Authors Note:
^^
Haha, 011.
-
"I'm going to kill them."
I stare at Caden in horror. His words absolutely terrify me. For a moment, I fear that he's actually serious, but then I remember what happens when you mourn.
You say things you don't mean.
Caden doesn't actually mean that, does he? He's so innocent. He wouldn't hurt a fly! There's no way he'd skip harming a fly and go straight to killing someone, right?
Right?!
"What-what do you mean?" Cassian asks. "You aren't going to kill someone, are you?"
"Are you kidding me?!" Caden snaps. "Ben killed billions of innocent people, but we just welcomed him right back in! We act as if he never did any bad thing in his life. We act like he's perfect! But when I want to go and get revenge on someone—who isn't innocent, by the way—for killing my father, I get treated like I'm some monster!"
"Caden," I say. "once you kill, you can never return back from that. It messes you up. Believe me, I grew up doing that."
"I don't care if it messes me up!" Caden shouts. "I'm already messed up! My whole entire life is a mess. And who are you guys to talk? Everyone in this base has killed before."
"Well, that's true." Cassian says, and I shoot him a glare. "What? It's the honest truth. You can't argue with that."
I roll my eyes. "Cade, you don't know what it's like to kill!"
Caden doesn't reply.
"Just ... think about your choices. Please."
With a sigh, Caden storms back into the bunkers.
I turn to Cassian. "You don't think he'll follow through, do you?"
"I don't know."
~
"Mama, when we gonna land?" Stella asks, holding onto her stuffed Ewok named Loki and looking up at Lyra. "I wanna play."
"We don't know, Stelly-Belly." Lyra replies. "You'll just have to wait to play."
"Why did our home go bye-bye?"
"Because bad people came and destroyed it." Poe answers.
"Why?"
"Because they're bad."
"Why?"
"I don't know why they're bad."
"...Why?"
"Stella!" Lyra snaps. "Don't ask so many questions! We don't know why they're bad. We wish we did but we don't."
"Sorry, mama."
"It's okay, sweetie,"
"MeMe?" Stella says, looking to Cassian and I. "Can you tell me a story?"
"Um, not right now." I say. "Maybe later."
"I'm bored!"
"Stella, don't be bratty."
She pouts.
"Hey, Stella, how about we go play a game?" Rey suggests, Stella smiles and nods.
They leave.
"Okay, so where do we go?" Poe asks. "We can't fly around in the galaxy forever!"
"We don't know," Holdo replies. "we wish we did, but we don't."
"Yeah, well, that's nice." Finn says sarcastically. "We're going to live in a ship in the middle of space. What are we? The 100?"
Rose rolls her eyes. "Oh, would you just shut up?!"
"Hey look!" Lyra exclaims. "We're all turning on each other now. Maybe we are The 100."
"What the heck is The 100?" Luke asks.
"Oh shut up old man!" Poe snaps.
"HEY!" Cassian shouts. "Stop fighting. We're all upset and exhausted. But that doesn't mean we should turn on each other!"
"He's right." Leia says. "We can't do this."
"Okay," Cassian says, calmer now. "now I don't know if it's a good idea or not, but I may have an idea on where we could go."
"Really?"
"What is it?"
Cassian sighs before answering.
"My home planet, Fest."