Those quarians admirals were a bigger pain in the ass then the council. Tali's aunt was the only voice of reason. The other two are a piece of work. One tried to justify the murder of the Geth race and the other considered using civilian ships to invade Rannoch. When I brought up the potential civilian casualties on both the civilian ships and the people on Rannoch, he didn't seem to care. ********* is right again. Their hatred blinds them.

The Geth activity on Rannoch concerns me greatly. There is a Geth dreadnought sending out a signal that has altered the normal Geth behavior. The representatives of the collective Geth network told me they had very little interest in organics, but the reports I've just received claims they are building something massive. The Reapers are controlling them and increasing their intelligence somehow. I know I have to stop that signal.

"Edi please notify Kaiden and Ashley they're coming with me on this mission. I'm sure ********* wants to tag along as well."

"I will Commander."

The battle between the Reaper controlled geth and quarians is an intense one. Only Joker could have flown us to the dreadnought in one piece. ********* was there watching and he didn't flinch. The weird thing was he didn't move a muscle. Not even when Joker rapidly evaded and threw my body against the wall. I really hate inertia to which ********* is apparently immune to. My suit cushioned the impact but that is going to leave a bruise. Kaiden and Ashley suited up and meet the two of us in the at the cockpit.

Ashley asks ********** "where is your suit?"

"I'm good, I don't need one."

Kaiden asks "don't you need to breathe?"

********* sneers "Ehh not really."

Ashley remarks "This is going to be a strange mission."

Shepard says "Once we are aboard, we find whatever's broadcasting the Reaper signal and suit it down."'

Edi informs us "Shepard, there is a problem. All tubes except one are physically secured,"

Joker joins his girlfriend over the comms "I see the free one. Pretty torn up though."

Shepard says "Too risky for the whole team. ********* would you do it for us please?"

"Are you using your get out of jail card?"

Kaiden makes a weird sound wondering what we're talking about.

Ashley says "come on ********* if you can do it why won't you."

"Oh, alright you aren't really missing much walking down a round metal tube and unlocking some doors. See you guys in a minute." ********* flashes into light and fades through the door.

Kaiden remarks "glad he's on our side."

Ashley retorts "for now."

Kaiden asks her "what gives? You two were chubby on the original Normandy. Are you mad he traded you for someone else?"

Shepard repeatedly blinks in quick succession and says his former best friend "They never dated." I look to Ashley for verification "Did you?"

She says "No. I mean he's cute but he's not my type. I needed someone with a stable career."

Shepard says "you know he's basically rich. He can make solid gold from air, literally."

"And I'm sure Tali is very grateful. Kaiden what made you think we were dating?"

He says "You are religious, and he appeared to also and I thought you two connected over that."

Ashley says "I'm not that kind of religious. While we're on the subject of - wait can he hear us?"

Shepard says "No he can't. He's gone. I've learned to sense when he's nearby. I get annoyed when he's close."

Ashley says "Ok. What the hell Shepard? We have an ace up our sleeve and not using it? What's this guy's problem?"

Kaiden says "go easy. He's had it rough."

Ashley says "so did we. Where are my powers?"

Shepard says "enough. When you survive a pandemic and go years without toilet paper then you can do what he does."

"What?"

Kaiden says "He told me about a global virus that spread where he's from. His world's economy was so messed up from a pandemic he didn't have toilet paper?"

"What? He didn't have toilet paper? Why didn't he just poof some more up?" Ashley asks.

"That was before he developed his powers" Shepard said.

"Oh my god. That's horrible. What did he do?" Ashley asks.

"Do we really want an answer?" Kaiden asks.

Edi informs us ********* successfully unlocked the doors.

Shepard asks *********, what took so long?"

"Future computers are confusing, and they are made for Geth. Tali had to walk me through it. You guys ready?" ********* asks.

Ashley cracks her knuckles "Yeah. I can't wait to see what you can do."

