When he'd found himself looking down into the clouded waters of the sewer that his second-sight had informed him concealed the entrance to yet another lair where the Followers of Romulus concealed themselves from those who would have rightfully driven them out for what they were attempting to do to Roma and her people – or at least revealed them to be charlatans in the employ of the Borgia – Ezio found himself wondering if these particular Followers were also being divided between their own group and what could only truly be called the Followers of Aeon.
Well, I suppose I might as well use that in my own favor, as well, he mused, removing the Apple once more from the hidden pocket within his robes. Aeon himself appeared beside him swiftly enough that Ezio almost found himself wondering if the man in black had been anticipating such a meeting; it was likely enough to be true, considering how scrupulously aware of his surroundings the man in black had already proven himself to be.
"Mi amico, it seems that more of those wolfmen have made their appearance," he said, knowing that the man in black could not help but to be curious about why he had been called out.
For all that he somehow managed to keep a metaphorical eye on his situation, Aeon was hardly omniscient.
"Oh? Well, it seems as though you called upon me at a rather opportune moment," Aeon said, casting him an interested glance before turning his calm, golden gaze to the hidden entrance to the catacombs.
"Sí, though I have to confess that I'd hoped to have the last of these bastardi rooted out sooner," he said, sighing as he himself looked down on the concealed entrance; scanning it with his second-sight once again, wanting to be sure that it was genuine while almost hoping at the same time that it would prove not to be.
No such luck; the catacombs glowed in the same, steady gold that had first drawn Ezio to this very place.
As he and Aeon descended into the catacombs beside one another, Ezio found himself grateful for the presence of the man in black, and in the odd position of envying his situation for the first time since he'd found out what such a thing even was; after all, Aeon would hardly need to wait for his elaborate robes to dry when they were nothing more than a construct of the Apple's power combined with his own will. It was an absurd thing to consider, Ezio knew such even as he had the thought, but at the very least it served to distract him from the unpleasant nature of the journey that he and Aeon were presently making.
When he and Aeon finally made it through the concealed entrance and into the catacombs proper, the sounds of clashing blades made the situation that they had just walked into all the more obvious.
"It seems as though the schism is present even here," Aeon said, sounding somewhat pleased; Ezio supposed that he could understand, as well, since these people were in the employ of the Borgia, and hence had tacitly chosen to throw in their lot with them.
The sight of wolfmen being herded into the main area of the catacomb, pursued by those who had taken on as much of Aeon's appearance as anyone who'd only caught minor glimpses of the man while he'd been slaughtering his way through everyone around him could have, brought rather mixed feelings to Ezio as he bore witness to it. On the one hand, these men had thrown in their lot with the Borgia, and on the other he'd no inkling of how Aeon himself thought of the men who were steadily making themselves over in his image.
One thing that remained true of the man in black: whatever small pieces of himself that he saw fit to share, Aeon was a mysterious man by nature.
Joining in with the efforts of those who had chosen to stand against the Followers of Romulus – those who might easily come to call themselves the Followers of Aeon – Ezio turned as Aeon nodded to him.
"You have other business here, yes?" he asked, though the both of them knew the answer to such questions.
"Va bene," he said, nodding as he turned to make his way deeper into the maze of the watery, fetid catacombs. "I'll meet back up with you once I've found what these ones were guarding."
"I'll meet up with you," Aeon said, casting an unimpressed, assessing look over the quickly-thinning ranks of the wolfmen who were still besieging them; those who hadn't had the sense to break and run, at least.
"Sí, I suppose that would make more sense," he said.
Departing to the sounds of clashing swords and the snap-hiss of Aeon's red blades, Ezio called upon his second-sight to lead him through the seemingly-endless twists and turns of the catacombs that still lay before him. Every now and then, he would run across a lone straggler of the Followers of Romulus who would then attempt to hinder his progress. More often, however, Ezio would find himself confronted with the handiwork of the Followers of Aeon: dead wolfmen who had been cut down in their very tracks by those who might very well have at one time been their friends or comrades.
Ezio still wasn't quite sure how he felt about such a thing; these men were his enemies, yes, but he knew well what it was to be betrayed.
Once he'd made it to the end of the catacombs, taking possession of the scroll with its ornate key attached – something that harkened back more than a little to the seals he'd found left by his brother and sister Assassins who had served before him; he wondered if there would be a fantastically advanced set of armor at the end of this treasure hunt – Ezio allowed himself to breathe easy for a moment. The sight of Aeon, appearing beside him in a burst of the man in black's typical, preternatural speed brought his attention firmly back to the present.
It also brought him up short, but less so than it had when he'd first witnessed such a thing; he wondered what Desmond would say about such a thing, but he'd long since decided to respect the other man's decision not to involve himself in the affairs of what Desmond thought of as his past.
When he and Aeon departed from the catacombs that had once held the Followers of both Romulus and Aeon, Ezio couldn't help wondering what would come next. True, he'd cut out a good number of the Borgias' followers in this area, and inadvertently sown the seeds of a force to oppose them even without the direction of the Brotherhood or his own personal intervention, but until he managed to throw off the last of the Borgia and their Templar masters' influence over Roma, he and his brother Assassins would always have more to do.
He'd long since come to accept this truth, though at times it could prove a source of frustration.
When Aeon had vanished back into the Apple and Ezio had tucked the artifact neatly away within the hidden pocket of his robes, he quickly regained the streets and paused for a long moment simply to breathe the fresh air once he was outside again.