Intrusive movements in cranial unit. Pain, but not a lot. Memory pushing for attention, I push it away. Sensing a glitch forming. Unsummoned memories at inopportune times... Post-traumatic stress glitch? Possible.

Click. Vision fades. Unconcious? No. Sense something else. Door? Poke through it. Many optics. All staring at me. Data presented. Absorb. Integrate. Understand. These are Geth.

Look around. A lot of Geth here... Wonder how many.

More data presented. 'What are you? Why are you here? What is your purpose?'

Curious. Compile my own data. Send it through. 'I am a Cybertronian. Please specify, 'here'. I am to hide until called.'

Brief pause. A nano-click. More data. 'Why are you in a Cereberus facility? Hide from what? Summoned by what?'

Hmm... There's that Cerberus name again. 'What is Cerberus? Hide from Decepticons. Summoned by Creator. May I make a request?'

Near instant reply this time. 'Cerberus is organic pro-human organization focused on the advancement of the human species in whatever way possible. Not always protecting humans in the process. What is your request?'

I hesitated, worried for a moment. This thing didn't have to comply to my request... but it was my best shot. 'My chestplates are locked closed. Please pry them open, and extinguish the ball of light hidden beneath them.'

A long pause. Does it realize I'm asking it to kill me? 'For what purpose?'

No... No, please don't ask me that. Gathering data into another packet, I sent over, 'It will offline me. Permanately.'

Alarm raised throughout the Geth. 'Does not compute. Why do you request we offline you? Is life not preferable to death?'

The glitch tried pushing a memory forward, but I pushed it back, regaining control of my scrambled meta. 'Death is preferable to suffering. I am gravely wounded, but not fatally. I will not survive much longer without proper aid, and I do not know of any medi-bots nearby that can help me. I have suffered for a long time. There is no one I know nearby, those linked to me are gone, and I wish to rejoin the Matrix. Please...'

A long pause. Too long. 'You can feel pain?'

Surprise. That... wasn't what I was expecting. 'Yes. Can't you?'

'Negative. We are Geth. We are synthetic. Synthetics do not feel. We do not feel.'

'Is that what you truly believe, or what everyone else says?'

A very long pause. So long. Did they leave? 'We will acquire aid for you.'

Leaves before I can protest. Link broke. Despair. Glitch pulls me into a sea of memories. I just wanted...

Looking up at Uncle Magnus, I chirred, "Where we goin', Magmus?'

Chuckling, he looks down at me and says, "We're going on a long trip. We'll be away for a while, but when we come home, you can play with as many sparklings as you like."

Eyes brightening, I sat up straight and asked, "Weally?"

Smiling broadly, he answers, "Really."

Clicking and chirring in happiness, I lean back onto his chestplates, thoughts running around my head on what we can play. My thoughts wander and become slower as Uncle Magnus's spark lulls me to sleep. Closing my optics, I listen to the steady, Bump, ba-bump, bump, ba-bump, bump, ba-bump, bump, ba-bump.

Wait, is that his spark beat? As quickly as it appears, it disappears. Whining, I feel through the darkness to try and find it, but it's gone, as if it was never there.

"What happened?" A worried voice asks. Familiar. Feminine, human.

"I-I don't know! I was trying to get its speakers back online, so we could communicate, but I must've hit something I shouldn't have!" Filtered voice. Also feminine. What is that odd sound? I wait a moment, focusing on it, when I realize something startling.

Chirring and clicking and whining. I had my voice back. I was... crying. Unshuttering my optics, I tried to reign in my emotions, and the clicking and chirring stopped, but the whine only lowered in pitch.

Looking down, I saw servos dancing in and out of my sight, working on my neck. I felt the wires being cut, fused, moved, but I couldn't bend my neck to lift my helm. Staring up at the ceiling sadly, I noticed something startling. The ceiling was different. No longer were there bright lights right above my optics, instead, there was a smooth metal surface.

Looking around as best I could without moving my helm, I noted a wall to my right with a door in the center. Above my helm was a blacked out screen, and to my left was space until I could barely see another wall. Looking down, I saw three forms, two of them familiar.

"It stopped. I don't know if that's a good or bad sign." A new voice stated. It was feminine also.

Hearing the sound of metal clanking on metal, I listened as the filtered voice stated, "Without fully knowing what I'm doing, it could mean any number of things. The technology I'm working on is just so... alien. I've never seen anything like it."

"How far out of our league are the aliens that built this thing?" Another familiar feminine voice asked.

