A/N: FORTITUDE. SPOILER ALERT! This one contains a light, not-quite spoiler from Brotherhood, and it only really spoils the Christina missions (which aren't technically important to the progression of the story). There are side memory sequences within the game where you can see what happens between Ezio and Christina after the deaths of his father and brothers. For those of you who haven't beaten the game to unlock the final Christina memory, it's set right before Ezio crashes the Doge's party at Carnivale during Assassin's Creed II. Leonardo sees Ezio and tells him that he saw Christina dancing with her new husband. Ezio lures her away and kisses her without telling her who he is. She thinks it's her husband, and gets pissed when she finds out it isn't and tells Ezio she never wants to see him again. D: This is also kinda one-sided Leonardo/Ezio. :/

Human Element: :D Keeping Malik and Altair in character is getting easier. Maybe because I can relate. :P

xGhostxStealth: If I were in charge of Assassin's Creed, the damned cliff-hanger endings wouldn't be so infuriating. And yes. Plenty of smexi bureau scenes. :D

Ranchdressing: Ahaha! Poor Altair is going senile early. XD

Laughing Bandit D Royale: Heroes are always problematic... That's why it's nice for them to have an appropriately selfish lover to pull them back together. :3 I was really kinda going for an "Occam's Razor"-style approach for FAITH in that we should always tend towards the simplest solutions offered by a theory. Which Malik very artfully explained. :)

xStealthxSniperx: Yes, dear. I'm still on DeviantArt, I just don't update there very often (except for journal entries from time to time) and I "favorite" a lot of inspiring works/reference points for OC's and the ilk. If you're still interested, the username is ADeWeHi. :P I'm glad you like the story so far.

To say Ezio was a man of determination, strength and fortitude was a gross understatement. When his father and brothers had been killed, he waited only long enough for the guards to lose his trail before stealing their bodies away from the men who would dump them unceremoniously into the river with no rights. When Vieri had threatened his mother and sister on their way to Montereggioni, he had stood against him and all his men with an unflinching determination to protect his family. He had killed so many men in his quest to first avenge his murdered kin, and then to save the free will of humanity. He had been stabbed himself, hit with arrows, hammers, rapiers. He had stumbled to Leonardo's workshop in the early hours of the morning, collapsing in a bloody heap on whatever bit of furniture or floor wasn't covered with paper or invention. Leonardo would patch him up and the Assassin would endure the pain without a complaint.

But when he had kissed Christina, when he had lured her away with the desperate intent on touching her one final time, when she had turned on him viciously and told him to never find her again, that he had missed his chance, something had cracked and broken. Ezio had done as he set out to do and he had returned to Leonardo's workshop instead of going to his uncle's villa for some sleep.

"Am I such a monster?" He'd asked.

Here was a man who could stand up to armies of men armed with archaic technology and not flinch in the face of what anyone else would consider certain death, who had been shaken by the words of a woman. He sat in Leonardo's chair for several days, moving only when necessary and speaking only occasionally. He stared at nothing, alternating between looking bitter to furious to disenchanted to crestfallen to annoyed... Leonardo frequently sketched the moody Assassin, though he was irritated that he could do nothing to help his friend.

Ezio was slouched in his chair, staring at the stone floor. He imagined himself so strong, and yet here he stood without a leg to stand on. Reduced to this by the words of a scorned woman. He spoke little, ate less, and slept less than even that. Leonardo recognized the scowl on his friend's face, and realized it was one of irritation and bitterness with no room for anything else. The lunch he'd made for the Assassin remained exactly where he'd left it a few hours previous and he sighed.

"Are you planning on telling me what has you so bothered?" Leonardo asked. It was the same question he'd asked several times since the Carnivale, and he'd never received a straight answer, or even the same answer two days in a row, for that matter. Ezio looked up at him and Leonardo could see him trying to formulate a lie before eventually giving up.

"How am I supposed to save the world and stop the Templars if I can't even handle the harsh words from a bitter woman's sharp tongue?"

Leonardo laughed and told him that if he ever tired of being an Assassin, he could certainly make a life as a poet. Ezio cursed at him and lapsed once more into silence, leaving his oldest friend to feel very much ashamed of his comment.

"Tell me why you believe Christina's comment effects you as an Assassin." Leonardo demanded gently.

"I have spent a great deal of time tracing my Assassin's blood back as far as I can and have found a relation to Altair Ibn La-Ahad, the same Assassin who saved the world from Templar control in 1191. I am descended from the man heralded as one of the greatest Assassins to ever grace our order, and I cannot bring myself to recover from something so simple as rejection." Ezio growled.

"Did you never read those Codex pages after you brought them to me for translation? Altair was very much in love with a woman, only to find her kidnapped by Templars and killed. In a fit of rage he murdered every one of them. I've spent a bit of time reading between the lines and doing a little research of my own and I discovered a secondary Codex corresponding to Altair's. It was written by his, erm, close friend Malik who explains that after finding the woman he loved dead, Altair fell into a fit of depression and refused to leave his rooms for days at a time. Then he decided he found love again, this time with a reformed Templar woman who bore him a son. When Altair told her he was to be trained as an Assassin, she disappeared in the night, telling him that everything he stood for was a lie and the only reason she would not betray their location was because her son was still there. After her betrayal, it took several weeks to convince him to return to his duties. Altair was every bit human as you or I." Leonardo informed him.

Ezio's mood didn't brighten and he said, "But all of that happened after he had saved the world. I have accomplished nothing, and am already bitter and questioning."

"So?"

"So? So I have an assignment to complete and I cannot help thinking that if I am too weak to tolerate Christina's dismissal then I cannot be strong enough to retrieve the Apple, protect our interests against the Templars, and avenge my family!" Ezio yelled. Leonardo stepped back and worked to conceal his smile. Ezio's voice was filled with anger, rage, insecurity, and the most emotion he had shown since his encounter with his former lover at the Carnivale. Leonardo was not a stupid man, and he knew that this was the first step in fixing the hurt Christina had caused.

"What difference does the timing make? Falling in love does not make you a poor Assassin, and being hurt over losing that love does not make you useless. You think no less of Altair, do you?"

"There is a difference."

"I see none."

Ezio struggled for a comeback, but eventually gave up and slouched back into his chair once more. He scowled at the floor and Leonardo took a seat beside him.

"You think no differently of Altair for being human and falling prey to his emotions. Why think less of yourself? Assassins are not expected to be fortuitous in all aspects of their lives. This is clearly indicated in the responses of the man clearly regarded to be the greatest member of your order."

"What are you saying?" Ezio asked after a moment.

"I am saying that you are perfectly strong enough to take down the Templars and that your constitution in these matters of mankind are not reflected in your constitutions in the ways of relationship and emotion. Strong in the things that matter, Ezio, not in all things."

The next morning, Ezio's seat was abandoned, and in his place was a lengthy note both thanking the artist for his patience and apologizing for the Assassin's petulance, along a bottle of Leonardo's favorite wine. The inventor neatly tucked the letter away and put the bottle of wine into his cellar to be opened on a special occasion and returned to his inventing. Because just as Ezio had his unfailing strength in fighting enemies of free will, Leonardo had his strength in expertly handling his emotions.