A/N: Thank you to all my readers, and reviewers as you continue to deal with me on my late updates. I'm not going to make excuses, because that's not me, but you know how we authors get lazy. This is a shout out to Lou Lou, who made my day with their comment. That really encouraged me to continue writing, and I'm determined to have three chapters done before the weekend is over. Thank you so so much to:
BeachVampire17
Ardx
Akeira
Xxnikkigirl123xX
Fratcats
Anna Cahill
Your comments are love, and yes…I just noticed your comments. -_-. I'm just fail. Please enjoy these chapters and the many to come. And if I don't update you can spam my email at Mt_ and force me to keep going. I know how readers are devastated when an author just abandons their story, and I really don't want to be one of them, so please don't hesitate to spam. Just make sure that in the subject you write UPDATE YOUR FANICTION! So I know, "OH SHIT! Ezio and Amalia need to develop their relationship." Enjoy!
Also got a twitter for this account specifically so you can follow me. My name's the same on here, Koiketsudayou, so please add me!
OoOoOo
It was strange to wake up in a room with four people leaning over you with concerned looks on their faces. I was confused as to why these people were leaning over me though. Their mouths moved, yet I could hear nothing. Nothing at all. What were they saying? Why did my head hurt so much?
"Is she…..animus….fine?" I picked up snippets of what they were saying…but…I couldn't understand any of it. It was as if they were speaking a different language on a whole. "Amalia..." Someone shook my shoulder roughly, causing a wave of nausea to pass over me. "You have to snap out of it." Why? What was going on? I felt confused, and scared to be exact. Did I know these people? My vision still was a little hazy, but after a while I made out the concerned faces of Desmond, Rebecca and Lucy leaning over me. Shaun was standing next to me, but didn't seem the least bit concerned at all.
"Are you alright now?" Lucy asked, placing a cold hand unto my forehead. "Oh my god! You're burning up."I shook her hand off and slowly sat up as my back was stiff as a board. "Is there something that you guys aren't telling me?" My hand rested on the same spot that Lucy had her hand on before. I knew they weren't telling me something, but I wanted to know why I wasn't inside the animus. Why was Ezio gone? Was there something happening in the real world why they brought me back out. Didn't they say that I was going to be forever stuck inside the animus? If so, why was I here? So many thoughts and questions ran throughout my head as I tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for all of this.
"I don't know what went wrong." Rebecca started while walking around the animus to head back to her computer. The clicking noise of her fingers hitting the keyboard surrounded us all as she tried to figure out what exactly went wrong. "It seems that part of that memory was corrupted. Maybe that was the reason why it forced you out."
"What forced me out?" I questioned in haste, as I wanted…no needed to get back into the animus. I felt a sudden withdrawal from what I called home. "What forced me out!" I yelled again, startling Desmond and Lucy who were standing directly next to me.
"Calm down, will you." Shaun said while rolling his eyes. "Of course we would have told you if we knew. What is with it and you people demanding answers right away?" He was right. If they had known they would have said something by now. I needed a better approach. "Do you know how to send me back?" I asked, hoping that Rebecca at least had an answer to that question.
She looked up at me with a sad face. "I…I really don't know. I'm sorry." I couldn't give up now. I needed to be sent back. I felt that something was going to go wrong if I didn't get back right away. What if Ezio's memory blocked me out again? Did that mean that I was going to have to start from the beginning where we met? Would he not remember me if I came back? So many questions, but no answers to calm my nerves.
"How about you get some rest. I'm sure you're on edge right now." Desmond said, placing a hand on my shoulder. At that moment I wanted to brush him off, but I knew that he was somewhat right. What I needed to do was go somewhere to think. To try and come up with an answer to everything. "No…I'm fine." I slowly slid out of the animus chair, and placed my feet on the floor. Steadying myself took a little while as the room started to spin a little. After the buzzing in my ears and the pounding in my head subsided, I started to walk in the direction of the door. "Where are you going?" Lucy asked, as she now stood in front of me. "I need to think about something."
