The Apple and the Lake

by Keeneye945

Sequel to The Lost Staff. When Maddison Gratton is called to the upper Midwest to work undercover at Abstergo in order to gather intel on a possible location of a missing artifact, she makes a discovery that will change her entire life. Rated M for language and strong violence.

6. The Ship

Chapter 6: The Ship

I found myself completely wired up on caffeine by the time that I crossed the Canadian border behind Rebecca and Shaun. On top of the four pack of energy drinks that I had slammed back, I also grabbed a large cup of coffee when the three of us pulled off for fuel. I only needed to gas up my car once the entire drive, but Shaun who was behind the wheel of a massive van, had to stop twice. It took me a moment to process that I was actually in a different country. It wasn't all that long ago that I had never even set foot out of my own state. I found it funny how quickly things can change. I didn't question how William managed to get us access to Canada, considering that the ongoing global pandemic crisis had caused the country to close its borders to, not just the US, but to all people coming from different countries. If there was one thing I have learned through all of this, it was to just roll with things, even if it seemed a little shady.

What I saw when the three of us arrived in the coastal city was honestly what I expected. It was mid-morning and most everything looked abandoned. A few cars on the road, which I assumed were essential workers on their way to their jobs, a few people coming in and out of grocery stores, and the occasional person walking around, completely bundled up. Most everything was shut down, even more so than in the US, where some non-essential places fought to stay open.

The three of us pulled up to the docks, and just as William had promised, a small houseboat was indeed waiting on us. Too me, it looked about as nice as the house that I had spent the last several weeks in, but I suppose comfort wasn't the most important thing at the moment.

As Rebecca and I started to load up the boat with what equipment that we did have, as Shaun pulled it out of the van, I was relieved to find out that the interior of the boat was much nicer than the outside. It had a small kitchen area, a decently sized office and two small bedrooms with soft looking beds. The entire thing was freezing cold, but the space heaters would fix that rather quickly.

"That'll do it," Shaun said when the last of the necessary equipment had been loaded up. "Now to just stash the cars."

I looked over at the three vehicles sitting alone in the parking lot of the boat launch. I assumed that we would find a parking garage somewhere to put them as two convertibles and a large van parked by a boat launch in the middle of winter during a global crisis was probably not the most discreet of things. I was just hoping that we would find one close in case we had to make a quick getaway.

My hoping paid off as we came across a long term lot less than a mile away from the launch. It looked to be completely empty as I pulled my car in behind Rebecca and Shaun, which did not surprise me given the circumstances.

We took a cab back to the boat launch and all any of us wanted to do was to take a nap. The caffeine high that I had been feeling not even an hour ago was quickly wearing off. I looked at the plush bed that I would be sharing with Rebecca and wanted nothing more than to sink into it and let my nerves fade away for a couple of hours, but I knew that I should stay up with everyone else.

Rebecca unrolled a large map of the lake as Shaun cranked the motor on the boat and slowly pulled out of the launch. It was a much more detailed map than the one that we had in Minnesota. Whoever had left the boat for us must have left the map as well. There were at least a dozen red marks on the map, each spaced a fair bit from one another.

"This could take a while," Rebecca said, eyeing each dot. "Some of these are miles from each other."

Shaun looked back at us over his shoulder. "Good thing we have a head start," he said, but there was a slight hesitation in his voice that I noticed.

The way he said it made me slightly uneasy. It was almost as if he did not believe it himself that we were one step ahead. I know that I didn't entirely believe it myself. After all, we were taking a complete shot in the dark here. If we were wrong and the Apple was not here, then we would be handing a huge advantage over to the Templars, and that was something that we could not afford.

I continued to look down at the map, trying to make sense of what I was looking at. I had absolutely no experience in navigation by sea. Everything around looked exactly the same, all water with occasional pieces of ice floating around. It made me glad that Shaun seemed to know exactly where to go and how to get there, because I would have managed to get us lost.

My eyes started to feel exceptionally heavy as I sat at the small table and looked over the map. The small heater in the corner was making the area quite warm, which in turn was making me even more sleepy than I was earlier. I only closed my eyes for a second, but that was all it took.

