The concepts Tony spoke of made more sense to him now than ever. He had memories of that sort of childhood that seemed to be what normal consisted of in the world Tony was from, vague experiences of going to school, of adventuring in the local neighborhood with Merrin as kids. But he knew even in that world and in fake ones that there were still chances for things to go wrong, something drastic to happen. Just maybe not so drastic as the path he'd had to go down.

"...it might not have been my responsibility, but I was my master's. What happened then was like everything was saying I wasn't ready. And I know I was still in the process of learning, and that things were out of my control, but that didn't make me feel like any less of a failure to my master."

The sparks from the arc welder began to blur slightly in his sight, so he switched it off, closing his eyes for a moment, taking a slow breath. Just because he'd accepted things didn't mean it wasn't difficult speaking of it. He'd made up his mind to move forward, but there'd always be those glances back.

"Being a Jedi has its own responsibilities. There's access to a power that can easily be used to do terrible things if we aren't careful. But I won't hide what I am anymore either."