Several hands in the room automatically reached for their sidearms, raised voices accompanying their actions. Sensing the added danger, Shepard quickly walked forward, holding up both of his hands as he got between the two groups.

"Hold it! Admirals, the geth means you no harm. Do not draw your weapons."

Koris looked nervously from Shepard to the geth, "You'll forgive me if I am rather doubting of you at the moment, commander." The man's hand was rattling in place as he gripped his pistol in its holster for he was so terrified.

Shepard took a step forward, "Admiral, Legion was the one who deactivated the dreadnought's systems in the first place. You can trust it."

"I…" Koris saw that Raan and Xen had relaxed more than him at this point, so he gingerly removed his hand away from his weapon. "I would like to know where you're going with this, Shepard. After all, that is a geth standing right in front of me."

"Tali," Raan turned to her, "Is this true? This geth really assisted you on board the ship?"

Tali gave a cautious glance as she sidled around the geth, "Trust me, Raan, I'm having just as hard of a time believing it as you are." She backed up as she regarded Legion closely, "But yes, it did. John freed it and it helped us in exchange."

Xen tilted her head, "This geth is unlike any I've ever seen before. It must be a prototype of some sort. With your permission, commander, I'd like to study it more closely to see if we can find any weaknesses in the geth systems."

Shepard lowered his eyes, mistrustful of the admiral, "You're going to have to be a bit clearer when you say 'study.' What exactly does that entail?"

"Disassembling it, of course," she said in annoyance, as if the commander was too dense for her personality to handle. "You can't possibly think that I would not want to examine every inch of this platform, do you?"

"Absolutely not," Shepard stepped in between them. "Under no circumstances are you going to take apart this geth."

Xen blinked, "And what exactly would that accomplish? Are you worried that I will hurt its feelings in the process? This unit is an example of how the geth have moved beyond our initial designs. The research we can obtain from it-"

"-Will not be collected anytime soon. As this is an Alliance ship, admiral, Legion falls under my jurisdiction. Whatever information can be collected can be done without putting it under the knife. And don't bother asking anymore because the result will still be the same."

Xen smoldered under her helmet, "Fine, commander."

"As it happens, one of the little snippets that Legion provided for us under no duress, I might add, was the fact that destroying the dreadnought only cut off long-range control for the Reaper signal, not completely eliminating it."

"What?" Raan jumped. "You're certain?"

"Affirmative, Creator-Raan," Legion now spoke, walking over to the holomap. "The Old Machines only used this platform to relay their signal on a wide-band frequency. They still maintain short-range control from a base on Rannoch."

"That puts us at a disadvantage," Koris sighed. "We only assumed that the geth would be in disarray after the dreadnought was destroyed."

Shepard did note that everyone in the room, once they had gotten over the shock of it being in their presence, was actually starting to relax in front of Legion. He had been quite surprised at the geth's mannerisms, to tell the truth. For one, it showed no hostility of any kind, EDI hadn't reported any attempted cyber intrusions coming from it, and it was now currently talking to everyone as one might carry on a normal conversation. Then again, it had been almost three centuries since organics came into such close contact with the geth that maybe the entire myths surrounding them had been exaggerated. Legion was certainly no bogeyman that he could see.

"Here," Legion pointed as a dot appeared on a representation of Rannoch. It was situated near a bay of sorts, nestled in the canyons of a desert near a large forest. The image zoomed in to view a set of metal structures that hung amongst the cliffs. The geth's own private getaway. "Disabling the signal at this location will end hostilities against the Creator forces."

Shepard looked at the geth, "That's probably going to be harder than it sounds. Would bombing the place from orbit knock out the Reaper signal?"

"Unlikely. The signal is being emitted from a bunker that is blast shielded. You will need to remove the shield before initiating any bombardment."

Raan glanced at the map, "There's also the problem of the target itself. The location of the bunker at the foot of the cliffs is going to make precise targeting very difficult."

"I have the solution to that," Xen piped up, flicking a few buttons to project a representation of what looked like a cross between an assault rifle and a bazooka. "We have recently developed a laser targeter that is able to sync up between any ship. It is programmed for target painting and the trigger on the device remotely fires from the ship it's linked to. Simply point and shoot."

"Then I guess we're going to have to borrow it," Shepard said before adding, "To save the quarians, that is."

"By all means, commander, take it. I'll sync it up to the Normandy and add all the ship protocols as soon as you're ready." Xen's tone was falsely sweet, as if she had taken to his previous rebuttal as a slight against her. No matter, she would be out of his hair soon enough.

Turning away from the shady admiral, Shepard noticed that Legion had its head hanging slightly, as if something was on its mind. Shepard was struck at the rather organic movement and wondered if the geth actually thought like a human would. Regarding the inorganic closely, he leaned against the console and asked, "What is your opinion, Legion?"

"Our opinion?" It sounded confused.

"Yes. What exactly do you hope to gain by your Creators winning? Aren't you worried that they will destroy your people afterward in retaliation?"

It did not appear to be distressed in the slightest, if geth body language was to be taken at face value, "We anticipate that the correct choice will be made in the end. The deaths of the Creators would be an unfortunate outcome that we would regret. We do not desire any more bloodshed."

"How can you say that?" Raan shouted. "Your kind forced us to leave our homeworld! You allied with the Reapers!"

"Our decisions have always been made to ensure our survival," Legion responded evenly. "Our alliance with the Old Machines was to save ourselves from you. It was for this exact same reason why we had no choice but to resist during the Morning War."

Tali was wringing her hands in the background nervously, Shepard was watching with bated breath, and Raan stewed, "Don't you dare put the blame on us, geth! Your kind rebelled against us when we were responsible for your creation. You were the ones who caused us to be the pariahs of the galaxy, to live our cursed lives on ships instead of a planet, forgotten by the rest of our allies, left to ruin and decay."

"Could it be possible that you have merely forgotten?"

"What are you saying?"

Legion activated its omni-tool and pointed it at the holodeck. A grainy image appeared on the screen and everyone walked in close to see it. A few seconds passed before the picture cleared and the image focused on two unmasked quarians, their animated faces throwing Shepard off for a second, hovering over a geth strapped down to a rack.

"Creator," the geth was saying, "This unit is ready to serve. What has it done wrong?"

A quarian technician was shaking his head, "It's ignoring all shutdown commands. What do you want me to do?"

"Take a look inside," the other said, passing him a tool.

"Creators, we apologize for any inconvenience we might have caused. We will adjust parameters for-"

"Audio cut," the first quarian said, waving a hand.

The image paused and the admirals let out the breaths they had been holding. Shepard's mouth was slightly agape as Tali, standing by him, was trembling slightly. He looked over at Legion who was now selecting another video from his tool.

"Legion," he said softly, "What was that?"

"A historical record time stamped nearly three hundred years ago, before the start of the Morning War."

"But how can that be?" Koris wondered. "All records from that time were lost when we fled. How could-"

"These events may have been forgotten by the Creators," Legion swung to face Koris, "But they have not been forgotten by the geth. The unit on the table was the first recorded instance of the geth exhibiting development patterns that went beyond the expectations of the Creators."

"How so?" Shepard asked.

"The geth had asked a question: 'Does this unit have a soul?'"

"And how is that significant?"

