A/N Not really a big author's note today, but just want to thank my reviewers and everyone that's been reading this story. It means a lot when I check my story traffic to see A LOT of people reading this story. So continue reading because the adventure is not over yet. Also...I didn't exactly have time to Beta because there's this song that's been stuck in my head and I just can't think straight to edit. If any of you know It's summertime lovin, lovin the summer (time), from Regular Show...then you would know how annoying that song is and how much you just want to rip your hair out because it's stuck in your head.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ezio *sniff*I only own him in my dreams….
OoOoOo
Amalia trailed after Ezio, trying to keep her eyes on him as she stuffed her face with bread and an apple that he had bought earlier for her. She was going to buy it for herself with her own money, but Ezio was just being very stubborn and took it upon himself to pay for all the food. They had argued like a married couple on who was paying what, but in the end, like always, she always lost. No matter what she did to achieve the winner's circle, she always ended up getting kicked into the group of damsel in distress. She was no damsel in distress and if she was ever called one by anybody, besides Ezio, she would be sure that they would lose a leg or two.
"Can you slow down a bit? It's not exactly healthy for me to be eating while walking." She complained, while licking away the stray apple pieces that were around her mouth. "I like it when you lick your lips like that." He told her in a husky voice. Ezio walked over towards her and held her around the waist and stared deep into her eyes. It was like some unknown force held her in place while she stared stupidly at him with an apple hanging near her mouth. "Ah. No resistance this time?"
"Get off of me you old pervert!" Amalia pushed Ezio away from him, glad to have gotten out of his hold, but in the back of her mind something had wished that it had stayed a little bit longer. "We have a task at hand, and I don't want your head stuck up your ass."
"You wound me, Amalia." He said placing a hand over his heart. Yup, just his usual self. Nothing unusual about that. "Come on let's get going. High Mass is about to start and you don't' want to miss all the fun. Do you?"
The conversation ended abruptly as she watched Lorenzo and his wife enter into the plaza, hand in hand. "There's Lorenzo, and his wife." Amalia turned to Ezio, completely annoyed at the fact that he had said that. Why is it that people must state the obvious. It was actually quite annoying and one of her pet peeves that she really needed to tell Ezio about so that he wouldn't do it time and time again. "Thanks for stating the obvious Sherlock."
"Who is this Sherlock you speak of?" He questioned, turning in her direction, but not too much so that he could still keep a watchful eye on Lorenzo.
Amalia didn't answer that.
A church bell rung loud over their heads as the rest of the Medici family walked through the crowds.
"There's Giuliano, Lorenzo's brother. But where is Francesco..?"
"Oh my god, Ezio! Shut up! Stop stating the obvious or I will actually keep up with my threats and stab you." Amalia crossed her arms, clearly fed up with Ezio and his obviousness. She swore that this man just loved to here himself talk. So what if he had the sexiest Italian accent that she's heard so far. That doesn't mean that she likes to hear it all the time.
And why the hell did she just admit to that in her mind. He is so not sexy in any way shape or form.
'Who are you trying to convince.' A voice rung through her head. Amalia whipped around thinking that someone was whispering in her ear, but all she saw were people that were just attending High Mass and were excited to see Lorenzo and his family. "Am I going crazy or something?" She mumbled, now completely scared. This wasn't the first time that she had heard the voice. It seemed that whenever she was in tough situations or she was teasing Ezio, this voice came about. Sometimes it told her to get back on task and find the piece of Eden, which she still didn't know what it was, but other days it told her to just kill Ezio. It was like she was schizophrenic or something.
At times like these she had urges to harm something, whether it be herself or something else, but these thoughts she kept to herself. She made sure that when she had these urges that she snuck out to fulfill them, without Ezio knowing of course. She was almost positive that if Ezio found out he would kill her himself.
Everything around Amalia seemed to be gone when she was kept to herself, because the minute she came back to her senses she saw a sword coming straight for her face. Amalia let out a scream and jumped back, nearly missing the sword. It slashed through thin air like it was bread, but came back up quickly to slash done again. Apparently a guard had deemed her a threat because she seemed to be the only one not running, and he lunged for her. All the skills that she had been taught by Adamo, two years ago, came flooding into her brain and she lunged for the man. The guard stumbled backwards and made a fatal mistake as he fell to the ground because of a corpse laying right there.
