Finn Solbourne is a Jedi, and the Jedi had many rules.

There were rules about peace and knowledge and serenity. There were rules about how and when to attack (only to protect and defend, never as an offense). There were rules about their respect for life, for the Force itself. Once, there were enough rules to outnumber the stars in the galaxy, enough rules to be crushed by.

But not anymore. After years of studying the Jedi texts on Ahch-To, Luke Skywalker came to the conclusion that the Jedi Order's abundance of rules had brought on their downfall, and now the rules of the Jedi are far and few in between, more of a code than a strict requirement. The Jedi serve as a balance between the Light and the Dark Sides of the Force. Use the Force however you must to survive in battle, but delve too deeply and you will drown in darkness. Attachments aren't a weakness; they're a strength. There is no try, only do. Believe and you will succeed. The Force belongs to all.

Unfortunately for him, anyway. If the Force didn't belong to all, he wouldn't be running now.

The forest passes by him in a blur of green and brown, his boots pounding against the dirt as he urges himself to run even faster. Every breath burns his lungs, and his heart hammers against his ribs. He can tell he's being followed, even if he can't see his pursuer, and knows he can't stop now.

He bursts into a clearing and grabs the staff slung over his back — just in time too, because a blur jumps out of the woods with a staff in hand and brings it down right on his head. He blocks the attack with his staff and strikes back, though his own attack is parried in the nick of time. They whirl around each other, striking and parrying, and whatever move Finn puts forward, it's easily blocked. They're evenly matched — too evenly matched. Time to bring the Force into this.

Closing his eyes and reaching out to the pile of boulders in the distance, he yanks them forward, and they hurtle directly in front of his attacker — who jumps on one, then another, and then another, summoning a tree branch to her with the Force and throwing it at him like a javelin. He grabs it out of the air and swings it at her knees, sending her to the ground for the briefest of seconds before she jackknifes back up and swings her staff at him, whistling through the air—

CRACK.

He'd swung at her at the same time, and both of their staffs break in half, the pieces falling to the ground with a surprisingly loud thud. For a moment, all either of them can do is stare. Then, quick as lightning, she summons the sharper end to her hand with the Force just as he grabs his own piece from the ground, and she tackles him, sending them both sprawling to the ground. She's on top of him, her knees bracketing his hips, the sharp end pointed at his throat, and Finn's got his own end pointed up at hers. It's a stalemate.

The sound of slow applause makes their heads snap to the side, where Luke Skywalker himself is approaching them, 3PO and R2 at his side. "Well done," he says, smiling. "Both of you. That's a new record."

R2 beeps, and 3PO glares down at him, looking about as scandalized as his metal face will allow. "Their battle deserves a higher rating than a five out of ten, R2," the droid hisses. Finn has to laugh.

"No offense taken," he says. "I bet he's seen his fair share of more exciting ones than that."

R2 beeps again as if to say damn straight, and Rey giggles as she pushes herself off Finn. She offers a hand to him once she's standing, and he accepts it. Once he's on his feet too, she pulls off the helmet that Luke insisted she wear, and he does the same, taking a long breath. Fresh air. Much better. "Nice thinking with the rocks," she says, smiling. A breeze ruffles her short hair, and she tucks her choppy Padawan braid behind her ear. "You almost had me."

"You almost had me with that tree branch back there," he returns, grinning back. "Thought I was going to get shish kebabed."

"That'd set a bad precedent, don't you think?" Rey says, but she's still smiling when she kisses him on the cheek. Just once, just briefly. Luke is nice enough to look the other way. Considering the amount of times he's walked in on them in the last six months — in their room on base, in the Falcon, even in the forest here — even a kiss on the cheek is enough to make Rey's father uncomfortable these days.

"It was an excellent match," Luke says. R2 makes a noise that might be a scoff, and 3PO mutters a scandalized honestly, R2 under his breath. "You've improved at manipulating the Force around you, and at making do with…well, less exciting weapons," he finishes. Rey, who had wielded a staff for years on Jakku, purses her lips. "And making do with, perhaps, less exciting circumstances."

