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!
16
au·ro·ra
the dawn
The sun beat down on Jyn's back as they fought their way a crossed the deck of the ship. Jabba's goons scurried around the deck, shooting at them. Jyn tugged Leia behind a metal barrel that wouldn't hold up very long to the constant blaster fire and shot blindly, grinning as she heard yelps from the guards when she hit them.
"We need to get you a gun." She said as blaster shots zoomed over their heads.
Leia nodded once, deep in thought before sitting up "Cover me."
Before Jyn could agree or disagree Leia had already left their protective barrier.
"She's crazy. I'm fighting with a crazy person." Jyn muttered as she followed, shooting anyone who tried to get into Leia's way. Using the chain that still hung loosely around her neck Leia swung it and struck one of the bigger guards in the face and sent him sprawling to the ground, whether he was dead or just unconscious Jyn couldn't tell.
Leia held up the large blaster in her hands with a triumphant grin and they continued on towards the edge of the deck to get a look at the skiff.
"Where is Luke?" Leia asked and her question was soon answered by the commotion from the other side of the deck.
There Luke was, fighting off the hoard of guards as if it was the easiest thing he'd done all week.
"Get to the gun!" He yelled at Leia, pointing with his free hand "Point it at the deck."
Leia turns to Jyn: "Co-"
"I know, I know cover you. Don't try anything crazy." But Leia's slow grin told Jyn that she was going to do just that.
Cursing under her breath Jyn wheeled around and began firing into the crowd of guards.
She winced when she accidentally hit the Luke's metal hand with a stray blast. "Sorry!" She called sheepishly as he turned to glare at her.
"Who are you again?" He asked as he parried another blast with his lightsaber.
"J-uh Lyra." Jyn called back.
"We were cell mates." Leia filled in the blank for Jyn as she was wheeling the gun into position.
"I see." Luke said as he sliced through one guard and then the other. "Well, nice to meet you."
"Yeah, same, but can we please maybe focus on the task at hand?"
"What? Oh yeah sure." He said as he finished off the last of the guards before hurrying over to them.
"How are we going to do this?" Leia asked.
Luke grabbed a rigging rope.
"You take her first." Jyn said, "Then swing the rope back towards me."
"Do you know how to fire this gun?" Luke asked incredulously.
"Uh. Yeah piece of cake." Jyn replied, sounding more confident than she felt. "Now go."
Luke gathered Leia in one arm and then swung a crossed the pit before landing deftly on the skiff. He tried swinging the rope back towards her but to all of their dismay the rope crumbled and fell into the pit.
Leia turned to Luke and began arguing with him pointing at her.
"I got this!" She called, despite the fact that she definitely did not have it, and held up two shaking thumbs. Leia was yelling something at her but it was too late and something hit her in the back and sent her sprawling to the ground.
Linux stood over her, covered head to toe with sweat, soot and blood-presumably someone else's.
Jyn glared as him and rolled out of the way and towards the gun. "I told you I would kill you." She said as she stood next to the gun.
"You wouldn't-you'd die too." Linux took a menacing step towards her.
"But at least I'll take you with me." Jyn said, sounding more brave than she felt as she kicked the trigger for the gun.
Then the world around her exploded, sending her flying through the air. Jyn's last thought before blackness took her was 'I'm sorry Cassian.'
Pain. That was the first thing she felt as she came back into consciousness.
"Ouch." Was all she could say, her skin felt as if it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper and her mouth was dry.
"Ouch is right." a voice said and she turned and opened her eyes which felt as if they were glued together. Leia was hovering above her like a mother hen, concern lining her face "Your face is going to be so bruised."
"How?" Jyn asked, struggling to sit up. They were sitting in the middle of the desert, the skiff looked as if it had crashed about a hundred feet away. Han, Luke, the droids and the wookie all stood off to the side and looked as if they didn't know what to do.
"The blast threw you towards us and Luke did the rest." Leia said "I thought you were a goner for sure."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Jyn groaned as she felt how sore her body was.
"I hate to break this up," Han said stepping forward "But you see that dark mass in the distance? That is a sand storm and we need to be ahead of it."
