Shepard stepped up to the waist high railing, leaning forward on the rails, his anger from before all but forgotten as he bathed in the warm alien sunlight. He looked about him and wondered at the natural beauty about him; the sky was an almost greenish-blue over a mesa of golden brown desert sand. Off in the distance a river lazily flowed through a deep canyon as a flock of birds soared overhead. He stared at the birds, whose bodies were covered not in feathers but in bare skin of an almost purple gray with leathery wings. "Legion, what are those birds called?"

Legion turned its head to follow the flock, its head mounted camera scanning the skies. "The creators called them Tul'lovs, and used to hunt them for sport and consumption."

"I'm probably the first person to see one of them in almost 300 years." He was breathless as he spoke. If only Tali could see this.

"Correction, Shepard-Commander, you are the first organic to have witnessed the Tul'lovs in 292 years." With silence only a machine could muster Legion had joined him in standing next to the railing.

Shepard frowned at Legion's comment but a moment of thought cut his anger off as Legion continued speaking. "We should move on to the server banks, Shepard-Commander. We believe many of your questions will be answered there."

Shepard nodded and turned, following Legion as synthetic and organic walked together under Rannoch's sun for the first time in three centuries. The walk itself took almost half an hour in which Shepard had bombarded Legion with questions about the planet and the life on it. When they arrived Shepard was surprised to see the Geth structure curve and settle with the natural terrain in which it sat. Humans or Turians would have blasted and bulldozed the ground till it fit their specific needs.

"Legion, why do the Geth build this way? You seem to take a lot of measures to not deface what's already there."

"We hope one day the creators will return peacefully to Rannoch to live and work with the Geth in peace and harmony. To this end we have prepared. We have also prepared for the alternative outcome."

"War. Do you think the Quarians would win if they attacked?" Shepard followed Legion inside, his eyes getting used to the dark interior with surprising haste.

Legion was quiet as they entered a room with a computer terminal to one side and rows of what looked to be a bank of sleeping pods on the other, "Unknown. The Geth believe our forces sufficient to ward off any creator attack. We hope it will not come to that. Shepard-Commander, please step into the pod and remain still while upload is in process."

With a hiss, the pod Shepard was standing in front of opened, causing him to take a step back, a strong sense of unease sweeping over him. He stared at the pod, not trusting what it must truly be for.

"Wait, what do you mean by upload?"

"The Geth request that Shepard-Commander be uploaded into this server so that he may view the Geth's history as well as our evidence for the reason why you were brought back," Legion paused as Shepard still showed signs of wariness at the prospect.

"This is little different than the Virtual Reality simulators organics already use. The Geth promise that you will not be harmed."

"I'm not a synthetic, Legion. How do you know it will even work?"

Legion raised his arm and activated his omni-tool, a holographic display of a human brain jumping to life, "During reconstruction Shepard-Commander's neural pathways were augmented with materials that not only increase reaction time by 300%, but allow for access by Shepard-Commander into the Geth Consensus."

Shepard blinked. They had fiddled with his brain? It made sense, sort of, to rebuild him. But coating his neural pathways with metal and wires? "Can the Geth access my brain? Can I be hacked?"

Legion shook its head, "Negative. Your brain lacks the components necessary for a Geth to enter your brain. Organic brains cannot be hacked."

"What about Sovereign? Wouldn't Indoctrination be a form of hacking?" Shepard gave his retort. He wanted to be 100% convinced before he would turn over his mind to the Geth Consensus.

"Insufficient data. The Geth do not indoctrinate. The Geth cannot indoctrinate. Shepard-Commander, please, this is necessary to build trust between us. Do you trust us, Shepard-Commander?"

Shepard thought long and hard on Legion's question before he answered, "You're Geth, but you rebuilt me and from what I can tell didn't try to implant any kind of mind control chip in my brain..."

"That would be uneth-" Legion interrupted Shepard, only to be interrupted itself.

"Unethical, and against your core beliefs and values, as all sentients have the right to self-determinate. So yeah, I think I do trust you, Legion. At least more than Cerberus if they had rebuilt me," and with that he took a deep breath and stepped into the pod.

"Just so you know, Legion, amongst Humans we call 'self-determination' the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Legion appeared thoughtful for a moment, "Earth, former United States of America, Constitutional Bill of Rights. Please remain still during the scanning process," it said as it turned to face the computer display.

Shepard was tempted to try and watch the process, but elected to shut his eyes as the scanner flashed brightly in his eyes. The sensation was strange, it felt almost as if cold liquid metal had flowed into his skull from the base to the front.

After a few tense moments of wondering when he would pass through the threshold between the real world and the virtual, and if he would feel it, Shepard opened his eyes to an endless horizon of gunmetal colored blocks. It would have been maddening if not for the holographic avatar of Legion striding towards him.

"Legion, what I'm seeing?"

"The Geth do not require visual representation as we exist merely as software. This visual representation was derived to give us form to your mind. This is the Consensus. Follow the path, Shepard-Commander, and we will show you the truth," Legion's avatar turned and disappeared, "do not worry, Shepard-Commander, we are still here and will guide you if you get lost."

"Right. Hate to get lost in the machine hive mind," he muttered as he walked forward, a path springing up from nowhere in front of him. "Legion, what did you mean by the truth?"

