(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))
'Loud and clear.'
Kane did not reveal it, but he could still retain a copy of Cabal in his own mind, as part of the transfer. Kane winked at Emir, but did not say a word.
At some point, he knew he'd have to 'merge' Cabal further and further into him, until he was alone again. For the time being, however - he decided to make the most of this discrete alliance he had with his biological AI.
While not looking forward to it, Kane knew that Cabal was also there for these so-called "bleeds" - recording what he saw. He would need to review the runes in writing. He would need to verify if it was an illusion, or something tangible that actually existed. At some point, he would need to travel there - where Emir's ancestor, and Desmond's, both operated when they saw those etchings.
In the meantime, however, Kane wanted to make the most out of Desmond's presence.
"We've been through a lot. You may need my assistance in the future." Kane turned and walked away dramatically, before facing Desmond again, arms open to the Temple and the red sky above them.
"Take a tour with us!"
Desmond shook his head with a small smile, Kane seemed alright and Emir was sane so far. He might need to look into a way of copying his sync nexus for both if they showed signed of being unable to handle themselves. He moved to follow with Emir, it seemed like they were going to get a tour. Fine by him, the more he knew about this place the better, especially while it was friendly.
In another time and place he could see Kane fitting in well during the Renaissance, he wasn't sure if the man was being dramatic on purpose or not. Maybe he was just enjoying the cape too much at the moment.
"If things go that way then it would be good to know I can count on you. Just don't do anything stupid, capice? So how much of this place is still standing, it looked pretty bad from the outside."
Kane grinned. "You think GDI got the best of us, huh?"
Kane had already started walking, leading the two back to the elevator they originally emerged from.
"A grave error in judgment on your behalf... and theirs."
Punching a special code of floor numbers into the keypad, the lighting in the elevator turned from red to green, and a new set of floor numbers and layout appeared where the old ones were on the pad's touch screen.
"They never even scratched the surface," he followed up, as they rode the elevator further underground.
"Originally, I would show you my arsenal, but I'd never know for sure if you told." Kane was half-teasing him. But he also knew the friends of today could be the enemies of tomorrow. And his tomorrow had no room for that.
"What do you expect to see?" He directed the question at them both.
Desmond knew that topside the building looked bad, but the clones had been in good condition. Whatever happened on the surface hasn't touched the place. Which meant it was either sturdier then originally anticipate, or GDI didn't know how deep things went and just wrecked the building superficially.
"With how deep we are going I'd think you'd have a vault down here or something. If you have a temple I'm going to stab myself. Otherwise, just that your main stuff if down here, you already said arsenal so I'm guessing you guys are stocked."
Kane nodded. "Indeed we are. But that's the boring side of it."
He hit more buttons as the elevator stopped.
"My dear Desmond, this IS a Temple. This entire place is Temple Prime. Didn't Oxanna tell you?"
Kane then remembered.
"Oh. Right. Big skirmish fight."
He turned to leave the elevator first, instructing Emir to stay inside for a minute. "We'll need to gear you up first for this. Desmond, are you coming?"
Desmond is confused at first as to what gear Kane is referring too. At least this place didn't seem like an ISU temple. He would have felt it already if it had been. Good, he didn't want to stab himself even if he was only half joking about that.
"Not what I was referring too, but I'm glad its not the one I was thinking... What gear?"
Kane responded promptly, yanking out a hazmat suit from one of the closets in the dark hallway, illuminated by some dim green-lit neon.
"Oxygen. I hear it's popular with you humans." He threw the suit back at Emir, who caught it accordingly. "There's a room to change on your left, once you exit the elevator. Decontamination in 2 minutes. On your feet, soldier."
"You're the exception, Desmond. You and I both know we're not affected like the rest."
His words rung true without needing explanation.
Desmond was wondering how Kane figured he would be unaffected. Kane was definitely not human given his long lifespan but he didn't feel like ISU either, his apple didn't respond to him in the same way it had fro Minerva or even Juno.
"So what do we need those for and what makes you think I don't need one?"
Kane was puzzled.
"Oxanna told me everything. You think she'd hide her acute observations? NOD doesn't recruit just anyone - we are gifted, down to the last soldier."