I was underwater, panicking as I looked at the air gauge attached to my scuba tanks and saw that it was empty. I was alone and had no air left. I knew that I was still too deep because I could not even see sun light coming down through the water. I looked around, desperately looking for any sign of Rebecca or Shaun, not sure how we had gotten separated. Seeing no sign of them, I begin to kick as hard as my legs would allow me, trying desperately to get to the surface, but the tanks, even being completely empty weighed on me and I felt myself being drug back down. Something grabbed my leg and I immediately started thrashing, fighting for my very life, but whatever had me was too strong. My head started to feel like it was floating, and I realized that this was it, that I was about to die. I was going to die alone, in this dark freezing lake and no one was here to help.

There was a soft whispering in my ear. I couldn't tell what the voice was saying, but it brought me warmth and comfort. It was soft and made me feel like everything was going to be okay.

My eyes flew open and the first thing that I saw was Rebecca, her hand on my arm and Shaun standing right behind her, a look of concern on his face. I took a deep breath and it honestly felt like the air was burning my lungs, almost as if I had not been breathing in my nightmare fueled state.

"Are you okay, Maddi?" Shaun asked while Rebecca ran her fingers through my hair and whispered for me to breathe deeply.

"I was dying," I said, somewhat surprised at the crack in my voice. "Am dying, going to die." I felt the tears building up in my eyes and tried to hide them to conceal the fact that I was scared. Scared of having to dive, scared of this massive lake, of those sunken ships, scared of dying, but most of all, I was scared of what would happen if I ended up encountering my father.

Rebecca shushed me softly. "You're not going to die, babe," she said. "I promise you that, I swear on my very life that I would not let that happen. We're gonna recover this artifact and then you and I are going to go home, and when we do, we are going to take some time for just us,"

"Fucking hell, Becks" Shaun said feigning nausea. "When did you get so mushy? It's enough to make me hurl."

Rebecca showed him the finger which made me smile slightly. The thought of time with just Rebecca after this mission, away from the stresses of the hidden war brought me a small level of comfort. Maybe her and I could take a trip somewhere, just the two of us when this whole pandemic ended.

"How long was I out for?" I asked and it was Shaun that responded.

"About forty-five minutes," he said. "You looked like you were sleeping peacefully at first, but then the gasping and thrashing started.

"Sorry that I worried you guys," I said quietly.

Shaun just shook his head at me. "No need to be sorry for having a nightmare. It happens to all of us."

"That's right," Rebecca said, continuing. "We all have things that frighten us or that haunt our dreams. Comes with the territory."

"Speaking of territory," Shaun went on, "we are near one of the wrecks. It's as good a place as any to start and we should get Maddi caught up on how to dive."

I stood up and nodded. I already knew that this was coming and was equally parts nervous and excited. I didn't know the first thing about scuba diving except that growing up along the gulf coast that I had always seen both tourists and locals alike taking boats out into the ocean to explore. It always looked so fun, but having never been the strongest swimmer, it was something that I had never even thought about doing.

I eyed the three wetsuits when Shaun opened the door to a small closet. It was not the first time I had seen one, but it was still kind of hard for me to believe that something so thin looking would keep us warm in these frigid waters. Shaun pulled all three of them out and handed one to me after checking the sizes. I held it up and looked at it carefully. It was jet black, which I suppose was good camouflage for diving deep underwater. The whole thing felt kind of like a rubber material, which I assumed would keep the water off of my skin. Following Shaun to another room, we found the air tanks. They were large and rather heavy looking, lines coming from each of them leg to some kind of breathing apparatus. I wasn't used to breathing through my mouth only, so I would have to work on that. I didn't want to try to take a deep breath in through my nose, only to inhale freezing lake water. There were a few pair of large goggles, to help see underwater and some swimming caps as well as what looked to be a few powerful handheld lights.

I picked up one of the tanks and the first thing that I noticed was that it was heavier than it looked. I was surprised that a tank that was basically full of air could be so heavy. It would most definitely weigh me down underwater.

"First things first," Shaun said, looking at the large number of tanks in the room. "No one dives alone. Since we are going to be doing a majority of the searching at night, we'll be harder to spot if anyone has followed us up here. We either go in pairs, with one remaining behind to keep an eye on things, or we all go together."

"Right," I said, while thinking that you couldn't pay me to swim in this lake alone at night.

"Second," Shaun went on, "and this is more for Maddi than anyone, always, and I mean always know where your air level is at. We are going to be going pretty damn deep, so always make sure that you have enough air to make it to the surface. If you see that gauge hit a quarter capacity, you start making your way up, but not too fast."

