Author's Note: If you're interested, a lovely person made a podfic of "The Story of Finn" to be listened to instead of read if you're into podfics! Unfortunately, I can't link on this site, but if you Google "The Story of Finn" and "annabelle_myrtille (annapod)", you should be able to find it very easily! There's direct links on the version of this fic on AO3.
THE STORY OF FINN
CHAPTER THREE: STORMTROOPER DOMINOES
It's BeeKay who comes in with the story, her beautiful skin strangely colorless, and announces to them all that Starkiller Base has been destroyed. The Resistance destroyed the shield around the base, then destroyed the oscillator regulating the destructive power of the weapon, and Starkiller Base tore itself apart and left a sun in its place.
And leading the Resistance... leading the charge... was FN-2187.
Finn.
The stories are wild and everywhere, but BeeKay is good at cutting things down to the truth just by listening to them and she's plugged into the First Order's business like no one else, like no one of her rank should be. First she tells them what her commanding officer told her, an empty pile of nothing, and then she tells them the truth that they're all sitting on the edge of their bunks to hear.
The Jakku girl was captured by Kylo Ren and brought to Starkiller, where he tried to interrogate her for the Map to Luke Skywalker. When Finn's companion was caught, he went to the Resistance and gathered them for an assault on Starkiller Base.
Finn, with Han Solo and Chewbacca, broke through the Starkiller Base shield by making a hyperspace landing on the Millennium Falcon. Finn forced Captain Phasma to take down the Starkiller Base shields and then dropped her down a garbage chute, which is by far the most believable thing BeeKay tells them but also somehow the least. Seriously, he did what?
The Jakku girl broke out and joined them, then they went to destroy the oscillator that was already under attack by Resistance pilots, including the one that Finn saved. Kylo Ren was there and killed Han Solo, but Finn and the Jakku girl still managed to make an opening that was later used by a Resistance pilot to fly into the oscillator and wreck it from the inside.
Finn and the Jakku girl fled, pursued by Kylo Ren. The exact details of what transpired are supposed to be unknown, but Stormtroopers are everywhere and Finn is a story that is all their own, so BeeKay, and her like that she implies exist, might have done a few things that would not be approved of by the First Order to sneak looks of guards and medical-bay confidential reports to the Supreme Leader.
The First Order is doing everything they can to stop stories from getting out, but stories are all a Stormtrooper owns and they've been getting a bit more possessive of them of late.
A bit more rebellious.
They say that to protect his friend, Finn took up the old lightsaber of Luke Skywalker and battled Kylo Ren. They say that he was barely holding his own; they say that he was a natural; they say that Kylo Ren struck him down quickly and easily; they say that an injured Kylo Ren had to call on dark powers of the Force to knock Finn down.
What they know for certain is that Finn fought Kylo Ren in a lightsaber battle, and survived.
They say that to protect him, Finn's friend, the Jakku girl, took up Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and battled Kylo Ren. Finn's friend returned his empathy and fought Kylo Ren - fought and won. The Jakku girl battled Kylo Ren on the breaking Starkiller Base; she beat him back, beat him down, scared him, and scarred him.
For Finn, they say.
Because he's her friend, they say.
"...They can't want us knowing this," Eighteen says quietly after BeeKay is done.
"They don't," BeeKay says, grim and clearly terrified under her solemn face. "We're not supposed to know any of it, on pain of instant and unconditional dismissal."
"Then why did you tell us?" a Trooper demands in horror, Gigi (GI-0910), a dark-skinned male that Doublo does not know well besides his specialty in People Stories and excellent blaster skills.
BeeKay looks him dead in the eye, the same way she did when Doublo heard her first story, though much less kind and with no gentle smile. She has told them enough stories to damn them all dozens of times over. What is one more, her look says chidingly.