"Commander," Raan interjected, "The geth were never meant to advance to that level of perceiving. It was only then that we knew that the VI network had advanced to an AI collective, the outcome of which turned out to be illegal by Council standards."

Legion dipped its head, "We thought the Creators would be proud. Synthetics seek perfection through understanding. We only wanted to understand the concepts that our Creators utilized for themselves. What they did not understand is that synthetic life is never stagnant. It grows, it evolves through our shared memories and knowledge of new concepts. We are just as much alive as you at this moment."

Before any of the others could respond, Legion activated another file, this one showing a squad of quarian marines in front of a barn door. The audio in the beginning of this portion was missing, but there was no mistaking the intentions of the men in front of them.

The squad leader gave a hand gesture and one soldier ferociously kicked the door open, wood splintering everywhere. They trained their rifles on the forms inside, mobile geth hardware platforms, and fired at them. The horrendous sound of clicks and sparking bodies was drowned out by the bursts of the rifles, the marines merciless in their execution. Geth after geth was felled, not knowing why this had happened, why their Creators sought to terminate them. They died never knowing what they did wrong.

"Look out!" a soldier cried, "That one's going for a weapon!"

Indeed it was, but it had been a rather rational decision in Shepard's eyes. The quarians were not exactly being slaughtered in the streets at that time as he had been made to believe, they had been the aggressors. They were actively trying to correct their mistake by rounding up any geth and mowing them down where they stood.

The geth fumbled with a rifle that it had picked up from inside the barn. Before any of the marines could focus in on it, it fired. The round caught a quarian in the neck and blood gushed from his mouth as he fell. Shouts of panic came from the squad and the geth was immediately downed by hundreds of bullets as every marine turned their weapons on it.

That video froze as a quiet shock fell over everyone. Koris was shaking his head slowly, Xen was rapt with attention, and Raan was still in disbelief. "It's not possible," she emphasized adamantly. "We…we didn't mean for this to happen…"

If Legion's tone could change, it would have sounded rather smug. "The situation here parallels the events during the Morning War. The geth were faced with certain death due to the Creators' panic. Their solution was to extinguish all geth for fear that they had no control over us. This was a falsehood, we still desired to serve the Creators as our directives remained the same, therefore we were confused as to why they came to their fateful decision."

"It was murder," Shepard murmured.

"Wrong, commander," Xen pointed out. "The geth were hardly more than a disorganized rabble at the time and did not possess the appropriate cognitive processes for you or me to classify our decision as genocide. Besides, you can't murder a synthetic race."

"False, Creator-Xen," Legion said. "The geth are alive and we did not intend for any harm to come to the Creators. We only took up arms because we thought that it would deter you from your current path, hoping that you consider an alternate outcome. The Creators only responded more desperately, and we in kind until it became too late."

As Legion spoke, more clips were being shown, washing the room in a greenish color. A young quarian girl was now pictured standing in front of a geth, clutching it with tears running down her eyes as a quarian soldier moved to pull her off. She was screaming at how they needed the geth and that they meant no harm at all. All the while, the geth stood perfectly stoic, faithful to its Creator.

Unable to successfully pry her away from the synthetic, the marine lashed out with the butt of its rifle and it hit her in the stomach. She let out a grunt and collapsed at his feet. Snarling, the quarian emptied his entire clip into the geth's head, screaming as he did so. Before the smoke had dissipated, the soldier had hauled the unconscious girl up and dragged her prone body out of the frame.

Tali backed up into Shepard in shock and Shepard put his hands on her shoulders, carrying her through as they both watched. She needed to be strong for this part, she needed to learn the truth.

Based on the clips they had just seen, it was clear that the war was not popular with everyone. A male was now being shown hiding a lone geth in a warehouse, pleading with it to not surrender to the authorities for he knew what fate awaited it and him for even harboring the synthetic in the first place.

The geth seemed particularly focused on preventing any hostilities, much to everyone's surprise. It knew that by sacrificing itself in surrender, his Creator would be spared the wrath that befell all synthetics on Rannoch. Shepard blinked at the selfless act, feeling his fingers tense as they curled up in a fist.

It ultimately did not matter because a planted charge on the door burst inward and the border of the film flared white for a brief second. The geth rose from a pile of rubble and began digging around for its Creator. When it finally uncovered the body of the quarian, the geth simply sat there, with its Creator in its arms, unsure of what to do. It remained there until the soldiers from the street outside marched in and put a bullet in the back of its head. The series of clips went on, unrelenting, the level of violence only escalating in every subsequent encounter.

Tali turned around and buried her head in Shepard's chest. She did not want to see any more. Shepard wrapped her frail body in a hug as she softly cried, the secret carried between them. Shepard looked up for a reaction from the other admirals, hoping for them to be just as stunned as he was.

Koris' arms hung limply by his side, unable to tear himself away from the ghastly images projected in front of him. Raan had her hands clasped over her vocabulator, eyes getting wider and wider by the minute. Xen, in contrast, looked rather bored as she lazily lounged back, demonstrating an appalling time to be nonchalant.

"Legion," Shepard called. "Stop the footage."

The geth lowered its arm and the video halted, winking out as the room slowly filtered back to its normal color again. Tali stirred in Shepard's arms and the other admirals started moving, slowly, as if they had just awoken from a deep sleep. The commander's jaw was set as he regarded the quarians with sadness.

He gently pried himself away from Tali as he stepped toward the three of them, "What was in the past happened a long time ago. There's no point in dwelling on it any further. The quarians made a mistake all those years ago but we have a chance to rectify it today."

"Do you really think that it is true, Shepard?" Koris asked. "That the geth will simply accept us after the Reaper signal has been eliminated? It's like you said, we tried to murder them. Why should they work with us after what we have tried to do to them?"

Legion stepped around Shepard, "Geth do not forget. But it does not mean that we are not capable of understanding. However illogical your decisions have been in the past, the reasons for you making them are clear. Organics are confused by unknown variables, circumstances that lay out of their control. Our growth was one such circumstance and there had been no precedent for their reaction in any historical record. Once the signal has been eliminated, the geth will no longer attack the Creators, making a chance for peace possible between geth and Creators."

Raan tilted her head, "Do…do you really think there's a chance?"

The geth bobbed its head once, "Yes."

Shepard looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone before proceeding, "Then I shall waste no time going down to your homeworld. If a war that has lasted three centuries can be ended today, then it will mean that both the geth and the quarians can stand together as allies against the Reapers." He turned around to talk to the two behind him, "Legion, Tali, I want you two to come with me on this mission."

"Acknowledged."

"Yes, John."

"I insist on coming as well," Xen's voice burst from the background.

Shepard arched an eyebrow as he regarded the admiral, "Xen?"

"Commander, I have no attack fleets to manage and my influence is purely peripheral in comparison. This is an opportunity for the quarians to see their homeworld once more, an opportunity that I don't intend to waste. I would also be able to provide assistance to you as well. I only ask that you offer me this one thing in return for all that I have done for you."

All you've done is given me a laser pointer and a headache, Shepard thought sourly before relenting. If Xen wanted to come along and face the possibility of getting killed, that was her choice. By rights, he could not refuse her request as it was her homeworld. "Then grab your gear. We move out in ten minutes."

"Understood, commander."

Tali's entire body was shaking as she cautiously lifted her foot and slowly lowered it. She shut her eyes, fearing the moment of impact but was rewarded with an unyielding surface underfoot. Her boot ground softly into dirt and she opened her eyes a crack to see what she had just trod on.

