Garrus believed himself to be a simple man. There wasn't a lot to him. People might think he was complicated, but truly, Garrus was pretty convinced of how linear and predictable he really was.

Still introspecting, tablet still in his hands, he stopped bouncing his foot and clenched his jaw.

Or maybe he wasn't as simple as he thought he was.

Tali and John always seemed to be concerned about him in some way. Concerned about the scars that'd been developing from his time on Omega and coming to terms with Jack killing his pals.

That might not have been something to make a man more complicated, but maybe it did.

Compared to the original Normandy, John seemed to make a much more concerted effort to making sure he was fine. Tali did too. She stopped by once in a while to check up on him to see if he was okay.

Which he was. He was fine. He supposed. It really came on a day-by-day basis.

Garrus knew he wasn't the mushy type, so much in fact that it felt weird to even think it inside his head. But he loved them both. They were some of most important people he'd ever had in his life. He was a fairly fortunate man. And he recognized that almost unspoken bond for what it was.

Part of that bond meant knowing when it was his turn to start being more concerned for them. And he'd be careful this time, unlike last time when he tried to give Tali advice, what with the whole 'don't have Shepard as your crutch' spiel. He did come to regret that.

But he was digressing.

Tali wouldn't admit it openly, but she was clearly struggling to come to terms with the geth joining them. You could see it behind that glass that hid her from the world. The body language said a lot. And that was okay. For her to not be full of angst wouldn't have been the Tali he knew.

And then there was John. Given that he was leading this whole expeditionary force of misfits and mercs, he had a lot more to deal with.

He noticed Shepard had been shaving a little less. And eating a lot more cereal.

Garrus blinked and realized his eyes had still been robotically reading the article displayed on his tablet, but hadn't actually been digesting any of it.

He set it down and climbed off his bunk before putting on his slippers.

"Where you going?" Skyles asked, looking up from his omni-tool. Foley and Sidonis only glanced in his general direction from their own bunks.

"Getting some water." Garrus said before walking out into the hallway. He took the elevator up to crew deck before making his way to the mess table and sitting down. It was about an hour until their bedtime. Remnants of the skeleton crew were finishing up breakfast to get their day started. He could hear some of their murmurs about the geth.

It'd been the focus of nearly every conversation since Legion had been brought aboard.

Garrus found himself staring into the infirmary's doors toward the room that held Legion within its walls.

All of the decisions John had made, Garrus had been behind. But this was the one he struggled with the most.

Now, don't get him wrong. He still supported the decision. They had a bigger picture to look at here. They always did with these kinds of things.

But spirits above if it didn't make him feel unsettled. He'd been unknowingly bouncing his leg nervously, eyes still trained toward Legion's general direction.

"It's late, Garrus." Kasumi greeted, sitting down across from him, "What're you doing up here?"

"I was coming up for some water." There was a distinct pause. "But I got sidetracked."

"Legion is it?"

"Pretty transparent of me."

"Glaring ominously toward the geth's general direction? Eyes piercing so hard they just might melt glass? No."

He smirked before finally peeling his attention away from the infirmary.

"Anything you needed?"

"Nope," Kasumi's nails rapped the table, "Just meandering about and then I saw you. Decided on a whim to ask you what's up. What's up?"

"Debating if I should talk to Shepard about my concerns. Everyone thinks we've cleared the air, but it sure doesn't feel like it. At least for me."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. What's your opinion? Have you heard anyone else talk about it?"

"My opinion? My opinion doesn't matter. And plenty."

"Average them out."

"You'd think you'd hear it the most from the quarians." Kasumi started to explain, eyes in thought, "But we haven't. It's us humans. The geth war is still fresh on our minds. Overall, people are really uneasy." She leaned in, voice quiet. "Scared, really."

"They should be." Garrus grumbled. He chewed on his tongue and idly shook his head, mind rife with terrible thoughts. "It's a geth."

She leaned back and looked normal again.

