I'm scared.
What if we don't find the key? What if we do, but run out of time? What if whatever's down here doesn't work? I mean - what's changed? The First Civ tried to save themselves and failed. And this place is shut down and sealed up... Doesn't really feel like the sort of place we're going to find the answers to all our problems. Doesn't help that the people who brought us here are missing... I'm just worried this isn't going to work.
I don't want to die.
She read the e-mail over and over again. Whatever made her save it on her small flash drive? She didn't know and she didn't care. The stupid little mail, a cry in the dark she wrote to Desmond in one of the moments of despair - those moments that came more and more often as the ominous date approached. She didn't want to die then and she didn't want to die now. But she didn't want him to die either, and still he did.
Or didn't he?
She couldn't have known. He told them to run and run they did. Packed up all the things like so many times before. They had a nice little drill for that, practiced so often she could do it five seconds after waking up. There were no Lucy and Desmond to fight off the Templars, but fortunately there were neither Templars to be fought. So they were done in little time, all necessities in the van, even the Animus was set up for use in case there was somebody to strap into it…
The Apple and the Amulet they took too, not knowing what will happen to the Temple, not wanting to risk them falling into the wrong hands. They can dispose of them later anyway.
They went dark. Switched off the phones. Drove blindly for a time, only concerned about being random in the choosing of the direction for the next day. Paid cash, shopped infrequently, spoke even less. And then one day, they stopped at an old, big house. It must have been nice or at least imposing once, but now it was in ruin, consumed by fire and finished off by rain and snow and sun and wind. William was standing in front of it, a broken man, feet getting wet in the remnants of snow. They didn't need to ask - his life was a ruin, just like the old Farm.
The Farm was abandoned couple of years after Desmond ran away, after a Templar raid. William showed them the entrance to the basement where the systems still worked; there was still electricity and heat and clean water and supplies for 30 or so people that would last them years if they decided to stay here. Nobody would find them, nobody would even look. And then he disappeared, leaving only a short note of goodbye.
So it was just the two of them again, at least for a time. Shaun read his books and Becca tinkered with the Animus, looking at the recordings, improving some of the features, even uploading the Oxford dictionary she managed to find on her disks, to make Shaun happy. And she read the e-mail, again and again, until she couldn't stand it any more, and then she started to go into the Animus, not to look at her ancestor's memories, but to see again her own. She felt awful then, desperate and afraid, but she felt much worse now. She felt like a traitor, like a coward, that abandoned her buddy in arms and left him to die, not caring what happened to him, or his body.
She was so tired. Tired of disturbing dreams at night and screwed up digestion during the day. She sometimes forgot to eat and would get hungry, until her blood sugar fell so low she puked when she tried to eat. Shaun made her eat more often and in smaller amounts, claiming the food is OK as he was still fine, and he was right of course. But she still felt tired and sick and low, so it was just a matter of time that she fell asleep in the Animus before she got to entering the dates.
"Mars, deum belli, sacramento meam feceris me, adjuva me victor hodie …" a gladiator was kneeling at a small altar, holding a tiny statuette to his mouth. Suddenly, an apparition appeared in front of him, in a shape of a woman, a Goddess, and she spoke to him.
"It is I, Minerva, that will stand by you today, for you are to be a conduit of my message. Warrior, obey me, and you will be remembered by generations to come!" Minerva's unwavering stare hypnotized the young man.
"What will you have me do?"
"Go and fight honorably, and in the evening lie with the slave girl, so she may bear your heir. And now be quiet, for I will speak through you and through him to your descendants to come!"
The gladiator bowed his head, and closed his eyes. Minerva's stare now hardened, penetrating the centuries, delving directly to Rebecca's brain. Until now she was speaking Latin but she changed to English, preventing the fighter to understand.
"Rebecca, Juno has saved the world, but took Desmond's life to free herself. I couldn't persuade Desmond, so I need to speak to you. Juno didn't allow me enough time to show him what happens if she comes to power. She must be stopped!"
"But how? We have no power, there are so few of us left! How can we fight Juno and still escape Templars?" Rebecca was feeling even more desperate now. Desmond was gone, gone were his abilities, received from the DNA of Those Who Came Before, and from the Animus Bleeding effect. It was just them now. "What can we do?"
"You have to find Eve. Her blood and Desmond's will stop Juno. Find Eve and bring Desmond's son to her, she will know what to do!"
"Desmond's son? He doesn't have a son! He died ... and never mentioned any child…"
"Rebecca, you speak with me through Flavius Aurelius Rusticus, ancestor of Ezio Auditore. You can only do it because you are carrying a child of Desmond Miles."
Rebecca woke up with a start. Was it a dream? It had to be, unless…
It started with the e-mail. She sent it just before the message from Vidic arrived, telling them about William's kidnapping and the conditions of his release. And when they returned they spoke about Daniel, and Hannah, and Desmond was screaming from his dreams again. She went to him to calm him down. He cried his sadness out in her arms and she slept much better that night, tangled in Desmond's arms, feeling the softness and warmth and hearing calm heartbeat and soft breathing. Since then they always slept together and after a couple of nights, holding onto each other before falling asleep turned to making love.
