I thought teenage Connor (well, he's about eighteen or nineteen here) would be harder to write, but I'm actually really enjoying him. His chapters are sort of becoming my favorites to work on, haha.

Again, thank you so much for your reviews, favorites, and follows! Your support really means a lot to me and I appreciate it so much. :)

Abstergo

The manor was very easy to climb. I knew it better than the back of my hand, and in my earlier years I imagined that I could probably scale parts of it with my eyes closed.

Achilles taught me the basics of free running and climbing by having me make my way up certain parts of his home. As I grew older, I found myself climbing it simply because I could; it was an simple, almost mindless task, and the rooftop was one of the few places I could go to be alone.

Today I sat on its edge, taking in the cool sea breeze while I flipped through a few messages on my phone. Haytham hadn't sent me anything in about a week and I was starting to wonder why I even cared. For a few hours I even entertained the idea of setting up another meeting myself - and then I realized how stupid I must've sounded.

I forced myself to shut the phone off and slip it back in my pocket. From the Davenport rooftop I could see parts of the bay; apparently ships had once sailed there, but now it was empty, aside from the remains of an old ship that a neighbor once told me was called the Aquila. I could also see parts of the forests, of the pine trees and the old roads that wove between them. Farther out there were houses and the people I'd come to know since Achilles let me live with him.

Farther still was the reservation where I grew up. I hadn't been there in so long... Part of me wondered if anyone aside from Kanen'tó:kon and my grandmother even remembered me. Probably not.

"Hey! Connor!"

I gripped the edge of the roof a little tighter and glanced over. One of our more distant neighbors was standing below, waving up to me with her free hand - the other was carrying what appeared to be a string of rabbit carcasses.

"Hello, Myriam," I called back. "Hunting?"

She motioned to the rabbits with a proud grin. "Yep. Pretty good catch today. Are you on a break or something?"

"No. Just here for the weekend."

"Ah." She paused for a moment, then smiled. "It's always good to see you back here. I've missed our hunts, you know?"

"Maybe we can go out sometime soon," I suggested. I'd missed our outings more than I realized. "I can come up again in a few weeks."

"Careful now. You'll make Norris jealous."

I felt my face go hot. "I didn't mean it like- I meant-"

But Myriam only threw her head back and laughed. "I understand! It's too easy to fluster you sometimes."

I didn't respond, and she only laughed harder.

"Listen. It is good to see you again," she said when she'd calmed down. "Achilles says you've been pretty busy lately, so come by whenever you have time. Norris and I would be more than happy to have you."

"Thank you, Myriam."

"Not a problem. Take care now - and don't go falling off the roof again."

"That was a long time ago!"

She chuckled again and gave me a quick wave before she turned away. I watched her go for while before I turned my gaze back to the bay. The sun was starting to set and Achilles would want me in soon.

"I have a job for you tonight," he'd told me earlier. "Now don't get excited - you won't be confronting anyone for a while. For now I'd just like you to go by the Abstergo building in the city."

"That's apprentice work," I'd muttered angrily, but Achilles waved me off.

"Perhaps, but it's still important. Your father won't be in today either. I've already made sure of that. We don't want to tip him off just yet."

"What do you want me to do while I'm there?"

"Just take a look around. Get a feel for the place. The information might come in handy later."

"Haven't you been there before?"

"A very long time ago," he said. His voice dropped, and after that, so did the conversation. I bit my tongue. It was absolute, unspoken taboo to bring all of that up - Achilles' past as an Assassin, especially the times he was with Abstergo - and there I went anyway, running my mouth like I had when I was younger and more naive.

A door closed below me. I looked down and saw Achilles making his way to the car.

"Are you ready?" he called.

I slipped down from the roof and began my descent.

The Abstergo building in the city is supposedly much smaller than the others around the world, but to me, it seemed impossibly tall and intimidating. I stared at it from across the street, where Achilles dropped me off almost five minutes before.

"I'll be back in a bit," he said before he left me standing there, arms hanging at my sides.

I waited another few minutes before I crossed the road and positioned myself at the bakery just a few feet away. I pretended to admire the pastries and breads while I was actually staring toward Abstergo's entrance; was Achilles absolutely sure that Haytham wouldn't be there today? Maybe I could explain my presence away as pure coincidence, but somehow I don't think he would buy it. Haytham isn't stupid.

