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Kaidan continued to stare at his omnitool, unable to believe it could be accurate. Every Alliance soldier's dog tags were embedded with a tracker and biometric monitor. A soldier's tags were the one thing they were never supposed to be without, making it a convenient way for squadmates to keep tabs on one another and in the worst circumstances, find fallen comrades in the field. Ever since Shepard rejoined the Alliance, Kaidan had enabled special alerts on her signal in particular. He called over his shoulder, "Vega, come over here. Take a look at this."

Groaning, James stood up and brushed the dirt from his backside. He slowly made his way up the ridge toward the major's position. Once he saw the concerned look on Kaidan's face, he quickened his pace. "What's up? Did you get more intel on that army encampment?"

"Yeah, bad news. It's about a thousand of what I'm guessing are darkspawn, and they're going where we're going," Kaidan said grimly. "But that's not what I'm worried about."

"Not concerned about having a date with darkspawn? This ought to be good," Vega snorted.

Kaidan pulled up his omnitool's display for Vega to see. "Apparently, there's something out there with Shepard's tracking signal. I can't figure out what it could be, though. All Alliance signals are encrypted; it's not something that could be duplicated. Or maybe this thing is glitching out on me."

James squinted at the small 3D rendering of their surroundings and the persistent blinking dot supposedly showing Commander Shepard's location. He pulled up his own omnitool and, scrolling through the list of fellow squadmates, came to Shepard's name. As he attempted to track her signal himself, he received a familiar error:

Unable to verify permissions. Access denied.

"Damn it." He stared at the message dejectedly. "I'm just a lowly lieutenant, Major. I didn't get a chance to finish my Spectre training because I was too busy kicking Reaper ass. Otherwise, I could see if mine is picking up the same signal."

Kaidan held out his hand. "Give it to me. If there were ever a time for special permissions, it's now." As Vega watched, Kaidan opened the bios and entered his Alliance ID. "Alpha Delta 246 Foxtrot 82. Level N5 clearance granted."

"Really?" Vega said. "Only N5? Come on."

Kaidan sighed. "Focus, Lieutenant." Opening up the tracking module, he switched Vega's settings to "Track All". After taking a minute to scan the area, two signals were found:

COMMANDER A. SHEPARD LOCATION SYNCED.

VITAL SIGNS CRITICAL.

ADMIRAL D. ANDERSON LOCATION SYNCED.

VITAL SIGNS STABLE.

NAVIGATE TO A SIGNAL? (Y/N)

Both men stared in shock at the omnitool's display. Enabling the tracker for the Admiral on Kaidan's own device rendered the same results. "Are you serious?" Vega exclaimed. "What the hell is going on?"

Kaidan's heart began to pound. "Let's think about this. We know that Shepard and Anderson were the only ones to make it through to the beam. Is it possible that when she activated the Catalyst, it somehow transported both of them here before it exploded?"

Vega shook his head. "The hell if I know. The odds of us being here are already in the 'impossible' category, so why not? I'm willing to believe anything at this point." He slid back down the ridge to the makeshift campsite and began to strap on his gear. "Come on, Alenko. I already know there's no way we're sleeping tonight if Shepard and Anderson are out there somewhere. Let's beat those darkspawn bastards to Ostegar."

I had been running for what seemed like an eternity through this stupid forest and there was no end in sight. I was beginning to forget how I had gotten here or what I was doing before. Voices were scattered all around me, making me lose all sense of direction.

"Shepard."

"Shepard."

Finally, there was one voice that began to draw nearer, stating my name over and over like a mantra. I recognized the raspy intonations and began to squint through the trees, desperate to find Thane Krios. As I followed the sound, I was suddenly in a clearing overlooking the temple ruins in the Wilds. The place I was found.

"Thane! Thane, I'm here! Can you hear me? Thane!" As I turned around to call out again, he appeared directly in front of me, exactly how I remembered him with his strong form, his penetrating gaze. Startled at first, I took a step back, falling into the leaves. He knelt beside me, holding out his hand and pulling me into a warm embrace that I gratefully returned.

"Shepard, this place isn't meant for you," he said gravely. "The longer you stay, the more entrapped you will become."

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I hugged him tightly. "Thane, is it really you? I've missed you so much. I finally got all of your messages, after you died. I never got the chance to tell you…even though Kaidan and I…I hope you know that I still loved you."

