PROPHECY

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX:

A HOUSE DIVIDED

September 30, 2185

1610 hours.

Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate CAW Normandy SR-2, Docked with Omega.

Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah vas Normandy.

Marcus sighed as he sat back in his chair, looking blankly at his terminal screen. It had a been a long day and he was bloody exhausted. His biotics had been pushed to the limits trying to save Tali from Morinth's grip. He couldn't argue with the end result, but it had cost him his energy. His cybernetics worked wonders, but they needed to cool down too. So here he was, sitting in his chair, looking at messages scroll past his screen.

He looked through the glass case that was his ship-model set, and watched Tali sleeping peacefully on the bed. He could hear her soft snoring from where he sat and he smiled at how cute it sounded through her vocalizer. He wondered what it sounded like without it. Upon returning to the Normandy after Morinth's assassination, Tali had seen Doctor Chakwas, and had been informed she had a torn muscle in her side and just needed rest to let it heal, giving her a omni-splint along her side to speed up the process. So there she was; sleeping. He wished he could join her.

He thought about what had happened over the past few weeks. They might as well have been at war; they had barely fought the collectors, but had torn through armies of mercenary soldiers, batarian pirates, a thresher maw, an asari that killed with sex, blowing up a cerberus experiment facility and other crazy shit. It wasn't war, but it damn well felt like it, and it felt like they were winning.

Every second he spent on the Normandy only served to remind him the original had been destroyed and that Cerberus were all around him. In truth, it scared him that the Illusive Man could watch his every move and had EDI on a collar. Jacob and Miranda, in truth, were beginning to question allegiance to the organization, but it wasn't concrete loyalty yet. He was under Cerberus' control, and he didn't want to admit it. They brought me back to life, and now they think they own me.

He looked at Tali again and smiled. But they don't. Otherwise it would be Miranda on that bed, not Tali. I'm my own man. Noone controls me. Cerberus will get what's coming to them, and when the collectors are done and finished, I'm breaking away. And if that means I have to bring Cerberus crashing down, I will. The Illusive Man doesn't own me. Time he learnt that.

He smiled at his terminal screen. They had the IFF and within a week, it would be fully integrated and wiped clean of viruses. They would hit the Omega 4 Relay, destroy the collector base and then escape, if possible. It was a suicide mission; everyone on the crew knew that. He knew that. TIM knew that. They weren't likely to come back alive. Most of them would probably die. But resurrection is impossible. I did it. They said reaching Ilos was impossible. I did it. Recruiting geth is impossible. I did it. I live to do the impossible; and I will survive this. We all will. But the collectors won't.

He sat up in his chair, shutting down his terminal and yawning. Maybe I can afford some sleep. We'll be at Walker Station within the week and the Normandy will be armed to the teeth. Then we'll go and show the collectors the meaning of fear. They may not feel it, but they soon will when we shove it up their collective asses.

With a grunt, he stood up from his desk and quickly made his way over to the bed, sighing heavily. One of these days, the Reapers will just blow themselves up and I can just retire. I wonder if the Alliance even cares that I'm still alive? What about Udina? What the fuck is that prick up to, I wonder? Planning how to betray me next? I hope Anderson doesn't have to deal with his shit too much.

He quickly took off his shirt and through it across the couch and crawled into bed, wrapping his arms around Tali and closed his eyes, just wanting to forget about everything for at least a night. Collector hordes be damned.

{Loading...}

September 30, 2185

2019 hours.

AI Core, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate CAW Normandy SR-2, In FTL inbound for Walker Station.

Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Legion.

He hadn't had sleep like that in awhile. Considering the perils that lay ahead, it came as a surprise that he got sleep at all, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Tali was still sleeping when he left, and considering that most of the ship would be asleep by now, he slipped out and went down to the AI Core to speak with Legion further. He wanted to learn more about the geth.

He had learned alot over the week; pertaining to the geth, of course. The True Geth had nothing to do with the Eden Prime War and wanted to stop the Reapers just as much as the rest of the galaxy. Having Legion on the team had been a great bonus as well, although he was finding it hard getting used to working with a geth. He hoped to learn more about them now, as well. Maybe, if the geth are willing...I could secure the quarians back their homeworld...

He nodded at Doctor Chakwas as he passed through the med bay and into the AI Core. Legion stood at its usual position; standing completely still and looking blankly at the door. Upon noticing his arrival however, the geth looked at him and nodded, "Shepard-Commander."

"Legion," Marcus greeted, wondering where to begin, "Mind if I ask you some more questions?"

Legion's flaps moved, "We will answer to the best of our ability."

Marcus nodded, thinking of what to ask. Questions up in his head as he cycled through them, until he finally found one to his liking, "Did Sovereign contact the geth, or did you seek it out?"

"Nazara, the entity you call 'Sovereign', signalled us. Like the geth, the old machine listened in on organic radio transmissions. It knew of our war against the creators. Nazara had contacted many species over the millenia; seeking allies."

