After Hawke became Champion of Kirkwall he became very busy. He constantly got invited to parties, and Aveline insisted he had to go to at least some of them, he also constantly received requests for his services. He practically became a mercenary again, only this time around he was the one passing out the jobs more than he was taking them on himself.

And that's how Nero, Varric, and, begrudgingly, Anders ended up on the wounded coast, looking for a girl named Orlanna. Anders was walking ahead of them, mumbling to himself and barely watching where he was going. Varric watched him before looking up at Nero, worry evident on his face.

"You're best friends, aren't you? What is with him?" He asked.

Nero shrugged, "I'm not sure, to be honest. And if we are still considered best friends, then that's a testament to how poorly he treats all of you. Just last week I was at his clinic and we ended up yelling at each other."

Varric whistled, "do I even need to ask what about?"

"Highly unlikely. He says that I either stand 'with' the mages, or 'against' them and gets angry when I say I'm not on either side."

Varric watched the mage for few more minutes before saying, "has he gotten thinner?"

Nero raised his eyebrows, "you have to ask? Where have you been?"

Varric scratched his chin, "I've been avoiding seeing him. I love the man like a brother, but I don't know if that's the same Anders I knew six years ago. And he sure as the void hasn't come to see me. From what I hear he never leaves his clinic, and rarely lets people in."

Nero frowned, "that's what I gather...I don't know how much of the real Anders is left."

"You mean, you think Justice has taken over?"

"I don't know. I'm not an expert on possession, but...we've had arguments and there are certain points where he is so angry that three years ago Justice would be appearing. But I don't think I've seen Justice emerge at all this past year. I don't know if Justice is controlling him physically but he has definitely affected the man's mind so much that all he thinks about is the 'mages plight'."

Suddenly Anders stopped and turned to face them, he retraced his steps so that he was an arms reach away and said, "I've always told you Justice and I are one, why do you question it now?"

"I thought we were being quiet." Nero muttered.

"You were, but I heard you."

"We're just worried, Blondie. You're so antisocial, and we never see you anymore. You need to live a little. Come to the Hanged Man tonight, we'll play cards like we used to." Varric suggested.

"How can I relax or play games when my brothers are being tortured in the Chantry's prisons?" Anders asked.

Varric stared at him awkwardly for several minutes and Nero, after seeing the dwarf's loss for words told himself to mark this day on his calender and blurted out "I've been thinking...I have a theory. Have you ever wanted to be separated from Justice?"

Anders looked at him, expressionless, for several minutes, before speaking. "What is your theory?"

Nero scowled at the mage for ignoring his question, but answered anyway. "The river is completely separate from the Fade, right? And I can manipulate the river, which flows through everyone...I'm thinking that if I were to sort of push as much of the river into you all at once it would sort of flush out Justice, as he is made entirely from the fade. And you should remain intact...in theory, anyway."

Anders thought about this for several minutes, and even began pacing. Finally he stopped and said, "I'll have to consider it, so much could go wrong..."

Excited that Anders actually seemed to like the idea, as opposed to telling him to go fuck himself like he had expected, Nero clapped him on the back and said, "good, now perhaps we should continue looking for that girl."

They searched the coast for most of the day and Nero's legs were getting tired from trying to walk in the sand. They had also failed to bring any food, and were growing quite hungry before they ended up stumbling upon the girl in a small cul de sac, surrounded by a few dead mercenary bodies. She seemed unharmed, and was extremely calm despite the obvious struggle that had taken place.

"You there." She said when they approached, "Did my love send you? Will you take me to him?"

"Either your father didn't give us the whole story, or I really, really hope you're talking about someone else." Varric said.

"Feynriel, the man of my dreams! These brutes intended to take my maidenhood. As they argued about who would go first, I fainted!" she told them, "then Feynriel spoke to me in a vision and told me not to fear. When I awoke the men had slain one another. Please take me to Feynriel, I want to thank him properly."

Nero's jaw dropped, the girl was clearly crazy, and he looked to the other two for an explanation, the dwarf shrugged his shoulders, but Anders told him, "Feynriel is a mage we helped from becoming a slave before you came along. He's also the one that we went to the fade to save from demons. He went to Tevinter, to get training."

