Work Text
The Mole
-
(A night you won't
forget)
2006 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Lucy had always been a light sleeper, and had always been proud of it. Being a child of the Order taught her the importance of always being vigilant, so she considered it to be an advantage in a way.
Working as an undercover spy in Abstergo had put that mindset to the test: with Warren working her to the bone every single day, the few hours of sleep that she did get were spent in a dreamless, death-like state until her alarm clock shocked her back into the world of the living.
When she woke up that morning, though, it hadn't been because of her alarm clock, but rather a hand in her hair, and a name whispered in her ear.
Lucy
.
She only managed to open one of her eyes, and through the grogginess she recognized a pair of dark brown eyes paired with a devilish smile.
"Richard," she called.
It was a strange sight, seeing him so close, but not an unpleasant one: she did not know him well, but there was no denying that her coworker was an attractive man. She had often caught herself wondering what it would have been like to kiss him during the lunch breaks they spent together.
His hand descended towards her cheek, and Lucy wondered whether this was a dream. It had been so long since she had a dream. She hoped the alarm clock would grant her enough time to see it to its conclusion.
"Look at that, our sleeping beauty is finally awake."
His mocking tone broke the spell.
Her body reacted before her mind did, but as she struggled to get away from him, he grabbed her by the arm and threw her out of the bed.
Someone laughed at that.
Two others.
Jack and Tyler, she recognized.
They had guns in their hands.
She jolted awake, her instincts kicking in as she tried to get into a fighting position.
Richard kicked her in the face.
"Good morning, princess."
He grabbed her arm again to force her to stand up.
"I'm so sorry to bother you, but orders are orders."
The other two snickered, and the realization hit her like a bucket full of ice-cold water.
He's going to kill me
.
Her alarm clock started ringing, but no one made a move to shut it off.
Nothing made sense.
It felt like a nightmare.
It must be
, she thought.
They have no reason to kill me. It's not like they know…
She had been so careful not to be discovered.
But if she had been, for how long had they known?
They could have fed her false information to lead the assassins into a trap.
They could have made a traitor out of her.
No, no, no. Think.
There must be another reason
.
The contract
, she realized.
She had only been hired to work on the Animus, and that job had been carried to completion. It hadn't even passed through her mind, busy as she was with all the other assignments Warren had given her:
Miss Stillman, I want this piece of code reviewed. Miss Stillman, take care of my paperwork. Miss Stillman, there's a problem with the control panel of the Animus.
She truly thought she had made herself useful enough to be kept around past the expiration of her contract.
And yet.
Richard grabbed her face and forced a kiss on her cheek before slamming her head against the wall hard enough to make her vision go dark.
When she came to, she was being dragged through rough terrain by the elbow, and she could feel something wet and sticky on the back of her head.
Her vision was still hazy, and all she could see were blocks of colour and rays of blinding light that made her flinch.
There were men laughing, and Lucy knew that there was something she was forgetting, but her head hurt so much. Her brain was banging against the walls of her skull, as if wanting to break free from her body.
She was thrown on the ground, and felt wet earth and weeds between her fingers.
"Any last words?" Asked someone, his voice seeming so quiet, and so far away.
"What?"
A hand pulled her back by the hair, and something cold and metallic was pressed right under her chin.
"Any. Last. Words. Princess."
"LET HER GO!"
Warren?
The one holding her let her go, and she slumped to the ground, the back of her head pulsating.
There was screaming.
Arguing.
She couldn't quite understand the words, caught up as she was with her own pain as the world grew dark once again.
She spent the two weeks to come in a hospital bed, and it quickly became apparent to her caretakers that she was both unable to sleep without medication and unwilling to take said medication.
Every time she closed her eyes she could feel Richard's fingers stroking her hair, and hear the mocking sweetness in his voice as he called her princess.
Warren promised that no one would be coming for her again, and when he did she honestly believed him. His words seemed so sincere, his smile so warm, almost paternal, even.
She spent what felt like an eternity in his arms, begging him not to go.
She was let go with a prescription for a bunch of medications, all marked Abstergo, as well as the knowledge that she was no longer allowed to leave the main building without someone to make sure she wouldn't escape and spill all the company secrets to the press.
She threw the meds away as soon as she got back to her apartment, and made sure to secure all possible entrances before throwing herself on her couch. She was too tired to even think about doing any of the work that had piled up while she was out of commission, but also too scared to close her eyes, so she spent the whole night staring at the ceiling, wondering whether all of this was even worth it.
Whether she was strong enough to continue.
