"So how did you explain away the Normandy's...artillery display?" Shepard asked Admiral Raan. She, Tali, Admiral Raan and Sentinel were walking along the beach stretching out before Legion. The sea breeze had blown the hood of Shepard's ta'hal back from her head. She had asked the quarian's how their ta'hals stayed in place despite one's movement in battle or the whims of the elements and they explained that there were special clips along their suit to stabilize the fabric. Apart from having cultural significance, the ta'hal offered a little more protection of the Quarians' precious suits.

"We told most of the Admirals that some humans on your ship had seen the approaching Reaper below and overreacted." Admiral Raan said, staring out at the sea. "But that their wise Commander, as she did when we were at war with the geth, shouted them out of the sky and made them see that there was no threat. She then stormed aboard her ship and disciplined the trigger happy members of her crew."

Shepard's face grew hot, and not from Rannoch's fierce sun. She had no problem with spreading stories of trigger happy humans, there was too much truth in it on a species level, but she couldn't help feel that the way she had been able to forge peace between the geth and the quarians was somehow tainted by association with the disaster she had nearly caused.

She nodded to Admiral Raan. "I can't thank you enough for your wise and diplomatic handling of the situation." she said.

"Keelah se'lai, child," the Quarian said. "You owe me no thanks. Tali explained what happened. It was unfortunate, and you have very surprising abilities, but I am unsurprised that a warrior such as yourself would have such a reaction." She gazed at the spire she had built with the Reapers and geth for a moment. "Our marines who fought with you at Earth had similar difficulties adjusting. All we can do is be patient and hopeful."

Somehow Shepard wasn't comforted by the woman's words. For some reason she felt she didn't have the luxury of time to be patient.

"Admiral Xen and her little spitfire Ka'hari know what really unfolded, of course." Admiral Raan said. "They had been working with Javik up on the hill, and witnessed the incident. But you do not need to worry. Ka'hari has more wisdom than her excitement tends to show, and your only concern regarding Admiral Xen would be her growing desire to plug you into her omni-tool and see how you work." she added, laughing. Shepard was still not comforted.
The sea air was delightful. Most of her shore leave was spent in places like the Citadel or Omega, but rarely, it seemed, had she been able to spend leisure time on planets, and certainly not one as nice as Rannoch's southern continent.

Even after an excellent meal from one of the food stalls in the settlement behind them she still felt worn. Working with Echo had been "incredible" (Shepard could hear Liara's voice echoing the sentiment in her head.) But she had growing concerns. Admiral Xen's perspective troubled her. Echo's sheer size and power filled her with a dose of healthy trepidation, and her own nearly uncontrollable adrenal "fight" reaction plagued her still. She wanted to chide herself for her negativity in the face of the progress she could see all around her. Yet, with so much here to lose, the whispered words terrified her. The peace will not hold.

"I am glad to hear that you too believe that Echo and their fellows deserve a new name." Admiral Raan continued.

"Shepard Commander," Sentinel asked. "After hearing your thoughts on the "Reapers" naming, observing your interaction with them today and seeing your association with the AI EDI, I am very curious to know your thoughts regarding a synthetic seat on the Council.

Oh, hell.

Shepard took a long breath. "Sentinel," she said gazing at his gleaming mechanical form as she walked, "Every fiber of me knows that synthetics deserve a seat at the Council.Probably more than one if you were to really represent the varied forms of synthetic life. I think it's necessary for us to keep peace, necessary for synthetics and organics to grow together as lifeforms, but most of all it is just something you deserve."

"This is encouraging, Shepard Commander." Sentinel said with a nod. "We are grateful for your support."

"But," Shepard added gently; she didn't want to have to crush the geth's newfound feelings, "I am very worried about getting a geth on the Council."

"But Shepard Commander, " Sentinel supplied. "Surely the advocacy of a Spectre-"

"Won't mean shit." she said with a pained laugh. "Sentinel, I'm very sorry but you should know now that I will be a powerful military ally in every way that I can, but when it comes to the Council I'm as good as radioactive waste." Admiral Raan looked at her in confusion. "I'll get their attention eventually, but it'll be almost too late at that point. It was the last two times." she added darkly. "The Council don't like me. I will fight for you to have a seat but I want to warn you that it is going to be very hard and we will likely have to be very, very patient." She stopped for a moment and stared directly at the Geth leader. "And that's me saying that, and I'm not someone who's good at or likes being patient."

There seemed to be a new heaviness to the set of the Geth's shoulders. "I understand your concern, Shepard Commander."

"I don't like it anymore than you do my friend," Admiral Raan said softly. "They have never been interested in giving my people a seat either." She stared at the geth, and a fire shone in the eyes behind her mask. "But I promise I will do all that I can to get one of your people there, so that you can speak for my people, Echo's and all of Rannoch."

The connection between the elder quarian and the geth made Shepard's heart soar and the weight on her shoulders feel very, very heavy. Sentinel nodded it's head once and said quietly. "Keelah."

The three walked in silence for a while, the seaside air thick with the responsibility and dreams they carried. They were approaching a quarian that was holding a bundle of clothes and staring out at something splashing in the water. As they neared, Shepard could make out the details of Tali's ta'hal and heard her friend call out. "You'd better get out here. There is no way I am coming in there for you." she yelled to something splashing in the water.

"Tali," Admiral Raan called, "I know you have picked up some blustery political tactics in all your time hanging around Shepard, but I don't think that you will be able to yell the kelitza out of the sea to feed us."

"I wish that was what I was doing." Tali said, then yelled at the waves "No way am I risking an infection or puncture on my suit to resuscitate your spiney, drowned, ke' sed hide!" She sighed and looked at them. "At least you are here Shepard, you can drag him out and give your idiot gurian mouth-to-mouth and save him once again. Apart from it not being worth the antibiotics," Shepard could just see Tali's nose wrinkle in disgust, "I know he is dextro, but resuscitating him would be like kissing a cousin. Blegh."

Your idiot turian Shepard thought, and then sure enough, a tall form burst from beneath the water. Garrus flung back his head, sending water spraying back from his crest and began wading towards him. She'd never seen him wet before… The water cast the ridges, colar and contours of his carapace in a glaze of silver. He was about up to his thighs in the water and she could see the spines from the back of his legs peeking from the ocean's surface a few inches behind each leg. They sliced through the surf, following him like an escort of tiny sharks. His wet scars were like a gleaming filigree across his body and there was a knowing, predatory gleam in his eyes as they made contact with hers. Shepard felt a little warm. She felt like she should be doing something else or looking at something else but couldn't come up with anything.

"Hey, Shepard." he rumbled as he stepped from the shallows, beginning to leave a trail of two talloned footsteps behind him in the sand. Damn him.

"I thought you'd said seeing a turian swim was a bunch of flailing, splashing, interrupted by bouts of drowning?" Shepard said.

"Oh, you should have seen -" Tali began but Garrus silenced her with a glare as he snatched the fabric from her arms. To Shepard's surprise he began slipping into a ta'hal. This particular one consisted of a hood like hers and three long trails of ornately decorated fabric. One hung down his back, and the other two down along his broad chest. He tied a long belt across his tapered waist. It was like a very, very open robe in a blue very close to that of his clan tattoos with a swirling silver pattern. Beneath it were only his pants, which she could tell he had cut to just above his knee socket, perhaps to make swimming easier….she really needed to stop staring at his pants… and his chest….and his smirking -

She cleared her throat slightly. "Going native, I see? You're not wearing much there. I don't want members of my crew catching a cold. Admiral Raan and the others will kick us out."

