Assassin's Creed: Apotheosis

By: Shadow Chaser

Disclaimer:

Assassin's Creed belongs to Jade Raymond, Patrice Desilets, Ubisoft Montreal, and Ubisoft. I am only borrowing them for my own amusement and that of my muses and fans. I will return them a bit battered, but otherwise unharmed (mostly).

Story:

Chapter 21 - Lance

"Yes," little Tabitha nodded, making her skin stretch in all of the wrong places and for a second Desmond thought that the girl's head would pop right off of her thin frame. It was quite disconcerting and he knew that he should, by all rights, be completely freaked out, but somehow, he was not. That did not mean he sat calmly in his seat. He felt like throwing up, staring at the little girl who was holding the glowing Piece of Eden Lance head in her hands, it's unearthly and sickening glow penetrating the sheath it was in.

The revulsion and urge to be somewhere else was warring with the morbid curiosity in him. He did not know why he felt so revolted, especially since he had wielded the Apple of Eden in both Ezio and Altaїr's hands – maybe it was another ancestor that had these feelings? It was not the first time, remembering that the last he had seen the Lance was when Tabitha or Alexander, which ever one of them inhabited the girl's body had summoned him to the rock climbing wall back at Cheyenne Mountain.

A thought occurred to him – was this how Altaїr and Ezio communicated with the Apple of Eden? He remembered how they had activated and used the Apple, if not by accident, but by just touching it, yet somehow he knew he was missing a key part of how to work the Piece of Eden. He had always thought that there were words exchanged, perhaps not vocally, but rather through thoughts, but that was just his opinion.

"Your mind is quiet now, enough to hear our song," the not-quite-dead-girl said and Desmond realized that it was not only one feminine voice speaking, but rather several, overlapping and echoing each other – like a vocal dissonance of sorts.

"Song? Quiet mind?" Desmond stared at Tabitha, not quite comprehending what whatever was speaking through her was saying. "Wait, do you mean why my mind feels like it's disconnected somehow? Why I can't hear my ancestors or at least hear them well?"

The only answer he received was a mysterious mature smile that had no right to be on a little girl's face, "It will not last, but we wished to see you, to see the future."

"Future?"

"You hold in your hands, Desmond, the power of the world. All you need to do is to reach out and the stars will obey your every whim. Your resistance is commendable, but is it strong enough?"

"What are you talking about?" he was so confused; it was like listening to a living sphinx that posed riddle after riddle.

"We have warned you to beware the Cross and will do so again. The next we meet, you will decide the fate of the world. You will either fall with no one to catch you, or you will soar on the wings of those that came before you."

"Warn me about the Cross..." Desmond echoed as his eyes widened, staring at Tabitha, "wait a minute...Minerva?"

The ghost of a smile appeared on the thin chapped lips of the skeletal girl before she reached underneath the pillow supporting Arden's head and withdrew a bracer that was well polished and lovingly cared for. Desmond recognized it as the one Lucy had given to him at the safe house before they had fled. It was also then that he realized he had woken up without the familiar weight of his bracer on his left arm. He realized that he had not felt any concern about it because it was not his memories that gave weight to the bracer, but rather a combination of his own, of Altaїr's, Ezio's, and Arden's that surrounded the bracer.

He had known that something was missing, but had not been able to pinpoint it until now. It also made him realize how much he had adjusted to the presence his ancestors had within him – even though the Bleeding Effect had made him reel most of the time followed by his own inability to occasionally separate who he was from his ancestors.

"We believe this is yours," Tabitha handed him the bracer and he took it, cradling it in his hands before rolling his sleeve up and strapping it to his arm. The fogginess in his mind parted for a few seconds, letting in the familiar memory of Altaїr in as he activated the blade with a quiet snick and his right hand tested the sharpness of the blade. It felt good, but most of all, it felt right.

As he retracted the blade, the fogginess returned, leaving him with a minor headache. Glancing up at Tabitha he saw that she had fallen silent and was neither smiling nor frowning, looking for the entire world, a skeletal doll. Desmond waited for a few seconds, wondering if she was going to speak, but it did not look like she was going to utter another word. However, he noticed that the Lance still glowed in her hands and her eyes were seemingly blank.

