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Chapter Text

CX-2 had failed.

It knew its mission. It shook its head, its vision was compromised but it was still capable of identifying the enemy, even against the distorted blur left behind from the toxins and the toll of the battle below. But no matter. If Clone Force 99 wouldn’t be turned to their cause, they would be eliminated. It lined up the shot -

And was sent reeling as something struck it on the left, hard. The target was alerted, a new threat emerged, and it spun to retaliate a second too late. Cracking blue crashed into its chest and slammed it backwards against something solid.

There was smoke, buzzing, the smell of smoldering metal and charred flesh, and in the moments before the force of the electricity coursing through its biomechanics overwhelmed what was left of its physical body, it registered a face through the gaps of its helmet. Distinct. Battle worn. Familiar.

CX-2 shut down.

---

Why was CX-2 being activated?

Why was activation causing it pain?

CX-2 opened its eyes, but it didn’t drop from its stasis pod like usual. In fact there was nothing beneath its feet at all. It tried to wrench itself free but a sharp sensation tore through its body and it suppressed a weak organic gasp. Something was undoubtedly wrong. It took a breath that rattled in its chest. 

Senses impaired. Functionality damaged. Mobility… Impossible, due to the presence of the shaft of an electro-spear protruding from the center of its chest. Bio-mechanic systems compromised too, then, and a sufficient enough explanation for the pain radiating through its organic parts.

Hemlock sure had a lot of experiments, A voice drifted its way. What do you think was the purpose of these ones? Stasis chambers, training room, clones in weird armor…

Whatever he intended to do with them, it was an obvious failure, Came a second voice, rigid and clipped. No data, no explanation, no survivors? There’s nothing here to salvage. Hemlocks work will simply die with him. We’re moving on.

Yes sir.

CX-2 must have been activated in error. Hemlock was dead. It had no mission.

A gray-clad officer let out an exasperated huff and turned her back on it as her troopers began their sweep. CX-2 gritted its teeth and strained to see more of the room, assess the situation, calculate its options. The room itself clearly lacked power and most of the valuable assets in it had been destroyed. Through the viewport below it could see TK troopers prodding at the bodies of the other CX’s and dead clone prisoners. The officer continued discussing something barely audible near the lift, but it couldn’t activate its helmet to listen in, and straining its ears was useless. 

A trooper crossed into its vision, blocking its view. It scoffed beneath the helmet, and the trooper paused.

“Uhh… Officer Bragg? I think this one’s still alive.”

CX-2 narrowed its eyes. Alive was barely the proper terminology. CX-2 was active, perhaps, it had survived, but alive seemed rather generous. The word held many meanings and implications, only one of which could be applied to itself, the scientific definition, nothing more. It was a poor choice of words. There was little alive about CX-2. It had no mission, it had no feelings, it had no life.

“Are you sure?” The officer huffed. “Remove the helmet.”

After a moments hesitation the TK trooper reached up and fumbled for CX-2’s helmet, sliding it off its head, and CX-2 found itself staring at the surprised officer with empty stoicism.

“I’ll inform Governor Tarkin,” The officer nodded. “Perhaps some portion of Hemlock’s work won’t go to waste.”

---

There were no more stasis chambers for CX-2 to shut down in on command, but the imperials assigned it a single-bunk domicile aboard a Star Destroyer once its reconstruction was deemed acceptable. The medical droids never quite understood the complexities of its bio-mechanic enhancements. CX-2 resorted to working on itself when it wasn’t in self-induced stasis mode, assigned to a mission, or subjected to medical testing, and in time, it improved its own efficiency, accuracy, and stamina far past what Hemlock’s original design had allowed. Its results were indisputable. Despite the mysteries that remained of Hemlock’s work, its superiors were pleased.

Yet the enhancements came with its own set of curious drawbacks, and CX-2 had yet to discover the solution for them, which was unusual. Its malfunctions could typically be patched with specialized coding or tweaks to the inner workings of a particular system, yet once these began to manifest, there was nothing it had been able to find to neutralize them. The first incident came when it removed its prosthetic leg for maintenance and potential upgrade. The movements felt familiar, and as it implemented its ideas into the improved design it suddenly saw a flash in its mind of another scenario, another mechanical leg on a table, a different soldering iron in its hand, and a clone sitting across from it, looking sheepish.

I’m not surprised, It heard a voice coming from its own mouth. It has only been a couple of weeks. You’re going to need more time than that to grow accustomed to them, Echo, and seeing as you have insisted on taking wild risks this soon, an accident of this sort was inevitable.

The image dissolved and CX-2 sat frozen. It had been someone else before this, that much it knew, but before didn’t matter. There was CX-2, there were missions, there was the Empire. It was merely a tool, not a person. 

It completed its work on the leg and attempted to push the strange scene to the back of its mind, though it couldn’t help but log that the clones name was Echo.

The next time it happened was, unfortunately, in the field. CX-2 usually worked alone but this time it had been assigned to a squad, sent to hunt down rebel insurgents in the Cadavine sector. The mission was supposed to have been a stealth operation, so when CX-2 found itself a visual on the rebel targets, it flashed a hand gesture to the TK-troopers below.

One of them looked at it blankly and shrugged.

Awww, I hate hand signals! A massive clone with a milky eye groaned overhead.

Perhaps it would help if you memorized them! CX-2 snapped back.

You memorize them!

I have!

CX-2 nearly fell from the snipers nest and had to stifle a gasp as the scene faded out. It’s systems, for a moment, had been overwhelmed by something on its organic side, and it took a moment to reset them before continuing the mission. The TK Troopers incompetence had bought them precious seconds, they were spotted, and there was no time to waste wondering about what it had seen. At least when the mission was over, it was still a success. All insurgents were eliminated.

After that, though, the malfunctions began to occur with greater frequently. CX-2 found itself unable to combat them with technical prowess or further enhancements - in fact, each time it made the attempt, it only seemed to instigate more incidences, more images to replay. Memories, it concluded, after working itself to a state of exhaustion one night when it should have been attempting to put itself into stasis. That was the pattern, they were all tiny memories of who it was before, of people it knew. Brothers.

Traitors. 

They had opposed the Empire, each and every one of them, even itself. It wasn’t sure why. It didn’t matter. They had been enemies, it had hunted them, they were the ones who opposed it on Tantiss, who harbored the girl, who caused its failure that day even after it gave them all a chance to become like him. Hunter’s face was the one it had seen just before shutting down. If it couldn’t purge itself of the fragmented memories, it would at least lock them away under the weight of their betrayal, where they couldn’t affect any more of its missions. It wouldn’t fail on their behalf, not again.

CX-2 laid back, closed its eyes, and attempted to fall into a form of stasis. It didn’t have family. It didn’t have feelings, it wasn’t a person, it wasn’t even alive, was it? It merely existed…

…So why did it wake up with an all consuming pain in its chest when the little girl in its dream wrapped her arms around its waist and called it Tech?

Chapter Text

CX-2 raised an eyebrow. The thief threw and caught a piece of fruit in the air as he departed, an entirely useless maneuver, it accomplished nothing and was unlikely to serve as an adequate challenge to improve any of his skills. It would serve him better to consume it rather than play with it, given the obvious signs of malnutrition he displayed, from the slack in his cheekbones to his sunken eyes.

The adolescent female watched him go, turning to follow his retreat back into the mines, but the moment he vanished her head bowed in thought. CX-2 felt a tug of concern, which it shouldn’t - And it flinched as it remembered as much, bracing itself to receive punishment for its deviance -

But no punishment came. The scene felt frozen, the girls back to it, turning something over in her head. They had just experienced success, had they not? Humanoids were fickle, it was aware of this, but the idea of one being troubled at a time like this was curious. 

If no electric shocks were coming now, there was nothing to stop him from discovering why and adding it to its databanks. Simply for reference, if it was ever questioned. CX-2 dropped its arms loosely at its side and approached.

“What is it?” It questioned.

“The empire’s not the only threat,” She said, her voice sounding smaller than usual… Perhaps even afraid. “We’ve seen so many in the galaxy like Mokko.”

The Empire is only a threat to those who oppose it, is what it should have said. Or perhaps, Resisting the Empire is futile, insurgents will be eliminated. Yet neither of those perfectly acceptable responses were what came out of its mouth. 

“Unfortunately, yes,” He found himself saying instead, staring down at the girl and her sad, trusting eyes. No, that couldn’t be right. It adjusted his goggles, he… He missed his goggles, he had engineered them himself, they had been perfectly tailored to his own specific needs, when had he lost them? Why hadn’t he built a new pair?

It turned back to the rest of his batch and something twinged in his heart again. The girl was looking for assurance from him and it wasn’t quite sure why, but it… he… had a purpose here, that much was obvious. He gave the others an appraising look and chose his words carefully. “However… There are many like us out there, as well.”

Hunter carried one of the last crates onto their ship. Wrecker held his returned tooka doll tenderly in his massive hands. Crosshair… CX-2 wasn’t sure where Crosshair was just now, though logic dictated that he must be nearby. He reached out to give Omega’s shoulder a squeeze. 

“And that is something,” Tech reassured her, and a soft smile settled on her face, filling him with warmth seconds before a monotone alarm yanked it rudely from its stasis.

CX-2 was being activated. It blinked its eyes open, pushed itself upright, and shook its head. For what little sense the fragmented memories made, it hardly seemed worth the effort to purge them from its system completely, not without the treatments he used to receive to assist with that matter. They would only return, they always did, and wasting energy battling them only served to weaken it in the field. Yet it still would be required to empty itself before receiving its directives, so it did so quickly. 

The warmth left its body as it did, but it merely shivered once and stood. Delaying further for a small malfunction such as that would be unacceptable. It exited the single bunk domicile with its face blank beneath the helmet, traveling the same path through the same halls of the same star destroyer as it had been for a decade.

There were only two places CX-2 typically reported to anymore. The same lift would take it to either, but today, it was to report up to Colonel Bragg’s suite, rather than down, to the medical bay. It experienced a brief twinge of relief at that, and quickly corrected the feeling before proceeding. There was no point preoccupying itself with that. It would serve whatever purpose the Empire determined was most useful. That was all it existed for. Nothing more.

Reminding itself of that had increased in difficulty as it aged, but it managed. Such challenges were to be expected for organics, and the Empire had not yet seen it fit to replace its remaining organic parts with anything more sophisticated. 

It stopped short of the doorway, alerting the Colonel of its presence through the key pad just outside, and awaited entry. Thirteen minutes and fifty one seconds later, the door whirred open.

“CX-2,” Colonel Bragg spoke in her signature clipped tone, barely looking up from her datapad. “A small fleet of Rebel forces have gathered on Terova. Our intel indicates they are using an outpost on the outskirts of the Capital for munitions transfers.”

She gestured for CX-2 to step closer, and it obliged, turning its back to her the way it knew she wanted so she could transfer the data directly rather than waste time on words or formalities. A second later it felt the expected small jolt of a data stick plugging into a space on its spine directly between the shoulder blades, and it resisted the urge to pinch its back at the sensation, as it always did. The intel flooded into its mind directly and scrolled before its eyes in its helmet. 

“Find them, eliminate their leader and neutralize their operation,” Colonel Bragg said with a bored sounding sigh.

CX-2 squinted at the data. It’s eyes were getting worse. It would need to update the visual filters in its helmet to compensate for that particular degradation. From the looks of this, though, it would be performing this operation alone. Its lips formed the barest frown. Working alone was typically preferred, however, with three separate objectives…

“Is there a problem, CX-2?”

“There is not,” CX-2 said blandly, but it paused and considered. Even if the TK troopers were utterly incompetent, it had learned that they had their uses. Their confusing logic, unpredictable behavior patterns, and overall lack of skill could be weaponized as distractions or bait, which could be beneficial in this situation.

“Will I have a squad?” It asked before it could remember not to.

Colonel Bragg huffed behind it. “If a squad was necessary you would be given one already,” She said pointedly. “If you feel this mission is beyond your capabilities then perhaps you have served your purpose.”

No, CX-2 didn’t feel that, it didn’t feel much of anything, but the cold from earlier briefly turned to ice at the statement nonetheless. It knew better. It wasn’t its place to question orders, it existed to accomplish objectives… Didn’t it?

It swallowed hard, refusing to acknowledge that at one point, it was nearly certain it had served a different purpose, completely ignoring the traitorous idea that his current one had the potential to be… 

Banthashit, one of his “brothers” sneered derisively in his head.

“Good,” Colonel Bragg said, apparently taking its silence as compliance. “I’ll need a full report upon your return.” 

The data stick was yanked from the back of its neck. It didn’t wince.

“Dismissed.”

CX-2 marched back out of the office without a single look back. It had a mission. The intel flickered through its mind as it walked and it easily divided its attention between navigating to the hangar and analyzing everything it knew about its targets to form a potential plan and identify exploitable weaknesses. 

A minimum of five rebel pilots had been spotted, two identified. One, known in the database only as Cy, was a former Clone Trooper turned traitor, though his CT number was unknown. No matter. A traitor reg may as well be a dead reg. The other was its primary target, the young rebel identified as the leader of this particular effort, a female twi-lek named Hera Syndulla. There was a secondary warning attached in the file to neutralize her C1 unit quickly and with prejudice if it was encountered. 

CX-2 would never underestimate a droid, though seeing that the last operative to encounter it had left its body count in the notes was moderately surprising. 

In any case, it had been warned. It would fulfill the objectives or be terminated in the attempt. CX-2 slipped into the cockpit of its designated ship, engaged the engines, and piloted it free of the hanger, its mind engrossed in the details of the mission. Once given the all clear, it locked its coordinates, effortlessly executing a sharp swing turn with zero thruster pull to point towards Terova, and punched the hyperdrive. 

