Splash!

Out she fell into a faceful of cold water. With a startled gasp, Ahnnie scrambled to her feet, sopping wet and coughing like the devil was in her throat. She brusquely wiped her face and spat out any water she could feel on her tongue. After her coughs subsided it took an effort to straighten herself, especially with a pronounced ache in her side, but straighten she did and gave her surroundings a dazed, wide-eyed look.

It looks like a flooded cellar? No, a prison, she thought when she saw barred metal doors guarding empty cells. The room was small and dark, save for the glowing orange-red crystals jutting out from the walls. She wagered a guess that they were red lyrium.

The water shifted behind her and she whirled around in fright, withdrawing the glaive and holding it out defensively. Up from the shallow depths rose a soaked Dorian, cloak heavy and clinging. With a nonchalant grunt, he slipped it off and let it sink into the water. Ahnnie breathed a sigh of relief as she fully recognized him and lowered her weapon. He didn't seem to notice or care, though.

"Displacement?" he was murmuring, fingers tapping on his staff. "Interesting. It's probably not what Alexius intended. The rift must have moved us...to what? The closest confluence of arcane energy?" He knelt down closer to the ankle-high water and frowned at it, as if he could feel the said energy within its murkiness.

Ahnnie stepped towards him, making little splashes as she went. "It didn't look like a rift to me."

Dorian shrugged. "Any hole in the fabric of existence is candidate for being labeled 'rift' in my book. Now let's see...last I remembered, we were in the castle hall. If we're still in the castle, it isn't...Oh!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet in a Eureka moment. "Of course! It's not simply where – it's when!"

"Wh-what?"

His voice grew excited as he explained his discovery to her. "Alexius used the amulet as a focus. It moved us through time!"

"Wh-what!?" Ahnnie repeated, eyes wider than before. "Did we go back? Or forward? And h-how far?"

"Those are excellent questions," he praised. "We'll have to find out, won't we? Let's look around, see where the rift took us. Then we can figure out how to get back...if we can."

They seemed to have been deposited into a neglected prison chamber. Ahnnie could only surmise that it was neglected, for who would let a prison fall into such stagnant conditions? The cell doors were rusted tight and rotten wooden crates lay smashed throughout. It was easy enough finding the way out, for the chamber only led forward, up to a little staircase guarded by a door. The door was conveniently unlocked and the pair stepped through to a small landing at the bottom of a larger staircase. Glowing red lyrium pulsated in a corner of the room and along the walls like angry red welts.

The more they went around these strange halls, the more evident it became that red lyrium was...everywhere. In the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, clinging to the stone like tumorous growths. It made Ahnnie wonder whether the castle had already been infested when they arrived, or if the lyrium came later...how did red lyrium even grow? It wasn't like any crystal she'd ever seen or known of.

"Alexius has made a dreadful mess of this place, hasn't he?" Dorian remarked as they went through another desecrated hall for the umpteenth time. "Before, it was covered in the tackiest carvings of wolves and dogs I'd ever seen. This is not an improvement."

Ah, Dorian, Ahnnie sighed – perhaps the situation isn't so bad if you're criticizing the interior decor. His very presence was an anchor to her morale, which would have plummeted drastically had she been alone. The place was creepy enough with company.

"Oh, what's this?" Dorian mused as they came to a door with whitish light glowing between its crevices. "Well, this is certainly new. Perhaps we've reached our destination; assuming we were even going in a particular direction to begin with."

Ahnnie shrugged. "Let's open it?"

"If it's not locked–" He tested the knob, and luckily, it wasn't. "–very good! I think we're making progress!"

They both stepped through into a vaulted chamber illuminated with the whitish light by an unknown source and shielded their eyes a moment as they transitioned from the earlier dimness. The sound of crashing water indicated two long falls directly ahead of them, and the flooring of the chamber was actually stone and grated metal forming a suspended bridge above a sloshing pool.

The bridge led them three ways; straight to a raised drawbridge, and left and right to two doors...both of which were guarded by Venatori.

"Shit!" Dorian hissed as he realized his mistake. Neither of them had noticed the guards until the silver masked men left their posts and started rushing at them. Ahnnie whipped out her glaive again and rushed forward so as not to be crushed against the doorway when the battle came. She was assisted in her endeavor by two flaming missiles that knocked into both guards. A lucky thing these guards weren't mages.

She blocked her guard's sword with twists and turns of the glaive, aiming to trap his weapon in its hook. Foreign fighting styles would not distract her now, though she had to admit that the Tevinter style was pleasant to watch. She misread his next move, however, and fell for his feint; he thrust his blade forward for what would have been her side had she not tipped the glaive's shaft in time for a clumsy block. Nonplussed, she was about to draw back and form a counter plan when she noticed how dangerously close they both were coming to the edge.

With a nervous hop-step, she avoided his sweeping foot at the last moment and swung her glaive before her in defense. Corporal Hargrave's voice ringing in her ear, she pushed the hook of her glaive forward while the guard was attempting another kick and watched it catch the sword's edge, before twisting it downward and roughly shoving him towards the precipice. Her heart beat with anticipation as she watched him careening and flailing, and she froze, not quite ready to deliver the final blow, when a bolt of fire did it for her.

