The dark creatures were slowly moving towards the paralyzed form of Leonardo. Their movements were erratic in nature, and they possessed nothing but the darkness in their soul. They moved closer and closer.

"Leonardo, MOVE! Ezio, let's go!" I shouted to them. Leonardo finally moved farther away from the oncoming threat. That was a big mistake. The dark creatures surged forward at incredible speed and swarmed onto Leonardo. The darkness consumed him, and he disappeared in a blob of black. The creatures dispersed, and where they had just been, was the soulless body of Leonardo da Vinci.

"You mostri! You will pay for this!" screamed Ezio. He ran forward with his Hidden Blades out, and slammed them down into the heads of two of the creatures. They exploded in a burst of light that lasted only a second. I joined into the fray and shot out my Hidden Blades. I stabbed two of the creatures in the mid-section, and they exploded as well.

"There are too many of them," shouted Ezio, "what do we do?"

"Use your sword!" I shouted back. I summoned my Keyblade and started attacking the dark creatures. There were multiple explosions of light as the number of creatures diminished considerably. Ezio slashed about ten of them in a single swing, wiping out nearly all of the rest. I shot out my Hidden Blades again and took out the last one with a blast of fire.

"It's over..." I said, panting from the exhaustion of the fight. The sound of crying was heard through the room, yet it was not Ezio, nor me. I looked around the room and saw Leonardo on the floor, water running down his cheeks, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Please... please... end my suffering, please!" sobbed Leonardo.

"Mi dispiace per il dolore ha portato su di voi. Requiescat in pace," Ezio said with a breaking voice, then he thrust his Hidden Blade into Leonardo's neck, killing him and saving him from the torture of living without a heart. "Without a heart... what do you mean by that, Sora?"

"The creatures that attacked us are called Heartless, they are creatures made by the darkness inside a person's heart. They are always trying to steal my heart because it is one of pure light. I am sorry that they got to Leonardo, but someone is controlling them here, and we need to stop them," I explained to Ezio.

He nodded and started to leave the building.

"Mario, head back to Monteriggioni, and we will come back before we head to Roma," commanded Ezio. I followed Ezio and we went to a nearby stable. We mounted a couple horses and left to a location that was unbeknownst to me.

Later…

We arrived at Florence, and we went to a mansion that had women dressed in very revealing dresses standing outside in groups of four.

"Wait out here for me," Ezio told me. He went inside as I waited for him to return. I passed the time by talking to a group of the women that stood outside the mansion. They were courtesans that worked out of the mansion, La Rosa Colta. Their leader was a woman named Paola. Just when they started to attempt to seduce me, Ezio came out and told me to come in.

"Greetings, Paola, how are you this evening?" I asked Paola, giving a kind bow.

"I am very well, and I assume that you had a little chat with my girls out front?" she said with a little gleam in her eye.

"Yes..." I said almost uncertainly. Ezio turned to her and whispered something into her ear. She gave a small nod and turned to me. I examined her appearance; she wore black and white clothes, similar to a nun's, but shorter, more revealing, and lacier. She also wore a cross on a rosary around her neck. "Why are you wearing a rosary if you are a courtesan?"

She laughed and said, "All in due time, young one." She took me by the hand and led me out the back door. There were 2 groups of five courtesans, and she led me between the two groups. She explained to me, "I am going to teach you what I taught Ezio many years ago. The art of stealth includes being able to be unseen, but seen at the same time. The way to blend in with the crowd. This will prevent the guards from noticing you as you move about, conducting your business."

"Will it work against things that can sense me? Like the Heartless?" I asked in a worried tone.

"Yes, it will. When you blend with the crowd, they will be unable to detect who the energy is coming from. Now let's go and have you learn this skill." We went off towards town, and we went into the crowd. We gently made our way through the crowd and passed guards.

"Hey Paola, you never answered my question. Why do you wear a rosary if you are a courtesan?" I asked in a curious voice.

"Not all courtesans are sinners. We use our bodies the way we want, but the Church doesn't look too kindly at that. So I am the leader of a church that I run out of La Rosa Colta to help and teach my sister's about God." And with that, we continued to move past the guards smoothly. They paid no notice to us as we passed them.

Then disaster struck, and it wasn't as easy to hide. One of the guards looked at my robes and suspected us as assassins. He raised his hand towards us, and a burst of darkness shot out into the crowd. The darkness formed into humanoid beings, 3 of them, with wide gashes for mouths. They sniffed the air, and looked around, unable to find us. I made my way slowly through the panicking crowd, closer and closer to the Heartless. I was finally close enough to strike them down. I extended my blades and stabbed two of them in the back. They shrieked as the disappeared, oozing away. The third one turned around and spotted me just as I slashed its throat with my left blade.

I went back to Paola, and we walked back to the mansion. "I've never seen the guards do that," panted Paola.

"Borgia must have exploited the darkness within his guard's hearts and amplified it somehow. I think it just made our mission that much more difficult," I explained. "Now we have to deal with these damn things while I'm still in training. This is bad, very bad." We arrived back at the mansion with Ezio waiting at the door. He asked us how my lesson went. I told him of the guards and the Heartless. Paola added how I killed them, which impressed Ezio a fair bit.

"Grazie, Paola. Now we must be off, it's time for Sora to get some fight training. Arrivederci," Ezio said as we prepared to leave for another unknown location to me.

AN: Thanks for sticking with this for this long. I think this is a nice tribute to both games. please review and don't spare any thought.