September 2012
The sunlight spilled through the old curtains, reflecting off the computer screen. Jake glared at the window, and turned back to his laptop. He just needed a few more minutes and the job would be done. And hopefully, successful.
"And...you're golden. You have twenty minutes, so hurry up," Jake muttered into the headset as he finished the false commands with another stroke of the keyboard. "You'll have to lock up manually though since there're no controls here for that."
"Keep the alarm from going off," Lucy urgently whispered through the tiny piece hidden in her ear, beginning to move through the corridors.
"Good luck."
All the camera monitors had been looping old footage that showed nothing out of the ordinary. They had been that way for a while now, ever since Lucy managed to get into the control room. To everyone else, Desmond Miles apparently preferred lying restlessly on his bed, the room locked.
The direct cameras that only Jake had access to at the moment, however, showed the subject examining something on walls, wandering from room to room and disregarding the locks on the doors, sometimes sitting down and spending some amount of time staring at the floors. What he was examining so intently was a mystery. Perhaps he was going insane like the others, now seeing things where there was nothing in reality...
Jake could still remember the last subject. Frantically opening a vein and scribbling his crazed ramblings in his own blood along any free surface, he eventually bled out over all over those walls and floors. The gruesome scene was not something he wanted to see again, so he dearly hoped Lucy would get out the latest one out without incident.
Lucy was close. She knocked out a guard, whose broken nose sprayed her shirt with blood. Hiding him in a maintenance closet, she quickly hacked through the locks, continuing to the testing room.
Ten minutes.
It would be enough for her - she worked around the Animus with certain ease, and Desmond trusted her a huge deal more than Warren Vidic.
"How are things going?" a familiar voice broke through in his ear. It wasn't Lucy this time.
"Get ready for new arrivals," he smirked as he watched the pair maneuver through the maze of little chambers, an animus in nearly every single one of them. They were empty at this point, and it were still unclear as to what Abstergo needed all of them for. Perhaps just making escapes like these harder.
"Is anyone suspicious yet?"
"Two alerted guards and two knocked out. But I cut off their lines, so they have a few more minutes."
"Nice."
"You sound surprised," Jake grinned.
"Just get to the hideout," Rebecca laughed.
"Your wish is my command," he rolled his eyes. "I'm already packing up, they're out of the zone. I'll be there in a few hours."
He shut down his laptop and switched off the headset, getting up and stretching. He was currently in a small abandoned apartment building, which served as a nice safe house for Assassins who needed a place to rest or tend to injuries. The packing up didn't take long, and he was ready in just five minutes. Putting on his shades to at least partially hide the recognizable scars on his face, he threw the plain-looking bag over his shoulder, and headed downstairs.
Jake was quickly recognized as a skilled and rather talented man, especially when it came to computers. The Brotherhood allowed him to dive right into the action almost immediately. Trust was somehow never an issue, strangely enough, and he had the freedom to pursue his work in ways that he didn't even think possible. In just two years, he had been through at least half the world on various missions. He did almost exactly what he used to do in the gang - kill when asked, interrogate those who had something to hide, and occasionally steal. But he was doing it for the right reasons. And that in itself made it worth it. He had a rather good hand at hacking and gathering information as well, which made him almost invaluable in certain cases, such as these with Abstergo.
Not to mention, places like Italy were definitely loads better on the eyes than the slums of New York City.
Jake pulled out a cigarette and was going to light it, but then grimaced and put it back. Old habits die hard...
Despite the many efforts on Templars' behalf, through all those raids, killings and hunts, Jake had no doubts he was on the winning side. Assassins had not died out like Abstergo believed. They went underground. Or rather, deeper underground than most thought. While a lot of the communities were abandoned and scattered, they still remained strong, if out of sight. It was well suited for their work from the proverbial shadows.
If Templars managed one thing, Jake thought almost bitterly, it was stirring up a bit of panic, doubt and disorder. The Assassin Squads were killed daily. Most of them could not show their faces in public properly without being found and taken note of, and even worse, followed. Many things had happened in the last two years, and there was no light at the end of the tunnel.
Some were beginning to lose faith...
