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[ The network ID attached to this one says "Commander Jeroen Akobi," advertising his military rank even though he forewent the Imperial uniform just about as soon as he was set loose upon this planet. Instead, there appears a handsome man in his forties in smart casual attire, haircut just the long side of regulation, facial hair game on point. He's got an affable smile on his face, though it doesn't quite reach his eyes. ]

These jobs they assign you when you arrive are a joke, right? I mean, I'm no specialist, but I've got more marketable skills than "mustache model." Are there any procedures in place for putting in a request for a new position? Because posing for pictures might be a good way to make some side money, but I'd prefer something that actually requires some thought and effort.

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Cafe. There's an outdoor one in De Chima. [ location and name here ]

Do you have any issue with dogs?

I don't. [ He'd had a pet when he was young. Never had the opportunity to, once he'd enrolled in the Academy, but he remembered those days fondly. ]

I'll meet you there in an hour. If that works for you. [ The caveat added belatedly, as though he just realized he'd given this man an order and thought better of it. ]

Er, yes. It does, I mean. See you soon. [ An hour is plenty enough time to feel anxious about this meeting, but Bodhi oddly... doesn't. So at the proposed hour, he's looking around the outdoor tables in the chosen meeting place.

Wearing a hooded sweater that doesn't look like it belongs to him for it's size, with a large husky-german shepherd mix at his side. ]

[ Akobi is already there, wearing a nondescript suit and a pair of sunglasses, the later of which he removes when he recognizes the man from the network. He waves him over to his table. ]

Thank you for meeting with me.

Of course. I was a little bit surprised you offered, if I'm honest. [ He takes a seat across from Akobi, Ace flopping down at his feet. Bodhi gives the dog a scratch behind the ears then turns back to the matter. ]

Did you want to order something or should we get this going right off?

You shouldn't be. I've found myself on uneven footing here, a bit behind the others from our galaxy who've been here longer. It's only natural I should want to catch myself up.

[ He can already foresee the need to do a lot of research. ]

I've ordered a black coffee. You can get something for yourself, if you like.

Fair enough. I've been here ... a year and a half now. [ He's been caught up on a lot of things that happened after his death, too but it depends on how much Akobi wants secondhand knowledge from a defector.

He nods, quickly excuses himself to order a double chocolate chip scone and coffee, suitably sweetened as well as a peanut butter biscuit for Ace. Bodhi returns with said items nd sits back down a few short minutes later. ]

So. This is... pretty simple. It's just done through physical contact, could be just - a touch on the arm. Doesn't have to be us holding hands, or anything like that.

[ Akobi sips his coffee and waits for Bodhi to return. When he does, he sets his drink aside and listens carefully to what he has to say, ]

Alright. [ He extends an arm across the table, hand outstretched. Bodhi can touch him however he lkes to begin the process. ]

[ Bodhi nods, takes a deep breath. His hesitation here is less to do with the Imperialness, but reliving the event. Even now, more than a year later he still dreams of watching his home obliterated and not being able to stop it. A feeling of helplessness unmatched even to Saw Gerrera's torture.

He reaches out and touches Akobi's wrist, concentrating on the moment.

Maybe, Bodhi thought, just maybe his torment was over.

He recognized some of the faces running with him. There were whole crowds behind Baze and Chirrut, clattering through the stone hallways with riffles and duffels slung over their shoulders. Among them were Bodhi's captors, the men and women who'd bound him, blinded him, marched him at gunpoint across the desert when he'd begged simply to help them. They didn't look at him now, didn't seem to see him. He pushed his aching legs and cold lungs harder to pace.

"They'll kill us," he whispered to Baze. "You don't know these people."

Baze laughed so hard that Bodhi was terrified the rebels would look back. They kept running.

"Forgive my friend," Chirrut said. "You would think it's funny too, if you knew he wanted you dead, most of all."

Bodhi didn't think that was funny in the slightest. But a rescue was a rescue.

They ran out of the catacombs, up ancient steps worn smooth over centuries, and burst into the frigid dawn. Sunlight slashed through Bodhi's eyes with cuts of blue and green and silver. He couldn't recall when he'd last seen sunlight, though Bor Gullet would have known.

He staggered to a stop behind Baze and Chirrut standing on a broad mountain ledge overlooking a valley. The rebels were gone, scattered somewhere. In the valley there was nothing but dust, a billowing, blooming storm of sand, expanding outward in all directions.

"What do you see?" Chirrut asked Baze.

Bodhi blinked away the scars of light. When his eyes had adjusted, he realized the valley was now too dim. He raised his stiff neck and looked to the sky, and saw a shadow like a moon eclipsing the sun.

