Shaun led William to where the van was parked. Rebecca and Alexis trailed behind. The air in the garage was cold, goosebumping their skin.

Shaun unlocked and opened the van's back doors, then moved out of the way to allow William entry.

Desmond was as still as ever, laying there in the Animus against the left wall of the van. The only proof he wasn't dead was the vital sign readouts on the tablet Rebecca held. Against the other side of the van lay Lucy, having been wrapped carefully in coarse burlap.

William went to Lucy first. Alexis looked away when he lifted the burlap to examine the corpse. She heard him sigh heavily.

"You're sure it was Desmond?" the old man asked again, this time quieter, sadder, more resigned.

"Yes," Shaun said simply, forgoing sarcasm or wit.

Alexis heard more rustle of fabric. "He did a crap job of it." Another sigh. "So messy. Not at all like we trained him."

Rebecca choked back a sob. Alexis put a hand on her shoulder.

"Next time he kills one of us maybe he'll have better technique," Shaun said in a low, biting stage whisper.

"I'm sorry," William said. There was the sound of cloth layers being put back into place around the body. "I absolutely didn't know this kind of reaction could happen." He stood up and went over to Desmond. "How are his vitals?"

Shaun gestured for Rebecca to give him the wireless tablet she was weakly holding. "Vitals are on the low side, but holding steady," he informed William.

"Hmm," William said. There was a moment of dead silence. Then he spoke up again. "Were they close? Desmond and Lucy? I mean, closer than friends?"

"Ah..." Shaun stammered.

Then Alexis cleared her throat loudly, an action she began to regret once it brought William's cold stare upon her again. She somehow managed to squeak out, "He uh... Me and him were dating," then felt the need to add, "Sir."

"Lucy liked him, Bill," Shaun said pissily. "I can't for the life of me imagine why, but that's what she told me. But she didn't have a chance, he's enamoured with Alex. So enamoured, in fact, that he blabbed all sorts of classified information to her. That's kind of what I explained in my email, remember?" His voice stayed at the same volume, but the anger in it was rising feverishly. "And now he's gone and murdered Lucy, so that's three out of three tenets snapped in twain! Oh, yes, Bill, your long-lost son truly is a bloody brilliant Assassin! No wonder you were so keen to get him back after he ran off!"

"Can it, Hastings," William said sharply. "I'm not excusing his actions, but we need him."

"Do we really now?" Shaun countered. "Here's an idea! You're a descendant of Ezio, too, why can't we just unhook Stabby McLooseLips and plug you in the Animus instead?!"

The older man stayed calm, at least outwardly. "You know the effects of prolonged exposure. You've read the reports."

Alexis impulsively butted in. "What, so you're saying it's cool if Desmond goes crazy from the Animus but you're not willing to use it yourself?!"

"Younger brains have a higher tolerance. Something about neuroplasticity," William said coolly. "Miss Stillman's done a fair bit of research on that."

"So you're saying he'll be fine? Well, pardon me, sir, but he doesn't seem very fine right now, does he?!" Alexis swung a hand out angrily to indicate the unconscious man. "This was probably another bleedout, he probably thought Lucy was a Templar and then fainted from shock when he realized what he did!"

"Yes, that is a possibility."

"Shaun's right!" Alexis half-screamed. The only thing holding her back from a full scream was that her rage-filled mind was still vaguely conscious of the fact they were in hiding. "You're his dad, you've got half his ancestors, you should have gone in the Animus!"

"I," William said, slowly and deliberately, a slight hint of anger now filtering into his still-quiet words, "am the Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood."

Alexis shrank back. Holy crap. This man... Desmond's father... He was more than just the leader of this three-but-then-four-with-Desmond-but-now-back-to-three-person team. He was the head honcho of the entire clandestine international organization. Holy motherfucking crap.

"As such, I cannot risk losing mental capacity due to Animus usage, or anything else. Unfortunate as it is, Desmond is the only-"

"Desmond is your son!" Alexis interrupted. "You're supposed to protect him! There has to be a like, co-mentor who can take over if you go loopy!"

"There isn't."

"Well, there should be!"

"Do you know how many of us are left, Miss Chandler?"

