The Lost Memory

by The-Storm-Unleashed

This story is in the process of following the story of all major video games and some comics: After seeing the strange writings on the walls and floors of Abstergo, Desmond returns to the memories of Altair to see they have been tampered with to hide the existence of another Piece of Eden. Desmond returns to these memories to find the lost artifact and the person who wields it.

12. Subject 16

Hello Everyone, This chapter is in the perspective of Clay (Subject 16). I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I hope you all enjoy reading it. As always, Desmond will chime in during the playing of the memory. His thoughts will be in bold. Clay's thoughts will be in this memory and his thoughts will be in bold, italic, underline. I hope you all enjoy the story and please read and review once you've read the chapter.

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Subject 16

Clay Kaczmarek

I lean back in my chair and pinch the skin between my eyes on the bridge of my nose. I let out a heavy sigh and compress my back in, trying to straighten out and relieve my body from the long work I've been doing on the computer. I look around in the small office for something to take up my time and avoid the draining glare of the computer screen.

I look over at my office mate, Julia. After glaring at her intently, she finally feels my gaze and looks over at me. "Can I help you, Clay?" she says in a bored and pressed tone.

"I can't look at that damned screen any longer." I let out with a pressed chuckle. "Want to go grab a coffee?"

"I have a lot of paperwork, Clay. Clara has me on a heavy workload, maybe another time."

I frown at her and decide that I will go myself. I can't handle staring at each individual eye-splitting pixel on the computer any longer. I need to escape the office to see what the outdoors looks like. I walk through the endless cubes of offices, until I finally make it out to the main lobby. I walk by the training arena and look inside to see all the Assassins that talk amongst themselves. A lot of them are in bad shape. We have been ambushed at every mission the Assassins have taken on; in return, we have been losing many recruits.

The recruits form a circle around the arena where two of our best fighters begin sparring. I walk inside and watch in awe as Daniel and Clara show the recruits how to compete in closed quarters combat. I take a step inside and watch as the two spar. Something about the way they move has always been so mesmerizing to me.

Clara wears a black sports bra and black leggings, with her long raven hair tied back in a high ponytail. Daniel wears a black tank top and black military pants; his blonde hair falls in front of his face as he fights her. She grabs him by the wrist, turns around, and falls into a crouching position. She hits him in the groin and I wince in pain for him, but he only lets out a small huff. She then whips her body around, facing him again. She charges at him, grabs his thighs as she crouches down, she then digs her head into his stomach with force and he crouches in pain. She forces her head and body deeper into his stomach and pushes herself into a standing position, knocking him into a summersault as he tumbles over her back. He falls with a loud thud that makes him groan. While down he swings his legs and trips her. He crawls towards her while she is down, grabbing her ankle and dragging her towards him. She is so small compared to him, and probably weighs nothing to him. He pins her down and climbs on top of her, pressing his knee to her chest. She lets out a yelp and he laughs triumphantly. He addresses the crowd while her fragile small frame is buried underneath his massive build.

Clara somehow manages to wiggle her way from under him, and she lifts her legs up to his face, grabbing his head with her calves and forcing him to lay back down. As he falls, she pushes him off her, grabs a wooden sparring sword, and places it to his neck. She flashes a wide smile, thinking she has won, but while lying on his back, Daniel grabs his real gun and points it up at her.

He lets out a wry laugh and says, "And that class, is why you bring a gun to a sword fight."

Clara frowns and throws the sword at him. He covers his face with his arm and the sword misses his face. Clara walks away from the arena and unsportsmanlike, she does not help her opponent up. Daniel rises on his own and places the gun back into the waistband of his jeans.

I watch as Clara walks away from Daniel and the arena. She must feel my eyes on her because she shoots a glance my way.

You have to be fucking kidding me!

Look familiar, Desmond? Yeah, you guessed it. That little bitch ruined my life just as much as she did yours.

There she is. I can't fucking believe it.

The little cunt is everywhere, Desmond. You can't escape the manipulative bitch.

I smile at her and she looks away from me. I decide to try to speak with her today, I know that she has more important things to do, but I figure I would strike up some conversation with her.

"Clara!" I yell out to her. I run over towards her as she wipes her face of sweat. I look unto her face and see the deep X scarred into her cheek. The scar has always made me wonder who would do such a thing to such a beautiful face. She looks at me and waits for me to say something. I stutter on my words, practically incapable of speaking with her. "How've you been?"

She seems confused by the question, and rather than answering it for me, she says, "Any word on the Assassins in Serbia?"

"No," I say shaking my head. "They haven't responded to any of my attempts to track them, and I've tapped into as many street surveillance cameras as I can find, and none of them have sparked a sighting. They have failed to enter the hideout, or make contact with us since their plane landed in Beograd."

"Keep an eye out for them." She says throwing the towel in the basket. "I want a report of them daily; regardless if you find them or not."

"Of course," I say and she begins to walk away from me. I try to think of something else to say to her, not wanting our time to end, when Daniel Cross interrupts me.

"Oh, why the long face, Beautiful." He says flashing a smile.

His massive build towers over Clara and myself, and I suddenly feel less confident. Clara glares at him. "Guns do not belong in a CQC session." She says angrily.

"Not my fault you were clearly born in the dark ages." He says with a laugh as he takes her away and I am left by myself.

I think about how stupid I am for wanting the affection of Clara, knowing that she will never go for a man like myself, she is a fighter and a Field Assassin, who will never fall for a man who works behind the safe space of a computer screen. She is also the Master of this branch, and does not have time for petty feelings.

Oh, how cute, you had a little crush.

Desmond, you can't pretend you didn't get poisoned by the snake's venom.

I decide that the best way for me to earn her attention is to figure out where the group of Assassins are that she has been asking me about. Over a month ago, Clara sent three separate groups, four Assassins each to Serbia with the knowledge that a new sect of Templars was forming in Beograd. The first two groups were killed within a week, and the final group failed to check in after their initial arrival, and I have been unable to trace their whereabouts through local surveillance. I go back to my desk and try to find any idea of where I might find the Assassins.

I search all night through local cameras, ATMs, and news outlets to find anything that would lead to the missing Assassins. I work on the project all night and find no leads. I lean back in my chair and exhale, grabbing my face, and pulling at it as my fingers trail down my face.

"Wow, you look like shit." Julia says as she walks in with her briefcase.

"Clara's getting on my ass about the Serbia case." I say with a grunt. "How am I supposed to find 4 assassins that haven't been seen since they left for their mission? Their plane landed, but they were never seen leaving the plane or the airport. Let alone enter any safe houses throughout the country.

"There is no footage of them leaving the plane?" she asks, placing her stuff down at the cubicle next to mine.

