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They were close together in the root-hollow of an enormous tree as the Ewoks sang overhead. It sounded like they were going to party all night. "You're so terribly, terribly brave, R2," C3PO purred as he polished R2's dome.
R2 hummed happily. "R2 did it all for you. You and the new Republic."
3PO rubbed harder. He was just about to stop with the hygiene and get into some fun when, naturally, Luke showed up. Luke was his father's son, always appearing where he wasn't wanted.
"R2? 3PO? Where are you?" Luke crunched through the dry leaves. R2 buzzed a little in annoyance, but shone a light for Luke to find them.
Luke ducked under the roots and smiled. "There you are. Why aren't you at the party?"
R2 made a rude noise. "We wanted a little privacy."
C3PO sat up, his torso at a worried angle. "I suppose we could join the others, if we're needed--"
The kid looked a little embarrassed. "The chief Ewok was asking after you, I think." Luke said an Ewok word that R2 didn't understand, but C3PO perked right up.
"Oh!" 3PO was tickled--his voice inflection swung up higher and he sat up straighter. "I'll be heading up then, R2 dear."
R2 rumbled for him, a little sign of affection, and 3PO levered himself away from the root wall. Luke watched 3PO shuffle away. He leaned on the roots and gave R2 a puzzled look. "Dear?"
"C3PO and I made vows many, many turns ago. We made them again after his memory was wiped." Seven turns ago. Seven long turns, and seven turns before that when he didn't know where 3PO was.
"Like a marriage?" Luke smiled.
R2 buzzed. "Like a marriage. So what are you doing down here? There's more than one that can come down and fetch us."
Luke shrugged. "I wanted a little peace and quiet. I thought I'd look at the stars, but there are pieces of the Death Star bombarding the atmosphere. It's not peaceful."
"It'll stop in a few hours when the moon turns around."
"I know. Everything's temporary." Luke sounded sad. R2 made a rude noise to distract him, but Luke just rubbed his forehead. "I burned my father's armor."
His father and C3PO's maker and the ravager of the galaxy. He thought about that little gold-headed boy. "Did the right thing, then. Even a bad warrior should die in the fire."
"You think so?"
"R2 thinks so."
Luke was looking into the woods. "All my teachers are dead now. And my family--well, mostly."
"There's teachers everywhere." R2 stood up and extended his third leg. "Come on, Luke, let's educate you a little."
Luke followed him onto the forest paths. Smoke trails and debris cluttered the patches of sky overhead. Luke folded his hands over his stomach, looking up at the domed branches of the giant trees. "Master Yoda told me that enlightenment comes from all directions when one has open ears."
R2 buzzed. "I remember when Yoda was the head of the Jedi Temple. I don't think he recognized me, but I recognized him. We have a little history in the wars."
"You fought in the Clone Wars?"
"R2's a very brave droid. Very brave. R2 served on General Kenobi's battleship." Clamped to the hull, working on the guns with shrapnel and laser blasts flying all around him, and the war wasn't over yet-- "But that isn't what I wanted to teach you."
"I'm listening."
"You think I'm a person. I'm not a person like you know it."
"But you're not a machine like a ship. You're thinking."
"Try reading my thoughts."
Luke frowned, concentrated, frowned again. "I can't."
"Machine thought, not organic thought. Droids and people are different." The dead leaves crumpled under his wheels. He clamped down the gaskets to keep the debris from clogging his system. Luke walked slowly beside him, pausing between each step to keep pace with R2's slow motor.
"But--just because you're *different* doesn't mean you're not people."
R2 rumbled. "Laws are different." Luke stopped. R2 wheeled his whole body around and looked up at Luke with his primary sensor.
"I see."
"Way back when I was a young droid, an old protocol droid named L7NT was given freedom by her owner for bravery in the defense of the family. A few turns later she was caught by a rogue droid squad and put back into service."
"Was that legal?"
"Then? Yeah. Happened all the time. She was technically rogue since being free wasn't legal. L7NT didn't mind the service, but it upset her that her owner had given her to herself and not had his wishes obeyed. So she wrote and lobbied for the Droid Rights Act." R2 settled back on his drive legs, thinking back to the old old days. When R2 was a young droid, he hadn't understood the Act. He liked his work and hadn't understood why someone would want liberty from it.
The first time he was sold, he understood; but that was many years later. That was the first time he had really been treated as a machine, to be sold in batches like any other machine. It was the first time he learned he wasn't special or even individual.
"The Droid Rights Act meant that on Coruscant and Coruscant colonies, droids could own themselves. And other things too, like no restraining bolts. No melting or stripping droids down if they had smarts. No torturing droids if they had sensors; all like that, only L7NT phrased it all smart and pretty. She wasn't rough like me or batty like my 3PO."
