Notes: For the Finn Week prompt - Spiritual Courage

Ghosts of the Jedi

Finn's never really been fond of ghost stories.

Back when he was just a cadet, being put through the First Order's child brainwashing campaign, the cadets would gather together in the barracks sometimes, telling spooky stories about ghosts. Troopers who came home from battle minus their bodies, old battlefields where the spirits of clone troopers were as likely to be friend as they were foe... and the creepiest of them all were stories of Sith Lords that never truly died, merely jumped from one vessel to the next for all of time.

When Kylo Ren joined up with his Knights of Ren, word was that he was possessed by Darth Vader or that Darth Vader's spirit skulked in his shadow.

Since he'd always had an active imagination, this sort of thing always freaked Finn right out. But of course, he could always soothe himself with the fact that ghosts weren't real.

At least, until Leia insisted that Jedi's spirits lingered in the Force and Finn's next step in his training was to reach out to these spirits for guidance.

Spirits? Sounded like a fancy word for ghosts. And ghosts were scary. Terrifying. Something to be stayed the hell away from.

Finn did not want to be seeing ghosts.

Yet, at the same time... he kind of did?

It was just... the whole idea was fantastic, wasn't it? The Jedi across all of history, helping each other in ways not even death could stop. The Jedi of today could reach out to the Jedi of yesteryear and those Jedi long dead could reach back. There was something oddly poetic about it.

Which left Finn at a sticking point. His fear was holding him back from something amazing.

And, unfortunately, no amount of trying to meditate was helping him this time.

So one evening Finn went off on his own. Not far from the camp, still well within the perimeter sensors, but far enough away that he could be alone. He just... he just needed to think. Work this out in his head on his own.

And Finn isn't sure quite how long he'd been sitting behind the storage building when the older gentleman walked into view.

"You seem frustrated by something. Perhaps I can help."

Finn jumped and toppled over, falling off the empty storage box with a thud and a yelp.

"Are you alright, young man?"

"Fine!" Finn grimaced at how high pitched his voice sounded. "Just... startled me a bit." Finn scrambled to his feet and quickly realized he did not recognize the older man. But there were certainly plenty of people in the Resistance, coming and going at all hours it seemed, that the lack of recognition wasn't surprising. "Uh. Hi. It's nice to meet you."

"Ben Kenobi," the man said, holding out a hand in friendly greeting. "And you?"

"Finn. Just, uh... just Finn. No surname." He shook the man's hand, which was still weird. Troopers didn't do those kind of niceties. They saluted upon being introduced to someone new.

Handshakes were meant to show that two people were greeting each other either unarmed or at least with weapons stowed away. Troopers were never unarmed.

"Ah, yes, the young man who defected from the First Order. Quite brave of you to escape that life. And to choose to follow your friends back here," Ben offered.

Finn felt heat crawl up his neck. "I don't really feel all that brave, to be honest. I was just scared of the First Order. Of what they wanted of me. The kind of person they wanted me to be."

"Bravery is not the lack of fear. It is choosing what is right in spite of that fear." Ben gave him a kind look. "You joined the Resistance, despite knowing it would mean continuing to fight the First Order. Despite knowing first hand what they're capable of and being afraid, you have chosen to fight for those who can't anyway. That seems quite brave to me."

"Thank you." Finn sighed. "I don't suppose you know anything about ghosts, do you?"

Ben chuckled in amusement. "A few things."

"Yeah, well ghosts scare me," Finn said. "And now I'm supposed to learn to talk to them."

"How's that?" Ben came over and settled down on a box near Finn, so Finn returned to the perch he'd previously fallen off of.

"Ah, well, I've got the Force or the Force has me or both or whatever. Which means I can learn to speak to the spirits of the Jedi who came before me. A lost art resurrected right as the Jedi Order itself fell." Finn sighed. "But everything I've heard about ghosts is always scary stuff. Lost souls on battlefields and Sith monsters waiting to devour us in the dark. If Jedi ghosts are real, then what about all the scary ones too?"

Ben hummed thoughtfully and Finn squirmed guiltily.

"I'm sorry to just dump that all on you, Ben," Finn said quietly.

"Well, no doubt if the Jedi can live on in the Force, then so too can the Sith," Ben surmised. "And don't you worry about me, Finn. I like a good ghost story. But the Force is about balance and acceptance. Tilt too far in one direction and a swing around to the other is inevitable. The Jedi... I think perhaps the Jedi lost a great deal of their teachings by the time the Order fell. But what was lost can be found. And what has fallen can get back up.

"I've heard tales of Jedi who helped even the ghosts of the Sith back into the light. And I suspect the spirits of the dead have only the power you are willing to give them. Look at me, I'm practically solid."

Finn choked and jumped back... and fell off his box again. "What?!"

"Oh, well... Ben Kenobi was the name I went by later in life. Before the Order fell, I was known as Obi-Wan Kenobi. A general in the Clone Wars and known as a great negotiator." He smiled and then flickered, solidness giving way to a ghostly, see-through shade of blue. "I was trying to set you at ease, Padawan. Not so scary, though. Am I?"

"Owww," Finn grumbled, standing back up. Again.

"Scary? No. Annoying? Yes." Finn huffed. "So are you doing this or..."

"A little of column A and column B. I can choose who to appear to and speak to. But you must be receptive enough to see and hear me. It's an entirely new way of thinking that usually takes Jedi a long time to learn. But, despite your fears, you've become so used to change that adjusting your way of thinking came naturally to you. I suspect young Rey will struggle with this a while longer. She feels adrift and is struggling to know who she is. Yet you, despite years of having people strip your identity from you over and over again, have never been more sure of who you are. Luke's and Leia's choices in Padawans could not possibly suit them better." Ben - or Obi-Wan - looked proud.

"I want to become a Jedi Healer," Finn said quietly after a moment. "But I also want to reach my fellow storm troopers and show them there's a better life waiting for them if they leave the First Order. I'm... not so good with words, though."

"And then perhaps that is why your mind seemed to call to me so strongly. A negotiator must be quite talented with words, after all." Ben - and it was, admittedly, hard to think of this kind faced man as a Jedi General - stood and placed an ethereal hand upon Finn's shoulder. "But first I must help you learn to believe in yourself. In your courage and strength. Because your words must convey that to those you left behind. If you can lend them your strength and convictions, then I foresee many troopers following you away from the First Order and a revolution that could bring the true leader of the First Order out of the shadows and into the light where he can finally be fought... and stopped.

"If you will let me teach you, it would be my honor, Padawan Finn."

Ben wasn't wrong. Finn did know who he was for the first time in a long time. He might not know who his parents were or the name they might have given him. But he was Finn of the Resistance. He was Finn whose spirit the First Order couldn't break. He was Finn the Jedi Padawan. He was Finn who saw the universe's pain and wished to heal it.

"And it would be my honor for you to teach me," Finn replied.