Cuia

Their small group had arrived at the gates under stealth, but it wasn't even close to even midday. Once they had arrived within a half of a mile between the gates, Terri stopped and pointed, her eyes looked shocked with her mouth agape.

Cuia stopped walking, facing her. "What?"

She smiled, then ran ahead, tackling a white figure. "You're alive!"

Cuia rubbed his eyes. "Jyn?"

The figure lifted his hood while underneath Terri's hug, revealing Jyn's face. "Uh, yep."

"Jyn!" Jake bellowed. "What have I told you about going alone?"

Jyn gave him a blank stare, basically saying 'wot' with his face.

"Where's Crusoe?" Cuia asked immediately.

Jyn sat up. "Taken." He mumbled grimly.

"What do you mean, taken?" Cuia demanded.

Jyn put on a straight face. "I mean he was compromised. Caught. Discovered. Revealed. Captured."

Jyn then explained everything that had occurred with him and Crusoe, ending on him having survived due to his recovery unit.

Jyn glared in the direction of the palace, which peeked out over the treeline. "He's in there somewhere, and I feel like I could have done something."

Jake sighed. "More of a reason to bust in, I guess." he muttered, unslinging his shotgun.

Terri stood up, looking alot fiercer than she'd looked a second ago when she was embracing Jyn. "We need to help him." she growled. "If they hurt him, I swear to Kluex I'll rip out their throat and shove it back down their mouth."

Hmm. The ship has sailed.

Jyn stood up, looking oddly distracted, almost like he was listening to someone, although nobody was talking.

Well, he must be thinking about something rather serious. Or he's 'deep in thought', whatever that is.

"Okay then, it's settled. We're going now. If what Crusoe said was correct, there should be an arena battle going on soon. And if Leighton's as sick as we think, he put Crusoe in the arena." Jake said, looking ahead down a lightly-worn trail.

"Yeah, but how are we going to get in there without being, gee, I don't know, getting killed and eaten, maybe not in that order?" Jyn inquired, a stern look forming on his face.

Jake smiled under his visor. "I think I got something for that."

"Am I going to burst into a million pieces if I use this?" Cuia asked suspiciously, bouncing a silver grenade-looking object in his talons.

Jake laughed, his external radio making it sound almost robotic. "No. They warrant teleportation. This'll get us into the arena. But you all have to stand close, I have only six of these things, and I want to conserve as much of them as possible."

Jyn pulled his hood down. "In case you forgot Jake, those things are the whole reason we're here to deal with this." he pointed out accusingly.

Jake chuckled. "Yep. Nathan, you've been awfully quiet. Do you want to do the honors?"

Nathan stepped up, taking the grenade out of his hand. "I'm just sick of this place. Let's get this over with." With that, Nathan shot into the air wing his wings, speeding off into the direction of the palace.

Around thirty seconds later, he came streaking back, a pair of rather confused SkyWing guards pursuing him.

They must've spotted him on his way back from the palace. Great.

"Detonate it, dammit!" Nathan yelled, bowling into Jake.

Jake's fist clamped down on the detonator, right before Cuia and the rest of the group vanished in a blink of light.