019. NECROMANCY ... SOUNDS FUN

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"How is this possible?" Evangeline broke the silence with a whisper.

No one responded. At least, he didn't think anyone had. He was too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice or care. How was this possible indeed? One minute he had held Evangeline writhing in his arms and the next he was staring at his long-deceased grandfather. The heavy breathing is what really snapped him out of his own thoughts. It was then that he noticed Evangeline had the largest scowl on her face. His eyebrows knit in confusion, but he understood why once he looked beyond his grandfather. There stood his uncle amongst others. A similar expression crossed his face.

"Am I dead?" Finn asked quietly, "I must be dead."

"No one is dead," Evangeline said with a frown, "Not yet anyway."

Poe quietly muttered, "Well that's not ominously threatening or anything."

There were four new individuals in the room. Four individuals that should have been dead, yet here they stood in the room. However, it seemed as if they hadn't even fully realized their situation until right then. One quickly reached for something, but swore under his breath when he realized that his blaster holster was empty. The four quietly took a step back to separate themselves while eyeing one another warily. Kylo Ren remained silent but analyzed the newcomers' faces. His grandfather. His father. His uncle... and some old dude that he didn't recognize.

"Perhaps we should try to understand what has happened," the elderly man stated.

"Ben?" his uncle asked.

"Yes," he answered but the elderly man responded as well.

"Kenobi," his grandfather stated in a sullen tone.

So this was the man that he had been named after.

"Maybe we should go around the room and introduce ourselves," Poe suggested.

"Luke Skywalker," of course his uncle would take charge, "Han Solo, Ben Kenobi, and Darth Vader."

"Anakin Skywalker," Vader corrected and, despite the mask, seemed to frown, "Vader died a long time ago and doesn't plan to return anytime soon."

"Well that's relieving," Kenobi stated sarcastically.

The tension in the room increased.

"Anyway," Poe quickly jumped into the conversation, "I'm Poe and this is Finn."

Evangeline stormed out of the room without a word. Ben turned to follow her, but he stopped in his tracks when the next individual spoke.

"Ben Solo!"

He closed his eyes and winced, "Hi, dad."

"Can I expect to be stabbed again in the near future?"

"Wait," Luke looked over incredulously, "That's what happened?"

"I—" he thought about defending himself before turning to face the resistance spies, "—I don't have time for this. Where is Rey?"

Finn's eyes widened, "Poe, we need to go find her!"

"Calm down," Poe grabbed Finn's shoulder, "We'll find her, but I'm sure she can take care of herself until then."

Finn brushed his hand aside, "We can't just leave her to fend for herself with those pirates."

"Pirates?" Ben asked confused, "What do you mean pirates?"

"Looting, pillaging, thieving pirates," Poe explained as if he hadn't understood what the word meant, "We encountered some while you were drooling in the sand."

"And you let them take Rey?!"

"Well it's not like we had much of a choice," Poe protested as Finn seemed to shatter.

"That's not an excuse!"

"We were outnumbered and outgunned," Poe explained while his volume increased, "Had we been shot, you would've been left to die out in that desert and Rey would've been taken either way."

"We could've tried to go after her," Finn muttered under his breath.

Evangeline entered the room with a much calmer posture than before, "I think I've found her."

Although they had been arguing before, the three of them eagerly gave her their attention.

"How?" Finn asked.

"The Jawas have traded with the pirates in the past," she explained, "Some of the tech is synced to the last location that it was used. It may not be a perfect match but it's a start."

Finn looked at her appreciatively.

"And who is this?" Kenobi asked, drawing attention back to the undead.

"Evangeline Plutarch," she introduced herself.

Luke paled, "You're alive?"

"Oh, did you try to kill that one too?" Anakin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, didn't you slaughter the entire jedi race?" Luke asked.

"Not very well, apparently," Kenobi added his own input.

"Ex-sith lord," Anakin referred to himself before pointing at Luke, "Jedi Master. Isn't there some sort of moral high ground that you're meant to uphold?"

"Anakin," Kenobi said with a frown, "You were the literal chosen one and even you couldn't uphold those standards."

Anakin lifted a finger to speak, but Evangeline interrupted, "Enough! I had to deal with enough of this inside my head. I'm not dealing with it outside of my head too!"

She turned and began to leave the room, but motioned for the others to follow.

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

"The Jawas have a landspeeder that we can borrow," she explained.

"I thought no one here spoke Jawaese," Finn noted.

Evangeline shook her head, "No, but they seem to know how to write in Aurebesh, so I've been bargaining while you all were arguing."

"Bargaining?" Finn raised an eyebrow, "With what?"

Evangeline turned to glare at Poe, "Let's just say that you and your resistance owe me a satchel full of spare parts."

Ben then decided to risk asking, "Eva, where's my lightsaber?"

