Chapter Text
"Bodhi, do you copy?" Jyn's voice cut through the static on the radio. She felt a chill when she heard no response from the ship.
She checked the power cell on her blaster and glanced up at K-2SO's towering form where he carried Cassian's inert form a little further down the alley. This mission was supposed to be a blue milk run. Bodhi would hang back at the ship, K-2SO and Jyn would cover Cassian as he met with an rich socialite who according to the mission log had information that might help the Rebellion, and might be willing to throw a bit of money behind them as well.
The meeting they'd walked into turned out to be more of an ambush, though as much as Jyn was annoyed at the young woman for being too trusting of someone, she couldn't find it in herself to blame the woman for what happened. She and K-2 had left behind a room of dead or injured Imperials and left with an injured and terrified potentially ex-socialite and one seriously wounded Rebel spy who had put himself between the socialite and an Imperial slug thrower. She and K-2 had managed to get the young woman and Cassian out but now they were trying to escape Imps while Cassian went in and out of consciousness in K-2's grip.
Between them Jyn and the young woman, Anablai, managed enough field treatment that Cassian wouldn't die from blood loss, but he needed more care than they could give him in the street and they had to make it back to the ship.
"Kay?"
"If Rook is not answering his communicator, it would indicate that he has run into difficulty at the ship," K-2SO replied. "I calculate that our chances of encountering violence when we return to the ship are at least 87%."
Anabali blanched but Jyn couldn't really think of anything that would reassure her right now. She pulled the holdout blaster from her boot and shoved it in the woman's hands. Force, Anabali was a few years younger than she was and hadn't faced the trials in life Jyn had, so she was probably scared out of her mind right now. "Can you use that?"
Anabali bit her lip but nodded. Jyn signed, "Good, be ready to use it. We're going to get you off planet alive." Jyn's gaze went back to the end of the alleyway. "Picking anything up on your sensors Kay?"
"I believe we have a small window now, Jyn," the droid informed her in his serious way.
Jyn took a deep breath and gestured for K-2 and Anabali to follow, silently thanking Saw Guerra for all the times he drilled into her that studying maps before a mission could be the difference between surviving a mission and dying. As she lead them through the dizzying alleyways and back streets to the space port, she found herself hoping they wouldn't be encountering a number of Storm Troopers when they reached the ship on the outskirts of the city.
When Jyn lead them into a sewer tunnel that she was fairly certain from the schematics she'd studied would lead to the plateau below the city where Bodhi had hidden their ship, Anabali flinched at the smell, but Jyn gave the younger woman credit for pushing through it and following the Rebels into the tunnels. At least, unlike some young rich socialites Jyn had encountered in her time before and in the Rebellion, this one was taking their situation seriously. The other woman remained tense as they slipped through the sewer tunnels, but she kept moving at Jyn and K-2's urging. Occasionally Jyn would look back and see Cassian's half conscious gaze fall on her and their...companion, dark eyes filled with worry even though he was the injured one.
When they made it to the natural cavern system that the sewers fed into, Jyn kept going, knowing that for Anabali's sake, she had to appear completely confident in what she was doing. She felt bad for the girl, but she also knew that if Anabali's rich parents were interested in backing the Rebellion, they were far more likely to want to help if their daughter came out of all of this alive. The data she'd dredged up prior to the mission seemed to indicate they might be Rebellion sympathizers, even if, as Jyn suspected, they were unaware of their daughter's actions.
Their transport was hidden among natural rock formations on the plateau, where, they'd hoped at least, Bodhi would have been safe.
"Bodhi do you copy," Jyn tried over the communicator one last time, cursing under her breath when she again received nothing but static. With a worried glance towards K-2 and Anabali, she moved forward, stalking through the earthen formations towards their ship, using the natural rock forms as cover as they approached.
Why Bodhi hadn't answered was evident when she saw the cycles of three bike troopers idling near the ship. She hazarded they had caught Bodhi unaware, but there weren't any troopers guarding the open cargo door of their ship now. Blaster in hand, she gestured for Arabali to follow her cautiously and approached silently.
