Chapter Text
~ ◊ ~
~ ◊ ~
On a planet, she took her companion-guardian from her neck and placed it on her daughter’s. “Trust the Force.”
In the flow, she drew essence to encircle her. ‹ keep my promise ›
Her daughter—this shining woman—and the man she’d embraced for their end—almost, not too late, rekindling his light—slumped, fading. The wisp, the Whill, sought help for them
—there, in the melting tower: another companion-guardian—his: big, dark and opaque, where hers was small, clear and light. The Whill reached [[reconnect circuits]] to imbue it. ‹ keep your promise, too ›
We need enough power to do all this… encase the two on the beach, awake the one in the tower. So, so much power.
Aey reached far and deep, telescoping time, to find it; made aerselfs a portal through which it could radiate; and opened.
two faces looking to go forward go back
releasing light in one direction lets it out in all of them
the help the Force
no end, no beginning
Help these two—each other—together
~ ◊ ~
enfolded
~ ◊ ~
There was a boy by the water.
Jyn dove behind a rock.
She waited 'til she could breathe silently, then peered over.
The boy crouched at the tideline. He was older and bigger than her but still definitely a kid. His clothing reminded Jyn of… something she couldn't quite remember. (Lokori?) It was hard to get a good look because he was looking down, casting a shadow over himself. When he hopped, teetering, back to avoid a wave, she saw he was holding her cloth doll—the one she'd just climbed down the mountain to find.
(We're in hiding!) Jyn remembered, but anyone coming for them surely wouldn't be a child. Something made Jyn have to speak to him.
Jyn stood, planted herself, and yelled, "That's mine!"
The boy spun to face her—sharp—controlled—threatening—the honed movement of someone much older. Until he overbalanced and fell on his bum in the water.
Jyn covered her laughter with both hands. She moved all the way out from behind the rock. "You okay?"
The boy hadn't taken his eyes off her while splashing down. He narrowed those eyes like she was the trespasser on the planet that wasn't supposed to have anyone else.
Well, she wasn't going to act as skittish as he was. This was her cove. Jyn struck a waiting pose where rocks turned to sand. The boy got warily to his feet. She uncrossed her arms and pointed to the doll, still at his side. "That's mine," she repeated.
The boy glanced from it to her in a way that reminded her of Mama in archaeologist mode. He planted his feet, not unlike she had, and hefted the doll, once, twice; and on thrice, softly tossed it to her.
Jyn caught it. She did not trip. She made a show of examining the doll to make sure the boy hadn't done anything to it. (…Well, that her losing it near the water hadn't.) When she finally looked up again, he'd stayed exactly where he was.
Emboldened, she tucked the doll under her arm and walked closer. "Thank you." She held out one hand. "You can come out of the water. I won't hit you."
The boy had the most unexpressive face she'd ever seen not on a droid. Only looking verrrrry closely did she see the flicker of his eyes. But he took her hand, and followed her.
They reached solid ground. Quickly, he let go, and tried to shake out his trouser legs. (That wouldn't be the most uncomfortable part. She suppressed her snicker.) She decided to be nice. She sat down crossed-legs and set the doll in her lap to brush it off. After another hesitation, the strange boy sat down opposite her. "It's a good Shaak," he said.
Jyn's thought was: You remembered! —but that made no sense. So she said aloud, "You could tell what he is?"
"Sure. Shaaks can't swim, so when I saw him near the water, I figured I should pick him up."
Three wonders: (1) he knew about Shaaks; (2) he pretended hers was real unprodded; (3) his suddenly-readable expression looked… shy.
Jyn went ahead and grinned. "His name's Sniksnak. Want to meet his friends?"
Like a flipped switch, the boy seemed like he might leap to his feet.
"You don't have to," Jyn said in alarm. "I just meant… Thank you. For getting him out of the water. I must've dropped him earlier. I like this cove." She was too curious not to add, "Usually there's nobody else here."
"Yeah," said the boy belatedly. "‘Here’." He turned his frown around them, as if suddenly uncertain where he was.
(In hiding,) Jyn told herself again. But she knew to her bones that this boy was no ally to The Man In White. "My name's Jyn. What's yours?"
"I don't know if I can say."
