Rogue One- Alternate Ending

Chapter 7

~Jyn~

When I wake around 6 hours after we actually fell asleep, Cassian's arm is still wrapped round my shoulders and my arms are still woven around his waist.

As I try to disentangle myself without waking him. He looks so peaceful when he's sleeping. None of the tough, immovable rebel captain remains in his face.

I really can't waste time staring at him so I continue to gently sit up and shuffle of the bed, managing to get up without waking Cassian.

Throwing a jacket over my combat clothes and slinging a blaster into the sheath at my waist, I manage to scrounge up some food and have a small breakfast on my own.

I have no idea how to prepare for entering Hoth, I know it's snowy and freezing so I scrounge up some warm coats, thermal clothing and warm jackets from the cargo hold of the ship.
My jacket has the symbol of the rebellion stitched over the pocket and a warm fur lining but I know it will never be warm enough from Cassian descriptions of the desolate planet.

A few minutes later Cassian walks into the cockpit with even more ruffled hair than usual.
He's thrown a rebellion jacket similar to mine over his shirt and trousers with a blaster at his hip.

"How long until we reach the rebel base?" I ask him, my voice coming out rough and quiet.

"Around 5 hours," he replies.

It doesn't seem as strange anymore when Cassian wraps his arms around me again, wether for my reassurance or his.

I know our future with the Rebels is questionable, the message on Yavin 4 only named the planet and there was no specific location or coordinates which means we will inevitably struggle to find the base, let alone re join. 

Cassian and I wordlessly break apart from the hug and start silently prepping for a landing.
We don't even need to talk to get the work done but we exchange the occasional questions.

"So what was Lah mu like, that's where you grew up after the empire right?" Cassian asks.

Questions about my past are never easy to answer. I usually close myself of from everyone, I also never open up about emotions or anything.

I never had any friends. Elle was the only person who ever came close to a friend and that didn't exactly end well...

The empire has taken away any chance I will ever have of fulfilling a normal life, I'll always have demons haunting me; nightmares to chase away.

"Jyn?" Cassian's voice brings me back from my thoughts.

"Well it was beautiful, I mean to me," I start as Cassian and I pack food systematically into backpacks.

"Sea took up most of it but there was our little farm and the rest of it was these massive rock formations," I continue, images of the planet come back to me. Along with mental pictures of my mother and father which I quickly push away.

"I used to like climbing all the way up the rocks and I got good at clambering up them even when it had been raining and they where dangerous. My father used to say I could climb anything."

I smile down at my shoes, "I thought if I could climb high enough I could hit the empire's out of the sky."

Cassian smiles at this. "When I was a kid I used to hide in ships and try to get taken on rebel missions, I was always caught though. I had a little army knife I'd always take. I'd strap it onto my belt and pretend I was a proper rebel hero." Cassian finishes and I smile.

"Don you still have it, the knife I mean?" I ask as I shove ration packs into my pack.

"Yeah, I do," Cassian says, drawing out a small wooden jilted knife in a leather sheath.

It looks worn but looked after, the leather pocket is pristine but looks old.

Cassian seems to smile down at the knife as he before looping the unbleached cords through his belt and securing the knife next to his blaster.

"I'm going down to get medical stuff, we might need it," Cassian says as he walks down to the hold.

"Okay," I simply reply before he disappears into the tiny cargo hold.

I wait a minute before Cassian returns with his arms full of bandages and bottles of medicine. He dumps them in a water proof bag and put them in his pack.

We're both done packing in about half an hour. Neither of us have many personal belongings but we have filled our packs with as much food, water, spare clothes and medical stuff that would fit.

Cassian switches off the auto pilot so I'm left in the back of the ship fiddling with my crystal necklace.

"Wanna auto pilot Jyn?" Cassian calls from the cockpit.

I've never been amazing at flying but I can handle a ship pretty well.

"Sure," I call back, moving to the seat next to Cassian, he shifts the ship to a faster speed so I fiddle with various switches helping to manoeuvre the freighter.

Just as I'm about to ask Cassian what coordinates we need, a huge white expanse of a planet comes into view.

I feel my mouth part slightly at the sight of the white sphere decorated with whorls of cold, icy blue. I can just make out little icy ridges and caves as we near the planet.

I can sense Cassian staring at me but we land on a snowy dune and start up the scanners on the ship.

There's an old tracker but our persistence with the ancient device rewards us with a large area of activity on the other side of the planet- it won't take long to check it out.

We start the ship's engines again and set coordinates for the place that flashed up on the tracker.

As we land I immediately know this isn't going to be easy. A snow storm has picked up and through the wall of wind and snow we can't see anything.

Cassian tells me he's going to try band get into contact with the rebel base.

"Look, we've got a signal, we just need to pick the rebel's signal up," Cassian sighs.

"Okay," I say, looking up from where I'm sharpening a knife.

"Yes!" Cassian exclaims after a while of painful waiting. I can still only see white out the window.

"Did you get a signal?"

"Yes I'm transmitting a message," Cassian says. He looks at me with a mixture of relief and happiness.

"Okay, I'll help," I say running over to him.

"This is captain Andor to the rebel base, Captain Andor to the rebel base." Cassian says with apprehension.

After a painful pause, there's a crackle and a voice comes through.

"Rebel base to Captain andor, we thought you where dead!" The voice comes through.

"No, still alive, aboard a non-rebel freighter with Jyn Erso." Cassian says into the intercom smiling widely at me after a let out a gasp of relief.

"Erso as well! Congratulations, I'm receiving your coordinates now." Says the man, I scowl at the speaker when he mentions me but Cassian just laughs.

"Can we have your coordinates, we need to make it to the base!" I say into the intercom, shoving Cassian slightly.

"Yes, transmitting the base location Erso," the voice comes through.

"Thanks, prepare for our arrival," Cassian says.

"Will do, good luck." The voice replies.

"May the force be with you," I say as an afterthought.

"And with you," the rebel voice continues before a crackle of static shuts off the connection.

Cassian and I go to the cockpit and take our seats after the coordinates have arrived and set course.

With that, we fly towards the rebel base.