(Events take place around the time of the Firestorm crisis of Tiberian Sun, simultaneously with the events of Syndicate in the Assassins Creed timeline.

WW2 Eva: Red Alert 2's Lt. Eva.

Desmond: Desmond Files (f-list))

Desmond watched as Eva turned around, his face blushing before he quickly looked away. Why was she naked?! Everyone in his head was mortified to various levels for various reasons.

"Um, can you... why are?...Do you have something to wear?" Even in the animus he always had his clothes, except when the memory required otherwise. Thanks, Ezio. But usually they were all decent, for the most part. Eva was startled for a second. Followed by some extreme confusion.

"Wha-"

Eva turned to face this person intruding on her space to talk about clothing. She then noticed he was looking away.

"Wear...?"

She looked down. As far as she was concerned, she was fully see-through. No flesh or depictions of human visuals were present. "I don't understand. What exactly are you asking?"

Her priorities were very different - in cyberspace, it shouldn't matter what your appearance was, unless...

"Are you human?" She tilted her head, ignoring his previous question.

Desmond was a bit flustered before pulling off his jacket and offering it at her. He was still looking away. She might not need clothes here, but she was still human, right? It felt comfortable to have some clothes on, even in a devoid environment - it was something to hang onto. "Just take it, I can get another one." His jacket was stripped of any personal and excess data, nothing that could be tracked back to him. At the same time, he had to give her the jacket. There were three others in his head demanding some kind of chivalry, and they weren't about to leave a women naked. Desmond wouldn't either but that didn't make it any less weird for him.

"I heard there were AI's, I wanted to meet you. Didn't think it would be this awkward."

Eva was still confused as to why this cybernetic existence would be behaving this irrationally. Her prognosis: he was definitely human.

She humored his suggestion, but not before forming her WW2 outfit and putting it on. She then oddly grabbed his jacket from his hand and wore it anyway, despite not really needing it. Following her original programming, her intent when dealing with unknown or potential hostiles online was to confuse and distract. Of course she knew how to alter her appearance. She just never felt the need to. Not around non-humans, anyway.

"I believe I'm supposed to thank you here, right?"

Her facade was very convincing. At this moment, she was absorbing as much information as she possibly can about this individual, based on his presented appearance alone. She has no clue whatsoever what she's seeing, but attempting to contact the Philadelphia satellite OR the Kodiak with snapshots of this conversation could prove detrimental to the mission. Her human side was definitely leaning towards 'this man knows way more than he's letting on, I have to keep him around and see if he's related to any targets I'm looking for'.

Desmond was without his hoodie, which was fine by him; temperature wasn't really a thing in cyberspace expect what he thought it should be. His black teeshirt with the eagle was fully visible, blue jeans, sneakers and unfortunately his burnt arm too. Normally it would look like a black glove to anyone passing by, but without the jacket it was more obvious. His arm was black to just above his elbow, the skin fading from black to his normal skin tone from there. He was calm and in control of himself, so he wasn't worried about his arm lighting up in any fashion at the moment.

"Only if you want to - I did it because I wanted to." He turned to look at her now in her WW2 outfit and his badly contrasting hoodie. "Seems like I didn't have to worry too much though."

While Eva was watching him, he was watching her right back. Her files had said she was human but she certainly didn't emote the same way he did, so either she was a very serious person or she had been in the systems for a long time. So far she had done the same thing as Kane with copycatting him, but her clothing was different and she didn't feel parasitic like he had. He now had to figure out what he could get out of her without giving up much himself.

"So where is this? I've never been here before." Maybe if he played the dumb lost idiot? Shaun called him that all the time and he really hadn't been here before. Except that he had data on the place now and had a good idea, but it was good to find out how Eva would respond.

Eva relaxed her mission priorities slightly. By remaining stiff, Eva knew she could jeopardize her chances of extracting information from this human existence - she had to try and "blend in".

"Beats me," she tried to mutter nonchalantly. She knew exactly where they were. She had a feeling he may start to hide things from her by pretending to play dumb, so she did that back in kind. "I just got here."

