Megiddo

by DJJD2184

A fan-fiction sequel to Conviction and Blacklist. With this Splinter Cell fanfic project, I wanted to not only explore a huge cliffhanger in Conviction that was never capitalized on in Blacklist (Megiddo), but also try to develop the existing characters and their relationships with each other more.

9. Chaos Theory Part III: Ultimate Function

Chapter 9— "Chaos Theory, Part III: Ultimate Function"

Undisclosed DedSec Safe House, London, United Kingdom

Sam frowned at Sadiq.

"Charlie, send the Abstergo files and Sadiq's file to my OPSAT," Sam said into his subdermals.

"Rog'," said Charlie.

Sam said to Sadiq, "I'm going to start reading the file you wanted us to get for you on one condition: you start telling us what the Greco-Roman part of the Abstergo files say, as well as answer my questions."

"Deal," said Sadiq.

In Charlie's room, Charlie said to Briggs, "How do we know Sadiq will tell the truth?"

"We don't," said Briggs.

"Crap," said Charlie.

"Operation Desert Hill," said Sam. "A joint operation, carried out by Task Force Integral, was responsible for the kidnapping of a woman who called herself Angrboda, in a raid on a fortress in Mirawa during the Gulf War. Her real name was Akilah al-Hafeez."

"That was my wife," said Sadiq. "She's dead, though. Lucas showed me her corpse on camera himself, and that was years ago. She's not what I want. Not anymore at least. Keep reading."

Sam looked at the files, and said, "She gave birth to a child while in the custody of MI6. The files claim that the child was yours, and that MI6 was trying to use Angrboda and the child as leverage over you."

"You're getting warmer," said Sadiq. "Where is he, Fisher?"

"He?"

"Don't play games with me, Fisher. Where is my son?"

Sam looked at the camera in the cell.

Charlie said in awe, "He didn't even know the baby's gender before Sam kidnapped her."

Briggs said, "If that's the case, then why's he assuming the child was a boy? It was a girl."

Charlie thought for a second, then said, "Fenrir."

"Fenrir?" said Briggs.

"Sadiq's Loki's Sage," said Charlie. "He's getting Loki's memories confused with his own. He may have believed Lucas killed his 'son' because of this, hence why he left MI6."

"That… makes enough sense to me…" said Briggs, scratching his head.

"I'll tell you where your… son is, if you tell me about the Red Mercury plot."

"I suppose that's fair," said Sadiq. "After all, I want Lucas's plot to fail too."

"You want Lucas's plot to fail even though you and the Engineers are working with him?"

"Yes, I do," said Sadiq. "Show me the Abstergo files."

Sam showed Sadiq the files on his OPSAT.

"The Illuminat caste of the Isu's main dialect. Of course. The Isu can perceive concepts utilizing their sixth sense that can't be perceived by humans and their five senses. They understand time and knowledge in a way that transcends human thought. That understanding is shown in their dialect. They can use mere language to describe what would require the most complicated of technical documents for humans to interpret… like that of a set of Red Mercury bombs."

"Let's see…" said Sadiq as he read through the files. "Wait. Stop scrolling. Ah… There it is. By itself, defusing a Red Mercury suitcase bomb is not much unlike defusing a conventional bomb. It's just a matter of figuring out the right wires to cut and cutting them in the correct order. But it looks like Lucas added a… special mechanism to the main three bombs."

"A special mechanism?" said Sam.

"These three bombs are all meant to go off at the same time. Once the detonation frequency is broadcasted from the satellites at Lucas's detonation center, the three bombs' synchronized timers will start. After the detonation frequency is broadcasted, there is one way and only one way to disarm all three bombs: at the same time, and after the broadcast is shut off."

"What?" said Charlie.

"This is bad…" said Briggs.

"Let me get this straight…" said Sam. "Once the broadcast has been made, the timer starts, and so long as the broadcast is still happening, the bombs can't be defused without causing them to prematurely detonate all at once?"

"That's what the files say," said Sadiq. "Even if you manage to shut off the broadcast signal after it's been activated, that won't stop the timer. The bombs can only be defused while the signal is off, and they have to be defused, meaning the final wire on each individual bomb has to be cut, at exactly the same time, otherwise they'll all detonate."

Sam frowned.

"For the sake of the world, I hope Fourth Echelon is up to the task."

"Where will the bombs be placed? Do the files say?"

"You don't need me to read the files to tell you that, Sam," said Sadiq. "Lucas is having me send some of my best Engineers to plant the main three bombs at the locations he chose. Washington, Moscow, and Beijing."

Sam looked at Sadiq in shock as he said, "Lucas wants to send a message to the world, along with a subtler message to Abstergo this way. The public message will be that the US, Europe, Russia, China… the entire world must unite under Lucas's new world order he envisioned, all for the sake of stopping the common enemy that he secretly engineered: me. The private one… is that Abstergo belongs to Lucas now, and that anyone who opposes him will likely end up on the wrong side of his Selection."

"What about the detonation center? Where's its location?"

"Lucas didn't tell me," said Sadiq, "and that was smart of him, else I might have tried to go after him there myself."

Sam frowned.

"I'm afraid I'm telling you the truth, Sam," said Sadiq. "I haven't gotten to the part I'm going to keep from you until you give me more of the information I want yet."

"All right then," said Sam. "What about the fourth bomb? The one used for Lucas's Selection, his depopulation agenda?"

"Lucas didn't tell me where the fourth bomb would be placed either. Despite that it should be relatively easy to defuse based on the files you've shown me, finding it is going to require a little more intelligence gathering in the field on your part, Sam."

"Won't the Engineers be the ones placing it though?"

"No. That duty belongs to another group in Lucas's pocket… the Collective Force."

Sam frowned.

Sadiq smirked. "You're not going to ask about the fifth bomb?"

"The fifth bomb was a dud," said Sam.

"You're talking about the one meant to frame your team for the terrorist attack in Rome?" said Sadiq. "If that was the fifth bomb, then there's a sixth."

"No," said Sam. "We shut down Lucas's production center in Hong Kong before he could ship out more."

"You underestimate Lucas's ability to hide the truth from you, Sam," said Sadiq. "He'll always have someone that's right behind you… He'll always be one step ahead. I assume he tried to make it sound like there were four bombs in the wild to fool you into thinking you had 'defused' the fifth."

"Where's the fifth bomb?" Sam said angrily.

"It was initially going to be placed in London. But after the little temper tantrum your team helped DedSec and the Assassin Brotherhood throw here, Lucas likely had to change his plans. While he wanted to send a radioactive message to Europe as well, where he's going to place the fifth bomb is now a mystery to me. But what I do know is that when he gave me the name of the location where the fifth bomb would be placed, he didn't give me the name of a city. He gave me the name of a woman… Sarah Fisher."

Sam looked at Sadiq furiously as Sadiq said, "Lucas plans on leveraging you by strapping a Red Mercury bomb to Sarah's chest, Sam. He already has her in his custody. I wouldn't be surprised that if you continue your mission for much longer, he's going to activate the timer on the bomb that's for her."

Sam said coldly to Sadiq, "Where's my daughter?"

"You give me my son, and I'll tell you where your daughter is."

Breathing furiously, Sam said to Sadiq, "Your son was trafficked through the Rook Islands after you left MI6 again… Handed over to a rich client. The file doesn't say the client's name."

"You mind if I play devil's advocate for a moment, Fisher?" said Sadiq. "I think you're bluffing. You're afraid that if you tell me the last thing I want to know then I won't tell you the last thing you want to know. But I'm afraid you've got no other moves left to make."

Sadiq said to Sam, "During Blacklist Zero we used the names of chess pieces as codenames. Here we are, two kings of the battlefield facing off against each other, not sure which move to make next. It's unclear as to what I have to lose, especially since it's something… someone, that I've never even been able to see with my own two eyes, let alone hold in my arms. But as for you, Sam? If my king takes yours… you have everything to lose."

"It's not just the fact that you love your daughter, Sam, that's making this mission go to your head. It's the fact that you don't love anything or anyone else enough to make you feel human in comparison. You already thought that you lost Sarah once, after your best friend Irving Lambert, staged her death."

Charlie looked at Sam as Sadiq said this.

"Fuck…" Charlie said. "It was Sarah. She was going to be used as leverage over Sam the first time around."

Briggs looked in Charlie's direction briefly.

Sam looked at Sadiq with his face turning red out of anger as Sadiq said, "That helped expose the essence of what you are, Sam. A relentless, heartless killing machine. Just like Yahweh wants you to be. You worked for Third Echelon… for Abstergo… for so long because it was a coping mechanism. A way for you to do what you do best, all while pretending it's for a good cause. And now that you found out it was anything but… You're resorting to Sarah again. She's how you cope, Sam. She's what you use to distract yourself from your essence."

"She's my daughter," said Sam, breathing heavily.

"It felt good, though, didn't it?" said Sadiq. "Killing mindlessly without a cause. I suppose that makes us more like opposites than equals after all."

"Where is she, Sadiq!" screamed Sam.

"Tell me where my son is, Sam, and I'll tell you where your daughter is."

Sam sighed out of frustration.

"Don't do it, Sam," said Briggs over comms.

"The client's name is Jack Carver!" yelled Sam. "That's all the file said regarding a location."

Sadiq smirked again, but then he looked around the cell, and the smirk turned to an angry sneer before he stared back at Sam. "I always hated working with Alfred… the man who ran the operation that resulted in the kidnapping of my wife and unborn child. There's a brutal irony that I get the location of my son from a good friend of his right in his own home."

"You mentioned something about a church in your sleep while we were on that train together…" said Sadiq. "The night my wife was kidnapped, I remember giving a group of Builders the orders to bring any of the soldiers from Task Force Integral to a church in a small village near Mirawa to be executed. I never heard back from that group, and I was told it was Alfred's doing, but all along…"

Sam and Sadiq looked at each other with an equal amount of pure hatred for one another burning in their eyes.

"It was you. You were the leader of Task Force Integral… not Alfred. What happened to you in that church must've traumatized you enough to make you leave the task force while Alfred continued in your place. You may have been following Lucas's orders, but you're still partly responsible for the killing of all of those people I tried to save… For the eventual death of my wife… and for kidnapping MY SON!"

"Where's my daughter, Sadiq…" said Sam, breathing heavily.

Sadiq looked at Sam angrily, and said, "If I had figured it all out sooner, I wouldn't have told you the truth about the Red Mercury at all. I wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for you. And now you want me to tell you more?" Sadiq said, "You're a terrible chess player, Fisher… Checkmate."

Sam's heart sank and shriveled up, and then his blood began to boil in its absence.

Breathing heavily, Sam began to beat Sadiq half to death while he was strapped to the chair.

"WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER!" screamed Sam.

Sadiq groaned and said nothing as he spat out blood.

Briggs said over comms, "Sam!"

"WHERE IS SHE!" screamed Sam as he socked Majid so hard his chair started to wobble.

Sadiq groaned louder. Coughing out more blood, Sadiq said while panting, "Your enhanced interrogation techniques… need improvement… Fisher…"

"Enhanced interrogation techniques?" Sam said. Pulling out his Karambit, Sam pressed the knife against Sadiq's neck. "I remember you doing this to me at your sleeper cell, that old abandoned mill, here in London."

"You don't scare me," said Sadiq. "I have nothing left to lose!"

"You have more to lose than you could ever imagine," said Sam as he took the knife away from Sadiq's neck and plunged it through Sadiq's kneecap.

Sadiq screamed.

"SAM, STOP!" shouted Briggs.

"I remember that I did something like- this…"

Sam began to twist the knife while it was inside Sadiq's knee.

Sadiq screamed at the top of his lungs and shook violently in his chair. Sam had to hold him down.

"…to your legs, at Site F. I can see that the scars on your legs are still there."

Sam yanked the knife out. Sadiq's knee was bleeding out. Sadiq was crying out of sheer agony.

"Site F was just the beginning of your torment, Sadiq. From now until the moment you die, and your death will be by my hands once I have no more use for you, your life will be a living hell. I promise you that."

A crying Sadiq looked up at Sam angrily as Briggs walked into the cell and said, "Sam, that's enough."

"No, that's not enough, Briggs. It'll be enough when he tells me Sarah's location."

"You're not going to get anything out of him like this, Sam. We tried interrogating him before after we captured him at Site F, and he only gave us the information he wanted us to know."

"But Sarah's in danger and I still don't know her location!"

"Alfred's people in DedSec found us a lead. She's still somewhere on the Rook Islands… They've been keeping an eye on the traffickers that kidnapped her… They never left the island."

