Moonpriestess30: I'm afraid so, this is the week of the end. I've tried so hard to make these next few chapters interesting but unfortunately we all know what happens in the end of the game. Rewriting what we've all played over and over isn't the most thrilling.
Judy: I hope you think this week's is just as good.
A/N: I will be updating ALL week, last update on Sunday.
Chapter 200 - Betrayal
Makatza clung to Fenris, her heart was racing and he looked panicked. Aveline stood by her other side. 'This is not a good time to have a fucking panic attack! Reaction, whatever it fucking is!' Makatza breathed feeling her head swim. Meredith and Orsino were arguing and Garrett was trying to mediate the best he could. She held his arm tightly and simply concentrated on her breathing and not blowing anyone up, the one thing going through her mind was to simply destroy everything to make it stop.
'Tell me Champion, you have seen with your own eyes what they can do, heard the lies of mages that seek power,' Meredith says stepping forward to Garrett.
'We are not all the same!' Hawke says in reply. 'My cousin and I have done nothing but try to protect people and save them!' He is trying to remain in control but the heat that poured from him was a good indicator of his mental state. Isabela was torn between trying to calm him down or see to Katza who looked like she could collapse at any moment.
Orsino interrupts, 'you cannot assume that there is evil in all of us, we must fight it, not let it taint every mage you come across!'
Meredith's face falls and for a moment she looks genuinely torn. 'I know,' she says sadly. 'And it breaks my heart to do it, but we must remain vigilant,' her voice becomes harder. 'If you cannot tell me another way, do not brand me a tyrant!' The Knight Commander said angrily as she faced the First Enchanter. Orsino scowls and his words are lost as Makatza feels herself become even more nauseated.
'Are ya okay?' Merrill asked, she didn't live far. 'I can take her home?' She suggests. Makatza shakes her head.
'No, no, I'll be fine,' she says forcing herself to stand up straight. Get a hold of yourself. Whatever this is, stop fighting it and just relax. She smiles weakly at Merrill and Aveline while patting Fenris' arm as she regained control. Tuning back into the conversation she saw Meredith grab Orsino, demanding that he wouldn't drag the Grand Cleric into this debacle.
Her mana senses him before she heard him speak. 'The Grand Cleric cannot help you now,' Anders says as he walks forward.
'Anders!' Garrett says surprised.
'Where have you been? I've been trying to contact you for weeks,' Makatza says leaving Fenris' side and walking forward to her friend. He looks at her with regret and sadness in his eyes and she shakes her head. 'Oh, Anders... what have you done?' She asks.
'I will not stand by and watch all mages be treated like criminals, while those who would lead us bow to their Templar jailers,' Anders directs at Orsino who snapped in reply, Anders slams his staff to the ground in interruption. 'The Circles have failed us, Orsino! Even you should be able to see that!' He pauses for a moment as Justice embodies him and causes his skin to flush with light. 'The time has come to act, there can be no half measures.'
He turns his back on all of them and Garrett looks at Katza before asking, 'Anders... what have you done?' He asks in fear.
'There can be no turning back,' he replies. As he spoke the floor under them began to tremble and rumble a deafening pressure falling across the city. Makatza gasped as she felt the massive spike in energy before a piercing red light tore through the sky. All of them looked to the heavens as the Chantry was torn to pieces before their eyes. Fenris grabbed Makatza around the waist and shielded her as the masonry began to accumulate in the sky. Aveline raised her shield in front of Merrill and Isabela and Varric protected each other the best they could. Sebastian walked forward, bathed in red as he stared at the visage before him.
'Sebastian!' Makatza screamed at him, scared that somehow he was going to get hurt. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he could do nothing but be witness to this moment. Silence draped over the city like a blanket before the shock wave of the explosion threw the remnants of the building over Kirkwall. There was nothing but ringing in Makatza's ears as she opened her eyes, finding herself on the floor, everyone had been thrown aside with the blast. She was aware that there were people talking, screaming and shouting but all she could hear was ringing. Strong hands grabbed her arms and she was pulled upright to her feet where her legs felt weak under her.
