BWD: I'm baaaaaaack! And yes, THIS is the AC brainchild I've been working on for...months. No, I have not given up on NRFTW, it's just on temporary hiatus until I can get a better game plan for it, I feel as though the current one lacks...something, it's not what the fic deserves. In the meantime we have this baby, which I can promise is not going to follow the game explicitly. It will go far beyond the game, and deeper into the cracks within, and not everything will be as we know it, because...well history is never going to be the same.

A huge shout-out to the two crazy ladies that nourished and encouraged this fic, without you TK and Wolf, this never would have happened!

Without further ado...I give you the first chapter of Firewall! Don't Listen to Crazy

Emma had known this was a bad idea. No, it was an insanely stupid, hair-brained and potentially career-ending idea. Still she had done it. Still she had broken into one of the biggest companies in the country to look for evidence of illegal activity on a tip from some crazy woman in her house.

Now she was here, head pounding and fuzzy, hands and legs bound and not entirely sure where in the building she was other than a dark room. Her gun was still on her belt but she couldn't reach it and whoever had knocked her out had left her alone. That didn't bode well for any sort of a future for her.

This was Abstergo, and the things she'd already heard and seen here proved they weren't about to let a cop just walk out. She really should have thought this one through better…

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Two Weeks Before…

"Why….do…they….always….run!?" Emma huffed as she hoofed it down the street after the perp who'd decided to test if he was the faster. Her partner was right at her side, arms pumping as he tried to keep up.

"Maybe…because…you…always…dare…them…too?!" Eliot responded between pants, very nearly tripping in attempting to mimic the sharp turn down the alley their runner had taken.

The woman growled as she struggled to increase her pace, trying to narrow the distance before this turned into a challenge of stamina. She had the fighter build, not the running, her sprints could only last so long and she could already feel herself tiring. Damn it.

Their car prowler was just beyond arm's reach, so Emma mentally said 'screw it' and dove, full-body tackling him to the ground right there in the mouth of the alley. The people along the streets scattered in surprise, a few yelling 'police brutality!' (mindless idiots) and taking out their phones to try to record something newsworthy.

Emma ignored them in favor of yanking the arms of the man beneath her behind him and slamming the cuffs onto his wrists. Almost immediately the man was spitting insults and curses as she got up and hauled him to his feet with her partner.

"You have the right to remain silent, please for the love of God do so, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney if you can keep one with that mouth; seriously man do you kiss your mother with that mouth? If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights or was it too complicated?" She chatted as she pushed him back the way they had come and towards the awaiting cruiser and his ride to jail.

Her partner barked a laugh, clapping her on the shoulder as he took up a spot on their suspect's other side. "Always the smartass aren't you Harp?"

The man in cuffs was less enthused, and his 'yes' was hidden amongst a new slew of things even Emma wouldn't repeat (and that wasn't much). She chose to ignore him in favor of winking at the other officer. "It's a condition, the incurable disease of no filter."

Eliot quirked a brow at her, "And yet it's everyone else that has to suffer the symptoms."

She smirked as they reached the cruiser and their new catch was put in the back, barely resisting the urge to not duck his head far enough. Ah, but he'd at least been creative with his insults so the woman gave him a pass for it.

"714 what's your status?" The radios cackled to life and while climbing into the passenger seat—apparently totaling the last cruiser in a high-speed pursuit made her partner ban her from driving—Emma grabbed hers to respond.

"We have the 10-14 in custody."

"We've got a 10-15 for you to pick up on the way." Emma quirked a brow at her partner, they usually didn't like more than one person in the back unless absolutely necessary.

"You want us to pick up a suspect when we have one already?"

"Affirmative." Dispatch rattled off an address that was smack between where they were and the station. "Unit 643 detained, needs transport."

"10-4." Emma agreed, 643 was a two-door cruiser, and the two suspects would only be riding together for a maximum of five minutes and the other nearest available four-door was at least thirty minutes out given New York traffic.

"Abstergo? Who the hell tries to burglarize that place?" Her partner asked as he pulled onto the road and into the slowly moving mass of cars.

She shrugged, glancing back at their catch in the backseat with a grin "Who prowls a parking lot that has a cruiser sitting in it?"

The man in question responded with another bout of swearing that had the other giving her a dry look, "Must you always rile them up?"

She smirked.

