Modern times

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"If there is one message Gavin brings with him in his tour around the world, it is this: The Assassins are no longer alone."

―An Initiate spy, 2014.

Buzz Aldrin picking up the Apple of Eden on the surface of the Moon

Modern times refers to the period from the start of the 20th century through the 21st century CE. This era saw the overall decline of the Assassin Order and the ascendance of the Templars, including Desmond Miles' capture for use in the Animus Project and the commercialization of genetic memory technologies.

The Templar Order recovered several Pieces of Eden during the modern age. Among the victims of the search were Harry Houdini, Mahatma Gandhi, and John F. Kennedy. Although not a victim, Nikola Tesla lost his Apple of Eden to the Templars, an incident which motivated him to help the Assassins in destroying the Imperial Sceptre, one of the Staves of Eden. Additionally, the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon was in fact a Templar expedition to recover an Apple of Eden that was on the lunar surface.

Events

Russian Empire

The Tunguska explosion

At some point before June 1908, Grigori Rasputin stole the Imperial Sceptre from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Without the Staff of Eden, Nicholas could not control his people, ultimately leading to the Russian Revolution. It was unclear if Rasputin himself was a Templar, but by June 1908, the Staff had been taken to a Templar research station in Tunguska.

Before the Templars could take advantage of the artifact, however, a team of Russian Assassins led by Nikolai Orelov and their ally Nikola Tesla destroyed the facility. Only Nikolai survived the explosion, during which he experienced a vision of an Isu and heard several voices from the past.

In 1917 during the Russian Revolution, Nikolai was tasked by Vladimir Lenin to assassinate Tsar Nicholas II. Nikolai infiltrated the palace but spared the Tsar, only wanting to be sure that the Imperial Sceptre had been destroyed. Nicholas revealed that a shard of the Staff had been kept as a necklace worn by Rasputin. Seeking more information, the Assassin went to Krasnoyarsk and freed Rasputin's former disciple Khioniya Guseva from the asylum.

She informed him that she tried to kill Rasputin but he was protected by the shard he wore and with it obliged her to mutilate herself. At her request, Nikolai ended her life to stop her suffering. Nikolai later recovered the shard from Rasputin's grave, but chose not inform the Brotherhood of his actions. In December 1917, the Brotherhood, with the help of Soviet government, installed a Assassin and scientific community at Protvino. Among their number was the Assassin Sergei and his wife.

In July 1918, Nikolai accepted one last mission for the Assassins before leaving Russia: recovering a Precursor box once held by Ezio Auditore which was in possession of the Tsar's family, who were imprisoned by the Bolsheviks. In Yekaterinburg, Nikolai discovered that the Templars also sought the box and had executed the Tsar's entire family except for Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, who had the box. When Nikolai found her, his shard from the Imperial Sceptre and the box came into contact, causing a Bleeding Effect on Anastasia and imprinting her with the memories of the Chinese Assassin Shao Jun. Nikolai decided to bring her to the Assassins in Moscow to cure her.

Nikolai and Anastasia talking on board the train

The pair fled by train to Kasan to escape the Templars. There, Nikolai was betrayed by Leon Trotsky, who said that Anastasia's continued existence as a symbol of the Tsar's power ran against the revolution's ideas and could only be resolved by killing her. Nikolai was subsequently captured and interrogated by the Templars before Anastasia rescued him, and they both escaped the city by boat.

In Moscow, Nikolai entrusted Anastasia and the box to Sergei. At the Assassin bureau, Nikolai learned that the Assassins planned to use Anastasia as a test subject to recover Shao Jun's memories, despite knowing the process would likely kill her. Nikolai decided to betray the Brotherhood and save her from their laboratory.

Furious that Nikolai had impeded their plans by rescuing Anastasia from the facility, the Assassins sent a tank to kill him. Instructing Anastasia to run and wait for him at the Bolshoi Theatre, the former Assassin eventually destroyed the tank. As he had promised, Nikolai went to the theater and gave a false passport to Anastasia, who took the name of Anna Anderson. Nikolai then bid farewell to "Anna", who went to Germany to start a new life.

Assassins from the Bureau of Investigation sent to locate Nikolai

Abandoning the Assassins, Nikolai emigrated to the United States with his family. During the Palmer Raids of 1919, his wife Anna and daughter Nadya were deported back to Russia, but Nikolai evaded arrest with his infant son Innokenti and subsequently raised him in a secluded cabin. When Sergei found them in 1926, he threatened Innokenti to make Nikolai hand over the shard. In response, Nikolai killed Sergei and trained his son to fight, anticipating the return of subsequent Assassins.

Eventually, a group of American Assassins who worked for the FBI attempted to explain to Nikolai that they had provided his family safe return to Russia, claiming to only want information about his vision. Nikolai refused to believe them and initiated a struggle which left Innokenti the sole survivor.

World Wars

With the beginning of World War I, the Assassins were sent all across Europe to be at every theatre of war. Many British Assassins enlisted in the British Army. During the Christmas truce of 1914, one of their Assassins undercover as a doctor killed the Templar Erich Albert, a General in the German Army.

Lydia Frye and Winston Churchill in London

In 1916, the Templars installed a spy ring in London while most British Assassins left the city to fight in the war, leaving Lydia Frye as the sole Assassin in London. On behalf of Winston Churchill, she infiltrated a German Templar spy facility located in Tower Bridge and eliminated all the spies located there. Afterwards, Churchill informed her of a Templar going by the moniker of the "Master Spy" and his devoted followers who were all Instruments of the First Will members. Unbeknownst to them, the Master Spy was in fact a Sage.

Churchill asked that Lydia investigate the Master Spy and his followers, deeming it a pressing matter of national security, which he had been unable to broach with the government due to the lack of significant evidence. In exchange for her services, Churchill promised Lydia that he would do what he could for the enfranchisemet of women once he returned to parliament after the war.

Lydia eventually tracked down and confronted the Master Spy at his hideout; a struggle ensued, and the Templar used a stun grenade to disorient the Assassin, giving him an opportunity to slip away. He then made his way towards another stronghold, where he and his remaining followers attempted to burn documents containing evidence of Juno's existence. However, Lydia followed them and killed the entire group, including the Master Spy himself, thereby eliminating the cult's presence in London.

In 1917, Churchill became Minister of Munitions, putting him in charge of the production and delivery of tanks, planes, and ammunition to the front; his efforts were regarded as a significant contributor to Germany's defeat.

On 22 May 1922, the Templar businessman and industrialist Henry Ford began a seven-year hate campaign against Jewish Americans in a series of antisemitic pamphlets titled The International Jew, published by the Ford-owned, Dearborn Publishing Company and distributed through The Dearborn Independent newspaper.

On 11 February 1929, Henry Ford attended Edison's 82nd birthday celebration alongside fellow Templar Harvey Firestone. Following this, Ford was instructed by his Templar associates to send the Apple in his possession to Adolf Hitler in Europe, who would use it to start World War II. Ford, himself a noted anti-Semite, gladly did so, claiming "that kind of purge [would] be good for Europe".

The founders of Abstergo Industries

In 1937, Henry Ford and his fellow Templar leaders founded Abstergo Industries, which from that point on acted as a front for the Templar Order. One of Abstergo's first known operations was their search for a crescent amulet – a Piece of Eden – hidden in the sea near the Strait of Malacca. In the early 1940s, the SS Ourang Medan was deployed to retrieve the artifact, but the mission ended in failure when the ship and its entire crew mysteriously vanished.

In the 1930s, the Templars orchestrated Adolf Hitler's rise to power by granting him an Apple of Eden. Secretly, however, the war had been instigated to spread the Templar economic system of capitalism throughout a war-torn Europe, keeping the populace under the control of corporations, such as Abstergo Industries, which became the public front of Templar Order in 1937.

Although the aim of Templar hegemony was accomplished, Hitler began going against the Order's goals and faked his death by killing a body double in the Führerbunker in Berlin, in an attempt to escape with the Apple. However, the Assassins intercepted and killed him shortly after, though they failed to recover the Apple.

The Philadelphia Project

In 1943, Abstergo had an unclear involvement in the Philadelphia Project, as they gained data from the Animus Project's twelfth subject that confirmed USS Eldridge was briefly thrust into a future timeline. Fearful of temporal paradoxes, the company contained the artifact responsible to a secured location.

In 1944, the Templar agent Keith Scipione claimed the original Shroud of Eden for Abstergo Industries. That same year, Barthel Schink, an Assassin ally and member of the Edelweiss Pirates, was captured by the Gestapo. In prison he met a fellow Edelweiss Pirate, Miriam Kurtz, and tasked her to recover a Piece of Eden from the spire of the Cologne Cathedral and bring it back to the French Assassins stationed in Paris. She succeeded but the Third Reich reclaimed it.

Discovery of the Triple Helix

In the early 1950s, the American chemist and educator Linus Pauling theorized that DNA was build upon a triple-helix, after recovering Philip Syng Physick's lost paper on blood transfusions from the library Company of Philadelphia and using it to forward his own research into hemoglobin. At the same time, Clinton B. Rosenburg of the Chemistry Life Foundation reported Pauling's findings to an executive of the Templar corporation Abstergo Industries. Rosenburg himself was impressed with the triple-helix theory, and suggested the executive play a more direct role in encouraging Paul’s research. ^{[citation needed]}

X-ray images produced by Rosalind Franklin initially appeared to confirm his theory. However, this was because Franklin's DNA samples contained small traces of Isu DNA, and the true nature of the triple-helix was kept secret by Abstergo. After Rosenburg passed on Franklin's X-ray images to Francis Crick and James Watson, the latter two put forward a theory of a double-helix and publicly invalidated Pauling's triple helix theory. ^{[citation needed]}

Project BLUEBIRD

In the 1950s, the Assassin Boris Pash started to work on Project BLUEBIRD, a CIA initiative that, on a surface level, was tasked with researching mind control techniques to better interrogate subjects. However, this was only a cover up for Pash's real experiments, as he was researching the effects an Apple of Eden had on the human subconscious. He would later implement such mental augmentations and techniques in various members of the Brotherhood, including Julia Gorm.

In 1957, Boris Pash recruited the former Soviet hitman Alekseï Gavrani into the Assassins, operating first under his leadership. On 8 February, both men traveled to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC, where John von Neumann was. Though the colonel did not give many details, Gavrani knew Boris needed some privacy and saw it nessarcy to get rid of the guards. However the guards did not fall for his attempts to distract them and so he was forced to knock them unconqiouss. Afterwards Pash exited John von Neumann's room with an Apple of Eden, Boris claimed that John von Neumann had died of cancer, Aleksei left with Pash but felt uneasy, as if something wasn't right.

The Vietnam War

Bloodstone Unit

By 2 January 1963, Pash and his mentor, William King Harvey, had founded the Assassin taskforce known as the Bloodstone Unit. On the same day, the Assassin unit boarded a helicopter at the Tân Hiệp US military base. Their mission was to take part in a communication operation involving the CIA, United States Army and South Vietnamese Army. Despite the expertise of their pilot, Zenia, the cell was forced to perform an emergency landing when troops of the Viet Cong began firing.

While Julia Gorm dispatched soldiers outside, Gavrani and others were interrogating Cooper, a Templar who had infiltrated the US military. However, the door suddenly opened and Julia threw a straight knife at the neck of Muller, one of Cooper's fellow soldiers. The unnecessary violence angered Gavrani, but Julia quickly dismissed his complaints as the soldier would be "dead weight".

On their way to headquarters, Gavrani walked with Zenia and openly talked about his dismissal of Pash's methods of interrogation as Cooper's cries was heard through out the base, and he found it strange that Julia was only in her twenties but had just as much skills as them. He also believed that it was corrupting the Creed. Pash heard of Gavrani's disapproval of his methods and dismissed him from the Unit, as they did not need weak willed followers.

Kennedy's assassination

On 22 November 1963, three Assassins from Bloodstone Unit assassinated President John F. Kennedy while his motercade drove through Dallas, Texas, while Templar sleeper agent Lee Harvey Oswald was publicly framed for the murder.

Aleksei Gavrani confronting William Greer

In the confusion that ensued, the CIA agent and Assassin William Greer, who was undercover as Kennedy's driver, grabbed the President's Apple of Eden. Prior to the assassination, Greer had been secretly trained by Abstergo using an Apple of Eden. Furthermore, using yet another Apple of Eden, the Templars made a "phantom" appear on a nearby hill, creating more commotion. While Greer attempted to flee with the Apple, he was stopped by fellow Assassin Alekseï Gavrani, who wanted to disrupt Boris Pash's plans.

After a fight ensued, Gavrani stole the Apple from Greer and brought it to William King Harvey, unaware of Harvey's true affiliations with the Templars and his connection with Pash. Aleksei told Harvey that the colonel was behind the assassination in order to obtain Kennedy's Apple of Eden and that he had attempted to frame the Templars for the assassination.

Harvey agreed with Gavrani that Boris had become corrupt and that his Assassin cell was a growing problem, and acknowledged that they could not do anything against Boris since all cells acted independently from each other and only the Mentor could authorize internal operations against Pash. Without the Broterhood's support, Harvey convinced Gavrani to become his Agent QJ/WIN in order to stop Pash.

Aleksei Gavrani's hunt

By 30 July 1964, Gavrani tracked down the Bloodstone Unit back to their base on the northern side of Hòn Mê. After a distraction from the USS Maddox, Gavrani made his way towards the base but found it being destroyed by former teammate, Dhogura. Gavrani asked for Pash's location, but Dhogura attacked him immediately. However, in a small window, he stabbed Dhogura in the neck and then the abdomen before his former teammate fell over dead. Within four days, he tracked Pash, Zenia, and Doni rowing on the Red River.

Once the boats rowed to a narrower part, Alekseï attacked one of the boats and killed half of Pash's crew. While Doni fired at the wind, he soon held both Pash and his crew at gunpoint. Knocking down Pash, Gavrani attempted to kill him but Zenia pleaded their lives on the sake of the Apple and her unborn baby with Pash. Seeing Zenia pregnant, he soon was at standstill with a focused Doni. Tempers cooled further when Pash revealed a mentally-unstable Julia was after them. Working together, they all soon found a hut to sleep the night.

Julia killing Gavrani

Pash, Gavrani, Doni, and Zenia made their way to an abandoned hut and spent the night resting. However, Pash woke up to see Zenia and Gavrani talking and knocked him out with the butt of the gun. He argued with Zenia over the action and his distrust of him and Harvey. Suddenly, Julia attacked them, killing Doni and injuring Zenia. Pash guarded Zenia as Gavrani fought Julia. However, once Julia killed Gavrani, Pash prepared to fight, only for Julia to fall unconscious due to her injuries. Pash and Zenia talked about their options and relented to give Harvey the Apple's location for their lives and their baby.

On 4 August 1964, Pash sat besides an unconscious Julia as he later talked with Harvey. Within their conversation, Pash realized Harvey was a traitor and working with the Templars. He accused him of influencing his actions and threatened him in response. Pash was told that his work was revolutionary and was introduced to Dr. Warren Vidic, who was holding his baby. Pash was informed Zenia had died from her injuries as Harvey held his baby's life over him. Pash, angry, agreed to help them on their ongoing work on memory resurrection as the young baby, Nathalie, would be taken into Vidic's care. Pash would then surrender all his research on Project BLUEBIRD, which would serve as the pillars for the early Animus Project.

After Gavrani's demise and her recovery, Julia became the new Agent QJ/WIN for the Central Intelligence Agency. Rumors were that Julia's methods for torture were so extreme that death was a mercy in comparison.

Early Animus developments

In 1977, Nathalie Chapman learned the story of her father Boris Pash through Warren Vidic's Animus experiments. Realizing she was a Templar hostage, the 13-year-old Nathalie stole the Animus blueprints and gave them to the American Assassin William Miles before fleeing with the Apple of Eden that Pash had used as a bargaining chip to save the life of Zenia and hers back in Vietnam.

William giving the Animius blueprints to Medeya Voronina

With the Animus blueprints in-hand, William fled to Moscow, being pursued by Templar agents. After being rescued by Medeya Voronina, a fellow member of the Brotherhood who specialized in science, he bestowed her the blueprints and requested that she build the machine before the Templars. In turn, Medeya promised to keep William updated on her progress.

As William was about to leave, Medeya asked him how she would be able to contact him. The American Assasin told her they would use their present location, the footbridge between the zoo's old and new properties, as a meeting place, instructing her to come during full moon if she ever needed him. Still confused, Medeya asked him how he would know whether or not she had been there. William revealed there was another Assassin cell within the city, surprising the Russian Assassin, who had been unaware of this. As he was to meet said cell shortly, William then departed.

In 1980, the Animus Project officially started at Abstergo Industries, an initiative to explore the genetic memories of abducted individuals to locate Pieces of Eden. The project's head was Dr. Warren Vidic, who volunteered himself as its second test subject, after an unidentified descendant of the Assassin Aveline de Grandpré. During his personal Animus sessions, Vidic explored the memories of his 15th-century ancestor Geoffroy Thérage, the executioner of Jeanne d'Arc. During the early 1980s, the son of Aleksei Gavrani became another subject of the Animus Project.

