"I've been thinking," Bayek tells Layla.

It's early morning, just past dawn, and the two of them are up on the roof of the warehouse, watching the last streaks of red sunrise fade into blue sky. Layla is bundled up in sweatpants and a sweatshirt so large it completely covers her hands, hunched over the mug of coffee she'd insisted on making before coming up here.

"I've been sleeping," she says, pointedly.

Bayek grins and leans back. "It's almost six," he tells her.

"In the morning," she says. "Did you ask me up here this early just to bother me?"

"Partially," he says, just to hear her overdramatic groan. "But I'm never sure how much Elijah listens to, and I wanted to make sure he doesn't hear this."

"Kid creeps me out," Layla says, staring moodily at the coffee mug.

"He doesn't deserve that," Bayek says, although… well, she's right. Bayek has seen a lot of children, some here, more in Egypt, and none of them are at all like Elijah. He's nothing like the other Sages Bayek has met, either—he hasn't had the training they have, he hasn't had their lore passed down to him from an older Sage. At some point between Bayek's time and this one, that chain of mentors and students had broken down. In a way, Bayek can feel sorry for Elijah.

In another way, he's terrified of what that boy can do, of what he 'just knows,' as he's so fond of saying. And in the past few days, no matter how often Bayek tries to keep Khemu away from him, the two of them just seem to stick together like glue. If anything ever happens with Elijah, Khemu's going to be the first one in danger.

"He shouldn't act the way he does, then," Layla says. "The way he just hides out and stares. It's weird."

There's a clatter from behind them, and when Bayek turns he sees Berg striding toward them. He half waves, and Berg acknowledges them with a grunt before sitting on Layla's other side. "You look like death warmed over," he tells her.

"Apparently I'm the only one that doesn't appreciate getting up before the sun," she says. "Bayek, what did you want us all here for?"

"Elijah," Bayek says. "We need to figure out what we're going to do about him. He says he needs to be here, and he's here, but we don't know why and he's not doing much here."

"Neither is Khemu," Berg says. "And we let him stay."

"Khemu is my son," Bayek says.

"And Elijah is Desmond's," Berg shoots back.

There's a moment of silence, and then Bayek heaves a deep sigh. "Yes," he admits. "I've been trying not to think about that."

They still haven't told him about any of this. Bayek isn't sure where to start, because he's not sure if Desmond knows his son is a Sage, or what their history is, or why they weren't found together. Honestly, he's not sure if Desmond even knows he has a son—for all the things Elijah 'just knows,' his father's name apparently isn't one of them. Bayek's mentioned Desmond once or twice, in passing, to no reaction from Elijah.

"What are we going to do with him?" Bayek asks, when the silence has settled heavily between them. "It's been three days. He won't tell us why he wants to be here, he won't do anything but sit there and watch us, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure that he's not spying for Juno."

"I don't know," Layla says. "I definitely agree that he's weird, but he's been coming out of his shell a little more. You saw him with Khemu yesterday, right?"

It feels like the bottom's dropped right out of Bayek's stomach. Elijah is different. He's not like other boys, and he's not like other Sages. He's dangerous, and Bayek doesn't want Khemu anywhere near him. "No," he says. "I had no idea—he was with Khemu?"

"Yea," Layla says. "They were running around upstairs most of the afternoon yesterday."

"I missed it," Bayek says, cursing himself for his inattention. He's already lost his son once, and he's not going to do it again. "Tell me if you see them together again, Layla. And I'm going to talk to Khemu."

"On the other hand," Berg says. "None of us can get Elijah to open up to us. He might tell things to Khemu that he won't tell the rest of us, if they become friends."

"No," Bayek says, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Absolutely not."

"So you're going to tell your son he can't be friends with the only other child here?" Berg asks. "Forgive me if I'm overstepping." He does not sound at all apologetic. "But in my experience, that's going to drive any child to do exactly the opposite."

"Then Elijah needs to leave," Bayek insists.

"Without even talking to Desmond?" Layla asks. "He might not even know Elijah exists, and you want to kick him out before we even tell him?"

Bayek looks between Layla (whose expression is slightly sheepish) and Berg (looking almost smug). "You both want to keep Elijah here," he says.

"We still need information that he probably has," Berg says. "That hasn't changed just because you're worried about Khemu. And for the record, Elijah hasn't hurt Khemu. He hasn't hurt anyone."

"He's just creepy," Layla volunteers.

"Let's talk to Desmond," Berg says. "If nothing else, we need him caught up on this before we make any major decisions. Layla, can you send him another email?"

"Yep," Layla says. "No problem, I'll do it as soon as I get inside." She glances at Bayek. "And in the meantime, you should still talk to Khemu. Maybe you don't have to scare him away from Elijah, but you can at least warn him to be careful."

"Sure," Bayek says, tight worry coiling in his chest. And he'd thought that Layla, of all people, would understand. She knows everything he's been through. "I only hope it's enough."

-/-

As his friends sit on the roof of their warehouse and argue about the fate of his son, Desmond is climbing into the animus for another bright and early start to the day. He's rushing through Ezio's memories much more quickly than he remembers managing it last time, but he's finally close to the first really important part—the memory where Ezio picks up the apple for the first time.

Ezio still has no idea what it is or what it can do—to him, it's just a trinket the Templars are after, and Desmond knows that he's going to lose it to the Templars again soon enough. His job is just to keep a close watch, to make sure that when Ezio loses the apple it's going to be to the Templars, not to Juno.

