I have been sitting on this fic for years. I recently got back into Assassin's Creed so now I'm like I've actually got to post this despite the billion other things I need to be doing. This is its fourth incarnation so I do have a complete outline, but that's always subject to change. Right now, I'm just going to see how far my momentum takes me.

I am a history buff, but I can't promise 100% historical accuracy. Also, there will be shifts forward in time so they don't all become old men, and there will probably be canon pairings eventually. I'm also probably not going to be graphic when it comes to the violence.


Desmond stopped in front of the animus, lacking the usual sense of excitement and anxiety over what would happen next in his ancestors' lives. He had the ouroboros key from Connor's grave, and while no one had said it, he knew he would never be getting into the animus again.

"Are you ready?" William asked, voice worn.

"As I'll ever be," Desmond responded, looking warily up at the blue holographic gate.

Before moving, however, he turned to the Apple they had left sitting in the seat of the animus where it wouldn't roll away on them. He had wielded it once as an efficient weapon, and now it seemed so insignificant and harmless in the face of his next task. He reached out, wondering if Minerva had left one last message for him before abandoning him to face Juno.

He felt the cold smoothness of the Piece of Eden and the ground disappeared beneath his feet. His stomach dropped, and he instinctively pulled his hand away. He looked down to see new ground rushing towards him, and he braced for impact. He landed awkwardly, mostly on his toes, and he tipped forward; knees softening the landing for his face.

"Ow," he murmured to himself as he tried to judge just how far he'd fallen. Where had he even fallen from?

He could feel grass beneath his hands. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees to see the golden globe the Piece of Eden had produced; the last memory of Altar's he'd seen in the animus. He frowned as he watched the globe spin slowly. The angle was wrong.

Then he saw the man standing before the holographic globe. He glanced around to see if anything else in the memory was wrong. There were two men beside him gathering themselves and looking around just as he had. He recognized them as readily as he recognized the man before the globe. He looked back to the man robed in white standing before the globe and knew him to be Altar Ibn-La'Ahad just as he knew the other men to be Ezio Auditore and Connor Kenway.

He had no idea what to do, but he was quickly coming to the conclusion that the Apple must have sent him back in time though he had no idea how Connor and Ezio had arrived with him. Too many thoughts crowded into his head for him to even begin to choose how to proceed.

"What is this place?" Connor asked though he did not look at Desmond.

A group of men came into the courtyard, and Desmond recognized them as Malik and his men. Altar collapsed to his knees before the globe, and Malik rushed to him. Desmond could remember him having used up all of his strength to face Al Mualim, but he couldn't remember if he'd been injured or not. Whatever the case, Altar would need rest.

"Malik," one of the men said, gesturing towards Desmond and his two other ancestors.

Malik straightened, hand on his sword and stepping before Altar. Desmond scrambled to his feet. "Safety and peace," Desmond said as if he were Altar, but somehow it sounded wrong. His mouth did not make the words the same way Altar's did though his mind felt them the same.

He glanced to his sides to see his ancestors' reactions.

Ezio and Connor both mimicked Malik with their weapons ready to be called upon at a moment's notice. Connor however looked rather befuddled as he understood none of the language. Desmond didn't believe Connor had ever heard much 12th century Arabic, and likely would have forgotten it due to disuse even if he had. Ezio, however, looked back and forth between Desmond and Malik as if he could parse out the language if he just squinted at them hard enough.

"You are not my brother," Malik growled. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

"I'm Desmond Miles," he explained as he pulled back the sleeve of his sweatshirt to reveal his hidden blade. "I'm an Assassin, and a descendent of Altar Ibn-La'Ahad."

Out of the corner of his eye, Desmond could see Ezio react first to his name and then to Altar's. Connor also stirred at the sound of Altar's name. However, Desmond refused to look away from Malik in case that's what got them killed.

"Impossible," Malik said though he didn't seem to believe his own words. "Altar has no family."

