The next day began early for the group. Hanover was checking her feed over a cup of strong coffee. Her sleep had been fitful, which was nothing new to her. But it wasn't the "one eye open" sleep to which she had become accustomed. Something strange kept needling her brain all night. Did we do the right thing? Her life had been devoted to Order since she could remember. She remembered hearing about "the farm" Miles had left when she was still a girl That was decades ago. But thing felt different now. Was this the effect of the time-travel? Had the ripples extended even to here? Had her own past changed? What if Justine was the only one unaffected by it?

Hanover rubbed the sleep from her eyes again. The words on her monitor were still blurry. She dreaded being able to read the news once her sight corrected. She looked around the dark room, trying to retrain her eyes. Grant was lying in the Animus, checking his notes and fine-tuning the machine. Yusef was scrolling through the database, amazing himself with their new history. Burke hadn't come in yet. Fitz was finishing a bagel over the sink.

"So, Fitzy, tell us about your little adventure," Hanover said at length. "I'm sure you've been bursting to share." Grant looked away from his notes for a moment and sat up.

"Yeah. What was he like?"

Fitz shoved the rest of her bagel in her mouth, signalling for a minute of chewing. "It was crazy! I was there. Really there. It wasn't like being in the Animus, watching through someone else's eyes. The smell of the place was earthy and cold. The fortress was strong. And Altair.."

"Super dreamy, huh?" Grant laughed. "Didn't take you for-"

"No, no. He was..." She wrinkled her nose at the idea. "He looked at me they way Burke does when he's being team leader-y. Like, through me." Fitz stopped a moment, trying to visualize the scene again. "It's was...I dunno. I'm at a loss." She scratched her head and sat down at the workstation. "I want to be able to explain it, but all the words I've ever learned wouldn't do it justice."

"What did he say about the message?" Grant asked. "Did he figure it out right away?"

Fitz shook her head. "He seemed confused and frustrated that it was all hush-hush and cryptic. I wanted to tell him straight out, but..." She shrugged. "Not what I was sent to do." She covered her face and yawned, hands then combing her hair back. "How'd I do?"

"Well according to this, we've changed focus. Quite a bit." Yusef waved her over. "The Messenger-that's you, by the way- has become bit of a bogeyman for the Order."

Fitz furrowed her brow. "I have a title? That's...cool, I guess."

"Maybe not. We did some digging after you went to bed," coughed Burke, finally making an appearance. His eyes were still red. He didn't look to have slept well, either. "The Guild no longer goes toe to toe with Templars, but the offshoot we've created. It's gone by a few names, but now it's known as 'The Secret'. It's a cult devoted to well, you, I suppose. They wait for the Messenger to make herself known and her fury will topple monarchies, corporations, so on, and so forth."

Fitz blinked. "Me?"

He nodded grimly. "To make things worse," he paused. "We're part of them."

Grant stood up. "Whoa, what? We- as in us, right now- are the-the bad guys?"

Everyone stopped breathing for a second stared at Burke. He lowered his eyes. "We're no longer Assassins. We are soldiers of The Messenger." He looked at Fitz. She had no idea what to say to this. She stammered to make any kind of cohesive thought, but nothing would leaver her mouth. She held onto her chair for dear life.

Burke took control. "Now, even with this information, we're going ahead with the plan. Our present doesn't matter 500 years ago. The Auditore event remains the target."

"But what if that timeline has changed? What if he's not fighting Templars, he's fighting...us?" Hanover posited.

"The Secret doesn't become a power until the late 18th century, culminating in the French Revolution. We can head it off at the pass, I think, if we trigger it with the Borgias, like we planned."

The group was silent. Yusef fiddled with the keyboard, tracing over the keys. "Let's do it. If we can't undo it, we must deal with our consequences We seem to still be retaining our original memories, yes?" Grant and Fitz looked at each other and nodded. "Then we'll have to live our new lives if we must. We knew that as Assassins we'd have to embrace whatever we needed to do to survive and protect the Order. The same must be true if we remain as members of The Secret."

