Jyn stumbled to the hangar like a sleepwalker. Her cheek burned, her eyes burned, her stomach roiled. She had to stop at the toilet on her way to throw up whatever breakfast she still had left in her.
She was early to last call, but she couldn't stay in her room one moment longer. The sound of Cassian's hand on her was ringing in her ears. Whatever direction she was hoping the conversation would take, she couldn't have imagined he would hit her.
"Have you gotten your last ration?" Bodhi asked, coming up behind her. He was short a leg since Scariff, but the Alliance's doctors had given him a biomech implant that had allowed him to stay in active duty.
"I'm not hungry, thank you."
"Does it have to do with Cassian?" He sat in the copilot's seat and chewed on his rations.
"How did you know?" She asked quietly.
"He stormed in her about a minute 'fore you did, looking like he was ready to spit fire and take on the Empire himself. I figured it had to do with you, you're the only one who can get him riled up."
"What a relief." Her words sounded flat. Through the cockpit window she could see Cassian arguing with someone about something on his X-wing, already dressed in his orange jumpsuit. Jyn felt like crying again.
"You want to talk about it?" Bodhi asked, knowing the answer before she shook her head in reply.
"Just stay here with me, please." Jyn said quietly. Bodhi put his boots up on the console and continued chewing. One by one, they watched the X-wings power up and depart, Cassian's joining the end of the lineup.
Five minutes later, Jyn and Bodhi were in open space, making a race to Hoth with the Rebel Alliance's most important equipment should the attack on the death star fail.
Cassian looked out into the darkness of space and felt a thrill roll down his spine, mellowing the raw anger he felt in his chest. The tempest of emotions he felt following his fight with Jyn was unabated.
She wanted him to love her? Didn't she know what the consequences of love during a rebellion were? Didn't she realize that as much as he deeply cared for her, as much as he trusted her, love was a dream that couldn't even be spoken about until after all this was over? How long the road to over would be?
"You vital signs indicate that you are distrested." K-2SO's tinny voice came through the speakers. "Would you like to talk about it."
"No." Cassian snapped, adjusting his course.
"I noticed on my way through the hangar that Jyn Erso's vital signs are also elevated, indicating distress. Perhaps you are mutually distressed?"
"Stop talking." Cassian said.
"Your response would indicate that I am correct. May I suggest apologizing to her when you return?"
Cassian ignored him. If he knew Jyn, she wouldn't be willing to talk to him for quite some time. Guiltily, he admitted that he'd gone too far. He shouldn't have slept with her - fucked was a better word for it. He'd been neither gentle or considerate. And by god, he'd hit her.
Guilt reared its ugly head even higher as he heard the sound of his slap ring in his ears. If it was one thing his father had taught him growing up, it was treating women you cared about with respect. And he cared about Jyn. More than he liked to admit.
"K-2, keep me updated on the whereabouts of Cargo Charlie-2." Cassian growled.
"I will watch them carefully, Captain." K-2 replied. Cassian breathed slightly easier, then focused on the path ahead. The death star was a small spec on the horizon, but it would be there soon enough.
"I really don't see what they were worried about... The Empire is obviously much too distracted to pay attention to us." Bodhi said casually, cleaning under his nails as Jyn stared straight ahead, her back tense with worry.
"You should be concerned. It's a long way yet to Hoth." Jyn replied.
"What do you think they have stored in here?" Bodhi continued, putting down the short knife he'd been cleaning his nails with and hauling himself up to inspect their cargo.
"I have no clue what the Alliance would deem important enough to land on a snowball in the middle of nowhere, but obviously they set some store by it."
"Any contact from Charlie-1? Or the rest of the fleet?" He asked. He was chewing on something again.
"No, it's very odd. They must have leapt to hyperspace way ahead of us, they're nowhere near our formation. And the rest of the Cargo ships should still be dropping out of hyperspace."
"Huh. Weird." Bodhi was shuffling around, pawing through some boxes. "Well, I guess I'm glad I'm not on Echo base, if anything."
"What?" Jyn asked. "Why?"
"If they fail to take out the Death Star, Yavin is toast. Didn't you hear that part?"
"Oh." Was all she could say.
"This all looks pretty standard. Weapons, computer chips... hang on-"
The console up front gave an alarmed beep. Jyn saw a large object moving towards them on the scanner.
"Enemy ship, right on our tails!" The console beeped again. Another ship appeared right next to it. And another. She couldn't believe this. Her stomach flipped and she unconsciously let her hand settle on her abdomen. The fear she felt was unlike anything else she'd experienced.
"Bodhi, get up here!" She yelled at him, her voice cracking.
"Jyn, we've got a problem!" He yelled back, his voice mirroring her distress.
Jyn swung her chair around. Bodhi was holding up a round device that was beeping faintly.
"The rest of the crates are empty."
Jyn's stomach dropped. Bodhi was holding a locational tracker, the kind they used to track enemy cargo holds.
They'd been set up.
"Evasive action. We're going to try and lose them up ahead, and then planetside if we have to."
