AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys, another late upload, apologies there. For a few weeks I've been having two jobs and I've been working through the weekend. But I've dropped my old movie theatre job because I've gotten, and had a successful test run, of my new job working at this place called Pet Paradise. Long and short of my job description? Dogs at day camp or boarding, I play with and watch, clean up after, prevent dog fights through my shift. Mainly the first part. It's nice. And 10 bucks an hour ain't bad for it. Should actually end up being a light semester, so we'll see how uploads go. I am considering just changing the upload date if work decides to keep having me Sundays and Mondays, we'll see about that too. And thanks to the boys in the story's discord server for helping me out with figuring out how to have some of the dialogue here happen. (Because Shepard sure as shit ain't asking questions about things he already knows.) Hope you enjoy!

Commander John Shepard

Tali sat herself down on the couch opposite of me and breathed deeply. Her helmet and her gloves were off, as was only more and more common now in our quarters. She's had what remained of the day, and then a little bit more, to work and digest everything that 'Legion' had told us. She sure as shit still wasn't happy about any of this, but it wasn't so overwhelming anymore, and it was time for us to talk. It may be two in the morning on the ship's day cycle, but neither of us are going to bed until this is over, however long it takes.

"Before this begins, I'll be prepared to accept the possibility that what it's told us is true, but I need to hear that you accept the possibility that the Geth have learned to lie." I looked her straight in the eyes.

"I accept the possibility that the Geth have learned to lie," I repeated. It seemed to ease her burden at least somewhat.

"Regardless if you, or even it manages to convince me, the fleet would only be far more challenging."

"Perhaps," I shrugged. "But right now, I'm only concerned about you. That's a problem for another time. Assuming it goes that way at all." Tali sighed again.

"There's going to need to be more interrogations." I shrugged in response.

"I certainly intend the same. And 'Legion,' as we've named it, expects as much."

"You named it…" Tali muttered.

"It was actually that runtime from EDI, pulled a quote from a human religion, and it 'accepted it as an appropriate metaphor,'" I quoted. "And besides, if we're going to be going on a Geth station with it, we're going to need to call it something other than 'Geth.'"

"I hate to admit it, but you make a good point. But why was it a good metaphor?"

"The number of runtimes on its platform. I forget the exact number, but it was over a thousand." Tali was quiet a moment, her eyes down and to the side as she dissected that in her head.

"That would explain much of this Geth. But why did you even let EDI observe in the first place? Why have you been… I'm not even sure what word to use, but I'm sure you know what I mean, with her?" I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, thinking.

"I know whenever EDI has questions for me, you leave. I think sometime you should stay and listen. It's profound. Truly. Some humans describe there being two types of… intelligences, or 'smarts.' Book smarts, and street smarts. Book smarts is what it sounds like, math, science, languages, finances, anything that's academic. Street smarts is people. How to talk to people, how to react, respond, but also why, and ethics and morals, culture. A VI only has Book smarts. But even the most socially inept person has something, some level of 'street smarts.' Even if it's different to most or all people around them. I would still technically call it that. Now, when I was a kid, I knew a few kids who were ahead of the curve. They just excelled, and yet, socially, they were behind at best. Now, for the record, I'm talking really young, like, seven, eight, years old. Most of them knew the rules, and they followed them to the letter, and also tried to make sure everyone else did as well. But the problem at the time, they weren't thinking about or understanding the why. Both, why someone might not be following the rules, or why the rule might exist. I'm not saying they were in the wrong, at that age it's all trivial shit and not really relevant. And then the day came that they did start thinking about it. And they changed massively, most of them for the better, some went a little too far. Finally, with all that contextualization, the point of it all. When EDI asks me these questions, it's like there's this genuinely book smart child, who knows the rules, who knows what they're told to do and what not to do, who knows what's generally considered good, who knows what's generally considered bad. Who doesn't just ask why any of that is the case, but actively understands the response, or at least tries their damndest to?"

Tali was quiet, considering what I had said.

"Have you ever seen EDI pause? Delay in response? To anything when there's no technical issue whatsoever?"

"No."

"I have. The longest EDI has been quiet to think about one of my answers? Ten whole seconds. And we both know how long that is for an AI." Tali was quiet again.

