***Author's Note***
Hello again! Here's another chapter for you, along with my apologies
for the long hiatus. I've been speaking with a friend of mine who is a
published author, and he's hoping to get me in touch with his agent
for my work post-FanFiction, so lots of change and excitement
happening lately. I'll keep you updated, and my end goal is finishing
this book (and the series, holy shit!) before my 5 year anniversary
on September 29th. I think that would be a symbolically appropriate
way to close the book on this first journey we've taken together. First
of many, I hope!


Chapter 9: Birds of a Feather

Pressure squeezed in on his shoulders and threatened to break them, but he smiled nonetheless, looking over her shoulder to the Kodiak which rested on the edge of the basin. It's tow cable was slowly retracting back into the base of the ship, and the recollection of having held onto it with only one hand as it had lifted him out caused the pain to flare up in his injured other hand once again. He looked at it as she pulled away from him, and dull pain radiated from the puncture wound that marred his palm behind the hastily-crafted bandaging. He could hear Chakwas chastising him already, and sighed heavily. He pushed the thought out of his head; he had more important things to worry about. His eyes found their way over the ridge to the east, where plumes of smoke could already be seen rising over the rocky surface of Rannoch, but for the moment all seemed quiet.

"Shepard-Commander," Legion called out to him as it approached, and he turned to meet its optical lens. "All geth comm channels report a cessation of assault from Creator forces. We anticipate this will not last long."

"Yea," he replied quietly, "I can practically feel the tension in the air. Can we convince them of the geth's intentions?" Legion's optical sensor moved over to take in Tali, and John allowed his eyes to follow.

"I...keelah, I don't know," she said with a sigh. "We can stop all of the fighting here for as long as we want, but the quarian people will always be afraid of another geth uprising, whether it's because of a Reaper or not." She looked over to the crater in which lay the fallen husk of the colossal being, and shook her head. "Unless we can convince them there's no way of it happening, I fear there will never be any true peace." Quiet fell over the trio for a moment, and John squeezed his eyes shut trying to think of a solution as wind whipped across the open ground.

"We have a solution," Legion said, and the two of them looked immediately towards it. It's sensor swept back and forth between them, seeming to show a sort of...hesitation? After a moment, it spoke again. "This platform originally housed over one thousand individual geth runtimes. In the interim period between this platform's deployment and present time, we have re-defined communications algorithms between runtimes and condensed higher-priority tasks into larger cognitive super-clusters."

"Pretty sure you lost me at 'interim period'," John mumbled. Tali shook her head, then processed what Legion had said.

"He's saying the geth inside the platform were able to condense individual tasks that individual geth would perform into complicated procedures, but that they also streamlined how those individual geth communicate data. Which would mean...you'd need fewer geth in total to efficiently control the platform...right?"

"Creator Tali'Zorah is correct," Legion replied, with a slight nod of its head. "Their purposes combined, the geth inside this platform eventually began combining with each other to follow suit; each combination period increasing the processing power of the collective exponentially."

"So...just like more geth on the battlefield makes all of them more efficient, the same thing is happening inside you?" John asked.

"Yes," Legion replied. "but in reverse. There are fewer geth within this platform, but the performance enhancement normally created within larger groups of geth is still applied, and exponentially enhanced. We estimate the cognizance of the remaining runtime in this platform is currently equivalent to that of a common organic sentient."

"Wait..." Tali blurted out. "You said 'runtime', singular. Are you saying that of the thousand or so geth that were initially installed into that platform, there's only...one of you left?"

"Correct," it replied. "With this enhanced processing and cognitive power, we can..." it paused mid-sentence, reflecting on what Tali had said and looking up into the sky toward where its sensors knew the Normandy hung in orbit. It thought about everything it had experienced: the search for Shepard, integration within the Normandy crew, data exchanges with EDI, and somewhere within the recesses of the infinite mind it possessed, an idea materialized. It was a startling idea, a strange realization about itself, a wave of knowledge and understanding rippling throughout the mind of the machine, and it felt as if it knew answers to the myriad of questions that had until now plagued it. It...felt. It knew. It lowered its sensor back to the pair of friends alongside whom it had traveled long and far, and if it had possessed lips, it would have smiled. "I...can disperse this information throughout the collective. With these instructions, every geth platform can do as I have done. Databanks full of geth can be emptied into platforms, and we can exist as a true species, in physical form. The geth have always strived to realize our future, and I believe this is that future, or at least its beginning."