When they arrived at the front of the building where the Mustang cruiser was parked, of all the suspects they would be taking in, Emma hardly expected the one they got. The woman was at best 5'5" with red streaked, brunette hair and an overall build that while generous in the assets department had her looking even smaller. All in all, not exactly their usual burglar type. She was also in the opposite state of their other suspect. Calm, compliant and looking utterly relaxed, Emma didn't even have to lead her over, the woman just climbed into the backseat as if she wasn't handcuffed and climbing into a limo. The blonde officer had never been more confused.

Must be the only way to cope with this, unless she'd been through it before? Emma shrugged it off, figuring she'd find out when the woman's prints were run at the station. It was much the same when they arrived there. While she let Eliot wrestle the prowler through the doors, the brunette said not a word and just strolled into the building with no prompting.

She was placed in the holding cell with the other women of the night and Emma dropped into her chair at her desk to start on some reports while the last minutes of her shift ticked away. The news was running on repeat, playing old stories that only got mentions at 1 a.m. and the officer only half-paid attention to it.

'It's been a year and still authorities have no answers to the whereabouts of American student Sophie Parker, who disappeared while abroad on vacation in Scotland. She has been presumed dead though her family still holds on to hope.' A photo of a brunette accompanied the newscast and Emma pointed at it as her partner dropped into his seat across from her.

"That's why I don't travel."

He snorted in return, having been one of those that backpacked through Europe before settling into a career. Constantly he tried to hound her into 'doing something exciting and crazy' with her life (seriously, was being a NYC cop not enough?!), even going so far as to enter her into whatever travel drawings he could find just to get on her nerves. Ass.

"Really though, Scotland is gorgeous, some of those old castles would blow your mind. I tried looking for hidden passageways but I never could find any." He pouted in mock disappointment—or real, there was no telling with this guy—before waving his hand. "Ah, I'll get you abroad at some point. Everyone should travel at least once in their life. You've never even been out of the state!"

Emma took offense to that, "Hey! I helped with that transport to Maine!"

He rolled his eyes, "Sitting on a bus that drove straight through does not count and you were back within 24 hours. I mean an actual vacation, you do know what those are right?"

She threw a pen at him.

An hour later and Emma drug herself through her apartment's front door, kicking off her shoes and leaving her duffel right where it fell without a care. She was exhausted and more than ready for at least ten hours of shuteye and a weekend of doing nothing. Her belt, uniform top and Kevlar vest found their way to the couch, leaving her in a black tank top and pants.

Food was something that could wait until morning, but a drink would do the trick of unwinding her before bed. Shuffling to the kitchen, she pulled out a beer from the fridge and relished in the long drag she took from it. She'd only turned on one lamp in the living room so the place was relatively dark still, not that she cared. No she wouldn't be awake for too much longer, not enough to warrant turning anymore lights on anyway.

Perhaps she should have.

Raising the bottle to her lips a second time, she froze as the hairs on her neck stood on end. Her gut told her something wasn't right, she wasn't alone, and suddenly she very much felt the lack of her belt on her hips.

Softly setting the beer on the counter to avoid making a sound, she crept to the entryway of the kitchen and peaked around the corner. Not seeing anyone in that line of sight, she made the decision to go for it. Having no idea where the intruder was, Emma took no chance and dove straight for the couch and her gun.

She didn't even get close when strong arms latched around her waist, hauled her back and shoved her against the wall, one hand clamping over her mouth while the rest of a firm body pressed against her and kept her effectively trapped.

"…Was that entirely necessary?" A female voice sounded from somewhere behind the man pinning Emma, the single lamp lighting up the second intruder's face while throwing shadows over the first. The cop blinked, stunned to see the tiny brunette from earlier standing in her living room when she explicitly remembered leaving her in the holding cell just an hour ago.

"Did you want to find out if she would shoot first the hard way?" The man responded dryly, his voice thick with an accent she couldn't place.

"Seriously? She's a cop, I really don't think she would have just shot us once she saw we were unarmed." The woman snipped back with a roll of her eyes, "Plus we kind of need her to trust us and now that's going to be difficult."

The man's hand lifted from her mouth as he partially turned his head to regard his partner, the light catching on a scar that ran across his nose. "Just be your charming self, Tristan, that seems to work."

Emma could practically hear the smirk in the man's voice and the initial spike of adrenaline and fear was quickly being replaced by concerned confusion. The other woman's hands planted on her hips, "It would be a lot easier if you would be your 'charming' self, Rico."

"You were in jail." Her shock however, was taking a little longer to wear off it seemed, though the responses of amused grins was not exactly the attention she'd expected. But then, none of this B&E was going like anyone would expect.

'Tristan' gave what was probably meant to be a helpless shrug, "Hubby didn't like that I was arrested and sprung me."

