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Luke had opened himself to the Force, and ever since then, there had been an almost ceaseless call of people, lost in the Force, asking for help. He did his best to see everyone. Some were people in desperation, and some were as Force-sensitive as himself. But like an out-of-tune frequency there was always another, a dull hum in the background of his life. The ones he could take with him, Luke did. He would trim them in the ways of the Jedi. He would restore the Order and bring the Light Side back to the forefront of the Galaxy.
The Mandalorians called them ‘Foundlings’, and Luke liked the word. Every time he looked at his first apprentice, a child belonging to the same species as Yoda, the word was there. Foundling. One who is found and brought up in their creed. One he as the finder was responsible for. Luke increased his number of Foundlings over the years. He turned none away. All things were connected to the Force, by the Force. Being ‘Force-sensitive’, as old documents called it, was just another way of saying one was really connected to the Force, like himself or Grogu. One could still learn the Jedi teachings and philosophy without being able to send things flying across the room. Luke turned none away. Except one.
“Why not?” Leia demanded one night when he visited her on Coruscant.
“I don’t want to force him into some kind of destiny.” Luke lied. “Our family-”
“He wants to go.” Leia said.
Luke felt movement behind him. Leia had sent Jace off to bed hours ago, still they were being careful to argue in quiet. Luke saw Jace peeking out through the crack in his door. His dark eye gleaming. Luke sighed. He did not want to disappoint his nephew. He also did not want tot train him to use his clearly rudimentary abilities in the Force.
“He’s too young right now, Leia. It’s unfair to him and you to take him now.” Luke said quickly. He recalled the old Jedi rules, of how they almost disqualified their own father from becoming a Jedi because he had been old enough to form an attachment to his mother. T he earlier the better with the apprentices. Luke pushed the rules out of his head. Leia didn’t know them. Jace certainly didn’t know them. “ Maybe when he’s older.” Luke said pointedly over his shoulder.
There was a small gasp from Jace’s room that was quickly stifled, and then the pounding of feet as Jace ran back to bed. Leia pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. How could such a little person make Luke’s heart ache? How could such a little person fill him with so much dread?
“Han was teaching him how to sneak.” Leia admitted.
“Sending him off with me has an underlying motive, doesn’t it?” Luke asked.
Leia smacked his arm.
Jacen Organa was born five years after the death of the Emperor. It was five years after that Luke had his first nightmare.
It was always the same. He saw flames, his new Jedi temple on Yavin destroyed with the bodies of his foundlings scattered throughout. He alone remained. He along with R2. And there was his nephew, unrecognizable cloaked in black, but Luke would know him blind. He was his boy. His own heart.
Jace, or whatever Jace would become, held a corrupted, red lightsaber and he was surrounded by accomplices similarly dressed. The Dark Side radiated off of them. Jace used the Force, far greater than his budding abilities. He had been trained by a master.
Luke awoke sweating and gasping for air. R2 woke from sleep mode and when he saw Luke, he booped sadly.
“It’s nothing, R2. Go back to sleep.” Luke said. But even the droid knew he was lying.
Luke hopped out of bed and looked out his window. Most of his students were asleep, but a few, those who were still not used to Yavin’s time-zone or not used to sleeping through the night in general, were talking in hushed voices in the courtyard. Giggling as they lifted stones to one another.
Even for the love of his nephew, Luke could not risk the existence of this.
Luke found Rey on accident. A little scavenger, she had trudged up to Luke on her spindly legs and cupped her hands. She stared up at him, her eyes popping out of her hollow face.
At first, Luke paid her no mind. There were beggars everywhere in the galaxy, and Luke didn’t know where he was going or how long his current quest would take. The call in the Force had been off and on for weeks now, and all he could pinpoint was that it was somewhere on Jakku. He needed his credits. Of course, that would not stop him from using the Force to influence stalls in the market to give the girl handouts as she passed by.
“Sorry,” Luke told the girl as pointedly and politely as he could. That usually made the beggars leave.
But not Rey. She pouted and ran after Luke as fast as her legs could carry her. Three steps for every one of his.
“You have money.” she insisted.
It was then, Luke felt a tug at the back of his mind. The same faint tug that had called him all the way out to Jakku. Luke and R2 shared a look, and then Luke looked back at the girl. She glared at him with as much anger as a four year old could muster.
Luke knelt down in the sand. “How much do I have?” he asked.
“Twenty Republic credits.” Rey said. “And thirty Imperial.”
It was like the frequency had finally come into tune. “And how do you know that?” he asked. Children didn’t lie.
The girl shrugged. “I just do.” she said. “Can I have come, please?”