"Don't worry about me, Shepard." he said, "The armor was getting stuffy. Rannoch's about fifteen degrees hotter than Palaven's warmer months, so I'll be fine. Besides," he said, stretching luxuriously, damn him! "I could use a tan. And blue's my color so I couldn't pass up an opportunity to support Rannoch's growing economy."

"It's the "Archangel's" color too, isn't it?" said Admiral Raan.

Garrus stumbled a bit in surprise, "Uhh, oh, um? Is it? I wouldn't know. Guess I heard a little about them on Omega," he floundered, his certainty sinking in Admiral Raan's cool, appraising gaze. So this is what a swimming turian looks like. Shepard thought. He was right about the drowning. "But," Garrus added, "From what I heard, seems like he's a pretty cool guy. Be interesting to look into his identity if C-Sec gets up and running again."

Admiral Raan shook her head and began walking back towards Rannoch. "I'm afraid that is one of the poorest kept secrets in the galaxy, my vigilante friend." she called over her shoulder. Tali and Shepard began following her, Sentinel and Garrus bringinging up the rear. Sentinel was looking at Garrus with his head cocked to the side. Garrus glanced at the geth, spread his hands and said, "No idea what she means by that."

"I am eager to be able to try and swim, though." Tali said to Shepard. "It might be a few years before we can risk that elevated level of infection. I have always thought it looked and sounded incredible but we have never been able to maintain a large enough volume of uncontaminated water on any of our ships." She mused, "I'm pretty sure I'll have more success than this sinking pile of chitin."

"Hey, we have Thulium in our carapace so we're not particularly buoyant. I'd like to see you swim in a metal shell."

"Careful, I'm always in a metal shell." Tali snapped, "I could still out-swim you. Besides, the quarians who lived in seaside areas like Legion were meant to be very strong swimmers."

"Swimming's pretty enjoyable." Shepard said. "It's a lot like being in zero-g, but being able to actually propel yourself with your own strength. It's how we used to train for space flight before our ships could generate their own gravity."

Sentinel had moved forward to speak with Admiral Raan and Garrus drew level with Tali and Shepard. "You humans and your damn gravity." He grumbled. "I'm never going to be able to get you off Palaven once we get there."

Shepard frowned at him in confusion but Tali laughed knowingly. "And you can barely hold your own with her in hand to hand combat now." she teased. He scowled at her.

"The hell am I missing here?" Shepard asked.

"Palaven's gravity isn't as strong as either Rannoch's or Earth's." Tali said. "It's part of why they are all so excessively tall." she said.

"Makes sense," Shepard said, "But why is that a problem?"

"Because you have spent most of your life on Earth, Alliance controlled colonies, ships, or the Citadel, which mimics the gravity of the asari homeworld, which is also pretty similar. Your muscles are used to bearing your body and armor's weight in places with heavier gravitational pulls.
"And, apart from giving turian's a headache," Garrus added, "It means that you humans pack an extra punch on our home turf. All the sudden you have the same muscle strength but the world is a little less heavy. It's part of the reason the Relay 314 Incident was so bad for us. A few humans managed to board a few Turian vessels and were able to wreak havoc we weren't prepared for because of the weaker gravity. A human invasion on Palaven was the nightmare of a lot of families for a while there."

"So... I'm gonna be stronger than you?!" Shepard said with a smirk.

"We'll see about that…" he growled.

"Don't worry, Garrus," Tali said, "If you two end up Joining you can take part in a great human matrimonial tradition. And Shepard can carry you across the threshold for your wedding night."

"Careful vas Normandy, or you're going to lose an investor in your vineyard."

"Garrus, that threat is as empty as any of the bottles I sell you will be." Tali said with an eye roll. "And unless you were wondering, your suggestions of "Archangel Vineyards" and "Archangel Coast" were a pretty big give away to the whole Admiralty Board."

"Damn." He muttered, a blue flush creeping across his face. "But in any case, speaking of Joining…" His eyes roved over Shepard. "The ta'hal's a good look on you, Shepard. Brings out your eyes." He smirked, seeing her blush. "But I still think you'd look better in turian ones...something to think about. Anyway, what were you all meeting about?" He asked, maddeningly before Shepard had a chance to react much less process the other issue he had just raised, one they actually hadn't discussed since he was bleeding out under a pile of rubble on the Citadel.

They had meant to talk about the things he'd said on the Citadel, the sawed-off shell casing she had locked away in her cabin, and it's huge implications while she was recovering in the hospital. However, in the wake of discussing the horrible reason she had been able to survive, and the fact that there always seemed to be a friend or an overly curious doctor hanging around, there had never been the right moment. Since they'd begun the trip to Palaven their hands and free time had been kind of full with her nightmares, and now they were on Rannoch….and after last night…

"We are deeply thankful that the Commander is supportive of a synthetic representative being added to the Council." said Sentinel.

Garrus nodded, sighing. "It makes all the sense in the world but it's gonna be a hell of a tough fight. And my sniper rifle isn't going to be of much use in this one." He paused, tensing. "My father might be, though…"

"Your father?" Admiral Raan asked, stopping to look at him.

"Yeah, Castus Vakarian. He was pretty high up in C-Sec and Primarch Victus and Councilor Sparatus are old friends of his." Garrus supplied. "And," he added. "If getting a synthetic seat on the Council is something Shepard believes needs to happen she's got some turian debts to call in. She saved my sorry ass, so my father owes her, she saved Palaven and helped Lieutenant Victus redeem himself, so Victus owes her, and she's saved Sparatus' skeptical ass twice now, so he sure as hell owes her. The other two might be able to remind him of that little fact as well."

"We would all do well to remember her sacrifices." Admiral Raan said softly. Shepard was never going to get used to this shit. She was starting to wonder if it was easier to have people think she was crazy and just start listening when shit hit the fan. Although her track record of not dying from that was pretty poor. Then again... she kept ending up alive again. Did that cancel things out? Admiral Raan could clearly sense her discomfort. The quarian sighed. "I do not envy you my dear." She continued gently. "I sometimes wish, for your sake, that your roll in all this was not as prominently known." She stared at the strands on Shepard's skin, shining in Rannoch's sun. "But it seems the fates have chosen to mark you, so it seems unlikely the Shepard would have ever been able to walk unknown among us." She turned to Garrus, and Shepard was grateful to no longer be under the quarian's piercing gaze.

"General Vakarian," Admiral Raan continued, "We would be grateful for any help you can offer. Especially if you believe you can somehow win the support of Councilor Sparatus. A supportive voice on the Council." she let out a long breath, "It was something I would never have even hoped for. Who knows, perhaps quarian children and newly developed geth will be telling stories and acting out the adventures of the Archangel as well as the Shepard." She said with a knowing smile. Garrus shifted uncomfortably, trying to look like he didn't understand. Shepard snorted. Admiral Raan grinned and continued "Most of the quarians support having Sentinel as the one to join the Council."

