"Every ending is a beginning. We just don't know it at the time." -Mitch Albom

"What the bloody hell was that?"

"Bex. Bex! Rebecca! Would you slow down? Any faster and I'm going to—oh shit!" Shaun clutched onto a nearby railing when his feet slid on a patch of ice. With each word Shaun's breath hung in the wintry air as he pulled himself back up and slowly huffed along behind Rebecca. He shivered, rubbing his gloved hands together to warm them up as they approached the frozen stairs to Abstergo Entertainment. The last of the previous night's flurries continued to drift downwards and coated everything in a blanket of white, with the snow sparkling with the reflection of the bright lights from inside the building.

Rebecca rolled her eyes, but waited for him halfway up the steps nonetheless. "I told you you could've stayed home."

"And let you drive the car? Not a chance. I just don't see why we have to be here so early is all."

"It's not that early."

"It's six in the bloody morning, Bex. The sun's not even up yet, for Christ's sake!"

She ignored his complaints and continued up the stairs.

"It's cold, it's dark, I'm freezing my, well, everything off," he continued when she didn't respond. He climbed each stair one at a time, clinging to the railing when his feet slipped on the slick ice beneath him. "I just don't see why the analyst couldn't have picked normal work hours. Why not eight o'clock? Or nine? Or hell, a weekday like a sane person? I mean, who in their right mind works through a Friday night and then feels compelled enough to do a data transfer Saturday at six o' bloody clock in the morning? And right before Christmas!"

Rebecca finally snapped. "I don't know, okay!? The analyst said to be here at six, so we're here at six!" She stopped at the top of the steps and took a deep breath to calm down. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just… tired. I didn't sleep well last night and this is the last place I want to be, especially today, but we have a job to do."

Shaun tightened his lips and nodded apologetically. "I know. And I'm sorry, too. I don't want to be here today, either. Maybe that's why I'm so bloody annoyed right now." He reached the top of the steps and pulled Rebecca's gloved hands into his own. "Let's just get this over with, eh? Maybe afterwards go for some brunch and mimosas at that little French cafe in the city that we like? Have a toast over some toast?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes but smiled at his little joke despite herself. "Sure."

As they took a step forward together and their hands fell apart, the glass doors slid open and a gust of icy wind ushered them into the brightly-lit vestibule of Abstergo Entertainment.

"This doesn't change the fact that I still think anybody who works the weekend before Christmas is mental," Shaun said as he let his eyes adjust to the blinding fluorescent lights. He shook the extra snow off his coat and shoes and handed his ID card to the security guard. "Or perhaps everyone who works here is a heathen that doesn't celebrate Christmas," he added, a smug grin crossing his face when he and the tired-looking guard made eye contact.

"We work here," Rebecca reminded him.

"That's different. It's hardly work when you're just picking up files and I'm—hang on, what am I doing here?"

Rebecca sighed. "I've been asking myself the same question since we got here." They were silent as they passed through the metal detectors and beneath the overhead walkway. She waited until they started climbing the stairs to the main atrium and were well out of earshot before asking, "don't you ever get tired of antagonizing everybody here?"

"Isn't that our life's mission?"

She thought for a moment. "Good point."

There was a slight bounce to Shaun's step while they walked down the length of the atrium in silence. If all went according to plan, this would be the last time they had to set foot inside Abstergo, and few things could make him happier. He shrugged his coat off and slung it over the countertop of the coffee stand where he'd worked every weekday for the last three months.

"And now we wait," he said, looking up and expecting to see Rebecca standing on the other side of the coffee stand. He frowned when she walked right past without a word, instead settling herself on the bridge spanning the indoor pond leading to the elevator. She shrugged her own coat off and draped it over the railing. Her headphones were already on and she was staring absentmindedly into the gently rippling water below, her head resting in her hands as she leaned against the railing.

Shaun flipped on the espresso machine. It whirred to life and while he waited for it to heat up, he gazed around the lobby and let his thoughts wander. Dense foliage that twisted its way around the building gave the appearance that they were on an island somewhere in the tropics, not one in Canada. It was easy to forget the frigid winter wind whistling outside when the trees surrounding the ring-shaped pond sat completely still, their leaves as green as ever. It was a strange juxtaposition, and yet, in a way Shaun felt colder inside than he had outside. Sure his body was warmer now, to the point where he had to roll up the sleeves of his thick sweater while he pressed coffee grounds into the portafilter, but the cold sterility of Abstergo seeped through the thin façade and belied the warm, inviting feeling within.

