AN: Apologizes for the slow update. Just wanted to shout out a warning, since Awakening is out tomorrow here in Sweden means that I will probably be glued to my gaming computer for a while. But I will not forget the story it just means I will get a little bit slower updating :) Enjoy!

Diana and Alistair went to the estate in the afternoon. They didn't have to look long for the Wardens as they were training in the courtyard. Diana actually gasped in amazement. They might be bit peculiar, but Maker, they can fight. They looked perfectly co-ordinated. The both men, Gareth and Joris worked with each other, trying to confuse their leader. Which they succeeded pretty well at. Alistair poked at her, "Diana, seriously, get your hormones under control, will you?" He annoyingly pointed out to her. "Yes, I'm sorry." She mumbled, while her cheeks were flaming red.

They all stopped when they noticed their presence. David wiped the sweat away from his face while approaching the embarrassed Warden and her king.

"My king," he bowed, the tension had not put to rest Diana noticed, as he sounded like a viper.

He ignored her presence, and only stared in Alistair's eyes.

"What bring you here?" the poisonous tone remained.

"I had no wish coming here, it was all her idea." He pointed at Diana.

Oh, geez, Way to take a stand, Alistair!

"Oh really?" His eyes narrowed on Diana.

"I thought your stance towards us was pretty clear when you ran out from your superiors." He had the ability to make Diana shrink and feel very petite.

"I apologize."
He snarled at her, "I expected more from you, based on what I had heard about your bravery. You would have to come face-to-face with us sooner then later."
"I preferred if I actually came willingly." Her tone was chilly, and she stared boldly in the Commander's eyes.

"It would have not been pretty if you would have forced us." He responded.

"Let's get this over with."
"Gareth, collect the mages and meet up with us in the throne room. The Warden should be close to her temporarily home just in case." He said. Gareth left and Joris accompanied him.

"After you." David added.

They arrived to the palace and went in the throne room. Diana pressured down her nervosity. It kept increasing but she tried to remain calm. She clutched her belly and thought;
Don't worry, you won't get hurt.

huh, that's the first time she had spoken with her child.

Gareth and Joris arrived momentarily with the company of the four mages they brought with them from Orlais. The mages were all hooded and male, they freaked her out even more then necessary, and of course she regretted what she got herself in to. This time she would not run away like a frightened child though. This would happen sooner or later, and she preferred if it happen sooner.

Alistair grabbed her shoulders from behind and held her against his chest;

"At least after this they don't have to worry. The Commander has other business here as well but will not say what it is until he knows we, mostly implying you, then can be trusted. You should heard him go when he yelled I was a fool to trust you."

Alistair chuckled, and she felt a bit more calm.
"Whatever that will happen Alistair," she said eyeing the mages as they poured their potions into different bowls. "Don't interfere and make it worse. Promise?" He remained silent, and clutched her shoulders more tight.

"Promise?" She said more forceful.
"Yes, fine. But if you turn into a fiendish ghoul I will say 'I told you so', just so you know."

She forced a smile on her cheeks.

"Thank you." She said, while grabbing his right hand on her shoulder.

"It will be over before you know." He breathed in her ear.

The mages were done with the preparations and the Commander looked at both of them.

"My king, step away from the Warden. Do not under any circumstances interfere the ritual, if you will it can end both your lives." Alistair gave Diana a quick kiss on her cheek and stepped away, standing next to Gareth and Joris.

"I'm sorry, Warden, but your clothes need to be removed."
Diana shot up her eyes. She did not hear wrong. They can't be serious.

"What? What kind of sick-"
"Do not question me, girl!" He interrupted sternly.

"Why does she need to remove her clothing?" Alistair asked calmly, but she could notice the anger within.

"Because it's a process of the ritual." he ended the discussion.

"Do not worry, we are gentlemen," Came Joris voice, but his grin was wide, so he was not serious obviously.

Diana sighed, and looked at Alistair. He just shook his head.

