Brotherhood: The Recruits
Author: name-me-regret

Summary: Ezio Auditore da Firenze worked to erode the Borgia's influence over Roma and save its citizens, while in the process recruit some of them to the Assassin Brotherhood. These are their stories of how they came to be apprentices, ascending through the ranks to eventually gain the rank of Assasino.

AN: I came to love Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood due to the fact that I had a small army of other assassin's at my disposal. When I realized that they weren't just nameless npc, and some had distinguishable features, I became interested in creating backgrounds for them. The names come from the game, but their stories belong to me.

[Edit: November 12, 2013 - I'm pretty sure that's what the name of the square where this particular first mission in Rome takes place. A picture on the assassinscreed wikia shows the piazza and at the top left hand corner you can see what appears to be Il Carnefice's house.]

Chapter One: Desideria Donati

Roma, 1500

Desideria stared long and hard into the mirror as she tilted her head to the right before angling it to the left. Her light brown hair could be considered curly and quite pretty, but during a hot, humid day it got so frizzy that she didn't know what to do with it. She wasn't vain even when her mother constantly repeated how beautiful she was, or even when she had constant suitors that fawned over her. Truth be told, she was a tomboy than anything a young lady should be in Renaissance Roma. Instead of the extravagant flowing, long sleeved dresses that women wore; Desideria couldn't be swayed away from her trousers and shirts.

While other girls had been learning to cook and do housework, she was climbing trees and roughhousing with the boys. When she should be picking flowers and weaving baskets, she was learning swordplay and how to ride a horse; a pony, but same difference. So, when she grew frustrated with her hair getting frizzy, it was simply because on hot days it stuck uncomfortably to her neck and face and got all in her way. When she tried to put it in a ponytail it puffed up like a cotton ball and if possible, got even more in her way.

Thus was her dilemma that day since she had to go to the market and buy food, and wondered what to do with her headache inducing hair. Desideria wanted to just cut it short, just above her shoulders and be done with it. However, her mother had thrown a fit when she'd suggested it. The seventeen year old had half a mind to run away to live freely like the courtesans, but she didn't really want to sleep with random men for money. So, she was stuck with her family that was convinced that she needed to be married off; the sooner, the better. It was a miracle she'd lasted this long without being married off, but she had run off all her suitors. Although, this time it seemed she really would have no choice, since her father had threatened to send her to a nunnery otherwise.

Desideria had never been interested in marriage or even dating before. She had been adamant about learning to read and write despite her father's complaints that there would be no need for those skills once she was married. If it was up to him, all women would be illiterate, bare foot, and pregnant. Frankly, Desideria wanted to get out of Roma and see the world. There was nothing in Roma anymore besides pain and death now that the Borgia had taken control.

"Desideria! Where are you, stupid girl?" her father shouted from the living room. The young girl inhaled and exhaled softly before tying her hair back and marching out of her bedroom. She strapped her sword at her side as she went, and knew that not even her father would object to this. He knew how bad things had gotten since the Borgia had taken over Roma and literally made it a hell on earth. "You should have left ten minutes ago! By the time you get there everything good will be gone. Mierda, what am I going to do with you?"

The girl sighed and shook her head but preferred to say nothing. "I'll be back soon, padre." She kissed his cheek and hurried out before he could start complaining on her choice of clothing; again.

Desideria grinned broadly as she ran into the streets and quickly weaved in and around the people walking along. "Watch it, estupida!" she heard someone shout as she bumped into it, but instead of losing momentum she spun with the hit and kicked the near-by wall to balance herself once again. Desideria knew she was attracting too much attention, but she loved the feeling of the wind on her face when she ran so fast that her clothes whipped behind and around her. For a moment she wondered how it would feel to soar over the rooftops and tilted her features upwards.

She blinked as she suddenly saw a figure jump from across the gap of the roofs and stopped in the middle of the street in surprise. Desideria grunted as she was suddenly shoved out of the way, causing her to crash into some nearby crates. "Watch where you're going, stronzo!" she snarled, jumping back onto her feet. She flinched as she caught sight of the guards and paled when she realized they were Il Carnefice's guards.

Desideria bit her tongue as she was shoved into the wall, the taller man leering down at her. "What was that, tesoro?" he asked with a feral grin. She was hard pressed to keep from gaging as his rank breath polluted her nose. The guard tilted her chin up as Desideria clenched her hands at her side to keep from drawing her sword, since she knew that she'd die trying to fight against all five of them.

One of the other guards spat on the ground with a sneer. "Come on, Antonio! We don't have time to play around," he growled. The second guard adjusted the belt around his waist where his sword sheath was strapped to. "Il Carnefice wants this job done now." He lifted his hat, ran a hand through his dingy, black hair before replacing it on his head again.