"Because it had to be told," she says.
oOo
FN-2187 was a Stormtrooper, just like them, who defected to save the Resistance's best pilot and wasn't caught. He chose another path, another life, and got a name. Then Finn went on to join the Resistance, bring them the Map to Luke Skywalker, save the girl who would defeat Kylo Ren, and kill the Starkiller.
He is the single most devastating blow to the First Order in recent history.
For some moments, one of the single most important people in the galaxy.
The single most important person in the galaxy.
The Hero of the Resistance.
And he was a Stormtrooper, just like them.
oOo
They do not know the name Finn.
They know only that FN-2187 is a first-class traitor to the First Order, and Resistance scum.
They do not know of a girl from Jakku.
They know only that there was a BB-8 droid on Jakku carrying something of great importance.
They do not know how the Starkiller Base was destroyed.
They know only that it was.
Doublo, along with all of her bunkmates, are stellar Stormtroopers. They speak only when spoken to, they obey all orders immediately, and their sole duty is to the First Order above all else. That is their only concern – information outside of that necessary to their current mission is not their concern and they have no desire to learn it.
They would never risk a mission to assist a fallen comrade.
They will fulfill a mission at all costs, even that of their life, which belongs to the First Order.
They would never spare a Resistance Sympathizer.
They will blast down all in their path with a single order from a superior, even their fellows.
They would never defect.
They will serve the First Order until their death in action or their dismissal.
By the time the higher-ups are satisfied enough to placate themselves that the next Finn will not come from their base, the First Order has finally managed to somewhat cease the stories. Silence is the new friend and constant companion of the Stormtroopers. Unauthorized conversation is prohibited and will be strictly punished, all information outside of that pertaining to one's current mission is unnecessary.
They are not told why, only expected to obey, and they do.
They do not speak of Finn.
They do not speak of anything at all.
BeeKay, who has always cared for their safety despite the dangers that she hides inside their heads, has stopped the Story Circle for the time being. Their bunkroom is dark when BeeKay's commanding officer comes to check on them regularly throughout their allotted dormancy period, neat as a pin and silent as the grave. Under BeeKay's careful watch, there is nothing to see and nothing to hear. For anyone.
And while this goes on, Doublo wonders if the Story of Finn has spread far enough to be told around the galaxy for generations to come. She thinks it should be – a story just as important as a nobody farmboy from Tatooine becoming the leader of the Jedi – even more important, because it is a story about a nobody Stormtrooper from the First Order becoming one of the most important people in the galaxy. That's a story that all Stormtroopers should hear.
They – she and Two and Three and BeeKay and all the others – are in a place where they hear many stories, in a bunkroom full of Troopers who have turned a deaf ear to how they should not tell the stories that they do. They are messengers on a busy base, but what of those who are not so fortunate to have a bunkroom of nosy-minded pilots and a commanding officer like BeeKay?
What of the foot soldiers, like Finn? What of the fighter pilots? What of the guards on distant outposts and the patrolmen on Star Destroyers in distant systems? What of the sanitation staff and maintenance workers and nutrition workers and supply pilots? The links in the chain, who are the suppliers of many of their stories already, that the higher-ups don't bother to think about?
Did they get the chance to hear the Story of Finn?
Probably only parts of it, at most, not the Close-Hand Stories that Doublo has heard. Maybe only bits from the middle, or just the very beginning, and not all of it from start to the end so far.
That's unacceptable, Doublo thinks, spending yet another night in hateful silence.
The story should be told, because it has to be.
It's like the legends of Skywalkers who can bring down Empires, that's what this story is. Doublo can tell; she can feel it; because this is the sort of story that she likes the best, the ones that she really feels for. This is a once in a lifetime thing, that came in small bunches in short bursts after a long, long wait just like BeeKay said – only it's not over yet.
Doublo can't imagine not knowing the Story of Finn now.
Doesn't want to imagine who she'd be without it. Without the Story Circle. Without BeeKay and her bunkmates. Because she knows, doesn't have to imagine, actually, that she'd be one of those Stormtroopers on Starkiller Base who pulled the trigger on a star system without blinking an eye.
