Dragon Age 2 is owned by Bioware, as with all it's characters, the story as it deviates from canon is mine however, as with the personalities of characters as they deviate from those in the game. In case you haven't noticed, I have gone decidedly off-canon. However, I that's part of the fun of fanfiction, right? ;-)
Again, thank you for all the reviews. There has been one reviewer in particular who has really made my day with her reviews on each chapter. Thank you so very much Jackattack456! You support is very much needed as the story gets more complicated! As always, all of the reviews really do help push me forward to make each chapter better than the last. Please, if you like how things are going so far, or you have any ideas or any (constructive) criticism, please leave a review. It is always appreciated! Thank you again!
"So, if we go by the pattern of this place, that only leaves myself and Fenris." Aveline stated as the walked down the hall to the next room.
"What I don't understand is how this place is so big! I swear it didn't look this big from the outside!" Merrill added.
"Magic. That is reason for all of this."
"Fenris, you keep growling and I'm going to start calling you 'wolfy'"
"Try it Isabella." The look that Fenris shot the pirate was so heated that it could of melted steel. "And I don't growl."
Isabella burst out laughing at that. "Yes, just like you don't brood."
"Okay you two. We're at the next door. Are you all ready?"
"Yes, mommy." Isabella looked up at the guard captain with big eyes and an innocent look on her face. She even held her hands together at her side as she swayed back and forth like a child.
"Okay, we need to get out of this place. Spending too much time together seems to be driving us insane."
"Oh, I don't know Varric. I seem to be doing alright."
"Case in point, Daisy."
Their laughter died however as they opened the door before them and saw a single man fighting off a group of Darkspawn. Rushing forwards, Aveline couldn't believe her eyes as she saw who it was.
"Wesley?" She whispered. Aveline wanted to run to him, yet first the Darkspawn needed to be dealt with.
Fighting like a mad woman, Aveline tore into the monsters. Swing her axe with deadly accuracy, she and the others made quick work of the attacking horde. When the last of them fell, Aveline rushed over to her former husband. However, when he turned to face her, Aveline nearly collapsed from what she saw.
"Aveline?" Wesley asked, not sure if what he was seeing was real. "By the Maker! You live!"
"This is your ex? Uh, he doesn't look so good, Red..."
"No, Wesley... No..." Aveline cried as Wesley stumbled and fell forewards into Aveline's arms. Again the taint could be seen on his face, turning his skin sickly pale and darkening his veins. Carefully, she laid her husband down on the ground with his back braced against a nearby rock.
"Aveline? What's going on?" Wesley pleaded, his voice growing weaker with every passing minute.
"Oh no..."
"Shit!"
Isabella and Merrill stayed back, unsure of what to do to help their friend, while Fenris joined them by the rock.
"Aveline, this is not real." Fenris tried to talk some sense into the woman, but she would have none of it.
"I don't care Fenris! This is my husband!" Aveline screamed at the elf as she cradled Wesley's head.
"And what of me, dear? Am I not your husband as well?"
All heads turned to see Donnic standing a few feet away. Aveline's eyes filled with shock as she saw her current husband looking down at her with hate in his eyes.
"Donnic?"
"What of us, Aveline? Would you..." Donnic was cut off by a coughing fit that brought up black blood - a sign of the tainted. "I suddenly don't feel so good, love." Donnic weakly stated as he fell to the ground, his skin growing paler as the taint filled him.
"No! Donnic!" screamed Aveline as she tried to rush to his side. Yet she fell back when she ran into an invisible barrier that separated the two of them. Quickly standing up again, Aveline banged repeatedly on the barrier, screaming Donnic's name as the taint began to over take him.
"Aveline? Have you already forgotten me?" Wesley asked weakly from behind her. Turning around to look at him, the others could see the tears running down their brave guard captain's face.
"No! This isn't fair! This isn't fair!" She screamed as she tried to run back to Wesley, only to be stopped by another barrier, keeping her from reaching him. "No! No! This can't be happening!" Falling down to the ground, Aveline sobbed while she kept hitting the barrier to Wesley. Helplessly, her friends could do nothing but watch as a third barrier kept them from her and the two men.
"Aveline!" Donnic cried out in agony. Looking towards him, she tried to stand to reach him but again was prevented. Looking around her, grief consumed Aveline as she cried out for help. To her, she was alone in the darkness, stuck between two men she loved yet could not save.