"I have watched the surveillance tape hundreds of times. They entered the plane in London, and they did not get off in Beograd. There is record of their passes being scanned signifying they boarded the plane, and there is no suggestion of plane hijacking or anyone leaving the plane midflight. However, there is no evidence they got off that plane. I have nothing." I sigh and place my head down on the table. "I have been searching all week, and I have to come to her daily with updates. I can tell that she does not think I am up to this task. I can't tell her that I still haven't found anything."

Julia thinks for a second, biting down on her lips, and scratching her left cheek, something I have noticed she does when she is in deep thought. "Maybe I can help you." She says and I ask her how. "The project that Clara has me on is to build a database of assassin information. She is making me gather every Assassin's personal information as well as anyone they would contact, that way Clara can keep track of who we are contacting and what business we are sharing with them."

"That sounds very big brother." I say with a hesitant tone.

She shrugs, "I guess, but with all the back stabbing and information leaks we have been experiencing within the Creed, it's become a necessity."

"Well how does it work?" she motions me over to her desk and I walk over. She opens up the program that she has named Oracle. I look over her shoulder and take note of her username and password. I know that I shouldn't invade her privacy, though I believe there will come a time where I will need to use Oracle and I would like to do so without her presence.

She looks up at me from her chair and asks me for the names of the Assassins involved in the Serbia mission. I give her two names of the most recent group that I am looking for and she types them into the database. The results come back negative and she explains that she hasn't imputed all the Assassins into the system. I give her the remaining names and 2 of the recent group. She clicks on one of the Assassins and he has had no contact with anyone since Clara assigned his mission. She clicks on the other Assassin and something pops up. My heart drops and she hovers over the time stamp of an audio recording. The recording was taken the day they landed in Beograd. I ask her where the recording is from. "It looks like he called one of his contacts from a local payphone," she pulls up a screen that shows an address and a woman's name. "The contact is his wife."

"Play the tape." I tell her and she does so. We hear the man telling his wife that they just landed and they are going to take a Taxi to their hotel, but what we know as the Bureau. The woman wishes him luck and after a few miscellaneous conversations, he tells her that the cab just arrived, and after telling her that he loved her, the call ends and the recording stops.

"Well," Julia says, "they landed and got into a cab."

I go to my desk and type in the timestamp into surveillance cameras facing the taxi pickup. I examine the feed and am baffled when I don't see the assassins. I double-check the timestamp as well as the camera angle and they are nowhere to be found. I wonder if he lied to his wife, or if the timestamp was off in the recording, but nothing seems to make sense. I slam my fist into my desk and curse. Julia looks up at me and I apologize.

I lift myself from the computer and leave the office as other Assassins make their way in. I take a break and walk around the compound. The sun on my face feels amazing, and I take in a deep breath of the fresh air. I feel my phone vibrate in my pants and I take it out. I look at the contact to see that it is my father. I dismiss the call and place the phone back in my pocket. I will call him back when I get the chance, but now my mind is on other things. I try to think of how I can move forward in this project and how I can find these Assassins. Nothing comes to mind and once I have circled the compound three times and wasted enough time, I realize that I should go back to work.

As I walk back to my desk, I hear the voices of two people that walk down the halls. My ears naturally perk up at the conversation. It is a man and a woman, and it sounds as though they are arguing over something.

"There's no way you're going to send Sheppard into the slaughter house." The man says in a stern tone.

The woman sighs, "Daniel, I need to know what happened to the Serbian division, it is of the upmost importance." She says and I recognize her voice as Clara's. She must be talking to Daniel Cross. I assume she is talking about the group of Assassins that I am trying to find. "I have sent three different assassin groups to Beograd, and all of them have failed to contact me. Sheppard is your second in command, and someone you would personally recommend for a mission such as this—"

"The groups were to go and survey a gathering of Templars forming in Beograd." Daniel interrupts her. "Templar groups form daily everywhere, why is this particular group so important?"

When he asks the question, I think the same thing. Daniel has a point, Templars are everywhere and they are forming small satellite groups all over the world, it makes sense that we would send a retaliation their way, however, no one would risk more lives if every attempt was being ambushed. I'm not sure why Clara cares so much about a small group of Templars, over the wellbeing of multiple Assassins. There has to be more to this than she is giving off.

I leave Clara and Daniel to argue amongst themselves as I go back to my desk and try to figure out what to do about the issue. Clara is now getting on Daniel's ass about the group, so if I manage to figure out what is going on before him, then maybe she will promote me within the Creed. The idea puts a smile on my face. I think about what I can do to learn more about the Serbian group. I go back to my office and Julia and the other Assassins are hard at work and don't notice my entrance.

I sign back onto my computer and look over the footage of the taxi pick up during the time one of the Assassins allegedly was waiting for a taxi. I play the tape over and over and can't find them. The timestamp atop the picture does not jump in time, suggesting that the video was not cut. Hours go by and I begin to feel myself go cross-eyed. I decide to check the tape one last time before calling it a night. I watch the same taxi pull up, the same couple get in, and drive off. Seconds later another taxi comes by, the driver steps out, opens the trunk of the car takes out a woman's luggage and after a moment of waiting, possibly waiting for someone to come, he gets in his car with no one and leaves. I shake my head and watch it again. I've seen the same image hundreds of times and nothing stands out. I get to the part where the man closes his door to leave and that's when I notice something strange. I look at the driver's side door, and when he shuts it, a reflection appears in it. I squint and lean in as close to my screen as I can get. When the door slams shut a reflection in his window shows other people in his car, and the reflection disappears when he drives off. I shake my head and rub my eyes. I have to make sure I am seeing this right. I replay the tape and now I can see everything. The taxi driver drops off the woman's stuff, looks over at what seems like nothing, and moves his lips as if he is speaking. At first, I believed it to be him saying goodbye to the woman, or even him speaking to himself, but it is as clear now that he is speaking to someone, and then waits, smiles, and closes the trunk, as if he is interacting with someone, but there is no one there. Then he gets in his car, and as he swings his door shut, the window catches a glimpse of multiple heads inside the car, when there is no one in the car.

My heart races and I can't believe what I am seeing. All this time I was looking for jumps in the tape of someone cutting footage, and I looked for the possibility of someone changing the image and removing figures, but there was no clear concise proof like there is in that reflection. Whoever tampered with the video forgot to look at any possible reflections.

My heart begins to race and I can finally feel excitement overcome my body. I want to be sure that what I am seeing is real and not the images my desperate mind has fashioned. I get up and run over towards Julia's cubicle and when I call out her name in excitement, I realize that she is not at her desk. I look around and see that no one is at his or her desks. I look down at my watch and see that it is nine at night. I rub my eyes and look at my watch again. Shit, I have been working on this all night that I didn't even notice everyone leave for the day.