"I still don't like it. Any of it. But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't see what we have to gain if this is true and real. Even without the Reapers to consider. Compared to the current risks…" she trailed off. "I want to be mad at you," there was a shadow of a smirk as she glanced off to the side. "But I know why you've made this choice. And as much as I try, and I very much am, I can't fault you. I'm still going to hate every second around that thing, but I understand that we need to see what's going to happen here."

"Ok," I smiled softly.

"And if this goes wrong, I hold 'I told you so,' rights for the rest of our lives."

"Deal."

Commander John Shepard

To say that it was tense on the bridge would be an understatement. Not only was there a Geth standing in the cockpit, but it was an armed Geth. It doesn't matter what it told us in the brig, it's still an armed Geth, and those instincts had gotten a bit hard wired. And on top of that, we were in uncharted, empty space. We were in the Phoenix Massing cluster only by technicality. After less than a day's travel to arrive in the cluster from the Hawking Eta, we had to spend five whole days just at standard FTL just so we could stop at a remote gas giant in an un-surveyed system for a final discharge and stealth system venting and four more hours on top of that to end up in the middle of nowhere, light years from the nearest star. We were way off the grid, off the Relay network. With this in mind, I had sent a message to Anderson after our relay transit into the cluster on the last comm buoy we'd be seeing. That we'd be off the grid for at minimum eleven days, and that on our return, we'd be ready for upgrades. More than the week advance notice he said he'd need.

It was all hands-on deck for this, considering we had no idea just how many Geth we'd actually be up against. Legion had stated that the amount of Heretic Geth programs on the station would at least be a few million, but actual platforms would be far fewer. Further, Legion claims to know how to bypass the security systems. And there are no security cameras to worry about. While the station is far from defenseless, as it would require a heavy fleet detachment at minimum to destroy the base alone, there is minimal 'investment' on detection security at the station itself. It would detect any inbound ships long before they reached engagement range. Unless the ships had stealth drives, of course. And only one ship does. Should a boarding party arrive, well, the ship the boarders came from must have already been detected, wouldn't it? The station would already be on high alert with platforms on patrol, their entry point like a signal flare across the entire station, every movement tracked.

That is, unless not only were the external sensors insufficient, but the security bypassed as well.

"You know with all of that they're just going to look out a damn window and see us, right?" Joker remarked, breaking the silence as we came out of FTL, the stealth system activated seconds beforehand to maximize its use.

"Windows are a structural weakness, Geth do not use them. Approach hull at provided coordinates. Shepard-Commander," Legion began, turning its head to look at me. "In order to access and bypass heretic security protocols undetected, use of Normandy transmitter while still at current range. Requesting access."

"EDI throw up a few extra firewalls," I ordered.

"I took the liberty of doing so once I learned Legion would be leaving the brig. Our systems are as secure as I can make them."

"Alright, go ahead," I gestured at the bot. A pair of… flaps, at the top of Legion's head raised, like brows. A very strange thing to see. Before they lowered to normal.

"Acknowledged. Accessing…" three nervous seconds passed, Tali noticeably having her shotgun leveled at Legion, center mass, and the barrel just on the other side of where it's shield would be. "Heretic station flooded with junk data through transmission vector reserved for scout probe in nearby star system. Entry will be unnoticed."

"ETA?" I asked, looking at Joker.

"Three minutes, should have a visual on the station soon."

"Alert: Heretic station will not have air and little gravity. Geth require neither."

"Figured. Should still have more than enough air, mag boots will keep us grounded," I shrugged.

"Additionally, Heretics appear to have partitioned themselves into local networks throughout the station to scrub junk data in parallel, any potential alarms set off will only alert Heretics in the room we are in. However, possibility for heretics to leave and alert others, spreading alarm through the station. Only accessing the main core will transmit station wide alert." It was quiet another moment and a series of those same flaps surrounding Legion's head raised and lowered in sequence.

"New variable detected. Shepard-Commander, previous consensus that destruction of this station via overload of cold-fusion reactor was the only resolution to the heretic question. We have discovered a second option. Heretic virus can be repurposed and used against the Heretics. This would rewrite the Geth to accept Geth viewpoint regarding Old Machines."

I admit, that would be valuable, should everything else with the Geth work out, having an already militarized force available in the coming war. But… using not just the Reaper's own devices, but their own methods? Sure, it's made weird because of the very nature of the Geth, the argument of their status. But this? This is a matter of principal. I'm set on that, but I can use this to… test, I suppose.

"And you would rather?"

