Disclaimer: The Assassin's Creed series and its characters belong to Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal

[EDIT]: I decided to keep most of what I wrote, but I toned it down a bit. I was a little hyper when I wrote it last night ^^;. Also, I edited it a bit more.

Readers, remind me in the future to never update chapters prematurely ever again. lol.

Anyway, sorry for any confusions, and hopefully you all like this updated one better than the old Chapter 10.

AN: Sorry, I was a little late in updating this chapter. Editing it took longer than I thought it would. Either way, now would be a good time to remind my readers that if I ever don't post on time, I will probably put the reason why on my profile page, so just check there if you're curious. I will also try to include the time that I will be updating next. About the only times that I won't do this is if I've completely lost internet connection, or am in the hospital, or something else along those lines.

I admit that I had way too much fun with the beginning, and though every part of me is saying, "Take it out and just go on with the actual story!" I had to leave it in -_-. Besides, it's been a while since we've heard from La Volpe. I guess you could also say I was trying something a little different. I may decide to change it later, though. It might be a little too different from the usual tone of this fic. If that's the case, I'll probably delete this and post it again with a note saying what I changed.

Since I didn't take it out, prepare for a longer chapter than normal. And sorry if it seems like I rushed it a little. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few mistakes. I didn't want this chapter to be too late in posting.

Unfortunately for those that were waiting to find out what happens to Leo, he isn't in this chapter, so you'll have to wait 'till next chapter ;P

According to street gossip, the Palazzo had been at the center of some interesting activities for a while now, and La Volpe decided to take it upon himself to watch it carefully since he had returned to Venezia just a few days ago. The day after Rodrigo 'The Spaniard' Borgia was assassinated, his vigilance paid off. A pair of soldiers came carrying a strange object into the building. Curious, he committed the soldier's faces to memory, and when they left the building late in the evening, he followed them. They made their way to a tavern where they parted ways, one heading home, the other going into the tavern. Just what La Volpe wanted.

He took a breath before entering the building himself. He hated this part of his job. It required too much socializing, and La Volpe loathed socializing. But still, he had to admit that it was one of the best methods of getting the information he wanted. So he beat down his loathing and put on his best smile as he opened the door.

Soldiers, though most were loyal to their lords, were still fairly easy to get information from, and hence one of La Volpe's main sources. Of course, they didn't just burst out with their deepest, darkest secrets right away to some stranger they have never seen before. La Volpe had to get them drunk first. The thief stepped inside the tavern, smiling broadly and looking like he had a big secret of his own that he really wanted to share. He located his target quickly enough, but he didn't make his way over to him. Not yet. First, he needed to catch the man's attention.

After strutting over to the man behind the bar, La Volpe demanded a large tankard of the finest ale in the house. The man looked at him funny and demanded to know if La Volpe had the money to pay for his purchase, to which the thief simply shook his nice, hefty bag of florins in the man's face. With this, he not only gained the attention of his target, but also of nearly everyone else in the room. People liked money, and they loved seeing a lot of it. But showing his money had another purpose to it than just getting attention. It gave people the idea that he intended to spend it, or at least a good portion of it. They also know that with that much money, there was no possible way La Volpe could spend it all on his own. He was going to need help from someone else in the tavern.

After that, he looked around, still smiling that big smile, then his eyes locked on those of his target's. The man was alone, which was all the better. La Volpe strutted his way over to the table, taking nice, big strides that would look ridiculous to most people. But then, that was the point. He wanted his target to think he was an easily manipulated fool. It made La Volpe's job easier when his targets underestimated him.

La Volpe came up to the soldier and asked if he would like a drink, or several, perhaps? The man, of course, could not refuse an invitation to free drinks, so he nodded and La Volpe seated himself.

From here, the thief would need to take it slowly. First, he needed to engage the man in conversation, which meant telling him that 'secret' La Volpe supposedly wanted to tell since the moment he walked into the tavern. It may be interesting to note that this was also a good method to spread a few false rumors should the need arise.

