Chapter 22 – Fuel for Change

Luke set out two more meditation pillows in his space, before he sat down on one of the three and sought to clear his mind. In several minutes he was interrupted by a knock on the door. He opened the door and as expected found Rey and Ben standing outside. "Come in, come in. Since we're going to be having these classes regularly, I, uh, found us some extra cushions."

Rey smiled and proceeded to sit down on one of the cushions. "Thank you. Come on Ben. This is a lot more comfortable than the floor."

Ben stood there staring at Luke with the same hard cold look he'd had since arriving on D'Qar.

Luke gestured to Ben with an open hand towards Rey. "I actually thought we would begin with a little talk. Um… I heard you were asking some questions about your connection, and Han tried to explain it to you." Rey looked down in thought. Ben took the seat next to Rey, his face looked up to Luke with curiosity. "But Han's explanations, I imagine, left much to be desired, and I didn't want to leave it at that." Luke sat down on his cushion, facing the two of them.

Rey looked up with curiosity and nervousness. "I-I saw Ben, and talked to him, even though he wasn't in the room with me… How?"

Luke nodded. "Ben, did your mom ever tell you the story about our escape from Bespin?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Dad was encased in carbonite. You came in to heroically save them, and survived a fight with Granddad Vader." The annoyance was thick in Ben's voice.

"That was the day I found out he was my father, and the day I lost my hand… My intentions aside, it wasn't very heroic. I barely survived that encounter. To end it I jumped down an exhaust pipe and was left hanging on for dear life on a weather vane. In that moment I don't know how I did it, but I managed to tap into the bond I shared with your mother and she heard me. Then she came back and she saved my life." Luke gave his nephew a pointed look.

"She heard you! Is that what we did? Can every force-user do that?" Rey rattled off her questions.

Luke shook his head. "No, not every force-user can do that. It requires somewhat of a Force-bond first. Now, Leia and I didn't know it at the time, but we are twins. And my old Master Yoda's said it isn't uncommon for twins to possess a special bond, even when they were separated at birth. Because of this it was one of the only exceptions made for Jedi of the old order, which usually forbade initiates from seeing their families and forming attachments."

Luke sighed. "But I digress. You and Ben are not twins, and your bond is a lot stronger than what has been seen, even in Master Yoda's lifetime. Your grandfather believes that you are a Dyad. A special connection in the force that has immense power, if you can learn to use it together."

"But… Why us?" Rey asked.

"At least we understand why Dad gave you the sex talk when you brought this up." Ben gave her an amused smile. He felt softer then. His force presence was lighter. Luke supposed Ben was relieved to have his family finally give him an honest explanation to something. Luke figured it was long overdue.

"I don't know why you two. My father's force-ghost claims he learned of it when you were younger. He tracked you down, Rey, when you were a youngling and sought to protect you from, uh, negative influences. And he's been rather insistent that we introduce you two now. I will be training you together, to help you get a handle on this -thing. Other than that, whatever is between you, it's yours to define. I won't stick my head where it doesn't belong." Luke felt his face heat slightly.

Knock… Knock… Knock…

"Who's that?" Rey asked.

Luke got up and went to the door. Ben followed him and was almost right behind him when he got to the door.

On the other side of the door was a young blond haired assistant who worked for Leia. "Luke, Ben." she greeted them. "There is a team expected back from a mission in a little while. General Leia requests your presence. She says they've…" she slowed down to be sure she said exactly what she was told to say. "…made an interesting acquisition from the First Order, and she could use both of you there."

Luke nodded, and she nodded back, then disappeared the way she'd come. Luke turned to Ben, who looked back at Rey. She gave him an approving smile, and he turned back to Luke.

"Alright, after you." Ben approved, and motioned Luke out the door.

Earlier that day:

"Okay guys, ready to go in five." Poe Dameron's voice called out from the cockpit.

Finn grabbed his blaster and almost panicked when he couldn't find his helmet. That's right, you don't need a helmet. This isn't the First Order, and you aren't FN-2187 anymore. You're Finn! Finn stepped over to the ramp and prepared to jump out of the ship when it breached the satellite's defenses.

"They'll have three or four troopers stationed there to defend the place." Finn had told the Resistance. "Other than that there's only a single blaster cannon, that can easily be taken out with a good laser cannon, and a shoddy low wattage energy shield over the hanger bay doors." Poe had proposed they use an old stealth cruiser they had from the old republic's clone war days, because it'd be strong enough to tow the fuel tank back to base, and able to slip through the First Order System without garnering unwanted attention. Their men only needed to detach the fuel tank, so it could be grabbed by the tractor beam, and to make sure no one stationed there called in for reinforcements. Not that a tiny base like this would be a priority to reinforce, Finn thought.

"I've always wanted to fly the old stealth cruisers," Poe practically sung after they'd gotten approval for their plan. Finn just rolled his eyes. He didn't think he'd ever understand what made Poe so excited about an outdated ship.

Finn jumped out of the ship in the hanger and looked around him for enemy combatants. His instincts told him no one was approaching, but he looked anyways. To his left there was a large ship parked in the bay. Finn stopped a moment looking at it wondering, Where have I seen that before?