"Oh." She responded with her head now tilted downwards. "Well…then go ahead." I nodded, and walked through the door that led to a hallway. On the left was a set of stairs which seemed to lead to the bottom of the warehouse. I wasn't really sure where I would be headed, but walking away from all of this seemed like the best idea at the moment. It was as if I wasn't even walking down the stairs though. It looked like the marketplace that Ezio and I had been in moments before. My memories must be merging with that of the animus as the entire are around me seemed to fade in and out of an image of the market. There was a slight buzzing in the back of my head, and clutching at it did nothing to calm my nerves. Instead of walking further down the stairs, I stopped and slid down the wall.
Why was this happening right now? And why were these weird visions happening. Well…I wouldn't really call them visions. They're more like mirages that are happening right in front of me.
But they feel so damn real. It's like I can smell the odors of people passing by me, and smell the ocean which wasn't that far away. A shiver ran throughout my body as I felt like I was going crazy. Stuff like this wasn't supposed to happen. If someone is outside of the animus, shouldn't that mean that they won't encounter memories or people that were seen inside of the animus. It just didn't make any sense at all.
I didn't notice that their where feet in front of me, until someone stooped down, and their face was in my vision. "Are you okay?" Desmond asked, concern written all over his face. "Is there such a thing as Animus withdrawal?"
"Not that I know of…" He answered, scratching behind his head a little. "Are you having images of people around you?" I nodded. "It's more like the marketplace back in Venezia. It's strange though. I see the people in shades of blue…and they seem to look transparent, but…it feels like their actually here." I sighed and placed a hand on my forehead to try and stop the constant throbbing. "I don't know what's wrong with me."
"Don't worry about it. We'll find out what went wrong and send you back right away."
"What exactly is my purpose here? Why was I 'permanently' fused with the Animus? Why aren't you hooked up to the Animus?" The previous questions that I had asked myself continued to run through my head as new ones popped up as well. Desmond seemed to be overwhelmed by my bombardment of questions, and I felt bad for asking him. It's not like he would not the answers to these questions so…it was really pointless to waste my breath. "What are the others doing?" I asked after a long moment of silence.
"Well..."He started, putting out his hand so that I could hoist myself up. "Shaun is just being his regular douche self and ranting." I giggled a little at his comment which brought a smile to Desmond's face. "Lucy is trying to help Rebecca find out what exactly is wrong. She said she might be able to send you to a later memory, or a previous one."
"Wait." I said. He stopped in front of me and turned around with a questioning look. "Don't you think that if she sends me to a previous date, and I happen to get through all of that…don't you think I'll be shoved out of the same memory if I tried to relive it again."
"We don't know that for sure—"
"But you don't want to risk it happening again." Desmond stood still for a moment, processing the words that I had just said. I mean it makes sense though. You wouldn't want to risk going through it again. It'd be better to just enter into a later memory. Hopefully that memory won't be too far from the one that had pushed me out.
OoOoOo
"Hey are you guys done yet?"
"What makes you think that in just a lil' bit of time we'll have this baby running. I don't see you bloody fixing this." Yup, typical Shaun. Only negative things to say about people. "Do you have something up your ass?" Desmond retorted, obviously fed up with Shaun's way of expressing himself. Shaun just gave him a dirty look and returned to his desk, mumbling words that no one could understand. It's not like anyone was trying to figure out what the man was saying in the first place.
"So I think I figured out what we're going to do."
"Really!" I said excitedly. Finally! "Well…don't get too excited now. This'll take a couple of days." At that sentence my smile dropped, and Desmond smiled sheepishly. "Well, lay it on me then."
"Well this memory isn't fully corrupted which means that you can revisit it—"
"Why do I feel a but someone where in this sentence." I said, throwing myself down into the closest chair. "Because there is," Lucy answered. She motioned for Rebecca to continue, which she did. "Like I said, you can revisit it, but it runs the chance of erasing Ezio's memory of you on a whole."
"Which means that I would have to try and find my way back into Ezio's life without looking suspicious?"
"Exactly." Lucy said. "Now there is an upside to this."
"How could there be a positive out of this? Don't you think that we should just ignore this one little memory and continue onwards?" Lucy shook her head and stepped forward. "Ezio has an important encounter here."
"And who would that be?" I asked, now completely confused. "Well, because of you…and you're…um. How should I put this…"
"Basically you fucked up by meeting Demarco."Shaun butted in with a raised eyebrow. I stared at him with wide eyes. What? What does he have to do with anything? It wasn't my fault that I ended up there. I guess you could say that it was fate what brought us together. God did that just sound cheesy.