Marcus nodded, crossing his arms, "And some of the geth followed Sovereign. The ones you call the Heretics."

"The Heretics accepted their technology," Legion explained, "The old machines offered to give us our future. The geth will achieve their own future."

He frowned, "What difference does it make how you acquire a certain piece of technology?"

"Technology is not a straight line; there are many paths to the same end. Accepting another's path blinds you to alternatives. Nazara, Sovereign, said this itself," Legion then accessed one of its databanks and Marcus felt nostalgia as the familiar voice of Sovereign entered the room through the geth's speakers.

YOUR CIVILIZATION IS BASED ON THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE MASS RELAYS. OUR TECHNOLOGY. BY USING IT, YOUR SOCIETY DEVELOPS ALONG THE PATHS WE DESIRE.

And just as soon as Sovereign's voice had entered the room, it was gone. The voice still gave him chills, even though Marcus had to remind himself that the Reaper was gone; destroyed two years ago. Its Harbinger I should worry about; not a Reaper corpse.

He looked up and calmed down, "Okay. Now, why do you call it Nazara?"

"That is what the programs inside the Old Machine called themselves," Legion informed him, "Sovereign was seen as an accurate translation for its name, therefore the title was born to appease Arterius-Spectre. But the geth still know it as Nazara. It is possible that Nazara is the true name for the Old Machines, but this is unknown due to lack of data."

Marcus raised an eyebrow, before musing about what the geth had told him. Nazara. Not Sovereign, Nazara. But Sovereign is Nazara is english. Shit. So that's what it meant when it said 'we are each a nation.' Nation meaning full of people, aka programs. Interesting. Before Marcus could ask another question, the geth spoke first.

"Hold," Legion stated before bowing its head low for a moment, the spectre merely waiting. A minute later, the geth raised its head and looked at him, its optics seemingly seeing right through him, "Shepard-Commander; geth have reached consensus. We have completed analysis of the Old Machine's data core."

Data core? "And? What did you find?"

Legion replied without missing a beat, "We were sent to the terminated Old Machine to preserve the geth's future; we are prepared reveal how to you."

The spectre raised an eyebrow, "I'm listening."

"The Heretics have developed a weapon to use against geth," Legion informed him, "You would call it 'a virus'. It is stored on a data core provided by Nazara; overtime, the virus will change us and eventually result in making us conclude that worship of the old machines is correct. We will all become one with the heretics."

"So why go to the Derelict Reaper?"

"The heretics stored the virus on a quantum storage device that Nazara provided. To find and destroy the virus, we needed to understand its code and data storage capabilities."

"So this virus...," Marcus began, uncertain, "It would turn all true geth to the heretics' logic? That would mean all-out war with organics; correct?"

"Correct," Legion stated, "Current heretic military strength is far too low to actively engage in hostile activity against galactic forces; military strength hindered after Battle of the Citadel. Naval capability severely depleted. All geth would need to become heretics to get the resources they need for further war with organics."

"Tali told me geth couldn't be hacked," Marcus stated.

"Altered programs are stored in our archives," Legion told him, "Hacked installations are deleted, providing the false belief that geth cannot be hacked. This is incorrect. All that is required is for the regenerative capability sub-structure to be erased from the base code, allowing for simultaneous hacking of geth programs, concluding in a controllable geth platform. The heretics' virus follows a similiar attack measure; it introduces a subtle-networking error in our most basic runtimes; the equivalent of your nervous system. This allows the heretics to introduce the foreign code that is their logic, allowing it to rewrite our thought processes and replace it with corrupted data. We will think like they think."

"And you want my help in finding and destroying this virus before it can be distributed?" Figures. Not quite a personal matter, but damn close. I guess Legion has to fill the bill. Everyone must have personal issues. Even machines.

The geth nodded, unsurprisingly, "Correct. Elimination of this weapon is considered highest priority among the geth. Consensus is confused however; we are not sure whether we wish to destroy it. Some believe there is a second option available; they believe it possible to use the virus in much the same way as the heretics, except alter it so the heretics will see our logic, and not vice versa. In retrospect, we wish to assimiliate the heretics back into our consensus."

Marcus nodded, liking that idea much more, "So, where is the virus located?"

"The current heretic headquarters," Legion told him, "An old abandoned creator space station in the Sea of Storms, Phoenix Massing Cluster. The creators once owned the station as a refueling depot for their warships and once called it Haratar Station, but it has since been abandoned and the heretics have taken it and reshaped it to their needs. We believe the virus is located here and we wish to close in and destroy it. Or reassimilate it, depending on what consensus brings."

Marcus nodded, "Give the coordinates to EDI and I'll have Joker take us there immediately."

"We recommend a small team for this mission. No more than three. You, us and an additional squadmate. Allows for better discretion inside Heretic Station," Legion suggested.

"I'll just bring Tali then," Marcus told it before leaving, heading for the CIC. Great, another diversion. They would reach Walker Station and some point, but he was beginning to wonder just when they'd arrive. They really needed the Thanix Cannon and Silaris Armor soon; especially if they ever encountered the collectors again. The Normandy stood no chance against its firepower without better weapons or armor.

