Desmond has been sleeping very lightly since his kidnapping—Vidic has a nasty habit of coming into his cell while he's asleep and just kind of standing over him, leering—but he thinks he'd have had a hard time sleeping tonight even without that.
Juno's at Masyaf. With his ancestor—with Altair. Even now that Desmond's met Bayek, and learned the real origin of the Assassins, he still thinks of Altair as the beginning of… sort of everything. He knows from long talks with Shaun that Altair is the first really influential Assassin they have decent records on. They know a lot about Altair's life, and the history of the Assassins after that, but before Altair, before the Assassins were even called Assassins, there's only vague rumors. And of course, Altair had been the beginning of everything for Desmond—the beginning of his conversion to the Assassins, the beginning of his time in the animus, the beginning of the road that led to December 21st.
So he's not going to let Juno hurt Altair. Last night, the second Vidic and Lucy had left for the night, Desmond had bolted for the computer and fired off an email to Layla. He hadn't gotten an answer from her before he gave up waiting and collapsed into bed, but he's sure she's just busy getting Bayek ready to go back in time. That's the whole plan, and Desmond would honestly rather have her focused on that than wasting her time writing out an email to him.
He's already out of bed and dressed by the time Vidic sends Lucy into his cell to get him. If it had been up to him he'd have marched straight into the animus to try and get a glimpse of what's going to happen. As it is, he ends up almost sitting on his hands and biting his tongue to keep from making the two Templars suspicious. And then finally, finally, Vidic snaps at him to get into the animus. Desmond can't even bring himself to pretend to complain. He lies down on his back, tense as Vidic loads up the next memory.
The last thing he sees, before the memory corridor loads up around him, is an oddly considering look coming from Lucy. But there's no time to worry about that, so Desmond closes his eyes and focuses on his freefall, on becoming Altair.
-/-
Altair is in a poor mood as he rides back into Masyaf after yet another assassination on his road to redemption. For once, he's not looking forward to coming home and being able to report back to Al Mualim. This time, instead of just being able to tell his mentor that he's done what he was supposed to, and killed one of his targets, there's something else he's going to have to report. And it's odd enough that Altair is half convinced Al Mualim is just going to think he's making it all up—he's already on probation, and making up stories isn't going to make things any better.
(But they're not stories, and he's not making them up. There's a woman in Acre, almost larger than life, who can manipulate men's minds, and is asking questions about the artifact from Solomon's Temple, and there is something about her that makes the hair on the back of Altair's neck stand on end—he's very rarely afraid, of anything, but he is afraid of her)
Al Mualim is not going to react well to his report. He's going to tell Altair that he'd imagined the threat he sees in this woman, and that she's probably not even after the artifact in the first place, because how could she know about it? Altair doesn't exactly have an answer for that, but he just… he knows. She's after the artifact, and she can't be allowed to get it, no matter what.
It's because of Altair's dread of facing his mentor with news like this, that he rides so slowly as he comes close to Masyaf. He knows the routes between Masyaf and the nearby cities like the back of his hand, and he knows that if he stops to rest in that little town, and then pushes himself until he gets to just this hill by noon, and so on and on with other landmarks, he can time it so he's always back home before night.
Today, though, with Altair lost in his thoughts and half hoping he won't have to face Al Mualim until tomorrow morning, Altair doesn't come close to Masyaf until well after dark. And in fact, he's so lost in thought that he doesn't notice the woman until it's almost too late. If anything, it's like—she's just appeared in front of him, like she's somehow just fallen right out of the sky. Only that can't be true. It's so dark out here on the road that Altair must have just missed her.
He gets off his horse, mostly because she's shaking her head as if dazed, and he needs her to move before he can keep riding.
"Oh my God," she says, in a language that Altair doesn't know. "I can't believe I almost go runover by a horse. What even is today..." She manages to get up to her feet, and an eagle just… flies down to land on her shoulder. Altair frowns, and just manages to get a half decent look at her face—
-/-
Desmond desynchronizes as quickly as he possibly can, wrenching himself out of Altair's memories so abruptly that for a moment he doesn't know where or when or who he is. The only thought, echoing over and over again through his head—which pounds and throbs like he's slamming it against a wall—is she wasn't supposed to be there.
Vidic and Lucy are both shouting at him, but even as Desmond's senses start to come back, he doesn't answer either of their questions. What the fuck went wrong? That was supposed to be Bayek in the past, not Layla—that had been the plan from the very beginning, and Layla… how is she even there? It shouldn't be possible, but even… well, obviously it is, because she's there, but why would she have had to try? And why would Senu be there with her, instead of with Bayek?
The only possible explanation Desmond can think of is that something's happened to Bayek. He's hurt or dead or captured somewhere—maybe that would explain why Layla never answered his email last night…
He's on the ground now, sitting against the animus, staring blankly as the full magnitude of that conclusion hits him. On the one hand, they need Bayek to fight Juno. On the other hand, Desmond had liked Bayek, and he's pretty sure he's just lost a friend.
Lucy crouches down in front of him. "Desmond," she says, in a voice far too quiet for Vidic to overhear. "Something just happened, and I need you to tell me what it is."
He almost laughs in her face, and even though he manages to hold himself back, something clearly shows in his face because Lucy's frown intensifies, and she leans closer.