The ship was encased in glimmering streaks of blue, but not before an excitable voice in the recesses of its mind mis-identified the move as a Tech Turn.

It… It wondered if Tech had liked that name.

Chapter Text

“That’s the last of ‘em, kid!” Cy declared with gusto, melodramatically dusting off his hands in the narrow hall of Omega’s ship. “Lil surprised you got it all to fit in this tiny hold of yours!”

Omega shot a sparkling smirk at a broadly grinning old clone and crossed her arms. “You’re just disappointed you didn’t get to claim more than your own share!”

“Well can ‘ya blame me?” He chuckled, gesturing at the supply boxes packed tight enough Omega had to override the object sensors to convince the outer hatch to close on them. “We havent seen Varos flavored rations since… Well, since the Clone Wars! All our brothers loved them, they’re completely lost on the nat-borns.”

“You know you don’t have to live on rations, don’t you?” Omega raised an amused eyebrow.

“Well. Yeah, we eat other things! But, nostalgia’s sake. You know.”

Omega grinned and shook her head. “I know. I always liked them best, too.”

“No kidding!” Cy teased, patting the nearest box, and Omega gave him a good natured punch on the shoulder. “Hey!”

“Wait until I tell Echo you’re trying to poach his-“ But Omega cut herself off as Hera’s head popped into the hold with a worrying frown, Chopper on her heels, grumbling up a storm.

“Hey Hera!” Omega said cautiously, righting herself and giving Hera a friendly salute. Cy did the same. “Is… Something wrong?”

“It’s Chop,” She said in an undertone, cutting straight to the point. “He just came back from the edge of base with his communicator shot clean off.”

All the color drained from Omega’s face, and Cy let out a displeased grunt of his own. “Poor Chop!” Omega said sympathetically, glancing down at the agitated astromec. “Are you alright other than that?”

Bhr BHR! B B B B Baaaaaaah.

“Oh he’s fine. The imperial spy he found, not so much,” Hera said with an exasperated smirk. “It explains why our systems registered a small explosion nearby, the attacker had detonators and Chop took advantage,” She gestured at him with a hint of pride. “That’ll teach them to mess with my droid. But it’s not safe to stay. You both have your supplies, are you ready to move out?”

“Yes sir!” Omega piped up. 

“I can be,” Cy said lazily. 

“Good. Lyssa and Domri are just waiting my signal. We need them out first, their refugees need this more than our -“

Br BR! Br BR! BHRRRRRR! 

“What is it Chop?”

Ba brbrbr BAA-

Chopper gestured back out the doorway towards Cy’s ship, the Cyclone 4, and for the briefest second Omega spotted a glimpse of a figure in black bolting from it before -

BOOM.

The force of the explosion sent them all reeling back! Omega hit the wall and tiny lights popped behind her eyes. Her ears rang, but she heard coughing, scoffing, offended Chopper noises and confused Gonk! Gonk!’s coming from the back of her ship.

She pulled herself upright with a white knuckle grip on the edge of the console and heard Cy let out a deeply disgruntled sound.

“Aaaagh! Not again!” He groaned.

Omega offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet. The Cyclone 4 had been reduced to slag. 

“Karabast! They lived?!” Hera shouted. “Alright, new plan.”

Be bv br BHR?

“Too risky Chop, they’re already here. Omega, get us airborne, NOW.”

“On it,” Omega said, hopping into the pilots seat and firing up the controls. Her thrusters engaged, the ship lifted off, and Hera took charge.

“Chopper, remotely activate the Ghost’s top hatch!” Hera ordered. “Cy, with me, on my signal! Omega, bring us in low over the Ghost and give us ground cover to get her flying, we need to get Lyssa and Domri out of here before we make our own jumps! Is that clear!”

“Yes sir!” Omega called back, pushing the ship forward with a determined grimace and her heart racing. The Ghost wasn’t far but their saboteur could be anywhere, and even as she thought it more shots fired off towards two other rising Rebel ships.

“No!” Omega gasped as Lyssa’s stabilizer was hit. The ship shuttered dangerously in the air and began to plummet. Omega gritted her teeth.

“Draw their fire and stay on target!” Hera cried, and Omega nodded, gritting her teeth and swallowing hard. Hera was right. They needed the Ghost, it was a risky plan but she was accustomed to risky plans by now and Hera’s skills were needed now more than ever to help the others escape. 

She banked sideways towards their attacker first, laid down some fire as ground cover, and juked away towards the Ghost again. In the distance Lyssa fought for control of the careening ship, Domri rose higher, but the infiltrator, whoever they were, changed targets, forcing Omega to twist and dodge to avoid a serious hit. Omega leveled out low to the ground and pulled up on the accelerator seconds before they passed over the Ghost.

“Now!” She heard Hera shout, and her three passengers dropped out the door onto the Ghost below. Omega looked back with her heart in her throat but they had made it. Hera vanished into the hatch and Cy gave Omega a quick salute before pulling it closed over them all. Omega let out a breath, but it wasn’t over. She pulled up again, cut the thrusters and made a perfect Tech Turn to round back on the shooter.

In the few seconds that move took, the rain of blasterfire had seemed to stop, but Omega realized with dread it was only because they were aiming for the Ghost!

Omega returned fire back in an instant, bringing her ship around for another pass and peppering the area the enemy was hiding in blue plasma. For a second the attacker, wherever they were, let up on their assault, but as Omegas ship sped past their barrage returned. She gasped as one shot just barely missed a sublight engine, and only because the Ghost just lifted off the ground in time to make it a miss!

Mayhem 5! Keep them pinned down! Hera’s voice crackled over the comm.

As if she even needed to be told, after that close call. She snarled as she threw the ship into a second Tech Turn to double back again and give this imperial scumbag some hell. “On it!” 

The Ghost careened in a huge arc and unleashed its own fire power on the shooters hiding spot, and finally, the dark figure was flushed out, running with an obvious limp and suited in black. How they were even still moving Omega didn’t know, but she had them now. She accelerated forward again, took aim, fired-

But her enemy also fired, whipping towards her with inhuman speed and popping off a single shot that sank straight through her sublight engine!

A distress call from Lyssa blared from her console, Omega felt her own engine splutter and die, the figure vanished below, and her ship veered sideways. There was hardly any time to prepare to crash. Omega wrenched the steering, slamming at the controls and overriding several errors to force the ship to stay level for just a few seconds.

“Brace for impact Gonky!” She shouted back, and the ship crashed down, skidding and spinning across the dirt. Omega was thrown forward, letting out an involuntary cry that was lost on the sound of metallic screeching and rumbling dirt that pierced the air until they came to a stop. 

She could smell smoke, systems warnings were blaring, but she took stock of herself and… She was okay. A little sore, but nothing broken or bleeding.

Mayhem 5! What’s your status?! Hera’s voice rang out from the sparking console, and even through distortion, Omega could hear the fear in her voice. She scrambled for the receiver. 

“Specter 2, I’m… I’m fine,” She breathed, looking around with eyes wide. “Ships down. No major injuries!”

The viewport was thick with dust, but the ship had spun as it crashed so she sat facing the gouge marks in the soft earth, and something was moving up ahead. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and the adrenaline that was just coming down from the crash rocketed all over again.

Ruby 3 is unresponsive, Hera said frantically. Did you make your shot?

She peered with dread through the pane, but it wasn’t a trick. There wasn’t enough cover to stay hidden for long and soon she saw it again - That same lone, limping figure, one hand cradling their side, injured and blown up but still unrelenting in their pursuit as they ducked behind a small cluster of gnarled plants. 

Something about their armor was horribly familiar. 

Mayhem 5?

“No,” Omega said bitterly. “I didn’t, but I will.”

Taking them out from here would be best, but the gunnery was karked, jammed in a completely unusable position. She kept her eyes on the imperial’s cover as she drew the custom precision blaster Crosshair had finally deemed good enough for her after several modifications and patted down her belt to ensure Hunter’s old vibro-knife was still there. 

I don’t like the sound of that-

Something moved, and if only for a second, Omega saw them clearly, and her heart leapt into her throat. That… That wasn’t just any Imperial, that was like seeing a ghost! She would never forget that helmet, that mask, those glowing aqua cybernetics.

It was him. 

The soldier who had hunted her family a decade ago, who killed so many of Rex’s men, who nearly drowned Crosshair and later cut off his hand. The one who had blown up the Marauder and dragged her off to Tantiss, who she thought Hunter had finally killed during their escape. 

But if that was really him… Then he was a clone, too. 

“Get to Ruby 3. She needs you,” Omega pleaded in a tone that was determined as it was solemn, setting her blaster to stun. “This is personal.”

And it had almost been too close already. They never wanted to kill clones who were on the Empires side, but sometimes it was impossible to avoid. They couldn’t avoid it on Tantiss, but this was different. She was different. This was a one-on-one fight, it wasn’t impossible, and if she had a chance, she would take it. She was ready. 

That still wouldn’t make it easy, based on her still very vivid memories of what the CX troopers were capable of. Omega took a deep breath to center herself… And an idea came into her head. 

“Gonky,” Omega whispered, and got a feeble little goooonk in response. “Be ready for Plan 38, okay? I need a backup just in case. Prep the hold latch and unleash it on my signal.”

He reluctantly gonked in agreement, and Omega nodded back, moving carefully to slip out of the hold. He was nearby, she knew it. She watched for signs of him. If she could just stun him, if she could just get him back to Echo-

Only the barest flash of movement warned Omega to duck before a blaster bolt hit the wall above her! She sprung off it and charged, firing back blue rings at the clone, knowing full well how much more difficult it would be to take him down that way, but she could do it! She just had to hit him enough times, she just had to survive - 

He took the bait and slammed into her full force, knocking her back, and she twisted to avoid getting slashed with a knife. Omega fired and missed. The clones hand swiped the blade again at her neck but she caught it on her vambrace and shoved him back, barely, trading and blocking blows in close quarters. Her gut twisted. He was skilled, but injured, which should make him easier to take down, but he was fighting with lethal force, and Omega… Omega couldn’t do that! 

She couldn’t beat him that way, he was never going to stop, it was all she could do to keep herself in the fight with a person who would hurt himself to keep going, who would fight through so much pain. She tried to fall back, plan 38 would be better for them both, but the retreat left her vulnerable for a split second and he grabbed her arm. Omega gasped as he yanked her towards a tree and kneed her in the gut.

“They’ll come back for you, dead or alive,” He said, his voice toneless and modulated. “They don’t leave their own behind.”

Omega preferred the gut pain to those words. It hurt less. They couldn’t help what happened on Tantiss, she tried so hard to remind herself of that, but it still always tugged at her heart, knowing how many clones still died there before they made it out. But she couldn’t go there now. He lifted his blaster and she grabbed his arm, twisting it up so it fired into the trees, and he let out a sharp yelp of pain. She couldn’t pity him yet, though, not while he was fighting without mercy, not if she wanted to help him! He wouldn’t be left behind, not again! Omega took advantage of his weakness, jamming her own blaster directly against his chest plate and firing off one stunner, then two, but he threw himself back and head butted her clean in the nose before she could finish the job with a third.

Stars swarmed her vision again, she let out a small cry and tasted blood. The clone staggered backward and Omega stumbled sideways, fighting to keep her own consciousness. 

But he was doing the same. Omega raised her blaster again but between the two of them he was quicker, and she was forced to dodge more fire, retreating towards the trap Gonky was ready to pull. She didn’t have to beat him out here. He was almost down already. She just had to get him on the ship.

One of the shots singed her leg as she ran but she didn’t dare stop, not even for the sharp pain that radiated up it almost right away. She’d fought through worse. Omega managed to leap into the hold off her good leg but collapsed in the entry, only feet from the cockpit. 

“Karabast!” She swore, desperately starting to crawl forward. 

Gonky gonked his concern from the back. 

“Not yet!” Omega whimpered. “I have to get him to the-“

There was a clanging of metal on metal as heavy footfalls rang through the ship. Omega flipped herself around and tried to stand, but the clone in imperial black stood looming over her and cocked his blaster at her head. 

“Running is futile,” He said in that same Imperial monotone.

“It’s worked before!” Omega tried to stall, pushing herself backwards with her one good leg. He had her trapped, he wasn’t in position yet, Gonky couldn’t spring the trap, but they were so close. Omega held her breath, heart racing, this wasn’t how she wanted to go out, she could help him…

But several seconds passed, and he wasn’t pulling the trigger.

The clone seemed frozen, his head cocked ever so slightly, not so much looking at her as past her at something else, as if transfixed. The end of his blaster dipped towards the floor in his distraction.

Omega narrowed her eyes, subtly aiming her own blaster at her hip without a sound, and fired two shots in rapid succession. The last shot did what the first three couldn’t. The clone collapsed on the ground.

Gonk gonk? Gooonk?

Omega let herself fall backwards on the ground, too. It was over… She had done it. 

“No Gonky… We don’t need Plan 38 after all.”

Which was probably good. Wasting all those Varos flavored rations just to bury the clone really would be a shame. Omega’s leg was throbbing painfully, her head was still aching and her face splattered with blood, but she couldn’t wait too long to catch her breath either. After only a minute or so, she dragged herself upright again and crawled towards the clone.

“I’m sorry, vod,” She breathed, pulling his hands behind his back and encasing them in binders as gently as she could before heaving him upright. “I’ll get you some help, yeah? You probably never wanted this, and…”

But her words dropped off as she gingerly removed his helmet and her world came to a screeching halt.