A young Daniel Cross following his release by Abstergo

By 1983, Vidic had developed a more stable version of the Animus and used it to manipulate the genetic memory of a young orphan boy who was dubbed Daniel Cross, Subject 4. As Abstergo explored his genetic memories, he developed a life-long severe case of the Bleeding Effect. Using a replicated Piece of Eden, Vidic inserted a hidden impulse inside his brain that would drive him to kill the Assassin Mentor when the opportunity presented itself. The young orphan was then thrown out onto the streets, eventually being found by a couple that was driving by.

In 1986, Alan Rikkin led a Templar strike-team to capture Mary Lynch in Baja California, Mexico, intending to put the Assassin into an Animus to uncover clues to the whereabouts of an Apple of Eden once wielded by her ancestor Aguilar de Nerha. However, they arrived too late as Mary and her husband Joseph were aware of the Templars' arrival and she committed suicide to prevent Abstergo from kidnapping her. Mary and Joseph's young son Callum witnessed this, mistakenly assuming his father had murdered Mary, and escaped before the Templars could capture him.

In 1991, after more than a decade since she had met William Miles, Medeya Voronina was still unable to fully understand and grasp exactly what she had been asked to build and was hampered by a lack of resources in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. She and her allies understood very little about the Animus, with the few subjects that had used it emerging as madmen. As a result, most of her fellow Assassins failed to see the project's use, desiring to either weaponize it or abandon it altogether. Not wanting to create even more victims, she chose to be the machine's sole test subject, causing her sanity to be slowly frayed away by the Bleeding Effect.

The Great Purge

On 23 April 1998, Daniel Cross, struggling with hallucinations of Nikolai Orelov's memories, met the Assassin Hannah Mueller, who mistakenly assumed he was also a member of the Brotherhood and brought him back to her cell's camp in Philadelphia. After the Assassins learned about Daniel's connection to Nikolai, they officially recruited him into the Brotherhood and Daniel spent the following two years searching for the Assassins' Mentor, whom he felt compelled to meet.

Daniel Cross killing the Assassins' Mentor

In November 2000, after Daniel had proven himself to the Assassins, he was allowed to meet the Mentor in Dubai, who presented him with a Hidden Blade. Daniel immediately used the blade to kill the Mentor, almost on instinct, and escaped the facility in a panic-stricken state, being horrified by his own actions. Eventually, Daniel made his way back to the Abstergo facility in Philadelphia, where he requested to be put in the Animus to "be back with his family".

While the Assassins were thrown into disarray by the loss of their leader, Abstergo seized the opportunity to launch a global purge against them, using the intel gained by Daniel during his worldwide search for the Mentor. Countless Assassin encampments around the world were raided by Templar strike-teams, who killed most of the Assassins located there while the few survivors were captured for use in the Animus Project. The Assassins unaffected by the purge were forced to go into hiding, operating in small cells to avoid detection by the Templars.

Search for the Prophet's Codex

In 2002, Daniel Cross was officially inducted into the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order and given an assignment by Dr. Warren Vidic through e-mail. Daniel traveled to Moscow to find the "Prophet's Codex" in the library of Ivan the Terrible hidden beneath the Bolshoi Theatre. Attending a play there, Daniel quietly made his way through the theatre to find a hidden door which led to the library.

Daniel reading the Prophet's Codex

Upon entering it, he was spooked by an Assassin sentry who intended to greet him, causing Daniel to loosen his Hidden Blade. However, Daniel pretended to be the Assassin's replacement as sentry, and the man eagerly told Daniel of the Codex's location when Daniel inquired about it. Once the sentry left, Daniel opened the Prophet's Codex, written by Ezio Auditore. He read Minerva's speech to Vidic via his earpiece and noted the name "Desmond". Afterward, Daniel took the box containing the Codex and killed the sentry, before calling a clean-up team and leaving the library.

Early 21st century

In 2000, the Templars rigged the United States presidential election, installing their puppet George W. Bush as president. The Assassins, who hoped to install their own candidate, Al Gore, were unsuccessful in their endeavor due to their sudden loss of influence caused by the Great Purge. In 2003, Bush ordered a military invasion of Iraq by the United States, which was pursuant to a Templar plot to provide more work for his Vice President Dick Cheney's military contractors.

On 13 March 2003, Desmond Miles escaped the Assassin compound after years of growing disillusioned with his parents' stories about Assassins and Templars. His training proved to be useful as he was able to outrun and avoid the other Assassins who pursued him. Following this, Desmond traveled through "the badlands" and hitch-hiked for some time, until he eventually came across a person who advised him to go to New York City, prompting him to leave for the metropolis and blend into the crowds. Two years later, Desmond also met a woman with whom he unknowingly conceived a child.

In 2005, when the Assassin Lucy Stillman reached the age of seventeen, William Miles made the decision to raise her outside the Brotherhood. This was to ensure so she would be able to covertly infiltrate Abstergo Industries, and her ties to the Brotherhood were severed.

In 2006, a virus dubbed L-11 broke out in Africa. After three months, 96% of the continent's population had died, and even after six years, Africa remained essentially empty. This story was later alleged by Abstergo Industries to be a falsified account reported by Erudito, a hacking collective.

In 2006, the Templar scientist Sofia Rikkin was part of the delegation of Abstergo Industries touring the University of California in Berkeley with the company’s ‘’young innovators’’ recruitment program, where she met the talented Layla Hassan who was following a degree in electrical engineering. She was intrigued by the woman’s interest in technology, and as such offered her a job with Abstergo where she could work her way up to the Animus Project. That same year, Layla dropped out of the University and accepted the offering working for Abstergo, starting of first in the I+D division of Abstergo Fitness and later in the Research and Development division.

In 2009, the Templar scientist Álvaro Gramática developed the Data Dump Scanner, ^{[citation needed]} a software that worked in conjunction with the Animus to let users relive any pre-recorded memories, regardless of whether they were blood-related, through uploading the extracted memories from another person's genetic memory. The Templars used this software for Project Legacy to obtain information on the Assassins and Pieces of Eden, among other things, and in their Animi Training Program to train their agents. Memories used in the projects had been previously extracted from certain individuals by the company. When combined with the Animus interface, the DDS technology paved the way for the creation of Helix. ^{[citation needed]}

On 9 December 2010, junior professor Shaun Hastings released confidential information on Abstergo Industries to WikiLeaks; Abstergo quickly had the letter pulled, and Shaun abducted for interrogation. The next day, while he was being transferred, the Assassin Rebecca Crane hacked the onboard computer of Abstergo's van to show that it was low on fuel. When the van pulled over to rectify this, Rebecca helped Shaun escape, and introduced him to the Brotherhood.

At some time in or before December 2010, a woman dubbed Subject 15 was taken by Abstergo Industries to be placed in the Animus Project to research her genetic memories. At some point during the research Lucy Stillman became concerned with the woman’s wellbeing as she became confused and entered an accelerated state. This was because of the Animus becoming confused by the presence of the fetus in her body and thus the machine was attempting to read her genetic memory and that of the fetuses father simultaneously. On 10 December she sended her concerns in a email to Warren Vidic. Listening towards his assistance concerns, Warren Vidic agreed and told her that they had required all the valuable data that they needed and thus they will cease the operation and advised for Lucy to take the day of. He then sended an e-mail not much later to Steve Gibbs informing him of the need for "disposal units" at the labs as well as the drafting of a fake accident report by James Morse, implying the termination of the Subject.

In January 2011, protests against then-president Hosni Mubarak and his regime erupted in Cairo and other Egyptian cities. Layla Hassan, feeling the need for revolution, asked for a leave of absence from Abstergo and returned to her home country. She was present for the Tahrir Square demonstrations. Although her fluency in Arabic was minimal, she managed to become strongly involved in the country's revolutionary youth culture. She helped her new friends communicate via social media and also in hacking digital devices despite the widespread government censorship.

Around 2011, Owen Meyer´s father was part of a armed robbery at a branch office of the Malta Bank Corporation to pay of his gambling debts. He was found guilty by the court of justice of attempted robbery and the murder of a innocent guard. His incarceration and gambling debts forced his wife to sell the house to pay of their debt and forced her and her son to move back into Owen´s maternal grandparents house.

In 2011, Daniel Cross led a group of Templars on a raid. Once they arrived at a Assasin hideout, the group found nobody but Hannah Mueller, who had stayed behind to slow down the Templars and try to return Daniel to the Assassins. However, her attempt failed, and Daniel killed her. Sometime before October 2011, Daniel was involved in the DIA satellite accident, an incident that took place in an underground Abstergo facility beneath Denver's International Airport. As the Project Lead, Cross and his team were experimenting with the Eye-Abstergo satellite when Daniel fell under the influence of the project's Apple of Eden and killed everyone in the facility. Amidst the massacre, the artifact was ultimately destroyed.

On 3 October 2011, Isabelle took the Shroud with her to Mexico City, where she met up with Álvaro Gramática. She asked her fellow Templar to try and reactivate the artifact – a request he agreed to – while she searched her archives for more information about people that had previously come into contact with it.

In early January 2012, Isabelle was invited by Gramática to join him at an Abstergo facility in Paris to check up on his progress. She was unnerved to discover that he intended to shoot himself in a desperate attempt to activate the Shroud, as his work over the past few months had yielded little results. Isabelle reluctantly agreed and reacted with horror when an entity named "Consus" manifested itself through Gramática upon the artifact's activation.

In March 2012, violence erupted between Mexican border guards and undocumented immigrants from the United States. Despite hundreds of American refugees being killed and thousands more wounded, record numbers of Americans still continued to cross the border. On 3 September, the Global Weather Association abandoned the phrase "North Atlantic Hurricane Season", since occurrences of the natural phenomenon in the North Atlantic had become so powerful and frequent that coastal cities in the East Coast lived in constant fear of the storms. Three days later, the last American film studio permanently closed down, as rampant film piracy and competition from the video game industry had rendered the American cinema industry nonviable. Meanwhile, the USA and European Union continued to build jointly-owned oil platforms in the Weddell Sea, despite protests that the platforms violated the Antarctic Treaty System.

In June 2012, Isabelle Ardant arranged for Templar agent Violet da Costa to be Gramática's test subject for six months, feeling it was too risky to have the head of Abstergo's Future Technology shoot himself each time to summon Consus.When asked about his consciousness residing in the Shroud, Consus explained that he uploaded his mind into it to escape death but became trapped in his prototype in a forgotten lab. He expressed surprise at the advancements made by his descendants, who created the humans race. The conversation concluded with Da Costa expressing amazement after expiering Consus precense in her own body and mind and a desire for another discussion, to which Gramática eagerly agreed to and reloaded his gun. Later that same year, Ardant was credited as part of the development team for Abstergo Entertainment’s Liberation video game.

On 12 September 2012, the Canadian Assassin Janice contacted Gavin Banks from inside the Assassin hideout to ask for more Assassins to assist as her cell only existed out of two other members besides herself. Gavin promised to do what he could, but in that moment she heard one of her fellow Assassins scream, as she went to investigate, she was intercepted by a team of Templars led by the infamous Daniel Cross and killed.

Project Legacy

In an attempt to acquire genetic memories of notable historical figures throughout history, which were important to the company, Abstergo initiated Project Legacy to gain genetic access to study the past and find potential Pieces of Eden. Using the Data Dump Scanner software developed by Álvaro Grammatica, they explored the genetic memories without needing to be blood-related to the subjects. These memories were extracted from various individuals before being placed for review, often through collaboration with the company's Lineage Discovery and Acquisition department.

In 2010, the project was released as a social media platform by the nascent Abstergo Entertainment. The scheme could be likened to the company's Animus Project, though it dealt with more generic memories, while the Animus Project was designed for very specific subjects, such as those with an Assassin heritage. At some point in 2011, Isabelle Ardent, the head of the Operational Historical Research Division of Abstergo Industries, became responsible for archiving and managing the genetic memories of Project Legacy, which she considered a waste of her time and beneath her rank. However, while exploring the data of Project Legacy, Isabelle discovered that the company had acquired a Shroud of Eden during the Second World War. Due to recent setbacks the company faced, she saw an opportunity to ingratiate herself with Alan Rikkin and decided to attempt to repair the artifact.

On October 3, Isabelle took the Shroud to Mexico City, where she met Templar scientist Álvaro Grammatica. Surprised by her visit, Álvaro greeted her enthusiastically and inquired about her well-being. Isabelle shared her frustration with her assignment and asked if he could reactivate the Shroud. Álvaro gladly accepted the challenge, happy to know that the data gathered by Project Legacy wasn’t going to waste, as the project had been indefinitely placed on hold in 2012 due to security concerns caused by Erudito.

Clay Kaczmarek's capture

In 2010, William Miles, the de facto Mentor of the Assassin Order, gave Clay Kaczmarek the task of infiltrating Abstergo Industries.His job was to access Abstergo CEO Alan Rikkin's personal computer and uncover details surrounding the secretive "Animus Project". Clay's efforts yielded information on the project's research funding, the name of its lead, and the location of the new facility in Italy. Thereafter, the Assassins decided to plant Clay deeper into Abstergo as a test subject of the program. He was informed that there was a mole already inside Abstergo by the name of Lucy Stillman, who would aid him in his escape when the time came.

On 1 February 2011, Clay was captured by the Lineage Discovery and Acquisition team and inducted into the Animus Project as Subject 16. He was forced to relive the memories of his ancestors, particularly Ezio Auditore, for long periods of time. Though Vidic kept the true purpose of their genetic explorations a secret, Clay realized that their efforts were focused on locating a mythical "Apple of Eden"; when Clay inquired about the Apple, Vidic threatened that Clay could not reasonably expect to be released if he knew what they truly sought. Later, William contacted Clay and assured him that when the time came, Lucy would rescue him, as they were a team.

Eventually, Clay discovered the true purpose of the Animus Project—the release of the Eye-Abstergo satellite—and decided that it was time for him to escape. However, his over-exposure to the Animus caused him to suffer from extreme bouts of the Bleeding Effect. In addition, after conversing with Juno, Clay discovered Lucy's true allegiance to the Templars.

Following this revelation, Clay was convinced by Juno to deliver a message to his eventual successor, Desmond Miles. As he plotted his suicide, Clay created an artificially intelligent construct of himself inside the Animus by hacking the machine throughout the night. After sending one final e-mail to his father, Clay slit his wrists and used his blood to paint cryptic messages for his eventual successor to find.

New Fluoride disaster

In early 2012, Stephanie Chiu discovered that her father had developed the synthetic made drug named New Fluoride which was introduced into the water supplies of various Chinese settlements, causing significant damage to the local population, and in a small town in the United States. The American operation was partially exposed when the young activist Susan Drayton broke into the water supply of her home town in Prince George, British Columbia and stole a sample of the drug, intending to leak it to the press. ^{[citation needed]}

She was arrested while exiting the building only for the Canadian Assassin Janice to save and recruit her into the Brotherhood. Later, Susan attempted to steal a ship to chase Japanese whalers, but the Assassin leader Gavin Banks stopped her, intending to make the ship a mobile Assassin base. The two agreed to work together, with Susan as captain of the ship they dubbed the Altaïr II. News of Abstergo's operation in Prince George was still released to the public. Following this, documents were leaked on the 'Fluoride Enhancement Studies', resulting in Abstergo being placed under investigation by the American government. As a result, the company was forced to try and hasten the launch of Eye-Abstergo to 21 December 2012, in order to avoid the expected asset freeze. ^{[citation needed]}

As Stephanie realized Abstergo had never been apprehended for New Flouride's distribution in her home country, she fled to Hong Kong. Chased by Abstergo agents all the way, Stephanie eventually came across Susan and Gavin Banks, both of whom saved her from the agents and recruited her into the Brotherhood. She subsequently joined the Altaïr II's crew as the ship doctor. ^{[citation needed]}

The Fake Georgian Brotherhood

Around 2012, the Georgian brothers Akaki and Nodar Ninidze grew tired of the constant wars that plagued their home country and sought a way to end it. Inspired by the strong legacy of the Assassin Brotherhood in other countries like Russia, Syria, and Turkey, they founded their own "Brotherhood" to bring peace to their country, with Akaki fashioning himself as the "Mentor" of this Brotherhood.

Although the "Assassins" struck fear into their enemies at first, the Templars eventually caught wind of their actions. Believing them to be part of the official Brotherhood, they attacked them from many fronts. Effectively whittled down, Gavin Banks arrived to take in the remaining survivors and retreat to Pankisi Valley, where he relayed to the freedom fighters the secret history of the Assassin-Templar way. Eyes opened to the truth, the two brothers were inspired to join the Altaïr II to take the fight to a larger scale than their home country, leaving behind now an official and true Georgian Brotherhood.

The Animi Training Program

Warren Vidic talking to the recruits

In late 2012, the Animi Training Program was conducted shortly after the “escape” of Subject 17 by the Templar research scientist Warren Vidic at the Animus Project facility located in Rome, which housed a “dozen” Animi. The program was a secret Templar initiative to train Abstergo Industries employees in the skills they needed to fight against the remnants of the Assassin Order, such as combat and freerunning, through the use of the Animus, and to teach and induct them fully into the Templar Order.

During the first stage of the Animi program, subjects relived the lives of notable Italian Templars and non-Assassins during the Renaissance and used their genetic memories to face off against one another in various types of virtual training exercises. During the second stage of the project, subjects were transposed onto individuals who lived during the age of the Ottoman Empire, and more types of training were made available in various locations throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. In addition, Warren Vidic and Theodore Rizzo employed the aid of Templar Master Daniel Cross in the training of the agents.