Sam sighed, and caught his breath. "Then that's where we're going next. But if we have all the information we need, then I have no more use for Sadiq… I'm gutting him, right now."

"Sam, wait!"

Sam took out his Karambit and held it up to Sadiq's neck.

Seconds before he slit Sadiq's throat, Briggs said, "This isn't you, Sam… Maybe it's what Yahweh is like, or what the Sam that worked with Alfred during the Gulf War is like, but it's not the Sam I worked with. If you kill Sadiq right now… I'm worried there won't be much of Sam Fisher left, and I need the Sam Fisher that I worked with during the Blacklist."

Sam sighed, and held his forehead with his hand as he said, "Right… You're right."

Sam took the knife off of Sadiq's throat, and holstered it on his suit's belt.

"Thank Briggs that you're alive, Sadiq. But it's just for now. You better start praying that when I get back to decide what to do with you, I'm still me. Your life will depend on it."

Sadiq sighed after catching his breath, and looked up at Sam and Briggs as they left the cell. He frowned for a moment, and spat out more blood, then smirked.

Sam talked to Briggs and Alfred.

"Is the lead good?"

"As good as they get," said Alfred.

"You have my thanks, Alfred," said Sam. "I'm sorry for my outburst back at the church. You were right about what I did back in the Gulf War. Lucas would've killed me if it weren't for you… and I wouldn't have taken care of Sarah when she was still a child."

"It's water under the bridge," said Alfred. "I owe you far more than you owe me. Also, just because I'm not afraid to leave innocent bystanders as collateral damage to complete my mission doesn't mean I enjoy doing it. What happened back in that church, and the fortress back in Mirawa, it makes my skin crawl. Made it hard for me to sleep at times. It does even to this day."

"I know. It makes mine crawl too now that I remember," said Sam. "Anyway, with that said…" said Sam. "The rematch."

Alfred smiled slightly. "We're getting everything ready in the fighting ring down in the basement. After that, if you kill Sadiq, we'll post about his death on social media. That'll be a big win for everyone. If you spare him, leave him with us. We'll figure out what to do with him. I'll probably just kill him myself. After that…"

"For better or worse, I'm glad I got to see you again, Alfred," said Sam as he put his hand on Alfred's shoulder.

Charlie interrupted, "Speaking of which… where's the Paladin?"

"Good question, Charlie," said Briggs while looking at Alfred.

Walking into the room, Darcy said, "We had it taken to another safe house of ours already in the Isle of Skye. Staying here in London after the riots we caused is too risky. After Alfred and Sam's rematch, DedSec is shutting down this cell and relocating to the one in the Isle of Skye."

"The Isle of Skye…" said Sam. Remembering what Marie told him about her past, Sam said, "Is that DedSec cell…"

"…located at my old childhood home?" said Marie, whose smile appeared briefly before disappearing. "It is. After fighting that old colleague of yours… Crosshairs… and what she said about my mother and Aletheia's 'function' for her… I'm not sure how I feel about returning."

"It's worth mentioning, Sam, that the woman in the file who mentioned Angrboda couldn't have been Aletheia's Sage given when she died… I suspect she said her name was Aletheia's Jotunn name because she loved Sadiq… just like how Aletheia and Loki were in love."

"Crosshairs mentioned that Aletheia was an Isu… Of course…" said Sam. "Now it makes sense… enough sense at least. In Norse mythology, Odin imprisoned Loki's son, Fenrir, that he had with Angrboda, after hearing a prophecy from the Nornir that he'd be killed by Fenrir amidst the chaos of Ragnarok. Lucas never let Sadiq see his daughter… So Sadiq doesn't know he gave birth to a girl. All he has to rely on are his Sage memories, and his trauma of losing his wife and daughter, and his animosity for Lucas… and Odin… All of it must've triggered Loki's memories of Odin imprisoning Fenrir."

"You understand," said Marie.

"I think so…" said Sam. "Lucas was using Sadiq's daughter as leverage over him. That's why he went back to work for MI6 after Desert Hill. Then when his wife died, his memories as Loki's Sage must've resurfaced, and he fled out of grief and anger at Lucas and formed the Engineers after the Builders fell apart… No wonder the Well of Mirrors was the front company for the Builders for so long… That was Sadiq's doing. Now the Engineers are under Lucas's control, all because of Sadiq. All because of the leverage Lucas has over him…"

"We've got enough to work with. For now," said Sam. "We need to contact Caldwell and warn her about our lead on the three main Red Mercury bombs and where the Engineers are going to place them at."

"Normally it would be Grim who would do that," said Briggs with a frown.

"What do we do about her?" said Charlie. "I mean, she shot you in the shoulder. She clearly lost her battle with Freyja."

"I don't know yet," said Sam, "but if I'm not ready to kill Sadiq, then I'm definitely nowhere near ready to kill Grim."

"What if we don't have a choice?" said Charlie.

"She's bagged and tagged for now," said Sam. "I don't think she'll be causing problems anytime soon."

Charlie looked worried.

"Just focus on looking through some of our intel for now, Charlie," said Sam. "I'll reach out to Caldwell myself once the fight's over and we're back on the Paladin."

"I have to admit I'm interested in watching," said Briggs with a slight smirk. "You coming with, Charlie?"

"I'll totally be watching via the camera feeds when I'm not sorting through the intel," said Charlie.

"Your loss, Charlie," said Alfred. "It's much more fun to watch in person than behind a screen. And I'm fine with letting you take a break if need be. In more ways than not that's what we're doing… Lettin' a little steam off."

"I also promised I'd hang out with Bruce since he was assigned the duty of feeding our prisoners during the big fight."

"Ah, I see," said Alfred with a smile. "It was kind of Bruce to volunteer for that since no one wanted to miss the fight. It's even kinder of you to keep him company."

"Thanks, Alfred," said Charlie with his typical awkward grin. "Enjoy the fight."

As Alfred, Sam, and the others all left, Charlie's grin disappeared, and he turned to his computer consoles.

Bruce entered Grim's cell, where she was still trapped in the bag and pushed against the wall.

"Bruce brought fish and chips for Ground Beef Done Well. They've got extra salt and vinegar."

Grim said to Bruce, "Am I allowed to feed myself?"

"Porker says Ground Beef Done Well's too dangerous to be un-bagged, and Porker's word is law here at DedSec."

As Bruce put the plate down, Grim said with an angry frown, "I'd rather starve."

"Porker says Bruce has to feed the prisoners. And Porker says not to trust Ground Beef Done Well, because Ground Beef Done Well's been spoiled by Fried Ham. Now open wide."

Bruce cut a piece of fish with a fork, and said, "Here comes the airplane…"

Bruce tried to put the piece of fish in Grim's mouth with the fork, but Grim wouldn't open her mouth.

"Why aren't you opening wide?"

"I'll only be fed by someone who isn't afraid to say their last name," said Grim.

Bruce frowned at Grim.

"Have Charlie come feed me instead. He's not afraid to say his."

Bruce said angrily, "Bruce will be back later to feed Fried Ham her fish and chips as liquid, through a straw then. Whether she likes it or not."

"Fine."

Bruce left the plate of fish and chips in the cell, along with the fork as he stormed out.

Once he left, Grim looked around, and used her tongue to manipulate the flat but sharp thorns from the white flower that she had placed underneath her tongue until she was holding them in between her teeth. She then leaned her head toward the bag, and hacked it open with the thorns in her teeth.

Spitting out the thorns, Grim took the fork and broke it in half to turn it into a shiv.

She used one of the thorns to pick open the lock to the cell door.

She then headed to Sadiq's cell and picked open the lock to his cell door.

Grim then approached Sadiq, and as he looked up at her, she dropped the thorn she used on the ground, and took out her shiv.

Sadiq looked at the thorn.

"You used the thorns from a flower to break free?" Sadiq said. "You're quite the fertility goddess, Freyja. I assume you're here to kill me, which is ironic given my fate is sealed already. Even if Fisher doesn't kill me, Porter will."

"Odin has different plans for you," said Grim. "He needs your voice to keep the Engineers under his control."

Sadiq looked at Grim. "He was planning for you to break me out this whole time."

"The rest of Fourth Echelon, DedSec, even you… Everyone here's playing right into his hands."

Sadiq said, "All right, Freyja. I got the intel I wanted, but I still don't know the exact location of my son. It sounds like we're equal enough given the situation we're in… despite being opposites. I'll go with you."

Grim said, "If we're going to make it to Ravensthorpe where an extraction team of Engineers is waiting, along with Abstergo's ambush for Fourth Echelon and DedSec, you'll need to do as I say."

"What's your plan?"

"Charlie and Bruce are our marks. I just upset Bruce. You'll need to do the same to Charlie."

"Simple enough," said Sadiq.

"I'm cutting you free," said Grim. "Pretend your hands are still tied. When the time is right, take him hostage. I'll deal with Bruce once you have Charlie call him for help."

Sadiq nodded as Grim cut open his bonds with her shiv. Sadiq pretended that he was still tied up, and Grim headed out of his cell and back into hers.

In the basement, Sam and Alfred were in the ring. Sam had his wounds from the mission wrapped in bandages, along with his fists.

The other members of DedSec were watching around the ring, as well as Briggs.

Marie said to Sam, "You can do this. Alfred doesn't want you to hold back… meaning neither will he. He may be stronger since he's a typical Sage, but I have faith in you. Remember your Krav Maga techniques. Aim for his weak points."

Sam nodded.

Marie and Sam walked to the center of the ring, where Alfred met them there.

Marie held up Sam's hand. "Today, Sam Fisher, leader of Fourth Echelon, and Sage of Yahweh… Father of Understanding of the Toba Triad… leader of the Anunnak caste… the original All-Father of the Isu…"

Cheering and some booing came from the crowd of DedSec surrounding the ring.

Then she held up Alfred's hand. "…will fight against our own Alfred Porter, leader of DedSec, and Sage of Lucifer… Sacred Voice of the Toba Triad… one of the original Isu responsible for the development of the Pieces of Eden… and Yahweh's closest advisor and friend."

The crowd cheered even louder.

"As is tradition, there are no rules to this fight, other than that the last person standing is the victor, and anyone who taps out, loses."

Outside the ring, Briggs looked at Darcy. "Wait… is this a fight to the death or something?"

"Not quite, but pretty close. One of them dying is definitely a possible outcome."

"Shit," said Briggs. "This is a bad idea."

Marie said, "I, Marie, Sage of Asherah… Mother of Wisdom of the Toba Triad… and Yahweh's lover, will judge who is the victor."

The crowd cheered again.

Lowering both of their hands, Marie said, "Combattere!"

And Alfred and Sam backed up while entering a combat stance, raising their fists toward each other.

Sam tried to get in a jab at Alfred, only for Alfred to grab Sam's arm and throw him over his shoulder, then slammed him into the center of the ring, and stomped on Sam's torso.

Sam groaned.

Sam spun around with a sweeping kick to cover himself as he got up.

Once he was back on his feet, Sam braced as Alfred threw some punches of his own.

Alfred had gotten considerably stronger and better at his technique since they last fought; even trying to block the punches was painful, and was hurting Sam's arms. How much of it was due to the fact that Alfred was Lucifer's Sage was unclear.

Sam kept fighting, and surprised Alfred with a left hook to the face.

Alfred stumbled backward, and laughed.

"You're gonna need more than that left hook of yours to win, Sam."

Alfred charged at Sam, and grabbed him, then hurled him into the side of the ring.

Grabbing his back, Sam grunted, and tried to shake off the pain.

Sam got up, only for Alfred to punch him hard in the gut, and throw him over his shoulder.

Sam panted as he quickly got up; he was already running out of energy.

"Come on, Sam…" said Briggs.

Charlie was looking through the intel when Bruce came into the room.

"Why all the sulking, Bruce?"

"I was trying to feed Coleslaw's friend from Fourth Shishkebab, Ground Beef Done Well, but Fried Ham is one mean old bitch."

Charlie looked down, and said, "Yeah… Sorry about that Bruce. I'm not happy that she shot Sam in the shoulder… And now knowing that Sam's daughter is being used as leverage against him, and that when it happened before, he... I'm really worried about him, Bruce."

"Fishes is hard as bone and gristle. Fishes will be okay."

"Yeah," said Charlie with a slight smile, "I guess you're right… Definitely given he's willing to fight Alfred like that just for fun. Thanks Bruce. You always know how to cheer me up. By the way, the fish and chips you ordered were super tasty!"

"Bruce does love his fish and chips extra salty Coleslaw."

"Speaking of which, do you like bacon?"

"Bruce likes his bacon extra crispy."

