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[sith_happened]

Anakin couldn't put his finger on what exactly was wrong, but he'd gotten jumpy as soon as he'd hit the causeway this morning. It was an overused Jedi cliché to say he had a bad feeling about things, and yet...

So soothing music was playing from his ridiculously tricked out stereo and he sat quietly in the middle of his floor, intent on meditation.

The door was open.

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[trigons_child]

"My gifts should be used to help and heal," Raven said, biting at her lip. "To use them to harm or punish is what my father would want. Even if it seems right and just, it can be too easily twisted."

[sith_happened]

"Exactly," Anakin said with a nod. "Decisions made in anger generally end badly. Sometimes astonishingly badly."

[trigons_child]

"I am not certain where my anger ended and the others' rage began," Raven said. "There was so much terrible emotion there. But it was my decision to do what I did."

[sith_happened]

"Ben too?" Anakin asked, looking a little alarmed.

[trigons_child]

"He was very upset," Raven said. "But I cannot tell you exactly what each of the others were feeling. Some were more angry. I know Ender was trying to be very calm, and Katchoo was so very angry, but the others just blended together as one to me."

[sith_happened]

Anakin muttered something not quite under his breath about Ben better damn well knowing better, then focused again. "How many of you went?" he asked.

[trigons_child]

"We were split up," Raven said. "I am not entirely certain where Dinah, Lady Aphrodite, and Professor Maximus were. Emma, Francine, and Katchoo were outside Briarwoods, and I was inside, first with Ben, then with Ender when we became separated." The brief time between losing Ben and finding Ender had been one of the worst parts of the trip, just her and the ghost girls and the sounds of the uncles behind the closed doors.

[sith_happened]

"Is it too soon to talk about what you saw?" Anakin replied softly.

[trigons_child]

Raven closed her eyes. She didn't want to remember, but it was haunting her, much as she tried to suppress it. "The place...Briarwoods...it masqueraded as a place of healing for girls who were emotionally disturbed," she said. "But that was all a lie. The entryway was warm and comforting to trick the parents of those girls, but beyond it was a prison. The men who were there beat and drugged the girls to make them compliant. We saw many ghosts there, of the girls they had killed, and cildru dyathe, their word for those who still walked between life and death. One girl, Dannie, tried to run away, and they cut off her leg and let her bleed to death, then made the other girls eat her flesh. Myrol and Rebecca had their hands severed and were killed because Myrol would not do as she was told, and Rebecca tried to stop one of the men from hitting her. Rose had her throat cut because she refused to...." No, she wasn't going to say it. But she had each of those girls and their fates burned into her mind now, along with the desire to make their murderers pay.

"There were rooms with just beds, and straps to...tie the girls down," she continued. It was a good thing she hadn't eaten since last night or she might have been sick again. "One of the men -- they called them 'uncles' -- came out of a room, and...that is when I made him feel all that he had done to the girls."

[sith_happened]

All of the revulsion and fury Anakin felt for these men--and it was far from a small amount--was carefully slammed behind his shields. Raven didn't need to be hit with more negative emotion.

"And that's what happened to Karla?" he asked.

[trigons_child]

"To her dear friend, Jaenelle," Raven said. "Karla tried to help her heal and got caught up in the memories." She wondered if the same would've happened to her if it had been Karla and she had been the one to attempt to heal her. "We found her attempting to protect Jaenelle...and then taking her place."

[sith_happened]

Despite his best efforts, Anakin was looking a little green. "I'm so sorry, Raven," he murmured. "No one should have to see that aspect of humanity."

[trigons_child]

"I have always know of the evil that exists in the world," Raven said. "I was never allowed to forget it because of who my father was. But this...this I never imagined."

[sith_happened]

"I've witnessed great evil," Anakin said quietly. And participated in it, but he wasn't going to mention that. "And I'm sorry that you've had to as well."

[trigons_child]

"Does it become easier?" Raven asked.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "It becomes less sharp with time," he said. "I promise."

[trigons_child]

Raven let out a long sigh. "Good," she said. "That is very good to know."

[sith_happened]

"It also helps when you talk about it and don't let it fester," Anakin replied, "so you're making the right choices now."