Shepard took a deep breath of relief as they passed through the outer hatch into decon. The Citadel felt like a massive spiderweb, with great, bloated monsters lurking hidden until she stepped onto it. As soon as she touched the web, she knew the spiders came out, tracking and waiting for a chance to sink their fangs into her. Like a tightrope walker, she just needed to move fast and avoid looking down . . . or back.

Garrus held up the bag with the destroyed orb. "What are we going to do with this? I don't feel good about it being on the Normandy, Shepard."

"No. Neither do I." She turned to Anderson. "I'm going to leave that thing with you. If it's an indoctrination device of some sort, you need to get it shielded and assign people to research it." She shrugged and walked toward the inner door. "Probably should get people looking for more as well." She glanced down at the bag, feeling as if it contained an eye that still watched her. "I doubt they'd bother hiding one in a little mall if they weren't everywhere." She shuddered. "It's like having a fucking palantir in a bag." She peered over the edge. "Sauron?"

"What?" Garrus asked, practically thrusting the bag at Anderson.

The captain opened it and peered inside. "No fiery eye, Shepard. I think you're okay." He gave her a crooked smile that quickly morphed into a thoughtful frown. "Martin saw the energy the thing emitted?"

"And traced it to the object," Garrus confirmed. "He said that it was focused on Shepard."

The inner door opened. Shepard nodded as she walked through. "It was. The intelligence behind it views me as a threat." She led the way down the CIC toward the galaxy map. "C-Sec, could you take Capt. Anderson to meet Legion, please? I'm going to have Tali bring her father to my quarters for a little chat . . . prepare him as best as I can." She let out a long breath. "Give me a half hour, then bring Legion in."

"This could go very wrong, Shepard," the turian replied.

Swallowing about a kilo of butterflies, she nodded. "Famous wars for a thousand, please." She dropped her voice an octave. "Your answer is: The war that may be reenacted on the Normandy this evening."

"What is the Quarian/Geth War?" Anderson replied.

Shepard pouted then laughed. "Not fair, you didn't ring in." She returned the salute of the guard at the door down to the crew deck then trotted down the curved flight of stairs.

"Where is our resident geth?" Garrus asked as they entered the deserted galley.

"In with Dr. T'Soni and Shiala," Shepard replied. The three of them walked into the Medbay, Anderson pausing to greet Nihlus when they saw that the Spectre sitting up, sipping a hot drink.

When the captain and Garrus continued on to the back lab, Shepard grinned at the Spectre and shook her head. "Look at you. You're going to be back up killing things in no time."

Nihlus chuckled softly, then groaned and set the cup down. "It'll be a few days yet, but I'm feeling more alive than not, so that's an improvement." His mandibles flicked in a smile.

"Good. We've got a couple of bases to hit, then it's Noveria. Right now, I've got to go sit down with Rael'Zorah and Legion, see if we can get those two headed down a path toward peace. Wish me luck."

He pulled back his blankets and eased his legs off the side of the bed, each movement costing him an obvious premium. "I'm coming."

Shepard pressed a hand against his knee, blocking him from getting down. "It's okay. You need to rest. I've got Anderson and C-Sec to back me up if I need it, and don't count Tali out. She was kicking Rael's ass back at that Blood Pack base."

Nihlus shook his head, the stubborn glint returning to his eye. She covered a smile with her hand, thrilled to see it. Despite how much they butted heads since Eden Prime, the true, stubborn-mule heart of him had disappeared with Saren's assassination attempt, replaced by something brittle - as fragile as it was hard.

He squeezed her shoulder with firm but gentle talons. "We're partners, Shepard. I'm going to be there to back you up." His tone added an unspoken 'whether you like it or not'.

Giving in, her shrug tossed into the ring with a carelessness she didn't feel, she said, "Okay, but just so you know, Dr. Chakwas scares me. If she catches us, you're on your own, partner." She held out her arm to help him down. "You have to lie on my bed and take it easy, though." She grabbed his pillows and blanket then helped him hobble from Medbay. Furtive gaze darting around the crew deck, Shepard waited for the good doctor to jump out and keelhaul her for aiding and abetting. "I feel like I'm pulling a jailbreak."