I consider going to my studio and sleeping for the night, and getting Julia's opinion in the morning when I am fresh and well rested, but I am not tired, and with this new turn of events, I am desperate to find out the truth. I look down at Julia's desk and her computer screen saver drawing me in. I sit down at her desk and do this as quickly as I possibly can before my conscience overthinks what I am doing. My hands shake as I log onto the computer. I put in her code to her computer that I attained from looking over her shoulder. The code goes through and I sign into her Oracle account. After a loading screen that seems like forever, I am inside Oracle. I search the Assassins involved in the Serbia mission and find the one that Julia and I listened to. I take out a pen and paper and write down his address.

I quickly sign off the computer and spring out of her seat. I take the paper with me and leave the compound. I get a taxi and give him the directions to the home. He advises me that the fee will be a large one, seeing as how the house is 3 hours away from here. I accept the fee and the cab driver looks at me skeptically. I flash him 500 dollars and he groans as he puts the car in drive.

I can't stop shaking, thinking about what I will say when I get to this man's home, or even if anyone will answer the door. I'm not sure what to expect, but I have become desperate to understand what happened in Serbia. I finally am able to calm my nerves enough to fall asleep and before I know it, the cab driver comes to a stop and tells me that we have arrived. The fee is as large as I expected and give him the cash. He asks if I need him to wait, and I tell him no.

I step out and he drives away. I look at the typical house that stands before me. The white picket fence, the light blue house with the white trim, the red door, everything about the home screams average American home. It is dark outside and the porch light shines on the home. My hands begin to shake and I wonder what I will say once I knock on that door. I look down at the piece of paper and verify the address 100 times before making my way to the porch. I walk over to the door and my eyes begin to blur. I shakenly knock on the door and wait for an answer. I don't expect someone to answer, seeing as how it is past midnight, but almost a second later the door opens a bit and eyes peak behind the safety of the chain lock.

"Can I help you?" A woman asks from the other side in a shaking voice.

"Uh yeah…" I say, stumbling on my words. I am not sure what to say to her. All that time to think in the car ride and I didn't think of anything to say to her. I honestly didn't know what to expect from coming here. "Is… is um…" I look down and the piece of paper that has the address written on it. "Is Roy here?" I say in an equally shaking voice.

Her eyes widen and I can see that she is scared. "Um, no he doesn't live here."

I can tell that she is lying and trying to evade me. "I, uh… I work with Roy; he told me that he lived here once."

Her brows come together in confusion and she looks me up and down. "What do you want?" she says.

"I need to know where Roy is. He's not in any trouble." I say trying to reassure her. "I just need to know where he is." I say in a stern voice, and she grows angry.

"Roy is dead!" She says, trying to slam the door, but I catch it.

"Please, ma'am, I need to know what happened to Roy, I know he landed in Serbia, I need to know what happened to him after that."

Her eyes widen in a wild fear and I can tell that she is now horrified. "How…" she says in a shaking tone, "Roy never…" she swallows the lump in her throat.

She looks back behind her in the darkness of her home. Then the door slams shut, the chain moves over and the door flings open. Peering from the darkness is the barrel of a gun. My hands instinctively raise and I begin to stutter. A deep and commanding male voice says, "Step inside, slowly!"

I do so and the door closes behind me. I feel a set of hands take me, grabbing my arms behind my back, making me unable to fight back. The man forces me down a set of stairs into a basement. The man and woman tie me to a chair and I think it best not to struggle against them, especially with a gun pointed to my face.

They handcuff me to a chair and the man turns to me and shoves the barrel of the gun on my cheek. "Who the fuck are you and what do you want?" he says in a deep and steady voice. He isn't as visibly scared as his wife was.

"My name is Clay." I say in as steady of a tone as I can muster. "And I want to know what happened in Serbia."

"How do you know about Serbia?"

"I was asked by my superior to find out what happened to the Assassin division that was sent to Serbia."

"Who do you work for?"

"The Assassins… I am an Assassin like you."

"Who sent you?" he says pushing the barrel of his gun to my face.

"I work for Clara, the Assassin Master who sent you on the Serbia mission!" I yell as tears run down my face.

"She sent you here, how does she know I'm here? Explain yourself!" He presses the barrel of the gun deeper in my cheek.

"She doesn't know you're here! She asked me to figure out what happened to your group and why you did not check into the Bureau. I've been trying to find you guys for over 3 months now, I heard a call between you and your wife when you landed, when I watched the surveillance, I saw your reflection in the window of the cab driver's car and the video was obviously doctored. Nothing was adding up so I decided to come here and get some answers. I swear to you; she doesn't know where you are!" I say all this quickly and frantically, I'm not sure why I told him everything, had I not had a gun to my face fearing for my life, I would have kept some information to myself.

The husband and wife look at each other, and the wife shoots him a concerned look. "What has she told you about my group that went to Serbia?" he asks, relieving the pressure of the gun on my cheek.

I shake my head. "Practically nothing," I sigh. "She told me that she sent three separate groups of four Assassins. The first two groups arrived in the city, checked into the Bureau, and then were never heard from again. The third group, your group, boarded your plane, and then was never heard from again. After hearing the video recording, I determined that the video was tampered with and that's when I saw the reflection in the door."

"Where did you get this recording?"

"Clara is working on a database of Assassin information where she can keep tabs on all Assassins' and their contacts' information. She wants information of who we are making contact with, about what, and any other valuable information."

"Of course she does." He says in a pressed tone. "And what do you think about this database?"

"I understand the fears of a Templar breach, but I think it is a bit excessive. It's a violation of privacy."

The man laughs and takes the gun from my cheek, he turns on the lights to the basement, and I shut my eyes as they try to adjust. "What is your opinion of Clara?" the man asks as I begin to open my eyes.

"I think she is strong, and determined and—"

"Would you use 'deceptive cunt' to describe her?" he asks bitterly.

"What happened in Serbia?" I ask in complete astonishment that he would harbor such hatred towards her.

The man takes a seat across from me and places the gun on his lap, ready to shoot me if the occasion permits. He looks up at his wife and she advises him not to say anything with a subtle shake of the head, but after a sigh and a long pause, he says, "we landed in Beograd. I think you've gathered that." He thinks for a while, and then says, "Do you respect that woman?"

I think for a while, quite a while. I don't know what to think of Clara. I have been consumed by my infatuation by her, that when I take a step back from my affection for her, I begin to see that she is not as holy as I have made her out to be. She is mistrusting, and corrupt, and the fact that she does not allow us to have our secrets, yet she is filled with many, makes everything unfair. "I don't know." I finally tell Roy and he frowns.

"Are you ready for that to change then? To lose all respect for her? Because if you want to respect her, then I suggest you leave."