Nero raised an eyebrow at this, "so...you saved him from making a deal with a demon...to send him to a place whose mages kind of have a thing for making deals with demons?"

Anders ran a hand through his hair, "yes, well...I never said any of it made sense."

"You know where he is then?" the girl, Orlanna asked, "please let me know, I must meet him!"

"Well I don't really know where he is right now. He was going to Tevinter three years ago, but a lot happens in three years, he might have found a group of Dalish that could help him better. I have no way of contacting him." Anders explained.

"It seems I must wait a bit longer for my love." she sighed, "thank you for your aid, I will find my own way back to Kirkwall. Perhaps the walk will tire me and we will be reunited in my dreams! Feynriel, my love, I'm coming."

Varric frowned, "Uh, maybe not the best idea, princess. There could be more of these men coming, or you could run into more on the way back to Kirkwall-"

He was interrupted by a blond man blocking the only exit from the cul de sac "'ey, what 'id you do to my men? I'll kill ya till your good an' dead." he said.

"Maker, could he sound stupider?" Nero muttered to the dwarf as he un-sheathed his weapons.

Varric laughed and loaded Bianca. There were five of them, bandits, by the look of it, and all but one held a sword and a large shield. Nero cursed, he hated shields. They did this terribly annoying blocking thing that more often than not dulled his blades. He ran forward anyway, to meet the man that had spoken, and when he did the first thing he did was kick the shield.

Surprised by the move, the warrior fell backwards, flailing his arms as he fell - which resulted in the heavy shield laying on the ground beside him. He didn't have time to pull it up to cover himself before Nero had sunk both of his blades in the man's chest. There was no time to watch the man sputter and cough up blood as he was being attacked by somebody else. He heard a whoosh as a blade nearly sliced his ear off, not that there's much to take off anymore, he thought bitterly.

He jumped away and held his blades in a defensive stance, ready to block the next blow, only to hear Anders say, "suck on a fireball!" and then he was jumping out of the way of flames that scattered all around the second warrior when the fireball hit his shield. He was so distracted by not catching fire that he was caught off guard when another of the Bandits smacked him with his shield, sending him to the ground with a ring in his ears.

He lay dazed for a moment then rolled away just as a sword hit the ground and dug into the sand where he was just laying. He sincerely wished that there was a warrior on their side, as he wasn't so great taking on several opponents at once. With a grunt he pushed himself to his feet and pulled the knife from his belt, he was about to throw it at the man that had shoved him to the ground but suddenly there was an arrow going through his neck and blood spurting everywhere. I think Varric severed an artery, maker's breath that dwarf is good.

He felt a presence behind him and, turning with a dagger ready, he decapitated the rogue that was just about to sink his blades into his back. He backed away from the body as it fell forward, he wasn't particularly bloody at the moment and he hoped to keep it that way. And with a quick glance he was pleased to see that the enemy was down.

Varric laughed as Nero approached him, "you got one, Violet. One."

Nero scowled, "yes well, the focus of my attention was on not getting cut, you were safe back here were there weren't blades swinging every which way."

"Point taken, just try not to be so bitter about it." Varric chuckled.

"Anyways," Nero said, motioning towards the girl they were being paid to rescue, "somebody feel like explaining to her that we need to take her back to Kirkwall, with us. So she doesn't, you know, die?"

Varric smiled, "I'm no good with that kind of thing, you should go on, convince the young lady we will be her knights in shining armor."

Nero raised an eyebrow, "are you kidding me? You're no good at talking to a young woman?" Varric shrugged his shoulders, "Oh for Andraste's sake, fine." he scowled as he approached the young lady, leaving Varric and Anders relatively alone.

Varric, hoping that Nero was wrong, and that it was still Anders in there, decided to try a joke, "so, three templars walk into a tavern."

Anders sighed tiredly, "not right now, Varric."

