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

Anakin closed his eyes, listening to Evey's accent to remind himself that this wasn't Padmé.

"Why do you think it was necessary?" he murmured.

He really, really didn't want to add onto the hurts she'd already accumulated.

He tried a different tack. "And you'd want the kind of pain you endured to be Danyel's as well?"

Anakin nodded, still looking a little heartbroken. The walls he kept up against most people's emotions had never really stuck when he looked at Evey.

"And I wouldn't dream of touching them," he said softly. "But Danyel's everything had already been changed. Why would he need to remember killing someone when he was this young?"

"It may have made him a killer," he countered just as quietly.

"Have you ever killed someone?" Anakin asked.

"Then think of what I did for Danyel as a similar gesture," Anakin said. "I'll bear the memory of that event so he won't have to."

"Can you be satisfied with that?" Anakin asked.

"I'm sorry I couldn't explain it better," he said, his eyes tightening a bit in frustration.

He nodded. "I didn't do it maliciously."

Some of the tension left Anakin's face. "With this kind of power, there are often misunderstandings."

"It's why I've told Luke not to do it here," Anakin admitted.