Chapter 10: Our Little Corner of the Galaxy
"You know, for most newlyweds, the whole point of a honeymoon is to go hide somewhere and relax," Poe Dameron chided his best friends, as he huffed down a side hallway to his office with Rey and Finn hurrying after him, faces and voices pleading. "Not run errands." The pilot flopped into his desk chair with a huff.
Of course, he understood what Finn was hoping to find. It was what he and his new bride were asking of him that was making his job hard, as he also tried to build an entire galactic government from the ground up.
"Please, Poe," Rey's hands were clasped as if in prayer. "Just tell them we'll be back later than expected. We're still going on our honeymoon... sort of."
"Just tell them anything other than the truth," Finn added. As soon as he said it, though, he winced. That could have come out better.
"So you want me to lie to my high command and advisers, about what the biggest power couple in the galaxy is actually doing," Poe stared at them.
"Yes," Rey and Finn chorused. After all, they did want to be alone, especially in a romantic sense, and the paparazzi and tabloid media would be trying to hunt them down anyway.
Poe ran a tired hand over his face. "All right, all right. I'll... make something up."
Beaming, Rey actually did something she had never done before and kissed Poe on the cheek. They had started out rocky, but she hoped that she and the pilot would become better friends as time went on. It had not been a hard decision, to ask him to marry her and Finn - mostly because she knew how much it would mean to her new husband. "I knew you couldn't always be a difficult man."
Poe tried not to blush. "Yeah, yeah, yeah - now go on, get out of here, you two!" But waggling his eyebrows, he gave them a saucy wink.
Rey and Finn left on their honeymoon - and their mission of closure, as Rey had referred to it - without any point of reference at which to start or where to look. They took the Falcon, keeping it mostly under the cloaking device so they wouldn't be followed. After a romantic first night, lounging and having sex in the meadows of Naboo, the Jedi and her paramour hired a reliable slicer in one Zorri Bliss, to hack into First Order archive files and try to pull up anything related to Finn. When they found out where the man once known as FN-2187 had been registered, they hit pay-dirt. The couple paid the beautiful bounty hunter handsomely for her trouble, accompanied by the permission to clandestinely slip a message to Poe telling him they were all right.
"I'd deliver it in person, if I were you," Rey advised the gorgeous woman, pecking her cheek. Like with Poe, she was starting to hope that she and Zorri could move past a rocky footing. "He misses you." To the Jedi's satisfaction, she thought she saw Zorri blush.
"OK," she got out, her voice full of hope. She hugged Finn, then Rey once again. Gesturing back to the dark-skinned man, she whispered in Rey's ear. "Fuck his brains out every chance you get. You landed yourself a fine one."
Rey turned scarlet and playfully nudged her away. "I'll try. Thanks, Zorri!"
Zorri's digging took the couple to a planet called Haruun Kal, out in the Mid-Rim. It was a chilly world with frosty tundra stretching for miles. The moment they set foot on it, Finn had a natural affinity for the place.
"I... remember being here," he admitted.
Coming upon a tiny, lakeside village, the couple asked around about a child who might have been abducted from the First Order about twenty years earlier. On the edges of the black market, an elderly man seemed to recognize Finn and offered to help them.
The old man guided Rey and Finn to a burned and dilapidated farm just outside of town. Only one hut, made of green moss, was still standing relatively strong on the edge of the property.
"The old Windu farm," the old man announced. "Fellow named Cal Windu lived here with his wife for many years. They had a baby boy who went missing about six months after he was born. Legend has it that the First Order took special interest in the kid because he was the grandson of a fugitive Jedi - one who sat on the High Council and wielded a purple lightsaber."
The Force whispered in Finn's ear. "Mace Windu," he breathed.
The old man smiled, and then suddenly pulled something from his cloak and handed it to Finn. "I know it is you, boy. Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well."
Glancing at each other, Rey and Finn reached for the lightsaber. Touching it at the same moment, they were both sucked into a vision.
