Juno's just standing there, in the middle of the temple, with the power from the apple sort of lighting her up from the inside, when one of the Abstergo agents finally turns around and notices her. He curses, dropping what he'd been working on with a loud crash, which of course makes everyone else stop what they're doing to see what's wrong. Layla knows she should duck out of sight, but she feels frozen in place, craning to see what's going to happen next. Juno's not exactly being subtle, and something about her smile—her smirk—makes Layla nervous.

The man that had first noticed Juno is fumbling for something on his belt, and eventually manages to pull a gun from a side holster and point it at her. "Stop right there!" he says, his voice surprisingly authoritative considering how badly his hands are shaking. "Stop right there, or I'll shoot!"

Juno ignores the command, as Layla had expected her to, and instead moves toward that man. He squeezes off two quick shots, which hit her square in the chest. They're good shots, but they pass right through and hit the wall behind Juno without leaving so much as a mark.

"You poor, foolish human," she says, without the slightest trace of empathy in her voice. "You're not even important. You're not even a footnote in history—you could die right here and it wouldn't even matter. None of you would."

A second Abstergo agent pulls a gun, and fires as well, which turns out to be a pretty stupid move—not only should he already know that it's not going to work, but when the bullets pass right through Juno, they hit one of the other men standing on her other side. He falls, clutching at his shoulder and cursing out his friend.

From where she's hiding, Layla can just barely see the disdainful look she gives the man that had shot his friend. "You don't have to make things quite so easy for me, you know," she says.

The man that had shot his friend lowers his gun, shaking a little. They all look terrified, to be honest, they look like they're trying to disappear into the walls or wondering if they'll be able to make a run for the exit. "What are you?" he breathes.

"I am something much better than human," she says. "And none of you matters right now. You're not the ones I need to talk to. Leave. Tell no one what happened." She waves a dismissive hand, and Layla is a little surprised to see every single one of the Abstergo men bolt for the cave exit together. Even the one that was shot. Maybe they're just smarter than they look, or maybe… well, there's something a little odd about the way Juno had told them to go.

Then Juno turns, and Layla freezes as she realizes she's crept a little too far out of her hiding place to see what's going on—Juno's looking right at her.

Well, crap. There's nowhere to run and her hiding spot is pretty much blown now. Layla schools her expression into something that (hopefully) won't look scared or upset at all. She's aiming for bored, but isn't sure how successful she is. She and Juno study each other for a minute, then Juno says, "Where's the other one?"

"Gone," Layla says, crossing her arms.

"Traveled somewhere else in time?" Juno asks, and even though Layla doesn't answer, Juno nods. "Well, I have a message for you to take to him."

Layla eyes her suspiciously for a second, not sure why Juno's being so open. But this is what they want, isn't it? Information about what Juno's after? "Go on," she says warily.

Juno walks closer, and Layla stubbornly stands her ground. "Do you know what these… these apples, as you call them, were made to do?"

"No."

"Tens of thousands of years ago," Juno says. "When you humans were our slaves, they were designed to keep our slaves in line." Layla bristles at the word slaves, but judging by Juno's smile, that's exactly the reaction she's hoping for. "Over time we added more functions to it." The time travel, Layla thinks. And who knows how many other weird things she doesn't know about? "And I've had a lot of time to think," Juno says. "And to plan. Seventy thousand years to figure out the best way to use all that." She holds out an arm, glowing and pulsing with that golden light.

"And you decided to eat it," Layla says, referring to how Juno had absorbed the energy from the apple earlier.

Juno's smug pride is so obvious, Layla can practically feel it in the air between them. "Put it however you want," she says. "The point is, I can do those things the apple can do, without needing to carry an apple around to do it with. And I'm not stopping here. There are other apples, scattered all over the world, all across time, and the more of those I absorb the stronger I will get. So whatever your plan is, whatever reason you have for running around through time, don't think for a second that you're going to be able to stop me."

Layla stares for a second. And then she smiles, because clearly Juno doesn't know everything—which is fair enough, Layla and Bayek are just running as fast as they can and trying to figure out what to do as they go along. And more importantly, Juno is giving her this warning instead of just reaching out and striking her dead, or whatever. So no matter how powerful Juno might claim to be, she does have her limits. At least for now. Layla isn't sure she likes the way Juno talks about absorbing more apples and getting more powerful.

But she doesn't say any of that, of course. Instead, pushing down a vague feeling of revulsion, she thrusts an arm out and straight through Juno's stomach. It feels like plunging her hand into freezing water. "Funny," she says. "Because you can claim to be as powerful as you want, but you literally can't even touch me, can you?"

Juno's smile vanishes abruptly. "You think I can't hurt you?" she hisses, and her golden light flashes and flares up, and when Juno speaks again there's an air of something… more in her voice. Power. "Fear me," Juno says, leaning forward toward Layla, eyes glittering with disdain. Her voice has that same powerful quality Layla had heard when Juno ordered the Abstergo men out of the cave, only this time it's directed at Layla.

Even though Layla is half braced for it, she can't help the wild spike of adrenaline that surges through her. She's barely thinking as she stumbles back, heart pounding, and runs for the cave entrance. She's almost made it, she can actually see daylight in front of her when she feels a hand close around her forearm. Layla's heart almost stops and she lashes out without thinking.

"Layla! Layla, stop. Calm down."

It's Bayek's voice, which is way better than Juno catching her but it doesn't calm the fear.

"Bayek," Layla says, swinging around to face him. He'd come back for her, he'd come back, just like he'd promised. "We need to get out of here, okay? Doesn't matter when, we just need to—"

"Layla…"

"Bayek!"

