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It started with a headache. After waking up the 4th morning in a row with quote “a mother fucking headache”, Desmond told Lucy reluctantly about the pain. She saw it as nothing too troubling. It was expected and well documented in Animus subjects to suffer in the first few days while they adjusted. Normal and not as concerning as the Bleeding Effect that would later take most of the subjects sanity and health. She gave him some pain killers and tried to get Vidic to ease of a bit. His insistence of pressing Desmond through the delicate early stages of his synchronization with the Ancestor in a faster pace than necessary was not helping. Their subjects comfort was adamant to keep the Bleeding Effect in check. He knew that very well and even with their tight time line they could allow Desmond to take more breaks to recover.
After taking the pills Desmond stopped complaining and Lucy concentrated more on monitoring the sessions and doing her job.
(What she wasn't aware of was that even with the medication the headaches stayed.)
Rebecca was trying to be friendly. Desmond was after all their ally, their teammate. A fellow Assassin and their most important asset.
Shaun was not even trying to be polite and Lucy was burdened with the team leading, organizing everything and communicating with HQ, Becca tasked herself to become their new teammates friend.
She made sure Baby was running as smoothly as possible and the chair was fitted perfectly to Desmond's body. She also kept special care when she connected him. His right arm already had some bad bruises thanks to the rather big needle they had used at Abstergo. They needed to have a direct link into his DNA and the best way was through the blood stream for now. She was already working on another method that would not even need the subjects to go through the memories of their ancestors. Some samples of genetic material would be enough. But this was something for the future and for now she was happy that Desmond seemed okay.
He hadn't shown any signs of the Bleeding Effect and he was sleeping soundly when he went to bed.
Lucy had made a very strict schedule to keep all of them as fit as possible. All of them got a lot of breaks, duties were distributed equally, with Desmond as the only exemption for he was still a flight risk in her books and also the most wanted of them. But still Becca tried to take time out of her day to chat with the man more than the others.
Her first few attempts were rather awkward. She was not the most social and when talking to others she often went on rambling speeches about her obsessions. Surprisingly Desmond listened and even started to ask her questions and after a short while they were trading jokes.
Desmond was witty and even with his limited understanding of Becca's interests did his best to follow her tangents.
She thought she got to know him pretty well.
Also she was the one who was monitoring his brain activity the most and this is where she got aware that something was not right.
It was rather normal that coming out of a session Demond's alpha waves would spike for a second until normalizing. But there was also a small blip in there. There was no explanation in her mind for him coming out with no activity showing at all. For there was just a fraction of a second of nothing. No brain waves, no signal.
Nothing.
She kept it to herself thinking it was just a processing error and they only needed more RAM space or better monitoring equipment.
Running a second analytic program did not show anything unusual and she just put in an order for some more hard drives and a bigger motherboard for her own PC.
But then Desmond came out of a session like always, responding to her and sitting up like normal when he swayed on the spot. Seemingly loosing his equilibrium while sitting down. She asked him if he was okay and he nodded. Looking down onto her various programs she just got the end of a nothing period. It must have lasted a good second and scrolling back there it was.
Desmond's signal just went away, like there was nothing to receive. Now she really got worried and pressured the other one to tell her what he was feeling.
Headache he told her after a while.
She asked when it started and was very confused when he admitted that it had never stopped.
She send him to bed afterwards, not reacting to Shaun's moaning and Lucy's demand to stay on schedule. She ushered her team mates out of the room to let Desmond sleep in peace, who was looking rather pale.
Lucy was as concerned as Becca was as she told them in the kitchen what she had seen and what Desmond had admitted to. Shaun not so much but they too got him to promise to keep an eye on their team mate.
The next day, after having Desmond sleep a full eight hours, they sat him down and went over their findings.
He was not really willing to talk but Becca's pleading and Lucy's concern for his health made him open up.
The headache was a constant, even with the rather well dosed meds. Also he was suffering dizzy spells in all of his waking hours, not only coming out of the Animus but also sitting down, standing or even lying in bed before or after he slept.
Those were serious and uncommon symptoms and none of them had been documented before in the Animus research done the last few decades.
As Desmond did not shift into the mind of an ancestor it was not the Bleeding Effect. No it was, as if his mind was shutting of and also not.
Becca did a lot more scans.
She would have loved to get her hands onto a CAT scan, but for now her monitoring would need to be enough. Desmond's brain did not show any damage. Every part was working as far as she could see. The numbers were right but still the symptoms he described were worrying.
Lucy spend hours going over the research the Assassin's stole from Abstergo to find anything that looked similar. After all they needed Desmond alive and well.
