In the briefing area on Atollon, Sabine stared at Hera and Commander Sato and said "You're sending me to infiltrate what?

"The ISB Academy on Coruscant," Sato repeated.

So she hadn't been hallucinating. "Why?

"We have reason to believe that the list of rebel sympathizers that Minister Tua promised us upon her defection is in the hands of Loyalty Officer Sid Uddra," Sato explained. "If you can retrieve it from her office, we would be able to make contact and expand our network of allies."

"I understand, but a long-term infiltration? Why not just send a slicer?"

"The ISB would notice any type of overt intrusion." Kallus said. "I would have been able to access it for you, but someone decided to steal a shuttle and defect from the Empire, and I had to adjust my position." He shot a look to his daughter by his side.

Swain cringed. "Guilty."

Kallus sighed, but it was obvious he didn't regret his decision to defect alongside Swain for a minute. "We can't go in either; we'd be recognized in a second."

"That's why we're sending Swain to assist the defectors at Skystrike and you to retrieve this information," Hera said. "You're our best candidate at getting inside. We've created a false identity and arranged for you to enter the academy with a newly arrived batch of cadets."

"I'll do your homework remotely so you can focus on the mission," Kallus said. "You'll have your hands full adjusting to the environment."

"And that's where I come in," Swain raised her hand. "Before I take off for Montross, I'll teach you everything you need to know about being an ISB trainee."

Sabine waved it off. "It wasn't that long ago I was in an Imperial academy. It can't be that hard."

Kallus and Swain shared a look.

"The ISB is … unique," he said.

The look on Swain's face made it clear that was a gross understatement. "It's not like any other Academy, that's for sure."

"You two can meet later and discuss it," Hera said. "Because you'll be inside the ISB, you won't be able to send reports or contact us outside of an emergency extraction signal."

"Sounds reasonable." Sabine nodded.

"Then it's settled. We'll brief you on your new identity, and then send you to talk with Swain."

The identity part was pretty straightforward: Ria Talla, model Imperial cadet with Sabine's academic records tweaked to suit her cover. She'd played the same character before, just with a different name, so she wasn't worried. She headed to Swain's quarters with a boost of confidence.

The confidence evaporated when she saw Swain sitting cross-legged on her bunk, chewing the inside of her cheek and absorbed with the comlink in her hand. Was … was that Words With Friends?

"Shouldn't you be brushing up on some flight simulators?" she joked.

Swain didn't laugh. "No, I'm trying to save your life."

"With Words With Friends?"

The comlink dinged and Swain let out a sigh of relief. "She accepted my friend request. Thank God."

"Friend request?"

"With your alias' age and academic level, you won't be running around the Academy taking classes. You're going to have a training officer, and it's imperative that you get the right one."

"Uddra, right? If I'm her trainee I'll have access to her office."

"Not Uddra; she'll make you in a second. If you're going to pull this off, then you need a cool training officer. Ideally, Agent Divo."

"What's so special about Agent Divo?"

"She's had six trainees and all of them love her. From all my interactions with her, she cares a lot but doesn't sweat the small stuff and knows how to be present and give you space at the same time. And because she's so close with her former trainees, no one would look twice if her current trainee was walking all over the ISB. They'd assume she was just on her way to see one of the others."

Sabine caught on. "It's like an all-access pass!"

Swain nodded. "That, and they'll buffer you from the worst of the chaos. So I reached out to my old friend to make it happen."

Sabine's bubble popped. "Your old friend in the ISB?"

Swain nodded and tapped out something on her comlink.

This was not happening. "You told an ISB agent about my secret rebel mission?!"

"You think you know what you're getting into, but you don't. You're going into a madhouse blind and without comms; someone needs to be looking out for you. And right now, this is the best option." The comlink dinged again and Swain checked the message. "She's agreed to help you."

Sabine tried not to make a face. Really, she did. But as distasteful as the idea was, she also didn't have a choice. "Fine. Who am I looking for?"

…

Against her better judgment, she didn't tell Hera that Swain was bringing in outside help. Sabine finished her mission prep, dyed her hair dark brown, and joined a shuttle of cadets bound for the ISB.

And now, here she was standing at attention in the lobby while the director of ISB himself addressed the gathered cadets.

"Welcome, future agents," Colonel Yularen said. "You have all accomplished much to be here, but as of right now, none of that matters. Today, you begin your educational journey to become full fledged members of the ISB. You will work, study, and be placed with training officers who will guide your study." Was Sabine losing it, or was there a twinkle in the old man's eye. "Perhaps you'll even meet your future training officer today.

