A quick note to Guest of Eden: Since you don't have an account or didn't sign in to review, I'm going to respond to you here. First off, thank you for taking the time to review, as well as giving advice. I did some double checking (since I had written about eight chapters before I posted the first one and didn't quite recall whether or not I'd fudged details) and I did actually mean the Shard which, according to the Assassin's Creed Wiki, is capable of forming a magnetic shield (I do admit to screwing with a few minor details there). According to that, the Shroud heals wounds, which isn't all that helpful when trying to keep the Earth from being burnt to a crisp. Still, thank you for the advice!
Clay had finally fallen prey to the Bleeding Effect. Lucy Stillman knew this as soon as she stepped into the main testing room and saw Vidic speaking with the directors. Clay's file was lying on the animus with a small red X drawn in the corner to show that he was no longer among the living. She brushed her fingers briefly over the manila folder before crossing to stand next to her Templar boss. Going undercover in Abstergo Industries, the front for the Templar Order, wouldn't have been her first choice but she had agreed to do it a long time ago. Backing out, now that she knew exactly what she was getting, into was not an option. The Templar's would kill her and those counting on her.
"Can I be of service, Mr. Vidic?" she questioned, drawing his attention towards her. He had, no doubt, been aware of her presence before she had spoken but Lucy was not supposed to know anything about Assassins or Templars so it would be suspicious if she did not indulge the need to make her presence known.
"Ms. Stillman," Vidic replied, turning to her with his usual slimy smile. "We are in need of another test subject now that Mr. Kaczmarek is unavailable for us to use." He offered the slim manila folder he was holding to her, saying, "Would you please take this information to Mr. Cross so that he may retrieve our next subject."
"Of course," Lucy replied calmly, taking the folder and clicking out of the room.
She headed for the training room, knowing that it was the location most likely to house Daniel Cross. Lucy had met Cross only once before she had gained a job at Abstergo but it was a memory so filled with fear that she preferred not to look back at it. She had not seen him again since until she'd become a part of "the Abstergo team", a phrase used when she'd been hired that now left her torn between laughing and crying because she didn't want to be a good team member but she had to be. Cross was undeniably intimidating, especially considering the fact that he'd killed the assassin Mentor before William Miles, but he failed to frighten her. She knew exactly what power he held, the power to ruin her, but she knew better than to think that he actually would.
Lucy stepped inside the training room and settled against the far wall when she observed Cross beating a punching bag. She and the others at Abstergo that had to interact with Cross knew better than to interrupt him while he was working out. It was one of the ways he dealt with the Bleeding Effect and, at best, if you interrupted him you found yourself face to face with an angry Templar. At worst you got someone else, someone confused and frightened and determined to kill everyone around. It was best to wait until he was finished.
While she waited, Lucy flipped open the manila folded to take a look at who the unfortunate Subject Seventeen would be. The face smiling innocently up at her was older than it had been the last time she'd seen it but unmistakable. She shut the file on Desmond Miles's face, her heart suddenly pounding. It had been years since she'd seen the Mentor's son or even spoken to him but their first meeting hadn't been the kind a person forgot. Leaning more heavily against the wall, folder clutched tightly in one hand, Lucy closed her eyes and let memory overtake her.
Lucy wrapped her arms around her stomach and tried to smile at the gathered group. It had taken her three days of cautious traveling via public transportation to reach the Farm after the Templar attack which had resulted in the deaths of her parents and little sister. Three days of dealing with the crippling sadness alone, just to reach this place. Standing across from her was the Mentor, his son standing in his shadow with his head down. Desmond Miles was much quieter than any other boy Lucy had met, and she had grown up with four male cousins that were close to her age before they'd been killed. Her eyes kept sliding towards them, hoping to catch him glance at her, but his head stayed firmly down. "We are all sorry for your loss Miss Stillman," the Mentor was saying as Lucy struggled to focus on him. "You can rest here and mourn in safety."
"Thank you, sir," Lucy managed to get out, turning a thin smile to the Mentor.
The Mentor nodded and turned to his son saying, "Desmond, show Miss Stillman to her new quarters."
"Yes sir," came the soft reply and Desmond stepped forward, offering Lucy his arm without looking up at her. She took it uncertainly and allowed him to lead her away under the watchful eye of William Miles.
"It's nice to meet you," Lucy offered tentatively and he glanced at her quickly before looking away and picking up the pace. Lucy frowned at him in confusion. Had she said something wrong? She didn't mind offending people, she'd had a touchy little sister after all, but she didn't like doing it accidentally. Especially to someone behaving as shyly as Desmond was.
She remained silent as Desmond led her towards what appeared to be a three story cement dormitory. The windows on it were small and uniform distances apart when they were set into the cinderblock building. It looked almost prison like, a shock considering how inviting the home she'd grown up in had been. He opened the front door and beckoned her inside but she stepped back, shaking her head. That earned her an almost panicked look and Lucy felt her heart jumping in fear in response to it. "Please," she pleaded, licking her cracked lips. "I can't go in, not yet."
"I c-can't-" Desmond stuttered, the panic too strong to mistake for anything else now. "I'm supposed t-to show you your room."
"Can you show me around first?" Lucy pleaded, unwilling to enter what she already felt was to be her jail cell. She felt jailed ever since her life had crumbled to pieces around her. She just couldn't handle that right now.
