So here's the deal with this story. I really like this story. It's fun to write and the world is super neato burrito but I don't want to keep writing it because it is so weighed down by AC mythos. So I'm canceling this fic. But I also had a lot planned for this and I'm sure you've noticed the long as fuck scroll bar by now. This fic is canceled; I'm just gonna tell you what happens so people don't have to come into this later and find it to be miserable because it's 'unfinished'. Let's have some fucking closure hmm?

I will be posting some stuff for this fic on my tumblr writing blog,shotgunsandstars, and looking up Pro Human, where you can find the incomplete chapter that would have come next chronologically. You'll also be able to find the Sad Thing which I won't be going into in this synopsis, you'll have to read it and realize WHY I always refer to it as the Sad Thing/Part mainly because I've had it written for 4 years and I'm not wasting that shit. I'm also going to be posting some of my notes for PH there including some world buildy stuff and just general information about characters and the world.

At the end I'm also going to be going through past comments and answering some questions posed in there. Any future questions will be answered on my blog. This is not really edited very well so I apologize in advance for any weirdness. There is a lot to explain and while it might look like I missed something I might have, or I might have not thought of it. You're more than welcome to ask about it in the comments though!

Alright then.

So I'm just going to start with what happens to each member of Alpha up to the end of the Season, during their training regime, in (mostly) numerical order.

1. Altair has to deal with everyone else's feelings and bullshit and drama. So all the shit below; Altair has to suffer through as well in some way or another. This is along with the fact that he's got three sons who are very much his sons (even Desmond) and get into all sorts of shit. Desmond is also not a good kid sometimes and Altair gets several calls about the fact that Desmond, for some fucking reason, is picking fights with older kids in the novice halls. On top of this he's got to deal with Malik who's been acting weirder and weirder to him as the Season progresses and Altair is just like 'pls stop. I just want a nap and to not find out my oldest is skipping classes again'. The only sane thing in Altair's life is Rauf who's actually happy he's appeared to make up with Malik, for the most part, and they can have an actual, civil conversation with each other. Despite that Malik is still really weird around him and gets mad at him, not unusual, but not for things he used to like for just existing in the same place as him. They also argue about baby names A LOT, especially when they find out the baby they've been joined for is a girl. This all leads up to the Sad Part.

2. Kanwai has a degenerative neurological disease (which you can read more about on my blog) that interrupts the connection her brain has to her body and nerves system leading to eventually loss of full body control and death as her brain can no longer connect to her organs. There is no known cure and it's only because she's an Assassin that she's even alive as it is as other people with her disease usually die by the time they're 16 or so but Kanwai is a valuable asset to the Order so they've done what they can to keep her alive. Cybernetic implants also wouldn't help because they'd have to be manually controlled by someone else since the issue isn't the organs or body parts, it's her brain. She actually goes in for brain surgery and is out for a while recovering in which Chris visits her like every day and Mira a little less (Mira sometimes brings Ziio). Because of Chris' obvious care she develops some feelings for him but doesn't say anything because she knows he sleeps around until one day she realizes that somehow she's in a relationship with a fucking pyromaniac. It really mellows her out and in general makes her not so angry since Chris is totally down for her expressing her anger on her body's impotence and general other stuff out on him and not on Alpha like she's done before.

3. Chris has to deal with having actual feelings for someone which is really bizarre for him because he's basically aromantic. But he's actually got a really bad crush on Kanwai because she's amazing at everything and looks up to her a lot and respects her ability and what she says even if he acts like an absolute doofus around her a lot of the time and flirts with everyone. It's the whole 'friends to fuck buddies to crush to "we're in a relationship?"' trope. Through the training Chris learns better self control and impulse control and by the end of their training regime Altair trusts Chris enough to reinstate his access to the armory. Which is good because Chris has been having not constant but semi frequent nightmares because he feels unsafe without his trusty explosives around. Times he doesn't have them are mainly when he and Kanwai bang and that's why he gets the epiphany that he's got feelings for Kanwai. The first person he tells is his little sister Lisa and she's thrilled because she also likes Kanwai and is immediately 'have you told her yet?'.

4. So outside of Alpha Mira is basically a hermit. She mainly stays in her room and is hooked into a terminal to access the net outside of the fortress where she spends most of her time. She also likes watching people over cameras and bitching with her 'big sister' Rebecca Crane, aka, the Red Queen. Not actually siblings Mira and Rebecca just went through similar training to become Core Programers before Mira met Altair and basically fell in love with him. Mira was actually going to be a Core Programmer before she ditched out and joined Alpha and Rebecca gets all her whining and complaining about it. In turn Rebecca is constantly trying to get Mira to come down to the Core and be a Core Programmer like she was supposed to. During the harsh retraining Rebecca redoubles her efforts because of the incredible strain it puts on Mira since she's so much physically weaker than her squad mates and as Red Queen Rebecca could actually demand Mira's transfer out of Alpha. Mira always refuses.

5. Everyone's fave gay sniper. Still hella gay for his besty and also really understanding of the fact that it's a weird situation and he doesn't want to make Muna uncomfortable by moving too fast. Then when Muna comes to his decision he's more than a little heart broken and depressed but does his best to not let it affect him. Since Altair put Haytham with him for basically the rest of the training to make sure he gave a fuck he shifts most of his attention to Haytham to not think about Muna and he basically starts treating Haytham like his kid brother. They get very close and it is strictly platonic. By the time the Season is over Ehan is mostly over his heart break and wants to just go back to being the way he and Muna were.

6. As you can guess, Muna's not bi. He's straight. He does try very hard to like Ehan the way Ehan wishes he does because he wants Ehan to be happy cause he's Muna's bff but you can only do so much before your feelings become important. Munahid is very gentle when he lets Ehan down and when Ehan says he needs time to get over it Munahid gives it to him. The last time they really talk till the end of the Season is Muna and Ehan going down to the nursery and seeing Si'u. Munahid is also super glad he and Ehan never had any sort of sexual relations during this trial thing so it's easier to just go back to being friends knowing nothing actually happened. On a non Ehan related note Altair is fucking ruthless with Muna. He questions everything Muna does and makes sure he only makes good decisions and they, in general, spend a lot of time together. Altair gives Muna similar lessons he got from Giovanni when he first became Alpha One but not nearly as strict or hard. After he and Ehan 'break up' Muna also spends a lot more time down in the nursery with Si'u and reads like five thousand parenting guide books because he wants to be a good dad to Si'u. Like how Altair is with his kids and with Alpha and he eventually just has to lay down and go 'can I just take a nap forever to get out of this?'

7+11. Jari and Diyari go together because everything they do they do together. Even in the last chapters Diyari hasn't fully gotten complete control over his new arm so Jari always helps him with it. Diyari's anxiety and depression about his prosthetics also, basically, vanishes overnight because now that he has them he realizes how COOL they are. Jari helps him redevelop his fine motor skills in his hand through exercises Cipriano tells him about and is overall just a super supportive boyfriend in general. By the end of the Season Diyari is making 'give me a hand' jokes to be an asshole where he just takes his arm off and throws it at someone who asks him that when they're being fucking annoying. Everyone freaks out the first time it happens because they know how sensitive Diyari is about his arm until Jari makes a joke about it and they know it's okay to laugh. They find out they're having a boy during the Season.

8+10. Like the last two Sally and Sarah go together because they just go together. As you can guess the girls' names are Sarah and Sally Miller. Yes. That Sarah everyone fucking loves. Not much happens with them during the training and Season other than they grow a bit apart. Sally doesn't resent her sister for Micheal at all. She's just upset that all she has is Helios. Sally purposefully distances herself from Sarah in an attempt to find out who she is other than as Sarah's twin. Sarah is upset by this but also sees it as a great opportunity to spend more time with Micheal and her other friends without Sally.

9. As the youngest, even younger than Ziio, Haytham's got a lot to prove to everyone. Only up till the start of the story really the rest of Alpha would tease him a lot about being so young and being the newest member of Alpha. His forced closeness with Ehan really helps him come into his own as a person because he's always been so eager to prove himself as good enough. Ehan shows him he doesn't have anything to prove. He proves it by existing and being a member of Alpha. It goes a long way for his confidence, especially after Utah and what happened in Marcusville where he tried so hard to be tough and brave and not show that he was shaken. He spends a lot of time with Ehan and later, Muna, when the two get back together as friends.

12. Ziio is officially made a member of Alpha as Alpha-Twelve even if some people jokingly call her thirteen because 'Desmond is twelve, duh'. She grows very close with Kanwai and Mira.

The only other character that gets an 'arc' is Malik. Rauf basically joins Altair's progression through the Season and talks him down from being like 'I'm so done with Alpha right now. They're useless uuuuuuuhg'. But Malik's got shit going on. Mainly the fact that he slowly realizes… he doesn't hate Altair. Like he's not in love with Altair just he just doesn't hate him and doesn't hate their resonance. For Malik that quickly turns into jealousy because he was an idiot that he pushed Altair away this far and now that he's changed his mind fucking tough shit. It makes him act incredibly volatile towards Altair but not in an insulting way. More just general anger mostly projected at himself because he is just now having this realization about Altair. This leads to some semi stalking behavior and some really self destructive behavior that directly leads to the Sad Part.

There are also some major secondary characters that have a bit of a major arc during the Season as well.

This is mainly Daniel and Cain coming into the Australia fortress and Cain having his mind blown because it's insanity compared to what he's used to or expected. Daniel hates it, Cain doesn't hate it but he also doesn't really want to stay there either. Cain ends up making a few friends, including Rho who keeps tabs on him and Daniel to make sure they're acclimating to their new home well enough. Cain uses his new friends to learn more about the fortress than he normally should be allowed to and learns about how the only way to send long range communications out of the fortress is down in the support area. To get down there you must be support and Cain tells Rho that that's what he wants in life out of this fortress. Rho doesn't know how that'll work since Cain doesn't have EVs but Tiamat orders Cain's desires be humored so he feels like he can be at home in this place. Cain can't use the devices in the support part of the fortress, but Daniel can, so he starts plotting how he can bring Daniel down here without anyone noticing so they can send out an SOS to get the fuck out of there.

