I don't own Mass Effect. Bioware does.
From what they could gather, Javik had been struggling to adapt to the current timeline over the course of a few days. His state of denial continued, and he was borderline suicidal. This didn't help that he had yet to open up to anyone, so Liara constantly monitored him in an effort to keep him from seeking out methods to end his own life. She had to be especially careful out in public areas where he made long glances at the weapons C-Sec officers bore or would peer over railings for far longer than he should. Finding mental help was an option, except none of the psychiatrists on the station have any expertise on dealing with Protheans.
That morning, Javik offered to carry something heavy only to use it in an attempt to drown himself in a fountain, weighing himself down so that all the air would escape his lungs, leaving him to a watery death. While he didn't reveal such an intention, Liara still gave him a suspicious stare. Initially, he acted calm when he lifted the crate. He waddled around a bit, but cautiously kept his eye on the nearby fountain. He edged closer and closer as he continued to walk along. When he was finally within reaching distance, he leaned over just too far and allowed the weight of the box to throw him in, catching him underneath, with the box weighing down on his chest. While Javik assumed he would soon be out of his misery, he suddenly felt a biotic field envelop him…almost like there was a cable connected to his chestplate. He was sharply yanked up out of the water with the box left in the fountain. With his limbs and head left dangling, he coughed and sputtered for a few seconds longer until his gaze landed on a very annoyed Liara.
"This is," Liara spat, almost on the verge of panicking, "this is the ninth time I've had to save your life, Javik!"
"Is there something you have against letting me join my kind in death?" he angrily choked.
Liara slowly lowered Javik onto the pavement in front of her.
"Is there something you have against living on as your race's legacy?" she returned.
Javik and Liara exchanged confused glances in a moment of silence. After a brief pause, she reached a hand to help him up. Javik stared in disbelief, yet he accepted her hand and she hoisted him to his feet.
"Try that again, and I'll have a holo-collar around your neck," she sighed.
Javik lowered his head slightly.
"Yes, ma'am," he muttered.
They continued to walk along when Liara's omni-tool received a ping from Jane:
{We just exited the relay and will be docking shortly. Has Javik's state improved?}
The two had left for another mission two days before and were subsequently absent for Javik's more recent antics.
{Hardly. He just tried to drown himself.}
Just then, Javik shook water droplets off of him before Jane responded a minute later:
{Do you want to meet us at the docks?}
After reading the message, Liara responded with another text:
{Gladly. I'll be there by the time you leave your ship.}
Liara led Javik away like he was a convict to the Spectre docks. They waited on the sideline until Saren's shuttle arrived several minutes later. Saren stepped out first, glaring at Javik with daggers.
"I don't like you either," Saren hissed, "but the least you could do is act more favorably towards the people who are trying to help you."
Irritated, Javik folded his arms.
"Do I somehow owe you because you dug me out, primitive?" he snarled.
Jane emerged from the shuttle a moment later.
"Perhaps we've gotten off on the wrong foot," Jane pointed out, "bashing each other over the head like this won't help anyone."
Javik shifted his attention towards Jane. He was all but confused by her calm stance.
"I doubt you could exacerbate the situation."
Jane slowly approached Javik, her expression carrying softness rather than anger.
"Do you…miss your people?" she asked.
"Why don't you put yourself in my shoes? You wake up to find everything you've known and loved is long gone. Feeling suicidal yet?" Javik grumbled.
Jane closed her eyes while she thought over the question in a moment of silence.
"I get the feeling," Jane said, "as a kid, I didn't have much going for me besides my mom. I was born into a brothel, barely getting by. I went to school while my mom stayed at home, tending to some uncouth customers. I was eight when I walked home to find her dead in a pool of her own blood. For the next eleven years, I had nothing and no one. Every encounter was a race to stay alive. Every scrap I could get my hands on was another day alive."
Jane opened her eyes, softness in her expression. Javik refused to make eye contact for a moment.
"So how did you persist?" he asked.
"I would do whatever it took to live another day," Jane continued, "even if some of the decisions involved were rather poor."
Javik's eyes continued to wander, before coming to a stop at her feet.
"What are you suggesting that I do?" Javik asked.
Jane reached her hand out and cupped the Prothean's cheek with it, much to his confusion.
"I know you're going through a rough time," Jane reassured, "but it's going to be ok."
Javik lightly brushed her hand aside.
"I expected a more in-depth answer," Javik replied, "but I still appreciate the encouragement."
Jane gave Javik a soft smile upon hearing those words.
"Perhaps I could help you find closure in the matter?" Liara offered, "find what eventually happened to your empire?"
Javik sighed before he nodded.
"I suppose," he replied.
Liara traveled back to her ship where she kept her files and records on what she had found with Javik by her side. She had been planning her next mission out when she had been given the responsibility of watching over the Prothean until he could learn to properly behave. Before the beginning of her mission, she and Javik began reading through the files. She hadn't found anything concrete, but she made room on her team so Javik could follow along and provide professional help. When she first introduced Javik to her team, they gave him puzzled stares. He was himself a relic of the forgotten Prothean Empire. Preserved, intact, and capable of reciting with greater detail more parts of Prothean society than any VI could ever hope to retain. Merely nodding at them, Javik searched for a seat in the ship.