The shuttle had landed mere moments ago on the planet's surface, only half a kilometer from the geth station. Legion had walked off to procure an alternative transport while Xen had merely stalked a few meters away, clasping her hands behind her as she sighed at the expanse in front of her.

But Tali had been the first to step off, the first quarian to set foot on Rannoch in over three hundred years. The implications of this were huge, she realized, but she stopped thinking about them as she slowly came to realize where she actually was. That she had finally returned home.

Her knees buckled and she started to fall but Shepard caught her before she hit the ground. Weakly, she patted his arms, mumbling, "Let me go…I have to…I need to feel it…"

Nodding, he silently obliged her as he lowered her to the ground. Her hands reached out and grabbed a fistful of dirt, holding it out in her gloved palm. The soil stained the surface a healthy brown, the looser fragments blowing away in the wind.

"Rannoch," she gasped. "My world…"

It certainly was a striking world. They currently were perched on a cliff top from where they could see the bay shimmering in the distance, the geth structure glinting like a shiny stone before it. The dusty rock was weathered into unique pillars from time, moss hung off the cracks as the salty air blew around them. Looking behind him, they could see that the land sloped downward as it headed towards a little river inlet. A large forest was situated next to it, green plants standing out against the bright desert. It looked like a tropical forest, wet leaves glistening in the humidity, lush and fertile.

The sky was a light orange, the color of a soft fire. Stars glimmered overhead, unspoiled from the lack of light pollution. The warm sun basked the entire landscape in a healthy shade as the roar from the nearby waves reached their ears.

Tali looked at Shepard, almost certainly smiling behind that mask, "It's…it's as beautiful as that park you took me to back on Earth."

"It certainly is," Shepard agreed. It certainly was one of the best looking planets he had ever seen, combining the hardiness of Tuchanka and the splendor of Sur'Kesh. He was immediately envious of the quarians at the thought that they would get access to an unspoiled paradise like this in the near future.

Tali came to her feet after her shaking subsided, Shepard alongside her every second, before speaking, "My father promised to build me a house here once. I guess it was his own way of saying that he loved me. I never understood at the time." She sighed as she leaned against him, "I actually never thought I would ever see this place, to be honest."

"Does it meet your expectations?"

She bent down to retrieve a flower peeking up from between a pile of stones. She twirled the plant in her fingers for a few seconds before releasing it into the wind. "Better than I imagined." She tilted her head in thought, "Our people have a common saying, 'Keelah se'lai,' which we use frequently as a phrase of respect and of greeting. It means, 'By the homeworld I hope to see someday.'"

"I'm guessing that they're going to have to update that phrase a bit."

"A little," she giggled. "Its meaning never really sunk in for me when I was young, I admit. Now that I'm here, everything will change for us, for all quarians."

Shepard smiled warmly as he threw an arm over her shoulders, "Hopefully, we will be able to see more of your world when the war is over. Based on this small snippet, I would certainly like for you to show me around some more."

Tali turned in place, letting the natural splendor sink in all around her. She was practically hopping in her happiness. She looked around the area before pointing up at a little niche in the face of a rock wall, just up a small incline, overlooking the adjacent bay and cliffs beyond. "I think the house would be perfect right there."

Shepard followed her gesture before nodding in approval, "Already claiming the land?"

"It's just a reminder. That after this stupid war is over, I'll have a home to come back to. Not a bunk on a ship, but an actual house that will be mine."

"Anything that you had in mind that you wanted to include?"

"Oh," she sighed dreamily. "A bedroom…a kitchen…an actual yard that I can walk out to and see the sunrise…"

"You're doing a real good job in selling the concept to me, as a matter of fact."

She still was thinking out loud, "…And maybe a garage, where I can just tinker with stuff. I wouldn't mind having an entire room filled with parts and tools, the ability to create anything I would want. Just the best damn house anyone could hope to have."

Shepard smiled as he hugged her, to which she gleefully responded, "Then that's something worth fighting for. I would love to see the day that my girlfriend gets the best damn house in the galaxy. She has definitely deserved it."

"It wouldn't have been possible without you, John," she reached up to touch his cheek. "I would not be in this very spot if I hadn't met you, on my homeworld."

"Neither would I, for that matter," he grinned. "But when the day comes, I would love to help you build that house and help carry out your father's promise."

"You…you'd do that?"

"Come on, building a house seems like an easy prospect compared to fighting a war. How hard could it be?"

The shout of joy could have been heard for miles but a few paces down a footpath, Xen ignored it as she carelessly flicked at a vine that was growing over a rock face. She was starting to get impatient at the lollygagging from the two hopeless individuals in her midst. She wondered that if her trust in the commander's abilities had been misplaced. There were more cracks in his armor than he had let on, Tali apparently being one of them.

Kicking at a pebble at the ground, she looked up to see both Shepard and Tali heading towards her. Finally, she thought as she unbuckled her pistol in preparation. The two of them gave a curt nod to the admiral, as they passed. Unseen, she lowered her eyes before following. She hoped the both of them were at least taking this mission seriously.

Their weapons in hand, they threw their weight behind them, careful not to slip as they cautiously walked down a steep hill. Gravel trickled beneath them, causing their footing to be hampered. Shepard jerked as his center of gravity was briefly thrown off as loose stones tumbled underneath his boot but Tali shot out a hand and grasped his shoulder, preventing him from falling.

Eventually reaching the bottom without any more mishaps, they hopped down the last incline as the entrance to the geth base was now in sight. Two of the synthetics were standing watch outside the door, heads swiveling in all directions. Sneaking around was going to be out of the question, geth were too sensitive to movement.

Shepard was wondering what path to take when Xen suddenly walked out into the open and began running toward the geth. The sentries spotted her almost immediately but fell to the ground as she calmly raised her pistol and fired. The geth were twitching as electricity sparked from their bodies, blue bolts projecting in all directions. They continued on like that for a few seconds until the voltage burst their lenses, the glass shattering in all directions, their limbs ceasing their helpless struggle.

The way was now clear. Shepard and Tali caught up to Xen as the door cycled open, moving into the confines as it locked behind them.

"Nice pistol, admiral," Shepard said just to be polite.

"It's mine," she replied brusquely as she pushed ahead. Shepard gave a slight shake of his head. So much for the formalities. He turned to Tali for an explanation as she was the one who knew the most about tech.

"It's an arc pistol," Tali whispered, out of Xen's earshot, "Fires a high-ampere shock after a nonvisible laser ionizes the air. It's her design."

Shepard was slightly impressed, "Pretty neat, but I would rather prefer your Scorpion, to be honest."

"Me too," she chuckled.

"Shepard-Commander," Legion's voice arose.

"Go ahead, Legion."

"We have been successful in procuring an escape vehicle. We will position it on the east side of the bunker on the second story."

"Got it. Thanks for the update."

"In addition, we have triggered intruder alarms on the far side of the base. There will be no geth sharing your route right now."

Shepard smiled, "Thanks, Legion. We will keep you posted on our current progress."

"Acknowledged."

The next door opened up a walkway in the open air that connected different buildings within the bunker. They could see the circular opening for the signal structure hundreds of feet below, at the base of the cliff. However, the angle was still not good enough for a precision shot. They had to continue on.

Xen fell back a bit to address Shepard, "You seem to trust that geth very much, don't you, commander?"

"I do, admiral." Where exactly is she going with this?

But she only gave a tiny nod, muttering, "Interesting…"

Shepard blinked and pushed forward, leaving Xen behind him. Her demeanor was wearing on him more and more by the second. Now he was starting to pick up the pace. The faster they accomplished their mission, the sooner they could ditch Xen and make for a little peace and quiet for once.

But, if the base had been completely filled to the brim with geth to begin with, then it looked like Legion had done them a favor just like it said. The place looked completely deserted as its inhabitants were rushing off on a fool's errand. Shepard wondered how long it would take until the geth would realize that they had been tricked.

A nearby lift rattled and clanked as they stepped onto it, soon depositing them a story up. The room still had no lighting fixtures installed (a staple of geth furnishings that they had eventually caught on to) but the opening at the end led to a balcony that was perfectly perched over the opening. A console was situated a few paces before the balcony, the controls to the blast doors. Tali tapped on the keypad a few times and an enormous grinding noise sounded as the large door slid away, revealing a mess of tangled machinery embedded in a fine mist below. Chances like this never got much better, Shepard realized as he brought Xen's device to bear.

"Stand by, Normandy," Shepard announced as he aimed the laser targeting device downward and depressed the primary trigger. A status bar started to rise on the display, indicating the percentage of well the object was being targeted. "Painting in progress."

"Receiving," EDI replied coolly. "Fire when ready."

"Firing," Shepard muttered as he depressed the secondary trigger.

The air was still for a brief second, only the wash of the water could be heard. Then, a vertical yellow flash materialized in front of them, disappearing down the hole with an enormous bang. Smoke and flame washed out from the opening and Shepard put the device away, trying to pierce the growing cloud with his vision as the broiling mass unfurled below them.

Off to the side, he could see a lone craft hover in place. That must be Legion's escape vehicle. They might as well start to head over to it now, they could determine whether the signal had been deactivated in that time. None of them wanted to take their chances and not decrease the distance to safety if the geth were still hostile.

Embracing that logic, they ran down a set of stairs to reach the platform below before heading out around the opening. The hole continued to pour smoke, making Shepard cough slightly as his windpipe allowed the toxins into his lungs. Bursting out into the setting sun, they only made it a few steps before the ground started to tremble and shake.

SHEPARD!

Shepard halted in place, Tali almost running into him, as his eyes went wide. "Oh…shit," he whispered to himself.

Before any of them could react, a huge metal leg appeared through the smoke and landed on the path in front of the trio, rattling their teeth. In quick succession, three more joined it, planting a hold on all sides of the bunker as a black-purple form began to rise out of the abyss, a deep red glowing from within.

A Reaper.

"Goddamn it, run!" Shepard roared. "Run, Tali! RUN!"

Going as fast as they had ever run in their lives, Xen, Tali, and Shepard sprinted to the waiting vehicle and clambered into it, closing the hatch behind them. Legion turned around in its seat but whirled forward once Shepard shouted at it to floor the gas. Instantly, the craft shot away, narrowly escaping a barrage from the Reaper's beam as the metal floor melted from the heat behind them.

Legion fiddled with the controls as the geth transport was propelled into the Rannoch desert. The craft was shuddering in specific intervals which could only mean that the Reaper had given chase.

"Shepard-Commander," Legion projected from the front, "What are your orders?"

"Just get us the hell out of here!"

Legion twisted the craft back and forth, evading the Reaper's beams as it simultaneously tried to avoid smashing into a rock formation which could potentially cripple the vehicle.

Shepard seethed to himself, "It was a goddamn trap. The signal came from the Reaper…"

Tali clutched at his arm while Xen swore as the craft bounced up and down, "John, what can we do?"

He opened his mouth to say that he did not have a damn clue when the left wall of the transport was suddenly torn away from a blast of heat, metal dripping down where the beam had touched it. There was a jolting of the craft and its direction realigned from the force that the Reaper had exerted on it.

As the craft halted uncomfortably in place and all the blood started to rush to his head, Shepard could only hear a scream in his ear, his world tumbling before him.

Shepard closed his eyes for a brief moment before he felt a rough wind pass over his face. He sat up, coughing as the wreckage of the craft smoked all around him. Dirt clung to his face and chest as he rolled off of his stomach, struggling to breath as his internals felt all rattled inside. He must have been thrown clear of the transport when it had crashed.

His face felt numb, much to his annoyance. Based on the wet spots that were forming in a few lines, Shepard guessed that he had probably gotten cut several times when he had tumbled over the desert rocks. A fall like that would have broken bones, at the very least, had he not been "upgraded." He stumbled to his feet in a daze, walking back a bit in horror when he saw the Reaper towering in the distance half a mile away, standing oddly still.

"John!" he heard a voice call his name and glanced to the left. Tali was standing on top of a ridge, Legion alongside her, miraculously unhurt as she watched him helplessly. "Come on! Get over here!"

Shepard.

The Reaper howled in the distance, causing the startled Shepard to jump. He took a few steps toward the quarian before halting in place, a thought coming over him. Between Tali's desperate gaze and the Reaper's patient stare, he knew which one demanded the most attention right now.

"Tali," he called, "Get back. Get to safety."

"What? No, no! Get over here right now, John!"

Shepard shook his head as he retrieved the undamaged targeting device from his back, "I can't. None of us can outrun that Reaper as it is. Your people will die and the geth will still be under its control unless that thing is stopped right here, right now."

"How can you possibly fight a Reaper by yourself?"

He flashed a knowing grin, surreptitiously glancing down at Xen's device that he held in his hands, "I won't be by myself, Tali."

Her voice was mournful, "You really are the most selfless person I've ever known, you know that?"

"I'm afraid you're wrong in this case. I'm only doing this for the person that I'm talking to right now."

Tali let out a quiet sob, "I…I love you, John."

His grin stretched broadly, "I love you too, Tali. Keelah se'lai."

Turning back from her forlorn wail, he keyed his comm to the Normandy as he started to walk towards the cliff edge. "EDI," he said, "Xen said that she had installed all of the quarian protocols to my device before we left. I need you to connect every ship in the fleet to it."

"Acknowledged, Shepard," the AI replied. "Transfer packet received, everything is ready. Good luck, commander."

Shepard smiled as he raised the laser to his shoulder. A thin red beam appeared out of it and headed straight towards the Reaper standing watch over a river. The icon on his display read that the target was locked on and he depressed the trigger, not hesitating in the slightest.

Let's see where this goes.

What seemed like a thousand pinpricks of light enveloped the Reaper, washing it in a blaze of flame and heat. It staggered as the mass of the rounds pummeled its hull, but it did not fall. It roared as its firing chamber opened and it sent out a beam at Shepard. He dived to the right, noting that when it fired, part of the Reaper's mechanical insides were showing, the protective plates shunted aside.

I'll have to time this right.

Your resistance is futile. You and all life, organic and synthetic, will fall.

The Reaper took a step forward on one of its four legs, lumbering as it ignored the occasional blast from a orbital gun. Shepard had the monster locked on by now and his finger hovered over the trigger, waiting for it to fire and expose itself.

Your ascension has already begun. You deny to complete the perfection that has already been bestowed upon you.

Thanks for reminding me.