Kane of course referred to Oxanna's report of what happened on the surface, back in the USA. Desmond left no room for doubt, he was not a normal human. Nothing they did to him seemed to affect him. Being able to hijack the Montauk, mid-drive, underground, would be no feat for a living, breathing flesh-and-blood human. And firing that cannon left no room for doubt.
"Tiberium poisoning," Kane answered, as Emir walked out in full NOD gear, seemingly immune to the nauseating green fumes emerging from beneath the next door they were facing.
Kane exposed his mutated hand to access the lock on the door to the next room. He signaled for Desmond and Emir to come over.
Desmond followed Kane and Emir curiously, he had seen what was on the news about tiberium. It caused allot of mutations and people were told to stay away from the stuff as much as possible. They weren't sure how the stuff spread other then touch, maybe possibly air. People usually felt sick near the rocks. The room was full of green crystals, some were being worked on and processed, others were being cataloged and experimented on. Oxanna had mentioned that they worked with the stuff and wanted to evolve people using the gem. He just wasn't sure how. Looking around curiously he picked up one of the smaller crystals and turned it over in his hand to get a better look. It felt charged, like it had energy. The Apple seemed to register it as something, maybe there was something like this that the ISU worked with? He tossed the crystal back into its pile.
"I was in a tight spot and I hoped she wouldn't catch on to what I was doing. I'm going to be in allot of trouble as it is since that fight was out in the open. "
Kane laughed.
"Dear Oxanna. She's quite formidable, isn't she?" He winked at Desmond as they walked through. "Come. There's much to learn."
Kane accessed the next room, an even bigger facility than the last. In front of him lay a giant vat, full to the brim with a green fluid.
"Liquid T. I could never get the right blast yield on detonation, so I now use it to fund and empower our research. We've actually learned of ways to reverse the mutation - not that we're interested - but it could help someone you know. Perhaps in the future?"
Kane was, of course, joking. There's no way in hell he'd ever want to reverse the process. He learned of its reversal in order to find more potent ways to keep the mutations permanent - further concentrated dosages, further molten to ensure complete 'evolution'.
"Originally, this was meant for Divination - helping the planet achieve complete saturation, establishing a safe haven for the Visitors - but I've since given up on that. Too direct and on the nose, you see." Kane tapped his bald head as he said it. "GDI caught on too quickly and figured out where to strike to prevent that."
Kane's next plan involved something far more sinister, triggered by the enemy. He wasn't ready to share just yet. But he was excited to see if Desmond could ever catch on.
Desmond looked at the liquid tiberium, it was an impressive set up. It was good that he had found a way to reverse the mutations too, but he hadn't heard of anything like that happening in the world. So he was either biding his time to use it when it was most needed or he wasn't intending on it at all. Not if they were going to evolve everyone. But that could be why GDI had tried to blow them up, what they were proposing would potentially kill allot of people from mutations gone wrong. This wouldn't be immunity unless the mutation went right and from what he had seen it wasn't a controlled mutation right now, it was too random.
"Why would you want to blow this stuff up if you're using it as a resource?"
Kane looked at him with excitement.
"Our missiles? Well, they were controlled detonations, to a certain extent. The Tiberium we used for detonation wasn't pure like this - it was actually more 'weed'-like. We built specific weed eater harvesters to collect the Tiberium veins and weeds needed to fuel and detonate those missiles properly. The blast yielded new resources from the ground up after the blast, but it was never wide enough to fund us."
He of course left out the part where he'd aim the missile at GDI bases, basically turning all the targets there INTO tiberium resources in the process. Desmond's not ready yet for that type of... strategy.
"Tiberium is very greedy, in addition to inciting greed in us all. It eats everything in its path. Our desire to properly study and master the sacred green crystal comes mainly from our ascension above and beyond mere human greed."
Kane wondered if Desmond could ever catch on to the duality of his words. Technically, he never lied to him - he simply presented the truth in a more palatable fashion.
Desmond listened carefully, it sounded like they were doing a lot with this stuff but he was concerned with how potentially terrible things could go with this stuff, tiberium spreads quickly and can't be stopped by any means found so far. It certainly could cause problems.
"Ascension? Does that have to do with the evolution Oxanna mentioned before?"
