"We're here."
it was the first time any of them have spoken in nearly an hour, and so it takes Desmond a second or two to realize that, yes, the van has stopped, and they're here. Wherever here is. He glances out the window, and sees they're pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There's some trees. A shallow cave. Pretty much no signs of humans.
"Where's here?" Desmond asks.
"Turin, New York," Rebecca says. The group climbs out of the van, stretching tired limbs after hours of sitting in the same place.
"And... what's over here?" Desmond asks.
"Hopefully something that's going to help us," Rebecca says. "The apple only told us where we should go. Not why."
The four of them head into the cave, which is the only place around that seems worth checking out. It doesn't go very deep before ending abruptly in a much graffitied wall. There's an indentation there, and Shaun says, "That looks like it's about the right size for the apple."
"Too bad we don't have one anymore," William snaps, glaring at Desmond.
"Hey," he says, holding up his hands defensively. "I was in a coma when you lost it. Don't blame me."
"It picked you as a host, though," says William. "Unless you're going to tell me you just glow naturally, now."
"What?" Desmond realizes they're all staring at him, and that his skin is definitely lighting up. "Oh."
"That's actually pretty weird," Shaun says. "Do you think maybe you could stop doing it?"
"I would if I could," Desmond says, and makes a mental note to ask Altair for some tips the next time they have a chance to talk. It's strange to not have Altair or Ezio in his head or nearby, and he shakes his head at how quickly something so strange has become normal.
"This is fantastic," William says. "We come all the way here from Italy, and now we're stuck, because we don't have the apple anymore."
"We'll figure something out," Rebecca says. "Maybe there's something in the animus..."
"We don't need more memories," says William. "We need the apple."
"Maybe," says Desmond. He crosses the space between himself and the cave wall, positioning himself so he's right in front of the place where the apple is supposed to go. "Or maybe not."
"What-" Shaun starts to ask, but Rebecca quickly shushes him. Desmond barely notices, because he's too focused on the feeling of the apple inside him. He knows it's possible to work with the apple, and he knows the apple is supposed to act as some sort of key, or a trigger here. He closes his eyes, and tries to picture the energy from the apple inside him flowing outward and into the door.
At first, nothing happens. But just when Desmond is starting to feel ridiculous, standing in front of a stone wall with his eyes clamped shut, he feels the barest traces of something start to trickle out of him, like water from a dripping faucet. In a few minutes, the leak has turned to a stream and then a flood. He hears Rebecca gasp, and opens his eyes.
Almost immediately, he regrets it. His skin is glowing brightly, and patterns of lines and shapes move beneath them in a complicated dance that he can neither follow nor understand. And between his cupped hands, he holds what looks like the shadow of the apple inside him. It's only halfway solid, as insubstantial as smoke, but when he presses it to the hole in the wall, it slides into place with a satisfying click, and a moment later, the wall slides upward, revealing a long, dark passage ahead.
The light fades abruptly from Desmond's skin, and the shadow apple vanishes. Desmond lets out a long breath, and when he moves forward into the cave, he staggers a little.
"You okay?" Rebecca calls from behind him.
"Yea," he says, trying to sound like the trick with the apple hasn't left him exhausted. "The ground's not too level here, though."
They head deeper in, and find new marvels at every step- precursor technologies they don't understand, dark and dead until Desmond finds a battery, and some of the wonders around them start to light up. Desmond can feel the apple inside him reacting, pulsing gently like a heartbeat, stirring in anticipation. Anticipation for what, he doesn't know, and doesn't want to. At the far side of the room, they come to another wall, this one equipped with a countdown.
"December 21, 2012," Shaun says. "That's what it's counting down to."
"What is it about that date?" Rebecca asks. "It's the Abstergo satellite launch, but this place looks way too old to be tied up in that."
"It's the end of the world."
Desmond doesn't realize the words are his until the other three turn to look at him. "What does that mean?" Shaun demands.
"I don't know." Desmond rubs his head with the heel of his hand. "I think being in here is sort of waking the apple up." He can feel it whispering things in the back of his mind, and it's not at all the same as sharing a head with Ezio or Altair. The apple isn't a person, and it doesn't feel like one. It's different, somehow. Lifeless. Cold. A machine.
"And it's telling you things?" his father asks.
"Sort of," Desmond says.
"Well, just try to keep a hold on it," William says. "If this countdown is right, we don't have much time until..." he hesitates, glancing at Desmond. "Until the end of the world. Let's start moving the supplies down."
He says more after that, but Desmond isn't listening anymore. Something else has grabbed his attention, and this time it's not the apple. Not three feet from him, a man he doesn't know has suddenly materialized from nowhere. He has the usual ghostly, half transparent look that people seem to get when they're in the wrong time, but Desmond has never seen this man before. They stare at each other.
"Desmond!" Shaun yells.
"Huh?"
"Didn't you hear me?"
"Sorry," Desmond says. "No."
"I've been yelling."
"I said no," Desmond repeats. "What did you want?"
And then everything goes black.