As soon as she said that, she realized there may be an opportunity to relay information about this "Desmond" back to the Kodiak and Philadelphia. The Kodiak would be faster, as her connection with Chandra and the crew was more ad-hoc - the Philadelphia uplink is via satellite and much more slower. However, there was a chance Desmond would notice her doing this, so she'd need a good distraction while attempting it. She pondered over her chances to do so without him noticing. Maybe she can test the waters and see how familiar he is with her abilities, both physically and mentally.

"So you heard about me, you said? What do you know? And where did you hear my name from?"

Desmond tilted his head to the side. Eva was totally copying him and it was irritating after Kane did it too. Were all of theses AI systems babies?! Either way, he'd keep his distance for now - he could feel the systems humming around them, but it didn't feel like Eva had tried to track him or anything yet. Which was good for him, but it would be better to keep this conversation short.

"The internet is noisy, someone mentioned you being an AI. I wanted to see if there were more like me. But I guess not. It was still interesting to meet you." Vague answers were vague, he wasn't gonna give her anything. Maybe they could learn from each other, but GDI wasn't exactly someone they could trust, and besides; he had gotten the data he needed from the Kodiak already and would have to go through it.

Eva knew this wouldn't be easy. This person has definitely mastered the ropes of existing online like this. If she contacts the Kodiak, there's a good chance Desmond would notice and flee. If she doesn't, she still wouldn't have a clear idea where to take this conversation back to the Kodiak. Unless...

"You seem to be looking for something around here. Can I help? My mission is to assist humans."

She wasn't lying, but she never specified which humans. Technically, GDI is her primary source of missions, but it may benefit them if they knew how far the Assassins had gotten in their quest to stop their enemies from gaining access to the PoE's.

Desmond thought it over for a second; it might be useful but it also smelled a bit like a trap. She wasn't hostile towards him but that didn't mean she wouldn't try to do something to get info. Then again he could ask her opinion on NOD and GDI, but she might be biased given who she works for. He also couldn't hint that he knew about Abstergo since he saw her looking around there, but she did warrant observation. Maybe he could leave a bird behind to keep an eye on her? Crap! He should have done that before he left the Kodiak!

"I just came to explore, this isn't part of the normal internet. So I think I followed a bad link. Thanks for the offer though. Maybe we can meet up sometime again?"

Eva felt a bit troubled. This could mean he's about to ditch her and leave.

Eva contemplated pulling up some schematics and guidelines built within her for the Mobile Sensor Array unit - it contained technology on how to detect and trace anomalies on the field, including online. It proved very useful in the second tiberium war, and she wouldn't need any uplink to fetch the data from her built-in database. She COULD use it to keep an eye on this Desmond, but it would be very risky. She kept the data ready within, but she wouldn't deploy the technology just yet until it was safe to do so.

"Sure thing... Mr. Miles."

She knew he didn't tell her his last name. Dropping further hints that she knew more than she let on COULD elicit further reactions from him that could aid her in her mission. Hopefully he takes the bait.

Desmond frowned at the name; he knew he didn't tell her. He took off like a shot through the system. He didn't like that she knew his name, let alone calling him Mr Miles. It gave him shivers from his days with Vidic, but since she had dropped it so casually she might try to follow him regardless. He had to make sure she couldn't trace him back until he was ready to deal with her. In the mean time he made a few birds and sent them back to the Kodiak, they could stay hidden in the system mainly by redundant, back up or small systems. From there they could stay hidden and watch in addition to being able to track the Kodiak and possibly keep an eye on Eva. At least now he could test to see how well she could follow him in the systems. He was a runner and he was built to fly, he was confident in his skills. Let's see if the baby could play with the big boys.

Eva wasn't entirely shocked that her plans would take this route. Failing to deploy the MSA tracer tech in time to track Desmond, she quickly changed her priority to deploy it to catch whatever it was he sent to the Kodiak instead. She now had a tough choice to make:

1. Attempt to follow Desmond manually.

2. Report back to the Kodiak and recreate her encounter to Chandra and the crew, failing to locate the Assassins in the process.

She realized there was a third option, but it would divide her efforts significantly. She felt it was still worth a shot. It was her specialty, after all.

"Deploying EVA instances," she declared. Eva began duplicating herself into multiple clones, sending each one on a different task. Her processing power may have been thinned out this way, but it was better than nothing.

