Wind carried her through a searing green light, tearing at every bit of her and burning away the very essence of everything she had even been. Scattered glittering ashes in the ether, sending them roaring into the dark to smolder like new galaxies of stars.

But there was something rhythmic in the roar. A crash and sigh that called to her in the deep burning cold of the dark. Something she could not ignore. There was something bright - something fierce and dazzling, shining in her eyes, heating and burning her skin, searing heat in her lungs...they burned, she was breathing fire, desperate for something, anything to rush in and wipe it out.

Moria gasped as her head broke the surface of the water. She blinked at the salty spray stinging her eyes and began fighting against the pull of the water to keep her head above the darkness of the surf. She could make out something in the distance in her ocean-blurred vision and began clawing her way towards it, working hard against the pull of the tides winding their way around her legs: like taloned hands determined to pull her back. Her toes finally touched the sand after an eternity of nothing. She heaved breath into her burning lungs, pushing against that blessed sand with shaking legs and dragged herself out of the water.

The air was warm, a gentle breeze kissing her face. She struggled forwards, straining towards the pearlescent sand mere meters away. But her legs gave out and she fell, only to be caught by strong scaled arms.

They lifted her up, one slipping beneath her weak legs, the other around her back, cradling her to a warm chest of sparkling emerald and ebony scales. And she was floating once more towards the sands.

There was birdsong in the distance, sweet notes that complimented the gentle sigh of the waves, a contrast to the warm but quiet chest her face rested against. She drifted down to the infinitely soft beach, and a familiar face with night-dark eyes came into focus before her.

"Siha…" said a gentle voice, rich and melodic in a way she had never heard before, no longer plagued by the wet rasp she had always known.

"Thane?"

A sad smile lifted the corner of the drell's mouth, "Welcome, siha." He cocked his head a little. "We were not expecting you."

"We?" Shepard croaked.

Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the brilliance of the sun, and her face began to relax a bit as she looked around. A rough structure was near them on the beach, occupying a prime section of stunning sand between water and shaded wood. Glistening ice-blue waves rushed quietly to the beach and the waving boughs of the tropical woods cast blissfully welcoming shade. The structure between woods and sand had a wide shaded roof of golden dried grasses fluttering merrily in the breeze. A smooth countertop of what looked like driftwood rested atop some other fibrous boughs, and glasses and bottles sparkling with condensation adorned it.

"The bar…"

"Indeed, Shepard," said a bright voice. Mordin looked up from the microscope on the other side of the bottles, his wide mouth quirked in warmth. "Convenient for cool beverages while obtaining specimens. Important, however, to temper alcohol consumption with non-diuretic beverages in warm temperatures," he fished for something in the pocket of his strange sleeveless white coat that was all he wore over a pair of loose white pants. The crimson and gold scales of his chest glimmered in the light as he held up a spiraling blue shell, squinted at it, and then placed it under the microscope and lowered his head to the lens once again. "Well, important for you, anyway."

Moria felt warmth rush through her and before she knew it she was laughing. She saw Thane's eyes flash from the preoccupied salarian to her, a rare toothed smile spreading across his face. But pain flashed in Moria's side. She cried out with a wince, pressing a hand to her right abdomen. She looked down and pulled her hand away. Her uniform was gone. Her breasts were bound in a short white top and loose white pants covered her from waist to knee, gathered just above her calf in a flared bell. Her muscled abdomen was bare but blood leaked from her side; an open gash there that - that she could see closing.

It was slow, but she watched open-mouthed as the skin at one end slowly knit back together. She looked up at Thane and he nodded, sadness clouding his dark eyes.

A whistle cut though the bird song and gentle sigh of the waves and Moria looked up in its direction. Warm brown eyes complimented by golden sun-kissed skin crinkled in a familiar smile. Locks of wavy dark hair shifted in the breeze and Kaidan gave her a salute from his seat at the edge of the trees. Her breath caught, and she couldn't tell if it was from the wound in her side or the ache in her chest at the sight of him. She took a shaky breath and called, "At ease, Lieutenant."

Those brown eyes danced with mirth. "Been at ease for a while, Commander." His smile faded to a slight melancholy and he called back. "Tell Ash I said hi."

Moria frowned; she opened her mouth to respond but another voice cut her off.