"You don't need to do that, Diana."
"She does, its a pro-"
"TO HELL WITH THAT!"
Diana had only heard Alistair scream on a few occasions. Everytime he did, she shivered through her entire spine uncomfortably.

"Alistair, if it is par-" he interrupted her as well.

"THAT'S JUST SICK! DON'T LET THEM DO IT." He took another breath before he continued, "In a matter of fact I forbid it." Alistair guards closed in to their king, and looked threateningly at the Orlesians.

"Don't make it worse what it already is. It's just a body."
"It's yours." He said, piercing her eyes.

"I don't want to do it either, but it will affect the ritual I will comply. Its sick and twisted but I really want this over with."
The black raven that had been close to the palace since the siege, flew and sang through out the throne room. They all stared at it for a while. David looked at Diana, "At least you understand."
"Don't talk to her!" Alistair snapped at him.
"Does everyone really need to be here?" She asked noticing there was only around twenty men standing in there.

"No." The Commander said. "My men will remain...in case."

that was not comforting at all.
Alistair nodded his heads towards his guards, and they left the room.

Now there were only the three Wardens, four mages, and the king left. Diana felt really uncomfortable as she removed her clothing. She was only standing there in her small clothes, feeling their eyes looking up and down on her body. Her hands crossed over her chest, and she got reminded of Fort Drakon. She shuddered. It was enough at least, she didn't need to remove her underwear.

The mages approached her with their bowls filled with magical potions and herbs. They painted markings over her body. When they were done with her, they painted a circle around her feet.
"So how will this work?" She asked, feeling extremely nervous.

"You will know soon enough." Were the mages response.

Oh, she didn't like the sound of that.

They formed a circle around her, and started to chant in a language Diana did not understand. Well for the moment it feels ok. They put a magical barrier around her. The mages kept chanting and she started to sense something building up in her stomach. Something she couldn't explain until it felt like it twisted her insides out. It was one of the worst pains imaginable. She saw wounds ripping up on her body, same wounds from the rape and all the others she got under her journey. More pain, and she screamed her lungs out. It was not just from the wounds that they shred up on the outside, she felt pain on the inside, pain from Fort Drakon. It was like they were searching through her body for any kind of psychical memories. She heard Alistair screaming to someone but it faded away, drowned by her own screams, as they went through her mind, memories for the demon. She tried to shut if off but it was impossible, as the memories felt real like when it had happened. "You little bitch!" Vaughan's voice went through her broken mind, "Oh you are so tight, slut. I love fucking you. My boys will have a go at you when I'm done." His laughter echoed through her mind. The memory she fought so hard to conceal. More flashes sprinted through her brain.

She saw her parents, happy and smiling at her, just to get them ripped away from her.

"One has to to make the final Sacrifice in order to stop the blight.". Leliana's head getting torn of and Wynne lying stone dead on the ground. No, please stop it was all she could think of as she saw Zevran in her mind, all her feelings just fresh. Her wounds were open, and blood was dripping all over the ground, not to mention all the emotional feelings going through her heart. She wanted to run, to escape, to kill the mages, but she was unable to move. She screamed, as she felt herself collapsing, all the barriers she put up in order to appear the leader, not affording to be weak. The screams turned to stuffed crying. Then she saw something else, something she didn't remember. It was dark, and deep underground. She felt rage and hate, not being able to take it, she tried to think of something else. And suddenly she collapsed on the stone hard floor. She could barely breathe and felt herself doze of in slumber.

*^*

Zevran had been walking in the city, observing as the new Market District was up and running, and actually flowing of business. Being bored after while not founding anything of interest, he went back to the palace. There was a lot of turmoil going on. Servants running with blood drenched towels, back and forth to the throne room. Zevran paced quickly over there and saw big pool of blood on the ground that the servants were cleaning. He grabbed a servant girl, passing him.

"What has happened here?" He asked.

"The warden was hurt. We don't know what happened exactly sir. We just do as we are told."
"Who?" His heart was racing. It was no small amounts of blood lying on the ground.

