Ben put every protective spell he knew over Rey's crystals and succulent, knowing that it was impractical to bring her entire pot to an unfamiliar country farm. They would be staying on the desk in his room, except for the single violet crystal which held a near permanent place in his pocket. It felt strange to not have it on him anymore. He found himself patting his pocket in the middle of a lesson or as he was driving or when he stood from the dining room table. Knowing that it was safe, that Rey was safe, had become a security blanket, a way to calm his nerves. He remembered their kiss, no more than an hour before. She had kissed him. His heart fluttered, and heat gathered in his ears. He was grateful that he continued to keep his hair long to hide them.
"What's the plan, Benji?" Poe asked in the doorway. Bebe bounded into the room, pawing at the open messenger bag on the floor.
"Just Ben." He leaned over to retrieve the fruit bar he kept in his bag and opened it for the cat. Bebe snatched the entire thing from his hand and abandoned the dried fruit for the crinkly wrapper.
"Mhmmm, I heard you have some big party you're throwing down in someone's barn?"
Ben quirked an eyebrow at him.
Poe held his hands up. "Ey, just wondering why I wasn't invited."
Ben bit the inside of his cheek. "You're planning on taking someone tonight."
"Of course, Benny Boy," he laughed, throwing an arm around Ben's shoulders. "I really hope it's that prick, Hugs. I mean, Paige is a sweetheart, and she'd be a pleasure to take-best road trip buddy-but it's always more fun to take a jerk like that and see his face when he sees where he ends up."
Ben swallowed and rolled his shoulders. Poe got the hint and pulled his arm away.
"You don't trust me, do you?"
"Why should I?"
"Why shouldn't you?"
"You ferry the dead to the hereafter." Ben scoffed and turned back to empty his messenger bag and fill it with the books and candles and tools he was going to need.
"It won't be your time for a long time yet, buddy."
"It's not me I'm worried about." He froze as he was slipping a pack of chalk into a side pocket. "What do you mean, my time?"
Poe shrugged. "No one lives forever, Ben." He patted Ben's shoulder and scooped Bebe up. "Shoot me an invite to the wedding."
Ben spun around, but Poe was already out of sight.
Ben glanced in the rear view window at the spirits of Rey and Paige. Both women were translucent in the waxing crescent moon between the trees.
"So, the Knights of Ren, huh?" Rose asked in the front seat, fiddling with Paige's medallion.
"They call themselves that," Ben explained, slowing to turn onto a private dirt road. "I'm just taking advantage of the situation." The road was little more than the deep ruts sculpted into the earth by tractors and trucks and time.
"I didn't peg Molly as the type of person who would join a cult."
Ben snorted. "She's practically running it." He kept an eye out for wild animals.
Light began to flicker through the trees, and as he turned, a homestead appeared in the rippling light of a bonfire.
"They went all out," Rose said, biting her lip.
"Are you okay with being here, Rose?"
She nodded. "I want to be here."
"Last chance. I can drive you home and come back."
"I'm going to do this. If Paige comes back, I need to be here when she does."
"Of course."
He parked in the gravel driveway in front of the house where only a beat up pick up truck stood sentry. The front yard, on the other hand, was overrun with all sorts of cars and trucks and atvs. He took a breath and exited his rental, grabbing his things from the back seat. Paige and Rey were already waiting outside the car. As Rose was coming around the front of the car, he stopped her.
"One more thing, Rose, do you want to see Paige's spirit as we're working through this? Because if you want to see Paige, you're also going to be seeing...others."
"Like Rey?"
"Yes, Rey's here, too."
"I like Rey. I think that would be nice."
Ben nodded and whispered "revelare mortuis."
Rose burst into a smile when she finally saw Paige. "I'm so excited for this," she confided.
Paige flickered to Rose's side. "Let's do this."
The group made their way to the bonfire halfway between the well-kept farmhouse and the decrepit barn.
There were more students there this night than Ben had met before. He recognized faces from his classes and from Hux's classes and from passing by in the school hallways, but he didn't know the names of them. The number surrounding them fed the beginnings of panic in his soul, but Rey's hand on his elbow, tracing down his arm to his hand calmed him.
"Master Ren!" Molly waved. They were off to the side with a large bag resting on the ground and an unconscious Hux tied to a lawn chair. "Rose!" She threw her arms around the girl, shorter than her. "And...Professor Tico?" she whispered, eyeing the now visible ghost.
