Editing Ezio Auditore da Firenze (section)

=== Pazzi conspiracy=== 

:''"I've been sent from Firenze by Il Magnifico to attend to some unfinished business; I'm looking for Jacopo de' Pazzi."''
:―Ezio after dealing with Francesco de' Pazzi.

====Love forsaken====
Following Vieri's death, Ezio returned to Florence in April 1478 to gather information on a conspiracy against the Medici, who had been family friends to the Auditore. However, Ezio chose to visit Cristina first. She was quite surprised to see him but admitted in distress that she had been betrothed as she had thought she would never see him again. Suddenly, a woman screamed from outside that a man named Manfredo was in trouble with several gamblers and was being dragged out to the end of a new bridge in the city. The embarrassed Cristina clarified to Ezio that Manfredo was her fiancé, and Ezio hastily took off to the bridge to rescue him. Sure enough, he found him in a fight with several thugs he was indebted to. After defeating the men, Ezio, enraged by Manfredo's irresponsibility, demanded for his affirmation that he truly loved Cristina, that he cease his gambling habit, and that he would be a good husband to her or he would hunt him down and kill him.

Returning to Cristina in an alleyway afterwards, he kissed her, promising that he had made sure her husband would be good to her, and then left. He did not notice her sudden confusion and ire because whereas he had believed accepting Manfredo's love for her had been the right thing to do, Cristina's heart had still been with Ezio, and she had expected him to find a way for them to be together again.

====Santa Maria Novella's secrets====
With Cristina behind him, Ezio proceeded to Leonardo's workshop. Here, too, he surprised his old friend, who had believed he was dead. Leonardo constructed him a second Hidden Blade with the Codex pages and helped him train with the techniques instructed by the Codex. With information provided by Leonardo, Ezio sought out for intelligence La Volpe, a thief who operated at the Mercato Vecchio. While there on 25 April, Ezio had his purse stolen by a thief, Corradin. Pursuing the man to a rooftop, he was met by La Volpe, who had lured Ezio to him knowing full well beforehand that he needed his help.

La Volpe directed him to a secret meeting involving Francesco de' Pazzi that would be occurring that very night at the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. The thief showed him the hidden entrance of an underground catacomb that would lead him to where the meeting was being held. By navigating through this secret complex, Ezio arrived at the perfect location to eavesdrop on the meeting, discovering that the Pazzi planned to kill the Medici at the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore the following day and place their own people in government under the orders of their master, Rodrigo Borgia. Coincidentally, the tomb was none other than that which held the seal of Darius, one of the six legendary Assassin forebearers commemorated at the Villa Auditore, and so Ezio was not only able to acquire vital intel on his enemies but was also able to retrieve the first of the keys to the Armor of Altaïr.

====The conspiracy springs====
The next day, Ezio arrived at the Duomo to try and prevent the public assassination, but he was unsuccessful. Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Baroncelli were able to kill Giuliano de' Medici and injure Lorenzo. Ezio came to Lorenzo's aid and fended off Francesco. However, the Pazzi had already succeeded in their plan and brought the city into a state of civil war. After escorting Lorenzo to the safety of his palazzo, Ezio revealed his identity, prompting Lorenzo to remark that he had known Ezio's father. Lorenzo's lieutenant, Poliziano, told Ezio that Francesco had been sighted at the Piazza della Signoria. As Pazzi and Medici's troops battled in the streets below them, Ezio chased down and slew Francesco at the top of the old town hall, but Jacopo de' Pazzi and several other conspirators were able to escape the city.

Shortly afterwards, Ezio met up with Lorenzo at the Ponte Vecchio. Lorenzo reminisced that as a child he had fallen into the Arno and would have drowned had he not been saved by Giovanni Auditore. This act of kindness kindled a close friendship between the Auditore and the Medici families. When Ezio asked of the conspirators, Lorenzo explained that they had fled the city. With this, the Medici publicly cleared the name of the Auditore family and provided Ezio with the names of the conspirators who had escaped. Lorenzo also gave Ezio a Codex page that Francesco de' Pazzi had held once.

====Preparing for the hunt====
Returning in Leonardo's workshop, the inventor deciphered the other page and built a Poison Blade for Ezio according to it. Ezio also began to receive contracts from Lorenzo to assassinate political enemies of the Medici. Returning to Monteriggioni, Ezio gave his uncle the translations of the Codex pages. In it, Mario saw the beginning of a prophecy about the vault which could only be opened by two Pieces of Eden wielded by the Prophet. As they needed to stop the Pazzi conspirators, Ezio perfected his training with Mario before confronting his targets.

====Extinguishing the Pazzi====
One day while Ezio was concluding his training in evasive techniques and disarming enemies, he and Mario received an alert by a mercenary that Jacopo and his fellow surviving conspirators had been located and that their Monteriggionesi forces were ready to attack. Ezio rendezvoused with Gambalto outside Santa Maria Assunta in San Gimignano where the mercenary reported that one of the conspirators, Antonio Maffei, was atop one of the town's tallest towers screaming Biblical verses and firing arrows at random in a frenzied mania. Despite his protection by archers, Ezio was able to sneak past his guards, scale the tower, and assassinate the monk. On his body, Ezio found a letter addressed to Jacopo.

The following year on 12 April 1479, another mercenary notified Ezio that the Archibishop Francesco Salviati had barricaded himself within his walled villa in the Tuscan countryside. Per Mario's instructions, Ezio took command of his forces of mercenaries and launched a frontal attack on the villa. While the villa was under siege, Ezio scaled the walls from a separate direction to catch Salviati from behind. Though he was spotted by Salviati almost immediately, the fledgling Assassin was still able to bypass his soldiers and open the gate from the inside, allowing the Monteriggionesi to flood in. As the battle reached a climax, Ezio slew Francesco Salviati, who implied with his dying words that Jacopo would only meet his Templar brothers during night time.

With the deaths of virtually all of his accomplices, Bernardo Baroncelli spent his days in paranoia anticipating correctly that he would be Ezio's next target. On 3 May 1479, Ezio found him meandering at a market in San Gimignano mulling over his means of survival and killed him. With his last breath, Bernardo informed Ezio that the Templar gathered at a church before a meeting when his killer told him that this would alleviate a little of his guilt. Infiltrating the abbey Monte Oliveto Maggiore later that year, Ezio assassinated the monk Stefano da Bagnone who said that the Templars met "in the shadows of the Roman Gods".

Sometime that same year, Ezio returned to the Palazzo Medici to speak with Lorenzo, but he saw Templar soldiers attack the residence. Ezio killed all the enemies within the palace and saved once again the ''de facto'' ruler of Florence. To reward him, Lorenzo authorized Ezio to take a part of the Medici treasure.

On 3 January 1480, using the information he collected, Ezio located Jacopo at Santa Maria Assunta and tracked him to an ancient Roman theatre. Once there, Ezio eavesdropped on a meeting between Jacopo, Rodrigo Borgia, and a Venetian merchant and Templar, Emilio Barbarigo. After fatally wounding Jacopo for his failure to capture Florence, Rodrigo revealed that he was aware of Ezio's presence. While Rodrigo and Emilio fled, Ezio was apprehended by Templar guards, but he overpowered and killed them before swiftly putting the dying Jacopo out of his misery.