"Congratulations, Pathfinder,"the voice was inside her head; soft, quietly controlled, and without emotion. It chilled her to the bone, made her skin crawl, and immediately her heart began beating wildly out of control, hammering against her ribs as though trying to break free. She tasted metal, mouth tingling, limbs trembling; fear. "A great day for us all," the Archon continued in that same measured tone, taunting her.

Pain knifed through her skull and Sara dropped her gun to the floor with a clatter to bring both hands up to her chin, fingers fumbling in her haste to unfasten her helmet and pull it off. She couldn't breathe, the helmet was constricting, had to get it off. It dropped from nerveless fingers as she staggered when the floor tilted dangerously beneath her feet. Images flashed into her mind; the Archon stood before SAM node on Ark Hyperion, looking up at the glowing white-blue image of SAM, but the image was distorted, corrupted somehow. She brought one hand up to her forehead, pressing hard as though that could push away the pain and the bizarre duel visuals, screwed her eyes shut tight, but the images stayed.

It felt like claws were buried inside her brain, tearing her head apart. Sara dropped to her knees, clutching at her head in agony. Even her rasping breath caused spikes of agony to drill through her skull.

"SAM? Tempest? What is going on?!" She cried desperately, words merging into a scream of pain as white-hot barbs needled further into her brain.

When she looked up again she was no longer surrounded by gloomy remnant ruins, but hard rock and a sky that was rapidly clearing of clouds, brilliant blue and warm light filtering through the cover. Habitat 7. She wore her armour, but her helmet was lost, no-where to be seen. She had only a moment to register surprise before her lungs seized. Her breath caught in her throat as she attempted to suck in toxic air. Tears blurred her vision as her eyes began to stream. This was wrong.

"I believed you a fitting rival,"

This was all wrong.

"But you are a false thing. A lie."

Her vision began to fracture with light and grow dark around the edges as her body cried for oxygen. There was a pressure in the centre of her chest, building with each moment she tried to breathe. Her lungs were working, air scraping her throat raw but doing nothing to stop her suffocating.

"We don't have that long."

Sara's head snapped up at the voice, so familiar, so comforting, long gone unheard. She blinked tears from her eyes and stared up into the concerned gaze of her father as he struggled down onto his knees before her, supporting one leg with a hand clamped to his injured thigh.

"Dad?" Sara choked out as her chest spasmed. She fell forwards as a wave of dizziness crashed over her, only just throwing out her hands in time to brace herself. Her body desperately screaming now for oxygen, but no matter how much air she tried to drag into her lungs, there was nothing breathable in that toxic cloud. Her throat and airways burned and caused her to cough painfully. Her pulse throbbed in her head, heart raging desperately as she was slowly choked.

But that was nothing compared to the stab of emotion she felt at seeing her father. Her chest ached and the tears in her eyes were no longer solely due to the stinging air. She felt a lump building in her throat, pride swallowing it down.

Alec Ryder disengaged the locks on his helmet and pulled it from his head, turning the armour over in his hands and slipping it over his daughter's head. He sealed it to her armour as she looked up at him in surprise.

"Dad, what are you-"

Sara yelped and recoiled as she found the Archon's face before her.

"It's useless to struggle," he told her, pale silvery eyes taking in her startled expression with glee. Habitat-7 gave way to the dark corridor deep with the Archon's flagship. Where he had stabbed that transmitter into her neck. Where she had died.

"I-I killed you," Sara managed to choke out, a futile rebellion meant to bolster her. Her limbs felt numb and tears were still wet upon her cheeks. "You lost. You have no power over me." She willed herself to believe the words but couldn't. She was weak, powerless, at the mercy of a dead alien.

The Archon's mouth twisted into a cruel smile and he gestured with one three-clawed hand.

"And yet, here you are," he sneered. Sara felt her muscles lock and knew, without looking, that she was trapped once again in the immobilising field the Archon had used the first time. "What would your father say, to see you here now?" He slowly paced around the trapped Pathfinder, a predator circling its prey. "Pathetic," he paused in front of her again and leaned in close. Sara felt a shudder of disgust run through her but was unable to look away. "Useless."

Sara grit her teeth. She could see well enough the disappointment in her father's eyes.

Explosive pain ripped through her skull once again, blinding her temporarily and bringing her to her knees. She forced her eyes open as her ears rang, and knelt, choking for breath, once again in Khi Tasira. Her pulse throbbed in her neck, pounded in her head, as spots danced before her eyes.

"Fall to darkness, Pathfinder. You were almost worthy."

