Chapter 1 – Awakening
The three participants in Abstergo's ancestral study slowly sat up from their personal animus, clutching their heads and groaning. They had seen more crazy shit in a matter of days than most people see in a lifetime. They had seen secret orders, murders, betrayals and lots of death. It was made worse by the fact that the animus made them re-live the memories of their ancestors, so it had been as if it had been them that had done the killing. As they opened their own eyes for the first time in quite a while, there vision was blurry and images of what they had seen in the past flew across their vision. They had to blink several times for their vision to return to normal. But after all they'd seen, after all they'd witnessed, nothing seemed normal anymore. Their whole vision of life had changed. Were there still secret orders pulling the strings of the world today? What became of the mysterious Assassins and Templars? Their time in the past had given them more questions than answers. Answers they were keen to get but were oblivious to the fact that the answers they sought were directly in front of them.
The three participants were all very different people indeed. Tom was an English free-runner with a habit of talking himself into and out of trouble. Chad (who shared the name of his ancestor) had spent many years as an animator with dreams of owning his own forge and becoming a blacksmith, one day. Will (who also shared the name of his ancestor) had spent his life in the armed forces, hoping to earn as many promotions as possible to make his parents proud. Chad and Will were 27 and 29 respectively, Tom was only 18 years old. Tom was about five-foot-nine, skinny build with dark brown hair and green eyes. Chad was exactly six-foot, slightly heavier built than Tom, with brown hair and brown eyes and he wore glasses. Will was the heaviest built of the three, with a large muscular body, a height around six-foot-two, brown eyes and black hair. Each of the three of them were dynamically different from the other two, but all had one thing in common: They had been specifically selected by the multi-national company Abstergo. They had been told that they had been randomly selected as part of an ancestral discovery program. They had been told wrong. Abstergo wanted them for their past. The Templars, under the disguise of Abstergo Industries and Abstergo Entertainment, were searching the past for precursor artefacts and they believed that when these three men's pasts linked, they encountered one such object. All they had to do was follow it throughout history to learn its current location so they could retrieve it. They were close to tracing this one, and the three participants were losing their usefulness. Soon they were going to have to 'disappear.' They couldn't be allowed back into the world with the knowledge they now possessed. For now, the man charged with observing and recording their sessions asked them a few questions to ensure they health is not a risk, before sending them to the elevator. They would then be escorted up to a hotel owned by Abstergo where they would be monitored until their next session in the animus. The man who monitored them had fair skin, long but neat black hair, a muscular yet slim build and he often wore black trousers and a shirt under his white lab coat. Overall, he looked very smart and profession, the only thing that betrayed his business-like appearance was a horrible tattoo that covered his arm, but the long sleeves covered most of it, with the exception of his wrist and the palm of his hand which was left exposed. It mattered little though. He was a loyal and hard-working employee. He had his uses. His name tag read 'Tyler Jay Mason.'
Kaiden Matthews was another lab worker in Abstergo, Montreal. He had only been working there for a few weeks and was clueless about the Assassins and Templars, but he knew about how the animus worked and he was part of the team assigned to monitor the three participants' health throughout the program Abstergo was providing them. As far as he knew, it was just Abstergo giving random people the opportunity to explore their ancestry, much like Tom, Chad and Will thought. He was not the evil guy that the Assassins thought every person who worked for Abstergo was. He was just a regular everyday guy. Yet soon, he would meet the same fate as the Templars.
Before the program was launched and they all met at Heathrow airport, England, for the private jet ride to Montreal, the three of them had never met before. Despite being completely different, the three had a lot of time on their hands while flying and so Tom, Chad and Will became close friends. When they arrived at the Abstergo facility in Montreal and were given a large hotel room to share on-site, they became even closer. You could even call them best friends at this point. They were allowed unlimited access to the facility's gym, which all three of them took advantage of. Will would always hit the bench-press and the other weights, Chad would use the treadmills and Tom would climb the rock-climbing wall with no harness or be bouncing around the large gym, climbing anything and everything. As they had more and more animus sessions, they found that they began taking on the traits of their ancestors. Will, for example, began to grow even stronger and Tom found that his free running technique began to improve. He also became fond of scaling the walls and hiding in the shadows on the ceiling, such as sitting on the hanging ceiling lights, out of view of the cameras. After several days of this, Abstergo sent in a couple of guards to keep an eye on them as well as the cameras, but Tom always found a way to lose them and hide in shadows somewhere. He would hide out of sight of the cameras and the guards, but he would keep a close eye on their movements every day until he could predict their movements and search patterns. Tom was often in trouble with the Abstergo staff, but he cared little. Chad, on the other hand became interested in the weaponry the guards were carrying. He didn't question why they needed them, he only cared about the statistics of each weapon. He also found that the guards were un-intentionally hilarious. Both were ironically Russian, but one of them never knew when to shut up and the other one only said "Da" with a thick Russian accent.