Her eyes were burning, but she refused to cry.
Assassins don't cry
.
Kids said it to each other all the time back at home, sometimes
as a way to comfort, others as a way to shut up.
Lucy was great at not crying, ever since she was a child.
The only times when she could remember shedding any tears was when she broke something during training, or when someone she liked didn't come back from a mission.
They told her she'd cried on the day of the purge, too, when they found her hiding beneath a pile of dead bodies, but she couldn't remember that. Couldn't remember much of that day at all, really.
God, what wouldn't she give to be home right now.
I can't. William is counting on me. The whole Order is.
She didn't know what he'd seen in her, but under his mentorship the hole that had been left by the purge turned into hatred, and that hatred turned into determination.
She feared letting him down more than she feared death itself.
The morning after she hid her tiredness behind a thick layer of concealer and forced three cups of steaming hot coffee down her throat before heading to Warren's office to ask whether she could already begin work on her next assignment.
No matter what came next, Lucy was ready to suffer.
The Order had chosen her, just an orphan like many others, to train her in their ways and show her the truth of the world. The least that she could do to repay her debt to it was to become its tool.
Right now, it needed her to be its mole, and she was going to deliver.
Even if it destroyed her.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Traitor-(Daniel is the worst)2006 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Out of all the bodyguards she could have been given while Warren was away, this was the absolute worst case scenario."He's my most trusted man," he had said."He's like a son to me.""He's the best in his field."He's a fucking traitor.And now he was right there in front of her.She wanted to shout at him, to ask him what it felt like to betray everything he stood for. No, scratch that. She wanted to kill him, right then and there, mission be damned.It took her all of her willpower to stand still as he shouted at Warren through the phone."I'm not a fucking babysitter! I should be out on the field!"She waited patiently in silence as Warren answered, and the traitor's expression went from anger to guilt to resignation."Yes… yes sir. I'm sorry."He held his phone up to his ear for a few more seconds before ending the call."Suka," he spat out.He turned his head towards her, as if realizing that she was there for the very first time. His ice-cold blue eyes staring right at her, then through her, then back at her again."Name," he demanded."Stillman, sir. Lucy, sir."She stood as straight as she could, eyes locked right into his even though she would rather be looking literally anywhere else.Stop staring at me, creep."You look like someone shoved a broom up your ass."Her jaw dropped, and the bastard wheezed."Shit kid, you should see your face."He extended his good hand."Daniel Cross."She willed herself to take it, and Daniel smiled in a way that promised nothing good."It's going to be fun corrupting you."Warren was still out to work on some secret project in an undisclosed location and wouldn't be back for the next two months or so, which meant that Lucy had been left alone with Leila to figure out the logistics of creating a more efficient version of the Animus's translation system."Jesus, are you two done speaking sciencentese already?"Almost alone."You can leave if you want to," said Lucy.Please leave.Just for five minutes."Nah," he said. "You're gonna run if I leave, and then I'm gonna have to break your legs. Bossman's orders."Lucy swallowed.It's okay, she had to remind herself. He'd have to catch me first."I won't run," she assured him.He just waved her off."What about you, bryunyetka? You a mute all of a sudden?"Leila studied the situation for a few seconds before answering."Not a mute," she said. "Just observant.""You must be fun at parties. Speaking of." He grinned, and Lucy couldn't help but compare him to a wolf about to devour its prey. "How 'bout I teach you two nerds how to have some fun?""Sir, we're on a deadline…""Fuck deadlines. Catch!"He pulled a small bottle out of his trench coat and threw it at Lucy.She caught it with ease.The one he threw at Leila, on the other hand, ended up crashing on the floor."Porco Di-… sastro," she muttered to herself before realizing what just happened and recoiling in fear.Lucy instinctively stepped in front of her."Jesus, I don't bite," Daniel laughed.Surprise of all surprises, the tension in the room didn't drop one bit."C'mon girls. I'm not that scary," he insisted.Lucy bit her lip.Unlike Daniel, she really fucking cared about that deadline, because she really fucking wanted to be deemed useful enough to be invited to the next super secret project with Warren and not be left with a bloodthirsty murderer with the maturity of a three year old and the face of an 'after' image in an anti-drug ad.Calm down.This was all just an intimidation tactic, no doubt about it.A little mind game to show who was in charge."Should we drink all of this?" She asked, dangling the bottle between her and Daniel and fighting the urge to just throw it at him."If you can take it."The sooner he gets what he wants, the sooner we get to go back to work.She closed her eyes and took a big