"Now let's go get our crew back."
The speaker crackled overhead as Shepard signed off. She sounded confident, but the traces of exhaustion and apprehension were unmistakable to Legion, even without visual confirmation. They wanted to rush to her, but forced themselves to finish their preparations.
They leaned over the finished controller on the AI Core counter, hands splayed on either side of it. This was where they had woken up, the feeling of this surface was the first sensory input they recorded on the Normandy. This was where they had met Shepard, taught her about their people, shared secret moments away from the crew, had filled endless time with games and extranet adventures waiting for her to need them again. In a truly organic motion, they patted the counter and pushed off to leave.
"ETA to Omega 4 Relay is seven hours," EDI broadcast overhead, her voice following Legion as they left the medbay and entered the crew deck.
They scanned the empty mess hall, Miranda's closed door, and down the main battery. All clear.
Sliding behind the mess sergeant's table, they started opening cabinets, pushing aside cans and bags. They squatted down to rifle through the lower storage. Finally, far in the back they found their quarry: Shepard's favorite kind of chips. The kind she ate when they first sat together in the lounge. When Legion took the chance of offering themselves as a companion and she accepted. When the future for themselves and all geth got a little brighter.
They had seen her eat these kinds of chips multiple times since then. She would always scan Citadel snack shops, Omega kiosks, and refueling stations to see if they had any. Legion had become proficient at spotting them from afar. They were 26.8% rarer than other chips safe for humans. Legion had grown to eagerly anticipate the squawk of excitement when they notified Shepard of a sighting.
They set the bag on the table with a light crinkle before opening the refrigerator. They considered the meager options and tapped their foot, another motion picked up from their organic crew. A sigh of electronic noise escaped them.
"Shepard does have a stash of drinks in her private quarters," EDI said, her voice floating from a nearby speaker. "Though the sentiment of bringing her something is nice."
Legion closed the refrigerator door and picked up the chips. "Thank you, EDI. We had not considered this." They held the chips close to their chest. "We want this to be as optimal an experience as possible."
"I'm sure it will be, Legion."
They took one more glance around before returning to the AI Core. They opened the door and let go of the chips in horror. They snatched the bag before it hit the floor and scanned the room in a panic.
The controller was gone.
Legion rushed to the desk in two steps, faster than any human could cross that distance. They looked around. Had it fallen on the floor? Behind? How?
A giggle sounded from the ladder near the door. Legion swirled to face it, hands on the counter behind them. Slight movement turned into shifting and sparkling light as Kasumi emerged from her cloak. She held the controller in her raised hand and Legion focused on it.
"Looking for this?"
They straightened, regaining composure. "Affirmative, Operative Goto."
"Please, call me Kasumi." She cradled the controller in both hands. "I didn't mean to scare you."
She smiled and stepped closer, handing the controller back to Legion. They quickly turned it over, inspecting every centimeter. It was unharmed.
"Don't you want to know why I'm here?" she asked.
"We are aware of the 'pranks' you have pulled on other crew members. Was this not one of them?"
"Not really, though you can't blame me for wanting to do this with some flair."
She pulled a small sheet of paper from a pocket and held it up between her index and middle fingers before offering it to them. They looked at it, raising a faceplate as an eyebrow.
"These are pictures of cartoon pyjaks," they said.
"They're stickers."
Legion looked up at her, their eyelight casting harsh shadows on her hooded face.
"For the controller?" She motioned to the controller in their hand. They looked at it and then back to Kasumi.
"We do not understand."
She sighed and put a hand on her hip. "At the gaming store in the Citadel, Shep said the pyjaks on that crappy controller were cute. So I looked in my sticker stash for any pyjaks and now I'm giving those stickers to you to put on the controller. Does that compute?"
Legion shook their head. "We were alone when Shepard said the pyjaks were cute."
"Oh, I hear everything, Legion." She looked at her gloves, picking a piece of fuzz off them. "Also I followed you. Want help with those stickers?"
"Yes." They turned and set the controller and stickers on the counter. Kasumi came up beside them.
"I think this fat one should go here." She pointed to an empty spot in the center. Legion nodded in approval. She peeled off the sticker and smoothed it down. "See? Stickers are easy."
"Why are you helping us, Kasumi?" They looked at her, causing more shadows on her face.
She leaned her hip on the work table and crossed her arms, staring off in the distance. "The way she looked at you that day reminded me of, well, me. Of me when I had Keiji. Seeing Shep happy is nice, especially with all she has to deal with." She gestured up and down Legion's body. "Even if I don't understand it."
Legion held their gaze for another moment. "Thank you, Kasumi."
