Chapter 4 – Inside the Animus

As Finn came through to consciousness, he saw himself inside a digital blue room. He was propping himself up from the floor when he began to wonder what happened.

"Ugh, what the heck happened?" he muttered. "I remember lying on the weird glowing bed, and Jake called me…"

Suddenly, it hit him. As soon as he remembered, he was also accompanying Jake, Princess Bubblegum, and Marceline.

"Oh, crap!" yelled Finn. "Where are they?"

He began to call them out. "Jake? Girls? Where are you?"

As he called out to his friends, he wandered out to the completely open and seemingly endless space. As he made some decent steps out, he bumped into an invisible wall.

"Wha… what the hey?" said Finn confused. "I can't go any further!"

Just then, a familiar voice was heard. It was the female voice.

"Hello, unnamed subject." said the voice. "Welcome to the Animus, version 1.28. Before we can begin to project memories, you must perform and complete the following tutorial."

"Huh?" muttered Finn. "Hey! Where the hell am I? And don't call me unnamed! My name is Finn!"

"Subject name acknowledged." replied the voice. "You are currently in an empty space. Finn, you will now learn the basics of controlling your ancestor."

"What?" said Finn.

The landscape then began to shift and pixels of bits of data began to flicker on about. A bright flash then shrouded Finn, blinding him. As soon as the light died off, the area changed, as well as Finn changing. Instead of seeing his own body, he saw another person's body, evidenced by a different hand in his perspective.

"Huh? This isn't my hand." said Finn, but with a different voice. As soon as he realized his voice change, he then said, "Wait a minute. This isn't my voice! This isn't me! What happened to me?"

"You are assuming the control of your ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad." explained the voice. "He is an Assassin, just like most of your bloodline is. In order to continue on with the tutorial, you must become synchronized with your ancestor."

"What? An Assassin?" inquired Finn. "That's crazy. I can't be an Assassin. I don't work like that."

"You must be synchronized with your ancestor in order to continue." said the female voice.

"Alright, I'll do it." retorted Finn.

Finn began to relax his body and mind, taking steady breaths to calm him further. As he did that, he felt an unusual boost in his energy. He became more alert, felt fit, and had an increase in his intelligence.

"Whoa! This feels great!" he exclaimed. "I feel like… I could take on a bunch of guys."

"Synchronization complete." said the female voice. "You are now ready for the tutorial. Please wait."

As the voice finished speaking, the landscape shifted once again, as well as another flash of light shining out to blind Finn. As the light settled down, the area now had marked spots on the floor.

"Okay, so I am an Assassin." concluded Finn, accepting his ancestral heredity and for whom he is now. "That's not completely bad. I now know who my ancestor is and my family line as well. In fact, I'm controlling him right now and speaking in his voice. I wonder what kind of fighting abilities I… uh… I mean my ancestor has. Wonder if I can get some cool stuff too."

"Finn, prepare for the first tutorial." said the female voice. "You must learn to control your ancestor."

Some beeping noises suddenly chimed as bits of data flew all around Finn. The female voice then announced, "Error. A compatible input device is not installed or not found in the Animus. The subject cannot continue controlling his/her ancestor without a device. Initializing system logoff."

As the voice finished announcing the message, Finn became blinded by another flash of light and began to go back into consciousness in the real world. As he saw the glass panel slide out of his face, he got up from the Animus and saw his friends staring at the screen.

"Hey guys, what y'all doing?" he asked inquisitively.

As soon as Finn spoke, everyone looked up at him. They all rushed towards him as they yelled, "Finn!"

"Oh Finn, I thought you were stuck in there." said Princess Bubblegum, feeling alleviated from her anxiety as she hugged Finn.

"Yeah, man!" said Jake, waving his arms around. "We were worried that you wouldn't make it through. But you're back! Now we should get the math out of here."

"No, guys; I don't want to leave yet." said Finn stoically. "There's something in that machine that revealed my ancestry. And I want to find out more about it."

"What? Your ancestry?" scoffed Marceline. "Oh come on, Finn. You know better than that. That machine is probably giving you crazy thoughts. It can't prove anything."

"Oh, yeah?" defended Princess Bubblegum. "Well go ahead and use that device. I'm sure it'll show you your family. Besides, this device was made by a very large technology industry."

"Okay, whatever." smirked Marceline.

As she went to the device and laid her body on top of it, the glass screen popped out of the device and covered her face.

"Oh wait." said Princess Bubblegum. She turned to Finn and said, "Do you have a video game controller or something in your backpack?"

"Yes I do, Peebs. I got one of Beemo's controllers right here." Said Finn, as he reached inside of his backpack and took out a game controller.

"Okay, now give it to me." said Princess Bubblegum, as she took the controller from Finn's hand. She then looked around the Animus console and found a port that has the label "Controller Pad". She hooked the controller to the port and placed it on the console.

"New device found." said the female voice. "Scanning device. Device is compatible and now ready for use. Applying control schemes for ancestor control."

"Okay, looks like everything is good to go." said Princess Bubblegum. "Now I'm gonna activate it."

She then presses a few buttons, and the glass screen cover turns on, began to make a high-pitched hum and sends Marceline into the Animus. Soon, the three waited out for her to come back to the real world.

After waiting for a half-hour, the glass screen slid off of Marceline's face. As everyone began to huddle around the Animus, Marceline had a shocked look on her face, as if she had gone through a very weird moment. She got up from the Animus and stared into the emptiness.

"Oh gob… what did I just look at?" said Marceline.

"What, what happened?" said Finn.

"I just saw the weirdest thing in there." said Marceline. "I saw my dad kissing my mom, but when they were young. And they were doing that at a public park. It was freaky for me. They did all kinds of kissing."

"Wow, that's strange." said Princess Bubblegum. She then said teasingly, "And you said that you couldn't see your family. I told you so!"

"Okay, okay, you were right!" shouted Marceline. "I just want to forget that image that I saw."

"That's good enough for me." said Finn. "This proves to me that the machine really does work. We should all rest tomorrow, so that I can begin my journey early in the morning."

"Yeah, we should." yawned Jake. "If were gonna wake up early, we should sleep now, because it's 7:00 PM."

"I think there's a bedroom we can all sleep in over there." said Princess Bubblegum, as she pointed at an open room with a bed inside.

"Okay, let's all go to sleep so that tomorrow the crazy stuff can happen." said Jake.

Everyone went to the bedroom and laid their bodies down on the surprisingly large bed, as dosed off for the night.