"Illumination Base Selvaris, this is BC-714 Transport Optimist notifying our arrival." Luke Skywalker released the talk button from the transceiver. Through the viewport, the lovely colors of Selvaris approached.
"Tell me," Chirrut said quietly to Baze. "Tell me what you see."
"Lots of green. Lots of blue," Baze replied with a shrug. His voice was unemotional, but Jyn watched as he turned his face down to Chirrut, and the man's usually stern face softened. "I think you'll like it just fine."
"I see a planet," noted K-2SO dryly, "but that hasn't necessarily meant anything good the last few times it's happened."
"Jyn," Leia said from her left, and as Jyn turned, she noticed how the daughter of Anakin Skywalker's face had gone a bit pale. "My father is doing everything he can to find Luke and me in the Force. He and I won't be able to stay here for very long."
"What?" Cassian said from beside Jyn. "You're going to leave us stranded here?"
"Not stranded," Luke said over his shoulder in a firm voice. "They have all kinds of ships here. But Leia and I can only reliably keep the President out for so long."
"Well, where are you going to go?" Jyn asked as the ship descended closer to the surface of the jungle planet before them. Leia shrugged and said,
"We'll probably resupply and make some random hyperspace runs outside the channels," she said, "checking in with Selvaris periodically… until a mission is devised."
"A mission," Bodhi repeated from the pilot's seat. "And who's going to come up with this mission?"
"Yoda, of course," said Chirrut Imwe with a serene sort of confidence. "And Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"Oh, of course," K-2 said in a snide tone.
Jyn just watched then as the splotches of emerald green morphed more clearly into forest cover through the viewport. She gulped hard and squeezed briefly at Cassian's hand as she whispered,
"Make one life feel like a hundred."
Cassian squeezed back and then released her hand, for the both of them had to hold fast to the support rail for landing. Luke and Bodhi murmured to one another as they guided the transport onto a long, wide ferroconcrete strip. The landing gear bumped and thudded a little as the transport made contact with the planet. A dizzy feeling came over Jyn as the transport settled on the ground; after a month in hyperspace, it was an odd feeling to be so nearly stationary.
The transport's running equipment came to a smooth, quiet stop, and as Luke Skywalker unfastened his bindings, he turned round from his seat and said, "Welcome to Wild Space."
"Here is our training facility," said the grey-haired Obi-Wan Kenobi, his brown robe fluttering as he gestured grandly to his right. "We use it to maintain our skills in hand-to-hand combat, as well as lightsaber combat."
"Lightsabers," breathed Chirrut, and Obi-Wan Kenobi smiled a little. He glanced over his shoulder to Luke Skywalker and noted,
"The Force has a unique place within this one."
Luke nodded. "I think so, Master."
Master . It seemed strange to Jyn that Luke kept referring to Obi-Wan Kenobi like that. Had he secretly been training as a Jedi, outside the influence or suspicion of his powerful father? Leia didn't seem nearly as familiar with this Jedi Temple, nor with the Jedi inside of it, as did her brother.
"This is the canteen," Kenobi said, and on their left they passed a stone-walled dining area, where a curious-looking Bith and a white-haired human male sat at a table. In the corridor, they passed a female Togruta who shot them a strange glance for a moment before politely nodding to Kenobi.
"Master Kenobi," Jyn said cautiously, "may I ask exactly what sort of resistance movement you're running from this base?"
Kenobi stopped then, turning round slowly and giving Jyn a very meaningful look. He folded his hands beneath the sleeves of his robes and said, "I'm sure the Skywalkers told you about the vision Master Yoda and I shared years ago. The one that haunts us still."
Jyn nodded, and beside her Cassian shifted uneasily on his feet. But Kenobi seemed to pay no heed to the discomfort of the new arrivals. He moved his fingers to his grey beard and stroked a little, and he said,
"We have not, admittedly, been able to front a terribly effective opposition to the established Confederation for some time now. Not since the majority of our Clone Troopers were destroyed. I'm sure that was all explained to you, too. But there is hope yet for those living under Anakin's boot of power, and that is something I will let Master Yoda explain to you. He's just through here, if you'll follow me."
He led the way down a smooth beige corridor with peaceful lighting, until he came to a door at the end. He pressed his hand to a scanner there, and when the door slid open, Jyn was surprised to see a small green alien who could not have reached higher than her knee.