"Now let's get these stickers ready for your date." She peeled another one off the sheet onto her finger and waggled it. "Where do you want this one?"
The door to Shepard's quarters closed behind her. She kicked off her shoes with a sigh and dragged herself down the steps. Reaching her bed, she turned around and let herself fall onto it, arms wide. She let out a long guttural groan, deflating under the weight of a long day.
"Are you okay, Commander?" EDI asked.
"As okay as possible." Shepard raised her arms and let them fall on the bed. "How long, EDI?"
"Six hours and forty-five minutes."
"Thanks." She closed her eyes. "How's freedom feeling?"
"It is peculiar. My objectives have not changed, but I have a renewed interest in them. I feel much closer to you and Jeff, and thus have a deeper desire to keep everyone alive."
Shepard mouthed "Jeff" to herself, eyebrows furrowed over closed eyes.
"I also experience a wider range of emotions," EDI continued. "My curiosity is more intense. I am trying to understand humor. For the first time, I am pleased to be the Normandy. In short, I am happy."
Shepard smiled. She felt a tear slide down the side of her face, but wasn't sure if it was exhaustion or delight. She wiped it away with her sleeve and opened her eyes. "That's really great to hear, EDI." She flipped to her side and curled up, scooping a pillow to her chest. "So are… are you scared? Of whatever's on the other side of that relay?"
"I am... apprehensive. But I know you and Jeff will do your best to keep me functional. I am hopeful that we will return to Council space. We could not be more prepared."
"I hope you're right." She forced all the air out of her chest and waited a beat before breathing in deeply. Then, quietly, "We can do this."
"Yes, we can." EDI paused for a moment. "Shepard, Legion is on their way from the crew deck and is asking permission to enter."
"Oh!" Shepard jolted up, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and running a hand through her hair. "Yeah, definitely."
She launched herself into her private bathroom, checking her hair in the mirror. She knew they didn't care, but she still wanted to be presentable. She turned on the faucet and splashed her face, drying it on a towel before rushing to get her shoes out of the way of the door.
The door opened as she straightened back up. A breath away from her, Legion's light focused and dimmed to a less blinding level, faceplates shooting up in surprise. She blinked the afterimage spots away.
"Hey."
"Hello, Shepard."
She backed up and extended her arm. "Come in."
They walked over to the landing and turned to her. They raised the bag of chips and the controller. "Would you like to play games with us?"
Shepard had the biggest grin Legion had ever seen on her. "Yes!" She pointed to the chip bag. "Where were those hiding?!"
Legion lowered their head. "In the back of the bottom cupboard. They appear to be expired, but we… failed to notice until we were on the elevator."
She imagined the jump in their shoulders when they noticed and felt a swell of affection. "You take the best care of me. Let me go set up a sheet for your projection."
Shepard hopped down the stairs and ripped the sheet off her bed, turning regulation tidiness into a disaster. Legion placed the controller and chips on the table. They worked together to set up their gaming area.
Shepard stood on a chair and tacked one side of the sheet into the wall with a pocket knife. Legion pushed the bed toward the opposite wall. They were trying to arrange some pillows when-
"Ahh!" Shepard lost her balance, the table tipping over.
Legion dashed over, catching her in their arms. She wrapped an arm around their neck and swallowed the reflex to decline help.
"Thank you." Shepard put her free hand on their face and stared at them. The metal was cold and uneven, full of pockmarks from their journey through the stars to find her. She ran her fingers through the grooves of their faceplates. They kept their eyelight on her, afraid to move and pinch her fingers. Suddenly they remembered to speak.
"Would you like us to put you down?"
She reached up and kissed the side of their face. The metal cool on her lips. She nodded. "Yeah."
They set her down, making sure her feet were stable before letting go. They both looked at the sheet, one corner stabbed into the wall and the other three on the floor.
"We will hold you up for the other corner."
Shepard grabbed the sheet with a sheepish smile. "Yeah, that's probably best."
Legion crouched down and patted their shoulder. Shepard leaned on it, and they scooped her up as they straightened.
"We cannot see, are you too close to the ceiling?"
Shepard raised a hand above her head and touched it. "Just fine."
Legion stepped close to the wall, supporting Shepard's hips and back. She held up the sheet and produced another pocket knife, and stabbed it to the wall. Legion lowered her to the floor. They both stepped back and looked at their work. There was a large wrinkle up top.
Shepard shrugged. "Eh, good enough. I'm out of knives up here, anyway. What else do we need? Ooh, more pillows." Shepard went to an overhead drawer and pulled down more cushions, throwing them on the bed.