After two days of rest Desmond himself argued to go back. All of them felt some kind of guilt for him being the one to demand it. Even Shaun had looked conflicted.
Lucy changed the schedule accordingly. More breaks for Desmond, as well as some physical training to keep him fit not only in body but also in mind. Becca had downloaded some cognitive test sheets for stroke victims or people developing Alzheimers. Not that Desmond was loosing his memory yet but they agreed to be cautious.
Everything went well for half a week. Desmond told them that his headache was not getting worse and he had not felt dizzy after getting out of the Animus, even though Becca still recorded the same nothingness as before.
Then Desmond suffered his first major Bleed.
Shaun was the one who had noticed it first. He did not like Desmond, or more like he did not allow himself to like the bloke, not after Clay. But the guy was trying.
And after the scare he could not help but to care some what, so finding Desmond standing in the dark kitchen after 3 pm with no light was concerning.
Walking over, touching his shoulder and asking him if everything was okay might have not been the most intelligent idea.
Desmond apologized several times for the black eye after he came back from his Bleed, where he had shouted in renaissance Italian, trying to kill Shaun with his bare hands.
Not all his Bleeds after this one where violent. They mostly occurred in the early hours of the morning and lasted not longer than two minutes at best.
It was also not always Ezio's memory they dealt with. Sometimes Altair reared his head. Shaun found him brooding on the highest point of the warehouse once, talking in hushed Arabic to a not there Malik Al Saif.
They made always sure that Desmond came back to his own mind after an episode. Asking him what day it was and his name. Normal questions he answered easily. Most of the time.
Desmond did not complain, but he looked scared when he thought none of them looked.
Their flight from the warehouse was chaotic but also a moment where the Bleeding Desmond had gone through showed it's favorable side.
Even Lucy, who had been their best trained Assassin for the field could not find a fault in his technique taking down Abstergo's goons.
He looked happier than Becca had ever seen him before and the mood got lighter, even though their new headquarter was the crypt of the Auditore Villa in Monteriggioni.
The space was cold and wet this far under the stone. They had no running hot water and the electricity was not as reliable. At least Becca had gotten new hard ware and could make Desmond's decent into his ancestor's memories smoother than it had ever been.
Sadly his blank periods also got longer.
The dizziness returned and nor longer breaks or more sleep helped. For now it was just a small spell after he came back out or woke up from sleep, but they all feared it would get even worse.
Lucy only reluctantly allowed him his night time breaks outside.
Shaun had reminded her that the bloke had been kept inside for nearly three months now and also that he looked more relaxed when coming back from outside. She relented but the stress of Desmond getting even worse or having an accident got to every one of them.
The Bleeds got longer, his memory more spotted by blankness. His mood also crashed and no rude jokes from Shaun or excited babble from Becca could sheer him up. Lucy kept silent, lips pressed into a fine line.
After two weeks in their new hideout Desmond awoke from the Animus with the best news they had ever had. He knew where the Apple of Eden was.
The path clear they made their way to Rome.
For the first time in four days Desmond appeared more settled, more himself and self assured than he had been for weeks. The skills of his Ancestors were now his own and he navigated the underground mace like he had done it many times before.
All three of them cheered in delight and happiness for their teammate.
Stepping into the hidden chamber deep in the ground, they couldn't believe their luck in seeing the artifact they had been searching for directly in front of them.
Desmond reached for it, his team close.
Desmond reached for the Apple and everything changed.
Becca sat next to Desmond on board of the Altair II, looking at the brain scans they were finally able to make. She was no expert but there were parts that should not look so dark.
She wished to talk to Shaun, but he went dark and would only contact them when he had finished in Italy.
When he had scrubbed all of their evidence from the floors. When he had buried Lucy, for fucks sake, Lucy in a wrong named grave.
She also wished she could talk to Desmond. His gallows humor had made the last two months a lot better, even though he had been the one who had suffered the most. Would she ever get the chance to talk to him?
His diagnosis did not look good. For now his brain was still working. His brain waves stable but subdued. They did not know if putting him back into the Animus had been the right call and Becca hated herself even more for this notion. But Bill had told her to do it and he was Desmond's father and their Mentor.
She never had felt the urge to pray but sitting next to the slowly beating heart monitor of her friend while code filled the screen of Baby, she put her hands together and hoped some one might hear her.
Shaun felt bone tired even after thirteen hours of sleep when he met up with Bill at the airport near Rome, New York. They were silent when riding back into the city to the safe house where they had hidden Desmond. Becca greeted him with a hug and a thank you. He could only nod, starring at the man still hooked up to the Animus.
