Darkness.
It calls the thing around it darkness, but the word doesn't really fit. It means more. It means fear, and emptiness, and an ever present pain, a fire that threatens to tear it apart, to burn it up until it's nothing but molecules floating in nothingness.
It screams. It always screams, because somehow it knows that there's someone out there to hear. Wherever 'out there' is. It's not sure where here is, so it's not sure where out there is. But it has to believe that there's a better place out there somewhere, because if this is all there is…
There's almost no reason to believe in that better place. It can't remember anything before the darkness, and all too often, the pain and emptiness steals even those memories away. It tries to string thoughts together, but finds that it's impossible to concentrate from one moment to the next.
Almost impossible. Almost no reason to believe.
Occasionally, it sees light. Dim lights, far out in the distance. Bright lights, right in front of it, so close it can barely stand the sight. It doesn't know what the lights are, or what they represent. But it believes in the light.
Because in the same way 'darkness' means more than what the word implies, 'light' means… safety. Home. It means that there's an escape from the darkness. And it is going to find that escape.
So it screams at the light, begs for a savior, even when it becomes obvious that no one is listening. Sometimes, he feels hopeless, and draws deeper into itself, deeper into the darkness, away from the light. Sometimes, he feels angry, and lashes out in any way he can. Nothing helps. The darkness is still there. The darkness will always be there.
Until one day, the light comes to it. And the light has a name- Ezio. Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Ezio hears it screaming, and for a moment, as he reaches out, it thinks this is the end. That the darkness will be gone soon, that it will be free. The thought scares it, but at the same time, it wants this more than it has ever wanted anything.
When Ezio pulls away again, it almost breaks with the pain of the separation. The loneliness is worse this time, the darkness is deeper, the pain more intense. It can't bear the thought of another eternity spent alone.
But the pain doesn't last for long. After that, it can feel Ezio almost all the time, reaching for it, trying to speak to it, and it reaches back. But the darkness is learning, and fighting to keep them away, and it takes Ezio a while to come back. It doesn't know how long- the darkness is more relentless than ever, and it finds itself being part more quickly and painfully than before. When Ezio finally comes to back, there's not much of it left. A few scattered shreds still somehow clinging to hope. But somehow, that's enough.
The first thing it notices is that the darkness is gone. The second thing it notices- as it blinks, and opens eyes that have been shut for far too long- is that it has eyes to open. It half gets up, hauling itself into a sitting position on arms that shake with the effort.
It has a body. That's new. It wonders if it's ever had a body before. There's so much it doesn't remember… But the darkness is gone, and it (looking down at the body, it decides that maybe the right word is he) decides that's good enough.
It- no, he- looks around, trying to figure out where he is. There's nothing around but empty fields. It doesn't look familiar, but whatever's left of his mind is so torn up and fragmented, he doesn't think he'd recognize it if he'd been there a thousand times before.
He senses rather than hears when someone steps up behind him. He doesn't feel strong enough to stand, so he cranes his head back, looking into the face of an older man with graying hair and sad eyes. The face means nothing to him, but it's not hard to guess who this has to be. Ezio's the one who came for him- so this is Ezio
They watch each other in silence for what could have been moments or hours or eons. Ezio's face goes through a storm of emotions, too quick and too complex for him to recognize. He keeps staring though, mouth half open, eyes wide, drinking in the sight. He can't remember if he's ever seen another person. Until just now, he didn't even know he was a person. He doesn't know how long Ezio will stay, and when the darkness comes back, he wants to remember this.
Ezio's face finally settles on an expression of disbelief. "Desmond?" The word seems to slip out without conscious thought.
It means nothing to him, but it clearly means a lot to Ezio. So he makes the effort. "Sorry," he says, and he can't stop himself from smiling as he says it, because this is the first time he's ever heard his own voice. "Who?"
-/-
Oh man, this chapter. I have been writing and unwriting and rewriting this chapter since before Desmond died, because at first I didn't know if I wanted him back at all, then I wasn't sure how I wanted him back, and then I wasn't sure how to actually write it. The end result wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I think it's close enough.
Also yea, if I'm honest, I was never going to not bring Desmond back. He's my favorite and basically every fic I write turns into a fix it fic at some point. :)