There was nothing more satisfying than claiming a prize after spending grueling hours solving the most arduous puzzles and performing death-defying stunts.

For Ezio Auditore, the prize was an armor- The legendary assassin Altair's armor. Ever since he had laid eyes on the black set of robes, he had fantasized about wearing them someday and hoped to emulate the man that had changed the Assassin Order for the better.

He had traveled all over Italia and fortunately, found all six seals that were required to open the gates behind which his treasure lay. Then yesterday, while he had placed the last seal and waited for the last set of grills to pull away and grant him access to the armor, something had happened.

There was a loud groaning sound as the metal gate started to retract and then suddenly it had stopped. Ezio was adamant to have the ensemble at any cost and had considered squeezing through the bars, when there had been another metallic sound as another gate pushed back into place.

Ezio had cursed. It wasn't fair! He had pulled out all the seals, and then put them back again. His hands ached, his muscles screamed in agony as he worked to get the gates to budge. However, by the time the sun had set, he had to admit to his failures. Sitting dejectedly at the supper table, his sister Claudia had asked him what the matter was, reminded him it was his birthday the next day and then retired to her bedroom after he had told her that he was unable to claim his prize. Also, he made it clear to her that he had no intention of celebrating his birthday. The gift that he really wanted was unattainable.

It was after midnight, when he was starting to doze off after spending hours in disappointment and drinking glasses of wine with a courtesan, that there was a knock on his door. Swinging his legs out of the bed, he rushed to the door, certain there was an emergency at this time of the night.

It was his sister, chattering excitedly about what she had learned.

"There's another tomb!" she squealed. "I talked to Zio Mario and your friend the artist- Leonardo da Vinci. We found a clue in the codex pages that Altair wrote. There is another tomb that has a key that will fit in a mechanism. That will open the gates!"

Ezio felt all his drowsiness disappear instantly. "Another tomb?"

"Si, and here is the location."

Ezio practically snatched it from her hands to read the instructions. It was right here in Firenze!

Wasting no time, Ezio had rode his horse down the streets, pushing away a few drunkards who were strolling about.

They uttered curses, but Ezio barely paid heed. He was on a mission to claim his treasure. It was his, all his!

So here he was, standing atop a beam, gazing uncertainly at the wooden platform across. Suddenly, he couldn't even stand anymore. The wine was taking effect and his vision was blurring. Worse, he suddenly had to vomit.

He moved his feet quickly on the wooden beam and then saw something crawling in front of him. He paused, his breath still.

Ezio had found the secret location beneath the Mercato Vecchio- the place where all sorts of goods were sold. Under it, was the warehouse where the shopkeepers stored their products. Who could have ever guessed that among the wooden crates of cabbages and apples, was something so incredible.

He couldn't imagine who would have thought of hiding it here in the first place. He himself had come to the market several times, never realizing that right under his feet was where a piece of his heritage lay.

What he hadn't noticed at first was, that the place was crawling with rats. Then when he did, Ezio hadn't minded much. Rats didn't bother him. What did bother him was the fact that there was a large spider crawling on the wooden beam, exactly in front of his right foot.

Ezio made a soft whistling sound with his lips. "Ssh, go away now. Go away. Far away from me."

The spider apparently didn't listen and crawled over his boot.

Ezio let out a cry and kicked his leg. The spider didn't move, but Ezio did almost lose his balance and plunge down into the darkness.

"Dio Mio, dio mio, dio mio!" Quickly, he rushed across the beam, the spider sitting still on his boot. Once he reached, he kicked his leg in the air again and the spider dropped on the sand.

Ezio let out sigh of relief and gasped for breath. The spider stayed close to him and he saw how large and black it was. Then all of a sudden, Ezio bent over and vomited.

When he was done retching, he wiped his mouth and saw the spider next to the stinking puddle of his vomit. Seconds later, the spider quickly scurried away and into the crack in a wall. Ezio coughed and straightened, relieved that the spider had left him alone.

"I hate spiders!" Ezio said grumpily and then took a step forward. The dizziness returned and he muttered another curse, wishing he hadn't succumbed to a courtesan's insistence to drink all that wine.

Then instead of finding comfort in her arms, he had fallen asleep and woken all alone in his room as Claudia banged on the door. Where had the courtesan gone?

"I'll never drink again," he promised himself as the nausea returned. He wished he was in one of those tombs where there had been a pool of icy cold water in the middle. A quick bath in that would refresh him and get rid of this nasty hangover.

He proceeded further, keeping an eye out for spiders and vermin. So far he hadn't encountered any Borgia guards and that was a good thing. Chances were, he would throw up on them before he could get his hidden blades out.

That's when he heard the sound of footsteps. It sounded too light to belong to the guards who wore heavy boots. Still, he had to be careful of the intruder. His back against the wall, he eyed the arched doorway to his left.

