Aru'e

The secret revealed

~Amita~

Tech tossed me my rations before hitting the button, closing the ray shield that kept me in my cell. He watched me from outside the cell as I ate.

"Can you leave?" I said with my mouth full.

Tech ignored me. "If I stubbed my toe and felt pain, would you feel pain as well?"

I gave him the finger, glowering at him. He rolled his eyes and tapped on his datapad, eyes flicking to the door.

Keres strode in, confidence clear in her walk. "Tech, how's Amita doing?" She asked, examining me.

"Grumpy. She is continually pouting and blaming me for her troubles," Tech told Keres. 

Keres hummed and turned the ray shield off. She stalked forward, with Tech trailing at her heels.

"I'm killing off a base of clones in three hours," Keres told me conversationally. "I'd like to try out how powerful I can be, so I'm going to feed off your emotions now. Any suggestions for what you want to feel today? Maybe grief?"

"May I take her vitals after you manipulate her emotions?" Tech requested. 

"Fine," Keres agreed. "And Amita, aren't you going to make your decision? What do you want to feel?"

"Your pulse as it flutters and disappears." I sneered, tugging my wrists in the binders they were in.

My face whipped to the side as she slapped my cheek, and it instantly began to sting.

"Arrogant girl," Keres hissed. "I will enjoy breaking your spirit until you're nothing but a hollow shell of yourself."

"Good luck with that," Tech said in amusement. "We sent her to conditioning and she returned as troublesome as ever."

Keres stuck her hand out, and I was overcome with sorrow, so much so that I thought it would spill out of me and fill the room, drowning the others.

Keres sighed in happiness. "There it is. The Force is flowing through me."

I curled into a ball in the corner of my cell, tears running down my face. Tech gave me a pitying look but didn't say anything to Keres.

"Tech, you may do as you wish," Keres said before walking off.

Tech placed two fingers on my wrist, counting under his breath. "Fascinating." 

I glared up at him through tears.

Tech lowered his voice. "Amita, are you okay?"

"What do you think?" I demanded.

"Amita, do you really think I'd betray my brothers like this?" Tech whispered. "There was only a very low chance she wouldn't capture you, so to maintain your safety, I came along."

"Smart," I commented, wiping my tears, "but I'd expect nothing else from you."

Tech seemed hesitant before letting out a sigh. "Amita, there's something else I need to tell you. You're the only person with whom I could possibly trust with this information. It's about where I disappeared to when the lights went out."

I peeked up, ready to finally hear where he had gone.

"Tech! Have you finished yet? You're making her feel happy, and that diminishes my powers!" Keres screamed.

Tech bolted out of the cell, giving me an apologetic look.

I grumbled and crossed my arms. "I really hate you."

Tech lifted his gaze to the ceiling, letting out a little huff. "I wish it didn't have to be like this, Amita, but we all have our roles we need to play."

"You're acting like you don't have a choice! You do!" 

Tech gave me a pained look. "Amita, you don't know the whole story. If you did... you might think of me differently."

"Then tell me!" I begged. "Tell me so I do understand!"

Tech's mouth patted for a moment before he shook his head. "My apologies, but I cannot do that. Soon though, I promise."

It was so frustrating, not knowing what he was talking about. I still didn't know where he had gone when the lights had gone out, all the time ago, and it irked me.

"Whatever," I mumbled. 

Tech rocked back and forth on his heels before blurting out, "Perhaps I could tell you the tiniest bit, just to convince you I'm on your side."

I nodded eagerly. "I want to know!"

Tech opened his mouth, right as Keres stormed back in, shouting, "What did I say? I told you making her feel happy weakens my abilities, so get out!"

Tech shuffled out behind her, and I groaned in annoyance. I still didn't know what he was going to tell me, much to my displeasure.

"It went wonderfully! You'll never believe how far I was able to Force Throw one clone! He went clean through a wall and died when his head hit the Durasteel in the next room!" Keres excitedly said to Tech as he took notes on his datapad.

I rolled my eyes as they stood in front of my cell, feeling Tech's revulsion at her comments radiate off him. 

"Did the force of the impact kill him, or was it when his body was suddenly pushed and contorted into an unnatural position?" Tech questioned, looking up at her. Disgust briefly  dusted his features before his expression faded into one of curiosity.

"I don't know," Keres said and gestured at me. "Don't forget to feed her." She turned, her cape swishing dramatically behind her.

Tech sighed deeply before exiting the room and returning of few minutes later with a ration bar. He turned the ray shield off, tossed me the bar, then turned it back on. "We never finished our conversation, did we?"

"No we didn't," I replied, fumbling with the wrapper of the bar with my bound hands.

"I had my chip removed," Tech revealed. "I didn't want anything inhibiting my brain's capacity."

My mind was reeling. Did this mean he was never really a pawn for the Empire, or did he have it removed recently? How did he get it taken out? If this was a portion of what he wanted to say, what else was he hiding?

"When?" I managed to ask, mind whirling with other questions.

"Years ago," Tech answered, absentmindedly touching his forehead. "After I stumbled upon mention of them in a data file I found, I desperately tried to figure out what they were. I hacked through a firewall, into Nala Se's files. I read about the inhibitor chips and knew I didn't want them influencing me in any capacity."

"So how'd you remove it?" I asked.

"That was difficult," Tech admitted. "I couldn't have anyone find out what I was planning, so I had to have a decent excuse as to why I had a bandage on my head. I faked a training injury, got sent to the medical room on Kamino, and while they thought I was unconscious, I recorded the passcode to the facilities. I woke up in the night, used the code to get inside and programmed a droid to preform the operation, and used the excuse of the training incident to explain the wrappings on my head."

"Why didn't you remove your brothers' chips?" I softly asked.

"How could I possibly convince them to have brain surgery?" Tech challenged. He took a step to be closer to the red glow of the ray shield. "I actually had a pan on how to remove their chips, but before I could, they got activated. I had to play along, or else they'd turn me in."

"Where'd you go when the lights turned out?" I wondered.

Tech's lips thinned. "That is a story for another day."

He smiled gently before leaving, brushing his head with his fingers one last time.