The Dyad had been getting worried about one of their personal favorite trading partners, Naboo. The New Republic had good relations or ran, in some way, the majority of planets in the inner rim, but Naboo had insisted that they wanted to be a completely independent planet after the Empire had done what it had done. They'd refused to rejoin the senate, but they had, as it were, agreed to provide a nice vacation spot and trade with the Dyad.
The New Republic could have, if they wanted, threatened the constitutional monarchy of Naboo. They could have decided to just cut Naboo completely off from trade. But the truth was that there was a lot of nostalgia and love for the planet. It was seen as an underdog, a poor, put-upon planet that the first Senate had failed, and, sure, the former Queen had stupidly thrown in her lot with an obviously shifty man who'd turned into none other than Emperor Palpatine, but…still…it would have come across as a gigantic, massive government picking on a helpless little one, and the New Republic didn't want to come across that way. They were trying to become everything the Empire wasn't, which meant no tolerating slavery, which meant no cruel bombing campaigns, no disgusting chemical weaponry, and no forcing planets to do what they wanted.
The Empire was all stick. The New Republic wanted to be the carrot. So Naboo was fine with trading with them AND the Dyad, and it meant they got to enjoy a delightfully happy medium that, to, them, was the best of both worlds. The new trade that had flowed into Naboo once the Empire fell meant that the rather behind-the-times Naboo could industrialize a bit more, and gain far greater technological advancement. Their ships would no longer be weak and near-inefficient, their army wasn't primarily just for show anymore, life was good! Their GDP was higher than the average New Republic planet.
It was precisely why Finn and Poe adored spending their time there. At the moment, they were relaxing on top of one of Naboo's many scenic rooftops, just chilling, letting the wind go through their hair as they clinked some brews against one another's, then took a sip. As the wind softly ruffled through their locks, and the sun gently shone over the top of one of a few scattered clouds that lingered in the sky, Finn bit his lip, trying to think of how to say what he wanted.
They loved being on Naboo with their own apprentices, whom they'd been training off-and-on for well over two years now. Over the past six months, they'd decided to be more hands on than ever before and do as much training as possible with their apprentices and their own Sith padawans, having decided to meet the worrisome new Sith Lord Darth Mendax with numbers. The Dyad had thought this was a good idea, this new Sith could maybe take on one or two other Siths, but a whole ARMY? "I'd like to see him top THAT." Darth Raize had insisted before Omarosa had then turned to her and joked that she absolutely would LOVE to "top that" as she looked Rey up and down.
Yeah, Finn and Poe loved being here, it was calm, and the Force flowed freely through many of Naboo's lands. It was relaxing and enjoyable…or at least, it had been. As more time passed, their personal, first apprentices Mahrkz and Engul'z, a Rodian and a Trandoshan respectively, came to feel they should take a more active role in putting an end to the framework that they said infested Naboo. The unjust hierarchy that was there. They'd been inspired by the fact that Rey and Furiosa had launched filthy businessmen out of windows and so-
Well, they'd done the same thing. The owners of the largest weapons factory in Naboo had been forcibly ejected out a window, and the management FOR the factory had all followed him. And then the owner of the largest spaceship developer had "mysteriously" been found dead, quite obviously choked to death despite having no hand marks around her neck.
Naturally, Marhkz and Engul'z had bragged about what they'd done earlier that day TO Finn, Poe and the other Sith, all of them whooping and hollering about sticking it to those disgusting fat cats, and showing them who was boss, but they'd quickly shut up when the police had come calling.
Finn had had to explain to a barely-containing-his-rage Captain Gregor Typho, who really did embody the old guard in the most literal sense, that of COURSE his apprentices hadn't done anything. They'd been here the whole time, training under the Dark Side of the Force, with him and Poe. Finn cringed inwardly at this, he hated lying. Especially to a devoted officer of Naboo's police force who'd been there from the beginning, who'd been a bodyguard to THE Queen Padme Amidala! Poe could see Finn was struggling, so he'd chipped in, and described a very vivid, albeit inaccurate, scene of how they'd been fiddling with their lightsabers and had actually, woops! Cut somebody's fingers off, and had to get them back on, and they'd been doing THAT while Mr. Hal'thrufh had been being choked to death.
