Jade missed Wrex and by extension she missed Grunt. She missed having a Krogan around they were always up for a good fight, and then they'd go out and get drunk and then fight some more. It would help deal with the stress. Part of her felt like telling Joker to head to Tchunkaa so she could go kill something large and deadly. It was certainly better than talking about her feelings with Kelly. She wondered if Garrus was up for it.
She was spiraling, she knew it Kelly knew it, everyone on the ship knew it. She no longer had any idea what the next move was. The Quarian-Geth treaty broke down after a month of talks. She had no desire to rush back to fix the mess. Liara had mentioned something about Batarian space and Reapers, she had stopped paying attention and had merely passed the information onto Miranda to deal with.
"Ryncol will kill you, it's like drinking gasoline."
Jade tensed upon hearing Ashley's voice but made no move to get up. "I was spaced, and I got an upgrade. Ryncol is nothing compared to what my body can handle."
Ashley stared at her former commander taking in the orange glow that came from her cybernetics before sighing as she took a seat beside her, pouring herself a drink. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. But you don't know what it's like being a Williams."
Jade's jaw twitched, "I don't care about your family history, and it was generations ago. Had it been you, I would have—fuck I still would break every rule to pull your ass out of the fire. I did back on Virmire, I saved you over Kaiden. I would say that he would drop anything and help me save her and he might have. He had some silly crush on me even though I bat for the other team."
"If I had known—"
"You betrayed me, turned your back for your career. Followed orders blindly despite the fact that you were with me every step of the way. You know the Reapers are coming, you know that everything I have done since we found out that they existed is try and prevent what seems to be the inevitable at this point. The Reapers are going to come, they're going to cull everyone and everything. We will fight but I don't know how to stop them. It took everything and then some to bring down Sovereign. We don't have the firepower to bring down an Armada especially with each race doing their own thing. I've died pulling people out of the fire. I'm the fucking savior and apparently it's in my fucking job description. I came to you begging for your help and you fucking rejected me because you cared more about your rank."
"I didn't know who she was to you, I couldn't just abandon my post because you came back from the dead walked into my lie and snapped your fingers. I had a life, I had a job. Anderson told me that they were thinking of making me a spectre."
"You owed me, how many times have I pulled your ass out of the fire. If you had ever needed me, I would have come to your fucking aid and when I needed you to save the woman that I love," Jade inhaled sharply and threw the glass of ryncol against the wall causing Ashley to jump back at the sudden action. The glass shattered against the wall painting the wall green. She slowly exhaled. "The woman that I love and you turn your back on me. So now, I'm sitting here, trying to be professional. When all I really want to do is break your face against this bar and then go to my ex-girlfriend beg for her to take me back."
Ashley didn't say anything watching as Jade poured herself another drink and drain it. Garrus had said that an apology was all it would take, clearly he was wrong. "Why don't you, try and romance her."
Jade glared at her, "I'm being professional remember," she slurred. "I fucked up, didn't appreciate what I had. Now she looks at me and see's the fucking Illusive Man. She has a point you know, I have done some shitty things. I do whatever it takes to get the job done. I committed a crime and I got a slap on the wrist by the Alliance, they had surrendered and I went out of my way to kill them anyway. I have murdered children and torn families apart because it was ordered of me. I am a fucked up individual and truthfully Miranda has every right to stay away."
Ashley swallowed and took a sip of her drink, this wasn't the Commander Shepard that she knew. Which begged the question, what did Cerberus do to her former friend? "Miranda didn't fall in love with a self-loathing, self-destructive drunk. She fell in love with Commander Shepard, you know savior of the galaxy, first human spectre. I hear she even beat death," Ashley joked.
"I remind her of the Illusive man, and I don't know how to change that. Stopping the Reapers takes precedent over everything. I can't just stop, whisk her away somewhere nice and try and woo her back. We've both got jobs to do and Miranda takes hers far too seriously. I take my mission way to seriously."
"Really it's hard to respect you when you're this self-pitying whiney drunk—" Jade's fist slammed into Ashley's face cutting her off.
Jade smirked watching as Ash pushed herself off the ground, "God I needed to do that, talking about shit you know nothing—"
This time it was Ashley who tackled Jade off the bar stool, both women falling onto the ground hard. Jade throwing punches and knees and whatever she could think off in her drunken state as she wrestled for dominance. Ashley throwing in a few punches of her own as she shoved Jade off her body, slamming an awkward fist into Jade's jaw. Jade returned the blow with a particularly punch to Ash's solar plexus.
Jade was about to follow it up with another blow, when she felt the blue glow of biotics surrounding her in a stasis field, locking her body in place. Swearing under her breath she glanced at the door wincing when she noticed Miranda glaring at her.
"Congratulations commander, you have another session with Kelly," Miranda voice cut through the air causing both women to wince as she lowered the field.
"Would you believe that this was just sparring?" Jade asked, though her words were slurred it still came out hopeful, and she plastered an innocent looking smile on her face.
Miranda resisted the urge to roll her eyes, she had seen this viciousness directed at Ashley before but they had managed to keep them separate for weeks. She personally didn't understand the anger that Jade felt towards her former squad mate. From the looks of it EDI had contacted her in time. "No. I sent Kelly to your cabin."
Jade groaned as she stood up, her cybernetics burned hot as she metabolized the alcohol quickly. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath, storming out of the room and past Miranda brushing against her.