Daniel injecting Otso Berg with a tracer

Eventually, one Abstergo agent, who had been personally recruited by Warren Vidic for the Animus Program, was promoted to Master Templar and became a member of the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order on December 6. The Templar agent, Juhani Otso Berg, was brought to a hidden office in Abstergo's Philadelphia facility, where he met with Laetitia England. There, she made him a Master Templar and inducted him into the Templar Order's Inner Sanctum but also had Daniel Cross inject Berg with a tracking device so they could monitor all of his movements.

On December 10, Juhani met with Warren Vidic, Laetitia England, Daniel Cross, and several other Templar operatives in the same office room in Philadelphia, where England revealed that Abstergo had located the leader of the modern-day Assassins, William Miles, in Cairo, Egypt. Soon after, Berg was dispatched by Warren Vidic with a team to capture the Assassin. Two days later, December 12, Berg led the reformed Sigma team in cornering William inside a museum in Cairo and successfully captured and extracted him from the city, taking him to Abstergo's facility in Rome.

After Berg's training proved successful, Abstergo began distributing their Animus technology worldwide through Abstergo Entertainment. Users of this technology were transposed onto individuals from the American Revolution. At the same time, Abstergo created the Geosimulation Workspace to study global war as a social process, allowing participants to experience the end of the Seven Years' War. Due to the success of stage three of the Animus Training Program, Abstergo Entertainment released a pirate-themed sequel where players were transposed onto individuals from the Golden Age of Piracy.

Desmond Miles' capture

Warren Vidic and Lucy Stillman overseeing Desmond Miles

On 6 September 2012, the media announced that Abstergo Industries was being investigated for manipulating a small town's water supply in order to test a synthetic drug referred to as "New Fluoride". This pressured Abstergo to launch their Eye-Abstergo satellite by 21 December 2012, which was secretly a mind control device powered by a Piece of Eden. However, the Apple of Eden originally meant to power the satellite was destroyed in the DIA satellite accident and Abstergo did not have another available.

To that end, Abstergo kidnapped Desmond Miles and took him to their facility in Rome. Desmond relived the memories of his ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, so that Abstergo could obtain a map showing the approximate locations of the Pieces of Eden on Earth. Shortly after, Desmond escaped Abstergo with the help of Lucy Stillman, who claimed to be an undercover Assassin to gain Desmond's trust. However, the escape was actually a part of Project Siren, a plan devised by Vidic to facilitate a quicker recovery of Desmond's genetic memories.

Lucy brought Desmond to an Assassin hideout and rendezvoused with Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. With the Assassins losing the war against the Templars, the decision was made to train Desmond as a true Assassin in the fastest possible way: through the use of the Animus 2.0, which was made from copied Abstergo blueprints. As such, the Assassins intended to take advantage of the Bleeding Effect by having Desmond relive the memories of an ancestor to take on his skills, this ancestor being Ezio Auditore. While reliving Ezio's memories, Desmond encountered Minerva, who warned that the Great Catastrophe from millennia past would soon recur. In order to avert planet-wide decimation, the Pieces of Eden needed to be brought to a series of temples built by the Isu.

Vidic and the Abstergo guards raiding the hideout

Soon after, Desmond and his companions were located by a team of Templars led by Vidic himself, though they were able to escape once more. The group fled to Monteriggioni, where Desmond continued to relive Ezio's life in order to locate the Apple of Eden that had come into his possession. Meanwhile, Lucy stashed a recorded copy of Desmond's sessions in the Animus at the hideout, which Vidic later retrieved.

The search led Desmond to the Colosseum Vault in Rome, which contained a secret passage leading to Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Here, the Assassins located the Apple of Eden within a hidden vault, and Desmond attempted to retrieve it through performing a short freerunning course. When Desmond touched the Apple, his body was possessed by Juno, and he was forced to stab Lucy in the stomach, killing her. Desmond then went into shock and slipped into unconsciousness.

After Desmond blacked out, William Miles' team arrived and had him placed him into the Animus. During this time, Desmond relived the memories of Ezio during the search for Leonardo da Vinci, where he subsequently discovered the Pythagorean Vault and received the coordinates that would direct the Assassin Order to the Grand Temple. However, as a result of this strain on his weakened psychological state, Desmond slipped into a coma.

Desmond awakening from his coma

As Desmond's coma bound him to the Animus, he was left to try and piece his subconscious mind together. After burying Lucy outside Rome, the Assassins flew to the United States while posing as a medical team from State University of New York. When Desmond had fully synchronized with Ezio's remaining memories with the help of Subject 16's virtual construct, he entered into a Synch Nexus and awoke outside the Grand Temple, claiming that he knew what they had to do to prevent the impending solar coronal mass ejection.

After the Assassins entered the temple and restored a power source, Juno's voice commanded Desmond to find "the key". To that end, Desmond began reliving the memories of Haytham Kenway, a British Templar during the French and Indian War who came into possession of an amulet that would grant access to the Grand Temple after passing its initial barrier. While taking a break, Shaun informed Desmond that they needed more power cores to boost the Temple back to functionality, and the team resolved to find them. Meanwhile, Desmond continued viewing his genetic memory, this time reliving the memories of the American Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton, Haytham's son with a Kanien'kehá:ka woman named Kaniehtí:io.

Desmond parachuting onto a New York skyscraper

On 16 November, Shaun located another power source in an Abstergo office in Manhattan. The team traveled there, and Desmond climbed the unfinished Freedom Tower to parachute into the office. He was confronted by Daniel Cross, but knocked him unconscious with the battery and escaped.

On 2 December, Desmond infiltrated a stadium in São Paulo, Brazil to recover another power source, which was being worn as a necklace by a business tycoon's trophy wife. Abstergo guards were present and searching for Desmond, so he blended with the crowd and stealthily made it to her balcony. However, Cross had already killed the woman and taken the artifact. Spurred into action, Desmond chased Cross, beat him and escaped with the power source via train.

Upon their return to the Grand Temple, Shaun immediately located another power source at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. William volunteered to retrieve it and told Desmond to stay behind and learn the location of the key from Connor's memories. Desmond was concerned for his father's safety, and his fears were realized when Abstergo captured William after he recovered the power source.

Vidic sent a message offering to trade William for the Apple, and Desmond returned to Abstergo's Rome facility. However, he refused to bargain, killing Cross and any Abstergo guards who stood in his way. He used the Apple to compel the guards into killing Vidic and then themselves, then left with William and the power source. Without the Apple of Eden in their possession, Abstergo put off the Eye-Abstergo satellite launch.

Desmond sacrificing himself

Desmond eventually found the memory he was looking for, discovering that Connor had buried the key on the Davenport Homestead near the grave of Connor Davenport, the Colonial Assassin's namesake. After digging it up, the Assassins returned to open the door inside the Grand Temple. Behind it lay an orb, the global aurora borealis device which Juno commanded Desmond to touch in order to prevent the Second Disaster. However, Minerva appeared and revealed they had been misled: Juno had sought to conquer the world and as punishment, her consciousness was imprisoned.

While activating the device would save the world, it would also free Juno and end Desmond's life. At Juno and Desmond's urging, Minerva revealed that if he did not touch the orb, humanity would survive the disaster and Desmond would be hailed as the next messiah. However, his words would eventually be twisted to serve wicked purposes, justifying abuse and oppression.

With only hours before cataclysm struck, Desmond chose to touch the orb, believing it to be the better choice and claiming the Assassins would stop Juno. Telling the others to leave, he activated the device, dying to protect Earth from the solar flare. That afternoon, Abstergo found the Temple and recovered Desmond's body, leaving his bag and broken Hidden Blade behind.

Post-Second Disaster

Galina consoling her twin sister Avdotya

In late December 2012, while in the Animus, a sudden power surge caused Medeya Voronina to experience a vision of Eve, which she took as a sign to redouble her efforts. While the Assassin scientist forced the remaining members of her cell into the Animus, her daughter Galina Voronina was told of an old Assassin meeting place, the footbridge that connected the old and new properties of the Moscow Zoo. On the instruction of her twin sister Avdotya, who had learned of the location from their grandmother's journal, Galina began to visit the bridge every full moon, in the hopes that she could contact other Assassins...

On 14 May 2013, Shaun, Rebecca, and William broke a six-month "silence" following Desmond's death, and a week later the three arrived in a coastal region of Peru awaiting interception by Gavin Banks. Gavin welcomed the trio aboard the Altaïr II, only to be informed the next day that William was stepping down from his position of Assassin leader and naming Gavin as his replacement. On 24 May, William also gave Gavin a book that contained everything he knew about the Order, tasking Gavin with rebuilding the Brotherhood.

William's first clue

On 25 May, the Altaïr II docked in Acapulco, Mexico, with Rebecca helping to devise version 2.0 of the Hephaestus Email Network. Two days later, Gavin discovered a clue in William's book containing a poem and a set of numbers written in different directions. On 29 May, Gavin ordered Shaun and Rebecca to return to the United States, as he needed some "eyes and ears on America".

On 10 June, Rebecca sent a message to Gavin remarking that Texas "is awesome"—confirming their redeployment in the United States had been successful—and bidding him good luck. On the same day, an unknown person reacted to a magazine article that the Tunguska explosion was caused by the Assassins, not a meteorite as per the official story. They also remarked that Nikolai Orelov knew about the event.

Abstergo Entertainment

Shaun and Rebecca visiting the remnants of the Farm, 2013,

On 3 September, Abstergo Entertainment's Montreal branch put out an ad to hire five new employees, one each in Product Development, Technical Support, Customer Contact, Office Support, and Management. After Abstergo released the postings, Rebecca sent a text message to Gavin, claiming she wanted to investigate. Three days later, en route to Montreal, Shaun and Rebecca traveled to the Farm and found it destroyed. By 11 September, the Assassin team composed of Gavin, Susan Drayton, and Eric Cooper discussed potential happenings in Osaka, Japan, as Gavin's informant there had gone "silent". Gavin then announced he would be heading to the Philippines to do some "shopping".

On 1 October, Emmanuel Barraza inspected the guns Gavin bought from the Philippine gun makers in preparation for a possible fight in Osaka. On 11 October, the day Abstergo Entertainment celebrated its one year anniversary in Montreal, Rebecca sent Gavin a text message asking about Abstergo Entertainment CCO Olivier Garneau and what he knew about Templars and Assassins. Rebecca and Shaun arrived in Montreal on 24 October and quickly heard rumors of a vial contained within the facility. Rebecca informed Gavin on 28 October that they had a mole within Abstergo helping them search, and they would find the vial in time. Meanwhile, two of the company's employees, Jennifer Tam and Philippe Chartrand, exchanged emails about a new Abstergo employee and the employee's involvement in the Sample 17 Project.

Shaun and Rebecca undercover at Abstergo Montreal

On 2 November, an unknown Initiate recovered the blood vial from Abstergo. Jennifer and Philippe continued to exchange emails about the memories of Bernard and Edward Kenway, and Jennifer mentioned that she had a crush on the new barista working in the lobby. Over several days, they continued to discuss the barista and the "Noob", but their conversations eventually turned to a string of hackings on Abstergo Entertainment's servers.

The hackings, perpetuated by the new research analyst at the behest of IT specialist John Standish, began as a means to retrieve information pertinent to Desmond; the data was then delivered to Shaun and Rebecca, posing as the lobby's barista and courier respectively. The hacking soon turned to data on Abstergo's internal workings, culminating with information about a board meeting in Chicago. Olivier subsequently disappeared en route to the meeting, putting Abstergo on high alert.

John Standish in the Abstergo Montreal Bunker, 2013,

As the hacking escalated, several employees were moved to containment cells in the basement of the Abstergo building, including the new research analyst. John gave the new research analyst the proper clearance to leave their cell, and instructed them to access the company's main server to remove all record of their activities. However, John's ultimate plan was for Juno—currently existing on the digital network—to possess the employee's body and take physical form. However, Juno was too weak to manifest and vanished, inciting John's rage.

In an attempt to make the employee a more suitable host, John snuck into their cell and poisoned them. However, Abstergo guards broke in and killed John before he could carry out his plans. John was subsequently blamed for the employee's hacking activities, clearing their name. On 2 December, Rebecca informed Gavin that their informant had been killed, and that she and Shaun would be leaving Montreal. However, the two then contacted the new research analyst, saying that they would be happy for the help if the analyst chose to keep hacking Abstergo Entertainment's servers.

In 2014, Abstergo Entertainment analyzed pirate Alonzo Batilla's genetic memory, in order to find the location of Olivier Levasseur's treasures, include the Fragment of Eden. They eventually noticed the genetic memory to be useless.

In 2016, Abstergo Entertainment created Identity Project. It centered around reliving the genetic memories of Lo Sparviero, an Assassin that was active during the Renaissance of the beginning of the 16th century in Italy, to collect information about the Brotherhood. Later that same year, Abstergo Entertainment acquired the genetic memories of the Spanish Assassin Aguilar de Nerha, and used his memorie as an expansion for the Identity Project.

Search for the Koh-i-Noor

Jot using the Brahman V.R.

In November 2013, Abstergo Industries launched the Brahman V.R. in India in an effort to access the genetic memories of Arbaaz Mir and Pyara Kaur, which they believed would lead to a Piece of Eden known as the Koh-i-Noor. Jot Soora, an employee of MysoreTech, was found to be a descendant of Raza Soora, Arbaaz Mir's servant who accompanied his master on many adventures.

One day Jot brought a console home, and upon using it, his fiancée Monima Das learned that she was a descendant of Arbaaz Mir and Pyara Kaur. Jot later discovered that the machine extracted memories from the operator's DNA and uploaded them to the Abstergo Cloud server, and relived some of Arbaaz Mir's genetic memories himself. Jot later spoke to his colleague, Siobhan Dhami, about the device, but claimed to be the descendant of Arbaaz Mir out of embarrassment about his heritage. He then traveled to Mumbai to see his fiancée at her film studio, but was followed and abducted by Siobhan and her brother Jasdip.

Revealing themselves to be Assassins, Siobhan and Jasdip forced Jot into the Brahman V.R., believing his genetic memories would lead them to the Koh-i-Noor. However, upon placing Jot in the device, they realized he had lied about his heritage. Just then, the Templar agent Juhani Otso Berg crashed the Assassin hideout to recover Jot Soora, attacking and killing Siobhan. In the chaos, Jot retrieved the Brahman device and plunged out of the hideout into the slums below. He then fled for the studio, where he and Monima were apprehended by Templar agents in a black van.

Jasdip attempted to free the couple as they sped down the highway, but caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle, which plummeted into the Bay of Mumbai. Jasdip managed to save Jot but Monima was lost to the bay's depths. Jasdip escorted Jot to the Assassin hideout in the Chor Bazaar, where Jot met another Assassin called Dinesh. Devastated by the death of his fiancée, Jot decided to relive Monima's memories in the Brahman V.R., even at the risk of exposing himself to the Templars. He revealed that Monima's ancestor was Pyara Kaur, which Dinesh realized could lead them to the Koh-i-Noor. Dinesh then downloaded Monima's ancestry data from the Abstergo servers onto Jot's mobile phone.

The Templars soon reached the hideout and Dinesh was killed in the ensuing conflict. While Jasdip fought the Templar attackers, Jot escaped with his phone into the crowded streets, where he eventually returned to the scene of the accident. He then played a video on his phone, showing his marriage proposal to Monima through her eyes.

Breaking and Entering, Paris

On 17 November 2013, Juhani Otso Berg broke into the Paris branch with da Costa to interrogate Consus. Da Costa attempted to spike Gramática's coffee with tranquilizers, however he had such an immunity to them that it had no effect. Gramática stormed into his lab to see the two about to contact Consus via da Costa, he then allowed them to continue. Berg then asked Consus about Juno and got only vague replies as response, Consus did however, mention The Grey.

Osaka, Japan

The destroyed Osaka base

On 3 December, another Initiate spy aboard the Altaïr II updated their database after successfully rigging the Hephaestus 2.0, and reported that they could now upload full reports to the Initiates database. The next day, the spy reported that Gavin and Emmanuel had found the Osaka Brotherhood's ruined compound. Using his Eagle Vision, Gavin determined that the yakuza, rather than Abstergo, were behind the attack. They then found the remains of Gavin's contact and former mentor, Kenichi Mochizuki; Gavin ordered his men to scout the area for survivors and begin searching out the yakuza perpetrators.

On 6 December, the Initiate spy reported that Emmett Leary discovered a ruthless branch of the yakuza, the Onmoraki-Gumi, had recently been wiped out by gang warfare. Six days later, the spy reported that even though the Onmoraki-Gumi was gone, it was still somehow running its front-end companies. Susan tried her luck at finding the location of their new headquarters in a yakuza-controlled gambling den but failed at her attempt. Emmanuel was more successful, both winning and tracking down the new headquarters.

The next day, the spy reported that the identity of the Onmoraki-Gumi's new leader was unknown, and crew members began placing bets on what the leader looked like. Gavin claimed that the only way to move forward was to confront the yakuza group directly. Meanwhile, on 16 December, an Initiate spy in Philadelphia uploaded an Abstergo file concerning the ancestry of Milton Jones, showing the latter's connection to the Assassin Adéwalé.

