full title cause it got cut off
Manulab: I Want to Know What it Feels Like to Have Her Look at Me as if I'm Her Knight in Shinning Armor
(yeah it's hella long w/e)
Nonsexual friendships between people of different genders is very important to me
It was safe to say everyone had an idea of what Sahara and sub Sahara Africa looked like. Jake, personally, had never seen it. Just pictures. Clearly the change in climate had changed this part of Africa because the area around Lake Chad was full of life. Grass covered every inch of space, and while the lake wasn't full by any means, it wasn't empty either. He guessed that it could look like during the wet season, he knew in Syria during the spring and early summer the fields were always in bloom and beautiful. But this was the middle of winter, and it looked like spring. But then he really didn't know what a African winter looked like anyway.
The numia coasted down to the ground and landed gently near the lake. From the chair Lucy groaned and took her hands off the yoke. "Well, we're here," Jake said.
"Yes, we are," Hawk rolled his eyes.
"Jake," Lucy called weakly from the front. Hawk got up and headed for the back to where they could hear the others trying to get out. Jake went up to her chair.
"Hey, what's up?" Jake asked.
"I think I need help," she said and she looked so worn and tired.
"Yeah sure, with what?"
"Help me up, I think my legs sort of went to sleep. Its all sort of white noise."
"Yeah, I got ya," and he held out his hand. She pushed the yoke back and when she took his hand he felt blisters and frowned. She groaned as she got up and he tugged her right into his chest, "I got ya," he said.
She looks exhausted, Malik said. Yeah, how much trouble you think we'd get into if we carried her? We'd never hear the end of it. You think she'd be mad? I don't think she's capable of feeling anything right now.
"Jake, Lucy, come on out," Ezio called.
"Coming," Jake called back. "You good?" he asked her.
"I think-
"She's lying," Pluto said, appearing at full height in front of Jake. "I very much doubt she can walk right now, I don't suggest it."
"I can walk," she insisted and pushed away from Jake. She took two steps and while she didn't fall Jake knew it'd happen. "Jake! What are you doing!" she cried, though not as forcefully as normal, when he picked her up bridal style.
"Shush, you're fine."
"I don't need to be carried," she complained.
He looked at her hard, "You don't have to do everything yourself okay? You're allowed to have help. Fuck do none of your Assassins understand that? So I'm helping, its what I do. Now shush and be happy a super cute guy is your personal chauffeur."
She frowned but sighed, "All right," she said.
"Before you go," Pluto said, drawing their attention, "take that with you," he pointed at the ball next to Lucy's chair. Lucy reached out and grabbed it and cradled it on her stomach. "Thank you.
"Altair is going to be so jealous," she said as they left the cockpit, Pluto following behind.
"I can drop you you know," Jake said. She just laughed softly.
"No you won't," and she put her head on his shoulder.
"Why would Altair be jealous?" Pluto asked.
They both looked at the AI, "No reason," Jake said. Pluto just cocked their head at them but asked no more. They walked down the gangway to the ground.
"So, here we are," Ezio said when they joined them. "What now? Where's Demeter?"
"She's here," Pluto said.
"Why are you carrying her?" Altair asked, giving both of them a look. Oh my god he is jealous, Jacob said. Malik sighed, what an idiot. Not like he isn't short enough for us to carry. His ego wouldn't allow it are you kidding? Jacob laughed, except he's so mad we're carrying her. Well you know what Altair's like when he's annoyed. Yeah he looks like he wants to break something. He wouldn't break us. Oh my god please don't say it like that. Like what? Like we're going to enjoy it. Malik laughed at that one.
"She can't walk right now," Jake shrugged.
"Under protest," Lucy complained.
"So where's Demeter?" Ezio asked again.
"How did you find our bases last time?" Pluto asked.
They all looked between each other, "Desmond," Ezio said.
"What does Demeter need?" Lucy asked.
"What do you think?" Pluto asked.
"Blood?" she asked.
