This is madness...

"Garrett..."

Utter madness...

"Garrett."

What does he hope to gain? It's completely-

"Garrett!" The shout was accompanied by a rough hand shaking him, making Garrett look up in confusion. He found himself staring into Aveline's green eyes, her gaze hard and mouth snapping words. "I know you're off guard and in shock, but I need you to focus." Her free hand landed on his other shoulder, shaking him more vigorously. "You can make sense of it later. Right now, we need you."

Garrett blinked, glancing to his right and finding a panting Varric practically leaning his entire weight on Maric, the dog giving him an encouraging look. Looking to his left, Garrett saw an orange glow slowly grow further down town, a fire raging as panicked screams drifted through the city like ghosts.

"What's the plan?" Aveline's question struck hard, making Garrett wince as he realised just how many would turn to him. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this, it'll be a disaster no matter what. "We need one, and we need it now." The question made Garrett nod and take a breath. I've done this before, panic is the worst, control the situation, gain the advantage, survive...this is your city, Hawke, defend it.

Garrett whipped his head around, looking back towards the Qunari compound. Far off, he could see the green mist of the Qunari gas rise near what had to be one of the main streets. It's going along it, towards...ah, shit, he's thinking we'll act as Qunari. "Meredith can't ignore this, she'll rally her Templars, but how fast she'll be, we don't know. The Arishok is taking his forces towards the Viscount's keep, I'm betting." The fool. "You go find Donnic, rally as many guards as you can on your way, circle around the enemy advance and try to reach the main plaza, I'll try to meet up with you alongside as many troops I can rally. We won't be fast enough to stop him, but if we manage it, we can be right on his tail."

"The Keep? I thought he was looking for the tome?" Aveline frowned, confused.

"He thinks the Viscount has the power to get it, the man is the ruler of Kirkwall and the humans in it, after all..." Garrett shook his head. "It's not important, but we must move now! Varric, can you keep-"

"Nehraa Qunari!" As one, the group whirled about, spotting eleven Qunari warriors rushing around a corner, javelins raised at the ready as they caught sight of their prey. Damn, thought we'd lost them. "Katara Basalit-an!"

With a groan, Varric raised his crossbow, tone weary. "Fight or run?"

Garrett grimaced, the odds of either working out horribly. "We-"

With a crash, four of the Qunari fell face first into the dirt, the remaining stumbling into a confused halt as they spotted the quarrels from crossbows stuck in their fallen...only for two more to fall, one wailing as he clutched at a bolt stuck deep in his eye, the bolt somehow having failed to kill him.

"For the Cats!"

Wait the...ohhh...

The strange battle-cry was echoed by dozens of voices, the alleys and dark nooks of Lowtown suddenly coming alive as men and women scurried out into the light. Armoured in a mixture of leather, furs and the odd piece of chainmail and with their long hair hanging free they looked like wild Chasind.

The remaining Qunari, at the shout of their leader, formed a circle, their backs to one another, a thrown javelin killing one of the new combatants while a thrust slew a second, making the attackers pull back.

But only for a moment.

Another volley of crossbow-bolts slammed into the Qunari ranks, the shooters mere shadows up on the roofs above. Two of the Qunari fell, multiple bolts stuck in them, the high-powered shots making a mockery of their armour...and then the mob of people were all over them.

A woman cried out, her arm shorn off at the elbow by a Kossith's blade, and the Kossith himself fell without a word, throat slit by a long dagger as another punched into his chest and a third into his back. Another Qunari sent a human sprawling with a swing of his shield...and then the shield and the arm attached to it hit the ground as a two-handed axe cut through the warrior's shoulder. The last Qunari shouted something...but all that could be seen of him was his raised blade as he disappeared under a sea of hacking and stabbing people.

Silence.

Then the large group turned to face Garrett's...and Aveline grimly stood at the ready as Garrett and the rest calmly looked for the leader of the gore-covered 'barbarians' before them.

