The Saddest Part
Dark ...
His eyes are closed, his arms dangling from the chains in the ceiling, feet barely pivoted to the ground.
Creaks ...
The door to his dungeon is creaking then he hears her voice, almost hears it
"Cassian .. Cassian. Open your eyes, come on for heavens sake" it is a forceful whisper, urgent and determined , it is her voice.
That is it .. he is finally dying .. he is probably hallucinating her but .. something is shaking him.
he grunts, it is painful, his entire body aches yet it shakes him still.
Water splashes onto his face
"Cassian .."
He struggles to open up his eyes .. yank them ajar but it is half lidded, his vision is hazy yet he wills to adjust it.
He looks at her as she stands before him in all her Coruscanti glory, and he but the Festian he is couldn't but be mesmerised by how beautiful she looked, draped in white silk .
Jyn Erso was dainty .. elegant and delicate as hardened as she was, as she pretended to be
And he thinks through his ache, through his enticement that it is entirely a waste to descend to the dungeons in that dress.
It is a waste for someone like her to descend to the dungeons under any circumstances in the first place.
'If life was fair'
The sharpness in her gaze dissipates into gentleness and other emotions he would rather not dwell on.
"Here drink" She whispers
She brings the water skin to his mouth as he gulps voraciously
"We shouldn't have wasted any drop, but you didn't seem to respond any other way"
"You know .. I am a heavy sleeper" he tries to smile, to allevate that doom that set foot in their hearts, in their lives ever since they remember and she mirrors him halfheartly as she closely inspects him.
His face, it covered in dirt, in dried blood, that the water didn't manage to wash. His hair was sticking to his forehead having been matted by mud and while his face was always tanned as all festians' were, his was starting to take an unhealthy hue of yellow.
The whipping left as little possible clothes hanging to his torso
"Jyn, What brought here?"
"I ...I came to see you, a favour of Bodhi"
"You know it is too dangerous for you, if Krennic knows ..."
"He wouldn.."
"There is always a chance he will know, like before"
"I no longer care."
"But I do, I don't want you to get hurt"
" He murdered my father, three days ago" and as casually as she says it, as cold as she looks Cassian knows better.
"I am sorry, I am so sorry, Jyn"
"I amnot allowed to weep for him, as much as I am not allowed to weep for you" she resigned "he would have been dead anyway, after all, you might have killed him yourself."
He doesn't deny nor correct her. They were nations at war, long before whether they liked to admit or not.
A festian and a coruscanti were a match made in hell under the empire's reign .. Festians were always barbarians and outlaws .. Festians were dissenters and traitors for only ever defying an empire that only ever relegated them to slaves, ploughers for grain and a plush source of taxes that could break one's neck under their weight.
She was raised to hate him as much as he was raised to hate her likings and now he realises it was better this way. Nothing good comes from a Festian falling in love with a Coruscanti.
It was only due to the Empire's brutality that now stomped even its allies, were they brought together.
Rebellious mobs with rebellious politicians.
A gladiator enslaved during war and a rebel senator's daughter.
Her fingertips ghost over one the whiplashes, and he flinches.
"It hurts that much"
"Not anymore" he tries to brave a smile
She simply closes her eyes, and he gently leans his forhead against hers
"I am sorry, you are here ... I am sorry you are here because of me" she earnestly apologises
"It isnot because of you, never you" Part of him knows he is lying through his teeth.
Yet the other part that was both plighted and blessed with loving her so unwaveringly, unhesitantly and intensely responds, the part that is reeling with anger she is captive under Krennic while he is helplessly hanging like a slaughtered animal down here, the part that relentlessly fights and bleeds for her, the part that still hopes against all odds ...
"Had he not seen us ..." she laments "He lost it .. how a rebel slave would steal his betrothed and how sickeningly everybody believed him. Everything in this world is turned upside down, why wouldn't the truth be?" she bitterly resumes.
How mocking the word 'Truth' comes out of her mouth.
"He stole you from me, he stole my wife from me, not the other way around" Cassian reels
"He never acknowledges that. Nobody in this godforsaken city acknowledges that."
"You do, that is enough for me"
"He will keep wearing you down here, sending you everyday to die in the Arena" she whimpers
"And I will keep going, It wouldn't be the first time after all"
He could hear footsteps approaching, light and quick
"Jyn" it was Bodhi approaching "We have to go"
Bodhi didn't dare look at him. Apparently, it made him feel guilty, the guard who didn't know where to stand .. his hesitance always at odds with his empathy for the cause.
"Stay alive" he whispers against her lips "Stay alive until we win and this empire is over"
"Promise me the same" She murmurs and for once he hesitates, it isn't something he has on hand, it isn't something he can keep.
"Lie to me. Lie to me, Cassian, as you lie to your fellow men, as you used to lie to your cohort. I won't be angry. I won't hold it against you"
"I promise you"
A fight drags onto another, battle after battle.
Cassian dies in the Arena, a stab to the abdomen by a slave who gives him the dignity so called warriors never did.
Jyn watches as the light leaves his eyes but she doesn't mourn, nor does she wail. It is but a single teardrop that rolls down her cheeks. One that escapes Krennic in his victory's stupor, but doesn't escape Bodhi.
Jyn doesn't survive him long, she is discovered to be working for the rebellion just like her father before her and is murdered along with another treacherous guard by none other than Krennic.
It takes years after, years to relinquish the empire, during which Krennic falls out of favour and is executed by the very same empire he fought so long to protect.
Years until the rebellion that took so many souls to survive, separated so many lovers finally conquers.
The saddest part, it proves no kinder than its predecessor, tearing families apart and bringing chaos in its wake.
Rebellions it seemed are insatiable, one leading to another. One dungeon must always be full, another always haunted and the arena must never be empty.
A ravenous battlefield must always be raging.
And a pair of lovers will always be waiting somewhere for absolution.