A/N: Yes…Here I am again to face off my enemy, Masaki4EverDead. Both she and I are in a heated competition and I am determined to win. This girl *cough* has challenged me to the ultimate battle. A race against the clock as we both rapidly type up chapters to please our viewers.
What's at stake;
If I win: She must buy me two items from hot topic
If she wins: I must buy her two Snapple peach tea's, and a popcorn at lunchtime.
Then, because the competition is a fierce one, we must go to Applebee's and celebrate. The requirements that we must have is,
-Two fully posted chapters, more than 4000 (EXCLUDING DISCLAIMER AND AUTHORS NOTE)
- Must be posted by Wednesday 12:00 midnight…otherwise YOU LOSE! BWAHA!
Disclaimer: Assassin's Creed II characters do not belong to me, but I do own any OC's!
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Two years. You call two years fucking soon. Mario specifically said that Ezio was traveling soon. Soon does not mean two years later in 1478. Amalia fumed as she followed behind Ezio who was looking for Leonardo Da Vinci's shop. Her mood should have been that of glee and excitement knowing that she was meeting the most famous painter of this time, but what was she doing. She was fuming by herself while pouting. Ezio had found it very amusing, but Amalia just wanted to smack that smirk right off of his face.
Leaning up against the wall, she watched as Ezio knocked on his door and entered without even bothering to let the man say come in. "Rude bastardo."She mumbled, making sure that it was loud enough that he would hear. Ezio gave her an amused look and entered, motioning for her to follow. She shut the door behind him and stood next to him as Leonardo turned around, shock clearly written on his face. "Ezio…? You are still alive!" Leonardo said gripping his elbow shortly, and then letting go.
"Look at this place! The past two years have been kind to you." Ezio said smiling.
"But you are not the same at all, are you….?" Ezio looked down and shook his head as what had happened to him in the past two years washed over his face for only just a second. Amalia looked at him kindly, but then shook off the concern as she remembered that she should be mad at him, and for a good reason to. "And who might this be?" Leonardo asked, looking over Ezio's shoulder. "What a fine woman you have picked up along the way Ezio."
Amalia smiled and took it as a compliment, but shot a nasty glare at Ezio as the slightest twitch of his lips indicated that he wanted to grin. "My name is Amalia Salvatore De Luca, and I have been accompanying Ezio for the past two years!" She emphasized hoping to get her point across that leaving soon does not mean two years. "What she is trying to say," Ezio started, but then burst out laughing. "Is that she is mad at me and wants to make it publicly known that she is."
"Leonardo. I was hoping that you might be able to help me with something." He said, touching Leonardo on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Anything for you, my friend." He responded without any hesitancy at all. Ezio pulled out a scroll and Leonardo's face beamed in delight as he gently took the scroll from his hands. "Aha! You've found another one! How exciting!"
Amalia giggled at his childish antics, and Leonardo shot her a grin that made her cheeks turn a deep shade of red. She watched as Leonardo went towards his desk with Ezio in tow. Placing the scroll on the desk, he opened it and stared at it long on hard before speaking quickly. "Hmmmm. This one is tricky to break….Clever in its use of ancient languages. Maybe if I just….Oh….Oh! It seems to be a manual of sorts for different assassination techniques."
"May I see it-?" Ezio asked, but was soon cut off by a overly excited painter.
"Wait! What's that?" He asked, standing up to put his hand under his chin. "It's not so much a design this time…Just a series of sketches. Hmmmm. What to make of all this…"
"Are…you okay Leonar-"Amalia jumped back, frightened as Leonardo's quiet voice soon become loud. He turned to look at her, and a grin broke through. "Hoho! Of course! And why not! What an inspired idea!" He voiced, grabbing Ezio by the wrist that held his hidden blade his father once used to use. Amalia's eye twitched painfully as she watched Ezio converse with Leonardo, like he had not just scared the living daylights out of the woman. "Can you make it for me – while I try what's in that manual fragment."
"Take it. I'll have my assistant set up some dummies for you to practice with –Eh, Vincernzo!"
Ezio smiled and turned around. Amalia's eyes met his, but she quickly turned away not wanting to deal with him at the moment. "Amalia…please. Why do you continue to frown when you are much more prettier with a smile on your face." Ezio asked, arms outstretched as if he was going to bring her into an embrace. She side stepped, smirking as Ezio stumbled a little, not having her in his arms. "I am done with your flirtatious ways Auditore. I've know you for two years, and I know when you're using your techniques to make me blush." She stuck her tongue out at him and walked towards a couch that was sitting in front of the fireplace.
"Amalia…you must know that I did not mean to make you angry."