Ben nodded. "We need her spirit here if she's to be brought back," he explained. "Why are there so many people here?"
Molly looked back over the crowd. "We're all your Knights." She showed her bandaged left hand. "We made a pact."
Ben caught her wrist and unwound the gauze. There was a fresh wound across her palm. "What did you do?"
"Power! Magic! We made the same promise you did with Snoke! He's giving us magic so we can serve you tonight!"
Ben paled, though no one could tell in the flickering light of the bonfire or the iridescent light of the crescent moon. "My power does not come from Snoke."
"Doesn't it, My Boy!" Snoke thundered, forming himself as a dark frame only visible against the bonfire. "Remember what you are asking tonight!"
Ben immediately fell to a knee, bowing before him. "Master."
Snoke's laugh quieted the crowd. "Yes, my Master of the Knights of Ren. I am proud of you. And your desires have come true, have they not? Attentive students with keen minds? All for you to use and mold?"
Ben's muscles tensed. "Thank you, Snoke."
Snoke chuckled again and moved past him. "Ah, you've brought a little snack, the precious Rey." Snoke looked down at the ghost of a girl, looking her up and down as he would a piece of meat.
"She is here for other purposes, Master," Kylo Ren stopped him, now standing and moving between Snoke and Rey. "She is talented and powerful. She is essential to tonight's ritual."
"Ah, essential, is she?" Snoke smirked down at Rey. "We shall see about that, Kylo Ren."
Ben glowered as Snoke floated off to observe from the outskirts of the crowd. He glanced at Rose.
"Was that..."
"The Demon Snoke," he told Rose softly. "I need his help."
"Help from a demon?" She nodded slowly. "I don't like the way he feels."
"You're not supposed to." Ben patted Rose's head gingerly and turned back to Molly. "Is everything ready?"
Molly nodded, rewrapping her sliced palm which had begun oozing blood again. "The body is in the bag, and the sacrifice is very unconscious."
"Is everyone here of their own free will?" Ben called out. "If anyone wants to leave, now is the time. This isn't just a bonfire and a Ouija board. There will be blood."
A few heads swiveled, wondering if anyone else was going to leave. Whispers spread. A pair of girls started to back away towards the cars, and a few more students joined them. Headlights turned on, blinding those watching, and the handful of cars started back down their dirt road.
Rey set a hand on Ben's elbow. "You're giving everyone a chance to leave except you."
"I've done things I will always regret. I will give them the opportunity I never had." He looked down at her. "Do you want to leave?"
She shook her head. "I'm helping you."
His nod was imperceptible as he began stalking out a large circle beside the bonfire. He set his messenger bag down and dug out the chalk. He shook his head, put it back, and instead pulled out the book he had been studying. He cradled it in the crook of his left arm, and he waved the other. A flame bounded from the fire and awaited Kylo Ren's command. In a series of smooth movements, he fed the flame on the dry grass and shrubbery of the yard in a series of concentric circles. He paused and looked around himself in the center of the flames. The Knights of Ren stared at him. Ben paid them no heed. He waved his hand and puffed out a breath of air. The fire extinguished, leaving him in the center of ash. He surveyed his handy work, guiding a ball of flame through the air over the lines to make sure they were correct. He looked up at the sky and oriented himself facing east. He held out his hand to guide the flame over the ground, scrawling burning runes into the ground. He extinguished those as well, shoulders relaxing.
He pointed at Armitage Hux, still unconscious, and the ropes fell from the chair. With a flick of Kylo Ren's wrist, Hux floated to the circle.
"Molly," Ben called. "Get Paige out of the bag."
Molly obeyed, pulling her jacket over her nose as she unzipped the bag. She was grateful that the guys liked to hunt and had bags for their big game. She left the flaps open so Ben float Paige's body to the circle on the other side of him. Ben tried not to look to much at Paige's already decomposing body.
"Rose, the medallion," he ordered. When she held it out, it flew to his waiting hand.
A series of fires sprung up, creating the points of a pentagram around the edge of the outermost ash circle, enclosing Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux, and Paige Tico body and soul. A bone knife floated from his messenger bag to hover at waist level, waiting for when Kylo Ren had need of it.
Snoke formed himself outside the circle facing Kylo Ren. "Are we ready to begin, my apprentice?"
