Infinite Legends
1 The Taxi Ride
2 years earlier...
Yeah, you could be the greatest
You can be the best
You can be the King Kong banging on your chest
You could beat the world
You could beat the war
You could talk to God, go banging on his door
You can throw your hands up
You can beat the clock
You can move a mountain
You can break rocks
You can be a master
Don't wait for luck
Dedicate yourself and you can find yourself
Standing in the hall of fame
And the world's gonna know your name-
"So, what's your name, kid?"
The sound of muffled words that seep through the inspiring verses and light beat of my favorite song bring me out of my deep thoughts and feelings for the moment. I slowly look away from the foggy, wet, and misty buildings and cars that pass us by as I reach up with cold fingers to pull out my black headphones from my ears to let them fall onto my lap. I look up with dark eyes and black waves of hair shadowing my face under my hood into the rear view mirror of the old taxi cab to meet the tired, bloodshot pupils of the driver.
"Excuse me?" I ask quietly, unsure exactly of what he said to me. I try to ignore the strong smell of stale coffee and not look at the old cigarette buds and candy wrappers that only God knows how long they've been sitting there that litter the dull gray faded seats and floor of the car.
"What's your name?" The older man asks again in his old raspy voice as he glances at me in the rear view mirror again. "I suppose I should know at least something about you before I let you off."
"Oh, umm... Skyler," I finally manage to get out as if it's hard to say my own name. "Skyler Wilkinson."
The taxi driver coughs for a moment and I begin to smell the foul stench of tobacco and tar combined once again. It takes all my will power not to gag or scrunch up my face in disgust. "Skyler, spelled like the singer Skyler Grey?" He asks, glancing at me again for a moment before focusing on the road again to change lanes.
I nod and look back down at the Samsung Galaxy and headphones in my hands, my long black, and wavy layers of hair falling down on either side of my face. My mind begins to wander again for a moment as I begin to think of how I got here.
...
24 hours earlier...
I'll stop the whole world
I'll stop the whole world from turning into monster
And eating us alive
Don't you ever wonder how we survived?
Well now that you're gone the world is ours-
So what do you think it will be like in there, Sky?
Her voice whispers into my head, seeming louder than my music. I look to my right and see Shao Jun in her black and red Assassin robes giving off a faded glow as she sits in the waiting chair beside me, her hood lowered exposing the same dark eyes and dark hair I have, arms loosely crossed over her small figure, and a curious look in her eyes. She chose to take her nineteen-year-old form when she was young and left her home to escape the genocide going on her home country to find Ezio Auditore for guidance. She only chose now to appear for me, because I'm the last one in the room. Everyone else has already been tested on and given their things to start school here or go home to live a normal life they never thought they would see again.
I simply shrug and pull out my headphones with shaky fingers. "I don't care, I'm just hoping I don't get in," I mutter sarcastically.
You are not the least bit excited? Shao Jun asks in her thick Asian accent as she looks over at me.
A light laugh escapes my lips and I sit back in my chair. "The last thing I want to do is sit in a chair all day with my brain hooked up to a computer so they can suck up my memories for personal gain. And, I mean come on," I look over at her. "You've given me visions and dreams enough to where I could reenact and recite everything you did and went through your entire life."
Shao Jun grins and chuckles as she looks down at the floor. I suppose when you put it that way, I would hate it too.
"No kidding," I snort.
My ancestor looks over at me with a small grin on her lips. No matter what happens, we will be alright. She reaches over and gently rubs my shoulder. Well technically, I don't feel the touch, but my Ghost does. And that's enough for the both of us.
I draw in another shaky breath as I look down at my old beat up Converse sneakers. "This test is going to be different than the others," I mutter.
I agree, Shao Jun says. But it's nothing we can't handle.
The door suddenly opens, my Assassin Ghost quickly vanishes, my heartbeat begins to quicken again, and I feel the could touch of terror filling me.
"Skyler Wilkinson?" I look over at the woman who stands in the open doorway of the waiting room wearing a skin tight black dress and has her light brown hair pulled into a high bun. "We're ready for you." She grins at me while holding a clipboard close to her chest with the hand that isn't holding open the door for me.
Taking a few shallow breaths, I tuck my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, slowly get to my feet, and walk towards the door.
...
The taxi driver suddenly clears his throat, bringing me out of my distressed thoughts about the past.
I slowly look back up and turn my head to the right to look back out to the car window to watch the rain fall and the cars pass us by.
The moment comes all too quickly. The taxi cab slowly comes to a stop in front of a sidewalk that is relatively quiet around the front of Legacy Academy.
The taxi driver coughs again and clears his throat. He turns around in his seat to look at me as he says, "Well, Miss Wilkinson, I hate to dump ya out here in the rain." I look out the window again to the empty front entrance of the Academy. "But at least there'll be people inside."
I nod to the man before I unbuckle my seat belt and reach over and grab my backpack and duffel bag from the seat beside me. I then proceed to pull a few crumpled bills from the right pocket of my ripped jeans. I lean forwards slightly and drop the bills into the man's outstretched hand.
"Keep the change," I mutter as I pull my black hood over my head again.
"Thanks," the man says happily. "One more thing." I turn to look at him as I'm stepping out of the taxi cab. "Good luck. And remember that his is one powerful company."
I nod and give the driver a small smile before I turn my back to the old yellow car to let my eyes rest on my home for the next three years.
...
You are going to be fine, Skyler, Shao Jun's voice quietly floats through my head as I follow the brown haired woman down the clean and quiet halls.
