--Building a New life --Tech x Reader Bad Batch

Chapter 33 --The big break | I had my suspicions --Tech + Y/N

Your mind is overwhelmed as the corrupted force from the Jedi temple assaults you with the death experienced there. Your heart is racing and pounding in your chest like a drum with painful pangs of anguish and despair. Your legs and arms still feel as though they are clamped by something tight, but your restricted blood flow does not prevent the adrenaline currently flowing through your system causing you to shake.

The figure who had been hunting you in your nightmares for weeks was here in the temple just like you dreamed. His presence was different from all the darkness surrounding you and you had raised your pole in both hands, ready to strike even with your current disadvantages and feelings. You refused to die here, refused to be another corpse to hit the floor of this sacred building.

You had to escape.

You HAD to survive.

Their deaths could not be meaningless.

The figure finally steps through the doorway and you swing with all the strength you can muster. You hear the clash of metal on metal and something was thrown across the room, hitting the floor with a clang. You're taking another step forward to strike again when a faint glow catches your eye. Not the glow of a saber, but the gentle glow of a night vision light, a green color cast over you and the area in front of you. You pause not expecting this light, but your legs are already giving way and you stop, dropping the pole you had been holding and falling against the wall again for support. The rush of adrenaline has faded, but the presence of corruption holds strong and it swallows you whole.

Your eyes sting with tears blurring your vision again and you feel the darkness creeping into your mind, the cold grip on your neck becoming tighter. The deep sense of loss and anguish making your mind stop in its tracks.

"What are you doing here?" came Tech's familiar voice as he closed the gap between you, noticing that you're shaking and just knocked his blaster right out of his hand.

You want to answer him, but you cannot get any words to come out of your mouth. You grab up at your helmet as if to remove it, but you're shaking too much. You end up sliding down to the floor and onto your knees, dropping your hands in defeat. You didn't want Tech to see you like this, but all your mind could focus on was the death and corrupted force surrounding you, choking you spiritually. You wanted relief from this pressure, you wanted everything to go back to the peace you had before, but all you felt was hopelessness.

"Y/N" he begins to say, but then quickly kneels down with you, and reaches out to remove your helmet. Tech had no idea what he walked into. Initially he had been staying up reading when he noticed a proximity alert on his holopad. There were safety trackers in everyone's helmet, mostly so they were not lost, but they would go off and send him a notification when they reached a certain distance.

Now he was inside of the Jedi temple, one stolen hoverbike away from his previously peaceful night, and directly in front of an emotional breakdown he had no understanding how to handle. You were clearly distressed, and from the physical symptoms it was an intense level of distress, possibly a triggered reaction to trauma or something else. But why were you here of all places, why were you so distraught, and how should he handle this?

Tech carefully takes off your helmet, then his own, placing them both down on the floor. Your quiet sobbing is audible now without the helmet in the way and he can just see the tears streaming down your face from the faint glow.

"Does it hurt?" he asks, and you nodded slightly, reaching up behind your neck where you could still feel the presence of death lingering. It wasn't a sharp pain but it still felt off, cold and heavy as if a part of your neck was out of place. Of course your entire body still felt clamped, cold and drained as well.