While Desmond seemed to have left no data trace as soon as he fled, Eva sent one of her data clones in his general direction. She sent another to track the odd objects that flew towards the Kodiak. She sent the third one straight to the Kodiak's interface. She prepared a fourth duplicate to send to the Philadelphia space station, but she didn't deploy that one right away. That one would first need to wait for orders from the Kodiak once Chandra had been briefed on the situation.

Her tracking clone, attempting to chase Desmond, was beginning to wane in strength. Her human side, however, showed some instinct as to where he could've went. Was he watching her? Could he see the clone she sent after him? He was well hidden. She knew he wouldn't lead her back to his base right away, but it was still worth a shot to see if she had still earned some of his attention.

Desmond watched as Eva finally seemed to catch up to him, but she wasn't whole. She could divide herself? That seemed similar to when he called Altair, Ezio and Connor to appear with him. It was harder to do in the real world and he needed to concentrate since he was splitting his energy and data with them, but his mind was his own. On the internet, it was easier because the computer systems would support them passively. He gave the Eva clone a look with Eagle vision, she was sorta gold. Something that would be a target but not an enemy to kill, but with Eagle vision he could see a trace of data from the clone leading back. Most likely to the original or the other clones themselves. It was interesting and seemed a bit like something the Apple had done with Ezio, but it didn't split his mind back then. Hopefully his birds would be well hidden, even if one or two were found then the remaining could hide deeper in the code if needed. He could see that the clone was starting to lose strength, the baby was getting tired. He easily dove into another system and lost her to the current, just in case he cast an illusion to hide himself but keep moving.

Eva expected failure with one of her tasks, but she knew she wouldn't fail at all of them. Her human side always appreciated the little things: small victories, minor accomplishments... they add up.

After setting up an MSA tracer at the last known spot Desmond was seen at, and vanishing her tracking clone, she could feel more power return to the remaining 3 she made. Reaching the Kodiak, she contacted Chandra and co. and informed them of the situation promptly. Her other tracking clone detected the foreign objects navigating through the Kodiak... well, one of them at least. Could it be that easy?

"Eva," Chandra called on her after she finished her briefing, "Do you think the MSA tracer is wide enough to detect Desmond?"

"Online, the MSA tracer works instantaneously, but within a fixed radius of 256 network nodes around the deployment center, regardless of physical distance. Desmond would need to be within an online circle of 32,896+1 connected terminals surrounding the MSA tracer to be detected."

"It's a coin toss if we're ever able to find where he went at this point." Eva had to agree. Chandra wasn't as troubled as she was. She attributed that to the fact he wasn't there to see what went down.

"Eva, replay conversation with Miles once more." The crew sat back to study this 'Desmond' more closely. What they could find would affect their decision to notify the Philadelphia.

Desmond glanced behind him, he was pretty sure that the Eva clone had lost him and he was pretty much free to go home. But paranoia was eating at him, so he decided to keep moving, jumping into various systems, sending dummy signals through various networks and of course hopping into the real world before settling in an internet cafe. He sat at the computer and monitored what he could from there, it was easy to keep an interface up in his minds eye while he played some Minecraft to prevent suspicion from the others around. But from what he could tell, he had well and truly lost Eva; he did a quick check on the birds to make sure they were ok. He expected at least one to be found but he hoped that they would all stay hidden - he liked his birds a lot.

So far it looked like they were all hidden and were sending him screenshots of what they could see and partial transcripts. Unfortunately, the birds could only hold so much data at a time, very small amounts actually. This would mean that the data being sent to him would be very small but also that it was very difficult to detect. If need be, he could cut his connection to the birds and they would simply vanish into raw data. If they were destroyed by something else, he would get a notification of what happened, like a 'game over' screen with cause of death. Even if they weren't specific sometimes.

Eva held one of the data birds gently on her digitized, vanishing finger. She got an idea now what Desmond was using them for.

"Do you see me?" She tilted her head again, staring at the bird straight in the eye. The bird flew off back into the system as Eva's clone disintegrated into pixelated dust.

"Solomon needs to hear about this. I think the Assassins can help us with Kane. We need to connect with them before he does. We could even be late if we don't try fast."

