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Tipoca city was gone. It hurt so much watching the place where we were all born and raised sink. Not to mention leaving Crosshair behind. Hunter brooded off to the side by himself. Tech looked like he was fixing a scanner; even Wrecker was quieter than usual. The only one of my brothers I didn't see since we left was Echo. He had disappeared into the cockpit.
I ventured from my little nook, he was the oldest and had seen more loss than the others. They were all quiet in their own worlds as I made my way into the cockpit. There he was, just sitting there watching the hyper lane rush by. He looked like he was deep in thought "Echo?" I asked meekly touching his good arm.
He startled like he had been day dreaming and stared down at me. "Omega...you should be getting some rest ad'ika." He said quietly once his mind caught up with him that he wasn't in danger.
"Couldn't sleep. Not with all thats happened." I replied. "Can I sit with you?"
He thought about it a second before nodding to the co-pilot seat. He went back to his day dreaming at hyperspace. We sat in silence for what felt like a really long while. "What are you thinking about, Echo?" I asked him as his eyes shifted down.
"A friend of mine. We lost contact after...well...I 'died'" he answered with a heavy sigh. A friend? This sounds like a good story.
"Can you tell me about them?"
"It feels like a lifetime ago" he said looking at me. "You'd get bored"
"We got time before we get back to Odd Mantel. And no I wouldn't!" I said sitting up. I wanted to hear about this friend from when he was a reg. "Tell me about them! Maybe when we get back Cid could find them. "
"Doubtful"
"Why you say that?"
"Because she's probably dead"
I looked at him like he grew another head. Dead? How could he says that about his friend. "You dont know that"
"She was a keeper in the jedi archives." His voice became sadder by the second. It donned on me then. She could have been caught up in everything, but then she could have gotten away.
"If you're thinking about her, then there's hope." I said. Echo looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "You said she was an archive keeper at the temple in Coruscant, right? Then she access the blueprints"
Echo turned his seat to face me like he was realizing something for the first time. "There is a possibility...but she would have stayed behind to help anyone left at the temple."
"Possible, just not plausible, but still there's that little bit of a maybe?" I said not completely knowing what I was saying.
That gave him a smile. He rubbed his face before leaning back. "Thera…" he sighed. "Thera Sh ---- Onasi. Her name is Onasi." Like he was trying to remind himself.
"Onasi? That's an odd name."
"Its the only one she could use without getting looked at like she was some kind of monster." He explained.
"Why would people do that if she was a jedi?"
"Cause she technically wasn't allowed to be one. She was trained by General Kota, but apparently he had only taught her light sabers and combat" Echo explained. I heard about General Kota, he didn't care for the clones...but he tolerated them. Much better than Tarkin from what I had heard. "She didn't have force powers like everyone else."
"That doesn't make sense"
"Didn't make sense to Fives and I at first but after we got to know Thera it sort of made a little sense" Echo smiled. Apparently there was happy memories in him.
"Can you tell me about Thera?" I asked wanting to hear more about this Jedi that wasn't a jedi.
Echo looked at me again. He did a quick look back at the others. All of them still.in their own thoughts and sorrows. "All right. I don't see what it could hurt. Mind you this was a little before Fives and I became Arc troopers"
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"Good morning, GORGEOUS!" Fives's voice reverberated across the hollow archives under the temple.
"Fives, ssshhhhh!" I tried to shush my utreekov of a brother.
"But how will she know we're here?" He asked looking at me aghast.
"You breathe so fucking loud it'd be hard to miss you" Kota's gruff behind us made us both freeze on the spot.
"General!" We both stood at attention and saluted. He only crossed his arms, raised and eyebrow and heaved an exasperated sigh at us.
"What do the two of you want?" He asked.
"Just visiting, sir." I said. It wouldn't do us any good to try to lie to him. He was a Jedi master and Fives was a terrible liar. Couldn't lie his way out of a paper bag to be honest.
