In the end, Mary stays behind at the apartment, despite her own arguments that she feels well enough to come with. It's fairly obvious that she's not, and in fact Haytham's not even sure she's well enough to be arguing- she yells with the same amount of energy other people use to fight. Edward assures him the arguing will probably help her more than it hurts her, so Haytham lets it go.
Shaun and Rebecca stay behind as well, because their talents are more suited to coordinating the mission than actual combat. Other than those three, however, everyone will be going into Abstergo. And that includes both Connor and Desmond- Haytham's not sure that either of them is ready for field work, but he can't argue that they need people.
On the other hand, Connor was literally a wild animal a week ago, and Haytham isn't really convinced he'll be able keep it together if anything goes wrong. As for Desmond, while he's clearly retained his physical skills from before he died, his mind is a little less reliable.
"Haytham," Altair says quietly. He has to be quiet, because it's the middle of the night and they're standing on the roof of the building across the street from Abstergo. "Are you with us?"
The other five are all looking at him expectantly; Altair's been giving an overview of the place's security, but Haytham hasn't really bothered to pay attention. It's not his first time breaking into the building, and he can't keep his mind from wandering. "Yes," he says, trying to pretend that he's been listening the whole time.
Altair gives him a look that says he definitely doesn't believe him, then shakes his head and pulls something out of his pocket. "This is how we're going to kill Juno," he says.
"A USB drive?" Desmond asks. "How is that going to help?"
"I thought we didn't have a plan," Connor adds.
"It's a very last minute plan," Altair admits. "I've been talking to Shaun and Rebecca, and based on what I saw at Abstergo, and knowing that John was good with technology, Juno's probably inside the Abstergo computer network."
"She's- what?" Edward asks.
"She's not technically here," Altair explains. "She doesn't have a body, so we can't just kill her. But this-" he holds up the USB- "has… what is it, Rebecca?"
They're all wearing earbuds connected to each other, and to Rebecca and Shaun back at the apartment, so Haytham hears her voice right in his ear. "Basically it's a virus," she says. "If you stick that in whatever computer Juno's hiding out in, it'll take the computer out. And her. Probably."
"Probably," Shaun mutters.
"Almost definitely," Rebecca corrects.
"I don't like this," Ezio says. "I don't trust computers."
"But it's all we have right now," says Altair. "So we're going to split into pairs and go looking for her."
"I thought you said you saw her," Edward says. "Don't you already know where she is?"
"And she saw me," says Altair. "She will have moved by now. All the computers in the building are connected, so she could be in any of them."
"What about other computers?" Connor asks. "There have to be millions of them."
"Abstergo's really paranoid about their data," Rebecca says. "It's pretty much impossible to get any data in or out without physically carrying it out, like with everything Altair got for John."
"Alright," Altair says quickly. "We don't have all night. I'll go with Desmond, Ezio, you're with Edward, and Connor, Haytham- you're together."
They nod or make noises of assent, and split into their pairs. Haytham hasn't taken more than a step or two when Altair puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "What's wrong?" Haytham asks.
"Nothing." Altair looks unusually serious, even for him. "Just keep an eye on Connor."
"What do you think I've been doing?" Haytham asks. He shakes Altair away and leaves him behind.
He and Connor get inside Abstergo without any trouble and start their search. It's difficult, slow work, and Haytham's frustrated at the haphazard nature of their task. Most of the six of them have spent enough time in the twenty first century to know, more or less, how to work a computer. Or at the very least they've been inside the heads of people that know better than they do. Still, Juno is different from anything else they've seen before, and Haytham can tell by the occasional terse comments coming through his earbud that he's not the only one feeling frustrated. For a while, these complaints are the only indication of how the other four are doing. Then Rebecca says, "Oh no."
"What's the matter?" Haytham and Altair demand in almost perfect unison, while Edward bursts into a string of extremely creative oaths.
"Someone-"
"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's Edward," Shaun interrupts, and the cursing intensifies slightly.
"Set off an alarm," Rebecca continues. "I just intercepted a call to the police. I stopped it before the message went through, but I think their internal security knows you're there now."
We'll manage," Connor says, and perfectly on cue, a group of five Abstergo guards burst into the room the two Kenways are searching.
"There!" One of them yells, and raises a radio to call for backup.
"No," Connor grunts, and runs across the room to bury his blade in the man's throat before he can get so much as a word out. Haytham follows only half a step behind, but he can't quite keep his attention completely on the fight. He's still nervous about Connor, not completely trusting him to stay human, and keeps one eye firmly fixed on him. To Haytham's relief, though, Connor shows absolutely no sign of shifting into animal form. And while he does seem a little less confident than usual- he stumbles a few times, and he hesitates more than what Haytham's used to seeing- but at least he's still human. It's good to see-
Haytham hears the gunshot at the same second he feels the bullet rip through his lower stomach.
"Dad!" Connor yells, but his voice sounds quiet and distant. Haytham half stumbles, just barely managing to catch himself on a table. One of the guards- the only one of the five left alive- has managed to get behind him and pull a gun. Connor leaps at him, shouting in anger, but Haytham's vision has already blurred too badly to see what happens next.
His last thought before everything goes dark and cold is that he should never have lost track of that last man. It's a basic mistake, a stupid mistake, one he wouldn't have made if he hadn't been so distracted by Connor, and one he'll be kicking himself over for the rest of his life.
But at least it doesn't look like that's going to be a very long time away.
-/-
Uggggh. It was so hard to write this chapter. You may have noticed I've spent the past 109 chapters avoiding as many fight scenes as possible, and all of a sudden there's this final battle thing that I'm pretty sure I'm making a mess of. And the next chapter's going to be just as difficult...
I say again, uggggh.
Oh, and also- bye Haytham. Nice knowing you. :(