A/N: So this is a Beauty and the Beast-inspired story of Jyn and Cassian. The events of Rogue One still occurred, except Jyn and Cassian managed to survive.

A few months ago, after reading many Jyn/Cassian fics, I was all like "I want to write my own Jyn/Cassian fic!" but I had no idea what to write. Usually, I'm a oneshot kind of person and not a multi-chapter person but I didn't really have any good ideas for a oneshot. Then I had read someone's Pride and Prejudice-ified oneshot about Jyn/Cassian and so I was like "Hmm maybe there's another classic story I can parallel?" So Beauty and the Beast came to mind!

This fic will have parallels to the events of Disney's 1991 version of Beauty and the Beast...and maybe some similar quotes :) (FYI There are no musical numbers or talking inanimate objects in this though. This is definitely a romantic drama with angst and such.) Also, I know that Beauty and the Beast can be considered Stockholm Syndrome, and I just want to assure you that is not the case in this fic, as Cassian and Jyn are both captives.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 - Prologue: The Curse

Slowly, Cassian opens his eyes and blinks, giving them a moment to adjust to the light. His head and back ache, and it's a struggle to even find the strength to lift his head up.

Looking down, he finds himself on a bed, propped up against some pillows. His hands are shackled and attached to the railing on the edge of the bed. Glancing around, he sees a bacta tank in the corner of the room and realizes he must be in a medical center.

Leaning his head back further into the pillow and closing his eyes, he tries to remember what happened.

Where am I? How did I get here?

Memories flash through his mind: The Battle of Scarif, where he was knocked down from the data vault. Climbing up the vault and shooting Krennic. Jyn transmitting the Death Star plans. Taking the elevator back down to the beach. Jyn pulling him forward up the ramp of a random ship. Scarif disintegrating beneath them as the ship took off.

The last thing he remembers is him and Jyn being surrounded by Imperial officers on the ship. One of them delivered a big blow to his head, and he blacked out.

Jyn...where is Jyn?

He abruptly opens his eyes and takes another glance around the room, searching for any sign of the young dark-haired woman with green eyes, but there is none. There are other beds, but all of them are clean and empty.

Suddenly, he hears a clicking sound and jerks his head up to see the automatic doors to the room open. A female Imperial officer walks in, carrying a bundle of clothes.

As she approaches his bed, Cassian gets a better look at her and realizes that he knows her face. His body freezes at the sight.

Avena Ludu.

This can't be good.

He hasn't seen her in years, not since…

"So, Andor, it seems we meet again," she says with an unsettling smile. "It's about time you woke up."

She drops the bundle of clothes near his feet on the bed and then proceeds to remove his binders. Cassian eyes her carefully, trying to figure out what tricks she has up her sleeve. He expected to feel her wrath if he ever saw her again, but she currently seems eerily calm.

"Put these clothes on and meet me in the corridor," she orders him as she nods her head toward the clothes.

Cassian looks disdainfully over at the clothes she brought him: a gray Imperial uniform.

"Why would I wear that?" he asks gruffly.

"Because once you do that, I'll take you to see your dear Jyn."

Cassian stills at her words and remains silent. Avena's smile grows wider as she turns around and leaves the room to wait for him in the corridor.

As soon as she passes through the doorway, Cassian quickly gets out of the bed and changes his clothing, wincing as he does so. He doesn't know if he could trust Avena, but she said Jyn's name and that's all that matters. He won't take any chances when it comes to Jyn. He has to see her and make sure she is all right.

He just hopes his reaction to Avena's mention of her name didn't doom Jyn to a horrific fate.

Walking alongside Avena, Cassian passes by cell after cell. He discovers they're at an Imperial labor camp, but on what planet, he isn't yet sure.

Avena doesn't say a word as they walk. Instead, they walk to the sounds of their footsteps and the snores of prisoners. Evidently, it is late in the evening and nearly everyone is asleep.

Cassian naturally wants to bombard Avena with questions - where are they, what happened to him and Jyn after Scarif, how long has it been since that day - but he holds back. He needs to wait until he sees Jyn before doing anything. He can't risk losing his chance to see her.

One thing he remembers about Avena Ludu was her quick temper and her immediate willingness to lash out when she wasn't pleased with something. He would have to tread carefully around her.

So for now, silence would have to do.

After what feels like an eternity, they stop in front of a cell. Peering inside through the bars, he can see in the shadows the outline of a young woman sitting on a bed. Avena places her hand against the screen on the cell door, activating it open with her handprint. With a tilt of her head, she indicates for Cassian to go ahead in the cell.

At the sound of the of the cell door opening, Jyn gets off the bed and stands up. Upon seeing her, Cassian can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He only sees some minor bruises and cuts on her face, but Jyn is safe and in one piece.

He strides forward and reaches out to pull her into a tight embrace. He has to feel her to know this is all real. To know that she is really there. And he needs to hear the sound of her voice. "Jyn...Jyn, are you alright?" he whispers in her ear.

But Jyn doesn't return his embrace. Instead, she pushes him away and backs away from him out of his reach. His instincts tell him to reach out for her once more, but he stops himself when he sees that her eyes have widened and are full of fear.

