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:

Set after 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 Anders x OC. Yes, it's one of those fics.

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Chapter 6

"Wait, what? Another hostage?" Rhys said.

"Be careful!" Anders urged. "It could be a trap. Rhys, fall behind Cortez and me."

She made to talk but Cortez cut in, "Anders, right? Maybe you should go first, you seem to be more -er- familiar in this kind of situations."

Anders wordlessly walked forward.

As they walked closer to the voice, they began to see light once again.

They cautiously entered a massive cavern, eerily lit from glistening leeches.

In the center, in the dim light of a torch, Anders made out a large mirror and a hunched man who yelled, "Please! Don't hurt me!"

"The mirror!" Rhys gasped.

Oh no, thought Anders. "That's an Eluvian, all right." He remembered Merill yapping about those. He remembered her Eluvian, too.

They went closer to the man, who kept on screaming.

"By the Maker, we will not hurt you!"

The man yelled, "He's left me—" but then one of the gun contraptions made that deafening sound and he fell down.

"What the fuck, Cortez?" yelled Rhys, and then she screamed as the gun fired again.

Anders whirled around and saw Rhys fallen to the ground, clutching her stomach in a pool of rapidly expanding blood, and above her Cortez, now pointing the gun at him.

Anders growled, his narrowing eyes a promise of pain. "Why, you blighted fool?"

But Cortez just smirked. "Oh, he tried to stop me, your little friend," he said. "Turns out I was a little too strong for him."

Maker, no. Why didn't I see this coming? "Demon," Anders breathed.

"Ding ding! Correct, as our charming lady would say. Oh, cheer up my girl," he told down the moaning girl. "It's not an immediate fatal wound. Play nice and all you're looking at is a few hours of pain."

"She didn't know," Anders said. "Why kill her?" he cast a desperate glance at Rhys, willing her to stay alive.

"Kill her? Oh, no. I just meant to incapacitate her. Amazing things, these guns. Did you know that a stomach wound can be immensely painful, but not necessarily fatal? No, I mean to persuade her to collaborate. You, however…I don't have much use for you or your little spirit friend."

He felt an urging from Justice. He needed to gain time.

"Collaborate for what? And why not possess a mage? Since when can demons possess non-mages?" Justice, whatever you do, do it fast!

Cortez, or what used to be him, chuckled.

"Oh, that? That's just a matter of preference, you know. What with mages being susceptible to us and all. It is not an exclusive club however, by no means. Why, I was just in that poor whining merchant who had never actually seen a mage in his life! But the real prize was either my dear Cortez, or pretty little Rhys here." He leered at the girl.

Anders felt bile rise to his throat. He suppressed it. "But why them? What do you have to gain? What did he have to gain from this?" He gestured at Cortez's body.

"Gain? Cortez would had no clue what got into him, if you will forgive my pun. See, our friends here don't have any natural resistance to being possessed, as opposed to the peoples of Thedas. Oh, haven't they told you yet?" the demon chuckled amiably as Anders blanched. "Oh, well. I might as well tell you how it all came to be. I'm terribly pleased with the way things came out and you'll be leaving us soon."

Anders recovered, narrowing his eyes. "A pride demon, I see," he drawled.

The creature bowed slightly. "One and the same! Although we don't call ourselves that way, you know. What with being top of the figurative food chain in the Fade. Speaking of which, what of that little spirit friend of yours? How did he end up taking space in your handsome frame?"

He had to gain more time. "I invited him in. But my story's far less interesting than yours. How did you know about these people?"

The demon in Cortez smiled a little. "Invited him in? How romantic. You know, I can just feel dear Cortez's soul screaming to be let free, myself. Ah!" he sighed melodramatically, "music to my ears. Now… let me ask you something. Think of a world where no one believes in magic, possession, or the Fade. Imagine you're one of a kind and everyone else is ignorant of your true nature. Where you could be free. I'm pretty sure you could relate to that, hmm? Has he told you, I wonder?" he said, turning to Rhys again. "About the way he murdered hundreds of innocents and started a war? I wonder if you would like him quite so much, then."

Rhys gasped, coughing blood. "What...how…."

He ignored her, turning to face Anders again. "Nicely done, by the way. If I didn't already have a chosen vessel, I would have kicked your worthless master out and possessed you myself. However…priorities." He shrugged his shoulders, chuckling.

He doesn't know yet. "How did you find out about their world?" he asked. "Where is it?"

"Hm…I think it was about ten or twelve human generations ago. I was controlling a Tevinter mage at the time, when we came upon a pristine, untouched Eluvian, connected to a second mirror whose location was unknown. I studied it as much as possible, and one fatal day, as my body laid dying by an idiotic ambush organized by some slave meatbags, we used our life's blood and finally glimpsed an echo of another world through the connected device. What magnificent cities! I could be free there to do as I please, live as I would! Free of competition, it would be a kingdom ripe for the taking. But before I had a chance to learn more, the magister was dead and I was trapped for millennia" Cortez's face twisted into something hideous before schooling his thoughts again and resumed his saccharine smile, "until your little friend Merill came knocking for help. I gave it to her…and I was free once more."

