Desmond had been losing touch with reality for awhile.

Everyone noticed. He knew they noticed, they just chose not to say anything. They chose to play along.

Of course, he was told to expect some Bleeding. To expect strange visions of Altaïr and Ezio and occasionally other ancestors he wasn't familiar with.

It started with just flashes; someone standing in his peripheral vision, who when he turned, wasn't actually there. He kept quiet. Didn't mention it to anyone, not even Lucy. It wasn't so bad. He could handle a few shadows. Besides, he knew that if he said anything that they would change, treat him differently.

Desmond didn't want that. He'd run away from The Farm for a reason; for a chance to get away from all this craziness and to be normal. Though it's not like he ever had much of a chance to be normal considering that he was constantly watching his back, trying to make sure he wouldn't be found by both Templar and Assassins alike.

It progressed though. Eventually, the ghosts stopped disappearing when Desmond turned his head. They wouldn't stay long though; just kind of wavered before fading from his view. After a few weeks, Desmond began to see the ghosts walking around and talking to nothing. Sometimes if it was Altaïr or Ezio, he'd see them going through the motions of a memory he'd lived through in the Animus.

It was strange to see his ancestors face to face, even though it wasn't real. It was a change from always seeing everything from their eyes in the Animus. It was somewhat relieving to just be able to watch them go through the motions, to just observe and not have to actually carry out the assassination. It was nice to not have his ancestor's weight on his shoulders along with his own. He had enough problems as it was, trying to save the world and all. Trying to adapt to this way of life that he'd already abandoned once before.

Lucy, Shaun and Rebecca may not have noticed when they were merely shadows in the corner of his eye, but they certainly noticed when he got distracted by Ezio strutting across the room or when Altaïr would do a leap of faith and fall down through the ceiling and disappear into the floor.

They still didn't say anything. Probably too afraid. Afraid that Desmond would snap like Subject 16 or that he would stop using the Animus.

Desmond didn't say anything either. And he was fine with that. He'd been on his own for a long time.

I gasped for breath, jolting upwards into a sitting position before curling into myself, holding my head between my legs in a feeble attempt to shield my eyes from the blinding, glitchy whiteness that surrounded me inside the Animus.

Last thing I remembered was running around as Ezio, gathering information for the next assassination. And now I was here in the loading room of the Animus. Except it wasn't. It normally wasn't this fuzzy. It certainly never hurt to be here, even after dying as Altair or Ezio. Yes, he was usually a bit shocked, but never in pain.

I gripped my head before shifting to grasp at my chest over my heart.

'Is this it?' I wondered, 'Is this how I'm going to die? Alone in a machine?'

I blinked rapidly as my surroundings suddenly shifted. It wasn't as blinding though my vision was blurry. I was awake and out of the animus. Lucy was standing above me, saying something rapidly to me that I couldn't understand in my delirium.

I focused on Lucy's face as I began to reconnect with the present. I could hear Rebecca and Shaun screaming, things crashing.

'Are they fighting or something?'

I gave Lucy a confused look. She grabbed me by the arm and hauled me out of Rebecca's Baby before towing me to the door and shoving me out of the room. I turned quickly and looked back at her, trying to understand what was going on.

All I got was the door in my face. I could hear the yelling continue through the door, though now with Lucy's voice added into the mix.

I stood there, dumbly, waiting in front of the door. Hoping someone would come out and tell me what I should be doing.

THUD

I jumped as something slammed against the door. Scrambling backwards, I turned tail and ran upstairs to my room, slamming my bedroom door behind me.

'Well...' I sighed, 'I guess I'll just rest while I have a chance. Too bad I can't get to the kitchen and grab some food though...'

I flopped onto my crappy excuse for a bed and pretended not to hear the sounds coming from downstairs. I turned my head and stared out my barred window, ignoring the imaginary Ezio that was sitting on the sill and talking to someone who was no longer there.

When I woke up it was dark outside. Ezio was no longer on the windowsill, obviously the memory had played to the end and stopped, leaving him to fade back into my mind. Altaïr had replaced him though. He stood stiffly in front of the window, not quite comfortable. I didn't know this memory, though it didn't seem very important considering that nothing was being done or said by Altair, leaving me to assume that the Animus must have skipped over this peaceful interlude.

I shifted on the bed so I could better watch the memory. As I rolled onto my side, Altair turned in my direction. He didn't say anything, but the subtle shift of his hood indicated that he had noticed something.