Bill was the one pushing them back to work and he was glad for it. Still the guilt was eating them up from the inside.
Desmond was awake. Desmond was talking, walking, even running and climbing.
He knew who they were and also where they had to go.
The Vault deep in the forest near Turin New York was a better set up than they had before. Shaun felt hope when he helped Desmond carry in boxes. Watching him explore the weird chamber by himself or only gazing into the bright field that kept them from getting to the device they needed to save the world.
He seemed so much more alive than before.
They did not talk about Lucy. Becca couldn't because of guilt, Shaun wouldn't because of the truth he knew and Bill because he was a bastard. Shaun had once looked up to the man but seeing him handle his own son who might be irreversibly damaged even if he was okay now, was making him think rebellious thoughts constantly.
The constant chiding and nagging was not helpful.
Especially not when he witnessed Desmond's first nothing episode. Becca and Shaun had braced for it, having already a routine to keep Desmond comfortable while still engaging him in rather lofty banter until he regained his mind. Bill had other expectations for his son.
First calling out, then shouting, trying to shake the unresponsive man's shoulders only had the effect, that Desmond slipped into a Bleed, attacking the hostile figure. It took all of them to pry Desmond from his father and afterwards Becca's skill to make hot chocolate to calm all of them down some what.
Desmond kept to himself after that. Shaun and Becca tried their best to engage the man, go over the sheets Lucy had compiled to asses his stability and mental faculty, after every session, or even get him to eat regularly with meals he used to enjoy. Nothing helped.
The resentment grew towards their Mentor.
The worry grew even more for Desmond.
Nearly every day he just went away for an hour or two. Breathing, blinking but not moving on his own, talking, reacting, laughing. Just nothing. It scared them.
He was no longer stable. The Bleeds were as frequent as his waking periods. All four ancestor's he had been made to live through, reared their heads. They were no longer just memories. No they started to ask questions and make remarks about their current situation.
Ezio asked Shaun what had happened to his Brotherhood late one night. What has become of the believes they once had? Why they were killing the man that was their only chance of saving them?
Altair sat next to Becca one morning, telling her how proud he had been of his sons, even when they did something wrong and asked her why Bill could not see how much his son suffered under his own father.
Haytham had cornered Bill right after lunch, wanting to know if he wanted to make the same mistakes has he had made. Wanting to know if there even was a future for the people all of them had tried to protect. If they shouldn't have allied with their enemy for the benefit of all?
Connor sitting up after Desmond had lost himself into nothingness after an Animus session, just looking at them. Then shaking his head and going outside for hours.
Even under all this they did their job. Desmond delivered new information while diving deep into the memories only he had in his DNA.
Shaun helped out with other teams planning and research and documented the full history of the Assassin's in the American revolution. Becca kept up the banter and all of them working with her constant improvement of their hard- and software. Bill was still the Mentor and did what he had to do to keep his people save and the Assassin's running from Abstergo.
When they found out that they needed more energy in form of ancient Isu artifacts they only had one option to retrieve them. Going in themselves
No one would have cleared Desmond for any field mission but there was no time. No time for no one.
Though he was suffering from dizziness, cluster headaches and the episodes where he was no one and all of his ancestor's, going on a field mission was pushing everything to the side.
After weeks of his health declining he seemed stable, energized and the Desmond they had met after escaping from Abstergo.
The man Lucy had brought into their team.
Sadly the damage done could not be erased so easily. Getting back to the Temple Desmond had two good days with minimal problems until he felt so dizzy that he threw up and fell in the shower. Shaun found him fifteenth minutes later lying under the cold water spray.
He did not wake up for the rest of the day and Becca was already planning to take him to a hospital if he stayed unresponsive one minute longer, Bill had said no. All of them where relieved when he finally woke up lucid.
No one wanted to make Desmond's life any harder, but it was easier to watch him at all times than to see him suffer even more damage.
Desmond understood. Ezio understood, Altair understood, Haytham understood. Conner kept silent.
They were so close. So close to be saved, so close to loose it all and then Bill got taken.
Shaun had never witnessed anything like that. Becca could not watch.
They sat outside, waiting for the end.
Bill came back, Desmond leaning on his shoulder, not his blood tainting his clothes, but his eyes filled with tears none of them were able to shed.
They took him back. He went voluntary.
The end was here. They had everything. All the puzzle pieces were assembled.
Desmond was in pieces.
Connor took the key and opened the last door. Ezio made the last trek towards the machine. Haytham told them to go. Altair made the decision to save all of them.
Desmond.
Desmond touched the eye.
The suns fire burned his empty shell, for he had been gone for a long while now.