"I am honored," Sentinel said, "that you and my fellow geth believe I would be a suitable candidate. Echo and the others of their kind that we have spoken to have expressed much the same. We asked if they would prefer to have one of their own join but, from what we have understood from them, they are not familiar with the races of this cycle or their customs. This makes them uncomfortable. They also fear judgement while bound in their current forms. They felt that a geth was a more effective choice currently."

The group had returned to the bustling streets of Legion and, to Shepard's surprise, saw Javik being pulled along the road by Ka'hari. When she spotted their group she began a mad dash for them, dragging Javik along by the hand behind her. Shepard couldn't believe her eyes. The prothean must be getting soft in his post-war, hundreds-of-millions-of-years old age. Ka'hari stopped before Garrus and babbled breathlessly, "Your armor's gone! So that's your carapace?" she added, head tilted in consideration. "Javik! Which ridge do you stick the knife under to crack it open?"

Shepard tried not to burst out laughing. Garrus' eyes narrowed. "Admiral Raan," he said, staring at the tiny monster before him. "I think I need to talk to the Admiralty Board about drafting this one for the turian military. Are you positive there isn't a tiny, bloodthirsty turian in that suit?"

"You know, I might actually consider granting your request." She said, appraising the young quarian, "Ka'hari is actually one of our most promising young coders, but her interests do seem to be shifting in a very different direction." She glanced at Garrus, "I don't know though, you might need to be concerned about her dissecting her squadmates."

"Ka'hari, your enthusiasm and drive are excellent, but you should know that Garrus is Commanda' Shepard's turian. She is the only one who gets to find out how he tastes." Garrus and Shepard both glared at the Prothean. Tali was having trouble breathing, she was laughing so hard, and even Admiral Raan let out a snort. Thank the spirits Ka'hari's frustrated sigh made it clear that the comment seemed to have gone over the youngling's head.

"What are you doing down here, Javik?" Shepard asked with a scowl.

'Ka'hari believed there was some additional equipment in her mother's lab that would be of assistance in running the new programs EDI recommended. We were on our way to retrieve it when she saw her now extremely vulnerable prey." He said, giving Garrus a taunting once over. To Shepard's delight she thought Garrus looked a little bashful. "It will be interesting to see Admiral Xen's workplace." He said with a pointed look to Shepard. She merely nodded slightly.

"I'm going to show him the VI I made!" Ka'hari said, excitedly beginning to drag the prothean along once again.

"Do not forget, Shepard," Javik called over his shoulder, "Your lessons begin at sunset."

Shepard was mulling over Javik's parting words, her stomach full of apprehension, when Garrus slowed his pace, falling back from the others and murmured, "Moria." She slowed to walk beside him, feeling tense. They hadn't actually spoken privately yet today. The air between them was thick with tension left over from the night before. "I wanted to ask," he continued. "Are you sure about your orders to Javik?"

Shepard drank in the scene around her from beneath the cowl of her new ta' hal. A little ways down the street from them an adolescent quarian was sitting on a geth's shoulders as they finished tying the supports for a new stall they were erecting. In front of it was a sign advertising suit filters programmed to increase natural immunity to Rannoch's microbes. Two adults walked past her, deep in discussion, their omnitools displaying the blueprint of a building. She heard them mention that large sections were ready for Echo to move. She stepped aside as a young girl, a young quarian without a mask or helmet, dashed by. Her laughter rang out and her unbound jetblack hair rippled behind her as she ran.

"I'm positive," she said.

"Wouldn't it be better to have Javik speak with Admiral Raan and the rest of the Admiralty Board if she starts endangering things rather than just getting rid of her?"

"There might not be time for that." she said darkly.

"Moria, a prothean killing an Admiral, especially if it gets out it was on your orders - that could get bad very, very fast."

She shook her head, "Thinking there will never be conflict between different groups of organics is naive." She said. "But balance between synthetics and organics; a chance for them to learn to grow together, to actually evolve - that peace is more important than any one person, or any one species." Her heart was beating a little faster. The peace will not hold.

"If you're sure what you're getting into." he said softly.

"I am!" She said. It came out more sharply than she'd intended, but before Shepard could address it Tali dropped back to them.

"You look good in a ta'hal, Shepard." She said, eyes smiling. "People are noticing. I think it means a lot to see you two partaking in some of our customs." She eyed Garrus and added, "Although, if you're not careful, Shepard, with him dressed like that, one of my people is going to grab him and start acting out scenes from Fleet and Flotilla."

"Luckily," Garrus said, "Once upon a time in a bar on the Citadel, Shepard actually gave me a lesson in role playing."

"You are shameless." Tali said, shaking her head. She was eyeing Shepard's ta'hal, "It's fascinating to me that Ka'hari was able to reproduce the pattern of your strands in the weave. The way they branch, the distance between lines, it's like looking at a microchip and - " she stopped, frowning.

"What?" Shepard asked. She couldn't tell if she was eager or apprehensive at the idea of understanding Ka'hari's decorative choices.

"There's a word in quarian integrated into the weave." she said, pointing to a bit of the cloth that hung just above the center of Shepard's brow."

"Please tell me it doesn't say "The Shepard." Shepard moaned.

"No…" Tali said perplexedly. "It means 'Mother'..."

The fading sunset painted the sea with soft oranges and pinks. Shepard walked along the gently crashing waves towards a circle of lights at the edge of the cliffs. She was at the next bay over from where Legion stood, just on the other side of the coastal rise where she had met with Echo earlier that day. Damn had it really only been today? She was exhausted. Of course the cryptic as fuck prothean wanted to do this at the time when she felt least capable.

She could see Javik now. The prothean was standing within a circle of torches lit by the flickering flame and dying sun. He had removed his armor and wore only a pair of shorts, leaving the interplay of muscles and exoskeleton of his form bare to the cool breeze. Everyone's getting undressed, she thought. Rannoch's worse than Afterlife. She stepped into the circle of light.

"Welcome, Commanda'" Javik said. He grinned in a way that made her wary. "Let us begin."

Shepard scrambled up from the sands, swiftly brushing the grains from her face and whipping around, hands up, in a low defensive crouch. She was breathing heavily. The circle of torches swam before her, her head pounded and she was drenched in cold sweat, but not from the physical exertion. "Fasta'!" Javik barked, prowling along the line of torches before her. His four eyes shone with uncompromising steel. "In my cycle you would have been removed from your command for falling to your fears like that." he sneered.

"At least I survived to have them." She spat back. "No one in your precious cycle managed that."

The prothean laughed. "Arrogance. A weak cover for your fear. And one that will leave you vulnerable." His right arm shot out like lightning. Shepard swept a hand across herself, knocking the blow away, but before she had even finished the block Javik had grabbed her left arm and barked "Fight it!"

A rush of light filled her head. Anderson was on the ground bleeding before her. She'd shot him. The Illusive Man had made her shoot him. She was going to be sick. She scrambled across the floor of the Citadel to him, heedless of the weeping wound at her own side. She pressed her hands to the hole in the man who had taught her everything, pressing her fingers as closely together as she could, trying to stem the red tide seeping between them. "You," Anderson coughed, "You shot me."

