A/N: Hey guys! This is my first ever Dragon Age fanfic, and of course it just had to be one where a modern age girl falls into the game. Hopefully it won't be exactly like every other one out there, but I tried my hardest to make it original.

UPDATE: So I revised this first chapter, and it is so much better in my opinion. I tried to fix as many things as I could, though my main focus was fixing Verity, making her into a more believable character, as well as adding some things that will help in the future with my plot :P Hope you guys like this, and I really hope that it's better now. I'll get onto the next chapter right away 3

! #$%^

I don't belong here. Whether because of a twist of fate, or a simple bend in reality, I have found myself lost in the middle of two worlds. I sit here and write this, knowing that someone needs to hear my tale. I fear that if they do not, the consequences will be dire, indeed. They need to hear my story, my whole story. But how do I start such a thing? I suppose as all stories begin.

At the beginning.

!#$%^

"Verity! Verity Anne Sage, get out here, now!"

I groaned into my soft pillow, hearing the loud bangs on my door, signaling that my wretched father needed me for something or another. I put the pillow over my head, hoping that somehow it would drown out everything else. But the banging only got louder.

I sighed, and threw myself out of my bed, opening my door to see my father there, having trouble standing upright. I tried to ignore the urge to roll my eyes; it was eleven in the morning and he was already too drunk to stand upright. His eyes narrowed at me, obviously seeing my amusement.

"Don't you start that, you little smart ass bitch! Now get me a drink and something to eat." He started to wander off into his bedroom, but I couldn't take it anymore. I had let him stomp all over me since I was little, and rarely spoke back to him. But my anger got the best of me, and I had to say something.

"Need me to change your diaper as well?" I spat out.

My father turned back to me, fury clear in his eyes. He stumbled back to where I was standing and shoved his head into my personal space. He grabbed my shirt's collar, crumpling the plain material into a ball.

"What was that, girl?" His spittle flew at my face, but I didn't dare wipe it off in front of him. I just glared back at him, and opened my mouth to speak again.

"I said, do you need me to change your diaper as well, sir."

I gulped, my hands shaking slightly at my sides despite my brave facade. I shouldn't have spoken up, I knew that I shouldn't have, because I knew what would be coming next. And I was right. He raised his hand, releasing my shirt from his grasp, and slammed his closed fist into the side of my face. I flew to the ground, my jaw throbbing painfully.

"Learn some fucking manners!" With that, he slammed my door shut, nearly breaking it. I moved my jaw gently, wincing slightly at the searing pain. I should be used to this by now; the bruises on my body were a clear sign of how often he did this. I should be smarter than this, I should be stronger than this!

I picked myself up off of the floor, and went downstairs to get my father his beer and food. I brought it up to him, doing my best to not look him in the eye. I quickly rushed back to my room, eager to do something that didn't remind me of how depressing my life was.

I turned on my Xbox 360, and put in my favorite game, Dragon Age 2. I rubbed at my jaw, waiting silently for the menu to pop up onto the screen.

I clicked on New Game, and the screen blacked out. Normally, I wouldn't be surprised, but this time it took much longer than it should have. I sighed, knowing that the game must have frozen. I got up, and went to turn off the console.

The second I touched it, however, it shocked me. Like, actually shocked me. Not the little tiny spark, but the full fledged, "OW!" shock. I pulled my hand back in surprise, and took a large step back. My ankle caught on something in the process, and before I knew it I was falling backwards.

I tried to scream out, but I hit my head on something hard, and was nearly knocked out from the force of the impact. I could feel blood seeping from the wound, and tried to hold my hand to it, but my arms wouldn't move an inch. My eyelids felt heavy, and the room was beginning to spin around me. Black crept at the edge of my vision, but I fought against it with all of my willpower.

But pretty soon, I knew that fighting would be useless. I gave up, and soon enough, my vision completely went black, engulfing my world into total darkness.

!#$%^

"Is she alive?"

I moaned in pain. All I could feel was pain, unbearable pain. My head was throbbing, my jaw was sore, and my body felt like it had been hit by a bus. I tried to open my eyes, but the bright sun immediately made me shut them again.

"She's waking up! Get me a health poultice!"

I was confused by the person who was speaking. Health poultice? Where did he think we were, in some video game? I needed a doctor! I tried opening my eyes again, and was more successful this time. My light blue eyes adjusted to the light, and flitted around, trying to make sense of where I was. I was clearly lying down, probably on the ground from the feel of it. There was somebody above me, staring worriedly down at me.