Kiyoshi impaling Emmanuel's hand

On 17 December, the Initiate spy aboard the Altaïr II reported that Gavin and Emmanuel visited the Onmoraki-Gumi's headquarters and requested an audience with their leader. The Onmoraki sentry, Kiyoshi Takakura, initially refused and fought with Gavin. However, when Emmanuel overheard other gang members mention the Brotherhood and saw that Kiyoshi bore a Hidden Blade, he stepped forward to intervene, injuring himself on Kiyoshi's weapon. He then asked Kiyoshi to recite the first tenet of the Creed, which he did successfully, and Emmanuel revealed the Assassin insignia on his dog tags. Kiyoshi offered a sincere apology before allowing them inside.

The spy reported that Osaka's new Mentor was a 78-year-old woman, Saeko Mochizuki or "Osoroshii Baba", who took over the Brotherhood when the yakuza attacked their compound and killed her husband. In retaliation, she led the Assassins to attack and destroy the yakuza, subsequently taking over the gang. She also told Gavin that she used the Onmoraki-Gumi to blend her Assassins into the city, noting that the Assassins and the yakuza had similar ways of working in the dark to serve the light.

Saeko was happy to be reunited with Gavin, but warned that the Osaka Brotherhood was still recovering from its battles with Abstergo and the yakuza. She also noted that Japan's restrictive gun laws kept them at a disadvantage against Abstergo's unlimited resources. As a tribute to the new Osaka Brotherhood, Gavin offered the guns his team had purchased in the Philippines and gave Saeko the contact details of their supplier. In return, Saeko gave him a new Animus headset that the Brotherhood had recovered from an Abstergo facility in Japan, believing that the war between Assassins and Templars had escalated into a new dimension.

On New Year's Eve 2013, the spy reported on the Assassins' holiday activities, such as cleaning the Altaïr II at Saeko's behest and partaking in homemade toshikoshi soba. Meanwhile, Kiyoshi and Emmanuel sparred for three hours before going to a karaoke bar. Stephanie Chiu filmed Emmanuel singing with her phone and he swore that he would renounce his stance on killing if she ever showed it to anyone.

By 15 January 2014, Gavin was satisfied with the Assassin presence in Japan and made the call to move on. Again, the team took their direction from William's book. Emmett asked Gavin why they didn't contact William for the answer, to which Gavin replied that it was their mission to find it out for themselves. He also told Emmett that while William was back in the Order, Gavin did not know where he was or how to get in touch with him.

Protvino, Russia

On 19 February, the Assassin team aboard the Altaïr II solved the next puzzle in William's journal which led them to Moscow. The Initiate spy remarked that a new puzzle would help them narrow down their target within the city. Emmanuel and Emmett traveled to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway, while the crew of the Altaïr II sailed to Saint Petersburg. With Emmett away, the spy accessed his computers and discovered a backdoor through an old Abstergo server to an Assassin lab in Protvino, just outside of Moscow. Abstergo appeared not to be monitoring the lab, or even know of its existence.

Galina meeting with Gavin's team

By 16 March, Gavin's team had made contact with an Assassin in Moscow named Galina Voronina. During their meeting, Galina requested that Gavin's team assassinate her mother Medeya, an Assassin scientist who was driven insane through the Bleeding Effect. Galina further explained that her mother had created her own Animus and forced the other members of her cell into it, and Gavin's team would have to fight through the mad survivors to gain access to the lab. Lastly, she told them that her mother claimed to be talking to Eve while in the Animus.

Emmett explained that it was impossible to talk to anyone inside the Animus as it is a one-way experience, and that there were few documented cases of encounters with anyone from the First Civilization, but Galina ignored him. She eventually agreed to help and believed Emmett could solve the problem using words, not violence.

On 20 March, accompanied by her new allies, Galina journeyed back to the Assassin lab in Protvino, which was overrun by deranged Assassins. She broke into the laboratory and despite requesting backup from Gavin and his team, she quickly single-handedly put down the crazzed, including her twin sister, using her two Hidden Blades. The team pushed their way inside the laboratory and found Galina's mother in the Animus, babbling about her "lost husband" and the color grey. Emmett looked at the wall-mounted monitors and saw Juno's face in the static; when Galina killed her mother, the spy saw Juno scream before disappearing.

Galina joining the team on the Altaïr II

Six days later, on 26 March, Gavin's team reboarded the Altaïr II in St. Petersburg and brought Galina along. Since she was the last of the Russian Assassins, Gavin asked her to join his team and act as his enforcer. Meanwhile, Akaki and Nodar Ninidze sent word to their contacts in Georgia, who would be armed by Saeko funneling weapons from the Philippines. The two Brothers also sended sended a message to the Assassin's to send agents to Russia to rebuild the Russian Brotherhood there.

Search for William Miles

On 10 April, the spy noted that Gavin had been in a foul mood since they left Russia due to the Brotherhood's losses in Brisbane, Whistler, Florence, Denver, Moscow, and São Paulo. Even though William had returned from hiding the year before, he had not reached out to the Altaïr II's crew. Taking the silence personally, Gavin soon brought his team together on 24 April and demanded that they find William.

The Altaïr II docked at William's secret bunker

Their efforts bore fruit a week later, when they located William, Shaun, and Rebecca on 1 May in a secret bunker in Norway. While Rebecca and Shaun were enthused at the reunion, William and Gavin were less so, and Gavin asked to speak with the former leader immediately.

Three days later, Gavin and William argued about the latter's recent behavior; Gavin asserted that William had been using him like a pawn, distracting him with solving the cryptic journal, while William reiterated that Desmond's death had put him in an unfit state to lead the Assassins. Rebecca cut their argument short the next day by informing the crew that she had discovered coded messages sent from the ship's computer systems to the Initiates Database. Her discovery quickly led to a crew-wide manhunt the day after to uncover the spy.

Eric protecting Stephanie

William spent the week interrogating the ship's crew—excluding Gavin and Galina—inside his "White Room". Upon learning that Dr. Chiu was the spy, he ordered Galina to kill her. However, Eric jumped to her defense, claiming he wrote the reports and Chiu simply uploaded them to the database. William, however, spared their lives, claiming that the Initiates seemed like a reasonable group, and the interviews had been useful in determining the character of the Altaïr II's crew.

Berg's errands

In February 2014, the Assassins Harlan Cunningham and Arend Schut entered a facility in Rotterdam and stole the Precursor box once owned by Shay Cormac, an Assassin who became a Templar during the Seven Years' War. Berg and Sigma Team fought to reclaim the artifact but the Assassins escaped.

In May, Berg was tasked to find the Ankh of Isis and went to Essen. He rapidly gave up, as his colleague Violet da Costa suggested that the Ankh was only a legend created by the Assassins to waste the Templars' time searching for a fake Piece of Eden. Later, Berg went to Long Bay to find the Observatory, but discovered that the Assassins had buried it two centuries before. The Templar decided to return later with an excavating group.

Assassins-Initiates alliance

After uncovering the Initiates' moles, on 30 May 2014, William planned to use the Initiates' Outernet and their people to transform them into the Assassins support operatives and potential trainees. On 16 June, Shaun entered in contact with the Initiates to recruit them in the Brotherhood under William's commands, and became their co-handler alongside the Assassin known as Bishop On 13 October, Shaun and Galina infiltrated Abstergo's Phoenix Project laboratory in Paris, destroying the facility and all the research and study on the Precursor DNA, as well as stealing data and melting their servers.

During the attack, Galina mortally wounded doctor Álvaro Gramática, the Phoenix Project leader, with a grenade, but the Templar was healed by the Shroud of Eden which was destroyed in the process. Sigma Team members Berg and Sorkin tried to arrest the two Assassins but Galina stabbed Sorkin multiple times and fled with Shaun. After this event, Laetitia England authorized the reformation of Sigma Team and Berg went to Montreal to help Violet with the combined attacks by Erudito, the Assassins, and the Instruments of the First Will.

Bishop contacting the Initiate

In November, Bishop began to recruit new Initiates through the Helix server. One of them was tasked to relive the memories of Arno Dorian, an Assassin who had encountered François-Thomas Germain, a Sage who lived during the French Revolution. Arno's memories were sent to the Assassins by Robert Fraser and Victoria Bibeau, two Assassins working in Abstergo Entertainment who had recently destroyed Abstergo's progress on Arno's memories.

The Assassins wanted to find Germain's remains before the Templars could in order to slow down the Phoenix Project's progress. The Initiate discovered that Arno had hidden the Sage's body in the catacombs of Paris and the Assassins decided not to continue the research since Abstergo wouldn't be able to recover a DNA sample. However, the Initiate continued reliving Arno's memories and discovered that the French Assassin had found an Apple of Eden in Saint-Denis and that he had sent it to Egypt.

Violet and Otso Berg at the Abstergo Entertainment offices in Montreal

That same month, Juno attacked Abstergo Entertainment's server with a virus hidden in the memories of Shay Cormac during his time as an Assassin. The employee who relived his memory and had unintentionally released the virus was tasked by Templars Violet da Costa and Berg to fix the server and to continue his research on Shay's past. Berg used the footage of Shay's memories to send a message to the Assassins, to show them their weaknesses and to warn them on the forthcoming hunt that Berg was going to lead.

However, the video ended up being a decoy used by Berg to make the Assassins run from Montreal, revealing their locations. After that, the employee was threatened with either joining the Templars or being killed for refusing, though they were also given time to think it over.

Hunt for Álvaro Gramática

In 2015, Harlan Cunningham and Arend Shut were interrupted on their honeymoon by the Assassin Bishop who issued all Assassins, on behalf of William Miles, to hunt down a high priority target, the Phoenix Project's lead scientist Álvaro Gramática. The two Assassins tried to contact the Georgian Brotherhood to ask for assistance in locating Grammática's secret laboratory, in which he had planned to recreate an Isu body with the help of the Shroud of Eden. However nothing was heard of the Georgian Brotherhood, which Arend considered worrisome.

The Indian Assassin Jasdip Dhami was assigned to find Álvaro Gramática's laboratory in Australia. ^{[citation needed]} However, unbeknownst to the Assassins, his grief over his dead sister made him defect to the Instruments of the First Will and become a fanatical and devoted follower of Juno. Ever since then he had gone dark.

Likewise, the Japanese Brotherhood's Mentor Saeko Mochizuki sent teams into China and both Koreas to assist them in the hunt for Álvaro Gramática.

Search for the Shroud

After the destruction of the original Shroud of Eden, the Templars searched for another artefact. On 25 September 2015, Abstergo discovered a new Shroud in London through the memories of Arbaaz Mir's son, Jayadeep Mir. However, the Assassins tasked the Helix Initiate with finding the Shroud before the Templars by reliving the memories of the Master Assassins and twins Evie and Jacob Frye.

On 24 October, Shaun and Rebecca infiltrated Isabelle Ardant's office in London to steal the twin memories and decided to wait for the return of the Templar, but they were ambushed by Berg and Violet. The Assassins managed to escape from the office and find an hideout in London. Because of Sigma Team's presence in London, Bishop sent reinforcements for the couple; Galina joined the two Assassins to protect them.

Galina Voronina and Otso Berg fighting

Sometime afterwards, the two factions discovered that the Shroud was hidden beneath the Buckingham Palace. The Abstergo team retrieved the precursor artifact but the Assassins decided to attack. Galina entered a hand-to-hand combat with Berg, defeating the Master Templar. Shaun killed Ardant but Violet escaped with the Shroud and wounded Rebecca, who had jumped in front of Shaun, taking the bullet meant for him. The duo was saved by Galina, who used a smoke bomb to eliminate the rest of Sigma Team and the group fled from the vault.

Later, Bishop revealed a footage from Gramática's new secret Phoenix Project Laboratory where it was shown that Violet had delivered the Shroud to Gramática, who pretended to use it to create an Isu body from scratch. The next part of the footage featured Violet talking to Juno through a screen, where it was revealed that Violet was an Instrument of the First Will and that the recovery of the Shroud was part of her plan.

The Initiate continued reliving the memories of the Frye twin during Jack the Ripper's Autumn of Terror and discovered his identity as an unstable Assassin. During this time, several Assassins demonstrated their disapproval of using the civilian-run Initiates, most notably, the former Initiate Eric Cooper and Jasdip Dhami. Heeding their advice, William Miles decided to stop using the Initiates' support in the future.

Following the events underneath London, Berg was called to Laetitia England's office. There, he was instructed to deliver the Precursor box to Álvaro Gramática in a top-secret facility, to which the scientist would send him the coordinates. Berg did as instructed, and after some inquiries, Gramática told him that he planned to use the box in the Phoenix Project, hoping it would help him better understand the Shroud.

The Discovery of Elijah

In October 2015, a woman brought her son Elijah to an Abstergo clinic in New York, which in secret collected DNA from the general population. As a result, Abstergo discovered Elijah's nature as a Sage and that he shared the patrilineal lineage of Desmond Miles.

Isabelle Ardant informed Álvaro Gramática of this discovery and he wished to kidnap the boy immediately and conduct a vivisection on him, Ardant opposed this, claiming the young Sage as her own project and that such a decision was inhumane. She instead planned to have Abstergo abduct the boy once he was old enough, and then put him into an Animus for fifty years so they could study his lineage. However, Ardant was later killed by the Assassins underneath Buckingham Palace before this plan could be enacted.

In December 2015, Bishop gave the Initiates additional memory sequences to keep the connection between them and Helix stable before William Miles ended the communication between the Initiates and the Assassins for the foreseeable future per the Rooftop Garden Protocol to protect them from the Templars.

Charlotte de la Cruz's recruitment

Charlotte de la Cruz

In late 2015, conspiracy enthusiast Charlotte de la Cruz was contacted by the Assassins for her ability to use Eagle Vision. After Charlotte illegally transferred money from the Malta Banking Corporation into Ms. Morehead's account to pay for her daughter's medical bills, the Assassins Galina Voronina and Xavier Chen met her in her apartment. Already aware of the Brotherhood's existence, she eagerly joined them, but within moments her apartment was stormed by three Templars feigning to be from World Share and seeking to kill them. In the ensuing battle, Charlotte lost consciousness and was brought over to Xavier's hideout in the Salton Sea.

There, Charlotte was introduced to Kody Adams and the Animus as the Assassins explained that they urgently needed her help. They revealed that the Assassin Joseph Laurier had apparently defected to the Templars in San Diego to inform them of an artifact hidden by his ancestor during the Salem witch trials. The Assassins needed Charlotte to enter the Animus and relive her ancestor Thomas Stoddard's memories to determine if Joseph was telling the truth and had betrayed the Brotherhood or if he was just baiting the Templars. Inside her ancestor's memories, Charlotte discovered there was no artifact but a girl who functioned as a conduit for Consus, confusing her ancestor as the Isu scientist used him to commune directly with Charlotte and deliver a series of cryptic messages.

Believing that Joseph was innocent, Galina and Xavier decided to infiltrate the Templar safehouse in San Diego where Joseph was being kept. As Kody and Charlotte stayed behind in a van outside the building, Charlotte started to ponder the strange messages from Consus and what they meant. Convinced there was more to the story, she convinced Kody to get her back inside the Animus to see Thomas' adventure until the very end. What she discovered frightened her, as David, one of the children who was with Thomas, was indeed Joseph's ancestor, meaning he knew where the girl was buried and that the two Assassins were walking into a trap.

Charlotte facing off against Joseph Laurier

Deciding to rescue them, Charlotte infiltrated the building and subdued the employee Brad to hide her presence. Using her new skills gained through the Bleeding Effect, she climbed her way through multiple shafts and found Joseph, who had already killed Xavier, gravely injured Galina’s leg and was preparing to finish her off. Charlotte tried to fight Joseph but was no match as he easily overpowered her. Joseph then explained that he betrayed the Brotherhood because his lover Christian had died on a mission overseen by Xavier, but he was still a "good soldier" and triple-crossed the Templars by planting a bomb inside the office. He wanted Charlotte to join him so she could not be corrupted by the Brotherhood, which she refused. As Joseph's bomb went off, Templar agents burst into the room and opened fire. Charlotte carried Galina through an air vent, which returned her to the maintenance room Brad was in.

Charlotte was shocked to find Brad had died, and after noticing his medical alert bracelet, realized he had asthma and suffocated because he could not reach his inhaler. She then dolefully carried Galina back to the van. Galina ordered Kody to inform their leader Gavin Banks to send a team to Salem, but Charlotte told her it was unnecessary, as Joseph never told the Templars where Dorothy Osborne's body was buried. As they drove away, Galina asked her how she felt after Xavier and Brad's deaths, to which she sarcastically responded she was happy.

Hunt in Mexico

Charlotte talking to her mother over the phone

By January 2016, the Assassins had fled to New Mexico to escape their Templar pursuers. In their hideout, Charlotte spoke to her mother over a burner phone before two "doctors" arrived who were paid in "blood money" to fix Galina’s broken leg. However, it turned out that the male doctor was in fact a Templar agent who was sent to kill them, forcing Galina to take him out. Interrogating the woman, she claimed that she knew nothing about her partner as he was new, before Galina knocked out the doctor to appease Charlotte's wishes not to kill her.

After the Assassins moved to a motel across the street, which was the last place the Templars would expect them to have relocated to, Charlotte told Kody that she was considering quitting the team due to feeling she was not cut out for the Assassin life. Kody reassured her that there was a reason she was there and that, due to her impressive performance, she might even help them find the hacker collective Erudito. Realizing they were the ones Consus had directed her to find, Charlotte had Kody hook her up to the Darknet to find them. After a night of searching she discovered a meeting was planned for the following week, but the location was password-encrypted. The sole hint was the question, "What does the cute Pishta say?".