"How come only the girl AIs need blood?" Hawk asked. "Morpheus and Mercury didn't."
"Because it is a woman's nature," Pluto said, "They give their blood for their species, so their species must give it back to call them."
"That's so… rad," Lucy said.
"Did you just say rad?" Jake gave her a look.
"Hell yeah," she said with a grin.
"How much blood we talking?" Altair asked.
"With you three here? Not as much if you weren't," Pluto said. "You all contain proeathan blood, like Desmond did, but not like him. He is the combination of bloodlines, you all are just… parts."
"Alright there, where do we bleed?" Altair asked, his hidden blade shooting out.
"Into the water."
"How do we know if its enough?"
"Oh, you will know," Pluto said. "The waters of Lake Chad have no outflow except the water table. Demeter takes that water to keep her many conservatories and greenhouses hydrated, she is very sensitive to the water of the lake. If proeathan or half proeathan blood entered the water she'd know."
"Sounds weird, but if you say so."
"All sixteen bloodlines need to be represented, hopefully you three will suffice," Pluto said.
"Shit I hope so," Altair frowned but they did make their way over to the lake.
Jake looked down at Lucy, "You wanna go?"
"I think I'd rather lay down, honestly," she sighed.
"Okay," he knelt and put her down gently. "I'm going to make sure they don't do something stupid, cool?" She nodded, "Alright, I'll come get you if anything cool happens," and he quickly left to follow the three immortals.
The Assassins were loitering around, and a few were lying down on the soft ground, some were investigating the lake, and he heard some bickering. He ignored them though and found the three other immortals knee deep in mud to get to the edge of the lake. "Seriously you guys?" Jake called out to them.
Hawk turned over his shoulder, "Wouldn't be the worst thing we've been knee deep in." And Jake so didn't want to know. Then he turned back around as Altair went to cut all their arms with his blade.
"What are they doing?" Jake twisted around when Andrew spoke. He'd stayed away from Andrew for the most part. Altair didn't like him and that was good enough for him to stay away, no need to make Altair angrier by being close.
"Uh, trying to get Demeter's attention so we can go into the base," he said.
"How? Is this really necessary?"
"Apparently. Hey man I don't make the rules, as it is we barely follow them," because Andrew looked annoyed.
"Wasn't the point of Desmond going to Mercury so this wouldn't happen?"
"I have no idea," Jake scratched his neck stubble a bit. "I honestly only understand half of this shit." And that is your fault, Jacob said. My fault? Yeah your fault! I have all your twelfth century understanding and sometimes it makes it hard to think about how future things are, Jacob said. How future things are… that is all you Jacob, don't blame me. Shut up, Malik. That's my line boy. Fuck you I'm not a boy! You're younger than me. Yeah right now I am, I'll be older than you soon. No you won't. Yes I fucking will. No you won't. Yes I will! I'll always have seventy years on you, kid. Fuck you Malik. I think Andrew has something else to say.
"Is that supposed to happen?" Andrew asked. Jake turned back around in time to see Altair shove Ezio into the mud.
"Hey!" he cried, "Play nice Altair I swear!" Altair turned around and glowered at him, "Don't you give me that look old man."
Altair rolled his eyes at him, or Jake assumed so, since he couldn't see Altair's eyes very well at this distance, and turned around and started to pick his way through the mud. Hawk followed and Ezio was currently howling in Italian at Altair as he tried to pick himself up and out of the mud. "It didn't work," Altair growled when he and Hawk came out of the mud.
"You sure?" Jake asked.
"Yeah, we're sure."
"Well, Pluto did say you needed all sixteen bloodlines," he said.
"We're all there is," Altair said.
Did he just say that? Jacob asked. Wow he's stupid. I think he's just angry. Angry and stupid, like Altair has any other emotions. Well he has horny… Yes, yes he does, Malik agreed in a pleased tone.
"Proeathans existed a few million years ago," Jake said, "You honestly think that other humans don't have some of their blood?"
