Work Text:
Cassian has not had any luck with resort planets. He has been arrested on Niamos before he even was inducted into the Rebellion proper. He pretty much failed that recruiting mission on Canto Bight, so now Scarif, with its seas and beaches makes him feel unusually nervous.
He shouldn’t – the mission is very likely a deadly one, with them at best being able to get the plans to somebody who will know somebody to give it to the Rebellion, to Draven or Mon Mothma to peruse and take apart in search of any weaknesses.
This is expected. The relative ease with which Scarif admits them is not: Cassian isn’t even shaved to regulations, Bodhi’s call sign should have been reported as possibly suspicious minutes after the attack on Eadu, Jyn’s face is covered, but logically she should be on every list that ISB ever made.
Still, they are on their way to the Archives; no one even looked twice in their direction, and Cassian has a few minutes to suspect everything. Worst time on any mission, when you are locked in, but have a few moments to overthink.
Could Bodhi be a plant? Could there be an attack on Yavin while they are trying to get useless plans? Could Jyn be a plant… no, no to any of those questions.
He breathes out, then in, then again out. Any downtime on a mission as spontaneous as theirs is bound to have him doubt anything under the sun, and Scarif’s sky allows their sun to light up everything. Cassian doesn’t trust some of his teammates, K2 obviously excluded, he knows the plan is to have no plan at all, they had just got their uniforms, it is natural to feel anxious.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Jyn suddenly presses a hand to his hand, moves it up, then down in an attempt to soothe. It is not a good one: she clearly never had to do it.
The very fact that she attempts to do it is bad: either Cassian is too obvious, their last rest inadequate for the work he had before and still has in front of him, or Jyn herself is too stressed and looks for anything to reassure her. Were they more well-acquainted, he would know.
It still helps as is: Cassian throws a glance at Jyn, notices her ramrod posture, the way she clutches her free hand, as if itching for a baton or a blaster.
“We will do it,” he whispers: reassurance for reassurance, words for a hand.
Jyn doesn’t acknowledge his words, but her hand pats his elbow and she stands more relaxed. A worker in her place, not an impostor afraid to be found out: the difference is minuscule, but Cassian knows it well, both from inside and out.
“Our chances have risen by 0,5% since we landed,” K2 intones, and Cassian barely stuffles a chuckle.
He doesn’t ask just how good their chances are: K2 might be as suicidal as any of them, but he is never a fool. If he doesn’t offer a solid number, his calculations are too bad to say aloud.
Instead he asks for a map and hopes that no one on this base, in this Tower will look too closely at them.
No one does.
Not at him, nor at Jyn, nor at K2. They are an unnoticed, unquestioned, unremarkable part of the machine.
If Cassian had time, he would be sick.
As it stands, they get a map – K2 is merciless and not for the first time Cassian is in awe that his programming holds, that K2 is on their side, – and there comes trouble.
He has just signalled Meshi to start the assault, hoping that the majority of those 95 ‘troopers who are between them and their prize will be out faster than they will get to the archive proper, when Bodhi comes in.
He is secretive, obviously nervous in a way he wasn’t when they left the shuttle – Cassian can hear it in his tone, in a way the transmission flags for a moment when Bodhi forgets to press the button on his commlink.
Still, the content gets through.
“I’m.. I’m ordered to lift off, there’s an officer who needs to go up, I’m coming towards the spire!”
“Don’t!” Cassian barks, knowing that Bodhi in person would be far more obviously a spy than on comm – and Jyn shakes her head, eyes alight with something.
“He can be our extraction and we get an officer,” she says.
“There’s an Eadu official here, I have seen the shuttle, it must be Director Krennic, I’ll know his bird anywhere, so Admiral Gorin must have decided to turn tail and get to his flagship,” Bodhi quickly says over sounds of a pre-flight check going on.
“You get here, and stall for time,” Cassian says, sounding far more certain than he feels, but on the other hand, Bodhi is an Imperial pilot, he knows his documents, codes and whatnot.
He will manage and even if he doesn’t, there is little Cassian can do about it.
Still, for a moment he knows he should have tried to shoot Krennic when he had the chance.
"Signal when you are outside," Cassian says after a pause two seconds too long and nods at the corridor.
Their schedule just got accelerated. They have to get at least to the database before Bodhi lands.
It’s surprisingly smooth: whether it’s the Force, or Scarif’s base is just lazy enough that any emergency has all the forces scatter outside willy-nilly, Cassian doesn’t know, but he’ll take the almost empty hall before the archives with one officer who doesn’t suspect anything until K2 puts him out over stormtroopers.
And then their luck turns sour.
Bodhi arrives and has to load whoever he was called to get: their comm messages are short, but Cassian thinks it is not an admiral himself but an aide or someone who had to get away from Scarif before the Imperial cavalry gets here. That would be useful, in the future Bodhi might now have once he gets out… were it not for two things.
Firstly, the gates above Scarif are being closer. Rebels are here and there and everywhere, so nothing will get to or from the planet.
And secondly, just as they are trying to get the cassette with the plans, K2 locks the door behind them.
"Back or up?" Jyn asks, looking at the cassette. "We need to get to the roof. Either to transfer this, or to get to Bodhi," she sounds more certain of the first option.
Cassian moves the handles, brings the cassette to them – easier to get it than now while there are still options, – and as he leans to take the case, give it to Jyn to hide beneath her uniform, he notices something.
There is a direct door to the archives, two stories up at most. It probably leads to the gallery in the anteroom, now that Cassian thinks of it.
The armoured door at their back blocks the sounds, making it impossible to know if K2 is even alive out there.
“There. I guess we’ll double back, see if we can cover K2 up,” Cassian says, and Jyn, always ready for purposeful violence, breaks the glass.
The imperial uniform is horrible for anything other than standing, but they manage to first jump onto the central spire and then to climb up to the door. It’s not open, but neither is it locked properly: Cassian’s stolen cylinders unlock it easily enough.
They carefully walk out and yes, now they are on a balcony that goes above the anteroom where they left K2.
There are troopers there, dead, knocked out and alive. Too many to count and too many are currently blasting K2.
Jyn beside Cassian makes a strangled noise, throws her helmet into the closest trooper and starts shooting. Cassian barely keeps up, trying to target those who are firing on K2.
It almost costs him, for one trooper manages to notice them in time and shoots, but he misses – the bolt grazes Cassian’s right elbow, burns a hole in the uniform and sparks against the wall behind them, – and then K2 shoots that one.