"I want to know the truth, whatever that entails."

Roy sighs and looks but at his wife. He smiles at her with an unhappy smile, and she nods her head and leaves the basement. He looks back at me, and deep in thought, he begins. "Clara came to me after the failure of the second group of Assassins sent to Serbia. She came to me, knowing that I had surpassed my peers in combat. She told me that she had the perfect mission for me. Knowing what I had known about the other Assassins that were sent to the previous Serbian missions, it was obvious that this mission was a suicide mission, but she played my ego, telling me that I was perfect for the mission, and that no one could complete it but myself." He scoffs at himself. "I should have realized what she was doing."

He shifts in his seat. I think about how I need to get out of here. I begin to fidget with my handcuffs. They are tight, and I am not sure if breaking my thumb will get me out of them. While Roy is engulfed in his story, I begin to work on getting out of these cuffs. "I told her that if I were to take this mission, then she should debrief me totally. I told her that I didn't want any surprises, I didn't want her keeping any vital information from me. I told her that if she wanted the mission done right, that I was to be debriefed completely. She was reluctant at first, and told me that my mission was to eliminate a growing sect of Templars at these coordinates. I told her that I was not stupid, that the mission was more than just Templars forming in Serbia, that if it was only that, then the first group of Assassins would have completed the mission within the week." He smiles a sideways smile, "I caught her in her lie, and she knew it. She had no other choice then to tell me the truth." He looks at me now, dead in the eyes. "We were not sent to Serbia to kill a group of Templars, we were sent to Serbia to obtain an artifact for her."

A Piece of Eden?

"An artifact?" I ask with confusion.

He nods his head and chuckles to himself. "I asked her what the artifact was, and why it was more important than the lives of eight Assassins, and though she refused to tell me its power, she ensured me that I would be heavily compensated for the mission. I told her that in order to agree to the mission, my safety would need to be ensured. All eight skilled warriors were killed over an artifact, there was something more to this device than she was letting off." He leans back in his seat, "It took her a while, I'll admit. She was unwilling to tell me everything, though she knew I was her best shot at getting this device for her. After over a month of this push and pull relationship we developed, she finally gave in and told me what I needed to know."

He pauses and I wait for him to begin again. He takes such a long break that I wonder if he will even continue the story, but after a long thought process, possibly trying to formulate what to tell me, he finally speaks up. "She asked me to come to her office, behind the large flag of our sigil, there is a door to a vault. Inside that vault was a simple golden shield. The shield shined like none I've seen before." Roy looks off in the distance, consumed by his memories of the device. "She spoke of great power that the shield held, and at first, I was skeptical of such power. However, she told me that in order to gather the device in Serbia for her I would have to sacrifice to the shield. She asked that I cut my hand and bleed onto the shield. I did so without question, mostly out of morbid curiosity. I did not feel any different, and I was honestly disappointed. However, she told me that I was now impervious to the effects of any of these devices, including the one that she wanted me to retrieve. Therefore, knowing what I was told, I took the mission and formed a group to go with me."

I grunt to myself as I snap my thumb. Roy has become so immersed in his story, that he hasn't noticed me moving in my cuffs. Breaking my thumb surprisingly has helped me, and I am close to slipping out of my cuffs. I watch as the deeper he goes into his story, the more unaware he has become of his gun. "We arrived in Beograd, and I contacted Amanda as you heard. I was eager to have the magical device that Clara spoke of so—against protocol—I led the team to the coordinates that Clara provided me, rather than check into the Bureau. There were no guards defending the temple Clara led us to, and I began to question just how the previous Assassins lost their lives. I directed my team deeper into the catacombs of the temple, and after hours of searching, feeling fruitless in our ventures, I began to hear a high-pitched ringing in my ears. It was a hypnotizing sound, beckoning me deeper into the Temple. My men advised me not to go deeper, as the catacombs were becoming narrow and unstable, but the piercing call was too overwhelming. After squeezing through a tight corridor, the halls opened to a display, and there before me was a golden chest atop a stone pedestal." He sighs and takes a moment before continuing the story. "My men followed me and before our very eyes was the Ark of the Covenant."

Holy shit, the Ark of the Covenant is a Piece of Eden?

"The Ark of the Covenant?" I say in a skeptical tone. "What are you going to say next? That God spoke to you through a bush on fire?" I say with a cocky attitude, now that his attention is off his gun, and I am so close to being free from my restraints.

He lets out a scoff mixed with a laugh. "I did not believe it at first, hell I wouldn't have believed it now, had I not seen its power with my very eyes. The humming was deafening, and all I wanted was to take the device into my hands. I approached the chest, and my team advised that I do not touch it. But I did not hear them, and captivated by its pull, I opened the box."

He stops and I wait for him to continue but he does not. "Well what happened? What did you see?" I eagerly push him to continue.

"I heard a voice," he says, no longer looking at me, but completely lost in his memories. "A deep voice asking me what I desired most. At the time, it was information, I wanted to know what this was, why Clara wanted it, what it was meant to do."

"Well did it tell you?" I ask.

He looks up at me now. "Yes, it told me everything. It told me of a civilization before ours, more advanced than ours. They were responsible for these artifacts; created them for a better world. The Ark showed me their demise, showed me the fall of their civilization, and the creation of ours. Then Clara came to me. Her face, and her intentions stained my thoughts, and the Ark answered these questions." He looks me in my eyes, and with a wry smile says, "You know the bitch can't die?" he says and I am not sure what he means. "The Ark showed me a woman, Clara, but it was not her, it was a woman, born in the crusades, young and without that nasty scar. She was called Azalea. The Ark showed the woman's growth, until she was given the scar on her face, the same as Clara's. Moving through time, the Ark showed me the same woman but different names. Azalea, Eira, Emilia, Willow, Lyla and so many more, all falling through history. Through the crusades, the French Revolution, to even Abstergo industries in the 70s; she has coasted through history up until now where she calls herself… Clara."

I shake my head, "I don't…"

"I did not understand at first, but the Ark showed me that she used one of these relics to become immortal, and has coasted through history, undetected, or killing those who discover her secret."

"So, what happened after you learned this?"

"I wanted to expose her for the power-hungry woman she was. But when I looked back at my team," he puts his head down and frowns. "All of them were dead before me; their eyes burned from their sockets, their skin burned from radiation, they had rapid aging, and their bodies were crushed as if they were hit by a high-speed vehicle. They deteriorated before me, and I now understood what happened to the other Assassins. The Ark killed all these men, and had I not sacrificed to the Shield, I would have met the same demise. I realized that this power was something I couldn't put in the hands of Clara. I could not imagine what evil she would commit with it. So, I took the Ark, I tampered with the surveillance to make it seem as though we never landed in Beograd, and I returned here. I have been working on leaving with Amanda soon, somewhere where Clara can never find us."

