sekkritaus | Rex / Andy / Poe Freelance Heroes AU

[ To be fair, Andy is absolutely a liar. And being the kind of secretive bitch that she is, she's well-aware of how little they know going into all of this. She's also aware that she gains almost nothing tangible by staying to help. It's wildly stupid risk-taking. The only reasons to do it are sentimental, noble-minded reasons that get idealists killed across the galaxy on a daily basis.

She'd like to tell herself she's not the type of idiot that sticks around for sentimental, noble-minded reasons. She'd really like to. But she can't. Not today. ]

What the hell does it matter. [ She leans back against the wall. Closes her eyes. ] Maybe I'm bored with nothing better to do. Maybe I'm just in the mood to be really stupid. Who cares. We already decided.

[ After a moment, her eyes open again — just a sliver of dark color, watching the clone as she goes on pointedly: ]

If you were smart, you'd stop trying to understand and focus on what you came here for. I'm nobody to you. He's nobody to you either. If we take consequences with us later, that's on us. You don't lose a damn thing.

[ As if she doesn't admire it a little, the fact that he even bothers. But she doesn't want to explain herself. She doesn't want to admit a damn thing. ]

I'm already on the Empire's hit list. Helping out one clone in the backwaters of no where isn't going to up my bounty by a very high percentage. [ Wryly. ]

Look. Let's just say that if I was in a shit position, fighting against the Empire, I would take any help I could get.

[ He paused, brows furrowing, and glanced away. ]

I'm paying it forward, or whatever you want to call it.

So, like she says. Stop worrying about us and just focus on what you came here for.

[ It still doesn't sit right with him, this act of kindness and his complete inability to give anything back in kind. He's never had an unpaid debt before. But they're right: they're technically going into this clear-headed, of their own volition, and he has no other choice.

He'll find a way to make it up to them, somehow. ]

Very well, then. [ He reaches into his pack and tosses out another pouch of money - at Andy, this time. ] The other half of your payment, as promised. I'm a man of my word.

[ He sets his pack and his cloak down onto one of the provided chairs - he doesn't trust the Kaminoan not to rifle through it - and strides towards the door, pausing just shy of it. He is, for a moment, very, very still. Then he turns to them and clears his throat. ]

...Thank you. To seem ungrateful wasn't my intent. [ Poe reminds him of someone he used to know, actually, what seems like a very long time ago. ] Fives was my brother. My name is Rex.

[ Andy catches the pouch with one hand, not bothering to count the credits before putting it into her pocket. The money seems beside the point now, even if she'd like to say that the cash is what motivates her. This job has changed radically since she picked it up, and she's almost certain there isn't a price point that could make the potential consequences worth it anyway. So fuck it. Whatever. At least she knows she's being stupid, right?

She watches as the clone moves towards the door — towards that unknown fate — and catches herself almost being moved when he stops to tell them his name. As if they might get a chance to use it, after all this. It shows as a muted shift in her expression, a subtle softening that she conceals by glancing away to exhale a mouthful of cigarette smoke.

Quietly: ]

Good luck, Rex.

[ Poe relaxes visibly, and leans back against the wall, crossing his arms and ready for a long wait. ]

Good to see you, Rex. We'll be right here when you come out.

[ Said with utter certainty, though he paused. ]

Unless we're outside shooting people because they tried storming this place, but. Either way.

Good luck.

[ She exhales audibly when the door closes behind Rex, sagging against the wall a little and closing her eyes for a second. This fucking day. It's been a shitshow from start to finish. She's really getting too old for this. Hell, and they're not even out of the woods yet.

After a moment, she glances over at Poe: ]

Is this going to happen every time we run into a desperate stranger? [ Dryly: ] Or is it just because he's tall and handsome?

[ It was telling, that the joke didn't even earn a twitch from his lips. ]

I know I can't fight every battle, let alone win them.

But this one we could fight. And we can win it. So it's worth it.

[ His answer is sobering. Maybe Andy's nobler instincts have been dulled by centuries of cynicism — all those wars she's fought, all the good people she's outlived — but they're there, and she understands, even if some weary part of her might prefer not to. There's an ease akin to relief in having made the choice, despite choosing the harder path, and it loosens a little something in her chest, some small fragment of all that weight she carries around inside of her.

Sometimes she's so tired of fighting — sometimes it feels like the same repeating patterns, over and over again, no ground gained for all the blood spilt — and sometimes it feels like there's no point to all her strength, all her skill if she doesn't fight to make some kind of difference. Doing it for money, for the thrill, for an end in flames — it's a high that fades faster than she can chase it. But the small, steady quietness inside her right now...

She won't argue. Instead, a bit dryly: ]

You keep saying that. We. Us. [ She glances away again. ] Like it's going to be you, me, and him against the galaxy or something.