Poe couldn't outright mind-control Gregor Typho, the Captain's will was far, far too strong for that, and on top of that, if he DID do that, the police would eventually figure it out. They all knew that he'd gone over there in a huff and a hurry, having him come back mysteriously calm and being all 'Oh, nothing happened'…or not coming back at all…would mean trouble they didn't want. But he could sliiiiightly influence the man to make him more open to what they were saying, though it was taking all of Poe's concentration. Finn really admired how skilled Poe was at charming people over, both with the force, and without, and at last, the Captain left, though he shot a dark look back at Finn.
"You had better hope your "kids" don't cause any real trouble. Naboo's getting tired of being pushed around by people who think they're bigger than them." He'd said.
And now, the two were on the roof, and Finn was finally speaking to Poe after some mindless small talk.
"Poe, listen. The thing is, I…I think we may need to reign in Marhkz and Engul'z. The other apprentices and padawans all follow their lead, and our beloved apprentices are going a bit too far, we've never had the cops coming down on us when the occasional crime lord ended up dead, or when some murderer's body got turned into the police with obvious lightsaber markings all over them…"
"Yeah, I thought for SURE Typho would at least haul us in for questioning after we dropped off that guy…literally right off a roof that one time, to the front door of the police station." Poe admitted. "But he just looked kind of…disappointed in us when he went to speak to us."
"He's just stuck in his ways, he thinks they should be the ones to be tracking folks like them down and bringing them to justice. WE'RE justice too, not just them, but…" Finn cringed. "We don't want the heat and we don't want to alienate the people of Naboo. They like what we do. But they may like us much less if we just let our apprentices do whatever they want."
"Yeah, you may be right. I'll have a talk with Engul'z tomorrow and you can talk to Marhkz. We really do need to firm up a good legacy for our students. I mean, we're not getting any younger." Poe admitted. "I feel so old, and we've only been Sith for…what? Five, six years now?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Finn admitted. "I've been thinking about the future a lot. Thinking about how I want people to remember me. I'm not sure what I want in ten years. What about you?"
"I don't know what I want to do in ten years, but I DO know what I want done with my body." Poe admitted. "You know how the Dyad has that collection of stuffed animals that they've famously killed that tried to attack them? The big one in the basement of their tower?" Poe asked.
"Yeah, they recently added a skootusk." Finn remarked.
"Well…" Poe chuckled. "That's what I want. Stuffed. And I want, if you outlive me, to pop me out and scare the Dyad with my stuffed body every once in a while. Like, Rey can think Furiosa is in bed but NOPE! It's me!"
"That is SO dark, man!" Finn groaned, but he chuckled all the same, shaking his head a little as they noticed the neighbor across the street from them was looking out his window. Finn got an idea, and he inched himself closer to Poe. "I'm really glad we can talk about anything up here, though. It means a lot to me that we're so close."
"Yeah. I wouldn't talk about this sort of thing with anybody else, buddy." Poe said.
"Yeah…me too." Finn said softly, as they leaned in. Closer…closer…lips almost touching…
"Oh FOR!" The neighbor groaned, throwing his hands up in the air, turning away JUST as Finn broke the kiss, Poe laughing, holding his fist in the air.
"YES! I am the KING of "Gay Chicken"!" He proclaimed. They knew their neighbor hated seeing Finn and Poe kissing because he was an old, rotten bigot. They'd been surprised, truth be told, they figured that somebody who looked like he could double as Poe's grandpa would be more open-minded to two men kissing. It'd been decades since gay and bisexual and non-straight marriage had been legalized by the constitutional monarchy after all. But Finn supposed there were some bigots everywhere, even in really nice planets like Naboo.
That night, Finn decided to speak to his Rodanian apprentice Marhkz, who was currently in his room and scribbling down furiously in his journal. Finn silently tiptoed up behind him, looking over his shoulder. Interesting, his apprentice was very into what he was describing as the "Labor Theory of Value"…also, based on the stuff drawn in the margins, pictures of women's boobs. Big, gigantic, enormous breasts, Finn rolling his eyes.
