The next time Desmond gets in the animus, it goes a lot better than the time before. The latest version of the animus makes it even more difficult to hide from his ancestors than it had been in the animus 2.0 with Ezio. Maybe if he'd still been using that technology, Haytham wouldn't have been able to sense him, and everything would have worked out. Maybe, maybe not.

He's barely loaded into the animus when Ratonhnhaké:ton says, tentatively, "Desmond?"

"What?" Desmond isn't used to his ancestors knowing who he is.

"Um- sorry," Ratonhnhaké:ton says. "Altair told me about you."

"Oh." It's really starting to get complicated with this many ancestors running around in different centuries, crossing over, meeting each other. He thinks suddenly of the first time he woke up and realized Altair was in his head- and he'd thought that was complicated. "Did you tell you anything else?"

"A lot," Ratonhnhaké:ton says, and Desmond goes poking around until he finds the memories. Ratonhnhaké:ton jerks a little- a nervous movement, like he's trying to shake something off, and Desmond draws back abruptly.

"Sorry," he says. "It's just- habit." He and Altair gave up drawing boundaries between their minds a long time ago, and if Ezio cares at all, he's never mentioned it.

Ratonhnhaké:ton shrugs, but Desmond can tell it bothers him, and makes a mental note to go more slowly.

"Altair said you need to find something," Ratonhnhaké:ton says. "A key."

"Right," Desmond says. "Like this." He shows Haytham's memory of finding the key to Ratonhnhaké:ton, who flinches again but only nods.

"I don't know what that is," he says. "But you said my father has it."

"He did," Desmond says. "Maybe... ten, fifteen years ago?"

"And you need it to save the world." Ratonhnhaké:ton doesn't sound skeptical. Mostly just curious, and maybe a little excited. Desmond doesn't even have a chance to answer before he goes on- "I'm going to help you find it."

"You don't have to do that," Desmond says.

"Yes I do," Ratonhnhaké:ton says. "My father has it."

And just like that, everything Ratonhnhaké:ton's been keeping back floods into Desmond's mind- feelings and memories, all tied back to a fire, more than ten years ago, and four men who almost killed a terrified child. "I didn't know those men," Ratonhnhaké:ton says. "But when I told my mother about them, she knew who they were. They're friends of my father- he sent them to burn the village down. People died."

"So this isn't about the key at all," Desmond says. "It's revenge."

"Yes."

Desmond hesitates for all of about three seconds. It doesn't matter what he says here; Ratonhnhaké:ton has already made up his mind, and he's not going to change it just to make Desmond happy. "Alright," he says. "Let's get started."