With a simple shot, the bottle exploded.
It looked like a small firework, if they had scotch for filling. Kaidan used his biotics to accumulate the broken glass that remained and disintegrate it.
"And another one for Vakarian!" Garrus cheered after enjoying his success. Still with a victorious smile on his face, he handed over the gun to Kaidan.
"I'm just glad we didn't make a bet…" Said Kaidan, changing the gun's thermal clip. "Otherwise I would be making excuses about how little money I have."
"Come on, is a Council's payment really that bad?"
"Actually it isn't." Admited Kaidan, failing his shot and again using his biotics to pull the bottle back to him. "I just wanted to add some drama to my failing. It helps me deal with the fact that my shooting ability has gone this rusty."
"That's what happens to soldiers in times of peace. We must find a new way to make ourselves useful for society or else we end up as beggars or drunkards wasting every credit on asari dancers."
"No wonder politicians spend more time in bars than in their offices then. I once heard one of them wanting to build a new stripper club for high class people with an asari only staff. He said he would name it 'Hot Ass-aristocracy.' "
Garrus aim threatened to fail him and he remained in the same position for a moments. Slowly, he turned around and looked at Kaidan in disbelief. He shrugged and opened the bottle, drinking from it in small sips.
"Yeah, he was quite drunk that day…"
"Well whoever he is, tell him I fully support him. I could even help in its construction now that I have finally learned how to use a hammer." said Garrus , putting the gun down and sitting next to Kaidan.
They were sitting near the edge of the roof, with their legs hanging down. Any other person would feel sick just by looking down and seeing the distance that separated them from the floor, but for hardened veterans from the war against the Reapers, it had a relaxing effect. After Garrus declared himself the official winner of the competition and saved the last remaining bottle to himself, they both spent some time looking at the landscape without saying much.
Earth had been rebuilt completely, but Kaidan couldn't deny it didn't feel like the same homeworld he knew before the war. It was the same air, the same soil and the same nature, but the life on it felt different. There were times, and not scarce, when Kaidan felt he didn't belong in Earth anymore. Yet, he had an unbreakable responsibility to humanity now that he was its Councilor, and considering the bad reputation Udina had thrown upon the job with his betrayal, the burden of his duty was too heavy to simply shrug off.
She wouldn't have given up, so neither would he.
Easier said than done.
"You know, she and I had this same competition once back in the Ciatdel, after Udina's coup." Said Garrus. Kaidan's eyes widened but he didn't dare to look at his friend and instead kept his gaze lost in the distance. "I never said it out loud, but more than once I thought we weren't going to make it. Even with Shepard leading us, the chances of beating the Reapers were so slim, and after I saw what they did to Palaven… my hopes were scorched."
Kaidan's grip of the bottle tightened and he could feel how his headache was about to return.
"Yes, I know how that feels. I was hardly more optimistic. All I could think about was Earth being destroyed." Kaidan confessed.
Garrus nodded and laughed under his breath.
"But she didn't let that bring her down, did she? I admired that about her."
"Her cold head and stubbornness?" Said Kaidan, amazed at his nostalgia.
"Yes, and also her ability to keep her feelings hidden and make decistions. I don't think I ever saw her cry."
"Neither did I." admitted Kaidan with his voice barely audible.
People always said that talking about those who are gone is the first step to accept their deaths and move on. It was supposed to make him feel better, but all that Kaidan felt was a numb void in his stomach. He now knew that all the people who still believed in that crap were either children or deluded idealists.
"Shepard lost against me, but it wasn't until recently that I realized she might have let me win on purpose. Heh, I would have gotten upset if I had discovered it at the moment, but now I understand why she did it. And I think I feel the same way about her decision of doing this…"
Garrus stretched his arms and pointed at the visible green energy on his skin, a trait that was now common in all the living beings in the galaxy. Kaidan said nothing; he only wished Garrus would change the subject soon.
A colossal shadow hid the sun from them. Like a horrifying dark cloud, a reaper passed near the sky crapper, putting as much mind on them as a bird would.
"Hard to think we once would have pissed our pants if we even aaid the word Reaper, and now we just kindly ignore them." Said Garrus, sounding less enthusiast than before.
"I hate them, but what else can we do other than learning to live with them?" hissed Kaidan, frowning and putting the half empty bottle aside. "I know they help us with repairs and emergencies of the sort, but I don't think I will ever see them as nothing more than murderous machines. Machines that we… that we were forced to accept. Maybe that's how life always works: we never accept nothing willingly, we are just forced to put up with it."
"Kaidan, come one. If we had that mentality towards the other races, the krogan would not even try to get along with the salarian or us, the turians. The humans and turians relationship would be doomed too. What do you tell me about the biotics? Besides, we have proven most of theose conceptions are stupid prejudices. Wrex contradicted the krogan idea most people had just like Mordin did for the salarians. And look at yourself and Jack! Granted, Jack might have acted her part as the crazy biotic stereotype very well for years, but she was able to redeem herself while you became the Human Councilor."
Kaidan grew anxious and stood up. Garrus looked at him with peaceful eyes, prepared for whatever his friend was ready to throw at him.
"Enough, Garrus." Said Kaidan with a hand on his temple "I know what you are trying to say and I appreciate it, but I don't want to talk about it. I no longer believe in that and the more days it passes, the less I think I will believe again."
