fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, November 18, 2nd period]

"Now is the time to return the Woklings to me," Anakin said, gesturing to the tables that were at the front of the classroom. "I'll be returning them to their homeworld tonight."

Mostly because if he brought them back to the apartment, he'd probably end up adopting a few to stop Rory from giving him pleading eyes.

"Jess, this doesn't apply to you. Jar Jar can stay with you as long as he'd like."

Jar Jar raised a hand. "Meesa having a bombad time, Ani, but meesa wanna go home."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "I'll take you as far as Endor," he promised. That would buy Luke and Leia a few weeks of Gungan-free time. Not that Luke deserved it.

He clapped his hands together. "Very well. Tell me what you learned this week while caring for intelligent, sentient creatures who couldn't be stuck in a fridge or a closet, and if it served as an effective check on raging hormones. Actions always have consequences, be they as major as a baby or as minor as rolling over in the morning and wondering what on Earth you were thinking the night before."

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Pain flashed in Anakin's eyes. "Of course he did."

Of course. He didn't know if it was self-blame or sorrow, exactly, that he caught on Anakin's face, but Ender knew enough about empathy. "I was at her funeral," he said, mildly, "It was interesting."

"Dean told me a bit about it," Anakin replied. "Jacen sounds like he was in fine form."

"He's power-hungry, and obviously feels secure enough in it to provoke people," Ender said, frankly, remembering Jacen's eerily familiar strut all too well. "But at least part of it is him wanting to be taken seriously too much."

That certainly ran in the family.

"How did Ben react?" he asked.

"He kept it in check."

He felt Anakin could derive enough from that.

Anakin nodded. "Good. Picking a fight would only make Jacen more convinced of how righteous his cause is."

"It'd be easy to get him to overextend himself because of it," Ender noted, tapping his finger against his knee, "But a funeral isn't a place to start a fight." And he'd told Ben he didn't want to be in the fight. "Especially not when he thinks everything important is on his side."

Anakin's eyebrow went up. "He thinks the Jedi are going to just let him walk?"

"Ben's father did," Ender said, simply, his eyes narrowing only slightly up at Anakin's.

Anakin let out a heavy sigh. "Luke thinks everyone can be redeemed," he said. "He's wrong."

Ender shook his head, dropping the stare at last. "He's not paying attention," he said, "That's the problem. It's causing Ben some harm."

"How much harm?" Anakin asked immediately.

"He's growing up very, very quickly."

And that wasn't an unfamiliar thing at all. He gave it some time. Did Anakin need to know? Was he even doing it for Anakin, or just to run it over his own mind?

"He's not going to trust anyone at the rate it's going."

Read: Ben'd turn into him at that rate.

Anakin nodded, the pain flashing back through his eyes. "That's not a lesson his father wants him to learn. I'm sure of it."

"That's nice," Ender said, eying him, "But it's the lesson he's teaching."

Privately, he felt the Skywalkers were a bit dumb.

At this point, Anakin would agree with him.

He, of course, would not include himself in the assessment.

"I'll talk to Ben," he decided. "There's history that's clouding his father's judgment, and no one is all there after their spouse dies." His lips pressed together. "Probably Jacen's intention."

"Don't barge in and tell him what to think," Ender advised. Of course, Ben would be the only one he'd even consider not including in his own assessment, but Anakin didn't need to know that. "Jacen's all pride," he continued, "I wouldn't be surprised."

"I wouldn't," Anakin said.

He so would have.

"I'm just worried," he said. "And tired of my family getting kicked around."

"It's a regular thing, then."

Carefully neutral there.

"For as long as I've had children and known about grandchildren," Anakin said, sounding tired. "We're a walking Greek tragedy."

Yes, he read his wife's books.

"I've heard some stories," he finally admitted. "Ben needs someone to have his back."

"I have his back," Anakin said.

He just wasn't sure Ben believed that.

"And so do you."

"To a point."

"To what point?" Anakin asked.

Re: Give back your Wokling and answer the discussion question

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