"Can you stop doing that?"
Finn's leg stopped its anxious twitching-more like an insistent shaking-when Poe hissed in his ear and delivered a forceful tap against his shoulder. It hurt, enough for him to grasp the abused area and glare gently at his co-general, but he couldn't find it in him to protest right then. Yet. "I'm sorry if I'm not exactly in a relaxed state of mind." Finn mumbled sarcastically, eyes cast out across the room to the door that served as an interrogation room on one of the First Order's ships. Rather the "New Order" as Hux had put it.
The two sat side by side, their arms splayed out across a metal tabletop. Admittedly, his back had started aching from the uncomfortableness of it at least an hour ago, and he thought that he was owed the opportunity to indulge in his quirks if he couldn't necessarily go anywhere else.
"Yeah, well, you're being distracting. I'm trying to think." Poe quipped in return, but was noticeably fidgeting himself, or maybe the occasional shifting in his chair was merely because his ass hurt as much as Finn's.
Distracting, but Finn had said nothing. So, he'd been the one staring rather intently, twitched his fingers underneath the table to no avail when he tried to convince Hux against his will to leave them alone and go back to wherever the First Order or New Order found themselves after the war?
You are going to leave this place and never return.
It hadn't worked before the two were promptly escorted onto the ship for questioning, and he silently cursed the Force for not working when he actually needed it to.
If that was how the Force worked.
Either way, they were finally out of options and all Finn knew to do was to not panic. He could ignore whatever he used to cope if they were picking who was allowed to do what whereas their joint leadership was concerned. Had it been him, they would've had the extra help with Ren and Rey around, but then again, that also put them out in the open and likely delivered straight into Hux's hands.
Kicking them out had most definitely not been the best move to make, but it worked out if they put themselves somewhere safe far away from Crait. Maybe Finn would even find it in him to thank Poe for that.
Then he quickly changed his mind.
The entrance door hissed open, the holographic scanner beeping green in confirmation before Hux appeared on the other side. His back was visible against the mirror that likely served as a one-way window that led into another room for curious onlookers, or their intelligence taking notes.
He hovered over their table, arms folded behind his back in some strange show of authority while he leveled them with one sweeping stare. They watched him in anticipation, raised eyebrows, curious stares of their own. He said nothing at first, pulling out the chair across from them, lowering himself into it. The flaps of his jacket folded to the side and he straightened them out, leaning forward with his fingers clasped in front of him. His brows took on an arch, gaze drawn and piercing.
It phased neither of them.
"Where is Kylo Ren?" Hux repeated for the umpteenth time that evening.
Finn's lips parted and his breath hitched to make up some sort of excuse or a lie. Never in his brief history with the resistance and an even longer history with the First Order would he have stood up for Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo, but he was with Rey-a fact that he was still coming to terms with-and if they found his trail, that would lead them to Rey too.
Poe beat him to it, alarmingly nonchalant while lounging against his chair. His knuckles collided with the tabletop with one loud and resounding tap. "Dead. Last we heard."
Hux curled his lip, eyeing the pair critically. "Is that right?" He leaned forward, fingers intertwined in front of him.
Poe shrugged, his arms folded across his chest.
Finn glanced sideways and copied the motion, chewing at his lower lip. "That's right." He agreed.
"And am I right to assume that your Jakku scum was responsible for that?"
"Her name is Rey ." Finn spit, his temper flaring. "And she killed him. I saw it myself."
"I would tell you to go check if you don't believe us, but I can't imagine there's much left to find underwater." Poe scoffed, eyes rolling to the side.
"Yes, of course." Hux's chin swayed with his words, a grim smile flitting over his face that was the almost exact definition of condescending. He didn't believe them, but they weren't exactly trying to sound convincing either.
Finn was just surprised that Poe hadn't taken the opportunity to sell Ren out, unless he had the same idea regarding the third to their trio-no offense to Rose-despite what had happened on Crait, or rather what they had assumed had happened and he still didn't completely believe.
They didn't know where they went but a quick check of the Falcon's logs would at least give them a general direction or a basic coordinate-or they could just radio and ask.
If they wanted to be civil about it.
