"I had hoped you wouldn't be here." Cantis admitted, taking a step back as Liam stepped towards him, keeping an equal distance. "Stupid of me, really." Dread knotted in his chest, his mouth running dry as the meaning of this meeting sank in.
"You know I had to be." He said, and Cantis nodded sadly. "Damnit, I told you to run." His voice was ragged, as if he hadn't spoken in years.
Cantis just shook his head, not daring at all to meet Liam's eyes. "You knew I wouldn't."
"I did." Liam bit his lip, eyes shining wet. "We both knew it would end this way, didn't we?"
"We did. I'm sorry, Liam, but I have to do what I think is right, to make this world the best one it can be. For Abigail."
Liam gave a pained sigh. "Right or wrong, you betrayed us, damnit. You betrayed us, our whole brotherhood. Me. We could have accomplished so much, had you just stayed with us. We could have made a new world, a better world. Torn down the shackles of the Chantry, and forced this world to put down it's weapons in the pursuit of peace."
Cantis closed his eyes a moment, doing his best not to cry at the inevitable conclusion this would come to. He drooped his shoulders and struggled to control his breathing, anything to get control of himself again. The Red Templars were as important to Liam now as he ever was, maybe more. He couldn't stop the bitter taste in his mouth, and the surge of pain welling up within him. Liam stood before him, shoulder's tense, rigid. Memories flooded his mind. Happier days, those of a day before they had to live in darkness. Wedding vows.
"You know that I hate this world as much as you do." His voice caught, ragged and broken. "You know how much I hate the corruption, the control, the governments that sit idly by while strong men suffer and die in their name." He opened his eyes again, meeting Liam's. "But we don't have the right to make the world perfect."
"We have the responsibility." He whispered, shaking his head slightly. "I guess this is it, then. Just…" His voice caught a moment before he cleared his throat painfully. "Just remember that I love you."
"I love you too."
Liam stepped forward, brandishing a blade with a trembling hand, and Cantis was much too reminded of the boy he had married, of the one he had saved from the guardsmen so many years back. The man he had lost a child with, who had been there as they dealt with their grief together. Of the man he had raised a child with.
"Come on, then."
Cantis nodded, stepping forward with both blades gleaming even as his heart cried and begged.
"Let's finish this."
It was the strangest fight either man had ever been involved in. Both of them knew the other perfectly, and neither gained any sort of advantage. Liam fought with a single sword, quick, accurate and methodical, while Cantis' twin blades crashed down one after another in a violent volley. Both knew the other's weakness' and strengths, making it nearly impossible for one to even come close to wounding the other. Ontop of that, neither man wanted to hurt the other, not really, and even when an opportunity arose, the subconscious hesitation that they suffered was enough for them to recover and keep fighting.
Liam dragged Cantis's blades down, then struck him hard across the face. Cantis's head snapped back with the force of the blow. He stumbled back, and the room spun. A flash of metal as Liam's plated boot slammed him against the jaw. The battle should have ended there, but something gave him pause, some remorse at the possibility that this was real, that he was actually considering this, and Cantis acted, driving a knife into Liam's leg and dragging the Templar down with him.
Liam crashed onto the ground, his blade clattering to the ground beside him. He reached for it, but Cantis lunged for it, knocking it out of either man's reach. Liam lashed out, brutally kicking Cantis in the head once more and drew a serrated combat knife from his belt as he scrambled to his feet, now the only one armed.
He lunged forward, Cantis barely able to scramble from it's path in time as he rolled onto his feet. Again and again Liam came forward, swinging his blade through empty air, not giving Cantis an opportunity to reach for one of the blades fallen onto the ground, lest he lost in a moment
He lunged once more, and Cantis didn't turn this time, instead knocking Liam's hand to the side and punching in the side of the face again and again, driving his unexpected advantage. Panicking, Liam drove his blade down as far as he could, barely able to see until he heard his husband's screams of pure agony.
His chest dropped when he saw what he had done.
The blade had gone right across Cantis' left eye, and blood now flowed freely from the gouged socket, a graphic and gruesome display. Cantis fell to his knees, screaming horror as he realized he was now blind in that eye. Liam froze in shock, his heart pounding as he realized what he had done to someone that he loved, and then made a half hearted lunge at the fallen Herald to finish the battle.
Then Cantis struck. He was incredible pain, it was true, but he was also still able to fight through it, like any soldier who had seen as much battle as him. He leapt to his feet and to the side of Liam's blade, grabbing his wrist and shattering the bone with a twist. Liam screamed, and his heart ached, but Cantis knew what had to happen.
He grabbed Liam's broken arm, and moved the blade upwards, slashing the side of Liam's throat.
Liam fell to the ground, his screams audible even to the Inquisition soldiers in the tunnels under the village. He stumbled backwards and ran into a wall, sliding back down as blood slid down his neck and chest. He clutched at it, and soon his hand was covered in crimson darkness.
He looked up, trying desperately to breathe even as it began harder and harder. He looked up, and saw Cantis standing over him, wounded but still very much alive, his blades in either hand now."Don't… don't think..." He rasped, and Cantis just stared at him mutely. "That I'm going to say I was wrong… that I'll see the error of my ways as I die." He took a shaky, bloody breath, finding it nearly impossible to stay awake. "It's too late for me to weep, and wonder what might have been. I'm sure you understand." Cantis took a shaking breath and nodded. "Still… I want you to know, whatever happens here and now, that I love you. And that… despite all of this, I'm proud of you." Cantis raised an eyebrow, looking at him sadly. "You're strong, noble and have great conviction. Even fighting you as an enemy, I can admire that. Maybe even more, now."
