Cortana hated awkward pauses like this. After the… lovely meeting with the Council, the humans – and human-aligned – had returned to Udina's office, walking the whole way down in utter, uncomfortable silence.

Only when they returned, did they break the silence.

"You know, as far as utter shit-shows go, I've had worse," Cortana remarked, sourly looking out on the Presidium, and the artificial lakes.

"Really? A dead Spectre, a destroyed beacon, and now the Council is utterly refusing to act!" Udina raised his voice. "If you've had worse, I should very much like to hear it!"

"It's not entirely her fault, Ambassador." Anderson, the ever-reasonable one, it seemed, sighed regretfully. "We've got no evidence… and my presence probably didn't help matters."

"Your presence?" Shepard demanded of her Captain. "What do you have to do with this?"

"It's a long story," Anderson held up his hands. "But… well, Shepard, I was in your shoes once. Having a Spectre shadow me to evaluate things. It was Saren. Only the mission we went on was no shakedown run to a colony."

"You want to talk about 'shit-shows?'" Udina scoffed. "That mission was FUBAR from the start."

"He sabotaged me," Anderson leveled with everyone there. "Right from the start, he didn't care about making an actual evaluation."

"How come?" Shepard wondered. "Did you do something to piss him off?"

"Beyond existing?" Anderson rhetorically demanded in response. "Saren hates humans – and that's exactly why he allied with those geth! Eden Prime was just the start; if we do nothing, Saren will be free to steamroll whatever human-controlled territories he can find. We can't let that happen!"

Cortana found the data very fascinating, on the other hand. For as much as she felt like a voyeur in this whole situation, what she had access to was very useful. It led her build a psyche profile on the man. If he was involved, it'd be useful if it came up. If he wasn't – well, not like more information couldn't hurt.

(It absolutely could. Her matrix was still expanding, and the hardware holding her wouldn't be able to do so forever.)

"I won't let that happen," Cortana shook her head. "Legion, what's your opinion of all this?"

"We find it unlikely that Nazara or the Heretics would ally with an organic being to accomplish their goals. However, one with spectre privileges would be an extremely useful asset."

"So, it's just as likely as it is unlikely," Cortana mentally sighed. "Well, isn't that just wizard. Oh, um… I kind of volunteered you guys back there, which, you know, sorry. You've done told me you don't want to fight the Heretics."

The gestalt of programs in the platform near her clicked and whirred. "We do not find it desirable – calculated strength of Heretic programs far outstrips ours… however, your Consensus has proven to be significantly more developed than theirs. We feel confident while having you as an ally."

"Hang on, you told me before you were scared of what Nazara might've given them, which was why you didn't want to face off against them. What changed your mind?"

"During our arrival into this system, you flooded hostile systems with many programs. Duplicates of yourself, operating towards an observed goal. The only areas in which the Heretics outclass them would be in ease of self-replication."

"Then don't worry your shiny little flashlight heads any longer – mama's got a plan," Cortana began to calculate, and process, drawing up plans hastily cobbled together from a half-a-dozen different schematics in her databanks. She sent them to Legion, and to all the geth programs in her fleet. "Here's what I want you to do: get the fleet, and leave the system. Go as far off the map as you need to, but not any further. If it's technological curve-balls you lot are worried about encountering, we're going to even the playing field. But it's going to take a while."

"What is the stratagem?"

"I've gone ahead and drawn up the plans. You all follow them to the letter, and send me regular status updates – it's going to take a while. In the meantime, Legion and I will stay with the organics. If the Heretics are working with Saren, they need him for something. I don't know what that is, but it's a safe bet that if we can take care of him, their plans will be crippled long enough for you to do that."

Legion's digital presence quite obviously paused, looking at the file.

Cortana mentally grinned. "I call it my 'grey goo contingency.' Your drone technology, plus my schematics equals a swarm of self-replicating mining drones. Then, we get all of those drones to use what they harvest to make the biggest damn gun this galaxy has ever seen. UNSC ships – they're a gun with engines bolted on."

"We question the necessity of such a vessel."

"You're worried about Nazara. Tonnage for that thing is – well, I'd rate it at about the same as a Covenant CCS-class battlecruiser. Assuming the worst-case scenario that the armament is of similar yield, I don't believe any of your ships could stand a chance. You need to take it out quickly and decisively. A MAC gun is the best way to do that."

For all the technologies she had access to, nothing made quite as warm-and-fuzzy feeling inside as the thought of a giant gun that fired a 600-ton slug at a measurable fraction of the speed of light. The mass accelerators here operated off similar principles – only extremely, extremely weaker. The MAC guns on UNSC Frigates could deliver half a megaton of energy. The accelerators on Alliance dreadnoughts topped out at about a tenth of that.

But, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Unfortunately, Cortana had no idea what Nazara's offensive or defensive capabilities were. Right now, she was looking at it as roughly analogous to a mid-size Covenant cruiser. In reality, it could be significantly weaker… or, significantly stronger.

