CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
( ALL WE HAVE LEFT. )

FOR a military locker, the aircraft hangar was relatively unguarded. Most troops had been recalled to the front lines, she guessed, and those who remained were too busy looking out for hordes of incoming rebels to notice a single brown eyed girl sweep past. And any who was unlucky enough to see her didn't have the opportunity to raise the alarm.

From inside the hangar, the brunette rebel pressed her back against the cold hull of a disassembled TIE-fighter, the sound of hushed voices resonating from the other side of her hiding space.

"I heard they followed Krennic here from Scarif, after the assassination attempt failed the first time."

"Don't be stupid, not even the rebels would be bold enough to break into the best guarded planet in the galaxy to kill one man."

She didn't pause to eavesdrop on the conversation, and stepped silently between one ship and the next, the shadows obscuring her from their view as she walked between the rows of land bound aircrafts, searching for one she could steal.

Her dark eyes wandered of their own accord, finding heaps of ships better suited for scrap metal than the heat of battle. Finally, the lean body of a Y-Wing caught her eye, the yellow paint peeling from its aged metal body. It was an ancient model, probably built during the Clone Wars, but she'd been stealing ships like this since her ninth birthday. For what it lacked in power it made up for in speed and maneuverability.

There was only one problem. There was a gap of about twenty metres between her and the ship. Twenty metres filled with no cover and more men than she could kill with one blaster. She had no detonators, no stun grenades, she barely even had half a power pack in her gun. But every time she blinked she could see Bodhi's bleeding face seared into the back of her eyelids, and part of her knew that she'd die before she gave up now.

She looked to the side, where the side of a TIE was exposed. She reached forward and tugged the power cable from its side. She couldn't shoot them, and she couldn't blow them up. But Saw had taught her that resourcefulness was her ally.

She unsheathed the small knife strapped to her belt and pried free the cooling tank from the engine, the insulating liquid sloshing around inside. Silently, she crept towards the source of the voices, the liquid in one hand and cable in the other.

Two officers, three guards, and one opportunity.

She tipped the canister onto the ground, letting the liquid rush across the floor and pool around the officer's boots. They hardly noticed it until it was staining the bottom of their soles.

"What the-"

She dropped the cable, and electricity shot through the floor, following the liquid. A trilogy of agonising screams pierced the air, and Kit swung around the side of the ship, silencing them with a matching set of holes through the skull. Not everyone had been so lucky as to walk into her trap though, the evidence of which exploded in a blaster bolt above her head. She ducked, rolled, and fired two more shots, killing one more guard. The last turned and ran. She didn't bother shooting after them. She'd be gone before they had the chance to expose her.

Quickly, the brunette took off, swinging herself up onto the cockpit of the Y-Wing. She sat her blaster down at her feet, finding the beat-up headset and letting it rest over her hair. If the Empire has thought her formidable before, they were about to find out exactly how deadly Kitra could be.

The engine hummed to life under her finger tips as she guided it out of the runway, the sky opening up in front of her, spilling light over the trooper-infested runway. And despite the overwhelming rally of men against her, a vicious smile curled across the corners of her lips.

Her finger closed around the trigger, and the world exploded into action, bright laser bolts flying in every direction, rocking her ship as she sped down the tarmac towards the sea. The wheels trembled as they let go of the road, pulling themselves back towards the ship's belly as Kit steered it into a low dive, the nose skimming the ocean surface as she pulled back around to assess the battle.

The sky, like the ground, was alive with smoke and fire, the vastly outnumbered Rebel fleet losing miserably against their far better equipped opponent. Kit watched as a Rebellion U-Wing banked hard against incoming fire, it's protruding wings catching incoming bolts and exploding into a smoking trail of destruction. She swerved to avoid the thick plume left in the ship's wake, banking hard and firing back at the attackers who had shot down her comrade. Two TIE's burst into flames under her sudden attack, a third barrel rolling out of range and disappearing into the smoke.

Kit didn't have time to pursue, pushing her ship back around towards the Citadel tower. Her fingers skimmed over the comm system to punch in the code for the Rebel channel. A second later the radio crackled into life with the familiar sound of Rebel voices and Kit smiled.

