Chapter 11– "The Revolution's American Front, Part 3.5: The Liberation of the French-African Assassin Raised by a Templar"
Aveline de Grandpre
In a dream, or perhaps a memory of hers, Katja was staring at some sort of Piece of Eden.
She was hallucinating that she was inside a strange room full of faceless Templars she had slaughtered.
Other memories of hers were playing on the walls of said room.
"...Eve will lead us through the war of generations…"
"...there will be great sacrifice, great sorrow, to end the enslavement of the human race…"
"...now is the time to claim our freedom. Are you with us?"
"I am."
"Eve will lead us."
"Eve will lead us."
Katja was looking at the glowing figures of the Prophecy Disk's message when a door opened behind her, and a strangely familiar voice, distorted by static, yelled, "KATJA!"
Then everything went black.
Katja found herself staring at a glowing figure resembling that of a human's within the darkness of her mind.
"Katja," the figure said with the same distorted voice.
"Who are you…" Katja heard herself say.
"It's me, Katja," said the voice.
"Who's 'me'?"
"You know me well," the voice said, "but for now, you can call me CitizenE."
"CitizenE?" said Katja. "What does the E stand for?"
The voice said, "Erudito."
Katja looked at the figure, still very dazed and confused as to what was going on while its voice continued to speak. "You were captured by a Templar Grand Master, Margot Delavigne. At the time, despite being merely the Grand Master of the Templars' modern day Caribbean Rite, she was promoted out of necessity to become General of the Cross. This was because the original General of the Cross had been assassinated by Lucas and his instruments, along with most of the Templars that had remained loyal to the original Templar ideology rather than accept Lucas's imposed Isu ideology."
"I was captured?" said Katja.
"On Little Saint James Island, yes," said CitizenE. "Your memories were scrambled by her attempts at controlling your mind, getting you to divulge Lucas's location so she could have him assassinated."
"Margot Delavigne wanted Lucas dead too?" Katja said.
"Along with the rest of her side of the schism? Of course," said CitizenE. "We need to put your memories back together, Katja, and for some reason, your alter Aveline de Grandpré is at the center of the events that led to the scrambling of your mind. Time is running out."
Katja said nothing as the room dissolved before her and turned from black to white.
"...it doesn't matter if this isn't working fast enough. Katja is the key. It's brutally ironic, isn't it. Here we are, on the brink of the extinction of the Templar Order, and just now we find out that we antagonized the star of the show, shoved her aside to play an extra. It's only right that we try to make amends with her. After all, she does need a mother…"
To her surprise, Katja found herself in the shoes of her younger self as she was walking through Stockholm with her biological mother, Fiona.
"This way, Brigith," said Fiona with a smile. "We need to pick out something for dinner."
Katja was so confused… Why was her biological mother acting like this towards her?
All of a sudden, Aveline de Grandpré appeared in the market area they were in.
"Do not trust Margot, Katja," said Aveline. "Do not trust CitizenE either."
"Who can I trust?" said Katja.
"You have to trust me, and your other alters…" Aveline said. "Your mind needs to be liberated from their control."
Next thing Katja knew, she found herself watching a young Aveline get separated from her mother Jeanne in eighteenth-century New Orleans. Their memories were bleeding together.
As Katja ended up losing her mother in the crowd on the streets of Stockholm, she was then grabbed by one of the men that trafficked her.
Aveline lost her mother after playing with a wandering chicken. She looked for her mother only to confuse her with a woman wearing a blue dress identical to Jeanne's. This resulted in a slaver taking away Aveline.
The memory rapidly flashed before her eyes to when Katja was a sex slave in her early teenage years. She fought with several drunken clients who were about to kill her.
Aveline, now a slave, had a fight with slavers who were about to kill her. The last one had a snake coming out of his mouth.
Aveline then woke up from her nightmare in her bed, panting and covered in cold sweat. Madeleine d'Lisle, her stepmother, came to comfort her.
"Aveline, ma chérie, you were shouting again. Was it a nightmare?" said Madeleine.
"Oui… only a dream. I'm sorry to have woken you," said Aveline.
"Shhh, ma cherie, shhh. Never apologize. A mother worries, even a stepmother," said Madeleine.
"Thank you Madeleine," said Aveline. As Madeleine left, she pulled out a locket Jeanne left her. "Maman… do you worry too? Did you forget me? Or are you gone?"