I hear a clang and I smile to myself; I am free. He doesn't notice the sound and I begin to test him. "If I found you then so will she." I say rudely and Roy gives me an angry look. "You were careless in calling your wife, and that's what led me here. You were sloppy in cutting the surveillance, which is proof you arrived. You are delusional to think you are safe in this home. Once Clara finds out that you took the Ark and you are back in your home, she will send a whole team out here to kill you."

"She won't know that I took the Ark if everyone who knows I did is dead." He says raising his gun.

With a newfound cockiness of being free and able to run, I laugh. "Clara put me on this assignment herself. If I go missing, you'll be the first one she suspects." I know that I will not be able to fight Roy. He is a Field Assassin, and is experienced in combat, but I have an opportunity to run, with the advantage of him not knowing that I broke through my restraints.

As I suspected, he grows angry at my comment, and grabs his gun. I lean back in the chair and fall back. I wiggle out of the chair and kick it in Roy's direction. It hits him and I get to my feet and begin running.

"Amanda!" Roy yells as he begins to stand. "He's escaping!"

I hear her behind the door of the basement. I hear her cock a shotgun and I kneel down as she shoots at the door. The shot booms through the house and destroys the door. I push through the door and knock her down. I run as fast as my feet will take me through the house and down the street. I hear sirens in the distance as I run farther and farther away from that fucking house.

I get another taxi and make it back to the Assassin headquarters before any assassins have entered the building. I'm exhausted, but I try to formulate what I am going to tell Azalea, or if I am going to say anything to her at all. My hands shake and I think about the best plan of action regarding Roy and his betrayal of the Creed. I decide to at least go up to her office, see if Clara is here yet, and try talking to her, maybe she will put me at ease over the situation.

When I reach her office, I see that her door is slightly opened. I peak in before walking in and I see Clara and Daniel inside. I wonder what Daniel is doing here so early. I lean against the wall and listen carefully to what Daniel and Clara are talking about.

Daniel stands in front of her as she sits in her chair, looking up at him with crossed arms. I look behind her and see the flag of our Assassin sigil. I think about the story Roy told me. I don't even know what to believe. What if everything he told me was a lie and he is just trying to turn people against Clara. All this talk about a magical shield, the Ark of the Covenant, Clara being immortal, it just all seems to be a farfetched fabrication a deranged man created. I look at Clara, as deeply as I can from here, and I can't see her as the cunning and manipulative person that he painted her out to be. She is quiet and calculating, but that doesn't make her a murderous power-hungry snake.

"I've thought a lot about it," Daniel begins. Clara looks up at him with a bored look on her face. "Whatever it is that you need Shepard for, you can have him." Her lips twitch as if to smile but she stops them before they form. "But," he continues, "I want to be a part of that mission too."

Her lips turn flat now to an obvious frown, "absolutely not." She says in a stern voice, like a mother scolding her child.

Daniel tenses, but I can't see his facial expression because his back is turned to me. "Why not?"

"Because, Daniel, I need you here. Send anyone else you'd like with Shepard, but I need you here."

"For what?" he retaliates. "There is nothing you need me here for. I am a Field Assassin, and with no threat here at the compound, I'd like to go out to the field, and do what I've trained to do."

With a bored look on her face she says, "the answer is no."

"The answer is no because you think there will be a threat on the compound, or the answer is no because you can't stand to be away from me?"

She scoffs and I find myself doing the same. He can't actually be trying to go for her, she is a Master Assassin, she would never go for Daniel Cross. "The answer is no, and that is final, I will deploy Shepard and a team of 5 other Assassins to Serbia in one week. Let him know of his new assignment."

She stands and goes to escort him to the door when he grabs her wrist, "I have other plans in mind." He says. I expect her to fight him or yell at him, some retaliation, but there is none. My eyes widen as I watch him pull her towards him and kiss her. She places her arms around his shoulders and accepts his advances. He guides her back to the desk while still keeping their lips locked. He presses her against her desk and hikes up her skirt. I turn away feeling sick to my stomach, and when I hear her moan, I can't stand hearing them and walk down the hall with clenched fists.

I get as far as the training arena until I cannot bottle it in anymore and I slam my fist into the wall. The wall crumbles around my fist, and when I pull my hand out, the drywall falls around it. I can feel my heart racing and every pump brings a nauseating feeling in my throat. I look at my knuckles and they are white with how tightly I held my fist. I try to settle down, and calm my nerves but I can't. She was unattainable; I placed her so high on a pedestal that I never imagined anyone could touch her. My hands are shaking and I can't think about her anymore.

I make my way to the living quarters and when I enter my small studio, I am surprisingly able to sleep through the night, and when I wake up, I rub my eyes of the sleep that has settled onto them. I lift myself from the small bed in the middle of the room and head to my office. I look at my phone to see that it is only seven in the morning, I have another missed call from my father, and I remind myself to give him a call. I notice my thumb from breaking out of the handcuffs. It is bruised, swollen, and cut, along with my knuckles from punching the wall. Seeing these cuts gives me a twisting feeling in my stomach knowing that all of it was true and none of it was a terrible nightmare. I go to the infirmary on my way to my office and wrap my hand before finally heading upstairs to my office. There is hardly anyone in the offices before 8am, so I don't interact with many people on the way to my desk.

I sign onto my computer and that is all I can do when Clara comes walking up to me. "Good morning, Clay, how are you doing?" I can't look at her right now. Seeing her gives me another wave of nausea, and all I can see is Daniel bending her over her desk. She notices my hesitation and says, "I can see that you're busy, have you found anything new regarding the Serbian sect?"

"No," I say in a hoarse tone speaking for the first time today, looking down at my computer, still unable to look at her. "I haven't found anything new."

She pauses and I hear her sigh, "Very well, let me know if anything changes."

She turns and walks away from me, and I watch her leave. My heart pounds wondering what to do about what I have learned. I am not sure if what Roy said was even true about her, and I have to make sure that Clara is who she says she is before I give her information about Roy. If she is as cunning and deceptive as Roy painted her out to be, and if he indeed has the Ark of the Covenant, then I would not want her in possession of such a powerful device. However, if everything is true, how am I going to get her to confess that she is in fact immortal?

An entire week goes by, and Clara comes to me on a daily basis, asking me if I found anything regarding the Serbia mission. Every time she comes by, I tell her that I have found nothing regarding the mission, and every day, she becomes more irritated. I have yet to figure out how I will approach her, and the more I tell her no, the more I fear she will give the information to someone else.

I work on my computer in silence when I hear heavy footsteps drag over to my cubicle. I look up and almost jump as Daniel Cross lunges towards me with a heavy pat on the back. "Kaczmarek!" he roars with laughter as I wince at his touch.