"You feeling all right, Blondie? You're always in the mood for templar jokes." He frowned, he may not have been as good of friends with the mage as Nero was, but they were still relatively close. They used to sit in the tavern and tell stupid jokes to each other all the time, and Anders was a decent story teller. He definitely had some interesting tales from his time as a Gray Warden. It was just so strange to him, that Anders could change so much, without any sign of his old self.

Varric didn't try speaking to the healer again until they were on the road, Nero having successfully convinced the girl to join them. He, unfortunately, seemed to have won her favor somehow and was stuck listening to her describe the extravagant wedding she planned to have with her love, Feynriel.

Varric snickered at the exasperated look on Nero's face, and glanced up at the mage walking beside him. Encouraged by the small smile, and the lack of muttering, he tried another joke.

"So, the knight-commander... Boiling in oil? That one never gets old."

Anders scowled, "this is past time for joking."

Varric frowned, "I'm helping you indulge in elaborate revenge fantasies. I think it's good for you."

"Meredith will die. Do not doubt that." Anders told him.

"Go away, Justice. Can Anders come out and play?" Varric teased.

"Stop."

"You are no fun anymore."

Several minutes passed with Varric simply watching Anders as they walked, only glancing ahead now and again to make sure he wasn't going to walk into a hole or something. Anders, noticing, tried to ignore it, but eventually he grew irritated and demanded to know what the dwarf was looking at.

"Just wondering if the feathered pauldrons are an essential part of the moody rebel mage persona." Varric asked.

Anders raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, "...what?"

"I'm working on an epic poem about a hopelessly romantic apostate waging an epic struggle against forces he can't possibly defeat."

Anders' face darkened, "what do you mean, "can't possibly defeat?"

Varric shrugged and looked away, "well, it's not a good story unless the hero dies. "

"Even if I die, that does not mean I'll lose." Anders told him.

"Well...from where I'm standing..."

"Andraste died, that doesn't mean she failed."

Varric chuckled, "when did you become so faithful? I'm a dwarf, if I use Andraste and the Maker as curses its not because I believe in them."

"Then why do you?"

"Because everyone else does, I picked it up."

"You are like Nero, you've never picked a side." Anders said suddenly.

"And I never will."

"Someday you may have to."

...

Nero was in a bad mood by the time they returned to Kirkwall, and the setting sun kept shining in his eyes, which was making it worse. Anders retreated to Darktown almost immediately, and Varric, good man that he was, decided to take the girl off of Nero's hands and offered to take her home. Nero would forever be grateful. If he had to hear one more detail about a wedding cake, or a dress, he was going to stab himself in the neck with a rusty fork.

He had told Varric that he would meet him at the Hanged Man, since it was diamondback night, and headed to the tavern. Unfortunately, he was not there very long.

He had just walked in when Corff motioned him over, "Nero, good to see you."

Nero warily raised an eyebrow, Corff seemed twitchy, and never called him over just to talk, "same to you."

Corff leaned in, and motioned for Nero to do the same, "It must have been around noon today. There was this old man who came in early in the morning, was definitely a mage, and proud of it, you could tell by the way he carried his staff. And I'm fairly certain he was wearing tevinter robes." Nero stiffened, hoping, for the sake of his own sanity, that Corff was an idiot when it came to clothing, "Anyway, he had rented a room, and he had some armed men with him, and an elf boy, he sent the elf boy out and-"

"Corff, I appreciate the details, I do. But can you get to the point?" Nero interrupted hastily.

Corff nodded, "of course. Anyway, around noon your elf friend, the one with the white hair, he came in and when he caught site of the old man he drew his weapon. I think he was going to kill him right here in the bar, but then the old man said something to him, and he lowered his weapon and they talked some more, and then the elf left with him. But he didn't look happy about it. Not that he looks happy about anything. I just thought you should know, it seemed like something-"

"Do you have any idea where they were going?" Nero interrupted, his heart pounding loudly in his chest, terror and anger flooding his senses.

"Oh, after they left the little elf boy came to return the key to the room and said something about the docks-"

"Tell Varric exactly what you told me when he comes, and tell him I went after them." Nero said in a rush before running out the door.