"If you're asking for it back, no you can't have it," she stated.

"What? Why not?"

"Um, I don't know," she sarcastically pondered, "How about the fact that I don't trust you and you tried to kill me the last time you did have a weapon?"

Poe decided to jump into the conversation, "Hey, you didn't happen to figure out why we have dead people following us now, did you?"

Evangeline sighed in frustration as she looked over at the four before deciding to address the question, "When Ben, Rey, and I were hooked up to that machine, it created a connection to the living force. However, when the process was interrupted, that connection bridged over to the cosmic force. One of the machine's power cells absorbed some of the leftover energy and stored it. But after Seth and I fought for said power cell, we absorbed that energy. Or at least I did, I can only assume that he did as well. The connection to the cosmic force opened a communication channel that allowed me to access information and thoughts from across time. Using an ancient spell and some crystals, the Jawas decided to close that bridge which probably saved my life. But as the bridge was closed, it seemed these four either escaped or were kicked out. I don't fully understand everything, but that's the best I can do to explain how this happened."

"Do you think any others were ejected from this cosmic force?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow.

Evangeline looked over at Ben with a horrified expression, "Ben..."

"What?" he looked at her confused.

"You don't think..."

"I don't think what?" he asked again, "I'm not a mind reader, Evangeline."

Poe whispered to Finn, "I thought that's how the force worked though?"

Ben glared, but Evangeline snapped to regain his focus, "Seth was trying to bring back Palpatine... you don't think this is how he planned to do that?"

Ben remained silent as he understood her implication. There was a chance that Seth had succeeded in bringing the emperor back from the dead. He couldn't imagine that ending well since it certainly looked like he was aligned with the opposite forces. If he could somehow overthrow Seth-

His thoughts were interrupted as Finn spoke up, "We can worry about that later. Can we just go get Rey and get off this planet?"

Evangeline nodded her head, but Ben could see that she was still worried. None of them had been around during the time that Palpatine had been in charge of the Empire, but the stories from those who had certainly been told to children before bed to ensure their good behavior or tell them how good they had it. He was so distracted by his own thoughts, that he hadn't noticed that Evangeline had led them outside the cave to where a landspeeder was waiting for them. A few of the Jawas who had moved the craft waved before entering back into the cave leaving the group alone.

"I'll drive!" a chorus of three voices rang out.

Ben looked over as Poe, Han, and Anakin glared at one another. However, the dispute was settled when Evangeline clambered into the front seat and ordered the others to get in. When Poe attempted to complain, Evangeline reminded him that she was the one who had traded for the speeder in the first place. Without a moment's hesitation, as soon as everyone had boarded, Evangeline took off at a high speed. He didn't know why he had expected anything to change, but the landscape remained flat and sand-coated.

"I hate sand," Anakin growled under his breath.

"So that's why you never came looking on Tatooine," Luke muttered.

"Tatooine?!" Anakin questioned incredulously and looked over at Kenobi, "You were hidden on Tatooine?! That's such a-"

"Well-considered decision," Kenobi interrupted and finished the statement, "I assumed that you wouldn't return to the planet and I was correct."

Anakin grumbled under his breath. It was almost hard to take him seriously in the dark suit as he seemed to pout. This was his grandfather? He'd been expecting an all-powerful sith lord not whatever he saw before him. Han looked equally uncomfortable riding in the backseat between Anakin and Luke. A poor seating decision, but it was entertaining in some respect. There was a small amount of sporadic bickering throughout the duration of the rest of the ride, but otherwise it was silent.

"And another thing," Anakin finally decided to break the silence by turning to look at Han, "We're going to have a word about your relations to my daughter-"

"Quiet," Evangeline shushed him, "We're here."

The building looked extremely worn. At one point it looked as if there had been some sort of fence surrounding the place, but it had been mostly torn down at this point. Evangeline had parked the speeder behind a large boulder and it was clear that she wanted to maintain the element of surprise. The group snuck around, despite the lack of guards, and quietly entered the building. Ben noticed that Kenobi and Anakin seemed to slow after entering.

"What star system is this?" Kenobi asked quietly.

Evangeline looked like she was about to answer, but was interrupted.

"There she is!" Finn hissed in a whisper as he pointed to where Rey was suspended by a containment field.

Something felt wrong.

Evangeline seemed to feel it too as she held out a hand, "Wait—"

It was too late, several Weequay pirates stepped out of the shadows with blasters and rifles aimed in their direction. They chuckled nefariously as the group seemed to have been caught in a trap. A figure remained in the shadows, but spoke all the same.

"Welcome to Florrum, my friends."

"Oh, Force!" Kenobi declared, none too pleased.

The figure stepped out of the shadows, "I am Hondo Ohnaka and it is my pleasure to rob you of any and all valuables."