The moment Cassian fell down, Jyn knew everything was in her hands, and that no help would come from anyone in the Alliance. Even if a bunch of valiant rebels rebelled against the Council decision of not making for Scariff to get the Death Star plans. Because even K-2 was dead by now, and she was all alone to send the files to the Alliance starship, and if she failed, the whole galaxy would succumb to the Empire.

The moment Cassian shot Krennic, Jyn knew there was hope, even if tiny, even if frail. But rebellions were built on hope, weren't them? What to say to the rebellion in her heart…

The moment the lights went out in the lifter, both Jyn and Cassian knew things were bad for them, but not yet how bad.

-x-x-x-

"I was afraid you were dead."

Cassian felt Jyn's arms around him in a way that was more than the expected to help him walk around with his shot leg; however, it didn't feel bad, and he had to concede it was the best feeling he had in many years, and that he craved for it. Not for any embrace, but for Jyn's.

"I'll never die leaving you alone. This I promise you."

They knew it was a promise very hard to keep, being members of the Alliance; but it was dark in the lifter, and both were injured to some level, and didn't know what they would find at the bottom of the building. Those short moments inside the lifter were all they could be sure of, and their mouths met to grant they would be worth the trouble.

Eager hands explored each other's body as much as possible in the tiny space, lips and tongues tasting the salt of a long day's fight, the scent of leather and machine grease more teasing than any perfume could be. Fingers traced skin under shirts and jackets, a short beard prickled a bare neck, and then the long way down to ground floor was too short for them.

The moment they got out of the main building, it was clear they were doomed. The Death Star shot that destroyed the antenna hit the sea a couple of miles away, its overwhelming power disrupting the reefs and the very orb beneath it, causing shock waves to form and to destroy everything in range, always a wider range.

"We will die any moment now."

"But all other moments we'll be alive."

Jyn looked at Cassian, surprised by his unusual optimism in that moment of dread. She propped him to ease the pain of the injured leg.

" Let's get away from this tower. I always dreamed to date on a beach..."

Cassian uplifted a corner of his mouth, cheeky despite the circumstances, and hopped along.

"We're on the beach now. I'm happy to be part of your dream."

Exhausted, they more threw themselves on the sand than properly sat down. Their hands touched, and in a moment they were in each other's arms again, trying to supress the fear of upcoming death with the warmth of their bodies and of their feelings.

"Cassian..."

Jyn's eyes said too much, everything he craved to hear; her body against his trembled with what he imagined to be the fluttering of a butterfly, though he never had the chance to see such a poetic being, but fought all his life to give others the chance to see them. If that wasn't the moment to say what he felt, to declare what his heart shouted in his ears for a long time by now, no other moment would be.

Because there would be no other moment in their lives.

"I love you..."

The blow on them was full-force, hitting like a brick wall or something worse. Actually, it was something worse. Worse enough to break their bodies like wood shavings to burn in a fire pit, worse enough to turn flesh into rubbish and life into nothingness. None would go back for their mortal remains, as none got back for any soldier in Scariff, despite what they meant for the Empire, if they meant anything at all but a number. But they would be mourned by the rebel alliance and by their few friends – those who remained alive after the struggle.

And so it was that ever afterward, to the ones who left what you know as 'life' and were transformed into the Force, the first thing they felt when melting into Everythingness has been...

"I love you too..."