Before you read this fic, know that there are spoilers for the end of Rogue One starting at the very first line. I don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it yet so please take note and read no further if you haven't seen the movie yet! Speaking of which, you should totally go see the movie ASAP! It's amazing! I'll have more notes at the bottom!


Jyn and Cassian leaned on each other as they moved off the communications platform toward the elevator. Her leg ached from the catwalk collapsing but she had done it, they had done it. The rebel fleet above them had received the plans, her friends' sacrifices weren't made in vain. Cassian, ever the soldier, limped on, only a grimace and a blaster wound to indicate what hell his body had just gone through.

The two could hear the chaos that was still happening all around them as the Rebel fighters in the air continued to fight, despite the overwhelming TIE force that had appeared out of the base's hangars and the firefight below still carried out in pockets as the AT-ACTs worked to methodically stomp out the rest of the Rebel insurgency on the island. None of it mattered, though, as her father's Space Station, the weapon that he had worked so hard to ensure had a fatal flaw for the Rebellion to be able to exploit, loomed on the horizon. She wasn't even sure how long ago it had come out of hyperspace but its presence meant only one thing, that the Empire was willing to sacrifice one of its most important facilities to deprive the Alliance of any valuable intel they might have found.

Even as the doors opened, she knew that everyone near the facility was living on borrowed time. Jyn made sure Cassian wouldn't collapse and then turned to the control panel, punching the button to go to the train terminal that would take them back to the pad and their comrades, whichever of them still survived, at least. Before she could turn around, Cassian's hand had pressed the button to take them to the landing pad halfway down the tower.

"No one's answering our calls, Jyn. We might as well try our chances of getting out of here," said Cassian, giving Jyn a sympathetic look through his pain.

"We don't know that, someone might have made it, they might've lost their-" started Jyn.

"They're gone. Even if they weren't, they're surrounded out there," said Cassian. "They all knew that this was likely a one-way trip. They came anyway. The best we can do is try and get away and make sure people know what they did out there."

Jyn set her jaw but nodded, she knew Cassian was right but it didn't make it any easier to stomach. She hadn't known them for long, but they had managed to be the closest thing she had had to a family since her early days with Saw. As much as she had worked to make sure she was as independent as possible after being abandoned by the big, lumbering Rebel, she enjoyed having people to be able to fall back on and to help pick her up when she stumbled. Chirrut, Baze, and Bodhi would live on in the stories of legend passed between Rebels, their sacrifices and bravery helping those that found themselves pushing back against the weight of the Empire.

Jyn looked at Cassian, his breathing becoming more labored with each passing moment. If she couldn't get him help soon, he would join the others, existing only as a story of valor. She was going to try her hardest to make sure that didn't happen.

As the platform came to a stop and the doors opened, Cassian all but fell on Jyn, his injuries taking more and more of a toll on his body. She struggled to take on his weight and aim her blaster down the hall as the two limped off toward the landing pad. There weren't any Imperial forces in the halls, all available manpower seemed to have been directed at the Rebel forces on the beach, but she still found herself wishing that they hadn't left their disguises in the records vault.

It wasn't until they had almost made it to the pad itself that they saw the first signs of Imperial presence on the floor, as several officers and staff ran around, too harried to even make note of the injured Rebels stumbling towards the few shuttles that hadn't already taken off. They appeared to only be reacting to the fighting that was happening on the beach and not to the imminent threat that their own weapon orbiting the planet posed against them.

As if reacting to her thoughts, the tower rocked, shuttering against the power of the weapon that had just been fired. Jyn blinked as the debris of the communications dish showered down on everyone. Almost instantly afterwards, not far off the coast, a large plume of fire and water erupted where the Death Star's laser had landed. If Jedah was anything to go off of, they didn't have long before they were doomed, maybe minutes if they were lucky.

Suddenly understanding the gravity of their current situation, the Imperial personnel near the pad erupted into action, orders were shouted around and men moved with renewed vigor. There were only a handful of Lambda-class shuttles on the platform.

Jyn started moving them towards the shuttle at the farther end of the platform, making sure the two of them stayed in the shadows behind cargo crates, away from the attention of the panicking soldiers. Cassian grunted, "Good choice."

"I just figured I'd take our chances racing against that," Jyn said, nodding towards the growing tower of death building off the coast, "than against them," she said, nodding towards the growing number of soldiers that were already moving equipment towards the shuttles nearest to the tower. The Death Star blast would certainly kill them, but only if they survived long enough to get hit by its explosion.

"We're lucky," said Cassian. "I think even you could fly one of these T-4s." He grunted again against the pain that was racking his body. The charred blaster wound was beginning to open up from all the exertion that the Captain was placing on it, his shirt beginning to stain with blood. "Hell, you're probably going to have to."

"Just keep moving, soldier," said Jyn, gritting her teeth and leading the two out from behind the crates as they pulled up even with their targeted shuttle. The ramp was down already, and the two were almost there before they heard the mechanical sounds of stormtroopers sounding the alarm to the two rebels at the far end of the platform. Jyn rolled her eyes as they hit the ramp, making sure Cassian had a grip before pulling out her blaster. "Get the shuttle fired up," she said, taking aim at the nearest trooper and firing, dropping him. "I'll hold them off."

