fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, April 6, 2nd period]

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Ethics [Tuesday, April 6, 2nd period]

"Much of life--especially in the realm of ethics--is about balance," Anakin began, making a show of not looking concerned that the seat Leia normally filled was empty today. "For every vice there is a virtue. We have covered the seven deadly sins--" he began ticking them off on his fingers: "Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. We've also discussed some of the seven virtues: temperance, which balanced gluttony, and diligence, which balanced sloth."

He began pacing the room. "The key to living these virtues is restraint, which is a very Jedi concept. We've already briefly touched upon chastity in our talk of love, so that leaves us with charity, patience, kindness and humility."

None of which exactly described Anakin. "Which of those four do you have the easiest time embracing in your own life?" he asked. "And which requires work? Do you think it's worth learning restraint to live these virtues?"

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Zack tilted his head a little at that, and for a moment, the look on his face seemed very, 'Huh, I didn't even think of the beach...'

Ben totally had all the good ideas.

"Totally noted, Master Skywalker," he said. Anyhow, he was pretty good at dealing with lectures. After all, Angeal's had been infamous among the ranks of SOLDIER.

"Good," Anakin said, cocking up an eyebrow. "This wasn't a suggestion to go live on the beach, either."

But people would be less likely to trip over him, there!

"Knowing me, I'd probably misjudge the tides and wake up treading water," Zack replied, waving a hand dismissively. "Or roll over onto a crab or get way too much sand in my shorts or something, anyhow."

See, Zack logic could remedy almost any bad idea!

Anakin wrinkled up his nose at the word 'sand'. "I'm not much of a beach person," he admitted. "I blame growing up in the desert."

"There's a beach pretty close to my hometown," Zack offered. "But then... my hometown is in the middle of a jungle. Not much desert to be found until you start heading kinda north." Little smile. And now he was heartbroken and homesick and sort of babbling about whatever the topic at hand was. "Plenty around the city I work in, though. I think the water makes all the difference, with beaches."

It was the difference between 'fun in the sun,' and 'now your brains are baking out.'

"No sleeping on the beach, though. Honest."

"My son has apparently taken to putting his Jedi Temple in the middle of a jungle," Anakin offered. "I think living on Tatooine affected him too."

Anakin was a fan of babbling if it got Zack away from the scary dwelling thing.

That Master Skywalker's son had a temple was pretty much immediately tacked onto Zack's daily list of most awesome tidbits of information ever.

"Sometimes, it's just... really good to make a big change that way, I guess."

Anakin chuckled ruefully. "Coruscant worked for us for thousands of years, but I can see why Luke--well, one of them, anyway--made the change."

He paused and parsed that sentence. "My family is a little complicated."

"Fandom is a little complicated," Zack pointed out. "Unless this isn't a Fandom thing so much as it's a 'you just like the name Luke' thing, I mean."

"It's a fine name," Anakin said, "but I know of at least," he paused to count, "five versions of my son just by meeting people on this island. My Luke hasn't decided to live in the jungle just yet."

Zack nodded a little, attempting another faint quirk of a smile.

"I've only met a couple of people from my own future," he noted. "But it gets kind of... awkward, sometimes. Going through things back home and wondering if they knew it was coming, and were waiting for it."

He was trying not to dwell too hard on the possibility that Yuffie or Elena might have known about Angeal, somehow. Holding grudges for it wouldn't do anybody any good. And the thought of it stung too much.

Anakin looked sympathetic, shifting his thoughts away from where Leia might be right now.

"Even if they did, shifting the timeline can be a very dangerous thing to do."

"From what I've heard about the future of the planet," Zack replied, his mouth working before his brain could catch up, "not shifting it could be pretty dangerous, too."

He bit his lip, and then he shrugged a little. "I wouldn't know where to start if I wanted to save Midgar, anyway."

"What's going on?" Anakin asked.

"All I've got is bits and pieces," Zack sighed, looking down toward his knees again. "I know something is going to destroy the biggest city in the world, and odds are it doesn't stop at Midgar. And... And I know that there's some sort of.. alien... thing..."

Describing Jenova was kind of a special project without using the word 'mother.'

"It wants calamity." And was part of the reason Angeal went insane. "It's not too hard to put pieces together, but all I know is what people think it's safe for me to know. So... the best I can do is... my best. Knowing it probably won't make a difference."

Anakin nodded as he listened, looking a bit stricken. "Was this linked to your master's death at all?"

Zack had really fascinating knees.

"Angeal had... this thing's cells in him, all his life. He could do things because of it, like pass his traits on to others, and absorb them in turn. And..." Deep breath. Shrug. Zack was going to need a moment. "It got messy. It's been messy. I don't really doubt that it could get worse from here."

Anakin's hand drifted back to Zack's shoulder. "So he was a bit like a sleeper agent?"

Zack shook his head a little, and he pulled in a shaky, frustrated breath while he attempted to sort what he knew from what he was terrified to find out.

"He was a good SOLDIER. He's always been a good SOLDIER. When he talked about dreams and honor, he meant it. The cells were... part of an experiment, done by scientists on our side." Zack hesitated, and then glanced up at Anakin, just so that the man could see eyes that were entirely too blue to be natural. "Every member of SOLDIER has something like it. But the process was... new and unstable then, I guess. And too much for him and his friend, the one who deserted."

Anakin nodded. "We have a species who experimented with cloning," he said. "The first few batches were...untenable."

"Untenable," Zack echoed, sighing. "Did they... Uh... degrade, at all? Their bodies, I mean?"

Angeal hadn't, until minutes before the end. But Genesis...

"Some," Anakin said carefully. "Some went insane. It took time to perfect."

Zack nodded a little more. "Angeal..." He didn't want to just out and say that Angeal went insane. "His body was okay."

That was close enough.

"His friend... He was kinda the same thing. But his body was going. Fading, sorta. Maybe it's just a... new experiment... thing."

"Sounds unpleasant," Anakin said, understating thing by quite a bit. "What are your people trying to accomplish with the experimentation?"

Zack took a deep breath, and held out his arms a little.

"Super soldiers," he replied. "Stronger, faster, more durable. It takes one SOLDIER to do things an entire unit of infantrymen can't."

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