Chapter 73 - Revive Him

Anakin had done it. He'd gathered the three components of Lobot's personality, and had them all in one place. Sure, he could have reset the computers and been out of here already, but something about walking through a slaver's compound, and reliving his mom's old stories, was making him soft. He couldn't call himself a Jedi Master if he didn't at least try to set one slave free.

Still, he knew the different parts of Lobot argued and fought more than siblings, and he knew he didn't have long. "Alright, you should open the door now," he said to the order loving Lobot behind him.

Like Emotive-Lobot over his own door, it didn't take long for this Lobot to press the keys: one, two, three, four, to open the door. The other side didn't lead to another memory or to anything like he saw before. It was a bluish color portal, like water, yet the way the light reflected off of it, it clearly wasn't liquid.

"This isn't like the others," Anakin noticed.

"No, this leads out of the RAM files," said inteli Lobot.

"Alright." Anakin moved to walk through, but was stopped by Order-Lobot.

"It will be best if we go through together first. Then you should count to Ten before following us." Inteli-Lobot said.

Emotive-Lobot nodded beside him.

Anakin nodded. "Okay." He did not understand why, but figured they must have their reasons. They rarely agree on anything.

The three Lobots stood close enough to almost be touching, and then they stepped through.

'One… Two… Three,' Anakin began to count.

'Four… Five… Six… Seven… Eight… Nine... Ten.' As Anakin stepped through the portal he closed his eyes. He felt, surprisingly, nothing. Not water on his skin, nor the dizziness of the previous switches. Nothing at all. He stepped through and opened his eyes to see a similar network of data points to when he first entered the Bespin computer. He seemed to stand on a metal pathway, one that crisscrossed the area like a giant grid. There were no visible lights in the area, though the space was well lit. If he peered over the edge, it seemed to go on forever, like a giant white void. Off to the side he saw Inteli-Lobot, standing with his back to him.

"Where are the others?" Anakin asked.

"We are here." He answered. Then he turned to Anakin. The man had the same bald head and large implant in his cranium that Intili-Lobot had, but there were also lines of age beside his eyes. This was the original man Anakin had met when he got to Bespin, and yet all the same it wasn't. He smiled.

"So you've fused again. That was convenient."

"Yes. When we went through the portal together, the computer recognized the three parts as one whole, and our files were merged," Lando explained. "If you had come through too soon after us you might have been fused with us. That would not have been convenient."

Suddenly a little yellow light buzzed up to them both. "C3-PO," Anakin remembered. The droid seemed to take an affront to Lobot and charged into him with an angry buzz. "Whoa! Whoa, don't do that."

Lobot tilted his head to the side out of curiosity. "Is this a friend of yours?" Then he held out a hand towards the droid and said, "Worry not, I mean your maker no harm."

"Yes, C3-PO is my…"

"Cybot Galactica, 3PO series protocol droid." The droid circled around Lobot once, then came to land on his finger. "Oh. That is worrying."

"Wait, are you talking to him?" Anakin asked.

"Yes. I've spent many years in these networks. I can communicate with many computers."

Lobot reached out to grab a side of the network hub they were standing on and pulled. Anakin felt the ground shake beneath his feet. It felt like he was thrown many meters in seconds. Righting his posture, he shook off the dizzy feeling that resulted.

"You need to go through there," Lobot said. "It'll take you out of the computer and back to your body."

"But the hacker! We've got to deal with him first," Anakin protested.

"I will go after him. You need to leave the computer now, before your heart stops."

Anakin's eyes went wide. "What!"

"It is a side effect of a prolonged connection in one out of every hundred persons. It appears you are one of them."

Anakin stepped up to the hand plate that would transfer him to the real world. Lobot reached out a hand to stop him at the last moment. His eyes looked down and left to right, as if he were reading something that wasn't in front of him.

"I've sent the signal to Lobot to return to base, and I will try to go after the Hacker next. If I don't succeed, I've programmed the computers to do an automatic shutdown and restart in one hour.

