FF – Assassin's Creed

The Time Machine

Warnings: Waterlogged plot. ACII time frame.
Characters : Leonardo da Vinci(-centric), Malik Al-Sayf, mentions of Altaïr and Ezio
Summary : Written for The Great Classics Challenge – prompt "The Time Machine." The Codex pages hold another secret. In it, bleeds the influence of the Apple, and it is a secret that only Leonardo knows.

A/N: A Leonardo-Meets-Malik story is something I think practically every AC fans wants, but it's like that toy at the store that you really wanted as a child, but didn't know how to tell your parents that you want it without them looking at you funny. Or something. Or, as far as I'm concerned, I haven't seen one yet. So here's one, and to many more to come!

When Leonardo is given a Codex page to decipher for the first time, he thinks that it is a remarkable honour that any man could be given, because it is not unlike being able to take a glimpse into the private life of a great man who has lived centuries ago.

He also thinks that it would be a brilliant experience to be able to meet someone from the past, because he has many questions, about memories that have been lost and confiscated by Time.

Leonardo is flabbergasted when he sees Malik. He doesn't know how he knows the man's name, because he just does, nor does he know how he has come to find himself standing on the rooftop of the keep in Masyaf.

It is a short meeting, barely enough time for him to even acknowledge being there, because the shock of it is all too much that it jolts him awake.

He tells himself that he was dreaming, because obviously, he was. He had opened his eyes to the Italian morning light streaming into his studio, and he was lying in his own bed, exactly where he had gone to retire the previous night, so it just wasn't possible that he could have been anywhere but home.

It definitely did not matter that he had smelt the faint Middle Eastern incense in the warm air, or that he had felt the scorching heat of the desert sun against his skin. Leonardo was a man of science, so it didn't matter how realistic dreams could be, because they most certainly weren't reality.

He does, however, make sketches of his glimpse of Masyaf.

The second time Leonardo decodes a Codex page, he dreams of Masyaf again the same night.

This time, however, Malik catches sight of him, flinging a throwing dagger at him. The blade didn't seek to kill, but it did make a swift cut across his arm.

It shocks him, and he immediately raises his arms in surrender, pleading rapidly on instinct that he wasn't an enemy, but a friend of the Assassins. At least, within reason, anyway.

Malik frowns at him, shaking his head and drawing his sword. He tells Leonardo that he doesn't understand his language, but demands to know who he is and how he managed to find his way into the Assassins' headquarters. Leonardo doesn't have a chance to string together coherent lines of Arabic before the sting of the cut on his arm pulls him away from that reality.

Leonardo is awake again in his own studio, but when he sits up and notices the wet patch of scarlet blood on his sleeve, he realises it wasn't exactly as simple as a dream.

He solves the mystery of his strange visit by the third Codex page he decodes. Altaïr makes mention of The Apple of Eden, and its strange, erratic powers.

He sleeps that night, dreaming of Masyaf again.

Once formalities, explanations and blades have been put away, it's almost amusing how quickly Malik and him become friends. For starters, Malik accepts his account of travelling from the future with surprising ease, only explaining he doesn't think it's impossible. Leonardo has read in the Codex that Altaïr worked closely with Malik, and supposes that he knew about the artifact as well.

They make an agreement not to relate anything they talk about to anyone else, because it could be potentially catastrophic.

Malik, like him, is an intellectual and a scholar. They talk about stars and constellations and how best to map curves to the most accurate precisions and the purpose of deliberate cartographic errors. They talk about Muhammad al-Idrisi and the Atlas he wrote, and they remark on philosophy and religion.

It always takes dawn in Syria to remind Leonardo that he has to wake up and return to Italy.

Every now and then, he feels guilty about his adventures when Ezio hands him Codex pages, and Leonardo briefly considers telling him about it on occasion, but he never does.

Sometimes, they talk about history and the world, and other times they gossip like lower noblewomen about Altaïr and Ezio, and it's satisfying for both of them to have someone that empathises with their worries without judgement. Those moments are brief, but comforting.

His days in Masyaf dwindle quickly. Each page of the Codex brings to him an opportunity to visit the past, but it also signifies the looming, final chapter of his visits.

The last page of the Codex he decodes, he does it with both dismay and reluctant acceptance.

The last time Leonardo meets Malik, they bid each other an eternal goodbye.

The last time Leonardo returns from Masyaf to awake in Italy, he paints a final portrait of it, and hides it away forever.