The Vault

Desmond Miles

I feel heavy lifting my head from the Animus. Something about this time around has made me weak. I swing my legs around the chair and look up at Lucy. She gives me a pressed sideways smile, unsure what to do after viewing a memory like that. We have been watching several light-hearted scenes with Ezio over the past few days and have been focusing on him more. We rarely get to go back to memories of Altair, so it is intense to view a scene like this. I never expected him to lose his temper like that.

Rebecca sits up in her chair, her shifting dismisses the silence, "Well," she sighs, "Altair is a huge dick."

We all shift around and give out half assed chuckles at Rebecca's comment. The truth of it though, was that we were uncomfortable with everything we just witnessed. So much was just shown to us in a peculiar way that we do not know how to react. The first and most obvious reason for our discomfort is Altair's actions against Azalea. He was brutal and harsh, and I never thought he would react in such a way, being as stoic as he always came off. The next is the fact that not only does Azalea, Willow, and Deeliah have the exact same features, now they have the exact same scar, stemming from Altair. I am not sure what to think of this. There are clear differences from my father, Ezio, and Altair and myself, but there are now no differences between the three of them. Now, we know that Azalea is Hasan's daughter, but I am not sure what that could mean. Judging by the way Shaun scrambles at his desk at this moment, I can assume he will tell us all about it. Lastly, there is the most confusing of everything we just witnessed: Subject 16's involvement in this memory. I am not sure how whoever tampered with the memory did it, but it's clear that whoever did it wanted it to never be seen. I can understand that, but what I do not understand is how and why Subject 16 is involved. Why would he choose this scene if he does have a past with Willow or Deeliah and wants to expose her ancestry to Azalea. I also cannot understand how a dead man could have tampered with this memory in the first place. It was almost as if he was right there with us, fighting the memory. I get chills thinking about Subject 16 and decide to understand what the others are thinking of this whole mess.

"So…" I say breaking the silence again, "anyone got any ideas on what the fuck that all was?"

Lucy sighs and runs her hands through her hair, "well, the obvious is that we were all able to see this memory because Desmond was here." I give her a confused look and she explains, "When I was viewing Altair's memories at Abstergo without the direct use of Desmond, I never saw Azalea in any other memories, as if the memories had been doctored to keep her out. It was not until I saw a glimpse of her during his Assassination of Talal that I realized something was going on. I used Desmond while he was sleeping to open up the memory that I hid in my email and—"

"Wait," I interrupt, "you came into my room while I was sleeping and extracted memories from me?" I say feeling violated in some way.

Lucy sighs, "Desmond, something extremely strange was going on here. Never in my entire career at Abstergo had I seen someone completely erase his or her existence from another's memories. I realized that she erased them from you, if we were looking into memories of Altair that were specific to Altair and the Creed, however, if we focused on his memories of Azalea, then we were able to access them."

"But how did she remove the memories of herself from Desmond?" Rebecca asks as she rests her elbows on her knees. "It would have been coded in his DNA, there is no way she could remove memories from an organic source like she could from a computer."

Lucy looks over at me with an uncomfortable look, "I think she did it when she met up with you in New York."

I think of that night and how I thought she actually wanted to see me, and how I thought that night actually meant something to her. I always tried to forget that she bugged my house, that she didn't contact me for that. Now I almost wish that were the only reason. Thinking that she fucked me for the soul purpose of removing memories from my DNA makes it so much worse.

"Let's say that she did meet up with Desmond that night and removed his memories," Rebecca says, "how then did she get the memories out of him? Hypnotherapy?" she says moving her hands in the air mockingly.

"Azalea had access to four Pieces of Eden." Shaun finally chimes in. "There are hundreds of artifacts throughout history that have been said to possess power of removing memory." He hands me several candid photos of Deeliah. "I'm more concerned about the fact that Azalea, is immortal."

"Immortal?" Lucy scoffs, "That's—"

"Completely possible," Shaun interrupts, "1190 we have Azalea" I flip to the picture of her that they extracted and printed out from the Animus. "1789, Emilia Dupon," I flip to the Animus extracted photo of her, "the ancestor of Lyla Rockwell during the French Revolution." I look at the two and there are no differences besides their clothing. "Lyla Rockwell, 1972 while working at Abstergo," He shows us an employee badge photo, "Willow in Black Hills South Dakota in 1987, Deeliah in 2012 in Desmond's apartment!" Shaun begins to sound frantic, "Need I show you the differences between Rebecca and her Nana? It's painfully clear that this woman is the same woman coasting through history without anyone's notice. She practically threw herself at Abstergo and no one realized. It may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but she had in her possession 4 Pieces of Eden; powerful objects that give the user unfathomable power. To say that one of them didn't give her immortality would just be naïve."

