(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.

Cabal and Kane are currently interchangeable.

Desmond: Desmond Files (f-list))

Desmond watched as the guards changed their shift, weary from the loss they had taken earlier against him.

His plan was pretty simple, he would sabotage a few systems to stop the Montauk or at least slow it down. Make his way to Emir, grab him then hijack a car or motor bike and get the fuck out of here - all the while thinning out the herd to make sure they wouldn't be followed right away. The main goal was the get Emir and get out, Oxanna wasn't a target he needed, but if she hurt the man then all bets were off. He started by looping any cameras that were in the hangar - he needed to secure a get-away vehicle first. Once the guards were quietly dealt with and hidden he started to cut the wiring to whatever he could find. Messing up engines, feul lines, brakes anything to make them inoperable.

His next target would be the security room or whatever equivalent. Quietly making his way through the hallways, looping cameras as he went and dealing with any personal he found along the way, he was defiantly going to need more hiding places for the bodies. It was pretty advanced, guards weren't even a challenge as he cut their throats and moved them out of the way. All he needed to do to the system was trick it into giving a false positive to the leaders that everything was alright as well as mask his presence on board. Putting a hand on the panels he was able to access the system making the cameras literally blind to him and Emir. With that done he wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding his handiwork until the next shift change which wouldn't be for a long time unless someone decided to visit a friend during work.

His last stop before going to get Emir was the engine room, it was allot nicer now that he didn't need to worry about security cameras seeing him. The engine room was fairly big and loud, which was perfect. Eagle Vision pointed everyone out easily and nobody would hear him doing his thing, he also was pointed to a specific engine. Trusting his senses he needs to find a way to sabotage the thing and give himself some time too. Maybe a wrench in the system? Would that be enough to stop this monster? It was defiantly worth a shot, a few missing wrenches later and a few cut wires just for good measure and the engines were significantly slower while the personal started to run around like crazy trying to figure out what was wrong. He slipped out easily in the chaos, now to get to Emir.

Oxanna panicked. "What's going on?!" She yelled as the Montauk careened off-course, underground. "We've been infiltrated!" One of her co-pilots answered. "We have an intruder!"

"DESMOND." She grit her teeth saying the hated name. Desmond must have found his way in to try and rescue Emir.

Oxanna was now at an impasse. Emir, as Kane, had instructed her to drive him all the way back to the remains of Temple Prime, Sarajevo, to access the clone bodies ready for Kane to use. Kane had mentioned during his transmission that he had run into a gang of assassins who had access to cyberspace like him, but he was interrupted before he could finish explaining. It didn't seem like Kane was in control of Emir at the moment.

There has to be something she could do to take control of the situation or, at the very least, bargain with Desmond. Something he could possibly want, in exchange for letting Emir release Kane.

She grabbed the kidnapped assassin once more, gun in hand, ready to repeat the same scenario as last encounter in the event Desmond would show up again. The stealth tech would probably be invoked once more, so she needed Emir as insurance. Something has got to give - how is Desmond this capable?

Before Desmond would show up, she would have to think on her feet, and fast. What did she see during the fight with Desmond above ground? She recalled the explosion the Montauk suffered right before she was able to drill underground - was he carrying something capable of that type of firepower? None of her own forces had cannons that powerful. And she didn't recall seeing any cannons like that nearby either. Did Desmond have an ally? So far, it was only him and Emir up there. Is there a mole working with him? She looked around at the handful of soldiers protecting her.

"Unlikely," she thought - the assassin seems to be murdering everyone in sight without restraint. Little by little, as Desmond got closer, she began to realize she's facing something far more supernatural than anticipated, and she had to get ready. She aimed her gun once more at Emir's chin, waiting for Desmond to burst through the cockpit door.

"Desmond," she called out, "I have your man with me. Let's make a deal so we can both see another day."

She prayed he would bite. She needed a little more data on him to figure out what was going on.