Maelin also gets an arc where Jun introduces her to the new Kappa squad. They are very respectful of Maelin and treat her like a knowledgable older sister. Jun also comes clean about being the new Kappa-One and she hopes Maelin doesn't think bad on her deceit and not telling her when they first met since Jun is sort of acting as her handler until she can get back into proper fortress life. Maelin never thinks about the child she has except as reoccurring nightmares from her time in the Mormon temple and that she actually gave birth to some hideous monster that devours her. Bo is always around to calm her nightmares though. At some point the new, mostly untested, Kappa, goes down again and Maelin is all in a panic because they'd been sent to raid the Guardians of Light; the organization Leila was taken in by, to acquire a very valuable asset. A task force is sent out to retrieve them and Maelin demands she be part of it. The task force gets to the GoL facility and are met with heavy resistance. In the end they do recover all member of Kappa and the asset, which just happens to be Leila, after they kill the Guardian she had bonded with and bring her back to the fortress. It takes several days for Leila to get over her temper tantrum and allow the Assassins near. She eventually rebonds with Jun.

The last secondary arc is Ezio and it's just him being a fucking idiot out in society not knowing anything and getting anxiety attacks inside buildings with large windows and experiencing some serious agoraphobia because he'd grown up his entire life inside a box in the ground. Also his relationship with Leo and Clay and he starts to realize… Clay isn't everything he seems to be and Leo is more than he ever imagined. They become very good friends but nothing outside of platonic happens.

At the end of the Season, the Sad Thing happens. The end of the Season also leads to, obviously, babies being born. There is Altair and Malik's daughter, Sawsan, and Diyari and Jari's son, Leon, after Jari's grand father who was Delta-1 three Deltas before Terry. Once the Sad Part wraps up and Rauf has made himself very clear how fucking pissed off he is there is a time jump of about three years.

—

It's been three years and Ezio is wanting to return home from his pilgrimage. He does like the freedom but he's developed pretty bad anxiety out in society and after four years he's 100% ready to go home but he's also not in a rush since if he goes home he'll never see Leo and Clay again and he treats Clay like a little brother and Leo like an uncle. Before he can make his final decision an organization tracking down the kids shows up at Leo's place and it's only thanks to Clay that Ezio figures it out before it's too late. He manages to smuggle Clay and Leo out of the megablock and takes them back to his place where he digs the dead man chip out of his arm and breaks it because he can't deal with this shit and needs some actual, adult, Assassins to come deal with these dudes with tasers and weighted batons.

The organization (I'm unsure if it's Templars or not so I'm not saying it's them) finds them in Ezio's place but as they break in and Ezio is trying to get Leo and Clay out again Assassins from the Vancouver bureau show up, kick their asses and take all three of them back to the bureau. There Ezio contacts his father on what's happened and when Giovanni hears about Clay he orders the three of them, and Salai too, to be brought to the fortress in St. Adams for safety reasons and so Leo can continue his work for the Assassins. Leo, of course, is pretty pissed that Ezio lied to him about who he was and his connection to a 'military' and their friendship is pretty rocky even though Leo realizes that the fortress is safer than what's going on out there and Clay also wants to go.

So you know how earlier I said that Desmond was picking fights with kids in the novice halls? Yeah, Tazim was with him. Those two are TROUBLE MAKERS. Like complete and utter trouble makers who, unlike their dads, are bffs. They're now also older and even more trouble makers and are spots one and two in their class and everyone both likes them for being nice dudes and done with them for being fucking annoying. Then a new kid joins their class and everyone is like 'well this is weird' cause Clay can't fight very well even tho he's HELLA smart. Then he and Desmond get close and literally just start yelling because 'holy shit you're like me!'. Tazim is really confused about why his bff is suddenly all over and hugging his new kid and talking to him in some language none of them know and new kid is talking to him back. Tazim is more than a little annoyed at suddenly seeming to be Desmond's #2 bro.

Meanwhile Alpha has basically become what it should have been. They haven't had any new members since Ziio and they are a very close knit unit. Chris and Kanwai are in a relationship and Kanwai probably only has a few more years to live and unfortunately doesn't have a very active role in the squad anymore because she just can't move as well. Altair refuses to take her number though because he knows how important this is for her. Sarah and Micheal are petitioning for baby in the coming Season in a few weeks. Ehan has moved on from his crush on Muna. He still has the crush because he's one of those 'only in love with one person in your life' sort of people, it just doesn't bother him anymore and just likes the friendship he has with Muna. Sally is more confidant in herself and doesn't rely so much on her sister to decide who she is as a person. Haytham's gained a fuck ton of confidence and is flirting super hard with Ziio who is not interested at all and just thinks he's 'cute'.

Altair also has to deal with the fact that he's got four kids and Sef will be starting levels this coming rollover and he's so stressed out about it. He and Rauf are back to the way they were and he has a very cold relationship with Malik. He also spends a lot of time with his daughter. Like a lot of time with her because he's never had a daughter and now she's old enough to be moved to the main nursery. Unlike with Sef and Darim he always worries that something is going to happen to her because she's a girl even though he knows realistically she's in no danger. He just worries. And that Malik will start saying shit to her because Malik also spends a lot of time with her as if to spite him.

This part of the story tho is mainly about Desmond and the rest of the proto humans. Yes, that is what they are called and where the story gets the name from. Proto humans are not any different than regular humans in any way other than that they are fertile and have the innate ability to sense people who, when put together, could create a good union even if their resonance isn't well developed. They also share very high resonance with each other and always produce fertile children. They also unlock all thirteen EVs while normal Assassins can unlock eleven.

The reason they have EV abilities is because originally the Assassin fortresses were situated over the laboratories they were created in to keep normal people and interfering government agencies away while they worked. The first Assassin fortress guarded the original facility that first developed the AWC that later led to child banks that allowed humanity to continue as a species even after the Collapse and the mass sterilization of both sexes through a means people still aren't quite sure about.

After the Collapse the people responsible for the AWC and the salvation of the human race split off into other facilities around the world. One for each major land mass to genetically create a human from before the sterilization. This proved incredibly difficult because most DNA they had available was tainted, even old DNA showed signs of being tainted. Atop or near each facility a fortress was constructed to protect them and to allow for the scientists to keep an eye on their subjects as they grew. When they realized how long term this project would be the scientists also decided to help their chances along by having AWCs use a modified solution while 'processing' an embryo into a child that would change some of their brain receptor to understand when they had found a 'match' that would more likely lead to fertile children. This sense began as very faint and non existence in most of the population and over the generations has developed into what is commonly referred to as resonance. Resonance does not differentiate between genders. It was simply a mechanism used to make sure people sure as shit understand 'this person has good genes. You should try to make babies with them'. Since an AWC doesn't need a male and female to make children it meant that any genetically compatible couples would do.

In fortresses and in the science facilities all AWC also contained a fluid that, along with resonance, contained nanites that would physically alter the child inside it, enhancing the senses and awareness and even physical strength and all abilities including being able to see and hear electronic and natural frequencies humans cannot usually perceive. This gave rise to the EVs and their many uses.

Of course over the years it was forgotten what the fortresses were originally for and people did attack them for their highly militarized presence and their genetically modified and altered humans which people lashed out about. The fortress was also usually kept in the dark about what their actual purpose was except for the highest members of the fortress. Fortresses were eventually destroyed and then rebuilt in other places and when their primary function was forgotten they built new fortresses in places other than where facilities were.

Desmond, Lucy, Clay, Leila, Danial, and Hannah, are all the product of these scientific breakthroughs and the first of their kind. The first test to make sure this shit actually works. If they succeeded in why they were created more would be made to further help diversify the gene pool for fertile humans. They are known as proto humans because they mimic the type of humans before chemicals we use in food and environmental poisoning began to taint humans and began the mass sterilization of humanity. Made one to each facility at approximately the same time they're all, more or less, the same age and have been told their entire lives that somewhere, out there in the world, there is someone born specifically for them. Literally. They all have incredibly high resonance with each other but have perfect resonance between pairs of each other. Because they were born in a science facility they all also have EVs and unlike in the fortresses where the nanites only work as well as their genetics (which is why some people can access more EVs while others can't and why the Assassins breed with as high resonance as they possibly can to give their agents access to more EVs) the nanites in them give them full access to all 13 types of EVs because they are genetically 'perfect' humans.

Stuck in AC mythos all these proto humans are white except Leila (who's Chinese) but I really fucking wanted them to actually display the genetic phenotype of where their facility was located. So Clay would have been latin american (brown), and Hannah african (black), so only Lucy, Daniel and Desmond would have been 'white'. This is partially one of the reasons I'm stopping this fic cause the AC mythos just… makes everything so white and it botherssss meeeeeee.

So now there are two of these phs together with Clay and Desmond. They click instantly. While they were both told that others like them existed out there for the most part they were skeptical that they would ever actually meet one of them, let alone the one they share perfect resonance with. With Desmond as a friend Clay is quickly assimilated into their level by the other kids and Tazim is mad jealous because Desmond is his best friend. How dare Clay just show up and take over.

Unlike his dad (who's a hot mess) Tazim actually knows how to deal with his feelings and talk things out. He goes to Desmond and tells him he doesn't like how he's suddenly been replaced by Clay when Desmond doesn't even know him and how would Desmond feel if people left Desmond high and dry.

