Chapter 34 - The First Lesson
Takodana
The Jedi Temple
"The folly of the Empire is something of a misunderstood, understated concept. Many would point to the tremendous political, economic and military blunders that shaped its foundation. The Aquillans quite humorously refer to this idea as 'The Folly of Tarkin.' While I do not disagree with these assertions as they are correct in their own limited ways, they are not the entirety of the Empire's fall. Instead, they are merely the symptoms of the main problem."
The holographic form of Lor San Tekka paced about the stone auditorium, his younger, fuller face watching over the assemblage of dozens of students watching and listening intently. At the top of it all was Finn, his locked on the ghost from the past as he extended his hand like a professor in a classroom.
"Can anyone tell me what that commonality was?"
"Palpatine," a young girl in the front answered.
"Yes, Rey, the most infamous man in living memory."
Finn did a double take, peering down at the girl sitting at the front. She had to have been only twelve or thirteen. A red Twi'lek girl nudge her and she turned her head to stick her tongue out at her. The expression made Finn smile a little.
"We all come from somewhere I suppose… though I never imagined you with freckles."
"Now Cale, can you explain why he was the cause?"
Finn's eyes darted left to a pair of boys sitting at the front. One looked about the same age as Rey, his dark brown hair shining through the dull blue tint of the holographic projection. He chuckled awkwardly and shook his head.
"Cause he was a madman and a control freak?"
That got a laugh out of the crowd, though the younger boy sitting next him elbowed him sharply and gave him a stern look. Aside from some differences, namely his fiery red hair and more rounded appearance, Finn could tell they were related.
"Well, that's a more general answer," Lor San chuckled as he gestured to the red haired boy, "Ben, can you make up for your cousin and provide us with a more… detailed answer?"
"Of course, Master Tekka." Ben nodded. Before he began, Finn saw Cale mouth something like 'teacher's pet,' before a blond girl directly behind him swatted him over the head. He gave her a 'hey!' look, but then promptly sat back down as Ben began his answer.
"Palpatine wanted absolute control of the galaxy, sure, but that wasn't enough for him. He wanted more. He wanted to be god with a galaxy to worship him. If that galaxy didn't wanna, then he would destroy it."
"And did this extend to the Empire itself, young Skywalker?" Lor San asked with a smile.
"I would say so, yes. I mean, what happened when he died? The whole thing fell apart. Palpatine never intended to die, and I think that if he did, he wanted to make the rest of the galaxy pay for it."
"So like I said," Cale interrupted, "a mad man and a control freak. Might have something to do with him looking like a melted candle."
That earned another laugh. Across from him, another boy with a rather gelled spiky hair shot back.
"C'mon, he can't be that bad. I heard the guy had something like a hundred wifes. Can't be that bad looking."
"You're gross, Rosh!" The Twi'lek girl exclaimed.
"Really, Kali? I'm just stating a fact here!"
"Yeah, well you're stating a gross fact!"
"Oh geez, here we go," the boy next to Rosh groaned, running his hands through his cropped hair, "why don't you just kiss and get it over with?"
"Ew, you're even grosser, Jaden!"
"Well, it's true! Ever since we got back from Ruusan to get our lightsaber crystals, you've been all googly eye for him!"
"Wait, what?" Rosh asked, confused.
Cale just laughed. "It's official. You've now taken Ben's place as being hopeless, Rosh-ow! Stop doing that, Tahiri!"
"Yeah Tahiri, please stop hitting my cousin!" Ben chided in.
"Only when he stops being a blockhead, Red," the blond grinned.
"Ahem," Tekka coughed and everybody immediately shut up, "now, what Rosh pointed out is a term called Hypergamy. Ask your parents what that means."
"It means the act of marrying up," Rey deadpanned.
"Of course you'd know what that means, freckles!" Cale grinned across from her, "I wager you get a whole lot of experience from the Sand People."
"Careful, flyboy," Rey returned the gesture with a nasty look in her eyes, "I've been learning to punch Krayt Dragons lately."
"No, you've been punching baby dragons lately. Should we try you for a crime against nature?"
"Should we try you for breaking the laws of humor with your sarcasm?"