********* squints his face.

Kaiden asks "What's with that look?"

Shepard answers "he doesn't like using his powers."

Ashley yells "Seriously?!"

"If I don't need them, I don't use them. Come on, let's save my favorite metal buddy. Tali where do I go?"

"I'm opening an access right… now" Tali said. A magic door AWESOME! So much cooler than a regular door.

Shepard asks "where are we heading?"

Tali says "You're looking for an operation center, Ashely should be able to disable the Reaper signal from there."

Shepard asks "where is the closet one?"

Tali says "pass their defense network and through a sensor cluster."

Shepard says "I see a console up head. I'm going to take a look at it."

Ashley asks me "can't you do whatever and make this problem go away?"

"I'm not good at future technology. What if I do something we'll regret?"

Kaiden remarks "fair point." Ashley is not pleased.

I scout ahead. The inside of the geth dreadnought is haunting. It vaguely feels like the inside of the collector base. The difference is this feels unnaturally still. Two geth come out of a hallway. One has a rocket launcher. He's the first to go. Sweet a headshot. Combat in real life is a lot different from a game. For one there is no health bar telling me if the enemy is really dead. Feeling their vibrations slowdown is a good alternative. The second geth is easily taken out by yours truly. I wasn't even trying. Everything happened so fast I did it on instinct. Kaiden and Ashley are impressed. I try to be humble, but this sensation feels pretty good. It won't hurt anybody to soak this is for a bit.

"More geth!" Shepard yells.

"I didn't hear an alarm" Ashley says.

Tali informs her "they're Geth. They sent alarms to every unit on this ship!" You need to get into the operation center before they box you in."

I take cover behind a pillar. Looks like two more geth are on my side of the battlefield. They're close enough for me to use my assault rifle without worry. Their shields are a lot stronger than I remember. Must be due to Reaper upgrades. A flash of sparks nearly damage my eye caused by the bullet scraping my cover. WHOA! A huge rush of adrenaline ignites my blood. Focus on my breathing. Don't let it affect your head. I have to take down the geth's shield before it recharges. My opponent knows where I am, and I don't have time to run around to the other side for a sneak attack. I prone and peak out from the bottme. The angle is putting strain on my shoulder but is enough to allow me to drain it's shield and prevent being in sight of the other geth. By luck I'm able to take him down. The other one I have a peek a boo contest but he in time, he loses as well.

Ashley seems to be having trouble with her share. The dark environment makes me believe snipers are not here. I'm about to run blindly towards her when I remember geth can use heat vision. To combat this, I zig zag and roll to Ashely. No bullets hit the floor behind me, but that doesn't mean there isn't a sniper.

Ashley smiles "oh yeah now that you have my back, I have nothing to worry about."

"What? No don't think that" Before I can even finish my sentence Ashley leaves her cover and kills the closest geth in sight, unaware a rocket is heading towards her left flink. I tackle her to the ground. A blue sphere flies over us and throws the geth unit off the platform, falling into machine hell. I drag Ashley's body back to cover and ask "are you ok."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Shesh that was exhilarating. Thank God you're here." she said.

"Do not do that again. HOLY CRAP!" Shepard just stabbed a geth unit in the head with his omnitool blade. I forgot we have those now. Now that I think of it, why am I not getting royalties for giving them that idea? That was the last one.

Tali directs us to console units with geth data that will assist her people in battle. I quietly move over to Kaiden. He notices my annoyance at Ashley's stunt. She's not a risk taker and what she did nearly got her killed. While I mess around with my omnitool to find the blade feature because obviously I have to try that, we enter a narrow room. These geth are special. They use cloaking technology like Kasumi's robe. Kaiden throws down smoke and it makes it so much easier to spot them. I hang back to let them deal with the hunters except the last one. I cheat a bit and use my super speed to stab a hunter through the chest. The omnitool blade went in so smoothly. Once when I was in Tsushima, I stabbed a mongol enemy through the chest with a katana, but what I did was like a knife through butter no oil it was that easy. I love this blade. It's better than the lightsaber I have, and it actually works here. (Lightsabers rarely work in alternate universes.)

