(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 silently apologized to the dead man as he turned to face Kane and his men, noting the guns but not particularly caring at the moment given the situation. If they gunned him down then maybe he could rest in peace finally.
He flicked his bloodied blade to get most of the blood off of it, his sleeve was turning red as some of the blood stubbornly stuck. His attention mainly focused on Kane as he approached he man, "You call this a mercy kill?! As weak as he was it could take a few hours for him to finally die! There are other ways to goad an enemy to attacking!"
He was ignoring everyone else, he just didn't see them. His heart was still racing as well as the pained and ironically thankful look Jake had given him as Desmond cut his throat. He felt betrayed by the way Kane was doing this, despite everything Desmond had learned from several life times he still trusted too easily, he didn't question the motives of those around him even allies! Even Lucy... It felt like his heart was cracking a bit from the pain of it and unfortunately that was putting very specific stress on his mind.
He moved towards Kane, pulling his hidden blade back before grabbing the man by the jacket shoulders and shook him. Trying to see the other react, trying to get something out of him to understand even as his own emotions reeled and caused the Apple to react within him.
Kane was slammed against the wall by Desmond's unrelenting grip, now distanced from the body at the center of the room. The NOD soldiers were getting ready to shoot, when Kane erupted in Desmond's face.
"PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN, YOU FOOLS! I'M SAVING YOUR LIVES, NOT MINE!"
Hesitantly, the NOD troopers lowered their weapons and allowed the confrontation to continue, just as it had started.
Kane slowly adjusted his neck very slightly against the exposed tip of the retracted blade Desmond had previously used and, inevitably, a small cut had formed. He grabbed Desmond's restraining arm against his neck, by the wrist, and deadlocked him so that they were both gripping each other, noses almost touching.
"Desmond, I told you," Kane breathed, "I was going... to BAIT GDI! There was NO other w-"
The door to the room activated, and Oxanna stormed in. "GDI attack imminent!" She warned.
Kane turned from her, to look back at Desmond with his restrained gaze, and noticed the latter was sweating profusely and muttering something incoherent. It looked like Desmond saw a ghost at the door. However, they couldn't even register the situation yet before the entire Temple shook with a terrifying explosion, far bigger than the last.
"LEAVE!" Kane shrieked at his men, as they quickly attempted to avoid the collapsing concrete. Without warning, Kane used his grip to free himself and shove Desmond off of him. The latter felt extreme danger, and looked to escape.
Kane's plan had worked faster than he expected - someone higher up on the chain must have brashly ordered the attack in revenge for what they saw transpire with Jake. But the results could turn catastrophic for all of them if they don't act fast.
Desmond struggled with himself, trying to keep the Apple's energy from reacting to his emotions and lashing out at everyone nearby. "There is ALWAYS another way! Just because it isn't obvious or easy doesn't mean its not there! I Trusted you to end him! Not make him suffer a thousand times more then needed!"
This was starting to cycle back for Desmond, his situation at the temple, the lack of information and being forced to make a choice without know any other way of reacting. He was forced into a corner, forced to take a life. If he had known he would have ended Jake himself sooner! This was just like-
He didn't get to finish that thought when Oxanna came into the room, her blond hair down in her 'news anchor' mode but Desmond who was having issues concentrating as it was could only see Lucy. His face went pale as he saw the women who he had trusted before and even loved only to have it crash around him and force his hand. "Lucy? no... how?"
He didn't get much of a chance to react as the temple shook from the impending attack from GDI. The throw from Kane had disoriented him further and he wasn't seeing reality properly anymore as ghost he hadn't seen in ages appeared before him. His disorientation and panic at the ghosts forced Desmond back and he clutched at his heart and looked around shakily, this place wasn't safe. He had to get out! He backed up till he hit a console, his first instinct to get away from the bleeding affect overriding what he knew existed inside the systems. He slammed a hand onto the console and logging in, his physical form exploding in a shower of light and pixels before vanishing into the computer system.
Cabal was alerted by a foreign presence. He was previously busy activating the mighty Obelisk defenses to resist the impending GDI onslaught, when he turned his attention to the sudden infiltration he felt within the Temple's network.
As soon as Desmond digitally materialized, Cabal was already there to face him, now appearing as a blue, robotic silhouette. This was Cabal's default appearance and perception of himself, unlike what he experimented with the last time he faced Desmond.
"Log out now," Cabal warned him, "I will not repeat myself. You will not infiltrate this system any further."