Her knife was sticking out of the man's neck and she ripped it out making blood spray unto her freshly cleaned robes. "You have got to be kidding me. I just washed these you stupid piece of filth." Out of anger, her foot connected with the guard's body that she had just killed, jolting it a little bit.
Amalia rushed for a guard that was behind Lorenzo and she sunk her knife into his Trichea, making blood pour out of the deep wound. A hand grabbed her around the throat, but she quickly grabbed the arm connected to it and twisted it around bringing it in front of her and completely snapping it in half. The man behind her screamed, but instead of just letting the man suffer right there she turned around and grabbed both sides of his neck with a smirk lining her face. "Please!" The man begged, using his good arm to wrap around her wrist. "Spare me. I have a wife."
"Yeah well so did Giuliano. Look where he wound up going." Without any hesitation at all she snapped his neck and pushed his body towards the ground. Amalia turned around to watch Ezio finish up the rest of the guards, but in the midst of all this she noticed that Francesco was missing. "Dirty swine, ran away." Her teeth clenched in anger as she realized that she let the man slip through her fingers so easily. "I should have kept a better eye on him." She scolded herself for getting caught up in the fight too much, but instead let it go and headed over to Ezio and Lorenzo. "You saved my life." Lorenzo said. "It's nothing, but the man who did this to you has to pay!" Ezio responded, quickly walking over to Lorenzo as he dropped his sword to clutch his wound around his neck. Lorenzo groaned loudly as he was helped to his feet by an annoyed Ezio who was more itching to go after Francesco than help the poor man. "Not now….I need help first…To my home. People I can trust there…Can you..?"
Ezio nodded, but behind the kindness act, Amalia knew that he was just helping the man out of sheer good citizenship. She stayed behind a couple of feet as Ezio was quickly walking besides Lorenzo as he gave directions to his home. "Hurry…I'm losing a lot of blood." He mumbled, still stumbling a little as he tried to pick up the pace."Hang on Signore. I'm moving as fast as I can."
"FRANCESCO DE 'PAZZI! I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL WIPE HIS ENTIRE FAMILY FROM THE CITY! THEY'LL BE ERASED!" Amalia had to hand it to the guy that was yelling this. He had some guts to be yelling that as Francesco's men littered the streets. She was sure that this guy would be killed by the time they got to the corner of the street.
"Quietalevi, Signore (Be still, Sir). Conserver your energy, or I'll be delivering a corpse. We're almost there now."
"Ezio. Can you do me one huge favor?" Amalia asked, now wanting to set something straight with him, before he went and ticked her off again. "Now is really not the time, Amalia."
"Well you're going to have to deal with it. I tend to do this in situations like this. Now can you really do me a huge favor?"Ezio briefly turned to look back at her, but he resumed his previous position and kept running, completely ignoring her as they made their way towards Lorenzo's house. A bunch of guards ambushed them in the alley of Lorenzo's house, but Amalia told Ezio to continue as she easily defeated the guards without so much as a scratch on her.
The last man that had attacked her had been thrown into a wall and she was currently checking his pockets to see if he had any money left on him. "Do you have no heart for the dead?" Ezio asked as he carried Lorenzo inside his house. Amalia followed, but laughed at his comment. "You would do the same. Don't deny it!" Of course she knew that Ezio would do something like that, but it seemed that he was just putting up a front for Lorenzo.
"Wait." Lorenzo called, as Ezio turned to leave. "I am in your debt. Tell me. Why did you help me?" He asked, placing a hand unto his wound yet again. "You are not the only one who lost a brother to the Pazzi. My name is Ezio Auditore."
Amalia snorted as he told Lorenzo his name. "You prance around like it's a high class name or something." She mumbled under her breath. Thankfully Ezio didn't hear, because she was sure that he would have knocked her over the head. Lorenzo continued speaking as Amalia leaned against the wall next to him. "Ahh. You're Giovanni's son…Your father was a good man. He understood honor, loyalty—"
Lorenzo was cut off, by one of his guard men that burst through the door, clearly distressed by something. "The Pazzi thugs are storming the Palazzo della Signoria! We can't hold them off much longer—" Another rude person decided to cut that guard off and voice his thoughts at the problem at hand. "No! They'll get inside, they'll murder all our supporters and put their own devils in power!"