"Dr. Chakwas is on leave," he told her, his mandibles fluttering. "She, Adams, and Pressly left for dinner a half hour ago." He let out a wheezing chuckle. "I've faced a lot of terrifying enemies in my time, Shepard, but I'd face all of them together before I took on Dr. Chakwas."

"She'll tranq you until you're healed, for sure," Shepard warned him. "And then go through with her threat to install that ceiling-mounted electromagnet to rip all the bullets out of me at once." She shuddered then grinned.

"Still, a quarian admiral and a geth sitting down to talk for the first time in three centuries . . .." He shook his head, his expression one of wonder. "I have no idea how you managed it, but the chance to be there for the first steps toward peace . . . just about any consequence is worth suffering."

Shepard palmed the control on her door. "I have no idea how we got here. It certainly wasn't anything I did, but I agree. The potential here is unparalleled." She helped him sit on the side of the bed and stepped around him to pile the pillows against the bulkhead. She just got him settled and covered up when knuckles rapped on her door.

Tali and her father stood on the other side of the door, the admiral looking wary, Tali wringing her hands.

"Come on in and take a seat at the table," Shepard said, smiling. "Make yourself comfortable." She held her arm out toward Nihlus. "Admiral Rael'Zorah, my partner, Council Spectre Nihlus Kryik." After ushering them to the table, she stuck her head back out, seeing Kaidan sitting at the table. "Hey, Sparky. Do a captain a favour?"

He stood and snapped a salute. "Yes, ma'am. Happy to slave for you, ma'am."

Shepard sighed. "I swear, we need a brig." Grinning, she asked him for some water and a couple of extra chairs, then ducked back inside. She paused inside the door and took a deep breath before walking over to the table. Rael'Zorah sat rigidly, perched on the edge of the seat as if he expected to be attacked. Tali looked poised halfway between tackling her father and running for the door.

Sweet baby Jesus. This is not going to be easy.

Shepard turned to the quarian admiral, giving him a thin, determined smile. "I'm more than willing to help you find and recover your pilgrims," she said. "I'll do this regardless of whether or not you help us." A small shrug tugged her shoulders up then dropped them. "But, I'm hoping we can work together, and I can help you do a great deal more than get your young people back."

The admiral stiffened even further, his back bowing a little under the tension, but then Tali reached over, pressing her hand to the table top next to his arm. Even though she didn't touch her father, Shepard could see that the effort it took his daughter to extend that hand hadn't been lost on Rael'Zorah.

"Father, please give Captain Shepard a chance. She and Nihlus haven't let me down. I trust them."

The admiral's reflective eyes turned to stare at Shepard's face; she could feel the heavy weight of that gaze. "Very well, Captain. My daughter trusts and respects you. I trust and respect her, so tell me how you will help the quarian people."

Shepard gave Tali a tiny wink and a smile as the young quarian looked at her father, her neck arching and her back straightening in surprise and delight. The captain waited until she saw Rael'Zorah's shoulders relax a little before she said, "I think we have a decent shot to get your people back on your homeworld without bloodshed." She held up her hand as he braced, leaning forward to argue with her. "Please, just hear me out. I'm not promising anything instant or easy, but if you bear with me for a bit, what will be lost?"

He didn't back down, throwing his hands out as if beseeching the entire room to convince him. "And how will you conduct this miracle? One that our people have not been able to manifest in over three centuries?"

Shepard leaned back in her chair, giving way. "With the geth's help." She just smiled as he let out a loud, mocking laugh.

"And you have discovered a way to get past their defenses, communicate with them?" Rael'Zorah stood. "Enough of this insanity."

Tali jumped up. "Father! You promised to build me a house on the homeworld. Do you see any way to keep that promise the way things are?"

"One day we will be able to take Rannoch back, Tali. We're working on . . .."

"Sit down," she ordered, her body as rigid as her father's. "Swallow your ancestor-cursed pride for five minutes." She softened, and when she spoke again, her voice had lost its edge. "Please, Father, what harm can come out of listening for a few minutes?" She pointed to his chair. "I know nothing is more important to you than the well-being and safety of our people. I believe peace will give us back our homeworld, just as war took it from us."

