Chapter Forty-Three: Polarized

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age 2.

It was as beautiful as it was horrifying, terrifying. When it was over, no one quite knew what to say and Anders deflated as if he were a puppet whose strings had been cut. He wouldn't look at Emma who couldn't look away from him.

Carver was the one who finally broke the silence. "Goddamn it, Anders! The whole Chantry?"

"There can be no peace," Anders said tiredly.

"Well now there can't be!" Carver exclaimed, throwing up his hands in frustration. "I don't know if it would have been possible before but you just completely burned that bridge! Now thousands of people are going to die and it is all your fault."

"I wasn't the one who brought us here, Carver, but if you must have your scapegoat…" Anders trailed off.

"Things were really bad before, yes, but the death toll was hardly in the thousands!" Carver cried out.

Sebastian dramatically fell to his knees. "Elthina! No! Maker, no! She was Your most faithful, Your most beloved...Why didn't she listen to me?"

"It's a bit tacky to make all of this about yourself," Isabela advised.

"And your anguished voice is extremely annoying," Merrill added helpfully.

"Why?" Orsino asked helplessly, turning to Anders. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"He is an abomination and that has clearly driven him insane," Fenris opined.

"I removed the chance of compromise because there is no compromise," Anders said, sounding choked up.

"That doesn't make any sense," Carver complained. "If there is no compromise then what was there to remove?"

Meredith looked torn between outrage and a little bit of glee. "The grand cleric has been slain by magic. The Chantry destroyed. Clearly, this is not just the work of one misguided fool but a condemnation on all mages everywhere. I see no choice now but to kill every mage in Kirkwall."

"Were you looking for another choice?" Varric muttered.

"As Knight-Commander of Kirkwall, I hereby invoke the Rite of Annulment!" Meredith announced. "Every law-abiding Circle mage will be killed while apostates like the one who just blew up the Chantry should probably stay away from the Gallows."

Orsino's face lost any color it might have once possessed. "N-no, wait! You can search our rooms, I don't care. Just don't kill us all!"

"You had your chance," Meredith said sanctimoniously. "Now if you would kindly go back to the Gallows and await your execution in a timely manner." She turned to Emma. "Champion, I trust that you will take care of this and then meet me at the Gallows so that we may destroy every mage in Kirkwall."

It was a testament to how lost Emma was that she didn't take the opportunity to remind Meredith once again that she wasn't actually on her side.

"Templars, let's go," she ordered, looking at Emma's group.

They exchanged glances.

"We're staying," Aveline said finally.

Meredith frowned. "You'll each receive a demerit for this!"

"We can live with it," Varric said dryly.

"I have to go," Carver told them.

"But…your sister," Merrill protested.

Carver looked pained. "I know. But Meredith has clearly lost it and I have to try and mitigate the damage where I can, maybe talk her out of murdering children or something. Aveline…"

Aveline looked up at him. "Yes, Carver?"

"You know what you have to do," Carver said slowly, reluctantly.

Aveline nodded. "I do. And I will. Don't worry."

Carver cast one last look at his sister. "Emma…"

She didn't respond.

Carver sighed and turned to follow Meredith to rally the templars.

Emma finally found her voice. "Was that why you needed me to distract the grand cleric?"

"You…were part of this?" Sebastian demanded, his voice full of accusation and condemnation.

"Choir Boy, if you make things worse I will not hesitate to shoot you," Varric warned. "In fact, I'm getting awfully close to doing that now."

"If you knew what I was doing, you would have felt honor-bound to stop me. I couldn't take that chance," Anders said flatly.

"You don't know that," Emma said quietly.

"I couldn't risk that, either," Anders admitted.

"You never should have made her a part of this, Anders," Varric said darkly.

Anders looked pained. "I know. I hated myself for doing it but I needed someone to distract her and Emma was the only one I knew who could walk into a Chantry and speak to the grand cleric who would go along with it just because I asked."

"You fool!" Orsino shouted, his face twisted with rage. "You've doomed us all!"

"We were already doomed," Anders shot back. "A quick death now or a slow one later…I'd rather die fighting."

"Good for you," Orsino spat. "But you didn't have the right to make those choices for the rest of us."

"Perhaps I didn't," Anders acknowledged. "But it's done now."

"I'm going back to the Gallows to try and warn people about what's happening," Orsino said, almost in a daze. "I hope you will join us, Champion. We don't stand a chance as it is but without you the slaughter will only be more complete."

"I'll be there," Emma promised vaguely.

Anders sat down on the steps of what was once the Chantry, purposely facing away from Emma. "There's nothing you can say that I haven't already said to myself. I took a spirit into my soul and changed myself forever to achieve this. This is the justice all mages have awaited."

"This isn't about you any more than this is about Sebastian, Anders," Emma told him. "This is about the war that you've just started, the thousands that will die because of you. Today and in the future…every act of horror or depravity will stem from this. And how you can call all these innocent deaths the 'justice' mages have been yearning for is frankly beyond me."

"Do you see a better way?" Anders demanded.

"I think that 'nothing' might have been a better way," Emma replied.

