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“I… I don’t want to go. Not like this. N-not again,” Tech got out, as he looked up at Crosshair.
They’d lost their helmets some time in the last few seconds, and cold fear left Tech pale.
Tech was hanging from a cliff, a stray shot from a V-wing having hit the rock he’d been standing on as they had tried to rush back to the Marauder.
Hunter had already been on the move, ordering Echo, Wrecker, and Omega to get the Marauder, now, because Tech was barely hanging on. Meanwhile he’d started securing a grappling line to some rock, kicking it in. Crosshair had forgotten all about that and had already started climbing down, even while his body felt numb, and his heart was in his throat.
Tech dangled above the clouds, fear in his remaining eye like nothing Crosshair had ever seen before, not even in Tantiss, not even with rescuing Tech from that evil place.
Here he was, about to fall. Again. And Crosshair was hot with fear, some part of his mind pleading endlessly with anything that would listen, with life, and existence itself, even the Force.
The climb down to Tech was dangerous, and Crosshair almost fell. With a cry, he righted his balance, breathing hard and sweating as he rested his head back against the rock.
Tech seemed frozen, so unlike the man he’d been before Plan 99, before Tantiss.
“Here!” Hunter shouted, the line dropping.
Crosshair immediately grabbed onto it, trying to tie it to his belt with one hand trembling like mad. It was impossible. He’d have to risk his own fall to save Tech.
And he would. He would if it saved him.
Tech had nearly died for him.
Crosshair could repay him, repay his debt in a way that nothing else had the potential to.
Tech’s hands were slipping.
Crosshair slid down the line, using his feet to kick off from the rock, adrenaline spiking and sending tingles along his spine, and the back of his neck. His body knew there was nothing holding him from beneath, that if he let go or slipped it would be it.
Hunter was shouting encouragement at both of them while on one knee, firing at enemy ships.
A blast from a ship hit beside Crosshair, and he twisted his head away as rock splintered and flew into the air, raining down on him. Dust found its way into his eyes, his mouth, his nose.
Tech, Tech, Tech. What about Tech?
Crosshair wiped his face on his arm as quickly as he could, coughing. He couldn’t hear Hunter anymore, and was sure he wouldn’t be able to hear Tech if he cried out. The blast had left his ears ringing.
He twisted, looking down: Please please pleasepleaseplease…!
Tech was hanging by one hand.
Crosshair rappelled down to him, and unfortunately due to enemy fire, and the shape of the cliff, he had to be on Tech’s left.
Before the depths of misfortunate had fallen upon their family this wouldn’t have been a problem, but now Crosshair had a hand that still had issues with tremors despite Hemlock’s death, and Tech’s left hand had two mechanical fingers and three flesh ones.
“Tech!” Hunter cried, voice coming through to Crosshair through the ringing in his ears. “Is he still there?” Hunter asked, the fear in his voice so palpable Crosshair felt like he’d been gutted.
“Let me focus!” he cried back.
“Crosshair,” Tech gasped.
He was coated in brown dust, his goggles covered in it. Shallow cuts from debris bled along his face and body. Rock had nicked the furrowed scars on his left cheek beneath his eye.
Tech tried grabbing on with his right hand, scrabbling with his feet for a hold.
He slipped, and cried out, but managed to at least stay holding on with both hands while his feet dangled.
Muscles burning, Crosshair held out his trembling right hand to Tech’s partially mechanical one.
“Give me your hand.”
Tech turned his head to the sound of Crosshair’s voice. Sweat was running through the dust on him.
“I can’t see you. I can’t…”
Tech was left gasping from his fear, like he couldn’t breathe. Crosshair wasn’t sure if he himself were breathing.
“Just reach out.”
“I’m not sure I can.”
“I’m not letting you die on me,” Crosshair said through gritted teeth. “Please. You can do this. Please. Tech, I’m right here. Trust me.”
Shaking like a leaf, puffing hard, Tech let go with his left hand, and reached out for Crosshair. He was way off, but his right hand was slipping fast.
Crosshair rappelled himself lower, and reached out for Tech’s hand.
Tech slipped, screaming again. Crosshair tried to ignore how Tech before his fall would never have screamed like this. He would have kept his head.
Tech was swinging, his right hand at the wrong angle, about to come loose.
Bracing himself, Crosshair kicked off and swung out to meet him.
He got Tech’s hand, and this time he held tight, even with the way he was trembling.
“All right, I got you. I got you. Let go with your other hand.”
“I don’t think I can.”
“Tech, listen to me. I’m here.I wasn’t before, but now I am . This time I can save you. Let me save you. You can do this.”
Tech sobbed, placing his head against the rock.
“I can’t. I can’t do it, Crosshair,” he told him, words interrupted by sobs, voice ragged and raw to the point where it tore into Crosshair’s heart. “I—I—I didn’t know I’d be such a liability. I’m… I’m so afraid. I… This isn’t me.”
“I know,” Crosshair said. “I’m not the same either.”
