Hi everyone, and welcome to a new fanfiction I am writing for Assassin's Creed! If you follow my other story Perception do not worry I shall be posting chapters again as soon as possible, and there will also be an explanation for unvolunteer leave of absence from the site for the past year as well (but I never stopped writing). Anyway the short story of how this writing came to be was…lets just say I have way too much time to think now. Anyway hope you enjoy the story, and don't be afraid to comment and what not. Enjoy!

"Memories are not the key to the past, but to the future."

-Corrie Ten Boom

Part 1: Masked Memories

Chapter 1:

This was a nightmare of the worst kind.

Warren Vidic sat at his desk, and scanned through the memory data that he and Miss Stillman had collected months prior from Mr. Miles.

Lucy Stillman and Desmond Miles

He couldn't even think of those names without seeing red from the corners of his eyes. Warren clasped his fingers together tightly causing the aged skin wrapped around the bone to whiten from the sudden pressure, and fought the urge to knock both monitors off his desk.

Desmond was nothing to him; just a tool as a way of collecting information for his employers. He was disposable once his purpose had been served, but it was Lucy's betrayal that angered Warren the most.

He had read through her research and findings and knew she had potential to work with Abstergo. Not only was Lucy so damned brilliant but she was not meek like most of the women who found themselves pursing a career in the scientific industry. Lucy was never afraid to state her fact based opinions, or to be put down by those who identified as her superior. It was her brilliance and her guile that Warren chose her to work side by side on the Animus project; she was simply the best of the best out of every candidate he had researched that year.

It was not so much the loss of her intelligence that upset him, but the fact that she was secretly working alongside the Assassin's the entire time. Within the past two years that he and Lucy had spent working together on the Animus project he had come to think of her as his own daughter (or niece). Her deception had hurt Warren more in a familial way rather than a professional manner, and that Lucy had run off with Desmond only added salt to Warren's bitter feelings.

Warren rubbed the exhaustion away from his tired eyes and reminded himself to forget all about Lucy, Miss Stillman. He had to remember that the entire orchestration of their escape was her doing, and that Mr. Miles only followed as instructed of him. It was not he who convinced Lucy to join the side of the Assassin's. She chose her path and Warren had chosen his. He could always find someone else to replace Miss Stillman in the work of the Animus project.

Warren reluctantly went back to his work; watching the memories of Altiar play out on monitor one while monitor two pulled up the translated conversations and spoken languages from the memories.

"God damn it!" Warren muttered under his breath as he scanned through the memories. "What did we miss?"

On top of Lucy's treachery all the hard work they had spent collecting Desmond's ancestral memories had been in vain. As it turns out there was one small problem with the Apple.

The damn thing would not work.

A few days ago a field agent who had been tailing Lucy, Desmond, and their fellow Assassin's came back with a report simply stating: "It would not work. The device-the artifact-It worked when the subject from the Animus project held it, but when the other Assassin's tried to wield it nothing happened."

The report sounded strange to Warren; How can an artifact be choosy with its possessor?

None the less Warren's employer's demanded a hasty solution with the limited time that they had been granted.

The report had also stated that Mr. Miles was now in some form of coma and that Lucy had been hospitalized due to an injury of some sort (it was this part of the report that Warren had briefly skimmed over).

"If I don't find something, and soon, I'm fucked." Warren grumbled, eyes never leaving the monitors.

"I don't understand." He said, frustration rising, "the damn thing worked for Al Mualim, Altair, and Desmond. What did they do to make it work?"

Blood relation was a factor before being quickly dismissed. Abstergos' genetics research team proved that there was no blood ties between Al Mualim and Altair's descendants. So there had to be something else that allowed these men to wield the Apple.

But what?

Warren felt as though his eyes were going to fall from their sockets as they continued to watch the memories play out; he was contemplating turning in his resignation paperwork when his eye caught something.

"What the…" Warren quickly paused the memory. Luckily for him Abstergo had developed a way to view memories as though he were watching a movie, and have the benefit of fast-forwarding and backtracking certain areas of the memory as though they were frames in a film.

Warren was sure he saw something; he backtracked the memory just a few seconds and replayed it. For a fraction of a second there was a glitch in the memory. This time Warren backtracked the memory by a few frames until he saw what he thought at first was his eyes giving out on him, but there she was.

"Who the hell?..." Showing on the screen of monitor one, for barely the span of a micro second, was the image of a young girl. Clad in what appeared to be the traditional robes that younger Assassin's would wear for the time period, she looked to be of Western European descent rather than Middle Eastern with her ice pale skin, bright blond hair, and eiry golden eye color, boring the expression of someone who had just been caught and was now cornered.

What really through Warren off was the fact that she did not appear in any of the memory banks, and while she was on monitor one for her brief moment monitor two did not show any translated spoken word.

There was no name and no information on her character.

She was just there.

Warren felt he might be on to something.

For the next five hours Warren scanned through Altairs memories, checking every glitch he found within them, and within each glitch Warren checked the same girl appeared for the briefest of moments before quickly vanishing into the air.

As Warren began to recheck the memories to make sure that he was not seeing things he began to notice a pattern that was too coincidental to just be overlooked.

"Son of a bitch!" Warren muttered taking out his cell phone and quickly dialing his superior's number.

He was greeted with a male voice that simply asked him, "What did you find?"

"I believe that I might have found a break in our research. However;" Warren added hasitly, "I need some time to do research on another Assassin."

"Do it quickly." Warren's employer demanded before he had a chance to explain why he needed the extra research time.

As soon as the call ended Warren dialed the genealogy department next; by the third ring he began to feel impatient.

"Hello?" a younger voice answered him this time.

"This is Warren Vidic. Is Adam Worrick there?"

"Hold on one moment, sir."

Warren drummed his fingers on the desk as he waited impatiently for Worrik to pick up the damn phone.

He could not get to the phone fast enough.

After what seemed like a precious chunk of time wasted Adam Worrik answered the phone.

"This is Adam Worrik."

"Hello, Doctor Worrik, this is Warren Vidic and I need you and your team to do some research on another Assassin for me."

"Who is it this time?"

"His name is Malik Al Sayf. And if he has any living descendants let me know immediately."

"Alright, we'll get right on it. Good day."

"Thank you." Warren said before ending the call.

He placed his cell phone on the desk before leaning back in his desk chair to give himself a much needed break. He sighed heavily and shut his worn out eyes for a few minutes.

Warren began to pray that the hunch he had would lead him somewhere in the right direction towards solving the mystery behind the Apple.

If Altair's memories would not show them how to use the Apple, then perhaps the memories of Malik would.

Thanks for reading and I hope it wasn't a bore. Now I am off to bed because I have work in the morning. See you guys in chapter 2 hopefully!