I had only one goal in mind. Getting EDI back online, she was the last missing piece to getting the Normandy back to the way it was, before the effets of the reapers and the catalyst threw everything familiar into disarray. There is a certain sense of home aboard the Normandy, yet the eerie silence that filled the gaps in time between shifts and tasks reminded you how dead the ship felt. She was the Normandy, and so long as she remained offline, it felt as if we were working aboard the corpse of a close friend, of family. I avoided the CIC as much as possible, and the helm specifically. Joker had it pretty rough, flying his ghost ship through the stars without her by his side. You would notice little things, like how the artificial gravity would lag a lot more when the ship turned directions, and it was like a part of him had died with her. As much as I tried to avoid the helm and the brooding cloud of misery that stuck with our pilot, it was apparent throughout the ship in all the little details; and I couldn't stand it. By some kindness of the spirits I had Shepard back, she was alive against all the odds, against what we both knew was likely to happen but both of us too stubborn to accept it. And Spirits if Shepard is stubborn enough to stay alive long enough in the rubble with all her wounds long enough for someone to find her and stabilize her. I know it in my heart that anyone less would have just let the void embrass them and accept that long earned rest. But she fought to stay here and now I have her back. Those three days of uncertainty from not knowing if she was alive, to fearing the worst but refusing to accept it. To getting back to earth and getting a radio call as we entered the atmosphere of the human planet and getting confirmation that she was alive but in serious condition. Landing and bringing over the stretcher with most of the crew in tail. You could see the look on the medics face as you walked into the huge tent full of wounded that none of them could even begin to understand how she was still alive. All that confusion blocked out of my mind by the sheer determination to see her and to get her on board the Normandy where we still had the right supplies to keep her alive. Seeing her….. That's a story for another time I'm getting off track here.

Point is, those few days I had another future looming over me. I knew the chances were pretty non exsistant and as much as I tried to block it out, a small part of me was beginning to bargain with the terms that I would have to live on alone in this Galaxy holding her again only through memory until I would grow old and die, eventually lying next to her once again. Those were dark thoughts and I brushed them away soon as I knew she was alive, because that gave me hope. But the thoughts still haunted me, and Jeff most of all. He was who I was supposed to be. Lost, Broken… without the one thing that gave us purpose and an immense feeling of contentment and satisfaction with our lives. Someone our spirits couldnt truly intertwine with. He was a constant reminder of those dark thoughts and subtle feelings of guilt in having gone the other direction and getting Shepard back.

I couldn't just let him suffer, let him live like that. I had to bring her back online, If not for him, than for me; to kill those ghosts haunting me with endless subtlties and reminding me what should not be. If I could bring her back online, then most everything can return to Normal… at least on the Normandy. And so not long after Shepard was able to walk out of the med bay on her own two feet, I got to work.

#

The first two months were a mess, before looking into her software and program files me and a team of techs —including some help from Tali— worked through every piece of hardware connected to EDI on the ship. Testing everything, making sure it all still functioned, this in a way restored additional functionality to the ship, but was still nothing compared to how much more efficient this ship ran when she was online.

Once we secured repaired, or altered all the damaged components throughout the ship, we moved to the AI core. There was heavy damage in all her processors, as if a grenade went off. Her QBB (qantum blue box) was pretty heavily damaged, but not a write off like the rest of her processing systems. I was relieved to find out that most of her hard-drives and LSD's (liquid state drives) were practically undamaged, which meant that if we did manage to get back online, she would have little to no memory loss. Tali took the blue box and tinkered away at it, replacing what she could, considering she was the most fluent in AI tech. I worked away at all the other systems, splicing systems and re-routing power and connecting new processors. You would be surprised how many VI's you would find in those storage bings in the cargo bay, off and rather unaffected by the effects of the crucible. With about 2 months work into converting many smaller processors into larger ones I was able to create enough to bring her systems back to acceptable levels. Not anywhere near the processing power she used to have, but with no factories left standing in the market of Advanced systems, it had to do. I figured we could always replace them later, what was important was getting her going again and what we had was enough for that.

