alt chapter title: Exposition, its what's for dinner

Gonna be having a lot of exposition over the next few chaps. It's just something that has to happen. Lots of talk, little doing; it drives me crazy, I just wanna get to that part, you know the one, the one I am super excited about.

"Say that again," Altair said, of course he did.

"They saved me," Desmond said. "On my way through India I ran out of food and was starving. I went to sleep one night and woke up to a bunch of Indians who thought I was a proeathan. I don't know what they were saying, but I was going to get lynched. I think I was in their safe zone or something and they were scared and I was a big, tall, being wearing proeathan clothes with proeathan weapons. Didn't matter I don't really look proeathan. Normally I would have just fought them off but I was too tired, too weak.

"They were about to put the rope around my neck and hang me when Od and the other Ilythians came. They didn't hurt any of the people, but their presence scared them all away. They could handle one proeathan, but an entire group? They took me onto the Starboard and fed me."

"You just ate food proeathans gave you? It could have been poisoned," Ezio said critically.

"I hadn't eaten in like a week and a half. I honestly didn't give a shit," Desmond said. "Artemis and Mercury were freaking out the entire time up till… this point actually. They fed me and then let me go with a few MREs."

"Bull shit," Ezio said.

"No, really," Desmond said. "The Ilythians are, for the most part, total pacifists."

"But they're joining a war cause," Altair said blandly.

"Pacifism is different for proeathans," Desmond explained. "For us it is no war, no violence, and do not hurt anyone or anything. For proeathans it is more like… well, exactly how the Assassins do. Peace through death," Altair's eyes narrowed. He didn't like being compared to the proeathans. Well tough shit, they were a lot alike. "And like I said, they don't like how the proeathans are running the show now, but they weren't so fond of how the humans were either."

"So then what do they like?" Altair asked, irritably. Still not happy to have just been compared to proeathans. Again; tough shit.

"They want to live, and live peacefully. They aren't as horribly spiciest as most proeathans are, they know humans aren't that bad. They just are young and don't know what they're doing. Apparently the proeathans almost destroyed themselves through climate change and wars too. But they figured it out. Humans progressed too quickly technology wise without thought of how it should actually be used and we were going to probably destroy ourselves, or wipe out half the planet."

"Instead the proeathans did that for us," Ezio said bitterly and then flinched, clearly he hadn't meant to say that. "Uh…"

"What?" Desmond asked.

"Were we telling him?" Ezio asked Altair guiltily.

"Tell me what?" Desmond asked.

Altair sighed a little, and rubbed his chin, "The actual, estimated, death toll."

"I know," Desmond said and swallowed. "There's like seven hundred thousand of us left; on a high estimate."

"You know?" Altair asked.

"I told you; I know a lot of what's been going on. The Ilythians, after I left them, followed me, probably to make sure I wouldn't accidentally die like I almost did before. After a few days I just stopped and tried to communicate with them. They could help me. After the initial language barrier was mostly taken care of I learned a lot about what's going on with the other proeathans and the situation with our species. I know you know about the 'seed banks', as the proeathans call them."

"The what?" Ezio asked.

"The children. Which, by the way, what did you do with them?"

"They're here," Altair said.

"All of them?"

"All of them. Lucy wouldn't let us leave a single one behind."

Desmond rocked back onto his heels, honestly floored. The proeathans apparently didn't know what had happened to the children. They shouldn't have lived outside their pods. "They're alive?"

"Yes? Why wouldn't they be?" Altair asked. Desmond blinked. "Is that bad? Is there something we should know about them?"

"No," Desmond said, "No its fantastic. I know the main seed bank in Siberia now has more security though, so what'd happened to the plantations can't happen there."

"…Main one?" Altair asked.

Desmond rubbed his face. There was just so much to tell and he was still so tired. "We'll talk about it later-

"Desmond-

"We'll talk about it later," Desmond told him, his tone hard, almost mean, but in control. He was in control here. Not the proeathans, not Altair, not anyone else. He'd played the good soldier like Pluto had accused him of six years ago, always doing as ordered, even when he didn't know he was doing it. But now he was directing his destiny. He knew where he had to go, what he had to do, but he'd do it on his time table, his schedule, and on his say. He was tired of being treated like he wasn't even there. No more running around on other people's prerogative to do this, or do that, or Desmond you better figure this out or the entire world is going to get bent over and fucked. No more. He mattered. What he wanted mattered. He wasn't going to let anyone tell him what to do anymore.

Altair frowned, but said nothing. "Back to what I was saying about the Ilythians," Desmond continued. "I talked to them, learned a lot of stuff, including how much they… kinda hate the other proeathans and think they're doing a super A plus job at their second time on Earth," he said sarcastically. "They wouldn't let me fly in their numia though. I make them too nervous. So. I had to keep walking. But they landed every night and I figured stuff out, learned stuff I needed to learn you weren't telling me," he said.