Most of the streets of Firenze were drenched with the noonday sun, the beautifully battered walls and fading facades having a cheerful atmosphere to them. The entire city seemed to be a study in contrasts. A mix of the old, Renaissance buildings that still dotted the skyline with their magnificence, and the new, sleek, steel and glass apartments and shops that signaled progress. Somehow, it rarely came off as bizarre or jarring.
No one noticed Jake as they moved around on their business, and he had no trouble blending with the crowds, moving towards the old warehouse that served as a hideout.
He always had a strange feeling when walking the streets of Florence. Like a ghost was walking beside him, laughing at his incapability to see it. A familiar laughter at that, Jake noted to himself with a slight smile.
Eden.
He threw his head back to look at the Santa Maria del Fiore as he walked past it. Knowing the kid's tendency to climb like a little monkey, he figured, not for the first time, that it was quite possible that she had climbed all the way to the peak of that cross. Especially if some genius made a bet to her...
"Jake, I'm not suicidal."
"Yes, you are. Who was it that attempted to climb to the very top of Empire State Building and 'check out the view'?"
"Hmph, it wasn't that tall, climbing from the top floor and all. And the view sucked. Clouds everywhere."
He grinned to himself, likely scaring away the closest passersby.
He had yet to find a person like his adopted little sister, or even come across the original in history. In all of his research, there was not even a mention of her. She must have taken care in erasing evidence of herself. Just as there were no mentions of Ezio. Either he was not looking in the right spot, or they really hid themselves that well. He didn't even know if there was a surviving line from them.
It bothered him because in reality, Eden was dead for five hundred years and no memory of her remained.
It was a sad thought.
He didn't enter the main entrance of the seemingly abandoned warehouse, but through a narrow door in the back, locking it tightly behind him. He noticed the Abstergo car in the corner, and realized that he must have arrived after Lucy and Desmond. He shrugged to himself, and made his way up the catwalk.
"Hey everyone," he quietly announced himself, entering the room. All three of the aware people looked up at him with nods of greeting. Rebecca and Lucy smiled at him, while Shaun just went back to work. Desmond was unresponsive- he was lying in the Animus chair, completely out of it. "Looks like you've already started."
"Yep." Rebecca gestured him over, and he casually strolled deeper into the room. "You didn't miss much, though. Except for the revelation that Desmond had some pretty hot ancestors."
"Seriously Rebecca?" Shaun snarked over his shoulder from the corner of the room. "We're in the middle of a bloody war here, and you're adding long-dead people to your personal fantasy stash?"
"Hey, anything to lighten the mood," she shrugged with a smirk.
Rolling his eyes, Shaun snapped out something about "The infamously lazy Subject 17," before going back to his research. If he wasn't so talented, Jake would've wrote him off long ago. Or possibly punched him in the face. Instead, he just grinned, thoroughly used to the Englishman's constantly derisive mutterings.
Otherwise, he was rather fond of the Rebecca, as she had an air of cheerful optimism around her that he immediately appreciated from the moment he met her. Actually, Jake held all women in the order in high respect, but was only friends with a handful. Up until now, he never got a chance to talk to Lucy herself, as she'd spent seven years all but trapped inside of the Abstergo facility with little chance of escaping without drawing attention. But still, he admired her acting skills and the amazing ability to infiltrate the company while making them think they were behind her employment. It was a work of genius, though those were not rare among Assassins.
He glanced at Desmond with a raised eyebrow, curious as to what all the trouble was for. Of course, Jake felt sorry for number 17. Spending an entire week with no contact, outside of two people, going into that machine every morning, only to settle in at night with only a book and hacking emails to pass the time – they were all extremely lucky that he hadn't lost his mind, like the previous one. Not to mention, he couldn't even shower or use the toilet without being watched and waking up to the good doctor standing over him like some creeper. Likely not the vacation many would go for willingly...
Jake's smile suddenly fell as he looked at the subject's face. Properly, for the first time.
Tanned skin, slightly exotic tilt of the eyes, dark hair and a scar running along the left corner of his lips. That added to the confident swagger in his step that he'd seen from the camera footage...all of it almost painfully familiar.
"Wait a minute, who's this ancestor?"
