Disclaimer: I feel like anyone who reads these knows that I don't own anything.

She was getting tired of waking up in a different place every time she passed out. It seemed like it was getting worse every time. First a temple with a demon, then literal hell, and now she was in chains and surrounded by guards. While one might contend that guards aren't as bad as giant spiders, the fact that her hand was now pulsing green and felt like it was being held down in acid more than made up for it. The scowl on the face of the woman walking in did not look promising either.

Whoever she was, she was dressed for battle, with an unfamiliar insignia emblazoned on her breastplate. She had a pair of scars on either side of her face: a small one on her cheek, and a much larger one around her jawline. She was clearly the leader. She was flanked moments later by another woman, whose footsteps were so quiet that one would have missed her if they had not been watching the door when she entered.

"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now." The first one began. Her calmness almost hid the anger in her voice… almost. "The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you."

The girl in chains remained silent. She could have broken out of the chains and attempted escape (her strength had returned in the hours since she had awakened this time), but she was not sure if she would succeed against so many people in such small area. She was already surrounded. Besides that, she needed answers, and this is the first time in a while that something hasn't been trying kill her without asking questions first. Her confusion must have shown on her face, because the interrogator moved on, not waiting for a response.

"Explain this." she said, gesticulating towards the green mark on her hand, which chose that moment to pulse harder, causing the prisoner no small amount of pain.

"I… can't"

"What do you mean you can't?" The interrogator's frustration began to mount.

"I don't know what this is, how it got there, or even where I am right now."

Now face to face, the interrogator was almost shouting. "You're LYING!"

At this, the second woman pulled her back. "We need her Cassandra."

The girl in chains herself was becoming impatient. She had no idea what was going on, and she was being treated like she had all the answers. "Look, I don't know what you think I did, but I'm just as in the dark about this as you are. In fact, I probably know less than you do."

Both women seemed to believe her. She relaxed a bit, until she saw the look that passed between the "Cassandra" and the other woman. Clearly they needed her to know something, and it was apparent that she didn't even know how much she didn't know.

"Do you remember what happened? How this began?" The second women asked

"I remember running, with these things chasing me. There was a staircase and at the top of it was… a woman"

Their confused faces told her to keep going. She tried to go farther back, to the first time she awoke. But things got cloudy, and suddenly she couldn't think straight. Her mind was jumbled up with what felt like a billion different voices. Her hand pulsed again, harder this time. She screamed, with all of her thoughts pushed to the back of her mind by the pain. By the time it had subsided enough for to think again, she had only been able to catch bits and pieces of an exchange between her two captors.

"…believe she doesn't know?"

"…as much pain as she appears to be in…"

"…are being overrun in the valley…"

"Go to the forward camp, LeIiana. I will take her to the rift."

The second one left as quietly as she came. Cassandra released her chains, leaving her bound by only by a pair of leather cuffs.

"Come, I will show you what has happened." She said.

The ground was covered in snow, and the glare from the sun had the girl trying to cover her eyes after being in a dark room for so long. As her vision cleared she saw the glare was not coming from the sun, but a vortex of mystical green energy in the sky. She could only stare at it in a horrified wonder.

"We call it 'The Breach'. It is a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour." Cassandra began. "It's not the only such rift, but it is the largest. And it seems to be spawning more as time goes on. This was all caused by the explosion at the Conclave. If we don't stop it… it could grow until it swallows the world."

The phrase "swallow the world" must have sounded good to the breach, because it chose that moment to begin expanding again, sending a jolt of pain into the girl's hand.

"Each time it spreads, your mark expands. And you've probably noticed that it's killing you." She paused before her next statement, giving the girl a moment to recover. "It may be the key to ending this, but we must move quickly."

"Then let's go," The girl barely gave enough time for her to complete her sentence before giving her affirmation "before anyone else gets hurt".