La Volpe had his lie planned out beforehand, of course. He told it using grand gestures and very detailed explanations. The longer he took in telling his 'secret,' the more the man would drink. When the man was drunk enough, La Volpe began turning the conversation over to him, and from there, over to a topic that might lead to the soldier revealing the information La Volpe wanted to know about, all the while filling and refilling the man's glass.

Eventually, La Volpe learned that the object was a suit that the assassin had worn when he killed Rodrigo Borgia with, and it was regarded as an important piece of evidence that might solve the mystery of how the assassin got away. They had found it not too far from the docks, and had taken it to the Palazzo for investigation.

Perhaps to some, such a small bit of information may not seem worth all the trouble it takes to get it. But La Volpe knew that sometimes, the smaller bits were the most important. In this case, it led him to realize quite a few things. First, he already knew that Leonardo was a respected artist and sometime inventor, and he knew that Ezio had been with Leonardo most of his time since returning to Venezia. From this, he could assume that Leonardo was the one who built the suit. Second, La Volpe realized that, of anyone else in this city, Leonardo was the only one who could have created that suit. He had money, equipment, intelligence, and he had a reputation for making the strangest of things. Third, Silvio Barbarigo, as a state inquisitor and the Templar who was most likely put in charge of finding Assassins and those who helped them, probably already suspected that Leonardo had some connection to Ezio. Fourth, from all of the above, La Volpe felt it was safe to assume that Silvio now knew for a fact that Leonardo was helping Ezio. Fifth, that although most of the things Leonardo had come up with over the years seemed more like fanciful musings rather than anything that could actually work, these past two inventions that should not have succeeded at all did, in fact, succeed. In other words, if these two worked, what if the rest of Leonardo's inventions actually worked? And if they did work, then they could be useful to the Templars. Sixth and finally, Leonardo was now someone who the Templars could not ignore, and their more likely course of action would be to take him into custody as soon as possible and somehow coerce him into inventing for them.

Silvio was not stupid. Even La Volpe could see that there was enough evidence leading back to the artist, and he admitted that he didn't have the large network of informants that Silvio had. The inquisitor knew about Leonardo now, and he was going to try for him. Probably tonight.

La Volpe quickly headed towards the workshop, but when he got there, he saw that the Doge's men were already hurrying the artist out of his home. La Volpe cursed and followed, though he already had an idea of where they were bringing him.

Getting into the building was a little difficult, but the ability to sneak into places such as the Doge's Palazzo was part of La Volpe's charm. Unfortunately, the room where Sivlio was meeting with Leonardo had only one door in or out guarded by two alert Templar soldiers. La Volpe tried to listen through the wall of an adjacent room, but no luck. He could have knocked out the guards, or somehow had them lured away, but La Volpe decided against that. Besides, he could already guess at what was being said anyway, so there was little point in trying to break in. Silvio was likely threatening him with hanging or worse on the charge of treasonous actions against the Doge. Would it work? La Volpe didn't know. He had never met Leonardo himself and only knew what others had told him about the artist. Either way, it wouldn't do to have the Templars get their greedy little hands on the artist's inventions. La Volpe was going to have to think of some way to get him out of there, but he would have to do it later when he could get help.

Thinking his investigation in the Palazzo done, he made to leave, but something else caught his attention. It seemed that a visitor had arrived late in the night, stealing silently into the Palazzo to meet personally with Marco Barbarigo.

At times like these, there was one good thing La Volpe could say about sneaking into heavily guarded places like the Palazzo. The people you spy on tended to trust the defenses around them so much that they didn't feel it necessary to hold their conversations in some remote area of the building where there was little chance of being overheard by someone that shouldn't be overhearing them. Granted, Silvio didn't have that trust in the surrounding defenses, but then, Silvio was an insecure, paranoid fuck who craved power but couldn't get himself noticed enough to get it no matter how hard he tried, so he has to stick with his petty little secrets and pretend like they are the things that make him better than everyone else because there was nothing else that he has that everyone else didn't have already.