"If I pay for this with my life then so be it," Anders said bravely. "At least Justice would then be free."

"Justice doesn't deserve to be free," Emma said darkly. "After all of this, what he's done to you and to this city and to this planet…No, he doesn't deserve it at all."

"You must be pleased, Anders," Sebastian said coldly. "You've spent the last six years trying to become a martyr and now you feel like the just punishment you'll receive for your murdering the best woman I've ever known will make you one."

"I'm not going to kill you, Anders," Emma told him wearily. "I don't know how I can even look at you after this but I suppose we'll find a way. And I love you. You can't ask me to kill you."

"Well I can," Sebastian said loudly. "What if I had still been in that Chantry? Would you still be willing to let him go?"

"If anything, I think she'd be more willing," Isabela told him.

"You mean…stay with you?" Anders asked, quickly rising to his feet. He sounded like he'd just been given everything he'd ever wanted in the world. He could have his mage revolution and Emma. "I didn't think you'd let me. I've always wanted to openly get to kill every templar in my path."

"No!" Sebastian growled. "If you let him live, I swear that I will finally do what I really should have done six years ago and return to Starkhaven to claim my throne. Then I will bring back an army and destroy everything in Kirkwall!"

"Are you serious?" Varric demanded, appalled. "You're mad that Emma might not kill one man so you'd destroy an entire city?"

"It's not just 'one man'," Sebastian protested. "He destroyed the Chantry and killed several people, including the grand cleric."

"And, again, your response to this horrible act of violence is to go further than even Meredith can dream of?" Varric demanded.

"I…well…" Sebastian looked awkward.

There was a choking sound behind them.

"It doesn't matter," Aveline said, pulling her sword out of Anders' back.

Emma fell to her knees. "Anders!"

"It's alright, my love," Anders tried to smile, for her. "I always knew that it would end this way. Well, maybe not exactly this way but…I love you and you have no idea what it means to me that you would still be willing to let me live and keep me with you."

Emma was blinded by the tears and when she could see again, Anders was gone.

She angrily jumped to her feet. "What the hell, Aveline?"

"Payback," Aveline said coldly, "is a bitch."

"Wait," Emma shook her head, trying to clear it. "All of this is for what's-his-name back in Ferelden? Aveline, he asked me to kill him! He was dying anyway!"

"I don't care," Aveline said stubbornly. "Besides, you all knew that it had to be done. Anyone who cared about Emma should have done the same."

"I don't follow," Merrill admitted. "How does caring about Emma translate into murdering her fiancé?"

"If she had stayed with him she would have been hunted just as surely as he would have been and she could never stop running. It would have ruined her life," Aveline explained. "Admittedly, I did it for Wesley but other people had other reasons."

Varric caught on immediately. "You mean Car-" He glanced at Emma and cut himself off. She didn't need to know.

"Well now that that's done, I guess I can stay here and help you defend the mages from this terrible thing," Sebastian said brightly.

"You're a regular Paragon," Varric said wryly.

"What about everyone else?" Emma asked, standing up and pulling herself into some semblance of togetherness by sheer force of will.

Aveline made a mental note to not have her back to Emma at any point ever.

"I firmly believe that any mage, if given half a chance, will try to be a magister," Fenris told her. He sighed. "But even I am not so unfeeling as to fight against you after what Anders and Aveline just did."

"And I think you know that the rest of us were always going to be on your side," Varric told her.

"Yes, now all of us can go and fight this glorious fight!" Sebastian cheered.

"Aveline, if you wanted to stab him too then that would be perfect," Isabela urged.

"I'll think about it," Aveline said noncommittally.

"Not for nothing but…are we sure that we're on the mages' side?" Sebastian asked once they'd finally reached the Gallows.

"Of course we are. Why wouldn't we be?" Emma asked, annoyed.

"Well, we've killed a lot of mages to get here," Sebastian pointed out. "I think maybe we've killed more mages than templars."

"That's because Meredith might have had a p…a po…" Emma choked. "I can't say it."

"Meredith might have had a point about how many blood mages and abominations there are and they keep attacking us so we have no choice," Varric finished for her.

"It's like every other mage we meet is like that!" Emma complained.

"I, for one, am not at all surprised," Fenris said. He glanced at Merrill. "Try not to get possessed until after we've dealt with this. It would be very inconveniencing."

"I'm not planning on getting possessed at all," she protested.

"And that would be wonderful but I'm not holding out much hope," Fenris replied.

Orsino met them then. "I just spoke with Meredith. She said she'll 'entertain a surrender' but she can't possibly expect one as surrendering to her means accepting that she will execute us all for what your friend did. Where is he, anyway? He should have to deal with this."

Emma just glared at him.

"I, uh, see. I didn't think you would actually do that," Orsino said, looking surprised.

Emma's glare switched over to Aveline. "I didn't."

"You know that you cannot possibly hope to win here," Fenris informed her.

Emma shrugged. "It doesn't even matter. These people are…some of them are…there has got to be a few innocent mages in Kirkwall and they don't deserve to be slaughtered like this."

Fenris considered. "I suppose your sister is here."

Emma's jaw dropped. "My…Bethany? I completely forgot!"