Charlotte recalled that her grandmother's childhood nickname for her was "Pishtaco", apparently shared by an ancestor who lived during the fall of the Inca Empire. Waking Kody up, she asked him to place her in the Animus, where she began reliving the memories of the chasqui Quila.

After two hours spent in the Animus, Kody ended the simulation as the machine needed to be recharged, angering Charlotte. Galina then ordered the group to kidnap a Templar named Garcia-Lopez who had a connection to Joseph, but Charlotte objected believing her trip into the past to be more important than finding Joseph. Angered by this, Galina threatened to take away her Animus privileges and kick her out of the group. Needing to find Erudito, Charlotte reluctantly accepted the mission.

At Chapultepec Park, Charlotte attempted to follow Garcia but got spotted. When she and Kody tried to get close to her, she smacked Kody in the face and pepper-sprayed Charlotte. Kody helped Charlotte get back in the van to escape before the authorities could arrive and Galina accused her of failling the mission on purpose and endangering her own family for showing her face to the enemy. Charlotte then ignored Galina's order to watch the van and re-entered the Animus. Galina and Kody soon discovered her and pulled her out, the former being mad that she ignored her orders and the latter noting that the Animus' batteries were cooked. Fed up with Galina, Charlotte decided to leave to find new batteries.

At a train station, Charlotte contemplated whether the life of an Assassin forever on the runwas even worth it. She considered calling her mother to tell her she was coming home but was distracted by a man getting tormented by a thug and decided to step in. After saving the man, she felt a sense of accomplishment and decided to stay with the Assassins, though she would carry on in her way.

As she searched for new power cells, Charlotte noticed that someone had been following her the past three blocks and decided to hide around the corner to find out who it was. It turned out it was Galina and she needed Charlotte's help as Kody has been kidnapped by the Mexican Cartel and sent his left ear as proof.

Charlotte joined Galina in a rescue attempt at the cartel's stronghold at the Estadio Azteca, where Charlotte used her stealth skills while Galina took up a sniping position. As Charlotte made her way to Kody, Galina placed the blame for their current predicament on her, as the female doctor they had spared alerted the cartel, preventing the Assassins from leaving the city. After reaching Kody, Charlotte was ambushed by the cartel's leader Arturo Viera, who shot her in the right foot to force Galina to surrender, but Charlotte managed to break free of Viera's grasp so Galina could have a shot at him.

Soon after, a Templar strike-force arrived in a chopper, gunning down Viera and his girlfriend. The leader of the strike force was a Templar named Ortega Sanchez, who showed great interest in Charlotte. Suspecting that the Templars believed her to be very important to come after her, Charlotte pointed a gun at her head. She then cut a deal with Sanchez: in exchange for Galina and Kody's safety, she would provide them with the location of Erudito's meeting in three days. Sanchez gave her a day to find out the password to the location before striking her injured foot with his cane, saying it was insurance against a double-cross and threatening to harm her friends and family if she did not hold up her end of the bargain.

Florencia

Charlotte relived the memories of Quila one last time and learned the password was "Don Gonzalo Pardo", revealing that the Erudito meeting was in Argentina. Soon after, a worried Charlotte prepared to turn herself over to Sanchez, only for the cartel to attack the Templars, in part because of Galina having cut a deal with the cartel to avenge Viera's death. Taking a commercial flight to Buenos Aires, Charlotte spotted a man sporting a sign reading Don Gonzalo Pardo, who showed them to their Erudito contact, revealed to be her grandmother, Florencia.

Assassin-Erudito alliance

Over the course of two days, the Assassin stayed at an unknown island in Argentina where Erudito's hideout was located. They attended a meeting with Florencia held a video conference with the other leaders of the organization. Florencia insisted that Erudito had to take a stand against the Templars through becoming more active in the field and becoming more militaristic instead of hoarding information, which was opposed by Dewalt, who was more traditionalist and wanted Erudito to stay in the shadows.

When Charlotte suggested that they try to find a way to make everyone happy, she was informed by Guernica Moneo about the Phoenix Project and its ultimate goal of resurrecting Juno. When Dewalt asked for a full-membership vote of non-confidence, Florencia begrudgingly told him to send the message and that they would meet in an hour.

Afterwards, Charlotte questioned Florencia on what exactly her mission was supposed to be, as all she knew was that she was going to be looking for Consus. Florencia explained that they had originally thought that Consus had only spoken to an Assassin named Giovanni Borgia and only once when he was very young, but after analyzing the Animus data they deduced that it was most likely that Consus had communicated with Giovanni more than once and thought he had hidden a message. Charlotte then deduced that one of her ancestors had witnessed the encounter, which Guernica confirmed to be correct. After Florencia explained that Charlotte's ancestor had been with Giovanni twice, once in 1515 and a second time in 1516, Charlotte agreed to explore her ancestor's memories to uncover the truth but she had to wait until the conference was over.

The Assassins meeting with Erudito's leaders

Exploring the compound, Charlotte encountered a nearly healed Galina sparring with two Erudito agents, My'shell Lemair and Sheed. The two Assassins talked to each other and Galina protested against the idea of Erudito and the Assassins working together, claiming that she was no speech maker and that they already had a mission: to track down Joseph. Charlotte on the other hand believed the mission had changed to something much bigger and that it was stopping the Phoenix Project, which surprised Galina, who recalled how she and Gavin Banks had nearly died trying to do the same.

At the Erudito conference, things became heated between Florencia and Dewalt as the latter tried to convince the collective not to change their strategies. Charlotte tried to convince Galina one more time to speak but she refused as nobody would listen to her. Having had enough, Charlotte decided to speak up despite Florencia’s protest. She understood why Erudito was reluctant to accept Florencia’s plan, but explained that the only way to defeat their common enemy was for the collective and the Brotherhood to merge, a plan which Galina furiously objected to. However, Charlotte continued, insisting that if they worked together they could rebuild the Brotherhood and in exchange the Assassins could train Erudito's field agents.

Charlotte then made a proposal: she would go inside the Animus to find Consus for Erudito and in exchange the collective would find Joseph for the Assassins, describing this as a test of sorts to see if they could work together. After this, the votes came in and the majority favored Florencia's approach. As it had been decided that the Brotherhood and Erudito would work together, Charlotte went to relive her ancestor Hiram Stoddard's memories while Galina left with My'Shell and Sheed on a mission to Somalia, where Joseph had allegedly last been spotted.

Exploring Hiram's memories under Kody and Florencia's supervision, Charlotte witnessed Giovanni Borgia being "possessed" by Consus, who spoke directly to her. Referring to Charlotte as "the watcher, who soon become the shepherd", the Isu told her that, in order to stop the Phoenix Project, she had to "let the wolf dwell with the lamb".

Templar assault in Argentina

Upon emerging from the Animus, Charlotte was informed that the Templars had somehow found Erudito's hideout and had launched an assault. As Guernica walked into the room with Dewalt and a group of armed Erudito agents, he insisted that they had to follow protocol and wipe the serves clean remotely. Kody objected as he was worried what would happen if the Templars got their hands on the data first. He then tried to convince Charlotte to escape with them and asked her how many times she would risk her life for her grandmother, who continuously put her in harm's way. Charlotte, having witnessed Hiram betraying the Brotherhood and Giovanni, his "family", did not wish to repeat her ancestor's mistake and declared that, regardles of what Guernica and Kody were going to do, she would stay with Florencia.

Around the same time in Mogadishu, Galina, My'shell and Sheed traced Joseph to a ceremony attended by the Templar Zehra Okur, who had financed the mission that killed his boyfriend. He attempted to flee to a nearby construction site, where he was able to subdue Sheed and overpower Galina. However, My'shell managed to distract Joseph with a flanking strike, allowing Sheed to recover his gun and pull it on Joseph. Just then, an Erudito distress call reached the team, informing them that Erudito's base in Argentina was under attack. Determined to save Charlotte from the Templars and give her a choice to join him willingly, Joseph offered his help and his jet.

Charlotte standing over Kody´s body

At the Erudito complex, Kody placed explosives to blow up the server room, while Florencia uploaded the data on the Phoenix Project by use of a data box. When Charlotte saw the security forces were being overwhelmed by the Templars, she pulled Florencia out of the room, causing her to drop the data box. Kody ran back to retrieve it, only to be gunned down by the Templars, much to Charlotte and Florencia's shock.

Charlotte consoled the fatally wounded Kody in his final moments, assuring him that he had done well to save the data box. Afterwards, Charlotte was approached by Florencia, who stated that he was a good soldier for saving the data and that they needed to honor Kody's sacrifice and get moving. However, Charlotte blamed Florencia for Kody's death, stating that he would have still been alive if they had been at the boats. Charlotte then blamed herself for dragging Kody there, but was consoled by Florencia, who remarked that both Charlotte and Kody had done what they had to do.

At that moment, they noticed an airplane flying overhead, which got shot down and crash landed somewhere far away from them. Unsure if the plane belonged to the Assassins or Templars, they decided to go with Florencia's plan to go to the boats she had stacked inside the caves for emergencies like this.

A small Templar strike team moved out to the crash site to search for any survivors, and discovered the dead body of Sheed before being jumped by Galina, Joseph and My'shell. Galina hoped that the Assassins had received her coordinates before they crashed so they could be extracted. Realizing that any hope of rescue relied on taking out the warship that had shot them down, they headed towards the west coast.

After a roughly six hour walk, Charlotte and her companions were almost at the cave where the boats were stored. However, Charlotte was hesitant to approach the cave, suspecting it to be a trap. After she informed Florencia of this, she dismissed Charlotte's worries, stating that she had made sure they were not being followed and that, without phones or tech, the Templars had no way of tracing them. However, Charlotte then remembered that she had been stabbed by Sanchez back in Mexico, and deduced that the Templars had been tracking her and found the island through her. She used her Eagle Vision to explore the cave and tried to convince the group that the Templars were waiting for them there.

After Charlotte told the group that she was the reason that the Templars had found them, Florencia lost herself in an outburst, yelling that she did not complete the security scan and that Charlotte was an embarrassment to her as a granddaughter. Charlotte apologized for everything and made a plan for the group to split up, with herself acting as a distraction to allow the others to escape. Florencia, although still angry, wanted to stay with her granddaughter, but Charlotte insisted that it was too dangerous and that she had to make up for her mistakes.

At the west coast of the island, Galina, My'Shell and Joseph assaulted the Templar warship. The crew retaliated, and explosives on the deck were hit amidst the gunfire, effectively destroying the ship. Joseph was badly wounded and told the two women to leave him behind and to find the survivors. He then asked Galina to not let the Brotherhood corrupt Charlotte, with her replying that Charlotte would change the Brotherhood instead.

The Assassin helicopter coming to Charlotte's rescue

After Florencia, Dewalt, Guernica and the other Erudito survivors eventually met up with Galina and My'shell, they discussed the situation and the whereabouts of Charlotte, whom Guernica had been tracking, before Florencia interrupted them after hearing a noise. It was a rescue helicopter piloted by the Assassins Arend Schut-Cunningham and Kiyoshi Takakura, whom Gavin Banks had sent to help out after receiving Galina's distresss signal. After the group boarded the helicopter, they went to pick up Charlotte, who had been cornered by Sanchez and his men atop a cliff.

Using the helicopter's weapons, the Assassins gunned down the Templars before Charlotte jumped into the helicopter. As the group flew away from the island, Charlotte talked to Florencia, who apologized for her harsh words and claimed that she saw a much better version of herself in her granddaughter. She then advised Charlotte to take some time off to reflect on all the recent events and recover, but Charlotte claimed that she could not stop until the Templars were defeated.

The Brexit Votes

On 23 June 2016, the data mining company Newton Analytica was involved with the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, the company was paid a large sum by the Templar Agneta Reider, member of the Inner Sanctum and head of the Abstergo Financial Group, in secret to influence the Brexit votes, which saw the United Kingdom leaving the European Union in 2020.

Search for the Prongs of Eden

By late 2016, the teenager Owen Meyers had long become obsessed with proving that his father had been falsely accused of murder. Driven by a strong sense of justice, he wanted to use Sebastian Monroe's secret Animus to prove too himself and others that his father had died unjustifiably in prison.

As the appointment with Monroe drew near, Owen felt that he needed someone to stand by him, Owen asked his friend, Javier Mondragón, to help him prove his father’s innocence, and despite the fact the two grew apart of the many years, Javier promised him to be there. However, as the duo met with Monroe, the man told them that he couldn't help them as Owen had only access to his father's memories from before his own conception and hadn't any DNA sample of his father taken from after the robbery. As Owen’s frustration grew, Monroe offers Javier the option to use the Animus, and Owen suspected that this was the real reason Javier came along that night.

Despite Owen's disillusionment, feeling stuck and angered with Javier taking his place, he was still midly curious to the machine, they decided to go inside the Animus together and experienced a shared simulation of their ancestors memories who met during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. As they experienced their ancestors memory’s, Owen and Javier unknowingly witnessed Hernán Cortés using a Piece of Eden, to brainwash the ancestor of Javier.

Realising they had discovered a Piece of Eden, Monroe terminated the simulation and sent the two confused boys back home. The next couple of days, Owen had a feeling he was being watched and felt increasingly nervous as he and Javier found out that Monroe had completely gone of the grid.

Afterwards Owen noticed he was being followed by the stranger in a coat and decided to confront the man in the open, the stranger said that he worked for Abstergo and was on Owen’s side and to proof it he wanted to help Owen proof his late fathers innocence, which caught the young boy’s attention. However just mere moments later, the man got struck down by an Assassin’s hidden dart who was hiding from a nearby roof. Not wanting to stay around to see what happens next Owen escaped from the scene with the help of Monroe, who came out of hiding and would explain everything to him once they were safe.

Once at Monroe’s hideout, Owen reunited with Javier and afterwards got appointed with four other teenagers: Sean Molloy, Natalya Aliyev, and the siblings Grace and David Collins. Monroe explained them that he had worked at each of their schools and all of them had used his Animus before and that they were all instrumental to find a Piece of Eden that Owen and Javier had found in his simulation. He explained them The Assassin-Templar War, while using holographic projections to illustrations them the grand scale of the conflict. He also apologized that he had incidentally drawn them into the conflict, as he had believed he had fire-walled the Animus and had now made sure to double check.

After they explained them that the Pieces of Eden were always abused by both organizations and he had planned to hide it away again so their genetic memories had no relevance to their pursuers, the teenagers agreed to go inside the Animus again. They experienced a shared simulation of the New York City draft riots in 1863, and over the course of a single night they discovered the last resting place of the Piece of Eden.

Monroe thanked the teens for their help and offered them a ride home, he retrieved the Animus Memory Core as they made their way to the exit, discussing who they should drop of first. However, before they could make a proper decision they were suddenly interrupted by a Templar strike force that had found them, with the intent of capturing them alive. Monroe, pursued by Templars, reluctantly jumped into his van and drove of, leaving the kids to defend for themselves. Javier used his new found abilities and fought of a Templar agent, afterwards he jumped with Owen on Monroe’s parked motorbike outside and drove of as well, separating them from the others.

Quickly overwhelmed by the Templar strike-force, the Templars safely escorted Natalya Sean and the Collins siblings to Abstergo's facility called The Aerie, where they met Dr. Victoria Bibeau. She was able to deescalate the situation by trying to appease the teenagers many questions while trying to make them feel safe. As they explored the facility under guidance of Victoria, she tried to show them the many positives good things done by Abstergo. Later she was joined by her college, Isaiah.

Believing that Abstergo was not as bad as Monroe had made them out to be, some of the teens were pursued by Victoria and consequentially revealed that they knew of the existence of the Piece of Eden, displeasing Natalya. Victoria and Isaiah deduced they didn’t need to keep secrets anymore and explained they were Templars. Victoria went on to explain history of the Piece of Eden, that it once was part of The Trident of Eden, wielded by Alexander the Great, and after his dead was split up in three Prongs, given to his most loyal generals, since then the Prongs have ended up in various different hands across history. Politicians, religiouns, Assassin’s and Templar hands both, the current locations of the Prongs remained a mystery. She hoped the teens would help them reclaim the artefacts.

Isaiah also added that Monroe used to work for Abstergo Industries as a Templar scientist before going rogue, his field of expertise was to study the "Ascendance Event", when various bloodlines crossed through the centuries, being in contact with Pieces of Eden, as if guided by an invisible hand. They deduced the teens before them were part of a new and recent discovered Ascendance Event and were willing to compensate them if they worked voluntary with the Templars to discover it’s origin and purpose. They added the teens were in no way prisoners and if they wanted to leave they could do so any time they want.

Intrigued by their offer and the many benefits of working with the Templars, some of the teens disclosed the information on the whereabouts of the Piece of Eden, much too the satisfaction of the Templars.

After escaping from the hideout, Owen and Javier were debating about their options, before they were greeted by a man named Griffin, as the man pulls out the tracking device in their stolen motorbike, Owen recognized him as the Assassin who had followed him and Monroe yesterday.

Griffin convinced Owen to trust him, and the teenager in turn convinced his reluctant friend to work with the Assassins, explaining that Pieces of Eden are always abused and that Monroe may suffer the same fate. The teenagers revealed to the Assassin the location of the Dagger, in Grant's house. After Griffin prompted them to use Eagle Vision to see if he was truly trustworthy and after he promised to secure the Brotherhood's help in order to prove that Owen's father was innocent of the crime he was arrested for, he brought them to his safe house. Noting the boys' disappointment in their dilapidated surroundings, Griffin talked about the Great Purge that nearly drove the Assassins to the edge of extinction and how ruthless the Templars truly were.

