Chapter Nine: Life After Death

The planet that Han Solo dropped Cassian and Jyn off on was a gorgeous planet that he told them was neutral in the wars. It was a planet just past the outer rim that was most known for its spice mining, but it had a beautiful lake resort that was a tourist attraction for many. The lake waters were nothing like Jyn had ever seen. As they lapped onto the shores of the beach, they stained the white sand a pale purple color. Han knew the resort manager, and it wasn't long before he had Cassian and Jyn set up in a small condo right near the beach. The only stipulation was that they help the resort manager with a thug problem, when he needed help. With no questions, the couple agreed and Han helped them move into the condo.

Cassian soon realized that life at the resort was nearly perfect. He spent his days with Jyn. Sometimes they would spend their time at the beach, other times they would walk around the resort, which was the size of a small village. In the evenings, Cassian would go to one of the nightclubs that the resort manager owned and help him with the thug problem—it wasn't a big deal, sometimes Cassian would throw someone who was too drunk out of the club. He would walk patrons to their transports. It wasn't a hard job, and he enjoyed it, for the most part. The life that he and Jyn adapted to at the Resort couldn't have been simpler. That's why he knew something was bound to go wrong.

It was almost a year after he started helping at the night club regularly that Cassian ran into his first problem. He was walking a group of men to their transports, all of them were drunk, but one kept staring at Cassian, as if he knew who Cassian was. He did know who Cassian was, but Cassian was hoping he had forgotten.

Cassian brought the men to their transports and waited patiently as they drunkenly loaded themselves into the seats. It was Cassian's job to make sure that they initiated auto-pilot and that the home address sequence was started before he left. As he watched one of the pilots type in the codes, the man who should have known Cassian leaned over to him.

"I know who you are!" The man said excitedly.

"Who am I?" Cassian asked, trying to be cool.

"You are Cassian Andor. Resistance pilot." The man said. Cassian watched the man's face, carefully. The man's eyes narrowed as they studied each other. "Aren't you?" He added, a note of doubt in his voice.

"What do you think?" Cassian asked, trying to confuse him. He knew that a way to confuse those who doubted was to keep asking questions.

"I think you are." The man said. Cassian reacted quickly when he did react. He pulled the man out of the transport. The other men shouted in anger and confusion.

"He's too drunk to drive." Cassian retorted.

"He wasn't driving." Another member of their group said. They all looked at Cassian, even the man who knew him. "Put him back in this speeder, right now!"

"No. I can't. I must take him back inside, right now. Go home without him men, or you could be arrested." Cassian lied. He was hoping they were drunk enough to believe him. They looked at the man that Cassian pulled out of the speeder. The man shrugged and encouraged his friends to leave. Slowly, still skeptical of Cassian, the men pulled away.

"How do you know who I am?" Cassian asked.

"We worked together for years. We flew so many missions in the same squadron we were practically brothers. How do you expect me not to know?" The man asked. "Everyone thinks you're dead." He added, angrily.

"Everyone is supposed to think I'm dead. I'm wanted by the Empire." Cassian explained. "I moved here to keep out of their way."

"No one survived the battle of Scarif." The man said.

"I did. So, did a woman called Jyn. We live here now, in hiding."

"I don't understand." The man laughed.

"I don't either, really. Everything happened so quickly. We came so close to death and then I used a teleportation system to get us off Scarif, and the next thing I knew I was in a hospital room aboard a ship, and then I met Princess Leia. I lived on a deserted planet for a while, then I lived here. Jyn has been with me ever since we got off Scarif." Cassian explained, quickly. He led the man toward the resort hotel. "Come upstairs, we'll talk." Cassian said. Cassian knew it was dangerous, but he brought the man upstairs. He knew that if the man talked, at all, he and Jyn could be on the run again.

As Cassian reached the floor of their condo, he reflected on how much had changed in the year that had gone by. He and Jyn were together now, officially, as she called it, and had been for quite some time. They decided on that when she brought home a man from the resort cantina, and Cassian became insanely jealous. He declared his love for her, and she admitted that her feels for him were just as strong. After that they only saw each other. Cassian loved it.

Jyn was sitting on the couch in the living room when Cassian came home. It was earlier than she was expecting him. She could sense that he wasn't alone before he even opened the door and she was halfway to the kitchen when they came in.

"Jyn, I brought a guest." Cassian said, walking through the living room.

"I know. I'm making coffee. Make yourself comfortable in the living room." Jyn said. She had decided to attempt to become more domestic. She tried to make dinner for Cassian every night. She redecorated the condo to make it more of a home. Sometimes she even dressed up, like a housewife.

"Who is your friend?" Jyn asked, bringing the carafe of coffee into the living room. She sat it on the coffee table and retrieved three mugs from the china cabinet.

"This is Crispin. We were in the resistance together." Cassian said.

"And now you're here!" Jyn feigned excitement. She was anything but excited about their guest. Guests meant that people knew they were alive, and Jyn knew what that meant.

"Yes. I thought catching up would be nice." Cassian said. He stood up and walked around the table to Jyn. "And I thought we could threaten him with silence." Cassian whispered, hoarsely in her ear. Jyn smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"That's a brilliant idea." She said out loud. "Crispin, Cassian tells me that you met at the cantina down by the beach." Jyn said.

For a long time, Jyn and Cassian talked with Crispin. Cassian filled Crispin in on everything he had been through since the day on Scarif, when the message came through to the pilots that Cassian had been a victim of the destruction. Crispin told him that, in honor of him, a squadron was named after him. The squadron frequently flew training missions over the airspace of what should have been Scarif. Finally, when they were finished talking for the night, Cassian walked Crispin to the door. He vowed to keep Cassian's secret. No threats were necessary.

"So this is what it's like to live after everyone else thinks you're dead." Crispin mused as he said good bye to his old friend.

"And I couldn't be happier." Cassian said. "I've made a good life, even after my death."

Cassian shook hands with his old friend one final time and then shut the door. He sighed, it was late and he was tired, but his night wasn't over. He walked to the bedroom where he found Jyn. In another world, in another life, she might have been getting ready for bed, or even lying on the bedspread waiting for him to join her. She might have already been asleep. In this life, however, she had a trunk open, in middle of the floor. She was throwing clothes, and shoes, and personal belongings into the trunk. Without hesitation, Cassian joined her. He piled shirts and pants on top of each other and tossed them into the trunk. He took special care with a few framed pictures that were around the room, each picture was of him and Jyn, and now they were buried under clothes.

"How long do we have?" Jyn asked.

"An hour, maybe two, if we're lucky. If I know Crispin, he's going to radio in as soon as he gets back to his transport." Cassian said. Together they ripped the bedspread off the mattress and stuffed it into the trunk. They forced the lid closed and then Cassian put a small black device on it. It was a device that made carrying it much easier. The trunk and everything it became weightless, a true piece of magic for frequent travelers. Cassian had bought it from a man in the cantina months before.

"Where are, we going to go?" Jyn asked.

"We'll figure it out." Cassian reassured her. "Life after death will be spent running from those who are still alive." He added, cryptically. He and Jyn carried the trunk out to the living room, and then out the door. Cassian reached up and turned the lights off as they left the condo for the last time.