"Sweet! I'm planning to make some pancakes and bacon once we get to the Isle of Skye to celebrate the mission… Well, actually it's so I can forget about all the horrible shit we just did in London. I'll make sure your bacon's as crispy as it can get."

Bruce grinned. "Bruce likes Charlie Coleslaw."

"You like me?" said Charlie. "Uh… as a friend or food?"

"As a friend," said Bruce. "Back when Bruce was a hitman, Bruce didn't knows the difference between friends and food. No one wanted to be Bruce's friend. Once Bruce got shot… Bruce stopped feeling pain in his body. That made Bruce focus on the pain in Bruce's brain instead, and that pain was even worse. It's friends like Coleslaw and the others in DedSec and Fourth Shishkebab that help Bruce forget the pain in Bruce's brain."

"I see…" said Charlie, looking down. Looking back up, he said, "Hey Bruce… I wanted to ask you something."

"Ask Bruce anything, Coleslaw."

"I know we've been friends for a while… I wouldn't have gotten Alfred to let me into DedSec if it weren't for you… but I'm curious now… What's your last name?"

Bruce frowned.

"Right… You don't have to tell me if you don't want to…"

Bruce's frown then went away, and was replaced with a look of sadness.

"It's okay, dude… I was just curious is all."

"Bruce's sirloin name is poisonous," said Bruce. "Before Coleslaw inherited his sirloin name, Coleslaw had parents that loved him. Bruce wasn't as lucky as Coleslaw."

"Oh…" said Charlie. "I'm sorry. I had no idea."

"Bruce will tell Coleslaw his story at the Isle of Skewered Meat. Right now, after talking to Fried Ham, Bruce isn't in the mood."

"Of course, I appreciate it. I promise I won't judge," said Charlie, who then said with a smile, "When we get there, I'm making you all the damn extra crispy bacon I can get delivered."

Bruce laughed, and said, "Bruce likes his bacon extra crispy, and he likes his Coleslaw no matter what!"

"Speaking of which, if you want you can watch the fight via my monitor… I'll take over prisoner feeding duty for you since you're not feeling great."

Bruce said, "Thank you Coleslaw… Be careful though when feeding Fried Ham and Steak… they're both spoiled, and spoiled meat is dangerous."

"I'll be all right, Bruce," said Charlie with a smile.

After Charlie offered Bruce his seat, and Bruce tuned in to the fight on his monitor, Charlie's smile disappeared as he walked toward the prison area.

Charlie entered Sadiq's makeshift prison cell.

Sadiq was looking at him with a mocking smirk.

Charlie frowned, and put a plate of fish and chips into Sadiq's cell. "Fish and chips. They're super good." Charlie then stepped on the fish and chips with the dirt-covered boots he was wearing.

"Time for you to eat up. Figured your meal you have before Alfred or Sam kills you should be memorable."

Sadiq said, "Bruce has a lovely way with words doesn't he, Charlie?"

Charlie's frown deepened.

"Do you want to know why I think he calls you Coleslaw?"

"Because it's the food name that sounds the most like mine—"

"Whether he realizes it or not…" interrupted Sadiq, "and I suspect he doesn't due to his head injury… he's calling you the name of a side dish, Charlie, not a main entrée," said Sadiq. "Why not call you something like 'Charlie Cold Cuts' instead? Sam Fishes… Isaac Brisket… Alfred Porker… And whatever it was he called Grim. He even called me Majid Steak. Looks like he considers me a main entrée and you a side dish."

"What's your point?" Charlie said angrily.

"I've seen men like that who work for gangs and criminal organizations. How they think. How they operate. You know the first thing he sees when he sees you, Charlie Coleslaw? He doesn't see a friend or an enemy. He sees someone who doesn't know how to fight. He sees a human shield, he sees a spare set of insulation for when the bullets start to fly. He sees an opportunity, even if it's one that's mostly worthless."

Charlie grimaced. "You've talked enough."

"But someone still needs to feed me these delicious looking fish and chips," said Sadiq as Charlie was about to walk away, "and I don't plan to open my mouth unless I have someone to talk to while I eat."

Charlie sighed frustratedly and sat down.

"I read your profile," said Sadiq as he started munching one of the chips Charlie fed him. "Hmm… that's not bad. Could use more salt and vinegar, though… and less dirt. Anyway, where was I? Ah, right… Typical hacker nerd interested in joining the military. Bullied in school. Lashing out at his parents. Disregarding authority. You even had the audacity to ask if your future boss's daughter was 'still single' back in Guam during Blacklist Zero.

"One of my Engineers picked that bit up over surveillance. He heard Sam's response too. He said something like 'stick to hacking base IT.' In other words, he doesn't want you dating his daughter because he thinks you're not good enough for her. Someone good enough for her would be able to fight to protect her like her old man does."

"In the rare event that we survive this mission, and we're not made pariahs by our government… I'll find a girlfriend somewhere else," said Charlie angrily. "If that's Sam's decision, I respect it. With all the psychopaths like you out there trying to constantly kidnap Sarah, I wouldn't be surprised if he's hesitant for her to date anyone."

"Ah, but we're not talking about me, Sam, or Sarah, we're talking about you… Charlie Coleslaw," said Sadiq. "Back in the Isu era, you had to know how to fight if you were to survive, let alone be considered useful to a team. Especially if you were a human."

"Sam and the others consider me useful. I don't give a damn about what happened to you back when you were an Isu."

"And what about all the humans that didn't survive the Toba catastrophe? The war?" said Sadiq. "They all had lives like you did, and yet they died not as people but as numbers, forgotten to history. The Isu's names lived on though. That's because they were more memorable beings."

"No one's going to give a damn about you when you're gone, Charlie. Just like no one gives a damn about you now. No one will care about you unless you prove you're worth caring about. Similarly, no one will want to help you learn to fight unless you help yourself."

"And before you mention it, I heard from Lucas about your exploits in Tuscany. You got lucky when you confronted that assassin. Having the will to kill someone is different from having the strength to, and when it comes to strength, you don't have it."

"Why should I listen to you?" said Charlie.

"It turns out your hunch about Megiddo detonating three of the bombs in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing was right, Charlie. After all, you heard me tell Sam the truth, didn't you?"

Charlie said, "How did you know that was my…" Shocked, Charlie dropped the plate. "You've been monitoring our comms, listening in on our conversations, reading our intel on the Paladin this whole fucking time! Including my notes on Megiddo."

"Ever since your screw-up back during the Blacklist attacks that nearly caused your team's plane to crash, yes." Sadiq said, "Looks like someone should've stuck to base IT after all. Sam put his trust in you when he added you to his team. When you truly break someone's trust… It takes a long time and a lot of work to regain it. So, when Lucas tries to detonate at least three of his five Red Mercury devices that are currently in the wild at once, in three locations across the world… There's going to need to be someone who goes after the detonation broadcast site."

"If your team manages to find the site, knowing him, it'll be Sam who goes after the detonation codes. Knowing Fourth Echelon, and how you tend to burn every bridge and alienate every ally you have like the Americans playing cowboy in foreign affairs you have no business meddling in that you truly are… I'm predicting that Sam will have no choice but to send one of you to each of the three bomb sites. Are you stupid enough to believe that you'd be able to go up against an entire unit of Engineers and Lucas's mercenaries all by yourself, without help from the others? Someone who hasn't even seen real combat until recently?"

Charlie said, "You know more than you're letting on."

"Perhaps I do," said Sadiq. "After all, Sam did show me a significant portion of the Abstergo files… But what makes me think I'll tell you?"

Glaring at Sadiq furiously, Charlie said, "You've told me enough. Thanks for the intel. I'm giving it to Sam."

As Charlie stormed off, Sadiq said, "As much as I'd like to see how angry he'd get at you once he finds out my men still have access to his plane…"

Sadiq got up from his chair, and kicked the chair over with his wounded leg.

Charlie froze and turned around.

"I'd rather see how worried he is about you once he finds out I've used you as my way out," said Sadiq.

"How did you…" Charlie ran for the door, but it was too late.

Sadiq grabbed Charlie, and held a thorn up to his neck.

"See this little thorn?" said Sadiq. "I recognized the flower it came from when Grim dropped a petal as well while she freed me. Like all American spies and soldiers like you, Charlie, it's an invasive species, and it's quite toxic. Forget how sharp the thorn looks and how deep it could cut you… If the tip of the thorn touches you at all, and you don't find an antidote… You have 24 hours before you start to become very sick, and 24 more before your own body starts to consume its own tissue."

"How'd you get your hands on something like that?"

"Freyja smuggled it in by hiding them underneath her tongue… used the thorns to cut open her bonds and break free."

"Grim?" said Charlie while frozen in fear underneath Sadiq's grip. "You said the thorns were poisonous?"

"I did," said Sadiq. "Looks like Grim's ultimate function as Lucas's puppet isn't just to get me out of here… it's to die trying."

"Damn it!" yelled Charlie.

"Ah-ah-ah!" said Sadiq. "Struggling to break free is already pointless… I'm clearly the superior fighter… But would you really want to suffer the same fate as Grim?"

Charlie looked down at the thorn pressed close to his neck.

"Call Bruce down," said Sadiq. "Tell him Grim needs to be fed."

Charlie looked around out of fear, then made his decision.

Sam tried to get more fists in at Alfred, only for Alfred to overpower him, and headbutt him to send him staggering backwards.

"You can't beat Lucas if you can't beat me, Sam," said Alfred.

As Alfred landed a hook punch to Sam's side, then another to the other side, sending him spinning to the edge of the ring, where he barely managed to hoist himself up by grabbing the ropes keeping the ring contained.

"If you want to beat me, you need to treat me like you're fighting your worst enemy… And to do that, you can't hold back anything. The Fisher I used to work with would never hold back."

Sam quickly dodged Alfred before he was able to come at Sam and hit him with a kick. Alfred's kick was so powerful it nearly made the ropes snap.

While Alfred was stunned, Sam tried to wrestle him, and punched him several times while grabbing him, only for Alfred to knee Sam in the groin, and punch him hard in the face.

Sam fell over, breathing heavily.

"You need to get up. Where's the Sam Fisher I worked with back in the Gulf War?" said Alfred. "Where's Yahweh!"

Sam tried to get up, only for Alfred to punch Sam hard several times in the ribcage.

With each punch, Sam felt something in him start to awaken all while he was simultaneously starting to black out.

Sam could see a face other than Alfred's staring at him now.

And as Alfred threw the final punch, before hitting him with a blow to the face, Sam kneed Alfred in the groin and pushed him away.

Sam staggered backwards, and got on knee, then two, then placed his hands on the ground for a second, and looked down at his reflection.

Then, surprised as his reflection disappeared from under him, and his vision grew dark, he looked up toward Alfred.

But Alfred wasn't there.

The being's face looked a lot like Sam's, only he was clearly older, had darker skin, longer hair and an actual beard rather than a five 'o clock shadow. He was also much bigger and taller than Sam.

"Sam Fisher…" the being said in a strange accent.

"You're…"

"Yahweh," said the being as he began to speak in an odd dialect which Sam found himself surprised that he could actually understand. "You received a glimpse of your destiny at the church, close to where my caste, the Annunak caste, and the capital of our territory, was focused. You were afraid, like a child scared of the dark."

Yahweh held up some sort of glowing curved knife that resembled a giant jambiya dagger, and created several pockets of light surrounding them.

"My sixth sense allows me to see in the dark… To perceive time and space in ways different than that of a human. But despite that I can calculate possible futures, I cannot predict the future… only try to change it based on my calculations, even beyond death."

Sam looked at the pockets of light and realized that they contained glimpses of his most painful memories.

"I lack the precision in my calculations to know your story, Sam, and you've done a good job at keeping me locked away, deep in your subconscious. I want to know who you are, and if you have what it takes to prevent Catastrophe from occurring again. I must know whether or not I need to provide further guidance by taking control of the vessel in which we both inhabit."

"If you want your consciousness to serve the light, Sam, you must work in the darkness of your subconscious to subdue me in battle for the time being. You must embrace who you are… and that means letting in all of your darkest memories, the darkest sins you've committed, the people you cared about that you had to let go of, or even take the life of at times… Embrace who you are, Sam. Otherwise, I will see you… I will be able to detect you by the sins you continue to carry with you."

Yahweh sighed, and shut his eyes for a moment.

Looking around at his memories, Sam ran toward the closest one and crouched in the shadows.

Next thing he knew, he was in the shadows of the attic of a Tokyo bathhouse.

He saw Douglas Shetland blind-firing in Fisher's general direction.

Sam ran after Douglas while staying hidden in the shadows.

