Disclaimer:I do not own Ezio or any other mentioned Assassin's Creed characters, they are the property of Ubisoft. As for the historical characters mentioned… well.. I guess they belong to history… or themselves…

Author Notes: I decided to come up with this fanfic on the spur of the moment. I guess I am wondering where Ezio's life would lead him if something happened in his growing up years that caused him to be a very different person… someone who wouldn't think about being an assassin or killing anyone… or causing undue violence.

What would his life be like if he was "normal". Just like every other Average Joe on the street. I guess in part I am inspired a bit by M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" – What happens if a guy doesn't end up doing what he was meant to do? Would that be better or would that be his undoing?

Also… I'm wondering if I could come up with a more realistic assassin story…. I mean, usually an assassin that lets just about everyone know that he's an assassin… really doesn't live too long... and it seems like just about everybody in the games knows who Ezio is….:P I found that pretty incredulous.

I'll stay away from any kind of Italian dialogue… as found in the games… I've never studied the language and am pretty unfamiliar with it.

I might edit the story in the future to include some of it….if I can get a handle on this…

It only took a split second, but time slowed to where Ezio could see his little fingers lose their grip of the stone ledge and he fell backwards. Arms flailing, he struggled to regain his grip on some other jutting piece of masonry, but to no avail. He landed flat on his back, his head snapped back and hit the ground hard.

The world became black.

When he opened his eyes again, he felt a splitting pain at the back of his head. His brain felt woozy, like it had been rattled badly in the skull. There was a bandage on his head, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw his father at the doorway of the room talking to a man in the long robes of a physician, just without the bird-shaped mask.

There was a terribly serious and scary expression on his father's face.

He closed his eyes again, and lost consciousness for quite awhile, because when he awoke again, it was dark.

It didn't hurt as much now, but Ezio was still a bit shaken. He had fallen before, when competing with Federico to see who could climb up to the roof of their home. However, the falls were never really that bad because he was never able to get up too high on the wall and he had learned from Federico how to break his falls by rolling a bit and keeping his head towards his chest. A very young child, Ezio's muscles weren't as developed as his older brother's and thus far, he was only able to climb up a short distance on the wall using the protruding pieces of masonry.

However, today was different. Ezio turned eight, he was stronger now, and somehow he felt ready to make that long climb up to the roof.

"You can't make it, little brother," Federico called from the roof, looking downwards into the square courtyard of his home.

Ezio pouted, staring upwards at the dark-haired boy who stuck his tongue out at him. "I'm eight now!... Today! I'll show you how strong I am!"

With a running leap, he started scrambling up the wall. To Federico's amazement, his little brother was almost springing up the wall, like a spider along a web.

He was about to put his hand on the final ledge before the roof, when he slipped and fell.

The room seemed darker when Ezio recalled the slowing down of time and the moment that passed as he fell downwards.

A slight noise caused him to shift his attention to the door that was slightly ajar. Even though it was dark, he could see the faint glow of a light passing by the doorway. His keen eyes caught sight of a man with a lantern creeping quietly down the corridor.

"Papa?"

The light stopped. Paused for a moment.

"Papa?"

It never occurred to Ezio that it could be someone else. After all, Giovanni his father was the only grown man in the house.

There was a quick rustling of fabric and the light moved towards the door followed by an unfamiliar silhouette. Feeling a sense of unease, Ezio leaned back warily.

"Papa?" he worried voice was louder now.

There was a moment of relief when his father's face melted into view from the shadow.

"Why are you up at this time?" his father's voice was strangely harsh. "You need to rest."

"I can't sleep," Ezio pulled the sheets closer towards him. His father seemed very strange indeed. His hair was slightly tossed and he seemed to be wearing oddly-shaped white clothes. And there was a peculiar brownish stain on the sleeve of the arm that held the lantern.

"What's that?"

Ezio was pointing at the stain. The older Auditore quickly dropped the arm under the funny half-cloak that he was wearing on his left shoulder.

"Tha… " an awkward pause ensued before his father snapped back, "I don't want you competing with Federico in such dangerous games again, Ezio!"

"But…"

"No buts! You did a very foolish thing today!" His father really wasn't himself. It was almost as if Giovanni was possessed and hissing menacingly. "Don't you value your own life? Think about the pain you are causing your mother!"

Tears rimmed around Ezio's wide eyes. His lips started to tremble. His papa wasn't his papa. It was as though the night had taken Giovanni and warped him into some terrible demon.

"Get back to sleep." The older Auditore retreated towards the door.

Ezio looked at him, wide-eyed, almost hoping that his father would transform back into the mild-mannered banker that he had always known.

"I mean it!"

That last phrase ended with a quiet hiss, like a snake. And perhaps because of the dim light and long shadows, Ezio found himself staring into the grim eyes of a nocturnal predator. Fearful and shaken by the encounter, Ezio immediately turned his back towards his father, curled up tightly in his sheets and pretended to fall asleep. He forced himself to keep his eyes shut, until he heard the door close properly.

He didn't sleep a wink after that.

As Giovanni quietly pulled the door close, he paused for a moment, and glanced at the sleeping form of his young son. He realized a bit too late that in his desire to keep his secret secret, he had behaved rather foolishly and terrified, perhaps alienated his own son. He wanted to run in, pick his son up and hold him tightly, telling him that everything was okay and that stumbling, falling and getting hurt was part and parcel of life.

But Ezio was asleep.

Perhaps tomorrow, he thought. He would make up for the nastiness. He closed the door and headed to his secret sanctum behind the wall where he hid the other half of his double-life.

About half an hour later, before he could even change out into his normal clothes, a messenger from Lorenzo arrived bearing news of a sudden development. Giovanni ended up disappearing for 3 days on a mission.

For Ezio, it was the longest 3 days of his life. Despite his young age, he could tell that his mother's behaviour wasn't quite the same. He silently wondered if he had something to do with his father's disappearance. Perhaps he should not have asked his father about the odd stain. These and other thoughts weighed heavily on his mind, but he never breathed a word of it to anyone.