"Take a look," Rebecca waved him over to her work station, handing him a pair of headphones so he could listen in. He leaned over the screen where the story was being played out as 17 progressed, almost like a movie on the screen. A handsome man in an extremely old fashioned doublet, his shaggy, dark hair pulledback by a scarlet ribbon, was running over the rooftops, apparently escaping from guards. His shouting punctuated with Italian (as thankfully, this version of the Animus had subtitles), he insisted that he was only helping someone out with some things, and he was mostly innocent.
Jake absently thought that he really didn't want to know the reasons behind his excuses...
Suddenly his eyes went wide and he quickly pulled up a chair next to Rebecca, snapping on the headphones. The young man's amused, smug drawl and constant smirk was unmistakable.
Son of a bitch…
Pointing at the screen, he caught her questioning gaze. "Wait, that can't be-"
"His name is Ezio Auditore. He lived in Italy in the fifteenth century," she waved at the computer.
Jake all but fell to the floor, looking around at Desmond with shock.
Ezio...the cocky, arrogant, talented and deadly assassin from two years ago. Of course, on the screen he did not look at all lethal, his face still young unmarred with the constant expression of caution his profession lent him. And his voice was nowhere as mature and smooth as it was when they'd spoken. But still-
"Hey, Jake, you alright? You're white as snow."
"I know…I knew him," he nearly stammered.
"Desmond?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be surprised, he said he was a bartender in various places throughout the States-"
Jake cut her off, vehemently shaking his head in disagreement, "No, no! I meant…Ezio."
"I think you've been hitting those bars a bit too hard, mate," a gritted, accented voice sounded from Shaun. "What's next? Little green goblins that say they'll fulfill any wish?" he waved his fingers about before pushing up his glasses along his nose.
"Like hell," Jake growled, seriously offended by the statement. He had some serious help and managed to stop his alcoholic habits almost a year ago. "Christ," he swore, "Never mind."
He knew quite a bit about the Animus. In truth, he helped Rebecca build it, speeding up the process by a few days. However, he didn't know many of the theories behind it, aside from the fact that it decoded genetic information on the fly, creating a simulation that worked very similar to a game. He even allowed it to be tested on him, though there wasn't much interesting in his bloodline, unlike within Desmond's, apparently.
Actually, anyone who had such characters like Eden and Ezio in their linage was automatically considered interesting.
Eden appeared onscreen, and Jake's heart leaped in recognition. The very first image of her was in the corner of Ezio's field of vision, standing on a rooftop during nighttime, looking thoughtfully confused. They must not have noticed each other yet at that point...
Next she appeared in the brothel that Ezio's family took refuge in after their betrayal. She was...her. Short, choppy hair, leather jacket, a slightly bitter, yet cheerful smile on her lips. The usual sharp, mocking remarks that sounded rude to those that didn't know she was only trying to help in that way hers. She called it "Redirection of Anger," Jake remembered with a smile when he once asked about it. Strange, but rather effective.
"Who is that woman? She is dressed as if she's from the modern times," Rebecca questioned out loud, voice rising with disbelief. "Shaun, see if you can find anything on her."
"He won't," Jake shook his head, smiling ruefully, "God knows I've tried for two years now."
"You know her?" Shaun genuinely asked, his voice for once devoid of all sarcasm.
The situation was becoming almost comical to Jake. He chuckled, nodding, "I taught her. Her name is Eden Cleare. And last I saw her, she was engaged to Ezio."
There were a few minutes of silence, all three turning to look at him with utmost confusion, shock, and disbelief.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Shaun was the first to come to. Jake leaned back in his chair, throwing his feet up onto Rebecca's desk and crossing them at the ankle. She didn't mind, knowing how careful he was around her beloved computers.
"I don't know how it happened," he took a deep breath, closing his dark eyes for a moment, "But somehow, she time traveled into Ezio's time from ours, about two years ago. Appeared back in New York with Ezio three weeks later…though for both of them, they'd spent three years together in his own time. Anyway, in our time, she made a ruckus, and left again."
"Two years ago? But," Lucy was mouthing something to herself, "That was the time Abstergo discovered one of the Pieces of Eden. The one that could alter time. I don't know if they tested it out, but soon an order was put into power that any artifacts that could damage the space-time continuum had to be locked away, no questions."
"Engaged?" Rebecca noticed a different part of his story. "They seem to hate each other!" she nodded at the screen. Now, Eden was berating the young Florentine for his lack of social stealth and rolling her eyes. Ezio snapped at her in return, throwing up his hands in irritation and gritting his teeth before muttering a string of curses. Of course, the translation software had trouble handling that. Jake couldn't hold back a fleeting grin at the scene.
