Dyin' Ain't So Bad

Someday they’ll go down together
They’ll bury them side-by-side

Cassian drops to the soft sand as his legs finally give up on carrying him to safety. His hand, sticky with blood, stains the white beach with crimson. He can still feel the warmth of Jyn’s arm around his waist, though she’d released him as he collapsed, now keeping her hand gently on his knee as she sits awaiting death beside him.

Dyin’ ain’t so bad

Jyn looks out over the ocean, recalling with a bittersweet smile the sarcastic remark K2 had made back on Jedha. “There’s a problem on the horizon…There’s no horizon.” All their crew, their friends, their family, lay dead around them, sacrifices for the Rebellion and for the dream of a free galaxy. Everything they worked for, the mission so many had surrendered their lives for, is now up to the rest of the Rebel fleet. She turns to the man beside her, and although she’s certain they won't make it off the planet’s surface, she knows the plans are safe, having been transmitted thanks to Bodhi, Chirrut, and Baze. She takes his hand, squeezing it tight, a silent way of saying “I’m still here.”

Not if we both go together

Cassian knows he wouldn't have survived anyway. The blaster shot, while not instantly fatal, caused too much damage for him to even make it to a medic. But having someone with him as he sits slowly bleeding out, someone to hold him just so he's not alone, someone willing to die with him, even when abandoning him could mean she had a slim chance to go on living, makes it better.

Only when one's left behind does it get sad

Flashes of what could have been run through his mind. A home somewhere far from here. Children playing just out of sight, laughter echoing in the halls. A galaxy free from power-mad tyrants and war. K2-SO tinkering with the newly adopted droid, teaching it several words it did not need to know, hoping they were out of earshot of the younglings. And at the center of it all, her. It all fades when the initial strike hits with a deep, resounding boom.

A short and lovin' life

He pushes himself up to his knees and hugs her, bracing himself for the explosion inevitably catching up to them. He doesn't bother to look. He knows it's coming.

A short and lovin' life

She can feel his weak heartbeat through his shirt. Her eyes sparkle from the fires raging around them growing ever closer. "Stardust," her father called her. If he only knew that was exactly what she's going to become.

They held each other in silence as the explosion enveloped them.

A short and lovin' life

That ain't so bad...