Katja woke up from her own nightmare in an unfamiliar bed in some sort of mansion.
To her shock, Margot Delavigne was the one to come find her. She looked eerily similar to Madeleine d'Lisle.
"You were shouting again, Katja," said Margot. "Was it another nightmare?"
"...I think so," said Katja.
"You still have a lot of trauma left over from your time as a child slave," said Margot. "Who am I talking to?"
"Katja."
"Your biological name is Brigith, though. Don't you want to be at peace with your younger self?"
"Brigith died long ago, Margot. Katja is the only name I know."
"I understand," said Margot. "You're lucky to have Lucas. He's a good father figure. But you need a mother figure as well."
Katja nodded.
As Margot walked away, she said, "Margot?"
"Yes, Katja?"
"Thank you."
Margot smiled slightly as she headed back to her own bedroom.
Katja looked at her dresser.
Still only somewhat conscious and unsure of what was going on entirely, she went over to fished a white Assassin hooded sweater and a set of armor, weapons, and gear, including a Hidden Blade.
After she had put on all of it, she opened the window of her bedroom, and hopped out.
Katja looked around at the colorful lights of the city's night skyline surrounding her. In the distance was a lake of some kind, and a massive bridge passing across it.
"What city is this?" she said to herself.
"New Orleans," replied her Aveline alter.
Katja jumped in surprise as Aveline manifested before her.
She hallucinated and saw images of 18th century New Orleans and its shorter French colonial buildings, horse carriages, and wooden ships in the harbor blur with 21st century New Orleans and its large skyscrapers, car traffic, and modern ships in its port.
"You're right," said Katja. "I recognize the city from when Lucas took me here once to experience Mardi Gras."
Turning to Aveline, she asked her, "What am I doing here, Aveline?"
Desmond, Altair, Ezio, Connor, and Haytham then manifested on the 18th century rooftops in front of her.
"And what are you all doing here too?"
"You should know by now that we're a part of you, Katja," said Desmond.
"We're trying to help you escape from Margot's mind games," said Altair.
"She's trying to brainwash you, and use you as her ace-in-the-hole to stop Lucas," said Ezio.
"We cannot sit back and let that happen," said Connor.
"But for now…" said Haytham.
"...you need to play along with the hallucinations Margot is planting inside your head using MK-Ultra," said Aveline. "She's creating a narrative in your mind that utilizes my memories."
"I see…" said Katja.
As the hallucinations disappeared for a moment, Katja realized she was not in a mansion, but rather she was on the balcony of a five-star hotel penthouse that was rented out by Margot.
As the others leapt off the balcony, Katja hallucinated again, and found herself atop a cathedral surveying the past incarnation of New Orleans. Beneath her was a haystack that was flickering and turning into a red door and back again.
"Time for a leap of faith," said Aveline as the other Assassins leapt off the cathedral.
"Wait!" said Katja. "I'm atop a modern-day hotel. Won't I die if I jump?"
"You have to trust us, Katja," said Aveline as she jumped off the cathedral and landed in the stack of hay.
"Fuck… all right," said Katja as she made the leap of faith, and landed through the red door as it opened for her and she felt gravity shift so she was walking through the air down into the door.
And Katja felt herself land in the freezing waters of the hotel's pool.
Coming up for a breath, Katja glimpsed a terrifying memory of her being waterboarded at a black site of some sort by one of Margot's guards.
Katja swam through and climbed out of the pool, and coughed up water.
"Good," said Aveline as she helped Katja back onto her feet. "You have to show them that you're not afraid of a little water."
"Water?" said Katja. "I'm being waterboarded right now!"
"Don't panic, Katja," said Aveline. "You have to resist Margot's conditioning. She's trying to access your mind's vulnerabilities. They're hidden…"
"...let me guess… behind the red door," said Katja. She was familiar with MK-Ultra's methodology, or at least some of it.
"That's correct," said Aveline. "Now let's turn this narrative into the narrative of Margot's assassination."
Katja hallucinated again, and found herself in an 18th century slave plantation, freeing several slaves under the cover of night.
Simultaneously she was experiencing another hallucination blurring with the first where she was helping several escaped trafficking victims cross a GMO farm full of toxic chemicals being sprayed on the crops.
"Cover your mouth," Katja said to the others.