"I have no idea what happened there," he shrugged, expression sliding to mild bewilderment.
"Cleare, you say? I've heard that name somewhere before..." Rebecca thoughtfully leaned on her hand.
"And I can even tell you where," Shaun smugly remarked, "It was all over the reports we used as reference to integrate Lucy into Abstergo. Maxim Cleare died while gathering information on the company, but it's thanks to him that we found a weak spot."
"So what, that's…his daughter?"
"One of the two," Jake rolled his eyes. "Do you remember Eve by any chance?"
"She has been successfully fooling the search party sent to Masyaf by Abstergo for the last two months," Shaun called over his shoulder, "A rather dangerous position. Unlike yours."
Jake ignored the attack, shifting his eyes back to the screen of Rebecca's computer. And instantly, he jumped to his feet.
"Wait, is that Leonardo da'Vinci?" His memory was screaming at him like mad, trying to force him to recall something...
"So it is." Shaun typed a few commands into his computer, likely filling up the database with Eden's and Leonardo's entries.
"They did say they were friends...wait…." Jake got up, and walked over to Shaun's desk. "Do you have access to da'Vinci codices?"
"Yes..."
"Can you email them to me?"
"What are you onto?" Rebecca wondered, raising her eyebrows.
"Just a hunch. Eden told me she'd make some sort of mark for me to find, and so far I think I was just looking in the wrong places."
It was late at night, and Jake had not moved from his computer screen. In his hand was a bottle of tomato juice that he used as a substitute for alcohol for two years now, all the lights in the hotel room shut off, except for the screen.
The digital copies of the codices were apparently found in the databases of the museums that held the real thing, but they were good enough for examinations. Jake scanned through the writing, the translations written out beside the pages, where even the tiniest of the footnotes was explained. He barely even knew what he was looking for. But he had a strange certainty that if Eden has left any sort of mark, it would be here.
"I'll hide it so well that only a great mind like Leonardo would be able to figure it out."
The first note was on a sketch of a slightly older woman, her smile soft and serene. He recognized Eden's handwriting in the Italian letters along the bottom margin, rounded and neat. It reminded me of someone I used to know, it read, But I feel like I no longer need it, and I think returning it to you is the proper thing to do. Sorry I took it.
The next sign of her took up an entire page, at the very end of the Codex Atlanticus. It was a sketch of a woman with long, dark, braided hair and wearing a simple tunic, commonly worn by men of the time. Bent over the table, she was seemingly working on a complicated construction. Yet she was looking up at the artist with some reproach, as if telling him off for catching her on paper while her attention was taken elsewhere, but at the same time smiling in a friendly, affectionate way.
Jake could have recognized those sharp eyes, the criss-crossing scars along her jawline, and the ironically raised eyebrow anywhere, even after many lifetimes.
Around the sketch were little notes in Italian that likely for centuries, stumped scholars as to what purpose they served.
Jakey, I'm glad you finally figured it out. Hope everything is going well for you.
And stop laughing at me, I'm basically speaking from beyond the grave here!
Florence is a beautiful city, don't you find? Do take care of his family palazzo, as it'd be a shame to let it go to waste.
PS: I told you I'd leave a mark! :D
After a few moments, Jake began to laugh quietly, thumping his head into his desk, his shoulders continuing to shake for a long time.
Only Eden would think to put something like this in an official codex of a genius inventor. And only Eden would put a smiley face at the end of a note. Emoticons in the Renaissance? Only you, Eden, only you!
He could just imagine how much she was laughing as she wrote it in, knowing the confusion it would wreck on people the message wasn't meant for. He could have sworn that he heard her laughter again in the rustle of the curtains and the trees outside. And he definitely imagined her strangely gentle hand playfully ruffling his hair.
She was no ghost.
She was the same annoying little brat that he loved like a sister.
And speaking of sisters...
"Hello?" the voice answered at the first ring, despite the late hour.
"You are never going to believe this," he grinned.
"I'm good, thanks for asking... and there's quite a bit I can believe, Jake, considering…well, everything. What's up?"
"I think I found your distant nephew."
