Chapter 12– "The Renaissance of Transhumanism"
Lucas Winter's Private Estate, Tuscany, Italy
Year 2034- Present Day
Katerina "Katya" Winter– Age 25
Katya was arguing with Lucas on the way up to her room.
"Why did you have me bring him back home with us, Lucas?" said Katya as she caught up to him by speed-walking through the massive hallways and rooms of his labyrinthine mansion. "He's going to mess up this whole party."
"No, he won't," said Lucas angrily while carrying several suitcases, "at least not all of it."
"Just tell me why, Lucas!" cried Katya. "Why are you mad at me, and what are you keeping from me? I deserve to know!"
"Katya, enough!" yelled Lucas.
Katya was on the verge of crying, or maybe dissociating.
Upon seeing this, Lucas sighed, and lowered his gaze.
Putting down his suitcases, Lucas said to her, "Listen to me, Katya. You were supposed to be the key to everything. The renaissance of transhumanism. The next step to the Phoenix Project. The key to saving the world from R- from catastrophe. But now I'm not so sure. Elijah may be able to figure out what you are. You just have to let him in, let him read your mind."
Confused, Katya said, "But… can't I still be the key to… to advancing your transhumanist agenda… if I'm Juno?"
"No," said Lucas, "the part of the Phoenix Project involving resurrecting Juno was a failure. That was phase one. You were supposed to be the beginning of phase three."
"Phase three… ?" said Katya. Looking out one of the windows at the lush imported green gardens of the estate outside, she said, "So it's still ongoing… but… what was phase two?"
"Never mind that," frowned Lucas. "Do as you're told."
"But why are you mad at me?" said Katya. "Is it because I turned out not to be the key after all?"
Lucas's frown deepened.
Whimpering, Katya said, "Lucas, I can't change what I am…"
"Do as you're told!" Lucas said as he grabbed her by the shirt and shoved her down.
"I can't change what I am!" Katya cried.
Sobbing on the tile floor as Lucas left, Katya's eyes went wide for a moment before she had some dissociative visions.
She was in Masyaf.
Basim was pulling her by her hair into a dungeon-esque part of the castle not far from the library.
Then he grabbed her by her shirt she was wearing at the time, and aggressively shoved her down onto a wooden chair.
"Strip her clothes off. Then tie her to that chair," said Basim.
Looking at Basim fearfully, Katya cried, "What do you want from me?"
"I want you, and him, to suffer," said Basim, "as I have suffered."
Smiling sadistically, he said, "Nothing more."
As Basim turned on a nearby battery and attached electroshock cables to it, Katya whimpered, "no…"
As Basim's fellow Assassins approached Katya, grabbed her, and started to remove her clothes, she screamed, "NO!"
She desperately tried to fight back against the Assassins, but she would've needed to turn into one of her alters to do a good job of it.
Seeing what she was trying to do, an Assassin punched her hard in the face, knocking her to the floor.
Coughing out blood, she blacked out for a quick minute due to feeling dizzy and lightheaded.
When she came to, she was completely naked, and being dragged by her arms along the cold floor of the dungeon into the chair.
As the Assassins tied her up, Basim said to Katya while taking the other ends of the electroshock cables and attaching them to various parts of her body, "That'll do. Oh, I almost forgot… One last little thing…"
After grabbing something from a medical kit next to the battery, Basim grabbed her by the hair again even though she was tied up.
"Hold very still and this won't hurt you…" he said as he pulled out a syringe.
Whimpering and trembling for a moment, Katya shut her eyes and held still as Basim plunged it into her neck.
Groaning as Basim pulled the syringe out of her neck, Katya's vision started to become blurry and filtered through an ugly yellow color, along with the bulging red veins in her eyes growing visible in her vision. She felt very lightheaded, like she was floating in and out of her body. Basim said, "Let's see how many alters you really have, Katya… and what their uses are…"
Katya already was seeing one of them.
