I. Chosen

"Just leave me"

"I'm not leaving you nowhere, no how!"

"Edward…"

"Don't ask me to leave you, please, you know I can't do that. You know…"

"Edward…Please. You can't die here."

"I always thought you'd be the one to outlast me"

"…I've done my part. Will you?"

"I could…if you came with me"

"I will be with you, Kenway. I'll always be with you"

"Mary…? Mary! Please, don't leave me alone…"

Edward startled awake, his heart pounding. The nightmare, his usual nightmare, had woken him again. He had this nightmare too often for his age. He had this nightmare too often for a married man, a man with children. He had this nightmare too often, especially considering the events in it had happened years and years ago. How many? Almost twenty…It was hard to believe that it was just a few years short of twenty since he had lost her. He just remembered the look of Mary's brown eyes as she died in his arms. He just remembered the feeling of helplessness, of pain, of sadness as he watched her die, as he was unable to do anything to save her life.

It had been 1720, the summer time. He had been in jail for months, weak and sick. She was more so. Her body ravaged with an infection, weakened by childbirth. He didn't know what had happened to her child, he had been to ravaged with grief to search. He was sure the Assassins had tracked the baby down. He liked to think they had.

Mary had not been…anything but a friend to him. He had loved her though, in his own way and he blamed himself for her death. He had for years and well…sometimes his nightmares were just about the prison but sometimes he had nightmares about Mary's death.

He paced closer to the window, staring out at the London street and then he glanced back at his beloved wife. He smiled a little. He had come a long way…He was a man of means now, a well-off man with many contacts, a beautiful wife and two wonderful children. He sighed, those thoughts calming his mind. Yes, he was very lucky and he shouldn't forget that, even if he couldn't forget the past either.

"Edward." A voice called. "Edward, do you have a moment?"

He glanced up at the Assassin coming towards him. He was a young man, maybe a bit younger than Edward himself...Though Edward guessed he wasn't such a "young" man anymore. Either way, his name was Miko and he was brilliant, very knowledgeable about the First Civilization. Edward had become slightly obsessed with them since he had discovered the Observatory. He was trying to gather as much information on them as he possibly could and he even had a journal filled with information about them. He was always looking to add more.

"Yes Miko, always a moment for you. What do you need?" he asked, standing.

"Well, we were exploring some ruins and we…found something"

"What do you mean you found something?" He asked, intrigued. He knew the moment that Miko said they found something, that they had found something First Civilization related. Any time they did, they always came to him.

"Well…we're not sure what it is. It was in some ruins in France, outside of a small town. A local child fell down a hole and tumbled into these ruins…And well, I want you to come with me to inspect what we've found" He seemed excited, even if his voice was calm.

Edward leaned back against the table, one hand under his chin as he thought about what Tessa might say. She might not like it. She understood his Assassin work was very important to him, that his work with them and for them changed the world. She didn't understand everything because he didn't want to get her too involved and he hardly told Jennifer anything. He had forbid her from becoming an Assassin. He couldn't see her, his daughter who looked so much like his beloved Caroline, dressed in robes, killing men and women alike. No, he would not allow it.

Still…Tessa or not, he should go and see this. It might be big, it might change things, it might be a breakthrough in his research. He had already researched artifacts found throughout the Assassin's long history. He had been fascinated for a time with the Apples, specifically Ezio's Apple. The location of it was lost though and Edward had no doubt that it would not be found for a long time if ever. Whatever this object was, this place that they had found, should be guarded, less the Templars find it. He grimaced when he thought about the damage that Templars had caused in the past with First Civilization objects.

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning, before sunrise"

"Make sure you come by my house. I'll be coming with you" No matter what Tessa said, he was going. Something nagged at him to go. Something pushed him to and he had found it was always better to listen to those little nagging feelings rather than ignore them.

"This place is quite impressive" Edward stated, walking into the opening chamber. It reminded him very much of the Observatory, though he realized that the structure was a little different, more designed to be something like a temple. The Observatory had been just that, a storage center and a sort of theater. This must have been for something more...something very important. He walked, following Miko and their guide further in.

"Aren't you glad you came?" and Miko laughed. Edward smiled and moved a little quicker, with an even more pronounced spring in his step. He followed them until they came to an open chamber where the walls were glowing softly with a crimson light.

"What is this?" He asked.

