Lucy can't make herself care when Desmond goes down. It doesn't feel like something that concerns her, it doesn't feel like something she's done. It's all so distant and unimportant, and if Lucy had still been fully herself, she would have been horrified by the way she feels now.
But now, today, as she stands her with blood dripping down her knife, all she can think about how pleased Juno is going to be when Lucy brings the apple to her. She drops the knife, almost as an afterthought, and cocks her head slightly to one side as she watches it land on Desmond.
She only manages two steps before something small and fast and vicious that she hadn't been paying attention to charges straight at her and knocks her completely off her feet. The apple goes flying and Lucy kicks out at her mini attacker—it's only after the first thirty seconds of desperate, dirty fighting (she kicks her attacker in the mouth and they bite her hard enough to draw blood in return) that she realizes it's a kid.
And it's another thirty seconds after that when Lucy realizes the kid is actually winning.
She's a seasoned fighter (if, admittedly, a bit out of practice after so long working on the animus), but there's something in the kid's mismatched eyes that Lucy has only seen once or twice before. This isn't a life or death fight for this kid—it's something more important.
He screams, and for a second Lucy thinks it's pain, and she thinks she's winning. But it's not pain, it's something angry and almost primal, and she doesn't recognize that until it's too late. He squirms and wriggles his way on top of her, slams a knee down on top of her chest hard enough to make her stop breathing for a second from the shock of it, and reaches an arm across her to grab at the apple.
"No," Lucy croaks, the word barely making it out past the knee pressing into her chest. She tightens her grip on the apple but he doesn't seem to care. His small hand worms its way through Lucy's fingers just to touch it, not grab it or pull it away, and then his other hand presses into her forehead, and something—
Something starts to happen.
-/-
Elijah's mouth is bleeding. He thinks she might have kicked a tooth out, but he can't take the time to check right now. There are bruises forming all up and down his side, too, and one of his legs feels like it's been twisted the wrong way where Lucy had it pinned for a while.
It doesn't matter.
He's not thinking about anything right now, just acting on sheer, angry instinct. Only unfortunately for her, Elijah's instincts aren't entirely human. Unfortunately for her, Elijah is a Sage. All his life, he's put up with the ebb and flow of bits of knowledge leaking into his mind, whether he wants them to or not. It's not a leak now, it's a flood of instinct and memory that isn't his, hundreds and thousands of Sage lifetimes reaching back all the way to the beginning of humanity, practically.
There have been Sages that spent their lives learning how to fight, dirty nasty brawlers that know how to take every advantage offered to them. In the back of his mind, a long dead pirate called Roberts shows him where to kick and bite to hurt her the most, and a knight called Molay from even farther back telling him this is how you fight, this is where it hurts.
And all of them, every single one, with this vague, half formed knowledge of how you use an apple. Elijah clenches one hand around it, as close as he can get with Lucy still clinging on herself, and grabs at her head with the other hand. He's done this once before, with his grandpa and Elina, when Juno had implanted something into their minds after holding them captive. This time he has a little experience, he has help, and most importantly he doesn't care much if Lucy is hurt in the process.
He'll burn Juno out of her if he has to.
Elijah is very dimly aware that there are people around him, some shouting, but so far none of them have tried to step in and stop him so he just doesn't care. His hand starts to hurt where he's holding it, like fire travelling through it—then that fire burns up his arm, through his chest, and across his other arm into the hand that's clenched down over Lucy's forehead.
It hurts, but in a way Elijah welcomes it. He already feels like his heart is breaking, and it almost seems right that he should have this physical pain to deal with on top of what he's feeling inside. The pain builds and builds and builds, until finally Elijah has to scream—he screws his eyes shut and opens his mouth, and he's almost surprised when it's only sound that comes out and not more of that burning fire.
And then it's over. Juno's hold on Lucy is gone. Elijah knows he's done his job when Lucy's death grip on the apple goes slack, and he lets go of it himself in response. The apple rolls away, and Elijah—very slowly—feels the fire inside him start to fade. He's panting, he realizes, and there's sweat just pouring off him. He pushes himself laboriously off Lucy, and after a quick, suspicious glance at Lucy—she looks like she's unconscious—he collapses flat on the ground and just breathes.
"Elijah."
He forces his eyes open again and bites back a sigh when he sees Berg's face loom into view above him. "I did what I had to do," he says flatly. "She killed my dad, and she was going to take the apple back to Juno. That was the quickest way to stop her."
Berg is quiet for a moment, and it hits Elijah that for the first time (ever), Berg is looking at him with something more than dismissal or disdain.
(Respect—the knowledge comes suddenly into Elijah's mind that Berg actually, genuinely respects what he's done and why he's done it)
"Your father isn't dead," Berg says, and Elijah's eyes widen in shock. He scrambles up into a sitting position.