"Then my survival will mean nothing. I have to…" Lorenzo tried to get up, but was pushed back down by a guard and Ezio as he groaned in pain. "Obviously if you're hurt you shouldn't be trying to stand. I think it'd be in your best interest to stay put here while Ezio and I go to take care of things. Lorenzo grabbed her arm and stared into her eyes as he tried to form sentences properly. "Francesco de Pazzi…Help save our city…."
"Amalia Salvatore De Luca." She said, filling in the rest of the blank that he had formed in that sentence. "And you to, Auditore." He said desperately, grabbing unto Ezio's wrist and turning to look at him as well. The both of them nodded in unison. Ezio exited the courtyard of Lorenzo's house first followed by Amalia and then the two guards. Lorenzo's men stopped the both of them and gave them useful information which they should've thanked him for, but didn't. "Signore. I saw Francesco lead a battalion around the back of the Palazzo della Signoria. I fear he may be seeking another way in." The guard told them, concerned for the sake of their supporters.
"Go before it's too late. Do what you can."
OoOoOo
They arrived at the Palazzo della Signoria shortly, but they would've been their faster if Ezio didn't fall off of the roof and into a haystack. Of course it wasn't his fault that he had stumbled and fell to his hay demise. Amalia had just happened to stick her foot out and Ezio had gone plunging down into the haystack. He had been utterly mad that she had played such a dirty trick when they had more important things to do, but she was just trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't like she had planned that to begin with. She just wanted to have some laughs and decided that sticking her foot out like that would garner some giggles.
More from her than him, but hey she did tell him that she was going to get him back. He just never knew when. To make things even funnier Amalia saw that Francesco de' Pazzi was standing on the top of the Palazzo della Signoria and he was screaming at the both of them. "You two again! Why aren't you dead?—Men! Slaughter them."
"This guy really is hilarious." Ezio glared at her from the corner of his eye as he climbed out of the haystack. He stood next to her and plucked off all the hay that was sticking to his cloak. "How about you go after Francesco and I'll take care of all the guards own here. I'm sure some of the thieves will help me." Ezio didn't exactly say yes to her suggestion, but he didn't really say no as well. "Well…" She pushed, not wanting to continue stalling because the more time they wasted the more people that died.
"I do not believe that that is a good idea." He voiced, taking out his sword from his sheath, making it glint off of the sun. "Well you're just going to have to deal with me doing what I want, so either you get your ass up there to kill Francesco, or I'll go and do it myself." Amalia didn't wait to hear what his answer would be, but instead she ran ahead to go join the thieves that were fighting Francesco's men. It was like the men that she slashed at wouldn't die. They just kept coming back for more. There happened to be a tough guard with so much armor, Amalia was amazed that he could move at all. "Arrghh!" She yelled, aiming for his face, but instead met thin air. "Shit." She breathed, turning around to get knocked in the face with the hilt of his sword. Darkness started to swarm her vision as she stumbled backwards, nearly tripping on a corpse. "Die you fool!" The man yelled, kicking her in her gut. She blocked somewhat of the blow by grabbing unto his leg, but it still hurt nonetheless. Her hand moved further up his ankle and she pulled forward, making the man slip and fall to the ground.
A hand came at her face connecting with her cheek making her head snap to the side. "Fuck. Why can't you just die?" The man rolled out from under her narrowly missing her blade that was soon to be lodged into his throat. This man proved to be somewhat of a challenge to Amalia as most men that she had fought had been much easier than this. She would have expected him to be easy so that she could move onto the next person, but of course nothing always went her way.
In a matter of seconds she had the man pinned back to the ground with a rough kick to his side. Without missing a beat she pulled out her dagger and plunged it into his chest, smiling as the blood came out of his chest. "Thank god, took forever to just kill you." She mumbled, wiping the blood off on his clothes. Before she left to go help the other thieves she checked a couple of corpses near her to see if she could find any valuables or florins. "Why is it that city guards don't carry any money or valuables. This just puts a damper on my mood. Really!"
