked just like Giovanni Auditori's blade...the one that he gave to Ezio. Whoever made it must have been a fan of classical design."
"He was. He loved everything about ancient history. Roman architecture, Greek philosophy, Etruscan pottery, Phoenician boats." She said sadly with a vacant look on her face.
"Who made it?"
"My dad."
...
The house was deathly silent except for the hushed whispers of the adults plotting in the kitchen and the cat shaped clock ticking away at its self in the living room. Outside, a single cricket chirped. No one was listening.
"Wait, could you go over this again for me?" Rhea said as she joined her husband and the three other Assassins at the kitchen table.
"Ok." Daniel said. "Recent intelligence has suggested that Templars, more specifically those in Abstergo have planted an agent in the Halifax police. We think it has something to do with the G7 summit later this year."
"Who provided the intelligence?" Mark Stillman asked as his wife joined him.
"Hannah Mueller." Daniel replied.
"Sounds legit, she's normally good with this stuff." Mark retorted.
"What would they want to accomplish? Most of the signatories on the G7 are Templars anyway." Daniel's partner, Jessica interjected.
"They don't need to accomplish anything." Mark said. "Honey do you want some coffee?"
"Yeah, thanks." Rhea replied.
"Okay, where was I?"
"The Templars don't need to accomplish anything."
"Oh yeah." Mark remembered whilst he poured hot water into the kettle. "If any one group attempts anything against the G7 group than the governments that are controlled by the group will have reason to wage war on the group that tried to attack them."
"So the Templars are planning to frame someone?" Nick said from across the table. Mark turned around from the kettle with a grin on his face.
"Exactly."
"Who are they going to frame?" Jessica asked.
"No idea. Could be us, the Chinese, Iran, Iraq, Disney land, Justice League...who knows how Templars think?"
"Besides the Templars themselves?" Jessica sarcastically asked.
"I always imagined Lex Luthor to be a Templar..."A half asleep Nick said to everyone else's surprise
"What?"
"Well he's rich, he's got loads of connections...He's always trying to kill superman." Nick defended himself.
"Yeah, but using that logic Bruce Wayne's a Templar."
"Bruce Wayne is clearly a Templar." Mark said as the kettle boiled.
"Daddy?"
The adults turned towards the doorway to see Mark and Rhea's seven year old daughter Lucy standing there in her bed robe. Even at such a young age she resembled her parents but in vastly different ways; her face could have almost been transplanted from her mother and grandmother and yet her hair and spirit, her animus was her father's.
"Hey Luce, I'm sorry did we wake up?"
"Yes daddy." She yawned.
"Oh, I'm sorry Lucy. We're all sorry aren't we?"
"Yeah, sorry Lucy." Jessica said as she waved from across the room.
"Go upstairs and me and mommy will come up in a minute to read you a bed time story." Mark said. Lucy smiled at her father, gave him a kiss on the cheek and then went upstairs. Mark stood up and turned around to face the other members of his team.
"We're going to have to have the talk with her." A shocked Mark announced.
"Isn't she a bit young for that? She's only ten." Nick said to which both Mark and Rhea turned their attentions towards him. "What?"
"Lucy's seven." Daniel whispered.
"He's right though." Jessica added. "She is a bit young for the sex talk."
"Not that talk." Mark said. "The other talk."
"You haven't told her yet!" Daniel, Jessica and Nick said as one to which Rhea shushed them.
"We were going to try to have another one, and then tell them both at the same time." Rhea said.
"That was a pretty bad idea guys."
"When did your parents tell you?" Mark asked. Each of the Assassins thought to themselves for a moment.
"I was five and my dad told me." Daniel said. "It was just after he had assassinated that guy...you know, that Templar who arranged the Antebe thing."
"My parents never kept it away from me." Jessica added.
"I wasn't born into the order like you guys remember?" Nick retorted.
"Great..." Mark said to himself.
"Okay, we'll have to talk again tomorrow. We'll see you after breakfast when we'll co-ordinate with Samuel and Bill in Arizona and Paul in Mesnauken." Rhea said. One by one the three Assassins stood up and left the Stillman household through the back door. Mark and Rhea collected the group's glasses and plates and washed them in silence.
"What should we say?"
"I have no idea." Mark replied.
...
Mark could feel his heart racing as he caught the now dead police officer before he hit the floor, creating more unnecessary noise and possibly alerting security or worse the Templars to the Assassin's presence. Getting in had been bad enough, he couldn't afford to be killed now. Mark closed the dead man's eyes and made a point of memorising his name.
"Be at peace, Simon Neill. You've gone above and beyond the call of duty." Mark whispered as he set the corpse.
"Mark, Mark where are you?" Rhea, the missions Technical Officer asked over the headset radio.