Cassian doesn’t have to get closer to see that the droid is badly damaged: he is covered in holes, emits smoke and sparks, – but K2 turns off the energy for the archive vault, sealing it, in one movement.
Probably not as fluid as he can be, yet definitely targeted and calculated, and Cassian all but drags Jyn further.
K2 stumbles behind them. They should probably divide, for it is obvious than a pointwoman without a helmet, an officer with his hand scourged and a droid that looks like a victim of target practice are rebels, but K2 won’t manage by himself.
“Bodhi?” Cassian comms, looking desperately for anything that will at least mask them: by now they are likely to feature on several cameras; if someone has the nerve to just observe, they will be found out. Not that the imps are known to do that, especially if the base is under attack, but still.
They have the plans, now they have to transfer them.
“ I’m just outside. Come to the top,” comes the statticy answer, and Cassian asks K2 where the lift to the top is.
They do manage to get to it, with K2 probably rerouting some of his processes or possibly shutting them down outright, for he moves quicker yet stumbles more.
But as they wait, exposed, before the lift, a group of troopers comes along, led by someone in white.
Cassian doesn’t notice him at first: he is too busy shooting and trying to make cover out of thin air, for there is literally nothing that they can use.
K2 throws a grenade he pilfered off someone, Jyn shouts something that makes the man in white stop and gape – given that it was a smoke grenade, this is doubly foolish, but the man seems to be Krennic, cape and all, and Cassian briefly wonders just what happened between him and the Ersos for Jyn to matter that much, – and then one of the death troopers hits true.
The bolt catches Cassian in the shoulder, bursts into a sea of pain and fire and it’s only because the lift arrives and Jyn shoves him into it that Cassian doesn’t get more.
He still tries to shoot back, he is certain the direction is true, even if his aim likely is not, but the pain is too much.
He slips in and out of consciousness: firstly out, then in when K2 half-carries half-drags him outside and this together with the wind is enough to somewhat return Cassian to alertness.
The shuttle is there, or comes up just as they do, – that would account for the wind, actually, but Cassian cannot focus on the details, – and Jyn positively bullies her way on board, arguing with a man who has lieutenant's colours that this shuttle was also ordered to take an injured officer and his droid to orbit, for they have important information needed for Admiral Gorin.
The lieutenant, so clearly way out of his depth, even Cassian notices it, doesn’t argue.
And then he can’t, because once both Cassian and K2 are on board, once Jyn is certain this is their way out, she just knocks the lieutenant out.
Cassian makes his way to the cockpit, mostly to sit, and tries to raise the rebel command. No one answers, Bodhi points up and says something, but apparently whatever adrenalin Cassian was running on has run out.
His last conscious thought is that he really should have tried to get out of the chair, for Bodhi might need a copilot rather than an unconscious body beside him.
***
“You won’t get off the planet,” the imp says, all misplaced spite covering for fear and anger, and Jyn almost knocks him out again.
She even makes the move, sees the imp try to cover his head – he can’t, they might have just some coils of rope around, but those are solid, – and then turns away, imps’ cylinders in hand. She will check him for hidden trackers once they are out in hyperspace, for there is no way they will head straight to Yavin with an unknown Imperial on board.
She would have liked to hit the imp, but she might never stop.
This is what makes her turn, come to the cockpit and only then Jyn notices how pale Bodhi is.
Cassian beside him is clearly unconscious. This she expected, yet she had other things to do first and thus the most she could do for Cassian was to quickly check how badly he was injured. But now the lieutenant they captured is settled, two or three volunteers who were lucky enough to stay with Bodhi are busy trying to figure out what’s wrong with K2, she has connected the precious plans to the shuttle systems, both to be able to copy them if needed and to transmit, and there is nothing else to do but wait for open sky and try to help Cassian.
And Bodhi, apparently.
“Those shuttles have to have a first aid kit somewhere, don’t they?” she asks, trying to figure out if moving Cassian is too bad of an idea.
As it is, the copilot chair is quite sturdy, she can just strap Cassian in so he won’t get bashed about as they will definitely have to move fast. Already at least one X-wing spent a few moments on their tail ready to fire before Bodhi found his frequency to shout, panicky and uncertain, that they are Rogue 1, don’t blast them.
Thank Force or whoever else, that the imps just blocked rebel frequencies whenever they could and never listened in, otherwise Jyn is certain they would have had a gaggle of everything Scarif had on their tail instead of a misplaced X-wing.
The sky above rhythmically pulses with fire. Above the ships are battling; around them the fighters chase each other; below good men and women die because of something her father helped build.
Jyn stands, waits for Bodhi to register her question and to remember the answer, to bring himself back from whatever trance he got into.
“Should be near the stairs, I think. I always brought my own kit, the general ones are never up to date,” he finally says, blinks, almost reaches out to touch Cassian, to check his vitals or something, Jyn isn’t sure, but then something blasts past the shuttle and Bodhi again looks only for the way to fly safely.
Jyn finds a kit – nothing much, some painkillers as old as the shuttle, some energy pills and a couple of bacta patches that seemingly are still in working order – and moves back to Cassian. If she starts to think further than one step ahead, she won’t manage it.
So one step at a time it is: she carefully frees Cassian from his imperial garb, then takes down his regular shirt just enough to fit the bacta over the wound – not much, but that’s something.
Then she stands ready to assist if Bodhi should need it.
“The space gate is still locked! No one can come or go,” Bodhi says unhappily while expertly evading something that might have been a part of a tie-fighter.
"Can we somehow transmit those?" Jyn holds up the rank cylinders of their prisoner. "He planned to leave, they might expect him".
"If the rumours about the Scarif garrison are true, he wanted to just get away from the surface and the fighting. Locals are said to be the worst when it comes to discipline, lying on beaches more often than working", Bodhi says and turns the shuttle away. "One would imagine that he wanted to appear busy. Fly over the planet, return later on, possibly with some found rebels.”
“Can we do that?”
“Hide somewhere and try later? We can, but the shield covers the whole surface. I’d rather stay close to the only exit,” Bodhi evades a stray beam and swears.
Jyn looks at the cylinders, at their mostly silent comms, then lifts her eyes again at the gates. They block communication, but might they have one or two imperial frequencies open?
“He might not even be needed on his ships, if all the x-wings are already here,” Bodhi continues, obviously eager to speak of anything but their current situation.
