Written for spookykingdomstarlight for the 2018 AU Exchange, for prompts First Order Wins (well, it briefly appears to), Dimension Hopping To Find A Timeline That Isn't Doomed, and Starcrossed Lovers Keep Changing Fate Only To Come To Worse Ends Every Time.
The cannon charged, its golden ray searing above the white surface of the planet. And Finn—the hero, the runaway, the man Rose had grown to love—raced towards it.
"That thing's charged!" Poe cried. "It's a suicide run."
"Finn, you heard Poe," Rose urged. "Fall back!"
He rushed on as if they were just so much static on the headset. Some part of Rose had expected no less of him. He had learned from Poe, after all; what good were orders, when you saw the Resistance's future disintegrating before you?
The beam rippled, and Finn hurtled into its mouth.
There was silence. The flaming wreckage of his fighter landed on the ground, the salt bursting red from the impact. And then came the low, agonizing hum of the cannon beginning to charge once again.
"Clear out," Poe roared. "That thing's gonna come back online, move, move!"
Rose veered sharply and dove for cover, as the trench infantry rushed in to the temporary cover that the base provided.
"The Falcon's out there somewhere," Poe reported, once the straggling survivors had gotten back inside. "We've got to find another way!"
"Rey wouldn't want us to die trying to find a way out," Kaydel protested. "Or Chewie, or any of them."
"There might be some unmapped natural tunnels," C-3PO noted.
"Well, don't just stand there," said Poe, "turn your navigation chip on." It was more an expression of pent-up annoyance with the robot than of hope.
Yet as the First Order's machinery thundered outside, he returned, a crystal fox skittering away in his wake. "I believe there may be some ventilation system to the open air. Yet whether we are agile enough to reach it is difficult to gauge."
"Let's not just stand here," said Rose, taking off as BB-8 followed her. Better to die on the move, like Finn had…
The others joined them, Poe helping Leia, who had not recovered enough to be sprinting at full speed. All that met them was a mountain of rocks, and above, the sound of laser fire.
Pebbles and dust fell in spurts, and BB-8 gamely rolled forward only to be pushed back due to his own limitations or the battle above. If he, the smallest and lightest of the Resistance, could not escape, what hope was there for the rest of them?
In desperation, Rose picked him up and hurled him up the rocks, only for him to bounce down. Poe barely noticed, so concerned was he with the General.
At last, the rocks zoomed out of the way. Rey was exerting all her strength, arms outstretched, as not only did the boulders clear the cave but a couple even dented passing fighters. Yet the Falcon was hovering low to the ground, occasionally shooting at the First Order craft. Was Chewbacca piloting it? The decrepit astromech?
It didn't matter. Nothing mattered but scrambling aboard, close-packed and frenetic, trying to tell themselves that the density was a good thing, it meant more of them had survived. Rey dashed in after them, wincing from a bolt to the arm, and the astromech closed the door while Chewbacca jumped to hyperspace.
After all their racing the clock, the Falcon's reserves of fuel and potential for a slow pace felt eerie, an undeserved luxury. When they reached the Outer Rim, however, General Organa's contact was not willing to take them in. "I can send up a shuttle with supplies," he relayed over a heavily encrypted line, "but the way things are, I can't expose my comrades to any danger."
"We'll take it," Organa said. The shuttle turned out to be rather heavily stocked with rations and coaxium alike, and Rose could not suppress her dismay at how few of the Resistance there really were, despite the crowding.
"I know a place," said Kaydel. "Um, it might be a little awkward, General, but if you tell them you needed help, I'm sure they'd defend us."
"Awkward? How?"
"The Alderaani diaspora settlement on Mingdesh. It's a little—conservative—at times, trying to recapture the glory days? I grew up there and it always felt stifling. But it beats the alternatives."
"Indeed it does," said Organa. "Well remembered."
Rose inwardly braced herself for something notoriously pacifistic, as Alderaan had once been, unable to protect the arrivals. What Mingdesh lacked in modern technology, however, it made up for in awed elders more than willing to staff hemispheric shields.
She tried to throw herself into work—for once, there were more than enough vehicles on hand to keep her busy tinkering and mending. But the natives insisted she take breaks now and then, even if she wanted the distraction. That was how she found herself at the reflecting pool, a quiet basin lined by trees.
Was that all that would remain of the Resistance someday, a still memorial erected by those who had never really known them? Or would they somehow triumph, and let their obsolesence be their greatest legacy?
Rose took out her medallion, wading in the ankle-deep pool. Maybe it was disrespectful. She didn't care. She'd lost too much to maintain formal sobriety at other people's tragedies.
Haysian smelt, Paige's voice echoed from years gone by. Carries a charge well. They say it does strange things immersed in some liquids, but people said there was an all-powerful Force too, much good that did anyone.