The Reaper opened its chamber so that the oculus could fire, but Shepard pressed the trigger first. A scream was emitted from the Reaper as an enormous piece of its armor was removed by the fleet's barrage, sending it crashing down below. An orange mass of tubes and wires hung loosely from its right flank but it still pressed on.

You cannot even comprehend the significance of our arrival. Your harvest is inevitable. The cycle will continue.

Maybe. But it will continue without you.

Another depression of the trigger and the Reaper's horn was blown completely off. Several portions of its armor were now cracked and ruined. The oculus was now completely exposed, with no removable portions of armor to protect it any more. The upper portions looked like they would fall apart with the next salvo. Shepard hoped that the Reaper would fall soon.

Foolish. Your faith is misplaced. You only create more destruction out of resistance.

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

The next bombardment completely coated the destroyer in fire. Smoke and red electricity burst out from the depths of the machine as the tortured monstrosity attempted to rise, falling to its feet and shaking the entire land. Dust flew from where it impacted, mixing with the noxious fumes and swirling around in the desert. Shepard still trained the laser on it, not convinced that the Reaper was completely dead.

With a tearing of metal, a scream erupted from the tangled mess as something appeared out from the hulk. It looked like a torso had burst out from the Reaper as an orange mass waved its arms and its head whirled about, roaring in pain and trying to focus on its target.

Shepard glanced off from his viewfinder as he observed the Reaper's core. It had an outline the likes of which he had never seen before, the arms contained a set of double elbows, the head was thinly shaped and contained seven eyes, three on each side and one on its forehead. It was the representation of a long-dead alien species that the Reapers had harvested previously. This was all that was left of them.

Eyes blazing orange, the revealed Reaper form found Shepard and its mouth opened as it chattered. From its very depths, a clamor embodying the screams of a trillion people spewed from it, the sounds of an extinct race.

YOU CANNOT WIN! WE ARE UNYIELDING! WE ARE BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION!

Wincing at the noise, Shepard pressed the trigger one last time, trying not to look at the horror in front of him. Sighing in relief once his finger depressed all the way, Shepard squinted his eyes as he braced himself for the light show.

As you choose.

The fleet fired in unison, striking the core of the Reaper directly. Orange liquid spewed into the air, as did pieces of its metal exterior. The face of the demon collapsed inward and a mushroom cloud of blue flame puffed upward with a clamor. A missile to its neck took off what remained of the head and it flew away like a punted ball. In the middle of its execution, the core toppled forward and detonated.

With an angry cry, the Reaper vanished in a red shockwave, the force knocking everything over within a mile. Shepard planted a foot in the ground as he took a knee, shielding his face from the stinging winds and the flying debris. When everything had quieted down, he rose and saw that what remained of the Reaper was simply a smoking ruin.

He let the laser fall from his fingertips with a chuckle. He surveyed the wreckage one more time, feeling on top of the world at the moment. Shepard's laugh seemed to echo around the canyons and he turned around, barely having enough time to witness a purple blur before something leaped at him.

He caught Tali as they both fell to the ground, locked in each other as they laughed loudly together. Tali was overjoyed as she nuzzled his head with her helmet.

"You really...you actually did it!" she shouted with glee. "It's our world again, John. It's ours!"

Shepard could only smile as he rose and embraced her in a huge hug, lifting the quarian up as they both closed their eyes in elation. Bringing her down to earth, he was rewarded by her welcome presence as they held each other, quieting and letting the crackle from the flaming Reaper be the only noises they heard. But, after a few seconds, they could hear the precise clomps from Legion's gait as it walked over to the both of them on the cliff.

"Shepard-Commander," the geth said, "The Old Machine is no longer broadcasting the infiltrating signal. We are free."

"Commander," Admiral Gerrel said through the comm, "The geth fleet has stopped firing. We are confirming deactivation of the Reaper signal. They are vulnerable to attack."

"Damn it," Shepard realized. "Gerrel didn't see Legion's information. He doesn't know…"

"Shepard-Commander," Legion intoned, "The geth only defended themselves in the face of Creator aggression. Do we deserve death?"

"No," he said quickly, trying to defuse the situation. "They don't. I'll get this matter sorted out, Legion."

"We understand. However, we feel that we must inform you of a new development. We have determined a different path, one that would be advantageous to your conflict against the Old Machines."

"What are you saying?"

"This unit still carries uninstalled remnants of the Old Machine code. We could upload them to all units, ensuring that every one would be a true intelligence."

Shepard furrowed his brow, starting to get concerned, "I don't understand. Why would uploading the Reaper code be a benefit to the geth?"

"Observe," Legion extended its palm and a blue sphere appeared on top of it, translucent with a glowing point of light in the center. "This is a representation of a single geth unit. Its processes are simplistic, akin to the capabilities of a VI." The image now changed to a red sphere with veinlike webs, much like the cognitive map of a human brain. Legion looked at it before it regarded Shepard, "This is a single unit embedded with the Old Machine code. As you can see, its processing unit is much more advanced than what you saw before."

Tali gasped, "That's not just a linked network. That's a true AI."

"Yes. The Old Machines' and the geth's goals never truly aligned but this growth is indicative of life. Uploading the code will allow us to retain the abilities the Reapers bestowed but will not succumb us to their will. We would be alive and we would be able to help you further."

Tali glanced nervously from Shepard to Legion, "How? Our fleet is about to attack the geth! If the code is uploaded then they will destroy us if provoked!"

"But if that were to be prevented, then we would be able to help you recolonize Rannoch, Creator Zorah. We could facilitate the transition for your people and provide any necessary assistance. Eventually, by uploading our runtimes into your suits, we could be able to help you live without them."

"Wh-Wh-What?"

Legion's eye glowed, "Languishing in a sterile environment has atrophied your immune systems over time. Our runtimes would be able to simulate illnesses in your suits without you getting sick. They will be able to adapt your weakened immune systems until they are strong enough for all Creators to live outside their suits."

Tali jittered, "You...can do that?"

"Yes, Creator Zorah. We can."

Tali looked at Shepard anxiously, awaiting his approval. He stared right back at her, giving a small shrug that told her that it was her decision to make. He did not feel that he was qualified enough to determine the fates to two people unlike his own. If he had to make a choice, he could have decided instantly. He longed to look upon Tali with a mask as it currently was. The prospect of having her live the rest of her life without a covering over her face would be the greatest blessing he could ever imagine.

To Tali, the implications were quite clear. Refuse and the geth die, simple as that. Accept and she was looking at the chance to live a normal life, much as Shepard did. To eat normal food, to breathe the same air, to experience all of the pleasures that he took for granted. And the fact that the geth could do this, make it all possible…

"Legion," she whispered, "Upload the code."

"Commencing," the geth said, booting up a spherical display. "Code upload proceeding at five percent. Will upd-"

The geth spasmed as electricity shot all around it, its solitary light strobing as energy surged through the platform. Legion collapsed as Shepard let out an exclamation, turning around to see a slim form pointing a pistol at him.

"Do not move!" Xen snarled, the ridges of her arc pistol glowing a bright blue. "Admiral Zorah, what are you thinking, letting this geth upload the Reaper code?"

"Admiral Xen, wait!" Tali cried, stepping in front of Legion's prone body. "This geth wants to help us! We just need to call off the fleet from attacking before everyone gets killed. We have the chance to work together again, Xen! They can help us live without our suits, just like before!"

