CHAPTER FOURTEEN
( THE LYING GAME. )

THE sky above Yavin IV was thick with spacecrafts by the time the ship finally reached the Rebel outpost. Sleek metal bodies swarmed like angry hornets over the humid jungles, the thrum of engines buzzing like a distant storm. Soldiers, wielding rifles as long as Kit's arm, ushered high-profile aristocrats across the sun-bleached tarmac without so much as a backwards glance towards the Imperial cargo ship seated squarely in the middle of the runway.

The mismatched ensemble of Rebel's and runaways were gathered on the boarding ramp of the Imperial cruiser while Cassian spoke with the inspection crew at the bottom, working on a way to get them all inside. Bodhi, Chirrut and Baze were to be interviewed by Alliance intelligence while Jyn, Kit and Cassian went to the council meeting. Baze had argued against an interrogation, but Chirrut was a strange way of coercing his partner into agreeing with the Alliance's terms.

Kit stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the metal doorframe while Jyn spoke in a low tone with the Chirrut. Bodhi looked overwhelmed, his dark eyes continually darting between the incoming Council ships.

"Is that a Firefeather starcutter?" the former Imperial asked, pointing to a pinprick of gleaming black on the horizon, the ship's streamlined body whistling as it darted through Yavin's humid air. Kit nodded, the ghost of an impressed smile crossing her lips.

"They're really rare," Bodhi sounded almost as awe-struck as he was nervous, and Kit felt a small spark of admiration at the former-Imperial's knowledge of starships. "Someone important must be on board."

"Yeah well you don't get on the Council without money, guns or influence," she pointed out, and the pilot laughed in a fleeting burst of anxiety. Kit readjusted the crude attempt at a crutch beneath her arm to release the pressure on her flesh leg.

"I'm sorry about Galen," Bodhi said to fill the void between them.

Kit looked up, surprised. "Me too," she said eventually.

"I liked him a lot. Not that I knew him very well, but I did like him —"

"You probably knew him better than me," Kit told him.

Bodhi's faint smiled faltered. "I don't think so," he mumbled, his voice trailing off again. He appeared to be struggling to keep silent, despite the fact that it didn't bother Kit. She supposed that talking was his way of dealing the mounting stress.

She gestured once to the emblazoned Imperial insignia on his shoulder in an attempt to make him feel better. "I bet you'll be glad for a change of clothes."

"What?" Bodhi glanced down at his uniform like he was only just noticing it for the first time. "Oh. No. No I—I'm thinking I'll keep it. As a reminder."

"Of what?" Kit arched her brow.

Bodhi's face flushed as he leaned closer to her, like he was sharing some kind of secret. "That I volunteered for this. You know?"

Her lips twitched into an unwilling smile at the pilot's words, and an odd sense of admiration filled the aching cavity in her chest. This man, this quivering mess of a pilot, had sacrificed everything for something that he knew nothing about. He chose this life. And that in itself was something Kit doubted she could ever have done on her own.

Bodhi's brief smile melted away as he scuffed the front of his boot on the metal floor. "It's stupid, I know."

"No," Kit shook her head, the loose strands of her frayed ponytail brushing her cheeks. "I think it's symbolic."

Bodhi's lips quivered and curled upwards, and he gave the younger pilot a jerking nod. "Yeah, I guess so," he said, his voice growing stronger on each syllable. "What about you, what are you going to do now we're back?"

Truthfully? She wanted to leave. She wanted to walk into the Rebel base and punch Draven across his disgustingly smug face, pack her things and take the next ship to the outer rim. She spent three years following the Alliance blindly only to be betrayed by them again the second they decided to assassinate Galen Erso. But how could she walk out when everything she had was here? For the first time in her life Kit had a reason to stay, and it scared her more than anything the Empire could ever do.

Kit was saved from responding them Cassian came back up the ramp, a small wisp of a smile tugging at his lips. "Come on," he said, guiding Kit on her unsteady feet. "Draven wants a word."

• • •

"I'M glad to see you all returned safely," The Rebellion General said in an empty tone, the kind that made Kitra want to laugh at the utter absurdity of it. For someone who built a career on lying and manipulating, Dravits Draven sure wasn't wasting any energy in making his words seem sincere now.

The medical wing was almost empty except for the electrical hum of droids, which was probably one of the reasons General Draven had rallied the three returning Rebels before the official council meeting. That and Kit was being fussed over by a small army of medical droids, who busied themselves with the fixation of a new limb.

