Aquilo
Aquilo only rests for about an hour and a half before grabbing a few protein bars and heading back down to the Animus. He sees Layla, a woman is joining Shaun and Rebecca after they leave here, sitting in a couch on the other side of the basement. She looks more ragged than ever, the dark circles under her eyes seem to only ever get worse.
Although, with the word that came back from Greece… It isn't surprising. Aquilo couldn't believe what he had been hearing when word came back… Then that Layla would be coming here to join us for a while, he admitted to being nervous about it. But she has seemed outwardly better ever since they gave her that mood modulating thing.
Aquilo sees her wave as he walks towards Rebecca, so he gives an uncertain wave back before getting to Rebecca's workstation and the Animus.
"Back so soon?" Rebecca asks as he comes from behind the wall.
"Tried to talk to my mom. She was, as usual, being pretty stubborn. So I took a nap—"
"And scarf down some protein bars?" She uses her pen to point at the four wrappers in his hand.
"Yep… Anyway, let's get the rest of those memories done."
"Awesome. They're all set to go, let's get you hooked up. How late do you want to go?" Rebecca asks as she pats the chair of the Animus.
"It's a little after seven now… Let's just see how far we can get tonight. As long as your okay with a late night."
"No problem for me. Just let me know when you're ready to come out. If we don't finish the memories first anyway."
Aquilo sits down and they get him ready. Then she initializes the Animus bringing the Memory Corridor before him. Aquilo can't remember the last time he had used the Animus so consistently… And never before had something depend on him finding a nugget of history in the memories of his DNA. Most of the big mysteries of his DNA had been scoped out by Desmond before he had been even using the Animus at all…
Okay, so this memory is the one of the meeting in Istanbul… From what I can tell it's brief but leads almost directly into the next memory.
"Gotcha. Ready when you are Becks."
Launching the memory… Three, two, one…
The hideout of the Istanbul Assassins springs to life before his eyes as Ezio sits at the end of the table with the few Assassins seated there as Yusuf introduces him.
Aquilo doesn't pay any attention to the words being said because he is waiting for the woman. And there she is. She is wearing similar Assassin's robes to the others in the room, but dark green with black and gold accents, and from Ezio's memory the mask she is wearing is similar to some he saw on the way in, if a little more ornate with some gold decorations on the swirls. Something Aquilo notices this time are the tips of blonde curls peeking between the mask and the hood. It looks like the mask got put on quickly.
She obviously cares for Yusuf, and Emmett did say that the Assassins in Istanbul had told Yusuf's illegitimate son that he had been married. Aquilo now sees the way she places her hand on Yusuf's arm when he mentions the ambush from the Byzantines and the way Yusuf's hand immediately goes to it without missing a beat of what he is saying to his Assassins.
"Hemen!" Yusuf almost shouts to his underlings who then jump into action, "And you, Ezio…" Yusuf gestures to all of Ezio, "Your weapons and armour are in a pitiful state…" Ezio begins to look himself up and down, "Maybe find some money and repair what you can. There's a blacksmith nearby. He's a friend." Ezio's hidden blade screeches as it ejects and retracts. Not even accounting for the broken second hidden blade.
"Buona idea." Ezio walks towards the exit of the hideout. Stopping along the way to greet some Assassins who are introducing themselves. Part way over the bridge to the exit after finishing his greetings, Ezio looks back. To see Yusuf kneeling before the women with his hand on her face before he pulls her face in to kiss it. A long tress of blonde curls falls from behind the hood as Ezio turns around and exits the hideout.
The memory shudders a little bit as it jumps forward to having Ezio, Yusuf, and this woman all on a rooftop. Aquilo recognizes the scene as where Yusuf demonstrates how to use the hook blade to create opportunities for air assassinations.
"A templar scout." Yusuf points across the street to the next rooftop, and the woman nudges his arm, "And another there." Yusuf grabs Ezio's arm, "Watch this." Yusuf jumps and slides down the zipline, dismounts the zipline into a perfect air assassination. Silent, as it went unnoticed by the scout's partner.
Yusuf makes fighting and grunting sounds before shouting, "Assassin! Help!" Ezio looks over to see the woman's shoulders sink a little and the smallest sound of a giggle escapes from behind the mask.
"You better go over there…" She shrugs as the second Templar scout hops off his roof to examine his comrade's body. Then Ezio uses the zip line to flawlessly copy what Yusuf had just done.
Then the Memory Corridor rematerializes around Aquilo rather suddenly.
"Was that the end of the memory or did something go wrong?" He asks.