"Unlikely", Jyn says, because while one squadron is better than nothing, it is still less than the Rebellion has.
What the Rebellion should have.
Saw had a squadron of badly managed fighters with madly competent pilots who could make the rare attack.
The Rebellion, backed by senators, ought to have a fleet proper.
“Would you look at that!” Bodhi has found a space they won't be attacked and now points straight up, into cosmos partly concealed by clouds and shield’s reflections.
They are close enough to see the way gates flare up – someone is attacking. If Jyn squints, she can see an outline of a ship or two. Star Destroyers, naturally, even the rebel’s frigates were too small to see from a planet.
Still, the silhouettes were obvious because here and there were splashes of colours, pinpoints that indicated a torpedo found her target or a ship was blown to bits in that cold vacuum of space.
The excitement of the battle is infectious, even though Jyn has never flown a ship. She wants to be there, or, perhaps, below, anywhere but here, waiting for something, for a blast to catch them or for another ship to hit blindly in the smoke from exploding tie-fighters and x-wings.
“Shame we don’t have guns, right?” Bodhi says, voice trembling, but his hands are certain on the driving console.
“Yes,” Jyn says, nods and then sees it for what it is: a reassurance.
Bodhi might know her for a day or so, some of it spent unconscious or sleeping, but he has clearly noticed that she feels better with a blaster in hand.
She wants to be able to return the favour, but all that she has bothered to know is that Bodhi is a great pilot and a courageous man.
Compassionate, even, for who else would have had the will to go on as he did, despite the atrocities he learnt about and saw first hand?
The shield above is still closed, the exploding torpedoes but a few reddish dots above.
Jyn swears, unable to think of anything for a moment, and then she lifts the lieutenant's commlink.
Fairly basic, it clearly requires but a press of a button to speak: no password, no DNA identification, nothing to show it was lifted off an officer serving on one of the most protected Empire bases.
Sometimes Jyn thinks the Empire wants to be ruined. Still, if it was as perfect as it claims to be, there would have been no Rebellion.
She plugs the commlink into the communication panel to her left, hoping that it will do what she hopes; Bodhi risks a nervous glance at her.
“What are you trying to do?”
“Get us a secure channel outside. That guy was an aide, he might have a right to one,” Jyn says, taking a deep breath and waiting.
Bodhi audibly gulps, having probably found a new thing to be nervous about.
“What if they catch us?” he asks.
“The fighters are still bothering them. As mad as some pilots are, they will still bother about those who can kill them first. You said yourself: this shuttle has no guns,” Jyn replies, not lifting her eyes off the panel.
The light shines and she cannot stop her victorious exclamation.
Cassian stirs in his chair, but doesn’t come to his senses. This is bad, but there is nothing she can do about it.
Jyn still feels somewhat bereft of his company – they definitely could use his code knowledge, he would have known how to call Home One ! – but the channel outside is here.
“Hello! Hello! Anyone, it’s Rogue One!” she calls, as Bodhi starts evading maneuvers again, obviously still thinking they are going to attract the wrong kind of attention.
Jyn repeats her call, again and again and again , hearing only static in return, but finally Home One , answers and she demands the gates to be broken no matter how, and closes the connection because it’s too weak to pass the plans anyway.
“Was that Admiral Ackbar?” Cassian asks, turning his head in her direction and hissing when his shoulder inevitably moves. “The whole cavalry must be here.”
“They are,” Jyn says, knowing it is true in the same way she had always known just when the Imperials had something left to strike and when they deployed the last of their troops.
Possibly, it is the Force.
Likely, experience.
They wait, Jyn passes around the energy pills and watches Bodhi down five, claiming those never work right, Cassian stays silent but he seems to be at least conscious…
The sky opens up with flaming debris and bits of what is most assuredly used to be a Star Destroyer. Cassian swears, Bodhi orders Jyn to hold, repeats this on the intercom to the guys in the cargo hold and points them up.
They fly at the top speed this shuttle is capable of, evading bits and pieces of the destroyer and the ring and what looks like a half of a Hammerhead corvette, and Jyn cannot look in front of them because she cannot control their path and the debris field is horribly dense, and she cannot look down to the planet because there is no way of doing that, so she looks at the back of Bodhi’s head.
He is tense, it’s obvious in the shoulders, but it’s a different kind of tense. He is in his element here, knowing what to do, even if their odds are bound to be bad.
“I wonder how K2 would have judged the situation,” Jyn says, and notices Cassian nod with her peripheral vision.
Bodhi doesn’t seem to hear… and then they are in space proper, dodging blasts and torpedoes and at least one tie-fighter who is so set on pursuing an y-wing, he doesn’t look at a shuttle emerging from the planet.
“ Rogue One, jump to hyperspace! Go to the base in no less than four jumps! ” Ackbar orders on the comm, and Jyn acknowledges as Cassian gets the computer to calculate the first jump.
As they prepare to get away, Jyn hears the general order for retreat, and knows that they’ve won.
It’s a lethal feeling. She almost passes out, were it not for all the things she still has to do.
***
Bodhi notices that his hands shake on the third jump.
It’s such a logical thing he doesn’t have to ask what they are doing: they cannot jump directly to base because they might be tracked, so firstly Cassian and then, as he is taken to the hold to lie down, Jyn pinch in coordinates of major planetary hubs, ones that see so much traffic, no one would bother with a shuttle.
Bodhi still names different call signs if he is asked. No need to risk the news being passed ahead.
He wishes, irrationally, that they would still be on Cassian’s ship. That Cassian and K2 would be at the helm. He still won’t be able to sleep, he just knows he can’t, too many things waiting in the dark, too much happening since he… since he agreed to speak to Galen Erso, who is now dead, since Bodhi decided to run to Jedha, now destroyed, since it all started.
But were Cassian piloting, Bodhi could have found a corner to at least cry.
As it is, his hands shake. Not badly, mind you: he has had worse on long runs. It might not be the best shuttle he even piloted, but he knows the model and now knows how it behaves.
A slight tremor won’t affect anything: this one doesn’t respond to the miniscule changes of the rudder.
Were K2 in any working order, Bodhi would have asked him to pilot.
K2 is turned off, however, because they are worried about his processor frying itself. Jyn is below as well, searching the lieutenant to ensure no tracker is implanted or hidden.
Bodhi sits in the pilot chair and tries not to think too hard about anything in particular other than where he is right now.
