A Fresh Start

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: After the Grand Temple, Desmond wakes up.  He wasn't expecting that.
Word Count: 500
Rating: Teen

         Desmond hadn’t been too surprised by the fact that Juno had lied and it had hurt, dying. He’d expected that part.
         He hadn’t expected to wake up in his apartment, one that he remembers, coughing out a bee of all things. Assuming it actually is a bee. It might just look like one.
         “What the hell?” he yells at it. The bee just...flutters there, staring at him, glowing. Like it’s a firefly. He’s having a staring contest with a bee in the possible afterlife, what the actual hell.
         And that glow...he kind of recognizes that, too. It’s the golden glow of a Piece of Eden being used. And then it dims, and brightens, and dims, and brightens, and there’s some kind of pattern there, but…
         “I, uh. I don’t actually know Morse code,” he warns it, like it can understand a word he’s saying. Not that they hadn’t tried to teach him, but he’d tried to forget everything he’d learned on the Farm because he hadn’t wanted to think about it. It stops.
         Flutters a little, moving around like it’s studying him, which, why, and then flutters over to his window, which unlatches itself with a slight gold flash, and then just leaves.
         Well. Okay. That was cryptic.
         Desmond runs a hand over his face, but knows he can’t just keep standing here. After his disappearance, the apartment would have been rented out again, and all his stuff is still here, so does that mean this is the past? What the hell.
         His arm’s not black, burnt, or even a little singed. It’s a little sore, at most, but this isn’t how it should’ve looked after using the Eye.
         But if it’s the past, with his past, undamaged body, that means that Abstergo could show up at any minute. He needs to grab what he can and leave now. He’s in the middle of grabbing energy bars and water bottles and his phone and charger and all the cash from its hiding place when he realizes he’s overlooked something.
         There, underneath his beloved hoodie, there’s two Hidden Blades. He didn’t have those back then. But he doesn’t have time for an existential crisis, and he’ll feel a lot better knowing that he’s armed, so those get strapped on as he feels the clock ticking. His senses eventually start screeching at him (like, literally screeching, like eagles, it’s deafening) he instinctively slips into Eagle Vision, and he doesn’t see the red of enemies approaching, but that doesn’t calm his nerves for some reason. So he goes to the door, and then thinks better of it.
         The bee hadn’t actually stung him, and it was being weird, but it was trying to communicate. It’s impossible to tell whether this is some trick of Juno’s, or something, and he might fall into some kind of trap trying to figure that out, but at least it’s a lead. And in any case, going out the fire escape feels safer. So he does just that.