"I didn't... it wasn't me- I'm sorry!" She gasped. The red was flowing faster. She had to stop it. "The Illusive Man, he - he made me-" She whipped her head up to glare at the monster who had made her shoot Anderson - the monster that had given the Reapers -

But not a soul, save herself and the quickly fading Anderson, was in sight. She looked around in desperation. He had been here - she had felt her finger pull the trigger - felt herself fighting for control. "You never destroyed the human Reaper," Anderson choked, blood painting his lips. "You gave it to Cerberus."

"I know- I thought - I didn't know this would happen."

"The people on Sanctuary...you let him use them."

She couldn't breathe, the red kept spilling from between her hands, "No," she gasped, "I didn't know and I - I went to stop it."

But the blood kept flowing. Too much for Anderson to make it, too much to be just Anderson's. It was their blood. The blood of each of the colonists taken by the Collectors, of each of the refugees who fled blindly into the maw of Sanctuary. Her hands were painted in it as she tried to stem the tide. She had to fight. She had to fight it. She would stop the bleed, she would save Anderson. She hadn't saved them but she would save him.

"You can hate me all you want." She groaned. "I don't care if you blame me. I'm going to make damn sure you live so you can blame me or hate me to the end of your days." She swiftly lifted a hand to her omni-tool; the flow quickened alarmingly. Medi-gel. She had that. She could control the bleed. But her hand stopped above the command key. It hung frozen in mid air.

"No, Shepard," purred the Illusive Man, staring down at her. "We can't keep these blind fools around to stand in our way, now can we?"

"Let me go!" she snarled, throwing every fiber of her being into that finger, a hair's breadth from helping Anderson.

"Shepard, help me," the Captain weezed. "Please…"

"Hang on!" she panted. "Let. Me. Go." she snarled at the Illusive Man. Shadows danced across his face as he stared down at her. "If you're so sure of yourself, of your actions, than one life isn't going to matter to them!"

"But it will matter to you..."

Her heart sank. She was tired, she was so small. Fight it.

"Then I'll avenge him." she said, her voice ragged. "And still stop you."

She looked down at the man who had trained her, helped her to channel her rage, shaped her character, been a father to her. The man who'd taught her to make the hard choices, to sacrifice the few to save the many. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I have to do this." Tears streaming down her cheeks, she pulled her hand away, Anderson's lifeblood spilling in its wake. She was about to throw herself at the Illusive Man when he spoke.

"You sure about that, Shepard?" The Illusive Man asked, eyes dancing.

She hesitated, then looked at her hands. The blood there was blue. She couldn't breathe. Her eyes snapped to Anderson, only to find him gone and see Garrus on the ground before her, drenched in blue blood, a gaping hole in his ravaged armor.

"No!" she screamed. She lunged for the wound in his side but her hands stopped inches above his carapace and would go no further.

"Doubting your choice?" hissed the Illusive Man. He laughed softly. "Sorry, no second chances, Shepard."

"Moria…" Garrus wheezed.

She raged silently against that barrier - he was so close. She could stop it. She had to stop it. She couldn't lose him. She wouldn't lose him. Garrus coughed, a trickle of blood running down his mandible. There was a rattling sigh. "Noooo!" she keened. The cry ripped out of her, leaving her breathing heavily, throat ragged. The world seemed to have stopped. There was nothing but cold, darkness and that mirror-still pool of blue blood.

"You could have saved them." The Illusive Man said softly with the whispering croon of a lover. "Destroyed the human Reaper... stopped me... and saved him."

"I...I thought it could help. I just wanted to help" she whispered to the void.

"Why do you think the Reapers were drawn to you and your cycle? Why do you think you found the beacon?" He grinned like a wolf, but Shepard felt no fear. It was like she was gazing into a mirror. "You cannot help, Shepard. You can only destroy."

Everything stilled. Everything quieted. There was nothing left in the universe but the two of them. She gazed into his bright eyes, burning inside that face twisted with strands of black, of Reaper corruption.

"Then I'll destroy you." she said softly and released a blast of all her biotic power.

There was a flash of green and Javik stumbled back from Shepard, releasing his hold on her arm. Shepard swayed, took a few steps towards the line of torches, dropped to her knees and vomited.

"Betta'." Javik said. "You were fasta' that time." She turned to look up at him, wiping her mouth with her hand. She sat in the sand, not bothering to test her unsteady legs just yet when she could feel the rest of herself still shaking. Clothed only in fitted pants and the supportive bra that she wore beneath her armor, the cool air kissed her sweat slick skin. Their sparring rounds went quickly. A few exchanged blows till the prothean found a vulnerability and used it to catch her and read the nightmares lurking in the shadows of her mind, plunging her into them till she could fight her way out. Javik tilted his head to the side a little, considering her. "You are fearless and clear of mind when you have nothing to lose." he said softly. "It is having something to lose that terrifies you."

"No shit." She grumbled, spitting dregs of bile into the sand.

"And you regret your choice."

"I - no - I…" she closed her eyes tightly, trying to control her breath. "Some of them. Yes. I don't know."

"Do you regret your choices of not?" Javik pressed, crossing the circle to her.

"I'm not sure, ok? It's hard to tell." Uncharacteristically, he held out a hand to help her up. "I'm trying," Shepard said, taking his offered hand. "I don't know-"

But Javik interrupted, yanking her to her feet and snapping, "You know!"

There was another blinding flash of light. Anderson stood before her, gesturing to the Crucible. The sky was full of fire and flashes of light. Alliance and alien ships were being torn apart by Reapers, and below the two humans, Earth's cities burned.

"Do it, Shepard!" Anderson cried over the howling that was filling her ears. His face was lined with grief and panic, lit by the growing inferno of his homeworld. "What are you waiting for?" he called. "Destroy them!"

"Anderson - I"

"You can save our people, Shepard!" he interrupted, "So what the hell are you waiting for? Our people are dying out there!"

"Anderson, the Reapers-"

Shepard heard engines roar and saw an all too familiar ship streak across the sky. The Normandy. A Reaper was gaining on it - its behemoth arms reaching for the small ship-

"What are you doing, Shepard!" Anderson shook his head in rage at her, tears spilling down his face. "My people are dying, do something!" A blade of red light cut through the sky, turning the Normandy into a blossom of fire.

"No!" Shepard barked, shoving Javik into the sand with a blast of green light. The prothean landed hard, but snorted and stared up at her with satisfaction. Shepard was breathing hard, trying to see the sand and sea before her, trying to see anything other than the halo of fire that had been the Normandy which still burned in her mind. "What the hell! I wasn't ready!" She snarled.

"You are never ready." He said. "No warrior can be. The day you are ready is the day you die." He pushed himself to his feet. "You must meet what comes regardless of your balance or preparation on the battlefield or in your mind." His tone darkened. "My people perished because we focused on being ready. We ran. We created blockades. We focused on buying time instead of facing what was there. And so when the blow landed, we fell, and the protheans will never rise again." The firelight danced in the grief and determination in his eyes as he began circling her. "I will not let you make the same mistake."

"What are you talking about?" Shepard said, creeping backwards, countering his advance. "The battle for Earth is over. The Reapers are freed" she said, her feet whispering across the sand to keep the ancient warrior an arm's length away.

"Yes, Shepard." Javik said softly. "But you and I know the battle has only begun." He whirled, a leg arcing through the air. She ducked and aimed a blow to his exposed side, but he caught her hand in his fist.

