A/N: I may have caved to some reader's requests… But I'm not giving it up easy, make you fuckers work for it! LOL Music: Tarja's "My Little Phoenix" and Adelita's Way "Scream"

For the road trip, so far I have one vote for Malaysia and one for Barcelona. LOL I could make Malaysia work, it would take some thought, but I could do it! And Barcelona would have some amazing architecture to play on… I know they have some pretty baths too, er… ahem! Hurry, hurry, you can still request!

And BTW, I sort of awarded Bartolomeo a trophy in this one, heh, you'll see what I mean! AC belongs to ubisoft... Thanks to my reviewers, all of this is also for you! ecnal_nogardnap, flyingcrispi, loki2113, Owari and fizz shop!

She must have fallen asleep. Or passed out. She listened to the cadence of the soft voices around her; the men were quietly discussing the plans for the next couple of days. It was Ezio who first realized that she was rousing and his face was the first one to appear in her field of vision when her eyes opened.

"Cara," he breathed, his voice radiating a sort of questioning concern.

She sat up slowly, her head was throbbing and her face felt puffy and raw. She pressed her hands to her temples, adjusting to the change in position. Her body felt like she had just come out of a fever that had been raging for days, but she felt… lighter somehow. Free. Released from something that she did not know had been chaining her.

Ezio scooped her up into his embrace, and she felt Dino's big hand settle on her shoulder, Tullio's graceful fingers brush her hair back and then rest on her arm.

Brothers.

She buried her face in Ezio's neck, receding into his hood as she tried to sort through her thoughts. He smelled good, soothing, and she was lulled as he invaded all five of her senses.

Ezio stood, taking her with him, his body her physical support as she began to surface from the depths that she had unknowingly wallowed in since Vito's death. She twined her arms under his, seeking and finding his warmth.

"I'll go get the horses," Tullio said. Alessa heard him take off into a jog.

It was silent for a time. Ezio's pulse beat lightly into her cheek, steady, resolute. Alessa finally took a deep, cleansing breath and turned to face her husband's grave, allowing the tears to fall.

How could there still be tears?

These were not bitter and painful, though. She shed them and they cleansed her as she gazed in deepest sorrow at the two stones proclaiming her lost family.

"Sleep well," she whispered to them. She looked up at Ezio; for once the closeness did not bother her. "Thank you for making sure they were taken care of." She looked over and Dino. "And thank you for making sure I was."

Dino gave her a deep nod of acknowledgment.

Tullio returned with the horses, but Alessa was too emotionally exhausted to manage the ride back. Ezio helped her into his saddle and settled into place behind her for the ride back home.

It was a curious thing, she mused dazedly as her eyes drifted shut of their own accord; twice now she had left her former life behind in Ezio's arms. But this second time she knew was going home.

She opened her eyes to blessedly soft moonlight. Her windows were open and the crickets were a lulling counterpart to her breathing. She had always found the night to be so peaceful. Now she performed most of her work within it.

She came to the slow realization that she was not alone. The dark, hooded figure sat beside her bed, back against the wall, also facing the window.

"Ezio?" she rasped. But even in the dark, she knew it was him before he spoke.

"I am here, cara, how are you?"

"I feel… okay, actually."

They sat in silence for a while and then she spoke, "Does the emptiness ever go away?" she asked.

Ezio took a deep breath before he answered; his voice echoing with his own haunted sadness, "It does not. But it becomes a part of you, sort of how you are now used to your finger being gone. For the majority of the time, it is simply there and you continue on with your life. But every once in a while, something happens that draws your attention to it, and the pain is nearly as bad as the first parting."

While she considered that, she felt his hand cover hers. Reflexively, her fingers entwined with his.

"I remember when I first met Vito," she found herself saying. "He came from Tuscany, his family sent him here because he was related to the local blacksmith, a nephew. Vito was the twelfth surviving child in his immediate family; his uncle had no children. I was maybe ten when he came. He was six years older and used to chase me out of the forge when I went to watch him.

"He wasn't the most handsome man, you know, but he had the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. He stopped chasing me away when I turned sixteen," she smiled at the memory.

"And then we were married a few years later, when he was able to work at his own forge. I waited for him. I hoped that our children would have his eyes. I guess I will never know."

"You do know," Ezio replied gently. "The answer is that they will not. Your children will not look like him, because he is gone. I too often wondered, ah… Cristina -" his voice roughened, and then broke off as his head bowed in silent hurt. His fingers tightened in hers.