"In the concentration we need?" Altair asked. "Pluto mentioned us because we can go into Eagle Vision, we have enough proeathan blood for it to matter." Stupid? Sometimes I forget he can be smart sometimes, Malik said. He's more attractive when he's smart. Yes he is.
"Well," Jake looked at William, "Can you do it? I mean, you're Desmond's dad."
"Can I do what?" Andrew asked.
"He can't," Altair said. "The entire time I knew him he couldn't."
"Yeah so? Everyone's gotta learn," Jake shrugged, "Who knows, I might be able to do it."
Altair leveled a look at him, "Doubtful."
"Such a boost of confidence. Can any of your men use Eagle Vision?" Jake asked Andrew.
"Use what?" Andrew asked, confused.
"This," and Andrew's eyes grew wide when Altair's eyes turned gold. "Can they do this?"
"I… I don't think so," Andrew said.
"We should have them try anyway," Jake said.
"Jake, it isn't something you can be taught. You're born with it. All of us could do it as children, even Desmond-
"Desmond could never do that," Andrew said.
"How would you know?" Altair demanded, "You were too busy banging every other woman in the Farm other than your wife to pay attention to your family," and Andrew looked amazingly uncomfortable, especially by Altair's open hostility.
"Well if he's that unperceptive," Jake said, "he probably doesn't know if his men can do it. And didn't Desmond have to relearn how to do it?"
"He did," Hawk said, putting a hand on Altair's arm before he literally burst a blood vessel being so close to Andrew. "We won't know unless we try."
"So what? We cut everyone to see if they have it?" Altair asked, "and dump their blood into the lake?"
"Why not?" Hawk cocked his head to the side, "Wouldn't be the first time." Do you know about this? Not a clue, Malik said.
Altair eyed Hawk. "Fine."
"What are we doing?" Ezio asked, finally dragging himself out of the mud, he was covered, but didn't seem as angry as he should be. They both knew Ezio would get Altair back for that at some other point. It might be a few weeks or months or even years from now; but Ezio would get him back.
"We're going to go and collect samples of everyone's blood and throw it into the lake."
"Why don't we just ask Pluto?" Ezio asked.
"What?"
"What? Don't look at me like I'm stupid," Ezio said defensively. "He could probably tell us who's got enough proeathan blood and who doesn't. And we wouldn't have to do a mass blood letting. That shit was awful when it was actually a thing, no need to bring it back."
Altair's mouth went thin, "He's right," Hawk said.
"Did you just say that?" Jake asked, stunned.
"I need that in writing," Ezio said, "Hawk just said I was right."
"Shut up both of you," Hawk snapped. "We still have to get into Demeter before the proeathans spot us. The plantation is only about twenty miles away, and Eden Eyes can see about half that distance. They probably have patrols to make sure no one gets away. So shut up and lets go ask him. Where is he?"
"Uh, he's with Lucy, c'mon," and Jake led them back to where Lucy was. The blonde was sleeping on the ground, completely worn out, curled around Pluto's sphere.
"She okay?" Hawk asked.
"She will be," Pluto appeared in front of them. "What is it? Didn't it work?"
"No," Altair growled.
"We don't contain all the lines," Hawk said.
"Hmm-
"Couldn't you tell us who does?" Ezio asked. "You AIs are sensitive to that shit."
"I… could," Pluto said slowly.
"Cool, what do we have to do?" Ezio asked.
"I'd need to sample everyone's blood," Pluto said. "A prick would do. Though I don't know why you're asking me."
"What do you mean?"
Pluto looked down at Lucy, "She could do it herself."
"What?" Altair asked. "You told us to do it though."
"I did, because she was about to collapse and I thought you three would suffice. It appears not."
"Isn't she human?" Andrew suddenly demanded. "So what's that make her? Proeathan?" Pluto looked at Andrew but said nothing. "What? Not going to answer me?"
"No, I'm not," Pluto said. "We have a special interest in keeping Ms. Stillman alive, despite your previous attempt in killing her. So I won't be answering any of your questions regarding her existence."