Nothing's wrong, just the end of the memory… Next one is all set to go. And launch!
Ezio perches above the area where the hideout had been taken. Yusuf said that he had already sent some Assassins ahead to scout the situation. But as he looks he can see that there is already fighting happening below. Many of the Assassins are fighting their way to the hideout.
Ezio uses his keen sense to find that the leader of this stolen den isn't so cowardly as some… He is making his way up to a rooftop where two Assassins are already fighting an uncomfortable number of Byzantines. He notes the darker robes of the woman who appeared to be Yusuf's love in the fray. He had seen her a few other times since his arrival, but every time she seems to be wearing the ornate metal mask.
Aquilo counts ten that he can see already on that rooftop; he is certain that there is no way that only two would be able fight against that many.
Ezio springs into action. Leaping and soaring across the rooftops.
A race against time…
Even a master of combat could only hold out against that much pressure for so long.
He isn't sure he could even have accomplished that in his prime.
Ezio dashes across the gable of a roof to arrive at the leader of the Byzantines.
He launches himself up a little and drives his hidden blade home to a clean kill.
Impressing Aquilo, Ezio launches back into a sprint before rapidly freeclimbing up to the rooftop where he is certain he will find two dead Assassins. Using the hook blade he pulls himself over the ledge of the roof expecting to find at least three Byzantines ready to attack him.
But he only finds a scene of pure carnage. Some of the Byzantines were killed with simple and precise slashes, either by hidden blades or a sword. The work of a true master; efficient kills, no wasted energy. But a couple of them were killed with sloppier slashes from heavier and uncertain swings with the hidden blade, the work of a beginner. By Ezio's counting eight were killed by the master and two by the student.
Ezio then spots the woman in dark green crouched next to the other Assassin with her hand gently placed on the cheek of the Assassin, who appears to be a young woman.
"Shh… It will be okay. You did well. Now rest." Ezio hears her voice and it tings a distant memory, but the memory won't surface.
As Ezio gets to them he crouches down next to the woman.
"I thought for sure that I would be arriving to find two Assassins lost. You are a formidable opponent it seems." The young-looking Assassin releases one final breath with her deep umber eyes looking forever forward.
"Not formidable enough it seems. I couldn't save her."
"We cannot save everyone every time. Her name?"
"Feray."
"Requiescat in pace… Feray." He reaches out and gently draws the young woman's eyes closed.
"Thank you. I will go see to any of the other Assassins. I imagine you've already killed the leader, so you can go light the signal fire." She stands up straight and hops down off the rooftop.
Ezio evaluates the area again, his surprise making him ever more curious of this constantly masked woman.
The memory fades away into the Corridor. Aquilo still shocked at how that woman had managed to kill so many… And from what Aquilo could see there hadn't even been any wounds on her.
Alright, Lio. We have the next memory ready. Looks like it is just a couple of weeks after that one.
"Alright. I'm ready." Aquilo says firmly.
Then the next memory grows into place around him.
Back in the headquarters, Ezio strolls through acknowledging the Assassins who stop to pay him respect. The place looking busier than when he had first arrived in Istanbul.
Aquilo can see through the memories that he has managed to get his hands on one of the other disc keys to unlock Altair's Library.
One of the newer recruits Ezio had brought in, Szofia, makes her ways across the space at the top of the stairs ahead of him calling a name. He doesn't quite catch the name but when the recruit spots him, she stops and smiles.
"Mentor! Wonderful to see you again."
"Same to you, Szofia. Who were you just calling to?" Ezio looks into the direction the girl had been going.
"Oh, I was just calling for—" Szofia starts.
"Me." And Yusuf's love, the woman whose name I still have not gotten, enters the space with her dark green hood up and the metal mask of swirls secured over her face.
"Yes." The recruit girl grins widely, "She's been helping me settle in amongst the other Assassins and finding my place here. I'm grateful to you for bringing me to this place, but I'm grateful to her for helping make it my home." She steps over to the woman who secures a gold sash around Szofia's hips.
"How do you like it?" The woman asks putting her hand on Szofia's shoulder.
"It is beautiful, but I think I would prefer a nice teal, like Master Yusuf's sash…"
"That will come in time…" The woman says warmly, "But you should probably go see if there's any training you can do today. Your skills with slight-of-hand are excellent but you need more than that to live this life."
"Thank you, Miss Raea." She bows a little, "Mentor."
Aquilo's heart begins to race. Did that girl just call the woman there, 'Raea?' The memory gets jumbled a little and almost begins to move in slow motion, with parts at the edges of his vision separating.
