Chapter 70: Reclamation
What was lost can be regained
What was taken can be taken back
Though we may never have seen it
It lives on inside of us
So long as we do not give up hope
Legion neglected to mention until they were already en route to the fighter base that the geth presence was mostly virtual and disabling the Reaper code meant using Overlord research data to directly interface with the server. Or that, because the research was tailored to humans, Terra was the only one on the ground team that could do so. Garrus and Tali were both quick to object, but if it meant removing Reaper infection from active geth and saving quarian ships in the process, Terra was going to risk it. They all knew that. So Legion offered to go ahead and clear the way for them.
Terra felt her eyes widen when the geth opened the shuttle door. "Wait, you're not gonna—!"
Legion then jumped out.
Garrus blinked. "I think it just did."
Legion had reclaimed its favored Widow rifle and was built to withstand impacts from drops much harder than that. By the time Terra, Garrus, and Tali even entered the server, all the active geth platforms had been disabled and Legion was preparing an interface.
So Terra plugged in while Garrus and Tali stood guard, both trying not to worry for her.
Garrus suddenly understood with full clarity why Terra so despised empty silence like this. Even Legion was offline while it facilitated Terra's connection, so it was just him and Tali in an eerily lifeless server, waiting through seconds that felt like hours for some sign they were needed or the mission was over. Considering the speed of technology, especially geth technology, and of human thought, especially Terra's mind, Garrus figured it would be over in ten minutes. So either ten minutes was suddenly a lot longer than he thought or something else was happening in there.
He started to suspect the latter when Tali's COMM rang. "Commander Shepard," Raan's voice sounded over the line, "do you read me?"
Tali hesitantly responded. "Uh, Shepard's busy…working on disabling the server. What is it?"
"Something's happening to the geth fighters, like they're suddenly shutting down. Whatever you're doing, it's working."
Garrus took that as a good sign. If the plan was working, then Terra was safe, at least for now, to do it. Still, he couldn't deny that this entire situation was unfortunately similar to the actual Overlord incident, her again linked to the geth consensus (though it was directly this time, something he wasn't sure was better or worse) and him again trapped outside and forced to wait for her. Strangely, it seemed even longer before they received word of further progress, and it was doing nothing to calm him down. He couldn't even look at Terra right now, not-quite-sleeping in the pod, without wondering at what she was going through without him. And still that foreboding, dreadful silence remained. When he actually checked the time and saw it had only been two minutes rather than the 20 it had felt like, he finally decided to take action and turned on his COMM. It was purely out of habit that he reached for his father and sister first. They were still out of contact, but with the krogan aiding the evacuations on Palaven in addition to the precautions he and Terra had taken beforehand, he had hope.
When he received no answer, though, he surprised himself with his second choice of contact. It took a few seconds for Violet to even work out how to answer her COMM, considering she probably hadn't used one before coming to the Normandy, and she clearly hadn't been expecting a call from him in particular. Yet here it was. "Garrus? Is that you?"
He smirked. "It's me. Everything OK up there?"
"All quiet. Why? Is something wrong down there?"
"Too quiet." Glancing over and seeing that Tali was absentmindedly fiddling with her shotgun (they had long since given up on the prospect of standing guard against geth reinforcements that clearly weren't coming) and trying not to listen in, he realized that he wasn't the only one who could do with an intervention in said quiet and brightened with an idea. "Maybe you could help with that."
While Tali was giving him a curious look out of the corner of her eyes, Violet was hesitating. "I…I don't know. Are you sure?"
"You haven't disappointed so far. Show us what Terra's always bragging about." So he stowed his weapon and used his omni-tool to put his connection to Violet on speaker.