"How about I put you both over my knee and let you have a shared, painful experience to bond over?" Tekka fauzed growled, his fingers reaching showfully for his lightsaber.
Both kids immediately gulped. "No thanks, master."
"Thank you dearly. Now children, allow me to ask you both a simple and complicated question. Why?" he looked around the room, "Can anybody answer me that?"
Cale raised his hand, "Are you asking why he was a madman and a control freak?"
"Yes, I am."
"Because he was evil," Kali spat, "and sometimes, there are people who are born evil."
"I suppose there is a great deal of truth to that, if being born a psychopath can be considered evil."
"But you don't?" Rey asked.
"Not entirely. There are millions of psychopaths born every day, and not all of them run over bystanders with a landspeeder just for fun. Oh, and at the ripe age of sixteen, I should mention."
"That's not too much older than one of us," Jaden sighed.
"Wait a second," Rosh exclaimed, "if he runs off people for fun, how the Nine Corellian Hells did he end up in politics?"
"Money, Rosh," Kali replied with an edge to her tone, "men like that always have a helping hand from the powerful. Hence why justice is never served."
"It's a little more complicated than that, Kali," Tekka said, "His father bailed him out, and the court cases were expunged."
"How does that disprove my point, exactly?" Kali snorted, "Credits talk."
"I'm not sure your dad would agree," Tahiri replied, but the Twi'lek shook her head.
"Considering that he must work beyond the confines of the law of stupid men? I doubt that."
"It is true," Tekka admitted, "bureaucracy and the laws of men can be a hard thing to follow, and is often corrupt. This in a way is why the Jedi exist. For generations, we have served as negotiators, mediators, explorers and, more often than not, the true hand of justice."
"But that wasn't always true, though," Ben pointed out, "in the Clone Wars, they were soldiers and generals."
"You are unfortunately correct, Ben." Tekka sighed, "it has happened many times when the Jedi strayed from their ideals, to serve the whims of the corrupt."
"Um, no offense, but should we be speaking ill of them?" Rey interrupted, "I mean, half the members of our Order were survivors of the Purge."
"They would be the first to admit that they lost their way," Tekka replied, "besides, offering criticism from an historical analysis is not speaking ill. The Jedi of the previous generations were caught in a bind where the only out was forward."
"And we know how all that turned out," Cale replied, "who's to say that won't happen again?"
"Yes, and in a way it did. The Chimera Crises taught us that the Jedi cannot be bent to the representatives of the people, but of the people themselves."
"Sure, but what happens when the people hate us? When they get scared of us?"
"Should they have a reason to?" Rey countered, "We're supposed to protect people."
"I'm not denying that, but let's look at some facts here. We're a minority of people who can do what other people can't. How do people react to that?"
"We already know that," Jaden replied, "I mean, look at the Rangers. They ain't like us, but they still go to bat for us."
"Not everybody is like them, though. The Chimera were afraid of us, afraid of what we could do. And doesn't fear lead to anger, and anger to hate?"
"Let's not forget they tried to justify it with their narrow view of history," Ben shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, what happens when there aren't Jedi to fight their battles for them?"
"Yeah, never mind the fact that if it wasn't for the Jedi, their ancestors would likely be a pile of bones, or speaking Sith or Mandalorian." Rosh added.
"But do they care?" Cale concluded, "Or is their fear of us all there is?"
"Does that matter?" Rey countered, "Does that change the fact that we have a job to do?"
"I'd say so, yeah. Should we protect people who'd rather toss us aside at the first opportunity?"
"But If we start thinking like that, where does it stop? How do we not end up like Lumiya or others like her? How does that not make us any different than the Sith?"
"Never assume that all thoughts lead to action," Lor San smiled, "it takes will to both act on impulse and to not act on it at all, and ultimately it is harder to forgive than to hate. But that is the fundamental difference between the Sith and us. We are willing to take the harder path because it is right."
"But why is it right?" Cale asked.
"A fair question. Let me tell you a story: there was a young man heading out from the city of Delphi. He had many gifts of divine power and wisdom, but he didn't quite know what to do with them. Then along the road he came to a fork going in two directions."