Oddly enough it's something Desmond can really relate to and he realizes he's been doing the same thing to Tazim that his 'dads' have been doing to him. Not on purpose but Altair has just been really focused on his actual children. Desmond was never formally adopted like Muna did with Si'u so he doesn't actually have parents, he just hangs out with Altair and Rauf a lot and they give him the love and affection as if he was their son. But with Sef starting levels soon and the new baby Altair and Rauf haven't had as much time for him and while it isn't negligence because they don't actually have a hand in his day to day life they have been ignoring him and his needs for their actual biological children. Realizing- pretty wisely for a 14 yr old- he's been doing the same to Tazim he apologizes for being a butthead (Tazim still doesn't understand what a butthead actually is and Desmond uses a lot of slang he just… doesn't get) and introduces him to Clay so they can all hang out and tells Clay they shouldn't talk in their native language around Tazim so he doesn't feel excluded unless it's about Secret Home Things.

The three are a fucking menace and Clay very quickly develops a super hard crush on Desmond. Mainly because he's the only other ph he's ever seen and like he knows he and Desmond aren't 'supposed' to go together and they both have someone else out there meant for them but he figures Desmond is as close as he'll ever get to it. Desmond's also Desmond and super nice and fun to be around and is just a good kid that does what he can to make sure Clay doesn't feel excluded from their level or the other kids.

On the other side of the world Cain's having his own issues. Mainly that he's still in the god damn fortress but finally his complacency has paid off. He's allowed to go about unwatched in the fortress. Daniel is still a little shit and while Cain has been very clear that he's to obey all the rules he only does so out of spite. Just to spite everyone else he's better at everything than any of the other kids in his level, including at fighting, even better than the girls and Australian boys are traditionally not as good fighters as girls. He's got basically no friends and his level has serious contempt for him and the two other boys in his level secretly admire him for being so amazing and showing everyone that just because they're often not as healthy doesn't mean they're not as good as girls in other ways. The two boys in Daniel's level help him a lot in things and Daniel is very aware that they have crushes on him but he's so entirely not interested in them because 1. They're crazy Australians, and 2. They aren't his match and Daniel is obsessed with finding his match.

Because Cain can now move around the fortress without being stopped for the most part he's made friends with some supports. Mainly some lady supports. And by friends I'm mean he's banged them to get at their access cards that get them down into the support/Core area. Not an easy feat but not super difficult once he found the right person since women don't see men as a threat or as having ulterior motives for sleeping with them since yeah, you should wanna sleep with me I'm hot af and will def treat you right. Cain doesn't even give a fuck he just figured out how to get a key card which acts as a lower level of entry instead of thumb prints so just in case the thumb print reader is acting up you can still get into some parts of the lower support area.

Cain takes Daniel down to the support area but they don't get to stay long enough for Daniel to do more than just try and figure out how to work the EV holographic interface since it works like nothing else in the fortress. They have to come back several more times before Daniel finally figures it out and sends basically a huge stream of spam SOSs at the asian and american fortresses and to send some fucking help because he's one of the kids they're looking for and the Australians have been holding him (and Cain) hostage for 3 years.

That gets the fortress' attention and Cain and Daniel ditch out but Omega finds out and throws them into the 'dungeon' again with the white padded rooms for punishment. Tiamat is furious and tries to play it off to Mario and the Singapore Mentor who's name escapes me atm. The Asian Mentor is done with Tiamat and is just like 'you absolute piece of garbage. We thought you were dead. Fuck you don't call me again. Blocked, unfollowed, unsubbed.' Mario is far more concerned and while he's acting all worried (and pissed) that Tiamat hid the continued existence of the Australian fortress for so long he's also basically sending Alpha and Beta out to deal with it personally and talking with the Asian Mentor about the entire situation.

Altair, the rest of Alpha and all of Beta arrive at the location of the Australian fortress within the next few days. The Australians really don't want to let them in because they're complete isolationists but Altair just goes, 'Chris, open the door please.' 'You want me to blow up Assassin property?' 'Far as I'm concerned, they're the enemy right now. Do it.' So Chris blows the door open and they get into the fortress and past the surface thanks to Mira being able to interface and hack into it.

Of course they're met by part of Omega and the women leaders of Omega have zero respect for the men in Alpha or Beta and in fact will only speak to Kanwai or the twins at first because a man in charge? They know society is stupid and let men lead but they figured their Assassin brethren would know better. There is a lot of hostility between the two groups before finally Alpha and Beta are allowed inside the fortress properly and are taken to see the Mentor.

Tiamat is… well she's Tiamat. Meaning she's a reaaaaaal bitch. She denies everything about Cain and Daniel from their existence to their whereabouts. Altair and Faiz (B-1, remember) just like… side eye each other and go 'okay. We believe you, but do you mind if we look around anyway? Just so our Mentor has some peace of mind?' Tiamat allows it. Faiz and the other Betas cause a real ruckus that disrupts a good deal of the fortress cause wtf is up with these guys with their huge fucking helmet bashing each other in the head with them? This isn't how men are supposed to act and other various sexist things. Some of Alpha get into it too and Omega is completely distracted so some members of Alpha can slip away.

Mainly those are the women. Mira, Kanwai, and Ziio book it down to the Core where Mira hacks her way through the support area straight to the Core and is like 'don't mind me while I just plug in real quuuuick'. She finds Cain and Daniel in holding and just as Omega is starting to realize their gone as their own Core Programmers are flipping out in a panic at this unknown entity accessing their fortress. Kanwai radios back to the rest of Alpha and now that the Omega guarding them are fully distracted some of the others get out like Jari, Altair, and Haytham who can like… actually stealth out. Diyari doesn't because he's busy playing the easily distressed medic worrying about his squad mates and Sally is being 'the reasonable twin' and attempting to stop her sister from acting like a fool. Sarah, Chris, Ehan and Muna all stay because they're CAUSING A SCENE with Beta.

So the three of them get down to the fortress dungeons and meet up with the other girls and Mira hacks her way into the dungeon and they find Cain and Daniel in the same cell. If nothing else the Australians learned not to separate them in holding because they don't want a repeat of Daniel starving himself to make a point.

Cain is very confused and pretty scared when they show up because Alpha and Omega suits look very similar until they clear their helmets so he can see inside that there are men under them cause he sure as shit doesn't trust women in battle armor at this point. They get the 'we're here to rescue you' speech and Alpha helps the two out of the cell.

There's some real shit to get Daniel and Cain out of the fortress without being seen. It's mainly thanks to Jari and Mira that they manage it since Mira stays behind to hook into a terminal in the dungeons to block them from being tracked and Jari uses his very well developed echolocation to keep them out of sight of Omega. Omega now realizes that they're gone and is actively searching for them but the Core Programmers are running a little blind. They've never had to combat a hacker that is also an Assassin and is Core Programer level good at it and can write code at the speed of thought because she's a fucking maniac. They can't see where they are since Mira has blacked out where they actually are as well as other places around the fortress to throw up red flags, even making the red herring black out area 'travel' like they're keeping up with Alpha.

After more than a few close calls they get Cain and Daniel out of the fortress and Cain literally cries in happiness at being above ground again and being able to see the sky and feel the sun and wind and actual earth under his feet. Altair grabs him because they don't have time for this they gotta go and… oops. Turns out they have perfect resonance and Altair freaks the fuck out because nope nope nope he isn't dealing with this shit again. Bad enough his level of resonance with Malik caused the Sad Thing to happen he is not suffering that shit again just because he's got perfect resonance with someone. He's learned the lesson well. Cain is just awestruck because his entire life he's never resonated with anyone but suddenly there's this dude from across the planet who he doesn't just resonate with but really resonates with. Altair orders someone else grab Cain and they book it back to one of their two helis and take off. As they do Altair tells Faiz to get Beta and the rest of Alpha the fuck out of there because they have the hostages.

The way back to America Cain really wants to talk to Altair but Altair tells Kanwai, 'deal with this for me. I'm not' so she answers his questions instead though she can't answer him about the resonance since she has no idea.

So the reason Altair and Cain resonate is because their parents also had perfect resonance meaning that their parents were both the culmination of some crazy lucky breeding that made it so they were both fertile. The more fertile you are the more you resonate with equally fertile people to eventually make lots of fertile babies so humanity no longer has to rely on AWCs to make babies. So Altair and Cain resonate because they're both fertile (but they don't know that since resonance has more social implications and is seen as soul matey) and the people Altair resonates with back at St. Adams (tho not as strongly as with Cain) is just his resonance going 'hey, these guys aren't fertile but you'd have a REALLY good chance of having fertile kids if you made babies. So MAKE BABIES YOU PiECE OF SHIT'.

The fallout of the Australian fortress raid is basically the St. Adams and Singapore Assassins ganging up on them like 'what the actual fuck is the matter with you? Why didn't you ever call for help?' and more or less kicking the Australian fortress' collective ass. Tiamat does admit it… got out of hand and consents to people from St. Adams and Singapore to be deployed to their fortress to get them back on track for how Assassins should be. The only stipulation is that the people can only be women because her people wouldn't respect a man even if she told them to. So both other fortresses send a few high ranked ladies to the Australian fortress to help them get their fucking act together and stop being so fucking insane. That's the end of the Australian arc as far as I imagined it and other than Altair's existential crisis I didn't really have anything super in depth planned for him and Cain. Mainly because Cain was a relatively recent development as far as the story goes. Cain probably stays at the Sr. Adams fortress tho because it's been 3 years since he was kidnapped so wtf is left for him in Australia. Also Altair is there and even if Altair doesn't want a sexual relationship with him you better fucking believe he wants to be friends with Altair.

