All his life, Duncan Miles had one goal: to not be like his older brother.

Granted, Duncan had never actually met his brother, but he'd heard enough stories about him growing up to know that he never wanted to be like Desmond Miles. Desmond was the ultimate example of what not to do, a cautionary tale brought out by his father whenever he thought that Duncan was falling behind in his training.

'Desmond was a screw up.' 'Desmond abandoned his family, his legacy, and our cause. He's as bad as a traitor.' 'You don't want to be like Desmond, Duncan.' 'You can always try harder and do better, Duncan, do you WANT to end up like Desmond?'

He would never admit it, but Duncan was terrified of turning out like Desmond. He didn't want to be a failure in the eyes of his father, or a disappointment in the eyes of his mother. Any time his brother came up in conversation, his father got so angry…and his mother…

He never saw her looking sadder than she did any time Desmond was mentioned. And even though he was just a kid, Duncan knew he never wanted to hurt his parents like Desmond had hurt them. Ever.

So Duncan trained. He made sure to run faster, climb harder, and push himself harder, because he wasn't Desmond. He didn't want to be Desmond.

And if the other kids thought he got special treatment because he was the Mentor's son, if they ignored him and talked about him behind his back, well…it would be worth it in the end. He'd be the best Assassin he could be, and he'd make his father proud of him.

His father would smile at him, and nod, and tell him how proud he was of him. Of Duncan. Without mentioning Desmond even once.

Duncan Miles was nine years old, and he had only one goal: to never turn out like his brother.

To never be a failure. To escape the ever looming shadow of Desmond Miles and his mistakes.

To never let his father down.

December 24, 2012

It had been over 72 hours since William Miles had been in contact with his family. To Duncan, that only meant one thing: his dad was in trouble.

Dad was late. Dad was never late, not unless he had a very good reason to be…and even then, he usually sent a message ahead to let somebody know that he'd be delayed. If he was late in checking in back home now, something must have happened. Something bad.

Dad had been gone for a few months now, on an incredibly important mission that he refused to tell Duncan anything about. All he'd been told was that his father would be home sometime around Christmas, and that everything was going to be okay, so he had no reason to worry.

Naturally, Duncan was incredibly worried.

He knew his father was a man of many secrets, and that he rarely told Duncan exactly what was going on outside the Farm, but being told that he had no reason to worry had set him on edge. He loved his dad very much, but William Miles wasn't the most openly affectionate or comforting person, not even when it came to his young son. Telling Duncan not to worry had immediately set him on edge, because his dad was trying to reassure him, trying to comfort him.
Whatever his father was going off to do must have been truly terrible and dangerous for him to do that.

It had been easy for Duncan to not think about his dad and what he was up to when there were still classes and training sessions to keep his mind busy. But with Christmas coming up, they'd been given the week off from classes and training. Now there was nothing to stop Duncan from sitting at his mother's laptop, refreshing her email every few minutes in the hope that something would pop up.

"Duncan!"

Duncan shot up from the laptop, turning around to face his mother, who was, at that moment, giving him a look that screamed concern and irritation in equal measure.

"Duncan, I told you not to go into my email. I know you're worried about your father, but that constant refreshing isn't going to change anything." Her face softened into a slight smile as she continued. "Especially considering he just called."

"Dad called? Is he okay? What's going on, is he coming back soon? The Templars didn't get him, did they?"

His mother just shook her head as she moved to pull him into a quick hug.

"He didn't say much…just that he'd be back some time tonight."

His mother sounded so wistful as she said that, and he didn't understand why. She knew more about Dad's mission than he did, and he wondered if something had happened that was making her act so oddly. So…happy. He didn't get it. Dad went on missions all the time, what made this one so special?

Before he could ask any more questions, his mom shooed him away from the computer with a smile.

"Now, off the computer, mister! If your father's going to be coming home tonight, I need to get the rest of my work done so I can get ready."

Duncan nodded and smiled at his mom before heading upstairs to his room. Dad was coming home tonight, Mom seemed to be in a good mood…whatever was going on, it had to be good. Maybe his dad was right when he told him not to worry. Maybe everything was going to be okay, just like he said.

Duncan was upstairs reading in his room when he heard somebody knock on the front door. That was odd. Usually, they didn't get visitors unless Dad was home, and even then, the only people who ever visited had work to do with the Mentor. It was well known around the Farm that the Mentor was off on an incredibly important mission. Why would they be getting visitors now?

Frowning, Duncan put his book aside and pushed himself off his bed, heading downstairs to get the door and shoo away whoever it was. From the sound of running water down the hall, he figured his mom was still occupied in the shower. So, whoever wanted to see her or Dad would just have to come back tomorrow to discuss business.

After all, Dad would be home by then.

Grabbing the handle, he moved to pull back the door, opening it to stare at the man who'd been knocking.