He gestured with his left hand, "Along this route, he saw a well lit path where he could have all he ever wanted: wealth, women, a life of ease, and the power of fate over other men. But he looked to the end of that road, and do you know what he saw? He saw himself. Old, broken, miserable and alone. Clinging desperately to a life he never had until he fades away to dust to be forgotten."
He gestured with his right, "So he looked the other way, and at first he thought he saw nothing different. It was a cold and treacherous path with many dangers and obstacles. But he looked further, and he saw a life of peace and contentment. Not just for himself, but for all others around him. He saw people care for him and what he did, remembering him for all the good he had done in through the hardships. And yes, he would die, but not alone and never forgotten."
He then gestured all around them, "And that my children, is why the Sith fail. Why they shall always fail. I asked you why Palpatine was the way he was, and yes, your answers were correct. However, they missed a key part to it. What honed Palpatine's madness into something truly dangerous? What made him the greatest evil of our time?"
"The Sith," Ben answered.
"The Sith," he nodded, "in the thousands of years that they have existed, they have never changed. They have remained the same expression of extreme emotion. Beings where unchecked ambition and selfishness guides them. Where vanity, envy and the lust for things they cannot have drives them. Of course, the methods may change, but the idea does not. And this is why the Sith will always fail."
"But they keep coming back," Tahiri pointed out, "we thought the Sith died with Palpatine, but then Lumiya came after us."
"Yes, because evil is a constant. It cannot die, for it is the shadow to the light. Thus, why the Jedi are needed. There will always be evil just like there will always be good. However, evil is not sustainable. Look at the Old Sith Empire. A powerful collection of Sith and their proxies that nearly saw them victory against the galaxy, and yet they failed. Why?'
"Because they are not sustainable," Rey replied, "they turned on each other."
"Yes, because they are fueled by such base emotions that it overrides their common good. Things like love, joy and compassion are such alien things to them because these are things that must be created and given, not taken. The Sith cannot build, not really. They conquer and ravage, but that is all. Just like Palpatine's Empire. It too conquered and ravaged, but it tore itself apart just as soon as Palpatine was bested."
"You would think that there would have been reformers to reform Sith Society?" Ben pointed out.
"Oh, there were many would-be reformationists. They were either stamped out, or ended up joining the Jedi."
"Why?" Cale asked.
"Because the Sith are like a cancer. You see, the Sith rely on conflict to survive. When there is no more conflict, they create it among themselves. They cannot survive in peace. To change this is to completely unroot the entire concept of the Sith and fundamentally alter it. That my friends, is impossible to do."
"Impossible, master? I thought you didn't believe in such a word."
"I may be a bit hyperbolic, but it is ultimately their adherence to the Darkside that undoes them."
"Whachya doing?"
Finn turned around to find Rey standing at the entrance of the auditorium with a smile on her face, "Oh, I remember this class. Master Tekka's big ol' talk about the Sith."
"Yes," Finn nodded as she descended the steps to join him. He shook his head, "I… wanted to know who he was. Who he really was, I mean."
"Master Tekka?"
He nodded, and Rey noticed then that he was clutching Lor San's lightsaber. "It's funny, really," he said suddenly.
"What is?"
"That I was among those sent to capture him. That I was party to the battle that took his life, and yet I hold this," he held out the lightsaber, "I hold a symbol of his status, of his greatness. I feel dirty doing so, but no one has taken it from me yet. Why?"
"Because it's not a symbol at all, Finn. It's just a tool. No different than a blaster or a knife."
"But it was his, and the Jedi gave it to him."
"Maybe, but that wasn't what made him what he was. Wasn't what made him a Jedi."
"I see. It just..." he sighed after a moment, "I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point."
"Because the mission is over?"
"Well, it is. I got you, Poe and the droid from the First Order to safety. By definition, I have completed my mission."
She smiled slightly, "Maybe, but I think you've started a new one, haven't you?"
He didn't respond. He just looked ahead at the paused form of Lor San and the Jedi students, "There are other reasons I am watching. I wanted to know where I came from."
"The Sith, you mean?"
He nodded, "They never left us. Even after Palpatine, the Sith still remained in the Empire's shadow; shaping us. I want to understand it. To understand them."
"Know the enemy?"
