I do not own Assassin's Creed or any of the associated media or content. I do own Natalia Fia-Costa, Isobel Payne and the parts of this plot that aren't from the game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. This fic goes along with the game, but the focus is elsewhere. Sort of a companion piece. It is rated for language, violence and sexual content.

Assassin's Creed: Fires of Rome.
Present 01 – On the Run.

"Shit, shit, shit."

Isobel looked over her shoulder and shook some of her black hair from her face. The man in the suit was still following her. Abstergo was still on her. And he was getting closer.

"Shit, shit, shit."

She put on another burst of speed and said a silent thank you that everything in the area was harvested for the time being; while the crops would have made hiding easier, they would have made running so much harder. It was better to run from Abstergo. Not hide. Not until you found a really good spot anyway, and a really good spot there was not in the middle of the Italian countryside. So she ran faster, aimed towards the walls on the horizon, steadily growing larger. Whatever the village was—and unless it was crawling with Templars—it would provide much better hiding spots than the open countryside. She had to make it to that village. She had to get away from the blond agent.

Isobel reached the wall a few moments later, barely ahead of the Abstergo agent. Without slowing, she ran up the wall, the well-worn soles of her boots easily gripping the aged stone of the wall. Her hands, calloused from much use, found holds seemingly of their own accord and she made her way quickly towards the ramparts.

But scaling a wall was cake when you'd been trained your whole life as an assassin.

That was why Abstergo wanted her now and why she had no parents.

They had both been killed after they had opened the door to Abstergo agents, agents who had tracked them for years, agents posing as salesmen; since they all wore suits, it wasn't that hard of a disguise to take on. Isobel had learned from their mistake, just as she had learned everything else from them; from her father who was a true assassin and from her mother who had spent a lifetime amongst the brotherhood. Isobel had thought her parents were indestructible. Evidently, she had been wrong. She never took her hidden blade off her wrist. It was always hidden beneath her clothes, ready at a moment's notice. It was always out and ready when someone she didn't know came to the door. On her Italian vacation, that was everyone.

Of the agents that had come to her door earlier that night, she had killed one, allowing her time to run. Now she just had to find a place to hide, a place that would allow her to kill the second agent should the need arise.

Isobel vaulted over the top of the wall as the Abstergo flunky entered the city through more conventional means, her feet crunching against the terracotta tiles. She ran across the small roof and dropped down a level, those tiles cracking under her sudden weight. As she made her way a little farther into the city, she chanced a look over her shoulder, still sprinting along the rooftops of the small Tuscan village, and found the blond man much too close for her liking; he had managed to find a way onto the roofs as well. Isobel groaned and leapt across an alley, just managing to grab the edge of the roof on the other side. Her front slammed into the wall, but she had braced for it and scrambled onto the roof proper before more than two seconds had passed. She leapt a smaller alley and skidded along the tiles of a sloped roof, using the momentum to launch herself up to a higher roof.

She heard the Abstergo agent curse as he reached the alley. He yelled something at her, but she couldn't make it out. Isobel just kept running, hoping he didn't have a gun. They had guns sometimes. She'd been shot once and it wasn't an experience she was keen on having again. Ever. She had to find someplace to hide. In a few moments, she would be far enough away from away from the man that hiding would be an option. The young assassin scrambled over the edge of another roof, bringing her up a few feet higher and sprinted for the edge; the Abstergo man was on the ground now, having been forced to take the ladder down to keep following her.

"Shit, shit, shit."

At the edge of the current roof, Isobel found what she was looking for—a well. A small smile played across her face. Finally, a break. Isobel took a deep breath and, summoning that part inside that was all assassin, she leapt from the rooftop, formed her body into a graceful dive with her arms spread out to either side and disappeared into the chilly water of the well below with hardly a splash. The water felt good on her sweaty skin, and she had to keep herself from sighing, knowing the noise would echo.

The Abstergo agent couldn't have seen her, but Isobel was unaware for the second pair of eyes watching her.

Desmond couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Perched on of the highest roofs in Monteriggioni, the assassin peered down at the village rooftops, watching the dark shapes move throughout the cityscape. The girl was in remarkable shape and was dressed all in dark colours. She moved as though she had done this a million times before. She had to be an assassin—who else could run over the rooftops like that?

Screw that, Desmond thought as he watched her launch herself from the rooftop. Who else could perform a Leap of Faith? But that would make the man chasing her a Templar from Abstergo. Shit.