The man stepping forward had his hands in his pockets, wore a stained leather armour, had long black hair left unchecked in a curly mess and a surprisingly polite smile on his lips. "Hawke, the Cats are at your service." The bow of the man was a mechanical bending at the waist without the hands ever leaving his pockets, but deep. "I'm Ben, of the Cats, and it's an honour to fulfil our part of the protection-deal we have with you, honour among thieves will be restored."

At the back, Varric was snickering, but Aveline's eyes were narrowing. "You're a gang..."

"Easy, Aveline..." Garrett put a hand on the woman's shoulder...and she slowly lowered her weapons, but didn't sheathe them, eyes fixed on the group before her, then grimly darting up to try to count the number of snipers on the roofs above.

"Aveline? As in the Captain of the guard?" Ben blinked, momentarily torn. "Is she...with you, Serah?"

"She is, she's not to be touched." Garrett cut back. We need to hurry this up. "Now, this is what I need you to do, I need-"

"Hold on here!" The gang-leader took a step back and chuckled, the crowd behind him following suit as they eyed the noble before them. "We might be paid to protect you, but that doesn't mean you get to order us ar-"

"Ben." The gang-leader cocked his head, looking past Garrett and spotted Varric, the dwarf giving a small wave and a smile, nodding towards Garrett. "Hi."

"Ohhhh...!" The man's eyes widened, then he shook his head, turning back to Garrett. "As you were saying, Serah...what do you need?" Behind him, the rest of the gang looked at one another in confusion, but none questioned the turnabout.

"First, information. What do you know of the Qunaris' actions so far? What is your disposition? What is going on in the city?" Garrett took a step closer, hoping his tone would betray the urgency of his need.

It did, the man before him suddenly standing as straight as a guard during inspection as he replied, smile gone and brow furrowed in thought. "There was word of the elven converts skulking around in Darktown before this, my guess is they planted that gas you see over in the main street. Also, a few of their converts are still spread across the city, they were giving the guard quite a run-around just before the attack."

"Son of a...not Petrice's doing then, that bloody Qunari sod planned this!" Aveline burst out.

Garrett ignored her though, eyes on Ben as the man continued. "Most Qunari are heading towards Hightown though." As predicted. "As to the city, it's in chaos. It started near that mist of the Qunari, then spread further out...it's not even crazies, just people looting and killing and such. With all the guards busy and such, I guess they see a chance to get rich." Ben shrugged even as Aveline muttered a curse under her breath. "Gangs are also fighting like mad between one another, trying to gain more territory and steal each other's loot now that they can do so in the open." Ben grimaced in disgust. "As to us, as we should, we're defending our territory and the people that pay us to do just that...we're also taking care of a fire in our territory that spread from another gang's, it's nothing we can't handle though."

Others infighting, uncontrolled chaos outside these small zones of control...we can gain from this in the future as well as reign in on the situation once things calm down. "Good, keep doing just that. None gets to destroy or kill within your territory, but avoid any other confrontations, avoid even the Qunari unless they attack." Garrett nodded, satisfied. "Also, Aveline and I both need a guide to take us safely to where we need to be. I need to get to my estate and she needs to find guardsmen."

"At the docks, yes, we've spotted them." Ben nodded, looking over to the glaring Aveline. "Mouse!" The giant that stepped forth from the group behind Ben made a mockery of his name, the man nearly the size of a Kossith, and about as broad around the shoulders to boot.

"You named a guy in the 'Cats', 'Mouse'?" Varric asked, chuckling.

Ben's lips twitched, but the smile never appeared as he shot Garrett's grim face a glance. "He'll get her through to the guards." Ben nodded to Aveline, distaste in his eyes. "I would be disappointed if she then proceeded to arrest him..."

"She won't." Garrett replied, and looked back just in time to make Aveline slam her mouth shut, ending her protest before it even begun. "Will she?"

