She's sitting at a small iron table, her elbows propped up on the cool surface and her hands laced together underneath her chin. She isn't sure how long she's been there, staring out at the crystal blue sea and the waves lazily lapping against the coast. There is a light breeze, salt and humidity in the air. In the distance, there are children laughing and playing, and somewhere an instrument is being played. It's a small, secluded cafe by the shoreline. Listening to the waves crash against the rocks, It feels like she's always been there, as if nothing else existed except this moment in time.
Jyn crosses one leg over another, and it's then she realizes she is wearing a white, thin sundress. It makes her furrow her brow; she didn't wear sundresses, ever. Something in her mind coaxes her back into submission, assuring her that she is fine. Her body feels relaxed and satisfied, but something in the back of her mind is still alive with curiosity and worry.
"Are you okay?"
Jyn just now notices the man across from her; he is staring at her intently, a light-hearted smile on his face. She doesn't recognize him at all. He is handsome, too put together and designed. She immediately distrusts him.
"You looked like your mind was elsewhere." He chuckles lightly, but it is slightly forced and uncomfortable. He has a slight accent, and she has decided that he is of Mexican descent.
Part of her is subdued, like a sedated animal ready to obey. That part of her doesn't question where she is at, or how long she has been there. It's alright, she tells herself.
She's been doing this long enough to know that it was the same subconscious feeling one had in a dream.
Jyn's hand shoots to what should be her pocket, but instead finds flimsy cotton skirt. She meant to make her desperate motion less jarring and noticeable, but the man is leaping up at the next moment, his brown eyes devoid of any light-hearted feelings.
"I have your totem." He confesses quickly, on his feet, his hand clutching a revealed gun. Jyn feels as if she were on fire.
"You took it?" She all but screams, lunging for the collar of the expensive suit he donned. She is met midway with the back end of the gun, cold metal rattling her head.
"I didn't mean to do that." The man admits without apology as Jyn stumbles backwards, a snarl on her face.
"Let me talk, and then I give you the totem back." He offers, though it isn't much of a choice for Jyn; there is a gun locked on the space between her eyes, taunting her. She feels blood trickle down her face as she weighs her odds of dying- would she wake up? Would she have her totem in the real world?
"Talk then." Jyn says through gritted teeth. The man doesn't move a muscle, but seems to consider his words carefully before he speaks again. It's surreal for Jyn- laying on a warm beach somewhere on the Meditteranian, salty air stinging her skin and children laughing blocks away, all while she contemplates dream suicide.
"My name is Cassian Andor." He says, and adds as an afterthought ,"That is not a lie."
"I've spent my whole life trying to undo the mess your father has made." The man- Cassian- says, as if it were something she hadn't heard a million times before. It never got easier, hearing all the ways her father was a monster. So what, she thought. He was long gone, rotting in some unmarked grave somewhere.
"He's dead, if you haven't already found that out." Jyn said dryly.
"We know," Cassian said calmly, still studying her. "But his actions were worse than we originally thought."
"We?" Jyn questioned. He didn't answer, still giving her a blank stare and pointing his gun towards her skull. There were already wheels turning in her head; he didn't even have to tell her.
"You've a part of them?" Jyn said, letting out a short, mean chuckle. The smile on her face was nothing short of cutting. "The dream police people?"
"The agency doesn't go by that." Cassian said, not showing any hurt at her reaction. "And I was."
"That agency's a joke." Jyn scoffed. "You can't put human laws on a dream."
"As I said, I am not a part of it anymore." Cassian's voice has changed with a slight bitterness, and it makes her feel victorious. "What really matters is that your father created something I need to have my hands on."
"I don't know anything about the man."
"I'm not looking to get in his head." Cassian says. "There's another who actually possesses it- goes by the name Krennic."
Jyn sucks in a breath.