Even the general architecture of the building, with its multiple-storied atrium lined on nearly all sides by glass windows, should feel open and inviting, but to him it was stifling and confining, like glass cages disguised as offices. It was as if eyes were always watching him, pressing in on all sides (which, he reminded himself when he glanced at one of the many cameras around the atrium, they probably were).

And yet, that was exactly how Abstergo operated.

Beneath the open, welcoming banner that promised progress and innovation was a cold and hostile underbelly that would devour anything that stood in the way, regardless of the cost. But while they were perfectly happy to leave enough breaks in the foliage for people to see and even admire the modernistic look of the cement and glass structure of the building, they were far more careful about who they let see the dark underside of the business itself, and even more careful about who they let live that discovered that information…

"I'm already here, where the fuck are you?" A stern voice snapped. Shaun shook the thoughts from his head as the espresso began pouring into the first of two cups he'd set out. "Well hurry up," the voice barked into an earpiece. "Our flight leaves at three and we—I know we have to wait for the paperwork. You think I'm fucking stupid?"

Shaun watched with dread as a woman stormed towards him, her hair pulled back into a tight, no-nonsense knot which accentuated her exceptionally sharp features even more. Her heavy, dark gray bomber jacket and cargo pants singled her out from the handful of employees who had started filing in for the day, all of whom were wearing some sort of business casual. The phrase if looks could kill flitted through Shaun's mind and by the time she reached the counter, he'd convinced himself that she was, without a doubt, a Templar, one of the few who knew the truth about the darker side of Abstergo and embraced it.

He quietly pretended to focus on putting the finishing touches to his and Rebecca's coffees as he listened in on her half of the conversation.

"Well then don't tell me shit I already know— No, you don't need to pick up coffee on your way in, I'm getting it right now— Just get your ass here so we can grab the body and get to the airport." She tapped her earpiece to end the call and, before Shaun could say anything, muttered something under her breath, slapped a five dollar bill on the counter, and grabbed the two coffees that he'd just set aside for Rebecca and himself. She stormed off as aggressively as she'd arrived, leaving Shaun too taken aback to even tell her that the five dollars only covered one of the coffees, let alone that neither of those were for her.

His only gratification was that halfway down the atrium, she took a sip from one of the cups and immediately spat it back out. "Goddamnit!" She glared at Shaun. "This tastes like shit!" she yelled while she threw both cups in the trash, as if he'd intentionally given her bad coffee. As she rounded back on him, she was stopped by another incoming call. "What!?" she snapped. "What the fuck do you mean 'lost the body'? How do you lose an entire fucking body? Can't anybody do their goddamn jobs right!?"

Whatever body was lost, it was enough to distract her from Shaun and his terrible coffee, and for that he was grateful; she looked ready to murder whoever gave her the next piece of bad news.

Shaun made a mental note to bring this up with Gavin the next time they spoke while he made two more drinks for Rebecca and himself and joined her on the bridge. Lost in deep thought and loud music, she hadn't noticed him walk up until he stood right next to her and leaned against the railing just as she was.

"Thanks," she murmured, pulling her headphones down and taking the warm cup into her hands.

Shaun gave her an encouraging smile back and took a small sip. He choked and coughed when he burned his tongue and throat on the scalding hot drink, and he could see Rebecca's poor attempt at hiding a smile at his misery through the fog on his glasses.

She waited a moment before blowing across the top and taking a sip of her own. She grimaced.

"Still too hot?"

"No, not exactly," she said, eyeing the cup suspiciously. "Are you sure this is even coffee?"

Shaun dramatically sighed in defeat. But when he sipped his own coffee he, too, grimaced at its sourness. "Fair point."

While Shaun tried to get the acrid taste out of his mouth, Rebecca dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone, flipping through her photos. A twinge of sadness knotted in his stomach as Shaun recognized them as the ones from Desmond's phone.

"Do you… do you think he knew? What was going to happen, I mean?" she asked quietly while she stared down at a photo of them with Desmond and his father outside the Grand Temple. They'd just returned from Massachusetts, the temple key—their long-sought-after prize—now in Desmond's possession.

