Work Text:
Cassian was in a meeting. A meeting that reprogrammed imperial droids were not allowed to take part in. Which K-2SO found incredibly annoying. He was just going to learn everything spoken about from Cassian anyway. Why couldn't he sit in on it? He had promised to keep all of his sarcastic commentary to his processor if that would help his odds of getting in, but his request had still been denied. At least Cassian had had the decency to look just as annoyed about the verdict as K-2 was when he'd told the droid he had been ordered to stay outside. Well, Cassian hadn't said where outside, and it wasn't like K-2 was banned from walking around the base, so he'd decided to go do something productive. Which was observing the other Alliance members in their natural habitat. Cassian might call it “people watching.” K-2 called it data collection.
The biggest problem with his ability to analyze situations and calculate accurate probabilities was something he'd begun calling the “organic factor.” Namely, the fact that organics could be wildly unpredictable, and it completely ruined many of his predicted simulations. So he'd taken to observing organics to try to collect more data. Everything had a pattern if you looked hard enough. And he couldn't just observe Cassian either. From the brief times when K-2 and Cassian had worked with other organics on a mission, he could tell that his human was something of an outlier among other organics. So no, he had to observe more standard ones.
When he'd first started “people watching,” K-2 had resigned himself to a dull but necessary task, but instead, surprisingly, he'd found himself somewhat entertained by the pastime. As long as nobody knew he was there, or thought that he wasn't paying attention, he got to hear all sorts of gossip. Of course, it was easier said than done to remain unnoticed. Especially for a 2.16 meter ex-imperial enforcer droid. He'd found the best method was to find a shadowy corner and hold perfectly still, dimming the glow of his photoreceptors and feigning low power mode. Cassian had called it creepy the few times he'd found the droid like that, but K-2 found it worked rather well all things considered. The organic eye was often drawn to movement after all, and if anyone did notice him, they'd assume he was powered down and wasn't watching their every move. It was a good strategy.
Today K-2 had picked a corner of the main hangar for his data collection while he waited for Cassian's meeting to end, but unfortunately nothing of note or interest had happened so far. He had seen a mechanic smash their hand against the edge of the panel they were working under and let loose a very colorful array of swear words from about fifteen different systems, which K-2 had found very amusing, but other than that, the chatter of the few organics in the room had been minimal and mostly about work or brief passing greetings. Well, “people watching” couldn't always be rewarding, he supposed.
He was in the middle of considering actually going into low power mode to speed up the process of waiting when he heard new voices enter the hangar. He immediately tuned his audioreceptors in that direction.
“—meeting took forever! What exactly were you guys talking about in there?”
K-2 internally perked up, making sure not to move physically. Meeting? Was it the one Cassian went to? If it was, then finally . According to his internal chronometer, the meeting had run late by seventeen minutes and twelve seconds so far.
“I just had to report on my last mission,” the subjects of K-2’s current interest came into view around the corner. Three male humans walking in a rough line. The speaker’s posture indicated he was annoyed, “I don't know why, it's not like anything interesting happened. General Draven kept asking questions though. It felt like an interrogation! And it didn't help that that one captain was there looming in the corner just staring at me the whole time. He didn't even say a word!” The speaker stopped walking and visibly shivered, “What's that dude’s problem?”
“Who?” The companion on the left asked, he and the second companion having stopped too so they were all standing in a loose circle.
The first speaker waved a hand around in that nonsensical way organics sometimes did. “You know, that one captain that hardly ever talks to anyone and usually does solo missions? Often has that creepy imperial droid shadowing him?”
K-2’s focus sharpened even more. There was only one imperial droid on this base, and only one person he “shadowed.” They were talking about Cassian .
“Oh Andor?” The second companion asked, and the first speaker snapped his fingers and pointed at him.
“Yeah that's the one. That guy weirds me out. Have you ever seen him socializing with anyone? Every time I see him he's always lurking on the edge. And he's got this like . . . haunted look about him. It's like he's a ghost,” he shivered again, “The guy’s got issues.”
K-2 found his dislike for this human rising by the second. He connected with the Alliance database and ran a facial recognition search for the speaker. It pulled up a file. Private Jareli Hircalt. New recruit. One basic supply mission under his belt. A nobody who had done basically nothing of importance. Certainly not someone who was authorized to talk badly about a captain. Behind said Captain’s back no less.
“I've heard rumors about him,” the second companion said, “He usually only takes solo missions, or takes that droid with him. I've heard from some people who have worked with him that he's ruthless and he doesn't care about anyone he works with and would just as easily put a blaster bolt through a teammate as he would a stormtrooper if he felt he needed to to complete the mission.”
