Mithra wasn't in the mood to talk when the doors opened. She sent an arrow sailing for the magister's head as soon as she saw him.
Unfortunately, the bastard fade-stepped, stopping about ten feet away from where he had been.
The ranger shrieked, "You want to play?! Let's play!"
She loosed another and watched as he fade-stepped again.
There was his range... Time to die.
She loosed another arrow and immediately readied another, watching for where he would step to. She aimed when she had his heading and released as he was about to stop.
It sunk deep into his skull, and his eyes bulged with death and surprise, blood trickling out of his nose.
Mithra roared, "Fuck you! I win, asshole!"
He went still before he hit the marble floor, surely cracking his skull further upon his landing.
Dorian looked a bit heartbroken when he saw what Alexius had done to Felix. He mused that he wanted to die for his idiocy. The Elder One's promise to save Felix was not what it had seemed to be. He was alive, certainly, but he was a soulless husk of his former self.
While Solas reminded, "This Alexius was too far gone. The Alexius in your time might still be reasoned with," Mithra marched over to the corpse.
Dorian nodded."I suppose that's true."
With the amulet in Mithra's hands, she turned to find a mildly amused party and growled at their expressions, "What?"
Cullen grinned and shook his head. "You're adorable when you're mad."
She rolled her eyes. "And deadly, don't forget that, Commander," she reminded him and tossed the amulet to Dorian. "Do your thing, Peacock."
"Gladly!" Dorian cheered.
The sickly roar of a dragon echoed through the air outside, and the castle shook as it landed.
Leliana gaped in dismay. "The Elder One."
The ranger stomped toward the door. "Good! I'll gladly put a few arrows in his face as well!"
As he intercepted her, Cullen pleaded, "NO! You must return, so this doesn't happen! If you face him, you will die, and this will be!"
"You need to get back! It's suicide to face him here!" Varric scowled.
Mithra's face screwed up into a sneer. She wanted another fight, but she knew they were right. "Fine."
The infected party members and Leliana exchanged knowing glances and nodded. It made Mithra uneasy. She hoped she didn't read what she thought she did in their eyes.
Cassandra thundered, "We will hold them for as long as we can. You must return. Once we fall...Cullen and Leliana will be your last line of defense."
Mithra's eyes went wide. They were planning to kill themselves for her. "No...I can't..I can't watch you die!" She began to pant, trying not to lose her shit completely.
Cullen boldly wrapped the ranger in an embrace and pressed his lyrium free cheek to her hair in a silent goodbye.
She tensed for a second but suppressed her instincts to return the hug. She held him tight as she pleaded, "Please...don't do this. I can't-"
"It's alright. I got to...touch you without you jumping away or screaming. I can rest in peace now." He grinned sadly and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
"I'll give you a hug the moment I get back. I promise, Da'iovro." She clenched her jaw, trying to suppress her tears.
He chuckled. "Translation?"
"Da'iovro... Little Bear." She sniffed after it rolled off her tongue.
Cullen let a small laugh escape as he released her. "I love it.. Much better than "Templar."
Solas claimed the next hug immediately. "Ir abelas, Fenor."
She rubbed her cheek into his chest. "No, I'm sorry, Fenlin. I failed the first time. I promise you: I won't again."
He pulled back and kissed her forehead with a smile on his lips. "I know you won't." His eyes glistened with unshed tears as he left her to join the seeker and dwarf in their defense of the chamber.
Varric called over his shoulder as he neared the door. "Kick his ass again for me, Starshine!"
Mithra tried to smirk, but her pain twisted it into something unrecognizable. "Gladly, Varric! I've been dying to beat that guy with a stick anyway!"
Cassandra laughed. "A stick? I hope it is a sturdy one."
The ranger forced a smile through her sorrow. "It's ironbark. Do you think it will hurt enough?"
The seeker laughed harder as she reached the door and disappeared through it.
The tension was thick. Everyone within was ready to fight. The battle was already going on outside.
Dorian had nearly worked out the spell. The amulet hovered in his magic, and it began to spark to life, shimmering the same green and black as it did in the throne room in their present.
Leliana readied her bow, having counted the death cries of those outside. She knew the enemy was about to breach the doors and that there were many of them.
Cullen steadied himself. He had regained his footing and balance earlier, he would surely be a challenge for the invaders now. He was chomping at the bit to make them bleed while reciting the Chant quietly to himself.
Mithra readied her bow as well, hoping to provide some cover fire and save herself the heartbreak of watching the two of them die in her defense. Dorian swore he would give her a signal to hold her fire when the time rift activated, so she didn't accidentally kill anyone on the other side.
The doors burst open, and a terror demon threw Solas's corpse onto the floor before it.
The ranger instantly felt sick. He had been completely mutilated, disemboweled, and was bleeding all over. His face bore three horrifyingly deep claw marks from the back of his head to his nose.
Tears filled her eyes as she took aim, howling obscenities in elvish. She fired, obliterating the one that had brought him in. She roared in a fierce rage at the mob of demons and Venatori as they entered the room, filling them with arrows as swiftly as she could.
Cullen roared and rushed forward, trying to keep them from advancing on Leliana too quickly. He bashed with his shield and sank his blade into two demons and three Venatori before he was run through by a soldier to his right. He gasped and cried out, but kept fighting. He took out the one that had stabbed him before another demon finished him off, slashing his face and throat with claws while he shield bashed another foe.
