fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

"The Republic fell when the Empire took over," Kanan explained. "At the end of the war."

So, at minimum, Lana was from over a decade ago. He sighed.

"I don't know how bad it could get. She seemed..." He ticked through a few words in his head before settling on a bewildered, "Decent? But I don't know if the other Jedi around here would give her enough opportunity to demonstrate that, or if it's all just a convincing act."

He frowned, and then added, "I warned her. That there were Jedi here. She just reminded me again of the neutral territory thing. I think wherever... whenever she's from, there must be some sort of mutual understanding, between the Republic and the Empire." He paused. "Which would likely put her well apart from my time."

"Are you going to tell the sleemo? Since he's also a teacher?" Kaidan asked, eating another bite of muffin as though he weren't shrieking internally. "She's a kid and she's here, there has to be some sort of school rules to allow for things like this."

He hoped.

"Republic subsumed into the Empire," he tracked, "What was it before it was a Republic?"

"I don't know," Kanan muttered. "He's not just a teacher, he's the damn Dean. I still haven't figured out if finding out from me would keep him from reacting badly if he were to find out from her, or just paint a target on her back."

Either way, Kanan was going to... actually do his best. To... protect... the Sith.

...

Space, life was less complicated back when he wasn't actively trying to be a decent person again.

"The Republic as I knew it was formed about a thousand years ago," Kanan explained, "and before that, there was a war between the Jedi and the Sith... we'd believed the Sith had gone extinct in the wake of that war. So the odds that she's from after that point are slim. Before then, we'd go back to the Old Republic times." He paused, then added, "Mical's era. Also a Republic. Also aligned with the Jedi. By that point, we're dealing with millennia. She could be from the age of either Republic, but given how casually she talked about other Sith, my guess is she's from closer to Atton's time than my own."

Which didn't stop Caleb's internal screaming, but at least it took a bite out of Kanan's.

Edited 2018-08-25 22:07 (UTC)

"Wouldn't he already know, then? It almost sounds like the kind of asshole thing he'd do, know there was a Sith incoming, send you to go pick her up," Kaidan noted, "She's a kid. Sith or not.. There has to be rules about the students. Even he would have to follow them."

Not necessarily.

"On the one hand, that's a good if she's farther back in time. She wouldn't even know, or likely even care, about the Empire." Unlikely to run to them and report there was a real live Jedi on the island.

Kaidan took a bite of the muffin, thinking. "Atton should also be told. Anakin might have rules he needs to follow. Atton doesn't follow rules."

He followed that thought for a minute, "I'd like to say that if he knew, he'd have the option to stay on Coruscant and avoid the issue entirely. Mostly, I don't think he'd be a good person to surprise with a Sith. If he knows, and we know he knows, even if he shows up with both swords blazing and goes for her.. we can get her out of his way."

He shared a bemused and slightly woebegon look with Kanan. Protecting.. the Sith. Because she was a kid, and she hadn't done anything. And to certain people, neither of those facts would matter.

"I have no kriffing clue how to approach Atton," Kanan admitted, reaching a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. This was all stupid and complicated and he hated it.

Weh.

"I'm not entirely sure I know how to approach Skywalker. At this point I guess I'm mostly hoping that warning her about the Jedi on the island means she'll know to keep her head down. And believe me, it's a weird frakking position to be in, trying to figure out how to play damage control and protect a Sith kid from the Jedi."

But here he was.

Here he karking was.

"Sparkle will be here tomorrow," Kaidan said, "I can ask him what he thinks about talking to Atton. He's known the guy for a decade or so, and he lives with the Jedi on Coruscant."

He lifted a shoulder, "Ask him if he knew he was sending you to pick up a Sith, see what he says. For all we know, it's his awful attempt at a joke - or, to be charitable, maybe his way of letting you know about the kid in a manner that wasn't..I don't know.. bad?"

"She said she was told it was neutral ground," he followed the train of thought, "Someone had to tell her that. Someone who knew about this place." More thinking, "Who does Anakin report to? You said he's the Dean, but who's the Head? Someone knew what she was, because she's welcome here if she's a student."

He took a bite of muffin and when he'd finished it, he calmly said, "The next time you argue with me over the manner of man you are, I am going to punch you. Hard."

Edited 2018-08-25 23:02 (UTC)

"You know, I have no idea who Skywalker answers to," Kanan admitted, frowning a little. And then looking up at the sky for a moment. "And fine, punch me if you need to. The Force knows I probably have it coming anyway."

He usually did.

"Possibly time to find that out," Kaidan said quietly, "It must be someone."

"And if you start the self-depreciation shit again, gonna," he added, about the punching. "She's a Sith, but she's also a kid who hasn't done anything here other than 'not be a Jedi'. I'm worried what the other Jedi'll do about that. Wasn't worried what you'd do."