"I won't tell anyone," said Jyn. Surprising herself because she meant it. Not even Mama and Papa. She held out Sniksnak and waggled him in the boy's face. "C'mon. You know both our names."
The shyness that came back onto his face, as he looked from Sniksnak to Jyn, had a little smile—that really made Jyn want to know him. "Ash-Rabbit."
Brow up. "That's your name?"
"It's what… my… group calls me."
Weirder and weirder. Jyn shrugged, "Okay."
Ash-Rabbit looked at her with gratitude.
Jyn wanted to make him make more cute looks. She strategically sat Sniksnak between them and started constructing a room for him. It wasn’t long before Ash-rabbit began to assist. Gratified, Jyn sprung her trap. “Do you have a favourite toy?”
Less surprising the rabbit would find any question difficult. At least this one just made him Hmm and Umm. “Not really. I lived at a school. The toys were educational.”
“Uh, brilliant!” said Jyn. “So are mine. My father makes them for me and he’s a scientist.”
( DON’T TALK ABOUT PAPA’S WORK! )
(…This boy can know. He’s safety.)
Pensively, Rabbit said, “Maybe being taught by scientists is different than by—” But, again, Rabbit was better than Jyn (at this age) at clamming up.
Merciful at last, Jyn said, “Race you to finish this sandcastle?”
She couldn't remember what else they talked about. Or how the castle looked, though Rabbit yielded the competition, using the black sand instead to craft a tall, tall droid. Nor did they ever discuss being here, if either was lost, if there was anyone waiting for them. For a bubble of time, that little cove was a universe apart.
Where two children met—like they hadn't—but should have.
__ __ __
Scarif
__ __ __
‹ trust the Force
keep my promise
keep your promise, too
Help these two each other together ›
Goodb
Closing the vault d
Climb
Kaytuesso reactivated.
DOCUMENT #A26L5 (from Temple Base)
Alliance Archives : Massassi Files : Operations : SpecForce : Document #A26L5 ("operative: candor")
CODENAMES [REDACTED]
Grey | FulcrumOPERATIONAL ALIASES [REDACTED]Aasch | Adma'el | Dymyr | Emund | Fiaro | Fyurian | Gabrael | hvEga | J'din | Joreth | Latyf | Lavenz'h | Leendra | Madoq | Metæo | Nauvad | Neric | Oé | Orro | Reif | Rictor | Séadeogh | Skandar | Sonestd | Sward | Taminh | Te-noc | Tsefr | Valantin | Willix | ZbirˆCLEARANCE Beta
LAST Andor | FIRST Cassian | MIDDLE Jerón
DECEASED Yes | DATE 3277 LY / 0 BBY | SITE Scarif
BORN [REDACTED]3251 LY| SITE [REDACTED]Fest
SPECIES Human
FAMILY Jeron Andor (father), Yaval, born: 3233 LY, deceased: Carida Military Academy 3257 LY (protest against Republic militarisation [Separatist riot] ). Unknown (mother), Festrin, born: ?, deceased: Fest 3255 LY (Republic bombing . see ‘Razing of Fest’).
