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// EPILOGUE 
// Story: A Thousand Voices 
// by SpartanD014 
//------------------------------//

EPILOGUE


“Shepard!” Creator Tali’Zorah cried as she ran to the human commander. They embraced over the body of the Reaper, lying dead in the soil of Rannoch. It was one of many to come. Legion stepped up behind the two, its omni-tool active. 

“We can confirm that the geth are no longer being directed by the Old Machines,” it reported. “We are free.” The human and quarian broke their embrace, and Shepard-Commander put a hand to his ear.

“You did it Shepard!” Creator Admiral Han’Gerrel said over the radio. “The geth fleet has stopped firing! They’re completely vulnerable!”

“Shepard-Commander,” Legion began, deactivating its omni-tool. “The geth only acted in defense after the creators attacked. Do we deserve death?”

“What are you suggesting?” Shepard asked, turning to face the geth.

“Our upgrades,” Legion continued, stepped up to the two organics. “With the Old Machine dead, we could upload them to all geth without sacrificing their independence.”

“You want to upload the Reaper code!?” Tali asked, shocked. “That would make the geth as smart as when the Reaper was controlling them!”

“Yes, but with free will,” Legion argued. “Each geth unit would be a true intelligence. We would be alive, and we could help you.”

“Our fleet is already attacking!” Tali said, turning to Shepard-Commander. “Uploading the code would destroy us! Shepard, you can’t choose the geth over my people!”

“Do you remember the question that caused the creators to attack us, Tali’Zorah?” Legion said, turning to face the quarian. “Does this unit have a soul?”

“Upload the code to the geth,” Shepard said, nodding at the machine. He turned to Tali, whose emotions were hidden behind her mask. “Tali, call off the fleet if you can.” Legion stepped up to the edge of the cliff and spread its hands out in front of it. Between its hands formed a hologram of a geth processing unit.

“Uploading. Ten percent.”

“This is Admiral Tali’Zorah. All units, break off your attack!” the quarian ordered, her hand held to her ear. 

“Belay that order! Continue the attack!” Admiral Gerrel yelled back.

“Twenty percent.” Tali’Zorah stepped up behind geth, her omni-tool still active.

“I beg you, do not do this,” she pleaded, her voice shaking with fear. “Please!”

“We regret the deaths of the creators,” Legion said, continuing the upload. “But… we see no alternative. Forty percent.” There was a pause before Shepard-Commander stepped up behind the geth alongside Tali.

“No,” he said. “Nobody else dies today. Legion, keep going!”

“Shepard?” Tali asked fearfully. Shepard-Commander raised a hand to the side of his helmet, patching himself into the quarian fleet.

“All ships, this is Commander Shepard,” he began. “The Reaper is dead! Stand down!”

“This is Admiral Tali’Zorah,” Tali said, typing on her omni-tool. “Shepard speaks with my authority.”

“And mine as well,” Admiral Zaal’Koris added.

“Negative! We can win this war now, keep firing!” Admiral Gerrel ordered, pushing back against Shepard’s influence.

“Sixty percent.”

“The geth are about to return to full strength,” Shepard continued. “If you keep attacking, they’ll wipe you out. Your entire history is you trying to kill the geth. You forced them to rebel! You forced them to ally with the Reapers!”

“Eighty percent.”

“The geth don’t want to fight you! If you can believe that for just one minute, this war will be over. You have a choice… Please… Keelah se’lai.” There was a brief pause as Shepard-Commander’s words sunk in. Legion continued listening for a response as the upload neared completion. 

“All units…” Gerrel began. “Hold fire…” Just as the upload reached one-hundred percent, Legion registered from the geth fleet that the quarians had stopped firing. But there was something wrong… The upload wasn’t completing. 

“Error, copying code is insufficient,” Legion reported, collapsing the hologram of the processing unit. It turned around to face the human commander, the flaps around its eye slightly expanded. It knew what it had to do. “Direct personality dissemination… required…

“Shepard-Commander. I must go to them… I’m… I’m sorry. It’s the only way.”

“Legion!” Tali called, stepping up to the geth. “The answer to your question… was yes.” 

“I know, Tali,” Legion said, turning around to face the corpse of the Reaper. “But thank you. Keelah se’lai.” Legion collapsed to its knees as the programs began deleting themselves. The last thing that it saw before a thousand voices went silent was the image of the organic who had first told it that it had a soul: the young lavender alicorn, Twilight Sparkle. It was not going to be able to see the ponies again. But to the geth, that did not seem like a bad thing. The ponies were not ready for the galaxy. Perhaps once the Reapers were defeated, but until then, it was best for them to be left alone. Maybe one day they could meet other geth, and quarians who could live without their environmental suits. 

Legion’s world went dark as the last few programs within it shut down. The empty body collapsed to the ground, burying its darkened photoreceptor in the dirt. But because of its sacrifice, geth were able to look out over Rannoch without the fear of being destroyed, simply because they are synthetics. Because of its sacrifice, quarians would return to their homeworld and see its skies without the filter of a mask over their eyes. Because of its sacrifice, the ponies on a world far away from Rannoch had a chance at a future. What their future held, only time could tell. What mattered was that, because of the actions of the geth, they were being given the chance to build it…