Well . . . that wasn't entirely untrue. Cassian would do what was necessary, and what his superiors told him was necessary, to complete a mission. But it didn't mean he didn't care. K-2 had seen the captain drunk enough to forget several hours worth of his memories after hard missions many times, usually assassinations, and he'd found that organics tended to do things like that because they cared and didn't want to. Emotions were . . . strange things. Why couldn't organics just turn them off? That seemed much easier.
“Hey, how much you wanna bet that he’s an ex imp?” Jareli suddenly said, and that brought K-2’s musing to a screeching halt.
“Why?” The first companion asked, tilting his head in the way organics did when they were confused.
“Think about it. He always works alone. What if he's trying to hide from other rebels that he used to be what we’re fighting against? I bet he was an imp that did something terrible and decided to change sides. Maybe he caused a massacre or some big tragedy. That would explain the haunted look.”
“It could also explain the imperial droid . . .” The second companion said slowly, a hand on his chin in a thoughtful look, “But even if he was, does it matter? Lots of us are ex imperial right?”
“Yeah I guess, I don't know,” Jareli said with a dismissive way of his hand, “But there's just . . . there's just something about Andor, you know? He stares at you like he's trying to figure out the best way to kill you.”
“I think you're just paranoid,” the first companion said with a snort, and Jareli glared at him.
“I'm serious! There's something not right about that guy, and I hope I never get assigned to work with him, because I'll be worried the entire time that he's gonna put a bolt in my back.”
Jareli now had a personal file in K-2’s database, and he was quickly dropping in the ranks of organics that K-2 knew about and tolerated, landing squarely in the “dislike with extreme prejudice” category. Cassian was not disloyal, and would never kill a team member. That would completely derail a mission. Cassian already had enough problems with rumors circulating about him because of his introverted nature without this upstart adding to them.
Before either of his companions could reply, K-2 switched on his vocabulator and spoke in a loud voice, “I don't think you should be speaking about a captain that way Private Jareli.”
K-2 felt a stab of fierce satisfaction as all three humans flinched dramatically before whipping around wildly to find the source of his voice. The second companion’s eyes fell on him and K-2 watched as all the blood visibly left his face.
“Jare. . .” He said, reaching out blindly to pat at his shoulder and point at K-2. Jareli looked around, a furious glare on his face that vanished immediately when he saw K-2 looming in the corner.
K-2 decided to finally unlock his joints, standing up a little straighter and relighting his photoreceptors as he began to take slow, deliberate steps toward the three humans.
The two companions immediately took a few steps back, just like K-2 had expected, but in a show of bravery that the droid thought was pretty foolish, Jareli stood up a little straighter and stuck his chin out defiantly as K-2 approached, the initial shock at seeing the droid carefully buried by a new glare.
“Why is it any of your business droid,” he shot back with a snarl that made both of his companions look at him with expressions a mix between incredulous and afraid. Probably for the idiot’s safety. It seemed the two companions had a little more sense than Jareli, and so for now K-2 ignored them, stopping in front of the person who was quickly becoming one of his least favorite organics and staring down at him. He easily towered over the human, who was maybe only a few centimeters taller than Cassian, and K-2 felt another sharp stab of satisfaction as he saw a flicker of fear pass through Jareli’s eyes.
“I believe anything pertaining to Captain Cassian Andor is my business, considering we’re partners,” K-2 kept his voice light and conversational, tilting his head slightly in an imitation of organic mannerisms. He hoped the combination would unnerve the idiot still standing defiantly before him.
Jareli scoffed, but otherwise didn't reply. Instead his gaze fell to K-2’s shoulder, and the droid watched pure hatred enter his gaze. It was an expression he was familiar with. One could expect it wearing the Imperial gear in a rebel base.
“I'm not going to listen to an imperial droid,” Jareli spat, and K-2 vented some air in an approximation of a sigh. Where did the rebellion find these lower lifeforms?
“I am no longer an imperial droid,” K-2 said, letting annoyance slip into his voice, “And Cassian is not and never has been imperial either,” he added sharply, standing a little straighter and looking down at his newest adversary.
He was rewarded with a brief flash of uncertainty before the hatred was back. Jareli gestured at K-2’s shoulder.
“Why do you still wear that then?” He accused, enough venom in his voice to kill. Luckily, being a droid, K-2 was immune to venom.
“I’d hardly be good at undercover espionage if I were wearing the starbird,” K-2 rolled his photoreceptors, “Honestly, has the Rebellion become so desperate that they're recruiting people without brains?”
“What did you say to me?!” Jareli, in a remarkable display of idiocy that immediately supported K-2’s previous statement, stepped forward with arms raised as if to shove the droid one and a half times his size. A big mistake. K-2 had agreed to never attack first in altercations when Cassian had practically ordered him to stop attacking people who bothered him on base, but K-2 had managed to negotiate a loophole: he was allowed to defend himself if someone else attacked first. And a shove was all the invitation K-2 needed, even if he knew it would never land.
