*Riley's POV*
Walking out of the room, I kept thinking. Who will my meister be? What if it's a guy or a girl? I can handle guys, but if it was a girl that would be a bonus for me. Hopefully they aren't too cocky or egotistical like Blackstar and Soul. Here's the thing about Blackstar and Soul. They're both best friends, but they are very egotistical. Blackstar believes that he will surpass God and Soul just loves saying the word "cool" too much. How Maka and Tsubaki stand those guys is beyond me.
"What's the matter, Riley?" I looked up to see Leonardo and Ezio looking at me.
"Nothing. Just thinking." I said. I mostly keep to myself. If you asked to introduce myself I'll just give short response answers and never go into detail. Maybe that's why Lord Death want me to find a meister, so I can open up more.
"Anyway, I will be leaving, Leonardo." Ezio said.
"Good luck, mio amico." Leonardo said.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"I have to find someone."
"Can I come?"
"No, it is too dangerous for you, bambina."
"I can take care of myself."
"You are very stubborn."
"Thank you for you for noticing." I muttered as I crossed my arms. He seemed to be at war with himself until finally he sigh and allowed me to come.
"You can come under one condition. Once it gets too dangerous, you leave immediately, understood." I would have saluted but I settled with a nod instead. As we walked out of Leonardo's house, I followed him through the crowd to (what seemed like) an outdoors market. The streets where so busy with people delivering and buying food, clothes, etc.
"There's too many people. How are you going to be able to find them?" I asked.
"I already did." He said. In front of us was an older man. He wore a woren out hat, tattered clothes, and woren out shoes. He pushed past us and ran towards the alley not far from us. Ezio patted his pockets searching for something.
"My money! Where is my money?" He said as he searched.
"I don't have your money!" The man said and began to ran. Ezio ran with me following him. There was something off, though. It seemed like the man wanted us to follow him. But why? Soon the chase seemed to take a different direction. The man started to climb onto one of the building to the roof.
"Can you climb?" Ezio asked.
"No,"
"You can jump, though."
"What does-"
"See that balcony. Jump over there and pull yourself up. I will help if needed." He said. I sighed and jumped onto the crates. I stood in front of the edge of the balcony and leaped. Once I grapped the edge, I pulled myself up.
"Good, now grab the edge of the roof and do the same."
I looked up at the roof and jumped, repeating the process. I laid on the roof for a while, trying to catch my breath. I glanced at my right and saw the man we were chasing. By the time Ezio was on the roof, I was on my feet.
"I have no interest in hurting you. So give me my money and we'll call it even." He said putting his hand out, expecting the man to give the money back.
"Not so fast." A voice said. I turned around and saw a man wearing (what seemed like in this century) expensive light brown clothes. The edges were decorated with a gold color design. He had his hood up so I couldn't see his face very well.
"Who are you?" Ezio asked.
"They call me many things. Murderer, Tagliagole, Thief. But you can call me La Volpe. At you service, Messer Ezio." He said. Not being able to understand a different language was starting to annoy me.
"How did you know my name?" He asked suspiciously.
"It is my business to know everything in this city. Especially your friend, Riley. A weapon without a meister. How was your conversation with Lord Death?" Everyone's eyes were on me as mine widened. Have they been eavesdropping on me?
"How did you know that?" I asked.
"Like I said it is my business to know. Isn't that why you are here?" His attention was back to Ezio.
"Indeed. I need to find someone. You know where they would be before they know."
"Who?"
"Francesco de' Pazzi."
"There is word on the street of a caravan just arrived from Roma. A secret meeting sunset tonight. You can learn something of Francesco's whereabouts there."
"Do you know where it is?"
"Yes. Let me know when you are ready and we'll go. Oh and here is your money." He said tossing Ezio his money pouch.
"We will go now." Ezio said as he caught his money pouch.
"As you wish. But we must hurry. Think you can keep up?"
