"I took away the memory of what he did to that angel," Anakin replied quietly, meeting her eyes. "The specifics."

"It's part of the training Jedi receive," he said. "The mind isn't closed to us. We don't use the ability lightly."

He held out a finger for the baby droid in the crook of his arm to grab onto. "I trust my instincts on this sort of thing absolutely," he continued. "Letting Danyel keep that memory--in addition to losing his mother the day before--would be too much for him handle. He would be broken beyond mending."

"You saw the look in his eyes," Anakin said, looking over at her. "Do you think that was likely? I'm hardly known for coddling people, or protecting them from their mistakes."

"And if he'd have been your age, I would have agreed with you," Anakin said. "But he wasn't. He doesn't have enough context yet to understand what part of that whole mess was his responsibility and what was destiny."

He was quiet for a long, long time. "When I was his age, I was taken from my mother on Tatooine to go to the Jedi Temple. Having no attachments meant I was forbidden to see her again. I was young, terribly frightened, and alone. And when I went to the Council to be tested, I was told to my face that I was too old to become a Jedi."

For a moment he wondered if he'd be mentioning any of this is Evey didn't have Padmé's face. "They only changed their minds when the Jedi I had come to Coruscant with--who'd promised to watch over me because returning to a life of slavery wasn't an option--was killed."

He frowned. "That experience changed me--and not for the better. I've spent my entire life waiting for the other boot to drop. Danyel doesn't deserve to live in fear of the day he might accidentally kill again."

"Then it is," Anakin said. "But if something was meant to be, it will happen regardless of what I did."

"Not all life altering experiences can be turned into a positive," he said, rocking the droid baby. "Some of them just scar us."

"No you don't," Anakin retorted.

"There are trillions of beings living perfectly normal lives without a quarter of our baggage," Anakin replied. "You don't need to be hurt. Ever."

"There are ways to get there that don't involve being emotionally abused," Anakin said, focusing on her eyes, and he wasn't talking about Danyel any more.

"But it's wrong," Anakin insisted just as quietly, his heart clenching tightly in his chest as he looked at her.

"Always," Anakin whispered. "Evey, I'm sorry, but always."

"Explain it to me?" he asked.

Anakin's heart cracked just a little. "Like you were?" he guessed.