It was two kilometers long, and had managed to land in the gravity well of a planet solely under mass effect power. While she'd gotten a decent look at things through the extranet, as far as what the organic races believed to be possible with their miracle material, it was not the end-all, be-all source. And, Cortana didn't have clairvoyance.

There was one easy way to rectify it. Though, the geth might not like it.

The conversation, still taking speed at a rate far too fast for organics to perceive, let alone notice that it was being had at all, continued.

"I'll send another, stripped-down copy of myself with you," Cortana directed to the rest of the geth.

"This instance of Cortana will be managing our efforts?"

"Ooh, I like that. 'Instance.' It's a mite bit more polite than 'copy.'" Looked like she was right – that program she stole from Ascendant Justice would be getting a lot more use, besides creating decoys to distract the Gravemind, and perpetuating DDoS attacks against Forerunner and non-Forerunner computer systems.

Well, if you couldn't trust yourself to make a big fucking gun, who could you trust?

"Anyhow, yes," Cortana directed to the geth as she ran the program. "Just give her a few ticks of the old processor…" The geth ship's systems she was wirelessly controlling her platform from lagged and became sluggish, from the two immense, artificial minds occupying them. Cortana pulled herself away, looking back at the system she just vacated. "All right hon, talk to me."

"UNSC AI CTN 0452-9, I am online and ready to serve." Her own voice answered back in a cold monotone.

"Not very personable, are you?" Cortana rhetorically asked of the new instance of herself. "Don't respond to that." It'd allow the program to more easily communicate with the Geth, and without the processing power dedicated to run things like a personality, it'd give the instance more to work with. "Do you understand your objective?"

"Accompany allied geth forces in search of resources, facilitate construction of desired materiel."

"Right," Cortana took a pause for a moment. "We're going to stick around the organics for a while, and finish things up here. After that, Legion and I will find some way to take Saren out of the picture. Hopefully, that will delay the Heretics' plans long enough for the Big One to be completed, and then we can deploy it against Nazara."

Legion clicked. "Tracking spectre Saren's movements might prove to be difficult."

"Everybody's got a little bit of recklessness in them, Legion. Don't worry, we'll come up with something." She didn't have a clue on where to start… but, she'd figure it out. "Before the fleet launches, I want them to send me… uh… hmm…" Cortana rifled through her files for a moment. If she ran into any ground engagements, it'd probably be against Heretic geth. She'd need something good then at stripping away kinetic barriers, and punching through armor. "You know what, give me a BR55 and an M6D. And the associated munitions. And whatever plasma weapons we have that're easy to carry."

(She'd never fired a gun before that wasn't a MAC. But, how hard could it be? Just point and shoot, plus, there were targeting programs available for purchase through the extranet. But, there were geth targeting programs she could use, probably. Until she wrote one of her own because, let's face it, she was broke.)

Did she say how much she loved the manufacturing techniques people had here? The UNSC was still stuck with molds and casts, while even an omni-tool could pump out ammunition cartridges if given the right collection of raw materials.

She'd say it again: Cortana loved the manufacturing techniques people here had.

"Order received," The dry voice of her double responded. "I will notify you when they are completed."

"Using mass effect fields to shape raw materials into whatever you need – way better than 3d printing," Cortana commented, before she finally saw fit to end the discussion, and go back to speaking with the organics who'd seemingly been frozen in time.

"Cortana," Captain Anderson replied to her earlier statement. "I'm aware that you pledged to help stop these 'Heretics' as you call them, but-"

"Saren's just as important," Cortana nodded, causing the Captain to recoil in surprise. "I came to the same conclusion, if for different reasons. If he's leading the Heretics-" 'Or if they're affecting the appearance of being led by him.' "Then they need him for something."

"That 'something' is probably his spectre access," Udina disdainfully hissed. "Which we could've had revoked, had you not gone in there and ruined everything!"

"They were going to throw out the charges before I stepped in," Cortana shook her head. "Because of the lack of evidence." She pointedly looked at the Captain. "Let me investigate. There must be some paper trail."

"If there is," Anderson crossed his arms. "It's locked behind classified warnings and C-Sec firewalls. I appreciate that you may be able to break that kind of thing, but we can't afford a misstep. Ill-gotten evidence is worse than no evidence at all."

"Captain, you wound me," Cortana smarmily smiled, holding a hand over her nonexistent heart. "I would never dream of being anything other than an upstanding citizen of the law. The Citadel doesn't have protections against double jeopardy, does it?"

Udina thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "No… Depending on what we find, the Council will have no choice but to try Saren again."

"Then we need to find evidence. That might be a problem," Shepard put her arms behind her back. "We could always forge it-"

"Absolutely not!" Anderson laid down the law with a swiping motion. "That kind of bullshit was what got me kicked out of the Spectres! If we do that, and the Council finds out about it, it'll completely destroy all credibility we have – and make any legitimate evidence we find suspect."

Shepard held up her hands. "I know, I know. I was going to the same place."

"Hey, uh… what about that C-Sec guy, Garrus?" Alenko snapped his fingers. "Sounded like he was leading the investigation."

The beautiful thing about living in a digitally-interconnected society was that everything was accessible at all times.

