-Well, I must say I feel awful about a certain something...although I can't say because it would ruin the story for most of you.
-So, this chapter was delayed a bit. I went on a school trip a while back and while I was on that trip, my dog died so I've been having to take care of all of that stuff. :C It's sad.
-As for the chapter title... eh, I couldn't come up with anything, so I just used what the mission was called in the game. :3 That's how lazy I am.

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Chapter 35: Two Birds, One Stone

I was woken up abruptly with a harsh noise, making me flinch in shock. For a moment, I was at a loss as to where I was, my eyes blinking rapidly, darting around. Wherever I was, it was dark, and I couldn't see a thing until my eyes would adjust. Instead, I focused on my other senses. I was definitely warm, wrapped in snugness that calmed me considerably. The material of the blanket was rubbing against my skin, so I didn't think I had clothes on, and there was a hot brand draped over my waist...

Finally, my eyes adjusted and I twisted my head around slowly, looking around the room, trying to remember where I was. I jumped again when I heard the loud noise, my head snapping for to the side, making me look over my shoulder. As I stared at the provider of the noise, I felt my tired face slowly rise into a smile, like the morning sun peeking over the mountains. With his mouth half open and his eye lightly twitching, Ezio breathed on me, giving me an unpleasant dose of his morning breath but it was still somehow charming. I watched him for a while, finding it hard not to giggle whenever he would snore in his throat and twitch his nose afterwords. Feeling the sudden urge to kiss him, I denied it by forcing myself to push myself up so I was sitting up, removing his arm around my waist slowly and carefully. I rubbed my face with my hands, my fingers feeling swollen due to the fact that I had obviously been retaining water. With one sigh and a yawn quickly afterward, I pushed my arms forward until my shoulders popped, then I wiggled my way back under the blanket to snuggle up into Ezio's side. The heat was actually a little bit too much (I felt all sweaty and stuff), but I found it all much too endearing to not enjoy. A smile found its way onto my lips when I felt Ezio's arm slither back around my waist, holding me to him as if I were his teddy bear. Convincing myself that it was too early to get up anyway, I sighed in contentment then closed my eyes, allowing myself to fall asleep.

When I managed to wake up again, Ezio was gone this time. The sun held it's place near the middle of the sky that beamed down upon me. I squirmed around on the bed for moment, kicking aside the blankets, and then I simply laid in the patch of warm sun. Taking a moment to think, I remembered about the carnival and how much fun it had been. I was excited to spend the next three days in the festive streets.

Sitting up and yawning, I saw that my normal clothes were folded at the end of the bed and I felt relieved when I remembered (with much chagrin, might I add) that Ezio had ripped my clothes apart the night before. Slowly and carefully, I crawled out of the bed and stood up. Almost immediately I collapsed under the sharp pain my ankle was suddenly enduring. Then I remembered about how I had hurt my ankle and I began to favor the foot by hobbling around more (which made it difficult to dress, too.)

Once I was dressed in my snug, normal clothes, I headed down towards the front room, hoping to find Ezio, Teodora, or someone I at least knew. There was no Ezio or Teodora, but I did spot Emiliana with Lucina in the corner of the room, both of them giggling and fluttering their eyes at their male customers. As I approached them, they both gasped and giggled, pulling me into a quick hug.

"Oh Narina," they sang. "Congrats!"

Immediately, I knew what they were talking about. Flushing and giving them a quick squeeze before I pulled away from the hug, I said "Sorry that I'm such a loud fuck." Another chorus of giggles bubbled from their throats. We spent a few minutes discussing the cancellation of the carnival since the Doge had been murdered (and I was terribly sad to hear about no more carnival), then we started to all giggled and pass around hushed whispers about our "accomplishments" of the night. By the time Ezio walked into the building, gone out for shopping or something, both Emiliana and Lucina were sitting on a couch with me, our heads inclined together.

Upon Ezio's arrival, both of the courtesans busted up in a fit of giggles and pushed me up, leaving Ezio and I "alone". If they were expecting Ezio and I to get it on right here, right now, they were sadly mistaken.

Instead of ravishing upon him, I calmly walked up to him, cocked my hip and folded my arms. "Morning," I greeted with a smile.

"It's more afternoon than morning, but, yes; good morning." Ezio winked.

Trying not to make it awkward, I shifted my gaze to the full pouch Ezio was carrying. "What did you buy?" I wondered.

He held up the bag proudly. "Bullets. Lots and lots of bullets."

"Really?" I was slightly surprised. "Where the hell do you buy bullets?"

"I had the smith customize some for me," Ezio explained. "Might have been expensive, but it was worth it!"

I frowned. "You better not be shooting a gun that much."

"Not around you, no." He placed the bag of lead on his belt, then he reached out to me and took a hold of my wrist. "You heard about the carnival, right?"

"Yeah." I sighed sadly. "It's canceled."

Ezio saw my melancholic expression and wriggled my hand. "We still have time to have fun. Let's go to Antonio's and on the way there we'll see if there's any place we can buy fireworks."

That lifted my spirits, and with a smiled I nodded eagerly. "Sounds good!" Without a goodbye to anyone, Ezio led me out of the church with a hand that eventually slide from my wrist to entangle with my fingers.

Much to my pleasure, we found a few stands that were still up and selling the fireworks that weren't able to be shot off the night before. They might have been expensive but when I tried to say we didn't have to buy them, he bought them any way with a smile on his face.

"We'll shoot them off tonight," Ezio said, holding out the fireworks to me to look at.

"Okay." I took a hold of the long cylinders and rolled them in my hands before I reached out and put them in a flap of Ezio's robes. With a smile on my face, my hand finding his waiting once again, his thick and long fingers fitting with mine seemingly perfect.

Antonio wasn't in Seta when we arrived but Ugo and Rosa were. I was excited to see them again because it seemed like forever since I had seen them last. Instead of waiting for Antonio to come back, Ezio, Ugo, Rosa, and I decide to wander around the city to scour for lost florins. Ezio hadn't raised such a fuss about the Doge's death this time (it seemed like no body really cared even), so we were able to go about peacefully.

Ugo thought it would be fun if we had a swimming race but Rosa and I declined, letting the boys go about their little competition. By the end of the race, both Rosa and I were cheering for Ezio and Ugo got all butt-hurt and declared that there would be no more races.