There were wooden crates everywhere, some stacked neatly against the wall, others heaped in the middle of the room that had only three small windows for ventilation. And they were so high up, that the sunlight barely made it through them.

So when he saw an approaching light in the archway, Ezio grew alert. He wasn't alone…

He readied his blade, ignored his headache and listened to the approaching footsteps. Usually, the guards he came across in tombs were noisy- gossiping with the other guards and more often than not, talking to themselves as they slowly went crazy, guarding a place that was devoid of normal human interaction.

Whoever was approaching, wasn't talking or carrying a sword. If the intruder had been carrying one, Ezio would have heard the metal against armor as the guard walked.

His blades retracted back into the wrist. The guard may be a new recruit, still learning the ways of the Borgia. He didn't need to be killed. Perhaps, he could just be subdued.

Ezio clenched his fist and raised them, taking his stance.

When the person entered the room, Ezio landed a hard punch on the face.

"Ow!" It was a woman's voice.

Ezio came to stand before her, removing her hand in front of her mouth. "Claudia?"

"You punched me!" she howled.

"I thought you were an intruder."

"You hit me in the mouth!"

"Claudia, mi dispiace. I did not know it was you," Ezio said and then examined the cut on her lip.

"I'm bleeding!" Claudia screamed.

"It's not that bad..." Ezio gulped. It was that bad. There was blood on her lips and teeth and the cut was still oozing out more blood.

"I can't believe you punched your sister in the mouth!" Claudia pushed his hand away as he accidentally pressed down on her lip.

"What are you doing here? I thought it was a guard."

"Should I be grateful then that you didn't stab me to death instead?" Claudia removed a handkerchief from her white dress and pressed it on her lip. "You better not have broken my teeth."

"You didn't explain what you were doing here?" Ezio looked behind her. "And there was a door? Then why the hell did I spend hours digging a tunnel that led me to this room. And I had to jump across beams and climb rickety stairs."

"I was throwing you a surprise birthday party!" Claudia spat. "And I didn't tell you to dig. Had you looked around, you would have found the cellar door all by yourself."

"I was drunk," Ezio admitted, sheepishly. "I can barely walk two steps without feeling like my head will explode of I'll throw up."

Then he looked at her in surprise. "A birthday party?"

"Si, idiota." Claudia winced as she removed her handkerchief from over her mouth and saw the blood on it. "It was all a prank. I saw how depressed you have been lately and thought I would cheer you up. So I planned this whole thing. Using Leonardo and Machiavelli's aid of course."

"This whole thing?"

"I asked Leonardo to jam the gates so that you couldn't get the armor. Then lied about there being another tomb," she explained. "You were supposed to reach here two hours ago. Most of the guests left. The cake is spoiling and the courtesans have left to entertain their clients."

"There's cake?" Ezio asked.

Claudia hit him on the shoulder. "There was cake. Leonardo got hungry as we waited for you. What took you so long?"

"I was digging a stupid tunnel!" Ezio cried out. "And then there was a spider."

"You're an assassin and you are afraid of spiders?" Claudia pressed the handkerchief to her mouth again. "Some assassin you are."

"Says the girl who is terrified of flies." Ezio scoffed.

Claudia uttered a gasp when she looked down at herself. "My new dress!" Ezio saw droplets of blood all over her bodice.

"It's just blood."

Claudia glared at him. "Blood is hard to get out of fabric. Do you know how much I'll have to scrub?"

"I'll buy you a new dress. It's not such a pretty dress anyway. White doesn't suit you much, little sister. Perhaps you should try some bright colors."

Claudia's face reddened. "I will not take advice from someone who doesn't know the first thing about fashion. The tailor I bought this from said the fabric was rare as was the design. I'll have to travel the whole of Italia to search for something familiar."

"Or buy a normal dress," Ezio muttered. "Let us leave now. The air is too musty here. I feel like I may throw up again."

"Hmmph." Claudia crossed her arms.

"Now what?"

"You punched me."

"I apologized," Ezio said.

"That's not enough."

"Then what do you want?" Ezio rummaged in his pockets and brought out a money pouch. "There are a thousand florins in this. You could buy a dozen new dresses."

Claudia gasped as if he had offended her. "No, I want to punch you back."

"Punch me?" Ezio put the pouch back in his pocket. "No. What I did was an accident. Besides, it is my birthday."

"Which you ruined by getting drunk."

"Wait, did you send the courtesan to get me drunk?" Ezio asked.

"I sent a courtesan to get you a little drunk." Claudia shook her head in disappointment. "Just so that you wouldn't interfere with the secret meeting I was having with Zio Mario and the others to hold this stupid surprise party. I didn't know you were going to get so drunk you couldn't walk straight."