This wasn’t a reg.

This wasn’t a reg but it WAS a clone. She had screamed his name, lunged forward in desperation as he shot the cable that connected them, plummeting into the clouds below as their rail car caught the track and ripped them away and it all went dark-

“TECH???!!” Omega shrieked, the name torn from her chest in agony like the day they had lost him, reverberating against the walls of the ship so she heard it a hundred more times as she cupped his face and stared in disbelief. He was older now, like the others, his auburn hair cut short and speckled with shades of gray. Wrinkles lined his cheeks and jaw and the outsides of his eyes, he had some nasty new scars, but it was him, undoubtedly him. 

In that moment, it didn’t matter if he was dangerous, it didn’t matter what he had done, what kind of conditioning the Empire must have put him through over all this time, or that he had just tried to kill her. Omega threw her arms around his shoulders and broke down into his neck with bloody, hiccuping, ugly sobs, carding her fingers into the back of his close-shaven hair.

All this time. All those battles a decade ago, everything that happened since then. How could they not have known? How come they never looked?

Guilt tore open her chest worse than his knife would have. He had been trapped like this, while the rest of them retired on Pabu, while Omega grew up surrounded by sunshine and laughter and beaches and family… And somehow, all this time later, he had hesitated to make the kill. Something had stopped him long enough for her to get the final shot. 

She did her best to still herself, just for a few seconds, blinking away her tears to follow his gaze from a few minutes before…

To where his own cracked and broken goggles sat prominently on top of the cockpit console.

Omega’s ragged cries started all over again. Tech was alive, he was still in there, he had to be. 

And he was coming home. 

Chapter Text

In its dream, Omega had been shivering.

They had just gone over the falls together, one after the other, back in the Ipsium mine, and crawled back out over the slick rocky edge, coughing and spluttering to clear their lungs before collapsing on the ground. The sequence was one that it almost remembered, like a preview playing somewhere distantly in its mind. There would be a beam of warm light, a sense of something akin to understanding, two others who would join them… But before the fullness of the memory could unravel, it took a turn, as Omega turned her body into him, pressing her warm and wet face into his neck.

CX-2 wasn’t expecting that, but the girl was trembling all over, from the chill of the water no doubt. All of their gear was either wet or left behind at the top of the cave where this started. With no other options, CX-2 lifted his organic arm over her to provide what little warmth he- it- HE could. What little was left of it- HIS organic body would have to suffice until the others arrived with a better solution. 

Tech held her like that, laying with his back flat against the stone ground, an arm draped over her back, and the dream mercifully stood still. For a time there was only the rushing sound of the waterfall in his ears and Omega’s warmth as she remained there with him. Tech was vaguely aware that his body ached, but that didn’t seem to matter. There had been directives he was to follow, but they could wait. There were some things, some purposes, more important than orders. 

When had they ever followed orders, anyways?

Inevitably, though, the dream changed. Omega was pulled away from him, leaving his organic hand grasping at a void in the cold. His body stiffened against the aches as they became more apparent, as the icy haze began to creep up his skin and into its bones…

There were only flashes after that, moments of vague lucidity between heavy, dreamless black.

Voices overlapping. Entirely too distant to decipher any words or attempt to match them to any beings in particular…

The sensation of falling. Familiar. Far too familiar…

Prickling shocks jolting up the nerves in its leg where the prosthetic met organic material…

A sudden awareness that it had failed its objective. It couldn’t recall what its objective was but registering the information at all came with a secondary realization. It… It would be decommissioned, if it even survived. It was no longer worth retrieval or resources to repair, Colonel Bragg had made that abundantly clear, and though it shouldn’t care enough to have a reaction, it seized up at the thought and registered a faint, foreboding beeping sound somewhere nearby. It… It didn’t want that… Yet its wants were irrelevant, it was a flaw to retain desires of its own at all. Perhaps termination was in its best interest if it could no longer perform its functions efficiently, if it had truly served its purpose. It would hardly matter, in any case. CX-2 wasn’t truly alive, so its death would be inconsequential.

No one’s going to terminate you, Tech! A voice broke through its thoughts. It does matter, you’re… You’re going to be okay… You HAVE to be…

Someone’s hand slipped into its own and squeezed it, which made little logical sense. There was no reason to comfort it now, at the end. Colonel Bragg never had before. 

This isn’t the end, The voice spoke again, and this time something about it sounded familiar. There was obvious distress in the tone, though, and it tugged at his heart the exact way that nothing was supposed to. 

You’re going to pull through, you’re safe now, I - I’m sorry Tech, I’m so sorry! But I’m getting you home, I promise. You’ll see your brothers again, okay? Just please, please hang on…

He wanted to see what was happening, who was speaking, but his eyelids were too heavy. The dream state slowly began to take over, though, and his mind supplied the rest of the image for him, even if it was false. Omega sat at his side, holding tight to his hand with tear tracks running down her cheeks.

Delusions, of course. Nonetheless, Tech squeezed her hand back before the scene dissolved again in black.

- - -

CX-2 hadn’t been activated, but slowly, it blinked itself awake. 

It’s location was unknown. This was neither its single-bunk domicile nor its imperial-assigned starfighter. It lay facing up in what appeared to be a sterile white medical bay, though none of the humanoids wore imperial grays and none of the medical droids were the designated approved models…

“You’re awake!” Someone gasped. It turned its head to see who but hesitated. It had been damaged, had it not? Sudden movement could exasperate as much, but oddly, there was very little pain in light of the injuries it was sure it had sustained. The source of the voice made themselves known anyways, though, and in mere seconds an adult human female hovered over it, gathering up its remaining flesh hand in her own despite the hand being cuffed to the side of the medical bed. CX-2 cataloged her appearance as… Familiar.

“Tech?” The woman said cautiously. “It’s me, Tech. It’s Omega. Do… do you remember?”

CX-2 considered this for a moment. It had definitely failed its mission, more of it was coming back now and that much was certain. It never should have failed, it had been warned not to underestimate the rebel astromech unit, and yet, it didn’t consider that the droid was capable of wielding a blaster. The oversight was unacceptable, costing him several detonators and damaging its body beyond what it was capable of repairing in the field or what the Empire would consider a worthwhile investment if it returned. That alone had sealed its fate, yet its objectives were clear. Complete the mission or be terminated in the process. 

If it had to be the latter, so be it.

It carried on best it could despite the melted metal and charred flesh compromising its effectiveness. It destroyed a single ship, flushed out its primary target, Hera Syndulla, and downed two more ships in the firefight that followed, though the actions had the unwanted consequence of triggering the rebels evacuation. It sought a hostage to lure its primary target towards, however at least one ship made it to the atmosphere, cementing the mission a failure regardless of the status of its other objectives. It nearly subdued the rebel soldier from the site of the crash, until something… Something had stopped it. An error. A malfunction.

Colonel Bragg had been right about it, after all.

There was more that had happened since then, but CX-2 couldn’t recall it clearly. From what it did know, it must have been dreaming. It wasn’t supposed to dream, though it hardly mattered anymore. It wouldn’t dream for long.

The woman had posed a question, though, so it looked up into her face. She had said she was Omega. She had called it Tech, like in the memories that it no longer had the strength to fight, from a life that didn’t belong to it, back when it almost certainly served a different purpose… When it.. he… had lived.

CX-2 tore its gaze away from the girl and tried to ignore the ache in its chest. It… It must still be dreaming.

Regardless, Omega was waiting for an answer, squeezing his hand even tighter now in apparent anticipation. His brothers had been its enemies once, hadn’t they? Yet that seemed to matter little in the moment. He had all but given up fighting the malfunctions, the memories, before its his latest mission, and now it was going to be decommissioned…

Logically, that rendered the fight pointless. It may still be all in its head, but if he provided her some comfort now, perhaps it would make whatever came next easier to accept.

“You are present within the memories I have retained,” He answered. 

Speaking took more effort than he expected and the words came out raspy and tired sounding. It HE was tired. Even now, sleep prodded uncomfortably at his mind, and everything felt hazier than usual… Nonetheless, his confirmation seemed to mean a great deal to Omega, who promptly lost her composure and broke down in a fit of hiccups and tears at his bedside.

“Tech, I - I’m sorry,” She spluttered. “If - If we knew - We should have looked for you-“

“The effort would have been futile,” He attempted to assure her, but she only shook her head.

“I should have ripped the damn helmet off you in your own cockpit on the way to Tantiss-“

The doorway behind her whooshed open, and they both looked up to see a pale clone trooper with cybernetics that Tech recognized near instantly, one of the first names he had unintentionally slotted away years before, despite the fact that he had clearly aged some since they last met.

“Echo,” He identified the clone automatically.

Echo’s eyes widened. “T-Tech…”

“He’s awake!” Omega gasped out between sobs. “And he- he remembers m-me… Us…”

Tech saw Echo swallow hard as he pulled Omega tight against his chest, letting her bury her face in his plastoid armor. Her body began to shake like it had in his dream. Tech still held tight to her hand - something told him that if he let go the dream would end, CX-2 would be all that remained, he would wake up back in the imperial med bay instead of this one, finally facing his own decom and he DIDN’T WANT THAT-

“Easy, Tech,” Echo was saying, there was that high pitched noise coming from somewhere again and Tech was torn from his spiraling thoughts as he craned his neck to identify it. Omega and Echo both faced him with alarmed looks, but as quickly as it started the noise stopped.

“What’s going on?” Omega asked. “Your heart rate just…”

…A heart monitor. Of course. “It’s… Nothing of relevance,” Tech said uncomfortably.

Echo fixed him with a calculating look that he tried to ignore, but the feeling of being searched like that, like after all these years his brother could somehow simply tell when something was being omitted, made him feel distinctly vulnerable.

“Omega… Have you told the others yet?” Echo asked gently.

“N-no… I wanted to make sure-“

“I know,” He said soothingly. “But you shouldn’t put it off anymore. They need to know… And be gentle with Hunter.”

Omega let out a deep, shaky breath, but nodded.

“Do you want me to be with you on the comm?”

“No… Can you stay with him, please? I - I don’t want him to be alone.”

“Can do, kid,” Echo said fondly, ruffling her hair. 

Before Tech could protest Omega had squeezed his hand one more time and then let go. For a second panic surged through his chest, the edges of his vision went black, that noise was reverberating throughout the room-

Until Echo grabbed his hand in her place. 

“I gotcha, vod. It’s alright. Yes, it’s okay Omega, he’s okay.”

Tech held his breath, but the room didn’t fade away like he expected, even as he felt like he was fighting just to stay awake. 

“Well, don’t do that. Remember to breathe, come on now. I… I know a lot has happened.”

Echo’s voice hitched, but it was warm and steady, too. It was okay. He was okay, like Echo said. He was still here, it wasn’t over, not yet. Tech dared to take a breath, then another, and finally, leaned back against the soft pillows again that he had to be imagining, nothing about the Imperial med bay was designed for comfort. 

“I’ll be back soon, Tech. Don’t worry,” Omega assured him.

Tech gave the slightest, stiffest nod, and Omega turned away with a shaky exhale. There was the whoosh of a doorway, then silence.

“Good,” Echo said. “Just breathe. You ah… Really had us worried there for a little while, you know,” his brother continued a little awkwardly. “The better part of ten years, actually. When Omega told me…”

Tech waited patiently for him to finish the explanation, but Echo trailed off, his own shoulders shuddering for a moment as he fought to compose himself. 

“I’m sorry vod. I… Kriff, there’s no excuse, there’s nothing I can say to explain this, but you’re safe now. We’re never letting you go again, I promise…”

Tech still didn’t want to close his eyes even though they felt heavy, but the effort it took not to do so was increasing. He pulled his gaze away from Echo’s glistening hazel eyes and stared pointedly at the ceiling as he pondered the words. It was a pleasant thought… He wished he could believe it, but he knew better.

None of this would last. It never did.

“You can believe it, Tech,” Echo suddenly insisted, his voice breaking entirely. “But I… I understand why you wouldn’t trust us again, after this…”

Oh. Apparently he had spoken some part of his thoughts out loud.

“‘T’s not your fault,” Tech mumbled truthfully, trying to take stock of his state of being. Perhaps he was on some sort of painkiller which was having an effect on his mind. That would potentially explain the vividness of this particular dream… Though the idea that Colonel Bragg would waste painkillers on it at all was ridiculous.

“They didn’t even give you painkillers?!” Echo spoke up suddenly, his grip on his hand tightening almost uncomfortably. Tech raised an eyebrow in surprise. Echo had gone from emotional and comforting to absolutely seething, and worse, Tech must be looser lipped than he would like to be on the matter. “Kark, they filled you almost as full of hardware as me and-“

Tech snapped its mouth shut. It was saying too much and it HE didn’t want to talk about it.

“It’s okay. We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to-“

Shit.

“Why don’t you just get some sleep-“

“NO!” He nearly shouted, and the alarms began blaring overhead yet again, which seemed counterproductive, it only served to increase the anxiety he was already feeling which was presumably the opposite of the goal of the device.

Echo touched his scomp arm to Tech’s shoulder- He still had the scomp, then, after all this time- and gently pushed him back. 

“We’re not giving you back to them, Tech,” Echo said with fierce determination, and for a second, Tech could almost feel it himself. “You’re never going back there. But you need your rest.”

Tech met Echo’s eyes with exhausted desperation. Even though he wanted to stay here forever, the shadows of stasis or sleep or whatever his unconscious state was these days were closing in, he could tell. It… no. HE. He had so little left to keep fighting with.