She stepped back out, crossing her legs at the side of the pool and dangling the medallion on its string. It grazed the surface of the water, and for a moment she saw it twice, the half-moon itself and its reflection just below…
It took Finn a while to find an escape pod that was still attached to the ship. In the first few compartments he checked, they seemed to have already been engaged. People with their heads on straight, fleeing a lost cause? That made sense. Previous catastrophes having necessitated evacuation in prior ventures? That boded less well.
By the time he reached an active pod, it was guarded by an unfamiliar mechanic. Rose, her name was, didn't seem to understand the importance of him getting out of there. (But had the people she'd stunned before left anyway? Where were all those pods?)
On the other hand, she took the words out of his mouth when it came to the First Order's technology. "They're tracking us from the main ship. So the process needs a power breaker."
Poe was eager to have a backup plan, if less eager to let Vice-Admiral Holdo know about it. With his say-so, and Maz' directions, they took off for Canto Bight.
The fleet had less than eighteen hours of fuel left by the time they made the jump out of hyperspace. "We gotta hurry," Finn urged.
Rose gave a grim nod. "Get in. Find this Master Codebreaker. Get out." As if he needed reminding!
"You know this town?" he asked. "Canto Bight?"
She hesitated, not meeting his eyes. "From stories."
Well, Maz had steered him right once, even if it wasn't exactly the advice he was looking for at the time. "All right," he said, as they neared the beach. "Leave the ship, shouldn't take long to find him. Then we get out of here."
"Are you sure we're allowed to dock the ship here?" Rose asked. "Maybe we should look for a more secure location. Don't want to make trouble."
"We don't have time for a more secure location!" he snapped. The fleet needed them. Poe, General Organa, Rey wherever she was—they were all counting on him and Rose to disable the tracker, even if they didn't know it.
"We don't have time to get detained here either."
"These are a bunch of loaded high-rollers, you think they care about a craft or two out of place? BB-8, bring us in."
"You better be right," Rose muttered.
Finn was wrong.
Rose was polite enough not to rub it in his face as they paced the dark cell. Only a few floors removed from the gaudy opulence of the casino, it felt like another arm of the galaxy.
She clutched her necklace in defiance, fear, something in between. "What's that?" he asked, trying to make conversation and distract her from the circumstances.
Instead, Rose shot him a knowing look as if she saw right through his plan. He crossed his arms, annoyed. It wasn't like the First Order had raised him to be good at small talk!
"Paige had the other half," she said quietly. "So that wherever we were, we'd have part of each other."
"I'm sorry," he said.
She nodded. "Me too. But that's why we're here, right? To fight for what she would have wanted?"
Finn resisted the urge to point out that he had never met Paige Tico, and wasn't taking up her crusade in her honor. Instead, he sat with Rose and waited until her urgency got the better of them.
And then the stuttering lowlife across the way perked up. His offer seemed too good to be true, of course; he'd done something illegal ineptly enough to land him in the cell in the first place. "We've got it covered," Rose rushed to inform him.
Before he broke out of the cell.
Finn and Rose exchanged glances, silently agreeing that nowhere he led them could be worse than the position they found themselves in, and took off after the thief.
By the time Finn managed to catch his breath, jumping to hyperspace in the ship the thief had commandeered, he stood by his initial assessment. They were off of the planet and making their way back to reunite with the fleet, the war profiteers had gotten debris for their troubles, and the fathiers were free from whips and blasters, for the moment at least. Rose seemed less convinced. "What if this doesn't work?"
"It would be a lot of effort to go to for a trap," Finn pointed out. "They could have just rounded us up there."
"I know. But we're putting a lot of faith in a stranger."
"Isn't that what you Resistance people are all about? Trust and good faith?"
She didn't reply. Was it the "you people" getting on her nerves? It wasn't like he'd ever enlisted.
"You can actually do this, right?" Rose challenged the thief.
"Yeah, about that..." he trailed off. Before Finn could brace for disappointment, he went on. "Guys, I can do it. But there exists a previous conversation about price."
Finn had no idea what "Haysian smelt" was, but it seemed to mean something to Rose. She barely gave it a moment's thought before passing the medallion over. Though Finn tried to protest, he got sidetracked by the thief's rummaging through the ship.
He was still turning over the advice the thief had left him with—"live free, don't join"—when Rose startled him. "Thank you," she said. "For trying. That was sweet."
Finn blinked. "Oh. Sorry I couldn't help."
"If Paige were here—she'd care more about what it can do for us than the memories."
He nodded hurriedly before Rose could ask him to agree with her.
The thief was not just talk. He was able to sneak them aboard the ship, break into the control room, and—most surprising of all—returned the medallion. They sprinted forward, a panoply of dials and switches at their command.
And then a squadron of stormtroopers surrounded them.
Finn was marched off to be interrogated alone, inside a dark room with painful light fixtures on full glare. "How did you get here?" asked a trooper.
He stared into their mask. "What's your designation?"
"What?"
"Your number? I was FN-2187."
"You are an unauthorized trespasser and subject to execution."
"Yeah, thanks. You know, when you leave, you can get a name. Get treated like a person, not a cog in some machine."
"Where were you headed?"
"Hux? Phasma? They don't give a credit if you live or die. And you know Kylo Ren doesn't."
"If your guerilla band's leadership regards you protectively, it's only because your numbers are too pitiful to spare any losses."
"So you are listening. That's good to know. Haven't you ever wanted to be admired? Idolized? Sleep at night?"
The trooper poked at a transponder, then led Finn out of the room and deeper into the flagship.
"I'm sorry," Rose mouthed once she'd joined him, secured between a pair of implacable troopers.
"It's okay," he said. Of course it wasn't okay for him, for her, for the Resistance, but they were all on the same ship.
"No," she said. "I should have—"
She cut off, seeing a dozen more troopers fell in line with them. They marched forward, unquestioningly, joining an assembly like so many of the others Finn had once attended. How did the First Order accomplish anything of substance, when most of their energy was spent on organizing frozen parades?
The troopers pushed Finn and Rose to their knees, and Finn felt the unseen eyes of the crowd on him. Some hero he made.
He protested, Rose hissed, they both struggled at the thief's reward. Make the guards shoot him out of fear, he figured, don't let them turn him into a symbol again. Yet they kept their cool, didn't give in, only pushed them further to the ground at Phasma's command.
"Finn," Rose said. Another apology? It didn't matter.
Then there was silence.
Death, if that was what it was, felt peaceful, as if the whole galaxy was spinning away from his body, leaving him in darkness. When Kylo Ren had knocked him out on Starkiller Base, it had hurt, if only for a moment before he plunged into unconsciousness. For all Phasma's goons had waved their weapons threateningly, it was hardly a shameful way to go.
A hand on his, dragging him up from rest. Fire on all sides, the neat crowd scattered. The ship had imploded, and yet there was air to breathe.
Maybe he could figure out what in the cosmos had happened, once he had a moment to catch his breath. Troopers on one side. Phasma to another. BB-8 controlling an enormous machine, beyond. Rose, ducking for cover, her blaster at the ready, seeming to see their enemies a moment before they emerged, directing him one way and the next. He fell, climbed, grappled for position in the crumbling ship.
Once again, there was no time to wait to see what had become of Phasma. She was someone else's problem, he told himself, as he dashed for Rose and the (very relative) safety of BB-8's craft. He could not afford the luxury of revenge.
They raced to the surface of the planet. The onetime rebellion base was not hard to find, and the Resistance clearly had just gotten there or didn't know how to work the antiquated mechanics, because the door was still up.
As it closed behind them, Finn determined that the former held true. Far more importantly, the Resistance was firing on the First Order ship! "Hold your fire!" they yelled, trying to open their door just as desperately as their comrades had been trying to close it moments before. After all they'd come through, could they really be killed by friendly fire?
A crack emerged in the ship, and they peered through, arms raised. Someone—Poe?—gave the order to wait, and they stumbled out.
Through the optical systems, Finn recognized a battering ram cannon. Poe didn't seem to know what it was, but then, he hadn't been grilled for weeks on end on the glories of the decrepit Empire's technological advances.
Rose grinned at him as he suggested moving out. He wasn't doing it for her, he wanted to say, or Poe or Rey or even Organa or Paige. Or himself.
But who he was, being Finn—someone Rose could admire, someone Poe could befriend and Rey could trust, someone more than FN-2187—that was worth stalling the First Order as long as they could
Red reactions stained the salt with every shot, every pivot, every crash of downed adversaries on both sides. Rose sent out a signal of panic, and for a moment Finn froze; had he doomed her in his pride?
And then the ships behind her exploded in almost a single motion.
The Falcon had arrived! The signal they'd journeyed across the galaxy and back to protect had not been futile after all. Rey was there, blasting away one fighter after the next, drawing the First Order away.
It bought them distance, not much, but a little. The cannon was charging, ready to break open the base.
He couldn't let it. Not after seeing Tuanul and Canto Bight, hearing the stories of Hosnian Prime and Hays Minor and everywhere in between. Finn had a name, he would be remembered. Not as the full person he'd been in life, with hopes and fears and flaws, but as someone. That had to be enough.
Ignoring his friends' cries, he flicked away the radio—it wasn't like he needed computer help—and flew into the eye of the storm.
For a moment, the peace he'd felt aboard the flagship. Then a cloud of red dust, bruises everywhere, his ship in ruins and the cannon as hot as ever. Throwing off the wreckage of his ship, he crossed the ground to where Rose's lay, just as stationary.