"I'm not surprised," Bethany said from behind her. "But at least you're here now. You're not going to let them kill us, will you?"

"They'll die first," Emma vowed, running over to give her sister a hug.

"I thought the expression was 'I'll die first'," Aveline said, puzzled.

"It is," Emma confirmed. "But me dying wouldn't really be in line with my goals, now would it?"

Orsino sighed and shook his head. "This is really not how I wanted this morning to go. And this is far worse than I thought that it would. Only two hours ago my biggest problem was an issue of privacy. And that's still important, don't get me wrong, but somehow it pales in comparison with the horror of this."

"You should give a speech," Varric suggested. "People like speeches."

Orsino nodded. "Good idea. My fellow mages, the templars will come and they will try to kill us all. Let's not let that happen. Instead, let's kill them all with no mercy. Let's especially kill Meredith. She's the most radical element and her second-in-command is far more reasonable. If we can kill her then maybe he'll stop all of this. If they steal your magic, do not hesitate to follow our Champion's example and beat them to death with your staff. There's a reason that they make these things so heavy. For all our power, we really can't win. There's only one option for us all."

"You are terrible at that," Isabela complained. "Let me guess, mass suicide?"

"Survive!" Orsino cried out.

No one was looking particularly energized.

"Here, let me try," Isabela told him. "I'm good at this." She cleared her throat. "Let's go kick some templar ass and then all get drunk and have sex later!"

The mages cheered.

"We have a little time since we're basically just waiting for Meredith's men to attack," Orsino informed them. "So if you want to say your goodbyes before we're probably all killed then now would be a good time."

"Seriously, you are not inspirational. At all," Varric told him.

"So, um, does anyone have any goodbyes they need to say?" Emma inquired.

Isabela turned to Varric. "Let's not lose track of each other when this is over, okay? Our writing partnership is just too damn lucrative and I love bouncing ideas off of you."

"Agreed," Varric told her. "You truly are inspirational, Isabela."

"And Fenris, if you want to stay with me for awhile and continue having sex then I am all for that," Isabela continued.

"That does sound like a plan," Fenris agreed.

"I think that's pretty much it," Isabela told her.

"Okay, my turn," Emma said, nodding. "Aveline, I will never forgive you for this and one day when we don't have so many pressing problems I'm going to kill you. I mean that."

"Hey, you're the one who ruined my life and all of this is your fault," Aveline insisted. "I was just trying to even things out."

"Sebastian, why are you even here?" Emma demanded. "Go back to Starkhaven. As you said, you should have gone there six years ago."

"You guys need me," Sebastian claimed.

"We really don't and we want you here even less," Emma said flatly. "Fenris, I know how you feel about mages and so it means a lot that you're willing to go against your wrong convictions to stand with me. Merrill, I still don't like you but you are family and so I really do hope you won't die or get possessed or something."

"Thank you," Merrill said, touched.

"Isabela, you and I have had so much fun together and I really hope you'll let me stow away on the ship I got for you when we likely have to flee Kirkwall in a hurry. Varric, you're seriously one of my best friends and almost too awesome for words. If for some reason we're parted in the future, I want you to know just how incredible and amazing you are," Emma said earnestly.

Isabela nodded. "Of course. Seriously, everyone but Sebastian is totally welcome on my ship."

Varric smirked. "Trust me, I'm well-aware of my own awesomeness."

Emma pulled Bethany off to the side for their own reunion and goodbye.

"You never came," Bethany said accusingly. "Even after I told you to after the qunari invasion, you didn't."

"I couldn't. It was just…I'm sorry," Emma apologized.

Bethany sighed. "You keep saying that and nothing ever changes."

That reminded Emma uncomfortably of Anders. "Well, things will change this time. When we're through here, you can't stay in Kirkwall. And hopefully you'll have lost your taste for Circle life after this."

"That's for sure," Bethany agreed. She frowned suddenly. "Wait, do you really think that…it wasn't on purpose, you know."

"Wasn't it?" Emma asked pointedly.

Bethany looked down. "I don't know. It was a long time ago and I was just so tired of always having to run and of putting the people that I loved in danger."

"But it was the wrong choice?" Emma asked hopefully.

"Definitely," Bethany agreed. "I mean, maybe under a saner Knight-Commander and I can't deny that I enjoyed finally getting to be with other mages besides my own family. Still, I never would have known just how wrong that decision was without this."

"It wasn't worth it," Emma said solemnly.

Bethany shrugged. "Lots of things aren't worth it but they happen anyway. I heard about Anders."

"Help me kill Aveline later?" Emma asked.

Bethany put her hand on Emma's shoulder. "Of course."

"Do you think Mother's okay? And the kids?" Emma inquired, worriedly.

"I hope so. They're far enough away from the Chantry that they shouldn't be impacted by the blast and I don't think anyone would have taken to looting with the danger of just being outside and the mages and templars aren't exactly going to be hiding in Hightown Mansions," Bethany reasoned.

Emma let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "I hope you're right."

"They're coming!" Orsino cried out suddenly.

And then the temporary reprieve was over and the battle was begun.

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