fandomhigh | Pay It Forward: Making a Big Difference in Little Ways, Friday, Period 3

Since it seemed to be the in thing this semester, and since one of their students was roughly the size of a large hovercar, it had seemed prudent to denude yet another classroom of its desks and seats in favor of comfortable cushions on the floor.

... Kanan was kneeling directly on the floor, however. Sitting on a cushion seemed like cheating to him, somehow.

Hera was using a cushion. It was soft, and she saw no reason not to.

"Hey, guys," Kanan said, nodding toward the group once it looked like they had settled in. "I see you've all made it through your first week of the semester. We're going to do that most dreaded of back-to-class-week traditions today, the introductions, but on the plus side, you know this'll be the last time until the spring."

Because this was literally the last class of the week.

"I'm Hera," Hera said, waving. "Those of you not from our galaxy, I'm a twi'lek. I've been here in Fandom...almost two years now, and I run the scrapyard and docking pads. Back home, I'm a pilot and I ship a lot of goods." She was a smuggler and a revolutionary. And not saying that in front of a Sith, thanks.

"And I'm Kanan," Kanan greeted with another bow of his head. "I've been on the island roughly a full year longer than Hera here, which mostly means I'm used to being chased out of bed by squirrels on Monday mornings. Back home I generally do odd jobs. Hauling industrial goods, machine repairs, heavy lifting. I joined Hera's crew around the time she showed up here, so I guess shipping goods with her is the most steady job I've had in a while, now."

And maybe two, three other people in the room would be able to call him on that poodoo. At least it wasn't an outright lie?

"We decided to have this class as a way of making a difference for people on the island and maybe off," Hera said, "and more than that, just showing you what you can do to help out. Sometimes even if you want to help, you might not know what you can do. Hopefully this will give you some ideas."

"For those who might not be certain why they wound up in this particular class," not that Kanan had anyone in particular in mind, "or what the purpose of something like this is..." He spread his hands a little. "There's a lot to be said for the benefits of doing good for the people around you. Treat people well, and they'll do their best. People who are doing poorly worry more about how poorly they're doing than they do about much else. Or they worry about changing that. People can only suffer for so long before they want the suffering to stop." This was all a... weirdly pragmatic outlook for him to lean into, here. But, look, not everyone on the island was a philanthropist. Some people were possibly predisposed to be very much the opposite. "When people are treated right, when they're given every opportunity to do well, most are inclined to take that opportunity, maybe even present it to others."

Maybe, say, do what it took to liberate a galaxy. But perhaps he was getting ahead of himself.

Hera smiled at him. "Eventually it might even come back to you. If you're nice to people, if you help them do better, maybe they'll be there when you need them. Or someone else will."

"So," Kanan said, smiling back at Hera, "that's what we're going to focus on to start. Introductions. Name, why you took this class, and one nice thing you intend to do for somebody this week."

Because yes, you had to, it was homework now.

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"If you say so, Kanan." Lana nodded. "What did you wish to speak to me about?"

Kanan tilted his head a little, considering how the hell he wanted to approach this.

"So... Sith, huh?" Great start. Gold star. "You mentioned something about the island being neutral territory and didn't seem too concerned about the Jedi I mentioned were here. Is that a common thing where you came from?"

"That depends upon where it is and how neutral you mean," Lana said.

"We have a treaty with the Republic, and most honor it. That doesn't mean there aren't problems, or that anybody is very friendly with the other side. I've never met any Jedi personally, and I'm not entirely sure I trust them, but I'm reasonably certain no-one wants to start the war up again just yet."

Kanan nodded slowly, listening carefully, considering that.

"Here," he noted, "there isn't any such treaty. Different galaxy, different time, different rules. The handful of Jedi who are here don't have any interest in leaping back into another war, as far as I can tell." He paused. "Some of us are just too damn tired to bother."

Just slipping that in there, one hand twitching at his side, half-regretting that his lightsaber was in pieces, just in case.

Lana frowned. "I hadn't considered that the treaty might not be in effect at all," she confessed.

Then she gave him a look, because yes, she had caught that. "Us?"

"Us." He leaned his head back a little. Lifted a shoulder. "It's possible some are easier to spot than others."

