sith_happened | Office hours [all day]

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Office hours [all day]

Anakin was hard at work at his desk: plastic balls, lots of glitter, soft music playing...

Yes, he'd decided that Jaina's Luke's future child was going to be spoiled rotten, so he was back to making toys for a Force-sensitive infant.

He'd welcome an interruption, though.

All Over Again - Ronan Keating and Kate Rusby

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"He had more money then most third world countries, he loved his wife and he was desperate," Isabel replied. "I guess he thought it was worth it."

That struck just a little too close to home for Anakin. "What happened next?" he asked.

Isabel didn't like to think of Anakin and Vader as the same person. It's not that she ever really forgot. But it made things a little bit easier to deal with. Which meant she didn't realize how he'd relate to what she'd said until after she said them and I remembered after I'd had my coffee *facepalms*. The mental facepalm hurt.

"I tried. I mean, Nasedo had said we had powers we hadn't learned yet," she explained. "Michael had gotten away when we were grabbed. So I knew if I could play for time, there'd be pissed off boyfriends coming to the rescue. Except whatever I did, I couldn't control. Just as Wyatt and the others got there I collapsed. And turned to dust in Wyatt's arms."

"Clearly you've recovered," Anakin replied. "Do we get to add reincarnation to your gifts?"

"More like make your own clone," Isabel told him. "Somehow, I changed poor Meris. She wound up looking just like me. With my consciousness along for the ride. I'm still not sure how that happened. Some kind of defense mechanism I guess."

Anakin's jaw dropped. "You realigned her molecules? This is Meris's old body?"

"Yeah," she said quietly. "It is."

The hair on the back of Anakin's neck stood up. "What happened to Meris?!"

Voice calm, even if her hands were clenched, Isabel explained. "She's gone. It was almost the other way around. But then she hurt Michael and tried to hurt Wyatt and Ronan. I couldn't let her do that."

"A dying woman had her body completely re-form on her and another person living in her head," Anakin replied in a carefully calm voice. "I'd lash out too."

"I'm sorry for her," she replied, equally as calm. "I'm sorry she didn't die peacefully in her bed with her husband at her side. But I didn't ask to be grabbed. I didn't ask for my friend to be threatened. And I sure as hell didn't ask to be forced to do something that would kill me."

"But it was her husband who threatened your friend and pushed you into helping him, right?" Anakin said quietly. "Meris was as much a victim as you were."

"It was her husband and his hired muscle. So yes, she was just as much a victim as I was." She didn't get what point he was trying to make.

"And you killed her, however unintentionally," Anakin said, making himself clear. "No dancing around the responsibility of that. You took an innocent life."

"And you think that doesn't bother me? You don't think I haven't had nightmares?" Isabel asked incredulously.

"You hadn't shown me any indication of remorse," Anakin said, meeting her eyes firmly. "Everything you told me seemed to make the case that she deserved it. That you had no choice. And that is very much not true."

"Do you listen at all? Or are you so sure you're right no matter what that you just don't bother?" she replied, the tension she felt starting to show in her voice. "Did I not just say that I'm sorry this happened? That the poor woman deserved the chance to die in her bed, at peace? No, she didn't deserve it. But as far as I can see, I had two choices. Do nothing, and let Meg get hurt. And afterwards, let her hurt the people I care about and just roll over and die. Which I'm sure in your mind are the right choices. And they're the choices you would have made even if Rory or Luke was involved."

"You said you were sorry for her," Anakin said evenly, very consciously ignoring the baiting, "not that you were sorry for what you did to her. You have been given great gifts, but you didn't use them on the one who was the original threat, the husband. How was he threatening Meg?"

"One of the three different examples of well-armed muscle in the room had his gun to her head. I do something to him? Or to Clayton? Bullets start flying." It's not like she hasn't gone through the situation a million times in her head since it happened. "Forgive me for not taking a chance to stop multiple rounds of nine millimeter bullets."

"Moving multiple objects telekinetically can be difficult," Anakin replied, "but situations like this is kind of why we practice it."

"Fine. I'll consider it my homework." Isabel got to her feet and started towards the door, this wasn't helping anything and if she stayed she was only going to say something she'd regret.

She stopped at the doorway and looked back. "You know what else I'm sorry about? I'm sorry that a person I thought of as a friend was so willing to believe that I could do something like this and not regret it."

Anakin shrugged. "I heard a lot of defensiveness. I didn't hear an 'I won't do it again' or an 'it was a mistake.'" He looked up at her. "I have a son and a daughter your age now. I'm a teacher, not a student. I have different obligations. Things change. Goodbye, Isabel."

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