Crimson Shadow

Part 3

Author's Note: This is the end! I hope y'all enjoyed the story! :D

~ Amina Gila

It's hard to believe they're finally on Tantiss now. Ever since Echo first heard rumors of this place, they've been trying to get here. He doesn't know that they ever would have – at least not so soon – if not for the General. (Sometimes, Echo would still like answers about what happened to him.)

When they finally tracked down the transport going there, Vader space walked to the ship, cutting his way inside and taking control. They landed on Tantiss without incident. Vader crushed the facility's communication device on the way in, so they have no way of sending off-planet transmissions.

And maybe, they're finally about to find Omega and... Tech. If Vader is right that he's still alive. Echo knows that he would know, but he still remembers seeing Tech fall, remembers sitting next to Tech's seat in the Marauder, knowing he was never coming back just like so many of the other brothers Echo's lost. Accepting that he's still alive will be hard until he actually sees him again.

Crosshair is here, too, and even if things with him are... complicated – he chose to fight with the Empire, to fight against them, even he turned against it later – Echo's still hoping they'll be able to find him, along with freeing all the other countless brothers they have imprisoned here.

Echo plugs into a port in one of the main control rooms, breaking into the system to shut down all the ray shields on the prison level. He's done this a thousand times, but doing it here somehow feels a little different. Maybe it's the location, that this is the highest security place Echo has ever been to. Maybe it's that Anakin is here again, but it's simultaneously more terrifying and relieving at once.

The alarms start blaring throughout the facility, and Echo feels a surge of satisfaction at that. Presumably, the clones will be in full revolt down below. It's time to get down there and join them. There's no reason to, but Echo shuts the alarms off.

"We will not be alone for long," Vader warns suddenly, before anyone can start for the door.

Someone's coming. Not like that's a shock. Any of them could die here, and he knows it. It's the cost of every battle, but that doesn't mean he's ready for who could be next. But with the General here, he can hope they'll... be fine.

Except suddenly, green colored gas starts pouring into the room, through the vents above.

Vader lifts a hand, and Echo feels the slightest shift in the air the way he always does when his General is using the Force deeply. The gas is flooding the entire room now, except for a Force-bubble right around them.

This was obviously intended to either kill or temporarily disable them, because moments later, the door slides open, Hemlock himself stepping inside. There are guards behind him who linger near the doorway, both inside and out, obviously waiting for the signal. Echo plugs himself into the system again, activating the filtration to remove the gas from the room, and the entire facility, from wherever it's been released.

"You won't last long against that toxin," Hemlock says pleasantly. "I'm sure you're already feeling its effects now. I specially designed it myself."

In a move too fast for Echo to track, Vader flicks his hand, Force shoving the troopers out the blast doors and slamming them closed as he prowls towards the scientist. "The toxin has not touched us," he answers triumphantly, "And now you will tell me the locations of the prisoners we are seeking whom you are holding here."

For the first time, Echo catches a flicker of something like uneasiness in Hemlock's gaze before it's gone. "Do not presume to think you can intimate me," he replies, amused, though Echo thinks that amusement might be feigned, "You are heavily outnumbered. You will not escape." He reaches for his wrist, presumably to trigger some other alert. All of them aim with their weapons, but Vader is faster. He shoves Hemlock back against the wall before he can touch whatever button he'd been reaching for, pinning him there with the Force so he can't move. Echo can almost feel the violent malevolence in the air, radiating from the Sith.