(Events take place right around 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 closed the door behind him, getting Jake's attention. The man had been testing his restraints to see if he could get out. He went still and pale at the sight of the Assassin, so many questions to ask. He wondered how long Oxanna and Kane would give him with the guy, better make the most of the time he's got.
Oxanna was trying to see through the crack of the door, her curiosity piqued with how quickly Desmond had gone into the room. She hadn't pegged him for the blood thirsty type, but everyone had their triggers right? She couldn't see much but she could certainly hear just fine. It was quiet at first till Jake seemed surprised to see Desmond, even know who he was!
The anger in his voice seemed to change, was he holding back? When it came back, his accent was different. Not unlike when he had spoken Italian with Kane earlier, but different. This time he sounded more Arabic in his accent and she could feel it in his tone of voice, he was going to ENJOY getting into out of Jake.
Trying to move her position to get a better angle to see she did catch a glimpse of white, brown and red. Wasn't Desmond wearing blue jeans before? Focusing on what she could see it seemed Desmond was wearing all white all of a sudden? Unfortunately he moved out of her line of sight and while the other still talking she started to hear the sounds of pain filtering in.
A few hours later, Desmond came out of the room. Still perfectly white hoodie despite the sounds she had heard earlier and much calmer. He gave her a look before smiling and motioning back towards Jake.
"I'm done with him, he's a little beat up but if you have any other questions for him I'm sure he'll behave for you."
Oxanna saw "Desmond" walk out, though she was 100% certain someone else was in the room with Jake, before she flinched and stepped back from the intense bloodthirst and violence she witnessed. Even for her standards, that was brutal. And so was that intense grin of his; what was that about?
Nodding back at the assassin, she walked slowly towards the infirmary's open door, and leaned in to peek once more.
"...oh. Oh damn. Wow..."
She walked in to bear witness to what just happened. To say the least, it was indescribable. A nervous smile crept across her sweating face as her heels crunched on a few of Jake's bloodied teeth, while walking to him. Oxanna took off one of her gloves, and grabbed his head with her other hand, angling his bloodied nose up to see if he was still alive. Using her other free hand, she checked for breathing and pulse.
"How are you even still here?" She shook her head in wonder. "I gotta ask for tips. He went full medieval on you. With my same toys to boot."
Oxanna was impressed. She easily concluded the rest of her interrogation and got everything else she needed from him.
"I wonder if we should just let Desmond do this from the start next time..." She contacted Kane for 'dispatch'. NOD was officially done with its 'toy'.
Desmond has moved away from the room a bit for some space. Altair has had his fun and now they both needed to calm down. He closed his eyes and tried to meditate, calm down and breath. Let what happen pass his mind and sweep it out the door keeping only what they had learned, what had been useful.
Desmond wasn't a fan of torture but he couldn't deny that Altair was damn good at what he did. This guy had knows useful things and how his 'job' was done. What happened to Jake was up to NOD, but he would need to talk to the other assassins at some point to let them know what he had learned. It was important.
When he was calmer he headed back to find Oxanna talking with that looked like a clean up crew. Jake was missing. He leaned against the door, it was going to be awhile before the crew was done. Maybe he should show Altair some new horror movies?
"Get what you needed?"
"Plenty. I have to say, it's impressive how you did all that without a single drop of blood on you, Desmond."
Oxanna pointed out the obvious discrepancy as politely as possible. She wasn't entirely aware of Desmond's full capabilities, but rarely did something miss her watchful eyes. Then again, perhaps Kane could fill her in later.
Kane arrived once more to meet with them and catch up.
"Emir said he wanted little to do with what transpired in that room, so he's waiting for us elsewhere. Did we get what you need? Do we have to keep this... GDI insect any longer?"
Oddly enough, Kane directed that question to Desmond instead of Oxanna.
Desmond hadn't thought of the blood that should be on him. While Altair did get messy and wasn't wholly concerned about it Desmond didn't want to take the mess with them. It's wasn't very hygienic. He must have cleaned off without thinking when Altair finished his questions. He opted to not answer her question mostly because he wasn't sure how too and explain that might lead to his secret getting out.
Desmond was glad that Emir was staying out of this. The man was still a bit fragile and he didn't want to risk triggering him. Yusef has his own brand of interrogation. Mostly getting the target high as a kite.
He shrugged at Kane, "I'm pretty sure we got everything out of him. This is your base and he falls under GDI not Abstergo. But I don't think he'll be much use to anybody anymore."
He didn't really care what happened to Jake. The man knew he was alive and would prefer if that info didn't get out, even if the man was damaged from what was done to him. The Templars could still get info out of him using the animus and he didn't want GDI chasing after them either. Though that was mostly out of his control now.
Kane nodded and signaled for Oxanna and her team to handle the 'rest'. Jake was dragged out of the room silently, a thin trail of blood on the floor following him until it didn't. With the state Altair had left him in, he showed no resistance whatsoever. Some of Oxanna's team stayed to clean up the infirmary further - one final sweep.
Oxanna took a detour to inform Emir the room was clear, and that his comrades were waiting for him. He nodded back at her meekly and headed back to the infirmary. Looking at him walk away, a few thoughts crossed her mind.
"How come he doesn't want to join them on their missions? He should've recovered by now. Is he truly an assassin...?"
She'd remembered she was going to look further into this unfinished 'Abstergo' business from the exploded facility. After all, that's where the remnants of NOD's Scrin replica ship ended up.
Desmond smiled when Emir found them, greeting the other happily and checking the other over quickly. Not that he thought Kane's people would hurt Emir, he was still a bit wary of that. But he was checking more for the bleeding affect, to see if the other was slipping or stable. It didn't help that Ezio was always nearby when Emir was concerned because of yusef and while he didn't want to deny the man a reunion he also didn't want to make Emir worse.
