After everything that has happened to him today—defecting from the First Order, telling off Captain Phasma, rescuing BB-8 from the Jawa traders, running for his life with Rey, and blowing up two First Order X-Wings after fleeing Jakku in a stolen freighter—he'd assumed that it would be easier from there on out. That he and Rey would reach the Ileenium System and deliver BB-8 and the map to the Resistance without any more world-tilting surprises. And yet he thinks that maybe this is the most shocking moment of his day—the one where he finds himself in the presence of Han Solo, the Rebellion general and scourge of the former Galactic Empire.

Black Squadron had spoken often of him back on D'Qar, calling him a hero of the Battles of Yavin and Endor and one of the greatest pilots in history. Poe could've gone on about the Kessel Run for days if they'd let him. But from what Finn knows, no one had seen head nor hair of Han Solo in ages—not on base, not on D'Qar, not anywhere. The most common theory (told to him by Pava) was that he'd left General Organa after an argument many years before and hadn't been back since.

Solo has barely disappeared into the cockpit—and oh kriffing Force Almighty, this is the Millennium Falcon, they're on the Millennium Falcon—before Rey takes a few steps forward, her eyes wider than Imperial credit coins. "This is the Millennium Falcon?" she repeats, the excitement in her voice palpable. "You're Han Solo?"

"I used to be," is the gruff response from the cockpit.

"Han Solo, the Rebellion general?" Finn asks, just to be sure that this isn't some other Han Solo that they're dealing with.

He hadn't been directing the question at anyone in particular, but Rey answers him anyway. "No, the smuggler!" she says, like the concept of Han Solo being in the Rebellion is too crazy for words. Then again, she'd grown up on Jakku and had probably learned different stories about the fight against the Empire. Smuggling is more common in the Western Reaches than anywhere else (or so say numerous First Order reports), so Rey learning more about Han Solo being a smuggler than him being a general and a veteran makes sense.

Still, he turns to the Wookiee (what's-his-name, something with a C… Chewbacca! That was it.) and says, "Wasn't he a war hero?"

Chewbacca shrugs and moans something. He can't speak Shyriiwook but hazards a guess that the Wookiee's answer had been something like, 'Yeah, pretty much.' Meanwhile, Rey presses on. "This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs!"

"Twelve!" Solo calls back, sounding irritated.

In the ensuing silence—Finn guesses that he's checking to see if the ship had taken on any damage after their departure from Jakku—Rey turns back to Finn. "He was a Rebellion general?"

"Yeah, he got made a general before the Battle of Endor." Or maybe after. He's not a hundred percent sure.

"Wow." Rey's face lights up, reminding him of her expression after he'd told her about the map and she'd talked about Luke Skywalker being a myth. "I heard that he was part of the squadron that blew up the Death Star but—"

"Hey!" Solo comes stalking back into the lounge with a look like the weight of the universe rests personally on his shoulders. "Some moof-milker put a compressor on the ignition line." He follows this up with an indignant glare at Finn and Rey, like he's holding them personally responsible.

Rey shakes her head. "Unkar Plutt did. I thought it was a mistake too, it puts too much stress on—"

"On the hyperdrive," Solo finishes at the same time as Rey, stopping and turning around to look at them. His irritated expression fades as he stares at Rey like he's never seen anyone like her before. To Chewbacca, he says, "Chewie, throw 'em in a pod; we'll drop them at the nearest inhabited planet," before exiting the room again.

Rey takes off after him, Finn a step behind her. "Wait, no, we need your help!"

Solo continues down the corridor without looking back at them. "My help?"

"Yes! This droid has to get to the Resistance base on D'Qar as soon as possible!"

"He's carrying a map to Luke Skywalker," Finn says, letting a bit of the urgency from their situation seep into his voice. He's about to expound on the rest of their mission when Solo stops in his tracks. He doesn't say anything, but he fidgets a little and Finn knows that he has him. "You are the Han Solo that fought with the Rebellion."

