#abbas would think desmond is rauf reincarnated like him

[teecupangel]

I have an idea, probably for one of your next Yew Branches idea. Considering Abbas Sofian's dying wish and I quote: "I hope there is another life after this one. Then I will see him, and know the truth of his final days..."

For this idea, it follows the usual Alt/Des relationship (Or simply Alt&Des platonic relationship). Desmond and Abbas relationship is completely platonic.

This time, Desmond reincarnates as Rauf. The name's meaning is huge giveaway. Desmond!Rauf didn't broke his leg due to his failed leap of faith (not the leap during templar attack). Since he's an instructor, he's either same age or older than Altair.

The main plot is the usual Desmond reincarnation. But this time, Abbas reincarnated as himself.

Some plot points to be considered: - When Abbas used the apple (in the original timeline), somehow it does something with his reincarnation. In gameplay, the Apple drains Abbas of his life. Might as well suck part of his soul.

-Al Mualim is actually the one manipulating Abbas to dislike Altair. This is actually one of Al Mualim's contingency plans should Altair turns his blade on him. Along the story, young Abbas saw how Al Mualim tried to manipulate him, and he was horrified how wrong he was about his "past life" mentor.

-Due to reincarnation, Rauf!Desmond, Abbas learns faster of being an Assassin. Thanks to that, Altair, Rauf, and Abbas became Assassin at the same time, and at a very young age. This actually intrigues Desmond since he know Abbas became an assassin later than Altair.

-Umar Ibn-La'Ahad and Ahmad Sofian actually survived this time. Due to Rauf!Desmond gave Umar an early warning, he didn't F up on his mission.

-However, the same cannot be said for Adha when Desmond gave Altair an early warning. Adha dies, no matter what, her death turned Altair bitter towards the creed after his mission for the Chalice.

(I was thinking about Chalice of Eden plot, that contains a soul of Isu peacekeeper like Shroud of Eden, but that's too much of a stretch.)

-Abbas was planning to give the warning first but Desmond beat him to it. Thus, Abbas grew suspicious of why "Rauf" knows what will happen to Umar. There are also points when he saw Rauf do things better than Altair, and how he actually didn't break his leg doing leap of faith.

-Knowing that Abbas is a reincarnation of himself, Desmond explains who he truly was (down to what happened in the future and how he experience Altair memories). Until how the Apple reincarnate them both. -Desmond taught Abbas Eagle Vision for the sake of his silence. Ironically, it's more advanced than what Altair have (Altair early EV can only be done by standing still, while Abbas EV will be done while walking). Abbas brags this a lot. Later on, Altair manages to learn more advanced EV (tracking enemy pathing) faster than Abbas could.

- Desmond actually taught Kadar better, thus he survived the battle in Solomon Temple.

This would be an interesting plot line and we can even add the following:

Rauf never had a limp in canon, I think? He was one of the three Assassins to take a leap in the ‘prologue’ of AC1 and he stayed behind to help the Assassin who broke his leg, telling Altaïr to go ahead so it would be strange if he had a limp before the leap. So, in this scenario, perhaps Desmond as Rauf could have trained the Assassin who was going to break his leg and that scene wouldn’t happen as all three of them would do their leap of faith correctly.

Speaking of Desmond’s age, Rauf’s age was never revealed but, yeah, I do think he’s around Altaïr’s age as well as the novel does state that Altaïr and Abbas had a different trainer during their training days. I am kinda tempted to make him perhaps half a decade older than Altaïr just so his warning to Umar would be more believable because getting warned by a kid would make Umar be suspicious of Desmond. Then again, Umar being suspicious of Desmond would be fun but also super dangerous since Umar is loyal to Al Mualim so he would definitely report it to Al Mualim… unless he believes that he should find out more information before reporting anything.

And, if you want Ahmad to survive but don’t want to give away the twist that Abbas had been reborn as well, in this scenario, why not Abbas be the one to warn his father while Desmond warns Umar? This way, both of them believed that Umar and Ahmad survived because of them and not because someone also gave a different warning.

Once Abbas finds out Rauf isn’t Rauf, I believe his first idea would be that Rauf had been reincarnated like him. I don’t see Desmond admitting the truth to Abbas, because, as far as Desmond is concerned, Abbas is the one who made it his life duty to destroy Altaïr’s life. Even if Abbas tells him that he knows Al Mualim is trying to manipulate him into hating Altaïr for some reason, Desmond would see him as who he was before, not who he could be. Plus, if Desmond was ever going to confess to anyone the truth of his existence, it would be to Altaïr first (even if this isn’t AltDes, it would be to Altaïr first)

Abbas is trying to make amends (and perhaps protect his father). Desmond will make him work for it because he has a lot of blood on his hands that Desmond cares about (and he’s also protective of Altaïr because of this).

So… what would probably happen is that Desmond won’t necessarily help Abbas be better. It’s just that Abbas already has the advantage of having all of his 60+ worth of experience in his current body so Masyaf would know them to be rivals.

If anything, Desmond would be peeved that Abbas would be considered one of the most promising novices of their batch and that would push him to push Altaïr into showing that he was better than Abbas.

Altaïr would be curious as to why Desmond is just so annoyed by Abbas when he’s normally chill with everybody else but a private tutoring session with Desmond means he could spend more time with him so he’s game.

So, in this scenario, Abbas is also still an asshole but he’s trying not to be. It just comes more naturally to him because of who he was in his previous life. Altaïr just ignores him and it’s Desmond who takes on the mantle of AC1!Altaïr’s annoyance and growling without even realizing it.

It would be funny if Kadar begins to hero-worship Desmond instead because he’s the one who shows the most promise (all because he’s trying to keep Abbas down) while Malik and Altaïr start to bond over Kadar’s hero-worshiping.

Speaking of Adha, they never did say that the ‘Chalice’ was a POE. The Chalice was Adha because she had information that could turn unite the factions and turn the tides of war. My headcanon is that Adha is considered the Chalice because her blood could activate some kind of Isu location or artifact, like she’s a descendant of a specific Isu that had a POE or something, since chalices are usually used to symbolize the whole ‘cup of blood’ thing. That was part of the premise of my idea of a Yew Branch of Desmond being Adha after all, hahahaha.