I don't own Mass Effect. Bioware does.
A couple of months have passed since Javik first reawakened from cryonic stasis. For the duration of that time, Saren and Jane kept up to date on more Prothean related findings while they set a reminder to notify Liara and Javik of any clues they found relating to this particular "Leviathan". They traveled from site to site, making it a high priority to find and begin deciphering any remaining logs and terminals that may give any information on what happened in the final hours of the Prothean Empire if they were to knowingly live on safely from the creatures from the void. One thing for certain was they found no indication that the cycle would repeat.
They traveled far for answers they both wanted by now since the revelation of the "Leviathans' existence". Eventually, their quest brought them to an isolated system at the edge of Terminus Space. Once they landed at the planet in question, Saren and Jane waited outside the shuttle for Liara and her crew to arrive. By now, Jane was a fully fledged Spectre, but the couple still worked together in most missions as partners. They waited for an hour after they arrived in the thick jungles of the planet called Ilos. Yet another Prothean city, it hadn't so much suffered from the Leviathans' destruction as it had the decay of time. There couldn't be other surviving Protheans on Ilos, could there? If anything, maybe the Protheans that remained there at the time could've evolved into something else.
Overhead, Liara's ship came in to land, having arranged the meeting location the day before. Saren and Jane headed over to greet them once the ship landed not far from their shuttle. Javik and Liara led the other members out as they greeted them.
"Arterius, Shepard, it is good to see you two," Liara said, "words can't express how grateful I am that you two could come along for this."
"This is as much a concern to us, Dr. T'Soni," Saren reassured.
"And I'm no longer surprised that not even my own species was aware of this discovery," Jane added.
Some of the crew from Liara's team backed out of their ship with APCs where the prefabs were stored.
"This was a large facility. I told her we would need proper transportation," Javik added.
Jane made a brief glance at the equipment.
"So what do you think we'll find?" Jane asked, gently pinching her chin.
"Hopefully? A conclusion of any sort," Liara answered, "whether or not they were defeated, I'm just hoping the Protheans managed something."
With some sort of objective in mind, Liara, Javik, Jane and Saren began their expedition through the jungle. Javik told them to set down not too far from the city in a more accessible location. It was only half a kilometer before they found the mossy city of Ilos, with most of its marble tiles and statues still intact. This made maneuvering around the city a little easier. They wove their way through the abandoned streets to a large wall leading into a significant R&D laboratory for the empire.
"Well, it doesn't look like we're getting through the front door," Saren grumbled.
Javik gestured to the nearby building.
"In there," he explained, "we can override the security mechanism and get in."
Nodding in agreement, Jane and Saren headed over to the building Javik mentioned. The city on Ilos wasn't nearly as destroyed as the other facilities Javik and Liara entered, but it was bad. Most of the electronics barely worked, and the elevator only took them down before they were forced to find another way out. Navigating this ancient city would be extra tricky for everyone. It didn't take long for them to find a tunnel into a large chamber with stairs on either side up to the next level. Saren, Jane, Liara and Javik led the crew up the flight of stairs. The second floor was a command center overlooking the area below with a terminal to the window. Javik instantly recognized the VI terminal and pressed a few buttons. The resulting projections was shaky and unrecognizable, but still formed the familiar hovering globe that was the VI's user interface.
"Pity. Not much remains here," Javik sighed.
Jane scanned their surroundings to find anything that would pique her interest. The VI simply repeated ancient recordings, yelling voices of the desperate Prothean personnel as they struggled to send out warning before the Leviathans struck.
"Javik," Jane asked, "do you understand what they're saying?"
"Just snippets. And by the looks of things, we aren't going to get much more than whispers. In the meantime, I'll open the gate back at the surface."
The terminal was just functional enough for him to gain access to the surface security. It took moments for Javik to configure the security before he succeeded in opening the gate.
"Right, now for a way back to the surface," Liara sighed.
Javik beckoned to the others.
"I know of another service elevator back outside," Javik replied, "I know that it'll be risky, but it's a faster climb than the stairs…if there are still stairs."
Jane nodded at Javik before the Prothean led everyone else out of the command center. The team walked on through to the other side of building, weaving around maintenance rooms, many of which had been kept seemingly untouched. While some of the crew members made a quick glance over these rooms, none of them found anything of interest. The others followed close behind Javik until they reached the end of the hallway. He tapped a pad to the left near a set of doors, followed by the quiet hum of the arriving elevator. Once the elevator door opened, they stepped inside. The ancient elevator slowly carried them back to the surface, opening back up to reveal a street not too far from where the gate was. They wasted no time as they stepped outside.
"Maybe we'll have better luck in another part of this city?" Jane pondered.
"I recognize this place, let's go," Saren suggested.