“I’ll be right here when you wake up again. How’s that sound?”

Tech’s heart was still pounding, everything about his existence felt bleary and heavy, but there was such blinding sincerity on his vod’s face. He… he wanted to believe him…

“You’ll stay?” Tech asked in a voice that was barely a whisper.

“Of course, vod,” Echo said with so much gentleness, unlike anything Tech had heard in years. “Right now there’s nowhere else I’d want to be.”

Tech considered that as his eyelids began to droop. “Omega?” He muttered.

“She’ll be back soon. I couldn’t keep her away if I tried.”

Tech nodded. His eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore. His body ached, his mind was exhausted and pained, its failures of the day and looming fate sapped it of whatever strength it had left. Darkness closed in, and he would simply have to face it…

Echo’s hand was still warm in his own, though, even as his world finally went black and numb once again. Somewhere at the edge of his mind, he even thought he heard Omega’s laugh.

For the briefest second, before stasis overtook it, Tech let himself hope his family would still be there if he woke up again.

Chapter Text

Hunter had almost managed to doze off on Pabu’s south beach. All this time later, letting his guard down still didn’t come easy, but with his feet in the sand, the sun on his face, and his brothers close by, he usually made the effort to relax. Some days he was successful, other times he wasn’t, but today was shaping up to be a good day. 

Crosshair had fallen asleep an hour ago. Hunter had been able to tell the exact moment it happened because the little glass he had been sipping slipped from his fingers and landed in the sand with a soft pff, and shortly after, his little brother began to snore. He thought for a moment of taking a holovid of it. Crosshair always denied snoring. But that would have required moving, and Hunter was just so comfortable in the sun.

Wrecker’s booming laugh and Batcher’s excitable barks drifted down the beach from not too far away. Age might have slowed them all down a bit, but it had done nothing to taper Wrecker’s spirit. He and Batcher together were still the most formidable volleyball team on the island, now that Omega had gone off to join the rebellion and Phee all but retired from the game. Hunter wasn’t entirely sure how he managed to train the hound to play in the first place, but she seemed to have a great time jumping and hitting the ball towards Wrecker with her snout any time it flew near her. 

Sometimes, Hunter was unable to settle. His thoughts would spiral, his body grew agitated, and he struggled to know what to do with himself out here at all. It would get especially bad when he couldn’t get his mind off of someone in particular. After all, Omega hadn’t even been gone very long. If she were here, she would be at the net with Wrecker, daring him to play her one on one and stomping his shebs like she damn well should. Echo still visited from time to time, usually while recovering from yet another battle wound when the Rebels insisted he take some time off. If he were here, even against his will, he would definitely be taking that holo of Crosshair. But he would also be scooping up his drink out of the sand, making sure they had a fresh one in the cooler for when he woke, and reminding Omega to re-apply her sunscreen, even though she didn’t really need it - he would do anything for his brothers and sisters, even the little things. And… Tech had been gone for a long time, but Hunter had no doubt in his mind what his brother would be up to. Tech would hardly be able to sit still and relax in a place teeming with so many interesting things to observe. He would be walking the shoreline, or maybe out for a swim with a rebreather and his goggles, looking for fascinating creatures or plant life in tidepools and on the ocean floor and everywhere he could find them, in a bid to satisfy his endless curiousity.

Hunter missed them all.

If this were a bad day, he would do one of those activities for them. He would challenge Wrecker at volleyball even if his back would ache for it later, and he would pretend not to notice that Wrecker took it easy on him. He would dote on his brothers, making sure they had towels and snacks and drank enough water and didn’t spend too much time in the sun, even if they grumbled at him for it. He would take a walk and try to appreciate all the unique things this island had to offer, trying to spot something new, even if he’d walked these beaches a thousand times by now. If it wasn’t a good day for him, he would have a good day for one of them.

But today was a good day already, and Hunter knew he could enjoy it his way. He breathed deep, closing his eyes and resting his senses. It was peaceful out here. His brothers were safe and content. The sounds of gently lapping waves against the rocky shore and the feeling of warm light on his skin slowly started to lull him to sleep…

Until the sharp ping of his wrist comm jerked him from it.

“Mmmmmmmhh,” Crosshair groaned at the sound. “What is it now?”

Hunter blinked several times to re-adjust his eyes to the bright glare of the sun overhead and shook his head to orientate himself. “Not sure,” He grumbled, squinting to read the ID. “‘m not expecting any…”

But he knew that ID, and his heart skipped a beat. Suddenly Hunter was wide awake. “Omega!” He cried. “Wrecker get over here! Cross! Wake up!”

“Omega’s calling?” Wrecker shouted back, sprinting towards them in an instant. 

“Why?” Crosshair gasped, rubbing frantically at his eyes. “She wasn’t due to check in for another-“

But Hunter wasn’t about to wait or question it. He accepted the comm right away and a little holo of Omega flickered to life on his arm, just as Wrecker skidded to an ungraceful halt behind him and Batcher bowled them both over. Hunter went sprawling in the sand.

“Hunter!” Omega gasped. “Wrecker! Are you okay?”

Hunter spat out a few grains of sand that got stuck to his lips as Wrecker laughed and Batcher bounded all around them with glee. 

“Oh he’s fine,” Crosshair sneered overhead. “Just got a little sand in that hair, I’m sure it won’t take more than a tenday to wash out.”

Batcher nearly pounced right on Hunter’s wrist at the image of Omega before Wrecker got ahold of her and he scrambled upright. Omega let out a relieved little giggle at the antics. 

“Sorry bout that, kid,” Hunter muttered a little sheepishly, shaking some of the sand from his hair. “How have you been?”

“Still kicking ass, I bet!” Wrecker said enthusiastically.

“Is something wrong?” Crosshair asked worriedly. “Do you need our help?”

“I’m okay,” Omega said. “I just got back from a mission and…” 

She swallowed hard, and Hunter frowned. A quick glance at his brothers told him they noticed it, too. Omega had just taken a step and winced, her face was blotchy, and if the injuries weren’t enough, her voice had just hitched.

“What’s going on, ‘Mega?” Wrecker asked, huddling in closer to Hunter and Crosshair in the sand in concern. “Are ya hurt? Do ya need to come home for a little bit?”

“I - No, I mean - yes I got hurt, but I’m okay, I broke a couple bones but Echo already made me get to the bone knitter so it’s just sore now, but…”

“As he should. How’d that happen? I thought you were running relief last we heard,” Hunter said, trying and failing to keep the alarm out of his voice. 

“…Relief doesn’t mean risk-free,” Omega countered. “You know that.”

“Well it’s a good thing you know how to handle yourself in a fight,” Wrecker said solemnly. 

“But you’re calling us about it,” Crosshair observed. “Something else happened.”

“It’s alright, Omega. You can tell us,” Hunter almost pleaded. The longer this went on the more obvious something really was wrong, and Hunters stomach was clenched in a million knots at the prospect of what that might be. 

“I… I know this is going to sound impossible,” Omega said with a nervous sigh. “After all this time. But… The Empire sent an assassin after us. We didn’t lose anyone… yet… one of our pilots is in pretty critical condition.”

All three of them stayed silent at that, nodding or pursing their lips or letting out long concerned sighs, but waiting for her to continue. That wasn’t the news, and they all knew it.

“But the assassin was… I… I recognized him. I thought he was that CX trooper who hunted us and-“

“That trooper is long gone,” Hunter cut in soothingly to reassure her, like he did back when she still had nightmares about her ordeal, silently cursing the trooper who traumatized her that way, conditioning or not. “I made sure of it before we took care of Hemlock and got you off Tantiss. He can’t hurt you, Omega, I promise you that.”

“No,” Omega shot back. “No, Hunter, I - It was him. It was definitely him, he survived, and it’s not what you think.”

Hunter felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. He felt Crosshair go rigid beside him and practically stop breathing, and Wrecker’s hands clenched into fists. If that CX was back, if he had the audacity to come after Omega again-

“I’ll come out of retirement for this one,” Wrecker growled. “Unless you killed him already.”

“I didn’t, he - he wasn’t in his right mind, he didn’t know what he was doing. It wasn’t his fault and-“

“It’s been ten years, Omega,” Hunter said in a tight voice. “That should be enough time to figure out that the Empire is wrong, and if he hurt you-“

“That CX trooper was Tech.”

The world around Hunter went suddenly deathly cold. Even with the sun shining overhead, a dreadful, icy set of realizations curled in his veins. 

“Tech?” Wrecker eeked out at his side in disbelief.

“Y-yes… It… It’s him,” Omega confirmed with a shaky nod.

Hunters head was spinning. He couldn’t believe this. The CX trooper, who blew up Rex’s base and killed so many of his men.

Who tried to drown Crosshair.

Who invaded and burned Pabu, tore Omega away from them, and dragged her back to Tantiss to be used for a fucking experiment.

Who Hunter had impaled through the gut at the end of an electrospear-

Hunter was only vaguely aware of a heavy hand settling on his shoulder and the way Crosshair suddenly smelled strongly of fear through the frozen static of the world caving in around him. Tech, his brother, had been right there! He had been within their reach and Hunter killed him, or damn well tried. They’d never been able to check for a body when he fell from the rail car, no one should have survived a fall like that, but if this was true then Tech had, and they left him, and they left him again and again and again until Hunter KILLED HIM and then they LEFT HIM YET AGAIN-

The sudden image of a pair of feet dangling limp just above the floor flooded his mind and he gasped, clasping a hand over his mouth to keep from vomiting.

“Hunter?” Omega’s voice nudged the edge of his mind, but Hunter couldn’t form words, not right now. There was only one thing echoing in his head. Even if Tech had somehow lived, Hunter spent the last ten years thinking he killed that CX trooper, hell, being proud of it! If that had been Tech this whole time - if he had killed his baby brother -

“You couldn’t have known,” Omega was saying. “None of us could.”

But that shouldn’t matter. She had somehow figured it out after ten years. Ten years that they left Tech with the empire, ten years after he sacrificed himself to save them all-

“B-but he… Is he…” Wrecker choked out, his one handed grip increasing on Hunters shoulder, but Hunter didn’t even flinch.

Omega took a shaking, sniffling breath and smiled up at them all. “Yeah. Tech is alive… And he even remembers me,” She said in a voice full of relief, and even smiled up at them. “At least a little.”

“Be careful,” Crosshair rasped, and Hunter realized he was shaking. “You don’t know what he might be like after… What they did.”

“I know,” Omega answered solemnly. “Echo is with him now. We’re taking a lot of precautions. He was hurt in our fight too, and had some issues from before but… We’ll help him, won’t we? He’s our brother.”

That, finally, managed to help Hunter find his words again. “Of course we will,” he said, even though it came out sounding fragile and strained. “Whatever he needs. Anything.”

He felt dizzy saying it, and clamped a had onto Crosshair’s shoulder to steady himself, both their shaking be damned. 

Omega nodded, and Hunter saw silvery tears start to stream down her face in the holo. “Good,” She said fervently. “He’s going to need all of us, I think. We can’t change what already happened but… But we can do better now.”

“C-Course we can,” Wrecker stammered. “But just thinking, he’s alive… He’s really alive… An’ we get to see ‘im?”

“Yeah,” Omega assured them. “He was in bad shape but… He’s doing better now. As soon as he’s cleared, I’m bringing him home.”

Hunter nodded, too choked up to speak again as his own eyes and guts burned. But Omega was right. She had grown up and grown wise. Most days he wondered who learned more from who, if he was honest, but he took her assurances and tucked them carefully away in his heart. 

He believed Omega, even if his heart was having trouble catching up with her words. Tech was alive… And after all this time, his brother was desperately going to need them.

Chapter Text

CX-2 activated… or… or perhaps Tech awoke.

Because Echo was still here, still holding its hand, even. It distinctly remembered asking Echo to stay with him, and Echo had responded Of course, vod. Right now there’s nowhere else I’d rather be, exactly.

He had kept his word.

Omega was here again, too, just like Echo had said she would be. He could barely make out the bright yellow of her jacket and tuft of blonde hair without corrective eye lenses of some sort, but the soft snoring sounds from nearby alerted him to her presence, and when he squinted, he could tell it was her, slouched over in a chair with her mouth hanging open. 

Tech must have woken up, which meant it was dreaming again. Not that it particularly minded. That meant it hadn’t been decommissioned yet. Besides, it had never been able to stop the dreams before, but they had usually been pleasant. It was still registering some residual pain, but it suspected that if it woke, that particular issue would become significantly more apparent. 

For now, it would accept the glitches. They were allowing it him to see his family one last time, which was more than he deserved. 

“Well, look who’s up,” Echo muttered softly. “How are you feeling, Tech?”

Tech considered the question a moment before responding.

“Improved,” he settled on. What lingering pain he was still experiencing paled in comparison to anything he had been subjected to earlier, though he couldn’t say that it was completely gone. 

“That’s good to hear,” Echo replied with a warm grin. “You should be in a lot better shape now. Not every medic knows how to work with biomechanics, but I happen to know of a few good ones myself. We got you a few upgrades. Couple of your servos were fried and your prosthetic arm was practically slag after that explosion. Omega got some good hits in on you too, but they weren’t lethal. Thank the maker she was holding back,” He muttered the last part under his breath.

“I would have to agree,” Tech said, glancing back over to her sleeping form in the chair. Omega had shown significant improvement in form and strategy in their fight since he had seen her last. It was obvious that his brothers had continued her training, and with his own degrading body and mechanics, it seemed unlikely now that he could truly match her. “I would rather not be dead.”