They jumped firstly to Escalon, then to Rodia and now are finally going on the Corellian Run. One of the main avenues in space.
It would be easier, of course, if Bodhi knew the coordinates to Yavin’s base – if they are going to Yavin, actually, – but he doesn’t. He was there, but he wasn’t the one pinching the numbers in and even if he asks the computer where Yavin is, it’s likely a big system.
So Bodhi doesn’t. He waits a bit for his hands to stop shaking, realises it’s a moot point, then waits a minute for Jyn to return and pitch in something – it is their third jump, and they were ordered to get to the base in four at least, – and then realises that there is no one he can follow right now.
So he thinks for a bit: he can jump to the Outer Rim, to Ryloth, very rebellious, this one, but he remembers the senators on the council. The Core finery, obvious on all of them, and he thinks he saw the one for Alderaan…
Bodhi sets course to the Core. There might be more Imperials there, but there definitely will be those sympathetic to their cause.
At least he hopes so. Flying an Imperial shuttle while still sitting in his Imperial uniform, alone in the cockpit, he doesn’t feel like a part of the Rebellion.
He doesn’t feel much at all, to be honest.
Still, his hands shake.
***
Jyn might not have been with the Rebellion in quite a while, but she knows the drill. So she searches the imp three times (once to scare, once to search, once to make certain she missed nothing the first two times) and then takes Cassian’s comm.
Cassian himself is sleeping: between them all and the shuttle’s secondary med kit they found something that claimed to be anti-inflammatory, and some sleeping pills, so he lies on the bench in the cargo hold, still but breathing.
Jyn spends a few moments just looking, to be certain he is alive, she is alive, they made it , and then collects herself.
Their mission is finished only when they get the plans to the Rebellion. Possibly even only when they destroy the Death Star.
Still, she goes to the cockpit to check on Bodhi first. “He is not one of us”, she thinks, and then corrects herself, “he used to be basically a civilian just three days ago”.
This feels more just. Bodhi has deserved his place in the Rebellion, he might just not be prepared for the trials they faced.
Jyn climbs to the cockpit, notices the hyperspace blue shining in the illuminators and then sees Bodhi.
He sleeps, or tries to: he manages to almost recline in the pilot chair, obviously knowing just the pose to make it comfortable. Still, his breath doesn’t seem like that of a sleeping person and he opens his eyes as soon as Jyn stands on the floor, even if she tries to make no sound.
“How is Cassian?” Bodhi asks, stretching his hands. “I heard nothing from below, so he is…”
“Sleeping. I don’t think his wound is fatal,” Jyn sits in the copilot chair, even as she wants to get to the command as fast as possible. “Or, rather, I think Cassian will make it.”
Bodhi nods, at first nervously and then again with more certainty, as if he also surmised the odds and decided that Cassian is too determined to fall because of a single shot, and Jyn feels gratitude for the sheer fact that Bodhi is here.
That he is fine. That she can delegate at least the piloting.
That he is beside her and thus she cannot fall apart just yet. Cannot think on everything they lost.
She will have time, once they are back, once they are briefed, once the plans are being analysed. If she is lucky, she will have enough to mourn the dead before the next mission.
Saw sometimes gave her space. General Draven seemed like the man to calculate the best time for rest and enforce it.
Bodhi might see something in her eyes, in the way she looks into the bluish streaks of hyperspace and not into his face; he might see how she doesn’t call the Alliance just yet.
Or he might just be Bodhi, a man conscious enough to join their fight.
He stands up, hugs her, holds her close, seems to both keep her grounded and not to be a bother himself – she feels the tension, but cannot begin to understand who of them is more wired, – and Jyn finally can breathe out.
She can’t cry, not yet. She can, however, collect herself.
“We made it,” Bodhi whispers, as if he doesn’t believe it himself, and Jyn smiles as reassuringly as she can.
“We still have to deliver the plans,” she whispers back, unwilling to taint his relief, but also knowing that they still have quite a while until they are safe.
“Yes. But we got them. You’ve got them,” Bodhi whispers, voice trembling, and Jyn just nods.
She might not be the best team player, she might have never learned to spare anyone’s feelings, but even she knows how important it is to feel proud.
They did get the plans. They did get out alive.
Even if she’d rather consider their mission unfinished just yet, Jyn understands that Bodhi clearly likes small accomplishments.
“We’ve got them,” she repeats, watching how Bodhi starts to smile, how he sags back in his chair, relieved, and then moves to call the headquarters.
Cassian’s comm gets her through to General Draven who seems to himself monitor their communications. Jyn briefly gets across their situation – plans acquired, an Imperial captured, five men and a droid out, one is severely injured, the droid is damaged, – and she knows Draven gets that it’s Cassian who is injured, K2 who is damaged.
For one thing, were Cassian in any shape, he would have called himself.
“ Go to Corellia. You will get hailed there. A frigate will pick you up, ” Draven orders, then mentions a code Jyn will have to transfer once they are there.
Jyn confirms, hangs and sags a bit against the communication console.
She forgot how nice it is to have someone at your back.
Even if that someone is General Draven. Or, possibly, because of it: right now she feels as if Draven can give even Tarkin a run for his money in pretty much anything.
***
Once they are picked up, Bodhi doesn’t know what to do.
He trails behind Cassian, checks into the medbay of the ship that got them and is promptly discharged: they have their hands full as it is.
Their shuttle isn’t the first one picked after Scarif.
Bodhi understands that intellectually. He knows he will have to report once they are on the base proper; he suspects that he will have to report as soon as they are in hyper again, just so the Alliance top brass knows quicker how thin Imperial defences are if you know how to breach them.
Likely, they were already aware.
Likely, Bodhi is once again useless, his knowledge passed to the right people, used to achieve quite a result.
Likely, he will be left behind somewhere.
Still, he waits just long enough to see a medic come to start treating Cassian and gets up, towards the bridge.
He might be deadly tired, he might have started his life anew, he might have left behind almost everything he has, but he knows the drill.
Present himself before the officers first, rest later.
Even his Imperial uniform doesn’t raise eyebrows here: he figures why once someone with lieutenant's squares moves past, face too obviously open for her to actually be an Imperial.
Bodhi looks like a spy, not like a man who lost one place and barely found another.
This fills him with determination, but he doesn’t quite get to the bridge proper.