He was a tall, skinny man, wearing glasses and a grey sweater that made his hair seem even redder than it was. Duncan stared up at him for a moment, and the man stared back, a bewildered look on his face. "Er…sorry, we must have the wrong address. We're looking for the Miles residence?"

Ah. So they were colleagues of Dad. Duncan smiled slightly and shook his head at the man. "Nope, you've got the right place, but if you're here to see my parents, they're currently unavailable."

If anything, the man seemed to grow more confused at that, moving to shout over his shoulder for a woman named Rebecca to join him. Duncan simply stared at the woman as she ran over, not sure what to make of her.

"Look, Shaun, I need to get the equipment out the van, whatever—oh, woah."

Like the man—Shaun, Duncan mentally noted—the woman stared at him with shock, before the shock gave way to a look of anger as she turned to Shaun. "You don't think…"

"Oh, I do indeed. And it would be just like Bill to not mention this little detail, wouldn't it?"

"…Yeah, it would be. But we don't know for sure, Shaun. Let's just wait and ask Bill when he's done with the equipment, okay?"

Duncan watched the two for a moment, before coughing. It seemed they'd both forgotten he was there, and they looked down on him.

"Uh…look, if you're here to see my mom, she's sort of occupied at the moment…if you want to wait, you're more than welcome to, otherwise you can come back tomorrow…"

Shaun looked like was about to say something, but stopped as a familiar voice cut him off. "Rebecca, whatever Shaun needs can wait, we need to move this equipment, and I can't do all the work by…myself…"

Duncan couldn't help but light up as he saw the familiar form of William Miles approach the door. So, these people DID work with his dad. And they'd brought him home! "Dad!"

He pushed past Shaun and Rebecca and rushed over to his father, stopping just short of hugging him. "Welcome home, sir!" he grinned up at his father, who gave him a tired smile in response. It was only then that he noticed how tired his father actually looked, how he looked like he'd aged years in the few months he'd been gone. Not for the first time, Duncan wondered exactly what his father had been up to…but it didn't really matter, did it? Not now that he was home.

"Pardon me, Bill, but did I hear him correctly? I couldn't have, because you would've mentioned having another son before now. This has to just be your nephew, right?"

There was an accusatory tone to Shaun's voice that Duncan didn't like. His father was silent for a moment, before sighing. "…Shaun. Rebecca. This is Duncan…my son."

There was a long moment of silence, broken only by Rebecca letting out a deep breath, face unreadable. William sighed quietly, looking down at Duncan. "Maybe we should take this conversation inside…"

Duncan glanced over at his father's coworkers, confused about why things had suddenly become so tense. Shaun looked furious, and Rebecca, face still impossible to read, sighed and nodded. "That might be best."

"So, stop me if I'm wrong. You have another son, whose existence you never bothered to mention?"

Duncan had decided he didn't like Shaun very much. Ever since they got into the house, the man had done nothing but yell at his dad, and he wasn't quite sure why.

"For the last time, Shaun, yes, I do, and at the time, Duncan's existence seemed secondary to what we were trying to achieve."

"Secondary? You have ANOTHER SON that you never bothered to mention to the ONE person who would've loved to know about him? How is that secondary? This could've changed everything!"

He didn't understand. What was so important about him? He wasn't old enough to go out on proper training missions yet, he wasn't anything special…what did he ever do to make Shaun so mad? "Dad…?"

The room went quiet as he spoke up. He wanted to know what was going on, why his dad had brought these people home, why they were so angry…what he'd done to make them angry, how he could fix it… His father knelt down to face him. "Yes, Duncan?"

"Dad, I don't understand…who exactly are these people?"

Before his dad could say anything, Shaun shot his father (and possibly him, he couldn't really tell) a dirty look. "I'm Shaun Hastings, this is my colleague Rebecca Crane, and we're friends of your brother, who, I'm sure—", he stopped to shoot William another dark look, "would have been overjoyed to know he had a little brother."

Ah. They were friends of Desmond's. That explained why Duncan didn't like Shaun…if all the stories he'd heard about Desmond were true, then of course he'd be friends with a loud, rude, redheaded person.

Though…why would his father bring friends of Desmond's here? He hated Desmond…

"Shaun, you know why I couldn't tell Desmond about Duncan," his father said, looking exasperated and tired and so old all of a sudden…

Wait, his father had seen Desmond? Desmond, the trouble child who ran away? Desmond, the horror story that he could never, ever turn in to? What was going on here?

"Dad, I thought that Desmond turned his back on the family legacy and abandoned the Assassin cause…if he was as good as a traitor, why did you bring his friends home?"

The room got eerily quiet again. Shaun looked like he would erupt into another yelling tirade at any moment, and Rebecca, who had been quiet this whole time, shot his dad a look that he could only describe as murderous before speaking up. "I see you stretched the truth about Desmond, Bill."

