Names refer to the person inside the head, and not whose body it is. (Desmond=Desmond in Altair's body, Altair=Altair in Ezio's body, Ezio= Ezio in Desmond's body).

=Altair=Ezio=Desmond=

For a second, the three of them stand in the room, not really sure what to do or say. Two of them are glowing, and the disk in Altair's hand is still bright as well. The light from the key only lingers a minute or so, and then it abruptly fades. As if following some kind of sign, all three of them burst into speech at the exact same moment.

It's a chaotic scene, words flying past in three different languages, as all three of them try to figure out what's going on, and why, and how. No one's listening to each other, and no one shows any sign of quieting down, until Desmond yells, "Hey!" as loudly as he can. He's still in Altair's body, and Altair doesn't yell. He just doesn't. It's enough of a surprise to get the other two to be quiet, at least for the moment.

Ezio looks at him and wonders what's going on with him, and then back at his own body on the other side of the table. Right now, he's a lot more interested in who's in there than what's going on with Altair.

"Okay," Desmond says. "Can we just figure out what's going on here?" He says it in Italian, because there's only one person in the room without an apple to translate for them. He glances over at his body, which is still glowing weirdly, and wonders who's been messing with it while he was stuck in the animus.

Altair glares at him. He doesn't like not knowing what's going on, and this situation is quickly spiraling out of control. "I have no idea what you just said."

"Oh." Desmond looks at him in surprise, and quickly switches languages. "Altair?"

Altair nods, and tries not to stare at his own body, which is staring back at him. "Who are you?"

"Desmond," says Desmond.

"I'm Ezio, in case anyone wanted to know," Ezio adds. Then he does a double take, and grins at Desmond. "So you are alive!"

"Ye-"

Desmond's answer is abruptly cut off by an unexpected hug from Ezio.

"This is the strangest thing I've ever seen," Altair mutters, and Ezio steps back, still smiling.

"So I guess you missed me?" Desmond asks. He abruptly realizes that being hugged by someone else in his own body isn't even the weirdest thing that's happened to him today, and decides that probably says something about his mental state at the moment.

"We thought you were dead," Altair says.

"I'm not," Desmond says. "I just..." he shrugs, suddenly self conscious. "After Lucy... I think I kind of shut down a little."

The others don't say anything, but they don't have to. They've all lost people, and they all know how it hurts. "Glad you're back now," Ezio says.

"Yea, well I'll be happier when I can get back in my body," Desmond tells him. "What's been going on since then? I mean, I think I saw most of it in the animus, but-"

"So you were the one looking through memories," Ezio interrupts. "Rebecca said someone had been, but I wasn't sure it was you."

"When did that happen?" Altair asks.

"Just recently," Ezio tells him. "Today."

There's a lot of explanations, from everyone, and they take a while to get through. At the end of it, Ezio asks, "So does anyone know how we actually get back to where we're supposed to be?"

"I have some ideas," Altair says.

"Can we just enjoy the moment for a second?" Desmond asks. "Technically, this is the first time any of us have physically been in the same place."

"Of course we'd all be in the wrong bodies for it," Altair complains.

"It's an appropriate place, though," says Ezio. "I mean, 'the library of Altair'." He laughs. "I thought there was supposed to be some great, hidden wisdoms here. But there were no secrets. Just you."

"Thanks," says Desmond. He looks over at Altair. "You said you thought you knew how to get us all back where we're supposed to be?"

Altair nods. "I've been working with the apple a lot," he says. "I think I could probably use it to move between the three of us."

"But you're the only one without an apple right now," Ezio points out. "And neither of us know what we're doing." He points at Desmond. "Maybe if we had a few years to figure it out..."

"It doesn't matter," says Altair. "Because of this." He holds up the last key, the one he found on the table when he came in. "This is what brought the two of you here," he said.

"And you think it can send us away again?" Desmond asks. "I get that you know more about this stuff than we do, but you've never seen that thing before. You can't know what it does already."

"Yes I can," Altair says. "Because Ezio's right. This is my library. So at some point in the future... past?" he frowns. "In my future, I'm going to find or make these keys, and leave this here, for me to find now." He has no idea how any of that is going to happen, but it's a problem he can solve later. "And there's no reason I wouldn't leave us a way out."

"That's either the most complicated thing I've ever heard, or the smartest," Desmond says, after a long pause.

"Let's go with smartest," Ezio says. "Can you try it?"

Altair nods, and closes his eyes, the better to focus on the disk in his hands. Now that he understands what the disk is here for, it responds easily to his touch. It feels like it was made for him- possibly because it was. This time, when the light comes, it's not unexpected at all. He welcomes it, drawing it inside himself, and then sends it outward to the others.

For either a moment or a hundred years, they're all connected, with no barriers of mind or body between the three of them. Altair remembers what Desmond said Clay told him- that in some ways, they really are all the same. Right now, it's easy to believe.

Then they separate- back to their own bodies, and their own times. Desmond, to a 21st century airport in Italy; Altair, to 12th century Masyaf; and Ezio, who doesn't need to move at all.

When the light fades, Ezio opens his eyes, fighting a momentary wave of dizziness. He's alone, in both mind and body, and his hands are clenched around the disk. He's holding it with an intensity leftover from Altair, and it takes a few seconds before he can loosen his grip.

He thinks about leaving it there, but very quickly decides not to. After all, there's no guarantee they won't be in this situation again. There's also no guarantee the disk will work twice, but Ezio decides not to think about that.

Instead, he pockets the disk and walks out. He leaves Masyaf behind without looking back once- he's fairly confident he'll see it again someday. Or Altair will, and that's more or less the same thing.

-/-

Ah... so many things to say about this chapter.

1-If you're still here and still reading and still interested, THANK YOU. I feel like this one's really weird, and if you actually care enough to stick around, that means a lot to me.

2- Writing three different people in three different heads, when none of them know who's actually in which head, is extremely difficult. I never rewrite chapters, but this one went through three versions before I settled on this one (in case you were wondering, I tried it from Altair's POV and then Desmond's before I decided it worked better when I could put all of their thoughts in).

3- This isn't going to stop me from doing it again, although I will probably try to be more organized next time.

4- It's definitely not going to stop me from adding Haytham, Connor, and Edward, if this story ends up going that far. (For MAXIMUM confusion)

5- On top of the weird POV stuff, this chapter was hard to write because I wanted to do justice to my favorite memory in the series. For some reason I really love Ezio finding Altair's body in the library and then going on to give Desmond that whole speech thing. I've been trying to figure out what to do since probably chapter five. I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out, which is why I'm babbling on in this super long writer's note.

….I'm going to stop now.