Sometime during the day, Ugo took one of my precious fireworks, lit it with a small torch out in the streets and shot it at a group of guards, making all of us haul ass up to the rooftops and try to escape the whole northern guard faction. Ezio found it so fun that he had to try it too and then we added the eastern guard of the city to our wild goose chase. Since there were so many people filing through the streets from il Carnevale, we were able to escape the guards quickly enough that we still had smiles on our faces by the time we became incognito again.

At one point of the approaching evening, we all climbed up on a high tower and on the slow incline of the roof, we all lounged back and stared up at the vibrant and vastly warm sunset that placed its warm and colorful rays among the city and shimmering waves.

Rosa broke the silence momentarily by sighing, then I guess Ugo felt obliged to say something too, almost as if they were having a secret competition. "Hey, we should shoot off the rest of the fireworks," he said excitedly, turning on his side to regard Ezio.

Ezio looked to his other side to me and watched me look up at him for a moment. Then turning back, he said, "We will when it gets darker—shooting in the sunlight won't be near as pretty." I knew that he felt bad about wasting two of the fireworks already and I couldn't help but smile at the thought.

Rosa and Ugo suddenly started to bicker, swinging playful fists at each other—something about it seemed very familiar and a wave of nostalgia washed over me. I sat up to watch them spit distasteful names at each other and Ezio propped himself up on his elbows to watch them as well, his hood falling back over his shoulders.

"Why don't you two just fuck and get it over with?" Ezio suddenly blurted out.

The two stopped and stared blankly at Ezio.

"Ha!" Rosa snorted and folded her arms. "Me? Sleep with Ugo? Never!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" Ugo exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "It's not like there's any man out there who wants to sleep with some stuck up cunt!"

I flinched. That was going a bit too far, even if they were just playing. "Ugo—both of you—can you please shut up and enjoy the sunset?" I reached my hands out towards the bright sun disappearing behind the mountains. "This should make your insides melt and get all mushy, not make you pissed at each other."

"Narina," Ezio put in, looking over at me with a smile on his face. "Let them do their mating dance. You forget you and I always used to fight and bitch and moan at each other."

"We still do," I pointed out, raising a brow.

"Yeah, but it's different for us now, isn't it?"

I looked back up to Ugo and Rosa, of whom were now ignoring us again, nasty swears streaming out of their mouths, then I looked back to Ezio who was regarding me quietly. When I thought about how we always used to fight, it was different now than it was back then. Before, it was always playful in a way; we both knew that we didn't mean what we said. But now when we argued, it was always a much more serious matter at hand. I wasn't sure if that difference was good or not. Something more valuable was on the line than just a simple friendship.

"Yes, it is," I whispered, dropping my eyes.

He must have seen my saddened look because he reached out and took a hold of my arm, pushing himself up off of the roof. "Let's go find a good spot to light off the fireworks."

Even the mention of fireworks didn't really cheer me up but I did smile at him and let him pull me up. We would have told Ugo and Rosa to come with, but they were too much into a violent conversation that it didn't seem right to break them up; Ezio was right about the fact that this was their mating dance. You could sense the strained emotions behind the crude slings. So without a word, Ezio and I leaped to another roof and headed for a towards in the Northern District

By the time we got to the tower and climbed its tall structure, the sun had disappeared and the sky was glowing with both the city's lights and the dotted stars in the sky. We hunched over on the roof, surrounding the fireworks that Ezio had placed out. "We need a flame," I pointed out, not liking the thought of having to climb all the way back down to the streets to find a torch.

"Already thought of that." Ezio pulled out a flint from one of his pouches, a handful of brittle hay from another, and started to strike the flint, making sparks fly out at the dried up pieces of hay. It took a few tries but finally the sparks caught and a small flame dwindled. Ezio quickly held the flame to the firework's fuse, a long cloth looking thread, before the thread itself started to spark and flame. With a simple raise of his elbow, he aimed the firework for the sky. When the fuse finally ended, the colorful tube of wonders rocketed into the sky, a loud whistling noise cutting the air. I watched with awe at the trail of smoke that was left in the wake of the firecracker.

Just when I thought it wasn't going to work, it exploded in the sky with a loud BANG that echoed throughout the entire city. Bright red and golden embers shone brightly in the aftermath, silently falling down and losing their glow almost immediately. Even then, it was still the most amazing thing that I had ever seen.

Forgetting my earlier worry, I felt giddy once more and I turned excitedly towards Ezio. "Light another one! Light another one!"

We spent the next good twenty minutes lighting off the fireworks we had, mesmerized by the falling smolders that simmered in the sky. Down on the streets we had gathered a big crowd to watch the lights as well. Rosa and Ugo found us again, angry that we had left them, but too distracted to actually whine about it. I felt myself almost depressed when Ezio announced that our last firework was gone.

"Can we buy more?" I asked with an innocent smile.

With a small smile, Ezio looked away without an answer; but I knew he was saying no.

On our way back to Seta, Ezio and I watched Ugo and Rosa in front of us, pushing at each other, completely oblivious to us behind them. When Rosa went to push Ugo away one time, he caught her hand in his... and didn't let go. Although they didn't stop bickering, their hands folded together and Ezio and I looked at each other smiling. The mating dance wouldn't last much longer—the so-called ritual would be done within a few days.

A week passed before Ezio and I actually caught up with Antonio. Instead of actually staying at Seta, Leonardo had insisted that we stay at his place and he used Ezio as a model for one of his commissions. After the four days it took Leonardo to get the basic form of Ezio's figure and after I giggled and teased Ezio for having to pose half naked, one of the thieves from the guild stopped by and told us that Antonio wanted us to meet him.

As we walked through the streets, I looked up at Ezio. "Do you think this means our vacation is over?" The morning sun was so blinding already and I had to squint against it.

Ezio smiled softly and nodded. "Yeah, most likely. When Antonio calls for a meeting, it usually means business."

"Do you think he found a new Doge?" I asked, knowing that was the prime objective right now.

"Possibly. There's only one way to find out." He put a hand on the small of my back to lead me into the courtyard of the Seta, nodding to the familiar thieves sitting around before we walked into the building. Inside, Rosa met up with us and led us up into the room that Antonio was in waiting for us.

