Alex blinked as the view around her shifted, turning into a barren wasteland surrounded by a greenish light, and as she neared the ground, she seemed to have drifted in the air, hanging upside down with the ground right above her. In confusion, she reached up with her finger, but she let out a painful gasp as the gravity around her seemed to have righted, and she fell to the ground with a hard thud on her back.

"Ow… ow.. ow." She muttered painfully, rubbing her lower back and her derriere, looking around her to see Alistair standing sideways on a floating boulder. He turned around and saw her, blinking hard at his strange orientation, "Well… this is unexpected… and trippy."

Alex heard something shifting above her, and she looked up to see her cousin, this time standing upside down in another boulder, looking at confusion at them, "We… we were falling."

She looked around, seeing Varric, Cole and Blackwall, getting up to their feet, stumbling as they looked around the landscape. She heard Hawke snort, and she looked up at her again, "If this is the afterlife, the Chantry owes me an apology. This looks nothing like the Maker's bosom."

Alex laughed a little, and even Alistair smirked, but somebody behind her breathed heavily, and she looked to see Cole looking positively frightened, his usual pallor growing even more paler as he looked around, "No, no, no, no, no, no…"Cole said frantically as he looked around, "This is the Fade! But… but I'm stuck! I can't… why can't I…"

She rushed forward and took Cole by the shoulders, "Don't worry, Cole, we're here."

But the boy shook his head in a panic, "This place is wrong. I made myself forget when I made myself real… but I… I know that it wasn't like this!"

"The Fade looked different the last time I was here." Hawke said as she continued to look around her, and Alex nodded, "Yes, it's different for me, too."

Alistair scowled, "I've seen my father in the Fade. I've seen a demon pretending to be my sister in the Fade… but I've never seen this."

"It's not how I remember it either." Hawke said, "Perhaps it's because we're here physically, instead of just dreaming." She looked at Alex, "The stories say that you walked out of the Fade at Haven. Was it like this?"

Alex shook her head, "I don't know. I still can't remember what happened the last time I did this."

Hawke shrugged, "Well, whatever happened at Haven, we can't assume that we're safe now. That huge demon was at the other side of that Rift Erimond was using. There could be others."

Varric sighed heavily, "That's not a very cheerful thought, Hawke."

Alistair crossed his arms as he thought, "In the real world, the Rift where the demons came through was nearby… in the main hall. Can we escape the same way?"

Alex looked up at the sky, seeing it blackened with a green swirling eddy that was probably the Breach, and the darkened mountains before them. She sighed, "Well, it beats waiting around for the demons to get us right? Let's go."

Blackwall pulled at Hawke and helped her down so that she was on the ground again, and Alex helped Alistair step down from his boulder.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong…" Cole muttered, his hands and body shaking visibly as his wide eyes darted left to right under his hat. "Wringing me out… wrought, right and rigid. Can't relax… can't release…"

Varric looked worriedly at Cole, "You doing alright, Kid?". When the boy didn't answer him, he looked up at Alex, and she came forward and took the boy's hand. Cole looked up at her, and she tried to smile reassuringly. "It's alright, Cole. We'll get you out of here soon. I promise."

At Alex's smile, Cole's panicked face softened and he smiled a little at her as he continued to hold her hand, "Thank you." He muttered out, visibly relaxing at her calm touch. "This should be like home. It's not. This isn't me, not this part."

"This place is dangerous." She heard Blackwall say, and he kept his hand on the scabbard of his sword, "I will gladly fight demons, but I have no desire to see where they come from."

Varric scoffed as they started walking, with Cole still clinging to Alex's hand like a child, "Is this really what it's like when you dream? How do you people ever sleep?"

Alex smiled a little, "Well, that's the reason liquor was invented, Varric. So that people can fall into a sleepy, drunken stupor and not dream at all."

The dwarf laughed, "True enough! Unfortunately, just you talking about liquor is making me thirsty. You owe me a cold one when we get back to Skyhold after all this shit."

She nodded, "Believe me, Varric, I've made that a priority in my mental list the moment I saw that dragon. I will get punch drunk for two nights after all this is done. You're all welcome to join my drunkenness, if you want to."

"Thanks for the invite." Blackwall said, shaking his head, "We're going to need four barrels of Golden Scythe to get this out of our heads. I'm buying one barrel."

"I'm pitching in another one." Alistair said, laughing at where the conversation was going.

"I'll get another." Hawke said in assent.

"Fine. I'll pitch in too, since Cole can't drink and he doesn't have any money to buy them." Alex said, "You going to pitch in, Varric?"

The dwarf shrugged his shoulders, "I'm the story teller, Inquisitor. I'm in charge of the stories, not the drinks." And Alex rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right."

Varric chuckled a little before looking up at Hawke, "Remember the last time we ended up in the Fade, Hawke?"

Hawke snorted, "Oh, how could I forget? My closest friends showed such loyalty in the face of a demon's temptation." She said sarcastically, before frowning down at him and muttering angrily, "Of course, I remember. You all betrayed me."

The dwarf chuckled again, "Well, we got better… sort of."

Alex laughed as they continued to walk, apprehensive at what may lie ahead. They made one wrong turn, and they battled a group of demons, and when they were done, Alex saw a mirror, glowing strangely, but broken in shards. For a moment it confused her as to why such a thing existed inside of the Fade, but the mirror gave her a bad feeling, and she turned away from it, pulling on Cole's hand, going up an incline that showed another area.

But she blinked when she noticed a figure, clad in white, red and gold, her old, wizened face smiling under a tall hat at their entrance. Even Alistair seemed to be in shock, breathing in noisily in a gasp, "What? That can't be…"

"I greet you, Warden." The woman said, smiling at Alistair and Hawke, "And you, Champion."

A sense of recognition sparked in Alex's brain, and her mouth fell open when she finally remembered who the woman was, "Divine Justinia."