I finally pulled myself away from the display case. A few white-suited men and women were leaving Abstergo; at this hour, it must have been near closing time. I leaned against the wall and pulled out my phone, hoping to look as casual as possible.

They passed me without a second glance. I stowed the phone when they were gone and moved even closer.

The glass doors were right there.

Did Achilles want me to go in, or...?

I stood there for a few seconds, feeling like an idiot with my hands in my pockets and my jacket hood flung over my head.

What could it hurt? He wanted information. I'd get him information.

I stepped past those gleaming doors and found myself in the middle of Abstergo's lobby.

In the middle of the Templars' den.

The entire room was a stunning white: white furniture, white walls, white tile flooring. Even the magazines - all tastefully organized across a white table - were devoid of color. The Abstergo logo engraved in one of the walls was the only break in the monotony: it was a bright, bloody shade of red.

It reminded me of the Templar cross.

"Do you need anything?"

I snapped my head around. A secretary at the front desk was watching me with curious - and somewhat irritated - eyes. She twirled a pen between her fingers and nodded in my direction.

"Do you need something?" she said again.

"No."

She looked like she was about to ask me a second question - or tell me to leave, most likely - but was promptly interrupted by the group coming from the elevator.

"-you're not going about this the right way at all.

"'n what do you know?"

Two men stepped into the lobby.

I recognized one of them.

Charles Lee.

My first instinct was to run at him, fists clenched, and punch him so hard that it caved his face in. I almost did this, too - until I remembered where I was. What I was supposed to do.

And, somehow, I reigned that torrent of anger in. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my jacket and forced myself to breathe through my nose, just the way Achilles showed me.

Lee and his companion continued to speak, completely oblivious to me. "'Aytham wants us t' look into tha' thing with the Assas-"

"Enough," Lee hissed, grabbing the other man's shoulder. His gaze swept across the lobby - swept right over me - and his jaw hardened. "We'll discuss this elsewhere."

The other man shrugged from Lee's grasp. "Fine, fine."

I was pretending to focus on the magazine spread as they passed, but I couldn't help glancing at Lee one more time. His friend was ignoring us both, but Lee - he must have sensed my staring, because he looked over his shoulder and caught my eye.

He crooked an eyebrow.

And he turned away.

He didn't remember me.

That familiar anger welled up in my chest.

My shoulders tensed. My hands came out of my pockets. I took several steps and was almost on him-

A horn honked outside. I stopped dead in my tracks and saw Achilles waiting across the street.

"Maybe it's time for you to go," the secretary said then, breaking me from my trance. It took me a moment, but I bolted back out onto the sidewalk.

Lee and his companion had already melted into the crowd by the time I stepped out into the evening cold. I scanned the walkways, the streets, the fronts of buildings-

"Connor! It's time to go!"

I hissed a curse under my breath and joined Achilles on the other side of the road. He was glaring at me when he got there.

"Look," I started before he could say a word, "I wasn't going to-"

"I saw you, boy. You nearly destroyed all of your training in about two seconds. If I hadn't been there-"

"I can handle myself!"

"Sometimes I wonder, Connor."

I seethed quietly in the passenger seat as he pulled back into traffic. He glanced at me once from the corner of his eye and shook his head.

"I heard them talking about us," I said after a moment's hesitation. "The Assassins."

"Did they?" Achilles' voice was dangerously low.

"The man with Lee-

"Thomas Hickey."

"He mentioned that Haytham wants them to look into something about the Assassins."

"I see."

It was difficult to catch Achilles' expression in the darkness of the car, but I could see the concern in the hard set of his eyes.

"It's fine. They saw me, but they didn't know who I was."

"They saw you? Connor-"

"They don't know me. They won't remember me. Hickey was too busy talking and Lee was just...ignoring me."

"You walk a fine line, boy."

"At least I still got something."

"You did," he acknowledged with a nod. "Not exactly what I had planned, but I suppose this wasn't a complete waste."

I snorted. Achilles offered me a strained chuckle.

"You still have a ways to go. But you're doing well," he said quietly. "Now I know what we need to do."

"What's that?"

"Keep an eye on our own underground, sparse as it is. And you're going to need to get closer to your father."

"I don't think-"

"This is important. They wiped us out before. They won't hesitate to do it again. This time I want to be able to prevent it before it happens."

"...I won't let anything happen."

Achilles met my gaze then.

"I know you'll do your best."