While Cassian was navigating the streets furtively, watching his surroundings attentively, he saw from afar a squad of stormtroopers dragging a handcuffed prisoner. He was tempted to open fire on them, but he knew he would only take down one or two of them before the rest chased after him and he would most probably be caught unless he hid somewhere, but he didn't want to endanger the surrounding neighbours by trying to hide in their flats or stores.
Just then a barrage of blaster shots coming from somewhere above struck down several of the troopers, and Cassian took advantage of the momentary confusion to shoot the rest of them from the corner behind which he was hiding. The man they had been shoving forward ran away as fast as he was able to with his wrists bounded, until he disappeared into a side street. Cassian didn't know who had started the fire from the roofs, but he was glad that he himself had helped send those bucketheads to hell and release a neighbour.
If that was the state of things around the city, then he'd have to hurry up to find Bix. As soon as the reports of the emerging upraising and the fallen stormtroopers reached the big cheeses, there would be a hard counteroffensive. A sudden idea flashed in his mind. When things got uglier in the city and everything started to blow up around them, would Kerri's organization accept refugees? He thought of Maarva and remembered the fire in her eyes. He thought of Brasso and surmised that the factory must have shut, like all the shops seemed to have closed their doors until further notice, and he couldn't imagine Brasso cowering or remaining idle. Then he thought of Jyn. Would she be safe? What was she doing? If he were a believer in the Force or in any gods, he'd be praying by then. Please, let her be safe. Let my people be safe and stuff like that.
But he wasn't a believer in any forces around them. He only believed in what he could accomplish by himself, in what people could do when they put effort into something. And he couldn't leave his people's safety to sheer luck or to a delusional belief. So in case that life in Ferrix stopped to be viable, what in most probability would happen, he needed to secure a refuge.
He made a decision. He would offer to join the rebel cell in exchange for a place for his family and friends. It had been obvious that the purchase of the Starpath Unit was just an excuse for the Fulcrum's true purpose, which had been to recruit Cassian. For whatever reason, the man regarded him as an asset. If he could use that advantage, he would, even if he didn't care for any futile cause.
With that reassuring determination in mind, he continued his sneaking through the streets, fortunately not crossing paths with more troopers or skirmishes. The metallic bangings were still resonating in the tense air, masking the stealthy and almost imperceptible sound of his boots on the pavement.
At last, he had Caleen Salyard in sight, but everything had become eerily silent. The place was deserted, the bangings had ceased altogether, and Cassian feared the worst. He approached the entrance cautiously and got a glimpse of the messy interior. And what he saw froze the blood in his veins.
Timm Karlo, Bix's employee and lover, was lying on the floor, dead by a blaster shot to the chest.
What had happened there? Had the troopers taken Bix?
There was only one way to find out.
When they were a romantic couple, they had made up a very simple and effective code to make the other one know that they were okay in case they couldn't contact each other for any reason. They had acquired at a local market twin necklaces they started to wear around their necks, under their clothes. Whenever he went to the Salyard and she wasn't there but her pendant was in the agreed-upon hiding place, within easy reach for him but invisible for others, that meant that she was well and would come back soon. And he did the same, using a loose brick on the facade of his apartment behind which he left his own pendant.
He kept wearing the necklace after their breakup, up to the present day, out of habit, but especially because he was fond of it, of the memories it carried. A hunch told him to search for hers in the usual secret place, hoping for it to be there. He introduced his hand into a nook under the counter, and almost sagged in pure relief. The pendant was there.
That meant that she had managed to escape. The tension in his muscles eased up instantly. He only had a fleeting moment to feel sorry for Bix's fallen boyfriend. Cassian had only known him for a short while, since the guy started to work at the Salyard a few months before, and they hadn't befriended each other (Cassian suspected that that was due a lot to the fact that Timm was somehow jealous of him, no matter how much the man tried to conceal it behind an appearance civil enough but tense on the edges). If Bix had noticed the slightly strained atmosphere between them, which she surely had, she hadn't ever commented on it, not to Cassian at least.
Friend or not, Timm hadn't deserved that cruel fate. It must have been a very hard blow for Bix not only to lose him that way, but for the situation to be desperate enough to feel compelled to leave his corpse there.
But the message for Cassian was clear. Wait for me. Her pendant in his hand was enough evidence.
He decided to do as the old secret code asked of him, and crouched behind the counter with his blaster at the ready. At least in that position he not only remained hidden from view, but he didn't have to look at Timm's lifeless figure.