Legion has not even been "Green Lighted." What this means is it is not even official they are making it and the whole debacle was just a way for CCP to collect tears while figuring out if it be worth the time to try and move everyone over.

Depends on many different things. As a lot of people have stated it hasn't been "Green Lit" yet. This doesn't mean they aren't developing for it, or haven't been for a long while. What it really comes down to is how long they've already been working on it. If it really has just gone under development within the past few months then it could easily be years before we see it go live.

I would assume they would release it in beta just like they did with Dust. That may come sooner than the actual game release, but who knows who will even have beta access. If they aren't lying when they said it's loosely based on Dust and all of the feedback we have given them, also on the same "engine" as one of the non reliable CPMs has stated, it could be rapidly developed with "cut and paste" code with small tweaks here and there and of course other additions of things we were promised in Dust and will never have.

I wouldn't hold your breath for a release within a reasonable time frame. If CCP has learned anything from Dust they should now know that releasing a game before it's even remotely finished is a terrible idea.

If Legion isn't free, I will not be playing it. I know that's a similar case for many of my Dust and Eve friends alike. I have a lot of respect for people who are going to stick with CCP through all of this, but I've done it before with other gaming companies and it usually ends in utter disappointment.