[ AN: Directly after the last scene, AKA just after where the game normally cuts to Varric's epilogue. Still in the Gallows courtyard, Act 3. ]
Cullen was just starting to find his feet again as Hawke marched across the stones to him. "Thank you, Champion. I think what lives we have managed to save through this experience are due to your influence, in large pa-"
He cut off with a choking noise as Hawke snapped her staff blade up under his neck. Yes, she could have threatened him with magic, but honestly, he wasn't worth the mana.
"You've got about four sentences to give me a good reason why I shouldn't shove my staff through the back of your skull, Cullen."
Cullen's eyes were wide, but he maintained his composure. She doubted it was the first time he'd had a blade at his neck. She was hoping it wouldn't be the last either. "Hawke. What are you doing? It's over."
"Is it though?" She said, her tone acidic. "Because see, I seem to remember saying I would stand with the templars and then you saying that the plan was to arrest me all along. I don't know if you've noticed but I don't take very well to lying, backstabbing traitors."
"I supported you," Cullen said stiffly. "I superceded Meredith when you demanded we spare the mages who surrendered. I refused to let her give the order to kill you. I defended you when she attacked, Hawke. I tried to relieve her of command when she was getting out of control."
She flicked the blade up around his face, setting the point of it just underneath his nose this time. "No, if you'd tried to relieve her of command when she was getting out of control, you would have stepped in months ago and none of this would have happened! If you'd done your damn job, we wouldn't be here, and these mages wouldn't be dead! However, your pathetic incompetence is nothing new, Cullen. Let's talk about the real issue at hand. This plan to take me into custody after the battle? You and all the other templars lying to my face as I fought at your side?"
"Hawke, you're an apostate mage-"
"You don't give a damn about the fact that I'm an apostate!" Hawke yelled. "You and Meredith wanted to take me out because I'm a threat to authority as the Champion! Honestly, what the hell were you thinking? I've fought my way through everything this city has tried to throw at me and somehow you would be able to handle taking me in? The worthless excuse of a templar who can't even figure out how to tell Meredith 'no'? Don't make me laugh."
His eyes went crossed for a moment as he focused on the blade hovering under his nose. "You don't seem to be in a very humorous mood, Hawke."
"Don't get short with me, templar," she snapped.
"Why?" he asked flatly. "It isn't nearly as fun for you on the receiving end?"
She shoved the point of her staff closer, forcing him to flinch back. "I've yet to hear a good reason, Cullen. I've got plenty of blood on my hands today, I don't think yours would stain me that much more."
Cullen took a steadying breath. "Arresting you was the only plan that Meredith would agree to."
"She asked me for my help! I would have been perfectly happy staying out of this!"
"You're the Champion. You could not have stayed out of this fight."
She sneered at him. "Yeah, it didn't really work out so well for Elthina, did it?"
"Hawke," Cullen said, "the Circle needs to rebuild. They'll need a First Enchanter. Either that, or Kirkwall will need a Viscountess."
She nearly ran him through on the spot out of surprise alone. "Wait, me? That's your big plan in the aftermath of this? You put me in charge of the Circle or the city? Of all the people in the city, you think I would make a good First Enchanter?"
"Kirkwall isn't exactly graced with an abundance of mages at the moment-"
"Yes, we took care of that, didn't we? And what a glowing recommendation! I'm the only one you could find!"
"-and," he continued slowly when she'd finished her outburst, "we have far fewer who are competent leaders already respected by the city."
She cocked her head, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "You know, telling an apostate mage you're hoping to stick her in the Circle isn't exactly a good way to convince her not to kill you. Last I checked, the First Enchanter has to actually be a Circle mage. Were you planning on dumping one of your lyrium doses out into a bowl, and forcing me through a Harrowing right here?"
She jerked a thumb back behind her in the direction of the Gallows proper. "I don't think anyone's using the actual Harrowing chamber at the moment. You could shackle me to one of those torture devices you've got set up in there. 'Right this way, Champion Hawke. Don't mind the blood soaking the floor or the abominated corpse of your predecessor Orsino rotting in the middle of the room. You've killed so many demons today already, I'm sure a little one in the Fade won't give you too much trouble.' Flawless plan, Cullen! Maybe I'll appoint the possessed Circle runaway who blew up the Chantry and my Dalish First who dabbles in blood magic during her off-hours as the upper members of my hierarchy!"
Cullen actually managed to look surprised, even after everything that had happened. "Wait, Merrill is a blood mage, and you knew?" He started, apparently catching her first phrase belatedly. "Did you say Anders is possessed?"
A sudden flash of flame licking around Hawke's hands shut him up again. "Don't change the subject! I'm not joining your Circle, Cullen. I'm not joining any Circle, ever. Prestigious positions or not, I will die before I let anyone snap a Chantry collar around my throat. I don't want to be First Enchanter, I don't want to be Viscountess, and I sure as hell am through with being the Champion! The first chance I have to get out of this cesspit of a city, I am taking it. If you ever come after me or any of my companions - yes, Anders and Merrill included - I will personally finish what I've been wanting to do for this whole conversation. And Cullen? If that's the case, I won't make it quick either."
He considered what she said for a long moment. "Fine. As you've said, I'm not really in any position to force you to do anything. I take it that means you've decided not to kill me, Hawke?"
"Maybe," she said, still glaring at him. "If I ever see you again, I'll make sure to correct that. Since this is goodbye, I suppose I can't let you entirely off the hook. Consider this my parting gift to you, Knight-Captain - oh, sorry - Knight-Commander Cullen. A farewell kiss."
His mouth fell open at the unexpected words, but before he could voice his surprise, Hawke whipped her staff down, letting the blade slice a gash through his upper lip, just left of center. He jerked backward, raising a hand to his face to try to staunch the blood already beginning to flow. She used his shocked pause to give him a cruel smile, sliding her staff into the sheath at her back without cleaning his blood off the blade.
She turned on her heel, calling out to him without looking back. "Hope you can find a healing mage in the city you haven't murdered yet to take care of that for you, Cullen. Cut like that would leave a nasty scar."