Identity (a Mass Effect fanfiction)

Prothean

The Prothean turned around, all four of his eyes fixing on Aaron's face, and he felt a jolt at the contact. Something in the gaze, the physical connection of Shepard's hand on the Prothean's arm and the Prothean's hand on Shepard's shoulder, touched a chord within Shepard that had lain dormant since he had first connected with the beacon here on Eden Prime years ago. From the moment his boots had touched the planet's surface again today he had felt a stirring within him. Through the bond that coursed between them Shepard had shared the Prothean's memories of his last moments before entering the pod, the last moments of the Prothean people, and felt them as if they were his own.

"You," the Prothean said, slowly, as if the word felt new in his mouth. His voice was as husky as you would imagine the voice of a man who had been in stasis for fifty thousand years would be.

"I came here for you," Shepard told him.

The Prothean's grip on his shoulder tightened, his eyes looking harder into Shepard's, as if he could see into his very soul. Shepard supposed that answered the question of whether he had one, something he had occasionally wondered about.

Around them stretched the beauty of Eden Prime—somewhat the worse the wear from the attacks of Cerberus and the work of the archaeologists—and Aaron wondered what this place had looked like during the lives of the Protheans, whether this Prothean recognized his surroundings or not.

"How many others?" the Prothean whispered.

"Just you."

The Prothean's eyes closed in pain.

"You can understand me?" Shepard asked him.

Without opening his eyes, the Prothean nodded. "Yes, now that I have read your physiology."

"So you were reading me while I was seeing your memories?"

Another nod. "You are marked. I can feel it within you."

"I saw what happened to your people; I know you must be grieving."

"You feel it, don't you?"

"Yes." He was trying not to, but Shepard could indeed feel the loss of the Protheans deeply, as deeply as he had felt the attack on Earth. "That was—I'm sorry, but that was fifty thousand years ago. My people are under the threat of that loss right now. They are dying, falling to the attacks of the Reapers."

The Prothean sighed. "So the cycle is ending again."

Behind them, Shepard heard Garrus's voice, practical as always. "Not a good place for a chat, Commander. Cerberus will come back; they won't give up this prize easily."

Shepard nodded. "Will you come to my ship? It's not safe here."

"You fight the Reapers? You, a human? A primitive?"

"Yes."

"How is this possible? How can a human be ... Prothean?" He caught Shepard by the arms, holding him tightly, his eyes probing Shepard's, seeming to see and hear inside him. "There is fear in you. The Reapers are winning."

"They are. We want to stop them. We have to."

"How long?"

"Not long. I first found one of your beacons here on this planet just over three years ago. We stopped a Reaper invasion then, held them off, but ... now they're back."

"So it has only just begun." The Prothean began to sneer, but then caught himself, catching onto a word and repeating it. "Beacon?" His hands tightened on Shepard's arms, and the vision flashed through Shepard's mind all over again, the one he had first experienced when he touched the beacon. The Prothean let him go, all four eyes wide with shock. "You saw it all! Our destruction, our warnings ... Why weren't they heeded? Why didn't you prepare, human?"

"I couldn't understand," Shepard said, shaking his head. "The beacon nearly killed me."

Something softened, faintly, in the Prothean's expression. "I see. I can still sense the turmoil in you. Witnessing the extinction of our empire, our people. The fabric of your being was forever marked that day."

"Yes, it was." More than Shepard had known, it seemed. He felt a kinship with this being in front of him, wanted him to understand that he hadn't been sitting on his hands all this time. "I tried to piece the vision together, and I tried to explain what I could understand, but ..."

The Prothean sighed. "So communication is still primitive in this cycle," he said wearily.

"We held them off as long as we could with the information we had, but it wasn't enough. They were determined to see the cycle through."

"And you, human? How determined are you to stop it?"

Aaron held the Prothean's gaze. "If I live, the Reapers die. All of them."

The Prothean searched his eyes, looking through them at the core of Shepard. "You seem to be telling the truth, human."

"Commander. Commander Aaron Shepard."

"You may call me Javik." Javik turned and looked out across the vista of Eden Prime. Behind him, Shepard could sense Liara's awe and Garrus's restlessness, and he knew Cerberus could not be far behind them, but he didn't have it in him to hurry this moment.

At last Javik turned back to him. "I will join you, Commander Aaron Shepard. And the last thing the Reapers hear before they die will be the last voice of the Protheans sending them to their grave."

Aaron felt that voice deep within him, the essential alteration of his self that had begun when he touched that beacon, and he nodded. "Yes." He reached out, and they clasped hands, sealing their partnership.