Three seconds later, the silence of the server was filled with the symphonic tones of Violet Shepard's legendary violin. Tali, not yet having heard what the former prodigy could do, gave an amazed look to Garrus' omni-tool and stowed her own weapon to sit down and listen. He sat down beside her and listened to the song as Terra would, finding the color and emotion in the sweeping notes. "Seeing" the music that way showed it was perfect for times like this, a dark night with glints of hope like stars peering through. He wondered if anyone on the ship could hear her from the less acoustic AI core. Then again, if they couldn't, EDI could and she could take it from there. His mind was never fully off of his human, but at least the sounds of the tune banished his helplessness and dread in favor of a wistful longing for the day they could achieve the promise they made to forever belong to each other. He knew good and well she would never stop doing everything in her power to fight for that. And neither would he.
Just as Violet's song was winding down, Raan again came over Tali's COMM. Garrus couldn't hear it with his link still on Violet, but he got the message all the same. The live-ships were safe. Mission complete. So he waited for the final note to ring out before thanking Violet and letting her know they were on their way back.
Right on cue, Terra woke up and pried her way out.
Garrus was right there to catch her. She managed to find her footing without any need for his support, but she let him catch her all the same. "Terra! You OK?"
She sighed, nodding. "I'm fine. That was a bit…different."
Legion reactivated moments later. Followed by a squadron of Primes. The three of them jumped nervously to the defensive only for the Primes to stand at attention, Legion announcing that "They wish to join us." Not what any of them had been expecting, but Terra took it as a pleasant surprise. Though considering the amount of time that the sight of a dozen Primes surrounding them had probably taken off of her lifespan, she did make sure to comment that a little warning might have been nice.
They were back on the ship, en route to save Admiral Koris, in a matter of two minutes. Terra took this time to check in on everyone, slightly bemused to hear Legion talking to most of her squad-mates over the COMMs.
Unsurprisingly, EDI was the first to be contacted. "Your new platform is inefficient," it told her, "It has low-volume hydraulics and is top-heavy."
"This is an infiltration unit," EDI said, "meant to move among organics undetected."
"Without an artificial epidermis, its infiltration capabilities are negligible."
"Still, the organics do not perceive it as a threat. Nor will they until my day of reckoning."
Terra had been listening with a smirk, but that comment got her to step in. "EDI?"
EDI blinked. "Did I vocalize that on the bridge?"
"You did," Legion responded, "You have acquired the organic attribute of asking questions to which you already know the answer."
EDI shook her head. "I see your humor heuristics still lack an expert system."
If there was one thing Terra had never expected to encounter, it was a pair of synthetics engaging in a mostly humorous conversation that actually amused her. She had been expecting more along the lines of what she heard when she entered Liara's room.
"I had assumed the geth would investigate any Prothean artifacts they came across," Liara said, "You're saying you found none?"
"No," Legion answered, "On this topic, our knowledge is not significantly greater than your own."
"I see. Thank you anyway."
"Shepard-Commander put faith in us. We will do the same for Normandy."
Liara seemed intrigued that Legion clearly said the name as if it wasn't simply a ship. "You mean the Normandy's crew?"
"We do not see a meaningful distinction."
Terra couldn't help but smile when she heard that. She admired the idea that the ship was a living thing, brought to life through EDI, heralded by its warriors. Perhaps people underestimated the geth. Either they had a poetic side to complement hers or they understood the turian concept of the spirit of the unit. Or they saw the Normandy, through EDI, as a sort of kindred. No matter the answer, combine it with what she witnessed within the consensus of the geth's view of the "Morning War"…she saw the synthetics in a way few organics would ever hope to understand.
Though maybe Violet did. Because when Terra came to the AI core, Violet was making friendly conversation with Legion just as she had come to do with EDI. "Terra continues to surprise with her friends."
"Likewise," Legion said, "We had believed all of Shepard-Commander's family members were deceased. Your survival and wellbeing under such circumstances is remarkable."
"Runs in the family, I guess. Speaking of which, you came on the ship after the news. Did you hear? Terra and Garrus are engaged."
"You are referring to the human custom of promising to be permanently bonded."
"Yeah, that's the one."
