Afterlife

part nine

by Go-Go Spiders

After several more minutes of Leonardo quietly muttering to himself as he inspected the hidden blade from every angle, he finally set the weapon down again. His expression was unreadable to Federico, which immediately made him uneasy.

"Despite its age, the construction is rather advanced," Leonardo began. He sounded just a little too cheerful. "It's truly a fascinating contraption. I've never seen anything quite like it before. Where did y-"

"Never mind that. Can you repair it?" interrupted Ezio anxiously, hovering at his elbow.

Leonardo looked away from Ezio and shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry, but there's not much I can do without the original plans."

Ezio couldn't hide his disappointment. "Nothing can be done?"

"I'm afraid not, unless you want to risk further damage to the weapon."

Federico sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, fingers on either side of the small scar there. "Thank you for being absolutely no help whatsoever." His mind raced – who else could they find to fix Father's hidden blade? Paola had seemed so sure that Leonardo could do it.

Leonardo started to hand the hidden blade mechanism back to Ezio, only for his eyes to land on the scroll still sitting on the workbench. Drawing the hidden blade back before Ezio could take it, Leonardo slowly began to unroll the scroll, quickly scanning the yellowed parchment. "Ezio, what is this?" he said, not disguising the curiosity in his voice.

Ezio shrugged, glancing down at the scroll. The words and diagrams drawn on the ancient parchment meant nothing to him. "To be honest, I'm not sure. It was with th-"

A loud, insistent pounding at the workshop's door interrupted him. "By the order of the Florentine Guard, open this door!" a loud voice cried, muffled by the wood.

Scowling at being disturbed, Leonardo carefully rolled the scroll back up. "Ah, just a moment!" he called out loudly, and then turned back to Ezio. "Stay here and keep out of sight," he said quietly. "I'll get rid of him."

"No, Leonardo, wait," Ezio hissed, but Leonardo was already halfway to the door. Ezio turned to look at his brother. 'Make sure he doesn't get himself in trouble?' he mouthed silently, bringing his hands together in a pleading gesture.

Nodding, Federico pushed himself off of the workbench and shadowed Leonardo to the door. While Ezio and Paola seemed to trust Leonardo, Federico still wasn't sure how much faith he had that Leonardo would not betray Ezio. Federico thought of the blacksmith in the street who'd tried to send the guards after Ezio for the reward money, and of Alberti, a man Father had trusted and respected, who had repaid Father's complete faith in him by accusing Father of treason and hanging him and his sons.

If seemingly loyal friends their family had known for years and years were so eager to stick a knife in their backs, how fast would a struggling young painter Ezio barely knew do the same?

Leonardo opened the door with a pleasant smile to the three uniformed guardsmen standing outside. "Yes?"

"Are you Leonardo da Vinci?" said the guard in the center, his voice terse. Federico noticed that he was the only one carrying a weapon - a thin sword dangled from the guard's hip.

Leonardo nodded, not seeming to notice the barely disguised hostility coming from the trio of guards. "I am. May I help you gentlemen?"

"We need to have a look around your workshop."

Leonardo's smile slowly faded away, leaving confusion in its place as he glanced from guard to guard. "Why would you need to do that?"

The guard glared at him icily, all pretenses of civility gone. "That wasn't a request." The guard roughly shoved Leonardo in the chest, and Leonardo stumbled backwards a few steps before losing his balance.

Acting on instinct, Federico attempted to catch him but Leonardo was falling too fast for him to make himself solid in time. Instead, Leonardo passed through him like smoke and landed roughly on the wooden platform in front of the door, the air rushing out of his lungs.

The guard stepped over the threshold, looming over Leonardo. "When was the last time you saw Ezio Auditore?"

Leonardo slowly sat up. "I'm sorry, who?" he said innocently. "I don't know an Ezio."

'He's covering for Ezio,' thought Federico in surprise. He glanced back to Leonardo's workbench, but Ezio was nowhere in sight.

