Lt. Ashley Williams

In the peaceful void, she floated. She knew she was dead. This wasn't anything like the Heaven she'd expected. It was good enough. A serene place of comfort to drift and take solace of a life well lived. Ashley had no idea how long she'd floated there but also had no motivation to stop. It was quiet. She'd earned some quiet.

The sense of presence. Hesitating on the edge of her consciousness as though knocking at an unseen door.

Hello? she asked.

The presence answered with images. A face she knew. His voice, his laugh. The shy duck of his head and the lopsided and almost timid smile. The focus while he fought when his mouth became a grim, hard line. The solidity of his presence and the certainty that he had her back.

She never had to look for him in battle because she always knew where he'd be. Opposite wherever she was, covering the Commander's other side. A perfect and deadly triangle on the field of what they suspected was the opening gambit of a war.

Kaidan Alenko. She identified him for the presence because there was a question in the images. She wondered how he was doing.

The presence intensified at that thought. The feeling of a question grew.

How is he doing?

A feeling of negation and again the feeling of a question.

I'd like to know how it all turned out.

Had it become a war? Had they stopped it?

Is he still alive?

A sense of affirmation.

That was a relief. She knew she wasn't. She remembered dying but it was at a remove. She didn't remember the pain. Just the fact: She had held the line and she'd died behind it.

I'd like to see him again.

The presence gave her a sense of confirmation. A sense of 'wait'. That was fine. That was what she'd been doing, after all.

Almost like a dream, she heard a small chorus of voices whisper, "He will dream it. You will come."

Kaidan. It would be good to see him again.