Disclaimer: Ubisoft owns AC, but most of the characters here are mine.

Date Indetermined, 12:00 hrs

Location: The Farm, South Dakota

"Tom? I guess I'm still stuck with you, aren't I?" I chuckled.

"Kid, you're never getting rid of me. Deal with it. Anyways, who's this?" Tom said with a smile, his head nodding to the man beside me. "And why is our P-7 team only three members?"

"Tom Middleton, this is Seth O'Leary. Seth, Tom." I gestured. "And we only have a team of three for now, our last member is due in a few months."

August 31st 2012, 15:54 hrs

Location: The Farm, South Dakota

"Why do we do this to ourselves?" I asked Rudy and Jill. "Why subject ourselves to a life of secrecy, a life of killing?"

"We kill only to preserve peace. We kill to subdue the Templars." Jill said confidently.

"Not quite," I said in a reassuring tone. Teaching initiates was probably one of my favourite things since my induction. Reminded me of my roots. "But nice try nonetheless, Rudy?"

"It is our duty, as Assassins, to create peace, not only within the world, but within ourselves. To achieve this peace it is necessary to contradict our own philosophies." Rudy said, reciting the Revised Codex.

"Exactly." I smiled, pleased with my students. "Now, for tomorrow, I want a short 500 word paragraph summary on the dangers of a POE and what you should do if you find one. See you tomorrow."

I turned and sat down on my desk, as my two initiates walked out of the small classroom that was allocated for me. I sighed.

Four years. Four years since the Templars came and destroyed my house, killing my mother. Four years since I joined the Order that would forever change my life. Four years of life and death moments, stealth, black operations, covert missions and killing. So much had changed.

"If the old me saw me now..." I chuckled, but was suddenly interupted the soft, but annoying ring of my phone. I checked the caller ID, as only a select amount of people had this number.

"Unknown number..." I mumbled to myself, hitting talk and putting the phone to my ear. "Hello?" I asked.

"Alex? Alex, is that you?" whispered a man on the other line. I recognized it as the voice of William Miles, the man who served as the de facto mentor since before I joined the Brotherhood.

"Bill?" I asked, puzzled as to why he was even calling me. Out of my four years in the Brotherhood, and last two down at the main Farm, I'd only met Bill two times, and those two times were very limited.

"Alex, thank God. I don't have much time. You need to evacuate the building. Invoke safety protocol seven , you have 50 minutes." he said hastily. I could hear commotion and clutter crashing in the background.

"Bill, what the hell is going on?" I asked. Safety protocol seven was part of a series of protocols invoked after the Great Purge, specifically designed to protect the future of the Brotherhood itself. Out of my four years, I've never seen one invoked before.

"There's no time to explain, make sure your phone is secure and wait for my text. Assemble your team and evacuate the whole damn building. We've been compromised." Bill said hastily, hanging up.

I sprung up out of my chair, grabbing my phone along the way. I knew this was no time for questions, even if this was a drill it had to be taken seriously. As I ran out of my classroom I pressed down the number 1 key, speed dialing my brother who was currently placed back home.

The white walls of the underground hall blurred as I ran past empty room upon empty room, waiting for Kenny to pick up. The Brotherhood had lost so many in the past few years. The rooms used to be filled with children whose families were devoted to the cause, but now... They were just gone.

After a couple of rings my brother's voice finally spoke through my phone. "Hello?" he asked.

"Kenny, its me. Invoke safety protocol seven, we're compromised. Orders from the Mentor himself." I said, still running down the hall towards the PA speaker. "No time to explain, just do it. Keep your phone nearby, I'll be in touch."

"'Kay." his voice said about to hang up, but soon added, "Hey. Be careful okay?"

"Always am." I replied, and hung up. Finally reaching to PA system motherboard, I removed the battery out of my phone, stuffing both into my pocket. This way, nobody could track me. I picked up the microphone and said, "This is Alex L-N, invoke security protocol seven, this is NOT a drill. I repeat, invoke security prtocol seven." I hung up the microphone and ripped it out of the wall, tossing it into a trash chute.

I ran up the stairs onto the main floor, which was much like the Farm back in Guelph. Except with the security protocol in affect, all the computers were shut down, the big screen static and people running around gathering into teams of four.

Teams of four... That was the basic idea for Security Protocol Seven...

April 9th 2009, 9:00 hrs

Location: The Farm, Ontario

"Security Protocol Seven. This final and most important protocol is only to be used in the most extreme of situations. I emphasize extreme because it involves extreme secrecy, and a split from all contact from the outside world." said Rueben.

"So what does it do exactly?" I asked with a puzzled look.

"Basically, you split into teams of four. These teams are pre-made when you move to a certain farm." Rueben started, but was soon interrupted.

"Who's on my team?" I asked.

"Me, Tom, Kenny and, of course, you." Rueben said, "That's why we were the first to meet you last year. Anyways, as I was saying, the protocol has us drop everything and take only the essentials, then leave the compound and go underground."

"We just get up and leave? Why?"

"In case they find us."

"Alex! Alex!" yelled a voice from across the room. I couldn't see who it was, but I knew it was Tom, his British accent emanting throughout the throng of Assassins struggling to find thier teams.

"Tom, meet me outside in 15!" I yelled.

