Juno (Assassin's Creed)

"A hundred years I might speak and still you would not know us. You with five senses. Us with six. The one we kept from you. To be safe. Now, you can never know. Only try. Grasp. You can SEE. SMELL. TASTE. TOUCH. HEAR. Knowledge has been blocked away. After, when the world became undone, we tried to pass it through the blood. Tried to join you with us. You see the blue shimmer. You hear the words. But you do not know. WE SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU AS YOU WERE. It is hard to stay contained. Knowing as we do. We wait for you Desmond. You will come here. You will activate us. You will know only when it is too late."

- Juno addressing Desmond in the Collosseum Vault in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Juno is a recurring antagonist in the Assassin's Creed video game series. She is one of the surviving members of the First Civilization (also known as "Those Who Came Before") and serves as a member of the Capitoline Triad, along with Minerva and Jupiter.

She first appears briefly in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and has a much bigger role in Assassin's Creed III.

Gathering information
During the rage of the Human-First Civilization War, Juno was among those who avoided the fighting. Along with Jupiter and Minerva, she built several temples underground, safe from the war, in which to research methods of salvation from the impending catastrophe. The findings of each vault were sent to a single location, the Grand Temple.

Juno remained in the Grand Temple with Jupiter and Minerva to sort through the possible solutions and test those that they found encouraging. They evaluated six in succession, finding each progressively more promising. During this time, Juno developed a hatred towards humans, and began making plans to take over the world. Finding out about this, Minerva and Jupiter imprisoned Juno, hoping to keep the world safe.

In time, Minerva found the final solution, one with the potential to save the world. Using an object called the "Eye", they would manipulate the patterns of existence and stop the solar flare. However, Juno tampered with the patterns, so as to release her from her prison while stopping the flare. Minerva thought it better to let the disaster occur, instead of releasing Juno. The catastrophe struck, killing nearly all of the First Civilization and humankind.

Reaching into the Future
Sometime during or prior to the 18th century, the Kanien'kehá:ka found one of the First Civilization artefacts known as a Crystal Ball. The Clan Mother used this to communicate with "spirits" of First Civilization members. When the Clan Mother allowed Ratonhnhaké:ton to communicate with the spirit, in an attempt to dissuade him from leaving the tribe's sacred ground, he met with Juno. Juno gave him access to the Nexus, where she claimed probabilities were calculated and the right path chosen. She convinced him to join the Assassins in an attempt to retrieve the amulet from Haytham Kenway and prevent the Templars from gaining access to the Grand Temple.

Once Ratonhnhaké:ton had defeated the Templars and gained the amulet, she made him hide it where supposedly no one could find it.

Enlisting aid
After experiencing long sessions in the Animus, Clay Kaczmarek had begun suffering from the Bleeding Effect, and became confused with the division of his genetic memories from his actual ones as a result.

Around this time, Juno approached him, introducing herself and telling Clay she had "come to show [him] the way." Some time after, Clay claimed to be able to see "what has been, what will be."

Juno acknowledged him, saying that what he needed to do was clear, and that he should help Desmond Miles. In response, Clay blatantly refused, but Juno only said that her message had waited thousands of years and that its promise would be fulfilled. When Clay's eyes were opened to the truth of Lucy Stillman's allegiance to the Templars, he consented to Juno's request, committing suicide and writing messages with his own blood on the walls of the Abstergo lab, though not before storing his own consciousness in the Animus. He later helped Desmond while he was trapped in the Black Room.

Balancing the scales
uno appeared four times as a holographic form to Desmond Miles, a modern day Assassin, as he passed through the Santa Maria in Aracoeli, in search of the vault hidden within it. However, none of the others who had accompanied Desmond were aware of her presence.

Juno spoke to him of the vaults and her people, before elaborating on the warning Minerva had previously relayed to Ezio Auditore da Firenze in 1499; though her tone was noticeably more hostile towards humanity. Calling man ignorant, Juno spoke of the blending of the bloodlines between human and First Civilization – a line from which Desmond descended – and angrily regretted that they should have left mankind as it was.

When Desmond, Lucy Stillman, Shaun Hastings, and Rebecca Crane reached the Apple of Eden within the vault, Juno spoke to Desmond one final time. Saying that the "final journey" had commenced, she told him of a woman who would accompany him, but first, the path needed to be opened and the scales balanced. With that, Juno ruthlessly influenced Desmond through the Apple, showing him visions of Lucy's inevitable betrayal, and of the failure of the Eye-Abstergo. Then she forced him to stab Lucy, ensuring that the Apple would remain with Desmond.

The Grand Temple
After Desmond recovered from the coma induced by Juno's actions, he along with Rebecca, Shaun and his father William Miles, arrived at the Grand Temple. Upon approaching the inner parts of the building, Juno's voice reached out to Desmond, urging him to find "the key". As a result, Desmond lapsed into a fugue state of the Bleeding Effect, and was placed back into the Animus by his father for his safety. Due to Juno's message, Desmond began to search through the memories of his ancestors, Haytham Kenway and Ratonhnhaké:ton, looking for the key.

In his breaks from the Animus, Desmond explored the Temple and came face to face with Juno multiple times. In each meeting, she detailed the six ways in which the First Civilization tried to stop the impending doomsday, including using the Pieces of Eden to will the threat away and transferring themselves to new bodies for protection. The latter revealed that Juno once had a husband by the name of Aita who she was forced to kill, after the transfer into the machine-like bodies malfunctioned. Desmond also received numerous e-mails from Juno, expressing her anxiety over finding the key and urging him to hurry. In a few e-mails, she expressed her distaste for humans, although she later said that she was speaking so because of the long time she had been there.

After finally uncovering the location of the key, the Assassins were able to enter the inner chambers of the Temple. It was here that Juno appeared again, requesting Desmond to touch a pedestal-like device in order to protect the world from the solar flares. However, Minerva also appeared in this chamber and revealed Juno's true intentions.

Minerva explained how and why Juno had been imprisoned, and said that if Desmond activated the pedestal, Juno would be freed to try and do the same again. She also explained how Desmond would be killed by the Eye. Juno tried to reason with Desmond about the fate of the world, urging him to use the device lest history repeat itself again. He ultimately agreed despite Minerva's pleas, for the good of the planet. Whilst the other Assassins escaped, Desmond touched the pedestal and was killed by the device as Earth was saved, suffering only minor solar flares and its effects. Now freed from her prison, Juno thanked Desmond for playing his part, before stating that it was "now time that [she] played [hers]."