It's a very tense evening in the first civilization temple. Nobody's really talking much- Desmond's upset because no matter how much he argues it, there's no way around the fact that they need the key that Haytham has, and there's no way of finding it without going back in the animus. His dad and Shaun aren't talking to each other for some reason, and Rebecca's in front of her computer, trying to give the programming a boost to make up for Desmond's appallingly low sync rate with Haytham.

Apart from Rebecca, the rest of them are sat, more or less clustered together, around a set of microwaved dinners. It's very quiet. The only sounds are normal mealtime noises- chewing, and plastic forks scraping plates- and music leaking from Rebecca's headphones.

And then there's a faint noise, one that only Desmond hears, and Ezio and Altair appear from nowhere. He glances up at them, gives a mental shrug, and looks back down. This isn't exactly unusual at this point.

He reaches for a cup, takes a drink, then glances up again, and does an involuntary spit take.

His father gives him a can-you-be-any-more-of-a-child look, but Desmond ignores him, because he's too busy staring at the other end of the room, where Ezio's just punched Altair in the face. "I'm just going to-" no one's listening, and he can't think of anything to say anyway, so he just finishes, sort of lamely- "Go over there."

Shaun shrugs, but no one else answers, and Desmond makes a hasty escape. As soon as he's far enough away that he doesn't think the others are going to hear, Desmond demands, "What are you doing?"

"Ask him," Ezio says. "Because I have no idea."

Desmond turns to Altair, whose nose is bleeding profusely. "Okay..." he says. "What's going on?"

"It wasn't-"

"There's a difference," Ezio interrupts, apparently unable to stay quiet. "Between what we agreed to do and what you actually did."

"What did you agree?" Desmond asks. "Where were you?"

Altair gives him what sounds like a very quick version of a more complicated story, which Ezio listens to silently until the very end. Then he says, "You shouldn't have been inside his head. That was the whole point of us going."

"I had to."

"Why?" Ezio demands. "This is probably going to end up just like the animus. Being inside that kid's head means he's going to end up in ours. You didn't have to drag him into this. And you shouldn't have made that decision on your own."

"You didn't see his face," Altair says. "He asked for help."

"He didn't know the whole story!" Ezio shouts. "You can't just drag a kid into all this!"

"They were going to hurt him!" Altair says. He's not loud, but there's something forceful in his voice that makes it hard not to listen to what he has to say. "Alright? Forget about the key for a minute. There were four armed men beating a boy. And if they'd killed him-"

"They wouldn't have," Ezio says. "Or Desmond wouldn't be here."

"That's not how it works," Altair says.

"So you're saying that if you hadn't been there, that boy would have died," Ezio says.

"I'm saying he might have," says Altair. "I mean, you would never have lived at all if Desmond hadn't been there when you were born."

There's a very long silence, and for a minute, Desmond isn't sure that Ezio isn't going to just punch Altair again. Instead, he lets out a long sigh, and says, "You're right." It isn't quite an apology, but it's enough. Altair nods, and the tension drains away abruptly. "So. What do we do now?"

Desmond says, "We still need to find the key, and looking for it with..." he hesitates, glances at Altair.

"Ratonhnhaké:ton," Altair says.

"Isn't really a bad idea," Desmond continues. "I'm going back in the animus tomorrow to look through more of Haytham's memories."

"Why?" Ezio asks.

"Because apparently I don't get a choice," Desmond says. "But if I can convince them to send me into..."

"Ratonhnhaké:ton," Altair repeats, emphasizing each syllable. "It's not that hard."

"Yes it is," says Ezio.

"Anyway," Desmond continues. "I think I'd probably be better off with him than with Haytham. It's worth trying to convince them, anyway."

-/-

I am really sorry if you have this story on alert and just got flooded with update notifications- I accidentally deleted a few chapters and then kind of panicked and made it worse. So, I'm not sure what FFN actually sends out alerts for, but if they do it when chapters get shifted around, you probably just got about twenty notices. My bad, sorry. :/