"...You were... a slave of the Sith."

"...Everyone was."

...He's going to stand back quietly and feel out the shape of this conversation in the Force, and not interrupt for once. 

"...Then why Darth Mourne?"

"...Because the best way to free as many as I could, was from the inside.  If the Republic takes a world from the Empire, the whole Empire takes offense.  If a Sith kills another Sith...

"Well.  Only the people who were benefiting from that one's continued existence would object."

"But... How didn't you fall to the dark side?"

And she didn't. She doesn't have that feeling Dooku has. 

"There is, I contend, nothing in the actual Code of the Sith that requires you to side with the side of the Force that would backstab you just to watch you bleed.  Certainly there are many, many interpretations that hold that the chains are metaphors for things like compassion or love, but at the time that code was made, the chains were very literal."

"Or, to put it another way: I simply do not want to Fall to the Dark Side.  Just like Master Kenobi does not want to walk out of the Temple's front door and start swinging his lightsaber into the crowd wildly.  It's just not worth it.  The things the Dark Side claims to give, come at the expense of everything you'd want them for."

It's good for revenge That thought he can crush incredibly quickly, and also the guilt some of them weren't very old he understands the tempting nature of the Dark Side - "I was taught that it's easier than that. To fall, I mean. I was taught that it just happens, if you give in to anger, to hate."

...Oh, that's even less good.

"...A feeling alone is not the Dark Side.  It is what you do with it - it is how you act - that matters.  I have despised the Empire since they first tried to 'train' me.  But I have not let that drive me to abandon compassion - compassion even, in some measure, for my enemies.  It is when you do that, when you turn your back on the world, caring for only yourself, that you have truly Fallen."

He wasn't thinking only about himself he was thinking about his mother and all the other slaves too, he was, it was just mostly about himself and how he wasn't fast enough or strong enough or smart enough and he tried to make her heart beat with the Force and maybe if instead he'd just run and got help and one of them left those cuts and one of them broke her bones so he killed them all but Padme understood when he told her and so did Chancellor Palpatine - 

The Sith interfere with your mind. That much is well known. Apparently even ones the Council is working with, for some reason, even ones that aren't Dark, somehow. 

He takes those thoughts and feelings and with a sudden effort he buries them away with all his might, a dazzling display of power perceptible just for a moment before he's like a durasteel wall in the Force. 

"That's... interesting. I really never thought there might be other kinds of Sith."

...She's very probably going to be telling the Council about that one.

...or, no.  Just Kenobi.  He actually gives half a damn about this Knight.

"I am rather singular, but I'm not the first to have found their way to the Light, and I hope I was not the last."

"...In completely unrelated matters, I've heard you're close to the current Chancellor.  I've heard quite a bit about how he's handling the war, but almost nothing about him outside of that!  And considering that I probably live here now, I'd like to know a bit more about what he's like as a person, outside the Chancellery."

He was off-balance for a moment, but now his presence in the Force is hard and bleak as a cliff face. He has absolutely no subtlety or ability to misdirect but he can absolutely stonewall anything anyone tries with an incredible amount of sheer power. 

"The Chancellor has always been kind to me," he answers stiffly. "He's busy, of course. But he makes time to see me sometimes."

...She's not trying any Force kriffery.  She has standards.

"...Well.  I seem to have touched on a sore subject.  My apologies."

...She really doesn't like that the boy clamped down so suddenly on the subject of people who he likes/people who like him.

Or people who pretend to.  Because really, this, after all that...

She's fairly sure the Chancellor is Darth Sidious.

"...I may have less knowledge of Jedi practices than I do of my own, but to the best of my understanding it is not forbidden for Jedi to have friends."

He is so tightly armoured in the Force, like a duranium ball crushing him into the centre, smooth and polished. That's Jedi peace and stillness, isn't it? It looks perfect from the outside, imperturbable all the way through, Yoda himself probably couldn't peel it open

He grins, easy and self-assured. "Sorry about that. The war is - demanding. I don't have a lot of time to see old friends. It's only attachment that we're forbidden."

...kid, you just said you can't dissemble worth a damn.

If you'd tried this first, and never, ever dropped it, it's possible you could have fooled her for at least casual conversation.

Now?  It just screams that something is wrong.

What the fuck happened...

...oh.  Yes.  That did.

And clearly nobody has taken him to a mind-healer since then!

"...Let's speak again later, perhaps."

When you do not need to pretend at holding beliefs you don't have.

"Yeah."

It is, in his defence, a good cocky smile. The HoloNet loves it.

She might have pressed all his buttons but it's all crushed by the weight of the Force. 

He smiles it and takes his lightsaber, tosses it up, catches it. 

"So did Obi-Wan wear you out, or can I have a turn?"

(He is good at this. You can believe, looking at him, that we're going to win and it's even going to be fun.)

"Oh, I think I have it in me."

She strides to a position in the middle of the training field, waiting for Anakin to get to his starting position - but not for more than that, before she attacks.

She doesn't start by pretending to be a regular Sith Lord this time.  She starts with Force Lightning - memories-of-fear, and a feeling of genuine concern she couldn't keep out entirely, despite trying - and blasterfire.

He's been hit with far too much lightning for one lifetime. 

(So it is possible to use Force lightning without risking the Dark Side, he knew it.)

The HoloNet calls him the 'Hero Without Fear' sometimes, and he's been good at showing people exactly what they want him to be no matter how he feels inside since he was three years old and Watto didn't like him crying. Memories-of-fear don't even register as unusual at this point. 

A Jedi never uses the Force for aggression and he is not touching what's inside that durasteel ball. It's just a completely natural and healthy physical outlet when he leaps over the Force-lightning burst and twists in midair and comes down with a Djem So chop that hits like a cruiser.

(Oh sure it's possible, but you should be asking Plo Koon, not her.)

She slips underneath his leaping arc, shooting up and behind, letting the Force guide her arm as she wheels around.

The Force lets him turn most of that momentum into collapsing underneath her blow with a wild hack backwards at her legs and then into an explosive charge forwards. Don't give her time to think, like an avalanche with a lightsaber, perfect angles and the kind of sheer physical power that made him have to reinforce his saber hilt, make every parry jar her wrists and make her elbows ache and just keep coming so he can stop thinking and just be doing-

(He hasn't been a Jedi for long but he's extremely strong in the Force, even when most of it is actually turned inwards.)

That presumes, mister avalanche, that you can force her to take your hits.

Precisely evading overwhelming force with minimal effort is in fact the very crucible in which this form was forged.  Piercing through a volley of blasterfire or dodging overpowering blows by inches with careful footwork, the principles are the same: Don't be where they'll hit you.  Always be ready to turn on the spot to follow the safer path.  Take glancing blows to dodge bigger hits, if you must.  Misdirect, when you can.  Minimize your profile.  Strike at their weakness, avoid their strength.

And if you're spending so much power, while she dances away on feather-light steps, occasionally swinging another seemingly-futile lash of lightning at you...  (Seemingly futile.  She hasn't revealed just why her name is Mourne, yet.)

Well.  You might be in a lot more trouble than you think you are, Anakin Skywalker.

Will you figure that out?

Then the answer is even more force because even glancing hits transfer some force and some of this still hurts. 

The lightning hurts, and it brings back bad memories, and the pain makes him sharper and stronger but that's wrong so it can all be crushed away with the Force and he can just keep going. He's not letting himself feel any of it, he is the Chosen One and he's strong enough to just carry on anyway. Even turning most of his power in on himself, he really has a lot of strength. 

He isn't, actually, tiring out very fast. If at all. It gets worse when he stops moving, you see.