Unsure what this had to do with anything, she didn't answer.

"Worldwide, we currently number less than two-fifty."

"Two hundred and forty-eight," Shaun specified.

"Two-forty-seven now," Rebecca said mournfully.

"Yes, right," said Shaun. "Including those who, for various reasons, aren't active. Against many thousands of Knights Templar, thousands more if you count the unwitting lackeys who serve them, under any number of fronts: Abstergo, NSA, RCC, Comstatic, Lockheed Martin, OCBC, hundreds of PACs and super PACs, et cetera, et cetera... Against all of them, there stand only two hundred and forty-seven Assassins."

Alexis remained silent.

"What that means, Alex, is that there used to be co-mentors and other such things, but now there aren't. The Assassin org chart was kind of completely shot to hell by a little ditty the Templars called 'The Great Purge'. And that means they went and had a merry field day killing a bunch of us."

"And we're still struggling to recover from that," William continued. "I didn't used to be the Mentor. But in 2005, I was abruptly made the Mentor, simply by way of every more senior Assassin being lost in the Purge."

"But... but Desmond..." Alexis stuttered.

"If I could take his place, I would," William said, looking at her with sad, resolute eyes. "But he's the one mentioned in the prophecy."

"Prophecy," Alexis repeated, dumbstruck.

"Ezio's journals from his later years detail his visions of Those Who Came Before," Shaun explained. "When Minerva spoke to him, she repeatedly mentions a 'Desmond Miles'. Not 'William Miles', not 'Lena Miles'. It's 'Desmond' specifically." He frowned and shook his head slightly. "I'd bet it's those very journals that led the Order to seek him out for kidnapping, actually."

"And at any rate, he has to stay in the Animus for now 'cause of this coma crap," Rebecca pointed out. "We can't put Bill or anybody else in without essentially taking Desmond off life support."

"What's the chances he'll wake up soon?" William asked.

"Bloody- I don't know," Shaun said, posture drooping. "Lucy was the one with medical knowledge."

"It's possible he might never wake up," said Rebecca, still sounding mournful.

"He- he's got to wake up eventually," Alexis said cautiously. "Unless that 'prophecy' is something he can do while unconscious."

"And that is something I highly doubt," William said. Ever-so-gently, he brushed the side of Desmond's face. Then he turned back to face Alexis, Shaun, and Rebecca, businesslike again. "Well, pack up your things. Vanessa said she won't house us much longer, especially with a corpse among us."


The tombstone read "Eleanor Smith".

"I hear she was a Beatles fan," Shaun said, his voice quiet, yet clear and distinct. "You know that one from Love?"

"Eleanor Rigby." Alexis couldn't help reciting the familiar words, even as her voice cracked. "Died in a church, and was buried along with her name."

"And nobody came," finished Shaun. "Yeah."

"What about...her family?"

"None left. She was an only child and her parents passed away young." He wiped a tear from his cheek and knelt to the grave. "Well, Lucy... you were a hell of a woman."

"I guess she was," Alexis said quietly.

"She was, yeah," Shaun confirmed. "Although I only met her a few weeks ago, when she brought Desmond from Abstergo. Before then, she was living as a civilian."

"Weren't you a civilian too?" The use of this term felt a bit off, but really, Alexis couldn't think of a better word to describe people unaffiliated with the secret societies. And it was a war of sorts, wasn't it? Just not one fought with conventional armies.

"I was, back in England," Shaun reminded her. "Lucy, I don't know where she lived, but..." He trailed off. "Rebecca told me about her. How she was born into the Brotherhood, trained by Bill... sent off on a multi-year mission to act as a civilian and infiltrate Abstergo... And now this." He gestured at her grave. "Thanks to your fucking boyfriend."

"I'll break up with him if that makes you feel better?" she offered. "But still, maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions about what happened."

Shaun's jaw tightened. "It's sort of my job to jump to conclusions. That's my specialty: reading into what little data we have and connecting the dots." He turned to face her, his eyes sharp. "And what happened under the church is not terribly difficult to interpret. He killed her."

Alexis didn't want to anger him further, so she didn't push the issue. Perhaps there would come a better time and place to discuss it.