It took a while before she heard the splash, and butterflies tickled her stomach as she thought of how far the drop was.

Ahnnie whirled around to see that Dorian had made record time with his guard, who was smoking crisply on the bridge. An amused smirk curved beneath the dark mustache. "About time. Here I thought you would keep me waiting longer."

She gulped, not one for humor at the moment. "What now?"

"Well, we have two choices..." He pointed to the doors. "Left, or right. Forward is not an option at the moment."

Ahnnie looked in both directions and wondered what the Venatori were guarding. "We should probably hurry before someone realizes what's up...um, let's take the right door?"

"Of course, but first thing's first." He knelt down by the charred Venatori and rifled through the corpse's pockets. "These should come in handy," he remarked as he withdrew a ring of keys. "And, oh...what's this?"

Ahnnie's eyes widened at the black and silver box Dorian pilfered from the guard's belt. It was punctuated on the top left with a long rubber antenna and modified slightly in the middle with a strange aquamarine glass.

"A walkie-talkie!?" she exclaimed.

"A what-what?" Dorian asked.

She knelt down beside him and touched the thing with trembling fingers. "It's...it's a modern invention...from Earth! But why is it here? What...what is it doing in Thedas?"

The surface of the aquamarine glass suddenly shifted, and the barest outlines of a Venatori mask were coming into play. Rather than static, there was a sort of crystalline ringing emanating from the speaker, and a clear voice began pulsing through.

Before they could hear what was said, though, Dorian slid the walkie-talkie across the floor with a grim face. "I see. It's a communication device. I don't suppose these walkie-whatsits came with memory crystals where you're from?"

"Memory...?" She shook her head. "No. But interactive screens aren't too far from the mark."

The Tevinter mage rose to his feet and gestured for her to do the same. "Come, let's go through that door...I have a feeling we don't have much time left."

Why would walkie-talkies be in Thedas? She frowned as she entered a small antechamber behind Dorian, watching as he carefully shut the door and stuffed the keys into his pocket. Why just walkie-talkies? Those guards fought with swords; if the Venatori now has access to Earth devices, then why not go all out with guns? Why even continue using regular keys when there's card scans, fingerprint scans, hell, retina scans?

The more Ahnnie thought of it, the more it seemed as though the Venatori had recently discovered Earth technology. Perhaps they were experimenting with it – picking and choosing which aspects to use whilst adding their own, like the magic crystal screen – she didn't know how much time had passed, after all. If this was the past, then they had been aware of Earth as she feared. If this was the future...

Magic can actually do the same as a lot of other stuff on Earth, perhaps even better, she thought, trying to downplay her anxiety; although the Venatori picked up on the instant communication part, which Ahnnie remembered not being a feature of Thedas until now.

They exited the antechamber into yet another one that presented them with two metallic doors to choose from. Dorian inserted a key into the nearest one and slowly slid it open. Its hinges were newly oiled, so it made little to no sound. It didn't matter anyway, for a voice filled the empty space the moment the door was opened.

"...the Light shall lead her safely through the paths of this world and into the next."

Ahnnie stiffened. She recognized the voice...but not the grainy undertone.

Dorian entered first, staff held out defensively; Ahnnie followed with hesitant footsteps, bewildered eyes taking in the scene of another prison, but not neglected this time.

"For she who trusts in the Maker, fire is her water," the voice continued to echo. Every word sent chills down Ahnnie's spine.

As far as she knew, the prison cells here were empty, save for whoever was speaking. She was proved wrong when she saw an unconscious man in a cell to their right...but then it occurred to her that he might actually be dead. Ahnnie looked back ahead and tried to forget him. The voice continued to pray in the meanwhile, growing louder as they advanced. They finally came to its source, trapped behind yet another prison cell. Sitting in it, worn, exhausted, emaciated, was Seeker Cassandra.

"C-Cassandra!" Ahnnie choked, dropping to her knees by the bars. "What happened to you?"

The Seeker, once proud and robust, was now reduced to a shell of her former self. Her eyes were gaunt and dark, like a person starved of sleep, and her once supple limbs hung limp in defeat. Her hair had grown out as well, but was shabbily cared for. Most unnerving of all was an eerie red glow emanating from her person. She slowly looked up at the girl, crimson smoke swirling about her thin cheekbones and caressing the lower corners of her eyes.

"Ahnnie?" she murmured. "You've returned to us...can it be? Has Andraste given us another chance?"

"Cassandra, what happened?" Ahnnie repeated, desperate.

The woman lowered her head in what looked like shame. "Maker forgive me. I failed you; I failed everyone. The end must truly be upon us if the dead return to life."

"Dead? I – I didn't die," Ahnnie protested. She shook her head. "That doesn't matter. You're hurt! We can help...Dorian, do you think one of those keys can open the cell?"

The Tevinter mage bent down to the door's lock and tried it out. As he was twisting key after key, Cassandra stared hopelessly at them through the bars. "Nothing you do can help me now," she said. "I'll be with the Maker soon."

