A/N: Chapter Three... Yay! I'm surprised I made it this far, to tell you the truth... I'm surprised you guys made it this far, but grateful and happy, nonetheless. Sorry to disappoint anyone that looks forward to their portions, but Ezio and Altaïr are both absent from this chapter, but will surely be back next chapter.
And a quick warning, not anything really bad in this chapter, but mentioning/implication of needles, IV's, and such. Nothing too bad, but just wanted to warn anyone who has a problem with that sort of stuff.
Once again, thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, and favorite-ing, it means a lot.
And thanks to HodgePodge again!

Disclaimer: Legally, I own nothing but the mistakes (And please, by all means, take them and use them how you will).

Chapter III

Desmond pulled against the straps around his wrists violently, his jaw clenched in exertion, a furious look on his face.

It hadn't taken long for the guards to catch him, and though he had learned much from following in the footsteps of Ezio Auditore, and even Altaïr before that, there were simply too many of them and he wasn't as trained as he liked to believe.

They'd grabbed him and dragged him to… Here. Wherever 'here' was.

Desmond was still in the same building, the 'Abstergo-Provided Research Facility', according to the tall man, but he was in a completely different area of the facility.

The room he was in was very similar to the prison he had awoken in, but in addition to the band of light around the room where the walls met the ceiling, like there had been in his cell, there was also a pane of glass, across three of the four walls. The fourth wall was attached to the rest of the building and there would then have been no point in the window continuing across that wall.

In addition to the band of glass that served as a window, there were a few other differences.

On the wall opposite the entrance to the room were dozens of monitors, all extremely thin and made of a clear plastic. They must have been touch screen, because the people working at them were able to drag things from one monitor to the other with their fingers, but there was also someone at a keyboard, typing away frantically, causing different images, programs, and other data to pop up and close out at different intervals on all of the monitors.

The room was also much larger than Desmond's cell, and more rectangular. His cell had been roughly the size of a square, one bed, and no bathroom hotel room.

This room was similar in magnitude to that of a generously sized high school classroom.

Everything else about the room was the same as his cell. The walls were all white tile, as was the floor. The door, once it had slid closed, seemingly melded into the wall so that Desmond would have never known it was there had he not been dragged through it only a few minutes ago.

There was one more difference, actually.

In the center of the room, with wires all bundled up and wrapped in protective tubing running along the floor to connect to the computer system somewhere behind the wall, was an Animus.

It was more similar to the one Desmond had used with Lucy, Rebecca, and Shaun, but it did have similarities to the first one Desmond had used, back with Vidic.

It looked similar to a patient's chair at a dentist's office. It was a dentist's chair from hell, Desmond found himself thinking unhappily.

The padding was an off-white color, without a smudge of dust on it. The metal framing it and holding the chair together was all stainless steal. The armrests were thick, and where the Animus 2.0 had had one plug-in on the right armrest, this Animus had two, one for each arm.

This Animus had a line of glowing, circular sensors down the center of the chair, which would follow Desmond's spine, reminiscent of the Animus back from Desmond's first stay with Abstergo. There was also a clear plastic shield, made of the same plastic as the monitors it seemed, which was currently around the back of the headrest, but would rotate to the front once Desmond was plugged in.

There were also, Desmond noticed with a bit of despair, a head restraint, leg restraints, and cuffs for his wrists.

I

There he sat now, strapped in and ready to go. The people working at the monitors had hardly noticed him when he had been dragged in, and the guards had only stayed long enough to strap him in and then had taken their leave.

Desmond fell down against the chair, having been pushing himself away from it while trying to free himself. Now it was only him and the workers whom he hadn't even seen the faces of yet.

They hadn't plugged him in. His arms were sitting inside of the frames attached to the armrests, which would shut, stabbing him with a few small needles he knew, but they were currently sitting open.

"How do you expect me to comply to whatever it is you want me to do?" Desmond asked the unresponsive workers. They, unsurprisingly, ignored him.