She kissed him, and he let her. Both of them needed a distraction from the cannon firing beyond them. But before he could put up an argument—hadn't she been trying to convince him of the necessity of their fight? Why stop him when he was so close?—she passed out on him.
He carried her into the base, stewing, his purpose snatched away again. When Poe led them back, Finn to follow, if only to have something to do. At last, Rey was there, the back of the cave falling away under her touch.
It had only been days since he first climbed aboard the Falcon, running for his life on Jakku, but as he hurried inside again, it felt like years. They jumped to hyperspace, and Finn quickly let sleep overtake him.
Rose slipped away shortly before they landed on Mingdesh.
It wasn't fair, he wanted to seethe, but he knew better than to think that anything in the galaxy was fair. The Alderaanians buried her in a bright garden, and he stood motionless. If the First Order had taught him anything, it was how to stand at attention.
He kept the medallion. "She would have wanted you to have it," General Organa said, but Finn was dubious. Who knew what she wanted, really? Keeping her secrets one moment, then overflowing with emotion the next?
BB-8, of course, was insufferably chirpy. Finn was desperate to get away from the droid's happiness, even strolling into the waters of the reflecting pool. "Try following me in here, metal brain," he challenged, more bitterly than he'd intended.
BB-8 trilled what was probably Binary for something like "enjoying yourself?"
"Leave me alone," said Finn, turning his back on BB-8. He took the medallion out—maybe looking like he was mourning would earn him some space? Kneeled down in the shallows…
The Raddus' belowdecks docking bay was dark; the electronics quietly buzzed as they ran routine maintainance checkups. Rose blinked and gave a start.
The ship was intact! The pods even seemed to be in their stations. She was days, weeks maybe in the past, and the galaxy spun on.
She ran up towards the bridge, not caring if deserters took advantage of her absence. Let them leave, they'd be safe. Rose had other plans.
Up in the main corridors of the ship, Rose found herself met by a tide of pilots streaming in from the landing bay. The aftermath of some aerial battle?
Part of her looked for Paige by instinct. Another shouted down that Paige was gone, would never meet her in the crowds again. But still another part whispered that hope had been revived. The future was just a dark memory. Who knew what was possible?
"Rose?" said Tallie Lintra. "I'm so sorry..."
Oh. "You did your best," Rose said.
Tallie hugged her, and Rose buried her face in the pilot's jacket, trying not to let on that she was more shaken than distraught. Then she froze as they separated. "We're in hyperspace?"
"Of course."
"Listen, I need to talk to General Organa right away—"
"Yeah, you and everyone else," said Tallie.
"Commander Dameron?"
"Uh, I think he's part of the 'everyone else'."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Vice-Admiral Holdo?"
"Who?"
"Never mind," said Rose. "How about Finn?"
"I mean, he's not super talkative right now."
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't he in a coma?"
"Oh yeah. Right, sorry." Rose turned, mingling with the pilots as she headed for the hospital bay.
"Rose?" Tallie called after her. "Let me know if you just want to talk. I know it's not easy."
"Thanks," Rose called, without turning around.
Finn was still comatose, but BB-8 showed up shortly after Rose did, whirring around and beeping happily. Outside, streaks of hyperspace's blue light whirled past the porthole, enough to make patients nauseous if they weren't already.
But then Finn was stirring, pushing away the protective cover that shielded him. Rose rushed to help him up, slowing when she realized he was still surrounded by IV tubes and medical apparatus.
"Rose?" he blurted. "What are you doing here?"
She froze. "How do you know my name?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
"Uh, fine, we should talk, but can I have some privacy?"
"I don't think privacy is the most important thing right now..."
"Well, I have people to talk to, and I think they'd prefer it if I was a little more civilized—"
BB-8 trilled and rolled out of the room.
"He's probably getting Poe," said Rose, pointedly turning her back on Finn. The man went and died on her, and he wanted to complain about some skin? "So can we talk?"
"Sure. Fine."
"So how do you know me?"
"We've kind of...met...before."
Rose stiffened. "Before how?"
"This is gonna sound weird, but—"
"Like, time travelling before?"
When he didn't answer, she turned to find him slackjawed, and then not protesting that she was looking at him. "I'll take that as a yes."
"How—you shouldn't—"
"You shouldn't be alive—"
"Me? But how did you—"
"Finn? Buddy!" said Poe, standing in the doorway. "I brought some clothes. You must have a thousand questions."
"You don't even know," said Finn.
Poe walked over and passed Finn some clothes. "Starkiller Base is gone. Rey brought you back to D'Qar, but our location was compromised, so we took out their dreadnought and jumped to hyperspace. She's fine. She found the map and went to find Luke Skywalker. Kylo Ren was alive last she heard, worse luck. Uh, this is Rose Tico."
