Warning: Don't read unless you have read Inheritance major spoilers etc. etc.
This fic actually started out very differently, but I kept getting different ideas and I kind of liked where they were going, so tell me what you think.
Eragon looked with contempt at the army arrayed before him. After years of peace King Orrin had decided to expand Surda's territory by attacking the Empire. Nasuada had called up her army, and upon her allies to respond to the aggression with a show of unity. An Army of Urgals, Elves, Dwarves, and even some werecats had come to support her own army against him. Eragon himself had left his seclusion to respond. He looked at the pitifully small Surdan Army, as he gathered his power about him. He had arrived some four hours ago, breaking a decade of seclusion and raising new Riders and dragons. He had brought two of the new Rideers with him to demonstrate to the world that the new order of Riders was not so weak as to allow such displays of aggression. He had briefly greeted the assembled heads of state, and then proceeded to deal with the threat. Saphira hovered between the armies, as he sought out the minds of the surdan spellcasters. With a word, he slew them all simultaneously. With another, he killed some 10,000 warriors. Three quarters of the Surdan Army simply slumped over, dead. He left King Orrin alive, at the head of his now dead army. Saphira dove at him, giving him just enough time to realize what had happened before she snatched him and his horse and flew them miles above the earth, and then simply let go. The screams of the Surdan king carried for miles before he hit the ground with a sickening crunch. Saphira made another pass, and bathed the retreating Surdans in a torrent of fire, leaving scant dozens alive to spread the tale. And then he simply left, and began the journey back to the island.
After a moment, he felt a challenge behind him. He recognized the touch of Arya's mind, and loosened Brisingr in its scabbard. "Eragon!" She screamed from Firnen's back as he closed the distance between them. To prove a point, Saphira increased her speed past what Firnen could endure, and only once he tired and slowed did she turn and allow him to catch up, and he ordered the two other Riders to go on ahead. "Eragon… What… I don't-" she was left speechless at the sheer ruthlessness and power of what he had just done.
"It is the duty of the Riders to keep the peace. Orrin broke it. I doubt anyone else will anytime soon." He said bluntly.
"What! Eragon what happened to you? You- you were… I …" She struggled for a moment before she whispered his true name between them, and was shocked when he did not react.
"You will find much has changed Arya. It was you who told me our duty is more important than our own happiness. So I have set aside the compassion that made me so weak before. I have embraced the power afforded to me, and as the leader of the Dragon Riders I will use it as I see fit. See that you do not interfere." He spoke the last words as Saphira turned around, and began to fly away. Arya watched him leave, again in stunned silence. What had happened to the man she had loved so much, to leave him sounding so very similar to the man they nearly sacrificed everything to destroy. She was torn about what to do next. She had never considered what would happen if Eragon became a threat yet there he was, and neither of the two Riders he had brought with him seemed surprised or concerned by his behavior.
She felt tears welling up in her eyes as he flew away, without giving her a moment's consideration. The man she had loved, the only man she had entrusted with her true name, had just threatened her. She let the tears fall, as she let his accusation sink in. She had done this to him. The day she refused to stay with him, as he had asked, his compassion had shriveled and died, leaving behind the soul of a man with the blood of thousands on his hands. She touched his mind briefly as he fled, and for a moment she felt the extent of his rage, and pain, and the hard black center where once he had been warm, and loving. After that split second he blocked his mind from her. And she saw without a doubt, that this was her fault.