So here it is Javik's chapter...this chapter got away from me a little. I had fun playing with Javik's mind-set and his abilities. Kaidan seemed the most likely to try and talk to Javik and bring him into the crew...James would be next especially if Javik did start hanging around more. I'm thinking I might have another Shenko fluff moment after this one and then I think Garrus would be in order. Enjoy!

Prism Elf

"Residue"

Javik washed his hands again. This was the seventh time in the past half hour he had done so. This ship was full of memories…good and bad. All he had done was walk out of his room and carelessly his fingers had brushed against the button to the elevator. Memories of terror and panic filled him. He couldn't breathe. His chest tightened. Yanking his hand away he gripped his chest. The flashes of memories, like images from a vid. Scrabbled and scattered the images and emotions flooded through him. Humans screaming and running from creatures…creatures that felt familiar, yet were altogether a new.

He closed his eyes trying desperately to separate himself from the memories, but the emotions were too high. The fear coursed throughout the ship like blood through veins. It was distasteful and disgusting but necessary process of life.

"Hey, are you alright?" A male human voiced. Javik righted himself, he hadn't realized he had even been slumped over. Opening his eyes he saw the human male that the female commander was bonded to. He watched Javik tentatively, searching for signs of something amiss. Javik nodded.

"I'm fine, human." He replied. Even though he had not experienced a memory like that in some time. He turned away heading back into his room. The human followed most like animal from which they evolved. Javik ignored him continuing to the pool of water that had been provided for him.

"Well, if I had to say so you look like you've seen a ghost." The human said. Javik sighed and placed his hands in the water.

Seventh time in the past half hour. He thought rubbing his hands together vigorously trying to pull the oily residue of fear and panic from his skin. "I am a ghost." He whispered.

"You don't have to be." The human crossed his arms and looked at him critically. "You could try to be more social. We really aren't that bad."

"Social? You do realize that the entirety of galactic civilization is being destroyed. How would being more inclined to socialize help us win the war against the Reapers? Will it give us an edge to this fight? Do you think it will stop them from wiping out your entire race?" Javik's nostrils flared. He was tired of the attitude from many of this ship's crew. He had once been like Commander Shepard…and look where that had landed him. In a future where the galactic races barely knew of the Great Empire. The memory of the terror and panic flooded his brain again. He scrubbed his hands again.

Why can't I be rid of it? He growled to himself.

The human frowned at him. He could feel the displeasure of his sharp words running through the human's body. Tense muscles around the eyes and jaw, his fist clenched a slight flicker of dark energy, yet he released all of it in a matter of seconds, the human relaxed and met his eye. "You aren't alone in this anymore." He said and then chuckled. "No wonder you and Shepard get along so well, you're both stubborn and focused to a fault."

Javik blinked removing his hands from the water. This human was laughing at him. "You speak ill of your commanding officer and your mate."

The human looked at the ground a faint blush creeping into his cheeks though he shook his head and laughed again. "You know I wouldn't say that to her, you know about being my 'mate'. And I don't speak ill about her, it's one of the things I love about her." His eyes darkened as he raised his head to stare at Javik.

Javik cocked his head to the side watching the human carefully he was no fool, this human was dangerous.

"But make no mistake, I know what this war is doing to her. It's slowly killing her. I want the Reapers destroyed as much as the next human or alien, but I also realize that stressing yourselves out about something you have no control over will ultimately destroy you." He paused and sighed. "We 'socialize' so that we have a chance to let ourselves forget to worry, or forget the lives that are being lost that we can't do anything about right at the moment. I can never forget the people I left back on Earth. And neither can Shepard. And for all the hours I've spent fighting and bleeding to help everyone I think I've earned the right to a few minutes of forgetting. Because when you think about I'll live the rest of my life, which could be very short depending on how a firefight goes, remembering." The human closed his eyes briefly as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I didn't mean to get all preachy."

Javik shook his head. "Pretty words, human, but they can't help us. The Reapers don't listen to words, or care about your regrets, fears, or dead. They care only about the destruction of your race. But, I see your point." Javik wrung his hands together. "This ship is full of memories, some pleasant and some not. It is a blessing and a curse to able to see all of them. To feel all of them. The autocracies suffered by my people at the hands of the Reapers, but I can't. And I won't."

The human nodded. "I don't think it would be right for you to do so."

Javik blinked and turned away from the human looking down into the reflective surface of the water. Memories swirled on the surface like an oily residue lost and forgotten. "I had a ship like this once." Javik started without releasing what he was saying. He had made the mistake before of telling the female commander about his crew and ship. Now, he was repeating that mistake again.

"Shepard mentioned something to me about that, though she didn't say what had happened to it or you." He walked around to lean up against the computer console on Javik's right.

"Good. My mistakes are not to be repeated. Your commander has a chance that I had not thought possible. She may have the capability of defeating the Reapers. She does not need to burden herself with frivolous and unnecessary things."

The human male bristled at his words. Javik noticed a suppressed surge of dark energy again. The human controlled his emotions fairly well. "What you are saying is that Shepard shouldn't have attachments."

"Precisely. Attachments distract her from her mission from her goal."

"Yet they give her something to fight for.

"Or die for." Javik paused turning his head calmly. "Your commander has died once before, saving those she deemed important. Do you believe she would not make the same mistakes again? Would she not die to protect those she cares for? You, who are bonded to her, would she not die to protect you? Her life could be the difference between the Reapers winning or losing this war. This cycle of destruction being stopped or continuing. She would risk it all for the sake of a few lives is regrettable."

"Regrettable? Huh…I don't think you know Shepard very well then." The human shook his head and chuckled. "Shepard knows the odds and she knows that at this point anyone and I mean anyone on this ship would willing give their lives if it meant stopping the Reapers for good. I'm a soldier, Javik, I know the chances of surviving this are low. It doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the thought of Shepard having to do this alone. I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

"You speak as if you know what it's like to be the last of a people who were eradicated by the Reapers." Javik snapped his patience with this human was running thin.

"No, but I do know what it feels like to be lonely, even isolated. It's not a pleasant experience. Look, all I'm saying is that if you want to join the rest of us for dinner or even a game of cards you would be welcome." He offered. Javik sensed the underlying sincerity to his gesture. He really did not care, but the human would want to hear that the thought was appreciated. Sighing he looked away from the him.

"It is appreciated, I will consider your offer."

The human nodded and pushed himself away from the computer console. "You're welcome." He started out the door as the door opened automatically he paused and glanced back over his shoulder a look of contemplation crossing his face. Javik waited.

"Yes, human?"

"I meant what I said earlier you and Shepard are very similar. It's almost uncanny." He chuckled. "I don't know if the galaxy could handle the two of you. The Reapers certainly won't be able to." With that he left. Javik canted his head and wondered after the strange human. He was different. Under different times Javik might have considered being friends with the soldier, but now…he had learned that lesson long ago, he would never become attached again. He refused to look into the eyes of his friends and comrades as he slit their throats and watched them die. He would not go through that again. Shepard risked too much. But she would learn. Javik felt a wave of sadness pass over him at the thought. A part of him hoped it would never come to pass.