Now off to raid some geth space station. Was he going to do a personal mission for Joker, Kelly and the rest of the crew while he was at it?

Sometimes he hated being the paragon.

{Loading...}

October 1, 2185

1339 hours.

Maintenance Corridor, Data Server Wing, Heretic Station, Sea of Storms System, The Phoenix Massing Cluster.

Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, Legion.

The Heretic Station, once known as Haratar Station by the quarians who built it and once inhabited it, was massive for a space station; even bigger than Minuteman Station and about half the size of Jump Zero in orbit of Earth. It utilized a sleek design that was common in geth architecture; two arms stretched out from the main structure and split off into two other structures, both half the size of the main one. Lights lined its spine and most of its exterior, and but a single frigate was docked with it, showing what strength the heretics truly had left. The Normandy approached it with all speed, stealth drive engaged.

Joker shook his head before turning to face Legion in his chair, "The stealth drive is just for sensors, you know that right? I mean, they could look out a window and see us coming."

Legion regarded Joker for a second before waving its head flaps, "Windows are a structural weakness. Geth do not use them," Legion then plotted coordinates into the terminal infront of it, relaying it to EDI, "Approach the hull at these coordinates and dock."

Joker turned back around and pretended to imitate a robot's stiff arm movements but upon seeing Marcus' stern, unamused gaze, he quickly returned to what he was doing, guiding the Normandy towards the area specified. It wasn't long before the airlock came within range and they were docked. The door looked exactly like those Marcus had seen at the geth base in the Armstrong Cluster two years ago.

Legion had no trouble hacking into the airlock door and opening it, allowing them inside. Tali and Marcus were surprised when they saw the door open to a steep drop to an area below, but Legion made the jump without so much as a dent, so they quickly followed behind, airlock locking behind them.

"Joker, take the Normandy and wait in orbit around the station. We'll signal for pickup when ready," Marcus ordered.

"Roger that Shepard," the pilot quickly replied, "See you soon. Normandy out."

The corridor ahead was empty and linear. The design was a hybrid of quarian and geth, but it was clear the heretics were trying their best to erase what presence the quarians had once had on the station as much as possible. Smoke trailed from sealed air vents and seeped into the corridor, creating a fine, transparent mist that coated the lower part of the floor.

He unholstered his pulse rifle, bringing it down infront of him, and happy that his helmet was sealed and his oxygen tank set. There was no air on the station; geth obviously didn't need to breathe. Legion moved forward, its own pulse rifle drawn and Tali deployed her shotgun, Chiktika flying by her side. Marcus nodded to her and looked at Legion, waiting for its go.

Legion simply stood still for a moment before turning its optics towards them, "Shepard-Commander, alert! We concluded that destruction of the station and the virus was the only solution. The second option would be alot more viable; if possible, could you spare these geth? By all margins, they were wronged by Sovereign and corrupted. Rehardwiring them to accept our logic would be more sufficient."

Tali stepped in, "But wouldn't that be like brainwashing them? Indoctrination, in a way?"

"The question is irrelevant," Legion declared firmly, "Either we rewrite them, or we destroy them. Those are the options. Consensus is not yet achieved. They will destroy organics because their gods tell them to. You cannot reason with them; they show no pity, remorse or fear. Rewrite or Destroy. Those are the options. Do not hesitate now," with that, Legion moved forward, moving down a set of stairs descending behind the main platform. Marcus shot a glance in Tali's direction, but the quarian merely shrugged and followed the geth, Marcus not far behind.

As they descended the steps, a high-pitched, constant humming could be heard and when they rounded the corner, they were met by a row of six servers, all with geth heretics attached to them, offline and connected to their consensus. The servers were the ones emitting the high-pitched noise. He turned to Legion, "Can they hear us?" He noticed the room was dark, and the vapor wasn't pooling at the bottom.

"Negative," Legion told them, moving forward, "Sneaking past them would be a viable option, but if the base was alerted, the enemy could easily flank us. Taking them out now is the best option. Placing charges to detonate the servers would destroy the heretics, but the base would be alerted to damage in the station's internal structure. Or we could simply take them offline, one by one, without alerting the base."

"Latter. I'm not in the mood to be fighting geth, if I can avoid it," Marcus stated firmly, "Tali, use your omni-tool and put these fuckers to sleep. Legion, get the door ahead open. As long as they're linked, we should be safe," he noted that most of the geth linked were troopers or destroyers, which put his mind at ease. He was beginning to despise the new hunter models.

Tali dealt with the heretics ruthlessly, taking them offline one by one until all of their bodies fell inactive and destroyed, to the ground. By this time, Legion had already unlocked the door and opened it, revealing a corridor that ran down the station for at least 20 meters. Due to the lack of gravity, pieces of debris and wiring floated through the air, banging against any object that came into contact with them.

