Brotherhood

1: Vilified

1500 - Monteriggioni

Ezio and Rachele had been married for twenty-three years now, living peacefully in the Auditore Villa. As the two lay together one January morning, the cannons at the front of the town fired suddenly. Rachele sat up, worried. Ezio's hand rested on her shoulder. "It's target practice, sweetheart. Don't worry." she lay back down, when a cannonball smashed through the bedroom window and into the beams holding the room up, causing the ceiling to collapse! The two dived out of the bed, and Ezio donned casual clothing, pulling the hidden blade across from the table and attached it to his arm, with Rachele taking the other one and puttting it on her right arm.

"I have a plan. We get the townspeople out and then meet back here to get our families out. Well, your family." Rachele ran through the door into the main hall to join up with Mario's mercenaries. Ezio climbed out of the newly exposed window and ran along the tiled rooftop, overseeing the ruined town. Who was behind this? Andreotto was dead, there was no way he could've done this. Could he? Then again, following the Creed... Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

Another cannonball forced Ezio to blindly leap off the roof, landing beside his uncle Mario.

"Uncle!" Ezio shouted.

"Ezio! I spoke to Rachele about the evacuation, it's already underway." said Mario.

"Okay, I'll go assist the guards at the gate. Wait, what of Claudia and mother?" he asked.

"They're safe, and waiting in the sanctuary!"

"Who's behind this?"

"It's the Borgia!"

"WHAT? How did we not see this coming?"

"They must've massed in the east last night, over darkness. I have the Apple! Insieme per la vittoria!" Mario grasped his nephew's shoulders.

"Insieme!" Ezio turned and sprinted towards the training yard, springboarding off of the walls and onto a horse.

He galloped through the town, dodging the fleeing townspeople. He had to steel his heart to not help them. A woman ran panicked around the square, calling for her children, a child sat crying under a tree, a teenaged girl was being drowned by the Borgia troops... this wasn't a battle, this was a massacre. And if Rodrigo Borgia wanted war, it was a war he was getting. Another cannonball made a nearby wall collapse, smashing the horse's head with it. Ezio instinctively leapt off the horse and onto the building nearby.

He climbed up to the battlements, approaching the cannons. One of the soldiers turned to him.

"SIGNOR AUDITORE, THANK GOD!" the man shouted.

"Load the cannon." Ezio commanded. Ezio took aim, and fired it at an approaching seige tower, sending it crashing to the ground. The man loaded the cannon again, and Ezio fired at a row of other cannons, destroying each. Ezio turned to tell the man to load again, but then noticed that his head had been impaled with an arrow. Another man turned to Ezio, pointing at the other side of the walls: Borgia troops had gotten onto the walls! Ezio turned and rushed through the battlements, locking into combat with a group of guards. A short while later, Ezio was finished, but the main gates had been blown open. Ezio leapt off the walls and tumbled onto the rooftops.

Mario stumbled through the dust and flames. He collapsed at the attackers' feet. Some of the Borgia arquebusiers took aim at him, as the attacker shouted up. "I know you're there, Ezio! The Pope told me about you and your little group of assassins... and this!" he held up the Apple. There was no point attacking now. "Give me the gun his friend fashioned for us. We've had too much bloodshed. I think a cleansing is in order. So, consider this an invitation from my family... to yours!" he laughed as he took aim with the pistol and shot Mario in the back of the head with it. Ezio screamed in pain, as the arquebusiers fired at him, sending him to the street.

Rachele stood hidden in shadows near him. The Borgia attackers had left, but some of the troops were pillaging the village. She was pressed against the wall, shivering in fear.