I told myself I was going to post something for May the Fourth, and I may not have started it until this evening but gosh darn it, here it is, with over an hour to spare: the Mighty Nein Rogue One crossover AU I’ve been putting off writing since August.
Am I still on my Critical Role bullshit? Did I mash up my two favorite franchises? Did writing this make my heart ache to watch Rogue One again? Is this super niche? Is this super self indulgent? All of the above. Sure hope there’s enough overlap for someone to enjoy this.
Anyways: Everybody lives. Set sometime before Return of the Jedi. Something something, C2 campaign grafted onto the Star Wars universe and this takes place after whatever that would be.
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This time, when the interrogation ends, Major Andor opens the door on the left.
Groggy from a week long test of fidelity, Essek doesn’t move and simply stares at the shadowed hallway beyond.
“Welcome to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Essek of no den,” Andor says, stepping aside. His voice sounds just as weary as Essek feels. Weary, and almost neutral, but the tiniest upticks in the corner of his mouth. “Your crew is waiting for you.”
He gestures towards the door. At the mention of the Mighty Nein, Essek finally rises. It could be a trick, his delirious brain warns him. But while Andor has put him through the proper paces that any competent intelligence officer would, he’s never used underhanded tactics. Not torture.
A better spymaster than myself, he thinks. His brain is not kind. He doesn’t deserve kindness. And beyond that door, if Andor speaks true, and he likely does, kindness waits for him. Essek swallows, but his mouth is dry.
“Go on,” Andor says. “We’re done here.”
Essek walks through door as if in a daze. On the other side, someone new waits for him: not the hulking, reprogrammed KX-series droid, nor the sullen, suspicious rebel lieutenant that both took turns escorting him to his makeshift cell.
The man looks at him with soft, dark eyes. The messy hair falling out of the ponytail, the facial hair, and something about his posture reminds him of Caleb, the way he folds in on himself. Caleb is waiting, he thinks, and his stomach churns at that thought, whether that’s excitement or anxiety, he doesn’t want to look to deep to find out. Besides, he’s truly gone through enough soul searching thai week.
“Hello,” the man says, holding out his hand. “Bodhi Rook. I’m the pilot.”
“Essek They—” his voice catches on the name, both from scratchiness but also from the reminder that he no longer bears that name. He shakes head. “Habit. Essek of no den.”
“Oh, sorry, here.” Rook holds out a canteen. Only decades of experience allow Essek to maintain his dignity as he slowly accepts the container and sips water. He knows he must not gulp, that would make his stomach sick, although his body is parched.
“He hates having to do this, you know,” Rook says, as he starts leading him through an unfamiliar tunnel. “But I do — I get it. I had to go through the same thing — the same ‘orientation,’ if you will. I defected, too.”
Essek sighs, a long exhale that whistles through his nose. “I’ve been in his position. I’ve done worse. You don’t need to apologize.”
Rook cocks his head and looks at him. “I don’t need to apologize. But I am. It’s not pleasant regardless of what you think you deserve. And as I said, I know. I defected, too.”
After taking another sip of water, Essek takes the obvious bait. “Where were you stationed?”
“Eadu,” he says. “Eadu Energy Conversion Laboratory.”
Essek stops. “Eadu,” he repeats. He recognizes the name, but his groggy brain can’t place it.
“Where Galen Erso worked,” Rook clarifies.
The canteen clutched tightly in his fingers, Essek looks back down the hall towards where Andor had spent most of the week extracting every ounce of intelligence in Essek’s brain. Right. Eadu. He’d never been officially told the name of that planet, but had uncovered through his own espionage and analysis after Ludinus had failed to provide extensive details of Erso’s research.
His eyes slide back to Rook, who watches him calmly, expression relaxed and open. No judgment or scorn. “Did you know him?” Essek asks carefully.
“I still do,” he says, with a gentle smile.
Nodding, Essek starts moving again and Rook falls in step next to him. This makes sense. Of course it makes sense. They’d chosen Andor to interview him specifically because of his background knowledge. All of his crew must know Erso. Perhaps they’d even been the team to extract him from Eadu several years ago.
“Is—is he here?” Essek dares to ask. He doubts he’ll receive an answer.
Bodhi shakes his head. “No, but I think your friend—Caleb? Has been in contact with him. You know, he is another defector. Well, I’m sure you know. You worked with him, didn’t you?”
“Not—as such. Not exactly.”
“He’s very nice. Not like Jyn. I mean, Jyn is nice, but also tough, Galen is not like that. Don’t tell her I said that — that’s she’s not nice and that she is nice. She doesn’t like compliments much.”
“Jyn?”
“Oh, right. Don’t think you got names before. She was your, uh, cell guard.”
“She’s Erso’s daughter?”
“Yep.”
“What is it that they say? It’s a small galaxy.”
Rook chuckles. “You have no idea. Not only could you and start our own defectors club, but — well, are the rumors true? Are you and Widogast…?”
