I'm sorry it's been so long since I last updated! I sort of lost the inspiration for this story, and then with the new Star Wars trailer I kind of got it back. Updates may come on a weekly basis depending on how busy it is for me. But I will finish this story. I mean...I already know how it ends and that's like half the battle.

Anyways, thank you for coming back and reading.

Returning to the cabin in a rain-soaked coat Cassian quietly appraised the faces before him. The zealots, the defector and his keeper, the mad woman, and K-2. They had no comm units, a nonfunctional ship, and the only one he trusted was the Imperial droid. His mood soured further. "Bodhi, where's the lab" he snapped.

Like a soldier being called to attention Bodhi stepped forward, though awkward and jittery. "The research facility?"

He released a warm rush of air at having to explain further. "Yeah. Where is it?" he demanded shortly. He watched Bodhi seeing him tremble, debating whether to coddle or push harder. In his current state Cassian would only push and drag the answers out of him. Though a quick look to Eris, who stood behind Bodhi glaring, Cassian knew he wouldn't get far before she put an end to it. And maybe to him.

At a hand smacking his back Bodhi stilled and answered crisply, "it's just over the ridge." He resisted looking back at her not knowing whether he'd cower behind her narrow shoulders or nudge her back. All he knew was if he looked at her he didn't know if he could look away.

"And that's a shuttle depot straight ahead of us?" Cassian asked, watching the way Bodhi's eyes focused on him. "You are sure of that?"

In that moment with Eris at his back, the only person who'd ever had any faith in him, he was tired of being doubted. "Yes."

With a nod Cassian resigned himself to go on the word of a scared traitor. "We'll have to hope there's still an Imperial ship left to steal," he stated, voicing a fact they all knew: their U-wing was scrap.

Bodhi shrunk back when the captain's gaze set on the droid, giving it orders to burn anything sensitive. A sigh left him at Eris' warm chest against his arm, holding onto the promise she'd given him. She acted as his anchor, both in body and in mind keeping him still. Keeping him there with her.

"Hopefully the storm keeps up and keeps us hidden down here. Bodhi, you're coming with me." At Cassian's order both Bodhi and Eris straightened turning to him. "We'll go up the ridge and check it out."

"I'm coming with you," came Jyn's demand, feeling how close her father was.

Eris nudged Bodhi again and this time he turned and she motioned to the cabinet against the wall. While Jyn and Cassian argued about her staying the other two readied themselves for a long trek in the rain. Eris grabbed two coats while he grabbed a pair of boots that looked small enough and handed them to her. He looked down at the ones she was wearing, which covered her feet and nothing more. "You'll lose them in the mud."

She sighed before pulling the boots on, which were at least half a size too big, and pulled at the laces. He watched her pull both laces and tie them, not together but in one big knot, and then she shoved the ends inside the shoe so they wouldn't trip her. Without thought he dropped to his knees brushing her hands aside and pulled the laces out of the boot and unknotted them. Quietly she watched him tie them into bows and then did the same to the other boot. When finished he sat with his hands around her ankles looking up at her, finding her face softer than he'd ever seen it. Her brow was smooth, her mouth shut but not frowning, and her pale eyes blinked slowly – she looked young, almost sweet. He smiled faintly, a quaint thing that shivered on his mouth as heat flooded his cheeks.

Rising to his feet he took one of the coats and pulled it over his head. She did the same. He turned back to the cabinet and looked through a bag for anything else they might need. Holding up a blaster pistol he turned to Eris. "Think you'd be better with this than me," he said, only half joking.

But she shook her head fixing the coat over her shoulders. "Never used one," she told him simply.

"Ever?" he asked finding that hard to believe. He could still imagine the way that man's skull had cracked against the wall, the fire in her eyes. She was a fighter.

A wry smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth. "You really think they'd trust me with a blaster?" she posed instead.

Her voice was a light whisper and it drew him closer, closer to the warmth of her half smile. "Fair enough," he grinned. Her smile widened and he thought he might've seen it shining in her eyes. He could imagine making her smile often.

"You're not coming with us."

Her face smoothed to granite and she turned with steeled eyes to Cassian who stood grinding his teeth to the right of her. "I'm not going with you," she said through bared teeth before stalking out of the ship and into the rain. Setting the blaster back in the bag Bodhi quickly followed, looking up to meet Cassian's unhappy stare before sheepishly turning away.

