Chapter Eight: Abyssal Descent
The assassin's feet splashed down against the rooftop as he soared from his perch to the concrete surface below. The wind whipped through the buildings of city twelve as he pressed on into the tempest. His keen eyes cut through the raindrops and saw into the seamless darkness allowing him to catch sight of several figures converging on his position. Just as he had suspected, they'd been following him and waiting for their moment to strike.
Julian watched as several splashes landed around him the bullets that caused them burrowing into the concrete as the assassin effortlessly leaped across the expanse between the buildings and latched onto the fire escape. With his grip instantly secured the spry assassin scurried up the escape with such quickness that the next few shots fired weren't even near enough to him to be heard. Windows beneath him on the building smashed but he was already up on the roof sprinting across.
There were others moving toward him now but Julian felt no fear as he jumped the distance to the next building once more. He stopped than to catch his breath behind an air conditioning unit. Free running in the HEV suit had taken some getting used to. He sunk within himself for a moment casting aside the sound of the howling wind and the patter of the rain and the loud beating of his heart. He could hear them moving toward him now, footsteps growing closer. Someone was on the roof with him already and Julian felt an imperceptible smile on his lips as he stepped out to greet his attacker.
The man was tall, some seven feet by Julian's estimation but the assassin had faced off against fall bigger and far more imposing enemies. Still he put on a facade of fear acting surprised by the man's sudden appearance and acting even more afraid when his enemies all ended up on the roof surrounding him with silenced weapons pointed his way and smirks of superiority on their lips.
"We got the asshole boys!" the big man shouted, "We were told you'd be more of a challenge and we're mighty disappointed, aren't we boys?"
"Mighty disappointed Marco," one of them hissed, "I guess the assassins are just manipulative scum after all. They strike when their enemy has his back turned!"
"Now come quietly assassin," Marco advised turning the assassin around to put cuffs on him.
As soon as the man grabbed Julian's arm the assassin reacted, in one motion he hit the switch to extend the hidden blades on his gauntlets, he spun out of the man's grip making sure to spin downward into a crouch as he cut the man's abdomen open. The other bounty hunters began to fire their weapons but they aimed too high and their bullets struck Marco, not Julian. The assassin was already in motion before they'd realized their mistake. He rushed at the air conditioning unit as they began to fire once more and ran straight up it before launching off. He flew out straight toward them with bullets passing dangerous close and blades extended. He swept his arms out from him cutting the throats of two of the bounty hunters and than pushing their bodies into the other two enemies that remained.
Julian killed one of them and then grabbed the remaining bounty hunter by the collar. He stared into the man's eyes which now seemed to beg him for mercy but the assassin had seen the world he'd known turn to ash. He felt no remorse for the dogs that the Templars had sent to chew and spit out the assassin's.
"Is my back turned to you?" Julian growled to the man as he dangled him over the edge of the building.
"Please, I'm only doing my job," the man pleaded with his half-rotten teeth and fully rotten breath right in Julian's face, "The Templars gave us this work, they said our families would be safer without the assassins around. We just want to make a living and make the place safer for our kids!"
Julian felt his anger abating and he lowered the man onto the rooftop before him. The man stood there for a moment truly surprised that the assassin hadn't taken his life anyway. Julian felt so conflicted in that moment. He'd spent the last three weeks fending off the hunters that the Templars had sent to prey upon them. He'd hoped that in his impressive display of self-defense he would relay a message to the Templars that the assassins would not go without a fight and that they should release Shephard. Already more than four dozen would-be killers lie dead, most had attacked Julian but some had attempted to kill other assassins. Some had succeeded, eight assassins had been killed and seven others wounded by bounty hunters.
Julian turned his back on the man for a moment and began walking toward the rooftop door hoping to get out of the rain. In a split-second he heard the man turn behind him. Thunder resounded in the night for a moment blinding the assassin's ears but Julian knew enough to turn. The man was bearing in on him with a knife. The assassin had been quick but not quick enough as the knife plunged into his stomach. The bounty hunter looked into the assassin's almond eyes hoping to see pain but instead he saw anger. Julian grabbed the man's wrist and pulled the knife out in one motion making sure that the HEV suit had indeed stopped the knife from impaling him though he would likely still receive a bruise from the force of impact. The man attempted to go for his gun but before it was even out of the holster he was lying on the ground clutching his cut throat to stem the flow of blood.