"Master Yoda," Chirrut breathed, as though he could sense the alien's presence in the meeting room they had entered.
"Unique in the Force, this one is," Yoda said in a strange little croak, and Kenobi nodded.
"Master Yoda, allow me to introduce -"
"Baze Malbus - the assassin. Bodhi Rook - the apostate. K-2SO - the towering droid. Chirrut Imwe - the visionary." Yoda nodded at each of them in turn. Then he turned to Jyn and Cassian, and his ancient-looking eyes crinkled a bit. "Cassian Andor - the lover. And Jyn Erso."
"The woman with kyber near her heart," Jyn recited, bringing her crystal pendant from beneath her tunic. "We are ghosts."
"Saviors," Yoda nodded. He looked at the group and then to Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he noted to his fellow Jedi, "Individually talented, each of them are. Powerful alone, each of them are. But together… unstoppable, they may be, for the cause of the galaxy."
"Together, we are Rogue One," Cassian said firmly to Yoda. The little green alien looked up, and Cassian took a steadying breath. "We weren't together until just a little while before our deaths. But together we captured and transmitted plans for a superweapon."
"The superweapon that killed you all," Leia clarified, but Yoda chided her,
"Martyrs for the galaxy, they have already been. Back into Wild Space, you and young Luke Skywalker must go."
Leia nodded and Luke said to Obi-Wan Kenobi, "We have been doing all we can to keep him out. I'm not sure what else we could do, Master, short of -"
"No, Luke." Kenobi shook his head firmly. "There's no martyrdom in that , you understand? The two of you wander around hyperspace for a while. Meditate. Keep working on deepening your meditation."
"And if he finds us?" Leia asked cautiously. Yoda's face darkened, and the little alien insisted,
"Allow him to find this place, you must not. Contact us you will, Captain, in two weeks' time."
"What will have happened in two weeks?" asked Baze, and Chirrut smiled as he said,
"By then, we'll have a plan."
"A plan to do what? " demanded Bodhi.
"Unique in the Force, this one is," Yoda said again, gesturing to Chirrut. "A vessel for the Force he is. A new sort of warfare, his powers enable."
"With the strength of the Jedi here, and with the individual abilities you all possess, there is hope for an ambush," Obi-Wan Kenobi said. "There are senators in waiting, on hold until the old republic can be restored. But to do that…"
"My father has to be removed," Leia said firmly, "and the people must be made aware of why his rule is tyranny. I trust, Master Kenobi, that the records I've been sending are safe here?"
"Of course, Captain." Kenobi bowed his head and then clarified to the others, "We have documented footage of Anakin Skywalker ordering slaughters, massacres, economic interventions to manipulate his subjects… and, of course, all of those deeds being carried out."
"So you'll use propaganda - and assassination - to replace the government of a tyrant?" Jyn asked incredulously. "How does that make you any better than him?"
"Remember what I told you, Jyn?" Cassian said quietly from beside her. "We'd all done very questionable things for the Rebel Alliance. Do you not think this might be much the same? None of it is black and white. It's all gray, isn't it?"
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes," Chirrut pronounced matter-of-factly, earning him a smile of approval from Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"So Luke and I will go," Leia said, "aboard the transport. We'll check back in two weeks. If you haven't heard from us by then… assume he's found us in the Force."
"Let us hope with all we are that that does not occur," Kenobi said.
Later that evening, the rag-tag group that had once gone by the call sign Rogue One sat in the canteen. They were eating simple meals of grain, meat, and vegetables without much flavor or offense. K-2SO loomed over them all, much too big for his chair, and he said,
"That Rodian over there has been staring for a half hour."
Jyn chuckled a little as she sipped at her muja juice. She lowered her voice and said to the others, "So. What do we do now? We just wait until someone plugs us into military plans?"
"It seems to me there were no military plans before we got here," Baze said cautiously. "This all feels very haphazard."
"Does it matter?" Bodhi demanded, and when the others looked at him, K-2 said,
"He's right. You're all just corpses that have been reanimated in another dimension."
"Thanks, Kay-Tu," Cassian said. They all ate in silence for a long moment, and then Chirrut asked,
"So… when's the wedding?"
Jyn nearly choked on her food, and K-2 let out a mechanical gasp. Cassian set his metal fork down and shot an almost apologetic glance to Bodhi and Baze.