"Just stay alive till then, Jyn," said Cassian, as he limped his way towards the cockpit to fire up the shuttle.

Jyn took cover behind some small crates as a salvo of blaster fire from the encroaching stormtroopers went over her head. She took quick peeks from behind cover, plotting where the three troopers were before checking her blaster charge. It read practically full, she hadn't been shooting much and the shots she had taken she had made count. With that, Jyn took a quick breath before ducking out of cover and firing off two shots in quick succession.

She rolled back behind the crates before she had a chance to see if her shots had landed but the two distinct metallic cries told her all that she needed to know. She took a chance and peeked over her cover to get a handle on where the third stormtrooper was, only to find that he had taken cover of his own. She could hear him call in reinforcements through the din of controlled chaos coming from the Imperial soldiers that continued to load cargo into the other shuttles.

The shuttle's engines next to her slowly began to turn. "Too slow," Jyn breathed as she surveyed the pad, keeping an eye on the lone stormtrooper. "What's the hold up, Cassian? We don't exactly have a lot of time, here!"

"I'm working on it!" shouted Cassian down from the shuttle cockpit. "There's something wrong with the motivator! We'll be ready to go any moment now, hold on!"

Jyn couldn't help but feel that was easier said than done as she looked at the cloud of destruction grow bigger by the second. She heard the rumble of footsteps from the backup the last stormtrooper had called for and felt the withering blaster fire begin to strike her crate. Pretty soon, they would fan out and flank her, leaving it to Cassian to get away on his own. Jyn blindly fired her blaster over the crate, but without a chance to aim, the shots were practically useless and the stormtroopers continued to take aim at her.

As she waited for the troopers to finish encircling her, Jyn took notice of a smaller box next to her and unlatched it, surveying its contents. "I'll be damned," she whispered as she counted the concussion grenades. Eight. That would be more than enough to allow her to escape if Cassian could ever get the Shuttle ready.

As if on cue, the T-4a roared to life, lifting off the ground by a few inches and looking ready to get off the doomed planet. Jyn holstered her blaster and grabbed several of the concussion grenades, arming them and tossing them in the direction of the blaster fire before pocketing the last two. They wouldn't kill the troopers, but with the base's destruction mere moments away, the effect it would have on them was effectively a death sentence. Jyn found it difficult to sympathise with her would-be killers.

As the pounding of the concussive explosions went off in rapid succession, Jyn made a run for the open ramp, only being met with inaccurate blaster fire to try and dissuade her. She smashed the button to retract the ramp and staggered toward the cockpit, suddenly aware of every pain that she had inflicted on her body over the past hour.

Her legs nearly buckled underneath her as the ship accelerated away from the towering inferno at a speed she was fairly certain was beyond standard operating limits for this particular vessel. The frame began to shake as she took her seat next to Cassian, who was busy punching buttons and setting a course to safety.

Jyn could almost feel the heat from the Death Star's explosion as she looked out the cockpit's windows at the wave of destruction that was following them. The shaking became violent and, for a moment, she wasn't sure that they were going to make it. Had they just gone through all of that to burn down halfway to the stratosphere when they could have just gone back to the beach? She really liked the beach…

Just as it felt like the shuttle would shake itself into a thousand parts around them, they burst through the atmosphere and found themselves in the eerie stillness of space. The two rebels let out nervous shouts of exclamation that they had been unaware they had been holding in as they had made their breathless escape. Jyn threw her arms around Cassian, who returned the hug through a wince. His wounds had only gotten worse since she had sent him up the ramp on the landing pad.

"Cassian, you need to lay down," said Jyn. "Give me a chance to take a look at that wound." She had learned basic battlefield medicine when she was with Saw Gerrera's unit, it might not be enough to help Cassian but it was worth a shot.

Cassian began to respond when the shuttle's radio started, "Shuttle Atherion, we have you on our radar. Good to see someone make it off the planet!" The two looked out the cockpit glass to see the remnants of the Imperial fleet that had been stationed at Scarif performing mop-up operations. No less than three Imperial-class Star Destroyers and countless TIE fighter squadrons dotted the space immediately surrounding their small, lightly armed and armored shuttle.

Captain Andor fumbled at the radio switch before Jyn clicked over, "Yes, we're quite lucky! Did anyone else make it?"

"One other shuttle is currently making its way through the debris field. We'll have contact with them shortly," came the Imperial operator over the radio. Jyn gave Cassian a pointed look and the spy began to furiously work on plotting a hyperdrive course out of the system. "Follow your present course, Shuttle Atherion, and rendezvous with the Hydra."

"Roger that, setting course to rendezvous with the Hydra," Jyn confirmed with the radio operator, clicking off of the channel before turning to Cassian. "We have until that other shuttle clears the debris field before they know we're not who we say we are. What's taking so long?"

"I've got to plot a course to a system with no ties to the Rebellion," replied Cassian, working furiously at the controls.