TRAINING [REDACTED]Confederacy of Independent Systems insurrectionist cell - Sullust Teams "Nebula" / "Fissure" 3257-3266 LY;ast.'d Outer Rim anarchist movements; Alliance military intelligence since recruited by D. Draven [REDACTED]3266 LYCURRENT/LAST STATION Alliance to Restore the Republic - Intelligence Branch: Operations department (Acquisitions) - Massassi Unit
RANK Captain
C.O. General Davits Draven
PRIM FUNCTION Intelligence operative, spec ops, espn’ge; informant network collector + recruiter
ADD’L CERTIFICATIONS pilot; [REDACTED]raven ; sniper ;trainer
GALATRACKING [REDACTED]Adalog | Albarrio Sector | Anthan Prime | Botajef | Carida | Charissia | Chemvau | Corulag | Coruscant | Dantooine | Darknell | Eadu | Eiloroseint | Fest | Five Points System (5P Station - Hirara) | F'tzner System | Jedha | Jelucan | Jenoport | Ring of Kafrene | Kanchen Sector | Lothal | Ord Mantell | Scarif | Sevarcos 2 | Squarr | Storm 4 | Sullust | Ttaz | Varadan | Wecacoe | Yavin 4 | ZemiahCOMMEM’D ACTIONS [REDACTED]• as Fulcrum: lead recruitment officer, Albarrio Sector
• reformatted captured Imperial Arakyd Industries KX security droid sn K-2SO to serve Alliance
• as Gabrael Willix: posed as government agent on Ord Mantell
• as J'din Aasch: acted as contact for senator on Darknell
• as Joreth Sward: posed as assistant to Imperial Admiral U Grendreef
• commanded Operation Fracture; case officer for Jyn Erso
____________________________________________________________________________________
DOCUMENT #A26L6 (from Temple Base)
Alliance Archives : Massassi Files : Operations : SpecForce : Document #A26L6 ("candor med record")
Preexisting conditions + corrections
as of [REDACTED]3266 LY:
• walking corpse syndrome (resolved; +psych build)
• reset fractured right radius
• reduced fracture of right clavicle w reconstruction plate and bone graft
• reset fractured right fibula
• hairline fracture of ribs - no plating needed
• shrapnel removal upper right trapezius and posterior head
• past head trauma, minor brain tissue scarring, no physical effect, possible mood dysfunction
• deep tissue scarring left hip to abdomen
• severe distal portion of anterior cutaneous branch of subcostal nerve - patient reports loss of superficial sensation and demonstrates muted response to painful stimuli
• pt. chronically infected with fear virus - complete blood count indicates secondary compromise of the immune system - antiviral administered by med unit #48237, pt.'s symptoms resolved accordingly.
[REDACTED][pt. reports virus administered intentionally as "training" - add to file on confederacy of independent systems]
Significant injuries treated, procedures performed by RebAll Medtech[REDACTED]
3266 - 3267 LY:
• mid level strains, stress fractures [training - common]
• broken nose reset[REDACTED]
3268 LY:
• blaster burns
• lacerations superficial to severe
• anterior glenohumeral luxation
• rupture of tympanic membrane
• electrowave procedure performed by m.u. #12947 - maintenance to continue [note: patient discontinued][REDACTED]
3269 LY:• lt. andor logged request for sterilization procedure - maj. gn. draven denied
• desensitization & reprocessing therapy introduced [note: only treatment pt faithfully continues through career][REDACTED]
:3271 LY• subdural hematoma from whiplash
• concussion
• rib contusions
• ct. andor logged request for sterilization procedure - lt. gn. draven approved
• sterilization procedure performed by m.u. #32399[REDACTED]
:3272 LY• fracture of distal phalanges
• sprained ankles
• medial tibial stress syndrome[REDACTED]
:3273 LY• lacerations superficial to severe
• incomplete fracture of metacarpals 2,3,4 and proximal phalanges 2,3,4
• [REDACTED]sedative overdose, counteracted m.u. #61218[REDACTED]
:3274 LY• abdominal lacerations (e.i.t.)
• 2d burns chest and neck (e.i.t.)
• drill penetrations right hand, right forearm, left pectoral (e.i.t.)
• invol. dosage: loquasin, neuroprenoline, quickwake, skirtopanol (e.i.t.) - observed detox, no c.r., no counteragents needed
• 15-20% blood loss - whole plasma infusion administered by m.u. #22004
• broken nose reset
• affliceria infection - cure administered by m.u. #90645
[note: psych rehab rec partially fulfilled][REDACTED]
:3275 LY• panskeletan fractures incl. skull, vertebrae
• bilateral retinodialysis
• nephrorrhexis
• medical coma induced by m.u. #88434
• 3d burns left arm and leg
• greenstick fracture of ulna
• e.w.p. performed by m.u. #12951[REDACTED]
:3276 LY• mucosal tearing, rectal perforation
• severe abrasions neck, wrists, ribs, ankles
• fractured right false rib
[note: pych rec unfulfilled]
• 2d burns left arm, leg
• posterior glenohumeral luxation
• blaster burn upper right shoulder
[note: pych rec unfulfilled; pt insists D&R still helpful but dr adjusted to avoid dissociation]
• cosmetic surgery (select. scar reduction, straighten nose, correct teeth -> coruscant class standard)[REDACTED]
:3277 LY• deep tissue laceration lower left arm
• muscle puncture lower left arm
• broken nose reset3277 LY / 0 BBY:
killed in action, death report by gn. draven______________________________________________________________________
DOCUMENT #A26T14 (from Temple Base)
Alliance Archives : Massassi Files : Operations : SpecForce : Document #A26T14 ("final mission assessment and death report")
"FRACTURE" Mission Assessment / "CANDOR" Death Report by Gen. Davits Draven
Follow-up to Kafrene Report re: Imperial defector (cargo pilot: Bodhi Rook) carrying message of Imperial superweapon ([REDACTED]"planet killer") from Galen Erso to Saw Gerrera
Operation "Fracture"
• Parameters:
S1: locate and secure Jyn Erso
S2: use JE to access SG
S3: authenticate BR, locate GE
S4: extract GE for senate testimony
[REDACTED]S4ξ: (sub rosa directive) assassinate GE
• Personnel:
Capt Cassian Andor (lead)
δ KX sn K-2SO (asst)
• Materiel:
UT-60D LMTR-20
• Overview:
Asset (JE) delivered to B1 by Extraction Team Bravo. Successful draft of JE by Command to liaise with SG [Jedha] w CA's oversight.