"You can't leave me out of the loop, these are my men, they listen to me-
"And you listen to us," Altair said darkly, glowering at Andrew. "You wouldn't be the first Mentor I've killed, and I doubt you'll be the last," Andrew swallowed. "We owe you nothing."
"I have a right to know what I'm letting mingle with my men," Andrew said firmly.
"Well whatever Pluto might say," Jake said, "It won't stop your men from wanting to bang her," they all looked at him, "What?" he asked. "Doesn't matter to most guys," he shrugged. Andrew wrinkled his nose.
From the ground Lucy groaned, "Will you guys stop being so loud?" she whined and rolled over, taking the sphere with her. Pluto blipped, appearing on Lucy's other side, clearly he couldn't get that far from the sphere, even but just a few inches.
"Pluto just tell us in a way Andrew won't know if you're worried about it," Hawk said. "I know you AIs know every human language, and we're all multilingual here."
"Hmm," but he just vanished instead.
"Where'd he go?" Ezio asked.
"I think you just insulted him," Jake said.
"What? But it was reasonable."
Lucy groaned again and sat up. She looked over her shoulder at them. "Why are you guys talking so loud?" she asked.
"What happened to Pluto?"
"Pluto?" she asked groggily. "Here he is," and she held the sphere out. Jake took it from her.
"Lucy, we need some of your blood," Altair said.
"What?" she asked.
"Pluto said we could use yours to get Demeter to open."
"Fuck," and she struggled to her feet, Hawk went and grabbed her upper arm, helping her stand. "Okay, I guess," she held her arm out.
"You're fine with it?" Altair asked.
"No," she said, "but do it anyway." Altair took out his blade and Lucy drew her arm back, "Wow no way with that thing!" she said.
"What?" Altair looked down at his hidden blade.
"That thing is covered in blood. I know you guys can come back from infections, but I can't. You're not cutting me with a bloody fucking knife are you high?"
Altair frowned, "Fine."
"We can use mine, its clean," Hawk said, producing his. "See? I haven't used it since I cleaned it when we arrived at Pluto."
She nodded, "How you going to hold it?"
"Uh…
"You're all so terribly clever, you know," Andrew said. "Just run face first into something without thinking about what you need to do to actually accomplish it."
"Shut up," Altair snapped.
"Not like he isn't right," Lucy sighed, "There should be some containers in the numia," and Lucy shook Hawk off and took two staggered steps before Jake went over to help her. "Stop that," she said lowly.
"Nope." Why does every Assassin have to be so stubborn? We're trained to care for ourselves, Malik said. We just be self sufficient, and self reliant. If we worry about someone else to help us in the field, we could end up dead. Yeah well its fucking annoying, Jacob snapped.
They went back into the numia, Lucy sitting with a content sigh and Jake put Pluto's sphere back into her lap. Hawk went and found a container and then cut her arm, high up, and on the outside. She hissed when he did it but otherwise didn't complain. He squeezed out quite a bit of blood before letting Jake bandage it up.
"Well, lets go try it," Hawk said, holding Lucy's blood. Jake stayed when the others left to go see what would happen.
"How you feeling?" he asked her, stroking her knee.
"I'll live," she said and then she grinned. "We match now," and she poked his bicep where he had his big scar.
Jake laughed a little, "Yeah we do," he sat next to her and she leaned against him. They waited and then both started when there was a sound like a bubble popping. Only it was a huge bubble.
"What was that?"
Jake lurched to his feet and looked out the numia towards the lake. His jaw hung open. The lake was opening. Great barriers had come up from out of the water to keep it back as it opened outwards, creating a giant hole in the lake. "Oh wow," he breathed and saw the immortals struggling to get out of the mud as the water started to rise from the walls pushing the water back.
"What's going on?" Lucy asked.
"Demeter opened the lake," Jake said, "Looks like we're flying in," Lucy sighed, "You up for it?"
"I will be," she said, "Come help me up."
"No more flying for you after this for a while," Jake said and went and picked her up.
