Disclaimer. Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans, and well wishes to the rest of the world.

Thanks Judy for the reviews.

The battle had begun. Darkspawn catapults were firing at the ruins. Alistair urged them forward to cross the bridge to the tower. The noise was defining, the shouts below, the sounds of impact as rocks hit the bridge, several times it was a close call but somehow they manage to cross unharmed. Emma looked back taking a shaking breath as the adrenalin started to course through her veins. The group pressed on a neared the ramp to take them to the next level when two men, a mage and a warrior, ran down to meet them. The warrior panted out "You… You're Grey Wardens, aren't you?! The tower… it's been taken!"

Taken aback Alistair questioned "What are you talking about man? Taken how?"

The warrior glanced over his shoulder at the tower, "The darkspawn came up through the lower chambers! They're everywhere! Most of our men are dead."

Determined Alistair answered, "Then we have to get to the beacon and light it ourselves!"

Elisa thought for a moment and looked at the mage "Sir, can you heal?" The mage looked back at the tower with fear in his eyes before looking at Elisa, who was doing her best to appear calm, before he nodded. The warrior ran off and the mage cast a spell that coated the group's blades with fire.

The group of now five went up to the ramp and immediately was set on by darkspawn. Emma quickly cut down a genlock before taking note of arrows flying past her. She looked around and noticed the darkspawn on the scaffolding, using her swords to block arrows aimed for her face, the armor she was wearing was specially made to repel arrows despite being leather, and she ran up the ramp and fought her way up it and to the archer at the top. Realizing that she was too close to shoot at the darkspawn archer tried to switch to its sword but that was all Emma needed, with a deadly pirouette Emma decapitated the Hurlock.

The skirmish was over Emma called to Alistair and Elisa "Loot them, you would be surprised what you will find on monsters." She looked over the edge on the scaffold and at an impulse of whimsy, backed up a bit before running forward and jumping off. With two flips in the air, she safely landed on the ground. The surprise on the others faces and an approving remark from the hound Hunter, something about squirrels, was reward enough, she gave a small smile and motioned them to lead on.

With darkspawn at every couple of yards, the group fought their way until they finally reached the entrance of the tower. Emma whispered to Elisa "Expect resistance almost immediately." Though confused Elisa nodded then opened the tower's door. The entrance leads to a big room, Emma wonders what it looked like new instead of old and filled with burning debris and darkspawn. During her scans of the surroundings, she noticed a trip wire, and that Alistair was close to setting it off. She darted forward, pulled him back, and knelt behind a column to avoid being seen. Emma quietly thanked her rogue guardian, Tabby, for her more underhanded teachings, they do come in handy. These rookies sure do have a lot to learn.

With the trap disarmed, she motioned with her head to go forward, Elisa leads the group forward only to jump back when a fireball was hurled at her by a gunlock embisary. Being the only one with Templar abilities, Alistair immediately took on the embisary, while the others quickly cut down the Hurlock around them. "Well, this is going to be a long night" Emma grumpily mumbled, she hated being in smoke-filled rooms. The group went through the hallway checking reach room, killing darkspawn within, and Emma picking locks and looting anything useful or valuable. Nine years as an "adventurer' has taught her that eventually anything will be useful at some point or can be traded or sold for what you need at the moment.

Finally, they reached the stairs and began the climb at a fast pace. Poor Elisa and Alistair, weighted down by their heavy chain mail, were panting heavily when they reached the top, just one reason Emma preferred leather despite it coming from dead animals. Taking a breather Alistair points out "Maker's breath! What are these darkspawn doing ahead the rest of the horde? There wasn't supposed to be any resistance here!"

Slightly annoyed by the fact that he had been complaining before that he wanted to fight, and the fact that she is slightly sarcastic by nature, Emma sarcastically responded: "You could try telling them they are in the wrong place."

With the same amount of sarcasm, he retorted "Right. Because clearly, this is all just a misunderstanding. We'll all laugh about this later," he changes to serious "At any rate, we need to hurry! We need to get up to the top of the tower and light the signal fire in time! Teyrn Loghain will be waiting for the signal!" Emma internally rolled her eyes Sure he will, don't think he will follow the agreed-upon plan though.

Elisa bit her lip looking at the corridor to the next room and spoke "Emma, you seem to have training as a rogue can you scout the next room." With a nod, Emma went into stealth mode and in the shadows crept up through the corridor. To her right, she saw a couple of groups of darkspawn but to her left, she saw something that made her smile underneath her guard. It is party time.

She went back to the group and reported her finding then said "Stick to the shadows, be quiet and follow me. I got an idea." Leading the group to the hallway she motions them to wait while she opened the left door and saw the darkspawn within. Emma took out her daggers on her belt and crept behind them, before stabbing the left one in the back of the neck and the other right behind the heart. Emma retrieved and cleaned her daggers and went back to the group and motioned them in.

