Disclaimer: My Italian is not the greatest and I am still learning the language, so I apologize in advance if it is grammtically incorrect. If you speak Italian, please let me know if something is wrong so I can go back and fix it. I understand that not everyone will understand it, so I try to make it easy to figure out what is being said in the dialogue. However, if that isn't enough, I suggest using Google Translate...I do not own the Assassin's Creed series or any other products that may be mentioned in this story. Please don't sue me.

Prologo

The bell rang and we all exhaled a sigh of relief as we were finally freed from our imprisonment in the hell hole that was often referred to as history class. We all lazily gathered up our things and dragged our feet out of the room, too tired to go any faster than the pace of a snail.

I yawned and sleepily rubbed my eyes. Not only did the teacher turn off the lights and teach us from a glowing overhead, he also talked in the most boring voice ever imaginable. It was common to see fellow classmates drop like flies as the combo of the darkness and the food coma from lunch setting in take effect. On top of all that, I sat right under the air conditioner, which isn't too bad in some parts of the year due to southern California being so warm…except it was February and the air was still fucking on.

I left the classroom and joined the other zombies in groaning as we were all temporarily blinded by the sun attacking our eyeballs. After letting out another yawn, I caught up with some friends, who were complaining how boring the class had been and also discussing their plans for the weekend.

"…well I personally liked the lesson today," a friend was saying.

Another snorted, "How could you have liked it? You were drooling all over your desk half the time."

"Well what I heard was really interesting…even though it was told in a boring way…"

"She's right," I agreed. "The Renaissance was one of the most interesting time periods in history. If I could go back to that time period, I would be the happiest person on Earth."

The second friend rolled his eyes and before I could get into a heated argument, my other friend changed the subject. "So what are you guys doing this weekend?"

My second friend said that he had baseball while I stated that I had track and some videogame competition to go to. I loved running with all of my heart, and if it were up to me, I would definitely rather spend the weekend training than see a bunch of kids have their eyes glued to a television screen. Sure, I played popular games like the Halo trilogy, Assassin's Creed, and Bioshock, but it was only for leisure. I didn't let it control my life and I wasn't obsessed with any of the games, but I had to admit, some of the men in those games were quite sexy.

I guess the only reason why I was going was because my younger brother wanted me to go. He was only a sophomore, a year younger than me, and the closest thing that resembled a brother to him was me. I didn't care if people thought I was a little rough around the edges and didn't dress as appropriately as most girls did, but whatever made my brother happy, made me happy.

"Alright, I guess I'll just see you guys next week then," I waved and headed to the locker room to get ready for practice.

...

"I still can't believe I'm doing this," I muttered, smearing on black eyeliner. "You totally owe me later."

My brother waved his hand and dismissed me. "Relax, Madeline. It's not like you're going to get raped or anything."

I shot him a glare, threw on a white shirt, a pair of shorts, and comfy running shoes, and drove ourselves over to the community center in which the competition was to be held. While my brother headed over to check himself in, I ended up wandering around. The building had two floors, a pavilion and a basketball court, both large enough to accompany at least 300 people. The place was packed with all different types of people, from total geeks to subtly interested ones who looked like they got dragged into the mess like me.

The top floor was littered covered in stations in which an Xbox 360 was hooked up to a 42 inch plasma screen television with some kind of videogame being displayed. Only after five minutes of our arrival, almost all the stations filled with eager players and the orchestra of shouting, gunfire, and clashing swords filled the indoor court. Downstairs, on the other hand, was very peaceful, for many artists and charities had set up tables and booths and were showing off their artwork and causes.

I gritted my teeth, slightly pissed. Had my brother told me that this was also a convention, I could've brought money to spend on some artwork. I might as well just go to the track and run some stairs, I'd be so bored.

I would beat the turd later.

About an hour or so later, I found myself drifting from booth to booth, admiring all of the fantastic work I was seeing. I was just about to head upstairs and check on my brother when a voice called out to me.

"Hey, you!" a young man ran towards me. "Would you like to try out my new game?"

