Not very long after Desmond, Ezio, and Altair ward Ezio against Juno, the Templars raid the safehouse where Desmond, Lucy, Rebecca, and Shaun are staying. Desmond remembers this from the first time around, and so it's hard to be surprised. He thinks he does an alright job of acting like he is, at least, and no one seems to notice that he's a little too prepared, or that he has his things already packed up before the Templars get there.
And then they're running, and Desmond knows the Templars won't catch them, because they're not really trying—they want him with Lucy, where she can keep an eye on him and what he's doing in the animus. It doesn't even take Rebecca long to lose the Templars that are following them once they're all loaded into the van.
And then they're on their way to Monteriggioni.
Desmond can't help feeling a little bit excited about that. Even last time, when the bleeding effect had been so much worse and his life had been mostly a blur, he'd liked being there. It's Ezio's home, always will be, and Desmond feels protected there, no matter how much things have changed between his time and his ancestor's.
It's a ruin, Altair says, as the town, and then eventually the ancient manor come into sight. His ancestor's voice is stronger now, a little clearer with each day that passes. And not just his voice, but the feel of him—there are times when Altair seems so close, Desmond could swear he's seeing through his eyes. And then there are times when Altair is just a distance presence, and Desmond will get a snatch of Altair's day to day life—his concentration as he helps the novices with their training, or irritation as he wades through a pile of paperwork.
He's getting used to it.
Ezio is a little more distant, an occasional visitor in his head, but then he doesn't have the same experience with the apple that Desmond does.
It's old, Desmond agrees, hopping out of the van and eyeing the building he'd seen so recently in the animus. But it's not a ruin.
"Desmond," Shaun calls. "Think you could stop ogling and help us get the things out of the van before the Templars catch us?"
"Sure," Desmond says, snapping out of his distraction and hurrying back to help the others. "Sorry."
"There's not much to do," Rebecca assures him. "Everything's set up so we can put it together quickly and have it up and running in a few minutes."
"Cool," Desmond says. "Good. Great."
And it is, because that means he'll be able to get back on his email soon and let everyone know he's moved and that he's fine—that's what he's thinking about, the whole time he's helping to unload, and as soon as the power's on, he boots up the computer and checks his email.
-/-
It's early in the morning when Bayek heads downstairs. Too early for anyone to be in the animus yet, but as he rounds a corner into the main room, he sees a light on. It's probably nothing, he tells himself, even as he drops into a crouch and slips into the shadows. It's probably nothing, but…
Then he gets into the room, and straightens up when he sees Elijah. The Sage is alone (something of a rarity these days, now that he has Khemu and Elina to spend time with), perched precariously on the very edge of a folding chair as he hunches over a computer, cautiously typing away, one careful letter at a time.
"What are you writing?" Bayek calls, and Elijah jumps so high he knocks his chair over and sends it almost crashing into the desk next to him.
"I—"
The open vulnerability on his face is only there for a moment before he pulls his face back into the stony mask he always wears for Bayek, but that glimpse is enough to make him uncomfortable. Elijah stares at Bayek, then very carefully presses one last key on the computer.
"What were you doing?" Bayek asks again.
"Nothing."
He speaks in careless English, which feels like a deliberate choice. Although Bayek's translator is enough for him to understand, the language barrier still keeps them at a distance. Bayek knows Elijah can speak perfectly good Egyptian—he and Khemu can talk together for hours, and Elijah's Egyptian is oddly accented but perfectly understandable.
"Nothing?" Bayek asks, crossing his arms and frowning.
"I was just sitting," Elijah says, and slips off the chair.
"You were doing something on the computer." Bayek strides forward and looks past him, but of course he's still just barely getting a grasp on what a computer is, he has no idea what Elijah had been doing on it.
"It's none of your business," Elijah says. "Alright?"
Bayek sighs and squats down in front of Elijah. He studies the boy's face, his wild hair and mismatched eyes, his blank expression as Elijah stares right back at him. "I know you're not like this all the time," he says. "I know, because if you acted like this to Khemu, he wouldn't be spending so much time with you."
He pauses, waiting for Elijah to answer, but the boy just doesn't open up around him—or around anyone really, as far as Bayek can tell, other than Khemu.
"Why don't you trust us?" Bayek asks. "If you could open up, and talk to us, then maybe you wouldn't need to be sneaking around and doing… whatever it is that you're doing with the computer."
"Nothing," Elijah says, and it seems almost reflexive.
Bayek sighs and straightens up, shaking his head. Elijah makes it all too easy for people to give up on him, and in a way that's sad. But on the other hand, Elijah knows things he shouldn't, and Bayek doesn't entirely trust him not to do things he shouldn't, and he know just enough about computers to know that Elijah could do a lot of damage. "Alright," he says. "Then just go, alright?"
Elijah hesitates, then runs past Bayek and upstairs. Probably to wake Khemu up. Bayek sighs, then turns back to the computer. He doesn't know how to find out what Elijah had done to it, but he knows who will. So he sits there, and waits until Layla comes down, yawning and barely awake.