Anakin tried to protest this, but Lobot stopped him.

"I know what that means, but it is the only way to guarantee Bespin's safety. Listen, the Hacker may still come after you in the real world. I can't do anything about this. It appears he works for the Empire. He's used the Bespin equipment to communicate with them. Tell Lando they were the ones who paid Han Solo's Extradition fees, but Han Solo is not their target. They want one named Luke Skywalker."

"Luke!" Anakin's eyes opened wide.

"Yes, that is all I know now. Go, fast! While they still have time to resuscitate you."

At his urging Anakin pressed his hand to the plate.

"Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen." Anakin's consciousness returned slowly. He felt almost nothing at first. It was almost like he was weightless. "Twenty one, twenty two, twenty three." He could barely hear someone counting in the room with him. "Twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven."

'Is that Obi-Wan. Wait! Is he performing CPR?'

"Twenty eight, Twenty Nine, Thirty." Obi-Wan inhaled a large breath before he would give mouth to mouth.

'Master, Master I'm here.' Anakin tried to say, but all he managed to do was gasp.

Obi-Wan exhaled in relief. "Anakin. Anakin, are you there? He's regaining consciousness!"

Anakin barely turned his head and groaned. "Mmmm-terrrrrr."

"I'm here, Anakin."

"Loooo-uke." He moaned next.

"Luke isn't here. I sent him to get something from our ship. I didn't want him to be here when you…" Obi-Wan audibly gulped.

Anakin tried to open his mouth to say more. This was urgent. Why couldn't his brain just cooperate? He had to tell them about what Lobot said. Warn them about the hacker. Nothing happened. Anakin barely remembered being transferred to a stretcher, and carried somewhere. He lost consciousness soon after that. It would seem that plugging your head into a computer was a lot more draining than one would have thought.

Obi-Wan watched Lando's men carry Anakin out.

"He'll be taken care of. We have a very good hospital here," Lando reassured. "One of the first things I did was tempt the head of neurology over from the Merisee Grand."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes, I know. I raised him, he's like my brother." He sighed. "I'm going to go back to our ship, find Luke and the girls, and update them."

Before he got out of the room, Lando stood up and came alive. "It's Lobot! He's sending me his status update. He's returning to Cloud City!"

"Really," Obi-Wan stepped closer to Lando to read the device on his wrist. "Are you sure we can trust him? He could just be saying that."

"Oh no. Lobot never just says anything. Even when I ask him to. See. I knew he wasn't like this. Whatever was affecting the computers, must have been affecting him too."

Obi-Wan couldn't say he was as confident in that assessment. He wanted to believe Anakin was responsible for this too, but his Jedi training allowed him to think strategically. And without the effects of attachment, there wasn't enough evidence to make that call.

"When's he due to arrive?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Just under an hour from now." Lando said.

"Good, I'll be there." Obi-Wan made his way out and turned towards the hangar bay.

As Obi-Wan made his way to the Millennium Falcon, he tried reaching out to his former Padawan. Luke, it seemed, had shields up. Normally that would have made the Master concerned, but he figured Luke didn't want to share his worry over their bond. As he boarded the ship, he could feel Leia and Mara active in the cockpit. It surprised him, he couldn't tell where Luke was, so he turned towards the cockpit.

As soon as he walked in, both girls immediately stopped whatever they were doing and looked around innocently. The classical look of younglings at trouble.

"What's going on here?" Obi-Wan asked in a smooth voice.

"Oh nothing," Leia answered.

"Really… Hmm. Where's your brother?" Obi-Wan asked and both girls immediately looked at eachother. It was several tense moments as Obi-Wan looked back and forth into both young women's eyes, waiting for one of them to crack. Anakin once accused him of using the force in such a moment to get a confession out of him, but the Master knew guilt had a power stronger than any force suggestion.

"Huh," Leia gasped for breath. "It was entirely his idea."

Mara continued, "Luke wanted to help his dad, so he went looking for an older computer station in the lower parts of the city."