"We intercepted a transmission." Hux reached into the flap of his jacket, a folder tossed across the table between them. He flipped it open with precision, meaningless babble typed out in a few pages, mostly a one-sided conversation. "Your scavenger has taken off with the New Order's priority. I want him found."
"Why ?" Poe bit back a laugh, but his cocky smile was enough of an indicator as to his thoughts of the situation. It was annoying to Finn enough, no doubt Hux too. "With Kylo Ren out of the picture, you've got the power and title that you've always wanted, right?"
"He is a fugitive." The other man answered simply. "And the New Order will see to it that he gets what he is due."
"You mean that you want to kill him for humiliating you." Finn mumbled under his breath, swiping a finger across his nose and sniffed, ducking his head.
"No !" Hux snapped, a vein protruding from his temple twitching with his defiance. His voice boomed across the empty room, resounding against the walls and making it seem so much bigger than it actually was.
Finn thought that he heard an echo, or maybe he had just said the same statement twice.
"You said that you wanted him to lose. Back when you were an ally if I remember. Well," Poe threw his arms out to the side with a shrug. "He's lost."
"Kylo Ren hasn't lost until the Skywalker bloodline is dead. There needs to be a new order-"
"Hence the name." The pilot nodded in confirmation.
A puff of air released through the commander's nose, his patience thin as he breathed out, only once. "Yes, hence the name. You and the rest of your comrades, Snoke, Kylo Ren underestimated me. You all saw me as something that you could control. Weak, and pathetic. You were all killing each other for pointless reasoning and playing tug of war between yourselves, but that is nothing. I will destroy worlds that do not bow to the New Order!"
"So you're…" One brow furrowed. "Playing dress up as Kylo Ren? I can actually see the resemblance can't you Finn?" Another shove at his shoulder, and he cast a soft glare his way with a subtle shake of his head. A warning.
A gesture that seemed to irritate their captor more. He moved with an inhumane quickness, the chair grinding against the floor and creating a sound that made Finn grit his teeth. His hands came raining down in his sudden fury against the table. It shuddered from the sheer force.
"I am not like Kylo Ren! I did not kill to get in my position! I earned my place as their commander, I have sworn their loyalty!" He spit, practically foaming at the mouth. "Darth Vader wore his mask because he needed it to breathe. Kylo Ren just plays dress-up to hide the faces of rebel scum parents! I am better than Kylo Ren could ever be. I will build a new order rather than chasing a nobody for something as overzealous as feelings ."
There were two things that Finn confirmed at that moment. Hux had most definitely let his newfound position go to his head, and Kylo Ren was most certainly a touchy subject. Poe whistling low beside him only further confirmed the observation.
He straightened into his maintained posture, clearing his throat. The action was taken with practiced restraint and he waved a hand over the intercepted message with more insistence. "Tell me where they've gone."
"We don't know." Poe answered, firm in his tone.
Hux ducked his head to meet his line of sight.
Poe met it, unflinching.
"Tell me where they are !" Overhead, a microphone crackled with the booming demand.
"I. Don't. Know ." Poe hissed between his teeth, leaning forward now even with the supposed new supreme leader in his face.
"They never told us." Finn interjected, jumping to his friend's defense before the situation could escalate. Rather Poe would get annoyed and jump to his habit of blowing things up when he was frustrated. They couldn't afford that, seeing as they were on the ship and had nowhere else to go. Unfortunately, Poe had no one else above him to keep his impulse control in check aside from Finn, and he didn't consider them on the same scale. Not really. "They just left after they blew a hole in our base. You don't believe us, you can go look for yourself."
"You'll find pieces of it. Behind the cave, in the docking bay, the old lookout, hell the new lookout." His companion cut in. "If we knew, believe us we're not dumb enough to stick around. We were actually about to leave before you showed up."
Finn set his elbows on the desk, propping his chin on his intertwined knuckles. His leg was shaking again, but the two men with their eyes locked in a battle of superiority distracted them from mentioning it. Their positions were equally matched.
As was their ego.
"If you refuse to talk, we will have to do this the hard way." Hux leveled Poe with a hardened stare. "Is that really what you want?"