The sight of Jyn being afraid of him is so foreign that even he becomes afraid.

Something is not right.

Jyn's staring at him, watching for any sudden movements. She then looks straight into his eyes. "Who are you?" she asks.

And suddenly, Cassian feels as if his heart stops and he is frozen in place.

"What have you done to her?" he asks harshly, his voice filled with rage. He can't help but slam his palms against the table. With his eyes ablaze, he is ready to punish Avena for whatever she did to Jyn.

Yet Avena has the audacity to smirk at him in return.

"It was not our intention, I assure you," she replies coolly as she sits at the table. "It appears the blow to her head from the Imperial officer right after the departure from Scarif was too much for her, and now she has a case of amnesia."

Amnesia.

The word echoes through Cassian's mind.

When he saw her in the cell moments ago, he searched for something in her eyes that indicated this was all just a game...some kind of ploy to fool the Imperials, part of some plan she already came up with to escape. But all he could seem to find was legitimate fear and confusion.

She didn't recognize him.

At all.

"Does she remember anything?" he questions Avena sternly.

"Can't tell. She doesn't talk much," Avena says nonchalantly while staring down at the datapad in her hands.

He would need to find another way to speak to Jyn once more, find out what she knows, see if he can somehow trigger her memories to return…

But he has to keep it together. He must. He needs to treat this as yet another mission and focus. His first priority should be to find out where they are exactly and get both of them out of here. It's a shock that both of them are even alive.

"What do you want with us?"

"Well, let me bring you up to speed: It's been about two weeks since Scarif's destruction, and you've been utterly worthless considering you've been in a bacta tank for most of that time. Meanwhile, your rebel base on Yavin 4 was discovered. Now the rebels are likely setting up a new base elsewhere. I doubt you have any information on where that would be. So in that regard, you are useless, Andor."

"Then why even bother healing me? Why haven't you killed me yet?"

She looks up from her datapad and her anger radiates off of her.

"Because I intend to break you. Again and again," she says quietly. "You murdered my brother. Simply killing you would give me no satisfaction."

Cassian's eyes darken.

"Ry was your best friend Cassian, and yet you still killed him," she reminds him even though he needs no reminding. He remembers that day vividly.

"You and Ry chose the wrong side," he replies.

"We chose the winning side, while you became the Rebel Alliance's lackey, following all of their ridiculous orders, including killing someone you used to consider a friend. They turned you into a cold-hearted murderer - a monster! So I'm going to let you continue being a monster, but even you will hate yourself. I will make you into a willing servant of the Empire, an Imperial officer. And you will follow all of my cruel orders."

"And why would I do that?" he asks, but immediately dreads her response.

"Because if you don't, Jyn will be punished severely."

She can see the very brief moment of terror that clouds his eyes, and she gives him a wicked smile.

He doesn't know how to respond. Nothing has prepared him for this. In fact, all of his training to be an intelligence officer advised against any sort of attachments so something like this wouldn't happen.

"You slipped up, Andor. You frequently called out her name during your very brief moments of consciousness as you slept, which allowed me to deduce that was the name of your rebel friend...the girl you were embracing when you boarded our ship on Scarif. And given your immediate willingness to see her today, I take it she means a great deal to you. So to repay you for taking my brother away, I am going to take her away from you by showing her what a monster you truly are. I am cursing you to a life as the one thing you hate the most, all while losing Jyn's trust and respect."

"Well, considering she doesn't remember me, it seems she currently has none for me," he says bitterly.

"And I'm going to ensure it stays that way."

I'm so sorry, Jyn was all Cassian could think.

No one will be coming to save them. The rebels probably think he and Jyn perished with Scarif.

And even if they didn't, if Avena was speaking truthfully, the rebels have bigger problems to deal with, such as finding a new base. And destroying the Death Star, if they haven't managed to do so already.

It's up to him to get him and Jyn off this planet.

If he were the man he used to be, this would all be much simpler. If he were the same man who was able to take a mission where he was required to kill his former best friend, he'd be able to selfishly walk away from all this, not caring who would get hurt because of his actions. Jyn's amnesia even makes the situation simpler. She wouldn't even know she was being betrayed and left behind.

But he's no longer the man he was before. He hasn't been the same man ever since he met...her.

When his finger hoovered over the trigger to shoot and kill Galen Erso, he saw her eyes as he looked at his. And that was when he knew something had changed within him.

But now, for her - for her safety, her well-being, and the hope that he can save her from this constant threat of torture - he must further embrace the monster he's always been.

Whatever opinion she has of him because of what he'll be forced to do does not matter. He always figured he was never meant to be loved in this life anyway.

For who could ever learn to love a monster?

A/N: This fic is probably ridiculous but I'm having a ridiculous amount of fun writing it. :)

I was actually really terrified to post this. Writing for the Star Wars universe is so daunting because it's so darn vast! I loveee Star Wars but it's so hard to know everything about it! Please forgive me if I get something wrong about the universe or use the incorrect terminology.

Let me know your thoughts if you feel so inclined! This fic is currently half-written so the plan is to do an update once a week...so hopefully I can stick that schedule.

Thanks for reading! :)