Katja saw herself trying to push her head back and forth to the side to avoid being waterboarded.
Back in the mansion– a blur between past and present– Katja explained to Margot, "Margot, I've brought several slaves the Templars brainwashed for the sake of creating a cheap labor force– along with organ donors–here. Will you help them?"
Sighing, Margot said, "All right, Katja. I will do so since you haven't exactly left me much choice. Do me a favor and fetch them some forged passports and identification documents from a nearby safe house."
"Thank you, Margot!" Katja said as she hugged Margot.
Margot smiled at Katja as she hugged her back, only for her to frown while Katja was busy resting her head on her shoulder.
While in town, Katja bought herself some clothes using one of Lucas's credit cards that she didn't realize she still had on her person. She purchased casual clothes–a Mardi Gras themed T-shirt and short shorts– as well as a beautiful red dress that showed off her assets like the one she wore at Lucas's party.
It started to rain while Katja was busy completing the errand for Margot while wearing her newly purchased casual clothes while keeping her Assassin hoodie and gear inside her backpack and purse. She used a green umbrella she found herself holding to cover herself from the rain.
Hallucinating further again, Katja then stopped by Aveline's Assassin hideout in New Orleans. Outside it, she found Elijah talking to Lucas.
Shocked to see this, Katja said to Aveline, "What's happening, Aveline?"
"I don't know entirely, Katja…" Aveline said while taking off her hat and scratching her hair, "...but the conversation they're having reminds me of a conversation my friend Gerald was having with my father Philippe de Grandpre."
"Then, that means Elijah's playing the role of Gerald and Lucas is playing the role of… ?"
"Yup."
Curious, Katja listened in.
"Do me a favor, Elijah. Katja is to inherit Abstergo at some point, but she doesn't have a proper education, let alone proper experience on how to handle a business… let alone Abstergo. Help her learn."
"Of course, All-Father," said Elijah.
As Katja approached them, Lucas hugged Katja and said to her, "It's good to see you again, Katja!"
"Good to see you too, Lucas," Katja said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "Lucas, I thought you and Elijah were enemies."
"Nonsense," said Lucas. "After all… Elijah's in love with my daughter. Why you two haven't tied the knot yet is beyond me."
Embarrassed somewhat, Katja blushed, and cleared her throat. "Speaking of which, I need to talk to Elijah myself now."
"Right," said Lucas. "I need to see Margot about something, so I'll leave you two lovebirds in peace."
"Thank you, Lucas– wait, you're going to see Margot?"
But as Katja turned around, Lucas was already gone.
Elijah said to Katja, "Lucas said he wants me to help you practice managing Abstergo."
"Elijah, why are you helping Lucas?" said Katja.
"Is it unusual for the Assassins and the Templars to be teaming up?"
Sighing, Katja said, "All right… Show me how."
Katja and Elijah looked at a set of ledgers detailing several of Abstergo's manufacturing, handling, shipping and service subsidiaries on a laptop computer for a good while. She occasionally hallucinated and saw Aveline utilizing her own business to transport goods from port to port using ships to rake in revenue, as well as purchase local stores from rivals.
Yawning, Katja said, "I think I've had enough for now, Elijah? Running a business seems to be ten times more exhausting than running around killing Templars and risking my life."
"You're not alone in thinking that," said Elijah. "Speaking of killing Templars… it's time you visited your Assassin mentor again."
"Who's he?" said Katja.
"Agate," said Aveline.
"Rook," said Elijah.
"Rook?" said Katja.
"That's the name he goes by," said Elijah. "His hideout is in the Bayou."
"Then let's go see him," said Katja.
"I think it's better that you go by yourself," said Elijah sheepishly.
"Why don't you want to go with me?" Katja said.
"Because he's partially Gerald," said Aveline with a smirk.
"Oh," said Katja. Kissing Elijah on the lips and cheeks, she said to him, "I'll be back, Elijah."
Blushing, Elijah wiped Katja's lipstick off of his face then smiled as Katja walked out of the hideout.
"Katja."
Katja then woke to find herself in the Bayou atop a tree, with an African-American man talking to her from below.
"Agate…" said Aveline as she was hanging from a branch beneath her.
"Are you… Rook?" said Katja.
"No more training for today, Katja," said Rook. "It's time for the real deal. You succeeded in assassinating the Democratic governor of New Orleans… Now you need to assassinate the leader of an anti-fascist cell responsible for the riot that happened recently in New Orleans."