Before we walked into the room, I asked "Should I go in?"

Ezio gave me an odd look. "Why not?"

"Well, I don't know—he did just call you."

Rolling his eyes, Ezio put his arm about my waist and walked into the room. Two men were sitting in chairs, both of them looking up when we walked in. One of them was Antonio; the other was a man I had never seen before. Antonio smiled at our entry, standing up from his chair. "Ezio, Narina! How good to see you again!" After he shook hands with Ezio, he gave me a one-armed hug, swinging me around to sit me in an open chair. "Glad you two could make it." Antonio chuckled and elbowed Ezio, gesturing to the other man sitting in the chair. "Ezio, I want to introduce to to an...uh, an associate of mine. This is Agostino Babarigo—soon to be Doge of Venice thanks to you."

The Babarigo man nodded and bowed to Ezio and then to me as well. Even though his name made me wary, I nodded back and kept my wits about me.

Ezio was much more kind. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Ezio hummed, bowing as well. Then standing straight, he added "I'm sorry about your brother."

Agostino nodded understandingly. "He had it coming. He sold himself to the Borgia—he was their puppet. I will make sure I never buy myself into such a mistake."

Antonio reached out to Ezio, touching his shoulder. "Come sit, Ezio. We've much to discuss."

As Ezio went and sat in the chair across from me, a table between all the chairs, Antonio sat as well and folded his hands in his lap. More rapidly now, I felt my carefree week slip from my hands, the more composed and more thoughtful Narina coming back over. I began to listen very carefully.

"Good news, Ezio; we've located Silvio for you, but he had fled to L'Arsenale."

Agostino snorted loudly. "'Fled'? You mean occupied! And to add to that, he has two hundred mercenaries with him!"

Both of the men were staring at Ezio but I thought of something. "But, aren't you Doge?" I asked.

Agostino only briefly looked at me before Ezio continued for me, gaining Agostino's attention once more."Yes. Can't you do something about it? Clear out the men?"

"I am not Doge just yet," explained the man. "The committee of forty one has yet to confirm my accession." Ezio inclined his head in realization. "Added to that," Agostino continued, "Silvio's little act has made things worse." The man flung his arms in the air in exasperation. "He has an entire army at his command!"

Ezio thought for a brief moment. Then quickly and strongly he said, "Then help me raise my own army."

Antonio chuckled and leaned forward in his seat. "I thought you would say such things, Ezio. Bartolomeo d'Alviano is the man that you need to search for. He and his men—his faction—have little love for Silvio. He would be more than willing to help you raise an army before a common enemy."

A smile ghosted upon Ezio's lips. "Where can I find this man?"

"In the military district southwest of L'Arsenale."

"It's decided then." Ezio stood up from his seat and almost immediately, I followed in suite. "I'll go and see him." He looked at me before walking around the table and brushing against me, telling me non-verbally to follow him. "I'll try to send reports back with what happens."

"Good luck, Ezio." Antonio paused. "And you be safe Narina."

"Thanks." I smiled, waved to Antonio and bowed to Agostino before I followed Ezio out the door.

Before I closed the door all the way, I heard Agostino say to Antonio, "What a lucky man."

As Ezio and I walked towards L'Arsenale, we kept a close eye out for anything suspicious—we both knew that it would be much to easy just to waltz into the Military district and find this Bartolomeo fella. Things never worked out in our favor in these kind of situations and we knew that well by now. We actually weren't that far into the district when suddenly Ezio held out an arm to stop me from walking, the shadow over his face suddenly seeming more darker and mysterious.

"What is it?" I asked, looking around.

"Shh," he whispered. "Don't you hear it?"

I strained my ears to try and give myself super hearing abilities and although that failed epically, I did hear out a low cry that called for help. Both Ezio and I looked around in jerky movement, trying to find out the source of the voice. Finally, Ezio took a step away. "It's coming from the rooftops," he said, moving towards the wall of a nearby building. I followed behind him quickly. Once we were up above the city, we started to look around and listen carefully again.

"Sono qui," the voice cried out in a sort of agony. "Vi prego. Aiutami."

"Over there," Ezio hummed to me, pointing to a roof across the way. Without hesitation, we ran across the rooftops and dropped down to the low roof. Beside a square roof garden was a bleeding man sprawled out on the rooftop. He was breathing heavily and stared up at us with hooded eyes. Without really much of a thought, I dropped down beside the injured man, assessing all the wounds he had and the arrow that was pierced through his side. He was shaking violently, his body falling to spasms.

"What's happened here?" Ezio demanded, kneeling in front of the man as well.

"It—it was Silvio's men," the man spluttered out. "They attacked us and ran us out...they—they ransacked the place." I reached out to try and soothe the man.

"What about Bartolomeo?" Ezio wondered, reaching over and taking a hold of my hand, telling me silently that it was too late for this man.

"Silvio's men...they took him and...and...took him North...into the district..." Then in one final moment, the man shuddered softly and fell limp. I had steeled myself for things like this, but it never failed to make me want to cry. Everything stood still for a moment until Ezio finally reached forward and pressed the man's eyes closed.

"Requiescat in pace," he whispered. When he stood up, he gave me a look that had me standing as well. "Sounds like things are going to be harder than we first thought."

On our way down the buildings, I caught and held onto Ezio's gloved hand. When he looked down at me, I voiced my concern. "Ezio, if these men were able to take down a whole faction, how are we supposed to survive?"

With a small squeeze of his fingers, he smiled at me softly. "I'm not sure, but we always seem to get lucky." That was true but we had had so many close calls that I wasn't sure I wanted to try any more. Still, I followed Ezio silently as we advanced north, trying to find any sign of Silvio's men.

Turns out, we didn't have to look very long. As we walked through the streets, a loud voice cut through the air, brash and harsh swears stringing along the noise. When we approached the voice the words grew more distinct and it didn't take a genius to know that it was Bartolomeo.

"I will not be locked up in some damn cage like an animal!" The man yelled out violently. "If you're a man, prove it! Let me out of here and fight me like a man! I could beat you all with one—no, two hands behind my back! That would make it at least difficult enough to be interesting!"