Solo turns back. There's something in his eyes that makes Finn sad. Something like recognition mixed in with half-buried grief, like the expression that General Organa had wore after she'd asked him about Kylo Ren all those days ago.

"You knew him," Finn says.

He's not looking for an answer but Solo nods anyway. The mention of Luke Skywalker must have hit him hard because it takes him a few seconds to reply, and even then his voice isn't completely steady. "Yeah. I knew him. I knew Luke." A series of beeps from BB-8 (who had apparently followed them into the corridor) seem to startle Solo out of his daze, and he eyes Finn with something like cautious hope. "How'd your droid get this map?"

For the next quarter of an hour, Finn explains everything. How General Organa had sent Pava and BB-8 to recover the map from Lor San Tekka; how Kylo Ren had arrived with a legion of Stormtroopers, leading BB-8 to escape with the map on Pava's orders while Pava had been taken prisoner; how he and Poe had decided to fly to Jakku to recover BB-8 and then rescue Pava; how Poe had been killed in the crash. "I was planning to get to civilization and ask about BB-8, but then this alien attacked me and Rey...Rey saved me. She told me that BB-8 might have been picked up by Jawa traders, and she let me stay with her until the traders arrived at Niima."

Chewbacca says something from behind them, causing Solo to snort and the tips of Rey's ears to go red. Finn kind of wants to know what the Wookiee had said but decides to ask Rey or Solo later. "And the two of you got the droid and escaped in my ship," Solo finishes, grinning crookedly at them. "So that makes you fugitives."

Finn had known what defecting from the First Order would mean for him, but it suddenly hits him what that means for Rey. If she's been spotted by the First Order, then that means she won't be able to go back to Jakku and wait for her family. Rey seems to have come to the same conclusion, but she doesn't let her emotions show. Oh Force, Rey, I'm so sorry, you're innocent in all this, I didn't mean for this to happen to you…

Solo glances over at BB-8, who had wheeled over to the front of their group sometime during Finn's explanation. "Let's see what you've got."

BB-8 turns around to Finn and Rey, head cocked slightly to the side as if asking if Solo is to be trusted with this information. Rey nods, and Finn says, "Go ahead, BB-8."

In response, BB-8 rolls back into the room they'd been in previously, Finn and Rey and Solo and Chewbacca following him. BB-8 beeps once before suddenly projecting a holographic map, all but filling the room with splashes of nebulae, stars, planets, and even whole solar systems. It's only a piece of the whole galaxy, Finn knows, but he can't help but be mesmerized by the stars around him. Chewbacca had moved closer to have a better look and Rey's eyes are wide with awe, but Solo just moves through the room in an almost businesslike fashion, examining bits of the depicted solar systems that are scattered around him.

"This map's not complete," he says, startling Finn out of his reverie. "It's just a piece."

"The Resistance has the other pieces." What had General Organa said? "They—we recovered most of them from Skywalker's R2 unit. This is the last piece."

"And since the First Order's after it, they'll probably kill anyone who tries to keep it from them." Rey sounds bitter and Finn feels his guilt over landing her in this situation rise all over again. Meeting her eyes, he tries to convey without words how sorry he is that she's stuck in this mess but to his surprise, she gives him a small smile as if to say that's alright and squeezes his hand when he offers it to her.

This has clearly not escaped Solo's attention, but he chooses not to comment on it, instead saying, "That figures. Ever since Luke disappeared people have been looking for him."

Finn's brows furrow. "Why did he disappear?"