Without another thought, Desmond leapt from the roof, grabbing a drainage pipe as it came into reach and sliding down to the ground. He sprinted through the streets until he was close to the blond man and ducked behind a house. Formulating a plan as he moved, Desmond snuck down an alley, looking for something of suitable weight that he could throw at the Templar. He wasn't sure it would distract the man, but he had to try something. He found a chunk of the cobblestone street that had come loose and threw it hard, but not hard enough to knock the agent out. The agent cursed and looked directly at the shadows where Desmond was hiding. After a second, he started walking towards the alley and Desmond bolted around to the other side of the house, the path bringing him out in front of the well.

He peeked over the edge. "Hey, give me your hand," he whispered.

The girl looked up at him, her black hair sticking to her face with the water; she had bright olive green eyes. "Ezio," she breathed, her eyes widening.

Desmond gave her a confused look, but didn't take the time to ask her how the hell she knew who he was. He wrapped his hands around her wrists and pulled her out of the water. The footsteps behind him delayed the opportunity for talking even farther.

Thinking fast, Desmond pushed the girl backwards into the shadows of the nearby house, hiding her with his body. He put a hand on either side of her and pressed in close, like he would kiss her. She inhaled sharply, startled, but picked up on the charade. She raised her face to his, putting their lips close together, less than a breath apart. The Abstergo agent appeared and drew closer to the pair. Desmond brushed his nose along the girl's cheek and she ran her hands up his chest until she could lock them behind his head. Their lips brushed; they shared a breath. Just a couple in the shadows. Nothing of interest.

The agent seemed to agree. He stared at them for a moment longer, grumbled something and then disappeared down the street.

Desmond and the girl stared at each other a moment longer from their terribly close distance, the air suddenly tense, an electricity dancing between them. It was Desmond who backed away first, just a few inches to check if the agent really was gone, but it served well enough to break the tension.

Once Desmond was sure the man was gone and well out of hearing range, he stepped back farther from the girl and gestured upward. "Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here."

The girl followed him. "Isobel," she said, hoisting herself up towards the roof. "My name is Isobel."

"Desmond."

Isobel nodded as she walked with Desmond along the roof. "Okay Desmond. Where are we going?"

"To the Sanctuary."

Isobel nodded, but didn't say anything else on the subject. If she really was an assassin—and there was very little doubt in Desmond's mind that she was—she knew that they would be headed for a safe house, somewhere the Abstergo satellites couldn't find them, and she knew they would have to get there before true daylight when they would be easy to spot outside. "Where are we?" she asked instead.

"Monteriggioni."

She followed Desmond up to the roof of what was obviously a large manor, looking around as she did so. "That would make this Auditore manor then, wouldn't it?"

Desmond turned to look at her, the grey light of first dawn silhouetting her against the sky. He had the distinct impression that he had been in this situation before; the ghostly image of another woman danced around the edges of Isobel's face. Shaking off the memory, Desmond nodded and settled himself on the roof, back against the wall of a raised section of the manor. When Isobel had sat down beside him, knees drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs, he looked at her and asked the question he'd been wanting too since they'd met. "How do you know Ezio?"

Isobel shifted on the tile and ran the fingers of one hand back through her hair. "Well. As you've obviously figured out, I'm an assassin, like you." She took a deep breath, seemingly preparing herself for what she was going to say next. Desmond reached across the space and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I was captured by Abstergo seven years ago, after they killed my parents," she said after another moment. "They shoved me in the Animus—an older version, mind you, one that did some serious shit to my head—and sifted through my DNA memories, looking for something." She put her forehead on her knees and squeezed them closed. "There were so many memories... so many different ancestors. The one they spent the most time with though... She knew Ezio." Isobel looked up at Desmond, her cheek on her knees. There was something different about her eyes, like she was looking into the past. "She was one of the assassins he recruited during the Borgia occupation of Rome."

Desmond did a quick run through of the assassins he'd seen Ezio recruit so far. "Natalia?"

Isobel smiled at him, her olive green eyes catching some of the early morning light, a flash of colour. The ghostly image of the woman was back—it was Natalia. "Good guess."

"You look like her," Desmond told her.

"Really?"

The young man nodded. For a moment, they sat there, close together and watched the sunrise. "How did you escape?" he asked.

"Luck—no joke. Two years ago, I was getting out of the Animus and collapsed from exhaustion and the after effects of the machine. My handler ran to get one of the doctors. I came too while he was gone and there was a window open."

"Really?"

"Really. Of course, because I had just come out of the Animus, I wasn't the steadiest on my feet and wasn't able to channel the assassin or whatever. I fell to a balcony several floors down. I twisted so I didn't break my legs, but I did break my left arm. The woman in the office of the balcony opened the door and pulled me inside. She was one of the employees of the cover of Abstergo. She didn't know about the Animus or the Templars or anything like that, so she was pretty startled by me falling out of the sky, but she took me to a hospital and... I was free." Isobel paused. "Well, I had to escape from the hospital, and since then Abstergo agents have been following me all over the place."