"You can just flip it on and off, Yusef?"

"We must. Our loyalties have been tested before, haven't they? Von Friedrich?" Grant looked away, ashamed. Burke scowled at his medic, raising his hand slightly to get him to stop. Fitz had no idea who they meant. She looked to Yusef, but Hanover shook her head.

"He's right." Burke sighed. "This is our doing. If this doesn't fix it, then we go on." The air seemed to be sucked from the room. Everyone just stood awkwardly trying to make eye contact, but couldn't bring themselves to do so.

"So, let's get on with it," Burke huffed. "Hanover, keep an eye on what's going on. I imagine our access to the database may have been traced. We'll need to use what we remember and compare it against what we have now. Which brings me to Fitz. Go through our 'new' files and see how the Auditore timeline changed. Hopefully not by much, but let's have a look, yes?"

"I'm on it." She grudgingly pulled herself in her chair around to the workstation.

"Grant. What was your analysis of the travel protocols?"

The young man stood blank for a moment, almost in shock of the sudden change in topic. "Um. The..protocols seemed to be fine. I don't know how to fix the crash landing part, but maybe we can...set up pillows or a mattress? I guess?"

"You guess?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, I've never traveled through time before," he snapped back. "The holsters are fine, that's the important thing. She got back in one piece. Everyone will need an individual code for the big one, but yeah. It's fine. Moving the equipment though? Dunno."

"We've got a couple of days to get that figured out though." Burke was trying his damnedest to get the kid to calm down, but it was early. Grant wasn't great first thing. "Yusef?"

"Fitz looks good."

"That's so sweet." Fitz laughed tiredly, head on her chest.

"I can check her out more in depth later, if you like," the medic offered. "We'll need her to get cleaned up before the next jump."

Burke looked over his shoulder. "You hear that?"

"Take a bath. Check," came the reply.

Everyone went about their business for the next couple of hours. Nothing seemed out of place with the Animus and chatter was quiet from the Guild.

"Burke? Wanna come see?" Fitz asked in his ear. He had been reading.

"Whatcha got?'

She sat down and nodded toward the screen. "The Auditore timeline looks relatively unscathed. His father still gets betrayed, he grows up to rebuild the Assassins. Takes out the Borgias, goes to Constantinople. But-and here's the big part-he continues the search for the Pieces of Eden."

"He doesn't give up. Interesting."

"His daughter joins the Brotherhood, but dies on a mission. The Auditore bloodline ends with her."

"But it can't. It travels to America. Miles."

She looked up at him. "Not anymore." She glanced around and lowered her head toward the monitor. Burke followed her gaze. "Meet the new Desmond," she whispered. she scrolled down just enough for the eyes in the picture to be seen.

Hanover.

"How? You just said-" Burke started.

"Wrong daughter. He marries Sofia still, and they still have a girl. This one, however is the product of Sforza. Mommy must tell her all about Ezio and her lineage, so she goes of to fight the good fight, has two sons in the process, probably by other members of the Brotherhood. An Auditore by blood, but probably never recognized."

Burke looked at Fitz, who quickly signed off the database. "Not a word."

She couldn't take her eyes of of her. The woman not twenty feet away from her was the blood descendant now. History must have changed just enough. Unbelievable

"So what of the Apple that Ezio finds in Masyaf?" Burke whispered a little louder, so it wouldn't look terribly suspicious.

Fitz shrugged. "Somewhere held by the Order. I haven't anything about resting places, but I doubt they'd have that as public record."

Burke cleared his throat lowly. "Good find." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Very good." She tried to turn to him, but he walked back to his chair. Fitz decided it would be prudent not not follow up. She turned back to her monitor, but watched Hanover. She didn't look any different. I wonder if she feels it. Would you know?

Please don't forget to review! Love it? Hate it? Lemme hear you!