Animalistic grunts and the sound of flesh on canvas echoed through the hangar bay.
Shepard had taken Vega and Vakarian planet side on a mission to rescue a crashed turian crew that apparently included the primarch's son. Jade was fuzzy on the details, but it left her with free reign of the bay, and Vega's workout equipment.
She needed it after her conversation with Liara.
Jade had assured the asari that she had been hyperbolizing her height difference, then showed her Chakwas' report from her initial check-up. Liara had said she would try to look into the Lazarus Project's records, but couldn't promise anything. Her sources inside Cerberus had dried up since the war began.
'S fine by me, Jade loosed a vicious flurry of blows at the bag. The less time the "Shadow Broker" spends looking into my past, the happier I'll be.
She'd told Liara about the Beirut op. That was in Typhon reports, but not what came after. Jade had made damn sure none of that made it into any reports. Especially any that could be tied to her. It had hurt, remembering Beirut. Hell, it hurt remembering anything from that period of her life. Stirring up memories long dead was exhausting, but Jade knew that if she tried to sleep now, all she'd get for her efforts was nightmares. The only way she knew to head that off was to go for total physical exhaustion. She'd been working toward that end for over an hour now.
With a final combination of kicks and punches Jade finished with the heavy bag and moved to the weight bench. She'd quickly discovered her augmentations both allowed her to do more than she ever had before with very little effort and shortened her recovery period so much that it required concentrated effort to actually wear her out.
Harder, better, faster, stronger. She thought wryly as she continued her set. Great, now I miss my iPod, workouts aren't the same without music.
She was so focused on completing her exercises smoothly, quickly and at the heaviest setting her augmented muscles could handle that she didn't hear the elevator doors open. She didn't even realize anyone else had entered the hangar until the weights she was working with were forcibly lifted out of her hands.
"What the fuck?" She swore as she sat up.
"I will repeat myself once only human."Javik's amber eyes were hard with anger. "Immediately cease polluting the ship with the scent of your pain and aggression. Your pheromones are so strong I can sense them even through a sealed door."
"Sounds like a personal problem," Jade grunted as she picked up a set of weights and began lifting them again.
"Hey!" The weights flew out of her hands, wreathed in an eerie green glow, and crashed into the opposite wall of the bay.
"It is a personal problem," Javik spat, his hands lit with the same light. "But it is not my problem."
"Then fucking leave me to deal with it asshole!" Jade shot back, clenching her fists. You're losing control Harmon, get your shit together. 'Cmon, not his fault you can't deal with your goddamn past. Put a lid on it soldier! She took a couple of deep breaths, struggling to get her runaway emotions under control. "I'm taking care of myself." She hissed through clenched teeth. "I don't see how that could possibly involve you."
"I have already informed you of how I am affected," he was giving back just as good as he got. "The reek of your emotions has invaded my quarters. I cannot concentrate when you contaminate everything I touch."
"So get a goddamn air freshener and get off my fucking back. It's not like I can control that sort of thing." Jade turned her back on the prothean.
Her turn was checked by a three-fingered hand as Javik spun her back around.
"Clearly a species as primitive as yours cannot be expected to control its emotions, but you mistake my meaning," he used his biotics to propel Jade into the center of the hangar. "Since you lack the discipline required to maintain your own balance, you force me to remove the source of the irritation myself."
"You think you're good enough to take me?" His insults had finally pushed Jade's temper past the fraying point.
"Fine," She stripped out of the oversized workout gear she'd been wearing and took up a stance in her sports bra and shorts, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "Let's see if you've got what it takes to beat one of America's best. Bring it, Kermit!"
Their fight ranged through the shuttle bay moving rapidly from one end to the other as the combatants would retreat or press the advantage. They seemed evenly matched, Jade's flexibility and speed allowing her to dodge Javik's biotics, and a literal lifetime of battle experience allowing him to control the field in spite of Jade's more upfront, physical approach interfering with his biotic abilities. Some forty-five minutes later, both of them were soaked in sweat, bruised and exhausted.
"Alright, you're pretty good," Jade panted as she took cover behind an equipment crate. They'd managed to keep most of the really heavy equipment out of the fray, but small tools and parts were scattered about the floor from overturned tool boxes and crates. "But Shepard's due back any minute. What's say we put this on hold until later. I don't relish trying to handle her bitch-fit when she sees this mess."
"Agreed," came the smooth reply. "But understand that this is not over."
They both left their defensive crouches and began righting the disarray.
"Oh, I understand I'm going to wipe the floor with you," Jade dragged the weights back to Vega's bench as Javik replaced Cortez's tool box manually, biotics long since exhausted. She groaned as a pulled muscle in her back twinged in protest. "Next time."
"We will see," Jade could hear the smirk in his voice, despite the fact his back was to her. "Next time."
She left him on the Engineering Deck, still smirking.
It wasn't until she'd reached her own quarters on the Crew Deck, and she loosed a jaw-cracking yawn, she remembered his ability to read more than just emotions through pheromones, and it occurred to her that maybe, just maybe, he had been doing more than "removing a source of irritation."
Damn, I got played. She smiled gently to herself as she fell onto her cot. Her final thought before drifting off to a dreamless sleep was to thank the prickly prothean. That was exactly what I needed.