A/N: Hello, I'm back with some AU Finchel action. It's kind of a crossover story but I'm only using Glee characters but several different genres and settings. What if Finn did not just play a Jedi on the Christmas special, but actually was one? Rachel and other characters too. Come along for the journey as we see how this boy and girl grew up, both together and apart, from humble beginnings on Earth using the Fallout New Vegas setting, through many tests of character, to battle injustice throughout the galaxy and come to terms with their intense feelings for each other.
Medical lab recovery area.
Jedi Academy, Courscant.
Galaxy position: Deep Core.
A young powerfully built man lay propped up in bed, mostly recovered from his severe battle injuries sustained during a recent battle on the planet Naboo halfway across the galaxy. He was discovered barely breathing by comrades and rushed to a bacta tank inside a wing of the Royal Palace. Most of the main building was still structurally sound considering the pitched battles occurring not far away out on the grassy plains. The local populace had emerged as the winner over the Trade Federation, but there where still massive casualties and uncounted for friends and loved ones. He had just arrived back on a deep space freighter with a souped up hyper drive.
The patient opened his eyes as the outer door opened. A slight looking non descript man entered the room. The newcomer pushed back the hood on his light gray robe to reveal a curly mass of wild brown hair. He walked over and laid his hand on the recovering man in bed.
"I'm glad to see you awake, Finn. I thought I'd lost one of my best students."
"Master Will, I'll heal just fine, but where's Rachel? There was a big explosion and we got separated. Is she in a nearby room? I have to make sure she's okay, I can't lose her again! We'd already been apart for 2 years before training and this assignment."
Finn tried to sit up but Will gently restrained him back down. Once the Jedi master was sure his student was not hurting himself further he took his hand away and ran it through his hair in frustration.
"I feel the same way but we can't let our emotions get in the way of rational thinking. The truth of the matter is that the council is still collecting data and investigating. I'm sorry to tell you that Rachel is still listed as missing in action."
"What! There's no trace of her? She can't just disappear into thin air. Maybe she used a mind cloaking power and is following some leads."
"You always had an active imagination Jedi Hudson. It is your greatest gift but sometimes it can cause severe distractions. What can you tell me about the events on Naboo?"
"There's large parts I can't remember. Something big exploded nearby and the shockwave blew me into the air. I barely force hovered to the ground before passing out. It's a huge white blur after that until I woke up here."
Will smiled down at his student as Finn closed his eyes and relaxed his body.
"That's it, you get back on your feet first then you can help clear all this confusion up. More of your classmates are unaccounted for. The council and all the Jedi are very concerned. They boarded a ship to come back here but vanished after they made the jump to light speed."
Finn managed to open his eyes and focus on Will's worried face but he was feeling his medication start to work again.
"Who else is missing?"
"Some of your graduating class mates. Granted some of them were a year or so younger but you all deserved to finish your training together. So besides Rachel add Quinn, Mike, Tina, Joe and Lauren to the list."
Finn turned over on his side to get more comfortable as Will pushed the nearby button to lower the bed back to horizontal. It seemed that Finn was soon asleep. Will walked to the door and was about to leave when he heard his student's voice.
"Master, I'm still awake. Don't leave yet."
Will walked back over to the bed as Finn continued speaking.
"There's something about this whole Naboo thing that's bothering me. I always thought that Lauren was nothing but trouble, but the others just follow her lead. I'm sure we'll find them; maybe they have a mission you don't know about."
Finn paused to draw in a deep breath then continued.
"I can't relax until I see Rachel is safe again. She always seems to get hurt around me, unless that's my imagination. I know she will yell at me big time if I don't find her more quickly this time. I really thought I accidently killed her a few years ago back home. Good night Master Will."
"I usually frown on fellow Jedi relationships beyond friendship but strong emotions can bond teammates together like nothing else. Rachel means a lot to you then?"
Finn managed to only slightly slur out his tired reply.
"Yeah, she's everything."
Will never wanted to pry into his student's background but felt he had to know something.
"You two are from the same planet?"
Finn nodded his head yes.
"Where we're from there's nothing but desert, cactus and lots of wild mutant animals."
Will did not seem to hear Finn's reply but seemed to enjoy thinking back to the past.
"Granted I did not meet you both until I heard about this serious trouble and amazing feats by young people on that mining colony world where teens go for bad behavior. I see now that hard labor was a good test of your abilities. I thought you and she showed great promise and I'm glad I took a chance."
Finn smiled as he enjoyed a private joke with himself.
"Oh well, just some youthful indiscretions that we were punished for. The pay was good but the view was awful. There was nothing but jagged rock to look at all the way to the horizon. I'll take my home planet any day."
