Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to George Lucas

Explosions of Stardust: Chapter Two: The Passage of Years

AN: Wow! Talk about a positive response! I wasn't expecting that many people to be interested in a fic like this!

Jyn Erso was sixteen when her life changed drastically.

Saw had given her a loaded blaster and told her to wait in the shell turret until daylight…and then he had left her there.

Jyn was absolutely furious about it, even though three months had passed. Saw had raised her and just like that, he'd left her behind like her parents had.

My father is a traitor, my father is a bastard, my father is a coward. Galen Erso is not my father. Galen Erso didn't raise me…

Her fingers twisted under the binders that had been locked over her wrists, the fingerless gloves Maia had given her the only comfort her hands held now.

Her life had been turned upside down, and she was going to blame Saw Gerrera for it. He deserved it, she thought viciously.

Jyn had tried to convince herself for so long that she didn't care that the Empire was around, that the Empire had caused so much tragedy in the galaxy, that she could stand to have the Imperial flag waving in every corner of the galaxy just so long as she didn't look up.

She'd told herself that lie so much that she'd almost believed it when she'd held Maia in her arms as she'd choked for breath, asking Jyn to carry on her legacy of rebellion.

Jyn hadn't cried when she'd watched her mother shot down in front of her, and she hadn't cried when the light had dulled from her friend's eyes. Jyn's eyes had long since dried. She certainly hadn't cried when she'd unintentionally killed Cassian Andor, even though she still blamed herself for that to the day.

The Rebel Alliance was her best bet, unfortunately, and it was unfortunate because Jyn had run into a few of their members in the past and it hadn't ended well, but, too be fair, those rebels weren't nearly as good at hiding in plain sight as she was, which was a tragedy to be sure.

She'd always thought it was a bit stupid, the Alliance and Saw's rebels not working together, but the arrogance of the Alliance in regards to resistances against the Empire. It was the same kind of arrogance she'd seen with upper class Imperials.

The only difference was that the Alliance and the Empire were on opposite sides.

Jyn kept her face blank as the transport she was on pulled into what she could only assume was the rebel base and the cloth was removed from her head.

She probably shouldn't have decked the rebel that had collected her, but he hadn't been very endearing.

The only rebel of consequence that Jyn actually liked –barring Cassian Andor when he'd been alive– was the one she'd communicated with that was the rebel recruitment agent using the title Fulcrum.

"You don't have to keep contacting me, Jyn," the modulated voice mentioned from the comlink she had stuck in her ear.

"Maybe I just need to hear someone else's voice," Jyn grunted as she fiddled with her vibro-screwdriver within a vent within an Imperial station. She was in such a remote location that she didn't need to really worry about anyone overhearing her as long as she kept her voice low. "Blown anything up lately, Fulcrum?"

She was pretty sure that Fulcrum was male, even though that modulation made it almost impossible to tell. And she liked him well enough, better than any of the other rebels she'd met lately.

"I'm more of an intelligence gatherer," Fulcrum admitted, "but I hear you're more into demolitions."

That made Jyn pause. She'd never really said what she specialized in; of course, she'd listed off her skill-set to Fulcrum the first day that they'd made contact before he'd even managed to get a word in.

"I guess," she said. "But it's not the only thing I'm good at."

It might've been her imagination, but she could've sworn that she'd heard a chuckle on the other end.

"I look forward to finding out what you are," Fulcrum replied and Jyn smiled.

"Is it boring on the base?"

"You are very curious," Fulcrum laughed.

"One of my many faults, I'm sure," Jyn smirked as she fixed a charge onto a wall, priming it for detonation before pulling out her blaster and firing off a shot, hitting the Storm-trooper that rounded the corner to see her.

Jyn had to admire their tenacity for having patrols in the sewer system. That was painstaking effort, if you asked her, but you had to give it to the Empire for working at it.

"I'm sure there's at least ten more of them," she added, ducking around a corner to fire off a few more shots from her blaster as more Storm-troopers appeared to assist their fallen comrade.

"Only ten?" Fulcrum sounded amused.

"Maybe," Jyn acquiesced as she dropped a smoke bomb to cover her escape before clicking the button that would detonate the charges.

"Do you talk with any of your other prospective recruits this much?" Jyn asked archly as she sewed together her broken skin from an injury she'd sustained with a low-classed knife. It would've done more damage with a vibro-blade, and Jyn counted her blessings that her skill with first aid had increased since the time she'd tried to clean up Cassian's leg.

"Not particularly," Fulcrum said, "they rarely call back; you're the outlier."

"Thanks," Jyn said dryly. "I hope I'm keeping your life interesting, Fulcrum."

He laughed. "The High Command doesn't exactly approve of a 'renegade rebel' having a direct line to an Alliance recruiter."