"I agree," Pluto said, "humans weren't meant to fly numia, much less for sixteen hours. I'm surprised she isn't dead."
"She's tough," Jake said and took her back into the cockpit and sat her down. "You can do this," he told her.
"I will," she said.
Jake went back out into the main part of the numia and down below on the ground Ezio was yelling for everyone to get back into the numia, they were leaving. Hawk took the gangway three at a time and nearly collided with Jake. "Watch out," Hawk slipped past him, back into the cockpit.
"So I take it it worked?" Jake called after him and followed as the Assassins started to climb up into the numia.
"Oh, it worked all right. Heron you good?" he asked her as he sat at his station.
"I'm good," she said.
"Good," Hawk started doing his flight procedure and Jake felt the engine start. From outside the cockpit they could hear everyone trying to get into the numia faster, now that the engines had turned on, giving everyone a sense of urgency.
Jake sat at his station and quickly brought up his own screens and instruments. The cockpit door opened, "Everyone's in, time to go," Altair said.
"Right," Lucy said from the pilot's chair.
The engines became louder and Jake stabilized the numia's internal gyroscope to roll with the the electromagnetism on this part of earth, so the thing would stay upright. The numia lifted up off the grass gently and Lucy spun it a hundred and eighty degrees on its horizontal axis to face the lake. They moved over to the gaping hole slowly. "Down there?" she asked.
"Yes," Pluto said.
"So what if we didn't have this giant numia?" Altair asked, "Would we be jumping?"
"She opened her landing pad because you had a numia. If you'd come as you were she'd have created another way to get down, probably stairs," Pluto said.
"Fantastic," and the numia started to descend vertically. They quickly passed through the walls holding back the lake and kept going. "How deep is this?"
"Demeter is very deep. Deeper than any of our other bases. She is a bunker and undetectable, only to be used if something terrible goes wrong."
"Like what?" Jake asked.
"Like we obliterate all life on the planet," Pluto said, very seriously. "Demeter is the luck of summer, of life, and if the world ever fell into an unending winter, she was to restart the cycle of life on the world."
"Like you said, she's a seed bank," Hawk said.
"And so much more," Pluto said. "She's several miles below the earth."
"Who knows she's here?" Altair asked.
"Alive? No one. Those who built and designed Demeter did so knowing they'd never live past building it."
"Why do I have a feeling most of those that built it were human?" Altair growled. Pluto didn't answer that. "Expendable as always."
"You find yourselves expendable, murdering each other, enslaving and bombing and destroying everything you worked so hard to build. I don't know why you condemn us for the same things you do to each other."
"Then why are you helping us if we're no better than you."
"Don't misunderstand our motives, second son," Pluto said, "Most of us don't care your species is being slaughtered or enslaved. We care about revenge for the wrongs done to us by our own species."
The numia suddenly lurched, "What was that?" Jake asked and quickly looked at his screens, which he'd been paying bare attention to while Altair and Pluto talked.
"Sorry, that was my fault," Lucy said from up front.
"Might I suggest we go faster?" Pluto asked.
"I can't go faster," Jake just barely heard Lucy say weakly.
Altair walked over to Lucy's chair and went around front. Jake leaned around his station to see what they were doing, but it was almost impossible since Altair had now crouched down in front of her. He looked at Hawk and Hawk was giving him a questioning look. Jake just shrugged, he was as confused as Hawk was. He looked back at his screens, they were stable, and the numia was now descending faster.
It didn't take them much longer to reach the bottom of the hanger. Lucy landed them gently on the ground and pushed the center yoke away as Altair stood up again. "So, here we are," he said and looked out the front window onto the dark, empty, hanger.
Then the lights started to come on, "Lets go see what Demeter is going to do with us," Hawk said and got up and left, Altair followed after.
"How you feeling?" Jake called up to Lucy.
"Hurts," she said weakly.