"I assassinated a target already?" said Katja.
"Yes," said Rook. "Why? Did you forget who?"
"...no," lied Katja before she added, "Why am I assassinating an Antifa leader though? Aren't they allies to the Assassins… or at least their causes overlap?"
"This leader is a mole working for the Templars," said Rook. "He replaced my mentor, an Antifa cell leader who was also his mentor… and Brigith's."
"What?" said Katja. "How's that possible?"
"François Mackandal… Baptiste…" said Aveline. "Mackandal was the mentor of the Saint-Domingue Assassin Brotherhood during the 18th century. He was the missing link between Agate, Baptiste, and my own mother, Jeanne," said Aveline.
"So my target is Baptiste?" said Katja.
"Most likely."
Rook said to Katja, "I've marked his location via your necklace, contact lenses, and wristwatch smartphone. He's holding a meeting in the Bayou. Go there and kill him."
Katja nodded to Rook, and used parkour to climb through the bayou treelines, trailing Aveline, Connor, and her other alters as she did so.
As she climbed over a swamp filled with alligators, she nearly lost her balance as she saw a red door underneath.
"Don't fall, Katja," said that voice.
"CitizenE!" said Katja. "What do I do? I don't know who to trust anymore!"
"Trust me, Katja," said CitizenE. "After you assassinate your modern-day target equivalent to Baptiste, you must assassinate the target I tell you to."
"All right," Katja said reluctantly.
And as she jumped across the swamp to grab a branch adjacent to the one she almost fell off of…
…she found herself holding onto the ledge of a treehouse overlooking an Antifa gathering of citizens wearing black clothes and masks, holding torches and toting guns. The mole, a topless black man covered in tattoos, spoke to his followers from beneath the treehouse.
"Together, we will rid America of its fascist scum! The billionaires, the politicians, the talking heads in the media… even the fascist citizens who have been brainwashed by said media!"
Something about this doesn't feel right, thought Katja as she pulled herself into the treehouse, then walked across the branch above the leader.
"Tonight we march on New Orleans! Die to all fascist scum!"
"Die to all fascist scum!" the Antifa cell chanted.
Katja reluctantly jumped off of the branch and air-assassinated the leader of the cell by plunging her hidden blade into his neck.
Looking at the members of the cell as they looked back at Katja in shock, she saw the target CitizenE wanted her to kill behind the mob of angry citizens.
Fuck… thought Katja, I'm going to have to fight my way through them.
"Kill that fascist!" yelled a citizen in the crowd as the mob ran towards Katja.
"Play along, Katja," Aveline said with a frown as she and Katja's other alters lined up next to her and prepared for a fight.
Katja fired several berserk poison darts at members of the crowd with a blowpipe to turn them against each other before the mob reached her line of alters.
She then screamed as she sliced her way through the mob of angry citizens with her Hidden Blade and her Assassin alters one by one like a sickle cutting through jungle foliage until she reached her target and stabbed him in the back as he fled.
Katja then hallucinated and saw what actually happened.
She listened in on a phone call between the Antifa cell leader in the bayou and a Templar middleman. He really was a mole working for Lucas and Abstergo. He was an Instrument of the First Will, and Katja had managed to use her Ljosalfar abilities to possess a local police officer into a suicide mission to kill said mole.
After dissociating again, Katja found herself back in the bayou, engaging in a practice melee fight with Rook, who was wielding a wooden spear.
Rook knocked her off her feet with the spear while she was dazed from dissociation.
"You're slowing," said Rook. "You need to build up more stamina."
"Rook, I don't understand what's happening to me…" said Katja. "I don't even know who you are!"
"You do know who I am… You just don't know who I am yet," said Rook.
"What do you mean?"
"Enough!" said Rook. "Your assassination mission of the Republican governor of New Orleans, who ended up being an even worse governor than the corrupt Democratic governor you assassinated, was a success. With that said, you needed to utilize the riots happening due to the governor's corrupt policies to get to him. You're getting sloppy."
Katja yelled, "But I don't remember assassinating him!"
Rook hit Katja in the back of her legs with his spear.
"Ow!" she yelled, and stumbled onto the grass, mud caking her knees.
"You're to take a break from assassinating. Head back to New Orleans."