Cassandra was briefly stunned by the woman's selflessness. If she had any ulterior motive, she was making it obvious. Looking into the prisoner's eyes, however, her suspicions faded. She was beginning to doubt that she had anything to do with this, intentionally at least.

"I just realized that I do not yet know your name. I am Cassandra Pentaghast."

"My name is Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."

The walk through town was somber. The villagers stared at Pyrrha like some sort of monster. They looked on as Cassandra led her through the town, some in anger, most in fear. Cassandra explained that they were mourning Divine Justinia, and how they needed someone to blame for her death and the giant hole in the sky that was spewing demons as if it was the apocalypse.

If I can't put a stop to this it just might be. Pyrrha thought as she was lead past a gate which closed behind them. Once the villagers were out of sight, Cassandra cut the last of the restraints from Pyrrha's wrists.

"There will be a trial, I can promise nothing more."

Nodding in affirmation, Pyrrha took in her surroundings for a moment before moving ahead. Both the light from the sun and the eerie light from the breach gleamed off of a frozen river below them. She observed a priest praying with a group of soldiers. She saw many wrapped bodies, blood staining the cloth used to mummify them. She was happy to reach the other gate on the opposite end of the bridge.

"Open the gates," Cassandra yelled to the keepers. "We are going into the valley!"

The path on their way into the valley was filled with soldiers. Some were in ramparts guarding the bridge, others were following them into the valley, and still others were retreating, many carrying wounded. Pyrrha caught one such soldier, who nearly passed out carrying one of his comrades. She and Cassandra helped the two men back to the bridge, and then set out again. On the way up the breach again expanded. Pyrrha fell to her knees, unprepared for the pain.

"The pulses are coming faster now." Cassandra said, helping her to her feet.

"That reminds me, how did I survive the blast?"

"The soldiers said that you… stepped out of a rift and fell unconscious." She said this almost in question, as if she wasn't sure she believed it. "They also said that there was a woman behind you, though no one knows who she was. Are you sure you don't remember any of this?"

"I don't know. The harder I try to think about it the fuzzier it gets. It's almost like the rift is trying to make me forget."

Cassandra continued to lead Pyrrha on. They had finally reached the bridge when she decided to tell Pyrrha the full extent of the plan.

"We are going to test your mark out on something smaller than the breach. Hopefully sealing it will alleviate some of the pain. We have some soldiers guard-" She was cut off by a blast of energy hitting the bridge and sending them crashing into the river below them. Dazed, but not seriously injured, they arose to the sound of something boiling. Looking ahead, they say a demon rising out of a pool of green mist.

Cassandra drew her sword and shield and leaped into action. "Stay behind me!" She yelled, as she charged the demon. Pyrrha could only look on, slightly miffed that the woman still thought she needed protection. As if the universe (or the author :P) wanted to give her a chance to prove her point, another demon began to form right in front of her.

She was smiling until she realized that once again she was up Battle Creek without a weapon. Looking around, she found exactly what she needed. In a supply box that had fallen from the destroyed bridge, she found a sword and a shield. Weapons in hand, she made short work of the demon, finishing it of at about the same time as Cassandra defeated hers.

"So, is this what we can expect in the rest of the valley?"

Cassandra looked over and saw that the prisoner, Pyrrha,she reminded herself, had armed herself. She looked to be about to draw her own weapon, or order Pyrrha to drop hers. To the prisoner's credit, she looked as if she might have complied. But when she saw the dead and dissolving demon that had previously escaped her notice, she thought better of it.

"It is clear that I cannot protect you, and it would be unfair to leave you defenseless." She paused a moment, studying Pyrrha's face. "I should remember that you came willingly, and that your life is on the line in more ways than one."

Continuing their walk through the valley, Cassandra handed her a flask, telling her it was a healing potion. This only served to confuse Pyrrha more. They had nothing like this where she was from. Not only that, but she had a sinking suspicion that the demons in the valley were not Grimm. In fact, she was beginning to doubt that she was on Remnant at all.

