Assassins in Gaia

Desmond came around to the feeling of someone prodding his face. He opened his eyes to see Ace looking at him, waiting for him to get up. He got up feeling cold, thankfully he was still in his hoodie, pants, was that a sweater inside? And of course, his assassin blades which were still on him. He looked around and saw he or rather they were in a forest covered in snow.

Desmond frowned not recognizing the area, "Where are we?"

Ace hummed, "We are on a different world, planet, universe, etc, whatever you may call it. In a mountainous snowy region. I checked the area, we are safe from any wild creatures so don't worry about being attacked. Oh, and there is a village down there where we can ask for help and figure out where we are."

Desmond gave a deadpan, "You did not research this place, did you?"

Ace shrugged, "I figured, you would want to do stuff on your own, instead of just listening to everything I say."

Desmond sighed not denying it, "I guess so. Shall we?"

Ace got up and held Desmond's hand looking like a kid. Desmond stared at the being only realizing now how much different he was compared to before. He decided to walk and talk, from the looks of it, it would be a while till they reached the settlement.

Desmond cleared his throat, "I got a few questions for you."

Ace grinned, "Shoot."

Desmond, "How do you look human?"

Ace hummed, "Ah! About that, I may or may not have given up my immortal body for a mortal one? That's the bet way to put it."

Desmond's eyebrow rose, "That's actually possible?"

Ace looked up at him, "I lived long enough to figure out how. It was not easy mind you and not to forget painful and I'm not sure, I'm completely human either. I still have all my knowledge and some of my abilities. Also it may be because we took over our alternate selves in this world."

Desmond stopped, "What? Is that wise?"

Ace huffed, "Don't worry, they had already died before I commenced the take over. It was one of the conditions for a new beginning. There are other more complicated ones but they aren't really important in the long run. Also, I must warn you this world has monsters."

Desmond tilted his head, "Humans are capable of being monsters."

Ace shook his head, "No! No! I mean real living monsters like dragons, swamp monsters, slime monsters, etc."

Desmond looked at him dubiously, "I... That's interesting to note. How do people handle them? There are humans in this world right?"

Ace nodded, "Yes, they learn to fight them and once the monsters are defeated they scavenge the creature for parts or if they are really lucky get some sort of treasure. Think of it like isekai like in those Japanese manga or transmigration like in Chinese novels."

Desmond snorted, "I see... So basically monster hunting is equal to treasure hunting. Yeah, I think I get the appeal, sort of, maybe."

Ace looked at Desmond, "You have the skills of an Assassin, I bet you could take them on too, if you wanted. I didn't take your assassin skills away you know. Only your age."

Desmond, "What do you mean?"

Ace giggled, "You are younger or your alternate self is, you could say. You are seventeen again."

Desmond hummed stretching his muscles, "Oh? Interesting! Thank you for that."

Ace, "You are welcome."

Desmond sighed in relief at the lack of pain, before asking another question, "What about money? I figure, we'll be staying there for a while. We would need money right?"

Ace smirked, "Don't worry I noticed you had five hundred dollars in your wallet. I changed it to fifteen thousand Gil and added it to the other three thousand your alternate self had making a total of eighteen thousand Gil. It should be enough to stay for a month or two with food and laundry."

Desmond checked his wallet which was conveniently in a bag that had some warm clothes and a personal diary, "That's a weird design for money. But, I guess, till we get something going we are good. Cool, my name is the same here too. Well, at least I won't have to worry about a new name. Huh, came here looking for family. How curious! What about you Ace?"

Ace took out his own papers from his bag, that Desmond could have sworn was not there before, "Mine is Ace Miles. I'm your half brother according to this and twelve years old apparently."

Desmond shrugged, "Works for me.. And something tells me, we will be meeting more family members if we can find them that is. According to this diary of his or mine in this world, our father had a brother here somewhere and he had a family. But he has no idea what happened to him. He also worked for a company called Shinra Electric Power Company?"

Ace, "What a mouthful!"

Desmond, "It sort of is..."

Ace looked thoughtful, "Maybe their kid, I mean our cousin, will have the eagle vision like you?"

Desmond looked at Ace, "Okay, now I know you did something more. What did you do?"

Ace grinned, "I may have used my reality altering abilities a little bit to make sure you had a family here?"

Desmond gave a look, "Seriously?"