I nodded and looked down at the gauge. It looked fairly easy enough to read, but I would still have to keep a close eye on it. I couldn't let myself get comfortable and forget about it. "Got it," I said.

Rebecca pointed at the handheld lights. "Those will help to see down there, but we should also come up with a sign to let each other know if we find something, or if trouble finds us."

Rebecca and Shaun sat me down and started going over everything that I would need to know about scuba diving. A good amount of time was spent on how to properly read the air gauge and telling me to not be afraid to breathe. That would probably be the hardest part for me. Humans weren't used to or designed to breathe underwater. If we were, we would have gills and be mermaids. Shaun had me put on the wetsuit and strap a full tank to my back so I could get used to the feel of the equipment on dry land before trying it in the water.

"Okay," Rebecca said, smiling at me after two hours of me listening to their instructions. "Now comes the fun part. Let's get in some practical training."

"Right now?" I asked, my voice equal parts nervous and excited. "Like right now?"

"No better time than the present," Shaun said. "We have a few tanks that are only about half full. They'll be perfect for this."

I took a deep breath and nodded. I was going to have to do it anyway, so I might as well get the first one out of the way.

"It's going to be fun," Rebecca said, sounding way more excited than I felt. "I haven't done this in ages."

We each grabbed one of the half full tanks and as Rebecca showed me how to strap it on, I pulled the hood of the wetsuit over my hair and pulled on the flippers. Between that and the goggles, every inch of my body should stay dry, which was going to be essential in the freezing water. Hypothermia was a very real thing after all.

Out on the deck of the boat, it had turned into an absolutely gorgeous day. The sun was shining high in the sky and only a few wisps of white clouds dotted the perfectly blue sky. If not for it being absolutely frigid outside, it would have been the perfect day to be on a boat. I waddled across the deck, feeling like an oversized penguin in the flippers and sat on the edge as Rebecca had instructed me.

Rebecca sat next to me and smiled. "We'll go together and only go down twenty or thirty feet. Just deep enough to get you accustomed to the feeling. Ready?" She asked.

I pulled the goggles down over my eyes and put the mouthpiece in my mouth. I took Rebecca's hand and nodded. Together we leaned backwards and let ourselves fall into the frigid water. Part of me was expecting a shock to my system as I sank underwater, but true to the word of Shaun, the suit kept me from feeling the water. My body sank deeper and by the time I was about 15 feet under my lungs started to burn. I let go of Rebecca's hand and kicked towards the surface and spit out the mouthpiece as soon as my head broke the surface of the water and took a deep breath of cold air.

Rebecca surfaced a few seconds later and she too spit out the mouthpiece. "You have to breath, Maddi," she said softly.

"I know," I replied. "It's just weird to think about taking a breath underwater."

"I know," Rebecca said, swimming over closer to me. "You'll get used to it pretty quickly though. I have complete faith that you're going to be a natural at this."

I nodded once again and stuck the mouthpiece back in my mouth and Rebecca did the same. She took my hand and waited until I was ready before diving back under with me. Ten feet down she looked at me and tapped her mouthpiece with the hand that was not holding mine. I knew that I had to do it. I just had to take that first breath. The first one would be the hardest. Everything after that would come naturally. I closed my eyes and took a deep steady breath through my mouth.

I was shocked at how easy it actually was. How easy the air seemed to fill my lungs and the bubbles that came from me as I exhaled made me smile. I steadied myself and took another breath, and then one more.

It was hard to communicate under water, so Rebecca simply squeezed my hand and pointed down deeper. As we kicked deeper down into the lake, I started to notice things that made me forget what I was actually training myself for. Sunlight filtering through the water, creating beautiful colors; schools of fish, some tiny and others that were quite large. I was certain that I saw a sturgeon off in the near distance. Rebecca had been right. This was absolutely amazing in every possible way.

We dove a little further down and I noticed that the light from the sun was starting to vanish, but I didn't care. It wasn't until Rebecca squeezed my hand and held up an illuminated waterproof diving watch in front of me that I saw that we were now more than seventy feet below the water's surface. I couldn't believe it. She pointed to the surface and together the two of us kicked slowly, but firmly, propelling ourselves upward.

When my head broke the surface again, I spit out the mouthpiece and had the biggest smile on my face. We were about thirty feet away from the boat and Shaun was looking out over the water at me. "That was fucking amazing!" I exclaimed loudly and Rebecca laughed.

