A/N: So hey guys. It's been aw… like four or five months? I'm really, really sorry about not keeping this up. Since school started, I've discovered a psychological problem with me continuing this story, so if I continue it, my uploads may be slightly erratic and unpredictable, but I'm going to try my hardest to keep it going. I've only been able to write this because my mid-year exams are scheduled in such a way that I've been given a five day weekend, which I intend to use for both revision and for this. I hope you enjoy this long-awaited chapter. I still love you guys! Thank you for remaining faithful. 3 xx Lizzie.

Dante was surprised at first to see us there. He and his men acted as fast as possible, but the

element of surprise gave us time. We were upon them just as he had drawn his sword. Of course, I was at the tail end of the attack, and in fact there were so many of us outnumbering them that I didn't even get to cross swords with them. Bartolomeo seemed to be holding up just fine, and pretty much all of the men, too. I raised my blades in front of me, but there wasn't a single person to strike. I heard a loud splash off in the distance, and turned to the sound. Something approximately Ezio-shaped and sized, clambered out of the canal, soaked to the bone.

I heard a loud shout very close by, and only turned back in time to deflect a sword trying to cut straight down on me. I threw the guard back, and he stumbled for a moment before regaining his feet. He came back at me with a burning resentment, but Ezio jumped in front of me, shoving me backwards towards the corner whence we'd came. I took two steps back and just let him deal with the guy. He fell to the ground, just as Dante backed out of the fight, and ran, two guards moving in his wake to stop assailants. Swords raised, Ezio pointed to a ladder, whistled once, and ran forward, directly into the guards. I rushed for the ladder without drawing attention; the fight was practically over here. On the roof, it was deserted. Well, more than usual. There wasn't a guard for miles. I ran, trying to keep up with Ezio and his attempts to catch up to Dante, with Bartolomeo and his men in their wake.

There were mercenaries placed throughout the district, all seeming to slowly converge at the gate of L'Arsenale. Dante stood there, Ezio running after him, and then, the real battle begun.

I climbed to the highest point, and waited. The battle was even, neither side gaining vantage. Everyone just seemed to be able to handle themselves, it was really weird. The guards, however, slowly fell, one by one. Ezio was granted the chance to take on Dante.

"Don't think that I don't know why you're here, Ezio Auditore da Firenze." And Ezio faltered for merely a moment. He took a couple steps back to avoid taking a hit, before picking up intensity again, saying nothing. Dante continued.

"Do you miss him, Ezio? Your fool of a father? My greatest regret is I could not have been the one to pull the lever. To watch him kick and gasp and hang." By this point, Ezio was furious. It was like he didn't stop to breathe, he just kept on swiping Dante, over and over again. I was becoming more on edge from my position on the roof, and worked out how exactly to get down. But I stayed on the roof for a few moments longer.

"You'll follow him into the ground!—" I didn't even listen to the rest of his little speech, I jumped off the roof and ran up to join the fight. I aimed two knives at Dante but neither hit him in a crucial place. He looked over to see me, and I think something clicked inside his head. He recognised me, absolutely. I smiled. He faltered and pulled back from Ezio, aware that I was a new dynamic added to the situation. Bartolomeo called to us from across the courtyard.

"Ezio, go now! That brute will no doubt lead you straight to his master! My men and I will remain here and keep the guards from giving chase." And that was our ticket. Dante retreated into Arsenale, and Ezio had but a moment to stop and breathe.

"Abigail, you should be on the roof."

"I know." He looked at me, and I looked at him. He smiled for a moment, and began to give chase on Dante, who'd met up with Silvio, and had started to run.

"Take to the rooves!" He yelled from in front of me, and I obliged. I picked the closest rooftop, and scaled it. You could see on the right, the ship they must've been taking. Guards were bustling madly around the place, crates placed on the boat and then running away with their swords drawn. Ezio had to take the long way, but I just followed the roof line, taking out a guard or two whenever a group approached Ezio. He was avoiding them pretty well but they were beginning to gain on him from behind. I didn't run into anyone on the roof, however I lost my footing twice.

Following around the water's edge, I arrived much before Ezio or Silvio had. The guards had all but abandoned the ship now, save for two or three making last-minute adjustments to the ropes. I could hear Ezio going at someone around the corner, and rushed to the ledge, readying my knives as I went. I took two down, quickly, but struggled to keep up with how quickly Ezio was moving. This was crazy. He was so concentrated.