We reach the end of the hallway and inside the room is several floors only able to go down by the likes of Sir Isaac Newton's apple or the ladders. I look down at the long fall. Why is it heights bother me when I'm standing but have no problem flying? Shepard asks if I'm willing to float them down. Before I can say yes, Kaiden says "allow me." NO! I attempt to yell "Wai-"

Kaiden uses his biotics to levitate and slowly go down towards the bottom floor. His field is disrupting my vibrations. My oscillations are in disharmony. My nerves are shaking in an unnatural way. It's very painful. My body isn't permitted to scream. When we finally reach the bottom, I collapse onto my hands and knees. Panting hard like a dog.

Kaiden asks "What's wrong? You're not scared of heights, are you?"

"DON'T EVER USE BIOTICS ON ME AGAIN! It affects me and that just hurt me a lot."

Ashely says "Don't be a baby." I nearly growled at her.

Kaiden apologizes "sorry I won't do that again."

"I forgive you. Just give me a second. Wheww that was intense."

Shepard asks me "are you ok?"

"I will be. We need to get going. Tali how is the fleet?"

Tali says "Admiral Korin's ship is down, and Rann isn't sure how much longer we can hold out."

"I'm hurrying Tali." We have to go through two doors until we arrive at a non-distinct room, that's when something powerful and buzzing dashes to our left. It went by so fast I think it was blue. My vision is enhanced, did the other's see it?"

Kaiden asks "what was that?"

Ashley says "It's a defense. A wall of electricity that shoots down a long narrow space. I ran into something like it before."

Shepard asks "when was this?"

She answers "After our incident, Kaiden and I got assigned to different missions for a while. It didn't last long. ********* do we have to worry about you affecting this?"

"It might be a good idea for me to stay back a bit. Plasma likes me. It reminds me of spicy food. I hate spicy food."

Shepard asks "will it overload you?"

"No but it will linger around me and be unsafe to anyone close by and these weapons use electrical components right. I better ditch these."

Kaiden reminds me "the shield generator might have to be tossed as well. Don't forget that. Will you be ok?"

"Yeah. You guys got this right? I'll be a cheerleader for a bit. I only hope the wall of electricity doesn't burn my pompoms. LET'S GO ALLIANCE!"

It might be time for my scheduled 15-minute break. Nothing like an intense gunfight to pass the time. It's been a while since I coached the others. Shepard is doing really good. My cranial massage helped him giving I don't see his knees shaking. It was subtle before, but it's completely gone now. Ashley is being cautious. I wonder what she did before that had this system. Kaiden is "LOOK OUT." A hunter somehow got behind him. I only noticed because the wave of electricity left a slight glow around it's metal skin. Kaiden uses his biotics and punches a hole through it's abdomen. OH THAT WAS AWESOME and completely unlike him. The Kaiden I knew would never leave himself open like that. Reaper upgrades or not.

When the geth are defeated, Shepard heads to the maintenance lock to shut down the big gun, and we meet up with him. I love the ascetic of the partial circles of this hallway. I think it's pretty. The hallway is getting louder, something is turning on. My instincts kick in.

"Move!" I yell.

"What is it?" Ashley asks.

We have no time for an explanation. I push everyone through the nearest door and nearly lost my foot when it closed behind me.

"That was excellent timing" she said. I'm getting pissed. The electric wall is here to. I get as far away as I can and take my anger out on a few geth while I'm at it. My path of rage clears the way for the three stooges behind me to the door which leads us to the platform which ascends us to the core. A geth with a rocket launcher surprised us and nearly took us down with it. Ashley nearly fell with it for a couple of stories. I told her to take my hand. She replied "Just use your telekinesis to pull me up" so I did and yanked her off the platform before she was crushed to death and I did not give her a soft landing.

