Disclaimer: Still don't own Assassin's Creed or Ubisoft for that matter.

Author's Notes: Woooo Hoooo! A double post. Mainly because this chapter was HUGE! So I broke it up into two chapters kinda explain what Lucy's initial reaction to the news of Desmond wanting them to work with Aria and give a bit of a background of the "minor problem" of getting Leonardo's diary. Totally taking historical liberties here, so nah, its fan fiction. XD

OH AND REVIEW! I WANT TO KEEP WRITING THIS THING BECAUSE IT IS FUN!

Chapter 2: Correre come libero come un Uccello

Eight hours before the meeting at Café Angelo:

Desmond had pulled everyone into the kitchen as if he had something major to announce. Rebecca Crane sat down in one of the chairs with her arms resting on the table, while Shaun sat next to her with his leg over the other. What the programmer misinterpreted as look of anger, the historian simple felt like he was owed an explanation. Lucy was the last to arrive and took a seat next to Desmond.

"Are you okay, Desmond?" Her voice broke the odd silence that had settled over the group. She nervously picked at the sleeve of her sweater.

"I met someone that could help us beat the Templars a while back while I was scouting the area." He was waiting for someone, anyone, to say something about this, but no one did. "Her name is Aria del Leone and she owns a café not too far from here."

"So… what you are saying that there is another group that the Templars don't like here?" Rebecca couldn't keep herself quiet. "I am sure that they are our enemy as well."

"Well, she glowed blue when I used the Eagle Vision. No one outside of here has done that."

"Uh huh, and I am the Queen of England." Rebecca was rewarded with a rough nudge from Shaun. "What, I am just saying that it could possible she could have fooled you."

"I don't think that is possible, Rebecca." He looked up at Desmond. "The Eagle Vision has proven itself time after time."

"But…"

"Rebecca that is enough. Let Desmond finish." Lucy cut the argument before it even started. She looked leery with this idea, but Desmond looked rather determined. "What did she have to offer?"

"Sanctuary from the Templars." He moved into a more comfortable position in the kitchen chair. "She told me that she could help me gain access to the corrupted memories."

"Wait? You told her about the Animus?" Lucy was in disbelief at this statement. "You put us in danger because your… your needs."

"I didn't tell her right out. She kinda figured it out on her own." He rubbed the back of his head. "Hey Shaun, don't forget about the disc."

Fishing the disc out of his pocket, he nudged Rebecca again. "Hey, get your laptop out."

"And if I don't?" She retorted bitterly, as she stood.

"I could tell them about the…"

"I am getting the damn thing, you perv." She calmly kicked the chair from under Shaun as she went to retrieve the laptop from the living room. The crash was deafening, but all Shaun suffered from was a sore bum and a slightly bruised ego. As he righted the chair, he made a mental note that she really was related to Rosa and straighten his glasses slightly.

"I am not going to even ask what she has that you threatened to blackmail her with." Lucy sighed as she rubbed her temples. "Anyway, Desmond, you said that Shaun met her today?"

"Yeah, that is how we got the disc." Desmond sighed as Rebecca returned at this point with her trusted laptop. As the thin black box booted up, she grabbed the disc from Shaun's hands. Whatever he was using to blackmail her was important enough to cause her to act amusingly hostile to him. Once the OS completely booted up, she put the disc into the DVD tray and pushed into the system. It took a few moments to load and they were greeted with familiar Creed symbol. She clicked on it, and the video started to play.

The image of a lab flashed up briefly on the screen then it focused on a woman with raven coloured hair laying flat on a table with an Animus above her. The image cut away to a much calmer Subject 16, his eyes glancing over his shoulder from time to time. "The key to everything is right here and they don't even know it." The picture suddenly faded to white with the symbol slowly reappearing. Shaun caught some of the hidden message in the coding, but waiting for the rest of the message to finish. 16's voice started again, only this time the paranoid edge is there. "They are separating us. Something is wrong. Why are they moving me to London? I hope that the Order fucks their shit up so badly here. They can't kill the key." A loud audio hiss came from the speakers afterwards, the screen going black.

"What the hell was that?" Rebecca stated in disbelief. "What is the Order?"

"I only caught something when the symbol appeared a second time. 16 put clues into the video, but I think that we should talk to Aria about this." Shaun pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose, studying Desmond's face. "It is apparent that your girlfriend is in that video. But why would she give us this type of information?"

"She trusts us with keeping that type of information out of the hands of the Templars…" Desmond replied only to be cut off by Lucy.

"Or she could be trying to lure us into some kind of trap. I never heard of the Order, but from what I can tell, she most likely won't reveal that kind of information to us at all." Lucy's bottom lip suddenly became the victim of being chewed on while she was in thought. "Shaun, I want you to go over the video with Rebecca. Desmond, we need to talk now." She stood and walked out to the living room. Falling onto one of the overstuffed leather chairs, she glared at the brunette as he walked in with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie. "You are in so much shit with me right now, Desmond."

"Look, I know that you are pissed off at me, but this is important. We don't have much time with finding the apple." He started to pace back and forth a bit, only to stop. "She does have a tie to Ezio and the thing is that we need to find exactly how close she was with him. I have seen a face very similar to hers in some of the sequences, and you can't say that is just pure coincidence."

In the other room, Rebecca couldn't help but press her ear against the closed door. "Wow, they are really going at it."

"Do you blame her for being so upset with him?" The cool reply came as did her sigh. "I did meet her and she was honest about everything she said."

"Then you should have told Lucy about it." She stood away from the door, then grabs Shaun by his shirt. "You go out there now before she starts throwing your books at him." Without any more prompting, he left to break up the yelling match between Lucy and Desmond. Rebecca returned to her laptop looking rather innocent when an unease silence washed over the compound. Before everyone returned, she had pulled up the second symbol literally tracking it frame by frame. Sure enough, it looked like 16 had put in enough information in there that they wouldn't go into any situation blind. Information about what was really going on at the Romanian branch of Abstergo almost made her ill. The experimentation on those who were either shipped from London or Paris was often brutal, and in most cases, lethal. Some of the subjects were captured in Romania often survived their counterparts due to the fact that they were treated to tightly controlled sessions with the Animus.

Her head snapped up as a much calmer Lucy entered the room. Concern replaced the look of anger when she sat down from her brunette counterpart. "Rebecca, are you okay?"

"16 left some pretty disturbing information. I would go check this girl out."

"Well, Desmond believes in her, I might as well go and try… after I help Shaun clean up the living room."

"How bad is the damage?"

"Not too bad this time. Desmond pretty much stormed into his room a few minutes after Shaun walked in. No books or vases were harmed this time around. Only causality was a throw pillow that hit Shaun square in the face."

"Feel sorry for the pillow. Anyway, I am going to bed myself. I will see what Shaun and I can glean from this craziness tomorrow."

"I think that I am going to rearrange the living room." Lucy said before she left the kitchen. Rebecca knew that this was her way of saying that 'I am going to go think' and closed her laptop. She silently hoped that she would take up the offer of going to meet with this Aria person.