So now the St. Adams fortress has all three boy proto humans and Mario knows that there are six proto humans total (as do every other fortress since the signal was initially broadcast from the science facilities to their fortresses but it got intercepted by other organizations from around the world). Daniel is psyched to meet Clay and Desmond and then immediately loses interest in them when he realizes they aren't his match. Mario also doesn't think to ask if Singapore has another one and the Singapore Assassins are by far the least active in this whole proto human thing. They just wanted Leila because they didn't want the GoL to have her but really the Mentor isn't too concerned with them. So Leila goes unknown to the St. Adams Assassins for now.

Now, other, other, side of the world Lucy is still a captive of the Templars under Haytham. The Templars actually know a lot of shit about the Assassins and know how to catch some of their broadcasts. Like… the one Daniel sent out. They arrive in Australia too late to capitalize on the situation and Haytham is HELLA PISSED about it because Lucy is like, the perfect protégé and how great would it have been if he had another. So he just continues training Lucy and keeping an open eye and ear for the others since he only knows the whereabouts of Lucy and that the Australian proto human was taken by the American Assassins but has nooooo idea where that fortress is. Lucy herself is just biding her time for when she can get out from under Haytham's thumb. Despite that she is bonded with him because it proves her best chance of survival.

So proto humans also do this thing where they bond with an adult person. It isn't anything creepy it's just that they came into the world at 11 and need a surrogate parent to take care of them. And like how Altair said there are different types of resonance this is true for bonding. It's a type of platonic resonance that basically makes the adult care more for their 'adopted child' than they might normally. It's like a baby duckling effect as well and a proto human will not switch bonding unless their original bonded adult dies, or is otherwise seen as so unfit that they switch as a means of self preservation. Desmond bonded with Altair, Clay to Leo, Daniel to Cain, and Leila to Wei Ning (who was murdered) so she switches to Jun. Hannah I don't have an adult for yet and Lucy was originally bonded with Warren before Haytham told her how terrible he was and as a means of self preservation bonded with Haytham instead. This also made sure that Haytham would be more understanding of her needs and not such a fucking gigantic prick like he was originally. She still hates him and hates that she's bonded with him but does so out of survival.

Despite Desmond being bonded with Altair he's been feeling pretty neglected lately by Altair. It's compounded when he first meets Clay and Leo and sees just how fucking doting and affectionate Leo is on Clay and then months later with Cain and Daniel and just the care Cain takes with Daniel even though he's the grumpiest little shit imaginable. Like Daniel literally only smiles when he's around Cain, otherwise he's a grumpy fuck. To be fair Altair has had a lot to deal with between Alpha, his youngest son starting levels, a three year old he wants to spend time with (and avoiding Malik while doing so), spending time with Rauf, and seeing Darim when he can along with general fucking life shit he's spread pretty thin and it doesn't leave a lot of time for him to just be with Desmond. Desmond does have his friends and his level (which is basically like family) but he misses being with Altair.

He doesn't get depressed but it's a bummer and when his friends all leave their level room to go be with their parents he's one of the three left back in their level room because Altair's usually busy. Clay and Daniel are in the same boat as him yet they both have father figures to go hang out with and he doesn't.

To not be so bummed about when his friends aren't around he usually ends up exploring by himself. Ends up getting lost in one of the storage levels. Like actually lost because the storage levels are like a warehouse maze. He is found eventually by one of the Core Programmers, who knows what he is and why he's important to the Mentor, named Serenity. She asks him if he's lost and he says he isn't sure, he just wants to not be where he was. They end up talking and Serenity ends up guiding Desmond back to the elevator, Desmond now much happier than he was when she found him. The next time he has some 'off' time he goes right back there and Serenity again finds him and asks him what he's doing there and he responds, 'well this is the only place I know where to find you.' She tells him she can see him just about everywhere he goes and he doesn't have to go somewhere specific to speak to her.

This goes on for a several weeks, during which Alpha runs normal missions and Desmond only gets to see Altair a few times. He gets to see Rauf more often and while he loves Rauf he's not Altair. Because Serenity has full control over the fortress including the windows, and sim rooms when she sees Desmond looks sad or lonely her avatar pops up in the nearest window like 'do you want to play?' They usually end up playing in the sim room and as Desmond's friends return from seeing their parents she casually hacks their PMs to make it look like Desmond sent them a message telling them to come hang out in a sim room.

Then one day Desmond is hanging out while most of his friends are gone and he's really just waiting for Serenity to show up to play with him when a woman comes up to him and goes 'hello, Desmond. Do you want to play?' in Serenity's voice. Desmond is SUPER happy to meet his play mate for real and she finally introduces herself as Kaley. They end up just talking in real life. She also tells Desmond why she grew fond of him, because he reminds her of her own son who's gone on pilgrimage recently and she misses him. That kinda bums Desmond out because why do the adults he attaches himself to ALREADY have kids? He just wants what Clay and Daniel have with their 'dad'. But one kid is better odds of being paid attention to than against three like Altair.

While Desmond doesn't rebond with Kaley he does hang out with her a lot both as Kaley and as Serenity. Like to the point Altair actually notices and asks what he's doing and when he tells Altair he gets this real confused look on his face. Because Assassin or not Desmond is 14 and some random adult shouldn't be showing this much attention or 'play' with his kid without him knowing who the fuck they are and he has nooooo idea who Kaley is. So Altair meets Kaley and she's a few years older than him and Rauf says he recognizes the name of her son. He was very gifted but also really wasn't about the Assassin life and worries about him returning home to the fortress. That is literally Altair's #1 fear when Darim goes out on his pilgrimage in another year so even tho Altair only knows Kaley as a voice in his helmet as Serenity when needed they basically bond immediately as being worry wart parents because their children are so important to them. Should be noted, Altair and Kaley do not have strong resonance. Like there is some but it's pretty low and nothing even distraction worthy like Altair's with Rauf, Malik, or Cain.

Daniel really doesn't want to stay in the fortress despite it being way nicer than the Australian one. He's always asking to go outside to so he can find his match because Des and Clay are cool but he doesn't want them. Cain has to basically sit him down like, 'you're 14 years old with no special skills or understanding of how the actual world works outside of these crazy fortresses. You need to grow up a little bit before you can leave because if you leave I'm not going with you.' Which actually gives Daniel pause because he doesn't want to just leave Cain so he agrees he'll stay but only because Cain is there and he makes sure everyone fucking knows he isn't here for this Assassin shit. He's just staying until he's old enough to be taken seriously by society at large.

With Altair and Malik shit Malik was literally made to feel as sorry as humanly possible for what he did during the Sad Part and he's also MAD bitter about it because he still… kinda likes Altair. So there's just a lot of bullshit pining he can't act on because Altair is still very much in love with Rauf. He does try to be nice to Altair and like is actually not malicious about his time with Sawsan but Altair is just like 'don't talk to me. Don't look at me. Don't even breathe the same air as me.' Not in the way they were before where they'd sometimes devolve into fist fights but just absolute coldness and Malik doesn't have room to say shit cause he did this to himself and he knows it. So he's just in pain instead but there's nothing he can do because if he does fucking anything Rauf is gonna ruin his life without ever even touching him. Like no more rank, no more easy job, no more big room, no more privileged elevator access. Rauf will 100% use his status as a First Class Assassin to just fucking wreck Malik if he steps out of line with his Altair.

After this there's like a 3 year time jump.

—

In St. Adams Darim has since gone on his pilgrimage, Sef is in third level and it's a few months till rollover for Des, Clay, and Dan to go on their own pilgrimage. Kanwai isn't an active member of Alpha anymore but Altair allows her to keep her number until his body shuts down. Chris mostly takes care of her and they really wanted to be joined but can't because of Kanwai's genetics. Rebecca is still trying to convince Mira to ditch Alpha. Diyari and Jari are both still fucking disgusting love birds who are even worse because they have a 5 yr old who basically has them wrapped around his little finger. Altair isn't so cold to Malik as he once was but their relationship is tenuous at best because of what happened.

Daniel is fucking fed up though. Like he's done waiting and he doesn't give a shit about the Assassins or their pilgrimage. He literally 'escapes' with some cash and Mario almost has him retrieved but Altair talks him out of it since they were going to use Ziio to do it since she's one of if not the best tracker the Assassins have. He's mainly speaking on Cain's behalf but since Cain is a civi Mario doesn't really give a shit about what he thinks. Altair convinces Mario to just let him go. He'll either come back or he won't. Either way he's still got a deadman chip and a beacon so they can retrieve him if anything goes wrong.

Outside of the fortress Daniel immediately gets on a plane for Europe. He knows that Desmond and Clay are the American proto humans and he's the Australian one that means that his match has to be in Eurasia or Africa. Europe is closer so he starts his search there. Then it's a series of Daniel's misadventures of being a kid in a world where children are totally coddled and everyone speaks down to him and he tries to get things done and it is just inconvenience after inconvenience.

At this same time Lucy's finally finished most of her training with Haytham. Because she's been with the Templars for so many years since she was a kid she's kinda a little brain washed and indoctrinated. She still hates Haytham even though he basically treats her like his daughter but she respects him a great deal. She is very skilled in basically everything and since she came to Haytham with a head full of knowledge to begin with he didn't do the Assassin thing where he made her learn things she already knew. As such Lucy is incredibly intelligent, Haytham admits probably even more intelligent than he is, and with her cold stare when he says something annoying to her he is always fondly reminded that she promised to murder him. He thinks it's rather adorable because she might be smarter than him but she isn't as crafty, or as good a fighter. Not yet. She needs more years for that.

Haytham's been getting little reports now and then from his agents around western Europe of a boy asking strange questions. Not exactly bad, just odd and they're supposed to report all oddities to Haytham since he knows the others like Lucy (who he doesn't know the full extent of the proto humans) are out there actively looking for each other. And they're finally coming of age to leave whatever holes they'd crawled into. Haytham orders this boy brought in, just to see what he is. They 'arrest' Daniel for some minor offense and use that as an excuse to bring him into the Abstergo facility in Paris. Haytham has Lucy outside the interrogation room and asks Lucy, 'so, what do you feel?' When she reports that she actually does feel something from his proximity it takes her a moment to realize what she actually just said and gets VERY excited.