"I suppose it was the same way when you think about EDI. We got over it. Complacent, I think."

"Tali and Olasie warned me about complacency with EDI." Garrus recited, remembering a talk they'd had a week or so back.

"Yup. But that means you know what you have to do. Talk to Shepard."

"I keep thinking that, but then what? He already did what he could."

"Then don't talk to him about it then."

"See, but that doesn't feel right." Garrus said harshly, but in a way that Kasumi knew it was only guided toward himself, "I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, here. But I need to say something."

"Garrus," Kasumi said gently, "Sometimes, all you can do is wait. And see what happens."

Garrus scratched his chin and sighed, evidently disappointed.

"Yeah. I know. Waiting does suck."

"It's all we ever do around here." The smallest of smiles cracked on Garrus' lips. Or whatever passed as them. Sensing that the small talk should come to a close, he stood and headed to the counter for that glass of water he was supposed to come up here for.

When he returned to the table, Kasumi stretched and smacked her lips.

"I'm going to bed, Garrus. You gonna be okay?"

"I'll be fine." He said, giving her a small dismissive wave.

"Night."

"Good night Kasumi."

He waited until she was gone before shuffling his way to the battery for no other reason but to think.

Only taking a few sips from his cup, he kept walking until he entered. Setting the glass atop his single table, he leaned against it heavily and stared straight ahead. About twenty or so seconds pass, and he hardly moved.

Then he turned right back around, water forgotten, and headed into the infirmary.

Those still in hospital beds were sleeping with Chakwas sitting lazily at her desk, feet propped up on the table. He could see the drop down holster and pistol strapped to her thigh; a weapon issued to her as an extra precaution given the geth being in the next room over.

They only exchanged nods of the head as he entered Legion's room.

There it stood, like a robot. Not doing anything.

"Vakarian." It greeted.

"Legion. Hey." The turian breathed and found himself suddenly at a loss of words.

"May we be of assistance?"

"No. I just... wanted to talk."

It waited for him to continue.

"Uhm." He cleared his throat, "Look. This is really weird. This whole thing with you being on the ship."

It still said nothing, so Garrus took that as an invitation to continue his near aimless bubbles of thought.

"And the crew is concerned about you. Legion," Garrus actually stuttered a little, surprised at himself that he was opening up this much to what he, four days ago, had still considered an enemy. "they're scared shitless about you."

Its singular eye moved about slightly and finally gave the turian a nod. "We understand. It is a natural response. A mechanism that operates on the supposition of danger. Evolution through natural selection has honed this design. In the quarian vernacular: Sufficiency is nature's step-mother."

An interesting colloquial, Garrus thought briefly.

"Okay." Garrus folded his arms, "So how would you alleviate us of our fears then?"

"That is something that we cannot definitively answer. We do not understand organics. Their choices on many matters often puzzle us. It is why we watch you. To better understand you."

That sounded noble. Garrus kind of liked that. But organic life wasn't something you could easily defrag and categorize. At least, the conscious behaviors of sapient life. But what drove the geth to want to do that?

"Why go through all that trouble though? Why not keep up what you've been doing for centuries now?"

"The geth build their future. The old-machines threaten that future. Unification of the galaxy's inhabitants is necessary if we have any possibility of repelling them. Part of this overarching mission parameter is to also better model our understanding of the quarian creators."

It sounded dumb to ask, but Garrus asked anyways. "Why them specifically?"

"We do not understand their actions during the morning war and wish to know more."

Garrus sighed and sat down on an empty supply crate that had been stowed away in here.

"Legion, you want a turian's perspective on this?"

"We would be grateful."

"You were a threat to their livelihood." Garrus began, thinking really hard to better collect what was about to be a small speech, "A threat to their political standing. Their existence. They feared revolt. You don't need to focus on what your creators did, because what the quarians did, the turians would have done too. Or the salarians. Or asari. Batarian, humans, volus, whatever. Whereas the quarians failed to regain their homeworld, or any system under their arm, I doubt the geth would have seen the next tomorrow if such a thing were to happen to a turian planet."