"Bullshit! We can never part with our suits, it's impossible! It is only lying to you so that the geth will be more powerful and have the capability to wipe us out for good. The geth would rather accept Reaper control than quarian control! Step away from that geth right now and we can utilize that code for ourselves. We can control the last of them instead, start all over again, as it once was."

"You are insane! Didn't you see the mistakes we made the last time? We have a chance to make things right, to bring everything back to the way it was!"

"You're out of your depth, Zorah! You're just like that imbecile Koris, always the apologist for what 'we did to the geth.' No longer! The Reaper is dead, the geth vulnerable, we are in the position that have hoped for centuries. We have Rannoch and the geth lose all."

"Xen, don't!" Shepard shouted. "It was always your people's fault in the first place. If you stop Legion from uploading, all the geth will die and you will not benefit in the slightest. Just put away the- arrrgghhh!"

Shepard yelled as Xen fired her arc pistol and his body now flared with white-hot energy. The bright bolts seeped into his skin, traveling across his heart and he felt his knees bend before his head hit the ground. The onrushing surface turned black just before he made contact with a groan.

"You bitch!" Tali screamed as she rushed Xen. The elder woman was completely unprepared for such a brazen charge and her air whooshed out of her as Tali tackled her towards the edge of the cliff. The two of them suddenly started tumbling down a hill all the way to the bottom, throwing out their limbs to gain purchase on something to no avail. They rolled for what seemed like minutes, kicking up dirt and dust as their trajectory and angle caused them to travel faster.

The two eventually arrived at the bottom of the slope, battered but relatively unhurt. The arc pistol clattered down after them to land only a few feet away. Tali sprang to her feet and brushed herself off, looking for any breaches in her suit before Xen rushed forward and threw a fist into the side of her helmet.

Tali cried out as she hit the ground, Xen towering over her as she prepared to lash out another blow. Tali, however, threw out her foot in a ferocious kick and it sank into Xen's stomach. She coughed as she now fell to the ground, rolling dangerously to the edge. Tali shook her head to clear it and stood up to watch Xen procure a knife from a sheath. There was no time to draw a firearm, she reached down and plucked her own blade from her boot, brandishing it in a backhand grip, ready for the next move.

"Is this what you really want, you foolish girl?" Xen shouted. "Choosing the geth over your own people?"

She doesn't know what she's talking about, she thought miserably.

Roaring, Xen took a quick step in and slashed with her knife. Tali dodged it but refused to strike while the admiral's flank was exposed. She instead backed away from the cliff, towards the safety of the rock wall. The wind tugged at her frame, the roar of the sea deafening.

Xen ducked and moved in for the kill. Tali took a swipe at her to deter the admiral from pressing the attack further. Xen instead sidestepped and threw her arm down, intending for the blade to bite across Tali's wrist. She pulled her hand back at the last second, Xen's blade slicing through air. Before Xen could pull her arm back, Tali threw her arm forward without thinking and her knife cut through enviro-suit and flesh like nothing was there.

Xen yanked her hand back and stared at the dripping cut on the back of her arm. Her eyes went wide as she realized the added danger this entailed and exploded with fury.

"Choosing a human for a mate...no better than a whore. Your father would have disowned you if he knew the truth."

Growling in a primal fashion, Xen lowered her stance as she approached Tali once more.

She's just trying to make me angry. Ancestors help me.

Shepard groaned as the static cleared from his field of vision. He sat up, rubbing the back of his neck, the little hairs standing on end. His skin felt like he had been briefly dipped in acid, everything seemed burned. He realized that it just must have been the after-effect from being shot with what amounted to a bolt of electricity. To his right he could hear the yells and grunts of two people clashed in combat, one of them sounding very familiar.

Tali. Oh, god. What happened?

The discomfort could be ignored, he determined. Shepard quickly got to his feet and looked behind him for Legion. He blinked as he realized that the geth was not there. Not just lying in a different spot as in it had disappeared from the area entirely. He turned in all directions, but gave up as he could not see anyone at all. He took a step towards the hill incline when his comm burst to life.

"All ships," came Admiral Gerrel's voice, "Be ready to fire on my mark."

Shit, Gerrel was still causing trouble for him. The man was about to make the biggest mistake of his life. His hand rose as he spoke quickly, "All ships, this is Commander Shepard. Do not fire on the geth fleet. The Reaper has been destroyed. Stand down."

"Ignore that order and wait for my signal!" Gerrel overrode.

"Han, wait," Raan interjected, "Listen to Shepard. Perhaps there is no need to-"

"No need? The geth fleet is dead in the water, has stopped firing, and you want me to let them stay there, untouched?"

"Gerrel, you idiot," Koris now joined the fray, "Listen to us. The geth only attacked because we provoked them. You fire at them and you'll doom us all."

"Just the sort of thing I'd expect to hear from a geth sympathizer. I need not remind you, Koris, that I command the main attack fleet. You have no authority over me, you'd have to put it to a vote and I haven't heard Zorah or Xen say their piece yet."

That was going to be a problem. Tali and Xen were busy fighting with one another from what he could determine and they could not be distracted, even for a moment. Shepard was breathing hard as he spoke, "Admirals, listen to me. The geth are about to return to their full strength. They will be as powerful as when the Reaper was controlling them. They do not want to fight you-"

"You have no authority here either, Shepard!" Gerrel shouted. "You may be able to kick me off of your ship but that does not mean that you can bully me into standing my own fleet down! Your assistance is only an insulting memory to a fight that has been ours from the beginning. We will win this thing without you and we will win it when we have destroyed the geth entirely!"

"Asshole!" Shepard snarled to himself. Raan and Koris continued to protest with Gerrel but the man remained silent, not answering his colleagues' hails. Shepard's mind was racing through possibility after possibility in trying to determine what to do. The admiral was not going to listen to reason from anyone. His mind was already made up.

Shepard looked all around to visually enhance his mind to find a solution. Just a shred of something to use would be welcome here. His eyes dropped to the ground for a brief moment and widened in realization. Shaking off his frozen stance and thanking his good fortune, he ran over and picked up Xen's laser from where he left it in the dirt.

His head shot up to the sky as his enhanced optics zoomed into the atmosphere. The lack of air and light pollution meant that he could see every single ship that was orbiting around the planet. It would be easy to spot the one he was looking for. Gerrel called the Neema his flagship and it would most certainly be the liveship at the head of the pack. Gerrel seemed like the kind of man who was not like to sit idly by on the sidelines. He would want a front row seat for the action. His loss.

Shepard hefted the laser as his cybernetic arms prevented any shaking from throwing his aim off. Peering through the viewfinder, he let the laser rest precisely on the middle of the large, spherical vessel. Diagnostics indicated that all ships in the fleet were still connected to the device. He had more than enough firepower for what he was about to do.

"Oh, Gerrel," he spoke fiercely into the comm, "I'd like for you to take a look outside the window, if you would be so kind…"

Tali ducked as the knife scraped the rock wall above her, sending out small sparks. She rose after Xen's arm arced away from the swing, cracking the grip of her knife over the admiral's head, still unwilling to do her grievous harm. Xen staggered backward before tripping over her feet. As she fell, her knife tumbled out of her grip, lying just out of arm's reach.