He broke through the crowd and managed to make up almost a hundred yards in a matter of seconds, and simultaneously struck the pair. They both fell, just as they passed the barriers, onto the ship. I moved from my place on the roof, seemingly unnoticed by everyone on the ground, and jumped straight from the roof to the bow of the ship. Ezio was talking to them both as they slowly died. I caught the tail end of the conversation as I approached.

"Sail where?" He asked. I jumped down to the main deck and went down into the depths of the ship—or well, as far as I could get that kept me within earshot. There was a large desk of documents I began rummaging through, quietly, cautiously.

"I'll never tell." Silvio replied. Ezio went to say something, but Dante cut him off.

"Cyprus… is their destination. They want… They… want…" and he trailed off, dead. A single second felt like ten. I held my breath, grabbing something, anything, and heading for the door. Ezio mumbled a short prayer for them under his breath, before turning away to face the onset of guards. I stood in the doorway.

"Abigail?" He glanced at me.

"Hm?"

"You probably want to start running." However I think we'd both accepted that I was just going to ignore almost everything he said. He didn't see me, but I tucked the item I'd plucked from the table—a small book—into the folds of my robes. I pressed my palms onto the hilts of my blades.

"I know." But I stayed where I was, just as ready to kill the guards that hadn't yet fled. It was a waste of life, to be honest. The fact that their actions could only be halted by their deaths was beyond a tragedy. I spoke little prayers as the both of us cut them down like flowers. It was essentially a system, a process. Just something that was done. And I guess then, I understood death.

I'd come from a world where death was seldom celebrated. We'd discovered and invented technology to extend the length of our lives. In fifteen years' time, Ezio should have been having grandchildren, which he obviously was not going to do. In thirty years, he could quite possibly be dead. For the first time I believed that life was indeed, incredibly short. We stood around for a moment after the last man fell. I hoped none of these men had wives; the thought twisted my insides uncomfortably.

I don't know if it all got too a bit too much for Ezio, or if he was worried about me, but he urged me to leave with him, and we did, making our way back to the gates. Bartolomeo was standing there, waiting for us. He looked ecstatic.

"Well done, Ezio! Silvio is defeated and the military district is returned to us! Perhaps now, Venezia might enjoy a bit of peace and tranquillity. We should celebrate this victory!"

"I am glad for you and your men, Bartolomeo. But I cannot join, as I fear my work has just taken another strange turn…" Ezio replied. I wasn't surprised.

"What do you mean?" Bartolomeo asked.

"Silvio wasn't looking to replace Marco as Doge. He was about to leave Venezia, in fact. This whole thing was just a distraction."

"Why?"

"That, is what I need to find out." I stood by his side as he said this, and then as we departed the district, we spoke little more. I trailed behind him, staring at his feet absent-mindedly. Ezio stopped walking abruptly, sending me straight into his back, catching me off guard. I nearly fell over, if he hadn't caught my wrist and held me steady. I looked up to see what the problem was. He looked to the rooves, with his hand still wrapped around my wrist. I tugged slightly on my wrist and he let it go, still looking up.

"Follow me, I'd like to show you something." He said, and I obliged, scaling the wall side clumsily in the dark. It looked like he was leading me away from the centre of the city, away from the bright lights and to the edges of the water. People milled about, maintaining a faint hum that grew softer, quieter, and the water more loud.

It wasn't a special place he was taking me to, but just a high one. It was dark, secluded, and there was no threat of someone bothering us. He let me climb first, perhaps afraid that I might fall. I was certainly tired, but more noticeably, it was dark. The tower wasn't particularly tall in the grand scheme of things, but it was still several stories off the ground, which had me wrecked by the time I reached the top. This had previously been a watch tower. There was a roof, and a large store of hay, probably to light a beacon or something. I tapped on the floor with my foot systematically, looking for the trap door, until it creaked in just the right way. I yanked it open and god it was heavy. I looked up to Ezio,

"I take it we're going in?" but he shook his head, taking the handle out of my hand and placing it down.

"Not quite. It's a nice trick though; did Rosa teach you that?" I shook my head.

"Ugo." He nodded. And then frowned.