"We fought for continued existence."

"You did. But you killed billions to do it. Somewhere along that fight, it stopped being a fight for survival. You're going to have to concede that point. The quarians had a good military, but they didn't have billions of combatants. Not even us turians have ever had more than one billion active military, even at the height of the rachni war and krogan rebellions. Total quarian deaths, as far as I remember, were over forty billion. Forty billion, Legion. That's a lot of people."

Going through the numbers in his head made him feel sick. Them being a different species didn't much matter. The carnage of that... sounded absolutely nauseating.

Legion stared at him and didn't say anything for what felt like close to five or so seconds. "We will process this information, Vakarian."

"Okay," Garrus murmured, standing so he could make his exit, his worries only slightly abated. "You do that."

"Vakarian, if we may, we have a question."

He tilted his head at the geth. "Mm?"

"On the old-machine. Why was this platform salvaged?"

Garrus breathed. "You weren't salvaged." He said finally, voice grim, "At least, that's what Shepard would have said. You were rescued."

Garrus felt the need to correct Legion's vocabulary to make what they did feel a bit more profound. For whatever that was worth. "It was a favor to you, but there was also a reason behind it. We failed our objective. We lost the reaper's IFF. We were hoping you had one."

Its head flaps moved about slightly.

"We do not know for certain." It answered, "Data procured from the old-machine's quantum storage devices may have contained one. Establishing a line to the collective would reveal the outcome of our assignment."

"I'll talk to Shepard about it, Legion. It's not my call what happens at this point."

"Acknowledged."

Garrus' stare lingered on the geth for a couple of seconds before he finally turned around to leave.

"...Good night, Legion."

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The next day.

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4-15-2186

0800 HOURS

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Staring at himself in the mirror, he ran a hand through the beard that'd been harboring a decent percentage of real estate on his face.

"Gonna shave?" Tali asked, leaning up against the border of their bathroom door, "What's it been? Close to a week?"

"Too lazy." He said, giving her a small smile, "Plus, I think it looks pretty good."

"I admit, it does look pretty good." She said, cheeks flushing slightly, "But it does get a little, uh... ticklish."

"Ticklish?" He repeated, not understanding, "What? When we kiss?"

"That too, yeah."

His smile grew and he chuckled. "Ah. Mm. I see. I'll definitely have to take that into consideration then. For your sake."

"Not that it took anything away from the last experience." Tali hastily added before laughing at herself, "But, you know."

He stepped away from the sink and gave her a kiss on her metal plated cheek. "You ready?"

She gave him a bright smile and nodded. "Mhm."

Not another word said, they left their room and took the lift down to crew deck to meet Garrus. When they rounded the corner, they saw the turian sitting with a plate of what looked like eggs and toast.

"Morning, Garrus." John greeted.

He caught him between a sip of coffee. "Morning." Garrus greeted as he set his mug down to point behind him, "Grab some food. Rupert made some french toast for the humans."

"Sweet. Be right back." John went to get himself breakfast. Tali decided to sit across from the turian and wait.

"Food good?"

"Can't complain. Rupert's got it in some SM-10s if you'd like to eat."

"You know me. I like to fast 'till lunch."

"You do?"

"Sometimes. Depends on my mood."

Garrus only shrugged and mixed his eggs with a fork, face unreadable.

John returned, plate brimmed with breakfast.

"Look at you, boss. No cereal. Good to see." Garrus said favorably.

"I'm feeling good. Life's good."

"Good to see you're in such great spirits." Garrus praised, "What about you, Tali?"

"Feel great." She said, shrugging but smiling. She played with the ends of her fingers, staring at the part of the realk that was pinned to the top of her hands. "Warm bed. Comfy ship. Count what you already got. We've been in so much worse."

Garrus raised his mug to her. "To that. Counting what we already got."

