After returning to the main room of the Brotherhood's Headquarters, Maria had been joined by Adele Sozzi, Rinaldo Rocca, and Ottavio Olivieri once she'd told the small gathering of apprentices – all of them steadily growing in skill, but not one of them quite ready to become a full Assassin as yet – just what it was that she was going to be doing. Knowing that she now had four of her own to stand against the pair of Borgia guards that had been notorious for their cruelty – which must have been quite the thing, given the guards that she had had run-ins with in and around Roma as a whole – was a great deal more comforting than it would have been if she'd ended up with anything less than twice the number of the thugs she was about to face.

And, while it was true that none of those who had thrown in their lot with the Borgia had been too much of a threat for Maria to face on her own – at least once she'd gained both the size and the skill of a full Assassin – there was still the matter of Roma's citizens to consider; there was a better chance of being able to get them all to safety if she herself only had to focus on the Borgia thugs she was going to be dealing with.

The four of them swiftly made their way to the location that Niccolò had described when he'd told her about where the pair of Borgia thugs had been stationed – allegedly to guard those in the area, though Maria doubted that any but the most hopelessly naïve of Roma's citizens actually believed such a thing – and Maria was naturally the first one to spot the pair of them. The second-sight that she and Ezio shared was a help once again, determining just where the pair of them were even amidst the press of the seething crowd, and Maria found herself wondering – for a brief moment before she leapt down among them – just what was going on.

Still, there would be time to think about those kinds of things later.

Once she and the three Apprentice Assassins who had come with her to this place all landed, just outside the view of the crowd who seemed almost single-mindedly focused on the pair of Borgia thugs who had been set among them, Maria gathered them close and gave them their assignments, while she herself went to confront the Borgia thugs who had been sent to Roma for the express purpose of terrorizing the citizenry back into meek compliance with the Borgia and their tyranny.

Taking the thug closest to her with a barrage of thrown knives naturally served to draw the attention of his partner, and as the first of the Borgia thugs lay dying on the ground, Maria moved forward to engage the last man standing. He seemed at least slightly off-balance from watching a man he knew – if not one he seemed to be particularly fond of, given the way he reacted to his fellow's demise – fall, bleeding from fatal wounds in his neck.

So, that gave her something of an advantage, which Maria pressed as ruthlessly as she'd been taught.

Out of the corner of her left eye, Maria noticed that one of the citizens whose defense she had come to seemed to be fighting by her side against the last of the remaining Borgia thugs. When the man finally fell, Maria striking the fatal blow with the aid of an opening created by the man fighting beside her, she allowed herself to breathe more easily for the first time in what felt like a longer time than it probably had been. Once she'd administered the last rites, bidding farewell to the Borgia thugs in the way that she'd learned to do for all of her targets – truly, the only rites that a pair of thugs such as they were likely to get, which would have been a sadder thought if she hadn't seen how the both of them seemed to relish in the terror they created – Maria turned her attention to the man who'd given her his aid during the battle.

"Grazie, Messer," she said, as she cleaned and then sheathed her sword once again, glancing back at him as he followed in her wake as she went to retrieve her throwing-knives. "Was there something you wanted, or do you just enjoy the odd punch-up when you can be a part of it?" she asked, feeling a flash of fond nostalgia for the sort of man that Ezio had been, before the responsibilities of the Brotherhood had fallen upon him all unasked-for.

"My name is Lorenzo LaFalce," he said, smiling as he crouched down beside her and helped Maria to remove and then clean the quartet of throwing-knives that she'd used to make absolutely certain that the first of the Borgia thugs she had encountered wouldn't have been a threat before she'd engaged his partner in combat. "I'd been hoping to meet up with one of you Assassini sometime."

"You want to join up with the Brotherhood too, then?" she asked, smiling gently as she rose back to her feet, putting the last of her throwing-knives away as she did so. "It's hardly an untroubled life," she said, as Lorenzo fell into step with her and the pair of them made their way back to the trio that she'd sent to disburse the bulk of the crowd before they could have gotten underfoot and hence risked their own safety in a battle that wasn't ultimately theirs to fight.