Suddenly a dagger skidded across the floor to rest at her feet. Looking to where it came from, Aveline gasped as she saw the same hooded creature from before.
"One dagger, two men, one choice. Who do you choose to save, Aveline? Who do you leave to die a painful death that could last days or weeks? Who do you kill quickly to save them from their torment. You can only choose one. So who will it be?"
"You bastard!" Aveline snarled through her tears. "I will not play your game monster!"
"Aveline Vallen, daughter of a disgraced chevalier and named after a woman who defied all tradition to follow her heart, yet ended up dead for it. You wish others to believe in your strength, in your power to lead. What you lack in diplomacy, you make up for in strength. What you lack in civility, you make up for in honor.
"Show me your strength, child. Prove to me you are not your father's made-up knight. Show me you are stronger than your namesake who fell to a cheater's blade. Show me your honor. Who do you choose? Do you save the love you built through mutual affection and feeling?" The monster pointed to the writhing form of Wesley. "Or do you choose to save the love of comfort and convenience?" This time the monster pointed to a coughing Donnic several feet away. "Choose child, or I damn them both!"
Aveline felt her shoulders fall as she lowered her head and cried. What sort of choice was this? All her pent-up grief over Wesley's death and her fear over losing Donnic as well came crashing down upon her. Shuddering through the agony of such a decision, Aveline bent down and picked up the decorated dagger by her feet.
In all proper respects, the dagger was well made and quite beautiful. Just by looking at it, an experienced eye could tell it was very deadly, and probably worth a fortune. Something Aveline was sure Isabella would love.
So would Hawke...
Remembering her friend brought something else back to her mind.
"Choose!" The monster screamed at her, the air around Aveline rushing past her from the force of the monster's voice.
"You want me to choose, monster? Fine. I will choose." Aveline said coldly before raising her eyes to the hooded figure. "I choose you!" Aveline screamed before tossing the dagger at the creature, having it land solidly in the creature's chest. Instantly, the monster dissolved from sight, and so did the images of both Wesley and Donnic.
Again, Aveline was back in the room she and her friends entered in not too long ago. Looking up, Aveline smiled warmly as her friends ran over to her.
"Damn Aveline! Good shot!" Isabella stated joyously as she patted the guard captain's back.
"I don't get it, Red. How'd you know?"
"It was something Merrill here said, actually." Aveline indicated over to the young elf, causing her to blush.
"Me? Oh I don't know... It was you who threw the dagger, Aveline."
"Yes, but it was you who gave me the idea. I believe it was you who said 'why choose anything when we can just beat on him'?"
Aveline, Isabella and Varric burst out in laughter while Fenris just stood by with his arms crossed over his chest. "I have to admit, captain, that was indeed a good shot. I had no idea you were so good with daggers."
"To be honest, Fenris, I'm actually not. I mean sure, sometimes I got Hawke to give me a few pointers, but in truth, I was aiming for the bastard's head."
That got even Fenris to bark out a laugh as the friends gathered their things together and headed for their next trial.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The last room.
Or so they hoped.
The group each knew that if the pattern persisted, Fenris' trial would be next. However, given what Aveline faced, the thought of what the dark and troubled elf had to face was a frightening thought. However, if Fenris felt any reservation or fear, he didn't show it. Instead, the elf showed little emotion at all as they entered the next room.
In front of them, huge stone columns rose from the floor to the ceiling. At least three feet thick and ten feet high, they were an intimidating sight. Between them was a space no more than a few inches across, creating an impassable obstacle before them.
"I don't get it. How are we supposed to get through?" Merrill asked as she peered between the columns, only to find similar ones behind it, spaced slightly different so each of the open spaces didn't line up.
"Do you see anything to shoot, Varric?"
"Nothing, Red. Even if I were to shoot a bolt through one of the spaces, it would just hit the rock behind it."
"Great!" Isabella yelled with exasperation, throwing her hands in the air. "What kind of test is this? Bloody monster..."
The group got together then to try to think of a way through - all except Fenris who just stood looking at the columns with his arms crossed over his chest and a menacing scowl on his face.
"This test is for me." Fenris uttered coldly, causing the rest of his companions to look up in curiosity.
"I don't get it, Broody. How can you get past this?"
"The lyrium lets me ghost through objects; it is how I crush the hearts of my enemies... But..."