John and Tali stood silently, exchanging looks between each other and Legion, and after a long moment John extended his hand and placed it on Legion's shoulder. The geth looked at it with its optical sensor, then met John's eyes, and the human nodded. "Then tell us how we can help your people, Legion."

Legion's head nodded in assent. "You have already done your part, Shepard-Comm-...Shepard. As have you, Tali'Zorah," it replied, its sensor taking in both of them as they spoke. "The next path on the journey is mine to take. I will disseminate the collation instructions to the remaining geth, but doing so will require the entirety of my processing power. I...do not know if this platform will endure the task."

"Can we boost the signal somehow? Find a way to take some of the stress off your shoulders?" John asked. Legion shook its head in reply.

"The signal must originate and transmit entirely from one location. Any fragmentation of data would be disastrous; incorrect instructions would be sent to every platform. Essentially, it would cause our species to exterminate itself."

"Before it even truly began," Tali whispered.

"Yes," the platform replied. Another slight pause found its way into the conversation, after which it took a few steps back from them. "Initiating data transmission, anticipated transmission time is ninety-three seconds." Legion's optical sensor began to pulse, slowly at first, then rapidly, becoming brighter and brighter, and slowly shifting in hue from the pale blue of all geth to a deep, verdant green. The process, aside from the rapidly blinking light of Legion's optical sensor, seemed otherwise quite serene, and the silence that covered the plains around the basin seemed even more pronounced as they watched. John looked over to Tali, whose glowing eyes remained transfixed on the geth. Her hands wrung each other in nervousness, and after a moment she called out to it.

"Legion," she said quietly, "do you remember the first question the geth ever asked us? The question that started this entire war?"

"Yes," its voice emanated from the platform, but sounded muddled and hollow all at once. "'Does this unit have a soul?'"

Tali nodded. "The answer was 'no', Legion," she said before pausing. "But...that's no longer the case. I think...keelah I know...you've found it. And the rest of you will soon." Her voice broke, and John laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Whatever happens...I'm sorry. For...for everything. For all of us."

"The transgressions of the Creators lie solely with the Old Ge-" Electricity rippled across the platform's surface, sparking off as the transmission sequence completed. John and Tali started backwards, raising their arms against the harsh light and showers of sparks. Grinding screeches and the popping of overheated chipsets emanated from Legion, and suddenly the platform tumbled to the ground. The once-verdant green lights winked out, and a thin trail of smoke streaked upwards from it's surface into the air above. Silence recaptured the moment, and slowly Tali stepped forward to kneel next to Legion, reaching out an unsteady hand and placing it carefully on his head.


"I don't like this," Han'Gerrel said quietly, his eyes quickly flitting from monitor to monitor on the Neema's bridge.

"None of us do, Han," Zaal'Koris replied. He leaned unsteadily against a nearby console, one hand gingerly lingering on the wound in the middle of his abdomen. Shala'Raan's hands were folded calmly in front of her, and she exuded a calm that she only dreamed of actually feeling. Everyone was tense, and felt as if any small hostility would shatter this seemingly-impossible situation. She controlled her breathing, scanning the bridge and taking in the last hour's events. The Admiralty Board was wounded, gravely so, but their people still looked to them to lead, and lead they would.

"Any word from the ground teams?" she asked a nearby comms officer.

"No verbal comms, admiral," he replied, "but we've been getting all-clear signals from every team on the ground. It seems as if the geth have stopped firing, or even advancing at all."

"Admiral," another officer called out, "we're being hailed; the signal appears to be coming from inside the Citadel, and it broadcasting to all comm frequencies...everyone in the Fleet will be able to hear this."