Poe walked up behind him and named it. "Acclamator-class assault ship, Imperial Era, by the looks of it. What's up?"

"Nothing, I thought it looked familiar. We're good to go. No one's coming."

Poe gestured to the team and someone up ahead forced the doors to open. They held their blasters up ready to fire as they went through this doorway. "Finn where's the communications?" Poe asked.

"This way." Finn motioned. "That way is the fuel tank's attachment terminal."

Poe nodded, then signaled his men to go. Half the team turned to go detach the fuel tank, while half turned with Finn and Poe to go deactivate communications.

When they got to the door, Finn felt tight. His instincts were telling him something was wrong. He stopped Poe, and stepped ahead of them. Finn didn't relish the thought of shooting another stormtrooper, but after deciding to stay with and to help the resistance, he knew it'd be a possibility. And Finn also knew that if it came to it, any stormtrooper would shoot him without a second thought. It's what they were trained to do. Taking a deep breath, Finn opened the door.

On the other side of the door, a red-haired familiar general stood with his arms up. Beside him stood an even more familiar silver armor.

"We surrender," said Hux. He turned a chair around to reveal an already bound and gagged trooper. "In fact, we wish to join you."

"What's going on?" Poe burst through the door.

Finn looked down and noticed Hux's uniform was missing it's patches indicating rank. "He wants to defect."

"The communications terminal has already been deactivated." Hux supplied.

Poe looked up at him, then brought his blaster down and fired it at the machine. "Now it's been deactivated." Hux flinched. "What's that?"

"An old TX-11 handheld Blaster Cannon from the days of the empire." Hux answered. Poe's eyes went glassy, like he was looking at candy. "A part of my personal collection." He and Poe stepped aside to examine more pieces of Hux's collection in that room.

Phasma walked up to Finn. "FN-2187?"

"It's Finn now. Why do you want to leave the First Order?"

"Loyalty." Phasma stepped closer to Finn. "You left before starkiller was sabotaged and the reactor exploded."

Finns eyes went wide. "Exploded! Kylo said that he… Oh my!"

"After that happened Hux was stripped of rank and brought in for penalization by the Supreme Leader. I managed to pull him from one of the prison transports. Then we came here."

"You risked that all- for him?" Finn asked.

"For loyalty. A principle I apparently failed to teach you." the disdain in her voice was clear.

Finn rolled his eyes. "I'm loyal to what really matters. To my friends. Not to the First Order."

"Then it appears to be something we have in common." Phasma stated.

"Come on Finn, everybody, we're leaving now." Poe had several items from Hux's collection over his shoulders, and two of their men were pushing a larger cannon on a wheeled cart.

In the hallway they met up with the other half of their team, who confirmed the fuel tank was prepared to be disengaged when their tractorbeam latched onto it.

In the hanger, Finn stepped up to Poe. "I don't know about this."

"What do you mean? Oh them. I didn't expect you to be prejudiced."

"It's just. They're first order." Finn explained. Poe gave him a blank stare. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"We don't get deserters joining our ranks every day. This is…" Poe stopped short.

Bang!

Finn and Poe both turned to their men who were pushing the canon into the hanger.

"What was that!" Poe ran over.

"I slipped," one of their men said. "It went off."

"Clearly your men need more training with handling this type of weaponry," said Phasma.

"Is anyone hurt?" Poe asked. Everyone shook their heads. Poe breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright lets get it onboard." Then he looked over at their ship and he went white.

There was a burning hole in it. Poe ran up to the ship, his mouth open. "No, no, no, no!" He opened the ship to smoke from an interior fire. He immediately began ordering his men to start repairs.

Hux stepped up from behind Finn. An amused expression was on his face. "We could always take my ship."

"That old imperial assault ship. I doubt it has a strong enough tractor beam. We'll need to tow the fuel tank back to base," Poe dismissed.

"It can tow your mamma! She may have been junk when I inherited her, but I updated the systems myself. It has a very good tractor beam." Hux replied. Poe glared at him. Finn didn't understand why either man was getting so upset.

"Sir, it's doubtful. Maybe if we got her back to base, but with what we have here, I don't think she'll fly again." One of their men stepped out of the ship and updated Poe.

"Alright then." Poe sighed, and Hux smiled.

Present:

By the time they'd made it to the hanger Ben had passed Luke. His long legs made for quick strides and Luke got the feeling he was holding back just enough for him to follow. When they got to the Hanger, Luke saw the expression on Ben's face first. His eyebrow crinkled with confusion and his mouth puckered with disgust.

Luke stepped passed him to see the Acclamator landed in the Hanger. Luke's pulse quickened. His hand went over his lightsaber, and he thought he heard the muffled sounds of battle around him.

"What is this!" Ben stormed to where Leia was having a discussion. "These things have trackers. You can't just…"

"Kylo Ren… Well if it isn't." The ever proud red-head stalked over. "You don't have to worry about trackers. She's one of my own. From my late father's personal collection before that.."

"It's Ben." Kylo corrected, and everyone turned to him with their mouths hanging open a bit. This brought Luke back to the present. It was the last thing he expected his nephew to say. "The name's Ben."

