Author's Note: (This chapter is shocking, and I think it's amazing the way I wrote it. Just by writing it, I felt I was part of the story so much that I felt like I was actually engaging with the characters. Enjoy!)

Chapter 14: Ephemeral Nightmare

It was blurry all around. The captive couldn't make out a single shape or person in his sight; all he could see was just blurry light. Not only he could barely see clearly, but he could hear sounds also: the sounds of a woman screaming both in pain and anger, not to mention that he was also on his knees, and he could barely move. It distressed him. It worried him. He made an attempt to free himself from the wrist restraints behind his back, but it was no use. He & the unknown woman were completely helpless.

The prisoner heard the sound of a punch on the face, and a groan indicating the reaction of the woman, who turned out to be the other prisoner in the cell with him.

But why was he in the cell with her?

It became a question of curiosity to him. He couldn't remember why they were there, or how they got there. All that conquered his mind was confusion. He kept asking himself unlimited, endless questions until he heard a male voice in the room with them that both surprised him and confused him even more.

The voice sounded calm: calm, but sinister. It had a heavy accent. His voice was deep, with anger. He sounded like he was demanding things from both the prisoner and the woman. 'This didn't happen by chance,' the prisoner thought to himself. 'This was set up.'

There was a moment of silence before the prisoner heard the woman shuffling away from the captor. Apparently, she was sitting on the floor in wrist restraints too. She was as helpless as the male prisoner, and he could feel the impatience and pain already through her.

"You're going to make a choice, and you will decide right now!" The captor yelled violently at the female prisoner. However, that voice sounded familiar to the male prisoner.

"….No…..that's not going to happen! Not now, not ever!" The woman yelled back aggressively, fighting her captor verbally. Her rapid breaths could be heard from the male prisoner across the cell.

The man laughed hysterically. "Oh, really? You're just like your mother and father! Rebellious, unfaithful, stubborn, backstabbing low-lives!"

This insult about the female's parents sparked much rage in her blood that she immediately snapped back at the man so loud, at the top of her lungs. She was furious, and she felt as though she could break free from the restraints and beat the life out of the man. "DON'T YOU SAY THAT ABOUT THEM! YOU CAUSED EVERYTHING THAT THEY WENT THROUGH! EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TO THEM WAS BECAUSE THEY RAN FROM THE EMPIRE! BECAUSE THEY RAN FROM YOU!"

Surprised. That was exactly how the male prisoner felt the moment he heard the woman retaliate with her words through his still-blurry sight. But since things were heating up, and afraid that the captor was going to do something painful back to them, the male prisoner thought of injecting his own voice into the fray.

"Well, they're both dead now, orphan girl!" The captor laughed again, insulting and taunting the woman. He rubbed her chin, to which she pulled away defensively from the anger that built up in her.

"YOU BASTARD!" The female screamed with fury.

"H-Hey…w-what's going on here!?" The male captive finally spoke, much to the unknown man's surprise.

The mysterious captor chuckled and slowly approached the male prisoner. He could see him coming closer through his blurry vision, and his heart skipped beats rapidly with each step the man took towards him. "Well, well, well, look who decided to join us. Such a sleepy one, I presume. But he's good. He could make such a lovely Deathtrooper to my collection!" The man taunted, further angering the woman.

"NO! He will not!" The female defended.

The male prisoner suddenly realized something. That woman's voice….it was very, VERY familiar.

And his vision was slowly and gradually becoming clearer by the minute. He could see the captor. He was a tall, old man with gray hair. And he was wearing a white uniform with a white cape…

He also sees that the woman was wearing a gray jacket with a brown vest over it, and black pants. Her brunette hair was tied in a bun on the back of her head and fringes that hung on each side of her face. She looked very, VERY familiar to him.

"Then declare to me that you will join us! Join the Galactic Empire, and destroy those Rebel scums that you call friends!" The man demanded out of the woman.

The woman was struck. Now, her anger reached a full level.

"NEVVVVVERRRRRRRRR!" She angrily forced the rejection from her lungs through barred teeth and shook her head, with a furious-looking face. She briefly licked the small spot of blood on her bottom lips, which resulted from the physical abuse inflicted by the man in white.

The man in white chuckled upon hearing that.

The woman, with her blood mixed with her saliva in her mouth, spat her blood on the man's white uniform. This caused him to jerk back, and surged angry feelings through his veins.