"Evasive action! Coming in hot!" the comlink buzzed. Voices were shouting over one another as pilots frantically tried to out-maneuver the Imperial drones. TIE fighters swept in from all sides and they'd already lost a dozen ships.
"I see an opening, I'm going in!" Luke Skywalker's voice came from the com.
"I'm on your tail." Cassian replied. Damn if he was going to let Skywalker have all the glory.
"Sir, I hope I'm not interrupting." K-2's voice came from the other channel.
"I'm busy!" Cassian snapped, rolling the X-wing over to avoid another x-wing chased by 3 TIE fighters.
"Well, sir, you asked me to keep you updated on the progress of the cargo ship Charlie-2. I'm afraid we've lost them."
Cassian nearly crashed the X-wing into a gun tower.
"What do you mean, lost them!?"
"Charlie-1 is en-route to Hoth, as planned. Contact with Charlie-2 was lost after they dropped out of hyperspace and made visual contact with an Imperial fleet."
"What's being done about it?" He snapped.
"Well, sir, that's just the thing."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing, what? K-2!"
"Nothing's being done, sir. The primary mission was to see Charlie-1 to Hoth."
Cassian's chest felt like an Imperial ship was being landed on it. Jyn and Bodhi...
"Andor, on your left!" The comm crackled to life and he turned his controls, looping around another gun tower and taking out two TIE fighters on his way. He maneuvered towards the formation following on Skywalker's heels.
"I have a shot, I think I can take it..." Luke said over the comm. He sounded too calm for a kid who had the entire Alliance riding on his shoulders.
"Luke, pull back! They're too hot." Another pilot said.
"I'll take care of it. Get those torpedoes in." Cassian said.
"3...2...1... Fire!" Luke said, closely followed by a grown of frustration. "We have to make another pass. They didn't go in!"
"I'm coming in hot, I'll make the hit on your heels, see if I can get it." Cassian dropped into the trench, blasting two TIE fighters out of his way. It was like flying in a canyon.
"We have to get out to make another pass." A pilot said. "We can't get out!"
"I'm taking my shot!" Cassian yelled.
"Andor, get your ass out fo the trench, Skywalker's supposed to make the drop!" Bravo leader said. Cassian ignored him. He saw the hole coming up, pressed the trigger...
And watched as, like Luke's, the torpedoes sailed right over.
"I missed." He said, feeling the wind come out of his sails abruptly as it had come. He missed.
"We can't get out!" Came another frantic cry, followed by static.
A loud whoop came over the comm, nearly deafening Cassian. He only knew one rebel that sounded like a heathen at any given moment. TIE fighters began falling out of the air, taken down by the Millennium Falcon's guns.
If there was one person Cassian loathed more than Luke Skywalker, who at least had the excuse of being just a kid, it was Han Solo. He'd met Solo a half dozen times over the course of his career in space, and every time had gone worse than the last. When he found out the smuggler was working for the Rebels now, he didn't believe it for an instant.
"Get them, Luke!" Cries of support began to stream through the comm as Skywalker used the Falcon's distraction to drop into the trench for another pass. Cassian followed hot on his heels.
"He's putting his computer away! What are you doing?!" Came cries of protest from the comm and Echo base.
"I'm fine. I know what I'm doing." Skywalker's voice was steady. He pressed the trigger, and the two balls of blue light shot out towards the shaft. This time they went in.
"Get the hell out!" Cassian barked, piloting the X-wing out of the trench and out into open space. The Milennium Falcon and the remaining X-wings were right on his tail.
Cassian looked over his shoulder just in time to see the Death Star explode in a ring of fire. Tears snapped to his eyes as he realized revenge had finally be served for Scariff. If only Jyn could see...
Jyn. Bodhi.
"K-2," Cassian snapped, flipping to the private channel.
"Yes, sir."
"What has happened to Charlie-2. Where are the others?"
"Charlie-2 dropped out of hyperspace on their assigned coordinates, they were alone for approximately 2.3 minutes before they were intercepted by an Imperial Fleet."
"What about the others? Did they perform a drop and rescue? Move the coordinates?"
"That's just it sir, I'm afraid that the coordinates of Charlie-2 did not match the coordinates of the rest of the formation."
"They were given wrong coordinates."
"I wish that were the case, Captain Andor, but I'm afraid that our friends were assigned those coordinates directly."
"What..." Cassian's chest constricted further. Jyn and Bodhi had been the bait, allowing the rest of the fleet to pass by. That's why nothing was being done.
"What is their current status? Is the ship still intact?"
"We lost all contact with Charlie-2 after their last transmission."
"Play it for me."
There was a burst of static as the recording loaded to his comm. Then Jyn's voice bolted from the console.
"Echo base, this is Charlie-2, do you copy? We are under attack. Taking evasive action and going-" The recording cut out to static.
"Jyn..." Cassian breathed. He couldn't- He refused to believe she would let them take Charlie-2. She had to be alive.
"Sir, the General and the Princess would like an audience with you upon your arrival." K-2's voice came.
"I'll be there." Cassian set his computer to the coordinates of Echo base and gritted his teeth.