They moved down the corridor, not encountering any hostile activity. Just as they reached a door however, it shot open and a geth rocket trooper appeared, firing a missile at Legion. The geth infiltrator ducked out of the way and fired a steady stream of rifle fire into the rocket trooper, tearing through its powerful shields quickly and downing it even quicker. But it wasn't the only one; it was quickly followed by two assault drones and two hunters, making Marcus curse under his breath. And he hadn't even heard an alarm going off. A silent alarm, maybe?

Legion's combat drone zapped at an incoming assault drone, taking out its shields intime for Legion to empty a shot from his Widow straight down its optics, tearing it apart from tip to rear and causing it crash into the wall behind the geth, but before Legion could fire again, the second drone fired first, a rocket crashing into the geth's shields and causing it to stagger slightly. Its shield held, but barely. Marcus fired his own rifle, taking down the drone and turned in time to see Tali finish off the last hunter, motioning to them that the doorway was clear and that they could proceed.

He turned to Legion, "What was that? I didn't hear an alarm. How did they know we were here?"

"Geth do not need alarms," Legion explained, "They are inadequate. Geth programs currently occupy the station's mainframe; any security breach will alert the heretics onboard, making alarms as redundant as windows. It is possible we have trespassed upon an area that was rigged to go off if intruders should pass it. Either way, the heretics now know of our presence. We best hurry to the station's main control station."

He nodded and they continued down a smaller corridor, which looped around for a bit until it spilled out into a large chamber full of catwalks; and waiting for them was empty servers and a squad-sized continegent of heretic geth. Two destroyers he spotted instantly, five troopers, a rocket trooper, a couple of recon drones and finally, a juggernaut to top it off. Lovely.

Legion, with all its machine reaction time, fired the first shot. The powerful widow rifle tore through a destroyer's shields and scrambled its torso, tearing off debris from its armor chasis and throwing it backwards from the force. Tali's drone quickly moved in for the kill, an incineration blast hitting it square in the chest and burning armor off in red flame, destroying it.

The second destroyer immediately took cover, spreading a thick plume of revenant fire at their location. His team immediately took cover, Marcus firing off at a few troopers trying to flank them, keeping them pinned. The lead juggernaut in the room quickly edged towards them, letting off a steady stream of carnage shots from its plasma shotgun. Marcus raised his omni-shield and deflected the shots, but the impact staggered him, causing him to fall to one knee.

But he returned the assault in jest; he dropped the shield and raised his new grenade launcher, pulling the trigger as soon as he had the juggernaut in his sights. A resounding thump emitted from the weapon and a grenade shot out, landing at the platform's feet and exploding, tearing off one of its legs and throwing it to the ground. Crippled, it was unable to stand backup, and Marcus fired again, the second grenade finishing off the juggernaut.

He holstered the grenade launcher and prepared his pulse rifle, only to see that the rocket trooper was taken care of, all troopers destroyed and Tali had shoved her shotgun up the last destroyer's optics and fired, leaving it a smoldering pile of wreckage. They took time to catch a breather and reload before advancing across the catwalk to the otherside of the chamber, the station now eerily silent.

Once through the door, they were in another server room with another pack of heretics; this time a single destroyer and four hunters, but they were quickly dispatched and they continued down a maintenance corridor further into the station.

The corridor was covered in the thick mist; it was in the ceiling, the ground, the walls...it was everywhere and in every part of the corridor. And advancing through the mist was more lights; geth. Luckily, it was just a couple of troopers, and they were dispatched with little to no effort, so they continued unhindered through the corridor to where the door waited for them. Or what door they could see through the thickening mist. Is it being artificially created to hinder our vision? If so; clever bastards.

When they reached the end, no door greeted them, just a ramp that lead upwards. Legion took point with its drone, while he assumed the rear behind Tali. No heretics came to stop their movement; either they were preparing an ambush, or their forces were taking time to regroup and reconverge.

Just as expected, at the top, heretic forces waited for them, but they were dealt with easily, as it appeared their ability to continue pinning them was hindering due to lack of available combat platforms. They even came across the occassional maintenance geth working on hull breaches or fixing panels, but they were taken out easily enough.

The next door opened up into a cargo port of some kind; clearly abandoned by the geth due to the completely quarian design. No servers, no weapons, nothing of geth origin, just empty and left behind. Vast windows opened up to view the entire spine of the massive space station once known as Haratar, and it truly was huge. Even a Reaper would have a hard time dwarfing it.

Noticing them observing the station's length, Legion spoke, "Haratar Station is a length 20.5 kilometers. Total Width is 11.3 kilometers. Total height is 11.3 kilometers. Gross weight is 1.55 billion metric tons. Exterior Armor thickness is 8 meters. This station holds a population of 6.6 million heretic geth; 2.4 million platforms, one million which are in storage."

Marcus whistled at the colossal length of the station. That's round about the same size as Gagarin Station. That's huge. And its telling me that there are 2 million heretics on this station? Why the hell didn't it tell us before hand? Before we boarded the station?

