The Sad Man Behind Blue Eyes 2/4
anonymous
August 12 2013, 20:16:09 UTC
What he didn't say was, 'So you could've postponed your assassination', but Garrus heard it anyway.
"So what happens now?" He didn't really know what to expect, and that was the thing to be cautious about when it came to Kaidan. He was a very versatile guy, you never knew if he was going to shoot you, zap you, fling you across the room... or just talk you to death.
Seemed inclined to talk, though. Garrus tried for nonchalance and went to the kitchenette, under the guise of getting water to tend the flowers.
"Ideally?" Kaidan dropped a bit of the pleasant facade, but still sounded perfectly polite. "You surrender peacefully, I turn you over to C-Sec who'll charge you formally. Since your victim was a Hierarchy official they have demanded you be extradited, so you'll be shipped back to Palaven for trial. From there... well, I imagine you know your own justice system better than I do."
He did. "Lifetime jail. With work-detail. Assuming guilty verdict."
He wasn't sure what kind of evidence they had on him, but on the other hand they considered the matter important enough to send a Spectre - which meant a trial was more or less a formality.
"Assuming that." Kaidan stepped away from the table as Garrus approached it. He didn't pull a gun, or charge his biotics, but Garrus had spent too many battles side-by-side with him to not recognise a ready stance when he saw one. "That's my recommendation, by the way. Surrender peacefully. Easiest for everyone involved."
Garrus carefully tipped the glass of water into the flower vase. "And if I don't?"
Kaidan grimaced. "Then we get the less ideal situation where I have to use force. I'd prefer if it didn't come to that."
"You could just walk away."
"I can't do that. Please stand down, Garrus. What you've been doing is illegal."
Wasn't it just? He slammed the glass on the table. "But not wrong. The system is broken. It doesn't protect those who need protecting, and protects those who shouldn't be."
"Then help us fix it! Not break it further. Do you know how many fear-induced riots have broken out since the news of the assassination hit? You've destabilised the entire Citadel space with your murder, an instability we really can't afford right now."
"The woman did plenty of destabilising all on her own. We're better off without her."
Kaidan smiled sadly. "That's not up to you to decide, Garrus. She gained the representative's chair through normal channels, your people's channels, which means she earned it somehow. If you feel she wasn't the right person for the job, there were other ways to deal with it than killing her."
"They weren't working! Every day she sat on that board was a day hundreds of people weren't getting the help they deserved. Don't you see why I had to?"
"I understand why, Garrus. I really do. I see the broken system too, I see a galaxy in chaos, where those who looked out more for themselves than the people around them were those that survived. But you've gone from just cutting corners, to barreling straight down the middle. The only reason you've been left more or less alone until now is because of the lack of bystander casualties."
"You really think I would have lasted this long if someone didn't tacitly agree with what I was doing? C-Sec could've come for me back when I was killing petty crooks and criminals, but they didn't."
"No, you're probably right about that, someone's been looking between the fingers for you," Kaidan allowed without hesitation. Good, at least he wasn't pretending the justice system was innocent in all of this. "But Garrus... you could've stopped those people as a cop, too. Legally, within the system. And it would've had a lot more stabilising influence in the long run by restoring public faith in law and order."
"Laws come and go, depending on who's running the show. Sometimes, those laws are wrong. But justice is justice."
"Wrong by your definition, Garrus," Kaidan said, the exasperation sounding almost fond. His damnable integrity wouldn't allow him to ignore this, but maybe.... just maybe, there was a way to use it.
"So what happens now?" He didn't really know what to expect, and that was the thing to be cautious about when it came to Kaidan. He was a very versatile guy, you never knew if he was going to shoot you, zap you, fling you across the room... or just talk you to death.
Seemed inclined to talk, though. Garrus tried for nonchalance and went to the kitchenette, under the guise of getting water to tend the flowers.
"Ideally?" Kaidan dropped a bit of the pleasant facade, but still sounded perfectly polite. "You surrender peacefully, I turn you over to C-Sec who'll charge you formally. Since your victim was a Hierarchy official they have demanded you be extradited, so you'll be shipped back to Palaven for trial. From there... well, I imagine you know your own justice system better than I do."
He did. "Lifetime jail. With work-detail. Assuming guilty verdict."
He wasn't sure what kind of evidence they had on him, but on the other hand they considered the matter important enough to send a Spectre - which meant a trial was more or less a formality.
"Assuming that." Kaidan stepped away from the table as Garrus approached it. He didn't pull a gun, or charge his biotics, but Garrus had spent too many battles side-by-side with him to not recognise a ready stance when he saw one. "That's my recommendation, by the way. Surrender peacefully. Easiest for everyone involved."
Garrus carefully tipped the glass of water into the flower vase. "And if I don't?"
Kaidan grimaced. "Then we get the less ideal situation where I have to use force. I'd prefer if it didn't come to that."
"You could just walk away."
"I can't do that. Please stand down, Garrus. What you've been doing is illegal."
Wasn't it just? He slammed the glass on the table. "But not wrong. The system is broken. It doesn't protect those who need protecting, and protects those who shouldn't be."
"Then help us fix it! Not break it further. Do you know how many fear-induced riots have broken out since the news of the assassination hit? You've destabilised the entire Citadel space with your murder, an instability we really can't afford right now."
"The woman did plenty of destabilising all on her own. We're better off without her."
Kaidan smiled sadly. "That's not up to you to decide, Garrus. She gained the representative's chair through normal channels, your people's channels, which means she earned it somehow. If you feel she wasn't the right person for the job, there were other ways to deal with it than killing her."
"They weren't working! Every day she sat on that board was a day hundreds of people weren't getting the help they deserved. Don't you see why I had to?"
"I understand why, Garrus. I really do. I see the broken system too, I see a galaxy in chaos, where those who looked out more for themselves than the people around them were those that survived. But you've gone from just cutting corners, to barreling straight down the middle. The only reason you've been left more or less alone until now is because of the lack of bystander casualties."
"You really think I would have lasted this long if someone didn't tacitly agree with what I was doing? C-Sec could've come for me back when I was killing petty crooks and criminals, but they didn't."
"No, you're probably right about that, someone's been looking between the fingers for you," Kaidan allowed without hesitation. Good, at least he wasn't pretending the justice system was innocent in all of this. "But Garrus... you could've stopped those people as a cop, too. Legally, within the system. And it would've had a lot more stabilising influence in the long run by restoring public faith in law and order."
"Laws come and go, depending on who's running the show. Sometimes, those laws are wrong. But justice is justice."
"Wrong by your definition, Garrus," Kaidan said, the exasperation sounding almost fond. His damnable integrity wouldn't allow him to ignore this, but maybe.... just maybe, there was a way to use it.
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