Desmond can't believe how relieved he is when Layla and Altair chase Juno off, and Altair's timeline mostly stutters back into the same rhythm he remembers from is first time through the animus. Once Layla takes her apple and Senu and goes back to the future—the present, to Desmond—it just gets so much easier when he doesn't have to hide everything from Lucy and Vidic.

So Altair continues on his quest for redemption. He kills his targets, he returns to Al Mualim, he learns that his mentor is a traitor, and he fights him to save his Brotherhood.

When the apple projects its map of the world out for everyone to see, Vidic and Lucy finally let Desmond out of the animus, and leave the room to talk it over. Desmond knows he should just sit there and wait for night before he risks sending an email, but this feels like a triumph, and that makes him reckless.

From: censored

To: censored

Date: September 7, 2012, 3:29 PM

Subject: Done

Layla—

I guess you're probably back by now, hopefully safe. I just finished with Altair's memories, and everything turned out okay. Thank you for helping with him and Juno, I know it must have been way harder for you to be there than for me to have to watch.

It's all over now, I'm done with Altair's memories and it's safe for you or Bayek to go back and pick up his apple. Sorry for making you wait, but I think history needed to play out the way it did last time. Altair's just too important to the history of the Assassins, and… maybe it's selfish, but he's my ancestor and that makes him family. I think he needed to go through all that, to learn everything he needed to.

Assuming everything goes the same as it did last time, Lucy should be taking me to Shaun and Rebecca soon so I can go through Ezio's memories. It should be a little easier to get you messages from there.

—Desmond

He pauses a second, long enough to add the exact date, then hits send and starts to navigate out of the email program. It's kind of a whole process, because Desmond has to erase any signs that he'd been sending covert emails in the first place. Layla had talked him through how to do it, and even after all the emails Desmond's sent during his time here, he still has to mutter the instructions like a song under his breath as he goes through it all.

"Desmond? What are you doing?"

He starts and spins around, only halfway through the process, as he hears Lucy's voice behind him. She's standing in the doorway, arms crossed, looking at him like he's done something wrong. His look is so overwhelmingly judgmental that Desmond's almost tempted to snap at her that she's the traitor, not him.

Patience.

The word seems to echo in Desmond's mind from somewhere far away, bubbling up from somewhere deep inside him. It… as weird as it is to even think it, the word sounds like Altair. Which either means the bleeding effect, or… yea. When Desmond surreptitiously tilts his arm so he can see his own wrist, the mark there is glowing.

Altair?

Silence. Well… maybe this isn't the best time to stand here and try and figure it out anyway.

"Desmond," Lucy says again. "What are you doing?"

He takes a deep breath, and tries to sound uncertain and confused as he answers. "I… look, I was just… I need some more information about what you guys are going to do to me. I'm desperate here, Lucy." He tries to sound convincing, but he doesn't think Lucy looks entirely convinced. She definitely hesitates for longer than he's comfortable with before walking forward, hand in front of her chest, one finger folded down.

"I'm on you side," she says, and Desmond almost rolls his eyes at that. She's not even that good of an actress, how could he possibly ever have been fooled by her?

Never mind, he knows the answer to that question. He'd been terrified and confused and desperate, and Lucy had offered him a way out. Of course he'd jumped at the chance.

"You're an Assassin?" he demands, and this time apparently he's a little more convincing because she looks pleased at the reaction. "Seriously?"

"Yes," she says. "And—Desmond, you're right to be nervous." She heads to the computer he'd been using to email Layla, and Desmond's eyes dart to the screen—he hasn't finished deleting his history, but there's nothing incriminating showing there now. Hopefully it'll be enough. "Vidic doesn't have anything good planned for you, and if we're going to get you out of here, we need to do it now."

"Get me out—where are we going?"

"To the Assassins," Lucy says. "Come on."

"Now?"

"It might be our only chance," she says, and hurries for the door. Desmond jogs after her, feeling so calm he's almost detached. He knows they're not in any real danger here. Lucy's a Templar, this escape is something they sanctioned, and there's no chance they're going to be caught, no matter how slowly or loudly they move.

The last time, Desmond had kept up a stream of anxious chatter as he ran after Lucy, eyes darting around the room for the first sign of anyone following them. This time, he keeps his eyes focused firmly on Lucy. She's the only real threat here.

