Rekkah Cadash looked up at the Breach as it swirled and twisted in the night sky. Haven was silent around her, only those on sentry duty and a few servants still awake at this late hour. In the morning she would take the senior Templars to the temple summit and attempt once more to close the Breach. Solas and Leliana were disappointed in her choice, but it was ultimately a matter of politics. She knew that perception was more important than reality in the public mind and to the majority of nobles and commoners alike, the Templar Order meant safety and security. She needed that perception to extend to the Inquisition. Plus there was the fact that the mages had freely chosen to join with Tevinter, which just reinforced the fear the commoners felt for them. She could not help everyone, and sometimes, events simply had to play out as they were meant to.

Plus, she just didn't trust mages she didn't know. And anyone who willingly served Tevinter was not someone she should ally with. Never mind what her mages thought. Besides, she was getting mage recruits who had quietly left Redcliffe the moment the gates had opened. They at least had the sense the Stone gave them to know when to leave a sinking ship.

"You're wrong you know." Rekkah just about jumped out her skin as Cole's voice came out of the darkness behind her. Turing she looked up at the . . . boy? spirit?. . that had helped her at Therinfal Redoubt. "They were scared, desperate, and then the Magister came. He promised to fix everything. But he lied and nothing is fixed, still sundered, shattered."

"Somethings can't be fixed Cole." She reached up and absently straightened his hat. Cole looked at her with his bright sky blue eyes. There was such innocence to this boy that she had to fight the constant urge to mother him. Rekkah had never mothered anyone in her life, but with Cole it was like an itch that was begging to be scratched. She studied him absently; he needed a bath and a haircut. As soon as she could get him to hold still long enough she would get him into a tub. Maybe she could get Varric to help . . .

"Why do I need a bath? And I like my hair."

Rekkah laughed. "Everyone needs a bath now and then. It won't kill you. And your hair needs trimmed so it won't be in your eyes."

Cole frowned. "But my hair is on my head, not on my eyes."

She grinned up at the boy. "Ask Varric, he can explain about proper male hygiene."

Rekkah turned to go back to her cabin, Cole, still confused about bathing and haircuts, trailing behind her. They had only gone a few steps when he stopped and looked up at the swirling Breach. "Somethings happening. Somethings changing"

"Cole? What is it?" Rekkah turned and looked at the sleeping village around her. "I don't see any. . ." Rekkah's words died in her throat as the light coming from the Breach darkened and changed from its normal soft green to a deep almost blood red glow. The once unending green was gone. In its place, the red seemed to pulse like a pounding heart, and all Rekkah could think was Shit, now what?!

"Here, but not here. A step outside time and to the right of the stars." Cole's voice drifted through the red tinged darkness that covered the sleeping village. "Bleeding, burning, broken. I'm sorry, so sorry. Forgive me." The dwarf looked up at the spirit boy sharply. He didn't appear to see her. His eyes focused on something hidden from mortal sight. "EDI, I'm sorry, so sorry. Have to stop them, have to stop it. Legion, forgive me for what I must do. I'm sorry. So very sorry."

He looked down at her suddenly, his normally calm blue eyes agitated underneath the brim of his hat. "She's hurt! We have to help her!"

"Help who Cole?" Rekkah reached for him, to try and shake some sense into the spirit boy when he vanished. "Damn it!"

"Herald!" she turned to the sentry running towards her, his face ashen under his helm. "Herald what's going on? What should we do?"

"First, stop shouting, you'll wake the village. Second, go and get Commander Cullen and Seeker Pentaghast, quietly, and have them join me at the gate."

"Right away Herald." He sped off towards the barracks, casting looks up at the sky as he went. Thankful, most were asleep at this hour, and those awake where indoors. And those not indoors are drunk off their asses. Rekkah snorted as she walked past two merchants, or maybe they were soldiers, singing off key as they staggered out of the Tavern. She ducked inside and looked around for anyone sober enough to fight. Bull sat on a bench next to the fire talking quietly with Varric. Both had tankards in their hands, but Rekkah knew that neither dwarf nor qunari were the sort to drink themselves into the ground. Sera, on the other hand, was passed out underneath a nearby table. She snores worse than a drunken bronto.

"Hey, boss. How are you?" Bull started to smile but stopped and stood up when he got a good look at her face. "What's going on?"

"Get your armor and gather the Chargers, we need to head to the temple." Both men looked at her, then got to their feet.

Varric tossed some coins onto the table, and picking Bianca up from where she rested against his chair, followed them out the door. He stopped abruptly just outside the door and sighed heavily "Not again. First the hole in the sky and now its glowing red! Why can't we have normal problems? Like dragons?" He continued to grumble under his breath about all the "stupid shit" that kept happening to him and why was it always glowing red? He didn't stop even as Solas joined the group.

"Herald, something has greatly disturbed the Fade. Even as I walked within the Fade, it trembled and tore around me. Do you have any knowledge of what is . . ." he quieted, noticing the change in the Breach. "I see. You go to investigate?"

"Yes, I'm just waiting for Cassandra and Cullen to join us."

"Then I shall meet you at the gate." He turned back to his cabin, casting one long look at the red sky before turning away.