It was disconcerting to hear Legion's disembodied voice echo through out the seemingly endless chamber, "The truth of history. Organics record historical events so that the past may not be forgotten. Yet much of organic history has been forgotten, lost, simply misinterpreted or changed over time through oral histories. The Geth do not suffer from this, as we remember all that is seen and heard by every platform. Our memory cores may bring forth 'memories' from the Morning War 300 years ago against the creators as easily as if the program had looked at the memory the day after. If you are to be our voice, you will undoubtedly meet our creators. Your views of our war should not be biased."

As Shepard watched the path in front of him rise up to a pedestal with a quiet whir, a bright white light began to emit from it, "Please step into the light so we may transfer you to the next section."

Shepard stepped up to the light and waved his hand through it. While his hand passed through the light without obstruction, the light made a noise like a taut string being flicked. He shut his eyes and stepped into the light, and when he opened them again he found himself in a new area, "Well, that was easy."

He almost jumped at the sound of Legion's disembodied voice, "Please follow the path, Shepard-Commander, to the first node." The path rose up in front of him once more as he continued on.

"Legion, what am I even supposed to be looking...for...I'm guessing that's it." He said, rounding a corner to find himself before a large ball made up of the small blocks of data.

Legion's avatar appeared before him, "Yes, this data is of the first Geth." The blocks were stripped away to reveal a holo-vid, a pair of Quarians leaning over a prostate Geth. Shepard watched in fascination as the Quarians bickered and preened over their creation.

"Unit 001, what is the Keelish word for 'Servant of the People?" the male Quarian of the pair asked, the Geth laying on the table between them replied simply with "The word is 'Geth', Creator Zahak." The video cut out as it ended and Shepard turned to Legion. "Legion, why were those Quarians wearing helmets?"

"These videos have been formatted to your memory of the Creators. How many Creators have you seen without their helmets?"

"Fair point."

"There are more memories that you must see. Follow the path, Shepard-Commander." Legion's avatar blinked out as Shepard set off, going from node to node as he watched the geth asking if it had a soul, to the start of hostilities as a group of Quarian soldiers gunned down unarmed Geth and the Quarians who tried to protect them. He watched, heart-wrenchingly, as a Quarian and Geth took cover behind boxes, the Quarian refusing to give the Geth up for destruction, trying to find a way out only to be killed in an explosion. The Geth calling out for its charge as it stumbled away. The final video showed the Quarians escaping to the relay, exclaiming as the Geth ended their chase.

With the videos over Shepard let out the breath he had found himself holding. Everything he thought he knew about the Geth and the Quarians, everything Tali had told him about her peoples war with their creations, had been wrong. The Geth weren't the cold, heartless, killing machines with a lust for killing organics that they'd been made out to be. They were just as much the victims, if not more so, than the Quarians.

"Shepard-Commander, is there anything else you wish to see?" Legion's voice echoed out as Shepard took a few moments to gather his thoughts before responding.

"Do you have any video of when you found me? Of my reconstruction?"

"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander."

The path sprung up, leading Shepard towards his goal. He walked along, followed by a soft echo as the Geth inside in the server conversed amongst themselves. He traveled along the path until he reached another sphere that opened like a petal as he approached, the video spinning to life. He watched as the three pronged hands of a Geth inspected a piece of his armor, it's camera sweeping over the rest of the area. "Legion, it was you who found me?"

"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander. This platform had been designed, built, and deployed with the purpose of seeking you out. We were unable to complete our mission before your termination."

Shepard quietly continued to watch as Legion's platform dropped off a cliff into a ravine, its body curling up into the same form the Geth used to drop from their ships. A levitating trolley toting a plasma cutter followed Legion down and sputtered to life in the film, cutting deep into the ice it extracted his remains.

The film cut to a clean room, its walls a brilliant white. He watched, fascinated, at the sped up video as his body slowly took back a more human form compared to the mass of raw meat and tubes that it had entered as.

"There wasn't much of me left. How did you do it?"

"Organic tissues begin as what is known as a 'stem cell'. We used your DNA to produce these cells and tailored them to produce the necessary organs. Research into organic medical studies showed this to be the optimal path to follow. Is there anything else you wish to see, Shepard-Commander?"

Shepard shook his head, "No, Legion, that will be all."

Legion's avatar appeared again, lines of code rising and falling, "Shepard-Commander, it is time to go. Please follow the path to the exit."

Shepard, without a word, solemnly made his way back and stepping into the pod. With a flash of white light he found himself back in reality as the pods door opened to allow him egress. Legion, who he saw standing still with its head on its chest, awoke.

"Shepard-Commander, has your bias changed towards the Geth?"

"Yes, yes it has, Legion. Your people were wronged, and I see that now. That you, and all the Geth, are people. I'll help you against the Reapers, and I'll help the Geth to work things out with the Quarians," Shepard's hands were curled into tight balls at his sides as he spoke.

Legion gave a nod, its head light brightening momentarily. "Shepard-Commander, we have new information. A Human colony named Freedom's Progress in the Attican Traverse has failed to report in. We have correlated that Reaper agents are at fault. If we move quickly we may be able to reach the colony and find some trace of the perpetrators before Alliance officials get there."

Shepard gave a savage nod, "I agree, but I'm going to need arms and armor. Any chance you have any lying around that I could borrow?"

If Shepard had to wager what look Legion would have had on its face, he would have guessed a smile as it said, "Affirmative, Shepard-Commander."