"My first love is also gone," he said, his voice deep and grave. "But while she was alive, I also entertained the idea that our children would have had her eyes. Truth is almost always harsh, and it can make the years very lonely."

"But the Creed says that nothing is true."

Ezio nodded. "Yes, it does. But it refers to the truths as spoken by men. In our Order, Death is the only Truth."

He paused, the shadowed folds of his hood turning to face her. "Our enemies have done their best to break you; you have faced Truth, and will be the stronger for it. "

He was right. As he spoke, she could feel all of her anger and grief and defiance coalesce and become a grim resolve.

She beheld the shift with a kind of somber awe.

"No wonder you are so strong," she whispered.

Silence.

Alessa felt her eyelids getting heavy, "Ezio?" she murmured. He made a questioning sound. "I'm tired."

She felt him stand up to leave but retained hold of his hand.

"Stay," she said, the word softer than a sigh. She felt him pause, and then gently extricate himself from her grasp. She heard the soft sounds of him unbuckling his armor, of his weapons clanking quietly as he set them aside.

The leather of his hidden dagger's vambrace scraped her waist briefly, rough even through her nightgown, before his arm settled around her. She felt his lips brush the back of her head as he spoke,

"Go to sleep, cara mia."

It was not a difficult command to follow.

"I think I may be in love," Dino sighed in reverence as his bolt hit the target with startling ease.

"Just like a man, fixated by the potency of phallic objects."

"Just like a woman, to be jealous," Dino snarked.

Tullio grinned and elbowed Dino at the expression on Alessa's face. Dino grinned back and then both of them smirked at her with identical glee. She jammed the bolt into the crossbow with a bit more force than was necessary, then turned and shot it directly into the target dummy's crotch. Both men assumed immediate protective stances over their own man parts and made masculine noises of imagined pain.

"That's a good shot, cara, but the victim would make a lot of noise," Ezio drawled, appearing, as always, from out of nowhere. After recovering from her slight alarm – why was she still so surprised when he showed up like that? - Alessa casually drew a throwing dagger and hurled it – ah! She grinned in satisfaction as it buried in the dummy's throat. Her best toss yet.

"Hmm, maybe sever the vocal cords first next time; he wouldn't have still been standing upright to present that clear of a target," Ezio said in a sardonic form of his lecture-tone.

"Psh, that was an accident," Dino scoffed, jostling Alessa off to the side. Holding both his own and Tullio's crossbows out, he aimed quickly, fired…

"Ha!" Dino crowed in ecstasy as the bolts pierced either side of the dummy's face, not quite in the eyes but close. "God, if this thing was a woman, I'd fffuu- ah," Dino sputtered, glancing at Tullio for a split second and Alessa laughed,

"Don't hold back on my account," she said.

Tullio looked mildly offended.

"What?" Dino asked him, full of righteous indignation. "For her?"

Tullio's expression was scathing, "It's not right."

Dino scoffed, "Yeah I know she's not right, but we still like her."

"Hey!" Alessa pinched his tricep.

"Ow! Hey! No pinching!"

Ezio nudged Tullio with his elbow, keeping his arms crossed over his chest. "And you thought you were joining an order of fierce and hardened Assasssins, eh?

"But I think it's enough practice for today." Ezio turned slightly so that he could address them all. Dino got in one last tug of her hair and they waited expectantly.

"Tullio, I know you were going to work on some more free-running with the thieves, but I would like you to come with me tonight, if it is something you would like to do?" The stocky assassin nodded his head slightly, his new hood dipping down once as he went to retrieve his throwing daggers and bolts. Alessa and Dino turned their attention to Ezio questioningly.

"I have a friend that I would like to introduce you all to."

"Who?" asked Dino, cracking his knuckles. Alessa shuddered; his damn mitts were so big that the noise was very noticeable.

"Another member of our Order," Ezio lifted his chin at Dino. "You know of him, Bartolomeo d'Alviano."

Dino grinned. "Outstanding! Is he still running the fights?"

"He's in the middle of a grueling campaign against the French – of course he's still running the fights."

Dino was so ecstatic, he very nearly capered. Alessa chuckled at his exuberance.

"Oh, I am so getting some! Tullio!" he called across the courtyard, then jogged over to go bother him.

"How are they working?" Ezio asked as he fell into step beside Alessa as she headed for the target dummies to retrieve her own ammunition.

"I think Dino gave a fairly succinct review," Alessa said with fond amusement. "On a serious note, they're surprisingly fast to load, and light."