With that, Shaun went off on William again.

"Oh, so you had a good reason, Bill? I'm sure you did. In fact, I'd love to hear the reason why you kept this from everybody! After all, what's it going to change now? Maybe if you'd told him, he'd be here with us! And really? A traitor, Bill? Desmond may have abandoned the Brotherhood for a while, but he was hardly a traitor, and you KNOW that. What the hell have you been telling this kid?"

Before he could continue, William finally snapped back at Shaun, pulling himself up to his full height and looking as angry as Duncan had ever seen him (and his dad got angry a lot).

"How do you think Desmond would've reacted to hearing about Duncan, hm? It would've been a disaster, another setback, another distraction. We were on a very short time limit, and we were having enough problems without dragging the Miles family drama into things. The mission was the important thing, in the end, and Desmond knew that, as did you and Rebecca."

And just as fast as he'd gotten angry, his father seemed to lose all that energy, looking very old and full of regret as he sighed. "I had planned on telling him, after this was all over. Obviously, that never happened. In the end, we didn't have enough time. Would telling him about Duncan have changed things? I don't know. It doesn't really matter now, does it."

"…you didn't tell him?"

Everybody froze at the unexpected voice, and Duncan turned around to face his mother, who had finally come downstairs from the shower. She wasn't looking at him, though. She was staring straight at his father, a look of hurt confusion on her face, as if something was very wrong.

His father looked at his mother, taking a step towards her.

"Beth, I—"

"Don't you 'Beth' me, William. Did you or did you not tell Desmond about Duncan? And where is he, anyway? I thought he would be with you?"

Shaun and Rebecca stared at William in disbelief; Rebecca's face quickly turning to anger. "Bill…you didn't tell her? What the HELL were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that it would be better to tell her in person!"

Duncan got a sinking feeling in his stomach as his mother glared at his father. Oh, this was bad. He didn't know what was going on, why everybody was so angry, why his mother looked so furious, why his father looked so old and sad all of a sudden.

He just knew that they were probably going to start fighting again. They'd done it enough times that he was able to tell when they were going to start yelling and screaming at each other, and he knew he didn't want to be there when it started.

Ignored by everybody else in the room, Duncan quickly snuck past his mother and headed upstairs to his room, closing the door quietly behind him as he heard his mom question his father once more.

"Bill. Where is Desmond?"

Duncan wasn't sure how long his parents had been arguing for. It had to have been over an hour by this point, or if not that, it certainly felt like it had been a long time. He couldn't quite make out exactly what they were fighting about, and he certainly didn't want to go back downstairs to listen in person.

Every so often, he would catch bits and pieces of what they were yelling about; nothing concrete just words and phrases. He'd heard his name once or twice, but mostly, what he'd heard seemed to be about Desmond. He wasn't surprised. Whenever his parents fought, it usually had something to do with Desmond.

At one point, he thought he'd heard his mom crying.

When he'd heard that, it had killed any curiosity he'd had about what they might have been fighting about this time. If it was bad enough to make his mom cry, he didn't want to know.

So, he was flipping through a book, waiting for them to finally stop and for the people his dad brought home with him to just go away so things could get back to normal, when somebody knocked on his bedroom door. Given that he could still hear his parents yelling downstairs (he could still hear his mother crying), it was probably one of the people Dad had brought home. There was a part of Duncan that just wanted to ignore them until they went away, to pretend they weren't there because this was all their fault, wasn't it?

But Duncan wasn't like Desmond. He was the good child, the one that did what his father asked him to, who was polite and nice even when he didn't want to be. So he opened his door and looked up at Rebecca, who gave him a small smile and a nod. "Hey there. Mind if I come in?"

He did mind, in fact. If she and Shaun weren't here, maybe his parents wouldn't be fighting right now. Maybe they'd be getting ready for Christmas while his dad told him as much as he could about his mission, and he could tell him how well he'd been doing in his training classes lately.

But again, he was better than that. So he simply nodded and stepped aside from the door, letting her into his room.

For a moment, they both stood there in awkward silence. Duncan didn't know what she wanted, and he didn't really know what to say to her. He was almost grateful when she gestured over to his book, because it meant they had something to talk about, at least. "So, uh…whatcha reading?"

"It's a standard high school history textbook used in American public schools. I'm going through looking for logical fallacies that could hint at signs of Templar rewrites and propaganda. It's part of my training."

Duncan always enjoyed talking about his training, so he couldn't understand why Rebecca was giving him such a pitying look. They fell back into an awkward, uncomfortable silence after that, before he spoke up again. "Did something happen to Desmond?"
Rebecca nodded, sighing. "Yeah," she paused for a second, like she was trying to figure out what to say next, "Desmond….Desmond's dead, Duncan."

…oh.

