"Ah, no. Not exactly." Desmond hesitated, trying to figure out when exactly during Ezio's life this was. Because if he'd already come across the Apple, that would make things much, much easier. "This was an... unexpected trip."

"I see," Ezio said. He slowly rose from his crouch. "It is clear you are not from here." He eyed their strange clothes.

"That is very true." Desmond shrugged, watching Ezio. It was a bit odd to actually see him in the flesh. "My name is Desmond."

He looked at them for a moment.

"Ezio Auditore da Firenze," he said. "And your comrades?"

"Harper and Shea." He indicated each girl. "I apologize if we bothered you. Hopefully we won't be here for too long."

"I was not bothered," Ezio replied, glancing at all three of them before looking at Desmond again. "However, it is not particularly safe for a group to be out and about at night; there are Templar eyes everywhere, it seems." He paused for a moment. "Although to be frank, I was not aware that there were enough of us left to form groups. Where did you say you came from?"

"That is a long story I'd rather not have in the open. We were just finding a place to settle in for the night." Desmond nodded back at the building he'd been inspecting. It was fine for them to use for at least the one night, after all.

Ezio studied them for a moment.

"It would be poor manners to leave Brothers out in the open," he said finally. "I have a safe place you can stay for the night, if you wish."

"That would be much appreciated. Our thanks." Desmond smiled a bit and looked at the girls.

"Alright, we're staying with him for the night, don't freak out and we'll be fine."

"Des, what's going on?" Shea asked cautiously. She glanced at the other Assassin and back.

"This is Ezio, so now you two have finally met him." Desmond grinned briefly. "He's taking pity on us and we're heading back to his hideout for the night."

"Well that's better than throwing knives at us," Harper muttered.

"He does want an explanation, though, so I'll have to figure out if he's had an encounter with the Apple yet."

"We'll follow you, then," Shea said. "You're our best bet of making it out of here without getting shivved, Des."

Ezio just waited for them to finish, watching them with a raised eyebrow.

Desmond nodded. "Yeah. Just try to stay quiet and we'll be fine." He turned back to Ezio. "We're ready to go whenever you are."

Ezio nodded.

"Follow me," he said, jumping to the next rooftop.

Desmond followed his lead, though he knew exactly where they were going, and he made sure the girls were keeping up. When they did get to the hideout, he let Ezio show them the way inside, and he landed inside easily, glancing around the familiar surroundings.

Harper looked around as she landed, moving out of the way. It was nice enough, especially considering the time period.

Ezio noticed how easily Desmond moved, and how familiar the young man's mannerisms were. Watching Desmond had the surreal quality of looking in a mirror, and it made Ezio the slightest bit uneasy.

"There should be plenty of space to accommodate you and your comrades for the night," he said to Desmond.

Shea just looked around when she got there, automatically making note of all escape routes before really taking in the details.

"Thank you again. This is much better than the other building." Desmond shot Ezio a quick little grin. "I have a kind of odd question for you, but I swear this will make sense soon. Have you had any contact yet with something called the Apple of Eden?"

Ezio's gaze sharpened and he shifted his weight a little.

"You know of it?" he asked carefully.

"I do. That makes things much easier." Desmond smiled a bit and snagged the bag with the Piece in it from Harper, who grumbled a bit but let him. "We're not exactly here voluntarily. There are many Pieces of Eden, not just the Apple. It was the doing of one such object that brought us here."

Ezio raised an eyebrow.

"There are others?" he asked. "I've never heard of them."

"Many of them are still scattered all over the world," Desmond said. "Altair Ibn la'Ahad made a map of the ones he knew about."

Ezio's eyes went a bit wide at that.

"How are you so certain?" he asked. "He died a long time ago."

"Because that's information that we have where I come from," Desmond said. And, really, it was more like when he came from, but he wasn't going to drop that bomb on Ezio tonight. "He wrote everything down for future generations to know."

"Such information has been lost," Ezio replied, watching him. "Others have searched, and not found anything."

Desmond just nodded. "The same cannot be said of everywhere," he told Ezio. "But for now, suffice it to say that not all his knowledge was lost. We were searching for this Piece of Eden, and it decided to bring us here. Why, I don't know yet."