Safety and peace, brothers and sisters- another chapter! Entirely written at school too :D hooray for lifting of restrictions. I gotta keep this short so I can finish some geography work, but enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Assassin's creed, but I do own the random target and awesome stupid brute.

The pigeon-cage was in an inconvenient place, for someone who couldn't climb to save their lives. However, for someone who could free-run across rooftops before they could walk, it was easy enough to swing across a maze of obstacles so they could reach the coop.

The man in white and red robes carefully opened the cage door, watching the birds inside until he selected one with a piece of parchment attached to its leg. His hand slowly reached out and closed around the pigeon's wings and back so it could not fly. The bird was used to this treatment. The man plucked the parchment away and released the pigeon back into its house before unfurling the shred of paper and reading it quickly.

'Signor Auditore,

A man has been stealing from the merchants with false rules, and uses his guards to silence the opposition. End his life and you will receive a weighty reward.

Search for him near the Palazzi Ducale di Venezia.

A.'

The Assassin silently tore the paper into shreds and allowed it to scatter from his hand into crevices and corners. He knew that the writer of this note would not appreciate being caught giving him a mission. He glanced over the rooftops and strode towards one of his markers, where trained pigeons made nests and showed him a safe place to jump from. Assumedly other assassins had bred and trained the birds to do so.

With a sudden rush forwards and a mighty leap from the roof, Ezio Auditore da Firenze flew through the air and landed safely in a cart of pink leaves.

The Palazzo was filled with citizens, all of them listening with disgusted faces to a man that arrogantly claimed his lordship over all commerce. He had taken the place of a crier, who was glaring at him from the sidelines. Ezio lowered his head and shuffled through the crowd slowly, doing his best to not alert his prey to the presence of an enemy.

"And so, the new taxes will be high, but fair, my friends! For how can I protect you without gold to pay my soldiers?" the fat man announced, waving his hands about in a generous manner. The people booed and hissed, but the soldiers ringing the crowd moved in to silence the opposition before it got out of hand. Ezio was shoved out of the way by a very very large man, one that he commonly nicknamed 'brutes'. His axe nearly brained the Assassin by accident, and to his surprise the behemoth muttered an apology while moving towards the stage. He smirked after a few seconds, pleased that he hadn't been recognized; what a novelty to be treated like an ordinary citizen.

The crowd parted before him as if they could sense who and what he was, cold shivers running up everyone's spines and hair raising on the backs of their necks. The assassin was sure that a few of them knew his mission, but no-one spoke out. Their eyes surreptitiously followed his movements, and a few of the braver men and women smiled and nodded. Once Ezio was at the foot of the stage, he whirled about, gave a courteous bow, and threw himself at his target with both blades outstretched.

Both weapons sank into the man's chest at the same time, both entering the heart and killing him instantly. They fell towards the floor, a dead man and his killer, and the hidden blades retracted back into the sheaths as Ezio closed the corpse's eyes. "Non sapevo vostro nome, ma ho ancora onore vostro sacrificio. Requiescat in pace."

All hell broke loose as he shoved himself away from the body, an axe thudding into the wood his foot had been a moment before. The assassin leapt into the crowd and wove his way out of it, where he could sprint to an alley. Two archers he hadn't noticed before were firing arrows at the fleeing figure, but their arrows only bounced off the stones just behind his feet in a shower of sparks. Making it past the mouth of the passage, Ezio turned off the path quickly and jumped into a haystack that he had known to be there.

A brute, three regular guards and two fast runners pounded past his hiding-place, shouting angrily and waving their weapons in the air. The Italian man watched them silently until they were out of sight and then climbed out of the bale of hay, brushing stray pieces of straw from his uniform. Loud footsteps made the assassino freeze.

Without further ado Ezio ran at the wall in front of him and used his momentum to run up the stones, his hands grasping protruding window ledges, ridges in the rock and eventually the roof edge. His feet helped to haul his body up the building, until Ezio was free to run across the roofs of Venezia.

Or he would have been free to run, if there wasn't something standing in front of him.

The shadow of a tower fell over the figure before him, which made no sound, only watching him with bright and fierce eyes. It took a step forward, and he immediately stepped backwards, a hand falling to his sword. The figure stepped forward again, where the sunlight fell onto its face. Ezio felt an icy hand clutch his heart. Oh no…

"R-Rosa?" he asked timidly, wrapping his fingers around the falchion's handle. The woman in front of him laughed, and walked straight up to him, laying a flirtatious hand on his shoulder. "Hello, signor Ezio. You seem afraid- surely I haven't disturbed you?" she asked in a whisper, pulling away to an irritatingly close spot, though definitely not close enough for the befuddled teenager. Rosa knew how hard it was for the kid to keep from doing what he did to any other girl on the street.

"Oh, uh, Rosa. It's good to see you. Did-" he started, but was cut off by the thief girl shoving him backwards just as an arrow streaked between them. "Run, Ezio! I will meet you later!" she hissed, turning tail and fleeing like a startled rabbit. He mentally swore to never tell her that he had ever imagined her as a rabbit, and did the same, only in the opposite direction.

Neither saw the eyes watching them from the darkest shadows in the street below. A deep snarl echoed about the deserted street, and a black tail flicked in and out of the main shadow. It stood, shook its entire body from head to tail, and began to follow the weaker female to its den.