"Leave me alone Ezio. I've heard enough of your voice for one day. Why don't you just go outside and practice with your dummies. I'm sure both you and them have a lot in common; stuffed with crap, and just plain dumb." Ezio grabbed his chest, clearly hurt at her comment, but he did take her suggestion and exited the room, softly closing the door behind him. "Why do you continue to make fun of the boy?" Leonardo asked, not once lifting his head to look at her as he worked on decoding the page.
"Ah! He'll get over it. I'm sure he's used to it by now, you know me making fun of him constantly." She heard a deep chuckle as she threw her legs up onto the couch to get more comfortable. "So Amalia. Tell me, has Ezio been causing a great deal of trouble."
"Actually Ezizo has been causing a great deal of trouble. I'm always behind his back trying to clean up his messes; unbeknownst to him of course, his whores that he tends to sleep with are always coming back, asking about him. 'Is Ezio going to be back soon.' 'Aww he told me that he would come visit me soon. When is he coming back.' 'Aww Ezio!'." Leonardo laughed at my imitations of the girls that had been knocking on the villa's door one day. "Leonardo. If I had ten florins for every girl that Ezio has slept with…I would be absolutely rich by now."
"I'm sure you would be."
A silence engulfed them as the only thing that could be heard as the tinkering that was going on near Leonardo's desk. She listened as the man mumbled stuff to himself and worked as quickly as he could around the workshop. Why the hell did it take so long for Ezio to practice his techniques? What exactly had the two years taught him? If he couldn't finish practicing this fast, what makes you think that he'd be able to assassinate someone quickly. Without warning the door flew open, and in walked said man.
"I've done it. Come quickly!" Leonardo motioned for Ezio to come closer. "Take it. Try it!"
"Thank you Leonardo."
"Non c'e di che (No problem)!" Ezio turned around to look at Leonardo's work, but then turned his head downward to look at the ground, as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. No one said anything for a minute or two, but Ezio broke the deafening silence. "There's someone I need to "see" while I'm here. I cannot approach him publicly…Would you know a way-"
"La Volpe." Leonardo whispered.
"The Fox." Ezio said, but was cut off by a loud shh that seemed to come from Leonardo's mouth.
Amalia fell of the couch as she heard Leonardo whisper that name. It was like a picture of that man flashed in front of her eyes as she saw nothing, but him and Ezio talking on top of a rooftop. She couldn't hear the words that were exchanged between the two, but she saw La Volpe was pointing somewhere behind Ezio. As soon as the vision came it disappeared and she found herself staring into the eyes of Ezio. "Are you alright, Amalia?" He asked, touching the back of her head to feel for any bruises.
"I'm find you old pervert. Get off of me."
"I guess you are fine now that you continue to tease me." She rolled her eyes and picked herself up off the ground to brush imaginary dust off of her clothes. "Well if you're done with tending to me, how about you continue your conversation with Leonardo." A smile sprung on Ezio's face as the man turned around to continue speaking with Leonardo. "Capisco (I understand). But do you know where a fox might roam…?"
"Perhaps, near the Mercato, where the thieves dwell…" Ezio nodded.
"Sta'attento, amico (Be safe, my friend!)"
"Hey…so don't tell me you're going to go on a wild goose chase to go and find La Vople..Hmmm." She asked, now standing next to Leonardo. "Well…I must do that in order to gather some information. You are welcome to stay behind if it is too much for a woman like yourself."
"And just what are you trying to say, Ezio Auditore." He laughed in her face. No one laughs in Amalia's face, especially when it was someone like Ezio. How was she supposed to sleep at night knowing that this man was always going to be laughing at her? It just didn't sit right in her stomach and she was determined to get back at him for all the times he made fun of her without her actually getting the jokes.
"Come then." Ezio started walking towards the door, but Amalia turned around to look at Leonardo. "It was nice meeting you Leonardo. I hope that we may see each other soon." She shared a quick embrace with him, before running after an impatient Ezio who had already left the workshop, as she was taking too long.
"How did those two come to meet?" Leonardo thought, utterly confused as how they two of them could work together when they acted like children.
OoOoOo
"Are we there yet?" She asked
"No." He grumbled the first time.
"Are we there yet?" She asked once again.
"No." He said a little bit more forcefully as it was getting a little repetitive after a while.
"Are we there yet?" She asked, this time doing it just to annoy him.
"NO!" He yelled, this time turning around to glare at her. "I'll tell you when we get there ok!" Ezio started cursing in Italian and a small snort came out of her nose as a man bumped into Ezio, but then took off up the stairs right next to the square that they were now standing in. "What!"
"What is it pretty boy. Lost your pants?" She teased.
"No. My pouch, my Money!"