"I'll raise to that." John said merrily. John clinked his mug with Garrus'. John ate the last of his toast and went for his eggs. "How's Rupert's cooking on your end, Garrus?"

"He says he tastes it." Garrus said between a forkful, glancing at John.

John didn't believe him. "He doesn't. How?"

"You'd have to ask him." Garrus shrugged, "He said he looks for tastes you humans wouldn't really like all that much."

"Don't believe I've ever tasted turian food." John said curiously, eyeing his food and rubbing his chin.

"Here." Garrus nudged his plate toward him, "You want diarrhea? Have at it, boss."

John, with a shrug, reached over with his spoon, and scraped up only the smallest part of Garrus' sauce before licking it.

John's face twisted into a scowled frown. "Jesus. Jesus Christ. That like... eating bar soap."

"Yeah?" The grin on Garrus' face was almost ear to ear, "Tastes pretty good to me."

"I've had that before. Tastes pretty good to me too. Bit of an acquired taste though." Tali shrugged with a mild giggle.

"Whatever." John mumbled, wiping his spoon with a napkin before chasing whatever remained of that awful taste with coffee, "That was pretty damn bad. That's gonna kill me."

Garrus' mandibles went wide and Tali smiled.

"Probably not." Garrus shrugged, looking behind him to make sure Chakwas wasn't anywhere within sight given what would have been her huge disapproval, "But I wouldn't do it again."

"Yeah, I don't need to be told twice."

John just about finished the rest of his meal with Garrus doing the same. Taking their dishes to the bus tub, they were all about to go their separate ways before John stopped them both.

"Before we all head to work. I've got some great news to share with you first. Let's take it to the battery."

John didn't give them time to process what he said, so they followed without saying another word.

After they entered Garrus' usual workplace, Tali sat on a box with Garrus leaning up against the wall.

"So?" The turian urged for whatever John had to say.

There was a pause from Shepard as he wrung his neck with a hand. With a sharp inhale, John finally said it. "Ashley's still alive."

Garrus blinked. "I—" He glanced at Tali to see her reaction, but couldn't get anything from behind her visor. "...you serious?"

"Would I lie about that?"

"Keelah." Tali felt like she'd been rudely splashed with a bucket freezing water. "When did you get this news?"

"Yesterday night."

Tali frowned a little. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"Wanted confirmation first. Sorry. No one needed to get their hopes up and it turn out to be a false positive."

"Are you—" Tali's voice was hoarse, "How? How is she still alive?"

"I don't know," Shepard shrugged, "But she's safe and sound." John chuckled, face still bright, "And the Systems Alliance is gearing up to fight the collectors. Head on."

"Damn. Might as well pack up and let them do the rest then." Garrus sighed, suddenly cheerful and in a much better mood, "Who told you all this? I'm assuming Anderson."

"Of course. That footage you got on Horizon helped. I don't know by how much, but it did. So thank you for that, Garrus. Don't think I ever properly thanked you for taking one for the team and going down first."

"You did," Garrus said softly, "Many times."

"I hope she's okay. Wish we could see her to know how she's been faring."

"We'll see soon enough." John assured Tali, "But right now, given how involved we are with Cerberus right now, I don't think we can. At least until after we've completed our mission."

"Well, I think it's time we pop some champagne later today then. We gotta tell Chakwas and Joker. They need to know."

"I'll give Joker the news if you could tell Chakwas for me, Garrus." John said before patting him on the shoulder, "Alright?"

"Can do."

"Good. Let's get to work."

When Tali and John turned around to walk out, Garrus reached for John's shoulder to stop him. He had to tell them about Legion. But at the last second, he stayed his hand. This happy little moment didn't need to be tainted by the awkward and bitter emotions that surrounded the geth being onboard. He'd tell them later when time would allow it. Right here, right now, was a small victory for them. And it needed to take center stage for just this once. Even if it was only for today, or an hour, or even a minute.