They fought their way through two more groups of demons, encountering foes similar to the ones they had already faced, and new ones that reminded Pyrrha of ghosts. They attacked from range, causing her to miss her old weapons, Milό and Akoύọ. She could have thrown the sword and shield she was currently holding, but without the proper aerodynamics, she would have to rely mostly on her Semblance to have any chance of hitting her target with them. She was not ready to show this Cassandra person all of her abilities yet.

Ahead of her, she could hear the sounds of fighting, so she and Cassandra rushed to aid the soldiers at the top of the hill. They were too late, and by the time they arrived the battle was over, and the only ones left alive were a short man with a crossbow a bald man with really pointy ears. They were accompanied by several demons still, as well and a glowing field of energy.

After slaying what remained of the demons, the pointy eared man turned toward her and said, "Quickly, before more come through!" When that didn't provoke a response, he grabbed Pyrrha by the hand and pulled it toward the rift.

She felt a light pull from the rift, and tried to pull her hand back. She heard a sound like air being sucked into a bottle, and then a sharp pop as the rift finally released her hand, and disappeared.

"What did you do?" She asked the man.

"I did nothing. The credit is yours."

"Okay then. Next time, I'd like some warning before you shove me toward a nexus of dark energy."

Ignoring her, he began to explain. "Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized that the mark may be able to close the rifts that have opened in the breaches wake, and it appears that I was correct."

Cassandra took a moment to interject. "Does this mean it could close the breach itself?"

"Possibly. It seems you hold the key to our salvation."

"Good to know." The other man said. "Here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever."

He introduced himself as Varric Tethras and said he was an unwelcome tagalong. Judging from the vein popping out on Cassandra's forehead, and the fact that he also introduced himself as a rogue and a storyteller, Pyrrha assumed that these were the only time she shouldn't take his words with a grain of salt. He also introduced his crossbow, Bianca, as great company in a fight.

While he and Cassandra squabbled over whether or not he should come, the bald man took the time to introduce himself.

"My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions. I am pleased to see that you yet live."

"He means 'I kept that mark on your hand from killing you while you slept'" Varric interjected. Apparently he was coming whether Cassandra liked it or not.

Pyrrha regarded the man with a new respect, and thanked him. She would have to ask exactly how he did it later. After discussing the nature of the magic with Solas, Cassandra decided that they needed to get to the forward camp. The road was blocked, so they had to go back town into the valley. After another skirmish with a group of demons and climbing back up another hill, they encountered another rift. Killing the demons around it, she again reached out to it, this time of her own accord. It closed easily, and this time she noticed haw the pull felt familiar as if she had felt it somewhere else, before the first rift he had closed.

"The pathway is clear, open the gates." Cassandra said to the guards.

"Right away Seeker Cassandra." The soldier replied.

Seeker? Pyrrha thought. She had assumed from the way Cassandra carried herself that she was a Huntress of some sort, she did seem particularly qualified to fight demons, as Pyrrha was, but she had never heard that title before. She would have to ask later.

Walking onto yet another bridge, she was pleased to see that most of the occupants of this camp were still alive and well. At center of the bridge, she saw the other woman from earlier, "Leliana" as Cassandra had called her, speaking to a priest dressed similarly to the ones she had seen earlier. They were too far away to hear most of the conversation, but as the group entered earshot, the priest seemed to notice them.

"Ah, here they come now." He said. Pyrrha wondered if she had just imagined the contempt in his voice when Leliana attempted to introduce them.

"I know who they are, I'm just wondering why three out of four of them aren't in chains, and the jury is still out on the Chantry thug. Now, as Grand Chancellor of the Chantry, I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution."

"Order me?" Cassandra questioned. Today is just not her day, Pyrrha thought. First a giant hole starts dropping demons out of the sky, and now everyone seems to be in the mood to piss her off. If this is how people treat her normally, it's no wonder that she has a perpetual scowl on her face.

"You are a glorified clerk. A bureaucrat."