They walked in silence for a little ways, the sounds shared between them were the drumming of rain on their coats and the suction of their boots in the mud. Cassian hung back a few steps his eyes mostly on Eris, watching the way she kept herself at Bodhi's side but a step behind him. The two conversed without words, Bodhi stepping too far right seeking her out assuring himself she was there. And she was there, sturdy and immovable. "Have you been this way Eris?" Cassian asked, still trying to prove why she shouldn't be there.

"I wasn't allowed outside," was her short, toneless, answer.

His mistrust of the quiet still woman blinded him, he offered no sympathy. In the back of his mind he held onto the thought that she was using them, Bodhi included, and if the only way to freedom was their death then she'd make rivers of their blood. "Have you tried escaping before?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Opportunity."

"And Galen Erso gave you one?"

"Clearly."

"So why are you still here?"

Every answer she gave was quick and simple, her voice a sharp edge softened only by Bodhi's hand reaching to brush against hers. But she hesitated at that question, her feet stilled sinking in the mud as she turned to look at her interrogator. Shaking her head her gaze fell to the ground wishing there were an easier answer. She looked up finding Bodhi's face, his wide eyes, rain dripping off the tip of his sharp nose. "I don't wanna talk anymore," she declared stepping away from Bodhi and continuing on, even though she didn't know where they were going.

He easily caught up, his thin form trembling in the cold wet beside her. "We gotta go up," he said nudging Eris the direction of the rocky, rain-slicked slope. As they trudged up the ridge Bodhi filled in the quiet knowing Cassian would start questioning Eris again, and Bodhi didn't think he'd be enough to keep her calm. He rambled about his time on Eadu, the cargo flights from Jedha, how he'd come across Galen Erso, why he was there though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. His mouth wrapped around, "Eris," and all words fled him. He stopped talking, and they walked once more in silence.

Every so often strong and half gentle hands fisted his coat pulling him up the slope. With stiff legs and bruised-unbending-knees he awkwardly hobbled up the rocks, his footing only beginning to slip when Eris would catch him. And when he was steady she'd let him go and they carried on.

She hovered like a mother, Cassian thought, her eyes only leaving Bodhi when she turned to make sure Cassian himself was alright. He'd only seen these two in pieces, fractions of a bigger picture, and he realized he'd painted their roles wrong. She wasn't there for opportunity, she wasn't looking for a means of escape – Bodhi was sound enough, his nerves were still fried but he only needed her when he slipped. This was Bodhi's opportunity, she was following him.

Reaching the last of the incline Bodhi set his foot in a notch in the stone and hoisted himself up, feeling the rock beneath him turn to mud. Her hands caught his waist before he could fall and he grabbed at the rocks using her as a stepping stone. When he was sure the ground was stable he turned prepared to help her up, only she'd grabbed the ledge and was swinging a leg over the side as she climbed up after him. Out of breath she took his hand and climbed to her feet.

"It's around this way," he said motioning to a narrowed pathway no wider than one of their feet.

This might've been a suicide mission, but the fall alone would kill them. The unending downpour wouldn't help. "Of course it is," she muttered turning to the grunting man behind her. Looking up from the stone he clung to Cassian saw her hand and after a moments hesitation, feeling his hold slipping, he took it. Stone ground under her feet straining against his added weight and she took a step back regaining her footing and helped him onto the rocky shoulder. And then she looked to Bodhi, who'd turned from her sudden kindness toward the captain and walked on without them, not noticing the gratitude on Cassian's face.

Bodhi darted across the rocks not allowing the stone under his foot enough time to crumble beneath him. He heard Eris behind him, quick assured feet, quiet heavy breaths – behind her was the captain, slower, less assured, more invested in living long enough to see the mission through. "You're good at this," Bodhi said after peeking over his shoulder to see her trapezing along the narrow shoulder with little effort.