Desmond got close to the door, moving slowly and making sure to scan the area. Those who were still alive, were busy with the Montauk engine issues. They were far too distracted to actually stop Desmond, but he could hear Oxanna calling out to him. He was getting very annoyed with her now. He took a moment to steady himself and activated eagle vision, concentrating on the room before him. Despite the door still being closed he could see Oxanna and several other men glowing angry red, she was holding Emir with the gun to his head again and he was still a mix of color same as before. From the looks of it, they were all ready to shoot the moment he stepped through the door, yea right like he was going to let them do that.

Unfortunately the systems were a bit fried with the Montauk on the fritz and he didn't think jumping through the system would be good for him right now. He didn't want to just walk through the door but he didn't have much of a choice. Thinking for a moment he took an educated guess as to what they were carrying. Normal pistols of various rounds but nothing heavy duty while inside the ship according to their own files and reports, with this in mind Desmond decided to make himself a shield, one of the large ones from Altair's time, sturdy, heavy and thick. He wasn't sure if it would hold against the heavy caliber guns but if they were smaller ones then he should be able to handle it right? With the Sheild in hand he opened the door and braced himself for what he assumed would be a shower of bullets.

"I'd be more then happy to let you go if you didn't keep putting a gun to my friends head, Oxanna."

Oxanna sighed a huge sigh of relief - her suspicions were finally confirmed.

"I knew it," she whispered, Emir still in hand. "Stand down," she commanded her crew, fully on guard and aiming at the door Desmond unlocked. Sure enough, Desmond emerged from the sliding door, holding a shield he seemed to have prepared for their return fire, in case he attacked. The shield, in size and thickness, answered most of Oxanna's theories on him.

"You're not human, are you?" Her gun was still pointed at him.

Desmond doesn't like the implications, sure he hadn't been restraining himself very much during the attack but he also didn't think he was that obvious. Most people would be in denial and try to rationalize what they saw or straight up not believe it. Not that he was ever going to admit anything in anyway to this women. He peeked out from behind the shield, seeing guns still raised, tense bodies, gun still to Emir's head. He wasn't going to put the shield down just yet, fuck these guys.

"Don't you know that humans make the best monsters? Seriously with everything we have come up with and how far we've come its terrifying."

Oxanna wondered - does he have a history with negative history with those who were around him? Was he betrayed, or defeated? She was no stranger to the human struggle. She knew very well what it meant to lose everything. She can see the pain Desmond spoke those words with.

Oxanna let go of Emir, who collapsed under his own weight from the prolonged tension of the situation. The remaining guards lowered their weapons as instructed.

"I know very well," she agreed. She raised her gun, and then dropped it, showing complete submission.

"You're here for this man, aren't you? You can have him." She nodded to one of her followers, who knelt next to her in order to take off Emir's restraints. She did her best to show Desmond that the situation had in fact changed, knowing he had superhuman capabilities. It was wise not to mess with him any further, if he could make it this far without a scratch.

"Just... tell me why. Why him? Aren't you a hidden one? Don't your kind operate a bit more... independently?"

Desmond watched curiously from behind his shield as Emir is released and Oxanna drops her gun. His eyebrows shooting up into his hairline at the sudden change in the situation, it still wasn't safe but it wasn't a threat anymore either. He slowly comes out from behind the shield, setting it on the ground but still having it up right. Since it was tall it still covered a good portion of him though no longer being held up in a defensive stance. He was suspicious for sure, a quick pass with eagle vision revealed that they were no long an angry red, they had lightened in color significantly. More passive, they wouldn't attack him outright.

He was happy when Emir was free and quickly moved next to him, he took a few steps to meet the other a quick check showing that he was unharmed if a but roughed up. Now that was over with, he turned back to Oxanna.

"I owe his family a life debt. What i do is entirely my decision."