After their last animus session, the three of them were given some time off to rest and recuperate while engineers did some maintenance work on each of their animus. In truth, the Templars behind Abstergo were analysing the data they had recovered so far in search of the precursor object, or at the very least some clues to its location. They knew that it was somehow connected to Jason, but the last data they had on him was that he had killed his family's killer and himself by jumping off a cliff. Without a descendant, they wouldn't know any more information about him. Unfortunately, despite the Abstergo's vast database, they couldn't locate anyone who descended from Jason. They would have no choice in continuing to get the three participants to continue their work in the animus in hopes of finding the final resting place of Jason and his precursor object. They had already dispatched Sigma team, led by Otso Berg to the cliff which he jumped off, but so far they had had no luck. They were constantly assured though, that Otso Berg did not approve of Sigma Team's skills being 'wasted on a mundane assignment.' For now, though, he was ordered to defend the excavation site from any possible Assassin attacks should they catch wind of Abstergo's operations in that area.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, Tyler Mason sat in a conference room, discussing the project's progress to the board of directors there.
"So as I said before, we're making good progress on the search and we believe we'll locate it soon." He told them.
"I've heard that Mr. Berg has had no luck thus far at the site you indicated." One director questioned him.
"That is true," Tyler replied nervously. "But we are making progress. We believe that perhaps in a few more sessions time, we'll have an exact location."
"Good." He replied, standing up. The other board members also rose from their chairs and followed him out of the room. Tyler lingered in the conference room for a moment before leaving. They were getting dangerously close to locating the artefact.
Today was a Saturday. It was a glorious Saturday morning with a clear blue sky, the sun shining high and birds chirping as they flew by. Tired, Tom was lay on his bed reading a book. He'd always liked reading books. He thought it was amazing how with just a few lines of words, you could forget about your troubles and disappear to a completely new and different world. It was inspiring. He thought that reading a good book was by far a better way of forgetting your worries than drinking a bottle of alcohol. In contrast, Chad sat watching television in the opposite room, drinking a bottle of alcohol. He found it amazing that the more you drank, the better you felt and all your worries went numb. The only worry he had was that he'd reach the bottom of the bottle and not have another bottle ready. He wouldn't label himself as alcoholic, just fond of drinking. Tom and Will never complained. Chad proved to be rather entertaining when he was drunk. Will, as everyone expected, had gotten up early to go to the gym and work out. Abstergo had people monitor the cameras in shifts because it was rare that Will slept, and the Abstergo staff couldn't compete with his late nights and early mornings. On this particular morning, Will was lifting weights while chatting casually with the Russian guards. The Russian guards tried their best to reply back as they yawned and wiped sleep from their eyes.
"And so I told him-" Will said as he was cut off by one of the guards.
"Please! Be quiet! We're still waking up here!" the guard said.
"Da." Agreed the other.
"Alright, Jeez… Don't get your underwear in a bunch…" Will replied, a little bit deflated.
"Da." Said one guard.
Later in the morning, Will sat relaxing in a steam room, Chad played video games and watched anime at the same time and Tom went swimming in the pool complex. Tom had a good set of lungs and would swim entire laps underwater, as he was so fond of doing. The Russian guards had left Will to be monitored by the cameras and instead kept a watchful eye on Tom. He wasn't as hype-active as will, or as loud-mouthed, but he was mischievous and a trouble maker. For now, though, he seemed rather docile and wasn't paying any attention to the guards. He just spent his time swimming smoothly and his guards became so bored that they began talking to each other, without paying any attention to him. Tom made a mental note of that fact. The guards' conversation was basically one guard making a point and the other agreeing with a hearty "Da."
At around noon, the three subjects sat at a large table in an empty cafeteria and had their lunchtime meal. Will had a healthy omelette with red onion and a glass of orange juice. Chad had a hearty Full-English breakfast for lunch with four different kinds of meat, grilled tomatoes, hash browns, fried bread, baked beans, mushrooms and three fried eggs. People often asked Chad how he could life his lifestyle and not be overweight. He always replied with one word. 'Reasons.' Tom had a cup of coffee and a ham and lettuce sandwich. Chad and Will spoke (or yelled) at one another, spraying small chunks of food everywhere, while Tom sat eating and drinking in silence. Ever since he'd started using the Animus, he'd spoken to other people less and less. Now, it was only small bits of conversation that stopped him from being classed as a mute.
After their meal, each went back to doing something recreational. Will went back to the gym for an hour or two before heading for the showers, Tom explored the facility for something to climb with the two Russian guards in tow, and Chad joined Will in the gym and ran on the treadmills. He'd plugged his IPod into the treadmill's console and played his music blasting out of the built in speakers. Heavy metal music could be heard across half the building. Tom was also listening to heavy metal, but with his earphones in so as not to disturb anyone else. After this, they all returned to their rooms to relax for the day with their evening meals being brought up to their rooms later in the evening. When they'd gone to their rooms, the two Russian guards also took the opportunity to retire to their rooms to relax, hoping to catch some quick shut-eye. They knew in a few hours, Will would be hitting the gym again.
While this happened, all throughout the day, engineers poured over the Animus that they were using: fixing, testing and calibrating. They had to make sure everything was set up perfectly for the subjects in their next Animus session. They were drawing ever closer to discovering the artefact they were looking for. They couldn't afford to give up now.
Tyler sat in a security office, watching old footage of the three subjects through the security cameras scattered about the complex. It was interesting to watch how the three of them changed as they spent more sessions in the Animus. Each developed small changes in their personality or their work ethic. To tell the truth, they reminded Tyler of old friends. He smiled affectionately, like a father proud of his sons as Will beat the Russian guards for strength, Tom slipped out of view of the cameras once more and Chad… Well, Chad was Chad. For the first time in a long while, a great chuckle escaped his lips as he watched on, proud of the three skilled subjects.