"Alright then, Jyn Erso. Let's see if your partner in crime joining us will make you join, since you're as defiant as your mother was." The white-uniformed Imperial declares. He turns to the male prisoner, and he dashes towards him in a flash. The male prisoner widens his eyes in surprise and confusion.

Jyn's anger levels instantly drops, and she widens her eyes in concern as she watched. "What? Wait! What are you doing to him!? Orson! Orson Krennic!" Jyn attempted to catch his attention, but it was no use. He already grabbed ahold of the male prisoner.

Orson Krennic violently and aggressively stood the male prisoner up on his feet, then gave him one punch to the abdomen. He groaned in pain, and Jyn screamed in response and sympathy.

"Guards!" Orson yelled towards the cell door, and two of his Deathtrooper bodyguards entered the cell and took the male captive by the arms. The male prisoner was powerless: he couldn't move nor fight back. Krennic most likely drugged him with a powerful sedative that inhibited his senses. All he could do was observe, hear, and think.

'N-No…I will not…join….them.' The prisoner said to himself in his own mind. His eyes began to close slowly, for he was about to drift into a deep sleep again. 'J-Jyn…' He called out to himself silently.

Jyn's voice rang out loudly through the air.

"NO! CASSSSSIIIIIAAAAAANNNNNNN!"

After that, a very long ten seconds passed before a sound is heard in pitch black darkness. It was a deep, sinister-sounding breathing sound, and it sounded like it was a breath emitted through a mask…

Inhale.

Exhale.

Then a low-pitched, sinister voice speaks.

"Join the dark side. Together, we'll rule the galaxy…"

((()))

His eyes fly open instantly. His breaths are rapid and shaky. His heart is pounding forcefully against the inside of his chest. Cassian gasped loudly and INSTANTLY sat up in the bed, forcing the blanket off his bare, topless torso, for he is sleeping without a shirt. He hyperventilates relentlessly: inhales and exhales exchange through his lips every quarter of a second. He feels so scared at that moment. Sweat drips from his face and chest, slightly wetting the bed sheets underneath him.

Cassian just had a nightmare.

"Oh my…oh m-my…oh my gosh…." Cassian's shaky, trembling voice whispers in the room. Ignoring the sweat drenched all over his body, he looks over to his left to see Jyn sleeping on her side, topless, and her back faced to him. He sighs a big, much-needed sigh of relief before getting up from the bed, and he slips on his shirt before exiting Jyn's room in a hurry.

Unbeknownst to Cassian, Jyn was wide awake, with her eyes open staring at the wall. She did indeed wake up to Cassian's awakening, but she didn't want to alert him to her presence. After hearing Cassian leave her room, she slowly sits up, shifting both eyes towards the automatic sliding door. 'What's wrong with him!?' she thought nervously. Jyn is now greatly worried by Cassian's sudden awakening and his behavior. It did not seem normal, she concludes.

Cassian stands at a balcony overlooking the sea of trees below, and stares into the night sky. He watches as a comet flies downwards through the night, and he watches the stars twinkle with their radiance. Cassian has questions on his mind, since he is in the 'thinking posture': one hand in his pocket, the other hand grips the metal railing in front of him. Something is on his mind that is making fear conquer his emotions.

Only a few minutes allow Cassian silence all to himself until he feels a presence behind him: a presence that he knows so well already. He knows that Jyn is standing just several feet behind him. Luckily, it was only the two of them together at the balcony; the other Rebels were either asleep or on night duty in the other parts of the base.

Cassian breaks the awkward silence between them. "What?"

Jyn stares at him, stares at his back. She has on her tank top, and she has her arms crossed as well, further expressing her mood of concern for her lover. "Is that all you have to say? After what happened back there?" The worriedness can be sensed in her slightly shaky voice.

Cassian waits for a quick moment before speaking. He didn't really want to tell her anything, despite knowing that it would aggravate her. "I'm just getting some fresh air. Maybe you're sleepwalking."

Hearing Cassian's ridiculous, mediocre excuse, Jyn shakes her head side-to-side slowly and furrows her brows. "Really!? Does gasping for air desperately in bed sound like getting fresh air!?" She snaps, raising her voice just a little bit. The hint of aggravation can be sensed already in her voice.

