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You walked unafraid and unarmed on the sandy beaches of Scarif. Beyond the trees, you heard the sounds of Rebels fighting the Empire soliders. They were distant to you as you walked towards where you were being pulled.

Standing tall above the pretty blue waves was a tall, grey tower. Cassian was in there. You could feel it. And so you climbed the outside of the Citadel Tower, the hood of your poncho pulled up over your head. You slipped inside when you reached the fourth floor and continued on.

An alarm was blaring and there were urgent shouts in the distance. So Cassian had already been discovered. You didn't have much time to delay. You stepped a little quicker.

"You! You aren't authorized to be here---" A flash of white crossed your line of sight. You paused in your steps, in the center of the hallway, and glanced around. Two stormtroopers stopped in front of you. One of them grabbed your arm. "I said, you are not authorized to be in here." 

"You will let go of me at once," you said, your voice steady and relaxed, "and you will allow me to be here." 

His grip relaxed and his hand raised. "I... will let go of you at once and I will allow you to be here." 

You nodded and the second stormtrooper nodded along with you. "And you will answer this... there is a group of unauthorized persons on this very tower. Where have you located them?"

"Last we heard, they were in the data vault." 

"Yeah, we heard about the data vault. Director Krennic just sent his guard squadron to the beach and he and two men went to handle the scum at the vault---" 

"Point me to the direction of the vault," you ordered. Their fingers directed you to the left. 

"Just that way. Up the ramp, to your right." 

"Excellent, thank you," you said, pushing your way between the two. As you walked down the rest of the corridor, you shouted, "You will forget that you've seen me here."

"We will forget that we have seen you here!" one said cheerfully. 

"Yes,  we have already forgotten!" the other echoed.

The directions the stormtroopers had given you proved to be correct as you located the data vault. You waved your hand slowly in front of the sealed doors. The red from the sirens above reflected in the ebony floor. You stepped on, boots light against the shiny floor, untouched and unnoticed from the Empire that was beginning to fall apart around you. 

For once, the Rebels were winning. 

You paused as you neared a second set of doors. K-2SO lay on the floor, his chest and back full of holes. Sparks flew out of the wires that were exposed in his shell. Staring at him, you swallowed hard. Cassian's droid. You'd only known him for a handful of hours, but his death flared inside of you nonetheless. Something else you hated to Empire for --- they stole and they stole and they ripped those you cared about from your life without thinking twice. 

You walked on, your fingers waving the next set of doors opened. These opened slowly and with a loud groan. They were dented from the amount of shots that had missed Kay. You walked through. Wind whipped your hair around your face.

The glass that protected the data was gone. You approached the panels and leaned over the edge, and at the bottom left of the data vault, draped brokenly across a grate, you saw him. 

"Cassian!" the scream the ripped out of your throat threatened to expose you, but you quickly realized that the entire tower was empty. You couldn't sense a single life left in the building. The end of the fight was approaching quickly. 

You wasted no time to leap over the open space. You hit the wall of data with a grunt, your cold fingertips struggling to catch your weight on the small grip it offered. You shoved the toes of your boots into the crevice of the wall and started to move downward, as quickly and safely as you could. 

Explosions sounded in the distance. Loud, horrifying screams. The sounds of war were just outside, and you were directly in the middle of it. This was the first battle in a series of long battles that awaited the Rebellion. 

Soon, there would be victory. The young girl that was sending the Death Star plans through the satellite at the top of the tower was sealing that promise. You felt it in your soul. The work was done. You had saved Cassian, Cassian had saved Jyn, and now Jyn was saving the last hope.

When you were hanging over the grate, you let yourself fall. It was a harsh fall that made you flinch when you felt the impact on your heels. Ignoring the pain, you turned and rushed over to Cassian. Your hands went underneath him and you turned him over. He had a blaster shot in his side. 

"Cassian," you said. He was alive beneath you. You cupped his face, feeling the warmth of his skin beneath your fingers. It had been too long since you'd felt it. "Cassian Andor." 

His eyelids fluttered open as his teeth gnashed together. He curled up in pain, his arm pressing against the middle of his stomach. You covered his hand there, pulling it away from his wound. 

"Hey, hey," you said, voice soft. "It's alright. Relax." 

His eyes opened wide now. He froze. "___--- ___?" 

"I'm here." You closed your hand around his, bringing it to your face. His knuckles were busted and bloody. You kissed the back of his hand, pressing your cheek to them. "Everything is going to be all right now." 

He was looking at you in disbelief. "I thought... I thought I had lost you. I never thought I'd see you again." 

You shook your head, smiling with all of your teeth and feeling the tears slips down. "I wasn't going anywhere without you, Cassian." 

"You were gone." He struggled to sit up and so you helped him, your fingers hooking onto the neckline of his shirt and gripping onto the shoulder of his sleeve. You kept one hand pressed against the back of his neck, keeping him close to you as you settled in the space between his legs. "I looked for you." 

Again, you shook your head. "It just... it took me a while to find you." 

"Too long." His eyes, overflowing with tears, flickered to your lips. 

"Too long," you agreed. You put your hands on either side of his face. He looked at you with such intenseness that your heart skipped a beat. You felt his fingers on the back of your neck, his eyes swept across your face, and you just smiled. "I love you, Cassian."

"And I love you," he whispered.

You kept your arm around him as you both made your slow descent out of the tower and down to the beach. The fight was over. Even though there would be no escape for the rebels on Scarif, the Rebellion had come out of this victorious. 

On the edge of the beach, where the warm water rushed over your ankles and foamed at your feet, you and Cassian collapsed on your knees.

"I saw my father again," you said, your eyes on the amber skyline. It was just like your visions, the destruction of a planet at the power of the Death Star. And although this time you knew your body was physically on this planet and this was where you would die, you were not afraid. In fact, you were less afraid right here in this moment than you were in any of your visions, because Cassian was holding your hand and he was looking at you in that way that told you that you were all that mattered to him in this entire universe. "I saw my father and he told me we would be together again. I believe that." 

"Wherever the Force takes you, I want to go too," he said. His hand squeezed yours. "I'll follow you anywhere."

"Follow me to the stars," you murmured, leaning in to kiss him one last, perfect time. Your fingers pressed into the softness of his face, inching back to grab his hair, and your body pulled forward. 

The warmth of the explosion was getting hotter but you still had time. You looked at him one more time, your arms moving to wrap around him and his moving to wrap around yours.

If death was going to steal you away, then it would do so with Cassian in your grip. And your souls would travel to the stars, where you'd leave your permanent mark on the galaxy, living in peace as you waited for your father to join you. Then the three of you would watch the journey of a young girl and young boy as they restored peace to the rest of the galaxy. The thought was so overwhelmingly beautiful. 

You found yourself unable to be afraid. You grinned and he reflected the same golden happiness. The two of you never stopped looking at one another, never faltered in your embrace, never looked at the flames as they neared, hotter and hotter against your skin. You could face anything so long as he was holding you.

Life had taken you away from him. You knew death would be kinder than that.