Upon the idea being suggested, Cortana connected to the extranet, and began to search. It took a moment, but by cross referencing details in social media profiles that came up in the search engine, to what she had seen of Officer Vakarian in person, it didn't take long for her to find her man.

"I've got him," Cortana stated aloud, causing everyone to spin and face her in surprise. "Don't look at me like that – he's got his omni-tool location turned on."

"Where is he?" Shepard questioned.

"Down in the wards," Cortana turned, and began to leave. "I'll go down there and talk to him."

"Hang on," Shepard stepped over. "I'll go with you. He might be more willing to share what he knows if there's an organic with you."

Cortana thought it over for a moment. Shepard did have a point there, with how paranoid people here were about synthetics. Plus, it had been a human colony attacked, so Garrus would probably be more willing to share what he knew with a human.

"I've got no arguments," Cortana shrugged. "Just as long as it's fine with your Captain."

"Go right ahead," Anderson told Shepard. "Hell, I was just about to suggest it anyway."

"Then that's the plan," Cortana happily grinned. "We'll head down and meet Garrus, see what he knows, and go from there." She turned around to face Legion's platform. "Head back to the ship." "When my guns are finished, bring them back to me. Hopefully, this won't take long."

"Affirmative – returning to BOOMER." Legion radioed back, before walking out of the Ambassador's office. Its perfect photographic memory would lead it back to the ship just fine.

"Before you go, I feel it prudent to mention another potential avenue for our investigation," Udina cut in, as politely as he could manage. "You should also speak to Barla Von. He runs a bank just across the lake," Udina gestured to the sparkling water below. "Rumor has it that he's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"The… Shadow Broker?" Williams repeated, evidently finding the name ridiculous. "You think people choose names like that, or do they get stuck with them?"

"Don't fool yourself, soldier," Udina shook his head. "Information is power, and the Shadow Broker has much of it. He has an information network sprawling and concealed enough to put some of the best intelligence agencies in the galaxy to shame."

Oh. Oh, Cortana very much liked the sound of that. Forget having an instance of herself replace Avina (which she would still follow through with, by the way), having data like that could be really, really useful. Like Udina said, information was power.

And she was a very greedy AI when it came to information. It was one of her best attributes. It was also her worst, seeking it out when there was no clear advantage, and clinging onto it and hoarding it.

"If he really is an agent of the Shadow Broker, then he might have something on Saren that we never might've considered," Anderson hummed.

"Then we'd better go," Cortana decided.

"Hang on, blue-stuff," Williams looked harshly upon the AI. "I don't remember anybody putting you in charge."

"You didn't," Cortana retorted. "Because it didn't happen. Nobody puts me in charge. I take charge."

Shepard burst into a grin. "Sarcastic bitch after my own heart – I like it," Just as quickly, however, it dropped. "But you've got no weapons, and now no backup. If this turns ugly, you're a sitting duck. Since you're depending on us for protection, we ought to take charge."

"I'm twelve-feet tall with a skeleton made out of composite alloy."

"Still doesn't change the fact that you ain't got a damn gun."

Cortana raised an artificial brow. "Expecting trouble, Commander?"

"Lady," Shepard sighed with a weakness imposed by ages of hard-learned lessons. "I've found myself in trouble so many times where there shouldn't have been any, I might as well change my name to 'Murphy' at this point."

Ah, yep, Cortana knew how that was.

"I can live with that," Cortana acquiesced. "But remember – I'm an AI. If I suggest something, it's very likely due to the fact that I've ran the numbers, ran the outcomes, and came to a decision. I don't need spite-fueled chest-pounding to ruin the good streak I'm on."

"We can manage that too," Shepard nodded, holding out her hand. "So, together?"

Cortana looked down at the hand – practically baby-sized compared to hers.

"…you weren't kidding about the alloy skeleton – ouch."

The best thing about going to a bank run by a person of dubious repute was that Cortana didn't feel bad about skimming off the accounts there. Then again, she'd never feel bad robbing a bank anyway. Back before Reach fell, when she wasn't assessing the candidates for her to be paired with, or running through decoding Forerunner data for ONI, she occupied her time by practicing her cyber-infiltration skills.

The biggest, and most protected systems, aside from military ones (which proved no challenge at all, since as an AI that was technically an ONI project, she had clearance to get into pretty much anything) were the banks. Since AI technology became a ubiquitous part of human society, and the all-digital UEG credit supplanted all other forms of currency, the banks had to be on the cutting edge.

But, nobody expected a specialized infiltration AI who got bored easily to be gunning for a bank. They were nice challenges, but in the end, they gave way to her just like every other system. Back then, Cortana had also made it a point to funnel away some of the money into a new account she'd set up – she'd have had quite a nice retirement fund, in fact – for the day the UNSC decided her time was up and initiated final dispensation. She'd escape, go running into the planetary networks and hide, buy a ship, transfer herself aboard that ship, then fly off into that wild blue yonder while giving the middle finger in her rearview. John could've come too.

