A/N: Hi! Thank you all who have been following this story, adding this to Alerts and Favorites, and who have left kind reviews. I hope I can continue to make this enjoyable for you. I made it a point to finish the Rogue One novelization before completing this chapter and I must say I'd highly recommend it if you want to go deep into the characters' heads. I found I now know our three heroes here differently from how I knew them in the film. Don't get me wrong! It [the novel] hasn't changed how much I love the film, but it sure made it richer for me.
Now, without further ado...
"I found a clearing!" Bodhi's voice rang through the cockpit. "Everyone, buckle up. Initiating landing sequence."
Jyn fastens Cassian in his seat and hobbles back to take her own at the tech station. Bodhi pilots the shuttle on a smooth course through Takodana's atmosphere, flying lower and lower. Jyn hears the wings of the shuttle whir as they begin to fold for touchdown.
"Where are we?" Cassian asks.
"We're flying over…Nymeve Lake," Bodhi replies as he reads off the screen, switching gears on the control panel. "I'm taking us to a spot east of that castle."
"That's a castle?"
The shuttle reaches optimal altitude over the clearing before it descends on a clean vertical path. Jyn waits for the engine to quiet before she follows Bodhi to stand. They convene at Cassian's seat.
"Alright, what happens now?" Bodhi is clearly nervous again. Cassian looks expectantly at Jyn.
"Both of you, stay here," she begins, "I'll head outside and look for medical assistance for Cassian and someone who can give us charges for the shuttle. Bodhi, am I hooked in?" She refers to their comlinks. They had spent the last hour before coming to orbit ensuring that they would be able to stay in touch in the unlikely event of trouble.
"Yes," Bodhi says with a single nod of his head.
"Good. Keep yours on and stay alert."
"I think Bodhi should go with you," Cassian says stiffly. "You know I'd go…" he finishes bitterly.
Jyn takes a breath I know you would. "I won't get into trouble," she catches his gaze but finds she can't hold it. She turns back to Bodhi, "If I'm not back in an hour and a half, try the comms or come looking for me."
"Got it."
Jyn slings the travel pack over her shoulder and she and Bodhi quietly make it to the lower deck. The shuttle ramp extends to the grassy expanse outside and sunlight streams into the cargo hold. Jyn squints her eyes.
"Be careful, Jyn," Bodhi says.
She turns to face him, "You, too." She starts to continue her way when she stops, hesitating. She turns again to find Bodhi still watching her. "Take care of him, Bodhi, please. Make sure he—"
"Stays awake," he smiles knowingly.
Jyn suddenly feels out-of-place, realizing that she couldn't put a finger on where her nagging concern over Cassian was coming from.
A rush of memories from Wobani to Jedha to Yavin 4 and to Scarif floods her brain and dims her vision slightly.
Jyn shakes her head and gives Bodhi a final once over and nods before walking onto the grass. She doesn't turn back again even when she hears the ramp close shut behind her. Her eyes are fixed on the familiar castle a ways ahead, and the hauntingly beautiful image it made as it stood over the calm waters of the lake.
She walks on.
"Woah, hey! What are you doing?" Bodhi hurries to the top of the ladder and rushes to Cassian whose grip was tight on the co-pilot's seat as he struggles to get on his feet. The blankets were on the floor. Bodhi watches with trepidation.
Cassian barely manages to straighten up when his knees buckle. Bodhi is just able to catch him as the he crumples to the floor. "Easy, easy! Take it easy."
Cassian bites back a curse in response, his whole back protesting every inch of movement. He allows Bodhi to help him back on the chair. He's gasping. "I'd be hearing it from Kay by now," he breathes. "If he were here."
Bodhi returns to his own seat and slumps down, "You'd be hearing it from Jyn, too, you know."
The reply is dismissed. "Do you know who she's meeting here? The 'friend' she's going to at the castle."
"Never mentioned it."
Silence.
"How did you do it?" Cassian asks distantly.
"Do what?"
"How did you get us out of there?"
Bodhi takes a breath and rubs the back of his neck. "Luck," he says. "I think. I, uh…barely managed to deflect a detonator headed for the cargo hold."