"Shaun?"
"Yes?" Shaun looked up absentmindedly from one of his many-volumed encyclopedias.
"Shaun, I think… I… do you think I can be pregnant?"
"Now that's an interesting question, Rebecca, would you mind specifying the conditions of your supposed…" look on Becca's face stopped Shaun from his ironic tirade. "You do seem out of it lately and haven't asked for that kind of products for ages, now that I think of it."
"I spoke to Minerva. I thought it was a dream at first but… it did feel so realistic."
"Did you record it?"
"No, actually I fell asleep before I even set the date. The Animus must have turned on itself or something…"
"Let me see..." Shaun fiddled with the computer and the little Animus console. "It shows the date of November 14, 97 AD. Why don't you have a look there? We'll try to record."
"What did she mean by Eve? Who is Eve?" Rebecca was fiddling with her food, her appetite lost again.
"Didn't Desmond mention her? When he was in coma, that time you couldn't record. He solved the rifts in Animus and Clay's recording told him he needed to find her. But he was at a loss too."
"I just have this funny feeling we should have known her. About her. There's something in the back of my mind, but I just can't think what it is…"
"I was thinking… do you feel like going into the Animus again? Maybe it is somewhere in your memories, or Desmond's."
Becca shrugged. "I can go, I feel just fine. I just don't know where to start."
"Maybe you should let your unconscious guide you, like it did when you spoke to Minerva."
She thought she will see Clay's recording, so she was surprised when she was suddenly in her own body, standing in the open side-door of the rental van, willing desperately for Desmond and William to come bursting out of the Abstergo facility. And then it happened, strange lightning seen through the glass entrance of the building, and Desmond bursting out, the Apple in his hand. William was right behind him, the guards screaming and holding their heads. Desmond fell into the car, his strength depleted, just as more guards turned up. Shaund stepped on the pedal and Becca was just shutting the door when she noticed a girl, running ahead of the guards, waving her hands and calling out to them.
"Shaun, stop!" Becca shouted and fumbled with the lock to slide the door open again. The girl jumped in nimbly, not waiting for Shaun to stop completely, and they were escaping again, tires squealing on the cold asphalt.
"I spoke with Tinia. He told me to look for Desmond Miles, to help him with keeping Juno from escaping her imprisonment..."
Rebecca didn't get a chance to ask anything, as the memory desynchronized and she was back in the Animus, looking at Shaun's expectant and triumphant face.
"That must be her. We missed her in Rome." Becca was massaging her forehead. "But where is she now?"
"She must have been Abstergo employee. So we will look for her there. We need to infiltrate Abstergo, hack into their system and find her."
They left the Animus hidden in the basement, protected by the stone wall, and hid the Apple and the Amulet in one of many nooks. They sold the van, deciding to travel by busses and hitch-hiking instead and turned on their phones again. They travelled around, not staying long in one place, trying to get a contact to other Assassin cells, who may know more about the outcome of the events in Rome, but not really succeeding. Another thing was bothering them too - Desmond's fate. Minerva told them he died, but they wanted to make sure his body was taken care of properly. So they moved around, picking news and gossip about Abstergo Industries, checking in online on prearranged times.
And then, after several months, they made a lucky find. An article in a tech magazine they bought while shopping for necessities, mentioned the newly opened branch of Abstergo Entertainment in Montreal was hiring.
"This is where she'll go. She wants to get closer to us, and with previous experience in the Rome facility, she'll be in a good position to get a job. She can try looking for us. Or be showing herself so that we can find her."
"Even if she doesn't, this is a best place trying to get into their system and find out about Desmond and the girl. They'll have the data, we just need to find a way in. This is a great opening."
They stopped in town to check out the web pages of the company. Job application form was available, and Shaun used it, supplying credentials which Rebecca fabricated just minutes ago. If all goes well, he'll be able to interview for the job online.
They stopped at the Farm for one last time, hoping that maybe William will be there, but the farm was as quiet and abandoned as when they left it, nearly half-year ago. The summer has already passed and the desolate old building was looming darkly in the mist.
"It's weird, isn't it?" Rebecca was shivering slightly in the chilly air. "It all happened so fast. I mean, in just couple of days it'll be a year since Lucy brought him back from Abstergo. And he's dead for almost nine months already…"
They didn't take anything from the basement, and only left a short coded note for William in case he did come back some day.
"Well, on to a new life," Shaun decided to lift the mood, as they cast a last look at the old structure. "We should start thinking of the name for our son, shouldn't we?"
"I think I have one," Rebecca replied, and took his hand as they started down the short path leading to their car. "Adam Miles Crane."
"Shouldn't it be Hastings?"
"Well, you still haven't asked me to marry you."
"Shall we stop in Las Vegas then? Or do you insist on a proper ceremony?"
A gush of the wind parted the mist for a while, revealing brightly colored trees basking in narrow rays of the afternoon sun. Rebecca smiled as Shaun pulled her closer to his side.. Future may be bright after all.