I begin to feel nauseous as I look at multiple photos of the same person throughout history. Shaun is right, there is no way these photos are of a line of ancestors, and with all that I have seen and experienced in my lifetime, saying that Azalea is immortal isn't too far off.

"So, what does this mean?" Lucy finally says, "If Azalea is immortal, we have to find her and tell her that we know who she is. She is working for the Assassins, or at least she was as Azalea and Emilia, and though that was over 400 years ago, I'm sure she'd be willing to help the ancestor of Altair, don't you think?"

"You can't find her." I say. "I searched for Deeliah for years wondering if she ever escaped the Farm. I used all the knowledge I had of her to try to track her down, and I didn't get one hit on her. Then one day she just shows up at my bar. If Deeliah does not want to be found then she will not be found. If Dee and Azalea are the same, then she has been alive for over 800 years. I'm sure she's mastered the art of no one finding her."

"I understand where you're coming from, Desmond," Lucy says, "But we have an advantage over Azalea that she doesn't know we have. We know that Azalea, Emilia, Deeliah, Willow, and Lyla are all the same person. I have files on Lyla, I knew where she lived, I'm sure she has surveillance—"

"You don't think she didn't fake all of that?" I interrupt, "You really think that Abstergo had the upper hand on Azalea? If Abstergo caught Azalea, it would have been on her terms, if they extracted memories from her, it would have been memory she was fine with showing. Just look at what happened when her ancestry was exposed in my own memory! She has so much power, she erased her entire existence from my DNA. It's obvious that she is more powerful than you're giving her credit for."

Lucy presses her palm to her forehead, "Desmond, I'm trying here, I don't know what else we can do. I'm trying to figure this all out, but there is only so much I can do and explain."

We all sit there silently trying to understand what is going on with everything that we experienced. I am at a loss for words and feel as though I am most frustrated in not knowing what is going on, and what Azalea wants.

Lucy sighs and says, "I think we need to focus on Ezio. We are so close to finding out where he left the Apple. There is obviously nothing that Azalea can give us so we need to focus on finding this Apple, before Abstergo gets to it first."

Rebecca agrees with Lucy; however, Shaun and I oppose. Both of us are trying desperately to figure out Azalea's role in all of this, Shaun agrees that Azalea is more important to focus on because she is in possession of 4 Pieces of Eden, whereas Ezio has access to only the Apple. Lucy argues that though Azalea has knowledge of the various Pieces of Eden, it is not certain that she will actually lead us to them, but Ezio's memory will. I understand where Lucy is coming from, though I am more invested in Azalea. Something about her intrigues me, and if she is in fact Deeliah, I want to know what her motives are with my family and myself.

Eventually the arguing leads to Lucy winning over us and we decide to go into Ezio's memories, where he shows us the location where he stored the Apple. "We've got it," I say coming out of the Animus "the Coliseum."

"Let's go," Lucy says as she starts to pack up. "We can get there before dawn."

"Wait," Rebecca says, "what about that door? I didn't think I saw a handle, let me run analysis." She says hunching over her computer.

"Great, so we need some kind of futuristic key?" Shaun says.

"It seems to open with a verbally triggered mechanism; I've never seen anything like it." Rebecca adds.

"You mean it needs a password?" Lucy asks.

"Try Beethoven's 5th." Shaun jokes.

The lights flicker out and Rebecca shouts, "Damn European power grid! Now we can't scan Ezio's memories to find the password."

I get up and walk around trying to find something to fix the lights when I see something in the corner of my eyes. "Hey," I call out to everyone, "Maybe it has something to do with this." I point to the drawing on the wall.

"The symbol matches the one on the vault." Rebecca notes.

"1419, 1420, 1421." I remember, "What if they aren't dates?"

"1419… 1420… oh my God!" Shaun exclaims.

"What?" I ask.

"God!" he shouts.