It was a man, and he looked very familiar. I scrunched up my nose, confused. The man sighed in relief when he saw that I was awake, and he stood up. He reached down a hand to help me, and I gladly took it. He hoisted me up, and I gasped as the world spun around me. I stumbled, and ran into the man on accident.

"Sorry, sorry . . ." I mumbled, trying to stand on my own. Once I had mastered the art of standing upright, I looked around at my surroundings.

There were four people in all, all of them clearly related. There was a handsome young boy that looked to be around eighteen years old, with black hair and blue eyes, and a girl that looked almost identical to the boy in looks and age. I decided that they were twins.

There was the man who helped me to my feet, who also had black hair, and a black beard, with honey brown eyes. Next to the twins was an older looking lady with graying hair, and the same blue eyes that the twins had. They must be a family. But they all looked strangely familiar, and I decided that I knew them from somewhere.

"Here, Miss, drink this," The older boy slipped something into my hands, and I looked curiously down at the vial. I shrugged my shoulders, and chugged it all in one sip. It was revolting, and I was about to spit it out when I felt something strange happen. I could feel the wound on my head close, and my body felt amazingly less sore. What the hell was that?

"I'm Garrett Hawke, and this is Bethany, Carver, and my mother, Leandra,"

My heart just about stopped beating for a moment.

Wait? The Hawke family? From Dragon Age 2? Were these people that serious about the game that they decided to dress up like the characters? But as I stared at them, I could see how much they looked like the character in the game. How could this be happening?

"I-I'm . . ." I couldn't finish a sentence. What if what I was seeing was real? Or maybe it was a dream! I did fall and hit my head, so this could all be a dream right now!

Yes, that's it! I was dreaming. And it was a dream, might as well go along with it, right?

But what should I have them call me? I shouldn't let them call me by my real name, if there was any chance that this was real. I was thinking, and a name popped into my head.

My older brother had always called me, "Angel Eyes", because of my blue eyes. He was mainly using the nickname to tease me, but that was the first thing that I could think of.

"I'm Angel." I finally choked out.

Hawke smirked and nodded at me.

"The name suits a woman as beautiful as yourself."

I immediately flushed at his words, my pale skin grew red from embarrassment.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you two," Carver glared at us. "But we should move on before we run into any more darkspawn."

Hawke nodded, and took the lead, walking ahead.

I was instantly terrified. I couldn't fight! How was I supposed to do this? Carver noticed me freaking out, and shook his head in disdain. Hawke saw me, and reached for something on his belt. Tossing it back at me, I caught them, my eyes widening.

Two silver daggers.

I glanced back up at Hawke, who had already moved on. Did he honestly expect me to be able to use these? I couldn't do this!

I didn't know how to fight, for God's sake! But even through my panic, I thought of what the two weapons meant. A rogue. My mind was swept back to all of the times that I had played as a rogue, all of those times I had marveled at the quick and nimble movements of the class. But I was clumsy, and would never be able to make my body move like a rogue!

And what class was Hawke? I prayed to God that he wasn't a mage, and for two good reasons.

One, because that meant that Bethany would die, and he would be stuck with Carver for the next year, which was no good. Two was simply because mages and magic frightened me. Even in a video game, the power a mage had over others was beyond scary. I always sided with the Templars when I was given a choice.

We had been walking for the last five minutes while I was freaking out, and I only noticed when Bethany cut in.

"Wait! Where are we going?" Bethany spoke, her voice clearly showing her frustration.

"Away from the darkspawn. Where else?" Carver still had that stupid scowl on, and I found myself wanting to throw something at him.

Bethany sighed.

"And then where? We can't just wander aimlessly!"

Bethany had a point, and everyone else knew it. I felt weird, knowing where they were going to go. Not only that, I knew what was going to happen to everyone up until the end of the game!

I knew where the conversation was heading, so I decided to scout ahead a bit. I slipped past the group, who were too busy arguing to notice me walk away.

The path ahead was clear, and I had turned to go back to the others when I felt a strange tingling sensation on the back of my neck. I knew instantly that it was a darkspawn.

My first reaction was to scream and run, but before the fear took over, a strange feeling washed through me. It was an eerie calm, and my feelings were immediately shoved aside.

I pivoted on my foot, quickly pulling the daggers from my belt and thrusting them into the gut of the thing in front of me. As I got a better look, I saw that it was indeed a darkspawn. It let out a strangled cry, and I swiftly pulled the weapons from its body as it fell.

My eyes widened as I took in what I had done. I had just killed it with an amount of grace I had no idea I even possessed. I didn't know how to fight!