"How are you holding up? You didn't get too shaken up from the fighting down here did you?"
While he didn't get any info from Jake about Emir he did learn that another group in Spain had made their own animus before they had a meltdown of some kind. Desmond could guess what happened.
Oxanna left the group to return to the control room she could access Cabal at. After his return, the Temple's operations and defenses had improved significantly, what with the ruthless AI taking over and fortifying his post. Repairs had flourished since the Great War.
"Cabal," she instructed, "pull up all available data on Abstergo Industries. Include coordinates, primary personnel and all active and past connections."
As far as NOD knew, Abstergo wasn't entirely under their radar until they got involved with them back at the facility Desmond had blown up.
"Interesting..."
Cabal had access to some 'grey' areas of information that weren't readily available to the public: the locations Abstergo was suspected to operate in away from public view, the names of certain Abstergo agents that were prominent enough to be identified, as well as the names of certain Assassins they had captured. Emir was eventually on that list as a test subject. He wasn't even supposed to be located in the US, it seemed.
"There has to be a good enough reason why Kane found him there when he did..." Oxanna whispered.
As Oxanna continued to sift through all the data and information Cabal presented to her, her facial expression slowly began to contort, and her heart began to sink in deep dread as she started to read into further details surrounding a few other prominent Assassins that were captured by Abstergo, at some point in the past. The data leak primarily took place after the facility was blown up by Desmond and his allies, so she understood that NOD had no way of being a privy to these shocking revelations.
"I detect an increase in your heart rate," Cabal interrupted her chaotic chain of thought. "Am I correct in assuming that this coroner's report contradicts a presumption you had?"
"C-Cabal," she hesitated, "enhance... barcode."
"Enhancing."
The report contained an identifier for the victim in question. She had to make extra sure this was the same person.
"It... it can't be. Cabal... select and fetch video footage. T minus two and half hours. Location... Temple Prime infirmary."
"Affirmative. Searching storage for T minus two and half hours footage. Displaying."
She gulped as she began to watch. A few seconds in, she wondered if Kane already knew this.
Desmond listened to Kane's plan about the remaining forces GDI had left scattered at their door step. They would need to be removed at some point but with the Tacitus possibly nearby it may be a good time to go get it.
He was curious about this piece, he hadn't heard of it before even if it sounded similar to an apple of Eden. He couldn't be sure until he got a good look at it.
Kane was impressed at how receptive Desmond was to his distant surroundings - this eagle vision had proven to be very valuable so far. With the Tacitus unsuspectingly on its way to them, Kane inferred the Kodiak was arriving soon to take the reigns of the sabotaged GDI base that failed to set up in time outside the Temple.
Kane wondered if this could be the rematch with Commander McNeil after all. Last he saw him, the light from his eyes faded as McNeil stared down on him, having driven a giant wedge into his previous body's heart. To see him alive once more, to see his facial expression would be priceless.
"So this Tacitus that's on its way here, what kind of abilities does it have? I haven't heard of a Piece of Eden by that name before, usually they have simpler names."
He figured Kane knew something about it, he'd noticed the man perk up when he relayed what Jake knew and that it was nearby. Especially since the templars were interested in it and were trying to study it under the assumed identity of GDI scientists.
If GDI knew about it, then NOD was likely to know also. He wasn't sure how long they have been fighting over the Tacitus but it was interesting that they didn't seem to know about the other Pieces.
"The Tacitus, my curious Desmond," Kane began to explain, "is not simply a 'data matrix', as GDI so arrogantly truncated it to. It is far more than a mere piece to the puzzle behind our reason for being. In the limited time I've had it within my grasp, it gave me countless visions of both the past, and the future. From what I was able to discern... the Tacitus, like Tiberium, is not from this world. Cabal?"
Cabal could discern how fast Kane was calculating in his mind what details to share, and what to hide. He continued for him.
"The Tacitus forms and holds itself in a fashion comparable to how planets are formed: large, gaseous masses compressed in a small space, fit on the palm of a human hand. Instead of gas particles, however, it manifests as a molecular collection of microscopic data in biological form. The data is compressed 'analogous' rather than digitally, allowing for the storage of several teraquads of data in such a small existence."
Both Cabal and Kane scanned for Desmond and Emir's reaction upon finishing.
Desmond tilted his head at the information, visions, otherworldly, crazy technological make up? Sounds like a piece of Eden to him, definitely something new though. "So it's like DNA?"
He shares a look with Emir, both were calm yet concerned. Emir more so because of Yusef's concern and mission. While they had tried to protect the Apple in Spain they had been captured and thought they had failed. Now they wanted to try again.
Desmond on the other hand wanted to see if he could connect. Some pieces were 'friendly' while others weren't. He wanted to know if this thing needed to be hidden away or if any lingering feelings from Juno remained.
"You've had it before, what did it feel like to you? Would you mind if we took a look at it? I'm something of an expert when it comes to these things."
"In a sense, yes."
Kane was careful to choose his following words.
"It... felt like home. The Tacitus BELONGS to NOD. I'd advise you to be careful if you ever handle it; it does care who holds it within their grasp."
Kane was thinking about whether or not Desmond has an idea what it really is. Did he ever own or carry such a terrifying artifact? Cabal's research implies this could be what the Templars have been fighting the Brotherhood over, which means...
"Desmond, is there more than one in your opinion?"
((The Pieces of Eden! Will Desmond reveal the rest? Find out NEXT CHAPTER!))