Good news dear readers, more blood!

Thank you Eb0ny Dragon for co-writing and being my beta. Here's the link to her page: u/4513987/Eb0ny-Dragon

Disclaimer: Everything is owned by Bioware except for my Hawke character and Valkyrie belongs to Eb0ny Dragon.

- Enjoy and please review.

The small group descended down the stairs with caution, weapons ready to strike at anything that moved too quickly. Valkyrie and Fenris split from the group while the others headed straight for the captain's quarters. Upon arriving at their destination without any further sign of human life, Hawke reached for the door handle, testing if it was unlocked with Anders ready to freeze anyone that jumped at out at her. Hawke pushed at the heavy door but it wouldn't budge.

"Aveline, would you kindly break the door down? And once we get inside, please just wait here and guard the door- I'll call you when he starts talking." Hawke commanded.

Aveline sighed. "Fine, just don't kill him yet."

Hawke grinned, making no promises, and everyone cleared a path for Aveline. Aveline raised her shield and with a running start she rammed her shield into the door along with her entire body weight. The old wood gave way and the unfortunate lackey pirate waiting just behind the door bounced off her shield as she charged through the doorway. Varric sprinted in behind her and shot a bolt at the pirate knocked out on the floor and then launched another into the chest of a second, leaving the pirate leader unguarded.

With an angry cry the pirate leader charged and Hawke rushed to meet his blade with one of her own, quickly jabbing the hilt of the other into his throat. He staggered back with a choked cough and Hawke quickly disarmed him and a flick of her blade. Kicking him in his side, the pirate fell face-first to the ground.

"Aveline restrain him quickly, Anders bind him!" Hawke shouted, grabbing the nearest chair and dragging it to the centre of the room. Lifting him by the arms, the pirate struggled in Aveline's iron grip as she dragged him to the empty chair and roughly threw him in it. Anders stretched his hands towards the pirate captain, his brow furrowing in concentration as four bands of thick ice encased the pirate's limbs to the chair.

"Thanks Aveline." Hawke nodded and Aveline left the room to stand guard outside.

Hawke turned her attention to the now restrained pirate and her lips curved into a sadistic smile.

"Now," she started, walking slowly towards the pirate. She leaned over the man, restraining the urge to wrinkle her nose at his foul, fishy odour. She brought her blade up to his face and without hesitating, made a shallow cut across his neck. His blood oozed out slowly- lucky for him, she had avoided his artery. "Let's start by who hired you? Will you talk or do I make you squeal?" When the pirate did nothing but glare at her, she sheathed her blades and drew a smaller knife, grazing the fingers on his left hand.

"Little bitch!" The pirate spat, his blood splattering on Hawke's face.

Anders raised his staff to defend his woman but Varric held him back and gave him a meaningful look, saying that she could handle herself. Wiping the blood from her face, Hawke sneered and punched the pirate in the jaw with full force. He grunted and spat out a glob of blood, along with what may have been a few teeth.

He gave her a nasty look and she took it as a sign of disobedience so she grabbed his eyelids with her left fingers and opened them wide. She brought the blade slowly up, then touched it gingerly to his madly rolling eyeball. He whimpered, and she dug it in a little more, giving it the slightest of twists. This time he cried out in pain and Hawke twisted her knife further, making him scream more.

"Talk! Or I start chopping your fingers off, one by one!" She snarled.

"Kill me and let it be done." he moaned, blood and jelly from his eye trickling down his cheek. "I've failed my mission so I'm dead either way."

Hawke growled and cut off his thumb and then immediately moved on to another finger until he was left with a bleeding stump. Hawke grinned as he screamed in pain.

"Give us a name and she'll be merciful- give you a swift death." Varric suggested but the pirate just glared daggers at him with his single eye. Hawke stabbed the pirate in the thigh, digging it deep until it was buried up to the hilt. The pirate's roar fizzled into moan and he jerked uselessly in the chair, Ander's ice manacles turning the flesh at his wrists pink.

"Sorry Hawke, I tried." Varric shrugged nonchalantly.

Pulling the blade out Hawke gave a low chuckle, her eyes dark with bloodlust as she ran a lone finger down the dripping blade.

"My dear friend, that was a weak attempt of persuasion." Hawke grinned and sunk the knife into the pirate's other thigh, burying it halfway and slowly cutting flesh downwards till she hit his knee bone.

As the pirate screamed, Varric rubbed his forehead wearily. "You seem to be enjoying yourself, so I suppose there's no real reason for you to stop."