Kylo bowed his head. "Yes, Master." He turned the page in his book and read out the beginning of the Latin incantation. He placed Paige's medallion over her chest, tracing a rune in the air before setting it down. He continued his chanting, taking the hovering knife and knee. "I offer this life for another, wrongfully taken!" The words, though surely spoken in ancient Latin, were understandable by all. In the next heartbeat, he thrust the knife straight through Hux's chest.
The crackle of the bonfire seemed far too loud for the act that Kylo had just taken. No one moved. No one breathed.
The air was as thick as cotton.
Kylo Ren stared at the now certainly dead face of Armitage Hux. He had killed him. He slowly turned his head to look at Paige. She stood over her body, staring down at Kylo.
He looked back to the book, reading and rereading the passage.
"It's not working," Paige whispered.
A sob sounded behind them. They looked back to Rose who was crying and staring past the inhabitants of the circle. They all followed her gaze.
Snoke held the soul of Armitage Hux in his shadowy clutches. A tendril of Snoke's appendages covered the mouth of the spirit as Snoke lowered what was the closest opening the demon had for a mouth to the chest. It took a large gaping bite from the man's chest, an echo of snapping ribs reverberating over the crackling of fire. The soul thrashed, clutching at the demon that was ripping him apart bit by bit.
"This was not a part of the deal!" Kylo Ren roared standing to his full height.
With a raise of his eyebrows, his mouth still devouring the man, Snoke forced Kylo Ren face first into the ash and dust and dirt. He slowly moved his mouth, rattling as he took a deep breath in. "No, Kylo Ren," he jeered. "Your deal with me is finally complete. A soul, for your immortality."
Ben tried to raise himself up, pushing against the ground. A great pressure rested on him, preventing him from rising up.
The Knights of Ren started to stir, and the ones at the farthest edges of the crowd started to turn away, trying to reach their cars.
With a sickening crack, they turned on their heels to face Snoke again.
"You must always pay your debts, my boy," Snoke laughed. "I give you your Knights, who may serve you, but you serve me. They have already pledged themselves to me. They are going nowhere." He chuckled as he continued to work through the struggling soul.
Rey stared at the horror before her, trying to think of what to do, trying to remember the lessons Ben Kenobi had given her, the pieces of knowledge she had leeched from her Ben who was now plastered to the ground. She watched as Snoke fed on the soul of Armitage Hux. Rey looked down at her hands. She was a spirit herself but stronger than any ghost Ben had encountered before, an equal to Ben's own magic.
She steadied herself and flickered herself across the circle and pummeled into Snoke. He released Hux's soul, and immediately he was screeching and shouting and struggling to get away, scrambling to get back to his body. Rey fought against Snoke, punching, forcing him to the ground. The demon struggled to try to get a hold of her.
Paige stormed past Kylo Ren who was struggling to his feet. She stepped in front of the chewed up Armitage Hux and put her foot in his face. "How dare you take my life," she hissed. "How dare you torture these children. How dare you-."
Before she could say anything else, Hux whispered "Master."
No one else heard. No one else paid attention.
Kylo Ren had risen to his feet just as Snoke had managed to take a mouthful of Rey's soul. She screamed, and Ben was dragging her away. She stared at the stump of her soul, the image of her left hand gone.
"You've done well, Armitage," a greasy voice announced. Another demon was forming itself in front of Hux. "My, my, you've had quite a chunk taken out of you."
"Palpatine!" Snoke roared, surging forwards.
"You've tried to consume my servant, Snoke," the newcomer sneered. "For that, I shall consume you."
The field was suddenly filled with bright clear light, and Ben Kenobi strode from the edge of the trees surrounding the field. His movements were so fast his image flickered as the living tried to follow him with their eyes.
"Begone." His words were soft, but they thundered through each and every heart.
The demons, Snoke and Palpatine, turned to stare down Kenobi, preparing to attack, to consume.
"I said," Kenobi whispered, "Be Gone." In a ripple of energy, the demons fled from the scene, from the light emanating from this spirit.
In the brief calm, Kenobi held out his hand, and the gauze bandaging the students' palms fell to the ground, revealing perfectly healed palms. The bonfire sputtered down to weak coals, but the entire homestead was brighter than noon-day. He looked over the crowd. "Go home. Be wiser."
The students followed the command, wandering in awe back to their cars.
Rose and Ben and Rey and Paige and Hux looked between each other and back to Ben Kenobi, the only beings left in the field.
"How uncivilized," Kenobi said with a shake of his head.
The others felt tension release. They were safe, for now.