"Not a problem." He said. La Volpe turned at started to climb. I sighed. 'Great, more climbing' I thought. I turned my fingers into blades and started climbing after him. Once I got up, La Volpe and Ezio were free-running across the roofs and shop signs. I sighed again and ran after them. I haven't really experienced in free-running so it took me a lot longer to get to our destination. Once I got there, I sat down and tried to catch my breath. I haven't ran this long since the witch Medusa's attack on the school and the war with the kishin Asura.
"Are you alright?" Ezio asked.
"Yeah, it's been a while since I moved this much." I said, standing up.
"As I was saying, there are catacombs that run under the city. They'll lead you to a place where you can eavesdrop on the meeting. Grip that stone handle, turn it, then slide it down." La Volpe said. Ezio thanked him. He jumped on the ground and approached the guards that were blocking his path. Before they could say anything Ezio flicked his wrist and thrust it into their necks. The guards fell with open wounds and blood pouring down their neck.
I jumped down and stomped towards him.
"Why did you kill them?" I asked obviously pissed off.
"They are Templars and they were blocking the path." He said as he walked towards the fountain that contained a golden skull.
"What does that make you?"
"An Assassin."
"As kill for hire assassin."
"No, the order Assassin. It is a long story that should not be told today." He pushed the skull like it was a button. The golden skull started to shift into three piece and connected again only this time it was upside-down. Suddenly, the floor under the skull opened like it was a secret underground tunnel. I know it is very unlikely, but I started wondering if TMNT would randomly pop out of the tunnel.
"Are you coming?" He asked as he climbed down. I sighed and went down after him.
The tunnel was filled with skeletons and dirt. We walked down the hallway where the catacomb seemed to expand a little. Ezio pulled the lever that was attached to the wall which caused the wall in front of us to slide down allowing us to climb up. Ezio rushed at the wall, climbing up easily while I changed my fingers into blades again and climbed up. Once I was up I followed him. We stopped at the broken staircase. It seems the only way across was to jump onto the poles that were attached to the walls creating a somewhat easy, but not-so-easy platform.
"Come on." He said.
"I am not doing that."
"How will you get across then?"
"You are going to carry me."
"That will be difficult."
"You forgot, I am a weapon. So that should be easy."
"How?"
"Hold out your hand." I said. He hesitated before put his hand in front of him. I closed my eyes as my body started to glow into a red color. My human form was replaced with a gray scythe with a matching gray ribbon wrapped around the handle as the blade was curved and shiny. I opened my eyes and looked around the familiar black room before looking back into the mirror in front of me. Through the mirror I could see Ezio's astonished face as he held my weapon form.
"How are you able to do that?" He asked.
"I'm a weapon. It's in my blood." I sat down onto the floor, image reflecting off the blade. "Now, are you gonna go or what?"
He simply nodded. He held onto the handle and started jumping onto the pole. He used the scythe blade as a grappling hook to help him climb onto the ledge.
"Uh, what do I do now?"
"Hold on." I said and transformed back into a human. I stood up and stretched. Being a weapon can make you stiff. I looked behind him and pointed at the lever. He looked back and pulled the lever. Behind me a gate started to move up disappearing into the wall. We jumped across and onto another ledge. I transformed back into the weapon as Ezio jumped onto the makeshift platform again and transformed back when he was done. He pulled another lever which unlocked multiple ledges. I looked down and found no other way to go but down.
"Do we have to jump?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"There is a haystack down there. It should cushion our fall." Before I could protest he grabbed my wrist and I immediately turned into a scythe. What the hell? How did I change? I only change by will! Ezio ran and jumped off the ledge. As we landed into the haystack I said 'I hate you' to Ezio and he just chuckled. Ahead of us was a group of soldiers. I stayed quiet and listened to their conversation as we snuck out of the hay and hid behind the wall.
"How long do we have to stand here, Saverio? It's so cold." One of them said.