Desmond knew that it was impossible to deny family resemblance despite the centuries between him and Altar. He carefully gestured towards the Apple so as to not startle anyone. "I was brought here by the Piece of Eden."

"And you two?" Malik asked, looking at Connor and Ezio.

"I am Ezio Auditore," Ezio answered for himself in a strong accent. "I am also an Assassin and believe a Piece of Eden brought me here though I don't know for what purpose."

"He's Connor, and he doesn't speak this language," Desmond said, gesturing to Connor. "He's also an Assassin and probably also was brought here by a Piece of Eden."

"How do you know my name?" Connor asked Desmond.

"Long story," he told him in English, still keeping his eyes on Malik.

They all stood silently on the brink of a fight as the holographic globe spun and they sized each other up.

"I believe them," Altar said, struggling back to his feet.

"You're not in any state to offer such an assessment," Malik remarked.

"We have more pressing concerns than whether or not you believe them," Altar returned.

For a moment, they all looked at the body of the fallen Assassin leader. Malik looked from the body first. "If you are who you say you are, that you are Assassins, you will not mind if we hold you until such a time that we can determine your allegiance."

Desmond liked the sound of that well over getting stabbed in the guts. "Of course."

"If I remember my history correctly," Ezio said. "I could expect you to do no less. I'll surrender myself until such a time you can believe my honesty."

Desmond then quickly explained the situation to Connor in English. Connor nodded, removing his hand from his weapon. "I'll accept the imprisonment if that's what it takes to sort out this situation without bloodshed."

Desmond switched over to Arabic. "Connor agrees as well."

Malik quickly instructed the men he had brought with them to relieve the three of them of their weapons and lock them in one of their more comfortable cells. Well, Malik did not say that it was comfortable, but given Desmond's insider knowledge from the animus, he would not complain compared to other options available. Connor and Ezio turned over their weapons and armor with some reluctance. Desmond minded less as he knew no one would even be able to use the weapons for themselves except for his hidden blade.

The cell they were locked in was fairly small, but at least it had one window though that was more a slit in the wall than a true window. There were pallets on the floor and a bucket to act as a toilet. Desmond was not someone who prayed, but he was praying they weren't in there too long. Why did everything historical have to be so gross? This was worse than the Monteriggionni underground.

"Now, that we have time," Ezio began as he settled down onto one of the pallets. "Are you the Desmond the woman spoke of?"

"Yes, but this is gonna be one long story so let me tell Connor that this is gonna take a while," Desmond said, speaking to Ezio in his native Italian. Ezio seemed impressed with his fluency.

Desmond turn to Connor in English. "You kind of know the least out of all of is so it'll take a while for me to explain everything to you so just hang tight while I explain things to Ezio first."

"Hang tight?" Connor echoed.

"Have patience. You're a lot better at it than literally everyone else I know."

"Very well," Connor said, picking out a pallet for himself.

Desmond stayed standing so he could pace while he talked. "Just ask questions as they come up because neither of us are going to remember it all by the end of this," Desmond warned Ezio then launched into his tale and doing his best to translate the technology of the future as best he could with the dated Italian he had and the lack of context Ezio had.

Eio asked a lot of questions. Desmond did his best to answer him, but there was only so much he knew of the entire situation on his own. Eventually, he wound down to the last minutes before the solar flare and ended with, "And then the Apple dropped me here."

"I would not believe it if I had not seen the Apple for myself," Ezio said, leaning back against the wall of their cell. "We have much more still to discuss about how we should proceed from here."

"We've got other people to catch up first," Desmond said then switched over to English for Connor and start the spiel all over again.

Morning arrived before Desmond finished speaking and answering Connor's questions. He felt like his mouth had gone completely dry. He also had no idea what the Assassins beyond their cell were doing. He had a sense of it given Altar's knowledge of them, but he knew the Altar of this time had much more of Assassin bureaucracy to learn before he could fully understand the complexity of the situation. Therefore, Desmond knew just as little of it at this time in history.

At least they received breakfast and a large ration of water at day break. Desmond kept staring up into the little slit of the window to look at the sunlight.