Luke looked around the market. Most of the people were going about their days, hauling and haggling scrap. And then in the shadows of a building, was a mouse-faced man in a hood, watching.
“Who’s that?” Luke asked.
Rey looked over her shoulder. “Jeb.”
Jeb winced and ducked away.
“And what does he do?” Luke asked.
“Takes some of my money. Gives me food.” Rey said.
Luke stood and held out his hand. The girl took it. “Let’s go talk to him, shall we?” he said.
Jeb screeched and turned to run, but Luke flashed a wad of credits. The mouse-faced man stopped. “Hello, friend,” Luke said,
“I hope we can become friends.” Jeb said.
“That depends on how this conversation goes.” Luke said. He looked at the girl next to him. Her eyes had glazed over and she stared out into space. Luke hoped for her sake, Jeb would put up a fight. Not give her away to a stranger, but for his sake he wanted Jeb not to care at all. “I would like to take her with me. I understand she is in your care?” Luke said.
Jeb snorted and he motioned for Rey to come to him. Rey pulled out of Luke’s grasp, he let her, but she did not go over to Jeb.
Luke did not like to use Jedi mind tricks, they wore off over time, and eventually he would have a parent or guardian after him, and if they didn’t work, well, he looked crazy. For the same reasons, he did not want to reveal he was a Jedi. The last Jedi.
“What do you want in exchange for her?” Luke sighed.
Jeb tugged at his whiskers. He opened his mouth like he wanted to object, but thought better of it. “Did she you have thirty Imperial credits?”
“And twenty republic.”
Jeb snapped his fingers. “Give me both and the girl is yours.”
The girl whipped her head around, she did not say anything but betrayal flickered in her eyes. Luke handed over his satchel of credits, Jeb ran his fingers over his satchel of credits. Jeb ran his fingers over the pouches contents, he gave Luke a nod and the girl a wave, and then walked off into the shadows of the alley. The girl glanced up at Luke out of the corner of her eye.
“What is your name?” Luke asked.
“Rey.”
“Nice to meet you, Rey.” Luke said. He got no response. “My name is Luke Skywalker.”
Rey’s eyes widened. “Skywalker?” She beamed. “You’re Luke Skywalker?”
Luke nodded. “I am.” Rey looked like she was about to jump for joy. “Do you know who I am?”
“Yes! You killed the Emperor! You’re a Jedi!” Rey declared. “Rourke said you were just a myth, but I always believed in you.”
She said it like it was a fairy tale. Luke smiled and motioned for Rey to follow him back to his ship. Rey stayed close, almost pressed to his side.
“Do you need some Jedi help?” Rey asked. “I know where lots of the bad people are.”
“Bad people?” Luke asked. “Was Jeb one of them?”
Rey shrugged. “Depends on the day.” she said. “And yeah, bad people. The ones who steal your food or money from old ladies.”
Luke laughed to himself. “No. I don’t need help with any of that today.”
Rey raced to be in front of him and she walked backwards through the market, chatting and facing Luke the whole while. “Then why did you come here ?” she asked.
“Do you know what the Force is, Rey?” Rey thought a moment and shook her head. “The Force is a thing that’s part of all things in this Galaxy. It binds us all together. Jedi are trained to use it. Normal, not-Jedi people can but not as well as someone like me.” Luke explained.
“What’s this got to do with Jakku?” Rey asked as she side-stepped around a pile of dung.
“I felt something call to me in the Force. Someone. They needed help. They were alone.” Luke said. Rey grew quiet. “Does that sound familiar.”
Rey nodded.
“Was it you?” Luke asked.
Rey sighed. “The thing is, I’ve always felt connected to everything and nothing. Does that make sense? Because it doesn’t to me.”
This was his Jedi. “Yes,” Luke said, “It does.”
Luke was used to his foundlings seeking him out for comfort. Often times they were children in danger, who had gone through something traumatic. And still other times, after their parents had surrendered them to Luke Skywalker the legendary Jedi, they felt alone and hurt. Rey was no exception.
The door to the cockpit opened and Rey stood there, silent as the grave. R2 beeped and Luke looked over his shoulder.
“You cold?” he asked. He remembered being freezing on the climate controlled space ships after leaving Tattoine. At least he had had sleeved and pants and boots. Rey had mismatching sandals, shorts, and a sorry excuse for a tank top.
“I’m used to it.” was all the girl said as she strode across the cockpit and plopped herself into the copilot’s chair. Her feet didn’t touch the ground.
“You’ve been in space before?” Luke asked.
Rey shrugged. “Yes.”