Kanan might bolt, depending on the level of fear - but he would never attack a kid, Sith or not. Defend against, yes. Attack? Never.

If those Jedi were any other Jedi, Kanan might not have been concerned, himself.

Anakin and Atton were... something else.

"I'm going to keep an eye on her either way," he said, after a pause. "Shouldn't be hard. She's apparently in my class, too."

If you ever wanted to personally witness Kanan Jarrus trying to peel himself out of his own skin, that would definitely be the time.

Kaidan still would have been concerned. The only Jedi he trusted was Kanan.

"She's in your class," Kaidan repeated, giving Kanan a look, "Your class about being a do-gooder. That class?"

Kanan buried his face in his hand again, and just muttered, "That class. She said it would be a novel new experience."

Or something along those lines. His brains had been mid-liquefication at the time.

Kaidan absorbed that information and asked curiously, "Just how many pieces is your brain in right now? Baby Sith wants to learn to do good deeds must be doing an absolute tapdance inside your skull."

"They'll be finding pieces of my brain for decades," Kanan sighed. "This is like..."

He made a face. Trying to find a good Earth equivalent was harder than it seemed.

"... Like finding out that a bad thing is maybe not so bad!" He threw his hands into the air. "Hell, I don't know!"

WHY WAS FANDOM LIKE THIS?

"This one Baby Sith is not so bad," Kaidan said, "Which makes you wonder if that whole blanket 'Sith are bad' philosophy is maybe a little incorrect."

A philosophy Kanan had basically been raised on.

But Kaidan knew that feeling. "In the.. thing. Vyrnus. We'd fought a war with the Turians, humans had. He was the first one I ever met in person."

Struggling to put it into words, he said simply, "Garrus is one of my oldest friends. Also Turian. I guess it stands to reason that if any group of good people is going to have its 1% of assholes, even people on the other end of the spectrum are going to have their 1% of outliers too."

"So.. Baby Sith gets a chance to learn how to be a do-gooder."

And the Jedi teaching her would be her first line of defense.

Kanan took a few breaths to calm down again, and was more or less back to normal levels of freaking out by the time Kaidan was finished speaking.

"Lana, she said her name was," he sighed. "And hell, maybe she is actually a good person. I want to believe she is. I guess we'll find out."

Hopefully before any Vyrrnus moments.

"Lana's a kid," Kaidan pointed out, "Even if she's not a good person right now, she's still got time to learn to be one. You said she wants to learn. You're one of her teachers. So.. teach her."

"... That's the most terrifying suggestion anybody has ever given me," Kanan pointed out.

And then he was quiet for a moment.

"But it's a good one. I think."

He was so not qualified for this.

"Want another? You've got a whole class full of kids looking to you as an example," Kaidan pointed out, "Again. A thing you signed up to do - again. Mical and Other Jedi Master Heretofore Unnamed have both pointed out that you have things to teach."

Eating the last of the muffin, he pitched the wrapper in the trash and dusted off his hands.

"You're good at this."

Kanan opened his mouth to reply, and then just kind of stuttered out there for a second. Closed his mouth. Tried again, with no better luck, before just sort of shutting his mouth and raising his eyebrows.

... Damn it, Kaidan.

"No pressure, right?"

SO MUCH PRESSURE.

Kaidan watched Kanan gape like a fish and shrugged, "Must not be. You keep signing up to teach things at the school. You use part of your off-hours teaching sword work. If you didn't enjoy doing it, would you do so much of it?"

Seriously, Kanan. You know better than to ask him a question like that.

Yeah, he really did. Kanan fell quiet for another few moments, face twisting a little in thought while he contemplated that.

"I figured it was at least in part because I have a responsibility to," he said, finally. "I was denied my own training. If there's something somebody else needs and I can teach it to them... I don't want to deny them, too. Doesn't make me feel any less in over my head, but... it is satisfying to see it actually do people some good, in time."

There was no small amount of pride in learning that Tip had taken up her sword to protect the island, no.

Kaidan raised one brow and just gave him a pointed stare. So pointy. Much point. All the points.

Kanan just raised both eyebrows in return and spread his hands.

"What? I think that might have actually been me... agreeing with you?"

In a very roundabout way.

"I know," Kaidan said dryly, "That's why I didn't have to say anything. It's always interesting, watching you try to find some way I'm wrong when I say something positive about you. And then the face you make when you have to acknowledge it."

"Yeah, well..." Kanan just continued making that face, because... at this point, he was kind of stuck for acknowledging it, wasn't he? "... Guess I'm still figuring out who the hell it is I'm trying to be."

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