"Leonardo is the best at what he does. Unfortunately, the Borgia know this too. After we meet with Bartolomeo, I need you and Dino to accompany me on a couple of missions; there are some potentially dangerous weapons of Leonardo's that the Borgia have the plans to. I am sure that they will be functional soon. I want make sure that they are never used against us."

Dino had collected her reusable bolts and handed them to her with a flourish and a bow.

"Let's go!"

So they went; drawn along by Dino's enthusiasm.

"Over the wall right there," Ezio said softly, when they had arrived at their destination. He chuckled. "I can hear him from out here."

"You get some sort of perverse pleasure from sneaking up on people, don't you?" Alessa asked, not really expecting him to confirm it.

Silently, the four of them scaled the wall, unbeknownst to the patrols above. In their defense, they probably were not expecting an attack from this direction, but still…

The apprentices hung just below the rampart ledge as Ezio scanned the area. At his signal, they hauled themselves over, took a few strides to cross to the inner wall, and then all four jumped into freefall.

Landing with the muffled thumps, they rolled over their shoulders to absorb the impact; the momentum propelling them all to their feet. Alessa noticed that Tullio was grinning fiercely; his free-running with the thieves was going well, apparently.

In the torchlit courtyard, a tall man was gesticulating wildly in his conversation with his men.

Ezio stepped out of the shadows, flanked by the apprentices.

Bartolomeo turned abruptly as one of his guards pulled his sword, then burst into noisy laughter.

"Ezio!"

After a round of animated male greeting rituals, Ezio held his arm out to Alessa. She moved forward and drew back her hood.

"Alessa Ricci," Ezio introduced.

Bartolomeo swept up her hand in his and bowed over it; Alessa enjoyed his apparent zeal for life.

"I wonder if you remember my father, messere, he used to work for you?"

"Va Bene! Who was he?"

"Alessandro Lopresti."

"Sandro! Fuck yes I remember him! Damn good in a knife fight, cunning as the Devil! And quick! How is he?"

"He passed two years ago. Found him in his bed. He'd been having some issues with his left arm and leg the day before.

"I had an uncle who went like that," Bartolomeo said, "Just keeled over in the war room during his report! It's an easy death, no suffering. We should all be so lucky!"

Huh.

She had never thought of it that way. She stepped aside as Dino lowered his hood.

"Dino Demasi! Not surprised to find you turned Assassin! You made me a good amount of money in the past, my boy!"

"And I am ready to do it again!" Dino blustered. Alessa rolled her eyes.

"And Tullio Sozzi," Ezio finished.

Tullio and Bartolomeo clasped forearms.

"Sozzi? Sounds familiar, maybe my wife would know. I shall introduce you. Come in! Come in! She is inside, and has information for you, my friend," Bartolomeo planted a heavy arm across Ezio's shoulders, escorting him into the Barracks.

Alessa spent a moment trying to figure out what the constant roaring she could hear all of a sudden was. Then she was distracted by her introduction to Bartolomeo's wife.

Pantasilea was a surprising contrast to her husband: tiny where he was huge, soft-spoken where he was boisterous, ethereally beautiful where he was, well... She obviously adored him, though. She welcomed them all to her home with a quiet grace, then shocked the shit out of Alessa when she nonchalantly discussed Ezio's next batch of assassination contracts with intelligent detachment.

Apparently the pretty little bird had some depth to her.

Dino was fidgeting.

Noticeably.

Even Bartolomeo picked up on it.

"Come on downstairs," he said jovially. "I feel the need to make some money on you!"

Alessa had never seen Dino disappear so quickly.

Ezio and Pantasilea ignored them all as they trooped downstairs into a surprisingly large room. The mercenaries numbered over a hundred and every single one of them was yelling at the current fighters in the ring. It was deafening.

Dino was elbowing his way through the crowd, some of the meneven seemed to recognize him. Although when a giant white-hooded Assassin started pulling his shirt off….

Now he wasn't…

"Oh no, Dino, no, don't, ugh…"

He swept his undershirt over his head and Alessa groaned in mortified agony. Beside her, Tullio guffawed. The men roared as Dino vaulted the boards nimbly and stepped into the center of the circle, arms outstretched, feeding the crowd's need for drama.

"What an ass!" Alessa said, stifling laughter behind her hand.

But Dino, for all his obnoxious attitude, was an unstoppable force. With his height and reach, he simply overpowered unskilled opponents. With his surprising speed and agility, he outmatched those with skill. It was very interesting to watch; she found it amazing how much more primal and potentially brutal a bare knuckle match was when compared to real fighting with a blade.

Maybe blades made things too easy? Took the sport out of it?

