A Rebel's Hope (Jyn Erso & Cassian Andor)

Chapter 4- Stardust

"K, we need to find the one called Stardust."

There was a long pause, longer than there had been before.

He pushed the worry for his old friend out of his mind as he listened to the blaster fire in the background.

"Stardust." K2 repeated, his voice almost sounding labored if it was possible for a droid.

Jyn was watching the tour of files when she saw the green light flash above them.

"That's it." She said, watching as Cassian delicately guided the handles over to the blinking file.

Suddenly, right before extraction, the lights of the tour went black and they were staring desperately at a pitched window.

They glanced at each other, knowing what this must mean for their companion.

"K." Cassian called for his friend, apprehension clouded his face as he strained to head over the blasts.

"Climb. Climb!" K2's voice crackled through the comm. "You can still send the plans to the fleet. If they open the shield gate you can broadcast on the tour." There was a loud sound directly above the speaker. "Locking the vault door now."

"Wait. K!!" Cassian ran back to the tunnel, but before he even went a few feet, K's voice came through again.

"Goodbye." At the same time Cassian screamed in anguish and the comm went dead.

The locking mechanism could be heard not far away.

Cassian turned around to face Jyn, his face seemingly broken.

She wanted so desperately to comfort him, to give him kind words of resolution for his long time companion, but she couldn't.

The loss of K weighed heavy on her, but not as much as it did Cassian. He put on a stoic expression with K, but in reality he truly cared for the droid.

For a moment she forgot where they were. She forgot their mission. All she saw was Cassian's shining eyes.

All of a sudden she had pulled him into her, colliding their bodies softly as she wrapped her arms around his torso. She felt him return her embrace, enveloping her in his arms.

She could feel his harsh breath on her hair, uneven and labored.

"He was a good friend." She said softly, her voice muffled by his shoulder.

"Best droid anyone could ask for." He sighed as he released her quickly and straightened his shirt formally.

Jyn shook her head as if to clear it as she pulled out her blaster and aimed at the large window they had been staring out.

"Stand back." She said simply as she shot and the glass shattered into thousands of pieces.

She dropped the gun and began to pull of the imperial uniform that she still had on, Cassian following suit.

No way were they going to be able to climb the tower in those bulky outfits.

She sighed in relief as she felt 10 times lighter without the black clothing on. She didn't know how the imps dealt with those.