Hawke smirked like a cheshire cat, pulling out the knife and then sticking her fingers into the pirate's fresh wound. She wiggled them inside him and was rewarded with another shriek.

"Will you talk or shall I continue?" Hawke said smugly. "No? Your will is stronger than I expected." She sighed as the pirate shook his head weakly. "Fine, I'll just have to start taking this seriously." Using the knife, Hawke quickly shredded the pirate's filthy shirt and she pressed the blade against his bare chest. Applying more pressure, the blade delved into his flesh and Hawke made a long gash along his pectorals as blood splashed out of the wound.

"Don't worry about bleeding out till you give us everything you know. My mage here is a skilled healer." Hawke motioned in Anders' direction with a slight shift of her head as she tucked the blade back in her boot. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the tiny green phial of poison that Valkyrie had given her. She gave a tiny smile and held in front of the pirate's good eye so that he could see it.

"Do you see this?" She said, shaking it slightly in front of him. "This is poison crafted by a very good friend of mine. It won't kill you- but it will cause you to feel unimaginable amounts of pain. This is your last chance- who are you working for?"

The pirate captain mumbled something, his voice weak.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch it." Snapped Hawke, leaning in so he could talk in her ear.

CRACK!

Hawke jerked backwards as the captain slammed his head into her cheekbone, and she felt Anders' supportive hands on her back. She growled and Anders gently pulled her up, careful not to baby her in front of their hostage. She uncorked the bottle and poured it over her dagger, hearing a satisfying hiss as the green liquid sizzled down the metal.

"You made your choice." She growled, and placed the tip of the dagger on his navel. With agonizing slowness she drew it up his chest, creating a long, thin cut all the way up to his neck. The pirate winced, and Hawke waited a few seconds. Surely it was going to do more than make him wince? Then his one good eye bulged out of its socket, and he screamed at the top of his lungs as a thin sheen of green vapour began to rise from the cut. Impressed by the poisons potency, Hawke began making tiny cuts all over his body- his chest, arms and face were all bleeding profusely in a matter of minutes. The captain's screams were beginning to hurt Hawke's ears, and Aveline had popped her head in several times and scowled at the disturbance.

"Hawke… I think you might have used too much. How can he talk if if he keeps screaming?" sighed Varric. Hawke ignored him and raised the vial towards the trembling pirate's injured eye.

"Talk. Now. Or I'm pouring the rest of this into your eye socket!" she hissed, bringing it dangerously close. The pirate shivered, then gulped and nodded slowly. She pulled back, slightly disappointed. "You'll talk?" she asked suspiciously. He nodded again shakily.

"Y-yes," he rasped, his voice hoarse. "I'll talk."

Valkyrie and Fenris split from the group as they headed for the captain's cabin, instead heading lower into the ship towards the crew's quarters and the brig. They walked silently, but kept their weapons sheathed- neither of them really expected to find anything.

"I doubt any of them were smart enough to stay here when the fighting started." Muttered Valkyrie as they passed an empty storage area.

"I agree." said Fenris. "But we should still be cautious. These narrow passages are no place for a battle."

Valkyrie grunted, and they kept creeping along in silence. She was very aware of how alone they were, and how he'd said before how they weren't going to discuss anything in the presence of others. However, she knew her place- if they were going to discuss what happened between them, it wasn't going to be in the depths of an enemy ship.

They turned another corner and passed what appeared to be the crew's sleeping quarters. Motioning to Fenris, they slunk inside and began to search the room for any concealed pirates, checking under the cramped bunks and even in the rafters. Finding no trace of anyone, they exited the crew's quarters and headed towards the brig.

The silence grew between them, and although it was a comfortable one Valkyrie felt herself longing for the companionable chats they usually had during missions.

"So… thank you for stepping in back there. With that pirate brute." She said quietly as they padded along. There was a short pause, as though he was surprised by her gratitude.

"You are welcome. It was nothing I wouldn't have done before."

Before.

The word seemed to linger in the air between them, and Valkyrie quickly continued.

"Also, I'm sorry I hit you. I shouldn't have taken out my frustrations on you- I was... just embarrassed I was the only one who got hit."

Fenris' gaze darkened behind her, and Valkyrie could practically feel him glowering.

"You shouldn't have had to worry about fire from our side. You'd think after four years of combat the witch would have learned how to aim properly."

"Don't take it out on Merrill," she said, looking over her shoulder. "Anyone would have found it hard to aim in that melee, and she's getting better! She didn't hit you with a stonefist this time."

"I'm still not convinced that was an accident…" he grumbled, but let the issue drop.

For now.