"Should've told them to stuff it," Jyn said, gritting her teeth together as she pasted the bacta patch over her injury.

"I'm sure that would've gone over well."

Jyn snorted.

Jyn blinked once the cloth had been removed, looking around what could've only been the rebel base with a bit of a disinterest.

There were people rushing about from within what appeared to be a temple of some kind. Jyn could see several X-wings under maintenance and several rebels exchanging datapads, looking very somber.

"If I take these off are you going to retaliate?" the rebel who'd locked her wrists in the binders had asked and Jyn glowered at him.

She'd known a transport was coming to collect her and three other recruits, Fulcrum had warned her to be ready, but somehow she had been taken off guard and they'd grabbed her hard enough that she'd given one a solid kick to the jaw, hence why she'd been the only one in binders.

The rebel merely sighed before removing them before pointing her in a different direction from the other recruits and that got him an odd look.

"General Draven wants to have a word with you," the rebel said shortly and Jyn's eyes narrowed as she followed after him to a more remote area that was dominated by a round conference table with several data-screens.

General Draven was a worn sort of man with light eyes and a perpetual scowl that appeared to deepen the fissures of his face.

She disliked him immensely on first sight.

"State your name for the record," he said shortly without looking up from his datapad and Jyn glared.

"Jyn Erso," she said frostily, not noticing how a figure had shifted in the darkness the corner of the room at the name.

"Jyn Erso, aliases Kestrel Dawn, Tanith Pontha, Ami Myec, and Selan Melkans?" General Draven asked flatly, finally looking at her and Jyn was certain that there was barely hidden disgust there. "Daughter of Imperial scientist Galen Erso?"

Jyn had never talked about her family, not even to Fulcrum, and she didn't like the look he was giving her. She neither confirmed nor denied the fact, staring him right in the face and not budging.

"I'm only going to speak to Fulcrum," Jyn said, crossing her arms and tried not to look as wild-eyed and fiery tempered as she knew she must've looked.

"Yes, for some reason he speaks very highly of you," General Draven said, the expression on his face clearly thought that line of thinking was misplaced. "The only thing you've got counting towards you is the mission you assisted Cassian Andor with five years ago."

That stalled Jyn where she was. "How do you even know about that?" she asked, unable to help her surprise.

"It was logged after the completion of his mission," General Draven said and Jyn's eyes widened dangerously. "Of course, he falsely labeled his partner outside the Alliance as deceased."

Jyn tried to wrap her mind around the idea that Cassian Andor had survived the explosion, but it was the only acceptable explanation for everything; there was no way the Alliance would've known she'd helped him otherwise.

"Where's Fulcrum?" she asked instead.

There was the sound of a polite clearing of a throat and Jyn turned in order to see a young man step out of the shadows and into the light. He couldn't have been more than twenty-one with an Alliance regulation jacket bearing two green circles, the insignia for a captain. The scruff on his cheeks was new in the manner of a boy growing into a man and man who couldn't be bothered to shave.

"I'm Fulcrum," the man said and Jyn's eyebrows raised as she considered him.

Accented Basic wasn't uncommon around the galaxy, after all, for many species it was their second language rather than their first, but there was something distinctly familiar about that voice, that guttural drawl.

Jyn's eyes narrowed and she looked him up and down. From the warm brown eyes that she had seen crinkle in the corners too many times in response to her dry remarks, the tawny skin flushed with fever for the first few days of their meeting.

"Cassian Andor," Jyn said the name with utmost certainty now, a smile creeping onto her face, "you're a bit younger than I was expecting."

That actually caused a chuckle to bubble from his lips.

"You're shorter than I'd thought you'd be," he returned and they shared a smile as if from a joke no one else understood."

"Captain Andor," General Draven said sharply and Jyn watched as he rolled onto his heels and straightened his spine, "Cadet Erso is your responsibility."

"Yes, sir," Cassian said before giving Jyn a smile as the general departed. "You look good," he added.

"I thought you were dead," Jyn informed him, swallowing thickly.

"I thought you were dead," he returned just as easily, tilting his head to look her over in a way that Jyn liked better than the way General Draven had looked at her, like she was a human being with feelings and skills that could contribute to something larger. "The explosion went off earlier than you'd said it would. I'd barely gotten out before the station blew."

Jyn pursed her lips, trying not to appear as uncomfortable as she was certain that she looked. "I got caught," she admitted with a scowl. "I needed to act fast, so I moved up my plans. The blast threw me into the forest; I thought you were buried somewhere under the rubble."

Jyn hadn't stuck around to find out.

"So, Jyn Erso is actually your name, is it?" His dark eyes glinted and Jyn frowned for good measure.

"Well, Cassian Andor is yours," she pointed out with a bit of annoyance even as he grinned before crooking his fingers towards her.

"Come on," he said, "I'll show you where you're bunking, Cadet Erso."