He pulled away and held my shoulders fast. "Stop, Shepard. Do not let your mind wander or you will become entangled. Concentrate. You are the strongest woman I know. Use that strength to break free of this place." He looked toward the ruins and pointed at the beacon, a black pillar blotting out even the darkness of the forest beyond. "You must return to the beacon, but powerful demons lay in wait for you. You cannot defeat them alone."

"Why?" I cried. "What do they want with me? Why am I a target?" Out of the corner of my eye, I began to see shapes moving through the trees and fire burning in the distance.

Shaking me, he forced me to hold his gaze. "Look at me, Shepard! Do not give in to despair. You are the only one with the power to defeat the Reapers once and for all. End the terrible cycle forever in this land. That is why they seek to destroy you; they fear your power over them."

I shook my head, confused. "Power? It was the Crucible that had the power to stop the Reapers, not me! Tell me what to do. Tell me how!"

At that moment, the ground began to shake beneath my feet and crack wide, monsters crawling out of the abyss. Thane drew his pistol and fired in rapid succession, trying to draw them away. "Hurry, Shepard! There isn't time left!"

"Thane!" Arming myself with an assault rifle, rage overtook me as I charged them headlong to save him. Just as I felt myself being pulled under, Mordin Solus was at my side, demolishing the demons in his wake and laying down suppressive fire. He grabbed me roughly by the arm, hauling me up and shoving me toward the ruins. "Learn how to control your power, Shepard! Now go!"

"What power?" I cried in anguish. I couldn't bear seeing my friends overwhelmed by these fiends, but when I tried to turn back, to run to their aid, a strong grip began dragging me in the opposite direction. "What the hell are you doing, Shepard? Run, damn it! Run!" I stumbled to my feet as another long-lost comrade, Ashley Williams, fired her rifle and sprinted toward the temple, clearing a path to the beacon. I looked back one last time to see Thane and Mordin fighting fiercely to keep the demons at bay. "I love you, Shepard!" Thane cried. "If you still love me, you'll go! Quickly!"

Against my will, I tore my gaze away from them and toward the beacon, now straight in front of me. I began to run as fast as I could, determined not to waste the opportunity Ashley had given me. Reaching for the black granite, I screamed in pain as it seared the flesh of my hand. The forest began to fade, and I could hear the howls of hell screeching, infuriated…

I awoke to the sound of my own cry, my hand burning in agony. I clutched it to my chest, afraid to look at the damage that had been done. Alistair, who must have been directly outside my room, rushed to my side. "Shepard? Shepard! Thank the Maker, you're awake! Are you alright? How do you feel?" Slowly prying my hands apart, I looked down to see nothing out of the ordinary. The pain was dissipating swiftly as I regained more of my bearings.

"Alistair…" I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes and with his help, tentatively sat up to stretch my muscles. "I'm…fine. At least I will be." I took a few deep breaths, trying to clear my mind and bring my emotions under control.

"You were screaming…are you sure you're alright?" As Alistair looked me over to assess if I was truly well, I noticed dark circles outlining his blood-shot eyes.

"How long have you been waiting for me to wake up?" I asked him. "You look spent." But he didn't hear me; he was too busy giving the guard outside my door orders. Upon recalling the vision of the Prothean beacon, my heart raced. Those demons had almost succeeded in killing me in my sleep, and they definitely didn't want anyone else to know of what I had learned. I had to warn these people of what they were truly up against, and soon.

Leaning on Alistair for support, I slowly came to my feet, taking tentative steps to regain my sense of balance. I must have been out for a day at least. Before I could go very far, Irving and Wynne were rushing in to check on me. Wynne hurried to my side, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and urging me to sit down again. "You've finally awoken, thank the Maker. Alistair, how long has she been conscious?"

"Not long. I called for you immediately." He was still by my side, never taking more than a few steps away. "Is she okay, Wynne? Is she…alone?

"Alone? What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Did you dream while you were asleep? Were you tempted by anything? How did you wake up?" Irving interrogated.

Tempted? I thought back to the demon pretending to be Kaidan, how easy it would have been to remain in his arms if that strange woman wouldn't have intervened. I thought of Thane, Mordin, and Ashley, and how I would have probably been trapped in that forest forever if they hadn't come to my rescue. "I had vivid dreams, if that's what you mean. I...found my way back to the temple ruins, to the beacon. I reached out for it and that's when I was able to wake up." Turning her full attention to me, Wynne checked my condition. She reminded me so much of Dr. Chakwas that a fresh pang of yearning for my crew shot through me.

Irving came to stand beside Wynne. "Tell me more about these dreams."