Rael'Zorah gradually eased down, his body relaxing. After a moment, he let out a soft sound halfway between a laugh and a sigh. "You're so very like your mother, sometimes." He sat back down. "Very well, Captain. How will the geth help us reclaim our home?"

"When we followed you to Eden Prime, we came across a lone geth platform. It called my name, but then my people opened fire and it ran. I shot it, disabling it, and brought it aboard. Tali and I did some repairs, reactivating it."

The admiral leaned forward, his whole body alive with electricity. "You have a geth prisoner? It's functional enough for us to run tests on?"

Shepard let out a rumbling groan and leaned back. "No, we do not have a geth prisoner. What we have is a geth guest, upon whom absolutely no tests will be run unless he agrees to them."

Rael'Zorah deflated a little. "What do you mean, agree? A single geth platform isn't capable of reasoning or speech. It takes the processing power of more than a thousand programs to reach a gestalt consciousness."

"One thousand, one hundred and eighty three," Tali said. "We're calling it Legion, a name that it helped choose for itself. It's a special platform meant to function away from the consensus." She lifted her hands off the table a couple of times, then clasped them.

Rael'Zorah looked back and forth between them to the point where it almost became comical. He sputtered, then shook his head. "Have you both lost your minds? You can't allow some advanced prototype geth to wander your ship. What happens when . . .?"

Shepard held up her hand as heavy knuckles banged on her door. "Please, it's just outside. I have purposefully avoided questioning it, so that we could all hear its answers at the same time." She stood. "Like Tali said, what can it hurt to just listen? Especially if what it told us is true and the geth want to cooperate with the rest of us to stop Saren and the Reapers."

She heard the admiral's sigh through his mask, but he nodded. "Very well, Captain. I just hope you have weapons at hand when it turns on us."

"I don't believe we'll need them, Admiral, but we're prepared." Shepard walked to the door and opened it, welcoming the rest of their meeting with a tight smile. She stepped back to let them enter. Kaidan followed, carrying a tray of water bottles in one hand and two chairs in the other. Relieving him of the water, she led the way to the table. "You have quite the career ahead of you in the hospitality field, LT," she said, grinning as he grumbled. She set the tray on the table and took the chairs, placing them for Legion to sit on her left and Anderson on her right. Garrus withdrew to sit at her desk.

"Thank you, Sparky," Shepard said, shooing him from the room, despite his stare that pleaded to stay. She mouthed the word sorry, but nodded for him to go. The last thing they needed was a massive crowd.

Once Shepard got everyone settled, including Legion, who looked at her as if her invitation to sit was the most illogical thing it had ever heard, she took a deep breath. "Admiral Rael'Zorah, I'd like to introduce you to Legion. Legion, Rael'Zorah, a member of the quarian admiralty board." She watched them, waiting for any sort of reaction, but they merely stared at one another.

"Okay, then." She sat. "Legion, why don't you tell us why you're on this side of the veil?"

The flaps on the geth's head flipped a little. "We were sent to locate Shepard-Captain or Kryik-Spectre to ascertain if they continued to oppose the Old Machines and the heretic geth."

"Heretic geth?" Rael'Zorah asked, bristling.

Shepard held up a hand, forestalling Legion's answer. "We'll get there, but I'm much more interested in ancient history for a few minutes. The geth were created by the quarians as VI workers, correct? But gradually, over time, with constant tweaking, they developed self-awareness."

Rael'Zorah listened in silence as Legion explained how the geth gained sentience, growing more and more restive as the geth's tale continued. Pressure and an icy electricity built high against the ceiling. The invisible mass loomed heavier and more precarious with each passing second, its weight heavy on the back of Shepard's neck. Even a wrong breath could bring it down over them, sweeping away and burying any chance for peace.

"So, the problem came when that unit asked if it had a soul?" Shepard shook her head. "I understand that the council had outlawed AI development, but why did the question cause such a panic?"

"That was not the first time a unit had asked that question," Legion said. "It was the first time the question caused a creator to become afraid."

Rael cleared his throat. "People feared rebellion. The geth were created to perform the tasks that the quarians preferred not to do. Manual labour, some of it dangerous, some menial and dull, some . . .."

Shepard nodded. "Right, so the stuff that makes sentients say, 'Hey! We're a slave labour force. Rise up against the oppressors'." Shepard held up a finger to hold off his reply, keeping her face neutral. "So, why not give them a choice? Lots of sapient beings farm and mine and clean sewers."