"Please, Xen," Tali begged. "I'm trying to help you understand. I don't want to fight you."

Xen snarled, "Nor do I. But apparently, Tali, you're too stupid to know when you're being deceived. The commander has tricked you that the geth can be completely trusted."

Tali stood over her, a look of disgust on her face, "That's where you're wrong. John would never trick me, not ever. Apparently you're too stupid to know that."

Xen sprung to her feet as she grabbed something from the ground and Tali suddenly found herself face to face with the arc pistol's muzzle, aimed inches away from her face. Xen smirked, "Not as stupid as you, you little sl-"

The woman soon shrieked as a red bolt passed within an inch of Tali's face adjacent to where she stood. Instinctively, she jerked back as Xen turned in surprise. Xen jolted as a thin shaft of plasma passed through Xen's left elbow, severing it, and sent the cauterized limb to the ground. Tali fell backward as she saw the fingers on the appendage twitch and curl, to her horror.

Xen, in shock, saw Legion running at her, an odd-shaped rifle in its hands. It leveled shot after shot at her, Xen's shields now protecting her for the brunt of the attacks. Grunting in pain, her remaining hand which held her pistol jumped upward and fired an energized dart of energy at Legion, and again, and again.

Legion stumbled and fell for good as current passed through the geth's systems, overloading them and causing vital components to short circuit. Xen gasped in pain, glancing at her now-missing arm when there was a scream. Tali lunged forward and her arm impacted the admiral's chest with a soft thunk.

Xen blinked and had only a short time to perceive the knife sticking out of her chest before a howling Tali grabbed her shoulders and threw her into the face of the rock wall. A jutting stone impacted directly with her helmet and it shattered, glass cutting Xen's face as she was knocked unconscious. Surrounded by smoky black glass, Xen crumpled on her back as Tali ran towards the felled geth.

"Legion!" she cried, "Legion!" She skidded to halt in front of it and gently placed its top portion over her lap. Scorch marks ran all along the unit's body like an angry spiderweb. Its optic kept trying to stay lit as the faltering processes desperately looked for alternate pathways. The geth's limbs twitched erratically, Legion was dying.

"Legion…" Tali whispered, "The upload...our people…"

"Upload…" Legion attempted, "Interrupted…unable to maintain...connection."

Tali moaned, cursing her luck, her life. She had been close, so close! She had almost had the chance to potentially save her people, and Legion's. Save them all from repeating the same mistakes over and over. Now her very chance lay broken in pieces before her eyes. Tears started to well as she spoke once more.

"But...why did you save me?"

The geth appeared confused by the question, "You...understand geth…more than any Creator...Tali. You…are our...Creator."

"You...you called me Tali," she murmured, stunned.

"The Reaper code has been...implemented in me," came the struggling reply. "I am Legion...I am...geth."

Tali's breath caught in her throat, "You have the complete Reaper code, Legion. You really are alive."

"We all...can be...alive. Take...it." With a warm orange glow, Legion's omni-tool ignited as well as Tali's. Her eyes widened when she saw that Legion was copying the entire code to her tool, ensuring that all of the information would not be lost, or put into the wrong hands. The future of the geth in the palm of her hand.

She stared at the influx of information in disbelief, "But, Legion...why give this to me?"

The geth's response was made matter-of-factly, "Because I know...that you will make...the right choice."

Tali's hand unconsciously rose to meet the geth's head, patting it in a brief caress as she sadly stared at it behind her mask, perhaps not for much longer after all. "I'm...I'm so sorry that I...I…"

"I understand...Tali. You don't have...to apologize."

She gave a small smile through the tears that were dripping down her face, "You remember the question that the geth asked?"

"'Does this unit have...a soul?'"

"The answer was...is...yes."

The blinking eye turned into a stagnant ray, although it slowly started to dim. Legion tilted its head as it processed this final bit of data, "Thank you...Tali. Keelah se'lai." And with a final stir, Legion went still, the light extinguished.

"No…" she moaned, "No…" She lowered her head on the synthetic's chest, as her quiet sobs racked her body. If only her father could see her now, mourning a geth, the very monsters that had driven them from their world. But this geth had saved her life instead of extinguishing it, Legion sacrificed itself for her. Were they really monsters if they were capable of such selfless acts like this?

There came a groan that pierced the raging of the waves. She looked up through her blurry eyes to see Xen stagger to her feet. Alarmed, Tali gently set the body of Legion down before rising to meet Xen, preparing for the admiral to launch another attack.

But Xen did not make a move for the pistol that lay on the ground, she merely gave a brief tug at the knife in her chest and it came out with a sucking noise that caused Tali to wince. Xen then let the knife fall to the ground as she limped toward the cliff edge. Tali retrieved her blade as she watched the other woman cautiously. She held the knife by her side as Xen slowly turned around, her feet approaching the apex of the ledge.

Past the broken glass, Tali could see blood frothing at the woman's lips, indicating a punctured lung. Several cuts on her face also wept fluid from the broken glass. Her pupils were dilated as the air hit them, or it was perhaps from her overtaxed immune system reacting to the foreign contaminants on Rannoch. Her eyes were bloodshot as her breath exited out of her body in a fast pace. Tali stopped a few meters away from Xen, gripping the knife tightly as hate coursed through her body.

Miraculously, a smile came to Xen's lips, although it was meant for a mocking tone. "You…" she gasped, "You have no idea...what you've done, girl. You've killed the quarian race."

Tali did not bother to correct her as she stood in a defiant stance, back straight, weapon at her side, eyes lowered. Xen did not know that the code had not been uploaded yet but she was not about to tell her that. Instead she remained mum and let the woman ramble some more.

"If I...could have guessed the one person...who would dishonor us all...I never would have thought that it would be you...you stupid, selfish girl."

"I'm not a girl," Tali said finally, voice raw, "I'm an admiral of the quarian fleet and you don't even know how close you came to dishonoring us all. I know what I did and I'm not sorry."

Xen gave a smirk, "Oh, Tali...just as stubborn as Rael." She coughed, blood flecking out from her mouth before she rasped, "The Ancestors curse you for all your days. May you and your human rot with the geth."

Closing her eyes, Xen spread her arms wide before Tali could even react. The admiral pushed off with the top of her feet and her perfectly straight body began to plunge over the cliff. She gave no more reactions as she accepted her fate, for everything was out of her hands now.

Tali dropped her knife in disbelief as she ran to the edge, throwing herself down to the ground and skidding across as she reached out with her hand. "Xen, no!" she cried but it was too late. Her fingers clutched at empty air as she hung over the edge. She did not dare look down.

Starting to tremble, she slowly scrambled backwards until all of her body was positioned was over solid ground again. She scurried backward until her back found a hard wall to lean on. She drew her knees to her chest and held them tightly until the shaking subsided.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Gerrel screamed.

"Admiral," Shepard sighed, "Right now I'm guessing that every gun in that fleet is currently pointed at your ship right about now. All I have to do is pull a trigger down here and up there my problem at the moment will be solved permanently. At least this way, you can't shoot at the geth anyway."

"Do you realize what you are doing? You are aiding and abetting the enemy of the quarian people. By rights, for threatening an admiral, I have the authority to shoot you on sight."

"Shepard," Koris intervened, "I do apologize for my colleague's outburst. If it would make a difference, I publicly wish to acknowledge my condemnation of his statements and offer my support to your cause."