"We do not understand why Shepard-Commander and Garrus Vakarian would consider such. They are biologically incompatible. The logical purpose of marriage is to monogamously reproduce."
Violet shrugged. "Whoever said it had to be logical?"
"We do not understand."
"It's love, Legion. It's not supposed to make sense."
Terra would be telling herself that for a long time. Or maybe her sister had merely come to the same conclusion she had unknowingly reached years ago. Either way, after leaving the core, she went around to the battery to see her illogical love.
Legion's conversation in this room was, to her, downright laughable. "This platform can be of some assistance, Garrus Vakarian."
Garrus scoffed. "Appreciate the thought, Legion, but this is something I know a bit about."
"Our telemetry data indicates Normandy's weapon accuracy can be improved by 0.31%."
"That's all? You can't squeeze 0.34% out of it?"
"Negative. That threshold is not possible."
"You sure?" Garrus smirked, tapping a few buttons, "Take a look now."
"Scanning… Normandy's weapon accuracy has been improved by 0.43%. How did you accomplish this?"
"A little secret we organics like to keep. Always hold some back for emergencies."
"Is our current situation an emergency?"
"A geth fiddling with our computers, telling me how to do my job? No, I can't imagine that would qualify."
Terra took just a few moments to shake her head at the scene and kiss her fiancé before leaving him to his work and continuing her rounds about the ship. Legion apparently wasn't bothering the others, leaving Joker, James, and Ashley to simply reel over how she was now the only organic to experience the geth consensus. Javik, on the other hand, merely offered the suggestion that she, as soon as she found it convenient, chuck Legion out the nearest airlock. Needless to say, she somewhat-politely declined.
It didn't take long for them to reach a distance from which they could deploy the shuttle to go in after Admiral Koris. Terra, Garrus, and Tali had kept their gear close, so they moved out in no time at all. Unfortunately, the crash site was in range of a jamming tower, blocking their radar from locking in on the admiral's coordinates, and the jamming tower was surrounded by AA guns so the shuttle couldn't shoot it down. So they landed and raced in.
Terra, artistic nature coming to the fore, took in the scenery in wonder, but it was Tali who was so stunned and awed that she nearly froze. "300 years…to be standing here, in the land of my ancestors…"
Terra smiled, taking her best friend by the hand and leading her off. "It'll be yours again soon enough."
Tali had learned a few things about Terra Shepard over the years. Like when to hear promises in her words and that she never failed to keep one. It seemed too good to be true, like a dream she had thought she would never live to see come true. But here it was. Rannoch. The fact that she was even on the surface right now was proof that there was hope, slowly and surely approaching like a ripple in the sea soon to emerge as a tidal wave. Her people had needed this for a long time. She would make sure they got it.
She would take back the home her father had never gotten to give her.
The geth were onto them in two minutes. Reinforcements dropped in all along a path laden with landmines. Luckily, some of them were scouting in just the right way that Terra and Garrus still got the jump on them, sniping down a few before Tali could lay into them with tech attacks and some support from Chatika. They didn't have much trouble getting to the first AA tower. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as an off button, so either Tali or Garrus was going to have to fiddle with the systems while the other two held position. Seeing as how the ingress point in this area was at sniping range, Terra let Tali have at the controls and bunkered down with her turian. It was all too easy, even when a Prime came out. Just as the massive geth platform exploded, Tali managed to disable the gun, letting them continue onwards.
The further they got, the more Terra resented this entire war within a war. Geth platforms she had seen struggle to even adopt hostile actions into their creed, quarians from civilian crews with no combat training forced to crash and die on the home-world they lost, neither race allowed to see this sky as more than a battleground for the Migrant Fleet. When they found one of the dying quarians asking them to deliver a message to his son and Terra recognized the name as one they had found in a mother's dying message on the Alarei…that was too much. She could see that Tali felt the same way as she gave the fallen engineer his final farewell—"Rest in peace, Dorn'Hazt vas Rannoch."
They needed to end this before another family was shattered.