For one thing, he doesn’t know where exactly it is: the ship is Mon-Calamari, possibly, but a queer design, clearly made to smuggle for it has a lot of smaller than usual corridors and the walls seem uneven, but Bodhi doesn’t have much experience with those.
For another, Jyn finds him first.
“I was looking for you,” she says, clearly having at least gotten herself a shower and a new set of clothing. “Come, I got briefed so you won’t have to. The plans are being passed on faster, so we will be questioned most thoroughly on Yavin, but not before,” she looks at him with open concern, and Bodhi realises that Jyn actually looked out for him.
He follows, arrives at a cabin set for four with all four bunks empty of anything personal.
Jyn settles on one, points at a door to the refresher, and Bodhi goes through.
He undresses slowly, carefully, as if he is in pain. He isn’t, not truly: he might have bruises tomorrow, or the day after, or never, for he didn’t really get tossed about as much as he might have and Bor Gullet left scars in his memory, not on his body.
Still, it feels strange to finally shed his uniform. He will not get another. It’s unlikely he will pose as a shuttle pilot in the near future, if ever.
It was his life for many years.
Bodhi looks in the small mirror and tries to see the difference between today and a week ago.
There is nothing: he is too tired.
Once he is done, he gets out just to see Jyn sleep on her bunk: she hasn’t even used the covers as if she passed out as soon as she lied down.
As much as Bodhi fears he might wake her, he cannot leave her like this: spare blankets are readily available on the other bunks, after all, so he covers her as carefully as he wishes to be covered and settles in one of the other bunks.
He fears he won’t be able to sleep.
Those fears are unfounded: he is out faster than the lights he forgot to turn off.
***
Cassian doesn't recognise the room he is in: it is a medbay, sterile, white, but not familiar.
If not for a Mon-Calamari doctor who checked him as soon as the machine beeped him coming to his senses, Cassian would not know if that was his side or Imps.
As it is, he has to stay for at least a few hours, more if the base won’t have free cots in their medbay, but this all is mostly a precaution. He doesn’t even need a full-on bacta immersion, even if he will have to wear bandages for a while.
Nothing new, to be honest.
"You are one lucky human," the doctor says, and quickly summarises why: if the shot went a bit to the left or slightly higher, Cassian wouldn't survive even a stun shot. As it were, he will barely have a scar to impress his boyfriend or girlfriend, or both.
Cassian manages to nod his understanding, because apparently that doctor thinks he can talk rebel operatives out of being shot at, and then lies for a while.
He ought to rest.
He cannot fall asleep, even if he is tired, tired to the point he feels every bone, sinew and bruise. It takes a while to understand why.
He is worried. Anxious. Too nervous to calm down.
He cannot reliably remember how the mission went.
And what’s more, he wasn’t briefed on how it went.
Even though Cassian honestly can't remember a time when no danger awaited - danger from the Empire, its agents or various gangs he managed to anger - ever since they met with K2-SO he always knew how their mission ended.
K2 never missed a chance to tell exactly how bad the odds were and how much better would his plan go. K2 always found a way to tell Cassian how it all went.
And now K2 could have been forever silenced and Cassian is just lying there, not even sleeping.
That’s not counting the rest. Chirrut and Baze left on Scarif, their fate unknown. Bodhi likely well, if the brief interlude on the ship was real, but Cassian cannot remember it properly.
Jyn fiercely demanding something from an Imperial officer, and now Cassian cannot even check if she’s on another cot nearby.
That is useless, pointless, and so Cassian quietly unhooks whatever is connecting him to a machine, and stands up.
The room spins, but then rightens up, and Cassian slowly goes in search of his missing partners.
The frigate is new enough that he doesn’t know the layout; still, he is a welcomed face. His team won a hefty price, even if no one announced outright what it had been, and so the crew is helpful.
Still, no one kept an eye on an operative or two, even if one seemed an Imperial. Cassian is left almost without leads until he asks after K2.
Droids aren’t unique, but ex-Imperials are rare. He is directed to the ship’s droidshop, advised on searching it more thoroughly than usual, for the mechanics in charge are quite capable of hiding even a newly arrived droid under a few piles.
The shop is accessible through the hangar. Cassian catches his breath observing the bustle around: ships come and go since they are currently over a planet. Corellia, if the whispers around him are true to life. An Alderaani yacht arrives, her captain or, most likely, her owner, a young girl somewhat familiar to Cassian striding down as soon as the ship is secured, telling something about a message from Admiral Ackbar.
An old Corellian freighter limps in next, clearly an escort for the yacht. There is a story there, but Cassian searches the bay for the familiar form.
Their shuttle is nowhere to be found. It might have been used to ferry something to Corellia, but as the ship’s bay locks and hyperspace blue starts flickering in the windows, Cassian understands that the shuttle has its own mission somewhere. If it even was.
Cassian struggles ahead, limping, and wonders if he imagined Bodhi coming up to take them to this ship. It might have just been Jyn. Or someone else entirely – Melshi had the courage to attempt that.
He finally comes to the shop: fairly well equipped as those things are, it is dark. The lights are dimmed, the workers are absent. One droid cleans the floor so slowly, Cassian suspects it will be there all night.
The lack of people is a blessing, though: Cassian wanders around, looks, searches for the needed familiar shape, looks about for anything resembling K2.
It’s mostly astromechs here, though, the majority are turned down and silent. The rest aren’t particularly talkative either: the only noise there is Cassian’s heavy breathing and the sound of his boots on the durasteel floor. The lamps flicker on as he passes and turn out again as he goes by.
Cassian is ready to cheerfully shout as a boy when he sees his prize.
K2 is lying on his back, limbs straight and eyes dark. Cassian doesn’t realise when he moves closer, but he does, trying to find any sign that K2 is just turned off temporarily.
He sees the blaster marks, sees the places the blasts went through and damaged some inner workings.
Were he in better shape, he would have tried to run some diagnostics himself. Were he certain K2 was in better shape, he would have turned him on: he thinks the main processor isn’t too damaged.
But now, still dizzy, still tired, still almost feeling Scarif’s sun on his head, he can just sit beside K2 and be glad he is here.
They are here. He, and K2, and once he’s rested a bit, he’ll find Jyn and Bodhi…
He doesn’t know how long he sits like this, slowly sliding into sleep and dreaming of the same workshop but for humans, before the whoosh of the opening doors wake him.
Bodhi’s voice turns on the lights, and Bodhi comes forward, almost looking as bad as Cassian feels.