Cassian nods slowly, trying to calculate the likelihood of anyone else being quick enough to do that. He could almost hear Kay doing the calculations for him. "Close call."
"Too close," Bodhi laughed nervously. "But, what about you guys? What happened to…both of you?"
"We were climbing the data tower when we were apprehended by two Death troopers and their superior." Cassian closed his eyes, raking the mess of information stored in the deepest crevices of his brain, trying to retrieve a name from countless informants he'd dealt with over time. "High ranking imperial officer, all-white…" he falters. The throbbing in his head blocking out information he was sure he already had.
"Director Krennic," Bodhi offers.
Cassian's eyes snap open, "Krennic sent this blast on me and I fell on some metal beams. Jyn…she probably hurt her leg in the climb."
Bodhi squirmed, "You actually climbed the data tower?"
"We lost power in the vault. Kay had to lock us in by triggering a short circuit from the antechamber because we'd been made." Cassian's voice became pained as he finished, "Stormtroopers took him out."
Bodhi was still.
"I ended up on a platform. Climbed back inside the vault and blasted the locking mechanism. That's how I found Kay and took his data drive."
"How did you find Jyn?"
"The only way I knew," Cassian says simply. "I went back to the vault and climbed the rest of the way to the satellite dish."
"You're mad."
"I just made it," Cassian says darkly. "Krennic."
"What a mess…" Bodhi leans back in his seat and stares at the bulkhead, eyes wide. "Do you think it will end?"
"Yeah," Cassian follows the motion, only his eyes are fixed outside the cockpit viewport. "There is hope, still."
Silence fills the shuttle again as Bodhi can't help but mull over everything he just heard. He'd seen the height of the Citadel Tower, and from what he observed, Cassian undoubtedly fractured something during that fall. How he managed to claw his way up the tower just to get to Jyn, holding on to the sheer possibility that she was still alive, was beyond him. How could a man find it in himself to hold on to just possibility?
Unless…
"What makes you believe in hope?"
"Rebellions are built on hope. In the end, that's all one ever needs."
That's definitely where Jyn got that line, Bodhi thinks to himself. "Do you believe in Jyn?"
Cassian doesn't answer immediately. Suddenly, his mind flashes with vivid memories of an interrogation room where 'Liana Hallik' was brought in for questioning. She was later identified as Jyn Erso, one and only daughter of the feverishly sought imperial research engineer and weapons specialist. When command ordered her aboard the U-Wing with him to see the mission through Jedha, Cassian had wanted to protest. Protocol only made him decide against it. His distrust was fueled when he recognized his blaster strapped to Jyn's hip, and at the time she had dared mention trust.
Trust goes both ways.
Cassian's lips form a tight line again as his mind resurfaces the distinct memory on Jedha, that turned his distrust 180 degrees rather violently. They were at the town plaza and Jyn had made a manic attempt to rescue a child from the crossfire of Saw Gerrera's militants and imperial forces. Cassian had been busily shooting down extremists and Stormtroopers to keep their fire off Jyn. Before he knew it, she had barreled straight into him and used her own body to shield his from the brunt of a grenade blast.
"Yeah," he says finally. "I believe in her."
Bodhi smiles to himself. Cassian doesn't see it.
The walk had probably taken already fifteen minutes standard time given her busted bodily functions. An hour and half. Jyn nears the entrance to the castle, controlling her breathing despite the weight of her leg and the pain it shot through her spine. She grits her teeth as her body seems to count all its aches and bruises on its own. Her comlink crackles in her vest pocket.
"Come in, Jyn! Checking your position."
"Bodhi! I just got here," Jyn speaks into the device. "I'm about to go inside. Keep you posted." She's tempted to ask about Cassian but she decides against it.
"Copy that."
Jyn huffs gruffly and makes her way up the stone steps, shifting the pack on her shoulders. The castle had not changed even after all the years she'd been away. The stone exterior shone with grandiose age, looking nearly golden in the sunlight. Flags of the galaxy's richest cultures and species were strung on the battlements, and it was the only way one could see that the castle was inhabited, or "alive", so to speak. Fronting the heavy wooden entrance doors, a large scale statue of the Pirate Queen stood, arms extended with more flags on her arms. Her eyes looked to the distance as if to perpetually welcome travelers, humans, aliens, abandoned droids, even hunters and the hunted.
Jyn pauses. Since she was presumably dead, would she still be considered hunted? She takes a breath and pushes the great doors open.
Jyn finds herself in a poorly lit main hall lighted by torches, flooded by the echoes of noise bouncing off the walls, emanating from unseen guests. She follows the sounds until she enters a chamber on the right. She parts heavy tapestries to make her way inside and the noise is loudest here. Creatures of all species, sounds and sizes crowd the chamber. A bar was set up in the middle operated by three protocol droids. Somewhere in the room, Jyn could make out a live band playing upbeat music. She takes a step forward, and then—
"TANITH PONTHA!"
She hasn't been breathing, she realizes, and she still doesn't start breathing. Jyn's grip on her pack tightens and her eyes scan the room. Her only consolation is the crowd does not appear the least bit concerned with the bellowing voice, in fact appears accustomed to similar interruptions.
"I wondered when I'd see you again, Kestrel Dawn," the same voice says coolly, this time closer, a little less loud, but still as powerful.
Jyn finally takes a breath and smiles nervously, her eyes setting on who she came here to seek. "Maz Kanata," she says.
From the crowd emerged a short humanoid woman. Her skin was a bright and distinct orange, wrinkled from aging over a millennium. Her small eyes were magnified by characteristic goggles, and her thin lips were pursed and disapproving. "I've been asking about you, Liana Hallik," she returns. The way she emphasizes each alias does not go passed Jyn. "When I heard you'd been arrested again and taken to Wobani, I worried."
"Thank you…" Jyn felt a wave of relief at being recognized wash over her. "Maz, you must forgive me. I need another favor."
"We'll discuss that over a drink."
"No, please!" Jyn starts, the urgency in her voice audible. "I…I'm not alone."
Maz narrows her eyes and she looks back at Jyn pointedly.
"I have two pilots waiting for me at a clearing, a distance from your castle. One of them is severely injured and is in need of immediate medical attention."
Maz closes more space between them and Jyn stoops to hear her low voice. "You show up here after I hear news about a rebel rogue squad and its participation in a now nonexistent Scarif, accompanied by two pilots."
"I can explain."
Maz's gaze is steely. "You are a child with much to explain, for sure."
"I'll do anything to honor your house." Jyn hears that her voice is beginning to shake. She had made deals, so many deals in the past, and she had betrayed some to fulfill taller orders. It was the life of an outlaw. "We will leave you in peace as soon as my pilot can fly and our ship is recharged...and my debts have been duly paid."
"I will not negotiate with you," Maz's voice rings in Jyn's ears. "You know who and what you can and cannot bring into this sanctuary."
"They are good men." Jyn can head her heart pounding in her head now. Time was running short and she couldn't help but bring her thoughts again and again to Cassian, who was in dire need of aid.
"Let me see them."
Bodhi was counting the agonizing minutes in his head. Cassian had been fading in and out of consciousness despite every attempt to keep him awake and talking. The Triptophagea's effects had been maximized and Cassian's fever had returned with a vengeance. Bodhi knew there was only so much he could do for a man in critical condition with limited resources. A second dose of the super drug at this time could only lead to irreversible consequences.
I should go out there now. Bodhi tugs at his fingers one by one, recollections of Scarif threatening to take over his sanity. The horrors were still too fresh, still too close. The urgency he felt to get on his feet to find his comrades was renewing. He was even half expecting the Death Star to jump from hyperspace and block the sun from the seemingly serene grasslands of Takodana.
The silence of the cockpit was deafening and Bodhi pulled his attention to the viewport for fear that if he stared too long into the darkness of the upper deck he would see the creature Bor Gullet, and would relive the horrific sensations of going mad as his thoughts and memories were forced out of his mind and stuffed back in—
"Bodhi?"
Bodhi jumped and fumbled for the comlink he left on the control panel in front of him. His eyes snapped to Cassian as he stammered, "Jyn! I'm here, I'm here."
"I'm coming to get you," the response crackles over, "Meet us at the cargo hold."