Truth be told he'd kinda, sorta been hoping his own apprentice would be gay the way Poe's was. He'd liked to have been able to connect on that level. It was nice to have a padawan who shared your views in more ways than one, a kind of "Mini You" that you could shape into, perhaps, one day, a BETTER you, but…ah well, Marhkz was a great Sith when he really put his mind to it. So he stepped back and cleared his throat, as Marhkz looked up from his journal.
"We need to talk. I know that you and Engul'z want to really stick it to the big business around here, but after what happened today with Captain Typho, Poe and I have decided we need to lie low." He confessed as Marhkz frowned.
"But if we have the power to do something, why shouldn't we?" He inquired.
"We don't want to go so far that we alienate the people of Naboo."
"Oh please, those stupid cops aren't the people. The average person trusts us, so that should be all that matters. Not any authority figures." Marhkz reasoned. "You go out on the street. Interview anybody. They'd say they trust us more than their own cops, I'll bet you a thousand New Republic credits on that."
"Sir…" Engul'z, meanwhile, nervously looked up at Poe, then glanced down at his feet as Poe spoke to him in the next room over. "Uh, I have a confession to make, I was…sort of spying in on you on the roof, when you were with Master Finn. Why don't you go next door and just sort out that disgusting anti-gay freak next door?" The trandoshan inquired. "Cut off his hand or something for being so bigoted?"
"I hate that guy's guts, but I can't just go around hurting people because they don't like the fact I'm gay." Poe admitted. "I mean, sometimes I wanna slug them, but I can't just go around cutting people's arms and legs off just because they hold bigoted, out of date views. For one, the cops would definitely not be okay with that. And two, I don't care what those assholes think. They're beneath me. I'm a fuckin' SITH." He said, pointing at himself. "I'm the one with the real power. All they can do is grumble and grouse. They can bitch about me all the want, but they know I'M thhise one making things actually happening here on Naboo, me and my people. WE'RE the ones who make this galaxy better, and they're just left to think about if what they do makes the SLIGHTEST of difference in the world." Poe said with a big smirk. "They're not worth it."
"I guess that's one way to look at it. I never thought of it before." Engul'z confessed, the trandoshan scratching his scaly head as Poe gave him a comforting grin and held up his fist for a fist bump.
"We don't need to worry about his type. Now, you should get some rest. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to teach all of you how to do Force Lightning. Maybe Finn will FINALLY be able to do it this time."
"It's true? He's never done Force Lightning?" Engul'z chuckled. "Oh, how embarrassing, sir."
"Hey, don't laugh, nobody in this entire building is a better lightsaber master than Finn. I couldn't hold a candle to him if it came down to that." Poe insisted. "Everyone's good at something. Nobody's good at everything. Except me!"
"I thought you said Finn was a better lightsaber fighter than you."
"Yes. But I'm…average…" Poe sighed. "…still, I don't mind a C plus at that if I've got A pluses in everything else, y'know?"
So Poe left his apprentice behind, sure that he'd imparted a wise lesson onto him. Both of them were sure tomorrow was going to be exciting. A new breakthrough in training! Force Lightning! They couldn't wait.
…
…
…
… "What…the…fuck."
Poe stared in shock. The man next door, the guy who'd kept groaning and muttering bigoted stuff about him and Finn had been forcibly launched out of his window and was now impaled on a street lamp outside. He and Finn had left their home on Naboo early for a nice morning jog around the neighborhood and now they'd found THIS.
"…we…we gotta do something." Finn groaned, clutching his head. "Oh shit, oh shit oh SHIT, man! We…we gotta go to the cops!"
"They'll KNOW one of us did it, we can't do that. We need to hide the body." Poe reasoned, as he used the Force to hover the man's body off the lamp, and quickly brought it inside their home, setting it down. "Finn, clean up all the blood. I'll dispose of the body." He said as he got out his lightsaber. He might not be the best with it, but even HE could carve up a dead man without an issue into enough pieces that you could never find them all.