"It's… quite a view, isn't it, Shepard?" A shadow fell across her as someone stepped up close to where she was still leaning against Thane. The rich voice continued. "Should have known you'd be no good at following orders." Broad shoulders and a head with close cropped hair were silhouetted against the perfectly clear sky and brilliant sun. The figure lowered himself to a squat and Moria could finally make out the wise lines and gentle gaze of Anderson.

She felt a tear run from the corner of her eye. Anderson gave her a soft smile and then brushed it away. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her eyes drifting to Mordin, who was still studying the seashell and to Kaidan watching from the edge of the shade, "I'm so sorry."

"Hush child," Anderson said in a quiet but firm voice. Something soft brushed her elbow and she looked down. Bright eyes stared up at her and then closed as a feline head butted against her arm. Her lips trembled as she gathered the feline in her arms, dark fur warm from the sun. A rumbling purr erupted from the cat and the cat's eyes closed lazily as Moria scratched it below the chin. She looked at Anderson. "My dad? My brother?"

He nodded. "Further afield," he said quietly, "but you don't have time to see them, I'm afraid. They've gone too far." He glanced down at the cat in her arms, a wry smile playing at his lips. "This one seems to be the only one that the rules and tides don't apply to."

"Ancient human theory regarding Schrodinger's cat may be applicable." Mordin said, changing the seashell under his microscope again. "Ironic, but plausible. Will have to explore once finished with current areas of study," he glanced at Shepard and the cat in her arms. "Luckily, plenty of time for us."

"For you, perhaps," Thane said. "That is not the kind of question I have any desire to meditate on."

Shepard wasn't sure if it was the warm sun, the purring of a dearly missed cat, or miraculously healing wound, but she was starting to feel better than she had in a very, very long time. "I missed you," she said quietly.

"Shepard-Commander…" Her head snapped around at the new voice, causing the cat in her arms to make a small noise of protest until she resumed her chin scritches. Legion stood just behind Anderson, the section of her old N7 armor still incorporated into his form. "We understand the human sentiment, but it is unnecessary." The plates around his central light flared. "We have not left you."

"Accurate," Mordin said. Moria's cat wriggled out of her arms, padded across the sand and leapt gracefully onto the bar, head cocked to the side, studying the spinning of the microscope as Mordin switched the lens in use. "Energy cannot be created or destroyed. All energy remains in the universe; merely changes form from time to time based on variety of circumstances." The cat swiped her paw beneath the microscope snatching a purple shell out of the salarian's studious gaze. She batted it frantically across the bar till it soared past the bottles and into the sand before leaping after it. Mordin glowered in the cat's direction. "Much like shell. It is not gone, merely shifted." He sighed. "I may encounter it again as sand, or perhaps glass." He seemed to brighten at this prospect. "Will be interesting to observe change in molecular structure at that point."

"Everything changes in time, Shepard." Anderson said with a nod. "But I'm afraid you've jumped the gun a little. You have orders, remember?"

Shepard glanced at the wound in her side. It was at least three inches smaller than it had been. She gave Anderson a confused and weary look. "Orders?"

There was mischief in his eyes as he said sternly, "Someone told you to come back alive."

And the words brought a thrumming voice to mind, waves of agony and sorrow crashing inside her as she heard them echoed in his voice, saw his eyes, bright ice blue as the waters seeming to appear in the air before her.

"I- I tried…" she said, voice shaking. The sun was getting a little warm. The shadows of the trees looked so lush and comforting - if she could just go sit there for a while… A small prick of claws shook her from the longing haze her mind had become. Her cat was kneading her arm, eyes seeming to regard her in an almost knowing fashion. Shepard began petting her again, the motion awakening her as the cat leaned into her palm, rumbling with pleasure.

Anderson leaned in, catching her attention. "Hackett knew you were the best one to lead the charge against the Reapers because people believed in you, Shepard. He knew you would get them to the other side." His eyes crinkled. "But true to form, you overdid it. You've come too far." He nodded towards the waters. "There are people out there who need you." He and Thane shared a look. "The people already here are highly capable, and this area doesn't see a lot of action."

Thane nodded. "You have drifted in before your tide, siha." He eyed the still mending wound in Shepard's side, the gash of red now barely two inches wide. "You must head back before it reaches its height."