Ace huffed, "I was bored ok? I did nothing back in our world accept listen to ridiculous monologues and get stored away like a trinket. A Trinket!!! Do you have any idea how insulting it is?"

Desmond placated him, "I can imagine."

Ace grumbled, "Anyway, unlike our original world though none of these guys figured out how to activate it, nor do they know they have it."

Desmond, "You are explaining that in detail to me later. And if we were close to a kid with the vision can you recognize them?"

Ace perked up, "If we run into him first.. Sure!"

They kept walking till they reached a clearing when Desmond heard a rustling. Desmond grabbed Ace and pulled him to stand behind him. He looked around and didn't see anything out of place. Ace looked at him and mouthed, 'it's too quiet.', making Desmond nod and move carefully across the clearing. As they were almost at the end, something darted towards them to attack. Desmond and Ace moved away when they were about to be hit by a purple attack.

Desmond blinked surprised, "Woah there! Wait, what am I looking at? What is that thing? Things? Looks like a Frankenstein bat!"

Ace gave a disgusted look, "It probably is. So ugly too. We gonna fight?"

Desmond shrugged, "Looks like we have no choice. The three of them are blocking the way to the village after all."

Ace nodded, "Yeah, we are battling, I guess. I can manipulate the snow to blind them while you decapitate them?"

Desmond activated his eagle vision, "Sounds good, let's do this."

Ace used his manipulation abilities to lift the snow to cover one of the weird bat like creatures head that decided to attack them first, while Desmond stabbed it in the neck to kill it. The other two started to attack him but Ace distracted them as well by forming snowballs and hitting them on target. The two screeched at Ace and started to attack him but Desmond got behind them and before they could reach Ace slit their throats open effectively killing them.

Desmond deactivated his eagle vision, "Well not bad for a first timer. Right Ace."

Ace who was out of breath and sitting on the forest floor, "Yeah I guess."

Desmond frowned and walked over to him, "Are you okay? You look pale."

Ace waved it off, "Just exhausted. I don't have an unlimited power source anymore. I would have to train this body to be stronger and last longer..... What's that?"

Desmond looked at what Ace was pointing at and went to pick up a very curious looking ball and some Gil that fell from the monster. It made Desmond's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Where had they gotten the money? More importantly, where were the monsters carrying it? The ball shined brightly when he touched it, making Desmond make a weird face at it. He looked it over, up and under. Accept for the curious 3D design and peculiar shine there seemed to be nothing odd or dangerous about it. It glowed many shades of green in his eagle vision. He gave it to Ace after making sure it was not anything dangerous and sat down beside him.

Desmond murmured, "It's cute, but I could have sworn I heard it say hello."

Ace looked at the ball, "Ah! I heard it say hello too. I may not have learned much about the planet but I did learn about these objects called Materia. I think that's what this little guy is called."

Desmond lifted an eyebrow, "What's Materia? Some sort of collectible or something? Or the jewel equivalent of this world?"

Ace paused, "Jewel equivalent? Perhaps but it's definitely more valuable than a mere jewel. And it's also used as one of the primary support or attack weapons I believe. Let's see."

Ace fiddled with the Materia, he sent some of his energy into it, feeling for the power inside. He was greeted by the power really happily. It cured his exhaustion and he promptly got up from where he was sitting alarming Desmond. Ace though ignored the look and moved around.

Ace held the green Materia in wonder, "I think, this is a healing Materia. It heals your ailments."

Desmond looked impressed, "That's pretty neat and useful. Wish we had these in our world. Would have made things easier."

Ace gave him a look, "Somehow, I really doubt that it would have made any difference."

Desmond snorted shaking his head, "Yeah, if it did exist, the Assassins and Templars would have hoarded it like a bunch of lunatics. Maybe it is better off not existing in our home world."

Ace, "I do not think I even want to imagine how the fights would have turned out, if it did."

Desmond got up, "Yup... Shall we continue our journey? Show me how to use that as well. `i have a feeling you already know."

Ace nodded grinning, "Sure do. And why not... Once we get somewhere safe, I will show you how to use it."

The two of them continued down the mountain. Desmond was truly curious how things will turn out for them in the future. They were in a different world where apparently Ace decided to meddle for a while. And he had or rather his alternate self had a family here that he wanted to meet. He was honestly speaking a little wary of the monsters but had a feeling he would be okay.