"It's okay." Cantis soothed, kneeling beside him. His heart broke, aching as he cried from the single eye still capable of such a thing, and blood streaming from the other in a mirror image. "Tell Abigail I'm sorry, okay?"
Liam shook his head. "Nothing… nothing to be s-sorry for." He laid his head back, and reached into his jacket. "Just… tell me why. Why did you do it? Side with our worst enemies? Kill your brothers?"
"To save the world."
Liam gave a last smile, shaking his head sadly as he breathed in blood and giving a chuckle filled with sadness and death.
"I hope that world is a good one." He laid his head back, and pulled his hand out of his jacket, holding something that took Cantis' breath away.
Samson's orb.
He had stolen the object and brought it with him to Haven, knowing that Cantis would kill him. Even though he didn't agree with what Cantis was doing, he still loved him, and knew that this would make his life, and time of destroying the Red Templars, easier. And so long as it was him leading the world, the Inquisition, it would be alright.
Liam Trevelyan died with a smile on his face.
When the rest of the Inquisition exited out and onto the ridge from the tunnels, they were disheartened to find that Haven still stood. But looking through Cullen's spyglass, they discovered something astonishing.
The Red Templars hadn't overrun Haven.
Cantis still held the line, completely by himself. He was hysterical, beside himself as he realized the sheer magnitude of the crime he had committed, as he realized how empty and dark his world was now, now that everything and everyone he had every loved had died. He screamed out as he dared, begged the world to take him too. Dozens of Red Templars assaulted the gates of Haven, but grief shielded him better than any armour and no blow ever landed upon him.
The clouds were torn by a whisper of doom on a wary wind, and the dark, cold moon shone down upon the crimson sin upon the snow. To those on the ridge, it seemed nearly impossible. Save for Leliana and her wife, and Cullen with the Champion of Kirkwall, none had ever seen such an impressive display of one person against such odds. The vanguard of the Red Templars came crashing down upon him with howling war cries, and rove in upon him like waves upon cliffs of sand. But in spite of their efforts, none could so much as touch him as he cut his way through to the artillery pieces.
Reaching the ballistae, Cantis stopped in his tracks.
There stood Samson.
"Evening, Herald." He spat into the snow, his voice angry and betrayed, finally able to confront the fallen student he had loved and lost. In his hands he held the same crossbow he had used to shoot Cantis in the back, having brought it out of a sense of justice.
"Cut the shit, Samson." Cantis hissed. In his eyes was no longer any sort of remorse or defeat. Now there only stood adamant steel and a desperate want for some sort of redemption. He was here to die, there was no lying to himself about that. And he was going to take everyone down with him as he did, end this horror forever and bury the damned orb under a mountain of snow.
"Fine." He shrugged nonchalantly, a hardline determination in his eyes as he gritted his teeth in anger. "What would you rather talk about, then? Economics? The weather perhaps?" He raised an eyebrow. "Or maybe how you stabbed all of us in the back, how you became a traitor and killed your brothers? Hm? What do you think about that, Herald?" He spoke Cantis' title like as an insult, a mark of his complete and utter betrayal of everything he had once stood for.
"That's some odd judgement," As he spoke, he stepped to the side, allowing Samson to circle him, and drawing closer to the ballista in turn. "Coming from the man who quite literally shot me in the back. Not to mention the same one who made me set the world on fire, who manipulated me into causing the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. When what we stood for was protecting those same innocents."
"Don't you dare compare me to you." Samson hissed, stopping in his tracks so that Cantis couldn't edge another inch towards the ballista without receiving a bolt in turn. "I might have taught you, kept you under my wing, but what you have done is completely on you."
Cantis shrugged, knowing that he was right. "I suppose it is." Whatever Samson had said or done to him, he was the architect of his own actions, to whatever end that might be, even the tragic way this had ended. "Not like it matters any more. It's over, Samson. The Breach is gone."
Samson gave a short laugh, shaking his head even while never straying the aim of his crossbow. "You think so, do you? We'll tear a new one open, again and again if we have to." Cantis gave a small, knowing smile. Not without their orb, they wouldn't. Whatever it did, it was obviously a key to this, and they wouldn't be able to claim it if this worked. "All I want is to understand." His eyes widened a little, and sadness seeped through even as he tightened his grip. "Why? You can't think that these people will thank, or even ever accept you for what you've done. They will inevitably turn their backs on you. And yet you fight, you resist. Why?"
Cantis gritted his teeth angrily. He needn't explain himself to Samson, not after everything that happened. But this felt right, like something that needed to be said. Finally, he all but screamed the thought that had driven him through hell and back.
"Because I have to! Because no one else will! Because someone, anyone, must make amends for what we've done!"
At that, he rolled form the path of the bolt, narrowly dodging death, and then brought his blade down upon the rope that held the ballista bolt in place. A moment later, it went crashing into the mountainside and snow came crashing down in a mighty avalanche down up Haven, crushing the ranks of Red Templars that still remained, destroying the blood soaked village once and for all. As it did, Samson ran as fast as his feet would carry him.
Stepping away, Cantis smiled as he saw the beauty of annihilation come crashing down upon the world around him.
Redemption.
He closed his eyes, and raised his arms, letting the wave snow take him away to see Liam and Abigail once more.