Simply Not True

[madimpossibledreamer]

Desmond’s moment of “I have lost control of the situation” was me looking at what I’d written and going “well, this wasn’t the plan...oh well, time to pivot”.
Like Leap of Faith, this got split from the next chapter for flow reasons, mostly tone.

Main Points: Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Time to get to the artifact before the Draug.
Word Count: 2339
Rating: Teen

 

        It ends up going more smoothly than Desmond dared to hope, mostly because it doesn’t seem like the Draug are used to looking out for traps. They’re far more interested in trapping survivors, maybe guarding the houses, and definitely trying to break in like there’s something they’re seeking in there. Desmond’s betting on the artifact, which makes it all the more important that Desmond and the others get to it first. Fortunately, Connor had been very, very good at traps, and Desmond has one other advantage over the Draug. He can sense the correct house. The Draug don’t seem to know which house it’s in, so they’re having to waste their efforts on all three. It’d be even easier if he could see it glowing in one particular room, but he can’t. It feels like it’s inside, but...vaguely, like someone had attempted to conceal it somehow, or...something. Even when he tries to feel if there’s a connection between it and the other two broken pieces, like Shaun’s charm is a connection between himself and Shaun and Agartha, but it gets the same vague, weird feeling. He’s definitely going to have to pay attention to what the final answer actually is, because it’d be good to know.
        The terrain is still a lot more wide open than Desmond would like. It’s not like it’s completely devoid of cover. The ground slopes and is pretty rocky in places, complete with the occasional tree, which serves as probably the best cover they have. The white picket fences don’t have gaps big enough to hide anything unless Desmond leans on the Calculations stealth. Sure, the zombies individually aren’t too observant, but they’re not alone. Even distracted as they are, the Draug are a whole lot more aware, and just by sheer numbers it just takes one to raise the alarm. They absolutely couldn’t approach by the road, because that would be visible from miles off. Something desperate—say, if they’d had Edgar’s bus and just drove through the Draug into the side of the house—might work, but Desmond wants better than a maybe. Besides, if it takes them a second too long, they’ll just be trapped inside the house with a stream of Draug and zombies and very possibly reinforcements. Approaching from behind would keep them out of sight, since there’s a rocky drop behind the back of the house, tall enough to conceal them easily, but there’s still way too many zombies and Draug there for it to work. Sadly. No, here in the rocks is the easiest, with the least enemies on the ground, and once they’ve thinned those out, managing to draw off one here or there with an interesting noise that is not immediately alarming or suspicious, they can try to get ones closer to the house.
        The zombies might be the servants, but the Draug don’t seem to be very worried about them, either. Given that their brains are rotting and they don’t seem particularly intelligent, they probably just wander off all the time on their own, and it’s probably easy enough to make or find more.
        Of course, there’s no way this island has enough population to sustain just continual zombie-making, but they also might be somehow reanimating skeletons to become zombies, or maybe it’s just something to do with whatever weird thing is going on with time. It’s easier to lose track of it now that he’s not having so much contact with the outside world. He’s guessing it’s something to do with the fog—and since that had come in with the sword (Joe Slater had confirmed that much), it coming back unlike a lot of the things after they’d dealt with the Park isn’t too much of a surprise, even if it’s unfortunate. At least the charm’s keeping him grounded.
        That being said, maybe that explains what’s going on in Tokyo. If they’re dealing with some sort of weird time-thing, too, maybe they haven’t even realized how long it’s been since whatever-it-was started. That’s probably wishful thinking, but he can hope.