"I'm on the stairway leading into the parking lot, getting ready to engage Templar threat. What's the ETA on the other three?"
"Jessica and Nick are dealing with a CSIS Operations unit on the fifth floor." She said
"Fuck."
"Yeah, Nick is dealing with the missions secondary object. You're on your own Mark."
"Wonderful." Mark said sarcastically half hazard. "Alright, Over."
The twenty eight year old Assassin sprung to action. Abandoning the corpse he moved through the easily opened door that led to the parking garage, the lowest level in the building. He made his way through the cool and damp garage slowly and silently as to not alert the Templar or the Canadian Security Services to his presence
After what felt like hours he ducked under a red 93 La Sabre when he noticed a police officer sitting in an unmarked Renault. The man was face deep in the dashboard. Mark had found the Templar.
"Target in sight, target is driving a green 1993 Renault Laguna. Request confirmation."
"Confirming with Intelligence Officer at the Philadelphia camp..." Rhea whispered through the radio "Confirmed, you have the target."
"Do I have an LTK?"
"Confirmed"
Mark stood up, upright and with confidence. Each step towards the Templar was surer than the one that preceded it. In that moment, in that cold, damp Canadian car garage Mark and his prey ceased to be human beings. In that perfect moment; memory, pride, motive, loathing, lust and love was abandoned. In that moment there was no one in that room, just an Assassin and a Templar.
The passenger side door opens easily and it all slowed down. The Templar hadn't noticed his approach but he was aware now. He pulls his gun but Mark is quicker.
"Assassin!" The Templar screams as he raises his firearm but it's too late, Mark has already fired. The bullet travels through the Templar's shoulder and out the back. He drops the gun without firing it, he's in too much pain. The Templar curses under his breath as the blood pores out of the wound. Mark makes his way to the other side of the car. Mark flicked his wrist and a hidden blade-his wife's hidden blade sprung out. Mark pulls the car's driver side door open.
"You son of a..." But with one swipe of the hidden blade the Templar's life is over.
"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. Rest in peace."
"Rhea, primary target is down. Investigating vehicle." Mark said to his wife through the headset radio as he pulled the corpse out of the car and laid it down on the concrete. The dashboard was mostly pulled out and there were wires all over the place but there was nothing amiss. He moved to the front of the car...nothing was amiss with the engine. Then he moved onto the car's trunk and gasped in horror. His heart was beating faster than the countdown timer. 1:55...1:54...Tick, Tock.. He closed the trunk with force. It was like a flurry, or a dance movement made up of little movements that seemed to fit into place perfectly. He made his way to the driver's seat, locked the door and turned on the engine.
"Rhea, it's a bomb. The Templar's planted a bomb. I don't know how big but it must be small enough that the setter was safe with two minutes to flee."
"Is there any chance that you can disarm it?"
"No, I'd need at least an hour. I'm looking for a safe place...an open green or something." He said as he changed gear as the Summit Place toll gate's guard rail was broken away from the building. Police Officers began to make chase behind him. "Rhea, in case I don't find anywhere, record this..."
...
"Hey Lucy." Mark said as he and Rhea filed into their daughters bedroom. Lucy immediately got out of bed, made her way to the small pink bookcase that lay under the rooms window. She pulled out a book and brought it back to her father before sitting down on the bed. It was a large book, one that he couldn't remember getting for her and truth be told, one that he wasn't comfortable that a girl of her age owning.
"This one daddy." She said as all three Stillmans settled on the pink bed. Nick read the cover (an abridged version of Sir Geoffrey Chaucer's Cantebury Tales by Sir Stephen Fry) and then turned to his wife as if to say 'Why the hell does she have this?' without saying a word.
"Not right now Lucy, we've got something very important to talk about." Rhea said softly. Outside a cricket chirped to itself.
"Lucy, you know that we...me and mommy and uncle Nick, uncle Dan, aunt Jess..Nathan's mommy and daddy and...everyone aren't else here aren't like everyone else in the world?" Mark said rather bluntly but calmly.
"Yeah"
"Do you know why?"
"No"
"We...we're all, all of us, you, me...we're part of a club. A very special club called the Assassins."
"Ashassins?"
"Assassins" Rhea lovingly corrected Lucy with a smile.
"Listen Lucy." Mark said with a smile. "There are some bad people in the world, who want to turn the world into a very bad place and it's our job to stop them."
"Ours?"
"Mine and mommies and...yours some day if you want it to be eventually."
"Eventually."
"Well yeah." Mark explained. "If you want to be an Assassin you'll be trained and then eventually you'll get a hidden blade."
"Daddy what's a hidden blade?"