“Are we what?” Essek asks, taken off-guard by this new line of questioning.
“You know. Together?”
Essek would choke on his own saliva if he had any. To cover, he takes a long sip of he canteen; it’s nearly finished. “I…”
“I’m sorry, that’s personal. I shouldn’t have asked. It’s just, well, Luke is really eager to meet him, and somehow it always works out that they’re never in the same system at the same time. You know how it is. But I was wondering if you could arrange a meeting. There’s not that many Jedi around and—”
“You are talking about Luke Skywalker?” Essek asks.
Rook nods.
“You are — am I to understand, you are telling me that you are — that you and Luke Skywalker are together?” One week of exhausting interrogations and Essek is unable to string a proper question together.
“Yes. Why is everyone so surprised by that?” He rolls his eyes. “I mean, I get it, I carried the plans to the Death Star, which Luke used to destroy it, there is sort of a — sort of a nice, narrative to it, I guess. But still.”
Essek raises his eyebrows and takes a closer look at Rook. Not quite the same, but also not too different a story about a couple who met when one person returned the very item the other had stolen. He drains the canteen.
“Luke helped me, after i defected. He helped me… find the light.”
The image of Caleb, warm and blinding like the sun, comes to mind again. Maybe it’s something about Jedi. Even with all the darkness of Caleb’s past, his literal experience with the Dark Side, his hope and persistence to improve still shine brighter than any star Essek has ever studied.
“I’m sorry.” Rook shakes his head. “I’m babbling. The point is. Some rebels are going to be assholes because you defected. But if you ever want to vent, I’m here. I’ve gone through it. And,” he leans a little closer, “same thing, about the Jedi boyfriend thing. Force users, you know?”
Essek realizes Rook must not have been fully briefed on Essek’s own background. He levitates the canteen back to Rook’s hands and raises an eyebrow.
Rook actually laughs. “Okay. Guess I didn’t read the brief closely enough. You a Jedi, too?”
“No,” Essek says, snorting. “We use the Force differently on Xhorhas. I am told it is closer to how the Dathomirians interact with it.”
“I see. Interesting. Well. Here we are.”
They turn the corner and the tunnel opens up to a vestibule, which then opens up to a hangar where the Nein Heroez sits next to another ship.
Speaking of Caleb — just meters away, he sits crosslegged in the shadow of the ship. He’s talking to a hologram that Essek cannot see. Truly exhausted, Essek feels his heart race at the sight of him.
Past him, the rest of the Nein mingle with Andor and Rook’s crew. Beau spars with his former guard, the apparent daughter of Galen Erso, while Fjord watches. Yasha silently polishes her blade beside a large man as he repairs a repeating cannon. Veth appears to be pestering the KX droid. Caduceus sips tea with a Guardian of the Whills.
Frowning, his eyes search the vast hangar for Jester, but before he can spot her, blue eyes catch his own. Caleb ends his call, rises, and moves to close the remaining distance between them. The moment stretches out before Essek, as time has stretched and pulled all week, until suddenly Caleb stands before him.
No one else has spotted him yet. Caleb steps even closer, one hand drifting over his arm, the other cupping his neck. He drops his forehead to Essek’s, closes his eyes, and breathes. Essek follows. Where Caleb goes, he follows.
When they finally pull away, Rook has moved away.
“You good?” Caleb asks. His voice is almost as hoarse as Essek’s.
“I will be,” he says.
Just at that moment, he hears a loud voice echo across the chamber. “Guys, there really is like no good food here. As soon as they release Essek, we’re finding the closest bakery. I’m sure he’s hungry and he needs—”
Jester cuts off suddenly, not unlike her intergalactic messages, and squeaks. “Essek!”
Next he knows, the Nein surround him with their special brand of loving chaos. Tired though he is, he smiles. If he leans a little against Caleb, no one says anything. Eventually, they usher him towards their ship, Fjord in particular taking effort to herd them towards the ramp.
Truly, the strange passage time vexes him — something he proclaims to be the master of slips through his fingers in fits and starts, merely due to overtiredness. He longs to trance. Caleb sits him down on a crate near the ramp as the rest of the crew prepares to leave. The Rogue One crew, as he learns they are called, keep a distance, although Jyn Erso keeps eyeing him from across the way.
Caleb stays at his side, telling him about what they’ve been up to in the past week. He honestly only absorbs about half of it — specifically making note to ask follow up questions about this project with Galen Erso and whether he really will be allowed to work with him.
When the ship is finally ready, Rook approaches him once more.
“Here’s how you can reach me,” he says. “It’s not always reliable but I hear — I hear your friend jester is good with finagling communications across systems. And well, I hear you’re not too bad at that yourself. Anyways. I meant — what I told you.” His eyes dart to Caleb and back.
Caleb snorts. “Ja, I will try to find time to meet with Skywalker.”
Rook grins sheepishly. “Good, good. Well.” He steps back and gives a little nod. “Might Nein. May the Force be with you.”
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