"It's morning. You may know a lot about me, but I don't know very much about you past what I've gleaned from your thoughts."
...
I finished dressing and dragged a chair up to the side of the bed.
"So... Let's-" I coughed, "Okay, sorry. I forgot; no English. Let's start then. What do you want to know?"
"Why were you in my head"
I leaned back, I'd known that he'd ask this question. I'd just had to find a good, non-creepy, way to answer it.
"So... I uhh..." I scramble for a good way to start explaining, "I grew up on a Farm..."
Altaïr waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, you were a peasant boy who became an assassin. That doesn't explain why you were in my head."
I snarled and snapped back at him, my patience not as large as usual due to my remaining drowsiness.
"If you'd bother to LISTEN, then you'd see how it fits in."
I shook my head and ran a hand through my already mused hair, Altaïr pulled a face at me, obviously not pleased with my tone.
'He's such an stereotypical old man for someone who is technically my age.'
"As I was SAYING, I grew up on a Farm. An assassin farm. It's a modern day version of Masyaf, except a lot less voluntary and open to the public. I was evaluated once I was able to walk and they determined that I was to be an assassin, and my training started then. It didn't matter that I had no desire to be part of the Order; I was forced to train."
Altaïr interrupted me again, "Why not just ask to become a scholar or an informant?"
I shook my head, "Impossible. Nowadays, it's easy to train a scholar and an informant. Assassin's are multitools now, there aren't enough of us to be able to have separate positions. Everyone downstairs? They are all full assassins, even though they choose to focus on their other talents. Shaun might be a scholar, but he is fully capable of completing an assassination."
Altaïr nodded and waved for me to continue.
"But I was really unhappy. I was trapped and I wanted out. I wanted to make decisions for myself for once. So I ran away. Best damn day of my life too. I was pretty happy, but everything changed when the Templars attacked. They dragged me to one of their... bases, I guess you could call it... and made me relive your life from Solomon's Temple until the defeat of Al Mualim in order to discover the location of the other Pieces of Eden."
He pulled another face, clearly unhappy with the information I was giving him.
"Uhm... Should I continue? I am more than happy to stop." This whole conversation was just making me feel awkward and useless. I didn't need a recap of my life so far in order to make me feel like a giant disappointment because I already felt that way to begin with.
"Keep talking." Altaïr bit out angrily. I bit my lip and continued the joyous conversation at hand. Because, you know, everyone likes to have deep, depressing conversations with their ancestors at 6 in the morning.
"They used me to get information from you. Once they were done with me, Lucy managed to rescue me and she brought me here. And now I'm reliving one of your descendants memories. He's also an assassin, a bit... flamboyant though... Hard to believe he wasn't killed off immediately. But I'm relearning the tricks of the trade through him."
"And what is the consequence? Nothing good happens without something bad."
I sighed.
"I bleed. Not literally. You will never see a physical wound on my body, but my mind is slowly breaking. I learn all this information and all these moves, but my mind is ripping itself apart. I see things. People. You and Ezio and many other ancestors whose names are forgotten. I see them walking around, talking to no one. Just shadows of their past selves casually walking around in the present. But no one else can see them except for me. And I suffer for it. I will... Eventually be unable to tell what is real and what is just a shadow. I will go insane and probably end up killing myself."
I barked out a harsh laugh. Feeling like my fate was so ironic considering my desire for freedom. I want to be free, but here I am, trapped in a building helping the people I'd run from for years, as I slowly die as my mind is consumed by the thoughts of others.
"So why don't you stop? Why must you learn through this Ezio? Why not just resume your training?"
"It would take too long. Not like it matters since I'll probably die before I'm of any use."
Altaïr shifted and leaned forward, getting a bit too close to me for comfort.
"Just stop. I will help you."
Altaïr raised a hand. It paused for a moment before resting gently on my face, cradling my cheek.
"I told you, we'll find a way."
I felt my face warm up as I tried to figure out how to take his words. And even more, how to react to the hand on my face. I just sorta stared at Altaïr.
I guess I must have leaned into his hand a bit and freaked him out or something since his hand slipped off my cheek and he stood up.
"That's enough questions for today. I can tell I've made you uncomfortable."
I sat there and looked up at him blankly, still trying to digest everything that just occurred before standing up and joining him.
I absently noted an unnamed assassin doing flips across the ceiling of the room. I stared up at him, watching as his body flew through the ceiling with ease. I felt a pang of longing in my chest. I wanted to be doing that. Well... Not in the ceiling, but outside somewhere.
"Desmond." Altaïr tugged on my hand and pulled me to the window.
"Focus." We stood there together for what seemed like all day, just staring out through the bars of my cage into the dull landscape surrounding my soon to be tomb.
Even when I began to get tired, Altaïr kept his hold on me, eventually releasing my hand to slip an arm around my waist. I wish I could say that I cared, he's my great, great, great grandfather or something and he shouldn't be touching me like this. But really, I was too tired to care. And obviously he cared about me enough to want to stay and help. It was the first time in a long while that someone other than myself cared.