"I was depressed because I didn't know my own sister had stopped me from getting the one thing I wanted most!" Ezio accused.

"I was trying to make you happy."

"You failed. Now, cane we go back? Ask Leonardo to grant me access to the suit. Let us salvage some of my birthday."

"Bene." Claudia said. They started to walk when she grabbed his wrist.

"What?"

Claudia swung a fist at him, hitting him on the side of his face.

"Gah! I hate you!"

"Now we are even." Claudia grinned.

*/*/*/*/*

Later, at the Sanctuary beneath the Villa Auditore, Leonardo was huffing and puffing as he worked to unlatch the gates. Minutes later, he stepped back, wiping the sweat off his brow.

"Well?" Ezio asked, trying to contain his excitement. "Did you manage to open it?"

The blond-haired artist, shook his head slowly. "I don't know why it won't retract? The mechanism is stuck for good."

"What?" Ezio crossed the tiled floor to reach him. His prized possession, lay behind two metal grills, barring him.

"I don't know why it won't move."

Ezio was certain he would strangle his friend, who until now had been a great help in decoding complex codex pages and repairing his weapons. He ought to be thankful and be under his debt, but he wanted nothing more than wrap his hands around his thin neck and squeeze.

"What did you do?"

"I simply placed a wedge between the two rotating discs," Leonardo explained. "All I had to do was remove it, but even so, the motor won't work anymore."

Ezio stepped back, wanting to cry but not let others see his tears. He wanted to scream curses, but held that back too.

"I brought you cake," Claudia announced, coming down the stairs. In her hands was a plate with a large slice of cake with a thick blob of cream on it. It was decorated with cherries and slices of apples. "I baked it myself."

Ezio looked at the cake and frowned. "Is that a paw print?" he asked, placing a finger on the side. "It's like a rat crawled on it."

Claudia rotated the plate and wiped off the cream. "There were rats down at the warehouse, but I wiped off most of the cream where they had gotten into."

Ezio felt his stomach clench and push the contents up his throat. "Take it away from me, before I vomit again."

"I wouldn't mind eating it," Leonardo chimed in.

Claudia started to hand it over when Ezio stopped her. "No. Leonardo is too busy fixing what he broke."

Leonardo frowned and gazed longingly at the cake that Claudia took away.

"And throw the whatever is left of that wretched contaminated cake," Ezio called to her.

"I don't mind eating it. Like I said, I scraped away all the places where the rats had sat."

"Throw it!" Ezio screamed. "If I see that cake lying about, I'll punch something."

"Like my face?" Claudia instigated. "You haven't asked about my wound."

Ezio glared at her. "We are even, remember?" He touched the side of his face where a huge bruise had formed.

Claudia pouted and walked up the stairs, angrily.

"Ah-ha!" Leonardo said suddenly. He went over to the desk where Uncle Mario usually sat and brought out a bottle of olive oil. "Let me try something."

"Olive oil? What is it doing inside the desk?"

"Your uncle likes to snack every now and then," Leonardo said. "There's a loaf of bread in the other drawer. Help yourself."

"Er...no." Ezio went over to stand next to the artist. Leonardo dropped a few drops of oil over the motor and fidgeted with a lever.

There was a loud rumbling sound, before the grills retracted.

Ezio couldn't contain his excitement. He rushed over to embrace the armor that was set up on a dummy.

"Mine! All mine!" Ezio cried.

"All it needed was a bit of grease." Leonardo looked happy with himself.

"Grazie, my dearest friend." Ezio started to pull out the armor from the dummy and started to wear it. "It fits like it was made exclusively for me."

"Of course." Leonardo crossed his arms. "It is quite a beauty."

Ezio put the sword in his sheath and beamed. "How do I look?"

"Like a master assassin," Leonardo said.

"I feel like it. This is the best gift ever. This is the best birthday ever!"

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound and the grills shot out. Before Ezio could move, one of the gates closed before him. Then the other, and the next.

"Er...Leonardo?"

His friend looked at him in shock. "Oh, no."

"Get me out!" Ezio screamed.

Claudia came running down the stairs. "What happened?"

"I'm stuck behind this gate. Help!"

Claudia looked at Leonardo. "Can you help him?"

"I don't know." Leonardo looked scared. "I've checked the mechanisms. I don't know what went wrong."

"What can we do?" Claudia asked.

Leonardo scratched the light stubble on his chin. "You know, there are a lot of secret passages in this villa. Perhaps there may be one somewhere here as well."

"Uncle Mario must have the blueprints to the Villa," Ezio said. "Go ask him."

"Right away." Leonardo rushed out of the room while Ezio sat down on the platform where the naked dummy sat.

"Are you hungry? Should I get you something while you wait?" Claudia asked kindly.

"Sure," he said dejectedly.

"Do you want cake?" she smirked.