This is part three of a trilogy, and so I strongly recommend reading Learning to Soar and Free Falling before this, as this starts up right where Free Falling left off.

Also: This fic continues to pretend Unity and Rogue don't exist yet, so no spoilers.

-/-

Haytham Kenway had been ten years old when his father was murdered in front of him.

It had been the most horrible experience of his life (until that moment). It had torn him to pieces inside, and nearly destroyed him for good. If not for something that had happened when he was fifteen, Haytham would have gone on to live a life as empty and alone as it had been in those first few years after his father's death.

He'd gotten lucky, when his wings had grown in, and luckier still when he'd met the people who would become his family. There had only been four of them, then- Haytham himself, Altair, Ezio, and-

And Edward.

He wasn't Haytham's father, technically. He was an Edward Kenway from some other timeline, a different man but a familiar one. He'd been something like a mix of elder brother and closest friend, and Haytham had always been grateful for what was basically a second chance to know the man.

Losing him the second time- watching soldiers cut him to pieces because they'd seen his wings and decided he must be a monster- had been worse than the first. And being blamed for Edward's death had only served to make the whole thing even more of a nightmare. It had taken years to regain the trust that- through no fault of his own- he had lost that day.

It had been unfair, and there had been days when Haytham had hated them all for how easily they had convinced themselves he was a traitor. There were times, in the months and years of solitude that followed, when Haytham had considered changing sides, to prove them right out of sheer stubbornness. But he was not by nature a petty man, and besides- it seemed disrespectful to Edward's memory.

So much of Haytham's life has spun out of first his father's death, and then Edward's. He's only just gotten to a place in his life where he can feel happy again, that he has his family, a girlfriend, a purpose. And now there is a man in front of him- although 'man' may not be the right word, Haytham decides, as he looks right through the man's semitransparent body- wearing Edward's face, looking at him with an expression so achingly familiar it makes Haytham's stomach clench. Because this isn't possible. He refuses to do as much as hope that any of this is real. Not when it could be so easily snatched away a third time.

"No," he says, turning his back and striding away. "Whoever you are, whatever you need, I want nothing to do with it."

The man hesitates, then hurries after Haytham. He can hear the footsteps on the ground behind him, softer and lighter than they should be, and then there is a hand on his shoulder. "Haytham-"

For half a second, Haytham just stands there, as hot rage rolls over him. He does not move at all until his mind is full of the anger and nothing else. Then, when he can't keep still any longer, he pivots around on one foot, turning so the whole weight of his body is behind his fist as he slams it into the other man's face.

The phantom staggers back, body fading and flickering and almost vanishing entirely before he seems to gather himself, and he solidifies again. His face twists into an expression of hurt surprise, and he takes several steps backward.

"Don't," Haytham snarls. "Don't speak to me in his voice, don't stand there wearing his face, and don't come near me again. Not if you value your life." And again he turns to leave, because he does not want to see this, to be taunted by some spirit with Edward's face.

But the man does not leave, does not even hesitate to follow after him. Haytham tries to ignore him, but the man is persistent and Haytham turns around to face him, crossing his arms and glaring. He's not in the mood for this right now.

"What are you?" Haytham asks (demands). "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Who else would I be?" the man asks. He sounds genuinely confused. "Haytham, you know me."

"No," Haytham said. "You look like a man I once knew. That's the only possible explanation. Anything else is… impossible."

"Says the man with wings."

Haytham glances over his shoulder, and flexes his wings almost guiltily. It's poor logic, to assume that just because one impossible thing is true, everything impossible must be as well. On the other hand… it's hard to resist believing in the thing he wants most in the world when it stands in front of him. He takes a deep breath. "Tell me then," he says, not looking at the other man. "If this… delusion of yours is true, how are you alive? Are you alive? And why did you never say anything to any of us?"

"I don't know," the man says. "I remember dying-" and Haytham catches the look of pain that's there and then gone across his face, like remembering an old wound. "It… there was a woman. I didn't know her, but she saved me."

"No," Haytham said. "I saw the body. You can't be alive."

"I saw it too," says the ghost. "I said she saved me, but to do that she had to change me, too. We're half bird already. She just finished the job. Sometimes I can sort of… project myself into a human shape, like this, but it's not easy and it doesn't last for long. It's taken years to get this much figured out, and then to find all of you again. I came just in time to see what happened to Desmond, and after that I was with him."

"Desmond's dead," Haytham protests.

"So am I," says the ghost, with exactly the kind of cocky smile Edward always wore, the one that was more a challenge than anything else. "You said so yourself."

Then the smile vanishes, and the ghost says, "I understand why you don't want to believe me. It's been a long time, and like you said, there was a body. But I swear I am who I say I am."