"Oww" she said.

"Good. I just saved you alot of pain from your laziness. Don't do that again" I warn.

Kaiden says "*********."

Ashley asks "What's your problem?"

"What's yours?"

Shepard yells "ENOUGH! We have a job to do and let's finish this."

I say nothing and follow our commander. We come to a large room with a large plasma ball like device in the center. Arcs of azure dance across the surface. This device must be thirty feet tall and definitely made of reaper tech. Shepard interacts with the council. He opens the device up. Inside is a single geth unit, one with a N7 chest piece, constrained by his hands and feat.

Shepard says "Legion… is that you?"

"Shepard Commander… please save me" he says.

"LEGION I'M COMING BUDDY" I yell.

His head flaps open in excitement "*********!"

Kaiden asks "This is the geth unit that helped you?

Ashley points out "Shepard, wait. The geth are being controlled by the Reaper signal."

"Right, this thing" Shepard said.

Ashley continues "so for all we know Legion is with them. Maybe it sided with the Reapers voluntarily, or maybe it's hacked."

I said "Legion would never agree to this."

Legion says "Your caution is understandable. Once freed I'll sjdbajbfijboijBDoandb" his metal back arches, and his digital screams of agony stab my soul.

"LEGION!" I cry.

Shepard says "Legion should we free you?"

Ashley orders me to use my powers to blast the restraints off.

Legion says "Wait. You cannot simply remove the restraints. The hardware locks are on the far side of the room."

Shepard says "Far side of the room. You said."

Legion says "yes. Deactivation should be simple. The geth protected them against viral attack, not physical removal."

Shepard asks "How did the Reapers get control of the geth?"

Legion says "They did not. Reapers convinced Rannoch quarian extremists to persuade geth collective in exchange for letting them lead the next cycle. That is not the Reaper's true intentions. The attack by migrant quarians swayed many geth."

Tali says "Damn it! I begged them to negotiate rather than attack. I did."

"Let's just get Legion out of there" Shepard said as he removed the last block. Legion is freed. The device drops him down to a lower level. The orb of plasma collapses then explodes. Before I could get a word out, Legion hugged me tightly. "Legion you're crushing me. Ease up." He informs us he deactivated the dreadnought's weapons. I float down to see my friend and give him a weapon. I fly him up to assist in the fight of the geth reinforcements. I warn him to stay back so Kaiden or Ashely don't accidentally shoot him as well.

"Understood" Legion said.

As we fight the enemy geth, Admiral Rann and Admiral Gerrel are fighting about either evacuating the civilian ships or attacking the dreadnought.

Tali says "Commander Shepard and my bondmate are on that ship. Gerrel, don't you dare."

Admiral Gerrel refuses to listen to Admiral Rann or Tali, claiming the chance of protecting the safety of the fleet is higher if they take out the geth now.

Ashley says "I can't believe they are doing that."

Shepars says "Focus on the geth. I'll deal with the admirals later."

The fight grows in intensity. Legion is able to detect and warn where the geth are located. We don't have time to handle all the geth. We focus on carving a way through. Speed is the priority. Our shields and Kaiden's biotics protect us from stray fire enough to get where Legion says we should go.

Legion says "Shepard Commander, Migrant quarians are firing upon this vessel. Without barriers, this ship will be destroyed. We must evacuate."

Kaiden says "We need to get to the escape pods."

Legion says "Geth transmit intelligences via remote signal. We do not use escape pods."

"Suggestions?" Shepard asks.

"Geth fighters are docked in the port side fighter bay. I'll pilot a fighter to safety" Legion said.

"You guys don't need me anymore. I'm going to split. See you in a bit" I said.

Kaiden says "Wait. Take us with you."

"Your biotics might interfere and accidentally make me teleport in the middle of space. Don't worry you guys got this. See ya."

"*********!" Ashley screams in frustration."

Shepard says "ignore him. They're not far. We can make it."