I just got comfortable and continued to observe, nonplussed by the man at the window, knowing that he's just a figment of my mind. Altaïr eventually turned back to the window and continued staring at whatever it was outside.

I drifted back to sleep.

When I awoke again it was sunrise. I sat up and looked around warily. Normally Lucy would wake me up and we'd start training until it was time for me to return to the Animus. She wasn't here. Altaïr was though. In the same position as he was last night at the window.

I stared at his back, not sure what to do since the Bleeding must have gotten worse due to the fact that Altair hadn't disappeared during the night.

I stood and stretched, passing it off as just an extra long memory of nothing. At some point, Altaïr would be called away by Malik or Al Mualim or a novice and the memory would end and I'd be left in peace for an hour until another ghost returned to take his place.

I made my way out the door and down to the kitchen, my stomach growling a bit due to my lack of food the past day.

Smiling to Rebecca as she shoveled cereal into her mouth, I grabbed the carton of juice and poured myself a glass, taking a seat next to the engineer.

Rebecca gave me a half smile before dumping her bowl into the sink and practically running from the room.

I raised my eyebrows and grabbed a fistful of dry cereal before following her, munching on it as I made my way into the main room.

Rebecca had busied herself with her Baby, fiddling with the computer. I turned to Lucy and took a few steps towards her. She wouldn't make eye contact.

I took a hesitant step back, not sure what I'd done to the two women to make them act so distant with me.

"So..." I trailed off uncertainly, not sure about how to handle the situation, "Do you want me just to get into the Animus?"

Rebecca and Lucy shared a look.

"Baby needs some fine tuning today, Desmond. So take a break." Rebecca didn't turn to face me and continued to mess around with the Animus.

I wasn't buying it but I also wasn't going to complain about taking a day off. So I shrugged and walked across the room, planning on grabbing some more food from the kitchen and hiding myself upstairs in the hopes that I'd be forgiven for whatever transgression I'd made.

"Hold it right there Desmond."

I held back a groan. Shaun had to ruin my day off, but then again, he'd probably tell me what was wrong with the women.

I turned and made my way over to the sarcastic Brit.

"Ladies, I don't think hiding it will help do him any good."

I blinked at Shaun and swiveled my head to look at Lucy and Rebecca across the room. Both stubbornly refusing to get involved with whatever Shaun had in mind for me.

Shaun sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"There's no easy way to put this, and we don't understand what happened at all, but yesterday there was a... malfunction with the Animus."

I stared at him dumbly.

'No shit. I figured that out myself already.' I struggled to hold my tongue and keep my remark to myself; no point in pissing off Shaun since I'd never hear the truth when even Lucy doesn't want to discuss it.

"But to put it simply, and to tone it down for someone with your mental capacity," I rolled my eyes, Shaun was such an asshole, "Altaïr is here. In the present. And we don't know how to send him back to 1191"

I stared at Shaun before raising an eyebrow.

He stared back at me, dead serious. He gestured with his head at something behind me. I half turned, spotting Altaïr in the doorway, and to me he was clearly uncomfortable.

"He doesn't speak much English. And what he does speak is outdated. Probably a few things he picked up in Acre. He speaks decent French, but yet again it is outdated and hard to understand through his accent."

I turned back to Shaun. "So... Arabic then."

He nodded slightly. "We haven't been able to say much to him since none of us here are linguists, but once we got him calmed down..." Shaun snorted here, obviously remembering something that happened yesterday, "he left and went to your room. We thought he was gonna kill you or something, but he just stood there so we let him be."

My eyebrows raised again in disbelief. "And why did you guys practically throw me from the room yesterday? I'm the only one who speaks Arabic and on top of that, I've been him. I know him better than anyone, save himself and maybe Malik."

I could hear shuffling behind me, Malik's name probably tickled Altaïr's interest.

"We didn't know how he'd react." Lucy walked over and brushed against my arm, "We didn't want you getting hurt."

I sighed, tired of being treated as though I was fragile. I turned to face the robed assassin behind me.

"Well... How are you, Altaïr?"

A/N: Sooooo... My first AC fanfic. I've wanted to write one for awhile now but haven't had much time. I don't even know why I'm writing this now anyways since I have cosplay shit to do for my convention next week and I have an AP Biology test tomorrow I should be studying for since I don't want to get as shitty a grade as I usually do.

Don't know how often I'll update this, reviews are appreciated, thanks for reading, blah blah blah. Follow me on tumblr if you want to chat, find me at Lycoris1305. Yep. That's about it.