There was a dark-skinned man with a purple lightsaber, fighting an older man with one of red. Finn's grandfather got the upper hand against - Rey realized with shock - Palpatine, her own grandfather.
Then, a third man appeared, handsome and youthful, and gazing at him, Rey recognized striking features she had seen in... Ben...
Anakin Skywalker, the man who would become Darth Vader.
Whipping out a blue blade, Anakin betrayed Mace and sliced off his arm. Palpatine then attacked again, blasting Mace with Sith lightning out of a window.
Rey and Finn were yanked out of the vision, and they reeled back on their heels, stunned. Finn fought the lump in his throat.
"What... what happened to my parents?"
"I'm afraid they passed away, son - a long time ago."
Finn slowly nodded his head in acceptance. Seeing the broken expression on his face, Rey took his hand in hers.
"I love you, Finn Windu."
He beamed at her, taking her in his arms and kissing her. "And I love you... Mrs. Windu."
Kissing him back, Rey reached up to touch his face. She brought her lips close to his ear, whispering.
"Say my new name again. Our new name."
Finn grinned sappily. "Mrs. Windu." Kissing lovingly again, Rey clutched her husband close. With a tender nip at his earlobe, she murmured low:
"And we won't be the only Windus for much longer." For she had felt the new, little presence in the Force, nesting in her belly, for days. "Finny... I'm pregnant."
Kissing his wife fiercely, Finn wept. He made love to her long and slow on the Falcon that night.
And now Finn found himself back at where he was now, living the life of a growing Jedi on the restored Windu farm.
Inside the domed mossy hut that was their simple abode, he again heard his wife scream. Body brimmed with tension, he huffed out a breath.
"I can't stand it any longer." Tricking the med droid, he yanked the taser appendage out of the robot with his bare hands and forced his way back into the hut.
Lying on their soaked, saturated bed, hair plastered to her forehead with a thin sheen of sweat, knees spread, was his wife, Rey Windu (nee Palpatine). When her water had broken that morning, and as she had prepared for labor, she had made him get out for his own safety. Finding her husband's handsome face, Rey's lip trembled, her eyes swelling with tears as another contraction sent her doubling over and growling in pain.
"GAHHHH! OH, GODS! Force, please help me..."
Stricken, Finn raced over to his wife.
"Hmmm... Mmm... I'm... Mmm... I'm sorry, Finny," Rey wept, as Finn finished kissing her. "I didn't want to..."
"You didn't," Finn brushed back the bangs from her forehead. "And you won't. You won't do anything but welcome our baby."
"Our baby..." Rey murmured, a dreamy smile coming over her face. Then she winced through another contraction. "Oh, Force, it's really happening..."
The med droid bustled in. "The baby is crowning!" it reported. "Are you ready, Master Jedi?"
Taking her husband's hand in hers and squeezing, Rey nodded firmly. "Yes, I am."
"Then PUSH!"
Arching her back, Rey screamed. Allowing herself to be cracled in Finn's arms - those hands that were so warm, calloused, meaty and strong - she used all the strength she had to bring his baby into the world. He had come back for her, loved her when it felt like no one else did. Had accepted her for who she was, despite her dark origins. Had married her...
And so, with a mighty heave, Rey thanked him for all of it by bestowing Finn with a gift from her womb. The gift of their child.
Once the screaming, squalling baby had been cleaned and placed in Rey's arms, the Jedi cuddled him close as Finn stole an arm around her, kissing her with pride and admiring their newborn son.
The baby had Rey's nose, but Finn's eyes. His skin was the most beautiful shade of light chocolate.
"Oh..." Rey moaned with love. "It's you... You're like your daddy, you're gorgeous. And I... I made you?" Tears pricked at her eyes, and she kissed his little head. "Cain. Cain Windu."
Finn blinked back tears. Perfect. It was all perfect. His son, his beloved Rey, his life - it was all perfect. A little droid and a jacket had brought them together, a war had helped them fall in love. And now together, as he and Rey embraced and kissed, he and his wife would raise their son to be the first of the new Jedi. All was well.