The pause goes on for so long that Finn is on the verge of retracting his question—if Solo's expression when he'd mentioned Luke had been any indication, this subject is clearly somewhat of an emotional minefield—but Solo eventually finds his voice again. "After the war, Luke started training a new generation of Jedi. There was no one else left to do it, so he took the burden on himself. For a while, things were alright. Luke got married, had a kid. He even found one of the last few Jedi from the Old Republic days, a man who was only a student back then but was more than willing to help Luke teach the next generation of Jedi." Solo's fists clench almost imperceptibly at his sides before he continues. "But then he and Luke had a...disagreement. Over the Dark Side and the Light Side of the Force. It turned into a duel and ended with the man swearing vengeance and disappearing. None of us really considered the magnitude of the threat until the man went after Luke's wife and kid."

Finn has a bad feeling about this, but he can't let the story end there. "What happened then?"

"Luke told his wife to take their kid and go into hiding, and she did, but then...we never heard from her again. The man claimed to have killed them and Luke spent months looking for them, trying to find them. He…" Solo's voice trails off for the first time since his story had began. Chewbacca lets out a mournful moan. Rey stands stock-still by Finn's side, like the slightest touch could bowl her over. "He eventually went back to his students, tried to teach them the best that he could. But one boy, an apprentice, turned against him and destroyed it all. Luke felt responsible, and he...he walked away from everything."

"And what happened to the people who turned against him?" Rey demands. "Did they—did you ever find them? Who are they?"

"They...well, they teamed up." Solo chuckles, but it's without any humor. "The man went by many names back then, but he's become pretty famous by another one now. Snoke. And the boy…the boy's name was Ben, but now he goes by Kylo Ren."

Finn feels like he's going to fall over from shock. Kylo Ren, the man that worships the ashes of the Galactic Empire, the monster behind the nightmares of numerous Stormtroopers, the man that had killed Lor San Tekka and tortured Jessika Pava, had once been a student of Luke Skywalker, a student of the Light. Kylo Ren had abandoned everything for the call of the Dark Side, had helped Snoke (Supreme Leader Snoke) destroy Luke Skywalker's attempt to foster the next generation of Jedi and increase the power of the First Order. Kriffing hell. Had that been why General Organa had asked about him? Had she known him?

"Kylo Ren is—that monster was Luke Skywalker's student?" Rey says, the same shock that Finn feels ravaging his system coloring her voice. Solo nods. Finn notices that he doesn't deny the title that Rey had given Kylo Ren and wonders if there's more to the story that Solo isn't telling them. "I—he—what happened to Luke?"

"There's lots of rumors, stories. The people who knew him best—we think he went looking for the first Jedi temple. But no one knows for sure." The solemn mood they've found themselves in is interrupted by a wailing alarm, and Solo swears under his breath. He heads for the control station, toggling some switches while BB-8 turns off the holographic map, and then turns back around to them. "We're almost out of fuel. Not critically, but we definitely don't have enough to get you to where you need to go."

Damn it. "So what do we do?"

"We'll go to Takodana," Solo says, and Chewbacca makes a noise of agreement. "I've got an old friend there that'll let us dock and refuel. She'll help get your droid home."

Rey's brows furrow. "What about your freighter? Are you just going to leave it out in the open?"

"No big deal." Both Finn and Rey start asking questions at the same time, and Solo holds up his hand to stem the flow of their words. "Look, let's just say that I'm a bit of a fugitive right now too." The crooked grin that he gives them had probably been irresistible when he'd been about fifty years younger. "The Guavian Death Gang knows I've got that freighter—they saw it before I lost them near Nantoon—and if they find it out in the open...well, the rathtars I've been hauling ought to be a pretty good surprise for 'em."

"Rathtars?" Finn feels like he's going to faint. He remembers all too well the history lessons about the Trillia Massacre—even Nines had been cowed by the description of the beasts. "You're hauling rathtars?"

"Three of them."

"What's a rathtar?" Finn hurriedly explains it to her, and her jaw drops. "How did you get three of them on your freighter?"

"I used to have a bigger crew." Finn can't tell whether Solo is joking or not and doesn't want to ask. "But they're in their cages now, and believe me, they're better off being someone else's problem than ours." Well, he can't argue with that. "Chewie, let's go. You two—what're your names?"

