Work Text:
Sometimes she wonders how she remembers anything, little as she had been. She thinks she doesn't really, sometimes, that it's all just something her own mind made up to fill in the blanks of her recollection. It's all faded anyway, but then a sight or a smell or a sound hits her and it comes back with a rush of blinding clarity. She'd had a home on a lush yet ravaged planet called Kenari; she'd had parents once, then a tribe of sorts, all abandoned children trying their best to survive in that remote and hostile wilderness; she'd had a brother. An older brother, her protector, her everything. And she'd lost him. He'd just vanished.
The memory of most of that day is fuzzy, except for one instance. The older ones coming back to their encampment, short one. The tallest one, the oldest, their leader. She had been fierce and brave and fearless, or at least she had seemed that way to Kerri, little as she had been. The others had been distraught, but Kerri had run along their single-file line to the very back to see him, to greet him. To pout at him about why he'd had to go and try to be one of the big kids when he might as well have stayed behind. He wasn't so big, wasn't so old yet. He might have stayed. With her.
"Kassa!" She'd yelled, again and again until her little throat was raw and her voice hoarse. "Kassa! Kassa!!"
No answer. No Kassa. Where was he? She'd run through the brush to the edge of the gorge; he must have just fallen behind. He must have. He was only three years older than her, he wasn't that big yet, and his legs weren't that long. He just couldn't quite keep up, that must be it. He'd be just around the bend, no the next one, definitely the next one, for certain he would emerge from behind that tree, the really big one, for sure he would-
---
"Can I have the next cache, please?" She's walked up to the head archivist's desk with her armful of datapads. Nothing on them. Now that the Empire has certainly and decisively been defeated, the work of reckoning begins. And that includes the work of sorting through records, of which there are dizzying amounts. She exchanges her help in indexing for access. And a salary, but that's just for the necessities of being alive. The archivist sizes her up while receiving her finished work. Retrieves the next box from the back room.
"Morlani system. Remember you can take a break. You should, in fact. You've been at this for hours."
"Thanks, I will." Just as soon as I've found something. She returns to her workstation. Plugs in the first storage unit. Ferrix. There had been an uprising there, she seems to remember. Whispers of a funeral turned seditious. There's records there, yes. She sorts through the files, getting an overview, then gets stuck in. ISB files, the vilest of all, usually. They were so proud of their cruelty. Called it efficiency. With teeth bared and gritted, she works backwards. Reconstructs the events as best she can from reports. Tries not to focus too much on the individual atrocities. Torture and murder and disappearances are par for the course, that much she knows herself. And yet. This Cassian Andor must be quite someting. She'd heard rumours about a rebel spy, a major thorn in the Empire's side. Never had they been able to catch him, and she feels a warm kind of satisfaction at this stranger's gumption. Cassian sounds close enough to Kassa, but that's probably just a coincidence. How many people had she come across with similar names? Stars, she actually knew no less than three different Keefs. In three different systems.
She's almost through to the origin of the whole Ferrix affair when a reference catches her eye. Morlana Preox. Corpo warrant for the murder of two officers. Issued several months before. What was that doing there? Her heart starts beating faster, like it anticipates something her brain cannot grasp yet. The warrant. Kenari male. Kenari-
How many people even know about it? It was a sort of half-remote place, abandoned now and easy to pass by before. Those who had heard of it rarely knew much about it. After the disaster that killed their parents it fell out of relevance for most of the galaxy. She could count those of them who made it off the planet on one hand, had kept tabs on them as best she could, too. Searching Kenari male. On Ferrix? How? It couldn't possibly-
It wouldn't do to get frantic now. It might be nothing. She had to be thorough. She had to freshen up. Taking the advice of her erstwhile supervisor, she paused her work and stood. Went to splash some water on her face, got a drink and a bite to eat. Stretched out her back, bunched up from sitting in front of monitors for hours and days. She was suddenly afraid. What if this was just another dead end? She had been all over the galaxy looking for him, nothing but the certainty that he was still alive and that he hadn't abandoned her willingly. What if either of those wasn't true?
Her eyes burned. She sat, put her headphones back on. Thorough, thorough. Plugged in all her data discs and let them load, then ran a preliminary test search. She was supposed to do that first thing just to ensure the data was salvageable, but usually didn't. Didn't have to, usually. Wanted to get a feel for the data first. But when she did it was always the same keywords. Kenari. Kassa.
And for the first time, something turns up at all. Proximity recall, but still. Kenari male. She'd just make sure and go from there, to Ferrix first. This is the first real trace in twenty-odd years.
