Mirror Prism

Chapter 5 - Til Yours Can Open

"And I still don't get what's with him," the clone – Gregor, she thought his name was – says, jabbing a finger at the newcomer.

Tech sighs, slouching in his seat. Emerie is still not certain what to believe about how he is still alive. "In the dream we experienced, I broke through the programming."

"Still don't get what that means," another says – Howzer? Emerie has seen he has some sort of conflict with Crosshair.

It is not one she understands, but she can't say she is overly fond of Howzer for his hostility, though it is not as though she understands the source of their conflict, either. It is not her concern, unless Crosshair is in danger, which he is not.

"No one does," Hunter answers for them. He is fiercely protective, and that is something – the one thing Emerie has been missing her entire life. All she has ever wanted is someone to hold steadfast and firm.

She still doesn't know what to think of her... dream. It was real, but her memory until boarding the ship is fuzzy. She remembers they made it off Teth, and Echo and Gregor picked them up after a near showdown with some clones still working for the Empire.

Her head still feels fuzzy. Something's wrong.

"I don't even know what just happened!" Wrecker whines.

"Eh. No one does," Echo sighs, flicking another button on the dashboard.

Omega's sitting on the floor, leaning on Batcher, visibly exhausted, though there's still a faint lingering glow across her body. Her eyes look green in the lighting.

"I saw someone there," Hunter continues, "He said we somehow... got powers of some sort of... beings. I don't know."

"Sounds like some Jedi osik to me," Gregor supplies, leaning back in his chair and swinging back and forth, hands behind his head. Emerie has seen clones sit like that, though she cannot quite comprehend the desire to be so... unprofessional?

"Did he say anything else?" Echo asks, looking at his hand. Emerie can't imagine how he could survive with it, and Omega has said before she doesn't know how he manages without Tech.

Their lives were defined by a without Tech, except he was alive and on Tantiss.

Emerie did not even know Tech to miss him. She didn't know anyone. Emerie grew alone. Seeing Omega's pain and longing had always made her heart ache, but it was never something she understood, because she had never had anyone to lose. It would be better to have had loss, Emerie thinks, because at least she would have had someone. Perhaps she would have understood her sister enough to know why she so desperately needed a way home. Why Crosshair did.

She could have helped them long before she did.

All that time, all those months, Emerie did so little for them.

She sees the family her brothers have, and she wants to be a part of it, of something other than a lie.

She does want freedom. She always has, but Omega never spoke of how terrifying it was. The galaxy is so vast and dark with infinite danger.

(Something ripples in her mind, dark and twisting and venomous. Something deadly.)

"Something about light and dark," Hunter answers, "That there were four of them. But I don't know what that means."

"I do," Echo replies, twisting his chair around. "It sounds crazy. Okay, maybe it is crazy, but... Omega is still glowing. Back in the Clone Wars, the general told me about a planet he went to. A place called Mortis."

"We never really talked about Mortis," Rex picks up, leaning on Echo's chair. "It wasn't a good time or place, but it was right before we lost Echo. I wasn't there, but the general and commander landed on this planet with beings of powers the Jedi had never seen. He said they use the Force... differently."