fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, September 3, 1st period]

Anakin walked into his classroom precisely on time and gave the students assembled there an appraising glance as the door clicked shut behind him. If you were late, you weren't getting in. "I'm Master Skywalker," he said in a voice that was intended to carry, "this is Ethics, and we're going to skip the introductions--I'll figure out who you are--and move straight to our first discussion."

He paced around the room, cloak flaring out behind him, as he handed out the syllabus. "Today's topic," he said, pointing to the top of the page. "Self sacrifice: knowing the difference between saving people and being a pretentious twit."

"Any time I ask a a group of people what they would do to save someone they love, they all blither on about how they would set the world on fire, lie, cheat, steal, kill, die, et cetera, et cetera. I've been at this school too long to believe that half of you haven't already been put into this situation and I'm in no mood to hear adolescent ramblings about how wonderful you were or might hypothetically be. Instead I want you to give me a concrete example of a time you admitted to yourself that a problem cannot be solved, and that to sacrificing yourself wasn't a statement, but merely pointless?" His gaze swept the room. "How long does it take for you to realize you can't fix everything by yourself?"

He would hear the replies and choose his TAs from there.

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"There was a place I lived once, for a while, and it was under attack. At first we tried to get back there to help even though they were so outnumbered no one ended up surviving." At least, as far as Kyle knew anyway. "We had to retreat. There was nothing we could do to help them."

"I'm sorry," Elena said, gently. "It's never easy, leaving someone behind. But you did the right thing. I'm sure they would have understood."

"I'd like to believe that, but I don't know. They weren't all sensible people."

Elena toyed idly with her pen before drawing a breath and continuing. "I ... had something similar happen, once," she said. "The other side of it. Left in a bad situation by someone who didn't have a choice; bigger things were at stake. I was ... relieved. That they got out. Civilians, that's messier, but -- anyone fighting with you would have known what's at stake."

He nodded. "Most of them were civilians. There was one guy who wasn't. He was a Marine. He didn't even know how close we were to where he was, but I think he would've told us to go."

"I think he would have, too," she agreed softly. "You did the job. It's just that, sometimes, the job is a bitch."

It was certainly unforgiving as hell. Reno had agonized over leaving her and Tseng behind, and he'd been holding Jenova's head in his hands. The one thing the Remnants had needed to end the world. He couldn't possibly have jeopardized the fate of the planet in order to pull a suicidal rescue mission for the sake of two Turks.

She also knew, with every inch of herself, that he had been sorely tempted. She would have, too.

Kyle nodded. The job was a bitch, even now sometimes, but it was important. "If it had just been me, I could have gone back, but there was someone else to look after."

"That's one of the more heartwrenching realities a military commander has to face," Anakin replied, sympathy in his eyes, "and one I was never particularly...good...at accepting."

"I can't accept that it was the right thing to do, not without proof. But I can accept that it happened."

"What kind of proof are you looking for?" Anakin asked.

"Proof that no one can give, that us going in there wouldn't have changed anything or that leaving was necessary for something more important." Like travelling back in time to save Sarah Connor and make sure John Connor existed. "But I can accept that it happened and that I can't change that," he repeated.

Ethics [Thursday, September 3, 1st period]

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