Chapter Text
A sense of victory carries Jyn from one plodding step to the next. Even the burden of Cassian, his arm a yoke across Jyn's shoulders, does not drag her spirits down. He is heavy against her side and it takes an effort to pull him across the roof and to the turbolift. Jyn regards him from the corner of her eye. Cassian peers back, a look of breathless satisfaction on his face.
Soon, the door closes behind them and a button push propels the platform towards the ground. Sheltered from the war outside, they have a moment to breathe. To celebrate. Mirth bubbles up between them until both are chuckling just short of hysteria. Jyn relishes the camaraderie, something she hasn’t felt since before Saw. The warmth of Cassian’s palms seeps through the cloth of her vest at her shoulder and hip. Braced against each other in the lift, sharing a moment of peace, Jyn realizes that she has never been held quite like this. She finds herself staring, noticing the lines near his eyes and between his brows. She wants to smooth them away. Her eyes sketch over his dark eyes, cheekbones, and the smile twisting his lips. Jyn's eyes snag there and hold.
Cassian's expression shutters as awareness of her scrutiny dawns. He stiffens, and the fingers at Jyn's side flinch but do not retreat. Blood seeps down his temple from a small wound. Unthinking, Jyn reaches out and clears it away, her thumb moving from brow to cheek to jaw. Cassian’s eyes move between hers, assessing. Mesmerized, she combs her fingers through the hairs at the back of his neck and moves half a step closer, and waits.
Cassian stands silently, and she considers withdrawing, before his hand shifts from her side to the middle of Jyn's back, and he lowers his forehead to rest against her own. Their eyes lock for a few breaths before Cassian eyes close with a heavy sigh, in submission or trust. A fearful wish flutters in Jyn's chest. She rubs her nose alongside his own, a light touch. He leans, allows the scruff of his jaw to grate against her cheek. The world shrinks to the size of an envelope, barely space enough to fit the two of them.
But with a gentle rock, the lift stills and the door opens, tearing apart the moment like paper.
An unreasonably long silence of held breath pervades before Cassian breaks away. Jyn recognizes the shift in his eyes as they don’t quite meet her gaze. Compartmentalizing. With a pang, she forces down that new feeling in her chest away, and they head out onto the beach. Later.
The sun is high when they exit the transit depot. Plumes of smoke rise from where Rogue One lit up the enemy compounds. Any remaining illusion of a paradise had been dispatched. Once, this might have been a beach resort world to rival Ord Mantell, but now it is a wounded Imperial stronghold. A vicious corner of Jynn’s soul rejoices at the obvious destruction in spite of its cost. They have won. "They did it. Ten men became a hundred."
Cassian mumbles noncommittally at her side.
Jyn looks to him again, eager to continue to share in their victory, but his face is distant and his eyes move from passing starfighter to plume of smoke and then to the sky. He will not meet her eyes and she can’t help but feel like he knows something she doesn’t.
Footfalls and a flash of white is all the warning they get before a squad of troopers march around a nearby corner and they are forced to withdraw back into the transport hub. Cassian lifts a communicator out from his belt with an urgent hiss. "Bodhi. Mission Accomplished. Report." No answer. Jyn's heart sinks but Cassian’s face doesn’t change. Neither of them speaks as Jyn once again takes Cassian's weight and they make their way into the brush and towards docking pad nine.
For the first stretch, adrenaline helps them to keep a fast pace. But after several minutes they both begin to tire. More than once they have to stop and keep their heads down, fortunate enough to not wander into a random stormtrooper. Cassian curses as Jyn throws herself from one palm tree or antenna to the next. His body, too broken to do otherwise, can only follow. She stumbles, watches Cassian pitch into her - a sharp and bulging pocket of her vest his only cushion. His knuckles turn white as he gasps in pain and clutches at her jacket.
Breathing heavily, Jyn struggles to stay upright. "Hold on... sorry. I'm sorry. Just give me-"
"I’m fine!" Cassian insists through gritted teeth, but his voice betrays his weakness.
Then he is the one pushing, pulling them forward. But only for a moment, before Jyn has to dash to catch him when he inevitably fails. Her faith in escape dwindles as the wind dies She can smell the blood, dirt, and desperate sweat they wear. Crimson stains her shirt and soaks into her pant leg and Jyn realizes the blood is not her own. A quick sideways glance reveals a much larger bloom of red on Cassian’s side, one which he holds tight with the hand not clutching onto her.
"Is it your ribs," Jyn asks with effort, "or your gut?"
Chuckling darkly, Cassian answers, "Why not both?"
Jyn winces. She remembers seeing Cassian lying still at the bottom of the data vault and making the decision to continue without him. It had made her sick to her stomach, to think of looking down again and seeing him dead in a pool of blood. She had not looked down. She could not hesitate, not when a single error or distraction could render those lives lost meaningless. He would not have thank her if saving his life came at the cost of the mission.
And now they are here.
Jyn grunts with the next stride, "We'll get you to a bacta tank. Then we can all have a drink."
Cassian vaguely nods before they have to duck behind a new copse of trees as a squad of death troopers jog past. One lags behind and for a heart-wrenching moment, Jyn is sure they've been seen.
She goes for her blaster but Cassian’s grip on her wrist, too tight, stays her hand. "Wait," he whispers.
Her every instinct screams to do otherwise, to hesitate is to give an advantage. But she hears the order in his tone and obeys. The trooper moves on. Jyn marvels at herself.
"I could use a Corellian whiskey," Cassian remarks belatedly, eyeing as if such a thing were beyond reach. Jyn scoffs, avoids his gaze, but grins, determined to not show her fear or bewilderment.
"Just gotta get off this dirtball," she quips and they move again.
