Saga - Legends “Fly on the windscreen”, a Cassandra one-shot (0BBY)

Title: “Fly on the windscreen”, a Cassandra one-shot

Author: AzureAngel2

Co-editor and muse: @DarthUncle

Main beta editor: @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

Length: one-shot

Summary: The upstairs neighbour has always been eccentric. There had been loud music, empty alcohol bottles sailing past and a flat fire even. But the past years, since adopting a sweet girl, Mister Krennic has been as good as gold. Tonight though there has been an explosion and now somebody stands on the balcony of an elderly Coruscanti citizen.

Time frame: The story takes place in 0 BBY.

Place of choice: Coruscant

Reader warning: Please excuse my weird English! I am German. English is only my Second language!

Disclaimer: SW is owned by George Lucas, Lucas Ltd. and now The Walt Disney Company


I've got to get to you first
Before they do
It's just a question of time
Before they lay their hands on you
And make you just like the rest
I've got to get to you first
It's just a question of time

Well now you're only fifteen
And you look good
I'll take you under my wing
Somebody should
They've persuasive ways
And you'll believe what they say
It's just a question of time
It's running out for you
It won't be long until you'll do
Exactly what they want you to

I can see them now
Hanging around
To mess you up
To strip you down
And have their fun
With my little one

It's just a question of time
It's running out for you
It won't be long until you'll do
Exactly what they want you to

Sometimes I don't blame them
For wanting you
You look good
And they need something to do
Until I look at you
And then I condemn them
I know my kind
What goes on in our minds

It's just a question of time
It should be better
It's just a question of time
It should be better with you
It's just a question of time


The skyscrapers of Coruscant were either built with Durasteel or reinforced concrete frameworks. Some of them had curtain walls of glass, but others, like this building, had polished stone.

Harwiva Vagree, born in the twilight years of the Galactic Republic, sighed.

Sometimes she missed the Emerald Sea. There had been a constant breeze, playing with the dune grass as much as with her head dress.

Life at the edge of the Pnakotic Dunes had been a bliss until the crime organization, Crimson Dawn, had shown up.

As a Savarian she was far away from her own people and her clan, but this way she and her daughter, Tarpa, had been able to keep their tongues. But what a price they had paid! In this metropolis, there were no colours of the wind. No ocean breeze.

Even though Harwiva had met a decent man who had become her husband and a devoted father to her daughter, she always had missed the clan she once had been part of.

A grand-daughter, Sihi, had been born and for a while she had been almost happy.

But all in life had been but the monotony of household chores done by droid helpers and her dressing up for her Coruscanti husband. Five years ago he had died. And her life had become more serene. Just the occasional visits from her daughter, Tarpa, and, even less, her grand-daughter, who studied off-world on Alderaan.

Today the Krennic girl from upstairs broke the cocoon of silence in which Harwiva lived. With climbing gear!

Breathing hard the teenager, about eighteen or nineteen years of age, stood on her balcony. The red hair unkempt and full of debris. A bulky bundle was bound in front of her like a baby in a sling.

When Harwiva looked closer, she recognized the despicable creature that Mister Krennic had walked around the block the past years. A Corellian Hound with white skin and a visage that seemed to be sculpted by some crazy artist.

The elderly woman took a cautious step forward. “Cassandra?”

That made the youngster snap out of her stupor. “Misses Vagree.” Her already swollen eyes filled with tears. “Boomer is dying on me. And my father… he… oh freck it! I wish my cousin was here. He would know what to do.”

Before any question could be asked by Harwiva, Cassandra shook her head in dismay.

“You will just slow me down and then none of us will survive this mess.”

Soft whining came from the animal in question.

“You stay with this lady here. She will take good care of you!”

There was a lot that Harwiva could say, but she thought better of it. A long time ago she had betrayed her own people for staying alive. Now she would not fail this teenager. Even if there was a high price to be paid. There was some honour left in her.

********************************************************************

Less than five minutes later a stranger walked into the flat, unasked for. His skin had the colour of Sakai-wood. Dark, unruly hair framed his bearded face. A pair of equally dark eyes drilled into her. Even though he was in civil clothing, she could tell what he was. An Imperial officer. Perhaps of a Special Forces Unit. Maybe even the infamous ISB.

The searing gaze moved from her onto the dying animal. “Tell me where she went! For you cannot deny that she passed by.”

Harwiva, certain that denial was not an option, shrugged her bony shoulders. “She was in tears and out of her mind.”

The man shook his head. “Nonsense. She is her father's daughter. Smooth as a Mon Cala eel. Therefore Cassandra will wind her way down this building, charming uncanny folk like you.”

Protest awoke in the elderly woman. “She is but a teenager.”

Grim lines formed in the strangers face. “That makes her even more dangerous. A rebel in the making.”

Harwiva was not convinced. “Mister Krennic is loyal to the Empire.”

“That is what we thought until certain events as well.” The stranger smirked. “Now Cassandra is an enemy of the state as much as her father. As much as… ah, never mind!”

The knife came out of nowhere. And stuck deep into her bowels.

“And since you helped her escape justice, you are guilty as charged.”