Something was not right here, something was off and it was only until he looked at Arden's sleeping form that the realization belted him in the head. If the Apple of Eden made Altaїr and Ezio immortal; if the Lance of Longinus saved Tabitha Roche's life, then why could not it not save another life? The Lance was Arden's Piece of Eden and somehow, in Tabitha's hands, it was either healing, or keeping the Assassin alive – though its glow certainly did not look like it was a healing one.

But from what he knew of the Lance, Alexander had said that it was in his possession before his cul-de-sac home was ransacked, his family murdered, and he himself captured by Abstergo to be their sixteenth subject. Before that, Leonius said that the Lance was lost to history, with Nazi, Templars, and all sorts of groups searching for it. Yet here it was, in Tabitha's hands, the possibility of being Arden's Piece growing stronger – all he could think about was that he had seen it before, somewhere else outside of what was in front of him at the moment.

Shaking his head, Desmond saw that there was nothing else to be said, Tabitha silent once more, still looking like a rotting corpse, but otherwise made no indication that the voice-that-was-not-her was going to talk to him. He stood up, staring at Arden's prone form and felt an echo that was her within him resonate with her that was lying on the bed. I was so foolish, the whisper of her voice, tinged with regret brushed his mind before he turned and left the hospital room.

If the Lance was truly Arden's Piece of Eden, then Desmond knew that somewhere in the swirl of memories that he was currently living in, he would encounter that fabled object. For the first time in his life, he felt a shiver of fear roll down his back and knew that it was not from his ancestors, but from his very own being.

It took a few minutes for Desmond to navigate his way out of the hospital area and back into one of the giant caverns that seemed to be a general meeting place and market place for the underground Farm. The bustle of people that lived there had all but died away, most of them at dinner now, but there were still some people lingering around. He wanted nothing more than to go back to his own suite and at least have a quiet moment to himself, especially from what he had just witnessed, but he also knew that he could not break another promise to Amanda.

As he glanced at the signs along the wall to direct him to the suite his family stayed in, he took his time studying what this incarnation of the Farm looked like. While most of the cave system looked like it was carved from millions of years of river water running through it, there were a lot of the areas that looked man-made. He wondered how a cave system that was supposedly originally inhabited by religious fanatics could do so much work in the short years before it was abandoned. It just seemed a little impossible.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

Desmond shook his head to himself, he knew he should take the creed for what it was, but at times it was hard to wrap his mind around the concept, especially if he applied it to the caverns. Yet, perhaps it was true in some way – that the human spirit, when pressed, could do anything and everything. Since when did I become such a philosopher? He wondered as he saw that he was nearing Suite 18. The area it was in was far more spacious, he noticed, and older. The walls were smoother, time worn away the jagged edges made by humans, and the air of mustiness was much more prevalent.

"Not tonight, okay? My brother's supposed to hang out with me, you know, family stuff right?" he heard Amanda's voice through the half open door to the suite and knocked.

"Hello?"

The door was yanked open to reveal both his sister and a girl around her age, who had a frown on her face before it turned upwards in a smile. Desmond immediately recognized the change in posture from a slightly hostile 'what do you want' attitude to one of interest. His years of bartending did not make him oblivious to the looks women gave him while he served their drinks.

"Desmond!" Amanda greeted happily behind her friend as she leapt off of the couch and hurried towards him.

"So this is your brother?" her friend did not hide her interest in him and raked him with the most smoldering up-down look she could manage. "Hi handsome..." she purred.

"Uh...hi," he did his best to ignore the look, feeling a little uncomfortable that someone roughly his sister's age could achieve a look like that.

"Sarah! Stop hitting on my brother!" Amanda shoved her friend in the shoulder, before shaking her head, "ignore her Des. She's always like this." She grabbed him by his hand and dragged him in past Sarah who was glaring at Amanda.

"You could bring him, you know. I mean, one more isn't going to trip the alarms and plus it'll be fun," Sarah crossed her arms, her curly red hair swinging this way and that, "I mean you said so yourself that he's new, so it'll be a good way for him to learn the area."