He wasn't going to give her much, vague as fuck hopefully. He didn't really owe her any answer other then the fact that Emir wasn't going to be in any more danger at the moment. It was true, Ezio felt he owed Yusef a great debt for saving Sofia's life, they were brothers in arms and very close yet his one favor got the other killed. Desmond also owed his life to Emir in that same sense because if Yusef hadn't down that then Desmond wouldn't have been born and the world would have ended. The world owed Emir's family gratitude whether they knew it or not. The Brotherhood might not know about Emir, he hand't been able to confirm it yet. But he did know for a fact; Emir was assassin blood, he was a subject and he had the bleeding affect. Just those last two facts made him kin in a way. He wasn't going to loose another subject if he could help it.

Oxanna felt more relief at the response. "Family," she repeated.

"You know, I once had a family too," Oxanna mused as she looked at the concerned Desmond, tending to his freed comrade. "They weren't my blood family, but enough blood was spilled to make them so."

Oxanna recalled Kane collecting her as a Bosnian war orphan to join the cause for NOD. She recounted her promotion to Anton's unit, two decades later.

"Desmond, I'm going to have to level with you. I pray you listen to reason," she urged, uncharacteristic to her dominant nature. "You and Emir survived the Abstergo facility that was destroyed two days ago, didn't you? Was that you?"

Before she could try to reason with Desmond, she had to first confirm what Kane told her in his transmission while he was using Emir's body.

Desmond watched Oxanna intently, trying to figure out what her angle was and what she wanted. Emir was safe, they just needed to leave. He was watching carefully but she had made no move to be hostile and that gave a small measure of trust since she let Emir go.

"From what I heard it was corporate espionage, why? Are you affiliated with them?"

He was being wary now, why would she want to know about Abstergo? Were they related? There wasn't anything in their files to indicate something like that. Maybe they had spies? Abstergo employees were generally red, only the true civilians were grey and anyone from NOD wouldn't register much differently.

Kane could see Desmond was lowering his guard slightly. "If we're helping you by releasing Emir, we should at least know what's in it for you. Besides," she pointed upwards, "these tunnels are built and maintained by us, the Brotherhood of NOD. I don't know what super powers you have, but none of them will help you find your way out. Same with communicating with the outside world. Face it, Desmond," she pointed at him now. "...you need us. Are you willing to listen? Or will you risk the death of your friend in these endless underground labyrinths of ours?"

Desmond glared at the women, she had a point but that didn't mean he had to like it. If he was an eagle like his family tended to gravitate towards he would be fluffing up his feathers in irritation and threat while perhaps hissing. But he was human, and Ezio was just as wary as he was right now.

"Depends on what you have to say, why are you interested in them? Yes I'm the one that hit them, finding Emir and helping him escape was a happy accident... you would give me a map of your tunnels?"

Oxanna could see Desmond was lowering his guard slightly. "If we're helping you by releasing Emir, we should at least know what's in it for you. Besides," she pointed upwards, "these tunnels are built and maintained by us, the Brotherhood of NOD. I don't know what super powers you have, but none of them will help you find your way out. Same with communicating with the outside world. Face it, Desmond," she pointed at him now. "...you need us. Are you willing to listen? Or will you risk the death of your friend in these endless underground labyrinths of ours?"

Desmond was confident in his abilities despite them being still new to him. But he didn't want to risk Emir and if the tunnels are as expansive as Oxanna is making them out to be then it could take him awhile to figure them out.

"Tch, fine I'll listen. But if this is a trap, then you'll definitely regret it. So talk."

He was pretty sure Oxanna already regretted tangling with him considering they were all stuck on the Montauk right now, he wasn't sure how long it would take the engineers to fix what he had tampered with much less all the bodies he his along the way to his destinations.

Oxanna sighed. It was a mixture of relief and... possible boredom. Negotiating isn't exactly her style - she's more used to giving the orders. Nevertheless, taming a wild and unstoppable beast did have its perks. Even if it could devour them all in a matter of seconds. One wrong move with this guy and it could mean the end of NOD - he wasn't kidding about that.

"I'll get straight to the point, then."

Oxanna definitely prepared a plan. And a plan for that plan. And a backup plan for that plan. And then a backup for the backup. If there's one valuable lesson she learned working under giants like Anton and Kane himself, it's that contingency is key in winning everything and having the last laugh - the survival of her greatest leader, possibly sitting next to her, is a testament to that.