"Incoming, this is Captain Kitra Erso from the Alliance fleet," the brunette said, still flicking through her controls as she flew, adjusting the thrust until the old ship felt like it was floating steadily. "You guys looked like you could use a hand."

"Damn Kit, am I glad to hear you!" A laugh crackled across the system, "We could use all the help we can get right now."

An X-Wing flew out from behind the Citadel ahead of her, a trail of two TIE's firing relentlessly behind it. Without a cry or even an explosion the side of the ship burst into a cloud of black smoke, and Kit had to barrel-roll to avoid its wake as it rocketed toward the earth. "Yeah I noticed," she said once she straightened out again.

"Commander we've got incoming AT-AT's on the east beach!" another voice shouted, "they're closing in on retreating Rebels!"

Kit's dark eyes flickering across the horizon until she found the AT-AT Walkers, their iron hulls like solemn grey tombstones against the green as they hunted down the remaining ground troops. "I've got it!" She said, the Y-Wing swooping into a sharp turn as she angled it toward the battle. She saw the shadow of her ship pass over the ocean and a familiar fire ignited in the pit of her stomach, causing a deadly smile to cross the brunettes lips. 

Finger on the trigger, Kit fired a duet of bright red bolts toward the Walkers, letting out a loud whoop as the beasts head exploded, shrapnel metal flying in molten chunks across the sand. "Down she goes!" The beast began to topple as Kit led her ship back around, the fleeing rebels pumping their fists in the air as she passed.

"The gate!" A sudden cry over the headset had Kit looking up toward the sky, "They've blown out the gate!" Surely enough, the sky above the Citadel was bleeding, red fire expanding like blood against the blue sky as the pieces of metal and fire rained down like deadly rain on to the sea. A chorus a cheers erupted across the station at the destruction of the shield, but Kit wasn't smiling.

"This isn't over yet!" The brunette shouted, "We still have to keep the tower clear long enough for them to send the signal through!"

"Their fleet is taking off from the north," the commander told them. "Focus your fire power there. If we can stop more ships form coming in then maybe we can stand a chance of holding out."

"Copy that, Commander, I'm on my way." Ahead of her, Kit saw the black hornet bodies of the Imperial ships dispersing from their hangars like drones seeking honey. Only they weren't out for pollen, they were out for blood. Kit steered the ship toward it, joined by what remained of the Rebel fleet.

As she crossed paths with the Citadel tower though something new caught her eye; her sister. "Jyn!" The brunette called out before realising that the woman couldn't hear her, she was too busy standing over the communications panel. Alone. Neither Cassian nor his droid counterpart were with her. But Kit didn't have the time to think about it.

On the horizon another TIE fighter was closing in, locked onto Jyn as the woman began to limp out along a catwalk connected to the tower. Kit readjusted her throttle, aiming toward the incoming enemy and fired. The ship exploded, but not before releasing a rally of electric blue bolts, sending Jyn and the platform she was on spiralling toward the ground as the now destroyed ship sailed over the tower and out of view.

Jyn managed to clasp onto some of the jagged remains of the catwalk, struggling in vain to pull herself upward onto the platform. "Jyn!" Kit looked for a place to land, some way to save her sister from the concrete that waited for her at the bottom of the tower. There weren't exactly any neon-lighted landing spaces, but Kit had landed in tighter places before.

She directed the ship behind the large control panel, the rusted craft groaning as gales attempted to steal it out from underneath her. She didn't have time to ease it on, instead waiting until the landing gears touched the metal before pushing up the hatch and launching herself onto the ground at a sprint.

"Jyn!" The younger Erso skidded to an unsteady halt over the metal edge and latched onto her sisters palm as it slowly slipped back over the edge. Jyn's wild green eyes stared up at her sister, caught somewhere between confusion and relief as Kit helped her back up over the lip of the platform.

"Kit," the brunette panted. "How did you... Bodhi... is he..."

Kit nodded a little. But she hardly needed to, the answer was obvious in her eyes. Part of her wanted to know where Cassian was, if he was okay. But the confirmation of his death would kill her, she knew. She couldn't hear the words yet, or she wouldn't be able to hear anything else. And before she could even fathom the weight of knowing Jyn's eyes were on something overhead, a quiet curse falling from the brunettes lips.