"You… again…"
A being with unparalleled beauty that resembled an extremely tall Isu with the same hair color (yellow-blonde) and eyes (ocean blue) as Katya, but with pointy ears and the Isu trait of having glowing lines on their skin and eyes… only the glowing lines were more like some sort of optical prism that caused reality to refract around her vision… rather than a single color of light, as was typical of the Isu.
Stroking her cheek, the being smiled and said, "It's all right, Katya… I'll take over from here. Promise not to give up hope."
Katya screamed for several seconds as she was zapped by Basim before the pain caused her mind to leave her body again.
Scared awake by her upwelling of recent traumatic memories, Katya woke up and cried, "BASIM!"
Breathing heavily, she got up off the floor and yelled, "Lucas! Basim, he–"
Then Katya stopped herself.
He may not believe me right now, she thought. He didn't ask about my shock burns at the hospital, meaning they likely healed on their own… just like my wounds healed back then.
Shivering at the thought of her past, Katya looked at her reflection in the windows of the living room she was currently in.
What am I? She thought as she pressed her hand against the glass.
She looked back at Elijah as he was escorted in by several armed guards.
"Lucas wants us to take you to your bedroom and confine him to the one next to it, Katya."
Looking at Elijah and nodding, Katya said, "All right."
Katya was in her bedroom on the third floor for several minutes, looking around at the room and her various belongings Lucas bought for her.
She looked at herself in the mirror.
I'm still a mess from being kidnapped by Basim, she thought, and I stink. I could use a bath.
Thinking of Elijah, she thought, he probably needs one too. Although he's not supposed to attend the party…
Then she thought, but come to think of it, if we're going to investigate what Lucas is up to like Ezio wanted us to… he's going to have to attend as well.
Katya walked across the hallway to the guest bedroom and knocked on Elijah's door.
Not hearing a response, she opened it anyway.
Preparing herself for a potential ambush, she then relaxed to see Elijah fiddling with some green shards of glass from a window he partially broke and a wire from a coat hanger.
"Trying to break out?" said Katya.
"I'm building my own way to open a locked door. Just in case."
"Come with me to the bath house," said Katya. "You reek of death… among other odors."
"Am I not supposed to stay in my room?"
"You're supposed to help me find out what I am," said Katya, "and I'll help you investigate Lucas in return. In order to do both we have to attend the party, and you can't do so like that."
"All right," said Elijah, who reluctantly followed Katya to the bathhouse.
In the steam-filled bathhouse, Katja stripped off her dirty clothes and stepped into the bath.
Submerging her head in the water for a moment, she then came back above the surface.
She looked at Elijah, who was still standing out of the bath. He had still not taken off his clothes.
"What are you waiting for? Get in," she said.
Through the steam, she realized that his face was bright red and his eyes were wide open.
Rolling her eyes, Katya said, "Right… Put your Puritanical inhibitions aside, American, and get in. That's an order."
Looking away sheepishly, Elijah stripped off his clothes, revealing his extremely muscular body, which was covered in scars and some tattoos here and there.
Now it was Katya's turn to blush.
Seemingly not noticing this, Elijah got into the water, and said nothing to her, looking away.
"You're not a pervert, are you?" said Katya.
"I was going to ask you the same thing," Elijah said. "Read my mind if you want to know so badly."
Katya said to him after doing so, "Aside from your high-school girlfriend, you've never really cared about any woman enough to be attracted to them."
"Nope," said Elijah. "The only time I've seen a woman naked was in some of Aita's memories with Juno… and I don't know if that counts since she isn't human. Those memories always grossed me out."
"I see," said Katya.
"Why are we here, Katya?"
"Again, to bathe so we can attend and crash Lucas's party, and to figure out what I am, why Lucas wanted me to be an Aesir reincarnation rather than an Illuminat one."
"You don't want me to press my hand against your neck again right now, do you?"
"Elijah!"
"All right," said Elijah. "Then what do you want me to do? As far as I can tell, you're a reincarnation of Juno. That may not be what Lucas wants, and while it may not be the entire truth… it's the only truth I can see about you at the moment."
"But don't the Assassins believe nothing is true?"