"This is awful. This is just…we TOLD them, we TOLD them not to go this far!" Finn murmured as he quickly got hold of a bucket, water and cleaning materials, racing outside, scrubbing away all of the blood from under the lamp, and on the lamp, quickly as he could, working in a frenzy, unaware that somebody ELSE had gone out for a morning jog around the neighborhood, and had seen everything…but for now, was staying…quiet…
That day, Finn and Poe fully intended to have a TALK with both their apprentices. But AFTER they tried to teach everyone a bit about Force Lightning. They decided to practice on the outskirts of the largest farm in Naboo, owned by a woman named Veshtae, a woman who had short-cut hair and blue eyes which she always kept behind large glasses. She was quietly watching them, wearing her normal nice, fancy-looking robes of white as Poe was showing off how to make sparks in your hand, Finn realizing she'd been staring for a while, deciding to approach the olive-skinned woman.
"How's it going?" He cheerily asked, extending a hand. She took it, shaking quickly before she hesitated, then spoke.
"Look, Master Sith…"
"Just call me Finn, please. We've known each other for over a year now." He told her softly. He wanted people to like him, after all. Having them call him by his first name was a nice, easy way to do that.
"…right, right. Um…Finn…" Veshtae bit her lip. "I've been in some talks with other heads of the community, we're…concerned about the violence that's been happening lately."
"I promise you, we're going to make sure our apprentices and padawans are absolutely not going too far." Finn insisted. "We want to instill proper Sith values."
"…that's kind of what we're afraid of?" Veshtae told him. "Look, Finn. If somebody told you they were an Imperial soldier, trying to make a new Empire but they only believed in, what, HALF of what the Empire believed in…wouldn't you still tell them to get the flying fuck out of here, we don't want you around, we don't trust you not to be psychos? You can't just expect people to trust you after centuries upon centuries of the Sith being the worst sort of people around. It was Sith who destroyed the first Republic after a thousand years of piece, it was a Sith who caused the death of our beloved queen Amidala, it was a Sith who evidently funded the Separatists and LED the Separatists that caused so much conflict here on Naboo, and…and then the Dyad showed up and was like "Hey, we're here" and just expected us to love and trust them because…why? Because they weren't creepy guys in black robes?" Veshtae shrugged. "You can't just wipe away that many centuries of wrongdoing with a few years of somewhat nice behavior. And then when we learn there's real evidence your Sith apprentices have been murdering businessmen here on Naboo…"
"Miss Veshtae, hey!"
Finn cringed as Marhkz came over. Oh no. Marhkz walked over, cheerily waving. "I've actually managed to form some sparks in my hand. Cool, huh?" The Rodian showed off the faint electrical sparks he could make in one hand as he looked at Veshtae. "Say, I've always wanted to ask you…is your farm a cooperative? Like, are there any businesses here on Naboo that are run cooperatively? Not like, the normal way? Cuz, I've been thinking, you employ a LOT of people here, and maybe they'd like a say in how they run this farm."
"Well, if they want a say in how it's run, sure, they can bring that up with me…" Veshtae commented with a shrug. "But they're going to need capitol, they're going to need to be ready for the risk."
"Risk?" Marhkz looked a bit confused, tilting his head to the side. "There's no risk to being a business owner!"
Veshtae groaned and rolled her eyes, shaking her head back and forth. "Yes. Yes there is. It cost me tens of thousands of credits to start this farm, you know. I had to invest a lot of money and time into it. I worked sixty hours a week to get where I am, and it could have all fallen down around me. There's investment risk, employment risk, credit risk, financial risk. People like me have to make sure we're not hiring psychos, that we've got the right equipment, that we have enough capitol to keep the business going, do you think I'm just some fat cat sitting on a big pile of money every day?"
Marhkz hesitated. "Well, uh…I don't…I don't think so, no…" He stammered. "But it's not like you invested ALL your money into this, right?"
"I invested most of it. Over 80,000 credits to buy the acres and equipment I needed and workers to help manage it all." She told him coldly. "Does it sound like that was "fun" for me? Do you think every worker wants that?"
"Well, in a worker cooperative economy, why would you need to rely on an investment?" Marhkz asked.