"The strike on Eadu was ... badly timed," Dravit's went on, "But after we thought we lost Captain Andor I was put with the immediate decision. Assassination instead of extraction." The lie was beautifully told, with the solemn nature that almost made Kit want to believe him. But she had seen the truth, heard it on Cassian's lips, and the smouldering anger in her chest swelled with every word the General wove.

"That's a pretty lie you've got running there," Kit called him out. The ninteen-year-old's voice dripped with sarcasm, a dark smugness burning in her obsidian coloured iris'. "Is that same thing you told Mon Mothma, or do have another lie constructed just for Council members?"

Draven turned his steady blue eyes to the renegade, a dark resentment in their pale depths. Three years ago that same man had been the one to pull the young brunette from the rubble on Onderon and carry her back to the Rebellion. Sometimes, especially now, Kit wondered whether he ever came to regret it.

Dravit's let out a long exhale through his nose, annoyed but unsurprised that Kit had found out about the original mission. "I'm impressed, Erso, I thought it'd take you longer to catch on. But, just for the record, what I tell any member of my department, or of this Alliance, is none of your business. I have never found myself needing to run my operations by the likes of a nineteen year old anarchist and I don't plan on beginning now."

Despite the obvious poison in the General's words a smile curled across the teenager's lips, her eyebrows raising in mock-praise. It was pitifully childish to bait the General, but if there was one thing she counted on it was that he would rise to the bait every time."Nineteen year old anarchist? How long have you been working on that one?" She wondered casually.

Draven deliberately worked on ignored the teenagers inquiry and turned his attention to Cassian and Jyn, the pair of unwilling partners sitting in silence throughout the exchange of deadly words. "I didn't come here to discuss my actions as an Intelligence Officer." He said instead, "I want to know what you found out on Jedha, and how much of that you plan on sharing with the Council."

"How about all of it?" Jyn asked in a tone that rivalled even Kitra's innate sarcasm.

Draven jaw twitched as a swallowed the urge to kick out the both of them. "Look, I'm no Senator, but I know politicians, and if you try to tell them that there is a fully-operational planet killer out there one half won't believe you and the other half will panic. Your testimony might be the only thing that can persuade some of the more ... sceptical Alliance members."

Kit watched the General for any signs of deception, and found none. "You want our help?" She asked with mild amusement, "How ironic."

Draven purposely averted his burning eyes from Kit to keep himself from saying something he'd regret. The General looked once towards the medical droid that still buzzed through the room, running the final tests on Kit's new leg. With a wave of his hands all the droids were dismissed, filing dutifully out of range to clear the air for the General to go on.

He fixated his eyes on each of the trio briefly and breathed out a deep sigh past his pale, chapped lips. "The Council is unpredictable on their best days. Most of them are idealists and the others are trigger-happy insurgents. Mon Mothma thinks that she can balance them, but she can't keep the peace inside her own Alliance."

Kit could tell the General was leading up to some kind of proposition. All these words, these pleas for sympathy, were only a ploy to get them on his side. "What do you want then?" She asked, preferring to cut straight to the point.

"I need you to back me up once we get in there," Draven replied instantly, more than willing to cleave his way straight to the proposition. "Using the idea of the planet-killer was a good way to get them on side but now that the rumour is actualised most of them are going to panic and try to find a way to protect themselves, even if that means disbanding the Alliance. I can't let that happen, and since you were the only ones to contact Galen Erso before he died and see the message for yourselves then I need your testimony to convince them."

Kit's lips parted in preparation to rebuke the idea. She knew that Draven was right, that this was the only way to defeat the weapon, but she was too proud to fold back on herself now and comply with his commands. But before any dark insults could pass her lips a calloused hand closed around her elbow and drew her back to face them, her eyes meeting the dark hazel iris' of Cassian.

"Kit don't be an idiot," he said lowly, "you know what we have to do."

Kit clamped her lips into a thin line, still defiant. "I can't trust him, Cassian."

"Then don't," Cassian pleaded, "But you can trust me."

Kit ground her molars together, her head split with a million conflicting emotions. She'd learned only a few things about trust in her nineteen years; that it was laboriously earned, and easily broken. She didn't think she could trust anyone after Jyn abandoned her on Onderon, but she never expected to meet Cassian either.

"Please," Cassian insisted, and the last of her defiance dissolved in a soft sigh. She hated the way he made her melt like that. Knowing he'd won, a soft smile wound its way across Cassian's lips, and he pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead. "Thank you."

Ignoring the gesture, she turned back to Draven, a hard resolution taking over her eyes again. "I'll testify. But I'm doing it for the Alliance, not for you."

Draven nodded once, the lack of a smug smile on his lips enough to make the younger Rebel feel more at ease with her decision. "It won't be easy, but it's our only choice."