Captain Cassian Andor checked his weapon for what felt like the hundredth time. How long could traveling by light speed take? He knew the planet was far, but not this far. Minutes felt like hours, hours felt like lifetimes.
"Cassian, I recommend you relax," K-2SO said from the co-pilot seat. "We'll be there in twenty minutes."
He didn't respond. He checked his weapon again, finally realized it was giving him no outlet for the anxiety raging inside of him, and pushed it back into his holster.
"She'll be alright."
That sentence finally broke his silence. "How do you know that?" he demanded. "What are the odds of that?"
A pause. "You don't want to know."
K-2 was not usually one for withholding information, so he knew the odds of Jyn being alive were slim to none. Last time he'd heard anything, the Empire had sent troops to capture her from the out-of-control rebel terrorists on Yendoo that had captured her two days ago. These rebels were known for torturing their prisoners, and he'd experienced that torture himself.
That's why Jyn was there. She'd gone in to get him. He'd made a run for the ship outside, thinking she was right behind him, but when he'd looked back she was nowhere in sight. He ran back to get her, but the team she'd been sent with wouldn't allow it. It was simple, they thought. He was a captain, she a new recruit. What did it matter that she'd saved the rebellion? What did it matter they were free because of her? Their mission was to extract Captain Andor, not Jyn Erso. She was considered dispensable.
Dispensable. The word seemed to create a bad taste in his mouth.
"Beginning our decent onto Yendoo," K-2 said. "I recommend paying attention to the controls."
Cassian shook himself out of his thoughts and focused on landing. The next thing, that's what he'd learned. It was easier if you just focused on the next thing. But this was no normal mission. This was unauthorized, even forbidden, by the Rebellion. And if he failed…
The ship jerked hard to the right, and narrowly missed the canyon wall.
"Jyn Erso has done wonders for your ability to focus," K-2 said sarcastically.
"I don't want to hear it," Cassian replied.
He pressed the wrong button, and K-2 quickly corrected. "Perhaps I should fly."
Cassian sighed and leaned back, giving up command of the ship temporarily. He checked his weapon again, realized she'd want one, too, and grabbed another one for her. He checked and double checked her blaster as K-2 brought them closer to the rebel camp.
"Cassian," K-2 said, with more delicacy than was normal for him, "do you like Jyn?"
"Don't you?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?" Cassian knew the question was a dangerous one, but he asked it anyway.
"Have you developed a romantic attachment to her?"
He paused while he considered how best to evade the question. "What made you think that?"
"Well, probability seems to point that way. Why else would you disobey orders that could hurt her? Why else would you be here?" He paused, and looked at Cassian. "Why else would you be unable to function like a rational being?"
Cassian held K-2's gaze until he couldn't anymore. Fair questions, all of them, he had to admit. And he didn't have a good answer. He'd pushed those thoughts as far back as he could for as long as he could.
The terrorist camp appeared below them. K-2 let the ship down on a ridge overlooking it.
"Do you have a plan?"
"Get in, get Jyn, and get out," Cassian replied. "We separate once inside the camp, cover more ground. If you find her, tell me."
K-2 paused a beat, and said, "That plan has an eighty-three percent chance of failure."
He ignored him. The two descended the ridge and crept into the camp. Rebel warriors in hoods carrying heavy blasters patrolled the camp. Cassian waited for the right moment, signaled for K-2 to go into a different building, and darted into the closest structure. It held only weapons.
As he turned to creep out again, a crate of small explosive devices caught his eye. He grabbed several, found the detonator that all of them were synced to, and activated one of the bombs. In every building she wasn't in, he'd place a bomb, and when he got her out, he'd blow the god-forsaken place.
The next five structures he checked were useless, and he placed bombs in every one. The sixth building, which was really more of a tent, was guarded by two armed and hooded men. He shot them both, not for the first time in his life thankful for the silencer. He darted into the tent and dragged both men inside before turning around.
Jyn was staring at him, her expression one of complete shock. She sat on the ground, and her hands were bound together and chained above her head. A metal gag that looked more like a muzzle than anything else was fastened around her head, covering her mouth.