But at last, the door swung forward, and prison bars obstructed them no longer. Ahnnie dove in and helped the Seeker to her feet, not taking no for an answer.

"Alexius has sent us forward in time," Dorian deduced from the Seeker's state. "If we find him, we may be able to return to the present."

Cassandra shot up more quickly at that, and some of the former sharpness returned to her eyes. "Go back in time? Then...can you make it so that none of this ever took place?"

"We would have to find the amulet that Alexius used to send us here," Dorian explained. "If it still exists, I can use it to reopen the rift at the exact spot we left. Maybe."

"Then we must find it posthaste–"

"I said maybe," Dorian reminded her. "It might also turn us into paste."

"Still, you must try," Cassandra insisted spiritedly. "Any chance we have at all is worth the risk."

It relieved Ahnnie to see that some of the fire still remained in the older woman. She met those fierce eyes and nodded with a firm resolve. "We'll do our best, that I promise. Could you..." She suddenly faltered, wondering if she really wanted to know. "Could you tell us what happened?"

Cassandra's eyes grew grim again. "Alexius' master...after you died, we could not stop the Elder One from rising. Empress Celene was murdered. The army that swept in afterwards – it was a horde of demons, followed by the most destructive warfare anyone had ever seen. Nothing stopped them. Nothing."

Ahnnie gulped. She had a bad feeling she knew what the 'destructive warfare' was. "What about the others – did they make it? Are they here too?"

The answer cut more deeply than expected: "I do not know. Most of us in the Inquisition were captured, some killed. I have lost track since...since I came here. The only thing I do know is that Varric and Blackwall are kept further down the hall."

"We must get to them!" Ahnnie wasted no time in rushing down that direction, moving so quickly neither Dorian nor Cassandra had time to react. She zipped past the cells until she spotted a familiar squat figure sitting within one, whom she startled into looking up as she skidded to a stop.

"Andraste's sacred kickers," Varric swore, smoky voice more hoarse than it used to be. Like the Seeker, he also seemed weakened and had that strange red glow about him. "You're alive?"

"Yes," Ahnnie breathed, a relieved smile playing on her lips, "I am."

"Where were you? How did you escape?"

Dorian jogged up from behind and put the keys to work. "We didn't escape," he clarified. "Alexius sent us into the future."

The door swung open with a satisfying squeal. Varric got up to his feet and grinned from ear to ear. "Everything that happens to you is weird." Upon spotting Cassandra coming up behind Dorian, the dwarf gave her a reverent nod. "Long time no see, Seeker. Or at least, not freely. How've you been?"

"As good as anyone who's been imprisoned here," she responded dryly.

"Where's Blackwall?" Ahnnie asked, looking about the cells.

The smile fell from Varric's face. "Yeah...about Blackwall...you probably don't want to see him. He's..."

"Has he succumbed to it?" Cassandra asked softly.

"Well, they haven't carted him out yet," Varric pointed out, "but that's no real consolation, now is it?"

Ahnnie gulped, one thought leading to another. "What about...Solas?"

Both Seeker and dwarf were silent for a moment, which Varric later broke with a dry chuckle. "Oh, him? I dunno. No one's heard from him since this all started. Try not to let it get to you, kiddo...it ain't gonna help you any. Trust me."

Ahnnie looked from Cassandra to Varric. It made her wonder if Blackwall suffered from the same affliction as theirs. As for Solas...she could only hope he managed to evade it all. "What's happened to you?" she asked them both sadly.

"Bite your tongue," Varric chided. "I look damn good for a dead man."

"You're no more dead than we are," Dorian remarked.

The dwarf shook his head. "The not-dying version of this red lyrium stuff? Way worse. Just saying."

Ahnnie stiffened. "Red lyrium? Is that what–"

But a hand on her shoulder kept her question unfinished. "Do not concern yourself with that. Find Alexius and reverse this horrible reality – then it will never have to be."

Cassandra...even after all that had happened to her, she still tried to keep Ahnnie's thoughts from wandering too far. Just what she was trying to distract from, however, unnerved the girl deeply.

"You want to take on Alexius?" Varric piped up, cutting through those troubled thoughts. "I'm in. Let's go."

Cassandra gave him a resolute nod. "Alexius locks himself in the throne room these days. That is where we'll find him."

"Why am I not surprised?" Dorian sighed, and turned around to lead the way out of the prison. "First thing's first; we'll have to get the both of you armed. There's a dead guard outside who doesn't need his sword anymore. A pity the other one fell into the water, otherwise–"

"Freeze!"

As if in response, a chill ran down Ahnnie's spine. She whirled around with Cassandra and Varric to find a Venatori guard standing before them, a sleek black pistol steady in his hands and trained upon the middle of their group.

"I don't think you understand how that spell works," Dorian joked as he brought his staff forward for an actual spell.

"Wait!" Ahnnie cried, but pushed the staff aside a hair too late. Though it was muffled by a suppressor, the crack of the gunshot was unmistakable. She found herself flinching and shutting her eyes instinctively upon hearing the noise. The weight of Dorian's stumble was what startled them open again, and for one dreadful millisecond, she feared he had been fatally struck.