Desmond looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Before tonight I hadn't seen one in almost three months, but I guess it was too good to last."

"I don't believe that how's you escaped from Abstergo."

Isobel shrugged. "Believe it or not." She pushed back the sleeve of her baggy blue knit sweater and shoved her left arm under Desmond's nose. "Those scars are from breaking my arm. The bone popped through my skin."

Desmond ran his fingertips lightly across the scars. "It still sounds too easy."

"Well, I suppose I forgot to mention the three guards I took out before I climbed out the window..." She and Desmond looked at each other, staring, Desmond with a quirked eyebrow and Isobel with a smirk on her lips. "Okay, so I didn't, but you can think that if it makes the story more believable."

The assassin smiled. "Would you be up for an Animus session?" he asked suddenly. "I'd like to see things from another assassin's point of view."

Isobel blinked, and then nodded. As an assassin, she likely would have heard the story of how Desmond and his friends had escaped from Abstergo, so it wouldn't have been surprising that they had an Animus and the necessary tools to use it. "Sure," she said. "I don't see the harm in that. Do you think anyone would mind?"

"Absolutely not."

"Lucy—"

"Desmond, she could be an Abstergo spy! And you brought her here!"

Following some instinct, Desmond wrapped an arm around Isobel's middle, stopping her from stepping up and slapping Lucy. As it was, she glared and wrapped her hands tightly around Desmond's arm. "I am not a Templar spy!" she spat. "I am an assassin! From a long line of assassins! Unlike you."

Desmond shot Isobel a look that she knew in her bones. She shut her mouth but kept her hands on Desmond's arm; he kept his arm around her waist. "Lucy, she's a descendent of Natalia Fia-Costa. She's an assassin."

There were a few moments of silence. Rebecca, Shauna and Lucy had all seen Ezio meet Natalia. Lucy seemed torn. Rebecca and Shaun were smiling. It was Rebecca who broke the awkward silence. "Come on Luce," she pleaded. "It could be fun. I mean, no offense Desmond, but watching Ezio run around can get boring. And this could give us some new information for... well, everything. We've never seen the memories from another side. This could be really valuable."

"I'm... going to have to agree with Rebecca on this one, unfortunately," Shaun said.

Lucy held her ground a moment longer and then relented. She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm going to run into town to get some food." The other four watched Lucy grab her bag and leave the hideout.

"Gee," Shaun said, "You think something's bothering her?"

Isobel shot the cynical Brit a glare before disengaging from Desmond's arms. "What's her problem?"

"Lucy's just a little..."

"High strung?" Rebecca offered.

Desmond nodded. "She's really not that bad once you get to know her."

Isobel ran her fingers back through her black hair, shaking it out. She shoved the sleeves of her sweater back over her elbows, exposing the arm brace with the hidden blade inside on her left arm and a long, neat scar along the inside of her right forearm that looked like a knife wound and probably had come from training with bladed weapons. Desmond had spent time with assassins and knew the training the young ones went through—he was surprised he had no scars to match. Isobel turned to face Desmond and smiled, a little sardonically.

"Clearly you've had some experience with Natalia," she said, sliding her hands into the pockets of her black jeans.

The young man nodded, a similar smile pulling at his lips. "A little. She's..."

"A pain in the ass?"

"Sometimes," he replied around laughter. "It'll be interesting to see the memories from the other side."

"I bet. Do you think I could see some of the stuff from Ezio's point of view? I want to know if she was as important to him as he was to her." Isobel paused. "Although I doubt it."

Desmond shrugged. "He didn't take her from granted."

"Okay," Rebecca said. "She's all ready for you."

Isobel sighed and stared at the familiar red and white chair for a moment. Desmond placed a hand on her shoulder, knowing full well that the thoughts in her head were on the past, the last time she'd been in an Animus—when she'd been forced to use the machine. The young woman placed her hand on top of Desmond's before curling her fingers around his and giving a tight squeeze. It was clear something in their DNA remembered each other—they were comfortable around each other, familiar with the mannerisms and the feel of having the other close. It was an odd experience, but after channelling their ancestors through the Animus, it wasn't completely unexpected.

"Well, let's get this started," she said as she pulled away. Isobel sat in the chair and closed her eyes, taking a final breath to ready herself. When she opened her olive green eyes, she slid her arm into the machine and nodded at Rebecca, who keyed the sequence into the computer and started the Animus.

Author's Note.

So this is going to be a short fic, but that's okay.

It's Assassin's Creed, yay!

Er... that's all I have to say.

Enjoy!

Next Chapter: Sequence 01 – Destruction of the Family.