Happy New Year everyone. I hope you got all the presents you were hoping for. Here's mine C: (kinda late I know)

The lake opened like a great, gaping, mouth when Cain flew over it. Desmond had slept most of the flight but was awake now, watching everything.

"So you come up with a good excuse to tell Altair?" Desmond asked, since he had been sleeping.

"I figured the truth would work just fine," Cain said.

"He won't like it."

"Altair doesn't like anything. Which is a shame," Cain frowned as they hovered over the mouth of Demeter.

"We going down in there?" Desmond asked when they didn't move.

"No," Cain said, "not yet. You both need to be swept for bugs and this numia needs to be scraped."

"So then what are we doing?"

"Some of the Ilythians are coming up. They'll determine if you're safe."

"I told Demeter not to let anyone out," Desmond bristled a little, pissed that Demeter would just ignore his orders in favor for Cain.

"I had your clone tell her," he said, "she didn't know the difference."

Desmond paused, "Oh," that made sense. "How'd you do that?" D2 didn't want anything to do with them or what they wanted. Getting him our of Apollo was only the first hurtle. Putting him into the Animus would be the next.

"I am not without my secrets, kid," he smirked.

Desmond leaned back against the chair, "Cain," he said slowly, Cain 'hmmed', "was Altair always like this?"

Cain looked straight ahead, not looking at Desmond or at anything really, just staring at the horizon, "You mean paranoid? Suspicious? Controlling? Obsessive? No, he wasn't. He used to be young, inquisitive, brilliant, and wanted to be told what to do because the world was large and he was afraid and sought comfort in knowing someone else knew more than him. He was always suspicious of people and bad at making friend, but like his is now? Not even."

"What happened?" Desmond asked.

"I think I happened," Cain said with a touch of remorse. "I partially blame myself for him," he paused and Desmond didn't know if he would go on. "I encouraged him to use the Apple and I see now that that was a mistake. I thought he was enough proeathan to resist the Apple's hatred and control it like I could, so I encouraged its use. Instead I fear the Angel corrupted him, and I have only myself to blame."

"Seriously?"

"Up to a point. For a few decades at least. But the next centuries were all his doing. He resists change and resists letting anyone help him, no matter how often I tried."

"He always told us you were evil," Desmond said.

"There's no such thing as evil, Desmond," now Cain looked at him solemnly. "You know that right?"

"Well… I think Chronos is pretty fucking evil," Desmond said.

"Chronos has three children and a wife, five brothers, and parents who are still very much alive. He's the youngest of his siblings, they treat him like a baby and they love him very much. He sometimes walks the halls of Apollo and talks with the citizens and unlike other proeathans doesn't mistreat the human slaves. He hates them but understands their value to their way of life. What do you think now?"

Desmond swallowed, "I mean… I don't think sporadic acts of kindness negate monstrous behavior," he said. "I know humans are capable of it, and they're just people, but they're still evil by their majority actions. I don't know why I should hold proeathans in a different regard."

Cain's lips curved into a slight smile, "You've gotten better. I'm proud of you," his voice surprisingly gentle and Desmond was so floored he couldn't say anything. "Also everything I just said about Chronos? I lied. He's a monster," Cain's tone became hard again. "And he's alone without a family or anyone. Which is why you're better than him— ah, the Ilythians are finally here," he looked forward and down. Desmond did as well and saw one of the elegant Ilythian numias rising up out of Demeter.

Cain pulled the numia back away from the lake as the numia rose. "Cain, this is Zorya, is the stadalla with you?" Zorya's crisp voice came over the numia's speakers.

"I'm here," Desmond said.

"Good. Follow our numia," and the numia spun on its lateral axis and flew away from the lake.

"Who's with you?" Desmond asked.

"Medics and technicians. Altair also insisted on coming along," Zorya said.

"Great," Desmond groaned.

"Well, no time like the present to deal with his temper tantrum," Cain said in sarcastic mirth.

"He needs to get over himself."

"Indeed," Cain agreed.

