Chapter Text
Jannah is helping Finn grab some parts to fix the Falcon when the two begin to strike up a conversation. Finn is curious about how Jannah and her crew got to the Kef Bir, “So, what brought you all to the Endor system?”
Jannah looks a little tense at the question, “We all are on the run from the First Order. But then I guess so are all of you.” Finn lets out a small laugh at the comment.
“Yeah I guess we are, but we are fighting them what’s your excuse?” Finn’s voice had no hint of accusation, he was just curious. This helped Jannah let her guard down for the first time in a long time.
She sighed, “We all used to be stormtroopers okay?” Finn’s eyes went wide and before Jannah could even look up he was running over to her.
“You all used to be troopers and got out?! I did too!” His smile was so big, he couldn’t contain his joy at the news. There are more like me, more that made it out!
Jannah is smiling too because she just put all the pieces together, “Finn, FN...Mother of moons, you were the stormtrooper that stole a tie and escaped with that resistance pilot! FN-2187 right? You are the reason we all decided to escape! You were our inspiration!”
“What do you mean you were inspired by me?” Finn has no idea what Jannah is talking about. Surely she can’t mean me . She must mean the resistance as a whole.
“You’re known throughout the order by the troopers as a hero Finn! You’re the one who got away, who broke conditioning and escaped. You were a beacon of hope for all of us before we got out. You are the reason we got out!” She put her hands on Finn’s shoulders as she saw the tears begin to well up in Finn’s eyes.
“I always hoped there would be more of us that got out but I never thought I would be the reason.” Finn can’t believe what he is hearing. If there really is that much distrust in the First Order maybe there is a way to use that to their advantage, to help win the war.
“Finn, you lit a spark of rebellion within all of us. The resistance didn’t do that, you did. Thank you so much.” Jannah speaks with such conviction and passion in her voice that Finn knows it must be true. He pulls her in close for a hug. Just like he did with Rey, he immediately finds this bond with Jannah, she’s like a sister he never knew he had.
This all has given Finn an idea, he pulls out of the hug, “Come with me.” He starts to speedwalk towards where Poe is helping Chewie fix the Falcon, “Poe!”
The seemingly urgent call of his name makes the pilot hit his head on the ship, “Kriff! Finn, why'd you have to yell?”
Finn grabs Poe’s shoulders so the older man is forced to face him and look him in the eyes, “Because we have a plan and we need your help.”
_____
Finn explains to Jannah and Poe that maybe, just maybe, if they can get a message through to the First Order major troop centers that they can convince them to join the Resistance just like Finn and now Jannah. Poe agrees, it is a great plan and could help them gain a lot of support but the one condition is that Finn has to be the one to convey the message. Jannah’s crew, Chewbacca and even the droids all agree that Finn is the most likely to spur anything because to those stormtroopers he is a symbol of hope and what their life could be, he just has to give them a nudge.
Chewbacca helps set it up and Finn does it, he stands strong and proud as words of hope and promise spill from his mouth even if his heart is full of fear and dread. If this doesn’t work they are inviting the enemy to their own backyard and if it does...well then the war is already over.
His voice spreads across the galaxy, offering hope to those who have lost all sense of identity and purpose: My name is Finn. I was once one of you, just a nameless and faceless number in a giant machine that did not care about me. But then, I made a choice. I made a choice to go against my conditioning and help someone. That led me to where I am now, a member of the Resistance. I know you all are scared, I was too, but make this choice for yourselves, for the galaxy. You can help stop the First Order from stealing more lives just like yours was stolen away. Come join us. You are the spark that’ll help light the fire that finally burns the First Order down. We will meet any of you that come at the displayed coordinates. May the Force be with you all.
It doesn’t take long for troopers to show up to the rendezvous point not far from the Resistance base on Ajan Klos. At first they come in stolen tie fighters and escape pods, then the cargo ships and the troop carriers come. Finn is put in charge of them, he finds them all changes of clothes out of their armor, places to sleep, food. He is proud of himself because at the end of the day, this happened because of him. He really inspired a stormtrooper rebellion, now who would have seen that coming? He thought, certainly the First Order didn’t .