Looking away, the woman crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine...but we'll talk about this once this mess is cleaned up, I swear it."

"I'm sure we will." Garrett turned back to Ben. "And for me, Maric and Varric?"

"Maric?" Ben asked, only to jump as the Mabari still supporting Varric let loose an annoyed bark. "Oh, yes, Maric!" He looked away from the giant dog quickly, a hint of fear in his eyes. "Dog!"

The man stepping up next to Mouse was almost as small as Merrill, whereas Mouse was all muscle, Dog was all skin and bones.

Garrett couldn't help but shake his head. Of course that's his name...

Then, in the distance, a strange sound, louder than a dragon's call, made the earth shake.

Garrett, eyes wide, stared at Aveline, who stared back in horror, and then they stared over towards Hightown, watching a black cloud rise high.

"We must go! Now! Meet you at the plaza!"

8

8

8

Maker, protect us!

Garrett was gasping, as much from the strenuous jog they'd endured as from the sights around him as with wide eyes he looked around himself, trying to comprehend the destruction around him.

It was devastation all around, unimaginable and brutal in a place that for so long had always been the quietest and safest place in Kirkwall. A sanctuary of peace in a den of brutality, where even intrigue never ended with a blade, but with words, papers and laws.

Now, violated.

It was almost surgical. The corpses littering the streets were never in the middle of them, but lay in puddles of blood at the sides where they'd been executed, many even seemingly having been dragged from the middle where they'd been killed. Nothing allowed to hamper the advance, the Qunari are doing this like it's a drill... Yet despite the butchery, the number of corpses weren't vast, guardsmen, soldiers, only a few random civilians that had probably gotten in the way.

Yet outside the street, things were worse. Everywhere, the gates to many estates lay in mangled heaps, some nobles had only bothered with iron fences, and those had been broken down in entire sections wherever the Qunari had chosen to storm in. The ground outside the mansions were littered with dead, nowhere did it look like the defenders had even had a chance to gather into a unified defence.

And at the mansions themselves the doors had been ripped from their hinges and windows smashed, black smoke rising from them as from within the great houses it glowed with the unmistakable light of uncontrolled fire. Maker, all the nobles? They're all dead or... Garrett eyed the broken doors with suspicion. ...alive? The thought of the scenarios either situation opened up were terrifying. No nobility left in Kirkwall with Meredith around...or all nobles with the Qunari.

Another plume of smoke, large for being so distant, rose from the Viscount's keep, and to Garrett's surprise, there was no sound of fighting coming from there. Was I wrong, and a fight never broke out there, or has it already over? That smoke though...it's giving me a bad feeling.

"Ah, there's your place." Garrett blinked in confusion, looking to Varric and finding the dwarf practically riding Maric who he was depending on for support, the dog looked tired, but hadn't protested from the weight of the no doubt heavy dwarf. The man was, under the still swelling bruises, smiling. "Guess those walls paid off, huh?"

"We shouldn't be able to see it from..." Garrett looked in the direction Varric was, and blinked at the sight of the estate usually blocking his view from the current angle having collapsed, only blackened beams still standing as a crackling fire tore apart what little remained. "...here?" Yet, despite that horrifying sight, Garrett caught himself grinning in relief, the thing he'd hoped for most yet not quite dared voice coming true before his eyes.

Behind the haze of soot of the other mansion, surrounded by dark clouds and smoke, his mansion shone like a white fortress in a tide of darkness, untarnished. A few human shapes stood before it, but the majority were concentrated down the slope, near the unbroken and unconquered walls. As he came closer, Garrett noticed unmistakable signs of fighting. Blood, dents in the wall, corpses, mostly elves in familiar leather armour, littering its side...but the wall had held.

Thank the Maker for my paranoia...

Someone had spotted them, a voice full of excitement bursting out. "It's Lord Hawke! The lord is here! Open the gate!"