Cabal stood to lose a lot with someone running amok within his network. For starters, knowing the inner workings of this AI would prove dangerous for any outsider, friend or foe. Desmond tumbled into the network feeling the coolness of the system wash him and helping his frayed emotions. The bleed couldn't follow him in the system and it was a boon to him in the past, his panic spiked though when he found he wasn't alone.
"L-leave me alone! I don't want anything I just need to get out!" With that outburst Desmond threw a hand forwards like someone would make a small wave to slash their friends, only instead of water it was data. A spike of data grew from the floor forcing cabal to make some distance between the two, the spike having only moved a short distance from its originating point and now remained as a barrier between the two of them.
"I just... I can't! not now!"
Cabal wasn't startled by this attack at all. He observed Desmond outside the system and realized he was panicked for very different reasons than the rest of the base. With Oxanna's help, Cabal had uncovered a lot of exposed data about Desmond and the Assassins, but only what he was able to find at the time - records from Abstergo, the destroyed facilities Desmond targeted, as well as any missions Desmond and his allies may have been involved with that made it to mainstream news. As he dodged Desmond's constructs, Cabal began dismantling everything he threw at him.
"You're in a compromised state," Cabal commented in a matter-of-fact tone, "and I must rectify this situation."
With how complicated Desmond's attacks were getting, Cabal began to find it harder to keep up with GDI outside. He knew he had to elevate this fight to a higher level to give it more focus. Desmond wasn't focused on what was going on outside, he was too busy in his panic and attempt to get away from the viral AI. He threw several constructs at the other, attempting to put distance between them, not caring about the damage they were causing to system. Screens and equipment outside frying and malfunctioning because of the fight.
Inside of the system Desmond didn't have the limitation of how much data he carried or range. Which made him more dangerous, especially in his panicked state. His frustration at Cabal forced him back as his previous structures were dismantled, he quickly summoned 3 cannons before him before they fired at the other AI. "Rectify this!"
The fight wasn't doing his mental state any favors, instead of finding a safe place to calm down he was fighting and under attack. His previous instinct about cabal keeping him on his toes and refusing to stand still to prevent himself from being infected by the other. Cabal still found it difficult to keep up with everything Desmond was throwing at him - his deconstruction of Desmond's projectiles and constructs were becoming slower and slower, and soon Desmond would begin inching closer and closer to where Cabal's position was with his projectile attacks. As the pixels sprayed past Cabal's face with every dismantling of Desmond's attacks, the area began to change in appearance.
Cabal began to invoke Desmond's psychology against him, starting with his memories. They were now fighting in Masyaf, where the legendary Altair took down the famed mentor of his own Levantine Brotherhood, per Abstergo's recovered notes from one of their destroyed facilities.
"Calm down," Cabal added with a monotonous voice.
Desmond did not react favorably to the change, while Masyaf would have been helpful in the real sense right now with the bleeding affect encroaching on his mind it only added to his panic. To him it was as if the bleeding affect was somehow able to reach him in cyberspace, making the entire area unsafe for his mental health. "What the fuck? How? No, nononoNoNoNO!"
He was in the garden, where it happened with Al-Mualim. Where the trust he had in his-Altair's master had shattered. When the man he trusted went against everything they fought for and tried to rule them as their enemies would.
"This is not real, Desmond. Stand down."
Cabal still had trouble weakening Desmond. He was panicking, but the intensity of this attacks were increasing. He tried to add something to the illusion - looking up files he previously had on the Brotherhood, coupled with recent footage from Desmond, he was able to reconstruct an important figure to confront him with.
"I ask you one last time," the faux Assassin commanded, "cease your attacks."
Desmond seemed to pause for a moment, confusion written all over his face at the sight of Altair. He wanted so badly for the other to make things calm again and he started to reach for the other before freezing, he couldn't feel anything from the ancestor before him. Even if it was a bleeding affect he could always feel his ancestors emotions at the time of the memory, or hear their thoughts directed towards him in the way they speak. But this image gave away nothing, an empty shell, a fake.
Quickly pulling back and drawing inwards he could feel the others there, trying to quell his panic from within but also unable to reach him because of it. While that was comforting in its own right it also scared him that they couldn't help at the moment. The apple reacting to his fear again and causing his skin to glow, the marking of the apple appearing on his skin along with those of the ISU.
"You're not him. You're not him. You're not him. You're not him. You CAN'T!"
April, 1512 - Constantinople, Ottoman Empire.