Jane and Saren watched as her ship left the docks before turning back to themselves. As they left the Citadel dock and began to make for the Mass Relay, Javik looked out the starboard windows to look at the assorted fleets hovering around the enormous station. So much has changed since the fall of the Prothean Empire. He felt a brief wave of nostalgia waver over him as the ship approached the relay and was hurled out of the system. Watching as the stars and various unidentified systems flew by them, Javik continued to watch outside of the system.
Hours later, Liara's crew arrived at their destination. Javik returned to the window to watch as the vessel exited the Mass Relay. Liara approached him from behind.
"We're heading to a human colony," she told him, "it's currently located in the remains of a Prothean city. I thought I'd let you know."
Javik made a brief glance at Liara and nodded. The two walked to the cockpit to watch the final landing as the ship came into dock at the human colony. Javik watched as their ship to a particularly cloudy planet with bits of foliage peaking from far below. It didn't take much long before the crew shut off the engine and disembarked the ship with Liara and Javik emerging from the ramp first.
"I know this city," Javik started, "in my time, the planet's climate was much colder. It's strange to see it after all this time."
"It probably changed over the course of fifty thousand years," Liara observed.
Javik further noted how the elements had taken their toll on the infrastructure as a whole. Greenery now sprouted out of the cracks, bridges, stairs, and walkways had long since collapsed, and artistic details had eroded away. The motto of the Prothean Empire had always been "To last one hundred thousand years". Ironic to think they only lasted almost one fifth that goal last time he checked. Javik gazed closely at the infrastructure for a moment before he followed Liara and her crew through the abandoned city. They walked into an opening filled with various prefabs in the center of what Javik knew to be a large forum long ago. Two colonists, one in armor and one in civies, walked up to greet them.
"Dr. T'Soni, I'm glad to see you made it."
Liara nodded before she took a step closer to the colonists.
"Thank you," Liara said, "I assume you've partially visited the surrounding structures by now?"
"Yes," one of the colonists answered.
"We hadn't gotten far though," another colonist added, "only enough to utilize what's left of the city's electric grid and aqueducts to fuel the colony."
Liara led Javik and her crew farther through the ruins. They walked up through what was left of the nearby buildings and up a tower to be greeted by the remains of a highway, extending out to some of the other towers in the distance.
"Many of the structures out there haven't even been touched yet. I've received a request from a pharmaceutical company to set up base in one of them, but I haven't made up my mind about it."
While Javik listened, he examined each of the buildings in the area.
"We'll get started in the first tower down the road," Liara decided, "do you have any transportation?"
"Yeah, we'll lend you one of our Makos to help you get on the road," the colony leader answered.
Of course, the colony leader gestured to the Makos not far from where they were standing. For the next hour, Liara's team had been transporting equipment to the site as well as marking locations to set up the prefabs to set up camp in. Javik gave a helping hand in setting up the equipment they were using.
"What were these towers like?" Liara asked, watching as the prefabs set in place outside.
"This planet was once frozen over with ice. Each tower was designed to be self-sufficient under the circumstances one of the storms came down harder than usual with their own emergency generator, food storage, and water recycling plants," Javik answered, "each one felt like its own city, with the tight corridors and people around every turn."
"Is that so?" Liara mused, pinching her chin, "interesting."
"On a yearly average, an 'extreme weather' event would occur on average once a month," he added, "outside of watching freshly mined ores roll in, there wasn't much to do here."
A while later, the crew finished setting up camp. Liara pulled out a small probe and handed it to Javik.
"First thing before we do anything else is to map out the area," Liara told Javik, "want to come along? We would undoubtedly need your help."
Javik examined the probe for a moment.
"I'll be glad to help you, T'Soni," Javik nodded.
A small team with Javik and Liara started off to begin mapping the tower, traveling down to the top levels before making their way down, taking care to record notable landmarks in the area. Javik remembered the various places he had walked about and the various places he couldn't go due to the exclusive access mechanics received. This knowledge allowed him to guide the crew farther. They entered what was left of the tower's localized generator. The materials had long-since oxidized and was worn down over time. Javik sighed at the thought that came from his observation.
"This was one of the many parts only engineers had access to," Javik observed.
One of the crew members approached the worn down generator.
"Think we could get these up and running again? It would be helpful for the camp?" Liara asked.
The crew member haphazardly yanked off a panel and peered inside with a flood light.
"It's old, but I've managed to get some ancient Prothean machinery working again. By the looks of things, all the vital parts are still here, but it will take time."
Raising an eyebrow, Javik nodded in approval.
"We'll need it for the full exploration of this tower," he suggested.
Javik approached the generator and began helping the crew member with it. Explaining what little he knew, some of the engineer crew remained while Javik, Liara, and the others continued on. Deeper inside, they had found the aqueducts the colonists had mentioned earlier from their own position in the Prothean city. From what they could gather, it seemed these aqueducts haven't been used in a long time as water wasn't running through them. Gradually making their way to the top of the tower, they found themselves peering into the clouds around them, seeing the towers stretch on for miles. While they rested for a moment, Liara took in the mesmerizing scenery through her eyes.
