Kalon - Han Solo [1]

Chapter 25 : PRINCESS

Tasha stuck her head out of the door, looking around cautiously before quickly leaving the smuggler's ship. Her eyes darted around the hangar, making sure no one was watching her, or where she'd been all night. She didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. Rumours spread quickly among soldiers.

"Tasha!" called a voice she recognised. A smile caught onto her face as she turned around. Jyn Erso walked up to her, but she wasn't wearing the usual smirk that graced her face whenever she was with Tasha. The raven girl's face fell.

"What's up?" Tasha said, slightly uncertainly. Jyn handed Tasha a datapad, crossing her arms with an unimpressed look. Tasha took it with a quizzical look before casting her eyes down to it. Blazed across the front in big, red letter, the title that made her stomach lurch:

THE REBELLION NEEDS YOU!

Below, a picture, no, a video, a propaganda video of Tasha. Her speech, stuck in between shots of her climbing out of her x-wing, grinning in victory, elation. The last slide of the tape was the one that shattered it, her identity, out there for everyone to see: FIGHT ALONGSIDE THE PRINCESS. JOIN THE REBELLION!

Tasha looked up and saw Jyn's face, waiting for her reaction, to deny it.

"There no picture of Princess Leia anywhere on that tape," Jyn said, accusingly, "only you,"

"Jyn . . ." she began, unsure of where she was going with this, or even how the hell she was going to explain to her friend that she had never known who Tasha truly was.

"What?" snapped her friend, a look of disgust on her face, "who the hell are you, Tash, cause you're certainly not who I thought you were."

"I am-" Tasha started, but Jyn cut her off.

"no." she half-shouted, angrily, "you're not." Tasha's face turned cold.

"Who did you think I was then?!" she yelled, glaring.

"Someone like me!" Jyn yelled back, "a girl the system forgot! A girl that the empire's world rejected! A fighter, not someone who has had everything handed to them their whole life-!"

"Do I look like I've had everything given to me my whole life?! Do I look like I don't know what it is to fight! When I was 16, I had to fake my death so the empire wouldn't kill me and my family!" Tasha's cold glare had changed to one of vicious ferocity, her teeth bared as she growled out the words. "I've had to hide that part of me from everyone because if the empire found out, even just heard a rumour that I was still alive, they would burn planets to the ground looking for me!"

"Don't flatter yourself!" Jyn spat, "you're not that important!" that hurt. The hurt flashed into Tasha, quickly replaced with pure fury. She tried to hide it, tried to pull it back down from the surface.

She failed.

Jyn flew across the hangar, smashing into a pile of crates. Tasha gasped at her friend, now lying sprawled on the ground. Gasps surrounded her, and Tasha's hand flew to her mouth. They circled around Jyn, checking to see if  she's conscious.

Or alive.

"She's okay," Tasha heard someone say, "Let's get her to the infirmary."

The accusatory looks that surrounded her pressed down on her, adding to the amount of pressure that was already shattering. Jyn's eyes fluttered open, and settled on Tasha. They looked at her as though Jyn was looking at a stranger. Or a giant spider, for that matter.

"Who are you?" she asked quietly, almost too quiet for Tasha to hear. Btu she knew what she said, and she couldn't take it. Not the looks she was getting from everyone, the guilt, all of it.

"I'm sorry." She spluttered, "I'm so, so sorry." And then she turned and walked away.