        Alice mostly sticks to an extra stab at the end to make sure the zombies and occasional Draug don’t get up. It’s good training and practice for her, honestly. It gets her used to handling the knife and cleaning it and also making sure that the enemy stays down. She hadn’t really bothered before. Maybe she figured fire tends to be thorough enough. Which, usually it is, but that’s no reason to be complacent. It’s probably not as effective on, say, demons for instance. Or maybe they have fire elementals—or, uh, those, what was the word he’d seen in the League’s book—jinn, that was right. Jinn just seem like they’re associated with fire. He doesn’t know why, just that it sounds right for some reason.
        They’re really lucky that Nate doesn’t draw unnecessary attention when they finally spot him coming down the road; he’s usually a little better about being stealthy, but he seems to be a little paranoid, keeping glancing behind him nervously. Desmond actually signals for them all to retreat to a safe distance down the road so they can meet him further away and hopefully not get any unwanted attention and mess up all their hard work. “Hey, boss. That isn’t a Grim over there, is it?” He waves vaguely behind him.
        Desmond glances in the direction, and it honestly takes Eagle Vision to make out what the movement following him is through the fog. “I’m pretty sure that’s the stray dog. Uh. Katherine?”
        “I’m calling her Kiki,” Lydia announces, barely remembering to keep her voice down, and when he stares, adds sheepishly, “...My mom liked that movie.”
        If it’s a reference, it’s not too important if he doesn’t get it, and judging from her slight wince, maybe it’s better he doesn’t know anyway. It doesn’t seem like one of those occasions where he’s missing out on this particular movie.
        Of course, she then has to confuse him more. “You think I could get a spider as a familiar?”
        “I...don’t see why not?” Maybe a tarantula? Those things look kind of fuzzy and friendly, maybe?
        She shrugs, a little self-conscious. “I talk to them. Sometimes, they even talk back.” She...doesn’t appear to be messing with him, but that’s weird to blurt out of the blue. He’s distracted from trying to figure out what’s going on there by Rukh hopping onto his backpack and trying to tug the zipper down.
        “Woah, buddy, what do you need? A little hungry?” Rukh had eaten a little at the lighthouse in between trying to intimidate Krieg, but it probably hadn’t been enough. Rukh bobs his body a little when he starts pulling the jerky out, so he figures he’s right—except then his brat of a bird goes and grabs the entire package out of his hand.
        “Hey! You eat that now, it’s not going to be here for you later.” The raven pauses briefly, blue eye blinking as he considers the statement, and then he takes off—in the direction of the dog. Maybe he is taking his leader duties seriously and is trying to give a peace offering or a recruitment offer. Bob doesn’t look like he understands what’s going on, but he clearly doesn’t want to be left out of the fun, so he tugs free in a sudden jerk, trilling happily as he goes charging after the others, leash trailing behind him. It’s probably going to get ugly if he gets that wrapped around something or caught somewhere.
        It had been going so well too. Desmond vividly remembers this headache trying to form. This is Ezio’s Mentor Headache. Sometimes corralling Novices could be a little bit of a pain—rewarding, yeah, but also, a pain.
        Except—hang on. That commotion appears to be drawing the attention of a couple of Draug on this side, who after some conference that definitely sounds like speech, seem to have decided that yeah, investigating what the hell is going on is more important than continuing to guard...whatever. “Change of plans,” he tells them quickly, and Alice nods fiercely, clutching the knife tighter.
        They move quick, low to the ground. Lydia struggles a little, but then, she hadn’t been around to pick up on the basics from when they’d infiltrated the Orochi camp. She seems to be supplementing with a spell—which it seems like she’s practiced. That’s good, but he also kind of hopes it’s mostly self-preservation from when she’d been trespassing. The dog disappears around the edge of the rock outcropping, probably intimidated by all the sudden activity, but they don’t need to make it that far, not with the rocky terrain and slope. Just because they’d be seen if they just walk up to the house doesn’t mean they can’t use the area to their advantage. As long as they can keep their kills quiet, the other Draug probably wouldn’t notice them turn this into a slaughter-ground...and actually it doesn’t look like this is the first time it’s been used that way, judging by the dead Orochi hidden among the rocks. One of the zombies lumbering after a happily oblivious Bob looks like he’s wearing Orochi armor, too. Nate hadn’t been kidding about the Orochi, though honestly, what the hell were they thinking? It’s not like they have an army of clones, right? They shouldn’t be able to afford losing this many people any more than the Draug can raise an unlimited army of zombies with magic. Even the graveyards have to run dry eventually.