"Your compliance is unnecessary, Mr. Miles."

Desmond jumped again, just like he had when he had first encountered the Tall Man. He had been watching the workers at their monitors, and the one at the keyboard, waiting for an answer and hadn't noticed the man enter.

"What do you mean?" Desmond asked, ignoring his own outburst.

"I mean, we are going to complete our task, whether you are willing to help us or not." The tall man replied as he walked around the Animus to observe one of the monitors over the head of one of the workers.

"You obviously don't know how this works, then." Desmond scoffed.

"You were planning on making your ancestor jump off a cliff, get killed, do something that would desynchronize the memory, I assume. And I'm sure you thought yourself very clever, coming up with that plan, and I do respect your effort, but it won't work." The tall man replied with a shrug, not turning to look at Desmond. He said it matter-of-factly, not trying to insult Desmond but simply telling him the truth.

He finished reading something on the monitor he had been observing before he turned around to face Desmond again, folding his hands behind his back. Desmond was watching him, trying to hide the stunned expression that had crossed his face. That had been the plan, actually.

The man didn't find Desmond's bemusement amusing, and simply went on to explain.

"I told you before, Mr. Miles, that this is a research facility provided by Abstergo. Abstergo provides it, yes, but otherwise Abstergo hardly ever interferes with the research here, and vice versa. Regular employees of this facility have no idea the goings on of Abstergo, such as the study of the Animus, ancestral memories, and the Pieces of Eden. As a matter of fact, all of those employees have been redirected to a new facility so I can carry on with my research uninterrupted with secrecy while having all the resources in this facility at my disposal." The man was pacing slowly around Desmond, though remaining in eyesight of Desmond and never venturing behind him.

"Anyway, this facility primarily focuses on researching and developing pharmaceuticals. Many helpful medicines and drugs have been put on the shelves in the past few years due to this facility, and those drugs and medicines have saved thousands of lives. So, you see, Mr. Miles, Abstergo's investments are not all bad." The man stopped at Desmond's feet and looked at him. Desmond looked uninterested at this point.

"I see you are not interested in Abstergo's more humane projects… Well, the significance of my explaining this to you is this," At this point the man pulled a vial from his lab coat pocket and held it up for Desmond to see and observe. It was a drug of some sort, that was easy to tell from the vial and wrapper around it that held all the information about the drug, but Desmond couldn't read any of it. The drug was clear and seemed to have the same viscosity of water.

"And what is that?" Desmond asked, unimpressed.

"This is a recent development here. The scientists developed it just before they were relocated, conveniently enough. This is a drug, more specifically, a hallucinogen, but not only that it is also a depressant. Its intended purpose is to counter post-traumatic stress disorders, help those that have nightmares due to the disorder to sleep and such." The man explained, observing the vial himself. He looked back at Desmond after a few moments. Desmond still seemed highly uninterested. He still didn't understand the significance of this all. The man didn't comment on Desmond's lack of understanding.

"Mr. Miles, what this drug will do is make you see whatever you want to see. It will cause you to fall asleep, and you will fall asleep and into a fantastical world. You will be completely unaware of this world in which you had just left. Everything you have learned of in the past few hours will vanish from the front of your mind when you fall asleep, and as we will be plugging you in to the Animus simultaneously, you will dream of your ancestor. You will be controlling your ancestor, yes, but you will be going through the motions. I assure you that you will have no intention of throwing your ancestor off course whilst reliving their memories."

The man had a tone of pity in his voice. Desmond could tell that the man wasn't bluffing, and he wasn't making any of this up off the top of his head. They had done this before. Desmond paled a few shades to an unnatural grey-tan color.

A look of sorrow crossed the tall man's face as he continued.

"The reason this drug has not been approved and is not available for use by or in a hospital, even under the most intense care and watch, is because it has not been perfected yet. To elaborate further, is highly addictive. You will develop a dependence on this drug almost instantaneously, and the withdrawal symptoms are lethal to one's mental health. I…-" The man hesitated a moment, "However, I do not know the exact effects it will have on you, Mr. Miles."

