The rest of the day, Lyra excitedly rearranged her travel plans. The Empire was starting to crack down on celebrations around the planet, which meant that they weren't going to give up Coruscant without a fight. At least civilian transports were still allowed to leave, so the Empire had not closed the airspace, at least not yet. Best to be off the planet by the time the Alliance arrived, though.
When all of her plans were made, Lyra took a break and curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea. Scanning the holowebs for any updates, she checked in on The Conversationist to see if they were reporting on the events. What she found was rather cryptic:
The time has come; we've done our best. Scatter to the winds until we meet at the place of triumph. Stay brave, stay strong, stay hidden until the scarlet crow has flown. Those who know, know.
That was it. No comments, in fact the comments section was closed. What in the galaxy?
That night, Lyra lay in bed thinking. Where do we go from here? What is Vader going to do?
Should I even be helping?
What is Luke like? How is the Alliance going to take over? The Imperials aren't going to give up without a fight. Mas Ameda's already saying that he's now the Emperor. If worse comes to worst, Palpatine can always open a tea room...Oh no! Lyra sat up, suddenly wide awake. What to do? Lyra got out of bed and looked out over the city, busy even in the middle of the night. What to do, what to do. Lyra considered this option and that option until during her second cup of caf, she hit upon the perfect plan, or rather, the best she could do at the moment.
But should I be doing this, or should I just walk away?
Lyra didn't have to be at the space port until 3:00 that afternoon to get in line to fly her speeder on to the passenger ship, so at 9:30 am, she took an air taxi to a speeder rental place. Renting a smaller hauler, Lyra made her way towards Vader's palace. Entering the Palace distract, Lyra was stopped by a security team. She truthfully told them her plans, well, most of them, and showed them her ID. The two troopers looked at her ID and at her, and well, why not? They waived her on through. As she approached Vader's palace, Lyra punched the clearance code into her com unit, and the security shield for that section gave way. Lyra darted through and re-raised the shield quickly. No one seemed to be about, and no one tried to enter along with her, so hopefully her would-be assailants were long gone.
Lyra parked the hauler in the empty landing bay and rummaging in a nearby tool drawer, found a pair of cutters. Lyra then took the turbo lift to the maintenance floor where the worker droids including L-PO were kept. Activating L-PO, she gave him his instructions, then made her way up a few floors to a hidden panel in the wall. Careful not to leave any fingerprints, Lyra opened the panel and cut the wires to the security system for that area of the building. No alarms went off, so she repeated the procedure several more floors up. At some point in the future, people might wonder if she was the one to cut the wires, but there would be no proof. Given that the Empire wasn't giving up Coruscant anytime soon, it was going to be quite a while before anyone had time to think about Vader's palace. Probably.
Thirty minutes later, Lyra closed the doors to the hauler and took off, again without any sentimentality about leaving the palace for yet another last time. Setting the hauler's navigation system, Lyra directed the vehicle to a storage unit facility. She chose this particular place since she could drive the hauler right up to her rental unit's door. Luckily no one was around, but if they were, they would have seen a parade of Vader's medical droids plus V-8 file into the unit followed by more droids moving the furniture from Lyra's quarters.
When everything was settled, Lyra turned to L-PO. "Okay, I have the data chips from the medic droids. Now, tell everyone to shut down."
"My lady, I don't understand what you're doing. Lord Vader will need these droids when he returns. Maybe we should…"
"Your behind the times L-PO. Please do as I say."
L-PO instructed the droids to shut down, and before he could protest, Lyra shut him down too and locked the door.
After returning the rented hauler, Lyra returned to the hotel, checked out, and since Luke had said they didn't have many supplies, stopped by the Imperial City Concourse luxury mall where she filled her speeder with cooking supplies, pillows, sheets, blankets, and towels plus a few pieces of warm weather clothing since most of her clothes were on their way to Esfir. After a quick stop at a grocery store for more supplies, Lyra proceeded to the spaceport and loaded her stuffed speeder onto the departing ship.
*Sigh* Looks like I'm doing this.
Security of course, had to go through all her parcels, which didn't thrill them. After that, Lyra made her way to her guest suite and feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off her, fell into a deep sleep.