The waves of new recruits never seem to stop but the most important one shows up just days after the Battle of Exegol, it is a whole starship full of young recruits, literal kids. Finn woke up before dawn, leaving Poe still sound asleep in their now shared quarters, he hurries to the transport that he is taking with Rose to meet the kids. He figured someone of authority should meet them and since he had already been handling the aftermath of the trooper rebellion he had sparked, it made sense that person would be him.
Luckily, they were able to get a lot of the kids’ information and bios and beforehand. Almost all of them have places they will be heading right after this because the Resistance was able to find some general location of where they might have come from based on their genetic markings and based on the history they’ve collected on First Order raids. It looks like only 5 kids will have to stay on base once everything is done. This is a huge relief to Finn because he was beyond stressed about where the Resistance would be able to house children, Poe of course just told him to stop worrying.
Rose and Finn arrive to starship and enter to an entire greeting party, a bunch of ex-troopers who are enlisting with the ground forces of the Resistance, some officers who will probably head to intelligence and then about 50 small children who looked like they ranged in age from about 7 to 16.
“Hello everyone.” Finn’s voice was full of confidence and pride, “I’m glad to see you all made it here okay. My name is General Finn, this is Captain Tico and we are with the Resistance. I know most of you are scared because the First Order is probably the only thing you know, but I promise that we will take care of you and try to make your transition either to Resistance service or back to civilian life as easy as possible. Almost all of you should have transport assignments based on your final destinations so you should head there now. If you have any questions please see either me or Captain Tico and we’d be happy to help.” The crowd starts to disperse heading in the different directions of their assignments, some stop by to thank Finn and Rose. One hugs them and another seems to be crying a little. Once everyone is dispersed there is a small group of 5 kids still in the center so Finn figures it is time to approach them.
The kids all salute and one speaks up, “General Finn, none of us got any transport assignments.”
Finn waves the kid’s hand down and grabs his shoulder, “Kids, I’m sorry but we didn’t have enough information on you guys to be able to send you anywhere so for right now you guys are gonna head back with Rose and I to the Resistance base on Ajan Kloss. I promise we will try to get you all home as soon as possible.”
On the flight back to base Rose and Finn take the time to learn the names (or some cases give names) to all of the kids.
The youngest of the group is an 8 year old girl named Gazer. She is wearing her light blonde hair in two buns on the side of her head, an obvious tribute to General Leia in her younger days.
A 15 year old girl with jet black hair cut in a bob is holding Gazer, obviously trying to comfort her. Finn soon learns this older girl’s name is Midnight, obviously in reference to her hair.
Sitting opposite to the two girls are two boys, both seem to be around 12. One has a shaved head and honestly, looks a lot like Finn. The other has light tan skin with an almost auburn head of hair that is cut so it sits styled on top of his head. Rose asks the boys what their names are but it quickly becomes clear that the two of them haven’t ever had one other than their numbers. Finn knows how to handle this better than anyone, “Well, when I escaped the First Order this very brave pilot I was with gave me a name based on my number. I told him it was FN-2187 and that’s how he got to Finn. Do you want to try that?” Both of the boys nodded.
The one that looked like a young Finn spoke up first, “Mine was KL-7923. I was thinking maybe Kal would be good.” A smile appeared on the boy’s face as Finn nodded.
He patted the kid’s shoulder, “That’s a great choice.” Finn puts out his hand, “Nice to meet you Kal, I’m Finn.” Kal giggled as he shook Finn’s hand.
Rose turned to the boy with the auburn hair now, “What about you buddy?”
He quickly glanced at Kal who nodded, “Mine was HU-5163 but I don’t know of any names I could make with that.”
Rose put a finger to her chin in a fake deep thought and then grinned, “How about Hugh?” The noh lit up and nodded as he got up to hug Rose.
Once Hugh sat back down Rose and Finn looked to the last kid. It was a girl probably around the age of 10, she was sitting in the corner of the transport with her knees drawn up against her chest and her head down. Finn motioned to Rose to let him go alone, she quickly understood and went back to talking to Hugh and Kal.