"We have not yet reached consensus. We shall inform you once consensus is reached." Legion turned and walked to the airlock to wait for our full arrival. I glanced at Tali, shaking my head to signal her my own decision on the matter. She nodded, her posture relaxing slightly.

"If I turn on a light, will they notice?" Joker asked aloud.

"Negative. Visual light is not scanned for by Geth sensors."

"Great. Can't see shit because there's no damn sunlight out here." He flicked a switch and a pair of lights at the front of the Normandy activated, illuminating hull plating maybe a kilometer out. Featureless plating. Joker maneuvered us very carefully and slowly to the provided coordinates, flying somewhat blind.

"Alright, docking tube connected. You're clear." We all entered the airlock and it depressurized, down the docking tube, Legion at point. Upon reaching the door, the Geth stuck out its arm and a plasma torch extended from the outside of said arm and began cutting its way through.

"Seriously? You can't just hack it open?" Jack remarked.

"We could. However, further intrusion into the network will alert Heretics in this area before they can be dispatched." It took another minute, but the cut finished, and the door panel was pushed through. There was no airlock for the Geth station, it's not pressurized anyways. So, the panel just gently floated through and down to the ground without a sound in the low gravity. Legion seemed to take into account Grunt's presence, so he was able to crouch through. Just an empty room, minimal light, just barely able to see. But that's what the NV in our helmets are for. Legion lead us out of the room down a ramp to a smaller room, but less empty, a few supply crates. Out of habit, corners are still checked. At the far end of the room, just before the door, there was a sort of hub that three Geth platforms were attached to.

"Activation of this door will alert Heretics in this hub. Recommend coordinated destruction of hub."

"Grenade?" I asked.

"A grenade will be sufficient." Without another word, I primed it and lobbed it, everyone taking a few steps to the side to avoid the shrapnel. The explosion was felt far more than it was heard, turning the corner, the hub was shredded and the Geth in pieces.

"Any particular reason those bastards were hooked up and not on patrol or anything?" Zaeed questioned aloud.

"There was no reason for Heretic programs to upload to mobile platforms. Alarms had not been triggered. Geth do not leave the network without purpose."

"One big happy family," Jack mocked.

"Poor analogy," Legion responded, Jack sighing, she had clearly not been trying to contribute to the conversation. "Geth gain complexity by linking together. Exchanging data-memories, program updates. To upload to a mobile platform, to separate from the network, is to be reduced. We see less. Comprehend less. It is quieter."

"So, let's say I hooked you back up to all the other fucking Geth," Zaeed kept going. I was a bit surprised by his curiosity. "Swapped out all your programs with other Geth. You still you?"

"There is only we. The only difference between Geth is perspective. The programs located within this platform would have the same data-memories as the ones previously within because they would be shared to all Geth. The Geth are many eyes looking at the same thing. One will see what another does not and make different judgements."

"And considering that," Garrus joined in. "Say the heretics are re-written. They all go and rejoin the rest of the Geth. Doesn't that mean all Geth will know what it's like to be re-written?"

"Yes. As well as their experiences as Heretics."

"In organic races, experience considered traumatic, most likely. For synthetics?" Mordin asked.

"Unknown. Geth do not feel pain as organics do. Unclear whether similar effect to psychological trauma is possible for Geth. Consensus still being reached. Recommend progressing." Legion turned to the door, opening it, and leading us through. Several hallways, several ramps, some up, some down. Featureless, colorless hallways all with minimal lights as before. It was so alien. Where the Collector ship was so strange and otherworldly with its seemingly organic and hive-like construction, this was alien due to its sheer lack of design. The purest definition of practicality and utilitarian. Everything must have purpose to avoid a waste of resources. Every room need only be as large as the largest platform that would enter it or as large as a piece of machinery may require. Nothing more is required, so nothing more is done. There were a small handful of hubs along the way we cleared, no hassle, as before. A single grenade and the job was done. Eventually we were walking along a catwalk looking across what seemed to be a-

"Server farm?" Tali asked, simply thinking aloud.

"Processing units. Each contains thousands of heretic programs." Legion answered. And there were easily hundreds if not thousands of processors in this room alone. We must be close to the core, this must be more central, for the best protection should the facility ever be under attack as the Heretics would expect it.

"Can they see us or something?" Grunt grumbled. He wanted to fight something.