Since he kind of looked nothing like a Jedi. And the empty blaster holster on his belt probably gave the wrong impression, too. Or the right one.

"Well, most Jedi don't use blasters, from what I understand," Lana said. Hey, Jedi in her time dressed pretty much any way they wanted to.

Now that she knew, she could sense him in the Force - strongly. "You were hiding before, too."

"I was being cautious," Kanan replied. "Can you blame me?"

Come on, Lana. You knew better than anybody what Sith were typically like. Kanan only had the stories.

"You knew what I was," Lana pointed out. "The fact you not only didn't kill me on the spot but warned me makes me want to give you the benefit of the doubt. I'd still like to know what this is all about."

She was a little twitchy now, too. Sure, she'd said she'd love to talk to a Jedi, but still - Jedi were Jedi. Could even this one be trusted?

Kanan crossed his arms over his chest, brow furrowed faintly. Kill her on the spot? What did she think the Jedi were? Some kind of...

He nearly winced when his brain filled that blank in with 'Sith.'

Ah.

"I've never met a Sith before," he said, after a moment's pause. "Not in person. You were the stories they'd tell Jedi younglings to make them behave. The monsters they warned us never to become. But..." He frowned a little, looking down, trying to piece something together. "... You weren't any of that. There's darkness to you. Around you, through you, a creeping cold in the Force. But you're nothing like I expected."

Lana firmed her lips. "And the Jedi are the nightmares everyone in the Empire frightened their children with. The ones who hunted our entire race and culture to extinction and only gave up because they thought they'd succeeded. It's only in my parents' time, with the war, that we began to look on them as defeatable enemies, fallible sentients."

She gave Kanan a serious look. "I've made a study of the Jedi, and I know they're varied individuals. I know that not all your teachings are anathema, whatever young children are taught. I also know that Jedi teachings only apply when Jedi want them to, and that they rarely seem to come into play when the Sith are involved. You'll forgive me for being wary."

Well.

That got Kanan's attention. He frowned more deeply still, his brow creasing.

"I don't know of any hunt," he said, finally. "Not of your race, not of your culture. A good many of our own records were destroyed when the Sith took control of Coruscant, over a thousand years before my time."

And there was that roiling sick in his guts that he couldn't entirely bite down. A feeling of something underfoot coming loose. She wasn't lying. He pulled in a slow breath.

"We took it back. Infighting took care of most of the rest of you, or we never would have been able to liberate Coruscant in the first place." He looked at her quietly for a moment. "But you can't possibly be from after that point. It only took one of you to destroy us."

Kanan wasn't lying, either; Lana could tell that much, even if a lot of what he was saying made no sense.

Well, some of it did.

She shook her head and sighed. "And I've never heard of any of that. Bar the infighting." She couldn't deny that. "I could argue that we were only returning the favor, but for all I know all of that happened so long ago we don't remember it; records get destroyed all too often. Maybe the Jedi who destroyed us were the ones striking back. When does it all end?"

"I suppose it ends when one, or the other, or both do," Kanan replied, ever the pessimist. He closed his eyes. Breathed in. Exhaled. Opened them again to look at her evenly. "I asked you to stay after class because it's only a matter of time before I end up having to ignite my lightsaber around here. Because I figured it would be better you find out from me now than down the road when something is trying to kill us all. Whatever the Jedi are to you, whatever the Sith are to me, if nothing else we at least agree that the situations we left back home are so different, we can't even begin pinpoint where we're from in relation to one another by comparing massacres."

Space, that was depressing.

"I'm a Jedi. You're my student. I wanted to make certain you understood that the first isn't going to have any bearing on the second. This island is neutral territory? I intend to respect that, unless you force my hand." He tilted his head at her. "I don't think you will."

Lana took her own deep breath, listened to what she could feel through the Force, then shook her head.

"No. I may not know when it ends back home, but this much ends here. I'll do my best not to bring the past into it if you'll do the same. You're here to teach, and I'm here to learn. Let's stick with that."

She smirked and gave him a scrupulously proper bow, hands held together. "Master Jarrus."

And Kanan... just reached a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"You know what, let's just go with 'Instructor' after all."

What was it with Empire students trying to break his brain with that damn title, anyway?

Pay It Forward: Making a Big Difference in Little Ways, Friday, Period 3

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