"Desmond you know we were just-

"I know," Desmond cut Ezio off. "You were protecting me. But… I can't have you doing that any more. I spent a few months being a self pitying bastard before I left because you were protecting me from the truth. So instead of getting to hear the truth as numbers or figures I could digest, I had to see it first. And now… I know," he took a deep breath. "I know what I did."

"You were just doing what you thought was right," Ezio said.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," Desmond said. He didn't let himself sink into it though. He didn't let it consume him like he had so many times before. He was able to get up, move forward. He wouldn't get mired in his self pity, his self loathing. He had way too much to do for that right now, and it didn't help anyone, including him. "Doesn't matter what I intended. This is what I have to deal with."

"So what's going to happen now?" Altair asked.

"I'm going to go to bed," Desmond said. "And tomorrow I'm going to talk to Od about teaching your army proeathan tactics. I know you have Pluto but he's… out of date."

"I heard that," Pluto chimed in from the nothing.

"You are," Desmond said. "The proeathans have humans working for them. Humans who know how to fuck up other humans. They've changed proeathan warfare. So, we need to change too. It shouldn't be too difficult, if you guys," he meant his ancestors and the Assassins, "have been training them I'm sure it'll be an easy transition."

"You expect these people to follow proeathan orders? Desmond they're terrified and hate proeathans," Altair said.

"I expect them to do what needs to be done so our species isn't obliterated," Desmond said. "I'm not about to tell your men to do anything. They're your men, they know you, trust you, respect you. I'm not stupid enough to think I can just show up and expect them to listen to me. But you will."

Altair rubbed his eyes. "Okay, so what exactly are you expecting."

"Who are your trainers?" Desmond asked.

"The Assassins," Altair said, "we have some actual military minds from amid the former slaves, and a number of martial arts masters, some marksmen et cetera. We've given them officer ranks. They lead most of our units."

"Then those are the people who will be training with the Ilythians. Just them. Tell them nothing is going to go sideways. If it helps, tell them they're scared of me, and I'll be there, for every session. And," he sort of laughed here, "You'll see for yourself how much actual proeathan are scared of me. It took me weeks to convince them to train me."

Altair opened his mouth, "We'll talk about it later. I promise," he said. "Just not… right now. I just walked across the sahara carrying like fifty pounds. I want to eat, sleep, and not do anything for like thirteen hours. Think you can manage to keep everyone alive and not at each other's throats for thirteen hours?"

"Yeah, I think we can manage that," Altair said.

"Good," Desmond said. He looked up at the numia, still descending. "Do you want me to stay and monitor this?" he asked.

"No," Ezio said before Altair could say anything. He grabbed Desmond by the shoulder. "You're right kid, you deserve a few hours of rest to not have to deal with all this. You let me, and Altair, and Hawk, worry about these children for a bit. You get some grub and get some sleep."

"Fantastic," Desmond said.

"Also, don't go near Clay," Ezio added.

"Why?" Desmond frowned.

"He… kinda hates you?" Ezio said, half apologetic.

"What? Why?" Why the hell would Clay hate him? He'd only met Clay once, and hadn't left his island in bad spirits.

"Well you kinda did exactly what he didn't want to happen and rose Atlantis. Which is basically the worst thing you could have done."å

"Yeah, probably," Desmond agreed. "But it needed to be done. The other choice was to travel under the surface of the earth, somehow, and tunnel into the pocket the city was in. Raising it was the more logical choice."

"Also apparently you're like the dang antichrist or some shit."

Desmond's brows went up, "Won't find any argument here. Now, food, and bed for me. Keep your people away from the hanger. Demeter will find a place for the Ilythians. Away from the humans, promise. Don't set anything on fire and I'll see you in a few hours. Deal?"

"Sounds like a plan," Ezio agreed. Desmond nodded, made sure his hood covered most of his face, and then walked out of the hanger, past the minutemen who looked like they were using every ounce of will they had to not look at the landing numia. They'd get all the eyefuls of the Ilythians than wanted once the two sides were more amicable to each other. When that would be Desmond had no freaking clue, but that wasn't his problem. Filling his stomach was.

For the record: you guys are way worse to Desmond than me. Its like you want him to have a sad ending where he dies alone. With the way things are going I might just rewrite the entire end so he does. Just to spite you with the good ending I have planned XD

Also I think someone mentioned something about the proeathans being disadvantaged cause they lost "so many" important AIs. Meanwhile I'm looking at my notes of just what all the AIs actually do and like… lols, no, not disadvantaged at all.