The situation was touch and go there for many hours and while the ship-bound crew didn't have more to do than to fix the damage taken during their brief intermission with the quarian fleet, Jo and her ground crew didn't know where to turn first, being bombarded with problems from all sides.

Joker did his easy part delivering his people wherever they needed to go, but Jo was neck-deep in fixing the world. She showed no signs of tiredness or cracking even though he knew she hadn't slept for two days by the time they finally rescued Zaal'Koris. He could only imagine how she kept herself going, though. There weren't only those seventeen million quarian lives riding on her, there were also all the geth, and she would want to save them all, if he knew anything about her.

She showed first signs of fatigue when Koris contacted her on the QEC almost a day after she pulled him out of a dead zone and sent him to play peacemaker with the captains of his own fleet.

Koris informed her that she'd been right to save him instead of his crew because the unrest among his people had spread wider than he'd thought. He even offered her all the help he could get.

"After the quarians drove the geth straight into the Reapers' arms I'd give anything to stop the madness of this war," he said.

"And that's why we all needed you back," Jo said. She sounded soft, more subdued than usual while dealing with politicians. None of them really knew much about admiral Zaal'Koris, but at least he seemed like an honourable, reasonable man. Joker would have been ecstatic if he was the admiral of the Heavy Fleet instead of Gerrel, but beggars couldn't be choosers. At least he was on Jo's side trying to stop the war peacefully.

Usually it was Jo who took care of her crew and even brought them lunch to their work stations when needed. Under the circumstances she seemed to have forgotten to eat or sleep herself, so Joker took the initiative and formally requested her presence in the cockpit. When she did appear, he made her sit and gave her a plate with food he'd ordered up from the kitchen. He could see that she wanted to protest, but he gave her a dirty look and she obediently sat down to eat.

"Thanks. No one loves me like you do," she said when she was done, relaxing for a few moments.

"Not true. If the rest of the crew weren't so intimidated by you, they'd do the same," he shrugged. "Of course, the good part of that is that none of them would ever dare to maul you in the shower like I do."

"True, that," she grinned. They both fell silent, remembering that it'd been days since they'd had a chance to have sex. War had this annoying tendency to keep people apart, too.

Joker would have liked to give Jo a real chance to rest under the guise of talking strategy to him, but Raan and Legion requested her presence in the war room and she had to go.


Raan informed Jo that she and Legion had found the source of the Reaper signal controlling the geth. Jo realised that it was good news, but something in Legion's voice made her stop and listen more carefully.

"Once the signal is disabled, the geth will pose no threat to creator forces," it said. Jo narrowed her eyes at her old friend. As diplomatic as it had been phrased, Legion's request for help was clear.

"What are you suggesting?" She asked.

"Observe," Legion said, taking over the holo desk. "While Old Machines have unethical purposes, their upgrades have vastly improved our people."

"That's a fully evolved AI!" Raan gasped when Legion finished explaining and they were staring at a diagram of a real, pulsing living being.

"Yes," Legion sounded imploring. "We do not agree with the goals of the Old Machines, but we find this growth... beautiful. Indicative of life."

Jo's heart sank. She knew she couldn't kill the geth before, but now it would be even more difficult. With this upgrade there was no difference between the geth and the quarians at all when it came to their worth as a people. You couldn't even kill one and justify it by hoping that it was still preserved in the consensus. This was an individual. And Jo did not commit genocide, not ever.

"It is. That's a living creature, no matter what platform it's running on," she said when Raan protested. "But doesn't this upgrade make the geth part Reaper, too?" She asked the most important question.

"The geth have integrated the upgrades into their network and without the Reaper signal to control them they can take precautions to prevent any further intrusion."

"Are you absolutely certain about that?" Jo asked, wondering why Legion was speaking of the geth as 'them' and not 'us'.

"Yes, Shepard-Commander. As fully developed AI each unit is an individual, not a part of the geth consensus. The Old Machines would have to try and take control of each unit individually and with these upgrades it will be impossible."

To Jo's best knowledge Legion already had those Reaper upgrades, which made it a fully developed AI at this very moment. Hadn't the Reapers used it to broadcast their signal to the rest of the geth? Perhaps it didn't want to focus anyone's attention on that fact.

Raan showed her the heavily fortified Reaper base, but asked her to stop a certain geth squadron first because it was dealing heavy damage to the quarian fleet. When Legion offered assistance with the server this squadron operated from, Jo agreed.

Soon after they were locked and loaded on the shuttle on their way to the server.

"Resistance is likely only within the server."

"It's that big?"

"You misunderstand. Direct virtual interface is necessary to extract geth from the server. You must enter our consensus."

Jo's breath caught in her chest. Tali and Vega ganged up on Legion about the possibility and dangers of such a deed, but Jo didn't listen. To enter the geth consensus? Even David Archer hadn't done that, and Legion was offering Jo a safe way to do it. The idea was...

...nothing short of a miracle. Like one of those they promise you when they recruit you to join the Systems Alliance Marine Corps. See the world, meet new people, see wonders beyond your wildest imagination. And to be the first human to ever experience something so unique? The idea tickled all her nerves, her curiosity and especially that wide-eyed child inside her who had watched humanity meet the first friendly aliens on the news about thirty years ago. Nothing short of a miracle.

There were countless miracles in the galaxy, and there were countless galaxies in the universe. But if you had a chance to experience and be a part of at least one miracle, that alone could justify your entire existence. Jo wasn't vain enough to believe her existence already justified by her actions until now. She'd saved lives, but so have other people. She'd created peace where once was war, but so have other people. But as an ordinary organic to be invited into a synthetics' consensus was indeed one of those things that made Jo grateful to be alive in the here and now, and it humbled her deeply.

"I will be honoured," Jo cut off the heated conversation between Legion, Tali, Vega, and half the Normandy crew through the coms.

"Jo, do you know what you're doing?" Tali asked hesitantly.

"No, but then neither did Jon Grissom when he went through that mass relay for the first time," Jo said. "At least I have an ally at my side in this."

"We will watch your back as well, Commander," Vega nodded firmly.

Very soon Jo stood in front of a menacing looking pod and Legion urged her to step inside.

"Well, here it goes," she muttered, doing as her friend asked. If Legion was sure that the technology was safe to use, she trusted it. That didn't stop her from being nervous, however. It wouldn't be longer than just a few moments until she'd find out, but her imagination still ran havoc: what would the geth consensus be, look and feel like?

Just for a moment there everything looked just like David's memories he'd shown her before she freed him from the machine: a 3d polygon world of lines and planes.

Then the world took on a shape.

Jo stood still and looked around. Her surroundings did not appear as alien as Jo thought they would be. Then Legion explained that it had installed filters to make the digital world appear familiar to Jo. That was almost disappointing. Jo didn't want it to be familiar, she wanted to see it the way it was. Along the way Legion also explained that Jo would perceive other geth as audio logs, surveillance footage and sensory logs. Perhaps it was just as well that the filters gave her and Legion bodies right now and created an up and down, but somehow Jo would have liked to experience what it was like to be an incorporeal thought among all the other data.

Legion directed her to the information hubs in question and asked to free them from the Reaper growth. The interface with the geth world was fascinating despite all the filters and the gun Legion gave her. It was even more fascinating to see how easily distinguishable the Reaper code was from the original geth substance. Jo followed Legion's instructions and freed several data clusters from the infected code. In those data clusters she saw what Legion meant: video and audio footage, even a moment of herself shaking Legion's hand about a year ago.

It was a mind-boggling experience, gun or not, and Jo would have jumped around like a little girl if she didn't have to keep a semblance of decorum. No other organic had ever been where she now was. No one had seen what she was seeing!

"You were the first organic to openly cooperate with geth since the end of the Morning War," Legion explained the presence of Jo's image in the geth consensus. "We wish to ensure you are not the last."

Jo bit her lip hard. How she wished the same!

"If the Reaper presence is removed, there is a chance of reunification with geth - and perhaps the creators."

"Legion," Jo dropped the gun to the ground, still looking at the image of herself shaking hands with Legion. An idea formed in her mind that every-fucking-one in the galaxy would consider a bonehead stupid crazy move, but Jo knew that she could not exit this world, this server, knowing what disabling these nodes was doing to the geth, and not do something about it. "Legion, I do not wish to kill any geth."

"We know, Shepard-Commander," Legion stopped its work and stepped to stand at Jo's side, also looking at the image above them. "However, it is necessary to avoid further casualties among the creators."

"Listen, Legion, I give you my word that I'll do my best to end this war without wiping out any races, but you've seen what happened with the dreadnought and the quarian admirals. Whatever I promise, it's always only as good as the word of my allies, and right now I'm not trusting them a whole lot."

"Do you have a suggestion?"

"Yes, I do," Jo turned to face Legion directly. "You found a way to connect an organic brain to the geth consensus and now my mind is inside yours, changing it to a degree. Can't geth do the same to my brain? After all, organic brain is basically a computer, working on electric pulses. It's capable of storing a lot of information."

"Yes, we could. We did not wish to reveal that fact in order not to discourage you from contact."

"I offer myself freely here, Legion. I do not wish the geth to die, but I can not guarantee it. What I want you to do is to store some vital geth information inside my mind. A seed, if you like. Something that could grow into a fully developed geth mind once I release it into a platform like yours. I'm not sure if what I'm saying even makes sense... Do you know what I mean?"

Legion considered her silently for a very long moment. Now that Jo knew how important the geth had considered her shaking Legion's hand, she could only imagine the significance they would give her offer. Even the synthetics would need more than one nanosecond to think about this.

"What you suggest is possible, Shepard-Commander," Legion said. "It had been considered among fifteen billion other certain, possible and probable outcomes of organic interaction with the geth consensus and regarded irrelevant at the time."

"It's not irrelevant anymore. I couldn't possibly leave this world, killing so many of you, without trying to save at least one of you in some form."

"Are you certain?" Legion sounded elated.

"Yes. I don't know what happens in the next few days, but I can't risk a whole species. I'll do what I can to save you, and offering my brain as a storage disk is the least I can do."

"Then... we will accept your offer."

"You will honour me."

Legion opened its own orb-shaped interface with the consensus and started working. After a while it asked:

"Shepard-Commander, do you wish to be able to interact with the program installed in your brain?"

"If possible - yes. But Legion, I need you to understand that I need to retain my own thought processes and personality. My abilities as Commander Shepard seem to be vital to this cycle's efforts against the Reapers. I can't have a second person in my head, I hope you see my point. But if there is a way to integrate some geth processes into my brain and body without me losing my personality, I would very much like to be able to do that."

"We understand the parameters," Legion spoke. "We will plant a... seed inside your mind. Our first memory, the original question."

"Does this unit have a soul?"

"Yes. Your integrity will not be compromised. The software will only install itself and unfold to a fully developed geth AI if you access a synthetic platform capable of carrying it. The knowledge how to do that is contained within the software. This... dormant geth will reside inside your mind until you wish to... plant the seed? Yes. In the meantime its primary functions will be accessible to you."

"Such as?"

"You will be able to process information with the speed of a synthetic."

"Whatever that means, I can imagine it will be useful in my fight against the Reapers."

"It is up to you to use the abilities as you see fit. We trust you. This process will not make you more susceptible to indoctrination."

"I'm already indoctrinated to a certain point."

Legion stopped working and looked at Jo:

"If you learn to use this geth seed to such an extent, it might help you process the effects of indoctrination and help you fight it."

"That would be extremely useful."

"We are ready to proceed," Legion said and suddenly the world changed. The platforms and cubes all around them disappeared, only to be replaced by complete and utter nothingness. It was dark, but not scary, the space didn't feel empty. It was neither cold nor hot, there was no up and down, no walls, no restrictions and no body to put those restrictions on. Jo felt her own consciousness float around and as a question formed in her thoughts it appeared in her surroundings. Not as her voice, not as any sound or text or visual or anything she could pinpoint, just as a... feeling.

"Where are we?"

"Your mind, Shepard-Commander. This is how you envisioned the inside of your mind. It appears to be a memory of your death experience. Our filters translated it for you into this form."

"Huh, interesting. I like it."

Suddenly a small light appeared, then grew larger and larger until Jo could see it swirling inside an invisible orb.

"This is the geth seed," Legion explained. "You wished it to have a form and our filters gave it a visual representation. It appears that its integration into your mind is facilitated by the Cerberus implants in your brain and body."

"Finally something good comes out of that horrible ordeal."

"It is done, Shepard-Commander. In the next five weeks you may experience unusual reactions to familiar stimuli. Reaction to unfamiliar stimuli can not be calculated by us and is left to you to deal with to the best of your knowledge."

"Thank you, Legion. You honour me with your trust."

"You honour us. We made sure to store the memory of this event inside the seed. The geth will know what you did for us."

"I would ask you not to reveal any of what's happened here to anyone else if possible, at least not to other organic beings."

