Aiden walked down Congress Street, eyes on his phone, as usual. He was watching for any signs of trouble, anyone with a violence or victim warning, or just anyone interesting at all.

It had been fairly uneventful these past few weeks in Chicago. He had stopped a few would-be killers, but other than that, nothing. Then he saw a tag that caught his eye; Desmond Miles, until recently was presumed deceased, member of the Assassin's Brotherhood, under Dedsec surveillance. The name seemed familiar to Aiden, but from where? Of course! When he was gaining access to one of the CtOS control centers, his name was on several of the files that Aiden took when he was leaving. He hadn't had the chance to look through them yet, but when he got home he would be sure to.

At an impulse, Aiden decided to go over to Desmond. He was sitting at a Starbucks, drinking a coffee as he read the newspaper. Aiden ordered a coffee, then sat across from Desmond, noticing a device on his wrist, a blade of some kind. Desmond looked up from his paper at Aiden.

"May I help you?" Desmond asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice. "Who are you?" Aiden replied.

"Name's Desmond, and yours?" he said as he looked back at his newspaper.

"Aiden."

"So, Aiden, any reason in particular that you sat across from me a minute ago, even when there are plenty of other tables here?" Desmond said, obviously irritated that Aiden was sitting there.

"Well, I was kind of hoping you could answer some questions for me."

"Alright, what are they?" Desmond said, obviously not paying much attention, judging by the look on his face.

"Why were you presumed to be dead, what is the Assassin Brotherhood, and why are you under Dedsec surveillance?" Aiden asked. That got Desmond's attention.

"How do you know about all that?" Desmond whispered angrily at Aiden. Aiden hesitated with his answer.

"I have access to the city's CtOS, it lets me control nearly anything in the city, and also see interesting facts about anyone and anything." Aiden replied.

"I see." Desmond said, leaning back in his chair. "And how, exactly, did you get access to it?"

"A friend." was all Aiden said.

Desmond was quiet for a few moments. He was thinking about if whether Aiden could help him or not with getting his revenge on Abstergo. He thought about it for a little while longer, then he looked back at Aiden. "Do you think you could help me with something? You seem like someone I can trust." "And what, would that be?" Aiden replied with. "I'll tell you about it, but not here. It's too insecure here, there are cameras everywhere." Aiden nodded in understanding. "We can talk at my place, it's secure. If you want to, that is." "Sure, works for me." Desmond said."

Once they were at Aiden's apartment, they sat down at Aiden's kitchen table. Desmond looked around, noticing every little detail with his eagle vision, checking that there were no bugs or hidden cameras. He noticed that there were several blue chairs in Aiden's sitting room. Perhaps he was going through some emotional distress when he bought them, or perhaps he just liked the color blue. "So, what were you going to say? Something about helping you with something?" Aiden asked.

"Ah, yes. About a year ago I was kidnapped by the company called Abstergo, and they forced me to relive my ancestor's memories with a device called the Animus in order to locate extremely powerful pieces of technology left behind by the civilization that came before us. Now, Abstergo is-"

"Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down. Ancient technology, you say? The civilization that came before us? A device that lets you relive your ancestor's memories? I'm sorry, but this seems rather far-fetched."

Desmond grinned at Aiden. "I knew you wouldn't believe my story."

"Of course I wouldn't believe it! You expect me to believe that?" Aiden replied back with.

"Well, it's the truth."

"Mmmhm."

"Look, why don't I slow things down, add in some details?"

"Great, put some sense into your story. Make it more believable."

(Note of warning: you can skip the next paragraph if you know the history of Assassin's Creed)

Desmond grinned at Aiden again, putting his feet up on the table as he did. "You know of the Crusades, the religious wars that lasted for two hundred years, led by the Templars?" Aiden nodded. "Good, we can start there." Aiden rolled his eyes. Not noticing, Desmond continued. "The Knights Templar were the most skilled soldiers in the Crusades, personally funded by the Church to lead the attacks. But what people don't know, is that they were around from before the Crusades, and after them as well. I won't go too far into depth because I have to be somewhere later today, but essentially, there were two factions; the Templars, and the Assassins. The Templars want to save humanity by controlling people's will, and to restrict their freedom. The Assassins want to preserve free will, as it allows for new ideas, and the growth of individuality. Now, over thousands of years, these two factions have battled in the shadows, occasionally getting a Piece of Eden, a device which was created by the civilization before humanity, that has vast power, and they have used these devices to gain the upper hand in battles, manipulate those around them, become kings and queens, anything they desired. Now, the company you know as Abstergo is the modern day face of the Templars, and they had gathered several of these Pieces of Eden, and were planning to attach them to their satellite, Eye-Abstergo, and end the fighting once and for all. But they still needed a few more pieces, and that's when they kidnapped me. You see, my bloodline is that of some of the most skilled Assassins, which were also ones who knew where certain Pieces were hidden. So I was forced to relive the memories of one my ancestors via the Animus, the device I told you about earlier, and locate his piece. Well, eventually I was rescued by the Assassins, and we went back to their hideout. Then I relived another of my ancestor's memories, then we had to move when our hideout was compromised, and we located his Piece of Eden, the Apple. Oh, I forgot to mention, because of all the time I've spent in the Animus, I have the skills of all of them. Which is helpful in more situations than I thought it would be. Anyway, back to the history lesson."