He recognized passing the area on the way to the gate, and decided to play leader for a bit. Walking around the jungle and eroded streets until they found the parked APCs in front of the now open gates. After checking whether the coast was clear, Saren, Jane, Liara and Javik led their crew through the gates. The inside tunnels were a bit more decorated than the rest of the city, with statues of ancient Prothean war heroes. The road had all but given way to the elements, leaving a gravely path for their vehicles. Jane didn't seem to mind that the vehicles wobbled while they drove over the rough terrain in the tunnels. Javik took a long look at the walls as they progressed deeper and deeper into the facility. The walls had been lined with the same pod he entered, with a network of bridges and lifts to access each one.
"What in hell was going on here?" he muttered to himself.
While the crew stopped the vehicles for a moment, Jane peered at one of the pods.
"Do you think this was meant to be a shelter?" Jane asked Saren.
"It'd make sense if they tried to implement the cryopod tech, though this was mere months after Javik went under," Saren agreed.
The crew continued their trek along the road. Down the long winding road, there was a large glowing, transparent wall that cut off their path half-way down the next corridor.
"This is strange. Something's not right," Javik commented.
Saren and Jane disembarked their vehicle before they stepped closer to the wall, using their omni-tools to scan its material. The door to their immediate right opened up when a synthesized voice crackled over the intercom before gradually becoming more refined.
{-EryOUIOUncjgguiic welcome back, Captain Javik. It has been over fifty galactic cycles since your last inspection.}
Saren raised a brow plate.
"How is the local intercom suddenly able to use our languages?" Saren asked.
{Please take the elevator down to my core. I can show more when you arrive.}
Saren and Jane exchanged glances before they gestured to the others to follow them. Javik, Liara and her crew disembarked the vehicles and followed the Spectres through the door. It was another elevator going down, away from the cryonic pods and vehicles above. The area below had walls of servers like a small library with the row in between both 'shelves' leading to a single projector down the center. It resembled the projected image from earlier that they saw from the facility at the gate.
"Virgil, I didn't think you would still be active," Javik started.
Javik stepped closer to the projector while Saren, Jane and Liara stood close behind.
{I was unaware you had survived, much less found an ability to outlive the normal lifespan,} Virgil returned, {is there anything I can help you with?}
"Yes," Javik nodded, "I'd like to know what became of my species during my absence."
{According to my records, you were labelled as on leave six months prior to the full invasion of beings which were commonly designated as 'The Mouth'. Leading up until their arrival, there were increasing rates of disappearances of merchant ships, planet-wide populations, and small fleets alike,} the VI recited.
Javik sighed as he folded his arms.
"Go on," he insisted, his hand gesturing his point.
{During the fifth month of increasing activity, the Empire was able to piece together enough evidence to confirm the presence of the hostile forces. With entire flotillas, they began to actively hunt down and destroy each individual one when they arrived. The military leaders believed they had successfully dealt with the threat when they arrived en mass on the first week of the six month of your extended leave. Government and military structure alike began to tumble, and the Prothean population was dying off in the millions each day. Realizing the desperation of the situation, the remaining science divisions developed a method of utilizing the Citadel and Mass Relays as a means of creating a large enough energy pulse to destroy them once and for all.}
Javik remained stoic upon hearing those words. Saren, Jane and Liara couldn't understand what he could be feeling right now.
{The Citadel, and subsequently through the Mass Relays, would produce an energy pulse that would wipe them from the galaxy. While it would invariably deactivate the communications and transportation system for an unspecified amount of time, it was worth the price of leaving the thousands of remaining Protheans scattered throughout the Galaxy. Much of the remaining military had retreated to the Citadel to begin transporting civilians through a relay back-door onto Ilos, where the laboratories had been hastily equipped with the same cryopods you were recorded to have entered for a trial run. The plan was to have the several million on the Citadel at the time sleep through however long it would've taken for the Mass Relays to reignite before reconstructing the Prothean Empire. Unfortunately, the operation beginnings didn't go unnoticed, and they attacked en mass at the Citadel, decimating the fleet in a matter of minutes. Amidst the chaos, the Citadel was fired prematurely before anyone could begin to travel to the Ilos reservations, wiping out all life on and around the station. According to my simulations, there were roughly half a million Protheans, yourself included, still in existence by the time the invasion ended. Given you are the only one who has made any attempt to travel within the last fifty thousand cycles, my simulations suggest that the remaining populace were left isolated in pockets of the empire and their dwindling numbers couldn't be supported with the convenience the Mass Relays provided.}
"I…see," Javik mumbled.
In Jane's mind, she could visualize Javik losing everything he once held dear while he was asleep the whole time, and the sadness that came with it.
Javik felt like every breath caused him to inhale a handful of ash. Each pained retraction of his diaphragm reminded him of each moment before and how he was the only one remaining of the Empire who could draw a breath.
"That's it? They all quietly faded into the night? No one but myself?" he asked.
Virgil stayed silent for a few more deadly seconds.
{From the current analysis of where new civilization has cultivated across the galaxy, the chances of finding another Prothean are incredibly low.}
Lowering his head, Javik placed his hand on the projector.