Kit followed her gaze and saw clearly for the first time the same dark phantom who had stalked them on Jedha, who had devoured an entire city without consequence or remorse; the Death Star. Death had come to Scarif, and it looked above them like a silent metal moon.

Kit knew then that she should have been scared, hopeless, upset at least that her own death now floated above her like a solemn metal angel. Instead she felt resolution. The fight to survive was over now, her death as certain as the rise of the sun or fall of the tide. All she had left was the mission, and a promise to avenge everything the Empire had stolen from her.

She looked over at Jyn and knew that she felt the same. "Come on, we still have to send the transmission," Jyn took her younger sister's hand and they both took a stumbling step toward the console in the centre. The platform smouldered where the TIE-Fighter had struck, sending ash and smoke in waves and obscuring the view beyond the ledge. They'd hardly made it another foot before a white silhouette emerged from the smoke; Director Orson Krennic, his ash-stained cape billowing behind him like an angry storm cloud.

Not now! Kit wanted to scream. Please not now! This man had a nasty habit of showing up for the worst events of Kitra's life; the death of her mother, the death of her father and now. He stared at her with flint-grey eyes, the same kind which had stolen her childhood away and haunted every nightmare since. In one leather-bound hand he held a blaster, levelled equally with Jyn's chest as the brunette inched herself in front of Kit.

"Who are you?" He asked, the words stinging like a slap to the face. How could he ask that? After he set her life in motion, stolen her family and her innocence and forced her to become a bitter, heartless monster just to survive.

You created me! She wanted to scream at him, you know who I am. But the proof was there in his eyes. He didn't know her, nor did he know Jyn. To him, they were just nameless, faceless insects beneath his boot. Another thing to crush. "Who are you?"

He jerked his blaster from Jyn to Kit, and for the first time Kit saw the madness in his eyes. There was fear behind there, and hatred too. He was hardly as terrifying as her memories granted him, standing here in the smoke. He was just as human as she'd always been, a quivering, raging mess of a man. But a human nonetheless.

"You know who we are," Jyn's voice was more controlled than Kit could ever hope to be. "We are the daughter's of Galen and Lyra Erso."

Krennic stared at them both, realisation sparking across his face, and then muttered: "The daughters."

"The daughters," Jyn agreed. She was stalling him — Kit realised — but it was only delaying the inevitable. They couldn't rush him. Even if he happened to be the worst shot in the galaxy he wouldn't miss in such close range, in the time that it took for them to close the distance. Her heart hammered incessantly against her aching ribs as her dark eyes searched for an escape, flickering wildly like a trapped animal.

Jyn seemed to feel the panic rising in her younger sister, her fingers lacing themselves around Kit's wrist. "You've lost," the eldest Erso told him evenly. It was a lie, they both knew, but right now they were waiting for a miracle, and they needed all the time they could buy.

"Oh I have, have I?" Krennic asked, his voice slow and cruel. But there was uncertainty in the cold grey of his eyes.

"Our fathers revenge," Kit didn't need to see her sister's face to know the defiance that was carved across her ash-stained features. "He built a flaw in the Death Star. He put a fuse in the middle of your machine and we've just told the entire galaxy how to light it."

The man in white snarled at her, his pale eyes flickering between them and the communications dish in the centre of the platform. "The shield is up!" He shouted, venom and hate mingling like deadly poison on his tongue. "Your signal will never reach the rebel base."

"Your shield is—"

"I've lost nothing but time!" Krennic erupted, cutting her off. "You two, on the other hand, will die with the Rebellion." He checked his aim. Kit prepared for the shock and whatever came after it, feeling Jyn's grip tighten around her hand for the last time. A thousand plans flashed behind her eyes. If he caught her side she might be able to crawl the rest of the way to the control panel, or distract him long enough for Jyn to finish the transmission. She fantasised it, felt it settle with certainty over her hollow bones. But when the blast came she still wasn't ready.

The electric echo of the bolt ripped through the air, and Jyn's grip fastened tight enough that Kit felt it bite through the fabric of her jacket. But she never felt it hit her.

Instead, she saw the man in white fall to his knees, the hate on his face melting away like new snow in the sun, replaced by fear and shock. A black hole blossomed across his white vest, and he fell against the metal with a leaded thud. Dead.