"Do you and Ugo spend a lot of time together?" I'm sure he didn't mean to sound jealous.

"Well, I suppose so. Whenever I'm not with you, I see him. I enjoy his company." He nodded, looking at me, kind of just standing plainly, staring at me. It kind of look liked he wanted to do or say something, but he wouldn't let himself. I caught his eye and looked away immediately, which caused him to relax. For once, he wasn't completely confident in his own words.

"I, uh. Let's sit." He suggested, gesturing to the pile of hay. I noticed it was fresh, obviously not something that was abandoned with the tower itself. Had he planned this? I sat down on the ledge, not quite on the flooring. Ezio came and sat beside me, and for a while we just sat there. I looked over my shoulder towards the city centre, where the last days of Carnevale were being celebrated. Soon we'd have to return to the normal, everyday Venice: a disappointing reality.

I felt Ezio's fingers slip between mine. I turned back to face forward and leant my head on his shoulder, closing my eyes. I sat like that for a long time, until I could feel myself begin to slacken, and my mind shutting down. Just before I fell asleep however, something struck me. A flash of vibrant white light, a ringing in my eyes. It hurt for only a second—I whimpered, and my eyes snapped open, falling forward onto the flooring on all-fours. My body shook immensely, in sharp rivulets through every nerve centre in my body until I finally collapsed, stunned and shocked, but not physically hurt or paralysed. Ezio rushed to me, holding my head in his hands, and I just curled up to him.

"What is it?" he murmured, again and again, holding my head close to his, forehead-to-forehead. He wasn't frantic, but… careful. What had I seen? I was so tired, and yet so afraid to go to sleep. I had no idea what was happening. My ears were still ringing, ruthlessly. He picked me up—god that made it sound so easy, like I was as light as a feather, but really it was him who was just so incredibly strong—and placed me over the bed of hay, still holding me close to him. I focused on my breathing—in, out. In, out.

"Abigail?" I looked up at him, into those deep, dark eyes. I affectionately placed one palm on his cheek, and leaned out of his hold, sitting upright.

"It's fine. But, I think that we should head back." He nodded, pulling me to my feet. The ground moved under my feet at first, but I took my hold on the edge. He led me to the shortcut down; the small wooden perch that jutted out of the side of the building. I spotted a nearby haystack, and he had me go first. The interesting thing about this move was that it was quite literally a leap of faith; you had to believe that you'd make it or else you wouldn't. I rolled out of the haystack and smoothed my wind-blown hair, barely flinching as Ezio landed beside me.

We made our way for the Della Seta, arriving maybe an hour or so before sunrise. I didn't exactly toss and turn in my sleep per se, but my dreams were very, very vivid. Harsh, blinding white light shocked me, people speaking in a language I almost thought I'd forgotten. The dream had a sense of urgency about it—I wasn't being directly interacted with, or spoken to. I wasn't sure what this all meant. But there were people, three or four or five, all with headpieces, all with gadgets. They looked through toward me like I was at the entrance of a cave. One man reached his hand through, to no avail. Another, a woman, called loudly into her headpiece "Shaun, what have you got to tell us? We need it now. It's open."

"Come on Michael, we just need to go." Another woman called. I couldn't make out faces, only silhouettes. I couldn't even put a number on how many there were.

"We have no idea where it leads! It could be anywhere. It could take us straight to Abstergo headquarters!" another argued. Did they mean Abstergo, as in the pharmaceutical company?

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Not if they have more security guards alone than we have assassins worldwide."

"We're going to have to take the risk, Sam."

"Two minutes, that's it."

"They're right on our tail!"

"Fine. Go!" and that sort of ended it there. I opened my eyes, my mind already alive and awake. Ezio was lying beside me, my back toward him. I propped myself up on my elbows, breathing in the cool, sharp air.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCK on the door. I gasped with fright, the sudden loud shocking me for a moment. I dragged my body out of bed, Ezio already awake and aware. Sometimes I wondered if he could ever truly relax. A messenger was at the door, looking grim and in a rush.

"A party has requested to see Signora Abigail." And I obliged, making an effort to dress myself. I looked over the banister as I descended, however I was met only with the backs of hoods. I frowned. Antonio looked much out of his depth, looking relieved when I reached the bottom of the staircase. I turned to face the company, and their faces were revealed to me.