Quicker than any of the organics present could track, K-2 stepped fluidly to the side as Jareli lashed out, which immediately unbalanced him. An opening that K-2 took. He made sure not to strike hard enough to break bone, but he knew Jareli’s shin would be a very colorful bruise in an hour or two as K-2’s foot cracked against it.
Jareli went down with a yowl of pain, and his two companions seemed torn between rushing to his aide, and staying a safe distance from the KX droid in front of them. Again, K-2 noted that they seemed to be smarter than their friend, though he kind of wished they would also attack him. He was itching for a fight now.
“It's not wise to attack a droid you know is capable of eliminating you,” K-2 said mockingly as he stared down at Jareli, who was lying on the ground holding his shin, his teeth clenched in pain. He was tempted to kick him again, but figured Cassian probably wouldn't approve of that. He was also tempted to goad Jareli into attacking him again, but K-2 decided it wasn't worth his time. He would rather go find Cassian instead. After all, if this idiot was in the meeting with him, then clearly his presence here meant it was over. But as K-2 turned away, he couldn't resist adding, “I hope you've learned your lesson.”
He took one step away from the loathsome human, and then paused as he heard three things. A frantic shuffling noise like someone hauling themself to their feet, two shocked gasps from the companions, and the whine of a blaster preparing to fire. Well alright then, if he insisted, who was K-2 to refuse?
“How about I put a hole through your head you malfunctioning piece of scrap!” Jareli shouted as K-2 turned back around, unsurprised to see a blaster pointed up at him.
“I happen to be working perfectly fine. Maybe it is you who has the malfunction,” K-2 retorted, nodding pointedly to the blaster. Jareli was wobbling dangerously, likely only putting enough weight on his newly injured leg to remain upright. The effort was making his arms, and the blaster held in both hands, tremble violently. All in all, K-2 wasn't worried at all about the possibility of being shut down.
A flash of rage broke across Jareli's face, and K-2 noticed the twitch of his hand on the trigger before he fired. The bark of the blaster echoed in the hangar as K-2 stepped forward, tilting his head only a little to dodge the off center bolt and grabbing the blaster with an outstretched hand. With a sharp jerk he yanked the blaster, and consequently Jareli, who was still holding tight to it, toward him, crushing the barrel with a shriek of metal and shower of sparks. He twisted the gun sharply to the side and Jareli cried out in pain as he was unable to to let go of the gun fast enough with the hand still on the trigger, and K-2 heard a loud pop.
Jareli staggered back, letting go of the mangled blaster, which K-2 carelessly tossed to the side, clutching at his wrist as he yelled in agony and fury. K-2 took a step toward him, preparing to further incapacitate the idiot before he tried to attack him again, but he paused as he heard the whirring of two more blasters powering up.
“Woah woah woah hey!” one of the companions shouted. Both of them had drawn their blasters and were looking up at him with fear and anger, probably because K-2 had just broken their friend’s wrist.
K-2 mentally sighed. And he'd thought those two were smart. He analyzed both of their positions and the way the second companion's finger trembled on the trigger, calculating the best approach to incapacitate both of them without getting shot himself in less than a second.
He took a lunging step toward the first companion. Both humans yelled, and the second companion's finger slipped on the trigger as he clumsily danced backward away from K-2. The scream of the blaster bolt going wide drowned out the cry of pain from K-2 smacking the first companion in the chest with his forearm before he could fire, sending him sprawling backward on the ground and his blaster skidding out of reach. K-2 whipped around to the second companion as he heard him preparing to fire again, reaching out for the blaster, and—
“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!? STOP THIS AT ONCE!”
The shout made K-2 freeze in place, fingers inches away from the trembling blaster. Drat. And he was just starting to have fun. After making sure the second companion wasn't about to fire despite the shout, K-2 straightened and turned toward the voice to see a very angry General Draven marching toward them. K-2’s frustration and disappointment lessened somewhat as he saw a very frazzled looking Cassian hurrying after him.
“Wait wait wait!” Cassian stammered, hurrying in front of Draven, holding his hands out like he was about to physically stop the General, “I’m sure there's an explanation.”
“There better be Andor,” Draven frowned as he pulled up short before glaring over at K-2, who was keeping an audioreceptor on the companion behind him in case he decided to ignore the General’s order. So far it didn't seem likely. “ Why is your droid attacking rebel soldiers?”
“They attacked first. I was defending myself,” K-2 groused, annoyed that the General would assume he attacked first. That was a hurtful stereotype, immediately assuming the murder droid was the one to attack first.
Draven scoffed like he didn't believe him before turning back to Cassian. “Just get your droid under control,” he snapped. Then he turned to look at the three interlopers who had started this whole thing, the two companions having helped Jareli to his feet, supporting him so he didn't fall over again, “You three, come with me.” As the three idiots shuffled nervously past K-2 and hurried as fast as they could with one of their own limping toward the General, Draven leaned closer to Cassian and hissed in a voice quiet enough that likely K-2 and Cassian were the only ones who could hear it, “I do not want a repeat of this, do you understand? There will be consequences.”