"Shit. Fucking idiot," he just left her there. He isn't thinking, Malik tried to calm Jacob's anger. Fuck that he just left her there and didn't even ask if she was okay! We're having a talk with him once we're settled, this is fucking bullshit. While I don't disagree he's got a lot on his mind. Don't forget he's the head of this. Yeah and he's got a big head and a fucking pea brain, Jacob snarled.
He went over to Lucy, her eyes were bloodshot, "Shit shit," he grabbed her head and pulled her eyelids open to look at them. Hawk had Bleeding trained him in medical sciences from his ancestors, which helped a lot since his mother was a nurse. "What year is it?" he asked her, looking into her other eye.
"Uh… nineteen eighty four?" she asked tiredly.
"Do you know your name?"
"I can't remember."
"Shit. Pluto, do you know what's wrong?"
"She has internal bleeding in her brain from the strain of flight," Pluto said as she started to bleed out the nose.
"Shit," and Jake picked her up, grabbing Pluto as he went. He took her down from the numia. Demeter was talking to the group. "Demeter," Jake pushed his way through them, including pushing the other immortals out of the way. This was way more important.
The AI stopped mid sentence and looked at Jake, "What is the interruption for?"
"Be nice, sister," Pluto's voice said, "Ms. Stillman needs medical attention."
Demeter looked at Jake, then her eyes flicked down to Lucy, "She's the one?" she asked.
"Yes," Pluto said.
"Our sister did a magnificent job," Demeter said, "Follow me, the rest of you stay," and she split into two. Jake sent a glare at Altair before following one of the Demeters. The one that stayed continued talking.
"How did this happen?" Jake asked when they got into a lift.
"Humans were never meant to pilot numia," Pluto said, "It strains their minds in ways that it doesn't proeathans as you must have a sixth sense to properly pilot a numia. Humans don't have that, your Eagle Vision is as close to it as your species can get. For a synthetic like Lucy it is an even greater strain since numia do not detect synthetics as viable life forms," Jake growled at that and shifted Lucy in his arms a bit.
"But she'll be okay here?" Jake asked as the lift stopped and he followed Demeter into a foyer and then down a hallway.
"She should be," Demeter said, "Now in here, lay her in the pod," she instructed. The room was like a scifi movie, with a pod in the middle and a spider-armed array above it. Jake placed her in it gently, taking Pluto back as he did. The pod closed and Jake realized it looked similar to what they'd taken Desmond from months ago.
"How long should this take?" he asked.
A day or so," Demeter said, "I'm looking at the damage now, its minimal, she'll be fine," and she looked at Jake comfortingly. "Honestly Pluto, you should have been taking better care of her."
"She insisted," Pluto sighed, "Also she's the only one with enough training to pilot a numia, it'd take too long for the others to learn. And she'll be better now so I don't see what the problem is."
"Hmm," Demeter gave him a stern look. Then she looked at Jake, "Come with me, Pluto needs to upload into my mainframe."
"She'll be okay?" Jake asked.
"She'll be fine. Minor brain hemorrhaging, nothing not easily fixed," Demeter assured him.
"There's nothing 'minor' about brain hemorrhaging," Jake frowned.
"Maybe for your species," Demeter said. "In ours a child could cause minor internal bleeding simply by exerting themselves too much. She'll be fine, it's like she scraped her knee-
"Only its her brain," Jake scowled.
"She'll be fine," Demeter stressed, "Like I would let Desmond's woman die. Oh the fallout would be catastrophic for both our races if he lost her a second time. Now c'mon, lets get Pluto somewhere he can sync."
Jake cast one last look at the pod Lucy was in, a mask had come over her mouth and the pod was filling with fluid. "Alright," and he followed after Demeter. "So now that we're here, what?" he asked, "What are the others planning?"
"Something fucking stupid no doubt," and Jake started when Mercury appeared. He looked a bit different now. He was still blonde and a child, but now wore clothes similar to Pluto's, militant clearly a uniform, and still with the no shoes. He'd have to ask about that at some point.
"What are you doing here?"
"I've been here, what the fuck took you so long to get here?" Mercury bitched.
