"Commander. It is as we feared. Geth squadrons have begun massing to intercept our liveships." Admiral Raan said via the shuttle's comms.

"Understood, Admiral Raan." Kacey confirmed, "We're almost at the server. Keep us posted. Legion, what's our status?"

"We remain undetected on encrypted geth channels." Legion said as Admiral Raan hung up, "Resistance is likely only within the server."

"Within? Its that big?" Kacey asked.

"You misunderstand." Legion stated, "Direct visual interface is necessary to extract geth from the server. You must enter our consensus."

"Absolutely not." Kaidan spoke up, "You can't seriously be considering this, Shepard."

"And that is the fastest you've ever jumped into overprotective boyfriend mode, Kaidan." Garrus laughed.

"Hey, you remember what happened with Leviathan." Kaidan replied.

"He's got a point, Garrus." Kacey added before turning her attention back to Legion, "You want me to virtually interact with the geth?"

"Well, that's one way to get their attention." Liara said.

"If it doesn't kill you." Tali added.

"Legion, I'm not a machine." Kacey said, "How do I go into a virtual world?"

"Your species has experimented with virtual interfaces." Legion explained, "You saw this on Project Overlord."

"I saw how it almost unleashed a rouge AI-human hybrid on the galaxy."

"We have refined the interface they created and have equipment from Normandy to facilitate safe contact. We request your trust."

"Fine, but if you try to put something sharp in my eye, we're going to have a problem." Kacey said, "If it saves the liveships, so be it."

"Telemetry data predicts this operation has a high chance of success." Legion mused, "There is little time. We will bypass security while you secure a safe landing zone."

"Wait." Kacey said as the shuttle door opened, "You're not going to—"

Legion fell backwards out of the shuttle. Kaidan couldn't believe that Kacey was seriously going along with such a dangerous plan, and with a geth of all things.

"I guess it just did." Garrus snorted.

"Laugh it up, Garrus." Kacey said, lightly shoving Garrus.

…

"This is it?" Kacey asked.

"Yes." Legion confirmed, "Hostile geth fighter squadrons are networked to this server. Due to restricted resources, it's best if you connect alone."

"Let's do it." Kacey said.

"Initiated peer-network integration. Proceed to docking port."

Kacey took one last glance at the quartet behind her, mouthing to Kaidan 'I'll be fine.' Kaidan wasn't convinced; recent events had given him plenty of reason to worry.,

Kacey stepped inside the docking port as Legion typed away at the terminal, "Mapping to consensus. Remain still."

…

"How long is this going to take?"

"It's only been an hour, Kaidan."

"He's got a point, Liara. It shouldn't be taking this long."

"Do you always side with Kaidan, Garrus?"

"Not always." Garrus replied, playing around with the mods on his sniper rifle, "You should know that by now, Tali."

"I wasn't on Horizon Garrus, so I wouldn't know." Tali replied.

"Okay fair." Garrus replied.

"You do know that I'm sorry for what happened on Horizon." Kaidan said.

"Yes, and you are forgiven." Garrus replied, "Although as much as I agreed with you about Cerberus, I had to stay."

"Why's that?" Liara asked.

Garrus sighed, "I was rushed onto the Normandy after I was hit by the rocket. I could've left if I wanted to, but after what Kacey told me about being blackmailed…well, I couldn't just leave my best friend in that mess on her own. I had to have her back, just as she did for me."

"Was that the same for you, Tali?" Liara asked, curious.

"Yes, although I was a bit hesitant before Kacey told me what was going on." Tali explained, "I couldn't believe she was back, alive. I guess a part of me just wanted to make sure she stayed that way."

"I can relate. She certainly didn't make it easy though, did she?" Garrus mused.

Liara looked at Kaidan, "And you didn't go with them?"

"I never let her finish explaining, so to speak." Kaidan explained, "I cut her off, argued with her…I didn't want to believe it was her, and that she was working with Cerberus. I didn't want to sacrifice my principles for her. I couldn't."

"I get that." Tali replied, "But you were a bit harsh about it from what I heard."

"Yeah, I know. After hearing it back from Kacey, it was harsh." Kaidan replied.

"What about you, Liara?" Garrus asked, "You never came with us. Why is that?"

All eyes moved onto Liara as the asari sighed, "I just…didn't want to. I guess I was far too focused on looking through all of the Shadow Broker's data to consider the possibility."

"You sure that was the reason?"

"It was, Garrus."

"Just checking."

Kaidan tuned out of the conversation as Liara and Garrus jokingly bickered with one another. He gazed over towards the chamber where Kacey was still knocked out. She looked so peaceful; and a hell of a lot more relaxed than she had been this entire time aside from the brief time in the hot tub.

He wondered what was going on inside the geth consensus and how long this was going to take. He was starting to get concerned with how reckless Kacey was being. She was always reckless, but it was happening more often now than before. And her recklessness was becoming more dangerous and risky.

But she was always like this, right?

He wasn't buying her excuses. Something was painfully wrong, and she didn't want to talk about it.

He was snapped back into reality by a voice coming in through the comms, "Hello? Commander, are you there?"

"Technically." Kaidan replied, "What's your status, Admiral Raan?"

"Something's happening to the geth." Raan explained, "Their fighter squadrons have…stopped. We detect no more active programs inside their ships. Admiral Han'Gerrel's fleet is driving them back. The liveships are safe."

Kaidan nearly jumped as the docking port opened, with Kacey banging her head off the glass after jolting awake. She nearly tripped as she hopped out of the port, looking a bit pale and disorientated, but otherwise fine.

"Hi! Hello! Ow, ow." Kacey said as she hopped out of the docking port.

"Kacey, are you hurt?" Kaidan asked, "Hey, you look a bit pale."

"Yeah I'm okay. Head is a bit sore but I'm fine."

"Well, you did headbutt the glass." Garrus snickered.

"Did it work?" Kacey asked.

"Geth fighters have been disabled." EDI chimed in, "Any remaining squadrons attacking the liveships have withdrawn. The server is offline."

"Are you sure?" Kacey said as she raised her pistol.

Geth primes immediately left their docking ports shortly after Legion reactivated itself. Kaidan raised his own weapons alongside the rest of the squad.

"What's happening?" Kacey asked.

"We have transferred geth programs from the server into these platforms." Legion said.

"Why?"

"They wish to join us."

"That's convenient." Garrus mused as the squad lowered their weapons.

"While Shepard-Commander removed the Reaper infection, we judged we could persuade hostile geth programs to reunite with ours." Legion explained, "We were correct. These geth renounce the Old Machines and will oppose the Reapers. They are now us."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?" Kacey asked.

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

"I understand not wanting to leave anyone behind." Kacey mused; her expression grim.

"You accept our actions?"

"The liveships are safe and we have more geth on our side. We both did what we came here to do."

"We judged you would understand. Prime units will be available once the Reaper signal has been located and destroyed."

"Just remind me to warn Admiral Hackett he's got some primes coming." Kacey said.