2: Emergency Exit

Rachele and some of Mario's soldiers dragged Ezio through the streets, when the assassin decided that he could walk again.

"Bene! I can walk!" he panted. Rachele handed him a dagger.

"I heard about Mario. I'm sorry, Ezio..." she trailed off, noticing a Borgia platoon walking towards them. "Whatever are you waiting for, you idiots? Attack them!" she shouted to Mario's mercenaries. The two squads attacked each other, giving Ezio and Rachele a chance to escape. As they climbed the stairs to the Villa, Claudia was backing away from a few attackers.

"Ezio!" she shouted, blocking a guard's sword with her stilletto.

Rachele rushed to the guard, knocking him to the floor, giving Ezio a chance to leap on him with the hidden blade attached to his arm.

"Follow me!" Claudia ran off with Ezio and Rachele in close pursuit, eventually reaching Mario's ruined office, where the thieves and whores of Monteriggioni were escaping along with any remaining citizens.

"HOLD THE DOOR!" shouted Ezio to one thief.

"Ser Ezio! We thought you were dead!" he remarked, amazed.

"Not yet!" Rachele grinned. Claudia ran on through the gap to find Maria, Ezio's loving mother.

"Where does this passage lead?" asked the thief, and Ezio noticed that he had an eyepatch.

"To the north, outside the city walls." Ezio replied.

"I'm surprised it exists!" the thief gasped, and ran to help the other troops.

"Hurry, Ezio!" came Claudia's voice.

"Where's Maria?" asked Rachele.

"I'm here, my dear!" Maria called back.

Ezio led the group down to the Assassin Statues, specifically, Altair's. Pulling a lever behind his cape, a door behind the statue opened, and the Auditore family ran through it. Running through the catacombs with the Borgia patrols close behind, Ezio vaulted up onto a platform whilst letting the girls escape. Pulling a lever, the gate they had run through suddenly dropped onto the head of a Borgia guard, splitting him open and sending blood all over the floor. Ezio rejoined the girls outside.

"Where is Mario? I thought he would be waiting for us here!" Claudia gasped for air. Rachele hugged her.

"Mario... Mario is dead." sighed Ezio. "You must leave this place. Take Rachele and mother to Firenze."

"You're not coming? Where are you going?" Rachele asked.

"To Rome." Ezio replied.

"Go, my son. Destroy them. But remember for who we Assassins fight!" she nodded and hugged him. Rachele kissed his cheek.

"Be safe. Vittoria agli assassini!" she shouted.

"Vittoria agli assassini." he whispered back.

Claudia, finding Leonardo da Vinci's old wagon, helped Maria into it, taking the reigns with Rachele.

Ezio rode to Rome on Mario's old horse. He started to drop in and out of conciousness, but eventually couldn't hold himself up anymore. He collapsed off the horse and onto the road.