"You HAVE to buy into it. That's what MAKES it a cooperative." Veshtae insisted. "You're getting an ownership in the company and you need to buy that share. If you don't help MAKE the bread, you don't get to help EAT the bread. Cooperatives have people invest a little of their own money, every single one, so that there's stakes. If there's no stakes, then if the business failed, they don't really lose much compared to the way a regular business owner would. Because the regular worker could just find a new job, hard as that is. But I'D have to start from scratch all over, and hire more people again, and find a new place. I have much more to lose."
"Well, I mean…" Marhkz now looked uncomfortable. "I mean…like, we should just do it the same way common citizens own the government. A NATION'S like a co-op, kinda."
"But common citizens don't own the government, we've got a constitutional monarchy. And we can't just sell bits of the government off." Veshtae remarked. "I mean, you couldn't, say, sell off a colony to pay off a country's national debt. Nobody would be okay with that and that'd be super illegal, too. That anology doesn't work at all. We don't all work in the government, we're not paid the profits on everything the government does, and we don't even choose every single person who works in the government. I mean, I don't get to personally choose, say, who runs the Health administration."
"I just think it'd be better for the workers, that's all." Marhkz said at last with a shrug, walking off as Finn cringed a bit.
"Sorry, he's just really passionate about workers rights and all that, his family was always poor, so he's been very focused on economic justice."
"I can understand that, but he's economically illiterate." Veshtae sighed. "Passion isn't intelligence." She added as she left Finn alone, as he cringed, then headed back over to Poe, who waved cheerily at him.
"Okay, today, I am DETERMINED to get you to shoot a lightning bolt." Poe insisted. "Here. We're aiming at those rocks." He gestured over at a large pile of rocks that he'd set up and Finn held out his hand, looking at the rocks. "Now, remember, you need to tap into your negative emotions, your frustration, your anger, your rage, your-"
And that was when it happened. Finn had kept thinking about his apprentice, about what Veshtae had said, about what had happened to the man next door and he felt something new. A real, dark, horrible sense of absolute "GOD I WANNA STRANGLE YOU" frustration at his apprentice Marhkz. He wanted to just grab the Rodian by his vest and shake him and yell "You stupid moron, I could wring your neck, stop flying off the handle and throwing people out of windows" and then-
KRAKKA-THRAA-KOOOOOSH! Hot, powerful lightning shot forth, a singular bolt that made the rocks scatter and snap, breaking apart as the apprentices whooped and hollered, and Markhz gave his master a high five…or rather, looked like he was ABOUT to, before he saw there were still sparks in Finn's hand. "Okay, no high five…" He remarked as Poe gave Finn a big bear hug.
"Ha-ha! Now THAT'S how you do it, buddy! What'd you tap into?"
"…pure frustration." Finn remarked. "…and it worked. Who knew…"
"Well, I did. Because I'm…?"
"Amazing. You're amazing. With especially amazing hair." Poe chuckled as Finn broke the bear hug.
"Hey, you could get your hair to look just as good as mine. I've got this really good mousse recipe…I'll teach you it. If I can get you to shoot lightning, I can get your hair as stylish as mine is."
…
…
…
… "Wait, you're WHAT?!"
The Dyad couldn't believe what they were hearing. Ms. Veshtae and a host of other businesspeople were sitting alongside the current, lovely, dark-skinned, black-haired queen of Naboo, as Captain Typho finished handing her a manilla folder. She'd been reading over it as the meeting had started, and when she'd finished, she'd made her pronouncement. Naboo was no longer going to trade with the Dyad. Finn and Poe were standing off to the side, nervously looking from the holographic image of Rey and Furiosa, who looked equal parts surprised, furious and stunned.
"We've had enough. We're not going to do business with you anymore." The Queen, Naira, insisted. Captain Typho's done a full investigation. We've got evidence your apprentices have committed multiple murders. They've killed important businessmen here in the capitol. They murdered a random old man just yesterday. They don't work in conjunction with our police officers, they think they're above the law. From now on, you are no longer allowed to live here or do business with us."
"So a couple of fat cats and people forcing folks into wage slavery cack it, so what?" Rey asked.
Queen Naira looked positively disgusted. "You don't CARE they broke the law and MURDERED people just because you think they DESERVED it?"
"I think YOUR apprentices deserve to be killed because they murdered people in cold blood, by your logic, I should be allowed to kill them." Captain Typho snapped angrily. "And if they come back to this planet, I will!"