"It's nothing formal," he insisted. Jyn felt her cheeks go very hot, and she swigged more muja juice before she said,
"Don't be expecting me to walk down any aisles or anything. Cassian and I will take care of it… erm, as soon as we have someone to take care of it for us."
"Am I mistaken?" K-2 said crisply. "At first, I thought we were discussing an engagement, but you make it seem more like an infestation of some kind, Jyn Erso."
"It's an engagement," Cassian assured the droid, and Bodhi managed to say,
"Congratulations, man! And Jyn! I guess we should have seen that coming, huh?"
"I can marry you," Chirrut insisted, and Baze rolled his eyes so hard they looked like they would fall out of his skull.
"Guardians of the Whills are only authorized to carry out marriage ceremonies on Jedha. You know that, Chirrut."
"Wait." Jyn reached for Cassian's hand beneath the table and met his eyes. He nodded once, and she said to Chirrut, "Right. If you'll do it for us, then let's do it tonight. In the barracks. All of us, and no one else."
"We're all marrying each other?" K-2 asked incredulously, and Bodhi smacked the droid's arm with the back of his hand to chastise him. That seemed to hurt Bodhi much more than it had hurt K-2, and Bodhi hissed as he said,
"She means she just wants us all there, Kay-Tu. Just us reanimated corpses from another dimension. And you, I guess."
"Yes." Jyn nodded, and Cassian chuckled under his breath.
"Seems fitting," he said. "The lover and the woman with kyber near her heart, married in the Jedi Temple by the visionary."
"While the assassin, the towering droid, and the apostate stand watch," Baze nodded. "Well, if that's what you want."
"It's what they want," Chirrut said confidently, sipping his muja juice. "In two hours, then."
Illumination Base Selvaris
Jyn stared at herself in the mirror and considered her reflection for a moment. She had washed up and changed into fresh clothes - the dark turquoise leggings and overdress she'd bought in Cloud City. They were the nicest clothes she had, the nicest ones she'd ever had, and so she'd put them on. She'd combed her hair out straight and slick, and she'd dabbed on the little samples of lip and cheek stain that she'd been handed in the shopping gallery on Bespin. She looked as good as she was ever wont to do, Jyn thought, so now she might as well go and get married.
As she made her way down the beige stone corridor toward the room where Cassian was allegedly waiting with the others, she pondered something. Most brides probably had their parents present at their weddings, and extended families and the lot. Jyn's only recent connection to her parents had been that dream aboard the transport, when her father and mother had both insisted that she stay with Cassian. Now Jyn wrapped her fingers around the kyber crystal her mother had given her all those years ago.
The woman with kyber near her heart. The lover.
Jyn knocked on the thick wooden door at the end of the hallway, and when it swung open, the crowded room was strangely quiet. Baze stood in the threshold, smirking a little as he said quietly over his shoulder,
"Yep. She dressed up."
Behind Baze, K-2 held out his hand to Bodhi and said, "That will be fifty credits. Thank you."
Cassian rolled his eyes and pushed Baze aside, pulling Jyn into the room and closing the door behind her. She tried to scowl at the men in the two-bunk, simple room where Baze and Chirrut had taken up residence. She crossed her arms over her fine turquoise overdress and insisted,
"I'm not dressed up. These are just clothes I bought on Bespin. And, anyway, Kay-Tu and Bodhi, what do you think you're doing betting on what I'll wear?"
"Can we just get on to the good part of things here?" Cassian dragged the pad of his thumb over the inside of Jyn's wrist, which made her shiver a little.
"You two stand in the middle," Chirrut said in a rather bossy tone. "Everyone else… move."
The thick window behind K-2 let in the last light of the evening, but the lamps on the wall gave enough glow for everyone to see. Jyn walked with Cassian into the space between the bunks and the 'fresher, feeling rather awkward at the way Baze, K-2, and Bodhi were watching. She sighed, her breath shaking, and she asked,
"Chirrut, have you ever actually married anyone before?"
Baze scoffed. "Dozens of times he's done it. On Jedha. It's one of his life's little joys, so thank you both."
Cassian shrugged. "Happy to provide."
Chirrut held up his hand to settle the room. Everyone got quiet and a bit more still, and the corners of Chirrut's mouth turned up as he said, "Today we witness the complete and joyful unification of Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso. Today, before us, their most dedicated friends, they pledge to one another their speech, action, thought, and body."