Instead of placating the guard, Leonardo's words only served to make him angrier. Before Federico could move to stop him, the guard kicked Leonardo in the stomach, sending him sprawling back down onto the platform groaning in pain. "Don't mock me," rumbled the guard. "We know the Auditores were patrons of yours."

"Did that jog your memory?" one of the guards taunted, unaware of Ezio silently climbing up one of the scaffolding for Leonardo's large canvases behind him. The guard raised his foot to kick Leonardo himself. "Or do you need another reminder?"

"No," said Federico, a cold fury burning inside of him. "He doesn't."

He moved forward, slamming and barring the heavy door shut behind the last guard. The guards barely had time to react to the sudden noise and the realization they were somehow trapped inside the workshop before Federico was upon them.

Coughing, Leonardo carefully slid himself away from the guards as one guard's head snapped back, punched in the face by an invisible opponent. The guard screamed as blood poured out of his newly-broken nose. Another forceful strike to the gut and the guard's scream sudden trailed off. He collapsed as if his bones had been turned to raw dough, lying motionless across the floor.

One of the remaining two guards let out a screech of anger tinged with panic. "Demon! Demon!" he cried, whirling around to locate his unseen opponent. "Show yourself!"

Ezio dropped down from the scaffolding and landed silently behind the guard, roping an arm tightly around the guard's neck. The guard quietly choked, his face turning red as his fingers clawing ineffectively at Ezio's arm, until with one final snap, his body went limp. Releasing him, Ezio let his body fall next to the first guard's.

The last guard standing was the one who'd kicked Leonardo. The air of cruelty he'd had upon pushing his way into the workshop had fallen away. Now he looked at Ezio with fear in his eyes, even as he held up his sword in front of him. "Are you truly a demon?" he asked in a wavering voice. His fingers trembled around the sword's pommel.

"I dealt with one and you dealt with one. What do you think, brother?" said Federico with a smirk. "Should we handle this last guard together?"

Ezio grinned. "Yes."

The guard's eyes widened in shock, and his face grew pale. "What?" he said hoarsely.

Taking advantage of the guard's confusion, Federico grabbed at his sword arm and twisted it as hard as he could. The guard let go the sword with a shout of pain, his arm bent at an unnatural angle. Ezio sprang forward and drove the point of his knee sharply into the guard's stomach. The guard doubled over, not resisting when Ezio grabbed him by the front of his uniform and bodily flung him off the wooden platform and towards the stone floor several feet below. There was a loud crack of bone breaking when he struck the floor, and then he remained completely still.

Ezio held out a hand to Leonardo. "Are you all right?" he asked. "Did they hurt you?"

Leonardo let Ezio pull him back to his feet. "No, I'm all right." A twinge of pain crossed over his face and he rested a hand against his side, giving Ezio a sheepish smile. "A little sore, perhaps."

"I'm sorry, that was all my fault," said Ezio. "Those guards were looking for me."

Leonardo shook his head. "Eh, I'm a favorite of theirs to bother. I've grown accustomed to their abuses. But please, tell me what happened during the fight? That was like nothing I'd ever seen before." The curiosity seemed to shine from his face. "Please, you must tell me how you did it!"

Ezio helped Leonardo to a chair next to his workbench. "It's difficult to explain," Ezio said.

"Oh, I'm very good at listening," said Leonardo eagerly. He unrolled the scroll again, laying it across the workbench.

Ezio hesitated, looking at his brother standing behind Leonardo. With Claudia and their mother, he'd felt they had needed to know what had really happened to Federico after he'd been hanged. Leonardo was different - he wasn't family, and he'd never known Federico before he'd been hanged. But after what Leonardo had gone through to protect Ezio, it didn't seem right to lie to him.

Recognizing the conflicted look on Ezio's face, Federico shrugged. "It's up to you, little brother. But he's shown he can be trusted, I think."

Ezio took a deep breath. "All right."

This was a fun chapter to write - I should have more fights in this fic. c: