Chapter 11: Flameheart

It was after what passed for dark on the moon they were hiding on when Cassian returned from disposing of the enemy casualty. Burial on that rock wasn't something he had the time or the tools to accomplish, so he'd hidden the body in a natural crevice and covered it in rocks, as good a deterrent as any if there were in fact any scavengers living in that wasteland. He'd done it before, but he was never happy leaving the dead. He rubbed a filthy sleeve over his sweating and equally filthy brow as he approached the ships. He was exhausted, and he was worried about Mara.

The woman in question was waiting outside her ship, Kay-Too beside her. Her long red hair hung loose and caught in the wind that had been picking up speed all evening. She looked lovely, and lonely, an ancient warrior before battle. He had an urge to kiss her, to smooth away whatever was making her so grim, but the set of her jaw warned him back.

"Right. Here's what we're doing. You and Kay-Too will take Rian's ship and meet Organa on Alderaan. Tell him everything. Round up the staff of everyone currently serving on the Imperial Senate and have them questioned. No stones unturned, you hear? If there's a party, have it cancelled. If there's a Senate meeting, have that cancelled too. You can use my name to do it if you need to. See Grand Moff Tarkin directly for that. He'll help you. And use Kay-Too. He's good at telling when people are lying, believe it or not."

He had stopped maybe two feet away from her, suddenly afraid to get closer. He had a lot of questions after this speech, but just then only one seemed important. "And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going after the detonator."

Cassian opened his mouth, closed it again. There was more going on here, he could feel it. and it had started when she'd been in that cargo hold with Rian.

What had he said to her?

There could only be one thing…

He took one step towards her, and when she took an equally measured step back, he felt it as a physical blow.

"We'll cover more ground if we split up," she said practically, "and I think we both know that detonator is in Anders' possession." Her forehead was scrunched up as if she had one of her headaches, the ones that came on suddenly.

"Mara," he said.

"Don't worry, he won't know what hit him." She smiled coldly. "Shimmer and Boadacks were child's play. It'll be nice to go after someone more challenging, or I'll get soft."

"Mara," he said again. He didn't care about what she was saying, because he knew it was true. The mission, in fact, was almost forgotten in the expression on her face, which had not eased. "Are you in pain?"

She laughed, a breathy sound without joy or mirth, but she didn't answer.

"Is it…is it something to do with being a Jedi?"

Now she looked at him fully, and the heart beneath her eyes was cold as the stone on which they stood.

"I'm afraid I won't be answering any more of your questions, Captain Andor."

He joined her in the coldness for a moment, accepted where they stood. "Mara," his voice croaked out a moment later, but it was another man speaking.

She nodded at her droid. "As I said, take Kay-Too with you. He'll be a lot of help." There was sadness on her face as she looked at the droid, as though she were saying goodbye to an old friend. Cassian hoped between the two of them they hadn't broken her.

"You'll need to finish his reprogramming," she went on, "if he's to be of any use to you when this is done. He is still an Imperial, after all."

"Mistress Jade-"

"Stay with him, Kay-Too. That's an order."

She turned back to Cassian. "Pray to the Force we never meet again, Captain. Because I will kill you."

Cassian watched her board her ship without another word. Words were pointless now. Deeds had done all the talking for him. He supposed, somewhere under all that, was the anarchists' whole point. There were some hurts words couldn't mend.

"Come," he said to the droid as Mara's ship's engine turned over, and together they made for the other ship.

Strapping himself into the copilot's chair, he wondered if the giant heap of Imperial metal about to pilot their ship wasn't in fact ordered to crash them into the nearest mountain. But no, Mara wouldn't do that. She needed him to do what she'd told him to do, and she must trust him to do it, at the very least.

As for her own mission, by far the more dangerous…

"She can do it, you know," Kay-Too said beside him, and Cassian looked over at him in shock. The droid's hands were calmly going through his pre-flight checks. "Mistress Jade is a most accomplished assassin. There is a ninety-seven percent chance that she will succeed and come out unharmed, and the other three percent account for variables that are, in my learned and professional opinion, extremely unlikely."

"Thank you, Kay-Too," Cassian said as he began his own preflight checks.

"You can call me 'Kay,'" the droid said. "I could never get Mistress Jade to, but I always like the sound of it."

Despite himself, Cassian smiled. Kay ignited the engines.