Hidden in the shadows of the tall buildings near the canal, Ezio spotted a large group of guards standing around a cage that was up against a building. Within that cage was a tall man, short cropped hair and a thin but thorough beard along his jaw and chin. Shaking his head and seeing that we weren't going to get anywhere with all those guards there, Ezio held out a hand to stop me from advancing as he thought. "We need a brief distraction. I can't take them all on at once," he mumbled.

"I could use my new-found courtesan skills!" I teased, grinning up at Ezio. He didn't find it nearly as amusing as I did and he frowned in disapproval. I frowned too. "Fine. I could have them chase me to lead them away while you get Bartolomeo out." I quickly continued when he gave me a further look of disapproval. "I'm a a hell of a lot better climber than any of these heavily armored guards—I can loop around and be back before you know it." When I saw he was considering it, I reminded him in a low breath that I could drop a man with one pinch and finally he agreed.

"Make sure that you climb fast," Ezio warned. "I swear to God if you get hurt, I'll be so upset with you."

I knew that his threat was empty, so I simply waved it off. "Yeah, sure, sure. I'll be back." I walked out from the shadows of the building and began to sprint towards the guards, deliberately pushing into the large group to knock over a few and to get the rest to yell out at me and then to billow after me like angry bulls. I never let up, my legs flying under me. With the wind blowing through my hair and the ground beneath me speeding by, I felt a grin appear on my face, the exhilaration over-taking me and making me giggle out loud. I hoped that they heard me because then that would have been a huge kick in the balls—a small girl running from them—beating them—and then laughing at them as she fled.

But I was no runner, so as soon as I was safely able, I flung myself up the side of a building, finding it harder and harder with ever year that passed to pull myself up. Yet, I was still faster than any of the guards, and soon I was bounding across the rooftops back to the area that Bartolomeo had been in. I had gone farther than I realized, because it took a while to get back to the clearing, but when I did, Ezio had the job done and was opening the cage that Bartolomeo was in.

"It's about goddamn time!" The huge man yelled in his cage as Ezio fiddled with the lock. "I don't know if I should slap you or kiss you." A pause as Ezio swung open the door and Bartolomeo stepped out. "Maybe both...just to be safe."

I snickered as Ezio raised his hands in a retort. "That's quite alright."

Bartolomeo's eyes roamed over Ezio's body as if the man was gauging how dangerous Ezio was. "And who are you?"

"I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze," Ezio said formally, his head nodding a bit. "I am here to rescue you from your uh..." Ezio looked to the prison. "...cage."

"Rescue?" Bartolomeo laughed boisterously. "We'll see who ends up saving who, boy."

I realized Ezio's eyes were darting around, tuning out Bartolomeo for the moment. Seeing my cue, I flung myself over the edge of the roof and dropped down to the ground, grunting and straightening before hustling over to Ezio. "Done and done," I said with a grin. "The idiots are still trying to climb the buildings no doubt." Ezio smiled back, his shoulders seeming to loosen up a bit at the sight that I was really okay.

Surprisingly, I heard Bartolomeo scoff. "And who is this?" I faced him, judging his face which showed a degree of unpleasant nature, but before I could confront him and introduce myself, the pounding of footfall on the stone paths directed all three of our attentions elsewhere.

"There!" At the mouth of the area was the group of guards that I had distracted. Most of them were out of breath but the leader straightened out his shoulders, pointed and yelled, "Stop them! Before they get away." Ezio drew his sword, pulling me behind him immediately as Bartolomeo replaced my spot beside Ezio and raised his fists. Although feeling a little miffed that Ezio thought I wasn't going to fight, it was still pretty cool to see Bartolomeo comply so quickly.

The guards all came, surrounding us in a large circle as they judged their enemy. I put myself into a fighting stance as well, coming up with the fact that it had been a long time since I had actually done some fighting but I was willing all the same. Besides, after spending four years with pressure points, one is not likely to forget those lessons.

It happened all at once; the guards swung forward with their drawn swords and Ezio and Bartolomeo broke out into action. I played around a bit with my dodging training and twisted around as two guards began to attack me. Finally, my opening was presented; one of the guards lifted their sword up into the air for a supposed 'last hit' but I lurched forward, stepped on the toe of his boot, pressed the knuckles of my left hand into his soft spot under his armpit and the finger tips of my right against his jaw. Just like that, with a little push, the man sprawled out, his sword falling to the ground and he cradled himself on the ground. Within the same movement, I was prepared to dodge another swing from the other man and even when I did, it was pointless. Ezio had finished his guards and moved onto my last one, swinging the sword down into the mans shoulder, then kicking him off with a thud of his leather boot.

Something came over me and I picked up my first victims sword from the ground and chucked it at an expectant Bartolomeo, who caught it and stared at me silently.

"Let's get back to the base," Ezio suggested, sheathing his sword, all the guards dealt with. "We can discuss our movements from there."

"But Silvio's men have that place under their thumbs," I pointed out, folding my arms and looking away from Bartolomeo. "We're not going to get in without a fight."

"Then let it be!" Bartolomeo burst out, raising his weapon in the air. "Bartolomeo is always ready for a fight!"

"Let us go then," Ezio claimed, nodding to Bartolomeo and then to me. "And keep your wits about you."

With that, we all began to walk through the streets again, keeping our backs in the shadows and our eyes in front of us. If there was any way, I knew Ezio would go through this without battle—I'm guessing the years and years of bloodshed made him realize that it wasn't the best way to solve things. And it worked out wonderfully. In the long shot, we only had to kill about five more guards and knock out three or so. I could tell Bartolomeo was itching for more of a fight, but I was more than happy enough with the way things turned out.

However, when we approached Bartolomeo's place, there were three guards hiding in the shadows of the entrance. Upon our approach, they moved out into the street, automatically recognizing Bartolomeo immediately.

"If you were smart," one of them cajoled, "you'd stand down and save your life."

The big man took a step forward in front of Ezio and I, making his stance even broader and more noticeable. "Never!" He cried out. "What good is a man's life if it is not lived free? I will never go back into that cage!"

Automatically, the guards drew their swords and aimed the tips at Bartolomeo. "Then you will find yourself in the ground."

Ezio took a step forward now too and pulled out his blade, showing that Bartolomeo wasn't alone. I would have done the same but I think we all knew that would have backfired terribly. So I kept my ground behind the men but still positioned myself for battle. Blades started to swing, slicing the air and soon after, blood streamed through the street, the droplets falling from the tips of both Ezio's and Bartolomeo's blades. The only thing bloody on me now where the soles of my boots and one splatter on my left hand.

We stood around for a silent moment before Bartolomeo sighed deeply. "What a mess they've made of my home..." He went eerily stiff all of a sudden. "Bianca!" He cried out, rushing forward towards the door, flying inside. "I hope she is unharmed."

It was kind of strange to consider that he had a sweet-heart, but it was still endearing and made me smile a little on the inside. Hearing Bartolomeo cry out in concern must have reminded Ezio to worry about my well being, because he looked to me suddenly and held out his hand, beckoning me to come with him.

We quickly followed Bartolomeo into the building, finding ourselves in a ruined room, things cluttered and thrown all about. With great earnest now, the hulk of a man was searching the destroyed room. "Bianca!" he called out, throwing aside a broken box. "Bianca!"

"Is everything alright?" Ezio wondered, gazing around the room.

"What do you think?" Bartolomeo snapped, looking behind an overturned table. "Look at this place!" He suddenly reached up and rubbed his face. "And poor Bianca...if anything happened to her..."He composed himself and began to search around again, turning over a few more boxes and gazing intently into the darkened corners. Starting to get a little worried myself, I too began to look around the room. I felt almost bad for the way Bartolomeo was freaking out about his lost Bianca and I desperately searched for a woman anywhere in the room.

"Ah-ha!" Both Ezio and I looked up to see Bartolomeo grinning widely before he knelt down behind a desk. I stood straight, happy that he had found his lover...wait. He stood up, grinning at himself in the reflection of a long and broad sword. "Ah, my darling! Thank God you are alright!" A small wave of shock mixed with a form of disappointment rushed over me. Bianca was his sword, not his girl. It was sort of strange to see a grown man fawn over an inanimate object. Bartolomeo, still grinning, walked around the desk and swung the sword out towards Ezio, the tip of the sword only a mere inch away from Ezio's nose. "Bianca, this is Ezio. Ezio, Bianca," Bartolomeo grinned.

Ezio stared at the tip of the sword for a moment, his face falling into a faint form of disbelief before he reached up and brushed the sword away, mumbling a drawn out "Charmed" under his breath.

As Bartolomeo put the sword down, shuffling it in his hands, he looked up at Ezio. "So, I know your name but not why you are here."

Ezio nodded. "I have business with Silvio Babarigo. I was told you could help me."

A grin. "You can count me in. It would be an honor."

"But I think it's going to take more than the three-," Ezio stopped suddenly, then started over, "the four of us to stop him."

"I will go and gather my men. Prepare them for battle." Bartolomeo glanced at me. "In the meantime, you should go and release those men who have been captured. I cannot in good conscious leave them behind."

Ezio reached out and took a hold of the man's shoulder. "Consider it done."

Bartolomeo's eyes were still on me. "What is your friend's name?" He asked.

"Narina," Ezio said, gazing at me as well. I held out my hand for the man to take. "It's a pleasure."

His grip was strong and his shake was firm. "The pleasure is all mine."

"Narina could help you fix up the place while I am gone," Ezio suggested, glancing at me to make sure it was okay.

"Right." I nodded towards Bartolomeo who nodded back. "She will stay here for a bit then—this place is a mess."

Although I did hate cleaning, I valiantly claimed "It's nothing that I can't handle. It will be done."

Another nod. "Very well."

Ezio announced his leave, gave me another look before acknowledging Bartolomeo's wishes of good luck and then he was out the door, gone down the streets.

Immediately, I began to tidy the room, picking up furniture and the crates that weren't broken, and then gathering all of the broken pieces of wood and such and put them into one pile. Bartolomeo watched me closely for a minute and when I looked at him questioningly, he finally looked away and claimed that he was going to go gather his men for battle. I thought it was strange that he would stare at me so intently. It was like he was judging me, and it slightly made me uncomfortable. I began to rearrange the room in a orderly manner—the side tables straightened, the desks lined up against the walls. After poking around for a bit, I found a discarded broom and began to sweep the room, creating a large dust cloud in the room. I kept the washing down to a minimal because I knew that there were other rooms in the house that were just as badly trashed. Not knowing how much time had passed already, I moved from room to room, picking up, cleaning, dusting, sweeping—it was the same thing over and over again and I got so tired of it, I actually considered just dropping the whole thing. Finally, Bartolomeo came back and offered his help and just like that, the time seemed to be cut in half and before I knew it, we were all done.

As I began to scrub the floors, I caught Bartolomeo staring at me again. I was sick and tired of it. I sat up, blowing away a stray hair that was hanging in my eyes, then I looked up at Bartolomeo questioningly. "If you want to say something," I started, wringing out the cloth, "go ahead and say it."

His eyes widened innocently. "Who, me?"

Annoyed, I looked briefly around the room and replied, "No, I'm talking to my best friend Juan over in the corner—yes, of course you! You've been staring at me like I have a growth on my forehead!" For a moment I felt self-conscious and reached up to touch my forehead to make sure I didn't actually have a growth.

Bartolomeo looked away, leaning back on a desk as he stroked his cropped beard. "It is just strange to find a woman running around with the notorious assassin."

"Is it really?" I asked skeptically. "From what I've heard, almost everyone has heard of me as his traveling companion."

"Yet you are so dainty and tiny," Bartolomeo pointed out. "You're right—I have heard about you but I was always so sure that you were simply burdening Ezio as being a distraction." His hand ripped out Bianca from her sheath, the blade whistling through the air as if to make his point clearer. "But you can fight! You are able to defend yourself in such a unique way!"

"You're a fool to try and say all women are usually useless," I pointed out.

"Not all of them. Just the small ones."

I frowned, knowing he was teasing me now. "To be fair, I guess I can't kill like Ezio can." A curious look came over Bartolomeo's face. "It's like something hold me back," I explained, then paused. "Blood almost scares me actually."