In slow motion Harwiva sank down, a hand pressed on her abdomen, watching the bearded man leave. He had not even given his name to her. How rude!

Minutes felt like hours.

Suppressing her sobs, Cassandra finally stormed out of her hiding place. “I am so sorry!”

The elderly woman placed a finger on the youngster's lips. “Now we know that you need to escape the authorities.” Blood started to drip from her mouth. “The Lower Levels, hide there for a while!”

This was of course a suicide mission in itself. But the girl was a survivor. No doubt.

“We need to get help for you!” Cassandra insisted.

“I am dying, child! It can't be helped.” Harwiva smiled despite all. “But you will live. And remember...”

Speaking turned difficult, even though there was so much left to say. About contacting her daughter. Perhaps there was even a chance of getting a funeral service on Savareen.

“Tell, Tarpa...”

All of a sudden, Harwiva noticed a bright, glittering mist settling down around her.

“Misses Vagree!” Cassandra shouted, trying to focus her somehow.

“Go! I am almost home!” The elderly woman took one of her bloodied hands from her belly and started stroking the girl's face.

“But…!”

“I will take Boomer with me. He won't lack of anything!”

There was a new clarity in Harwiva. A knowledge from Beyond. “Beware of Sinjir Rath Velus! This ISB loyalty officer means you harm.”

“Who?"

The elderly woman's hand sagged down, leaving a mess.

Cassandra was on the brink of hyperventilating.

“Go!” Harwiva repeated and, using her last strength for she was so tired, said, “Leave us... while you can!”

Then the light broke. But not for long.

It was like sun rise, but much, much brighter. And it felt good.

Boomer hopped around her, wagging his short tail.

“Good boy!” she praised him and leaned down to pat him.

Her old bones, plagued by arthritis, did not hurt any longer.

There was one last thing the spirit of Harwiva needed to check. Slowly, she walked towards the still open balcony door and, following an instinct, she gazed down into the abyss.

There was Cassandra, pressed against the outlines of the building like a fly on the windscreen of a speeder.

That girl would get by. The Force was with her. Always.


Sources:
The song “Question of time” by Depeche Mode (1986)
Wookieepedia – The Star Wars Wiki
Hidden quotes from SW movies and the SW universe

 

I am always happy to see Cassandra again But Boomer ... Harwiva has a "walk on" role but I like her already. Her homeworld sounds lovely.

 

The home-world of Harwiva, my dear @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha, was actually seen in the movie "Solo, a SW story". A movie that I actually liked a lot.

 

Always nice to see another story about Cassandra! But poor Boomer and Ms.Harwiva--their passings were quite sad but well written.

 

Thanks for the praise, @gizkaspice. It´s sad, but both deaths were necessary.

 

I really like Harwiva, it's so sad to see her killed just as we were learning more about her. I really liked the wistful memories of her homeworld. (Savareen is one of my favorite new planets from the films too! ) It sounds like she had quite the eventful life.

And ouch, poor Boomer too. Though I did get a little smile out of Harwiva's description of him. It's just heartbreaking that Cassie brought him there for help but ends up losing both her canine best friend and her innocent neighbor too! I'm glad that Harwiva is able to help him pass on along with her own spirit.

Interesting that Harwiva seems to have a flash of precognition at the end. As we see later, Velus does have an oddly personal grudge against Cassie.

A bittersweet ending, knowing that Cassie will live to flee another day but with more and more of her childhood world destroyed. Definitely a "you can't go home" kind of feeling, both literally and otherwise.

 

Dear @Kahara, thanks for stopping by and commenting!

It was a very difficult fanfic for me to write, but it needed to be written.

The story of what happens to Cassie after the death of her adoptive father, Orson Krennic, is very fragmented instead of one clean fanfic. Let´s order the chaos more chronologically, shall we?!?

“A question of time”
= During the Battle of Scarif Director Krennic establishes a connection to Coruscant and gives his adopted daughter a "Code Red" alarm. But the young woman ignores the order to evacuate the family flat. (0 BBY)

“Fly on the windscreen”
= A neighbour of the Krennic family witnesses directly how an ISB black op team hunts down Cassie after the events on Scarif. (0 BBY)

“Now the day bleeds into nightfall”
= Orson Krennic dies through the battle station he helped to construct. But death is not the end. The Force is not finished with him yet. (0 BBY)

“People disappear all the time”
= Cassie is kept in a black prison, suspected to have betrayed the Empire together with her father and, of all people, Galen Erso. (0 ABY)

“Happens to the heart”
= On Mustafar Cassie tries to come to terms with her beloved father´s demise and other losses in her life. She has a little help from the other side by no other than Qui-Gon Jinn. (0 ABY)

“The inmost light”
= Cassie tries to summon the ghost of her father, but has the wrong crowd from the spirit world showing up on the grounds of the Krennic apple farm. (0 BBY)

“Skyfall”
= In the aftermath of the Battle of Yavin spymaster Dravits Draven asks Mon Mothma to get the permission for a black op. The target in question in the daughter of the man who constructed the Death Star. (0 ABY)

“Raised in a summers haze”
= Zevulon Veers, who is in the process to join the rebel alliance, remembers the day that Scarif fell rather difficult. (0 ABY)