As Douglas was about to pull out a flashlight, Sam approached him and they engaged in a fistfight before Douglas pulled out his gun and they engaged in the Mexican standoff again.

"It doesn't have to end like this Sam," said Douglas.

"No, but it does have to end," said Sam.

"On that we agree… We've been fighting their dirty little wars our entire lives, and where do we end up? Staring at each other down the barrels of our guns. Nothing has changed, Fisher, and it won't change by degrees. We have to tear it down, and start over. It's the only way."

"Your own little chaos theory… To throw the world into war and hope what comes out the other side is better?"

"It will be better… because this war will change things, Sam. Every other war has been about keeping things the same… but the status quo doesn't work anymore. America's sick, Sam. She's dying… The politicians, the bureaucrats, the whispered backroom deals… It's all life support for a sick old lady who was dead a long time ago."

"The only backroom deals I've seen lately were made by you. You're a murderer, and a war criminal," said Sam.

"Those are the only names the state has for the revolutionaries, Sam… You only become a hero after the war's over… You know the truth; the world is built from the bottom-up, not the other way around. Honor, courage, fidelity, we don't inherit these things from the world, Sam. We build the world from them."

"I know you. You believe in these things more than any government. And I know that because of it… you wouldn't shoot an old friend."

Sam's vision began to blur as he saw Douglas's face change to Yahweh's.

Confused, Sam holstered his gun.

Douglas then tried to shoot him; Sam dodged the bullet and then tried to stab him, and ended up grabbing Yahweh's knife instead.

"Strength, Fisher… Show me all you have!" said Yahweh as the knife started to glow as they both tried to grab it from each other.

Fisher screamed, and landed a punch to Yahweh's gut.

Yahweh's knife then sent out a massive electric field which sent Fisher flying backward.

Getting up, Fisher quickly ran into another set of dark memories as Yahweh's knife malfunctioned and showered sparks that blinded him.

"You're right, Doug… I wouldn't shoot an old friend," said Sam as he looked down at Douglas's corpse floating in one of the baths below the window he pushed him out of.

After the conspiracy involving Douglas Shetland's company, Displace International and their collaborators at the Japanese I-SDF agency was thwarted and the US, Japan, and South Korea made peace talks with China and North Korea, thus preventing World War III. Douglas Shetland, Sam's old friend, was condemned by the world as a war criminal.

Only Sam knew the truth about who he used to be.

As Sam threw a brutal punch to Alfred's gut after blocking his own punch by locking arms with him, the others looked at Sam out of astonishment as Alfred fell backward.

As Alfred got up, and threw punches, Sam started to dodge them, occasionally throwing up a block or a counter-attack to tire Alfred out.

"I've never seen Sam look like that before… that determined," said Briggs.

"I've seen others look like that before," said Darcy, "but only a few."

Yahweh was searching for Sam, and there was a gap between memories. Sam quickly crept to the next memory while Yahweh was looking the wrong way.

Next thing Sam knew, he was in the basement of John Brown's Army headquarters. Emile Dufraisne opened a retinal scanner with his own signature, then they stepped in, and Sam looked at a badly beaten-up Lambert.

"So, let me introduce you to our latest problem. Jamie caught him inside the compound."

Emile grabbed Lambert by the head, and Lambert groaned. "It's like he was looking for somebody." Shoving his head down, Emile said while walking toward Sam and Jamie Washington, "Which pushes up our time table."

Jamie said, "You think he's CIA?"

"I don't care if he's PTA. Because I like you Sam… you get to do the honors."

Emile handed Sam his gun, and Sam took it, looking at Lambert, who briefly looked toward him before looking down again.

As Emile walked toward the door and the security camera in the room, Emile said, "You've got your orders, Fisher… Jamie, you have yours."

Sam cocked his gun.

"You can give the boys in the surveillance room a show," said Jamie. "Put him out of his misery."

Lambert looked up, and for a second, he turned into Yahweh, and Yahweh wasn't in a chair, but he was nailed to a wall by his wrists and ankles like he was nailed to the cross. Sam could see a mark on his ribcage.

Sam shook his head for a second, and blinked.

"Come on!" shouted Jamie. "You heard what Emile said."

Sam tried to focus back on Lambert.

"You have five seconds."

"Five…"

Sam had a glimpse of a memory of Odin shooting some sort of laser weapon at a healthier Yahweh's arms and legs to restrain him and hold him up as if he was levitating. Then Odin stabbed Yahweh with a spear-shaped vial full of some sort of poison, and injected it into Yahweh's body.

"Four…"

Yahweh groaned, and Sam could see the life and youth drain out of his face, eyes, and body as the poison entered them.

"Three!"

"Why have you done this, Odin?"

"Don't make me do this, Sam!" yelled Jamie.

Odin then yanked the spear out of Yahweh's body, causing him to make a strained groan.

"Two!" yelled Jamie.

"Why have you betrayed your fellow Isu?" yelled Yahweh as he fell to his knees. "Is it because you think I'm weak?"

Lambert looked up at Sam.

Sam trembled, and aimed his gun at Lambert.

"No," said Odin. "It's because I can."

Sam fired a bullet through Lambert's neck.

Suddenly Yahweh appeared in his place, and was about to use his knife when Sam grabbed it to prevent him from doing so, and punched Yahweh hard in the throat.

Yahweh's knife then sent out another massive electric field which sent Fisher flying backward.

A staggering Yahweh coughed, and said, "Not bad, Fisher… but the worst of you has yet to reach the surface."

As Yahweh picked up his knife again, Sam ran into his next set of memories, which were so dark he could barely see.

He crept around through the dark hallways full of memories playing out on their walls as he saw Lambert fall over dead in his chair, his neck leaking blood onto the floor.

Jamie raised his eyebrows. "Nice grouping! I'm going to catch up with Emile… See you in hell, buddy."

As the security camera was focusing on Jamie as he walked out, Sam stared at Lambert for the few seconds he was allowed to grieve for his best friend before he had to walk out on him forever.

After defusing the main Red Mercury bomb in the JBA headquarters and killing all of the terrorists he had worked alongside using a non-official cover and acting as a double agent for the NSA (save for Enrica, who was already dead after Sam had framed her for disarming the test nuke in Cozumel), Sam managed to steal a SWAT uniform from one of the members of the SWAT unit that invaded the compound, and escaped the compound. The disguise bought him enough time to sneak through New York and make it aboard Carson Moss's boat delivering the portable Red Mercury bomb to the JBA's partner terrorist organization run by a man named Massoud Ibn Yussif.

As he drove a stolen vehicle toward the harbor whose location he had memorized off the maps Emile showed Moss back in the headquarters before he left, Sam finally had time to grieve for Lambert, and vowed to leave his old life behind once he stopped Moss. Fortunately, after having stolen a copy of Moss's medical files while snooping around the JBA's headquarters, Sam knew he had a weak knee."

Sam crept up behind Moss and saw Yahweh's face instead.

Yahweh lunged at him with the knife, and Sam blocked him, and kicked Yahweh in the knee with his boot, then shoved Yahweh over. This time Yahweh's knife didn't emit an electrical field, but regardless, he and his knife were still functional.

Sam kicked Alfred in the knee and groin again and wrestled Alfred into a chokehold.

Alfred managed to clumsily throw Sam over his shoulder, but Sam got up quickly after.

"Jesus, Sam…" said Briggs.

"I don't think that's Sam," said Darcy. "I think Alfred woke him up."

"Yahweh," said Briggs with eyes wide open as he watched Sam punch Alfred in the throat, causing Alfred to sink onto his good knee.

Sam had been thrown out of the memory into the waters beneath the boat. He could see memories from the Third Echelon Conspiracy floating all around him as he swam to the surface.

The moment Sam found out his daughter's death wasn't an accident, and hunting down Kobin in order to seek his revenge.

Then being kidnapped by Grim and Tom Reed.

Then the moment Grim told Sam his daughter was alive.

Sam remembered being in disbelief. He thought Grim was lying. He had sunk so low.

Seeing his daughter again, albeit briefly.

Learning everything he had ever known… Third Echelon, Lambert, Grim… had all been one massive lie after another.

Knowing Sarah was in danger again, upon learning about the truth about how Lambert had faked Sarah's death using Kobin to fake the accident, provide a body.

And being shot in the shoulder by Grim on the way to the Oval Office to stop Tom Reed from assassinating the President.

Grim walked Sam into the Oval Office, where Tom Reed was with several Third Echelon agents who had President Caldwell at gunpoint.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here…" said Reed. "Nice work, Anna. I can see you got some payback for the stunt he pulled at the airfield."

"Aw, he put up a little bit of a fight," said Grim.

"Of course. And now he's here… The famous Sam Fisher… just in time to be useful," said Reed. "So how does it feel, Sam? Knowing you're going to go down in history as the man who assassinated President Caldwell?"

"Fuck you, Reed," said Sam as he looked around the room, noting the positions of the Third Echelon commandos in his head.

"Of course, we'll be just a little too late to rescue her… and you'll be shot multiple times trying to escape. It's classic, but it's clean."

"You don't honestly believe this is going to work? The surveillance cameras' footage is gonna show!" said President Caldwell.

Reed leaned in toward Caldwell as she had her hands held behind her head, his tone mocking. "Your cameras? We own them. Your security measures? We made sure the pulse fried them," Reed continued by saying, "We're Third Echelon, Madame President. We own every bit of information that goes through this town, and if I want to, I can make it look like you were assassinated by two circus clowns and a golden retriever. So shut up, and you might live a few seconds longer!"

"Ha… that's not Third Echelon," said Sam.

"It's not Lambert's Third Echelon," said Reed, as he looked in Sam's direction, and walked towards him. "Last time I checked, he was dead. And guess what? Third Echelon nearly died with him."

"Tom…" said Grim.

"You see, the President decided the Agency wasn't justifying its funding anymore. She was gonna shut us down, leave America vulnerable to the sort of attacks you spent so many years stopping, Sam."

"That's not what—" said President Caldwell.

"You had plenty of chances to talk, ma'am!" yelled Tom Reed. "Megiddo was willing to play ball, and you weren't, so this is on you. And yes, it is really that simple. Caldwell's policies didn't match Megiddo's… Caldwell's got to go."

"So, you set off your weaponized EMPs, murder a city, and assassinate the President instead," said Sam.

"Yes, it's a hard decision, but the right one. A wake-up call to the country. Proof that it can happen at any time to anyone. A reminder that we need to be vigilant at every moment. That we need Third Echelon to keep us safe!"

Reed pointed his gun at Sam.

"Treason," said President Caldwell.

"History will judge me, Madame President… and if it makes you feel better…" said Reed as he turned around with a mocking grin, "…I actually voted for you."

"If you think for one minute that I am going to beg for my life—"

"Madame President, I don't care what you do apart from taking a bullet to the back of the head. How you go out is your own business." Reed turned around and said to Caldwell, "Megiddo isn't going to give me a bonus for catching your last moments on video… To them, you're just an inconvenient policy decision. You're not even a person."

Turning around, Reed said as he cocked his gun, "But first things first, I'm gonna deal with Fisher. Unlike you… he's actually dangerous."

"What a shame, Sam, to waste a man of your talents… Then again, I can find a self-righteous homicidal maniac anytime I need one."

Pointing his gun toward Sam, Reed said, "Remember Sam… this is for a good cause."

Looking around, Reed said, "What, no famous last words—"

Sam then grabbed Reed's gun out of his hand and took him human shield. He and Grim proceeded to shoot the other Third Echelon agents in the room. Fisher then punched Reed in the face, and kicked him to knock him into the Oval Office desk.

"Madame President… are you all right?" said Grim as she ran over to Caldwell.

Fisher had pointed his gun at them.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you… That was a close call…" as the two of them walked away.

"Arrgh… son of a bitch… arrgh…" yelled Reed as he grabbed his face.

Lowering his gun, Sam turned to Reed and frowned.

"You've got maybe two minutes before the Army takes back the White House… Make them useful," said Sam. "How did Megiddo get to you?"

"You don't want to know about Megiddo, you want to know about your daughter," taunted Reed.

Sam shot Reed in his shoulder, and Reed yelled and grunted. "You don't get to talk about my daughter!" Sam screamed.

Grabbing his gunshot wound, Reed said, "You still don't get it, do you? Sarah didn't matter. Threatening her was just a way to get to you, and leveraging you was a way to get to Third Echelon, and Third Echelon? That was a way to get what they wanted out of the White House."

Looking at Reed, Sam frowned. "You're the mole. You're the one Lambert was worried about."

As Sam pointed his gun at Reed's head, Reed said, "Very good, Sam… You finally see."

Yahweh's face appeared over Reed's.