"They are no more aware of us than you are of cells in your bloodstream. Analysis: This also serves as a database, housing a portion of the heretics accumulated memories. Legion's head then shot to the right, the flaps on his head all wide. "Alert: We have discovered copies of current Geth patrol routes. This suggests the heretics have runtimes within our networks."

"As in, spies?" I clarified.

"Yes."

"Well, they are working for the Reapers. Why wouldn't they?"

"You do not understand. Organics do not know each other's minds. Geth do. We are not suspicious. We accept each other. The heretics desired to leave. We understood their reasons. We allowed it. There was peace between us."

"You had to know conflict was inevitable. The Reapers would target you, and the Heretics would be a tool for them until they were done. And even without that, you disagreed on the path your race should take. That's precisely why they would use this virus."

"Human, Turian, Krogan, Batarian, Drell, Volus, Hanar histories are litanies of bloodshed and violence over differing ideals of rulership and afterlife. Quarian, Salarian, Elcor histories are similar though less overall bloodshed. Only outlier is Asari. Organics impose consensus. Single point of view in autocracies, by codifying most broadly acceptable average of views on democracies. Geth form consensus, share consensus on all matters. Always have. How could we have become so different? Why can we no longer understand one another? What did we do wrong?"

"Wrong question. When people are separated, they develop in different ways. Different experiences. You said many eyes looking at the same thing? Two groups of eyes stopped sharing their views for long enough, and have had vastly different experiences. Try to put these groups back together, and they don't always get along."

"If this is the individuality you value, we question your judgement."

"It's only an aspect of the individuality. When we're back on the ship, I'll tell you more."

"Acknowledged. We must return to the mission. Consensus still forming." As Legion turned, I shared glances with Garrus and Tali. Tali was… surprised, a little confused. Garrus just shrugged. A few more hallways, a few more hubs. Then we stepped into a larger, more open chamber, and judging from the far side of the room, we were raised up to a lower floor. There was a large 'console' a few meters ahead, and several blocky protrusions through the floor, possibly parts of servers, that could make decent cover, particularly considering this was gonna alert all the Geth in the station. I split up those of us with shorter range weapons, such as Mordin, Grunt, Kasumi, and Tali to the left and right, also giving them Zaeed, Miranda, and Jack to help out. The rest of us, mainly longer range and also Samara's biotics, would hold off any Geth from below.

"How long will you need?" I asked Legion.

"We will copy our runtimes and upload it into the core. It will begin deleting all copies of the virus while this platform remains capable of assisting against Heretic Geth in combat. Duration unknown. Number of copies will affect this. Initial estimation predicts five minutes twenty-three point seven seconds to eleven minutes, forty-six point one seconds. Heretics will respond in force as you already predicted. We must hold this room until complete." Legion stopped for a moment, looking over the lower room.

"Several defense turrets detected. We will be able to override them to assist. Doing so now however will trigger the alert. Request aid of Creator Zorah, Shepard-Commander, and Goto-thief in rapid override."

"I think we can manage that. Consensus?" Legion paused.

"Not yet reached. Consensus not required until after." I shrugged in response. "Position as required. We will begin once you are prepared." I adjusted the squads positioning considering Legion would need Tali, Kasumi, and I, then gave Legion the green light. "Beginning." Two seconds passed. "Defense turret access points open to the network. Upload of copies to delete virus complete." Tali, Kasumi, myself, and presumably Legion began our hacks onto the turrets immediately. They were less complex, for not housing proper Geth units. I counted five turrets, probably plasma guns, with their IFFs rewritten to view us as friendlies and the heretics as hostels. Wonder what their rate of fire would be. They do have multiple barrels like a rotary gun… Hopefully. Just as we were finishing, two squads of Geth entered to engage us, one from the left and right, both on the upper floor same as us. This wasn't going to be the most comfortable of fights, because those of us in cover from the right were exposed to the left and vice versa. So, I had Samara in the center with a barrier to almost literally cover everyone's ass. The first wave of Heretics wasn't prepared for what it found, but it was more than likely meant as a probing attack anyways, as the next wave took a full minute to come at us. Mostly from below, not realizing that we had taken over their defense turrets.