"Yeah, we met," said Finn.
"Are you okay?" Poe asked, turning his attention to Rose. "Kalonia's on the medical frigate, but we can get her if you need help."
"I'm fine," said Rose. "Can we have a few minutes?"
"Uh, sure. I'll be on the bridge if you need me, okay? If not there, then in the main hangar."
"Sure," said Finn. But he was shooting Rose a look as he did.
"Hold on," said Rose. "Are we still in hyperspace?"
"Of course," said Poe.
"We need to stay there. The computers below decks were, uh, showing unusual signals. I'm afraid they can track us through lightspeed."
"That's impossible."
"Not anymore," said Finn. "It was, uh, one of the projects they were doing a lot of research on right before I defected. They must have perfected it."
"You could have mentioned that in the debrief."
"I didn't think it was finished yet! But if Rose says it's live, I trust her."
Rose tried not to smile.
"Fine," said Poe. "I'll see what I can do. But I don't think I'm going to be very influential with High Command at the moment." He walked back down the hall.
"You remember," Finn breathed, once the sound of his footsteps had died away.
"Canto Bight? The thief? Crait? Yeah. I remember," said Rose.
"But how are you alive? In the future, you—didn't make it."
"Yes I did," said Rose. "You're supposed to be dead."
"Whatever," said Finn. "It's probably the Force or something."
"The Force? Do you remember how you got here?"
"Sort of. I was on Mingdesh, it's—"
"I know where Mingdesh is," said Rose. "And you went to the reflecting pool? With my medallion?"
"Yeah. Well, not on purpose, but, yeah."
So in the future—one future—she'd changed things enough to save Finn, maybe at the cost of her own life. But not enough that the Resistance didn't wind up in the same place. "So what do we do?"
"Well, we need to get the codebreaker, yeah? The real one, not the thief. Take our time and do it the slow way."
"We'll need to tell the General. If not the whole story, at least something. So she can jump the ship out of hyperspace after we disable it."
"You want to launch the shuttle from within hyperspace?"
"You don't?" Rose asked. "We can't go back into real space before the tracker is offline, they'll follow."
"Launching from dock—it'll take a lot of luck. I mean, maybe Han Solo could do it, but I'm not him."
"We don't need luck," said Rose.
"Oh? That's good."
"We can try again." She indicated her necklace. "As often as it takes."
"Not if we both get blown up we can't."
"So we split up," she said. "I find the codebreaker, you stay back with the medallion. If anything goes wrong, get back to Mingdesh and try again."
"Why do I stay back? I mean—I don't want anything to happen to you. Now that I've met you again."
Rose blushed. What had happened in his future? "You knew where the breaker room was, and that's great. But I remember the way now. Unless you've learned how to operate a power breaker in your spare time, I'm the one who has to go."
"Don't be a martyr," said Finn. "Couldn't we go together? Leave the medallion with Poe or the General or somebody?"
"They're in enough danger already. Better we don't have too many people trying to keep our secret."
"Fine. But check in over the radio, and I will too when I get some privacy."
She wasn't sure how he felt about her, but offered a hug nonetheless. There was much more to fear in the galaxy than awkwardness. He returned it warmly, and with plenty of strength for someone just out of a coma. They left together, Finn making his way towards the bridge, and Rose into the hangar.
She avoided the ship she and Finn had parked on the beach and found another of the same model. Small enough that it wouldn't be missed, but wouldn't bring back any bad memories of the future either. Strapping herself in, she prepared to eject—
Finn woke up.
He pushed the dome away, and there was Rose, gasping in concern. "Rose!" he said. "Really good to see you."
"How do you know my name?" she asked.
"Hold on a minute. BB-8, you there?" The droid beeped in response. "Please go ask Poe, nicely, to leave a change of clothes at the door, and I'll go meet him on the bridge in a little while. I'm fine! I just need to talk to Rose for a minute, is all."
BB-8 rolled away chipperly.
"Okay," Finn exhaled. "So let me guess. I...died or something. You went to Mingdesh. Dumped the medallion in the pool. Wound up here?"
"What? How..."
"Yes or no?"
"Yes, but—"
"Yeah, I did the same thing. A couple times now. Wasn't easy trying to make my way to Mingdesh in one of those dinky escape pods, for the record, but I got there."
"And you keep coming back here?"
"I'm not exactly sure when. I assume to some time when I was in the coma, but that could have been five minutes or fifteen hours ago."
"Huh."
Poe's shadow filled the doorframe, and he bent to drop off some clothes. "You okay, buddy?"
"I'm fine," said Finn, "I'll talk to you in a minute, okay? Uh—and don't jump out of hyperspace yet."
"What?"
"Rose found some data anomalies in her computers, the First Order can track us through hyperspace, it was one of the projects I know they were working on. I didn't think they'd gotten this far."