So how the hell did I just do that? And that feeling I had gotten while doing it... it was bizarre, to say the least.

But I had no more time to think, as I took in the sight in front of me. There were about ten more darkspawn, all eyeing me as they unsheathed their weapons.

"Uh, guys?" I shouted out, and the others glanced over with wide eyes before sprinting into the battle.

The same strange feeling took over me once again, and I dodged a sword, ducking underneath it and bringing my daggers up and into its chest. I twisted the daggers before pulling them out, and turned to the next darkspawn.

It seemed to tower over me as it swung a sword towards my form, but I simply moved, and it missed me by nearly a foot. I quickly took the opening, and my hands shot out, slashing violently at its chest. The darkspawn fell, and I turned aside to find another target.

My eyes narrowed as I saw a sword heading for my neck, ready to decapitate me.

But of course, Hawke kicked my legs out from under me, sending me face first into the ground. It wasn't the most graceful way of saving me, but it did the trick, and I was still alive.

I scurried to my feet, and danced out of the way of several swords, three darkspawn attacking me all at once. I swung a dagger at one's face, leaving a deep gash. I wasn't quite quick enough to get out of the way of the second's weapon, and received a small slash in my upper arm. It wasn't serious, but it was enough for it to sting like a bitch, as well as a small line of blood to form at the wound.

Wait.

Pain? The slash on my arm stung, and it was unlike any other dream I've had before. Pain just didn't happen in a dream, so why was it stinging? This couldn't be real, could it? This was Dragon Age. The video game.

How could something like this even happen? It just didn't happen, plain and simple. But one minute I was being tossed around by my father, and now I was fighting darkspawn alongside Hawke!

How was this even possible?

Could this actually be real?

But my thoughts were cut short as my bizarre instincts took over yet again, stopping the pain in its tracks and sending me back into battle.

I swiped at another darkspawn, and quickly took it down. As I continued fighting, I glanced over at Hawke from the corner of my eye.

He was, as I feared, a mage. Under any other circumstances I would have been paralyzed from the realization, but all of my emotions seemed to be numb, dulled by whatever it was that had taken over me.

I quickly tuned back into the battle, realizing that I had taken down another five darkspawn without paying attention. I looked to my left to see Carver struggling with three others who had him cornered, and didn't seem to hesitate before jumping into the fray. I had the element of surprise, and cut the three of them down in a matter of seconds.

Carver's face register a small amount of shock, but he quickly got over it, and started to glare at me.

"I had in under control!" He protested, his eyes narrowing.

I raised my eyebrows, my hands finding their way to my hips.

"Bloody woman..." He muttered under his breath, and glared down at me.

I glared right back at him, anger beginning to make my blood boil.

But the fury quickly died out when I realized that I could glare at him. It seemed to hit me like a train, the realization that the strange feeling was gone, and now all that was left was my heap of tangled emotions.

I was frightened once again, and looked frantically around to see if there were anymore darkspawn. There were none, just piles of corpses scattered across the pathway. I frowned, and inhaled sharply when my chest began to clench.

I jumped slightly as I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned to my side to see Hawke standing there with a grin.

"Nice job out there. Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

It took me a second to process his words, as all of my previous feelings about Hawke being a mage came rushing back, and I mentally shook myself, forcing myself to answer him.

"I taught myself to fight," The lie seemed to come to my lips without an effort. "And you? You're a mage?" I tried to hold back my fear, but it obviously slipped through.

Hawke's change in emotion was drastic. His smile turned hard, and he stared at me with an intensity that scared me even more than his class.

"You aren't going to have a problem with me and my sister, are you?" He asked, his golden eyes searching my face.

I shook my head, trying to hide my shaking hands.

"No." My voice came out weak and strained, and Hawke knew that I was lying.

But he also knew that I wasn't angry or disgusted; I was scared.

His face softened, and he nodded.

"We're not going to eat you, you know," He jested lightly, giving me a cautious smile.

I gulped, and nodded a little too quickly.

"I know, I do. We're all on the same side," I spoke, relaxing ever so slightly.

Hawke nodded, and continued walking forward once again. It was quiet for a while, so Bethany turned to me.

"So, I've been wondering, where did you get those clothes?" She asked sweetly.

I looked down at myself, and realized that I was still in my black skinny jeans and grey hoodie. I froze, not knowing how I was going to explain.

"I'm, uh, not from around here," I spoke, hoping that Bethany would accept my vague answer. She thought silently to herself for a second, before nodding.

"Well, it's definitely... different." She finally settled on a response.