"But I- what?" She sounded as if she jumped, her voice suddenly getting louder. "Eden?"
"I think so. It's not for sure just yet, but the guy that Lucy pulled out of Abstergo-"
"The latest Animus subject?"
"The same. Anyway, his ancestor is Ezio Auditore."
There was a long pause. "Do you have the sessions recorded?" she quietly asked. To anyone else, it sounded mildly bored. But after all this time, he knew why she was asking.
After Eden's disappearance, she too felt the need to find mentions of her sister in history, just as he did. Yet they were unsuccessful. "I can ask Rebecca to email them to me as he goes through them. It seems that if she's indeed Desmond's ancestor, they are going to use her memories as well to teach him how to use guns and targeting, along with the more modern skills that he might require."
"That's a good idea."
"Yes. So I suppose he will become like the continuation of those two..."
"You still miss her," Eve noted through the phone almost gently. Jake chuckled bitterly.
"I think it's impossible not to miss someone like her. You would too if you spent those years with her."
"At least we had a chance to say proper goodbyes."
This was not the first time they had this conversation.
"And we have your distant relative to take care of."
"Does he look like her?" The question sounded almost comical, somehow. But then again, the man still bore uncanny resemblance to Ezio and Altair...
Jake leaned back in his chair, throwing his legs up onto the table beside his computer. "Would you laugh if I said he has her eyes?"
"Yes," she answered honestly, and the laugh followed immediately. After a moment, she sighed. "Is there any mention of the artifact, at least?"
"Not yet. I hacked into the Abstergo database, even. They had a huge list of the Pieces of Eden and their locations, but yours was claimed to be destroyed two years ago, and there hasn't been a hint of it since."
"So it looks like the time loop worked. Well, Eden was always good at hiding things - I remember one time she hid mom's present so well that she could barely find it herself..."
Jake chuckled. "So, dinner?"
"You're buying."
"Obviously."
"You realize that because of you I have hardly ever paid for my food?" she sounded almost reproachful.
"Yes, and yet when have you ever said no to a free meal?"
"Um, to every other guy that asks me out?"
"And that's why you don't have a boyfriend."
"No, I don't have a boyfriend because someone I know chases them off with a pitchfork."
"What can I say?" he closed his eyes, smiling contentedly, "I'm a jealous man."
There was a short pause.
"Where are you, anyway?"
"Florence."
"Oh, nice. I'm in Syria right now, but I can't say I like it very much. I held them off for as long as possible, but there's nothing to find there anymore, so...I guess I'll meet you tomorrow?"
He smirked. "Sure thing. Same time?"
"As always."
As he put down the phone, he stretched, glanced at the computer screen and got up. Because of Eden, his life not only changed, but changed for the better, something that he could not have imagined ever happening just two years earlier.
He just wished she was around to see how it all come together...
"Family palazzo?" Eve raised an eyebrow, twirling her spoon in the coffee cup absently. "I wonder what she meant?"
The years had changed her, now that she didn't have the Piece of Eden to keep her healthy. Her skin was now colored and slashed with scars that no longer disappeared, and her eyes still looked slightly lost, as if she was constantly missing something. It was a major change in her, somehow, but Jake liked it. It made her seem less perfect and more human. She was still as charmingly beautiful as before, though, and it was not the first nor the last time Jake noticed it...
"Well, by 'him' I assume she means Ezio, and his family's palace. I even found the place." Jake put his cup down, and smiled at the pretty waitress from across the room. She looked a little scared of him, but nonetheless approached and refilled his coffee, hurrying away quickly. He sighed inwardly - it was painfully obvious that he would never be a young, handsome man ever again. Not that he was all too sad about it in the long run.
"You did?" she suddenly leaned forward with interest.
"Yep. It's almost dead in the center of the city," he shrugged. "Actually, just down the street from here. Apparently it was given to the Auditore family by the Medici family. But that's about the only mention of them in history. Since then, it's been under the protection of various persons, preventing it from being pillaged or even restored."
"Why would she tell us about it?"
"I have no idea. The place is off limits to public, though. Likely with imaginary construction work and everything," he snorted.
"Could she have hidden something there?"