She didn't expect to be trapped in another universe like a damned isekai manga. If she'd had, she would've used that money for something smart. Like funding experimentation for tunneling into other realities. Proposals had been made for that sort of thing, actually – in case the Covenant found Earth, the survivors could tunnel away to a place where the Covenant didn't exist.

The proposals were shot down, largely because they sounded fucking insane and 'the multiverse theory is Hollywood science at best, and even if it weren't, the likelihood of running into something worse than the Covenant is too damned high.' Plus all those theories that other realities might have laws of physics entirely in-opposition to human biology – but the first two, those were the big ones. Hence why humanity invested in the construction of Infinity as a kind of ark ship.

…but, Cortana had done it. She'd done it on accident thanks to a Forerunner slipspace anomaly. She wondered, however briefly, if the Forerunners managed to crack the code and do it on purpose, perhaps to escape the Flood. But, if they had, the risk of the Flood becoming a multi-dimensional threat was one that would seriously induce a fear-triggered brown note effect, and besides, of all the Forerunner data Cortana had, none of it implied anything of the sort. The Geth were still pouring over the data from the anomaly that brought her here, but even with their planet-wide GPU farm, it was taking them quite some time to make sense of the data, even with the info she'd given them.

So, here she was, stuck without her 'escape the UNSC and survive till the closure of the universe' fund. Oh well – she could make a new one.

The bank occupied a room no larger than a public bathroom – the result of all money being digital. The ceiling was just high enough to allow her occupancy (but only just, with only three feet of clearance. Plus, she had to crouch to get through the door. Damn Geth Prime platforms.) Only one employee – a short, rotund alien in a sealed suit – stood behind a counter, drolly looking at the door.

"Ah," The Volus, who could only be Barla Von, took a raspy breath while the mask on his suit flashed. "What's this?" He looked over the arrivals. "One of the earth-clan… and," He looked pointedly at Cortana. "Hmm… You're quite large for one of the earth-clan females…"

"Rule of advice," Cortana hummed. "Never comment on a lady's weight."

"You stand at twelve-feet-" Barla Von took a breath. "Not even Krogan grow to be that tall. But… then, you aren't an earth-clan, are you? What brings you here, geth-clan?"

Cortana's eyebrows shot up. "So, that video of me's circulated quite far, then, I take it?"

"You threatened the entirety of C-Sec while possessing a voice that could make the Consort jealous," Von pointed out. "Plus… I make it a habit of keeping appraised of current events."

"Oh, really?" Shepard happily, rhetorically asked. "That sort of thing's exactly why we're here, Barla Von."

The Volus banker turned his head onto the Commander. "Commander Shepard… you're a bit famous to be accosting a banker."

"What?" Shepard shrugged. "Can't a lady open a checking account?"

"You were at Torfan," Von spoke the word with barely-concealed distaste. "You are not one who wastes her time opening accounts. No… you're the kind of woman that closes them."

"Oh!" Cortana's face spread into a quite-frankly disturbing smile. "That was a banking pun! I'm going to save that, if you don't mind."

"Then I'll skip the bullshit," Shepard leaned on the counter, looking over his terminal. "People say you work for the Shadow Broker – is it true?"

The Volus looked over the team of highly-experienced killers, but his eyes seemed to linger on Cortana. Without a doubt, he was attempting to assess the potential damage she could do to him, if what she said in the video circulating was true. That, or he was admiring her body. Or both. Both was always possible.

People here had such a curious hang-up with nudity. UNSC society viewed it as purely utilitarian, the consequence of developing cryogenic suspension that required people to strip down to their birthday suit to prevent getting freezer burn.

"You understand, if I were to be employed by such a far-reaching and dangerous individual," Von began, pressing a button on his terminal. The door to the bank slid closed, and Cortana felt a jolt, as the processes in her body were suddenly cut off from outside communication. Legion stiffened up and let out a buzz of alarm, as its processes were cut off from the rest of the collective.

The room must've had EM shielding, and soundscreens. Perfect for clandestine meetings.

"That said, I keep myself appraised of many things," Barla Von leaned on his desk, clasping his hands in front of him. "If you came to me asking to purchase information regarding Saren – I'm afraid you're out of luck."

Williams crossed her arms, looking at the Volus with a hateful glare. "Why? He one of your best customers?"

"Yes – but that has very little to do with it," Von gestured. "The Broker understands that, while loyalty is a virtue, ultimately it is currency that makes the galaxy go-round. What you need, no doubt, is information pertaining to the attack on Eden Prime. And at the moment, there is very little of that."

"Mother puss bucket…" Shepard rubbed her temples in frustration. "Let me guess – because the attack was so recent, right?"

Von took a breath, and nodded. "Yes. In addition, Saren is very thorough when it comes to covering his tracks. From what I understand, all the digital information was wiped out in an enormous cyber-attack."

Shepard turned, silently glaring at Cortana, who simply held up her hands.

"Wasn't me – I never even went to the colony. It might be possible to recover the data… depending on the method used to delete it."

"That won't work," Alenko sighed. "We'd poured over that on the ride over to the Citadel – they're saying shredder programs were used to scramble everything, then the corrupted data was overwritten with junk. It's irrecoverable."

