Finn looked out the window of the library and noticed it was dark out. Time had gone so quickly. He got up and began to put his books back. He had been trying to study the history of the Old Jedi, but with little luck. He was too worried about Rey to be able to focus a lot on his studies. She had been acting strangely ever since they got back from Dantooine, and she had been worse since they found out Palpatine was alive. He knew it had something to do with her connection to Kylo Ren, but even the most powerful force bonds could be severed, especially with help from outside sources, dark, light or gray. Something or someone seemed to be reconnecting them, and many suspected it was Palpatine. Whatever it was, Rey was losing sleep trying to keep Kylo out of her mind and it was beginning to show. Training and studying with her was becoming difficult, as she was constantly drowsy and irritable, the latter of which intensified whenever she lost a training match or answered a question wrong. This ended up leading to many screaming matches with other Padawans. Everyone knew it wasn't completely her fault, but being yelled at for something insignificant isn't something most let go. Finn and Atton were some of the few she would still willingly spar, but Atton had left the Academy with a few of the masters to get the material for his lightsaber around two months ago, so he was pretty much the only one she would spar with at the moment. He also wasn't sure how much longer the three of them would be able to train together.
"We need to find Palpatine soon." he thought. The search for Palpatine so far was filled with a lot of dead ends, but they had reliable intellegence that he was on Exogul. Unfortunently they were unable to chart a course there as the only maps on how to get there were lost or destroyed. Finn suspected Atton's holodisc must have carried a clue, as there was no reason why so many of the masters had to go with him to find lightsaber components. Still, a clue is a clue, so they needed to investigate it no matter what.
As he left the library and started his journey back to his dorm, he thought about what this meant. According to the Jedi Masters, he was on the path to becoming a Jedi Sentinel, while Rey was to be a Jedi Guardian. He wasn't sure which path Atton would take, but he got the feeling he would be training with him. Still, unlike Atton, neither he nor Rey had trained to be a Jedi, so they would need to learn more about what Sentinel and Guardians entail. Both had just recently learned all three classes had subsets they could choose to follow after training in their respective one. There wasn't time for them to train for these specializations now, but after the war, if they were successful in defeating the First Order and Palpatine, they could train in their chosen subset. Rey wasn't sure which subset she wanted to be, but Finn had given it some thought. He decided, after all this was over, he would be a Jedi Watchman. If the Resistance won, the remnants of the First Order would go into hiding, and he wanted to stop them before they stole more children and rebuilt.
As he walked back, he thought about what he read and couldn't help but notice similarities between the Old Jedi and The First Order. Children would be taken from their homes to learn how to become soldiers in wars that may or may not come. Both forbid attachments and would punish those who broke the rules severely. Finn thought about the current Jedi or "Gray Jedi". Unlike with the First Order, he was finally given a choice to fight, and his decision would have been respected. They were allowed to laugh, to cry, to feel. Families weren't alienated, and people could form attachments. Finn had spent his entire life training to be a soldier, and now he ended up continuing it, but this was different. They had things worth fighting for, and ways to find his family. He wanted to know who he was stolen from, if they were still alive, if they missed him, if they still wanted him.
He remembered back to his childhood in the First Order. The countless hours doing drills, being scolded for laughing, and more. The First Order demanded conformity, which was something he couldn't give. Not all the children they abducted were Stormtrooper material, and those who weren't tended to be weeded out early and killed. If Slip had survived his first mission he would have suffered the same fate sooner or later. He was saddened at the thought of it. His only friend from the First Order was destined to die, and it happened to be by Poe's hand. The irony was not lost on him. His reason for rebelling had died because of the man he ended up rescuing, just as Nines had died because of him. His squad may not have treated him the best, but they were the closest things to brothers he had. As he lay down on his bed, he thought of the other remaining Stormtroopers and wondered what became of them.
There had been quite a few Stormtrooper rebellions, though not all of them were successful. The most common rebellions were the kind where one would speak out and either the entire squad executed them or half would join the defector and it tore itself apart. The ones that succeeded involved the entire squad rebelling together, or quietly defected at the first opportunity. Faking deaths or just walking away were the most common forms of individuals defecting, though in one case a Stormtrooper broke out a prisoner, stole a Tie Fighter, crashed on Jakku then joined the Resistance. On the other hand, when entire squads rebelled, there was little they could do about it. The odd Stormtrooper defecting in most cases was manageable to the First Order, as there was not a lot they could do. Entire units rebelling on the other hand caused more trouble for them. They had used countless resources in order to train them, and training children took years they no longer had. Something was different though, there were more rebellions in the past few years than the First Order had claimed. He didn't feel it before, but he could now. Many Stormtroopers were questioning their ideology for various reasons. This pleased Finn, and he smiled as he drifted to sleep.