"What do you want Ilario? Messer Pazzi is paying us good money to watch the entrance, and the dead won't try to murder us. I can't wait to go home to Elena and tell her how much gold we made tonight!" The man, Saverio, said as he and the other, Ilario, walked away, the door closing behind him. We came out of our hiding spot and walked forward. The room was decorated with carvings, collumns, and torches. Some of the columns were in ruins while the others were still in one piece. In the middle of the room was a pool. It seems like it used to be a bath house.
"Where do we go now?" I asked.
"We go up." He said. Once I shifted, Ezio grabbed my handle and attached it into his cape. After that he started to climb the ruins.
"Do you ever get tired of climbing?" I asked.
"Sometimes." He said as he jumped across a gap and grabbed onto the stone brick. He pulled himself up just as a guard was walking towards us. The guard started to rush at Ezio who took out his dagger and killed him. I sighed.
"You could have knocked him out instead." I said. He just shrugged and started walking. I sighed once more.
"Why haven't you turn back into a human yet?" He asked.
"From all of the parkouring, shifting from human to weapon would be exhausting." I said. Just as I finished my sentence there were more handles and platforms. He just sighed and began leaping from handle to pole, ledge to ledge. He leaped down and walked over to another lever. As he pushed it down the door that was once closed, opened. The guards seemed to notice. Once the doors opened they started pouring out and searched the room. Ezio leaped onto the second floor. He walked over to the edge and leaped onto the ground near the pool. The impact alerted the guards. They turned around and charged after us. Ezio grabbed my handle and started to fight the guards. As he attacked though I dulled the blade so the guards would only receive minor cuts.
"Why is this not working?" Ezio asked.
"I dulled the blade."
"Why would you do that?"
"My enemies are kishins and witches. If I kill a human I will become a kishin. The thing I was trained to hunt down and kill." I said. He flipped the handle over and started attacking from the back of the blade.
"Saverio, I will get more guards." Ilario said and ran. Ezio ran towards him while attaching my scythe to his cape. As he ran after him, Ilario cut the ropes that kept the cage up to slow Ezio down. This happened a couple of time before Ezio leaped onto the ruins and air assassinated the guard.
"Like I said, you could have just knocked him out." I said. He ignored me and rushed towards the crate and climbed over the wall. He jumped down and examined the room. The room was smaller than the bath house but was designed the same way. Each angle contain a ledge and carved wall. One of the walls had the same golden skull from before. Ezio climbed up and and pushed the skull. The skull pushed out, separated into four pieces, and connected upside-down. The door opened and revealed a hallway. Ezio walked forward as we heard voices.
"El benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filiti et Spiritus Sancti descendat super vos et maneat semper." We stopped to listen to the conversation the five men were in. I quietly shifted back and kneeled next the the barred window.
"Grazie, Padre." One of them said.
"It's all here, swords, staves, axes, armor, bows. Our men will want for nothing." The other said.
"I take this gift to mean the Pope consents?" The older one said.
"He gave his blessing to the operation... "as long as nobody is killed."" The man who spoke suddenly walked into the meeting.
"We're all set for the Duomo in the morning. The bait's been laid, but it wasn't easy. His fool brother keeps changing his plans." The one with the long hair said.
"Yes, we'll need to be on hand to make sure Giuliano even gets out of the bed for church tomorrow." The others chuckled.
"What is it, Jacopo? Do you think they suspect something?"
"Impossible! The Medici are too arrogant or too stupid to even notice. Likely a bit of both." The man with the long hair interrupted the older man.
"Do not underestimate out 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."
"Very well. I should be off. I've some other business to attend to before I return to Rome. Gentlemen, tomorrow, a new sun rises over Firenze. May the father of understanding guide us." The man said. The others repeated and bowed before he left. Ezio stood us and walked out towards the exit. Before leaving he walked to a tomb with the same skull and opened it, taking out a circular stone. He stuffed it into his robe. He walked to the wall and pushed it open. The door lead to a sewer next to the water.
Sitting on a bench was La Volpe. We walked over and sat down next to him and told him what information we were able to gather. Once that was over we got up and walked the stairs.
"What are we gonna do?" I asked.
"We are going to save the Medici family."