Anathema finishes jogging over, falling into step with Ellaita.

"So you've met Anathema, and I presume she's told you her story."

She nods. "She has, though I'd like to hear your side as well."

Ellaita begins to fill her in, starting from her arrival on Jakku.

She asks questions throughout, but - she doesn't seemed very surprised by the 'ghost of Darth Vader' part, nor by any of Vader's described abilities. She does seem a little surprised that Vader had a student, especially one like Lily.

"Why do I get the feeling you knew more than you said in the briefing before you sent me out on this snipe hunt?"

"There's a lot I keep close or don't bother going into detail on. It's almost never actually relevant to missions, and I'm sorry you got caught off guard here."

"Lord Inkil's birth name is being kept as quiet as possible, to reduce unnecessary backlash against his family."

"I know Force ghosts are possible, though I've never met one. I hadn't known that Inkil was after a ghost, nor that Vader survived as one, but I suspected he'd be more likely to pursue some artifact of Vader's than anything else, especially with this intensity. Still, that was a vague hunch based on what I know of him, not actionable intelligence."

Pause. "I suppose it's inaccurate to say I had no idea Vader might be a ghost - Luke Skywalker reported feeling her presence occasionally and saw her once in the three years after her death, but she faded from his senses, and every other known Force ghost has either faded or lost coherency before a decade or two, or was tightly and apparently permanently anchored to a specific place... And even then they're usually not conversationalists. Just - an area of lingering emotion. Vader's situation is as far as I know unprecedented, though we might just have lost records of past cases."

"Unprecedented. Right."

"I'm unsure how Inkil found out."

"Well, he did, and now we have a rescue mission to plan."

She nods. "We can't leave Vader with him - depending on how much this escalates... If Vader's involved, both the Empire and New Republic will turn their gazes fully here. If we're lucky, they'll stick to grinding this sector into the mud and won't turn their own war hot."

"Anathema said she had some intel about First Order bases he might have gone to."

"A list of all the ones my clone line's worked on or near, to start - though if he's at all competent he'll know those are compromised. The best intel is the ones he might think aren't compromised - ones we've overheard, but also while we were preparing to run I paid a lot of attention to logistics and all, and I think I can guess at where the others are, or give you enough to guess, and I know what sorts of things they do on secure bases."

"He's unfortunately often competent."

"But that's a huge windfall - even just better information about how far each ship can go before needing to stop for fuel would help us narrow some things down..."

"I figured."

"I want to help Ellaita in this on my own accord, but - a lot of my girls don't want to be soldiers anymore. Some of them want to work against the First Order in other ways, but a lot of us want to retire, or retrain entirely into other fields. If you want everything I know - I want guarantees they'll get the help they need."

"As long as the ones who want to retire aren't attached to this sector, I can definitely do that, and I can probably pull even local settlement."

"If any others are Force sensitive - I can get them training, too. You as well, though if you want to be active in the fight the logistics might get complicated."

"Figure I can tell Vader she owes me a favor and I'm calling it in for training, if nothing else."

"I'll let my girls know about any offers."

"Alright."

"Master Anakin would teach you," Lily says, quietly. "She's really good."

"Anakin, huh? She prefers that?"

She nods. "She usually goes by Anakin Vendar to other people, though she sometimes uses Anakin Skywalker."

"I'll ask Anakin for training, then."

She ducks her head a little.

"Might try to give it to you even if you don't ask," Ellaita mutters.

"That'll make arranging it easier, then."