"Tell us already!" Rebecca says impatiently.

"I am," he explains, "the Tetragrammaton, the 72 names of God. You see? They are all contained within three verses. Exodus 19-21! And get this, you'll like this, if you rearrange the four Hebrew letters in God's name within an equilateral triangle their numerical values adds up to the same number: 72."

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Rebecca asks

"That's kind of why I am saying it out loud, Rebecca. I haven't gotten to the kicker yet." He says and we all give him a look to go on. "Construction on the Coliseum began in the year 72."

"I think we have our password." Rebecca says with a side smile.

"Shaun, go get the van." Lucy says.

We all set up the van quietly, not talking about what Shaun just revealed. I am anxious to go down into the vault. I am not sure what I will find down there and what will happen when I finally hold the Apple. My heart races at the thought of having such power in my grasp. I watch Lucy during the drive to the Coliseum. She looks worried as she fidgets with her fingers. I think about consoling her and telling her that everything is going to be okay and that there is nothing to be worried about, though, I am not sure what it will be like to have the Apple in my hands, I am sure I will be able to control it and there will be no reason to worry.

I lean back in my seat and decide to get some rest before we head to the Coliseum. I have not been getting much sleep with being in the Animus for so long. Both Ezio and Altair have been keeping my attention that I have been so fixated on their lives more than I have my own. I have been experiencing strange visions and headaches recently during my waking life. I can't shake visions of Altair or Ezio. I see eagles and horses charging at me, my vision blurs, and colors are changing and glowing. My head has been pounding recently, and I wonder if I should be concerned with what is happening to me. Rebecca assured me that her version of the Animus has the least amount of bugs than those at Abstergo. However, I cannot help but think that the Animus is still unsafe to be in.

I shut my eyes tightly and I can feel them burn slightly. I try to relax, but I am unable to calm myself down in the slightest. My hands are shaking and my legs are bouncing up and down. I open my eyes and look at everyone else. Shaun is driving with Rebecca in the passenger seat. I have muffled hearing because of how stressed I am, but I can see that the nature of their conversation is light hearted with some laughs. I envy their ability to stay calm in the situation. The idea of having the Apple in my hands just makes me lose all control. I glance over at Lucy who has leaned her head up against the wall of the van. Her eyes are closed but she is still fidgeting with her fingers. The skin around her nails has peeled and red dots of blood surface as she nervously picks at them. I glance to her lips as she bites the lower one. It's obvious that she is just as nervous about the situation as I am.

I decide that it is not helping my nerves seeing how anxious Lucy is, so I close my eyes and try to get some rest. I drain out the sound of Rebecca and Shaun talking, as well as the humming of the van driving on the pavement, and once all is silent, I feel myself slip into a dreamless sleep.

"Desmond…" I jump at the sound of my name. "Desmond, it's time." Lucy says looking down at me as she squeezes my shoulder.

I shake my head, trying to wake myself up. I stand up, "Okay, let's do this." I say hoarsely.

We walk out of the van and into the threshold of the Coliseum. An eerie feeling comes over me. "Déjà vu," I say as I look down the steps of the Coliseum. I can feel Ezio walking through its walls.

"I bet!" Rebecca lets out.

"Let's go." Lucy says, pushing us to get to our destination.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what about us, eh? You might actually need a historian down there!" Shaun says as Lucy tries to make her way down.

"Shaun's right," she sighs, "The tunnel leads under Capital Line Hill. I will help them find another entrance." She looks at me with heavy eyes, "Be careful, Desmond."

"I'll drive." Rebeca says.

"Nice try," Shaun holds his hand out, "I've seen your car." Rebecca rolls her eyes and hands him the keys.

I shake my head and smile. Their ability to make light of any situation has always turned a smile to my face. I watch as they walk away towards the van. I sigh going into the Coliseum. The catacombs of the Coliseum are weathered and smell of rust. I jump over pillars and through crevices, trying to find a way to my final destination. These catacombs are so old, and the stone is fragile, breaking under my every step. My heart beats rapidly trying to move quickly and not linger too long on one of these posts.

I finally make it down a long corridor where I see a flash of light. I rub my eyes thinking that they are shortly strained, though when I open my eyes back up, I see the light turn to a glowing figure. I hesitate on whether I should run towards the figure. I assume that the glowing light person cannot harm me because they are not a physical being, so I chase after it.