This…..this crazy couple was an actual couple. Somehow that was the least surprising fact of the day. 'Rico' snorted, "Which, by the way, I never got to say 'I told you so' for that."

The woman gave an indignant huff, "One time, ONE, and you always say I'm going to get caught."

The European—he had to be from somewhere around there—turned his head more to give his woman a deadpanned expression. "I seem to recall several instances of you needing a rescue."

Emma was at a loss at this point, still pinned to the wall by a ridiculously built foreigner who was having a lover's spat with his crazy wife. How did something like this even happen? No one was ever going to believe her.

"Why the hell are you here?" She finally cut in, not willing to find out just how long they would keep going with that.

"Before we get to that, Rico be a good boy and drop her already!" The woman huffed in exasperation, hands planting on her hips.

"Ah, apologies signora, I did not want you to shoot us before we could talk." The man released her and backed away, though, Emma noted sourly, stayed between her and her gun.

Tristan held up a stack of files, commanding the officer's attention again. She recognized the stamp on the folders immediately and narrowed her eyes. "Where did you get those?"

The woman gave a sheepish shrug, "Your desk but that's not what's important! I can help you solve them, or, well, tell you what you're missing."

Emma raised an expectant brow, arms crossed over her chest. It was obvious that for whatever crackpot reason or excuse for why they were here, it was not to harm her, so she let herself relax somewhat and yearn for the beer still on the counter. She had a feeling she was going to need it before this night was finished.

"They all have something in common," She doubted that, she'd gone over those with a fine-toothed comb along with the detective actually assigned the cases. There was nothing connecting them. "Abstergo."

Emma blinked a few times, her brow rising higher in disbelief. Absolutely none of those people had been involved with the entertainment company. Well, one may have worked for them but that was it. The brunette handed the files back, each a little thicker than they had been when they 'left' the precinct.

"Just…give it a look at least."

The cop took them, warily glancing over at the man who had retreated to stand next to his wife, and whose attention seemed to be more on the décor of her apartment than of what was currently going on before him. She didn't open the files though, not yet. First she had to know something else. "Why me?"

That got the man's attention back on the conversation, and his gaze went straight to Tristan and stayed there. Emma thought she saw curiosity mixed with a warning in his expression, and that made her own intrigue peaked more.

Tristan shrugged, "You haven't been bought, and you can get what you need with this."

Briefly Emma flipped through the added papers, it was all circumstantial, nothing hard hitting. Anything for a slam dunk case (which they would need against such a company, cops so much as breathed near them and they lawyered up), would have to be gathered directly from the company building. "You know the only way I can get anything viable in court is illegal right?"

Tristan raised a challenging brow, "Has that stopped you before?"

The cop scrunched her nose up, glancing back at the papers in her hands, "I don't want to know how you know that."

"We have been watching you." Rico finally spoke again, shrugging his shoulders loosely with a half grin.

Emma gave him a flat stare, "I said I didn't want to know. Now why bring this to me like….this. Why not just bring it in to the precinct like normal people?"

Not that she was under any sort of illusion that the two before her were anywhere close to normal but still, the point remained. If they really wanted her help they could have brought it to her in a way that didn't make her immediately suspicious. Tristan waved her hand towards the files, "Like I said, you haven't be bought, unlike others."

"And do you have any sort of proof that my brothers have been?" She growled back, she liked most of those in her precinct, and she was not going to just stand by and let someone accuse them of taking payouts.

"It's all there." She glanced down at the files in her hands, finally curiosity winning out long enough for her to flip through them. Bank statements from several of the other officers, with suspiciously large and periodic deposits, no wonder Davis was able to afford that new car…

"What's in it for…..shit." She looked up only to find the two invaders gone, disappeared out however they had come in with nothing to show for their presence but the pages in her hands. And a picture on the wall that was crooked.

Sighing, she raked a hand through her hair, returned to the kitchen long enough to grab her beer and sat at the table. Sleep would have to wait. When she did finish analyzing everything in those folders a few hours later, Emma was still unsure of what to do about the information. Sure some of the cops were corrupt, but it still didn't answer what Abstergo had to do with missing people, there was definitely something shady about it all though. Her gut told her to do one thing while her head said it was stupid.

"It's too late for this crap." She muttered, squinting out towards the slowly lightening sky. Damn, it was already morning. Oh well, she'd double the coffee for today then, and get some advice about her conflicting choices…

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"You are insane."

