Clay Kaczmarek

"What is a man but the sum of his memories? We are the stories we live! The tales we tell ourselves!"

- Subject 16.

Clay Kaczmarek (1982 - 2012), also known as Subject 16 of the Animus Project, was an individual who had been kidnapped by Abstergo Industries and forced to relive his ancestors' memories in the Animus.

After his alleged suicide, Clay continued to exist as an AI recreation of his personality within the Animus. As such, he was able to manipulate much of the Animus' programming from within to aid another Animus subject, Desmond Miles.

Biography
"Though the specific symptoms may vary from subject to subject, the end result is the same: they lose their minds. This is what I believe happened to Subject Sixteen."

- Lucy, in an e-mail to Warren.

Clay was captured by the Templar-owned organization Abstergo Industries for use in the genetic memory program. Held within the Abstergo laboratory by Dr. Warren Vidic, Clay was kept connected to the Animus for dangerously long periods, sometimes even days at a time. This led to him severely suffering from a condition known as the "Bleeding effect."

Through this Bleeding effect, Clay began to explore the memories of his ancestors without the use of the Animus; but his inability to control these visions forced him into a downward spiral of insanity, eventually culminating in his evident suicide.

Before this event, Clay was forced to explore the memories of his ancestor Ezio Auditore, who the Templars knew had located the Vault during his lifetime. However, he was never able to relive the desired memory. Clay made an artificially intelligent construct of himself inside the Animus, splitting it into twenty-four pieces to be united by his successor. The next day, Clay killed himself by draining his body of blood, in order to paint several cryptic messages in the rooms where he was being kept, hoping to prevent the Templars from reaching their goals.

The Truth
"He'd be able to explain the whole thing to us. If only we could ask him."

- Lucy, after seeing the Truth.

Following the escape of Desmond Miles from Abstergo and the beginning of his journey through the memories of Ezio, the Assassins learned that Clay had managed to hack the Abstergo Animus before his death, and had placed twenty Glyphs throughout the Animus system, which were subsequently rendered in the visual memories. These encrypted files, which had been saved onto the Abstergo Animus' memory core that Lucy had stolen, were later unknowingly transferred to Rebecca Crane's Animus 2.0.

After decrypting all twenty files, the Assassins were rewarded with a genetic memory marked "date classified BCE." The video showed two free-runners, primordial Adam and Eve, climbing a large glass structure with an Apple of Eden in hand.

The Miracle
"Everything you hope to become, everything you hold dear, it’s already gone."

- Clay's hologram to Desmond.

It was later discovered that Clay had left ten more glyphs, which corresponded with locations in Renaissance Rome. Upon visiting these indicated landmarks, Desmond discovered several Rifts in the Animus programming.

Within each, Desmond solved a Cluster puzzle, which then unlocked a piece of a file. Upon compiling them, they revealed a distorted video with the message "The miracle is in the execution," suggesting that, unlike the video hidden in the Glyphs, the Rifts instead concealed an executable file.

Upon accessing it, Desmond found himself in an unknown area within the Animus, and was able to run through a long virtual maze, similar to those within the Animus Virtual Training Program.

At the end of the maze, he found a hologram of Clay, partially broken and made of computing code, who told Desmond that all hope was lost, and that he needed to go to Eden to find a woman named Eve. Before vanishing, Clay told Desmond to find him in the darkness.

This proved to be the first indication of Clay's AI presence in the Animus. Though physically dead, his "essence" had been absorbed into the system, allowing him to interact with the users, and act as a third person spectator; effectively letting him see everything that went on inside the Animus.

Black Room
Soon after he had fallen into a coma and was returned to the Animus to support his mental state, Desmond woke to meet Clay in the Black Room, a safe mode of the Animus' software. Here, Clay explained where they were, and offered advice on how to escape; telling Desmond that he needed to create a Sync Nexus and clearly separate his memories from Ezio's and Altaïr's.

Clay also mentioned that the Animus would resist his attempts to view further genetic memories and keep pulling Desmond back into the simulated island they were in - the designated compartment for Desmond's consciousness. However, Clay said that he would help prevent the Animus from noticing him "wandering" into the outside partitions of memory, just in case it concluded Desmond to be a virus.

At one point, as Desmond worked to return to his body, Clay asked him if he could come with him, perhaps until he could have a body of his own. As Desmond hesitantly declined, Clay admitted that he was not surprised, and that perhaps he had wasted his only chance.

On another re-entrance to the island, Clay asked Desmond if he had ever regretted anything in his life. After Desmond admitted that he had wished he had been more patient with his parents, whom he had run away from, and that he wished things would have turned out different with Lucy, Clay simply thanked Desmond for making sense before vanishing.

While Desmond had come close to completing the Synch Nexus, the Animus began to attempt to rectify the intrusions he had been causing in other memories. As it began to delete the Black Room and all of its contents, Clay grabbed onto Desmond and threw him out of the room, saving Desmond's life.

Legacy
Following Clay's death, the Templars were left without the location of the Vault; though they had gained the knowledge that another Assassin, Altaïr, had once held a certain Piece of Eden that could help them find it. Thus, Abstergo kidnapped a descendant of Altaïr, Desmond Miles, who they labelled Subject 17.

By accessing private e-mails between Animus sessions, Desmond discovered an email Lucy had written to Dr. Vidic, which detailed the Bleeding effect, and explained how it was connected to Clay. She expressed her concern in pushing the Animus subjects too hard; however, the email was never replied to, and was evidently deleted shortly after it was received.

Also, through the files unlocked in the glyphs Clay had created within the Animus, Desmond was able to learn many things about the Templar Order, both in the past and in his own time.

Ancestry
Clay Kaczmarek had a rich and varying ancestry, which quickly caught the attention of Abstergo Industries. Kaczmarek was most notably a direct descendant of Adam, who was the first human alongside Eve who rose in rebellion against the First Civilization. As Adam was a child of both a human and a member of the First Civilization, Clay had a notable concentration of First Civilization genes in his blood.

Clay also had ancestors in ancient Africa, in the forum and in the Far East. His ancestry also reached out to the House of Auditore, founded by Domenico Auditore in the early 14th century. His Auditore bloodline ended with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, as Clay's next ancestor was an illegitimate child. One of his ancestors was also connected with an unknown Queen Isabella, and his most recent known ancestor took part in the Battle of Gettysburg in the United States.

Personality and characteristics
Clay was shown to be a sarcastic and witty man, usually speaking of his dire situation with cynical humor. In the initial stages of the Bleeding effect, he proved to be driven, even as his sanity began to crumble. Later on, his perception of reality and identity began to falter and switch between past lives, and he began speaking in riddles and cryptic clues. However, he kept his motivations to the end, even sacrificing his own life to reveal the Truth.

Despite his own situation of being trapped in the Animus, as well as his occasional lapses of depression from his lost chances, Clay willingly helped Desmond regain his body and repair his subconscious; despite not being able to do so himself.

Trivia
ancestry. Clay has a striking resemblance with Darim
 * In the Assassin's Creed French comic, Clay is referred to as "Michael." However, the graphic novel is not considered canon in this respect, as it directly contradicts the events of the games.
 * The achievement in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood entitled ".. .- -- .- .-.. .. ...- ." (Morse code for "I AM ALIVE") is earned by solving all Cluster puzzles. The achievement badge consists of the Morse code ". -....", which means "16".
 * Clay took the place of Shaun Hastings as the writer of Database articles in Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
 * Clay's surname Kaczmarek is of Polish origin, hinting that he may be of Polish