Sam blocked his knife with the hand that wasn't holding the gun, and slammed his gun across Yahweh's face.

"You son of a bitch! You cost me three years of my life! Three years when I thought my daughter was dead!"

Yahweh's face disappeared, and to Sam's surprise, Reed's face was replaced with Lucas's.

Rather, Yahweh appeared next to Lucas.

"Reed wasn't the ultimate one who cost you three years of your life, Sam…" said Yahweh. "…and neither was Lucas… rather, the previous leader of Abstergo, Alan Rikkin was to blame at the time. Reed was just a puppet… but that doesn't matter. He had to die, and so does Lucas in order to ensure the world's safety. More so Lucas and his instruments than anyone else."

Sam hallucinated as the bodies of Lucas's various "disciples" he had encountered and helped kill so far took the places of the Third Echelon soldiers that he and Grim had shot.

"Do you have what it takes to beat Lucas?" said Yahweh. "The lives of billions of your kind depend on it."

"Move, move!" yelled a familiar voice.

"Drop your weapon! On the floor, now!" yelled another familiar voice.

To Sam's shock, the soldiers that almost killed Sam while in the Oval Office had the faces of Charlie and Briggs.

"You may have to sacrifice everything to do so…" said Yahweh.

"Captain," said Sarah as she walked to Charlie, "thank you for rescuing me. Now I don't see anyone else here but us and I'm sure you don't either."

"Sarah?" said Sam.

"No, ma'am," said Charlie. "Let's get you out of here."

"Thank you," said Sarah.

Looking at Sam, Charlie said, "Oval Office is secure, we have the President. POTUS is safe and secure," before walking out with Briggs and Sarah.

"Including Sarah?" said Sam.

Looking at Grim, Sam said, "What about Grim? She's already so far gone… Do I have to sacrifice her?"

"Whatever sacrifices are necessary…" said Yahweh. "You will make them. I will guide your hand from time to time."

Staring back at Lucas, Lucas laughed at Sam.

Sam pulled the trigger, causing Lucas to fall backwards onto the Oval Office desk with a bullet hole in his forehead between his eyes.

"I believe you have what it takes, Sam," said Yahweh. "I can feel the odds getting closer to your favor for fulfilling the prophecy of Megiddo… but in my haste, I suspect I may have miscalculated while working with Minerva… As my own people were on the verge of catastrophe, the other members of the Triad and I had little time to prepare."

"Miscalculated?" said Sam.

"There are two blind spots ahead that are making the absolute outcome impossible to predict… One is in a town in rural England, called Ravensthorpe. That node is mere hours away from being reached at your point in time."

"Ravensthorpe?" said Sam. "What's the other?"

"Megiddo… The Prophecy… I need to think this over… prepare a different script for communicating between our two points in time and space," said Yahweh.

"Wait, Yahweh! What's the Prophecy and what does it have to do with Megiddo?" said Sam.

"I will be with you, Sam… in the darkest corners of your mind," said Yahweh as he disappeared.

Sam looked at Grim for a moment, then back out the door in Sarah's direction.

Just as Alfred was about to rebound with a blow to Sam's ribs, Sam landed a massive blow to Alfred's forehead, causing Alfred to fly backwards.

The whole room went silent.

Sam pinned Alfred down, and yelled, "You'll pay for what you've done, Odin!"

As he landed blow after blow on Alfred, Alfred yelled, "Wait… Fisher!"

Sam didn't relent.

"Shit… Marie, should we intervene?" said Darcy.

"SAM!" yelled Alfred as he tapped his knuckles against the floor.

Sam stopped himself from punching Alfred.

"I yield… You win."

Sam stared at Alfred, breathing heavily.

"You're the toughest bastard I've ever known," said Alfred as he coughed up blood for a second.

Sam hallucinated for a moment.

"You're the strongest being I've ever known, Yahweh," said Lucifer as he and Asherah helped Yahweh get back on his feet after their reinforcements arrived and Odin had to flee. "I think I understand why now."

"Get up, my love," said Asherah to Yahweh.

To Sam's surprise, Marie helped lift Sam and a staggering Alfred back on their feet by grabbing their hands.

"Sam Fisher, leader of Fourth Echelon, and Sage of Yahweh… Father of Understanding of the Toba Triad… leader of the Anunnak caste… the original All-Father of the Isu…"

Marie lifted Sam's arm up.

"…is the victor!"

Everyone outside the ring cheered.

Darcy clapped her hands with a look of something resembling admiration on her face.

"Way to go, Sam!" said Briggs with a smile.

Sam looked around at everyone, and for a second, he had a hallucination… a glimpse of the other members of the Isu.

Yahweh's disciples.

Sam shook his head as Marie whispered to him with a smile, "I knew you could do it, my love."

Sam stared at her after she said this for several seconds before looking back out at the crowd of DedSec operatives cheering.

Bruce and Charlie were being held at gunpoint by Grim and Sadiq as they were walked to the room where Charlie's computers and their portable SMI was. Grim had beaten Bruce a little in order to subdue him. Bruce had a black eye.

"Coleslaw!" said Bruce. "Coleslaw, are you okay?"

"Bruce, you're hurt!" said Charlie. Looking at Grim, he said, "You've crossed the line, Freyja."

Sadiq jabbed Charlie in the gut with his gun. "Enough talking. Hack into the security systems DedSec set up around their cell so we can get out of here."

"Damn it…" said Charlie, shaking as he typed into the computer. "Security's disabled. What are you going to do to me and Bruce?"

"Use you as bait," said Sadiq. "Bait to kill Sam Fishes."

"Fishes?" said Bruce. Angrily, Bruce tried to break free of Grim's grip, only for Grim to shoot him in the shoulder with her prototype sound-suppressed SC-15 handgun.

"Bruce!" yelled Charlie before Sadiq elbowed Charlie in back of the head before grabbing him by the neck and holding them while they headed toward the garage.

Alfred said to Sam, "That was a hell of a fight. For someone who just got his arse handed to him… I have to admit I feel pretty good."

Darcy got a video call. "Elijah? What's going on?"

"I thought you said you had Sadiq, Darcy."

"We do. Why?"

"Rebecca's been keeping an eye on you guys using her own hacking prowess, mainly due to the riots. She just spotted Sadiq on a surveillance outside the DedSec compound garage."

"What? But we kept him tied up in a cell!" said Darcy. "And why didn't you use the access codes to DedSec's own surveillance systems?"

"They've been disabled, likely by him."

Eyes wide, Darcy multitasked on her phone and pulled up access to DedSec security.

"Shit… you're right."

"He was last seen with Anna Grimsdottir, loading Charlie Cole and Bruce into a truck. That was five minutes ago."

"Can you track them?"

"What do you think Rebecca's being paid to do?"

"Hilarious," said Darcy.

"Get Sadiq back, Darcy," said Elijah.

"Working on it," she said.

"What was that about?" said Briggs to Darcy.

"Alfred, we have a problem!" yelled Darcy.

"What is it, Darcy?" said Alfred.

"Sadiq's gone, along with Grim. They took Charlie and Bruce as well."

"What?" said Sam.

"That bastard," said Alfred. "He slipped out right under our noses!"

"Shit… We're in no shape to fight him," said Sam, looking at Alfred.

"We don't need to," said Alfred. "DedSec's an army. Time to hunt that trickster down."

"Let's go, then!" shouted Briggs. "Charlie's in danger!"

As Sam, Briggs, Alfred, Marie, and Darcy went in one truck while the other members followed suit in the remaining vehicles, Alfred said while driving the truck, "This is my fault… I got careless."

"Forget about who's to blame for this right now, Alfred," said Sam. "We have to get the four of them back."

"How do we know where they're going, Sam?" said Briggs. "Normally Grim and Charlie are the ones responsible for obtaining ELINT to help on missions like this."

"Again, you've got an army of hackers on your side, Replacement Man," said Alfred. "Darcy, have you found them?"

"The riots really caused a crackdown in cybersecurity loopholes on Blume's part," said Darcy with a frown. "I lost them, but Rebecca and my buddies in the Assassins are keeping me informed regarding clues. Apparently, they ditched the truck from our garage that they used to escape initially."

"Damn it," said Alfred.

"They were last seen heading north into the countryside somewhere."

Sam looked around, trying to think of what they could do.

"Wait a second…" said Sam as he started to type something into his OPSAT. "Ravensthorpe…"

"Ravensthorpe?" said Briggs.

"Darcy, can you access Google on your phone?" said Sam.

"What? Out of all people, you have to ask me that?" said Darcy, raising her eyebrows.

"I wasn't asking you to," said Sam, "I was telling you."

Darcy rolled her eyes.

"Google Ravensthorpe, United Kingdom, on Google Maps."

"What is this about, Sam?" said Alfred while driving.

"I suspect I know where they're taking them."

"And where did this suspicion come from?"

"Chaos theory," said Sam.

Alfred looked at Darcy.

"You heard him, Darcy," said Alfred.

Darcy looked up Ravensthorpe. "What? I've never heard of that town before… Apparently, there is a town called Ravensthorpe, and it's right in the middle of Northamptonshire."

"There must be a reason Sadiq's taking them there…" said Sam.

Darcy called Rebecca. "Rebecca, is there any chance you can find current surveillance footage of a town called Ravensthorpe? In central Northamptonshire?"

"Ravensthorpe? Oh, no way… That's Eivor's village!" said the Assassin named Rebecca over Darcy's phone.

"Eivor?" said Darcy. "Is that a new Assassin recruit?"

"More like ancient," said Rebecca. "We wouldn't have found Yggdrasil if it weren't for Layla being led to Eivor's remains so she could relive her memories through the Animus."

"Wait… this was the Viking who colluded with King Alfred?"

"What?" said Sam.

Rebecca looked at Sam from Darcy's screen. "Darcy, who's that?"

"No one, just… try to focus Rebecca."

"Of course… Shaun! Have you been messing with the Animus data on here again?"

"How could you accuse me of such a thing, Becs?" Sam heard someone off-screen say.

Rebecca made a glaring look toward the person off-screen.

"…right, I'll explain later."

"Lucas and some of his disciples talked about the Viking era… how King Alfred was the last leader of the Order of the Ancients… the precursor to the Knights Templar… and Abstergo," Sam said before he frowned.

"Sadiq isn't the one taking them there… It's Grim," said Sam. "Her conditioning's finally kicked in… Her orders weren't to kill us… It was to get Sadiq back to Lucas!"

"Holy shit… Uh, Darcy?" said Rebecca. "Present-day Ravensthorpe is on a local news station… reports are that there's a shootout going on between the local authorities and whom they suspect are Middle Eastern terrorists. I think we managed to figure out the identity of one of them."

"It's the Engineers," said Sam. "Lucas wants Sadiq back in control of them! They're going to make him disappear."

"Whoever that guy is, he's right, Darcy," said Rebecca.

"That's because he knows his chaos theory," said Alfred. "Good job, Sam. We'll get them back. Count on it."

Sam grimaced as Alfred did a U-turn through traffic.

Ravensthorpe, United Kingdom

Grim stopped the car, and opened the back door of the truck they were in.

Sadiq and Grim hauled Bruce and Charlie out of the truck, and threw them on the ground.

Grim said to Sadiq, "That's them. The Engineers are just on time… along with Lucas's ambush."

"Odin will be in touch with you soon, Loki," said Grim.

"Noted, Freyja," said Sadiq. "This isn't over, though."

"It will be soon," said Grim.

"You're starting to look pale. It looks like the poison from those thorns is starting to kick in."

"You'll be on an extraction ride out of the UK by the time I really start to get sick," said Grim.

The Engineers arrived in several vehicles of their own, while a chopper came in and landed in the ashen remains of the old Viking village, next to the old longhouse.

Several Abstergo troops hopped out of the chopper as its rotors slowed down.

One of them said, "Sadiq, come with us."

Sadiq looked at Grim, smirked, and nodded.

He then frowned, and signaled for the other Engineers to board the chopper. They all got on before it started to touch off the ground again.

Grim looked at Bruce and Charlie, who had their hands tied behind their backs now.

"I'm so sorry, Bruce… This is all my fault," said Charlie.

"Don't blame yourself, Coleslaw," said Bruce. "Blame Steak and Fried Ham."

Grim grabbed Charlie and took him human shield as the several Abstergo troops that stayed behind scanned the perimeter. Even more Abstergo troops arrived in convoys of vehicles.

"No! Take Bruce instead!" yelled Bruce. Furious, Bruce tried to rip through his bonds with his strength.

As Sam, Alfred, and the others reached Ravensthorpe, Alfred hit the brakes and steered behind the remains of an old trader's shop as several Abstergo vehicles had formed a blockade ahead of them. Several Abstergo troops had already started shooting at them.