"And this miniature Mass Relay?" the Prothean asked.
{Towards the end of this facility. In the weeks before the final encounter seven months after you entered cryostasis, they installed a scaled down version of the Mass Relay, leading onto the central ring of the station. It is currently inactive, but will still function,} the VI answered.
"Thank you, Virgil. Log me out."
Javik turned and walked with the others back to the elevator. They didn't say anything until the elevator door closed and started its ascent.
"Well…now what?" Saren was the first to speak.
"Maybe the Mass Relay Virgil mentioned could be the last piece of the puzzle," Jane shrugged.
The elevator arrived back at the top, showing that the barrier was down, leaving the rest of the path open. Saren, Jane, Liara, Javik and their crew boarded their vehicles and continued driving down the path. The path was otherwise straight, continuing into a small opening in the back. At the foot of a large, concrete platform was the distinct profile of a Mass Relay the size of a large statue.
"Wait, I recognize that statue anywhere," Saren commented, "it's the same statue that's on the Presidium."
Jane instantly recalled a moment where she did catch a glimpse of the statue at the Presidium. They parked on the platform and disembarked once more to gain a closer look at the statue. Saren recognized the texture, as he would occasionally put a palm against the statue on the Presidium as he would catch his breath during jogs.
"You don't happen to know if this still works, do you Javik?" he inquired nervously.
"Perhaps…perhaps…" Javik mumbled.
Javik reached out to wipe dust off a small projector on the ground before it produced the outline of the control interface. He got to work exploring the keys and dials, looking to possibly activate the statue, though not entirely confident enough to test whether they could survive the trip back. With another few presses, he watched as the relay came to life, with its inner rings spinning with life and a beam of blue light forming from the heart of the statue before reaching out into the sky and beyond. While she gazed at this particular event, millions of thoughts flooded into Jane's head. It was a fool's errand. They hoped to mass-evacuate through a small relay when the Leviathans were actively hunting them down. The Citadel could already hold several billion from all species on the station, and it would take weeks, if not a couple of months to evacuate everyone. If this beam happened to reach the Citadel, how would everyone on the station react? How would Saren have to explain it to the Council? Most importantly, they couldn't have evacuated a few while they could? They had a few cryonic pods in the facility. Couldn't they have preserved enough? With their advanced tech, surely they couldn't artificially inflate their population numbers.
Either way, Liara found a chance to study this activated statue before them.
"They at least defeated them. Right?" Saren asked, standing next to Javik as they both continued to gaze at the beam.
Javik didn't say anything, but he nodded. Even if he was now officially alone, the answer was all he needed. For all they knew, they were still out there, having only sent an attachment to enslave or destroy the population. What mattered was the Empire had defeated them. Even as long as one soldier still stood on the battlefield, an uneasy victory was a victory nonetheless. For the others, they could imagine the possibilities of history books in the making for the Prothean legacy. It was a grim and dreadful ending to the ancient tale, but it was a definite conclusion to a story that an author suddenly walked away from for an indefinite hiatus, never to pick up the pen and finish what he started. It was an ending that Javik was surprisingly proud of, and one he almost regretted not witnessing, seeing the Leviathan beasts disintegrate into their basic molecular components. At the same time, he was proud to live long enough to see the spoils of their massive sacrifice.
With their mission accomplished, they could now start preparing to leave. After they shut off the conduit, Javik looked all around them at the passing cryonic pods, visually paying his respects before mentally bidding one last farewell. He watched as the library of would be Protheans disappear behind them as they drove back into the city at its feet.
"Was it what you expected?" Liara asked, glancing over from her seat in the vehicle.
"No, it's better. At least it wasn't for nothing," Javik answered, giving a half-smile back at her.
Liara plucked a beacon from a box and started configuring the settings on the panel.
"We'll come by here at a later date, start fully documenting the city. Will that make you uncomfortable?" Liara offered.
"No, I can handle it," Javik answered.
Part of him felt at ease, so he relaxed for the duration of the drive out of the city. Driving back to where they landed, the various personnel who came along with them began to stash the vehicles back in Liara's transport, while she and Javik walked over to Saren and Jane before they departed.
"Thank you two again. I know there wasn't much to encounter on the way here, but I at least appreciate the help in my search for answers," Javik told the two Spectres.
"I was just as curious as you were," Saren returned with a light nod, "so, what'll you two be doing next?"
"I've found my place among her crew," the Prothean gestured back at their ship.
Jane gave Javik a soft smile.
"I guess I'm glad you're happy," she said.
After Liara planted the coordinates beacon, both parties departed from the planet in their respective vessels. For the time being, they left the miniature relay on Ilos inactive to continue study back at the Citadel. Meanwhile, Saren quickly composed a report to the Council detailing what they had discovered in the ancient Prothean city. What became of the great Empire would make an important footnote in the knowledge they did have.