“Rey, did you have a home? Do you have a family?”
Rey was quiet. “I remember being left on Jakku. I was crying as a space ship left. I had brothers and sisters.” she said it as if recalling a dream. “People found me. I was with a lot of people before Jeb.”
Luke thought a moment. “Do you have a last name?” he asked.
Rey shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m just Rey.”
“Do you want to be a Jedi?” Luke asked, and before he could continue, Rey’s eyes lit up.
“Yes!” she cried. “Yes, please!”
Luke smiled at her spirit, but he forced himself to become serious again to ask his next part. “Or you can look for your family. If they’re out there, I’ll help you find them.”
Rey looked away. “Can I do both?”
Luke smiled. “Yes. Of course you can.”
Leia had asked him to come along on the mission. A base had been discovered on some remote planet, an Imperial stronghold. The base held no weapons or elite stormtroopers, there were children. Dozens upon dozens of children ranging from infants to late teens. Logs of the “academy” showed they had been stolen from human settlements across the galaxy, or plucked off the street.
Luke looked at the crying children in the hangar, comforted by nurses Leia brought in and Luke could not help but think of how many children he had taken. How many of his foundlings he heard cry themselves to sleep. He reminded himself he was not the Empire, and hat he did was for the good of all. Leia spotted him and finished the conversation she was having with a child, gave them a comforting touch and some snack rations, and made her way over to Luke.
“How are you holding up?” she asked.
“As best I can.” Luke replied. Leia stared out over the hangar full of children, her eyebrows stitched together. “I could ask the same of you.”
“Some of them are Jace’s age.” Leia said, her voice breaking. She blinked back tears and kept her face composed. “They were the oldest. It was their job to defend the place while those responsible fled. They lied. Said they were getting reinforcements.”
And we killed them not knowing . Luke had read the report. He didn’t need his sister to say it. Luke was glad he showed up far after the fact of the battle when the young, would-be stormtroopers bodies had been cleared away. He could not imagine what Leia’s mind had been like at the time.
Leia swiped at her nose. “Well,” she said, “You came here for a job, not to listen to you sister sob over babies.” Leia sighed. “There are a bunch of kids whose parents were killed. Or its been so long they won’t remember them…before they all of to the usual channels, I figure I should let the person I trust the most see them.”
Luke smiled. “Thank you.”
The children gasped and shrunk deeper into the corner. The oldest of the three, a boy around twelve or so, stood in front, shielding them with his body. His eyes were screwed shut and he looked away.
“Hey, don’t be afraid,” Luke said. “It’s okay.” The boy and the other children said nothing. Luke heard a gurgle. “Are you hungry?”
The children didn’t answer. Luke took a ration bar out of his pocket and broke the seal. The two younger children poked their heads out of the pile while the boy peeked with only one of his eyes.
“How long have you been in this room?” Luke asked, holding out the bar.
The boy snatched it and broke it in two, giving one half to the other children and none for himself. “Three nights. Two days.” he answered.
“What’s your name?” Luke asked gently. The boy turned his eye. “What is your name?” Luke tried again.
“FN-2187.” A stormtrooper’s ID number.
Something assigned.
Luke let out a slow breath. “Alright, let’s get you guys to the hangar. The others are there and there’s more food.”
The little ones looked up at FN-2187 and he weighed his options. He huffed and stepped aside, the two children hopped up and ran to the door. Luke trailed behind.
“What’s your name?” FN-2187 asked.
Luke turned. The boy stood tall and proud, like he wasn’t starving and wasn’t brainwashed by remnants of the Empire.
“Luke.” Luke answered. “Luke Skywalker.”
They boy’s eyes went wide and he staggered back. “You’re- you’re real?!”
“I think so.”
“You’re supposed to be a myth!” the boy insisted.
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Is that what the Empire told you?”
The boy said nothing. Luke walked out of the room with the boy shuffling behind him.
Some of the children, upon interviewing, remembered their names and where they were from. Leia and her people began to organize transports and guides to get the children home. Others remembered; they remembered the Empire slaughtering their villages, being ripped out of a dying mother’s arms. Some of those elected to go back regardless. Then there were the ones too young and the ones too far gone.
For the babies and toddlers, Leia said they would be taken care of until their identities could be determined through the extensive paper trails left behind. As for the teenagers, lost to the Empire, goading for a blaster bolt to the head rather than Republic imprisonment, they would be taken to a mental health rehab.
Of the children with nowhere to go, only one chose to go with Luke. The name ‘Luke Skywalker’ had been said in hushed whispers as Luke walked by the ground of stolen children. Apparently, he had been some kind of boogie-man according to the children's instructors.
