Editing Desmond Miles (section)

===Arrival at the Grand Temple===

:'''William''': "''The Temple triggered a bleeding effect. You collapsed and entered into a fugue state.''"
:'''Desmond''': "''So naturally you dropped me into the Animus instead of... I don't know... making sure I was okay?''"
:—William and Desmond arguing after Desmond was put in the Animus.

Desmond, William, Shaun and Rebecca soon arrived at the Grand Temple, where Desmond used the Apple of Eden to unlock the entrance. However, on doing so, the Temple activated the Bleeding Effect within Desmond, which showed him that a key was required to unlock its inner chambers. Due to the event causing Desmond's mind to enter a brief fugue state, he was placed back into the Animus by the Assassin team.

Upon reliving the memories of Haytham Kenway, an 18th-century Templar who once had possession of the key, Desmond learned that ultimately, Haytham's illegitimate son Ratonhnhaké:ton would come into possession of it. Desmond then began to search through his memories in order to find the artifact. Desmond occasionally left the Animus to explore the chambers of the Temple, where he often came across Juno as he had done in the Colosseum Vault. She explained to him the details of the six methods that the First Civilization had tried to use in order to save the world from the previous apocalypse, as well as continuing to urge him towards finding the key.

However, Desmond's experiences in the Animus were interrupted when it was revealed that the Temple's power sources were running low, and that they needed to be replaced. Thanks to Shaun tracking some down, the first power source was found in Manhattan. Desmond journeyed there to carry out his first proper mission as an Assassin, in which he climbed a skyscraper and parachuted from a crane to another building, where the power source was located. Whilst there, he encountered the Templar operative Daniel Cross, whom he disarmed and then knocked out in order to escape.

After further exploring the Temple, Desmond came to realize that whatever was waiting for the Assassins beyond the door would ultimately benefit Juno in some way, though as Desmond was unsure how it would do so, he warned the others to "play it safe". Desmond also revealed to the others that when Juno appeared to him in the Colosseum Vault, he was shown a vision that showed that should Lucy have been kept alive, she would have taken the Apple of Eden to Abstergo for utilization in the Eye-Abstergo satellite, though it would ultimately fail. Because of this, Desmond came to terms with the fact that he was not forced to kill Lucy, but he instead did it to stop the Templars from gaining the upper hand.

Some time later, Shaun discovered a second power source that was in the possession of a wealthy woman who was set to attend a martial arts tournament in São Paulo, Brazil. After arriving at the stadium and sneaking across through the rafters, Desmond arrived at the room the woman was staying in, only to find Daniel Cross once more. After Daniel shot the woman and her husband, he attempted to flee with the power source. However, Desmond managed to catch up to him, eventually besting him in hand-to-hand combat and incapacitating him once more.

With the power source in hand, Desmond fled from the Abstergo agents pursuing him, and escaped the stadium by boarding a train. He and his team subsequently left Brazil on board the ''Altaïr II'', and returned to the Grand Temple. Soon after the team's return to the Temple, Shaun located a third power source in a museum in Cairo, Egypt. However, as the team's deadline of 21 December was rapidly approaching, and Desmond had yet to locate the key to the Temple door, William went to retrieve the artifact in Desmond's stead.