Office hours [all day]

[sith_happened]

After a quick trip to the Isle of Ikea to replace all of the broken glassware, Anakin's office was back to its normal state of cleanliness.

He turned on some soothing music from Ithor and waited to see how many students came in to see what he'd told their guardians.

The door was open.

Comments

[sith_happened]

"It was brutal," Anakin said quietly. "Are you quite certain it was the only option left?"

[glacial_queen]

"It felt like it," Karla said. "She was going to leave. I could feel it. She was losing and she decided to just cut her losses and go; to start this up again somewhere else, with another person up on her meat-tree, about to get stabbed for her so-called god-who-comes. Maybe Bobby or Kennedy could have stabbed her, but she'd be just as dead that way. But we couldn't just let her go. And we had no one to turn her over to; the police in Sookie's town were just two more of her mind-controlled victims."

Had there been another way? Karla couldn't be sure. She'd been terrified and furious. That bitch had stolen her Sapphire and tried to kill her. She was abusing landens people and taking away their will. Every instinct Karla had had pushed her to kill her where she stood, to make sure she could never harm anyone again.

And to take vengeance for what she'd done.

"I suppose we could have given her over to the vampires," she said, a little bitterly.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "You lashed out in fear," he said, "and good decisions are never made when we are reacting with our darker emotions."

[glacial_queen]

Karla wasn't entirely certain that letting the vampires keep ahold of the maenad was a better idea, but she could concede that it hadn't even crossed her mind at the time.

"I don't regret her death," she said slowly. "For what she did, for what she tried to do, and what she's done before, it was fitting. But I regret why I did it. I was scared and angry and hurting. I didn't kill her because it was right, even if I think that it was. I killed her because I knew I would always be afraid if she lived."

[sith_happened]

"I have made similar errors in judgment," Anakin admitted. "And when it becomes revenge, no matter how just the final outcome might have been, you were still in the wrong."

And hadn't that been a bitter pill to swallow when he was younger.

[glacial_queen]

From Karla's expression, she was also having a bit of trouble with it. Or maybe that was just her swallowing back the, 'Anakin, the bitch needed killing' argument.

Because, really. She had.

"I was pretty upset when I came home, especially since it happen just days after the thing with the island and the rifts," she continued. "But I've been feeling better lately...until the bit in the theater. I just sort of panicked." She sounded disgruntled by that.

Because, clearly, a month after she was nearly killed and ripped someone's heart out, she should be fine.

[sith_happened]

"You've been spending too much with my grandson," Anakin noted. "No one is supposed to be fine a month after something like that occurs. Not unless you are completely heartless, and I don't think that applies to you."

[glacial_queen]

Anakin was pitting her common sense against her belief that she should Always Be Fine, Dammit. It was hard to tell which one was winning.

"What can I do?" she asked finally. "I don't want to be that girl who breaks down and cries all the time."

[sith_happened]

Anakin gave her a slightly amused smile. "There are options in between the two extremes," he said. "Coming here is a good first step. Being extremely honest with yourself is another one."

[glacial_queen]

"I'm honest!" Karla protested.

[sith_happened]

"Being brutally honest with myself," Anakin said, "was never my strength and that flaw led me into some trouble."