Ezio's having a very good night when the spirit comes back. But then, Caterina Sforza always makes for a very good night. And he's right in the middle of a very good night when he suddenly feels the spirit again, doing something that feels like it's throwing up its hands and walking away.

He sits straight up in bed, brain scrambling for an explanation, panting slightly.

"Ezio, are you alright?"

The spirit in his head is kicking up a fuss, and Ezio feels suddenly tired and frustrated and he knows that neither of those feelings are his, but he can't stop them from coming through anyway. "No," he says. "My head-" he stops, dropping his head into his hands.

Caterina sits up as well, and says, "If you're not well, I can come back later." Her voice is cool, very different from a few moments earlier. He sighs, because he really doesn't like turning her away, but right now he doesn't have a choice. "Fine," Caterina says.

"Caterina-"

"No, really." Caterina says. She stands in his doorways, barely dressed but with an expression of coldness on her face that manages to take all the pleasure out of the sight. "I understand," she says, in a tone that says she doesn't.

So then he's alone, just him and the spirit in the ruins of a very good night that has suddenly gone sour. "What are you doing here, spirit?" Ezio asks. "And why now?" He can hear as he says it that the second question came out a lot less forcefully than he wanted it to. It sounds whiny in his own ears. Not that it matters. The spirit's never answered him before, and he doesn't expect it to say anything now. It's probably not even listening. Of course, the spirit's never been this obvious before, either.

"Sorry. I don't have a lot of time here."

"What?" Ezio demands. It's the first thing he can think of to say, because nothing like this has ever happened before. "You've been here how long and you've never said anything before-"

"That's not actually true," the spirit interrupts. "The day of... of the hangings."

"That was you inside my head that day," Ezio says. "You've been here that long, and you've never said anything? I thought I was going crazy." He suddenly remembers the day in the sanctuary. "And you were the one one that called me an idiot?"

"Hey, that time it wasn't me."

"So there's someone else inside my head?" Ezio asks.

"...it's complicated."

"Well-"

"And you might want o keep your voice down. You don't even need to talk at all. I'm inside your head. I can hear what you're thinking."

"That-" Ezio swallows down the rest of the sentence. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. And I've heard some crazy things lately."

"I know." The spirit sounds tired. "I was there for that too."

"Oh." Ezio hesitates, because he's not really sure how he feels about asking the voice in his head for help. Then he decides that if he's already crazy, this isn't going to make much difference. "Do you maybe have any idea what she was talking about?"

"A little," says the spirit. "I can definitely explain one thing."

"What's that?" Ezio asks.

"I'm Desmond," says the spirit.

"You're the one she- Minerva-"

"Yea," the spirit- Desmond- says.

"...I think you probably need to explain some things now."

-/-

I'm just going to take this space to apologize for putting out a chapter that should have been great and somehow managing to make it boring. Also to thank all you guys for inexplicably staying with this weird little story.