"All right," Katja yelled as she rubbed her sore legs.
Back in the hotel, Katja took a shower to wash all the mud, grass, and sweat off her body from running around in the bayou.
She was wrapping her lower torso in a towel after drying off and went back to her bedroom to change into her nightgown when she saw Aveline approach her.
"Aveline, I'm not dressed!" said Katja.
"She knows that," said Connor as he appeared in the room as well.
"Connor!"
"We all do," said Ezio with a slight smirk.
"So you all have seen me naked because you're my alters…" said Katja. "Wonderful."
Altair said to Katja, "You're going to need to take a trip to Chichen Itza, Katja."
"Why?"
"You didn't actually assassinate the Republican governor," said Desmond.
"Instead, you heard him out," said Haytham.
"The Democratic governor was the real life stand-in for the French governor I killed, Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie, and the Republican governor was the real life stand-in for the Spanish governor I spared, Antonio de Ulloa," Aveline explained. "His corrupt practices, including stricter economic policies and a larger slave trade market made him a target."
"Why did you spare him then?" said Katja.
"Because he gave me information about Chichen Itza," said Aveline. "He was taking slaves there to help excavate the site so the Templars could search for the Prophecy Disk."
"A Piece of Eden…" said Katja.
"On top of that, my mother was there," said Aveline, looking away for a moment. "I defied Agate's orders by sparing him and heading to Chichen Itza."
"I assume I'm heading there then," Katja said.
"You already did."
Katja found herself hallucinating, experiencing a memory of her approaching a Templar client in her red dress while posing as a prostitute in a seedy part of New Orleans.
She was trafficked to Chichen Itza…
…and she woke up inside a set of Isu ruins overlapping with the Mayan ruins beneath Chichen Itza.
Katja looked at herself; she was wearing her casual clothes again, but they were covered in more mud and grass stains from moving through the jungles of rural Mexico despite being soaking wet from swimming through a cenote.
Aveline said to Katja, "The Prophecy Disk isn't here. I brought it back to the Assassins in my time."
"Then why are we here?" said Katja.
Katja was interrupted when one of her slavers yelled, "KATJA!"
He was carrying a whip.
Aveline managed to dodge him as he swung the whip at her, and Katja soon found herself in Aveline's position. She then twisted and broke his arm, took the whip out of his hands, and whipped him senseless with it before plunging her hidden blade into his jugular.
To Katja's surprise, she heard a familiar voice say her name.
"Katja… is that you?"
Looking up towards the entrance to the ruins, Katja saw her biological mother.
"Brigith?"
Brigith's expression turned from a surprised one to a cold one.
"Why are you here, Katja?"
"I…" Katja said, "I don't know."
"If you're here to find me, know that I didn't want to be found," said Brigith.
"How are you still alive?" said Katja.
"For starters, I'm alive because I didn't come looking for you."
Katja looked at Brigith sadly as she said, "I never wanted a child. I hope you understand."
"I don't," said Katja. "Why did you let my father abuse me like that?"
Their conversation was interrupted when Katja felt the ruins begin to collapse.
She quickly had to make her escape through the underground excavation tunnels.
As she managed to make it out of the collapsing ruins, Katja jumped into a set of rapids in a nearby river in the jungle beneath the ruins.
Coming up for air, Katja could feel her lungs hurting; she saw herself being waterboarded again.
After going under several more times, Katja looked ahead as she was approaching a waterfall with a massive drop.
She wouldn't survive the fall.
Thinking quickly, Katja improvised a grappling hook by attaching Ezio's hook blade to Aveline's stolen whip, and swung it at a nearby tree branch hanging over the waterfall.
She screamed as her makeshift grappling line left her dangling off the side of a rock wall next to the waterfall.
She quickly pulled herself up the rock wall before the branch snapped.
To her surprise, she saw a nearby target that was highlighted in gold when she used her Eagle Vision.
She used her grappling line to pull the target toward her and stab him in the throat with her hidden blade.
Katja hallucinated again.
"Are you starting to see the truth, Katja?" said CitizenE.
"I don't think so," said Katja.
She heard someone yell, "KATJA!" as she was inside the crumbling Mayan ruins.
She saw a hallucination of her mother again.
"Katja…" she said, "I'm so sorry… I'm a terrible mother… You have to survive… No, thrive!"