After equipping themselves at Griffins hideout and receiving a call from Gavin Banks, who revealed that the Dagger was in fact a prong of the Trident of Eden and that the Templars knew of it’s location, they took a private plane to New York and from there drove to Grant's house. However, someone arrived there first and left with the artifact beforehand, the stash being empty. Before they left, three helicopters filled with Templar agents arrived to the house and after Owen destroyed two of them with an EMP grenade, they escaped.

Once they made it to safety, Griffin scolded Owen for disobeying his order not to engage the Templars, and threatened to renege on his promise if it happened again. He then reminded that Abstergo will not rest until the other Pieces of the Trident are found and that Owen and the other teenagers are the key to finding them. Offered a choice to carry on, Javier considered dropping out but Owen, determined to find the truth, agreed to help the Assassins.

Once Monroe made it as far as he could and recuperated, he berated himself for being so careless and vowed to rescue the teenagers from the Templars. To that end, he used a burner phone he purchased to call Cole, a Templar mole who owed him a favor.

Search for the Precursor manuscript

Sean Molly conversing with Isaiah

At the Aerie, Isaiah was keen on exploring the memories of Sean Mallow's ancestor, Tommy Greyling, as he believed his genetic memories held answers to better understanding the Prongs of Eden. Inside the Animus, they discovered that Ulysses S. Grant was not only just in possession of a Precursor box but also used it to decipher a Precursor manuscript to use the Prong of Eden more efficiently to win the Presidential election. Afterwards they decided to take a short break, Isaiah contacted Dr. Victoria over a videocall as she was still spending time away in London to help Simon Hathaway with his research. As they discuss the importance of finding the Manuscript, Dr. Victoria urged Isaiah not to take drastic measures as Sean is still recovering from his trauma's, and using the Animus could prevent Sean from accepting his body's new limitations.

However, Isaiah decided to still push boundaries. As a result. Sean's exposure to a prolonged effect of the Animus and Tommy's encounter in London with a Templar agent going by the name of Alice turned deadly, and he experienced a violent desychronization from the Animus and needed to be brought over to the medical wing of the Aerie. Natalya, angered by Isaiah's lack of care and him pushing Sean beyond the extremes, confronted him, but stormed out of the room afterwards when Sean decided he would go back inside the Animus, much to Isaiah's delight.

In the gardens of the Aerie, Natalya was comforted by David and Grace Gollins, as they, just like her, believed that Isaiah was using Sean and would "drop him like a fly" as soon as he was finished with him. However, they didn't want to say anything as they feared the Templars might keep a closer eye on them if they spoke up. So for now they need too play along.

After resuming his Animus sessions, Sean experienced Tommy's failed capture of Alice and the pages, letting Isaiah come to the deduction that the pages were presumably in Templar hands by now and dropped the search, much to Sean's disappointment. He searched out his friends, Natalya, David and Grace Collins and admitted that he was being used and describes his experience inside the Animus and how Alice escaped. Which let the teenagers deduce that something didn't line up.

The teens came together and spoke to Isaiah about their theory. They deduced that Alice was smart and grabbed the first steamboat back to America under a pseudonym and Tommy was most likely on that boat as well. Intrigued by their hypothesis, Isaiah allowed Sean to jump back into Tommy's memories. The experience confirmed indeed that Alice used a steamboat to travel back to America but got confronted on the deck by Tommy Greyling for the last time. Not wanting the Assassins to get their hands on the Manuscript and herself included, she destroyed the manuscript by throwing it in the sea and afterwards committed suicide to avoid being captured. After the experience inside the Animus, Isaiah thanked Sean for his intuition and gave the teens some time of to enjoy themselves, but in private he told to himself that the hunt had only just begun.

Turbulence in the Inner Sanctum

In October 2016, Simon Hathaway was inducted into the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order. Believing the Animus Project had not yet realised its full potentional, he wanted to explore history in a different aproach; Simon wished to explore memories of Templars to uncover lost secrets. He believed a historian and Templar like himself could see things others could not and offered to go inside the Animus.

Alan Rikkin granted permission to Simon when the Templar historian told him about his new project: to learn more about Jeanne d'Arc's personal Sword of Eden. Rikkin gave him a deliberately tight one-week schedule and brought Dr. Victoria Bibeau over from the Abstergo facility in North America to supervise Simon's mentel health and report to him as he dived into the project. Over the course of several days, Rikkin grew more and more disillusioned with Simon's research as prying too much into the history of the Sword, once wielded by the revered Grand Master Jacques de Molay, as he believed that learning more about de Molay's influence could lead into interference with his own ambitions for how the modern Templars operated.

As Simon started to become increasingly more aware of his moves being followed, he became more stressed and began anxiously searching his surroundings, wondering if Abstergo was following his every move. Eventually Rikken saw him and his research as a definitive threat and ordered Omega Team, a clandestine task force that answered solely to him and was kept secret from the rest of the Inner Sanctum, to kill Simon.

Simon was able to evade and even wound one of the agents with his new skills and used his knowledge of London's underground tunnels to escape his pursuers. He eventually presented himself to the Inner Sanctum with the now restored Sword of Eden, which inspired some of its members to re-evaluate how the Templar Order operated in the modern age. Afterwards, Rikkin privately set about activating Omega Team to prepare moving against the entire Sanctum in a contingency plan known as "Double Epsilon". However, he was preoccupied by events in Spain, so he left Omega Team on standby to await his return to London.

Callum Lynch's capture

In October 2016, Callum Lynch was sentenced to death by lethal injection. However, this was a ploy by the Templars, who faked his death and brought him over to the Abstergo Facility in Madrid. Under the supervision of Sofia Rikkin, he was forced to relive the memories of the Spanish Assassin Aguilar de Nerha in the hopes of locating an Apple of Eden. While in captivity, Callum joined other Assassins who were subjected to similar tests. Having acquired Aguilar's skills through the Bleeding Effect, he participated in a prisoners rebellion and escaped with Moussa and Lin.

Callum killing Alan Rikkin

Meanwhile, with Sofia and her father Alan having used Callum's memories to find the Apple in Christoffa Corombo's tomb, they travelled to Holborn Hall in London to convene with the other Templars, including the high ranking Council of Elders, to observe Alan's unveiling of the Apple. Unbeknownst to them, Callum, Moussa, and Lin infiltrated the crowd, with Callum managing to get close to Alan, kill him before all the assembled Templars, and reclaim the Apple. In the ensuing chaos, he escaped with the other Assassins to the city's rooftops, evading the police.

The Uprising

Charlotte fighting Dhami

In February 2017, Charlotte De La Cruz traveled to Hong Kong with her companion Guarnica Moneo to gather intelligence on The Phoenix Project inside an abandoned Abstergo facility in a skyscraper, with the aid of the Assassin cell leader Barnida Mitra. As Guarnica waited outside the building in a van, Charlotte and her team found themselves ambushed by unknown assailants with high-tech gear, who also seemed to escort a young boy who "recognized" her. To escape, Charlotte jumped out of the window and landed on top of the van, injuring herself.

As the assailants followed her and Guarnica across the streets of Hong Kong, they used their high-tech mobility and parkour skills to keep up with them. Charlotte fought off the rogue Assassin leader in the back of the van. Eventually, one of the assailants threw several throwing stars through the front window, cutting off several of his fingers and hitting him in the face, which resulted in Guarnica crashing the van.

All three of them survived. Driven by her sheer force of will and desire to know the truth, Charlotte walked toward the injured rogue Assassin and threatened to torture him while holding her ignited Hidden Blade close to his face. However, upon realizing her teammate was gravely injured, Charlotte elected to escape to a safe house to save his life instead and disappeared deep into the night.

The next morning, Juhani Otso Berg and Violet de Costa were called to investigate the former Phoenix Project site, where several Assassin bodies were found. On site, Otso was perplexed as to why a small unidentified army appeared to be defending an Abstergo archive against the Assassins. The Master Templar ordered Violet to bribe the Chinese police to leave the site as it was and retired to his hotel room for the night. Changing into his high-tech Black Cross attire, Berg returned to the skyscraper to conduct an investigation of his own. Assisted by Andre Bolden, who was acting as tech support, the Black Cross discovered evidence that both high-tech Templar equipment and Assassin weaponry had been used by the mysterious men who butchered the Assassins.

Inside a safe house, Charlotte was being patched up as she spoke over the phone to Galina, who was currently in London with Arend Cunningham, Kiyoshi Takahura, and My'Shell Lemair. She explained the situation over the phone, stating that the whole operation was a setup, but to what purpose she did not know, and she needed immediate extraction.

Charlotte and My'Shell talking in a public house

The following month, Charlotte met with My'Shell in London at a local public house, and they got some drinks. As Charlotte and My'Shell started talking, Charlotte questioned why My'Shell wanted to become an Assassin, citing the fact that she now looked at ordinary people around her and immediately calculated multiple ways to kill them. The Bleeding Effect had turned her into a living weapon, and she began to wonder, after having spent so much time inside her ancestors' memories, if her own life was just a simulation too—one that someone in the future was currently examining through her DNA.

In that same month in Montreal, Juhani and Violet da Costa continued to discuss the strange events that occurred in Hong Kong, with Juhani still confused about how Assassins encountered a better-equipped force in what should have been a secure environment. Unbeknownst to him, Violet da Costa was working for the Instruments of the First Will and was prompting Otso Berg to reveal all that he had deduced. Suddenly, their phones and those of other Templars around them rang, displaying the Black Cross symbol.

Knowing it was the Inner Sanctum summoning him to a nearby retreat, Otso Berg sended Andre Bolden to protect his secret identity as the Black Cross. Disguised as the Black Cross, and revealing his invitation, Andre was allowed entrance and was confronted by the Inner Sanctum inside the meeting room. The Black Cross refused to reveal his true identity, asserting his independence and informing the Sanctum that the Order had been infiltrated by a fifth column. When asked of proof by Laetitia England, Andre responded by pulling his middle finger to the Inner Sanctum and that ‘’this was his proof’’. Grewing feigned with anger at the Black Cross's insolence and disrespect towards the Sanctum, Otso Berg attempted to subdue the Black Cross. However Andre Bolden easily threw Otso Berg over his shoulder and warned the Inner Sanctum that they were all suspects. He promised to return and left the scene by deploying a smoke bomb.

Returning to his apartment, Otso was soon joined by Bolden who was still wearing his outfit. Thanks to their trick, Berg was now sure that for the foreseeable future, the Sanctum would stay impervious to the fact that the Black Cross was one of their own. Berg then revealed to Bolden that the Abstergo goggles he found in Hong Kong were from the company division in Europe, and decided to head to Berlin to investigate further.

In Berlin, the Assassin mole Heinrich Hart was intercepted by Galina and Arend outside the Abstergo Offices. The pair were seeking answers over their losses in Hong Kong and threatened Heinrich because it was his information that had led the Assassins into the ambush. Hart swore that he knew nothing of what had lie in wait for them at the Hong Kong site, and told them that the Templars didn't know what happened, either, with rumors that the feared Black Cross was investigating the matter. After demanding that Hart find answers or else they would come back for his blood, Galina and Arend left. Unbeknownst to the Assassins, Otso Berg dressed up in his Black Cross attire was hidding nearby on a roof, listening in on the conversation and confronted Heintich more moments after they left.

Otso Berg defeating Heinrich Hart

However, instead of being afraid by the Cross, the Assassin mole revealed that he had left a trail on purpose for Berg to follow, and that it was about time he arrived. Unleashing an electric whip, Hart attacked Berg but was quickly subdued. As Hart cryptically reveals his true identity as an Instrument of the First Will, he pulled out a high explosive from his pocket with a blast strength of 0.25 kilotonnes in an attempt to kill them both. Otso Berg barely gets to a nearby window before the entire building is exploded, and jumped into the river below.

Charlotte, Kiyoshi and Arend

Some time later, back at the London safehouse, Charlotte and the Assassins reviewed the media, where a large explosion in Berlin had dominated the headlines. Kiyoshi argued that killing 170 people in public does not really fit with the Templar ideals and suggested another faction might be in play. My'Shell revealed that she had a list of Pieces of Eden retrieved from the Hong Kong Abstergo lab and pulled up an image of the Koh-i-noor. Charlotte realized that it was the 'mountain glimmer' Consus mentioned in his message to her. With My'Shell convinced that it was present in the Spanish Civil War, Charlotte strapped herself into the makeshift Animus. The machine appeared to malfunction, with Charlotte seemingly trapped inside a simulation and unable to be woken.

Re-discovery of the Hidden Ones

In October 2017, as part of Abstergo's Historical Tactical Team, Layla Hassan and Deanna Geary were sent to Egypt to find and retrieve an important historical artifact. Layla discovered the artifact was in fact a tomb that housed the mummies of Bayek and Aya. Without informing her superiors, Layla used her own Portable Animus to relive their memories in order to prove her worth to the Animus Project, while Deanna monitored her vitals remotely from a nearby hotel.

From the memories of Bayek and Aya, Layla discovered the origins of the Assassin Brotherhood as the Hidden Ones and their millennia-long conflict with the Templars, as well as Isu messages left behind for her that spoke of a new disaster awaiting Earth in the nearby future. Meanwhile, Layla's refusal to regularly check in at Abstergo made the company send in Sigma Team to investigate the expedition in Egypt. Upon discovering the team had gone rogue, they killed Deanna but were unable to eliminate Layla, who used her new abilities to defend herself.

Layla and William making a deal

Later, Layla was awoken again from the Animus, this time by William Miles. Aware of her current predicament and her keen interest in the Animus Project, William offered Layla a place amongst the Assassins, where she could fight back against Abstergo and explore the Animus with more free reign. Seeing no other choice, Layla agreed to align herself with the Brotherhood and left with William via helicopter.

By the end of the year, Layla joined the Assassins as an official member, befriending several of her fellow members, including Charlotte de la Cruz, Arend Schut-Cunningham, and Harlan Cunningham. As part of her first Assassin mission, she and Kiyoshi Takakura went to Quebec to retrieve a relic which had belonged to the Recollects from the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec. Things went sideways when they were confronted by Abstergo, but Kiyoshi's past as a yakuza helped him save Layla from danger.

The Adlers

In November 2017, former Abstergo employees Alice and Thomas Adler where hiding out in Madrid after stealing an Animus and kidnapping Maxime Gorm to explore his ancestor, Eddie Gorm's, genetic memory to find Hitler’s Apple of Eden. They believed the combined power of the Apple and the Bleeding Effect could restore their daughter, Elisa Adler's, psyche as she was suffering from amnesia. However, despite their inquiry into the life of Eddie Gorm, they found nothing on the Apple's location. Before they could examine their next step, the door bell ringed. Alarmed, the couple hastened upstairs as they expected no one to know where they were.

Luckily, Maxime was left alone but distraught over his true identity, believing himself to be Eddie. He soon escaped his restraints and went upstairs to the living room. There, he introduced himself to Elisa and her doctor, Florent Carpentier. Distraught by the revelation that her parents had kidnapped someone, Carpentier revealed himself to be an Assassin and attempts to kill Maxime, but ended up killing both of Elisa’s parents in the process. Maxime overpowered Florent, whose real name was Tomo Sakawaga, and subdued him with a knife to his right eye. Quickly, he and Elisa left the home and hid from the incoming Assassins.

Resseruction Day

"Resseruction Day— a date that will go down in the annals of history of our secret war as one of the darkest for both sides. Yet the world won’t know anything happened."

―Charlotte De La Cruz

By August 2018, the Assassins Charlotte De La Cruz, Kiyoshi Takahura, Arend Cunningham, and Galina Voronina, aided by the Templar Master Juhanni Otso Berg, traced The Instruments back to Dr. Alvoro Grammatica's secret laboratory in Australia, where he was about to complete the Phoenix Project. Upon arrival, they split up into groups to give Charlotte the chance to infiltrate the compound through the air vents and increase her chances of assassinating Alvoro Grammatica.

Galina snipping Dhami

Otso Berg and Galina attacked the front entrance, where they encountered heavy resistance, leading to the immediate demise of Jasip Dhami, who was killed by Galina using her sniper rifle. Kiyoshi and Arend attacked the garage entrance; as they faced heavy artillery fire, they hoped the others had it easier. Meanwhile, Charlotte was dropped off in the middle of nowhere, desperately searching for the entrance to the air vents. After she crawled her way through them, she found, much to her dread, the Phoenix Project being completed and Juno having a body. She attempted to air assassinate her; however, Juno deflected her attack by using a form of ''telekinesis'' to block her assault and put her in suspension. Hovering above the ground, Charlotte was powerless to do anything. As Juno made her speech, she turned her back toward Charlotte to dress herself in her own robe, giving Elijah, who had escaped his room to help Charlotte, the opportunity to act. Together, through their bloodlines, they tapped into the Ko-Hi-Noor’s power and summoned its strength to aid them.

Furious, Juno used her newfound powers and knocked Charlotte out of suspension across the room. Under the influence of the Ko-Hi-Noor, she confronted a conjured Consus, who spoke ill of her bad nature. Angered by this and his continuous interference with her work, she yelled out and threw energy beams across the room in an attempt to kill him, indirectly resulting in Grammatica’s death.

