do you guys think cassian andor had to undergo spy training—well. not really “training” so much as a week locked in a room with an imperial torture droid, a nonsense sentence he was given in lieu of actual rebellion intelligence.

(the tricky tradoshan takes twice the twi’lek’s toys, see, senator mothma? he remembers. And he remembered all those years ago, his mouth tasting of blood and everything swimming before his eyes; barely able to stand straight, but he said it perfectly, every syllable crisp, even imitating mothma’s core accent—

thank you, commander andor, mothma had said, and he’d grinned, before then unceremoniously passed out.)

do you think that the rebellion was short on imperial torture droids, so they just used a security droid with an augmented intelligence subroutine.

i.e., the only imperial droid they had around: k2

do you think cassian startled the first time he saw That Droid (as he’s taken to calling it, at least in his head) in another context—some mechanic tinkering on his casing, the droid quiet and obedient. It was staring straight ahead, though it cocked its head when it saw cassian staring.

ah, commander andor, the droid said, when cassian drew closer. I am k-2so. I did not have the opportunity to mention it, before.

yeah, I was pretty busy screaming, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

cassian watched the mechanic for a minute. She was clearly not doing more than patching up some rust, ensuring joints were lubed. you know, it seems unfair, he said, after a minute. the droid was still staring at him. you get to rummage around in our heads, but we don’t get to poking around in yours.

well, if you would like, the droid said after a long moment.

(you broke our torture droid, mon mothma says dryly, as merrick splutters. 

but cassian just grins, and grins, and then laughs when k2 says, that is not true, there is still a 92% chance of my delivering a painful electric shock to any new member of the rebellion.)