Report confirmed: NiJedha destroyed by [REDACTED]planet killer ("Death Star"). SG presumed dead. Partisans presumed extinct. JE, BR, civilians (Chirrut Imwe, Baze Malbus) extracted by CA, K2SO.
BR intel followed to Imp rnd facility [Eadu]. LMTR-20 crashed [Eadu], assumed lost. X-squad dispatched. K2SO reestablished comm. CA requested support delay. Unable to comply. GE killed.
CA's team stole Imperial cargo shuttle SW-0608; returned to B1 to give report, delivered JE + BR to give testimony [REDACTED]re Death Star weakness. Allied Council vetoed further action.
Mission closed.
w/o orders Andor unilaterally recruited volunteers from Alliance military and SpecForce (K2SO, Ruescott Melshi, Taidu Sefla, rest unconfirmed) (+ Rook, Imwe, Malbus) to assist Erso retrieving package ([REDACTED]Death Star schematics).
Cmdr'd impounded shuttle SW-0608 ("Rogue One") to infiltrate Imperial base [Scarif].
[REDACTED]Package successfully uploaded to Alliance support forces.
Death Star destroyed Scarif Base. Andor presumed dead w unit.
• Personal assessment:
Cassian Andor was one of the most capable agents within Rebel Intelligence, our best and brightest, with consistent judgment and consummate loyalty. Rogue One mission was unsanctioned but undertaken in the face of the Council's proposal to disband the Alliance and surrender to the Empire. Without Rogue One, the Rebellion would have ended.
• Recommendation:
Memorialise with honors.
__ __ __ 
Fest
__ __ __
Objects have no permanence. One second, there’s a room; next, it’s a crater. —and not just forward (flying sparks where where a light was, rubble for a wall)—but backward. Ashes creep back in time replacing the memory of whatever they'd been.
Life is not special. It doesn’t set one kind of material apart from the rest. In fact, it goes before the material does. The child knows, looking at his own meat-and-bone body where it mystifyingly sits intact, in the one place past the wreckage; though his body survives, he is nonetheless dead.
He can’t remember this. He never will. Forgetting is creeping, the backward and forward, starting with when his mother saw the ceiling fall, put herself between him and it, and threw him out the door. He will not remember what he cannot see as he stares at it: mother bits caved in crushed and bloodied under wreckage. This will disappear as fully as their life.
All he’ll hold from his four-year-old mind: he had been dead, and his mother (nameless and faceless, just an impression, like what other people call ‘a force’) picked him up, set him on his feet, and from then on, he just kept going. No mistake, he was still dead. He would carry on walking, talking, eating, sleeping, maybe (maybe not) crying. But they were only tricks to make everyone else think he was alive. And they would say he was so brave but he knew better. Bravery isn’t absence of fear. It’s just that nothing could hurt him if he was dead already.
That’s how he could look up so calmly (a frightful blankness to see) when the Theta-class T-2c shuttle descended to a hover, close enough the repulsorlifts blew his hair back from his face.
The hatch opened. The boarding ramp did not deploy. A pair of military boots jumped down as a mushroom cloud.