[ He stepped over to her, lips still in a frown, and reached into her jacket before she could stop him to grab her pack of cigarettes and her lighter. He pulled one out, lit it for himself, and then handed her stuff back.

A long drag.

Then a shrug. ]

What, like it isn't already?

It was me against the galaxy before. I don't have a problem with not being alone, for it.

[ A light scoff — and a sidelong glance, as he helps himself to her cigarettes. She'd reprimand him, but hell, not much point in fronting right now, is there? ]

It doesn't have to be. [ She exhales and closes her eyes, settling into her seat for the long wait. ] But it's all fucking academic at this point. We have to make it out of here first.

[ She can feel how tired her body is. Or is it an emotional kind of weariness? It's been a day full of ups and downs, and she can barely tell the difference anymore. Maybe she'll just rest a little while, just to make sure she's as braced for their escape as possible. Won't be the first time she's slept sitting up in a strange place anyway. ]

Wake me up if something goes wrong, will you.

[ He walks over to the other wall, leaning against it so he can see the entrance as well as the door that Rex left through. ]

Yeah. Don't worry, I couldn't sleep if I tried, and you're way better at punching things than I am.

So I'll keep watch, and yell if anything goes down.

[ They don't see Rex for hours. It's not that the procedure itself takes hours - though it certainly takes a good long time; it's brain surgery, after all - but there's a reasonable amount of recovery time before Rex is up and running again, and even then, he's been warned about the temporary side effects. He may be disoriented for some time, may find his balance damaged from the procedure, may need to sleep more than he's used to. In other words, even if he did get off this dustball of a planet alone, he would have been high and dry afterwards.

Despite all of that, Rex refuses to stay down for long, and all for the better: the Kaminoan wasn't willing to house him for that long either. He staggers out of the room, looking unsteady but otherwise healthy, a large patch of his head completely shaved - he'll shave the whole thing when he gets the chance on account of the fact that he looks kriffing ridiculous - with a bandage laid on it, the hint of stitches peeking out from either side, and a box held in his hands.

He blinks when he sees Poe and Andy. Still there. He hadn't expected otherwise, not after their insistence on the matter, but a part of him is surprised anyway. ]

Well, [ he says gruffly, ] I survived. Hello.

[ Andy's been awake a little while now, but it isn't until Rex reappears that she actually opens her eyes. She gives the clone a blatantly skeptical once over — he doesn't look steady on his feet yet, and the hair or incomplete lack thereof would warrant mocking in less dire situation. But he did make it. Somehow she'd known he would. Better to call it intuition than hope. ]

Well, you definitely look like someone opened your head up. [ She gets up from the chair where she's been resting, nodding at Poe to come around Rex's left side and she approaches from the right to put a steadying arm around him. ] I hate to fucking press you, but if you can move, we should go. The longer we stay, the worse our chances get, and who knows if the patrols have found the ship yet or not.

[ Poe doesn't need a huge amount of instruction, already half way up by the time Andy motions to him, sliding up to Rex's left side and putting an arm around him, just under Andy's. ]

The streets have been pretty quiet, but that might just mean they're waiting for anyone to dare leave their homes. Or, you know. They're tearing my ship apart from the inside out.

[ Rex startles a little when both of them suddenly sidle up to him. He hasn't let anyone - save for the Kaminoan - touch him in a very long time and it's a little odd how foreign it feels after a lifetime of gestures exactly like this. He decides against protesting. It wouldn't be taken well. ]

I can move, [ he says, glancing between the two of them. ] And I can fight, if it comes to it. Being unsteady on my feet won't affect my aim. I've fought through worse.

[ Probably. ]

[ He moves well enough. They make it. Somehow. Either wild luck or incredible skill or some ridiculous combination of both. Then Rex gets to actually rest, while Poe and Andy do something entirely too close to making love for comfort. Afterward, she dozes on and off in her new quarters before finally dragging herself out of bed. She pulls on her underwear and Poe's shirt before wandering out, intending to check on her wounds and make some caf. She isn't going to think too hard about the fact that she's committed to a position on this ship — that she's actually going to stay, even though it's a terrible idea when all three of them are blatantly outlaws now, which definitely makes them a bigger target together than apart.

Yeah. Definitely not going to unpack any of that right about now.

She helps herself to the little kitchenette, brewing up some caf and setting out first her own mug. Then one more. And then a third. Fuck it. Might as well. ]

[ Poe wanders in half way through her pouring the third cup, his hair tousled in that way that only he can manage, a ration bar sticking half way out of his mouth. He grabs the end, bites a piece off, grabs a cup of caf with his free hand, and then throws himself down on the nearest chair. ]

So. I plotted a course to Dantooine. Figured we can lay low there, maybe pick up a few supplies, test the waters to see just how loud a splash we made with that escapade. We won't pick up any work there, probably, but we can afford a couple rest stops with the fee that Rex paid us.

