Clay Kaczmarek

"Why do we have these gifts, these abilities? Because it's in our blood! [&hellip;] The seeds were planted as two worlds became one. Behold the Assassins, the children of two worlds!"

- Subject 16

Subject 16 was an individual who was kidnapped by Abstergo Industries and forced into the Animus before Desmond Miles. A descendant of both Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze, he was also related to Desmond Miles. It is also known that he had an ancestor at the Battle of Gettysburg, in the Roman forum and connected with a Queen Isabella.

Life at Abstergo
The individual known only as Subject 16 was an Assassin captured by the Templar-fronted organization Abstergo Industries for use in the genetic memory recall program. Held within the Abstergo Laboratory at all times by Warren Vidic, 16 was kept connected to the Animus for dangerously long periods, sometimes even days at a time. This led to 16 suffering from a severe condition known as the "Bleeding Effect."

Suffering the bleeding effect, 16 began to explore the memories of his ancestors without the use of the Animus, however his inability to actually control these visions forced Subject 16 into a downward spiral of insanity, eventually culminating in his alleged suicide.

Before this event, Subject 16 was forced by Abstergo to explore the memories of an ancestor named Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who the Templars knew had located the Vault during his lifetime. 16 never relived the memories of his ancestor visiting the Vault. Draining his body of its blood to paint several cryptic messages upon the floor and walls of the Abstergo Laboratory, 16 allegedly committed suicide to prevent the Templars reaching their goals.

Legacy
Following his alleged death, the Templars were left without the location of the Vault, but the knowledge that an ancestor of Ezio’s - Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad - had once held a Piece of Eden. Knowing this, Abstergo kidnapped yet another descendant of Ezio and Altaïr, Desmond Miles. During his incarceration, Desmond spoke often with Dr. Vidic’s assistant Lucy Stillman about many things including his predecessor, then accessing private e-mails in-between Animus sessions, he learned even more. Later still, following Desmond’s escape from Abstergo and the beginning of his journeys through the memories of Ezio, the Assassins learned that Subject 16 had managed to hack the Abstergo Animus before his death, and placed twenty encrypted files, called glyphs, throughout the Animus' rendering of the memories. These hacks were saved onto the Abstergo Animus' memory core, which Lucy had taken in order to gain details and memory sequences on Ezio, and from there, onto Rebecca Crane's Animus 2.0.

After decrypting all twenty files, the Assassins were rewarded with a genetic memory dated "date classified BCE." The video, shows two free-runners climbing a large glass structure, Piece of Eden in hand; before referring to one another as Adam and Eve. The video also shows humans working for Those Who Came Before.

Subject 16's puzzles return in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in the form of Cluster puzzles hidden in Rifts. After completing the puzzles, a video reveals the message "The miracle is in the execution," suggesting that (unlike the video hidden in the previous game) the Cluster puzzles instead concealed an executable file. Upon accessing it, Desmond will then be uploaded to an unknown area within the Animus, where he is free to run through a somewhat long virtual maze similar to those within the Animus Virtual Training Program. At the end of the maze, Desmond finds a hologram (partially broken and made of computing code) of Subject 16, who tells Desmond that all hope is lost, and to go to Eden to find a woman named Eve. Before leaving, he tells Desmond to "find [him]...in the darkness."

Dialogue
After completing the virtual maze

Desmond: Subject 16?

Subject 16: [laughs] Yes, yes, Subject 17.

Desmond: ''You’re dead. I saw your blood!''

Subject 16: ''No time. It is far later than you know. Too late to save them.''

Desmond: Who?

Subject 16: ''She is not who you think she is. Everything you hope to become, everything you hold dear, it’s already gone.''

Desmond: ''Explain. Please.''

Subject 16: ''Eden. She... in Eden. Find Eve. The Key. Her DNA ''

Desmond: Tell me!

Subject 16: ''I cannot... The sun... Your son... Too weak... Must replenish energy...''

Desmond: Don’t go!

Subject 16: ''I am with you 'til the end. Find me, in the darkness.''

Trivia

 * In the non-canon Assassin’s Creed - French Graphic Novel, Subject 16 is shown to be alive, and is referred to as "Michael."
 * Many of the Glyphs have minor, hidden messages in them. All of the decoded ones are stated in the Glyphs page.
 * The achievement/trophy for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood titled ".. .- -- .- .-.. .. ...- ." translates to "I AM ALIVE." This achievement/trophy is earned by solving all of Subject 16's puzzles.