Daniel Cross

"You never kill an innocent, that's the first rule! Didn't you learn anything? [&hellip;] You're an Assassin."

- Anna, to a confused Daniel Cross

Daniel Cross was an ex-convict and recovering drug and alcohol addict during the late 20th Century. Unknown to him at the time, he was also a descendant of an Assassin – Nikolai Orelov.

Mysterious visions
At one point Daniel Cross was ordered by the courts to regularly visit a psychiatrist to help him deal with his vivid hallucinations and criminal tendencies. During one visit, Cross refused to take his prescribed drugs consistently and instead visited a local bar. There he tried, unsuccessfully, to proposition several women before vomiting into a toilet. He began to have another hallucination of a white robed man in Russia named Nikolai Orelov and stumbled out the back door of the bar.

Cross was stopped by a man who asks if he is okay. Daniel, thinking he was still Orelov, very nearly stabbed him and accused him of being a Templar. Fortunately he was stopped by Hannah Mueller, who pulled him into a car driven by another man and revealed to him that he was an Assassin.

Meeting the Order
Hannah took Daniel to an Assassin camp, where they met with a senior member of the Order by the name of Paul Bellamy. Bellamy showed Daniel Cross his ring, featuring the Assassin Order symbol, matching a tattoo of the symbol on Cross' arm.

Daniel proceeded to return again to Nikolai's memories in Russia. Upon being questioned by Bellamy, Cross told him that he was leaving and when two other Assassins attempted to stop him, Daniel disabled both of them and was about to kill them before Bellamy put his hidden blade to Cross' neck.

Back in his room, Cross told Hannah that he had to get out of the compound to get his medication. Hannah gave him a white hoodie similar to ones worn by other Assassins and the two of them went to Daniel's apartment. Realizing that there was no medication left, he threw himself on the couch and he and Hannah began to discuss the order.

She told him that she was a computer expert and that the Mentor, the head of the Assassins, planned on rigging the next election so that the Assassins choice would win. She explained to him that the world would be a really scary place without the Order. The conversation went back to his hallucinations and Daniel revealed that an image kept sticking in his mind and drew a picture of it in the fog on his window: the Staff.

Finding a purpose
Paul Bellamy bursted through the door and Daniel collapsed on the couch, in the midst of another vision. Bellamy revealed that another Assassin, Bill Miles, informed him that a small Assassin team in Russia was sent to destroy the Staff in 1908 and there was only one survivor who disappeared and possibly ended up in America: Cross' great-grandfather, Nikolai Orelov.

Bellamy then realized that Cross was having another vision, then asked Cross to tell him what it was about, but before he got an answer, Cross punched him in the face and ran up the to the roof with Hannah and Bellamy in persuit. Daniel's memories began to meld with Nikolai's due to the Bleeding Effect and he saw Nikolai and his team raiding the Templar stronghold where The Staff was held in 1908.

When Nikolai touches the staff in his vision, Cross begins to see visions from The Staff: a voice talking about Adam and Eve, an ancient temple, The Apple, a satellite, and a shadowy man saying "come closer Daniel, so we may meet properly". He then collapsed on the ground and Bellamy and Hannah ran to his side. Cross told them what he saw and that he now knew what he had to do: Find the Mentor.

Trivia

 * His first name "Daniel" means "Judgment of God" or "God's Judgment" in Hebrew.
 * It has been revealed by the developers of the comic that Daniel will play "a significant role" in the story of Desmond Miles, although any facts about this particular role of his have not yet been revealed despite the second issue of The Fall being out.