He had to keep shouting to be heard, but his voice wasn't quite as desperate as it should have been, nor was it as frantic. "Then do it. I promise you, Anakin, she will be there when Dooku has been dealt with." He didn't make promises lightly, but he still could do little more than hope that what had played out last time would again.

And that he would have some time to tell Anakin a story, in the end. Maybe change things, maybe not - it was possible that nothing could change anything. It was possible that nothing was meant to change. In some horrible way Anakin had brought the force into balance.

Obi-Wan just didn't like the cost of that.