Desmond climbs out of the animus a little after 8:30 on December 20th with the location of the key. On his end, it's only been a couple of days since Connor and Haytham swapped bodies, but because of the way time passes in the animus, for them it's been several months. He's actually a little surprised they managed to get it in such a short time. They still don't work together well, and Desmond doubts they'll ever completely trust each other, not after what happened at Fort George. But finding the key gives them a common goal, and in the end- after months of arguments, planning, and cautious teamwork- they have it.
"So now all we have to do is dig it up and save the world," Shaun's saying when Desmond sits up from the animus. He's standing over Rebecca, looking at something on her computer. Probably the footage from the last session.
"How exactly is that going to work?" Rebecca asks.
"Well, you know." Shaun shrugs. "Get a shovel, find some dirt-"
"Not the digging." Rebecca rolls her eyes. "The saving the world."
"We'll figure it out when we have the key," William interrupts from the other side of the temple. "Desmond, you ready to go?"
"Yep." The key's buried under a grave on Davenport Homestead; Connor's idea, obviously, not Haytham's. So it all comes down to just a little bit of driving, a shovel, and the end of the world. He takes a deep breath and tries to pretend that he's not shaking.
"Nervous?" William asks, and Desmond knows he's noticed anyway. He never could hide anything from his father.
Well. Nothing other than the ghosts of his ancestors living in his head, anyway. And speaking of ancestors- Desmond looks around, expecting to see one or two of them at least, but for once he's alone. His mind is quiet, and the temple feels oddly empty without them.
"It'll be fine," William says. "Let's go." He leads the way out of the temple, squeezing Desmond's shoulder as he passes. It's something he used to do a long time ago, when Desmond was a child, on the rare occasions he could actually manage to do something his father approved of.
He takes another deep breath and follows William out, Shaun and Rebecca bringing up the rear. He's not shaking anymore.
The ride passes in complete silence, but just as they're pulling up to the grave site, Rebecca suddenly says, "Shit!" and starts pounding furiously on her laptop.
"What's wrong?" William demands.
"I put defenses around all the technology we use, to keep Abstergo from tracking us," Rebecca says. "But they just went down."
"Abstergo?" William asks.
"They'll be on us in half an hour or less," says Rebecca. "We need to find this key fast."
"Well, we're here," Shaun says. "Let's get digging."
And so they start digging. Desmond knows exactly where Connor buried it, but it's still hard to find. The key is small, and it's way too easy to accidentally throw it away in a shovelful of dirt. Especially in the dark, and there's a lot of that this late in December. A lot of dark, and a lot of cold.
Desmond finds it eventually, though, half sticking out of the dirt six feet down. "I got it," he calls, and holds up the tiny disk.
"Great," Shaun says. Desmond can't see him, because all he's down n the hole with a high wall of dirt surrounding him on all sides. He can't see him, but there's something about his voice that definitely sounds tense. "You should probably bring it up now before someone gets shot."
There's three Abstergo goons waiting for him when Desmond climbs back out of the hole, which is actually less than he'd been expecting. Maybe he's just gotten too used to the way his ancestors tend to attract the attentions of entire cities full of guards. But three guards means one each holding a gun on his dad and his friends, and that's a pretty effective discouragement from him doing anything rash.
"Well, well, Mr. Miles," a voice says just behind him, and Desmond goes stiff, feeling like someone's just dumped a glass of ice water down his spine. He knows that voice.
"Vidic," he says, turning around.
"I'll be honest," Vidic says, glancing at the dug up grave. "I was not expecting to find you here, doing... whatever it is you're doing."
"I-"
"It doesn't matter," Vidic says. "Because all I'm interested in is the apple. Give it to me, and nobody gets hurt."
Which is actually almost laughable. Desmond doesn't believe for a second that, if Vidic has his way, any of the assassins will be walking away from this alive. "Why do you think I have it with me?"
"You think I'd believe you left it somewhere to come on this little dig?" Vidic asks. "No. You have it here, somewhere. Show me."
"Fine." And there's not a lot that Desmond can do with the apple, but the one thing it seems to do at the drop of a hat is glow. It doesn't matter if the thing's translating, or time traveling, or switching peoples' bodies around. It always glows, and so it takes barely a thought to light it up now. The apple blazes to life, ribbons of light racing in complex patterns across his skin. It feels like fire, and Desmond realizes it's his anger feeding the apple, giving it energy.
"What is that?" Vidic demands. "What are you doing?"
"Showing you what you wanted to see," Desmond says.
"Kill them!" Vidic shouts, and Desmond sees one of the men raise a gun to his dad's head.
Something snaps, and Desmond moves before anyone- including himself- knows what he's doing, he's taken out the guy holding his dad, plus the guy holding Rebecca. The one on Shaun puts up a little more of a struggle, but not enough to save him. Then he turns his gaze on Vidic.
"You brought this on yourself, Vidic," he says. "I was hiding out in New York, and I never would have come back to any of this if you hadn't dragged me into it. But my real problem with you is Lucy. I know it was your idea to make me think I could trust her. And then I had to kill her." He slides out his hidden blade, and says, "Goodbye, Vidic."
Five minutes later, they're back in the van, leaving four templar bodies behind. "Rebecca?" Desmond says. He doesn't look at her, keeping his eyes on the key in his hand. He's never killed like that before. Not for revenge. The apple's dormant inside him again, and the anger has faded too, leaving him feeling empty.
"Yea?" she asks.
"Abstergo's not still tracking us, are they?"
"No," Rebecca says, softly. "I patched up the holes."
"Good." He pockets the key, turns to stare out the window. "Let's go save the world, then."