Chapter Text
6 Months after Scarif
She was in a little shop on some Outer Rim planet when she saw it, stuffed in a corner. Glancing around, she saw the shop owner was deep in conversation with a Twi'lek, so she moved to examine the object better. A shop assistant approached her, and she asked oblique questions, looking more curious than interested.
But when she was haggling for the parts needed to fix her ship, and getting overcharged by at least four times, she shrugged and looked at the owner. "Throw in the KX unit and we'll call it a deal."
The Rodian blinked at her for a few minutes, no doubt calculating the cost. He finally nodded. After all, he was still getting more than all the items were worth, just not what he'd been trying to shill her for.
But Jyn Erso didn't care, as she loaded her parts and the non-functioning KX unit onto her ship. She had what she needed.
1 Day after Scarif
The first few hours after arriving on Yavin IV after Scarif were a blur. She'd been hurried into a separate treatment room from Cassian, considering his injuries were much more critical than hers. The droids and doctors had eventually had to sedate her after she'd fought them too hard to get back to his side. They'd kept her under until the next day, as she had, according to the droid, kept fighting them.
"He's still in treatment."
Jyn turned her head to see Mon Mothma standing in the doorway of her room. The woman came forward, her face carefully neutral. "Captain Andor's injuries were extensive, so he will be in treatment for a while. You are welcome to stay on our base until he awakens, if you wish."
Jyn nodded. She didn't want to leave, not until she knew if Cassian was okay. They'd already lost the others, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, Kaytoo, Melshi, the other soldiers that had volunteered. She and Cassian had found an Imperial shuttle on one of the landing platforms and had stolen it, getting off Scarif just before the Death Star had fired.
"The plans?" she asked now.
Mon Mothma sighed. "They were received by Admiral Raddus, but when his ship was disabled, they were transferred to another vessel. That vessel, from what we can tell, was taken prisoner by the Empire."
"So it was all for nothing," Jyn said bitterly, thinking of the dead.
"No. There is hope, the Empire is still looking for the plans, from what we can determine. They may be returned to us."
Jyn said nothing. She didn't think there was anything to say.
"If you'd like, I can take you to your temporary quarters on base," the Alliance head of state said. "The doctors have cleared you to leave medical. Someone will let you know when Captain Andor is awake."
"Thank you," Jyn said automatically as she slid off the bed and stood.
The walk wasn't long. Mon Mothma pressed in a code that Jyn easily saw and memorized, and stood back to let Jyn in. "We'll talk later," she said. "Get some rest."
Jyn nodded and entered the room, letting the door close behind her. She looked around, startled that it didn't appear to be an unused room. There was a holodisk on the bedside table, though it wasn't active, and a datapad on the bed. She peeked into the closet, seeing men's clothing hanging there. Not much, just uniforms, one set of casual clothing. She pulled out the uniform jacket and paused as she saw the rank plaque. Two green pips, the same as Cassian's. She looked around the room again, then grabbed the datapad.
The encryption was ridiculously easy to slice, but when she saw the single open message, she sank onto the bed, fighting tears.
Cassian. There is a high probability that this mission will end in the death of everyone. However, I estimate there is a higher probability that your life may be spared by my death, and if that happens, then I will sacrifice myself for you. As I know this may distress you, I have backed up my entire programming and memories to this datapad. If you are able to upload me into a new body, please do not put me in a protocol droid. Those bodies are far too limited, and far too annoying. K-2SO.
Swallowing hard, Jyn set the datapad down. Kaytoo had preserved himself, at least as he was before they left for Scarif. The look on Cassian's face when Kaytoo had locked them in the vault and said his farewells had been devastating, the look of a man who had lost his best friend. She'd seen it on soldiers in Saw's cadre when their battle brothers went down. Kaytoo had known, and had made sure that Cassian could bring back his friend.
"You are constantly surprising, Kaytoo," she murmured aloud, curling up on Cassian's bed, the datapad in reach. Feeling a bit safer, on Cassian's bed, with Kaytoo nearby, even in datapad form, Jyn finally unwound enough to sleep.
6 Months after Scarif
Fixing the ship had been easy, even with the low quality, overpriced parts. That had gotten her off that planet and to her most reliable hiding place in the mid-rim. Now, she had a few days before she had to figure out how to get another run of something to earn credits.
So she had time to work on the KX droid the Rodian had sold her.
"I hope you appreciate this," she said aloud to the empty room. The droid lying on the bench seat in the small passenger area of her ship didn't respond. Not that she had turned it on yet. First, she had to clear out all the programming that the Empire and Arakyd Industries had put into it - which meant a lot of hacking, as these droids were meant to be security. They had to be more protected against what Jyn was trying to do. "How Cassian managed to do this in the first place, I don't know," she muttered as she encountered yet another firewall.
It took her ten hours to get the programming cleared and the information from the datapad uploaded into the KX body. Jyn activated the unit then moved quickly to the other side of the area, her blaster in one hand, the other hand wrapped around her kyber crystal.
The droid jerked, eyes flashing as it started up, processing its programming. The head turned to one side, then the other, focusing on Jyn.
"Jyn Erso."
"Kaytoo."
"Why are holding that blaster as if you wish to shoot me?"
"Because I didn't know if the upload would take?"
His eyes flickered, and he looked around the ship. "I do not recognize this ship. Where is Cassian?"
Jyn swallowed. "There's a lot that's happened."
He looked at her again. "I am sure there is."
3 Days after Scarif
Jyn had only left Cassian's quarters to get some food from the mess hall, and even then, only when she was sure it would be relatively empty. She didn't want to see the faces of those who had known the dead. Those that grieved their friends. Those that might ask her why she had survived when their loved ones hadn't.
She was wondering that herself.
Cassian was still in the infirmary, no change in his condition. She had ventured down there once, and had been turned away by one of the droids, who had at least told her there had been no change. Other than that, she stayed in his quarters, playing with the datapad, learning what she could about restoring Kaytoo. If the Rebellion could find another KX series droid, then maybe they could get Cassian's best friend back. She'd also, at Mon Mothma and General Draven's request, written up a report on Scarif, at least what she knew that had happened.
It was late into the night, when she was thinking of getting some sleep, when she felt something go through the base. She stopped, hearing cries of denial, of loss. She pulled up the Rebellion coms on the datapad, looking for any announcement that might cause such grief. No one knew she had this datapad, Cassian's datapad, so she got access to anything unclassified that he would have seen.
There was one general announcement, and her heart felt like it stopped as she read it.
Alderaan destroyed by the Death Star.
Jyn choked back a cry.
They'd failed.
6 Months after Scarif
"The plans got out." It wasn't a question. Kaytoo sounded certain.
"You told us to climb, locked the vault doors, and sacrificed yourself so Cassian could escape," Jyn told him, moving around her ship, idly straightening things that weren't out of place. She'd holstered the blaster, but she couldn't sit and look at him as she talked. "Cassian... he was devastated by it. But he carried on. We climbed the tower, got the tape, and stared to climb the rest of the way to the top when Krennic appeared. Cassian fired at him, taking the troopers with him out. But Krennic's blasts got him, and he fell, hitting some of the support beams on the way down. I thought...." she stopped again. "I thought he was dead," she finally whispered.
Kaytoo was silent for a moment. "You thought he was dead. Meaning he wasn't."
Jyn shook her head. "No, he wasn't. But I didn't know that. I kept climbing, got up to the antenna, and got the tape installed and the antenna realigned to the send the signal. But Krennic appeared again, going to shoot me. But Cassian did before I could. I have no idea how he managed to get up from that fall and climb to the top of the tower, but," she broke off with a laughing sob. "To save the Rebellion, I guess he would come back from the near dead." She wiped at her eyes. "The plans were transmitted, but the Death Star was coming. We headed down the tower, to die on the beach or something, when the elevator stopped at the landing platform, and Krennic's shuttle was there. So we took it and escaped. Back to Yavin, the only two survivors of Scarif. When I was out of the infirmary, they stuck me in Cassian's quarters while I waited for news of him, and that's when I found your datapad."
"That doesn't answer why you have it, and why you are the one reinstalling me, instead of Cassian."
Jyn stared at the wall, not wanting to relive that day.
4 days after Scarif
She didn't look up as the door to her quarters - Cassian's quarters - opened. She just continued to stare at the bed.
"Miss Erso."
That voice caused her to look up. General Draven stood in the doorway, a blank look on his face. Like Cassian's all too casual expression. "General," she replied.
He hesitated. "I'm sorry. Captain Andor..." he trailed off.
Time seemed to stop as she stared at him. "He didn't..."
"No. I'm sorry."
Her eyes dropped to the bed again. Cassian was gone. Cassian, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, Galen, Saw, Sefla, Melshi... the line of her recent dead kept growing. The ghosts that haunted her added one more to their number.
"There's no reason for me to stay, then," she said softly.
The general was silent for a moment, then finally replied. "If that's what you want."
She looked up at that. "It's clear you don't trust me. No one here does. I couldn't even make sure the plans got back to the Rebellion. What point is there to saying here?"
"We have a ship that we can have outfitted for you."
She looked up at him. "At what price?"
Draven gave her a small smile then. "We'll give you a code name, you'll give us whatever information you can run across. Maybe transport some people if needed. You wouldn't be a full member of the Alliance, but you'd be able to help, in between doing whatever you want to do for credits."
"So, your unofficial spy and cargo pilot," she said. It wouldn't be the worst thing she'd done. She'd still be fighting for what her father and Saw had fought for, what Cassian had fought for.
What they'd all died for.
"Fine, but Jyn Erso has to die," she said. "I'm too well known, in any of my aliases. Help me scrub clean, fresh start, and I'll be your girl," she told Draven.
He nodded. "Your ship is ready now, and my slicers can have the rest done by the time you land on your first mission." When she raised an eyebrow at him, he shrugged. "We have some people to transport off Yavin. This seems as good a time as any. We'll meet you in the landing bay in thirty minutes." He let himself out, and Jyn looked around the room. She grabbed a bag and stuffed the datapad with Kaytoo's backup into it. She grabbed one of Cassian's jackets and a blaster that she had found in his closet as well. The holodisk on his bedside table was a blank one, she'd found when she'd idly tried it. She thought about leaving a message for the next person that had this room, but stopped. There was no point.
Shouldering the bag, she headed out. There was nothing left for her in the Rebellion.
6 Months after Scarif
Kaytoo had gone silent when Jyn recounted her leaving Yavin, and what had followed with the Death Star being destroyed before it could destroy the Rebel base. One of her contacts had talked of a Tatooine farm boy and a smuggler who had rescued the plans and Princess Leia from the Death Star itself, the farm boy taking the million to one shot to blow the reactor, just as Jyn's father had planned for.
But she hadn't been there to see it, and she had tried to spend as little time as she could on a Rebel base in the six months since.
Jyn left Kaytoo to consider everything and went back into the cockpit, tapping into the Rebellion channels she checked for her orders. There was a new set for Guardian, her code name. Draven wanted her to head to the old base at Yavin IV and pick up an Alliance officer that was stranded there, and convey him to the current Rebel base. She grimaced. She hated runs like this. Mostly because the last two times she'd done officer transport, it had meant an overnight stay. She hated being on Rebel bases.
Even now, they still reminded her of Cassian.
Quickly, she tapped back an answer on the encrypted line. She had yet to turn down a mission, and she didn't see a reason to start now. She'd just make Draven refuel her ship for having to make her visit Yavin IV again.
"Are we leaving?" Kaytoo asked from the doorway to the cockpit.
"Yes. The Alliance has a mission for us."
"For you," he said. "They don't know that you have restored me."
"No, they don't," Jyn said.
"When will you tell them?"
She turned in the seat to look at him. "Whenever you want me to."
Kaytoo regarded her. "I don't understand."
Jyn sighed. "I brought you back because... because I didn't want to be the only person who remembered those that died on Scarif. But I can't force you to do anything, Kay. If you want to go back to the Alliance, that's fine. If you'd rather go somewhere else, that's fine. You're not a prisoner."
"The odds of my successfully being able to survive outside of either your company or the Alliances are less than five percent. I do not find that encouraging," Kaytoo said. "But I find the option of returning to the Alliance without Cassian there to be less than pleasing."
"I understand," she said. "I couldn't stay myself."
"You are running Alliance missions and potentially running contraband in Imperial territory. The odds of you needing backup are high. I will provide that backup."
The lofty announcement made Jyn smile. "Then welcome aboard the Rook, Kaytoo."