“I can’t believe you’re only taking one.” Leia said as Luke got ready to depart.
“I have beds open if any change their mind.” Luke said.
“But why him?” Leia asked.
Luke looked over, and there was FN-2187 sitting on his ship’s ramp, taking last, fleeting glances of the place that had been the only home he had ever known. “The Force wills it.” Luke said with a shrug. “It has brought me and the boy together.”
Leia set her lips in a thin line. “Yes. The Force.”
Rey heard the familiar cry of an engine. She looked up and saw a ship reenter the air space of the temple and prepare to land. Rey jumped up and before she could stop herself, her feet were carrying her to the landing zone.
“Master Luke!” she cried. “Master Luke!”
The ramp opened and out stepped Luke and behind him was a boy. He looked a lot older than Rey, but still younger than most of the other apprentices. Rey could have laughed out of joy. Finally someone her age.
Rey ran into Luke’s arms and he gave her a hug and a pat on the back. “Rey, this young man will be joining us in our studies. I would like you to help make him feel welcome.”
Rey beamed. Usually it was the older students, the ones who had been their longer than Rey, that got to do this job. Rey turned to the boy.
“I’m Rey!” she chirped and he sank back. “What’s your name?”
The boy mumbled something.
“I’m sorry, I didn't hear you.” Rey said.
“My name is FN-2187.”
Rey cracked into a smile. “That’s not a name.”
“ Rey !” Luke gasped.
FN-2187 shrank further back, like he was going to disappear back into his ship.
“He sounds like a part order number or a droid.”
Luke opened his mouth to scold her again, it was something she was used to, but the boy stepped forward.
“Oh, yeah? ‘Rey’? What are you? A ray gun?!” the boy cried.
Luke looked like he wanted to knock both of their heads together. Rey felt a smile spread on her face.
“I’ll show you where we sleep and train and eat.” she said.
Both Luke and FN-2187 looked flabbergasted.
FN-2187.
That’s what he’d always been called. That’s what he plugged in for reports. It’s what his ration were labelled, that’s how everyone knew they were his. It was the name instructors called out. It’s what his fellow troopers called him.
No. Not troopers. Luke said they weren’t. That the real troopers were bad people who did bad things to him and the others at the school.
FN-2187. That was the number he had memorized. He was forced to memorize. The name as a child he repeated every half hour mark, while the other times he repeated his name, his real name, until is was meaningless noise, lost among the others doing the same exercise. He had heard it so much it meant nothing. All that remained was FN-2187. The only thing real and concrete and his .
As FN-2187 laid in his bed he listened to the other children of Luke’s academy. They tossed and turned and snored. It wasn’t unlike the barracks at his previous academy. The girl, Rey, was asleep in the bed next to him. She had laughed at him. Laughed at his name.
She had a name. Rey.
FN-2187 had only said the thing about the gun to annoy her. Rey. He thought her name was pretty.
Luke had a name.
The woman with him had a name. Leia.
Even some of the troop- children had names. They had summoned them forth like magic the second Leia and her army had shown up. “My name is June.” “Nathaniel.” “Kei.” “Lexios.” “Adebola.”
Some had been in the same class with FN-2187, they had been brought in at the same time. How come he could not remember? How could he not remember what the woman with warm hands had called him? What the tall man in his dreams called him? What the little girl who followed after him called him? How could he only remember that much when others had names, homes, families? How could he only remember fire and the smell of blood and screaming and his own salty tears burning his skin?
He didn’t just want to be FN-2187.
He wanted a name.
Yet, he couldn't just get rid of it. FN-2187 was him . His numbers.
He decided he could get rid of the numbers. A person’s name wasn’t numbers. But F and N? He wracked his brain for every word he could think of with those two letters.
Finder.
Flounder.
Finished.
Finished?
Fin…
Finn.
His name was Finn.
“My name is Finn.”
Luke looked up from his tablet. He blinked once. “Finn?”
Finn nodded.
“Alright.” Luke said with a smile. “Thank you for telling me.”
“How long have you been here?” Finn asked as he and Rey returned books to their shelves.
“Two years.” Rey said. She shoved a volume onto the wrong shelf. Finn grabbed it back down and shot her a look. Rey only shrugged. “Hey, I’m still learning to read remember?” They shuffled along the aisle. “I was four. I don’t remember a lot before that.”
Finn nodded.
“What about you?” asked Rey as she dropped her pile of books onto the nearest table. “How long did the Empire have you?”
“A long time.” was all Finn said. “Probably from when I was four.”