The emphasis wasn't lost to Jyn, but she didn't mind it all too terribly, feeling her Kyber crystal necklace warm under the neckline of her shirt.

"Cassian?" she said suddenly and he turned back to her. "I'm glad you're not dead."

And he gave her a grin that said he thought the same.

"Did you see her?"

"Yes," Cassian said shortly to the reprogrammed Imperial security droid that was locked into the data-grid, downloading new information.

K-2 was easily Cassian's closest friend on the rebel base, which was almost sad, but Cassian was kept far too busy to care that much about it. He had contacts to make, recruits to bring in, and traitors to kill.

It was strange to think of Jyn Erso as alive, though. Of all the possible recruits he could have made as Fulcrum, he hadn't been anticipating the name of a girl he'd long believed to be dead.

A fiery and wild thing of sixteen now, and how much had changed in the past five years. Cassian tried to find the willful eleven year old in the fierce sixteen, but it was a much more difficult task; far too much had occurred. They were both older now, both different.

"Does she know she almost killed you?" K-2 asked in an almost conversational manner. The way the droid spoke was rather refreshing because he'd lost the ability to filter new information with his reprogramming.

"Yes, she does," Cassian said, almost rolling his eyes, "but I also thought she was dead, so we're even."

"Doesn't sound very even to me," K-2 almost muttered and Cassian allowed himself a small smile.

It had been surprising to be contacted so much by Jyn while he was still operating under the alias Fulcrum –which he still was–, even though he wasn't the first Fulcrum. He had inherited the name from a fellow rebel Gahyic Tardun who had inherited it from the first Fumcrum, Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi who had worked previously with the Alliance before her disappearance after a run-in with Darth Vader. At this point, Fulcrum was more of a myth that was associated with the Alliance.

It wasn't regulation to allow a prospective recruit to keep calling back, but Cassian had personal experience with Jyn Erso before. He didn't mind listening to her ramble in the midst of causing damage to the Empire's possessions.

"You can go ahead and shut down for the night," Cassian added to the droid. "There's nothing you can really do right now until we have more intel."

"Unfortunately," K-2 grumbled before pulling himself away from the data-bank in order to sit on the ground, his long and dark metal legs a trip hazard before the optical lights that were his eyes dimmed.

Cassian's lips curved. K-2 was about as close as a droid could get to being sarcastic, which was saying something, because as far as anyone knew, droids were not sarcastic…though that astromech that was with Raymus Antilles certainly came close.

He patted the droid on his shoulder before turning back to the data on the screen, logging the hour that he'd signed out with a few taps of his finger.

And then he made his way off to his room, wondering what the future might hold.

Jyn Erso was only a cadet for a week, which Cassian thought was something of a record. But Jyn alone had a great deal more experience than most of the current soldiers in the Alliance. Cassian didn't know if she had more experience than him, but he was sure that even if she didn't, then it was very close.

He'd seen her shots in target practice. She was good, but if she'd been given truncheons, she was a demon.

Cassian hadn't been watching where he was going when he'd walked past her while she was practicing and she'd socked him painfully in the stomach with one, eliciting a loud groan from him before he fell to the ground, still holding his data-pad.

Jyn leaned over him, arching an eyebrow as she looked over him. "Didn't they teach you rebels not to run into a truncheon?" she asked completely unrepentant.

Cassian was almost annoyed. "Perhaps," he grated as he pulled himself into a sitting position as he considered her. "You look like you're settling in well."

She was wearing a similar brown jacket to most of the members of the Alliance only now it had a silver arrow on the breast pocket to indicate her new status as 'private'. As far as he could tell, she was rather unperturbed by the change in station.

Jyn shrugged before offering him her hand and Cassian didn't even have to think about it.

She yanked him upright. "I don't think a lot of people here like me," she admitted with an ever-present scowl and Cassian's brow furrowed slightly in confusion. "I guess they're not much fans of Saw's rebels."

"Ah," Cassian said in understanding, looking around the room to see that there was a bit of attention on Jyn. Perhaps they'd been expecting a chewing out for hitting him, but Cassian knew better. Besides, even among rebellions, the Alliance had a certain level of arrogance when one considered just how important Saw's incursions were towards their cause.

Mon Mothma, the senator of Chandrila and leader of the Alliance, had always been very disapproving of Saw Gerrera. Jyn probably wouldn't have been allowed into the Alliance, given her history with Saw, if Cassian hadn't spoken for her.

Cassian didn't think it was the smartest idea to cut off other rebels, but he'd done a lot of unspeakable things for the Alliance over the years. Some things that he still had trouble sleeping with.

"They'll get used to you," Cassian said and Jyn rolled her eyes.