She watched as Ezio took off around the corner to chase after the man that had just pick pocketed him. "Oh…so you're just going to leave lil' 'ol me all by myself to handle the big world. Thanks so much Ezio." Amalia wasted no time in climbing the closest building, earning gasps from the group of people that were standing below, but she ignored it. As long as she stuck to the rooftops, away from the guards eyes, then she would be fine. She saw a flutter of white and red, and chased after it knowing that that was definitely Ezio. "You think that they'd have some inconspicuous outfit for Assassins, rather than a flashy uniform."
Ezio climbed up onto the roof in front of her, almost making her fall off the slippery tiling from how much he startled her. It wasn't long before the thief stopped on a small roof that Amalia swore looked like it was about to fall apart. Instead of jumping on top of the roof with both men, she decided to sit on the ledge of the one directly next to them.
"I really have no interest in hurting you. So give me back my money and we'll call it even." Ezio told him, stretching out his hand to try and claim back his pouch.
"Not so fast." A man said, popping up out of nowhere. She saw Ezio flinch a little bit from the sudden surprise, but she watched as he covered it up with turning his attention to the man. "What do you want? Who are you!"
"They call me many things. Murderer. Tagilagole (Cutthroat). Thief. But you may call me La Volpe."
"At your service. Messer Ezio."
Amalia burst out laughing, and threw her head back. "What a conceited person you are La Volpe. Really! Cutthroat. I'm sure that no citizen on Florence would ever call someone else that as a nickname." La Volpe gave her a dirty look, which was also accompanied by Ezio's dirty look as well. "What!" She asked, shrugging a bit at how they were acting. "It's only the truth." She said, trying to defend herself, but failing miserably.
"Besides…how do you know his name." She asked with a raised eyebrow.
La Volpe laughed. "It Is my business to know everything in this city. Just like how your name is Amalia Salvatore de Luca." He said with a smirk on his face. Amalia's jaw dropped as she knew that this man had something up his sleeve. No one knew her name wherever they went, but this man just happens to conjure up a name out of thin air. "Isn't that why you're here?" He continued, as if he had not seen that the both of them had been surprised at his knowledge.
"Indeed. I need to find someone to know where he'll be before he even does."
"Who?" La Volpe asked, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Francesco de' Pazzi."
"There's word on the street of a caravan just arrive from Roma. A secret meeting at sunset tonight. You can learn something of Francesco's whereabouts there."
"Do you know where it is to be held." Ezio asked. A picture of the Santa Maria Novella flashed behind her eyes and she smirked knowing that she could easily beat them before they get there.
"Ma Certo (Yes). Let me know where you're ready and we'll go. Oh yes. Here's your money." He grabbed the pouch from around the thief's waist and tossed it at Ezio, who caught it with ease. As La Volpe and Ezio jumped off of the side of the building, near the dock, Amalia turned in the other direction and headed straight for the Santa Maria Novella. She made sure that they couldn't see her as they had a race to see who could get there first, because she was sure if Ezio had seen her he would have asked questions as to how she had known where to go before La Volpe had even told them anything.
The church was actually quite tall when you came up close to it, and Amalia had to lean back just to take in all of the building. Smiling at herself and how stupid she might have looked, she climbed the house next to it and found herself coming in halfway through La Volpe and Ezio's conversation. "-Catacombs that run under the city. They'll lead you to a place where you can eavesdrop on the meeting."
"Grab that stone handle, turn it, then slide it down."
"Thank you for all your help, Volpe." Ezio said, turning towards the building to get a good look at it.
"Buona Forutuna (Good Luck)." La Volpe said, patting Ezio on the shoulder. Before he left though, La Volpe nodded at Amalia and then took off in a flutter of brown cloaks. "You know I'm not going down there with you." She told him, not really interested in roaming some dark catacomb below the church.
"I thought that you liked dark places like that?" He asked, fake confusion etching his face.
"No Ezio. I think that you're getting me confused with yourself. You're the one that likes dark warm places like that." She retorted hoping that he would catch her drift. Instead of responding he just smirked and jumped down from the building, landing softly on the ground without any problems at all.
"Come on. It'll be fun." He yelled, up towards the building. Amalia rolled her eyes as she jumped down the side of the building to land directly next to Ezio. "You better make this interesting or else when we get back to Leonardo…" She trailed off, wanting Ezio to fill in the blank for himself.
"Oh and….this isn't suspicious at all." She announced as the both of them huddled around the stone tablet, for him to slide it out and then down. The bottom part of the ground, under the skull, disappeared and only a black hole could be seen. "You expect me to crawl down a hole, blindly going down there might I add, when I have no idea what could be lurking down there. You're telling me that you want me to throw myself to the wolves?"
"It's not like I'm asking you to go into a den of lions." Ezio told her as he pushed her aside to lower himself down into the hole. "Yeah well when you get eaten by a dark brown bear, or maybe even a snake, please come crying to me so that I can see you and laugh in your face."
The last look she saw on Ezio's face before he completely disappeared was that of sheer annoyance. "The only thing I love to see on that face of yours Ezio."