"But what, Fenris?" Aveline asked as she approached the elf.
"I am never tried to go entirely incorporeal, and the effect itself doesn't last long - no more than a few moments before I phase back." It also was excruciating, however he would not admit that part.
"So if you phase back while in the stone... Oh!... Oh... ewww..."
"You're not helping Merrill." scolding Aveline with a glare.
"Well... Isn't this bloody lovely? I tell you, when I get my hands on that blasted fool in the hooded cape..." Isabella grumbled, the remaining of her threats dissolving into incoherent mumblings.
Stepping up to the columns, Fenris took a deep breath, thinking back to the image of Hawke under him while they made love. The look of pure ecstasy in her eyes as she climaxed, and the look of happiness in her eyes as they cuddled together afterwards. Then the image changed to the look on her face when he left her that night - the pain and anger he saw there. Then the night he came to her home after her mother died, when she finally accepted him and his fumbled apology. Finally, how she looked up at him that one last time before she died. She was so afraid...
Fenris gathered his anger to him at how fate had cruelly torn them apart before that had really begun. The memories of everything making his heart beat increase and the lyrium in his veins glow brightly.
"Fenris! No!" Aveline cried out too late as Fenris let out a roar and ghosted through the first barrier, then the second, then the third one beyond. Using the spaces between the blocks to his advantage and his anger to sustain him, Fenris pushed himself even further. At the fourth and final barrier, he could feel himself start to phase back. Pushing himself one last time, he breathed a ragged breath and fell to the ground as he finally made it past the last barrier.
Coughing up bits of blood, Fenris could barely hold himself up on his arms and knees. His skin burned like searing fire, and he swore he lost some of flesh behind in the previous column. However, so blinded by the pain that pierced his whole body, Fenris did not notice right away the figure that walked towards him.
"There you are Leto. I knew you would survive; you always did." The figured said coldly.
Lifting his head, Fenris could barely make out the blurry image of the woman in front of him. Trying to lift himself to his feet, Fenris stumbled forward onto his stomach at the woman's feet.
"So pathetic. I honestly expected more out you, Leto. Or should I call you Fenris now?" The woman coldly chucklednas she looked down at bloody form of Fenris at her feet.
"W-who... Who are you?" Fenris choked out between ragged breaths and heaving coughs.
"Why, don't you recognize your own mother, Leto?"
Looking up at the woman, Fenris tried to focus his vision desperately as her words sunk in.
My mother?
Grunting painfully, Fenris stood up, fighting the wave of dizziness that struck him. Slowly, as the blurriness faded, the woman came into view.
She had long silver hair that was done up in a perfect bun, sharp elven features, and emerald-green eyes. Even though aged, there was a vitality and strength behind her cold eyes. Dressed in formal robes, she looked every bit like a noble of Tevinter, right down to the enchanted staff at her back.
Growling, Fenris shook the emerging confusion and shock from him. This couldn't be his mother. He didn't even know who she was, the memory of her and his whole past erased by Denarius' magic.
"You lie..." Fenris tried to sound threatening, yet his body was still ragged from its ordeal, making his voice weak and unsteady.
The woman then cuffed Fenris hard against the side of his face, causing him to fall to his knees again. "Don't talk back to me, slave." She cursed at him, before beginning to pace back and forth.
"I thought you would be stronger than this, Leto. You were so strong before Denarius preformed his tests on you. Now look at you!" The woman stopped again in front of Fenris, looking down at him with a look of pure disgust. "You can barely even stand! How do you expect to save your precious lupa!"
Fenris felt his blood boil at the woman's reference to Hawke. Standing awkwardly, he pierced the woman who claimed to be mother with a deadly glare.
"Hawke is not a whore, woman! I know not who you are, but I will not you speak of the woman I love that way!" Growled Fenris, for the moment ignoring the screaming agony he was in to face down this stranger from his past.
Again, the woman tried to cuff Fenris, yet this time he caught her hand and squeezed it tightly. The pressure was enough to break normal bones, yet the woman just continued to stand there, her own look of hatred in her cold green eyes.
"Well, you do seem to have some animus left in you, dog. Good. Denarius will be pleased his toy isn't broken after all." The women wrenched her wrist free from Fenris' grasp and cackled menacingly. "Tell me child, did you enjoy the way your master treated you? What he made you do to please him? Did you enjoy the feeling of him inside of you?"