He'd insisted on taking a group picture. "Just in case," he'd said. Bill hadn't been too keen on the idea, but after Desmond pressured him into it, he finally agreed. So long as he didn't have to smile, he'd said. Shaun and Rebecca posed in the middle, and on the other side stood Desmond, smiling and waving back at them.

Shaun took a deep breath. "I don't think any of us thought we'd all make it out entirely unscathed," he finally answered, dancing around her question.

"I know, but do you think he knew?"

He thought back to those final moments, to Desmond's insistence that they all be in the picture together. One last memory together.

"Yeah, I think he did," Shaun admitted. The realization upset him more than he'd expected it to. Why hadn't the idiot said anything? Why not tell them? But then of course he and Rebecca and Bill would've tried to stop him, and Desmond would've known that. Still, it would've been nice to have a proper goodbye…

"He always did have a soft side," Rebecca sighed, scrolling to a picture of Desmond's hand petting a stray kitten.

"Bex, he murdered like, thirty people only a month earlier."

"Doesn't mean he didn't have a soft side," she mumbled into her coffee, grimacing when she remembered how terrible it tasted. She put her phone in her pocket and leaned her head on Shaun's shoulder.

Now it was Shaun's turn to sigh. "I miss him, too," he said. They leaned against the railing together and watched as a school of fish swam by, then disappeared into the multistory aquarium surrounding the elevator shaft. Higher and higher they swam until they were too far away for either Shaun or Rebecca to see.

"I feel like we disappointed him somehow," she said quietly, her voice now hoarse and raspy. "Like if we'd stayed maybe things would be different. At the very least he could've had a proper burial."

"I don't think we can be too hard on ourselves. He's the one who told us to leave."

"I know, but we never should've left him behind. I just… I wish we could go back in time and change things."

Shaun hummed in quiet agreement, finding himself wishing more and more that he'd at least had the chance to apologize to Desmond. They stood in silence for a few more minutes, drinking their coffee and watching as the fish swam into view again.

Shaun checked his watch. "It's 6:17, where's that damn analyst?" He looked around as the atrium steadily filled with more people, but there was no sign of them anywhere. When he glanced back at Rebecca, she was focused on the pond again, her eyes staring into its watery depths when the fish returned, more than a dozen this time. They swam in lazy circles for only a moment, until something spooked them and they scattered in all different directions, their hasty departure dusting up the sand in the bottom of the tank. It only began to settle for a moment until waves under the water formed ripples above and agitated the sand below, clouding the pond again.

"That's weird," Rebecca noted quietly, voicing Shaun's thoughts out loud.

As they stared at the water, it became more turbulent by the second, occasionally sending up a small splash as ripples turned to small waves and collided. By now it was hazy as all the sand and debris swirled around. Leaves on the trees surrounding the pond rustled despite the lack of wind before falling, sometimes a dozen at a time, into the churning water below.

A deep rumble emanated from the floor and just when the tremors reverberated through the bridge and into Shaun and Rebecca's feet, someone shouted the word that was on both their minds: "Earthquake!"

The panicked screams that echoed through the atrium were matched only by the shattering of glass as panel after panel broke under the pressure. Through it all, Shaun and Rebecca barely heard the sharp crack when a fissure raced up the side of the aquarium, threatening to explode in an outburst of glass and water at any moment. With only seconds left, they simultaneously dropped their coffees to the ground and bolted towards the front entrance. The glass panels from the bottom of the railing crashed to the floor just as they reached the end of the bridge.

Lights flickered when the building's power began to fail and all around them television screens on the walls ruptured under the pressure. Shaun and Rebecca struggled to keep their footing as the trembling worsened and debris flew from all directions. They had only a moment to register the crackling sensation of static electricity before a flash of blinding light and a thunderous crash roared behind them. The aquarium finally burst, the pressure of it sending glass and water spraying in every direction. They were nearly to the vestibule where they'd first entered the building when they craned their necks in time to see the surge of water crashing down behind them.

"We're not gonna make it, Bex," Shaun panted desperately as the deluge bore down on them. No matter how fast they sprinted, he realized, it wouldn't be enough to outrun it.

