Bayek and Layla leave Desmond behind in 2012, and travel five years forward to 2017. Bayek can't help feeling bad about that, no matter how much time they've spent talking about it.

Which is two days, to be exact. They've spent two days holed up in Desmond's tiny apartment trying to make sure that he's really okay with this, and there's really no better way of finding Juno—in the end, they hadn't been able to come up with anything better, and they'd gotten nervous about whatever Juno's up to. None of them really understands how this time travel works, whether Juno is still working on whatever she's doing in the past, or if maybe she's already done it, but they do know that however this works, waiting isn't going to do them any favors.

"So I've been thinking," Bayek says, as they travel.

"Hmm?" Layla asks. She seems distracted, and Bayek can't exactly blame her. They've done this a few times already, but it's still kind of awe inspiring. "What were you thinking about?"

"The best way to do this might be to take all our animus recruits back to 2012 with Desmond's time," Bayek says. "If one of them finds Juno, we need a quick way for them to get word to us. That's not going to work if they're all in different times and places. I'm not saying they should all be kidnapped by Abstergo like Desmond, but they should all be in the same time, so they can get a message out right away if something happens."

"That's going to be a tough sell," Layla points out. "I mean, we can time travel and it's no big deal, but a lot of people might be more worried about it, you know?"

"I still think it's worth trying," Bayek says. "Please, Layla? It's not going to really do us any good if we can't keep on top of everyone." Which is true, and a good argument, even if it's not really Bayek's main reason for trying to convince Layla to get everyone together. It's just that he already feels incredibly close to both Layla and Desmond. There's a bond between them, now that they're all trying to save the world together. They feel just a little bit like (and it's almost too early for Bayek to dare say the word to himself, but he tries anyway) family.

And Bayek would like a little bit more of that, if he can get it.

"I guess that makes sense," Layla says. "Plus people might… believe us more, if they see how time travel works?"

Bayek smiles at her a little, then looks up at Senu. She's already diving downward, and Bayek follows her without hesitation. She knows where they're going by now. Sure enough, when they land back in the normal flow of time, they're in his tomb, with William Miles looking at them in surprise. Bayek has a flash of quick surprise as well—he hasn't noticed until right this second the family resemblance between William and Desmond, but he suddenly feels guilty for not bringing Desmond to at least visit his father. William had watched his son die, he'll probably want to see him again.

(And in the back of Bayek's mind, there's just the small beginnings of a thought, something his conscious mind won't even dare to let him think about)

William says something, and Bayek looks to Layla—he's really going to need to learn this English soon—and she says, "He's surprised we came back so soon. He—" William says something else, and Layla adds, "It's only been about ten minutes since we left."

Bayek nods, because why would that surprise him at this point? He and Layla have spent two days with Desmond, and to William only ten minutes have passed. "Have you told him what we're going to do?"

"No," she says. "I think you'll be able to tell when I do." And sure enough, when she's turned back to William and been talking with him for several minutes, there comes a moment when William just sort of chokes as a reaction to something she says, and Bayek nods in understanding. Yes, she must have finally gotten through to him.

"He says we're crazy," Layla says, amusement coloring her tone.

"Well, yes," Bayek says. "I can see why he might think that."

William says something—he's not at all amused, he's angry—and this time Layla nods. "He says that some of the best Assassins alive today have been in the animus," she says. "And he's worried about what happens to the Assassins if all of those people go with us back to 2012. Which… is fair." She looks like she isn't happy about admitting this.

"What about the Templars?" Bayek asks. "I'm sure some of them have been in the animus too, and we'll have to bring them with us. That should even the odds a little bit."

She stares at him, and Bayek realizes that hasn't occurred to her yet—she's been thinking they'll only bring Assassins back in time with them, but if they do that, Bayek knows they'll be throwing away the chance to catch Juno if she goes into an era only a Templar has seen in the animus. "Great," she says. "Fantastic. Do you realize how difficult it's going to be getting everyone to cooperate once they're all in the same place? And that's even assuming they'll all agree to help—" She breaks off, her imagination conjuring up horrible mental images of a mass of Templars and Assassins jumping out of animi and attacking each other. She shakes it off. This plan is growing more and more holes the longer she thinks about it, but the problem is she still can't think of anything better.