Chandra gave the signal for Eva to use her fourth clone to contact the Philadelphia via satellite uplink. Eva deployed her final clone to head "upstairs", into space. With the amount of data she was carrying this time, a simple connection alone wouldn't do. Eva would need time to transfer everything she recorded. The amount of privileged upgrades and powers she would get from doing this would depend on General Solomon's assessment of how serious the situation has gotten.

Desmond was a bit worried when one of his birds were found by Eva; he knew because it sent him a screen shot of her fading form and a slightly confused/intrigued face. But since the bird wasn't destroyed he could only assume that it was another clone that had faded out of power and it escaped. The birds were already feeding him some information.

'Eva contact base.'

'Eva go satelite'

'Eva see me'

'Eva tell base met me.'

Simple reports, but it wasn't just the screen shots and text data. It was emotion too, that was something that didn't translate well with data. Becca was still trying to explain it. But so far he could feel his birds, they weren't scared but they were a bit skittish.

While he waited to see if anything would change he started to sort through the data he found, pausing his game after dying to a monster. So far the information about NOD was worrisome, they controlled allot of territory and had some very advanced tech that was similar to the Temples. He nearly choked on his spit at the briefing report about something called the Tasitus, it looked like a God Damn Apple of Eden! It glowed oddly though, defiantly something different. He did feel a pull in his chest from his own apple. Maybe it recognized the POE? Fuck! How did they have something like this?! The two groups had been fighting over it for awhile now and along with the Tiberium it had sent their tech on a revolution. He defiantly needed to report this as soon as he was sure Eva couldn't find him. So far the system was quiet so that had to be good, right?

Eva received confirmation from the Philadelphia: Solomon gave the order for establishing her satellite uplink at last.

Solomon rubbed his temple - he had his hands full with Kane's fanatic followers still fighting over NOD leadership after the fall of Cabal in the Firestorm crisis. Now he has TWO new factions GDI should worry about. The only way he could strategize is with Eva's full arsenal on his side. He deemed her recon mission a partial success after reviewing her encounter with Desmond.

Eva felt her power surge. Utilizing the uplink, she can now navigate the entire planet a lot faster. She could create countless clones to perform several tasks using the several mainframes aboard the satellite to boost her processing speed. She would become way more competent in facing the Assassins the next time they met. It was time for payback, her human side urged. With Chandra and Solomon's blessing, she initiated her new task.

"Locate target globally. Subject: Desmond Miles. Priority Alpha."

The full might of GDI was now on Demond's tail. It was only a matter of time.

Desmond felt a chill run down his spine; he didn't like it and immediately logged off the computer and left the cafe. He had felt the system shift like someone was stretching out after having worn uncomfortable clothes all day. It didn't feel hostile, but he didn't like it, if he had to guess it might have been Eva though she didn't have the power beforehand. Maybe she reported back and got a power boost? He kept moving through the street before heading to places where cameras and other tech was scarce. Hopefully she wouldn't see him outside and she would assume that he was bound to the system like she was. It was his one trump card thanks to the apple that he wasn't afraid of using. He couldn't head back to base yet, and risk bringing Eva with him; Altair had learned that lesson long ago, even if she wasn't hostile. He could lay low till she gave up or found something else to entertain her, and considering the fighting between GDI and NOD, it wouldn't take long for her to be called off.

Eva could feel the new surge course through her. The world was at her fingertips.

"Accessing GDI GPS," she confirmed.

It didn't take long. An anomaly was spotted near the destroyed Abstergo facility - EVA could tell this entity was a sophisticated manifestation of data that is able to somehow exist offline. "Walking down the street wasn't a wise idea either, Mr. Miles," she whispered to herself. Eva relayed Desmond's current public position to GDI before awaiting new instructions.

A few seconds later, however, a much more pressing existence caught her ongoing GPS scan - a replaced consciousness. She couldn't confirm who it was, but it was pretty clear this person had also emerged from the same facility. What actually alerted her was this individual using encrypted communication methods that were known to be of use... for NOD, mainly. She couldn't obtain the actual message, but she suspected this could relate to her original search mission.

She relayed the suspected NOD informant's location to GDI as well. Chandra aboard the Kodiak figured Solomon, being a no-nonsense general, would order all focus on NOD with no distractions. He on the other hand felt very curious about the Assassins - should he ask for Solomon's permission, or attempt to pursue Desmond? He found himself rubbing his chin deep in thought again.

