War Child--Rogue One

II

Amya deposits me on one of the fur-covered beds in my home.

She unwinds the scarves covering her Lekku and lets the fleshy appendages hang.

Mother rushes into the room.  "Perl, Cass, what took you so long?"  She stood dead when she sees not Father, but Amya.

"Amya, what a surprise.  Can I help you with anything?"  She puts on a smile, but she definitely is nervous.

"Mother, help?" I ask, struggling to pull off my gloves.

She nods once and circles around to me.  Amya turns with her.

"I found Cassian by my storage shed.  He'd fallen over," the Twi'lek explains.

"Where was Perl then?"  My coats are slowly freed and deposited on the bed next to me.

"He was shot."

Mother froze.  "What?  By whom?  I need to report this to the base!"

"The base has been occupied by snow troopers.  They are the ones who killed Perl."

A sound I've never heard before drips from her mouth. I've since realized it was the sound of pure pain.

She rushes over to me and gathers me in her arms, weeping over me.

Amya looks around for a moment, then resumes the meal my mother had been making. She makes us eat.

It's easier for me. I still haven't realized the weight of what just happened, not that my father actually will not come home to me.

The Twi-lek feeds my mother by hand like she is a child. I feel proud, because I can feed myself, and I tell them both that.

I go to bed, and hear my mother crying. I can't sleep from the noise, so I climb into bed with her.  She wraps her arms around me and squeezes me, tight.  So tight I can hardly breathe.

I cry out and wriggle from her grasp, flopping so I'm a few inches away.

She strokes my head with tear-dampened hands.  "I am sorry, Cassian."

It's three days before I realize Father will never come back to me.

Over the next year, I spend most of my time with my mother, until I meet a group of boys as hell-bent on destroying the Empire as I.  Well, at least as determined as seven-year-olds can be.

Technically, Theron is not seven.  Or maybe he is.  He doesn't remember either of his parents, or his birthday.  All he knows is that his grandmother cared for him for six months, and was shot by a stormtrooper for refusing him her animal.  But when Lac and I tell him that we are seven, he decides that he is, too.

Lac's father is a Rebel, undercover here.  When he goes on missions, he wears a strange apparatus that changes his voice and makes his look like someone else.  He always makes sure to enter his house through a passageway under the city, concealed in the the Twi'Lek Tavern.

One day, he and his Rebel friends have a mission for Lac, Theron, and I.

He hands me a small disk and tells me, "Chase each other until you get close to one of the tanks.  Duck down like you're trying to hide, then press this under it and tap the button three times, like this."  He demonstrates on the wall beside us.  "Then, run.  Run like your life depends on it, because you can be damn sure it does.  Understand?"

We all three nod.  I know that I am scared when I pocket the disk, but Lac touches my arm and calls, "You're it!"

He and Theron sprint off, I go after them.

Finally, Theron slows so I can tag him and run.

We're close to the tanks now, all gathered in the center of the settlement.  All of the buildings around her have been occupied by the Empire, for housing and Imperial officers.

I dive under a tank, attach the disk, tap it three times, then roll back out. 

Theron tags me.

I shout like I'm disappointed, then chase them out of the center, all sprinting as fast as our seven-year-old legs can carry us.

We reach Lac's father just as the explosion goes off.

The Empire reported it as a faulty igniter.

Our next mission is to bring food and water and a blaster to a man hiding beneath a building by the mostly burned out Imperial headquarters.  Lac carries the backpack.  We stroll through, laughing and talking loudly, then drop it down the hole.

How the stormtroopers haven't discovered the hole is entirely beyond me.  Maybe their masks don't let them look down.

Perhaps that is why they didn't recognize us after eight or nine missions, the three boys who always popped up right before something happened to them.

Brawn, not brains, I guess.

Not all of our missions go well.

Shortly after my eighth birthday, we're given a mission to distract the stormtroopers while Lac's father and his friends picked them off.

Lac, Theron, and I stroll into the center, and spot the leader, distinguishable by a yellow piece of leather draped over one shoulder.  We run up, chattering about how we want to be stormtroopers when we grow up and can we hold his blaster and how long does it take to be a stormtrooper.

It's hardest for Theron and I.  We both witnessed stormtroopers killing our families.  Lac can act well.

I just stand there, staring at the blaster like I'm admiring it, but really I'm wondering if that's the one that killed Father.

And then he drops.

The square erupts into chaos.  Lac grabs Theron and my hands and we run towards an alley, but are cut off by a crew of stormtroopers rushing in.

We all drop hands and scurry towards another exit.

Blocked.

Theron finds a crack, about two feet wide, a space between two buildings.  We squeeze through and run out the other side, all the way back to Lac's house.

We're safely inside when we realize Lac isn't with us.