He almost argues when she insists on shoving him into the trunk of her car. It's—well, he just doesn't trust her enough to lock him up like that. In the end, it's only by forcing himself to remember she doesn't want him dead yet that he can force himself to hop in, and let her close the trunk on top of him.

Desmond wiggles around in the trunk, trying to get into a decently comfortable position. Hopefully things will be better with the Assassins, because he doesn't think he can take much more of this.

-/-

"Desmond's okay," Layla announces from her position in front of her laptop. "He's done with Altair and he sent the date we can get the apple from.

"Perfect," Bayek says. He's sitting with Khemu a few seats away, as Khemu speeds through some iPad game that's supposed to help kids with English. Rebecca had found it a couple days ago, and Khemu had taken to it like a fish to water. Layla isn't sure how much English he's learning, but he's definitely learning how to use iPads extremely quickly. "Do you want to go back to get the apple, since you're more familiar with that time?"

"I… I mean…" She's not sure she would have said this to anyone else—maybe Desmond, but only maybe—but with Bayek, it's easier. "I messed things up really bad," Layla admits, dropping her voice. "And I don't want to make it any worse. I think… it'd be better if I stayed here with the techs from now on. I could do a lot more good here than there. I shouldn't time travel anymore, I'm… not good at it."

Bayek looks at her for a long second, then shakes his head. "No," he says.

"What?"

"No."

"I heard you," Layla says. "I just don't understand what you mean."

Khemu pipes up, surprising Layla for a second. In his jeans and Pokemon T-shirt (with a good half of the people here being techs and therefore nerds, the poor kid never really had a chance), with an iPad on his lap and purple headphones snaking into his ears, Layla had actually forgotten for a second that he could understand their conversation in Egyptian. "He means you can't give up on something when you're not good at it," he says. "You have to jump, even if you're afraid."

Bayek puts a hand on his son's head, smiling fondly. Then he looks up at Layla. "He's right, you know," he says. "Go back to Altair. Take his apple, and bring it here. Juno's already been driven away, and she has no reason to go back. You'll be safe there, and you need to… to get back on the horse."

"But—"

"No buts. Go."

Layla really doesn't want to, but she's at least self aware enough to realize that Bayek—and Khemu—are probably right about what she needs to do. "Okay," she says. "Okay, I will, but—you still need to take the next one."

Bayek carefully maneuvers himself around Khemu, who hops up onto his dad's seat as soon as its free, curling up around the iPad, humming quietly to himself. Bayek walks to the drawer where they keep the apple, pulls it out, and walks back to Layla. He hands it to her, and for a moment they hold the apple together, hands almost touching. Layla looks up, into Bayek's face, and it's like looking into the face of a brother, someone that's just going to be there for her, no matter what. She trusts him.

"I will go next time," he says quietly. "Because it's my turn, because my son wants me to be a hero, and because I am willing to do that for you. But you will go this time, because this is your turn, because you are a hero too, and because you need to be willing to do it."

He lets go of the apple, slowly, and Layla—who has never felt like a hero before and certainly doesn't now—pulls it close to her chest. "Okay," she says. "Okay, Bayek. I'll do it."

"I knew you would," he says, giving her a brief smile. "And while you're in the past, with Altair…" He steps back. "I have something I want to do here."

"Which is?"

"We're in over our heads," Bayek says. "We're running blind, and I don't think that my first run in with Juno is going to go all that much differently than yours. What we need now is someone that knows what's going on. We need a Sage. Berg says he knows one. I'm going to see what's going on with that."

He'd also said the Sage wouldn't be able to help them, if Layla's remembering correctly. But he still has a better job than the one she's just been given—at least in her opinion. So she just nods, grips the apple tightly, and calls for Senu to come help her into the past.

-/-

I'm so excited to bring a certain Sage into the story :)

And because not everyone knows about him, here's a minor preview: assassinscreed -dot- wikia -dot- com/wiki/Elijah (Or go to the Assassin's Creed Wiki and just search Elijah, that might just be easier because APPARENTLY FF.N still doesn't trust us to put external links into fics.)

Final note, to all the people that left reviews on the last chapter saying they're also on vacation: Have a happy vacation! :)