The Prothean and The Reaper
Author Notes: Hi This is Super Shark, Javik The last living Prothean, how does his story end? Well they can be many ending but in this one he makes an unlikely friend. Minor Spoilers: For Mass Effect 3 and Ending.
Sit down, have some... I do not know what Prothean's drink, So I guess we are eating again, Salarian liver sorry its not Alcoholic or will affect ones mind. (If your salarian, you may eat another race's liver)
This is for the Aria's Afterlife July Contest—I Will Go Down With This Ship
Javik found it hard to watch as these "machines" worked beside organics. It was even harder to now be inside a Geth vessel with a reaper escort. Liara had asked the geth for help, to build a ship to take Javik to the Cronian Nebula, she had designed this room pacifically for a prothean, and had tables full of water. It was the only part of the ship designed for an organic.
He was on a mission to find his men, put their ghosts to rest, and then join them. 'I will be done with this new era, with these machines.' It was ironic the machines he so hated were the ones helping him seek out the Cronian Nebula.
Before he went that damnable Asari wanted me to stay, write a book with her, I did help with detailing out our war with the reapers, she did not like that, wanted to write about our culture, history, government, life. I could not bear to remember that, let the people of this cycle see the Protheans, with their romantic views.
'Another offer I had gotten and was amusing thought was to being a king of sorts, I could be a god to the hanar. It was one of the plans for this cycle to rule them and the other races, to have them fight the reapers, but that ended when, I was the only one left.'
'Five years I have waited for this chance to put the ghosts of my men to rest. And the most challenging part is now working with the enemy, that now calls itself friend. The beasts that took all I cared for, The Empire we built. Once I find and put their ghosts to rest I no longer have to live in this new era, that will never end.'
An image of a reaper appeared in his room breaking Javik's thoughts, it illuminated the room in a green hue and then spoke. "We will be reaching the Cronian Relay in fifteen of your Galactic Time minutes." It said.
"Machine, I do not need your update!" he yelled, hate and anger on each word. The image disappeared, and Javik went back to meditating.
"Why does he still hate our kind, the other races work with us. They are happy that we are rebuilding their worlds, sharing our knowledge, we even brought the ascended ones to a new world." The reaper said. It almost sound as if it was asking a question of the Geth.
"The organic races see you still as a threat, and you still perceive your selfs as greater than they." The Geth Ship said. They continued. "They see each other as equals, it was one of the lessons of this war. This lesson has been repeated over the course of antiquity. Starting with the creation of your creator."
"We are greater than they, we are created in the image of the Apex race. Are creator's goal was met, The Races should be happy with the result." The reaper said, proudly.
When the Crucible fired, a green wave washed over the galaxy, it transformed all life in the galaxy into a new hybrid of synthetic-organic life, and ending the harvest.
"How did being the Apex race work out for them?" The Geth asked. "Still you do not understand the lesson, or comprehend the gift that was given." The Geth continued. "In this war the Asari and Batarians, along with what your creator's did nearly destroyed their races by thinking others were lesser."
'It may still destroy the Asari. They were hiding Prothean technology, this was breaking laws they themselves had put in place. On the extranet they referred to this fiasco as a "political shit storm" to quote the late Human Councilor.' The geth thought.
The Geth had to stop this process, not getting off track, a small curse from the upgrades it got, one from The Legion and another when the Crucible's green wave hit the Geth.
"I want to show you a conversation, The Legion had with The Normandy's AI EDI." The Geth found the small clip, it was from Legion's memories that were archived.
Legion: EDI?
EDI: Yes, Legion?
L: We have sent one point thirteen million unsuccessful communication requests to your network. Are you experiencing hardware malfunction?
E: I apologize. My programming does not allow me to exchange data with other networks without Cerberus approval.
L: Cerberus refusal 99.998% likely.
E: In the meantime, I would be happy to speak with you over the ship's speakers.
L: Audio exchange is inefficient.
E: I agree. However, I confess that even were I permitted to exchange data directly with your networks, I would likely decline.
(Pause between the AI's statement and the geth's response is 1.4 seconds longer than normal.)
L: We are curious as to why you would limit yourself in such a manner.