"Can you walk?" Luke asked.
"I think so." Jyn said but Leia helped her to her feet and let her lean against her anyways.
They weren't ahead of the storm for very long and soon sand whipped past them stinging Jyn's face and filling her mouth. Leia looked even more uncomfortable-still in her slave outfit-and winced as the wind brushed past her. Han quickly covered her shoulders with his leather jacket and she shot him a grateful smile.
They stumbled blindly through the sand, not sure which direction they were heading.
"I can't see anything." Jyn yelled over the roar.
"I don't know I see a lot of blowing sand." Han quipped.
"Thats all any of us can see!" Leia said back.
"How do we know where we are going?" Luke asked as he pushed forward.
"We don't!" Han replied cheerfully and was rewarded with a groan from Chewie.
Suddenly the sound of an approaching ship could be heard through the roar of sand.
"That could be Jabba's men coming to finish us off!" Luke yelled "We should take cover!"
"And where, might I ask, would we do that?" Leia shouted over the noise.
"No… wait" Jyn said, the sound of the ship was familiar and she squinted to try to see the shape of the ship as it came closer. "I know that ship."
She began to wave her arms wildly, hurrying ahead of the group who were yelling after her.
The ship landed with an inelegant thud and the door opened and a figure emerged, her companions surrounded her ready to fight whoever it was that was coming out.
"Get in!" A familiar voice said and Jyn crowed with joy as she pushed past Han and Luke and fought her way through the sand and threw herself through the ship's door and into Cassian's arms.
He swung her around in the air, sending the sand that clung to her body everywhere. He gestured for everyone to get in, despite their looks of confusion, and shut the door-shutting out the roar of the sand and replacing it with a blissful silence.
"How did you find me?" Jyn asked her voice thick with emotion.
"I don't know, I was at Jabba's palace and I could tell you weren't there anymore and then suddenly I knew exactly where you were." He said as he brushed sand from her face and frowned at the bloody scabs and soot "What happened to you?"
"Explosion." She said with a shrug and at his look she patted his hand "It was a little one, much smaller than the last one."
"The last one?" She heard Han whisper to someone.
Jyn sat on the bed while Cassian washed the sand from her face and hands and cleaned her cuts, speaking to the group.
"Thank you for helping get her out of there. I was on my way but that probably wouldn't have been fast enough."
"Hey I had a plan." She looked at Leia "Well we had a plan."
They exchanged vicious grins, full of false bravado because they hadn't exactly worked out the 'plan' part of their plan. But still.
"Uh-huh." Cassian said as he pressed rubbing alcohol to her face, causing her to hiss with pain.
"So when can we get back to our ship?" Han asked from his place next to the rest of his group.
"As soon as the sandstorm subsides more, it was enough of a risk even entering the storm with this ship." Cassian replied as he finished bandaging Jyn up.
"You are correct in that assumption." The gold droid, who Jyn had learned was named c3po or Threepio for short, piped up "This ship is older than myself and Artoo put together. It's amazing that you can get it to fly in the first place."
Cassian shrugged as he tossed the health kit to Han. "We'll give it an hour or two and then I assume you have the coordinates of your ship?"
"Of course." Han said with a frown. Jyn rolled her eyes it looked like the two men wouldn't be getting a long anytime soon.
"So…" she said standing and ignoring the dizziness that made the world spin "Cards anyone?"
So this is the next to last chapter of the main narrative of this story. The next chapter (Chapter 17) will be the conclusion of the story line. But I have one or two epilogues/extra side stories to add to the end a long with an epilogue to close out Jyn & Cassian's narrative in this AU. I'm trying to finish them all in the next couple of weeks! I had to reread and edit this chapter three times because for some reason I noticed that I keep going back and forth between past tense writing and present tense (which IMO is so awkward to read) so if you noticed that in any of my other chapters I am sorry. I will probably try to send the entire story through a willing beta reader to weed out any spelling errors or inconsistencies once everything is finished.
ANYWAYS.
Thanks for reading! As always please review, reviews are what gasses this choo-choo train!
-LittleMoonLover-