---
"Umm, Cass?" Cassian groaned and plucked himself off the cot. His back was still giving him trouble after the way he'd all but shattered it on Scarif. Which meant medical procedures were now a part of his life for the foreseeable future, but at least he had a life. He was alive, and so were the rest of his crew. Badly bruised to grieviously injured, but alive nonetheless. Bodhi hovers at the door, leaning on his crutch, face apprehensive. Always the one who ends up relaying messages.
"What is it?" That's Jyn, small and tough and protective. His recovery is more personal to her than it is to him. Most of the doctors are at least slightly afraid of her.
"Bodhi?"
"Yes, there's someone here to see you, apparently. Someone from outside. Won't be dissuaded, won't leave."
"Someone?" Cassian probes. Who would just march up to a rebel stronghold, even now? It must be someone tenacious if they've managed to not get thrown out and get their message delivered to him personally.
"Yes, a young woman. Says she used to run with Enfys Nest's Cloud-Riders for a while."
That doesn't ring any bells whatsoever, not for him, anyway. He'd never dealt with Nest or her crew. Jyn however perks up.
"Enfys Nest?"
"You know her?"
"Barely." Her hand tightens around his where their fingers are entwined. "We met once or twice, when I was little. The Cloud-Riders traded with Saw a couple of times. It was a long time ago."
There's that faraway look in Jyn's eyes again, the one he's begun to recognise so well, so instantly. He squeezes back, her hand so small and warm in his. Resists the urge to bring her knuckles up to his lips for a quick kiss - they're not quite there yet. Not in public, anyway. Even though it's only Bodhi, who wouldn't bat an eye.
"Well, what could this Cloud-Rider possibly want with me?"
"Wouldn't say, just insisted she needed to see you." Bodhi shrugged.
"I do." A voice from behind him made Bodhi jump.
"I-" He turned and pulled the door mostly closed behind him. "You followed me?"
"I did, no offense. This is all taking too damn long. I've been waiting for this moment for decades."
"I'm sorry, but you can't just-"
"Bodhi, it's alright." Cassian called from inside the room. The voice wasn't familiar, but it didn't feel like someone coming to assassinate him. He would probably be fine. And Jyn was there, too, and she wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. And most of all he was curious. Bodhi caught his eye, brows furrowed. Exhaled deliberately. Eventually demurred and obliged. The door opened to reveal a woman with long, dark hair in a practical braid and a faded yellow coat, just a little taller than Jyn. She stepped forward, cleared Bodhi in two steps and stopped dead, just staring at Cassian intensely. Her mouth twisted with emotion, her dark eyes burned into him. He did not know her, or did he? Something tugged at his memories, in some deep and buried recess in his mind. She looked familiar in a way that was primordial, something that was imprinted onto his very being, inherent to his soul. His mouth ran dry.
"You look just like papa." Is the first thing out of her mouth. She must have not said it in Basic, judging by how puzzlement has taken over every face in the room. Every face but his. This rebel, this grown man with a beard but still the same tousled hair who is so instantly familiar to her, frowns as if the words must first filter through several buried layers of memory. But he understands, eventually. Recognition lights up those deep, dark eyes, warm like their mother's. Recognition fights with disbelief and then a smile, starting small and growing, blooming. His smile is all their mother, dimples and all. She says as much.
"You remember that? Them? You remember them?"
"Barely." She says. "Just that." And steps closer. Tentative, until she's in front of him. Flashes a quick apologetic smile at Jyn. Then a double take. "Don't I know you?" The switch back to Basic is smooth enough to go unnoticed and yet swift enough to give one whiplash.
"That's something for later, I think." Jyn smiled and stood, releasing his hand. He wants to hold on, doesn't want to let go. Needs her in order not to float away on whatever this is, but another firm squeeze tells him it's fine, he'll be fine. She's not far, but she recognises that this is a moment that needs him fully, no distractions. And as soon as their fingers disconnect he focuses on the other woman again. Traces her features with his eyes, her slightly pointed chin, her cheekbones which are the same as he sees whenever he looks in a mirror. The unruly strands that curl away from her face, the necklaces of red and yellow glass beads. When she smiles it's still ever so lightly gap-toothed, even though she has all her teeth now, as an adult. And it hits him so suddenly, it's like a blaster bolt to the gut, only more wrenching.
He makes to speak, but no sound comes out. A hand comes up to cup her cheek, just to make sure she's real, that this is not a mirage, because how can this be possible? Had he not looked far and wide, chased down any lead no matter how unpromising? Had he not abandoned all hope, or at least locked it away in a deep and protected part of him where it could not hurt him as much? But the more he looks at her the clearer it becomes. And he wants to slap himself for not knowing it at once when it is now so blindingly obvious.
"Kerri. It's really you! You're alive?!" He chokes out. His tongue stumbles over the first syllable of the words in his first language, but only the first one. "Kerri!"
"Yes, it's me, Kassa, it's me!" She smiles. And wipes at his tears uncaring of her own.