Now it's Finn's turn to purse his lips. He exchanges a wordless look with Rey, who's clearly thinking the same thing as him. He knows his Jedi training is important, and he likes the work. But while he and Rey have been sparring with nothing but staffs and shields and their wits, the Resistance has been hard at work battling the First Order face to face. Liberating work camps, gathering intel on the Last Resort, searching for more weapons for their ever-dwindling supply. We could be out there fighting with Poe and the others, he thinks bitterly, if only Luke would trust us.

"It's not a question of trust," Luke says, like he'd read Finn's mind. He probably had. "I trust you both implicitly. But I can't risk you going out there, not with the inevitable battle on the horizon. Not when I have yet to teach you everything you need to know to face him."

"Kylo Ren," Rey says, her lip curled. Luke nods. "But how will we ever be ready to face him if you don't let us go and fight in the real world? He won't be facing us with wooden staff, Master."

"No," Luke agrees. "He'll be facing you with his lightsaber." A small smile crosses his face. "Just as you will face him with yours."

Rey perks up. Finn grins. "Wait, do you mean—"

"Yes," Luke says. "You will be able to craft your own, just as I once crafted mine. But only when the time is right."

Rey's shoulders slump. Finn's grin vanishes. "But how will we know when the time is right?"

"You'll know," Luke says. "I promise." His smile disappears too, replaced by something more serious. "Come on. Let's go through this one more time. Helmets on."

Finn puts a hand on Rey's shoulder as they turn back to the forest, ready to run through the drill again. "Hey," he says. "A little practice never killed anyone, right?"

Rey frowns. "I know," she says. "But there's got to be more we can do than just sit around. I'd give anything to be out there fighting now with the others."

Finn sighs. "Yeah," he says quietly. "Me too."

Located on the edge of the Outer Rims, Kes Shiba is near empty of life but full to bursting with jungles: smooth-trunked trees with few branches, black and spongy earth obscured by tangles of vines with colorful blossoms. The sun's hot and bright above them, and the air is heavy with moisture, and Poe gets the feeling that he'll never really be dry here.

That's alright. He can handle it. Black Squadron's mission had come straight from General Organa herself: they'd arrived late last night and hiked through miles of jungle to reach the largest prisoner of war camp in First Order territory. Sequestered here are political prisoners, Troopers who'd attempted to defect, captured rebels, the whole nine yards. The area stretches out for miles, its borders protected by heavily armed Stormtroopers and fences humming with electricity and a powerful force field over their heads. And now they've got to get in and out with all the prisoners in one piece.

Poe peeks around the corner of the barracks once more before retreating just as fast. They'd stolen Stormtrooper armor to better infiltrate the place, and every time Poe catches a glimpse of himself decked out in beetle-shell white armor, he fights the urge to shiver. (Or he would if he weren't so damned hot — his shirt is damp and stuck to the back of his neck from sweat.) He turns to the others and grins, even though they can't see under the helmet. "I think we're good to go."

Slip, apparently, does not share his views. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Do you?" Zeroes says tersely. "Because you've only mentioned that eleven times since we got here."

"And yet we've gotten through every bad feeling unscathed," Poe says. "I think it's just tradition for him to voice it at this point."

He can almost hear Zeroes's eye roll. Even so, the last six months have taught him enough about the former Stormtrooper that he's pretty sure Zeroes is more nervous than he is actually irritated. "Think what you'd like, flyboy," he says. Poe swears there's a smile in his voice somewhere. "Are the others in position?"

"Yep," comes Rose's voice through their comms. Poe pictures her in his mind's eye: about a mile from the camp, her hair in a loose ponytail as she crouches over the EMP device she'd spent a month working on. Paige, Oddy, and L'ulo are with her, and Snap, Karé, and Pava are waiting for them in the Falcon. "We're all ready when you are, Black Leader."

Poe exhales. "Yeah," he says. "I'm ready. Let's go for it."