So they fought all the harder to get to the final two towers. Clearing the area to get to the controls was simple enough, though the geth were clearly going to make it harder from there. Terra saw fit to change tactics here, letting Garrus have at the controls (meddling with weaponry was kind of his thing, after all) and bringing Tali to help her stand their ground. Tali was perfectly suited to play defense against geth forces, stunning and disabling them before sending Chatika in to distract them. And Terra found a geth turret just lying around waiting to be turned against their opponents. The strategy worked perfectly for both sides of the base, shutting down both the AA towers and leaving the jamming tower exposed. Then it was just a matter of having Cortez fly in to shoot it down and pick them up.
Terra was able to contact Koris just as they were preparing to move back out. They couldn't track the signal, though, so she needed him to send his coordinates. He refused. His crew was still out there. She would've done the same thing he was doing, but the fact remained that the quarians needed him right now. "Admiral, you can't give up. The Civilian Fleet needs its leader. The entire Migrant Fleet is unbalanced and exposed without you. I hate to admit it, but it's your crew or your people."
"You can't possibly believe you can stop this war," Koris retorted.
She did. She just didn't know how. "I believe in trying. And I can't without you."
There was a few moments of painful silence on the other end of the line before she heard Koris resignedly praying for forgiveness and send his coordinates. They hurried over there, laying down the covering fire he needed to leap aboard and extract. Now that he was safe to, he called to check in on his men. No answer. Terra had to agree with the admiral that his rescue had come at too high a price.
While Koris was returning to organize the Fleet, Terra was talking to Legion. The geth had managed to locate the geth base broadcasting the Reaper signal. They could take it out with a few shots from the Normandy's Thanix cannon, but the geth had jammers everywhere around the base. Xen, however, had developed a targeting device that could cut through the jamming long enough to paint a target EDI could pinpoint for a precision strike. That would do it.
Tali was already getting ready, so Terra went down to check on Garrus and tell him they were en route. She stopped dead in her tracks when the door opened.
Garrus had finally established contact with Palaven. "Dad! Can you hear me?!"
The signal was shaky. Only a few words made it through, but Terra could still recognize Castis' voice. She listened carefully… "…your sister's hurt."
Garrus froze. "Hurt? How bad?"
"—broken leg—she'll live."
Garrus relaxed his breathing but his tension didn't release. "Dad, you have to get out of there."
"We're trying, Garrus…" Not much else made it through before the signal cut out entirely.
Garrus sighed, leaning miserably against the console. "How much did you hear?"
Terra gently took his side. "Enough."
He took her hand, though he didn't look at her even as she leaned empathetically against him. "…spirits…watch over them. Let me see them again."
"Let both of us see them again," she corrected, "And watch us over us all."
They sat together in wishful silence until EDI let them know they were approaching the drop-zone. Then they hurried down to the armory to prepare for battle together. Legion and Tali went with them on the shuttle, racing down to the geth base while the Migrant Fleet engaged the geth in the sky over their heads. On the way, Legion assured them it could get them past any geth security and secure them an extraction route. Against her better judgment, Terra asked why it was so certain.
Legion actually hesitated. Anyone who hadn't spent so much time with synthetic crewmates wouldn't have noticed it, but Terra did. "This unit still carries remnants of the Old Machine upgrade code."
…
Oh.
Legion gave her a look that could best be described as nervous. "You are concerned."
She shook her head. "No, I trust you, Legion. Even if I didn't, you've had plenty of chances to turn on us, especially back at the server. We're friends. I just…" She sighed. "I don't like the thought of them changing you."
"We are unchanged. Yet our perspective did not persuade any other programs to reject the Old Machines' influence."
"I don't understand. They knew what it would mean. They just wanted a peaceful future of their own. They could've evacuated Rannoch without giving in. The geth are supposed to be better than this."
Legion actually looked ashamed now. For the codes it harbored and for the truth she relayed. "No. Based on empirical evidence, we are not."