"You'd think having a boyfriend would make him not be so touchy," Desmond grumbled. "I thought sex was supposed to mellow someone out," and next to him Cain laughed.

They flew for a while, flying south, until they left the plains and hit the forests of mid and southern Africa. There used to be huge plantations here full of orchards where fruit was hand picked by human hands. The forests had been clear cut by lumber milling machines in the first few years, and there were now huge scars in many parts of the world where the proeathans had just clear cut for proper farm land in the Old World for their plantations. Apparently the New World was mostly untouched because it was easier to transport goods and supplies across land than to cross the vast stretches of oceans to get to Apollo or the other bases. Desmond knew, from being told by Od, that two of the plantations in southern Africa had been liberated, and the proeathans were slow to retake this part of the world.

They landed in the shadow of trees that had survived the clear cutting. Cain opened the back and Desmond got out of his seat. D2 was still strapped in, his eyes were closed. Desmond went into the sixth sense and looked through the lens of the future. D2 wasn't wavering at all, he was just sitting there. He blinked and was back in his normal sight.

D2 opened his eyes and looked up at Desmond when he approached, "We there?" he asked.

"No. We need to find any bugs we both may have," Desmond said.

"Fantastic," D2 sneered.

Desmond unstrapped him and hauled him to his feet. D2 didn't resist, but he didn't make it easy for Desmond and didn't go along with him either. They left the numia and entered the warm summer air. Across from them the Ilythians were also getting off their numia. Desmond pulled D2 over to the Ilythians and heard Cain following behind until he stood in front of Zorya.

Zorya looked D2 over, "I see you found him. I'm impressed," she said.

"We took him with the blessing of a goddess," Cain said, coming up to stand behind Desmond.

"He was with Tiamat?" Zorya's eyes narrowed. "She let him go?"

"Yes," Desmond said, "Seemed she liked me. Now we're going to see if the two of us are clean and get back to Demeter. I burned days we didn't have time to spare in Apollo and Doomsday is still approaching."

Zorya looked Desmond over now and for a moment went into the sixth sense. "You appear different stadalla," she said.

"I'd hope so," Desmond said. "Now lets get this over with."

"Indeed. We will first inspect your clone and then yourself," and Desmond handed D2 over to Zorya who led him away to where some other Ilythians were putting together things.

When she left it was just Cain and Desmond. Then Cain nudged him and he looked at the numia in time to see Altair come out of it. Next to all the Ilythians and Desmond and Cain Altair seemed diminutive. At least for a moment before he appeared to grow an entire foot as he came over to Desmond.

"Hey," Desmond said when Altair was in front of him and he could tell without even going into the sixth sense that Altair was wavering between punching him and hugging him.

Instead he did nothing. "What were you thinking?" Altair growled.

"I was thinking that I needed to do something on my own," Desmond said, "and that taking anyone else would have just held me back."

"So you took him?" Altair accused, pointing at Cain.

Desmond looked at Cain and did feel a bit guilty. Altair had been there a lot longer than Cain, picking up the pieces of Desmond that he kept shedding and tried to put him back together with mixed results. "You couldn't have helped me in Apollo. Cain could have. He was the best choice," he tried to make it sound as rational as possible. "He can blend in, you can't, sorry its just the truth."

"And you just left without telling anyone, without telling me," and Desmond winced at the betrayal in Altair's voice.

"You are not his keeper, Altair," Cain spoke up, seeing Desmond was starting to break. "You were his guide at one time-

"No one is talking to you Cain, so shut the fuck up," Altair snapped.

"Or what?" Cain asked.

"Cain, stop," Desmond put his hand on Cain's chest and pushed him away. "God you're just as bad as him, stop antagonizing him," he told Cain sternly. He turned back to Altair, "I'm not going to apologize for leaving without telling you, or for leaving. I am sorry I was gone for so long and made you worry so much. But I'm safe, and unhurt, and I know what I'm doing. So you're just going to have to accept it the way it is because its done now."

Altair scowled a moment before looking away, furious. Desmond just waited but he wasn't going to calm down any time soon.

"Desmond," Zorya called to him, "Its your turn."