The crimson blooming across his shoulder told her he hadn't, but he was no less hurt. "Damn," he ground out, and quickly recomposed the grip on his staff to aim a spell.

But the guard was quicker than that. It only took a slight raise of the arm, and his pistol was up for another round. It was Ahnnie's equally quick hands, raised into the air, that gave him pause.

"We surrender," she blurted out. "Please. Don't shoot." She unstrapped her glaive and dropped to her knees for good measure.

Dorian looked at her as though she'd gone mad. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

"Just do it," she hissed back, and forcefully pulled the staff out of his hands. "He only needs to press that trigger, and you'll be dead in an instant."

Varric and Cassandra adopted the same stances, eyeing the pistol warily. Dorian complied only after watching them go down, sinking slowly with an unpleasant grimace on his face.

The Venatori's shoulders relaxed upon seeing them submit. "Trouble in Sector D," he reported to a mic on his collar, an action evident through his mask by the slight turn of his head. "Two intruders have released two of the subjects–"

A little shape suddenly dashed for the guard's side opposite the mic. In a forceful tackle, Varric knocked the guard down onto his back. The dreaded pistol flew through the air but Cassandra's hands caught it before it could make contact with the ground. The downed guard made a flailing grab for a taser in his belt, but Varric beat him to it and tased him repeatedly between his armor. He then tore off the helmet and grabbed the guard by the collar, finishing his assault with an angry slam of the helmet to the man's exposed temple.

The dwarf spat as he rose to his feet, dumping the Venatori unceremoniously on the stone floor in the process. "You were saying something about weapons?" he asked with a look back at Dorian.

"Here." Cassandra gave the pistol to him. "You could probably make more use of this than I ever would."

"Just like old times, eh, Seeker?" Varric chuckled as he tested the weight of the pistol in his hands. Then he sighed. "Ah, do I miss Bianca..."

Cassandra went immediately for the guard's sword belt, hesitating slightly at the taser but picking it up anyway. She tested it by pressing the button on its side and flinched when it made a sharp crackle. Then she put it into its slot in the belt, satisfied. "How did you know to surrender so quickly?" she asked Ahnnie, curious. "You said you were sent straight to the future from the meeting with Alexius. You couldn't have been here when these things were first used..."

The girl blinked and looked up at the Seeker. "It's a gun," she said at last, strapping the glaive back on as she did so. "Where I come from, it's a common weapon."

Varric raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't mean..."

"Maker!" Dorian swore. "The Venatori can access other worlds now."

Remembering Dorian, Ahnnie zeroed in on his shoulder. "O-oh no! You got hit–" But when she parted the fabric, she found it was only a graze. "Okay, that's better than I thought. But yeah...word of caution...guns shoot metal things called bullets. They're small but have the force to pierce through people faster than the blink of an eye."

Dorian winced as he got back up to his feet, using his staff as support. "What an...interesting world you used to live in." Despite the gist of his remark, something in his tone told her he was not liable to underestimate firearms again.

"We must leave, now," Cassandra barked, "before reinforcements show up. And believe me, they are coming soon."

"Oh, I believe you," Ahnnie said as they began to head out. "Mics and walkie-talkies are common communication devices where I come from, too."

"Damn. Makes me wonder what other monstrosity they took from your world," Varric remarked.

I hope we don't have to find out, she thought with a shudder.

Ahnnie and Dorian found themselves back on the bridge above the floor of water, having discovered no other way out. The other metal door in the antechamber led into yet another prison, which they quickly left behind when one of the prisoners – or, 'subjects' – started loudly protesting their presence.

The moment they stepped onto the bridge, it was to find the drawbridge from before lowered with several armed Venatori pouring down it. Dorian raised his staff and swept it down in an encompassing arc before him. A border of fire erupted between their group and the Venatori, buying them the advantage of confusion for a few precious seconds. Varric shot into the wall of flames while Dorian hurled as many strikes as he could to push as many guards possible off the bridge.

At the same time, stray shots rang out from the Venatori's side. Ahnnie weaved and ducked and jumped each time she heard one, heart close to stopping whenever a sharp zing or clink echoed on the metal grating or stone close by. It prevented her from coming close to the thick of the battle; Cassandra, on the other hand, made a mad zig-zagging dash through the smoke and successfully connected her blade to one of the guards.

When the last one was dealt with, it took them all a few moments of apprehension, squinting through the smoke, before they were comfortable enough to move forward.

"It should lead to the guard's barracks," Cassandra remarked breathlessly, pointing at the drawbridge.

"There weren't that many of them out here," Dorian frowned. "I don't think I'd relish running into the rest of their colleagues."

"That way's just another prison," Varric said when Dorian moved his eyes to the door leading left. "Nothing useful there, unless you want to free a few more prisoners."

Dorian looked ahead, and then back. "It'd be nice to amass a force," he murmured, "but...damn if we don't have the time. I don't suppose you know anyone who's kept in there?"

Varric shook his head. "I used to be there in a cell next to Sera, but...well, she's gone now. Other than that, I don't know a single person."

