...so, uh. This is a first for me. Assassin's Creed. ^^; This is just one of those writings that I've pulled out my left ear, so to speak, but I figured I'd toss it up here anyway. Enjoy~
Summary: Ezio never knew the truth about his father until it was too late. Looking back, however, he realizes that the truth was in front of him all along.
Secrets
By Flikfreak
All this time, the signs had been right in front of him...and Ezio had never noticed. To that very day, he was cursing himself for being so unobservant. Perhaps, if he had looked just a little bit closer...if he had paid just a little bit more attention...he probably would have found out for himself. He would have found out the truth about his father before it was too late.
For his whole life, Ezio thought that his father was just a banker. In spite of his father being seemingly normal, there were several oddities about him that always made him suspicious, even if later he brushed them off, thinking everyone had their own strange quirks. The way Giovanni spoke about chess strategy was unlike what he'd hear from anyone else; he was far more passionate about it, for lack of better words. Then there were many nights that Ezio's father simply failed to arrive to dinner for one reason or another. Whenever Ezio asked, the man would calmly mention something about his work and get right back to reminding Ezio that he needed to hurry up and deliver some packages for him or fetch Petruccio's medicine from the doctor.
Possibly the only thing stranger than Giovanni's mysterious disappearances were his more mysterious appearances. At times he seemed to show up out of nowhere, just in time to tell Ezio something or catch his attention. Most notably was the time when Ezio had just been defeated in a game of chess against his brother; Giovanni announced his arrival with a valuable piece of advice for his son:
"Don't wait for your opponent to move. Anticipate...and surprise them."
Thinking back, Ezio never noticed how much it seemed that his father was speaking from experience...and not necessarily one involving a board game.
Another of the signs that Ezio knew he should have noticed was that his father just seemed to know absolutely anything that he would have tried to hide. Many other children claimed that all parents had eyes on the backs of their heads, but Ezio disagreed. Any other parent would wonder where he had been all night, but Giovanni knew the specifics, right down to the very last detail. Either Federico had been a tattle-tale, or something else was going on. Of course, there were also the times when Ezio had been out on his own, without even telling Federico, and his father still knew exactly what had happened.
But perhaps the biggest signal he could have ever been given was the night his father had to leave for Roma. Ezio remembered it well; his father had been acting very strange as of late, and he intended to find out more by hiding behind a haystack and spying. Admittedly, he wasn't exactly hiding very well, but he still managed to confront his father, asking him why it was so necessary to leave at such a late hour.
"Business calls, son."
"Let me come with you."
Giovanni shook his head firmly. "...no."
"Why not?" Ezio had asked, intent on going along. After all, his father was only a banker. Just how difficult or dangerous could the work be?
"I need you to assisst your brother. Take care of the family while I am away."
Ezio failed to see the importance of Giovanni's request. "I want to help you, father."
"You're helping more than you know, Ezio. More than you know." With that, Giovanni had smiled and walked away, not even leaving Ezio with a hint that that night could have very easily been the last that he had seen him.
As Ezio pushed open the door to his house one night, some time after the event, he remembered the last possible hint he would have ever received about his father's secret. He had been sent to deliver some packages, as well as fetch a letter. Standard chores for him, but accompanied by strange words.
"Come back here when you are done. There are some things we need to discuss."
At first, the young Auditore was afraid that he was in trouble again – perhaps for letting Petruccio get away with sneaking out of bed that day – but luckily his father didn't seem angry, so it couldn't have possibly been a lecture. Unfortunately for Ezio, he would never know precisely what his father wanted to talk about. The conversation would never happen; his family would be torn apart and gone by the time he got back from his errands. If he had returned sooner, rather than dilly-dallying around, would Ezio have had the chance to listen? Would he have been captured as well? Would they have been able to fight off the guards, rather than being captured?
Though Ezio knew not to pry into his father's affairs, later he wondered just what was in those packages...and why he would send them to those people, of all the people in Firenze. There was worry that he was being followed, and a warning...but before he could make sense of it, everything happened, just like that. The ransacking of his house, the kidnapping of over half his family.
All of these thoughts, previously buried, had come flooding back to him as the hidden doorway in his home slid open, revealing a hidden room. Ezio ducked his way in, almost afraid to open the chest...where he found the one thing that would confirm his newly-resurrected suspicions.
White robes. They were same ones that he had seen only once or twice before; worn a figure observing him from far away, either from the rooftops, atop a tower, or in a crowd, but always gone in the blink of an eye. The moment Ezio saw the robes...this close, and in his father's chest of all places...something about his suspicions seemed to click, but now he was even more lost than before. Why would a banker be hiding something like this?
Only later did Ezio learn: his father was hardly just a banker. He was an assassin.
And now, so was he.