They walk in unison into the center of the camp, each step in sync. He had to practice for weeks just for this moment; according to Slip and Zeroes, Poe's manner of walking, swinging his arms, even talking would give him away as a rebel in less than a second. Thus all the training that, thank the Force, seems to be paying off.

"Left foot then right," Zeroes hisses, and Poe hastily follows suit. Casually, Slip breaks free of their group and swipes a device from a nearby Trooper's belt.

They stop in the center of camp and gather together around the device. "Four buttons," Slip says, and Poe is reminded of Rose's lecture on the topic. "One to free the prisoners, one to send an alert to high command, one to shut off the force field, and one for the fence."

Rose has the last two buttons taken care of with her EMP device, and a red alert is the last thing they need right now, so all they've got to do is figure out which one opens all the barrack doors. The ones that control the fence and force field are silver; the other two are gold, and utterly interchangeable. "Which one's which?"

"Gotta be this one," Zeroes says. "Less oil on the button, it's never been touched."

"What if it was designed specifically like that so no one would know which was which?" Slip whispers. "Maybe it's this one."

"We don't have time to play the hypotheticals game, Slip, we gotta—"

"Hey!" All three of their heads snap up at the sight of a senior Trooper (decked out in silver armor instead of white) approaching, their arms crossed over their chest. "There are no junior personnel authorized in this squadron — what're you doing, standing around? Where's your section leader?"

"Right here," Poe says brightly, and punches the officer in the face with all of the strength he has. The officer crumples to the ground, and Slip hits the gold button he'd been talking about earlier. There's a loud screeching, scraping sound as all the metal doors slide up; one by one, prisoners start to poke their heads out of the barracks, bewildered yet hopeful all at once. "Rose, do it now!"

"Working on it, hang on—"

"What do you mean you're working on it?" Slip looks ready to swear as more Troopers start to charge at them, weapons in hand. Poe grabs his blaster out of his holster and shoots the Trooper in the front before they even reach him and the others; Zeroes and Slip quickly do the same. "Isn't that thing solar-powered?"

"Yeah, it just needs to warm up, give it two seconds!"

Zeroes blows his stack. "Warm up?! The sun needs to warm up?!"

"Yes, okay, it's almost done, it's — YES! Got it!"

A flash of white spreads across the sky, and for just a moment, the world bursts into a dazzling blue light. Poe's ears pop and the hair on the back of his neck prickles; he shuts his eyes tight and locks his knees to keep himself upright. When he opens them, he's treated to an impossible sight. More than half of the Troopers who were nearest to the fence on the ground, twitching or dead from electric shock. All of the prisoners spilling into the center of camp, out of the barracks that are now on fire. More Troopers spilling out from the edges of the area to meet them. The force field, gone, revealing a pure blue sky and a white-hot sun. But the fence is still humming with electricity. They're trapped.

"Rose, we need the fence off too!"

"Uh," Rose says, which is not altogether a reassuring response. "About that…"

"Apparently the fence was operating on a frequency that the EMP device was unable to reach," comes L'ulo's voice, smooth and confident. If Poe listens closely, he can hear Paige and Oddy swearing like spice traders in the background. "We are currently working on getting it down as well."

"No," Poe says, his mind racing. "That's okay. Get to the rendezvous. We've got this."

"Uh," Slip says. Zeroes is occupied with blasting enemy Troopers away with his stolen Z6 Riot Control Baton; Slip's got his back, so Poe tries not to look over at him too much. He's got his own enemy combatants to worry about. "We do?"

"Yep," Poe says. He switches comms frequencies and says, "Snap, we need a liftoff and fast."

"Roger that, Black Leader. We're en route."

With that, Poe tosses his spare blaster to the nearest prisoner — a tall Twi'lek man in his late fifties — and joins the fray. Luckily Rose's attack took care of the strongest Troopers; the ones that are left aren't as good, or maybe they're just dealing with shell shock. None of them seem interested in throwing off their helmets and joining the rebel cause, like several Troopers had from the other camps that have been liberated; apparently Kes Shiban Troopers don't know about the story of FN-2187 or the Finalizer revolt. Either that or, sadly, they just don't give a shit.