Haytham questions Daniel first before allowing Lucy near him but she literally just paces waiting for him to be done. For himself Daniel doesn't say much. Then Haytham lets Lucy inside and she practically jumps on poor Daniel to test out their resonance. Like she thought he's another proto human and Daniel is SO surprised he doesn't say anything. Then the first thing he says to Lucy, cause he's an asshole, is 'you're not my match' and becomes completely disinterested in her. That infuriates Lucy and they have a very heated argument in their native language.

Also, note. Their native language is just our modern english but since PH takes place about 400 years in the future contemporary english of the time sounds VERY different and is more like Spanglish for the most part on the North American continent with weird german thrown in for good measure because when has english ever made sense? But the language of pre Collapse English was maintained in the science facilities that made the proto humans, and even accounting for linguistic drift it sounds shockingly like our modern english. That being said PH contemporary humans cannot understand proto human english because they just sound way too different.

So they have an argument and Daniel finally gets fed up and basically is like 'I really don't care about you because you're not for me. But I literally know where the other two guys are if you want to go try that out. Now stop yelling at me I just want to find my match.' This revelation that Daniel knows where the other guys are is tremendous and Lucy tells Haytham right away and that they HAVE to go because she NEEDS to find her match too.

Haytham talks to Daniel again and he's more agreeable to talk, mainly so Lucy will stop yelling at and jumping on him about everything. He doesn't get Lucy and why she's so thrilled. Lucy's also been, basically, a captive the past six years. Her existence is a closely guarded secret and only her tutors and a few other peoples even know she exists. Daniel tells Lucy and Haytham that Desmond and Clay are in the Assassin fortress in St. Adams. It doesn't even occur to him that Haytham and Lucy are Templars and he probably wouldn't care anyway because he doesn't give a fuck about the Assassins. That interests Haytham a great deal and it honestly doesn't take a whole lot of convincing to make Daniel tell him where the fortress is. Of course he doesn't know the address so Haytham makes a deal with Daniel. If Daniel gets him and his 'daughter' into the Assassin fortress he'll give Daniel a tip on another proto human he heard about in south Africa and even buy him a plane ticket to get there. Daniel is fucking sold.

So Daniel returns to the fortress literally a week or so before Desmond and Clay are about to leave on their pilgrimages with Lucy and Haytham. The Assassins are MAD leery of Haytham but Daniel is like 'Lucy's like me and this is her… dad I guess.' 'Caretaker' 'whatever. They're cool'. So the Assassins agree to let Lucy and Haytham into the fortress.

Like with most new people they are inspected head to toe and have x-rays taken and other scans so that the Assassins know that nothing is getting passed them. They both come up clean. Because Daniel's still one of them he just freely moves about the fortress and goes and sees Clay and Desmond and tells them about Lucy. They both promptly flip out and give Dan their condolences that of them he wants to find his match the most and he even left home to go find her and just… hasn't. He also stops by to see Cain who's thrilled to see him.

Clay and Desmond immediately show up at Rauf's room, knowing Altair and Rauf are there and just mile a minute begging for them to meet the new arrivals to the fortress. The adults are just like '… uh… new arrivals, what?' The two dumb dumbs manage to breathe long enough to explain what the hell they're talking about and they have to very calmly talk the boys from from their excited foaming at the mouth. While they're being checked in all new guests are quarantined for two days, which they should know because they both had to go through this. Once they're out of quarantine Rauf will see about getting the boys over to the supposed proto human while she's in less intense holding.

Also, should be noted. I call them proto humans in this but no one in story calls them proto humans. The proto humans refer to themselves as proto humans in their native english. The other characters don't know what proto humans are or what these kids are other than 'special', not even why they're special or why the Audi cares so much about protecting them.

Quarantine ends and Rauf pulls some strings and Desmond and Clay get to meet Lucy. Unlike her meeting with Daniel meeting Des and Clay is a lot more reserved because there are literally big scary Assassins around to make sure nothing bad happens. Lucy shakes Clay's hand when she meets him and it's like when she was around Daniel. High resonance, but not perfect. Then she and Desmond shake hands and it's perfect. They both just start sobbing immediately and everyone except Clay is surprised and don't know what the hell to do because these 17 yr old kids are suddenly sobbing and hugging each other like they're long lost best friends.

Unfortunately Desmond isn't allowed to stay that long but he does refuse to move until Altair shows up like 'wtf are you doing on the floor? Get the hell up. You'll see her again so stop with the puppy eyes. God above.' And Altair gets Desmond and Lucy apart.

There's still a little bit of time of mainly needing to look into Haytham's (impeccably fake) background and during those few days Clay has to be around Desmond who's just on fucking cloud nine. Daniel resents him hard core and is only marginally happy for him. Clay isn't because he realizes that since Desmond has Lucy, and Daniel was never like that, he's alone. Like he'd been crushing hard on Desmond while they grew up and they'd kissed each other just to see what it was like but now that's over. Clay quickly falls into a depressive spiral realizing the guy he thought he liked doesn't like him and really he never liked Desmond as much as he thought he did. He just wanted to like Desmond because he thought that that was the best he was ever going to get. He didn't actually believe he was going to ever find his match. And then all at once Desmond found his and he's happy for Desmond but he's also sad and bitter and a little resentful of this fact.

Desmond notices when Clay starts to get distant from him over the days and asks him about it. Clay just plays it off but really he's very upset and knowing his luck if he went out on his pilgrimage to go find his match he'd just end up finding Daniel's instead or his match was dead or something. That just makes him even more sad and depressed. Then Lucy gets let out of holding with Haytham and literally the first thing she does when she sees Desmond is kiss him and it's when she finds Desmond with his friends and Clay is just 'I don't wanna be here seeing this'. Daniel's cranky about it and Tazim is honestly kinda stary eyed cause wow Desmond is kissing a girl he's kinda jelly lol. For a little while after that Desmond basically ignores everyone else to just talk to and spend time with Lucy and rollover is still approaching.

Clay realizes… Desmond won't be going on his pilgrimage with Clay. Lucy can't leave the fortress easily and no way Desmond is letting her stay here alone. Like he might spend a few weeks/months in St. Adams just to see how society works but not very long since his match is literally right here already. Des and Clay had planned to do their pilgrimage together to other continents to look for their match but now it looks like Clay will have to just go with Dan and ? that sounds awful to Clay because Daniel is a miserable asshole.

Leading up to rollover Clay becomes very depressed. Serenity notices that Clay isn't with Desmond a lot now so checks in on him and one day finds him in one of the stairwells of the fortress. It's the highest drop you can get in the fortress with dozens of floors between where Clay is and the ground. The stairwell also has a big enough hole in the middle to drop through. She isn't sure at first but watches Clay keep leaning over the railing like he's trying to talk himself into it and out of it and Serenity can't understand what he's saying to himself because it's in his native english. Serenity immediately contacts Altair who's fucking fucking relaxing in Rauf's apartment with Sawsan and is like 'ALTAIR GET YOUR ASS UP RIGHT NOW THERE IS AN EMERGENCY'. Which, understandably, freaks Altair the fuck out cause wtf Serenity what is your DEAL?

Serenity gives him the brief and he immediately contacts just a few of his squad. Mainly the twins, diyari and Ehan and tell them to meet him up where Clay is still trying to talk himself into or out of jumping and that Diyari should bring his first aid kit just in case. They all meet up on the door outside the landing Clay is at and form a 'plan of attack'. Altair has the twins go down a level each so just in case he does jump they can grab him before he falls too far. Altair will go in first because Clay knows Altair the best and Ehan will come in while he's got Clay distracted and grab him. Like Altair literally brought Ehan because he's a brick shit house and can hold a tough lil guy like Clay still and the twins because they have lightning fast reaction times and Diyari to make sure if anyone gets hurt they can be patched up and give general medical treatment if needed.

So Altair goes onto the landing with Clay and Clay's so shocked Altair's there. Altair convinces him to step away from the railing and positions him back to the door so when Ehan comes in Clay can't see him. Ehan snatches Clay up and Clay freaks out and thrashes some as Ehan bodily carries him back into the fortress hallway where Diyari was waiting. When Altair follows, after telling the twins Clay is safe, Ehan has a bloody nose from Clay smashing the back of his head into Ehan's face and Diyari is trying to calm Clay down. Altair tells Ehan to let Clay go and he's just trembling and scared and upset and now feels terrible because he fucked up Ehan's nose and caused a scene that was so serious Alpha had to show up to deal with him.

While Diyari deals with Ehan's bloody face Altair goes off with Clay and they talk about some stuff like why he's so upset and he breaks down and tells Altair a lot about the proto humans and how he's happy Desmond found his match but that just makes it seem like the odds of Clay finding his by himself so much more unlikely. Altair only understands so much because it's a lot to take in, especially while being told by a sobbing teenager (who are the ugliest criers known to man) and eventually just tells his squad they did good and that he's going to take Clay to Leo.

Leo is like… a god send. He's in his workshop when Altair shows up with his blubbering, depressed, son and Leo is just 'omg why didn't you tell me you were sad ;A;' and takes over from Altair and gets Clay to calm down. Altair leaves Clay with Leo and now he's got all this shit in his head about proto humans and goes to look for his and finds Desmond totally cuddling with his new girlfriend and Altair's like 'yeah, I can understand why you'd be jealous of that' and pulls Desmond aside. He tells Desmond the very basics about what happened with Clay and Desmond is surprised and shocked because he had no idea and then Altair asks Desmond about what Clay was rambling about about proto humans and Desmond is just like '… I'm not supposed to talk about. We're not supposed to tell anyone'. Which just makes Altair kinda pissed off cause Clay almost killed himself because of the shit you kids are and if it's an issue the Assassins deserve to know.

