“Uh, yes sir. Yeah. Finn. My name’s Finn.” He still wasn’t sure how he felt about everyone talking about him. The part of him that was still deeply a trooper balked at the idea of being singled out - the more attention you had, the more likely you were to end up dead or recomissioned. But the Resistance wasn’t like that. He knew it wasn’t. “I’m sure there’s plenty more interesting people around.”

"Nice to meet you Finn, my name is Kix."

Kix could not resist such news as a First Order stormtrooper joining the resistance. He had heard a lot about how the First Order selected its soldiers and it reminded him very much of what happened to the clones on Kamino. The First Order stormtroopers and the clones had something in common. They had no choice. Nobody asked them if they wanted to serve and be part of the war. Some were created and breed for this, others were forcibly kidnapped from their families and trained to be ideal soldiers.

“I know exactly what you mean.” Anakin admitted with a sympathetic smile as he looked at his grandson. That was how it had started for him—anger at what had been done to him, to his mother. And then it became an uncontrollable rage. It was fear for the people he loved that had brought forth that rage again, and that was ultimately what Palpatine had been able to latch onto in order to turn him to the dark side of the Force. “It is easier—but…a wise man once said to me that it takes real strength to resist the dark side, to not let yourself be ruled by anger. And I know you have that strength in you, Finn.”

@twentyoneeightyseven​

Rey still couldn’t believe, sometimes, everything she had found beyond the sands of Jakku -- a mother, a father (lost before she understood why she felt what she felt for him, but still found), a Wookiee of an uncle, an actual uncle, a brother who had chosen the Dark long before she’d been old enough to try and stop him...and a cousin.

The coincidence of them finding each other when they weren’t even looking was almost unfathomable -- but as Master Skywalker Uncle Luke explained, the Force was a powerful thing, more than capable of drawing someone halfway across the galaxy to someone they didn’t even know yet that they loved; it had done it to him, once upon a time. Now it had done it to her, and to Finn. She had to hold onto the hope that it would bring him back, too.

Rey hadn’t been able to sit by his bedside for his recovery the way she might have wished -- first she had had to go and fetch Mast-- Uncle Luke, then help him drive the First Order back when the Resistance Fleet was floundering, and now there was training in the ways of the Force...but she dropped in when she could. Sometimes she found the pilot, Poe, there telling stories to the sleeping Finn; sometimes she found other members of the Resistance who didn’t know him, but visited out of gratitude and affection for the man who had helped destroy Starkiller Base. Sometimes Gener-- Leia-- mom was there. Rey crept out quietly then, not wanting to disturb them; she loved the mother she couldn’t remember, she truly did, but she wasn’t always sure how to talk to her.

“I didn’t steal it!” Hardison exclaimed as a reflex when someone walked into his bunk without warning and caught him tinkering with a First Order BB-9E droid. He relaxed when the someone turned out to be Finn. Finn was still a little tetchy with him at this juncture, but at least he knew Hardison better than the rest of the resistance. If they all voted to kick him off the ship, Finn would vouch for him. Probably. Maybe. “It followed me when I came here,” he elaborated. “Droids do that a lot.”

“Facing the tiger doesn’t always mean fighting it.” Luke points out.  It’s an observation based on his own life; there were so many times that he had the choose whether or not to fight.  The galaxy didn’t always need fighters.  After all, he’d made a pretty good showing of confrontation that didn’t include fighting.  

But he’d also made the other choice often enough to know the burdens of it. 

       Violet blade in hand, Anakin disengaged his saber & reached down for Finn’s hand, ‘ Commander Anakin Solo, Republic Navy, formerly.’