Work Text:
It’s a feat on its own that Stormtrooper FN-2187 had not begun hyperventilating during the trip back to the Finalizer. After what had happened on the surface of Jakku, he was overwhelmed with this sense of wrongness. The killing, the loss of Slip and utter lack of compassion from his fellow ‘troopers. It was too much for FN-2187 to handle. When they finally touch down in the hangar, he stays back as the other members of his squadron file out. Not able to contain himself any long, he quickly pulls his helmet off, gasping and breathing hard. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t blindly follow orders to kill innocents. He couldn’t be a Stormtrooper.
“FN-2187” he hears Captain Phasma says from behind him.
“Y-yes, captain.” He manages to reply
“Submit your blaster for inspection and return to my division.” She says curtly.
“Yes, captain.” He says with a nod.
“And who told you to remove that helmet?” she adds, distastefully.
He quickly returns the suffocating helmet back upon his head. She nods at him and walks off. FN-2187 quickly exits the transport, heading to clean his armor of the dirt and grime from Jakku. He returns to the hanger, determined. He searches the hangar briefly before spotting the trooper he sought. He goes over, catching their attention, they look at him. He gives them the signal. The trooper inclines their head slightly, acknowledging his request.
He leaves the hangar and he can’t walk fast enough, he ducks into a quiet service corridor and into a closet. He waits. After a few minutes another trooper ducks into the closet with him. His friend, his light in the dark: RY-7812. He rips the helmet off his head, “Rey, oh stars.” He starts his fears bubbling out of him, “Rey, I’ve messed up. I couldn’t do it”. RY-7812 takes her helmet off, a look of concern on her sharp features.
She grabs his shoulder with one hand, “Hey, slow down, Finn. What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
Finn lets out a long sigh, trying to calm himself. “The mission on Jakku, I-I couldn’t kill the villagers when we were ordered to. I didn’t fire a single shot. And Slip…Slip is dead, Rey. I can’t do it. I can’t kill innocents for the Order.”
Rey’s eyes widen, “Finn, did anyone notice? Did they see?”
Finn hangs his head, “Phasma, she asked me to submit my blaster for inspection.” They both stare at each other in silence. They know what this means for Finn: reconditioning.
“It’ll be okay, Finn.” Rey starts, but Finn shakes his head.
He looks at her desperate, “Rey, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be a Stormtrooper.”
Rey gasps and tries to cover Finn’s mouth, looking around frightened, “Finn!” she hisses, “Don’t speak this way.”
Finn moves away from her hands, pushing them aside, “Rey, I’m serious. It’s not right. The First Order is bad. I saw troopers kill defenseless villagers, even children. Children, Rey!” He shakes his head, “Rey…let’s escape. We can leave. We can take your tie-fighter, we can fly away.”
Rey steps back from Finn, “You’re speaking of high treason, Finn.” She whispers her eyes terrified.
“Rey… you wouldn’t report me…?” he asks her truly frightened of her answer.
“No, Finn! Never.”
“Then, please, Rey. Help me. You’re an amazing pilot. We can leave together.” He tries again.
Rey shakes her head violently, “Enough, Finn! I can’t listen to this! Have you gone mad? If you try to leave, you’ll be killed.”
“They’re already going to kill me, Rey.” He whispers sadly. Reconditioning would erase everything that made Finn himself, he would be gone. It was either die via reconditioning or trying to escape. At least there was a chance, however small, he could make it out. There was no coming back from reconditioning.
Rey bites her lip, “I’ll help you find yourself again.” She says resolutely, “I will.” She grabs his face in her hands, looking into his deep, dark eyes. It could be her last time with Finn, her Finn. She pulls him down for a kiss. It was against the rules, fraternization. They could be badly punished for it. But since they were young cadets, RY-7812 loved FN-2187. They even gave each other nicknames. They would sneak off whenever they could to share secret kisses. They were too afraid to do any more than to kiss and hold hands. And it was harder to meet up when she was routed to train as a pilot and Finn to be a foot soldier. Despite that they would still find the time to sneak off together. And now it could be their last time. Finn wouldn’t know their secret codes anymore; he wouldn’t know his importance to Rey. She could cry when she thought of it.
