CHAPTER ONE

REBEL BASE, YAVIN FOUR

POST-MISSION

"Captain…"

Cassian Andor leaned forward, the grim set of his mouth deepening. The operating table wasn't big enough for all seven plus feet of his security droid, although it had managed to hold up well enough beneath K-2SO's inhuman weight. The droid was hooked to a mobile command console, like a Rebel human to a heart monitor. There was a small crowd of engineers gathered around the projected hologram, muttering in low tones.

"… please tell me my receptors are malfunctioning and that is not Jyn Erso standing behind you."

Cassian turned and rose, his expression tight. A faint sheen of perspiration gave his skin a fevered glow beneath the fierce facility lights. The captain stepped aside wordlessly to allow the Rebel woman access to his seat. He ran a hand over his stubble and moved off, and Jyn sagged down onto his vacated stool.

Like the rest of them, Jyn Erso the looked worse for wear. Then again, K-2SO had never known her to look otherwise. Her self-cut hair was tangled into filthy segments; soot streaked her pale, bloodless face. She looked thinner than ever, even though K-2 had known her to sneak more than her allotted provisions time and time again. Only her eyes glimmered with mute life above her slack, miserable expression as she took him in.

The droid lay in uncharacteristic silence for a long moment. "I told you what the odds were," he said finally. "I don't know why you bother bringing me along at all if you aren't going to listen to what I have to say."

The droid supposed it was more fitting to speak of missions in the past tense at this point, and wondered why he had avoided doing so. His armor was riddled with blaster entry points. His innermost circuits were bared; several of them sparked blue occasionally, but there were few that hadn't been cauterized by plasma when they were severed.

There had been only a momentary pause in the assault, in the instant he stepped out in front of Jyn, before the enemy soldiers realized he was no longer one of theirs and opened fire. She had been stranded without cover when Imperial backup arrived, but K-2SO's self-insertion in the proceedings had bought the Rebel enough time to shelter beneath him and take them all out.

Best not to dwell on the consequences. He wasn't human. He didn't process pain. What he did process was the expression of anguish on the woman's face. His receptors flickered slightly, almost as if he was blinking.

"You look distressed, Jyn Erso." The tart accent was still there, but the observation was audibly quieter. The droid was aware of the others in the room and adjusted his pitch to a more private setting. "Are you angry that Imperial forces robbed you of your chance to dismantle me? In fact, I'm not so certain one of these holes wasn't caused by you. Was I hit from behind? I can't recall. Perhaps you are exactly as opportunistic as I've always thought you were."

Jyn's hand jerked for her hip holster, but it appeared her weapons had been confiscated upon arrival. She aborted the move at the last second; still, K-2SO could see that her hand shook at her side with barely-checked emotion.

"How dare you?" she whispered furiously. "Why would you risk yourself for me?" Her brittle voice cracked on the word.

She asked him why? There was no adequate explanation 'why'. Maybe the droid would have compiled a sound theory for her once upon a time, but that part of his processing had already shut down. At least his winning personality was still fully operational.

"I was built to be a weapon," K-2 replied. "To be used by the Empire, and then by the Rebels. I don't hate what I am. My self-esteem has never been higher."

Cassian quietly snorted from where he leaned against the back wall with his arms crossed.

"But in the end, I chose to be a shield."

The droid felt strangely comfortable telling her all this. Jyn was also a weapon, albeit one that had tried—and failed—to take her own agency into her hands time and time again. She hadn't been programmed from birth for the war, like he had, but her father's name and blood assured her a square on the galactic Dejarik board whether she wanted it or not.

Would she press him for a better answer? K-2 wasn't sure himself what it was. Projected behind the droid, unbeknownst to him, his file on Jyn Erso was accessed, alongside logs of the calculations he had commenced and never finished running before stepping out in front of her. His split-second reaction had originated from someplace else. The engineers exchanged another weighted look at this discovery. To them, there was no accounting for the droid's response outside of a glitch.

"I hope you didn't lose your blaster," K-2SO mentioned. Nothing she did ever escaped him. "They're going to need you now more than ever. Oh well, I suppose you can always 'find' another one."

He lurched off the table suddenly, a pantomime of a man having a seizure, as a misfire in his circuits sent a shock through him. The engineers attempting the system download reared back from the hologram. Cassian came forward at once to pull his subordinate out of her seat. "Jyn, get back," the captain said tersely.

There were many reasons why Jyn Erso shouldn't be near him in his final moments. He might revert to his old programing. An accidental flail might knock her flat or cave in what unbroken ribs she had left. Still, it was the first time the droid found himself actively wishing she would disobey the captain's orders.

And disobey Jyn did. She threw Cassian's hands off her and nearly upended the stool. The captain backed off immediately, although he didn't retreat far. His own face was a mask of misery, but he kept the blade of his emotion buried to the hilt, as always. The damage on the inside was already done, but he wouldn't alert anyone to it. He would bear his own pain alone.

"The Rebellion needs you!" Jyn shouted. "You're a lot more useful to them than I'll ever be! Who's going to stop me from flying off with more blasters than I can carry? Look alive, Kay-Two!" She kicked the side of the table. "Or I'll make off with an entire ship while I'm at it!"

"Oh, I have no doubt you'll take everything with you that isn't nailed down," K-2SO remarked. "And when they blow you out of low orbit my sacrifice will have been for nothing."

Their quarrel was rapid-fire. They were running out of time. There was a desperate quality to the exchange, as if neither could stand to leave so many rapier cuts undelivered, so many insults untraded. Every retort was an observation of a perceived fault, a singular trait, as if to say: I see you. I've seen you all along.

She could kick the table all she wanted. She could tell the unliving to look alive. She could pray to the Force or to the limited resources of the Rebel engineers, or both, but the droid didn't need to run diagnostics to know what the odds were.

"You're trembling." His digits flexed off the table towards her and captured her unflinching fist in his own. "Cold in here. That's the thing about being a droid: you're never warm."

He was starting to relay nonsense. It appeared as if Jyn Erso would be allowed to have the last conscious word after all.

"Captain, can I speak to you?"

Cassian turned to a hovering medic, pain seeped into every line and furrow of his face. "We're losing him," the woman whispered hastily. "We're going to lose it all if we don't act quickly."

"Were you able to download the map to the enemy facility?"

"That's a negative, Captain."

"And the procedure…?"

"It's something that's never been attempted before. On the outer planets, maybe, but not here." The medic shifted uncomfortably. "The pilot has already been informed of the chances of success, and has given his consent to perform it postmortem. He passed just a moment ago."

Cassian grimaced. "What about Kay? Has he given his consent?"

"We're beyond that now," the medic intoned. "The droid's processing is shutting down. He'll begin cycling through old conversations as his memory wipes. Every second we expend debating the ethics we risk further data loss. Every moment the pilot's brain becomes less viable." She paused before continuing. "There's just the matter of…"

Two pairs of weary eyes fell on Jyn Erso's hunched shoulders. "I'll take care of her," Cassian said quietly. "You just do what has to be done."