With the building nearly collapsing, the Assassins and Templars wanted to flee; however, Charlotte was determined to see the mission through. She sprang toward her final target, who was distracted, and used her Hidden Blade to strike Juno down in the neck. As the exit was blocked, only Elijah was able to escape, ensuring that Aita’s story would end with him. Outside the compound, Violet de Costa confronted them, surrounded by the last members of the Juno Cult, demanding to know where her mistress was. However, before she could do anything, she was shot in the back by a Templar strike force that had been secretly called upon by Juhanni Otso Berg. Afterwards, he grabbed his remote detonator and blew up the building. Due to the utter destruction of the lab, Charlotte was vaporized by the explosion, and both Templars and Assassins operated under the assumption that Elijah was dead.

Galina, Kiyoshi, and Arend escaped the Templar forces and later held a memorial for Charlotte. Her death deeply affected Galina, who began self-medicating, while Kiyoshi was not allowed to return to active duty for some time. After the death of their deity, The Instruments quickly fell apart and disbanded, subsequently being hunted down by Juhanni Otso Berg and the Templar Order. By October 2018, they were completely eradicated and posed no threat to either faction.

Discovery of Atlantis

Layla and Victoria with the Spear of Leonidas

By October 2018, Layla Hassan had become the leader of her own Assassin cell, consisting of Kiyoshi Takakura, Alannah Ryan and ex-Abstergo employee and former Templar, Dr. Victoria Bibeau. Layla had become obsessed with Isu artefacts and culture by this point, and in her search for knowledge she discovered Lost Histories, a volume by Herodotos, that had been lost to time. The volume was buried alongside the Spear of Leonidas and Layla extracted a DNA sample from it, discovering the Spear had belonged to the Spartan mercenary Kassandra.

From Kassandra's genetic memories, Layla learned the location of the lost city of Atlantis, where she believed the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, a powerful Piece of Eden, to be hidden. Believing the artifact would allow the Assassins to gain the upper hand over the Templars, Layla led her team from their hideout in London to the coast of Santorini, boarding the Altair II.

Upon arriving at their destination, Layla explored the underwater caverns and found the entrance to Atlantis. Examining the tunnel leading to the ancient city, she found no way to access Atlantis and, believing Kassandra's memories held the answer, she returned to the Animus to continue exploring the mercenary's life.

Kassandra passing on the Staff to Layla

Once Layla had the necessary knowledge to open the city, she realigned several mirrors reflecting a light beam and the gateway to Atlantis was opened. It was then that she met Kassandra, kept alive for thousands of years by the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus. Having traveled the world and personally witnessed most of their exploits throughout history, Kassandra warned Layla that the Templars and Assassins represent order and chaos, respectively, and that either side prevailing over the other would result in the world's doom.

Declaring Layla to be the prophesied individual who would restore balance to the world, Kassandra requested her to destroy the Staff once she had fulfilled her mission with it, as well as all other Pieces of Eden, continuing Kassandra's life work. After Layla agreed, Kassandra relinquished the Staff to her and passed away moments later. Layla then returned to the Animus to synchronize with the remainder of Kassandra's memories.

The Trials of Atlantis

After discovering that the Staff held the consciousness of the Isu Aletheia, who had guided Kassandra throughout her journey, Layla began to communicate with her. Aletheia tasked Layla to access the Great Seal to Atlantis, which contained gateways to three simulations created by Aletheia meant to allow the wielder of the Staff to learn how to master its power. During this time, Victoria became increasingly worried for Layla's mental health due to her prolonged exposure to the Animus and decided to join her in Atlantis. Inside the Great Seal, Layla went back into the Animus to experience Kassandra's memories of the Trials of Atlantis and learn how to avoid being corrupted by the Staff's power.

Layla killing Victoria under the Staff's influence

As Layla continued to relive Kassandra's memories, her behavior became increasingly aggressive, which caused Victoria to forcefully pull Layla out of the Animus. This culminated in Layla accidentally killing Victoria with the Staff during an outburst. Horrified at what she had done, Layla was approached by Aletheia, who proclaimed that Layla might not be the true "Heir of Memories" after all, and that she needed time to reflect. Layla refuted Aletheia's statement, blaming the Staff for her actions though Aletheia reminded her that she dictated who the "Heir" was and not Layla.

Layla eventually convinced an apprehensive Aletheia to let her finish the Trials. Upon completing Kassandra's memories she was awoken from the simulation by Aletheia who warned her of a intruder, revealed to be Juhani Otso Berg. Layla confronted the Templar and tried to make a compromise with Berg to use the Staff to heal his sick daughter, Elina, but Berg warned her not to bring up his daughter and that there was no compromise to be made. Layla was forced to defend herself and easily bested Berg before impaling him with the Staff, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Layla crippling Otso Berg

As Berg passed out from his injuries, Layla approached Victoria's body, speaking to her softly before taking her earpiece. In doing so, she regained communications with Alannah and her team, informing them of what had transpired and requesting the team to pick her up from the throne room. Following this event, Berg was captured by the Assassins and interrogated for information, while Alannah and Kiyoshi lost their trust in Layla due to her killing of Victoria and elected to leave the team, leading to Layla being re-assigned to a new Assassin cell.

Notre-Dame incident

On 15 April 2019, the spire of the Notre-Dame in Paris suddenly caught fire, resulting in a significant portion of the cathedral being destroyed, which shocked the entire world. Gavin Banks secretly had an Animus housed inside the cathedral, which was seemingly destroyed in the fire.

Kō Risa's treatment

In 2019, the Japanese teenager Kō Risa began attending therapy at the Abstergo clinic in Yokohama to help with her violent tendencies. However, unbeknownst to her, her doctor Kaori Kagami was uninterested in helping Risa and only sought to uncover the secrets of her ancestor Shao Jun, specifically the location of her Precursor box. As Risa relived Shao Jun's memories over the course of several days, she began to suffer from the Bleeding Effect, which made her worry for her mental health. She also became aware of the existence of the Assassins and Templars and their ongoing conflict.

Kiyoshi talking to Risa and Mari

One day, while at a cafe, Risa and her cousin Mari were approached by Kiyoshi Takakura, who introduced himself as an Assassin and invited the girls to meet him the following day to discuss in private. After they accepted, Kiyoshi explained to them the dangers of the Bleeding Effect and how Dr. Kagami was a Templar who was using Risa for her own gain, but the latter refused to believe him and stormed off. Left alone with Mari, Kiyoshi told her about the Templars' far-reaching influence through their front company, Abstergo, and, understanding the danger her cousin had gotten herself into, Mari offered to help Kiyoshi save her.

Eventually, Risa came to understand that Kiyoshi's warnings were true and began to question Dr. Kagami's intentions. After discovering that the doctor indeed did not care about her well-being, Risa decided to end her treatment, only to be forced back into the Animus at gunpoint. Thanks to Shao Jun's skills, Risa managed to escape and overpowered Dr. Kagami, just as Kiyoshi and Mari broke into the facility to rescue her.

After shooting and destroying Dr. Kagami's Animus, Risa, Mari and Kiyoshi left the facility and were greeted by Saeko Mochizuki, the Mentor of the Japanese Brotherhood, who invited the two cousins to join the Assassins. Once they accepted, they were given the mission of searching for Shao Jun's Precursor box, whose whereabouts remained unknown.

A Modern Virus

In late 2019, Aliyah Khan, an English card shark and former dropout of the London School of Economics, traveled to the enclave of Chinatown, where she played poker with the Assassin Gavin Banks in an attempt to earn enough money to pay off some her of student loan debt. After losing to him, Aliyah sought out Gavin after the match and demanded to know his identity. Gavin gave her an address, telling her to find it if she wished to know more.

The very next day, Aliyah was contacted by the school's registrar and learned that her funds had been paid by an "alumni." After recovering from the shock and disbelieve she went to the school too meet with the school officials and registrar and learned that it was indeed true. She surmised the mysterious "alumni" could have been none other than Gavin.

Following the address given, she then went to meet Gavin, which led to a warehouse on the London Docklands. There, she met My'shell Lemair who let her inside. They then were joined by Gavin, who explained himself to Aliyah, telling her that he knew of her former business partner Jarrod Eubanks with whom she had established a crypto company in September. However he later betrayed her and fled with the company’s funds, making her severely indebted to her investors, among whom was her friend Bianca's own father. Gavin offered her an opportunity. If she was willing to help them, they would tell her where her old associate had hidden her money.

Gavin summarized the Assassin-Templar War for Aliyah and told her of her ancestor Omar Khaled, a member of the British Brotherhood of Assassin’s from the 1600s and apprentice to Isaac Newton. After some hesitation, Aliyah agreed to enter the Animus in exchange for the promised return of her crypto funds.

As the simulation begins, Aliyah stated that she cannot see anything but black, but she hears the sound of the street around her. She hears Omar save two beggars from the path of a horse carriage rushing past, but remained unable to see, believing something is wrong with the simulation she called out to get out of the machine. She´s then informed that Omar was in fact blind. She does not understand how she is supposed to see the inscription on a coin if her ancestor is blind, Gavin simply asked her to listen, in hope that the answer will present itself in due time. As the simulation continues, Aliyah's vitals seem to be elevated by her claustrophobia, something My'Shell worries about, Gavin however reassures her that Aliyah will be fine.

After some time had passed Aliyah is pulled out of the Animus and is informed by My´Shell that the Templars had found them and were on there way. Gavin questioned how she knew this, and My'Shell informed him that someone appeared to be monitoring the Animus. He then takes a look at the outside surveillance before he tells her that there is nothing outside, and desired Aliyah to continue her Animus session. Aliyah asked what the historical coin inscription is needed for, and is told that it is believed to be a fail-safe code to deactivating a new software program that Abstergo intends to use to influence the Dark Web – giving them control over the likes of weapons and trafficking deals. Knowing the risks of continuing, she elects to get back into the Animus.

Aliyah is later pulled from the simulation again, as My'Shell turned out to be correct and the Templars had been detected about a mile out. They frantically started packing items, but were forced to leave the Animus behind. Gavin revealed that there is a secret escape tunnel leading to the docks that was formerly used by smugglers, hidden under a bath tub within the building. Aliyah and the two Assassins slide into the tunnel just in time when a large smash is heard from the building entrance. As they walk through the long tunnel, they hear more loud bangs behind them, deducing the Templars were getting near them they decided to sprint to the end, which leads to a shipping container unit.

Looking at the monitor feed on My'Shell's mobile, they know that the Templars are searching for a hidden exit. A commando sneaks around outside the container, and the three of them hear him on the same comms as the other Templars. At that moment Aliyah struggles with her claustrophobia and drops the phone making a loud thud. The commando shoots the container lock, and as the door opens My'Shell slits his throat with her Hidden Blade, horrifying an already-panicked Aliyah.

After Gavin calmed her down, the group fled the docks and managed to hideout at the London Zoo. They discussed how to locate another Animus, but none are in London. Aliyah suggested an alternative - that they could visit th London office of ExploreDNA, an ancestry service run by Abstergo that scours people's DNA, located in Soho. Later Gavin sourced a van and dropped Aliyah and My'Shell off at the ExploreDNA office under disguise as cleaners. Inside the buding they managed to locate a DNA terminal, and Aliyah plugged in a VR Headset. Upon being caught by a security guard making his rounds, Aliyah screamed fear into him and tackled him to the floor and then tied him up, before returning to the VR headset and logging in the ExploreDNA terminal.

Inside the simulation she found herself in a limbo form of a loading screen, where she is confronted by the voice of an AI, calling itself Shaun Hastings. My'Shell promised she had now turned the AI assistant off, and the simulation begins.

Later, My'Shell pulled Aliyah out of the simulation, and demands she has a break to eat. During the break My’Shell tells tells her that Gavin has faked a gas leak to keep the street to themselves. Aliyah asks if the security guard has been fed, and is told that he has not. She feeds him, and has a short chat with him about where he is from – promising to release him after they have completed their mission.

When Omar and his companion Rose shared a kiss, Aliyah is transported from the memory to the limbo state of the Animus, and Aliyah heared the voice of the AI Shaun once more. The AI informed her that the ExploreDNA terminal is set-up only for family experiences and thus didn’t allow any display of sexual content. Because of that, they must wait for the romantic situation between Omar and Rose to be completed before the simulation could be resumed. Aliyah asked the AI if he could locate Jarrod Eubanks, and he stated that he will look into it.

The session was then abruptly ended by My'Shell as she realized what Aliyah was trying to do and she promised her that she could trust the Brotherhood and knew his location, that being that the Channel Islands. Aliyah ensuered once more vowed to find the coin for the Brotherhood, and re-entered the simulation.

Later Aliyah is awoken from the the simulation prematurely. My’Shell tells her that they have looked into Jarrod's background some more. Not only are his funds tied up in Abstergo Financial, but his personal banker is its CEO and member of the Inner Sanctum, Agneta Reider, one of Aliyah’s biggest idols before knowing the Assassins. Her staff also includes Aliyah's father – Fahad Khan - whom she was informed and assumed to be dead since she was 10 years old. Aliyah refused to believe this and returned to the simulation.

As they finally had discovered the inscription code, Aliyah called out to be released from the simulation. My'Shell opened a program on her laptop, and types in the code given to her but suddenly all the lights and power in the building cut out. An explosion rings loud, and everyone is knocked to the ground. Fahad Khan and several Templar soldiers stormed the building, and picked up Gavin's prone body. Fahad advised the soldiers to leave the two women as he assumed they were part of the company´s cleaning staff as they wear still dressed up in their uniforms.

After the Templars had left, Aliyah and My'Shell recovered to their feet. My'Shell confirmed that the man indeed was Aliyah’s father, though she cannot prove it as her laptop is evidently destroyed. Contemplating what to do, Aliyah suggested that they could use the Shaun Hashtings AI to assist them. They put the AI to researching Fahad Khan, and discovered that he is working on Project Lighthouse with Agneta Reider, and their mission being to take over the DarkNet – though apparently only Abstergo Financial is aware of this Project, making it a secret from the other high ranking Templars. They requested Shaun to locate Ageneta, and discovered that she is attending a public function on that day. Aliyah suggested a different strategy – steal something from her, and get her to come to them.

They traveled to the Four Season hotel where there was a press conference being held and made their way inside. Agneta is in attendance eating a salad, before she made her way to the bathroom, with a large bodyguard standing watch outside. Aliyah believed she could con her way in, but the body guard refuses entry. Agneta overheared the conversation and comes out the restroom, Aliyah feigns admiration for the CEO, and convinced her to shake hands as she claimed to be her biggest fan. Agneta accepted and shook the young womans hand, unaware that Aliyah stole her handwatch. As she walked away she realized her watch was missing and deduced that she left it behind in the restroom and decided to go back in an attempt to retrieve it.

Once inside she is confronted by Aliyah who blackmails her by sharing information on Agenetas shady and clandestine operations and thus demanded that they should strike a deal. She revealed she had the watch, and knows that Abstergo has Gavin. Ageneta´s bodyguard comes in to see what the commotion is about but gets quickly knocked out from behind by My'Shell. Despite being hit repeatedly by My´Shell, Agneta refused to cooperate with the two women. But after being threatened by Aliyah to have her duplicity revealed to her fellow Templars and being spared in exhange for information, she finally revealed that Gavin was being held at the Newton Analytica headquarters, one of her side projects, and that Fahad Khan is indeed her right hand man. My'Shell then respected the agreement and tasered Agneta, and makes her escape with Aliyah.

Aliyah and My´Shell obtained a car and drived north to Cambridge. My'Shell is convinced that they wouldn't hold Gavin at their offices, so she reactivates AI Shaun. The AI advised them that Newton Analytica had several buildings around Cambridge, but the most likely hostage location should be the newly constructed Isaac Newton Cambridge Museum. The two women arrived at the Museum by nightfall, and My'Shell gives Aliyah a Hidden Blade just in case she needed to defend herself.

Afterwards they sneaked inside the complex, and find Fahad and several commandoes torturing the Assassin. In an attempt to distract the commandoes, the Shaun AI deactivated the surveillance system, by activating nearby drilling equipment and detonating it. Distracted, My'Shell took the oppertunity and slit a few commando throats. Eventually she and Aliyah found their way into a private office and find Gavin who they freed from his bonds. As they grabbed a nearby laptop to start and insert the fail-safe code once more, they suddenely get attacked by Fahad firing bullets at them as he entered the room, destroying the laptop and nearly killing My´Shell by grazing her shoulder.

As she lay injured, Fahad stepped closer to finish the job, however Aliyah rushed to My´Shells aid and stood in his way, asking if he recognised her. He replied he did not, but she regaled her mother's name which causes him to pause. Taking the oppertunity Aliyah then shouted to AI Shaun to kill the lights. Claustrophobia kicked in for Fahad, as it is now clear to Aliyah where she inherited it from. Thanks to her time inside Omar´s memories, her senses had more finely attuned to the darkness, and Aliyah striked her father in the chest with her Hidden Blade. She requested the AI Shaun for the lights to be restored, and Fahad slumped to the ground dying. Aliyah vowed to him that she would never be like him, and voluntary watched him die.