Echo grinned a little at that, though something sad flickered behind his eyes as he did. “Yeah… We prefer you not dead too, vod.” 

Tech wasn’t sure what to make of Echo’s expression, but he nodded, moving an arm to prop himself up a bit better but quickly became aware of something strange. The arm felt different. Despite Echo’s claims of his arm being practically slag, it was fully functional, but not at all familiar.

“Ah… We had to completely replace that,” Echo said softly, noticing his apparent confusion. “Even if the old one wasn’t destroyed, it was pretty outdated. Then again, I’m one to talk.” He spun his scomp a couple times, making a small whirring sound with it, and chuckled softly. “It’s a good model though, I made sure of it. Comfortable interfacing. Customizable, too. I… Figure you’ll want to make some adjustments of your own, once we have you out of here.”

“That would be ideal,” Tech replied, lifting the new prosthetic close to his eyes to examine it. There were modifications he had made to his old one that would likely be missed, however, many of those had been due to necessity in order to prolong function. If this arm worked as intended already, duplicating what extra features he was missing wouldn’t take much effort. Perhaps there would even be room to install some experimental ones.

A sharp inhale from the corner chair pulled his attention from the arm and he twisted eagerly in the bed to face Omega.

“Mmm awake,” Omega yawned, blinking rapidly as she jerked upright in the chair. “Wha’d I miss, I… Tech!” 

Tech gave her a small smile and a nod. “Hello, Omega.”

“How are you now?” She asked in a voice full of concern, practically tripping over herself to cross the room to his bedside. “Are you still hurting or is it better?”

“My pain levels have decreased significantly.”

“How’s the arm?”

“It will suffice. It merely needs some modifications to achieve maximum functionality. Nothing I cannot handle.”

“How’s your head?”

“I-”

“Slow down there, Omega,” Echo said soothingly. “Let’s not overwhelm him just yet.”

Omega nodded curtly and met Tech’s eyes. “Sorry.”

“No apology is needed,” Tech said wryly. “It is natural to be curious…” 

But he trailed off as he spoke the words. Even for a dream, that was certainly not an approved sentiment. Then again, neither was cohorting with rebel insurgents, or wishing to postpone its own decommissioning. Tech’s brow furrowed in thought.

“I’m glad you still feel that way,” Echo said with just a hint of suspicion. “I… We… Do need to ask you a few, uh… Sensitive questions. We can take it slow, as long as you answer honestly.”

Tech hesitated a moment, but nodded. 

“Alright,” Echo said uncomfortably. “We’re really glad to have you back, vod, but… You were clearly sent by the Empire to stop us. Probably to kill us. Including Omega,” Echo gestured to the girl with his scomp. “We need to know why.”

“And you can tell us, Tech,” Omega said earnestly. “It’s okay. We won’t judge you, and we aren’t going to let them hurt you anymore.”

Tech nodded cooperatively. There wasn’t any harm in telling them, considering none of this was even real, though he knew better to believe Omega’s promise that somehow these figments of his imagination could save him. “My orders were to locate and eliminate the rebels completing a munitions transfer on Terova led by Hera Syndulla or be terminated in the attempt,” He recited. “I… Failed. On both counts, apparently.”

“Good,” Echo said, his eyes flashing before he visibly attempted to calm himself.

Shock flickered on Omega’s face. “Yeah… They should never have asked that of you Tech, that’s… That’s wrong. But we weren’t even transferring munitions,” She said crossly. “It was relief aid. Just rations, and most of it was for refugees…”

“That… is not what my intel reported,” Tech mused.

“Well. That’s not surprising,” Echo said. “So they ordered you to kill a bunch of relief workers or die trying?”

“That is what I said,” Tech stated. Although, he had to admit, at least to himself, that when Echo put it that way, it did sound… Disturbing. Calling it as such may be considered treason, but at the least, the mission had been an ineffective use of available resources. Not that it was CX-2’s place to decide that or have an opinion on the matter. Colonel Bragg had to have her reasons.

“Then what is stopping you from trying to finish the job now?” Echo asked darkly.

Tech blinked up at him a couple of times, then at Omega, who seemed to be holding her breath. He shook his head. There was nothing for them to worry about, not here.

“The mission is a failure,” Tech repeated himself. “I will be decommissioned shortly.”

“You won’t,” Echo said firmly, but Tech shook his head.

“It is, sadly, standard procedure. My tracker cannot be removed. When they locate my body, if it is still… Functioning,” He chose the word carefully, it was important to be accurate when articulating these sorts of things to avoid unnecessary confusion, “I will be-”

“They won’t find you,” Echo snarled, his face contorting into something dark and vicious, giving Tech pause. “Hemlock may have designed it so removing that thing would kill you, but I made damn sure that the Empire can’t use it to find you anymore. You’re safe, Tech.” He let out a short breathy sigh and ran a hand over his bald head. When he spoke next his voice sounded softer and a little bit choked. “I told you, we’re not letting them take you back. Ever. And I’m sorry we ever let them get to you in the first place…”

Omega put a gentle hand on Echo’s back as he took a moment, covering his eyes with his hand. “Is… Is that all?” She asked hopefully. “The orders are gone so you’re just… you… again?”

Tech looked between the pair of them in confusion and concern. “I… Do not believe it is that simple… Or particularly relevant, here.”

“He’s not the only one they’ve turned against us, ‘Mega,” Echo muttered. “He’s right… It’s never that simple.”

“We’ll figure it out together then,” Omega said firmly. “You’re not alone anymore, Tech.”

That… would be nice.

But it wasn’t really true, was it?

“Tech?” Omega said his name again quietly. 

Tech raised his eyes to meet hers. They were golden and sparkling and lifelike, just like in his malfunctions memories, but… That’s all this was. It was all just memories, fragments of his past manifesting themselves with whatever synapses were still firing in its brain and sending it these strange signals, creating the comfortable medical room and the advanced new prosthetic arm and dulling its pain. Omega and Echo acted so much like themselves because that’s how it knew them, that’s how he recognized them, but it wasn’t them.

They weren’t here. He was still alone. And he it shouldn’t care about such things anyways, it wasn’t allowed to, it wasn’t really alive and it would be dead soon anyways so what did any of this matter?!

The realization shouldn’t make a lump form in its throat or the heart monitor go off either. It squinted its eyes shut and shrank back into the bed as the noise pulsed maddeningly overhead, willing it all to just go away.

“Easy there Tech,” It heard Echo’s voice from overhead, and the same as last time it felt a hand slip into its own as if to draw it back, but a sharp jolt cut through his insides as he did. Whatever they were looking for in him, their effort was wasted. There was nothing of him for them to fight for. Everything it used to be back when it had a family and a purpose had been scooped out and shredded, there was just a hole in its psyche where the malfunctions that remained could reverberate off empty walls, taunting it, like they were now. Its actions proved as much. If that family even still lived after years of opposing the Empire, if they ever saw what their brother had truly become, they would want nothing to do with it. Those people had been good and kind. They had fought for each other, taken difficult stances against impossible odds, been loyal to one another, held up situations to a set of morals rather than simply to orders and taken action to protect the innocent and vulnerable from exploiters throughout the galaxy, even when they themselves had struggled to survive.

And CX-2… CX-2 hadn’t been that way for ten years.

It had been helping to build the very Empire that imprisoned and tested on the Clone Troopers who won it the war. It had hunted down insurgents of all kinds without question, using its ruthless efficiency, tactical cunning and fighting prowess to kill countless people. Whether or not they were innocent never mattered. It knew several had been civilians and that never made a difference. If Omega was to be believed, even its latest mission had resulted in destruction and possibly even death solely to stop people from delivering food and medical supplies to compromised populations. Such a thing couldn’t even be justified as a threat to the Empire, if it was true, and CX-2 hadn’t bothered to determine whether or not it was. 

It killed all those clones on Teth.

It cut off Crosshair’s hand and taunted him as it did.

It even tried on its final mission to execute Omega! 

“Talk to us, Tech,” Omega’s voice spoke soothingly overhead, making its stomach twist into knots. “Can you tell us what you need? We just need to know, we can help.”

“You can’t,” CX-2 choked out bitterly.

“We can, and we will. Whatever you need, we love you-”

“You’re not real!” 

The words left its mouth and the tension in its chest crumbled like wet flimsi. It hurt to acknowledge as much, but pretending this was anything other than what it was would only hurt worse when reality came crashing back.

“You’re not real… None of this is real,” It repeated. “You can’t help me or save me so stop - Stop saying that you can…”

Whichever one of them was holding its hand tightened their grip and it opened its eyes. Both of them wore matching expressions of horror and shock, but… But of course they did… The people in its memories would be upset to hear it talk like that…

Echo nodded demurely, and Omega’s eyes shone with unshed tears, but she gulped hard and steeled her expression first. “So… what do you think is happening?” She asked, her voice wavering just a touch.

“All of this… It only exists in my mind. It’s a… A malfunction…”

“Uh huh,” She said, looking him fiercely in the eyes, though her voice somehow grew calmer. “So like a… A vision? A fantasy? dream?”

“It… It is more likely a dream…” It replied, wondering where this was going. A dream did sound more probable, given the circumstances. Its body ought to be unconscious back on Terova, whatever state it was in. Echo was giving Omega a miserable, quizzical look, but she didn’t break CX-2 Tech’s gaze.

“Okay. If it’s a dream, then… What happens when you wake up?”

Tech’s eyes went wide with fear. “I-”

“I don’t mean where are you going to wake up,” Omega said steadily. “Or what will happen to you. You don’t know if the Empire has found you yet. I mean what will you do? What choices will you make if you have the chance to make them?”

Tech opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. He… Wasn’t sure. It really depended on his circumstance, didn’t it? The question would be entirely useless if he woke up in the Empire’s clutches again, or if they decommissioned him before he woke up at all. He hadn’t considered the possibility that the Empire would delay looking for him, though, that he might have to choose how to proceed.

“I… Would return to Colonel Bragg,” It said slowly.

“Is that what you want to do?” Omega asked gently.

“No,” Tech responded without hesitation. “I want to stay here.”

His answer surprised him a bit, but then again, it was true. That was what he wanted, even if he wasn’t supposed to, even if it was impossible. Echo seemed slightly surprised as well, jerking his head up with wet cheeks and a hopeful glint in his eyes. 

Omega gave him a small grin, but she alone seemed unfazed by the admission, and when she spoke her voice was still strong. “Do you want to see your brothers again, too?”

“I-” Tech started, but his voice caught in his throat as several questions tore through his mind like razors. He did, of course he did, that should be obvious, but - but were they still alive? Were they safe? Would his tracker attract the Empire to them if they were or had Echo really disabled it? After ten years would there even be room for an unexpected guest in their domicile, nonetheless after he blew up the ship that served as their last one? And did… Did they even want him back, after everything he had done?

“Tech,” Echo said, giving his hand another trembling squeeze. “They want to see you… They’ve missed you so badly. You… You have no idea.”

Tech took several breaths, parsing out everything he knew and turning those words over in his mind as if to analyze them. No matter which way he looked at them, though, it didn’t change his answer to Omega’s question. The heart monitor beeped a couple of times just before he opened his mouth to give his answer.

“I do want to see them,” He conceded, his eyes flickering between Omega and Echo in anticipation. “If that is true. That they… Want me back.”

There was something fragile in his voice when he said it, but Echo nodded warmly at him and lifted Tech’s hand in his own, touching both their knuckles to his cheek with a small sniffle. Omega’s face broke into a blinding smile, even as she finally blinked the tears from her eyes and hastily wiped them away with the edge of her sleeve.

“They do. I promise,” She said brightly. “I think the medics want to run just a couple more tests on you to make sure you’re healing well enough to travel, but as soon as that’s done, I can bring you home.”

---

Tech hadn’t been sure what to make of their conversation from before. Even as the medics returned to test his mobility, check his vitals, and attend to his surgical sites, the idea of going home seemed strangely surreal. If this were a dream it would make more sense to simply skip to that part rather than be subjected to these tests. For one awful moment, he had realized the possibility of his body being tested on in real life, all the cold pricks and sharp prods a mental manifestation of whatever final experiment Colonel Bragg was subjecting him to prior to his decommissioning. If that were the case he might not make it to his brothers again after all, he may run out of time, the world could go black and he may never see their faces!

The heart monitor went off again and Echo talked him through those particular fears, shooting impatient glares at the medics as Tech did his best to focus on Echo rather than his thoughts or all the unpleasant sensations, and suddenly it was over. Tech was vaguely aware of someone declaring him fit to be released, but Omega let out a cheer and helped him down from the bed, and then they were walking, Echo on one side and Omega on the other. The pair of them led him through ship halls that were far from imperial, passing people who Tech could too easily imagine having on the other end of his blaster. They reached the hangar and boarded a ship Tech knew he had just shot down, one that bore an uncanny resemblance to the Marauder in places, and yet it wasn’t. It couldn’t be… He had destroyed that ship ages ago, after dedicating so much of his own time and care into its maintenance and customization…

“Welcome back to the Havoc Zillo!” Omega said enthusiastically, gesturing around the inside of the ship with pride. “She’s fully functional again so don’t worry about a thing. The trip is a shorter one. Hope you still like varos flavored rations.”

Tech nodded, looking around the ship in a bit of a daze. A droid waddled towards him with frantic, familiar sounding gonk gonk’s.

“I know, Gonky!” Omega grinned. “He’s starting to do better, I’m excited too.”

The GNK droid stopped just short of colliding with Tech and leaned itself forward towards his hand. Tech obliged with a small, warm smile of his own, resting the mechanical arm on it’s oversized top, and it let out a series of soft gngngngngngnk ’s.

