There's no privacy in the safehouse where all of them are gathered, so when Desmond needs to get away from prying eyes for a minute, he goes and locks himself in the bathroom. He stands over the sink, leans on it with arms that shake like an old man's, and stares at the cracked bottom. This is it. It's over. The King is dead.

Now all that's left is to clean up the messes left behind. Desmond has no idea what's going to happen after this. This whole country has been under the King's control for… as long as it's been a country, really. There's nothing else for the people to fall back on, and there's so much left to figure out. Opening the borders, figuring out who should be in charge, catching the country's technology up to the rest of the world…

But all that will (hopefully) fall to smarter people than Desmond. He'd rather worry about the things he can do something about. Helping Connor, getting him and Haytham home, undoing what the tea has done to Lucy… little things, things that won't change the world or make a difference to anyone else.

But they'll mean something to his friends. That's what matters to Desmond.

He heads out of the bathroom and makes it all of one step before Lucy catches his arm in a vicelike grip, stopping him in his tracks. "Desmond," she says, and her voice is so low that Desmond only hears him because he's part wolf—the others in the room are talking loudly enough to almost drown her out completely. "What did you tell Connor you could do to help him?"

"I told him I'd give him a second chance," Desmond says. "I was thinking—I want to send him and his dad back to their world anyway. It's where they belong, right?"

"Sure," Lucy says.

"So then I thought… why not send them together? The apple has a lot of power. I can feel it, every time I pick it up, and I'm pretty sure I can use it to give Connor a second childhood. Wipe out all the shit he's had to go through, and let him grow up with his dad."

"And he was okay with that?" Lucy asks skeptically. "He didn't sound too excited about just forgetting everything and starting over."

Desmond gives Connor and Haytham a significant look over Lucy's shoulder. They're huddled up together on the floor. Haytham has his arm around Connor's shoulders. "I think," Desmond says. "It was saying Haytham would be there too that really made the difference."

Lucy smiles softly. "Smart," she says.

"I just hope it works out for them," Desmond says. "I hope they get some kind of happy ending, back in their world." His attention snaps back from the Kenways to Lucy all at once. "I can help you too!" he says, and he cannot believe that it's taken him so long to remember. "I should have done it earlier, but I've just been so distracted with Connor. But I can undo what the tea did to you, I can make you completely human again—"

Lucy laughs at him. Not cruelly, but with genuine amusement. "You've had some other things on your mind," she says.

"Just one or two."

They both smile.

"Look, Desmond," Lucy says. "I don't like knowing that the tea is going to make me crazy. But I do like you. I like seeing the world the way you do. And if you're offering to stop what the tea's done to me with the apple, I think… I'd rather be like you."

Something unknowable inside Desmond shivers, some feeling he's never experienced before. "Are you sure?" he asks.

"Positive."

Desmond stares at her, waiting for her to laugh, to change her mind or tell him that she's joking. But she just looks at him with absolute conviction. So, still staring, unable to tear his eyes away, Desmond stretches his hands out, apple resting on his cupped palms. Lucy hesitates, then reaches as well. Her hands come to rest on top of the apple, and for just a moment there's a bright flash of light—

And when it clears, Desmond is still staring at Lucy, who is staring right back at him. Her face looks just the same, but her ears are furry, and pointed, just like his. "Thank you," Desmond says. "You didn't have to…"

"But I wanted to," Lucy says. "Desmond, you probably aren't going to believe me, but from everything I've seen since we first met, I think you must be the most human person I've ever met. Part wolf or not."

And then she kisses him.

-/-

Ratonhnhaké:ton is really starting to dislike Warren Vidic (then again, from what he can tell, everyone dislikes Warren Vidic). He's looking forward to when Vidic finally decides he's done with the safehouse, and goes off to do… whatever it is he does all day. Not bothering them.

But for now, at least, he seems perfectly content to stand around complaining. And, when he notices Desmond and Lucy kissing against the wall near the bathroom, he takes it upon himself to interrupt and start making crude comments about the pair of them. Both Lucy and Desmond break away, blushing furiously.