"That's why we're here, actually," he smiled as charmingly as he could, but the only thing he managed was to bare his teeth in a wolfish grin. He had already figured out why that place was more likely than the villa in Monteriggioni (he found out about it from Rebecca only a few hours after the phone conversation with Eve). It was too obvious, as it seemed that it was a sort of base for Assassins in their time, which would draw Templars to it like moths to a flame. But the palazzo was less likely to be a hiding spot, considering the unpleasant ties Ezio had to the place.
The Palazzo Auditore, which had been renamed many times over the last half-century, stood proudly towering over the street. It was in surprisingly decent shape on the outside, at least, no worse than the rest of the city. A warning sign was posted on the front gate, but no one seemed to be inside. It was no problem for the two of them, of course. They simply went around to the back door and picked the lock.
The servants' entrance led into a large kitchen, which looked like it was preserved from the past almost completely. There was a large fireplace that took up most of the space, a few forgotten tables and cabinets, a rusty knife lying in the corner, some blood from meat splattered on one part of the wall.
Eve's breath seemed to catch as they went further inside, the ancient dust cushioning their footsteps. "It must have been lovely five centuries ago."
Jake couldn't help but agree. The rooms were huge, with many windows that were shut, but potentially could let in a lot of sunlight into the house. He could easily imagine that the old, rotting furniture once decorated a beautiful living space.
"Hm...feathers," he noted with some surprise as he saw the large gray feathers mingling with the dust along the floor.
"Eagle ones," Eve nodded with a smile. "Well, if you were Ezio and wanted to have a secret room, where would you put it?"
"In the office." He didn't even hesitate in the answer. He had learned that from Rebecca as well. "Maybe they just expanded his father's, actually."
The study was a fairly large room which was in the same state as the rest of the house- old and dusty. He proceeded to hit all the bricks in the mantelpiece above the hearth that had not seen fire for centuries. Eve coughed from the dust that he stirred, covering her mouth with her sleeve.
"Be care-" she didn't finish the sentence, however, for Jake hit the fourth stone from his left, and then stayed his hand there, pushing harder. After a moment, it groaned, shuttered, and retracted into the wall. At the same time, the inside wall of the fireplace slid upwards, despite creaking with protest. "It's still working... amazing."
"Ladies first," he invited her inside, and she rolled her eyes, but stepped into the dark hole.
And immediately tripped.
"Okay, ew. There's dust everywhere, and I can't see anything!"
"Oh, right, I forgot to give you the flashlight, didn't I?" he muttered innocently, producing the said instrument from his messenger bag. Her hand appeared from the darkness, and snatched it out of his hand.
"You asshole," Eve breathed, flickering it on. "Come on, there's nothing here yet."
He ducked inside after her. The secret room was even colder than the rest of the house, and except for the flashlight, there was absolutely no other light source. Jae wrinkled his nose, and took out his lighter, approaching the long candle sticks that lined the walls.
"This must be the first room," Eve whispered as she looked around. There was a desk and a chest, but upon closer examination, they turned out to be almost completely empty except for fragile papers that looked as though they would crumble at the lightest touch.
"There must be something further."
"Be careful, though," she reminded him, "If this is actually an Assassin tomb built by Ezio and Eden-"
"We can expect flamethrowers," Jake nodded, staring into the walls, ceiling and floors for any hint of cracks through which traps could spring on them. "How the hell are we going to find any…" the words died in his throat as he looked at Eve.
"Its that wall over there," she muttered, blinking, and the her eyes stopped glowing. She came to stand by the wall opposite of the way they came through, and felt around, putting her hands on two different bricks and pushing them at the same time. The wall, much like the fireplace, gave an ear-splitting screech, and slid downwards, disappearing into a crevice in the floor. "I think they made this so that only those with Eagle Vision would be able to find it."
"You have it?"
"Well, yeah. I am related to assassins, Jake." She reminded him. "Diego taught me to pull it out a long time ago, though I can only use it for a few moments about once a day. Eden was the one that got all the killer talents. You know, weapons, aim, strategy, acrobatics..."
"And you?"
"I got the rest," she smiled. She was right, however; she was a talented in different areas, like music and arts, not to mention, she was a great informer and doctor. "Now, shall we?"
Jake went in first this time, taking the flash light out of Eve's hands, and stepping inside. It was much lighter here, however. The sunlight was streaming through strategic cracks in the walls and ceiling, shining upon them...