The guard named Antonio frowned at the interruption but exhaled when he realized the other had a point. "You ruin all my fun, Marco," he complained. He turned back to Desideria and leered at her once more. "We'll be seeing each other very soon."

'No way in hell,' she silently vowed. By this point she was sweating nervously and her pulse pounding against her eardrums so loud she could scarcely hear the chatter of the crowd around her. No one so much as looked in their direction, and even if she were to be killed or raped in the main street would anyone lift a finger. The people of Roma were scared and beaten into weak cowards. Desideria herself was one such coward, since she had seen such scenes of obvious abuse and never lifted a finger.

He caressed her features once more before he stepped away from her and they all moved away once again. Desideria inhaled shakily before sliding down the wall as her legs gave out under her. She swallowed as she let her head fall back, and incidentally lifted her gaze to the building where she'd thought she saw someone jump. Her whole body tensed when she saw a figure poised at the edge of the roof, dressed in white robes and a pointed hood obscuring his features. He resembled an eagle that looked ready to take flight, and she felt his gaze piercing into her.

Before Desideria could make sense of the sight, he suddenly moved as he turned and disappeared from sight as a shout sounded around the corner. It came from the Piazza del Popolo where, incidentally, Il Carnefice performed his executions. She regained her feet and stumbled the few feet to see what the commotion was all about.

The sight made her despair once again, seeing the guards start to attack a man mourning a women that hung from the noose, long dead. Desideria was filled with outrage as the people around her merely watched and a knot of emotion lodged in her throat as she grabbed the handle of her sword. "If no one else will aide him, then I shall," she stated firmly; her shaking voice betraying her.

However, before she could act on her irrational impulse, a figure fell from the roof nearby to land one of the guards. The other four stopped in shock and glanced at their downed comrade as the man stood and removed his hand from the back of his neck with a sickening squelch to reveal a blade dripping with blood.

Desideria was startled from her own shock as one of the guards shouted. "ASSASINO!" Three of them lunged at the white robed figure, and she was shocked to realize that it was the same man she'd glimpsed staring down at her. The girl realized belatedly that he hadn't been staring at her, but at the guards.

'Was he following them? Is he actually helping the man?' she wondered with a desperate hope. She needed to believe that was the case; they all needed to believe or the fear and desperation would consume them!

The fight was over before she realized what had happened, the five guards all dead by the hand of a single man who fought like a demon with a single dagger against the guards' longer swords. Desideria tried to approach them, because she wanted to beg this person to teach her to fight like him; to give her hope in this hell. However, the people in the square had gone into a panic as the white robed figure had dispatched the guards and she was knocked aside several times as she tried to get near.

When she was finally able to make it to where the man was at the gallows, it was to see that the robed figure had disappeared. If she had looked up instead of searching from left to right, she would have seen the man climbing the cliff-side where Il Carnefice's house was located in the north-west Centro District.

"Mi scusi," she politely interrupted the grieving man. "That man that was just here, where has he gone?"

The sobbing man was on his knees in front of the wooden frame as he stared with pain filled eyes at the woman hanging above. "He said he would go deal with Il Carnefice, and to take down my sweet Livia when I was ready." He gave a wet, hysterical laugh. "How can I believe that? One man against all of his guards?" He buried his face in his hands, tears still spilling down his face. "He too will die like so many others. The way la mia amata was murdered."

Desideria glanced behind her at the dead guards that the stranger had killed almost frightening easily. "I'll help you bring her down," she said, strengthening her resolve. If this man had gone alone to try and kill Il Carnefice, then she could at least do this one thing against the Borgia. Even if the robed man failed, it wouldn't matter. If they didn't fight then they'd be further weakened by fear and uncertainty.

She moved to the steps to climb up as she removed the dagger from the hidden sheath at her back. The man, while trembling and weeping, climbed up with her and reached up to catch the woman's corpse while Desideria cut the rope. As he laid her down, her head snapped up as she heard shouting in the distance to the north-west. A figure running away from the cliff-side and across the rooftops caught her attention as he was pursued by several guards.

While Desideria watched, he outran them before jumping over the side of a tall building and disappearing from sight. The guards were bewildered and ran to search for him, and soon they lost interest before going back the way they'd come. It only took a few minutes for news to reach them in the palaza as someone; possibly a herald, shouted it for all of Roma to hear.

"Il Carnefice has been murdered!"

Desideria lifted her face toward the sun with a grin. Perhaps Roma was starting to change for the better.-

~o~

Roma - Rome
Mierda - shit
Padre - father
estupida - stupid (fem.)
Stronzo - asshole
Teroso - darling/treasure
Piazza del Popolo - People's Square
Mi scusi - Excuse me
La mia amata - My Beloved