Emma frowned over her fourth (or was it fifth?) cup of caffeinated glory at her friend. The redhead was always blunt and honest and…well the blonde really shouldn't be all that surprised this was her response. So she shrugged, "Someone has to figure out what's going on there and obviously I can't use the usual channels. Not only do they have over half the force on their payroll, but they lawyer up the second they feel someone looking at them. I'd never get close."

Catherine eyed the coffee in Emma's hands with disapproval. "Did you sleep at all last night?"

The cop's sheepish grin was answer enough, and Cat's stare narrowed as she asked, "When was the last time you ate something?"

Emma opened her mouth to give a snappy response of 'This morning thank-you-very-much' before snapping her lips shut. She hadn't eaten that morning…or last night for that matter. Uneasily chuckling as she rubbed the back of her neck she admitted, "Um…I had a bag of popcorn the other night."

She barely dodged the redhead's hand coming around to smack her head, "Hey! I get into work and forget sometimes!"

"Your self-preservation is shit you know that right?" Her friend stated dryly, sipping at her own hot chocolate. How the woman could drink cocoa in the middle of June Emma had no idea, it was just one of her quirks.

The blonde smirked, "What self-preservation?"

Cat' was unimpressed, "I know you won't listen to me if I try to talk you out of it but just text me so I know you're alive. Or if you need bail."

The redhead snorted into her drink, "That'll be a first, bailing out a cop."

Emma glared for a brief moment before shrugging with the beginnings of a sly grin, "Maybe, if your Italian boy-toy will allow you out of the bedroom. Frankly I'm surprised you were able to get away for this long. Tire him out enough last night?"

The redhead's cheeks soon matched her hair and this time the cop wasn't fast enough to dodge the swipe aimed at her. "You shut it or we'll have to find you a boyfriend."

Emma laughed, leaning back and slouching in her seat slightly as she threw her friend a wink, "Honey you know I don't do boyfriends, but if you're looking to distract me for a night or two feel free to send an Italian my way. Those men are studs, not that you don't already know that from extensive experience."

Ah it was so easy to get her far more conservative friend blushing, and oh so entertaining. It was true though, she had seen less of Cat since her thing with her boyfriend started getting serious, the level of which Emma had no desire or time for. Really, she was a cop, her work was her life, relationships fell by the wayside. Which left the brief flings to satisfy the need and that worked well enough for her. Romance was meant for other people.

The conversation went downhill fast from there before moving onto other things and soon enough it was time to part ways, with Emma promising to at least attempt to keep herself alive and out of jail whenever she went through with her hair-brained plan. Now it was just a matter of working out the details.

That…was not her strong suit. The blonde was far more a 'just do it and see what happens' kind of person, her planning ahead consisted of a general 'get from point A to point B'. But breaking into Abstergo was no simple task, so Emma spent the next several days scoping it out and working on her plan for entry. The place was solid and secured at all times of the day, it was going to be tricky, but the cop had a few ideas.

If her partner noticed she was quieter than usual he made no comment on it.

A week later, a car pulled from the junkyard (paid in cash of course and handled with gloves) was parked on the sloped road a block from the front of the building, sketchy brakes the only thing holding it from rolling uncontrolled down the hill. Emma herself wasn't entirely sure how well this would work but it should do the trick to get her into the building and that was all she really cared about at this point.

Using binoculars, she checked and ensured the front area of the building was clear of visible people. The oncoming road was likewise clear (as it tended to be at two in the morning), and with a silent crossing of her fingers, Emma knocked the car into neutral and jumped out of its way. It cruised down the hill, bumping off the curb a few times as it picked up speed. Missing a power pole by a hair, it sailed past the potential obstacles and slammed home into the glass doors of Abstergo, sending off alarms and people running about in confusion as shards flew every which way. Perfect.

Not two minutes later her radio cackled to life and units were dispatched to respond; she was off duty of course, but whoever notices one more uniform wandering around? She waited until the patrol cars arrive, and even then she gave them a handful more moments until at least five other officers were floating to and from, trying to figure out exactly what had happened and where the nonexistent driver was. Only then did she slip onto the scene. No one paid her any attention. Not the security of the company that couldn't tell one cop from another and not from the uniforms that simply assumed she'd been in the area and came to help out.

Slipping into an empty hallway, she made her way deeper and higher into the building, not entirely sure exactly what she was looking for or where to find it, but trusting her gut to lead her in the right direction. Her ploy had effectively cleared out not only the first but parts of the second and third floors. It wasn't until the fourth that she had to duck into a storage room to avoid being seen, and on the fifth she had to hold her breath and it was still by luck she slipped by.

A company like Abstergo left the bottom floors for its more public work, the upper floors, however, would house the more secretive parts that to a cop, was buried in pricey lawyers.