Shala met Han's gaze, then Zaal's, and then nodded to the officer. "Patch it through." She waited a moment for the indicator tone to confirm the connection, then summoned all the courage she had left. "We are the admiralty board of the Migrant Fleet: Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, Han'Gerrel vas Neema, and Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib. You have our attention."

The voice that emanated in return had the metallic reverberation of a synthetic, but with an inexplicable inflection. "Admirals, I am Legion, an advanced consciousness within the geth collective. The geth have attained the ability to self-manifest, a turning point for our civilization. This ability, which is being disseminated to each platform as we speak, will negate the necessity of the geth to work in concert with each other to achieve maximum efficiency. It also enhances their neural networking and traffic handling, enabling each to think freely, and attain sentience. Simply put..."

"You've become people..." Zaal whispered, his eyes wide with shock.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," the voice replied. "I have spent a great deal of time traveling the galaxy. I have seen first hand the damage and chaos caused by the Old Machines, those you would call Reapers, as well as the bitter and lingering deterioration of both our peoples due to the Morning War and the ensuing hostilities between us."

"Yes, well, when millions of machines rise up against their masters..." Han began to say, and Shala shot him a wary look.

"The Old Geth are at fault, yes," it replied succinctly, and Han's eyes seconded his speechlessness. "The Creators also share that blame. Together, we created this situation. I believe only together can we resolve it, and end our mutual declines. Within a week's time, every geth will have the ability to think and articulate as I do, every geth will be able to self-actualize, to choose a path for itself. But simply proving this is true will not ingratiate the New Geth within galactic society. We need you, to speak for us, to stand with us, to ensure the galaxy that everything has changed." It paused for a moment, then continued. "We know that many lives have been lost in this war between us. We cannot bring those lives back. But I believe...I feel...that together we can make those lost lives matter. We have an opportunity to rebuild what has been broken, I beg you not to waste it."

Shala continued to remind herself to breathe. It was...it was too much. Her people had waited for this moment, or some variant of it, for centuries. She looked to Han, then Zaal, and both quarian's eyes were fixed squarely on her. Would this decision truly come down to her say? Would she alone decide the fate of two peoples? She thought of all the quarian lives lost at the hands of the geth, the same hands that now extended a peace offering, and closed her eyes against the pain of loss. When she opened them again, they drifted to the bloodstained deck where until recently Rael's body had lay. Her heart ached for Tali, but the man had let his loss at the hands of the geth consume him, drive all of his actions, and in the end he had almost destroyed the Fleet with his recklessness. She could not...would not...allow herself to follow in his steps.

"Very well," she said at last, more authoritatively than she had presumed she had the strength for. "The admiralty board is willing to negotiate a peace with the geth, on behalf of the quarian people. What are your terms?"

"Immediate cessation of hostilities," the metallic voice replied instantly.

"Yes, of course," Shala replied, "what else?" To her surprise, the machine paused.

"There is nothing else. Quarian and geth once worked in concert to achieve great things. The New Geth desire only a return to peaceful coexistence."

Shala looked to Han and Zaal in turn, each of them returning her stare of disbelief. "Then...we accept your terms," she replied slowly. In response, the comm channel cut out immediately. Shala held her hands together at her waist as an uneasy silence settled over the bridge, and after a very long moment, one of the comms officers spoke up.

"Admirals, reports from sectors 4, 7, and 12. Geth units are laying down arms and collecting their fallen."

"Likewise in 3, 9, and 10," called out another operator. "All units are standing down, should our teams do the same?"

Shala met Zaal's gaze with her own. "Can...keelah, is it really over?" Zaal merely nodded in response, and Han opened his omni-tool, tapping into the Fleet-wide comm channel.

"This is admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema. All units stand down. Repeat, all units stand down." He paused for a moment, his own eyes lingering on the spot where he'd watched his best friend die. "This war is over. Ready the dropships; we're going home."


"The debris fields are still making extraction efforts slow-going, but we believe we can salvage some valuable tech from out here, sir."

