Chapter 1 - Claire

2009

She pulled the motorcycle into the warehouse, quickly closing the garage door behind her. She pulled the bike past all the cargo to her spot near the truck. She had to stop short of parking though as she found a silver sedan parked in her spot. Glaring at the vehicle she pulled up next to it and shut the engine off. She sat there a moment looking at the foreign car in curiosity. It was empty and she had noticed the lack of plates on the back when she pulled up. With this information in mind she realized that the extraction had gone smoothly. Which meant that Lucy was back.

She could hear footsteps coming down the metal ramp leading to the upper deck and she sighed. She had left without permission and Shaun was bound to be uptight about it. She dismounted the bike, swinging her right leg over the back to land firmly on the ground on the left side. Pulling the keys from the ignition she twirled them around her index finger twice before pocketing them in her padded jacket.

"Where have you been?!" The familiar British accented voice yelled at her as he approached.

"Shaun leave it be. She's been cooped up for months." She heard Rebecca call from above her. Seems Becca didn't want to get in between her and Shaun again. 'Smart girl' she thought to herself.

She turned around and nearly laughed at the sight of the computer analyst that was storming towards her. His face was red and his brows were creased, giving him a rather cross look. She left all of her gear on and crossed her arms.

"Are you going to explain yourself?" He asked stopping in front of her. She snorted and pulled the back pack off of her back. She walked by him, shoving the bag into his arms as she walked by. She made for the ramps and found Becca on the second landing who followed her as she passed. They climbed the rest of the ramps up to the space they had converted into a workspace.

Off to the left was Shaun's workspace. A simple desk with a laptop and a wall covered in papers. And to the right was Rebecca's area. The open had worked well in their favor and with that space they had been able to construct two newer Animus'. Both work stations were set closer to the front of the room. To the back of the room was a small kitchenette in the back left corner and in the back right corner was a queen sized bed.

It was the back right corner that caught her eye as she entered. There on the bed say a man with tanned skin and a scar on his upper lip. He was wearing a white hoodie and jeans. He looked lost and she understood that this must have been the man they were trying to get from Abstergo. She felt sympathy for him, knowing what he had been through.

In front of the man was a petite blonde pacing back and forth. As soon as she entered the room with Rebecca the girl stopped and looked at her. Lucy. She scoffed into her helmet and didn't mutter so much as a hello as she moved past Lucy to the table in the kitchen. She pulled her keys and wallet from her pockets and tossed them onto the table. Reaching up she untied the chin strap and pulled her helmet off. Her bangs fell to the left side of her face as she blew them out of her eyes.

"You went out for food!" Shaun yelled, rushing into the room. She looked over at him with a bored expression on her face, as if to say so what. "You do realize that you are our most valuable team member! If Abstergo gets their hands on you again we are done for! Every..." He stopped talking as she unzipped her jacket, showing him that fact that she was prepared. She had two 9mm pistols sheathed in a black leather vest holster. Similar to what a detective would wear under a suit jacket. She hung the jacket on the back of the chair in front of her before reaching back to pull two more 9mm pistols from her waist band.

"I can take care of myself Shaun." She said, she glanced over at their new recruit and gave him a wink. The best way to shut Shaun up when he was harping on her for leaving was to show him she had weapons on her. Next she put her booted foot up on the table and pulled a 8in dagger from the sheath that was hidden in her boot. She twirled it around before jamming it into the table. "And don't talk to me about Abstergo like I don't know what would happen if they captured me. I know full well what that would mean for the assassins."

The room was silent for a good three minutes before Shaun finally walked into the kitchen to plate the food. She sighed and removed the last bit of her gear from her body. By the time she was done she stood by the table in nothing more than her black jeans, tucked into knee high black leather boots and a black form fitting tank top.

"Claire right?" Lucy walked over to her, hand out for a handshake. She looked down at the girls hand and then back up at the girl, her face clearly saying she wasn't going to shake it.

"Yes. You must be Lucy." She replied once the girl had dropped her hand.

"It's good to see you again." Lucy said and she just hummed in response. She had never been a fan of Lucy. There was just something off about the girl that she couldn't quite put her finger on. "Anyway...this is our new recruit, Desmond Miles." Lucy introduced. The man on the bed stood up and offered his hand to her. Instead of taking his hand she grasped his forearm in an assassins greeting.

"Nice ink." Desmond said, pointing to the tattoo on her chest. She smirked looking down at what she could see of the marking. She had two tattoos that were visible. The first was the assassins symbol on her chest. It's tips touched the hollow of her neck and its base dipped into her shirt marking the top half of her breasts. The second was the golden brown Eagles wings that sprouted from between her shoulder blades and extended all the way to each wrist.

"Did you see my wings?" She asked him, letting go of his forearm. He shook his head and she smirked at him before turning around and holding her arms out for him to see.

"Their beautiful." He told her. Her arms dropped to her sides and she turned to give him a smile.

"Thank you." She replied. "Now have you had all the introductions?" She asked and he shook his head.

"Well, we will start with Shaun since you've witnesses his short temper." They chuckled as she lead Desmond over to Shaun's workspace. "This is Shaun Hastings our resident historian. As you go through the memories of your ancestor he will be there to write Database entries about the different people and place, places and event that are of significance."

"Sounds like fun." Desmond said, half heartedly and Shaun glared at him. She chuckled and steered the new recruit over to the second station in the room.

"And this if my dear friend Rebecca Crane. She is the glue that keeps this operation running smoothly. She had the pleasure of building these babies." She explained, patting the two Animus seats.

"I like to think of them as the Animus 2.0. They are better and faster than the ones that Abstergo has." Rebecca informed Desmond.

"Why are their two seats?" Desmond asked and she smiled at Rebecca.

"That's the fun part. Rebecca found a way to sync two 'pilots' as you could say and if they have ancestors that have met in the past they can sync their memories together." She explained and he looked at her in amazement. "That's where I come in. I'm your co-pilot. Lucy discovered that Abstergo had learned of your ancestors through my time at Abstergo and when I escaped they gave up trying to find me and found you instead. We still aren't sure what their goal is in all of this but we do know that they are looking for something. Something. That our ancestors came into contact with."

"So we have to live through these memories to figure out what they are looking for so we can find it before they do?" Desmond asked, looking like he understood what was going on.

"Exactly. Now you don't have to do this if you don't want to but it would mean a lot to us and the assassins." She explained, hoping he would be alright with what they were asking.

"You guys are asking me to go back into that thing?" He asked looking unsure.

"Yes but you won't be alone this time. When our ancestors cross paths I'll be there to help you." She reassured him.

"Alright. Let's do this then." He replied, sitting down in the slightly bigger chair. She cheered and sat down in the second animus giddy to finally try this out. "And we know this works?" Desmond asked as Lucy approached with the needle.

"No. We don't." She sobered and looked over at him. She could tell that he was nervous to be going into a homemade animus. "Ready?" She asked, putting her hand out for him to grab if he felt that it would help.

"Ready." He said confidently, taking her hand as Lucy and Rebecca stuck the needles in at the same time. He squeezed her hand at the pain and a small smile twitched at the edge of her lips as she leaned her head back and lost herself I the memories of her ancestor.