fandomtownies | The Preserve, Wednsday Morning

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The Preserve, Wednsday Morning

Billy, eyes closed, held his katana in front of him, working through a kata. He tried to keep his breath even as he thought about certain...things he'd heard on the radio. And thoughts they dredged up.

His brow furrowed. He knew the radio distorted things, but it made sense. He'd scared Ami. He'd lied to her. And Setsuna seemed...well.

Somehow it all seemed to keep coming back around to his father and the mark his past had left on him.

With a grunt, he severed a branch from a nearby tree. Hopefully the therapy would help.

[for Anakin, but open]

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Anakin was coming back from ~~brooding in his favorite NFB corner~~ taking a walk when he heard the sound of a sword against a tree.

He walked into the clearing and raised an eyebrow. "Did it try to yank you into the air? There are trees around here that will."

Billy started at the voice. He really must be out of it. He was usually more alert than that. "Uh, no." he said. "I was uh, testing the sharpness of the blade." Yyyeaah, that's the ticket.

Anakin leaned against a nearby tree, looking unconvinced. "Less so, now that you've hit wood with it," he commented.

"That's, yeah good point." Billy glared at the blade as if it were it's fault. "You're the new Ethics teacher right?" he asked, hoping to change the subject.

Anakin nodded. "That's correct," he said. "I'm Anakin Skywalker."

"Any relation to Luke?"

Anakin smiled proudly. "He's my son," he said. "You know Luke?"

"Really?" Billy said, surprised. "You seem so young. I met him once or twice yeah. He's a good guy."

Anakin shrugged. "Time works strangely in Fandom," he said evasively. "What were you working on before you decided to take out a tree?"

"Uh, well I was attempting a kata, but I apparently wasn't, uh, quite as calm as I should have been."

Anakin nodded. "You have to be absolutely focused on what you're doing," he said quietly. "Anger has no place in it."

Jedi, even if he wasn't feeling quite up to the title at the moment.

Billy nodded. "That's what my senseis used to say. Or something like that. That's been a problem for me lately."

Anakin pressed his lips together, then frowned. "You need to get that under control," he said. "Right now. Without control, at best you'll hurt yourself."

"I know." Boy did he ever. "I'm working on it."

"How?" Anakin demanded.

Billy shot Anakin a curious look. Was the guy always this intense or was there some back story there? "Meditation, katas, though that obviously needs work. And therapy."

Anakin nodded his head. "Would you mind showing me the kata you were working on?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "I was a soldier once."

Billy nodded. "I grew up on the military myself." Sort of. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, raising the sword up in front of his face.

Slowly, deliberately, he began to move the blade in slow, careful arcs around him.

He found it almost easier with someone else there. He was almost pretending it was Storm Shadow there.

Anakin watched carefully. "Where does the problem start?" he asked after a few moments.

"In terms of the moves? I'm fine there. This is the first time I've tried one of the sword katas in a while. It's mostly in calming myself that's the problem."

"Any particular triggers for it?" Anakin asked. "Certain smells? People? Days of the week?"

"Well, people mostly. Specific ones I guess. With the Aliens and Trolls it was things that they did."

Anakin waved his hand, encouraging him to keep talking.

The trolls knocked me in the head, which, addled me a bit. Then one smashed my prosthetic leg. And I got pretty pissed off. The Aliens...they put electrodes in my brain. F*&%ed with my stability a bit."

Anakin flinched. He was not in the mood to hear about people with chips in their brains this week.

"So you're blaming your anger control issues on others, then?" he asked neutrally. "Nothing that you can fix?"

"Oh hell no." Billy said defensively. Maybe genetics, or trauma suffered at the hands of my father. "I might believe in cause and effect, but I've never believed in making excuses, or scapegoating."

Anakin didn't look that convinced. "Really," he said. "There aren't trolls or aliens here now," he pointed out. "Why were you angry?"

Billy leaned against a tree. He thought a moment, and sighed. "I was angry at my father."

"Is he a tree?" Anakin asked.

Fandom. Stranger things have happened.

"Not, so far as I know." Billy said. "It seemed a safe thing to take my anger out on though."

Anakin frowned. "The tree's a living thing, too," he lectured. "Everything's connected, and all actions have consequences."

He was sounding like Obi-Wan whether he knew it or not.

"Now what problem with your father makes you hack up defenseless plant life?"

"We cut down trees to make paper and fire." Billy said, a little skeptically.

But he instinctively fell into the role of student. It was like riding a bike.

But they had reached the point in the conversation where he normally clammed up.

"Where are you from?" he asked. He wasn't changing the subject, he was...hell, doing a background check.

"You weren't trying to do either," Anakin said with another frown. "Own up to your actions."

If he'd had a credit for every time Obi-Wan had told him that, he could've bought Naboo.

"I'm from a different galaxy," he said, "but I have no plans to poke anything into your brain."

The rebuke stung a bit. He was very much into people owning up to their own actions. He almost brought up using wood and things to break in demonstrations, but decided he knew what Anakin was getting at.

"The reason I asked, is because the situation with my father is both a military secret, and has me in witness protection. But being from a distant galaxy...doesn't seem as important to keep it a secret."

Some of the pieces started clicking together in Anakin's mind.

"I'm very good at keeping secrets," he said.

"I'd appreciate it." Billy nodded. He took a deep breath. "My father was the leader of an organization that tried to take over my world. When he thought I'd betrayed him, and the irony is that was one of the few times I would have been on his side, he tried to kill me. A few years later he brainwashed me. I only got free because the good guys messed up his brainwashing machine."

And that was the short version. It was weird telling the new ethics teacher this, seeing as how the old teacher had dressed so much like his father.

Anakin crossed his arms over his chest. "Your father sounds like a real piece of work," he said harshly.

Mostly because he reminded him of someone he used to be.

"You would've been okay with him taking over the world?"

"No." Billy said. "From the moment my memory starts I've been working against him. Before I even knew he was my father. The only time we've gotten along, is when I had amnesia, or when I was brainwashed.

"I'm told that for a very short time he was ready to give it all up so he could reconcile with me. Then I heard someone had killed him, and I was in the midst of trying to figure that mess out when he popped back up, crazier than ever, and buried me alive."

Anakin winced. He thought his family had problems.

"He ever blow up a...you know what, that's not important. I can see where you'd be angry with him." He blew out a breath. "But you have to move past it."

"I know." Billy sighed. "I'm working on it." He didn't know what to say other than that."

"Work harder," Anakin said quietly. "That kind of anger can eat you alive."

Billy nodded quietly. He thought that perhaps, his father was a good cautionary tale in that regard.

"I was trained as a warrior most of my life," Anakin said, "and I've seen terrible things happen to the world when anger gets out of someone's control."

Well, especially when his anger had, but he wasn't up for sharing that with a stranger.

"If you need any more help, my office door is open."

"Thank you." Billy said, sincerely. "I appreciate that."

Anakin nodded. "I'll leave you to your exercises, then," he said. "Don't hurt any more trees."

He disappeared into a different part of the preserve.

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The Preserve, Wednsday Morning

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