"Coming," Desmond called back. "Both of your stay away from each other," he warned the two ancients and then went over to Zorya. "Is my clone clean?" he asked.

"He will be. He had three separate bugs. One in his arm, one his spine, and one in his brain. My men are working on disabling the one in the brain till we get back to Demeter and can remove it."

Desmond swallowed, "Okay, and me next?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Just stand still," she said and he nodded mutely.

An Ilythian came over to him with something that looked like a metal detector stick and started to wave it over his body. It didn't do anything and he didn't know if that was good or bad. The Ilythian frowned, shook the wand and smacked it. Desmond grinned, good to know that the tried and true method of hitting a device got it to work again. They waved it over Desmond again. Still no noise.

"He's clean," they said to Zorya in their language.

"You're joking."

"No Sengar. He's clean."

"That's impossible. No way those at Apollo would take him without putting a tracker in him."

"I can't detect any. Shall I try again?"

"No," Zorya turned away from Desmond, "Hod come here, you are needed," and Desmond watched as a rather short Ilythian left those who were working on his clone and came over. Desmond blinked in surprise. He'd never seen a disabled proeathan before. Hod had one eye and was missing a hand. His eyes had been replaced by a strange, black, stone that had odd etchings in it. His hand was silvery white and reminded Desmond somewhat of Hawk's sword cone. Hod was also not an Ilythian. He was too pale, but Desmond didn't know what he was since he wore the same uniform attire as all the other Ilythians he'd ever seen.

"What is it my Sengar?" Hod asked.

"Ull says that the stadalla is not bugged."

"But you don't trust Chronos to let him be clean?"

"I only trust Chronos as far as I can punt him. And I can't punt that bastard very far."

"Very well, lets see what it is," and Hod turned to Desmond. Desmond nearly took a step back. Hod's one remaining eye turned blue, but then the black one erupted into graphic lines around a large yellow dot in the middle like a pupil. Desmond felt himself being scanned and wondered what he looked like.

"Well?" Zorya asked after several tense moments.

"He is clean," Hod agreed then he turned to Zorya, "The stadalla is more strange than I imagined," he sounded a bit in awe.

"Thank you Hod." Hod nodded to Zorya and left.

"Who was that?" Desmond asked once Hod had gone back over to the group working on D2.

"Our best doctor," Zorya said. "I'm sure you heard him say you're clean."

"Okay," Desmond said and didn't know if he believed that but there wasn't much he could do to say about it. "What was up with his eye?"

"He lost it in the War and they gave him a new one, a better one," Zorya said.

"He isn't Ilythian," Desmond said.

"He was an Adjatev, and they wanted him to experiment on humans. He said no and they banished him. We picked him up on our search for you. He's Ilythian now."

"Fair enough," Desmond said, "so other than waiting on my clone we're good to go?"

"Yes," Zorya said.

"Great. Cain said we'll leave his numia here," she nodded.

"Stadalla," she said when he made to go back to Cain and Altair, "I'm glad to see you return. Some of us thought we'd let you go to your doom."

"I don't die that easy," he smirked. She smiled a little but was ill fit on her face, like she didn't smile often. "I'm clean," Desmond announced to the two immortals.

"Good," Cain said, "one less thing to worry about. Right Altair?"

Altair just glared at Cain, "Desmond," he said instead, looking at him, "come with me a moment."

Desmond was leery, "You're not going to get mad are you?"

"No," Altair said and then stepped away from Cain, beckoning. Desmond glanced at Cain, who only shrugged, before following him. Altair led him up into the Ilythian numia. It was empty save for the pilots who were in the cockpit up front.

"So what was it?" Desmond asked.

Suddenly Altair's finger was in his face, "Don't you ever pull a stupid stunt like that again. Do you know how worried you made us?" he demanded. Then all the wind rushed out of Desmond when Altair hugged him. Desmond hugged him back briefly before Altair pulled back and then gave him a little shake. "Or at least fucking tell me. I don't want to hear you're gone from Lucy again. Got it?"

Desmond couldn't help the smile he wore, "Yeah Altair, I got."