Luke had thought to put his best foot forward in front of the Galactic assembly, he should bring Finn and Rey. After all, they had been his students the longest of the ones still with him. They were old enough to understand the magnitude of being presented to the Galactic assembly. And they complimented each other well. Yes, Luke thought he had made a good decision.
What he forgot was that all Rey and Finn had seen was the Jedi temple on Yavin-4 for the past ten years. The two walked paced behind Luke, gawking at the buildings and flying cars of Coruscant like tourists.
“ That speeder- “ Rey gushed.
“Must be top of line.” said Finn.
“Wow, did you know buildings could be so high?”
Luke thought he failed them on this particular lesson.
When Luke managed to get Finn and Rey’s attention back to the objective at hand, they made their way inside of the assembly building. Leia spotted them immediately.
“Ready to go beg people for money?” she asked as she strode up in all of her representative finery.
“I’ve been ready for years.” Luke sighed. As he heard Rey excitedly introduce herself to Jace, Luke felt every single one of his new wrinkles and grey hairs. Half of which he was sure the girl had given him.
Luke turned and waved to his nephew. Jace gave him a curt nod and a smile. Luke did not try to press the interaction anymore. Next to Finn and Rey in their Jedi robes, Jace looked like the prince he was in name. He wore a doublet of deep green and purple buttoned all the way to his neck, embroidered in gold. He wore a circlet on his head with a green gem in the center. Finn and Rey made do with their brown outer robes and tan shirts and pants. Jace looked as equally uninterested in Luke’s two apprentices as he was in Luke.
“Why didn’t you let me put this on the agenda earlier then?” Leia asked.
“How would it have looked if your brother came begging for money and you were more than willing to grant it without proof the project was working, Madame Chancellor?” Luke asked.
“A good idea, that’s what.” Leia said. “Now let’s go in their a plead your case.”
Rey and Finn were dumb. Jace decided that. So was his uncle. Jace took a sip of the fruity wine in the fine glass he held. If he just squeezed the glass a little more he was sure it would shatter. And how terrible would he be? Causing a scene on his uncle’s big day. Jace downed the rest of the drink and put the glass safely down.
Across the little reception hall his uncle and Finn rubbed elbows with other politicians, thanking them for their support in giving a grant to his fledgling temple. His mother was doing the same, telling war stories and pointing to her brother. A group of goggle-eyed bureaucrats watched as Rey used the Force to juggle some hors d’oeuvres. She flashed a wink at one and passed the treat into his waiting hand, and there was quiet applause.
They were more than dumb. They were infuriating. Jace turned away from the party and went out onto the cool balcony. The lights of Coruscant glittered like the stars he couldn’t see from the light pollution.
Finn wasn’t even Force sensitive like himself or even Rey; and Rey was all too pleased in her abilities like a Lothcat that had stolen the cream. And these were the two that his uncle had chosen to represent him?
Jace took off his circlet, his mother had insisted he wear it because it matched his doublet, like he was a child in need of help getting dressed. Jace tried to crush it in his hands like he wanted to do with the wine glass. The metal was stronger than fine dinnerware, and although Jace felt the tug in his mind- the Force whispering to him, begging him to use it to achieve his goal- Jace couldn’t. He let the circlet slip through his fingers and clatter to the floor. He gave up with a huff.
You can’t use the Force. You’re not trained. You can cause a serious accident. How many times had his mother warned him? His father? His uncle?
“Oh! Pardon me.”
Jace turned around and there was a politician at the entry way for the balcony. He was young, roughly his own age, and he was dressed like a military officer. The night light turned his bright red hair copper.
“You’re pardoned.” Jace said.
The young politician walked across the platform and leaned against the railing. He took a sip of his wine. “Needed some air from all the,” he gestured back with the hand holding his glass, “ Jedi-ness .”
Jace felt a smile crack on his face. The young politician continued. “I mean, what do monks need with all that money anyway?”
“Oh, building repairs, electricity, fuel for ships so they can find more of themselves and train them to go out and find even more.” Jace listed.
The young politician laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid we have’t met before.”
“Jace Organa, Prince of Alderann.” Jace said.
“Oh! I’ve heard of you!” The young politician held out his hand and Jace took it. Everyone always wanted to shake his mother’s hand and not his. “Achieved flying-ace status at the age of twenty?”
Jace blinked. “Yes.” He said.
“Well, it’s an honor to meet you, your highness.” the young politician said.
“Please, call me Jace.” Jace said. “And, I’m sorry, your name?"
The young politician flashed a smile. “My apologies.” he said. “I’m Armitage Hux.”