Kit blinked back the burning sensation in her eyes and saw a black shadow move through the smoke behind Krennic's prone body. Limping and bloody, Cassian Andor lowered his gun, and for a single moment the entire planet seemed to hold it's breath as if fate had taken that second and stretched it into a lifetime. He looked like a man who'd been dragged through hell an back but Kit didn't think she'd seen anyone more beautiful in her life.

She took a staggering step toward him and felt his hands clamp around her arms, holding each other together up. She wanted to sob and scream with joy. Cassian, here and real and alive as he'd ever been. "You're okay..."

Cassian smiled just a little and held her tighter. "I'm okay."

"Come on," Jyn pulled at the brunette's arm, and together the trio stumbled — half broken and limping — toward the console like a drowning man toward a life liferaft. Jyn reached ahead of them all, grasping the broadcast leaver and pulling it. The screen lit up and a a soft voice spoke out to them; "Transmitting."

Relief washed over the brown-eyed Rebel like a tidal wave and the strength that had kept her upright for so long seemed to evaporate from her muscles until the only thing holding her up was Cassian's hands, warm and real and right next to her. Every heartache, every bullet wound and murder had lead her here, and now it was over. Now she was finally done.

Cassian didn't ask how she'd gotten to the top of the tower, and she didn't give him a reason either. Instead she leaned forward before he had the chance to talk at all and pressed her lips against his, swift and brief and full of everything she couldn't tell him. It was far too short, and she wished she could've stayed that way forever, but they didn't have enough time. Instead she turned back to see her sister, and realised that Jyn was smiling. She realised that in that second Jyn looked more like their mother than ever before. Slowly, the trio walked toward the turbolift, and Kit wasn't sure whether she was holding Cassian upright or he was holding her.

"Do you think," Cassian croaked, "anybody's listening?"

Kit's dark eyes flickered to the sky, to the Death Star and all the invisible things beyond it and felt hope burn in her chest, replacing the inferno once built on her anger and pain. "I do," she nodded. "Someone is out there."

Whether or not he believed her she didn't know, but as Kit watched the pulsing blue-white light of the turbolift flash in front of them she realised that whether or not it was true didn't matter anymore. She'd come here seeking absolution for her sins, led men to their deaths to make up for the lives she'd taken, for the things she'd done. But no mission could bring her forgiveness, no success or loss could take away the past. All that she had now was only this moment, only Cassian and Jyn and the blood-soaked sand of Scarif beyond the Citadel. Somehow, though, that was enough.

Kitra Erso had spent a lifetime running. Running from her death, from her past, from the war, and now she couldn't run anymore she realised that for the first time since she'd seen her mother die on Lah'mu she was at peace.

Beside her, Cassian was struggling to walk. He leaned against her more and more, but she never complained. For the first time in her life she was glad to have someone lean on her, and to have someone to lean on. Without anywhere left to go she led them all to the beach.

The sand was soft and warm, spilling out into a cerulean blue ocean that was drowning in gold from the light of the sinking sun. Kit could remember the beaches of her childhood on Lah'mu, with soot-black sand and boulders that reached high into the bitter grey sky and decided that she liked here better, with her sister and Cassian beside her.

The three of them sank into the soft sand, one of her hands in Jyn's and the other around Cassian's waist. She squeezed her sisters hand lightly, making the elder brunette look at her. "I'm glad you came," she told her.

Jyn squeezed her hand back, "Me too."

Ahead of them the sky was split in two by a pulse of emerald light, and the horizon exploded into a mirage of hazy green radiance. The beach began to shudder beneath them like a rapid pulse, the waves flicking salt onto Kit's face as she tucked it into Cassian's shoulder and closed her eyes. "Your father would be proud," he whispered into her ear, the words vibrating against her cheek through his skin. She smiled a little and held him closer.

The world around them grew brighter, until the light seeped through Kit's eyelids, green at first before melting into white. In her mind she saw all the things she had been and all the things she had become to survive. The bitter fighter, the lost sister, the abandoned orphan. She saw them falling away until she was nothing but a nameless collection of atoms and energy, until she was nothing but a ghost.

• • •

why am i crying in the club rn?