"But my children," the man managed to squeak.
"The City will be safer for them without you," Julian replied coldly walking away from the dying man.
Julian did feel remorse as he walked away but he managed to stifle it, to keep it hidden and locked away beneath the numbness of apathy. Killing these bounty hunters was different from killing Combine soldiers. Or was it? Julian realized that there was very little choice for a Combine soldier to do his duty and that many Combine soldiers were not voluntarily doing as they were told. At the very least though he knew that the Combine were his enemy through and through but many of these bounty hunters were just taking a job and were genuinely lead to believe that what they were doing was for the best of city.
The body count he'd left behind had little effect on the Templars and their actions these past weeks leading Julian to believe he was now merely digging the grave deeper. The City had turned against the assassins and each time he defended himself against the Templars they gained more evidence to sway the public to believe the Assassin Order were indeed corrupt and evil. It was this that had led him to using the HEV suit rather than his assassin robes though he had modified the suit to include his dual gauntlet blades.
Julian knew he was running out of time as each day that passed drew them closer to Shephard's execution. Already the Templars had held a trial which was, of course, a mockery of truth and justice. The farce had impressed the citizenry however who now threw their support at the Templars. Just a few days earlier the last blow to the City 12 of the past was dealt when the mayor, Baron Brown, announced a city wide election to elect a new mayor. Julian wasn't sure if fear had prompted this move or if the Baron was indeed in league with the Templars but the assassin knew one thing. He was running of time.
Emil Nemico stared at his face in the mirror wearing a smirk of supreme self-satisfaction. In just a few years time he'd managed to rise through the ranks of the Templar Order growing ever closer to a position of true authority. Now, as if fate had ordained it, he was being offered a position that would grant him power over more than just fellow Templar Knights but over much of what the City and the Resistance as a whole did. Baron Brown was stepping down and amongst those names whispered as possible replacements Emil Nemico was a prime contender.
The chaos that had wracked the city after the fall of the Assassins might have been a give-away to the populace that they were too hasty in their judgment of the assassins who had helped them for so many years. It was too late for looking back, the people of City 12 instead looked forward focusing on bringing to justice the man who had killed Desmond Miles and the other assassins who had, apparently, planned Desmond's downfall. The chaos that was indeed the fault of the Templars was blamed fully upon the assassins who had been sent scurrying into the shadows as social pariah's but were not being openly hunted by the Templars. In fact Emil Nemico was planning on offering the assassins who admitted to their actions amnesty from any repercussions and the added benefit of joining the Templars if they chose.
The sly man brushed the dust off of the old suit and tie he'd managed to find in good condition. It was his restraint in dealing with Shephard and the other assassins that had allowed the City to remain fully in support of their Order. Had the Templars begun an obvious witch hunt against the assassins suspicion would have been their downfall. Instead it was ordinary angry citizens stirred into a grassroots fervor that had burned the Assassin's Guild to ashes. Those bounty hunters that the Templars did send were mostly volunteers. Due to their passive-aggressive approach the Templars were still fully in control of swaying the attitudes and desires of the people of City 12 and Emil Nemico played a part in that.
Emil turned toward the bed behind him with a grin staring at the object of his desire lying there. The shimmering surface of the object entranced him as he considered what magic lie beneath the metal that it was composed of. He laughed at the naïveté of the man who had given it to him. Was that buffoon truly under the impression that Emil Nemico owed loyalty to any but himself and the Templar Order? He picked up the object feeling it hum with energy as he moved it into his lead-lined safe.
He stepped out into the street and was met there by his body-guard a short-stature but heavily built man with a bald head. His family had come to America from Russia when he was just a child, only a few years before the invasion and his accent still hung heavy on his lips.
"You going somewhere boss?"
"Vera has requested my presence," Emil replied with a sigh, "I think that I may get her as well as the keys to the city. I'm so glad that the rain has stopped."
"You want me to come with you?" The man inquired with his strong accent.
"Not necessary friend," Emil replied patting the man on the back, "Keep an eye on the place Pyotr, keep it safe."
Emil Nemico continued on into the night passing by the few citizens of City 12 who were still awake and offering them greetings. What danger was there to be protected from now?
"The City is lost," Hassan lamented as Alyx patched up one of the man's most recent bullet wounds as best she could, "It will not accept our leadership."