Woah, Lio, you gotta calm down… Your heartrate is spiking bad.
Aquilo uses one of the methods that Nyx once taught him on calming down inside of the Animus, to avoid desynching. Luckily, it only just manages to work and the memory resumes.
"I do not believe we have been properly introduced. I am Ezio—"
"Auditore. Yes, I'm aware. I don't think there's a soul here who doesn't know who you are." She sits down at the table nearby and Ezio sits down across from her. Ezio notices that she does not refer to him as 'Mentor' like the other Assassins of this Brotherhood.
"That puts you at an advantage since I do not know who you are. All I know is that Szofia just addressed you as 'Raea.'" Aquilo can see Ezio aiming to use skills that usually work on most any woman, except this one apparently.
"Why yes. Yes, it does put you at a disadvantage doesn't it." Aquilo can practically hear the smile in the woman's voice as she crosses her arms. Ezio's weary mind still cannot place where he recognizes the voice from though.
"Ah! Najmay! I see you are conversing with our esteemed Mentor!" Yusuf comes from behind Ezio and claps his hand on Ezio's shoulder. Aquilo's worries subside as Yusuf calls the woman Najmay and not Raea, "I wonder Najmay, have you considered what I suggested last time? It has been a couple of weeks now." Najmay's shoulders visibly tense up at the mention of whatever it is they discussed earlier. Then Yusuf gently nudges her shoulder and beckons Ezio to follow, "Come, let's go somewhere a little more private."
They all go to the library and Yusuf shoos the couple of people from the space. Then he and Najmay bring in a few chairs but don't sit right away. So neither does Ezio. Yusuf also asks Kasim to keep the others away for a while.
"So, Najmay. Don't you think that we should share this?" He reminds her why they change their surroundings.
Yusuf then walks around to Najmay who had relaxed a little tenses right back up at the mention of this suggestion again.
"Yusuf… I… I'm not—" She starts.
"Najmay, my love…" Yusuf goes over to her and places his hands at the edges of the mask, "We need not hide here." Yusuf pauses long enough that she could have stopped him, but she does not act as he removes the mask. Ezio does notice her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles are turning white. Yusuf then places the mask on the table before lowering her hood to reveal the head full of loose blonde curls that Ezio almost recognizes. Her eyes stay locked on Yusuf's as she bites her lip hard enough to draw blood, "Najmay… Relax, he is our friend. He is your friend, yes?" He wipes away the trail of blood and her head drops a little.
"Yes…" She almost whispers. Ezio taking it as him being a friend of the Assassins in general.
"No one should bear your burden alone." Yusuf says, which gets her to look back up at him, but from Ezio's spot at the table all he can see is the blonde hair as it blocks her face, until she turns to face him. Aquilo and Ezio could not have been more in synch at that moment, as the woman reveals her face to him.
"Hello, Ezio…" She says and Ezio just lets his jaw drop as he stands up and walks over to her and touches her face.
"Neoma? Is that—?" Ezio stops himself, completely unbelieving of what he's seeing.
"Yusuf… I think he's in shock. Maybe you should sit down Ezio…" She takes Ezio's shoulders and guides him to a chair.
"So, that is you, Neoma? But how? We parted a decades ago, and you look completely unchanged." Ezio finally manages to say the green eyes of the woman before suddenly looking familiar, and yet totally different.
"Yeah… And I am the same person but… My name isn't really Neoma…" She starts but she pauses and scratches the back of her head.
"Is it Najmay then?" Ezio jumps into, "But Szofia called you Raea…"
"Najmay is just what I call her. For she is my star." The green eyes fill with a glittering life as she hears Yusuf say that while putting his hand on her shoulder. Ezio marvels at the change in her eyes, where they had been dull and vacant when they had parted ways, they are now alight and glowing with life.
"My real name is Astraea."
The whole memory shatters around Aquilo and the next thing he sees is the bucket in front of him as he heaves up the pitiful meal of protein bars.
"There you are big guy…" Rebecca says as she rubs his back.
"It's impossible right?" He asks, more for confirmation than anything.
"Judging by what was revealed by Kassandra of Sparta, I'm going to have to say… No, not impossible. But I suppose to really find out we need to finish that memory, yeah?" Aquilo breathes deeply and nods.
Rebecca holds out a bottle of water and Aquilo chugs it all in one breath.
"That is if you're still up to it. We could take another break…"
"No, we need to get to the bottom of this. I need to get to the bottom of this. Let's go." He lays back down and Rebecca shrugs before getting him ready to dive back into the Animus.