It's as if all the biting, sarcastic remarks and jabs are long gone, the mood replaced with something much more somber and dark. In the distance, the children's laughs have turned into a mockery of the past few minutes. Cassian notices the sudden difference in her, his brows going down and his eyes getting concerned. She doesn't care anymore; he'd talked enough. She wanted her damn totem, and she wanted out of there.
"No." Jyn says simply, her face stony. "I listened, now give me my totem."
He starts to reject her demand, she can tell by the sputter of his voice and the confused look marring his face.
"I'm not getting involved in this, and if you are, then I wish you and your family the best of luck in staying alive." Jyn says, and she stands up and holds out her hand. The gun doesn't bother her as much anymore.
He gives her a long, hard look, his dark eyes being far too open in that moment. Cassian breaks her contact to drop the gun, instead fishing around in his pocket for her prize.
The relief she feels once she sees it, tucked away in a swatch of cloth, is astounding; Jyn Erso doesn't cry, but in that moment she considers it.
"I didn't touch it." He said, handing her the cloth.
She unfolds it, weighing the little gem in her hand. She covers the white crystal with her palm, closing her eyes and memorizing the feel of it in her grasp. She can tell instantly how odd and abnormal it feels; it would've let her know immediately that she was not in her own dream.
"Go back to your agency job, Andor." Jyn says, as a sort of goodbye, but she means it seriously. Her tone was grave. "Stay out of matters bigger than yourself."
"If you change your mind," Cassian adds, staring her down with a look that momentarily stops her breath ,"Meet me here."
She doesn't have enough time to reject his offer, because in the next moment his kick comes, perfectly planned. In one instant they are there, surrounded by a beautiful, picturesque beach on the sea, and the next moment she is waking up elsewhere.
He drugged her so that she wouldn't truly wake up until hours after he was gone.
It's a pretty smart move, Jyn acknowledges, but risky. Drug a patient too much, they decide to float to limbo instead of dream. Cue a never-ending coma.
Her mouth is dry and itchy, her body aching from the dream and the drugs still swimming through her veins. She's in a rather nice hotel room, propped up on a lofty, King-sized bed, surrounded by more pillows than one could ever dream of. There's even classical music drifting out of speakers- what a thoughtful gentleman, she thought bitterly.
Jyn starts to move, tugging on her jacket, when she notices a note folded in her hands. It informs her that Bodhi is drugged as well, set up in room 102.
The chivalry is breathtaking.
She slips on her boots as she's walking out the door, cursing Cassian Andor's name.
"He's good." Bodhi says before Jyn has gotten a chance to get in a word; he is propped up exactly like her, down to the little details. There are black rings under his eyes, and his hair is mused, though it is never truly immaculate.
"He works for the agency." Jyn informs him as Bodhi lets out an incredulous laugh. "Sorry, he used to."
"Pretty damn good for agency member." Bodhi praises.
"Are we going to ignore the fact that this isn't supposed to happen?" Jyn asks loudly, throwing her hands out. Bodhi just tugs on his clothes, shrugging as if it were another day in the life.
"I knew he wouldn't get information out of us, if that's what he wanted." Bodhi reasoned. "Besides, he probably could've killed us a lot easier than just drugging us."
"We've gotten too reckless." Jyn said angrily, making little crescent moons in her palms with the sharp ends of her nails. It was just like her dad used to say- you get too comfortable, too lax, you were doomed for failure. They had to keep moving, physically and mentally.
"Don't beat yourself up over it, Jyn. Not much you can do when someone attacks you in a busy market. What were we going to do, stop him from drugging us after we were already knocked unconscious?" Bodhi joked, trying to keep her from getting too heated. "Pretty sure that's even beyond Jyn Erso's job description."
It helped, a little. It was why they were a successful extractor team- she was too high-struck, too cold, while he seemed to be too relaxed, too light-hearted. It balanced out into a well-rebounded group.
"He mentioned my dad, and Krennic." Jyn said suddenly, studying his reaction. Bodhi gave her a concerned look, snatching his signature pilot's goggles off of the nightstand. His mood had changed quickly, his relaxed demeanor now replaced with.whole-hearted concern.