"Could have done without that last bit. I've seen enough of that already," K-2SO said down to Bodhi, in a voice much too loud for the occasion. Still, Jyn smiled a little, even as Cassian shot the droid a dirty glare. Chirrut waited patiently and continued,
"Jyn and Cassian have already lived and died together once. So whatever happens now is of little consequence; they are forever linked just as inextricably as they were on that beach on Scarif."
Jyn's eyes seared with sudden, unexpected emotion. She seized Cassian's hand and remembered what her mother had said in her dream. Do not ever let that one go, Jyn.
Chirrut took a step toward Jyn and Cassian and lifted their linked hands, his smile widening a bit as he admitted, "See? I was about to tell you to join hands, but you have already done it. Jyn, repeat after me, all right?"
"All right." Jyn nodded and turned her eyes to Cassian. Suddenly, in his dark gaze, she saw everything. She saw the way he hadn't trusted her, nor her him, when they had first met. She saw the way that lack of trust had morphed and twisted into a deep friendship and something more, just on the cusp of death. She could feel him, smell him, taste him, even here just staring at him, and Jyn's knees went a bit weak. Chirrut spoke then, and Jyn tried her best to keep track of his words.
"I, Jyn Erso, take you, Cassian Andor, to be my husband and partner."
Jyn gulped through the knot in her throat, and when she felt Cassian squeeze her hand a little, saw the way he dug his teeth into his lip, she murmured,
"I, Jyn Erso, take you, Cassian Andor, to be my husband and partner."
"I will trust and honor you through joy and sorrow," Chirrut said, and Jyn repeated the words. Chirrut continued, "Whatever may come, I will always be beside you. I am your constant, and you are mine."
Jyn froze at that. Her face jerked to Chirrut and then back to Cassian, who seemed a bit perplexed, as well. Galen Erso had said those words to Jyn in her dream, and she had repeated them to Cassian after he'd proposed. Now Chirrut spoke the words, and Jyn was rendered mute.
"If she waits another three seconds to speak, the odds of this carrying through are very, very small," said K-2 from the edge of the room. Bodhi shushed him, but Jyn snapped to rights and met Cassian's eyes as she nodded. She licked her lips and said,
"Whatever may come, I will always be beside you. I am your constant, and you are mine."
Cassian repeated all the same words that Jyn had done, with substitutions where it made sense. Jyn focused on the motion of his lips, on the flash in his eyes, on the feel of his hand in hers. Suddenly she could feel Chirrut's hand on her shoulder, and she watched as he put his other hand on Cassian. He lowered his head and chanted,
"They are one with the Force, and the Force is with them. They are one with the Force, and the Force is with them. They are one with the Force, and the Force is with them." He raised his milky eyes and smiled crookedly. "Jyn and Cassian, do you both consent now to be bound as husband and wife?"
Jyn nodded. "I do."
Cassian's eyes glistened, and he said almost proudly. "I do."
"Then, as a Guardian of the Whill and a vessel of the Force, I pronounce you married, now and forever, from one corner of the galaxy to the other. Go on and kiss, then."
He stepped back, and Jyn smirked at the others. She looked at Baze and Bodhi and finally K-2, and she insisted, "Everybody look away."
"Not a chance," Baze teased. Jyn huffed and turned back to Cassian, but before she could do anything, he'd seized her cheeks in his hands and brought his lips to hers. Jyn squealed at the power behind his kiss, surprising for a cramped room with so little privacy. When he pulled away, she gave him a look halfway between a taunt and a threat.
"I suppose congratulations are in order," said K-2, "but may I rather firmly request that you two make your exit to your own room now?"
Jyn rolled her eyes. "Thank you. All of you," she said, and Cassian added,
"Wouldn't have had it any other way."
"And we were all honored to be here," Bodhi insisted. "Really. But… yeah. Go. To your room. Just… go on."
"Goodbye," Baze said, opening the door and gesturing over the threshold. Jyn felt her cheeks go hot as she led Cassian through the doorway. He was still thanking people over his shoulder as the door slammed shut. Jyn released his hand only so that she could open the door to the room where she'd gotten ready, the only barracks chamber with a double bed. Down the corridor, Jyn watched as the female Togruta she'd seen earlier passed, shooting them a glance that was a little too knowing. Jyn pushed the door open and walked quickly inside, refusing just now to remember where they were and who else was here.
