Hey guys, I thought about this fic the moment I did the first judgement in DA:I
What if Anders survived the ending of DA II and was brought before the Inquisition?
Takes place just after DA: I which is four years after the Kirkwall Chantry was destroyed.
Note: This fic takes place in the same universe as Broken Promises.
The Judgment
When the templars found him, he'd been hiding out in a cave in the middle of nowhere.
They'd taken him by complete surprise, a mark of how far he'd fallen in all this time.
He fought them but it had been five against one...
In the end, he'd suffered a bloodied nose and a badly bruised arm by the time they put him in chains.
His magic had been suppressed from him, damn the templars and their abilities.
How did it come to this? Anders thought.
For once he'd been strong, now he was weaker... no not weaker but rather unstable.
He had trouble using his magic these days.
Over the years, Justice had begun to fight him for control. Not directly, even he wasn't sure where he ended and Justice began, but at times he felt emotions and thoughts that were not his own.
It made it hard for him to use his magic.
Then there was the blood running through his veins. The mark of all Grey Wardens, the Darkspawn taint that gave him the ability to sense their presence.
Only that been troubling as of late. He wasn't sure what had happened, for months he could hear the Darkspawn as he had never heard them before, where once it had been whispers had suddenly become shouting.
It was almost as if his Calling had arrived. But no, that would have been impossible.
It hadn't been thirty years yet.
Strange, he'd felt something similar when he'd ventured deep into the Warden prison with Hawke.
But he knew it couldn't be Corypheus again. Hawke killed him... he saw that evil thing get it's head cut off.
Regardless... that feeling had gone away weeks ago.
"Found you, you bastard" a templar hissed shoving Anders forward, and bring him out of his thoughts.
The man tugged on Anders's chains and hauled him out of his cave... out into the outside world after months of hiding.
"Are we sure it's him?" one templar asked another.
"It's him. He can grow a beard, and his hair may be graying, but the phylactery doesn't lie" another templar answered.
Anders, whom had frozen as he listened to their conversation, was suddenly shoved forward.
My phylactery... so they managed to find that did they? I thought I'd gotten rid of it... unless they made copies he thought.
"Apostate! Move!" a templar shouted, shoving him forword again.
Anders stumbled and fell to his knees, the chains made it hard for him to move.
"Get up!" another said hauling him to his feet.
This isn't going to be pleasant Anders thought as the templars shoved him forward.
Hours later, after walking for miles they'd finally stopped in some dark woods.
Anders didn't know where they were anymore. He didn't know much of anything of the outside world anymore.
He was still in the Free Marches, he knew that much. Funny, how being on the run seemed to mess with his sanity.
The templars had set up camp for the evening.
They had chained Anders up to a tree before getting comfortable around their camp fire.
He said nothing as the templars ate in front of them, not a single one of them offering him even a drink of water.
Anders tried to move his hands, to summon the Arcane magic he'd learned during his time with the Wardens and break his chains, but no.
The templars had taken his magic from him.
Every four hours, like clockwork, they used Silence on him to make sure he was never able to use even a fraction of his power.
Smart, he may not have been as stable as he had been before. But he was still a mage, and all it took for him to lay waste to his enemies was a wave of his hand.
He was snapped out his thoughts when he heard the templars arguing about him.
Anders looked up with hazy tired eyes and saw the templars yelling at each other.
"We should kill him right here and now!" one shouted, this one a human male.
"Cane listen! It isn't like it was before and you know it! The Order isn't what it used to be!" the leader of the templars, a human female said.
The Order isn't what it used to be? Have the mages took them down? I've been in hiding for too long... I know next to nothing about the outside world Anders realized.
Anders watched the templars arguing over his fate before closing his eyes in frustration.
He was tired and felt a hundred years old. He hardly looked like his old self since the events at Kirkwall.
He'd lost weight while on the run, attaining a more gaunt almost skeletal look, grown a beard that he'd hadn't been able to keep clean, and his hair had gone unwashed and started to gray as of late.