"Well, that's it for me then." The man who spoke, Dog, had been betrayed to be a mere boy when he'd spoken, though one of surprising confidence. "You can take care of yourself from here on, Lordie, I'm sure."

Garrett turned, looking down at the young boy...and the child flinched. "That's my Lord...and yes, thank you." Garrett held up a hand, stopping Dog mid-turn. "Tell Ben I will speak to him once this is over, remind him of his honour...and who he works for."

The boy's eyes widened, and then he nodded. "I'll tell him Lo-my Lord.." Garrett nodded back...and Dog turned, running back towards his kin, picking his way with the same ease as he had while guiding the group back to Hightown.

"Technically they work for me, you know..." Varric muttered, then smirked as Garrett shot him a puzzled glance."...I'll let you borrow them though."

Chuckling back, Garrett turned...and found his amusement instantly replaced by illogical worry as he hurried towards the nearby gate. They're fine, the mansion is standing, they're all fine... "Come on!"

He ran.

Then he was through the open gate, thick oak and steel covered in hidden runes of protection silently sliding shut behind the following Maric and Varric.

Mother.

Garrett barely saw the woman in the storm of many faces and shouted questions, then he was holding her tight as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Merrill.

The woman was pushing through the crowd of soldiers and servants, and Garrett let go of his mother to grab the even smaller woman, lifting her up with a relieved sigh, her whimper in his ear revealing the terror she'd felt. "I knew you'd gone to the Qunari and...and I..."

Slowly, Garrett let go of her, fingers moving up to brush the tears from the woman's cheeks, offering a pale smile. "I'm not that easy to kill, okay?"

Merrill swallowed, then nodded, returning the smile. "O-okay."

You have a job to do. Garrett turned his head and straightened, gaze moving along those assembled. All the servants, a lot of guards, even more than expected, Anders, Fenris...seems everyone managed to follow my instructions for what to do in a crisis. "Bastile, report."

The grizzled veteran shouldering his way through the crowd wore a grim face stained with dried blood. "Almost all the servants were in the estate during the attack, we lost a few guards during a storming attempt, but our numbers have swelled to nearly two hundred when those protecting our merchants and warehouses fled here." The chevalier nodded towards the mansion on the hill. "The merchants those guards were in charge of are up at the mansion, as are a dozen or so nobles that managed to escape the Qunari storming and sought shelter with us. As for-"

"Oh, Garrett!" Leandra, hovering near her son, exclaimed, hands brushing his shoulder. "They...they killed Gamlen!"

Garrett grimaced, yet to his shame, he felt a rush of relief that it had been Gamlen and not someone else. He shot Leandra a sympathetic look, but then turned his grim eyes to Bastile, who nodded. "Indeed, Serah, the Qunari cut him down as he tried to reach the gate..." The man shifted where he stood. "...I judged it imprudent to try a sally to try and save him."

Garrett felt Leandra tense behind him, yet after a glance at the wide-eyed people around him, hundreds of them...Garrett nodded. "Good man." Behind him, Leandra took a shocked step back. "What of the Qunari? Their movements?"

"They killed or scattered most defenders at first impact around Hightown. Most guardsmen were spread out and fled while the guards of the nobles tried defending their estates only to be overwhelmed in short order." Bastile grimaced, scarred face wrinkling in exhaustion. "The Qunari took all nobles they could find and headed for the Viscount's keep. I had expected the fight there to last for a while, it is moderately fortified...but it was not to be expected."

"The explosion we heard?"

The man nodded. "It was louder up here, I'm sure. We felt the world move...it was not a fireball from a Saarebas, it was some kind of vessel they carried, shaped like a barrel." Bastile shook his head. "Back in Orlais, I studied this thing, this weapon of theirs, but I had never seen the effect...it shattered the main gate to the keep in the blink of an eye, and none within seemed capable to resist in its wake." The man shook his head. "The Keep is now theirs, and they're fortifying it and holding all the nobles they took within." The man shook his head. "The Templars passed by though, heading towards the plaza...not as numerous as I thought they would be though."