"I have talked. I've been talking all night. I can keep talking, though you're not going to like what comes out of my mouth." He bit back.
"Where is Kylo Ren?"
"Gone."
"Where is he?"
"Probably up your ass. Sounds like the two of you got a long history together that you need to sort out." He met Hux's eyes with that usual infuriatingly cocky expression. The little twitch in Hux's facial features gave him away however, signaling his annoyance at Poe's harsh jabs and challenging tone.
The two of them were in each other's faces, leaned over the table albeit his friend still sitting. Despite Hux still looking down on him, Poe's glare was more lethal.
"Poe-" Finn scolded gently.
"I will wipe out your resistance." Hux threatened, pointing an accusing finger in their direction like he hadn't been the one that had approached them with the intention of starting something. "I kept the First Order off your trail for years. Do not think for one second that I can't just as easily destroy it."
"Our numbers are just as limited as your own because of Exogol." Poe reminded him. "You can damn well try."
"Poe!" Finn hissed more urgently.
He was ignored. Regrettably.
But he simultaneously wondered what part of it was for the sake of seeming like a mumbling idiot and what part of Poe was actually figuring out a plan of escape. While he sounded convincing, their back and forth was doing little other than picking a bigger fight.
Well, there were two of them and only one of him. It made sense when thought of in the perspective that they both round on him at once, take him down, use his ID card and escape the room. Finn figured out that much. Even with the guards stationary outside the door, their chances were at least higher than what remained in the margin if they stayed.
Or maybe he could attempt that charm speak and convince Hux to let them out of the room. It hadn't worked the first time, but Finn was no stranger to second attempts.
They hardly if ever worked out in his favor, but he liked to think of himself as an optimist.
But Poe was looking at him now, even while Hux circled around the table. His warning came like a resounding clap of thunder.
"If you don't give me anything, then there is no sort of agreement that we can come to."
That turned Finn's attention upward, his eyes following the commander's trail. "Agreement?"
"Oh, yes." Hux stopped at his right. "I can grant an immunity to the resistance if you give me the information that I need. Granted, that immunity would stand as long as you stay out of the way. No more unnecessary bloodshed, and you are free to ride out your pathetic lives on whatever backwater planet you find."
Finn's jaw tensed, his nails digging into his palms once he stole a glance to the seat beside him. He'd half expected abrupt agreement with not even a break to discuss. After all, Poe's reasoning for leaving Ben and Rey to the elements had been to keep the group as a whole safe. All Hux was asking was that they laid their heads low and not interfere.
There was not even a crack in Poe's resolve.
"No way in hell."
Time seemed to come to a standstill, Finn's head swiveling between Poe and Hux. His stomach twisted in knots, a sudden loud thumping drowning out in his eardrums and slamming against his neck. For a moment, there was nothing. No exchange of words, no shouting or blaster fire.
Oddly, Finn felt proud. Of Poe.
Force, if he heard him even think that.
A hand rained down again, the intermission fluttering beside of it and drifting onto the floor. Despite the calm lilt to his tone, there was a lot of built up internalized frustration that went into releasing that much force. He squirmed underneath his jaw, the same vein protruding from his neck. "It's war then."
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
It took him a moment to realize that Poe was talking to him, turning his head with a nod that was almost too eager. Time to put their escape plan into action.
"Yeah, I'm thinking the exact same thing."
"Let's get out of here."
Without missing a beat, the two boys sprang, throwing their chairs to the side and making a break for the door. While Finn had been relatively confident that they had the same idea in mind, it became clear very quickly that they hadn't. They didn't take a grab at Hux who quickly teetered away from them and screamed for the guards, rather Poe slipped something out of his pocket and pressed it against the door scanner.
It beeped once in confirmation before it opened.
Finn had forgotten that Poe had at once been a spice smuggler. It was not beyond him to be able to steal an ID card without being noticed.
Unlike Kylo Ren's ship however where the guards maintained their distance and often made themselves scarce when a situation presented itself that they had to converse with him, the guards rounded into the room at Hux's call almost immediately, forcing the two of them to back in again and raise their hands.
"Any more bright ideas?" Finn asked as they continued to back up through the doorway.