"You do not wish to become hunted by those who hate the geth and aim to destroy all of us? You do not wish to lose the seed?"

"That is correct."

"We will abide, Shepard-Commander."

"Legion, it's actually Commander Shepard, not Shepard-Commander."

"Acknowledged."

Next thing Jo knew the whole world toppled around her and she opened her eyes, finding herself inside the interface pod Legion put her in at the beginning of the experience. The pod opened and Jo slowly stepped out, not sure what to expect now that she was sharing her brain with an AI. Tali and Vega looked worried as they helped her out of the pod.

Jo was a little disappointed when she didn't notice any difference to any of her senses. Perhaps the seed's integration would take a little longer than twenty seconds.

"Did it work?" She asked and looked around for Legion. She was referring to their original mission to delete the server and the archives, not to her new companion. EDI reported on the com that the geth fighters had withdrawn and the server had gone offline.

Suddenly other pods all around them opened, releasing geth Primes. Jo's heart trembled in awe as about forty units surrounded them and fell in. While killing Primes on a battlefield Jo had learned not to get too close to them. She never truly appreciated how huge they were when you stood right next to them. Even more awe-inspiring was the realisation that they were all friendly. Jo had never been in the presence of a friendly Prime before, but many things changed in this war.

"What's happening?" Tali and Vega both pointed their guns at the Primes, but Jo didn't. She knew what was going on even before Legion explained how it had downloaded some geth from the server to the Prime platforms and convinced them to join Jo and Legion.

"Why didn't you mention any of that" Tali probed, obviously unsettled.

"We did not doubt you or Commander Shepard," Legion said, finally using Jo's name correctly. "We doubted your allies. The creators' actions have placed their species in danger, but they are unsympathetic to what it has done to ours. The quarians sanctioned this operation to save their people. They would not have done so if they knew we wished to preserve geth as well."

Jo stepped to Tali and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The quarian was shaking, but she turned to look at Jo for some sort of comfort.

"I would have sanctioned this operation to save geth as well, Legion. All life is precious and deleting a whole server of geth is as much of a waste as destroying a city of organic beings. You did the right thing and you have my blessing." She put a hand over Tali's shoulders and turned her to face the Primes. "Tali, let me introduce you to your other way, your opportunity, a chance to save your people and not become the admiral who committed genocide. If you only see what I see, then you'll know in your heart that we can not only win this war, we can solve this conflict once and for all, possibly without any bloodshed."

"I-I... don't know what to think, Jo," Tali said. Her fear of the Primes was a reaction conditioned into her by centuries of her people's history. Jo didn't blame her for needing some time.

Jo contacted Joker and ordered him to bring the ship down to the surface.

"The Kodiak just won't do this time," she said, leaving the cave and leading the Primes (forty two of them to be exact) to the light of the surface. "Hey, Jeff, remember you asked me once how many children I have? What do you think of my new batch of synthetic ones?"

"As long as they don't call you mama and don't crawl into our bed at night, I'm fine," he sounded resigned to her quirks. What could he do, really? She was Commander Fucking Shepard and she did crazy stuff for a living.

The Normandy crew seemed as stunned as Tali and Vega when Joker hovered the ship over a cliff and the whole team of Primes marched over the ramp, aligned themselves in neat rows and fell in in the cargo bay, out of everyone's way. There were gaping mouths everywhere.

"New souvenirs, Commander?" Allers asked, making sure she was recording the whole thing.

"New friends, Allers," Jo corrected.


"Jeff, we need to talk," Jo said, approaching him from behind. Joker knew it was something important because she only used his real name for important stuff. He turned his chair to face her, but at that moment both Legion and Raan urged her to begin the mission to stop the short range Reaper signal. Jo sighed and shrugged: "Later."

"Sure thing," Joker frowned a little, wondering what this was all about.

Once again Garrus was almost furious when Jo refused to take him groundside, but eventually he agreed to watch the ship in her absence. Joker could feel from the turian's twitchiness how much he longed to be with Tali at this moment, when she stepped onto her home planet's surface and claimed the land. Joker would never admit it to anyone under torture, but they both grinned like saps when Jo gave Tali a fist-sized rock to "carry her home around with her". No words were needed, neither for the men, nor for the women.

As the team moved across the geth compound to get to the source of the Reaper signal Joker and EDI were finalising the synchronisation of their weapons with the laser Jo carried. All she had to do was paint the target and the Normandy would respond.

The result they got blew everyone's expectations.