The man slid the vial back into his pocket and walked around so he was standing next to Desmond.

He motioned to one of the monitors, on which was a word file that had been pulled up. Desmond looked at it, but he couldn't read it.

"I read Lucy Stillman's observations through her course of working for Abstergo, including those about yourself, and I must say, I find her observations on the 'Bleeding effect' and the story of Subject 16 very disturbing. So, you must understand the predicament I have been put in. I do not like using the Animus enough as it is because of how dangerous it is, and though this one is updated and has advanced beyond belief, I do not know how this will all affect you, in short term or long term. I do not know how it will progress, or even digress, the 'Bleeding Effect', and I have no idea how the Animus or 'Bleeding Effect' will react with this drug."

Desmond had been watching the man now, his face blank. He wasn't sure how to react to the news of this all. It was all very surreal. The idea that he would be forced to relive his ancestor's memory against his will was unthinkable. He had never even begun to ponder over the possibility of it in the past, but here it was, being thrust at him, and not only was it an idea, it was about to be executed.

"You could just not do it!" Desmond shouted, pulling against the restraints on his wrists again, though it was still futile.

"I wish I could, but that is not an option." The man replied. Desmond hadn't noticed that the workers at the monitors and keyboard had stopped and were watching the tall man expectantly. One of them cleared their throat hesitantly.

The tall man turned.

"Ah," He sighed, glancing at each monitor, "Everything is set then?"

The question was directed to the worker at the keyboard. The fellow nodded, grimfaced.

The tall man nodded in return and looked back at Desmond.

"I am truly sorry, Mr. Miles, for how this is all unfolding. I gave you the option to do this humanely, to do this all with your mind intact and your will as free as could be. But instead, you refuse and you are forcing me to do something I'd much rather not do. I respect you, Mr. Miles, for how far you have come and what you have accomplished, but objectively speaking: It's only business."

With this said, the man closed the frame around Desmond's left forearm. The needles inserted, and Desmond winced slightly, though the pain was familiar and similar to that of the Animus 2.0. The man then walked around to Desmond's other side and closed the frame on his right forearm. There was no pain. Desmond frowned in puzzlement. The frame beeped softly, and then a bright light, like one you would find in a paper scanner, ran along the inside of the frame, illuminating his arm brightly on all sides.

It beeped again once the light switched off, having reached his elbow. Then, without warning, three needles shot deep into his arm, causing him to flinch dramatically.

"What the hell?" Desmond exclaimed without thinking.

The tall man didn't reply, and instead took the vial out again, took the top off, and inserted the vial into a hollow space on the frame, specifically designed for this purpose.

The frame beeped one last time as it registered the vial being inserted and then it began humming softly, mechanically. Almost instantaneously, Desmond felt the intruding sensation as the liquid filtered into the veins of his arm, mixing with his blood and swiftly causing a tingling sensation that slowly crept up his arm. The liquid was cold, and it caused him to shiver involuntarily.

Desmond struggled, trying to pull free, even against the pain of the needles digging into both his arms, but he couldn't break free.

He found himself beginning to shake, his hands trembling violently, and sweat began to bead across his forehead. He wasn't sure if this was due to fear or a side-effect of the drug.

"I truly am sorry, Mr. Miles." The man repeated, "It was a pleasure to meet you, but I am quite confident you will have absolutely no recollection of our two encounters upon your awakening. That in mind, good bye, Mr. Miles."

The man checked one more thing on one of the screen before he walked out of the room without another word to anyone.

As the door slid shut, melding back into the wall, Desmond's eyelids grew heavier, and before he could muster up the will to fight against his sudden drowsiness, he was asleep.

III

"We really need to get out of here…" Shaun commented, his voice full of the impatience that Lucy knew so well.

Lucy and Rebecca exchanged a look, and then Rebecca glared at Shaun and told him to be quiet. After the momentary embrace and relief of seeing each other for the first time after Lucy's near run-in with death, Lucy and Rebecca had begun discussing other things.