"No," Amanda shook her head, "I want to catch up with my brother, without you trying to sink your claws into him, you man-eater."

"Man-eater? Really, the best you can come up with?"

"Besides, won't Wes get jealous?"

"It's almost over with Wes anyways. I found out that he's been sleeping with Lauren and Eric, at the same time," the red-headed girl replied flippantly waving a hand in the air.

"What?" Amanda's eyes became as wide as saucers before she grabbed onto her friend's hand, "Wes is bi?"

"Probably bi-curious, but who knows and cares. He's cheated. I'm planning to dump him tonight in front of everyone. Was going to do it at dinner, but the fucking bastard didn't even come. Probably still fucking Lauren and Eric at the same time," Sarah replied rather viciously before glancing at him, her mood instantly changing, "still; I think you should bring him."

"I don't know Sarah...I mean-"

"Fine, I promise I'm not going to try to seduce your brother tonight," the red-head grinned, shooting him another look, "can't guarantee the others though..."

"Uh, maybe I should come back," Desmond made to move towards the door to leave, a little apprehensive at what was going on between then two, but Amanda grabbed his hand and shook her head.

"Please stay. I guess it'll be fun, showing you the outdoors. It's actually quite nice, you can see the stars, even the Milky Way band."

"But aren't we supposed to be an abandoned town-"

"Listen, that rule was made up by Dad and the others, probably also Andrew, to stop everyone from leaving. We're very careful. Besides, you can meet my other friends."

He did not know if he wanted to meet Amanda's other friends, judging by Sarah's introduction of herself. He had long recognized the abrupt mood changes of teens that did drugs and had a feeling that Sarah was one of them, but the pleading look from Amanda made him hesitate. He wanted to sit somewhere quiet and try to process what had happened in Arden's hospital room, but had also promised Amanda that he would spend time with her. He missed his little sister, that emotion having long been buried when he ran from the Farm and started to live off the grid.

"Its fresh air," Amanda pleaded, "you have been out for at least a week since they told me you were here, I think..." Desmond knew he should have been surprised at the revelation that he had been unconscious or unaware of his surroundings for at least a week, but he oddly wasn't. Still, he realized that he had missed the fresh air, having been stuck underground at Cheyenne Mountain except for the disastrous training exercise and his mission to Denver. He suspected that his sister and her friends were very careful at not being detected while outdoors, otherwise he supposed Templars and even other Assassins would have already discovered the place. And since Amunet had not found Altaїr in all of his years of exile, then perhaps there was no harm in taking a peek outside.

Lucy had said that they were safe and even Ezio seemed a little more relaxed than he had been at the base. He looked at Amanda who smiled tentatively at him, but also seemed to understand if he wanted to stay inside. He shrugged, "Fine. Just a quick peek though...I don't plan to stay the whole night with whatever you teenagers do."

"Thanks Des," Amanda squeezed his hand as she grabbed her shoes, a glow stick and a jacket that she tossed over her shoulders. "Come on!" she grabbed his hand again and pulled him out of the suite, following Sarah who had moved ahead of them, but held up a hand to stop them. After a few seconds, she waved her hand to indicate that they could come forward.

Together, the three of them quietly stole through the caverns, making sure that if they were seen; the seer did not suspect them of sneaking out and made their way to what looked like a very small tunnel with a ladder at the end of it. Sarah climbed up first before tapping the metal ladder quietly to indicate that they could follow. Amanda scrambled up before Desmond followed and what first greeted him was the cool dry desert breeze, colder than the ambient temperature in the caverns, but nonetheless very welcomed.

An unbidden smile appeared on his lips before he climbed out of what looked like a very tiny grating plate that was camouflaged with the local fauna and the stars, glittering across the blackness of the night sky nearly took his breath away. The last time he had seen stars like this was when he had been sitting on the rooftops of the Jerusalem bureau in the Holy Lands, a moment of peace in between the dances of death with the targets Al Mualim- Desmond shook his head, the disconnection that was in his mind slowly reasserting itself and pushing the memory out of his grasp once more. That was Altaїr's memories, not his own, he thought to himself as he climbed out and someone slid the grating back into place.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Amanda's voice was a little breathless in the darkness and her fingers found his hands, squeezing them again. He looked at her and saw that in the inky darkness, with no lights except for the stars and the moon obscured by some passing clouds, he could barely see her outline.