Sara jerked awake with a yelp and struggled upright, fighting against constricting blankets that had coiled about her as she tossed and turned. Her chest heaved as she gasped for breath, sucking in great lungfuls of air as though surfacing after too long spent under water, or time spent without a helmet in an unbreathable atmosphere… Her heart raged against her ribs, pulse thrumming so hard she felt almost as though she couldn't breathe despite her gasping breaths. Her hands trembled as she seized the covers in a white-knuckled grip and cold sweat dampened her skin, sticking her long hair to the back of her neck. She recognized the fluttering in her chest, the inability to feel like her heaving lungs were drawing air. Panic. Cold and primal.

Suvi stirred in the bed beside her, roused by the sudden movement, and was immediately wide awake when she saw the state of the Pathfinder. Her eyes snapped open and she pushed herself up on one elbow.

"Hey, shhh, it's okay," she said gently and reached up to pull Sara back down into the bed, "it's okay. Look at me," she cupped Sara's cheek with one hand, shuffling closer as Sara turned her head to stare at her with wide eyes. "I'm here, you're okay."

Sara gripped Suvi's upper arm hard with icy fingers. Suvi expertly hid a wince of pain, keeping her eyes on Sara's and brushing the pad of her thumb beneath one startlingly blue eye.

"Deep breaths," she murmured, Sara's laboured breathing steering dangerously close to hyperventilating. Sara did as ordered, staring desperately into Suvi's turquoise eyes and relaxing the iron grip she had on the redhead's arm.

It didn't take long to calm her. It was far from the first nightmare Sara had woken from around Suvi as the Pathfinder's brain continued to process the events of the past few months. Things had moved so fast since arriving in Andromeda…

Suvi pressed her palm over Sara's heart, feeling the beat grow steady, her chest rising and falling slowly as she took deep calming breaths.

"Okay?" She asked softly, eyebrows raised slightly in question.

Sara inhaled slowly through her nose and let it out through her mouth, giving Suvi a shy smile, embarrassed as always.

"Okay," she said quietly, and rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling, though it was lost to the shadows. The room was dark still, though lighter than the shadows of dead of night. It must be near dawn. "Thanks."

Suvi rubbed a palm against Sara's stomach in answer, knowing by now the futility in telling the Pathfinder she didn't need to say 'thanks'. She stilled her hand, enjoying the warmth of Sara's bare skin against her fingers as she watched her and waited to see if Sara would relate the events of her nightmare.

"What time is it?" Sara asked eventually, voice still gravelly from sleep.

"Tempest time or Kadara time?" Suvi asked playfully, propping her head in her palm. Sara turned her head to raise an eyebrow and lay a hand over Suvi's on her stomach, fingers brushing Suvi's wrist.

"The time is 5:04am on Kadara," SAM answered quietly instead from the speakers mounted in the ceiling of her room. "The sunrise is at 5:41am. Would you like me to untint your windows, so you can watch?"

Sara was quiet a moment as she contemplated, watching the ceiling again. She was unlikely to go back to sleep now. She glanced at Suvi in question, who shrugged in response.

"Sure, SAM," Sara replied. The shadows began to soften as the tint darkening the wide window that wrapped half her quarters faded. Weak pre-dawn light coloured the room in shades of grey as Sara looked at the view outside and heaved a sigh. "The beautiful sights of Kadara Port," she commented.

Outside, landing lights shone white beneath ships and shuttles of all shapes and sizes as dock workers loaded or unloaded cargo. In the distance, the mountains were just becoming visible against a lightening sky, jagged shadows against a flat grey backdrop.

"It could be worse," Suvi said, laying her head on Sara's chest. "Will you be going back to the outpost today?"

"I don't think so," Sara's fingers went to Suvi's hair, tousled from sleep and pleasantly soft against her skin.

The Tempest had docked in Kadara the previous evening for an unscheduled visit to Ditaeon, the outpost currently lacking a landing zone that could accommodate anything larger than a supply shuttle. While humanity had a home now in Port Meridian (path successfully found) Sara's work was far from over. The Andromeda Initiative's Pathfinders were a symbol. Months after the Meridian core had been brought back online there were still pockets of kett resistance that needed flushing out, exiles still caused havoc for Initiative outposts. The Pathfinders and their teams were still needed.

"We'd just be getting in the way, I think. Today is for relaxing," Sara turned her head to press a kiss against Suvi's forehead, closing her eyes in bliss and smiling against her warm skin.

"Oh, well, in that case," Suvi said, tipping her head back to grin at Sara, "I have some ideas…"

Her lips had barely brushed Sara's when an omni-tool pinged with a comms request, beginning the repeated beeping that wouldn't stop until it was answered.