Elijah put a hand to his head.
"I'm not an Assassin."
Katya sighed.
"Could it be that you're both an Aesir Sage and a reincarnation of Juno somehow, Katya?" said Elijah. "Because, to be honest… I've never seen a reincarnation of Juno that manifested in a human either. I only saw one where her Isu body was created from scratch using the Shroud of Eden… and my own triple-helix DNA."
Katya looked at Elijah as he sighed and said, "It could be the case… To simplify the concept of 'nothing is true and everything is permitted', it's not too different from the modern scientific method. Scientific laws– like Newton's laws of motion– just to name an example, don't exist until we discover them, and even then they can be proven wrong if the answers are out there. It doesn't change the fact that it's a constant learning process."
"The Assassins applied that rule to the basis of how societies function. Social contracts, consent of the governed. If ordinary people are being abused by the systems that govern them, then said people have a right to tear said systems down. No economic or political system is sacred; just like monarchies and feudal systems were overthrown, perhaps some day capitalism and communism will be overthrown too… and the process repeats until we create better and better worlds to live in for our future descendants."
"I see…" said Katya as she held her hand out and held it near Elijah's chest. "Nothing is true, everything is permitted… more like nothing stays in our grasp, but everything is within reach."
Katya then snapped out of whatever trance she was in, took her hand away, shut her eyes and shook her head.
Elijah smirked at this.
"Well spoken, you two…" said Ezio as he raised his head above water in the bath as well in front of them.
Surprised by this, Katya and Elijah turned to look at him.
"If only you would put your words into practice as well," Ezio said.
"Ezio's right," said Elijah. "Katya, not to rush things, but I kind of have to find information on how to bring my mother back, and I'd like to do so before your megalomaniacal father figure kills me. That and I need to meet up with my boss at KeepLeg and my buddies at Umbra. I owe them something. So as awkward as it is to do this while we're both naked and soaking wet, unless you let me read your mind right now–help me figure out what you are–we're out of time."
"The party's about to begin too…" said Katya, who was blushing.
"So what's the call, Templar Princess?"
"Don't call me that!"
"I'll be gentle when I grab your neck this time. Pinky swear," said Elijah as he moved towards her.
Pushing him back with her hands, she said, "No!" Touching his chest made her blush though.
"What? You seem overly touchy-feely as well right now," said Elijah, leaning in towards her.
Katya tried to slap Elijah, only Elijah grabbed her arm with one hand, then grabbed her neck with the other.
Elijah Miles- Age 29
Just like that, Elijah was inside her mind.
Katya was being tortured by Basim somewhere in Masyaf.
"What the–" said Elijah.
He could hear Katya crying somewhere outside her body.
"This is weird…" he said. "Where are we, Katya?"
"Masyaf…" said Katya. "Basim… he–"
"He tortured you in Masyaf?" said Elijah. "What information was he trying to gain?"
"I don't know… He just said he wanted me to suffer."
Basim smirked at Katya's body.
"Good girl," said Basim. "I have what I need. Now it's time we get you ready for the hunting party. I'll be right back with your clothes."
Elijah walked over to the chair and looked at where her body was.
"What the fuck!" said Elijah.
"It's you again. Hello Elijah," said a being that was unlike any Elijah had ever seen before. She resembled that of an Isu somewhat… as well as Katya. She was beautiful.
"You're not Katya… Who- what are you?" said Elijah.
"Unfortunately Basim may detect you like this if we talk any further," said the being. "Protect Katya, Elijah. She is my vessel… and the vessel of many others."
"Vessel? Of others?" said Elijah in confusion before Katya woke up.
Waking up, Elijah released his hand from Katya's neck in shock and staggered backwards, nearly falling underwater in the pool.
After catching his balance, he looked at Katya, who was staring forward with a blank expression on her face, her mouth hanging slightly open.
"Sorry about that, Katya," said Elijah. "I didn't know I'd see such a traumatic memory of yours."