"Why do you think the Reapers were drawn to you and your cycle? Why do you think you found the beacon?" She could hear the Illusive Man's voice even as she stood alone on the Citadel staring at the two small pillars of rippling light. "You cannot help, Shepard. You can only destroy."

The whispered words hit the mark. Destruction, it seemed, always followed in her wake. But it wasn't her fault. They didn't listen. They didn't see. No one heeded her warnings, got out of her way so she could do what she must until the last second. She'd even had to commandeer her own damn ship. It wasn't her. If she was in charge from the beginning, if she had ever had the opportunity to get a handle on things before they slipped away...

The pillars of light danced before her eyes. Behind them the sky was a sea of growing wreckage. Debris from eviscerated dreadnaughts drifted among the stars. They created a labyrinth of death and destruction. The too-small alliance ships wove through it all in a deadly dance, as the shadowy masses of the Reapers sailed through unencumbered. The battle was getting out of control. Shepard could read a sky full of ships like she could read her own name. The story of their loss was being written in the stars before her.

"Why do you think the Reapers were drawn to you and your cycle? Why do you think you found the beacon?" The voice whispered.

Someone had to do it. Someone had to do something. Shepard heard engines roar and saw an all too familiar ship streak across the sky. The Normandy. A Reaper was gaining on it - its behemoth arms reaching for the small ship-

Shepard seized the columns of light, and in a blaze she was gone. Light ripped out through the sky, washing over the Reapers like a baptismal wave. They halted in its wake, save for one that wrapped arms around a small quicksilver ship in a protective embrace, shielding it from the mire of debris in its path. With a single thought, she called the harvesting, teeming horde to a halt.

The organics slowly began to pick themselves up. She felt a cool purpose in the quiet, in the wake of the carnage. Help. She ordered with a thought. Rebuild. The words echoed from her mind like the crack of a whip, and as far as the stars reached, backs bent in answer.

She had saved them. Now she would protect them. She would ensure that the warrior in blue landed safely upon his ravaged world; that his sky was never darkened again, except by her ever-watching shadow.

But there were screams. Not from outside. No more fires raged, no ships tumbled from the sky, no cities crumbled in the Reapers' path. Yet still there were the screams. Echoing inside her, inside her mind. A multitude of voices, thousands of different tongues crying out against her yolk. She was enraged. She had saved them. She had taken over and made sure there would be peace, that no more would suffer in this war. She lashed out to silence the voices, to bend them towards her will. But the screams still echoed; screams only she could hear.

She yelled out as she pinned Javik to the sands. She could see him again, although now green light danced with the firelight across his body. Her eyes - the strands - they were glowing again. Shit.

"Breathe, Shepard" he croaked from beneath her.

She stared down at the creature from another world, another time, the soldier of a conquering empire who had spent the evening walking through her mind. "Would they have wanted me to control them?" she asked softly. "Would Protheans have chosen to control the Reapers?"

His gaze did not falter. "Yes." he said, then in a tone she had never heard before "And would have condemned countless to that silent eternal suffering. I am grateful the choice fell to a wiser organic being."

Shepard laughed. "I don't think that fits me."

"Do you regret your choice?"

"No."

"You fear what now may be lost?"

"Yes." she said, andthat voice, The peace will not hold, echoed in her mind.

"Yet you are haunted by what you might have done." He said. He gestured for her to follow and stepped beyond the circle of torches, long strides carrying him towards the silver waves. "You are haunted by the world we may have seen in the wake of your actions." The flames danced on the crashing waves behind them as he stepped into the shallows, creating his own wake behind him. She followed him into the water, its chilly caress a balm on her body, sore from their exchanges. "What do you doubt if not your choices?"

The water was at her waist now. Shepard stared down. Rannoch's air was so clear that the light from its twin moons danced everywhere, turning the rippling ocean into a reflective glass. She could see herself, in the waters, the gleaming strands across her skin seeming to have their own life in the gently undulating water. Finally she answered, "I'm scared of the reasons I wanted to make a different choice. And…" The strangely luminous eyes of her reflection gazed back at her from the water. "...of what I have become."

The beach darkened for a moment and in the distance Shepard saw that two Reapers had flown to the bay. She and Javik stood and watched them. "We are about to go to war once again." Javik said softly. "But rather than fighting a forgotten enemy, we must fight for our forgotten families and those who were taken along with them." He said softly. "Can I tell you a secret, Comanda'?"

Shepard frowned. "Okay…"

"I have studied every type of battle known to my cycle, every strategy and theory. But this coming war…" he paused and took a deep breath. "This type of war is completely unknown to me. Just as your abilities are a mystery." He raised his chin and stared at her, "It will be most fascinating to walk into this battle alongside the unknown weapon that you have become." he grinned. "I am grateful to have awoken in a cycle where you keep things interesting."

The wind tossed Shepard's hair. The Reapers drifted low over the sea, trailing their impossibly long limbs in the water just as Shepard had trailed her glowing fingers moments ago.

Shepard paced her moonlit cabin restlessly, her hair still damp from the shower, her muscles still aching slightly from training with Javik. She was exhausted but she couldn't sleep. The bed behind her was empty, the blankets only disturbed on one side. Her side. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Things hadn't exactly been comfortable between them today. Despite still being angry in the morning she hadn't had the strength (physically or emotionally) to stop him from helping her after she connected with Echo. When he was getting out of the water...well, she'd had some difficulty with control and concentration at that point, too. Neither of them had behaved in a way that let anyone else know that it wasn't business as usual between the two of them, but she could feel the strain. Having him question her orders to Javik had been frustrating. He wasn't part of the Alliance. She only outranked him if they were on the Normandy. They were equals on Rannoch. Well, he was her equal anywhere in the way that really mattered to her. Their argument the night before had made her feel cornered. She felt trapped by all this: the nightmares, the politics, the negotiations. All she wanted right now was a clear enemy she could shoot at.

She pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the window. She hadn't actually spent a lot of time on relationships. She'd had plenty of flings, and some that were more than that, but she didn't have nearly as much experience with them as she did with battle strategy, firefights, saving the universe or…. dying, I guess… Everything had been so clear and simple going into the battle for Earth, and when she woke up in the hospital. Him. He was everything. All she wanted was for them not to all die and him to be there. How did things seem more complicated now? She knew they both still wanted those things. So why was it feeling harder to make it happen?

She glared at the empty bar, devoid of glasses or bottles of alcohol in the wake of last night's nightmare. She'd kill for a drink right now; or for something else involving a seven foot, long-tongued Turian that also took the edge off. The soft celestial light was dancing on the floor of the cabin, the wavering light entrancing. She wasn't sure how long she had been watching it now.

"You are coming to regret your choice." said a soft, all-too familiar voice.

Shepard whirled from the window and found the figure of a small boy formed of wavering blue light standing before her. The Conduit stared at her, its eyes full of an ageless, ancient apathy. "You rejected the options I laid before you." It continued. "In your short lived ignorance you forged a path that can only lead back to chaos."

She was breathing hard. "You're not here." she said firmly, "We overwrote you. The Reapers don't need a Conduit anymore." She took a deep breath and glared at the Child. "I am dreaming. You are not here."

"If they do not need a conduit then why were you changed by the Crucible?" It asked softly. "And just because you're dreaming doesn't mean I am not still here."