Thanking the Force for getting him this far, he knelt next to her and reached behind her head. While his fingers worked to release the gag over her mouth, his eyes never left hers. She was relieved to see him, that much was clear. Relived, and angry. He'd expected that. He could deal with that later.
He felt a clasp come free, and pulled the restraint away from her, placing it on the ground next to him. She opened her mouth to say something.
"Not a word," he whispered quickly. She hesitated, glared at him, and closed her mouth. "Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Yes."
He looked at her for a moment, with something stronger than mere relief flooding him. Not knowing what else to say, he reached up and began trying to undo the manacles restraining her hands.
He explained the situation while he tried to free her. "K-2 is here somewhere, looking for you. We came alone. So far, no one knows we're here, so don't draw attention." He realized he'd need either a key or K-2 to safely remove the handcuffs, and he didn't have that kind of time. He placed a hand on his blaster, and her eyes darted to the weapon, then back to him. "Trust me," he whispered. She nodded. He pulled out his blaster, took a step back, aimed carefully, and shot a single laser through the center of the shackles. They broke and fell, releasing her hands.
Jyn rubbed her wrists, and stood stiffly. Cassian looked her over quickly, caught sight of the blood seeping through a tear in the fabric of her pants just below her right knee, and set his jaw. Any reservations he had about the blowing the camp vanished into a storm of anger.
He tore his gaze from the wound and looked her in the face. "Can you walk?"
Jyn nodded. "As long as it's away from here."
"You're never coming back here again," Cassian promised. He pulled out the communicator and spoke into it. "K-2, I've got her. Meet us at the ship."
They waited for K-2's reply. "Copy. I left the engine running."
Cassian handed Jyn the other blaster, which she took gratefully. They were yards from the place she'd been held when a sharp order to stop cut the silence. They stopped, looked at each other, and turned slowly, hands raised. No sooner had they faced the rebel guard then Jyn shot him in the chest. The blast was heard from other parts of the camp, and the alarms were raised.
Cassian noticed her severe limp, and stopped just long enough to wrap an arm around her waist to steady her. The image of a similar scene involving extracted Imperial plans and a close brush with death flashed through his mind. He pushed it away. This was the present, not the past, and they were far from Scarif.
Both of them shot as many rebels as they had to. Before they'd made it out of the camp, the terrorists blocked their way, guns held threateningly in front of them. Cassian realized in an instant how completely insane this plan had been and how much danger he had put both of them in. He wrapped his arms around Jyn, turned his back to the rebels, and forced both of them down, shielding her. The sound of blasters being fired rang through the air.
He was unhurt. Cassian loosened his hold on Jyn just enough to look back. All of the rebels lay dead. Confused, he stood up and a flash caught his attention. K-2SO stood up on the ridge near the ship with two blasters held in his metal hands. Cassian smiled, wrapped an arm around Jyn's waist again, and helped her climb up the ridge to the ship.
Once there, K-2 took Jyn's arm and Cassian let him help her. He turned and looked over the rebel camp beneath them. He took out the detonator and examined it. He hesitated, looking back at the camp. He pictured Jyn's injury again, and pressed the button. With a deafening BOOM, all of the explosions went off simultaneously. Debris shot into the air, and he threw the silver detonator over the ridge. Cassian turned and walked into the ship, closed the bay door, crossed the length of the craft, and sat in the pilot seat. With hardly a look back, he took off, leaving the war-ridden planet of Yendoo behind.
He couldn't believe it had worked. K-2 joined him a minute later and took over the controls once they made a safe jump to light speed. Cassian stood and walked back to where Jyn sat, her injured leg stuck straight out in front of her. K-2 had attempted a clumsy bandage, and blood had already soaked through it. Cassian knelt to fix it.
"You were lucky," he said. Images of what could have happened to her – dismemberment, burning until her skin melted, mind-probing – would haunt him for the rest of his days, he was sure of it. Although he hated the sight of the cut in her leg, it could have been much, much worse.
"Luck had nothing to do with it," she assured him. Her voice was tense. He glanced up at her while he untied the bandage.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"They wanted information on the Empire," she replied. "My being Galen Erso's daughter, they thought I had it. I simply lied. They had no way of checking if my information was correct or not, so they assumed it was."