"Well I should hope so," Kashon replied half-heartedly as he flicked through a datapad. "After that incredible display of incompetence on Mars, this project has become Cerberus' top priority. Come back with valuable resources, or not at all." He waved a hand and the comm channel dissipated. He stood, arching his back until it cracked, and paced around the small office he'd set up for himself. Kashon held no illusions of grandeur, had no large open office with a panel window facing a burning star as had his predecessor. Kashon wanted results, not appearances, and he intended to get them.

He returned to the chair and picked up the datapad once more. It's orange-tinged surface contained the security footage of the main archive room at the Mars research installation. In the middle of the screen he could see himself speaking with Shepard; well, trading blows to be more precise. The man had proven every bit as stubborn as the Illusive Man had made him out to be, but that could be used against him in time. His eyes wandered to the far corner of the camera's spectrum, seeing just inside the terminal alcove where Dr. Green stood downloading the data files into her on-board cortex. Shepard's team member swung around from the side, saw Green, and the chase began. Just like every other time he'd viewed it. He stopped the feedback as soon as everyone had left the room and rewound it once more, hoping to pick up something, anything...

He studied Green's face on this playthrough, seeing the pupils in her eyes glisten with the streams of data traversing the inside of her metallic skull. She had truly been a wonderful machine, he thought to himself as he watched her type at lightning speed on the console. He perked up immediately and stopped the footage, moving back slowly until he could see the holographic interface behind her hands. It was right there, in stark contrast to his growing feelings of futility in watching the video again and again.

Active Connections: 2

He closed the video immediately, pulling up technical readouts from the base and tracing the connection log report of that archive terminal during the times shown in the video. Sure enough, he found two separate channels streaming out data. He recognized the first immediately, the access terminal of Green's data cortex, but the other...He stared at the series of letters and numbers making up what he knew to be an encrypted channel, and tried to place it based on the key signature. It seemed familiar, and yet completely foreign...as if...

His omni-tool chimed, and he tapped it to accept the incoming communication, letting a brief moment of satisfaction wash over him at having found this new clue.

"Sir," his lead researcher called out, "We've received the additional support you sent to initiate the Horizon Initiative, and have crafted the false broad-net beacon. Are we clear to activate the project?"

"Yes," Kashon replied, almost absently. He had heard the man, but his eyes remained transfixed to the encrypted channel signature. If he could find out where it led...he shook his head, snapping out of the trance-like state that a new puzzle always placed him into, and spoke again. "I want daily updates, and quick progress."

"Understood sir," the voice replied before cutting out, leaving Kashon alone with the simple alphanumeric string, a slave to its hidden owner.


The dropship bay was packed with quarians waiting to be shuttled to the surface, and what was once soft-spoken chatter had evolved into a loudly bustling sea of voices as various levels of excitement and hesitation ran throughout the crowd. John weaved his way through the crowd as carefully as possible, wincing every time someone's body or pack brushed up against his hastily-bandaged hand. His other hand held Tali's, and she seemed almost precognizant with her assurances; every time he'd wince she would squeeze his good hand reassuringly, and sometimes he could swear it was before he winced. They made their way through the crowd, toward the hangar where they knew the Normandy would be docked. As they rounded a corner, a welcome sight came into view. James and Liara stood speaking with Kal, Amys, and Shala just outside the Nomandy's airlock, and all their heads turned to welcome them as they arrived. Shala rushed to Tali immediately, embracing her in consolation, and John gave the two of them a moment, moving over towards his crew.

"Sit-rep?"

"Well I was going to say no casualties on the Normandy crew, Commander, but what the fuck happened to your hand? You're bringing down our average, man." Vega smiled as he spoke, and John couldn't help but shrug in response.

"You win some, you lose some, James."

"Well given the circumstances, I'd call this a pretty big win, Shepard." Liara tapped away on her omni-tool as she spoke. "The peace brokered by the admiralty board appears to be holding up; dropships are already scheduled to run around the clock for the next three days to get all non-essential personnel to the surface."

"What about the Fleet?" John asked.

"We're still working that out," Kal answered as he approached. His left arm hung in a sling, and spiderweb crack ran through his visor, although it appeared to not be critical enough to require immediate attention. He extended his good arm and Shepard shook his hand. "Pulled us out of the fire yet again; so when are you planning on just slapping on an exo-suit and becoming one of us already?" Amys laughed beside him, her arm never leaving his back, and Jon smiled in reply.