Leliana had let arrows sail at them the moment they opened the chamber door, praying as she fired. An arrow found her shoulder, stunning her momentarily, but she refused to fall. She fired with great fervor.
Once they closed in on her, she began beating them with the bow instead. One Venatori hunched over when she knocked him in the abdomen and rolled over his back to stab another in the neck. Her fight ended as she was held from behind while a terror demon viciously gutted her.
Dorian gave his signal, and Mithra lowered her bow before shouldering it. She was ready to meet Alexius again, her anger swelled into a maelstrom within her as she fondled her ironbark staff.
They were in the throne room in 9:41 Dragon once more.
Tears streamed down the ranger's cheeks as she all but murdered the magister with a piercing glare.
" Run," she growled ferociously as she pulled the staff from her back and crouched.
The magister panicked and complied, fade-stepping, then sprinting for the door with all haste.
6...5... She counted in her head, giving him a head start.
Dorian pleaded, "Please! Don't kill him again!"
3..
"Why do you think I'm giving him a head start?" Mithra rumbled.
1. The enraged woman charged after him, racing with her staff at the ready behind her. She roared in a great storm of sound the whole way through the castle entry.
The others followed as fast as they could, hoping to take Alexius into custody alive rather than deliver him to Haven in a box.
The magister shrieked in terror as he exited the castle and staggered across the bridge, fade-stepping at intervals when he remembered he could.
She all but flew after him, sprinting so fast her legs were nearly a blur.
As soon as he entered the town, Mithra screamed and flung the staff at his legs. It twirled rapidly, making an almost musical whooshing sound as it sailed at his shins. When it twirled between his ankles, Alexius fell hard on his face.
He rolled and scurried backward, trying to resume his hopeless escape.
Mithra strutted toward the downed mage while panting and picked up her staff. "Get up," she snarled.
He rose slowly as the rest finally caught up to them; Fiona and Felix among Mithra's friends and Leliana's agents.
Everyone was breathless as they watched the magister stand timidly. No one made any further moves to stop the elf woman now that she was mostly calm again.
Mithra placed the staff behind her head and across her shoulders. She calmly perched her arms upon it and looked at him with a wide smirk while pacing like a relaxed jungle cat. She looked down and laughed lightly as her hand wrapped around one end.
The magister lowered his guard, thinking she wasn't going to knock the shit out of him after all.
Mithra's face suddenly went sour with a scowl, and she swung upward as hard as she could, knocking him on the underside of his chin.
Alexius lifted a few inches off the ground, sailed backward slightly, and fell on his back with a breathless "Humph." He was out cold.
The ranger spat on him and walked away as Inquisition agents approached to arrest him.
"There, Dorian. Now you've seen me bludgeon someone," she grumbled at the handsome mage.
Dorian could only gawk.
Bull cracked up at the scene, holding his belly as he roared in delight. "Boss...you-you're a badass little thing, you know that?"
Mithra grinned proudly and took a bow for her work. "Yes, I'm well aware. I radiate awesome at every turn."
Ferelden soldiers marched into the town then, lining the street.
The ranger's brow furrowed in confusion, and she shouldered her staff in case they thought her a threat.
King Alistair approached them then, chewing the Grand Enchanter's ass for kicking his uncle out of Redcliffe.
Fiona apologized profusely, but the King heard none of it. He demanded the Mages leave Redcliffe immediately.
The Grand Enchanter looked distressed. "We have hundreds who need protection! Where will we go?"
Mithra spoke up, "We did come here to get the Mages' aid with closing the Breach."
Fiona turned to the ranger. "What are the terms of this arrangement?"
Dorian couldn't help chiming in, "Certainly better than what Alexius gave you. The Inquisition is better than that, yes?"
The ranger grinned wickedly and announced, "As a big "fuck you" to the Chantry and Templars everywhere - I offer you a full alliance. Mages will be free citizens of Thedas in exchange for help with the Breach."
Cassandra glowered. "We will discuss this...later."
All gathered back in the woods, preparing to leave the Hinterlands for Haven.
Mithra couldn't look at Solas without coming to tears. The vision of him dead and mutilated slapped her in the face every time she even glanced in his direction. She kept her eyes buried in Josmael's neck if she could help it.
Cassandra approached to talk, and the ranger's delicate composure crumbled to dust. Her face contorted in sorrow, and her eyes flooded all at once. She threw her arms around the seeker and bawled into her shoulder. Gibbering nonsense poured from her lips in a jumble of heartbroken sound.
The seeker had never been so surprised and looked to everyone for answers with a blank stare.
Only Dorian came forward to address the situation. "Don't mind her. We witnessed-"
Mithra screamed through her tears, "Don't you say it! Do not discuss what we saw in my presence!" and buried her face back into the seeker.
Cassandra put her hands around her shoulders gently. "Go get some rest. You need it after..whatever happened."
She sniffed and choked, "I'll just..meet you back in Haven. I need some time alone."
She sniffed, snorted, and whimpered as she wandered toward Danyla. She kept her eyes glued on the ground, trying desperately not to look at Varric or Solas.
She cuddled the golden hart before hopping aboard and rode off slowly with Josmael jogging along beside them. She wasn't sure where she would go, but she couldn't be around anyone right now.