If she has something to say, then she can say it. Ellaita's got flying to do.

Everyone else kind of retreats into the rest of the ship. Anathema helps Ellaita get them in the air, punch in the hyperspace coordinates, and get them jumped to hyperspace.

Technically, they now no longer have an excuse to hide in the cockpit.

Anathema sends Ellaita a vaguely uncertain look. "Do you - want to avoid her?" she asks, slowly. 

"Mm. More that I don't know I want to seek her out."

"It's not a big ship... Do you mind sitting with me while I ask questions? - I also wouldn't mind asking why she was acting weird around you but I can just not."

"All right."

Small smile. "Thanks." She stands and stretches. "Ready to face the most awkward inquisition?"

Heh. "Let's do it."

Out into the common area, then, to find their ghost. 

She's sitting with Lily on the floor in front of the couch, both of their eyes closed, posture relaxed. Her eyes slide open when the two enter. She seems friendlier now, less unsure. 

"Hello," she says. "You had questions?"

"Yup." She glances at Sharp and Charge - currently playing a strategy game - who nod at her, get up, and retreat to their bunk. Anathema perches on one of the couches. 

Lily rouses from her meditation and sits opposite her, next to where Anakin is resettling. She looks somewhat uncomfortable.

Small sigh. "So - I don't have much context yet for what happened while I was captured, but... What do you want to know?"

Ellaita takes a seat next to Anathema, on the far side from Anakin.

"Okay so..." She stops to gather her thoughts. "I mean I guess first - if you could always do that," she waves her hand vaguely, "How did you even get captured?"

That's not a happy look on her face. 

"I wanted to deescalate," she says, voice quiet and small. "I was trying to keep it from being obvious I'm anything more than an unusually competent Force user. Special, maybe, but ultimately lost in a galaxy tumbling into chaos. Not worth much effort."

She closes her eyes. No one asked, but, like she's anticipating Anathema's obvious next question: 

"This war is - minor, ultimately. A tiny corner of the galaxy set on fire and fueled by interests larger than it, but - one of many such fires."

"There are two behemoths in this galaxy, right now. Two monsters. They aren't striking directly at each other. They're just funneling weapons, funding, training to all the little fires they've set that might chip away at each other's edges."

"This war is small, but the two eldest children of the Republic's First Senator are involved. The first student of Luke Skywalker, the traitor of the Jedi, is involved. It's being watched."

"What do you think will happen, if those two behemoths learn I still exist?"

"I'm powerful, sure. Terrifyingly so."

"Do you really think they won't try to control me? The Empire might try to recruit me, at least."

"The Republic might decide keeping me out of the Empire's hands is worth their war going hot. Won't trust I'm anything other than a monster under the bed. Than the death of them, if allowed to run free."

"And when you're two behemoths, armed with planet-killers your engineers assure you have none of the weaknesses of the original Death Stars, do you wait for the other to escalate first?"

"So now that you did what you did..."

"I'm... Unsure."

"Jacen, despite all appearances to the contrary, isn't that dumb. He doesn't want the Empire sticking its nose in, even ignoring the risk of escalation. He'll do his best to suppress rumors. He'll cloud memories."

"But - "

"It's only a matter of time, if this war keeps burning." She looks weary. "I did that to press on him - he's bitten off more than he can chew. That there's options for the powerful other than mass murder - I gave him no ultimatum other than leaving my apprentice alone." Pause, and glance at Lily. "My daughter. He's a parent himself. He won't take that protectiveness the same way he'd take a demand about what he does in this war."

"I... Might go talk to him, once my mind is centered enough."

"We need peace." And a bit ruefully, "No matter my conflicted feelings about my blood descendents."

"Going to talk to him doesn't seem very wise."

She sighs. "I know. But I'm hoping he can't easily trap me like that again, especially if I take him by surprise."

"Hope isn't reliable."

"It isn't. Ideally, I'll be able to take additional precautions. But - "

"Sometimes gambling is all you have left. Talking to him... Is something to keep in mind, at least. I haven't made any decisions yet, and I won't until I have more information."

"Mm."

Small fidget.

"So... Topic change, but, why did that droid call Lily its 'master'?"

She glances over at the droid, currently sitting in a corner, no signs of life to it except its red indicator lights and unshuttered camera. 

Lily bites her lip.

She hums. "Lily didn't make it, and she's never interacted with it before. But there's a thing in the feel of someone in the Force usually called a 'signature.' It's held to be unique to each individual, the imprint of their mind, like a fingerprint in humans. Not even identical twins have the same one, and shapeshifters can almost never mimic them - except Force signatures are supposed to be universal and utterly impossible to mimic. A good way to identify someone."

"The droid's creator made it to respond only to his Force signature, like a fingerprint scanner on a pad. It turns out the conventional wisdom about Force signatures isn't wholly accurate, though - people can resemble each other fairly closely, for one, though that's rare. But most relevant here is that Lily's is unusually flexible, and she can change her signature outright. Something like that has never been documented before, but seemingly unique Force abilities are actually relatively common as a class, so it's not shocking."

"But when Lily was throwing things at Jacen, she molded her Force signature to one that the artifacts wouldn't react poorly to, and that apparently mimicked the droid's creator's enough to activate it."

"We've confirmed with it that she isn't actually the same person as its creator, who is long dead. As far as it's concerned, though, 'has the same fingerprint' is close enough, so it's chosen to work for Lily now."