"You mentioned desert. From Tatooine?"
"No, but its way out there like that planet is. We're from Earth."
"How long have you known Rachel?"
"About 10 years, but feels like a lifetime of mostly good memories but some big misunderstandings. It did not start out good when we met, but it got much better. Good night Master."
Finn fell asleep soon after his Will left. He dreamt back to that fateful day when he had been selling some of his stuff when he literally collided with one Rachel Berry. The impact had ended up changing his life forever.
Eight years ago.
Sol star system, Earth
Galaxy position: Outer Rim
Mojave Desert
A few miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada
A 12 year old Finn Hudson stood in line waiting to sell his scavenged items inside the garage offices of the Gibson Scrap Yard. The owner of this place would give him some soda bottle cap currency so he could buy some more clothes or supplies of food from a passing caravan trader. He lived just south of here in the town of Novac, where he and his mom Carol resided in one of the rooms in the motel owned by Burt Hummel. He and his son Kurt lived in the next room over. Carol worked long hours at the NCR sharecropper farm complex, and only came home on weekends.
To help pay the rent Finn choose to explore lots of the mostly deserted factory buildings and other structures to find any usable stuff for trading and barter purposes. Burt favored any Nuka Cola bottles or tech hardware, and Kurt liked toy cars or pre war children's books. Finn liked finding items and making them useable. To protect himself he wore a baseball bat in a shoulder sling on his back, a knife and for really bad stuff a 10mm pistol was tucked into a secure pouch in the back of his tattered pair of jeans. A worn black leather jacket, baseball cap and grimmy sneakers completed his unique look. When Finn stepped up to the counter to put his bag down on it he heard some female voices getting closer. He was shy and tried to tune their words out so to not overhear.
"Now Rachel, don't get your hopes up again. Whatever stuff you found will not be enough to get the Dinky dinosaur action figure at the gift ship back in Novac. I know your teddy bear is very beat up, but that's the only toy we can afford and I'm not brave enough to go looking for stuff in those dangerous buildings."
The petite little dark haired girl had a big pout on her face and she put her hands on her hips for emphasis.
"But Mom, you always say that. I know times are tough but can't we enjoy any simple pleasures at all? Maybe I can get one of the mini rocket scale models. That would be cool."
The older female had long brown hair but it was very dirty and had tangles and curls everywhere. Both girl's faces were dirt streaked as well, but that seemed to be the case everywhere. Hot running water and constant electricity without frequent brownouts was a luxury for the elite few. That is those who lived inside the perimeter walls of Las Vegas, or could afford to visit one of the casinos and rent a room.
"Just don't get too excited. We'll take what we can get for those items you found and live with it."
As Finn watched the shop owner figure up the total for his haul of scrap metal, a spare toaster and a coffee cup he heard the sad and depressing reply of the younger girl standing behind him.
'Yes mother. No matter how simple or big my dreams are I accept that they will always be crushed and not happen."
Suddenly Rachel's patience ran out and she got angry.
"What's the holdup here? Take your caps and get out of my way you stupid boy."
At their current ages Rachel was a few inches taller than Finn, and moved to shoulder him out of the way as he seemed to not be paying attention. Finn turned suddenly and the two of them collided together, falling in a tangled heap to the floor. Finn grunted in pain as his bat struck his lower back a glancing blow. The two items Rachel held in her left hand flew from her grip and broke apart upon hitting the hard concrete floor. The sounds of gears and metal shattering brought all attention on them and talking ceased. Rachel started to cry while she fought to get free as Finn had landed partly on top of her.
"You've broken my sensor modules idiot boy, now I can't get my caps. I hate you for ruining everything. Let me up!"
Finn rolled off of her after she started hitting his shoulders and a slap to the face. He laid on his side in stunned silence as Rachel nimbly rose to her feet and ran out the front door in tears. Her mother Shelby tried to call out or stop Rachel but she was too fast.
"Hey, clumsy boy. You better go after my daughter and make sure she's okay. Then I expect you to pay us for those modules you broke. No excuses, just do it."
Finn seemed to get angry but set his mouth in a determined frown as he struggled to remain in control.
"All right, I'll go find your rude, ungrateful daughter. After that we can talk about it. I'm sorry for making her sad."
Finn moved to the door and walked outside. The oppresive heat was a drain on his body from his first step. At least indoors the roof offered some protection from the solar radiation. He scanned the surrounding terrain in all directions and noticed a flash of dark hair running towards the REPCONN Test Site. The experienced looter and tracker that he was already, Finn's expression turned to one of panic and concern. He started running after the fleeing girl while muttering to himself.
