So Hawke continued to ask Fenris along on all their jobs, and he continued to join her, almost entirely silent except in the heat of battle, when she sometimes heard him swearing in Arcanum. It was still awkward, but she had to admit the day Justice went rogue, she'd been very glad to have him at her back.

She'd agreed to help Anders look for evidence of Ser Alrik's "Tranquil Solution" partly because she was sure it was pure paranoia. The idea of making all mages tranquil just to put them out of commission was frankly ridiculous. Surprisingly, it turned out to be more than just Ander's imagination; Alrik was a nasty piece of work. They caught him threatening a young mage down in the lyrium smuggler tunnels below the Gallows. Hawke had stepped in to protect the girl and, after the ensuing fight, no one was going to have to worry about Alrik and his crazy ideas anymore.

Unfortunately, Justice had taken over from Anders before the battle had even started, and he seemed unable to recognize that it was over. The bodies of the Templars lay all around them, but still he was shouting, "They will die! I will have every last Templar for these abuses!"

"The Templars are gone," Hawke pointed out. "You can stop glowing."

But Justice ignored her, purple light and strange black smoke pouring off him. She wondered how much harm it was doing to Anders' body.

The young mage they'd rescued began to panic. "Get away from me, demon!" she cried.

Justice turned on her, snarling. "I am no demon! Are you one of them, that you would call me such?"

Hawke had to do something. "You are here under my command!" she snapped at the spirit. "Not another step." Behind her, she heard Fenris unsheathe his sword.

The possessed mage half turned back to her. "Justice answers to nobody!"

Fenris quietly moved to the right. He'd try to flank Justice and protect the girl if he could. She was confident he could take Justice out, but he might kill Anders in the process. It was a last resort solution.

"This is not the way to do it," she said to the spirit, with all the authority that she could muster. She stepped closer, and glared right into the swirling purple eyes. "Save your fire for the Templars!"

Justice glowed more intensely for a moment, then began to convulse. Anders collapsed to his knees, hands over his face. His skin continued to flash for a moment, and then there was silence. Fenris kept his stance, sword at the ready.

Anders lowered his hands. "Maker, no. I almost…" he looked up to Hawke, and staggered to his feet. "If you weren't here… I – I need to get out of here." He fled.

Only once he was gone did Fenris re-sheathe his sword.

She took Fenris with her when she went to confront him, after. Knowing how they loathed each other, she hated to do it, but she wasn't sure she could manage Justice on her own.

At the clinic, they found Anders packing, intending to flee Kirkwall and go "somewhere he couldn't hurt anyone."

Hawke thought that was a terrible idea, and said so. "Don't give up just because of complications. I thought you were more dedicated than that," she snapped, deliberately pushing to goad him out of his self-pity. He was predictably offended - claimed to want to strangle her, in fact - but in the end he agreed to stay.

She and Fenris left the mage to unpack, and headed back out into Darktown. She could feel the elf's scowl boring into her back. Finally she turned.

"Stop glowering and spit it out, Fenris."

He looked at her for a moment warily before answering. "You should have let the abomination go."

"Go where? And for how long?" She shook her head impatiently. "Think it through. He's losing his grip on Justice. Do you think the spirit would really let him stay hiding in a cave somewhere? He would just start over, here in Kirkwall or somewhere else, but this time there would be no one to watch over him. If Anders is going to be a danger to himself and others, I want to know where he is and what he's doing."

Fenris looked about to say something, and then shrugged and looked away.

"What?" she snapped.

He shifted, his expression both angry and uncomfortable. "I believe your judgment in this may be compromised."

"Ah yes," she interjected. "I've been touched by magic and therefore spoiled, as you've helpfully pointed out."

Fenris made a strangled sort of noise, and picked at the red fabric on his gauntlet.

It wasn't the topic she would have chosen for their first real conversation since the night after Hadriana's death, and it didn't make her feel terribly optimistic about regaining his friendship, either. Neither of them were going to win this fight.

Time to let it go. She sighed. "You apologized for that. I know. I'm sorry. I think... we just need to agree to disagree." She turned back to the stairs. "Come on. Let's go find something to hit."