A Darkened Mirror

[madimpossibledreamer]

I swear the plot is just doing its thing without input at this point. Only about half of this was actually meant to come this early.
Also part of Shaun’s realization was that ‘oh yeah I’m being utterly weird about researching Desmond’s cult, I told him I was going to do this, maybe I should gently remind him’. At which point he decided to go off on a complete lecture. I don’t know. That is the point where I decided to cut off the chapter, though, because if I left it with the previous one it would’ve been a bit too long for my taste, even though I was hoping to wrap up Kingsmouth by now.

Main Points:Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Desmond catches up with Shaun and isn't quite ready for some of the revelations the Brit has to give him.
Word Count: 3071
Rating: Teen

 

         And then, of course, as if he hasn’t been blindsided enough for one day, there’s Shaun’s reaction the instant he finally manages to get ahold of him. “Nice to see you in one piece, Desmond, Rukh.” The raven preens and just grabs Desmond’s hood in his beak and yanks it down. Which he wasn’t quite ready for, but he gives up trying to fix it in favor of grumbling a bit about not as dead as advertised Council enforcers and Phoenician ambushes. Which, in turn, makes Shaun bother to look up from where he’s taking notes on various books and maps. “Oh, of course, the problem stepbrother returns from the Levant and I owe Rebecca twenty quid.”
         Returns?? He can’t quite voice it out loud, though, but apparently him not having something to say after his complaints is a pretty good indication in of itself, because now Shaun’s continuing thoughtfully, gently.
         “...I’m blaming your lack of geographical knowledge on your American education. Although, in your case, I suppose it’d reflect worse on your cult than on America as a whole.” Which makes a change from old Shaun, not that he’d know that. This version of Shaun is much better at remembering that yeah, Desmond didn’t exactly have a normal upbringing. “Phoenicia was a civilization in the Levant, though the modern-day Phoenicians have long since abandoned that as a home base. I assume you’ve heard of it in another context.” So not during Altaïr's time, but still, he can’t rule it out either.  Shaun is also digging. Prodding just a little, and he’ll drop it if Desmond pushes or says he doesn’t want to talk about it. Before he can make up his mind on what he wants to say or whether he actually wants to say anything, though, Shaun shuffles around and adds quickly, “Before you continue, I should remind you I’ve been looking into The Farm and your former cult.”
         That’s not new. Not even close. That’s right, he’d offered to do that when they’d first met, in this world, but given that Shaun hadn’t brought it up since, Desmond thought he’d dropped it. Only that’s not like Shaun at all, and it should have occurred to him, and he’s now experiencing the very weird feeling that he wants to protect the Assassins and not rat on them, even though for all he knows the Assassins are just as topsy-turvy as the Templars, here, even while he likes Shaun and Rebecca and to some extent Sonnac. And sure, he’s got a lot going on, that’s no excuse to go letting things slip—
         “Desmond, breathe. In and out.” Right, okay. At least he didn’t zone out too much. It’s starting to get embarrassing. And, even weirder, that Rukh seems to be trying to demonstrate how he should be breathing, following the man’s instructions. “Not that I don’t trust you, mind.” And now he’s reeling from how quickly Shaun rushed to reassure him of that, or how easily he’d said it. “If you’ll recall, I offered to research this when we first met, and if anything it’s only become more of a priority as these things go. If you’ll put yourself in my shoes… You’ve been told about a cult of assassins with highly secretive motives who have yet to make themselves known. Wouldn’t you be a little concerned, too?”
         Desmond opens his mouth to argue on reflex before he remembers that he’d had that thought, too. He just...hadn’t thought Shaun would. Or that he’d care, but given that the Templars might be a target...yeah, of course he would care. That would make sense.
         “I...is it weird to say I hope you don’t find them?”
         From the look of hurt on Shaun’s face quickly smoothed away, it is. Damn, he didn’t take that the right way. “Just...if they’re staying out of things, they’re not causing problems, which is probably the best case scenario.”