“Hey,” he calls, and Bodhi startles, before visibly relaxing.
“Here you are,” he says, smiling. “K2-SO might take a while, but I’ve been reassured he will be repaired. Despite being an Imp droid,” Bodhi adds, and Cassian has enough of his mind left to understand that there was a danger of K2 ending up disassembled because turned off he was just another source of information.
“Might be a while though,” Bodhi continues, and sits beside Cassian, barely touching him. He almost looks like he’d go for a hug, but stops at the last moment, puts his hand on K2’s torso instead, almost touching one of the holes. “They don’t have the parts. I checked.”
“Thanks,” Cassian says, and leans onto Bodhi. “Once I’m slightly better we will check again.”
He almost expects K2 to wake up just because Cassian admits to be ill, however small the admission.
K2 doesn’t.
Bodhi doesn’t leave, just sitting here, just being there, until Jyn finds them and proclaims that they will be arriving at Yavin in an hour and Cassian already looks more like a Force Ghost than a regular rebel: the resident ghosts of Yavin are bound to be jealous.
Cassian just nods: he feels ghost-like, even if he doesn’t want to burden anyone with such an admission.
***
Their frigate arrives and they spend a few hours briefed by everyone from Draven to Sindulla. The officer they captured is sent for yet another Rebel camp, smaller than Yavin-4, so that even if the man had a tracker implanted in an unusual place, he won’t expose too many of their folks. It’s not the admiral, but his aide, which is almost better.
Once the Council gets together again, the captured plans are presented. The Death Star is now undoubtedly real, even if no one has seen it since Jedha, and it is a wonder to see Draven melodiously list all the ways such a thing can be destroyed just to bore everyone into believing they can win. They have infiltrated so many places: what is another base, even if it’s a floating fortress? They have the plans. They know the weak spot: the central reactor module is unstable. It has a ventilation shaft towards the surface.
In short, it is a bomb inside a bomb and they know how to light its fuse.
Some naturally see the very information as victory.
Privately, Cassian thinks that this disappearance might mean their plans will soon be outdated. He knows Mon Mothma and Draven suspect the same – the very amount of possible strategies Draven outlines is testament enough.
They rest – who is there from Rogue One. On the third day of their convalescence the word arrives that Melshi, and Baze, and Chirrut are alive together with thirteen others. The rest are lost or captured.
Even after he is better, Cassian lingers: he knows Bodhi hasn’t been cleared for missions, and he knows Jyn hasn’t left either, despite being far less injured than Cassian.
The Death Star is hiding.
Jyn wants to be the one to destroy her.
Cassian knows they have to start small, even if he cannot quite outargue Jyn. Bodhi who most often is third at their discussions, stays silent.
Still, it is Bodhi who offers an alternative.
They have to find the Death Star first. He heard a rumour that it used a special quality of durasteel, special crystals, special everything. Naturally all the needed crystals were installed, otherwise Jedha would have been spared, but the ‘steel is trackable.
It has to be carried to the place. He knows exactly how the orders will be hidden among others: same, as those that he was bringing to Eadu.
“And also, Bodhi adds, hesitantly, we will be spending a lot of time observing Imperial warehouses and suppliers. We can look for K2 parts,” he pats Cassian as if reassuring.
It is as good a reason as any. Even better than most, and finally Cassian can give himself, Jyn, and Bodhi a clear cut list of targets.
“Practically shopping,” Jyn says, but in such a tone Cassian and Bodhi both know she is pleased.
***
Bodhi keeps having nightmares. His usual dreams are pale, washed, a reflection of reality but in sepia and grayscale, if he remembers them at all.
But now his nights are filled with either Cassian or Jyn.
Generally it’s a repeat of their missions, or of the moment Cassian recruited him.
Those are in full colour, almost word for word - after Bor Gullen Bodhi cannot fully trust his memory to confirm, but the replies definitely feel like them.
Sometimes, though rarely, those dreams are re-imaginings of his recent missions with either offering commentary on Bodhi’s actions. How slow he was, or, contrary, how nice.
The nightmarish aspect is that, naturally, the missions fail. All of them, even the relatively easy delivery ones, where Bodhi doesn’t stay around to extract the team he brought in.
After those Bodhi usually wakes in cold sweat and thanks anyone who will listen that they still share a room even on Yavin. Unless Jyn or Cassian are on a mission – and usually all three of them go together, – all Bodhi has to do is turn his head to see whether they are alive and well.
The last set of dreams was a replay of Scarif assault. Those were much worse.
Black and white apart from blaster shots - those were brilliant and blinding even if Bodhi seems to be above ground, here and there, and everywhere at once.
Sometimes he sees that the ground crew inspecting their shuttle managed to inform the others. Their shuttle is blown up as the result before they can even begin proper infiltration.
Sometimes it’s the distraction crew that takes too long to act and thus Cassian, Jyn and K2 are apprehended before the vault, for there are too many imps to sneak past.
Sometimes it’s something else - they are too obvious, they are too long in the vault, they are too soon out of the vault control room, so the death troopers and an ISB officer shoot them there, or they are chased to the roof and Bodhi is not there and they either lose the blaster fight or are destroyed by a Death Star ray appearing from the skies.
That ray is also always green, acidic in the grey sky and against the greyer building.
Those dreams always arrive if Cassian and Jyn are on a mission. They always make Bodhi wake up in sweat, sometimes shouting. He always goes to check on K2 (still out of it, still plausibly repairable, still a proof that they all made it out alive, that the nightmares are just dreams) and usually gets a scalding cup of caf for himself, because he needs to feel alive, and burning his tongue is quite a good indication of that.
A physical hurt is good enough to mask the mental pain
What hurts the most is seeing them die in vain.
***
Jyn usually works with whoever she wants - her performance on Scarif earned her that much. Usually it’s a simple info extraction: she is likely to be noticed, her warrant not nullified, and even in Imperial uniform she is just too bright to be a cog, and so she needs a backup, Cassian a street over and Bodhi in their get-away shuttle.
Or so both Cassian and Bodhi claim, and Jyn still doesn’t know which one started it first. She is never bright, she prefers shadows, same as Cassian or any other operative, she is just too focused for anyone who serves the Empire.
It still takes her by surprise to learn that a few months have passed. That the Senate is busy bothering Tarkin and his scientists about the Jedha tragedy, blamed on the mines. That she is a captain in her own right, same as Cassian.