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Giddiness is Tali's step, she waltzed right to her workstation and keyed in her password to get started on some stuff that needed doing.

"Morning, boss." Kenneth greeted, giving her a wave from his computer, "How'd you sleep?"

"I slept well, thank you." Tali answered, giving him an unseen smile.

Gabby leaned back so she could get a bead on Tali, "My, you're sounding cheerful today! Any news to share?"

"I do actually. One of my old friends that was stationed on Horizon? She's still alive. Safe and sound. She made it."

"Ashley? Ashley Williams?" Kenneth said, leaning into his words, "That's amazing, hun! That's some delightful news! Perfect excuse to pull this baby out."

Gabby rolled her eyes. "Oh no, Ken. Please don't."

Ken bent down and reached for his bottle of forty year single malt scotch made by none other than the distilleries owned by Glenfiddich. Gabby told him he was insane to have spent as much as he did for it, but he didn't care. This bottle had history. Character. It'd been vatted into its sherry cask before humans discovered the damn Charon relay. Two years before humans had even found mass effect physics. Made when humans had nothing but Sol and Earth and Mars. It was special. So special in fact, that Donnelly made the request on a special requisition sheet and submitted it in hopes that TIM and Shepard would bend some rules and approve of it. Which it, somehow, did. Ken didn't know the real reason for why they would accept such a request when they ordinarily wouldn't, but he liked to believe it was because TIM had a soft spot for anyone looking to enjoy a fine glass of aged spirits. Because out here, on this mission, his life was about a disposable as the income he made from Cerberus. Grossly oversimplified, of course. But break it down and that's how it was. At least to him.

"Would you care for some, Tali?" He asked her before handing Gabby a small shot glass, "Might put some hair on your chest, though."

"Drinking on the job, huh?" Gabby said, reluctantly accepting the glass from him, "You do know we're probably the most important people on the ship. Right? And that we have to keep the Normandy running, right?"

"Don't flatter yourself, ma'am" Donnelly's accent went thick, "And it's only a small sip."

A subtle thunk from the cork and two, very small, very conservative, pours. Gabby downed it immediately to the disappointment of Ken.

"Gabby, you're supposed to enjoy it!" He said, irked by her disrespect of his most prized possession.

"Would rather have it mixed with coke and ice." Gabby joked, knowing that would get a rise out of him.

He sipped slowly and let the scotch bathe his tongue. Eventually, he swallowed and smiled. "EDI, don't tell anyone, you hear?"

"I pinky promise." came EDI's reply.

Kenneth snickered before raising the bottle toward Tali and shaking it a little. "Offer still stands, hun."

"I would, but that would probably kill me." Tali said, bouncing on her toes slightly, feeling flattered he would share.

"Shame. But more for me." He said, stuffing the scotch back into its leather box before sliding it into his little hidey hole.

Just as Kenneth was done putting away his mildly illegal contraband, the door opened behind them, admitting something no one was expecting or wanting to see.

Legion.

"Hello. We are Legion. A terminal of the g—"

The geth was rudely interrupted by Donnelly's gasp and suddenly ragged breathing. "'oly fuckin' hell."

Gabby's face paled while she white-knuckled the ends of her desk.

"—eth... Please do not be alarmed, we do not intend any hostilities."

Tali swore it had to say that to everyone it met. Her smile dimmed into nothing. She went over to stand between her team and the geth to try and abate the two of their fear.

"Why are you here, Legion." She asked in a commanding tone.

"Normandy's crew admittance procedure. We were ordered as per the acclimation packet to better acquaint oneself to the ship."

"Who's your escort?" Tali asked, familiar with the process, given that she had gone through the same thing when she and John had first come aboard.

"The krogan individual named 'Grunt'."

Tali brushed past Legion and opened the door to Grunt standing right outside busying himself with a biscuit the size of her head and a family sized bag of barbeque potato chips.

"Grunt, would you like to join us?"