"No, you are not here." Shepard repeated. She pressed with her mind towards the Child, as she had when working with Javik, extending her arm and releasing a blast of her biotics. A flash of light streaked from her and sped across the room, flashing straight through the Conduit's rippling form and slamming into the floor behind it. The figure remained staring at her.

"You were selfish and short sighted. This peace will not hold. You made the mistake of all organics and only considered what was immediate."

"I was not selfish." she spat. "I fucking died."

"But you would not make the difficult choice required." Its voice grew louder and the light that made up its form seemed to crackle. "The peace will not hold. Synthetics and organics will once again be at war. It has already begun. You cannot-" There was a flash of green light and the Conduit looked to the side, brow furrowed in frustration, as if looking at something or someone Shepard could not see. "No. You cannot be." it said. It flickered from existence for a moment replaced by a column of green light, then returned. "You cannot exist. You did not endure. This is not-" there was a flash of green light, this time shaped like a slim, horned figure. A blinding pain filled Shepard's head. She shielded her eyes.

Shepard opened her eyes and found herself standing, forehead pressed against the window of her cabin. She blinked and pushed back, gazing around the room. Was she sleepwalking now? That was great. Also, did that count as facing the dream and fighting her way out? Had that flash of green light been from her? She needed to move. She clearly wasn't going to get any real sleep. Maybe an hour on the gun range would calm her down and wear her out? She walked towards the door but stopped just short of opening it. She heard something shift on the other side of the door. Dammit, Garrus. He was out there - she could feel it. She turned her back to the door, leaned against it for a moment and then slid down to the floor, her head back in frustration. She wanted to go shoot something. She wanted to ask him to come inside. Her chest felt tight and she couldn't find a way to do either. She gazed across her cabin, devoid of glass objects, and… there was a mark on the floor. The kind of mark that was made from a biotic impact. She frowned. She'd fired the blast in her dream, not while she was awake… She buried her head in her hands.

Garrus sat on the other side of the door. He could smell she was right behind him. In that moment he was deeply grateful to the spirits for his predator's senses. Being able to smell her so close and hear her breathing; if he closed his eyes he could almost imagine he was in the bed beside her instead of sitting in a cold hallway. But he would wait. He had stayed working late in the battery, checking over comms with Traynor to see if Shepard had returned to the Normandy yet, and then waiting, hoping he would hear her open the door as he worked at the control panel. But that door had remained shut. A few hours after she had come back up to the ship he hadn't been able to stop from wandering to her cabin. He purposely walked past it a few times, continuing his aimless wandering from the night before, but when he caught some strange looks while passing the mess for the fourth time, and awkwardly bumped into Liara walking towards Shepard's cabin at a stupidly late hour, he surrendered and let himself just stand across the hall, staring at the door. It was fine. If she wanted space he'd give her space… but he'd be here just in case.

"And when this is over, I'll be waiting for you." Garrus' voice filled her head as a sweeping, brushing sensation pushed through her mind. She tried to focus on her connection to Echo, to understanding the strange way the creatures communicated, rather than the growing, gnawing guilt that his voice and those words sparked in her. Sentinel. She thought, bringing the image of the Geth to mind. Me. She pictured herself standing before the Council on the citadel. Protect you. Speak for you. Care for friend. This was harder. How to communicate to Echo that she would try to make sure they and the others had a place in this galaxy. That they had rights? She thought of her crew. Eating together at a table full of different races. The circle of them dancing in Anderson's apartment. Pulling Garrus to his feet, helping Tali to the Normandy when she'd taken a bullet. Javik whispering secrets to a laughing Ka'hari. Care for friend.

She felt another brushing sensation in her mind. She was grateful she had been able to coach Eco into accessing her memories in a less painful manner than their first encounter. It had taken a few tries, but thoughts of open wounds, omni blades, varren fangs, and that sensation of talons digging into her mind seemed to have done the trick. Whatever they were, they had bodies that understood pain and bled in their own way. Shepard had yet to see a clear image of how the creatures had looked before they were harvested. She merely had impressions of wings, strong steel-like feathers, talons and unimaginable freedom and mobility. She wasn't sure if they had simply seen no cause to share with her what they were, or if the details of their real forms had become lost to them in the ageless dark they had endured in the Reapers' snare. Shepard feared it was the latter. Her own identity had slipped away from her when she had established the connection with the Conduit. She could remember being aware of light, of the ship and an absence of any personal identity. She hoped it would return. The brushing sensation brought Wrex's voice to her mind this time, clear as if the Krogan was standing next to her, "Maybe when this war is over you can come live on Tuchanka. You'd fit right in." Then she heard Garrus' drawl with another flash of guilt "I'm supposed to hate Krogan but you came along and warmed my heart with your winning personality." Shepard felt a curious nudge as Echo sought confirmation. Yes. Shepard thought. Care for friend. Rannoch home.

There was another brush through Shepard's mind and this time she saw Ka'hari and heard the child's bright voice say "she was scared last time but he punched her, and he said he'd protect you." Then Echo pressed Shared home. Relief and joy filled Shepard. She tried to let those feelings flow out of her. Shared home. She pressed back. The next part was tricky again.

She thought of herself, Shepard. She thought of the curious young Quarian, Ka'hari. She thought of Sentinel's shining form and Javik at the table of papers Sentinel, Javik. She called to mind the impressions of the Echo she had received, Echo. Carefully, trying to measure her breath, trying to control her emotions, she thought of a Reaper, its laser blasting an Alliance vessel, and then thought of the carnage on the Echo's homeworld she had seen. Reaper. She thought. Then she filled her mind with what she had seen last night. The two towering dark forms skimming the waves before the sunset. The peaceful playfulness of that simple act and what it meant to see it. Then she pressed curiously to the Echo, her mind blank and questioning. She could feel motion and hear whispers of the thousands of voices all around her. Thank the spirits she'd been able to coax them to this whispering level of activity. Despite her best efforts, Echo was not particularly good at engaging one voice, or a unified voice. Not that she could blame it. The thing had been without contact or communication for cycles and eons. Who could blame the bits of individual cognition remaining for wanting to engage. She felt Echo begin to press something back. An image of the Reapers here on Rannoch and others in the sky over Earth, drifting away from the ships and the Citadel. Fleeing, escaping, rising up into the stars. Ascendant.

Shepard pushed back the image of the two Reapers over the water. Ascendant. Her head was beginning to swim. This time communicating with Echo had been easier, not nearly as overwhelming, but she could feel it was still draining. She felt a sensation of concern, an image of a wing tucking something small close to a larger body. Saw Garrus looking exhausted leaning over the control panel in the battery and heard her own voice say, "you look like shit, Vakarian." She felt a laugh rise up inside her. Ok, she pressed back. Goodbye, and waited for the connection to be severed. She had yet to find that she could end their communication. That ability, for now, seemed to remain only with Echo. Shepard heard her own voice again, this time weary, ragged and rasping "I think you earned a rest." A blur of images began to flash through her mind, Xen and Ka'hari. Blinding green light. The strands sprawling over her skin. Her heart ached as she heard Anderson as well. "Think how proud your kids would be, telling everyone their… their mom is Commander Shepard." A pair of green eyes blazed before her, there was a flash.

