~Author's Note~ Glad so many people are enjoying this little attempt at a rewrite.

If after reading the chapter, the title confuses you, I'm referring not to an overthrow of a government, but a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point.

Thanks for all the kind words! Please drop me a review if you read.

Enjoy the chapter!

Shepard glanced around the room. Shala'Raan was there, as was Victus, Wrex, Admiral Hackett, a few other human admirals that she didn't recognize, (although they certainly recognized her), multiple other species representatives who she didn't know, and, of course, the Council. A small part of her wished they were still on the Citadel when the Reapers took it. She squashed that thought immediately.

The doors opened again, and Aria T'Loak strode into the room. She paused for a second, perusing the people already there, and then took the first seat that was open. She nodded at Shepard, but then pulled something up from her omnitool and ignored her.

Shepard had intentionally taken this particular seat for a specific reason. She turned to the Geth Prime unit that was standing beside the table, its hands moving over the galaxy map.

The one that the table was projecting was far larger than the Normandy's, and quite a bit more detailed. Certain systems were in red colors, and certain ones in blue. Since the red ones covered most of the map, she guessed those were the systems the Reapers had occupied. Numbers were also scrawled underneath the systems, doubtless detailing the amount of people estimated to be in each system, and possibly their military presence. Most of the people around the room were glancing at the geth with a bit of fear, and certainly distrust, being shown on their features. Interestingly enough, the person who had taken a seat on the other side of the Prime unit was Admiral Shala'Raan. The quarian admiral had apparently no qualms about this particular Geth, at least.

Before Shepard could engage the Geth unit in conversation- if this Geth even did that- Shala'Raan leaned forward and met Shepard's eyes. "How is Tali doing? Your medical officer told us what happened on earth."

"As well as can be expected, Admiral. Chakwas believes she'll recover just fine." She took a deep breath. "We're having difficulty figuring out how to give her a prosthetic, though."

The quarian admiral's voice sounded relieved. "Still. That's excellent news. Her injury was not something that many quarians expected her to recover from at all. Some of them had even started to lobby for a replacement, assuming she was going to die."

The Prime cut in. Its voice sounded... different. It was deep, but not just like a human male's. Shepard couldn't tell whether it was the same unit that had told her Legion was dead. It didn't turn its hands, and it didn't stop assessing the galactic map. "Creator Tali'Zorah has a 97% probability of total recovery. Therator has stopped any possible infection from her injury."

Shepard thought, for a moment, that the Prime had just revealed Tali's secret to Shala'Raan, but she merely nodded. "I know you told me, Kerath, I just wanted to know what Shepard thought, since she has seen her recently."

The Prime's voice sounded... amused. "I know of her condition from a more recent time than Shepard-Commander. Therator is still with her." Geth sounding amused? Was that artificially injected, or could the Geth feel emotions now? This was going to take some getting used to.

"I suppose I just wanted to know from someone who was actually there, Kerath. It's still hard for us to comprehend the Geth collective."

Kerath seemed to take Shala'Raan's word for this, and fell silent.

Shepard cleared her throat. "Uh... Kerath, is it?"

"Shepard-Commander." It was a statement, a simple acknowledgement.

"When Legion... died, and gave your people consciousness with the Reaper code, did that give you any insight into the Reapers themselves?" It was a question that had been gnawing at her for awhile now. Could the Geth possibly have gotten some information about the Reapers by simply turning their own technology back on them?

Its voice was matter-of-fact. "Yes. It is why the collective requested to send an individual to this gathering." Shepard was taken aback. They did know something new about the Reapers?

Of course Hackett chose that moment to call the meeting to order, and she was left wondering what exactly the Geth was talking about.

Thirty minutes later, Shepard was ready to walk out. Her mom's muttered statement as they entered made perfect sense to her now, and she caught Hannah's gaze over the table. Her mother just rolled her eyes and mouthed something that Shepard couldn't quite make out. Garrus looked just as annoyed beside her. "Another reason why this war needs a dictator," he muttered.

Hackett had barely called the meeting to order before the Batarians cut in, claiming that Shepard's presence was an "offense against the Hegemony" and that she was a "blight on the face on the galaxy" and more such charming epithets. Shepard tuned them out. She had felt horrible at the time, and still saw Aratoht sometimes in her dreams, but she was at peace with her decision. There was nothing else she could have done if she didn't want the galaxy to fall.

Hackett defused their complaints by pointing out that very fact, although all that did, really, was get everyone to gang up on Admiral Bavak. Shepard could see that he still hadn't forgiven her, but he mercifully shut up about it and let them get on with the meeting.

And that's when the shit hit the fan, as the saying went. Politicians and military officers didn't mix. First, there was the blame game for letting the Citadel get taken in the first place. The Asari councilor was saying something about gross irresponsibility in taking the fleet to assault Cerberus' base and leaving the Citadel with a token defense force. As Shepard recalled, it had been a hell of a lot more than that. And then that led into blaming faulty intelligence, since the Illusive Man hadn't even been there. And then it just got worse. The losses they had sustained in the Sol system made it very unlikely they could wage any sort of guerilla war with success against the Reapers- the Dalatross seemed particularly upset about that. Shepard didn't recall hearing her argue for any sort of guerrilla war prior to their assault on Earth.

Hackett pointed out that guerrilla warfare was never an option, since the Reapers weren't trying to take over anything, just wipe out everything. Guerilla warfare only works if you can wear down your enemy and they decide that taking over wasn't worth the trouble. That doesn't work when their objective is simply to exterminate you.

Which led to the Salarian Dalatross taking offense as if that had been a personal attack on the Special Tasks Group, for some reason. Shepard guessed that at least some of the galaxy's inhabitants perceived them as something like guerilla warriors. Although she suspected Wrex would argue the more appropriate term would be "terrorists."

Wrex gave some sort of wisecrack about the Salarians, and the Dalatross didn't appreciate that, either.

And that was when Kerath's voice cut through the melee. He hadn't said a word the entire time, and so his voice, amplified to carry over the noise, startled quite a few. He didn't apologize, nor did he suggest they all calm down, as an organic might have. He simply went straight to the point.

"The Geth collective has reached a consensus on the applicability of a virus that will affect the Old Machines. The blueprint is based on their own code, and has a 98.7% probability of taking hold before the Old Machines are aware enough to shut it down."

The Salarians understood immediately, but many of the representatives looked confused at the Geth's odd speech pattern, so Shala'Raan translated for him. "The Geth have created a virus that will affect the Reaper's systems."

Hackett looked elated, and most of the rest of the representatives as well. Garrus sat up from where he had just about dozed off.

It was the Turian councilor, Sparatus, who spoke first. "A virus? What does it do?"

Kerath answered, as if he was simply announcing the weather patterns, rather than giving them something that might win the war. "It can disable the shields of the Old Machines-"

Whatever else he was going to say was drowned out in a sudden explosion of sound. The Dalatross was demanding to know why the Geth had not come forward with this information prior to the attack on Sol. Shala'Raan replied that the consensus had only recently been reached that the virus would do anything at all.

Wrex growled a threat that if the "lizard woman" didn't shut her mouth, he'd headbutt her into the wall, which had almost the entire Salarian delegation up in arms.

Shepard put her head in her hands. Wrex really needed to send someone else on diplomatic missions. Where was Bakara?

Shala'Raan twisted something on her omnitool, and a blast of flame, fortunately simply a hologram, shot up from it. It did, however, have the effect of causing everyone to cease talking for a moment, and Shala'Raan took the opportunity.

"You haven't listened to Kerath's entire explanation. It's not as great as it sounds." Her voice was grim. "Go on, Kerath, tell them what you told me."

Kerath started talking again, and this time, he wasn't interrupted. "The reason why consensus took the collective a long time on this issue, is that the virus only works so long as the Old Machines do not devote energy to shutting it down. It can remove their defenses, but only for a short while."

Hackett looked perplexed. "Even a short while would allow us to coordinate a galaxy-wide strike that could significantly reduce their numbers."

"No. You do not understand. As soon as the Old Machines detect a virus attacking their shields, they would devote all resources to stopping it if your fleets were within firing range. They are logical, not emotional. They know that without their shields, they are vulnerable. It would take them approximately 1.3 seconds after the virus dropped their shields to purge it from their systems and restore full power to their defenses."

Silence greeted this clarification.