Katja saw her get eaten alive by wolves that night the two of them fled from their home in rural Sweden.
She felt a pain in her chest; she was feeling very dizzy and lightheaded all of a sudden.
"KATJA!" yelled Margot.
Katja woke up to find herself in bed with an ice pack on her forehead and a thermometer in her mouth.
"What happened…" said Katja.
"A pandemic, that's what," said Margot. "A deadly strain of the flu… If Lucas doesn't succeed at killing off half of the population, chances are it will. You're lucky to be alive. Unfortunately…"
"What is it?" said Katja.
"Lucas didn't survive the flu. He's dead, Katja."
"What?" said Katja. She felt even more dizzy and lightheaded this time.
"My head hurts," she said as tears came to her eyes.
"Easy, Katja…" said Margot, "don't exert yourself."
"My head hurts!" she cried.
"I'll get you some water and painkillers," said Margot.
As Margot came back, she said to Katja, "Drink."
As Katja drank the water, she found herself choking on it and seeing herself being waterboarded again.
"Fuck!" yelled Katja with a hoarse voice.
Looking around, she thought, is Lucas really dead?
Margot said, "I'm going to make you some soup and grilled cheese. I'll be right back."
As Margot left, Katja got out of her bed.
She tried to call Rook. "Rook? Rook, pick up!"
Aveline said to Katja, "Don't exert yourself too much, Katja. You just assassinated another member of Lucas's inner circle, all in the middle of a nasty pandemic."
"Who did I kill?" said Katja.
"The lobbyist pulling the strings of both governors. He was believed to be someone with the alias of 'the Company Man' that Rook had been searching for for some time. You also freed a slave who was going to be forced to donate his liver to the lobbyist. Apparently he loved his liquor too much."
Katja said, "Where's the slave now?"
"Apparently he fled to assist the antifascist and union movements opposing America's oligarchs up in New York," said Aveline. "We're going there to kill a leader of the local Proud Boys helping the police quash the movements."
"For what purpose?"
"Mine," said Connor.
Katja hallucinated and saw Aveline and Connor teaming up to help the Continental Army fight the British and some Loyalists in the middle of a brutal winter storm.
"All right," said Katja. "Let's go."
Katja found herself scaling an ice wall in the New York Frontier during the Revolutionary War era with Connor and Aveline above her.
As they reached the top of the wall, they scanned the battle happening in the distance with their Eagle Vision.
Connor's alter began to flicker.
"That's not good…" said Haytham as he appeared next to Connor.
"Haytham, what are you doing here?" said Katja.
"I think Margot is trying to use Connor to get to Aveline, and Aveline to get to you, Katja," said Haytham. "Her brainwashing process is starting to work… Looks like she used freezing water on you this time instead of room temperature water."
"Damn it!" said Katja.
"We have to keep making our way through her narrative regardless," said Haytham. "Perhaps this 'CitizenE' will be of assistance to our endeavors."
"All right," said Katja. "This had better work."
Katja and her Assassin alters made their way through the snowstorm and charged at the enemy formation. Katja fired her custom automatic rifle at the Redcoats and Loyalists while her alters fired their flintlock rifles and pistols at them.
Several Redcoats charged at Katja with bayonets.
Katja and her alters parried their rifles to avoid getting stabbed.
Connor and Aveline tripped some of them and stabbed them with their tomahawk and machete, respectively.
Haytham sliced through several Redcoats' torsos with his sword.
Ezio disarmed a Redcoat, grabbed his rifle, stabbed through his torso with its bayonet and used him as a human shield while firing at more Redcoats.
Altair threw several throwing knives at the Redcoats' heads, killing them from a distance.
Desmond blocked two Redcoats approaching him from opposite directions with his bracers, then used his Hidden Blades to dual assassinate them.
Katja, now covered in the blood of nearly an entire Redcoat unit, was grabbed by a Redcoat from behind.
She used his momentum against him and chucked him over her shoulder, then stomped on his skull as she fired her sidearm at the head of the Redcoat that was about to stab her with his bayonet.
She then fired at the Redcoats surrounding her with her handgun, and when the barrel clicked to indicate she was out of ammo, she chucked the handgun into the face of one of them, then beat the rest of them half to death with her fists and feet. Her momentum was growing by the second.
Her Ljosalfar alter manifested in front of her for a moment.
