sith_happened | Office hours [all day Saturday]

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Office hours [all day Saturday]

Anakin had a bad feeling about today.

It hadn't been improved by listening to the radio last night.

So there he was in his office (not that he was avoiding his in-laws, but knowing the terrain was important and they could damn well come to him), banging hard on something made of metal.

He'd say that it was part of his new speeder bike.

He'd picked it entirely so he could bang on something.

The door was open.

[OOC: As is the post. Students, family, random passersby...he's an equal opportunity crankypants.]

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Anakin's eyes were spitting fire. "Six months."

"So much less than that when you offered to train Jaina."

"I've had actual experience being a Jedi," Anakin replied. "You're doing it wrong."

"Oh, is that why she's turned out so badly?" Mara asked coldly. "You know nothing about me once I didn't have Palpatine's influence anymore. Don't presume you do."

"I can presume anything I like. You've certainly leaped to all kinds of conclusions about me." Anakin glared. "I know exactly what Palpatine used to use you for. People develop a taste for controlling lives like that."

"I was the one controlled. I've got Luke to thank for putting a stop to that," she said, curious as to the reaction. "I'm not controlling anyone, and I certainly don't have any need to defend myself to you."

Anakin snorted. "You were the Hand, but he hardly determined your every action," he insisted, "and of course you need to defend yourself. You came here to see if I was really as redeemed as Jaina believes. I'm returning the favor."

His expression softened just slightly. "And of course Luke helped you. That's who he is."

At least that reaction counted for a tiny bit. Not that Mara was going to show it.

"That doesn't mean you get to return anything. You're not in any position to make any decisions regarding me, or Jaina, actually. On the other hand, I don't get to keep an eye on her from where I am and yet you seem to actually have influence. This worries me."

"She's my granddaughter. I hardly want her to follow in my footsteps," Anakin replied, dropping his defense for a brief moment. "But I also test to make sure she's not following Jedi dogma just for the sake of pleasing her aunt and uncle, her mother or her brothers."

"That's not Jaina," Mara said, shaking her head. "She'll follow what makes the most sense to her." It just so happened that following Luke made sense to her.

Anakin nodded. "The Dark Side can seem to make sense, too," he said quietly. "And her tales of your galaxy terrify me. It seems every third Jedi has dipped into the Dark Side. It's nothing to be toyed with."

"Because with Luke and myself in any place of power that's so common," she said dryly. And maybe a little defensively. "Fact is, this is the generation of Jedi that had to learn by trial and error so the next doesn't have to."

"I thought 'don't go Dark Side' was a fairly obvious concept," Anakin snapped, "especially with my example of what not to do. If it seems too easy and gives you want you want, DON'T DO IT. Do I need to print t-shirts?"

"Oh, yeah, that's exactly how to you want to advertise it. And I'd like to point out that the most common reason anyone turned was that they had someone they shouldn't have telling them what to do."

"And they were stupid enough to listen to them. No ever accidentally goes dark," Anakin insisted. "Some part of you always wants it."

"I wouldn't say that," she said, because Luke was a pretty good argument against that. "And that's doesn't really make me feel any better about her being here."

"Like I'm going to sit back and let any member of my family make that kind of mistake," Anakin spat. "What? You think I'm some kind of a secret Sith recruiter? 'Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies.' Please."

"From all accounts you seem to have a slightly twisted view on family," Mara pointed out. "Twenty years of being a Sith lord, being six months removed from it, I'm not entirely convinced you'd even have to do it on purpose."

Anakin's knuckles turned white under the pressure he was placing on them. "This coming from a Jedi Order that seems to based entirely on members of one family teaching each other and hoping that trial and error doesn't take half of them spinning into oblivion. Tell me that kind of pressure isn't a disaster waiting to happen if something happens to you, or to one of Leia's children. It won't destroy a family, it will split the Order. You're idiots if you think someone won't try to take advantage of that."

"Those kids are getting more used to loss than you know," said Mara. She'd had to spend enough time thinking about what happened if something happened to her, thanks. "They can try to take advantage of that. They haven't succeeded yet."

"That 'yet' is terribly reassuring," Anakin spat. "Really. So's the part where they're getting used to loss. How long until some half-trained pseudo Jedi of yours loses her entire squadron and peels off into a revenge scenario with all of the power of the Force and none of the common sense? Or decides to hell with it and tries to resign from the Order? Or bargain with the enemy? I saw all of it in the Clone Wars and that was with Jedi who actually knew what they were doing. I'm decidedly less optimistic with your crowd."

"Whose fault is that?"

Mara would have done it if she'd been the one ordered by Palpatine. But she wasn't. And she didn't thinkshe ever would have been.

A vase careened into the wall and shattered into pieces.

"I was wondering how long it would take to get there," he snarled. "You have no idea how that night happened."

Mostly because he'd been sure to destroy the records.

Mara looked over at where the vase had been, arching an eyebrow. "Temper, temper."

"What's to know?" she asked coolly. "You kill all the Jedi, Luke makes his life work cleaning up your mess and you criticize how it's done."

"Oh, yes, killing the Jedi was entirely my idea," Anakin snarled. "It was what every little boy dreamed of, sleeping in the Temple. Palpatine was at home knitting socks and had absolutely nothing to do with it. He certainly hadn't been planning the entire thing for decades."

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