"Emir... may not have been honest with you. He's housing someone of interest within his psyche. We're not sure it's who we're looking for, but it's important for his sake, as well as your own, to get him out of there if it's who we think it is."

She waited to see Desmond's reaction. After all, dealing with supernatural entities like him, this shouldn't be that wild or out of the question for him.

Desmond just watched her but didn't like her implications. "That isn't anything new, Abstergo has been working on similar things for decades. Your going to have to be more specific, even if he has what your looking for then how do you plan on getting him 'out' as you said?"

If it involved hurting the other then fuck that noise. Did these people want Yusef like the templars? If they had ties to them then all bets are off, maybe he should have rigged the place with bombs?

Oxanna smirked. She started to like this Desmond's attitude and intelligence some more. He was basically doing what she was - inching closer and closer to the goal, without surrendering too much information in the process.

"Abstergo? Fuck, no. If anything, they're actually the reason why we're in this mess. We have just as much beef with them as you do. Probably."

Oxanna attempted to be considerate. She left out the bit where, if it wasn't for Abstergo's Animus technology accidentally existing nearby, her leader would be lost in cyberspace forever by now.

"We have our own means of isolating a foreign human psyche away from a host body that doesn't belong to it - the process is safe, but will involve some time and distance. Rome wasn't built in a day, after all."

The formidable Montauk, its skilled crew having completed -some- necessary repairs to get it moving faster, had returned to course towards Sarajevo. By now, they were already out of the USA and and almost into the Adriatic Sea, nearing Italy. It's been several hours since the fight ended and she called for a truce, after all.

Desmond frowned at the movement of the Montauk, wherever they were heading he was going with them now and he wasn't happy about it. He could try to slow them down again but he'd either need a distraction or to touch a computer concole and he doubted Oxanna was going to let him move around freely after the damage he had already caused. Hopefully her men hadn't found out about the damaged vehicles in the hangar and they could still make their escape.

"And how exactly would you do that, so far my experience with these things leaves allot to be desired. So I'm not going to trust it as far as I can throw it. Explain it, or give me the files on it."

The longer they were stuck talking like this the more antsy he was going to get, he glanced back at Emir to see how the other was faring.

Oxanna responded promptly, noticing the blinking, updated GPS map on one of the screens near her.

"Well, speaking of Rome..." she introduced to Desmond while pointing up, "Welcome to Italy. Right above our heads."

Again, she paused, waiting for his reaction. Kane had mentioned that Cabal managed to look up the Assassin brotherhood's different headquarters, Italy's being one of them. Could Desmond possibly have business here? It would be tempting to see if he did.

Desmond didn't respond, he was mildly impressed that the tunnels were extensive enough to go across the ocean. It must have been insane to figure out how to do it. Leonardo would have loved to learn about this. But Oxanna was stalling even as Ezio was happy to be home.

"You didn't answer my questions; where are you even taking us?"

Oxanna giggled.

"We're headed to where it all began. Our headquarters in Sarajevo." She moved her finger from Italy, to her true destination on the GPS map.

"Within the next two hours, we'll be able to reach one of the bunkers where we house spare 'shells' for this type of consciousness transfer. Let's say, an artificial intelligence of ours was ahead of the curve when it came to this type of scenario."

She knew of Kane's Last Order. Cabal wasn't acting against his interests, or turning on him. Firestorm was a cover up to hide Kane from GDI after they destroyed and dismantled Cabal's physical core. Merging Kane with Cabal was a stroke of genius on her leader's behalf, as it helped keep Cabal alive through GDI's onslaught. If only Anton was alive to witness Kane's greatness manifest itself once more.

"As I promised, the process is safe. Emir will be placed in stasis alongside one of our empty shells to initiate the transfer. Once the process is complete, he'll be free to leave with you."

She smiled, though the intent and warmth behind her smile was towards Kane, not Emir.

((Will they succeed? Will Kane get his real body back? Find out in the next chapter!))