None of it mattered now, anyway. Not now that she was Cassian's wife. She heard the door shut behind Cassian, and she stared at her hands, realizing how badly they were shaking.
"I love you," she whispered, and Cassian came behind her and snared his arms around her shoulders. He touched his lips to her neck and whispered,
"And I love you. More than you could ever know."
"I think I know." Jyn turned around and swallowed hard. "Those words, Cassian. I am your constant, and you are mine . Do you know where I first heard them?"
"No," he admitted, "but I first heard them from you on the transport."
"And I heard them from my father, in a dream that I had just before you proposed marriage to me." Jyn reached for Cassian's scruffy cheeks and whispered, "All of this supernatural nonsense has my head spinning, Cassian. Bring me back to the ground, will you?"
"Be your constant?" he prompted, and when Jyn tipped her head at him, he gave a conciliatory nod and asked, "Would you please take your clothes off so that I'm not tempted to rip them off of you?"
"That's much better," Jyn said. She pulled her overdress off slowly, edging the hem up and sliding it over her head. She unlatched her loose chest wrap and slid her leggings down as she kicked off her shoes. She tossed the entire pile in the corner and began unfastening the embroidered white tunic he'd bought for himself on Bespin. She pushed it over his shoulders and heard his breath hitch a little in his throat as it fell to the ground.
Jyn's heart thumped in her chest when she lowered her hand and grazed her fingers over his leggings. She felt him going hard beneath her touch, and when his own hand nudged between her legs, she was already a bit wet. She whined a little when his fingers dragged around the outside of her womanhood, and his voice seemed a bit helpless as he told her,
"I won't last long tonight, Jyn. I want you too badly. But I'll take you again before the morning… and then in the morning… and then tomorrow night, and -"
"Cassian." Jyn's fingers nimbly worked their way into the waistband of his leggings, edging them down and pulling out his firm length. "We have all the time you could imagine, or none of it. It doesn't matter, does it? Let's just make love now, as husband and wife? All right?"
"All right." Cassian shoved his leggings the rest of the way down, and suddenly Jyn found herself being pushed onto the too-narrow, hard bed. She flopped rather ungracefully, half-on and half-off with her knees bent over the edge of the bed. Cassian loomed over her, his cock grazing Jyn's belly as his palms ran up her ribcage and over her breasts. He leaned down to kiss her, his fingers linking with hers above her head as he somehow managed to line up his cock correctly.
When he pushed into her, Jyn felt like everything had come together, a puzzle finally completed, stars finally aligned. She tried to moan against his mouth as he thrust, but she couldn't. She was lost in him. All she could do was squeeze at his hands and relish the sensation of being filled by him. She ignored the relentless banging of the rickety bed as Cassian pumped himself into her. She knew people could probably hear, or worse yet, sense , what was happening in this room. She couldn't care. All she could do was feel him.
It lasted a minute or an hour. She had no idea. In and out, in and out in steady, deep thrusts that were mirrored by the rhythm of their kisses and their breaths. His hands went to her hips every now and then, and sometimes she touched his chest, but they always found their way back to linking fingers above Jyn's head. When she came, in a subtle but powerful detonation of warmth and pleasure, Jyn ripped her mouth from Cassian's and whispered,
"I love you."
" Jyn ." Cassian buried himself within her, losing himself just a moment later as he burrowed his face in the halo of her hair. She felt his lips on the skin beneath her ear as he murmured, "My everything."
"So," said K-2SO the next morning at breakfast, "Do I even need to ask how -"
"Don't, Kay-Tu," Cassian said sharply. "Just… don't."
"Anyway," Bodhi said lightly, as Jyn and Cassian took their seats, "The whole lot of us are supposed to meet with Master Yoda and Master Kenobi in an hour. And a few others."
"For what purpose?" Cassian asked, and Baze said in a grave tone,
"So they can assess our skills and what advantages we might bring to their rebellion."
Jyn looked around the Jedi base and scoffed a little. "They think they know rebellion?" she asked, remembering the battle on Scarif and everything that had come before it. "They haven't seen anything yet. Just wait until they meet us."