One bike trooper lay fallen at the edge of the cargo door, scorch marks on their armor. Jyn kicked the body off the door and entered silently, her eyes adjusting to the darkened cargo bay. Another trooper lay a few more feet in, again dead by blaster fire. The third though..
Bodhi's communicator looked like it had been damaged in commotion and he was slumped back against a set of boxes, a third trooper collapsed on the floor in front of him. Jyn crossed the distance between her and Bodhi at a sprint, and he opened his eyes at the sound of her footsteps, tensing until he realized who it was. She hissed when she saw the slash across his shoulder from a vibro dagger and swore. "Kriff Bodhi, you scared me."
"Yeah, scared me too," her friend huffed in pain. He closed his eyes for a long moment then opened them again, looking over her shoulder at Arabali. "Who's your friend?"
"Our contact," Jyn replied. "Go tell Kay to bring Cassian in and get him into one of the bunks," she instructed Arabali. The woman gave a jerky nod and hurried to comply as Jyn looked back at Bodhi. "We need to get you to the cockpit and get out of here. Needless to say, the meeting did not go as planned." She swore when she got better look at Bodhi's injuries. "Kriff, neither you or Cassian's in any shape to pilot."
K-2SO entered the ship with Cassian and in what Jyn knew was a practiced motion, carried him back towards the ships bunks as Arabali stood in the cargo bay looking unnerved but happy to be alive. "We aren't safe yet," Jyn told the girl bluntly. "But I intend to get us that way. Go with Kay, see what you can do for Andor while Rook and I get this heap in the air." She knew she might sound a bit harsh, but Arabali seemed grateful enough to have some direction on what to do.
K-2 returned some minutes later and without prompting began dragging the dead Imps off the ship while Jyn helped Bodhi up and towards the cockpit. "I will inform you when the cargo hold is sealed," K-2 informed her as she helped their pilot.
Jyn helped the tall pilot to the cockpit with some difficulty and set him in the co-pilot's chair despite his protests. When K-2's voice came over the ship intercom advising her that the hatch was shut, Jyn wasted no time in running through a fast preflight check and readying the ship for take-off. Bodhi stared at her a bit dazed as she did, and Jyn knew he was going to need medical attention very soon, but she had to get them in the air. An injured leg and the slash to his shoulder seemed to be the worst of it. She almost wished she had two of Arabali right now to take care of their injured.
K-2SO's tall form loomed over her as she guided the ship off the plateau and towards the planet's atmosphere. She was aware of the droid then looming over Bodhi and beginning to administer first aid as he spoke to her. "None of the files the Rebellion has on you indicate piloting skills," K-2 mused. "Though Cassian has mentioned you have piloted speeders before."
"Saw had his team teach me a lot of things that haven't really come up," Jyn replied absently, her attention on getting off the planet and running scans for any potential Imperials following them. She wouldn't feel safe until they'd jumped to lightspeed. "And with formally trained pilots on Rogue One, you think the Rebellion was going to trust me to pilot a ship?"
Bodhi grunted lightly as K-2 attended the slash on his shoulder. "Might have been useful to know though, aren't we friends?"
Jyn felt a small stab of guilt even as she told the pilot to hit the necessary switches on his side of the cockpit for them to jump to lightspeed. It wasn't until their ship finally began speeding though the blinding light of stars merging together that she looked at him.
"Sorry Bodhi, with everything going on...it didn't really seem important," she admitted, not quite looking at him. "You and Cassian, Chirrut, Baze, K-2, you all are my friends...my family, but after everything, I guess I'm still.."
"Having some trouble trusting everyone." Her friend shifted his leg so that K-2SO could look at it after the shoulder would had been bandaged and looked at her for a long moment and put his hand on her arm. "I get in Jyn, and I'm not mad. I don't think Cassian will be either. He might be a little peeved to know there was another pilot he could rely on, but he won't be angry."
Jyn managed a smile and looked up at her friend at last. "Hopefully."
"You focus on getting us back to base, and we'll get Cassian and I in better shape, then we can all talk," Bodhi suggested. "Bet once he's recovered he'll even offer you more piloting lessons. I know I will." He smirked a little. "Well, assuming all his lessons are actually lessons."
Jyn fluished a bit, and Bodhi pretended not to see the wetness in her eyes. "Thank's Bodhi."