Sam, Alfred, Briggs, Marie, and Darcy took cover.

Darcy popped a smoke grenade.

"Everyone to the longhouse!" said Darcy.

"Wait, I'll stay back and provide cover," said Briggs as he pulled out his SC sniper rifle.

"You do that, Briggs," said Alfred.

Sam and Alfred nodded at each other and they rushed through the smoke, sending suppressing fire back at Abstergo's forces until they reached the longhouse.

"Nobody move if you want Charlie and Bruce to live," said Grim.

Five Abstergo troops had their guns pointed at Alfred, Marie, and Darcy in a standoff while Sam had managed to find a hiding spot in the roof of the old longhouse and did a split jump, then pulled out his SC-20K and aimed downward.

"Where's Sam and Briggs?" said Grim. "Give them to us, and we'll give you Charlie and Bruce."

"You know I'm not doing that, Freyja," said Alfred.

"Fair enough," said Grim.

Bruce managed to break free, and managed to tackle Grim, knocking Charlie over.

Alfred, Marie, and Darcy took cover as the Abstergo troops fired at them.

Briggs managed to shoot two of the troops through the wall thanks to Sam's marking them for him with the EEV from his goggles.

As more Abstergo guards surrounded the longhouse, Darcy fired the pistol built into her Hidden Blade at the incoming troops while Marie fired her dual MAC-11s. Alfred managed to shoot several of the Abstergo troops starting to surround Grim, Charlie, and Bruce.

Charlie managed to duck behind cover before Grim managed to get up and shoot him. Bruce grabbed one of the dead Abstergo guards' extendable spears that doubled as a cattle prod and started slaughtering the troops still standing in combat.

Sam gave Bruce some cover fire from above, killing several of the guards.

Grim stopped trying to shoot Charlie with her SC light machine gun through the old longhouse table as he moved further away underneath it, and fired instead at Bruce, sending several rounds through his chest and mortally wounding him.

Bruce fell over, bleeding out on the dirt floor.

"No!" yelled Charlie who could only watch helplessly, before he covered his mouth.

Grim turned around to shoot Charlie, only for Sam to land near her by dropping from his split jump.

Sam tried to shoot Grim with a sticky shocker from his SC-20K's underbarrel, but Grim managed to shoot the rifle out of Sam's hands with a shotgun shell from her own SC LMG's underbarrel attachment.

Sam's rifle fell near where Charlie was hiding now.

Charlie looked over toward the rifle.

Falling over, Grim reloaded her LMG and its underbarrel attachment and was about to shoot Sam when Alfred slammed into Grim, and knocked the gun out of her hands. She fell to her hands and knees, but got up in time to dodge Alfred's attack and engage in melee combat with him.

Briggs yelled to Sam as he entered the longhouse, "We're getting swarmed, Sam; we need to get out of here!"

Sam yelled, "No shit, Briggs!" as he saw Marie, Darcy, and the other members of DedSec thinning the herd outside the longhouse, along with Briggs who was providing sniper support for them from inside.

Grim was thrown into the longhouse table by Alfred, smashing through it.

"I've had enough of this," said Alfred. "You're too far gone to be a friend of Sam's." Alfred walked toward Grim, and raised a kukri knife toward her.

Then Grim pulled out her SC-15 pistol and shot Alfred several times through the torso.

Sam looked in horror as Alfred's body hit the floor.

"ALFRED!"

Marie and Darcy ran back into the longhouse.

"Abstergo's retreating, Sam—" said Briggs before he looked at Sam.

"My love!" yelled Marie as the smoke from the smoke bomb Darcy threw started to clear up, "Where are you?"

"Alfred, can you hear me? Alfred?" said Darcy.

Then when the smoke cleared, Sam and Grim were engaged in a Mexican standoff next to Alfred's corpse.

"Sam?" said Briggs.

"Alfred?" said Darcy as she looked at Alfred bleeding out on the floor.

Grim said to Sam, "You can't kill me, Sam. You don't even trust Grim, and you definitely don't trust me. Yet you don't have it in you."

Glimpsing around briefly, Grim backed toward the wall, and said, "Looks like this battle is over," and she pointed her gun at her own head.

"Grim!" yelled Sam.

"Your friend Grim's body is weak," said Grim. "The thorns of the flower I hid in my mouth to cut myself free were coated in poison… It's only a matter of time before she dies anyway."

Sam looked at Grim as she said, "My function was to get Sadiq out of custody, and kill Fourth Echelon. My first function is complete… As for my second… Despite that I failed to kill you, Briggs, and Charlie, it will at least be twenty-five percent complete no matter what soon. I suppose you could try and lock me up like you did the first time while this body eats itself until I'm dead… Or you could shoot me here and now… and forever have the blood of your old friend on your hands and your conscience."

"Regardless, the node has been reached, and our paths diverge here, Sam…" said Grim. "Face it, I'm too far gone to be sa—"

Then a sticky shocker hit Grim in her side, and knocked her out.

Sam looked over in the direction it came from.

Charlie was trembling, sweating, and breathing heavily as he held Sam's SC-20K in his hands, its underbarrel launcher emitting smoke.

Dropping the SC-20K, Charlie ran over to Bruce.

Sam ran over to Alfred.

"Alfred!" said Sam as he tried to lift Alfred's head up.

Alfred coughed.

"You're losing a lot of blood," said Sam. "You're strong, help me hold your wounds!"

"I thought you said you knew chaos theory…" laughed Alfred.

"What?" said Sam.

"Yet you can't even count how many serious gunshot wounds I have…" he said. "Too many for both of our hands to hold the blood in."

"Damn it…" cried Sam.

"Looks like our paths diverge here, Sam…" said Alfred.

"I'm sorry," said Sam. "This is my fault. We shouldn't have gotten DedSec involved."

"No harm done, old friend. After all, you helped me, and I helped you… right?"

Sam nodded sadly. "Right."

"Like I said, there's no bad blood between us, Sam…" said Alfred. "I'm just glad I got to see you again before my time came. It was just like old times!"

"No," said Sam sadly. "It was better, Alfred."

"I've got one more favor to ask."

"Of course, Alfred…"

"When I'm about to pass, put the pig's mask on me," said Alfred quietly.

"What?" Sam said. "Why?"

"I want to be shrouded in darkness when I die."

"Right… I understand," said Sam.

Sam pulled the pig's mask out of one of Alfred's pockets.

"Do yourself a favor for me, and get your daughter back, Sam… Stick it to Lucas and his plans as well… DedSec'll assist you even after I'm gone, whether they like it or not… If you need something from us, tell Darcy 'Queensbury Rules' since she'll be in charge after me. That'll grant you three wishes genie-in-a-bottle style… four if she likes you, but no more. She won't refuse the three at least."

"Okay. Thank you, Alfred… for everything."

Alfred laughed, but then he started to cough up more blood.

"Integral…"

"Integral? You mean the thing about derivatives?" said Sam.

"Integral… The Gulf War… The church… Embrace your… self… Yah… weh…" said Alfred before he went wide-eyed. "You have to… forgive… Michael!"

"Michael?" said Sam. "Alfred… I don't understand. Who's Michael?"

"You have to…" said Alfred before he began to choke on his own blood.

Sam looked at Alfred's blood that had stained his hands while he was pressing them against Alfred's wound. He looked back at Alfred, lifted his head one last time, and closed his eyes with his hands before he put the pig's mask on his head.

Sam knelt by Alfred's corpse for several seconds, unable to take his eyes off of it.

Marie, Darcy, and Briggs just stared at him in shock as well.

Charlie was trying to hold Bruce up.

"Bruce!" yelled Charlie.

"Coleslaw…" said Bruce. "Is we at the Isle of Skewered Meat yet?"

"No, not yet…" said Charlie. "Come on, Bruce, stay with me… There's plenty of delicious food waiting for you there!"

"Bruce isn't hungry…" said Bruce. "Bruce is just glad Coleslaw is okay."

"Of- of course," said Charlie. "I'm- I'm okay."

"Bruce's sirloin name is Davies," Bruce said to Charlie.

"Davies?" said Charlie.

"Yes, Davies," said Bruce. "Bruce's mother died giving birth to Bruce. Bruce's father hated Bruce, probably because of Bruce's mother. Bruce's father became an alcoholic, beat Bruce. It wasn't long before Bruce ran away. Bruce lived on the streets… joined gangs to survive. Bruce lucked out by joining DedSec… DedSec was the closest thing Bruce had to a family… but deep down, Bruce always still felt others didn't like Bruce."

"I'm sorry, Bruce…" said Charlie. "I had no idea you were going through this the whole time!"

"It's people like Coleslaw who help Bruce forget the pain in his brain when he can't feel any pain in his body," said Bruce. "Coleslaw makes Bruce feel okay… When Bruce hasn't felt okay for most of his life. All this time Bruce has been in fight-or-flight mode… Bruce could hardly tell the difference between friends and food… but he could tell what Coleslaw was."

"I know. You're my friend, Bruce," said Charlie with a sad smile.

"Charlie Coleslaw is Bruce's family," said Bruce. "Whatever Charlie Coleslaw needs to do to feel… okay… Charlie Coleslaw has to do it. Bruce is okay with not feeling okay… but Bruce is never okay… with Bruce's family… not feeling… okay…"

"All right… I'll be okay, Bruce…" said Charlie.

Charlie lay Bruce's head down and closed his eyes with his fingers, and tried not to cry.

"I'll be okay."

Briggs said to Sam, "We should get out of here before Abstergo shows up in bigger numbers for a counterattack."

Darcy said to Briggs, "We'll head to the Isle of Skye as planned."

"Is it safe there?"

"For the time being, it should be," said Darcy.

"We'll be able to mourn our losses once we get there, my love," said Marie, looking at Sam.

Sam was silent for a moment, looking at Alfred.

"Marie's right, Sam. We need to go."

"We'll give Alfred a proper burial there," said Darcy. "So long as it's all right with you, Marie."

"Of course it's all right with me," said Marie.

Sam sighed. "You're right… Alfred's death can't be in vain. Let's go."

Sam picked up Alfred's dead body, and Briggs picked up Grim's unconscious body after bagging and tagging her again.

As Sam and the others headed out, Charlie said, "Are we leaving? Wait… Bruce deserves to be buried properly too!"

Charlie tried to pick up Bruce's corpse, but it was too heavy for him.

Marie smiled slightly, and picked Bruce up for him.

"Thank you," said Charlie as they headed for one of DedSec's vehicles that wasn't totaled by Abstergo.

The Isle of Skye, United Kingdom

"What do you mean we can't attend their funerals?" shouted Charlie.

"Elijah and several other prominent members of DedSec, myself included, think it's too dangerous that you be let into another sleeper cell of ours," said Darcy. "We already lost a lot of our people because of Grim."

"She's being stowed in the Paladin's cargo hold," said Sam.

"It doesn't matter. We can't take any more risks. It's bad enough you're technically still working under the orders of President Caldwell, worse still that they could easily blame Sadiq's escape on DedSec now. Add that the Assassin Brotherhood has a significant presence here too, and there's a lot of people here that your government would love to see locked up."

Sam frowned. "Alfred and I have fought together for decades. I feel like I'm being cheated by not being able to take part in his funeral."

"I'm sorry. To be honest, this isn't my decision so much as it is DedSec's collective one."

"This isn't fair!" said Charlie.

"Regardless of whether it's fair or not, this is where we part ways," said Darcy. "We wish you good luck on your mission, Fourth Echelon."

Sam frowned as Darcy looked over at some other DedSec members as they headed back toward the sleeper cell.

Sam looked over at Marie. He could see the painful look in her eyes from here.

Sam sighed, and said, "And we wish you good luck with yours."

As Darcy nodded, and turned her back on them and left too, Sam, Briggs, and Charlie headed back to the Paladin, where one of the worst moments of Sam's life would await him.

Hoyt's Compound, Rook Islands

Sarah was in her cell when she saw the man called Hoyt talking to Vaas.

"Do you think I'm the devil, Vaas?"

"Only when you haven't had your morning coffee, Hoyt."

Hoyt laughed. "That's why I like you, Vaas… Good answer." Then Hoyt said, "With that said, if I'm the devil… the client we're selling the girl to… is God."

Vaas frowned.

"Be on your best behavior."

"Yes, Hoyt."

Vaas said to Sarah as he entered the room, "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey, Eileen! I figured we needed to spice up our relationship, so I booked us a vacation! A fucking vacation! Woo! Our tour guide is down the hall." He then leaned to Sarah and said, "Orders are orders, Eileen. You're lucky someone wants to buy you… because if no one did, you'd be stuck here in this shithole with me. And frankly I've been getting bored with our relationship as well. For your sake, the client better not find you boring."