Poe stared incredulously. "How'd you two meet?"
"Just luck," Rose smiled.
"Good luck?"
"It will be if you can stay out of real space," said Finn. "Look, I'll be there in a minute."
Raising his eyebrows, Poe hustled back towards the bridge.
Ignoring modesty, Finn pulled on the clothes. "So we need a plan."
"We need the real codebreaker," said Rose. "The one Maz told us about. So we have to follow the rules at Canto Bight."
"If we can even get there," said Finn. "Last time, you tried to jump to hyperspace directly, without emerging into real space. It must have torn apart your spaceship, because you never got back to me on the radio."
Rose seemed to take that well, under the circumstances. "So we emerge into real space...where? Somewhere we can lay a trap for them?"
"What trap? We barely have a fleet."
"Can we experiment with the medallion? See if we can get back earlier?"
"I'm not sure. We'd still have to emerge into real space to even get to Mingdesh."
"Was I alone?"
"What?"
"Last time. Did I try jumping out alone?"
"Yeah, I had to stay back with the medallion. I'm, uh, sure it was painless—"
"Not like that, dummy. We need to tell Poe. If anyone can fly us out of there, he can. And if not, we just try again later, yeah?"
"You seem pretty blasé about this."
"I have to go hack it; I'm not the one who maybe has to listen to their friends die, then escape to Mingdesh with the First Order after me."
Finn shook his head. "I'd love it if you had a better plan."
"You're the expert, aren't you? I've only done this once."
"Only?" he echoed. "Let's go talk to Poe and see if he has any better ideas."
Poe was on the bridge, receiving a chastising from General Organa. "There are things you cannot solve by jumping into an X-Wing and blowing something up!" she proclaimed, then broke off. "Glad to see you well!"
"Thanks," said Finn. "I'm sure Poe has briefed you, but it's critical that you don't jump back from hyperspace until we can be sure the First Order is not tracking us."
The general remained calm, but scrutinized him. "We don't have much in the way of fuel reserves."
"I'm aware. But it would be dangerous to waste them popping in and out of real space."
"Where do you think we should go?" Poe said.
Finn gulped, then turned to Rose. "We can't just, like, borrow him without any questions asked. This isn't like Holdo and—us. People will know if he just runs away."
"Vice-Admiral Holdo?" Organa asked. "What does she have to do with this?"
"Who are you borrowing?" asked Poe.
Rose looked from Poe to Finn, to the general, back to Finn. "Fine," she said. "You're the expert."
"This is kind of a weird story," said Finn. "I don't want to take too much of your time, either of you, but I'd appreciate it if we could talk in privacy."
Organa hesitated. "He's not a spy," Rose blurted, and Poe giggled.
"That was not the foremost of my concerns," said Organa, then turned to Ackbar. "Admiral?"
"Yes?" said the Mon Calamari.
"Continue a slow course, and don't reenter just yet."
"Of course," he said.
The general gave a brisk nod, and Finn found the others turning to him. "The medical bay should be empty," he said. But what did he know? He'd left it as soon as he could every time.
It was, however, empty, and he sat down on the bed as the others gathered round. Where could he start?
"There's an Alderaani diaspora outpost on Mingdesh," he said. "Correct?" That was something he certainly hadn't learned in his indoctrination classes.
"Yes," said Organa, impassive.
"When some of the waters there come in contact with Haysian smelt..." He nodded at Rose, who tapped her necklace, "the person holding it appears to be transported back in time."
"Appears?"
"Is," said Rose. "We've been through this before, Finn and I. Together and—separately. The First Order picks us off at the Rebellion base on Crait. Or when we jump back to real space. Or our ship blows up trying to look for someone who can hack us onto the Supremacy. But we keep fighting."
Poe seemed half-aghast, half-marvelling. Only the general remained still.
"Your brother's alive," Finn said.
Her eyes snapped to his.
"Luke," he went on. "I don't know how he found us, he didn't come with Rey. But he did come, on Crait, when we had nothing left. Tried to face Kylo Ren on his own to buy us time to get away."
Something slight but perceptible relaxed in Organa's face. "So help me, I believe you."
"All right," said Poe. "What's the plan?"
"A couple options," said Rose. "You're an ace pilot; if any of us could jump to real space on a shuttle, you could. We go and find a codebreaker who Maz Kanata told us about—you and Finn and I, I mean, before—well, after. If he can break us onto the Supremacy, I could shut down their trackers. Then we send a signal back here, and jump to real space."
"Or we play around with the medallion some more," said Finn. "See if we can go back farther, reroute the evacuation."
"Or—you're the strategist, you probably have better ideas," Rose went on.
The general waited just a moment, and Poe filled the silence. "I'd be happy to try, I want to try. I mean, jumping into a shuttle and doing something risky doesn't solve everything, but sometimes it has to be for the best!"