"Yes… and no. I also want to understand myself. I am a product of them, after all."
"I thought you said the Sith didn't command you?"
"They don't, but when a Lord speaks, we listen. That may not be command, but it is still authority. Besides, the Sith had to come from somewhere. They didn't come from Palpatine, which leaves honestly only one other option."
"Your High Marshal."
"It makes the most sense to me."
"Well, you're not wrong. Palpatine all but alluded that Hego Damask was his master, Darth Plagueis the wise. Of course, it's not entirely confirmed, but I'm convinced."
"Then that leads me to an unfortunate revelation. The First Order is doomed, and my brothers and sisters are going to die for another war started by the Sith. History is repeating, and there may not be any of us left at the end."
"I know what you mean," she said softly. Finn didn't need to look to know where her eyes were looking.
"Tell me about him," he said.
"Cale?"
"Yes. I want to understand what kind of man he was."
"I think Poe more or less laid that out on the Raptor."
"Poe was just a friend. You were his love."
She sighed, chuckling softly, "He was stubborn. Stars, if I had to sum him up, that's what he was. If he got an idea in his head, he'd dig his heels in and not budge. Not even Ben or his master Ahsoka could ever really talk him out of it. I mean," she shook her head, "it made him sweet, honestly. He'd never give up on you, never leave you alone."
"Was it to a fault?"
"Oh Force yes," she laughed, "he could be such a pain in the ass sometimes. But I think… I think that's why I loved him so much."
"When did it start? Here?"
"Oh no. No no no," she chuckled again, "you may not see it here, but we hated each other. Okay, maybe hate isn't the right word. Resent? We used to kick each others asses so many times he took it as a challenge. He was a Solo and Skywalker, and he was not gonna let them scrawny little desert girl knock him flat, no sir."
"Well, did you?"
"Yes, but so did he. He loved going after my hair, y'know. I always wore it in a braid, and he loved to just grab it and pull me down. Of course, I always cut it before he could win, but," she laughed, running her hand over her ear, "I got so fed up with him once that I slipped powder into his hair one time when he was sleeping. Whole thing came off and left him bald for a month. Do you know what he did?"
"What?"
"He waxed it, just to spite me. Got so shiny, it was blinding. Ahsoka used to call him little Windu."
That earned a laugh from Finn, "Funny, Nines did that to Zeroes once. The two of them started throwing punches at each other. Well, Zeroes was using the regulations book, really. Thing was surprisingly heavy... and then Slip went and stole clippers from the barber."
"Did he start cutting your hair or something?"
"Yes. He was always clean shaved, so we dog piled Nines and he cut his hair so much he started bleeding."
"Ouch. And you?"
"Oh, I didn't resist. Granted, I always kept it short afterwards. Sevens called us the Shinies afterwards."
"How old were you, if you don't mind me asking?"
"We were not too much older than you were here," he sighed then, "it was around that time we began proper combat training. Of course, we'd done such things before, but it was never quite that serious."
"Parnassos?"
He nodded, "We weren't against the tribes yet, but it was then that we started live fire exercises. Started our grueling training in the desert."
Rey stared at him for a moment before her eyes slid downward.
"What?" he asked.
"I started my training with A'Sharad and Kali around that time, too. On Tatooine, I mean."
"You had a choice in the matter, correct?"
"Sort of. My dad wanted A'Sharad to train me. Of course, I could've say no."
"But you didn't?"
"No, he was my dad. I didn't want to let him down. And I don't regret it, even if I hated it at the time."
"Hmm, Slip, Nines and I felt the same way about Parnassos. Well, not Zeroes; he didn't care. But I suppose I'm the same way. I don't regret any of it."
"But you regret the way it turned out?"
"Yes. Like you, I suppose."
She met his eye, "Yeah, I guess so."
She looked past him again at the holographic lecture, "Finn, do you believe that people can be saved, even if they don't want to be?"
"I don't know. Poe certainly did. But that was never something I was raised to ask. I raised to fight for a cause I once believed to be true, even if I was never entirely enthusiastic about it."
Finn looked back at Lor San, and shook his head, "Rey, when we were captured by my platoon, why didn't you kill any of the troopers?"
