AC/ It Will Come Back au, initial prompt

 originally posted on tumblr, May 2nd 2023

desclay fix-it au, GO!

as Desmond gets booted out of the Animus Island before he's deleted alongside it, he's sent into the blackroom and the genetic memory datastream. However, the fragments he finds in the simulation are no longer related to his own memories, but someone else's.

the animus sends him back to his partition, but he finds himself in an unfamiliar Animus Island, fresh and sunny. he can leave yes, but the message he finds makes him stay. as he tries to find the way out, he finds himself reliving the memories of another, and a spark of hope appears. maybe it's not too late to make things right.

slowly but surely, he relives those fragmented memories, failing and falling but getting back up, determined to see this through. as the new path opens up before him, he makes sure to carry all that with him as he wakes up. for a while he wonders if he did it, or if he managed anything at all, until he feels a small voice in the back of his head and for once he doesn't feel dread about hearing things.

as he recovers from a week-long coma on a cabin near the Grand Temple, him and Clay grow a routine and system for the whole two-people-in-one-body situation, but it becomes more manageable once Desmond twist Bill's arm about carrying the Apple himself. it's his burden after all, and everytime his ancestors left it on someone else's hands, it always ended in tragedy. he's not committing the same mistakes.

thanks to the illusion projection of the Apple, Desmond and Clay manage to interact physically again, though it takes some getting used to and stealth so others don't find out. having someone's cyber ghost in your head is quite a stretch to explain after all. having Clay around is sure a boon however, and as they figure out a safeguard for whatever Juno is planning, they also do their own research on how to find Clay a new body, or create it.

eventually December 21th hits, but Juno wasn't counting on two minds using the Eye at the same time. Desmond and Clay end up together in the Grey, but the bonus of it all is that there is still a way out, though they need to bide their time. As Elijah gains control of the Koh-i-Noor and removes Juno from the equation, the way for them through the Grey to the right temple is clear, and through the Fountain of Youth technology, they manage to recreate their bodies and return to the living.

an early retirement isn't quite in the horizon for them, though, as they unite with Elijah and need to figure out how to raise a kid while continuing to destroy pieces of eden and remaining temples.