"Uh, Hey Dan…uh Cross," I say awkwardly as he takes his hands off my shoulder.

"How've you been, Buddy?" He says and my brows come together in confusion before I can answer him, he says, "So the boss lady wants a word with you." He says and I can only assume he means Clara.

My heart races and I can feel myself getting nauseous. "What… what for?"

He shrugs his massive shoulders, "She didn't say, just told me to come get you."

I nod my head and lift myself from my seat. I feel my heart pounding as I walk down the hall with Daniel leading the way. This is finally the moment I had been avoiding, forcing itself on me now. I didn't expect Clara to get so impatient that she would call on me. I try to think of what I will tell her, and if I will test her to see if everything Roy said was true.

Daniel opens the door to her office and she is sitting at her desk, typing away on her small tablet. Daniel clears his throat and she doesn't look up from her computer, instead while still typing she says, "Thank you, Daniel that will be all."

I watch Daniel from the corner of my eyes to see that her comment bothers him. He hesitates to leave, but after a moment of thought, he finally scoffs and shuts the door behind him. Once he is gone, I feel my heart race and my body instantly gets hotter. She finally looks up at me from her ferocious typing, "Please Clay, take a seat." She says motioning me to sit across from her desk. I sit down, trying not to allow the thoughts of her and Daniel having sex on this desk enter my skull. She closes her tablet and looks at me. Her dark hair is curled and falls perfectly around her face, covering her X-shaped scar. She is wearing a black skirt that hugs the curves of her small frame, and a maroon shirt that is unbuttoned a little too far down. I try not to stare and after awkward silence, she crosses her arms over her chest and says, "What did you want to be when you were a child?"

I swallow at the question, I am not sure where she is going with this, nor prepared for this question. "I…uh…" I try to think but she looks at me, glares at me, and I am afraid of her now, more than ever. The thought of her being immortal and now seeing her alone in this room with no one here to hear us or see us intimidates the shit out of me. Finally, I swallow hard again and say, "My dad was an engineer, uh, he worked in construction and—"

"What did you want, Clay?" she cuts me off.

My face gets hot and she is more intense now than ever. "I…uh…I guess I wanted to be something great. Like an astronaut." She tilts her head to the side interested in my answer. "I just wanted to make a change in the world. I guess that's why I went into computer engineering. I thought I could protect innocent people from cyber-attacks. I guess all I have ever wanted was to help people." I laugh nervously at how silly it sounds being said aloud.

Her thick brows come together and she thinks for a moment. "Why did you choose the Assassin's?"

I shrug my shoulders, "I guess I just wanted to be closer to my lineage."

She nods once, then sighs, "Clay, there is no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to come out and say it." She says bluntly, and my heart races, thinking about what she would say. "I think that you have come to a point with this compound where you've become stagnant. I believe that the tasks that I have given to you may have been too difficult and you have become too comfortable." I look at her, I am confused by what she is saying, not really allowing myself to process her words. "I'm sorry, Clay, but there is no place for you in this compound. There are other, smaller compounds that would be willing to house you, and prepare you to be an Assassin, though we can no longer do so here."

I look at her now, in the eyes, and she is not apologetic; there is nothing in her eyes. Nothing that shows me she is disappointed, concerned, or even unhappy with telling me that I can no longer stay here. She looks me in the eyes and told me that I am useless here, and did so without a care in her heart. I begin to feel my blood boil and anger fill my mind. My fists tighten and I try to compose myself as much as I can. "I have done every task that has been asked of me…" I begin but I trail off in my thoughts as they jumble with emotion.

"I understand your frustration, Clay—"

"How can you understand my frustration?" I yell out mocking her, "You are a Master Assassin, you don't have to prove yourself to anyone!"

She scoffs "Clay, I've had to prove myself worthy of the title of Master. Everything in life that you do, you'll have to prove yourself and bend over backwards for, if you can't do that than you're not worthy of any job or affiliation with—"

"Not everyone has time to kiss ass like you've had!" I yell. I find myself shocked that I let that out and the look on her face paints confusion.

"I'm sorry you feel this way, Clay," she begins and I realize that now is the time to test her. If I am going to get an answer out of her then now is the time to do so. I have nothing else to lose.

"Look, Azalea, I get it, you want me gone. I'll go."

"Again Clay, I'm…" I watch her carefully and she stops, it finally hit her. She has a confused look on her face, more confused than concerned, and I wonder if Roy did tell me the truth, because now makes it seem as though I am just making an ass of myself. "I'm sorry," she finally says, "What did you just say?"

My heart pounds and I can feel the tension in the room. Finally, I say, "I'm sorry, that just kind of came out. What I meant to call you was Eira. Or was it Willow? Lyla maybe? I forgot what name you were using this decade." I watch her carefully now, more carefully than I have ever watched someone. Her facial expression is very meticulous and at first, there is nothing but complete confusion and I wonder if I have made a complete lunatic response to her. However, after a while, her face finally begins to contort from confusion to anger.

She inhales deeply, and when she exhales, her face is back to being plain and unreadable. She stares at me with dead eyes in silence, until finally she opens her mouth and says, "What is it that you think you know?"

I swallow hard, the fact is that I don't know anything, and I have no clue what exactly I am accusing her of. Finally, I say, "You and I both know what I know, you know the severity of it, and what I would like to know, is what you'll do for me to keep it quiet." My heart is racing and I am overcome by fear, but my body and my voice are luckily holding up to the impression that I am not afraid of her.

She leans back in her chair and scratches at her brow, something I have noticed her to do when she is under a lot of stress. I finally have her… she is finally cracking. She swallows, then stops brushing her brow and locks eyes on me. "Is that a threat?" she asks standing from her chair and walking towards me. My eyes lock on her hips as she swings them my way. I swallow hard and look back up at her. She leans towards me and I sweat when I think she is going to attack me, but she grabs a TV remote from her desk and leans away from me. She turns the TV on and I look over to it. On the TV is the news.

"A local house caught on fire this week taking the lives of the owners Roy and Amanda Victorino as well as their 2-year-old daughter. Officials say the fire was started by faulty wiring and no foul play is suspected." A newscaster says.

"Such a tragedy," the other says, "Later tonight we will be talking to you about how you can keep your house fire safe—"

Clara turns off the TV and now I begin to panic. I am sweating and my vision begins to blur in and out. She puts the remote down and looks down at me while I sit. "Now," she says looking at me with intense eyes, "I don't like being threatened, and I'd advise against it. I'd also advise you to tell me the truth so, what is it that you think you know?"

"I uh…" I struggle on my words, "I…" I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to compose myself. "I know that you are not who you say you are." I say simply.