Realizations crashed together. Bodhi was on Jedha, had never left Jedha, and he was looking onto the valley where the Holy City had been. And above him, in the sky...

"No," he whispered. "No."

This was not a rescue. This was a trick of Bor Gullet. This was the reason he had left the Empire, abandoned his friends, trusted the words of Galen Erso, suffered torment and humiliation -- to stop the battle station, stop the planet killer from coming to life. What he saw was not real. It could not be.

"It wasn't supposed to happen yet," he whispered, though no one listened. He was too late. This was his fault. ]

[ At a certain point Akobi just rips his hand away. He gets as far as watching the horizon rise up in a cloud of dust and ash, the thoughts about leaving the Empire, the feeling of blame. It's too much. It's all far too much.

He withdraws his hand sharply, cradling it against his chest as though the touch had burned. It may as well have, for all the pain Akobi feels now. The loss, the grief, the shame. He knew what the DS-1 was built to do, but it was always other planets, Rebel planets. Not his home. He can picture how it would feel if he were standing in Demilla City, watching the Ralltiri skyline fragment and burn away.

It was too much. He clears his throat, grasping in his mind for something to pull the conversation away from the memories of death and destruction. ]

You... You defected.

[ He doesn't say anything during the brief exchange, and even after Akobi tears his hand away. Bodhi knows what he saw, what he felt. The shadow of those very same feelings and images still linger after he shoves the memory down.

Sand whipping past him - he takes a drink of his coffee to wash the taste of it in his mouth before replying.

Of course he knew that might get picked up upon - but Bodhi squares his shoulders nonetheless. Him being a defector isn't unknown. Most everyone from their galaxy here is aware, from them knowing of him, or he's told them. It's just difficult not to worry, despite Akobi saying he's not interested in the fight, there aren't many things an Imperial hates more than a traitor.

And he's already had someone take it out on him..

Yet, it's already out in the open. ]

I did, yes. I was a cargo pilot. When I found out about the weapon, I couldn't -- I chose to leave. A man by the name of Galen Erso wanted me to deliver a message, to give to the Rebellion, to warn them of it.

[ For all the good it did... too late for Jedha. ]

[ Akobi picks up his coffee cup to take a sip, trying to steady his still shaking hands. The hot liquid burns his tongue, but the immediate pain feels better than the lingering memory of fear from the vision. It's grounding, in its own way.

He's quiet for a long moment after Bodhi's explanation, before he makes a decision to share his own story in return. It's only fair. ]

You're a far braver man than I. I... knew about the weapon. What it was designed to do. I knew about the atrocities the Empire committed-- that I helped commit. And the way the Empire covered them up. And still, I did nothing. Until it was too late.

[ It's... not the reaction that Bodhi had envisioned he'd get. His hands are wrapped tight around his cup, and he stares down at the table for a long moment before replying.

It would be easy for him, to blow that off. Words too late, no action behind them. Hadn't changed anything for Jedha or Alderaan, but... the things that Bodhi had witnessed and stood by, keeping his head down for so long.

For an officer, much more indoctrinated in those beliefs than him... ]

The fact that you can admit as much, or kept an open enough mind to meet with me, and see it for yourself... it's more than many others would have done.

[ Given that Akobi didn't immediately launch himself across the table at him in finding out he was a defector, was telling - he's no Hux. ]

Not everyone I've met here has been so forgiving about what I did.

[ Akobi has his own opinions on Hux, but not knowing that's who Bodhi is referring to, he doesn't volunteer them. ]

No, I can imagine not. Desertion is a treasonous offense. But... [ He sighs, twisting his cup on the table just to have something to focus on besides the man sitting across from him. ] If I had lived, beyond this place...? I... still don't know if I would have done it, but the thought had certainly crossed my mind.

I can tell you one thing. [ He says after another drink of his coffee and leans forward in his seat, a little ] I didn't think I'd ever have - I'd thought about it. Maybe it's different for me. I was only a cargo pilot and I wasn't particularly loyal, it was just... a means to an end for me.

[ "Can you say that you had no part in this?" ]

But not until Galen told me what they were building did I know for certain that I had to.

And after Alderaan, many more defected, I'm told.

[ Akobi can't hide the sadness in his slow nod. Maybe it's disappointment? But whether he's disappointed in the people who defected after seeing what the DS-1 was built to do, or disappointed in the direction the Empire's war machine chose to take... Even he can't say. ]

That makes sense. A planet killer is certainly a... divisive weapon.

[ What does it say about him that he knew about the DS-1's capabilities and did nothing? He doesn't want to think about that. ]

At least it was destroyed, or so I hear. If I had lived another day, I would have died in the ensuing explosion.

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