#orialda

“You can stay here,” a young woman in a grey outfit had told him. She had...smiled. He didn’t smile back, but he was grateful for the kindness. Her name was Neva, and she had been very busy; far too busy to remain with him.  She had to monitor oncoming rebel activity.

K-IL387 found a comfortable seat on the floor, legs splayed straight out in front of him, the saber hilt in his hands.  He fingers its surface, covered in niches.  It had been well-worn...well-used...yet still cared for, as it worked perfectly.

Something whistles and squeals, and he looks up to see a mouse droid bumping by his feet.  He stares at it, listening to it chatter.  A few more skitter out of hiding places and skid about the smooth, gray tiles.

They needed names.

He wants to give them names.

..There’s one that bumps his boot and knocks into his leg, but stays away from the other droids. It doesn’t really speak...and when it does, it skips like a broken track.  

K-IL might’ve fixed it...but fixing things wasn’t his purpose. He did what he was instructed, and nothing more.  But he calls it “Tal”.  It looks and acts like a “Tal”.

Another one hides in the corner and hides when he tries looking at it.  

...”Kaida” suited it.

Another one, grumbly and with a squeaky wheel, he calls “Gust”.  Gust followed another droid around closely, knocking against it as some sign of closeness.  K-IL smiles a bit, almost.  

*Complain all you want, Gust...I know you like that other mouse.*

Gust sputters angrily in response, and K-IL shakes his head.

Gust’s...”not-friend”...could be “Ori”.

Ori, Gust, Kaida, and Tal.

K-IL says their names aloud, to himself, while they shoot in circles around the floor and Neva works nearby.  He almost forgets the weight of the weapon in his gloved hands...the way his mind is so oddly empty and how everything hurts just a bit too much.

“K-IL!” a voice snaps, and the scene is broken.  The android looks up, then scrambles to his feet, ignoring the way his joints screamed when he drew himself to attention.

Another officer is approaching..one of the not-nice officers from earlier.  Her steps are frantic and her eyes are dancing with a bright light.  She kicks out at Ori and stops in front of the android, panting for breath.

“..Rebel...activity.  In Hangar seven.  I need you to go there and deal with it.”

Gust bonks her leg, and she snarls down at it, yanking out her blaster.

“Wait-” K-IL steps forward, arm outstretched.  Why he wanted to stop her..he couldn’t say.  But now her attention is on him and his hand.

“Are you...telling me what to do, K-IL387?” She asks.  Then she twists the blaster in her hand, aiming it at Gust and letting out several blasts.  The droid is blown to bits, snuffed out in a short-lived scream and a flare of fire and blaster smoke.

K-IL stares at the charred, sparking remains.  The officer replaces the blaster, taking a breath.

“Now, do I have to repeat myself?”

K-IL tears his eyes from Gust to look at her.  Something in him screams past the pain, past the blurred nothingness that burns behind his eyes.  Something that made him feel sick.

Except that couldn’t be right, because androids didn’t feel things.

“No...Ma’am.”  He slips the blade into a small holster at his side.  “I will take care of the threat, Ma’am.”

She nods and fixes her hair with a self-satisfied smirk.

He doesn’t smile back.

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