"And as I said, you are a thug. But you are apparently a thug who serves the Chantry."

"We serve the Most Holy, Chancellor, as you well know." Leliana was clearly trying to simmer both sides down, and was failing miserably.

"Justinia is DEAD!" the chancellor shouted, causing many nearby soldiers to stiffen. A sharp look from Cassandra sent them all back to their duties. "We must elect a replacement, and follow her orders on the matter."

"If you can take a moment to stop grandstanding," Pyrrha said, visibly irritated at the chancellor's lack of focus, "There is a GIANT SWIRLING VORTEX of mythical energy trying to EAT the world! Can we focus on that before you have me hanged?"

"You shouldn't even be here!" The chancellor shouted back. "Call a retreat, Seeker, our position here is hopeless."

"We can stop this before it's too late."

"How, you won't survive long enough to reach the temple, even with all your soldiers."

"We must get to the temple; it's the quickest route…"

"… But not the safest. Our forces can charge as a distraction, while we go through the mountains" Leliana proposed.

"We lost contact with an entire squad on that path, it's too risky."

"Listen to me…" the chancellor started.

"Unless you plan on fighting with us, you have no say in this decision." Pyrrha interrupted him in a manner that surprised everyone. Cassandra looked almost impressed.

"Then how do you think we should proceed?" Cassandra asked her.

Pyrrha thought for a moment, and then replied. "The direct route would be faster in theory, but the closer we've gotten to the Breach, the tougher resistance has become. Time is of the essence, and I think it would be faster to go around them than to go through them. We must work together. The stakes are far too high."

Pyrrha, Cassandra, Solas, and Varric began making their way up the mountain. Eventually they happened upon an old mining complex, and worked their way through the tunnels. As a pleasant surprise, they faced only paltry resistance inside. Unfortunately, they found several bodies at the tunnels exit.

"I suppose we found the scouts" Varric said grimly.

"That can't be all of them" Cassandra replied.

She was right, at the end of the pathway the heard fighting, and rushed forward. What they found was the rest of the squad, mounting a desperate defense while caught between a cliff face and a fade rift. After engaging them, the company made sliced through the demons like they were made of paper. Demons gone Pyrrha reached out toward the rift. Nothing happened. She tried again and still nothing.

"Solas?"

"I'm not sure, perhaps-" He was then cut off by the rift exploding. Pyrrha, who had been standing much too close, was thrown back several feet, and would have been blown clear off the side if not for a scout with quick reflexes grabbing her hand. Still by the time she had been pulled up, a new battle had begun. A new wave of demons spawned, this time led by a skeletal-looking creature. It looked at her, and then ripped what looked like a simple hole in the ground, until it jumped in and reappeared moments later, right beneath her feet.

If not for her own quick reflexes, she would have been knocked aside again. This time, however, she jumped off of his head and into the air, somersaulting, and bringing her sword down in a wicked arc, cleaving straight through the creature's body. She remembered the rift, and while the rest of the demons were distracted, she reached out again to the rift. This time, she felt that familiar pull, and then a shockwave. Much to her chagrin, the creatures and the rift still did not fade away. The creatures, did, however, freeze in place, like time had stopped for them.

The rest of the demons were taken town relatively quickly when the rest of the group recovered from their surprise. The last attempt to close the rift, thankfully, was successful.

"It is sealed, as before. The disruption on the rift was a good idea. You are becoming quite proficient at this." Solas stated.

"Let's just hope it works on the big one." Varric said.

Several of the scouts were wounded, but they had all survived the encounter. Cassandra was helping one, apparently the leader, to their feet.

"Thank the Maker you finally arrived Lady Cassandra. I doubt we would have held out much longer."

"Thank our prisoner, Lieutenant. She insisted we come this way."

"The prisoner?" she asked, turning towards Pyrrha, "Then you…?"

"We needed to find the fastest way to the breach, but I thought we'd find you up here. I'm glad we did."