"It will accept mine," Julian said though his tone was uncertain, "I can win the election."
"Half the city thinks you're dead," Alyx disagreed, "The other half think that you had something to do with your Father's death."
"The Templars have continued to churn out their lies," Hassan nodded, "And many times the citizens themselves supply the paranoia and conspiracy theories."
"But if they have the actual me in front of them they may change their minds," Julian hypothesized, "I'm tired of killing anonymous bounty hunters, that just leaves corpses for them to point to and blame the assassin's for all without compromising any of their lies. If I'm out in the open at least that contradicts what the official story is."
"You can do as you wish of course," Hassan said wincing as Alyx put the last finishing touch on his wounds, "But I do not recommend going to them as an advocate of our Order."
"Very well," Julian agreed, "I'll go as me and just me with no affiliation to the assassins."
"Julian Miles, politician?" Jara asked aloud, "I don't like it."
"We can't just let the City go to the Templars," Allison argued, "We've wasted enough time, it's time to announce Julian's alive and a candidate."
"Julian Miles," Jara said shaking her head in disbelief, "Politician?"
Emil knocked nervously perfectly tapping out the pre-set password pattern that would gain him entry. The door slid open as the knock completed and Vera stood in the doorway. Her tall slinky appearance was punctuated by the elegant dress she wore this evening which brought out her brazen jade eyes. Emil was far younger than her, he knew, yet he was inexorably attracted to her. He seductive charisma was legendary and he'd often heard other Templar men whispering about the deceptively beautiful quality that she possessed. She gestured for him to enter as she eyed him up and down. Emil merely smiled as his heart swelled with pride and his mind filled with visions of Vera and himself ruling over City 12 and leading humanity to prosperity.
Emil's fantasies were shattered when he saw they were not alone, several other men sat within the apartment many of them he recognized as being established leaders of the Templar Order. Vidic was amongst them though the tired old man seemed disengaged from the entire scene and wore a blank expression. Emil sat down on a nearby sofa and Vera took up the position directly across from him on a second sofa. The dreary and rundown apartment seemed an odd place for such a meeting of prestigious and powerful minds but Emil shrugged it off and smiled confidently at Vera.
"You have served us well Emil Nemico," she began, her expressionless face and tone told Emil nothing about how to take her words, "You have proved to be pragmatic and balanced. When we first met I took you as nothing more than a child and many of my colleagues here thought it folly to give you a chance. Now we see that we want you to join us fully."
"I thought I had already joined," Emil said with a confused expression, "I've been a member of the Templar Order for years now. I'm afraid I do not understand."
"Being a Templar is not a choice," one of the elderly men interjected, "You came to us and we used you, we allowed Vera to use you. We led you to believe you were one of us... You never were. But now we want to change that."
"I just want to change things for the better," Emil said, "I'll do anything to make this city a better place and to put the Templars at the top."
"The truth is Mister Nemico," Vidic said suddenly becoming more animated, "That we are not the top and we were never meant to be. We have done our best to pave the way for those that are our superiors, our benefactors, those that want to help the human race... evolve."
"I'm afraid I don't understand," Emil replied trying to remain calm as the conversation continued, "I want to see the Resistance defeat the Combine, I want to see the human race be free."
"Your ideals do not suit your methods," Vera said, "You were willing to kill in order to become who you are, you were willing to endorse and commit crime to get us back into power. It is clear that the freedom of the human race is not ideal."
"I see," Emil replied finally understanding what was at play here, "Than where is our species going?"
"In time Mister Nemico," Vidic replied, "In time."
"For now just know that we want you to be one of us," Vera explained, "And that we are proud of you, Mayor Nemico."
Julian watched over Allison like a sentinel as she slept. The broken down building they currently called home wasn't even within the city wall but that instilled Julian with no confidence that the guards and bounty hunters wouldn't find them. The assassin watched her chest rise and fall feeling the weight on his shoulders dissipate more with each breath she took. Whenever he was low, whenever his soul descended into the abyss, he could always look to her to rescue him. The turmoil of his mind often ceased just with a look from her crystal blue eyes. Knowing that within her new life was being woven only multiplied that feeling. No matter how the world collapsed around them he would always shelter her and she would always anchor him.