swig of cherry flavored vodka, which was then promptly spat out on the floor as she bent over, coughing her lungs out.If the goal was humiliating her, then she figured that this would do. She let the bottle drop and shatter on the ground as well, so he wouldn't be able to force Leila to drink from it next."Fuck kid, not like that!"Before she knew it he had grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him."Vsyohorosho? Anya?"What?"Don't touch me," she demanded. Or pleaded. It definitely sounded more like pleading.Leila immediately shoved herself in between the two of them."Don't touch her!" She warned but her voice was shaky.Daniel's expression hardened, and for a second Lucy thought that he was going to hit her."Whatever, you lovebirds do whatever nerd shit you want." He let go of Lucy's arm.That was going to leave a bruise."I was just trying to be nice… you're bleeding, by the way."She was. Some shards of glass, and some pretty big ones at that, had wedged themselves in her ankle and part of her foot.Needless to say, her and Leila's 'nerd shit' was postponed even further as they had to spend the next three hours at the doctor's office.Slowly but surely Lucy was realizing that this wasn't an intimidation tactic at all, Daniel was just a piece of shit who enjoyed bullying his underlings. Warren couldn't come back from his secret project soon enough.Luckily she had Leila, who refused to leave her side for as long as that "mangia merda morto di figa" was around. There were no words on Earth to describe how thankful Lucy was, especially knowing the kind of risk she was being exposed to, putting herself in a murderer's way like that.Speaking of the devil, he'd been silent for the last couple of hours, and it was driving her crazy.Judging by the looks that Leila was giving her, she was on the same boat.Eventually, she caved in."Is everything ok?"No answer."Daniel, is everything…""Tíha. Headache.""Sorry."Lucy went back to working on her computer, ignoring the grunt of pain that came shortly after, and the ones after that, too.Hopefully, he was eventually going to give up and go to the doctor's office, finally giving Lucy some time to breathe and gather some useful intel for the assassins, just to prove that she wasn't being completely useless while her comrades were dying on the front lines.What happened instead was that he collapsed to the ground with a loud 'thud'."Madonna pu-... rissima!" Exclaimed Leila.He was holding his head with both hands as he convulsed on the floor, an endless stream of incomprehensible Russian escaping from his lips in between the cries of pain.Before she knew it she was kneeling right beside him, trying to keep him still so that he wouldn't hurt himself, and ordering Leila to go look for help.This is the man who led the purge, she incredulously thought to herself. She'd forgotten about that.No, not forgotten.The information had been sitting there, in the back of her mind, waiting for the monster in her head to match the man in front of her.The cries of pain had turned into screaming. A desperate, broken scream that made Lucy want to scream as well.How many of his victims had screamed like that?Had he shown any mercy towards them?Monster.He was a fucking monster."Shut up!" She screamed. "Shut up. You killed them. You fucking killed them.""Make it stop," he begged, finally in English.He sounded like a scared child.Monster.Monster.Why won't you let me hate you?She had her hands around his neck, this was her chance to get revenge for all the people he'd killed.Monster.Monster.Monster.He looked so, so scared.Who the fuck gave a monster the right to look this fragile?"Make it stop, pajalusta," he pleaded.She refused to look him in the eyes."Eta ya, Anya. Pomni imya svayo."A security guard knocked her out before she could ask what he'd just said.She woke up in a haze, unsure of who or where she was.All she could feel was someone's hand stroking her hair.Richard.Her body reacted immediately, trying to fight off her assailant, but she couldn't move. Both of her arms were being restrained, as well as her legs.He's here, and I'm at his mercy.She cried out in frustration, feeling pathetic as his hand moved to her cheek, and as he brushed away her tears with his thumb."Shhhhh… Shhhhh…" the voice she heard wasn't masculine. "It's ok, just focus on my voice."She did, and as her field of view got less blurry she caught a glimpse of the one talking to her, an asian woman with deep dark eyes contoured by a sharp winged eyeliner, and the kindest smile she'd ever seen."Very good. Can you tell me your name?"She swallowed."It's… Lucy. Where am I?""You're safe, Lucy. There was just a small accident, so now we're going to ask you some questions before we send you back home, ok?"Questions…No, no, no. It was all coming back to her.She'd been so fucking stupid.The woman held her down as she struggled."It's… it was a mistake, please. I'll do whatever you want. Let me go, please, please, I…" she choked on her own tears. William had warned her about this. About what would have happened if she was found out, and what she was supposed to do if it happened.'The kinds of tortures they inflict upon their enemies… things far worse than death.'