"Give us some light Des," Ezio said.

"What am I? The human flash light?" but Desmond did put his hand on the wall. Light blossomed around them, bathing everyone in a teal light. He saw the questions on the Assassin's faces, but they didn't ask. Good idea, none of them were going to answer their questions.

"So I guess we go down then," Lucy said, she was standing at the top of the stairs. "It doesn't go up."

The stairs went down and down and down, following the curve of the tower and were wide enough for several of them to walk abreast. Desmond kept his hand on the wall, and light bloomed in front of an behind him a few feet from the wall, so everyone could see. It felt like they walked forever but eventually they did come to the bottom. Upon exiting the stair well they found themselves in a huge room. It was the width of the tower and absurdly tall, long lines of glowing teal light rising up the sides and into darkness above.

"Bloody hell," Desmond heard Shaun say in awe as everyone did the same thing and looked up.

Desmond focused first, "Mercury," he called.

"You don't have to yell," they all spun at the sound of a new voice behind them. Standing there was… a child. He couldn't be more then ten, if that and wore something like a toga. He wore a cap with wings and no shoes, standing on the floor, his blonde hair erratic under his cap.

"…Are you… Mercury?" Desmond asked.

"No, I'm Jupiter; yes I'm Mercury, who else would I be?" they asked and hopped over to him. He clearly had written the book on angry sarcasm because he didn't seem to have any other tone.

"Sorry. It's just… you're a kid?"

"Yeah so? I'm not real, I can look however I damn want. Not like you give Venus any trouble, and she never looks like her self anyway."

"Uh… okay," Desmond said as the hologram came to stand in front of him. Then he took off from the ground to float in order to look Desmond in the eye.

"You're not really much to look at," he informed Desmond.

"Says the highly advanced A.I. in the form of a bratty child," Desmond said without apologies.

Mercury was silent for a moment, then he laughed, "No wonder Pluto likes you," he said and then went back down to the floor, for once not sounding angry. "Welcome to the CCK1," and he waved his hands, all the lights in the building went up showing that the tower was hollow all the way through and they could see all the way to the top. "Now, come here, I need you," and he beckoned Desmond before what looked like a control station rose up from the floor. Mercury ran over to it and jumped onto the panel, waving Desmond over urgently. Desmond went sort of knowing what was needed.

"What do you need me for?" he asked.

"This. This. I'm only at half power right now," and he pointed to a blank, black, glass screen.

"I just touch it?"

"Wow you figured it out all on your own. Yes touch it, stupid."

"What'll happen?"

"I become fully fucking operational and we can do this properly without all this extra running around horse shit."

"You have a really bad mouth," Desmond said.

"Screw you, just touch the panel. There'll be a prick, it needs some blood."

Desmond sighed, of course it needed his blood. He put his hand on the glass. The panel flared up white and then teal, where his hand was still white light. Like warned there was a prick as the machine took his blood and his handprint turned red instead of white.

"Okay?" Desmond asked.

"Perfect!" Mercury said and shimmered before vanishing, the control panel sinking back into the floor as Desmond stepped back and away from it.

"… What the hell just happened?" Ezio asked.

"No idea," Desmond said truthfully.

"Just give me a damn second will you? It's been like a hundred thousand years since I did this," Mercury's voice rang out into the air. They waited.

"Mercury's interesting," Lucy said.

"Yeah, real interesting," Jake groused.

"See what I meant," Desmond said, "You guys are way out of your depth," he told the Assassins who were all staring around in absolute awe and complete confusion.

"Hold on to something," Mercury said.

"Like wha-T!" Ezio yelped and then suddenly the ground moved. It turned and then suddenly they were going up at a pretty serious speed, faster than most elevators. Those who didn't brace themselves fell, including Desmond.

The floor stopped moving near the top of the tower. Jake yelped when something started pushing out from the floor. Then more things started to emerge from the floor. A large table appeared with two dozen seats and so did walls and other pieces of furniture. The new walls looked like they had some sort of wall paper on them but when Desmond touched them they flickered and turned black.

"Stop touching things Desmond. You make everything screw up," he jerked his hand back when Mercury spoke.

"You're not very nice," he said.

"Does it sound like I care what a little human baby thinks?" and then the walls showed a a video of an infant's struggling to crawl. Jake laughed.

"Shut up," Desmond bitched and pressed his hand pointedly on the wall. The video flickered and turned black again briefly before once more looking like funeral home wallpaper.

Mercury appeared on the big table, standing on it proudly, "Now, everyone sit," he ordered. They all found a seat. Desmond sat close to the end of the table, Lucy sat next to him and Altair sat on his other side. Jake sat across from him with Ezio and Hawk flanking him. The Assassins sat a seat away from Ezio, they themselves in a row.

"Good, now," he was silent for a second. "Everyone's here. Okay. Good, fucking finally," and Desmond was glad he was sitting now as six other holograms suddenly appeared around the table. He recognized several of them; Morpheus, Pluto, Hera. Though there were three he didn't. One was a older woman with black hair and wore a long, flowing, dress, and looked positively stately, though she wore no headdress, or shoes. The other was a younger girl, like in her teens, wearing a helmet of some kind and tight fitting clothes, also bare foot. The last was a huge woman, she had wide hips and a large stomach and large breasts, but delicate features and small hands, she wore a hood that hid most of her face like a helmet and her clothes resembled Pluto's; militant. "Hello brothers, sisters," Mercury said with a smile.

"Mercury stop that," Morpheus said in his very deep voice, patiently.

"Screw you," Mercury said.

"Mercury," Hera said.

"… Right, sorry ma'am," Mercury said, cowed. "But, it's done," he said cheerfully.

"Yes. Very good," Pluto said, looking around at them all.