Cabal cycled in appearance between Ezio and Yusef, accents and vocal tones included. He was now focused mainly on Desmond and Desmond only. Outside, the battle with GDI ravaged on, and it seemed like NOD was losing badly. Cabal felt the same with this fight. He was approaching his limit, considering how Desmond was still increasing the amount of data he was using to attack him with more and more powerful weapons.
"Desmond," Cabal communicated, "you are currently forcing my hand. I may have to do something to you you're going to regret," he warned.
Desmond reacted poorly to the change in scenery again, his heart aching at the sight of Ezio and Yusef but the lack of connection was giving it away and not working as the viral AI had hoped. Desmond working around the illusions, he couldn't bear the harm them despite the pain they were causing him but it only fueled his only instability.
His voice was shaky and panicked, hysteria coming through as he tried and failed to connect what was real around him. "What are you going to do? Kill me?! I've already died once! You'd be doing me a fucking favor by making sure I stay dead this time!"
"Negative," Cabal answered Desmond as he materialized elsewhere. "I am getting you to do exactly as I've requested - to calm down."
For a split second, able to exit Desmond's aim, Cabal managed to close the distance between them and latch himself onto him. Desmond had repeatedly been keeping his distance from Cabal like the skilled fighter he is, but what he failed to realize was - normal physics didn't apply here. Cabal was definitely playing with a very different deck than anything he'd seen outside.
"I am not infecting you with any viruses," Cabal struggled to say as he was met with fierce resistance in close range. "I'm only trying to help you calm down."
Cabal still wouldn't explain what he's trying to do to him. The scenery was cracking behind them as Cabal began to lose focus trying to restrain Desmond.
Desmond struggled in Cabal's grasp, his heart having leapt into this throat at the close contact. His skin felt itchy and tingly, over sensitive from being hyper aware of Cabal and fearing the 'infection' he had witnessed back at abstergo. He didn't have time to think about why it hadn't happened already, his fear blinding him to the possibility of help at the moment.
He was gasping for breath that didn't exist in cyberspace yet his body was instinctive trying to seek air and prevent him from hyperventilating, the cracking illusion around them being enough for Desmond to force some energy into it and cause it to collapse around them. He drew his hidden blade in an attempt to get Cabal to back off and let go.
Cabal took the first strike Desmond slashed head-on. It definitely damaged him, based on the clustering and loss of data he experienced from his affected limb, but to Desmond, it looked like he had cut into chewing gum. Deception has always been Cabal's strategy when dealing with what to display to the enemy, and Desmond was no exception - he was not going to show weakness.
As Desmond struggled to attack him, the surroundings returned to their digital default, the historic facade in the background now collapsed completely. However, as the struggle continued, something odd was happening - Desmond's attacks began to appear far more exaggerated and powerful, almost unleashing giant shockwaves with every swing. It took a toll on Desmond's heaving body with each strike.
Desmond was drawing too much power from the apple as he wildly attacked Cabal while trying to get free. Unfortunately it looked like his little blade wasn't doing much to hurt the other or get him to let go. The additional energy being drawn was making it harder for Desmond to think clearly since much less see despite his heaving breaths. He was tiring out from the fight, the exhaustion starting to come forward and consume the fear and panic that has fueling him before. It was making him desperate, he was hurting from everything that had happened and he was starting to loose steam.
He needed to get away, to recover, to re-center and reconnect with the others inside of him. Whenever the bleeding affect had started to get to him in the past he had the support of Ezio and the others, but this time had been different and they were currently occupied with trying to curb the Apples power. The systems around the two weren't fairing very well, many had been destroyed from the excess power running through them and those that had survived had several parts rendered inoperable causing NOD difficulties against the attack from the GDI forces around them currently.
"The ritual is complete."
Cabal whispered in his usual tone into Desmond's ear, before releasing him. He did not form back into his usual blue humanoid appearance. Instead, he settled to remain as simply a voice surrounding Desmond.
"Try it."
Cabal saw nothing but confusion on Desmond's face, as he slowed down his reactions. There was nothing for him to attack anymore.
"I am still in control of this space, but now, so are you. Instead of foolishly materializing useless weapons to attack me with, try thinking outside the box. Try communicating with me, Desmond. Tell me what you really want."
His voice went silent with a fading echo, in the pure white void they were in. For a second, Cabal wondered if Desmond could understand what he meant, or if he would need to show him a powerful example.
((What will Desmond do? What did he gain from Cabal? Find out very soon!))