Lucy had asked if they had signed her out, Rebecca had said that they had signed all the necessary paperwork, and had also picked up Lucy's prescription for painkillers, which Shaun had held up at this point for Lucy to see. Lucy had asked if they had been the ones to drop clothes off for her, and once again Rebecca affirmed this.

Now, Rebecca was explaining why Shaun and herself had been unable to visit Lucy and assure her that they had been nearby.

"We've had to move from place to place every night since we got here," Rebecca explained, "As soon as we get back to the motel room we should probably pack up and move again. At this point, we're not sure who to trust, and Abstergo is still nearby, so we couldn't just wait around for them to find us."

Lucy was wondering how they could just leave her in the hospital then, but she didn't have to voice the question as Rebecca spoke on.

"This hospital was probably the safest place for you. At this point, Abstergo's gotten itself into some not-so-nice situations, and they'd probably go mucking around in a garbage dump before they come looking here, it's way too public for their taste."

"Yes, we're terribly sorry we had to leave you here by yourself and all, as though you're entirely incapable of handling yourself for a few days, but we do really need to be moving on. There are more pressing matters to discuss, things that should be spoken about in private." Shaun stated impatiently, looking at them both expectantly, daring them to oppose.

"Shaun's right." Lucy agreed, then glanced over her shoulder, and after a moment looked down the corridor in the opposite way. She motioned for Rebecca to lead the way; she had absolutely no idea where to go, or where they were planning on going.

Rebecca marched on almost instantly, heading for the parking garage. Shaun fell into step next to Lucy, and he kept on glancing over his shoulders to make sure no one was following them.

"So," Lucy began hesitantly, she felt like she knew the answer to her next question already, but she needed to ask it.

"So, what happened to Desmond?"

Shaun faltered in his step, and Rebecca glanced over her shoulder at Shaun. They exchanged the look that told Lucy that they knew exactly what had happened to him, but weren't sure they wanted to tell her for fear of upsetting her.

"We should wait until we get to the van…" Rebecca told her in an even tone, her voice trailing off.

Lucy nodded her understanding and remained quiet the rest of the journey, watching the floor tiles a few feet ahead of her.

I

"Where is he?" Lucy asked as soon as she had closed the door of the nondescript black van after herself. Rebecca and Shaun didn't need to task to know whom she was talking about. They both hesitated, exchanging a look that made Lucy furious. They knew. They obviously knew, and they weren't trying to hide the fact that they did know.

Rebecca started the car silently while Shaun fidgeted awkwardly in the passenger's seat next to her. Lucy didn't ask why Shaun wasn't driving and only watched them both through narrowed eyes, looking at each of them in turn.

"What happened?" Lucy tried, deciding to take a broader approach. Now, Shaun took a deep breath as though preparing for battle more than preparing to tell a story.

"We're not quite sure what happened," Shaun admitted, "We know you had been stabbed, and seeing how Desmond was lying next to you, his blade drawn and covered in blood, we could only assume that-"

"It wasn't his fault." Lucy stated, cutting Shaun's sentence short. Shaun nodded his head slowly in agreement.

"We don't think it was. We think that when he picked up the apple, he had en encounter similar to the one Ezio had had with Minerva. We haven't been able to clarify this with Desmond because… Well…" Shaun hesitated again, and he and Rebecca exchanged another infuriating look.

"Because Desmond's gone." Rebecca finished, her tone blunt, looking at Lucy through the rearview mirror.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Lucy asked, though she had a feeling she knew exactly what it meant.

"Well, we couldn't wait around," Shaun began slowly, "And seeing how I had to carry you, and Rebecca clearly couldn't carry Desmond, we had to-" His voice grew silent. He couldn't bring himself to say it.

"We had to leave Desmond there." Rebecca finished for him, not looking at Lucy through the mirror this time and keeping her attention focused on the road ahead.