The silence in the room was deafening and Julian turned toward his workroom. He entered and sat down pulling several parchment fragments from the desk. They were pieces of a Codex he'd recovered from the charred wreckage of the Assassin's Guild. Despite having managed to piece the parchment together until it was almost whole he wasn't exactly an expert on ancient languages. He stared at the scroll before him struggling to figure out what it said but knowing that the past held clues to the present predicament. His Father had often told him that the coming of the Combine was foretold to him, or rather to Ezio Auditor de Firenze.
Something came over the assassin than in what felt like a flash of lightning. He closed his eyes as a searing light coursed through him. As they opened and regained focus he soon turned his gaze back to the parchment only to find the words upon it no longer foreign to him. He still struggled to make sense of it as the words upon it were but a fragment of a larger story and some parts of the parchment were scorched beyond reading.
They had made them male and female first. Before the garden they were [text missing]. Kept in mental darkness and made to believe that [text missing] who had made them. One was made different than the others. In the Garden he lived with the mate that they had made for him. Their blood spread out from the [text missing] mankind and it was said that they had more of the gods in them than the [text missing]. The man of the garden could not be ruled by the tools the gods had forged, the controls that they had created and rebellion swiftly...
Julian stepped away from the room with strange emotions now coursing through him. What had just happened? Could it have been a bleed-through from his time in the Animus some years ago? Clearly he had no natural reason to suddenly know the language scribbled on the scroll and yet here he was reading it. The assassin tossed out his own translation for a moment believing it a likely a fabrication of his stress worn mind. He sat back down and slumped into his seat. Another flash filled his mind bringing with it images of the G-Man and of the Sword of Eden that the assassin had once held.
Julian donned the HEV suit and grabbed his silenced USP and XM-8 and stepped out into the early dawn. Already it was warm as Spring had begun its transition into Summer almost as soon as May had come. The assassin stepped up to the Vortigaunts who lingered outside the house. Their kind was usually welcomed in the city but recent surges in xenophobia had forced many respectable Vortigaunts from their homes into squalid conditions. Many had fled the city believing an impoverished life free of prejudice was far better than luxury in a city of intolerance.
"What will we tell the Allison Rogue when she awakens?" one of them asked as he walked by.
"Tell her I'm going to pay respects to my Father," Julian said.
Emil Nemico sat in his room staring into his mirror but on this particular morning he was taking little pleasure in his reflection. He'd never been a man of strong moral conviction so long as the end goal justified the means. He'd used crime and deception to take the City from the Assassins and some had even been killed in the process of procuring that power, chief among them being Desmond Miles himself. But all of that had been, he believed, to help better humanities chance, as a whole, of gaining freedom from the Combine. Now he was being told otherwise explicitly.
There was no turning back however and Emil Nemico was more than willing to put his own opinions aside to please those who were granting him power. He was about to become the mayor of City 12 one of the last remaining human controlled cities in the entire world. He would have access to luxury that most human beings no longer experienced. The comforts of the old world had passed away but now they were making a come back.
A knock at the door alerted Nemico and he turned to see his body guard standing in the doorway wearing an innocent look.
"Sorry to interrupt you boss," Pyotr started, "There is someone who is here to see you. He says that he can help you with a certain problem."
"Thank you Pyotr," Nemico said, "But tell the man in the blue suit that I won't be seeing him today."
"Begging your pardon Emil but this isn't no man and he isn't wearing no blue suit."
"Send him in then," Emil replied conceding defeat on the subject and putting on a positive demeanor. His warm facial expression faded entirely when the gangly alien stepped into the room menacing over Emil, "Who are you?"
"My name is Theron," the alien answered, "And I want to kill Julian Miles."
Julian felt an intense chill frost its way from his toes up along his spine and into his brain as he entered the apartment. He'd expected to find it just the way his Father had left it but instead the suite was torn apart. Chairs were tossed across the room or broken, desks were torn apart and paper documents were everywhere. The room had been ransacked. This wasn't action carried out by ordinary looters, Julian knew, for nothing was missing but everything was out of place.
This was the assassin's last hope. He'd already searched the ruins of the Guild house once again and checked on every hideout or safehouse the Assassin Order had throughout City 12 to no avail. It seemed a silly idea that Desmond would have kept such precious and potentially dangerous items at his publicly known address. He pushed the doors aside and entered his Father's bedroom. His swift eyes barely detected the shape of something moving toward him now, the glint of steel apparent as the blade reached out toward him. He stood with the sharp blade pressing dangerously against his neck and watched as the man stepped out from the shadows.