"Is that why you use your hands instead of a blade?" I nodded and Bartolomeo hummed, stroking his beard and sheathing his precious Bianca. I went back to scrubbing the floor. "You're his lover, aren't you?" He suddenly asked.

Pausing briefly, I looked up and watched Bartolomeo for a moment. Then I looked back down. "I wouldn't call it that," I mumbled. "Sure, we've fucked—a lot more than once—but I wouldn't say...lovers..."

Bartolomeo obviously heard my view on the situation in my voice because he took a deep breath and said, "I'm not exactly a love guru but I do know when people care about others. Ezio does care about you. You can tell by the way he looks at you."

Not knowing what to say, I kept my eyes down and moved to a different spot to scrub. At that point, the subject was dropped and the cleaning continued. It seemed like hours passed—scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing—I was so sick and tired of scrubbing! But finally—finally—the cleaning was done and the place was clean once more.

As I took a step outside to dump the water buckets out into the streets, I looked up and watched a figure approach in the shadows of the buildings. "There you are," I called out to him, smiling. "What took you so long?"

He sighed as he walked up to me, actually stooping over low enough to put his forehead to the top of my head. "There were a lot of people to rescue and a lot of guards. It was more difficult than it sounds."

"Oh?" I reached up and let my fingers pat against his cheeks. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

He didn't say anything—all he did was stand straight, rip off his leather glove, pull up his sleeve, and flex his arm, showing off a nasty gash that ran along his bicep.

"Ew," I mumbled, and without much of a thought, I put my arms around his waist, looking for his pouch that held medicines. "How do you always manage to hurt yourself?" I whispered, finding the bottle I was looking for, pulling out the cork out of the bottle.

Ezio just grinned. "Gives me a reason to let you fondle me."

I gave him a sharp look, half joking, before I poured the liquid out onto the wound, making Ezio flinch. "Here; let's step inside to find you some bandages to cover this. Do you think it's deep enough for stitches?"

As we walked inside, Ezio shook his head. "Nah, it should heal up fine on its own." Then he looked around the room with curious eyes, a gleam appearing in his gaze. "Wow, you cleaned this place up nice."

I smiled. "Thanks." At that moment, Bartolomeo walked in and assessed the situation. Before he could say anything, I asked him if he had any bandages for Ezio's arm. He left the room again in search for the cloths, and before his return, I continued to dab away the blood the puddled from the wound. "Did you manage to find all the men?" I asked.

"Si," Ezio said, watching me carefully. "All of them together is definitely a lot more than what we've ever had before...but judging on how large Silvio's base is, I say we're hardly a fraction of what his army is."

"Hey," I said softly, looking up at him through my eyelashes as I tried to focus on his wound, "you have single handedly broken into the most heavily guarded building in all of Venice and supposedly killed the Doge. I think you'll get by somehow."

"I didn't do it alone," he objected. "I had help, didn't I?" A shiver bolted through me when I felt his fingers brush against my cheek, tilting my face up towards his, his golden eyes melted and scorching.

"Here are your bandages," Bartolomeo blurted, appearing out of nowhere and dropping the cloths in front of me, making me snap out of my sudden trance to look up at the man.

"Oh." I slightly shook my head. "Right. Thanks."

As I bandaged Ezio's arm up, Bartolomeo sat down in a chair at the table as well. "This place looks really nice," Bartolomeo said, grinning. "My home is restored back to its former glory."

"Yes," Ezio hummed, looking around again. "How should we proceed? A direct assault on L'Arsenale?"

"No!" Bartolomeo exclaimed, turning on his heel to start to pace about the room. "We'd be massacred at the gates. But I have another idea, one that will make it much easier."

"Oh?" Ezio gave me a slight nod as I finished wrapping his arm and pulled his sleeve down. "Care to share your idea?"

"Si!" Bartolomeo swung back towards us, grinning widely. "I need you to take my men and plant them across the district. The trouble they cause will surely make Silvio dispatch most of his guards."

"And that will leave L'Arsenale unguarded." Ezio stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Then I could move in for the kill."

"Exactly! It'll be so easy that you will be unstoppable."

Ezio stood up from the chair he was in, straightening his robes before he came up next to me, not touching me but his warmth surrounding me. "Let's just hope he takes the bait," I quietly said.

"Oh, he will!" Bartolomeo said confidently. "Now go and place my men about the district. Narina," I looked up to the big man. "You should stay here and help me ready some medicines and bandages—the results of this battle will leave many wounded and I want them to be treated as soon as possible."

"Alright." I glanced up to Ezio, slightly disappointed because I wanted to go with him but I wasn't going to say no to Bartolomeo. I would probably just get in the way anyway. The hooded man noticed my look and smiled softly at me. He reached out and pressed his forefinger to my lips.

"Behave yourself," he said, tapping his fingers once before he swooped around and exited the building.

Bartolomeo was grinning at me when I looked over at him, staring at his reflection in Bianca's shining surface. "The signs are so simple," is all he said before he beckoned me to follow him into the back.

It took about two hours until Ezio came back. Bartolomeo and I had taken half an hour to ready the medical room in his home. Surprisingly, Bartolomeo gave me a little side job to busy myself that I actually liked—it was cooking. Not anything special and hard, even though I couldn't have done it by myself. The burly man was surprisingly a good cook, and he was very appalled that I as a woman didn't know how to clean or cook. Despite how stereotypical Bartolomeo was, I was actually really happy that he was so willing to baby me so much to teach me the basics of a woman's duties. The men that had stayed to protect Bartolomeo's home all ate my first ever cooked meal and they all liked it enough not to whine about it. With such a thing happening that made me feel so happy and good about myself, I almost found myself disappointed when Ezio came back. Almost.

Bartolomeo called me out of the dining area. "Narina! Ezio's back!" Immediately, I waved goodbye to all of Bartolomeo's men and walked out to the front room, walking up to both Ezio and Bartolomeo. "You've got quite a talented girl in your hold, Ezio," Bartolomeo told the assassin with a grin, throwing his arm around me. "You can thank me later about teaching her how to cook." Both of the men laughed and I somehow felt like the butt of the joke. Then it all got serious, Bartolomeo dropping his arm. "Did you get it done?" he asked.

Ezio nodded. "Yes. Your men are spread all throughout the district."

