Chapter Text
Jyn thought it was probable that Cassian was exaggerating for her sake when he laid out their future plans. This picture perfect idea of the five of them traveling together, working missions together, fighting for the Rebellion together. It was a nice thought. But Jyn had heard enough of pretty words over the years to distrust that they would ever be anything but pretty words. It was the fact that he cared enough to say them that had made the difference.
But now, standing here in this modified Corellian light freighter that they’ve been officially assigned, she realizes that Cassian wanted this as badly as she does. The Rebellion is short on ships – that’s one of the only things Jyn knows for sure about the Rebellion, because leadership never stops complaining about it – but he somehow secured this for them. He committed to them all in a way that Jyn is sure she has never been committed to. She thinks it’s true of all of them that they’ve all had a shortage of friends in their lives, and now that they’re together, they’re reluctant to part again.
“We’re ready, Cassian,” Bodhi calls up, toward the cockpit at the front of the ship, his enthusiasm infectious as he passes through the living quarters on his way from the engineering hatch. He gives Jyn a cheeky wave as he darts by, spotting her poking her head out of her cabin. The living spaces are small – cozy, Jyn would say – and if she was any less content, she would compare her cabin to her prison cell on Wobani. But there’s something about this closed-in little box that already feels like home.
Jyn shoves her small pile of extra clothing into one of the drawers under her bed. She can almost feel Saw’s annoyance (he was allowed to be as messy as he wanted, of course, but she was held to higher standards as a child. He never tolerated a messy room, even in the middle of a wartime bunker), but she’s eager to get out into the ship. Being away from Yavin, even in these small quarters, will be a relief. Jyn still hasn’t managed to find her footing within the Rebellion. Always there is a feeling that she’s intruding, that she isn’t welcome, that she isn’t wanted.
She never feels that way when she’s with her team. To be alone with them again, to do things their way, it feels like freedom.
She leaves the living quarters and moves into the main hold, which is currently inhabited by her two warrior friends. Chirrut is lounging on a patched up couch that Bodhi managed to scavenge from a decommissioned cruiser, while Baze stands in front of him, arms folded across his chest.
“Was she as beautiful as the smuggler said?” Chirrut is asking. Baze scoffs.
“She was beautiful. Not beautiful enough for all the fuss.”
“You’re the wrong man to ask, though.”
“The princess?” Jyn asks, grinning at the annoyance on Chirrut’s face.
“Baze doesn’t give compliments freely. He thinks it says more about him than it does. Maybe you will tell me: is she as beautiful as they say?”
“I think so,” Jyn replies. Her own interactions with Leia have been brief, but there was an undeniable peace that radiated off the younger woman when she came to shake the hands of everyone who survived Scarif. Jyn had the benefit of not knowing very much about galactic politics or the Rebellion, but from watching Bodhi and Cassian’s starstruck reactions, she knew it was an honor. And it’s easy to admire Leia. Her whole planet was destroyed, but you wouldn’t know it for the poise she possesses. Jyn can’t sleep through the night without waking up gasping, sweating, Scarif playing out behind her eyelids. She wishes she could be more like Leia.
“She has a strength I have not felt in another person for such a long time,” Chirrut says, and his sigh is apparently longing enough that it makes Baze bristle. “Not like that, you fool. The Force. I’m saying it surrounds her.”
“The Force,” Baze says, rolling his eyes towards Jyn. “How convenient.”
“Where are we headed, little star?” Chirrut asks, waving Baze’s skepticism away. Jyn stifles the rising reflexive smile.
“The Balit System,” she replies. “Cassian said there’s an Imperial presence on the moon of Kopha. A small mining world, largely insular. They’ve been Imperial controlled for a while now, but Cassian’s contact says they’ve never seen activity like this. We’re supposed to observe them and report back their numbers and their purpose.”
“So I’ll have a lot to do, then,” Chirrut says dryly, causing Baze to snort.
“I prefer that to you getting in the way. Easier to watch your back.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Jyn points out, which makes Chirrut smile triumphantly at his partner.
“She already knows me so well.”
“Yes. That’s not a good thing,” Baze fires back.
Jyn enters the cockpit, taking ownership of the small seat behind Cassian as he and Bodhi pull away from Yavin’s atmosphere, leaving the limping Rebel fleet behind.
“Kopha is important,” Cassian says, in response to some earlier conversation that Jyn missed. Bodhi’s scoff tells Jyn how the conversation was probably going.
“Kopha? Kopha is barely a moon. It’s a space rock. Kopha was the place you were assigned to if you screwed up. If anyone had cared to ask me, I could have told them that it’s useless, and we could be on our way to scout a new base instead.”
“Why would they send a team of five to scout for a new location?” Cassian asks.
“A team of five? Why not? You’d send more?”
“More? Of course not! One or two, at the most. Five!”
“Five’s a perfectly acceptable number for a scouting mission, what are you on about?”
“For the Empire,” Jyn points out with a quiet smile, leaning over the back of Bodhi’s chair, briefly startling the nervous pilot. “Easy to source a scouting mission of five when you have those kinds of numbers.”