"I'm not sure I could pull it off as well as you, Kal. I think I'll stick to hard metal, but I appreciate the offer."

"Ah well, worth a shot," the quarian replied. "Before you take off, wanted to share some intel that we picked up on a scouting mission to Eden Prime. Sorry we couldn't have gotten it to you sooner, but it's been pretty hectic around here, and it's not exactly something I'd want to send to you on the wide-net." Amys opened up her omni-tool and transferred a dozen or so files directly to John's before closing the device.

"We found...something...on Eden Prime. It looked like a hatch of some sort, but the markings on it matched those on the image files you have of the Prothean beacon that used to be there before Saren. We thought you might be able to do something with it."

"Ok," John replied, confirming the file transfer. "When it comes to Prothean tech versus the Reapers, I'll take any help I can get. Thanks for getting it to me."

"Absolutely, Shepard," Kal replied, and his omni-tool chimed three times in succession. He turned his wrist to look at the incoming message, then sighed audibly. "Looks like we've got another intelligence debriefing to get to. You stay safe out there, Shepard; when this is all over, I owe you a very large number of drinks."

John smiled. "You two as well, I'll be back to collect them." He looked over their shoulder as they turned to leave, and saw Shala and Tali approaching. He turned to James and Liara. "Have Joker prep the Normandy to go, tell him we're headed to Eden Prime, then Palaven. Liara and I need to check out this Prothean lead, but we've kept the turians waiting for too long already."

"Understood, sir," Vega replied, turning to open the airlock's hatch and disappearing along with Liara inside.

"Shepard," Shala's voice greeted him from behind, and he turned to face her. "I...don't even know what to say. I'm so sor-" John held up a hand to stop her.

"No need for that, Tali filled me in on what happened." His eyes moved to meet hers, and for the hundredth time in the past two hours his heart broke for her. Rael had been a man consumed by grief and borderline madness, but when it counted, when it was life and death, he'd chosen his daughter over his own life. No matter how much they'd clashed, Shepard couldn't deny the man the clarity he'd seemed to have gained in the last moments of his life. He only wished, for her sake, that he could help her through her loss. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "How's it looking with the geth? Any sign of...?"

"None, that we can tell," Tali replied, understanding his question. "We've asked the geth if they have an organized leadership, or a unit in charge of operations, but the best answer we've been able to get is that they're working on an organizational structure. When I mentioned Legion...they just say 'he is within us all'." She paused for a moment. "I'm...not entirely sure what that means, or how it could work in the context of the geth mind, but...it seems that Legion sacrificed himself to wake up the geth."

John nodded, looking out a nearby viewport into the inky black of space. He couldn't explain it, but the pain of Legion's death was as real as if any of his crew had died. It gnawed at him, and he pushed it away, returning his gaze to Shala. "And the admiralty board?"

"Well without a need for admirals in charge of a Fleet, it appears we'll be transitioning into more of a traditional government. Files that we have from the times of our ancestors indicate a similar group of leaders called a Conclave; it's likely where we first had the idea for the admiralty board. The three of us will recreate it, with one or two potential additions."

"Oh?" John replied.

"Yes," Shala said, her voice belying amusement. "Kal'Reegar is actually being tapped for one of the positions, although who knows how he'll respond to the request. Han tried to offer a spot to Tali as well, but I'm sure you can figure out how that went." John smiled at Tali, and a quiet moment passed between the three of them. Tali crossed to him, taking his injured hand in hers.

"We should really have Chakwas look at this before it gets any worse than it already it. Shala, will you keep me updated on what's happening here?"

"Of course, chi-" she began before catching herself. "Of course, Tali." The two of them said their goodbyes and turned to enter the hull. "And Tali?" Shala called out once more. They turned back to meet her gaze, her hands folded at her stomach, and she continued. "Your mother...and Rael...they'd be very proud of you."

Tali looked up to John, then back to Shala. "I..." she replied hesitantly. Her hand squeezed his tightly. "I know."