"You're growing stronger, Katja… You must press onward. You're almost to Lucas."
"I am?"
"Yes, from there you might be able to stop his first nuke from detonating."
Her resolve grew even further and she fired at the remaining Redcoats in the distance with her rifle while screaming at the top of her lungs.
One of the men she shot was highlighted in gold.
She and her alters ran towards him.
Aveline looked surprised upon looking at his face.
"What is it, Aveline?"
"That's the slave I freed, George Davidson!"
"What?" said Katja.
"Who is the Company Man, George?" said Aveline.
"So naïve…" George laughed while on the brink of death. "The Company Man was in your backyard all along!"
Aveline's image flickered for a moment like Connor's did.
"Stay with us, Aveline!" said Ezio.
"Madeleine d'Lisle," said Aveline. "She was the Company Man."
"And Margot Delavigne is her equivalent," said Katja.
"It's time we killed her," said Altair.
"But how do I do that?" said Katja. "She's brainwashing me!"
"Follow CitizenE's instructions, Katja," said Haytham.
Katja grimaced.
"Okay."
Back at the mansion in New Orleans, Katja confronted Margot, who was surrounded by guards.
She hallucinated and saw Aveline confronting Madeleine at the same time.
"You've been grooming me to become a Templar all this time, Madeleine," said Aveline angrily. "You poisoned my father, separated me from my real mother!"
"I know," said Madeleine. "But I hope you understand that I want what's best for you."
Katja said to Margot, "You've been brainwashing me into hunting down Lucas for you, taking out members of his organization to test me!"
"That's correct, Katja," said Margot. "But I know you understand that the Assassins want the same thing, that you want the same thing. It's imperative we hunt him down if we want to save the world."
Katja looked at Margot and the guards surrounding her as she said, "I have one last test for you… Kill Rook."
"Why?"
"Don't ask why. Just do it," said Margot.
Katja grimaced, and said, "All right. I will."
"Good," said Margot with a smile.
Katja began to dissociate again.
She found that Rook was trying to drown her in the swamp at his bayou hideout when she came back to reality.
"Agate, take hold of your senses!" cried Aveline as she battled with Agate.
"The Templars have sent you here to kill me!" shouted Agate as he threw a smoke bomb to blind Aveline.
"Why are you doing this, Rook?" cried Katja.
"Montana… Kyrat… you took control of my mind, you witch!" yelled Rook. "Hope County… has been destroyed by nuclear missiles because of the conspiracy you're involved in!"
"What?" said Katja before Rook forced her head into the swamp again.
"It's time for the alligators to feast," said Rook.
"No!" yelled Katja before, to her surprise, she heard a hidden blade pierce through Rook's shoulder before he screamed and let her go.
Katja pulled her head out of the muddy water and puked some up.
She looked at who stabbed Rook.
To her surprise, it was Connor, only it was the version of him with glowing eyes that was wearing a wolf pelt and face paint again.
The light elf appeared and told her, "You're almost in time to experience it, Katja."
"In time to experience what?"
"The tyranny of King Richards."
"King Richards? Lucas?" said Katja.
Katja then ducked her face as Rook kicked dirt at her and jumped as he swung his spear at her ankles, then landed a kick at Rook's face in mid air.
Rook stumbled backwards, then screamed and charged at Katja after regaining his balance.
Only for Katja to feint and avoid his spear, then stab him in the side of the neck.
In the White Room, Rook said to Katja, "Ljosalfar… You confused me… made my efforts to save Hope County's inhabitants insane."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" said Katja.
"You will know… you will…" said Rook.
As Katja woke up, she saw a nearby alligator highlighted in gold with the help of her Eagle Vision.
"CitizenE… you want me to assassinate… an alligator?"
"Florida men have done worse," said CitizenE with a shrug.
Katja sighed, and attempted to wrestle the alligator as it tried to sink its jaws into her. She succeeded, and stabbed the alligator to death with her hidden blades and kicked it off of her before swimming back to the surface.
CitizenE showed her something strange.
She found herself freerunning through an obstacle course in a room similar to the White Room.
"Strange… I'm not sure what this 'Rook' mentioned when he said you possessed him…" said CitizenE.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter."
Katja asked, "CitizenE… what do I do to escape Margot?"
"First, let me show you the purely false reality, the one shaped by Margot's MK-Ultra script."