Poe sweeps a little girl behind him and Zeroes blasters an enemy Trooper in the head right before they can attack Poe. Slip's rounding up all of the prisoners now into the center of the camp, now that almost all of the enemy Troopers are dead or incapacitated. There are alarms shrieking, cutting through the air like knives, but Poe knows that whatever backup is in place will arrive long after they all get the hell out of dodge.

The Millennium Falcon sweeps into the clearing and swoops down, landing with a thud that sends Poe to his knees. It's just large enough to fit in the circle of the camp without getting disabled by the still-electrocuted fence, and Poe thanks the Force for small miracles. He wrenches off his helmet and whistles. "Everyone inside, now!"

The prisoners don't need to be told twice. They stampede into the ship, running as fast as they can from the remaining Troopers, and Poe, Zeroes, and Slip jump in after them. The ramp rises, and so does the ship — slowly, carefully. Not at all how Poe would fly, but Pava and Karé are the ones flying tonight.

"Poe!" Rose throws her arms around him once she gets close enough to him — not an easy task, seeing as the ship is crowded to the gills with people. There's hardly any room to breathe, let alone move two inches one way or another. "I'm so sorry about that, I thought for sure the frequencies would be the same…"

"It's okay," Poe assures her. "The First Order wouldn't be the First Order if they didn't have a trick up their sleeves."

"We're lucky we've got someone as smart as you to outsmart them," Slip says, blushing pink at the words and at the sight of Rose, who flushes at the compliment. Poe looks over at Paige, who gives a fond eye roll. A slightly hypocritical fond eye roll, considering the depth of Paige's crush on Kaydel Ko Connix (which she still hasn't acted on, much to the dismay of the betting pool), but a fond one nonetheless. Not that Poe can judge — Rose and Slip and Paige weren't the only ones around here who were head over heels in love with someone but were too scared to act on it.

Still, Poe thinks bitterly as Zeroes grants Rose one of his rare smiles and pats her on the back, congratulating her on a mission well done. At least the odds are in their favor. He's so far out of my league we might as well be on opposite ends of the Outer Rims.

"Poe." He looks up to see Snap approaching him, his expression grave. "We've got incoming."

Twenty seconds later, Poe, Zeroes, Slip, Rose, Paige, Oddy, and L'ulo are in the cockpit with Karé, Pava, and Snap. Pava points at the recently-built radar screen, which shows enemy aircraft rapidly approaching. "We've gotta lose them before we head back to D'Qar," Pava says. Her voice has a slight tremor, and Karé takes Pava's hand, brings it to her mouth and kisses it. "Any ideas?"

"Just one," Poe says. "Get down and share the gunner system. I'll shake them off our tail."

Slip frowns. "How? We're going to be in empty space for at least fifty light-years."

"I'll take 'em through the asteroid belt on the edge of the atmosphere before I push the ship into hyperspace," Poe says. "Just like our training days, remember?"

Oddy goes slightly green. "Yes," he says stiffly. "That is a flight path that I do not remember all that fondly, Poe. I think I threw up six times."

"Then let's make a new memory," Poe says easily. "Everybody strap in, and tell the prisoners to grab hold of something."

The cockpit empties half capacity, leaving Poe alone with Slip, Zeroes, Rose, and Paige, who have all obediently strapped themselves in. Poe pulls the controls back sharply, and the ship ascends from the jungle just as more enemy ships hurtle towards them. The sky goes bluer and bluer before going inky black as they exit the atmosphere. He can see the greyish asteroids already.

Despite everything, Poe grins. "I've always wanted to fly this thing."

When Maz Kanata told her after the Battle of Starkiller Base that Takodana would be rebuilt within the month, Leia had privately thought the older alien was crazy. But now more than six months have passed, and Maz's castle looks like it has been standing on the planet for hundreds of years. There's virtually no indication that the place had been destroyed at all (except maybe the newness of the furniture) and all in all, Leia's happy Maz was able to rebuild so fast. Not only because Maz is her friend, but because her castle is the perfect place for a war council to meet — or for Artorian refugees to father.

