Disclaimer: Though I am a fan of Star Wars I am not as well versed as many, so there very probably will be some discrepancies with my story. Please note that this entire story is a divergence from canon, so if you have a problem with some of my mistakes just think of it that way. Thank you!

2

bit·ter·sweet

both pleasant and painful or regretful

Sunlight warmed Jyn's face as they walked through the forest, it fought to get through the thick greenery all around them and though it came in patches, Jyn was grateful for it. She'd never thought she'd be able to take joy in something so simple ever again.

"Jyn." Cassian called from about fifty paces ahead of her, she'd gotten distracted again.

She hurried to catch up with him and smiled sheepishly, "Where are we going?" she asked as the forest began to turn swampy and misty.

"Master Yoda told me to head North and that we would eventually find what we are looking for."

"What is it exactly that we are searching for?"

"I do not know. But I also do not know what else to do." Cassian sounded just as lost as she felt.

"Well," she said after a beat "It's not everyday one comes back from the dead."

"How do you know that we actually died?" Cassian pulled a vine out of the way and allowed her to enter ahead of him.

"I could feel the fire licking my back before everything went black. My back is fine now." She sounded so reasonable that she almost believed herself, though there was no way to be sure.

Cassian didn't say anything and instead they kept on walking until the patches of sunlight faded. Eventually they found a relatively dry spot in the swamp.

"We will set up camp here tonight." Cassian said as he knelt down to collect some sticks to start a fire, Jyn helped as best as she could but her body felt like lead and exhaustion began to overtake her even though she'd only woken up a few hours ago.

Cassian took one look at her and began to place intricate looking strings around the camp, staking them above the ground with extra sticks.

"What are you doing?" Jyn asked, yawning.

"You are in no shape to take any sort of watch and neither am I. These will make noise should anyone try to enter the camp." He replied as he finished tying off the last string.

"Do you think someone will?"

"No, I haven't seen anything more than small rodents since we got here. But it is better to be safe than sorry, now get some sleep."

They laid out their bedrolls on either side of the fire and Jyn eagerly took off her boots and crawled into hers, falling asleep almost instantly.

"Jyn." her father's voice murmured as she hovered over his bloody face "My stardust." Then he died. Jyn sobbed as she was forcibly pulled away by Cassian.

Then the scene changed and she was standing outside of the stolen Imperialist ship on Scarif, gunfire and explosions surrounded her. She watched Bodhi run from behind some crates, dragging a thick wire a long with him. Her body was drawn inside as he whooped with triumph at getting his message through. Then she watched in horror as the clink of a grenade filled the ship and exploded.

Then she was standing in the archive control room as K2 worked ceaselessly to help them despite the fact that his body was being bombarded by pistol blasts. Then he threw his body into the control panel to ensure that no one could interrupt their getting the plans.

Jyn wanted to believe that this was just a dream, that her overactive imagination was making all of this up. But somehow she knew that this was how her friends died.

Finally she was standing on a beach, watching Chirrut walk through the gunfire chanting his prayer. He made it to his destination and flipped the switch only to be gunned down just as soon as he had finished. Baze's visceral scream followed as he hurried out to cradle Chirrut's broken body in his arms.

Then he wildly fought against the storm troopers, taking what little vengeance he could before he too was taken out by a stray grenade.

"Why are you showing me this?" Jyn sobbed, not expecting a reply.

"Mistakes, the Force does not make." Master Yoda's voice echoed through her dream.

"Jyn! Wake up it's just a dream." Cassian shook her awake and Jyn just sobbed. She hadn't even thought about her friends yet. She didn't need to before, she and Cassian were going to be dying right a long with them-there was no need for grief. But now that she was alive and everything was different.

"It wasn't just a dream." She croaked.

"... I know." He absent-mindedly swiped at his hair, before stoking the fire and adding some more sticks. Once it grew big and warm again he turned to her, "I assume you saw the same thing as I did? Chirrut, Baze and everyone else… you know?"

Jyn nodded and wiped at her tear-stained cheeks. Cassian sighed "It's over now, it's best to get back to sleep." He moved to head back to his bedroll but Jyn's hand shot out from underneath her blankets to grab his.

"Wait!" She sat up halfway, her eyes still swimming with tears. She didn't want him to go but she didn't know how to say it.

Another sigh followed Cassian's first as he got up, Jyn thought for a moment that he was going to ignore her and go back to bed and for a moment hurt filled her. But then she watched him grab his bedroll and drag it around the fire to lay it next to her.

"Better?" He asked.

"Yes thank you, sorry." She apologized suddenly feeling embarrassed by her actions, it was totally out of character for her to look for comfort in someone else. She'd stopped doing it so long ago that it felt awkward.

"Do you want to talk about it the… dream?" He asked ignoring her apology.

"No not really, but maybe we can talk about something else?"

"Like what?"

"... how about a story for a story? You tell me one and I tell you one?" She offered but bit her lower lip when she realized how silly she sounded. "Or we could just go to sleep."

A chuckle rumbled out of Cassian's chest "I was born on the planet Fest. If you know anything about it you'll know that it's covered with ice and very little green. This drove my mother absolutely mad, she came from Devaron which is an extremely green planet."

"Why she go to Fest then?" Jyn interrupted.

"From what I remember my father, who was already involved with the resistance at this time, was placed on Fest by them and if my mother wanted to be with him then that's where she needed to go. Anyways, my mother would always try to grow different kinds of plants even though the planet was inhospitable to anything green and to top it off she didn't have a way with plants to begin with." Cassian smiled at the far off memory.

"When she would go visit my grandmother I remember she used to come back with a bag full of green potted plants and those would die within the month. So our little home was full of pots of dead plants, my father used to say 'Sara if the rebellion could kill Storm Troopers the way that you kill these poor plants then the war would be over in a month'."

This wasn't something that Cassian had allowed himself to think of for a long time, there were so many bad memories from his childhood that the few precious ones like this he kept locked away deep inside.

Even though he remembered this so clearly he couldn't quite remember the way his mother's face looked-or even his father's. He remembered that his mother always smelled like cinnamon and that she kept her long black and gray hair in one long plait that would swing as she moved about the house. He also remembered his father's mustache which used to twitch when he was amused by something he shouldn't be amused by (usually his mother's scolding).

"Okay," he murmured after a moment "It's your turn."

But Jyn was already asleep, a smile curling on her lips. Unfair. He thought, grinning silently to no one.

He'd thought about what had happened to them over the past few days while she still slept. When he'd first awoken and she stayed asleep that something was wrong with her. It wasn't something that he'd had to face because they'd been together for the past few days and he always managed to pull her to safety. Even in the end when her body was twisted with fear he managed to pull her back into the moment.

But when Master Yoda had assured her that she was healthy he waited. Those two days were the longest in his life-both of them.

He feared being alone and she had become his partner over the course of just a few days, they survived when their friends had not and they also shared that guilt. But above all she was a good comrade, they worked well together and would need that for whatever the Force had in store for them.

With that thought Cassian drifted off into a blessedly dreamless sleep.

-LittleMoonLover-