A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry for the long wait. My brother was working on a new PC so that I might be able to continue writing. However, I'm taking a break from writing Team RWBY's playthrough of ACII to focus more on another story called Assassin's Creed Utopia. If you guys haven't read it I suggest that you do. It may not be perfect but it's worth reading.
One more thing, if you guys want to write a reading fic and are interested in it on AC Utopia, feel free to PM me and we'll talk about it. And if you want a Bionicle/Toaru fic, I might need help on it because I have some interesting ideas.
Without further ado, enjoy this very brief chapter. Not a lot going on in this one since it focuses on the Glyphs.
Chapter 6: Glyph Hunting (Puzzles 1-3)
It was the next morning and Team RWBY is up to start another day. Luckily it's the weekend so they decided to grab something for breakfast in town before they continue playing ACII again. While eating, the girls gave their opinions on how they are loving the game so far. Although they haven't gotten far in the story, Ruby is still excited about what kind of classic weapons that she wants to see. Weiss, on the other hand, is still curious about Renaissance history since there is yet to be a version of a real-life event on Earth. Blake, meanwhile, wants to see where Ezio's story is going now that he's wanted for a crime he didn't commit throughout his 17-year life. As for Yang, she was hoping for some paypack at the traitorous Uberto while in control of Ezio himself. She doesn't tolerate traitors, especially against her sister even more.
After finishing breakfast, the girls head back to their dorm at Beacon Academy and are waiting for a certain interdimensional friend to message them.
"What's taking him so long?" Yang complains. "I want to get started and see what's happening with Ezio!"
"Complaining about it isn't really helping Yang!" Weiss reminds her with a hint of annoyance in her tone. "He probably has other things to do in his life on Earth."
Just then, one of Tython's notes appear once more.
'Hey guys! Sorry I'm late. Didn't have a computer for a month since my older brother was planning to upgrade it in it's current software and hardware.'
"A month?" Ruby questions. "It's only been last night."
Blake shrugs. "Seems to me that time in his universe is different from ours on Remnant."
'As for why a month is because said brother of mine took way too long with finishing on said computer, mostly due to the fact he has job interviews. That I understand, but making me wait for a whole damn month and finish it at the last minute? That's really stupid of him!'
"Hey, your brother has a life too you know." The heiress retorts.
'A brother that has free time after interviews and likes to not finish working on the computer while doing his own stuff with his own? Sure, support the guy who likes to stall on purpose and waste everyone's time! I'm not a computer technician!'
"Seriously?" Yang snorts. "That's just cold. More so from him."
Weiss took that as an offense. "Excuse me?"
"Aside from Yang's comments, you may have a point." The cat Faunus admits towards the paper message. "But since you're here, we should get started now."
'That would be best.'
After setting up the game, the girls continue where they left off.
The Animus reconstructs Florence once more as the second memory sequence now begins.
Republica Florentina
29 December, 1476
Just then, Shaun contacts Desmond inside the Animus as the simulation continues to form.
"I've got a little request for you. I've identified several strange markings that I've discovered right across Renaissance Italy. Now, I don't know what they're doing there, but I want you to help me find out. Rebecca has marked their general location in the database with an eye icon and she's made them glow as well. Keep an eye out."
"Strange markings? Like symbols?" Yang questions.
"Possibly." Weiss answers. "Though Shaun is pretty anxious for us to look for them."
"I wonder why." Ruby wonders.
"Well whatever they are, they must be really important to the Present Day."
Nightfall came and Ezio stands outside of his family's home from a distance that's now been seized by guards posted on the roof of the household. Just then, Anneta comes into his sight as she now comes before him.
"Ser Ezio, thank God! I've been looking everywhere for you." The family servant sighs in relief.
"I... I couldn't stop them Annetta." He answers with sadness in his voice. "I tried, I swear! But there were so many guards..."
Annetta was shocked to hear this from and feels the same way. However, this isn't the time to mourn for the loss while out on the streets in the night, with the guards looking for the teen the remaining two members of his family.
"Please. Come with me. We need to get you off the streets."
"What of my mother and sister?" He asks in concern.
"They're safe. I'll bring you to them." She suggests but was stopped immediately by Ezio.
"No! It's too dangerous for us to travel together. Tell me where to go and I'll meet you there."
"My sister's house, just north of the Duomo."
"I'm on my way."
After Annetta left for her sister's home, Ezio heads to meet up with her and his remaining family only to see that guards have been posted on the San Marco District's border.
"Looks like there are guards posted there." Blake comments. "I think we should find another way past them."
"Or we could just fight our way in the district." Yang suggests before Tython answers.
'Not a smart idea Yang. You're status is on 'Notorious' and guards will spot you on sight.'
"So?" Yang snorts. "I can just use Ezio's fists. Not a problem for me."
'Are you really incapable of not being discreet for one goddamn second? Ezio only knows how to punch and block, lacks the abilty to disarm enemies, and he doesn't have a weapon to use to take them out quickly. Not to mention that he has five health squares and would be masssacred in seconds. Are you willing to get yourself desynchronized?'