"It is...peaceful," he admitted quietly, his eyes picking out the dense cluster of stars that shot through one quadrant of the sky. The cluster of stars looked like a band of sorts and he knew based on the books he had read a long time ago that it was the Milky Way arm that was visible from Earth.

"Hey, so you did come," a deep male voice spoke up to his left, but Desmond could not see who approached them. He felt himself instinctively tensing-

"Hey Robert," Amanda greeted the voice before whispering at him, "Desmond what are you doing? It's only Robert."

"One of your friends?" he asked, trying to force himself to relax. The combined instincts of his ancestors were pushing against the disconnection and he could feel it bleed into him once more. It was not the darkness that they minded, but rather the fact that they could not see who was talking to them, wanting to know foe from friend. He tried to access his Eagle Sense, relishing at how easily it came to him now, but somehow felt as if something was blocking it. Focusing a little harder, he tried to push at it, but received a minor headache for his efforts.

"Yes," he could sort of make out the frown on Amanda's face, "no one is out here Desmond. Just my friends. No Templars, nothing, okay? You don't have to run; don't have to live off of the grid. You're with family now."

"A little jumpy?" Robert's spoke up, having heard her words to him as a small flame from a lighter flicked open and Desmond caught a glimpse of him before the flame died and the acrid smell of a burning cigarette filled the air. "You sure your brother's the legendary Desmond that everyone gets sent after just to see if they're good enough for the Order?"

"He is, but he's here now so no one has to go hunt him down like a stupid animal," Amanda shot back, "and stop breathing your smoke into my face. You know I hate that."

"Says the girl who's tried everything except prescription pills," Robert laughed before Desmond heard his footsteps wandering away.

"Ignore him;" Amanda squeezed his fingers again, "Robert's just jealous that you're here now. He's been hoping that Dad would choose him next to go find you. He's been training for a while now, but only one person gets to go every year out of the Farm to find you across the world."

"How old is he?"

"Nineteen," Amanda replied, "Dad usually lets the others here train apprentices when they're thirteen and if you're ready to join the Order, you have to pass tests."

"Have you trained?"

"No," his sister sounded a little hurt, "Dad and Mom wouldn't let me. I asked if I could train with Uncle Ezio on the rare occasion he was here on the Farm, but even he said no. I did sneak out to watch the others though and Robert's let me hold and practice with his gun. Blanks though, no one's allowed into the armory for real bullets."

Desmond wanted to ask why no one left, but he already knew the answer. It was the same one that had plagued him before he made his successful attempt. A combination of awe in the chance to train as an Assassin and wield one of the legendary vambraces that members of the Order were given when they started their apprenticeship and the fact that by the time they were finished training they were ingrained with the tenets of the Creed and the knowledge of the war between the Templars and Assassins. He remembered when he was thirteen, he had looked forward to the day when he would have been apprenticed to one of the senior members of the Order and learned ways he could have helped. Back then, the others had called it helping out in the Farm, but now, Desmond was wiser to what they were really doing. Apprentices were chosen for their abilities to do things – some became spies, others members of society that blended in with the unassuming public and even yet, some became politicians, pushing forward the Assassins' agenda in governments.

He supposed Alexander was one, having found his innate ability to be an efficient politician and urged to cultivate his skills. The Farm was like any other small town or community, but he remembered that no child before he or she was apprenticed was allowed off of the property.

So when he was thirteen, he had been looking forward to leaving the Farm, apprenticed to one of the senior members who would guide him, but then something happened around September of the year 2000. All he knew was that one day his father had ordered them to pack whatever they could carry and leave immediately. The Farm had been in an uproar as people ran around, a calm panic, but Desmond vaguely remembered a lot of the older members swearing.

When they had arrived at their new destination, another desolate looking place that was surrounded by rolling plains and distant hills, he learned that he would not be apprenticed and the rules that had eventually made him escape the Farm were put into place; restricting his movements, constantly watching him...