My lip twitched. I guess it couldn't hurt…I was pretty bored anyway.

I nodded and followed the man to a booth to one corner of the cafeteria. The man sat down at a fold out table and began typing on his Mac, asking me my name, age, email, and areas of interests. Before I could even take a look of what he had displayed, he asked me if I had any other names from foreign countries.

"What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow.

He stopped typing. "You know, names people would call you if you were in another country, so you wouldn't sound so foreign."

Shrugging off the fact that his question was just a tad on the strange side, I reluctantly gave him my other names that he had asked for. As I waited for him to finish up, I took a look around his booth. He had several prints of digital art of various videogames that all pointed to a door with a sign labeled Animus 2.5.

I raised an eyebrow. Wasn't that the thing that the guy Desmond went into in Assassin's Creed in order to 'go back in time?' I doubted that it actually worked, seeing as it was only early 2011 and virtual reality technology wasn't as advanced as it seemed in the games' time period of 2012.

I shook my head and was about to walk away but the guy got up and stopped me. "Wait, where are you going?"

I sighed and looked at him. He was genuinely cute: short brown hair, a slight muscular build, and green eyes. He had a disappointed look on his face and his booth was empty, so I ended up feeling bad for him and decided to stay. He smiled and led me through the door labeled Animus 2.5, explaining that he was working on a virtual reality technology that would take you into your favorite and future videogames. If he could have volunteers like me to test it out and let him fix the bugs, he claimed, then what he was making could be revolutionary.

He led me to a long, silver recliner that looked very high tech and asked me to sit down.

"Alright, so," the man smiled, "based on your interests in art and the fact that you have an Italian name, I would say you would be most fit to play Assassin's Creed II. I assumed you've played the game?"

I nodded. Who hasn't played that game? From the storyline, to the characters, to the graphics, to the fact that you could leap from building to building just made it one of the best games I'd ever played. However…

"I haven't beaten it yet," I mentioned, a little embarrassed. "My brother just bought the game about a month ago and I haven't really gotten a chance to play it until last week…I only got up to the part where Ezio and his family escape to Monteriggioni."

The guy grinned and started to attach wires to my face. "Even better! The whole story will be a surprise to you! Don't worry, it'll be great fun. I'm sure you'll be able to adapt easily. Now, I need to give this to you in order to make you numb and relax…"

He held up a syringe that I swore was the size of an elephant tranquilizer.

I almost fainted and recoiled back in horror. "What the fuck is that for?"

"It's just a sedative; basically morphine and some anesthetic."

My heart started to beat a little faster. I had taken Bio last year and from what I had learned was that that much morphine could kill a person.

The man looked at me with pleading eyes, as if I were his only chance to see if his little invention would actually work. Sighing, I grudgingly agreed to still participate, but threatened so help me if I were to go into cardiac arrest, I'd strangle him the minute I was out of a hospital. Chuckling, he said it was worth it and injected the needle into my shoulder…and it hurt like a bitch.

As I proceeded to swear like a sailor, the guy tapped a few buttons and a little screen about five inches from my face flashed on. He said he'd be able to monitor me at his computer back outside at his booth, so I had nothing to worry about and just had to relax and let the machine to its job.

That's all he's been saying, I thought. 'Don't worry about it, just relax, everything will be fine.' Damn, I'd be outta here if I didn't feel so bad for this guy…

While in the middle of my swirling thoughts, the screen in front of me started to show the trailer of Assassin's Creed II, in which it was 1486 in Venice, Italy and everything looked so real, the graphics were that good. I smiled dumbly as I stared at the screen, my mind and body going numb as the morphine started to kick in. Suddenly, just as the trailer was ending and the words Assassin's Creed II were being displayed, the screen started to glow a bright white light. I vaguely heard the guy outside cursing and saying that this shouldn't be happening, that something was wrong. I wanted to yell at the guy to ask what he was talking about, but I was so full of drugs that I couldn't do anything but sleepily close my eyes as I was thrown into darkness and a great crushing force swept over me.