They can have this moment together, can't they? Isn't this supposed to be their happy ending?

Or maybe not. Ratonhnhaké:ton has been trying to avoid Connor ever since… well, ever since he stopped being King, and went back to being Connor. It's hard, right now, to think of Connor as being just another version of Ratonhnhaké:ton. Connor is falling apart, becoming a shaking, shuddering mess, and Ratonhnhaké:ton is coming together, becoming himself again. He suddenly has a life of his own to look forward to, a family, even. And Connor…

Ratonhnhaké:ton doesn't want to talk to him right now. That's all there is to it.

In an effort to distract himself, he looks around for someone else to talk to. Vidic is still making rude comments at Desmond and Lucy. Ratonhnhaké:ton's father is talking to Rebecca and Shaun, trying to catch up on the two hundred years they'd missed out on while being animals from the sound of it. Connor is sitting with his father. The only other person besides Ratonhnhaké:ton that looks like they're at loose ends is Cross.

They haven't spoken much before now, but they sort of gravitate toward each other, just to avoid the awkwardness of standing alone.

"Hello," Ratonhnhaké:ton says, not quite looking at Cross.

Cross nods in reply, not looking back at Ratonhnhaké:ton.

"What do you do now?" Cross asks abruptly. "You can't have much of a life to get back to after all this time."

"Not really," Ratonhnhaké:ton agrees. But he's itching to start a new life. To do anything with the second chance he's been given. And how much had he left behind, anyway? His mother had died before Ratonhnhaké:ton even drank the tea for the first time. His people, for the most part, had followed. "I'll find something to do with my life."

Cross shrugs, and at first Ratonhnhaké:ton thinks the other man must be disinterested. Then he notices the way he's fidgeting, and realizes there's something more coming.

Sure enough. "Do you think it's really over?"

"What?"

"Everything the apple did." And Cross looks distinctly uneasy now. "I mean—look, I just don't trust things to die unless I get to see the body. And there's no body here, the apple's just a thing. How are we supposed to know if we've really killed it?"

Ratonhnhaké:ton points at Connor. "Because he's free," he says. "Last time, when Washington died, the apple just jumped to Connor. It didn't care that its host had died. But this time? Connor's fine, and the apple hasn't taken over anyone else. I know it's not as good as a corpse, but it's enough for me."

Cross nods. Then, after an awkward pause, he says, "Thank you. That's almost reassuring."

Ratonhnhaké:ton laughs. It's been a long time since he last did that, and it feels good. Cross cracks a smile as well.

"So what about Washington?" Cross asks. "He was just being controlled by the King, wasn't he? Desmond told us all that he died like a thousand years ago."

"Only about two hundred," Ratonhnhaké:ton corrects. "But… I don't know what happens to him now. Maybe he's just dead?"

"Maybe," Cross says. Then, making a visible effort to bring the conversation back to more cheerful ground, he claps Ratonhnhaké:ton awkwardly on the shoulder and says, "But we're all alive. So, win." And then he wanders off to drag Vidic away from Desmond and Lucy.

-/-

Desmond comes to Connor when things have settled a little (in the room around them, but not in Connor's head, which is nothing but alternating panic and numbness).

"Are you ready?" Desmond asks, looking between Connor and his father.

"Yes," Haytham says. Connor bites his lip, suddenly indecisive. When Desmond had first suggested that the apple could make him young again, and give him a second chance at life, Connor had been ready to jump at the chance. He's hurting so badly he doesn't think he'll ever be whole again, and he can't think of anything he wants more than to be very small, and curled up tight in the arms of someone big enough to protect him. To just leave behind all the terrible things he's done, and start again. To have a family.

But he doesn't deserve that.

"I can't," Connor whispers. "I did all those things, I deserve the pain."

"You were being controlled," his father reminds him.

"I liked it," Connor says.

"No you didn't," his father says, in a tone so utterly dismissive it's (almost) insulting. "If you'd liked it, you wouldn't be falling to pieces now. You deserve better than to live the rest of your life being eaten apart by guilt."

