A/N: There's no way in heck I could have left you all with that ending, my wonderful readers.

Cheers!
-LCB

It was the last thing the Bard saw.

The smile of the love of her life.

Then, he turned.

And ran.

He ran straight for the great dragon, the ultimate evil, viciously stabbing his blade into the beast, ripping down its underbelly and skewering its back.

Then there was a great white light that blinded the entire world, consuming all things in its wake. It was a light she felt had lifted her up and cast her back.

Was she dead?

She couldn't tell.

Leliana reached out and grasped for something, anything that would bind her one again to the physical world in which she had lived her life…..beside the man she loved.

She felt the gritty surface of stone rub against her hand.

Her eyes opened again, facing the same sky filled with the clouds of fire and death.

Groaning, she slowly sat up, ignoring the shots of pain ringing in her head and in her limbs. She looked over to see Alistair rise, in seemingly the same condition as her.

What had been that force that knocked them back?

The force that came from…..

"Nicolae!" Leliana suddenly yelled.

She scrambled to her feet, frantically pounding her feet, sprinting to the last place her love had stood.

But that place was nothing more than a staggering pile of rubble. The dragon's body was gone as if it had disappeared into thin air.

The Warden's body was nowhere to be found as well.

"No! No!" The Bard screamed.

She dove into the pile, frantically pulling at broken stone after stone, trying to dig through the rubble.

Surely he must be underneath!

Surely….

Alistair walked up behind her, standing over the lip of the rubble-filled crevasse. He was dumbfounded, speechless from shock.

It should have worked. Morrigan had promised him it would…..

Oghren, his face, beard and armor spattered in blood from the battle, walked up and stood beside Alistair, hanging his head. No human could have survived that, even if they were a mage….and the bravest warrior a dwarf had ever known.

The diminutive warrior planted the head of his axe into the ground in front of him, respectfully removing his helmet to honor his friend.

"He died the death of a Paragon," he sadly intoned.

Leliana turned on the dwarf, her eyes wet, but fierce.

"He is not dead! Now, help me!"

She tore through more broken stones, shoving them aside until she found him.

She had to find him.

Oghren looked concernedly up at Alistair, who only nodded sadly and approached the bard.

He gently took her shoulders and began pulling her away from the rubble.

"No! Let me go! Alistair, stop!" She screamed, trying to buck him off.

Still, the man held fast, feeling hot tears of his own welling up.

"He's gone, Leliana," he croaked out. "He did his duty as a Grey Warden. He's not coming back."

"You don't know that!" Leliana yelled, almost manic with grief. "He was stronger than all of us! If anyone could live, it would be him!"

Alistair let the tears roll, but he didn't let her go. He pulled her away from the rubble.

"Not this time, Leliana…..I'm so sorry."

She looked up into her friend's eyes. She saw his grim, genuine certainty.

Her knees buckled underneath her.

Wretched sobs tore through her chest as she collapsed into his arms. Hot streams of tears poured from her eyes. Her entire body shook.

He was gone.

It was all over.

The Archdemon was dead…..at the greatest cost.

All those late nights they'd spent by the fire, telling each other stories.

All those battles, fighting side by side, knowing there would be no end as long as they had each other.

Every embrace.

Each tough.

All those loving words.

Those nights of bliss as they gave all they had to each other.

It was all over.

She had thought their love to be the most beautiful ballad in all of Thedas, a ballad she never wished to end.

Yet now, evil had triumphed in silencing the song.

"By my mother's sodding wet beard!" Oghren suddenly cried out.

Leliana swallowed hard, trying her best to stop her shaking as she opened her red eyes, looking back to Oghren.

"Look! Look!"

The dwarf was practically jumping as he pointed back to the rubble.

Alistair and Leliana both followed the dwarf's finger.

Toward the center of the rubble, a small pile of tones were shaking and tumbling down.

Out of the abyss, a filthy hand rose.

All three warriors dove back into the rubble, tearing away at the stones and casting them aside, digging down to what could only be their greatest hope.

Leliana lifted up a stone and laid a hand over her mouth, sobbing anew.

But not with tears of agony.

There was the face of the Warden.

He was still breathing.

"Nicolae!" She screamed.

Seeing his face, Alistair and Oghren double-times, digging an outline around him until his robed body became unearthed more and more.

At the sound of her voice, the Warden's eyes slowly peeled open. He looked up into the most gorgeous face he had ever seen….and coughed.

"Le….Leli." He managed.

She dove onto him in the tightest embrace she could muster, making the Warden cough and splutter even more.

"I…..I thought I had lost you," she whispered into his ear as she held him.

The Warden tentatively wrapped his arms around her with what strength he had left.

"Nawh….I'm here," he rasped.

She brke away to look upon him. He was tattered, grimy and nearly broken.

But he was alive.

"Mate, this is the happiest I've ever been seeing your face!" Alistair quipped, even in the face of nearly losing his best friend.

"I knew no overgrown lizard could kill ya," Oghren chuckled. "You're a sodding hero!"

The Warden tried laughing, which just led to more coughing.

"Am….am I?" He asked. "Then…..it's dead?"

Leliana smiled down at her Warden.

"Yes, it's dead," she said with the biggest smile on her face. "The hero has won the day."

The Warden smiled exhaustingly, his eyes never straying from the face of the woman he loved.

"And….does he….get the girl?" He softly asked.

The bard felt more tears burst from her eyes as she caressed his face.

Through all her life, she finally felt home.

"Yes," she said. "Yes he does."

A/N: And there lies the true final chapter of the story! Thank you all so much for your reviews and your support during its duration. Fear not. The Warden, Leliana, Alistair, Oghren and Zevran will soon return in a brand new story I am penning. Look for it on the horizon!

Cheers!

-LCB