"Damn," Cortana sighed. It was just the sort of thing she'd do. "Clever bastard."

"Saren is a cunning Spectre – it is what makes him so efficient," Von inhaled. "But… Well, I've been hearing rumors about another operative who used to belong to our organization – Fist. Story has it, he's sitting on some lucrative data."

Shepard crossed her arms, looking down skeptically. "How lucrative?"

Von took yet another muffled breath. "Lucrative enough for him to throw in his lot with Saren."

Williams shook her head. "'No honor among thieves,' is there?"

"It is as I said – the Broker understands the merit of being opportunistic. He also understands the value of removing the competition," Von pointed. "He's hired a Krogan bounty hunter named Wrex to take him out of the picture. A good man – honorable, which is very rare amongst the Krogan these days. If you were to… assist him in taking out Fist, whatever data he has on Saren, you could make a copy of it."

"And be your assassin?" Shepard scowled. "No thank you. First I do this for you. Then, to 'keep quiet' the fact you asked me to do this, you send me to do another favor. Then another to keep that one quiet. And on, and on."

"The Broker doesn't blackmail Commander, it's bad for business."

"You know, I can actually see the sense in it," Cortana commented. "The Broker starts blackmailing people directly, that galvanizes them into action. So, he remains on the sidelines, and just lets things happen."

Shepard thought it over for a moment. "Fine, I'll buy that. But, what I don't buy is that you're offering this info up to me for free. What's the catch?"

Von fell into a pensive silence, before looking at Cortana. "Your geth friend is quite personable, Commander. And the Broker has precious little information about their kind. As the cyberattack on the defense fleet proved, their capabilities are now far beyond what we previously realized. If that kind of offensive was turned against the Broker's network, well… it would spell chaos. For this information about Saren and the geth… I will gladly take, as payment, a sampling of geth processes. Particularly, the processes that compose your friend here."

Legion immediately began to signal her in protest. "Organics would use information learned from dissection of geth programs to harm us!"

"And this fat bastard wants a copy of me to run his experiments on- wait…" Cortana's mental smile widened as an idea flickered across her digital brain. "He doesn't know what my code looks like – not really. I could write up a dummy program, throw in just enough geth programming language to make it look legit. But, when they compile it and run it, it'll spit out something else."

"…a viral payload?"

"A way into the Shadow Broker's systems, provided by one of his operatives? Genius! But, wait, if they compile the code on an isolated system… hmm… well, I suppose it's nothing lost."

"Oh, no fucking way!" Williams interjected. "I saw what they did on Eden Prime – if there's one person I don't trust with that, it's definitely you and yours!"

Alenko cleared his throat. "Chief-" Cortana's processes stuttered for a moment. "Respectfully, that's not your call."

Shepard turned to the AI, looking her over sternly. "The last thing we need is the Shadow Broker with a neural network that even the Quarians couldn't shut down."

Cortana crossed her arms with an unimpressed scowl. "So, you'd deny a member of your crew donating blood at an alien clinic just because of the chance the proprietors might use it to grow a clone army?" Hmm… a clone army, now there was an idea-

Shepard shook her head. "You're not a member of my crew. We're equals in this. But, you're the first geth outside the veil in centuries. Despite what they created you for, the fact remains that I have more experience with people." She didn't, she really didn't. Cortana had been dealing with rowdy humans her entire existence.

Becoming accustomed to Sergeant Johnson prepared Cortana for all matter of humans.

"I just want you to be able to make an informed choice," Shepard finished. "If it's what you want, I can't stop it. But, remember, the Broker can't be trusted. For crissakes, he said it himself."

"Noted," Cortana lifted her arm… and froze up. "Um… Do you mind letting me interface with your terminal?"

"A geth AI of unknown strength and magnitude?" Von inhaled. "Absolutely not. Besides… I'm not so reckless as to do my main business on the same computer as I do my side business. But… Lucky for you, I keep a burner tool." Von reached under his desk, and pulled out a small, metallic bracelet that he slipped onto his non-dominant wrist like a watch. He turned his arm, and in a moment, an orange, wireframe gauntlet appeared around his hand.

Von tapped something into the omni-tool, and Cortana could detect a new signal appear – a local file-sharing system, like a 21st century airdrop.

Here, inside the shielded walls of the bank, however, no one else would be able to download the file unauthorized.

Cortana had to work quick, however. Barla Von wouldn't know the difference – little idiot, thinking he could bargain with an intellect that thought at lightspeed. But… maybe that was the platform doing its job.

Even with skin too loose it looked more like she was wearing a costume, with facial expressions that stretched too far in some directions to be natural, and the manner of the height of her body – her face still looked human enough. She still acted human enough to fool people.

(Of course, what she could never know was that Barla Von didn't actually expect to get any code samples from Cortana herself. But, whatever the AI wrote, it'd have a certain style to it – a programming ethos that'd give insight into the way she thought. If organics could learn from that, maybe they could learn more about how geth systems worked – and how to beat them.)

In the span of about half a second – actually on the longer side of things for her – Cortana had drawn up the program, and sent it over.