Ahnnie's jaw tightened. No, Sera...It was hard to imagine the eccentric Red Jenny just...gone. Of all the companions, Sera seemed the most foolhardy. It made her wonder what fate befell the Iron Bull and his Chargers, if even this was enough to bring down Sera. "Forward, then?" she asked weakly, looking up at Cassandra. Just like old times, she thought, before mentally shaking it away. What am I saying? It's been less than a day for me. C'mon, Ahnnie, stop making things feel worse than they already are.

"That is our best bet," the Seeker affirmed. "I heard the guards keep a sort of drug that boosts one's strength and energy. It would be beneficial for Varric and I to take some."

That doesn't sound suspicious at all, Ahnnie thought dryly as they went up the drawbridge. The door at the landing was open and admitted them into what looked like a moderately sized dining space, room enough for ten people at a time. Like the rest of the castle, nothing seemed different or off in the furnishings. It was a regular stone room decorated by a single wolf tapestry hanging on the opposite wall. One could hardly tell that Earthen technology had been utilized by its inhabitants; besides a gun rack off to the side, of course, and a red cross emblazoned first aid station.

But the most unnerving thing of all was that the place was empty. It truly appeared as if the guards they just fought had been the only ones there. The four of them fanned out and slowly crept forward, weapons drawn and ready. Ahnnie tensed with every step, expecting enemy reinforcements to burst out at any moment.

Then she heard the sound of a bottle of pills being shaken. "I wouldn't touch any of those if I were you," she warned, whipping her head towards the first aid station. "Drugs are...are just, no – no, I wouldn't. Especially if you can't read what's on the label. That bottle looks like most of it's in English, anyway."

Varric glanced at her with a cocked brow. "So that's what those strange runes are? And here I thought they were some form of ancient Tevene. Maybe you can read them–" And he tossed the bottle in her direction, startling her.

She was able to grab hold of it only after chasing it halfway under a dining table. "Um, it looks like ibuprofen," she called out after straightening up. "It's a painkiller. I don't know if '200mg' is anything powerful, but ibuprofen's not really strong stuff...just for headaches and fevers and whatnot."

Cassandra stopped her pacing and looked over her shoulder at Ahnnie. "Perhaps you can identify the drug we are looking for in that cabinet?"

"It doesn't look like it'd be in there," Ahnnie said. "The red cross means it's just first aid." Or, well, it should be...but she was averse to giving either of her companions strange drugs, especially something that purportedly boosted energy.

The Seeker shrugged and turned back around. "Very well, then. Keep searching the premises. We must be sure we are truly alone here."

Ahnnie obeyed and put the ibuprofen down on the table before making her way to the nearest door. There seemed to be several of them accessible down the room, perfect places to hide more people. "Hey, Varric, if you don't mind coming with me..." She wasn't about to barge into a room potentially containing gunman armed with just a glaive, after all.

"No problem. Just let me get some ammo." It took him about a minute before he was by her side, pistol cocked and ready. She gazed at his back as he slowly opened the door, watching him point the pistol this way and that. "All clear," he assured her, and lowered his weapon.

Ahnnie took a step forward, taking in what looked like a study. "You seem to know a bit about guns?" she asked as she walked over to a desk, eyeing the papers on its surface.

"I've been watching how the guards use them," he explained. "Plus I handled a few before getting caught...Didn't want those bastards having the upper hand over all of us, even if it was just one or two pilfered here and there. It was bad enough losing Bianca."

She recognized the distinct shape of a manila folder amongst the papers, yet continued listening to him. "I'm sorry," she sighed as she opened the folder.

"What're you sorry for?" he chuckled hoarsely. "It's not like you wanted any of this."

"I know, but...to think all this happened because Dorian and I disappeared that day..."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault. What'd I tell ya?"

She cracked a smile. "Don't let it get to me. I kn..." She paused, bending down in the sparse light to make out the papers within the folder. Hold up. It's in English. Very complicated English...squinting, she skimmed through the wordy document, bypassing word after scientific word.

Subject. Respiratory. Sepsis, hypovolemic shock, cardiac arrest, seizure, trauma, cognitive–

Red lyrium–

Fiona.

Ahnnie's frown grew in intensity as she flipped through more papers. It soon grew apparent that this file was a log of all the 'subjects'. She recognized Cassandra and Varric's names farther down the line and read a few paragraphs that sickened her, but went back to the entry containing Fiona's name. What made it stand out was that it was placed near the top instead of alphabetically like the rest, and unlike the other subjects, Fiona had not been kept in the prisons – or 'sectors', as the Venatori guard had called them.

Rather, she was kept in a Room E, testing chambers...

Fired up by this discovery, Ahnnie put down the file and went behind the desk, flipping over papers, pulling out drawer after drawer.

"What're you doing?" Varric asked, bewildered.

"You didn't tell me you were being experimented on," she accused, voice on the verge of choking.

Varric opened his mouth to say something, faltered, and then heaved a sigh. "Look, it wasn't something you needed to know..."

She finally believed she found what she was searching for and slapped the paper down with such force that her heart jumped. It was a map, and it, too, was in English. The label 'TESTING CHAMBERS' stuck out like a sore thumb. "By god," Ahnnie breathed. "Fiona's somewhere close by!"