"The way behind us back to the camp is still clear, for now," Cassandra said. "You should go while you still can."

The scouts made their way back, while the group made their way forward. On the path ahead, they faced no more demons, but rather questions as they approached the crater that used to be the Temple of Sacred Ashes.

"So… holes in the fade don't just accidentally happen, right?" Varric asked.

"No, but if enough magic is brought to bear, it is possible." Solas replied.

"But there are easier ways to make things explode."

"True."

As they enter the outer portion of the temple, Cassandra signaled for them to stop. Around them, charred pieces of earth extended up out of the ground in a ring around where the explosion emanated, like a wall trying to keep everything out… or perhaps something else in. Along with the charred earth, there were also charred bodies, burned by fire, or perhaps magic, Pyrrha couldn't tell. The thought that she could be responsible for this made her sick to her stomach, and she did not want to linger there any longer.

"That," Cassandra said suddenly, pointing to a particularly charred spot, "is where the soldiers said you came out of the rift."

Walking deeper into the temple, they continued until they reached the center, where a rift much larger than the others resided. Far above it, the Breach still swirled menacingly. Footsteps behind them, turned into a voice. "You made it, thank the Maker." The voice came from the woman at the bridge.

"Leliana, have your men take up positions around the temple." Regarding Pyrrha, Cassandra looked back and forth between her and the rift. "This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?"

"Sure I am, but I can't jump that high."

"No. This rift was the first, and it is the key. Seal it, and it may seal the Breach" Solas interjected.

"Then let's find a way down."

"The time of our victory is at hand" The voice said. "Prepare the sacrifice."

None of them recognized the voice reverberating off of the walls. Pyrrha thought she was going insane until she saw the confused looks on the others' faces. Worse, much like the pull of the rifts on her mark, the voice felt familiar. She was shocked out of her reverie by Varric, who roughly pulled her back from some red crystals she had absentmindedly walked into.

"That is red lyrium. Don't touch it unless your death wish has a death wish." Turning to Cassandra, he continued. "Seeker, what's this shit doing in the Temple of Sacred Ashes?"

"I don't know, Varric. There are a lot of things that shouldn't be in the Temple today. For example, there is a hole in the fade, and a crater, and the corpses of a few thousand people."

"The magic expelled here could have drawn regular lyrium to the surface, perhaps even corrupted it. I do get the sense that some form of blood magic was involved." Solas motioned for them to continue, and they kept walking on the path to the ground level.

As they went, the echoes began again. This time, a new voice rang in their ears.

"Someone! Help me!"

"That is… Divine Justinia's voice," said Cassandra. "How is this possible?"

"It could be an illusion," Solas replied. "Or a trick of the fade."

They now stood facing the rift. It seemed to pulsate in Pyrrha's presence. With a bright flash of light, the entire scene played out before them. They say a shadowy figure holding the Divine captive, Pyrrha rushing in to save her.

"The Divine called out for you!" Cassandra exclaimed. "What happened? Who was that holding her?"

"I told you. I don't remember."

The light faded leaving only the rift. It looked different from the others. This one looked more like a line drawn into thin air, whereas the others had actually looked more like holes.

"This rift is closed, but it could open at any time" Solas explained. "I believe that with your mark's power, we can open the rift and then seal it properly. This course of action, however, will without a doubt draw attention from the other side."

"That means demons!" Cassandra yelled to the rest of the soldiers. "Stand ready!"

Pyrrha took the time it took for everyone to ready themselves to ponder whether it was actually a good idea to intentionally invite the embodiments of evil for a playdate. She couldn't think of a better idea anyway, so she decided to stick with the plan. She reached out to the rift, and allowed the mark to do its work. This rift pulled harder than she others and she had to struggle to keep her balance.

As suddenly as it started, the pulled released its hold on her, and for a moment she thought she'd be able to close the rift before anything came through. And then she saw it.