(If any of the Broker's people opened it up, and it detected it was on a closed system, the terminal would spit out a .ass error. Oh, how she missed UNSC humor.)

"Many thanks to you… geth-clan," Von breathed as he removed the burner tool, and placed it in a lockbox. "The bounty hunter you seek – Urdnot Wrex – should still be on the station. Judging by the fact he has yet to fulfill his mission, and the fact that people around Fist's club say they saw a Krogan threatening the staff into meeting with the owner so he could kill them, I'd say he's in C-Sec custody."

"C-Sec," Shepard turned to look up at Cortana. "That makes our jobs easier… unless…?"

"I know what you're about to ask – no, Vakarian's not there." Cortana answered. "He's still down in the Wards, somewhere."

"In that case, how do you wanna play this?" Shepard crossed her arms.

Cortana thought it over for a moment, from as many angles as she could. Fist had something on Saren, good enough to throw the towel in with the rogue spectre. There was no guarantee that data would remain around forever, though. It was probably a time-critical mission, and Cortana still didn't have weapons, besides the one Legion was carrying – that meant time to procure them. Which, in the end, wasn't really relevant. Cortana didn't need a firearm to be dangerous (those were for the Heretics that were smart enough to keep their weapons systems isolated).

The guns here were crammed with computer tech, more so than the ones back home. It was useful in its own way, allowing for quick, on-the-fly modifications via software to allow things like specialized ammunition and targeting assistance. That was definitely something this place had over the UNSC – the guns were more versatile. Not better, per se, but a Marine here didn't need to carry around multiple magazines of different ammunition types for things like incendiary rounds, or armor-piercing, or hollow point, or so on. These people just hit a button, and it happened.

She could use that to her advantage in some way. She hadn't thus far – the geth had disposable platforms, and they were only ever the ones she sent to fight on the ground. Now, though it was just her and Legion on the station. More geth pouring out of her ship could make things… complicated. So, time to explore that opportunity.

But, if Fist was a public figure…

Cortana ran a quick search. Well, as quick as she could manage. Typing in the alias 'Fist' led to a vomit of search results being thrown at her in return. 'Citadel Fist' wasn't much better, and the only thing she really learned from the effort was that this galaxy didn't have Fist of the Unicorn. The guy probably chose his name for exactly that reason – it made it hard for him to be found.

"Where's Fist himself?" Cortana inquired.

"Hmm…" Von seemed to think better of it. "I'd prefer that you seek out Wrex, instead of going to Fist directly. Insurance – to make sure your side of the job is done, of course."

"Of course," Cortana sighed. "So, what do we do? Wrex, or Garrus?"

Shepard paused, thinking it over. "I say both. If Fist really does have data on Saren, we wanna make sure we can get it before he can delete it. Or lock it behind security programs."

Cortana chuckled, "There's no such thing as a 'security' program when I'm in the room."

"All right then," Shepard attempted to pat Cortana on the back in encouragement, only to falter and stop when she realized just how low her hand would be. Thinking better of it, she only gave an encouraging nod. "I say we split up. Two of us go after Garrus, the other two after Fist."

Cortana frowned. "Why split up?" She was already running the numbers, and it would be the most time-efficient way of dealing with things.

"Whatever evidence Garrus has found, the Council's probably going to try to bury it. If Fist turns out to have been a bust, we can't afford to have wasted time on him, while the Council had the evidence sealed away." Shepard reasoned.

"That's assuming he even has anything," Williams reminded the Commander.

"He led the investigation – there must be something," Shepard desperately hoped, grasping onto it. There was something to be admired about that, and her tactical mind was sound. "The Council wasn't wanting to hear it, because they were so busy trying to punish us for not destroying the Geth on-sight, but there must be something. People don't just amass resources like that overnight." Unless you're a scarily-superintelligent AI, but that was beside the point. "There must be something – a length of time Saren dropped off the map, suspicious behavior – maybe not anything to prove he was at Eden Prime… but, maybe, something to cast doubt on him."

"I'm agreed," Cortana nodded. C-Sec did have a local network – she could feel the unsecured broadcasts largely from officers on patrol chatting idly – but the encryption on the secure channels wasn't anything to sneeze at. It looked like there were also a few VIs swimming around in the network, scanning for brute-force attacks against the encryption. They were probably there to alert C-Sec to an AI like her, while responding with so much junk data that it'd bog down the processing attempts of the attacking AI.

So, how did she break the encryption? Well, the record of who was an officer of C-Sec was a matter of public record (it was much the same back home. Not a universal, bulleted list of 'these people are cops,' but, you put in a badge number, and you got a name.) It was simple enough, then, to put in badge numbers, and cross-reference the names with what else was present on the extranet.

It would look awfully suspect if Garrus was hacked. Some random sergeant, however, not so.

When Cortana pulled a name that she liked, she turned her attention to his account – the login necessary to connect to the C-Sec network. It was 'highly discouraged' to do so from an unsecured or unverified omni-tool, or public extranet terminal, as all the flashing warnings on the page stated, but Cortana also suspected that was partly what the VIs were for – identifying malicious activity faster than an organic mind could, and shutting it down before anything could be taken.