"...I guess." gobbed the krogan. He followed her and stood next to Legion, ignoring the geth for the more interesting snacks in his hands.

"Well, Legion. This is the engineering crew. This is Kenneth Donnelly."

"Greetings, Crewmember Donnelly." Legion said. Kenneth sucked in another lungful of air.

"Hello." He uttered.

"This is Gabriella Daniels."

"Greetings, Crewmember Daniels."

She didn't reply.

Tali turned around and let her back face Legion. First time she'd done it and she hated it.

"Follow me." She muttered.

The machine followed, as did Grunt. They went down the small hallway so they could get a view of the giant sphere sitting over them.

"This is the Normandy's drive core. Traditional propulsion is your standard, military grade, matter-antimatter engine, which powers our four thrusters. Energy is generated with nuclear fusion."

"We observed the drive-core from Dr. Solus' lab up above."

"What do you think?" She asked Legion. You'd think she wouldn't have a care in the world about what it had to say, but she did. She genuinely wondered what opinion it might hold. She hated it, but didn't for a second think it didn't have something potentially valuable to say.

"It is an efficient design. But susceptible to combusting or cremating organic crew members in its proximity if overloaded."

"That would only happen if we bypassed system limits or took a hit traditional CBTs couldn't handle. We retrofitted for OsCBT's. It should prevent that from happening."

It stared up at the ball. "Acknowledged."

"Do you have any questions?"

"Negative."

"I do." Grunt said. Tali rose a brow.

"Why is it a ball?"

"Uhm..." Tali stared up at it herself and frowned. She wasn't really interested in giving him an answer that would wind her. So she kept it short and simple. "It's because they wanted it that way."

He swallowed that last of his flakey biscuit. "Oh."

"We are grateful, Creator Zorah. Thank you for acquainting us to some of the Normandy's systems. We will now depart."

Legion turned around and began walking away. The krogan pinched his bag of chips open and followed the robot, utterly focused on stuffing his face.

Glary eyed and rubbing the kink that'd been growing in her neck, she kept her distance and went back to her station. Soon after, the doors closed on Grunt and Legion, leaving the three engineers finally at peace.

"Holy hell," Ken quipped, "I was just face-to-face with a bloody geth. I should have snapped a picture."

Gabby didn't look so healthy. "Yeah." Was her anxiety riddled peep of a voice.

Tali didn't try to comfort them. They needed to be scared and reserved. There was a geth here now with them. And that thing could turn on them just like it had turned on its creators.

"Don't dwell on it for now. We've got a lot of work ahead of us today." Tali said softly.

Gabby stuttered and nodded even though Tali couldn't see it. "Yes ma'am."

A minute passed. Then Tali felt a jolt of dread smack her dead. She immediately turned on her heel and walked out of engineering, swearing insanities under her breath.

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"Are you a stupid, Grunt?" Darehk scolded, "Have you been living under a goddamn rock? We don't want it here! Get it out of here!"

Tali rushed into the quarian quarters to see Olasie, her squad (save for Kylie and Talukh), and Juel, standing loosely about the room and facing Legion. She could see Teri gaping at the cavity in its chest and the field repair on its shoulder.

"What is going on." Tali demanded, staring at them all while she attempted to rope in everyone's attention on her.

"Nothing, Tali." Juel sighed, hands on his hips while he stared down at his feet, "Just, this."

"This is great," Darehk said, throwing his hands up in the air, "Now it knows where we fucking sleep. Brilliant."

"Not like it would have to look long for that." Chortled the krogan, one hand dusted with barbecue seasoning, "Ship is small."

"We do not intend any hostilities."

"Go fuck yourself."

"Darehk, that's enough." Teri said, brows furrowed, "I don't like it either, but it's time to can it."

Darehk, as calmly as he could, inhaled and began to feel hopelessness. Hopelessness because he was really beginning to believe that the people he was surrounded by didn't seem all that concerned about a geth standing, plain as day, in their midst.

"It's like… I'm the only one with sense in here."