"The two years you spend as a trainee of the Imperial Security Bureau will be the best and worst of your life, but I know you'll all enjoy the challenge. Because we only recruit the very best the Empire has to –."

Without warning, the door flew open and a young man in a trainee's uniform raced into the lobby, an older agent hot on his heels.

"What were you thinking?" The agent bellowed.

"I wasn't thinking! You know I never think!"

The agent replied with a yell and hurdled a bench to gain on his charge. It looked like the trainee was aiming to split through the lobby and out the door, but when he saw Yularen and the cadets standing in the middle he hesitated for a second. That was all the agent needed.

The trainee screeched as his mentor tackled him to the ground. "Collerand! Collerand, I can explain! I swear it's not that bad!"

"It's the end of the world, Calvin," Collerand muttered, and dragged Calvin back into the hallway.

"I'll clean it up! You won't even know it was there tomorrow!" Calvin pleaded.

Collerand shut the door, but everyone heard him. "How do you plan to clean up a broken pipe?!"

Colonel Yularen looked heavenward and sighed. "Ah, that explains the drips in my ceiling."

The cadet next to Sabine mouthed what the kriff while Yularen's eyes were averted, and all she could think was amen.

Yularen cleared his throat. "As I was saying, we only recruit the best the Empire has to offer and I expect you all will exemplify that fact. Your first class begins in ten minutes. Dismissed!"

He didn't need to say that twice. The cadets were out of there like bats out of hell and Sabine ran for the stairwell Swain had told her to wait in.

She came to a stop on the landing between flights, avoiding the drips of water most likely caused by Calvin's broken pipe. (She could still hear Collerand grilling him about turning off the water from however many levels above her.)

A display like that would never have flown at the academy on Mandalore. Nevermind the actual breaking of the pipe, but running from a superior officer? A superior officer chasing his trainee like Kanan when Ezra did something galactically stupid? Unheard of. And Colonel Yularen had barely blinked.

Maybe Kallus and Swain were onto something. The ISB really was a different breed.

"You must be Ria!"

At the top of the stairs was a young blonde woman with striking blue eyes and a smile that better fit a cheerleader than an imperial officer. Sabine was fairly sure she sported contraband lipgloss, and her hairstyle was holding onto regulation by a single bobby pin and prayer.

The girl pranced to Sabine's level, her grin never wavering.

"I'm Natalie Morgan, Agent Divo's trainee," she said. "My old roomie had a lot to say about you."

Swain, you'd better be good for this. "Did she?"

"Look, I'm not getting involved in whatever you're planning here." Morgan waved her hand. "Swain asked me to look out for you and show you the ropes. She said you probably wouldn't be prepared for this place." She paused. "Were you? You look like you've just been smacked in the face."

Being smacked in the face would probably be less of a shock. Sure, Kallus and Swain had told her that ISB was a madhouse, but nothing, nothing had prepared her for what she'd seen today. And now here she was in a stairwell with a freaking ISB officer who was apparently willing to commit treason after nothing more than a Words With Friends chat from her old roommate.

"I'm gonna take that as a no." Morgan patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, you're with big sis now."

"We're not siblings." She had plenty of those, thank you very much, and they most definitely did not include crazy imperials.

"You know, I actually said that to my brother a few years ago, and guess what? He's my brother." Morgan spun them around. "Come on, we can talk in my room."

"I have training in ten minutes." Morgan didn't react and Sabine went further. "Do…do you guys cut class too?"

"We're the ISB," she said like that explained everything. "Obviously."

She flounced off and Sabine's mouth dropped open. And then, not wanting to be left alone in this place with these crazy people, she ran after her.

…

"Technically, I have a roommate," Morgan explained while she unlocked her dorm. "But she shacked up with her boyfriend so I have the place to myself."

She opened the door and it became immediately obvious that the roommate's relationship had better work out. Morgan's belongings spread far beyond the invisible center line, and posters and holos covered the walls like wallpaper.

Sabine examined one. It was a group shot of a cheerleading squad in the middle of a stunt, with Morgan flying high at the top of the pyramid. Looked like Sabine's initial impressions were more accurate than she thought. "You're a cheerleader?"

"Yeah! I'm a flyer, but my real specialty is partner stunts." She pointed out another picture. "That's how I got here, actually. I got a cheer scholarship to Hosnian Prep and the ISB recruiter there almost passed out when he found out I wanted to study criminology."

Sabine remembered the recruiter at her school, and how flattered she was when he praised her design skills. Now she felt more like a bug under a microscope when she thought of it.

"Do you cheer too?" Morgan asked with the hopeful enthusiasm of someone who may have found a kindred spirit.