Alistair looked at the bodies and remembered Arthurs threat, as terrifying as the memory is the proof of their training is bone chilling. The blighted sods looked like they didn't even have a chance to even struggle. If petite Emma could do such a thing, the thought of what her bigger companion could do is terrifying.

After grabbing anything useful Emma went to the unopened door which leads to the ballista. She whispered back the group "Wait until I fire a couple of shots then clean up the rest." Emma went and armed the ballista and began firing at the darkspawn, Elisa concluded that without a doubt Emma really was trained in everything, the few that was left was quickly cleared up by the rest of the group. The rest of the way up the tower was uneventful as battles go except for when they released the hounds stuck in cages and after the battle, the hounds bowed to Emma who blushed then sent them away.

Finally, the group reached the stairs to the fourth floor. Emma could sense something with the taint that was more dangerous than the others "There is something really bad up there isn't there?" she asked Alistair who was looking at the door nervously. "I could be wrong, and let's hope I am, but I think there is an ogre up there," answered Alistair. Emma sighed and said "And I get the feeling that my idea of an ogre is vastly different than yours. Well, let's get this over with."

The group began the climb, all of them mentally preparing themselves for the worst. Alistair opened the door and Emma saw it. It was as horrible as any abomination that she had seen, it had all the twisted features of the darkspawn but much bigger at ten feet and with huge twisted horns. It was eating something, Emma could not see what not that she wanted to before it noticed them. It got up and roared at them, which caused the mage to panic, throw a fireball and run away strangely away from the stairs. The ogre quickly charges at the mage, caught him then broke him in half.

Great, there goes our healer Emma thinks before throwing down a smoke bomb to confuse the ogre.

Alistair began tanking the monster with Elisa, Hunter, and Emma doing as many damages as they could through its thick hide which was not a lot. Rolling away from one of its strikes, Emma spots a couple of crates stacked up on one side of the room, "Elisa I got an idea."

Elisa looks at Emma "Just tell me!"

"Have Alistair lead it to those crates, you and Hunter distract him and I will finish it off, hopefully." Considering the lack of a better plan and the fact that Emma had come through before, Alistair quickly agreed and began to lead the ogre to the crates without getting hurt too badly.

Emma climbed up the crates, no small feat when they are almost as tall as you. When she reached the top and saw the ogre approaching, Breath Em it is just another abomination. With the ogre in position Emma took a deep breath and leaped forward to it. She gracefully somersaulted in midair to control her velocity while pulling out the swords. With her whole weight behind her, she dug her swords all the way to the hilt into the monster's chest. As planned the ogre staggered back for before falling backward, Emma jumped off before it hit the ground and whipped off her swords. The three warriors shared a relieved I-can't-believe-we-did-it laugh before looking for the beacon. Elisa found it and looked for a torch to light it, Alistair went to help her. Together they found and lit the torch and threw it into the beacons fireplace.

"Well, that was a job well…" Emma was putting away her swords when even more darkspawn burst through the door and quickly surrounded them. They tried to push back but there was way too many of them, Emma was blocking as many strikes and arrows as she could when she felt a sharp pain on the top of her head and everything went black.

Meanwhile

Loghain saw the lit beacon and ordered: "Sound the retreat."

His second was stunned "But what about the King? Should we…"

Loghain interrupted her by grabbing her arm with a slightly crazed look in his steel cold eyes. "Do as I command," his second submitted and gave the orders for the retreat.

In the valley, the battle was not going so well. They fought bravely waiting for reinforcements that will never come, but soon after the retreat disaster struck. Arthur and Cullen were working together to protect the few healers remaining, Stella included, while Lucilla was stabbing any monster in sight.

None saw the ogre that charged the king pushing Duncan out of the way cracking some ribs. The ogre snatched up the King, roared in his face then broke his back in half which destroyed his internal organs. It was that crack that got the others attention. The wardens, plus Arthur, ran back to Duncan just in time to see him take down the ogre. Badly wounded Duncan looked around the battle and saw the lit beacon before he looked at the concerned young faces around him.

"The king is dead, the battle is lost," Duncan stated "I want you to save as many people as possible and retreat. Grey Wardens must survive if the archdemon is to be defeated."

Arthur was saddened at such a request while the other immediately began to carve a way out. "But Duncan…"

"No buts. They will need your guidance now more than ever Prince Amethyst. Lead them to safety and until one of them proves themselves worthy of being the Warden Commander."

Arthur's eyes flashed to purple before giving a determined nod. His natural leadership skill activated, Arthur began given orders in such a way that all around him followed without question, even Lucilla. He ordered the mages to combine their area offensive spells at several points on their escape path. It was only after everyone they gathered was safely away from the kill zone that Prince Amethyst looked back at the tower with beacon blazing, the tower where his princess was sent to. Please be safe Em, begged the young prince, but he received no answers.