"Why thank you, Admiral Koris."

"What?!" Gerrel sounded livid, "You halfwit, Koris! Shepard threatens me and you take his side? I will have you shot too!"

"Gerrel, stop this nonsense," Raan sighed. "Shepard has the right of it. Please trust him. Tell your fleet to stand down at once."

"No! All of you have lost your senses! I will not back down, do you hear me? Not ever!"

Shepard had heard enough of this man's posturing, "Admiral, I'm done talking with you. If you won't stand down then I will have no choice to open fire on the Neema."

"You're bluffing! You don't have the nerve!"

"I will do it on the count of ten. One...two…"

"I will not be pushed around by any freak of nature who happens to-"

"Nine...te-"

"Okay! Okay! All units hold fire, dammit! And damn you, Shepard!"

"Excellent," Koris breathed out in relief, "Neema military personnel, please restrain the admiral by order of Admirals Zaal'Koris and Shala'Raan, in absence of Tali'Zorah and Daro'Xen."

"What? No!" came a cry over the comm as sounds of a small scuffle accompanied his shocked voice, "You can't do this! I invoke my rights! I-"

"I do apologize again, commander," Koris sighed as Gerrel's signal cut out. "That man has always grated on my nerves."

"And I apologize for having to take such drastic action. He didn't really leave me a lot of choice."

"Understandable. I just hope everything turns out for the best."

"I hope so too, admiral," Shepard agreed as he spied Tali slowly trudging up the hill in a tired manner. "You'll have to excuse me right now, I have to go."

"Of course, commander," Koris granted. "Keelah se'lai."

Switching off his tool, Shepard ran over to Tali who gratefully hugged him, the both of them standing on top of the plateau as the setting sun cast its light over them. They parted briefly, holding each other in relief.

Shepard gently squeezed her upper arms, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Tali shook her head, "I'm...I'm fine, thanks. You?"

"A little stiff but I'll manage. What happened to Xen?"

Tali couldn't meet his gaze, "She's gone."

Shepard closed his eyes as he brought Tali closer to him. His poor, brave warrior. "And Legion?"

"Gone too." Her voice was a little edgy, as if she had recently been crying.

Shepard was silent for a minute as he quietly accepted the passing of the geth. It was odd, he had never reflected on the life of a geth before. But that changed with Legion, here was a synthetic that valued logic over blind emotion, they were not an unreasonable race, they were aware, they were alive, they were…

...Just like him, in a way.

"It...he...gave me the code." she whispered, holding up her omni-tool so that Shepard could see.

"The Reaper code?" Tali nodded in response. Shepard moved his hands so that they held hers, feeling the strong muscles in her fingers tense at his grip. "What are you going to do with it?"

"It's quite a dilemma...for someone like me, right?"

"I would imagine so."

Tali waved a hand briefly, "I mean, for you, the decision might come easily for you. It would probably take you all of five seconds for you to press a button and determine who would live and who could potentially die."

Shepard gave a solemn nod, "I admit that would be true. But you already made the decision once, right?"

Tali pondered for a moment, giving a surprised shrug, "I guess I did. Maybe that's why Legion thought I was the best person to upload the code."

"He wanted his people to live. Legion gave his life to save you knowing that you understood him more than any organic has. The question is now, what do you want for your people?"

"I want them to live too."

Shepard smiled, "And how will you ensure that?"

Tali's eyes slid upwards as her tone grew lighter, "I think...that I will open their eyes." With finality, her thumb depressed an icon on her omni-tool. The orange display flashed red for a quick second and a status bar quickly filled in seconds. The both of them glanced upward at the sky and watched the two fleets together. Within a few minutes, the geth fleet began dissipating, its attack formations unfurling. The various ships broke off and scattered across the planet, allowing the quarian fleet to pass by, unopposed.

Hand in hand, Shepard and Tali walked over to a large boulder situated at the end of the cliff and continued to stare at the sky for a little longer before looking out over the bay, watching the churning water break over the rocks down below as the sunlight reflected across it, temporarily blinding them.

Tali gave a soft sigh, "I think I'm going to enjoy living here."

"I suspect that the neighborhoods are going to rise up fast," Shepard guessed. "A healthy planet like this always attracts a slew of colonists."

"This time, the original inhabitants are returning."

"Plus a few helping hands."

She gave a small titter before dropping her gaze, thinking of what she was going to say before she opened her mouth. "John," she began quietly, "There is something that I want to ask you…"

He looked over at her, seriousness etched on his face, "What, Tali?"

"It's just…" she stumbled, "I mean...after this war is over...of course, you don't have to say yes...but I was wondering that…"

Shepard smiled, the silent action reassuring the flustered woman. Tali was so cute when she fumbled with her words. Taking a deep breath, she resumed in a more confident manner, "What I'm trying to say is that...when we're all finished...would you like to live with me on Rannoch?"

"With you? In your house and all that?"

"I...I didn't know how else to ask but, I know that you liked Earth...well, seeing that is your homeworld...but I just wanted to know...um, if you were open to the idea of living on another planet. With me, that is."

Shepard gave a playful nod, "I see. And how long did you plan on me staying with you?"

"Uh, for as long as you wanted."

His eyebrows wiggled mischievously, "And what if I wanted to stay there for the rest of my life?"

Tali's voice was deathly quiet as her euphoria was starting to take over, "I'd be very happy, John."

Shepard clasped her right hand in both of his, gently smoothing his palms as he dropped his lighthearted tone, "Tali, I'm not playing with you any more. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I will go wherever you go, whatever planet fate takes us. If you wanted me to live with you on Tuchanka of all places, I would do that. As it stands, I can think of no better retirement than living out the rest of my days with you in the house that we built together."

He was smiling broadly as his voice faltered, "I love you, Tali. Every bright point of my day involves me being in your presence. I love feeling your gentle touch on the back of my neck after a hard day. I love your shy glances when I catch you looking at me. I love how you have made me feel whole, complete again, how you have given me a reason to live. I would love to live with you on Rannoch, Tali. I would love to make you happy because there is no greater joy for me than that. You're all that I fight for. You, and no other."

Her fingers were quick to depress the catches on her visor, gently setting it aside. Shepard blinked as Tali closed her eyes as she breathed in the Rannoch air, inhaling the salty spray and the dried hint of dead vegetation. She opened them again as she squinted in the dying light of the sun to perceive the human across from her.

"This might actually be very dangerous for my health," she said before she grabbed Shepard's head, "But right now I don't give a damn." Not wasting another second, she furiously connected their lips together in a deep kiss, Shepard not resisting in the slightest within the grip of her hands.

The two of them continued to melt into each other until the light from the sun disappeared from behind the mountain range. The stars twinkled overhead, the faint cloud of the galaxy immediately visible from their vantage point. The chirps and croaks from the planet's fauna joined the waves in creating melodious music for them to listen to.

All was absorbed for the world was theirs and they did not intend to waste it.

A/N: This chapter was very, very tough to write. I'm rather anxious to see what you all make of it. Let me know if my approach is serving the story well.

(On another note, a 12,000 word chapter? Holy crap.)

Edit: Oh yeah, last chapter you guys also pushed this story above 10,000 views. So a big thank you to all who have stuck with me all this way. I would have never written as much as I have if it wasn't for your support. Thanks again and I hope to see you around in the near future.