         Shaun’s deep breath is heavy. “We’re rarely that lucky, and the universe is rarely that kind, much as we might wish it otherwise.”
         “I’d love to be able to disagree.” He takes a deep breath. “You’re not...going to just go kill them all, right?” They’re not actually his family, but the family of the Desmond of this world, whatever happened to him, but he still cares. It’s impossible not to. And Eagle Vision isn’t perfect, it’s not going to catch everything, but it is stronger after his death and he’s got the Calculations, too, and he’s gotta hope that will be enough. His raven’s at attention again, still and ready to pounce. Figuratively. He’s pretty sure Rukh’s smart enough to realize he can’t just teleport through the phone screen.
         “We’ve enough trouble without borrowing more. Sonnac has granted us discretion on what to report, largely because while most of the organization learned its lesson in the Crusades, that’s not true of every member. Particularly the Old Guard. I have passed along some of this research to him, but he has kept it to himself, and I haven’t really had time lately, on account of potential armageddon.” He’s telling the truth. And Desmond wants to leave this alone, but he’s still curious and if it is the Phoenicians he’d like to know before they attempt to kill him again (especially if they sent that first guy, though the difference in competence is wild) and he really wants to talk about this, so...another Leap of Faith.
         If maybe a really short one. “My family was from the Levant originally, though we didn’t learn a lot about that. A lot of the truth was lost. Or Dad just didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”
         “The ancestors during the Crusades?” Shaun realizes, and yeah he is way too smart. It’s impressive, really, and honestly kind of hot, how much he knows and how easily he just takes in information and integrates it into his understanding, but it’s also a pain to tiptoe around, too. Rukh shuffles a little.
         “Yeah. They were pretty cool.” He pauses and then adds, “We definitely weren’t told anything about Phoenicians, though, and...I dunno.” He knows that he probably should stop trying to map everything perfectly toward the world he’d known. The Templars definitely aren’t the same, for one thing, even though he doesn’t trust them all entirely. But then, if events went differently...maybe this is what the Assassins became. “Parts feel similar, parts really don’t, and I’m not sure I’m just...seeing things that aren’t there, I guess.”
         “I suppose I’ll just have to borrow some tomes on Phoenician history, then, after all this.” Shaun waves generally at a white board, with at least four or five different handwriting styles among the scribbles. He’s sipping at something—tea, probably, considering his rants on the subject before, which does probably mean he counts being able to work somewhere with an easy tea supply to be a huge perk. “Not my area, unfortunately, though I have a few colleagues with whom I could consult. I suppose an assassin’s skills would be an asset to the strongarm of the Council.”
         And Desmond’s winging it a bit, here. He’s got no clue how similar or different any of it was, or how close it matches. But it’s definitely something that bugged him back where he’d originally been from. “Yeah, but you’d think they’d have done a better job making it all connect, right? Something that made them sound less like superheroes hunting boogeymen.”
         “Chin up, Desmond, if you play your cards right, you might get to do exactly that.” He’s so nonchalant about it that takes Desmond a second to even realize it was a joke.
         It’s almost like he’s back at the Horned God. Or maybe when he’d been having those conversations with Old Shaun at the Temple. That’s nice. “You know, that’s actually almost funny.”
         Shaun is not quite fast enough to hide the smirk with the mug. Even getting back to work seems more like looking busy than actually getting anything done. “In any case, I suppose, and correct me if I’ve misread—what you’re saying is, you’d think that the purpose and goals would be more detailed in that case? Well, we’re not sure what they’ve been doing for some time. It could be that they lost contact with the Council altogether. It’s also possible that your Farm is a lost sect, or any number of other explanations, and it’s not worth speculating too heavily without more information.”
         “No, I guess not.” And he’s not kidding. He half hopes he never finds out. “I’m sorry for...you know.”
         “I’m afraid I don’t. You’ll have to use your words, sorry to say.” He doesn’t sound all that sorry. He actually sounds a little more amused than anything. He’s also raising an eyebrow, and he does actually seem like he’s getting better sleep or is in a better mood or something. Rukh lets out a quiet noise and pushes into Desmond’s ear a little more gently, like the other times when he’s been trying to reassure.