[ When they'd all gotten to the ship, Rex must have either grown to trust the two scoundrels who'd been stupid enough to help him or he must have been too exhausted to care, because he toppled into a cot as soon as one was provided to him. It's been a long time since he's slept so easily in a foreign place.

But, Rex reflects as he gets up, maybe brain surgery will just do that to you. He lingers a little longer than he should before leaving, get his thoughts together - where are they? what happens next? what is his purpose now that this is done? how can he repay this debt? - and peeling off a corner of the bandage on his head so he can prod at it in the mirror.

Eventually he seals it back down and pads through the ship until he finally finds the other two, and -- little gods, she's half-dressed -- ]

Ah. I didn't mean to interrupt --

[ He's already taking half a step out because he's clearly interrupting something, even if that something is completely unsurprising. ]

You're not. [ Andy responds promptly with a slight raise of her eyebrows. ] Actually, you should probably hear this. We were talking about heading to Dantooine for supplies and news.

[ As if it's perfectly normal for her to be discussing important plans without her pants on — which isn't really too far from the truth. She has gotten pretty comfortable on this ship, and she probably splits time evenly between being dressed and undressed while aboard. Utterly unselfconscious, she passes the last cup of caf over to Rex before going on with a mild wryness: ]

If we're lucky, we're not too famous yet.

[ Poe, at least, is fully dressed - even if his hair is tousled, and he replies in exactly the same instant and tone as Andy: ]

You're not.

[ He lets her finish telling Rex what's up, and then he continues: ]

There's a small core of uh - like-minded folk there. They won't want to meet with us, obviously, but I have a drop point I can leave messages for them, at. So if you want, I can leave a short encoded note there to see who we should be trying to get this info to. Or we can just bunk down and wait until we're a little less visible on the Empire's radar.

Ah. All right, then. [ Rex stays where he is, though his awkwardness doesn't abate - then again, it seems to be a greater part of him than it had seemed back when he had a mask to cover all that nonsense up. He accepts the caf gratefully, wrapping his hands around it while he listens. ]

I'd like that. Thank you. Whatever call you make on this front, I'm willing to follow.

[ It seems like the least he can do, after all that's happened. ]

As long as it makes it to someone, the knowledge will live on. It always does.

[ Andy scoffs lightly. ]

Just call them rebels. That's what they are. [ Pointedly: ] That's what we are. If there was any doubt before.

[ Leaning up against the counter, she sips at her caf before going on: ]

We should drop off the intel and get back to work. Might as well — we'll just as likely to die of boredom before the Empire finds us, and if we're going to have a reputation, we might as well use it.

Sure, but we don't need to say it out loud. That's not a word we want to slip out at the wrong time.

But yeah. Alright. I'll make the drop. I just don't want to accidentally flag anyone else as being sympathetic if I can avoid it. We're going to take heat for this, and I want to make sure we're the only ones taking the heat.

[ A pause. ]

But Andy's right. A rep for being able to get our right from under their nose certainly isn't going to harm our business, long as it doesn't kill us.

[ He trained his gaze on Rex. ]

How you holding up?

[ We. The way Andy says it is likely to mean only herself and Poe, working to dismantle the Empire in some small way as they are, but it gives Rex pause. Is that what he is now? A rebel? After so long working for the Republic and against the very forces he once labeled as terrorists, the thought's an oddly startling one. A defector, yes. A fugitive. But a rebel...

He supposes that's what he is now. His attention snaps back once Poe addresses him, and he nods his head. ]

I'm fine.

[ It's the same thing he said once he got out of surgery but it's a hell of a lot more believable now that he's gotten some rest. He's quiet for a moment, then speaks again, dark eyes solemn. ]

There's little I can do to repay your kindness. I haven't got much to my name. But I can fight. And I know the Empire - I wrote a good portion of their damn military maneuvers.

[ It boiled his blood the first time he recognized them using his methods. He and Cody had spent months devising them together, heads pressed together as they pored over them. But then, they've got every right to them. Cody still works for them, after all. I can be useful.

[ That may not mean being useful to them while he's with them. They could send him on his way with a mission, or get him to pass along intel, and he'd do it. He's not the sort to leave a debt unpaid. ]

We don't need repayment. You already paid us, remember? [ She's playing it off, shrugging casually like they didn't go from "ordinary gig" to "bringing down the Empire's wrath upon them" in a fucking heartbeat based on gut instinct alone. Taking a light sip of caf, she goes on mildly: ] If you want to stay, then stay. Poe's obviously soft on you already, so it's not like he's going to leave you out in the cold.

[ Easier to blame Poe's kindness than her own. ]

Besides, another able body won't hurt now that we've tickled the Empire's underbelly.

Rex / Andy / Poe Freelance Heroes AU

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DOIN' THAT TIME SKIP

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