CASSIAN COULD hear the destruction of Jedha City roaring outside the rebels’ hideout, although he didn’t know what it was at first. The noise drew the guards away from the cells, and Cassian took advantage of that to pick the lock on their cell door. The guards may have taken the obvious weapons from him, but they’d missed others, the kinds of things that Cassian relied on to get himself out of a tight pinch.

The moment Cassian got the door open, he burst out of the cell. Baze went right after him, calling for Chirrut to follow.

Cassian charged over to a table where the guards had stashed the things they’d taken from him and the others. He found his comlink and flicked it on.

“Kay-Tu! Kay-Tu! Where are you?” he shouted into it.

The droid’s voice came through immediately. “There you are! I’m standing by as you ordered, though there is a problem on the horizon. There is no horizon.”

Cassian felt his blood run cold. This was the worst-case scenario he’d dreaded from the moment he’d first been sent on this mission: to have the doomsday weapon he was trying to stop be turned against him.

“Lock on to my comm and locate our position!” he ordered K-2SO. “Bring that ship in here now!”

Cassian scooped up the rest of his gear and turned to see Baze and Chirrut standing behind him.

“Where are you going?” Chirrut asked.

“I’ve got to find Jyn,” Cassian said. Then he remembered what they had gone to Jedha for in the first place.

“Get the pilot!” he said to Baze. “We need him!”

Baze didn’t understand all the reasons for that, Cassian knew, but the man decided to trust him anyhow. “All right. I’ll get the pilot.”

Cassian didn’t know if Baze meant to save the pilot or kill him. He understood the grudge the man held against Imperials, after all. But Cassian decided he didn’t have time to do anything other than trust Baze, too. He sprinted off to find Jyn.

The walls of the monastery/hideout shook like a monster was trying to rattle them down. The place wouldn’t hold together for much longer, Cassian knew.

He followed his instincts, rushing deeper into the place while it seemed everyone else was fleeing out. No one paid much attention to him, too busy trying to save their own lives to worry about who he might be and what he was doing there. He eventually found a large, long chamber lit by a bright light streaming through a wide window.

Jyn had fallen to her knees in front of a holographic projector that had gone dead. An older man stood next to her, trying to comfort her.

“Jyn!” Cassian said as he raced toward her. “Jyn…”

The man turned, and Cassian recognized him: Saw Gerrera. Under other circumstances, Cassian might have gone for his blaster, or maybe just turned and fled. Now, though, they had no time for such things.

Cassian approached Jyn from her other side. “We’ve got to go,” he said. “I know where your father is.” The pilot—Bodhi Rook, he’d said his name was—had filled him in.

“Go, Jyn!” Saw said to her. “You must go.”

Jyn stood up but hesitated. She took Saw’s arm as if she planned to haul the man along with them. He shook her off, though, and Cassian could see why.

He was slow, beaten, sick. No longer the legendary warrior—the terror of the Empire—he’d once been. He wasn’t able to run any longer, but he wanted to make sure Jyn did.

“Save yourself. Please!”

“Come on,” Cassian said as he took her by the hand. She resisted him, not willing to abandon the old man who Cassian knew had once treated her like his daughter.

“Go!” Saw shouted, insisting even harder. This was his final wish, and he wanted nothing more than for her to grant it.

Cassian could see she wanted to argue with Saw, but the entire place was about to come down around their ears. It wasn’t like they could throw a grown man in armor over their shoulders and still escape. “There’s no time!”

Finally, Jyn relented and followed Cassian. As they left the chamber, Saw roared after them one final request.

“Save the Rebellion! Save the dream!”