Desmond was dead. His older brother was dead…and he didn't feel anything. He knew he should feel sad, or angry, or something, but…he didn't. He'd never met Desmond. All he'd ever heard about him were stories from his parents, and even those were more like cautionary tales of what not to do than anything else. He had no real connections to Desmond. So he couldn't mourn the brother he'd never met because he had no real reason to care.

"Hey…are you okay?"

Duncan blinked and looked up at Rebecca. He'd been so lost in thought, trying to get his feelings (or lack thereof) together, that he'd almost forgotten she was there. She was giving him a concerned look, and he just nodded at her, feeling awkward and a little guilty that he didn't really feel anything for his dead brother. "Yeah, I'm okay, I was just thinking, that's all. I never met him…what was he like in person?"

Rebecca blinked at that, smiling sadly and shaking her head. "I didn't know him for too long. Only a few months, and it was all strictly work related, but…he was a good guy. Funny, nice…he went through a lot of crap, and he sacrificed a lot, but he didn't give up, or quit…I wish I'd had the chance to really get to know him better, away from the mission."

She sighed, shaking her head. "He would've loved to know about you, though. He would've loved being a big brother..."
Rebecca was quiet for a minute after that, before she gave Duncan a weak smile. "Anyway, I just wanted to check and see how you were doing, say hi…Shaun and I are going to be in the area for a while, so we'll be around, okay?"

Duncan just nodded, not saying goodbye to Rebecca as she left his room. She'd said Desmond was a good guy…that he didn't quit, that he sacrificed…but all he'd ever heard about Desmond was that he had been a screw-up who ran away and abandoned his heritage. He just couldn't reconcile those two images together. Somebody had to be lying. He just wasn't sure who.

He could still hear his parents fighting downstairs. His mother was still crying, and for a brief moment, he thought he heard his father crying as well. For a moment, Duncan considered cracking his door open to listen downstairs and hear exactly what they were fighting about. But he had too much on his mind, too many conflicting thoughts about the brother he never knew, about what his father had told him, what Rebecca had told him…

As Duncan went to bed that night, still hearing his mother sobbing and shouting at his father downstairs, he thought about Desmond, and decided that what Rebecca said couldn't be true. If he was a good person, why would he have run away in the first place, and put their family through so much pain?

Two days later, Beth Miles was gone.

Duncan had come downstairs to find his father sitting on the living room couch, head resting in his hands, just staring straight ahead. If he'd heard Duncan come down, he didn't react to him. Duncan looked at him briefly, before moving to the kitchen, hoping his mother was there with breakfast waiting. When she wasn't there, he frowned and headed back to the living room. She hadn't been upstairs, she wasn't in the kitchen…So where was she?

Still frowning, Duncan moved to sit next to his father on the couch. For a few minutes, neither of them said anything, until Duncan broke the silence. "Dad…?"

"Yes, son?"

"Where's Mom?"

His father was quiet for a moment. "She left, son."

"…you think she'll come back soon, Dad?"

"…no. I don't think so."

William sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, before turning to Duncan. "Son…I know that I've been hard on you in the past. I've pushed you a bit too much at times, I'm not the most affectionate parent…I've made a lot of mistakes. With Desmond, and with you."

Duncan just blinked at his dad, confused. Where was this coming from? Did this have to do with Desmond dying…or with Mom leaving? His dad was acting so…unlike himself. It was odd, and a little scary, seeing him like this. "Dad, I don't understand…is this because of Desmond?"

William nodded. "Desmond died saving the world, and I never got to show him how much he meant to me. There wasn't enough time, in the end. I can't guarantee that I'll ever be the perfect father, but...things will be different from now on."

Duncan couldn't help but involuntarily stiffen as his father hugged him awkwardly. His dad was never an openly affectionate person, usually, and the only times he ever actively tried to comfort his younger son was when something bad was about to happen. One thing stuck with Duncan above all else, though: Desmond had died saving the world.

Desmond had died saving the world, and now Duncan could never escape his shadow. Before, he'd had a chance, because Desmond was the screw up, and Duncan had known that someday his father would praise him without mentioning Desmond once.

But now…nothing he ever did would be good enough, because Desmond had died saving the world. How could he top that?

And on top of that…his mom was gone. She'd left, and she didn't take him with her…she hadn't said goodbye to him. He always thought maybe she'd liked Desmond more than him…this just proved it, as far as Duncan was concerned. Her favorite son was dead, why stick around for him?

When Rebecca had told him Desmond was dead, he hadn't felt anything towards his brother. Now, though, thinking of Desmond made him angry. Desmond had taken his mom from him. Desmond had died and made it so he could never escape from the shadow of his actions, good or bad. Desmond had made it so that their father would never look at him and just see Duncan, or Duncan's achievements.

There had been a time when Duncan was afraid of Desmond, afraid of being anything like him. Now, though?

Now, Duncan hated Desmond.