"I told you," Rebecca said amid her laughter. "I told you that you would be a natural! I'm so proud of you baby!"

We made our way back to the boat and Shaun helped us both out of the water. "Good job, Maddi," he said as I flopped down on the deck of the boat and pulled the flippers off of my feet and took the goggles off. "It's going to be different deeper down, but the process is the same. Your body will adjust to the added pressure."

"She'll be brilliant," Rebecca said, looking back at the vast lake. "There is a ship pretty much straight below us. I think we should hit that one tonight."

"I agree," I replied, surprising myself at the boldness in my voice.

"Agreed," Shaun said, joining the two of us. "Until then though, since we are all kind of sleep deprived, I suggest a good nap for all of us. It's going to be a long night."

I fell asleep within moments of crawling into the bed. The last thing that I remembered was Rebecca walking into the bathroom. I didn't see her come out. The bed was quite a bit softer than any that I was used to, but that was not exactly a bad thing. I dreamt again, but this time it was pleasant. I was scuba diving, but the entire environment was different. It was completely tropical, a volcano was off in the distance, and I could see Rebecca with a massive smile on her face beckoning me to come to her. The water was crystal clear, and I could clearly see coral deep below the surface of the water and multiple types of colorful fish that I couldn't name. I dove deeper and was completely blown away by the beauty of everything. It was like nothing that I had ever seen before. A large turtle swam up to me and just as I was reaching out to touch its fin, I heard my name being whispered to me.

My eyes fluttered open, and I was suddenly back on the boat. It was cold and dark. One look at my watch told me that it was almost 8 PM. Rebecca was looking down at me from the side of the bed and I smiled as I always did when I woke up to her.

"Not a bad dream this time, I am guessing," she said, and I nodded my head.

I yawned and pulled the blanket up to my chin. The bed was so comfy and knowing what was coming made me not want to get up. "It was quite pleasant," I said, wanting to close my eyes, but I felt wide awake. "Warm vacation," I added as I rolled out of the bed.

"You're over the frozen north already?" Rebecca asked, but I could tell by her voice that she too was missing the warmer climate.

The dream was still in my head as I ran a brush through my tangled nest of hair and pulled on my wetsuit. Surprisingly, my body felt well rested and refreshed after the long nap. Shaun had a steaming cup of black coffee waiting for me when I walked out onto the deck of the ship. It didn't taste great, but it did perk me up. I would be happy when this was over and I could get a sugar filled, calorie loaded frappuccino again. Call me basic if you want, but they were delicious.

I pulled on my air tank and immediately felt the weight difference from the one that I used earlier. Shaun handed Rebecca and I each one of the waterproof lights and I looked out over the vast darkness of the lake. I guess it was time.

"Ready?" Shaun asked me and I walked over to the platform of the boat by way of answer. "Well okay then," Shaun went on. "Just remember what you learned. It'll be different, but still much the same."

"She's gonna be brilliant," Rebecca said as I pulled my goggles down over my eyes and inserted the mouthpiece.

I took a deep breath and let myself fall backwards alongside Rebecca and Shaun. It couldn't have been any more different that my experience earlier. There was no light filtering in through the surface, no sea life in sight, no nothing. The moment that I sank under the water, it was nothing except blackness. I couldn't see two inches in front of my face. It was a darkness like I had never experienced before. I fumbled with the light, being extra careful to not drop it, and pressed the switch to turn it on. It helped, but only slightly. The only thing that it accomplished was letting me see just in front of my face. I saw lights comes to life next to me and turned to see both Rebecca and Shaun looking down. Rebecca tapped her watch and then the air gauge near her chest, signaling that we needed to go, and we dove.

I kept as close to Rebecca and Shaun as I possibly could, not wanting to get separated. As we got deeper and deeper under the surface, I started to feel a pressure on my body and when I looked over at Rebecca next to me and pointed at me chest, she simply nodded, signaling that it was normal.

The silence was eerie, the only sound coming from the three of us slowly exhaling. It felt like I had been underwater for an hour already, but I knew better. Shaun looked at me and tapped the air gauge, causing me to glance down at mine. I nodded that I was fine, and we kept going deeper.