I hear a humming coming from the creature and then, she speaks, "We commit to this place, the epilogue. Let it be found by he who is deemed worthy. Let it guide him. Let it shape his path forward. Let it save the world we leave behind."

There is a low humming noise as the holographic woman speaks. "Who are you?" I ask the hologram, but she disappears before I can even think. I get a chill down my spine. I wonder what she was talking about. Everything feels more unnerving down in the catacombs. I decide that standing here confused by what I just saw will get nowhere, so I move towards letting in the gang and finding the Apple.

I jump through another set of pillars rising from an endless pit, then over beams suspended from the walls. Finally, I am on flat ground where I see a long hallway to a door. I walk in a slow pace, trying to catch my breath, when at the end of the hall, appears the holographic woman again. I approach her and she begins to speak again. "In the beginning we set our truths departure to stone to the memory of man. These proved impermanent things. Cleansed by fire, cleansed by famine, cleansed by flood. All the world is innocent. Once more innocent and ignorant." She disappears and I am now more confused than ever. This being speaks in maddening riddles, thinking that I am going to magically understand what she wants.

I walk past the passage that leads into a massive church. I look around in awe at the architecture and history of this building. In the distance, I hear a loud banging noise. I run towards the banging and let everyone in through the passage they were waiting at. "I'm coming!" I yell as I run towards the door.

Shaun is the first to walk through, "Took you long enough."

I roll my eyes and ignore his comment, "What is this place?" I ask.

"Santa Maria La Antigua," Shaun says in awe. "See these columns along the isles? They're lifted from Roman ruins. Now supposedly, this church was built on top of the ancient temple of Juno.

"I like the ceiling." Rebecca says not responding to Shaun's revelations.

"Oh, hey you like the ceiling?" Shaun says in an annoyed tone. "Wow, you are a fascinating travel companion!" He shouts and his voice echoes through the halls. We walk to the end of the church where nothing but a simple stone platform greets us. "It's a dead end." Shaun says with a hint of disappointment.

I examine the platform and lose all senses around me. I can feel it pulsating, as if it were alive. My hearing becomes muffled by the sound of a humming noise coming from the pedestal, as if it were calling to me. "I'm not so sure…" I say as I reach out my hand and touch the platform.

As my skin grazes the edge of the stone, a low grumbling noise emerges from below us and the floor lights up and separates to lower us down like an elevator.

"What is going on?" Lucy shouts over the grumbling.

"Yeah, if… if… you want to kill us mate, you're going to have to try a little harder than that!" Shaun yells at me. I try to balance myself as we are lowered to the ground, and just as I maintain my balance, we are dropped to the ground, and my knees buckle.

"We're here." Lucy says with a relieved tone, almost as if she did not expect us to make it out alive.

I look up to see an underground room with moving lit up columns. "Now for that password," I say with excitement in my tone. I am actually enthusiastic now that we are this much closer to the Apple. I don't know what to expect, but I am eager to hold it and possess its power. I believe that it will bring me closer to understanding my ancestors "If Shaun's right that is." I say with a wry smile.

"I'm always right." Shaun exclaims with offense.

"About that dead end…" I joke reminding him that my actions were the ones that got us down here and not his historical knowledge.

"That never happened, I was misquoted." Shaun says sticking his nose in the air.

I laugh and we move towards the moving pillars. They have now formed a perfect stairwell and now everyone can come with me, instead of me jumping through pillars to try to find them another way around. The stairs lead us to a large wall with lines engraved all over it. I think about my next move and the password, wondering if this will even work, or if we are just in over our heads. I turn away from the wall and everyone looks at me with confused glares. "Do you think it speaks English?" I almost joke, but I am actually serious.

"Just say it!" Rebecca urges me.

I turn back towards the wall with shaking hands. This is it. This is what we have been working towards, the Assassins and Templars. All the fighting and killing we have been a part of, all for this one device behind this wall. I hesitate to say the words, but I know what I must before Warren finds us and takes it for himself. "Okay," I sigh as I look up towards the massive barricade. "72," The wall begins to rumble and glow. The pattern of the triangles that we first saw at the Auditore Villa appear. The wall opens up and reveals a stone pillar at the end of a bridge, and atop that stone pillar sits the glowing Apple of Eden.

