OKAY SO. On the side of writing Dottore, I'm now writing this: An Assassin's Creed/HDM crossover. After reading a ton of HDM crossovers, I couldn't wait to get writing one myself. This won't be as regularly updated as Dottore is - its more like a little project rather than the huge undertaking that Dottore is currently. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy! :D

Ezio could not remember a time where he had thought of Eleutheria of anything but the truest reflection of himself. Her wings an extension of his arms: her claws, his blades. Her cry his own shout, and her reflexes in the sky his own on the rooftops. Her thoughts were his and his soul was hers. In the darkness they had served the light, and together, they made it burn.

And now they sat, watching Roma's sky turn orange as the sun set on some long, hard years of toil and war. They turned their faces to the dimming glow, and reflected on their gains, their losses, and what would happen next. Cesare Borgia was dead, along with his adder daemon, Vafer. Ezio recalled of how the man had felt in his grip, scrambling, tearing and biting, calling out that no man could ever kill him. And then how he fell, screaming, into the inferno. From Eleutheria, he felt the way her claws had punctured Vafer's scales, how he had writhed in her grip until the very last second, and how he had fallen with his human, twisting and contorting in the air. They both felt nothing but regret that it had come to that, with much blood spilt on the way. Ezio instantly found himself remembering his Uncle Mario's death at the Villa – how he had staggered through the gates with his great she-bear daemon Proelia. How Eleutheria had screeched until Ezio thought her lungs would burst, and how they had torn across the rooftops in fruitless terror, only to see them murdered. How Ezio had then been shot himself, and how he and Eleutheria had both plummeted from the sky.

Murder, vengeance and greed. For the last ten years, these had been their constant companions. Ever since that moment where Ezio's father and brothers had hung from ropes and their daemons had been extinguished in streams of gold dust, it was all they had ever known. It was what kept them driving onwards, never ceasing until all who caused it were dead.

And now that they were gone, there seemed nothing left for them, only a lifetime yawning ahead of them and the question: why?

Remembering the deaths of their family had caused grief that Ezio had once thought to be hardened to crack, and in an effort to distract himself he found Eleutheria on his shoulder and rubbed the soft down on her head. Affectionately, she nipped his finger and held it in her beak, and for a moment they wrestled with each other before she finally conceded defeat, shaking Ezio's finger free of her beak and flapping on his shoulder irritably.
The sun continued to fall behind the horizon, just as it had always done, no matter what the strife in their life. They watched it for a while in silence, each other's company being all they needed.

Until:
'We are done with this place.' Eleutheria stated. Ezio looked away from her to the endless rooftops of Roma, its numerous districts, its sprawling countryside, the dim figure of the Colosseo and the impressive figure of the Castello. It didn't look so imposing anymore. Roma was finally a city at peace with itself.

'Indeed.' Ezio agreed. Eleutheria groomed her feathers a little, tucking her head under her wing as she did so. Ezio waited for her to speak: he could sense a plan formulating on the bridge of her thoughts, and he knew she was taking her time to arrange them into words. As he predicted, when she bought her head out from under her wing, she began to speak again.

'Now that the Borgia are gone, we must seek a new purpose for ourselves. We have lived for too long for the deaths of others, and it would be unwise to leave us to means without an end.' She ruffled herself, which left her looking a little puffy.

Ezio agreed with her silently. It had been too long without truly living for their own existence, and with the rest of their life laying itself ahead of them, it seemed to make sense to him for them to do one thing and one thing only.

'I am an Assassin. That is all I have ever known,' Ezio said. 'Thus it makes sense for me to explore myself: to understand more about my heritage, and why it is us who are burdened with the message of those gods in the vault at Il Vaticano.' He said. 'Do you agree?'

Eleutheria didn't hesitate to answer. 'You are me, as I am you. Wherever you go, I go. And I too, would like answers to those questions.'

Somewhere deep inside Ezio, love and gratitude welled up for his daemon. He let it flood their link, and she called out a little hoarsely, quietening at once to push herself against the side of Ezio's face. He leaned into her touch, and in an expression of love they had established since she had settled, she extended her wing into the air and let Ezio run his deft fingers along it, massaging his fingers into the muscle underneath, stretching it and broadcasting his love to her continually all the while over their link. She chirruped softly in his ear, sending her love in return for his. Oh, moments like this were ones that they had missed. Although they both knew they would have the other for as long as they lived, there had been no time over the past ten years to confirm that, such had their existence had been. They spent a while like that under the darkening sky, revelling in each other until reality suddenly returned to them at the sound of a wolf howling somewhere in the countryside. They knew it to be no animal's howl: that was Machiavelli's daemon, a wolf named Sapienza, calling to Eleutheria and requesting their presence somewhere in Roma. Eleutheria, who was cradled in Ezio's hands, stretched her wings at once – sensing the breath filling her lungs and her urge to fly, Ezio threw his daemon up into the air. She took to the wind at once and swooped around Ezio, who stood, crying and keening herself. They were on their way.

Ezio stood for a little while, still immersed in his daemon and the feelings that she was sharing with him. The wind under her wings, the stomach turning sensation of the air lifting her up: all of it theirs to know. He too, began to share his urges with her – his urge to run and jump and climb, and all at once they were moving. Ezio was running, jumping nimbly down from their roof to another below, Eleutheria gliding along beside him: an extension of each other, and a soul whole.

The sun set and night came down over Roma.

But for Ezio and Eleutheria both, life had only just begun.

GOD I love the concept of daemons. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review, and I hope to have this updated soon! :)