"So there you have it."
"Your story is amazing. Thank you. We don't know a lot about our father, so any information is helpful."
Lyra considered Luke for a moment. "Luke, I don't mean to disparage your skills with a lightsaber, but I've seen Vader in action, and I know a bit of the experience he's had. Even though you're, what, 24, 25 years younger, I just don't think you could have beaten him. I think, deep down, he couldn't bring himself to kill his own child."
Luke sighed. "I've wondered that too. Towards the end of the fight, I was fighting out of pure rage, but still...yeah, I think you're right, especially since he did save me from the Emperor."
"I'm still amazed by that," Lyra noted. "Yes, there were definite cracks forming in his loyalty to the Emperor, but to actually kill him? And to do so in defense of you? I think all this time, it was you who was slowly turning him instead of him turning you."
"There was still good in him. I told him that on Endor, and he proved me right."
Lyra stood up and moved to the caf unit and poured herself another cup. "I can't tell you how happy I am that he renounced the dark side. I had always hoped, but never imagined it would happen. I assumed that he'd finally overthrow the Emperor and rule as Emperor himself. That seemed far more likely."
Laughter, a woman's laughter. Wonderful, yet odd. How long has it been since I've heard laughter? Anakin opened his eyes and blinked a few times, focusing. There! The laughter was coming just outside the door opposite him. At that moment, Lyra moved into his view of the room beyond the door. She was standing with her left side facing him, her arms crossed, and a big smile on her face. A male voice spoke, and Lyra laughed in response. Anakin must have made a sound, because right then, Lyra turned and looked at him.
"Look who's awake," she said, rushing to his side. "How do you feel," she said, smiling down at him.
"I'm not sure. What happened? Where are we?"
"Do you remember what happened on the Death Star?" Luke said, coming in and standing by Lyra.
Anakin thought for a moment. "I remember throwing the Emperor down the core shaft. I remember being hit by his Force lightning. I remember you pulled me up and into the lift."
"Yeah, that's where you told me to contact Lyra and that you could put yourself into stasis, hopefully giving us time to get a hyperbaric chamber set up for you. Do you remember asking me to take your mask off?"
"Yes...yes, but nothing after that."
"I got your mask back on and pulled you into a shuttle. We got off the Death Star just in time. Hiding you and the shuttle on Endor took Leia's help."
"Leia?"
"Leia Organa, your daughter, my twin that you sensed."
"Leia…" Leia Organa! "Is she here?"
"She was until this morning, then she had to re-join the Rebel Alliance, but she'll be back at some point."
Luke continued, "I had to report to the Alliance all that happened, so Leia told them to search for Imperial soldiers in another area away from where I set the shuttle down. Fortunately, I was able to get away a few hours later. Leia told them that I was desperate to check on family on Tatooine, which wasn't exactly a lie."
"We're on Tatooine?"
Luke sighed. "I could think of only one place where we could go in the short-term. We're in a house on Tatooine."
Anakin chuckled, then coughed several times. "I swore I would never come back here, and here I am, back where I started."
Anakin paused, focusing on his surroundings. "There's something here...I feel something...Obi Wan!"
"This is Obi-Wan's house where he hid all those years. It was still in decent shape. It didn't look like anyone else has been here since I last used it. Lyra and I have been cleaning some, and Lyra arrived in a fancy speeder loaded down with supplies and immediately set up a very expensive security zone around the property."
Lyra nodded. "Yeah, that's another story, after you're rested some and had some food."
"What's the date? How much time has passed?"
"It's been exactly two weeks since the Death Star was destroyed." Lyra noted. "You've been in this chamber most of that time. The medical droids we bought said not to worry and not to rush you. Your body would awaken when it was ready."
Anakin tried to sit up, but realized that he was still too weak. "What did you do with my suit and mask? I'll need them at some point."
"Well...," Lyra looked to Luke.
"I had to burn your mask and suit. When Lyra assured me that you'd be okay once we got you into the chamber, I took off your mask and outer suit and burned them to destroy the evidence."
"So Vader is dead." Anakin looked over at Lyra and smiled. "Now, photosynthesis."