"There are those who aren't supposed to be here," Morpheus said in his deep echoey voice. At once the rest of the holograms ceased their chatter amid themselves, like talking at a family reunion, and all turned and stared at the Assassins. Desmond tried his best not to look pleased about how uncomfortable they looked, and especially his father.

"What are they doing here?" Pluto asked. "Bad enough you bring a synth and four tainted, now humans. What is this?" he looked at Desmond sternly.

"New guys, friends, and my dad," Desmond said.

"Father?" Pluto said, interested and confused at the same time. Morpheus was now looming over Andrew who stared in his chair and leaned away.

Morpheus reached out and 'touched' Andrew on the forehead and then drew away a 3D holographic representation of him. "How interesting," he said, "Demeter?" and like it was nothing he pushed the hologram of Andrew to the statuesque woman.

Desmond didn't know what she did but he did start when suddenly the obscenely large woman sat on the table between him and Lucy. She seemed to be looking at Lucy under her helm, then she turned to Desmond. "No wonder you hated I looked like her. I do her no justice," she said.

"Venus?" he asked, staring.

"I am," she said and it was the first time he'd ever seen her not in the guise of Lucy or Sarah.

"…Uh-

"What?" and then her appearance flickered to Lucy again, wearing a very tight shirt and Desmond turned bright red. "Like this better?"

"No!" he said hotly. Next to him Lucy laughed.

"Not interesting at all," Desmond heard Demeter say and Desmond looked at her to take his attention off Venus as she flickered back to her true appearance. "He gets it all but one from his mother," she declared and trashed the hologram.

"Who though?" Mercury asked.

"Unimportant," she said it in a very finalizing way and just like that no one was interested in Andrew in the slightest, or the other two.

"Okay… that was weird," Jake said.

"Someone want to clue us into what's going on?" Andrew asked.

"You wanted to come in at the middle," Desmond said, "So you're going to have to figure it out as you go till we get to the end. Same as the rest of us."

"But-

"You're not a part of this. Shut it," Desmond said. "So," he looked at the holograms, "I'm guessing this was part of the plan?"

"Very," Venus said. "Mercury is a communications expert-

"Could have fooled me," Ezio grumbled.

Venus didn't even notice him speaking, "He was given the task, upon our awakening, to bring us all together so that together we could fully power up."

"Even you?" Hawk asked, "You're just a box."

The holograms laughed, "Venus is a Vault," Artemis said primly. "A vast, impregnable store house you have only touched the surface of. She is an armory, without weapons."

"That… means?" Altair asked for elaboration.

Venus waved her hand, "This is what you see," and the Vault appeared in midair above them, "That is my retrieval unit. This is the rest of what I maintain," and a huge complex appeared under the box, one that looked hundreds of yards across.

"Oh my," Hawk breathed.

"Our weapons were left with Artemis and Mars to maintain. I was left with most of our other technology, for when we awoke again. What is in the above ground vault is simply what I have had on stock since the Cataclysm, under normal operations it fills the room you found me in and from it any item required can be transported to for easy retrieval. I have been running at the minimalist capacity possible for a very long time, enough to keep everything safe, but little else. We all have," she waved at the other A.I.s.

"And the bad ones too?" Desmond asked.

"Yes," she nodded. "Your clone did not work as they expected, and neither did their plan B," Venus looked at Lucy who looked incredibly embarrassed. "And C, and D," she added thoughtfully.

"Cain isn't dead yet," Altair said.

"No," Morpheus agreed, "But I'm sure you know; he doesn't like being kept."

"No he doesn't," Altair said.

"We have know this. We have a plan."

"Like what? What could you possibly offer Cain?" Altair scoffed. "He doesn't want money, fame, glory."

"They have something he wants. We said we'd give it to him."

"Which was?"

"You let us worry about that."

"And Daniel?" Lucy asked in a soft voice, "Just because he's dead doesn't mean the proeathans won't just bring him back. Like they did me," she squeezed her knees hard.

"We aren't sure on his condition," Pluto admitted. "The last I heard he was in Russia, with Saturn," he frowned, "we did not get along well even before he found about my changed allegiance."

"Okay," Desmond said. "So you're all here, now what?"

"We've been waiting for you."

He sighed, "Of course. When are you guys not waiting for me? Waiting for me to wake you up, save the world, now show up here," he sat back low in the sear. "What do I have to do now?"

"Just one thing," Pluto said.

"Great. Lay it on me," he said, opening his arms, slightly sarcastic.

"Trust us," Mercury said and then suddenly Desmond's chair vanished and the floor opened up. Desmond was falling. He heard someone yell his name and as he looked up, before the ceiling closed around him he saw Lucy and Altair's faces, Altair looking ready to dive after him. But then the ceiling sealed and Desmond was falling.

It was entirely black and empty inside the tower. Desmond panicked as he fell, wind grabbing at his clothes as his limbs waved in the air, face down. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die now. He actually had something to live for now. What had they said? Trust. Right. Trust! What was trust? Why should he? They were going to kill him! No. No they weren't. They wouldn't. They needed him. Without him eventually they'd all be taken over again. They needed him alive, and able, and they needed him to trust them. What was trust?

Trust was an act of faith.

He'd taken plenty of leaps of faith in his life.

Desmond relaxed, his body positioned itself on his own so he was on his back, arms on either side of him, like he was crucified in the darkness. He closed his eyes and breathed out calmly. The darkness swept over him. He was in the darkness and the darkness was in him and he was right back where he started, a darkness' embrace where he was nothing, and it didn't matter who or what he was. He embraced it and welcomed it because it was familiar, because it was a comfort.

He fell.

-fin-


Merry Christmas, happy holidays; have a finished fic