Shepard is taking a moment to answer to Admiral Hackett while Kaiden, Ashley, and I share popcorn as we watch Rann fight with Gerrel. He's not listening to her and being combative. Taking no responsibility for endangering our lives. Rann threatens to charge him with treason.

Admiral Gerrel says "I was in my authority as admiral of the heavy fleet."

I lean over to the cutest quarian in the room "Tali I don't like this man. So, you know how bodies are made of 70% of water and fresh water is a precious resource, even more so on the fleet, so wouldn't the moral decision be to increase the supply of water by commpassionatelyunalivinginghim AND freeing that good water into the environment for all to enjoy? Think of the children."

"Not a bad idea" Tali whispers.

Admiral Rann says "And what of Shepard?"

Perfect timing as the man of the hour comes down the stairs.

Admiral Gerrel says "He escaped unharmed. Shepard, the mission parameters changed. You're military. You understand that."

"I understand that you wasted your chance to withdraw safely!" Shepard squares up and faces to the admiral.

"The dreadnought was a perfect target!" he said.

"This is exactly the kind of shortsighted bloodthirsty behavior which the people down on that planet kicked your ancestors off world for.

Admiral Gerrel brushes off Shepards words and returns to his ship.

"Bosh'tet" Tali said.

I put the popcorn away and tell Shepard, Kaiden, and Ashley into the WarRoom. I refuse to take no for an answer and forcibly push everyone inside. Tali follows. I'm not sure if the glass walls turn opaque or remain clear. It doesn't really matter because as soon as I close the doors, I turn around and yell

"What the fuck was that out there?!" Shepard is startled, Ashley is offended, and Kaiden breaks eye contact. My focus is turned to him.

"You look me in the god damn eye when I am talking to you. What just happened on that mission is unacceptable. I don't care what shit was going through your heads. If I wasn't there you guys probably would have died."

Shepard states "you cursed."

"So?"

Ashley says "You're not allowed to swear."

"Who the hell told you that? I say whatever I want to say. Ashley you're the one I'm mad at the most. You were sloppy, refused to listen to basic instructions, and acted like what happened didn't matter. I almost lost my foot because of you."

"Why does that even matter? It doesn't affect you and we were safe" she said.

"YOU ARE NOT FUCKING SAFE! You can still die, and I probably won't be able to bring your idiot butts back. We are this close to finishing the war and I'm not letting your laziness cost us anything. You're a trained elite soldier. START ACTING LIKE IT!"

Kaiden tries to wedge himself between us before I immediately shut that down "Sit your ass down clown. You let your guard down and almost got killed by a geth. Granted it was cloaked so I'll go easy on you but should have been able to hear it walking to you. Don't let that happen again."

Shepard attempts to defuse the situation, pleading with me to calm down.

"People don't respond to calm. All you two had to do was your job and wouldn't even do that."

Shepard asks "why is this such a big deal?"

"What if someone's idiocy puts me in a position I can't predict and there is something else happening at the same time and I have to choose which one to deal with huh? I expect you to handle your job. Don't ever let this happen again. Inhale… exhale… inhale… exhale… Sorry If I scared you Tali."

Tali said "I'm not scared."

"Tali please don't lie to me. I can see red radiating off your hips" I said.

"I think you're misinterpreting the vibes… that was really hot" she said.

"You… you liked that?"

"Very much. Let's go to our room. Please my cherished human. Hmm…"

"Excuse me I have other business to attend to. My lady please escort me."

********* calmly leaves the room. The door closes all the way before those two sprints towards the elevator.

Ashley turns to Shepard "What the hell? When did he become such a giant asshole?"

Shepard says "Did he really just swear? He never did that before."

Kaiden says "Was that your first time hearing him curse? It's rare but he did it a couple of times on the first Normandy."

Shepard said "I never heard it."

Ashley says "Me neither."

Kaiden says "Oh. well, he did. That was so scary. My heart was racing."