Shepard's eyes opened and she felt herself fall backwards and land roughly on Rannoch's rocky ground. She stared up at Echo, and watched the lines of green light slowly fade across the Reaper- across the Ascendant's form. She felt lost and confused. Echo, despite seeming to prefer communicating via it's or Shepard's own memories, was remarkably clear, but for the life of her she could not fathom why Echo had caused her to recall Anderson's final words. Her confusion grew as the behemoth's form shrank before her eyes as it ascended into the heavens.

"The Ascendant." Liara said softly, watching as the other Reaper drifted low over the bay. Echo was lost somewhere above them. Shepard took a swig from the container of water that the asari had offered her. Shepard wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that Garrus hadn't been the one to offer her the drink, despite the fact that she had seen his eyes flash to it when he'd heard how dry her voice was after being connected to Echo. But it had been two nights now that she had spent on her own, and she had engaged Liara, not him, in conversation on the way here.

"It is a strong name," said Javik, nodding. Admiral Xen rolled her eyes and snorted. Javik frowned at her.

"It's pretentious." The Admiral said. "They nearly wipe out all life in the galaxy, decide their current name has too troubling of a history so they want a new one, and now they pick something that means 'rising in power and influence.' A political move if ever I saw one."

"That is not all it can mean." Countered Admiral Ra'an. The elder Quarian crossed from where she had stood staring down at Legion and entered the shadows of the tent where the others were gathered. "Ascendent is also known to mean 'ancestor or forebearer,' and I think that is a remarkably appropriate way to think of them."

"They are not our ancestors." Xen said.

"How can we know?" Said Admiral Ra'an. "The predecessors of the salarians and asari and many other races lived in Javik's time. Somehow enough of them survived to grow, to evolve, to become the races we share our days with now. How can you know that there is no link between us and Echo's people?" She began sifting through the papers that littered the table, covered with Javik's elegant sketches of buildings, symbols, strange ships and long forgotten creatures that he had glimpsed by making physical contact with Echo. Some of the sketches were Liara's; notable for their confident lines and the many notes in the asari's tiny neat handwriting. Shepard cringed mentally as she saw the sketches she herself had made. They were particularly evident as they were clumsy and crude and, in her opinion, looked like they should have been done by a two year old sibling of Ka'hari's. To Shepard's distress, Admiral Ra'an stopped holding one of Shepard's monstrosities. She had tried to draw the city she saw when connected to Echo… although the result really only looked like a spiky crown made from swiss cheese. Admiral Ra'an turned and raised the paper, gazing from it out to the spire in the center of Legion. Shepard's breath caught. Despite the crudeness of her drawing she could see that the spacing and shape of the spires of Legion were almost an exact match to those she had drawn. "And perhaps, more importantly," Admiral Ra'an said. "Shouldn't we believe we might all be connected? That each of us - turian, quarian, human, geth and AI - have common ancestors? Common founders and creators? Perhaps if we spent more time thinking of each other's ancestors as our own, we would be less hasty to blow each other out of the skies." Shepard's heartbeat quickened with hope at the Admiral's words.

Admiral Xen shifted restlessly. "Inter-clan wars are as ancient and prevalent as wars between different species. Wars have begun between family members. Just because we think we are all related isn't going to create eternal peace."

Admiral Ra'an seemed to be tense for a moment. Then sighed and let the paper drift back on to the table with the others. "Perhaps not, Daro, but you can forgive an old woman for her wild dreams." She turned to Shepard. "Pretentious in the view of some or not, it is what they wish to be called, and so the Admiralty Board will make it known here on Rannoch and begin to get the word out to the other planets."

Shepard nodded. "And I'll start arguing with the Council about Sentinel representing the geth, ascendant and other artificial life."

"We will help however we can." Said Admiral Ra'an. "Now, let's allow these three to get back to work," Admiral Ra'an said, nodding to Xen, Liara and Javik. "There is something Tali and I want to show you, Shepard."

Leaving the others behind to piece together fragments of a long forgotten past, Shepard walked down the coastal bluff with Admiral Ra'an in companionable silence, Tali and Garrus behind them, deep in discussion about his favorite quarian foods so far. They descended back into the crowded riot of color and life that filled the labyrinthine streets of Legion. While stopping so that Garrus could purchase something he had dragged them to find (having smelled it from two streets and an alley away) Shepard felt a surprising heat on the back of her neck. Her head snapped around and she automatically lowered into a little bit of a crouch. Sudden hot things were almost never good in her line of work. Before her a quarian woman had a large metal structure containing a growing flame. Shepard slowly crossed to the booth. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen fire outside of something involving death and destruction or a severe electrical issue. Historically it had been a way of cooking food, but she had not seen any of the stalls along the streets implying anything so rudimentary.

The quarian took a long metal pole and stuck it into a shadow sitting in the heart of the fire. She pulled the pole back out, its end now covered in something that seemed to glow. The quarian attached the opposite end of the pole to an apparatus at the end of her mask and stood still. The light at the end of the pole began to grow and grow, as the quarian slowly rotated the pole. Once it had reached a certain size, she detached the pole from her mask and began shaping the growing light with a pair of metal tongs and blades, reattaching the pole to her mask and increasing the glowing thing's size every now and then.

"What is that?" Shepard breathed when Admiral Ra'an came to stand beside her. Shepard was entranced and couldn't bring herself to stop watching whatever was happening before her. The glowing orb was beginning to take a tapered shape on one end as the quarian worked.

"Na'haria is a glass blower." Said Ra'an.

"That's glass?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, she is an artist who chooses to use an ancient technique. Sand is heated in the flames till it melts. She dips that hollow pole in it and then blows air through the filter on her mask down the pole to create a bubble of glass and shape all sorts of wondrous things." Na'haria nodded silently to Admiral Ra'an. She disconnected the pole from her mask once again and placed the glowing glass on a metal counter before her, then severed the molten glass from the pole. With a few deft movements of tongs and blades, Shepard watched the tapered cylinder take the shape of a slim and elegantly curved pitcher. It was one of the most miraculous things she had ever seen.

"I've wanted to make things this way for years." Na'haria said to them as she worked. "I think it's like magic. I read about it when I was a girl on the Tombay and wanted to try it but Admiral Kill Joy over here would never let me. I had to wait for my pilgrimage to learn to do it."

Admiral Ra'an let out a good natured laugh despite the clear insubordination. "My poor, tortured little artist. How ever did you grow into such a...almost well adjusted woman with that nasty Admiral forbidding you to play with open flames on the ships that were our only home?" Shepard could see Na'haria glaring at the Admiral through her mask, but Ra'an's eyes were still smiling. "Well you have plenty of space for your fires and plenty of sand to play with now, little one." She glanced at Shepard. "That was the other great crime of 'Admiral Kill Joy'; not allowing her to load tons of specialty sand onto our ships instead of, you know, food or medical supplies."

"What's the point of being a Migrant Fleet if we can't take advantage of the amazing materials we come across!" Na'haria wined, clearly falling back into an argument that was all too familiar to these two.

"As I have said since you got your first suit, the point of the Migrant Fleet was to keep us alive so that one day spoiled, impassioned geniuses like yourself could live and create in the open air, and oh look, with a little help from The Shepard, all of Admiral Kill Joy's work paid off."

