Song: How to Save a Live by The Fray

Ezio clashed swords with the seeker once more, glaring at him as the sounds of fighting raged on behind him, then a scream! And he barely had time to look back to see his recruit fall, and the guard impale her in the stomach with his dagger! Earning another raw scream. Ezio grit his teeth, and pushed the seeker off before impaling him, then swinging around to slice the last one's throat.

Then Ezio spent no time running straight for his recruit. He crouched down beside her as she looker up dully with unfocused green-blue eyes. The ends over her blonde hair being stained by her own blood pooling around her. Her voice feeble and almost too faint for him to hear. "I've failed you... Meastro..."

Ezio shallowed hard, then shook his head, "No, you haven't. Please, stay with me! I'll get you back and they could help you! You'll be alright-!" He was stopped by one of her scarlet stained hands finding his forearm as she found the strength to focus her gaze enough to glare at him.

"No..." She told him. "I know when I'm finished..." She laid her head back as she let a pained sigh escape past her crimson stained lips. Then she whispered, "Please... Let my family know what has happened to me... And that... I love them..."

"Please, Annette!" Ezio found himself pleading, holding onto the hand which still clung to his arm. "I'll find you help! You've got to hang in there!"

Her eyes shut a little tighter as a silvery tear stroked out and streaked down her cheek and into the curls of her hair. "I-I'm sorry... Ezio..." Then her grip tightened before loosened on his sleeve, and her hand slipped down to land ever so delicately to her chest. And all of her went limp at once! Ezio took hold of the hand, feeling it grow cold. She was gone.

With a heavy heart, He touched her cheek, her eyes already closed. "Requiescast in pace, amico mio." Then he scooped her up and walked back to the hideout. Suddenly just wanting to hide away for a long while. And he murmered with sorrow, "I'm sorry that I couldn't save you."

He found himself standing out at the front door of a house, and he took a breath before knocking on the door. The recent death of one of his first and most loyal, trusted recruit still clutching onto him. Even though Machiavelli had asked if Ezio needed time off, he had refused, believing now that he didn't deserve or need it.

A woman answered, and she looked all too painfully similar to Annette. Her green-blue eyes full of curiousity. "Hello?"

Ezio nodded, keeping his hood down just so it hid away his look of greif. "Buongiorno, Signora." He then held out a long chain link necklace, the pendant a stained glass rose. "I'm sorry to inform you that your daughter, Annette, has been killed."

The woman put her hand on her lips, eyes filling with tears as she stared at the pendant. "How-? Please, come in, Messer. I must know what happened."

Ezio nodded, letting her take the necklace from his hand before following her inside. Though she gestured for him to take a seat, he refused. "Annette was killed by guard, and her final request was for me to inform you of it."

"Dios mio," The woman breathed before more tears escaped. "My pour baby! She's gone!"

Ezio was gentle as he let her curl into his embrace, letting her cry into his shoulder as he carefully stroked her hair. "I wish I could of saved her, ma'am. It was too late. But she at least had died for what she believed in."

The woman choked on a sob as she grasped onto his robes, burying herself farther away. "I never got to say goodbye..."

"She also wanted me to tell you that she loves you," Ezio added, an arm still wrapped around her as she cried. "I must be going."

The woman only held on. "P-please... don't go..."

Holding back anyhintg blunt he would've said to anyone else, he nodded. "Alright. Just until you manage to pull yourself back together."

He could feel the woman nod in his robes, whispering some sort of low lyliby.

It was hours before the woman dried her tears, and Ezio gave her a soft farewell before leaving. He immediantly climbed up to the rooftops, and crawled away in a rooftop garden, where all the tears he had been forcing back suddenly began to slip out. And he could barely choke back a sob as he worked to wipe his wettened eyes.