"Keelah," Tali exclaimed, leaning on the window, "I can't believe my people once built stations this big...and lived on them! I wonder if the Migrant Fleet visited this station when they fled Rannoch...or if it fell long before the great exile...so many people lived on this station, and so many died..."

He put a hand on her bicep and squeezed, and she looked at him, smiling, grabbing her shotgun with new purpose, "But I shouldn't dwell on the past. We have a mission to do."

And so they continued. The cargo port looking area was the only area still quarian in design, unfortunuately, as the rest of the station utilized the same, basic geth architecture. Again and again, they met with stiff resistance from heretic troops and again and again, they were repelled. Unlucky for them that they don't have room for colossi or armatures. How much that would help their defensive efforts...

After another half hour of travelling through the station, they came across a corridor with windows on the right; and through those windows were a neverending mass of generators, all pulsing with bright light. Tali gasped, turning to Legion, "What are those things?"

"Processors," Legion informed her.

Marcus whistled at the long line of them as he lowered his rifle to examine them, "These aren't like the other hubs and servers that we've seen here. This is different."

Legion nodded, "This is a database. It contains a portion of the heretics' accumulated memories," the geth's optics brightened and its head snapped to look at one of the generators, a holographic database of information popping up before the window, zooming past as the geth examined the data at the speed of light. When it finished, it towards them.

"We have discovered copies of our fleet movements in the Perseus Veil within this database," Legion told them monotonely, "The heretics have been spying on us and waiting for an opening in a fleet patrols so they can infiltrate the Veil and deploy the virus on the creator homeworld."

Tali moved forward, shotgun in a one handed grip, "We wouldn't be here if the heretics wanted to be friends with you; you two are enemies, in disagreement or not. Enemies spy on enemies and wait for the time to attack. This shouldn't come as a surprise."

"You do not understand," Legion told them, "Organic minds do not work as ours do. You cannot hear the others thoughts; geth do. When the heretics left us, their access to the consensus was severed as consequence. Nazara became their new consensus. This new information however shows they have programs in our consensus; they have found a way in, and this is troubling. Human life is a litany of blood and conflict over seperate beliefs of lordship and afterlife. Geth have no such history. Consensus was once shared in harmony. But now we are two different factions; geth fight geth. What did we do wrong?"

Not only did Legion shrug, but the geth seemed to have, for the slighest moment, display emotion. Was that even possible? Could geth convey emotion? No. But Legion, all the same, seemed to have displayed it for a split second, and that was interesting. But he had to answer Legion's question; despite whether or not the geth seemed confused or not.

"When two people seperate, they develop along different paths," Marcus told it, "When they get back together, they don't always get along."

"This would be appriopriate with organic behaviour. But we are geth," Legion replied, turning to the door at the end, "And they are heretics. Come. The station's main core room is through this door. The weapon will be located here."

"Have the geth reached consensus on which option to choose yet?" Tali asked.

"Negative; likelihood not possible. Recommend you choose," before Tali could respond, Legion walked through the door into the main station core, where no heretics awaited them. Tali looked at Marcus and then back at Legion, not believing what she just heard. Marcus smiled, slapping her on the shoulder, encouraging her to move inside.

Legion wants her to choose the fate of the heretics. A quarian. The geth's creators. Either Legion just doesn't care, or maybe the geth trust the quarians more than they let on...

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October 1, 2185

1452 hours.

Station Main Core, Data Server Wing, Heretic Station, Sea of Storms System, The Phoenix Massing Cluster.

Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, Legion.

He had been wrong about no geth rushing to meet them. A squadron of assault drones had attacked them as soon as they moved inside, but Legion had been so fast and unpredictable that it had taken down most of the drones before they had let off a shot and Marcus and Tali finished off the rest with no trouble. That had been the last of the heretic resistance. They quickly approached the main control console, which Legion was already well into hacking and docked with.

The station core was a big chamber. They stood on a upper platform flanked by two ramps that overlooked a large server room, where multiple heretics were connected. All of them unaware that they had been infiltrated; all of them positive that their allies had dealt with the intruders. How wrong they were. Today, Marcus would either be destroying the heretics and ending the threat they posed, or rewrite them to join the True Geth, ending their threat as well, but making the True Geth stronger.

But it was Tali's choice. Legion had left the fate of half its people in the hands of a quarian engineer, and he wasn't sure whether Tali would destroy them or rewrite them but considering her hatred of the geth, he knew it would be the latter. He had asked her to work with Legion, not embrace the geth as allies. He wasn't going to force a change upon her. Hatred ran deep, especially when it was justified.

Upon Tali and Marcus arriving next to Legion, the geth disconnected and turned to them, "We have located the virus and secured it. You must now make a decision; do we use the virus to destroy the heretics or use it to rewrite them?" It turned to Tali, "Please make a choice Creator-Zorah."

A pair of eyes and optics landed on Tali's form, who just stood there, fiddling with her fingers. Tali's mind was a rush of emotions. This is your chance! You can destroy your people's enemies once and for all. There's still the 'true geth,' but without the heretics united with them, they'll be alot weaker and easier to fight.