She scoffs and leans against her desk in front of me. I can't help but look at her body as she places it before me. "So, you're telling me that you tell everyone everything about yourself? That there are no secrets you hold?" she says skeptically. I begin to stutter again and I can't find my words to sound strong in front of her. "Clay, you know nothing." She tells me in a soft and motherly voice. "I'll agree to give you another chance if you agree to drop any silly ideas you've conjured in your mind."

She gets up and starts walking to her desk, she starts asking me to leave when I find my voice. "The Ark of the Covenant told Roy that you were immortal. Then he told me." She looks up at me with a bored look, but her brows are pressed together. "Then you killed him. So, where is the Ark?" I watch her and she is stunned, but recovers quickly. She tries to feed me bullshit about how crazy I sound and that I should go to the infirmary but I stop her before she can continue spitting lies. "Please, Azalea, spare me the bullshit." She's taken back by this and I continue, "I found documents and photos of you from Abstergo in the 70s." I lie thinking back at what Roy had told me. I can tell that my words are working. "I've had enough of your lies. I know that behind that fucking flag is a safe full of these magical artifacts that you are collecting, and I know they are artifacts from a civilization before ours. Now, you're going to start treating me like an equal and not some brainless oaf like your little handler Cross out there." I feel high right now. My heart is beating heavily and I feel as though I have just made an insane accusation. She looks at me now, her nails digging into her chair, and I can finally see her true emotions.

"Boy, I think it best you watch your next words." She threatens

I laugh and I can tell this makes her even angrier, "What are you going to do, Clara? Kill me? Go ahead, if you kill me the other Assassin's will suspect why you killed an Assassin who couldn't complete a simple mission. If any of them dig deep enough, they will see that you killed Roy and his family as well. You will paint yourself out to be a tyrant, and you will lose the respect and support of everyone here."

I watch her as she sits at her desk, calculating every possible outcome of her next move. She is still, and stays expressionless as she thinks to herself. She knows that she is backed into a corner and she knows that anything she does will get her secret exposed. Finally, after a long moment of silence she looks up to me and says, "What do you want, Clay?"

I smile with the realization that she has finally given in. "Where is the Ark?" I ask her.

"You know where it is." She says plainly and I look up at the flag behind her. I tell her that I want to see it and she scoffs. "I thought I wasn't supposed to kill you. Don't want you becoming a martyr." She says spitefully.

"Then let me bleed on the Shield and see it."

Her brows come together and she looks genuinely pissed. "Is there anything Roy didn't tell you?" I don't answer her and with a sigh, she turns around and opens the safe. She takes out a chest with a transparent white vail covering it. Just slightly can I see the golden chest that lies behind the white shield. "You may touch it, but you will not open it." She says sternly and I agree.

I place my fingers on the Ark and can feel the rugged edges. I begin to hear a humming come from the chest, as if it is calling to me. I feel its pull and I begin to remove the vail from the chest. As I open the chest, Clara's hand slams it shut. I look up at her with wild hate in my eyes. She laughs and tells me that the pull of these artifacts is intense and reminds me that she saved my life, because I did not sacrifice to the Shield. I ask for the shield and she refuses, when I press her more she stops me.

"That's all for today, Clay. I want you to return to your office, and I want you to pretend this exchange never happened. I will continue to meet with you, and I will ensure that your ranking within the Assassin's mirrors your abilities, but for now, I have other things that must have my attention."

I think to argue with her to answer more of my questions, but I feel satisfied for the time being. "Remember Clara, I've become your equal." I say as I leave her office.

Over a month passes and Clara has kept her end of the bargain. She has been promoting me slowly through the ranks. She has given me no assignments and I have a new sense of relief now that I am not overly stressed to perform. For the past week, I have been trying to gain an audience with Clara, but she claims that she is too busy to see me and I have not been able to ask her more questions about these relics or how she has become immortal.

Over the past few weeks, I have become desperate to find something that indefinitely confirms that Clara is in fact immortal. I stay up all night searching all records we have of previous Assassins in our database. There are sparse records of Assassins before the First World War. Interestingly though, I never found any mission information of an Assassin breaching an Abstergo compound. I even sought Abstergo's mainframe, and though I found information of an Animus project using Assassin ancestry, none of the Assassins matches the description of Clara. I figure that with her being centuries old, she must have figured out how to keep herself out of any documentation. I figure the only way I am going to get clear evidence of this is from one of her magical relics in her office.

I look at my watch and see that it is almost eight at night. Most of the Assassins have retired for the night, and I decide to take a stroll up to Clara's office. When I get up there, her door is wide open. I peak in and Daniel is sitting down facing her, while she is facing the door. I feel myself getting sick, thinking of the last time I was here looking in.

"So, who do you think it is?" Daniel asks in a flat tone.

"Someone with high enough clearance to gather the information they have, and someone who's competent enough about computers to pass our firewalls." She says, leaning back in her seat.

Daniel scratches the back of his head. "Well you have been promoting Kaczmarek pretty quickly. Think the pressure is getting to him and he is leaking information to the Templars?"

I find myself scoffing and she does as well. "Clay is devout to the cause; he is not the sleeper agent."

I smile at her trust in me. "Are you sure about that?" He slaps down a booklet of papers on her desk. She picks them up and looks at them. "This is his recent history on his computer. He has been looking into a lot of information and missions involving the Templars and Abstergo. He is also being cautious by going incognito and clearing any history on the computer, he just does not realize that I get live documentation of everyone's searches here. It seems to me like he is trying to find some information he shouldn't be."

My heart races, because of the content that I have been searching for. Daniel may not suspect the meaning of my search history, but Clara will know exactly what I am searching for. I watch as Clara flips through the pages of my searches for a moment, and then finally says, "I want you to stop watching Clay's search history." I'm taken aback by this and so is Daniel. He tries to interject but she stops him before he can, "Clay is on a top priority mission that I have personally given him and only he and I have clearance to its context. If I find out that you are looking into his history again, I will be forced to do what I must to ensure the safety of the Creed."

Daniel's shoulders tense, "The safety of the Creed?" He scoffs, "are you threatening me?"

She chuckles then looks at him, "No, Daniel, I'm simply telling you what will most definitely happen if you don't do as I say." She stands up and motions him to do the same. "I think you should go now."

Daniel rises in his seat and turns towards the door. I move away so he will not see me. However, before he can leave her office, I hear a heavy thud and Daniel groaning. I peak through the doorway and he is on his knees, clenching his head in his hands. He begins to shout and incoherently babble in what I imagine to be Russian. Clara rushes to his aid, "Daniel?" she calls to him. I watch her and for the first time, I see genuine concern in her eyes. She falls to her knees and takes his hands off his head. "Daniel, listen to me, everything is going to be okay. I just need you to breathe." She says in a reassuring tone.

