#kingbob

As a general rule, Desmond tries not to use the Apple unless it's one-hundred-thousand-percent absolutely necessary, and even then he'll still hesitate.

For a lot of reasons, the least of them being him having a thousand years or so of memories of what happens to people who abuse Isu artifacts. Besides, nothing puts a target on his back like the kind of spectacle the Apple creates, and he wouldn't put it past the Templars to have some kind of satellite or something up there that can read the energy surges that come from the Apple.

So. Yeah, it's gotta be life-or-death, minimum for him to whip it out, which means his timeline to explain a lot of things to Delsin gets bumped from never to right the fuck now the moment he lowers the Apple, the glowing lines on his body fade, and the DUP goons all collapse at once like puppets cut from their strings.

Delsin stares at him, mouth hanging open, blood still dripping from the corner of his lip from where a chunk of concrete caught him in the face, with an echoing crack that was going to haunt Desmond's nightmares, as well as that long, terrible moment of stillness when Delsin had fallen and hadn't surged right back up, when Desmond had been positive he was fucking dead.

But Delsin's alive, and even though this isn't how he wanted the truth come out, he can't regret it, not when it means Delsin's alive.

Desmond feels like he's lost a few years of his life from fear in the last few seconds, but Delsin's probable concussion seems to be the last thing on his mind when he pushes himself up, even though he sways.

Desmond's already stepping forward, worried, arm outstretched--but Delsin catches himself before Desmond can take more than a single step, rocking back on a heel before he plants himself more firmly and seems to visibly shake off a blow that would have killed most people.

He looks at Desmond and scowls so mightily Desmond draws up short, freezing with dread because fuck, this is why he hadn't wanted his secret to come out, he was a freak and now Delsin knew it--

"You're a Conduit!" Delsin accused, pointing at Desmond with outrage. "And you didn't tell me?! What the fuck, Desmond!"

"Wha--" Desmond was speechless for a moment. "I--I'm not a Conduit, Delsin!"

"What the fuck was that, then?!"

Alien technology, kind of, Desmond doesn't say because just imagining the fallout of that statement is giving him a headache.

Instead, he says, "That's--different," and winces at how woefully inadequate that is.

"Desmond." Delsin marches to him and Desmond barely resists the urge to run away, especially when Delsin drops heavy, firm hands on his shoulders and holds him in place. "You just shot--lasers or some shit. You were glowing."

"Okay, it wasn't lasers, first of all," Desmond interrupted, scowling. "It was more like--mind control, really. With light beams?" Fuck, he's bad at this.

"Conduits can be psychic," Delsin says slowly, like Desmond's the stupidest person he's ever met. "I know you know this." Delsin's frown is a match to Desmond's own, frustrated that the other person isn't understanding what should be obvious. "Why are you being so weird about this?"

Desmond groans and rubs his face tiredly. He doesn't know why he didn't see this coming; of course, to an outsider, Isu bullshit would look a lot like having powers...which, he did have, technically.

But this was different.

"Look, this is like--genetic--"

"Conduit powers are genetic--"

"No, I mean like, it's in my family--"

"Do you not understand what genetic means?"

"No! Listen to me! I can't do this shit without the Apple!"

"Plenty of Conduits use tools to help focus their powers."

"This isn't--"

"So you're telling me if you gave this Apple thing to someone else, they could do what you just did?"

"Well, no, not anyone--"

"Just people with these special genetics, right?" Delsin's staring down at him with an exaggeratedly mild expression. "Like a Conduit?"

"Oh my fucking god, you're so stubborn--"

"Look who's talking!" Delsin shook him. "You're a Conduit, idiot!"

Desmond groans again, louder, and his head falls back. Only Delsin's grip on him keeps him from falling back.

"Just--come back with me, okay? Rebecca and Shaun can explain it better than me."

"Good idea," Delsin says gamely. He sweeps Desmond up in his arms, because he doesn't believe in asking permission or personal space. "I think an intervention sounds perfect."

and then they get to their base and shaun and rebecca explain the isu shit but because they're nerds at heart, having the similarities between conduits and isu genes compared devolves into a circling conversation of exchanging theories and they can't exactly say delsin's totally wrong and desmond finds a corner to bang his head until delsin pulls him away, smugly bragging that he was right and then spirits him away for a more practical demonstration because now that he knows desmond has powers they've GOT to take them out on the town and they make out the end <3