When they reached the brig, the lack of light immediately set them on edge. They stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and Fenris took the lead, his eyes probing into the darkness.

"I can see multiple cells, but they appear to be empty." He paused, and squinted into the blackness. "It's very cramped- if we go through there, there'll be no room to use our weapons."

"I don't suppose we have much choice." Muttered Valkyrie, and she walked past him into the blackness.

"You don't think I should lead, seeing as I have better night vision?" He said from behind her, sounding slightly exasperated. She quickly stopped, and laughed nervously.

"Sorry! I'm just so used to leading whenever I'm not with Jen. Go ahead- but be careful." She stood aside and he brushed past her, and at that moment she stupidly chose to remember his comment about 'always running behind her on missions.'

Glad that the darkness hid both him and her sheepish expression, Fenris led the way through the cells and around the debris strewn on the floor. It was so cramped that her elbows kept hitting the cells on either side, although Fenris, with his superior elven eyesight, didn't make a sound.

When he suddenly halted Valkyrie almost walked into him, stopping only when she came close enough to see his faintly-glowing tattoos. Listening intently, they both heard the faint scuffling sound coming from above them on the rafters. Valkyrie looked down in confusion as she felt Fenris' hand push her gently back and she stepped backwards quietly, curious as to what he was planning. When she had taken five paces backwards she heard Fenris draw in a deep breath, and she suddenly knew what he was going to do. As his tattoos suddenly flared, Valkyrie jumped back to base of the stairs and watched as the lyrium pulsed out of him in a deadly shockwave, lighting the brig in a flash of blue-white light.

The pirate hiding in the rafters gave a horrible shriek as the lyrium flare shot through him, his flesh sizzling as he toppled onto the floor. Valkyrie saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and immediately leaped off the stairs onto the nearest cage. Sure enough, several other pirates had been hiding in the rafters, only becoming visible in the light of Fenris' now dimming tattoos.

"Fenris! There's more of them, I need light!" She shouted, and Fenris clenched his fists as the markings lit up again. She rushed towards the first pirate, stepping nimbly over the bars and going to draw her blades before knocking her elbows on the low beams and cursing.

'I'll have to do this the old fashioned way.' She thought, leaping towards he first pirate who was staring at Fenris in wonder as the elf yanked his hand out of the fallen pirate's chest. Forming a blade with her hand, Valkyrie chopped into the pirate's collarbone and then slammed her open palm into his chin before he could even raise his arms in defence. The man reeled back, stunned, but then his mate charged over the cage next to her with a tiny dagger in his right hand.

'Damn!' She cursed, stepping clumsily backwards as she tried not to fall between the bars. The pirate stepped towards her and thrust the dagger right towards her ribs, and she barely managed to knock it away with an open palm before the other pirate recovered and began to move towards her too. The second pirate lunged with the dagger again, and this time she stepped in close, grabbing his arm with her left hand and slamming an elbow into his face. He yelled in pain and she quickly twisted his wrist, causing the dagger to tumble from his hands and down through the bars. She managed to kick him away- just in time for the second man to tackle her off the cage.

Fenris pulled his hand out of a swarthy woman's head, blood pouring from her nose and ears as she collapsed in a heap at his feet. Kicking away the corpse in disgust, he quickly checked his surroundings- no more pirates. The light from his markings had lit the entire chamber in a pale, eerie light, so when he turned to see how Valkyrie was doing he had a clear view as one of the pirates tackled her from the top of the cage and caused them to both slam into the ground- and another cage. He saw the back of her head crash into the bottom of one of the steel cages, and the pirate on top of her grunted and rolled off her, pulling a dagger from his boot and glaring at her in hatred. Fenris' throat constricted in fear, and with a shout he began to sprint towards them, watching in horror as the dagger plummeted towards Valkyrie's chest.

Her arms shot out, latching onto the pirate's and halting the descent of the dagger- but he could see her arms were shaking, and the blade slowly inched towards her silver breastplate.

Slow enough.

With a roar Fenris slammed into the pirate, wrapping his arms around the man and throwing him off her with all his strength. The man grunted as he crashed into a pile of crates, struggling to rise out of the bits of broken timber as Fenris quickly strode towards him. A terrifying snarl on his face, Fenris curled his hand into a fist and shoved it through the rising pirate's chest, grasping the man's spine and snapping it with a vicious jerk of his hand. A bloody gurgle leaving the man's lips, Fenris dropped him unceremoniously onto the wooden floor and turned to see Valkyrie lunging clumsily towards the last pirate, one of her thin throwing daggers in her hand. The brigand slapped her hand aside and went to ram his fist into her face, only to see her other hand shoot towards his mouth. With an ugly crunch the phial in Valkyrie's fist exploded, the dark, soupy liquid inside shooting into the back of the man's throat. Valkyrie stumbled back a step, and Fenris quickly saw why. The pirate shrieked and clutched at his throat as blood began to drip from his mouth, his cries turning to watery gurgles as he proceeded to choke on his own blood. With a final twitch he collapsed onto the floor, the blood still pumping from his mouth.

