Seeing the statue of himself jars Altair, nearly enough to drop his sync rate with Ezio down to zero, and kick him from the animus. At the last second, as Ezio bursts into an angry rant, he manages to save it. It's not the first time he's almost managed to completely detach himself from the memory- he's not even related to Ezio, and it doesn't help that Desmond is coming closer to consciousness every minute, making it very crowded in Ezio's head. Of course, he wouldn't complain if Desmond would just wake up faster and kick him out altogether. It's all he can do to stay in the animus at all, and he knows he's doing a terrible job of hiding himself from Ezio. He doesn't like being bad at things; it's put him in a foul mood.

He manages to pull it all back together, barely, at about the same time Ezio's pouting on the floor. He says, "I bet you never had to deal with problems like this when you were alive." And for just a beat, as Altair sits in a stranger's head, trying to keep everyone's brain from pouring out their ears, he wants to laugh. Instead, and before he can stop himself, he thinks- "Idiot," just a little too loudly.

And then he has exactly one second to make a decision- he knows he's made a mistake, knows it even before he feels Ezio react. The other assassin opens his mouth, probably to say something that will completely tip off anyone that happens to be watching the animus recording. And just at that moment, Desmond wakes up. The animus reacts as violently as it did the first time they tried going in together, and this time it somehow manages to hurt even more.

But it saves them- when Altair manages to get to his feet- the pain has left both him and Desmond on their knees in the same empty field where they spoke for the first time- Ezio is nowhere to be seen. Altair feels a little flicker of guilt when he realizes that Desmond's going to be the one to deal with him during his next animus session, but he's the one that's better at hiding from Ezio, anyway.

Desmond's still on his knees, so Altair walks over to him, offers him a hand. "Are you alright?" he asks. "You've been out of it for a couple of days."

Desmond gives him a panicked look and says something in Italian. For a second, Altair thinks that maybe the animus somehow it's Ezio and not Desmond in the empty field with him, but then Desmond offers a weak smile and mutters, "Sorry."

"It's fine." Not that he has anything against Ezio (although he does think the man can be a little more dramatic than he needs to be, sometimes). It's just that everything's confusing enough already. "The Italian's new." He knows that Desmond can pick up on languages extremely fast inside the animus- after all, every verbal conversation they've had is in Altair's native language, not Desmond's- but he hasn't heard him let loose in Italian yet.

"Yea," Desmond says. "The last thing I remember, I was in the animus, and Ezio was getting the shit kicked out of him, and I think we both blacked out-"

Altair nods. "When they pulled you out of the animus, you were still out of it. That was the night before last."

"Are you joking?" Desmond demands.

"No," Altair says. Of course not. He doesn't really joke much.

"Shit," says Desmond, and then follows it with similar sentiments in two other languages. "So when I wake up I'm going to have to put up with Shaun laughing at me for a week for fainting?"

"No, actually," says Altair. "You weren't awake, but I was-"

"So you've just been running around in my body for the past day and a half?" Desmond demands. "Why would you do that?"

"What do you mean?" Altair asks. "Desmond, you were out cold, I didn't even know what was going on in the beginning. And I didn't think you'd want anyone else to know. I thought I was doing you a favor."

"You weren't!" Desmond says. "Alright? I already have to deal with you in my head, and me in Ezio's head, but when I'm in my body, I'm supposed to be the one in control! That's all I have right now!"

Altair's eyes narrow. "You're not the only one with problems. Every time we're both in your head, I have to sit there, and watch, because when you're 'in control', I'm helpless. And when we separate it's only a little bit better because yes I have my own body but I can't do anything with it, because I'm basically a ghost. And then when I go back to Masyaf, I have to keep a group of assassins from falling apart which is not easy, by the way. And the apple of eden is inside me, and I don't know what that means. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I'm pretty sure Ezio thinks he's crazy too, so stop making this an issue about you. However you want to look at this, we're stuck with each other."

At the end of this outburst, Desmond doesn't say anything for several minutes. Then finally- "Why does Ezio think he's crazy?"

Altair looks away. "I might have called him an idiot."

"Why?"

"The giant statue of me in his basement sort of caught me off guard!" Altair says. "You could have mentioned it."

"Sorry," Desmond says, and to Altair's surprise he's laughing. "I thought it might give you a swelled head."

"Why?" Altair demands. But Desmond's laughter is catching, and he feels his anger start to cool a little. "It's an embarrassment. Giant statues and- and some stranger looking up to me like I have all the answers-"

"Well I hope you weren't too harsh," Desmond says. "I think you're sort of his hero."

"I called him an idiot right before you woke up and we got kicked out of the animus," Altair says. "So have fun with that."

Desmond sighs. "Figures," he says. "I'll see what I can do."

The field around them starts to fade, and Altair says, "Looks like we're waking up."

"Right," says Desmond. And then- "Look, I'm sorry- you were right. Whatever our problems are, we have to solve them together. We don't have a choice right now."

Altair nods, a little surprised. He hadn't really expected an apology, and he doesn't know how to answer it. So he just says, "See you in the real world." And everything goes away.