"Good." The man turned and walked over to one of the shelves in the room, opening a drawer and digging through it. "Here." He held out a colorful stick, twisted with colors. "I hope you know how to use this."

"A firework?" Ezio grinned, throwing me a look. "Of course I do."

"Good. Climb to the highest point in the district and fire it off. This will signal my men to start the attack."

Ezio nodded. "Right." He reached out and took a firm hold of Bartolomeo's shoulder, a move that I had seen Uncle Mario do so many times before. "I will see you on the battlefield."

"That you will. Good luck, my friend." Then Bartolomeo turned towards me. "You go with Ezio. He seems like he's the only man out there who can keep you under his thumb."

"Puh-lease," I said with a grin, holding out my hand for Bartolomeo to take a hold of. "Ezio controlling me? That's a laugh!" He shook my hand strongly, smiling with me. "Good luck, Bartolomeo. You keep Bianca safe."

"I will."

I must have irked Ezio a bit with the last comment about him not controlling me because as soon as we were out of the house, walking down the darkened streets, he reached out and took a hold of my hand and tugged me along behind him.

It didn't take us long to find the tower that Bartolomeo was referring us to. The tower literally towered over the rest of the district, the prefect place for a signal to be given. I would have climbed up to the top in a matter of minutes and I smiled in the anticipation of climbing up the side of the buildings. However, when we both started to pull ourselves up, Ezio growled out in pain, and beckoned me to wait a moment. Turns out, the wound on his arm didn't like Ezio climbing up so quickly. Babying his wound and our precious time, we inched our way up the tower, Ezio having to take many breaks to shake out his arm to try and get it to stop protesting in pain. It took longer than I would have liked but we managed to finally pull ourselves up onto the roof.

Ezio surprised me when he let me light the firework. He just smiled at me when I asked him why he was letting me, not that I didn't want to or anything. He used the same flint he had used when Ugo, Rosa, Ezio and I watched other fireworks the week before and just like that, the fuse was lit. I held the stick towards the sky, a broad grin on my face as I watched the spark of the fuse countdown my favorite explosion.

The kick from the ejecting firework actually surprised me, making me drop the stick in surprise. As I watched the smoking ball shoot up into the sky, I could hear Ezio chuckling lightly but I didn't pay him any mind. When the explosion lit up the sky with a greenish hue of sparks, it took mere minutes until I heard a commotion down below on the streets. All of Bartolomeo's men were yelling out, causing a ruckus, tipping over street stands and provoking the normal district guards. Not long after, I noticed that a large group of mercenaries left from the L'Arsenale area and I smiled at the thought that our plan had worked.

Ezio took a sudden hold on my arm, pointing down to the streets, near a bridge that arched over the canal. I caught sight of Bartolomeo fighting a broad man, thick and strong looking, swinging an ax around. Bartolomeo held his faithful Bianca in his hands, swinging her carefully yet powerfully.

"He needs my help," Ezio breathed. "I need to get down there before he kills himself."

"There's no way you can..." I faded off, watching Ezio go to the edge of the roof towards the canal.

"Ezio, don't do it!" I objected, seeing what he was going to do.

"Meet us down there as soon as you are able," Ezio said softly before he threw himself over the edge of the building, making me cry out in fear as he plummeted down towards the water below. He made a perfect dive, splashing loudly in the water before he popped up above the surface again, swimming over to where Bartolomeo was. For some weird reason , I had a small moment of panic where I almost considered jumping after Ezio but I had to remind myself several times that I couldn't swim. Finally, I got my wits about me enough to climb down the building as quickly as possible and ran towards the battle. As I was crossing over the bridge that led to where the two men were fighting, the big man, who I saw was Dante fled through an alleyway, guards flooding in and filling his position. I arrived just in time to help take down two guys by kicking the back of their knees to drop them and then knocking them out by pressing the softest pressure points in their necks. There was no time to assess each other, for Bartolomeo sheathed Bianca and ran the way Dante had gone.

"After him!" He yelled out, hell bent on finding his opponent.

Ezio too sheathed his sword and ran after Bartolomeo, not waiting for me as if he was so sure that I would follow. So I did, focusing on my surroundings as I followed the flip of Ezio's robes. Bartolomeo was obviously a fast runner, because it didn't take us long to find the spot where Bartolomeo had caught up to Dante and was now fighting him. A group of Bartolomeo's men were helping fight the mercenaries that had come to Dante's aid. As Ezio ran into the brawl with his sword pulled, I heard a laugh echo across the small plaza and I looked up to find a man up on a higher level.

Silvio Babarigo.

"He's a fine specimen, is he not?" Silvio called out across the clearing. "You should be honored to die by his hand!"

"Suck my balls, you piece of shit!"Bartolomeo jeered back, dodging and swinging his sword with his words. "Ezio! Come on, we need to stop that porca puttana! Granno bastardo! (son of a bitch! Fat bastard)" Both Ezio and Bartolomeo attacked Dante, gaining an advantage over the Templar man. I felt useless as I stood aside, not able to do anything really but just like that, Silvio's voice rang out over the plaza once more.

"That's enough!" He called down to Dante. "We've no time for this! Return to me now! We must depart!"

Just like that, all of the mercenaries and Dante ran towards the way Silvio had disappeared and Bartolomeo turned to Ezio quickly. "Go now, Ezio! No doubt that brute will lead you right to his leader! My men and I will stay here and make sure the guards will not follow you!"

"Grazie, my friend," Ezio said, nodding briefly, then he took off after Dante, leaving me behind in the dust. I knew I would do Bartolomeo no good—the only thing that I could possibly do with the guards' drawn swords was get in my allies' way. So instead, I followed after Ezio once more, giving Bartolomeo a soft touch to his arm as I passed him, both of us giving each other a look of 'good luck'.

Even if I became lost at a few moments, I surprised myself when I found Ezio's robes fluttering in the wind that blew from the docks. I followed along their edge, running after Ezio as fast as I could, being reminded once again that I wasn't a runner.

"Hurry!" I heard Silvio call out to Dante, far ahead where I couldn't see them. "They're going to leave without us!"

I felt the need to have to call out for Ezio to wait for me but I figured if I did that I was hindering him as well and I kept my distance. We circled around the docks following Silvio and Dante, Ezio plowing through the guards without even trying to fight them, leaving me a few to take by surprise and knock them over in pain with simple pinches. The least I could do to help now was to get the guards out of the way.