.She knew what she had to do, just as she knew that she didn't have the strength to do it."Shhh… it's ok, it's ok…""...I won't do it again. I promise. I promise."Never compromise the brotherhood."I don't want to die."The woman moved both of her hands back to her head, one on the back to keep her from hurting herself and the other on her cheek, brushing away the tears."You won't, I promise. Just breathe with me, ok?"Lucy ignored her, too busy chasing the endless stream of thoughts in her head.All the training she'd gone through, all the lies she'd told, all the work she'd put into her research, all that passion…William and Warren, her mentors.Somehow, she had managed to disappoint them both.She was useless, useless.Unless…"… I'm an assassin."The confession came out easily, accompanied by a sudden sense of relief.For the first time in two years, she was telling the truth."You need me alive, and able. I have connections, I can…" she stopped. She remembered the purge, or at least what they'd told her about it. All of that hatred built up inside her chest and then dissipated, leaving her unbearably empty."…I can be your mole instead."The woman smiled at her, but this time Lucy saw the resignation in her eyes."Thank you, Lucy.""… Did you get that?" The woman said, her voice colder and sharper as she spoke to someone Lucy couldn't see."I did."Warren.His voice sounded strange, as if coming from a speaker.Thank God.She wouldn't have been able to handle seeing him in the flesh."Thank you for your cooperation, Doctor Sung.""Does that mean that we're done?" The woman asked in a worried tone."That depends. What do you think, Daniel?"Lucy's entire body froze in fear and anticipation."She doesn't know anything, Doc," he said, his voice still hoarse from the screaming, and much too clear to be coming from a speaker. "Just a spy. They probably kept her in the dark about everything to make sure she wouldn't spill the beans once she got caught. She's not worth the truth serum."Besides her, Doctor Sung was holding her breath."She might still be useful to us though," he continued. "Once she realizes that the assassins have been manipulating her all along, that is. I'll see to it myself that she understands our point of view.""Well then. You may go."Sung all but threw herself at the computer Warren's voice was coming from, and ended the call.On the opposite side of the table she was strapped onto, Daniel grabbed her face, and twisted her head so that she would be forced to look at him."I am going to make your life hell for what you did, do you understand me?""Daniel, please…" the doctor grabbed his wrist and gently pulled his hand away from her face."Thank you," whispered Lucy.She didn't really know what was happening anymore, but she was pretty sure he had just saved her life.He groaned."Fine. Fine. I need… I need to think. I need the Animus.""Of course. Just give me a second to let the girl out and then I'll get to you, ok?""Thank you. You're a doll, Doc."Sung undid the restraints, and then she helped Lucy sit up."You were really brave there, you know?"No I wasn't.She was just a coward."Hey… hey. Look at me." Sung grabbed her chin and gently lifted her face so that their eyes could meet. "I know that this was hard and you're really scared right now, but things are going to get much better from now. We're like a family here."The woman wrapped her arms around Lucy's body, and it took her an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize not only that she was being hugged, but that she'd forgotten how good it felt to be held, too."... We're going to take care of you."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Truth-(Hello darkness my old friend)2012 - Rome, Italy.Hey hi you ok?Yeah I'm fine, everything's fine.You sure?We lost two more teams last night. That's eight of us gone.I'm sorry.I don't know what to do anymore, it just keeps getting worse and worse.Hey. Remember what you told me? You gotta have faith. And look! Here we are, safe and sound.For how long? And when they find us? Then what?When that happens, if that happens, we'll deal with it.I'll keep you safe.Lucy remembered that conversation as if it had taken place merely a few seconds ago.She'd found Desmond's optimism idiotic.Irritating, even.She thought that confronting him with the hopelessness of reality would make him snap out of it, and yet…I'll keep you safe.What a cruel joke.She'd spent her entire life trying to keep people safe, at first from the templars and then from themselves, and in the process she herself had been turned into a monster that others had to be kept safe from.Project Siren, had called it Warren. An infiltration mission that took full advantage of her background as an assassin to gain the trust of the enemy only for her to turn against them when they least expected.Lucy hated everything she had been made into, but she also knew that it was for the best.Her soul, for the safety of mankind.It reminded her of what Daniel had taught her: "It's easier when you accept that you don't have a choice." As much as she refused to fully adhere to her mentor's philosophy, it was in cases like this that she could fully appreciate just how alluring it could be, to be blameless at the cost of your own agency.One last job, and then she could rest.But then, something had to come in between her and her mission.Clay.She'd tried hard not to think about him, just as she tried not to think about that night in 2006, or Daniel and the ever faster worsening of his memory, or Leila.But when she learned the truth about the ones that came before, and what would