"No!" yelled Sarah before Vaas pointed his machete at her neck.

"No more fucking around, Eileen. Come with me if you want to live."

Sarah trembled as she was forced to follow Vaas, Hoyt, and his army of Privateers that were holding her at gunpoint.

They took Sarah to the interrogation room in the basement of Hoyt's compound, and strapped her to a chair.

Sarah saw that there was what seemed to be a television screen installed in the room.

Several Privateers watched Sarah as she heard Vaas and Hoyt talking with someone outside.

"Thank you for doing business with us, Mr. Richards. She's in the interrogation room."

"Good. Show her to me."

"Of course. Vaas, be a gentleman, will you, and hold the door open for him?"

"Since you asked so politely. That and I like the way this motherfucker carries himself."

"Thank you, Vaas," laughed the client. "I've heard a lot about you from Hoyt. I'm a fan of your 'definition of insanity' spiel."

"Oh, I'm definitely gonna hold the fucking door for you, kind sir. Right this way."

Vaas opened the door, and Lucas Richards walked in to talk to Sarah.

"Hello, Sarah," said Lucas with a sick grin. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Who are you?" said Sarah.

"I'm the man your father is after," said Lucas.

"He'll find you."

"Of course he will," said Lucas, "because we're about to talk to him right now."

Turning to the camera in the room, Lucas said to a technician in the room, "Patch us into Fourth Echelon."

"What… ?" said Sarah, then as she looked at the television screen, she could see Sam and two other men with him, staring through the screen at her in shock.

"Sarah?" Sam said.

"It looks like you made it out of my ambush in Ravensthorpe in one piece, Sam," said Lucas as he stepped into the camera's view. "Congratulations. I hope it was worth the price you're going to pay next."

"Your team's second-last function, bringing Majid Sadiq back to me, is complete. But your team's ultimate function, to die, has yet to be completed. Grim played her part as my marionette well enough, but now that the poison in her body is going to start to eat away at her in a matter of hours… It looks like if I want to get your team to complete your ultimate function, I'll have to resort to other methods."

"Alfred's death was just the beginning. With Sadiq's help, I've been keeping tabs on the Paladin since before your mission even began. I just deleted the Abstergo files from the Paladin's servers... as well as DedSec's. I'll always be one step ahead of you and your team, Sam. It was Albert Einstein who originally said 'the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' That man knew his chaos theory well."

Vaas giggled.

Lucas looked in Vaas's direction.

"Sorry, I just love everything you're saying, sir. Please, go on."

Lucas smirked at Vaas, and said to Sam, "You and your team don't want to embrace change, Fisher… You just want things to stay the same. But if you want to see a better future, you can't just be fighting the same battles over and over. A new world order is the only option, Sam. So put down your guns. Turn yourself in. Accept that you've lost… and your daughter will live. With that said… due to the problems you caused with Alfred in London, you've blown your daughter's last opportunity at living comfortably."

"Don't listen to him, Dad!" yelled Sarah.

"Hey, be quiet!" said Vaas with a grin. "I want to hear this guy say more. It's like I'm watching an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy, only it's his twisted ass megalomaniacal cousin instead. I swear to god, if he mentions something about climate change I'm gonna fanboy the fuck out!"

"Funny you mention that Vaas," said Lucas with a grin. "You have my promise that Sarah will survive the Selection, Sam, and that she won't be among the people that die from my population reduction agenda. After all, despite that the Earth's human population has to be drastically reduced in order for catastrophe to be averted, what would be the point if there can't be some of us left to enjoy the only little blue planet we've ever been able to call home? But the Selection has to happen if Sarah's to survive, and after you've been trying to stop it for some time… I need to show you that I'm serious when I say I won't hesitate to kill Sarah if you don't cooperate."

Looking at a Privateer, Lucas said, "Give me your gun."

Sarah looked at the Privateer, who handed Lucas his rifle. She looked at Sam, and started to tremble.

"Dad?"

Lucas looked at Sam as he pointed the rifle at Sarah's head.

"Lucas, wait!" shouted Sam, breathing heavily. "I'll do what you want."

Lucas looked at Sam and lowered his rifle.

"Right now, you're doing exactly what I want," said Lucas as he took his rifle in his hands, and bashed Sarah's right ankle with the butt of the rifle until Sam could hear her bones break.

Sarah screamed in pain.

Vaas winced after watching this.

"SARAH! SARAH!" screamed Sam. "Damn it, Lucas… I WILL KILL YOU!"

Sam looked on in horror as tears ran down Sarah's eyes. Lucas said to Sam, "You won't, if you want your daughter to stand a chance at walking again, let alone not getting a Red Mercury bomb strapped to her chest."

Sam glared at Lucas furiously as he said, "She and I are departing from Rook Islands now… by the time you arrive here, we'll have disappeared. The intel Alfred gave you on Sarah's location is useless to you now. So don't get any bright ideas."

Sarah looked down at the floor and shut her eyes to stop crying as Lucas said, "I'll be waiting for the news of your arrest, Sam."

Sarah looked up at Sam's horrified expression on the screen one last time, and sniffled as the screen went black.

"Sorry, Sarah… If it helps, my doing that to your leg wasn't personal."

Sarah looked at the floor, and said nothing.

As Lucas walked out, he said to Hoyt, "Hoyt, I'm ready to finalize our transaction… I need to be off of this island shortly."

"Very well, Mr. Richards. Follow me."

As Lucas and Hoyt left, Vaas said to Sarah, "Uh… I dunno if this might help too… but… I didn't know he was gonna break your leg. At first, I honestly thought your name was Eileen."

Sarah shut her eyes, and made a twisted frown in an attempt not to cry as Vaas said, "I'll go find a splint and some bandages… Ones that aren't covered in shit. It's okay, I'm a certified nursing assistant… I think. I mean, I shot my professor before he could flunk me, so… Shhh… it's okay… I'm sure having to live with Lucas isn't all that bad, hermana…"

The Isle of Skye, United Kingdom

Aboard the Paladin, Sam didn't say a word as Lucas cut the connection.

Breathing heavily, Sam rested his hands on the SMI and looked at his reflection.

"Sam?" said Briggs.

"We don't have any leads," said Sam, "and Sadiq is gone."

Charlie and Briggs said nothing.

Looking around, Sam said, "Lucas said he had access to the Paladin through Sadiq… Has he been listening in on us this whole time?"

Charlie looked down at the floor.

"I need to talk to Grim about this," said Sam as he stormed toward the holding bay.

"Sam, wait!" yelled Charlie.

Sam approached Grim. The poison from the thorns was starting to make Grim appear sickly and pale.

"Did you put a backdoor in the Paladin's servers after Lucas brainwashed you?" Sam said to Grim.

Grim looked up at Sam; her eyes were drained of color and had bags under them.

"Answer me, Grim!"

"My function is complete… Now all that's left for me to do is let the poison tear me apart. I don't know what you're talking about anyway."

"Like hell you don't…" said Sam furiously.

Sam opened the holding cell doors.

"Sam, wait!" Charlie said.

He grabbed Grim by the back of her head; Grim made a groaning noise when Sam did this. Sam was about to strike her when Charlie yelled, "It isn't Grim's fault that Sadiq managed to hack the Paladin! It's mine."

Sam held back from striking Grim. Looking at Charlie, Sam said, "What are you talking about, Charlie?"

Charlie said, "Before Sadiq used me as bait for the ambush, he provoked me in order to take me and Bruce hostage with Grim's help. He said to me that I had never fully gotten rid of the virus that Sadiq infected the Paladin with during the Blacklist attacks. Apparently once Lucas managed to leverage him, Sadiq also gave him access to the Paladin…"

"I fucked up. I was going to tell you about the reason for the breach back before you and Briggs infiltrated Site F to stop Sadiq… but Grim told me not to back then."

Looking at Grim for a second, then Charlie, Sam frowned and let go of Grim, pushing her back into her holding cell.

As Grim caught her breath, Sam said, "You're telling me Lucas has access to the Paladin during the entirety of this operation? All because of your lapse in judgment that you never told me about?"

Charlie gulped, and nodded. "Grim said she couldn't afford to have you kick me off the plane when we were the only ones standing between Sadiq and his goal at Site F."

"Why am I finding out about this just now?" shouted Sam.

"I thought I had managed to patch the loophole they exploited in the plane's security systems!" said Charlie. "But apparently, they had access to better software… Five-twelve encryption."

"Is there anything else you're not telling me?" said Sam.

"Sadiq also mentioned that he may have found out more than he was letting on with the Abstergo files… but he didn't say anything more than that, other than the hint he gave me that my hunch I mentioned in my notes about the sites of the Red Mercury bombs being deployed to Washington, Moscow, and Beijing was right… that was how I figured out he had been spying on the Paladin."

Briggs looked around for a moment.

"Damn it… Sadiq never knew where Sarah was."

"What do you mean?" said Sam.

"I just managed to put two and two together now…" said Briggs. "Sadiq mentioned something to me while we were onboard the train. He had already told me everything, including how he had been leveraged by Lucas… albeit cryptically. I just thought he was taunting me at the time."

"I already suspected he was in charge of taking the fall for Lucas's Red Mercury operation, not kidnapping Sarah once he revealed what he did to you. Once he implied that he didn't know you kidnapped his daughter until now… I don't think he was ever out for revenge against you. He was just doing what he had to in order to ensure his daughter's safety."

Sam slammed his fist against the holding cell.

"Why am I finding out about all of this just now? If you both had communicated to me about this, we could've killed Sadiq… and then Alfred might've lived," shouted Sam before he looked at Charlie. "Or better yet, we could've invested in better security systems."

"That's on me, Sam," said Briggs. "Part of the reason I wasn't sure whether to tell you was because I wasn't sure whether you were still prioritizing going after the Red Mercury over S—"

"ENOUGH!" Sam cut Briggs off. "Alfred was right when he called you 'Replacement Man', Briggs. I thought you had what it takes to replace me when I'm gone, Briggs. I was training you to be the next leader of Fourth Echelon! But I see now that the reason I thought you had it in you was because you were too much like the old me… You're afraid to change from the way you did things at the CIA, and now you've put the mission in jeopardy!"

Sam said to Charlie, "And Charlie… I didn't just bring you on this team because I thought you were good at what you did… I brought you on this team because I actually liked you! Much more than these two."

Charlie looked at Sam sadly as Sam said, "But Grim was right… your lapses in judgment, treating this profession like it's a game… you're unfit for service. Your carelessness has endangered the mission from the get-go, and now because of that my daughter is in mortal danger… Along with billions of other people."

"You believe I'm right for once?" said Grim. "That's a shock."

Sam looked at Grim, and pulled his trifocal goggles off of his head, then hurled them at the ground next to where Grim was sitting.

He pulled out his Five-Seven and aimed it at Grim's head. "I believed Grim was right. You're not Grim. You're Freyja. You're a fucked-up CIA experiment to create a brainwashed 'disciple' of Lucas's that he could send to kill us and bring back Sadiq. You may have gotten Sadiq back, but you failed to complete your function. As far as I can tell… Grim's as good as dead."

"I have nothing to say to you, Freyja… and since I don't, the last thing I'm going to say is for Grim, in the rare case that she's somehow able to hear me. I never forgave you for lying to me all those years, and I don't plan on doing so after you're dead. All the manipulating you did over the years… to me, to Fourth Echelon, and even to the few members of Third Echelon that hadn't been corrupted by Reed… Did you ever wonder how much you alienated people in the process? Did you even care? Because I don't think you did. I think you enjoyed it."

Grim's eyes went wide as she looked at Sam.

"I already didn't trust you before you were brainwashed by Lucas. You and Freyja are hardly any different. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if you two get along in there. You both have hearts made of ice. You both were agents who are more than willing to betray your friends at every step of the way when all you had to do was communicate to us about what was going on!"

Now Grim's mouth hung open.

"What you and Lambert did to me… you took away three years of my life that I'll never get back. You drove me to become a killer, a paranoid fucking maniac! And now my life is almost over. When I learned that you were responsible for helping stage my daughter's death, I… Do you know what that felt like?"

Sam cocked his Five-Seven as he continued to point it at Grim's head, his finger twitching over its trigger, his face contorted into a furious sneer.

Grim looked at Sam with her mouth open as if she wanted to say something, but ended up nodding sadly and staring down at the floor.

Sam took his Five-Seven, pointed it down at his goggles, and shot them until they showered sparks and short-circuited.