After a short stint in the Memory Corridor, Rebecca reinitializes the memory.
"My real name is Astraea." She says to Ezio as she sits down on a chair in front of him, "And this is all going to sound completely crazy." She warns Ezio, "So I need to make sure that you're ready to hear this. Because there is no going back once I tell you. If you don't want to hear it… I won't say anything more." She stops talking.
Ezio's mind is racing over how she doesn't look even a day older than she did before and wondering whether he's ready to hear how.
Aquilo's mind is centered on watching this Astraea, he spots a single small scar on her eyebrow, one that Aquilo recognizes by having put one on his Astraea by accident when they were children.
"You found a sun, it seems." Ezio finally says, Astraea's eyes looking surprised for a moment before her whole face softens. She puts her hand on Yusuf's as it rests on her shoulder.
"Yes… Yes, I did. I found a dazzling light to bring me into the day." Her smile glows.
"This… What you are intending to tell me… Is it why you were so empty seeming before?" Her shoulders sink and she looks down.
"Yes… So, please, if you don't want to hear it tell me. It isn't easy to hear, nor is it easy to tell."
"You did fine with me, and I like to think I did pretty well in hearing it." Yusuf boasts.
"Yes, yes you did." She assures him.
"Well, I have seen plenty of inexplicable things in my time, so this can't be much worse than those." Astraea looks confused by the sentence, "I'll explain after you've had your chance. But go ahead, I will listen to what you have to say."
This Astraea then launches into unbelievable thing after unbelievable thing. Starting with the fact that she has lived longer than anyone else. That she has shown no signs of physical aging for upwards of tens of thousands of years. The entire time Ezio reeling but holding on, with a grateful Aquilo using Ezio's strength to keep himself holding on. When she stops talking for a little, Ezio processes for a few minutes.
It's seeming more and more likely that this is your Astraea. The only unanswered question being how she ended up there. Because I know I've seen baby pictures of all of you at this point. And I have definitely seen pictures of younger both of yous. Rebecca's voice over the link helps to center Aquilo.
"Maybe if we continue the memories we'll get a solid answer for that too…" Aquilo answers her.
Ezio breathes in deeply and organizes his thoughts.
"Now, all of that just makes what I thought unusual seem like an ordinary occurrence." He says, "Because twelve years ago, I opened a Vault beneath the Vatican that was unlike anything I had ever seen before." Astraea coughs out the sip of tea she had just taken and is wracked with coughs.
"You? You are the one that Minerva did all that preparation for? What did she say?"
"She did not speak to me much. Rather she spoke to a phantom who seemed to be behind me, she called him Desmond. She spoke of a catastrophe that had once occurred and would again in the future. I admit that most of it did not make very much sense to me." Ezio shrugs a little.
"No… I suppose it wouldn't, they have that effect. Especially Minerva." I can't repress the eyeroll at remembering her riddling antics. "Although, I knew her better as Athena… But a lot of what she would say regarding the future often sounded like riddles. She was the best at sussing out which direction time would take though. I do know the catastrophe she mentioned… But whatever she did must have panned out well enough, because I don't remember the world getting destroyed at all." I look at Ezio, and while he is certainly handling it well, I can still see the gears spinning at max speed to process all the information.
"Right, well…" Yusuf places his hands on my back, "Perhaps we should get back to the problems of today for now and leave the future to this Desmond that your Athena seems to have so much confidence in."
"Yes, I agree… This has been a very… Strange discussion." Ezio stands to leave. Aquilo hoping that the conversation isn't completely over yet. He needs more answers.
"Shouldn't you also bring up your birthday, Najmay?" Yusuf places a hand on her shoulder, and Astraea breathes deeply in and then just as deeply out before answering.
"Yes…" She answers reluctantly.
"What about your birthday? Would it even be in a date as we use now, if you were born so long ago that is." Ezio argues, quite logically Aquilo thinks.
"That's the thing… My birthdate is August the twenty-fifth…" She looks at Yusuf, Ezio is already confused again, and Yusuf raises his eyebrows at her, "1992." She sighs.
The memory ends, placing a dumbstruck Aquilo in the Memory Corridor once again.
Well… That kind of settles that, doesn't it? Rebecca chimes in.
"But only partially… We need to see if there's an answer on how. Are there more memories?"