"I know you're hiding something," she hisses, low and urgent. "Desmond, I'm trying to help you but you're making that really hard." She hold her hand up, carefully hidden from Vidic, and folds her middle finger down. It's a sign of the Assassins, going back all the way to Altair's time and their missing fingers—or even farther back, maybe, because after all Bayek's missing his finger too. Last time, that had completely fooled Desmond into thinking Lucy is on the Assassin's side. This time, he barely notices it. He's too worried about the fact that she's noticed he's hiding something. He'll have to do something about that, but later, after he figures out why Layla instead of Bayek is in the past with Altair.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he tells her, pushing himself to his feet. "I'm fine. I just need to go back in the animus."
"There's a reaction you don't often see," Vidic says. "Well, up you get then. And try not to desynchronize a second time, Mr. Miles, we are on a schedule here…"
Desmond pauses on his way back into the animus, face carefully blank. Fuck Vidic's schedule. His friend might be hurt or worse, and he's worried about his stupid schedule. He forces himself to lie back on the animus, closes his eyes, and waits to synch back up with Altair.
His ancestor is still standing in front of Layla, trying to figure how she'd gotten there. Desmond really hopes he's not going to give up until she tells him, because Desmond's just itching for answers but Altair's the only one that can actually ask them right now.
"Where did you come from?" Altair asks.
"Places," Layla says, after a pause, clearly shaken from her fall and almost being run over by a horse. Desmond badly wants to reach out and steady her, but of course he's in Altair's body and not his own, and Altair doesn't know Layla at all. Judging by the vague impressions filtering from his mind into Desmond's, Altair is wondering whether Layla is crazy or just a nuisance.
"I don't know what you're saying," he informs her, and starts to move away.
Before he can get away from her, Desmond's hand bursts into flaming pain.
-/-
Altair pushes past the madwomen, trying not to think about how he could have sworn she just appeared from nowhere in front of him. But all evidence points to her being someone completely unimportant, a passing madwoman or something, and Altair has enough to worry about with the report he's going to have to give Al Mualim.
He's barely gotten past her, when his left hand starts to burn. It's… almost a vague tingle at first, and Altair reaches over with his other hand to rub it absentmindedly. But the pain flares up into an intensity he doesn't know how to handle, and despite himself, Altair drops to one knee. The fire radiates up his arm, and for a second he thinks he's been stabbed or poisoned or both. Only this pain doesn't feel physical, but somehow more, and other.
(And he half thinks well at least it doesn't hurt as much as last time, before realizing that isn't his thought at all, it belongs to someone else-)
"Whoa!" the woman says, almost pouncing on him as she hurries to his side. "Hey, what the fuck—are you okay?"
Altair takes three long, deep breaths. With the first breath, the pain… fades. With the second, it occurs to him that this time, he'd understood exactly what she'd said. And with the third, Altair looks down at his hand and sees a small image burned into the side of his wrist. A feather. It's still glowing a gentle gold, not enough to be noticeable at a glance, but plain as day when he looks right at it.
For several seconds he stays where he is, frozen, staring. Then he shakes his head, as if emerging from a fog, and turns a glare on the woman. "What's your name?" he asks, stepping closer. "What did you do to me, and why?"
"I—oh shit." She presses her hand to her forehead, and then frowns at him. "Why does everything have to be weird?"
"What?" He can understand what she's saying, sort of. The individual words don't mean a thing to him, but somehow or other the meaning seems to make its way straight into his head.
"Listen," she says, leaning forward slightly. "I'm looking for a woman—her name's Juno, and she's… tall, and angry—she thinks she's better than everyone, and she can make people do what she tells them. She's here for…" The woman gestures with her hands. "An artifact, about this big. Gold, sort of glows—"
A chill of foreboding runs through Altair. "Yes," he says. "I know her. There's something… not right about that woman."
"There's nothing right about Juno," says the woman. There's a long pause, while the two of them study each other, each visibly weighing their next move. Altair has no idea what she's thinking, but for his part he's curious. Nothing about this woman fits. She's dressed in a style Altair doesn't recognize—not quite foreign, just… other. And she clearly knows something about this Juno.
And somewhere deep in the back of his mind, there's a voice that isn't his whispering trust her. Confused, Altair reaches out after it, but it's no good. That single thought is all he gets before the whisper is gone.
"What's your name?" he asks at last.
She grins. "Layla."
Altair inclines his head in response. "Altair."
Layla still seems to be debating something with herself, but at last she nods. "I think we have a lot to talk about," she says, and Altair nods. He's talking to a woman that had appeared out of nowhere, his hand had burned with an invisible fire and left a glowing mark behind, and now there's a faint echo of someone else in his head. They absolutely have a lot to talk about.
-/-
Desmond is deliberately hiding something from them, Lucy decides. Ever since he climbed back into the animus, things have been blurred, and the dialogue mostly inaudible. Lucy can still hear the odd word or two, but for the most part, she and Vidic have no idea what's going on between Altair and this woman. Lucy is convinced that somehow, for some reason, Desmond is keeping the conversation to himself. Some of the previous subjects had been able to blur memories they wanted to keep private, but not until they'd been in the animus a lot longer than this.
And why would he want to do that, anyway?
Vidic is busy cursing the animus, blaming the technology instead of Desmond, which is lucky for him, and Lucy doesn't choose to share her suspicions. Not until she has more information.
Desmond twitches in the machine, an involuntary muscle spasm in response to something Altair is doing in the past. His hand turns slightly with the movement, and Lucy's eyes fix on a small mark on his wrist. She moves closer, trying not to let Vidic notice, and frowns when she sees—that hadn't been there before, had it?
There's a very faintly glowing image of a feather burned onto Desmond's hand, identical to the one on Altair's.
-/-
I'm a sucker for linking people together through the animus. I just can't help it, I needed to set up some way for Desmond and Altair to connect...