"I don't deserve—"

"I will look after you," his father says. "I promise."

Connor swallows back any more protest he might have made, and nods at Desmond. Yes. He wants a second chance. This time, maybe he'll get to be the hero instead of the villain.

"The apple offered me the same thing," he murmurs. "But it was different then. You're trying to help me, but it wanted me to do something irredeemable in exchange. I couldn't have come back from that, even if I never remembered doing it…"

"What did it want you to do?"

Connor can hear the frown in his father's voice without even looking at him.

"I was supposed to kill—" He sits up straight, so suddenly his head almost collides with his father's. "Desmond!"

Poor Desmond goes white as a sheet, and his ears stand on end. "It wanted you to kill me?"

"No," Connor says. "Your father."

Desmond gapes at him. "Dad?"

Connor nods at him. "He was a prisoner. Is a prisoner, I mean. He must still be there."

Desmond's mouth tightens with a kind of determination Connor doesn't remember from the first time they'd met. He's stronger now than he had been then. "Not for long," he says. "I… have a few bridges to mend with him."

"But you'll help Connor first," Connor's father says. "Won't you?"

"Yea," Desmond says. "Yea, of course."

"Are you going to do it now?" Connor asks.

"Unless you'd rather wait," Desmond says.

Connor shakes his head. "But can I ask you a favor, first? When you're done with this, when you're done cleaning up what the apple's done, get rid of that one." He points at the other apple, the one Desmond is still holding onto. "I know it's helping you, and we'd still have the King without that thing. But it can't be good, Desmond. The world is better off without it."

"I'll put it back where Ezio hid it," Desmond promises. "As soon as I'm done. It won't see the light of day again any time soon."

Connor nods. That's all he can ask for, really. "Thank you."

And then Desmond closes his eyes, and his apple flares, and Connor starts to forget.

-/-

Haytham starts out supporting Connor as he sags sideways against him. He's listless, as if all the energy has been sucked out of him. It's a truly pathetic sight—Connor does deserve better, whatever the apple has taught him to think of himself.

When Connor starts to shrink, to grow smaller and younger in Haytham's arms, Haytham can't help pulling him closer and closer, until by the end, when Connor is no more than a child in his arms, Haytham is almost clutching his son in his lap. He'd meant what he said when he promised Connor he'd look after him, but all the same… Haytham is not quite prepared for the protective instinct that washes over him in waves when he holds his son. And he knows then that he will never allow Connor to be hurt. Never again.

Connor's eyes are closed—Haytham thinks he must be asleep. But it's a peaceful rest, and there's a tiny, content smile on his face that he wouldn't have been capable of a few minutes ago.

"Connor?" Desmond says. "Are you okay?"

"Connor?" Haytham repeats, when the boy doesn't immediately respond. This time, Connor's eyes slide open—he looks momentarily confused, then yawns and smiles and curls up tighter in Haytham's lap.

"I think he's fine," Desmond says.

"Thank you," Haytham says. "And now—do you send us home?"

"Back to your own world," Desmond says. "Yea."

Haytham nods. But he's thinking things over, and after a moment he asks, "Would it be possible to send us to another time? I would very much like to go home, don't mistake my intentions. But Connor and I… did not get along well in our first lives."

"So what do you want?" Desmond asks. He's giving Haytham a skeptical look, and Haytham reminds himself that Desmond doesn't know about his history with Connor, about how Connor had gone far enough to kill him before they came to this world. All he sees is how Haytham has changed, how he has come to care.

"Send us somewhere else," Haytham says. "Anywhere else. You're giving Connor a second chance, and I…" it has always been hard for him to ask for help. "I would like a second chance as well."

"Sure," Desmond says at last. "I'll do what I can."

Haytham nods, and encircles Connor more securely in his arms. He closes his eyes, and prepares himself to (finally, finally) be sent home. The apple's golden glow wraps itself around the two of them, and in a blink—

They are home.

-/-

It's over? It's over! I can't believe I actually came back and finished this fic! Hopefully somebody out there is still enjoying it.