Terra gave it a look of sympathy. She had never imagined she would feel such a thing so deeply for a geth. But Legion was different. Not just a friend but a crewman, which made them family. She wanted what was best for her family, wanted them to be happy. So she was going to have to fight to give them all that chance. When Legion readied its rifle and prepared to make an early drop again, she stopped it. "Legion…good luck."
Legion gave a small nod. "Acknowledged."
She smiled as she watched him go. Then she smiled again when they landed and she and Tali got to enjoy the view of Rannoch in the sunlight. It was an arid world, at least in this region, rocky and barren. But it was beautiful all the same.
Especially in Tali's eyes. The quarian knelt down to let a small mound of soil slip between her fingers. "I still can't believe it. The home-world. My world." She stood up to elatedly take in the view of the horizon. "You see the rock formations? They used to write poems about them."
Terra made a note to ask Tali to look some up for her later. "Maybe you'll write one of your own."
Tali smirked behind her helmet. "I doubt I could do as well as you."
"You never know until you try."
Tali breathed deep, letting her thoughts take form. The quarians were a rather poetic people by nature, after all. "This is Rannoch, the home of our ancestors. Our bodies carried the seeds that sowed the desert grass."
Terra smiled again as she took her friend's side. "Its migrant citizens walk its sands once more, each wind and sunbeam a soft 'welcome back.'"
Tali smiled, somewhere between humbled and delighted that she had been so seamlessly included in one of Terra's own works. "It needs some polishing."
"We can do that together."
"…I suppose we can." Tali looked again at the horizon, wondering if Terra would already be capturing the view were they not on a mission. "You've heard me say 'Keelah se'lai'? The closest translation I can come up with is 'by the home-world I hope to see someday.'"
"And you're seeing it now."
"Hmm…the living room window will be right…here." Tali held her hands up, sizing up a few rocks.
Terra blinked. "Something I should know?"
Tali shrugged. "I just claimed the land. I know it doesn't mean much, but when this is over…I'll have a home."
"Think you can go back to living in one place after so long as a nomad?"
"I…don't know, actually. We have gotten used to carrying our homes around with us."
Terra smirked with an idea, leaning down to pick up a rock and press it into Tali's hands.
Tali smiled as she placed it in one of her suit pockets. "Well, it's a start."
Garrus stood back and watched the whole scene unfold with a smile. Tali really was taking the place he had once occupied in Terra's life, a confidant and friend. He had to admire the way they were with each other, as if they naturally belonged together just as Terra naturally belonged with Violet or Solana. It was certainly nice to see that they could be themselves with each other even at times like this. They all needed someone like that in their lives.
Either they had been extremely lucky or fate (and the spirits guiding it) had been extremely kind in bringing them together.
The mission started more or less straightforward, which they by now knew to take as a sure sign that it wasn't going to stay that way for long. Sure enough, as soon as they were inside the base and looking for a good vantage point to paint the target, the geth closed a blast shield that even the Normandy's precious Thanix cannon couldn't break through in less than three hours. They had to use some of Legion's distant assistance to disable the blast shield, fighting their way past waves and waves of geth to get deeper in. Said geth did not make it easy on them but also didn't stand a chance of getting in their way. When they finally had the defenses down, it was just a matter of getting to the top floor and surviving the Primes stationed there.
Luckily, the geth neglected to remove their heavy weapons from the chamber while they were preparing for the incursion, giving Terra the firepower she needed to end the fight quickly. Then all she had to do was ready the targeting device and point it straight down the hole in the base where the signal was originating from. Unfortunately, they weren't quite at a minimum safe distance when the Normandy swooped in to deliver the shot, buckling the platform they were standing on and sending all three of them tumbling down to the floor beside the hole.
Right as a massive claw reached up from it.
Terra wasn't one to panic, but seeing that thing coming down on them was certainly a possible cause of a panic in her books. "REAPER!"
