Afterlife

part one

by Go-Go Spiders

Rating : PG-13

Warnings: Canon character deaths, violence

Federico flexed his hands bound behind his back, attempting to work them free from the ropes even as he knew it was useless. He'd been taught how to escape from ropes, but these were tied too tightly – the guards had been careful to make sure there was no chance that one of the Auditores could escape from the gallows.

As soon as Federico had seen the three nooses hanging from the gallows, he knew they had been betrayed by Uberto. This trial was all for show, a mere formality before he and his father Giovanni and youngest brother Petruccio were killed - a grand spectacle for the throngs of people gathered in the square crying out for blood.

"Giovanni Auditore, you and your accomplices stand accused of the crime of treason. Have you any evidence to counter this charge?" shouted Uberto, standing only a few feet away from him. So tantalizing close, if he only had a weapon, if only he could free himself...

Giovanni snarled, "Yes, the documents that were delivered to you last night!"

"I'm afraid I know nothing of these documents," Uberto said, projecting his voice over the noise of the crowd.

Far away, Federico heard a lone voice – it sounded like Ezio's but he couldn't be sure – cry out 'He's lying!', but it was swallowed up by the roar of the crowd assembled before the gallows. Federico's stomach lurched – if Ezio was here, if he was caught by the guards, he would join them on the gallows. Federico desperately didn't want his younger brother to die with them. He had failed to keep Petruccio and his father safe, he couldn't fail Ezio too. The night he'd spent sharing a cell with Petruccio, keeping watch over his youngest brother, he'd been thankful that at least not all of the Auditore family had been captured.

'Go, baby brother, while you still can. It's too late for us.'

"In the absence of any compelling evidence to the contrary, I am bound to pronounce you – guilty," proclaimed Uberto. "You and your collaborators are hereby sentenced to death."

Even though he'd been expecting it, an ice-cold chill still ran down Federico's spine.

On the other side of Giovanni, Petruccio hung his head, a sob escaping from him as his small body shook.

Federico glared at Uberto, hands still straining against the ropes. He wouldn't give Uberto and the man in black next to him the satisfaction of watching him break, or seeing how much the sobs of his youngest brother made Federico want to slip free from the ropes and strangle Uberto with his bare hands.

"You are a traitor, Uberto – and one of them!" Giovanni roared, his eyes blazing with fury. "You may take our lives this day, but we will have yours in return! I swear! We wil-"

Unmoved by Giovanni's threats, Uberto gestured to the guard behind them, who would throw the lever that would drop the scaffold the three of them were standing on. They would fall, and the nooses around their necks would tighten, either breaking their necks instantly or slowly choking them to death.

Federico heard the loud 'bang' of the wooden platform dropping as he felt his body plummet down, nothing beneath his feet but darkness.

The snap of his neck as the rope pulled taut was a very small mercy.

Federico knew he was dead.

Which was truly strange, because if he was dead, surely he wouldn't be able to think of anything? Unless by some quirk of fortune he'd managed to reach Paradise, in which case, Paradise smelled distressingly like the filth dumped into the river Arno.

Federico opened his eyes cautiously, not knowing what'd he'd see. Instead of the square where he'd died, he was standing on a rickety dock perched on the edge of the river at night, next to a hooded man in light grey-and-red robes. The man was utterly still, solemnly watching a small wooden boat engulfed in flames slowly glide across the calm waters.

The man was wearing his father's Assassin robes, Federico realized with a jolt, as the man yanked the hood down, revealing his face.

It was Ezio. He had managed to escape from the hanging alive and unscathed. Federico let out a sigh of relief.

Ezio tilted his head back to the night sky with a quiet breath, scrunching his eyes shut. Federico watched several tears run down his brother's cheeks as Ezio lowered his head again.

"Brother," said Federico, placing a hand on Ezio's shoulder. He could see through his own hand – faint and indistinct, only half there - to the robes underneath, and understood what had happened. With his body dead and gone, now he was only a spirit. But his hand rested solidly against Ezio's trembling shoulder instead of passing through him like vapor, and Federico could faintly feel the texture of the fabric underneath his fingers.

Ezio started slightly when Federico touched him, turning his head to where Federico's hand was, a look of confusion on his face.

Could Ezio feel him?

Federico gave him a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "I'm here, Ezio. You might not be able to see me, but I'm here."

Ezio's eyes suddenly flared gold, glowing slightly in the dark. He slowly looked up and to Federico's astonishment, met Federico's gaze. A thunderstruck look passed over Ezio's face that made him appear impossibly young, his eyes widening in stunned recognition.

Ezio could see him.

In an instant, Ezio grabbed Federico like a drowning man laboring to keep his head above water and wrapped his arms tightly around his older brother's ghost as if he was afraid Federico would vanish at any moment. With a gut-wrenching sound that was halfway between a laugh and a choked sob, Ezio's stoic facade crumbled. He pressed his face against Federico's translucent shoulder and finally allowed himself the tears he'd been struggling to hold back.

Ezio's tears felt hot where they fell against Federico's doublet. Federico pressed his cheek against the top of Ezio's head, encircling his arms protectively around his younger brother.

It was a small comfort in spite of everything that'd happened, but it was all he could do now.

When Ezio pulled away from him, the golden glow in his eyes, the mark of his second sight, was gone. "Federico, I-I don't understand. What's happened to you?"

Federico looked down at his own ethereal form. That was a very good question. He was still wearing the dark-red doublet he'd died in, although when he touched his neck he only felt smooth skin, not the ligature marks the noose would've left on his body. "I'm not sure I understand it myself, Ezio." Federico glanced back at the burning boat on the river – a makeshift funeral pyre for him, Giovanni and Petruccio, meant to carry them on to their final destination. There was no sign of his father or youngest brother's ghosts around, and he knew, unsure exactly how, that they had both left this world entirely. Even his father, snarling at Uberto with his last breath, had passed on to whatever awaited him next.

But Federico had somehow stayed behind. He felt no pull guiding him away from Firenze, saw no heavenly light (or fires of Hell), heard no angelic choir welcome him (or the cries of the damned), nothing.

"Perhaps neither Paradise or the Inferno wanted to deal with me," said Federico. Turning back to Ezio, he gave him a dry grin. "Ah, well. Their loss."

He was glad to hear a chuckle come from his brother. "You always did have to be the stubborn one," said Ezio with a small smile, wiping at his bloodshot eyes with the back of his hand.

Federco smirked. "Stubborn? Me? Obviously you haven't looked in a mirror recently, brother."

Ezio's grin widened, becoming a little less melancholy. He looked slightly more at ease than he had a few short minutes ago.

And it was then that Federico realized why he hadn't moved on. Ezio still needed him, and Federico still wanted to protect his brother. And as long as his younger brother needed him, no force in Heaven or Hell could drag him away.

Federico placed both his hands on Ezio's shoulders. "I will stay with you, Ezio. For as long as I'm able to. We will avenge the deaths of the Auditores."

Ezio nodded. "And we'll do it together."

This was intended just to be a stand-alone, but I wrote more for it. c: