She woke up sometime in the dead of night, seemingly not very far from dawn, and after tossing and turning for a while, she gave up on trying to find sleep again. And as she felt constricted in her narrow room, lying in bed with no more rest to catch or nothing to do, she decided to get up and slip out into the open air. The night was the only part of the day when being outside was pleasant, because the humid heat of the jungle receded to the point that the temperature turned almost cool. The immediate area surrounding the ancient Massassi temple was cleared of vegetation, and the sky could be watched without obstacles from there.
The on-call guards by the entrance door saluted her silently with no questions, recognizing her, and Jyn returned the gesture politely.
She was studying the area to search for a place to sit down, when she discerned a silhouette. Apparently someone else had had the same idea as her.
"Good morning, Jyn," Chirrut greeted, enveloped by the darkness. The only sources of light were Yavin Prime, a few of the system's moons (all of which were in waning phase) and the myriad of stars. It was a beautiful and serene sight.
Seemingly the blind ex-Guardian of the Whills had trouble finding sleep as well. His presence instantly calmed Jyn. The man's uncanny perceptiveness and his unwavering inner peace were becoming a sort of balm for Jyn's troubled spirit.
The trip to Jedha had been on the verge of ending in total disaster. Not that she had expected a smooth mission, knowing that the Holy City was occupied by the Empire with an oppresive military presence, but everything had been complete madness and chaos, from finding themselves in the middle of a pitched battle on the streets between the stormtroopers transporting the stolen kyber and the Partisans fighting to retrieve it, to being made prisoners by said vengeful Partisans (because as collateral damage, Cassian had caused the death of several of them in order to save her, what logically had enraged the survivors), to the long trip on foot and blindfolded through the desert toward Saw's headquartes, her companions thrown into a cell, her tense talk with Saw, her father's hologram materializing and speaking to her about the Death Star and breaking her heart with his tenderness, and then the real Death Star appearing in the sky and destroying the whole city and its surroundings. From then on, everything had been so horribly painful and frenzied, with her being forced to witness Saw's immolation under the pile of rocks that had previously been his headquarters, the loss of a million lives in a single stroke (as well as the aftertaste of the shock of her father's message to her) had all been as crushing as the rubble dropping all around her. She, Cassian, Kay and their most recent companions had barely managed to escape the doomed planet, thanks to Cassian's and Kay's skill flying ships.
But some good things had come up too from all that nightmare. They'd met Chirrut, Baze and Bodhi, with whom she'd started to bond quickly. Bodhi had told her very fondly about her father in the trip back from Jedha, and she'd drunk in every word he'd said. The confirmation that Galen hadn't ever been brainwashed, that he hadn't stopped loving her or her mother and that he'd been sabotaging the Death Star warmed her heart to the point that her grief for Saw's loss had turned a bit more bearable. The knowledge that she hadn't lost both her fathers (her biological one and her foster one) had been a great solace.
Besides, and though in all the madness she hadn't thought of grabbing the holochip with her father's message, she had all the information stored in her memory and Bodhi had his own testimony as well, if not about what Galen had been planning, but he could speak in his favor, vouching for the kindness he'd shown and his encouragement for the young pilot to be brave and do the correct thing.
Anyway, Jyn suspected that a holo which just showed her father addressing her and revealing things about which he hadn't handed tangible proof, like plans or designs (most probably because he couldn't risk keeping anything in his quarters on Eadu, which in most certainty were monitored and searched periodically, as well as for fear of it all being intercepted before Bodhi could pass it to Saw) wasn't technically true evidence of what he'd been doing for the last fifteen years, of course. So the loss of the holochip didn't really make a difference in the matter. Now the most worrying question was how the Council would react. But they'd already declared in front of witnesses and officially signed the documents that ensured Galen's safety, so her most pressing fear had been assuaged. But how they would take the news of the Death Star already in working order or if they would believe her father's revelation about the flaw he'd added, Jyn had no clue. They would all be summoned for a debrief in a few hours (as they'd returned from the mission late at night, the summons had been delayed until morning) and then they'd find out the outcome.
Jyn didn't bother to ask Chirrut how he'd known it was her who had stepped out of the temple. After his impressive display in Jedha City, Jyn had come to accept naturally that the peculiar man had abilities that went beyond anything that ordinary people could ever achieve.
She sat down on the ground next to him, embracing her knees and staring at the black and pearly velvety sky above them, with a faint hint of light to the east announcing the impending sunrise.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?," Chirrut asked, as if the sight above their heads were perfectly visible to him.
"Yeah," she agreed heartily. "It is."
"How many moons can you see together with the planet Yavin Prime?," he inquired, as casually af if there were no worries in the galaxy. She envied his peace.
"Seven," she answered after counting them.
"What phase are they in?," he went on, as if the topic of astronomy was the most interesting matter to him.
"Waning," she provided once again.
"Soon they'll enter the new moon phase and will almost disappear from view until they start to be visible again. It's curious how everything is like those moons. That's reassuring, don't you think?," he asked in his usual cryptic fashion.
But Jyn thought that she could follow the trail of his thoughts, at least in that matter. "Everything is a cycle. Everything dies to be reborn. That's what you mean?"
Chirrut smiled brightly, as if he were a teacher pleased with his pupil's show of cleverness. "Exactly. All our lives are written up there. It's that simple and amazing."
"Well, there's nothing simple in antyhing of this to me," she objected, pointing vaguely at nothing in particular.
Chirrut turned his face to her, even though for him the gesture made no difference. "We rational species are always set on making things more complicated than they are."
Jyn snorted. "You can say that."
He kept silent for some moments, lifting his face to the sight above them once more. "I don't need much sleep, and I like watching the night sky. I can't see with my useless eyes, but the Force shows the universe to me in ways that most people can't even begin to fathom." He smiled sympathetically. "But you aren't here for the night view. You're very troubled. The aura around you is restless and tempestuous. And well, it doesn't take a genius to notice," he added teasingly.
She sighed. "I suppose not."
"You're very afraid. Rescuing your father from Eadu isn't going to be easy," he supplied.
"A thousand things might go wrong," she admitted, confessing her most ingrained fear. It looked almost like a suicide mission, but she didn't care for her own life and safety as much as she cared for her father's. And Cassian's, Kay's and her new friends'.
"All is as the Force wills it. I know, I know, it's trite, but true," he said, waving a hand lightly.
"And what if the Force wills my father to be badly harmed or to die?," she refuted. "Or any of you?"
"If that's the case, I'm sure that the Force will convey your love to your father and he'll find peace in the end. And as for the rest of us, you don't have to be afraid either, because we're all ready to face our fate, as are you," Chirrut assured, as confidently as if he could foresee the future and he wasn't scared of it one bit. What seemed to be the case. Jyn huffed but didn't reply. "You're also upset because of everything you went through and witnessed on Jedha, and it's only natural. I am also reeling from what happened. I'm human after all, but I have the solace of the Force speaking in my ear. My soul is crying for all those lives, but I at least have the certainty that they're all already with the Force."
Jyn let a sob escape her lips. "I'm so sorry for all of them. I saved a little girl, you know? But it was for nothing. Now she'd dead."
Chirrut patted her back softly. "It wasn't for nothing. She's happy now, and her mother is with her. And your gesture toward that girl left an imprint on the Force, an imprint that cannot be erased. That will follow you forever. The Force never forgets anything we do."
Jyn knew that it should be absurd that she could find consolation in his words, but she did. She felt oddly better.
"And you have feelings for the captain. Strong feelings you're as afraid of as you're eager to yield to. Well, I'll tell you a secret," he added in a conspiratorial tone. "He feels the same, for what it's worth."
She blushed furiously, and the worst was that she knew that he could sense her embarrassment. His mischievous grin confirmed her suspicion. "It's insane," she groaned, covering her face with her hands. "And it will probably never come to pass. What are the odds?"
"I'll tell you another secret: the Force never underestimates the power of love." He seemed to be enjoying all his mysticism (just not to call it plainly bullshit) a bit too much. But once again she found she didn't care. She felt lighter, and sleep was beginning to reclaim her, surprisingly. She couldn't suppress a yawn and, without feeling the least bit of discomfort, she rested her head on Chirrut's shoulder.
"How did you lose your sight?," she asked drowsily.
She noticed that he was careful not to shrug, in order not to disturb her. "I was born like this. The Force willed me to have the true sight," he explained simply, as if he were just talking about the most normal things.
Well, she thought right before falling asleep on his shoulder, that's his reality, so it's only fair that it's the most normal thing to him. She thought fleetingly that she sensed his knowing smile and that she felt his arm encircling her to make her position more comfortable and watch over her rest, but then she was out in seconds.