become of the world if they didn't play their damned games… all the pieces just fell together into the puzzle.Somehow, the precursors had access to the Animus that Clay was using, and through it they communicated with him, warped his mind, filled it with information about themselves and about his mission. Then, they left him to die, but he'd found a way to copy his own consciousness into the Animus, and with it, all of that information.Without knowing it, they might just have given them the key to their own defeat.He knows their language, she realized.She'd heard him speaking it, too, without recognizing it for what it was at the time.He knew their language, and he was an absolute genius when it came to coding.It was a big jump, going from that to learning an entirely alien coding language, but if there was anyone capable of making it, it was him.Lucy was about to gain access to an apple of eden, an object designed to connect with external devices, as well as a satellite capable of amplifying its power on a global scale.With Clay's help, she could gain access to all the leftover precursor technology in the world, including the fabled 'solution' promised by Juno.She could win the game by breaking it.All she needed to do was keep up the facade just for a little longer.It was just for a second, but Lucy was sure that she saw her: beautiful, ethereal, terrifying.Next thing she knew, Lucy was lying on the ground, bleeding and unable to move, with Desmond lying right beside her, and the apple so close she could feel its heat.I'll keep you safe.Lucy was much too self aware to ignore the hypocrisy of begging him of all people for her life, after all she'd done to him, but right now she was confused and scared and, honestly, just plain desperate.Goddamnit Desmond, you promised, she wanted to scream, but her lips wouldn't move.Liar.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Art-(And else)
Just a quick look at a younger version of Lucy, accompanied by her friend Leila.
I didn't make it clear, but Lucy's plan involved doing what Desmond refused to do in Revelations, a.k.a. transferring Clay's consciousness into her own mind. I like to think that in some alternate reality where Lucy goes trough with her plan something goes wrong with the process and what comes out is a composite of the two, or as I like to call them, Clucy.
This has nothing to do with the fic, I just found out that a scrapped idea for the dlc The Lost Archive involved a faceless Lucy dressed as a bride chasing you around and destroying the world in the process and I really wanted to see what that would have looked like. (Source: The Assassin's Den - The Lost Archive ft. Jeffrey Yohalem (Lead Writer), by the youtuber Loomer)Other characters and my takes on their personality (/head canon dump)Vidic: He's a narcissistic asshole and every single word coming out of him is a lie. Sees both Lucy and Daniel as objects belonging to him, as they are either an extension of his genius (Lucy, his pupil) or a result of it (Daniel, his creation/son). As such, he will gladly take credit for all of their accomplishments.Daniel: This was a hard one because even the comics can't make up their mind about what his personality is supposed to be. My head canon is that he doesn't really have a stable sense of identity due to the trauma wrapped up in a mental breakdown that is his backstory, and mostly just swings between asshole and workaholic, + the dissociative murderous state he goes into sometimes, courtesy of Nikolai. He tends to confuse his memories with those of his ancestors, which is why he repeatedly calls Lucy Anya, because he's subconsciously mistaking her for Anastasia (from Chronicles: Russia). Also fun fact: "Pomni imya svayo" (Помни имя своё) means 'remember your name', because I thought it would be sad/ironic to have Nikolai try to help Anastasia with her bleeding effect without realizing that he is himself the result of one.Sung (Yī nuò): Just a throwaway character from the comics, but at least for me she has the potential to be really compelling. A genuinely good person using whatever little power she has to try and help the people around her, but she also understands that the more convinced her patients are of Abstergo's lies the safer they will be. I thought it would be fun to give her a name since in the comics she's only known by her surname and title, so I settled on Yī nuò, 'one promise', and even though I ended up not using it in the story itself I figured I'd write it down here because I like the way it sounds.Leila: She was originally supposed to have a larger role in the story, but then I ended up just sidelining her. Hopefully she also doubles as comic relief for those of you who speak Italian. Still have no clue what her deal in the first game was supposed to be.Credit for the art goes to Friendly Frog Friend, who can be found on InstagramAnd for all of you who made it to the end… Thanks for reading! You Rock!… Post credits scene:There was a soft scent of vanilla in the air, and a pleasant warmth all around her. She opened her eyes and right in front of her, written in bright green letters, she read the phrase 'Welcome! Everything is fine." The view brought a smile to her face, and a warm fuzzy feeling to her chest. "Lucy Stillman?" A man asked, poking his head through the door to her left. "Yes?" He smiled kindly. "Come on in, Lucy. Let's have a talk."