Cassian wanted to tell her, but he didn't have the guts to. Inside, his mind was in a battle between truth and lie. So, he refused. "It's nothing…"

"Like hell, it's nothing!" Jyn snaps louder.

Cassian stays quiet for a moment.

Jyn stares at his back hard, waiting for an honest answer, but she gets impatient with him.

"Eadu." Jyn says. This makes Cassian turn his head slightly, emitting a least response for Jyn. She knows she is getting some sense into him now. Cassian's heart skips a beat when the memory of their argument in the stolen Imperial ship on Eadu over the assassination of her father, Galen Erso, flashed in his eyes.

"Don't lie to me, Cassian. You can't lie to me again. You've done it to me once, I won't let you do that again. I know you well enough already, Cassian. TELL ME, NOW. WHAT'S WRONG?" Jyn's voice is aggressive in those words, especially with the last few words. Cassian can tell that she is very serious with her concern over him. Remembering that Jyn is reckless, aggressive, and undisciplined, he guesses that he couldn't stand a chance withholding things from her.

"I'm…worried about you." Jyn declares in a softer voice this time.

Feeling some shame over making his girlfriend's worriedness and anxiety increase, he sighs heavily and turns to face her. She still has her arms crossed and her face still has the look of concern.

"I….I had a dream. A very bad dream, Jyn." Cassian finally tells Jyn the truth, to which her hearts rises to her throat, creating the feeling of a lump and tightness in there. She gets more nervous hearing what Cassian has to explain.

"T-That man we encountered at that tower on Scarif….Krennic, is his name. I saw that he was alive." Cassian says with fear in his words. He frowns slightly to accompany his fear.

Jyn widens her eyes as her heart beats a bit faster than normal upon hearing that. "Orson Krennic!? But he was killed in that Death Star blast! Everything on those beaches were wiped out that day! There's no way he could've survived that."

"Jyn, he tortures us. In the dream, he interrogates us and hurts us. We were….his prisoners." Cassian explains more, while watching Jyn's face closely to observe some sort of reaction. Jyn tilts her head to the side, curious, but still growing more concerned and anxious.

"P-P-Prisoners?" Jyn stutters in disbelief.

Cassian nods as in 'yes.'

"W-What did he say?" Jyn asks.

Cassian looks down at the floor in dismay, nervous of what he wanted to say next. Jyn observes him, and she gives him time to pluck up the courage to speak the information. "He made insults about your parents. A-And…he…..he….." Cassian struggles to say the very thing that he feared of telling Jyn about his nightmare. Jyn stares at him directly in the eye, urging him to go on.

"…..He manipulates you in joining the dark side by forcing me to join them." Cassian finally spits the truth out. He clenches his fists as tight as he can, he stands up straight, and calmly observes Jyn as he breathes smoothly to keep his nervousness at level.

And with the truth finally revealed, Jyn is shocked, and she looks down at the floor confused. She did not understand his dream either, but whatever it was, it was bothering her Captain, and it was her obligation to care and maintain his well-being. "The….d-dark…s-side?" She whispers quietly so only they hear.

A very long moment of silence occurs before passing when Cassian decides to ask a question.

"What if the dream is real, Jyn? What if what I saw is exactly something that will happen to us in the future?" Cassian asks, with anxiety at its highest in his voice. Jyn looks up at him and they make eye contact full of concern and curiosity. But Jyn decides to approach Cassian so that they were face-to-face with each other, and she places her hands on his arms to express her confidence in him.

"Cassian, it's just a dream. Dreams can't be true. It's just….involuntary imagination. Maybe it's not real." Jyn suggests.

"Do you believe so?" Cassian injects.

Jyn places her hands on his cheeks instantly, and nods confidently while gazing innocently into his brown eyes. "Yes, I do, Cassian. Real, or not real, whatever happens along the way, I'm with you all the way. I love you, Cassian. We're in this together, no matter what."

Cassian nods and reaches behind her to gently stroke her brunette hair. "I guess so. It's just a dream…"

Jyn smiles and places a gentle kiss on his cheek before wrapping an arm around him. They turn around and head along the corridor back to Jyn's quarters. "Come on. Let's get back to bed."

Although, he was still paranoid by the nightmare, Cassian greatly trusted his Sergeant, his 21-year-old lover., his ultimate partner in crime. He believed in her, and he had faith in her and himself, and in the Rebels around him. 'It's nothing to worry about then,' he thought.

Or was it?