The ship came into view, but only faintly. It was weird for me. The ship looked like it could easily be haunted, but I found it to be rather beautiful. It was larger than I imagined a sunken ship to be, the hull was completely rusted through in spots, leaving gaping holes into the hold. It had obviously been some kind of cargo ship from the looks of the large shipping containers still onboard. Most of those had been rusted through as well. Some it looked like the doors had fallen off, while others looked to be still sealed and locked. I held my arms out, signaling my surprise at the vastness of the ship, wondering how we could possibly manage to search all of it. Shaun pointed at the shipping containers and shook his head, indicating that those would not need to be searched. I assumed he was trying to tell me that if an artifact was on this ship that it would have been kept in a much more secure location.

Rebecca pointed to a massive hole in the side of the ship. You could have easily fit a small car through it. The three of us dove through it, careful to avoid cutting ourselves on the jagged rusty points stickling out. I was surprised at the sheer number of rooms that we came across. Dozens of wooden doors, most having almost completely rotted into nothing. We searched each and every one as thoroughly as possible, checking cabinets and under rusted beds. Each and every one of them were empty.

I eventually came across a door that was a little ways off from the others. There was a metal plate attached to it, and even though the letters were faded and falling apart, I could clearly make out what it said. I flashed my light three times in the direction of Rebecca and Shaun, the signal that I may have found something. They appeared in front of me a moment later and I pointed at the plate on the door that said Captain. Rebecca gave me a thumbs up and the three of us kicked hard as we pushed on the door. It came completely off of the rusted hinges and sank down to the floor.

The room looked to be a large office of sorts, a heavy looking wooden desk lay on its side and a roll top cabinet was in complete shambles in the corner. One look at Rebecca all but confirmed what I was thinking. This was not the ship that we were looking for. Still, we gave the Capitan's off a full search before giving up. There was no artifact on this ship. Part of me felt dismayed, but it was expected. I never thought that we would find this thing on our first search.

I checked my air gauge and saw that I still had half of my supply left. Plenty enough to get back to the surface with some to spare. The three of us swam out of the office and back out of the ship. It was slow going back to the surface as we made sure not to ascend too swiftly.

My head broke the surface and I spit out the mouthpiece. We came up a good twenty yards away from our boat. We kicked and paddled our way over to it and Shaun was the first out of the water, followed by Rebecca who helped me out and pulled me into a bone crunching hug the minute that I was on the deck.

"You were amazing!" She said loudly and the sound caught me by surprise after the hours of silence under water. "I told you that you would be brilliant!"

Shaun waddled over and put a firm hand on my shoulder. "I have to admit," he said, and I could see the smile on his face, "that I am impressed. Becks was right when she said that you would be a natural at this. I can hardly believe that you've never done this before today."

"But we didn't find anything," I said, hoping that I was not blushing too much at the compliments.

"It would have been a miracle if we did," said Rebecca, waving off my statement. "This was just the first ship. We have several more to hit before this is all said and done."

"Too true," Shaun replied, looking out over the dark lake. "For now, though, shower and rest. We've all earned it. We'll move when it becomes light out and dive for the next one at night."

I nodded and started to walk back to my and Rebecca's room, but Shaun stopped me and pulled me aside. "I'm proud of you. I know that we have not known each other long, but I can already tell that you are a tremendous asset to the Brotherhood…and I can see why Becks fell for you." I thought for a moment that I caught the slightest hint of jealously in his voice at that last statement but figured that I was imagining it. I nodded and walked off to the room.

The next several nights passed much the same as the first. Resting up during the day, a long dive and searching at night, only to come up empty. I was starting to feel disheartened every time we came up empty and I was not the only one. Rebecca too seemed to be starting to lose hope that the artifact was here. It was only Shaun's encouragement that kept us going. By the end of night six and our sixth sunken ship that did not turn up anything, I was ready to be off of this boat and back on dry land. I knew that we could not give in though, this was too damn important.

It was late on a Tuesday evening and Shaun, Rebecca, and I were all sitting around a table with the shipwreck map in front of us while we sipped coffee and munched of stale donuts. I had felt different when I woke up this evening, but I couldn't explain it. I just had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was coming.

"I've got a good feeling about tonight," Shaun said, pointing at the red mark on the map that indicated the ship tonight.

"Why's that?" asked Rebecca through a bite of old donut.

"This particular wreck is mysterious…to say the least," Shaun went on. "It is one of the so called ghost ships of this great lake."

