Rey closed her eyes, and reached for the Force.
It came easier every time, like her eyes were becoming sensitive to a shaft of light piercing the darkness… and some things about it felt so natural that it was easy to just sink into it, while there were other things the Force could do that Rey barely had a clue how it was even possible.
Master Skywalker had sent a projection of himself across thousands of light years, and it reminded her of the stories about how even the ability to destroy a planet was insignificant next to the power of the Force.
That thought jarred her, though, reminding her of the shiver of sickness she'd felt when Hosnian burned, and she shook her head before dropping out of trance.
She knew, from experience, that if she was in the wrong mindset then Kylo would be able to take notice – and their strange dyad wasn't something she wanted to take risks with.
"It'd be so much easier if I had someone to work through this with," she said. "Not someone trying to turn me to the Dark Side, just… someone to learn with."
Rey had spent a lot of time on her own, but she'd never have become the technician she was without someone teaching her a lot of the rules… and she'd come up with a few tricks herself that she'd been able to give Mashra or Ivano as a thank-you for their education.
No one person could have all the thoughts you needed to learn in the Force… and the books of how the first Jedi Order had worked were surprisingly unhelpful.
"Well, maybe they'll help with this," Rey decided, out loud, and reached out with the Force to tug them over to her.
They didn't have an index, because apparently the Force wasn't that convenient, and it was hard to read them – Rey sort of had to get into the right mindset – but it was good practice, and she started leafing through them.
"Finn!"
Finn looked up. "Rey? Is something wrong?"
"How could something be wrong?" Rose asked.
"Hey, I don't know," Finn replied, with an apologetic shrug. "But, I may not have known Rey for long, but that tone of voice means she's worked-up about something."
"I need to talk about this," Rey went on. "Finn, Rose, you can probably both help with this actually."
She brandished the books. "These are ancient Jedi texts, and I was reading through them to find out how the ancient Jedi found who could become a Jedi."
Rey began walking as she spoke, full of the same passion that Finn remembered as they flew the Millennium Falcon on that first chaotic day, and he and Rose sort of fell in behind her. "And it took me two hours to pore through them all, not really reading everything but just skimming through to find the bit where it talked about recruitment."
"And?" Finn asked. "I remember hearing that the Jedi Order took kids really young, is that part of it?"
"No!" Rey replied, rounding on them with a broad smile. "That's not part of it, because they didn't recruit that young. It says specifically that you recruit children who are old enough that they can choose whether or not to come along themselves."
She waved her hand. "But that's it! That's the only thing they used to tell who to recruit! And it goes straight from that to talking about how to strengthen the connection to the Force – it doesn't have anything at all about midichlorians, it doesn't say anything about-"
"Wait, wait, hold on," Finn requested, shaking his head a bit. "Midichlorians?"
"I think I've heard of them," Rose said, frowning to herself. "Weren't they something the old Jedi Order checked for?"
"They were the main way the old Jedi Order before the Fall tested for who could use the Force," Rey confirmed. "It was a kind of blood test, but – that's not the point here, or, not the whole point. Don't you see?"
Finn and Rose exchanged a slow glance, then both shook their heads.
"Look," Rey said, rummaging in her pockets for a datapad. "I was reading about this in the past, uh… here we go. This is from an account of the story of Nomi Sunrider, who was a really important Jedi four thousand years ago, that's during the Old Jedi Order but before the Ruusaan Reformations."
"You've lost me," Finn admitted. "How do you even remember all this stuff?"
"When did you have time to learn all this?" Rose added. "And from who?"
"All sorts of places," Rey answered "I've been trying to find out everything anyone else knows about how the Jedi used to operate, and their history, and R2-D2 has a lot in his data banks you wouldn't expect. But, uh… here it is. See, Midichlorian tests did exist back then, four thousand years ago I mean, but Nomi Sunrider didn't realize she was a Jedi until she was an adult – her husband was – look, that's not the point."
Rose suddenly looked confused. "But, wait. If they had Midichlorian tests, how didn't they know she was a Jedi?"
"That's just it," Rey replied. "The Force is an energy field that fills the universe. It surrounds us, and it binds the universe together. The universe, not the universe except for… well, most people."
She dropped the datapad back into her pocket. "I don't think there is such a thing as someone who is or isn't able to use the Force… just people who find it easier and harder."
"And the old Jedi Order never realized, because they were finding the people who did it easily and only taught them," Rose realized, following where Rey was going with this. "Then Midichlorians would be… what?"
"Like the glow from a plasma conduit," Rey replied. "A side effect of already having a good connection with the Force."
"You mean I could be a Jedi?" Finn asked. "Anyone could be a Jedi?"
Rey subsided a little. "I… don't know," she admitted. "I don't think anyone could – but I think a lot more people could than we'd guess from the old Jedi Order."
She smiled slightly. "And whether you could be a Jedi, Finn… I don't know. This is all guesswork. But maybe it's time to find out."
AN:
And a bit of thought about how to get some Kyle-Katarn style ex-Stormtrooper Force use into the Sequel Trilogy. Looping right back around into the way the Force was treated in the very first film, as something NOT inborn.
It might have given TROS, you know… a theme