“Hurry! More V-wings incoming!” Hunter called.
“Look, Tech, we need to get off this cliff,” Crosshair intoned. “I won’t let you fall.”
“Can you promise that?”
“I can. Please, we don’t have much time.”
Crosshair had half a mind to just pull Tech off the cliff and into his arms, but rescuing someone like this while they panicked was even more dangerous than this situation already was.
“Tech!” Hunter cried.
“Listen, Hunter is here. He’s waiting for us,” Crosshair hissed. “Come on. It’ll be okay.”
Tech, shaking hard, face going green beneath the dust, sweat, blood, and tears, let go.
He gritted his teeth, but a cry left him anyway. Crosshair was groaning from Tech’s weight. It was like carrying himself since they were practically the same size.
Tech swung into Crosshair, reaching for him with terrified, blind fingers, and managed to find Crosshair’s arm.
“Hunter, I got him! Start pulling us up!”
There was tugging on the line, Hunter’s groan coming from above. Crosshair got his feet against the rock, working to walk up it as he held Tech. Tech was shuddering so fiercely he worried he’d drop him.
There was no time to tie the line to Tech’s belt, and he was heavily aware of that fact. If Crosshair let go with either hand, it would all be over.
There was a whistling. The V-wings Hunter had said were coming?
The sound of blasters from ships firing hit them like a concussive force, Tech holding on so tightly from it that Crosshair would have bruises. He couldn’t glance behind him, could only hope. Though he thought he recognized the sound of one of the engines. The Marauder?
Time seemed to stretch on and on, even while it sped by faster than Crosshair could blink. Somehow they’d made it to the lip of the cliff face, and Hunter started hauling Tech up.
He pushed Tech as far from the edge as possible, where Tech was now sitting, wiping dust from his goggles, completely silent.
Crosshair’s fingers had a hard time finding a good hold, but soon Hunter was helping him up.
The urge to roll onto his back and stare at the sky and just breathe was strong, but they weren’t safe yet.
Yet thankfully when he was standing on slightly wobbly legs, he could see the Marauder taking down the V-wings.
Hunter came over with his helmet after giving Tech his. Crosshair wasn’t sure how or when he’d lost it. Taking it, he put it back on, hearing relieved voices over comms that Tech was all right.
Echo flew their ship as close to their vantage point as possible. Once the ramp was down, Omega tossed them the cable to have Tech hook onto his belt.
“I’m not taking any chances this time,” she said. “For any of you.”
Crosshair would’ve teased her about overkill if he wasn’t still catching his breath, terror still alive and well in his brain, not having a chance to die down just yet.
They all made it onto the ship in one piece, Hunter taking control of flying so Tech could collect himself. He was in the gunner’s mount, quietly cleaning his face with a damp cloth. Crosshair waited till they were safely in hyperspace to approach Tech. Usually this sort of thing was so uncomfortable it was like an itch inside his bones, but after what had happened… that itch was nowhere to be found.
Tech wiped under his right eye, turning his head away ever so slightly.
Crosshair leaned against the bulkhead, crossing his arms. Hopefully this would give Tech enough space.
Maybe he’d been listening to Omega too much because the first thing he said was, “It’s okay to be afraid sometimes.”
Tech gave a huff that might have been an unamused laugh. Though he didn’t speak, just pointed at his closed lips.
Crosshair nodded, taking out a toothpick.
Tech got like this sometimes, which Crosshair was okay with; he wasn’t one for speaking much anyway. Though he missed the chatty Tech that talked his ear off about the transformation of indigenous languages on Mykeen, or the fleeting lifecycle of the Ginorian beetle, or how the engines of a VCX-100 light freighter worked. Tech could still get like that, but somehow this silence sat heavy in Crosshair’s stomach like a block of duracrete.
Crosshair looked around, making sure the others weren’t close by. At this point they knew when Tech needed his space, but still, everyone had been overjoyed at him being okay, and were clearly shooting looks towards the stern.
“I get it,” Crosshair said. “After… him, that mountain… I’m not the same man I was either. But Omega told me something you said to her once.”
Tech put his goggles back on, and started to clean his hands. Still, he seemed to be listening.
“Something like: change is a fundamental part of life. So… I suppose then that means it’s okay we’ve changed. It… hurts. But at the end of the day, we still have each other. We’re brothers. We’re family.”
Tech looked up at Crosshair now, one brown eye, one cybernetic with its own artificial brown.
And then Crosshair was in his arms, Tech hugging him like his life depended on it. And Crosshair relaxed into it. What was the point of being severe and unyielding in the face of thinking they’d lost Tech, getting him back, and then almost losing him again like they had today? Crosshair was getting better at hugging thanks to Omega, and he tried it now.
And rather than awkwardness that bristled in every fiber of his being, he felt profound relief and love.
Tech was here.
Tech was alive.
And he could hold him.
Crosshair hugged Tech, the tremors in his hand subsiding. Tech sighed with similar relief.
Oh, it was good to have his brother back.