"Because I didn't have to."
"We were your enemy, and we'd killed some of your own."
She shook her head, "You didn't have a choice in the matter. Maybe if I hadn't met you, if I didn't know, things might have been different. But I didn't have to kill any of them, so I didn't."
"Except for L-tee."
Her eyes turned cold, "He made his choice willingly."
Finn nodded, "I suspect he was not going to be living much longer after that, considering he'd pointed a gun at Sevens. Brothers do not tolerate such things," he sighed and slumped over, "to answer your original question, I don't know. But I would like to think so. I would like to think that every man and woman who wears the helm can make the same choice I did… but I don't know if that is the case."
"Well, we won't know unless we go out and do it."
"Doesn't that expression end with try?"
"Jedi don't believe in try," she smirked, "it implies you're expecting to fail."
"I suppose so."
"C'mon," she took him by the hand, "there's something I want you to see."
"I'm sorry for last night, son."
Poe turned around to find his father standing at the doorway of the watchtower, his craggy face weary but still managing a smile. Poe nodded simply, "It's fine, dad."
"I know you wanted your space," he continued, moving up next to him to stare out over the ancient courtyard and the miles of forest all around, "I just saw you at the table s'all. I wanted to say hi."
"Well, you did."
"So, how are you?"
"Honestly? I'm just frickin' tired."
"You look it. Slept at all?"
"Tried," he sighed, "can't."
"Why?" he asked with sudden concern.
"Mom. Red blade messed with my head. He made me see her. And now I can't stop seeing her."
"Son," Merrick put his hand on his shoulder, squeezing it, "what happened to your mum was not your fault. You need to stop blaming yourself for it."
"But I wasn't there," he whispered, shaking his head as he scoffed, "I wasn't there. Instead, I was being a stupid little punk running around and-"
"Stop," the older Dameron growled, "you've been pitying around for years, and it needs to stop."
"Why?" Poe turned to face him, his face awash with self-loathing, "You wanna know what I was doing when she got the results back?"
"You were in a detox tank."
"Yeah. This close to being kicked out of Flight School, and it was only cause of my mom I wasn't. And that's how I repaid her. I'm a frickin' failure, dad."
"You're not," he replied, his voice getting louder with each syllable, "you wouldn't be standing here if you were! You wouldn't be a decorated war hero if you were! You wouldn't be the Republic's best damn pilot if you were!"
"Yeah?" Poe shouted back, "Well that Red Blade tore all that away and showed me what I really was! Showed me that I'm still just a worthless little-"
The eldar Dameron smacked the younger up side the back of the head, causing him to flinch away in surprise. Merrick's voice didn't let up even once. "He only does that if you let him win. If you let him keep you broken. You're a Dameron and a Bey, both. You're my son as much as you are your mother's."
Poe didn't say anything, just standing there and shaking like a post in gale.
His father sighed and took his son by the shoulder, nodding as he did. "Poe, I know what you went through. What you're still going through. Before I met your mother, I was alone with no one to call my own. All I had was just the Empire and all I was to them was just a number, but Shara showed me I was more than that. I loved her, son. I still do."
"I miss her, dad," Poe shuddered as tears ran down his face, "I miss her every damn day."
The elder Dameron took the younger in a tight embrace, whispering softly, "I miss her too, but she's gone. We have to move on. She wouldn't want us to keep hurting. She'd want us to be happy."
"I haven't been happy in a long time," he whispered, "I haven't even been able to hold a single a stable relationship in years."
"What about Deliah?"
"She's different. Won't give me the time of day, and she's not wrong."
Poe felt his father smile, "She reminds me a lot of your mother. She's a good woman who wants you to get better."
"Her? Want me to get better?"
"Poe," he held his son out and gave him a salty old grin, "I'm much older, wiser and handsomer than you. I know what I'm going on about."
"Heh," Poe grinned back, "you're at least one of those things, dad."
"Smartass."
"Grouch-face."
"What are you, five?"
"At least I'm not a hundred."
"Well, I'm still young enough to kick your ass back to Yavin."
"Yeah? Well, when it gets stuck, I'll take your leg with me."
"I'll get a new one."