"Desynchronized? What's that?" The silver-eyed girl asks as her teammates are curious as well.
'It's when you fail to perfectly sychronize with a specific ancestor. And in the Assassin's Creed Universe, it's not that easy to sychronize perfectly the way the ancestor has exactly done before. If the person does something out of place, gets the ancestor killed too early, or fails to do what that ancestor has exactly done in his/her lifetime will result in desychronization. Meaning that the user reliving the genetic memories will be kicked out of the Animus immediately and will throw up crap alot. And it's not pretty.'
This made the girls faces turn green. Having to perfect an ancestor's memory without failing and avoid puking outside of the machine? That's just... disgusting in so many ways!
Yang sweat drops nervously. "O-On second thought, maybe we should find another way around them."
The other girls nod in agreement.
Deciding to head eastward for another way in the San Marco District, Ezio discreetly makes his way there. After getting past a two officer guards, Ezio (or at least Desmond since he's in control of his ancestor's body) notices something glowing on the roof of the Basilica di Santa Croce.
"What's that up there?" Ruby wonders, noticing the glow.
"Let's go find out, sis." The blonde brawler answers.
Ezio climbs up the roof and gets a closer look as he sees a symbol of some kind.
"Wait a minute! That's one of the symbols on the wall in Desmond's room while imprisoned by Abstergo!" Weiss deduces in surprise.
"You don't mean?" Blake questions.
The heiress nods in comfirmation. Just what is a symbol that shouldn't be on the landmark at all doing here?
Shaun then contacts Desmond once more after the latter has found one of the symbols inside the Animus.
"There's one of the symbols! What does it mean? It must be there for a reason. Can you take a closer look?" He wonders before suggesting an idea to him "Hey! Try using Eagle Vision. Haven't gotten all day."
Ignoring that last bit, Desmond uses Ezio's Eagle Vison to scan the symbol as it glows red.
"Wait, that's not possible." Rebecca comments in disbelief. "This can't be... hold on, that's computer code! Let me compile it... aw shit, it's an encrypted file."
"Upload it to my computer. I'm a master at decryption." Shaun says to his partner.
Rebecca tries to but unfortunately fails. "I can't! It's only compatible with the Animus itself."
"Up-upload it to Desmond then... I can't believe this." Shaun mutters with the same disbelief Rebecca is feeling.
The screen goes white and changes to a black void of nothingness before recieving a recorded message from a long dead subject.
"Hello. This is... they call me Subject Sixteen." He greets in the message. From that tone in his voice, he seems to be anxious and in a hurry. "Listen, I don't have much time. There's something I have to show you. We've been lied to this whole time. Everything we know, everything we've been brought up to believe. It's wrong."
He pause briefly in the message before continuing. "Okay, umm... I've uploaded the evidence, the file, that proves it all. But I've split it into twenty pieces and locked each with a code. Can't be too careful. Queen Isabella... no, not her, hmm... what century is it?"
He tries to remember but gives up. "Umm... nevermind. I've hidden the code to the first file inside this program. Find it - find them all - and along the waaaaaayyyyyyyy you'll begin to see the truth."
After that last part of the message glitching in a creepy way in Sixteen's voice, the girls are left with creeped out expressions.
"What the fuck/heck?" They said in unison.
After the recording ended, Shaun breaks the silence.
"What the he–! How did this get inside our Animus?"
"Oh, oh!" Lucy exclaims as she realizes what it is. "The Memory Core, we transferred Sixteen's Memory Data from Abstergo into the Animus 2.0. He must have hacked the machine when Vidic left him alone between sessions."
"Hold on, wait a second... The signs on the walls in Abstergo... The ones written in blood." Desmond thinks for a moment before realize what they all mean. "Those were clues! He was telling us to look for them inside the Animus."
And like that, the first puzzle pops up:
'In the Beginning'
What the girls are now seeing are ten different paintings of sorts each one showing naked humans which causes the girls to blush.
"Are you kidding me?! You're telling me that these paintings are going to show naked people?!" Weiss rants.
Tython then answers her question.
'This was the Renaissance back then. It was also the time of how the human anatomy actually works, including the process of sexual reproduction.'
"How can you be so calm about it?!" She continues to argue with him. "They are CLEARLY butt naked!"
'Don't question why Earth humans did paintings like those. I don't know. It's not my place to judge their minds.'
Not wanting to question Earth's methods any further at the moment, the girls take a look at the different paintings and the riddle above them:
'Five of these mythic scenes share a CORE of similarity. PICK them out and you'll begin to see.'
"Great. It's a riddle." Yang complains. "I hate riddles."
"Mind if I give it a try?" The heiress offers. "I'm pretty good with them."
Her friends gave them a questionable look.
"You know how to solve them?" The cat Faunus question in shock. "I thought-."
"Hey, video games aren't the only things I do in my spare time. So don't judge me."
"Fire away then, Ice Queen." Yang says as she gives the controller to Weiss.
Weiss takes a look at riddle carfully.
"It's talking about a core. That has to do with an object being spherical and round. And 'PICK them out'? What could that mean? Unless..." Weiss thinks aloud before realizing what the answer. "Oh, I get it now!"
