sith_happened | Office Hours [all day]

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Office Hours [all day]

It hadn't taken Anakin very long after stepping onto the island to realize that something was different: there was a different feeling to the air and it made him almost turn around to spend the day with Juliet and Christopher.

But instead he walked toward his office, keeping an eye out for little impossibilities and sparing a moment to wonder what China was up to now.

He got to his office, leaving the door open, and started writing a quick note to Aeryn to catch her up with what was going on with his life, including new pictures of the kids and a plan for their next paintball meeting.

Maybe this time they wouldn't get kicked out of the place for making some little kid cry. It had to happen eventually, right?

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After leaving Alec in the care of one of her aunties, Raven resumed her original plan for Monday -- going up to the school and seeing if Anakin was in. She was pleased to find the answer was yes, and she smiled as she tapped on the doorframe. "Professor Skywalker? Are you busy?"

Anakin glanced up, grinning. "Not at all, stranger! Come in!"

"It is good to see you," Raven said as she did just that. "I have missed Fandom a great deal while I've been gone. I hope you and your family have been doing well."

"Very," Anakin said, smiling. "Christopher is trying to walk already."

"Did you gain any unexpected children or grandchildren this weekend?" Raven had to ask as she sat down. At least she wasn't responsible for one this time?

"Not that I've met yet," Anakin hedged. "That other Anakin didn't show back up, right?"

The creepy one?

Raven shook her head. "I count myself fortunate that it was only the one time that I met him," she said.

His poor, poor mother.

"I know you're generally not supposed to hate children, but--" Anakin said, making a face.

"I am certain he must have some redeeming qualities," Raven offered up in protest. Feebly. Oh so feebly.

"He left quite promptly?" Anakin offered.

"And has not had the temerity to return," Raven added, trying not to laugh.

"Quite clever of him, really," Anakin agree.

"I have only had one child come to the island this time that I am aware of," Raven said. "Alec is...a technopath, I suppose would be the correct word. She can sense what is ailing machines and restore them to health."

Anakin frowned. "You're sure that's not with my grandson?"

"No, that was last time," Raven said, puzzled for a moment. "Oh -- you mean Ben?" She shook her head. "No, I am certain. Alec named her father, and he is actually one of the reasons I am here today. Earlier this year...I took his life, and it has not been sitting well with me."

Anakin frowned. "Tell me what happened."

Raven took a deep breath and began to explain. "I have been going to school in New Gotham, in Dinah's world, as you know," she said. "I met someone there, Eric Forrester. He was aggressively interested in me, and was able to cloud my mind to his true intentions. He had the power to merge with and control computers and other machines, though each time he did it apparently stripped him of some of humanity. He was turning into a machine himself. To stave this off, he was killing and consuming the souls of others, all women he dated. He recognized the strength of my Soul-Self and thought that by consuming it he could remain human. Fortunately, when he attempted to do so, my soul recognized the danger and stopped his attempt. And when Dinah and Momoko told me what he was trying to do, I used my Soul-Self to take what was left of his life force and leave nothing but the machine behind."

She looked down at her lap, still struggling with the mixed feelings she had about that act. "I know he deserved to be punished for killing the other women," she said. "He was completely unrepentant about the murders he committed. But I do not know if I acted out of vengeance or justice. Either way I had sworn never to kill, and I am finding this very hard with which to deal."

Anakin nodded, looking sympathetic. "A kill, however justified, stays with you for a long time. I'd be more worried if you brushed it off as unimportant."

"No, there is no chance of that," Raven said, shaking her head. "I have tried not to dwell on it too much, but it still troubles me. I think what bothers me most is that for a moment, when I realized what I had done, I felt satisfied."

"And that part should," Anakin said, nodding. "Your instincts are right there. Don't beat yourself up by reliving the moment over and over, but try to really think about your motivations and face them head on. Were you thinking about how he had killed those other women, or how he had outsmarted you?"

"I was very angry when I realized what he had tried to do, and what he had done to his other victims," Raven admitted. "But not so much that I lost control. I cannot blame my demon side for what I did -- it was all me. He still had the remnants of the women's souls he had devoured inside him, and I freed them first so they could be at peace. Then I wanted to be certain he could never do the same to anyone else ever again. So...yes, I was thinking of the other women, and not just myself. But some of it was for myself."

She sighed a little and lifted her head. "Was it difficult for you, the first time you took a life? I hope it is all right to ask."

Anakin frowned. "It's probably very bad that I can't remember the first person I killed. I blew up a small space station when I was nine, but I don't remember having any concern about anyone inside it."

He paused. "That's definitely a bad sign."

"Were you more removed from the act, that way?" Raven said, trying to imagine that scenario. "I can see how that might be easier to dismiss, if you were not close and did not see their faces. And you were very young -- too young to be put in that situation. Were you defending yourself or others?"

"I was an idiot," Anakin said, which was a theme for a lot of the stories about his youth. "I was hiding in a fighter while the Jedi I was with were fighting a Sith, hit the wrong button and headed off into a space battle."

"That must have been terrifying," Raven said, not without sympathy.

"I thought it was kind of neat," Anakin admitted. "I had no concept of mortality at the time..."

"You were young," Raven said. "You learned...and relearned."

That part in between though....

...Was just full of dipshittery.

"But there were definitely kills that scarred me," he said, shifting the subject slightly.

"How did you deal with it?" Raven asked. "How long did it take you to come to terms with it? It has been a month for me now, and I am still unsettled by what I did."

"It took me much longer, but that was because I wouldn't face up to what I had done," Anakin admitted. "Don't do that. It just makes you hurt for longer than necessary."

"I am definitely not doing that," Raven said. "It has been bothering me since it happened. I keep questioning if I did the right thing. I should have subdued him instead, and let the police take him into custody. The only comfort that I have is that I know he will not be able to harm anyone else ever again."

Anakin had a sudden image of a room twenty years ago, with Mace Windu shouting about how Palpatine was too dangerous to be kept alive.

He'd disagreed at the time, too desperate to save Padme with the vague promises Palpatine had given him. He wondered what would have changed if he'd let Windu kill Palpatine.

"Sometimes the justice system doesn't work as it should," he agreed quietly.

After class was over, OJ wandered around a little, because it wasn't like Jaye was really hands on, and he could pretty much do what he wanted unless she had some weird parenting fit. (Note: that had yet to happen.)

Wandering took him right by Anakin's office, where OJ knocked on the door. "What up."

Or hi, whatever. He thought he was cool.

Anakin arched up an eyebrow. "That's not really a greeting," he declared.

"Yes, it is," OJ said. "It's casual."

"I don't think you get to be casual with me, Qui-Gon," Anakin decided.

"Uh." We'll, he tried. "Then hi?"

"Hello, Qui-Gon," Anakin replied. "How's your father?"

Still alive?

"Same old, same old. He's off fighting bad guys in the Outer Rim so I thought I could catch a quick portal," OJ explained.

"Tell him I say hello," Anakin said because that always made Obi-Wan's brain hurt.

"Sure. It'll give him that face like..." He finished off that sentence with a fairly dead-on impression of Obi-wan's face when confronted with something unexpected, then pretending he knew it all along.

Anakin burst out laughing. "I've seen that look a lot."

Just not in years.

"Yeah, me too," OJ said, and added, "I mean, obviously..."

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Office Hours [all day]

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