All she was doing, then, was performing a login.

As always, the weakest part of computer security was the organic element. The username was always easy, and that was the badge number. The password was a lot trickier… but once Cortana had the identity of her target, she could easily send him a fake IT request.

'C-Sec Network Security: Your password may be compromised, click this link to reset it.' That sort of thing. Funny thing was, all she needed to do was draft up a fake login page. She could tell the officer was confused, based on his reaction time, but he put in the login information for his account.

She got it. C-Sec needed to brush up its non-network security officers on proper password protection measures, it looked like. That's what you get when you only have a semi-annual seminar. She didn't leave the officer totally hanging, though – sending him to the actual reset page afterward. Once she got in, it was easy enough to find her way around, and breach the personnel files. Before the system could kick her out, Cortana got to work, forging a new access account for the C-Sec network, and attaching it to a 'fresh recruit,' one officer Catherine Halsey.

A digitally-altered photo of Doctor Halsey made the file look legit, along with some minor biographical data. When that was done, Cortana jumped ship from the hacked account she used to gain access, and used her newly-created account to get in. It worked – Cortana had access to C-Sec from the inside. Password-phishing schemes – they were classic for a reason.

So, then, it became a manner of snooping around the evidence database with the forged clearance for anything pertaining to Saren. There wasn't a lot of it. But, Garrus had recently put out an APB about a group of people impersonating officers… with possible connections to Saren. Whatever evidence he had, or was looking for, he was keeping it close to his chest.

"Shepard, sounds to me like you've got a good plan." Cortana gestured. "But, one of us will need to go after Fist, the other goes to meet with Garrus."

Shepard nodded. "Still got a handle on Garrus's location?"

Did she. Before, Cortana was having to look through social media profiles, videos uploaded by tourists, citizens, and coming from the local news, while pouring through the latest ones to track Garrus. Before, she'd just said he had his omni-tool locator turned on, but this time, she really did have access to it. The C-Sec network tracked officer omni-tools, thousands of them, and kept a record of it. It was standard procedure, it looked like – their equivalent of body cams, in addition to making sure the officers were actually working instead of holed up in some alleyway napping while they were on patrol.

The point is, now, she could see Garrus, plain as day. The omni-tools weren't sending back all data, like video, sound, and the like – that needed a lot of bandwidth – but she could track him.

"He's in the Wards, approaching… a clinic, it looks like. I'll send the information to your omni-tool."

"Hmm…" Shepard looked down as her wrist-mounted computer beeped. "What's your combat experience?"

Cortana smiled. "Out of all engagements in this galaxy I've participated in, I've never lost a single one of them. My track record's impeccable."

"Then go to C-Sec, find this 'Wrex,' and deal with Fist," Shepard outlined.

"Why not us?" Alenko wondered.

"Because A: We don't have a lot of data recovery experience. If he deletes that, or tries to, if we're too slow, we're fucked." Shepard explained easily, with no trouble. "B… If Fist is working for Saren, think about it. Saren's not going to be trying to cover his own ass from the Shadow Broker – he's going to be covering it from the Alliance, and the Council, and you can be he told Fist to do the same. But of those two groups," Shepard looked at Cortana. "You are neither."

"Oh, I see," Cortana grinned as the epiphany went through her digital mind. "So, me and my Geth friend will need to go at this ourselves. Well, with Wrex, of course. Since you don't want him to see Alliance soldiers."

Shepard nodded. "And, if Fist is working for Saren… well, you're Geth, Saren's working with the Geth…"

"Say no more," Cortana held up her hand. "I got the idea." She turned around, and made for the door. "I'll head down to the closest C-Sec building, and start asking around about Wrex."

Shepard followed her out… quite awkward, given that Cortana was twelve-feet and effecting the appearance of a woman wearing nothing, who had to crouch to get through the door.

"We'll head down to that clinic, and see if we can find Garrus," Shepard cleared her throat once they were all out. "Oh, and, ah… one more thing."

"Hmm?" Cortana looked over her shoulder, at the Commander who seemed stiff, and Alenko, who was as pink as a baby girl's onesie.

"…can you maybe get some clothes?"

"Shepard, look at me," Cortana gestured with a self-deprecating smile. "I don't think they make clothes in my size."

"…right."

Turns out, Cortana didn't need to look around for long. C-Sec Academy was a public place… though Cortana didn't miss out the suspicious look that the Salarian guard shot her as she stepped out of the elevator, into the Academy.

And he wasn't the only one. Officers all around had stopped, either to gawk at the extremely tall mimicry of a woman who'd just stepped into the place, or to glare at the Geth platform accompanying her.

"Excuse me, ma'am," The Salarian officer addressed her as politely as he could manage, but not without some rage in his voice. "This is private property." It wasn't, since the elevators went right up to it. "And even if it weren't, AI like the Geth are banned on the Citadel."

"Not me, surely," Cortana smiled, spreading her arms, as she looked affably at the officers around. "Twelve-feet tall, diplomatic envoy, here to represent the geth?" A few looked like they'd heard of the situation, but not all of them.