At least, those of them who wished to remain apart from the struggles of the Assassins and the Templars.

"Sí, I expect you're right, signorina, but I doubt that anyone could live an untroubled life under the thrall of these brutes," Lorenzo said, as he fell into step with Maria and the three apprentices who had made this particular journey alongside her.

"Bene, stay with me, then," she said, signaling for Adele, Rinaldo, and Ottavio to return to the Brotherhood's Headquarters without her. "I'll help you to find your way."

The pair of them set off again, this time down a path that Maria had become more than a bit familiar with, though not terribly so considering that she hadn't made altogether extensive use of this particular means of accessing Isola Tiberina, and as always she was careful to keep an eye out for anyone who might have thought to follow them. Any Borgia lackeys in particular, since there was nearly nothing they would not have done in their efforts to find and eliminate such a stronghold as the Brotherhood had managed to establish.

Or else to reestablish, considering the impression Maria had gotten from not only the interior of the Headquarters itself, but from the way that Uncle Mario had reacted when they'd first made their way down into the hidden warehouse on Isola Tiberina.

~AC: Bro~

Making his way back to a nearby pigeon coop, knowing that a single mission was hardly going to make more than the smallest of dents in the Borgia's operations in Roma, Ezio found that there was indeed a message waiting for him. It seemed that Cesare, having been deprived of the tactical advice that he had been seeking when he'd called for one of those remaining who chose to serve him – out of whatever twisted affection that such people could have been said to possess – had sent for three marksmen. It seemed that his aim, after being deprived of a number of his forces and what seemed to be a great deal of his tactical acumen, was now simply to kill anyone who might have borne even the faintest connection to the Brotherhood.

Or, at least such had been Machiavelli's take on the matter, and his brother Assassin knew Cesare well enough that Ezio wasn't about to begin doubting him at such a late stage.

Therefore, as he made his way back up onto the rooftops of Roma once more, Ezio searched for the marksmen whose descriptions Machiavelli had provided for him.

Once he'd managed to find the first of them – who was clearly about to begin firing into the milling crowds in what had to be one of the most despicable efforts to draw out those of the Brotherhood who would naturally seek to protect all of the innocent, uninvolved citizens in this place – Ezio primed his crossbow and fired in nearly the same motion, and without breaking stride. Such an action naturally served to draw the attention of what could only be another of the man's compatriots, but fortunately he was slow enough bringing his arquebus to beat that Ezio was able to throw a trio of knives into his throat.

Priming his crossbow once again, Ezio sent a second bolt into the head of the last of the marksmen that Cesare had called to Roma in his ever-escalating – and ever-futile, so long as there was even a single member of the Brotherhood around to oppose him; not a thing Ezio had found himself worrying about very much of late, considering the revelations of Aeon's presence and his power – attempts to wrest control of Roma away from the people who lived there. To say nothing of his designs upon Italia as a whole.

Shaking his head at the direction his thoughts had taken, in the absence of any other foes along his current path, Ezio turned and made his way in the direction of another pigeon coop. It'd become more than clear, after so much time spent dealing with the man's lackeys, that Cesare was attempting to make a more indirect push into Roma. He and little Maria would need to deal with these things, alongside any other citizen who was willing to lend their aid to the Brotherhood in their ongoing struggle.

Ezio had made a personal vow that, no matter his own personal ties to the Assassins, he would never force anyone uninvolved to take sides in this battle; though even as he'd made it Ezio was fully aware that the Templars would think nothing of dragging anyone they could find into this struggle, if only to throw them in the path of the Brotherhood. Still, no matter what else happened, Ezio was determined to hold to his vows.

It was one of the things that served to separate the Assassins from the Templars, after all; that and the ideals they all held to.