"He's not dead?" he demands. "But Lucy—I saw her, she stabbed him. Dad went down—"
"He's still breathing," Berg says. "And I've seen men survive worse. Some of the others are taking him back to the main road where they can call an ambulance. I can't guarantee that he'll still be alive when all this is over—" Because no, he wouldn't, Berg wasn't the kind of man that would give out false reassurances. "But he was alive when he left."
Elijah feels like his bones have all just been teleported outside of him. He goes flat and limp and lets out a tiny sob.
Berg grabs him around the arm just above his elbow, and Elijah allows himself to be dragged to his feet. "Lucy," Berg says. "What did you do to her?"
"I just took out what Juno did to her," Elijah says. He pauses, then admits, "She… it might have hurt her a little bit."
"Understandable," Berg says. "But this isn't where we stop. Does Juno have any other spies here?"
He thinks of his grandpa and Elina. "Not anymore," he says.
"Good. Then we'll have to take the fight to Juno. She's feeling threatened enough to plant Lucy here, this is the time to press whatever advantage we have. Do you know where she is?"
Elijah opens his mouth to say no, but then all of a sudden he does. "Yes," he says. "And she's close."
Berg's smile is chilling. "Perfect," he says.
-/-
Berg and Elijah spend half an hour huddled together, whispering, making plans. Layla watches them from a little distance away, arms crossed as she leans up against one of the uneven temple walls. "Look at that," she says to Bayek, gesturing toward the unlikely pair. "Did you ever think you'd see the two of them working together like that?"
"No," Bayek admits. "Layla."
Something in his tone makes her reluctant to look at him. "Yea?"
"You were supposed to be watching the apple," he says. "When Layla took it."
She drops her gaze. It's true. She was. But she's been hoping no one else would notice. "I forgot," she whispers. "I can't believe it either, but I forgot. I was with Desmond, and we heard Berg shouting, and we went to see what was going on, and… left the apple behind."
He could have said more. If he'd been angry, Layla knows she would have deserved it, but somehow the silent disappointment is worse.
"I'm going to check on Khemu," Bayek says, and walks away from her without another word. Once he's gone, Senu drops down to perch on Layla's shoulder.
"He'll come around, won't he?" Lucy whispers to the eagle. "I know I messed up, but…"
Senu chirps, which could have meant anything.
She stays there until Berg and Elijah break up their impromptu little meeting, and it's only the sound of Berg's heavy boots coming toward her that snaps her out of her funk.
"Layla," he says. "We have a plan that just might work to get rid of Juno. But I have to know—are you interested in being part of it? I know Juno scares—"
"I'm not afraid," Layla says, straightening up and looking at him. She is, of course, but right now the need to prove herself is stronger. "I… we've been fighting Juno for a long time now. And I've run away from her every single time but… this is my fault, isn't it? If I hadn't walked away from the apple, Lucy wouldn't have gotten it."
"Probably not," Berg says. "I know I wouldn't have walked away from something that important."
Layla flushes, more embarrassed than angry, but only just.
"But it doesn't matter," Berg goes on. "Elijah stopped Lucy from taking the apple back to Juno, and we didn't lose anything too valuable. Now are you going to come with us to fight back?"
She knows what this is. This is you screwed up, now here's a chance to make up for it. And she's going to jump at the chance, even if she is still afraid. "Yea," she says. "What's the plan?"
-/-
"We're going to trap her," Elijah tells Elina and Khemu. The three of them are holed up in a little alcove too small for any of the adults to fit into, a smattering of snack wrappers strewn on the ground around them. "We're going to lure her back here, and I'm going to trap her."
"You can do that?" Elina asks.
"I think so," Elijah says. "It was her prison for thousands and thousands of years, there's no reason it can't hold her again."
He leans forward and steals a Cheeto from Elina, then chews it slowly. He's tired from waking up in the middle of the night, walking all the way here, then fighting Lucy and using the apple on her.
She still hasn't woken up, and Elijah's starting to feel a tiny bit jealous of her—he wishes he could sleep.
"She has a body now," Khemu points out. "How…" He sighs, sounding as tired as Elijah feels, and mumbles the rest in Egyptian. "How are you going to get her in here if she already had a body?"
And Elijah doesn't answer, of course, because the truth is he doesn't know. Berg has some kind of a plan, something that just seems to Elijah like 'beat her until she stops moving,' and Elijah has no idea how they're going to do that when they haven't been able to hurt her so far, but Berg has only just stopped hating him, and Elijah's not going to argue that plan. His job is just to figure out a way to get Juno back into the Temple that had been her prison for so long.
He's pretty sure he can do it. He's pretty sure, now that he knows how to call on all the previous Sages that have lived be fore him, that he can do his part.
As long as everyone else does theirs.
"I guess we'll figure it out," he says out loud, slowly.
"Why don't you just... you know, really kill her?" Elina asks the question in almost a whisper, like she's nervous talking about actually killing someone. "Not just trap her?"