The words "ghost ship" caught my interest and I looked up at Shaun quizzically. "What do you mean by ghost ship?" I asked, confusion on my face.

"Got your interest huh?" Shaun said with a chuckle as Rebecca set down her donut and turned her gaze on him. "Every wreck that we searched before tonight has just been a normal shipwreck. They have all had well documented files on what they were and especially how they went down." He tapped his finger on the map slightly harder than I thought was necessary. "Not this one though. According to what little is known about this ship, it went down in 1927. The strange thing about that though, is it went down without a trace under mysterious conditions. Actually, too this very day, the cause of sinking has never been discovered."

"Something to do with the ISU?" Rebecca asked curiously. "Nah, that doesn't make any sense. It's too modern for ISU involvement."

"Is it though?" Shaun said, tilting his head. "Think back Becks, back to 2012. Minerva was there, she spoke directly to Desmond. Hell, she spoke directly to him through Ezio. Look at Layla. We can't ever forget just how advanced that civilization actually was."

"That's true," Rebecca replied, and I sat there feeling foolish for having nothing to contribute to this conversation. I knew that the Desmond that they Shaun had mentioned had to have been William's son, the same one who died. And I had heard the name Layla a few times but had never met her. All I really knew about her was that she was a former Abstergo employee that had joined the Assassins, and there was an incident involving a staff that resulted is someone's death.

"So, be extra careful tonight, is what I am getting out of this," I said.

"Always be extra careful, babe," Rebecca said smiling at me, but I could see a hint of nerves on her face. "But yes, especially tonight. If this ship is indeed the one we are after and if it was an ISU involved wreck, then it could potentially be quite dangerous to take the artifact."

That was an awful lot of ifs riding on this. I didn't know much of the ISU other than what I had read in archives over the last year, but I knew enough to know that they had been a vastly intelligent race, and far technologically superior than we could ever hope to be. Death usually followed their involvement.

"Okay," Shaun said, taking a deep breath. "Let's get ready."

I stood up from the table and, as I did from the first dive, prepared myself mentally for anything that might happen. I was no longer nervous in the slightest about diving or exploring the wrecks. I was looking at it, not only as work, but as an experience that I would never forget as long as I live. I had learned something completely new that I would hopefully use many times in the future and not just for work.

I knew that there was something add about the ship the moment that it came into view. It didn't look much different than the other freighters that we had searched in days past, but I could definitely sense an air of mystery about it. Something deep in my gut was telling me that something tragic had happened onboard.

The search started the exact same as the others. Shaun, Rebecca, and I were all taking the search room by room, but it felt different. This ship had a haunted feel to it, and I kept looking to the side every few seconds, positive that I was catching movement out of the corner of my eye. At one point I swore that someone was looking at me, but when I turned to the side all I found was an old mirror that had somehow survived the frozen deep. One thing that I noticed was that many of these freighters were laid out in the same fashion. Sleeping quarters were often found in the same place on one ship as another and the dining hall was always in roughly the same area. Capitan's quarters were always a little ways off from everything else and that was what I was ultimately searching for. It wasn't long before I found it either.

I found the, what was now, familiar looking door. I could feel a haunting, powerful presence coming from within. A feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that the artifact was waiting for me just beyond the door. I looked up through the window of the door and what I saw made my heart drop.

I had to force myself to breath as I strobed my light, trying to grab the attention of Rebecca and Shaun. A dead body was looking at me through the small circular window. I mean, he technically wasn't looking at me as he was dead, but his eyes were right on mine when I looked. The body looked perfectly preserved, and I put that down to the low water temperature. Shaun was the first to swim up, with Rebecca very close behind him. When he looked at me with a confused look on his face, I pointed towards the door in an aggressive fashion.

I saw the look of slight shock on his face when he glanced up and saw the dead guy staring back. I shouldn't have been as shocked as I was, after all, it was not my first time seeing a dead person. I had killed a man in the past, but I guess I just didn't expect to see one on the ship.

The three of us looked at one another and nodded. I knew that we had to search the room, dead body or no. The door seemed a lot sturdier and well put together as opposed to some of the others I had seen on past dives. It took all three of us pushing and kicking as hard as we could to get the door open. The body of the poor man that had died down here sank to the floor of the room as we swam in.

