Archive of Our Own

Notes:

I've played a lot with the meaning of black and white. The screen turns white when they decide to leave their side (to search for the other) and to black when they are forced to leave (about to die). I got inspired by the black forest in Shepard's nightmares. Both the forest and the black appear on her side in "Behind", to imply she's going through a path that leads to death.

All skies are in a mute or a subreal color except the last one, in that way the last of them pops among the others (to give the feeling of finally being happy after all of their suffering).

Even though they cross the line a couple of times there's always something between them. It's not until Kaidan brokes the barrier (in "Behind") that both worlds start turning into one. He breaks the line in order to save her, once he succeeds the barrier disappears (in "Peace", you can also see black in this one, to represent how close she's been to die, but Kaidan's light overpowers it to show that he's the one that saves her). In the opposite way, in "Alone", the darkness caused by Shepard's death is almost swallowing Kaidan, to represent his suffering after the fall of the Normandy SR1.

There's another parallel in "Horizon" and "Behind", where Garrus switches sides to comfort the person that's being left behind, Shepard in the first one and Kaidan in the other.

I always get the feeling that Shepard is the one looking for the romance in ME1 (that's why she's the one to cross the line in "Human") and Kaidan in ME3 (that's why he's the one to cross the line in "Sanity Check").

Shepard doesn't smile until "Normandy SR1'' (when she meets Kaidan), and her worst two moments are "First time" where she cries out of control after taking her first life, and in "Akuze" where everybody is praising and admiring her but she feels numb and devastated by the lost of all her team. (The bones are there to represent that too, along with the sky.)

"Alliance", "Normandy SR1'' and "Normandy SR2" are pretty similar, all of them explain their most important moments in the Alliance: Enlisting, meeting each other and reuniting. (I went heavy with the highlights in “Normandy SR1” because I miss the sweaty conversations from the original ME XDDD).

In the last one, "Always", the barrier is completely gone (the title is on the railing now), they share the same space, in fact, now they're married, they share everything. (It's supposed to be in Canada, that's why she's wearing long sleeves btw).

Other curiosities:
Check how their hair changes with the passage of time.
The buildings in "Mistakes" make a return in the background ruins of "Behind".
The happiest moment for both is in "Peace": She just woke up and is thrilled to see Kaidan is okay (that's why she smiles the most in this one) and he's relieved she's finally woken up (and broke to cry out of happiness, feeling the need to hug her).

As you can see I enjoy drawing stories as much as writing them. If you have any questions I didn't explain or you just want to tell me which one is your favourite please leave a comment below.