"Like being shot in the heart," said Sam.

Looking up, Grim shook her head and held her forehead as if she had a massive headache.

"…Sam?" she said shakily.

Sam ignored her, and shut the holding cell door. Looking at Briggs, Sam said, "Fourth Echelon is officially disbanded. If you want to continue operating… then it looks like Briggs is in charge," said Sam.

Sam walked out of the holding cell.

"Wait, Sam!" said Charlie, running after Sam through the main room where the SMI was. "Where are you going! We still have to stop the Red Mercury, stop Lucas… Find Sarah."

"There is no 'we', Charlie," said Sam. "From this point onward, I'm looking for Sarah on my own…"

"But don't you need our help?" said Briggs.

"No… and I've got one more card to play," said Sam. "But right now, I've got a funeral I want to attend. Unfortunately, you're not invited."

Sam turned his back on Briggs, Charlie, and Grim, and headed out of the Paladin.

Marie's Old Home, Isle of Skye, United Kingdom

Sam showed up to the funeral. Marie was delivering Alfred's eulogy.

The other members of DedSec had placed small gift offerings on his grave; the grave had already been dug and filled. A small cross had been placed in the dirt behind where he was buried.

Darcy said to Sam, "You weren't invited."

"Queensbury Rules, Darcy," said Sam. "My first wish is to stay here for a night so I can attend the funeral. I'll leave in the morning."

"You've got two left," said Darcy as she went to offer her gift.

Sam listened to Marie as she said, "Alfred wasn't a perfect man by anyone's metric… and perhaps to most he wasn't even good. But to us, he was DedSec's leader. To his family, he was a husband, a father, and a father's son. To his colleagues at MI6 and fellow soldiers in the Gulf War, he earned their respect. To me… he was my second-best friend. Historians will likely condemn him as a criminal and a terrorist. It's up to us to do what we can to keep his memory alive."

Sam looked around at the other members of DedSec as they listened to Marie and stared at Alfred's grave, some of them with tears in their eyes.

"On that note, don't just keep his memory alive by remembering… Spread his truth to the hearts of others through action. As human beings we can only thrive by connecting with others… After all, connection and our common brotherhood are big parts of what makes us what we are."

As more people offered gifts at Alfred's grave, Sam walked up to the grave. As he did this, the members of DedSec all stopped and looked at him.

Sam walked up to Alfred's grave.

Sam knelt down in front of the grave, and pulled out the pair of trifocal goggles he destroyed.

Some DedSec members murmured to themselves.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me, Alfred. I would've become a different person back then if it weren't for what you did."

Sam placed the goggles next to Alfred's grave.

"I'll see you in the next life for the rematch," Sam said as he walked away with the rest of DedSec toward Marie's old house.

Marie smiled at Sam, but then looked toward another grave in her yard and her smile went away.

As the other members of DedSec were eating cake, drinking, and smoking to help forget, Sam was sitting in an old chair, staring at his plate he hadn't touched when he looked around the room. He saw a portrait of what looked like a young Marie with her mother and father on an end table next to the chair she was in. Marie looked eerily similar to her mother, save for that her hair color was much darker like her father's.

Next to the portrait was a set of history books about the Peloponnesian War, Greek mythology, Sparta, a pouch full of several ancient Greek drachmae, and history as recorded by Herodotus.

Sam got up, and asked Darcy, "Where's Marie?"

"She's still outside," said Darcy. "Why?"

"No reason," said Sam as he walked out of the large villa.

Looking around the villa's backyard, Sam yelled, "Marie?"

Sam then saw her standing in an actual graveyard, not far from where Alfred had been buried at.

Sam walked up to Marie.

Marie was staring at a grave. The grave read, "Here lies Kassandra." Beneath the tombstone's heading was just one date, "2018," and a quote that read, "She always finished what she started."

"Was Kassandra your mother, Marie?"

"Yes. She's my mother," said Marie.

"I don't know all the details of her story… and I don't need to. But I have to say I'm intrigued. Based off of what little you've told me about her, she seems... well, she seems intriguing."

Marie sighed, and held her broken spear in her hands.

"The story your old ally, Crosshairs, told me about my mother was the truth. I realize that now. I just was having trouble believing it at first. My mother was the daughter of a Spartan warrior, and the granddaughter of Leonidas. She was a misthios during the Peloponnesian War, responsible for hunting down the Cult of Kosmos as well as assisting both the Spartans and the Athenians, depending on whose side offered her more drachmae."

"Leonidas? The Peloponnesian War? Then… that means she was alive nearly two-and-a-half millennia ago. How's that possible?" said Sam.

"The Staff of Hermes Trismegistus," said Marie. "Staying close to the staff allowed her to preserve her youth. She was called the Keeper of Memories because she was tasked with protecting it and the secret knowledge of the Isu housed within it… She was also responsible for protecting Atlantis, an ancient Isu city, and handing off the Staff to the Heir of Memories for a purpose that was unknown to me until now."

"So, as long as your mother stayed close to the staff… she was immortal?"

"In that she couldn't die of old age, yes. In that she couldn't die in combat? No," said Marie. "She fought a shadow war to protect other artifacts from the hands of the Templars and the Assassins and their various proto-organizations… She wasn't on either side of the war, rather she fought on whichever side would help maintain a better balance… She believed that if one side or the other won the war, civilization would collapse."

"And she survived… For over two millennia. That's incredible," said Sam.

Marie smiled slightly. "Seeing her fight was like something out of a fantasy story. I have no idea how many men she's killed over the years… but I imagine it's quite a lot. Part of what gave her an advantage was this broken spear… part of the original spear of Leonidas. It's an Isu artifact, but an accident caused it to lose its power back two-and-a-half millennia ago." Her smile went away as she said, "The Heir of Memories… Layla Hassan, an Assassin, delivered it to me, along with her body. She died just a matter of minutes after passing the spear to Layla."

"Another thing that gave her an advantage was her bloodline… She was one of the most prominent hybrids of the Isu… She was someone with high amounts of triple-helix DNA due to her bloodline being a result of interbreeding between members of humanity and the Isu before the Isu went extinct."

"And she's not a Sage?" said Sam.

Marie shook her head no.

"So, if she's a hybrid… and you're her daughter, as well as a Sage, then does that mean you have even more triple-helix DNA than she does?"

Marie smiled slightly and nodded her head yes.

"No wonder you could fight like you did…" said Sam. "You're one of the most powerful beings on Earth."

Marie said to Sam, "She was the one who told me that it's important to hang onto my humanity, and onto my friendships with others. Ironically it was Eivor, Odin's Sage, who helped her relearn that when they crossed paths here in this very village, even though she was ordered by Aletheia to stay detached from others. It's possible for a Sage's human self and their Isu alter to exist together in peace… I've been co-existing with Asherah ever since."

"She was a wonderful mother. Even though she took great care of me, I could always tell that inside she was struggling… that every day she stayed alive, she started to give up more and more on devoting herself to her cause. It wasn't long before she was just staying alive because of me and my father. It was hard for me, hearing that she was manipulated by Aletheia and Loki like that."

"I suppose the fact that I was stowing one of Loki's Sages in your home and that my slip-up caused him to get away didn't help you feel any better about it," said Sam. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about," said Marie as she looked at Kassandra's grave. "In the end, it doesn't matter. Her strand in the weavings of the Nornir was cut. Nothing's going to bring her back."

Sam looked next to Kassandra's grave, and saw that there was a small grave titled, "Ikaros."

"Who's Ikaros?"

"Ikaros was her pet eagle. She used Ikaros for scouting purposes… that and to keep her company at times when humans couldn't."

"She had a pet eagle?" said Sam.

Looking back at Kassandra's grave, Sam fished for something in his pocket.

"What are you doing?" said Marie.

Sam placed a miniature eagle statue carved out of marble next to Kassandra's grave.

Marie's eyes went wide, and she covered her mouth.

"I figured since I offered Alfred a gift, I should offer one to her as well."

"That eagle statue…" said Marie. "In her time, she had a friend she mentioned whom she loved like family. When she died, she gave her a statue just like that one."

Turning to Sam, she asked him, "Where did you get that?"

"I snagged it from a concession stand while we were moving through the streets during the riots in London," said Sam. "I figured it'd be good to get a souvenir while I was here… but I guess the reason I picked the eagle was because I was homesick. Being disavowed by your government tends to do that to you."

Sam said, "Nothing more American than a bald eagle."

Marie couldn't help but giggle.

"But I realize now… I wasn't missing the country… I was just missing the people."

"'Home is where the heart is?'" said Marie with a smirk.

"I really suck at telling sermons…" said Sam, looking away in embarrassment for a moment. "Anyway, I hope the eagle was a decent offering."

Marie grinned warmly. "It's perfect." She said to Sam while holding his hands, "I know you aren't able to stay for much longer. I may have already loved Yahweh before we met… but as for Sam Fisher… I want to get to know him while he's still here."

As DedSec started digging into the takeout food they ordered, Darcy said, "Where's Marie?"

"Her order was given special instructions. To deliver it to her down by the waterfall, beneath the cliff," said another member of DedSec.

"What?" said Darcy. "She having another one of those moments where she wants to be alone?"

"I suppose. She did text me saying to tell you to leave her be."

"Great," said Darcy, putting a hand to her head. "I really needed her help on sorting out the ranks now."

Sam and Marie were sitting on a blanket she brought out to the cave behind the waterfall, eating fish and chips together.

"This salt and vinegar is incredible," said Sam while munching on a piece of fish. "I'm always putting extra on mine from now on."

"Our breath is going to smell awful after eating so much of this," said Marie.

"If it bothers you that much, I'm sure I can go get my toothbrush from the Paladin. Hopefully the others won't notice," said Sam, looking away.

Marie smiled, but then asked, "Did you cut ties with them?"

"Yeah," said Sam. "How'd you know?"

"Your offering to Alfred. It made it look like you were giving up on Fourth Echelon. It even made some members of DedSec consider wanting to let you into our fold after all."

Sam looked down.

"What's wrong, Sam."

"Sarah's in serious danger," said Sam, "and the lead Alfred gave me is useless now that Lucas is onto us."

"I'm sorry," said Marie while looking at Sam with a worried expression. "The Abstergo files were corrupted… Lucas prevented us from translating the rest of them."

"Damn it, he did something similar to our copy of the files on the Paladin. That's not good…" said Sam.

"I know," said Marie. "We played right into his hands."

Sam looked away for a moment.

"Sam, if you're not able to join DedSec, then where will you go?"

"I have two wishes left," said Sam. "I'll have to make them count."

Marie said, "Perhaps you can find answers in the past. Try heading to Nazareth, Yahweh's home. Maybe there's something in his memories that will give you ideas on where to go from there."

"It's a start," said Sam. "I need to do some soul-searching anyway."

Marie said, "Well wherever you go, I wish you luck on your travels. It was nice to meet you, Sam."

"I'm not leaving yet," said Sam. Looking out at the sunset through the gushing waterfall, Sam said, "You remember that woman who I said was my Krav Maga instructor? The one who ended up getting killed by a bullet intended for me?"

Marie nodded.

"Her name was Katia. I missed her… a lot," said Sam. Turning to Marie, he said to her, "You remind me of her, and I'm glad you do."

Marie smiled. "What makes you think of her when you see me?"

"Well… for starters, your mean left hook."

Marie laughed.

"I've lost so many people I cared about over the years…" said Sam. "I don't want to lose any more."

Marie smiled, and stroked Sam's face with her hand. "Love and grief are the same thing, Sam. They just happen at different points in time."

Marie kissed Sam on the lips.

"Oh… wow," she laughed.

"What?" Sam said, blushing a little.

"Your breath stinks worse than mine."

Sam couldn't help but laugh.

"Can you bear it a little longer?" said Sam.

"Of course," said Marie.

Sam kissed her back, and they wrapped their arms around each other as the sun began to set.

… … … … …

That night, Sam lay next to Marie between the two blankets they brought. She was wearing nothing but the bandages that covered the wounds she had acquired in battle.

She was already asleep. Sam was staring up at the ceiling of the cave as the embers of the fire they built floated up above him.

He could see a brief glimpse of Yahweh, holding a pregnant Asherah in his arms within their home in Eden.

Is what Marie said possible? Is it possible for me to exist with Yahweh in my head like this? Without going mad? Was Alfred doing the same thing this whole time?

His dreams could've been horrifying memories of Yahweh's… or worse, horrifying memories of his own. And they would've kept him awake that night.

But despite the fact that his daughter was in danger, despite how much danger Sam would likely face on his path ahead of him… he managed to fall asleep on command once again.