"I have small feet," she replied, hearing Cassian stumble behind her. She'd already offered her hand, he'd refused, and when the stone went out from under she'd just about had to hold him against the side of the rock-face to keep him from falling. If he didn't want her help, she wouldn't offer. "They used to send me up for repairs, I'd walk across beams and wires to,"

A gust of wind threw rain at his hood and he lost the rest of her words, but he understood enough. He wondered if she'd ever fallen, he'd thought of asking, but they climbed one more ridge and stood on a ledge overlooking a raised landing pad separate from the shuttle depot. This was it, he'd done it. A hand clamped down on his shoulder shoving him behind a boulder, it was neither gentle or firm but rough with determination.

Eris stood behind where Bodhi and Cassian knelt straining to see through the thick rain to see the flat metal pad illuminated only by the lights of the compound. She'd hated Eadu. Its main function was a lab, the scientists were cold and dismissive but they weren't cruel – the same couldn't be said for the man in charge of the labor workers. But even in the stations that only bred pain and degradation there'd at least been a glimpse of the sky, a fleeting warmth of a sun, a rare short breeze. Eadu was a cold unforgiving planet shrouded in thick clouds, there was no sun, there was no sky, there was no hope. Until Bodhi.

"You see Erso out there?" Cassian asked handing Bodhi the quadnocs.

Holding them to his eyes Bodhi looked over all of the faces standing on the platform, several were familiar but none were right. "That's him," he said, excitement hitching in his voice. "That's him, Galen, in the dark suit."

Eris watched the captain snatch the quadnocs to see for himself. His refusal for Jyn to come with them, the sniper rifle slung across his back, the fact that they were standing on a cliffside in the rain with a broken ship let alone the fact that they were on the damn planet in the first place – Eris was seeing more and more that her first thought was right, he'd come to kill Galen. And Bodhi, sweet trembling Bodhi, hadn't figured that out yet.

"Get back down there and find us a ride out of here," Cassian ordered giving the smaller man a slight push to get him moving.

"What are you doing?" Bodhi asked, the first signs of doubt curling around his confused voice.

Slinging the rifle around his shoulder he adjusted the scope letting the internal computer compensate for the rain until he had a clear view of the platform and the engineers standing on it. "You heard me," he told him, letting his voice harden so as to erase any warmth that'd sparked between them.

This wasn't right. "You said we came up here just to have a look," Bodhi snapped, confusion giving way to frustration. This was all wrong, why hadn't he noticed the rifle before – why did Cassian need it?

It was the familiarity that allowed Eris to notice the faint even rumbling in the air. Both men chalked it up to the storm, but Eris had heard shuttles coming and going on this planet long enough she knew its sound – a shiver caught in her spine like it always did waiting for a trooper to collect a group of laborers to reassign them.

Cassian looked up from his scope to the pilot, seeing the pale woman staring at the sky behind him. "Go," Cassian instructed. And when the pilot didn't move he snarled, "hurry!" His loud voice caught the woman's attention and she turned with a fury he didn't expect, his finger tightened on the trigger reflexively.

Shoving Bodhi aside she grabbed a surprised Cassian and hauled him to his feet dragging him to where she'd been standing so that he could see the faint lights behind the clouds of the shuttle preparing to dock. Turning to the captain she saw his understanding and she promptly informed him, "you're not gonna have a lot of time and we won't wait for you."

"K-2 won't leave without me," he replied. As the words left his mouth two thoughts occurred to him: first, K-2 wasn't enough to stop her – second, she knew he was going to kill Galen Erso the man who'd freed her. He'd been right about her the first time.

She saw his face harden and she stepped away. "Then I'll shoot him," she said unforgiving. Another step back she found Bodhi, her hand encircled his wrist. Still staring at Cassian's dark eyes she said, "I've already got a pilot."

Bodhi let her pull him away, looked back at Cassian to see the man watch her for a moment longer before he turned back to the platform. "You don't know how to use a blaster," he said after they'd rounded a corner.

"He doesn't need to know that," she said glancing at Bodhi over her shoulder to see him contemplate her words before giving a shy grin.

It was just the two of them again, no Cassian following, no anarchists to prod and threaten. Bodhi and Eris taking on the Empire. How easy it was for him to fall back to that, how quickly he and she had turned to they. She kept their pace quick and a firm hold on Bodhi's wrist not letting his feet hit the ground long enough to slip. They were climbing down the last ridge in half the time it'd taken for them to get to the cliffside. With a sickly squish their feet sank into the mud and she loosened her grip on Bodhi, giving him the option to pull away. He didn't.