Leia finished, "Yeah, One with an old fashioned keyboard and monitor. It was stupid, I know, and I told him that. But Luke just had to go!"

"I thought it was brave." Mara whispered.

"He brought his comm, but he picked this place in an old refinement factory that is messing with our signals. That's what we were trying to do when you walked in. Try to get a signal through to him," Leia went on.

"Oh, well your father is out of the computer now. That's what I came to tell you. His heart did stop for a short time, but he's in recovery now, and Lando has the doctors here looking at him. Now Luke. I suppose I will have to go looking for him eventually. He can wait though. Luke's not a padawan anymore. He's a knight. And I don't want to let Lando confront Lobot alone when he returns."

Leia and Mara looked surprised.

"Yes, Lobot's turned around, according to the status updates he's given Lando. It could be good news, or it could be a fabrication. I want to be there, just in case. And I want you two to be staying here. Don't leave the ship, and don't follow your brother's example. If he comms again, go ahead and fill him in, but don't leave this cockpit." Obi-Wan remembered a time when the same order was given to Anakin, and he added for good measure, "And don't fly anywhere."

"We won't." Mara said. Leia made a cross over her chest promising as well. Obi-Wan nodded to both of them and he turned to exit the Millennium Falcon.

"I don't understand why you're insisting on this," Lando said, arms folded at his chest. "It's Lobot we're talking about here. Lobot has been by my side for years. He wouldn't hurt a Ya-ya Fly."

"I still think it's safer. Let me go out there to meet him. If he means no harm and Han is onboard, then you can come out. But if he attacks, or if he's picked up a few extra passengers, I can defend myself." Obi-Wan reached out and was given a hesitant nod from Lando. He then turned to the captain of the man's guard. "Please keep him here until I give the signal."

The guard sweated nervously. "Will try, sir."

Obi-Wan nodded, knowing how difficult it can be to get a man, one who's prone to action, to sit back. Especially when they are your superior. He'd given the same orders to numerous clones concerning Anakin during the war. Obi-Wan then turned to enter the hangar where he could see the ship landing.

Anakin woke to the rhythmic sound of medical equipment beeping in time with his heart rate, and a harsh scent of an over-sanitized room. "Oooooh," he groaned as he opened his eyes.

A curious face stepped into his view. He wore a guard's uniform and it seemed he was either unused to guarding unconscious persons, or he wasn't expecting Anakin to wake up.

"Where am I?" Anakin asked.

"Cloud City Hospital, Master Jedi sir," The guard answered. "Uh, do you need care? The switch beside your head can summon a nurse."

"No," Anakin figured that was the reason for the man's nervousness. He used to be just as nervous in the healer's wing back on Coruscant. First, there's the nervousness just being around the healers. When they look, they nearly always find something. Then there's the question of what do you do if the person you're guarding has a real emergency while you are watching them. What do you do? "No, thanks. I feel fine, just confused. Why don't you fill me in?"

"Oh, Alright." The guard stepped closer to the bed and sat on the edge. "Your heart stopped for a fraction of a minute. The Jedi- Obi…"

"Obi-Wan," Anakin filled in.

"Yeah, he did CPR, and the doctors think it saved your life. Might want to thank him, sometime…"

"Yeah, I will," Anakin smiled. He figured Obi-Wan will argue that bringing him back from the dead should count for two on their tally. "Where are my children?"

"I believe they are still onboard your Light Freighter, sir. I can pull up a Holo-Comm with whoever is onboard now, if you want.

"Yes, I would appreciate that very much," Anakin confirmed. He then looked back up at the ceiling while the guard pulled out equipment and dialed a connection to the Falcon.

"YT Four Nine Two… Daddy?" Leia started.

"Leia honey." Anakin said.

"Dad! Uncle Ben said that your heart actually stopped! What happened?"

"It isn't a big deal. I stayed in the computer too long, that's all. Everything's working now." He patted his chest to demonstrate. "Where's your brother?"

"Luke, he's gone into the city to access an older computer relay station. Uncle Ben forbids either of us to leave the ship. Said he'll go after him once he deals with the guy who kidnapped Han."

