For just over a week, nothing at all exciting happens. Desmond spends most of his days in the animus, learning from Ezio as best he can, and trying as much as possible to keep his ancestor from finding him, hiding in the back of his mind or watching from a distance. It isn't easy. Everything in Rebecca's version of the animus is clearer than the animus at Abstergo was. It makes it easier for him to learn Ezio's skillset, but it also means that Ezio comes very close to finding Desmond, very often.
It doesn't help that he sometimes has to interfere. Just a little. He knows it's a bad idea, but in Ezio's earliest memories, he's just a kid running around in robes that mean nothing to him, a blade he doesn't know how to use strapped to his arm. And Desmond feels for him a little, because he's never going to forget what it felt like to wake up in the animus for the first time, and realize that everything he's ever known is wrong, and the world is so much weirder than he ever could have imagined.
He helps when he can, which isn't often. Ezio is untrained, but Desmond isn't much better. But he can offer an extra pair of eyes, at least, and more than once in the early sequences, Desmond has to warn Ezio away from a guard that the boy hasn't seen yet, or a roof that's farther away than it looks. He can't let Ezio know he's there- honestly, he's still getting used to sharing his head with Altair, and he doesn't want to risk Ezio moving in too. So he tries to sort of guide him away, with feelings of caution and watchfulness, and once- when Ezio's about two feet away from a guard he hasn't even notice- genuine oh shit we're going to die panic. Mostly, it works.
And then Ezio watches his family die, and the sudden flood of fear and anger and horror are so intense that Desmond finds himself pushed to the very edge of Ezio's mind, somehow even more powerless than usual, carried along on a tidal wave of emotions. It doesn't let up for a very long time. Not until Ezio has said goodbye to Christina, and buried his father and brothers. Then, finally alone, Ezio climbs the tallest building he can find, sits down on a roof, and doesn't move at all.
That worries Desmond. He's never seen Ezio so quiet and still, and he's never felt his mind so completely empty. Suddenly he feels like the only one in the body, with Ezio just a tiny spark in the distance.
It doesn't look like Ezio's planning to get moving anytime soon, and Desmond isn't sure that his usual tactics are going to work. So he takes a chance.
"Don't stop here," he tells Ezio. "There's going to be guards soon, probably. And worse." Templars, he doesn't say, because he knows it won't mean anything to Ezio. Not yet.
"What am I going to do..?" Ezio asks, and Desmond can't tell if it's meant for him, or the universe in general.
But the universe doesn't answer, so Desmond says, "You're going to get up, and find your mother and sister and get them out of the city. As soon as you can."
"I can't do this..." Ezio bites his lip and stares down at the street. Desmond can see a pair of guards working their way toward them, questioning anyone that stands still long enough. Ezio doesn't seem to notice. "I can't do it alone."
"Lucky you then," Desmond says. "Because you're stuck with me for a while."
And maybe that does it. Or maybe Ezio's not listening at all, doesn't even know Desmond's there, and he makes the decision all on his own. Either way, he gets up, and moves on less than thirty seconds before Desmond hears the guards spot them on the roof. And they run...
That's the last time Desmond ever talks to Ezio, and Ezio spends so much of his time trying not to think about that day, Desmond's pretty sure his ancestor doesn't even remember the conversation. But Desmond does.
Apart from that, his time in the animus goes as it's supposed to. He learns.
Outside the animus, though, everything is a little uncertain. Sometimes, he shares a brain with Altair. Sometimes his ancestor is just there- like a hallucination but not. He's sure he's not hallucinating, no matter how many times Lucy warns him that it could happen. "It won't happen," he tells her once.
"You can't be sure," Lucy says.
So he shrugs, and promises to be careful, and glances over at Altair, who's standing five feet away.
And when Altair's not in the hideout, which is every time Desmond's in the animus, he's in Masyaf, trying to rebuild the shattered remnants of the assassin order or figure out what's going on with him and the apple. Desmond can see the stress eating away at his ancestor a little bit more every time he comes out of the animus, and feel it clearly when they're sharing a mind.
But while his life doesn't work well, it is definitely working. Lucy, Shaun, and Rebecca have no idea Altair is there, so he doesn't have to defend his sanity to them. Ezio is equally clueless, so he feels a little safer. And the training Ezio gets translates perfectly onto Desmond's muscle memory. He's having nightmares, but they're getting better. It helps to know that he'll never wake up alone. And his injuries from the Abstergo escape bother him less every day.
And then something goes wrong.
-/-
So, uh... it occurs to me that while most people choose to say thank you to the people that review/favorite/follow their stories, I kind of went the other way and insulted you in the last chapter... so whoops, sorry about that, you guys are actually all really nice and I would give you all cookies if it wasn't creepy to give cookies to strangers and also if I wouldn't rather just eat them all myself.