"Finn."

"Rey."

Solo's expression doesn't change, but Finn notices that his eyes widen a fraction of an inch when Rey introduces herself; almost like he's hearing something familiar for the first time in years. "Finn and Rey, you two stay here with your droid. We'll let you know when we land."


He and Rey don't end up staying in the lounge for very long; the alarms had started wailing mere minutes after the Millennium Falcon had jumped into hyperspace and Rey had raced to the cockpit to try and fix whatever modifications Unkar Plutt had made to the ship since Solo had lost it. Finn had helped in any way he could, and even Solo seems impressed when Rey manages to somehow fix the hyperdrive by ripping the compressor out of the wall.

Takodana appears before them when the Falcon drops out of hyperspace, flecked with rolling green hills, small seas and brightly reflective lakes. After nearly a week on Jakku, Finn thinks that it's the most beautiful planet he's ever seen. Rey seems to agree. "I didn't know there was this much green in the whole galaxy," she says quietly, staring almost hungrily out the window, her hands clutching the back of Solo's seat.

Finn is suddenly reminded that Jakku is all that Rey remembers, all that she has ever known, and swallows around the lump in his throat, unable to speak. Solo seems to be lost for words too, instead focusing on landing the Falcon near a picturesque lake and a castle that looks to be hundreds of years old at least. They're surrounded by dozens of other freighters—some, Finn notices with a growing, fearful cold, seeming like they could have come from First Order-allied planets. What if he gets recognized by someone? He knows the punishment for desertion, and by his calculations it's been more than enough time for Captain Phasma and the First Order to put a bounty on his head.

Rey leaves the ship first with BB-8 and Chewbacca, leaving Finn alone with Solo, who's bent over a storage box and digging through a veritable graveyard of old weapons. Deciding that there's no time like the present, he clears his throat awkwardly. "Hey, Solo, I'm not sure what we're walking into here—"

Solo turns around, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Did you just call me 'Solo'?"

"Sorry. Uh, Han. Mr. Solo?" No, that's definitely not right, but he doesn't have time to figure out the appropriate thing to call the man before him. "Listen, you should know that I'm a big deal in the Resistance. Which puts a real target on my back. Are there any conspirators here? First Order sympathizers?"

Solo gives him a once-over that makes Finn feel like the man can see right through him. "Listen, Big Deal," he says, "you've got another problem. Women always figure out the truth." As if to punctuate the point, he hands Finn a blaster that looks like it hasn't been fired in years. "Always."

Rising, Solo moves past him, heading for the exitway, and eventually Finn follows him—even though his guilt over not having told Rey the truth threatens to strangle him. He hopes that whoever this friend of Solo's is, they can help him and Rey get BB-8 back to D'Qar without any further difficulties. Then I swear I'll tell Rey everything. Even if she never wants to speak to me again, she deserves to know that I'm not who I say I am.

Once Solo is satisfied that the Falcon isn't in need of any dire repairs, he leads Rey, Finn, and BB-8 toward the castle in the distance; Chewbacca had volunteered to stay behind to attend to a number of minor fixes. Finn notices that Solo had given Rey a blaster as well and wonders just what the helmet they're going to be dealing with here. "Solo," he says, and Solo gives a grunt of acknowledgement. "Why are we here again?"

"To get your droid on a clean ship."

Rey jumps on that before Finn can. "Clean?"

"Yeah, clean. D'you think it was luck that Chewie and I found the Falcon? If we could find it on our scanners then the First Order can't be far behind." Oh helmet, he hadn't even considered that. Solo gestures to the walls in front of them, decorated with colored flags representing numerous planets (some more battered than others). "This is the best watering hole in the galaxy. Want to get BB-8 to the Resistance without being spotted? Maz Kanata's our best bet."

Finn holsters his blaster at his side, noticing Rey doing the same. "We can trust her, right?"