That was of little concern to Anders now though.
He had wanted to be the spark that ignited change, the revolutionary whom freed the mages.
Instead he'd become a fugitive on the run and in the end, the templars had found him again.
Not even his fellow Apostates had stood with him.
Anders had tried to regroup with the rebel mages after Kirkwall, but a lot of mages despised him for turning them into fugitives. Those that praised him for his actions where often not the revolutionaries that Anders had thought they would be, but rather cold and ruthless fools.
And so he'd fled from his own people, fellow Apostates on the run...
It had been for the best. His presence had done more harm than good among the rebel mages, he brought divides among their ranks and they couldn't have that.
At least that's what he told himself.
So Anders had left it to others to lead the rebel mages across Thedas.
The templars had their own leaders, but as he had just been captured... he didn't think things were going so well for the mages.
Anders opened his eyes again and looked at the templars arguing again.
"The Inquisition would be the best option!" the leader was shouting.
She seemed to being having trouble with one of her men, Cane his name was apparently.
Anders chuckled as he realized something.
Of course, it had to be a woman who captured me.
"What the hell are you laughing at!" a templar shouted.
Anders gulped as suddenly he felt cold steel at his throat.
One of the templars, Cane, had unsheathed his longsword.
Anders met this Cane's glare with one of his own.
"My sister was in the chantry at Kirkwall" Cane hissed at him.
Anders stared at the templar unblinkingly.
"She used to teach children the chant of light... and then you killed her! You murdered an entire chantry full of innocent people!" Cane shouted.
"... and how many sisters have you killed?" Anders asked coldly.
That took the templar aback.
"Wha-" Cane began.
"How many innocents have you murdered? How many mages did you kill to 'serve the Maker'. How many Apostates or frightened children did you put to the sword or worse... made Tranquil!" Anders said coldly.
All the templars stood silent.
"How many! How many kids! How many parents! Siblings! Not so easy when you have your eyes opened is it? To realize your enemy is actually people and not some nightmare you can kill guilt-free? To realize that they all had families!" Anders shouted back.
Cane spat on him.
The Apostate flinched but stared unblinking.
"Do it" Anders said coldly.
The templar pressed the blade of his longsword to the Apostate's throat.
"NO!" the leader shouted and two templars grabbed Cane by his arms.
Anders scoffed as the longsword left his throat and Cane was hauled back.
"They'll kill him anyway! The Order! The Wardens! The Inquisition! It doesn't matter... he dies no matter who orders it" Kane shouted.
He's not wrong Anders thought darkly.
"That's enough!" the leader shouted, she was growing impatient.
"The Wardens are even more disordered than the templars. The only place we take him is the Inquisition, and that's final" the leader said sternly, her word law.
Anders shifted uncomfortably in his chains, the tree made his back hurt and his chest was aching the longer he was forced to sit up.
Justice... she wishes to be just. She should have done that ages ago... when the mages were suffering under the templars' rule A voice that was not his own seemed to say in Anders's mind.
"There is no justice in this world" Anders muttered to himself. He did that a lot lately.
"You shut up!" the leader said snapping back at him.
Anders made to raise his hands up in surrender, but remembered that he was chained to a tree barely able to move.
Instead Anders nodded.
The leader turned away from him and addressed another templar.
"Make sure he's given enough food and water to live. We don't want him dying yet. Tomorrow we head for Skyhold" she said.
Skyhold? Anders thought.
Later, as Anders was gulping down the little water that had been afforded to him, he managed to chuckle inwardly.
Well... at least they remembered to feed me he thought.
Short, I know. I liked writing Anders in this state, time on the run, Justice, and the Darkspawn taint have taken their toll on him. He's almost a broken man at times, but he's still firm in his beliefs.
Next chapter will probably be longer.
We'll get to see Anders interact with the Inquisition and the templars and mages.
People will have different opinions on the consequences of his actions
Thanks for Reading and please Review!