Ashley says "where does he get off telling us what to do. He's not a solider."

Shepard says "he likely has more experience than everyone else on the ship combined and he was right. Ashley, you were never this careless before."

Kaiden says "And he was right about the geth hunter getting behind me. It's been years since I fought one and forgot what they could do. Damn he saved my life twice."

Ashley says "That doesn't give him permission to treat us like that! Was he this angry with you Shepard?"

Kaiden says "come on Ash. He's only looking out for us. Are a few tough words too much for you?"

Shepard says "No Kaiden, Ashley brings up a good point. ********* is a great guy. Sure, he can be a little too much at times, but he was never like that. Something is going on. Maybe I should go talk to him. Ashley, it'll be smart to give him some space for everyone to cool off."

"Talk some sense into him, will you?" she said.

I leave the WarRoom and meet Liara into her room. She keeps the good drinks in a secret book compartment. Liara can tell immediately something is wrong and I need something strong. The shadow broker steps away from her wall of screens to attend her boyfriend's ills. I'm so thankful she is my rock.

Liara hands me a drink "Did the mission not go well?"

"We disabled the Reaper signal upgrading the Geth and rescued Legion. Do you know where he went?" Shepard asks.

"I believe he is talking with the other AI with a body on the ship. He seems as interesting as he is naive" Liara said.

"He acts like a little kid. Innocent and ignorant, but something about him seems different. Must be the Reaper upgrades" Shepard said.

Liara asks "Does what happened involve Legion?"

"No. I would like your opinion. Does ********* seem different than before?" Shepard asks.

Liara says "no. In what way are you referring to?"

"Does he seem irritable?" Shepard asks.

Liara says "War does that."

"I know but we went through some intense situations when fighting the collectors and he never yelled at us." Shepard said.

Liara asks "he yelled at you? That does not sound like him. Do you worry he'll become a danger?"

"No. Maybe a little bit. He'd get annoyed when someone asked him to do something big, but he never got this mad. By any chance did Tali talk to you about this?" Shepard asks.

"We do sometimes discuss relationship struggles on vidchat occasionally" Liara said.

"Something about us I should know?" Shepard asks.

"Not like that love... For a while… it was hard for me. You died and I couldn't move on. Our bond told me you weren't dead, but I couldn't make sense of it. Then I found you next Cerberus brought you back, but by then I was a different person and didn't know if you'd accept me. I never stopped loving you, but it was hard, bridging this gap that formed between us, you were away, I threw myself into work to distract myself, and you continued fighting for the galaxy, Goddess, it scared me that I might have to lose you all over again."

"Liara, baby, I had no idea" Shepard said.

"I didn't want you to worry. None of this was your fault. Shepard, my love. You and I are good now. Tali kindly lent an ear and in exchange I lent her mine" Liara said.

"What did she talk to you about? I don't mean to intrude. They seem to have a picturesque relationship. Is that not the case?" Shepard asks.

"While I won't go into too much detail, Tali mostly came to me asking how to make human men happy and the difficulties a cross species relationship can be. Nothing about ********* or his behavior to ring alarms. He did come to me asking which places needed what supplies for which race. After Tali has fallen asleep, he travels to the places I tell him and delivers supplies. He disguises himself as each race and pretends to be a rich man donating supplies. He's burning a candle at both ends. Tali worries how the war is affecting him. She said his emotions are stronger than a normal person and he can feel the fear and anxiety coming from others. Maybe you should talk to him. Order him to ease up" Liara said.

"You want me of all people to tell him to kick his feet up?" Shepard asks.

"I would choose my words more carefully. Tell him you know about his nighttime routines and while you are grateful for his charity, it's affecting his performance on missions, which will evolve into a problem. I believe he'll respond to that" Liara said.

"That should work. I'll talk to him tomorrow. He and Tali are having some alone time" Shepard said.

"Maybe we should have some alone time as well. Finish your drink and come follow me" Liara winks.