"Relax, kid. She's run this place for a thousand years." That doesn't exactly instill Finn with confidence, but he's willing to at least give her the benefit of the doubt. Anyone who runs an establishment like this has to be tough as nails. "Maz is a bit of an acquired taste, so let me do the talking. And, uh, whatever you do, don't stare."

Finn and Rey reply almost at the same time. "At what?"

"Any of it."

The entrance hall is more crowder, louder, and messier than anything that Finn has ever seen. Music blares from an alien band squashed in the corner, and a plethora of rough-looking humans, humanoids and aliens occupy every available square inch of the room, gambling, drinking, scheming, negotiating, arguing, and fighting. Solo leads the way, pushing through the crowd until he comes to a sudden halt, causing BB-8 to crash into the back of his legs.

"HAAAAAAN SOLO!"

The noise vanishes from the room as everyone turns to look at the source of the commotion. Finn fights the urge to facepalm (so much for staying under the radar) as a tiny, four foot tall alien wearing large adjustable goggles makes her way toward them, murder in her eyes. Waving awkwardly and wearing an expression that suggests he'd rather be anywhere else, Solo says, "Hey Maz!"

Apparently sensing that this isn't going to turn into a fight, everyone goes back to what they'd been doing before. Maz stares up at Solo, obviously unimpressed. "Where's my boyfriend?"

Thankfully Solo understands what she means because Finn sure as helmet doesn't. "Chewie's working on the Falcon."

Maz nods thoughtfully. "I like that Wookiee." After she tilts her head at him and Rey, like she's noticing them for the first time, she turns back to Solo with her arms crossed over her chest in a businesslike manner. "Well, Han, I assume you need something. Desperately." She nods again without waiting for Solo to confirm or deny it. "Let's get to it."

She walks off, gesturing for them to follow her. After exchanging confused glances with each other, Finn and Rey and BB-8 do so. They end up in a quieter corner of the castle, sitting down at a table groaning under the weight of many bowls of colorful fruits and vegetables. Rey sits down immediately, Finn taking the seat right beside her and BB-8 on the floor next to them. Solo stays standing until Maz tells him to sit down, and even then he does so reluctantly.

Maz listens to all three of them explain their situation in between bites of food—Force, he's never been happier to eat something other than one of Unkar Plutt's portions in his life—and doesn't speak until they're finished. "A map to Skywalker," she says, shaking her head. "You're right back into the mess, aren't you."

Solo doesn't respond to her jibe, fond though it had been. "Maz, I need you to get this droid to Leia."

"Hmmm." Maz taps her chin for a moment as though she's weighing her options. "No." Finn wants to throw his hands in the air in exasperation; can't anything go their way? "You've been running away from this fight for too long."

Solo averts his eyes from Maz. "Leia doesn't want to see me."

"Who can blame her?" Maz clasps her hands together. "Han, nyakee nago wadda. Go home!"

Thankfully, Rey interjects before the conversation can escalate into another argument that they don't have time for. "What fight?"

"The fight against the Dark Side," Maz replies, her gaze and bearing solemn. "Through the ages, I've seen evil take many forms. The Sith. The Empire. Today, it is the First Order. Their shadow is spreading across the galaxy. We must face them. Fight them. All of us."

Finn's mind goes to his choice to defect from the First Order, to cast away everything he's ever known in order to get BB-8 and the map to D'Qar. To Rey's choice of leaving Jakku (however briefly) to help him complete his mission. He knows that all of that had taken bravery—more than he had thought he had on his part—but once they get the droid back to the Resistance, what will happen next? Will he have the courage to fight against the First Order, knowing better than almost anything how ruthless they are?

Maz is speaking again, and he makes an effort to tune in. "If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people. In the girl, I see the eyes of a survivor." She then makes eye contact with Finn, and he is startled when he notices that she has adjusted her goggles so that her eyes are far larger than normal. "In the boy, I see the eyes of a warrior."