"Listen," Bayek says. "Run the Templar idea past William, see if he thinks it's a good idea or not."

She does that, and Bayek can tell by her expression what William's answer is before she says a word. Sure enough, she says, "He doesn't like the idea much either, but we need their ancestors, so…" She heaves a sigh, and heads for her—Bayek's pretty sure it's a computer. He'd seen Desmond with one, and gotten a little bit of an explanation about what they were for, but Layla's is different, thinner. "Guess we better get started."

-/-

In the end, they find about two dozen animus users, although not all of them are still alive in 2017. There are a few people they're going to have to try and pick up from the past before heading back to 2012—Layla's particularly worried about a man named Clay, who had apparently been Abstergo's subject before Desmond. According to William, he'd gone through dozens of ancestors before the bleeding effect finally drove him crazy and he slashed his wrists open with a pen, and killed himself. He's going to be difficult to convince to get back into the animus, but if he's seen as many ancestors as William says he has, he's definitely going to be important to have on their side.

William starts reaching out to the Assassins, as well as a couple techs he says will be able to set up all the animi they're going to need in 2012. Bayek sets himself to trying to get a grasp of the basics of English while he has the time, which means Layla has to reach out to the Templars to try and get them involved.

She thinks for a while about who to get in touch with. The problem is that Abstergo had made it pretty clear that they were done with her when they sent Sigma Team to try and kill her. So Layla could try reaching out to Sophia, or one of the other people she's worked with over the years (ideally she'd be trying to talk to Dee, but Dee is dead). But Sigma Team is going to find out about it eventually, no matter how secretive she tries to be.

In the end, she decides to go for the most straightforward choice. If Sigma Team is going to find out about her no matter what she does, she might as well go straight to the source. Layla opens up an email client on her computer, tapping her fingers impatiently against the desktop as she waits for things to buffer. The loading time stretches out just long enough for her to start having second thoughts, and then her inbox pops up, and Layla huffs out a little breath of relief before starting a new email.

From: Layla Hassan

To: Juhani Otso Berg

Date: November 8, 2017 4:03 PM

Subject: Open Me

I know I must be the last person you want to hear from, what with you trying to kill me last week, and also with that rude cross stitch I left on your car that one time. But I need to get in touch with a few Templars, and it seems like you might be able to scare up the people I'm looking for more quickly than anyone else. Plus if you agree to help me, I can be pretty sure you're not going to also be trying to kill me again.

Layla

She sits there staring at her inbox for a while, waiting for an answer, but Berg doesn't do anything. Layla wonders if he's out somewhere hunting some other poor sap, too busy to look at his phone. Then she wonders if he's out somewhere hunting her, and she shivers. Berg doesn't scare her much, especially not now that she has Juno to compare him to, but she knows she doesn't have to be afraid of him for him to come at her.

She's just thinking about getting up and going to find someone to bother and distract herself, when a quiet chime informs her that she has a new message.

From: Juhani Otso Berg

To: Layla Hassan

Date: November 8, 2017 4:41 PM

Subject: Re: Open Me

I'm listening. Skeptically.

So Layla tells him everything, and over the course of several emails back and forth, he goes from listening, skeptically, to just plain listening, to actually believing her. By the end of the email exchange, Layla is pretty sure that he's not just trying to trick her into giving up her location. And she thinks he actually wants to help.

-/-

I'm probably going to kind of gloss over getting all the animus users together, because honestly it's going to get a little repetitive to just be like 'and then they went and got this person. And then they went and got that guy.' And on and on. I might show one or two, but in general you can pretty much assume that if they went in an animus during an Assassin's Creed game/book/movie, they're going to be part of this.

I am taking suggestions for which era they should go to first on their Juno-stopping time tour, and which ancestor(s) they should meet up with.