Eventually, Altaïr pulled us away from the window and tugged me downstairs.
Rebecca was fiddling with the animus while Shaun was off in his corner doing Shaun things.
"Desmond, eat breakfast and then get ready to enter the animus. We are already behind schedule due to Altaïr's unexpected appearance."
I looked at Lucy and then at Altaïr, knowing that he really had no clue what she just said to me, but not really sure about what to do.
Altaïr just continued pulling me to the kitchen, so I just gave a sorta nod to Lucy and continued to follow the older man.
I quickly made some eggs and toast for the two of us, and everything was quiet as we ate.
I hesitantly broke the silence, "I'm to enter the animus again once we are done eating."
Altaïr nodded. "I'll watch."
I felt a stab of betrayal in my chest. 'He said he was going to help, but instead he's letting me continue without any complaints!'
I quickly washed the dishes and made my way to the Animus 2.0 and sidled into the seat.
"Alrighty Des, everything's set and ready to go."
I closed my eyes as the animus booted up, the last thing I saw with my own eyes was Altaïr leaning against the wall across the room, trying to stay out of the way.
Then the white of the animus loading screen surrounded me. The sight made me relax a bit, knowing that I wasn't going to be dying or murdering or seeing any visions while in this room.
My vision flooded with color and I was slammed into Ezio's head. I tried my best to curl up in my usual corner in the back of his head, just observing, trying not to be swept up by Ezio's whirling thoughts.
I was hyper-aware of all my thoughts and slight movements within Ezio's mind. All I could think of was how Altaïr could feel me in his mind the entire time I watched him. Now I was worried that something similar was happening with Ezio and that he would suddenly appear in modern day to complete this fantastic family reunion.
I blandly watched Ezio run around whatever city he was in now, just gathering information for his next boring assassination. I had to admit, Ezio's targets were a lot more predictable and boring than Altaïr's.
The targets I'd killed as Altaïr were complex, and they each hid a secret that was begging to be spilled.
Maybe it was because I'd gotten over my shock and later, the hype, of the kill by the time I was finished following Altaïr. Maybe now I was just so desensitized to everything that was going on.
Either way, I was not very interested in Ezio. I was just sorta tagging along so then Lucy could get the information she wanted.
I'd defaulted to my base state of "Tool".
I jolted back into the present and lurched out of the animus, shoving Lucy? Or was it Rebecca? Out of my way as I ran to the bathroom and began to hurl into the closest acceptable receptacle.
I felt my stomach churning, my throat burning as I hacked up everything that was in my stomach; which let me tell you, wasn't much. A figure in white, probably Ezio appeared beside me at the toilet and began stabbing down into what was probably a soon-to-be dead body.
"Desmond."
That warm hand returned to my back and supported me as I continued to vomit my organs out of my body. The sound of Ezio's knife slicing through invisible flesh continued, worsening my heaves.
"Vattene ..."
The hand paused it's motions on my back. "I don't understand."
I paused and glared at Altaïr behind me.
"Vatten- Vatte-"
I shook my head and turned back to the bowl as I started to dry heave.
During my next momentary lapse, I pressed my cheek against the cool bowl and muttered.
"I just want everyone to leave me alone."
Altaïr leaned over me and rested his head against mine, his breath ruffling my hair. He didn't say anything, but just stayed with me, rubbing my back.
Eventually quiet as can be, he backed away a few steps and knelt down.
"Get on. I'll bring you back upstairs."
I groaned as I maneuvered myself around so I could clamber onto his back.
My flushed face was pressed into his neck, his short hair brushing against my sweaty cheek.
He carefully stood and flushed the toilet and then swiftly made his way across the base back to my room.
I sorta glanced up at him as he walked us back, content with the feeling of flying that I'd only experienced while shadowing Altaïr in the animus as he danced across rooftops.
I closed my eyes and curled closer to the assassin, happy to be taken care of.
A/N: The Bold was Italian, if you didn't muddle that out. It was google translated, sue me. It means something like "Begone" or "Go away." *shrugs* Updating way early due to all the reviews and the fact that I have free time *cough cough* Technically I have homework to do but it's optional for once, soooo *cough cough* Started writing this last night, finished it today in about 30 minutes. Decided to Enroll at WPI next year, I'm currently searching for an apartment to live in since I'm cheap and can't afford to live on campus. I probably won't be able to update this coming weekend since I have to work 18 hours (assuming they don't ask me to stay late) and my one free afternoon is going to be spent driving down to Worcester so I can get apartment tours and meet with my potential roommates. As it is, I don't know when I'm going to find time to do my homework this weekend. Maybe I'll write something on Thursday since I have a field trip to see "The Seagull" in Boston. *shrugs* And for people who were asking, I went to Anime Boston last weekend. I was Kanaya from Homestuck on Friday, and Prince Zuko on Saturday. If you want to see pictures, go to my profile and go to my tumblr. I have them posted there somewhere.
This is getting way too long, so as always, thanks so much for putting up with my awful writing! I was so embarrassed while writing some of these scenes. Please review since if you couldn't tell, they make me update faster.