'Katza! Katza!' She blinked and focused on Fenris who was staring at her intently. 'Are you hurt?' He asks holding her tightly.
'W-What?' She says blinking slowly and looking around.
'Are you hurt?!' He demands to know giving her a brief shake.
Makatza shook her head the best she could, she wasn't hurt but she was disoriented to hell. 'No... no,... you?' She asks still unable to hear her own voice properly. She's pretty sure that Fenris reassures her that he's unharmed but the nauseated feeling hadn't left and she was having trouble concentrating on anything.
Meredith got to her feet and looked at the streams of fire that fell around them. 'Maker... have mercy,' she says in a shocked voice as her men rally around her and take in what just happened.
Anders looks sadly at Garrett and then at the floor, 'there can be no peace.'
'Elthina! No!' Screamed Sebastian in a state of distress. Makatza ran to him as he fell to his knees and he clung to her as he sobbed. 'Maker, no! Why?! Why her?!' Makatza soothed him as he cried, 'she was your most faithful... your most beloved.' She might not be able to focus on what was going on but she knew that he needed her. He looked at the ground as he howled. 'Why didn't she listen to me?!' Makatza hushed him trying to get him to calm down, it took only a moment and something changed inside him, his cries stopped and he looked at the destruction raising a hand. 'Blessed be the souls of the faithful that they ascend to Your right hand...'
Makatza was pulled to her feet to leave Sebastian to his mourning by Garrett who shook his head lightly. Drama ensued as Orsino stormed up to Anders. 'Why? Why did you do that?! Why would you do such a thing?!'
Anders' face hardened, 'I removed the chance of compromise because there is no compromise!'
The tension escalated as Meredith's eyes glazed over and she looked over them all, 'the Grand Cleric has been slain by mages, the Chantry destroyed!' She turns to face everyone that had gathered. 'As Knight Commander of Kirkwall, I hereby invoke the right of Annulment. Every mage in the Circle is to be executed – Immediately!'
Orsino pales and looks at Garrett, 'the Circle didn't even do this! You must help us, Champion. You can't let her! Stop this madness!'
Makatza threw herself into the conversation, 'Meredith you can't do this! As Viscountess-'
'You have no power here, Lady Lorias. This is a Templar matter-,' she tries to reply.
'Like hell I don't!' Makatza snapped ignoring the sickness that she felt wash over her. 'This is my city! You are going to start a damn war! Revoke the Right of Annulment. Your culprit is right there!' She snarls as she looks over at Anders who simply bowed his head. 'Do you realise what you've started here!' Makatza says turning her attention onto the mage.
'I do,' he says sadly, his expression falling. 'I'm sorry I couldn't tell you earlier. The Circle is an injustice, in many places beyond Kirkwall, the world needs to see-' He was stopped in his sentence by Makatza slapping him harshly across the face, tears streaming down her cheeks as she panted heavily.
'You fool!' Orsino said angrily. 'You've doomed us all!'
Anders looked at Makatza, deep into her eyes and straightened. The slap mark on his cheek burned bright red and stung. 'We were already doomed. A quick death now, or a slow one later? I'd rather die fighting.'
Makatza slapped him on the other cheek, feeling the inside of his mouth split against his teeth. 'You're a murderer!' She hisses, her grief and anger at the way he used her. 'Their blood is on your hands!'
'I know-' he begins. Makatza can hear Meredith, Orsino and Garrett talking about the situation but she couldn't take her eyes off the mage. 'Will you judge me at one of your trials?' He asks looking at her, making her anger flow even harder.
Makatza screams and throws herself at him, clawing at his face and snarling as her tears fall. 'I trusted you!' She weeps. 'You were one of my best friends! How could you! I was changing this city! You used me!' She felt herself be grabbed around the waist and lifted up from him, his skin was scratched and bleeding. The others were distracted by the attacking Templars and she thrashed, aching to get back at him. 'Anders! You used me!' She shouted kicking her legs out from Isabela who she realised had been the one to grab her. Anders gets to his feet and stumbles over to a box where he sits heavily.