"Sorry not everyone can upload themselves across continents," Jake snapped. I don't like him, Malik said. Fuck I hate that shitty kid. Never have kids Jacob, I can tell you from first hand experience- They're monsters? Literally the worst mistake I ever made was thinking I needed children with my wife. She was a handful enough, children was… a bad decision. Jacob snorted at that. Well I doubt we'll have to worry about kids, I mean Altair's a thing. Thank Allah he's a thing. We still need to chew his ear off for being a prick. A bigger one than usual at any rate. Mhm!
"Mercury, be nice," Demeter said as they boarded the lift again and it took off.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because this is still my construct and I don't appreciate your foul mouth. You listen into human radio for a few years and you develop the worst language."
"Fuck yo-" Mercury abruptly vanished.
"Where'd he go?" Jake asked.
"Somewhere to learn some manners," Demeter said dismissivly. "Here we are," the lift stopped and they stepped out into a big, cavernous room.
"What is this place?" Jake asked, "And why do all you AIs have one?"
"These are our core rooms," Pluto said, "they're meant to be found first. They're made of nearly unbreakable material and function as our brains."
"So you want your brains to be found first? That seems stupid," Jake said.
"Its indestructible," Pluto said, "From here we can be awoken, and it gets humans in the least amount of trouble since they can't get out of it without our help."
"That's comforting," Jake swallowed.
"Put Pluto's core here," Demeter directed Jake to a pillar in the middle of the room. The pillar was dotted with holes, a quick count showed fifteen of them. Or the other AI, if anything ever happened, Demeter was the last fail safe. "Here is Pluto's place," she motioned to one of the holes. Jake reached up and put the sphere into the slot and Pluto blipped out of sight. "Everything cool?"
"Yes, perfect," Pluto said. "Now Demeter I think you should return Jake to the others, the older ones are getting anxious about his disappearance.
"True, come," she beckoned and he followed her back out of the core room back to the others.
—
The thing about Demeter, was that she wasn't just a seed bank, she was a farm, a garden, a greenhouse. She didn't just store all those plants and animals, she grew them. Hawk had nearly had a heart attack in pure joy when Demeter had told him she had samples of nearly every species that had ever existed since she'd been constructed.
Pluto had been a storehouse for people to sleep until they woke up, but Demeter was a garden and a bountiful harvest if there ever was one. She was filled with gardens and mimicked the outside world and was huge. Jake loved every fucking second of it and the next day, after making sure Lucy was recovering, had spent most of his time looking at every room, every biome, everything Demeter had to offer. He was like a kid in a toy store, and everything was amazing and beautiful. It was the only thing he and Hawk had ever nerded out over together.
But now Jake and Altair were by themselves, after dinner of real tomatoes and real meat and real bread that made Jake hungry thinking about it. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten that well and had eaten to the point of feeling full on real food. While traveling they'd conserved food, most of it going to Desmond because unlike them if he starved, he really died, and then later to Lucy. Pluto's food had been filling, but for the most part lackluster. Demeter though had real food, grown fresh in her gardens and green houses.
"Can't we just stay here and say fuck it and let the world destroy itself?" Jake asked Altair. They were in one of Demeter's many gardens, this one specializing in growing flowers, some of which hadn't been seen on earth in hundreds or thousands of years. He turned his head and looked at the immortal who was still sort of sulking from Jake yelling at him a bit earlier. "They'd never find us here."
"And what?" Altair asked. "We could never leave."
"So?" Jake asked, "You fucking hate people," he rolled onto his stomach. "If Desmond was here you'd be all for it, admit it," he challenged with a smirk. Altair just scowled at him. "Baby," he said and put his chin on his arms. "We'll live forever, and Demeter can't die, she's been doing this for millions of years already. We could stay here until the proeathans blow themselves up."
"Tempting, but no."
"Why?" Jake looked at him again. "What's out there that you care about? And don't you dar say humanity, we both know you don't like people."
