Disclaimer:

Dragon Age I and II belong to Bioware.

All the copyrights associated with the world and characters of Dragon Age belong to them.

Only the ideas contained within this story are my property.

This is just for fun, not profit.

Synopsis:

Follows the events of Dragon Age II. Spared by Hawke after destroying the Chantry and hunted by everyone else, Anders flees to the only place that he ever called home... only to find himself in a situation that once again gets out of hand. Eventual AndersxOC. Yes, it's one of those fics.

OoOoOoOo

Chapter 2

Once again, Anders found someone else leading the way for him. Apart from introducing herself, she was rather silent. Hadn't even asked for his name, and he hadn't volunteered the information himself. And her name was- wait.

"How come you have a male name?"

After a moment, she turned her head to look at him. "My father never lost hope, I guess."

Ah, an opening of sorts. "Speaking of that, what were you doing by yourself in a stranger's house? And how did you come upon that -that thing you hold in your hand?"

She blinked. "I was looking for my friend. I know," she said when Anders raised his brows, "and why would I find my friend at a stranger's house? I know I sound either crazy or a liar, but I'm neither." She made to speak some more, when the strange contraption she held at her hand let out a chirping sound, startling them both.

"Look," she said, pointing towards the distance.

Anders didn't know how or why, but the girl had been right. As they reached the top of a small hill, they saw a small group of four people forcibly dragged by two men, each holding a strange weapon of sorts, occasionally jabbing it into somebody's ribs to keep them going.

He scanned the small crowd, but they were still too far away to be able to make out the faces. He wasn't sure he'd recognize her at first sight, anyway. People changed in twenty years.

Behind him, Rhys whispered, "Here they are. See anyone you recognize?" she said, offering him a strange contraption of sorts.

"Is this supposed to help me see better? How do I use it?" he asked.

"Here, I'll show you—"

"Just tell me."

"Very well. Just put them over your eyes and look through them toward the group's direction."

He did, then got the shock of his life when he saw one of the burly guards close enough to count the hair on his chin. He dropped the thing as if burned. "What in Andraste's name is this?"

"A mechanical device. Binoculars."

"Bye-know-queue-larch." Anders repeated. "But it's metal, not wood. Fascinating. How does it work? Is it enchanted?" He could already see the Circle or Dwarven merchants eat it up and overcharge it for all it was worth.

Rhys grinned. "It's rather complicated for me to explain at the moment. Let me check again." She raised the byeknowqueuelarch to her eyes. "Shit! Why are the captors holding guns?"

"They carry some sort of strange weapons," Anders said slowly. "I take it you recognize them."

"Yes," she said. "Think of them as bows, but with extremely small and fast arrows that can inflict fatal damage." She paused, a troubled expression pinching her brows. "This complicates things! We have to think of a way to disarm them without hurting the captives."

"I think I can help with that", Anders said in a low voice. "Stand back."

He used a little spell he had picked up from Merrill and grinned as the earth in the distance began to tremble. They heard screams as the whole group was entangled in the massive vines that sprouted out of the earth.

He heard Rhys mutter something inaudible.
"What was that you said?" he asked.

She blinked. "Just thanking my lucky stars you didn't use that trick on me."

Anders was almost offended. "It's a spell, not a trick!"

"Trick or spell, my pants would be still be soiled and I don't have another pair handy."

"Pants?"

"Apologies, I meant breeches. Let's go." She bounced off and started running.

Anders couldn't help smirking as he followed her down the hill. It was then he saw him.

They picked the weapons the captors had dropped and set to helping the villagers. As Rhys freed the others from their bondage, Anders went to the man, who was standing a bit apart from the rest. Ever antisocial, even when captive, he thought.

"What happened?" asked Anders, while freeing a man with a grizzly beard. He willed his face to stay expressionless.

"We were getting ready to have breakfast and go to the field when they came in and forced us to follow them", the man said. "They would not tell us where we were going or what they wanted us for."

Anders noticed he was staring at him, intently, suspicious. Try all you want, you old bastard, he thought. I bet you tried to push me out of your mind as soon as I was gone.

"Did they get everyone?"

"Mein Kwena." the man replied. His eyes were wild now, almost frantic. Good. "She had gone to the well to draw water. I heard screams from afar, but they captured me before I got the chance to go after her."

Anders couldn't help it. He closed his eyes as he spoke, lest the blue light he knew was there shined forth. "Should have taken better care of your family, herr."

The older man jumped as if struck, "Rich-?" he said, before Anders raised his hand.

Anders scoffed. "I stopped being called that a long time ago. About the time you gave me away in chains, as I recall." He opened his eyes and heard a gasp. Good.

"What else could I have done?" his father said, fear coloring his voice. "What else was there for you? You are cursed! The barn-"

"Ah, yes, the barn. I was overjoyed to see that ugly thing rebuilt, next to your pathetic little hut. As for the cursed part, the Grey Wardens wouldn't have thought so, old man," Anders smoothly replied. At least they hadn't thought so for a while, he thought and felt the spirit in him stir once more in remembrance.

"The Grey Wardens?"

"Oh, yes. Not that I expected you to care enough for me to give me to them instead of chaining me to the Fereldan Circle. Muoter would have done that, if you'd let her, but not you."

