"...I just realized something," Rey said.

Finn looked at her with something approaching dread. "Oh no."

"No, this one is better," Rey defended herself. "See… I got to thinking. I've been doing that a lot lately."

"That's why we're worried," Poe pointed out. "But keep going."

"Don't encourage her, man!" Finn hissed, then fell out of his handstand. "Ow."

"I'll encourage who I want," Poe shrugged. "Anyway, aren't you curious now?"

Finn looked torn.

"Damn it, all right," he said. "What is it that you were thinking of, anyway?"

"It's about what I'm going to have the Newer Jedi Order teach," Rey explained. "Or… well, a lot of things! Including if I'm going to call it a Jedi Order at all, that might come with too many connotations. But the main thing is that… I don't actually think the Dark Side is bad."

Both men stared at her.

"What are you talking about?" Poe asked.

"Yeah, I'm with him on this one," Finn agreed. "This is you saying something like that?"

"This is me saying something like that," Rey agreed. "There's two reasons for it-"

"Have you paid attention to the last, what, eighty years of galactic history?" Poe checked. "I'm not sure exactly how many years are involved but it's a lot."

Rey snorted.

"Yes, actually," she said. "And that's part of why I'm saying this. But the historical thing is actually second, the first part is philosophical. The Force is the mystical energy field that binds together the universe. It suffuses all things."

"Yeah, I'm familiar with that bit," Finn said. "That's why you want to teach me how to use it, 'cause you said, uh, that it was everyone, not everyone except some people. That was your last brainwave and I've been doing handstands for days!"

"Exactly," Rey confirmed. "But I went further than that. The Force is a mystical energy field that suffuses all things, and half of it is inherently bad?"

"I don't know, that seems like something that could be true," Poe frowned. "You know, the idea that light and dark are different is pretty fundamental."

"And the side of things that's evil includes love?" Rey asked, rhetorically.

Poe frowned.

"I don't know if it's that simple, but from all the stuff I've read being attached to the Dark Side means you're a total prick," he said.

"That's actually related to the other side of things," Rey said. "This is the bit where I remind you that I have paid attention to the last eighty years of galactic history, and I've got an alternative explanation."

She folded her arms. "It's my kriffing grandfather, that's who. As far as I can tell, he's responsible for literally all of the bad things that have ever happened since he was aged about ten."

Finn and Poe were silent.

"Think about it," Rey said. "Anakin Skywalker's fall to the Dark Side? Dooku's fall to the Dark Side? The Naboo Crisis? The Clone Wars? The Galactic Civil War was because of how monumentally evil he was, his promotion of that kind of evil is what led to the destruction of the sanctum on Jedha and… all the other things that I actually lost count of, and it's turned out he's even responsible for Snoke. Meaning the First Order, the turning of Ben Solo to the Dark Side, thus the loss of Luke's Jedi Academy and the entire war that we're still trying to clean up after!"

She ran out of steam, and glared at them.

"...uh," Poe said, slowly. "I… actually can't argue with that."

"That doesn't have to mean the Dark Side is not evil, though," Finn warned. "And don't forget, he didn't have anything to do with why slavery exists. It's been around since long before he was born."

Rey looked at him.

"...should I be scared?" Finn asked Poe.

"Probably," Poe replied. "Okay, so your grandfather is responsible for more things going wrong than anyone else in galactic history. What do we do with that information?"

"End slavery, is what we do," Rey answered.

Poe blinked. "Okay, you went down two pages at once. Did I miss something?"

"I don't think so," Finn replied. "This is just what happens when she gets rolling."

"Sheev claimed that striking down an unarmed man would lead to the Jedi doing it falling to the Dark Side," Rey said. "He used that defence at least three times that I know of and I had to be in a Light trance that I've never managed to pull off again to make it work without that happening. But there was no way of dealing with him that wouldn't involve killing him – he was simply too personally powerful. And the kinds of people who are the real lynchpin of slavery, who make the most money from it, aren't armed… but there needs to be a way to make justice stick."

She shook her head. "I haven't yet fully worked this out, but I think – I think thinking about how to end slavery is a good way to help work this out. Because if whatever I create can't deal with a problem like that, I need to do a better job to begin with."

"...who's Sheev?" Finn asked.

"I think it's the Emperor?" Poe guessed, hesitantly. "I know he had a stupid name, anyway."

AN:

Largely sparked by the realization that Sheev actually was responsible for almost literally everything that went wrong in the last two thirds of a century.