"The girl, Diana." he let go and rushed up to Diana's room without thinking. He burst the door open, and saw that no one was there. His fear was raising, as was his heart. He ran up the stairs and went to the king's bedroom. He opened that door and saw her unconsciously on the bed, surrounded by people. He saw Alistair in the corner of the room looking grim, there were three men standing around him, he had never seen them before, but he could already guess who they were from their armor. The wardens from Orlais. As he tried approaching Diana, he heard Alistair's tired tone;
"Hello Zevran. We are not allowed to go near her."
Zevran saw her lying there with wounds all over her body, he recognized some of them and couldn't understand how she got so badly wounded.

"What happened?" restraining himself to not rush over to her. His heart hurt to see her like that.

"She...a ritual." Alistair's voice faded.

"What happened?" He asked with a dangerously low voice, facing Alistair.

"She did what he had to do! As what is expected from a Grey Warden!" The man in the middle spoke. He had dark hair and was pretty tall.

"And who are you?" Zevran asked unpolitely.

"I am Commander over the Wardens of Orlais."
So he was right.

"What did you do to her?" He hissed.
"I don't have to speak to you about such matters."
Zevran raged with anger, knowing that it was these men that caused her harm, and in less then a second, he had the Commander pinned against the wall, with his hand tightly at his throat. Obviously he reacted and punched Zevran in the face, making him stagger.

"Stop that immediately!" One of the mages shout.

"Everyone, except the king will leave. We will have no fighting in here."

"We will expect word of her recovery as soon as possible. We have Grey Warden business to tend to. At least we know she is no longer a threat." He said bowing, to Alistair as he and the other Wardens left.

"You, elf! Get out of here to!" Another mage shouted.

Zevran didn't want to leave, not when she was like that.
"I will play nice so no, I won't leave her." He said firmly.

"If you do anything to cause probl-"
"I will leave." Zevran finished. He walked and stood next to the king and asked;

"How's the child?" He asked.

"The mages says she's fine."
Zevran reacted as he saw Alistair faint smile.

"Yes, we are going to have a daughter."
Zevran forced himself to smile, but felt crestfallen on the inside.
"Congratulations."
The mages returned to their healing ignoring his and Alistair's presence .
"So what ritual was this?" He asked trying to sound neutral as his last conversation with the templar was quite livid.

"They performed a ritual to see if she had anything left from the archdemon in her. I told them that they could screw themselves but of course, they would have done it sooner then later and also said it would be much more unpleasant then it was now."

"They performed a ritual and this happen?" He hissed, pointing at her her bruised body.

Alistair's cheeks went slightly pink as he continued;
"Well, I don't know what they exactly did since it wall went so fast. I think they made her relive her memories as did her body."
"Relive? But that mean-"
"Yes, everything she has been through this year, especially the memories she been trying to suppress is..." his voice faded. They were both thinking the same thing.

Zevran bit his lip, he was angry. That she would relieve her worst nightmares once more thanks to wardens that didn't dare to trust her. Who can't trust Diana? She's the most...

Her screaming interrupted his thoughts. They both looked, seeing her squirm and twitch under the mages. He and Alistair instinctively ran to her side, holding her arms and shoulder, trying to keep her in place.

"NO! GET OFF ME! Please!" She cried.

"Vaughan, please don't to do this...NO!" She screamed. The mages poured a sleeping potion down her throat, and she fell silent back in the bed.

"At least she didn't rip up her wounds." the mage to Zevran's right muttered.

Both he and Alistair stood paralyzed. They knew what had happened that day, but hearing her scream out of fear and shame like this, it was just awful. Zevran felt his heart fill with rage, and he stepped out the room, punching the wall with his bare hand. He saw blood dripping from his knuckles, and then the pain kicked in. He groaned under his breath, and thanked for the effect it had. If the rage remained he would had gone to those Wardens and slit their throats up just for making her this miserable.