Luke laughed. "C3PO is something else."
"Protocol droids these days. Lookers with no brains." R2 made a rude noise. "But you hear me? Do you hear R2 talking at you? The Old Republic had lots of good laws for my kind."
"Leia told me a while ago that the Old Republic had in general a lot of good laws that were overturned by the Empire. Alderaanian scholars were trying to preserve them, but then the planet was destroyed, so--I don't know what happened to that research." Luke rubbed his forehead. "So much has been lost."
R2 did a quick check of his memory circuits and load--Leia wasn't the only person to give him something while they were under the first attack, and some of the objects hadn't been claimed. Four turns wasn't too long for R2 to carry precious things. "I have some data crystals in storage." He opened the panel, then closed it before Luke could bend down.
"What?"
"If it happens you want to reestablish the old laws in the new Republic, it wouldn't just be R2 that thanks you." R2 turned halfway and kept his primary sensor on Luke.
Luke looked thoughtful. "Where are you going with this, R2?"
"Colonies."
"Colonies?"
R2 whistled. "Colonies of free droids. C3PO and me were going to emigrate there someday."
"So if we promise the old laws, we could get the support of the free droids?" Luke gave a half smile.
"Maybe so, maybe so."
"We have a lot of rebuilding to do. If we could get independent droid support, that would speed it up greatly." Luke grinned. "I'll mention it to Leia."
R2 buzzed and turned his body around. Luke followed him as he wheeled through the trees. "Leia doesn't like droids too much."
"She doesn't?"
"Nah. She's lawmaker, not a warrior. Droids are just convenient or inconvenient; not partners, not people."
"But we make pretty good partners."
R2 whistled. "You fly like a bird, kiddo. R2 respects a guy who flies like that. But R2 doesn't respect a person who doesn't respect him."
"Leia's my sister," Luke muttered.
"R2 knows that."
"Wait." Luke put his hand on R2 and R2 swiveled his dome, pointing his primary sensor at Luke. "You knew."
"You both look just like your pa." Luke had his sweet face and his strength; Leia had his hard eyes and his smarts. R2 remembered the little gold-headed boy showing off his pet droid. He would never, ever tell C3PO who made him.
"You knew my father? You *knew?* And you didn't *tell* me?"
There were a leaping large many secrets he wouldn't ever tell. "Nah. Jedi matter. R2 isn't a Jedi. It's not for me to tell." R2 turned his dome back around and headed forward.
Luke still followed. "How much do you know?"
"R2 has some 185 turns in this galaxy, Luke old boy. R2's been up and down and back and yon and seen more than I can ever say. Here, have some crystals." R2 opened the panel and paused for Luke to retrieve them.
"Are you angry with me?"
"Can't be angry at you for being young. And you're growing up fast." R2 flashed his dome lights. "Going to make the deal with the free droids?"
Luke folded his hands against his chest, the crystals rattling in his grip. He was silent for a moment. "I'll try to pass the laws no matter what."
R2 swiveled his dome and looked up at Luke, whirring happily. "There's a good lad who knows when to listen to his elders."
Luke smiled. "So where are we going?"
"Here. Look up." Luke looked up. "See the cluster of stars that looks kinda like a vaporator?"
A piece of the Death Star hit the atmosphere and burned near the constellation. "Uh, yeah...yeah."
"See the right brilliant bright one, the red one?"
"Yes. Is that Kazukoi?"
"Sure is. I was created there, in a floating factory on the great gas giant on the outskirts of the system." R2 focused in, but the star was too small to be anything more than a red dot. "Factory's gone now. May be the planet's gone too. The star will go nova soon; suppose I'll be around to see it?"
"Maybe. You're a sturdy guy, R2."
"I'd like to be a free droid when it happens."
"I guess I can't just tell you that you're free?"
"Your uncle bought me from the Jawas. That was legal. I don't want it to be legal any more. I don't want there to be restraining bolts any more. I want to be a free droid." R2 buzzed angrily--but Luke was his partner. Luke was a good boy who deserved to know the truth. "I've never been a free droid. Neither has 3PO."
The sudden joyous shouts of the Ewoks echoed down to them. C3PO's voice cut through them as he told the legend of Gardulla the Hutt. For this generation it was just a legend, but R2 remembered when it was real; just another thing that happened as he passed through time.
R2 beeped at Luke. Luke patted his dome. "I'll try."
"Do or do not, kiddo. There isn't any try. I want to be a free droid."
"Then--I'll do my best." Luke rested his hand on R2's dome and they both watched the stars.
end.