        Desmond can hope, anyway. In the meantime, the Draug aren’t exactly quiet as they get out of sight of their buddies and find themselves suddenly attacked. Alice using a vicious (but controlled) amount of fire and her new knife, Nate concentrating on healing them all and making sure the Draug don’t run, and Lydia getting some more practice with her hexes and clearly gaining in confidence, and Desmond mostly trying to keep notes for right after the fight and keeping them all safe. The sounds of their fighting isn’t enough to get others to come investigate, so it seems like they pulled it off. It’s mostly good, and Alice actually seems to be glowing under the praise. Possibly even literally. It’s hard to tell in the fog.
        Maybe the Draug fight among themselves sometimes. Maybe the others thought they were just killing off more human survivors and being noisy about it. Or maybe the fog is actually helping Desmond and the rest in a surprising twist and muffling the sound enough that the others just didn’t hear. It doesn’t seem to be a supernatural thing, for once, just...they went to a lower elevation, so of course it’s thicker here.
        It’s a little surprising that for once Rukh didn’t seem to want to join in, though from the way he flies down in front of Desmond, strutting around in an angry way and flapping his wings and maybe even flaring out his...uh, mane? Can ravens do that? It definitely looks more obvious than usual.
        “Didn’t go well, huh?” He reaches out and pets the feathers, and yeah, they definitely feel flared.Rukh lets himself be pet for a moment befor
        e he pulls away, flapping a little more. After he’s fully convinced that yeah, there’s absolutely no way Desmond could have possibly missed the fact that he’s irritated and wants the world to know, he reaches out to bite Desmond’s hoodie sleeve, carefully. They probably have a limited amount of time before there’s the equivalent of a shift change, but it’s also probably a good idea to know what Rukh wants.
        He doesn’t lead Desmond far—to a half-hidden bottle with a paper inside in the rocks. He then struts around a bit, clacking his beak impatiently, before demonstrating that he can’t pull it out by just sticking his beak in. Nate still looks a little spooked, while Alice re-collects Bob and Lydia pokes her head around to see if she can’t spot the skittish dog.
        “I’ve got it, just hang tight, Rukh,” he tells the raven. It’s easy enough using the Hidden Blade, though he has to be really careful not to tear the paper. When he opens it, the message inside is...odd. Alice sits down, content, while Lydia and Nate get closer, wondering what’s going on.
        “Rukh, we already know there are survivors. That’s why we came looking,” Lydia reads over his shoulder, a little confused, which honestly Desmond is too. Why had he been so insistent on showing Desmond this?
        Rukh nips him like he’s being dense on purpose and then blinks a lot, like that’s going to mean anything to Des—
        Oh. He’s trying to signal that Desmond should use Eagle Vision. Which pretty much confirms Rukh has something similar, if he was able to spot the bottle this way and thinks it’d be helpful to Desmond.
        Looking again, the writing shows up in red. That’s...new, but if he had to guess… “...This wasn’t written by the survivors, was it?” he asks Rukh softly, who lets his wings relax even as he shakes his head definitively.
        “But if it’s not the survivors…” Lydia begins, still confused.
        Nate finishes the sentence for her. “It has to be the Draug, some kind of trap to try to drag in more survivors. They’re intelligent and vindictive enough.”
        Desmond clenches one fist, holding out the other arm for Rukh to hop on. They’re probably too late to stop the worst of it—anybody surviving at this point either can take care of themselves or is sticking put or both. And it’s not like, even with their Park victory, they can take on a Draug army of this size. But they can snatch whatever the Draug want so bad out from under their blue lobster-human noses, and he can make Rukh another promise. “We can find all of these and destroy them after, okay?” He nudges the bottle with a shoe, and Rukh nods, climbing back up.