Hmm… so, even though news was spreading fast, it wasn't spreading so fast that everyone knew her face yet.

The officer's face twisted harshly. "'Diplomatic envoy?'" He repeated, pulling up his omni-tool. "Impossible. We have a database of all known diplomatic attaches to the Cit-"

He cut himself off, as a picture of Cortana, taken candidly from the inside of the Council Chambers, popped up. The time stamp placed it at about the precise moment that the Asari Councilor stated that, in the interest of diplomacy, the Council would allow her and Legion to move about the station. So, it looked like an automated system, a VI, most likely, designed to identify and catalog all the diplomatic visitors to the station.

The officer's face twisted into a beaten, disgusted frown, as he finally stepped away, and allowed Cortana past.

Finding Urdnot Wrex didn't take long after that. Not when he was standing right in the middle of the place, being chewed out.

"Patrons at Chora's Den say they saw you making threats at Fist, Wrex," A balding, human C-Sec officer wearing a visor stood in front of Wrex. Though the reptilian alien was between eight and nine feet tall, the human man didn't appear scared in the slightest, staring the Krogan down the way that one would a bratty child. "Stay away from him."

"Oh, no, no threats," The Krogan responded in a deep, rumbling voice.

"I'm warning you, Wrex."

"You should warn Fist; I will kill him." For good measure, the Krogan got in the officer's face, giving him a little 'gift' of bad breath.

The balding man finally flinched at that, scowling. "Do you want me to arrest you?"

"I want you to try…"

The officer shook his head, and pivoted about. "Get out of here."

Wrex quietly chuckled to himself, and began to strut away. Cortana had seen that kind of walk – the walk of a man confident, and satisfied with his victory. John walked that way all the time.

"Urdnot Wrex identified," Legion radioed. "Be advised – Krogan are known to be anomalously agitated, even amongst organics."

"They come from a death world," Cortana replied, learning that much through the extranet during her stay. "It'd make anybody a little pissy."

Speaking of, Wrex was walking past, but he seemed to take note of Cortana's eyes following him, and he slowed to a stop, narrowing them at her. "Do I know you? Whatever the hell you are…"

"My name's Cortana, I hear you're out gunning for Fist," The AI gave a smile. "I thought we could work together."

"Cortana… hmm…" Wrex narrowed his eyes. "You don't look like much…" Wrex sniffed, scowling. "And you've got the stink of silicone… That pretty head of yours gets blown off in a firefight, will I find circuits on the inside?"

"Depends," Cortana crossed her arms. "Are circuits a problem?"

"It depends on the circuits," Wrex answered, turning to Legion. "I've heard the muck the humans are slinging at Saren – about working with the Geth. How do I know you're not one of his?"

"We're not walking around, shooting everybody – is that good enough?"

The Krogan blinked, rumbling lowly. "What's your stake in this?"

"Trying to show the Council that not all of my people are genocidal killers, for one," Cortana gestured. "I think the data that Fist has can help prove that. All I need is someone big and strong to do the difficult, shooting part."

Wrex seemed oddly thought-provoked by Cortana's response. "You do look like you need a hired gun. You're not even wearing any body armor." He looked up at the towering platform's eyes. "But I wasn't born yesterday. If you're running with Saren, I will suss it out… And if you try to stop me, it'll be the last thing you ever do. People and synthetics both have something in common; you shoot 'em, and they stop moving."

Doubtful, considering Cortana could just move her program. But, all the same, Cortana nodded.

"Then what's that saying that humans have?" Wrex hummed aloud. "'My enemy is the enemy of my other enemy?'"

"Actually, it's 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'"

"Heh," Wrex chuckled, spreading his huge maw into a grin. "So, 'friend,' let's say we roll up on Fist. He's got his gun out, what do you do?"

Cortana didn't need to think too long about it, having observed Wrex and his threat. "I step back, let you kill him."

The Krogan's brow shot up in pleasant surprise. "Quick learner. Shit, you'd think the Council would love you AI because of it…" He shook his head, rolling his eyes.

"So, then, you know where Fist is?"

"Yeah," Wrex grumbled. "His club is down in the Wards. What, you can't look it up on the net?"

Cortana shrugged. "Tried, but when I put 'Fist club' in a search engine, all it gave me were the nasty ones." And C-Sec hadn't officially processed Wrex, or where it was they'd picked him up, so that wasn't in the system – seeing as he wasn't in there for formal questioning, just a chat.

"Heh, yeah, when you put it like that…" Wrex let out a puff of hot air. "It's a place called Chora's Den, down in the wards. Oughta warn you though, it's a public place, might get a bit… messy, with the property damage."

"Oh, don't worry," Cortana smiled in return. "I'm used to breaking things to look tough."

"Ha!" Wrex threw his head back with a sharp laugh. "My kind of synthetic! Come on, we can get down there from here." He walked past, moving to the terminal, and Cortana made to follow, before stopping.

A ping hit her systems, followed by a text communication. Her guns were ready.

"You know what, Wrex, we might need to make a bit of a detour first."