This was requested by an anonymous reviewer, but whoever it was, thanks! I was desperate to do this, but struggling for a character! Or, maybe you're just called Anon. Anyway, thank you! :)
Also: this Hawke is the same Garret I've used before, Mr Male Warrior.
Not One Of Us (The Lion King II) – Anders
Anders felt Hawke's eyes burning into his back. A horrible, tense silence that seemed to ring with hurt fell over them now Hawke had finished his piece.
"Get out," said Hawke, hollowly. There was none of the fire in his words now, none of the passion or even sarcasm. It was just… dead. So much so that it took Anders a while to register the words.
"What?" he breathed. He had expected death, at the very least. He had been Hawke's friend for almost ten years, and he knew that forgiveness was not his style.
"You heard me," murmured Hawke. His voice suddenly steeled. "Go!"
Standing, and turning to face him, Anders saw his friend's face. His mouth was twisted in a grimace, his eyes wide. His shoulders were shaking. He was beyond furious, Anders knew that. But there was more. That look in his eyes. He'd betrayed him.
Anders suddenly became aware of the people surrounding him closing in. Orsino's mages. Hawke's companions. His friends. He began backing away, looking desperately from face to face.
"Deception," whispered Hawke, hoarsely.
"Disgrace," spat Orsino, his eyes hard as iron on Anders.
"Evil as plain as the sparks on his face!" growled Sebastian. Anders turned and saw his usually calm, passive expression distort in hatred.
"Deception."
"An outrage!" remarked a group of mages, glaring at him, hands white-knuckled on their staffs.
"Disgrace!"
"For shame!" they shook their heads at him, scowling.
Then the low, gravelly voice of the elf. "He asked for trouble the moment he came," muttered Fenris, darkly, to Hawke.
"Deception," repeated Hawke, still gazing at Anders.
Even Aveline was staring him, her solid green eyes clouded with disgust. "He can't change his stripes," she told Hawke, flatly.
"An outrage!"
"Disgrace!"
"You know these extremist types," the Guard Captain urged her friend, shaking her red head at the mage.
"For shame!"
"Evil as plain as the sparks on his face," came Sebastian's thick accent through the chants.
Then he saw Isabela. He thought she would understand. She'd left, hadn't she? She'd made mistakes. But she shook her head, sneering. "See ya later, agitator!" she hissed, with more venom in her voice than Anders had thought possible.
"Deception…"
"Just leave us alone!" shouted Alain, the dark skinned mage who stood, reeling, behind Orsino. He looked as if he were about to cry. Of course. He was one of the cowards who welcomed the Chantry's evil.
"Disgrace!"
"For shame!"
"Demon, go back with your own!" he yelled, again, tears spilling into his voice.
"He asked for trouble the moment he came," came Fenris' voice again, low beneath the others'.
"See ya later, agitator!"
Anders stepped back as the entire crowd began stepping toward him, weapons raised. What was worst, was how Hawke was leading them.
"Raised in grief," they chanted, "crazed by hate. Helpless to defy his fate. Let him run, let him live – but do not forget what we cannot forgive!"
Anders began running as Hawke raised his sword. Mage fire licked at his heels as he fled like a dog. Tears stung his eyes as he heard the voices of those he had called friends burning worse than any flame could.
"And he is not one of us!" they spat, their voices raised in agreement. Agreement in hatred. Hatred of Anders. "He has never been one of us! He is not part of us – not our kind!" Arrows embedded themselves in the floor at his feet as he turned, to stare at them.
"Someone once killed for us – now, we're not so blind," said the mages, and Anders' memory seemed to be flung back to Uldred and his abominations. The Tower. Kinloch Hold. He'd seen the dead and worse. He'd tended to them. Put them out of their misery, even.
I'm no better, thought Anders, numbly.
"For we knew he would do what he's done," came the voices of his pursuers, in tones that clawed at his skin. "And we know that he'll never be one of us!"
"He is not one of us," a sad voice echoed around the flaming buildings. A dark head appeared through the crowd, its darker eyes gazing in fear at him, and its hand took hold of her brother's. Bethany. Anders felt his knees shake. What had he done?
One last look at his old friends, and he was running. He didn't know where, but he had to leave. Somewhere where he wouldn't hurt anyone ever again.
But it was as if Hawke's and Orsino's words were scratched into his memory, repeating over and over again like a horse's feet.
"Deception."
I'm sorry, he thought. I'm so sorry.
"Disgrace."
I had to do something.
"Deception."
I couldn't tell you!
"Disgrace."
What would you have done?
"Deception…"
It was with these words in his mind that Anders slipped back into the Gallows hours later. He would pay for his crimes. In blood, if he had to.
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Sorry if this was just difficult to read. Hope you enjoyed, either way!
Up Next: Danarius finds Fenris' new companions far inferior to himself.