"I can't thank you enough for what you've done for my people," Velle Amaty Solbourne tells Maz, who waves off the thanks like a bad smell. Ffion Lapara, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to the Senior Senator and Finn's godmother, nods enthusiastically. "We will find some way to repay you in time."

"Ah, payment, that elusive thing," Maz says with a smile. "Consider my help free, my dear child, as long as we eventually win this bloody war." She sits down at the table with Leia, Lieutenant Connix, and Chewie, all of whom had chosen to accompany Velle and Ffion to greet the refugees and gather more information about the horrible Last Resort. "And how are your plans coming along, General?"

"They're coming along," Leia says. "Commander Dameron's returning with the prisoners from Kes Shiba, Cobalt Squadron's gathering intel again, and Luke's been training Finn and Rey nonstop." She rests her chin in her hands and gives a sigh. "What we really need is more manpower, more weapons. More time in the day. I cannot ask my best soldiers to be everywhere at once."

"Weapons we can manage without. Until we get more manpower, we're stuck," Velle says glumly. "We can't do more than go on the defensive, and we can't liberate any of the planets directly affected by the First Order's Last Resort."

Chewie groans an affirmative, and Maz pats him on the hand. It's actually rather sweet to see them together — even if Leia knows that Han would be pretending to retch if he were here to witness this display. Pushing aside her near-permanent heartache, Leia says, "We need your assistance, Maz. What do you think the next step for us should be?"

Before Maz can speak, the door swings open, revealing a cloaked, shadowy figure. On the shorter size, lean and lithe, but no less dangerous, as evidenced by the energy bow strapped to their back. Leia can't see the person's face; they're wearing a rust-colored helmet that reminds Leia of the time she impersonated the bounty hunter Boushh on Tatooine.

The person comes to a halt right in front of Leia's table. Ffion reaches for her pistol and Kaydel reaches for her knife, but Leia puts up a hand. Whatever this is — whatever this person wants, she can handle it. And if not, well, there's a reason that she'd taken the other seat next to Chewie. How had that saying gone, the one that Wedge Antilles had come up with? Never fuck with a rebel or an angry Wookiee.

Leia stands up slowly. The person before her is only a few inches taller than her; she's pleased that she doesn't have to crane her neck. "What do you want?"

"General Organa," the person says. Their voice is low, almost mechanical-sounding; clearly it has been altered by the helmet. "Years ago, you served with my father in the Galactic Civil War. Now, he begs you to forgive him for his inaction in this most desperate hour, and offers his full cooperation and aid to the Resistance in your time of need."

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Ffion and Velle exchange confused looks. Leia just arches her eyebrows. "What sort of aid does he have in mind?"

"Weapons." The person shrugs one shoulder. Leia can almost imagine the crooked smile curving their mouth beneath the helmet. "Ships. Manpower. Intel. The usual."

Leia tries not to smile. "And is that the end of his message?"

"It isn't," the person says. "But something tells me that you're tired of the Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope jokes by now."

"That I am." Leia doesn't hold back her smile now. "It's good to see you again, Jannah."

Jannah Calrissian-Aboderin takes off her helmet and casts back her hood, revealing a mess of dark curls, bright eyes, and a mischievous grin. "Hello, Auntie Leia," she says. "It's good to see you too."

A note, before we continue:

I have not seen, nor do I plan on seeing, The Rise of Skywalker. Just like with Rose and Paige's characters in this series, I have taken liberties with Jannah's characterization, and given her another backstory as Lando's daughter. Any resemblance to the plot, settings, or dialogue featured in TROS is entirely coincidental.

Anyways: to my new readers, welcome! To my old readers, welcome back! We've got a big storm coming, and I'm so excited to finally get to share this fic with you all.

Stay tuned for Chapter II, in which Kylo Ren travels to Artorias, Finn and Rey touch base with Black Squadron, and Leia reunites with an old friend. And someone dies.