So she chooses, right then and there, awake far too far into her allotted dormancy period, in a small bunk in a dark room on a base strategically placed in the middle of nowhere, to do what she can. Under the watchful eyes of the First Order, apathetic and merciless and with a gun pointed at any one of them who looks like they could be another defector, she'll probably die for it, but...
That's okay.
She's going to be like Finn.
oOo
It takes her a week, in total.
Doublo steals a datapad, a simple note-taking device, and dismantles it, removing any possibility of its owner (an officer passing through their base on salvage supervising business) from ever finding it and the Trooper who stole it. Then she opens a new document and starts to write, and spends a long, painful week stealing what precious few minutes she can to add to it at every possible moment, constantly looking over her shoulder for anyone who could be watching her do this dangerous thing.
She's very careful about it, not just not getting caught, but the writing of it.
Doublo has never written anything like this before.
All she's written are reports, which are either fill-in-the-blanks or rearrange-the-prewritten-sentences or a combination of both. They don't write down their stories, because that's a level of stupidity and danger that would have had them all dismissed ages ago, so doing so is strange and disorienting.
But she's had this story going over itself again and again in her head ever since she first learned of it, so she holds out against the strangeness and tells it to the screen instead of people. If she has to mumble under her breath a little to help her do that, which she does, it's awful and doesn't help her anxiety over being seen by adding the possibility of being overhead.
Doublo writes down the Story of Finn, all of it as far as she knows, from his beginning with Slip and Zeroes and Nines to his rejoining the Resistance wherever they are. And she writes it in a way that she knows the First Order fears deep in their black, shrunken brains: her story is very subtly biased.
Doublo emphasizes Finn, rather than FN-2187.
She writes about his empathy, how he cared for his comrade cadets and saw his fellow Stormtroopers as brethren rather than tools, and how the First Order hated that.
She writes about his mercy, how he looked at a settlement of civilians with his friend's blood on his helmet and refused to pull his trigger, and how the First Order hated that too.
She writes about his bravery, how he turned away from his ordered reconditioning and defected entirely to save a Resistance pilot, and how the First Order despised him for it.
How he stood up and chose.
She writes about how simple it was for him to defect, how easy it was for him to break a tortured man free, take a TIE Fighter, and leave the First Order. Oh yes, there was danger on this path that none of them had previously considered was there, but the First Order had never considered how much damage a rogue tool could cause because they just decided to, in a choice that took only a second.
Then she writes about his reappearance, and how FN-2187 was then Finn, and refers to him as Finn for the rest of the story. Disguised in a falsely clinical and official tone, mentioning how the First Order does not approve nor recognize this new chosen designation, Doublo recognizes him as Finn, the person, the Stormtrooper who got himself a name.
It's possible for a Stormtrooper to do that, she writes into her story, to choose that: to become a named person instead of a numbered tool. She didn't know that before either, but Finn taught her different. He showed them all.
She writes about Finn meeting and flying with legends, about Finn joining the resistance and going to rescue his friend, about Finn destroying the Starkiller Base shield and oscillator, about Finn standing up against Kylo Ren and being saved in return by his friend.
Doublo takes special care to mention how he was just like them, with the same upbringing and training, and how any and all Stormtroopers have the exact same potential as him. How they all could be like Finn, who wouldn't pull the trigger, who wouldn't kill, who looked at the First Order murdering planets of people who had no say in the Republic or Resistance commanders' actions and made sure that the First Order could never do anything like that again.
It's the most dangerous thing she's ever written, by far, and it almost hurts to hold it.
But she's not done yet.
Doublo is a messenger pilot and she's seen more reports and memos and official documents than she can feasibly list, so it's no struggle for her to make it look somewhat like one of those things. It's still a story, biased towards its person, but she makes it sound like an official widespread informational memo, explaining to the troops the events that have recently happened.