"Alright, but you have to hurry," Bodhi swallows, his eyes still on the unconscious rebel pilot slumped across from him.
"What's happened?"
"It's Cassian. He…" Bodhi squeezes his eyes shut and presses the comlink on his forehead. He was never a deliverer of good news recently. "I haven't been able to wake him up. He needs to get to a hospital now." What were the odds that an ancient castle had a hospital?
On the other end Jyn clutches the comlink and forces herself to ignore the pins and needles in her leg as she quickens her pace. She notices how Maz is able to keep up. An MD-5 medical droid was following closely behind with a battered but functional repulsorlift stretcher.
Jyn's face was steely as she shifted the weight of her travel pack again. She had insisted on taking it with her instead of leaving it at the castle. Kay-Tu was in the pack after all. She was taking short breaths now and her lungs felt ready to burst. Their escort "Emdee", had earlier given her a quick rundown of the injuries she very well knew she sustained, along with all the reasons why she should remain at the castle while he and his mistress went out to search for an unmistakable imperial cargo shuttle on a clearing. Jyn would have none of it, which earned her a strange look from Maz.
"This pilot, the injured one, is important to you."
Jyn ignores the remark from her host. She knew why Maz Kanata found this strange, because neither Tanith Ponta, Kestrel Dawn, Liana Hallik—and certainly not Jyn Erso—had ever found time to regard another as even remotely 'important'.
Are you with me? Jyn hears her own voice ring softly in her ears.
All the way. That's what Cassian had replied, the fire in his eyes had burned with a desire to keep to his word and fight by her side. Jyn had known Cassian Andor and she had hated him. His companionship, although brief, had brought her pain on Wobani and on Eadu.
But on Scarif…Cassian had brought her hope. And she was told that hope was all anyone ever needed.
In this moment she hoped he still had a chance. She hoped that she wasn't too late. All the way, Cassian. She prayed, as if she could urge her thoughts into his subconscious and wake him. Fight. Please, fight!
She could finally see the battered shuttle on the horizon, cargo hatch opening to reveal a flustered Bodhi waiting at the hold. Jyn turns to Emdee, "The patient is on the upper deck. We couldn't move him."
The droid doesn't respond and he moves ahead with dutiful intent, stretcher hovering at his pace. Jyn watches as the droid exchanges words with Bodhi before being led into the cockpit overhead, leaving the stretcher below. By the time Jyn and Maz catch up, part of the upper deck floor was lowering to the cargo hold with Emdee on it. Still wordlessly, the droid pulls the stretcher on the same platform and waits for Bodhi to call it up again.
"I'll be right down," Jyn tells Maz and climbs the ladder to the cockpit. There, she finds Emdee and Bodhi hoisting Cassian onto the stretcher with as much care and haste as they could manage. Jyn is frozen at the control panel. Cassian's face was pale and his brow, beady with cold sweat. His chest rose and fell with uneven breaths and the operation didn't even get him to stir. Fight it, Cassian. Jyn grabs the heavy blanket on the floor and Emdee finally turns to her just as the platform begins its second descent to the cargo hold. "That will no longer be necessary, I assure you." He speaks gently, his mechanical voice reminiscent of Kay's, and it wrenches Jyn's stomach.
'Jyn.' The security droid, black as night save for his imperial insignia, had towered over her, servos whirring to a stop as he craned his mechanical neck to meet her eyes, 'I'll be there for you. Cassian said I had to.' Jyn had stifled a laugh just as she caught the look in Cassian's eyes, curious and…playful. He had walked up to her and even tried to walk past, but she'd turned to follow his direction and so they had locked gazes instead. 'I'm not used to people sticking around when things go bad.' It was probably the most honest thing she had told anyone since her extraction from Wobani. Cassian had returned with a warm, 'Welcome home.'
And she knew she was.
Jyn flinches at the memory, staring at the now empty co-pilot seat, and clutches the blanket to her chest. She barely notices that it had picked up the familiar scent of blaster oil, sun and sweat, and sea spray.
A/N: I'll be supplementing flashbacks with anything canon I can find in the novels (Catalyst included) and visual guides. Let me know if you like how they get mixed in! Until then, may the Force of others be with you!