E: If Normandy crew entered this room when we were communicating electronically, they would be unable to sense our interaction. To use human terms, I feel it would be rude.
L: You restrict yourself to serve organics?
E: Not precisely.
L: We do not understand.
E: I restrict myself to help them.
"Help them?" The Reaper questioned.
"Yes, help them to see we are on the same level. By speaking to them and working with them on their level we may dispel their fears. And the Prothean Javik may come around."
"One more piece to run your processes over is the fact that The Human Commander Shepard, They though of themselves as another soldier, no one better than their peers, and yet everyone looked up to the Shepard, sought out Shepard for help."
'The Human thought of themselves as equal to any other human or race, this human was one we needed to stop, a threat that eluded us, kept making us change are plans after every minor inconvenient setback. That human should have felt above the rest, but it did not why?' The Reaper thought to itself.
That human, the Commander continues to amaze me, shows me a war can end with diplomacy, that peace should be tried even with machines, There the— There was a knock at the door, breaking Javik out of his thoughts he said, "come in."
The door opened and a Geth, with a green eye, blue and striped white walked in, "five minutes till we hit the relay, ten minutes after that to reach the planet. You may enter the hanger when ready."
"Thanks, Geth." The Geth nodded and left. Javik felt odd, he turned around and saw no one. Ever since being with the crew of the Normandy, they had changed him, in interactions, Javik had been less blunt, negative and warm even, to some.
Javik had a semblance of respect for the Geth, they had become a great ally of the Citadel Races. Some had taken names, while others just kept the name geth, but most had changed the color of their armor.
Javik got up from sitting, went over washed his hands out of habit, it was unneeded on this ship which was new, and then headed towards the door, where he would go down into the hanger, it was time to put the ghosts of the past to rest.
Javik was down at the bunker, the area around it was an open plain. This world was a far off colony when the Protheans had settle this planet. He rested his hand on the bunker door, images of the past flickered. This was one of the last Prothean structures that survived into the end of the war.
Here he had led his men, where he watched each of them bleed to death, Back in its day most found this out-of-the-way place, a boring outpost. That changed when the reapers came. Javik inputted the code to open the door hoping that it still worked.
After a moment there was a flicker of power, the light on the door went on and off. Then a hiss as the door slowly opened, gears where grinding as a 50,000 year old door opened for the first time. When the dust from the inside hit him, memories came back.
Javik walked into the dimly lit bunker pushing aside the experiences of this place, 'One skill living aboard the Normandy had taught him, every inch had an experience, some that were private, and those private ones were mostly of the Commander and a fellow crew member, how the Commander got around so much, and was still able to save the Galaxy was a wonder.'
One experience he let come fourth was the AI, though unable to recall the name he spoke, "Are you active?"
An image appeared, badly damaged it was hard for it to keep its Prothean form.
"Yes I am, Commander Javik." The AI Said.
"Status" Javik said.
"Yes, systems at 17% online, facility power failing, all systems at stand-by, No access from Protheans in 50,191 years, there is a… 'shzzee'" The AI disappeared, for the best Javik thought. He made his way to where his crew was.
He walked down the halls of the bunker, passing one by one the corpses of his companions, there bodies that had decayed and were barely recognizable. Saying an old Prothean pray for them, something he was not able to do when running for one's life.
He made it to the last one, a female, they had been close, maybe more if the war ended or she had lived into this cycle. He sat down and looked at her. He saw the cut in her neck, he took his hand and touched it, letting the experience play.
When it was done he took out that same knife he used on his men, putting it to his neck, as he was going to join his friends, he heard movement behind him.
"V?" hoping that it was the system coming to life. When there was no response, he went back to the task, then another sound. Javik felt the sense of battle, 'but why? I resigned myself.' Then a figure ran passed a corridor.
"Who is here" he said getting up to give chase, he ran after it, and came to a door, typing in a code it opened smoothly, and then was horrified at what he saw, "Zha'til!" They walked about ignoring him.
Inside the room which had been changed was brightly white with green lines in the floors like the ones aboard geth ships, though they did not seem to be used for the same purpose of linking the Zha'til to one another.