Shepard gripped the edge of the table, staring down at the galaxy map. 1.3 seconds? She wasn't even sure if the fleet could get off one volley in that time. It certainly wouldn't make anywhere near enough of a dent in their numbers.

The Dalatross waved her hand. "Then it is useless. That is not enough time. Can we upgrade this virus-"

Shala'Raan cut her off. "No. There are simply too many variables at play here. We don't know enough about the Reapers to upgrade a virus. Even the Geth's calculations of 98.7% probability of success are based on assumptions- what the Reapers told them about themselves."

The glimmer of an idea began forming in Shepard's mind. She stared down at the map more intently.

Sparatus threw his hands up in the air. "Then why bring it up? If we can't do anything with it, and we can't upgrade the virus itself-"

Shala'Raan interrupted him. "Because there is one thing. The reason why the Reapers would disable the virus is because they would know that it was a threat. They would devote every process they had to shutting it down, and the virus cannot withstand that. They are nothing if not logical. It cannot be upgraded as far as making it harder to detect, but it can be modified to target a different system. The navigation system, for example. If we targeted something the Reapers did not consider to be a threat, the virus might last far longer, as the Reapers would simply let their own firewalls handle the program. It may give us as much as a few minutes to do something."

The Dalatross' tone was heavily sarcastic. "Oh, as much as that?"

The idea in Shepard's mind solidified. She sucked in a breath. Immediately she had the attention of the entire room, so she spoke quietly. "Kerath."

"Shepard-Commander." Again, the simple acknowledgement.

"Could the virus be modified to target the Reaper's FTL drives specifically?" She could sense the eyes of everyone in the room on her.

Kerath paused for a moment, then- "The consensus believes the probability of success in modifying the virus in this manner to be approximately 95.2%."

"And what does the consensus think the probability of the Reapers believing this is a threat and attacking the virus to be?"

This time, there was no pause. Kerath had anticipated this question. "Shepard-Commander, this would not be a precise measurement. It is based on what the collective has experienced of the Old Machines, but much of it is... extrapolation." If geth could frown, Shepard was sure Kerath would be doing so.

But she needed an answer. "Humor me."

"Shepard-Commander?" This time it was a question.

"Err... I mean, tell me anyways."

"The probability of the Old Machines believing this is a serious threat to their physical forms is less than 2%. With their shields, they believe they are essentially indestructible without the combined firepower of your fleets focused on them. Since the virus would leave their weapons and shield systems intact, they would most likely not even target the virus specifically if there were a fleet around. Although that scenario is less probable- the consensus believes the chance of them targeting the virus would increase to approximately 11% were the entirety of your fleets in the system."

It would work. She could take out almost half of the Reaper's forces in one strike.

Hackett hadn't followed her line of thought at all. She wasn't surprised. "Where are you going with this, Commander? Even if the Reapers are unable to go FTL, that gains us nothing. We don't have a weapon that would be capable of doing enough damage, even if they were restrained from using FTL speeds. Their shields would still be online."

Shepard looked down at the galactic map, searching for something, for anything, that would allow her not to have to go through with this plan. But there was nothing. Everywhere, it was the same problem. They simply did not have enough firepower to stop the Reapers.

The Geth virus could be used to knock out the Reapers' FTL drives for a crucial few minutes. And during those few minutes, she could cut their forces in half.

She recalled Garrus' words to her, in a conversation that seemed so long ago.

"Sometimes, I think we need a dictator in this conflict."

"Why? Because he wouldn't be as bothered by these decisions?"

"The politics of war, Shepard. Ten billion people die here, so that twenty billion can live over there."

At the time, she had insisted that they should never make that choice. That they would be no better than the Reapers. Now... well now, they were out of options.

She looked up and met the eyes of the Batarian admiral, Bavak, across the table from her. He had figured it out, she was sure. But he was waiting, making her say it. To him, it would be poetic justice. The war began in their galaxy with the destruction of one of his planets. His home planet, if she recalled correctly: Bavak had been born on Aratoht. It would only be fitting, in his eyes, for the end of the war to begin with the destruction of her own home planet.

She took a deep breath, and then turned towards the other admirals. "Yes sir, we do have such a weapon. So long as the bulk of their forces remain in the Sol System."

She met Hackett's gaze, his eyes now wide. He had figured it out. She said it anyway. "The Charon Relay."