A moment later, Katya snapped out of trance; she was breathing heavily, and visually holding her head and looking around in confusion, blinking a lot, and was sweatier than before, as if she just woke from a nightmare.
"Most of my memories are," said Katya as she looked down at her reflection in the water.
Looking back up at Elijah, she asked him, "What did you find?"
"You didn't see it with me?" said Elijah, raising his eyebrow.
"No," said Katya, "I wanted to forget that memory, so I repressed it. I'll look for it in your mind… when I'm ready. What did you find?"
Elijah put a hand to his chin. "Basim used MK-Ultra on you. It's a sort of mind control developed by the CIA that iterated on human experiments developed by the Nazis and the Japanese during World War II. It involves injecting the victim with hallucinogenic compounds like LSD while subjecting them to some of their worst fears through torture. It can cause dissociative identity disorder in adults, either creating new alters in them or triggering and recreating existing ones to become 'master identities' responsible for controlling your mind's other alters. The master identities being triggered by passphrases, images, or sound frequencies controlled by the one inflicting the torture."
Looking terrified, Katya said to Elijah, "Did he want to control my mind then? And if so… why?"
Not mentioning the being he saw, Elijah said to her, "He said he wanted to find out what your alters were, so that likely tracks. Though the reason he did that eludes me. With that said… I didn't find information on the Ankh's whereabouts through you, and I didn't find any information on what Isu you're a reincarnation of other than Juno."
"You didn't?" said Katya. Shutting her eyes after she looked down toward her reflection in the water for a moment, she said, "In the memory… I saw… glimpses of a being that resembled an Isu… somewhat… with some of my features as well, mainly my hair and eye color. I swear I've seen her before in another memory of mine, but the memories I have of my past are so muddled I couldn't say which ones."
"You aren't lying to me, are you?" said Katya as she looked at Elijah again.
"Read my mind if you want me to find out," Elijah bluffed.
"I told you I don't want to right now."
"Then I'm afraid you'll have to trust me," said Elijah.
Katya whimpered. "Lucas is going to be mad at me. And I still don't know why."
Looking at the door, Elijah said, "I can hear footsteps in the nearby halls. Is that the party?"
"Let's go get dressed, quickly," said Katya. "You ever put on a tuxedo?"
"Not really…" said Elijah.
"What about a suit and tie?"
"I'm poor, Katya," said Elijah. "I can't afford nice clothes."
Sighing, Katya said, "Fine. Hide in my room with me and we'll request one from the household staff."
Nodding, Elijah stepped out of the bath, wrapped a towel around his waist, and followed her back to her bedroom.
In her room, Elijah put on a pair of boxers, gold-toe socks, formal black shoes, pants, a leather belt, a white dress shirt and tuxedo jacket that were ordered to be his size.
After she was done putting on her sparkly backless red dress and high heels, Katya helped him tie the bowtie.
"Now if we're to do some real damage to this party, I'll need my gear back," said Elijah.
"What exactly do you plan to do?" said Katya.
"I suspect that this party is just a front for a meeting Lucas is having with his associates. One about something big."
"You assumed right," said Katya.
"You knew?"
"Lucas says the meeting's about dismantling Abstergo, starting with its headquarters in Rome."
"I did hear that the headquarters is currently under heavy construction…" said Elijah, rubbing his chin.
"Still, given the presence of nuclear bombs in this whole situation, there has to be more to it than that," said Ezio to the two of them, who was wearing a tuxedo as well now for some reason. "Take a mask, both of you."
Finding Katya had handed him a golden eye mask that matched hers when looking down, Elijah said, "What are these for?"
"It's Carnevale right now," said Katya, "so the party is themed accordingly."
Putting on a mask of his own, Ezio said, "This reminds me of when I killed the Doge of Venice, Marco Barbarigo, a Templar puppet… at a party during Carnevale. I had a device built into one of my Hidden Blades by my good friend Leonardo da Vinci… one that functioned as a ranged weapon. I used that to kill him."
"If we come across weapons that we can take from the guards, we can either stash them somewhere nearby or go loud," said Elijah.