Finn is so stunned that he can't form words, least of all the words to explain that that observation couldn't be true. He understands how Maz had seen the eyes of a survivor in Rey—even if that doesn't come close to encapsulating who Rey really is—but a warrior? She'd seen a warrior in him, a former Stormtrooper spy who still hadn't told Rey the truth? "I'm not." He's on his feet before he can stop himself, guilt over the untold truth churning in his stomach. "No, I...that's not—I need some air."

Maz points to a nearby door, and Finn walks as fast as he can, taking large gulps of air once he gets outside and forcing himself to get a grip and calm down. He hears footsteps behind him and straightens up just as Rey appears next to him. "Are you alright?"

He could wave her off and say that he's fine, but he knows that if he doesn't tell her the truth now then he never will. "I'm not who you think I am."

"What?" Rey searches his face like she's trying to figure out whether he's joking or if he's lost his mind. "Finn—"

"I'm not Resistance, Rey. No, I am Resistance, but I wasn't always Resistance. I'm not a hero; I'm not a warrior, not in any way."

She's shaking her head, clearly not understanding what he's trying to say. "Finn, what're you talking about? You are Resistance, you said you're part of a squadron with Poe Dameron and Jessika Pava and all of those other people. You risked everything to save BB-8, you—I've watched you, I've seen you in action—"

"I know—all of that's true, I was on a team with them, I worked to save BB-8, I did all of that but it wasn't for the reason that you think. I—I'm a Stormtrooper, Rey." Words that had been kept secret for so long bubble to the surface. "Like all of them, I was taken from a family I'll never know. And raised to do one thing…" His voice breaks. "I was given a mission from Captain Phasma, my commanding officer, to infiltrate the Resistance so they could take it down from the inside. I pretended to defect and crash-landed on D'Qar. I became a part of Black Squadron and I reported back to the First Order through a communication device in my wristband."

Her eyes flicker to his wrist like she's just now noticing that he hasn't had it since they left the planet, and he presses on.

"They wanted me to get the map to Luke Skywalker. I'd started questioning everything when I was there, wondering if the Resistance was really all that bad, but it wasn't until I crashed here and Poe died that I started really thinking about going against the First Order. And then...then I ran into you. And you looked at me like no one ever had. I was ashamed of what I was. I communicated with Captain Phasma this morning, right before we left, telling her to her face that I was done with the First Order, that I was going to get BB-8 and the map to the Resistance. That's why they started attacking us on Jakku; they were after me." He looks down at his feet. "I wanted to tell you the truth for ages, but I just...couldn't. I'm sorry."

It's hard to tell how much time passes once he's done speaking. Days. Years. Several small eternities. Rey doesn't move, and Finn can't do anything but wait for the inevitable fallout. Then, "You were a Stormtrooper."

"Yes."

"And now...now you're not. You defected."

He swallows, nodding once. "Yes."

No, this pause lasts for eternities. The universe expands, collapses, and bursts outward again.

"Finn, I…" Here it comes. She's going to tell me that she never wants to see me again. She's going to ask if our relationship is a lie too. She's going to throw me off the roof of the castle. "How could you think that that doesn't make you a hero?"

He looks up at her, barely daring to hope he'd heard correctly. "What?"

"You defected from the First Order to save BB-8 and give the map to the Resistance. That makes you a hero in my book." She says it like it's as obvious of a fact as a Trooper's armor being white, and relief hits him so hard that his knees nearly give out. She's not mad at him for keeping this from her. She thinks that he's a hero. "Finn, I don't care that you were a Stormtrooper. All I care about is who you are now."

The elation tearing through him causes a small laugh to bubble up and escape his lips. There's a thousand things that he wants to say right now, but none of them are able to encompass how he feels. Instead, he reaches for Rey's hand and she meets him halfway, squeezing hard. "Thanks, Rey."

Her response is quiet but the sincerity in her words makes something in him ache. "Anytime, Finn."