"Then I'll take that one too and sell it."
That made Merrick laugh, and Poe found it contagious for a long minute. In truth, neither one had laughed that hard in years.
Father patted son on the shoulder and smiled. "So, you good to go? I got some FNG's who need to have tucks kicked into high gear back at the barracks."
"Actually, I've got something of an odd question."
"Oh?"
"Um, yeah. Did you ever notice anything weird about me when I was a kid? Namely back when were on Yavin?"
His father gave him an odd face. "Weird how?"
"I dunno," he sighed, pulling away to look over the courtyard of the ancient castle, "like, did I ever do anything was unexplainable?"
"Where's this coming from?"
"I just..." he sighed and shook his head, "nothin'."
"No, not nothin'. What is it?"
"Okay, I'll just say it. Did you ever think I was Force-sensitive?"
"No," he replied.
"Well that figures-"
"Back then, at least."
That made Poe spin around, "What do you mean, 'back then?'"
"I mean exactly that," Merrick shrugged, "you were a perfectly normal boy. Sure, you got into trouble every time you tried to sneak into the damn Praxeum every other Sunday, but normal."
"Okay, but what did you mean by 'back then,' like something changed?"
"Son, I wasn't lying when I said you are the best damn pilot in the Republic. Antilles said he's never seen anybody better."
"C'mon, the old man says that about everything."
"Except he said it to me. His exact words were 'He reminds me of Luke back at the Death Star.'"
"...huh. I gotta go." And he was out the door.
"Go where?" his father called out to him.
"Out. Gotta ask somebody something."
"Okay…" Merrick mused, and when he turned around, he saw what Poe was looking at. Or more accurately, who. "Oh, I get it now."
In truth, though he'd spent almost half his life in the desert, it wasn't the first time Finn had strove through the green groves of a forest. The Academy of Tyyrr came to mind, with its mountains of mile stretching bamboo and maidenhair, with the occasional redwood and maple that remained a blood red throughout the year.
At first glance, the forest didn't seem that much different. Just miles upon miles of oak and beech, chestnut and conifers. Everything was covered in a kind of green moss. Every now and then, he'd see foxgloves and other kinds of flowers. He chuckled softly to himself. His men had thought it strange he'd picked up such a hobby. Maybe it was, but he always found it fascinating.
What he found strange was the feeling of the place. On Tyyrr, there was a sort of apprehension in the air; a constant tension that settled deep into your mind and left you wary. Maybe it had something to do with the biting humidity of its swamp lands and bayous, or the constant buzz of its pestering insects.
No, he thought to himself, it's deeper than that.
Everything about this place was peaceful. He felt as ease trekking over the ancient stoneworks covered in moss, and taking a deep breath of the air felt and even tasted sweet. Even the noise of the wildlife felt strangely harmonious. The birds chirping, the hoots of wildlife and the buzz of insects sounded like music, almost.
It was so different than what he knew. This place… he couldn't explain it but he felt connected to it somehow. Like a part of it. There was life here, and he suddenly realized how little Tyyrr had.
"You feel it, don't you?" Rey asked head of him as she scaled a sloping wall and helped pull him up.
"Yes," he nodded, "but I don't understand it. What is this place?"
"A place where the Force lives in its fullest," she replied absently, "the Force lives and generates in all living things, but it so often muddled and confused. But not here. Everything is… simple. I can't describe it any other way."
Finn nodded, stopping to stare up at the golden sun creeping through the conifers and pine above, producing a glamorous light that remind him of stain glass.
"I'm not sure why I'm noticing all this," he suddenly said to no one in particular, "I didn't before, when we first came here."
"You weren't paying attention," she smiled at him, "you had a lot on your mind."
"I still do."
"But you're starting to see the light at the end of it all?"
"Light?"
"It's something my dad used to say. 'Your mind becomes drowned in problems and worry, it turns to mist. Well, until someone shines a lantern at the end for you to follow.'"
"I suppose so. But I doubt you brought me out here just to look at flowers."
"No," she smiled simply, "have you started to notice all the stone work around here?"