They did not run. No feet in those boots were allowed to run. Swirls of ash rose as they strode to the boy.
The boy didn’t feel anything. The man didn’t pick up him, to put him on his feet or carry him. He led him by the hand. He only held him in the instant to lift him to the shuttle.
It was blindingly dark, or maybe light… people, strangely uniform, voices speaking holo‘Basic’… “Force… Andor… Didn’t know you knew… If you came to warn them… If you came to save her…”
The man cut them all off. “I got the kid. Get us out of here.”
…is that how it happened…?
no
never stop questioning
They make us rewrite ourselves
__ __ __
Carida
__ __ __
It's a white blocky room. No dangerous edges, everything rounded—like stormtrooper armor. That's not what Jerón Andor is enrolled to be. Is it? The child isn't sure. All the child knows is:
Engulfed in white, left alone.
Sometimes, Jerón's there. (—No: “Jeron”. It’s more Core without the apglyph. He forgets the child can already read.)
He's hard to see. The memory's shadowed. Hard to tell what was there and what's made up, but it's not a bad theory: they resemble each other, in coloring, bone structure, features. The man's broader and taller than the child will become. The man hadn't spent formative years malnourished. It might be rareness more than size that makes the child think ‘giant’.
Too often he's there just in transit: picking the child up from the white room and depositing him to an off-white room. There, kind strangers—Academy childcare—would keep him fed and cleaned and held enough. It glanced off him like water. He wanted to study the mythic creature 'father' more.
[ excerpt from DOCUMENT #A26L6 ("candor med record") ]
Unit ∆ Session transcript
» ..
CA Yes, one recurring
I’m in a circle of monsters
They're closing in and in with bleeding mouths and flaming hands
but I have a blaster
I figure out how to shoot as many as will be enough to keep the wave from breaking
buy just long enough before the next and the next, one rank at a time
so I fire
I keep firing
it doesn't do anything
I aim in their eyes and nothing happens
they aren't hit
they don’t fall
i try harder as if by concentrating I can force the blaster to work but it doesn't
they keep getting closer
I wish they'd get here already to kill me
but it's always the closing in
DR Ever any variations?
CA … [untranscribable]
Actually, sure
the blaster WILL work but I can't shoot because
shooting them will just change them
make them transform into something worse
DR Such as?
CA It never happens in the dream
but I don’t think I need you to interpret it
DR How do you interpret it?
CA .
Shooting someone does transform them
Into something dead
.. »
Psych rec [.]part’ly filled
__ __ __
Carida
__ __ __
The six year-old slipped from cover. He ran onto the wide sprawling steps of Carida Military Academy. In the midst of the riot, with his toy blaster, he put himself in front of Jeron's body and tried to defend it.
He was knocked over by larger bodies who didn't see him at all.
The blaster fell somewhere away. The child found his palms braced against Jeron's chest.
Something blew up.
The child tried to shield the body with his own.
I’m already dead so I can’t die
MotherWill help me
There were hands pulling him to his feet.
"He's gone," her voice told him. "Come on."
He automatically struggled, lurched convulsively toward Jeron. The stranger pulled him by his arm back against her. "Leave it," she commanded. "Leave it. That's it. This way."
Through the world exploding, he took her hand.
They ran.
He doesn't remember looking back, but he must have. What he sees when he closes his eyes—sleeping—blinking—every time for the next days—weeks—maybe it never went away and he just stopped noticing—is mother’s crushed—is Jeron's towering body now toylike in collapse
the swirling skyscape of his face gone flat
[ x-ref'd ]
» ..
All the toys at Carida were indoctrination
and I mean
I guess
mission accomplished
because the only lesson I remember from there
is “a toy is a lie”
The child didn't know how he came to be sitting in a transport. He was staring directly into the sun when it crested the planet. The adult humanoid who'd saved him knelt in front of him and turned his face from the window.
She looked so different from everyone on Carida—even more than Jeron and the child had looked different. Her coloring was unlike the Humans’, features subtly different shapes, hair dark as the child's but long and wild. She had scars around her eyes and mouth.
She looked at him, spoke to him, like he mattered. "Where should I take you?"
He answered promptly. "With you."
She shook her head. "No. The life you'd be in for—"
"Take me with you," he repeated, suddenly pleading.