Garrett frowned. Damn it, Meredith, what now? "They're going to get the nobles killed, aren't they?"

"If the Keep is stormed..." Bastile frowned. "...the Qunari do not know mercy, they strive to cause as much harm as possible when at war."

And when the nobles are all killed save me and a few others, and Meredith stands victorious in the ashes after the battle... The thought sent a chill down Garrett's spine. They mustn't die, the victory mustn't be Meredith's.

Taking a deep breath, Garrett looked around himself, noting the way Fenris was already leaning on his sword, ready. How Varric, healed by Anders in the shadows during everyone's focus on Garrett, held his crossbow loaded and ready. How Bastile, gripping his sword tight, stood firm and ready, and how many of the soldiers around them straightened under his scrutiny. Very well, offence is sometimes the best defence, and I know the best kind of offence

"Fenn, Orana!" The elven man and woman appeared as if summoned by magic, eyes wide at being the first called. "My armour!" Nodding, eyes even wider, the two began to run for the mansion as Leandra gasped in horror.

"Son, you don't have-"

"Bastile, how many men do you need to hold the mansion?" Garrett ignored the woman.

"I think the worst has passed...give me fifty of them with crossbows and bows to cover the walls and I'll manage." The chevalier grunted, looking disappointed at being left behind, yet accepting it as the logical choice. "You won't need the archers anyway, I'm guessing." A wry smile escaped the man.

"Not if it goes as planned." Garrett agreed, then turned his gaze to Fenris. "You'll be paid accordingly." The elf nodded, grim, calm. Garrett looked then to Varric. "Coming for the sake of the story?" The dwarf grinned. "Figures..." Then Garrett turned his eyes to Anders. "I hope not to..."

"You must be joking." The scarred mage growled, shaking his head underneath his cowl. "You know what's out there for me..."

"Only if needed...and if it is..." Garrett stepped closer, so close he felt Anders' breath brush his ear. "...I won't let her touch you, I swear it by Andraste...you will only find to gain from this, as a mage saves the nobility of Kirkwall..."

The words were the right ones, making the mage suddenly smile, a pleased glint in his eyes. "Now that's a delicious thought...that would truly give Meredith something to choke on." A pause, to consider...and then the mage nodded. "Very well, but be careful with this, Hawke...you do not want to make me an enemy by rash decisions."

"I never make rash decisions." Garrett grunted, stepping back and turning his gaze to Merrill, his words sticking in his throat at the sight of her.

She was smiling though, gesturing at the armour she already wore, at the 'spear' in her free hand. "Already ready." I don't need your reassurance, I don't need a promise, I trust you. The message was clear, making Garrett swallow. Maker, I hope I know what I'm doing.

"But, son, you don't have to-"

Garrett turned, eyes finding his mother's...and her protest died in her throat. "I do, and I will." With that, he turned his head, looking across the many around him, men and women in armour, shifting in nervousness at the order that would come. He raised his voice, wanting to be heard. "You are Fereldians! You are Orlesians! You are Rivaini and Nevarrans! There's even two of you from the Anderfels!" There were a few blinks of surprise. Again, surprised I keep track of you? You ought to be used to it by now. "But you are also Kirkwallers! Remember that! This is our city!"

Behind him, he could feel Varric's eyes on him, urging him on.

For a moment, he struggled for words, yet when they came, they came easily. "Six of you died for me an hour ago! Six good men and women, our friends." There were a few whimpers and growls as what many had feared was confirmed, that six of the best and most liked of the soldiers were dead. "I intend to make the Qunari repay this with interest!"

The answer to his shout was an angry roar, a roar of agreement. Behind him, Varric was nodding in approval.

Garrett's smile was grim, his confidence growing. I can still turn this around, make the disaster become a boon...

The thought made his smile widen.

Good.

8

8

8

Thanks to Abydos Jackson, for the raiding.