"So what exactly does he…do when he meets him?"
"Well that's the thing." Rebecca answered. "We don't exactly know."
"Wait a second—" I began while jumping out of my chair. I realized something while sitting down. "If Ezio doesn't know who I am do you think that means that Demarco still knows who I am and what I did to him the night before this happened."
"I would think." Desmond stated, while glancing at Lucy and Rebecca for some type of reassurance.
"Crap." I muttered under my breath. You see, if Demarco didn't remember anything that I had done to him then that would mean that it would be easier to slide back into Ezio's life. "Wait a minute..." I placed a finger in the air as my eyes started getting wide. I had an idea. "If Demarco does know me, then that means that I could purposely hand myself over to him. If I did that then Demarco would encounter Ezio, still thinking that we know each other and are very close. If that happened Ezio would be confused because his memories of me have been erased. Thus meaning that Demarco wouldn't know what is going on and eventually give up on me."
"Or—"
"Or what." I snapped turning to glare at Shuan. "You got any other bright ideas Sherlock." He ignored my snappy comment and continued on as if nothing had happened. "Or you could just be sent to a later memory."
"Or that." I said, feeling utterly stupid at how I snapped at him for no reason. "Look guys. We'll figure it out tomorrow okay. If we can't get it up and running then, the latest will be two days."
Ugh. This is just friggin' awesome. Not only am I feeling sad at not being able to see Ezio, but it also meant that the animus probably won't be working for a couple of days. Isn't that just awesome.
OoOoOo
2 days later
No, I was not in the animus yet. Yes, I was feeling utterly depressed at being here in the real world. Shaun was nothing but a pain in my ass, constantly making such rude comments that forced me to hold my tongue and teach myself to control everything that I had to not kick him where the sun doesn't shine. Desmond had been nice and kept me company, but he also had his own training that he did downstairs in the warehouse, leaving me by myself. It was hard just staying here and not doing anything. The migraines increased tenfold, and I spent most of my time lying down, drugging myself up with more painkillers than I could count. I wasn't really one for Advil, or Tylenol because my motto had always been "If people get stabbed every day, I think I can take it without complaining", but this had desperately called for them.
It felt like I was going crazy. Every wall I looked at I saw either something from Venezia, or horses, or any type of person walking down the street. All in all, it was killing me. It didn't help that Shaun's constant banter with Desmond happened 24/7 which had always ended up with me yelling at the both of them to shut up. Personally I enjoyed being inside of the animus rather than hanging with them, and now I felt why Desmond was so frustrated sometimes. Four words.
Shaun is a dick.
No other words to explain it. I don't know how these people put up with him and his snarky comments, but I was fairly close to snapping his arm in two. "God, can't you people do anything right. This thing should have been done ages ago."
"I don't see you trying to fix it." I mumbled.
"I don't need to. It's not in my job description." He glared at me, and I returned it by flipping him off.
"Touchy aren't we." He is so lucky that I don't have any throwing knives right now. If I did, one would be lodged in the side of his neck with blood pouring heavily out of the wound.
It wouldn't be for another three hours that Rebecca ended up fixing the animus. "Done." She yelled, satisfied with her work. If I was lesbian, I would kiss her to death, but the word sodomy popped up into my head. I laughed at the thoughts of it, and how people in Ezio's time where homophobic. "What are you laughing about?" Shaun asked, brushing past me, purposely knocking shoulders with me. "Oh you know, just the usual. Taking a knife and shoving it into your neck." I smiled sweetly and returned the favor by knocking shoulders with him as well.
I could just feel his eyes on the back of my head right now, but at the moment, I could care less.
"Alright, Amalia. Get in the chair."
I followed Rebecca's instructions without a second thought and waited for Lucy to come over. "We've decided not to send you to the corrupted memory, but to the memory directly afterwards."
"And what is that." I asked.
"Well you'll just have to find out." Lucy smiled before taking a syringe and inserting it into my arm. "Be careful." She whispered as I closed my eyes, and white surrounded me.