"What a marvelous view," she said, barely audible over the fluctuating winds.
For once in the past fifty-thousand years of his absence, Javik couldn't help but smile.
"There were plenty of times I would take shifts up here," he mused, "watching the night roll in while banter would occur between comrades. Not much happened, but those were still good times."
Once this portion of their expedition came to a close for the day, Liara, Javik and her crew returned to the campsite. There, Javik helped set up defense mechanisms at the vehicular entrances to deter any potential threats.
"So…Javik, right? Was there anything you had to shoot out here? Seems pretty dead for a planet," one of the workers asked.
"Probably not," Javik chuckled, "with the exception of the rachni on a few occasions. Other than that, it was just there for general safety purposes."
"Ehh," one of the colonists mumbled, "haven't seen a rachni as of late."
"They were quite the threat. Has this cycle encountered the rachni?"
Many of the crew members shook their heads.
"Well, at least this cycle is lucky," he hummed before returning to work.
It didn't take much longer before the defense mechanism was completed. With the cover the tower provided, the crew simply set up barriers at the entrances, portable cover inside, and a few turrets on the roof. From there, they earned a chance to observe the fine details of the ruins. Javik led the team to the former living quarters to start from. Amidst the dust and rubble, they found the remains of a few terminals, undoubtedly chock full of journal logs. Amidst these files, Javik took interest in those related to the last years of the Prothean Empire, so he opened the files and started to read them.
It was the journal of some unnamed guard who had been posted at the city for roughly half a year. The logs started when the lieutenant first arrived. For the first week, he mostly wrote about adapting to the planet's abysmal weather conditions. Considering how the planet's climate changed since then, Javik found the writer's feelings pretty reasonable. Life continued normally for the soldier, even up to the date he recognized as the month he was put into cryonic stasis. Everything seemed otherwise normal until the fourth month at the post, when the network began suffering unexplained outages. Data was lost, communications would be suddenly cut, and the relays would undergo more repairs more often. Strange, what kind of crisis would trigger these incidents? Over the next month, shipments never arrived, naval vessels showed up destroyed without having sent out a distress signal, whole fleets started investigating any sort of radio silence only to find nothing.
Having finished reading these files, Javik felt more determined to find out what caused the downfall of his species.
The situation continued to grow more and more desperate as resupply shipments never arrived and martial law was declared. Colonial vessels leaving the city rarely reported in concerning their safe arrival unless they were given an escort to ensure their safety. Suddenly, during the sixth month and last message recorded, whatever loomed in the shadows finally came crashing down on their city, tearing it and everyone who lived in the towers apart. The owner of the journal stayed behind to compose one more message in case others came to investigate, with a corrupted message attached. Remaining cautious, Javik opened the corrupted message. The image itself was disappointingly little more than uncoordinated pixels.
"What is it?" Liara asked over his shoulder.
"Can't tell; the image isn't forming. Think you could help?" Javik grumbled.
"I've done it a few times. The image usually is still fractured, but I can try," Liara agreed as Javik handed her the datapad.
Liara took some time to restructure the image. Javik sat idly by in the prefab that Liara worked in, looking out into the cloudy distance outside of the building as he waited for an answer. She managed to complete the job half an hour later.
"Javik, come take a look. I don't recognize this. Do you?" Liara asked with relative unease.
Javik stood to his feet and stepped closer to Liara, glancing over her shoulder.
"What is…?" Javik gasped in shock.
It was nightmarish in size, and even more frightening in appearance. The creature was enormous, easily making up one fifth of the tower in length, and was composed of a rocky, sandy golden plates of armor covering its entire body. It resembled some sort of sea life, with 'tentacles' for legs and a body that resembled the side of a cliff deep below sea levels. Finally, there were two distinguishable sets of eyes on both sides of its head, shinning blue like crystal. In the background, it could see the gargantuan beasts attacking the other towers in the distance. These monstrous beings in the image sent terrified chills down the Prothean's spine.
"Javik?" Liara paused.
The Prothean Empire that Javik knew was at its peak. The rachni were a threat, but were soon dealt quickly enough with their own well supplied, well designed fleet. With particle weaponry, the best series of armor throughout the entire history of his species was available, and an awesome fleet with the greatest minds to direct its valiant soldiers to victory, their empire was practically invincible. Yet here they were, in ruins at the hands of some unspoken horror that had crawled from beyond the horizon of the galaxy into their lives while he was trapped in an eternal slumber.
"T'Soni," Javik asked, "do you know if there are remains of such…beings?"
"No," Liara shook her head, "there's been no record of such…I don't even know what those are supposed to be."
Javik couldn't help but sigh in disbelief. For once, he finally found a clue to what happened fifty-thousand years ago. He continued to stare at the screen longer, staring into the blue eyes as if they were somehow affecting him through their digitized interpretation.
"I don't know what else you hoped to accomplish during this current expedition," Javik offered, "but I want to stay with your team until I find out what happened in the gritty end. If these things are still out there, I want to know if we are to stop them."