As Finn got close to the girl he spoke up so he wouldn’t scare her, “Can I sit here?” He motioned to the space next to her as he spoke. She nodded slightly and started to let her legs back down so she could look at him. “What’s your name?” Finn’s voice was nothing of not compassionate, he just wanted the girl to feel at ease.
She pushed her dark brown hair out of her eyes and answered, “I’m Valen.” She looked down, almost like she was doubting her confidence before allowing herself to ask Finn a question in return. “You were an ex-stormtrooper right? Did you ever find your family?”
The question hit Finn like a ton of bricks, “I mean in a way I did. I’ve never found my parents but I’m okay with that. I have a family here, it’s made up of Rose and some other friends I’ve made with the Resistance. One of them is jedi and the other is a pilot.” He smiled at the thought of Poe and Rey. Sure they weren’t his biological family, but the Force had brought them together and their bond was something that would never be broken.
The girl seemed to consider what Finn had said, “My parents were killed when I was taken, I saw it happen. I really hope that I can find a family like you have.” Finn’s heart broke as Valen spoke. He knew this was bound to happen, finding a kid with no family to ever go home to but he didn’t know it would hurt this much.
He had an idea though, “How about when we get back to base, I’ll introduce you to my family?” Valen jumped at the idea. She wrapped her arms around Finn’s neck and hugged him, as the transport landed he took her hand and started walking her towards the Falcon to meet Rey.
Rey was great with Valen, she took her up and showed her the Falcon’s cockpit while Finn finished some paperwork from the morning’s activities. She even came back out to the clearing and showed off her lightsaber to the eager young girl.
After their visit with Rey was done, Finn took Valen by the hand again and started walking back towards his and Poe’s quarters. On the way there, Valen took an interest in the silver necklace around Finn’s neck, “What is that?” She pointed straight to chain with a ring dangling on the end.
Finn was thankful for his dark complexion in the moment because it hid any change of color that might have occurred on his face, “It’s a gift from a friend, the one we are visiting actually, he’s my pilot friend.” She seemed pleased with the answer because she didn’t ask anything else.
Once they arrived at the door Finn quickly entered the code and went into the quarters. (Being co-generals had its perks, Finn and Poe had dibs on the biggest room in the base with a kitchen and living area that led back to their bed.) Poe was in his sleeping pants and a tight white undershirt, making caf at the counter when they walked in. He spoke up before he could even turn around, “Hey Finn, how’d the transport mission go this morning? I know-“ He stopped in his tracks once he turned around to see Valen holding onto Finn’s hand. He smiled and walked over, crouching down so he could look the young girl in the eyes, “Hi, I’m Poe. Nice to see Finn has made another friend.” He giggled as he looked up to his boyfriend.
Finn jokingly stuck his togue out at the pilot and nudged the girl a bit so she would respond, “Hi Poe, my name is Valen. Finn told me all about you on the way here.”
Poe grinned as he answered, “Oh really? I hope he didn’t say anything bad about me.”
Valen just laughed at Poe’s fake concern, “No silly, he told me you saved him and that you’re a pilot.” She leaned in to whisper to Poe, “I want to be a pilot one day too.”
Poe’s face lit up like a firework show lights up the night sky, “Oh that’s great! I’ll have to show you my ship, she’s the fastest in the Resistance fleet. Maybe I could take you up in one of our ships while you’re here. Would you like that?” Valen’s eyes got wide and she nodded fiercely before leaping into Poe’s arms for a hug.
As she did, there was a knock at the door. Finn opened it to see Rose standing there, she smiled when she saw Valen in Poe’s arms, “Sorry to interrupt but the doctors want to see Valen to just give her a check up.”
After a quick goodbye, Valen was on her way with Rose while Finn and Poe were left in their room. Poe walked over and pulled Finn into a tight embrace from behind. Finn leaned his head back to allow Poe to pepper his neck with kisses. Once the pilot worked his way up his neck, he turned Finn around to face him and put their foreheads together, “I didn’t know you were going to bring guests home.”
Finn laughed a little before leaning back to look Poe in the eyes, “I didn’t know either, she was just so alone. I wanted to help in whatever way I could.”
Poe just nodded and gently pulled his boyfriend in for a kiss on the lips, “You care so much, it’s honestly too cute. Finn, I love you.”
“I know.”