Anderson pushed to his feet, extending a hand to Shepard. "You know what you need to do."

She stared at his hand for a long moment. Another world seemed to flash before her eyes, one filled with fire and screams, pain, darkness and smoke. Calling voices and the soft rustle of the forest leaves battled for her attention. She was lost in the storm of warring images and sound; sand and smoke, the creak of trees and the crack of gunfire, but two points of cool blue seemed to blaze in that hurricane of stimuli. They blazed like twin cold stars, a fixed and constant constellation, leading her...leading her home.

Moria took Anderson's hand and he pulled her to her feet, giving her arm a brief squeeze of approval. A soft warm presence wound itself between her ankles, and she stooped to pick her darling cat up, burying her nose in the soft fur.

"I never wanted to leave you," she said to all of them.

Kaidan strolled forward from the edge of the trees and stopped a few feet before her.

"You never left us, Commander. You were with us every step of the way while we did what we needed to do." He crossed his arms and lifted his chin. "And now we're going to do that for you."

"The tides do not wait, siha." Thane said gracefully, rising to stand with the others, his open white jacket stained with blood from her nearly healed wound.

She nodded, then swallowed and asked, "Does it hurt?"

Kaidan shook his head, "Nah, Shepard, not a bit."

"He speaks true," Thane murmured, "Kalahira is gentle when she welcomes us to her shores."

Moria took a deep breath, finding it easier than it had been before and clutched the still purring cat tighter to herself. "I… I don't remember any of this." She looked at Anderson. "If this… if this is real, I would have been here after the Normandy..." She looked at Kaidan. "...but I don't remember…"

"Things can be a little murky in the shade," he said, eyes shining with something unreadable.

She looked beseechingly to Anderson. "Am I going to remember?" she asked in a shaking voice. "Am I going to remember you?"

But it was Mordin who answered. "Too many variables. Not enough data to ever form hypothesis."

"But," Anderson said gently, "we know you will never forget us."

The cat in her arms shared a mew of assent. Moria kissed her on her soft, warm, little head and carefully passed the purring feline to Legion. "Take care of her," she whispered.

Legion's head bobbed solemnly. "Yes, Shepard-Commander. We will care for her as you cared for all of us."

"Although, let's be real," Anderson nodded at the cat. "That little gal is the one who calls the shots around here."

Mordin chuckled. "Accurate assessment."

"...It's time, siha."

The wound in her side now looked like it had come from a slim scalpel rather than tearing shrapnel. She could see two figures in the dappled shadows of the trees, one with broad shoulders, the other more slim, both with heads of red gold hair like hers, gleaming like crowns in the shifting light. Her little brother, Killian, waggled his brow at her teasingly like he had a thousand times before, and her father nodded solemnly, his eyes, twins to her own, gleaming with pride. Moria tore her eyes away from them, squared her shoulders, and turned one last time to her C.O. "How do I do this?"

Anderson merely gave her a small smile and repeated. "You know what you need to do."

Moria turned to the waters that she could now hear calling her name, roaring with a familiar voice rich with many-layered tones. The last bit of pain in her side faded as she broke into a sprint, her bare feet flashing across the silken sands and splashing into the shallows, plunging towards those reaching talon-like currents, flying into that expanse of the ice blue she couldn't tear her eyes away from, that light, that beacon that had always led her home.

The warm breeze carried a voice to her from the shore.

Kalahira, mistress of inscrutable depths, I ask forgiveness…

Moria surged forwards, water splashing and frothing around her knees as she raced further outward.

You never left us, Commander.

Kalahira, whose waves wear down stone and sand…

The waters were at her waist now, and she swung her arms, teeth gritted with the effort to gain ground, to fight the warm wind now tearing at her hair, beckoning back towards the beach.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. All energy remains in the universe...

Kalahira, carry this spirit from your shores…

The wind had whipped up small waves on the once calm waters, but Moria didn't stop. She followed that siren call of the roaring sea, turned her shoulder into the wave and pushed forward.

We know you will never forget us.

And set her down where hearts do beat…

As the last bit of the wound in her side vanished, she threw herself into the water's cool blue embrace, the surf thundering in her ears.

Forgive the insubordination, but your boyfriend has an order for you.

She dove down, down, down into the dark.

Come back, alive.

...where hearts do beat, and breath doth roar.