"Down!"Eve suddenly screamed, yanking him forward so hard that he stumbled a few steps and then instinctually followed her order, flinging himself to the ground. He could hear short thunks and the deadly hiss of whistles above him. He only dared to look up when they stopped.
"If Eden was around, I'd fucking kill her," he grit out, crawling through the dust and out of the danger zone. "Booby trapped crossbows? Impressive. Guess they didn't have flamethrowers back then."
"Thank God," Eve retorted, though he swore he could hear the laughter bubbling beneath her reply. Apparently, the Cleare sisters took their security seriously.
He stood up again, the two marble statues in front of him glittering in the stark glow of his flashlight. Feeling along the rounded wall, he came to the tell-tale metal sconces embedded within it. As he lit the torches in them with his lighter, the room seemed to flicker to life. The warm orange glow of the flame cleverly reflected along the pale, nearly white stone of the round atrium above them. Casting them in brightness similar to dim sunlight, they had nearly all the light necessary to see.
"This is-?" Eve swallowed hard.
"It's not their tomb," Jake shook his head. "I don't think their bodies are here. It's more of a…" he took in their surroundings, mouth hanging open with surprise as his gaze landed on the sight in front of him, "…memorial?" he finished with uncertainty. Stooping down to examine the bases of the statues, he quickly recognized the stylized "L" that was carved on the left side of them. "It looks like Leonardo helped build it."
The statues were of a man and a woman, with their beaked hood low over their faces, the Assassin symbols on their belts. Their robes were almost similar, except the woman wore little of the period's metal armor, and her long, symmetrical cloak was draped boldly around her shoulders. Her doublet and trousers also contained many more pockets and pouches than her partner. They both stood with one foot forward and one hand held out, as though in welcome. Their opposite hands were down at their sides, though. The man's bracer on his left wrist, the woman's on her right, their corresponding hidden blades were snapped out in warning.
"She has two hidden blades," Eve noted, appearing beside him, and examining the statues more closely, "They both do, in fact." Reaching out to touch the uncannily lifelike image of her sister, she stopped just short of contact, drawing away.
"I noticed. I thought she only received one?"
"She must have gotten another some time later. After all, the hidden blades are like a show of rank."
"So they both became Master Assassins, then." Eve showed no emotion, but her lips were twitching slightly. Jake himself felt unnerved as well.
"Look at all of this," he decided to draw their attention away from the statues, and to the treasures around them. "They were filthy rich, it seems!"
"Most assassins are," Eden nodded. "Let's look around, though we shouldn't take anything of value. Still, maybe they left something more for us to find?"
He nodded in agreement, and helped her in the search, eagerness filling him as they moved through the room.
There was a large chest right behind the statues, made out of some sort of dark, polished stone. There was no lock, but the lid was so heavy that it took their combined efforts to move it away and onto the floor. It did not even crack as it hit the dusty surface, only letting out an echoing thud.
"Would you look at that!" Eve mumbled with fascination.
Inside of the deep chest there were various items, amongst which were paintings that miraculously managed to survive this long. Jake was sure Leonardo had a hand in preserving them. Lying next to them was a hidden blade that could have been Ezio's, though it was different from the statue. Next to that was a long dagger that Jake swore he had seen on Eden the last time she was around. And underneath them, many yellow parchment papers within a leather binding.
"Is that, uh, Ezio's?"
"I think so," Jake evenly replied.
After a moment, Eve suddenly suggested, "We should take it with us. Give it to Desmond. It's technically his heirloom, after all."
"Is it even going to work properly? That this must be ancient," Jake brought up a reasonable thought.
"Oh, don't worry. It's a special type of metal that doesn't even seem to rust or weaken with age," Eve shook her head, carefully picking up the bracer and blowing the dust off of it. "See? It's in nearly flawless condition. Maybe just renew the leather, and it's good."
"Those paintings...they're all of them," Jake noted, leaning over and peering and into the chest. He reached down to examine them, but Eve slapped his hand away.
"Let's not touch them. I'm afraid those will fall apart if we try, but that book," she pointed to a thick, red, leather-bound book that rested next to the paintings, "Seems interesting."