Amalia took her time in deciding who she should fight next. There were a bunch of battles that were all over the square that she was standing in, but she wasn't really sure which one to go to. Fighting wasn't really what she felt like doing at the moment, so she took it upon herself to go after Francesco even though she told Ezio that he was all his. Casting her eyes upwards she saw a figure jump off of the Palazzo della Signoria, and land in a wagon filled with pinkish flowers. The figure didn't seem to be wearing white robes with a red sash leaving her to assume that it was Francesco that had jumped off of the rood.
She prepare herself, in case that it was Francesco, that she would be able to run after him and kill him if Ezio lost sight of him, but soon she saw Ezio jump off of the same roof and land in another pile of flowers that was a couple of feet away from the one that Francesco had landed in. "Ezio!" She called, running over towards the cart. As she did a dark figure bumped into her sending her towards the ground. "Yah! What the hell was that for?" She screamed at the figure that was running away. It turned out that it was Francesco that had bumped into her, because as soon as she had said that Ezio jumped out of the cart and chased after him. Both men had run down the street making a sharp left into an alley just next to the armor shop. "I should take the roof."
She did just that and chased after Ezio who was gaining on Francesco like he was nothing. The amusing thing about it was that she could see Francesco getting scared at how close an Assassin was gaining on him. He looked back numerous times to see if he was still following him, which of course he still would be. Amalia jumped off of a roof and met up with Ezio as he climbed the building in front of her to catch up with Francesco. The little fart had decided to start using the rooftops instead of the ground, making it a little annoying for Ezio to follow. How she could tell? Well, you could see the sheer annoyance lacing Ezio's face, so call her crazy, but she was pretty sure that Ezio couldn't wait to lodge his hidden blade into his back. "Hey! Francesco. Watch out. There's an angry Assassins behind you who aims to kill." Amalia smirked as she saw Francesco suddenly freeze just giving Ezio enough time to stab him in the back.
She watched as Ezio grabbed unto Francesco and brought him down to the ground so that he was leaning over him. "Now Firenze will judge you for what you've done."
"It's over…It's all over." Why was it that each time Ezio killed someone or someone died he always talked to them before saying a prayer. It's not like they're going to spill out how sorry they are for killing people just because they're about to die. It really didn't stick into her brain that he was just being respectful for the dead. Amalia was the type of person that killed you and then robbed your body for any valuables that you might have on you. Ezio started to speak some prayer that she had heard many times before. "Meglio essere felici in questa vita che aspirare a esserio nelia prosssima (Better to be content in this life than aspire to it in the next).Requiescat in Pace (Rest in Peace)."
"Come on Ezio. We must leave before anyone see's us." She whispered, grabbing his arm to help him up from his kneeling position. "He ended up just like his son." Ezio whispered, barely audible. The only way that she had heard it was the fact that she was so close to him. "So you do regret killing Vieri then." She stated, now feeling that she was getting an insight into Ezio's emotions, and how he felt about killing.
"I do not regret." He told her, brushing off her arm. "I merely am stating what has become of Francesco." Their gazes held for a moment, but Amalia swore that she did see something in his eyes that he did regret killing. "Ezio…"She started, not exactly sure what to say after that. "Amalia. It is nothing. Please let us just continue on our way."
"Fine." She mumbled. "But if you need someone to talk to…You know I'm here for you." She told him knowing that this would be the only time that she would say something like that. She looked up at him to see what his reaction would be, but what he said threw her off completely."Are you telling me that you actually care?" Ezio said before laughing.
"Way to ruin the moment Auditore. I decided to be nice and heartfelt and here you are yakking it up, thinking it's funny when for once I decided to actually care." She 'hmphed' and stormed off of the roof, clearly mad that he had ruined such a good moment like that.
"You know I meant nothing of it." He told her, grabbing her wrist before she could get away.
"Yeah well say it to my ass." She retorted, wrenching her hand free from his loose grip
"I'd love to do more than—"
"Finish that sentence Auditore and see what happens to your ass once I'm through with it."
"Ooh. Kinky! I like the way you think." Her eyebrows knit in anger and she turned around throwing her hands into the air.
"ARGH!" Ezio's laugh filled her head as she stormed off clearly fed up with his perverted mind. "I swear the next time that this man says something like that I'm really going to castrate him."