"In the meantime, we'll have to sneak into the kitchen to steal some knives, or maybe a bottle or two to chuck at their heads. I've got my personal pocket knife strapped to my thigh, just in case," said Katya.
"I can't have one for myself?" said Elijah.
"You'll have to find another one, because this one's all I have and it's mine," said Katya.
"All right," said Elijah.
"Let's get going," said Ezio to the two of them.
As they exited Katya's room together, Lucas and Afanasy walked towards them, looking at Lucas.
"You," Lucas said to Elijah. "What did you do with the Staff of Hermes?"
"Staff of Hermes?" Elijah said, raising his eyebrows.
Lucas punched Elijah across the face, knocking him to the floor.
Getting up, Elijah laughed as he spit out blood.
"For a businessman, you hit pretty damn hard," said Elijah as he wiped the blood off his face.
"I can hit much harder than that," said Lucas with a frown. "Trust me when I say you don't want to know the extent of my true strength. Now tell me what you did with it."
"I don't know what you're talking about–" said Elijah, before his eyes widened. "Wait, you mean the Staff Basim used to stay alive due to its anti-aging effects? The one with the memories and knowledge of Aletheia, Loki's wife, imprinted on them?"
"That's the one," said Lucas.
"I thought you had it!" said Elijah. "If you captured Basim, then you have the Staff."
"He died in the middle of an interrogation at the black site I had Afanasy send him to," said Lucas. "The effects on the corpse mirrored that of which we saw on surveillance footage we captured of the death of Kassandra when she passed the staff on to Layla Hassan."
"Are you sure he didn't have some sort of backup plan?" said Elijah. "He did seem like he knew you were coming to apprehend him at Masyaf, otherwise he would've tried harder to escape. Perhaps he gave someone else the Staff before you captured him?"
Banging his fist into a pillar of the wall next to Elijah's head, Lucas yelled, "That wouldn't explain why he died so long after he supposedly lost contact with the Staff!"
"Damn…" said Elijah, "...that does make sense."
"ENOUGH!" yelled Lucas as he pulled out a revolver. "Where is that Staff!"
"I don't know!" Elijah said. "I'm not the one who stole it… and if you don't believe me…"
"Stay where you are," yelled Lucas as he cocked his gun.
"Lucas, I think he's telling the truth," said Afanasy.
Lucas looked at Afanasy.
"You can have her confirm it by reading my mind if you want," said Elijah, nodding his head toward Katya. "Although right now she's a little shaken up at the moment."
Lucas raised his eyebrow.
Lowering the gun, he said, "Afanasy, if he is telling the truth, then interrogate the other suspects again."
"Having my men do so now, sir," said Afanasy. "With all due respect, sir… you shouldn't kill Elijah like this right before the party. Not to mention he may still be able to tell if Katya's an Aesir Sage."
Holstering his handgun, Lucas said, "You've bought yourself more time, Elijah, but not that much. Stay put, continue to read my daughter's mind and prove she's not Juno. And if your Assassin allies come to crash my party like they crashed into the black site Basim was in…"
Lucas drew a line across his neck.
"I understand," said Elijah.
"Good," grinned Lucas. "Katya, keep him in your room. Once you're done, come help me host the party."
"Of course, Lucas," said Katya, eyeing Elijah as Lucas and Afanasy left for the party.
Turning to Elijah, she said, "Nice bluff."
Elijah said nothing in response.
"Is there a way we can disable the estate's security systems?"
"Of course," said Katya. "Follow me."
"Also is there a way I can make a phone call, one that can't be traced?"
"My cell phone," said Katya.
"Are you sure it's not tapped by your father?"
"Well, no…"
Sighing, Elijah said, "I'll risk it. Give it to me."
Katya handed Elijah her phone, and Elijah typed in the number.
Waiting for them to pick up, Elijah held the phone to his ear.
"Who is this?" said Marie.
"The prodigal son," said Elijah.
"Elijah?" said Marie. "Where are you?"
"Tuscany," said Elijah. "Are you in town?"