Star Wars: Rebel Rising(32)

Saw stomped off the ship as soon as it landed on their island on Wrea. Reece looked over at Jyn.

“That was…illuminating,” he said.

“Really?” Jyn shot back.

Reece nodded. He moved to sit beside Jyn, and she was surprised at the way she didn’t move away from him. “Saw is a difficult man, and one not to betray. I think he wanted us both to learn that lesson as much as Jari.”

“I would never betray Saw,” Jyn said.

“Perhaps it was more for your benefit in terms of assurance,” Reece said. When Jyn shot him a confused look, he continued, “He was proving how far he’d go to protect you.”

Jyn’s eyes unfocused. Was that what it had been? But…Jari hadn’t been a threat. At least, not that she had known.

She didn’t like these doubts. This fear.

What had Saw meant when he said, He knows?

“How well do you know Saw?” Reece asked.

The question surprised Jyn. “Very well,” she said. “He’s like a father.”

“And you trust him?”

“Absolutely.”

Reece gave her a doubtful look.

“He saved me,” Jyn said simply. She wasn’t sure why she was telling Reece, whom she’d never really liked, but the darkness helped her speak. “I was in a bunker. A hatch. I was just a little girl. And I thought I was going to die. But…Saw saved me.” Reece didn’t speak, so Jyn continued. “I still think of that cave. It was so dark. I waited for so long. When I’m scared, it sometimes feels like I’m back there.”

“Trapped inside a cave inside your mind,” Reece said softly.

Jyn nodded in the dark. “But Saw always comes,” she said.



Saw turned the great room from a lounge and eating area into a command center. He always had at least three missions in the air, planning a half dozen more. The area was littered with holocubes showing planets and Imperial posts, and the comm never stopped buzzing with new intel.

“So close,” he’d tell Jyn, grinning.

But he didn’t send her on any more missions.

Sometimes, when the missions landed at night, Saw would leave his impromptu command center. Jyn could always identify him by the way he stomped down the hall. On those nights, he boarded the ships that arrived.

He never spoke of what he did. But Jyn could guess.

She could hear the screams.

She cornered him once. He was wiping blood from his hands, a distant look in his eyes.

“Saw,” she said.

He stopped short.

“Did you see—” he started.

She shook her head. “No.” She hadn’t seen. But she had heard. She suspected everyone on the island had heard.

“Why?” she asked. Why the secrecy, the lies. The torture.

Saw followed Jyn into her room. “They know,” he said.

It was an echo of what he’d said about Jari. “Know what?” Jyn demanded.

Saw leaned in close. He jabbed a finger at her chest, but rather than pressing into her flesh, his finger hit the kyber crystal necklace she kept hidden under her shirt. “They. Know,” he said slowly, watching the realization dawn in Jyn’s eyes.

Someone knew who her father was.

Who she was.



Idryssa Barruck seemed surprised at how crowded Saw’s outpost was when her Z-95 landed.

“Nice ship,” Jyn said as she disembarked.

“Who are all these people?” Idryssa asked.

“You’re not the only one with ‘alliances,’” Saw said, calling out to Idryssa as he crossed the island.

“Saw,” Idryssa said, smiling at him in a way no one had smiled at Saw recently.

Saw’s face crinkled up. “Id.” There was warmth in his voice, and respect. But then the look melted into sourness. “I don’t need another lecture.” He motioned for Jyn and Idryssa to follow him into the outpost. He cleared the command center with a wave of his hand, only Reece pausing to nod at Idryssa as he left. Reece and Idryssa had been a part of the old crowd. Saw trusted them in ways he didn’t the newcomers.

But Jari was one of Xosad’s crew, a part of the old crowd, too, Jyn thought. And that didn’t save him.

“Why are you here?” Saw asked Idryssa.

Idryssa still seemed a little shocked by Saw’s outpost. “This isn’t what I expected,” she said.

“I’ve been busy.”

“I can tell.” Idryssa’s face darkened. “And Inusagi…”

Jyn wanted to cover her ears. The attack—particularly the slaughter of the chieftess and the newly appointed governor—had been widely publicized. There was talk of banning flechette launchers from civilian use, and new measures were being taken to ensure safety from the “terrorists” and “anarchists” who’d gunned down the innocents. Jyn didn’t want to think about Inusagi again.

Neither, it seemed, did Saw. “Drop it,” he growled.

“That was…bad.” Idryssa didn’t take her eyes off Saw’s. “Saw, that is not what we stood for.”

“There is no ‘we.’”

“There could be, you know,” Idryssa said. She stared at a holocube. Saw reached around her and turned it off. “We’ve offered. You could command your own unit.”