"You haven't actually said," Haytham manages, after a long pause. "Who are you?"

"You know already-"

"Say it out loud," Haytham insists. He needs to hear it from the man himself. Maybe then he'll believe, and he wants so badly to believe. "Tell me."

The spirit takes a deep breath, and speaks with a kind of slow seriousness. "My name is Edward James Kenway," he says. "In another life, I would have been your father, but in this one I am a dead man in the body of an eagle, and I need your help."

And it is this last part that shatters Haytham's denial into a thousand pieces. Because Edward has never asked for his help before, not for any favor no matter how small. It's always been the other way around, and Haytham knows there's zero chance he can turn the man away now, not if there's even the smallest possibility he is who he says he is.

From that moment, Haytham believes.

-/-

They sit and talk for a long time, and the longer they speak, the more convinced Haytham becomes that he has made the right choice. Every word Edward speaks, every movement he makes, only serves to bring back long forgotten memories of the man he had once known. He can think of no other explanation for his being here.

"Why did you say you need my help?" Haytham asks, when they have spoken for a while.

Edward sighs, and makes a nervous, unhappy gesture with one hand. "I told you," he says. "I'm not exactly human anymore. In a few minutes it's going to be too hard to keep this form, and then you'll see… you'll see exactly what I am now."

"An eagle," Haytham says. He'd been paying attention, earlier. "There must be worse ways to live."

"There are," Edward says. "Such as being dead, for example. I never said I wasn't grateful, but there are some things a bird just can't do."

"Such as?"

"The woman," Edward says. "The one who saved me and Desmond."

And Haytham hasn't even had time to think that Desmond is alive too. There's simply no more room in his mind for extra surprises right now. Later- he'll deal with Desmond's survival later.

Edward goes on. "Desmond told me that her name is Minerva. She's a precursor, and has an enemy who also happens to want to rule the world."

"Juno," Haytham says.

"So you know her," Edward says.

"Only by sight," Haytham says. "Not personally."

"We found her," Edward says. "A while ago, and followed her to… I don't know. Some lake, half an hour away or so. She went diving, and came back up with a little girl. I don't know exactly what happened, but it looked like a kidnapping. They drove back in a van, I flew too close, and the whole thing crashed."

Haytham stares at him, scarcely daring to believe. "The girl," he says. Minerva, reincarnated by Ezio and Shaun months ago and then lost again. From Edward's story, there's no one else she could be. "What happened to her?"

"I don't know," Edward says. "She ran- smart girl. Do you know her?"

"It's… complicated," Haytham says. "And a long story."

Edward makes a strained noise, and Haytham realizes suddenly how tired the other man looks, like he's been running for hours. "Then you'd better leave it for later," he says. "I don't have much time left, and I wanted to explain that what I needed your help with is Juno. She's a menace, and the woman needs to die. But it… it's not something I can do myself, anymore."

"Well," Haytham says, trying to sound casual. He can see the frustration on Edward's face, the disgust at his own inability to act as he wants. "That's a coincidence. We've been trying to do exactly that for most of the past year."

Edward nods, and forces a smile. "I probably should have guessed," he says, and jabs a thumb over his shoulder at the smashed van behind them. It's the same one Edward had forced into crashing, and Haytham had only come to the junkyard in the first place to track it down, and hopefully find clues that might lead to Juno. Then Edward's smile vanishes, and he lets out a sudden, sharp cry of pain. Haytham is on his feet in an instant, crossing the space between them in the space of a heartbeat. "Edward?"

But the man suddenly vanishes, as completely as if he had never been at all. Haytham stares at the untouched dirt ground where Edward had been sitting only moments ago, torn between incomprehension and despair. He stares for a painful, endless moment, until he hears an eagle screech behind him, and turns to see the bird swooping down so close to his face they almost collide. Haytham jerks back, and the eagle- Edward- swoops past him to land on the junkyard fence. And it's hard to read any expression on a bird's face, but Haytham could almost swear Edward is laughing at him.

He makes a noise of annoyance- which Edward completely ignores- and hops the fence. He has walked these streets before, many times, but until now he had never felt any hope that they would succeed in killing Juno. But today is different. The impossible is happening in front of his eyes. Edward and Desmond are alive, and they have news of Juno and Minerva.

His feet take him deeper into the city, where he can track down the others and share the miracle he's seen tonight. The eagle that is Edward follows him all the way, wings casting a reassuring shadow on the ground beside Haytham. And Haytham can't look up- he can't wander around the city staring at a bird like some kind of idiot- so he watches that shadow instead. His own wings are safely hidden again for the walk through the city but he feels them stir inside him, and although his feet are safely on the ground, he feels like the joy of what he's learned tonight is almost enough to make him fly.