Anders gasped. "Merill? What does she have to do with all this?"

"Oh, didn't she tell you? She used blood magic, trying to cleanse the Eluvian she had. I only asked for my freedom from the little statue I had spent a human eternity in, and she gladly gave it to me."

"And what about the Eluvian she had? Why not use that?" Anders asked.

The demon scoffed. "Oh, that piece of junk? Hopeless. Not to mention my Eluvian had been well hidden in the Anderfels for ages and I had high hopes of finding it intact. I possessed that," he carelessly gestured at the dead man's body, "and off we were to find our fortune. And did we ever find it! My mirror laid untouched and to my endless delight, the other mirror was in close proximity of people too! I knew the time to act was at hand. I waited until I was strong enough once more and, as soon as I was able, I brought over as many people as I could. I was a little impatient though and the process was less than perfect, as they ended up anywhere but here. One of the three I lured may have even ended in another time altogether. Oh, well! I'm still a little rusty, it seems."

Rhys sobbed. "Andrea…" she said, before losing consciousness.

Maker, no, Anders thought, don't die on me, too.

"Andrea this, Andrea that. Oh, get over it already. Anyway, I thought they had died in the process, and so I started gathering ingredients to try again. Imagine my delight when you showed up!"

"But…I don't understand," Anders said. "Why did you need someone from the other world in the first place? Why not step over using your former host's body?"

"You think I didn't try?" Cortez's face twisted into an ugly sneer for a second before continuing to talk in a nauseating sing song voice. "I discovered, however, that in order to cross the sea between the worlds, I needed a human vessel from that other plane. And so my plan came to be. All I need now are the final ingredients to power my departure and I'll be gone from this shithole forever."

Wait, what? "Ingredients?"

"Yes. That's the inconveniencing part. I may now be able to cross the sea, but I will need…a raft, so to speak. The mirror seems to resist my efforts otherwise. No worries though; I think the Anderfels should be enough. No one will miss this place, anyway!"

The mage's blood froze. He asked, disbelieving, "you mean…people?"

"Of course, silly! What else are you humans good for? It's unfortunate you won't be around to see any of this, really. I was rather amused by the way you manipulated your friends back in dear old Kirkwall. But now it's time for us to say our farewells."

Now.

Anders felt his blood boil, as electricity crackled through his skin, making his hair stand on end and his teeth rattle. He swam in the sea of energy and was lost.

"You're kidding, right? What does your master hope to do? I'm far stronger than he will ever be!"

"You are correct," Justice said. "But unlike you, I will sacrifice myself to make things right."

"What!—"

The mage's spirit floated close to the ceiling and watched, as Rhys was laying lifeless on the cave floor.

His physical body was raised off the floor, trembling like a torn page in the wind. The demon fired the gun repeatedly, but to no avail; the bullets were derailed without causing harm.

Anders heard his own voice. "You will cause harm no more," as he saw a blinding beam of blue energy crack open through his mouth and eyes and envelop Cortez's body.

"You idiot!" The demon shrieked. "You will kill us both!"

The mage's body slumped to the floor, as the demon began to scream.

The last thing Anders heard before being dragged through a black tunnel was his own voice. "Then so be it."

OoOoOoOo

Why am I alive?

Anders took a deep breath, wincing as he felt his muscles groan. Beneath the pain, he felt a tangible sense of loss. Justice, he realized. The ever present hum in the background of his mind was... absent.

What is this?

As he slowly sat up, the dim blue light of the cave's leeches revealed two motionless figures close by and closer still, a dead man next to a dark mirror where no light reflected at all.

The Eluvian. Rhys!

His eyes snapped open and he stumbled towards the girl's unmoving body.

"Maker's mercy, no!" He pressed his ear in her mouth and seized her wrist. After what seemed an eternity, he detected her fainting pulse.

He wouldn't let her end up in yet another world if he could do something about it.

He held her head in his lap, hands shaking; he didn't notice. "You will no doubt tease me about this, but it is the only way to keep you here." He was mumbling to himself, trying to focus. "You'd probably joke about it and then cackle like a crone." He still had some energy left that would suffice for what he was about to do. "Your sense of humor is terrible, by the way…hopeless, really." He drew from his secret place of power, reaching at it with his fingers and letting it traverse upwards in his body, wondering in his face, his eyes, and finally settling at his mouth. Here goes, he thought. Slowly bringing her face close, he parted her chapped lips and brushed them with his own, giving her some of his own life force.

She tasted of iron -blood, he realized, his stomach lurching at the thought- and fruit. His fingers clenched a little around her arm.

The moment went on forever. He felt as if he was drowning once again in lake Calenhad and she was that elusive freedom that had long escaped his grasp.

Minutes seem to drag by as he slowly waited.

Finally, he felt her fingers lightly grab his robe and he opened his eyes to find her staring at him, full of wonder and something else he could not define.

"You're hurt, but you'll live," he emphatically stated, more to himself than her.

She softly drew breath and whispered in a voice so low Anders could barely hear her,

"Consider us even."