"You were thinking it too."
"Not exactly." He grimaced. "Just do me a favor."
Poe glanced over his shoulder with a quizzical expression. "What?"
"Just get the others out of here to the rendezvous point, okay?"
"What the hell do you mean-?" In one abrupt movement, Finn shoved him back through the doorway and slammed his elbow into the door scanner.
"Woah, woah, woah wait! Finn, are you crazy-!?" Poe's voice cut off as the door hissed shut behind them, the scanner a red twitching hologram and Poe pounding his fists relentlessly against it on the other side.
So while Finn stood in the room shooting an unclear glance to the three figures flanking him, hands still outstretched, he was elbowed in the nose. Stars burst in his vision, a sharp pain shooting up through his sinuses. He threw his head back.
With little time to recover, Finn lashed out, his boot colliding with one of the guard's knees. They reared on him, delivering a shot of their own directly into his stomach. The blow forced him to double over, his side colliding with the hard steel and curling in on himself.
He wrapped his arms around his abdomen and he breathed, a sickening feeling suggesting that he puke.
He didn't, lest he further add to the humiliation.
A shadow cast above him while he caught his breath, and he rolled out of the way just as a foot stomped against the ground where his head had been moments before, grazing his ear before he was standing again, catching all of his weight onto one leg. He stumbled.
The movement proved fruitless as the second guard slammed all of their weight into his side and shoved him into the far wall. His head pounded against metal, one hand bracing against the coldness of it as he slid down, the other hand fumbling at his side for a blaster.
It was missing, having been confiscated when the two were escorted aboard.
Of course. Otherwise it'd be too easy.
Trembling fingers gripped at his skull both in frustration and his eyes that struggled to refocus through the ringing in his ears, a pounding sensation rocking against the back of it. He pushed himself to stand again despite the disorientation. His free arm wrapped around his stomach, just barely stumbling sideways as a fist collided with the wall, armored knuckles bruising steel. They swung at him again, and what they made up for in size, he made up for in speed.
At least, until a boot collided with his ankle. Hard.
He buckled, his back colliding with the floor and yanking what little breath he had from him, blurring figures hovering over him and drawing their blasters at the ready.
His arm flew up to deflect their kicks. A shock vibrated up his forearm and then to his bicep. He threw his foot up, knocking the blaster out of their unsuspecting hands and sending it careening across the floor with a metal clang. He dove for it, scooping it up into his hand, rolling forward, and propping himself onto one knee to face his assailants, albeit somewhat blind.
The desire to survive overpowered any hesitations he may have had.
Two gunshots rang out, one planted squarely in the chest, and one in the Stormtroopers thigh. It wavered just barely, catching its sudden limp, but it continued to charge.
Of course they couldn't have upgraded the armor when he was the one wearing it.
In one fluent movement, one of them grasped Finn's arm and jerked him forward, one arm wrapping around his throat, another delivering a quick blow to the back of his knee and sending him down. His nails dug desperately at the arm that kept him trapped. The free hand grasping his blaster was forcibly held still.
It should've been easy. He'd done it so many times in half the amount it would take someone without the proper training. Except this time it was purely to defend himself. Finn hadn't possessed a strong urge to preserve his life. It'd been all about following orders from the very start, and then protecting his friends and their values from everything the First Order had nearly destroyed. That had been all that mattered, but now even more than ever, Finn wanted to live.
And Finn would try.
He would try.
Its towering form wavered just a moment, just long enough for another shot to echo out, grazing past his assailant's right shoulder.
Missed.
Another passed the left shoulder.
Missed.
Blurred edges framed his vision, body warning him that he would pass out. Having the current upper hand, the Stormtrooper wrenched the blaster from his hand, placing the shaft against Finn's temple.
He scratched at the tight hold around his throat that was restricting his blood's flow.
Tears took to his eyes, opening his mouth and breathing in. His nostrils flared, his insistent struggling becoming more weak.
"Stop!" Hux yelled. "We need him!" Even as he was released at Hux's order, he slumped against the wall, sweat beading his forehead with his quivering gasps. Chest heaving, he gulped and gasped in pure desperation. One sleeve wiped at his nose and blood coated the cuff of it, but he was alive.