"Fulfillers of the prophecy, indeed," Cassian said in a sly voice. He tipped his head and looked straight at K-2 as he said, "I'm the lover."
"And I'm the towering droid," K-2 replied sharply. "The wording wasn't any of our choice."
"I don't mind mine," Baze shrugged. "The assassin. At least it's accurate."
"I quite like mine," Bodhi said, setting down his muja muffin. "The apostate. I'll wear it like a badge of honor."
"The visionary," Chirrut said reverently. "I would not ask to be called anything else."
Jyn reached for the pendant around her neck. The woman with kyber near her heart. "We may be ghosts," she told the others, "and we may be saviors. Who knows. But we know, better than anyone else, what we really are."
Cassian nodded. "Rebels."
llumination Base Selvaris
"So. I assume introductions are in order," said Obi-Wan Kenobi from where he sat beside Master Yoda. The meeting room was really more of a pleasant courtyard filled with tropical flowering plants and shading palms. K-2SO was recharging, but Jyn thought perhaps his absence was a benefit for a meeting such as this. The assembled were seated on rather plush stools that seemed waterproof, and Jyn had to confess she felt more at ease here at the Jedi Temple than she had felt anywhere else in this odd permutation. Kenobi touched his chest and said,
"I'll begin. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master and former General for the Republic during the Clone Wars. I have been raised as a Jedi from infancy. I studied under Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and my own Padawan learner was Anakin Skywalker."
Jyn's mouth fell open, and she turned in shock to Cassian, who said in disbelief, "You taught… him ?"
Kenobi nodded calmly, and Yoda cut in,
"Too old to begin training, Skywalker probably was, when found he was on Tatooine. Drawn to the Dark Side from the beginning, he was."
"Then why did you train him?" Jyn demanded, and Yoda's eyes narrowed.
"Perfect vision, none of us have," he declared. "His true path, we did not foresee."
"By the way," Obi-Wan Kenobi said, "This is Grand Master Yoda, the elder and most revered member of the Jedi High Council. Or what remains of it, anyway. I'm not sure how the Clone Wars ended in your… where you're from."
"Order 66 was put into place, it is said," Chirru declared from where he sat. The others went hush, and Chirrut continued, "The clone troopers had been programmed to turn on the Jedi who ordered their creation. That was rumor. The truth died with the Jedi."
Kenobi and Yoda exchanged a meaningful look, and Kenobi said, "Order 66 was mostly foiled before it could occur. A biochip in a clone trooper malfunctioned, and those of us Jedi who learned about the conspiracy fled to Wild Space before we could be killed. We have no idea if any clones are still alive. All we know is that Count Dooku, and then Anakin Skywalker, have spent decades undermining every political justice enacted under the Republic. We know they have implemented a regime of physical terror, economic tyranny, and discrimination against certain species."
"When is the last time any of your resistance efforts against Anakin Skywalker resulted in something measurable?" Baze Malbus asked, and Yoda said in his little croak,
"Seven years ago, to Coruscant a group was sent. Fifty Jedi, to the greatest of the temples went. Expelled they were, by Anakin Skywalker, from Coruscant, when attempts to ameliorate his politics they made."
"And did that group come back?" Jyn asked. Kenobi sighed and shook his head.
"We have not had the manpower, nor the firepower, for any real military efforts in a good long while," he admitted, "and… Anakin has never been terribly open to diplomacy. Now. You all know about the prophecy by now. No need to dwell on it. If you would… tell us a bit about yourselves. In your own words."
Jyn snorted awkwardly, thinking that this felt like the worst of childhood icebreakers, but when the others looked to her, she shrugged and said, "My name is Jyn Erso. I am married to Cassian Andor. I am the daughter of Lyra and Galen Erso; my father was compelled to help create the superweapon that destroyed all of us in our original existence. From a young age, I was made to fend for myself, a situation about which I can make little complaint, since it taught me a good many survival tactics."
"Except how to survive a shockwave from the Death Star," Cassian said from beside her, and Jyn couldn't help but smirk as she nodded.
"Except for that. So… that's me. That's Jyn."
Obi-Wan Kenobi looked quite serious as he declared, "I am very pleased to meet you, Jyn Erso. And your husband?"
Cassian raised his eyebrows. "I am Cassian Andor. I was born on Fest, where my very first combat consisted of throwing things at Clone Troopers."