The man cast his eyes down, seemingly trying to control his emotions. Finally he spoke in a low voice. "Find her, boy. Bring her back to me. And for what it's worth, I never wished you harm."

"It's worth nothing to me," Anders said, turning away. He took a deep breath and walked back to the others. As he went to interrogate the captors, he met Rhys' questioning eyes. "None of your business," he said. She quickly looked away, her mouth a thin line.

The captors were work-for-hire simpletons, that much was obvious. Anders questioned them, nonetheless.

"It was a good deal!" one of them said, seemingly the oldest of the two.

Anders raised his brows. "Abducting people can be a good deal. So can killing them, or imprisoning them, should a reward be on their heads."

The man held up his hands in a peace-making gesture. His fingers were stubby, Anders noted. "Easy money, lad! All we had to do was move them from one location to the next."

"The weapons?"

"I barely know how these things work! We were given them along with the job. We nearly killed each other trying to figure out how the blighted things work. Ran out of darts fast, too. We used the last ones just to scare everyone. You wouldn't believe the noise-"

"Who was behind this? Who are you working for?"

"No clue. Shadowy figure in a dark alley. Doubt he was our employer, anyway. Got the impression the blighter was a servant himself. Seemed scared."

"Where were you taking them?"

"Cave in the Merdaine. Listen, boy... I have a family. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have mouths to feed."

"What about your friend here?" Anders gestured towards the other man.

"He's my, ah, cousin. Same deal as me. Were we to beg?"

"That's up to the ones you kidnapped to decide," Anders replied.

The man's eyes widened. "I'm telling you, we don't know anything else. Wait!" he pleaded as Anders started walking back to the others. "Andraste's tits! Wait! I know a little more! Let me go and I'll tell you!"

The other man chimed in, "What about me, you blighter?"

The mage kept walking.

"They'll use them for some kind of ritual!" the man all but yelled.

That made Anders stop and turn back around.

The younger man gasped. "By the Maker, his eyes!—"

"Speak," Justice said, voice deep and booming. "Or die where you stand."

"It's a – It's a ritual of some sorts! I heard the fucker talk to someone as soon as we were walking away!"
"What did he say?"

"He – he said that once they had the subjects, they would be able to begin the ex-pee-rainment!"

"The what?"

"That's what he said!" the younger man confirmed. "I heard it too. Blighter thought he was being clever, using foreign words and whatnot. That's all, I swear on Andraste's pyre!"

The mage stood silent for a bit, eyes closed, sweat beading in his brow. Finally, he opened his eyes and said, "You will be taken to Nordbotten. Let the authorities there judge your fate."

"Anything you say, herr. Anything." The older one replied in a small voice.

"Oh, and another small thing," said Anders. "I will be visiting Nordbotten myself, eventually. And if I have a less than friendly welcome, I will know who to blame."

"Our lips are sealed, herr. I will kill him myself if he says anything!" the cousin said to Anders' feet.

The mage's smile was cold. "Good. Save me half the work. Now tell me how to find that cave so you don't have to show me."

OoOoOoOo

"Poor people," Rhys said later. "Wonder if they made it to that city yet."

They were on their way to the cave. The sun was at its highest point and it was getting uncomfortably hot.

Anders didn't answer, lost in his thoughts. They had been walking for a while.

She spoke again. "The thugs seemed terrified of you, though." Didn't she feel the blighted heat?

"As they should be."

"Are you sure they told you the truth about the location of that cave?"

"They knew better than to lie. Scum like that only care how to survive and they were scared shitless, so yes."

"One of them kept talking about his pregnant wife, though."

"He was lying." He was sweating under his coat.

"How could you tell?"

"I can always tell."

The silence between them stretched and lengthened as the sun burned.

Finally, she spoke again. "It's funny, but I don't even know your name and we just saved a bunch of people together."

"Anders."

"Just Anders?"

"Just Anders. Do you always talk so much?"

"Depends," she said. "I can be almost cordial when I don't have to fish for answers like this."

"You are not fishing for answers," Anders replied, "you are fishing for attention and I am far too preoccupied with my own thoughts at the moment to give you any."

"Do you always have a stick in your ass? Or was it just because you met daddy dear back there? I heard, you know," Rhys snapped.

Maker, he was very close to losing control again. He shivered, sweat falling in his eyes, making them sting. "Stop."

"All I've done since we met is help. Why do you have to be such an ass—" she abruptly stopped and her eyes grew wide.

"Anders didn't need your help and neither do I." His eyes turned electric blue; his skin was cracking open, light shining from within. He grabbed her arm.

She opened her mouth as if to scream, but no voice came out.

"We do not care to know who you are or whence you came. You will be gone and bother us no more." He let go of her hand and she scampered away, terrified, and then ran in earnest, looking over her shoulder as she went.

Anders stood still and expressionless, watching her go, until she was a distant blur in the horizon. That's when he started screaming until his throat turned raw.

larch = a tree with tough, durable wood, hence Anders' confusion. Anders has this habit of trying to make unfamiliar words sound familiar, somehow.

Expeerainment = experiment, obviously!

Mein kwena = my wife

Muoter = Mother