Rekkah paused at her own cabin to don her armor and gather her twin hand axes. She knew that it was a cliché for a dwarf to use an axe, but she had always preferred them over daggers or short swords. Grabbing a few grenades and poisons, you never knew what the Breach would throw at you; she set out for the gate.

They were waiting for her. Bull had the Chargers gathered together and stood slightly in front of them, while Varric, Solas, Cullen and Cassandra spoke in soft tones. All kept looking up at the Breach, still pulsing out its red light. "Everyone's here good." She looked at all of them then spoke to Cullen. "I'm taking Solas, Varric, Bull and Cassandra, along with Chargers, up to investigate the temple. Just before the Breach turned red Cole said and I quote 'she's hurt.' Who exactly is hurt I don't know. How they're connected to that" she jerked her head in the direction of the Breach, "I also don't know. This is why I'm taking the Chargers along with my normal group."

"Understood Herald. I'll make sure nothing gets in or out of Haven in your absence." Rekkah turned to head up the path when Solas and Dalish clutched their heads and cried out. Cullen and Cassandra followed a heartbeat later. The others were affected to a lesser degree, wincing in pain but not incapacitated. The only ones not affected were Varric, Rocky and Rekkah herself. Dwarves don't dream.

The last blinding pulse of red seemed to last an age before it faded to the normal green that they had come to expect. Slowly the humans, elves and qunari straightened and looked at each other. "Whatever has happened has now passed." Solas' voice was tinged with the shadow of lingering pain. "However it would still be wise to check on the temple."

"Take a raven with you." Leliana emerged from the shadows around the gate. She had one of her birds perched on her arm. "If need be, just set him loose and he will fly back to the Chantry. If there is no message, we will know there is trouble and send reinforcements."

Rekkah nodded her understanding and Dalish came forward and accepted the raven from Leliana. "Alight people lets go before anything else happens."

"Chargers! Move out!"

Cole appeared in front them at the entrance to the temple. "I can't reach her." He flickered between Rekkah, Varric and Solas. "Burned, bleeding, broken breaths. She's dying!"

Solas managed to grab onto the spirit boy and forced him to be still. "Cole. Be calm and tell us where this person is." He softened his voice. "We will help, but we have to know who and where first."

Cole stood still and then. "Yes, calm. I will be calm. I can help better calm." He pointed towards the center of the temple. "She is Shepard. They know her. She scared that which feared nothing. She stopped the illusive one and then the she fell from the stars. It was very angry with her."

"Not helping Kid."

Rekkah walked cautiously through the remains of the temple. She hadn't returned here since she had first attempted to seal the Breach. Time had not improved it. The remains of the stone foundations were still struck through with streaks of fade green. There were more jutting spires of red lyrium growing from the ground and the air seemed heavy, almost too heavy to take in.

And there in the center of the temple was a jumbled pile of metal and stone. The stone looked to be part of the temple that had broken off when the metal had struck the ground. The metal was strange. It looked like steel, but she had never seen so much in one place. We could equip the whole of our forces with all the steel that's here. They would just have to melt it down and reforge it.

Cole flickered from Solas' side to a point next to a massive metal beam. "Here. She's here. Hurry. Keep your barrier up! Make it instinct! The Gunny's voice in my mind. Hold it tight as death rises above me. Where did it come from? Instinct as I breathe cold emptiness." Sky blue eyes met Rekkah's as she reached the spirit's side. "She can't hold the barrier. Gunny Ellison will be disappointed in her."

Surprisingly it was Bull who spoke. "She held out long enough for help to reach her. That's the only thing that matters." He surveyed the wreckage, "Right let's move this. Krem, Grim, Rocky give me a hand." The four men placed themselves around the beam and at a nod from Bull, lifted the massive piece of debris. Solas conjured at wisp and directed it to light the interior of the rubble while Stitches stood by, ready to help as he could.

Rekkah and Varric, as the shortest there, quickly knelt and reached into space where the battered form of a woman lay like a broken doll. Each grabbed at the closest body part they could reach and pulled her from the wreckage. As soon as they were clear, the Chargers slowly lowered the beam so that it wouldn't roll onto the already injured woman.

"Maker! How is she even alive?" Cassandra voiced the question all were thinking. The woman was human, wearing a strange armor unlike any they had seen before. It was blackened and pitted from fire and Stone only knew what else. Parts seemed to have been melted together. Her face was surprisingly free of burns, leaving Rekkah to believe that she had lost her helm at some point. Blood seeped from wounds unseen under the armor.

"I've seen corpses dead a week that looked better." Bull said as Stitches and Solas started to work on the woman. "And what kind of armor is that?"

"We'll find out later." Rekkah looked at the injured woman, at the massive pile of metal debris, and then to the Breach in the sky. "Solas can you and Stitches get her stable enough to be transported back to Haven?"

The apostate didn't look up as he ran glowing hands down the woman's body. "We can Herald. It will take some time though."

"Send the raven. Have Cullen send a stretcher along with another healer up here. Cassandra I want you to stay with them. Cole spoke of a barrier, so it sounds like she's a mage. I don't want her lashing out with her power; keep her drained if you must, but keep our people safe."

"The rest of us will search the temple grounds. Make sure nothing else came from the Breach."