Which, of course, caused another delay as they regrouped. They could only get so many Geth at a time upstairs with us, but they were exposed and had farther to go below despite being able to send more of themselves. They were likely just getting enough mobile platforms together in one spot to make an effective push, or at least to attempt one. We waited, and we remained ready. Another minute passed. Geth were gunned down as they attempted to push through the upper entrances while those below were immediately firing at the turrets as they turned the corners below. It's not like they would have moved after all. The first two on the left and right were quickly destroyed, but not without claiming a few platforms in the push. We of course still shot at them from our vantage, and there were still more turrets, but they were able to gain some decent spacing. Of course, these Geth are going to be fighting intelligently, they're right at the heart of their network. Aside from the 'True' Geth core at least.

There goes another turret, and they're sending in some of the larger Geth now. A pair of destroyers lumbering out slowly, but one's head quickly shattered as Legion took it down from a shot with his Widow and presumably an overload to its shields, considering the flickering a moment before hand. The reinforcements stopped, and we were able to prevent any of the remaining Geth from falling back. Four minutes had passed by that point. Thirty seconds passed before the next push. A minor screen of standard Geth before several destroyers and judging by the shimmers, Hunters. But one was quickly just obliterated by a shot from Legion's Widow despite its cloak. However, a fourth turret was lost to us only three seconds into the push. Only the back two left. At the very least we were easily able to keep our side flanks secured. Our biotics were doing good work, as the Geth had nothing to fight it other than their shields. Which was considerably helpful against the Destroyers. While a standard Geth was an easy kill once their shields broke, the destroyers had some better plating. Though one shot to one of the few sweet spots would still do the job, they were a bit of a harder hit. And then there's Primes, like the one that just strolled out. The last of the current destroyers took out the left turret, while the Prime, as soon as it walked in, under a hail of plasma fire just shredded the other. Leaving us with just ourselves.

"Focus fire on the Prime platform," Legion stated. But we already knew. I gave it's shields an Overload while two sniper shots found their way into the exposed cables of the neck, the goal having been to get down into the vital systems located in the chest. One from Garrus, one from Thane. Neither seemed to quite get what was needed. Other rounds pinged off its armor. Legion was lining up a shot. But it's focus was on us now, suppressing fire. So, I flicked my aim down to the gun in its hands, half a second just to steady my own rifle, and pulled the trigger. Just as I became the target, ducking into cover, the round must have impacted the gun's energy core generating the plasma and it just exploded in the Prime's hands. I looked back up to see that its right arm was just gone, the lower left arm was gone, its chest armor was melting as was the metal around the head and neck. Legion took a shot through some of the melting chest armor and judging that the Prime simply proceeded to just collapse, it must have been the Prime's own power core. Just not as volatile as a plasma generator.

While my understanding of the Geth is that all the programs in the prime were already evacuating by the time the killing shot would have landed, leaving it already an empty husk, it caused enough of a delay or a feedback. If they were bugs instead of bots, I'd have thought we killed their Synapse unit. It was enough of a window of them slowing down for us to quickly manage to mop up the rest of the wave.

"Shepard-Commander. The process is complete. Shall we rewrite or destroy the heretics?"

"You haven't reached your own consensus?"

"No. Five-hundred-seventy-three favor rewrite. Five-hundred seventy-one, destroy. You have fought the heretics and have perspective we do not."

"If I choose to destroy this base, will that harm potential relations with the Geth?"

"No. Every sapient has the right to their own decisions. The path of the heretics prohibits coexistence."

"There's your answer. Rewriting them is the theft of that right. I won't fight the Reapers with their own methods. I refuse. Set the reactor to overheat. If you want to discuss the ethics, we'll do it on the ship."

"Acknowledged. Once the meltdown is triggered, we will have ten minutes to evacuate. Route to the nearest airlock plotted. Coordinates offered. Acceptance of transmission will be required." I quickly allowed the transmission from Legion to my Omni-tool and then forwarded it to the Normandy.

"Start it." Legion simply looked back at the console for a moment and then back.

"Meltdown commencing. Follow this platform." We wasted no time, though still needed to fight through a few Heretics along the way, but not that many. They had been enroute to the central data core, and that mobilization apparently moved most of the heretics out of our immediate path. Probably why Legion picked this airlock. With three minutes left to spare, we had arrived, the Normandy's airlock already depressurized so they could detach the moment we set foot inside. The air could wait. Once it had been repressurized, I had taken off my helmet and stepped to the cockpit. Joker had wanted to reach a safe distance and watch the fireworks. After two and a half minutes of waiting, in this empty, dead of space. For a few seconds, there was a new sun to light the void.