The ride to San Gimignano was quiet. The mercenaries riding with the assassins were rowdy and messing around, excited to put the youngest Templar's life to an end. Atronia remained silent with Mario. She knew the depth of this mission. Even though Vieri, although being an ongoing enemy of hers, she felt a large chunk of her life would seemingly disappear into nothingness.

"Are you ready for this?" Mario wondered why she remained so silent. He urged his horse forward so he was trotting at the same pace. Atronia glanced at him, a grin spreading on her face.

"Mario," she replied, "you trained me for this." On they rode, the sunlight slowly dipping on the horizon. Atronia gazed out onto the field. Rolling hills extended on with one particularly large one covering a part of the sun. The sun was painted orange and crimson.

Just as the sun set, the fortress came into sight. Atronia thought of Ezio, but she immediately shook it off, keeping focused on her task. He's leaving, Atronia. She thought.

Mario's hand suddenly shot up. "Hold." he motioned. The clop of the horses hooves halted, "From here on, we shall go on foot so we are not noticed. We must use stealth." Everyone got of their horses and the group moved forward. The fortress moved closer and closer, looming as the moon rose above it. A shadow cast on the ground, making it only more eerie. The group retreated slightly to a nearby village, not wanting to be seen by the Pazzi, yet.

A few minutes passed. Those minutes turned into a short hour. Another half hour passed after that. Mario continued to tell his men the plan and preparing for the whole time. Atronia, having heard this plan multiple times, moved to keep watch on the outskirts of the village. Her eyes scanned the dark fields that surrounded the fortress.

Stars glittered and flickered in the night sky. She fulfilled her boredom by finding the different constellations she had memorized. It reminded her of Leonardo. A small twitch disturbed her stomach. She actually missed him. She missed Florence, having only been back once in the two year time span.

A sound interrupted her thoughts. A horse? Atronia's gaze moved down the path, where a figure was rapidly approaching on a brown steed. The stranger wore a white hood and what looked like extremely familiar robes. It all clicked in Atronia's mind.

"Ezio?" she stood up, taking a few steps forward to greet him. He skidded up in front of her. Ezio quickly dismounted and Atronia squeezed him much harder than he was expecting. "I figured you might join us." Ezio gave her a smile as Mario approached. Their uncle said about the same thing.

The plan was to begin. The mercenaries began to walk towards the walls again, slowly tiptoeing so they couldn't be spotted from the gate. Atronia scouted ahead, assassinating guards from behind walls and clearing a space for the warriors.

"I will infiltrate from the walls. You can tell Ezio the rest of the plan, Mario." with that, she retreated from the rest of the group. She scanned the wall of the side she was on. It was tall, stone. Pretty slick from recent rain. Atronia moved around the wall, being careful not to be caught by archers. Ah-ha!

Atronia made her way up the stone wall, having found the perfect place to climb it. Peeking hesitantly over the ledge, she sought archers and found one walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the wall. She slipped over the ledge and quickly tiptoed to the other, finding a good place to jump. A small hay cart lay not far away, and she simply jumped over and slumped into the scratchy dried grass. Wiggling her fingers around created a quarter-sized peephole for her to pear out of. No guards were in sight.

"Mario, you'd better be ready." Atronia sighed, crawling out of the hay. She began to brush little bits of dust and grass off of her sleeve as an agile rounded the corner.

"Hey," a guard shouted as he turned the corner, "you're not supposed to be here, straniero!"

"I know!" Atronia called back, adjusting her vambrace eyeing the guards approaching her. A brute followed him, carrying a menacing looking axe. The first guards hand moved to the hilt of his rapier, clenching it tightly.

"Get out of here! This area is restricted." the brute added on, his voice muffled by the heavy armor that covered his face.

"Farmi idiota." Atronia snapped, unsheathing her hidden blade as the first guard came charging at her. Before he could make it, she placed her foot on the hay cart and flipping over him. She landed, then was careful to find the perfect place to lay a fatal blow. Atronia began to hear yelling not far away, Mario had started the fight. She ran around the corner, pulling out her sword.

She scanned the crowd for Ezio. Not finding him, she figured he would already be finding Vieri.

"Aye, which direction did Ezio go?" she said, running up to a fighting mercenary. His eyes were focused on his target, but they moved slightly to the right so his enemy wouldn't follow with ease. "Grazie, friend." She ran in the said direction, cutting off any guards who got in her way. She turned a corner to see Ezio hiding behind a wall. She looked up at the tower that stood before them. Voices echoed off the stone and they recognized Vieri's annoying squeaky voice. Without noticing Atronia, in a few fluid motions, Ezio had climbed and leaped over the wall. All Atronia heard after that were swords clanging and bodies falling onto the stone floor.

Vieri de Pazzi was vanquished. That meant celebration and drinks for all men in Monteriggioni. Another rat was dead, and no one could be happier.

Atronia awaited Ezio inside the Villa, lurking on the white marble staircase. He entered with his hood down, looking not necessarily relaxed, but relieved. His gaze moved to hers and he smiled. Atronia walked over and hugged him. "Congratulations, Ezio." she said. "You've really changed the course of things around here." He gave her a hesitant look as he let go. He knew what Atronia was doing, pushing him to stay when his head was telling him to go.

"Grazie, Atronia. I'm not-..." Ezio began to explain his insight when Mario entered, smiling and arms outstretched.

"Victory!" he cried, raising his eyes to the ceiling. A loud laugh echoed from his throat as he patted them both on the shoulder. Atronia cast an amused glance at Ezio, who snickered in return. "I've got something to show you both." He suddenly became serious. The change in mood created some kind of intensity in the room as Mario walked past them and started into his office. The siblings exchanged a confused stare.

The two followed him into a hidden hallway and after many staircases, hallways and corridors. They finally entered a large cavern. Seven large statues stood in the cave, the one in the middle concealed by iron bars. White marble made up most of the area. While Mario explained the heritage of the strange underlayer, Atronia made her way forward, looking fondly at the statue blocked by bars. She turned back to them, noticing on the middle of the floor there was a large symbol. The assassin's logo. Connecting it all in her head, she looked again at the statue.

"Altair Ibn-La'Ahad. That's him, isn't it?" she wondered. Mario nodded.

"All of these statues, they were assassins. All from different times." he explained. Atronia nodded, studying the others. "Not much has been found on Altair's life other than he was an assassin who found one of the pieces of Eden."

"Have you not heard of the Hunt for Nine?" Atronia said, a little too much know-it-all in her voice, "Altair lost his honor by being reckless during a mission. He had to kill of a ton of Templars to regain the honor he lost. Then his master turned on him, revealing he was a Templar himself."

Mario nodded while Ezio remained confused, but shrugged it off. They wandered the chamber a little longer, then went to rejoin the celebration.

"Ezio, wait," Atronia held her brother back, "are you going to stay?" Ezio ducked his head.

"Si."

Atronia beamed at him, "Really? Bene!" she hesitated, "Where do you want to start?" Ezio gave her an amused look.

"Firenze."

Announcements: Hey guys. I have nothing to say. I just wanted to thank the person who posted the comment 'Please update soon.'. I was having a lot of doubts about this story and my schedule became scattered. Because of that comment, I know now that people are actually enjoying my story and I'm very happy about that. I don't know if my writing schedule will change. I'll definitely be posting more often. Not sure how often, but more often than now. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Soon things will be getting a bit more strange...