"I'm not sure we should be hanging out in a nunnery..." Ben whispered, fidgeting with Rey's crystal he continued to keep in his pocket.
Padme smiled at him and shook her head. "Holy ground. The safest place. It sounds like you need it if you've gotten involved with demons."
The group had been led to the chapel, which was conveniently empty on a Friday morning. The nun left them to their own devices, blissfully unaware of the spirits accompanying them, but did shush them as Rey sighed at the tall vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows.
"How are you here anyways if you're a witch?" Rose whispered.
Ben shook his head and looked up at a painting of Jesus walking on water, holding out a hand to a sinking Peter. "I'm a witch, not a demon. Magic, prayer, different methods of accomplishing similar things." He looked back down to Rose. "They're not incompatible. There's truth in both."
"But not everyone can understand it all at once," Padme added, smiling at Rose and gesturing for them to sit in the pews. "And you have a story you want to hear."
"Yes!" Rose nodded, plopping into a seat and turning to face the others.
Ben nodded and took a seat behind her, sliding so Flesh Rey could sit beside him. Real Rey took his other side. Finn leaned against the end of the third pew.
"Are you an angel?" Ben asked.
"No, I'm an angel," Ben Kenobi greeted behind them.
They spun to look at him, standing in the aisle.
"Ben! It's so good to see you!" Padme cried out, blinking over to him and throwing her arms over his shoulders.
He laughed and hugged her back. "You've been incredibly hard to find. I thought you had passed on."
"Oh no, Ben. I'll explain."
"You're an angel?" Real Rey asked. "And she's not?"
"Angel means messenger, someone with a specific mission," Kenobi clarified, still beaming at Padme as he let her go. "I'm tasked with keeping an eye on the Skywalkers. Thanks to Mr. Jinn!" He looked up, as if yelling to the heavens. "He thinks it's funny. Now, Padme, how are you here?"
She nodded. "I don't know all the details of how, but I'm here because of love and magic. You really should be asking why Ani lived so long, why Luke is still alive."
"You're keeping Luke alive?" Kenobi whispered.
"Because Ani asked me to. He would have died."
Kenobi's face connected dots and worked out details. "You kept Anakin alive?"
"Because of Palpatine's power. I was bound to Ani. And then to Luke."
Kenobi beamed again. "I knew you hadn't lost your will to live!"
"Lost my will to live? Who said that?" She scowled. "I had just given birth to two beautiful babies. Why would I not want to live for them?"
"The doctors, Palpatine, everyone," Kenobi said, setting his hands on his hips, putting together all the pieces. "That's how Palpatine saved Ani from the fire, he used your soul to keep him alive."
She nodded. "It took me years to even speak to Ani after that. My soul was a mess. Ani's was a mess. So twisted by Palpatine."
Ben suddenly stood up. "I can summon him."
"Palpatine?" Padme asked in horror. "He was destroyed. Ani destroyed him, killed him to save Luke."
Ben shook his head. "No, not Palpatine, wait, no," he held up his hand. "I'll explain that later, but Anakin Skywalker, I can summon his soul. He's still trapped." He sighed and shook his head again. "I can't here." He already was striding out of the chapel.
"So let me get this straight," Finn said, clearing his throat, sitting in the front seat as Ben drove them through the winding streets to the hotel they had booked. "Your grandfather was some sort of bodyguard to the most corrupt politician to see the light of day, who is now a demon, and your grandfather should have died in a fire, but said demon politician used the soul of said bodyguard's secret wife, a rival politician, to keep him alive, killing her, while she was pregnant—"
"Just gave birth," Rose corrected, looking back to where Padme, Real Rey, and Ben Kenobi were sitting in the back of the suv.
"Killing her, to keep severely burned terrifying magical man alive. Who then, years later, transferred living essence of dead wife to son so that he could kill demon politician and save son who was on the verge of death because of demon politician lightning magic."
"Well, yes," Padme nodded. "In short."
"He may have killed Palpatine, but he's still a demon," Ben groaned.
Kenobi sighed. "I was certain he was gone for good. That much raw love from you Padme, and Anakin, all towards Luke. I was certain it had truly destroyed Palpatine. I've been searching for some way that Palpatine could have survived."