La Volpe obviously didn't like Silvio very much. Actually, he didn't like any of the Barbarigos, but Silvio was a special case. The others were just idiots. Silvio was a manipulative prick. There was only one manipulative prick that La Volpe ever liked, and that was La Volpe himself.

So although he hadn't been able to eavesdrop on Silvio's discussion with Leonardo, he made a point to conveniently place himself in a position to overhear what this stranger had to say, right outside an open window that carried the conversation rather well. Wasn't it nice of them to be so careless?

The stranger seemed to be some sort of messenger. He kept his hood up, and La Volpe could see nothing of his face except the mouth and chin. His lips drew back into a scowl as he looked distastefully over at Marco's personal bodyguard, Dante Moro.

"Are you sure he can be trusted?"

Marco glared at him. "Of course he can. I would not let him in here if I didn't trust him."

The man gave a short nod, though he still seemed to hold some doubts. He continued. "Our friend would like to suggest that you send some of your Veneziano soldiers to a building we believe to be inhabited by Assassins. It is called La Rosa Della Virtu, a brothel that has courtesans claiming to be doing the work of God by prostituting themselves to men. We think Ezio Auditore is hiding there, as well as Antonio, head of the thieves' guild and an Assassin. The brothel itself is full of women who are working for the Assassins. Our friend thinks we should not miss this chance to take them all out once and for all."

"So you think I should just charge in and kill them all? There needs to be a public reason behind doing so or the people will riot!"

"That won't be much of a problem. The entire brothel is held in contempt by most of the public anyway for their strange religious views. You could say that they were all holding cult worshippings in their basement, killing women and children or some such thing. The people would accept that."

Marco scowled, but La Volpe could already tell he was going to agree. The thief had heard enough. They knew about Teodora and her brothel, and there was no way they would miss this chance to take her and the others out. La Volpe did not know where this 'friend' got his information from, but he would have to worry about that later. First, he needed to warn his fellow Assassins.

Ezio paced the floor of Altair's room, frustrated at how the older man was acting. "I want you to know that I think you are an idiot."

Altair turned another page of the book he had found on a shelf in his room. It was about the only thing now that was helping him relax while he tried to get through the shock of being thrown into this strange culture. "I will keep that in mind, novice," he said distractedly.

Ezio decided to ignore that. "The woman clearly likes you, why not make her happy?" A courtesan had come by Altair's room asking if he would like her to join him in bed, and for some reason Ezio could not possibly understand, Altair had turned her down.

Altair continued reading. "I am not interested."

"Dio mio, Altair, it is her religion to please men like us! It is how she worships, and if you do not take her up on her offer, then you are not letting her worship. She needs you! Where is your sense of compassion?"

Altair finally looked up with a strange expression. "You have a very twisted sense of logic, novice."

"I do not like to hear that coming from you, coglione. I am certain that it is illogical to not provide a woman with companionship if she wants it. And don't call me novice!"

"You mean it is immoral, not illogical. They are two different things. I would appreciate it if you didn't mix them, novice."

A knock came on their door before Ezio could argue further. Teodora's voice came from the other side. "La Volpe is here. He says he needs to speak with us, and that it is urgent."

Ezio and Altair glared venomously at each other, but they knew their argument would have to wait.

Once everyone was gathered, La Volpe wasted no more time. "Soldiers are coming, and will be here in minutes. They intend to kill all of us."

Teodora stood shocked. "In minutes? But that is not enough time for my girls to get away, La Volpe. Are you sure that is all the time we have?"

"Si, Teodora. They were about to start out before I left. You must get your girls out now."

Teodora looked troubled, but she went off and hurried her girls out through a secret door in one of the back rooms. Just as the last one left, loud banging came at the front of the brothel, and the wooden door shook on its frame. The soldiers were trying to break in.

Teodora turned to Ezio and the others with a hint of desperation on her features. "Please, Signori. Give my girls time to run. Stop the Templars from finding this passage too soon!"

Ezio found himself nodding even before she had finished. He liked these girls and their strange philosophies. He didn't want anything to happen to them. Altair also decided to stay. He couldn't just leave these women to defend themselves.