"What–"

But before Varric could finish his question, she'd grabbed the map and dashed out of the study. Varric raced after her, alarmed.

"Hey! Hold up! Where're you going?" he called after her, alerting both Cassandra and Dorian at the same time. His voice seemed to fall on deaf ears, though; Ahnnie followed the hallway, rotating the map every time she made a corresponding turn, and within three minutes stopped before the door she was looking for.

ROOM E.

She reached for the knob, but it was locked tight.

"You forgot the keys in your rush," Varric pointed out to her, jogging breathlessly to her side.

"Oh..." Before she could take them, he unlocked the door for her anyway.

"Just make it quick," he said. "Cassandra's getting pissed back there. Better sate your curiosity before she catches up to you."

"...thanks." Ahnnie rolled the map up in her fist and pushed through the door, immediately bathing herself in a pulsing orange-red light. It hurt her eyes, not in a blinding way, but in more of a subtle ache; it was everywhere; and when she looked up, blinking through tears, a large mass of red lyrium growing through the floor and walls like a mutated stalagmite greeted her. She would not have thought anyone was trapped in it, if not for the dark ball of hair peeking between the angry red crystals. "Fiona?" she whispered, horrified.

The hair flinched and turned around, revealing a pinched and sallow face. "It's...it's you! You're...alive?" The Orlesian accent was still distinct even in Fiona's weak rasp. "How? I saw you...disappear..."

"What happened to you!?" Ahnnie cried upon realizing Fiona wasn't just trapped in the lyrium – it was growing from within her.

"Red lyrium...it's a disease. The longer you're near it...eventually...you become this." A shudder. "Then they mine your corpse for more."

The girl put a hand to her mouth. "Oh my god." I feel sick...

"Alexius...serves the Elder One," Fiona continued. "More powerful...than the Maker...no one challenges him...and lives."

"Alexius..." Just the very thought of him was enough to make her blood boil. That wasn't even mentioning the ever mysterious Elder One. "We'll stop him and do what we can to set this right," she promised, using anger to keep her nausea down.

The former Grand Enchanter grimaced. "How...?"

"It was time magic that sent me and Dorian here," Ahnnie explained. "He believes if we can get to Alexius, we can turn back time."

For a moment, Fiona's eyes widened with excitement. "Please, do what you can...for all our sakes. Your spymaster, Leliana...she is here...find her! Quickly...before the Elder One...learns you're here."

"Leliana?" Ahnnie perked up. "Where?"

"She is...in what they call..."– a cough –"Room...Z..."

Ahnnie frowned. "Fiona? Are you all right?"

But the Enchanter didn't respond; she groaned, shuddered, and groaned some more. Ahnnie took a step forward, decided against it, and stepped back again. "I...I promise we'll fix this! Please don't...die..." But it was futile. The Enchanter likely didn't hear her, and was on the verge of death anyways. Choking back tears, Ahnnie whirled around and sped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"You didn't have to know," Varric murmured softly with a comforting hand on her arm.

"Indeed, that was very rash of you," Cassandra admonished from down the hall; she soon appeared alongside Dorian, clearly unhappy.

Ahnnie took a big sniff and shook her head. "I know. I'm sorry. But...we need to get to Room Z. Leliana's in there."

Two voices could be heard in the hall leading up to Room Z. Both were female, and both were heated.

"There is no Maker. The Elder One has taken all that is His and will soon rule from His city."

"That still doesn't make him a god."

A loud slap carried beyond the door, followed by a pained exclamation.

"There is no god but the Elder One. The Maker is dead! Say it!"

"Never!"

This time, it was the crackle of electricity. "There's no use to this defiance, little bird. There's no one left for you to protect."

Ahnnie reached the door by then and simply pushed it open; whoever was in there had been careless enough to leave it cracked open. Careless, or relaxed? She drew out her weapon, and so did the others.

A woman with a tight blond bun and white lab coat took hold of a syringe on a nearby table. "You will break!"

The woman's victim, in contrast, was held suspended by the hands via a contraption of Thedosian make. "I will die first!" she spat, and the voice was unmistakable; once delicate, it now held a jagged edge. If that wasn't enough of an indicator, her coppery red hair gleamed in the dim firelight, just as it had so many times in Haven's war room. But the once smooth and beautiful skin was tarnished – through the stresses of many tortures, Leliana looked like an aged zombie recently returned from the dead.

Ahnnie pushed the door aside with a bang and gaped at the Inquisition's spymaster in horror; the woman in the lab coat whirled around in response, presenting her back to Leliana.

"Or you will," the spymaster declared, and with an abdominal heave, used her legs to trap the woman's neck in a scissor-lock. A struggle ensued that lasted all of several seconds before a loud snap pierced the room and the woman fell to the floor unconscious. Ahnnie stared wide-eyed at the scene before having the presence of mind to loot for keys. She avoided looking at the woman's neck, but a brief glimpse at the nameplate on the coat read Dr. Calpernia Rowland.