"I...I was back home. It all seemed so real." I gratefully accepted the food and drink that had just arrived. "Then someone came to me, told me that I was dreaming and that I had to wake up. She fought for me, rescued me. I didn't recognize her, though. Friends of mine who had died in the war, they came to my aid and cleared a path toward the beacon. It was all so real…."

"Did a mage enter the Fade during the ritual?" Wynne asked.

Irving shook his head. "No, I forbade it. It was far too dangerous. Whatever had Shepard in its grip was too powerful for a mage to stand against alone."

Wynne finished her inspection of me. "We had to gather all of the mages we could find to stabilize you. Even then, we weren't sure it was going to be enough. We thought you were lost to us, but against all odds, you have awoken."

"Perhaps it was Andraste herself and the spirits of your friends who truly saved you," Irving replied. "In any case, I sense no malevolent presence surrounding her now. As best I can tell, she is herself."

Wynne nodded. "Whomever it was who intervened for you, we are grateful to have you back with us. Alistair has been pacing the halls so much he was likely to run a rut through the stone."

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why that man felt so much responsibility for me. "How long have I been out?"

"You've been asleep for four days," Wynne answered.

"Four days!" The beacon on Eden Prime had only knocked me out for 15 hours. This one was even more powerful than the first I had encountered. "I need to tell you...there is something you have to know about the archdemon. It isn't what you think."

At that moment, Duncan arrived, out of breath from running here as quickly as he could. "Thank the Maker you're awake!"

"Yes, yes, we're all grateful to the Maker. Shepard was about to tell us something important. Go on," Irving prodded.

Where to start? "What you fight isn't just an archdemon…an old god, as you say. Where I come from, that 'old god' is known as a Reaper. The very things we were fighting a galactic war to stop."

"Yes, you told us about your war against these 'Reapers' when you first arrived," Alistair said. "How do you know this?"

"That black pillar we found near the temple ruins, I've seen them before although they're extremely rare," I explained. "It's a beacon built by a race known as the Protheans; they were wiped out by the Reapers centuries ago."

Alistair was deep in thought. "So you're saying that the archdemons you were fighting back on Earth are the same ones we've been fighting for thousands of years, Blight after Blight?"

Duncan frowned. "Here, the only way to defeat an archdemon is at the hand of a Grey Warden. How did you stop them?"

"Honestly, it took all of the races of the galaxy to defeat them," I replied. "We had to construct a massive weapon called a Crucible to wipe them all out once and for all. But if there are Reapers here, it must not have worked. I didn't exactly stick around to find out for sure. As soon as I activated it, I ended up here."

"So, we are back where we started," Duncan stated matter-of-factly. "The horde is nearly upon us. There is no more time to wait." He turned to face me. "There is something you must know. Since the day you touched the beacon, the darkspawn have disappeared. While some held out hope that what you had done had defeated them, we knew better. As Grey Wardens, we have a connection with the archdemon's thoughts and actions. Do not ask how because it does not matter. What does matter is that it is bent on a new purpose: destroying you. And it has gathered all of the forces it can muster to march upon Ostegar to find you."

"You are important to the archdemon, which means you're the key to destroying it somehow," Alistair continued. "Do you have any idea why?"

I pursed my lips, trying to think back to what Thane had told me. The details of what I had experienced were fading quickly. "In the dream, one of my companions told me that the Reapers fear me. That I'm the only one with the power to defeat them and end the cycle of the Blights once and for all. But he didn't tell me why or how. And in any case, it was just a dream."

"It wasn't just a dream, Shepard," Wynne stated. "You were in the Fade, a place where the living and spirits intermingle. Every living being enters the Fade when their spirit leaves their body after death or mentally when they dream. Usually, only mages can recall their time in the Fade. You are an interesting exception."

"So you're saying that what I saw was real?" I asked.

"Not exactly," Wynne replied. "If you'd like to learn more, I can teach you. But suffice it to say that what you experienced while in the Fade may be vital to finding out why you are so important to the archdemon."

I paused, trying to concentrate. "I can't remember much else. But it's nice to know the entire darkspawn horde is targeting me. I think I'll just stay awake from now on."

Alistair serious tone caught me by surprise. "They'll have to come through me first."

I chuckled to lighten the mood. "If I recall, it was your ass I was covering back in the woods."

"My good woman," he replied, "it's very unladylike to talk about covering another man's mule."

Duncan was not amused. "We must speak with King Cailen and Teryn Loghain to inform them of what we face. Try to rest, for tomorrow, the true battle begins."