“Aww. He remembers you,” Echo crooned.

“Droids memory banks are not like sentients. Their data recall is significantly-”

“Oh I know, Tech,” Echo chuckled. “It’s still sweet.”

Omega had skipped her way to the cockpit already and the outer door hissed shut behind them. For a moment Tech grasped at the nearest console to steady himself as she prepared for takeoff, but he barely felt the lurch as they left the ground and the ship left the hangar behind. 

She had learned well, after all.

For a second, Tech gazed at the blur that was the back of her head down the hall, considering it. This was a dream, it had to be, but… This Omega was older than in his memories, no longer the naive adolescent female who chose to sit with them in the cafeteria and picked a food fight in their defense. Granted, she had grown beyond that well before his time with the Empire, but this was something else entirely. Even if what he was seeing now wasn’t real… He hoped that the young girl he knew back then had gotten the chance to grow into someone like this. His brothers deserved the chance to raise her this way, even if he never got to see it.

Then, his eyes slid just past her, to a place on the console where a blurry object sat, glinting against the black expanse of space in the viewport behind it.

“Those are yours,” Echo said softly at his side. “Do you want to see them?”

Tech wasn’t quite sure what to say, he couldn't even see what the object was with his poor quality eyesight, but the statement made curiosity flare up inside him, and he nodded. Echo got up and crossed over to the cockpit, whispering a couple of things to Omega before taking the little item in his one hand and returning.

Echo held them out, and Tech recognized them at once.

“My goggles,” Tech said in astoundment, taking them gingerly in his hands. He had seen them before in the memories but they really did feel familiar in his hands now, too. Both the lenses were shattered and one was missing several chunks, they wouldn’t function without significant repairs but… But they were his.

Nothing had been his in years. It shouldn’t matter, he knew it in his head, but somehow it did. This should be a dream but the familiarity of something that was his own in his hands just felt so real, and if this was real… 

Through the gap in the hall Tech saw as the color outside the cockpit changed from pitch black to fuzzy streaks of blue as Omega put the ship into hyperspace, and his breath caught in his throat.

“You should know,” Echo said under his breath, “Even if you weren’t there… She never flew without you.”

He nodded at Echo’s words, unable to speak, and held the goggles close to his chest, just in case they were real.

Chapter Text

Wrecker never faced that CX trooper head on in their fights, but for a long time, he wished that he had. 

Whenever he caught Crosshair messing with his wrist, or Omega woke up with a nightmare about being taken, or Echo got all quiet at a mention of a brother they lost on Teth, Wrecker regretted that he never got the chance to take on that trooper himself. He woulda crushed him if it came down to it, even if he didn’t wanna kill him. It was still a clone in there, he knew it wasn’t really their fault, he remembered how awful it felt to be controlled by the chip and no one deserved something like that. But Wrecker woulda stopped him, even if killing him was what it took to do it. He wouldn’t have let his family get hurt if he could help it, not for nothing. 

He didn’t wish that anymore. 

The realization when Omega gave them the news had hit harder than the monster on Tantiss. Wrecker curled in on himself, clutching at his middle with one hand and reaching into thin air with the other, like he had when Tech fell from their railcar, and his hand found Hunters shoulder as the memory pressed in.

He had begged Tech not to do it. It wasn’t an option, Tech was right there and they just needed to get him on the railcar, just needed a little more time, but Tech had known better. Wrecker had watched him come to the conclusion as if in slow motion, the way his eyes went steady before he took aim and said those rebellious last words, but… But Wrecker couldn’t take that! He couldn’t lose him! He screamed for his vod, lunging out of the railcar with an outstretched arm even though it was useless, just some instinct in him that couldn’t let go, just his own willpower versus gravity like a damn Jedi, and Tech fell. Wrecker couldn’t look away, and neither did Tech, both keeping their eyes locked on their family as long as they could in those last moments until the car caught the tracks and ripped them apart. 

Tech’s plan had worked, and Wrecker could only ever hope he knew it in the end, hope he knew that his sacrifice wasn’t in vain. Even if it hurt. Even if it had never stopped hurting. It was the last ever memory Wrecker had of his brother, the last memory any of them had, since Wrecker had been the one to see it happen, who couldn’t stop it… Until now. 

They were going to get to make new memories again. Tech was coming home…

And if Wrecker had ever gotten the chance to face that CX trooper a decade ago, he might not be.

The sun beating down on the top of his head would have usually felt good, especially out on the water, with salty mist spraying up in the air and the thrill of catching nice fat fish. But today, waiting on solid dry land for the Havoc Zillo to appear in the sky, it was only making him sweat.

“You okay, Wrecker?” Hunter’s voice mumbled quietly at his side.

Wrecker ran a hand over his bald head and tried to let go of his thoughts with a shaky huff. “Nah... But you’re no better. I don’t need to hear heartbeats to tell that.”

“Neither do I,” Hunter said dryly, shifting his weight and exhaling hard. They sat in silence a few seconds more, craning their necks and squinting up at the air. Crosshair’s toothpick snapped in his mouth. 

“What do we even say to ‘im?” Wrecker turned back to his brothers. “After all this time-”

“Depends,” Crosshair spat. “We don’t even know what he’ll be like. He might try to kill us again.”

“Don’t say that, he’s our brother-”

“I’m only being realistic, Wrecker.”

“Well I’M just being-”

“Enough,” Hunter cut them both off at once, his head snapping back towards the sky. “They’re here.”

Wrecker gasped and turned his good eye back to the sky above, searching for the little dot that was Omega and Echo and Tech coming home. It took him a second to find it but his heart leapt when he did, and Wrecker’s face split into a huge grin. There wasn’t a doubt in the galaxy that Tech would be okay, somehow, after everything. He had his brothers to help him again! They would make sure it turned out just fine, of course they would.

By the time the ship swung around Wrecker was bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation, and as soon as it hit the ground, he broke free of the others and ran to it!

“OMEGA!” He bellowed, waving an arm as Batcher bounded at his heels. “ECHO! WHERE’S TECH?!”

It didn’t even matter that the engines were just powering down and the ramp hadn’t lowered yet, he knew they could hear him! And Tech was in there! 

“MEGA!” He called again just as Hunter and Crosshair caught up, and finally, the ramp let out a hiss and began to lower, slowly revealing the other half of their family at the top.

Tech was there, he was really there, and Wrecker suddenly couldn’t speak. His brother, who he missed so much, stood in the middle of the other two, with Echo’s arm around his waist and Omega’s hand clutched tight his own. He regarded the three of them on the ground with a thoughtful expression that Wrecker knew, even all these years later. It knocked whatever words he was going to say right out of his throat. Wrecker felt dizzy all of the sudden, he wobbled on the spot as tears blurred his vision and ragged breaths were torn from his lungs, and Crosshair caught him lightly by the arm.

“T-Tech?” Hunter said at his side in a voice that sounded fragile.

“See?” He heard Omega speaking softly. “I said I’d bring you home, didn’t I?”

Tech still hadn’t made any move to come down the ramp. For a second everyone was quiet as the engines finished winding down, and even Batcher paused her cheerful circles, as Echo and Omega tugged at his arms but his feet didn’t budge. 

“And… They want to see me?”

Hunter eeked out a wounded sounding whimper and Wreckers bursting heart broke at the words.

“C-Course we do!” Wrecker found his voice again, scrubbing hard at his good eye to try and see his brother better. “Never a question, Tech! Come ‘ere, it’s… It’s been too long…” 

Hunter sniffed hard and nodded at his side and Echo muttered something reassuring in his ear, and finally, Tech let himself be led down off the ramp. He looked at each one of them in turn, almost as if he was in a daze, once his feet hit solid ground, but the second Tech’s eyes met his own Wrecker was gone. The last time he locked eyes with his brother had been a goodbye, but now he was alive, he was back, that hadn’t been their last moments, he could hardly believe it! After ten long years he threw his arms around Tech’s shoulders and pulled him into a hug, cradling him gently against his chest and resting his cheek against the top of his brother’s head, like he would have years ago if he had just been able to reach him in time and pull him to safety.

Tech let out a surprised little gasp and went stiff, but after a moments hesitation, Wrecker felt him relax and wrap his arms gingerly around Wrecker’s sides in return.

“Y-You’re back,” Wrecker stammered out. “I missed ya, I really did…”

“I… I too have missed this,” Tech said in a small voice. “Though if you could loosen your grip just slightly it would be appreciated, this arrangement is impeding my ability to breathe.”

“Sorry…” Wrecker sniffed. “I know you’re not a big hugger, just, it’s been so long…”

“I do not mind it, actually,” Tech whispered, staying very still against Wrecker’s chest. Then Hunter was at their side, sliding his hand along Tech’s back too with tears streaming down his own face, and Wrecker lifted an arm to let him in, gesturing for Crosshair to get over here too. Their youngest brother could act prickly as much as he wanted but Wrecker knew how he really felt, and sure enough, Crosshair let out a small huff before crossing stiffly over to them and letting Wrecker drag him into the hug.

“I’m sorry,” Hunter was rasping out between full body sobs. “I’m sorry Tech, I’m so sorry-”

“As I told Echo. There is nothing to apologize for,” Tech said softly. “There was nothing for you to do differently and no viable way to determine whether or not I had survived.” He paused for a second, and Wrecker felt a small shudder course through his body. “I, on the other hand…”

“Whatever you did doesn’t matter,” Wrecker cut him off before he could put himself down or try apologizing. “Not to us. It wasn’t you, Tech.”

“We know you better than that,” Hunter agreed through his tears.

Echo and Omega joined in the hug pile from the outside and Wrecker loosened his other arm to make room for them, too. Even once he didn’t have Tech in his own grip his big brother stayed nestled close to his chest as Wreckers massive arms stretched out to encircle his family, his full family, all at once. He… He hadn’t ever gotten to hug them all at once before! After the war, when they went back for Omega, Crosshair was left behind, and no one was really in the mood for hugging when they were trapped together on a sunken Kamino. Then by the time they got Crosshair back, Tech was…

But Tech was here now. They all were, every single one of them was safe in his arms, after all this time.

Wrecker never wanted to let any of them go again.

They stayed like that for a while, much longer than Crosshair would have usually tolerated, and maybe it was because the others realized that too and felt the same. But of course, eventually, he had to, they couldn’t stay like that forever. When they started growing fidgety Wrecker reluctantly loosened his grip to let them go, but even once they all broke apart, he stood protectively close to Tech. Tech didn’t seem to mind. If anything he was hovering a little closer than usual too.

“Well… Come on,” Hunter said in a hoarse voice. “You’re probably hungry, Tech, and tired... I know it’s been a long trip. For all of you.”

Tech nodded compliantly and at Wrecker’s gentle urging he began to follow after Hunter, who turned back every few steps to make sure they were all still there, even though Wrecker knew he could have counted their heartbeats or footsteps or something instead. Wrecker could hardly even see the path back up to their little house, or… or Domicile? That was the neat sounding word Tech used to use for a house, wasn’t it? He somehow smiled even bigger at the thought. Not all of Tech’s vocabulary had stuck in his head, but there had always been a few unique words like that which he remembered, and whenever he heard them anywhere else he thought of his brother.

Wrecker hoped that Tech still used those words. He hoped Tech still did a lot of the things he used to do, that the Empire hadn’t been able to crush a single ounce of who Tech was over the last decade they spent apart because his brother was too damn good for that. But if they did, Wrecker would remind him. They all would, and Wrecker couldn’t wait to show him the beaches the next morning! He was ready to walk with Tech anywhere he wanted, lift him up to see inside the little holes in the rocks where some fancy looking crabs nested, carry whatever sort of crazy recording equipment Tech cobbled together for his research without complaint, maybe even bring him out on the boat so he could talk to them all day about the different fish they caught. And he would never get sick of it, it wouldn’t be possible. He hadn’t realized how much he missed his brothers constant chatter until it was gone.

As the night went on, though, Wrecker started to have just a few worries. Tech wasn’t quite his old self. It wasn’t really fair to expect him to be though, at least not so quickly, was it? Maybe his memory was a little off, or maybe it was just the hyperspace-lag, or the ten whole years they missed out on that was making Tech act so much more quiet and subdued than he used to be. He still asked a few questions about the sushi they were eating, he showed interest in Wrecker’s tale of catching the fish that the sushi came from, he even said he dreamed a couple of times about eating this exact food while he was with the Empire. Those all had to be good signs… Weren’t they?

But Wrecker’s gut told him there was still something off.

Omega and Hunter encouraged Tech to turn in to bed early, and he put up a fight about it for a minute, but Echo got involved and he settled down. That didn’t quite strike Wrecker as right either. Tech had acted afraid, but he trusted Echo and Omega, they’d been with Tech again for a few days more than he had and it seemed like they had done this before. The thought made Wrecker uneasy. Who knew what sort of osik the Empire put his brother through? There were all sorts of things that could cause fears like that and it made Wrecker’s blood boil to think of any of them happening to Tech. 

Crosshair began clearing the dishes in a huff the second the others made their way towards bed, and Wrecker dutifully carried plates over to the sink to be washed as they waited for their brothers to re-emerge.

“He’s not right,” Crosshair hissed as Wrecker brought him an armful of plates and began scraping the scraps into a compost bin. “He might be acting fine for now, but he isn’t.”

“I… I know,” Wrecker admitted. His grip tightened on a plate as he did and it cracked under his thumb.

“Wrecker!” 

“Sorry!” He muttered, swiveling around to drop the whole plate in the garbage before he could cut himself on it, but it slipped and sliced the side of his finger anyways. “Damn.”