She must look absolutely panicked, because he studies her for a second, then nods. "Alright," he says. "Hold on."

She's only too happy to grab his arm as he takes out the apple and pulls them out of time, and she doesn't let go again until they've landed somewhere and somewhen else. A small, dark studio apartment in some big city—Layla can hear the sounds of traffic and people through the grimy window.

"Sit down," Bayek says, and guides her onto the rickety bed. "Breathe. Tell me what happened."

Layla takes her time with the first two parts, just sitting and breathing for several seconds before she's able to actually explain to Bayek what happened. With Juno gone, the fear is slowly trickling away, and Layla can't help feeling a little ashamed of her reaction. She just hadn't been able to help herself.

"You okay?" a second voice asks. "Um… do you speak English?"

Layla looks up, past Bayek, and stares when she sees Desmond standing there, looking totally healthy. "You're supposed to be dead," she says.

"Guess that's a yes to the English question," Desmond mutters. "Uh—yea. I don't exactly know what happened, there's kind of a whole language thing here." He gestures to Bayek. "But I guess he saved me, he brought me back to my old life, just kind of brought me back in time stuck me here—it's February, by the way."

"What year?"

"2012," Desmond says, and Layla nods. He doesn't look that much younger than he had in that cave.

"Layla," Bayek prompts, drawing her attention back onto him. "What happened?"

Right. She's going to have to explain her terrified reaction. Reluctantly, Layla gives him the full story. Then, when Desmond looks like he's about to burst from wanting to ask questions, she repeats the whole thing for him.

"Shit," Desmond mutters. "If she can just do all that stuff with the apple—and she's absorbing them, so it's not like we can steal it back from her. And she said she was going to get more?"

"Yea," Layla says glumly. She's starting to realize exactly how bad that is, and she doesn't like it. If Juno could hijack her mind and send her running in terror with just one apple, who knows what she could do if she gets more?

"Well then we have to stop her, right?" Desmond says. "Listen, I don't know where every piece of Eden—"

"Every what?" Layla interrupts.

"Uh—the apples, and all the other artifacts. We call them pieces of Eden. But anyway, I don't know where every single one is, but I've been in the animus for almost a year tracking some of them down. If we can go back in time, we could get them before she does. And I bet we can still track down more."

Layla takes her time thinking it over as she repeats all that to Bayek.

"I think he's right," Bayek admits. "I think we need to do anything we can to stop her from getting more apples. And in the long run, we need to see if we can change things to stop her from getting out of that cave at all."

"Yea," Layla says, taking a deep breath. "Yea, it's just… that's kind of a big deal, right?" She looks around at the three of them. An ancient Egyptian, a man that should be dead, and her. Layla isn't entirely sure they can do this. Bayek and Desmond can't even talk to each other.

They can't do this. There's no way they can possibly do this.

Layla drops her gaze, staring at her hands in her lap. They're shaking slightly, and she presses them between her knees, clenching them tight to try and get rid of the tremble. She's always been bad at showing weakness, and the two men seem weirdly calm about this whole thing. Maybe if they'd had Juno jerking things around inside their heads, they wouldn't be so eager to fight her.

Bayek sits down on the bed next to her, and reaches for her hand. After a minute, Layla forces herself to relax enough to give it to him. When he's holding it, the shaking stops. "Layla," Bayek says quietly. "Listen. It is a big job, but that's why it's so important to try. Somebody has to, and we're the only ones that can."

Layla hesitates. She's feeling a little better with Bayek talking her down in that calm, quiet voice, but she's still not entirely convinced.

"Is he trying to talk you into it?" Desmond asks.

"Yea," Layla admits. "I guess you're on his side?"

"I mean … I do really think we have to do this. Are you an Assassin, Layla?"

She hesitates. "Sort of," she says. "It's kind of complicated. And new. And I'm just sort of figuring it out as I go along."

He grins at her, the first time Layla's seen him smile so far. "Yea," he says. "Trust me, I know that feeling. But my point was going to be… we're supposed to protect innocents. It's not just fighting Templars, that just kind of happens. We're here to help people, you know? I really believe that, or I don't think I'd be with the Assassins, I'd still be running away. And this is what the Assassins do. This is worth fighting for, don't you think?"

Layla can't quite meet his eyes, but when she looks back at Bayek, he's waiting with a patient, understanding expression that's not much easier to face. But she forces herself to do it, to look Bayek full in the face, and then turn and look at Desmond too. "Well," she says. "I guess if you two are going to go after Juno, I can't be the one that just sits back and does nothing, right?"

"Nope," Desmond says, smiling again.

She turns to Bayek. "We're saving the world," she tells him.

"Good!" He squeezes her hand, then lets go. "Now we just need to figure out where to start."

-/-

Three quick notes-first of all, I think I kind of went overboard with updates this weekend, but unfortunately that's going to slow down-work takes up time during the week of course, and then my next few weekends are busier, so... slower updates, sadly.

Second, I usually don't like responding to reviews in author's notes, but there is either a guest reviewer or multiple guest reviewers that have been leaving very nice, long, well thought out comments, and I just want to say I would love to be able to respond but unfortunately there's just no way to respond to guest reviews. :( So thank you guys, I love reading what you think of the fic, and I love your opinions and questions, they are definitely making me think about where this is going. :)

Finally, I promise Juno's going to be a little less present in the next few chapters. Now that she's all set up and Bayek/Layla/Desmond have something to focus on in their time travel, I can go back to focusing on them more, which I'm really looking forward to :)