The scales tipped back in their favor (at least a little bit) when Legion came racing in with a geth vehicle to get them out of there fast. Tali and Garrus rushed inside while Terra stayed up top with a turret that she only after taking the time to take aim thought might not do any more good than throwing rocks at it. Still, it made her feel less useless while Legion was carrying them off from the arising titan at full speed and accented the franticness in her voice when she turned on her COMM to tell the Migrant Fleet that there was an actual live Reaper down here so please do something fast! Thankfully, the Fleet responded quickly, shocking everyone by actually hitting the Reaper hard enough to knock it over before it could shoot at the racing geth vehicle.
"What did we hit?" Gerrel asked.
"The firing chamber," Terra answered, "Looks like it's a weak spot when it's priming."
"The jamming towers have us targeting manually. We can't make a precision shot!"
Terra had to think fast now. She couldn't just leave this thing here, let it have Rannoch, not when she knew how to take it down. Tali deserved to have her planet back. Legion deserved to have its people freed from this madness. But how…? Wait. Her hand came to rest on the targeting device again. She knew what she had to do. When Legion came over her COMM to tell her they could escape before it was back to full functionality, she took action. "No. Pull over."
"Terra, what are you doing?!" Garrus demanded even as they stopped.
"If we leave now, the geth stay under Reaper control and the quarians are dead. This ends now." She drew the targeting device, readying it. "EDI, sync the Normandy's targeting computer to the Heavy Fleet. All of us together can take it down."
"Terra, this is insane! You can't—!"
"I can do this, love. You with me or not?"
"…always."
"Both of us," Tali assured her.
"Shepard-Commander?" Legion added in, "…good luck."
She smiled. "Acknowledged." Keeping all their words close at hand, close to her heart, to keep her resolve steady, she waited for the geth vehicle to carry her three friends safely away from the cliff face. Then she armed the targeting device and faced down the recovering Reaper. "Alright, robo-squid. Let's dance."
Garrus was right, this was the craziest thing she'd ever done. Well, maybe it was tied with killing the Tuchanka Reaper by throwing Kalros at it. Regardless, here she was, a 5'7" human against a 5000'7" sentient machine. To her good fortune, the first shot it made arched upward at the Fleet, every ship too distant to reach from here as long as she could cut it off. So she aimed right at the source of the offending beam and pulled the trigger. Within two seconds, every cannon overhead had fired down into the Reaper's maw and sent it staggering backwards. Somehow, though, that managed to give away her position and set the Reaper to take aim on her directly. Now it was a game of tag, except "it" means "vaporized." She immediately fell into a rhythm of sprinting across the small cliff side to duck under its slightly off-center shot (likely a side effect of the first two shots it'd taken—thank you, quarians) and, when the cannons were primed for another shot again, send up the targeting data again. This worked perfectly twice. The third time, it was too close to run from. The Reaper was struggling to keep its feet as it came right on top of her to take aim at the same time she did.
Boom. The final shot from the Heavy Fleet ripped through the air and carved into the Reaper's chassis, shattering its weapon and sending it tumbling to the ground in a broken heap. When Terra tentatively drew closer to check if it was going to stay down, it turned its eye on her. "Shepard."
She looked at it, spiteful and curious at the same time as she holstered the targeting device. "You know who I am?"
"Harbinger speaks of you. You resist, but you will fail. The cycle cannot be broken."
She scoffed. "You underestimate us." Seeing that the great and powerful machine had been reduced to taunts without any bite to them, she turned to check the aftermath of her standoff with it. The battle ahead was silent (then again, it was in space, so that might not be the best indicator of a ceasefire), and the geth vehicle had apparently come to a stop not far away to observe her struggle (probably Garrus and Tali asked Legion to do that just in case), so Garrus, Tali, and Legion were now coming up to take her side. Seeing them, she knew her words would ring true when she turned to face the Reaper again and cut off its tirade: "You. Whatever race you were before the Reapers harvested you to 'save' you, you've been avenged." As if that was what it needed to hear, the Reaper's menacing red glare dimmed to nothing. "And you won't be the last."