Altair looked at him and then moved closer to him. Jake rolled back onto his back, looking up at Altair. "I won't hide from them," Altair said, "I won't run from them. I won't abandon a world for convenience. We will live forever, and if we stayed down here the world will move on, move beyond us. When you live forever, stuck in one form, you cannot be stagnant. You must change, evolve, adapt," he reached out and gently stroked Jake's cheek. He only did this because there was no one else around but them. "For us, death is when the world moves past us and we become irrelevant."
"How do you know that?" Jake asked as Altair's hand drifted down to his neck, but he didn't feel afraid despite knowing full well Altair could all too easily snap his neck with little effort. Despite his own abilities Jake knew full well it was like a lamb offering its throat to a wolf, especially since it was the hand Altair wore his hidden blade on.
"Because that was how I killed Cain," Altair said. "All those deaths he suffered was nothing to what I did to him. I made him irrelevant to the world. He was gone for two hundred years. No one remembers who he is, no one who feared or respected him are alive, and humanity has accelerated rapidly since I locked him in that box. He's lost out here. Proeathans? Electricity? Technology? Magic to him, because when he was alive steam and coal were the major power sources. I might not have stopped Cain, but I fucking killed him," and Jake swallowed when for a second Altair squeezed his neck. Cain filled him with a rage neither of them had ever seen, though neither of them knew exactly what about.
Altair relaxed his hand and abruptly sat up straight and looked behind him, "You're alive I see," he called and Jake pushed himself up to his elbows.
"Yes, all better too," Lucy called as she neared them. "I wasn't interrupting personal bonding time was I?" and she grinned, Altair glared at her and then at him.
"Don't look at me like that, I didn't tell her."
"You're both horrifically transparent, for the record," she said, standing above them.
"What are you doing here, girl?" Altair growled.
"Well I woke up, ate, and went to find the others. Apparently now that I'm all better we're going to start planning the assault on the plantation. I was sent to come find you," she said. "We got a war to plan," she said seriously. She's so badass when she says that, Jacob said. Yeah she is pretty badass. Desmond better appreciate her or I'm gonna strangle him. You will do no such thing! Why not though? Because she would murder us. Jacob paused there, good point, he said. Yes, I tend to do that, Malik said.
"Okay," Jake said and got up, dusting himself off. "How do you feel?"
"Fine," she said.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yeah, jake, I feel fine."
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "All right," he said, "Cause I do not want to think about what Desmond would do if you were hurt."
"Why would he care?" she asked.
He looked down at her, "Are you kidding?"
"No?" she asked, confused.
"They did something," Altair said and stood in front of her. "What'd that AI do to you?" he asked.
"She just fixed me up," she said.
"Bull shit. Demeter," he called, "Or Pluto, fuck someone get your fucking conscious over here I got a bone to pick."
"When do you not have a 'bone to pick'?" Pluto asked, but just his voice.
"What'd you do to her?" Altair asked.
"Me? I didn't do anything."
"Then what'd Demeter do?"
"I did nothing," Demeter answered. "I healed her internal bleeding and made sure she was properly hydrated and had the right proteins, minerals, and vitamins she needed after piloting the numia."
"Hey Lucy," Jake asked, "Do you love Desmond?"
"What? That's a stupid question Jake. Why would I love Desmond?" she asked. Shit, Malik said. Double shit, Jacob said.
"Oh this'll be good," was all Altair said.
Heron, Kingbird and other dudes (dudes you need a name wtf), its so insanely frustrating (and also somewhat amusing) watching you guys try and figure stuff out sometimes. Like on some things you come so god damn close to the truth and I'm like 'shit they know'. And then the next sentence you get like 500 miles away from what's going on and I'm just 'oh for the love of it all!' I can tell you now; you might be overthinking it just a bit. But don't let that stop you from doing it.
Also Kingbird, I do have a map for both the Alliance and Assuras. But I'm still fiddling with it and working on it. So you kinda just have to use your imagination about that stuff. Once I post them though they'll be in the ZS tag though.