Cassian nodded stiffly, and K-2 took note of the way his shoulders tensed as Draven turned and marched away with Jareli and his posse stumbling after. Cassian sighed, hunching over slightly as he put one hand on his hip and the other reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. The small crowd that had gathered around once the fight had started seemed to sense that the drama was over, and they quickly scattered, either going back to work, or hurrying away, likely not wanting to get caught up in the aftermath.
Well, that probably could've gone better.
K-2 took a step toward Cassian, hunching forward slightly in a futile effort to make himself closer to Cassian's height. “Cassian—” he started, but he didn't get to finish as his partner rounded on him, his brows drawn together in anger and stress.
“What the kriff were you thinking??” he snapped, slicing a hand angrily through the air, “Most of the base already doesn't trust you, do you want to make that worse??”
“I was defending myself,” K-2 repeated indignantly, and Cassian barked a noise somewhere between a laugh and a scoff.
“You and I both know that’s not true,” Cassian pointed up at him, “You may not have thrown the first punch, but I know you started it. Why can't you just keep your mouth shut? ”
“I do not have a mouth,” K-2 said on reflex, and Cassian gave him a long-suffering look.
“What did you do to rile them up so much?” He asked with a sigh, shoulders slumping in defeat, like he knew he wasn't going to win any arguments with K-2 today. Honestly, Cassian should've learned by now that he never would.
“They were being rude, and I wanted to set them straight,” K-2 replied stiffly, feeling another spark of annoyance as he remembered the overheard gossip.
“Why didn't you just ignore them?” Cassian groaned, rubbing a hand over his face, “Whatever they said about you, it can't be worth a fight.”
“Not me. It was what they said about you ,” K-2 explained, and then tilted his head in surprise as Cassian froze, hand only partway lowered from his face. He was still for long enough that K-2 was actually worried that his brain had broken. “Cassian?”
Cassian blinked and shook his head slightly before turning it to look up at him with an expression K-2 hadn't yet logged the meaning of.
“I—I don't care what they say about me, ok?” He said, and K-2 stood up a bit straighter, ready to tell Cassian that he most certainly did, but before he could Cassian continued, “Just . . . don't get into anymore fights ok? Please? I don't need the General breathing down my neck about this right now.”
K-2 wanted to argue, he really did, but as he took in Cassian's slumped posture, the dark circles under his eyes, and the messy state of his hair, likely from running his fingers through it one too many times, he decided now wasn't the time.
“Alright,” he agreed reluctantly, before adding, “I don't like it though.”
Cassian let out a breath that might've been a weak attempt at a laugh.
“Thanks Kay.” K-2 nodded in response and watched as Cassian stretched, hearing a few of his vertebrae pop before the human sighed, “That meeting took forever.”
“Yes,” K-2 agreed, “I still don't see why I can't attend with you. You're just going to tell me everything that happened anyway.”
Cassian snorted, wordlessly patting K-2 on the arm before turning to walk away. K-2 followed behind.
“I could give input too,” he continued his argument even though he knew it was futile, “My specialty is strategic analysis after all.”
“I know Kay,” Cassian said, “But the General doesn't want you to.”
“Well then the General is a fool,” K-2 said simply, and Cassian stopped abruptly with a noise that sounded a little bit like he was being strangled. K-2 only managed to stop in time before running Cassian over. “Are you choking?” He asked, hoping that he wasn't because K-2 didn't know what to do for an organic that was choking. Maybe he should download information about that.
“N-no,” Cassian said in a strangled wheeze, and K-2 realized something. Cassian was struggling not to laugh. Had K-2 said something funny? He didn't remember saying anything funny. Cassian seemed to catch his breath as he stood up straight again and turned toward K-2, who could see the lingering amusement in his eyes even though his face was serious. “You can't say things like that around here, someone might hear it.”
“Noted,” K-2 said, filing that information away for later: Cassian was alright with insubordinate comments as long as it was just him who could hear them.
Cassian rolled his eyes, but K-2 could see a small smile peaking through the regular clouds on his face like a small ray of sun as he jerked his head to gesture forward.
“Come on, I'll give you a debrief of the meeting on the way to the mess. I need something to eat.”
K-2 nodded, prepared for complaints about how boring the meeting was interspersed with bits of actual information that K-2 could store away for later. While Cassian talked, K-2 ran a background program, searching for information on Jareli and his two companions. He'd promised not to start more fights, but he hadn't promised not to take petty revenge.
So if Jareli and his gang misplaced a few of their things or got locked out of their barracks because the passcode mysteriously reset, who was K-2 to say what caused it?