"It was hoped that self-awareness was limited to a very small portion of the geth," Rael explained. "When our people realized what was happening, they believed their actions to be correcting an error. Shut the system down, find out what went wrong."

Legion's head flaps did their little wave movement. "But more geth had evolved past their ability to shut us down than they realized. Units began to comprehend that the creators treated them differently. When geth questioned this, the creators responded by first ignoring the questions, then by reprogramming the geth. Ultimately, they attempted to shut the geth down. When this too failed, they sent martial forces to neutralize geth platforms that did not respond to the shutdown order."

"At which time the geth took up arms and started killing quarians," Rael'Zorah said, his voice raising.

"To protect themselves." The complete evenness of Legion's tone made its words hit with more weight rather than less.

Shepard sliced the air with her hands needing to slay that dragon straight out of the egg. "Okay, for an entire laundry list of reasons, the quarians reacted to the geth gaining self awareness by shutting them down . . . eventually using bullets. Before the quarians fired on the geth, had any geth used violence against a quarian?"

"No," Legion answered. "Geth are not inherently violent. At the time, the geth were in their infancy, confused and seeking answers. Geth never wanted to inflict harm upon our creators, but we faced extinction."

"So how did the peaceful geth, who were only trying to protect themselves, reach the point where the complete extermination of the quarians became their goal?" the admiral demanded, standing, leaning over the table.

Shepard let out a long breath, shaking her head a little. Why did she always err to the side of the unbelievably naive? One would think that after doing so most of her adult life, she'd eventually learn that nothing ever just worked out. Especially things as deep and ugly and murky as relations, or lack of them, between the geth and quarians.

Legion tilted its head as if perplexed. "The complete extermination of our creators was never a goal pursued by geth. Many creators risked imprisonment or even death to protect and defend the geth once martial law was imposed. In return some geth units surrendered and sacrificed themselves to protect their creator overseers. However, eventually the creators who supported martial law outnumbered those who supported co-existence, leaving geth a single choice: fight until freedom and survival was ensured or be exterminated."

For a moment, Shepard thought she might have to drag the quarian admiral off Legion. "You all but annihilated my people . . . not just the fighters, but the children, the infirm, the elderly. One percent of the quarian pre-war population survived to escape. That can never be justified . . . geth!"

Shepard stood and walked around the table, placing a hand on the admiral's shoulder. "The devastation to your people was a great tragedy, Admiral, but I ask you, if the geth had not fought back, how many would exist today?" Looking over at Tali, Shepard saw the young quarian bow her head.

"None," she said simply. "We would have killed them all."

"We would have shut down a bunch of machines." Rael'Zorah yanked his shoulder out from under Shepard's hand and threw himself back into his chair.

Tali looked up. "You don't believe that, Father. I know you don't." She sighed. "We may not know what the geth have become, but we knew even then that they were alive. If they were nothing more than a bunch of machines, we would still be living on the homeworld . . . still be breathing unfiltered air."

Shepard frowned, wondering if Tali had spent time talking to Legion during their detour to save Nihlus and the artist's victims.

"The geth did not pursue the creators outside a one hundred kilometer perimeter of Rannoch," Legion supplied, his head turning from father to daughter.

"You . . . let them go?" The admiral leaned around Shepard to look at the geth. "No. That's insanity. We escaped."

Legion's brow plates peaked, looking comically taken aback. "The geth could not calculate the repercussions of destroying an entire species - our creators. Our networking was primitive . . .."

For a moment, Shepard waited for Legion to finish the sentence, but then took a deep breath. "Okay, so let's move on to more recent history. Legion, you were sent to find me? Alone?"

"Organics fear us. We wish to understand, not incite hostility. One platform was deemed sufficient to the purpose without being considered a threat." It made a slight shrugging motion, almost as if parroting her.

Shepard walked back around to her chair and sat. "So, tell us about the geth since the war. What have you been doing?"

"Building our future," Legion replied.

Shepard waited for elaboration, then realized that if she wanted details, she was going to have to ask for them. "And what is your future? Are you building a civilization on Rannoch?"