In the docks, there was a boat that was ready to be boarded and when I ran up next to it, huffing and panting, I saw Ezio up on the deck fighting Dante, Silvio slumped against the edge of the boat with a bloodied hand pressed into his side. I ran up the boarding plank, intent on helping Ezio win this battle if he needed my help (even though I knew he would win from the Carnival incident). As soon as I took a step on the boat, Ezio knocked away Dante's swinging sword, then extracted both of his hidden blades and stabbed the brute several times in the chest, drawing blood so quickly and fluently that I had to look away and shudder.

As Dante fell to the deck, Ezio reached over and took a hold of Silvio and threw the man down on the deck next to Dante. As both of the dying men stared up at Ezio, I walked up next to the assassin, staring down at the bloody mess. "What's happened here?" Ezio asked, staring at the two of them, gasping for breath. "Why the boats? I thought you sought the Doge's seat?"

Silvio coughed, blood splattering from his lips. "It...it was only a distraction. We... we were meant to sail..."

Ezio's eyes narrowed, not even acknowledging that I was there. "Sail where?"

Silvio smiled, his brows furrowing. "I will never tell," he whispered, then he looked at me, letting me witness his eyes dull before his head fell backwards, dead.

"Cyprus is their destination," Dante gasped out, staring up at Ezio with wide eyes. "They wanted... they... they want..." Dante faded off, his eyes also dazing and he head rolling backwards, both of their gazes now staring off into eternity.

Ezio took a moment of silence before he whispered "Fear not the darkness, but welcome it's embrace. Requiescat in Pace."

Ezio knelt down and closed both of their eyes and I was surprised to see him stay stooped over them for a moment, his eyes somehow distant as if he was lost in thought. Finally, I felt myself move and I reached over and took a hold of Ezio's shoulder. "Ezio?" I whispered. The smell of the salty sea swept up on the deck for a moment and I smelt the promise of rain upon the breeze.

Ezio looked up to me slowly, staring at me before he stood up. He didn't say a word but he took a hold of my hand and led me down off of the boat, back to the docks. As we stood there for a moment, Bartolomeo popped up out of nowhere, grinning broadly and clearly excited.

"Well done, Ezio!" The man cheered, taking a hold of Ezio's shoulders and shaking him softly. "Silvio has been defeated, and finally the Military district has returned to us once more!" The men around us all cheered loudly, the sound of celebration clear in their voices. "Maybe Venezia will finally be able to enjoy some peace and quiet!" Bartolomeo laughed loudly. "We should celebrate this victory!" The men cheered again, their wants being complied to and I couldn't help but smile.

"I am happy for you and your men, Bartolomeo," Ezio said calmly, "but I'm afraid that I cannot join." I looked up at Ezio strangely, wondering what had gotten into him all of a sudden. He seemed so serious, not at all enjoying his victory. "I fear my work has taken a rather strange turn."

"What do you mean?" Bartolomeo looked just as disappointed as I felt.

"Silvio said that this Doge business was simply a distraction. He was about to leave Venezia, in fact."

"Why would they need to do this?" Bartolomeo wondered.

"That is what I need to find out," Ezio said, nodding to his new companion. "I thank you for your help, Bartolomeo, and may your district be changed back to its former glory."

"What will you do now?" Bartolomeo asked, folding his arms.

"I must return back to Monteriggioni and speak with my uncle. From there, I will decide what course of action I will take." The two men exchanged a nod, a handshake and then Ezio turned away, giving me a quick look that said we were leaving. Seeing that he was stressed out, I thanked Bartolomeo and gave him a quick hug before I followed after Ezio.

We were a few feet away before I reached him, taking a hold of his hand and pulling him to a stop. "Ezio," I whispered, looking up into his hood. "Why are you so stressed out about this?"

"Narina," he started slowly, looking down at me, "I don't know what our enemies are planning. Why Cyprus? Why all the distractions? What are our enemies planning?"

"Look." I reached up and took a hold of his stubbly jaw. "We don't have to figure it out right at this second. The world isn't going to end in one night, Ezio." I paused. "Besides, Cyprus is all the way across the Adriatic Sea. We have time to figure out what's going on."

Ezio seemed to relax a little bit but his eyes were still guarded. " What about your Tamair? Doesn't he live near Cyprus?"

I nodded slowly, a little unsure but it seemed that Cyprus was close to Jerusalem. "We could check the documents he sent with me and see if the place is mentioned anywhere in the texts."

"Alright. Then we head back to Monteriggioni."

We were on the boat back to Forli, in the middle of the night, both of us wide awake in our cabin. The rock of the boat had kept me from sleeping as I curled up on my cot, staring at the high ceiling. Ezio was in his own cot, cleaning his blades and obviously lost in thought.

"Narina."

I rolled over and looked at him and he was staring at me intently, his swords put aside, his legs over the edge of the bed as he sat up and his hand reached out towards me. "Come here."

Slowly, I stood up and walked over to him, taking a hold of his hand before he pulled me in between his legs, his arms wrapping around my waist and his lips pressing against my sternum.

I pressed my lips to his forehead, running my fingers through his hair and pulling out the ribbon that held it back. "I'm scared too," I whispered before I let him pull me on top of him, falling back onto the bedspread, both of us knowing that things were going to change whether we wanted it to or not.

Well, this chapter took a long time, and I must apologize for that. Since it's the end of the school year, I have a lot of tests and finals to take care of. Not to mention, I had to take the ACT (which I got a 26 on) so I've been really busy. Like I said before, at the beginning of writing this chapter, my dog that I had had for nine years died, so I had to go through that as well. I hope during the summer that I will get a job, but that'll mean slow updates too. But the bright-side ( I guess) is that the story is ending very soon.

As for the basis of this chapter, I must say that I really didn't have that much fun with this chapter, although I do love Bartolomeo. He makes me smile.
But even then, this chapter and I were not very good friends, so understand if it sucks a wee bit.

Things are all going to go so fast now. It's sort of sad. :(

Please review and such! :3

Thanks to HanashiNoSensu for being my bestest most awesomest beta ever. ^^