It was Garrus' time to stand up and face Kaidan. The bottles and the gun glinted after the Reaper finally allowed some sunlight to reach them.
"Believe in what,exactly?" Garrus inquired, almost challenging.
Blood pumped through Kaidan's head, only worsening his migraine and his temper.
"In the idea that this peace we live in is real!" Kaidan snapped. "I see it every day, how we all pretend to be flawless saints that get along when in reality we are just hypocritical fools that no longer hate each other because we all are exactly the same. And it wasn't even our choice to be this way, which makes me think that all our efforts to finish the war just ended up in a cheap resolution made by the person we chose as our leader. Maybe this new DNA is just a giant step backwards we cannot correct. Maybe Shepard… made the wrong choice."
Garrus found it hard to gather the words to argue with Kaidan.
For Kaidan , finally expressing his thoughts out loud gave him a feeling of relief that was not comforting. As if the burden had left a void that was equally heavy and sour. Upon seeing at how confused he had left Garrus with his speech, Kaidan felt like a complete jerk.
"Sorry Garrus, I wasn't trying to confuse you. That's just how I feel about it sometimes."
"Relax Kaidan, I understand." Spoke Garrus, taking a deep breath. "To be honest, I have thought of that too. Spirits, I still do! But even if I have my doubts, I trust that Shepard was right. She always proved she was worthy of trust when she was alive, so I see no reason to distrust her so quickly now that she's dead. "
Kaidan's fists began to loosen up. He tried to fake a smile but to not avail.
"Perhaps. Thank you, Garrus."
"Anytime, Councilour Alenko. Hey, are you okay? Your nose-"
The taste of metal started to mix with the faint flavor of alcohol in his mouth. Not until it was mentioned Kaidan felt the warmth of his blood running down from his nose to his lips. He rubbed it away with the back of his hand.
"Oh, it's nothing." He said, a bit embarrassed.
"There's no need to be so mysterious. If your migraine was this bad , you should have told me. I don't want to take the Human Councilor to the Clinic and be the suspect of a Turian coup against humans, it would be incovienient." Said Garrus, jokingly hitting Kaidan on the arm.
"The sad thing is that that's not an exaggeration on how they would react."
"Drama just makes things more interesting, and I'm okay with that. Come on, we should get back down there. If I'm not mistaken, that ceremony of yours will be starting soon." Said Garrus, grabbing the gun and putting it back inside the cab.
Kaidan nodded and was about to do the same with the two half empty bottles, but the the sudden quake underneath his feet forced him to stop. It felt as if the skyscraper was going down, with both Kaidan and Garrus making great efforts in order to keep their balances.
Then, the cry of the same Reaper that had passed near them a few minutes ago deafened their ears. Kaidan shouted in pain and felt to his knees, feeling how his eardrums were about to explode. More than the shriek of a machine, it sounded like the cry of a dying animal.
His eyesight became blurred and his nose began to bleed again, dripping from his chin and forming a small crimson puddle on the floor.
"Kaidan!" Garrus was by his side in a matter of seconds. "Kaidan, we must get out of here now! Something has-"
The explosion silenced whatever words he was about to create. The cry of the Reaper was replaced with the crashing drumming of a detonation, followed with a wave of heat that for an instant felt as hot as the sun's. There was no time to recover or to fully understand what was happening for immediately after the collision of the now dead Reaper against the ground gave place to a stronger earthquake than the first one.
"Let's go, now! Give me your arm." Said Garrus with his voice filled with adrenaline.
Though still taken over by his migraine, Kaidan managed to gather enough strength to get back on his feet with Garru's help. They threw themselves inside the cab without any sense of caution. Kaidan hit his shoulder against the door but he didn't notice.
"Hold on, Kaidan!" Garrus turned on the cab and drove it off the roof just before the truly strong vibrations took place. He thought of the channel he wanted to contact and allowed his soldier instincts to flow freely once again. "C-Sec, this is Garrus Vakarian. A Reaper was just shot down. Probably a malfunction or a meditated attack, send units to investigate ASAP. It felt right in the Commons, expect heavy civilians casualties! Councilour Kaidan Alenko is with me, he needs medical assistance, I repeat, he needs-"
Kaidan grabbed Garrus's shoulder firmly. The dry blood above his upper lip was all the trace left of his migraine. He was pale and breathed mostly in gasps, but his eyes showed a determination Garrus could have mistaken with anger.
"I'm fine. Focus the medical attention on the civilians near the crashing zone." Kaidan urged, sitting straight on his seat and using his omni-tool to inject himself with some medi-gel. "Garrus, take me there too. I need to figure out what happened and check on the damage."
"Are you kidding? You are the Human Councilor, if I should take you anywhere it's the hell away from the dead Reaper."
"Now!"
Garrus decided there was no way he would talk Kaidan out of his decision after he had stopped being the human councilor for now to assume his role as an Alliance soldier once again. It felt like the old times, and even if Shepard wasn't there anymore, the responsibility of solving that whole mess was theirs again.
And honestly, Garrus found some satisfaction in it. War had left deeper scars than the ones he had on his face.
"Understood, Major Alenko. We are back in action."
And so they drove off, with the screaming of people and the smell of smoke increasing as they approached the corpse of a fallen old enemy.
