They were going to turn around to try to evade the newly arrived batallion of troopers, when one of the soldiers ordered them to halt.
It looked like they'd run out of luck at last.
The same soldier who had spoken first approached them and addressed Kay. "Where are you taking the prisoners?"
"They are prisoners," answered Kay as if that soldier was stupid because it had to be blatantly obvious where a group of prisoners would be taken. His terrible impersonation of a genuine KX droid must be the worst one in the history of the galaxy. That was one of the reasons why Cassian never took Kay to undercover missions. He was a disastrous actor. Cassian would have laughed, but he doubted that those troopers had any sense of humor left to appreciate his mirth. "I'm taking them to be imprisoned in... prison," Kay added haltingly. Ugh. That was terribly awkward.
"Yes, we were...," Cassian began to provide in aid, but Kay suddenly hit his nose with an upward movement of his hand, making his eyes water with the sharp pain. He knew that his droid had done that as a cover and had tried to do as little harm as possible, and Cassian indeed wasn't even bleeding, but even so, a hit on the nose was always something very disagreeable. He didn't know if feeling grateful or annoyed.
"And I'll give you another swipe if you don't shut your mouth," Kay threatened him quite unconvincingly. This is getting better and better.
It didn't take a very smart person to notice that something was off with the whole situation, so of course the stormtrooper who had commanded them to halt started to be suspicious. "Droid, you have to go to be diagnosed," the soldier ordered.
Kay looked the most offended that Cassian had ever seen him. "Diagnosed? I can diagnose myself, thank you very much."
This goes from bad to worse.
"Let them pass in peace," a clear voice demanded, and the blind Guardian from a while earlier walked airily into the scene. He was carrying a long staff in his hand and he moved confidently, as if there wasn't anything wrong around him.
The troopers immediately took up a defensive position, aiming their blasters at the bold man. Cassian heard them ordering the stranger to stop and saw them hesitate when they realized that the man couldn't see. But them, all hell broke loose. The Guardian started to take down soldier after soldier in an incredible display of speed and fighting skills like Cassian had never seen. He was an astonishing sight to behold. In little more than a minute, he'd knocked out badly or killed the full battalion with the single help of his staff. But then, when no one had had time yet to bask in the man's victory, another contingent of soldiers arrived. They didn't even have the chance to see what was happening though. A quick series of perfectly aimed shots eliminated the entirety of them in just a couple of seconds.
A tall, big, scruffy man with a smoky repeat cannon entered the place with a stern face and walked calmly among the corpses. Kay chose that moment to step into view, and the man with the cannon was about to shoot him, but Jyn rushed to place herself in front of the droid, in a protective gesture that moved an already dumbstruck Cassian. "He's one of us," she hurried to clarify. Kay looked greatly confused too, and he proceeded to free Jyn's wrists from the handcuffs the soldiers had put on her, and afterwards he did the same to Cassian and Tikus. Cassian told him to go back to the ship (in order to avoid more trouble and act as their backup in the ship, in case they had to make a hasty exit) and the droid obeyed without protest. He must be indeed very shocked by Jyn's unexpected reaction toward him, he thought, amused.
"You almost shot me," the blind man complained right that moment, addressing the newcomer.
"You're welcome," his hairy companion retorted sarcastically, shooting a fallen soldier who had survived the previous gunfire.
It was obvious that the pair had known each other for a very long time, and they were used to bickering constantly. Cassian intervened, asking if the blind man was a jedi, but the men answered that there were no jedis left. The blind ex Guardian was a firm believer in the Force, whereas his tall shadow seemed to have lost his faith and mocked his friend's unwavering confidence.
But how not, their good luck and brief respite couldn't last for longer. A contingent of partisans, the ones who had survived the previous battle on the streets, cornered them. Their leader was furious because Cassian had shot one of their comrades and caused a few more to die in order to save Jyn during the incident with the tank. She then intervened and was magnificent once more, threatening that if anyone killed her or her friends, they would have to deal with Saw Gerrera, because she was Galen Erso's daughter. That did the trick and subdued the angry partisans. They put sacks around their heads so their prisoners wouldn't be able to see where they were going (the blind man argued that he was already blind, to no avail) and guided them through the desert for what seemed an eternity.
When they reached the interior of the headquarters, dug into large rock formations, the sacks were removed. A partisan urged Jyn to go through a corridor, while Cassian, Tikus and the ex Guardians were carried to a cell. One of the captors shoved Cassian aggressively into the reduced space, evidently in retaliation for having killed a few of his comrades in Jedha City. Cassian shot the man a dirty look but decided quickly that, in their disadvantaged position, it wouldn't do to worsen those people's resentment, so he kept his mouth shut.
With no more to do than being trapped in a cell with his three companions, he wondered if Jyn was already talking with Saw, if Saw was glad or displeased about seeing her again after years of separation, if she was reproaching him for his abandonment. Cassian found himself worried for her safety, he doubted that her former father figure would harm her, but as Jyn herself had affirmed, Saw was very paranoid and Cassian didn't trust his sanity (or lack of). And along with his worries for Jyn, Cassian was trying to come up with a plan to escape that cell. He reached for his hidden utility ankle brace, where he always carried his lock picks and other small tools, while the Guardians went on bickering and Tikus studied silently their surroundings and then looked at Cassian's motions, seeming to guess his machinations.
Chirrut, the blind man, was able to read his thoughts in an uncanny way. He began to talk about kinds of prisons, and Cassian lied, saying that it was his first time in a prison. He didn't want to admit loudly that the perceptive Guardian had read much more into his soul than what he was ready to share. Of course that Cassian had been imprisoned before, and, like Chirrut was saying, there were worse prisons than the current one they were in. Infinitely worse, indeed. But the worst of all, Cassian thought, was the prison of his own mind.
Well, he didn't need anyone to remind him of that.
But then, Baze, the bulky Guardian, took him out of his dark thoughts. "An Imperial pilot!," the man roared, ready to kill on the spot someone in the adjacent cell who was murmuring to himself.