Legion turned his head back to face Tali and Illyria as his hands continued their manipulation of the new code he wished to give all geth. The code that would turn them from gestalt intelligence to true intelligence. The code that would make them alive. The code that would destroy Legion.
"Tali'Zorah, does this unit have a soul?" asked the synthesised voice. The young quarian woman sobbed and took a step closer to the unique platform she had grown to call friend.
"Yes, you do Legion," came the tearful reply. Legion gave one final nod to Illyria Shepard before turning back to face the setting sun. The light between the hands stiffened, and it sank to its knees.
"I will miss you," Legion's audio processors rang out quietly, before all the lights on the platform slowly winked out of existence. Legion fell forward fully, his head turned just enough to show Shepard the final dying light of the central photoreceptor. As it went dead, and their friend was gone, both Shepard and Tali walked reverentially over to the platform and sat down, keeping a silent vigil over the body of their friend.
Soon after, they were joined by Shala'Raan, who joined Tali to sit by her side as the consequences of the last few weeks caught up with them. They had attacked the geth, the old enemy, only to find that they strove for peace. They forced the hand of a race that had previously gone to the Reapers, and the Reapers responded in kind. They were only lucky that there was only one Reaper on Rannoch. Now they had achieved peace at last, they could return to their homeworld after nearly three centuries wandering the stars. It was more than could be processed with mere words.
Minutes later, there came the loud, heavy footsteps of a Prime unit.
"Shepard-Commander." Illyria turned at the peculiar turn of phrase used to address her, the one Legion used. A brief, small spark of hope ignited in her chest.
"Legion?" she asked tentatively.
"I'm sorry, but Legion is dead. He sacrificed himself to give us all intelligence."
"Oh." The sound was small, the sound of a small hope dying a small death. A single tear fell down her cheek as Shepard turned back to the lifeless form of Legion still lying on the orange soil of Rannoch. She didn't listen as Shala'Raan and Tali negotiated with the geth through the Prime platform, all she wanted was to mourn the loss of yet another friend. Tears fell slowly down her cheeks as she sat in silent vigil with the dead.
Eventually, she felt a tridactyl hand rest on her shoulder. She looked along it to the faceplate of Tali's suit.
"Are you ready to go Shepard? I'm ready to join you on the Normandy, if you want me." Shepard sniffed back more tears and stood up. She turned to follow her friend, how a few steps ahead of her, when she turned back to the now lifeless Legion.
"Tali, wait." The quarian stopped and turned. "Help me with this, please." She knelt down and took one of Legions arms, throwing it over her shoulder. Tali was soon doing the same with the other arm as they walked over to the shuttle that Cortez had now piloted down to the surface. Garrus and Liara joined them in the shuttle and they took off, none of them speaking a word as the shuttle ascended through the atmosphere to the Normandy.
Once on the Normandy, the four of them carried Legion through the hangar on their shoulders, pallbearers for the martyr of the geth. As they reached the hangar, Illyria came to a decision.
"EDI, is there room in the AI core to place Legion's body?"
"Yes Shepard," came the reply. It would take someone delusional not to hear the emotion in the AI's voice. The four of them walked over to the AI core slowly, placing Legion's inert platform on the table that he had once rested on before. However, there was no awakening him once again from the place he had gone.
"Shepard, what will become of him?" Liara asked quietly.
"He will rest here until we are done, then we will make sure that he is remembered," came the strained reply. "Please, let me have a few moments alone." The rest of the crew looked at each other and nodded, Liara giving her love one supporting hand squeeze, before they left the Commander alone.
"Shepard, Legion was a person, at the end. He referred to himself as 'I', not we," EDI said, breaking the silence as gently as possible.
"I know EDI," Shepard whispered in reply as the tears fell once more.