He looked down at the vat of liquid T, like this it seemed harmless save for the coloring which made it look toxic or acidic. Maybe that was just his bias and frame of reference though, this stuff wasn't natural to earth as far as he knew but that didn't mean the ISU before didn't know about it or could use it. Kane had mentioned visitors before so maybe aliens was a thing, the ISU sure seemed alien enough.
Kane was startled for a second - did Oxanna find out where he planned to go after the next war? He told no one. He wasn't ready to tell Desmond either. Unless Desmond knew something about the Visitors he himself would need to learn...
"Just a figure of speech, Desmond. I was merely pondering the flaws of the human ego."
There's no way. Oxanna couldn't have known about his actual plan for Ascension. The only other entity that ever learned of his plans that far was...
'Affirmative. I am aware of the Visitors.'
Cabal. He could still communicate with him through thought. It's not a problem if Kane had a backup in the form of Cabal, learning every move, plan and intention ahead of time. It's basically his insurance policy.
"What about you? What is your connection to those from the past?" Kane tried to change the topic. It really was about time Desmond coughed up something tangible.
Desmond looked up from the vat and at Kane, still curious but smiling a bit like he had caught the man with something. he had caught that small startled moment and he was happy he did, it proved a bit of humanity in him despite his claim against that. He leaned against the railing a bit,
"Humanity still has a way to grow, it's just slow and messy. Eventually I hope they can get past that. The past? Everything my ancestry did has led me to being here right now, There was allot of manipulation depending on who's view you take. With the animus the past doesn't stay there, for me; its here and now at the same time. I'm not sure about your visitors, but the others I know. I might need to dig a bit into it even if I don't want too."
The only way Desmond would know for sure about these visitors or possibly Kane was to see if he could find the man in his past, or perhaps a mention. He'd have to go as far back as possible and he was concerned for his sanity despite the sync nexus, plus he didn't want to go into the animus if he could help it despite it being the most comfortable place for him to be in his current existence.
Kane thought to himself once more, then turned back to Desmond.
"What of your comrades?"
Kane was very interested in learning how Desmond and the Assassins networked. With his help, he could probably establish a connection from here back to his headquarters without having to leave to the USA right away.
Desmond shrugged a bit. He had only ever been in contact with his team and father. A total of 3 people from the brotherhood, 4 now with Emir. Most assassins would only know him as the mentors son who ran away from his duty, if they even knew him at all. He had provided some logistical support for teams with his abilities but never meeting them of fighting alongside them. He hasn't had the chance to talk to anyone and he hasn't particularly wanted to.
"They fight in our endless war. I will help them how I can and I keep tabs on them when possible, I haven't really been allowed to fight in the open but that might change soon. I haven't been able to check the new since the fight with the drill."
Kane gave him an honest stare.
"Do you wish to see them again?"
Kane wanted to verify something - the emotions he felt back at the motel. They may have been unchecked in a body as human as Emir's, but there's still truth to them, as exaggerated as they felt before.
Desmond blinked and looked at Kane, he wasn't sure what the other was looking for but he seemed to care at the moment. It was kinda weird coming from a guy dressed like an assassins but with a place that looked like an 'evil lair' then again he'd probably think the same about GDI if he ever saw their base. Big groups tended to remind him of the templars unfortunately.
"I... yea, if I can... if they'd be alright with me. I didn't really fit in before and now its more exaggerated with how things have gone. Plus its hard to adjust when you've seen things in their heyday, you can't help but compare it and wonder."
Kane closed his eyes and smiled.
"Ask, and ye shall receive, my friend. While I'm not eager to compromise our position with a full-on direct line, it's very possible for us to send an anonymous signal to your allies, letting them know you and Emir are alright. It wouldn't be traced... hopefully."
Not to mention, 'we could triangulate a lot of geographic data for Desmond's beneficiaries that could help the Brotherhood', Cabal silently added inside Kane's mind - exactly what he planned. It would be risky, but the rewards would be worth it.
Desmond was surprised by the offer. He pulled away from the railing and put his hands in his pockets.
"You'd let me contact my people? I'll admit I'm not sure what you hope to gain by doing this, an alliance? and exchange of information? Those decisions aren't mine to make, you know that right? There is also the fact that there is a change that our enemies will become yours and vise versa."