"Nemico?" Julian asked recognizing the man from his political posters.
"You didn't think getting the Pieces of Eden would be this easy did you?" Nemico scoffed, "We searched this place but we never found them. They aren't here."
"If they aren't here than why are you here?" Julian growled.
"To settle the score," Nemico smirked, "The world has already buried you, the public have already said their goodbyes. It is time to have a body to match those obituaries."
"You think that simply because you have a blade to my neck that I'm afraid of you?" Julian laughed quietly, "I could kill you where you stand before you could slit my throat."
"I've no doubt that you could," Nemico replied removing a familiar spherical object from within his clothes and holding it before Julian, "But you won't be able to."
Emil held out the Apple and watched as it's power enveloped Julian in golden fire. The Templar lifted his prey from the ground as Theron emerged from the nearby closet through a secret room hidden behind it. In his hands he clutched as massive chest that looked ancient. Julian recognized it as an Auditore relic as the alien bounty hunter dropped it with a thud, the sound of metallic objects clanging together informing Julian as to what was in that chest.
"You see my friend," Emil said to Theron as he telepathically began to crush down on Julian's body, "I told you that I didn't need your help."
Julian felt another flash like thunder in his bones and suddenly he fell free of the power of the Apple.
"Perhaps you need help after all," Theron chided lifting his pulse rifle to fire at Julian.
Julian brushed off the strangeness of his sudden freedom from the orbs energy and dashed behind cover as quick as he could. Splinters of wood flew all around him as round after round emerged from the Pulse Rifle Theron was carrying. It was clear that this was no ordinary weapon and was likely a prototype like the weapons Alyx had described back at Hunter's Fall.
"My masters will praise me when I bring them the head of Julian Miles as they did when I came to them with the plan to poison your Father!" Emil shouted as Theron stopped firing and allowed the man to move toward where Julian was cowering, "You disappoint me master assassin, your Father would be disgraced to see you cowering like a ra-"
Julian had his own blade to the man's throat before he could even finish his sentence. The young assassin felt hatred for this man coursing through every last neuron of his brain yet he didn't kill the man.
"You will not win," Julian whispered realizing that the man looked tired and was breathing heavily, "This isn't Eden."
"Cut his throat and be done with it!" Theron shouted ambiguously.
Julian turned his back and began to walk away from the Templar which only infuriated the prideful narcissist further. Nemico lifted the Apple of Eden using every bit of psychic will he possessed to grab Julian once more but the assassin wasn't affected. With almond eyes narrowed to angry slits the assassin turned on the man and stepped up to him and took the Apple right from his hands.
"How!" Nemico asked feeling truly at the mercy of the assassin.
Julian dived out of the way as gunfire filled the air once more. He watched as Emil Nemico too hit the deck narrowly avoiding the bullets of his supposed ally the bounty hunter. Julian loathed what he was about to do but he realized that given his situation there was little choice. He clutched the sphere in his hands and sunk into himself focusing his willpower into it. Golden arcs of electricity sparked from the orb forming a circular shield around the assassin. He stood now and marched toward Theron watching the pulse rounds vaporize before they had a chance to impact him. He sent a shockwave out from the sphere, one that sapped his strength and momentarily made him lose balance but which had even great effects on Theron as the hunter was launched across the room and smashed against the wall leaving a hole in the hardened plaster as he fell barely conscious to the floor. Julian picked up the chest that contained the other Pieces of Eden. The Apple seemed to glow brighter as it neared its brethren.
"You're capture was going to lead me right to her," Theron gasped. Julian took out his pistol and emptied a fifteen round magazine into the alien assassin.
"We're going to get you assassin," Emil shouted after Theron was dead, "Your kind are a dying breed!"
"Human kind is a dying breed," Julian replied, "But I'm going to change all that."
"We would have made wonderful allies," Emil remarked as the assassin ran off. The Templar collapsed amidst the rubble that was formerly Desmond's apartment. His entire body felt weakened by using the Apple. He was filled with profound dread and confusion. Was he on the right side? Was there even a right side of be on? Did he care which he was on? What was the man in the blue suit going to say when he found out that Emil had lost the Apple? Emil Nemico felt truly lost as he lay there descending further into an abyss of confusion.