"This is the main chamber, Master Kenway" Their guide told him, his voice heavily accented. He pointed up a set of narrow steps. "There is the artifact, up there. No one has touched it yet and we ask you not to either. Not until we know what it is"

"Mhm" Edward's voice was a dismissal as he walked carefully up the narrow steps. Miko was right behind him and together they stood on the tiny platform before the object. It looked like a glass egg floating about an inch off the stand below it and it didn't take Edward a moment to realize that it was the egg glowing red, feeding the color into the walls. He crossed his arms, looking at it.

"Well, Edward, what do you think?" asked Miko glancing at him. Edward examined it, leaning closer to it. There was no barrier around it, just the softly glowing light. It was interesting and Edward found himself wanting to reach out for the egg. It was a nagging feeling in his head. He wanted to touch the egg, he knew that he should.

"Curious, very curious." He reached his fingers out to act on his instinct but Miko stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

"He said not to" Miko warned.

"Tosh!" Edward snorted and then he realized that was not something a proper man of England would say. That was more of a term used by those who lived in the West Indies. He remembered one person who loved to use that word and it was a sudden jab, a tiny stab of pain in his heart. He didn't let it show, composing himself as quickly as he felt the pain. "It won't hurt if I take one look at it, will it?"

"I suppose not" Miko withdrew his hand and watched with rapt attention as Edward wrapped his fingers softly around the glass egg. It flashed brightly and the walls responded in turn and then suddenly everything just seemed to stop. The world was awash in blue, the egg glowing brightly in Edward's hand, and he looked around, realizing that he was the only one moving.

Miko seemed to be frozen and their guide at the bottom, who had been leaving the room, was frozen as well. No, not frozen…time had just slowed for them. He could see them moving, just extremely slowly, barely able to move a hair a minute. What had happened? He saw a sudden flash down at the bottom of the stairs. There a man appeared…though…He was the strangest man that Edward had ever seen and he had seen his share of strangeness.

"Come forth, Edward Kenway" The man spoke, his voice booming, seeming everywhere at once. Edward came down the steps gingerly until he was standing before the man. He was much taller than anyone Edward had ever seen, standing nearly two feet taller than him. He was bulky, but not overly so. He was dressed in robes and he wore a headpiece that looked almost too heavy to hold up, but the man did it.

Then as Edward stood before him, he noticed he was partially transparent, as if he weren't really there. He looked up at the man, meeting his eyes and noticed that the man smiled the moment he did, as if he could hear and see Edward. Could he?

"Who are you?" He found himself asking.

"That does not matter." The man waved his hand. "For I am not really here. I am part of what you call the First Civilization…or I was. I am here to ask for your help. We do not have enough time and your bloodline is very special to us. You are one of the only people who could provide us with more"

"Enough time? Wait, if you're part of the First Civilization you've been dead for…"

"Yes, my body has passed, but my memories were condensed into this object, allowing me to leave a message for you. We Saw you would come here and that you would see my message. I Saw what you would ask and prepared the message accordingly. Just know, that we are running out of time and there is only so much I can explain to you"

"So you're just a message…?" That was hard for his head to wrap around, especially with this man responding to his questions so easily. "And what do you mean you are running out of time? What is the point of this message?"

"There is an event that will occur in the future of your world that will destroy it and you need more time to prepare, your descendants need more time to prepare. Your time is quickly running out as well Edward Kenway and so we have chosen you to give us a few more years."

"What do you mean?" Edward was confused – his descendants? What about them? What about the future of the world?

"There is much you do not understand. There is much for you to learn yet. I have chosen you to relive, relearn and renew. Just know – what is meant to be is meant to be. There is little you can do to change the true fate of anyone, no matter how you try"

"What? I don't understand!" He felt his frustrations coming to the surface. "Explain yourself!"

"I cannot. We have no more time to talk. Just remember Edward Kenway, you were chosen for a reason."

And then the blue consumed the room and his vision. Black overwrote the blue and Edward Kenway, saw no more.

A/N: So...Hi! This is my first challenge and third Kiddway story! This challenge was issued by CzarAndrew and I hope to write an awesome story for you guys. I'm really excited to have been chosen to do this challenge and I'm really hoping you guys love this story as much as I know I'll love writing it. I know its a little confusing right now but I'm nearly finished with chapter two which will hopefully shed a little more light on things for you. Anyway...I hope you enjoyed! See you next chapter!