She pulls back and caresses his face, “I love you, Finn. Please forget about escaping. You could die, Finn. I can’t lose you completely.”
Finn gives her a pained look, “Goodbye, Rey.”
She nods at him, “Go, Finn. Report to Phasma. We’ll find each other again, I know it.” He puts his helmet back on and nods to her. He leaves and her eyes sting with her unshed tears, but she manages to compose herself before heading back to the hangar.
Rey inspects her Tie-fighter half-heartedly. She was going to be deployed to Jakku. Apparently they needed to retrieve a droid on the planet’s surface. She is distracted by thoughts of Finn. Somehow they’ve made it 23 cycles without running into serious trouble, but now… She blinks trying to hold back her tears. She shakes her looking for her co-pilot, MN-2571. She’s annoyed to find she has gone off somewhere. She looks about the hangar looking for her and freezes.
There in the hangar, leading a prisoner was Finn. She knew because her helmet flashed his designation to her. She tries to calm herself, perhaps he got assigned to prisoner transport. But it was highly unlikely, that fell too far out of Finn’s usual duties. Plus he was supposed to be going for reconditioning; it would be too soon for him to be back.
She stands and approaches Finn, a million thoughts flying through her mind. What was he doing? He was still trying to escape? She stops just in front of Finn and the prisoner. Finn pauses looking at her, the prisoner, a man with dark curly hair, looks mildly concerned. He’s battered and beaten; no doubt from interrogation efforts of their superiors.
“Don’t, Rey.” Finn quietly pleads. Rey looks at him, feeling a deep pain in her heart. She looks around the hangar. She could do it; with a shout she could alert the troopers. But without a doubt Finn would be killed. And she couldn’t do that.
“Don’t forget the tie fighters are tied down if they’re not cleared for departure.” She says instead, “Take care.” She briskly walks back to her tie and watches. Watches as Finn and the rebel pilot fly off. As soon as they’re gone, Rey has regrets that bore deep into her. They could have escaped together, her and Finn. But he was gone now. Finn was free…without her.
She decided right then she would do everything she can to be reunited with Finn.
RY-7812 volunteers to fly the transport to Jakku instead of her tie-fighter. They don’t question her request. She flies the transport down, when all the troopers she hauled down exit, she does too. She’s not supposed to, pilots stay with the ship, but she feels jittery. The other troopers were already saying Finn died in the crash to Jakku. She can’t believe Finn and the pilot were actually heading back to this barren planet. It was the last place she would ever want to be stranded on. She hated sand it was irritating and gets into everything.
Rey looks around. They were in a sad excuse for an outpost. She closes her eyes trying to seek out Finn. For as long as she had known Finn, she had always been able to sense him. Like a light in the dark, he was warm and beautiful. Even in this place, she can feel him now. She walks towards that light until she hears the sharp shrills of a droid. She goes to investigate and finds the troopers have acquired a bb unit from a scavenger. They have a net over it and drag it along. Rey approaches, “I can take it back to the ship.” She says. The two troopers nod at her and walk off. There was no need to question her apparently. She drags the droid, which is really heavy, to the cover of a nearby tent.
“Listen” she says to it, “You must be the droid we’re looking for. I’m going to free you. Make sure you go hide.” The little droid beeps at her. She works with droids all the time so she thankfully knows how to understand them.
You’re helping me? Thank you! It beeps at her. She nods releasing it from the net. “Yes, you’re welcome. Now get going.” It looks at her and somehow she can tell it’s hesitant to be on its own.
She feels strange; she’s just committed a crime against the Order. This would definitely be grounds for immediate decommissioning. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to take that further and actually stay with the droid. She looks at it conflicted. Then she hears a shout accompanied with blaster fire. She jerks, quickly going to peek out the tent, looking for the source.