Even Baze and Bodhi looked surprised at that, but Cassian barrelled on.
"From a young age, I have served as intelligence for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. We were fighting against an Empire that doesn't exist here, apparently, but your tyranny and ours bear all the same expressions."
"A spy, you were," Yoda nodded. "A spy you shall be again, your shrewd wife by your side. If, that is, agree to serve our cause you will."
"I'm not sure how surreptitious Cassian and I can possibly be," Jyn balked. "Anakin Skywalker knows both our faces."
"Surprised, you might be," Yoda said, "about how invisible one may become with determination."
That made Jyn's stomach turn a little, but Cassian seemed unaffected by the words. Obi-Wan Kenobi turned his pale eyes to Bodhi and said in a warm tone,
"You are the pilot who defected. Is that right?"
Bodhi visibly gulped and nodded. "Bodhi Rook. I trained for two years to become an Imperial pilot, but I… I failed the starfighter exams. I transported goods on cargo shuttles. Saw the Empire for what it was and defected to the Rebel Alliance. With the help of Galen Erso."
"Defect you did, perhaps, for the chance to fly a starfighter. Hmm?" Yoda's words were accusatory, but his eyes and his tone were clearly a bit playful. Bodhi smiled sadly and tapped his fingers together.
"I never did fly one," he admitted. "Died before I got the chance. Or came over here. Whatever happened."
"Perhaps with a bit of proper training, there is yet a starfighter pilot inside of you," Obi-Wan Kenobi declared. "It just so happens we have quite a few starfighters lying around this place, and I would be willing to tutor you. We could use a fearless pilot with nothing to lose."
Bodhi's black eyes glittered with excitement, and he nodded fervently. "Yeah. All right. That sounds… that'll be good, then."
"And you… Baze Malbus." Yoda turned his wizened green face to Baze and said, "Killed you have, many times over, with a repeating cannon. In my mind I see it. Strapped to you for years it was, another arm of sorts. How do you fight, Baze Malbus, when such a weapon you have not?"
"Given the right motivation, I can fight with anything or with nothing," Baze declared. His eyes flicked for a microsecond to Chirrut, but Jyn knew the Jedi would catch it. Sure enough, half of Kenobi's mouth quirked up, and he said,
"And the motivation beside you. The visionary. How does he fight, Baze Malbus?"
Now Baze looked fully at Chirrut, and his face softened a little. Chirrut's milky eyes turned to Baze, who said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice,
"Chirrut fights with words. With a staff, with a lightbow, with his hearing and with something I can not feel or sense. Who knows? Who cares? Chirrut fights. That's all."
"And have you ever fought with a lightsaber, Chirrut Îmwe?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asked. Chirrut shook his head and tipped his chin up just a little as he said,
"The tradition and skill of making lightsabers died with the last of the Jedi."
"Oh, well… lucky we have so many Jedi about here, then," Kenobi quipped. He looked straight at Jyn as his dry smile disappeared. "If only there were kyber crystals scattered about this planet the way starfighters are."
Jyn's hand went to her neck, and she pulled her kyber crystal pendant from under her tunic. She dragged her thumb over the crystal and shut her eyes, and she asked,
"Is this what my mother meant when she told me to trust the Force?"
"Defeat Anakin Skywalker, that kyber crystal will, in the hands of Chirrut Îmwe," Yoda said confidently.
"What, in a duel?" Baze asked nervously, and when Jyn opened her eyes, she could see Baze glaring from Obi-Wan Kenobi to Yoda and back. Kenobi nodded slowly.
"Many of the Jedi Masters have seen it. It is uncertain; nothing is ever really certain, but the number of visions since you arrived is remarkable. That kyber crystal, made into a lightsaber and driven by Chirrut Îmwe into Skywalker himself… that may be the key to bringing justice to the galaxy again."
"Jyn, you don't have to…" Cassian shook his head vigorously, but Jyn had already made up her mind. She yanked hard at the tie that had kept the crystal round her neck through time and space. Her fingers shook as she reached to her right, to where Chirrut sat, and pried open his fingers.
"Jyn…" Chirrut said, sounding a bit sad, but Jyn closed his fingers around the crystal and nodded firmly.
"Now I finally understand why she put it round my neck all those years ago," Jyn declared. "Do with it what you will. Let justice be restored."