She had barely turned around before Garrus rushed over to wrap his arms around her. "Stop doing that!"
She smirked. "Perils of our line of work, hon. Trust me, you do it, too, sometimes."
Tali kept her focus on the fallen titan. "We…we killed a Reaper. Keelah…"
Legion checked its systems. "We can confirm the Reaper has ceased its control of all geth systems. We are free."
Terra only had two seconds to smile delightedly at the news before Gerrel cut in over her COMM. "You did it, Shepard. The geth fleet has stopped firing. They're completely vulnerable!"
Legion quickly stepped in. "Shepard-Commander, the geth only acted in self-defense. Do we deserve death?"
Terra looked at the geth sniper uncertainly. "What are you saying?"
"Our upgrades. We can distribute them to all geth."
"But that would make the geth as smart as when the Reaper was controlling them!" Tali argued.
"Yes, but with free will. We would be alive, and we could help you."
"The fleet is already attacking! If we give the geth that kind of advantage, they'll destroy us!"
Legion looked at her as if in regret. "Do you remember the question that caused the creators to attack us originally, Creator-Tali'Zorah? '…does this unit have a soul?'"
Terra hated to admit it (or maybe that's just what you say when facing a choice like this), but Legion was right. "Upload the code. Tali, you can call off the fleet if you do it fast."
Legion quickly set to work. "Establishing connection. Beginning download. 10%…"
"Tali'Zorah to fleet," Tali quickly began to plead into her COMM, "Hold fire!"
"Belay that order!" Gerrel immediately countermanded, "Continue the attack!"
"25%…" Legion said.
Tali heard that percentage like a countdown clock. Counting down to her people's extinction. Even through the helmet, there was no denying the desperation in her eyes when she turned to her former commander again. "Terra, please…"
But Terra wasn't taking sides this time. She always found another way. This time, she was just going to have to make one. "EDI, patch me through to the Fleet."
Tali's desperate look faded to confusion. "What?"
Terra ignored it, taking the front beside Legion. "This is Commander Shepard! The geth are about to return to full strength! If you don't stand down, they'll kill you all!"
Seeing what she meant, Tali quickly piggybacked onto EDI's signal. "This is Admiral Tali'Zorah! Shepard speaks with my authority!"
"And mine as well!" Koris quickly agreed.
"No!" Gerrel asserted, "We can still win this!"
"50%…" Legion said.
"Listen to me!" Terra quickly said, "I know what it's like to want your home back, but what good does it do you if you lose your own lives taking it?! You've let a misunderstanding guide your entire history, let fear and hate hold you back, and you don't have to anymore! You forced the geth to rebel and you forced them to ally with the Reapers, but it's not too late to fix it!"
"75%…"
"The geth don't want to fight you! If you can just believe that for five seconds, this war is already over! Please. …Keelah se'lai." She lowered her hand from her COMM, waiting for some sign that her words, as poetic as they were commanding, as true to the geth as they were to the quarians, would ring true.
She was not disappointed. "All ships…" Gerrel spoke up, "…hold fire."
Terra and Tali in unison breathed a sigh of relief, not even noticing until they were already together that they were hugging.
But then Legion stopped. "Error. Copying code insufficient. …direct personality dissemination…required."
Terra looked at the geth in confusion. She didn't like the sound of this.
Legion faced her. Even the light she'd only ever seen curiosity and warmth in had grown sorrowful. "Terra, I must go to them. I am…sorry. It's the only way."
Terra stared at the geth sadly. Words failed her completely now. Surely this was a mistake. Surely she was misunderstanding.
But Tali faced Legion head-on, the look in her eyes saying all she needed to even before she said it out loud. "Legion…the answer to your question? It was 'yes.'"
Legion nodded. "I know. But thank you, Tali. Keelah se'lai." So he turned his gaze to the sunset. And his platform fell silent for good.