"This way!" she called out, and just before they reached the stairs to the front entrance, Rebecca pulled him to the side and along the upper balcony that overlooked the vestibule. Her quick thinking had bought them a few precious seconds to duck behind a concrete sculpture as everything came crashing down around them. They huddled together as the lights finally gave out completely, plunging them into complete darkness.

Around them, screams turned to garbled pleas for help as water gushed down the stairs and pushed its victims against the front wall and out the front door. While Rebecca's cleverness had saved them from getting crushed by the initial deluge, water still spread across the floor and managed to make its way along the upper walkway, permeating their clothes. They held on tightly to each other while the tremors continued, keeping their eyes clamped shut and their arms covering their heads which were pressed together while they waited out the rest of the earthquake.

A few minutes later the tremors finally subsided, and everything was almost completely still and silent, save for the occasional buzzing sound of electricity or splash of water.

It was another minute before they emerged from behind the sculpture, waiting to see if anything else would happen. In the darkness, they heard the faint sounds of water sloshing around as other people came out from their own hiding spots.

"Are you alright?" Shaun whispered, pulling Rebecca to her feet.

"I think so," she said with a shaky voice. "I think there's something in my arm though." She pulled her phone out of her vest pocket and turned on the flashlight. She aimed it at her right shoulder, where a shard of glass had embedded itself. Rebecca put her phone in her mouth and reached for the end that was sticking out.

"No, don't—"

Rebecca yanked it from her arm, blood running down from the cut.

"Pull it out. Damn it, Bex."

"It's shallow. I'll be fine."

"You're bleeding everywhere. Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

Blood ran down her arm and dripped onto the wet floor while they sloshed through the water back to the coffee stand. Or rather, where the coffee stand used to be. The entire structure was gone and in the dark they couldn't even tell where it had been.

Rebecca turned off the flashlight on her phone when a few still-working emergency lights flickered on around the atrium, illuminating the wreckage left behind. The ground was covered in water, debris, and dead or dying fish and most of the trees and plants now sat barren. The elevator shaft was nothing more than a hollow shell of concrete and steel with only a few cracked panels of glass remaining, the rest of it strewn about the atrium. The large triangular emblem that once hung on the front of the elevator now sat in a heap at the far end of the bridge, which had cracked under the pressure and threatened to fall into the water at any moment. Most of the interior windows that lined the upper floors were gone entirely and the few that remained looked ready to shatter at any moment. Somewhere in the building, the low thrum of electricity buzzing turned into a sharp sparking crack.

The information desk, like the coffee stand, had been completely obliterated, as had several of the lounge areas where employees once sat around drinking coffee. Couches sat upturned near the front of the building, carried off by the current. The screens that still lined the front hall sat black and empty, most of them now cracked and broken. The only thing that didn't seem to be broken was the structure of the building itself, though neither Shaun nor Rebecca were keen on testing their luck any further and instead began making for the exit.

As they hurried through the semi-darkness, the receptionist, Nancy, came limping forward. Her arm dangled uselessly at her side and like Rebecca, several cuts across her arms and face were oozing blood.

"Rebecca! Thank god, you're alright," she said in French. "Please, can you help me?"

Rebecca had her lean up against a nearby pillar while she pushed her shoulder back in place.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Nancy said breathlessly before bolting towards the exit. Shaun and Rebecca followed behind until they heard another voice cry out for help from behind them.

"We need to get out of here before the entire building comes down on top of us," Shaun said, pulling at her hand when she started backtracking. She ignored him and hurried towards the voice. "Damn it, Bex," he muttered under his breath while he followed her. "If this building collapses and we're trapped inside…"

"Help! Please help! I'm— I'm stuck!" An older-sounding voice came from inside a set of offices behind what remained of the main elevator shaft. "Can someone help me? Oh thank heavens," a middle-aged man said with a sigh of relief when Rebecca came around the corner. "Please help me. This cabinet fell on my legs and I can't get out."

"We've got you," Rebecca said, squatting behind the man and hooking her arms underneath the man's shoulders. Shaun placed himself next to the cabinet and after a short count, lifted it off the man while Rebecca pulled him out.

His leg was badly crushed and he likely needed a hospital, but he'd live.

"Now can we get out of here?" Shaun asked, barely trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Rebecca threw him an irritated look while she wrapped the injured man's arm around her shoulder and helped him to his feet. As they helped walk him out to the atrium and towards the front door, a platoon of security guards sprinted by, voices crackling through their radios.