         “I mean, it’d be easier if I was better at talking about all of this. And it probably is dangerous, getting involved.” But, thinking about it, it’s not like he knows what’s the same and what changed, so it probably doesn’t matter all that much that he isn’t telling Shaun everything, because that could just as easily be speculation leading them off on a wild goose chase.
         “I realize it makes me sound like I’m from a Bond film, which I am very clearly not, but I’m used to a bit of danger, and I have been known to enjoy a challenge. As for the rest, I’m hardly going to blame you. Being protective and questioning are not moral failings. They’re natural consequences of what you’ve been through.” Desmond had been wondering if he’d been too harsh, learning Abstergo really were the enemy and the Assassins hadn’t actually been full of it, but at the very least, there are similarities, enough that Shaun knows how to deal with it.
         Which does actually make him wonder, a little, because he’s pretty sure Shaun’s ‘specialty’ wasn’t actually cults, in the other world. Mostly just Abstergo. “So why cults?”
         Shaun doesn’t obviously light up, but it’s clear that yeah, he enjoys the topic, so that makes some sense, and there’s a bit of the same glee he’d had when explaining how he’d gotten involved with the Assassins that feels like déjà vu. He does pause briefly, like he’s considering if it’s going to set Desmond off again.  “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of the monk Girolamo Savonarola, by any chance?”
         Desmond can’t hide his immediate reaction of disgust, but at least he doesn’t say anything like ‘he and his lieutenants were a pain in the ass to deal with’, so he’ll take it. Rukh’s angry croak makes him realize that he tensed up enough Rukh started looking for whatever he’s about to fight. He smooths down a few white feathers as Shaun talks.
         “Right, well, my specialty for my bachelor’s had been Renaissance Italy, but there’s been enough written on the Medici and various power struggles of the city-states, and I’d always enjoyed a good conspiracy theory, even though I never believed any of them.” That’s a change. “By my master and doctorate degrees I was knee deep in all of it, and the only part I wasn’t enjoying was the fact that I could hardly keep up once I’d determined to look into everything, particularly as most of them were in periods I was less familiar with, but I bravely soldiered on through cult after cult. They’re not a particularly modern invention, though in days when information was less available, travel was more difficult, and fewer were involved, it was easier to keep the shocking secrets from coming to light. The Rosicrucians of the 17th century with ties to the Freemasons and, in likelihood, actual alchemy and magic, though I hadn’t known it at the time. The Mithraic Mysteries, during the Roman empire, which I actually now believe to be one of the important keys to their military success, with gruesome rituals akin to modern fraternity hazing with just a touch more blood. The cult of Pythagoras—yes, that Pythagoras, if you’d been taught any equivalent of geometry, and they every bit earned that title, since they had one member killed who dared reveal mathematical secrets to the world at large without Pythagoras’ say-so. Atenism, formed during the late Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt, and revived during 2012, whose members are more than willing to set themselves on fire to defeat the enemies of the Aten. I suspect it was a rather extreme reaction to all that end of the world nonsense, though have yet to uncover any real proof, but that’s an ongoing subject of research as they are quite rightly considered a threat to life and liberty as we know it.”
         That’s...concerning, and doesn’t exactly feel like a coincidence, though it’s hard to tell what is and what isn’t. Rukh’s claws dig in, apparently accidentally, since he’s soon smoothing Desmond’s shoulder with his beak in apology.
         “You might think of modern cults as a particularly American scourge, mostly due to reporting on the subject, but it’s not, not really, and it’s not just the nonsense with the Aten. In the jolly old UK we’ve had the Jesus Army with the usual stories of abuse both physical and financial, the mouthful of The Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought, with similar accusations, the North Shields Death Cult, which while small did extort, torture, and kill a man. And then, eventually, after I’d accepted a position I’d made it to the household names. There’s AUM Shinrikyo, based in Japan, which you might not know by name, but you may have heard of the Tokyo subway attack.”
