A/N: These two modern chapters were really poorly written. Made some edits to make things more clear and...well, better.

He found himself in a strange place. Somewhere alien. Pipes, ventilation shafts...

The twenty-first century. Hundreds of years in the future, the events of his ancestor's lives buried under a long chain of causation.

"Is that it?" Desmond groaned groggily.

His words actually surprised himself. Reflecting, it was odd he was not feeling grateful. He thought he hated the animus. Was he getting attached to his past self?

"Yeah, Dez. That's its for today. This is a good place to stop. Besides, I want to give Lucy my report. I just finished those translations."

Translations...of the Ignaz Von Born documents...

"Weren't you supposed to be watching my memories or something?"

"What, you've never watched TV and done your homework at the same time? Besides, Dez, you'd tell me if I missed anything important, right?"

Would he?

Then she said, "Here, I'll ping Lucy right now."

She did something on her computer. The twenty-first century still felt strange. How far removed they were from -

"Hey, Luce, you got time to talk?"

"What is it, is it important?"

"Sort of, we -"

"Hold on, let me go somewhere more private."

Where was she again? Why was she not here? Andorra. That was right. Looking for one of the Apples whose location they pulled from Altair's memories.

"Alright, hit me, Rebecca."

"Well, we...I finished the translations on those documents from Desmond's memories. Turns out The Connector is exactly what we thought."

"Really!? Where are they keeping it!?"

"Well, I don't know. But it's big, it over four feet tall. It's probably bolted to the ground wherever they found it."

"You said Ignaz Von Born was studying it?"

"Yeah, Luce, why?"

"And Adam Weishaupt was using it, to control Paris from afar."

"I guess so," Rebecca said.

"I'll have Shaun research those two. Should help us narrow down where it could be."

All that time trying to bleed his ancestor's skills into him, and Desmond's primary use was still his time in the animus.

"We found some other cool stuff too!" Rebecca said. "Ignaz was studying artifacts he called Schutlzengels. That means 'Guardian Angels.' He named them for their resemblance to Biblical angels described in Ezekiel 1:15-21! He seems to think they're supposed to be able to fly, but he couldn't get them working."

"What about the artifact Desmond saw in the Russian's memories? Did you learn anything more about that?"

"No. That one was big mystery to old Ignaz. I think it might be some kind of power source, though. It seemed to be connected to the rest of the facility through wires and tubing."

"The facility?"

"The site they found, I mean. Did I show you the map? I think it might have been some kind of First Civilization command center. I mean it makes sense with The Connector."

Lucy began her response but Desmond was hungry. Tuning them out for now, he decided to head for the cabinets.