She sees a man running from two Stormtroopers. Finn. Her heart soars, he’s okay. He makes to run right by her in this tent. She waits and then jumps out, extending her arm and effectively catching him in his chest. He drops to the sand with an 'oof'. She looks down at him and he stares at her with unadmonished terror.
“Good job, RY-7812!” The other troopers say to her, as they make their way over.
Finn’s eyes widen further and then his brows furrow. “Rey?”
She smiles widely down at him, even though she knows he can’t see it. With a sense of urgency, she turns to the other two troopers and shoots them with her blaster. Her aim is spot on. They crumple to the ground. She turns back to Finn and takes her helmet off.
“Finn, I found you.” She grins.
“Rey, I thought you were going to kill me!” Finn exclaims, “Did you have to hit me so hard?” He rubs his chest, wincing.
“Sorry, I needed it to look convincing.” She laughs “Plus, I didn’t want you to run right by me.”
The droid comes out of the tent then, beeping urgently at Finn. That’s my master’s jacket! He stole it from him!
Finn looks at the droid and he gapes, “You! You’re Poe’s droid!” The droid moves back, surprised. “Rey, you found it?” He laughs looking at her, clearly relieved.
“Don’t worry, droid.” She says to the droid.
I’m called BB8. It responds quickly.
“BB8” she amends, “Finn helped your master escape.” She looks at Finn, expectantly, “Where is that guy anyways?”
Finn’s face falls, “When we crashed, he didn’t make it.” BB8 is instantly crestfallen. Rey frowns.
“Finn, we need to hurry up and get going. We can take my transport.”
“No, we wouldn’t be able to get far, plus the trackers.”
Rey nods, “I saw a shipyard on my way down, there were a few ships. Most looked like junk, but we may be able to use one to get off this dump.”
“Sounds good.” Finn turns to BB8, “Come with us, we’ll keep you safe. You’re too important to leave here.”
Rey squints at that, but starts moving; she’ll question Finn about it later. “Come on, let’s go. It’s this way.”
A familiar sound suddenly is coming from the sky, Finn and Rey share a look. TIE-Fighters. They start running. Rey puts her helmet back on. She slows herself running just behind Finn.
“The yard’s that way, Finn!” She shouts, “Keep in front of me, I’ll pretend I’m in pursuit. Hopefully they won’t shoot us dead!”
“Good idea!” he shouts back to her as they turn into the shipyard.
“Let’s see if we can make it to that Quad-jumper!” she yells as the TIE fly above, she’s pointing her blaster as if she’s trying to take aim. She even lets loose a blast for show. The TIE luckily seems to be buying the ruse. But they still destroy the Quad-jumper.
“How about that one!?” Finn points to a ship, it looks like utter garbage. But it’s in one piece.
“Let’s try it!”
They make a run for it. Finn runs up, followed by BB8. Rey runs up the ramp. “Down there!” She shouts pointing Finn to a ladder, “I saw a gun down below that should lead to it.”
Finn quickly climbs down. Rey runs to the cockpit, pulling off her helmet and tossing it in the co-pilot’s seat. She’s never flown in anything that wasn’t made by the First Order, but all ships are basically the same. In theory, she should be able to fly this ship, but as she sits in the pilot’s seat, she starts feeling doubt. Still she starts up the controls, recognizing the important bits.
“I can do this.” She tells herself over and over. Their friends have realized that either Rey was dead or she was a traitor, because they are now firing on them. She quickly engages the ships shields and takes to the sky.
The maker must love them because somehow they managed to take out both TIE-Fighters, even with the bulk of this corelian freighter, she was able to pull off some impressive moves. And bless Finn and his impeccable aim and trust in her.
Once they are safely away she rushes to meet Finn, she is giddy with excitement.