Is this the same doctor who's been conducting all these experiments? she wondered in disgust. It felt gratifying yet perturbing to put a name to the notes in the manila folder. She finally found a set of keys in one of the pockets and stood on a stool to reach the cuffs on Leliana's wrists.

"You're alive," the spymaster whispered.

"You're tough," Ahnnie returned, and jumped off the stool as soon as the cuffs were unlocked. She moved to catch Leliana, but the redhead stood square and waved her hands away.

"Anger is stronger than any pain. Do you have weapons?"

Ahnnie nodded. "There're some back at the barracks, not too far from here."

"Good," Leliana commented. "The magister's probably in his chambers." Without further ado, she went to rifle through one of the cabinets as though nothing more than a minor trouble had inconvenienced her.

"Um, are you all right?" Ahnnie asked. "Don't you want to rest first?"

"The doctor gave me an injection of amphetamine," Leliana replied. "I should be fine for quite a bit." She withdrew two syringes, put needles to them, and tossed them over to Cassandra and Varric. "Inject these through a vein in your arm. Any vein will do. You'll need it. What about you?" she asked of Ahnnie and Dorian.

Ahnnie shook her head. "No thanks, we're fine." Then she looked away, suddenly squeamish at the sight of medical needles.

Beside her, Dorian gave Leliana a quizzical look. "You...aren't curious how we got here?"

"No."

"Alexius sent us into the future," Dorian explained anyway. "This, his victory, his Elder One – it was never meant to be."

Leliana's eyes darkened. "And mages always wonder why people fear them...no one should have this power."

"It's dangerous and unpredictable," Dorian agreed. "Before the Breach, nothing we did–"

"Enough!" she snapped. "This is all pretend to you, some future you hope will never exist." She glared at the Tevinter mage, steel blue eyes glinting dangerously in the orange light. "I suffered. The whole world suffered. It was real."

"That's exactly what makes it so scary," Ahnnie murmured, and looked up pleadingly into the spymaster's haunted orbs. "Leliana...I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. He's not trying to say it isn't real, but...if we can do what we can to undo it, then..."

"We're done," Cassandra announced from the other side of the room. The pointed look in her eyes told Ahnnie she didn't wish the argument to be dragged any further.

Leliana nodded and strode for the door. "Follow me."

"Do you know how to get to where Alexius is?" Ahnnie asked. The map in her hand only detailed the floor they were currently on, and beyond that, the castle was one big maze of halls to her.

"We mounted a siege on Redcliffe Castle shortly after you disappeared," said Leliana. "Of course I would know. Just follow my lead, and we'll find the magister soon enough."

The ice in her tone promised that Alexius would regret being found.

Varric sucked in a disbelieving breath. "Maker's balls...this place is wrecked."

"What happened here?" Ahnnie asked, incredulous.

Leliana surveyed the scene before stalking forward with her bow held ready. "Perhaps Alexius isn't as well-off as we'd imagined."

Ahnnie followed close behind the spymaster and had to agree with her point. The courtyard was in shambles; it looked like a war zone from one of those pictures in the news back home. Broken stone littered the ground and black scorch marks marred the corners. Looming in the distance were what had once been the Castle towers; now they were just broken cylinders of stone, gaping like jagged teeth at the overcast sky above.

The wing we just left seemed perfectly fine, Ahnnie thought. There were guards and even a mad scientist...but then it might explain why there were so few of the guards. "You didn't know any of this was happening?" she asked at last, addressing Leliana, Cassandra, and Varric.

"How could we?" Cassandra countered.

"But the guards did seem more jumpy than usual," Varric supplied after some thought.

"Hmm." Ahnnie brought her attention back to their derelict surroundings, puzzled. Then a flutter of movement made her turn sharply to the right, and a split second later, a bright green rift exploded in the air.

"Demons!" Dorian cried, and they all grouped together instinctively as a pair of terror demons began spawning from the ground.

The injections of amphetamine had indeed made Cassandra and Varric more energized than they previously were. With an angry cry, the Seeker rushed into battle as ferociously as Ahnnie remembered. Varric tested a bullet on one of the demons, and then another, working up to a vital spot in its forehead, daring to come as close as Cassandra and even employing some of his familiar acrobatics. Leliana stood behind him, firing arrows – despite the range of availability between pistols and rifles, she had adamantly refused to pick up a firearm. A stubborn loyalty to the time before the chaos, but one Ahnnie hoped wouldn't be her undoing.

The girl ducked out of the path of one of Dorian's fireballs as she rushed to join Cassandra. After a series of slashes and stabs to the demon's stilt-like legs, they brought the monster down to be finished off by a sword through the torso. Ahnnie thrust her left hand at the rift shortly after, relishing for once the eerie pull of the mark to the rift.

Dorian watched the neon green mass explode with troubled eyes. "This is madness. Alexius can't have wanted this."

"As if he knew what he wanted in the first place," Leliana growled.

They continued on their way more wary than before. Passing into a hall, they found the inside no better than the outside: crumbling, charred, abandoned...at a certain point, Dorian had to light his staff with some fire since the sconces had been left unlit and the grey sky outside gave up little to no light through the windows.