I let out a small laugh, and nodded along with her. It wasn't long before we ran into Aveline and Wesley. I tried to hold in my amazement as everything went exactly as it did in the game, with Wesley giving us trouble before agreeing to come with us. The dialogue was the same, and the only thing different was the strange looks Aveline gave me when she saw my clothes. Once again we found ourselves thrust into a battle, and once again I magically had skill with a dagger.

I was fighting darkspawn after darkspawn, my dulled senses making it impossible to count the number of enemies I brought down. The shock of being tossed into the Dragon Age universe was pushed aside, and pretty soon, we found ourselves in the clearing where we would find ourselves trapped by darkspawn.

The place where Bethany would die.

Something in my chest tightened as my thoughts turned to the mage, and I silently swore that I would try and save her. Bethany was too innocent of a person to die, mage or not, and I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't.

And soon enough, the ground began to shake as the ogre came charging into the clearing, pushing aside fellow darkspawn to get to us. My eyes quickly turned to Bethany, and I watched as her body tensed, preparing to attack the giant that stood before her.

The beast took notice of her, and stepped forward, reaching out a bulky hand.

Time seemed to stop, and my breathing slowed to a gentle rhythm. My legs moved on their own accord, dodging darkspawn in order to reach their target. As the ogre wrapped its fingers around Bethany's lithe form, I leapt onto its hand as it lifted, plunging the silver daggers into its flesh with a violent thrust.

The beast let out a roar that seemed to tear apart my eardrums, and before I had time to blink, it slammed us into the ground with a force that caused my vision to go black.

My lungs were unable to take in any oxygen, and I knew that the wind had been knocked out of me. My body seemed to be paralyzed from the pain, and the strange adrenaline from before disappeared, leaving me limp in the dirt. I could vaguely feel a large thump as the ogre fell dead to the ground, but I still couldn't open my eyes, the pain making it near impossible to do much of... well, anything really.

"Bethany!" I heard the muffled voices of both Leandra and Hawke cry out, and I prayed to whatever God was up there to let her still be alive.

There was a faint cough, and then several relieved sighs.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!"

She was alive.

It was strange, the feeling of absolute relief that I felt as I heard Bethany's voice. I didn't even know her! Well, I knew her through the video game, but that wasn't it. The fact that I had managed to save someone, mage or not, sent a wave of such joy through me, I felt like crying.

"Oh Maker, no! She saved my life, she can't die!" I heard Bethany shout.

There was some rustling as someone scrambled to my side, and gently pulled my body into their lap. Judging from how soft the person's hands were as they brushed the hair out of my face, it was Bethany.

I struggled to open my eyes, and was temporarily blinded by the sun. I saw Bethany sigh from relief, her golden eyes sparkling with tears.

"Thank the Maker!" She smiled down at me. "You saved my life! If it weren't for you... Thank you."

I smiled back at her sweet features, and attempted to get to my feet. I didn't get far, as my legs immediately collapsed beneath me.

"Garrett!" Bethany shouted for her brother.

So his name was Garrett. Huh.

He ran over to us, and quickly scooped me up into his muscular arms.

"We have to move!" Hawke started to walk forward, but darkspawn cut him off.

"We're too late." Aveline spoke, her voice deep and quite honestly depressing to hear, even if I already knew she'd say those exact same words.

Hawke gently lowered me to the floor, and I tried to stay balanced as a sudden wave of dizziness hit me.

"Stay behind me." He commanded, and I was smart enough to obey.

My instincts dulled the pain and weakness in my arms, and I unsheathed my daggers. I was still a little woozy, but was regaining my strength by the second. I used the darkspawn's momentum against them, trying to take them down and stay conscious at the same time.

Soon, as I already knew we would, we found ourselves trapped by the enemy with nowhere to run to. It was amazing how hopeless it seemed. If I weren't numb, I knew I'd be terrified by our odds of surviving. But I quickly glanced around, searching for our only way out of this mess.

As I caught sight of it, my eyes widened, and my emotions rushed back to me.

"Dragon..."

Hawke sent a questioning glance in my direction, and I shook myself out of my awe. My hand pointed out Flemeth, who was in Dragon form, curled up at the top of a small mountain above us.

She unfurled her wings, and flew down towards us. She roared, spitting fire at the darkspawn below her, scooping one into her claws. She soared higher into the sky, releasing the creature from her grasp and watching as her prey fell to the earth.

Flemeth landed, morphing back into her human form. She sauntered towards us, the smile on her face one that screamed out danger.

As she stepped forward, I involuntarily took a step back, bumping into Hawke. The Witch of the Wilds must have seen the fear in my eyes, because she let out a laugh.