That Draven trusts them with Bodhi – no one likes Imperial defectors, naturally, but this one is an exception, too good, the general jokes, and then officially makes Bodhi their subordinate. They aren’t as numerous as the Ghost group, but they might get a name sooner or later.
It pains Jyn to be on a joke basis with General Draven, to know just how quickly General Syndulla flies – to be honest, she prefers missions with Syndulla for the woman takes just as many risks as Jyn would like. To know exactly which senators are never afraid to show their face on the bases and which send aids, spouses, children.
In short, she is among friends.
Last time it was so, she was with Saw.
Jyn halfway expects the same, that at some point her usefulness will end, that she will be left behind on a base or a mission. Left as Saw left her, with a blaster and advice, not to cover whoever gets away with their prize but to stay forever alone.
It doesn’t help that Saw is dead. Dead because of her, in part, because her parents knew only Saw to ask for help, because her father sent Bodhi to Jedha.
Such thoughts plague her downtime, follow her once she has any moment to herself, never far away. She suspects everyone, Cassian and Bodhi included. She asks for solitary missions.
After one of those she comes back injured, her leg burned by blaster fire so badly she requires bacta as soon as the extraction team got her out. It was an interesting mission – a lead for the Death Star, someone knew someone whose mother sold them doomium, that kind of thing that usually brought out an agent with Fulcrum skills or someone as charming as Cassian can be, but Jyn insisted.
She got the files. She got the proof that the Empire was rebuilding something in the thing, making it even more deadly… or, hopefully, breaking it apart in order to find her father’s flaw.
Bodhi and Cassian were on their own mission – something about the details for K2, still scarce, – but they met her on the base.
Bodhi is almost vibrating with worry; Cassian is so severe, some might think him furious. He is also worried, Jyn realises, and she fails to remember since when she knows those two so well.
Still, Cassian berates her, highlighting all the mistakes she made, brainstorming how they might have done better together.
“I will not lose you to a lousy stormtrooper on a backwater base,” he finally says, throat choking, and Jyn startles.
“ We won’t lose you. We are a team, right? Could act like it,” Bodhi adds, and carefully moves them all into a hug.
He still trembles, though, even if he didn’t say anything about Jyn’s mission, and she hugs them back, trying to be as reassuring as she can.
She might not stay. She might get away as soon as they have a proper plan for the Death Star. She asked Draven to be on any such mission and now, with the highsight of one injured and brought back, she knows he will allow that not to milk her death wish, but because he believes her capable of returning.
She also knows that Cassian will be beside her, and that Bodhi will find a way to get on the team as well.
This knowledge pains her almost as badly as the burn. Still, she cannot force them away.
Somewhere between Scarif and now it ceased to be an option.
Two days later Bodhi sheepishly says that he might have done a stupid thing and now their call sign as a group is “Stardust”.
Until they repair K2, until Chirrut and Baze join them, currently being busy with several sabotage missions in the Outer Rim, until they are Rogue One again.
Jyn cannot even pretend to be angry.
***
One day they find themselves on an Imperial base southwest of Tyrena, chosen for its ruralness compared to other garrisons on the planet. Their pilot is an almost local Corellian, a friend of Princess Organa, although he claims most severely to just be in this for the money. They clad themselves in spare troopers armour, gotten by the pilot on his previous mission.
Bodhi gains his trust first, with both Cassian and Jyn deemed too prickly for a proper discussion, and the way there is filled with general discussion on the merits of freighters in general and Corellian freighters in particular.
It is surprisingly soothing, to hear Bodhi sound so confident just before a mission. Jyn and Cassian need just a glance to agree.
They successfully sneak into the perimeter, knock out a couple of troopers and their officer and take his identification; it should be easy after that, but just as they come up to the base’s stockroom the alarm sounds.
It sounds like a fire drill, but naturally the knocked out troopers’ are found and they have to pretend to be a patrol of their own. Imperials seemingly believe the group to be more than the three of them, and this advantage Cassian exploits to the full, even gaining proper access to the storeroom from a bewildered caretaker droid.
Photoreceptors are found and carefully packed, as well as some transponders that will definitely boost their masking capability or so Bodhi hopes, loudly.
Then they walk in circles, itching closer to the exit, waiting for a likely group to cover their escape. They are almost there when they stumble upon a droid.
It is a KX series, for some reasons painted in dark blue instead of black, but it’s quick - their armour is not from this base, is not from this planet, so their identification is very much in doubt even before they try to speak.
“Identify yourselves!” the droid barks, vocoder so close to K2 that Cassian almost pauses.
Almost, because this one is blue, and has a gun out and almost up, and they are in the middle of a mission to get parts for their droid…
Jyn shoots, and then jumps to get the droid to the ground and shoot into the vulnerable bits from up close. Less of a sound this way, more chance to bust something that would shut it up for good.
The droid, of course, almost decapitates her with a fist, beating with the same force K2 used on Wobani. Jyn manages it better, the armour certainly absorbs such impacts, but she loses the blaster and has to spend a second trying to take out her baton.
The droid kicks and beats her again, into the same spot, obviously trying to break the armour. Given the squeaky sound, this won’t take long.
Then a blaster shot rings out, too close for comfort - Jyn barely manages not to scream and waits to see the droid’s eyes start to dim before turning around to notice Cassian beside her, blaster ready.
Bodhi made the shot, though, if the way he rigidly holds his blaster rifle is any indication.
“Do we take anything from him?” Jyn asks, and Cassian blicks.
“No, that will take too long,” Cassian replies, but he does look appraisingly at the droid’s neck. “Yes, we don’t have anything to disassemble him with.”
They drag the droid towards a more used corridor, to divert attention, rummage through the local network with the help of the nearest data access (nothing useful, even if Cassian hums at some of durasteel shipments that were seemingly diverted from the shipyards above Corellia) and sprint towards the main hangar, calling for their new Corellian friend to pick them up there.
Jyn rigs a transport to blow up for yet another cover, much to Bodhi’s chagrin, for he is obviously itching to steal one. But then their ride arrives and they are back aboard that Corellian freighter before the base has the time to shoot.
“Are you always that fast?” their pilot quips, changing his transponder signal with a newly liberated one before lifting into space. “Or did you choose the wrong base to infiltrate?”
“We’re just professionals,” Cassian replies: he is a bit too sweaty for it to just be helmet hair, and his hand keeps touching Jyn, as if he has to reassure himself she is here.
