Ben frowned -- Tenel Ka was an anomaly that threw his theory out of whack, certainly. Or maybe she was just the exception that proved the rule.
"She wants to trust him," he said, trying not to let frustration show in his voice. Hell, on one level, the part of him that would always want to be a kid again, Ben wanted to trust him, too. "Easier to be manipulated when you want to be. And they've both been here a while, right? But does he really just talk about it like--? I haven't heard much. Maybe he's going for the honesty angle. People figure he wouldn't tell them all about being a bad guy if he was still a bad guy."
Not that it was as simplistic as all that anyway. Bad guy was a very black and white term. The real world didn't work like that, not even in an alternate universe like this. Even if Jacen wasn't a 'bad guy' anymore, that didn't automatically make him a good guy. Right? Maybe that was the reasoning he needed to hold on to. The shades of grey.
Irritation flared a little in him at Mirta's words. Not anger, but close enough to make him realise he needed to get a better grip on his emotions. No, it didn't make him happy at all. And it was still a sensitive subject, apparently.
"He's a smaller part of this world," Ben said quietly, with a sideways look at Mirta. "Back home, he was-- he basically ruled the galaxy by the time he died. Here, he doesn't have that much power. I don't want him to have it, and I, I'll stop him if he tries to get it, but I don't think he even can, you know? It's not that it's easy. It's just-- I'm a Jedi. I can't go getting angry just because he exists."