The great news was that there was only one of them. The good news was that is that it was clearly a Grimm. The bad news was that it was a Death Stalker. The worst news was that, along with the fact that it was a giant evil scorpion that fed on negative human emotion, it had acquired the ability to channel lightning from its tail.

The latter was a fact that did not register until two soldiers had been fried, and then smashed, by said tail.

Where is Nora when you need her? The energetic hammer-maiden's power to channel lightning would have been useful, but Pyrrha realized that she might as well ask for the entire Atlas army. She'd just have to make do with what she had.

"Everyone spread out and keep away from the claws! Archers, aim for where the stinger meets its tail."

The soldiers seemed to listen to her, and soon they were attacking the beast from all sides. The archers had some trouble hitting their target with the way it wildly swung and lashed out, but Varric had yet to miss a shot. Bianca, it appears, was just as good company as he promised. The lightning was still a problem, mainly because Grimm couldn't usually control the elements.

Both she and the Grimm seemed to realize that she had just been standing there, thinking. It spun itself around, knocking back many of its attackers. Everyone who didn't get their shield up in time suffered either broken ribs or impalement from the creature's whetted claws and tail. It turned to Pyrrha, staring directly at her with cold green eyes.

Green Eyes?

The stalker shot a bolt of lightning at her, which she saw coming and skillfully dodged. It then charged her and knocked her into the wall. No, she wasn't imagining it. Even as she picked herself up off the ground she couldn't help but stare at them.

Most people would scoff at her for noticing something so trivial, but when she fought, she could see and hear everything around her. She could even feel the archers above her, desperately trying to cause the monster to retreat with their arrows. Realizing this, her trainers had taught her what to pay attention to: weaknesses in her enemy, ways to use the environment to her advantage, and anything that felt out of place.

Even at her young age, she had fought and killed hundreds of Grimm. All of them had either yellow, orange, red eyes. But this one's eyes were the same color green as…

The rift! That must be were the Grimm's extra powers were coming from! She thought, formulating a plan in her mind. The Death Stalker struck again and she deflected the blow with her shield. The force was so great that she lost her hold on it, her arm being nearly wrenched out of her socket as a result. She took that moment to duck under it, crawling beneath and looking for a chink in the creature's armor. She found one right where she was expecting, between the cephalothorax and the abdomen.

Even without much leverage, she was able to jam her sword in between the plates and into the creature's body. It screeched and raised itself up, giving Pyrrha the chance she needed to scramble out from beneath it and over to the rift. Stretching her hand out as she did before, the mark called out to the rift. The creature stopped screeching and froze in place, as if time stopped for it and it alone.

With renewed vigor, the warriors who were not to injured attacked everywhere, with several stabbing out it eyes, some going to the underside, as Pyrrha did, and striking there. With one final, decisive stroke, Cassandra cleaved of the Grimm's tail, and it began to dissolve. The soldiers cheered, but Cassandra's focus had already shifted.

"Seal the rift! NOW!"

Pyrrha reached back to the rift, and her mark beckoned it to close. It took all the strength that she had left to resist the pull of the rift closing. At one point, it even threatened to pull her off the ground. Eventually, the pull stopped, and the rift disappeared, as did whatever strength she needed to remain standing. She heard someone rushing over to her, and then lapsed, thankfully, into unconsciousness.

A/N: Shout out to the reviewer who told me how to add dividing lines into my chapters in the FFN editor. You da real MVP.

A/N2: Shout out to the reader my traffic stats tell me is from Brunei Darussalam. It's cool and it kinda sounds like a place that would be in Dragon Age.

A/N2: Man this feels like it took a while to write. All in all, it probably didn't, but it felt like it because the plot moved along as much as it did in the first chapter, except this one was literally five times longer.

A/N3: While I would have loved to add more details to the fights of this chapter, none of them were particularly important to the plot. Even in the game they were just tutorial/exposition moments, and none of them save the boss fight lasted longer than a minute. I promise, even without changing the story our heroes will face challenges that would make long, drawn out fights here seem pointless. Its only up from here.