Through his aching and trembling muscles, he was alive and that counted for something .
Finn's glare was equally as lethal, even bleeding and backed into a corner.
"You're vastly outnumbered. Give up." He heard Hux somewhere to his right.
"No." Finn snapped.
A few inches to his left, one of the chairs lay abandoned, not far but out of his reach. His fingers grasped for it, and without thinking he willed through the force, the chair shuddering next to him and inching agonizingly closer until his fingers barely grasped the seat of it. He threw it blindly, and it connected with someone . He heard Hux groan and fall against one of the walls, and oddly enough that brought him some sort of sickening satisfaction very unlike him.
Considering the situation, Finn thought he deserved that little pleasure at least.
The blurry figures framed the inside of his vision. It was him and two stormtroopers, not anyone he would recognize wearing helmets-not that he was seeing much in that moment, but he held up his trembling hands all the same, willing . "I was one of you." He pleaded, wheezing. "Stop ! I can help you!"
For a moment, he thought that he saw their hesitation, rather felt it, a slight tug telling him that they were at least contemplating the possibility. A spark of hope ignited in his chest, lowering his hands and straightening his spine.
Just as quickly, that same spark snuffed out with one word that caused his heart to drop in his throat:
"Traitor."
He panicked. Finn dove for their hands, more specifically for their blaster. The base of his skull collided against the wall one final time as he was shoved and the sudden ringing returned, deafening his remaining senses as it could take no more of the blunt trauma. His eyes pinched shut, bracing one hand against his head and shaking it furiously. His legs buckled underneath him, sliding down the wall in one final show of defeat.
While that may have been true, he'd at least used that title for a better purpose. Saving Poe from the First Order, running away with Rey on Jakku, joining the resistance, that mission with Rose at the casino, and trying-yet failing-to sacrifice himself on Crait when that had been believed to have been the final battle.
It would have been a fitting way to die in his book, but not now.
This was humiliating.
He was a traitor, yes, but one thing he remembered from his training was that he was tumbling toward an inevitable demise that was meant for all Stormtroopers. FN-2187 was a tool for the First Order to throw away when they were done. Finn was a man that had found and lost so much more in the span of a few months than he had in his entire life before.
While he may have never been able to follow his responsibility as a soldier, he could follow it as a member of the resistance and die with dignity. Finn could smile at that, with one more ounce of spite in his very being at what they had done to so many like him that hadn't been fortunate enough to make it out. The conditioning, the gruesome training.
The fate of the defects.
There was a shift in the weight as a beam rolled through the chamber of the blaster in the Stormtroopers hands. The way the sight lined directly in center with his chest.
They aimed, and an image played in the very front of his mind. All of his failures seemed to roll through at once, quick as they were that he couldn't quite focus on them individually, and then the countless smiles, laughs, and platonic love that he had shared with so many aboard the resistance and every adventure since, coming on so much more slowly. Finn focused on that.
A stark difference between the two, but he knew his preference for which life he'd preferred to live.
His breath was pushed from his lungs, each speck of oxygen being coughed into the atmosphere and how his back convulsed against the wall behind him. Everything was a mess of blurs and distorted sounds.
A blurred figure pushing into the room, blaster fire going off in rays of brilliant green, red and blue light, the warmth seeping through his chest and staining Poe's jacket-now his jacket, he guessed unless Poe really wanted it back after this. Yells muffled out, blurry fringes sticking to the edge of his peripherals as his eyes fluttered and his head slumped back, a hunch in his posture.
There was a saying he repeated often. That he was raised to fight, and that was enough of a reasoning behind his actions in the past. Then that had changed when meeting Rey and on Crait when he'd realized that he fought for what he loved and what waited ahead of him.
He realized then that he was ready to die for it too.
It was often accommodated by someone stopping him, but that didn't seem to be the case now, much like the blood streaking down the walls behind him. He moved his hand from his abdomen, catching the faint scarlet coating his hand. A huff left his body, almost disbelieving as he dropped it into his lap and readied himself to join the Force.
If that was how the force worked.