Shepard was really going to have to talk to Ra'an about this "The Shepard" nonsense. Na'haria grumbled something that sounded vaguely like 'took you long enough', but Admiral Ra'an just laughed again. Na'haria's creation had clearly cooled and now Shepard could recognize it as a glittering green-blue pitcher. "I've never seen anything like that," she said.

"Oh," said Na'haria, smoothing back and adjusting her emerald Ta'hal. "You should see it when it's finished!" She pulled a piece of canvas off a rack just to Shepard's left, revealing dozens of sets and pieces of sparkling glassware. There were animals, ships, and strange abstract shapes. Bowls, large and small, caught Rannoch's afternoon sun and each shelf of the display was painted in pools of color from the colored glass. Na'haria had made pieces of every color imaginable.

"They are all made from Rannoch's sand." Na'haria said, eyes gleaming.

"How are there so many colors?" Shepard asked. "Do you add a synthetic coloring agent?"

"No." Snorted Na'haria. "The sands of different places produce different colors. That's why I'll never forgive Admiral Fuss Bucket for not letting me collect more over the years. These colors are from all over Rannoch. I've been flying across the whole planet for months testing and collecting samples." A pitcher in the center of several short glasses with silver writing around their tops caught her eye. Na'haria's sharp eyes didn't miss Shepard's interest. "Go ahead and pick it up." She said.

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked. She didn't have the best track record with delicate things. Or glass things for that matter.

"Rannoch is a strong world." Na'haria said. "It's spirit and earth are hard to break." Shepard lifted one of the glasses from a set. "The decanter I am working on now will go with a set of glasses like those." Na'haria supplied a smile. The glass was a soft blue that offset the silver script on the outside just below the rim.

"What does the writing say?" Shepard asked, noticing that the same characters decorated each glass and the lip and handle of the pitcher.

"I drink to my friends at my side and those who await me in the stars. We drink to the day we walk together in our home." Na'haria's eyes gleamed and she and Admiral Ra'an shared a long look.

"That's beautiful." Shepard whispered.

"It is an old quarian toast." Said Ra'an softly. "One I hope we always keep close to our hearts."

"Where is the glass you used in the new piece from?" Shepard asked. The green-blue glass made the light dance and made her think of tropical waters.

Na'haria lifted the piece in question and began rubbing it with a cloth. "The sands I am using for this came from the north where we first landed and the fallen Reaper was. I was up there a few weeks ago." Now that the glass was closer, Shepard could see that there seemed to be flecks of silver suspended in the glass, looking like sparks of sunlight on water. "It was from a desert gully upwind of where the Reaper was. I think it might be starting to weather and mix with the sands because it's been particularly hard to work with. I haven't been able to stop trying though. The color and way it casts the light is different from the others."

"Some beauty from a place of battle." Admiral Ra'an said with a smile. "Of course you would find that. I figured putting up with you over the years would pay off somehow." Shepard expected Na'haria to bite back with another retort, but the quarian merely seemed to straighten with pride.

"Are you two done window shopping?" Tali asked, coming to stand behind them. She was sipping something in a container through the port in her mask and Garrus stood behind her eating something on a metal stick, his long blue tongue catching spices and morsels from the edge of his mouth and mandibles. "We're running late."

Tali began to drag them through the streets towards the Memorial Spire at an ever-increasing pace. Shepard wasn't sure if it was just that her quarian friend was indeed in a great hurry or if the past two nights of solo, unrestful sleep were really beginning to wear on her more than she had realized, but Shepard was actually struggling to keep up as they wound through the geth and quarians that filled the streets. "Tali, where are we-" but Shepard's question was cut short as they stopped at an elegant gate in the middle of a long wall.

"In here - and stay quiet if you can." Shepard looked to Admiral Ra'an, who simply shrugged, not supplying any additional information. Tali opened the door and Shepard and the others followed her into a large garden courtyard. A group of quarians and a few geth were gathered at its center. Vines climbed the walls of the lovely space they had stepped into. Lush and colorful plants lined a walkway leading to the assembly of people before them and the open spaces of the courtyard were covered with a short, dark purple and green grass-like plant. There was a bubbling water feature in one corner and a sparkling stream in a mosaic-tiled streambed sparkled as it wove through the vegetation. The plantings and water gave the space a peaceful but joyous feel.

They followed Tali along the walkway to the others in the courtyard who stepped aside so that Shepard could finally see what held their attention. Several quarian and Sentinel were squatting and kneeling around a young, heavily pregnant quarian without her suit. She was propped up slightly in the lap of another female, this one wearing her suit, but not her mask. The pregnant Quarian was instead draped in an intricately decorated one-shouldered robe and breathing hard. The woman behind her was stroking her hair and muttering soothing and encouraging words in her ear and the pregnant woman groaned.

"This is Tirana and Nek'ata vas Tombay" Tali whispered to Shephard. "They asked me to bring you to witness this if you were still on Rannoch when it happened."

"Tirana's vitals are stable." Said Sentinel. "I am not reading any infections currently. The enhanced antibodies are currently maintaining appropriate levels." Nek'ata nodded at Sentinel's words and continued stroking Tirana's hair. "Tirana, it is now necessary for you to actively contract your pelvic muscles again. Do you agree, Dr. Morhea?"

"Sentinel's right Tira, come on, should be the final one."

Shepard wasn't sure what to feel. Nothing had prepared her for this. She felt very out of place but there was no time to try and tactfully extricate herself as Tirana's face contorted with pain. She cried out, her hands clenching Nek'ata's, and let out a cry of pain. Another set of cries answered the new mothers'. After a few deft movements the doctor lifted a tiny, purple-skinned, three fingered infant in another heavily decorated piece of fabric and placed it in Tirana's arms. The two women beamed down at their new child.

"The infant's vitals are strong and stable." Said Sentinel. "I am detecting similar elevated levels of antibodies. Prenatal anti-infectant infusions currently seem to be successfully supporting her immune system."

"Admiral Ra'an?" Called the doctor softly.

Admiral Ra'an stepped forward from beside Shepard. She lifted her hands and with a click and hiss removed her mask, slipping it into a pocket of her suit. She moved forward into the center of the group and picked up a small clay bowl that was lying on the ground. Using the edge of the bowl, she dug into the dirt and sand beside the stream, catching some of the earth in the bowl and then dipped it into the dancing waters. She kneeled beside the new mothers and dipped a finger in the bowl, stirring the earth and water together slowly as she spoke.

"I and the ancestors welcome you, Little One. Our hearts are full of joy that you come to sing with us this day." The baby, who had been making small sounds in its mother's arms, let out a louder cry, which was gently shushed with a kiss and gentle rocking. The Admiral beamed, the smile wrinkling her gently lined face. "And what a strong song you have. You are welcomed to the ranks of the Tombay, the Migrant Fleet and quarian people. Keelah Se'lai, child. May your heart be filled with as many joys as there are stars in our skies and ancestors who will watch over you. We name you Com'ari for your bravery and spirit, for you are a first of your kind." Admiral Ra'an took her damp finger from the bowl and traced a line of earth across the child's head. "May the earth of your home bless you and may you grow as strong as its spirit, Com'ari'Ranta nar Rannoch."

Nek'ata's face was wet with tears. "Thank you Auntie Ra'an." she said softly. Ra'an grinned. "Just make sure she learns to fly my ships as well as you do."