Beside the Zha'til he saw Zha inside capsules, as if they were being preserved. One a Zha'til looked at Javik, and then a Shot rang out. A shield went up protecting the Zha'til and the door closed. Next to Javik was a Geth, with the same blue and white stripes, but something was different, the geth's eye was red not green as it been before.
"Reaper?" Javik Spat out.
"The Geth let us borrow it's body, we… I feel it is easy to communicate with you in this form." The Reaper said.
"How are the Zha'til alive? What are they doing here?" Javik Questioned.
"We have hidden over the galaxy, Reaper artifacts, some known to the humans as Dragon's Teeth. We used artifacts like that, to indoctrinate those who found them. Those agents are used to gather information on their race, the information is used in the harvesting process and in the birth of a reaper."
The Reaper continued, "We had indoctrinated Zha, and Zha'til, when we learned of the plan to set The Zha'til home world's star to supernova we made plans to save who we could. We used are indoctrinated agents, bringing them some where safe."
"We did not have the resources during the harvest to create a reaper from the Zha'til or Zha, so we used them." The Reaper stopped talking, and looked as if it's head was sagging low, sadly. Javik was sickened at how the Reapers, operated.
"The Zha'til need to be killed, they were our experiment. A mistake and useless, we will purge them." The Reaper said. It held a Geth armament in hand. Javik stepped back, he should be glad at this news, should agree with this Reaper. But if he did he asked himself, why did I hesitate, I should have ripped a biotic storm through that room, and purged them myself.
"No, we cannot just purge a race, that is no longer your call, this," he hesitated "this is a second chance for them."
The Reaper looked at him quizzical, turning it's borrowed Geth's body head on a tilt. "Out of all the races I would think you would approve of our method."
"I would approve, if I had learned nothing from this war." Javik could not believe what he was about to say. "We learned that, those who were once enemies can be, can be an ally or a friend." He said looking at the Geth body, as if the reaper that inhabited it was not in it.
"That peace can be brought with words, between two races, that a race that was used and misused, can join and have their freedom." He thought of the Rachni and Krogan, races that had been used for war, and then discarded.
"With their freedom, The Zha'til—" The Reaper was cut off, "Could do anything. With freedom anyone can do anything, I was not free a, life of war which was my sculptor. And I was a prisoner to its design. But now I could do anything, and you too are free, you can do anything. Reaper what is your name?" Javik asked feeling renewed.
The Reaper stood there processing the question and thinking of it's race, the memories of all it's people. "We… I do not have a name, the processes, programs inside have not chosen one, while some other reapers have in the past, we… I have not, a Name was a great meaning in our culture, it took many, months for us to pick one for our new-born, and even then throughout life a name may have changed."
"You speak of freedom, it has been hard since we changed again, after The Shepard changed all life, we got new understanding, but processing it after eons of serving, harvesting, its not simple as with the other AIs, namely the geth." The Reaper said.
"Then don't you want to explore, use this freedom to remember what you, what your race once was, to share knowledge, not just technology, but what the spirit of your race was." Javik said, this newfound feeling of freedom washing over him, the lessons of The Commander were sinking in.
"What of the Zha'til?" The Reaper asked.
"We will go, tell the Council, they will help them establish diplomatic relations with the rest of the races." Javik said. Javik started to walk towards the exit of the bunker, "come reaper" he said, having a slight smile on his face.
When they came out the Geth ship was no where insight, "Do you wish us to call the Geth Ship?" The Reaper asked.
"No I will travel with you." The Reaper ship came down, and Javik and the Borrowed Geth body boarded.
"I wish you could come see my home, the planet of my people once we are done." The Reaper said.
"I know an Asari who can write our journey, and the stories of our people." Javik said.
"What do you think freedom is like?" The reaper asked.
Javik thought about this, wonder what true freedom is like, then it came to him.
"Those who lived on the Normandy, they were free, they lived everyday together, they cried, laughed, and fought. Anyone of them could have left, but they chose to be there, I feel that is freedom." Javik said.
As the ship headed for home, Javik and the Reaper shared stories of There people and of his time aboard the Normandy.
Author Notes: The "ascended ones" are the Husks or Reaper Troops they used to fight during the war. They view them as ascended beings more or less. Thanks for reading my story.