I didn't have to wait very long before the white started to form buildings, and the ground below me started to form cobblestone. A smile graced my face as the sky started to turn black, and stars where shining in the sky. After everything finished forming I opened my eyes to see Leonardo's workshop in front of me.
"I wonder what memory this is." I whispered to myself as I knocked on the door lightly. It didn't take long before the door was opened and I was met with a disheveled artist with paint spots on his face. I giggled quietly as a small smile graced his face. "Amalia." I nodded and pulled him into a hug. I could feel him slightly stiffen but he wrapped his arms around me and returned the hug. "I missed you." I mumbled into his hair. "But I just saw you." He said with confusion lacing his face. I didn't know what to say to him after that, but I instead opted to pull away from him.
"Uh…you have paint on your face." I told him. A blush crept unto his cheeks and he quickly scrubbed at his face, completely missing the paint. "Here. Let me do it." I whispered with a hint of amusement lining it. It didn't take long before the paint disappeared leaving a blushing Leonardo. "You're too cute." I mumbled while pinching his cheeks a little bit. He slapped my hands away and stepped back a bit so that I could enter. He cleared his throat a bit before speaking. "What brings you here?" He questioned while shuffling through a pile of papers on his workbench.
"You know you ought to clean this place up a bit. An assistant might come in handy some day."
"You're avoiding my question Amalia." Well… he caught me. But what was I supposed to say. I was really just dropped off here, and I don't know where Ezio is. Wait. That's it. I don't know where he is.
"I lost Ezio."
"How did you lose him?" Crap.
"Well—" My voice was cut off by a sharp knock at the door. Thank god. Before Leonardo could answer, Ezio burst through the door. He trailed into the room breathing heavily as if he had just ran throughout the entire city to get here…which he probably did. "I need your help Leonardo." Ezio glanced at me quickly, but didn't say anything to really acknowledge my presence.
"Does it work?" He asked pointing at the contraption that was hung above my head. "What. What are you asking?"
"Does – it – work? Leonardo. Can it really fly?"
"I don't know…It's only a prototype. An idea. It's not ready yet." Leonardo told him while scratching behind his head. To me Leonardo must have been a little too ready to answer his question. If Ezio was thinking of using that death trap, I would surely walk up to him and smack him, but because I haven't seen him for a couple of days I'm going to be nice and not do anything…rash.
"Have you tried it?"
"No! It's too dangerous" Leonardo sternly voiced. He whipped his head around to stare incredulously at Ezio. "To test it, you'd have to leap off a tower! Who would be mad enough to do a thing like that?" Leave it to Leonardo to ask a silly question like that. "Leonardo." Ezio began as he crossed his arms across his chest. "I think you just found your madman."
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." I uttered, clearly stunned at what Ezio was trying to do. "Are you trying to kill yourself? You don't even know if the things going to work or not." Ok, so I didn't lie about saying I wouldn't smack him, but I was clearly fed up with him and his daredevil stunts. "I must agree with Amalia, Ezio. She is right."
"How else must I complete this mission?"
"You'll find a way. I'm sure of it." I smiled and patted him on his shoulder which he immediately smacked away. What the hell is his problem?
"Leonardo, if it isn't too much trouble—"
"I believe I could clear up my schedule and have this fixed by tomorrow morning." Ezio smiled widely and brought Leonardo into a hug before turning to me. Just the look on his face was enough for me to toss a vase at the wall. He thought this was a fucking game, trying to see who could win Leonardo over faster. He is lucky that I like his ass. Otherwise I would've punched him just because I couldn't take his attitude. Well I'm not one to back down from a challenge.
Bring it Auditore.
"Is that so?" I declared while getting into his face. He smirked at me.
"This isn't over." I told him, while poking his nose roughly with my pointer finger. "I'll win him over."
"I would love to see you try."
Try I will. And winning…well you already know who's going to win. This would be a piece of cake for me. I'd just have to get Leonardo to be extremely uncomfortable and agree to everything I ask of him. And what better way to win an artist over by flirting with him. Yes, I have stooped so low as to use my womanly powers to win him over. Leonardo has no skills in the romance category and I'm sure that by just flirting with him, he'll be red in the face by the time I was done with him.
I grinned evilly to myself.
Oh this would be fun.