Several, one that looks like it needs to be seen through, but the rest… They seem to be intricately woven in with the next memory. And the dates are lining up with when Ezio and Sofia Sartor are in Masyaf at Altair's Library. So…
"After Yusuf's death…" Suddenly his heart aches. He thinks of how alight his sister's eyes were with Yusuf Tazim in Istanbul. Thinking of how she looked during their sparring match he remembers that her eyes don't look nearly so alive now. Although, they don't look as empty as they did in Ezio's memories of her in Venice. Which gives Aquilo a little hope.
He has been so cold to his sister since she won against him sparring. But if this is what happened to her, then of course she'd win… But why didn't she just tell me? Aquilo thinks. But going over the memories from Ezio, he thinks he understands why. Aquilo knows he doesn't do well with things that sound unbelievable. He is a see-it-to-believe-it type person, and even he isn't sure if he would have believed her only hearing it like Ezio did. Nor has she gotten twenty years to prove her agelessness.
So, what's the verdict? Are we going forward?
"Yes. Load the next memory."
Okay, here it goes…
Ezio can still hear the chilling winds outside as they leave Altair's Library at the bottom of the once mighty fortress of the Assassins. A testament to a lesson that the Assassins still hold on to.
He hears a crash somewhere above them and uses his Eagle Sense to reveal that he and Sofia are not alone.
"Wait here…" Ezio says to his love.
"Be careful." She forcefully whispers to him.
Ezio climbs the old stairs of the fortress the air getting more frigid as he goes. He walks into what once must have been the Mentor's space, where his Eagle Sense had led him. He steps lightly around the rubble littering the floor around an old wooden bookcase. The first thing he sees is a pair of feet on the floor, but from someone laying down or sitting against the wall. He comes all the way around the corner to see the distressing sight of Astraea sitting on the floor against the wall, her skin bearing an alarming pallor.
Aquilo has to put his calming technique into practice again after seeing his sister in a state that would have meant death for anyone else.
"Astraea?" He says as he approaches her, "Astraea?" When she doesn't respond again, he touches her shoulder and her hand falls, revealing that she is desperately holding onto a piece of teal fabric. Yusuf's headband. Next to her is a bag, he grabs it, puts the headband inside, and slings it over his shoulder.
Ezio gently picks her up and carries her down to where Sofia is waiting. Once Sofia sees Ezio she walks up him.
"What was up there?" She asks as she gets closer, before gasping at seeing Astraea.
"A friend… A friend in pain." He says as Sofia places a hand on Astraea's face.
The pair set up a fire right there on the stone floor of the grand fortress, using whatever fuel they can find, keeping their friend near the fire until her eyes flutter open.
"Ezio?" She croaks out, looking past the fire at the old Assassin.
"Yes. Don't worry, we'll keep you safe." A single tear falls down Astraea's cheek as she closes her eyes again.
Then the memory fades and is replaced by a sort of speed reel.
Flashes of a lifetime go by, with Astraea visiting Ezio and his family over the years even after the son who bears their lineage was born, she still visited. Over and over again. Never changing. But always visiting.
Then Aquilo finds himself in the Memory Corridor again and being pulled out of the Animus altogether. When he opens his eyes there is a flurry of motion all around him, which can only mean one thing. Abstergo.
"How far out are they?" Aquilo asks as he stands up.
"They have just entered town. It looks like they don't know where we are yet. But they're moving fast. Right now we're doing staged exits, just a couple at a time Layla, Shaun, and I are next. I hope you found what you were looking for in there because there's no time left." Rebecca says as she removes the core of the Animus which she puts in a little box before stuffing it in a bag. Aquilo then helps her roll it into a hiding storage that will soon look like a plain stone wall.
"Not exactly… I'm going to have to ask Astraea myself… But…"
"Can I keep this under lock and key? Absolutely. I imagine she's been trying to tell you…"
"I know. I've been an utter asshole to her… It's all my fault too." The sound of Shaun tipping over one of the large shelving racks for effect reminds him where he needs to get going to, "Hey. Best of luck you two. I plan to see you soon." He waves and then goes through the door to the building his family had been using, almost not hearing the goodbyes from Rebecca.
He goes up the stairs and sees his mom coming down.
"Hey, where are the others?"
"Emmett has already left with a couple of the others, Zephyr and Astraea are on their way down. They were on watch. Luckily, they spotted them way out as they were coming around the mountains. We should be the last group leaving the area, we're using the tunnel out the bottom of this building to the edge of town."
"It's the one that comes out near the farm, right?"
"Exactly. Now let's go get the passage open so we can leave." Aquilo looks up the stairs hoping to see Astraea right away, but then follows his mom down to open the passage, as it does take a fair bit of strength.
I hope I'm not too late…