"So... we're NOT teaching them to be Jedi?" Poe's face registered confusion. "So does that mean, no Force?"

Rey looked at her General's warm, open face. His eyes were always moving, flitting from her nose to her mouth to her eyes. Just like his long limbs, which flexed with the constant nervous energy that surged through his body. "I just don't understand," he finished.

"Me neither," interjected Finn, as the two men sat back around the Resistance 'circle', a set of small stones set out as a ring of seats. Their first council. Finn sat back, his legs splayed. Poe leant forwards, a coil of energy. Rey sat between them, on the grass, legs crossed.

She shook her head. "No. We still train them in the Force. But, not at the expense of their most important training. Which is to heal. These children are mostly orphans. Tortured, owned. Punished. Abandoned." Her eyes filled with tears.

You're nobody. You came from nothing.

"They can't control the Force without first controlling themselves," she continued. "And when I say control, I mean being at peace with themselves. Who they are, what they want. Who knows if any of these children actually want to be Jedi? Maybe they want to stay home. Raise a family. Farm. We shouldn't impose our future on them, just because they have this ability."

"But without them, we will fail," said Poe. "We can never win without the Light!"

"But in the past, we never won! The Jedi's past has mainly been... failure. This is what Luke said his very self." she continued. "So I've been thinking. This, where we are right now, at the very beginning - is the point where it always goes wrong. In our belief, we impose rules, regimes. Ways to be. All it means is that those without the right ...resistance...it will only end the same way. In more Kylo Rens. In more Vaders."

"Are you saying we create a new order of things?" asked Finn.

For a moment, Ben's faced flickered before her. Join me. She saw his face, his leathered hand, reaching for hers. His eyes, pleading. Please. She pushed the memory aside.

"Yes. We will train with the Force, but without expectation. We will expose them to all thoughts and ideas. Let them decide for themselves how to use their abilities. Let them choose their path."

"But that's ridiculous," laughed Poe, incredulously. "We're soldiers in a war. We don't need self awareness. We choose the path. We require duty. We need to protect the Light."

"Exactly." she said, and gazed him down. "The Light can only be protected this way. Otherwise, its not the Light. Its just our own version of it projected onto others."

'I'm confused," said Finn. But he looked at Rey's face, and saw a determination. "However... if Rey feels this is her path, then who are we to question. She's the one with the Force. Right, Poe?" He turned to the older man. "Poe?"

Poe regarded her for a moment. He placed a hand against his forehead and rasped with exasperation. "This is just an apology." he said, in a low voice. "This is you just trying to justify his behaviour. Don't you remember anything? He killed Solo. He killed his own father."

Poe stood, and his face contorted with disgust.

"You can't save him. You know this. Stop trying."

At Poe's words, Finn's mind turned back to his days as Stormtrooper. In his mind's eye, he saw Kylo Ren's long stride, the slow rasp of his breath behind the mask, as he ordered murder after murder...

He looked again at Rey, and saw a knot of concern form in her forehead. Or doubt?

"Rey," he said, quietly. "Poe has a point. You wanted to be right about him, I know. But you were wrong. He spared you, but for his own means. He always intended to kill Snoke."

Rey looked at him, uncertainty in her eyes.

"Perhaps, sometimes, people just turn to the Dark...because they want to," continued Finn. "Because, unlike you, they don't have the strength to stay in the Light, when everything else fails them. They don't recognise their rescue when it stares them in the face. Should we really pander to that? Shouldn't we expect them to know right from wrong, and make sacrifice? Isn't this exactly the values, the abilities, we need?"

"But that's the point," she said, again, he jaw tightening with resolve. Or was it stubbornness? "It must be a willing sacrifice to hold true. Don't ask for a man to step away from love, when that's what he needs. This is what created Vader. Unless we focus first on who they are, we can't be sure we're not just creating another army for the Dark. I won't do that. I won't keep... creating this same circle."

Poe sat down again, his shoulders rising, then falling, and he considered the situation.

"Okay," he said, after a while. "I will support you to train these children however you wish. But only on this basis. That you do this because you believe, in your heart, that this is the right path? And because you accept in doing so, that Ben Solo is gone? Because I can see in your eyes how this clouds you. I hate to see it. I hate it."

He stepped closer to her, and pulled her to her feet. He placed a finger gently on her cheek. "You can't save everyone, Rey. You just can't."

Rey's eyes teared up again as she remembered Leia's words. "But..." She choked up. "She called to me. She told me..."

"Rey, Rey.." Poe continued, and pulled her towards him. He held her closely, feeling the rise and fall of her chest. "Leia was facing her own death. At his hands. Even so, her last thought would have been for him. He's her child. She had to have the hope. It doesn't mean it's true."

He pushed her gently away again, and looked into her eyes. "Tell me, promise me. That the past is over. Its just the future we're building. Yes?"

She stared back, and felt her heart contract as she nodded.

Goodbye, Ben.