"What are you talking about? Just follow the fleet back to Yavin," exclaimed Jyn, growing increasingly uneasy as she looked out at the numerous TIE fighters patrolling the debris from the battle that had raged here mere moments before.

"The fleet didn't go back to Yavin," said Cassian, a touch of curtness working its way into his voice. "The capital ships would've jumped to several different, completely random points to split any potential Imperial pursuers and make sure they weren't followed back. Keeping the location of the Yavin 4 base a secret is the second highest priority for any rebels that were at this fight. Only the Death Star plans are more important."

"Shuttle Atherion, you're drifting. Return to your former course to safely rendezvous with the Hydra," squawked the Imperial officer over the radio.

"Uh, we're having some trouble on our end," said Jyn, visibly wincing as she attempted to improvise her way through the conversation. "The blast must've scrambled something in our engines. We're taking a look at it now. Will return to our former course when we get things sorted."

Several moments passed without a reply, Jyn and Cassian exchanged nervous looks. Perhaps the Imperials were discussing how to wrangle in their wayward shuttle or perhaps the other shuttle had finally radioed in and informed its superiors that they weren't who they were pretending to be. "Power down your engines, Shuttle Atherion, a TIE escort will tow you back to the Hydra soon."

That answered her question well enough, "Cassian…"

"I know," said the Captain, furiously finishing his hyperspace plot. Several squadrons of TIEs appeared to peel off of their pattern and begin an approach at their hopelessly outgunned shuttle.

"Shuttle Atherion, power down your engines or we'll be forced to disable you," the voice came in again over the radio and Jyn had to fight the urge to unholster her blaster and shoot the radio off the control panel.

"Cassian…" was all Jyn could manage, staring down the TIEs that were getting closer with each second. She began to get out of her seat to take up a position at the weapons station, for all the good that would do against the Imperial fighters. She was determined to not go down without a fight.

The opening salvo from the nearest TIEs caused the shuttle to shutter but didn't appear to do any damage. These were warning shots, meant to convince them to listen to the radio and power down their engines without a fight. It wouldn't be long before the shots would start to find their mark.

Before she could completely get out of her seat, Cassian grabbed at the hyperspace controls, "Hold on!" Jyn crashed back down as the familiar lines of hyperspace travel enveloped the cockpit. The two checked the control panel for any warning lights or distressing sounds and when everything looked to be in order the two spies jumped and threw their fists into the air in triumph, shouting in victory.

Jyn turned to Cassian and grabbed him, only to be met with a sharp wince from Andor before she recoiled and took in his injuries. He was even worse off than she had thought, his blaster wound bleeding freely at this point. A pool of blood had slowly formed around his seat. She hadn't even considered the blunt trauma that the earlier fall from the record tower had done to him. Jyn quickly moved to support him before he collapsed and helped him limp to a bench in the back.

She laid him down before heading off to look for medical supplies, quickly finding a basic trauma kit stowed away near the cockpit. She went to work applying the various gels and foams and bandages, doing her best to recall her short medical training with Saw. In the end, it would have to do until she could get him to better facilities. Jyn pulled out a needle from the kit, a moderate painkiller that would knock Cassian out cold. Being unconscious before the shock wore off and he felt everything was probably the best mercy she could give him.

"Alright Cassian, this'll pinch a bit, but you'll be out cold before you feel the worst of it," said Jyn as she quickly sterilized the spot on his arm where she was going to inject him. "For quite a while, too. I'm actually jealous, I'm exhausted."

Cassian, who had looked close to passing out on his own, grabbed Jyn's arm that was holding the needle, "I set our coordinates for an outer rim territory. The people there shouldn't be friends of the Empire, but that doesn't mean they're our friends either."

Jyn slowly pried Cassian's grip from her arm, "I'll be careful, Cassian. You have my word." She injected the painkiller into his arm and watched as the Spy closed his eyes and slipped off into oblivion. "You forget, I was with those kinds of people for a decade before you picked me up."

Jyn patted an unbandaged part of Cassian's shoulder before getting up and taking her spot in the cockpit. Her eyes slowly drifted from the zipping lines to the smear of blood by Cassian's seat. She got up and found some material to clean it off with, her thoughts going over everything that she had been through in such a short amount of time. She thought of all the people, friends, she had met and subsequently lost. Jyn's jaw and eyes set as she methodically scrubbed the floor. The Empire had taken too much from her and she was determined to not stop fighting them until she had extracted her price in their destruction.

The spot faded but refused to go away completely, forcing Jyn to toss the rag away in a bin before taking her seat again. She watched as hyperspace zoomed past the shuttle and, gradually, the exhaustion that wracked her body finally dragged her into a restless sleep.


I hope you liked it! I really enjoyed the movie and totally understood why everyone died, but part of me really wanted to see Jyn survive. I really think they could've used her to continue to explore the grittier side of the universe that you don't see in the other movies. So, that's what this fic is about! Cassian's fate is deliberately left in limbo, I'm not sure if I want him to survive yet or not. Please let me know what all you think!