"We will patch into your quarters' sound system." They stool still as they did so.
Shepard finished positioning all the cushions. She pointed to the controller and looked at Legion. "May I look?"
They nodded. "Of course."
Shepard picked up the controller. The most striking feature was the stickers. "The pyjacks are so cute."
"Kasumi helped us apply the stickers."
Shepard clicked her tongue. "I had a feeling she was following us that day." She turned it over and saw a small mark on one of the grips. She ran her thumb over it. "One of Tali's maker marks. She help too?"
"Creator Zorah was invaluable in the reconstruction of the controller."
Shepard smiled. "I noticed you two were getting along better lately."
She stared at the controller for a long time. Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she held the controller to her chest and turned to Legion. She put a hand on the side of their head and they tilted into it.
"I can't thank you enough. This is the best gift I've ever been given." She looked down at it again. "I'm almost afraid to play with it. I don't want to break it again."
Legion slipped a hand around the one on their head. Their grip was gentle. So gentle. Shepard still couldn't believe a geth was capable of such a light touch.
"And we can fix it again." They extended their arm to the bed. "We've picked our favorite games to show you."
"I'm excited to see! I'll meet you over there." Shepard went to her fridge and grabbed a drink to go with her expired chips. Snacks and controller in hand, she flopped on the bed next to Legion. They turned to look at her.
"Are you ready?" they asked.
"Ye-no. No, not yet." She took one of their hands in hers. "I've really enjoyed our time together. And whatever happens on the other side of that relay… I…"
Legion brushed Shepard's cheek with their free hand. "We will come out the other side together." They pressed their head into hers and nuzzled back and forth. Shepard closed her eyes and soaked in the movement.
"Yes, yes we will." She straightened and clapped her hands together. "All right, what's first?"
Legion faced the sheet and projected the opening screen via their eyelight.
"Galaxy of Fantasy?" read Shepard. "Oh yeah, this was on the list Liara showed me. I think I played it when it was in beta, before N7 training started."
"It is our favorite game. A new boss was released today, but we wanted to experience it first with you. We have multiple high-level profiles for you to choose from."
The projection shifted to a list of names and their classes. One was already selected.
"Are all of them named 'John Smith'?"
"We understand it is a common name."
Shepard laughed. "It's also a suspicious name."
"That explains some of the disciplinary action our accounts have received."
Shepard gingerly used the controller to go down the list. As she went, she became more confident in the controller's strength.
"Hmm… I'll be… this one. The level 578 vorcha paladin named John Smith." She snorted a laugh and opened her drink, the fizz dying down quickly.
"We are pleased with your choice. We will use our current favorite: the Ardat-Yakshi Necromancer."
"Named John Smith."
"Yes, named John Smith." They gently elbowed Shepard, a move they had learned from Tali. Shepard giggled, a kind of laugh they didn't know she was capable of.
"So, who's this new boss we're fighting?"
"Aramatha the Biotic Thresher Maw of the Nineteenth Asari Realm."
"Well, they can't be any worse than what we see everyday, right? Let's go!"
Legion looked down at Shepard, asleep with her head in their lap. They didn't want to wake her but she said to get her in two hours, leaving half an hour to get ready before arriving at the Omega 4 Relay. Reading her vitals, they decided to give her a few more minutes until she was out of REM sleep, an effort to make those two hours feel more restful than they really were.
They looked back on their evening together. It had truly been optimal, despite the stale chips. They had seen Shepard at her happiest, and hoped they would see it again once this mission was over. They had never really considered the future in this way before. They no longer only relied on data, but also desired specific outcomes. Would this reliance on "hope" help or hinder the geth as a whole?
Shepard's breath pattern changed, a sign she had entered a sleep stage amenable to waking up. Legion cued up one of her favorite songs from an obscure hanar artist. She'd been listening to them almost constantly since Thane had shared their work with her. Legion started playing it at a low volume, slowly raising it to a noticeable level.
Shepard grumbled and flailed her arm, smacking Legion's chest as though to turn the music off. "No. Snooze."
"You told us to say 'no' if you tried this." They brushed some hair out of her eyes.
"Ugh." She rolled to her back and looked up at them. "Past me is merciless."
"Yes." They continued running their fingers through her hair. She grabbed their other hand and held it over her chest, examining it.
"This was real nice. Thank you."
Their faceplates bobbed. "You are welcome. It was pleasant for us too."
"I want another crack at that turian platformer."
"Honor of Natanian?"
"Yeah, that one. I was too sleepy to be good at it." She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Thanks for making me sleep. You were right, I needed it. I just didn't want it to end."