"Why would we keep doing business with you, no matter how rich you are, when we don't trust you to not have us thrown out a window? The New Republic is offering us a nice deal. They'll let us do what we want and they won't try to kill us if we anger them." Veshtae commented. "We don't have to worry about somebody coming to kill us because they don't like our labor practices. And for the record, paying people a salary is literally the opposite of slavery. Slaves don't get paid. Or health benefits. Or vacations!" She added.
"And when you killed them, you shut down the places they owned. Getting rid of all the managerial staff and those that ran them meant nobody was running those businesses. Thousands of people lost their jobs." Another businessman remarked. "2352 to be exact. Which means hundreds of families now can't support themselves because the people that paid them to do their jobs are gone. Did you think the heads of those places and the managers and supervisors just sat around picking their nose all day? We have to work a lot harder than you could ever imagine!"
"We're not going to do business with people who think we're less than human, who would be prone to murdering us randomly, and who, on top of ALL of that, are Sith. You keep saying you're not like the Empire, and then you keep proving how much you are by doing the same sort of thing a Sith would. Because a JEDI wouldn't just launch somebody out a window because he's mad I pay somebody 15.50 credits an hour instead of 20." Veshtae told Rey.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Furiosa said darkly as she raised her hand up, and SOMEHOW, even though she was a hologram, even though she was LIGHT YEARS away, SOMEHOW Furiosa was choking Vehstae on the spot! Poe gaped in surprise, stunned, scarcely able to believe Furiosa could pull this off, while Finn looked horrified. The others gasped and stared, too terrified to act when suddenly-
"You're a bully. Just like your mother was." Captain Typho spoke up suddenly. "You BOTH deserve to die for what you've done."
Furiosa's visage split into a furious look. She'd been trying to slowly torture Veshtae in front of the others just to force them back into fearful adherence to what she and Rey wanted, but now, upon hearing that, she turned her full brunt onto Typho and with all her might, she shoved him right towards the nearby window, but before she could fully force him out, the connection was broken. The hologram inducer was blown apart as a flash of light filled the air and then…
Nothing. Furiosa angrily cursed, kicking at the floor. "If they want to fuck with us, I'll show them what happens. We'll bring our BOOT down on their neck and hear their dying gasps!"
Meanwhile, Poe had JUST caught Captain Typho in time to keep him from going out the window…
…fully. Unfortunately while Finn had just managed to destroy the hologram inducer in time, poor Captain Typho was clearly badly injured. Poe carefully hovered him back in, looking the poor man over. He'd endured some horrible wounds from shattering through the glass halfway, large chunks had slid into his body, and he was barely alive. Medics were racing in as Poe cringed, stepping back, wishing he had the power of the Light side and could heal the way…
…the way a Jedi could.
"Queen Naira, we're…" Finn began to say as her mouth became a aut line.
"Not. One. Word." She told him coldly. "Out. All of you. You, your padawans, your apprentices, every last trace of you, OUT. You have twenty four hours. I'm only giving you that because of what you just did."
"…I understand." Finn quietly murmured, nodding his head, as he and Poe headed out the door, Finn putting his hands in his pockets. "…Poe…let's head to the roof one last time."
"…yeah, I…I think I'd like a beer on the roof one final time too." He admitted. "We can get the kids to load up all our stuff onto our big shuttle." He told Poe as he put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, what you did with that force lightning, it…it was really brave." He sheepishly admitted. "I don't know if I could have had the courage to do that."
"I just…I just acted." Finn said. "It just seemed wrong."
"…yeah, I'm…I'm beginning to feel that way about how they act more and more, honestly." Poe confessed. "But…I mean, we owe them everything. They've saved us time and time again. Shouldn't that count for something?"
"…it should. But…but I don't know if it does. Not anymore." Finn whispered. "…not…not when you keep crossing those lines. I told Markhz. We need people to trust us. The more we act like…like THAT…the less they will. And the less safe places we'll have. And the more they'll hate us."
"Yeah, and I know it's important that people like you, man. I know that." Poe said. "But I think you'll feel a little better after a beer on the roof."
"Yeah." Finn sighed. "…a little."