Finn looked around. It was difficult to see with all the moss coating everything, but he did. There were walls and the foundations of walls bent and pulled into artificial sheers and cliffs. He saw evidence of irrigation systems creating small ravines and concrete tunnels in criss cross formation. He even saw the remains of a grated dam at the end of system, connecting to crumbling aqueducts in the distance.
"It looks old," he nodded after a while, "And the masonry appears to be the same as the Temple itself."
"Yeah, that's because it is. All of this was once part of it, thousands of years ago. Now, the actual Temple is all that stands."
"You never tried to rebuild any of this?"
She shook her head, "What would be the point? We only needed the Temple, and the planet wanted the rest. I call that a fair trade."
"You act like the planet is alive."
"In a way, it is. C'mon, let's keep going."
Some hundred yards away, Poe was watching and following; careful to remain unseen. He didn't know why he felt the need to stay hidden, but he did and so he remained so. Still, there was something about this place that felt… odd. Like he was being watched, and it sure as hell didn't feel like his friends ahead.
"Poe."
He spun around, finding himself faced with a rock cliff and an oak tree being bent over by gravity and old age.
"Someone there?" he asked. Crickets and birds were the only response. He shook his head, noticed that Rey and Finn were moving again, and started to shadow them.
"Poe," he heard the voice again and he spun around, looking in all directions. There was nothing there.
"Okay, this isn't funny. Who's there?"
Silence followed, and he grumbled to himself as he began to climb a hill. "I'm getting jumpy out here."
Ahead, Rey and Finn came across a stone courtyard, not too dissimilar to the one back at the temple. At the center of it though was a sort of shrine, by Finn's guess, with a lighting bowl contained by a shinto with blue blossoms coating the yard with pale sapphire flowers.
"I feel something… strange," Finn said.
"Like a calling?" Rey asked, already sure of his answer.
"And the trees, the shrine, they look like they're glowing."
It reminded him of Deliah accidental phermonic attack, with all the colors exaggerated like neon lights in the dead of night with an irresistible attraction to them. It felt magnetic, somehow, like he was meant to be here. Then, quite suddenly, the lighting bowl ignited a bright white flame and Finn took a step back from the surprise of it.
"That's because you are," Rey smiled at him, the spontaneous combustion not even surprising her.
"I don't understand," Finn replied, his eyes transfixed on the flame.
"Yes you do. I think you've always understood, deep down at least."
Finn thought back over the countless days since his life had taken such a drastic turn. The times when he'd accomplished what he'd deemed impossible, and yet…
"What am I to do?" he whispered.
"Go to the Shrine, and open your mind."
"How do I do that?"
She smiled at him again, gesturing to the fiery shrine. "Only you can know that."
For a moment, he felt fear. Not fear of death or loss, but of the unknown; of taking that first step. But looking into the knowing and unfazed hazel eyes beckoning him, he knew this was where his road lay. All his life, he'd been taught the value of purpose and the danger of its loss. Was this his purpose?
He shook his head, and stepped into the courtyard. With the report of his boot against the ancient cobblestone, the flame seemed to grow in intensity of purity, and with each step it continued to do so until it became a blaze of blue. He was transfixed by it, and he felt the sudden compulsion to touch it. The blue flames danced along the length of his hand and arm… and yet they did not burn.
He withdrew his hand, the flames residing for a moment before finally being snuffed out. He sighed, his heart pounding in chest as he continued to stare into the flames.
"Open my mind," he whispered. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he settled into a meditative posture. The First Order had trained him to maintain mental discipline, to focus his thoughts in time of chaos. Was this the same?
Then he began to feel everything. The rush of the wind upon his cheek, the flutter of leaves in the distance, the soft chirps of a cricket yards away. The world beckoned to him, seeking to make it one of its own, and Finn did not refuse it. He felt the energy of world coursing through him, the life of the planet singing in chorus. Now he understood what Rey meant when she alluded to this world being alive.
"What is this?" he asked in the gloom.
"It's the Force, Eighty-Seven."
Finn's eyes snapped open. "Slip?"
Behind them, Poe moved in the underbrush until he saw something that made him panic. He wanted to call out Finn's name, his hand slipping down to his holstered blaster when something stopped him. It was not a physical presence, but a feeling. Something utterly familiar.
"Mom?"