I raced to my room, pushing through the ever thinning crowd of fellow assassins, who were gathering into their assigned groups and fleeing the Farm as quickly as possible. Everybody had planned for a day like this, but certainly no one had ever wanted it.

Click!

My door clicked open after a hasty finger scan and swipe of my I.D. card. My room was relatively small, and relatively empty. The door-facing wall was plastered with posters of various enemies that I had made over the years, the pictures ranging from various mugshots, to candid photos taken by myself. The wall by my bed was largely naked, its blankness staring me in the face, save for the lone Spiderman poster above my pillow.

Directly across from my bed was my small, personal work desk which was littered with papers and a computer screen with its screensaver still running. The wall above my desk was dominated by a large world map, with photos, newspaper clippings and most importantly, strings connecting the two items across the globe. "Shit." I whispered under my breath, commenting on the heap of papers that was my desk.

The Templars would be here any minute, and the papers could not – would not – fall into the hands of my enemy. I looked around my room, eventually finding my emergency backpack. I quickly opened it, stuffing the papers into the already full backpack, and sticking a memory stick into my computer.

"Alex! I'm gunna need a bit more time!" yelled Tom, through our radio. I could hear the cocking of guns and the clinking of ammunition in the background.

"Yeah, me too!" I laughed, "Having a bit of trouble here-"

"And that ladies and gentlemen, is why women are superior to men," laughed a familiar voice over the radio. I recognized it at once as Laurel, the only female member of our team. "What's that saying again? Boys and their toys?"

"Shut up Laurel, we're trying to concentrate," I mumbled in an annoyed voice, as I copied file after file from my hard drive. Being team leader, I should have been the first one to be ready; instead our newest member was finished on time. Laurel only joined our team a few months ago, but we worked well together, like family. She was the sister I never had.

"I'm just saying, I was ready, while you ladies are still doing you hair," she chuckled, "Anyways, I'm at the rendezvous point, waiting for Seth and you guys. LN out."

"Done! Alex, I'll meet you at the rendezvous point. TM out." Tom said curtly, turning off his radio.

I looked to my watch checking the time, as the last of my files transferred. Five minutes to full lockdown. I flexed my arm, unsheathing my hidden blade. I carefully cut open the case of the computer. "That's it…" I whispered to myself, proceeding to rip out the hard drive and crushing it under my boot. I had to make sure the Templars would not get the information on my computer.

I got up and tore down all the maps and photos of my 'gallery of rouges', as Kenny called it, then proceeded to shred those as well. Ripping open the doors of my closet, I grabbed my hoodie, emblazoned with the colours of the Canadian Assassins. "Done with my stuff, ALN out. Rendezvous in 10." I said into my radio to anyone still listening.

I began to walk out of my room, lifting the hood over my head and took one last quick look into my room. "How things change…" I thought to myself, before turning my back on my Farm life for what I thought was forever.

"Fifteen minutes late! Wow Alex, that must be some sort of record!" Laurel said with a gigantic smile on her face, her auburn hair glowing in the sun. She had her gun in her right hand, her left hand holding on to the strap of her backpack.

Tom was standing to her right with a rather large backpack filled with assorted weapons.

"Ha ha, very funny," I said, climbing the hill that my two partners were standing on. "Tom, you good?"

"Yeah, just waiting on-!"

"-YAHOOO!" yelled yet another familiar voice from down the hill. I looked behind me and saw the last member of our team hurdling towards us in a jet black Jeep. "LET THE PARTY BEGIN!"

I sighed and rubbed my temples. "Seth, would you please stop fucking around? This isn't a drill, we need to get out of here. Now." I said through our radio link.

The Jeep came to a halt beside me, as Seth answered, "Sorry, you know me and baby here," sarcastically looking around to check if no one was there, he whispered, "We kinda get carried away."

"Like I said, boys and their toys," Laurel said rolling her eyes, and walking towards the jet black Jeep, with an Assassin insignia carved into it under the window.

"Alright guys, you know the drill, let's get out of here as quick as possible." I said, picking up my bag which I had just set down.

"Sure thing boss." Tom replied, jumping into the passenger seat, throwing his bag of weapons in the back right onto Laurel's lap. I jumped in the back seat as Seth sped away from the Farm.

"Really Tom? Not even a here you go, Laurel, or a 'Could you hold this for me Laurel?'?" Laurel said, "Asshole."

"Hey, boys and their toys, remember?"

September 1st 2012, 18:12 hrs

Location: Hidden

Alex sighed as he flopped back down on the couch in his team's safe house. They wouldn't be there for long. Protocol-Seven required them to keep moving until the order to resume all previous missions was given again. He shut off the voice recorder and threw it to the side. "Done," he said with finality. Laurel smiled and put her head on Alex's shoulder, pulling out her gun and playing with it. Alex assumed she was satisfied with his recording.

The leaves on the tree outside shook as the autumn wind blew outside. The room was silent save for Laurel playing with her gun.

"Alex?"

"Hm?"

"You think he's okay?"

"Who?

"Oh come on, you know who."

Alex nodded and sighed, "You mi-!"

A cell phone ringing interrupted his thought, Laurel reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone. "This is a secure number, nobody should be reaching this phone," she mumbled.

"Put it on speaker," he said. Laurel pressed answer and the speaker button. A male voice emanated from the phone.

"Hello?" Alex had heard the voice only a few short weeks before, and instantly recognized it. It was William Miles.