Sara groaned in response and buried her face in Suvi's neck, pressing against her deliciously warm body. "Suvi, make it stop…" she whined against the hollow of her girlfriend's shoulder. Suvi glanced over at the bedside table, watching the omni-tool beep and flash for attention.

"That one's yours," she said.

"What? No, it isn't!" Sara protested, still hiding. It would be Director Tann demanding she deal with some bureaucratic crap, she just knew it. Then, somewhat sulkily, "how do you know?"

"Because you threw mine over there when Kallo tried to speak to me last night," Suvi gestured across the room towards the black wristband on the floor by Sara's desk. Sara peeped over her shoulder at it.

"He shouldn't have interrupted smoochie time then," she grumbled, then sighed and reached across Suvi to pick up her omni-tool and snap the band over her arm. She rolled onto her side and held her arm in front of herself as the glowing orange gauntlet flared to life. She accepted the call and answered irritably, "yes?"

"About time!" Sloane Kelly snapped back in the same surly tone. Sara blinked in surprise at the angry face in front of her, annoyance visible even through the flickering of a downsized holo image.

"Morning, Sloane…" Was the ruler of Kadara pissed that Sara had been docked there for over twelve hours now without so much as a message sent her way? No, Sloane didn't care about pleasantries. This was definitely something else. Sara had a bad feeling…

"Don't you 'morning' me, Ryder! I've been trying to get hold of you for ages. The Hell are you doing, anyway?" Suvi peered curiously over Sara's shoulder, garnering a frosty once over. "Right."

"What?! No!" Suvi blushed furiously. "We weren't-"

"What do you want, Sloane?" Sara interrupted, wanting to get the conversation over with as quickly as possible.

"How quickly can you get here?"

"Pretty quick considering I'm still docked here…"

"Good."

"Wh-" Sloane killed the connection. "Well, she's clearly not a morning person." Sara let her crooked arm drop back to the covers as the omni-tool went dead and rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling, trying to figure out if Sloane was an afternoon or evening person either. "Wonder what that was all about…?"

"You'll have to ask her when you see her," Suvi said, lying on her side with her head propped against her palm, watching her. Sara wrinkled her nose in dismay.

"I hate how she just assumes I'll up and go," she muttered.

"But you will," Suvi said, drawing lazy patterns against Sara's stomach with one forefinger, following the defined planes of her abs and curving her hand around one hip, "because she wouldn't ask if she didn't need you."

Sara gave an agitated groan and rolled to press her head against Suvi's shoulder again, unwilling to agree with that logic but knowing she had to. "Why do you always have to be right?"

Suvi just laughed and kissed the top of her head fondly. "Come on, get up," she said, pulling away and moving to climb out of bed.

Sara wrapped both arms around Suvi's stomach and pulled her back. "No, Suviiiiii," she protested, arms locked tight, so the other woman couldn't escape.

"Sara…" Suvi used her warning tone, hands resting atop Sara's forearms as she glanced back, one eyebrow raised. She felt Sara's arms loosen around her middle.

"Fine," Sara pouted, letting her go. Suvi climbed to her feet and laced her fingers behind her head, arching her back in a luxurious stretch. When she looked back at Sara to see if she was moving yet she was greeted with a salacious grin. "No, please, continue. Don't let me stop y-mmph!" Suvi whipped the pillow out from beneath Sara's head and threw it at her.

"You're impossible!" She cried but couldn't help a laugh. Sara never failed to make her feel attractive, or wanted, or loved, even, though they had yet to broach that subject. She welcomed those feelings, even at times like this when she needed to coerce Sara out of bed and off to some important meeting. Her work had taken over her life and it had been…a while since she had experienced such things. Well over six-hundred years. The thought brought an amused smile to her lips.

Sara bunched the pillow up and stuffed it back behind her head, folding her arms beneath it to prop herself up and watch Suvi hunt around the room for clothes carelessly discarded the night before.

"Sara, where's my bra?" She asked, straightening with her crumpled red-and-white uniform held in her arms.

Sara frowned at her in confusion. "What? How should I know?" She asked.

Suvi raised an eyebrow. "Well, you had it last," she said pointedly.

Sara blushed. That was right. "Uh, I threw it that way…" She mumbled, pointing vaguely towards the sofa across the room. Suvi crossed over to it and vanished behind it for a moment.