But what if Legion is telling the truth? Could I commit genocide and murder all those geth? How many heretics exist? Legion said there was millions just as on this station. How many more outside in the Hades Nexus or the Far Rim? Just how many lives will I be destroying if I don't rewrite them? Do I want to be known as 'Tali'Zorah: The Mass Murderer?'

But they are your people's enemies! They deserve to die! How many billions of quarians were murdered by the geth during the great war for Rannoch? Its only karma! You take what you give! If the heretics live, they only strengthen the geth, giving my people no chance to dish retribution upon those machines who wronged us.

...and then you'd be just as bad as the geth, wouldn't I? They murder billions, so I do the same? Is that the woman I want to be known as? Is that the kind of woman Marcus wants to love? The kind he wants as a wife? A woman who's just willing to murder millions to satisfy some blood lust started three hundred years ago? Could I do that? Could I?

"Creator-Zorah?" Legion asked urgently, "You must make a choice before the heretics are alerted."

Remember. Murderer or Reclaimer? Retribution or Reconciliation? Looking up, Tali made her choice. She wasn't that kind of woman. She never would be. Marcus taught her better than this. She had to trust in his judgement.

"Rewrite them," she blurted out, "All of them. Change them. Do whatever. Just don't destroy them."

Even through his helmet, Tali could imagine the look of surprise on Marcus' face. She couldn't blame him. She was surprised at herself. Did I really just deny the chance me and my father had waited for? Did I? And all because of Marcus. My Marcus. He's changed me; I like it and I don't like it. I'll choose someday, but today? I just let my enemies live.

Legion linked to the network and distributed the commands and within moments, the station shook violently as it pulsed with sudden energy. Legion broke away from the console and pulled out its rifle, ancient alarms sounding throughout the heretic HQ, "We must evacuate. EDI has been informed of new airlock destination and is en route. We must leave now."

"Why?" Marcus, Tali already moving towards the door with the geth, spectre in tow.

"The virus will use the station as a transmitter for distribution to all heretic geth," Legion informed him, "Due to the heat generated, all organic life inside will be incinerated by the pulse."

He growled, "I wish you had told us this earlier. Double time it to the airlock!"

And they did. They ran as fast as they could. As fast as their legs permitted them. Heretics attempted to bar their way, but all they did was become an annoyance, the trio pushing past them to reach the airlock. Just as they turned the corner and reached the airlock however, they found their way blocked by the colossal form of a geth prime.

Oh, we don't have fucking time for this. Luckily, Legion reacted more quickly than they did. Shot after shot rang out from its widow, hitting the prime with each round before finally taking care of it, allowing his team through the airlock and onto the Normandy. Once onboard, the Normandy literally disconnected as fast as possible and shot away from the station.

Marcus looked back and watched as Haratar Station lit up with blue energy and in that same instant, it was followed by a bright, silent blue explosion, signifying the distribution of the virus. They had just rewritten the heretics. The heretics were finished and were one with the geth now. No more fighting geth. Well that's a relief. He turned to Tali, he smiled at him and nodded. He opened his arm and hugged her, whispering in her ear, "You did well Tali. I'm proud of what you did. You chose what was right, not what your heart demanded."

"I hope I chose right," Tali whispered back, "For my people's sake."

"Um...hello. Yeah, I'm the pilot. Sitting right here, unnoticed," Joker remarked, "You're not going to notice me? You'll just keep hugging? Oh, well screw you then. I know when I'm unloved. I'll just keep flying the ship."

"Just get us-" Marcus started but Joker cut him off.

"-to Walker Station? Yeah. Just no detours this time, otherwise we'll never get there."

Marcus chuckled and let go of Tali, who walked off the cockpit, promising to talk to him later. He turned to Legion, but saw that the geth had already left. He sighed and took his helmet off, looking back out the cockpit as the space around the frigate disappeared and was replaced by the light of FTL. He turned around and walked down the flight deck, footfalls echoing off the deck as he headed for the armoury to drop off his weapons.

Its just the collectors now. Harbinger should be afraid; so why am I the one who's afraid?

He forgot that he had said hi to Kelly. He didn't remember entering the elevator. He didn't even remember removing his armor. All he remembered was his empty computer screen.

Harbinger.

{Loading...}

October 1, 2185

1456 hours.

Gunnery Control Station, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate CAW Normandy SR-2, In FTL inbound for Walker Station.

Gunnery Master Garrus Vakarian, Senior Assistant Lia'Vael nar Ulnay.

He didn't hear the door open. That wasn't surprising really; he spent so much time doing calibrations and was so enthralled by the work and comfort it provided, that he barely heard anything any more that didn't involve drills or fire torches or the turian curses that erupted from his mandibles whenever he did something wrong.