Elijah thinks over how to answer that for a minute, even though he really doesn't think outright killing Juno would be a good idea. "So you know how... a Sage is just being born with the face of Juno's husband, Aita? And all these weird... things that we know, that we shouldn't. Juno did all that. She figured out how to make it work. I wouldn't put it past her to have done that with herself, too, if she dies." And he knows deep down that he's probably just being paranoid, but... "I can't let that happen to anyone else if I can help it," he says. "I'm not going to risk some little girl in the future being born with Juno's face and... her memories. So if we kill her, and something like that happens, we can at least learn from Juno how to fix things. If we kill her, we'll never fix anything."
Silence. Apparently, Elina doesn't know how to answer that.
Elijah rolls over onto his back and lets his eyes close. Outside their little hole, the adults are busy gathering weapons and whatever, but all Elijah is going to need is the apple. He doesn't have to do anything to prep, nothing but worry about how his dad's doing.
His grandpa texted him about half an hour. He's in the same ER where Khemu was saved, being operated on. Hopefully they'll know soon if he'll come out alive. Right now, Elijah doesn't want to think about that, so he lets his eyes drift shut, and prays for sleep.
Half an hour later, he's jolted groggily out of a half sleep by the sound of someone forcing themselves into the hole. Elijah cracks an eye open and frowns at the older boy, a teenager, who just barely fits into the small space. He recognizes him as Javier, one of the Hidden Ones who Elijah has never really had a chance to talk to before.
"Sorry," Javier says, when he sees the three of them (Elijah spread out on his back, Elina curled up with her back to the wall, and Khemu still sitting up but clearly nodding off). "Did I—are you guys napping?"
"No," Elijah mutters, dragging himself up. He's still young enough to be slightly offended by the implication that he needs naptime. Khemu jerks a little at Elijah's protest, and focuses blearily on Javier, but Elina's eyes stay closed, and she doesn't move. "What are you doing in here?"
"I'm looking for you," Javier says. "You're Desmond's kid, right?"
The pain in Elijah's chest seems to get a little worse. "Yes," he says. "Why?"
"Because I think his ancestors might be able to help," Javier says. "I've been working with him a little, because one of his ancestors knew one of mine, and—ok, so… see, one of his ancestors has figured out how to ward places against Juno. I feel like that can only help if we're finally going after her." He explains, briefly, what he knows about Elijah's ancestors, the ones that his dad had apparently gotten so close to.
"It would probably help," Elijah says. "But Dad's in the hospital. He can't exactly help."
"He's your ancestor too," Javier points out, which is factually true so Elijah doesn't argue it. "And from what I saw, he could sort of reach from his apple to Desmond's apple, and do things that way."
"You want me to try and use the apple to get in touch with him?" Elijah asks.
Javier nods.
"Sure, I guess." He's already exhausted and sad, this probably isn't going to make things worse.
-/-
Lucy wakes up an indefinite amount of time later, feeling like everything's been torn out of her head and scraped raw. She remembers, all at once, what she's done, and doesn't know what to do. She has no idea how to react. Someone else has been inside her head, writing her thoughts and dictating what she does. That's terrifying in a way she just can't deal with.
She hears footsteps, and realizes someone is walking over to her. Layla.
"Where's Juno?" she asks, without preamble.
And Lucy remembers exactly where she'd met with Juno. She doesn't hesitate to tell Layla, because if that's all she can do to make up for stupidly letting herself get caught out by Juno, she'll shout her location to the heavens.
-/-
Elijah doesn't get the apple again until they're outside the temple and heading for the place where Lucy says she met with Juno. He's in the back seat of a truck being driven by one of the Hidden Ones, wedged into the corner with no one really paying him any attention.
He curls himself around the apple so no one will see the light, and tries to reach out to his very distant ancestor. A thousand years is a lot of space to try and cross, especially for someone that Elijah doesn't know at all. He's not feeling very optimistic about it, and it's not until he feels an arm around his shoulder that he realizes something has happened.
Elijah takes his eyes off the apple, and looks around—no one is touching him.
You, a voice in his head says. Are not Desmond.
Elijah squeaks.
The voice in his head seems to smile, and Elijah doesn't even know what that means. How can a voice smile?
Altair? he tries, cautiously.
And you are..?
Elijah tells him everything, hoping Javier is right about this guy being able to help, and that the voice in his head isn't lying about who he is. At the end of it, when Elijah gets to Javier's suggestion about having Altair around to ward them against Juno, the smile is gone, and Altair simply seems very sad.
So Desmond is not dead, he says. I suppose that's good. When he was… hurt, it seemed very final.
He might still die, Elijah says, because he's simply too tired to lie.
Altair pauses, taking that in. Then he sighs. Of course I'll help, he says. But for now, sleep. I'll wake you when we get there.
Elijah almost doesn't want to, because they're almost to where Lucy had been with Juno, and he's dreading it, but eventually he's just too tired to stay awake a second longer. The last thing he feels is his head thumping into the truck's window as he falls asleep.
-/-
So this chapter is basically 3,000 words of procrastination as I try to avoid actual fighting? I hate actual fighting :(