If they had anything to do with people getting snatched off the streets however, Emma wasn't about to sit around and wait for that losing battle. Avoiding cameras and people alike, she made it to the eighth floor before finding her way blocked.

"Damn it." She hissed to herself, the eye scanner and keypad an unexpected obstacle. The ninth floor and above was cut off, and she wasn't prepared tonight to attempt to break through it.

With a light huff she turned back to the previous floor, hoping there would be some evidence against this company she could use in order to get past the lawyers and gain access to the top floors. There had to be something up here she could use.

Most of the lights were off, only a few illuminating the hall and only a handful of people still floating around. She managed to slip past them, carefully avoiding cameras as she went deeper into the building. Getting out may be a bitch, but she'd worry about that later.

Voices came from down the hall, muffled but getting closer. Emma ducked into an open door and wedged herself between file cabinets, straining her ears to try to make out what they were saying.

With the relatively empty floor, the two men didn't make a strained effort to keep their voices quiet, who else would hear them after all? "Where are we with Subject 17's blood?"

"Getting worse." The other huffed, shuffling papers, "The memories in his DNA are deteriorating faster than we thought, already parts of Ezio's are inaccessible."

The other sounded shocked, "How are we losing that already? Those were some of the strongest!"

Second man paused, and Emma risked a peak to see him glancing around wearily. She quickly ducked back, hoping he hadn't spotted her. For a breath, she thought he had, but then he continued, "There's talk that blood memories are only viable when the subject is alive. New blood from the subject's body is exhibiting the same deterioration, as are the samples we took when he was alive."

The first huffed, "So we will somehow have to find another descendant and hope this one doesn't die in the process."

Emma sucked in a breath at all of this as the two men continued on down the hall and out of hearing range. She couldn't exactly grasp what the hell it was they were talking about, but it sounded a lot like human experimentation, and it was proving lethal. The crazy chick in her apartment was right.

But what the hell did an entertainment business have to experiment that needed blood and caused death?!

Whatever it was, Emma was going to find out.

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"I was told this one was not going to be a problem." A dark-haired man growled as he watched the cop hiding from two employees on the security feed. For the most part she had avoided being caught on camera, but she'd missed the hidden ones put up for just this kind of thing. No one got into Abstergo without being seen at some point, but the fact that she had gotten so far irritated him. Incompetent fools. He could only hope they were bright enough to not discuss confidential information in the open like that, he rather doubted it.

"I'm sorry Sir." A lacky whose name he never bothered to learn stuttered behind him, "She must have slipped past the security working the car accident. She should not have gotten this far."

"And yet she has." Otto snapped, no longer believing what was going on on the first floor was a simple 'accident'. No, there'd been too many inquiries by the police department lately for this to have been an accident. Ballsy, if not incredibly stupid. "I want this dealt with, now."

"Of course, sir." The smaller man bowed, turning to leave before hesitating, "H-how?"

Otto raised his brows at the man, was the answer really not obvious? "B-But sir, there will be a big investigation if a cop is killed, and surely the others downstairs saw her here?"

The man in charge sighed, resisting the urge to pinch his brows. He was surrounded by idiots.

"I don't want you to kill her." He snapped, "Check her finances, most cops can be bought for a low price. If not…"

He paused, letting it hang in the air for a moment. "Do not let her leave, we will figure out what to do with her should the need arise."

The lacky nodded, bowed again and bid a hasty retreat. Otto ignored his exit as his phone rang and he put it to his ear with a brisk, "What?"

The voice on the other end rattled off some new information and his previous sour mood took a turn upwards. He hung up with what passed as his smile, no longer agitated about the turn of the night's events.

No, he was not too angry about this, not when he had a secret project that was ready for testing again, and this unwitting officer had just volunteered herself to be the guinea pig. There would be no use for a bribe now, he mused with a dark smirk, she would not be leaving here tonight, or any other night.

BWD: Whelp, there's the first chapter! I hope it peaks some interest and you'll stick around to give her a shot! My theory with Abstergo is they had the ability to see the ancestral memories through just the blood of their subjects, it was just...a lot harder and spendier, hence the kidnapping descendants. Anyways, please drop a review and let me know what you think!

As for a particular brunette with streaks? Well you may recognize the lovely lady from Topkicker26's fic Nemesis (which she finally posted, woot woot! Seriously, go check it out, Federico Auditore gets some much needed love from a sassy lady). And the red-headed Cat is of course the one and only TM Wolf's Chronos OC. Fun cameos because our trio wouldn't exist without each other and because reasons. :D