         Rukh lets out another aggressive croak. “That...sounds familiar, yeah.” Though for different reasons—was the location chosen on purpose, to send a message of fear and chaos?
         “Others as well. Scientology, with all of their celebrity followers, The Manson Family and their Helter-Skelter attempted race war, Jonestown, the subject of the phrase ‘don’t drink the kool-aid’, The Children of God, or their rebrand as The Family, probably the most infamous for abusing children, Heaven’s Gate with its mass suicides, and from there to parts of our Secret War by way of conspiracy theories about the Vatican. I’m not sure I believe all the talk about them hiding secrets about aliens, but they definitely aren’t sharing everything they know about the Third Age even with their neighbors in Venice, and from there it’s a mere hop, skip, and a jump to the others. Specifically, the Illuminati, because they’d actually had a hand in the death of Pope John Paul the I, then their roots in the Freemasons, their wars with the Templars, and such. And lastly, your good friends the Morninglight, though they’re doing a particularly good job keeping their secrets.”
         Which works as a transition. “Any more news?”
         Shaun starts scribbling down a note. “Sadly, we’re still largely in the dark. We haven’t found much on Freddy Beaumont, which likely means it was an alias taken on when he joined the Morninglight—now, whether that was a requirement or a sign of faith is hard to say. Both are common in cults. I’m leaning toward ‘sign of faith’, or perhaps evading authorities, myself. This Cassie I can confirm to be Cassandra King, based on pictures sent by your Agent Nate, retaining the same name and reported missing by her family. And he’s changed his face, too—Rebecca was able to find a single picture of the man on the Morninglight website, and absolutely no matches anywhere else. Something that might make you think erroneously just means he doesn’t have a criminal record, but get this: this also includes any form of identification Rebecca can find, which includes DMV records and the like, which can only mean one of three possible reasons: disguise, surgery, or, what I believe to be the most likely, shapeshifting. Not too difficult for a powerful sorceror.”
         Which might even be enough to mess with the Eagle Vision, if it’s just kind of...catching on the disguise, so yeah, Desmond’s going with that, too. “You’re probably right. Do you think he’s gone off-script, or does it seem like the Morninglight is more involved in this?”
         “Ah, we’ve reached the land of pure conjecture, I’m afraid, but with that in mind I’ll take a stab at it. In a word, chaos. See, for those who aren’t born into cults but rather recruited, they have to be vulnerable in some way, and what better to ensure such vulnerability than to simply enforce it yourself? Spread fear, anxiety, doubt, in a way that’s not traceable to yourself, then offer answers, certainty, reassurance, validation.” That’s. Desmond’s very much looking forward to stabbing their leaders, including Beaumont, when he gets the chance. “That’s assuming they’re not looking to also increase their powers through the use of Third Age artifacts and/or rebooting the world, as Beaumont said, only with themselves in charge, but that’s probably more of a long-term project that they’re not too fussed if it doesn’t pay off.”
         “So they brought him in because he’s good at that.” Makes sense.
         Shaun sighs. “Yes, and for his expertise on Third Age artifacts, which, while it’s a blow to my ego, I have to admit he’s better than I am, though some of it may be how long he’s been working at it. I’ve been trying to trace Excalibur, but despite the rumors I’m not finding any record of how it would have actually traveled to the New World. I have another possibility in mind, but I don’t particularly wish to share that yet.” So he doesn’t have much in the way of evidence, there. “There have been a few more sightings of the man around Kingsmouth, around the junkyard for example, but I get the feeling you’ll need to move on to what tourists refer to as the Savage Coast soon—charmingly named after prejudices against the local Wabanaki Tribes. In turn, the Wabanaki themselves tended to refer to landmarks, and occasionally ‘the Land of Whispers’. Do take care, yeah?”
         “You too.” At least he’s got Rebecca to watch his back. Rukh croaks in agreement, and then, he guesses, it’s off to the junkyard.