He knows there's someone else there. Behind him, just where he can't see.

It's a feeling that's been following Altair for months now, an itching on the back of his neck, the pressure of someone watching his kills when he knows there's no one there. It irks him. He is an assassin- we work in the dark to serve the light- and there should be no one hiding in the dark to watch him.

But there is.

And he can't believe it, because he knows this feeling. He spends months trying to deny it, because he can't believe it, he just can't. Because if he lets himself trust his instincts, and he's wrong, he's not sure he'll be able to take it. The presence in the back of his mind can't be Desmond, because that would just be asking too much.

And over time, he learns to just ignore it. There's work enough to distract him, anyway, and even with the order operating more or less smoothly for the first time since Al Mualim died, Altair still has more work to do than he knows what to do with.

Days go by without Altair thinking of the presence once, then weeks. After a while, he genuinely believes that the thing in his head is a phantom, just a bit of wishful thinking. Desmond promised they would see each other again soon, but-

"Alright, seriously?"

Altair's in his office, struggling through paperwork, when he hears the voice- Desmond's voice- in his mind. He's surprised enough that he almost falls off his chair, and he feels more than hears Desmond laugh inside his head.

"Seriously," Desmond adds. "If I'd known you were going to flat out ignore me for six months, I would have just told you this was going to happen."

"But you-" Altair takes a deep breath. "How are you even here?"

"Are you kidding me?" Desmond asks. "This is how it all started. Hanging out in each other's heads, remember? It only stopped because all of us were in the same century, and now that everyone's back…"

"You're the voice in my head again," Altair says.

"I would be," Desmond says, just a trace of annoyance in his tone. "If you didn't keep ignoring me. And- well, it's not just me, obviously. I've been talking to all the others, we've all been trying to get you to listen. You're just too stubborn for your own good."

Altair stands, shaking a little, trying to pretend like this isn't the best thing that's ever happened to him. He'd thought his connection to everyone else ended the day he came back to Masyaf, but now this- he's not alone any longer.

"So what happens now?" he asks.

"Now we get on with our lives," says Desmond. "Just like we planned. You lead the order from Masyaf. Ezio gets to retire with Sophia. Edward falls in love and has a son. Haytham and Connor and Mary drive each other insane. And I go find my parents. The only difference is that we don't have to do any of it alone."

For a second, this revelation is so overwhelming that Altair doesn't know how to react to it. About half his mind is almost melting with the relief of getting his five closest friends- people he'd thought lost forever- back in his life. The rest of his mind is busily beating himself up for ignoring them for so long.

Malik chooses that point to stick his head into the office. At the sight of Altair on his feet, apparently staring at nothing (even after all this time, it's still difficult to know what to do with his eyes when he's talking to someone in his head), Malik asks. "Talking to the voices in your head again?" he asks.

"Yes," says Altair.

His friend sighs loudly. "And I guess everything's back to normal," he says, and Altair smiles. Inside his head, he feels Desmond do the same.

"Normal," Altair says.

"I guess it is," says Desmond. "For us, anyway. It's normal enough."

"I can live with that," Altair says. "I can live with normal enough."

-/-

And... that's all I got. The end. Man, I'm going to miss this story, and I'm going to miss all of the great feedback I got from all of you guys. Your reviews and favorites and follows are one of the biggest reasons I was able to keep this story going all the way to the end. I want to thank you all for putting up with my weird little story, and the unedited content, and the sporadic updates and chapter lengths.

Speaking of unedited chapters and weird chapter lengths, I may or may not go back at some point to pretty up the chapters and make them more readable, maybe add some detail to the shorter chapters. I don't know. Maybe there'll be a lot of changes, maybe there won't be any, maybe there will be but it'll be ages from now. I don't know.

Ooh! Also, side note about the beginning of this chapter- the first three paragraphs are taken straight from the first chapter, because I enjoy the symmetry. So- yea, hopefully it didn't come out as too awkward.

Thanks for reading. It's been a good ride. :)