"Let's go some place safer."
Weeks pass after Jyn told Bodhi what had happened.
She had insisted she wouldn't pursue it, and he had agreed to back her up. They'd been through so many years and jobs together that it wasn't a surprise that he would want her to make a decision on this proposition without her. And after that, it's like it never happened. They move on, they go about their daily lives of dream-infiltration like she wasn't infiltrated herself a month back.
They go to Ankara, where a Turkish businessman pays them in precious jewels. It's a simple job, one they'd done a million times before. All they had to do was discover the identity of the man who was sleeping with the businessman's husband. It was a job more suited for a personal investigator, but some people wanted the absolute truth and all of it; Dreams didn't lie.
It took up most of Jyn's time and kept her mind from wandering too far, from doubting her decision on that beach in the Mediterranian. But she still thought about it what she couldn't sleep at night, the lust for revenge growing and festering in her heart. She hadn't heard the name Krennic in many, many years.
It's like Cassian had planted a seed in Jyn's mind, one that had grown into a garden by the time she and Bodhi had finished their Ankara job. She knew she had made the right decision, not choosing to help Cassian- but she also knew that it wasn't the decision she wanted.
And so one night she comes to Bodhi, her hair wet from the shower in their Turkish hotel room, her eyes burning with conviction.
"I'm going to agree." She says, and he knows exactly what she means. He'd seen the distant looks, the unfocused behavior after her dream with Cassian, and he knew her decision was unsteady despite her rejection.
"I'll be the architect." Bodhi says immediately, giving it little thought. Jyn, who never shows much emotion, gives him a shocked, amazed face.
"Are you sure?" She asked, although part of her would be comforted by the presence of a close friend in what lay ahead.
"I'm sure as hell not letting you be around him without me there. I mean, the guy drugged us." Bodhi scoffs, and Jyn laughs, a full-bodied laugh that she hadn't used in quite a long time. She smiles, partly because Bodhi is like a brother she never had, and partially because she is finally moving, physically and mentally.
They find the exact beach two weeks later after scouring the Internet for locations. Being a master in their field requires remarkable memory; even if she didn't have an amazing memory, the dream had left such an impact that she could've drawn it in her sleep.
It's on the coast of Spain, five miles from a tiny rural town. It is quaint, beautiful, and untouched, and Jyn feels as if her kind- the dream extractors- should not be touching such a virgin place.
The first day they go to the cafe he is not there; it's a bit unnerving, reliving the dream. Her hand couches her kyber crystal totem, tracing it's outline with her finger; she does this the duration of their stay, even though Bodhi tells her to calm down many times.
The next day it is rainy, and nasty storm brewing on the coast, but they go anyways, if only to face the fact that maybe she had lost her chance. The coast isn't nearly as beautiful to her anymore.
The third day, he is there, waiting as if it were two months previous.
"We need inside Krennic's head." Cassian Andor says smoothly, as if it were child's play. He is leaned back in his chair, casual and comfortable, his face unreadable. Jyn was irritated to find that he was more attractive in the real world- the dream world had a way of smoothing over people, making them flawless and perfected. In the real world, Cassian Andor was all sharp lines and dark eyes, a short beard and beautiful eyes.
"And then?" Bodhi says, moving conversation along. He'd noticed that he had already began the role of mediator.
"And then we find where the weapon is, and what the plans are for it." Cassian tells them confidently.
"You'll need a team." Jyn counters.
"I already have that planned." He assures her, squinting his eyes at her through the glare of the Mediterranian sun. "With both of you."
It's not the cleanest, most prepared job Jyn had ever signed on to, but it certainly wasn't the least. His words and assurances don't comfort her, but they don't sway her decision either way, since she had already made her decision long before they had this talk.
"One condition." Jyn says, both set of eyes trained on her. She considers her words for a moment, weighing them in her head and feeling them on her tongue.
"I get to kill Krennic once it's done."