Ben looked in the rear view mirror at Padme and Real Rey. Flesh Rey had her eyes closed and her head on Rose's shoulder. She unfortunately had a hard time with motion sickness.
"I don't know how he survived, but we'll take care of him for good later. We have Rey to take care of first. She's the whole reason we're here."
Flesh Rey opened her eyes to look at Ben's in the mirror.
"I thought Anakin had passed on," Padme said, looking to Kenobi. "I was content to know I'd see him after Luke..." She sighed.
"If you've been with Luke, why have I never seen you?" Ben asked.
"When Ani learned what Palpatine had done with my soul, he sought to protect me from him. He hid me from Palpatine, from everyone. He hated that he had failed to keep me alive. He put protective spells over my soul so that Palpatine could not even sense me. I was hidden from every magic user. Except who I was bound to. Until your spell."
"Until my spell. To reveal Han?"
"To reveal the dead. You're powerful, Ben. Just like Anakin."
"Luke was surprised to see you."
"He closed himself off from all magic. Ben, you need to hear why from him."
Ben checked into the hotel, only bringing up the bag he had packed his supplies in, including crystals and chalk and candles, up to the room. The others followed, curious to watch the magic.
"Will Luke be alright with you so far away?" Flesh Rey asked as they watched Ben create his circle to do his work. "I feel funny when Rey is far away from me." Real Rey was at her side, holding her hand.
Padme smiled at her. "He will be fine. Well as fine as he can be with Han shouting at him."
"Are you like Han?" Real Rey asked. "Can you go where ever you want?"
"I can, but what do you mean, like Han?"
Real Rey looked to Ben.
"He can go anywhere within his crystal perimeter," Ben answered, busy sketching out the chalk circle on the coarse carpet. "I sent one to Luke."
"He never received it."
"The nuns keep his mail, don't they?"
"They do. He hasn't been to pick it up in years. The last time he read a letter from Leia, he couldn't sleep for a week. He can't stand it, so he avoids it."
"He seems pretty shook up for failing to kill me." Ben stood, putting the chalk back in his bag.
"He's distraught from failing his friends and family. He's distraught from falling you. He's distraught from falling to the beguiles of a demon and allowing it anywhere near you."
Ben busied his hands into his bag where he kept all the crystals in their own velvet bags. "Why was that such a big secret?" he growled. "I've had Snoke whispering in my ear all my life, and Luke had him whispering, too, and nobody bothered to tell me I wasn't alone?" He went back to the circle with Darth Vader's obsidian crystals and Padme's charm. "It doesn't matter now. It's time you had a reunion." He placed the crystals in formation with the charm, waved a hand to light all the candles, and stepped out of the circle. "Grandfather," he called. "Anakin Skywalker."
There was silence, then a flicker, as always, and Ben's grandfather appeared, turned away from them.
"Anakin?" Padme whispered, standing at the edge of the circle.
He turned, and his face, normally old and scarred, cleared to a very young man's face filled with excitement. "Padme!" He surged to the edge of the chalk circle. "It's really you!"
Padme beamed and pushed into his arms. "I've missed you so much."
He held her tight, an arm around her small frame, a hand in her hair, cheek pressed against her forehead.
A hand took Ben's, and he looked down at Flesh Rey giving his hand a squeeze.
"This feels so intimate," Rose whispered, going to sit on the bed and pulling out her phone.
Finn nodded to her. "Let's go downstairs." He offered his hand, and they left.
The spirits only glanced up as they left.
Rey, real and flesh, studied how Anakin held Padme, how he seemed to breathe her in, how he seemed to meld into her. Real Rey remembered every time she had encountered Anakin before, how he was fuzzy, unclear, unfocused, sporadic, anxious, unwell. In Padme's arms, he was clear and solid and calm.
Ben was fascinated, how they seemed to be still, yet they were sharing their souls with each other, sharing everything they had gone through, sharing experience in a purer way than words could describe.
"I want that," Real Rey whispered.
Ben looked down at her, hovering where he was holding Flesh Rey's hand, then back up to the souls of his grandparents. "We will. One day."
Anakin opened his eyes to focus on Ben. "You're looking to save her."
Ben nodded.
"Who's life is being given for hers?"