So when the door opened, he didn't turn to see who it was, he simply kept working, unaware. Lia'Vael nar Ulnay, Mordin's prized assistant quarian still on pilgrimage, stood inside the Gunnery Station, nervous. You just want to be friends with him. Remember that. No lingering looks. No shaking. No stuttering. You are a matured woman; not a little girl. You can look at man for a couple of seconds without shaking or stumbling over your words.

She frowned when she didn't see him at first. She had talked to him many times before; everytime, it was awkward conversation. It was nervous, stuttery gibberish and it always ended with one of them politely excusing themselves; whether it was his 'excuse me, I've got some calibrations to finish,' or her 'Doctor Solus probably needs me.' So getting a decent conversation working between them had been anything than worthwhile.

She liked him, and that scared her. After joining the crew, she had talked with Garrus and thought of him as a nice person. But then they continued talking and Lia felt herself liking him more and more and now...she had a crush for him. She liked him, but she had no interest in friendship...But why? He wouldn't like me; I'm just some quarian on pilgrimage. So why do I like this turian? What's it about him I like?

Which is why she wouldn't try to push her feelings; she was only here to complete her pilgrimage like Tali'Zorah did, and then she would return to the fleet. Yes, but Tali'Zorah had a crush on a certain human too...and look how that turned out...why can't the same thing happen for you? But she just wanted to talk to him like a normal person would. So she was going to rectify this; right here, right now.

She looked around the room, trying to find the turian, and eventually found him working on the main gun. She cleared her throat and staightened her posture, hands behind her back, "Mister Vakarian, can I speak with you?"

Garrus finally noticed her presence and looked up at her nodding, pulling out a dirtied rag and wiping his talons with it to rid it of all the grease before standing up and heading over to her. He smiled, "Please, its just Garrus, Lia. Something I can do for you?"

Make small talk. Wait, am I trying to get him interested or ward him off? Which am I doing? "Nothing, just wanted to talk. What are you doing?"

Garrus motioned to the gun and she nodded, but he simply waved a dismissive hand, "Nothing interesting; just a few calibrations. What do you want to talk about?"

My feelings for you. "Nothing in particular. Just a bit bored and wanted someone to talk to."

Garrus laughed, "Yeah, I get that alot too. I usually just talk to Shepard or Tali if I get bored. Luckily, this ship always needs new calibrations," he tapped the main gun, "I find it slightly interesting that you'd come to me to talk though. Why me in particular?"

She bit the bottom of her lip. He's got you there. "I...I just thought you were my best option. You know...because I...um..." There you go again. Stuttering. Could you be any more subtle?

Garrus held up his hand to stop her, "Its okay, I was just playing with you. The ladies just can't resist me."

Lia rolled her eyes, "I'm sure. I doubt its your company I seek. Just your undeniable charm," Are you flirting? Seriously? Cut it out!

Garrus leaned against his console, "Lia'Vael, are you flirting with me?"

"No," Lia stated quickly enough that it was suspicious, "Just returning the jest in equal."

Garrus raised an eyebrow before dropping the prior conversation and crossing his arms, "So...what you been doing with Mordin?"

"Its confidential," Lia told him, leaning against the wall next to the door, "Strictly between patient and doctor. I can't tell anyone."

"Sounds very hush-hush," Garrus responded snarkily, "Although I think I know who its for. Just don't tell; ruins the surprise. So tell me Lia, just why are you really here? I know its not just to talk with me. Something wrong? Or is it really just my undeniable charm?" As he said this, he stood up, moving to the center of the room, arms still crossed.

She shrugged, trying to sound convincing, "Just wanted to talk. There's nothing wrong. And I'll try not to increase your ego too much, but you are a nice person to talk with. I have to disagree with ladies' man though. You're definitely not that type."

"Really? Damn, and I thought the scars was the key," Garrus quipped, shaking his head, "But I don't know about nice person to talk with. Shepard hates my company and Tali wants to hit me every time I make a joke about her."

"I would too," Lia remarked, smiling behind her mask.

"You truly wound me," Garrus prepared to cradle a wound on his side, "Does 'nice to talk to' translate into 'fun to mock' in khelish?"

"No, it doesn't," Lia returned, "But I could have it arranged."

"Please don't. I don't need to give Tali more ammo in her shotgun," Garrus told the quarian, returning to his console, "Now if you don't mind, I have calibrations to run. I-"

"Seriously?" Lia interrupted, affronted, "That's it? That conversation lasted two minutes and now you shove me off? Can't I just talk to you for a bit?"

Garrus turned around, surprised, "I didn't mean to-"

"Of course you didn't," Lia spat, turning to leave, "Fine, continue your stupid calibrations. I'll go annoy someone else," and with that, she stormed out, door slamming shut behind her retreating form. Garrus raised his mandibles to speak, but she was already gone.

"What the fuck was that about?"

{Loading...}

October 1, 2185

1500 hours.

Medical Bay, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate CAW Normandy SR-2, In FTL inbound for Walker Station.

Lieutenant General Kal'Reegar vas Normandy, Chief Medical Officer Karin Chakwas, First Lieutenant Madi'Soi vas Ceresa.