The woman's voice turned more sinister as she went on, her body taking on a glow of its own. Magic seemed surround her, loosening her carefully pinned silver hair so that it blew free in the torrent of magic that filled the air. Her eyes filled with an evil fire that seemed to have a life of its own. Fenris had trouble standing in the whirlwind of power that blasted him. However, he crossed his forearms in front of his head to shield himself from the winds. Holding his breath at the freezing temperatures, Fenris held his ground.
"You are not my mother, witch!" Fenris roared, his anger and disgust at his own past combined with what the woman said overflowed him, fueling him with strength and determination. Running at her, Fenris pulled free his blade from behind his back and slashed at the silver-haired witch.
The woman blocked his strike through with her staff, pushing him off with an inhumane strength. "So, the boy thinks he can challenge his betters, does he? Do you want to know that it was I that gave you over to Denarius? It was my payment for being able to share his bed and his title. By sacrificing a pathetic dog like yourself, I became a magister!" The witch laughed as she cast a cone of cold towards Fenris. Resisting the bitter cold, Fenris again leaped at her slicing back and forth with his powerful blade.
However, each strike was blocked by the witch's staff, only increasing the look of triumph in the witch's eyes as she watched Fenris struggle with each breath. Shoving him back again, she continued with her taunts as he landed in a heap on the ground.
"Give it up, dog. Your strength fails you, even now. You cannot beat me, how do you expect to save your lupa? You say she not a whore, yet you do not know of the heated nights that she spent in that abominations arms. Do you want to know how many times he made her beg for his manhood? How many times she screamed out his name?"
Another blast of cold hit Fenris, knocking him flat on his back and stealing the air from his lungs. Slowly the witch walked over to him, using her power to toss his sword across the room when she got close enough. Going down to one knee, she leaned over Fenris, taking great joy in how pained he was.
"Do you know it was him that she thought of when you made love to her? That it was his face she thought of when you sank that filthy and corrupted scrap of flesh into her? Face it, my son, your precious Hawke is every bit the whore you are."
The cold and laughing eyes bore into Fenris, her evil smile distorting her once beautiful features into something gruesome. Then suddenly all of that was replaced by a look of shock and pain. Looking down between them, the woman couldn't breath as she saw Fenris' fist in her chest, crushing her heart.
"You know nothing of me, or Hawke, witch!" Fenris spat out as he gripped her heart harder. Then, to Fenris' shock, the woman's body dissolved into a thick black mist the swirled from his grasp.
Coughing up more blood, Fenris rolled slightly onto his stomach as pain engulfed his entire being. However, before he could even regain his breath, the mist once again coalesced a few feet away into the form of the hooded monster from before.
"Very good, slave. Your power will suit me nicely." was all the form said before dissolving again, the mist scattering until none of it was left.
Fenris rolled back onto his back, trying to force his lungs to take in deep breaths despite the blinding pain he was in.
"Fenris!" The group called out him as she ran to him. Immediately, Merrill started to use healing magic on him while Isabella dug through her pack for a healing potion and injury kit.
"What in the Maker's name is going on here?" Aveline cursed as she looked down on Fenris' broken and bleeding form. The sight of how badly he looked was enough to even make a seasoned solider nauseous, as ice crystals were still embedded in his exposed flesh and open wounds covering his body. She was positive that if it weren't for his armor, Fenris might of very well be dead by now.
"Yeah, I know it tastes like shit, but deal with it big boy. Hawke'll have my head if I return you to her like this." Isabella stated as Fenris gagged slightly on the potion she fed him.
"I don't know Red. But somehow I think this creature's bargain was just another way to mess with our heads. Think about it - each of these trials have been made to test the limits of our abilities. Like we're being evaluated for something."
"Well, whatever it is, when I see that bastard again I am going to take great pleasure in chopping his head off." Aveline added angrily.
"M-me first..." Fenris sputtered, feeling the healing slowly take effect.
If anyone was going to kill this damned creature, it would be him.
AN: Okay, I know this is off-cannon in that Fenris doesn't get to know his name was Leto unless he lets his sister live after the party kills Denarius, but whatever. I am assuming that this creature can pull memories (whether they are accessible to that person or not) from his victims, which is what he did with Aveline, and then Fenris.
Translations:
Lupa: Whore
Animus: Spirit/A Person's Will