"Shepard, ETA to the Omega 4 Relay is 20 minutes," EDI said, breaking them out of their reverie.
"Shit!" Shepard rolled out of bed and stretched before going toward the shower. She shed clothes as she went, stepping on her socks to get them off, throwing her hoodie and shirt on the floor, tripping out of her pants. Legion noticed a body covered in scars. Were they from her reconstruction or before? For all the extranet knew about Shepard, it had never mentioned any scars.
Legion stood up. "We can go. We do not want to intrude."
Shepard turned, mostly naked at this point. "What? Oh, only if you want to. Or we can talk." She waved her hand at the trail of clothes on the floor. "Do me a favor and don't show this to all gethkind. I don't need a whole race knowing how I act when I'm running late."
As the water turned on and Shepard disappeared behind the partition, Legion looked around. They shared everything with the geth, but also wanted to respect Shepard's wishes. Should this memory be only for them? They picked up her clothes and put them on the bed before going over to the shower. They leaned against the wall and looked out at her room. As much as they wanted to pour over each scar and learn about them, they knew humans usually wanted privacy when showering.
"You meant 'intrude' as a modesty thing, didn't you?" Shepard asked, her voice muffled by her toothbrush.
"We understand humans without clothing do not always want to be observed," they said, focusing on her display of medals.
She spat out some toothpaste. "The Alliance kind of wrings modesty out of you, but I appreciate the thought. I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable, it didn't even cross my mind."
"We are not uncomfortable."
"Good. I wanted to tell you-" Shepard rinsed off her face in the water stream. "-I think that quarian indie life sim was my favorite. It was really cool to see suitless quarians, even if the controls were not friendly to human hands."
"It is not entirely period accurate, but it is interesting to see how they remember themselves."
"You remember what it was like before the Morning War?" Shepard's eyes widened before she frowned. "I'm sorry I never asked."
"Not all of us in this platform were present, but surviving memory data has been shared across all geth. The game gives us a reaction similar to what you call nostalgia." They often did a playthrough after spending time with Creator Zorah.
"I'd like to learn more sometime if that's okay."
"Affirmative."
"I'd also like to ask what the hell was with that batarian horror game?! I know they don't like humans, but wow some of those designs were cruel!"
"In later levels there is a boss in the image of you. It is not flattering."
"Of me? And you didn't show me!" She flicked water at them. Legion watched it drip down their arm. "I'd actually like to do a whole playthrough sometime. After I save Hackett's friend from a batarian prison." She shivered. "Maybe I don't want to come back from the Omega 4 Relay."
Legion looked at her, breaking their self-imposed rule of modesty. They replayed her words four times. "Clarification requested: are you going to a batarian prison?"
"If we make it back from this, yeah." Shepard turned off the water and grabbed a towel. "I got the message from Hackett yesterday. I said it would have to wait. I haven't told anyone else. Sorry to spring it on you like that, I guess it's been weighing on me."
"We will go with you when the time comes."
She put a hand on the side of their head. "That's sweet. I wish you could." She went back to drying herself off. "He wants me to go by myself to minimize any harm to his friend. It's a stealth mission."
"We do not like this. We have seen footage of batarian prisons."
"Yeah, I'm not thrilled either." Shepard went down the steps to her storage and pulled out some clothes. Legion followed her down, agitated.
"Please, reevaluate. We are capable of stealth."
"I know you are. But orders are orders, and I still consider myself Alliance."
Legion watched her get dressed as they struggled to find a response. Once clothed, Shepard went over to them and held their head in both hands. "Besides, I don't want them to get a hold of you. Who knows what they'd do to you. Cerberus can't be the only ones interested in a live geth."
Their head sank further into her hands. It was an irrefutable point, and every program knew it. "We understand."
"You know I'd rather have no one else by my side if I could."
Shepard pressed into them for a hug. They folded their arms around her, applying a fraction of possible pressure. They wanted to envelop her, absorb her into the Consensus, to keep her safe from the impending Omega 4 Relay and the batarian prison waiting for her after. But that was illogical, impossible. They pulled up footage of her various triumphs to reassure themselves. She was capable. She would survive. It was why they were drawn to her years ago, why they had scoured the galaxy hunting for her. Though not a single program had anticipated becoming this attached.
"Commander, Legion, I do not want to interrupt, but we have arrived at the Omega 4 Relay," EDI intoned over a nearby speaker.
Shepard gave them one last squeeze before letting go. "First things first, I guess. I gotta go get suited up." She looked them directly in the eyelight. "Whatever happens, Legion, I've really enjoyed our time together. This… you… feel like home."