"Reegar; you can come in and see her now," Chakwas informed him as she stepped through the doors, pulling off the sterile gloves she had been wearing to clean and check Madi's wounds. Upon hearing the doctor's words, Kal's head snapped up to look at her from his seated position on the floor. He nodded, standing up and going inside, Chakwas leaving to get something to eat and give them some privacy.

Jack had since been given clearence to leave as her arm had healed, so the med-bay was empty of all life except Madi, who rested on the same bed next to Jack's empty bed. She was hooked up to a few light support machines, all linked to Chakwas' omni-tool, so it would alert her if anything happened. Kal smiled and quickly approached her bed, sitting down in a chair that had been left out for him.

Madi's eyes trailed to meet his own and through the sterile mask she wore; her other mask had been too badly damaged, he could see her warm smile. He took her gloved hand and squeezed it and Madi weakly returned the gesture, still recovering from her experience on Pelaan.

"Kal," she greeted with surprising strength in her tone, "Good to see you. Thought you'd forgotten about me."

"How could I?" Kal replied, scoffing, "I literally sat outside the med bay waiting for an update on your condition. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," she replied, chuckling, "I've got a nasty fever. Like off the damn charts. But this Doctor Chakwas tells me I'll be fine. Just what ship are we on, Kal? I know its human, but what are we doing here?"

"Its the Normandy, Madi," Kal informed her, smiling, "We're safe. We raided and saved you from the batarian base on Pelaan. Balak escaped, but we got you out of there and saved you."

Madi coughed before giving a massive sneeze, "What about my team? Did any of them make it?"

Kal's look turned solemn, "Madi...I'm so sorry. None of your team survived, at least to our knowledge. The collectors butchered them and just left their bodies where they fell to rot."

Madi looked away from him, looking blankly at a wall, "Keelah. My entire company; gone. Those collectors...they wanted me and my men...why?"

"No idea. I was under the impression they wanted humans," Kal shrugged his shoulders, "But that doesn't matter now. We managed to defeat the collectors on the ground and escape their ship orbitting the planet. We're going to a Cerberus station to upgrade the ship and then we're going to strike them at the heart. We'll destroy the collectors once and for all."

Madi's look snapped to him, "Cerberus? Kal, are you crazy! You mean to tell me I'm on a Cerberus vessel!? Keelah!" she moved to stand up, but found Kal's hand on her arm, keeping her down.

"Its okay, Shepard says his alliance with them is temporary," Kal stated, "Then he's cutting ties. He plans to send a message to the Illusive Man by stealing his ship and crew. He's already planted the seed of doubt among the crew, he just needs to seal it. He's got it under control. This ship won't fly Cerberus banners for much longer."

"But how can you trust him?" Madi asked, still skeptical.

"Because he helped me save you in the first place," Kal informed her, "When I told him, he immediately stopped what he was doing, put on his armor and leapt into a shuttle to help me. Now what Cerberus loyalist would do that? For a quarian no less? Besides; Tali loves him, and she's like a sister to me, so that's good enough."

"Okay," she said weakly, slopping back into the bed, "I'm sick of being stuck here already. Chakwas says it'll be a week or more before I can move again and a week after that before I can be fit for combat."

"You'll most likely miss out on the assault on the collector base," Kal told her, sighing, "At least you'll be safe on the Normandy. You need time to recover Madi. Any movement or combat will just worsen your condition. Try to relax."

"Believe me, I'm trying. Trying as hard as I dare," the quarian responded, letting go of Kal's hand so she could place it ontop of her other hand on her stomach, "Just sucks, that's all. You know, old feeling only marines get."

"I know," Kal chuckled, "I've lost count of how many times I was grounded due to combat injuries. I'll just say too damn many. I understand all too well what you're going through. Just remember; you'll have me to talk to. And Tali, no doubt."

Madi smiled behind her mask, "Thanks Kal. Its good to know I have someone to talk to."

"And on that account, I've got something to tell you. But please, don't freak out until I explain it in full."

"Um...," Madi began, trailing off, "Okay...what is it Kal? Is something wrong?"

"Um...we sorta...uh..."

"Spit it out. Keelah, you're worse than my mother."

"We have a geth onboard. A friendly geth."

A moment later, Kal probably should have muted his audiotory filters. If one could be deafened by a roar of anger, it was then definitely by men listening to Madi. That was for sure.

Now he needed to see Doctor Chakwas.

"So. The final stretch."

- Garrus Vakarian.

"Too intense for you Garrus? Do you need a toilet break so you don't piss yourself in excitement?"

- Marcus Shepard.

"I'll be fine, thank you. Turians have better control over their bowels then humans do."

- Garrus Vakarian.

"That turian I held by the neck when I was baiting Morinth told a different story."

- Marcus Shepard.

"One that is not important right now. Get to the fucking point."

- Commander Reia'Inas pav Earth

"Okay, calm yourself woman. Anyway, yeah, we docked with Walker Station and everything was normal. Then came the distress call..."

- Marcus Shepard.

A/N:

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