Work Text:
Some 'troopers told fortunes by the lines in their palms. Some could feel these lines even through their gloves, could press a finger to black cloth and go, "This is your lifeline". The 'trooper would feel a shiver as a black-clad finger would trail, unnerringly, over the invisible crease in their skin. "This is your lifeline," AR-6298 would say. "It will always guide you home."
(AR-6298 guided everyone home, every ground mission. She never lost a trooper. She knew who was upset before they knew it themselves, showed them how to hide their sorrow and their loss and their wrongness so they could escape reconditioning.)
(AR-6298 didn't guide herself home, some of the 'troopers said later, when she was gone. AR-6298 didn't know when she was sad or had lost or was wrong until it was too late, too wrapped up in her 'troopers heads. AR-6298 didn't escape reconditioning, but reconditioning could not hold her.)
(AR-6298 was gone.)
Some 'troopers told fortunes in song. They'd hold the hands of their squadmates and hum tunelessly, nothing like the propaganda songs they all knew, something ineffable, something old. SG-1276 did this, everyone in their squad in a circle, hand in hand in hand, everyone humming, the sound layering and layering and layering and sounding unlike any human noise at all.
SG-1276 would close her eyes, hum and hum and hum, the tune matching to something in those beside her until they opened their eyes and said, "There are still places to go," or "There is strength in your bones, you will survive," or, once, sadly, wetly, "Death is coming, GR-9658. We cannot escape."
(Death came for SG-1276 and GR-9658 in the form of blaster bolts. Their squad wasn't allowed to bury them, knew they would not be allowed to bury them. They joined their hands, later, in the peace of their barracks, and they hummed. They would almost swear they could feel SG-1276 humming with them.)
In Finn's group, they told fortunes with a pack of Sabacc cards that one of the older 'troopers had stolen. They got passed around the squads, never staying too long in one place - they all knew about HY-4025 who'd been airlocked for their pack, the cards burnt to ashes - or too long with one squad - they all remembered DQ squad, sent as one to reconditioning after getting too caught up in their predictions.
Finn's squad only had the pack for one standard week but that was all it took for Finn to memorise the cards, to know their feel. (Strange plasticised pieces of card, colours unlike anything he'd seen except in holos and vids. Creases and folds and ragged edges that showed just how well-loved these cards were.)
Finn's squad passed the cards on, but Finn didn't stop telling fortunes by them. He'd close his eyes, move his hands as though shuffling the cards, deal out an imaginary hand to them each.
"You have the Queen," he told Nines once. "That means you're gonna do more than you think, but you're not gonna be sure if you're right - Air and Darkness, you see?"
"You have the Star," he told Zeroes. "You're gonna survive, gonna keep on burning just like that star. Keep on surviving, no matter what."
He was quiet for Slip. "You have the Evil One," he whispered. "I don't... that's not bad. It doesn't mean you're evil. It means something outside of us all is gonna change things, and we're gonna have to work hard to get through it together and alive."
Later, Finn thinks: How did I know what the cards they had were?
Later, Finn thinks: Nines didn't understand why I'd left, Zeroes kept on surviving. Slip didn't make it through.
Later, Finn thinks, when he knows just how real the Force is: All those fortunes we would tell. Were some of us right?