A half an hour later, they came back into the main house, quickly wiped off the chairs and table in the parlor beyond the kitchen, and laid the book on it gently. Both stared at it for a long time, unmoving, until Eve finally sighed, and touched the pages. And immediately slumped in disappointment.
"They're written in code."
"So what's the problem?" Jake raised an eyebrow. Both of them were good with codes, and he didn't see why it posed such an obstacle.
"This is totally gibberish-"
"And you're surprised by that?" he snorted, biting back his laughter. Of course, she wouldn't make it easy for them.
"I don't recognize even one word in the entire thing to use as a key." She scanned the pages carefully, but no light dawned on her face. He moved to hover over her shoulder, looking into the text as well. The writing did not cover every page, at least. There were many sketches that could be recognized as da'Vinci's work, including some simple doodles of Ezio and Eden. And then there were more that included other people in it, ones that they didn't recognize.
A curly-haired girl of about ten, followed by another sketch of the same girl, but much obviously attractive woman dressed in nun's clothes, though the bodice was almost scandalously low-cut. Behind that was a sketch of a slightly older woman, richly dressed and her hair carefully braided back beneath a cowl of some sort. A thin, wiry-looking man with longish, dark hair and a moustache, his cloak thrown over his shoulder with a flourish (Jake fliched at the uncanny resemblance this man had to Larry). An old, grizzled-looking man with a menacing scar over his left eye, but with a friendly smile. Upon his shoulder was small coat of arms that matched the Auditore sigil. It was also easy to see the resemblance between him and Ezio.
The portraits of other men and women continued in such a fashion, bound together with diagrams for the hidden blades, guns and poisons, amongst other, likely useful things.
"It's their own codex," Jake reverently said, "And it seems like it was written and illustrated by Leonardo himself, too." He thought for a long moment, and then nodded. "I think Shaun would be able to decipher it. He's an asshole, but he's near genius when it comes to codes."
"Alright. We'll take this to him, though as soon as they are done with Desmond, of course," Eve nodded. "And the hidden blade, too-"
"What is that?" he pointed at the small jewelry box in her hands that she must have taken out of there as well. She blinked, and looked down, as if only just realizing that she even had it. She furrowed her eyebrows and clicked it open.
She let out a slightly strangled gasp, and slammed the lid shut.
"This stays inside. Not to ever be opened again," she gritted out. "Well, at least they managed to hide it well enough."
"If you say so." Jake, not totally understanding what she meant, simply shrugged, holding his hands out for it so that he could take the box back. He had suspicions that it was the Piece of Eden inside that box, but he was not at all curious to see it. So he simply laid in back into the chest behind the two statues.
He paused before leaving once again, for good, turning around and looking back to the statues. Then he smiled and raised his hand on impulse, saluting them.
"Safety and peace, my friends."
They quietly stared after him as he reset the trap and sealed the door, and Jake once again imagined the familiar laughter in the echoing of the dungeon...
A/N- People! Do not panic! This is hardly the end- I simply wanted to write a closing chapter on Eve and Jake, that is all. I'm going to continue writing about Eden and Ezio, as there is still plenty more to write about. Not to mention I love them to death, and I can't simply stop their story right now. As I mentioned a few times when I replied to reviews, I am planning to stretch the story up to the end of AC2, and even include Brotherhood (when it comes out, obviously). So to you faithful readers, this story is definitely not ending any time soon. Hell, if it did, I would get bored very quickly and write a sequel anyway, considering I'm transferring to homeschooling from now on and will spend even more time with my thoughts.
The reasons for the whole school transfer, to those who care, is because I simply had enough of the people I'm forced to attend school with. I tend to learn better by myself, and I definitely do not need teachers pushing me constantly and treating me like a little child that needs to do incredibly pointless (in my opinion) projects, presentations and labs. I was raised by different standard on the other side of the world, and honestly, the education in Canada just doesn't do it for me. I'm sorry for the rather long explanation- but many people seriously think I'm off my horse if I want to study independently, and assume I haven't thought it through.
I'm not anti-social or anything, again, to those who care, I simply don't like people of my age group. They tend to be spoiled brats that do nothing but create drama and fail classes. I'm not generalizing, I'm sure that there are sixteen-year-old's out there that would not summon an urge to go on a killing spree from me, but so far, I was not fortunate in meeting many of those people in my school.