If Kane let him contact his people he could pass on everything he's learned up till now, he hadn't sent Rebecca anything since he picked up Emir and he was sure that she would be frantic by now since they usually talked all the time. He could also check the news and the assassin network to see how much of his fight with Oxanna had gotten out into the world, hopefully William wouldn't be too pissed. Then there was the merits of getting along with NOD and finding out how they could potentially help each other while dealing with bigger threats.
Kane nodded.
"A risk I'm willing to take. While I agree it's not a good idea to expose your presence just yet, it WOULD serve as a wise precaution to have backup in the form of a new alliance. I don't expect 100% cooperation from your team, but I think letting them know you're in our care would be something important enough to relay to them... until you can go back."
Cabal had already informed Oxanna of Kane's plans.
"Just give the word. All I'll need are the correct coordinates to transmit a UDP burst signal, one that can't be traced back to us, with whatever message you'd like relayed. The longer the message, the more data we'll need to transmit - so keep it short and sweet."
Desmond sighed, he didn't want to give the assassins away to NOD if he could help it but at this point it would be wiser to take the offer. Altair agreed that it was better not to piss people off with missiles. He nodded to Kane, "Yea I'd like that, better to let them know whats going on. Maybe my head won't roll for this."
They all moved out of the vat room and towards what looked like a communications hub of some sort, lots of monitors and map of the world with different data points shown. Desmond watched as Kane gave the orders to send the message.
Kane was pleased. With few complications, his plans were coming along smoothly.
"Thank you. You can go ahead and record what you need to say now. We have everything set, including the location to transmit to. If things go well, they'll receive the message successfully. We could even try to find a way to secure a private channel for them to respond as well."
Kane walked away to give Desmond and Emir some space to communicate what they wanted to transmit to their fellow assassins. He wondered about Desmond's words, about the possibility that he wasn't as accepted there anymore.
Desmond and Emir discussed what they wanted to send to the assassins, they didn't have allot of space and could only send a limited amount of data for the transfer. Desmond touched the console and pulled back for a second when he felt Cabal right there. He made himself relax before settling a hand on the machine, the video couldn't be long but he could embed a good bit of data into the file all text layered within the video. They both knew that Cabal was going to look at everything so they didn't want to make the information too detailed. First the video.
"Hey guys, sorry I've been silent for awhile some stuff came up. So after the attack on the building I found this guy - Emir, get in the video."
Desmond pulled the other into the video and put an arm around the other while smiling.
"This is Emir, he's a subject like me. He managed to escape before the place blew. I was going to bring him to base but I'm sure you guys saw the media blackout. That was Oxanna of NOD, she wanted to get Emir cause of something that hitchhiked in his head. I don't know if my fight with her is blowing up our coms or not, I haven't been able to check. But basically we're in NOD headquarters, or one of their bases. So far they've been really nice to us, they got the hitchhiker out and it turned out to be their leader. Weird right? So he wants an alliance but thats way above my paygrade. So I'm sending as much as I can without causing problems, I'll see you guys soon and make sure you look inside the file, I'm gonna pack it."
Withe the video made Desmond embedded as much information as he could without making the file too big. Information about the tiberium, and other general knowledge that he was hoping Cabal wouldn't wipe out before sending the file. Desmond also tried to embed some information in the video itself, by adding a few editing layers with invisible data streams to the eye, Becca would know to check since they sometimes did it as a prank to each other. Normally full of jokes and other things when they were contacted by the higher ups.
Kane nodded at Oxanna for her to direct Cabal to start the data transfer. The burst transmission would be aimed where Desmond pointed, hopefully reaching its intended audience without attracting much attention.
"Transmitting in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."
Cabal announced his countdown, before an uncomfortable pause. "Transfer successful. Message has targeted burst area to the nearest meter." There was no way to confirm if the Assassins received it, after that. They'll just have to hope that the message did its job.
Unbeknownst to them, however... a global scan, powered by a satellite uplink, was also able to detect the presence of a suspected burst transmission.
"Interesting..." Eva said to herself, still floating in cyberspace. She could see the message like a pixelated shooting star. It had definitely been intercepted digitally on the receiving end, where she also happened to be scanning. In an instant, she sent a duplicate to GDI's Sarajevo servers.
This was worthy of reporting back to Chandra and the Philadelphia.
((GDI is now hot on their trail! Will they be able to trace them back to their Temple? Find out in the next chapter!))