As early morning rises. Aliyah and My'Shell watched the Cambridge rowers practice down the river Cam. Gavin arrived, and told them that the fail-safe code worked. The Abstergo software has been completely disabled. He thanks them both, but Aliyah is still slightly haunted by the first kill she had ever made – especially it being her own father. Gavin reassured her that she had likely saved thousands of lives by her actions. She asked what happened to her ancestor Omar, and Gavin said that he went on to get married and have a son, but died in 1703 during a raid as he attempted to free slaves destined for America. Gavin said Aliyah is a lot like him, and would like her to join the Assassin Brotherhood. Aliyah however rejected the offer, and said she wanted to find her own path in life.

Later that same morning, Aliyah arrived at her flat to find Bianca playing a video game. Bianca is happy to see her as she had been missing for the past three days. Aliyah dropped a bag on the floor, and hands Bianca a cheque – returning the full amount that her father invested plus extra as “interest”. Bianca thanked her and asked if she had heard that Jarrod had been captured in the Channel Islands, and been brought back to London for assault charges by a ´´rogue group´´ who publicly said that they would bring down other thieves like him and that they had said “Prince George sent them”. Aliyah felt relieved at the news, and recognized the password to the Chinese restaurant where she had first met Gavin Banks, and decided to visit it.

She once more returned to the poker table, but was distracted whilst playing, lost in thought. The dealer asked for her blind, at which point Gavin Banks appeared at the table once again along with My'Shell. Aliyah remarked that she heard about Jarrod and Gavin replied ´´that it must have been quite a group that brought him to justice.´´ Gavin revealed that apparentely there were other ties to other targets under Abstergo Financial, and the Assassins would likely need someone with street smarts to help bring them all to justice. The dealer asked again who was in. Gavin stated that he was in. My'Shell looks to Aliyah, and asked again if she was in. Aliyah paused for a moment, before she declared she was all in...

Tokyo extraction

Layla's mission in Tokyo

By 2020, Layla Hassan had been joined by Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane because of their similar experience with losing a teammate, when Desmond Miles, under the influence of an Apple of Eden, killed Lucy Stilman back in 2012. That year, the team traveled to Tokyo and Layla was reunited with Kiyoshi, who joined the team on an assignment. Layla had previously intercepted a message from the Abstergo facility in the city involving extensive analysis of Isu artifacts upon non-voluntary test subjects. While the main entrance was poorly guarded, the team elected to enter through the roof, bypassing the facility's security.

An informant within the facility left the group a note encrypted within an Animus. Upon obtaining and decrypting the note, the Assassins discovered that the Templars were performing experiments with a Staff of Eden. After Layla, the only one with detailed Animus experience and training, entered the simulation of the Venetian Assassin Bastiano da Mezzo, they discovered that their informant was his modern-day descendant, Dr. Kazui, and they moved to extract him. Intent on hindering the Templars' plans, the group secured the facility's DNA analysis room and destroyed Dr. Kazui's DNA to prevent Abstergo from exploring his genetic memories.

The group safely found Dr. Kazui before Abstergo could use him. Along the way, they also analyzed any data and documents they could about their experiments regarding the Staff. Disguising the doctor in an Abstergo guard's uniform, the four Assassins were able to exfiltrate him before Abstergo even realized what was happening. Along the way, however, the doctor got cut, leaving behind trails of blood. Returning to the premises, any trace of Dr. Kazui had to be wiped clean. They also stopped to erase his DNA data from the Abstergo database.

Before they could leave the facility, the Assassins were cornered by Layla's nemesis Juhani Otso Berg, no longer a paraplegic, and fought him as the building was engulfed in flames. After a four-on-one fight, Berg came close to killing Kiyoshi but the latter was saved by Layla, who was finally able to subdue the Templar, and the four Assassins escaped. This was the last time Layla worked with Kiyoshi, but despite their previous falling out, the two were able to part ways on good terms.

Finding the Wolf-Kissed

Layla observing the aurora borealis covering the world

By May 2020, the Earth's magnetic field, which had continued to increase in potency since the 2012 coronal mass ejection, had become strong enough to create several major electromagnetic disturbances around the world, resulting in a permanent aurora borealis over the globe. While looking for a solution, Layla and her team received a strange message from an unknown location, which led them to a Viking grave in North America dating to the 9th century.

Using her Animus, Layla was able to relive the memories of the Norse warrior buried there, the Raven Clan shieldmaiden Eivor Varinsdottir. Shaun also placed a mood stabilizer on Layla's neck, to ensure she did not succumb to the Bleeding Effect or the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus' influence again. Initially, Layla encountered some difficulty while trying to synchronize with Eivor, as two different data streams overlapped in the Viking's DNA would sometimes destabilize the simulation.

Layla solving an Animus Anomaly

While inside the simulation, Layla encountered ten strange floating symbols that, when touched, revealed a complex digital structure, with a data packet at its top. Each one of the packets included a small clip of video that, when coupled together, formed a memory that showed nine members of the Isu uploading their DNA to the human gene pool using the Yggdrasil device, intending to reincarnate themselves in the future. Layla also witnessed some visions in Eivor's memories that confirmed to the cell that the Viking was the late reincarnation of Odin, as the visions represented altered versions of the Isu's own memories.

After synchronizing with Eivor's memories, ending with her discovery of the Yggdrasil Chamber below Hordaland, Layla traveled to Norway to find the Isu vault. After finding a way through the debris of the chamber, Layla connected herself to the Yggdrasil supercomputer, dropping the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus in the process and becoming vulnerable to the lethal radiation present within the cave.

Layla Hassan's sacrifice

Layla meeting Basim in the Grey

Layla ended up entering the broken simulation of Valhalla that Eivor had experienced and eventually managed to access the Grey. There, she found the trapped consciousness of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a 9th-century Hidden One and the human incarnation of the Isu Loki, who revealed that he had sent the message directing Layla to Eivor's remains. Working together, the two were able to slow down Yggdrasil, which had caused the strengthening of the Earth's magnetic field, ending the anomalies affecting the planet. However, this unknowingly released Basim from the simulation.

After noticing Basim's absence, Layla encountered a being of pure light calling himself "the Reader". He informed her that there was a specific node in time that demanded the world to end, with the event that she had just stopped being an attempt. Because of that, he was analyzing different calculations, trying to understand what the Assassins could do beyond that point to stop another eventual catastrophe.

Layla suggested the analysis of a potential timeline in which the Second Disaster had not been stopped in 2012; perhaps the survivors could have learned something from it and would, somehow, prevent it from happening again. A hopeful Reader then hypothesized that the solution could be in those timelines that he had left aside, inserting them in his calculations.

Layla joining the Reader in the Grey for eternity

In order to read each one of the billions of calculations in time, Layla volunteered herself to stay in the Grey to help him, to which the Reader quickly informed her that if she disconnected from the device at that moment, she would still have a minute left to live before succumbing to the radiation in the Yggdrasil chamber. In part to atone for the people she had hurt and to redeem herself, Layla decided to stay with him and continue to search for a solution, in the process becoming a being of pure light herself.

From her new residence, the Grey, Layla sent one last transmission to her teammates Shaun and Rebecca. She told them not to come looking for her, noting the peril of such a task. Letting them know she had made peace with her choice and that she was safe, she explained her task and asked her fellow Assassins to look after themselves and the world they still had.

Basim Ibn Ishaq's return

A reborn Basim with the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus

Shortly after receiving this message, Shaun and Rebecca were met by Basim, who had used the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus to rejuvenate his physical body and be reborn in the modern world. After enduring the couple's anger at Layla's fate, Basim remarked how his brotherhood of the Hidden Ones had renamed themselves to the Assassins, and requested a face-to-face meeting with their Mentor, William Miles, to discuss action against the Templars.

After Shaun and Rebecca reluctantly left to bring William, Basim was left alone in their cabin. He visited Eivor's grave, remarking how, thanks to the Animus, he had access to Eivor's memories, which he hoped to use to find his missing children. Following an extended period of time in the Animus, Basim began to experience the Bleeding Effect, seeing an apparition of Eivor sitting by the campfire, where she smiled and nodded at him; a gesture he returned. While waiting for Shaun and Rebecca to return with their Mentor, Basim took to reading the books Shaun had gathered in his research of Norse culture and mythology. One such title, Viking Myths, recounted the tale of Loki and Baldr's exploits and Loki's eventual betrayal of Odin's son. While the events and setting differed over centuries of retelling, certain details remained the same, which Basim reacted to with an ambiguous smile.

Basim in the Animus, exploring Eivor's memories

Eventually, Basim finished reliving Eivor's memories in the Animus, realizing that the Viking's connection with her Isu self, Odin, was different from his own connection with Loki. At that moment, William remotely accessed his Animus simulation for their "face-to-face" meeting. As the Mentor was curious to learn how Basim had survived for so long in suspended animation, the latter agreed to help him understand while they worked together to further the Assassin cause.

Before they could begin, however, William requested that Basim provide the Assassins with a blood sample, to parse its genetic sequences through the Animus and allow the Brotherhood to relive his memories. Basim complied, musing that William was in for "quite a ride", before leaving the cabin to clear his mind. Outside, he had another Bleeding Effect-induced hallucination, this time of Eivor and Odin discussing the Great Catastrophe and that which had caused it.

After experiencing Basim's early life as a Hidden One, William was reluctant to share the genetic memories with the rest of the Brotherhood, fearing the wrong lessons might be learned from them. However, he later changed his mind and, believing Basim had many things to teach them, tasked one of his Assassins with researching the former Hidden One's memories.

Vejovis' attempted resurrection

In November 2022, the museum guard Joey came into possession of one part of Vejovis' dagger, a Piece of Eden. They were soon recruited by Colm and Alera, who explained that they were part of the Assassin Brotherhood and that they needed Joey's help to find the other half of the dagger, in order to keep it out of the Templars' hands. Joey complied and went into the Animus to explore the genetic memories of other individuals who had come into contact with the dagger: Cadmus, Khepri, Alva, Faisal, and Giulia.

Several of these individuals also came into contact with Vejovis himself, who had survived the Great Catastrophe by uploading his consciousness into the Grey and seeding his memories into the human genome so that his future incarnations would unwittingly work towards his resurrection as a corporeal being. After finding the location of the second dagger piece in an Isu vault in Venice, the Assassins traveled there, only for Colm to betray the group and reveal himself as a Templar double agent. Fortunately, he was killed by Alera, whereupon Joey combined the two dagger pieces to complete the artifact.

At that moment, a hologram of Vejovis appeared and congratulated Joey for finding his dagger before explaining that this was part of his plan to become corporeal again. Alera tried to attack the Isu but he made Joey swipe at her, revealing that Joey was one of his reincarnations and that by reliving the memories of his other Sages and completing his dagger, Vejovis' consciousness would soon bleed into Joey's. To stop this process from happening, Joey separated the blades, shattering one half of the dagger, and destroying the part of the pedestal that the hologram was coming from.

After Vejovis' hologram glitched out of existence, Joey and Alera decided to leave before the Templars got there, with Joey taking the intact half of the dagger. Joey then asked if they had managed to kill Vejovis, and Alera remarked that she was uncertain. At that moment, Joey's phone received a message from their boss at the museum informing them of their firing. Alera offered Joey a place among the Assassins and the latter accepted, becoming an official member of the Brotherhood.

The Nexus Eye

In 2023, an elite hacker received a mission from Shaun Hashtings and Rebecca Crane to infiltrate Abstergo's Nexus Eye Project, led by Abstergo's chief of cybersecurity Dominika Wilk. The initiative aimed to extract code fragments from the Antikythera mechanism, merging them with the Animus to create a computer with the power to predict and influence human behavior. Once infiltrated, Dominika tasked the hacker to relive the genetic memories of a number of Assassin-affiliated figures at key points in history: Kassandra, Ezio Auditore, and Ratonhnhaké:ton.

With Dominika unaware of the mole in her team, the hacker strategically placed logic bombs disguised as beacons inside the memories to thwart Abstergo's fragment retrieval. Upon completing Ezio's memories, Dominika became aware of the mole in her organization and exposed them as a spy, but they were saved by Shaun and Rebecca. The hacker then delved into the last memories of Kassandra and Ratonhnhaké:ton while evading Dominika and her forces, culminating in a pursuit where the hacker was forced to fight the Templar forces in a corrupted memory to escape after placing the last logic bomb and dismantling the Nexus Eye. Despite this victory, Dominika was able to track down the hacker and sent an Abstergo team to capture them.

Noa Kim's abduction

Noa kidnapped by Abstergo agents

That same year, Noa Kim, a Korean-American college student, was abducted by Abstergo agents after being lured with a vacation prize trip to Macau, China. Taken to the Exitus research vessel, Noa was forced to relive the memories of his ancestor Edward Kenway under the supervision of Doctor Shimazu Sei, who had been tasked to search for a Piece of Eden in order to salvage relations between the Templars and her family, the Shimazu clan.

At first, Noa refused to do as he was told, so Sei struck a deal with him, promising him his freedom in exchange for his cooperation. The two then began to bond over the course of their Animus sessions, with Sei telling Noa about her views of the Assassins, whom she regarded as self-righteous criminals. However, Noa decided to learn the truth for himself and became interested to uncover his family's roots through Edward's memories.

After running into a roadblock and being unable to continue tracking Edward's memories, Noa told Sei to take him to Macau, claiming to know where the Assassin had gone next. Sei reluctantly conceded and the pair traveled to the A-Ma Cultural Village, where Noa retrieved an old ledger containing information about Edward's later activities. However, Sei and her bodyguards came under attack by several thugs and Noa was approached by two agents who claimed they were there to rescue him. Refusing to leave with them, Noa went to protect Sei and returned with her to the Exitus.

Following several more Animus sessions, Noa and Sei ran into another roadblock and the Exitus had to relocate to Cebu in the Philippines to physically trace Edward's footsteps. While exploring the city in search of leads, the Abstergo convoy containing Noa, Sei and the latter's bodyguard Yuki came under attack by Doom Eagle, a criminal organization led by the Assassin Nathan Zhang, who worked with the Zhawang Corporation to try and rescue Noa.

Noa facing off against Nathan Zhang

Escaping the ambush, Noa, Sei and Yuki headed to a nearby shopping mall, though they were again attacked by Doom Eagle and Yuki was injured in the subsequent shootout. Noa and Sei fled into the mall, where the former protected Sei from the Doom Eagle thugs pursuing them. However, they were eventually cornered by Nathan, who challenged Noa to a fight after the young man refused to come with him.

During their brawl, Nathan informed Noa that his father, who had abandoned him during his childhood, was an Assassin and had done so to escape the Great Purge. However, Noa refused to believe him and continued to fight until he was eventually subdued by Nathan. As Noa still refused to give up and with Sigma Team closing in, Nathan decided to respect Noa's wishes to follow his own path and left after giving him an old sea log belonging to Edward's companion Mustafa.

Using the information from the sea log, Noa and Sei were able to continue tracking Edward's memories once they returned to the Exitus. Before they did so, however, Noa decided to ask Sei if what Nathan had said about his father was true, and the doctor responded that it was impossible to determine if Noa's father had been among the Great Purge's casualties or even a member of the Brotherhood. This answer satisfied Noa, who claimed that he did not care what had happened to his father, as he had still abandoned him regardless of the reason.

Eventually, Edward's memories revealed the whereabouts of the crescent amulet hidden in the Strait of Malacca, though because of his long Animus sessions, Noa began to succumb to the Bleeding Effect. Sei contacted her superiors to update them on the situation, only to be taken aback when they ordered Noa's termination, believing the test subject had outlived his usefulness. Sei disagreed, considering Noa still had his uses, and was contacted by a hacking syndicate on Nathan Zhang's behalf.

Noa finding the crescent amulet in the Ourang Medan's wreck

Nathan proposed a mutually beneficial deal to ensure Noa's safety, which Sei reluctantly accepted, before the doctor was informed that Noa had gone on a Bleeding Effect-induced rampage aboard the Exitus. Sei calmed Noa down and helped him return to his senses, and later convinced her superiors to keep the test subject alive so that he could retrieve the crescent amulet from the shipwreck of the SS Ourang Medan.

Accompanied by Yuki, Noa used a diving bell to descend to the shipwreck's location, but while investigating it, he was separated by Yuki and stumbled onto a moray eel nest. After escaping from the eels, Noa found the amulet, but its powers, combined with the Bleeding Effect, caused him to experience hallucinations of Edward's memories, including an apparition of Bartholomew Roberts. Noa ultimately overcame the amulet's powers and retained control of his mind, impressing Roberts, who cautioned him that he would not be able to resist the Piece of Eden's effects forever before vanishing.

Following this, Noa and Yuki returned to their ship, where they and Sei were confronted by Sigma Team, who had been ordered by Abstergo's executive committee to terminate Noa. Sei convinced the agents to delay Noa's execution by pointing out that, with him gone, any hope of studying the amulet was also lost. After Sigma Team left, Sei informed Noa of her intentions to betray Abstergo and help him escape, just as the ship came under attack by Nathan Zhang and his men.

Taking advantage of this distraction, Noa, Sei and Yuki escaped with the amulet, which had been placed in a suitcase, and were brought by Nathan to a Zhawang Corporation safehouse in Singapore. As Noa began to show signs of succumbing to the amulet's influence, he was taken to receive medical attention while Sei decided to track down another Piece of Eden that could cure him. To do so, she entered a prototype Animus HR-8 left to her by her old friend, Layla Hassan, in order to relive the memories of her ancestor Shimazu Saito.