"Why?"
"Because Thera?" Fives opened his mouth. I couldn't stop myself from covering my face with my palm. The General always looked disgusted with us but Fives just made it worse. I loved my brother but he truly was an idiot some days.
"Rham, old friend, there you are" it was General Cordova. He was always a pleasant sight. Always kind to Kota's stern gruffness towards us.
"Eno."
"General"
"Boys, what are you doing down here?"
"We were looking for Thera, sir" I said before Fives could even squeak.
"Oh! I just left her near the entrance to the old temple." General Cordova told us much to General Kota's dismay. "She's expecting the two of you in the lower levels. If you don't hurry you might not get an adventure before you ship out."
Fives and I saluted once more and broke out at a run to catch Thera before she got too far. "Why?" We could hear Kota ask Cordova as we ran.
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"...wait...there's an old temple?" I ask pausing Echo's story.
"Apparently there is a temple under the temple they used and possibly another one under that. She would always try to explore the lower levels." Echo explained.
"Thats kind of interesting. Did she ever find the other temples?" I asked
"You want me to finish the story?"
"OK, ok, finish" I said making sure Echo had all my attention.
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"Thera?" Fives called out as we reached the door to the lower temple.
"Over here boys" we heard her before we saw her.
We made our way to her. She was talking with her astromech by the time we stopped. "Hey there Ace" I patted the little wonky mech on his dome.
"Beep bop bwooo!"
"Kota and Cordova caught us in the upper levels." Fives said, looking over the edge of the platform.
"Why doesn't Kota like us?" I asked
"Its not that he doesn't like you, it's...just something else." She told us
"But you like us right?" Fives asked.
"Of course I do," She said with a smile. "I also heard you two are going back to Kamino"
"How'd you hear that?"
"I practically live on information, I also hear a lot." She said.
"We'll be back though. Apparently we're only going for some advanced training." I explained. "So what are we doing down here?"
"Looking for the Gree."
"The Gree?" Fives and I looked at each other.
"Coruscant natives in a way. They live in the underbelly. Most of the time they use Droids to be present in the senate." Thera explained pulling her cloak around her more. "They're a really old race"
"We'll take your word for it cyare" I said drawing my blaster.
"Let's go have a look then" She hopped off the ledge. Fives and I followed after.
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"Did you guys ever find a gree?" I asked sitting cross legged on the edge of the co pilots seat.
"Not that I remember. I do remember that Fives had touched something, Thera slapped his hand and next thing we know we were running back to where we came in at." Echo said remembering that particular adventure.
"It must have been fun"
"Yeah, fun. General Kota had to save us. A lot of help us shinies were"
"Did Thera ever say why Kota didn't like you? Or clones?"
"I think she did but I don't recall" he said looking up at the hyper space through the window.
"She sure sounds fun" I said thinking about meeting Thera.
"She was amazing, you and her would get along I think." he smiled at another memory. "But I think you should get some sleep adi'ka"
"But I want to hear more!" I whined. He was right though, we were still a few hours from Ord Mantel. Maybe I should get dome sleep.
"Not right now, if I let you stay awake any longer Hunter will have my head" Echo smiled standing and waiting for me to join him.
"When we get to Ord Mantel can I hear more?" I pleaded "Please?"
"Once we get settled I'll see if I can remember anything else with Thera before the...place…" he replied, his mind going someplace dark again.
"A good story!"
"...yeah, a real good one, for sure" he said, "Now bed with you"
Echo walked with me through the cabin to my little nook in the gunners nest. He made sure I was tucked in and let the curtain down. I could hear his footsteps over towards Hunter. They said something to each other but I couldn't make it out.
I watched hyper space rush by and held on to Lula and my trooper doll. If Thera did survive Oder 66 I really wanted to find her and meet her. It also wouldn't hurt to see Echo smile either. I'd make that my mission.
After a nap of course.