"I can come too," said Finn. "You stay back and guard the medallion."
Organa eyed Rose. "You said Maz spoke to another version of you? And Poe and Finn?"
"Yes," said Rose.
"Where was I?"
"You were...injured. Alive! Just recuperating."
She nodded. "There's a target on my back. It comes with the job, and I wouldn't want anyone else to carry that load. But if this is your hope, I don't want to put it in greater risk."
"Finn is in danger too," said Rose. "Just for being who he is. A hero who chose his own way."
"So are all of us," said Finn, "as you should know by now."
"It'll be okay," said Poe. "Rose and I won't get up to any hanky-panky."
Finn snorted, and even the general cracked a smile. "If that's the worst thing that could go wrong, we're doing pretty well," said Finn.
Rose hugged him, then stepped away as she pressed the medallion into his hand.
"You should get going," he said.
"That eager to get rid of me?"
"No, no! Just, the sooner you start, the sooner we can get out of here."
She blushed. "See you soon, then. But not too soon."
"May the Force be with us," said Organa.
A few minutes later, Finn grinned in delight as he heard Rose's voice over the comms channels. "I've got whiplash all over but we're in real space! Middle of nowhere it seems. Probably gonna go back to hyperspace soon before we approach Canto Bight."
"Yeah!" Finn exulted. "Nice flying, Poe."
"Look," Poe was saying in the background, "just because you can brace by rolling across the shuttle doesn't mean—" He cut off, BB-8's quiet blips rebutting him.
"Should I go?" Finn asked. He felt small on the bridge. At least in the First Order he'd had a mask to make him blend in with the others. In the Resistance, most of the officers seemed to stare at him as if inspecting some weird xenobiology specimen.
"If you'd like," said the general. "But you're welcome here."
He turned towards the doors, but couldn't bring himself to move. They were whizzing through hyperspace with no stars or worlds in sight, only the same colorful pulsations everywhere. Amidst all that, what was one level or another?
"Rose had a sister," Organa said quietly. "She died in the bombing runs."
"I know," said Finn. "Paige, right?"
"They were close. That necklace, Paige had one that matched it. Two halves of a circle."
Finn nodded.
"I don't pretend to be an expert in the ways of the Force, or whatever it was that brought you back here. But I worry that this one may have become tethered to the moment its twin was destroyed."
When he was still unconscious, but about to awaken. "So we can't save her."
"I find that trying to achieve perfection only leads to heartbreak. You can't take the galaxy on your shoulders." Before Finn could interrupt, she went on, "But that's no reason not to do as much as you can."
Poe checked in on the radio next. "The parking here is ridiculous. We had to leave BB-8 as collateral! They treat droids like credits."
Better than treating people like credits, Finn wanted to say. But BB-8 had saved his life several times over. "Make the codebreaker win something extra at cards for you."
"Who is this guy?"
"We're still trying to find out," Rose giggled, and they went silent again.
By then, the general had made an announcement on the intercom. "Due to potential innovations in First Order tracking technology, we will be remaining in hyperspace until further notice. Be sure you know the procedure for which transports to proceed to, in the event of a sudden evacuation. Otherwise, remain vigilant."
"If I may say so, General," piped up C-3PO, "even as many as one thousand, one hundred thirty eight crew would be under the recommended minimum for a vessel of this size, and we appear to be navigating at barely half that."
"Thank you," said Organa, impressively restrained.
"General?" asked Admiral Ackbar.
"Yes?"
"Assuming we do intend to depart hyperspace at some point, may I know where we ought to proceed?"
"You'll know as soon as I do, Admiral," she said.
"You don't know?" Finn mouthed.
"I understand you may wish to aim for Mingdesh as a precaution, but I don't want to expose their civilians to unnecessary risk. A sympathetic fuel depot would be welcome..."
"But you don't think anyone will be willing to side with us."
"It's better not to put faith in assumptions."
"Why not proceed to Crait?" said Holdo. "It should be well-defended; there are shields and enough resources to let us send a distress signal and bunker down indefinitely while we seek a fuel source."
Finn gritted his teeth, but said nothing. He hadn't exactly figured out what had happened to her in his first recurrence. Somewhere between their departure for Canto Bight and landing on Crait she'd died, but then, so had a lot of people.
"It may be somewhat crowded and certainly dilapidated," said the general. "But the Rebellion made do with worse."
"Overcrowding would be a good problem to have," Finn muttered. Holdo glanced at him, curious, but he said nothing, and paced off to the lower decks.
"We're on our way," Rose relayed. "This guy seems to know his stuff, he's just a little..."
"A little what?"
"Weird."
"Weird bad?"
"Don't know yet."
"Well, is he listening? Don't make him mad."
"No. He's, uh, trying to play sabacc against the shuttle's computer."
