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“This is a Rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel,” Jyn tells them coolly, and waits to hear their response.
“‘You rebel’?” One of the officers repeats incredulously, the same who’d helped Mon Mothma read off her list of less than desirable character traits, and Jyn already knows what’s coming. Every now and then someone will try telling Jyn that she has issues with authority. Like that phrase is supposed to make her care. It’s always delivered with the same facial expression, too – the same disdainful lips, pressed tight together, and the same strictly furrowed eyebrows. And sure enough, this man doesn’t break the mold. “This Rebellion is not a joke, nor is it meant for mindless destruction. We are trying to bring back democracy. This is not the place to vent your issues with authority.”
This too fails to evoke any real reaction from Jyn, other than leading her to cough up a truism of her own. “I only have issues with the ones who have issues with me,” she tells them, face blank and tone nearly matter of fact. That’s her joking tone. Most people don’t seem to understand that, especially not right after meeting her, but Mon Mothma’s eyes drop briefly, clearly suppressing a smile. Interesting. Does that mean Jyn passed whatever test is in front of her, or just that the woman across from her thinks she’s amusing?
When Mon Mothma takes over the conversation, Jyn privately decides it was both. “We have a mission for you. A major weapons test is imminent and we need to know what it is, and how to destroy it.” Mon Mothma details what they know, which isn’t much, and although Jyn doesn’t move, she listens intently.
She doesn’t look away from Mon Mothma until the man speaks up again, and Jyn is forced to shift her attention to him. “Is that clear?” he asks, apparently mistaking her silence for ignorance. He says it in the same tone he’d said ‘aggravated assault’ in, and something about that makes Jyn twitch.
If Mon Mothma had asked to clarify things with her, maybe the response would’ve been different, but. Well. This officer? Jyn doesn’t like him. So she levels her gaze on him, meeting his eyes directly. “Yes, sir.” It really means fuck you. What did they expect, though? They’re the ones who arrested her. It’s not her favorite greeting. They could’ve just hired her the normal way, if they wanted her help. For enough money, she would’ve helped. Discount prices, even, for the great Rebellion.
“Of course, for the remainder of your time here on Yavin 4, you’ll have to be supervised. In light of that, we've assigned an escort. Just in case,” the officer says, and Jyn's expression briefly slips from blank to frowning. Supervised? They trust her with a mission of this magnitude, but not with walking around the Rebel base itself? She’d agreed to help, and maybe her word isn’t necessarily law every time, but it’s not like she isn’t interested in this mission. For her own reasons or otherwise, what does it matter? They may have arrested her, but they’d never be able to keep her here against her will, escort or otherwise. She’ll stay because she wants to, and they must know that.
“I’ll just give them the slip,” she says. Brags, really, except bragging implies that she’s full of false bravado, and that’s not it. The whole reason why she’s even here is because they know how good she is.
“I think you’ll find the Senator is very persistent.” Mon Mothma is definitely smiling this time, but Jyn is fairly sure it’s not directed at her. It’s too fond. No one smiles that fondly at Jyn Erso.
Abruptly she wants out of this room. She’s agreed, the conversation is over for now, right? Until the rest of this ‘team’ gets here. For now, she wants to explore the base, or something. “Fine,” she drawls, but there's anger there too. “Can I go now?”
The other two people in the room silently confer, and they must reach some kind of consensus, because Mon Mothma nods. Jyn is out of her seat in an instant, letting her chair scrape across the floor without a care. She doesn’t push it back in towards the table after her, but she does flick an idle, sarcastic salute to the room, before spinning around and rushing out. There’s someone in the hallway waiting for her, and it takes less than a second for Jyn to size her up. Another second, and she’s recognized her. “My babysitter is Princess Leia Organa?” she says, incredulously. She’d thought maybe this whole ‘supervision’ thing was a test of her abilities, a chance for her to prove how many people she can disappear from, but there’s absolutely no way she can’t ditch this girl in an instant. Hell, Jyn could probably just outrun her right now, if she wanted. Jyn’s only a few inches taller, but sometimes that’s all it takes. “This is ridiculous.”
“Senator Organa, actually,” the princess says, arms crossed and chin tilted up in a way suggests this isn’t the first time she’s had to remind someone of this. “And you’re the infamous stray we’ve picked up, I suppose.” It’s all biting disdain. It’s not veiled like the officer in the room, or even worse, mixed with pity in the way so many others have looked at her. Even as Jyn is deciding how she feels about that, Senator Organa keeps going. “I certainly hope you’ve got more than attitude to get you through. Trust me, it takes more than swagger to get past Imperial Guards.”
Clearly, it doesn’t take much to set this one off. Which, considering the fact that Leia apparently belongs both here on a Rebel base and on the Imperial Senate, all while existing in the public eye as literal royalty, is a little astounding. Jyn regards her carefully. Leia glares back.
Leia’s gotta be lying to one side of this war after all, and snapping at the smallest slight doesn’t usually lend to secrecy. So. Explosive and smart enough to know how to choose her battles then. Good enough at the double agent bit to hide in plain sight too. But which group does this Senator really believe in? That's the thing about double agents; they're so rarely the loyal type. Despite that, Jyn’s gut says the Rebellion is Leia Organa's true cause – this kind of passion rarely gets along well with the Empire. Either way though, it’s something to investigate.
For the first time since arriving on the Rebel base, Jyn cracks a real smile. “Guess we’ll have to find out, won’t we?”