Archive of Our Own ^beta

“I’ll tell you this again when you’re awake but you need to know this story, Finn especially today. They died today,” Poe drank another glug of ale, he needed to talk and drink but his squadron, everyone knew all his stories, Finn didn’t, Rey didn’t but she’d left. Off to find Luke Skywalker.

“Before we even knew what the Death Star, there was this spy, Captain Cassian Andor, my parents kind of knew him. They talked about how he moved like a ghost through the Empire, touching connections, finding what was hidden, that’s how you do it. I’ve read some of his reports, don’t tell you much which tells you. It’s hard though, you have to know how to not be yourself, be someone else and not care what happens as much. But he’s only part of the story, he had a droid who had been Imperial, he’d reprogrammed it, big and black and didn’t care what he said. Kay, that was his name and they were a team, a good one. You need a good droid, one like BB8, I’m so lucky to have him.

So Andor’s searching out the truth about the Death Star though he doesn’t know it, but Bodhi Rook, he was an Imperial pilot, he knew. He knew and he left to tell everyone, but he didn’t come to us, no he went to Saw and his Partisans. Saw was a fighter and Jyn Erso, he raised her but she comes later. No, she comes now, her father designed the Death Star, Imps forced him to but he talked to Bodhi, said there’s a way to take it down, go tell my daughter. Saw will know where she is and what to do. Think of that, all about family because it is. We’re family here. And their story, it’s ours, not like the big ones but they belong to us, to the Resistance.

Now all this comes back in trickles but Jyn’s in prison and gets rescued and comes here to Yavin. Then they meet for the first time, Jyn and Cassian, before going to Jedha, it’s gone now but they go. They find Bodhi and these two Guardians, don’t know if you know about them, not Jedi but they believe and know the Force. Baze and Chirrut, they followed because they knew and saw what none of us could. Kept Jedha safe for their people and they get mixed up with Jyn and Cassian captured and taken to Saw. Saw who sees Jyn and she’s his hope and her father’s, but it’s too late, Jedha’s a test for the Death Star. They make it out, whoosh, I think Andor must have been a better pilot than he knew. Mama said he wasn’t a starfighter pilot but knew what he was doing and they just flew out.

So they go off to this rainy rock where Galen Erso is and it’s raining and Cassian has orders and Jyn wants her father, but they crash. Command thinks they’re gone so they send a squadron, somehow they make it out, but something happens. I don’t know what, no one was with them and Andor’s report is really bare. I wish I could have asked him. Mama said when they came back, the air was tense, something changed out there. Galen died, and Jyn didn’t have anything else left.

Then there’s the briefing where it almost comes apart but Jyn gets angry and inspiring. Still there wasn’t enough hope, not for the Council but Cassian, be believes and he finds Pathfinders, my Dad was one but wasn’t with them, to be Jyn’s team. When it happened, everyone who was there thought they would kiss but they didn’t, maybe they did on Scarif.

Then they go to Scarif, it almost works. They get in to find the plans while Baze and Chirrut and the Pathfinders keep the Imps occupied. Bodhi figures out how to get the plans out then the fleet arrives because they created hope and they send the plans. The shield goes down, this small strike team, they got in, they found them. General Organa was there but then..then before they can escape, the Death Star is there again and boom, they’re gone. I wish I could have met them. Without them, we wouldn’t be anything, no Skywalker with his one shot, no General Organa and her everything just gone.”

Poe leaned back on his chair and patted Finn’s tank, “But we’re here and we’ll keep fighting cause there’s always hope.”