"Dad still have the rules in place?" he asked as Amanda took a few steps to the left in case anyone else wanted to join them outside. He heard the murmurs of several other voices around them, the brief flashes of lighters lighting cigarettes.

"As ever," Amanda snorted, "you were lucky Desmond. I remember Dad was having shit fits for a few weeks after you left. I thought you were going to be brought back, but after a year had passed..." He could see the faint outline of his sister looking at him, "You really did go off the grid didn't you?"

"No credit cards, fake names...got a job bartending wherever I could. Moved around every so often," Desmond shrugged, "sometimes pick pocketed the IDs of the guys that ordered drinks from me so I can use their names." He did not mention to her that he had sometimes even stolen some extra cash from their wallets to support the days that he got stiffed on tips or had come down occasionally with colds that needed some serious medication. His years living off the grid had also made him friends with shady pasts, but they were always willing to provide him with favors, some times for a price or were content with him giving them free booze.

"So how did you meet up with Lucy and the others?" Amanda asked, the initial hostility at abandoning her changed now to curiosity.

"Motorcycle license," Desmond replied, "fingerprinted. Gave a fake name and ID, but looks like the Templars found me that way. Lucy...helped me escape."

"Must have been some escape," his sister replied, "Robert says that he was called to go on standby, but didn't really get any other orders from Andrew. Dad looked like he was about to have another shit fit and Mom, well you know her. Nothing seems to faze her. I kind of remember her being more open though – just around a couple of years ago, she suddenly just became quiet and a little cold. Robert and the others call her the Ice Queen whenever she's not listening. I don't tell her that though..."

"I'm sure she wouldn't like that," Desmond remembered their mother always a calming force, especially whenever things had gotten a little heated between him and their father. But Amanda had said that she had become cold, and it was only a couple of years ago that it had happened. He wondered if that was about the same time she had learned that her eldest son, Alexander, had been kidnapped by Templars. Another thought occurred to him, did she know about Tabitha's existence? He had a suspicious feeling that Altaїr knew about Tabitha, especially her being in the same room as Arden at the moment, but would he have told Alice Miles about her son?

Nothing Ezio said indicated what his parents knew, yet he did not want to confront them about it. It was not because he was afraid or anything like that, he just wanted to avoid any potential blow ups that could happen between his father and himself. A thought occurred to him as he remembered something Amanda had said earlier.

"You said that Dad was important at the Farm?"

"Yeah, did you forget? Dad was one of the most important people in all of the incarnations of the Farm! Why do you think you and even I was picked on by some of the other kids? It's like being a pastor's kid, I suppose. Dad's one of the leaders, if not the leader whenever Andrew's not around, I guess, of the Farm. He's the one to decide who gets trained who gets to go places and what happens here," the resentment Amanda felt was not disguised and he heard her shift in the darkness. "Wouldn't even let me train – you would figure the 'pastor's kid' gets trained too, right?"

"Yeah," it was an effort for Desmond not say to her that he was also being 'trained' as an Assassin, but he knew that she would have asked who and how, especially since he had been off the grid for so long.

"Dad apparently has Andrew's ear, or Andrew has his ear, I don't really know since Andrew rarely makes appearances. I know that the others respect him, but us younger generation, we just want to do things our own way. Hate being cooped up and all of that shit."

"You think maybe he has a reason for it?" he cautioned and caught the scathing look she shot at him in the inky darkness.

"Says the one who ran away," the resentful tone returned before she shook her head and sighed, "Listen, Des, why did you run away? I know you got into fights with Dad, I remember them even though I was only six."

"Do you know what we fought about?" he asked, curious.

