A tall man sat in the center of a small room. Only one desk, filled with computer screens, and a chair occupied the room. The computers were running yet another scan of the Animus. The man had dark hair, not quite black, but not brown. More of a deep ashy gray. The right side of his face bore a large burn scar that stretched down his neck and beneath his shirt.

His name was Raven. Descendant of Archer and Rook Cormac.

Q8 dropped a file on Raven's desk. She beeped, her automated voice sounding irritated. "Shasta is dead."

Raven was jerked out of his focus on the Animus code. He glanced at the file before returning his attention to his computer. "I heard. Selena must have flipped when his cameras went out."

Q8 gave no response to this. Her programming was advanced, but not that advanced. She was the best any of the Six had managed. Shasta had been their best programmer and had coded Q8 himself.

Raven sighed and put his head in his hands, elbows resting on the desk. Shasta had been the most stable of the Seven before his eyes had been replaced by cameras. The rest, Raven included, had severe Bleeding Effect consequences. None of them trusted their own minds, except for Shasta. Confident, hopeful Shasta.

Raven's ancestors flickered to life in front of him, just beyond the desk. A short woman with midnight black hair, bright blue eyes, and black assassin robes with a red belt, and a tall, brown haired man with one brown and one gold eye. His robes were a pale tan and a wicked axe was tied to his back. The shadowy forms of assassin legend. Rook the Shadow Assassin and her husband, Archer, the Gray Spirit.

Raven could always see the pair, standing somewhere on the edges of his vision or running beside him out in the city. Sometimes they spoke, but mostly they just stood and watched. Rook always grinned proudly at her great-great-great grandson, and Archer lost in thought, smiling only occasionally.

From what Raven knew about Archer, he was very reserved after not only being forced to kill his brother, but first needing to make his brother believe he was dead. He didn't trust easily, something that was understandable. Raven had learned to run and fight close up from Archer.

Raven knew much more about Rook. He'd been through her memory sequence hundreds of times. She had power over fire, water, air, and speed, but all of that was weakened by her inability to trust in herself. She mastered her speed for the most part, but could hardly use the other powers without becoming closed off, evil, and cold. The power born from darkness would turn to darkness.

She had changed sides and killed those she called friends. Including Archer.

Raven had inherited a bit of power from them. It was diluted from the years between them and him, but it was skill nonetheless. He could control a bit of fire and air and had reflexes that made even Iccan jealous.

Raven didn't realize he'd gotten lost in memories again until Q8 screeched loudly, making him jump. "RAVEN!"

Raven tore his gaze away from his ancestors to look at the trashcan shaped robot. She looked a bit like R2D2. "What do you want, scrap metal?"

Q8 probably would have rolled her eyes if she had eyes to roll. "One of your closest friends has just died. You don't seem concerned."

Raven poked the file on the desk with one finger. "That's his file there. I'm aware of his death. It was bound to happen." He couldn't ignore the pang of guilt in his chest. It had been his mistake that had led Shasta to go on that suicide mission.

Ignoring the small robot, Raven looked to the screen of the Animus 6.2. The screen showed a message that read, "Scan complete. No errors found." It was nothing new. He'd run versions of the scan so many times it was probably an automated response.

No errors. No viruses. No bugs, glitches, or anomalies. No typos in the code. Nothing. And still the Animus refused to run.

Raven turned to a different monitor holding the home coded chatroom of the Six. There were zero messages typed between all of them. They used a bit of code created by Shasta that allowed them to speak directly to any one of them. Of course, they had fake names in case it was discovered.

Raven clicked the username made of four different cusses in Welsh. He leaned back in his chair and said, "Paging our fine Lady Kenway."

There was silence for a minute before an irritated female voice came through. "What do you want, Raven? It better be bwysig."

"Shasta's dead, Iccan," Raven said, before she had the chance to swear at him.

He shouldn't have worried, because what came next was several curses. "That thrice da-"

"Iccan, please... Don't curse him yet. Give it some time. How are the others?"

Iccan muttered several more curses before she spoke. "Alive. Arcna and I spoke yesterday. The little diafol. Do you need one of them?"

Raven browsed through the Animus settings again. "All of you actually."

Iccan went silent for long enough that Raven was worried she'd walked away. "Hurtyn! Are you crazy? You know how dangerous that is!"

Raven scrolled through the Animus code, frowning as he scanned line eight hundred four. "I'm well aware of the dangers, yes. After being with Shasta for so long I memorized it."

Iccan snorted. "Am I speaking to Raven or Rook Cormac? I didn't think Raven was such a wallgofddyn."

Raven looked to the screen and saw that Iccan had turned on her video feed. Her icy blue glare, blonde hair, and angular features were familiar to him. He dipped his head slightly, though she couldn't see. "You know I can't tell anymore, old friend," he said quietly.

Iccan fell silent and her expression changed. Was that... sympathy? She nodded. "It will be done. We'll arrive over a week, starting with myself."

Raven smiled slightly. "Thank you, Kenway."

Iccan gave him a two fingered salute. "Don't get used to it, ouzel."

______________________

I've returned. I'll try to update all of my stories more frequently if I can manage it.

Unfortunately my next thing is a Mistborn short story sooooooo *cough*

Anyways, I hope you're all enjoying this story.

Thanks for reading. May the speed force be with you and remember, we are Groot.