Everything Is Permitted: Assassin's Creed II Story

E C H O E S O F T H E A N I M U S VOLUME TWO EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED The Complete Story of Assassin’s Creed II by QASIM AN UNOFFICIAL FAN RETELLING ECHOES OF THE ANIMUS Everything Is Permitted The Complete Story of Assassin’s Creed II • • • VOLUME TWO Assassin’s Creed II (2009) An Unofficial Fan Retelling by Qasim Everything Is Permitted , Volume Two An Unofficial Fan Retelling © 2026 Qasim Unofficial commentary, not endorsed by Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed and related names belong to Ubisoft. All text is original. Cover art is AI-generated. Contains full spoilers. 4 ONE The Boy Who Had Everything • • • Meet Ezio Auditore. It’s 1476, he’s seventeen, and Florence is basically his playground. His father Giovanni is a respected banker, his brothers Federico and Petruccio adore him, and his sister Claudia and mother Maria keep the family home warm. Ezio spends his days racing across rooftops, picking fights, and flirting with anyone who’ll let him. What he doesn’t know is that his father leads a secret life. Giovanni is an Assassin, and one night he trusts Ezio with a handful of letters to deliver. It’s the last ordinary night Ezio will ever have. 5 TWO The Day Everything Fell • • • Those letters were meant to protect the family, but someone had already sold them out. Uberto Alberti, a man Giovanni trusted, accuses the Auditores of treason. Soldiers arrive, and in front of a crowd, Giovanni, Federico, and little Petruccio are hanged. Ezio has to watch. Grief turns into purpose almost overnight. He pulls on his father’s Assassin robes, gathers his mother and sister, and runs for Monteriggioni, a small walled town where his uncle Mario is waiting. 6 THREE An Old Order, a New Student • • • Mario is a warrior with a villa, a small army, and a strong sense of duty. He trains Ezio, sharpens his instincts, and hands him a hidden blade. Back in Florence, Ezio keeps running into an odd, brilliant young artist named Leonardo da Vinci, who builds him gadgets and deciphers old pages written by Altair himself. Meanwhile, in the present, Desmond has escaped Abstergo with Lucy’s help. He’s hiding with two new allies, Shaun and Rebecca, and as he relives Ezio’s life, Ezio’s skills start becoming his own. 7 FOUR Chasing Names • • • Alberti is the first to pay, but he’s only one link in a long chain. The trail winds from Florence to Venice and beyond, and with every kill Ezio learns that his family’s murder wasn’t personal. It was part of a conspiracy stretching across bankers, merchants, nobles, and even churchmen. Along the way he makes friends: thieves, a clever courtesan, a stubborn countess. He also learns what revenge costs. Every victory leaves him a little lonelier than before. 8 FIVE The Man Behind It All • • • The mastermind is Rodrigo Borgia, a powerful cardinal who leads the Templars in Italy. In 1492 he becomes Pope Alexander VI, and he’s searching for a hidden vault beneath the Vatican, one that only the right artifacts can open. Ezio fights his way through the Vatican and finally stands over a beaten Rodrigo, blade ready. Then he lowers it. Killing the Pope won’t bring his family back, and it won’t end the Templars either. It’s a surprisingly human choice, and it’s the emotional heart of the whole game. 9 SIX The Message • • • Ezio opens the vault, and inside he meets Minerva, a hologram left by the Isu, a lost civilization older than humanity. She isn’t speaking to him. She’s speaking to Desmond, centuries ahead, and her warning is chilling: a catastrophe once nearly wiped out her people, and another is coming in Desmond’s own time. It’s a huge twist, and the game ends on a cliffhanger that makes you want the next chapter right away. 10 SEVEN Why It Sticks • • • The first game was about an idea. This one is about a person. Ezio starts as a cocky kid chasing revenge and ends as someone who chooses mercy. That’s why so many players still call him their favorite. 11 Next in the Series • • • Volume Three: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (2010). Ezio heads to Rome, and the Borgias hit back. “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.” In Renaissance Italy, a carefree young man loses his family in a single day, and spends his life chasing the truth behind it. The complete retelling of the game that made Ezio a legend.