"...loose in the vaults! Send backup!"

"Allez!" In the background, several men were shouting for someone to stand down.

The first guards disappeared down a hallway and another group followed closely behind.

"...a situation down here! We need m—"

Rebecca, Shaun and the injured man all tensed at the sharp crack of gunfire.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Shaun said when the second platoon disappeared down the hall. As the screams and shouts echoed closer and closer from the hallway where the guards were going, the three of them struggled to find a place to hide in the now-barren atrium, where the only things large enough to hide behind were the structural pillars.

They'd almost made it to the next pillar when the disturbance spilled out of the hallway across from where they were standing. Rebecca quickly pushed the man behind the nearest pillar and out of sight. There was hardly room for one person, let alone two, and so she was forced to scurry back to a different pillar. A few feet away, Shaun pressed his back against a third, only daring to glance around the edge to have a peek at what was causing all the commotion.

"What's going on?" Shaun whispered. Rebecca shrugged and peered around the pillar to get a better look. Several guards had reemerged and were retreating back into the atrium, nightsticks and pistols still aimed down the hall.

As the guard closest to the hallway raised his gun, a figure appeared and grabbed hold of his arm, twisting it around when he fired a shot. The stray bullet struck one of the few working emergency lights overhead, casting them all into deep shadow.

Shaun and Rebecca watched while the vague silhouettes of the guards attacked the person one at a time, each one as unsuccessful as the last. Occasionally they would double up, but it didn't matter. Whatever advantage they thought they had wasn't enough. Their opponent was far too fast and adept. More than once one of the guards aimed to shoot, only for the target to grab someone else and use them as a shield.

As the guards circled around, the figure circled with them, never keeping their back turned to any one guard for more than a second or two. The knife in their hand glinted when they lifted it closer to their face. They waited patiently, a python in the grass, ready for the right opportunity to strike.

They didn't have to wait very long. Soon a flurry of batons descended towards them and they had only a fraction of a second to dive out of the way. They moved with incredible speed, whirling around in every direction and plunging their knife into whoever was closest.

By the time Shaun and Rebecca understood what was happening, it was over, and a pile of bodies lay motionless on the ground.

For a moment, the figure just stood in the center of the carnage, their face still shrouded in darkness and their chest rapidly rising and falling while they surveyed the scene.

"Psst! Bex!" Shaun hissed as loudly as he dared. "Rebecca, we need to get out of here!" He looked back and forth between Rebecca—who was creeping out from behind her hiding spot—and the silhouette.

"Bex!" he hissed again to no answer. He'd have to chance it now. With one last glance at the killer, he sprinted towards the pillar Rebecca was now emerging from. He grabbed her wrist and tried pulling her towards the entrance, but she stayed rooted in place, her eyes transfixed on the figure.

As if sensing eyes on them, they turned and, though they were still silhouetted by a single emergency light overhead, Shaun and Rebecca could finally make out some of their features.

Rebecca's eyes widened with excitement and an incredulous smile crossed her face when it dawned on her. Shaun glanced back at the silhouette and let out a small gasp as he, too, realized who it was. He wondered how on earth he'd missed it before. They fought with the precision of Altaïr, the elegance of Ezio, and ferocity of Connor, and, even after all this time, Shaun would recognize that fighting style anywhere.

The figure stepped over the pile of bodies and a pool of light illuminated his face for the first time.

In the middle of it stood a man, beaten and bruised, blood dripping from his clenched fists, one of which still tightly gripped the knife. His lean body was slightly hunched over defensively, ready and waiting for another attack. The light from above formed an eerie glow over him, silhouetting his long, slender frame and casting his shadow across the unmoving bodies strewn about him. Despite the time that had passed, Shaun and Rebecca would never, could never, forget that figure. Standing in front of them, fresh from a fight and back from the dead, was Desmond Miles.

Five years and over a dozen iterations later, I'm finally posting the first chapter to a story that's lived in my head rent-free since I first discovered Assassin's Creed back in 2017. It's been a long time coming, and I'm so so SO happy to finally be able to share it for others to read. It's been 10 years since Desmond's sacrifice, so I think it's time to finally bring him back ;)