This would be a prime opportunity for Juno to strike—Ezio is young and reckless and she's ruthless enough to take advantage of that. Desmond spends his first hour in the animus so on edge he can feel himself tension in his muscles in the real world. And then, as he eases into the second hour, there she is.

She's sitting on a bench in the midst of an outdoor market, her eyes fixed on Ezio as he moves across the square—like she just knows he's there, no matter how much he moves, or how often he passes out of sight. At first, Ezio doesn't seem to even notice her—but eventually her constant staring manages to catch his attention, and that makes him hesitate. Desmond can feel it tugging at his mind, and he tries with all his might to pull his ancestor toward caution. He wouldn't be surprised if Ezio decided to march right over to Juno and confront her for staring at him, and there's no way that could possibly end well.

Ezio scales the side of a building and watches her for a while. She watches him back, and Desmond can just about make out the sight of a smile on her face.

His hand starts to itch uncomfortably.

Ezio waits as long as he seems physically capable of sitting still, then mutters, "Right," and executes a perfect leap of faith into a haystack several floors below. When he hops back out, Juno has moved closer, and Ezio gives her his most charming smile. "Well," he says. "I must say this isn't the first time I've caught the eye of a beautiful woman, but you seem a little more interested than most."

The look of disbelief on Juno's face perfectly matches the way Desmond feels in that moment.

"Excuse me?" Juno asks, tone perfectly flat.

"Perhaps we could talk somewhere more private," Ezio says, offering Juno his hand.

In that single moment, Desmond's worst fears are concerned. Ezio is actually trying to flirt with Juno.

His only consolation in that moment is that she doesn't seem to have any more idea how to handle it than he does, and for a second she just stands there, staring at Ezio as he continues to smile at her.

"Maybe somewhere private would be best," she agrees, and—with an expression of visible distaste that surprises no one but Ezio—lets him take her hand. He doesn't seem as certain about her after seeing that look, but if there's one thing Ezio does not lack, it's self-confidence. Desmond doesn't even have the same connection to Ezio that he'd developed with Altair, so he can't even warn Ezio away as Juno leads him off.

As soon as they're out of sight of everyone else, Juno reaches out and puts her hand on Ezio's head. Desmond's breath catches in horror—he's heard from Layla what Juno can do to people by touching him, and he doesn't want to see it happen to Ezio now.

"Sit down," Juno tells him, and Desmond feels, as if at a distance, the way Ezio's mind changes. "And for the sake of my own sanity, be quiet."

The feeling of dread horror creeping through Ezio's mind is like nothing Desmond has ever experienced in his life. Even though they're not his feelings, even though he's only getting a little bit of what Ezio's getting, it's enough to give Desmond an intense feeling of guilt. He should have been able to find a way to protect Ezio, he should have been able to do something. Ezio does as he's told, he sits down and he's quiet. It's unnatural.

Desmond's hand burns.

It burns, and it doesn't stop. It burns the way it had with Altair, and Desmond grits his teeth against the pain. Ezio, still silent, rubs at his wrist with his other hand, and glares at Juno as if it's her fault.

"Here," Juno says, and she pulls a picture out from somewhere Desmond can't quite see. An actual photograph, almost comically out of place here in Ezio's Italy. Two people, bound and gagged—Desmond's dad, and a little girl he doesn't recognize. Next to them is a newspaper that says December 1, 2017. "Two captives, William Miles and Elina Berg. You have two time travelers. So go back to them, and tell them to go there. They rescue the captives, and they stay out of my way while I take the apple."

Desmond goes cold inside. No. No. How are they supposed to choose? Why would Layla and Bayek abandon the apple to rescue his dad and Berg's daughter? Juno smiles grimly at him, and then turns and walks away.

It takes a long time after that for Desmond to process everything he's just seen. It takes even longer for his hand and Ezio's to stop burning, and when the pain fades, he's not entirely surprised to look down and see a symbol etched into Ezio's wrist. It looks a little like the flying machine Da Vinci had made.

The fire in his hand has burned away whatever hold Juno had on Ezio, which is one good thing, at least. It solves Ezio's problem, but it doesn't solve Desmond's. There's no way to save Juno's captives and keep her from the apple, there's just no way—

"She was talking to you," Ezio says quietly. "You, in my head."

"I… yes."

"I don't know you," Ezio says quietly, standing up. His gaze is fixed on the end of the road where Juno had disappeared. "I don't know what's going on. I don't know what she's talking about, I don't know who you are, I don't know anything about time travel. But you tell your friends to go rescue those people."

Desmond takes a breath. This is kind of weird—with Altair, he'd had to answer a hundred questions and explain everything. Ezio is just accepting it all at face "You don't understand. If she gets the apple—"

"She won't," Ezio says. "We're going to stop her. So go tell your friends what she said. We'll stop her here."

-/-

When Desmond logs out of the animus, Shaun and Rebecca are busy grumbling that they hadn't gotten any usable footage out of that, and Rebecca is just about ready to jump on her baby to see what's wrong with it. Desmond almost feels bad for her—he'd made sure none of the footage would be clear enough for them to hear what Juno said, because there's no way he could explain, but he does feel bad, lying to his friends.

Lucy's watching him from the other side of the room as he heads for the computer, to send off an email to Layla, but she's far enough away that Desmond decides to risk it.

He logs in, opens his email, all ready to tell Layla about Juno's plan.

And then he sees the fresh email from Layla, telling him about his son the Sage. Desmond takes a deep, ragged breath—and then he gives in. It's too much, all at once. His shoulders shake as he starts to cry.

-/-

I kind of hate this chapter. xD There's too much crammed into it, sorry. I tried to rewrite it but nothing was working, so... here you go.