"Reaper!" Jo's voice in the cockpit's loudspeakers froze the blood in his veins. He gripped his armrests, watching Jo and the team follow Legion to a geth fighter, all the while EDI lined up a shot at the Reaper. Joker would have liked to take credit for that one, but he was much too busy watching and worrying about Jo and the rest of the team to even think about his cannon.

The weapons discharged and suddenly Jo's camera caught the Reaper's stumble and fall. Joker hiccupped in surprise. Garrus yelled over his shoulder:

"What did we hit?"

"The firing chamber," Jo reported. "Looks like a weak spot."

Han'Gerrel butted in on their conversation, but this time Joker had nothing against that:

"Damnit, the jamming towers have us targeting manually! We can't make a precision shot!"

"We may escape before it recovers," Legion suggested and Joker was all for that, but he knew what Jo would say before she said it.

"No. Pull over."

The next two and a half minutes made him age five decades. Jo jumped out of the transporter, grabbed the laser and ordered EDI to synch her targeting system to the entire quarian fleet, as she ran to a cliff and pointed the laser at the Reaper. The only problem was: synching the targeting systems was not a two-second job. It took time to establish the necessary connection to so many ships, most of which were either hopelessly outdated or of foreign design and had to be adapted first.

"EDI!" Joker groaned, imploring his faithful companion to work faster in order to save the woman he loved. He could barely take his eyes off the screen which showed her helmet feed. The Reaper got up and primed its firing chamber, aiming right at her.

He had to do something and the only thing to do was to keep firing at the Reaper until the quarians could join in. Joker's hands trembled a little bit but the blood in his veins was cold as ice. That motherfucker wanted to burn Jo right on top of that cliff? When she had nothing to shield herself with or to hide behind? Well, it had no idea who it was dealing with because Joker would jump at its neck and start hammering at it with a rock if need be. He would fly the Normandy into that Reaper to keep it from firing at Jo, if need be.

He caught Jo's targeting point and pushed a button. The cannon discharged and a moment later the Reaper got hit and stumbled. Jo rolled over and pointed her laser again. They were one team now, more so than usual. She was his eyes, hands and legs until the quarians synched in and he would never let her down. As she did what she had to do, Joker did his job firing their cannon at the first opportunity.

He did not allow the dread to make him numb even when the Reaper was basically in his face through Jo's feed. He would not allow anything to keep him from protecting what was his.

"Almost done," EDI declared and mere moments later Gerrel yelped in triumph on his channel. Jo rolled over one more time, dancing out of the Reaper's beam, and pointed her laser. All around Joker the entire quarian fleet lined up their weapons and fired.

The orbital strike hit the Reaper hard. It stumbled one more time and finally toppled over with no prospect of getting up ever again.

"Take that, motherfucker," Joker gritted his teeth. Then he noticed that Garrus had been clutching the back of his seat the entire time and there were now tears in the leather from his claws. Joker would have been amazed at the turian's composure and knowledge when not to interfere, if he had any nerves left himself. Now he started shaking for real, now he got numb.

His body was high on adrenalin, but the situation seemed far from over because Jo clearly hadn't had enough. She stubbornly walked towards the edge of the cliff and started a conversation with the dying Reaper. Joker listened, or tried to, but quite frankly whatever they were talking about went right over his head. All Joker could do was sit tight in his chair and not let his shaking body topple over.

It took him a lot of deep breathing exercises to realise that something far worse than a Reaper attack was cooking. Garrus sucked in a hissing breath and EDI went rigid. That got his attention.

"Our fleet is already attacking!" Tali got in Jo's face. "Uploading the Reaper code would destroy us!"

Joker sat up. What was happening? Did Legion just suggest what Joker thought it did?

"Jo, you can't choose the geth over my people!" Tali sounded distressed but Jo remained silent. She looked at Legion, since this had to be a conversation between a geth and a quarian, one where Jo had no right to interfere. Legion did have a lot to say, too:

"Do you remember the question that caused the creators to attack us, Tali'Zorah?" It asked. "Does this unit have a soul?"

There was silence on all channels for a moment. Then Jo sighed and spoke:

"Upload the code, Legion."

"No!" Tali's knees buckled. Jo stepped closer to catch her sister before she fell.

"Tali, this is not the end of your people. Geth don't want to fight you, can't you see? If you stop attacking them, they will stop attacking you. Help Legion, Tali. Help yourself. Save your people and become the admiral who chose peace over violence. Save all those millions of lives riding on you by forgiving. I'm begging of you, Tali. Call off the attack."