"And what's going on with Lobot?"

"I don't really know. He turned around, at least according to the messages he was sending Lando. A ship just arrived in the main west hangar. Obi-Wan wanted to be there when he arrived, for obvious reasons."

"Main west." Anakin recited. He then pulled the line out of his wrist, and started to move his legs to stand up.

His guard's eyes bugged out of his head.

"Uh Dad. I don't think you should be doing that," Leia protested.

"I can't let Obi-Wan have all the fun without me," he replied, before shutting down the comm.

Obi-Wan leaned back so he looked tall and proud as the ship opened and Lobot walked down the ramp. He nonchalantly looked around at the lack of fanfare to greet him.

"Where is the Baron Administrator?" Lobot asked.

"Where is Han Solo?" Obi-Wan asked.

"The pilot is in the Aft Chamber. Where is the Baron Administrator? I must report an internal error," Lobot spoke, his tone plain.

"An internal error, is that what you call stunning me and abducting me?" Han called out. Obi-Wan reached a hand inside to help the man exit the craft.

"Affirmative," Lobot responded.

"Well, don't do it again." Han nearly spits at the cyborg. He was still apparently dizzy from whatever stunner had been used on him, Obi-Wan guessed.

"Error One-One-Eight-Four has been logged and will be patched once…" The Cyborg's voice trailed off for a moment. Then after a strange click his body collapsed onto the hangar deck.

"No!" Shouted a voice from the doors. Obi-Wan let Han go to bend over and check Lobot. Anakin ran in, followed by Lando Calrissian."

"He's still breathing, but I sense no life force within him," Obi-Wan turned, pronouncing his fate to Lando.

Anakin meanwhile knelt, grabbing at the man. "No, no. It wasn't supposed to happen this way."

Obi-Wan put a hand on his former Padawan's shoulder.

Lando tapped at his wrist several times. He then shouted orders to his men, "Spread out. Tell me how much is down."

"What's going on?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Our computers are down. I don't know how far it goes."

"Everywhere," Anakin said. "The whole city. He was going to restart the whole city if he couldn't get rid of the hacker." Tears formed in Anakin's eyes. "I tried. I tried to save him."

Obi-Wan understood how Anakin tended to throw everything in to save someone, becoming very distressed whenever he couldn't. But now was not the time for it.

"How long does a restart take?" Obi-Wan asked.

Lando lifted his shoulders and shook his head. "Never had one while I've been incharge."

"What's that?" One of Lando's guards asked, looking down at another deeper hangar. Noise could be heard of a ship taking off from below.

"That's impossible. Freight deliveries are automatic and should have shut down with the main computer." Lando said with a worried expression.

A freight cargo ship soon flew past them and up towards the bay doors to leave Bespin. Everyone turned to watch it.

A gasp startled them from behind. Everyone turned suddenly to see Lobot, now sitting up and looking around. "Regrettably that was our hacker escaping."

Anakin smiled, then it fell as his face became skeptical.

"He left our computers after a transmission back to base, saying 'The Package is onboard.' I took advantage of his absence to alter the default programming. I added in my own code. Then I allowed the reset. so I could join the rest of you on the rescue attempt that will surely follow."

"Wait. Package Onboard," Anakin repeated.

A cold feeling spread over Obi-Wan as he stood there. "Where did that ship come from?"

"An outdated refinement factory on the lower levels," Lobot answered. "Lando shut it down when he took over, and hadn't yet repurposed the space."

"What's going on?" Anakin asked.

"I think that's where Luke went." Horror gripped both men's faces.

"As I told you, I shall join you on the rescue that we will attempt next."

Hello and Merry Christmas Everyone!

I finished this chapter just in time to post today and thought I'd better go ahead and post it. I hope you all enjoy the read. Next chapter they will be going on another adventure. I hope it will be just the one chapter, but then you never know sometimes. They've got to rescue Luke now. I'll see you all then. Enjoy your Holiday.