"I'm Marcie, by the way," the brown haired woman says as she looks over her shoulder at me with a smile. "And I think we may have to wait a moment because I think Alliey is still with someone."
"Okay," I mutter quietly as I begin to loathe this even more. I follow her down the hall watching her walk promptly with purpose as if she enjoys doing this job.
"...b-but I was supposed to m-make it."
"I'm terribly sorry, Paige, but you're not a descendant."
Marcie sighs sadly for a moment beside me before quietly pushing the already slightly ajar door to reveal two people sitting together in the small room. A girl who appears to be about my age is sitting in a chair facing us with her head bowed slightly as she sniffles and whimpers with a small white crumpled tissue closed in her fingers and a bandage wrapped in blue tape around her upper right arm. She sits beside a short and petite woman with light blond hair and icy blue eyes who looks oddly familiar.
"Hey, Alliey?" Marcie asks quietly to the blond woman who is gently stroking the crying girl's back beside her whose name I think is Paige.
Alliey looks up at Marcie beside me. I try not to show my astonishment when I see her face. Alliey Anderson, Riley Anderson's mother who never say her alive again after the attack on her family that actually won't happen for another several months in Texas. I ready about her story in her classified file.
"I've got another student," Marcie gestures to me for a moment while I stand in confusion behind her.
Alliey nods to Marcie before she looks to Paige who has seemed to calm down a bit. "Come on, sweetie," she says to Paige before putting her arms around her to lead her out of the room.
When they're gone and Marcie has closed the door, I turn to look at her. "What was that all about?"
Marcie chuckles at me. "Do you have any idea of how huge this opportunity is?" She asks me. I simply shrug and shake my head. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be even accepted this far into the test."
I shrug. "I could care less if I get into the Academy or not."
She grins at me. "That's how I felt when I took my test."
"Who was yours?" I ask curiously as Marcie is opening the door into another room. I have to keep my jaw from dropping to the ground as I stand in awe of the test room. "I didn't have one," Marcie says. "But I chose to stay here with Abstergo. And I'm glad I did."
It's not a very large room; but it still looks pretty awesome. The gray walls and floors make the room seem smaller than it really is, different types of computers are hooked up to one another against a wall sitting on tables, strange looking machines are on the other wall, humming quietly or beeping every few seconds, and right in the center of the room is a sort of white lawn chair-looking seat.
I slowly walk towards it and rest my hand on the arm rest to the left as I look at the chair which is my final test: the Animus.
"Alright, Skyler," Marcie says to me, spinning around on her shoe to look at me. "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," I mutter sarcastically.
"Well, I'm sorry to tell you that Abstergo has not provided us with the updated version of the Animus," Marcie says as she walks towards me with a needle and syringe in her hands. "So we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."
Wait," I say slowly as I look at her uneasily. "You mean like take my blood to see who my ancestor is?"
She nods. "And I promise it won't hurt much," Marcie says quickly while she shakes her head and swings her arms from side to side slightly a few times. "Can you take a seat?" She gestures to the Animus.
I nod to her with a straight face as I turn around to slowly but awkwardly take a seat in the Animus chair. Inside my head, my brain is trying to tell myself that it's going to be okay. Me and needles have never been friends.
Before I came to the Foster home, and after my parents were murdered, I was always in a hospital. The doctors thought I was sick. They would do multiple brain scans on me to find that I possibly had a brain tumor at my young age. So they would inject me with medicines and chemicals to hopefully give me a normal life. It didn't work. I never had a brain tumor. But they classified me as mentally disordered until I discovered how to hack computers and systems and changed my own private records.
"Hold out your arm," Marcie holds out her gloved hand to me.
I shift uncomfortably for a moment before slowly outstretching my arm to her.
Everything is going to be alright, Skyler, Shao Jun's voice echoes through my panicking thoughts again. I'm here for you when you need me.
I almost wish she would appear in front of me. But I know that she can't be there to hold my hand. It's only a little blood, I reassure myself. And a needle... and pain... and a needle...
Marcie rubs alcohol with a damp cotton ball on my arm before she slowly brings the needle closer to my arm.
My heart beat begins to pick up again and I start to breathe harder as the needle grows closer to my skin "W-why do you need that much b-blood?" I ask just so she won't do anything just yet.
She stops moving the needle to look at me. "Because if your blood is connected to a past Assassin, we will need to put it on file."
"Oh," I mumble as the needle continues to move closer to my arm. I try to focus on something else and take my mind off the fact that I'm about to have a freaking needle jabbed into my arm. But nothing comes to mind when the silver point is driven into the soft flesh of my arm and left there as it extracts my blood. I bite back my whimpers of pain and awkward shifting of feeling uncomfortable with a needle in my arm.
Thankfully, in moments the transaction is complete and I can slowly let out the breath I didn't even know I was holding.
Marcie chuckles. Most people behave far more panicked than you were. I'm impressed."
I sigh and let a small grin curve the features of my lips for that moment as she begins to press a small and clean gauze pad to my arm and quietly rolls out some blue tape to secure my small incision that is already forming a bruise.
"Well, now that I have some of your blood, we can begin the test." Marcie tosses the wrapper that was encasing the disposable syringe, along with the bloody cotton ball, and the needle in a small trash can nearby. Then, she pulls the light gray table on wheels closer towards her so it's placed over her legs next to the Animus chair I sit in. Marcie opens up the laptop in front of her and looks over to me with a small grin. "Let's get started."