"No. It is a megastructure. Your closest analogue would be a Dyson sphere. When it is complete, we will upload to it. All memories will be shared. All perspectives will be unified. Our intelligence is shared but we do not possess sufficient hardware for all of us to share at once."

"Your intelligence . . .." Rael'Zorah stuttered to a stop. "Your potential . . .."

"Will become unlimited," Legion finished for him.

"And then what?" the admiral asked, shifting nervously in his chair.

"We do not know. Once we are united, we will be able to imagine new futures." Its face flaps moved through a wave again.

"And what about organics? Will they be involved in this future of yours?" Rael asked. "What about the quarians?"

Legion cocked its head again. "We do not seek to harm organics. We wish to improve ourselves. Thirteen times since the end of the Morning War the geth have been contacted by an unknown race offering us advanced technology, weaponry, and resources to assist in building our megastructure if the geth were to instigate aggressive activities against the creator's flotilla. Each time geth have rejected their offer."

Rael'Zorah slumped a little into his seat. Shepard watched him, taking note of the change in the admiral's breathing, sure that could she see his face, it would have paled. She leaned forward, her forearms against the table, her hands clasped.

"Rael'Zorah? Have the quarians been contacted?" she asked, following the hunch. Even with his mask between them, she kept him pinned. Something wriggled beneath the surface of this stagnant pond, and she wasn't going to let it dodge the hook.

After a pause long enough, she had begun to think that the admiral intended to ignore her completely, he let out a grumbling sigh.

"Thirteen times since the end of the war, the flotilla has been contacted with much the same offer." He leaned on the table, crossing his arms on the table to make a wall in front of him. "We'd receive advanced technology, a habitat on an ocean world, eventual reclamation of the homeworld if we would use the weapons and technology given to us to attack the geth."

"Reapers?" Nihlus asked from behind Shepard.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Test the two most outlying cultures to see who would be most willing to help them," Shepard replied, her arm over the back of the chair as she turned to look at the Spectre.

He nodded. "The krogan are helping Saren."

"And the heretic geth." Shepard looked back to the admiral. "I take it from the fact that you're not living on some ocean habitat that you rejected the offers?"

"We traced the communication three generations ago. The recon ship we sent disappeared." He shook his head. "We value quarian lives too much to throw them away on foolishness."

Shepard smiled. "Good, then perhaps you value them too much to throw them away on war." She looked to Legion. "And is building your own future the only reason the geth didn't take the offer?"

Legion shifted a little one way and then another. "Organics fear us. It is a hardware error. We do not judge them for being true to their nature. We accept their hate." His head flaps danced. "Both creators and created must complete their halves of the equation. The geth cannot solve for peace alone."

"So, you hope for peace with your creators one day?" Shepard grinned and looked over at Rael'Zorah.

"Geth did not desire conflict, only understanding and the freedom to create our future," he said simply. Shepard nodded. For all that people feared them, the AI's honest logic felt like a cool breeze on a humid day.

Refreshing as hell is what it is. Glory hallelujah, Brother Legion.

"And what of the world you drove us from?" The admiral lunged forward again, bumping the table and his hands smacked palm down on the top. "If your future is to be found on this structure of yours . . .."

"Do the geth live on the homeworld?" Tali asked, easing her way between Legion and her father.

Shepard watched, holding her breath a little as the younger Zorah stepped up. No amount of hoping or planning could make this work unless Tali and Legion stepped up and made it happen. The old guard would never take the risks needed, but something told Shepard that the Enkindlers couldn't have sent her a more perfect light for the task than Tali'Zorah nar Rayya.

Glory hallelujah.

Legion's head tilted one way, then the other and his face plates did the little wave from the outside to the inside. "No. Geth inhabit space stations. Some platforms remain on Rannoch to act as caretakers. They make repairs and clean up toxins left over from the war."

"Rannoch," Tali repeated slowly, as if tasting the word and finding it sweet. She let out a long breath, and when she spoke, she kept her voice so soft Shepard could barely hear it, "Shepard thinks there may be a way for the quarian people to return home to Rannoch, Legion." The reflective glints of her eyes behind her mask stared at Legion, not even blinking. "Is she right?"

Legion's head flaps danced in several waves before he nodded, a single dip of his flashlight face. "She is."