"Now who's the stupid one? You're heading right towards Scorpion gulch. Zero regard for your safety. Girls!"
Rachel had started running on pure adrenaline but her instincts soon took over. She had heard many rumors about how much untouched technology there was inside the REPCONN building. This supposedly included many smaller items of interest that she could carry out with ease. A short time after she entered the maze of passages within the nearby rock formation Rachel had lost her bearings. She picked a direction and explored one of the paths at random. When she exited the giant satellite structure of HELIOS ONE was ahead of her. Rachel backtracked to the inner crossroads and took another path. A few minutes later this lead to a wire mesh fence that kept trespassers from a large area that spanned several miles in diameter.
The sharp eyes of the 10 year old brunette girl noticed that a portion of the mesh fence had been sliced through with wire cutters, revealing a secret opening. Rachel carefully peeled back enough for her to squat down and crawl through when her body froze to a sudden stop. The shadow of a large bark scorpion's clawed hand clued her in to danger as she jerked backwards, narrowly missing a blow to the head. Rachel rolled to her feet and started running away. She screamed loudly as a gigantic radscorpion blocked her retreat and starting moving closer to attack.
Rachel carefully but quickly pulled out her compacted cane stick and extended it to its full length. There was a large kitchen knife duct tapped to one end while the nervous but determined girl gripped the other end with a calm purpose. She twirled it several times above her head then started jabbing it at the rad scorpion's head but jumped backwards as its tail stinger tried to strike her. Rachel dodge rolled away from another stinger attack and rose to her feet again. A series of loud booms hurt her ears as the radscorpion was hit by several 10mm hollow point rounds fired by Finn's revolver pistol. The 2 humans avoided the big mutated creature as it trashed around before finally coming to a halt, its life force spent. Finn ejected the empty clip and inserted a fresh one into his pistol as the gun barrel kept moving around in all directions while he scanned for other threats. He needed to find out the girl's state of mind and get them out of this dangerous area now. He spoke without taking his eyes off the surrounding terrain.
"Are you unharmed? It's Rachel right? Let's go back now. Your mom is very worried about you."
Rachel realized she had been holding her breath so she opened her mouth, exhaling in irritation but a quiet relief.
"Go away! I'm fine, but it doesn't matter. That thing would never have touched me, I'm too quick. A few more moments and my knife would be buried between its eyes. I can get back just fine without stupid clumsy boys messing things up."
"Look, I'm sorry for being so uncoordinated. I really regret breaking your stuff. I have some ideas on how to make it right. But if you're not interested, have a nice life. Enjoy fighting all the other big scary mutant things out here. Bye."
Finn holstered his pistol and started to walk back to Novac. He managed to get ten steps away before hearing Rachel speak again.
"Wait, don't leave me. Having backup is a good idea out here."
Rachel put her weapon back together and stored it away. She jogged over to where Finn was standing and looked at him with new interest.
"I'm sorry too; we got off to a bad start. Thanks for saving my life, I really appreciate it. Tell me your idea while we're going back."
Finn took a few seconds to recover from his surprise at Rachel's changed behavior. He managed a small grin as the two started walking back south.
"Would you like to do some looting with me soon? I know we can find more of those modules then you can get your caps and stuff you want."
Rachel came to a strange but new realization. She had started to enjoy this boy's company, and realized with sadness she had no friends at all. Would she not be rejected for once? There was one way to find out.
"Sounds like a plan, I'm in."
"That's great, glad to have some company. I'm Finn, just your average guy who loves to explore."
"You can shoot too. I'm scared of guns, prefer melee weapons myself."
"I can help teach you anytime Rachel. Hey, let me show you my nearby hideout where I stash things and rest sometimes. I'll get you back to your mom real soon."
Finn changed direction to the northeast towards the ruined remains of interstate 95. Rachel kept pace with him while they talked.
"Thanks, we'll see about that. I mean about the lessons. Oh, you'd take me to see your secret place? We just met. What about my yelling and punching?"
Rachel noticed Finn's face forming into a smile.
"That was before, but we understand each other now. I'd like to call us friends if that's okay with you."
"That would be nice, Finn."
Both kids noticed the darkening sky as the sun went behind a bunch of clouds and the wind started blowing with much force. They looked to the west as a dark mass appeared on the horizon and rapidly approached their position. Finn grabbed Rachel's hand and started to run.
"Sandstorm! See that service station by the road? That's the place, let's go!"
The two kids made it to the first row of rusted out gas pumps when the wall of sand overtook them.
Any comments or reviews requested. Thanks for reading.