So Desmond tells Altair the full shit about proto humans and why they were made and what they were supposed to prove and if they succeeded the facilities were going to start making more proto humans. Resonance doesn't work quickly and it's been so long that only now are people starting to show any strong resonance and only in Assassin fortresses is there actually really not a thing most people ever experience as anything other than static. Proto humans are supposed to be the answer to the issue humanity faces on their sterility and while the first six were made in pairs with matches that was just so they knew for sure that the proto humans worked with the whole bonding thing and that they could survive above ground and wouldn't accidentally introduce unwanted germs to people and they themselves wouldn't get deathly ill from humanity's germs. And Altair is just like 'o_o that's some shit right there Des' and doesn't really fully understand it and his brain is basically full of fuck. Desmond is like 'maybe you wanna take a minute to think about it? You look like you're having an existential crisis' because Desmond had also explained to Altair was the real point of resonance is.

Altair goes back to his room and just kinda… veggies out and Rauf finds him and he's so fucking weird because now he knows shit and now lots of things are both great and awful because he knows shit. Like now he knows that the reason he feels resonance for Rauf isn't because they're soul mates it's because science and genetics says that they have a much higher chance of producing fertile offspring. It also explains why Rauf has so much resonance with other people, because he's a bit higher than average and it pings off a lot of higher than average but not high enough genetics going 'he's the best you can do without dragging your kid down. Have kids with him'. And his resonance with Rauf is only because Rauf is high enough for Altair's perfect genetics to notice. Same with Malik while Cain is like Altair and has perfect reproductive genetics. Like this doesn't make Altair love Rauf any less but it totally destroys the magical illusion resonance has and makes him feel shitty because now his stupid excuse during the Sad Part is evEN WORSE and more of a lack of self control than anything. Altair doesn't tell Rauf any of this and they just end up cuddling for a while.

Rollover happens and everyone except Clay goes out on their pilgrimage. Even Desmond though he promises to be back really soon to get back to Lucy. Clay is held back for his depression and the Assassins aren't going to let him go until he shows some signs of recovery because they don't want him committing suicide out in society where they aren't able to help him because of distance. When Desmond leaves he asks Lucy to make friends with Clay so he doesn't feel so lonely. Not a hard thing since Lucy is thirsty for friendship but it takes a while for Clay to warm up to her because she's Desmond's match. He does though because he also wants a friend with Desmond and Tazim gone.

'But bb, Haytham?' Yeah. One of the leaders of the Templar Order… in the St. Adams Assassin fortress. The Assassin's also find out that he's got strong genetics from the destroyed European fortress and after digging around in his genetics realizes he's actually from there. It goes a long way to making the Assassins trust him since they see him as one of their own, long lost and returned to them. Haytham plays to that to a T to appear as sympathetic as possible to others and very quickly shakes off people watching him because he just acts like one of them and can even name his parents and grandparents who were Assassins. While he doesn't have unrestricted access to the fortress he does have very wide access but can't go below below floor 29 or above floor 65. That's still a lot of space and he goes snooping and looking for weaknesses in the fortress.

He also makes friends with people so it looks like he's assimilating into the fortress. The fortress also wants to use him for his genetics and is like 'hey, would you mind if we asked you to share some of your genetic material?' and Haytham, knowing it won't matter because he's going to have this place fucking destroyed is like 'yeah sure' specifically so he can make them trust him even more. Turns out he's got pretty high resonance with Ziio so they go to Ziio like 'you're being joined this Season with this European' and she's SO FUCKING INSULTED. Like Alpha Haytham Barret finally convinced her to think of him as more than her 'cute little brother' by just being an actual nice human being and letting her come to the conclusion on her own and now she's being forced to join with this old dude? One she doesn't even know. It's even worse because they have the same name and she's just pissy about it but like with Altair and Malik five years ago she has no choice. Barret is like just one huge frowny face especially when Kenway starts flirting with his girl. Kenway literally does it just to be a huge prick because he doesn't give a fuck about these people and just wants them to trust him and he plays it off as he might as well get to know Ziio if they're gonna be having a kid. Ziio is not having it, at all. Barret also hates Kenway with a passion because go fuck yourself dude and in general Alpha now doesn't like Kenway because (even tho it isn't his fault at all. He just happened to have good resonance with Ziio) he's trying to get in the middle of Ziio and Barret when Haytham's been crushing on Ziio for years.

Also, side note. Sarah and Micheal have a 2 yr old. Not named Micheal jr. Idk what his name is. Just throwing it out there for the Hart shippers lols.

This goes on for months as Haytham collects data on the fortress and slyly tucks it away for later use. The one day he's just… gone. He got permission to leave the fortress because he missed the sky and then they don't hear from him for hours, a day, two days. The fortress starts to get VERY nervous and its basically put on lock down. Doesn't matter or do much good. The Templars know where they are and the weaknesses of their fortress. The fortress doesn't know it was the Templars tho until Lucy gets too stressed out by the entire thing because she knows Desmond will be coming back soon and she doesn't want him to get hurt. Before he left Haytham told her to continue acting as she had been and to make sure people didn't notice anything fishy. She's an 18 yr old girl and now her 'dad' is gone and she's under a lot of stress but breaks within a few days because Haytham is going to rain hell on this place. It doesn't help that Clay is also gone at this point because he's better than he was and they weren't scared of him committing suicide anymore so she's alone. She doesn't know who to go to so goes to Desmond's 'dad' and just confesses to him. She tells him about who she is and Haytham and how they met Daniel and what Haytham was doing here and where he went.

This, rightly, makes Altair bolt up to the Audi to tell him what he's just heard and Mario calls for a full fortress evacuation. They know what Templars did last time they found out about a fortress. They found the european fortress and blew it up with a huge explosion and didn't even care about the suburban area around it. They were worried about destroying the Assassins and that was it.

The fortress goes into full evac mode but they don't start sending people out quite yet because if they started moving people out in mass the Templars would notice and attack immediately and not when they'd prepared. They also learned from the attack on the European fortress and after it fell had long tunnels dig that would take them out of the fortress and up to the surface a, hopefully, safer distance away.

Of course nothing goes as well as you'd hope it does. They're still organizing to get all the non assassins out of there along with their own people when there's an attack on the above ground building and it gets toppled. Thankfully not a lot of people die because they 'closed the bank' for a while and no one except a few people were in the building. The Templars use the wreckage to hide an even bigger bomb that will crack through the protective bulkhead and allow them down into the fortress itself. The initial explosion sends about half the fortress into a panic. That half being the non Assassin civilians that live and work there and the novices who have no idea what's going on and are panicking. The adult Assassins quickly start organizing themselves and their kids to get them the fuck out. Going up top through the heli pad is completely impossible so they start evacuating through the tunnels.

All of Foxtrot is tasked with evacuating the fortress while Alpha-Delta (also this doesn't have anything to do with anything but I literally just had the epiphany that Foxtrot should be called Echo and not Foxtrot because what is the alphabet) are given the task of keeping the Templars out of their home to allow everyone to evacuate. They set up in the armory which is so high in the fortress for the exact reason that in case of a breach all the weapons they could ever want are at their disposal since all enemies have to come from the top down.

The Templars come with guns and more bombs and other horrible weapons that they basically save specifically for when they're fighting Assassins because they know how hard Assassins are to kill. Alpha-Delta hold that line and they do so for hours as a seemingly endless amount of Templars come at them including many in those state of the art suits they first encountered back in Marcusville years ago. It's also discovered very early on that many of the things they're killing aren't even humans. They're robot soldiers more advanced than any the world has seen yet. Alpha-Delta are there for hours as their people get evacuated and only a few of them fall.

They do… miss a few. Some sneaky ones get through in the chaos and there's only Rebecca manning the Core down there and she can only see so much. She misses them and they get down to the lower levels somehow with a bomb. The bomb goes off even as members of Foxtrot find them and destroy them and the entire fortress… cracks and shifts.

Now it's a race to get out. Alpha-Delta abandon their posts because now that the fortress is cracked evacuation is more important than anything and with a larger hole to shoot through the Templars have brought in big guns mounted on hover jets to further chip away at the fortress and eradicate them. Meanwhile those being evacuated are starting to spill out onto the surface elsewhere but the Templars have cast a wide net to make sure they catch the vermin. As people leave the tunnels they're shot or otherwise killed and Templars storm the buildings the tunnels are connected to. They are beat back by the Assassins because even their children know how to fight better than most Templars but a lot end up dead as they run for their lives.

Alpha is doing a final sweep of the lower levels of the fortress while this is going on, making sure everyone is out from the techs to the supports to doctors and every single novice. They meet up with the rest of the First Classes who have been staying down there to make sure everyone has gotten out and will be the last to leave with Alpha-Delta. All this in a chaos of Templars storming the place and attempting to kill any stragglers, which there are some. Altair is doing a last sweep through the novice halls just to make sure when he finds the body of a novice and he's really upset about it until he turns them over and it's Sef.

Rauf, after waiting for Altair and him not coming back for a long enough time that he gets anxious, goes and looks for Altair and finds him in the novice halls thanks to Mira. Altair hasn't moved from where he found Sef and Rauf goes over to him and sees it too and Altair is just crying in his helmet but doesn't let Rauf comfort him because he's just angry. And then some very good anger relief shows up as some Templars come around. Altair tells Rauf to get their son's body out of there. For the very first time an Assassin does what a proto human can do. EVs have 13 permutations but they require the best genetics to access so most Assassins can only ever cap out with 11. Because proto humans do have the best genetics they have all 13 and Altair does too. The last two EVs literally make people stronger, and faster (remember in the chapter we first met Lucy and she kicked the ever loving shit out of Haytham, moving faster and with more power than an 11 year old has any right to? Yeah. That was foreshadowing) but since Altair's never had a use for those because he 1. didn't know he had them, and 2. hadn't gone through a great enough strain while through puberty to access them. Now he does.