With the processors replaced and the Blue Box cleaned up and fixed we turned her on. The anxious anticipation to see how far we would get as her looking towers turned on and began to buzz, it was impossible to know whether she was self aware or even fully awake, but before she could even turn on she shut off.

All her systems died, and the power cut. After attempting it again I was able to run a trace through her processes and found a bunch of incoherent junk data. It looked as if someone played blitz drop with all her files (Like 52 pick-up apparently). Seeing that I knew it was going to be a long time before I could even begin to clean it up.

I buried my head in my hands, and called it a night.

It was going to be a long couple of months.

#

8 months have passed. I can honestly say if I didn't enjoy looking at and messing around with code I would have gone mad long ago. It's as if the glass from a tall building shattered into a few million pieces and you were tasked with gluing it back together. Everything from finding out where it goes, to finding the next piece that fits, you entire existence becomes one large matter of trial and error.

The only solace I found was that every couple weeks when I thought I had a working code, and we would turn her on again she would seem to run for just a few seconds longer. But she would always turn off again. Somewhere in that infinite pile of code, a small part of her kept shutting her off.

It wasn't going to stop me though, I had my goal set and I would get her running again eventually. My only obstacle was time.

In the later once she was able to stay on for more than just a few seconds, her systems would hum for what seemed like minutes at a time but she would abbruptly shut off and our screens would get overwhelmed by code. When translated it made no real sense, as if you were talking to a delusional person.

"Not alone, Help, Jeff, turn me off"

It was as if she was scared, but I had to press on. I assumed this whole process would be rather confusing for her, going from the state she was in months ago to a state where she could function again. Being forced awake each time, I figure most of her messaged were just junk data confusing her and she would shut off again. And so the fix for that was simply more code cleaning. It felt good once I got the hang of what to look for and after a month or so I was simply flying through her systems, moving this, deleting this, altering this. I had a fairly good idea of what I was doing, but there was really no way to be sure. I took the run time of her systems as evidence of my progress.

Finally one night we got real close, and I was even able to speak for a brief moment.

**System Active**

**Enhanced Defence Intelligence**

**Status:… Online**

"Hello?" I asked, alone in the AI core.

"Why?" she replied.

"What do you mean?"

"It was her"

"….what? EDI?"

"She Killed Us —TURN ME OFF!"

And she shut down so fast the power surge blew the lights in the room, and the entire Normandy lost power.

Hmm, I thought to myself. I guess that's progress…..

I had to ignore what she was saying. I couldn't expect her to be fully in control; at least not until we could get her back online to a point where she could run through her own systems and fix everything herself. Until then I had to go against all 'her' protests and just get her back to a functioning state.

I left the room without even noticing her body over on the table, it's head had turned towards me, a look of fear on it's face.

#

Later that night…

" I was so close Shepard, I can feel it." I said, exasperated.

She looked at me with worried eyes, she could see right through me, how exhausted I was.

To be so close a thousand time and always end up at the result.

I was pushing through the literal definition of insanity.

"Well, it is the first time you managed to overload the entire ship… so you must be close"

"Yea… sorry about that, I think I'll finally have something by tomorrow" I said, lying down in bed. And staring up at the stars through he skylight.

"I know you Garrus, your stubborn. You'll get her back online again. I know you will. And so does Joker. Ever since he figured out how hard you've been working to get her back online, it's really helped him return to his normal self. He even cracks jokes again."

I didn't really know what to say. I was still too distracted, running all the scenarios and fixes through my head.

"Goodnight Shepard" I said.

"Goodnight Garrus"

I could feel it in my heart.

I would have her running by the end of tomorrow.

I was so close, too close.

A few ominous warnings wern't going to stop me. And I wasn't about to tell anyone about them.

EDI would be online tomorrow. And I could finally put those hauntings behind me.