"No Kay," she noticed, looking for his ever-present Imperial-reprogrammed shadow. The first time she'd seen K-2, she'd tried to run for a blaster and put a hole in his head, but by now she'd gotten used to his presence, although, whether or not she actually liked him was still up for debate. "You guys have a fight?"

Cassian released a huff before he could stop it and she smirked widely. "He's assisting in repairs. He's not very pleased about it, but he'd be bored otherwise."

"A droid, bored?" Jyn said archly.

"He's special," Cassian almost defended and he could've sworn there was a glint in Jyn's eyes.

Jyn and Cassian ate together whenever they weren't doing anything, which was enough for it to be commonplace to see them sitting together in the mess.

"You could make more friends," Cassian said one day and Jyn had looked in him with a rather unimpressed air.

"Coming from someone whose best friend is a reprogrammed Imperial security droid?" she responded easily, and Cassian couldn't help but ignore that comment rather than concede that she wasn't exactly incorrect.

He swallowed a mouthful of food in order to keep from responding and Jyn snorted.

"Cassian?"

Cassian made a noise around his food to indicate that he was listening.

"Are we friends?" Jyn asked him and he swallowed thickly, looking at her.

He knew a lot of things about Jyn that no one else did. He knew that she'd spent a few years on Lah'mu with her parents before they died, he knew that her favorite color was green, he knew that she was very good at blowing things up, he knew that she'd once been forced into a dress in order to sneak into an official gala in order to steal secrets from the database and that she particularly hated wearing dresses because of it, he knew that her weapon of choice was a blaster, and he knew she didn't like to not be doing anything.

"Of course we're friends," he said and she gave him a grin.

"You could need backup," Jyn pressed, jogging after him in order to keep up with his pace as he walked through the base, a coat wrapped tightly around his person, telling her wherever he was going, it was much less temperate than Yavin IV, and a bag over one shoulder.

"Jyn, you're no authorized for field duty," he pointed out and it was amusing to watch he expression sour at so little words. He knew she was practically dying to get out of the base, there were too many people, too many people that didn't like her, and only one of him.

Jyn wrinkled her nose. "You don't have to tell General Ass."

That made him laugh. "I'm sure General Draven would figure it out," he said and Jyn huffed and crossed her arms, looking every bit the sixteen year old that she was.

"It won't be that bad," Cassian tried to assure her, "and you'll have Kay to keep you company."

Jyn didn't look very convinced as they came to a stop just before the transport he was talking. It was small, so whatever he was doing, it didn't involve a lot of recruits, if that was what he was doing, but Jyn couldn't be very certain; Cassian had been very tight-lipped about his mission.

"Try and make some friends while I'm gone," he suggested with a grin.

"Captain Cassian Andor, the jokester, who would've thought?" she shot back and he laughed, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"See you around, Private Erso," he said before stepping onto the transport and lifting off, leaving Jyn to watch him go thinking of when Galen Erso had gone willingly with that man in the white cape.

She rubbed her fingers over the Kyber crystal around her throat.

"Here, you wanted one right?" Jyn held the blaster out to K-2, who had followed her down to target practice. She was starting to think that Cassian had put the droid up to it.

"I can discharge a weapon accurately," K-2 said in a tone that was nothing if not miffed.

"Have you ever touched a blaster?" Jyn asked, the epitome of dry and received nothing in reply, which she'd been expecting.

"I won't dignify that with a response," the droid decided.

"That is a response," Jyn muttered as she held out the blaster to the droid, and he picked it up easily, taking aim at the target in a manner that made her think that he'd soon too many people aim with blasters.

Then he paused. "Cassian's ship is coming in," he said in such a bland manner that Jyn was sure that he'd picked up chatter on the frequency that the Alliance used, and then Jyn was gone, rushing through the base to reach the landing pad that hosted the various X-wings, transports, and stolen Imperial transports in time to see the one that Cassian had left on return with a few more blast burns and looking very much run ragged.

She stopped as the engine's power was cut and movement was heard from within just shortly before the door opened to reveal Cassian with a makeshift bandage around his thigh and an arm burned.

It looked painful and he almost crumpled when he stepped down and Jyn had to lurch forward to wrap his good arm around her shoulders, winding one arm around his waist to keep him upright.

"Private Erso," he said through gritted teeth, "make any friends?"

"Just because you're injured doesn't mean I won't hit you," Jyn warned.

Cassian grinned as she helped him limp towards the medical facilities.

AN: The fic is going great, much to my surprise. The name Fulcrum was a title that Cassian held at one point, but it was also held by Ahsoka, as seen in Star Wars Rebels, which I do not watch (I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually), that's probably the only reference to Ahsoka that will be seen in this fic, but who really knows.

I will say that this fic is going to be listed as a two-shot for the time being, since I haven't quite had any further inspiration for it. Maybe when my colossally planned out SW fic, A Shift in the Force is completed I'll revisit it.

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!