A/N: Thanks for the fav's and follows! I meant to write this chapter sooner, but I had some things in my life get in the way of that.
Evelyn was unsure how much time had passed since the explosion, the only thing she was certain of was the Trevelyan's had almost died and she had no bloody memory of it. She vaguely recalled slipping in and out of consciousness, the first glimpse was of Hawke gingerly putting her down on a cot. Mages and healers rushed about her weak form as she struggled to hold onto her life.
"H-Hawke?" She croaked out as she slowly came back to the world. She felt a strange pull in her right hand, a stinging ache that would not go away.
"Sweet Maker's bosom, she made it!" He rushed to her side despite the healer and an elven man still tending to her.
"What's going on?" She weakly raised herself up on her elbows. "Where's my brother?" She looked around the room and he was nowhere in sight.
"It's alright, your brother is resting next door. You're the first to wake." The bald elf spoke first. "It's been three days." Evelyn paled at the thought, her reaction grew worse when she peered out the window and saw green illuminating the sky.
Before Hawke could fill in, Cassandra stormed through the door, her face a storm of fury. "We have been waiting for you to wake up, your brother too. You both have many things to answer for!" She stalked forward, ready to grab Evelyn in her conviction, but Hawke stood in her way.
"They had nothing to do with this!" Hawke jumped to protector, and for that Evelyn was thankful.
Evelyn wanted to wrap her head around what had happened at the Conclave, but then the ache in her hand transformed. "What in the Maker is this?" She nearly jumped at the sight of her own hand, now glowing green.
"Like you don't know…" Cassandra huffed before turning on her heel and leaving.
"I have to see my brother, I need to make sure he's going to be okay." Evelyn was already rising, regardless of permission from her caretakers.
"If you insist, but it's really not a good idea…" Hawke almost nervously glanced out the window, as if waiting for an angry mob to bust in through the door.
"I don't care if there's a rampaging horde of darkspawn out there, I will see my brother." She sent him a glare, unrelenting she grasped Hawke's offered hand, they slowly made their way out of the cabin.
"Maxwell!" Evelyn rushed to his side. She felt helpless as she watched him twitch in his sleep. She knew Max was having a nightmare, he always twitched when he had them. Evelyn was always there for him to break him of it, but this time she couldn't help rouse him.
"Hawke, why won't he wake up?" Evelyn felt tears in her eyes for fear of what might happen. She was helpless.
"They say he's in a coma, you were too. The elven mage, Solas has stabilized him, it's just up to your brother now." Hawke kneeled down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder in consolation.
Evelyn's guard was completely down now, she couldn't help as a tear ran down her cheek.
"This wasn't supposed to happen! I've always taken care of him, never let anything bad happen." She wiped the stray tear away and kissed her brother's forehead, not caring of the sweat on his brow. "He just wanted so badly to make Father proud, I should have never let him come with me." Evelyn sighed as she watched Max fight his fever.
"Evelyn...we don't know what happened up there, but I know none of this was your fault. It's impossible to think that even a mage could tear open the Veil, but you two? Something foul is at play here." His words held some comfort for her at least.
Evelyn stayed by her brother's side the next few hours, she would only take her eyes off of him long enough to peer up at the giant hole in the sky. That was a whole other level of anxiety she didn't wish to touch that was inevitable. And then he finally stirred.
"Ugh…"
"Max!" Evelyn immediately perked up when she heard him groan. Hawke was already out of the cabin to fetch the healer.
"What-what's going on?" You'd think the pair would have time to hug and catch up, but it was like Cassandra's senses had somehow picked up on the fact that both twins were awake finally. Four soldiers with grim looks on their faces were walking through the door.
"Hey! Where are you taking them?!" Hawke could be seen in the doorway as the soldiers were already moving to take the twins in their custody.
"Be careful with him, he's not well!" Evelyn didn't care how they treated her; she had several hours (albeit uncomfortable ones, the mark on her hand slowly becoming more of a pain) being awake, whereas Max had literally just come out of a coma.
"Evelyn, I'm not a child." Max looked solemnly over at Hawke, the two men exchanged a look as the twins were led out to the Chantry.
The Trevelyan's were marched to the dungeon, shackles were already being placed on their wrists. Evelyn felt shame passing by the locals, even though she knew in her heart they were innocent. Their looks cut daggers into her chest, nothing had been harder than that feeling.
Evelyn had no idea what was in store for them; but she couldn't help but feel that that longing for adventure she had all her life had finally gotten her in over her head more than she could manage.
X
Maxwell didn't feel the same regret he knew his sister was probably feeling for the sudden downturn of events they currently faced. While they were being grilled for information by Seeker Pentaghast and Lady Leliana, he felt determination to set things right. He had no idea who killed the Divine, but his sense of duty demanded he find out. But first they had to stop the world from ending.
He exchanged a glance with his sister when they held their glowing hands in front of them. Maxwell's left hand and Evelyn's right both glowed in green with equal power he could sense, and in that look they shared, Evelyn knew what had to be done. Regardless if she wanted to go along with it, they were headed back up that mountain to fix the sky.
Cassandra's words faded into the background as they left Haven's grounds and began their way up the trail with Hawke in tow.