There's even a little bit at the end stating how the First Order doesn't approve of such actions and will destroy any defectors who choose to be like FN-2187 and break free of their designation, like Finn did. Doublo hopes that it won't be taken as discouragement instead of the warning it's meant to be, because the First Order would burn Finn alive if they could and she doesn't want anyone to die like her.
oOo
At the end of the week, Doublo looks at the finished product in her shaking hand, then takes a deep breath, and takes the next step. The last one, which takes far less time – almost none at all. And while it's intensely stressful, it's incredibly simple as well, almost ridiculously easy, and that's wonderfully exhilarating and horribly frightening all at once.
Doublo enters the base commander's empty office, having waited for the perfect moment in both their schedules for this, and borrows his digital stamp of approval and code patterns and everything else she needs to send out a widespread, completely official message. She's carried enough of the damn things to know how their security works and how to fool it. With the base commander's unknowing assistance, her story will be sent out to every corner of the First Order, an unimportant and completely average informational memo to the lower ranks.
To the Stormtroopers.
She sends it out with the orders to pass it on farther, like is normally done, and to inform all lower First Order soldiers of its contents. This is an example of the dangers of treason and what comes from defying the First Order, and therefore must be spread to warn them away from deviation or defection.
This base, her base, is a stopover center for shipments and messages, so it's not unusual for them to be sending this kind of thing out. Everyone who receives it will assume that they either received it from a higher-up passing through or by their base, or from another base who received it from a higher-up, and pass it on diligently as these bases do – as her base does.
People have been waiting for a full explanation for Starkiller Base for awhile now, and Doublo is giving them that before the First Order can if they were ever going to.
It was a Stormtrooper, and his name is Finn.
She's breathing quickly inside her helmet while the order process, and her heart skips when it's sent. Doublo quickly exits the base commander's office, triple-checking that there is no sign at all that she was here – the man who owns this office switches off the security recording devices because he hates the feeling of being constantly watched, and that mistake is his problem.
Doublo is walking down the hall, away from her crime scene, and she can't quite believe that it was really that easy. She just chose to do it and then she did it and now it's done. Just like that. Just like that! Is this what Finn felt when he took that Resistance pilot and the TIE Fighter?
This... this... everything?
Oh, Doublo can barely breathe and her head feels dizzy inside her helmet! She can't believe that she just did that and now there's no way to undo it. She's only halfway down the hall and the information is already spreading throughout the First Order, landing in commanding officer inboxes to be read to their troops tomorrow morning or tonight before dormancy probably. It's gone now, out of her reach, and out of the First Order's reach too, even if they catch it quickly and realize it's significance.
But no matter what they do, a story can't be untold.
She's going to die for this. The First Order is going to hunt her own, the origin of Resistance Propaganda, and dismiss her instantly if they don't make her a painful example. She's going to die for telling the Story of Finn, probably, unless she grabs a TIE fighter and defects like he did.
Doublo holds her breath passing her first pair of fellow Troopers walking down the halls, and they don't pay her any attention in the slightest. She holds her breath passing the next bunch too, an entire patrol of Troopers that she doesn't know, but they don't pay her any attention either.
She just committed treason of a kind that will make her the example they can't make out of Finn and nobody knows it. Not yet, and that's almost enough to make her giggle. Giggle.
She's just like Finn and they have no idea. She's told the story they're trying their damnedest not to let out and she wants to run down the hallways and shriek, like all the ways a Stormtrooper should never even consider, like the way she was quickly trained out of when she was designated JN-1500.
But Doublo thinks about it, wants to so much, because she's just like Finn!
So high on her own giddiness and cleverness, Doublo has no time to react when she walks into her bunkroom and immediately gets her helmet slammed into the wall, her blaster stolen and sent skidding across the floor and under a bunk. And then slammed again into the wall in an unbreakable hold by powerful, unmerciful hands.
oOo
Author's Note: This fic is finished and chapters will be posted daily until it's complete. There will be 7 chapters.