Altair rips through the Templars, leaving Rauf to escape with Sef's body. Only after Altair has finished killing an absurd amount of people is he able to calm down enough to get the hell out and he's one of the last to escape and seals the escape tunnel after him just like the other tunnels were sealed. He comes up to more carnage by the time he's there he's had time to recover from his rampage from Sef and helps push the Templars back with his superior speed and strength. The last group huddled in the bunker escape and scatter. Altair almost dies before escaping because he's just so fucking furious that these Templars murdered his son.

Altair ditches and sabotages his Alpha suit and manages to make it to a safe house far outside St. Adams. He's really hurt and has a few bullet holes. Nothing he won't heal from but he's really fucked up and exhausted. He makes it to the safe house and promptly collapses amid some other Assassins. When he comes to his wounds are being tended to, by, of all fucking people, Malik. The safe house he stumbled into basically has Malik and a bunch of novices in it who are all terrified and clinging to Malik because he's the only adult there. Malik also has Sawsan with him and Altair basically cracks a joke like 'well at least you're smart enough to keep her safe', 'if you're well enough to sass me you're well enough to sit up. Now get it together'.

Sawsan is really happy to see her other father and Altair is still kinda in shut down mode after what happened and seeing he's not in any mortal danger Malik leaves him be to decompress. Altair's body isn't used to how stressful the 12/13th EV is on it and he's just super exhausted and ends up just cuddling his daughter before his mind goes to what the hell happened and then Sef and he starts crying again. Malik leaves him alone cause he has no idea what happened he just knows that his own son is safe because Tazim is on his pilgrimage. Thankfully Darim and Desmond are too so Altair doesn't have to worry about them as much.

They spend a while at the safe house. Malik has to do most things involving leaving it because Altair is just in his undersuit which is basically a full body cat suit and Malik is wearing normal ass clothes. After a few days Malik asks Altair about what happened and Altair is just still tired and emotionally unstable that he tells Malik and allows Malik to comfort him despite the fact that they'd literally had a rocky relationship for decades.

They wait a week before the two of them leave the safe house to the care of the older kids to find an internet cafe where they can access a private server that's still up because it was stored on a society server and is just very private. The server contains a forum for the Assassins and is mostly a bulletin board for everyone to check and get news about what they should do in the event of a nightmare scenario like this. Altair and Malik check in and announce which novices are with them. They get messages from some very happy parents to know their children are alive. The main bulletin is the one saying that Mario was killed making sure people got out of the tunnels. A lot of high standing Assassins were now dead and the remaining First Classes alive are in hiding and figuring out what to do and where everyone should go. Altair thinks about messaging Rauf but he just can't bring himself to because he just feels so shitty still that their son is dead.

Society news has also been having a fucking field day with what happened and the Templars spun it as them destroying a terrorist cult that were living right under their noses. Thankfully the technology in the fortress was sabotaged to be bricks by the Core Programmers and all in house servers were fried into oblivion after transferring as much as they could to a server farm in California so there isn't a lot to salvage outside of the weapons and creating media buzz to make the people who lived there look like sociopaths who tortured children. The Templars did manage to kill a lot of Assassins in this raid but a lot also escaped and along with the main news bulletin saying Mario was dead the other one said to just lay low, don't cause a scene, and to get as far from St. Adams as possible and here's the account number and info for one of the Order's bank accounts so you all don't starve be safe and we love you.

So Altair and Malik are together with a bunch of scared novices and know they need to get further from St. Adams. And then this is where the story is so far in the future I am not quite sure exactly what sort of events happen next. I just know that Malik and Altair work their shit out. They don't become romantic because they both know better but they do work out all their issues and deal with their resonance bullshit. They get away from St. Adams and eventually a message on the forum says that all Assassins are to make their way towards northern NFC up where there's not a lot of people. The First Classes have basically decided to purchase an entire old town that became a ghost town after the Collapse and has been in a real state since then.

So they make their way up north, past the Great Lakes into what was once Canada to the coordinates the First Classes gave. They've also since sent out messages to all novices on their pilgrimage that the fortress is no longer safe and they should stay in society until contacted again for safety since there is no home to come back to yet. Altair and Malik arrive at the town and there are already people there. The novices they have are slowly reunited with their parents as they show up. Altair meets up with Rauf again and cue more Altair sobbing because their son is dead. Can you tell I like making Altair cry yet?

It takes about two weeks for everyone to make their way up to the new place and that's when they start tallying the dead or missing. A surprising amount of people are still alive but there are some casualties. Of Alpha, Kanwai, and Sally didn't survive but thankfully everyone else did though several of them are so severely wounded they won't be able to continue being in Alpha. While missing limbs weren't an issue before there is no robotics or engineering offices anymore to get them prosthetics to keep them in the field. The order here in America is in pretty dire straits as the European one is now only recovering from. It will be years until they have a new proper fortress but in the meantime the plan of action is to repair the town so people can live in it. There's also a matter of needing a new Mentor since Mario is dead. The First and Second Classes all cast a vote after a lot of deliberation and Rauf is elected the new Mentor with Mario gone.

First order of business is fix the town and make it livable and make sure it's safe for their children out on their pilgrimages to come home to. They also send messages out to the Australians and Singaporeans about what's happened. Both other fortresses send aid in money, supplies, and helping hands. One of those helping hands happens to be Leila and when she and Lucy meet Lucy is thrilled and tells her all about the other two proto human boys who might be her match because obviously Desmond is hers. While the plan is keep the kids on their pilgrimage until the town is rebuilt Rauf gets a LOT of angry messages saying they better tell them where this town is because they want to come home and help damnit. Which leads Darim and Desmond showing up and Kaley's son Duncan who Desmond finally gets to meet and he's like 'wow… that's scary. We look really alike. No wonder your mom projected on me.'

When Desmond meets Leila he contacts Clay and Daniel (even though he's not 'supposed to' cause they're on their pilgrimage) but he makes Rauf tell them there's a girl here. Daniel doesn't answer but Clay comes back but it takes him a bit because he's nervous and scared it's Daniel's match and not his. The rebuilding is well under way by the time Clay shows up and he literally faints when he meets Leila and she catches him like the swooning damsel he is lols.

For Daniel he's followed the lead Haytham promised him to South Africa and has been hunting for his match there since he left for his official pilgrimage. He finds her. Also finds Haytham. Since the 2 or so months that have passed since the St. Adams fortress was destroyed Haytham has been happy but also annoyed. He lost Lucy even though he told her to return to him during the attack and while they killed a lot of Assassins and destroyed their fortress a lot escaped. He found Hannah, who'd been living a perfectly normal life with her adopted mom and dad in South Africa and was going to college when Haytham showed up like an asshole and basically kidnapped her. Then Daniel found Hannah and Haytham and Haytham tries to talk Daniel into joining him and he'll tell Daniel where he had Hannah. Daniel's just like 'how about you tell me anyway and I don't break your fucking teeth'. Like Daniel is the absolute LAST proto human you want to fuck with. All the others would listen to gentle coercion or be manipulated. Daniel? No. He was (kinda) abused by the Australian Assassins, he was told to wait to go find his match, his 'dad' is probably dead because of the Templar attack and Haytham thinks he can sweet talk Daniel? Fuck no. Daniel is so the most unstable of the proto humans because of his drive and obsession with finding his match.

In the end he's the one threatening Haytham and Haytham tells Daniel where Hannah is and just for good measure Daniel kills him anyway for 'what you did to my friends, my family, and my dad you piece of soggy shit'. Then he goes and rescues Hannah literally at the exact same time she manages to pick the lock on the door open and their first meeting is her punching him RIGHT in the face and then freaking out like 'omg I'm sorry I thought you were that bad man! I'm sorry I'm sorry!' Then of course she finds out Daniel is her match and Daniel doesn't even care she just punched him because she's wonderful and perfect. Alls well that ends well for Daniel and Haytham gets what he fucking deserves.

Back with the Assassins it takes some months but they fix up the town and get it working and they also build more housing for all the people that are going to be staying there then form a fake construction company. Rauf hires tonnnnnnnns of construction workers and miners to start digging a new fortress. It's decided that a single, straight, shaft was what caused the easy destruction of the St. Adams fortress in the first place so instead they have basically a bunch of huge squares dug out using some really scary huge machines and explosives. And this is all gravy since really the end of the story is Daniel and Hannah meeting and being together but I'm telling you so it doesn't come up as a question later lols. So this takes a few years and their Assassin trained architects design a new fortress for them and construction starts on it as soon as possible. This takes the better part of a decade because of the scope of the project and all workers sign a confidentiality paper that if they talk the Order will sue them into oblivion and maybe murder them (the murder is subtext).

The new fortress is topped with a huge metal and concrete slab, covered in dirt and grass and turned into an animal pasture with the entrance being a 'farm house' close by. It's made up of several large squares connected by underground tunnels with each box serving a specific purpose. There are also multiple escape tunnels that are dug and ways to get out so what happened at St. Adams doesn't happen again. When the fortress is finally complete Altair steps down as Alpha-One literally to celebrate since he, the rest of Alpha and Beta, Charlie, and Delta have been working their asses off the past few years to make sure their order has enough money to keep up the break neck pace of building their new home and can just keep surviving. The St. Adams fortress was mostly self sufficient with everything except food but now they have to rebuy all the stuff they need to exist other than construction supplies.