"I d-don't-" Desmond stuttered but Lucy was desperate enough to override him with, "I'll tell your dad it was my idea." That statement froze him. Lucy kept her eyes locked on his as he considered his preposition before, at last, nodding hesitantly.
"O-okay," he stuttered. "But we have to put your things in your room first." Lucy nodded and breathed out a hushed sigh of relief before following him into the building.
"What are these?" she asked as the made their way up painfully steep stairs, no elevator in sight (of course not because "elevators are death traps Lucy" her mother lectures in the back of her mind).
"The novice dormitories," Desmond replied, his voice echoing hollowly off the dull grey walls. "This is where the novices who weren't born on the Farm, and aren't still living with their parents, stay while they train here. This is the female wing, though the male one doesn't look any different." He led Lucy to the third floor and opened the third door down the hall for her, revealing a small room with a single bed and a chest of drawers. "Bathrooms are at the end of every hall," he told her as she placed her few belongings down on the floor.
"Okay," Lucy said with hollow cheer, turning to smile at him only to find that he was staring fixedly at the ground again. "I'm ready for the grand tour now." She thought she saw a hint of a smile before Desmond gently brushed by her, leading her back outside. He was a decent tour guide, taking her throughout the Farm and pointing out buildings she would need to remember but there was something about him that was bothering her. Maybe it was that he stayed very carefully just outside arm's reach or maybe it was the way he'd stuttered so much when she'd suggested he disobey his father's command. Regardless, it had her saying, "Is there somewhere private we can go and talk?"
Desmond nodded and changed directions, leading them towards the woods near the furthest edge of the compound. Hiking behind him, Lucy could see tension slide off his shoulders the further they got from the main body of the compound. They didn't hike far into the woods before Desmond stopped, settling cautiously on the body of a downed tree. Lucy smiled and settled next to him, careful to keep the arm's reach distance he'd established. To her surprise, Desmond smiled back, the expression shy and sweet. They sat in silence for a few moments before Desmond said, "I, uh, I have something I need to tell you."
"What?" Lucy asked curiously, leaning forward, and he glanced warily at her once before spilling out an extraordinary story. It trampled back and forth over itself, leaving her lost at times, and when he got to the end he looked at the ground as if expecting her to dismiss what he'd just told her. Instead of dismissing it, Lucy considered what she'd been told before asking, "Can you show me the Apple?" Ever so slowly Desmond nodded, his face cautiously lighting up with hope.
"Can I help you, Ms. Stillman?" Only one person said her name with enough mocking contempt to snap her out of whatever she was thinking of. Lucy blinked once to clear her head and then straightened up, looking a sweaty but definitively there Daniel Cross in the eye.
"Subject Sixteen is now indisposed," she informed him, handing over the folder. "Mr. Vidic requested that I find you and bring you the current information about our next subject."
She waited patiently while Cross flipped open the folder and skimmed over Desmond's basic information. She had delivered the information, as promised, but Cross sometimes had questions and Lucy was one of the few willing to stick around and attempt to answer them. "How soon does Vidic want Mr. Miles in custody?" Cross asked at last, being sure to meet her eyes.
"He has yet to set a timeline," Lucy replied, barely resisting the urge to stamp her foot in frustration. What good was it to be planted within the heart of a top secret Templar organization if no one bothered to tell you anything important? It completely defeated the purpose of spying on the enemy. "He'll likely send you out within the next couple of days," she speculated and Cross nodded seriously, snapping the folder shut.
"Tell Vidic I'll be out tonight," Cross drawled, his Russian accent slurring his words as his eyes gleamed in something almost like anger. "I'll work on tracking down his precious subject tomorrow."
Lucy's lips twitched with the effort it took to hold in her smile as she replied, "Of course." She waited until Cross stepped back before sweeping out of the room. Instead of heading back towards the main testing room, she set her course for Warren Vidic's personal office. Ordinarily Vidic would have been supervising Clay while he was strapped into the animus but with him dead, Vidic would be catching up on the paperwork he'd been neglecting in order to make sure Lucy was pushing Clay far enough. She hesitated, rapping on the door frame, and Vidic looked up from his computer.
"Can I help you, Ms. Stillman?" His tone implied that he would very much like her to go away.
"Mr. Cross said to inform you that he's going out tonight but he'd work on tracking down Subject Seventeen tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Vidic demanded incredulously. "Doesn't he understand that our current mission is of the utmost importance?"
"I'm certain I don't know, sir," Lucy replied with bland disinterest. Vidic scowled at her but seemed to realize there was nothing she could do about the current situation.
"Very well," he huffed. "Sort through any unsorted data from Subject Sixteen's final sessions and then you may be finished for the day." Lucy inclined her head in acknowledgement, leaving Vidic to his work.
Most of the memories Clay had worked through had already been correctly filed in Abstergo's database. Lucy was meticulous about correctly categorizing and filing the members in Abstergo's mainframe while Clay was traveling through each one. She didn't often get behind which meant that she had maybe an hour's work. Afterwords she would be left alone with her thoughts and worries as she wandered Abstergo's halls. Lucy was just as much a prisoner as Clay had been. Vidic had prevented Lucy's murder when Abstergo was ready to launch the testing of the actual animus but he had left her trapped within the company's walls. This was useful only because she was supposed to be spying on the Templars, but it left her feeling incredibly confined. She could only hope that her assignment wouldn't last much longer.