"You have to have people somewhere," she snapped.
"No," he said.
Her scarred lips tightened. "That man you were trying to protect. That was your father?"
He must have nodded.
She regarded him with a frown.
After a moment, she sat beside him. She didn't put her arm around him. He had a sense he shouldn't sink against her so he sank back in the seat.
"Tell me everything," she said. "Everything about your life and your dad."
The child told her. It didn't take long.
She was silent for longer.
"There's no way to explain to you what your life will be, if you come with me," she said at last. "There's no way to make it your choice."
He stared at her again. What choices did he have?
She tried one more time. "Your people aren't from Carida. You from the Yavin System?"
He didn't know where this answer came from. Maybe Jeron had actually told him things. Never about his mother—why she wasn't with them or who she even was, omissions so complete that as the child grew, he would wonder if Jeron had kidnapped him. But the name was there to come up from the deeps. "I'm from Fest."
( He'd dredge up eventually: Most planets' names in their own peoples' languages mean 'dirt'. 'Fest' means 'rock' and deserves it. )
The woman's face went flat
like Jeron's.
The child was frightened.
At last, she heaved a deep, deep sigh.
"Okay," she said. "I'll take you with me." She offered her hand, which he took, and moved it in the manner of an agreement.
“Cassian Jerón Andor,” she said. “I’m Xol Qryw.” She dropped his hand. “There. You know who to curse later.”
Her only other hesitation resulted in her removing her jacket and draping it around him.
When Qryw left him to assist the pilot, something else happened that hadhadnt before
~ ◊ ~
enfolded
~ ◊ ~
On the seat bank opposite was a little girl. Cassian could have sworn it was empty. Maybe his eyes were playing tricks, like they had before, on… When…
She was humanoid. Human, like him. But with Core pallor—who cares: when she raised her eyes, geography collapsed. They were green with gold dust; crystals, oceans, starscapes.
Her gaze met his gaze with exactly the same substance. Which meant, like nothing else in the Galaxy, they could withstand and brace each other.
Emptied, outliving, they looked at each other across space, and time (different times, the same moment). Everything they'd known was abruptly gone. Nothing about the future was imaginable. All they had was an unprecedented knowledge, even more than they thought they’d already learned, of how much pain could happen in a moment. Which meant there really were no limits on how much more could happen any time. If they would even feel it on top of what could never get better.
In one shuttle, the giant rasp-voiced man, whose legs flickered with quantum uncertainty, tried to look reassuring but murmured, "What am I going to do with you…?"
and this shuttle, in time-folded unison, the Separatist Qryw said, "There's no way to make it your choice…"
Now (when? then), the orphans looked at each other. It would take so much more / courage, generosity, hope / energy to move / will to be / than the last hours left either of them. They did it through blind, instinctual need—and having done it always.
They reached for each other / backwards and forwards. The one thing that could pull either out of their own crystalless-deadened-oceanless-severed-cavecage was to help, connect, with each other’s.
Síydh’s and Jerón’s child, as the world again (so there’s no limit on how many times it can) exploded, hung stunned from Qryw’s hand. It was when a pair of starried green eyes cut through his new deadness and mouthed Go! that he returned Qryw’s grip and ran into his next future.
Galen’s and Lyra’s child sat in crushing darkness. After hours of flickers nursed by her fists, her lantern finally died. All she could see was Mama dead. That was what Dead looked like. Gone forever. Papa was not only dead going forward but backwards, too: everything she thought she knew never existed and replaced by unthinkable. She couldn’t save them and they couldn’t save her and they were never coming back.
She would be “saved”, damningly, when Saw retrieved her. But that would be someone with other names for other roles. Mama and Papa’s daughter, who had planned to be a marine-biologist-spelunker-cartographer when she grew up, had just died with the light.
Almost. From the darkness out of nothing, where no had been, yet without upsetting her, like it was the most natural thing in the world, little Cassian sat beside little Jyn. He picked the lantern from her palms and replaced it with his hands.
After a moment, she put her head on his shoulder. He leaned his head on hers. They rested on, with, each other. That was enough for once-Shaak-girl and almost-Ash-rabbit to survive a moment longer.
I can't be there right now, neither/both mirrored. But I will be. You'll see.