"Got it!" She stood up and grinned at Sara, who lounged in bed still. And she knew just how to get her up… "Now, I'm going for a shower. You're welcome to join me if you actually get out of bed…"

Sara was on her feet in seconds. Suvi turned away to hide a smug smile. It was the sure-fire way to get her out of bed. Worked like a charm every time.

"You should have said that before!"


Kadara Port had once been a respectable trading hub for the angara. Then the kett arrived and the war began. The angara suffered years of oppression until Sloane Kelly and her band of Nexus exiles found them. Sloane and her people reduced the kett presence to a few heads on pikes in the port and business resumed as usual. Sort of. Sloane appointed herself ruler of Kadara and word spread through Andromeda. Exiles flocked to the port. Violence and crime and violent crime became the way of life as pirates, smugglers and mercenaries made Kadara their home.

It wasn't all bad though. Sloane seemed to be doing a pretty good job of keeping things relatively under control now that the Charlatan was out of the picture. No more turf war meant Kadara was fairly peaceful for once. The only thing residents had to worry about was Outcast shakedowns.

Or at least, the early morning made it seem that way. The rising sunstar was warm on her back as it heaved itself over the mountains, chasing away the deep blue sky of night with fingers of warm pink and rose gold that just touched the tops of the highest of the ramshackle buildings of the port. Few people were about at such an hour of the day and, in true Kadara fashion, they completely ignored Sara as she made her way towards Outcast HQ to meet with Sloane. Or, rather, that was where Sara assumed Sloane was as the woman had neglected to mention that part.

She was still worried about what it was exactly that Sloane wanted to talk about, though Suvi had done her best to take Sara's mind off it. That, and the nightmare that stubbornly resisted all attempts to push it to the back of her mind. She shook her head, cast aside her concerns and focussed on the walk through a slowly awakening Kadara.

No, she wouldn't let any of that taint her day.

"Took your time," Sloane said tersely when Sara approached her glorified throne, flanked by two of her guards. She could hear the soft click of armour plates moving against each other as they walked behind her, the quiet ring of metal links moving on weapon straps as they held their rifles across their bodies. It was an empty threat. They knew who Sara was. But Sloane Kelly liked people to know who held the power here.

Sloane sat sideways, back supported by one armrest, her feet up on the other. Sunlight slanted through half-drawn blinds behind her, dust motes swirling lazily through the shafts like tiny specks of gold.

Sara responded with a sarcastic curtsey. "So sorry, your majesty!" She announced, brow creased in overly dramatic apology. "See, on the way here I had to stop by the Nexus to help escort a granny to the shops, and then on Eos a cat was stuck in a tree, and-"

"Shut up, Ryder."

"Of course, your majesty." Sara dropped the hand she had been counting her excuses on and adopted a deferential expression, head tilted, eyes downcast.

Sloane glared daggers at her. Sara's face was the picture of innocence. Her eyes flicked up to meet the queen of Kadara's gaze. Mis-matched eyes cold and angry. Sloane gave a snort of bitter laughter.

"It's good to see you again," she muttered finally, looking away momentarily. Sara watched her curiously. Sloane didn't like asking for help and Sara could see she was wrestling with her pride. She felt a prickle of trepidation in the base of her stomach. Something bad had happened. "I did you a solid, coming to Meridian and fighting the kett. So now you'll do the same for me, right?" She looked up at Sara, eyes hard as though daring her to object.

Sara shrugged and spread her arms, palms up.

"Sure. I'm here to return the favour," she said, letting her arms drop to her sides. Sloane hesitated again. "Why am I here, Sloane?" Sara pushed.

Sloane studied her a moment longer before she sighed and twisted in her chair to drop her feet to the floor with a heavy thunk.

"The Charlatan is back," she said grimly, resting her forearms on her thighs. "And he's here, somewhere on Kadara."

Sloane watched Sara quietly, waiting for her revelation to sink in. The Charlatan, Reyes Vidal, had returned to Kadara after fleeing months before when his attempt to murder Sloane and seize control of the port had failed. Sara had shot him in the back during his escape and they had heard nothing more of him save for one whiny email sent to Sara on the Tempest, confirming both his survival and his ability to hold a grudge.

Sara blinked at Sloane, clearly not having expected that to be the reason she had been rudely dragged out of bed that morning.

"Wait, wait, wait," she waved her hands in front of herself in protest. "Back up there. The Charlatan is back? Reyes?" That slimeball. That using, backstabbing piece of-

"Yep." Sloane's tight voice was edged in anger.

Sara hesitated. "How do you know?"

"Come with me," Sloane rose up to her feet and began walking away, across the room, leading Sara back out into the corridor outside. "I hope you skipped breakfast."