Desmond didn't like the feeling of being watched suddenly, but he wasn't near any cameras and as far as he could see there wasn't anyone following him. But the feeling was still there, he started to move through the crowd blending in until he could find some cover. Interestingly enough the feeling of eyes seemed to ease when he was under a canopy of some kind. Satalite? It could fit the bill if Eva had taken the gloves off, GDI did employ a few of them and it wouldn't be hard to get some imaging. Damn, now he really needed to vanish. With that in mind he needed to find a place with as few people as he could manage and some cover from the sky, a few quick turns fit the bill before he cloaked under an illusion from the apple. He hoped that would do the trick.

Cabal was ecstatic. He was almost done explaining how he's the third coming of Kane, now manifest in the body of an Abstergo test subject - Emir.

As soon as he finished explaining, however, something within him triggered a very negative feeling - the feeling of being watched. He didn't know how or why he could feel it; perhaps it came with this "test subject" he was inside of.

Kane immediately unplugged his Cabal-logged terminal and tried to look for cover. He couldn't see the reaction on his beloved children's faces in time before he had to go. The dreaded sensation could only mean one thing.

"GDI."

He cursed his luck. Until the Montauk could arrive and take him to his Temple Prime in Sarajevo, he had to make sure he laid low.

Desmond was cautiously moving around, thankfully the apple seemed to have done the trick. While he still felt like he was being watched, it wasn't nearly as intense as before, more like someone looking in his direction rather then looking directly at him. He could live with that, as he wove through the people careful not to bump into anyone and go with the flow. He happened to spot someone who looked very out of it and skittish, the guy looked the same as the subject from before. He snuck closer to see if it was the same guy, given that he was near a terminal of sorts maybe he was trying to contact his family?

Cabal didn't pay attention as he was fleeing with his device unplugged, the cable still dangling from his pocket. As he turned, he accidentally bumped into someone wearing a unique hoodie and black shirt.

The bump itself felt odd - it didn't feel as strong as he would expect from crashing into someone like that. Was it because Kane wasn't used to this body?

"My apologies, brother."

The words escaped his mouth before he could even think. Is he now behaving like the original owner of the body when in public?

Desmond had to drop his illusion as he snagged the guy by the back of his shirt and pulled him under an overhang, he knew he was startling the poor man but when he had spoken there had been an accept. It had sounded very much like someone Ezio knew, and now his actions weren't entirely his own. Desmond's eyes widened with a small look of hope as he looked at the startled man, he could see it a little bit. The way the other mans eyes were and how they expressed themselves, the same shape too. He couldn't stop the Italian accent from rolling off his tongue as Ezio pressed closely into his back. "Yusef?"

Cabal couldn't tell how or why, but that voice - it felt familiar. Very familiar. There was a depth to the memory of that name he just heard him say. Was it the voice? Or the word itself?

"No, brother. It's..."

He paused. Kane felt some minor control over his words after all. But the attachment to the voice drawing him was hard to resist.

"Ez... io...?"

He started losing track of his own sentences. It felt like a power struggle within his mind. For a split second, he could've sworn he saw the sky and surroundings change. What in Tiberium's name was going on?! Why were his eyes tearing up?

After a long, breathless stare into his eyes, without a second thought, he grabbed Desmond and hugged him. It was a powerful embrace, hard to struggle out of. But it didn't seem like he could feel any hostility to it.

Desmond hugged the man back like a friend he hadn't seen in years, which was technically true for part of him. Ezio was over the moon right now, this person; whoever they were, was related to Yusef and they had been in the animus long enough to recognize Ezio/Desmond to an extent. There was no way Ezio was going to back down now and Desmond had to accept that both were sharing for the moment. His voice still wasn't his own as the italian excitedly continued to talk to the other,

"Fratello, I did not think I would see you again in the next life! I owe you a life debt for protecting Sofia in my absence, it broke my heart to see you gone."

He pulled back, seeing the man fighting tears and a mixture of confusion and joy bubbling under the surface. He reached up and gently wiped the tears away before kissing the man's cheeks and wrapping an arm around him.

"Come! There is so much I wish to show you, this is a place of wonders!"

(This was a big one! Did you guys like it? It only gets better and better from here!

Stay tuned~)