"Ben, happy to meet you." The red-haired man's lips curled slightly.

Luke noticed the team that had returned from the mission standing around, watching this unfold. His attention was drawn to the man standing beside Commander Dameron. Luke walked around to stand beside him, and whispered, "What's your name?"

"Finn." He seemed confused as to why he was being questioned.

"Finn what?" Luke inquired.

"Nothing. It's just Finn," he replied.

Luke nodded, and stepped up to where his nephew looked ready to explode. Or was that his normal look now. Luke had trouble telling sometimes.

"Leia, what's going on here?" Luke asked.

"There mission was to bring back a tank of Malastarian Fuel, and the original vessel we sent them out with." Behind him Luke heard Commander Dameron shuffle. "Instead they bring back this thing, along with two potential new recruits. Luke, I'd like your and Ben's help evaluating them," Leia explained.

The red-head Ben had been talking to shifted nervously. Luke sensed he knew from personal experience what a dark-sider could do to get information.

At this moment a figure in a silver stormtrooper armor stepped in front of him. "Evaluate me first, sir." Her voice was female.

"Captain Phasma?" Ben said in disbelief.

"Yes, though I don't know if I hold the rank anymore," she answered.

"You know these people, Ben?" Luke questioned.

"He's the general..." Ben started.

"Former," the redhead interrupted.

"…responsible for building a third death star." Luke looked at Ben with abject horror, which made Ben append his statement. "Sabotaged. It was sabotaged before I left."

"As I said, Former. That stunt you pulled got me stripped of rank." The redhead sounded annoyed.

"I said it was sabotaged, not that I sabotaged it." Ben turned to him to glare for a second before looking back and continuing. "His name is Armitage Hux. And Phasma was the captain responsible for training the stormtrooper units. He…" Ben pointed to Finn. "trained under her and can likely tell you more."

Luke nodded. That explained Finn Nothing. Kidnapped at birth and trained to fight. Luke got a sick feeling. The more he learned about the First Order, the more he wanted to throw up.

"Very well, Phasma, you can take off your helmet," Luke started.

"No." Phasma's reply was strong and hard. Luke could sense fear behind it.

"Are you a stormtrooper or a captain?" Luke questioned. "I wasn't aware they let troopers advance in rank as you've done."

"They don't. The armor is my choice, and I will keep it on."

"Very well," Luke repeated, and he could sense she calmed a bit. "What do you know about the Force?" he questioned.

This surprised her, until she found her answer. "Power."

Luke supposed that wasn't a good answer, but then from someone who comes from the First Order, he wouldn't expect much better. In his early days, post empire, some of his own students gave him much worse for an answer. He turned back towards the Red-haired former general. "Armitage, what do you know about the Force?"

There it was again. Abject fear. "An ancient religion. Claims to give the user super-human powers." Hux sputtered attempting to sound like disdain.

"And have you seen such powers?" As Luke asked, he stepped closer to Hux and put his arm out, attempting to touch the man. Hux squirmed, glancing at Ben, then stepping back away from Luke.

Luke looked at Ben. "Ahh. You fear him. Then say it. Name your fear."

Hux gawked. "I'm not afraid of him."

"Careful. Fear leads to anger, anger to hate, and hate leads to suffering." Behind Luke Ben mouthed the famous quote like a teenager. Perhaps Luke had used it too much, but it was so right. Considering Hux's case, Luke suspected many of the battles had already been lost, and he suspected the man was more closer to hate than fear, but then…

"Okay. I'll teach them." Luke stepped back to his sister and spoke, barely above a whisper.

"What!?" Ben sounded flabbergasted.

Leia cocked her head. You really want to do this? was written on her face.

"I'm giving Jedi classes again. Might as well have more students. Armitage Hux, Phasma, and the one who calls himself Finn. Ben will show you where and when the classes are."

"B-But I can't use the Force!" Finn squawked.

Ben looked back at him. "Actually, you kinda can," he said shyly. Ben sighed. "you had an excellent record as a trooper. Some of those times, I bet it was like an instinct, telling you to fire now, or pacifying you saying no one was comming."

Finn's eyes were open wide. "That was the Force!" to which Luke and Ben both nodded. "No way! This is so cool!"

Hello,

I wrote this in an odd, non-linear way, but I think it is clear enough with my headings. It just felt like it was the best way to put it.

As to what Luke says about Twins and Jedi, It's only loosely based on Canon. I found one reference to a pair of Jedi twins, that according to wookieepedia, worked together. The only reason such a strict order would allow that to even happen would be if they made an exception in their case against the attachment's rule. Otherwise they were kinda forbidden from even meeting their families, from what I understand.

And I do have intentions for bringing Hux and Phasma back into the story. I won't say what they are yet… but rest assured, there are plans. Making Hux and Phasma both Force sensitive is definitely not cannon, but I like it, so I'm gonna go with it. And Finn's force sensitivity is canon, according to what I hear.

And other big news, I did see TROS last week, and it has only solidified what I'm going to do here. I know how I'm going to end it, just got to figure out how to get there.