Thanks for the faves/alerts/reviews guys :-) It's good to know that there are still some good people left out there in ff land.

I own nothing despite what the voices in my head tell me.

Gabriel and his half of their motley crew catch up with the rest of their comrades a days ride from Denerim and quickly things go downhill.

Lynx is currently having her sore spine massaged when Sten angrily stomps over. "I was wrong and that is unacceptable. You are not fit to lead us to war and I must rectify that."

"What?" she mumbles, shaking off the drowsiness and sitting up to face him, "When did you suddenly decide all of this?"

"When the other Warden made it known that you chose to hide from the archdemon rather than destroy it when you had ample opportunity," he flatly responds, "Stand and defend yourself saarebas, it is time you were put in your proper place and I in mine."

"You seriously want to fight me here and now?" the Wardens tone is painted with disbelief, "This can't wait until after we've killed the archdemon and saved everyone's asses?"

The giant nods his head and draws Asala from its sheath, "I will defeat you, assume control of this army, and lead us to victory."

"Get the others out of the way Zev, I don't want anyone else getting hurt," she commands her lover, then grabs her staff and rolls to her feet, "Alright big guy, let's do this."

The qunari lunges forward, his swing low, forcing the mage into a back roll. As she gets to her feet, she fires off a burst of icy air, then leaps at him with bladed end set to strike his heart. Partially frozen, Sten can do little but bat the woman's weapon away from anything vital and hiss when the tip finds his flesh and sinks into his hip bone.

Lynx collides with his broad chest and tries using her strong legs to spring back before he can counter attack, but the limbs fail to react and she falls to the ground. She attempts another spell, but the quickly thawing qunari side steps and hesitates only a heartbeat before lashing out again.

Cursing her lower half and its refusal to cooperate, she flings a paralyzing curse, but it goes wide and she lets out a piercing cry as his blade hacks into her shoulder. Steel shredding skin and bone as the blade twists, she screams in agony a second time then retaliates with a chain lightning spell to his face. Sten howls in pain and raises his greatsword...

Then slumps forward and collapses to the dirt.

Unsure if it is a ruse to get her close enough to kill or not, the hedge mage rapidly binds the behemoth of a man in a crushing prison then waits for the spell to fizzle before confirming what she already suspects.

"Oh shit, I killed Sten," she finally announces, wearily falling back onto her rump as Zevran reaches her side and begins assessing her wounds.

Gabriel kneels in front of her, blocking the view of her now deceased former comrade, "I'm so sorry Lynx. I didn't know he was going to react like this when I told them about seeing the archdemon down there. I swear that if I'd-"

"I'm sitting here bleeding to death little brother," Lynx winces as the elf presses his hands to her shoulder in an effort to staunch the crimson river flowing down her chest and back, "Let Wynne heal me now, you can grovel later."

"How in the Maker's name did you take him down so fast?" Alistair gently demands after pushing a path through the group for Wynne to reach the elf blood, "Did you learn a new spell while we were separated?"

"No, I didn't. I really don't know how I did it, I just nailed him with a chain lightning and he fell over," she confesses, pausing to let out a keening whine when the elder mage stabs at the gaping hole in her shoulder, "I thought he was trying to deceive me in order to draw me in and caught him with a crushing prison to make sure he stayed down. I think he was already dead when I did it though."

"You made his heart give out," Jowan informs them as he checks the dead giants still form, "It seems that Sten did have a weakness besides his sword. His heart. There seems to be quite a bit of scarring on the organ. Good thing too, because you were losing that fight by miles."

"No shit," she grunts as Alistair lifts her up and carries her to her bedroll, "It's not like he did anything but kill stuff and whine about how inferior we all were anyways. I'd been looking for a reason to toss his ass since Haven."

"Time to sleep now Lynx. I promise that you can complain when you're feeling better," Wynne coos soothingly and the elf blood feels her world go dark.

When she finally returns to the waking world, her mouth tastes like its been stuffed with one of her brothers dirty socks and her shoulder is on fire. The warm lump at her back tells her where her mabari is currently...but the hand clutching her own is too big to be her Antivans.

"Alis, how long?"

"Just over a day," she is met with his gentle smile as her eyes flutter open and fight to bring her surroundings into focus, "We managed to sneak everyone through the city and into Eamon's estate here."

Lynx is wobbly as she struggles to sit and the almost Templar gingerly holds her arms to steady her, "You mean he didn't demand that you leave me outside the gates for the vultures to finish off? I'm impressed with his restraint."

"He is unaware of our arrival, as of yet," her brother confesses sheepishly, "Though he will soon enough, I think."

She stops stretching her newly healed limb and gives him an exasperated look, "What did you lunatics do this time?"

He holds his hands up in surrender, "We haven't done anything. Yet. Gabe overheard some strange rumors about the alienage this morning while shopping for supplies so he, Jowan, and Zevran went to poke around a little, that's all."

"Are these rumors suggesting something that I'm going to need my armor for?" she lifts one pale eyebrow as he ducks his head.

"Maybe."

The apostate slowly raises to her feet and-when she's confident that she is no longer in danger of falling on her face-shuffles over to where her gears-which have been meticulously cleaned- are piled on a trunk and begins pulling them on.

Alistair bolts from his seat when he realizes what she intends to do, "What are you doing Lynx? You are in no condition to be going anywhere!"

"You said that Gabriel, Zev, and Jowan went poking around, then told me that it may involve me needing my armor," the woman deadpans, "So we're going to have to go take a look at what they've been up to."

The young man behind her sighs, "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"

Lynx gives him a sideways glance and flashes her brother a mischievous smirk, "Do I ever?"

"I was afraid you were going to say that," he grumbles and sets off to retrieve his own gear.