Daniel does not listen to her, and he begins to yell in Russian. She lifts herself to her feet, "Fuck," she says under her breath as she goes to the flag behind her desk, she opens the safe and takes out a ring. She places it on her finger and begins to twist it while telling him that he is fine, that he is safe, and that he is here with her. I hear a ringing and see a light glowing emanating from the ring. Daniel begins to calm down instantly and his yelling has completely stopped. She cradles him and he looks up at her. She continues to chant that everything is okay and that he is here with her. Daniel relaxes and she convinces him to rise to his feet and rest in his quarters. He agrees and she helps him up. At this point, I scramble to hide from them.

Luckily, Clara is so concerned about Daniel, and getting him to his room that she does not notice me as she leaves with him down the hall. I wait until they turn the corner down the hall before I can even think about what just happened. My eyes glance over at the opened door of her office. Distracted by Daniel's episode, Clara did not realize that she left her office door open. I think about closing the door and pretending I witnessed nothing that just happened. However, the sound of the strange objects are calling me in with a hypnotic buzzing. I realize that this is my opportunity to understand Clara and learn if she is indeed immortal and how.

I walk into her office and feel a tense feeling overcome me. I feel as though I am doing something wrong, and she will surely find out about this. I look around for any hidden cameras that might catch me doing this, but I do not find any. I look over to her desk and behind the flag where I see she left the safe open. I begin to feel my hands shake. I walk over to the desk and in front of the safe. With fear overcoming my body, I finally gather the courage and I feel around in the safe. I notice the shield and the Ark of the Covenant are not in the safe. With some disappointment, I decide to stop looking around, when I feel something graze my fingers. I take hold of the object and pull it from the safe. In my hands is a small spherical golden ball. I hold it in my hands and it begins to glow and sing to my touch.

The light is hypnotic and I feel myself captivated by it. I wonder what power the small ball holds and what I can give me in return. The object does not speak to me as the Ark supposedly spoke to Roy, so I ask it a question in my mind. I think to myself about this curious piece, and where it came from, and then before my very eyes, I see a civilization of men and women, similar looking to human, but something more superior about them. I see in a holographic image these people creating these relics as tools for their civilization. I'm shown that they all work together and though their powers differ, they work as a whole. The sphere shows me these peoples' demise as the Ark had shown Roy. A solar flare wiped out the majority of their civilization and, those who remained desperately tried to gather the pieces to ensure their survival. However, the solar flare destroyed their environment, and they eventually died about before saving themselves.

The images begin to be pulled from my mind, and I can see my upbringing, my father and mother together, their raising of me, and my separation from them. The memories burn too much to see, so I clench the ball in my hands and the images change to Clara. She doesn't have the scar on her face, and she looks so much more innocent than she does now. I see her and a man in white robes with the Assassin's sigil painted on them. He holds a knife to her while she falls to her knees as he cuts the X into her cheek, the visions begin to flash from image to image, I see her using a specific golden dagger throughout the years, and as she does, the dagger reverses any wound she receives. The images keep showing this woman in various points in history. The same woman, the same age, but hundreds of years in-between. The visions finally stop at Clara placing the ball into the safe.

I am thrown out of the visions and I feel my head splitting from what I just saw. My head feels heavy and it is as though the images transferred into my brain. I think of Clara again, and I can see the images so clearly in my head, as though they were my own memories. I think about taking the ball for myself when I hear someone walking down the hall. I quickly place the ball back in the safe and close it. I run out of her office and as I do, Clara turns the corner and enters her office. I leave the floor quickly and back to my computer where I stay and wonder what exactly it was that just happened to me.

Two more weeks pass since the incident with Daniel, and Clara has yet to give me another task to work on. As each day goes by, I fear that Clara will somehow find out that I took the memories out of the strange ball, and every night that passes, I replay her memories over and over again in my head. Who was the man that scarred her, and where was the dagger? I continue to do research to figure how she is immortal with this dagger and there is no mention of a healing dagger throughout history. The only information I can gather is on a Persian Prince who used a magical golden dagger rumored to travel through time. I wonder if this is another artifact and if Clara has it in her possession.

Today the compound is gathering for the first of the month, where Clara assigns large missions and tasks that will take up more time than the ones given to us Daily. It will be the first time I have seen her since the night I snuck into her office. While we sit in the hall waiting for Clara to come, Julia speaks with me about Oracle, and how Clara is pleased with the progress of the system. I ask her if Clara has used the system yet, and she says no. Julia asks me how the Serbia mission went and if I found my Assassins and I tell her that Clara and I worked together to find out that they died. Julia puts her head down in remembrance of them, and then asks what my next task will be. I tell her that I am not sure, but I am sure Clara will give me something worthwhile.

In that moment, Clara walks in with Daniel right next to her. I still feel my heart race when I see them together. I wonder if she's told Daniel that she is immortal, or if she is keeping that from him as well. I also wonder what happened with Daniel and his episode. Does he have any idea what is happening to him, or is she hiding that from him too? I watch her enter the room. Her hips swinging like a lioness. I realize in this moment just how dangerous she really is, and just how intimidating she is. Knowing what I know about her, she looks so terrifyingly powerful.

"Hello everyone, thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to come here. I have only a few new assignments, the rest of you will continue the projects you are on and await any new petty coursework I will task you with throughout the week." She begins to name off a few assignments and the Assassins that she has chosen to take on the task. Many of the assignments are for Field Assassins and the ones they have been tasked with sound dangerous and exciting. I have told Clara that I want to be a Field Assassin, and she knows that I can do it, so it bothers me that she will not place me in a field assignment. "Lastly, this final mission is of the upmost importance, and is for the most skilled of Assassins. This mission will put us straight in the belly of the Templar resistance and because of how dangerous this mission is, I believe that only the most skilled and intelligent Assassin can take on such a task." I look over at Daniel as he holds his head high while Clara strokes his ego. I roll my eyes at the two of them and just want her to get on with it so I can get back to doing nothing. "Over the past month, this specific Assassin has shown me their true colors, and that they are an immense asset to this team, and that they would be perfect for this assignment. It is obvious to me that no other Assassin deserves this task, and so with that being said, Clay Kaczmarek I have chosen you for the mission of infiltrating Abstergo Industries where you will feed me intel on their Animus Project."

I can't believe what I am hearing and when I see the look of utter shock and disappointment in Daniel's face, I can't help but smile. I look around at all the other Assassins, where some clap, the rest look at me with puzzled and jealous eyes. I look over at Clara and she looks back at me. She gives me a subtle wink and I know that she is finally rewarding me for finding out the truth about her and proving my worth as an Assassin and her equal.