She barely noticed Ezio sidle up beside her, leaning on his elbows on the boards, watching with interest as Dino executed a flawless rear throw, his opponent landing just in front of her. The man groaned and writhed in apparent agony. Dino came over and helped him up. The man even seemed to like it!

What the hell?

Then Dino noticed Ezio standing beside her.

"Come on!" he grinned. Beside her, Ezio smiled back, teeth bared in a predatory manner.

"Dino, you are a dumb fuck," she said to him.

Astonished, she watched as money changed hands. Ezio vaulted the boards and…

Oh.

Yeah.

Him too.

Taking the shirt off.

Alessa blocked the sight with her hands, and then peeked.

He was not a muscled as Dino; Ezio was more wiry. But he was far from scrawny-looking. Broad shoulders tapering into a supple chest and lean waist...

Not that she was looking.

Not at all.

They faced off and the crowd went eerily quiet. The men circled each other, hips shifting fluidly, fists loose, each crouched ever so slightly.

Dino, of course, could not wait it out; he attacked, one of those hoof-sized fists descending for Ezio's face with alarming speed.

It happened almost too fast for her mind to figure it out; Ezio weaved under the blow, punched Dino once in the upper belly. The next blow hit him under the chin with some alacrity and the final blow across the face. Dino clattered to the ground with an audible thunk.

Holy shit!

Dino whoofed through his breaths for a couple of seconds while the crowd roared and Alessa attempted to pick her jaw off the ground. She wasn't sure if she was shocked by the speed of the whole or the fact that Ezio had just beat the hell out of Dino without even appearing to try.

The crowd jeered good-naturedly as Dino staggered to his feet, weaving slightly at the knees and making big, obvious blinks.

"Okay! Okay! He took me in less than ten seconds." Dino struggled to stand, ended up hanging on the boards, waving his fist haphazardly at the jeering men. "But I bet five of you can't beat him in 50 seconds!"

There was complete silence, then pandemonium. Alessa was jostled as the men volunteered, were rejected, and then eventually selected and odds were laid down. Bartolomeo roared,

"All in! All of it! Everything in my pockets on Ezio!"

"Merda!" Alessa said appreciatively at the sheer amount of excitement in the room. She chuckled and helped Dino over the boards.

"Idiot," she whispered to him in glee.

"He hits like a goddamn hammer!"

"Have you learned anything?" she asked archly.

"Yes," he said, as if it were obvious. Alessa raised her brows. "I have a lot of practice before I get back in there with him!"

"You are hopeless," she laughed.

"Nope, just not quite as good as him." Dino gestured to Ezio as he crouched slightly, completely surrounded by men that were all nearly as tall as Dino and some noticeably more muscular.

Ezio, while lithe and obviously very fit, was the smallest of all of them. She brought a hand up to her throat protectively. Dino interpreted her gesture and gave her a rough hug around the shoulders.

"He'll be fine, tesora."

"You're sweating all over me," she vaguely, caught by the drama emanating from the crowd and the men in the ring. "And put a shirt on."

The timer was set and the timekeeper called ready. All the men in the ring tensed. Someone rang a bell. Alessa could not hear for the screaming going on around her. Dino looked like something deranged.

The five attackers all charged at once and her hands went up to cover her eyes. She peeked through her splayed fingers, though.

Ezio was speed and strength personified. The first man to reach him went down on a ridge-hand to the throat, the second to the back-fist that reversed out of the ridge-hand.

Just like that.

The first man was still squirming, but the second was knocked out cold.

The remaining contenders stepped back to reassess, but Ezio was on a mission. He took a flying leap, rear leg kicked back, back arched, and landed a hard blow to a temple.

Down.

He was out, too.

The final two were dispatched with similar ease. Ezio ducked under the first one's swing, punched the lower back, front kicked the other man coming at him. He spun the back-punched man around, ducked under him, and hurled him over his shoulder. The impact was not kind.

He dispatched the final man with a final throw, something she had heard her father call a shoulder wheel. Ezio essentially picked the man up in a shoulder carry, then dumped him across his shoulders to the ground, again with the impact.

Alessa found herself cheering and yelling with the rest of the simians. Dino was grinning fiercely. Ezio simply picked up his pristine white cloak and exited the ring. Bartolomeo could be heard gloating with his winnings.

"See, he's not even sweating," she said to Dino. She turned to say something to Tullio but…

And where the hell had Tullio gone?

A/N: heh, I've been wanting to get Ezio and Dino in the cage for a while now. So there you go!