"You also have my assistance, Sister Teodora," Antonio said. "Anything for you and your beautiful Sisters." He winked at her, and she gave him a small, weak smile in return, too worried about her girls to do much more.

Ezio looked over at La Volpe only to find him already gone. Before he could mention the thief's absence, the door caved in and the soldiers swarmed inside.

After the first couple stormed in, everything became chaos for Ezio. He was not used to fighting indoors, surrounded by other allies who were so close to him. He felt cramped, but he made the best of his situation as he could. His first opponent came at him, and Ezio dispatched him easily enough, but then two others charged for him. A strike came for his head, but he dodged in time to catch the opening it had left behind in his opponent. The man fell back clutching a badly wounded arm, but hardly a second passed before another soldier took his place. Soon enough, he found himself hard pressed to keep their blades from cutting off anything important.

Sometimes, he would be granted a slight reprieve from fighting. He used these moments to catch his breath and glance over at his friends to see how well they faired.

Altair, of course, was doing just fine. Deceptively calm, he waited for the enemy to strike, then used their force against them to create an opening. Then he dispatched them with a cold, brutal strike of his own. The occasional crack was heard as Altair broke yet another man's leg or arm, and soon afterward, a scream of agony would be cut off sharply. Ezio admired the man's skill, but didn't think he would enjoy such a brutal style of fighting for himself. It didn't have enough flair, Ezio thought sarcastically.

A bit farther off stood Antonio. He wasn't nearly as good as Altair, and he was sweating already, but he still held his own well enough. Ezio noticed a few cuts here and there, but nothing too bad yet.

But what was more miraculous was the fourth person who had joined their ranks. Teodora was holding her own as well as Ezio was. Perhaps even better, he admitted to himself. She used a thin, light-weight rapier, though Ezio did not see where she got it from. Rather than parrying strikes, she would evade them, her body moving fluidly, twisting away from thrusts and ducking under swipes. It was the most graceful and deadly dance Ezio had ever seen a woman perform. Ezio realized that she knew the men she fought were stronger than her physically, so she refrained from facing their strikes directly. Instead, she would use their momentum against them, and often she would be granted an opening to take advantage of. At those times, her rapier would suddenly dart forward, piercing the soldier's throat or heart with exact precision.

It was even more remarkable considering she still wore her dress and nun's habit. Ezio liked her more than he thought he would.

Yet, as much as he wanted to continue watching her, he had to return to his own opponents. They still came in through the door despite how many the Assassins had killed already, and Ezio found that he wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. He didn't know how much time had passed before Teodora finally called out, "That should be enough. Let's go!"

They retreated to a back room, Teodora first, then Antonio. Altair nodded his head to Ezio, motioning for him to leave next. Ezio glared at him, but did as the man said, ducking through the door just as Teodora got a window open. She leapt out, Antonio following quickly. Ezio came next, and just in time to find that the street behind the brothel had been blocked off by more soldiers. He sighed as he readied himself for more fighting.

Suddenly, a small object flew from the roof of the building across from the brothel, striking the ground in front of the closest of the soldiers and filling the street with gas. Smoke bomb, but from who? Ezio glanced up just in time to see La Volpe toss another at the group of soldiers blocking the other side of the street. La Volpe waved for them to follow him, and they ran to climb the building. Ezio, Altair, and Antonio reached the top quickly enough, but unfortunately for Teodora, her dress made climbing fairly difficult. Some of the soldiers made it through the smoke and began climbing after her. Ezio threw a few daggers at the closest ones, and Altair joined him. When she was close enough, Antonio reached out a hand to help Teodora up. They ran off quickly over the rooftops of Venezia, and La Volpe lead them toward Antonio's hideout. They would take shelter with the thieves now that it was the last place for them to be safe in the city. Hopefully the Templars had not found out where the thieves were as they had the courtesans.

Italian-English translations:

bastardo = bastard

Veneziano = Venetian

La Rosa Della Virtu = The Rose of Virtue

Dio mio = My God

coglione = jerk

Si = Yes