After a time, Jyn loses track of everything else except the sand directly under their feet, the closest tree to brace against, and the sound of Cassian in her ear as they labor forward. Mere minutes that seem much longer pass. She comes to a halt as Cassian’s legs stop moving, and they nearly fall. For a moment, Jyn panics and snaps her gaze back to his face, worried he’s finally succumbed to blood loss. But he is still conscious. His brown eyes, usually so cold, are horrified. Jyn follows his gaze and sees that they've made it to the landing pad.
There is only wreckage. The cargo shuttle they had commandeered is obliterated. Smoke curls into the air along with warped metal that mimics the blackened corpses on the ground. Jyn rages internally. She should have known when Bodhi did not respond. No one has hailed on the comm since the archive. Their pilot is dead. Rogue One is gone. Jyn sniffs loudly and passes her gloved hand under her eyes once, twice, and clears her throat. Cassian is quiet until his hand digs suddenly and urgently into her ribs. "Jyn-" he hisses and he points up.
A grey moon, as large as the sun, floats up and across the sky. She stares for a moment, uncomprehending before the mystery of its presence turns into dread and awful certainty. She’s only seen it at an angle before, hidden in the umbra of Jedha. Shadows of palm fronds writhe unnaturally on the ground in the light of an eclipse. Jyn goes white and shivers at the sight of the colossal orb in the sky, despite the tropical air. It’s enormous. The sky goes dim.
The Death Star. The planet-killer.
A ray of green blazes through the atmosphere, the afterimage searing Jyn's retinas. Cutting through the pinnacle of the great tower behind them, it terminates on the sea's placid blue surface with a massive spray of mist to birth a new sun. It expands. Water and air vaporizing into a plume. Upward and outward. Curling.
Cassian sags to his knees, and Jyn collapses beside him, unable to bear it. The white sand is soft and the waves still lick softly at the beach. A glare builds, alights across their faces, deceptively hopeful, and Cassian turns to her. The look in his eyes is quiet and expectant. Unsurprised. "Your father would be proud of you, Jyn."
A sob escapes Jyn’s throat. She fumbles for his hand. Cassian takes it. There is burning in the corners of her eyes as the light grows brighter. Tears. The small treasure hidden behind her ribs from inside the lift shatters. She can’t breathe.
Cassian inches forward, drawing upright, and carefully gathers her near him. Jyn lets him pull her into an embrace, warm and surprisingly soft. Her hands fasten on his upper arms and he holds her gently across the waist. She answers by drawing them flush together, hip to shoulder. Cassian sags with something like relief. He buries his face in her hair and whispers something that might be an apology but she cannot hear over the rush of oncoming waves. He trembles with some unknown emotion. Jyn knows she is doing it too. They are afraid. But not alone. Watching the raging destruction barreling towards them, she feels a sense of loss and an overwhelming need to protect. She pulls his head to the other side of her body and hides his face against her neck. He doesn't fight her instead hides his face in her neck. She runs her fingers through his hair, ignoring the red slick of his blood that covers them. She turns to more fully shield him from the scorching light. Stars obscure her sight but she refuses to blink. She is the first one to see it.
A TIE-fighter screams across the sky, weaving and off-kilter. Ionic lightning arcs along its frame before the fighter abruptly sputters and lands harshly onto a sandbar not fifty meters away.
Cassian is unaware, beginning to shut down. He doesn't move. Jyn lifts with all the strength she felt while climbing that schematic tank inside the tower. Surprised and helpless, Cassian is shockingly easy to life upright. A protest begins that ends as she points, and they both watch as a panicking pilot crawls out of the side of the spacecraft.
Disbelief fills his eyes before wretched determination shoves that aside. He falls in beside her. A welcome burst of adrenaline suffuses her veins, pushes her past the screaming in her legs and back. The ground shakes, drowning out their approach. Their silhouettes grow long and twisted. Jyn can sense the end looming behind them, and she slows.
Cassian scrambles at her arm, "No! Don't-"
Jyn can't resist looking back. Just once. Ignoring Cassian's shout she does and cries out at the agony of looking upon their approaching end. White fills her vision. And then it's Cassian leading the way even as she keeps him upgright. Spitting and cursing all the way. Blind, Jyn stumbles after and anxiously waits at the sound of blaster fire, a dying scream, the hissing of hydraulics, and then shaking hands shove her against the hull and up, into the cockpit.
Mumbled words of a tongue Jyn doesn't know fill her ears as she grasps at the edge of the hull and hauls herself over it. Pain explodes when she hits her head against hard plasteel but she shoves herself against the wall of the small space, careful to not get in the way. Cassian follows, the seat turns, knocking her shin. There is hardly enough room. Buttons. Whirling. Heavy breaths. A false engine start. An angry shout. And then they are flying.
Cassian speaks again, his words obviously a plea or prayer. The same syllables over, and over, and over. She fights the momentum forcing her body back and reaches for him. She cannot make out Cassian's shape through the starbursts ruining her vision. Jyn finds his sleeve, wraps her fingers over his arm. He flinches and his muscles flex under her hands.
A few seconds later, there is the tell-tale sound of a lever sliding along metal. The hyperdrive spins up.
"Just one more chance’..." There is laughter and reckless joy in Cassian's voice as he quotes her words. Words meant to inspire a ragtag cadre of doomed soldiers to hope.
...And the next chance. And on and on, until we win or the chances are spent...
"May the Force be with us," Jyn recites, praying. Her hand travels down Cassian’s arm to rest over his own on the throttle.
She breathes. Once. Twice.
Cassian wrenches the throttle switch up, their joined hands wrapped around it, and they lurch into the stars.
No coordinates. No direction. Only hope.