Varric suddenly shot into the darkness, startling Ahnnie. "We got more company," he warned, and the screeching roar of a shade echoed from the darkness ahead.

Dorian sent balls of flame soaring down the hall, illuminating the dark limbs of three shades gliding on the stone. Leliana asked him to light his staff again and lit several arrows before loosing them onto the demons. The now burning shades became easier targets, and Ahnnie and Cassandra dove in a moment later to help get rid of them.

"There must be a rift here somewhere," Ahnnie thought aloud after they finished off the shades; for ahead in the distance, she could hear the screeching of several more.

"Can you sense one?" Cassandra asked.

The girl held out her hand, the mark of which held a steady green glow in the darkness, and shook her head. "The mark's not vibrating. Perhaps, if there is one, it's too far away."

"Rift or no rift, we'll just have to cut the demons down as we go," Leliana put in and continued leading the way. "The throne room is not far from here."

"Is Alexius even here after all?" Dorian ventured to ask as he trailed behind the spymaster. "This place looks..."

"Do I look like I'd send us all on a fool's errand?" Leliana retorted over her shoulder. "He's been in recent communication with the doctor. I should know; she liked to rub it in my face along with her Elder One shit every time she saw me."

Dorian blinked. "Well, sorry," he mumbled. "It was just a question."

Leliana huffed and turned back around. "Bring that flame closer," she ordered, and Dorian (most unhappily) walked faster to fall into step beside her.

They were all silent after that exchange, keeping their eyes and ears peeled instead for further enemies. After a while, they crossed into a large hall, and Leliana pointed at the towering door ahead of them. "There, the throne room." Even if she didn't say it, Ahnnie recognized the place they were standing in as the main hall of Redcliffe Castle. A servant met us at the door and led us through here...he offered to take my cloak after he saw it had been soiled with mud. Strange how important the little details became in random moments.

The five of them walked hesitantly up to the door, but when Varric pushed at it, it didn't budge. "Hmm." The dwarf slammed himself against it again, and then again. "Whatever Alexius' done with it, it's shut tight."

"No," Dorian argued, and felt it with his hand. "He's inscribed it with glyphs that only magic can open." His staff lit up with a whitish-blue light, and the etchings in the door suddenly glowed with the same. A circular device set in at the top creaked and spun, and the door itself opened up obediently. "There we go."

The throne room was just as Ahnnie remembered it, if not a little more tattered. A bright fire still burned in the hearth behind the dais, illuminating the figure of a well built man and a hunched one kneeling off to the side. The throne was gone, but the first man stood in its place with his back to the group. The large mechanic doors shut themselves as soon as the group were halfway to the dais, its ominous thud echoing against the vaulted ceiling.

"Alexius," Ahnnie called out; for who else could that man be? "It's over. We've found you."

"So it is," he acknowledged. He looked at her from over his shoulder. "I knew you would appear again. Not that it would be now. But I knew I hadn't destroyed you." He turned back to the fire. "My final failure," he whispered.

"Was it worth it?" Dorian asked. "Everything you did to the world? To yourself?"

"It doesn't matter now. All we can do is wait for the end."

Ahnnie frowned. "'The end'?" she echoed. "What do you mean by that?"

Alexius gave a wry chuckle. "The irony that you should appear now, of all the possibilities. All that I fought for, all that I betrayed, and what have I wrought? Ruin and death," he spat. "There is nothing else. The Elder One comes; for me, for you, for us all."

As the Magister spoke, Leliana stormed up the dais to the kneeling man. In an angry yank, she pulled him up from behind by the collar and slipped a dagger to his throat. The man was limp and unresponsive; if he was aware of what was happening, he didn't seem to show it. His eyes merely stared out at the throne room emotionlessly, not even blinking – a human vegetable. Alexius noticed from the corner of his eye a moment too late and whirled around in alarm.

"Felix!" he cried.

Dorian stared at the pale, blank-faced man with incredulity. "That's Felix? Maker's Breath, Alexius, what have you done?"

"He would have died, Dorian!" Alexius insisted. "Dr. Rowland saved him!" To Leliana, he begged, "Please, don't hurt my son. I'll do anything you ask."

Ahnnie's frantic gaze went from Alexius to Felix and back again. "If you hand over the amulet, we will let him go," she quickly said, training her eyes next on Leliana, pleading silently that the spymaster would stay her hand.

"Let him go and I swear you'll get what you want," Alexius promised.

Leliana gave Ahnnie a sidelong glance before glaring back at the Magister. For a moment, Ahnnie believed Leliana was simply toying with him, forcing him into desperation. "I want the world back," she hissed instead, and slid the dagger in one clean sweep across Felix's neck. Dark blood splattered the dais, even hitting Alexius' robes, and Leliana let the dead man fall flat into a pool of his own blood.

"No," Alexius breathed in horror. "No!" He immediately grabbed a long spear from a nearby wall and channeled a spell through it at Leliana; the wave of magic hit her square in the chest and spymaster fell back several feet with a thud. Alexius then brandished the spear threateningly against the rest of them and howled with a rage that rung sharply in their ears–

"You will all pay for what you've done!"