"No, not really. I mean, I think I know now that I'm sixteen, but not really. I remember Mom sometimes coming in and picking me up and just hugging me afterwards. She did that a lot when you left. I remember her and Dad talking about what if the Templars had kidnapped you and I said that I was going to fight the bad men for taking you away. I think they realize that you ran away after a few months, but Mom just kept hugging me. Oh, you know, you're also to blame for them keeping a laser-eye on me for that first year you know, not that I didn't mind the attention back then." Amanda laughed lightly, trying to show that she was not angry and Desmond felt a sad smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"I don't know, Des. You're back, Uncle Ezio's making his rare appearances..." she sighed, "I just want to leave this place. See what you saw...I mean, I don't care about the Templars. Don't care if the government finds me. It's just some superstitious nonsense, even Lucy and Rebecca said so too. I know you're probably not going to stay long, right? I mean, once you're okay and stuff, you're going to leave right? Go back off the grid?"

Desmond heard the loneliness in her voice and the unspoken plea to take her with him and realized that he really did not know what to do next. With Amunet, she had a plan to strike at the Templars, to stop their satellite from launching in a few months. But now, with the knowledge that she was a little crazy and could have possibly compromised everything to the Templars, he was adrift. He knew he could still train and explore his ancestors' memories in the Animus, but what would he do? He already had some of the skills of Ezio and Altaїr and could rejoin the Assassins' fold, but did he want to?

Amanda had all but spelled out that their father was the nominal leader of the Farm and Desmond wondered if he could ever take orders from his father, after all that had happened between them. The other enclaves could have been compromised by Amunet and he knew that the woman would be looking for him now. Lucy had said that this was the safest and it was where Altaїr had hidden from her all these years. He could not go to another enclave nor could he go back to the life he had before Abstergo captured him.

The real question was: did he want to go back to his life before Abstergo?

"I...don't know, Amma," he replied.

"Can you...take me if you do? We can go somewhere, where no one can find us. Show me what New York City really looks like, what the Sistine Chapel in Rome looks like," the hope in her voice only made Desmond squirm even more.

"What about Peter, what about your friends here?" he asked.

"I don't care about them," she quickly replied, but he could tell she was lying. When he had left, he knew he had abandoned her, but he had been so angry then and had not cared about anyone else. She did not have the anger he had; only resentment that seemed like it was just on the surface. She had been too young to remember the restrictions placed on them when they had moved three years prior to his escape.

He scratched the back of his head, "Amanda, I don't know what's going on right now. I'm taking things day by day, all right? If I leave, I will let you know, okay?"

"You promise?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of the grating moving made him stare in the darkness towards the sound to see a bouncing shaft of light that belonged to a flashlight appear followed by a hissed whisper. "Someone's coming, you guys better scatter."

The light disappeared, but Desmond heard the muttered curses of others around them before a few of them made stomping noises and the crack of glow sticks filled the night. The light, though dim by any means still jarred Desmond's eyes as he was used to the inky darkness now and he saw a few go towards the grating and climb down the ladder while others hovered around. He wished he could access his Eagle Sense to see if anyone was coming, but the fact that he was not able to grasp at it puzzled him.

"Clear," a hoarse reply floated back up the ladder before several more went down and he heard their footsteps jog away.

"Desmond," Amanda's face was bathed in a greenish hue as she cracked the glow stick she had in her hands, "let's go."

He climbed down after her and saw others follow them down before following Amanda through the small narrow passageway as she held the glow stick aloft, carefully stepping on the slippery stones that had been dripped on since they had come this way in what felt like minutes ago. What were once dry caverns was now full of moisture and he understood the caution that each one of them had taken to arrive here and the reason why glow sticks were needed.

"Careful," his sister whispered back before indicating a step that had been dry, but now had a pool of water around it.

"Go back! Go back! Shit!" a hoarse whisper called from further up and everyone froze in place. There was the sound of something being dropped before beams of light came down the hall. He heard muttered curses behind him as the beams of light revealed several adults, holding small, but powerful flashlights and what looked like tasers in their hands.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Rule breakers?" the lead man sneered, "Bill's going to love this..."

Author's Notes:

Moondusted brought up a good point about Amanda Miles' age and I'm obligated to answer for the rest of the masses. Amanda is about 15-16 years old and does not quite act her age, especially when her brother's concerned. I'm sure you can figure out why. Oh, the WTF-ery of Tabitha is part of the giant puzzle piece I've got going on for this story. It also has an oblique reference to Babylon 5 in it too. See you all next chapter!