"It's a shuttle, all it does is navigate."
"You try telling him that," said Rose. "How's the fuel?"
"Holding. I think."
"Good enough."
"Get back soon," Finn said. "I miss you." It was a poor summation for everything that had and hadn't passed between them, but it was all he could think of.
That time, when he glanced over at the escape pods, he didn't feel jealous of those who had fled.
And then Poe was hissing into the radio. "Get ready, you're gonna have six minutes, maybe less."
"How are you doing?" Finn asked.
"We're fine. Uh, these uniforms freak me out, but if you can handle it, so can I. BB-8 had to—"
"Catch up later," said Rose.
"On your signal," the general said.
Silence. Finn turned the medallion over in his hand as if it would be cold to the touch, but only felt sweat.
"Go!" said Poe. "Now!"
Before Finn could race to join his fellows, he was flung against the side of the stairwell by the jump to real space. Picking himself up, he tried to dash up another flight, only to be met by an oncoming wave of pilots rushing to the main hangar.
The transports. Right. He hadn't really been around long enough to have a specific destination in mind, so he followed the nearest person—a blond-haired woman—who looked like she knew where she was going.
No one was shooting at him from either direction as their transport made its way to the planetary surface, but he fretted anyway. Those around him could not understand his concern, and what would the First Order do when they realized their tracker had failed?
It was a relief to get down to the planet and be able to make himself useful, guiding shuttles and updating the shield coordinates. Ackbar and Larma D'Acy immediately began turning on communications systems, sending an encrypted message.
"We're on Crait," Finn said, once he got a moment to himself. "Rose should know where it is. You okay?"
"Fine," said Rose. "Glad to hear it. We're just going to be a while."
"Are you—"
"We're fine. But we only have the one shuttle, and the Master Codebreaker wants some help in return for getting us in."
"Well, he can't have the medallion," Finn snapped.
"Take your time," said Organa. "As long as it's not coaxium he's after, we can reward him amply."
"No, not that kind of help," said Rose. "As soon as he heard Maz sent us, he got really worried that she hadn't come herself. So he insists we drop him off at Takodana first, so he can come to her rescue."
The general laughed. "I don't think Maz has needed rescuing in a few centuries, but another friend can't hurt."
"We'll be back soon," Rose pledged, and BB-8 whirred in agreement.
Finn tried to be patient, refitting a row of ski speeders with the pilot who introduced herself as Tallie. But when an unknown vessel appeared on their computer an hour later, with still no word from Rose or Poe, fear began to overshadow hope again.
"Black Squadron?" Tallie asked eagerly.
"No," said Holdo. "They'd have some kind of authorization."
"Repeat clearance request," said Organa.
"I know the code is Willard," said a voice over the base's comms system, half-annoyed and half-amused, "I set it."
"No it's not," said D'Acy, "we just encoded—"
Organa cut her off. "Open the shields."
D'Acy and Finn both stared, but the commander tapped at the console respectfully. On the computer, Finn could make out the icon of the small figher approaching the base.
D'Acy had closed the shields again before anyone could give her an order, and the general briskly strode out towards the door. "Hold on," Tallie called. "We can scout it out—"
"I'm fifty-three years old, Lieutenant," said Organa. "I think I can handle this myself."
All Finn could do was wait. There was no sound from beyond the door, no explosions or accelerations or charging weapons. Silence was intimidating enough.
Only his memories of previous days let him recognize the gray-haired man who followed the general back inside. He did not seem much of a hero, just a wanderer in need of a haircut. Yet that was enough. More than enough.
"Rey is hurt," Luke Skywalker said quietly. "She left of her own choice, and tried to seek out Kylo Ren. Whether she will fall or stand, I cannot see, and I could not force her way even if I wanted to. But I can stand with you—I will."
Organa embraced him, and Finn was relieved to step back among the shadows of the cave. For once, someone else could be the legend.
Ackbar nearly had to order Finn to sleep, in one of the rudimentary bunks repurposed from the Ninka. How long had it been since he'd slept, really slept, without racing against times yet to come? He yawned, and let the yapping of the vulptices lull him to sleep.
When he awoke, BB-8 was charging below him.
The caverns were swarming, teeming with life, humans and Sullustans and Mon Calamari alike. But from across the way, Rose's voice rang loud and clear. "Finn!"
He pushed his way through the crowd, freezing when he reached her. They stared awkwardly, and then Rose smiled. "I think we've waited long enough," she said, and kissed him.
When she stepped back, he was grinning, but quietly. "What do we do now?"
"Well, we find fuel, and we send a signal to our allies, and then—"
"No, I mean, you and me? What do we do about the future, if we don't know what's coming at us next?"
"Dummy," said Rose. "No one else does either."
He placed the medallion back around her neck, and for a moment all it did was accentuate her beauty, so he kissed her back.