“Clean it,” Crosshair said with a sigh, stepping away from the sink and drying his hands on a towel.

Wrecker did as he was told, even if he grumbled about it, stuffing the injury under running water. It wasn’t even all that big, but Crosshair was already fumbling around for the first aid kit, and he knew better than to contradict him. Tech had been their medic before, but Crosshair had taken it upon himself to learn the basics once he returned, and hardly anything pissed off their littlest brother more than not taking care of an injury these days, no matter how small.

Just as he turned off the faucet and gave his hand to Crosshair for bandaging, Hunter, Echo and Omega came back from the room, with Hunter looking pale.

“...Something you two want to tell us?” Crosshair said in a dangerous tone, barely looking up from Wrecker’s hand.

Echo and Omega exchanged a dark look at that, and Wrecker’s gut twisted.

“Yes,” Omega said heavily. “I’m sorry but we really needed to wait to discuss it until Tech was asleep and I wanted to tell you in person.” 

“Out with it, ‘Mega,” Hunter bristled.

Wrecker barely noticed Crosshair finish dressing the cut and give him back his hand. Whatever this was, it wasn’t going to be good news, he could tell. The energy in the room had shifted, and he should have known. Even if Hunter was the one with enhanced senses, Crosshair and Wrecker’s combined intuition was rarely wrong…

But nothing they learned now could be as bad as the idea of Tech being gone forever.

Echo squeezed Omegas shoulder, and she let out a deep sigh. “There’s… I don’t really know how to tell you this, we haven’t completely figured out the details of what he’s thinking yet but… Tech doesn’t think this is real.”

Wrecker blinked at her in confusion. That… That didn’t make sense.

“Not real?” Hunter repeated incredulously.

Omega gave him a solemn nod. “He thinks he’s dreaming… At least most of the time.”

Dreaming? Now Wrecker’s heart began to race. Tech didn’t know they were together again? He didn’t think he was home? That this was all just… Wishful thinking? All in his head? Fake?

Wrecker growled under his breath at the idea. How dare the Empire do that to him?! How DARE they hurt his big brother SO BADLY that he didn’t even KNOW-

“What do you mean by most of the time?” Crosshair hissed.

“I mean he’s confused,” Omega pleaded. “He acts like himself sometimes, like the way things used to be, then other times he talks like he’s still with the Empire and this is all a vision! He thinks he needs to return to his commanding officer, he thinks he’s going to be decommissioned-”

“DECOMMISSIONED?” Wrecker roared in horror. “NOBODY’s gonna decom him an’ - and if they EVER come back for him I’ll KILL ‘EM”

“Easy Wrecker. You’ll wake him,” Echo chided, but his voice was just as venomous as Wreckers, and Wrecker scoffed. “The Empire is like that,” Echo continued. “He told us it was common practice, and my intel says he’s right.”

Wrecker’s head was spinning. More things about what Tech had said before were starting to make sense, and they made him feel sick. How long had Tech held on to them during that hug, like he didn’t want it to end? There was that comment about dreaming of sushi, and his strange silence like he wasn’t fully there, and that thing he said about his own family not wanting him-

“So is he going to try to return to the Empire on us?” Crosshair interrupted Wreckers thoughts in a clipped tone, placing a steadying hand on Wrecker’s arm again.

“I don’t think so. Not right now anyways, he… He thinks he needs to wake up somehow to do that,” Omega explained. “But he’s afraid to go to sleep because he doesn’t want to wake up with the Empire again. We have to keep promising him we’ll still be here when he does, not them…”

“This… Could be a serious problem,” Hunter mused, rubbing his fingers hard against his own temples with his eyes closed in thought. “Once he figures out this is real…”

“If he figures out this is real,” Crosshair corrected, and Wrecker wheeled on him like he’d just suggested Pabu was covered in snow.

“Whadda’ya mean if?” Wrecker piped up. “He’s gotta know!” 

“Why?” Crosshair snapped. “He’s here, isn’t he? He’s said he doesn’t want this dream to end and he’s less dangerous like this.”

“But that’s not right!” Wrecker cried, pulling his arm away from Crosshair. “We can’t all just lie to ‘im! He deserves better than that, he’s our brother!”

“You don’t know what he’s capable of! None of us do! Except maybe Omega!”

“Well if anything happens we’ll handle it! But it shouldn’t take trickin’ ‘im to keep ‘im around. That’s… Isn’t that what the Empire was doing?”

There were a couple sharp inhales at that. Wrecker looked around at each of them in turn before landing his gaze back on Crosshair, trying to understand why they would even think of handling this any other way.

“That’s part of what we need to talk about,” Echo said evenly. “Crosshair does make a point. Tech has been a CX-trooper for ten years. That influence doesn’t just go away.”

Omega nodded. “I barely made it out of my own fight with him… He was relentless. He fought with lethal force even when he was badly injured, I got lucky. If he didn’t get distracted at the end…”

Hunter made a choked sounding noise and immediately pulled Omega into his arms, as if to protect her from the very idea that she could get hurt like that or worse, and Omega chuckled into his hair just a little.

“I’m alright Hunter,” She said affectionately. “I really am, but I just mean to say… You really can’t underestimate him.”

“But Wrecker is right too,” Echo said darkly. “Lying to him is Empire osik, and we’re better than that. He deserves better than that.”

Wrecker let out a long breath. “It’s just… We can’t force him to believe anything, can we? Just cause we say this is real, it doesn’t mean he’ll believe us. But it’s still on us to be honest with him, and if it that causes a problem, we’ll deal with it then. He’s our brother. We gotta protect him but… We wouldn’t be doin’ a good job of that without being honest and showing him he’s loved. An’ lying wouldn’t be very loving.”

“I agree,” Hunter said. “We’ll have to be prepared for if he does… Wake up… But I think Wrecker’s right. We can’t just lie to him forever, not if we really want him back.”

Echo and Omega both nodded, and all eyes fell on Crosshair.

“Well it looks like I’m outvoted anyways,” He said snidely.

“Come on, Cross-”

“I think this is a bad idea,” Crosshair snapped. “I think you’re not taking the danger here seriously. But if you want to try and draw him back out so you can fight all his demons, fine. Have kriffing fun.”

With that Crosshair stalked out of the kitchen. Wrecker took a couple steps to follow, but a door slammed, and he stopped, torn.

“Let him go,” Hunter said tiredly. “You know how he gets. He just needs some time.”

“He hasn’t gotten like that in… In a while, Hunter,” Wrecker moaned. “I don’t want him to be upset all alone.”

Hunter let out a sigh. “I know. But… trust me.”

Wrecker hesitated a minute longer, but finally, he nodded, letting his shoulders drop. 

A few minutes later they decided it would be better if they all went to bed early, all except Hunter, who took the first shift at Tech’s bedside just in case he woke up confused, to make sure they kept their promise. They had just set up the fourth bed in their shared room earlier this morning. Shep had brought it over for them as a gift, to make sure Tech was comfortable back home, at long last. Echo settled into Hunter’s bed to get some rest before taking second watch, and Wrecker crawled into his own with his eyes resting on Tech and the gentle rising and falling of his chest in the dim moonlight that streamed in through the windows. 

He could have stayed awake the whole night like that, reminding himself Tech was here. Wrecker was going to remember everything about this best he could, so his last memory about Tech would be fresh and new every day from now on. But sleep hit him like an unexpectedly huge ocean wave and knocked him out in minutes, and the last thing he saw before succumbing to it was Tech roll over, looking peaceful in his sleep.

A good memory.

Partway through the night, Wrecker awoke to the sound of snoring, and he blinked a couple of times in the darkness of the room. The sound was coming from Crosshairs bed, and he could vaguely see the shape of his brother laying there. 

Good. He made it back home. 

Hunter seemed to be asleep in his own bed again, too, and Echo sat awake at Tech’s bedside. Wrecker met Echo’s eyes, and Echo gave him a tired, joyful smile, glancing down to where Tech was holding his hand in his sleep.

Yeah. It was all going to be okay.

They had so many new memories to make.

Chapter Text

The mind is an incredibly powerful thing. It is capable of processing stimuli both consciously and unconsciously to optimize survival and it can retain up to a quadrillion gigabytes of individual pieces of information. It dictates motor functions, regulates bodily vitals, permits for cognitive abilities to be tested and pushed, and provides a vast ray of emotional responses to external and internal events.

Hemlock had believed that last part to be unnecessary for CX-2’s work.

The mind was also capable of shaping reality and seeking pleasing conclusions to events for its own satisfaction, like a muscle straining to heal itself from its own damage. The regions of the mind which processed visual and auditory stimulation could be activated through other means, such as profoundly wishful thinking, the effects of certain substances, or vividly dreams produced via randomly firing neurons. It could effectively trick itself in those instances into utilizing the same neuropathways as if the memory or dream were real.

Techs mind was exceptional. 

That had to be why these dreams, these visions, felt so real. His mind was merely tricking itself in an attempt to form some sort of conclusion, bring itself closure like dreams were meant to provide, give him something he would never receive otherwise at the end to soothe aches he shouldn’t have felt in the first place. The level of realism he felt in this state and how long the dream seemed to last was simply due to how powerful his brain had been engineered to be. It… It was the only reasonable explanation for why he had been allowed to see his brothers, one more time. Why he was still here at all, why he hadn’t been decommed yet, why it felt like so much time had passed… Wasn’t it?

If that was truly the case, the reunion they had the previous night should have sufficed, but when he opened his eyes again, he found Echo at his side. He felt the warmth of another hand in his own, he was laying on a bed, not a bench, with Crosshair snoring in the background and Hunter stirring and Wrecker cuddling his pillow across the room and… 

He couldn’t explain that. Tech gulped. Perhaps he really was going to have to consider unreasonable explanations.

“Morning,” Echo said with a soft smile, keeping his voice low, presumably in an attempt to not wake the others. “We’re all still here, Tech. This is real. You’re okay.”

This is real. He had heard that many times over the last several days and had always dismissed it easily enough, but this time, the words fell deep into the crack starting to form in his confidence and took root. He looked down at the ground. This marked the seventh time he had woken up to one of them close by, between the time he spent in the medical bay and later aboard Omega’s ship, and the sixth time they had kept their promise to stay close, even now that he had made it back…

“Is Tech up?” Hunter asked in a sleepy voice.

“He is,” Echo grinned.

“Hey Tech. Sleep well?” Hunter mumbled brightly from his bed, propping himself up, though Tech still couldn’t quite see his face, only his shape. He automatically reached for the goggles on the side table like he used to, only to remember they were still broken. 

“I… Believe so,” Tech said hesitantly as he took in his surroundings, mentally cataloging all the things he could see and feel and hear. The dip of the bed beneath his body, the low tenor of Echo and Hunter’s familiar voices, the cold rims of his goggles in his hands… To his surprise, his body actually felt rested. There wasn’t even any pain.

“We could get you some supplies to fix those, if you want,” Echo suggested. “Might have to special order the lenses though.”

Tech looked at him and considered that, even though it shouldn’t matter. The goggles had helped him significantly before with analyzing his surroundings and reviewing data, in addition to simply enabling him to see clearly at all, but they were old and damaged now, like him. It made more logical sense to engineer a new pair altogether rather than salvage what was left, but… Having them back was like having a small piece of himself back, even if that piece was broken.

Those were exactly the kind of feelings that Hemlock considered flaws and forcibly purged from his psyche, that Bragg would have decommissioned him for if he ever began to show those kinds of cracks, and yet…

“That would be appreciated,” Tech said, making up his mind as he clutched the goggles closer to his chest. 

“Great!” Echo grinned. “You can make me a supply list if you want, or we can go down to Shep’s place together and see if he can help. Whatever you feel up for, vod.”

“I’ll come with,” Tech nodded, and Echo patted his shoulder encouragingly. 

“Good.”

“Whadda’ya want to do today, Tech?” Wrecker said groggily. “It’s your first day back, you should pick.”

“He ought to be taking it easy,” Hunter grumbled. 

“Well, yeah, but he doesn’t have to stay here to do that!” Wrecker pointed out, pushing himself out of bed. “Can’t we take it easy from the plaza or a boat or the beach? Bet ‘Mega would like to go out, it’s been too long!”

“I…” Hunter muttered, looking quickly from Wrecker back over to Tech. “What do you think, Tech? How are you feeling?”

“Satisfactory,” Tech answered, his stomach twisting at the way that made their faces light up. “I… Would not mind if we spent some time at the beach if… If Omega would like that.”

“She sure would!” Wrecker exclaimed. “Should I get her? When can we go?”

“Give us a chance to get out of bed, Wrecker,” Crosshair muttered, but apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Wrecker stood upright with a mischievous chuckle and in seconds had heaved Crosshair over his shoulder while the sniper spat and hissed at him.

“Put me down, Wrecker! We’re not kriffing cadets!”

“There! You’re up!” Wrecker laughed in triumph, swinging Crosshair back down onto the floor as Hunter shot Wrecker an exasperated look and Echo looked on in amusement. Tech raised an eyebrow and swung his own legs out of bed before Wrecker could decide he needed assistance with the matter, too.

“Very funny, Wrecker. Keep this up, I’m sure Tech is thrilled to see exactly what he’s missed,” Crosshair griped. But as Wrecker’s laughter faltered, Tech found himself smiling… He had missed this.