"You're quite a long way from home, aren't you?" She spoke, making terror rise up in my chest.

There was something about her, something that made me think she knew exactly who I was and what I was doing here.

But how could she know? I wasn't even from this universe!

"What do you know of me?" My voice came out surprisingly fierce, and I silently noticed that my fists were balled up in rage.

The people beside me seemed shocked at my change in behavior, but I didn't really care at the moment. Despite my fear, Flemeth knew something about how I got here; I could see it clear as day in her eyes.

But she only laughed.

"I know far more than you think." She stepped forward, holding out her hand to reveal a flame burning on her palm.

Whatever brave facade I had put on before instantly cracked, and I let out an involuntary yelp at the magic. I scrambled back, running into Hawke once again.

"Such as your blind fear of mages." There was something in her eyes as she spoke, a certain glint of amusement that unnerved me more than I'd care to admit.

Hawke glanced down at me with an unreadable expression on his face. I flushed, and quickly turned my gaze to the ground.

"You don't know anything." My voice wavered as I spoke, but I just turned away from Flemeth's burning stare, wandering over to where Bethany stood.

I purposely tuned out of the conversation between Hawke and Flemeth, not wanting to hear anything that she had to say. I knew everything that would happen, and I had my own emotions to sort out at the moment.

Bethany stared at me as I ran a nervous hand through my hair, seemingly searching for some answer that wasn't there. I tried to ignore her, tried to ignore everything, and instead stared at the ground.

Time seemed to pass quickly after that. Everything went exactly as it had in the game, and Flemeth got us to a ship. Soon enough, we were on our way to Kirkwall.

It became obvious that whatever this was, it wasn't a dream. I felt pain and bled as I would in reality, and hours turned into days, days turned into weeks. This wasn't a dream, but how could this be real?

It was impossible.

After a few days on the ship, I was close to tearing my hair out. Everyone was asking me questions, and though they were innocent enough, it drove me insane.

"So, where are you from, Angel? I don't recognize your accent from anywhere near here." Aveline asked, her narrowed eyes clearly showing her suspicions.

I sighed, and turned to face her.

"A place called Virginia, if you must know."

Aveline knew from my tone that I didn't want to talk about it, so she just nodded at me, before turning to talk with Bethany.

We still had a week and a half until we got to Kirkwall, and there was nothing else to do besides sit and talk with others. I sighed, and turned to face the wall.

After another week, near the end of our journey, Hawke found his way over to me, making himself comfortable by my side.

I had my eyes closed, relishing the silence while it lasted. Sadly, it didn't last long.

"Was it true?" Hawke asked.

I opened my eyes, and knew exactly what he meant.

"What the Witch of the Wilds said? Are you truly afraid of mages?"

I hesitated slightly, before sighing. I put my head in my hands, and was silent for a long while. Finally, when it became clear that he wouldn't leave until he got an answer, I spoke up.

"Yes," I spoke, looking up at his golden eyes. "If you are going to be so damned persistent, then yes. I am afraid of mages. Well, terrified, actually."

Hawke raised his eyebrows at my words.

"Why?"

I sighed, shaking my head gently.

"Because, mages are too powerful. They have the power to restore life to an injured body, but also the power to take it away. They can cause massive damage, and that's just when they're human. But when they slip up, when the dreams start coming and take over their minds, that's when they're the most dangerous. And that's when I'm the most frightened. It can happen to any mage, strong willed or not. The sheer power that they have over people – over me – is a terrifying thought. So, since you wanted to know, that's why I'm scared of mages." I finished, looking over at Hawke for his reaction.

He was silent for a moment.

"Well, what about an extremely handsome mage?" He smiled, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

Despite his jesting, I knew that he had understood me, so I played along.

"Yes, even an extremely handsome mage, like you." I gave him a soft smile, and he grinned right back at me.

Clearing my throat, I stood up and made a seat next to Bethany, whom I had grown closer to during our trip.

It was the next day that we finally docked, and I was grateful to get out of that crowded ship. Hell, I was grateful for solid, unmoving ground. We left the ship to find a crowd of people surrounding a man, who was holding them back.

"They're not letting people in." I said, and Bethany nodded, agreeing with me.

"It seems that way. Let's go see if we can talk to somebody."

I sighed, and followed Hawke to the gates of Kirkwall.

!#$%^

A/N: Hey guys! So that was my first ever Dragon Age fanfic, and I hoped you enjoyed it! Tell me what you thought, and what you want to see more of :)

UPDATE: Next revised chapter should be out soon

- Sara