"What is it, fratello?" she asked, once her brother had looked up and she could be certain of catching his attention.

"La Volpe has requested that the both of us come to his headquarters," he said, draping his right arm around her shoulders as the pair of them began making their way out into the tunnels that would lead them back to the old hotel where Gilberto had settled himself and his thieves to do their work.

She wondered just what it was that had driven Gilberto to call on them, knowing that if Ezio had been given that information he would have shared it with her without hesitation as the pair of them had been making their way through the tunnel that would bring them back to the hotel, but Maria supposed that she would have to wait to find out, just the same way that Ezio was doing.

Once the pair of them had made their way back onto the grounds of the hotel, the tunnel entrance having dropped them into an innocuous storage space in the lowest level of the basement, Maria pinched her nose as the dusty air tickled the inside of it and she found herself with the urge to sneeze.

"Come on, sorellina," her brother said kindly, once Maria had managed to regain her composure and no longer felt the urge to sneeze.

"Sí, we should find out what Gilberto wants," she said, chuckling softly as she had another thought. "And maybe suggest that he send someone down here to dust."

"Sí, and maybe that, too," Ezio said, and the pair of them shared an amused laugh.

True, it wasn't likely that Gilberto would be interested in sending one of his people down to clean up a place that not many people made a point of visiting, and even less for pleasure, but it was an amusing thought all the same. And, given the tension in the faces of the thieves she was beginning to catch sight of as she and Ezio made their way up and out of the basement, it was beginning to seem as though everyone present would need all the amusement they could find.

Still, that kind of thing would clearly be for later; it looked as though Gilberto and his people were preparing for an attack of some sort or another, so she and Ezio were clearly going to need to help in whatever way Gilberto thought would be best.

"It's good to see that you both came so quickly, mi amici," Gilberto said, hurrying over to meet up with them as she and Ezio made their way up and out of the basement storeroom.

"What's the trouble, Gilberto?" she asked, as the three of them came up out of the basement and into the man's office; the harried air about all of the thieves present hadn't diminished in the slightest.

"The Cento Occhi have been making more of a push into our territory, and somehow one of them managed to find out about this place," the look in Gilberto's eyes suggested that he still harbored suspicions against Niccolò, but Maria knew that she couldn't spare the time they would need to begin convincing the man that such suspicions were baseless.

"They're making an attack, then?" she asked, even though the question itself hardly needed to be voiced at this point.

"Sí," Gilberto said, with the sharp nod that she'd come to expect from the man after working alongside him for so long. "We've already gotten the people who'd been staying here to stay somewhere else, so there's little chance of any of them getting themselves caught up in this."

"Bene, so where do you want us to stand?" Ezio asked, before Maria herself could ask that same kind of question.

"Behind the barricades, alongside Corradin and Angelo; but before you go off, would you mind calling out Messer Aeon again? I think his help would be worth more than anything the Cento Occhi could send against us."

"I'm beginning to see that," Ezio said, grinning slightly as he fetched the Apple from the hidden pouch within his robes where he'd kept it ever since they had all come to Roma alongside Mother and Uncle Mario.

There was the expected sensation of buzzing in her ears as Aeon made his appearance from the depths of the device, but as the familiar form of the black-clad Assassin solidified out of the light emerging from the Apple and Aeon took the device into his very form in order to protect it from anyone who might have otherwise attempted to take it for themselves, Maria saw the fingers of his left hand – encased in the same kind of black glove that shone like polished leather as his right – clench slightly. The strange sensation in her head eased then, bringing a welcome relief as it did so.

"Grazie, amico," she said, nodding to Aeon as the man in black dipped his hooded head in her direction.

~AC: Bro~

As he, little Maria, La Volpe, and Aeon all took their respective positions among the ranks of the thieves who La Volpe had taken under his wing – with Aeon naturally spearheading the forces that would meet the Cento Occhi head-on – Ezio narrowed his eyes as he began to see the first of the Cento Occhi's forces as they charged into the inn's courtyard. As he'd begun to suspect, there were Borgia soldiers supporting them. It was all too likely, considering the fact that their hold upon Roma hadn't been entirely loosened as yet, those working for the Cento Occhi had gone to the Borgia in person.

It was one of the disadvantages when the Brotherhood attempted to dislodge one tyrant or another: all of those who supported them for whatever reason would come charging to their defense.

Still, there were few better causes that Ezio could think to spend himself on than to bring liberty to those who had been deprived of it. So, when the Cento Occhi and their Borgia masters clashed with La Volpe's thieves, Ezio was right there reinforcing them from his position behind the barricade that had been raised to defend the façade of La Volpe Addormentata. He might not have possessed the sheer, overwhelming power that Aeon could bring to any battle where his services were called upon – and hence he himself wasn't nearly as powerful a symbol of hope as the man in black had become, not just for the Brotherhood, but all of those who had seen him in action as an ally – but Ezio was determined to do what he could to support those who'd stood beside him in their turn.

More than a few times – and certainly more than he would have wished, if he'd been given any kind of choice he could have accepted – one of La Volpe's thieves would drag one of their own behind the barricade that he and little Maria were helping some of their brothers and sisters to man, and if they were injured enough one of the others would come to take them into the inn for further treatment. Still, Ezio suspected that such a thing would have been a far more frequent occurrence if not for Aeon standing as a nigh-impenetrable shield-wall before them.

Just as he was beginning to wonder when the losses the Cento Occhi were taking at their hands – though mostly at Aeon's, if Ezio was to be perfectly honest – would finally overwhelm either the fear or the loyalty – what could be said to exist, when the Borgia and their Templar masters were involved – the tattered, broken remnants of those who had come to La Volpe Addormentata broke and ran at last. Finally allowing himself the breathe deeply, relaxing for the first time since the siege had begun, Ezio stood up and joined the rest of La Volpe's thieves as they dismantled the barricades and brought the materials back into the storage sheds that they'd been brought out from in the first place.

Aeon fell into step beside him once he'd finished with that particular task, returning the Apple to him and then returning to the device himself without a word, though the thoughtful expression on his face suggested that he might have had something to say; that is, if he'd been a different sort of man, of course. Smiling slightly as he tucked the Apple away within the pocket hidden in the folds of his robes, Ezio yawned as he continued on his way into the inn now before him.

Considering everything that had previously happened, Ezio wasn't surprised when La Volpe offered to let him and little Maria stay and recover their strength, though that wasn't to say he wasn't pleased, of course. Naturally, the both of them took the offer almost before it had been given. Bidding his littlest sister good night, Ezio loosed another, almost jaw-cracking yawn as he made his way up to the room that he'd been directed for the duration of his many and varied stays.