Star Wars Oneshots

The Best of the Best (Finn)

Written for Fictober 2023 Day 26 on Tumblr!

Summary: Finn's not the first member of the First Order to defect, although he is the first Storm Trooper. An unexpected happy reunion comes when he first lands on a Resistance base.

Prompt: "Honestly, why would I care?"

A/N: Disclaimer, I have not seen the Force Awakens in literal years

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"The Millennium Falcon just landed outside!"

"General Solo is on it, from the Rebellion!"

"It's got an ex-Storm Trooper on it!"

The shouts of my fellow Resistance members echoed around me as they shouted and gossiped about the recent touchdown of a ship. I wove my way through the crowd, keeping one hand on my blaster. I needed to be ready.

A few years ago, I'd been part of the First Order. More than that, I'd been responsible for training the Storm Troopers we took from birth, helping indoctrinate them into the system. I'd been younger or the same age as most of them, and watching them go off to die in a pointless war had jump started my realization that we were the bad guys.

Once the realization had fully settled in, I'd up and left without looking back. I found the Resistance through my now best friend Poe Dameron, and I'd had a lot of valuable information to share with them. I'd been here for almost four years now, and not once had I seen a Storm Trooper defect. So, when I heard everyone whispering in the hallways about one stepping on base, I went into immediate red alert.

I made it out to the tarmac and immediately I noticed the Falcon. The ship was impossible to miss. I quickly scanned the crowd between me and the ship, and my best friend's signature jacket jumped out at me amidst everything else. But Poe had lost that jacket on Jakku in the process of his escape from the First Order.

The guy with Poe's jacket had his back to me, but as I approached, he turned around. I froze in my tracks, my mouth dropping open a little.

FN-2187 stared back at me. I barely remembered most of the people who'd come through the ranks of the First Order under my training. They all blurred together, and the guilt over everything I'd done to uphold the dictatorship was too much for me to look back on all I'd done with any kind of regularity. But I knew the man standing a few yards from me, beyond a shadow of a doubt. I'd know him anywhere.

He was one of the first people I'd been completely responsible for training without supervision, when I was around the same age as the classes I trained. He'd been the first one I'd ever felt a connection with, the first one I'd ever let myself get close to. We'd been friendly, we'd been supportive and understanding of each others' mistakes despite the First Order trying to make us be anything but. Before Poe, he'd been the closest I'd ever come to a best friend.

Unfortunately for both of us, the First Order had noticed how close we'd been getting. We'd been ripped apart immediately, and I learned quickly not to get attached to any more of my trainees. I'd never seen my friend again.

Until now. Now, we were face to face again, on a Resistance base free from the reach of the First Order. The side of my mouth quirked up in a small smile, he beamed back at me, and that was all it took to have me running across the tarmac to him.

I jumped up and wrapped him in a tackle-hug, which he quickly returned. He wrapped his arms around me tight and spun me around, then buried his face in my neck as we came to a stop. I squeezed him tight, not wanting to let go lest this all turn out to be a dream. From the way he held me, I could tell he felt the same.