He found himself in nothingness, pitch black nothing. With cold all around him. No way out. Not at all. What so ever. Now wash your hands. Just kidding. All he could do was sit there, huddling up in his cape as he fought for warmth. But by now, he had decided that the dark was better than actually sleeping. He only saw the pain he had witnessed play back over and over again, and he saw his friends fall. By now he wasn't sure what was real and what was just his imagination.

With ears pinned back, he hugged his knees and hid his face away, consealing the tears he shed.

Ezio looked down to La Volpe. The thief in question was still out, and still not moving. And all she wanted to do was to grab him by the shoulders and shake him around until he snapped out of it. But she was aware that it wouldn't help. The best would be to wait and hope that he'll wake up soon.

"Ezio, I'd hate to rush you, but we still have to attempt to fix these problems." Leonardo told her. She nodded, and followed him to the workbench. By now the artist had shrunk to about the size of a six year old. Which made pulling himself up on his stool all the harder for him. Ezio helped a little.

"We should try to touch it again."

Ezio again nodded and placed her hand onto the golden surface, only getting a little flicker of light. Then she sighed, it was pointless.

Before she could tell, Machiavelli and Bartolomeo, who had went back to his normal state for the day, were standing beside her.

"Do you think that it might be because there's more people other than us who are effected by this damned thing?" Bartolomeo asked.

Leonardo looked to him, as if he was holding a answer to life or something, and exclaimed excitedly, "You might be right! But who else would possibly be changed at all from the Apple? All I know is that we are."

Bartolomeo shrugged, "Just an idea."

Machiavelli smiled, "Well it's a better explaination than what we already have."

"But one thing," Ezio cut in. "Who else might have been able to get close enough to the Apple to be changed in any way?"

Leonardo put a hand on his chin a moment, pondering this. "That might be the tricky part."

Machiavelli was too busy think to answer right away, then started counting them off on his fingers. "Mario. Claudia and Maria maybe?"

Ezio glanced at him. "Why are you only counting my family in this? Mario's dead, so unless the Apple brought him back, I don't think he counts. And I'm not sure if Claudia or my mother are changed in any way."

Machiavelli glared a moment before sighing, "Well I don't see you coming up with any ideas."

Ezio returned to glare, then she had it! Who else could possibly be effected by the Apple! She knew!

Lucrezia was walking down the hall to the library. The last place she remembered her brother going. For some reason, he hadn't come out in almost a day, and she was beginning to wonder.

As she opened the door, she immidiantly knew something was wrong. For one, there was a couple books which were littered across the floor, another was that Cesare was no where to be seen. With slight worry, she called into the apparently empty study, "Cesare? Are you here?"

Then a groan. She came towards the source behind one of the lacy red chairs, nervous about what she'd end up finding. But now she was wondering why she had to be right.

Crouching on the ground was some creature, with bone spikes coming out of where it's spine was. It-not he looked up with reddened eyes and and a completely horrified expression. But even if he looked different, she still knew who he was.

"C-Cesare?"

He only looked back down, hugging his knees to his chest as a long and slim black tail curled over his feet. His voice came out in a small whisper, like a fearful child. "Just go... Please..."

Dispite the request, she didn't, instead, she took him by the wrist and pulled him up to his feet. "No, we're going to find you some help before someone sees you like this."

Though Cesare looked doubtful, he didn't make any attempts to argue.

"How did this happen?" She asked as they hurried out.

"I think it might have something to do with Piece of Eden."

"But the Assassini took it." Lucrezia pointed out, casting him a questioning look.

Cesare shook his head, "I don't know, maybe it's a delayed reaction." He then remembered back about a week again, he had shot Ezio, who had turned into a woman. It was strange, but he had figured that he might have been messing around. "It turned that Auditore bastardo into a woman, who's to say it didn't effect me and that this is natural."

For that, his sister had no responce.