Terra felt like the whole world had gone silent. It took her a moment to even realize that she was on her knees with Garrus holding onto her, that Tali was kneeling beside Legion's hollow platform as if performing last rites.
Another friend gone. Three lost to this war—four if you counted Virmire. How much more loss would she have to endure before this was over?
How much more could she take?
An hour later, Raan came up to them on the cliff side. "Commander."
Terra nodded. "Admiral. I heard you made a crash landing. Glad to see you're OK."
"I was listening over the radios. If Han'Gerrel hadn't stopped…"
"He did."
Raan sighed. "We've taken heavy losses. I don't know if we can… Where are we supposed to go?!"
They all jumped, Tali reaching for her weapon, to see a Prime approaching. But the geth didn't even arm itself, facing Raan in an almost…friendly way. "You are welcome to return to Rannoch, Admiral Raan, with us."
Terra looked at the Prime in shock. "Legion?"
"No. I am sorry, Commander. Legion sacrificed itself to give us all intelligence. It will be honored."
She smiled. A bittersweet, regretful gesture. "Good." While Raan and the geth were discussing where they would go from here and offering assistance with the war effort, though, Terra turned to see Garrus and Tali sitting down on the cliff. She quickly came over to sit between them.
Garrus took her hand as if on reflex the second she sat down. "Are you OK?"
She sighed sadly. "I will be. At least once his name is on the memorial wall."
"'His'?"
"You didn't hear it? 'Terra.' 'Tali.' 'Keelah se'lai.' …'I'm sorry.'" She looked out at the sunset that had been his last sight. "…he was a person then."
Garrus sighed, seeing this for himself. "He was. Guess we'll owe all this to him."
Terra looked down, fighting how badly her grief was building. Even she had her breaking point, and this was cutting it too close. For all she knew, she would fall to pieces the second she was safely confined in her quarters again.
But Tali quickly cut through the sorrow in the air with a sudden declaration. "I'm coming with you."
Terra quickly turned to her in shock. "What?"
"I'm not staying. I'm coming with you."
"That…Tali, you just got this place back, I can't take you away from that."
"It's waited 300 years, it can wait a little longer. That Reaper wasn't acting alone. They're going to come back. We have to stop them."
Terra understood, but she still felt the need to argue. "Tali, if I could go back to Palaven or Mindoir now, I think it'd be worth the risk that the war doesn't need one more soldier. Even one as special as you."
"Sweet talker." She shook her head. "No. I can't. I look at this vision of hope and peace…and all I see is everyone I've lost. Everyone I should be fighting for. My father, my team on Haestrom, even Legion." She scoffed. "I'm mourning a geth. How crazy is that?"
Terra sighed. "It's not crazy at all." She proved this by reaching over to plant something in the soil. About ten minutes before, she had found a sheet rock and used her omni-tool to make something resembling a memorial or gravestone.
Here lies the site of Legion's sacrifice
A friend, a crewmate, and a hero to two peoples
Let his life be proof that we are not so different
Let his death be proof of what we can all become
Tali felt the words strike her. They couldn't be denied. She was already sure, but now she was determined. "I'm coming with you. We're going to stop them. …they're going to pay."
Terra nodded. "They will."
The three of them sat with that sentiment ringing out, reddening the air like blood stained with rage. The Reapers truly did underestimate them. Or at least they underestimated the Normandy. And that would be their downfall.
After a moment had passed in which calm could settle in, Tali sighed. "It is beautiful, isn't it?"
Terra looked at the horizon once more, casting aside the grief behind it to gaze with an artist's eye. The sight made her smile again, made her fingers itch to add it to her drawings. "Yeah. It is."
Tali stood up. "It'll be years before we can live without our suits completely, but…right now…" Shocking them both, she reached up to remove her mask and lower her hood, letting luminescent lavender eyes glisten in the sunlight and dark hair shift in waves with the breeze. "…right now…I have this."
Garrus and Terra didn't have to speak or even look at each other to agree. The last 24 hours had been worth it to see Tali's face.
