The crowd roars with cheers and applause, not a soul having any pity on you. A royal guard drags you up the stage towards the guillotine, a dramatic execution as expected of the royal family. You’re pushed, knees scraping along the wet wood stage as you’re forced to kneel. Head roughly shoved into its place on the guillotine, neck bared and waiting. You can vaguely hear Aric’s shouts over your loud breathing, that stupid brother not giving up on you right to the very end. He shouts and screams and begs for mercy, pleading with everyone to spare you but nobody hears his cries, nobody’s listening. Cassian has a wild look in his eyes when you catch sight of him, a smug grin like he’s won something. You don’t have time to linger on that thought before the blade drops, an excruciating pain sends through your body for what felt like forever but must’ve been less than a second. Your head dropping and rolling off the stage as you sit there lifeless.

You can’t see, no idea what’s going on whatsoever. But then you’re blinking your eyes open and there’s no crowd, no guillotine, your head is intact and you’re somewhere else.