“Oh. Yeah. Right,” Bodhi murmurs, looking between Jyn and Cassian with a bashful smile. “Guess that’s true.”
“Besides,” Jyn continues, her tone slightly needling, trying to cheer Bodhi up, her own enthusiasm feeling strange and ill-contained in her chest. “I heard they’re sending Skywalker to check out Hoth. If they’re sending their biggest hero there, imagine where they’d be sending us.”
“Why, what’s on Hoth?”
“Literally nothing,” Cassian mutters.
“And it’s cold,” Jyn agrees. Cassian shoots her a small smile, and his next words have an edge of teasing to them.
“Kopha’s not looking too bad now, is it?”
“Could be worse,” Jyn says.
“At least there are people.”
Faced with Jyn and Cassian both in playful agreement against him, Bodhi seems at least partially mollified. Still, he holds on to his annoyance with, “not that I’m going to be allowed to talk to any of them, probably.”
Jyn looks expectantly at Cassian in response to Bodhi’s sulking words. Cassian shakes his head.
“Absolutely not.”
“Will I be allowed to talk to them?” Jyn asks.
“No. Well…yes. If something goes horribly wrong and I’m killed.”
Jyn rolls her eyes toward Bodhi, whose face scrunches up into disbelief.
“You may have control issues,” he says. Jyn only barely stifles her laugh in time, but Cassian sends her a sharp look anyway.
“I didn’t say it,” she says.
“You didn’t have to,” Cassian replies, but she knows she isn’t imagining the hint of a smile on his face, either.
And she knows exactly what he’s feeling, because she feels it too.
It’s too good to be true, to be allowed to smile and laugh when they both grew up thinking that they would never have the luxury of friendships, when they thought that they would never be able to look at another person and see camaraderie and fondness reflected back at them.
And to be gifted with so much after what they thought would be their last stand, it’s almost overwhelming. Jyn knows that part of why Cassian is so controlling is because he’s afraid to lose it all again. Which is the exact thing that keeps her from sleeping most nights.
Once they’re clear of Yavin 4 and in hyperspace, Cassian heads towards the back to check up on things, and Jyn takes his seat. She’s careful not to jostle anything: none of the controls mean anything to her, and Bodhi is nervous enough as it is. She has flown smaller starships before (poorly, always) but this ship is larger than anything she’s ever touched, so she’s careful to keep her hands away from any buttons or levers.
“Bodhi,” she says innocently, interrupting the distracted pilot’s train of thought as he scans the readouts on one of his screens. “Kopha. What kind of Imperial presence is there?”
“Not much of one, last I was there. A small garrison, mostly troops in and out. Not a huge permanent presence, not like Jedha, if that’s what you’re wondering. Most of Kopha’s operation is run by security forces. The people don’t give them much trouble. There’s no one like Saw Gerrera on Kopha. Couple people try to fight back, a few resistance demonstrations, but mostly it’s just people who would rather stay out of the Empire’s way.”
Like me, once, Jyn reflected, though she had still found herself in an Imperial Labor Camp anyway. Fat lot of good staying out of the way had done her. Strange to look back on that battle-hardened girl and call her naïve, but the Jyn of today, surrounded by friends, with a guaranteed place to sleep and meals in her belly, can hardly stand the thought of the girl who said I don’t have the luxury of political opinions.
“Well, that’s foolish of them. But there is a garrison, right? With troops, ships, the whole thing?”
Clearly not liking the intensity of this line of questioning, Bodhi’s answering “yes” is drawn out into a question.
“Security droids, is what I’m getting at,” Jyn prods, voice lowering. Bodhi’s eyes widen.
“Oh no, Jyn, you can’t do…have you ever seen… those things are…”
“Shh! Shh, hey, Bodhi! Relax. I’m just asking!”
“You don’t ‘just’ ask!”
“Oh, come now. You’ve only known me a few weeks!”
“Which is enough for me to know you don’t just ask. You’re planning to take one of those things for Cassian, aren’t you? There are easier Life Day gifts to give him.”
“Everything is almost perfect but for K2 being gone,” Jyn hisses, still whispering even though Bodhi’s urgent whine is a much louder volume. If Cassian’s listening, the surprise is already blown open. “Bodhi, I’m not going to do anything reckless.” An incredulous look at that, and Jyn sighs. “I’m not going to do anything too reckless.”
“You know how many of those people back there wanted to blast you and I into space once Galen was…out of the picture?” Bodhi asks, his attempt at ‘tact’ not really landing, but appreciated for the effort anyway. “Going rogue - again! - on our first mission back and trying to capture a dangerous Imperial security droid just so Cassian can have his best friend back is not the kind of thing that will make them want to keep us around!”
“If it works, Cassian'll probably be grateful enough to stop them from kicking us out.”
“That’s not as comforting as I think you think it is.”
“But you’ll help make me a copy of that backup program Cassian has, right?”
“If you don’t give me another choice!” Bodhi huffs. Jyn leans across the space between them to kiss him on the cheek.
“Thank you, Bodhi. You're the best.”
“This is already a disaster.”