Shaun examined the dead man while Rebecca and I began our search of the room. A moment later, Shaun flashed his light, signaling us over and Rebecca and I inched closer. He pointed the light at the man's hand and indicated that we should look. It only took me a moment to see what he was referring to. On the left hand, burned so deep into the flesh that it was still clearly visible was a brand. A symbol. The symbol of the Assassin Brotherhood. In life, this man had clearly been one of us, which meant that this could very well be the ship that we were searching for.

I returned to my search around the room, checking all of the usual places. I found a roll top desk, which seemed to be a popular item around the time these ships sank. Every single Capitan's office had one so far. This one though, unlike the others, had a heavy looking lock on it, and I waved my arms towards Rebecca. The lock had rusted and worn down after so many years at the bottom of a lake, and so it only took a few hard tugs before it snapped off. Inside the desk was an intricately carved box. I couldn't tell what it was made out of at a glance, but it was held up quite well considering it had been under water for almost a hundred years.

I gingerly removed the box from the desk and was surprised to feel heat coming from it through my diving gloves. My heart raced as I opened the top of the box. A golden sphere was inside. It looked to be made of the same material that the box was made of. It had similar engravings as well. This had to be it. I looked at Rebecca and she nodded, a smile showing through her mouthpiece confirmed my beliefs. She signaled to Shaun who came over at once. I reached into the box, and my fingers were inches away from the apple when Rebecca gently grabbed my wrist. I looked up to see her and Shaun both shaking their heads, wordlessly telling me not to touch it. They were right to stop me from grabbing it. I had no clue what this particular artifact was capable of. If it was anything like the staff that we recovered previously, it was incredibly dangerous.

I closed the box as Shaun signaled that our job was done. We made our way through the ship once more and out of one of the holes that had worn through the hull. The swim back to the surface seemed to me much shorter than the dive down and I was thankful for that. I was ready for a good rest and looking forward to hopefully getting back home soon. I missed my house and my bed, and I missed Rebecca being in it with me even more.

It was still pitch dark when I broke the surface. Shaun hauled himself back onto the boat first and I passed him the apple before climbing up myself. Rebecca followed me right after.

I had the biggest smile on my face as I took off my flippers and goggles. "We fucking did it!" I exclaimed, looking at the box sitting on the deck.

"Yes, we did," Rebecca replied, also looking at the box. "And you, Maddi my love, are the one that found it."

"You should be proud," Shaun added. "We all should be. Mission accomplished." Shaun opened the box and we all looked down at the item that we had put in so much hard work for, the item that the suits over at Abstergo would happily kill all three of us for.

Against my better judgement, I reached down and picked up the apple. It was hot to the touch and the moment I wrapped my fingers around it, white light burst forth from it. A few images ran through my mind, but none of them made any sense. Brief glimpses of a fight on the deck of a ship, what looked to be a towering hologram of a woman talking to a man. I didn't know who either of them was but based on the size of the hologram and the way that it was dressed, I guessed that she was of the ISU. There was a dense fog and all I could hear was the screaming of several people.

The visions stopped just a quickly as they had started, and I dropped the apple back into its box. "What happened?" Rebecca asked, sounding quite worried. "What did you see?"

"A flashback of things long past," I said, and was surprised to find myself out of breath. It felt like I had just run a marathon. "Just a mishmash of various things, but I am positive that I saw one of the ISU in my mind."

"Quite possible," Shaun replied, looking down at the apple before closing the box. "I wouldn't worry too much about it right now though. The important thing is that we recovered the artifact and are all safe. We'll get this to William or Gavin, and all go home for a while."

That sounded wonderful to me. I couldn't wait to get back home, to see my front yard where the grass was still green, and I wasn't in danger of slipping on ice every day. Where I could spend my days laying at home or going to a beach. Yes, I would always be looking over my back for any sign of the Templar's closing in on me, but I would be home at least. And Rebecca would be with me.

"Let's go home," I whispered to Rebecca.

Witchy's Notes:

Well, this one turned out a bit wordier than I imagined it would. I probably could have split this up into two separate chapters, but honestly the words were just flowing. Though I like it better than the last chapter, I am still not 100% satisfied with how the flow is happening. The next chapter is the end. It will wrap things up and I will decide if I want to revisit Maddi and Becks in the future. I will have a short epilogue following the last chapter, but it will be short and sweet. This tale is so close to its conclusion, and I am looking forward to everyone hopefully enjoying. It's been a long time coming.