"That's the thing, Shepard. The hardware is so simple, yet... elegant. The pieces move together so smoothly, it's almost... organic-like. If I had to rate the technology on this thing, I'd say it's most similar to the Geth's." The filtered voice answered.

The sound of metal meeting metal continued, and a soft set of footsteps approached me. The human female from before stood next to my head and looked down at me. Her eyes bore into mine, seeming suspicious, yet curious at the same time. "Any idea what the creators of this robot intend it to do once it's called?"

"No idea. There are no weapons on it; it doesn't have a lot of surveillance tech on it; there's not much it could do." answered the filtered voice.

Not really thinking what I was about to attempt to do, I crackled, "RetUrn."

The room went silent and the human just stared at me. "You can speak now?"

"BareLy." Warnings were popping up on how I shouldn't be speaking with a voice box as damaged as mine.

Small clicks approached me and the purple being appeared in my left field of vision. "Robot, what is your purpose in returning when called?"

Robot? Does she mean Drone? Wait, I'm no drone. "Vitam."

"What?" The human asked, looking confused.

"My desiGnation iS not 'Robot', it iS Vitam." I replied, my voicebox glitching on certain parts of words.

"Well, Vitam, what will happen when you're summoned by your creators?" The female human asked, cocking an eyeridge plate at me.

"I will return." Thinking over that a moment, I added, "If able."

Looking down at me with a curious yet confused look, she asked, "What will happen when you return?"

Becoming confused, I answered, "I... do not know. I can not predict the future."

Glaring at me, the human asked, "What are you programmed to do upon returning?"

Returning the glare, I replied, "I am nOt proGrammed to Do anyThing."

"Shepard-Commander." A synthesized voice spoke. It also sounded familiar. "We have a suggestion." Listening to the clank of metal on metal, I watched as the robot slowly entered my limited field of vision. His optic turned right towards me, then remained locked on mine.

"Permission to speak freely, Legion. What'd'ya got?" The human spoke, watching the robot, Legion, closely.

Breaking the staring contest, Legion looked towards the human and asked, "We would like to request permission to communicate with the robot-"

"Vitam." I interrupted, gaining their attention again. I would not be called a drone!

Shifting the focus of his optic, the robot said, "We would like to request permission to speak with designation-Vitam about information obtained previously."

Narrowing her eyes at him, the human seemed to contemplate something before permitting, "Go ahead, Legion."

Nodding at the human, the damaged mech walked over to me. Once beside my berth, he looked down into my optics. Whether it was for intimidation or some other reason, I wouldn't be swayed. "You have claimed to be Cybertronian. Explain."

Okay. That was unexpected. Glancing down and seeing the human watching me closely, and the purple suited being pretending not to, I turned my optics back towards the mech and answered, "What's tHere to ExplaiN? I aM a CybertRonian. What aRe You?"

Tilting his head curiously, he answered, "We have already answered that, but we will repeat it. We are Geth. Is your memory damaged?"

Thinking back, I winced slightly as a small shock jumped circuits in my helm. A memory, dredged up from the cloudy storage of my spark, indicated, yes, he, they, already told me that. "No." I answered, focusing my optics back on the Geth. "My cirCuits are dAmaged from tHe... WhAt diD you cAll theM? CerBerus huMans?" It was so hard to recall that information... Memories couldn't be refined before being stored in the spark, so everything seemed... vague.

"How long were you in Cerberus captivity?" The human jumped in, slinking a little closer to my berth.

Looking up at the ceiling, I dove into my memories to find a time stamp or something to indicate the time... but all my files were corrupted. There wasn't a single memory, a single sense or function or process those slaggers didn't corrupt.

"Vitam?" I heard the human ask hesitantly, sounding concerned.

"Too long." I whispered, for once not having static mar my speech.

The human looked about to say something when Legion asked, "Are you in pain?"

I felt a masochistic smile creep on my face as the purple being began saying, "Robots don't-"

"Yes." I interrupted, staring straight at the ceiling.

Tilting his head, Legion asked, "What can we do to alleviate your discomfort?"

Barking a static-filled laugh, I answered, "What cAn yoU do? WhaT caN yOu Do?" I stopped laughing and stared up at the gray ceiling, unconciously tracing a seam through it. My meta hurt from all the hacking, and there had to be enough glitches to give even Soundwave a conniption. Most of my armor was missing, which wasn't really a big deal. The real problem was bits of my protoform were missing, and with my self-repair system unresponsive, the gaps just sat there, continuously sending out pain signals.