Quickly looking around the brig, Fenris' relief at the lack of enemies quickly vanished when Valkyrie swayed and stumbled into a cage, her fingers gasping weakly at one of the bars.

Valkyrie head was swimming as she slumped against the cage, trying (and failing) to get a good grip on the bars. The back of her head was throbbing in time with her heartbeat, and her vision had faded into a dull, blue-black blur. She felt her legs wobble and she gritted her teeth, trying to clear her head.

'Hold onto the bars. Pull yourself up. Stand up tall. Shake it off.' She ordered herself, trying to force her body to do something it clearly didn't want to. She was aware of someone talking to her, a deep voice that echoed strangely in her humming ears. She ignored it.

Step one- grab the bars. Done.

Step two- pull yourself up. … … … not done.

She could feel a sticky wetness on her neck now, and the pain was getting worse. A small whine escaped her lips before she clamped them shut, trying with all her strength to just straighten up. The voice was becoming clearer now, more insistent behind her as she struggled. Then, she flinched as she felt someone maneuver themselves under her left arm, grabbing her left hand and holding it firmly. She tried to see who it was, but the blue glow had faded away now and all she could see was a pale silver blur.

"Let me go." She mumbled, although it came out sounding like "Lehmgo."

"So you can fall onto one of the cages again? I think not."

So that's who it was.

Fenris.

"Lehmgo!" She mumbled again, trying to sound more coherent and failing miserably.

"I'm not letting you go until we've found some decent light. You're injured, and I need to see how badly." Even in her dazed state Valkyrie could hear the worry in his voice, and a small part of her hated him for it.

Fenris supported most of her weight as they shuffled towards the stairs, his left hand holding her wrist firmly against his shoulder and his right wrapped supportively around her waist. When they reached the foot of the stairs Valkyrie bravely began to hop up them, Fenris shuffling alongside her with an expression that was a mixture of concern and pained admiration. Her head pounded with every step, and as they ascended into the dim lamplight Fenris could see the colour was almost gone from her face.

"Here," he said, pulling her into a small niche in the wall, the stool beside it indicating it had been used to watch over prisoners in the brig. As soon as Fenris let go of her, Valkyrie stumbled onto the stool and groaned as her neck gave a particularly nasty throb. She reached behind her head to touch the wound, only to have Fenris grasp her wrist and push it back gently.

"I wouldn't advise touching it yet Valkyrie. Let me have a look at it."

"You don't need to," she muttered, pulling her hand down out of his grasp. "I just need a poultice and I'll be fine."

She heard him huff in annoyance, and through her blurry mind, she suddenly saw how petty she was being.

"I'm sorry Fenris, I'm just… tired. Please, take a look if you want." She pulled her low ponytail aside, wincing as hairs that had been stuck in the wound were dragged out. She heard nothing for a few seconds, then a soft curse in Tevene that she didn't understand.

"How bad is it?" She asked, grimacing as he cleared away the last few strands of blood-matted hair.

"You do not want to know what I just said." he said darkly. "I'll apply a poultice. Hopefully it will suffice until we can get the mage to heal you properly." He pulled one of the poultices that Anders kept them supplied with from a pouch in his belt, unwrapping it and filling their little corner with sweet, woody scent of herbs.

"The wound is deeper than I expected, so this will hurt until we get above deck." He said carefully, positioning it above the deep gash just above the base of her neck.

"I doubt it can get much worse." She grumbled. "Go ahead." Deciding that he'd best get it over with quickly, Fenris pressed the poultice to her wound and held it there firmly, a hand hovering stealthily above her shoulder incase she flinched away.

The dull throbbing pain was immediately eclipsed by the sharp, acute sting of the poultice. Valkyrie indeed flinched, but instead of pulling away she placed her hand over Fenris', holding the poultice firmly in place.

"Thanks." She winced. Fenris' eyes widened as he looked at their hands and he quickly pulled his away, leaving Valkyrie to hold it on herself.

"We should get you to Anders. Are you able to walk?" He asked quietly. She looked up at him, her expression being kept carefully blank.

"Yes. I'll be fine on my own."