"A hidden blade is an Assassin's tool." Rhea said as Mark disappeared for a few moments as he left the room. "A very dangerous weapon that our ancestors have used since before the time of Hercules."
"I thought that was just a TV show..." Lucy said innocently as Mark reentered the room, two elegantly carved wooden boxes in each of his arms.
"This is my hidden blade." Mark said as he set both boxes down and opened one of them. For as long as Lucy lived she never forgot the first time that she saw that hidden blade.
...
The car sped through Halifax. The people who saw the Renault would surely think that it was being driven by a madman or a criminal. No, it was being driven by a desperate man who was desperately trying to save their lives. Behind him six police cars gave chase and he had all the reason to believe that more would just the chase soon enough.
"Lucy, if you're hearing this then I'm not with you and mommy anymore." He said. Time seemed to slow down and the noise of the engine and the other vehicles just daded out. By his calculations he had about thirty seconds before the bomb exploded and he still hadn't found a useful place to leave the car.
"But that doesn't mean that I'm not watching over you, you and mommy. I'll always be with you. In all the days of your life I'll be with you. You're going to have to be brave for me now. I want you to have a good life, marry someone nice...look after mommy for me and remember above all I love you."
The he saw it. Out of the corner of his eye a single ray of hope that brought him to tears of joy. The buildings were beginning to thin out when suddenly he saw a sign for an abandoned factory. He drove with renewed vigour. He had been given a future with his family and friends and he was going to take it-he didn't even slow down as the car crashed through the factories metal gates.
He took a J turn and the suddenly stopped.
"Rhea, I'm alive!" He screamed to his wife in exaltation as he undid his seatbelt. He opened the door and began to get into a sprint. But it was too late the car bomb went off, sending fire and metal and energy out towards the too close Mark. It was too late, in the space of a microsecond Mark Stilman was dead.
...
They were never able to retrieve Mark's body. To even try would risk bringing too much attention to the Brotherhood. The best that they could do for him was to make sure that his body was never identified by the Canadian authorities-Nick set fire to the morgue that held his body (he had made sure that it was empty beforehand). Now there was nothing else do for Lucy.
Her mother was at home, across the other side of the Assassin compound with everyone that wasn't on guard duty. Samuel had told her that Assassins' bodies are rarely returned to the families, so the Assassins honoured their dead in a different way.
Lucy sat in front of her father's grave stone in the middle of the field of remembrance with her head in her hands. Her father's hidden blade sat on top of the headstone. She knew what she had to do but she couldn't bear to. Everyone else had carved their name under his as a sign of respect and as the only child it would be her responsibility to end it the cycle and allow him to rest. But she couldn't-Not yet.
"Excuse me?" She turned around to see a man standing at the edge of the field. Like the other Assassins who had been at the funeral he wore a short white coat over a black blazer/tie and over a white shirt. He didn't look like Mark or Rhea so Lucy guessed that he wasn't a relative. "Excuse me, you haven't seen my son have you?"
"No."
"Alright" He said. He walked away but then stopped. "Is that your dad?"
"Yeah"
"So you're Lucy then." He said as he slowly walked towards her. He stopped when they were in line, equal distance away from the monument.
"Yeah" She said weakly as a tear fell down her cheek.
"You know, I knew your dad very well." The man in white said. "We trained together and if I knew him as well as I think I did he wouldn't want you to cry. If I knew him as well as I think I did his last words were telling you that he loved you."
"Yeah" She said, weakly but slightly stronger than she had been. She stood up and slowly crept along to the white headstone. Carefully she lifted up the hidden blade and put it on her arm. She knelt down in front of the monument and put her left hand on the top to stabilise herself.
"Do you want some help?" He asked.
"No thank you." With all the force that she could muster Lucy plunged the blade into the headstone and began to carve her name at the bottom. It was messy, and it didn't show up as much as the others but it was there, etched in stone.
She retracted the blade carefully, making sure that she didn't get cut by the weapon and then gently pulled it off her arm. She pulled herself up and then walked back towards the unknown man.
"Thanks Mister...mister?"
"Miles, William Miles...but call me Bill, Lucy. Your dad did."
"Okay, Bill" She said "I think I'm going to go home now."
"Alright, See you around Lucy." Bill smiled as she walked away. He began to walk in the opposite direction. "Oh and if you see my son, keep him close by. I swear to God that that kid is going to disappear and get himself in some real trouble one day."
...
"Sounds like a great guy." Desmond said simply, elegantly.
"Yeah, he was." Lucy replied. A smile d crept across her face. "Come on, let's go back inside. We've only got a few hours of sunlight left and its Shaun's turn to get the food."
OOC: Well, what did you think? Complete drivel? Kinda nice? Thank you all for reading, I would greatly appreciate any reviews that you wish to write.
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