She focused back on the snapshot of Morgan doing what looked like a handstand balanced on one of her partner's hands. "No, but I do a lot of gymnastics."

"Cool. Maybe I could show you the gymnastics equipment in the gym?"

"Yeah, maybe." Maybe the gymnastics equipment was somewhere near Uddra's office? Somehow Sabine doubted it.

Morgan patted the roommate's bed and Sabine accepted the silent instruction. She took a seat next to a picture of Morgan and Swain at some concert.

Morgan sat down on her own bed. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Didn't Swain tell you?"

"You can only say so much over Words With Friends. She told me that you were coming, that you needed help, and that if you pulled this off then Uddra would get humbled. Please, fill in the blanks."

Here went nothing. Sabine took a deep breath and explained her top secret rebel mission to an ISB officer. "I've been sent to retrieve information from Agent Uddra's office. She has a list of possible rebel sympathizers that we would really like to get our hands on."

"And you're certain the list is here, and not at her office on Virkoi?"

Sabine nodded. "The digital watermarks are from headquarters. We know it's going to be heavily secured, so Command authorized me for a long term mission. Six months, maybe even a year."

"You have six weeks."

"What?" Sabine almost fell off the bed. "Why? What's in six weeks?"

"The training assignments, for one," Morgan said. "Right now you have some freedom, but once you become a specific agent's problem you can barely go to the refresher without them knowing. Trust me, I've been there. And two, Agent Divo's birthday."

Sabine sat there while that computed in her mind. Then, when she was sure she wasn't going to run screaming, she asked "What does Agent Divo's birthday have to do with anything?"

"It's the whole reason I'm doing this. Uddra's a psychopathic bitch who tortures anyone she can get her hands on, including her trainees. Especially her trainees. One day, Divo walked in on her breaking a boy's toes and telling him that if he screamed, she'd break his fingers too."

There was the ISB Sabine had been expecting. "Doesn't everyone here get tortured?" she snarked. "Or, what did Kallus call it, undergo anti-interrogation training?"

Morgan made a face. "I won't lie, anti-interrogation training sucks, but it's administered by professionals in a simulator, and your training officer doesn't do it. You're supposed to trust them and you can't do that if you think they're going to electrocute you at any moment. When Mom saw what was happening, she was pissed. She ran in, stomped on Uddra's foot and broke her toes, and told her not to dish it out if she couldn't take it."

"What happened after that?"

"Well Uddra went to Medical to get her foot scanned –."

"No, to the boy."

She brightened and pointed out a holo of a man in a bolo-ball jersey. "Mom took him back to her office to write Uddra up, and now he's my brother Reid."

"Wow." Sabine blinked. "I guess that worked out."

"Yeah. Moral of the story, Mom hates Uddra. Haaates her with the white hot heat of a thousand suns. So if I snagged a holo recording of Yularen reading Uddra the riot act, that would make a pretty great birthday present."

"So you're laying out your career and your life for a birthday present?"

Morgan paused while that sunk in, and then shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much. Besides, it's been totally boring here ever since Swain took off and I need something to keep me entertained."

And with that, Sabine was officially out of words. She just … sat there while Morgan waited expectantly, and eventually managed a "what."

"You'll catch flies like that." Morgan hopped off her bed and started rattling around the dorm. "Do you have any stuff? If so, bring it here. You can bunk with me."

She didn't know if that was actually a better option than the cadet barracks, but she wasn't about to make an enemy out of this girl. "I didn't bring anything."

"That makes things easier." Morgan swiped a box of cheerleading paraphernalia off the bunk and stuffed it somewhere Sabine couldn't see. "We'll get you settled here and then I'll introduce you to everybody. If all goes well, you can hang out with Divo or one of my sisters while I'm at practice."

Maybe one of the sisters had some information to get her into Uddra's office. Sabine put on her mission hat. "What do I do?"

…

"Agent Divo's office is this way." Morgan called a lift. "Just stick with me and remember – new cadet, possible training officer, good impression!"

Reading between the lines, Sabine settled on a nervous-but-excited expression. "Okay. Thanks so much for all your help."

"Anything for a fellow gymnast." The lift doors opened and expelled a man in his thirties and a young blonde girl in her early teens. Morgan brightened seeing them. "Koracik, Lily! Are we still on for pizza after the game?"

"Not me," Lily moped. "I have to study, ugh."

"You'll live." Koracik elbowed her. "Yeah, the rest of us are still on. Who do you have with you?"

"Hopefully our newest sister." Morgan grabbed Sabine and pulled her into the lift.

"Hey wait a second, I was going to introduce Divo to –."