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"Grazie, Padre (Thank you, father) Bernardo?"
"It's all here. Swords. Staves. Axes. Armor. Bows. Our men will want for nothing."
"I take this gift to mean the Pope consents?" Amalia and Ezzio exchanged confused glances, as they listened closer to the meeting. A man in a dark red cloak walked out from the shadows and began to speak. "He gave his blessing to the operation…"as long as nobody is killed."
"We're all se for the Duomo in the morning signore. The bait's been laid, but it wasn't easy. His fool brother keeps changing his plans."
"Si. We'll need to be on hand to make sure Giuliano even gets out of bed for church tomorrow." Laughter filled the room, but Amalia didn't see how that was funny at all. "What is it jacapo? Do you think they suspect something?"
"Impossible. The Medici are too arrogant or too stupid to even notice. Likely a bit of both." A man who looked similar to Vieri, she assumed it to be Francesco, laughed along with a man next to him. There laughter was soon cut off by a man who seemed to have the most brains in the room. "Do not underestimate our enemies Francesco! Or have you already forgotten how your son was murdered?"
"We'll suffer no such surprises this time, Maestro. You have my word."
The man with the dark hood spoke again. "Molto bene (Very well). I should be off. I've some other business to attend to before I return to Rome." He looked around the room and made eye contact with each man before continuing. "Gentlemen. Tomorrow, a new sun rises over Firenze. May the father of understanding guide us."
"May the father of understanding guide us." The rest of them said in unison. The meeting was adjourned and Ezio motioned that they leave. "So are they planning to kill the Medici family then?" She whispered as they found a way out of the tight spot that they were in. "I do believe that that is what their intentions are, but we must speak with La Volpe after this. Maybe he can give us some insight on this."
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Ezio crawled out of the catacombs first, and was then followed by Amalia. He grabbed her arm to help her up, but she shoo'ed it away, clearly annoyed at the fact that he was trying to help her. "I don't need your help, you stupid man."
"I was just trying to be a gentlemen." He defended, backing up so that she could have room to get out. "Yeah well stop being gentlemen….y. It's really a pain in my ass actually."
"Ah, there's La Volpe." Amalia pointed in his direction and Ezio turned around to look in that direction. As he walked over to go and talk to him, Amalia took the stone covering of the hole and placed it back over it, without too much trouble. " I know where Francesco will be and when, But…"
"What is it?"
"I overheard something…They have weapons, enough for a battalion . Even the Pope has given support!"
"Typical of Sixtus, but…What the hell are they planning?" La Volpe asked, sighing
"I couldn't understand the specifics. But it involves the Medici. And it begins tomorrow morning at the Duomo."
"The Medici will all be there for Sunday service…Along with the rest of Firenze. They're going to do it right in the middle of High Mass…"
"But it's also a chance for me to blend with the crowd, get close, and stop the madness."
"With my help of course!" Amalia said, butting in. Of course the both of them didn't like the fact that she had, but she wanted to make it known that she was of some use. "If they succeed..If we lose Lorenzo, and Firenze falls to the Pazzi…"
"It will not come to that. I promise. "
"I hope you're right."
Ezio stood up from his sitting position and walked over to Amalia. "We need to come up with a plan to stop this madness from happening. I assume that you can come up with something on the spot then." She placed a hand on her chin, thinking of something. The only idea that popped into her head at the moment was to warn Lorenzo of this supposed assassination, but how were they supposed to find him and warn him before tomorrow morning. It was already night time and she was sure that his guards would laugh after them if they ever tried to approach him.
"I'm not really sure, but you can definitely rule out trying to warn the Medici's of this attack. They probably wouldn't believe that someone would do that in the middle of high Mass."
Ezio nodded. "I guess the only thing that we can do is just prepare for the worst." Amalia agreed, but her stomach rumbling broke her thought process. "Before we start killing people…can we get something to eat. I'm hungry!" Ezio chuckled, and grabbed Amalia by the wrist. "Come then. We'll find a food stand."
"Aww Ezio you're too nice." She said sarcastically while ripping her wrist out of his grip. "You can talk to me, but don't touch."
"But I thought that you enjoyed our little touches that we seem to share." He said, teasing her back.
"You might seem to like it, but I get goose bumps just thinking about it."
"I do not know of these goose bumps," he said testing out the word on his tongue. It sounded a little weird though because of his accent, but she did have to say that it sounded sexy coming from him.
"You're lucky I like you Ezio."
"You know you would not be able to resist my charms." He laughed while running up ahead to escape here threats and beatings. "Yeah! You better keep running Auditore."
A/N: Sorry for the mistakes and stuff…I didn't have time to read it over and edit it. But thank you for reading..And a special thanks to BeachVampire17 for reviewing my chapters.