"By the time we got back, the place was riddled with Abstergo officials. We waited around until they were gone, but by then it was too late." Shaun continued quickly before Lucy could exclaim her displeasure at any of this.

"So Abstergo has him, again?" Lucy asked softly. Both Shaun and Rebecca were a bit taken off guard at the softness of her voice and Rebecca glanced at her through the mirror again with a look of worry on her face.

"We'll get him back, Lucy," Rebecca promised, "Just like you got him out before."

But Lucy was shaking her head, covering her eyes with one hand as she leaned her elbow against the door of the van.

"Do you know how long it took me to become an assistant to someone like Vidic?" She asked Rebecca and Shaun. They didn't reply.

"It wasn't just a wave of the hair and bat of the eyelashes." Lucy added sarcastically.

Shaun glanced at her skeptically. Lucy caught the look and glared at him.

"Vidic's a creep, but he's not that much of a creep." Lucy told him.

"I was lucky enough to be there when they had Subject 16. I was lucky enough to be there when they got Desmond, and it was only out of luck that I was able to get him out." She shook her head, "It can't be done the same way."

"We're not going to just leave him in there, though, are we?" Rebecca asked.

"No, we're not going to just leave him there. But we can't just barge in there, either. It's going to take planning, and it's going to take time. Time that I'm not sure Desmond has at this point. I don't even know what Abstergo could want with him, I mean…" Lucy's voice trailed off now and she looked at Shaun, "You didn't get the apple, did you?"

Shaun looked out the window guiltily.

"Well, if they have it, then I have no idea what more they could want." Lucy's tone was somewhat defeated. What else could they want from Desmond if they had the item they had been searching for all along? If they had taken him, it meant that they needed him alive, otherwise they would have shot him and left him at the temple. So what could they want? What could they possibly need?

"It gets worse." Rebecca cut into Lucy's thoughts.

"Why doesn't that surprise me." Lucy muttered.

"They destroyed everything back at the Villa." Shaun told her.

"There were a few drives that went unnoticed, my research was, luckily enough, on one of them. We also have your laptop but…" Shaun looked at Rebecca.

"Everything else was destroyed. The Animus 2.0, all of my data from it…" Rebecca's voice cracked slightly and she grew silent.

"So we're back to square one." Lucy murmured after a few moments of silence had passed in the van.

Shaun nodded. Lucy sighed softly and watched the scenery pass by outside of the window next to her. They were in a rural area. There weren't many other cars on the road either. There wasn't anything else very significant about the area that would tell her where they were, exactly.

"Well, right now we have to worry about getting Desmond out of Abstergo. Please tell me you guys at least have a hint of where he could be?"

Shaun nodded, "Actually, we do. They've stayed local, I have no idea why, but it works to our advantage. I did some research on the area, and there's a research facility in one of the towns nearby. 'The R.T. Feller Abstemious Research Facility'," Shaun recited, "Kind of an odd name I thought, so I dug a little further and found out that it's a facility founded by R.T. Feller, but the facility itself was donated by our pals from Abstergo."

Shaun seemed very proud of himself at this point.

"'Abstemious'," Lucy repeated, still looking out the window, "Not self-indulgent." She fell silent.

The name didn't surprise her. Abstergo believed it was doing something for the good of the world, something that was unselfish.

"I have only ever heard the word in context with eating or drinking. Not the best word I suppose, but it does have a sort of ring to it, and it is similar to 'Abstergo', which is what made be research the facility further." Shaun commented, his pride faltering when Lucy fell silent.

"It makes our job easier," Lucy finally stated, snapping herself out of her thoughts, her tone stating how grateful she was for Shaun's unasked research, "It makes it a lot easier. Now we can focus on infiltrating the place and getting Desmond out of there."

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Rebecca asked.

Lucy looked at each of them. Now she was debating whether she wanted to voice her thoughts or not. She knew they would argue, and she knew they wouldn't like it.

After a few minutes, she finally answered, "You're going to hand me over to them."