"What sort of information did you give them?"
"Fake troop movements, mostly. Names of the men in charge. Vulnerabilities in their systems."
Cassian looked at her for a moment, shook his head in disbelief, and grabbed the bottle of an antiseptic liquid K-2 insisted on keeping around for just such occasions as this. He dabbed some onto a clean cloth, and started cleaning the wound.
When the cloth touched the open cut directly, Jyn drew in a sharp breath. "I can get that," she said.
"I know," Cassian replied, continuing to take care of the injury for her.
She watched him in silence for several minutes. Cassian was keenly aware of her unwavering gaze on him, and purposefully avoided eye-contact. He knew what he'd find in her eyes if he looked at them: frustration and pain at the very least. Her silence betrayed her anger better than she realized.
He couldn't blame her. He had been just as furious when she'd gone to rescue him.
She held her silence until he'd finished cleaning out the cut. He realized that K-2 hadn't said anything since they'd reached light speed, which was almost a miracle. Perhaps this was their way of punishing him for being so reckless.
He wrapped a clean cloth around the cut and tied it tightly and neatly. He stared at it for a moment before finally looking her in the eyes. He was right. She was angry.
"You shouldn't have come," she finally said. He could tell by the tone of her voice that the rescue wasn't the only thing she was angry about, but he had no clue what else he'd done wrong.
"Perhaps," he admitted.
"Did you have the support of the Rebellion?"
"Of course," he lied.
"No," K-2 said.
Jyn raised an eyebrow. "You came alone, without the permission or support of the Alliance, to save one person? A person who, I might add, sacrificed herself to save you in that very spot."
Cassian sighed. "Give me your hand."
"No."
"You're bleeding. Give me your hand."
"I can take care of that myself, Cassian! I will not let you treat me like I'm incapable of taking care of myself."
"I know you are, Jyn!" Cassian snapped. "Let me take care of you."
"You've done enough!"
"I advise against treating her hand," K-2 interjected.
Ignoring both of them, Cassian grabbed her left hand and turned it palm-up. She tried to yank it away, but he held her wrist firmly, and waited until she stopped struggling. He looked at the cut, and saw that it wasn't deep. He could feel the tension in her almost as if it was his own. She was refusing to look at him now, choosing instead to stare at her injured hand.
Cassian took the antiseptic liquid and poured a few drops directly onto her hand. If possible, she tensed even more. He took note of the tension in his own body, and realized that he had never truly been rid of that since the day his world was shattered when he was six years old.
He rested her hand in his, and massaged the area around the cut with his thumb. An old trick he'd learned from a very old pilot that was supposed to fix the circulation and bring white blood cells to the damaged skin. Whether or not it actually worked was anyone's guess. He focused on her hand, and after several moments, felt her begin to relax.
It was almost startling to feel her relax. He looked up from her hand and saw that the tension had left her shoulders and face also. Her head was against the wall behind her, and her eyes remained fixed on her hand.
He continued to rub her hand until he felt sure that the tension between them had relaxed just as she did. In a voice so soft it would be impossible to startle her, he said, "Hey. I'm proud of what you did."
Jyn looked at him. The anger was mostly gone, replaced by a look of pure exhaustion. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and make all of her pain go away – to give her back her mother, her father, her lost friends, her life. But he couldn't – no one could. Comfort had never been something he specialized in, anyway. He preferred to be blunt, to address the truth of a situation, to face it head on and make others do the same. She was the first person he'd ever wanted to shield from the cold reality that so often encompassed their lives.
After several more minutes of a far more peaceful silence, he saw her fighting sleep. Cassian slowly let go of her hand. "Get some rest, okay? You deserve it."
She smiled slightly, and closed her eyes. In a few moments, she was sound asleep. Cassian watched her for a minute or two before joining K-2.
"Don't even try to deny loving her," K-2 said, with something like the droid version of a simper.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cassian lied.
They sat in silence for another minute. K-2 broke it by saying, "In case you were wondering, there's an eighty-five percent chance of her feeling the same way."
Cassian let that sink in. He smiled a little, risked a glance back at Jyn, and decided to be patient. They were two rebels with every day of the rest of their lives ahead of them. There was no real hurry, was there?