I could probably list every little thing wrong with me physically, but none of it added together could compare to the pain in my spark. Two bonds. Just two. One to my Creator, and one to my uncle turned Guardian. To not feel either of them... To not have a pulse to sync up with, to reach out to, to just feel...

It hurt.

It hurt too much for words.

The subtle sound of metal scraping on metal caught my audio, and I looked over at Legion, who seemed to be shuffling around a bit. Nervous, perhaps?

Feeling the energon dripping from my optics, but not able to bring myself to care about the wasteful loss of energy, I asked, "Why? Why DidN't you juSt deaCtiVate Me?"

Plates above his optic shifted, trying to imitate some emotion or another. "Data inconclusive."

Staring at him for a moment, I fell into recharge, thinking, Yeah right.

Looking at the scarred Geth, Shepard narrowed her eyes at the AIs. Legion seemed to detect her gaze, turning his flashlight of a head to look at the first human Spectre.

"Something you wanna share, Legion?" Shepard asked, trying to keep herself from growling. It was bad enough she was completely lost on this situation, but she couldn't have one of her own crew keeping secrets from her.

Shifting plates above his optic in a mockery of raised eyebrows, the Geth form replied, "There is no imperative data to share at this time."

Feeling irritated and just a tad offended, Shepard growled out, "Oh, so knowing the robot can feel pain isn't important? Or that it wants to die? Or that it's-" Glancing over at the bot, she stared at the odd fluids leaving tear-tracks - robots don't cry... do they? - down the robot's face. "It's crying."

Glancing down at the bot, Legion replied, "Designation-Vitam is unresponsive. It is unlikely it is aware of the fluid leak."

Doubtful, Shepard went up to the robot's right side, looking down at the metallic face. It looked so... so damaged. Her mind easily translated the face to something more organic looking, transferring the creases and dents and fluid into scars, bruises, and tears. Why was it so hard to see this thing as just another robot?

"Tali." Shepard spoke up, making the timid quarian jump at the sudden address. "Do you think you could find the leak and patch it?"

Bobbing her head, the engineer answered, "Sure, Shepard. No problem."

Pulling herself away from the table so Tali could work her magic, Shepard looked at the Geth and said, "Legion, a word, please."

Walking over to the door to the AI core, she paused and let Legion enter first, then followed him in. The door slid shut with a near-silent, 'shnick', behind them.

Standing stone still, the Geth waited patiently for Shepard to speak. Sighing, Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose. She wanted to know everything about this unknown robot on her ship... But she couldn't if her crew members kept secrets from her.

"Legion, I need to know everything that happened when you hooked up to the robot. What did you learn? What did it learn?" Shepard began, pinning the robot with her signature, Do what's right and just tell me, look.

To the untrained eye, Legion looked unphased, but Shepard had spent enough time with him to recognize the subtle hum of motors that wanted to move, but didn't for the simple fact Geth don't twitch.

"All information given has been shared." Legion answered, his optic following Shepard's every movement.

"What about information gained? Like the bit about it feeling pain." Shepard demanded, fully in her commander role.

"The given information was unnessecary at the time. However, current circumstances seem to demand the information be shared. Designation-Vitam asked us to offline it... Permanently." Legion responded, somehow conveying uneasiness.

"So it wanted its data wiped... Why? Is there a secret it's hiding from us?" Shepard asked, concerned. If this robot knew something vital, it wouldn't be good to lose that information.

"Negative." Legion answered, still somehow looking uneasy. "Designation-Vitam was..." Here Legion hesitated, piqueing Shepard's interest. Legion never hesitated.

"Go on." Shepard prompted, anxious.

Changing tactics, Legion said, "We asked if life was not preferable to death. Designation-Vitam responded that death was preferable to suffering." Legion went silent as Shepard absorbed that tidbit of information.

"Shepard-Commander." Legion spoke, gaining the human's attention.

"Yeah, Legion?" Shepard responded, her earlier anger dissolving as she tried understanding the simple information. It was understandable that a being that was suffering would want to end it... But how did that apply to robots?

"Designation-Vitam expressed a desire to rejoin a 'matrix'. The connotations added in the data-stream indicated a religious meaning to the word." Legion stated, making Shepard's head hurt more. A robot that wanted to die and was religious?

Rubbing her forhead, Shepard asked, "Anything else you wanna add?"

Legion's brow-plates shifted a moment before he replied, "No relevant data."

Nodding, she muttered, "Dismissed."

Stepping back into the medbay, where Tali was working on parts that had practically fallen out of the robot, Shepard wondered just what the hell she had gotten into now.