Judging by the looks from Bodhi, he wants to do the same, but he is sitting further, unable to touch..
“If you were after parts, I can smuggle,” the pilot brags, even though his Wookie companion is dubious. “Easier than going in and out.”
“We don’t need just them,” Cassian replies. “And we might need a lift to Coruscant next. I think I got a way we can track that planet killer of theirs down.”
“Why did you talk me into helping that princess, Chewie?” the pilot laments as they enter the hyperspace. “The Alliance is nothing but a bunch of overly demanding fools. Coruscant is bound to end up somewhere too close to ISB, right?”
“I was thinking more about the Ministry of Transport,” Cassian replies and now Jyn can see his logic.
“We’ll need something fancier to wear,” she says. “And quite possibly a droid for quicker information extraction.”
Cassian just sighs deeply.
***
Cassian knows that he is cared for once people look out for him - even if sometimes the interventions look like kidnapping, with Jyn easily forcing Cassian to sleep.
He returns the favour, he learns her and Bodhi tells, starts to notice just how they mask a poor night or a nightmare.
It’s a misuse of his skills, he is sure, but the way Bodhi smiles when his caf is just right, or the contented sound Jyn makes when she is allowed to sleep in.
It should not be surprising when he gets caf in return, when Jyn gets them warm tasty rations and when Bodhi fusses at the merest hint of an illness.
Still, Cassian is surprised at how easy that is. He is afraid, deadly afraid for all of them, but somehow the fact that they are just as afraid for him is reassuring.
Bodhi learns to shoot well.
Jyn tries her hand at piloting. The ship survives the ride, even if Bodhi swears that he got more gray hairs than after Scarif.
Cassian keeps them close.
Together their nightmares fade.
It’s Bodhi who combs the supply notices, bothers himself with tracing shipments and noticing when they are diverted or just never arrive.
The last one is about durasteel – a big shipment meant for yet another Star Destroyer has never arrived at the Corellian shipyards, and the Destroyer is actually behind schedule. It would take at least a moff to do that, so they are close.
The Death Star is likely close enough to divert supplies from Corellian shipyards and not Kuat, and requires a mass amount of durasteel.
They have probably found the weak spot and were trying to close it up.
So Cassian floats a few ideas on how to destroy the Death Star if that way is closed (the most usual one requires an infiltration team and he almost suggest they have it, they do have a number of defectors and a droid, before remembering that no, the droid he is thinking of is out of commission and also unlikely to play his part well, if Jedha was an indicator).
Bodhi seconds the idea. By the look on Jyn’s face Cassian realises that she has already demanded to be on one such team long ago.
They start planning together after that, sitting above the plans they got from Scarif and figuring the best ways to go. Sometimes one of them acts like the Empire and tries to catch the intruders.
Jyn’s the best at it, unafraid to even blow up parts of the station just to get at them. Cassian doesn’t know if the station can do that, but he likes her creativity.
***
Finally, after at least a dozen raids to just as many bases and one Star Destroyer, one scratch and a few dressing downs from either Mon Mothma or General Draven for risks taken, K2 is ready to be turned on.
Some things would have to be fine tuned in motion, but the processor was intact and now that all the batteries and wires are there, they can activate him.
The vibes of 'and then he will finish the repairs himself' float across the repair shop. Cassian can't blame them - KX series are well-known as tools of oppression - but he sure can judge.
Surely a droid who was just lying there, who helped them with a number of missions, can be classified differently than the others?
But it doesn't matter - Cassian is there, Jyn is somewhere behind with a blaster ready in case some programming reverts to the factory setting, and Bodhi is fidgeting on the other side of Cassian.
He even suggested waiting outside, but that was out of the question.
And then the last wires are connected, possibly some button is pressed, and K2 starts humming, as he does when in low power mode.
Cassian has forgotten that sound.
K2 creaks, obviously does some internal check: photoreceptors turn on and off, almost blinking, a fan goes off roaring before settling into proper mode. It’s barely heard, almost stopping a few times and then K2 finally settles into what used to be normal.
“What’s the occasion?” he asks, vocoder higher than usual.
Cassian feels his eyes water. Beside him someone starts checking K2’s memory: basic questions as to what he remembers last and whether he already feels the urge to kill everyone and report the base to the Empire. Or vice versa.
K2 answers without any pauses - and Cassian watches for them, commits new voice of K2 to memory! - and finally the technician confirms that the droid is ready to go.
Cassian makes them check K2 to see if any parameters are way below normal, and only after K2 himself says he is as well as can be expected, they leave.
Jyn has secured a room fit for them all, and the next few hours are spent retelling what has happened while K2 was out.
Or, rather, Cassian has expected to just briefly tell what they were up to.
And then Bodhi carefully retells all the raids he has been present for, and tries to use K2 to make both Jyn and Cassian see sense, see just how many unnecessary risks they take.
Jyn is thoughtful. Cassian tries and fails to have a good explanation for what he did.
K2 looks at them with a very familiar tilt of his head.
“And you, Bodhi? How did you stop that behavior?” he asks, clearly noticing something that neither Jyn nor Cassian did.
“I joined them,” Bodhi admits, and then adds: “I am glad you are here now. We’ll be two against their death wish.”
“I feel like we might just add another flavour of it,” K2 replies to general laughter.
They hug, the four of them, Jyn has tears in her eyes, and somehow this feels like the end to a chapter.
A good one, a proper one.
Bodhi starts telling K2 about their plans for finding the Death Star, and Cassian realises that they know almost enough. K2 agrees.
“There is a limited space for an object of that size to disappear,” K2 nods. “If we have news of another shipment or two, or five at worst, we will have the location.”
“Yes, that’s why I wanted to get into as many bases as I could. You never know when luck shines,” Cassian adds.
"Given your history, I would disagree," K2 intones, as cool as ever.
"You are here, that means I am in luck," Cassian says, suddenly and warmly. “All of you. I mean it.”
“If we managed to get onto Scarif by sheer luck without any special plans, we will manage the Death Star with ease,” Bodhi says, his hands still on Jyn and Cassian's shoulders, his face free of any anxiety for the first time in a while.
Jyn nods, Cassian frowns for a moment, and Bodhi squeezes his shoulder again as K2 calculates just how much more dangerous that mission will be.
Cassian wouldn’t change a thing, especially since Jyn starts arguing with K2 and Cassian feels a smile appear on his face.
He just hugs his partners closer as K2 makes a knowing noise.