In spite of their shenanigans it didn’t take long for the group of them to get ready. When they filed out of the larger bedroom they found Omega already awake along with the lurca hound Batcher bounding around the room. Omega cheerily greeted them with a meal of eggs and fruit and meats that Tech hadn’t had the chance to try in years. It was real food, Omega insisted, and though Tech only nodded in response, her purposeful phrasing wasn’t lost on him either.

Real. Real bed, real food, real family. If it was closure that his mind had needed, he should have it now, he shouldn’t have woken up again, but this kept going. If Omega and Echo and the rest of them were right, if this was real, then he… They…

No, he couldn’t draw that conclusion, not yet, no matter how badly the sentimental parts of his mind yearned for it to be true. False hope would only make the pain worse when the delusion came to an end, but… But if there was a chance…

Tech swallowed hard. He needed more information. Quickly. There were tests for these sort of things, not that Tech was perfectly confident in their fallibility or he would have run them before. He would have tried them previously if it hadn’t been so incredibly obvious this could only be a dream. Even so, he waited for the others to be thoroughly distracted trying to pry one of Crosshairs sandals from Batcher’s mouth before attempting one of them. 

Carefully, Tech held out his hands to examine them and counted his fingers. The distortion of a dream state would likely give him the wrong number of digits, but both hands, flesh and mechanical, had five fingers each. He pursed his lips and pressed each of his fingertips together, then pushed. None of them fell through each other, and he felt the pressure build on them easily. Tech's heart raced.

“Are you alright there, Tech?” Omega asked cautiously. “We’re almost ready to go!”

Tech looked up quickly from his hands to see Crosshair scowling with a slobbery sandal in hand and the rest of his family waiting by the door. Apparently, years of practice had made them quite efficient at gathering up the necessary supplies for a day at the beach, despite the addition of the hound. That shouldn’t be surprising. They had always been efficient about missions, there was no reason those skills shouldn’t translate to domesticity. 

“Fine,” Tech responded tonelessly, but his thoughts still raced as he stood up to join them and they all walked outside, Batcher barking and racing through the door ahead of them all.

The sunlight hit his face, warm and bright, and Tech had to squint. That made another sensation that felt so incredibly vivid it made his breath catch in his throat. He shaded the light with his hand, his perfectly normal hand, still with the right number of fingers and all.

“When was the last time you were at a beach, Tech?” Omega asked brightly as they left their domicile behind, winding their way down the stone path. “You were so excited about it when we first came here, do you remember that?”

“598 standard cycles” Tech answered flatly, trying not to recall the details of his particularly unpleasant mission to Scarif for the Empire, instead focusing on the ones that came before, with his family. “And I do remember this.”

He had one particularly vivid memory of his brothers running from a nest of giant crabs he had explicitly warned them not to disturb when retrieving the cargo they were after, but that hadn’t been here. Still, Pabu was familiar enough, with its distinctive ocean air, bright turquoise water below, and little magenta flowers bordering the rough stone walls, even with his blurred vision. This place had been special, hadn’t it? For a long time it was untouched by the Empire, until…

Until he led them here. That reminder made something freeze in his gut and he stopped in his tracks just as Omega halted abruptly, too.

“Oooh! The orchids are in bloom!” She gasped.

Tech blinked at her in surprise for a moment, then followed her gaze to the bright magenta flowers.

“They are. You picked the best time of year to come back, ‘Mega,” Hunter said affectionately from behind her, plucking one of them in his fingers and gently tucking it behind her ear. “They just started, two days ago.” 

It took squinting at them to get a good look, but Tech knew these flowers, with their little yellow centers and oddly shaped lower petals with tiny purple veins. “That is an accurate statement,” He pointed out. “These littoral orchids only remain in bloom for seven to nine days of the year, a useful adaptation to conserve energy in the coastal environment they’re found in, even if the window for pollinizing is limited. They are a rarity on most planets. Most others in the Orchidaceae family prefer more tropical ecosystems.”

Silence followed his statement, though he wasn’t sure why. Wrecker was beaming at him and Crosshair scowled at the ground.

“Yeah,” Omega finally said after a moment, with a big, watery smile. “They’re my favorite, too.” 

“It’s good to have you back, Tech,” Hunter said softly, with small grin and a shake of his head, and Echo just put his arm on his shoulder from behind, giving it a shaky little squeeze. Batcher let out a trio of joyful barks and spung in a circle, making Omega laugh.

…It was good, to be here with them. Tech tore himself away from the orchids, but Echo plucked one and held it out to him to study as they continued on, for which Tech was grateful. Tech could further see the appeal of Wrecker’s suggestion with every step they took towards the beach below. It was good to get out. For days he had only seen his room in the med bay or the interior of a space shuttle, but the fascinating specimens and phenomena of Pabu he encountered on the way nearly made him forget about his existential crisis by the time they arrived.

Tech’s eyes were firmly on a spotted blue rock crab when his feet sank into soft, warm sand. He stumbled for a second on his mechanical leg but Wrecker caught him under the arm, steadying him instantly with a warm chuckle as Batcher took off happily towards the ocean.

“Here we are!” He announced. “What’cha wanna do? Hunter found a nest of blue-bellied plovers last time we could show ya, or there’s some tidepools on the other side of that arch, or a little cave system where-”

“Give it a rest, Wrecker,” Crosshair grumbled. “We just got here, at least let us sit down for a few minutes and get settled.”

“If you sit down you won’t get back up until sunset!” Wrecker fired back.

“Is that a problem?” Crosshair said, raising an eyebrow. “We are retired.”

“Speak for yourself, old man,” Echo sniggered, and Hunter let out a huff, but Tech hardly noticed their voices swirling around. This… He knew this. Tech shifted his weight and sunk deeper into the warm sand below, then took a step, then another, gripping Wrecker’s arm with his hand.

Wrecker immediately turned his attention back to Tech. “Where we going?” He asked brightly.

Tech took a breath, squeezing each of his fingers against Wrecker’s skin in turn, One Two Three Four Five…

“Tech?”

Everything about this place felt suddenly surreal, like he was stepping straight into one of his old malfunctions. He had been here, to this exact place. The tidepools were full of those little blue sandcrabs just beyond the arc Wrecker pointed out, he might have to squint to see it now but the structure was clear as ever in his head! There was a net strung between a pair of trees over there, he remembered that. He could almost hear Omega and a friend of hers laughing as they double-teamed Wrecker in a game that the other adolescent had taught them both. Wrecker spiked the ball too hard and it struck the ground, spraying Tech full of sand as he tried to study the little critters in their natural habitat, and Tech looked up at the three of them with an exasperated huff. Wrecker let out a huge belly laugh at his indignation, but tiny Omega clasped her hands to her mouth and her eyes went wide. 

Sorry Tech! She squealed, and Tech shook out his hair in irritation, unconsciously raking his mechanical hand over the top of his head like the sand was still there after all this time.

You aren’t the one who lost control of the equipment, He shot back, raising an eyebrow at an unapologetic Wrecker, who grinned.

Need a little help there, Brown Eyes? A warm, familiar voice chuckled at him before Wrecker could respond, just as a wave crashed cold against his feet and his head snapped up from the vision with a yelp.

“Careful with him Wrecker!” Crosshair chided, suddenly at his side. “Do you even know if his prosthetics can get wet?!”

“I made sure of that,” Echo called out pointedly from somewhere behind, but another wave crashed hard against Tech’s legs, knocking him hard into Wrecker. 

“You still don’t need to drag him in right away, that could be dangerous, he-”

“He wanted to! I was following him!”

“Tech,” Crosshair said pleadingly, his tone raw as he grabbed hold of Tech’s mechanical arm and steered him back, but Tech’s breath was coming in ragged spurts now. He remembered that time here, that was one of his malfunctions, but that was different than this in a way that couldn’t be explained with logic or reason! He wasn’t there anymore and now he teetered on real wet sand he could feel being pulled from under his feet by the cold forceful waves, he could hear more real voices starting to call out in concern behind him, he sucked in the salty sea air and blinked rapidly against the brightness of the real sun to see Crosshair’s - Crosshairs! - Twisted up face and wide eyes - 

“Something’s wrong,” Crosshair hissed in alarm. “Help me get him out of here Wrecker!”

Tech’s mind was spinning as another wave knocked him clean off his feet but his brothers caught him before he could fall. He could hardly breathe. There was a difference, he knew that now, and that meant - 

That really meant -

“Easy Tech,” Another voice, Hunter’s voice, came from overhead. “Just breathe, vod. You’re okay. Wrecker what happened?”

“I dunno, he was just walkin’ towards the ocean, I thought-“

“He’s panicking. I think he’s overstimulated.”

“Are you sure?”

“No but he’s acting the same as you do when it happens to you, Hunter,” Crosshair hissed as Tech’s head pounded and he crumpled on the soft ground, his breath coming in ragged spurts, the feeling of something clawing at his chest like one of Bragg’s damn experiments-

“You’re not there, Tech. Promise. She can’t hurt you.”

“We’ll never let that happen again.”

No, no they wouldn’t, he believed that he just… It wasn’t real, it wasn’t supposed to be real and yet it was, wasn’t it?

The fight on Terova. The rebels, the goggles, Omega and Echo, it all happened, they were on Pabu with Wrecker and Crosshair and Hunter. They had found him, they had brought him home, it - it was all real -

But if it was real then he - it - Had orders - NO!

Tech curled in on himself, yanking his arms away from his brothers and wrapping them tight around his head. He didn’t want to go back, he couldn’t! Not now! Not if this was real, if this was real then he could really hurt them, and the idea sent terror cascading through his body because he had done it before! The Empire used him before, it would use him it again and he couldn’t let that happen, they couldn’t have CX-2 back-

“You’re safe, Tech,” came Echo’s patient voice.

“It’s all okay,” Omega said calmly, and he felt a small hand settle lightly on his arm. “What do you need right now? Are you able to tell us?”

“It’s - It’s not real,” He spluttered out against every fiber of logic in his exceptional mind that knew that it was, squinting his eyes shut as orders and duty scraped at the inside of his skull. 

“It is, Tech. We’re all here, we-“

“NO!” He mouthed, swallowing hard against the bile that burned at the back of his throat. “It can’t, if - If it was I - I have to -“

Tech couldn’t get the words out before CX-2 slammed his jaw shut and forced him to quit rocking in place, and suddenly, his body went deathly still. For a moment, the only sound it could hear beyond the lapping waves and the blue-bellied plovers chirping was the rushing blood in his ears.

“You have to what, Tech?”

It shook its head. Orders. It’s last orders were to eliminate -

“This isn’t real.”

CX-2 Tech’s mind froze, for just a moment, but he blinked his eyes back open at the words. Omega knelt in the sand in front of him. Orders She reached up gingerly for his real hand, the one with the five very real fingers he could easily count and feel KILL and squeezed.

“It’s just a dream,” She said quietly, her voice barely audible over the crashing waves that sucked at the sand and the shells underneath it, sunlight shining on her golden hair. “This is a wonderful dream, Tech. You’re here with us in your head because we… We never stopped missing you. We never stopped loving you, we held you in our hearts and you held us in yours, the people you love never really leave…”

“Omega,” Echo protested, his voice strained, but Omega shook her head with a pained expression and held his hand tighter.

“That’s what you need, isn’t it?” She said uneasily.

Tech stared back at her, letting his exceptional, logical, factual mind that already logged the truth absorb the words, focusing on them hard as if they were true, forcing himself to believe them. Just a vision. Just a dream. Just a trick of his mind before he was decommed, nothing more… and CX-2 slipped to the back of his psyche again, where it belonged. A shiver went down Tech’s spine, but he nodded, and let out a shaking breath. 

“This is a dream,” Omega repeated, tears welling up in her eyes as understanding started to dawn on his brothers faces. “But our love for you is real. Is that okay?”

He paused for a moment, but no orders threatened to take control of him at the declaration. “That is acceptable,” He told her in a weak but grateful voice.

“Good… Do you still want to stay here at the beach?” She asked gently.

Tech looked back around at the scene. At his family gathered around him, every single one of them, no kidnapped Omega or Imperial Crosshair or Rebel Echo missing from their ranks. At the arch in the distance where the blue sand crabs made their home near the tide pools, and out at the white frothing waves that crested the turquoise ocean.

“Yes,” He said simply. The mind was an incredibly powerful thing, and his may have been compromised before… But this was an excellent dream.

He threw himself backwards in the sand in exhaustion, not even caring if it got stuck in his hair, and almost immediately Crosshair prodded at his side ordering him to sit back up and drink water because he already had one crisis of the day and I’m not treating heatstroke. He was vaguely aware of Hunter adjusting an umbrella over his face and grunting as he settled in a chair at Tech’s side, of Wrecker and Echo eventually getting up to take Batcher for a walk, of Omega sinking down in the sand on his other side with a small sniff and Crosshairs snores by his feet just a few minutes later.

Tech could doze off here himself. It didn’t seem like such a terrible option anymore, he might be dreaming, but he knew they would still be here when he woke up…

“Tech?” Omega whispered, just as he was on the verge of falling asleep to the sounds of the waves.

“Mmh?” He mumbled.

“Can I… Etch something on your mech arm?”

Tech popped open a single eye to shoot her a questioning look.

“Just something small, kind of like a tattoo,” She said quietly. “In case anything happens and… You need a reminder of us.”

He tried to consider that for a moment, but it was hardly worth the attempt. She gazed down at him with the same hopeful, wonder-filled eyes that convinced him to give her flying lessons all those years ago, though he would never admit that was what did it, and besides, this was a dream. Tech nodded and closed his eyes again.

“Thanks Tech,” Omega said. “I love you.”

He smiled as he felt his arm tugged gently into her lap, just before falling into a dreamless sleep.