"Maker, it's the end of the world!" Panicking soldiers ran the opposite direction as the group headed towards the chaos. A trickle of lingering insecurity made Max envious to feel that same fear he saw in their eyes, but he couldn't let it in. He had Evelyn to protect once learning the mark on their hand was slowly killing them.
The twins stumbled forward to the ground as the mark flared out of their control; Max felt immeasurable cramping pain that wracked his body; he could do nothing but clutch at his hand hoping the flare up would stop. Evelyn fared no better.
"Maker, shit that hurts!" Ev cried out as Hawke rushed to her side, supporting her weight.
"The pulses are coming faster now." Cassandra helped Max up as the pain finally began to subside for the moment. "The larger the Breach grows, the more rifts appear, the more demons we face." Although Cassandra was still suspicious of the two, her tone and behavior towards the them had softened her anger enough.
"Speaking of which, how did we survive?" Lyn was the first to speak up when she gathered her bearings.
"We saw you step out of the Fade, then fall unconscious. I don't know how that was even possible…" Hawke spoke softly, easily bothered by the idea someone had physically been in the Fade.
"Champion, some of the soldiers said they saw a woman in the rift behind them. No one knows who she was."
"They must have been drinking something harder than I was that night, because I didn't see anything." Hawke shrugged and discounted the thought of it. Maxwell suspected that despite his constant Maker-related quips, he was not a very religious man. But Max thought differently; anyone that could have been there to help them in the Fade must have been not of this world.
When it was evident the twins were fine again, the group began travelling back up the hill again. They eventually found their way to their first rift encounter, where the mage Solas, Varric Tethras, and two soldiers struggled to keep demons at bay.
The group sprung to action, Max led the forefront with his longsword swinging at the nearest wraith the mage fought with. Evelyn had her bow drawn from a distance, quickly firing shot after shot at a rage demon while Hawke watched her back.
"Quickly, before more come through!" The battle went by so fast that when the next moment Max found Solas shoving his arm up towards the rift, he barely had time to register what was going on. He felt one with it, like he was the Fade. Coming from someone who had no magical ability, it felt like some sort of miracle to be able to experience something like it.
"What did you do?" Max asked in wonderment after the mark had closed the rift. It was the most peculiar feeling he had ever felt, he couldn't quite explain what kind of sensation the connection was other than odd.
"I did nothing. The credit is yours." The elf calmly said, like it was no big deal. Ev and Max exchanged a look like he was crazy, like their own situation was so ridiculous and this man was just so calm about it.
"I'm assuming I can do that too. How?" His sister asked for them when Max could find no words for what his hand had done.
"Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark on your hands. While I was tending to you, I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts opened in the Breach's wake-and it seems I was correct." The twins looked at the shimmering green in their hands that did not want to go away on its own.
"Meaning it could also close the Breach itself." Cassandra spoke hopefully, knowing in her heart the Trevelyan's were their only hope now.
"Possibly. It seems you hold the key to our salvation."
"Good to know! Here we thought we would be ass-deep in demons forever." Varric chimed in with a quip next to his best friend.
"Oh, Varric. Didn't you miss this?" Hawke regarded the dwarf who was fiddling absentmindedly with his gloves.
"If Bianca's excited, it's just like old times, my friend…" When their moment of reprieve was up, the newly established group of six made their next destination to the forward camp where they would go from there.
Meeting the Grand Chancellor did not go as smoothly as Max would have liked. When threatened with execution, it was not Cassandra that spoke first in protest, but Evelyn.
"We haven't done anything!" Evelyn practically surged forward past Max in anger for the accusations. She had been mostly quiet and relatively calm the trip up the Frostbacks, until someone from the Chantry threatened their lives.
"Lady Trevelyan, allow me. You are a glorified clerk. A bureaucrat!" Cassandra was much better at containing her disgust at his apparent entitlement, but from what Max saw of her defiant spirit, he liked it. It was attractive.
"And you are a thug. But a thug who supposedly serves the Chantry!" As the chancellor debated with Leliana and Cassandra the best course of action, Maxwell stepped to the side with Evelyn to speak candidly for the first time.
"This is ridiculous." Evelyn looked over her shoulder and gave a tired sigh. "We're wasting time!"
"Just be patient, we can trust Cassandra." Before she could reply, the sky's wound rumbled and their marks were flaring, like calling back in answer.
"How do you two think we should proceed?" Cassandra turned back to them, relieving Max that they were finally done bickering. He wanted to take the most direct path, and he knew Evelyn would agree. Whatever was the quickest way, that's what was most important.
"Ev?" Max looked at her, unsure if he should take the lead. She said nothing in reply, this was his moment.
"I say we charge with the soldiers. We probably won't survive long enough for a trial, so we're doing this our way." Maxwell Trevelyan grasped his sister's hand in good luck, hoping this wasn't their last day together alive.
A/N: So now that the first five introductory chapters are done, I'm going to be moving forward a bit with the story. Like I said before, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on unnecessary parts of the game. We all know what happens! The only difference I have is the canon divergence with Hawke being with the Inquisition from the start. Hope you like what I'm writing! -Eruslastiel