"What are you doing?" she asks. Unlike Elijah, she speaks in Egyptian, for him, and the conversation is automatically more comfortable. Not stilted and awkwardly relayed through a translator, like his conversation with Elijah only minutes before had been. "Looking for computer lessons?"
"Trying to figure out what Elijah was doing on it," Bayek says.
"He was down here?" Layla asks.
Bayek nods.
"Well," Layla says. "Move over." She shoves him a little, and he Bayek moves obligingly aside. "You'll never get it figured out yourself."
So she sits there, hunched over the computer, for all of about thirty seconds. Then she leans back, and frowns intensely at the computer.
"What is it?" Bayek asks.
"He sent an email," Layla says slowly, and Bayek has been here long enough to at least recognize the word.
"To who?" he asks. "The Templars? Assassins? Someone worse?"
"To Desmond," Layla says quietly.
-/-
Rebecca had promised they'd have everything unpacked and ready to use in less than half an hour, and that turns out to be true. Desmond hangs around for a little while, waiting to see if they're going to want him back in the animus right away, but all three of the others seem exhausted. When Shaun suggests waiting until tomorrow to get Desmond back in the animus, they all agree at once.
So Rebecca goes to bed, stretching out on her sleeping back with her mp3 plugged in and a peaceful smile on her face. Shaun folds himself into a corner with a book, and proceeds to completely lose himself in whatever he's reading about. Lucy is off to one side, texting someone (a Templar, Desmond assumes). He's too tired to even think about asking her about it.
Instead, he wanders over to the computer, and sits down. The computer takes its time booting up, so Desmond's eyes stray over the walls. His gaze pauses on the statue of Altair, like it always does, but with his ancestor's almost constant presence in his head, the statue is a little less impressive than it had been the first time around. Instead, what really catches Desmond's attention is one of the other statues.
Amunet.
He sits with his chin in his hand, looking at the statue of the man that had once been Bayek's wife, wondering. Bayek never talks about her to him, and Layla doesn't talk much more about her. All Desmond knows is that her name used to be Aya, and after she and Bayek lost their son, she turned her back on that and took the name Amunet.
The statue's features are worn down and smooth from centuries of erosion, and it seems a little sad. Desmond can't help wondering if Bayek knows this statue is here, and what he'd say if he found out.
The computer beeps to inform him it's done booting up, and that he has mail. Probably Layla, Desmond thinks as he navigates through the layers of extra security Layla had shown him how to put in place. Sure enough, when he finally gets to his inbox he sees that the message waiting for him is from Layla's email.
But then he opens it, and it's immediately obvious that Layla isn't the one that wrote it.
From: Temp Account
To: Desmond Miles
Date: September 16, 2012, 8:28 PM
Subject: No Subject
Hello.
My name is Elijah, and I'm sorry to have to bother you when you don't have any idea who I am, but I have something important to talk to you about which didn't seem like it could wait.
I just found out that you are my father. Maybe you know that already by now, but maybe you don't, and since I know you're doing important work, this seemed like the only way I could get in touch with you. I couldn't wait.
I'm sorry if this isn't the email you wanted to get. I know a lot of things, but I never know how to approach people, and I never know how to make people like me once I try. I'm just asking you to give me a chance, please
And then the email cuts off abruptly, as if Elijah had sent it before he'd had a chance to finish completely. Desmond leans back in his chair and studies it, frowning. He's not entirely sure what to think, honestly. If Layla hadn't already emailed him to say that his son is with them, and that he's a little weird, he would have just assumed this was some kind of bad joke. The email doesn't sound like something a kid would write, or at least… it doesn't sound like a kid up until that last line, the one Elijah hadn't had a chance to finish. Desmond stares at it, and something in his stomach twists, and he has no idea how to answer.
-/-
Much later that night, when Lucy has Desmond's (hacked) emails open in front of her, she has even less of an idea of what to do with Elijah's email.
"Code," she mumbles finally, because there's no way Desmond actually has a son. The Templars would have picked up on it before now, and anyway what kind of kid talks like the person that sent this email? But at least, in a way, the email is a good sign. They're smart to keep their email encrypted like this, but it's so obviously not a real email that it can't possibly be that difficult to break either.
She smiles as she forwards the email to Layla, adding see what you can do with this as a subject line. Layla's obviously sitting up waiting for her, because Lucy gets a response within minutes.
From: Layla Hassan
To: Lucy Stillman
Date: September 17, 2012, 2:04 AM
Subject: RE: See what you can do with this
I'd be able to do a lot more if I was onsite with his computer. I'm a programmer, not a codebreaker. Any chance you can get me there to have a look?
Lucy rolls her eyes and huffs, but considers the question. Honestly, it wouldn't be that hard, would it? She could lure everyone out of the hideout for a while, she knows Desmond must be getting tired of being stuck in the animus all the time, and Rebecca and Shaun never seem to say no to an excuse to bicker with each other.
From: Lucy Stillman
To: Layla Hassan
Date: September 17, 2012, 2:10 AM
Subject: RE: See what you can do with this
I'll work something out.
-/-
What is this nonsense, a new chapter and it's not even 1:00 in the morning? (Guys I went to bed at a normal time last night instead of staying up to write, great feeling, 10 out of 10 would get a full night's sleep again)