Office hours [all day]

[sith_happened]

Anakin was preparing for the semester, making notes on his class list and trying to come up with new ideas to torture his students make ethics more interesting.

Soft music was playing and the door to his office was open.

Comments

[trigons_child]

The past few weeks had been a roller coaster for Raven, to say the least, and she was both looking forward to seeing Anakin -- but dreading it a little as well. She knew she shouldn't hide her nightmares from him, though she was very reluctant to share the details, particularly the one she'd had concerning him.

So it was a very hesitant Raven that appeared in his doorway that morning. "Good morning, Professor Skywalker," she said softly.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's brow furrowed as he saw her. "Come in, Raven."

[trigons_child]

"I hope your holidays were enjoyable," Raven said as she settled into a chair. She almost couldn't believe how long it had been since she'd last talked to him.

[sith_happened]

"Very," Anakin said with a smile. "Juliet was almost old enough this year to enjoy it. She certainly had fun tearing paper apart. How are you?"

[trigons_child]

"I am feeling all right today," she said. Successfully getting through Karla's Virgin Night had invigorated her (to say the least), and she'd slept reasonably peacefully after an enjoyable evening with Jono.

She knew her nightmares had been mentioned on the radio, though, which probably meant Anakin knew about them, and he wouldn't approve of her avoiding talking about them. "I have had distressing dreams," she made herself admit, "but the past few nights have been all right."

[sith_happened]

He frowned hard. "Distressing how?" Anakin asked, ignoring the last few nights bit. He was fairly sure that was her trying to brush it off."

[trigons_child]

Raven tensed visibly; this was how one of the dreams had begun, hadn't it? She'd told him and he'd tried to help and she'd turned on him and gone to kill his wife and child just to make him suffer. Maybe she was dreaming again now, and she couldn't bear to experience that again.

No, it was real and she was awake, she had to be.

She reigned in her emotions and tried to calm her heart. "I was not myself in them," she said quietly. "I served my father."

[sith_happened]

Anakin hissed in a breath. "How?" he asked.

[trigons_child]

"I hurt the people I love, and I enjoyed it," Raven said, wringing her hands in her lap. "I saw friends become monsters to provoke me to use my powers to hurt."

Except that last one had been real.

[sith_happened]

"How can I help?" Anakin replied, reaching his hand out.

[trigons_child]

Raven recoiled from him before she could stop herself. "No!" she said. The memory of the dream in the Preserve was still too fresh in her mind.

[sith_happened]

Anakin hadn't been expecting that, and it showed on his face. "What's wrong?"

[trigons_child]

"One of the dreams...it began this way," Raven said, fighting for calm. "You tried to help me, and I...I...." She couldn't tell him what she'd done.

[sith_happened]

"It ended badly?" he finished gently.

[trigons_child]

She nodded, unable to meet his eyes. "It did," she said. "It was one of the worst I have experienced."

[sith_happened]

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

[trigons_child]

"I do not think you want to know," Raven said. But she'd try to divert him from pressing about it with details about the others. "I dreamed I was cruel to Jono -- I called him a monster and then drained his emotions from him. I hurt Karla to try to break her spirit so I could give her to my father. And I dreamed that Hannibal was a vampire and that I was forced to use my gifts to hurt him to escape from him."

[sith_happened]

"I didn't realize you were so close with Hannibal," Anakin replied with a small frown.

The other two people made more sense to him, subconsciously, for her to dream about.

[trigons_child]

"We are friends, but no, not as closely as I am with Jono or Karla," Raven confirmed. "That dream was different -- I felt more myself in it than I had in the others. I think my father was attempting to use my fears against me."

It made sense to her, particularly since she'd slipped into a dream without realizing it just days before.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "Sending visions like that is difficult, but not impossible."

He'd done it to Luke, after all.

"Is Trigon being effective in this attack upon you?" he asked.

[trigons_child]

"It is causing me a great deal of distress," Raven said quietly. "My sleep is often disturbed. And sometimes I have started dreaming when I thought i was wide awake."

[sith_happened]

"And if I offer--again--to help, will you refuse me?" he replied.

[trigons_child]

"I do not want to cause you harm," Raven said. Or Rory, or Juliet. "What if my dream were to come true? Sometimes they are precognitive. I know you think my father may be attempting to frighten me away from accepting your help, but what if it is not a false threat?"

[sith_happened]

"In a fight between your father and I, who do you think would win?" Anakin asked.

[trigons_child]

"I would hope it would be you, of course," Raven said, "but...my father can destroy entire worlds with his gaze." It wasn't an idle boast; she'd seen him do it.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "I'm not quite that effective."

And it hurt to admit it.

[trigons_child]

But at least he had much better hair and fashion sense?

"I am not certain if there is anything anyone can do to help me," Raven said, staring down at her hands. "If I am not strong enough to fend off my father's power, then there is no hope."

[sith_happened]

"There's always another way," Anakin said stubbornly. "And you are strong enough."

[trigons_child]

"But I am only seventeen years old," Raven said in a small voice. "It has not even been two years since I left Azarath. My father is centuries old and far more powerful than I. I do not want to give up hope, but I do not want to be a danger to my friends here."

[sith_happened]

Anakin stood up from his desk and moved to crouch down by Raven. "You won't be," he promised foolishly. "But you have to let those of us who can help you do so. You need more shielding."

[trigons_child]

"I do," she said, nodding almost imperceptibly. She couldn't lie and deny that fact, much as she wanted to protect Anakin.

[sith_happened]

"Close your eyes, try to relax, and let me in," Anakin said.

[trigons_child]

Raven nodded again, closing her eyes. She took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she willed the tension to relax its hold on her. She eased her shields down to allow him to enter.

[sith_happened]

Back off, Trigon, Anakin sent as he looked around quickly at Raven's shielding, shoring up where he could.

[trigons_child]

Behind her shields, Raven inner self was radiating cold, not the usual chill of her Soul-Self but a killing freeze, and pain as well, walled up as best Raven could do to reduce it to a aching echo of everything she'd healed in the past month.

Trigon was there, too, unseen, but his presence almost tangible behind the shields Raven had put around her core. She is mine came his whisper.

[sith_happened]

She's mine, Anakin countered possessively. He couldn't generate heat, though he wished he could, and instead added his own shields to what Raven had generated, wincing a bit at the pain she was holding onto. "Better?" he asked aloud.

[trigons_child]

Raven opened her eyes, letting out another breath she almost hadn't realized she'd been holding. She could still feel her father, but he felt weaker, further away, for now at least. "Yes," she said. "Thank you."

[sith_happened]

"You're quite welcome," Anakin said. "This was long overdue."

[trigons_child]

"It was," Raven agreed. "I am sorry, I should have let you do that sooner."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "You should have. Lesson learned?"

[trigons_child]

"Lesson learned," she said, relieved nothing had gone wrong like she'd dreamed. Hopefully she'd be able to keep her father at bay longer now.