Her friends wonder what she's talking about as she selects the five different paintings out of ten that has an Apple in each one she chose.
"What is it Weiss?" Ruby asks her partner.
"The answer is quite simple actually. It's an Apple. The paintings I chose have the same fruit and it could refer to the Apple of Eden instead of the fruit." She explains as an image of the Piece of Eden appears before them.
"Huh.." Yang says. "I guess I underestimated you after all."
With that solved, Desmond recieves the code and unlocks the file in the Animus database under a section labelled 'The Truth'. There it shows video segments with nineteen more slots being empty.
"So these clips are put together into a video?" Blake curiously comments. "I think I'm interested in what this Subject Sixteen wants to show us. More specifically, to Desmond and the other Assassins training him."
Returning to the session, Desmond is now back in Ezio's body. Deciding to look for another symbol before heading to where Ezio needs to go to, Desmond guides his ancestor's body on the rooftops towards the Ospedale degli Innocenti where the second symbol is waiting to be scanned and solved. When he scanned it, Desmond is taken to the same black void where Sixteen speaks again.
"The past: A web of connections and interconnections, all ruled by chance. Or is it?"
'Sixty-Four Squares'
The first part of the puzzle was a circular picture out of place.
"I've seen those kind of puzzles before." Blake comments. "Basically we have to rotate the various rings to form the image we're seeing."
Weiss already knows this and forms the image of Queen Elizabeth I . She is also holding a decorative small spherical chest of sorts containing an Apple of Eden that's labelled 'Piece of Eden 2'.
"Wait, why are these Pieces of Eden labelled with numbers?" Yang interrupts with a question to which her teammates wondering the same thing.
Tython answers for her.
'The one Elizabeth I is holding is the second Piece of Eden and Apple that's ever created. Therefore, each specific artifact is labelled with a number beacause the order each one is made.'
"That's pretty interesting if you think about it." Ruby says after deep thought.
A second image appears and Weiss did the same with before revealing an image of Napoleon Bonaparte holding what looks to be another Apple in his uniform labelled 'Piece of Eden 1'. The third and final image is already worked on quickly as it reveals George Washington holding his own Apple in his uniform labelled 'Piece of Eden 3'.
After that, the girls got the code to unlock another video clip and decide to move onto another one. Hopefully, it'll be more challenging than the ones they've finished.
Now walking on the San Marco streets, Ezio arrives at the front of where to meet up with Annetta called the La Rosa Colta. But before he enters inside, Ezio spots another symbol facing south of the building's roof. Ezio then climbs up and uses Eagle Vision to scan it, taking Desmond to another puzzle solving quest.
"Power doesn't die." Sixteen says. "It's passed on."
'Descendants'
The girls now see another picture with four adults in a room that looks to be a strategic meeting and their clue is:
'He carried it with him. Find his inheritance.'
Now this was a bit tricky for Weiss. How can there be something if it's not there? And not long, Tython gives her a hint.
'Try selecting the infared light. It'll help you.'
Taking his advice, she turns on the infared light and red covers the black and white image. She then notices an Apple on the table where the papers and maps are layed on, and selects it revealing to be Apple 3 from the previous puzzle.
The next one takes her to what looks to be a magician beginning his escape in a water torture cell. As Weiss uses the infared to locate Apple 1, Blake recognizes the strange contraption as she's seen it back in her White Fang days as a training tool for Adam Taurus's faction. To be honest, he usually uses it to leave his human prisoners to be trapped in the water cell and drown in the proccess. Remembering that disgusts the cat faunus as she shakes her head, wanting to forget about it.
The last image then shows a crowd of people forming a non violent protesting street march with an elderly man in the center who seems to be leading the movement. Weiss then does the same thing and finds Apple 2 located in the old man's right hand.
And just like that, another code unlocks another clip for the girls with only seventeen glyphs to find and solve.
"I think I just noticed something." Ruby speaks.
"What's that Ruby?" Yang asks.
"The second and third glyphs we had to solve (or specifically Weiss here) showed us three different Apples with numbers 1, 2, and 3." She explains. "I think they might be important to the story."
Before they could answer, Tython beats them to it.
'That's correct Ruby. Apple of Eden 1, 2, and 3 do play a role in the later installments but that's considered to be spoilers so don't ask me about them. But I can tell you that Apple 2 is actually Altair's from the prologue.'
"Hold on, Apple 2 is Altair's?" Weiss questions in surprise. "That's... interesting."
"I think we should get back to the main story guys." Yang suggests. "All of this puzzle hunting makes me want to see what's in store for Ezio."
"Well you're in luck Yang. Our destination is literally on top of us." The heiress points out as the screen shows Ezio on top of the destination.
"Oh." The blonde brawler simply says. "Well that's not so bad."
"No kidding." Blake rolls her eyes. "She is the one with the controller now."
"I know. I'm just saying." She says as Weiss gave her the controller back.
Ezio climbs down to the front of the La Rosa Colta as he prepares to go inside to meet up with Annetta and his remaining family.
To be continued...