"We did it." I say in complete shock that it all actually worked.

"I can't believe it!" Lucy exclaims. We move past the bridge, that much closer to this great power.

"So where are the temples?" Shaun asks.

"You want me to ask it that?" I say with a skeptical tone, staring down at the glowing orb.

"Or think it or something." Lucy says

I look at the Apple as it captivates me with its glowing lights and light humming. I think about the holographic woman and everything she was saying to me. I think about my father and the people at the Farm and everything they told me about the Templars. I think about Warren and Abstergo and ponder what they want to do with the Apple. I think about Azalea, or Willow, or Deeliah, or whoever she is and wonder what her motives are with my ancestry line and me. I become frustrated with all the questions I have and I finally know what I want to know. I want to know the truth. I don't want to see the lies. As soon as the thought comes to my mind, the Apple begins to glow and vibrate. A loud rumbling comes from the Apple and begins to shine. The Apple projects strange symbols and numbers around the room. I recognize some of the symbols as the ones that were on the walls of Abstergo.

"You sure you asked it the right thing?" Lucy asks with an overly concerned tone. I look at her with confusion. Why is she so concerned? This is what we have been working towards since Abstergo.

"I know this! I know this symbol!" Shaun exclaims with glee as he examines all the ancient symbols. "That's… that's the Phrygian cap. It stands for freedom." He points wildly at more symbols, mesmerized by what the Apple is emitting. I focus on the apple itself and the captivating humming that calls me to it. "And that, that's a masonic eye!" he turns towards us, but I no longer listen to what he says. The apple is calling to me and I can't help but to approach it. "Now those two only come together in one place—"

I hear a voice inside my head, a low deep voice that tells me to embrace it. Over and over the voice tells me to embrace it and when I take the Apple in my hands, Shaun no longer speaks, and everyone has frozen in their position. I begin to move against my will and I snap out of the Apple's enchantment and realize what is going on. "Hey, what's happening? I can't move!" I begin to panic inside, trying to move but my body is completely stiff.

"Your DNA communes with the Apple. You have activated it." I hear the voice of the holographic woman.

I grunt trying to move my body but there is no movement in my body. "Let me go!"

She doesn't respond to my cries and continues speaking in riddles, "On the seventy second day—before the moment of awakening—you birthed from our loins and the loins of our enemies. The end and the beginning who we abhor and honor. The final journey commences. There is one who will accompany you through the gate. She lies not within our sight, but the cross darkens the horizon."

She begins to move my body and I am completely out of control of my body. "What am I doing?" I try to struggle but it is a lost cause. Whoever is controlling my body forces me to unsheathe my hidden blade.

"The path must be opened!" the voice commands and a pulse of energy escapes the Apple. "You cannot escape. You are part of this. The scales shall be balanced."

I step forward towards Lucy frozen before me. "Stop… please…" I struggle to say.

"You know very little. We must guide you." The apple releases another burst of energy and I find myself becoming weaker. "Face your struggle!"

The Apple shines a vision of Lucy? I try to understand what the Apple is trying to show me. "Desmond will lead you to the Apple." I hear Warren Vidic's voice say. "Then you bring him right to us."

"No!" I yell not wanting to see this. This can't be true, this must be a constructed vision. Someone is using the Apple to trick me into mistrusting Lucy to tear us apart and jeopardize all the progress we have made.

"We are counting on you, Lucy," Warren continues, "You have served the Templar order well. We never forget loyalty."

I close my eyes as tears fall down my face. This can't be happening. THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! The Apple releases another burst of energy and I can feel it pulse through my body. My arm thrusts forward against anything my body tells it, and I feel her warm blood touch my skin. "It is done." The voice calls out, "The way lies all before you. Only she remains to be found. Awaken the 6th! GO! Alone!"

I regain the ability to move and Lucy and I fall to the ground. I feel myself fading, and my chest burns. As my vision blurs the last thing I can manage to do is look over to Lucy on the ground. Her eyes are fluttering and I can see the unmistakable look of death claiming her face. I want to tell her that I'm sorry and that I had no control of what I have just done. However, I cannot move my body or bring myself to speak. Instead, I examine every last detail of her face before my vision has blurred too much for me to see. Everything begins to blacken, and I let the abyss consume me. I feel my body go limp and I allow myself to fall.