Ezio rose his head from his paws when he heard Leonardo call in a low voice, he slipped form the crate he had hidden himself in and told his friend quietly, "The building is over there." He flicked his tail to the crumbled walls. "Come on!"

He bolted through the crack in the wall, looking over hsi shoulder to be sure the artist was right behind him, and came back to teh trap door. He pointed his tail to it as he told his friend, "It's right here."

Leonardo inspected the wood a moment and tugged on a leather handle, swinging the door up and flat on the floor in fornt of him. THe smells became stronger, and almost overpowering, of many cats. He had to force his legs to keep form trembling as fear peirced through him like needles.

"I'll be back as soon as I can, my friend." Ezio promised. He started to pad down the steps and into the dark of the basement below. His whiskers brushed the wall near him as he decended until he felt the stairs end to flat stone. Ezio shivered and ruffled his fur against the cooler air. With mouth slightly open, he began to follow the scent through the darkness engulfing him.

The scents had begun to come overwelming, he was sure they were close, very close. His whiskers brushed against a moving object, his eyes widened as claws gripped his shoulders and pinned him down. He couldn't even voice his surprise as an all to familiar meow wisked and tickled his ear fur.

"Look at the sorry little housecat, come here to apologize?"

With a blink he sputtered in surprise, "Nanda?"

He felt the weigh shift slightly, as if he had startled her with the strange sounding mew. She then put in, "What's wrong with your tongue, you sound like a house folk!"

Ezio knew with burning embarrassment that she was plucking her claws around and through his robes, like she was just realizing that it wasn't his pelt she sunk her claws into.

"And what's with this housefolk thing covering you? Is that man as thick skulled as I thought?"

Ezio growled, "Leonardo isn't thick skulled!"

"He left me on the streets alone! Why did he do that?"

"He didn't know!"

"Housefolk are all the same! Useless! I'm better off here with these strong and useful cats than with you!"

"Nanda, I was worried about you! If I didn't care then I would have left you!"

Blood begun to well up in in long streaks across his muzzle as Nanda drew her paw back after a swipe at him. "You said you'd be there for me!"

"And if I wasn't I'd have never shone up!"

"Nanda! Kill that crow-hearted flea bag already!" Another voice hissed. It was clearly that wirey she-cat!

"I will." Nanda responded flatly as she drew her claws out and dug in deeper to Ezio's shoulders, making the assassin wince in pain.

"Nanda let me go! I saved you from her! How could you trust her?"

Nanda didn't reply.

"Please! Tell me you haven't forgotten about the fact she tried to throw you in the river!"

Her claws quit digging, the she-cat on him was still for a long moment before hissing and lundging off of him, ripping her claws out in the process! He could hear a crash as Nanda fought and tumbled about with the brown she-cat, both yowlings and screeching curses at each other with each move.

"I thought you wanted to be great!"

"Not at the cost of my friends!"

Ezio looked back at where Nanda had tore at him, but the very little light proved examining his wounds impossible. He instead jumped into the fight beside the she-cat, trying to aid her however he could.

"I let you join this order, Nanda! It was falling apart! We needed you!" The wirey she-cat hissed.

"You can find another cat with the brains of a door mouse to join you! Because I'm not!"

"Then you're a fool!"

Ezio was suddenly pummeled by claws and teeth as the wirey she-cat forced him down, her jaws clamping down on his muzzle to provent a scream for help as her claws raked through his belly. His own paws churned the air as he tried ot find her in the darkness, but continued to miss, he wasn't so used to this inky black for fighting.

With a hard jerk, another cat gripped his scruff and tugged him away, and he couldn't help but know that Nanda was trying to free him. THe she-cat was knocked off by something else.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you like I did Falco!" That was Nanda! She wasn't pulling him away, she was fighting the other she-cat!

"Ezio! Ezio! Stay with me!" That was Antonio, but what was he doing here? "We need to get out of here, now!" Antonio tossed Ezio so he could scrabble up on his paws as he blindly bolted. Behind him, his friend yowled, "Nanda! Come on! Angelia will block the entrance! We must leave!"

He could hear a new set of pawsteps following briskly behind them, and could only guess it was the little gray tabby.

His luck though, began to crumble, all it took was one of the stone steps to trip him, and he was already half way up. His hind paws slipped and his unsheathed his claws to gain so balance, only to have them skid painfully on the limbstone and allow his pads to scrape, but when he retracted them, his whole body flung backwards and he tumbled down the steps. Hitting the bottom with a frightning thump.

"Ezio! Hurry!" The voice sounded like many, and he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He could only barely get to his paws when something crashe don him.

"You're mine!"

Adreniline pumping through him as he raked his claws through, catching a cat's lower lip as he dragged them down. The tear of skin was followed by an adonizing screech and hauntling familiar gargling noise. The cat on top of him fell over next to him, but as the adreniline rush that had saved him begun to wear off, he could no longer keep his eyes open, the voice screaming at him to follow and be quick faded as he let his head fall to teh stone floor and himself be consumed by the darkness aroudn him.

Leonardo watched as two cat bursted in, one a ginger the other a fluffy white. The ginger sprinted down the stairs and out of sight, the white climbed on the beams above his head, finding a spot to wait. He looked closer to see that there was a few boards blocking rocks. And it became too apparent what that cat had planned to do, remove the board and let rocks fall on the entrance of the basement.

Below in the ceilor, he could hear yowls and screeches split the air, Ezio's voice sounding every now and again as if replying to them. In a matter of a few minutes, the ginger returned with that gray tabby just behind it. Both looked down antiously at the stairs as they continued to meow down them, their calls unanswered. A new noise rippled through the noises as the screeching stopped, a choked gag, when it stopped the ginger flicked it's tail to the white cat ont he beams, and that cat above his head bit down on the boards before yanking them out of the way.

The artist stepped back as stones poured down from the ceiling, and the cats all sprinted out the exit, looking up at the roof above him, he could see the cracks begining to form. It was all going to collapse!

With a mad dash, he lept out into the street as he heard a crash behind him. When he looked, the roof had completely caved in, the entrance blocked away. And his friend.

Leonardo felt his eyes shoot wide open with shock, Ezio was still in there!

Antonio looked to Angelia gravely, "We couldn't save him. That crow hearted, flea ridden, mangy excuse of a rougue murdered him!" He dug his claws deep into the dirt cracks of the cobblestone. He should have saved him.

Angelia only stared as she lowered her head down to look at her paws, "You shall be missed, Ezio."

But Nanda only fell to the ground whimpering, "It's all my fault... I should have never listened to her..."

Angelia sighed, "We will mourn him tonight. It's the least we can do."

Antonio glanced at the housefolk standing nearby, the not-cat seemed shaken and stunned. But he couldn't tell this creature anything to assure him, even if he could speak his tongue, there was no words he could even say out of truth that would be assuring.