"Snooze you lose, Koracik!" The lift doors closed and she addressed Sabine. "Agent Koracik, my eldest brother, and his trainee Lily. They work cyber crimes downstairs and live off juice pouches and chaos."

"She has a training officer that young?" Sabine asked. "Everyone else is at least seventeen."

"Lily got recruited after she hacked into Aldera City's mainframe and closed all the government buildings because she was massively bored at school and wanted to play hooky," Morgan explained. "She was either going to be an ISB agent or a black hat hacker, so we beat the darknet to the punch. Cyber crimes let her skip introductory classes and learn directly under Koracik."

Sabine, who had also been bored to tears before the Academy set her loose in a lab, could relate. "Is it working out for them?"

"It's a match made in computer heaven." The lift doors opened and they were on the office floor. Morgan lowered her voice. "Ten o'clock, mean case of mean face. That's Uddra in front of her office."

Sabine looked and instantly believed everything Morgan had told her about Uddra. Her target wasn't physically imposing, about Sabine's own height, with squat and flat features. But something about her radiated "all-seeing evil bitch." The office itself was locked with a keypad, and Uddra was shielding the code from view with her hand. Man, that would have been really useful.

"Is Divo's office nearby?" She asked.

Morgan snorted. "After the toes incident, Uddra moved as far away as she could. It's down the hall, come on."

They walked a little farther and came to a stop in front of another office, where Morgan announced "I'm back!" and pressed the door control.

It was a standard Imperial office, but the woman behind the desk was anything but standard. It wasn't her appearance; her uniform and hairstyle were unremarkable, and she had kind brown eyes, but like Uddra she gave off an aura. Unlike Uddra, this aura was not evil. It was "Hera Syndulla."

Morgan pranced in, seemingly immune to the woman's presence. "Did you see the new cadets are here?"

"I did." The agent sized up Sabine. "It appears you have as well."

Morgan gestured to Sabine. "Divo, this is Ria Talla. She's going to be a trainee next cycle."

"Pleased to meet you," Sabine said and extended her hand.

"The pleasure's mine." Divo shook. "How are you settling in?"

"It's an adjustment for sure," That was the mother of all understatements. "But Morgan's been very helpful."

"Good to know she's leading by example. How did you meet?"

Plausible lie, plausible lie … "At the gymnastics equipment. She told me she cheered and we got to talking."

"The gym?" Divo raised an eyebrow at Morgan. "So Morgan was tumbling instead of eating her lunch like I told her to?"

Morgan threw Sabine a look which needed no translation. "It was just a few stunts; I didn't even need to get changed."

"You were stunting in your uniform," Divo said flatly.

"Not my ISB uniform."

Divo threw up her hands. "How many times have I told you not to wear your cheer pants underneath your uniform trousers?!"

"They're comfortable!" Morgan protested. "How are they different from regular underwear?"

Divo didn't answer her. "Cadet Talla, did you two eat?"

Sabine tried to save Morgan. "We had some bars." It was true. They ate some bars … chocolate bars.

"Natalie Morgan!" Divo admonished her charge and Sabine instinctively whipped around to look for Hera. "You're an athlete, you know you need to fuel your body properly, with real food and not kriffing bars. Allow me to make this clear: I am not picking you up off the floor again. Don't make me take my slipper off."

Morgan gulped. "Yes ma'am."

With Morgan chastened, Divo turned to Sabine with a pleasant, curious look. "So, Talla, what field do you think you'd like to specialize in?"

"I'm not sure yet," Sabine said. "Right now, the plan is to keep my options open and see what I like best." And stake out Uddra's office for the best moment to break in. Details.

"And that's why I wanted to introduce you two." Morgan butted back in. "You have six trainees in six different specialties, so Ria can see what they're all like. It would be like a speedrun!"

Divo wasn't buying. "This is all for Ria's benefit, not a ham-handed attempt to choose my next trainee?"

"Well, she has to observe your specialty too. Come on Divo, what's the worst that could happen?"

"With you six?" Divo hooted. "I don't even want to know. But I do know that if I don't agree to it, you'll just do it anyway. I'm getting ahead of this before it ends up in Yularen's office."

"So…?" Morgan grinned like the lunatic Sabine suspected everyone at the ISB secretly was.

"Ria, you can shadow Morgan and I until you receive your official training assignment." The girls cheered and she added "As long as it doesn't interfere with your classes!"

"It won't," Sabine promised and pumped Agent Divo's hand like an over-eager cadet. "Thank you so much, Agent Divo."

"I'll take her to meet the others!" Morgan grabbed Sabine by the wrist and pulled her out of the office. "You won't regret this!"

From the look on her face right before the office doors shut, Divo knew that she was totally going to regret it.