Katja then reached the end of the White Room and found herself in a church in 18th century New Orleans where she was being inducted into the Templar Order by Margot.
She was hallucinating too, and saw that Aveline was being inducted into the Templar Order by Madeleine.
"Aveline isn't a Templar…" said Katja.
"That's right," said CitizenE. "Now let me show you the partially false reality."
Katja was in the church, and Margot was screaming as she banged her fist on the table where the Prophecy Disk was sitting.
"Impossible!" yelled Margot. "I've spent decades searching for this thing and it doesn't even work!"
Madeleine yelled something similar as Aveline entered the room. "Unless…"
All of a sudden, Katja found that she and her Aveline alter were engaging in a melee brawl with all the Templars that convened at the church.
Despite being outnumbered, Katja and Aveline managed to survive the waves of Templars coming at them.
Katja then turned towards Margot as she was the only Templar left standing.
"No… No!" screamed Margot. "Katja… we're on your side."
"You're really not," said Katja as she stabbed Margot through her jugular.
As Margot and Madeleine collapsed to the floor and bled out, Katja looked at Aveline as she used her locket her mother gave her to activate the Prophecy Disk.
Katja's memories were playing on the walls of the church as a hologram formed from the Prophecy Disk.
"...Eve will lead us through the war of generations…"
"...there will be great sacrifice, great sorrow, to end the enslavement of the human race…"
"...now is the time to claim our freedom. Are you with us?"
"I am."
"Eve will lead us."
"Eve will lead us."
Katja was looking at the glowing figures of the Prophecy Disk's message when the doors to the church opened behind her, and a strangely familiar voice, distorted by static, yelled, "KATJA!"
Then everything went black.
"So… Aveline assassinated Madeleine…" said Katja.
"Now let me show you the true reality," said CitizenE.
Katja was taken to a black site.
As Margot's men stopped waterboarding Katja, she stared emptily at Margot as she hovered over Katja.
"Are you ready to stop Lucas for me, Katja?" said Margot.
"Of course," said Katja.
Margot smiled.
"Not for you though."
Margot's smile disappeared as the bright white lines formed on Katja's body and her ocean blue eyes glowed in the dark.
A burst of the light elf's energy freed Katja from her bonds and sent Margot and her men flying across the room.
Katja approached Margot as she struggled to get up, and she stepped on her leg.
Margot reached for her handgun, aimed at Katja, and fired.
Aveline blocked the shot with her umbrella.
The bullet was repelled from Katja's body as if her skin was made of magnets.
Aveline then used her umbrella to fire a poison dart into Margot's neck.
Katja then grabbed a nearby syringe full of LSD, and stabbed Margot several times in the neck with it until she was dead.
As Aveline and Connor's images stopped flickering, they and Katja's other alters killed Margot's men.
Breathing heavily, Katja looked around.
"We did it…" said Katja.
"Yes, you did do it…" said CitizenE.
"Now what, CitizenE?" said Katja as she caught her breath.
"Now we continue the memory," said CitizenE, "as I was speaking in past tense."
Katja looked as a set of doors in the black site compound opened.
A strangely familiar voice distorted yet again by static, yelled, "KATJA!"
And everything went dark.
Katja woke to find herself talking to Lucas in a forest in America, while briefly hallucinating and imagining a memory where Connor was talking to George Washington.
"There's something I want to show you, Connor," said George as he pulled out a Piece of Eden.
"I'm so glad I found you, Katja…" said Lucas as he hugged Katja.
As he unwrapped his arms from Katja, he said, "We need to head to Yara, Katja. I have some business I need to take care of there."
But as the Piece of Eden blinded Connor and George Washington, Katja began to faint.
"Katja? KATJA!" shouted Lucas as she passed out in his arms.
She woke up to find herself lying in the grass, in the frontier in the middle of night. She was with Connor and her other alters.
"Are we in the Revolutionary War era, Connor?" said Katja.
"Not exactly, Katja," said Connor with a frown as he heard screams, explosions and gunfire in the distance.
"Then where are we?"
Turning around, Katja saw what looked like several Continental Army troops about to execute a group of civilians.
Something isn't right about this… Katja thought.
"The Bluecoats are here," said Connor. "We need to reach my tribe's settlement, now!"
"The Bluecoats?" Katja said with wide eyes as she found herself running after her alters.