By this point, Aiden was fascinated with what Desmond was saying. "When we got the Apple, a memory of one of the First Civilization was left in the Temple that the Apple was in, and it turns out that she was more than just a memory, more like a spirit. I spent a bit more time in the Animus, came to America where the 'Grand Temple' was located, and I went into the Animus again, and attempted to locate the key to the big room of the Temple. But, my friends were trying to look for power sources to power up the other rooms of the Temple, and long story short, Abstergo kidnapped my dad. We went there, and I walked right in, and killed them using the Apple." Desmond's voice had gotten a bit darker at this point. "I forced the guards to point their guns at Warren, the man who kidnapped me, and now my dad, and I forced them to kill him. Then I made them kill themselves. And then I walked out of there, destroying the minds of anyone who got in our way on our way out." Desmond's voice went back to normal again. "And then we located the key to the big door of the Temple, and walked through, and then I was told I had to use my life source to power a device that would save the world from an oncoming solar flare. I take it you remember that flare? The big one that was supposed to destroy the world on December 21st, 2012?" Aiden nodded.

"Yeah, of course I remember, that was all anyone was talking about at the time."

"Right, so anyway. I powered the device. But when I did it, it also released the member of the First Civilization, the one I mentioned before. And that's my story." Desmond left out the part of how he was supposed to have died from saving the Earth due to the trap Juno rigged with the device. He didn't need Aiden asking him questions he didn't know the answer to.

Aiden didn't say anything for a moment, just looked at Desmond. He looked so relaxed, his feet were on the table, his hands were in his lap. But then Aiden looked into his eyes, and they had a look in them, a look that Aiden had seen before. It was a look that said he was telling the truth. "Wow." Aiden said slowly. "You're telling the truth." Desmond nodded.

"So, you want to help me with the thing I mentioned back at the coffee shop, or not?"

"That depends, what is it?" Aiden leaned back in his chair as he asked Desmond, mimicking how he was sitting.

"One of my friends who was helping me back during the 'adventure' I was telling you about is in town, and I want to talk to her. But I need to make sure she's alone when I talk to her, and that there are no cameras around, because someone from Abstergo could see us together, and that wouldn't be good."

"Someone from Abstergo? It's a big city, you know. The chances an employee of theirs sees you two together would be pretty small."

"You don't know how far their reach extends, how many sleeper agents they have." Desmond said, thinking back to his friend, Lucy.

"Alright, I'll help you. What do I need to do?" Aiden asked.

"You found out that stuff about me using your phone, right? I take it you can do that with others?"

"Of course."

"Good, I'll need you to check for anyone with any history of anything having to do with Abstergo and make sure you keep them away from us."

"Okay, but I'm still not convinced my services will be necessary."

"Hey, it doesn't hurt to be safe."

Aiden shrugged. "True." Aiden handed him a small piece of paper. "Here's my phone number, call me when you want to talk to your friend."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to." Desmond said, standing up. As he turned to leave, Aiden stopped him.

"Hey, you still haven't said why you're under Dedsec surveillance." Desmond looked him right in the eye and said "Because they have an Apple of Eden, and they know I want it." Their eyes remained locked for a few more seconds, then Desmond turned and left.

Aiden wondered what he had gotten himself into. He sat down, and turned on his phone to watch Desmond leave the building through the cameras. But when he got to the end of the hallway, instead of taking the elevators or going down the stairs, he jumped out the window. Aiden quickly changed cameras to see him slide down the wall, landing effortlessly on the ground, seemingly unharmed. Interesting, Aiden thought to himself. He set his phone on the table, as he turned to go to his study, where he was going to read through those files he stole from one of the CtOS data centers, the one with Desmond's name on it. As he left the room he heard his phone ping with a new message. He would get it later, he thought. Right now, there was research to be done.