"Do you see something?" Ezio asked.

"I told you the solar flare was coming before I left," he said then looked away from the window. "I had expected to never see another morning."

"That is something worth looking at," Eio mused. Desmond, of course, knew that he had spent a few mornings in his lifetime looking at dawning light he'd never expected to land upon his living flesh. Such was the life of an Assassin.

Within a few minutes, however, Desmond grew bored and restless. That was also the life of an Assassin. You want peace in times of trouble and action in times of stillness. "Hey, Connor," Desmond said.

"Yes?" Connor asked, sounding weary even though there was nothing to be weary about.

"Did you know your grandfather was a pirate Assassin?"

"What?"

"Yeah, Edward Kenway. I knew of him because he was friends with Blackbeard, but Shaun told me he was an Assassin, too. Kept the Templars from getting some sort of precursor technology in the Caribbean then retired to England."

"I didn't know," Connor said quietly. "If he was an Assassin how did my father come to be a Templar?"

"Edward Kenway died by the time Haytham was ten. So officially, he got adopted in before he could be trained too much as an Assassin. Unofficially, we're pretty sure Edward was killed and Haytham essentially kidnapped," he said, trying to keep it soft. He had left out that he had been in Haytham's memories before Connor's. More to keep the conflict it had caused between himself and his father private than to keep it a secret from Connor. Desmond didn't like that he knew the man and would prefer to keep his memories as far from his mind as possible.

Connor nodded, deciding to mull over the information rather than discuss it further. It wasn't what Desmond wanted at all. He sighed and pulled out his phone. He was surprised to find that it still had a charge. It wouldn't be of much use to him in this time period, so why not use up the last of the battery for some fun?

"What is that?" Ezio asked, gesturing to his phone.

"It is a cellphone," he said then had no idea how to explain it further without making it sound like magic. "It lets you talk to people over long distances if they have one, too. Nobody else has one so it's kind of useless, but I can use it to entertain myself so I don't die of boredom."

"How does it work? Is it like the Apple?" he asked.

"It's complicated. I only have a vague idea of how the phone all works, and that comes from being born in the century I was," Desmond confessed. "There's literally not words that you know that could explain it. This thing can't control people though if that's what you're worried about. Humans made it, not precursors."

"I cannot imagine humanity coming so close to the technology of the precursors as you call them."

"We're not that close. We can't even figure out what humans used to make before. Like, we have no idea how to make Roman concrete, Greek fire, or Damascus steel. We forget shit just as quickly as we learn it. If Shaun's right, which he usually is when it comes to history, the fabric of this time period is better than the fabric of the future when I'm from."

"Perhaps your animus would help recover some of that information. It has served you well so far."

"Yeah, but it has a pretty high cost," Desmond said, feeling as if he hadn't fully impressed upon his ancestor how taxing learning from within the animus was. Would ruining a man's mind be worth learning to construct new material resources? Desmond would say no.

Connor broke into the silence. "What are you discussing?"

"Cellphone," Desmond answered, holding it up for Connor to see. "Do you want me to start teaching you Arabic? That way we'll all have at least one language in common."

Connor nodded. "I would appreciate that."

"Okay, so, fair warning, I've never tried to teach anyone a language before so this might be a little weird," he explained, and Connor nodded again like he had expected it.

It was messy even without any writing implements. Connor had a bit of a knack for languages, as Desmond had discovered in most of his ancestors, and Ezio quickly picked up on what they were doing and tried to help. At least Connor and Ezio seemed to find some amusement in his struggles. He didn't mind them laughing at him with all the troubles invading all of their lives. Needless to say, they did not get very far by the time the door to the cell opened again.

Malik stood beyond the door, and he did not carry food with him. "The Dai would like to speak with you and discuss your fate."

Connor might not have understood the words, but even he understood the gravity laden in Malik's tone.

"We're ready," Desmond answered for them.


Hope you enjoyed. Please review if you liked it. Thanks for reading.