Joker watched the scene with a knot in his throat and his heart breaking. He could tell that under her mask Tali was crying, and Garrus wasn't any better off.

Legion was already busy uploading the Reaper code.

Tali took a shuddering breath and let go of Jo's arms. It was no big deal to realise what she was thinking about. What would Shepard do? Well, Jo was telling her exactly what she would do. All Tali had to do was to have a little faith.

"This is admiral Tali'Zorah," she said eventually, her voice composed and firm. "All units, break off your attack."

"Belay that order!" Gerrel yelled. "Continue the attack!"

"Nobody else dies here today," Jo stood taller, dipping into that bottomless reserve of motivation and inspiration inside her which made her such a powerful Commander, such a powerful personality. Even Joker and Garrus subconsciously collected themselves, standing and sitting at attention. "Han'Gerrel, you already face one trial for treason against your people. Do not add to your sentence by condemning your entire species to extinction. The Reaper is dead and the geth do not want to fight the quarians, but they will defend themselves. Stand down!"

"Shepard speaks with my authority," Tali said.

"And mine as well," Koris spoke up. Joker held his breath. Whatever happened next would make history. Would it be Shepard's history or Han'Gerrel's?

The man still needed persuasion. A military man through and through, he could not see any other way, but was obviously overwhelmed when two civilian admirals and the legendary emissary from the Council all spoke against him. Jo leaned onto him even harder:

"The geth are about to return to full strength. If you keep attacking they will wipe you out. Quarian people, your entire history is you trying to kill the geth. You forced them to rebel. You forced them to ally with the Reapers. The geth don't want to fight you! If you can believe it for just one minute, this war will be over. You have the choice. Please. Keelah se'lai."

And the miracle happened.

"All units, hold fire," Gerrel said. A shudder went through everyone. This was how it felt to be making history. Again.

For the second time in ten minutes adrenalin rushed in a wave through his body, and for the second time it was too early to relax.

"I must go to them," Legion declared. "There is no other way."

With gaping mouth Joker and his team watched their old friend's sacrifice. Would this day of sorrow never end? Jo ripped the helmet off her head and tossed it aside, but they saw through Tali and Vega's cameras how she ran to Legion's lifeless body and bent over it, cradling its head in her lap.

"No, nono, baby, it was not supposed to be this way," she muttered and Joker quickly disconnected her channel from the quarians. This was a private moment. It was obvious that she was crying, even though she was hunched over Legion, hiding her face. She rocked back and forth, clutching the broken peace of her old armour, which had become a part of Legion so long ago. "You were supposed to stand by my side and... Oh... You deserved it. You deserved so much more than this."

Joker was already setting the ship down on a cliff nearby. The ramp was lowering and Rodney reported that the geth Primes in their cargo bay had activated and were now disembarking. Joker didn't pay attention. He only had eyes for what happened around Jo.

Admiral Raan approached, holding her side. Joker had wondered why she hadn't spoken up earlier, but it seemed that her ship had crash-landed.

"I was listening over the radio," she shook her head. "If Han'Gerrel hadn't stopped..."

Jo put Legion's body down gently and got up, composed once more.

"We have taken heavy losses. I don't know if we can..." Raan sounded desperate. All quarians were like fish out of water right now and Joker couldn't blame them. "Where are we supposed to go?"

One of the Primes approached the group, making both Tali and Raan jump and hiccup, reaching for their weapons. Jo did no such thing.

"You are welcome to return to Rannoch," the Prime said. "With us."

Thus the history had been defined several times in one day and each time Jo had been the solid point everything revolved around. She was a miracle worker. Even though her team was always doing its best to support her, at the end of the day it was her personality that played the crucial part, not her gun. It was her faith, her trust in the good of people and her willingness to trust.

Garrus hurried off the ship to join Jo and Tali on the planet's surface, as did most of the crew. With the ship parked on the ground none wanted to miss the opportunity to be the first people to walk on Rannoch after the four hundred year long war had been stopped. Joker followed their example. When he stepped off the ramp he saw more quarians appear from their downed ships and mingle in awe with the geth. Jo handed Tali over to Garrus and approached Joker. She wrapped her arms around his neck, careful not to hurt him with her armour, and whispered into his ear:

"We need to talk. Get the Kodiak."