The fight around them had been concluded and Garrett made plans to meet with Orsino later. Fenris and Aveline looked like they had both taken a hit from the Templars. He walks over to where Isabela held onto Makatza for dear life. He places a hand on his cousin's shoulder and she looks at him with red rimmed eyes. 'I know,' he says quietly. Makatza felt the anger wash out of her and replace with sadness and despair. Isabela put her down now that she had stopped fighting and they all looked at the desolate mage, who's head was bowed in his hands.
'There's nothing you can say that I haven't already said to myself, I took a spirit into my soul and changed myself forever to achieve this. This is the justice that all mages have awaited,' he says simply. Makatza glared at him as he justifies his reasoning behind this tragedy. Garrett can't bring himself to believe what Anders is saying, he simply shakes his head in disbelief. 'What ever you do, just do it,' Anders says standing up to face the Champion. 'I am ready.'
Garrett looks at him in physical pain. 'I... you were my friend,' he says painfully. It was a blow he didn't wish to do. He had watched so many of his loved ones die. Garrett was shoved aside as Makatza stormed past. She didn't want to hear any more of his voice. Her eyes glowed brightly, a tinge of yellow around her usual colours. She grabbed Anders by the throat and in her anger and fury, lifted him clean off her feet.
'Katz-'
'No. No more words from you. No more justification. No more. I trusted you. I loved you, and this is what you do to me? To all of us? Selfish. You selfish bastard,' she snarls keeping everyone else back from her with her mana. 'I have refrained from taking life out of cold blood. I didn't even kill the monster that tortured me... but you... I will kill you.'
'Katza!' Garrett says before being thrown aside with a wave of her hand.
'I didn't mean to hurt you,' Anders says weakly, his blood supply and oxygen being slowly cut off.
Makatza allowed her fingernails to grow as she pulls him closer, whispering into his ear. 'You will not be a martyr. You will wander the fade with no rest in sight, tortured by those souls you sent to the Maker. You will feel the pain and be haunted by it for every moment. I swear it,' she snarls. Makatza can sense the fear that flowed through him. She began to siphon his mana until there was nothing left in his being, a strange calmness had washed over him. 'You will die as just a man,' Makatza states, 'what you always wished to be. While I tear out your heart and show you what a true animal looks like,' she growls as she plunges her hand into his chest, spreading his ribs apart as she takes a hold of his heart. The muscle beats in her grip, she pulls feeling the tear and the snap of it's arteries and veins. Blood lazily dripped down her wrist, warm and sticky as she dropped him to his feet. His breathing stuttered and faltered as he looked at her, pain across his features. 'I sentence you to death,' she says quietly, tears falling from her eyes as she barely whispers the words.
Anders coughs, blood bursting from his lips as his eyes roll back in his head, he falls backwards hitting the ground heavily, causing dust to billow around him. Makatza turns around to see everyone in a shocked silence. She looks at the heart in her hand that still twitched and slowly it began to burn, smouldering in her fingers until it was nothing but ash. 'Katza..' Isabela says softly.
Makatza ignores her and looks at Sebastian, 'we're done here,' she says simply as she waves her hand causing the ash to catch on the wind and flurry around them. Garrett simply stared at her and then was shaken into life by Aveline who encouraged him to move. They group continued onwards, the fighting wasn't finished yet. They still had to get to the Gallows. Fenris stands looking at Makatza who hadn't moved. He tilts his head as he caught her eyes. 'He wanted to die,' Makatza says simply.
'Yes,' Fenris replied.
'It was painless,' she adds.
'A mercy he did not deserve.'
Makatza laughs in a scoff, 'tonight we leave this place,' she says simply. With a heavy sigh she walks over to her lover. 'I have had enough of this city.'