Alpha is much smaller than it once was when it finally disbands with Ehan, Mira, Diyari, Sarah and Ziio all unable to continue their service properly after the destruction of the fortress years ago through some reason or another leaving the remaining Alpha to be Chris, Munahid, Jari, and Haytham of the original group and Altair also accepted Duncan, and Tazim into Alpha as well though not Desmond since it's against protocol for children of members of Alpha to be members of Alpha. Altair names Duncan the next One since Haytham refuses when he asks, he just wants to relax now with Ziio and his stepson Connor (bet you thought I forgot!). Unsurprising to everyone everyone Duncan names Tazim his second.

Now retired Altair can enjoy the fact that he's got grandkids to go with his kids. Once they got their feet under them Rauf and the other First Classes agreed that they needed to have a LOT of children to resupply their ranks. As such anyone who wanted to be joined during a Season was allowed and they also mandated joining for more population. Even people who might already have a kid can have more kids. Altair and Rauf have another kid and Rauf also goes 'it's for the good of the order you're having more kids with other people jerk face' because Altair tells him about the 12/13th EVs. Altair does put his foot down at three new kids though because 'Rauf I'm ollllld'. But he does end up being joined with Cain (they both think it's hella weird cause they're just friends) and Kaley (also hella weird but it's decided they need to also have stronger tech and supports since so many of them died) and weirdly also Mira (who is horrified because why would you do this to me Rauf? How will I ever look at him again? But same reason he gets joined with Kaley). So I don't wanna hear nothing about ships lols. Malik probably also ends up having another kid or two because he's one of the few men with access to support/tech EVs and they really need more tech/support.

Then, just to throw a fucking wrench into the Seasons there is Desmond, Lucy, Clay and Leila. Two pairs of perfectly fertile people who are….. veRY BUSY and excited to be with each other and have a couple kids each naturally in the 8-10 years this aftermath takes place in. They have babies in the middle of Seasons, as the Season is ending (on time) or when it starts and everyone is just like '… can you like, calm down maybe?' and they're just sooooo offended like 'we're literally giving you 8 fertile Assassins stop fucking complaining!' The kids they have do not have resonance since it's something triggered inside an AWC but since the nanites are part of Lucy and Leila it does affect their unborn children and they do have EVs. All of them, like their parents and Altair does. Reason Cain doesn't have them is because his mom was just some society lady and nanites wouldn't be passed to him from his dad since it doesn't work like that.

And that's it. That's the story of Pro Human, plus some fan service at the end lols. Man, that took 16.5k words to get out. Imagine how long it would be and how long it would take me to write this shit out chapter by chapter. We'd be here FOREVER. But now you got your closure on what the hell happens. The Q&A is going below from previous chapters. And as a reminder you'll find a bunch of supplemental stuff on my writing tumblr, shotgunsandstars and I will be answering all future questions about this story there as well. Just search Pro Human for all the info.

Q&A goes from chapter 16 and back to whenever I feel like talking

Could [Kanwai] still go to Society and request a child there, without the Brotherhood's permission? Could she raise it there, and still be an Assassin? Long ago you said not all the members live in the Fortress. Kanwai already doesn't accept the Brotherhood's belief that she would amount to nothing. Would they let her?

So she could. She totally could. But she wouldn't because it's genetic. Even if she had a child that child would be blacklisted in the fortress. Also Kanwai isn't that concerned… with having babies until she gets with Chris but like understands that it isn't a good idea. Also she wouldn't be alive long enough to see it grow up and she wouldn't do that to her kid or Chris to make it grow up knowing it's own mother was joined knowing it wouldn't live very long and knowing she wouldn't live very long and leave it with Chris to deal with alone. And Chris… Yeah, he wouldn't be a good single parent even in an Assassin situation. It comes down to the fact that Kanwai isn't that selfish to have a kid.

Historically, don't [Assassins] tend to be lone wolves, taking on solo missions more than team assignments.

Yet another AC mythos bullshit holding this story back.

Kanwai doesn't feel like she's part of the team when she's already been singled out by the Order for having a genetic disorder and told she has will not be allowed to reproduce and that nothing was expected from her because of her challenges?

Ya'll focus so much on whenever I bring up women wanting or not wanting or can't have kids. Did it occur to anyone that maybe Kanwai doesn't want kids?

I hope Desmond and Tazim befriend him because I think you mentioned Petruccio should be their age-mate and in their level.

I honestly don't even give it a single thought. If you'd like to head canon that go right ahead but it isn't something I think about.

didn't Altair once explain that if Assassins chose not to return to the Order after their Pilgrimage was over, the Order cut them free and never bothered them again? Why take Cain in? They could've left him in the Outback.

That only applies for 'normal' fortresses. Australia allows only girls or carrier boys to quit their pilgrimage. Cain's dad was not a carrier. In fact he was perfectly healthy. When he dug out his own dead man chip and beacon from his body they looked everywhere for him because he was too necessary for making more healthy children. The only reason they decided not to kill Cain was because the support riding along in Omega's helmet was like 'holy shit he looks exactly like X' (Cain's dad wasn't named Pipek in this AU but idk what his name was) and told them to bring him just to check.

The Australian Assassins say they're protecting Australians from outside threats; but whose protecting the people of Australia from THEM?

/Finger guns

Is it called the Sisterhood of Assassins with men included in the Australian realm?

First the fact that you call Australia a realm is hilarious. And no. They go by Order of Assassins in all fortresses and less Brotherhood because it's more inclusive.

Really, I don't get why [the Australians] closed themselves off so tightly

Answered in supplementary material on my blog

Rauf's drunken wonder that Altair loves him regardless of how silly he becomes.

Nah. He's not in wonder at that. He's in wonder cause Rauf is so… average. Like Rauf's a solid 6 and Altair's like a 9, maybe a 10. How the fuck did Rauf end up with a hotty like Altair? He has no fucking idea.

How will knowing Maria didn't want him affect Darim in the long run?

I mean… that's his society. He's socialized like this while kids with no parents at all often suffer Darim does have parents. He has two dads and they love the ever loving fuck out of him. For him it's not wrong if one of the biological parents isn't around. It's just what happens.

When Jari heard only silence in his dream, you gave me a very bad feeling of dread. That and your hints about the sad event to come make me want to freeze time right here in Pro Human to make sure Diyari stays safe and alive and well. Xazz, is Diyari going to be killed, likely on some mission with Alpha? Because that would just about destroy Jari.

I… you looked way too far into this okay. It was a visual thing and not nearly as deep. Jari saw silence in his sleep because it meant the procedure was over. Silence comes in transition.

How do all of these organizations seem to know who they are?

The science facilities sent out a broadcast to the fortresses basically going 'hey, this are the kids we're sending out. Keep them safe until they're old enough and make sure they don't die'. Signal was intercepted by other organizations because the original fortresses are all destroyed and they didn't understand exactly what the proto humans are but they did understand the 'fertile children able to make more fertile people' and that can be very easily manipulated into something evil and gross by these evil organizations. Being able to sell fertile eggs or sperm or for experimentation to see how they tick would be great for their organizations and mark them as 'saviors' of the human race a second time.

Ok, I know you haven't revealed yet the nature of the children, but I'm going to guess here and suggest they're clones? Maybe these kids are clones of important people from before the Collapse?

So, say if they had been clones, they… then wouldn't be clones. The original person they were made from would have been long dead by now. That negates the fact that they are clones and gives them full personhood.

Rauf especially should have known better than to use Malik as the bait. I wonder how he convinced Malik to participate? Maybe because they have a baby coming and need to try to work together a little more?

Nothing even nearly that clever; Rauf just lied. Before the Sad Part Rauf just wanted to make these two work their shit out and figured the best way to do so would be to just throw them together and make them work it out.

How will [Munahid] explain to [Si'u] that his birth mother didn't want him? That his birth, rather than bringing great joy, caused her trauma and regret?

Honestly he's just going to lie. No one will tell Si'u any different that his mother didn't die in the fortress attack like Munahid tells him. And Munahid won't have to lie when he tells Si'u that he cared a great deal for his mother (even if it was more like a protective crush than actual affection). And Si'u will have uncle Ehan too.

What a double blow that Rauf unintentionally delivered. First, telling Yusuf he's in a committed relationship and there's basically no chance to be with Rauf, then telling Yusuf that he has a son whom he loves very much.

Bruh… Yusuf isn't unaware Rauf's got a kid or a partner. He's just a fucking kid tho and hopeful.

I bet there's nothing Altair loves better than being knocked over and covered in a pile of little children

I mean… you're not wrong and since he has a bunch of them there's also a lot of grandkids to go around and climb all over grandpa Altair and he just sits there like 'this is fine' while Rauf laughs at him.

AO3 questions

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED ON [Altair's] PILGRIMAGE?

Altair had a pretty normal pilgrimage and then he met Adha. Altair had perfect resonance with Adha thanks to some lucky genetics. He was honestly going to never go back to the Assassins because he wanted to stay with her and Adha found the idea of going and living underground horrible. He was going to change his entire future to be with her. Then some bad people (not Templars) found out that Altair was an Assassin novice out and about and wanted to capture him to get secrets from him about the location of the fortress and other Assassin secrets. In the fight Adha ended up dead. That was the real first time Altair activated his 12/13 th EVs but doesn't remember it because he was just out of his fucking mind.

The worst part was that after it happened and Altair was alone in their apartment surrounded by blood of everyone he'd killed and sobbing over his dead girlfriend he went to go wash up the blood and call the police he found some paperwork on Adha's desk. She'd been pregnant at the time. After that Altair returned to the Assassins and did his best to get himself killed in Alpha until Mario was like 'okay we can't lose this kid's genes push him through the Season' and having Darim made him realize he had more to live through even though Adha was dead.