Ignoring Darehk, Olasie swallowed hard and stood beside Juel to greet Legion.

"Hello."

"Creator Venn. Greetings."

"How are you?"

"We are operating nominally."

"That's good." She answered with a platitude at length. She didn't know how this conversation was supposed to play out. "...I'm assuming Grunt is giving you a tour of the Normandy?"

Tali remained still and waited for Legion to answer Olasie.

"Yes."

"Well..." Olasie bit her lip and decided to introduce the rest of her squad.

"You've already met Juel'Kaan. This is Teri'Migh and Darehk'Talon. We have two others, on crew deck. I'm sure you've seen them both."

"We have met Creators Pass and Daer. We are aware that Creator Pass sustained injuries on the old-machine, during its descent into Mnemosyne."

"She did." Olasie nodded slowly, "But she'll make it."

The awkwardness reeked and Tali could barely stand it.

"Is there anything else that you wanted to see, Legion?"

"Negative. Thank you, Creator Venn. We will depart."

The geth left, Grunt following.

The door closed, leaving all the quarians alone.

"So that's Legion." Teri cleared her throat roughly, "You weren't exaggerating, Juel. The shoulder thing is really... odd."

Juel exhaled. "Yeah. So now you met it. What do you think?"

Words couldn't explain how she felt. So she shrugged, palms up. "I'm gonna roll with it. Insanity's the name of the game these days. If it's fighting with us, at least it'll be scary for anyone in our way."

The thought of Legion actually engaging in combat next to them all terrified Tali more than anything.

"If it doesn't decide to fucking shoot you in the back of the head." Darehk said plainly. Teri ignored him.

Hearing Darehk's not so far-fetched accusations of Legion's character was chipping away at Olasie. Her shoulders fell and she stared up at the tiles on the ceiling. Bad posture all the way back to her cot, she sat on it and blinked once really slowly.

Juel groaned. "We get it, Darehk. You hate it."

"The day its gone is the day you'll stop hearing me bitch about it." Darehk answered flatly, "That or until I get killed."

Juel faced Tali. "Need help with anything?"

"No." Tali answered, "I'll be fine. I'll swing by if I do."

"Alright. Well. We'll be here."

Tali watched Teri go sit at their communal desk while Juel started to rummage through his bag of things. She calmly inhaled and left them, her head a mess of emotions and thoughts.

Wracking her brain for solutions to this problem felt fruitless. She couldn't think of a single way to bring things back to the way they were and to have Legion exist. Waiting was about all they could do and it was excruciating. Prejudices had to be broken down and trust built in its place. But Tali didn't know if that would ever be possible or even where to start. Because, try as she might, she couldn't deny that these issues were something she herself owned as well.

The prejudices and skepticism she had were warranted, no doubt. They weren't born out from a vacuum. At the very least, John understood that.

But, with careful and guarded afterthought about these past few days, her love for John had now grown. His pursuit for nobleness was truly impartial. Accepting Legion's request to join them revealed that more than anything else. He saw a bigger whole to all this. And she did too. She wasn't blind to that.

And he wasn't blind to her side either. He understood that this war between creator and created wasn't some pitiful squabble. Billions of innocents had died from it.

All he wanted to do was help, somehow. Hopeful as it was, she figured his intention was simple: develop a relationship with a geth here and something might come from that. And to build a realistic future for the quarians meant reconciling history. That would probably be the hardest part in all that.

She didn't think that would bring her homeworld back, but it was, debatably, a step somewhere in the right direction towards peace at least.

She wouldn't ever forgive the geth for what they had done. But she could certainly move on if it meant somewhere down the line lives wouldn't be lost to a lost cause. And that was the point wasn't it? That's what John had in mind this whole time. It had to be. He saw an opportunity, a dangerous one with great potential, and took it.

Returning to her workstation, her face turned soft and the barest hint of smile could be seen on her lips.

Things had to pan out for them. Too much was at stake for it not to.