i. video; un: fulcrum [open]

[candor1]

[Cassian lifted his head.

A moment ago he'd been hugging Jyn Erso. Now he was hugging a metal floor. He thought about springing to his feet, but the pain of being shot then falling down the data tower was returning to him. He'd forgotten about it on the beach…

…and it wasn't all the pain. It was much milder. He no longer felt like knew he was about to die. But there was still something broken in there, and his head swam and he was nauseated like he was concussed.

The voice near him made him reach for his blaster. First he remembered that he'd left it on the citadel tower. Then he noticed that he wasn't wearing his own clothes, so it wouldn't be there anyway. He zeroed in on the source of the voice, and grabbed for it, the device, instead. He tried to sit up to examine it and was rewarded with a fresh stab of pain. Okay, injuries maybe no longer fatal but still bad enough.

Forcing the pain and nausea aside, a few minutes' examination allowed Cassian to stop the recorded voice and try to get more information. Space station. (Made sense with what he could see.) Not Imperial. Not Alliance. Not… anything he recognized. He was near the crew quarters on level 6… but who were the crew?

The pain was getting harder to ignore. He couldn't keep lying here, and he couldn't move under his own power. Without knowing who he was dealing with—

or how he got here—had the white light not been a kyberblast been some sort of tractor beam? had they been picked up? was it a rescue or were they captives? where was Jyn??

—he should give as little information about himself as possible, so he could match identity to situation once he learned it. Choosing a civilian affect, Cassian set the device to what he hoped was an open transmission.]

I think… I need medical help. I'm on level 6. …I need help.

Comments

[candor1]

[There's a lot to parse in there… more than Cassian's spinning brain can entirely handle right now.

He settles for holding out his hand to Bodhi, and smiling.]

So you did it. You got it through. When Jyn sent the plans, they heard us.

[onlydoubts]

[ sorry Cassian, he's not wanting to overload you just yet. it's just something he thinks that should be known, especially since that's the last thing he lived. Bodhi had to live months here before anyone was able to give him answers about the team, and the mission.

with a slight nod, he takes the offered hand. ]

Yes. We did it. The Rebellion was able to destroy it, from those plans.

[candor1]

[Cassian gripped Bodhi's hand… but also tilted his head, examining the other man. If they succeeded, why was Bodhi microscopically acting like he'd failed…?

But Cassian wasn't prepared to assume anything anymore, so instead he said, more gently,]

How long have you been here?

[onlydoubts]

I've been here around four months now, I think? Longer than Jyn... it was around the time that most people started getting here.

[ and it's been a long four months. a frown pulls at his mouth. ]

If you want to know anything about the station, well, the answers aren't really all that known, but I can catch you up on things that we do know, and that have happened since we arrived.

[candor1]

[Cassian shook his head, his eyes staying on Bodhi's]

I'd rather know what happened back home. You said you found out from someone further along?

[And how Bodhi could have been here four months when Cassian just arrived, from approximately the same moment, still does his head in, but he's been prepped enough by Jyn on that one to know they simply can't know. Not yet.]

[onlydoubts]

[ Bodhi drops his hand, then. shaking his head. and then he nods. ] I only know what he told me, and I believe him - not sure what he'd gain by lying to a rebel thirty years dead.

Nobody made it off Scarif. But I don't think you'll be as surprised by that one as I was. [ he looks away. ]

I can play you the conversation, if you'd rather hear it for yourself.

[candor1]

[That moment again—when Bodhi looks away. Cassian frowns, trying to read it, but his head's still spinning with too many other variables. Reaching out again, Cassian doesn't try to reclaim Bodhi's hand, but brushes it with two fingers. Reassurance? It just feels right.]

Yes, I'd like to hear it.

[onlydoubts]

[ another nod, and Bodhi is fiddling with the device on his wrist, trying to find the conversation. he's listened to it many times, at this point. either way, once he keys up the conversation he presses play and lets Ren do the talking. ]

[candor1]

[Cassian listens as intently as Bodhi had. He has so many questions himself, but this Ren seems he'd be disinclined to be more specific.

And though overall it's good news—their own deaths notwithstanding, but as far as Cassian had been concerned, that had always been a likely outcome—]

The Battle of Yavin?

[It shouldn't matter to him. Not in the grandscale of other planets and peoples. But, hard as he'd worked not to admit it to himself, he'd loved that base—that forest, those ruins. Terrible images flash through his mind. Would it have been a ground battle, or…? …no, a space battle, perhaps even to bring down the Death Star…

His eyes had closed. He opens them again to look into Bodhi's face. There was that look again, on the recording and throughout this conversation. So Cassian finally asks—something Mon Mothma had asked him once.]

So we succeeded. You don't seem… to entirely feel like it?