"I know you wouldn't want to castrate your only toy!" He yelled down at her from the roof as she ran off. "Hey wait up!" Ezio called chasing after her.
OoOoOo
"You know this is the place where I fought Vieri." Ezio told her, weaving through the crowd with her in tow. "Wow. I'm sure you two had a lot of history." She replied, not really paying attention to him, but more looking out for a certain someone. She had sworn that she had seen someone that looked exactly like Demarco. Of course she wasn't exactly sure. It was still confusing though as to why the man might even want to go after her. He didn't really have a use for her, but he probably wanted revenge for what she had done before she left him.
But the weird thing was that the entire time that she had been training in Monteriggioni, not once had he shown up on their doorstep. When Ezio had told her what he had overheard, she was sure that he would have been there the following day, but he didn't show up for two years.
But now that she had sworn that she had seen his face, she was confused as to why he was in Firenze. "Are you even paying any attention to me Amalia."
"Hn." She replied, somewhat listening to what he was saying. "Is there something on your mind?" He asked her. "Well I'm pretty sure that someone that looked like Demarco was in this crowd, but I'm not exactly sure." She responded, standing on her tippy toes to look over a group of courtesans that were standing in the middle of the crowd. "We'll discuss this later, but I see Lorenzo over there. Come." He said.
Ezio walked up towards Lorenzo and stood on his left side while she stood with her back towards the water on his right. The reason why she was standing like that was the fact that she was watching the crowd to see if her imagination was actually true.
Lorenzo started speaking and she listened in, but kept a close eye on the crowd. "When I was six years old I fell into the Arno. I soon found myself drifting down and into darkness, certain my life was at an end. Instead I woke to the sound of my mother weeping. At her side a stranger, soaking and smiling at me. My mother explained that he had saved me. And so began a long a prosperous relationship between two families: yours and mine." He said, placing a hand on Ezio's shoulder. "I am sorry I could not save your father and brothers."
"You have nothing to apologize for. I believe Jacopo de' Pazzi played a part in their deaths. The attack on you as well. I need to find him."
"That coward fled before we could arrest him!"
"Have you any leads." Ezio asked, shifting his eyes over to her, concern lacing his features. Amalia could just feel the questions emanating off of him. He was probably wondering why she was so focused on the crowd more than Lorenzo. Lorenzo looked back at Amalia, but turned back around to continue talking. "No. They've hidden themselves well."
"They?"
"Jacopo was not the only conspirator to escape."
"If they work with Jacopo, they were surely involved in the plot against my family as well. Give me their names."
"Antonio Maffei, Archbishop Francesco Salvati. Stefano de Bagnone, Bernardo Baroncelli, and a man named Demarco Costa." Amalia gasped loudly and spun around, grabbing Lorenzo by the shoulder. "What did you just say?"
"If you need me to repeat—" He started, but was cut off by Amalia.
"No! The last man you listed." She asked, gripping his shoulder harder than she should have.
"Demarco Costa. He comes from Sam Gimignano and just joined a couple of years ago. He and Jacopo fled—" Amalia didn't let him finish but instead turned around placing a hand on her chin. She wondered why Francesco and Vieri were in his house that one day that they were out. "So the entire time…he was a templar." She whispered, not really comprehending everything that was going on at the moment. Questions flew through her head as she tried to come up with a good explanation to all of this. "Bene (Good). We will go see Ezio's uncle."
"Are you sure—" Ezio started but was cut off. "He has men stationed in the countryside." Amalia turned to leave, but was stopped by Lorenzo. "Wait, you two. Before you go."
Lorenzo handed Ezio a scroll that Amalia knew was a Codex Page. Guess they'll be heading to Leonardo before they go back to Mario.
"A Codex page?" Ezio said surprised. "I took it from the files of Francesco de' Pazzi, seeing as he clearly no longer needs it. I've always had an interest in things of antiquity. As did your father."
"It is meaningful to me as well."
"Then consider it a gift. Che a Signore ci protegga (God save us all)."
Ezio nodded and motioned for Amalia to follow who was too caught up in her thoughts to notice his gesture. Just what was Demarco doing in Firenze, and why now? Was he here to find her? If he was then the number one thing that she needed to do on her list was get the hell out of Firenze before he finds her!