She hugs him with a laugh, “Finn! We did it! Did you see what I did? And you were so amazing!”
Finn easily wraps his arms around her as he excitedly responds, “I saw it, I can’t believe it! And you set me up so well for that last shot! Rey, you’re incredible!”
She grins at him, “Finn.” She says looking at him and feeling blissfully happy, “We’re free. Finn, we’re free and we’re together.”
Finn presses his forehead to hers, “I told you we could do it.”
She wants to punch him, but he’s right, so she kisses him instead. It’s soft and sweet.
It’s interrupted by BB8 who whistles at them. Are you two married? It asks innocently enough.
Rey laughs at it, “No, BB8. At least not yet.” She blushes at the thought.
“What’s it say?” Finn asks looking curiously at the little droid.
She shrugs, “BB8 is just a little curious.”
Finn releases Rey and kneels by BB8, “Poe told me you have a map to Luke Skywalker and it was really important to get you back to the resistance.”
“What!?” Rey turns to him sharply, “Luke Skywalker? I thought he was a myth?”
“No, he’s real. And the resistance is looking for him.” Finn pats BB8, “Don’t worry, BB8. We’re going to help you. It’s what Poe would’ve wanted.”
“Finn!” Rey gasps disbelieving, “You’re not serious? We’re not resistance! We are the complete opposite of resistance!”
“I know, Rey, but Poe saved me. He saved us. The least we can do is take his droid back to his base. They’re the only ones standing up to the First Order.”
“And they’re foolish for it. The First Order is powerful, they’ll be killed. We know that better than anyone, Finn. Star Killer base? Remember that?”
“Maybe we should tell them about that too.” Finn says, brows furrowing in concern.
Rey groans throwing her arms up “Finn, do you have a death wish? You think the resistance is going to welcome us? Two former Stormtroopers? They’ll sooner kill us than accept our word for anything! This is pointless!”
Finn sighs, “You could be right, but we still need to try, Rey. It’s the right thing to do.
“There’s no convincing you is there?” Rey sighs with a shake of her head.
“We don’t have to join the resistance; we just need to deliver BB8. Maybe they can point us to somewhere we can disappear.”
“We don’t even know where their base is.” She points out.
Finn turns to BB8, “Hey BB8, you know where the base is right? You can let us know and we’ll make sure we get you there so you can finish your mission.”
BB8 looks between Rey and Finn before replying.
“The Ileenium system?” Rey retorts disbelieving.
“Great! The Ileenium system. Let’s start heading that way, Rey.” Finn grins at her and she shakes her head, smiling fondly at him.
The three of them head to the cockpit to change their route, she sits in the pilot’s seat punching in the coordinates for their new destination. Finn grabs her helmet off the co-pilot chair, glancing at her. “You don’t have to wear the armor anymore.” He says. She glances down at her white armor and the helmet in his hands.
“I know.” She pauses before she starts yanking the pieces off, when Finn offers to help her, she declines. She wants to liberate herself from it. She throws the last bit of it and it hits the floor with an underwhelming clack. But she’s grinning all the same. She’ll no longer have to wear it again. Never have to answer to a number, be anonymous, or be unquestioningly obedient. She could be Rey. And Finn, he was free to be himself. Kind, compassionate, strong, brave Finn.
She grabs his hand squeezing it, “Thank you, Finn. If it wasn’t for you, we’d still be back there. And you…” She feels overwhelmed with shame, “I was going to let them hurt you, Finn.”
Finn frowns, “Rey-” he starts.
But she rushes to talk over him, “I won’t let my fear control me any longer, Finn. I promise you. I will protect you with all my strength.”
Finn smiles, “Rey, I’m sorry too. I’m sorry I left you. I-I don’t want us to be apart like that again. Let’s stay together. Me and you.”
Rey laughs, it’s a watery sound, “That was not your fault, Finn. That was my fault. You had no choice but to leave. But it’s okay, we’re together now.”
They smile at each other.