Mirror Prism

Chapter 10 - I'll Walk Through Hell With You

"We will never arrive on Coruscant before it's been destroyed," Tech warns. Hunter is there, and he cannot let his brother die. He may not be fully certain the destruction would harm him, but he cannot be certain it will not, either. That is not a risk he is willing to take. Not again. He harmed them all enough already. The images never fade from his mind.

He never forgets. His memory is too clear, and that is to his benefit, though whenever he remembers his little brother's screams echoing in his mind, he wishes he could do anything to make it stop, but that was Tech's choice, and he deserves to be haunted by this forever.

"What do you suggest?" Echo asks from beside him.

"Perhaps if we merged our powers, we would be able to create a hole in reality enough to transport us to Coruscant." He looks over his shoulder – Wrecker, Omega, and Crosshair are safely aboard, and Ahsoka's standing on the ramp still by General Kenobi.

"It's dangerous," Ahsoka warns, "But you're right that there's no time."

"Are you coming?" Omega asks the Jedi Master.

"I will have to get my lightsaber."

"Rrrright," Ahsoka agrees, "And where's that?"

"In the desert."

"You buried your lightsaber in the middle of the desert where it could be eaten by mice?" Omega squeaks.

And here Tech was beginning to believe the Jedi could not irritate him any further.

***

Speaking of being a waste of time, though the Jedi would not have had a reason to anticipate such urgency. Though, Tech was under the impression that Jedi would constantly carry their lightsabers. They changed, too, after the war.

"What do we do?" Wrecker asks. He's lost without Hunter, and admittedly, so is Tech. He is not aware of what happened while he was unconscious. All he knows is that on top of losing Emerie, they also lost Hunter. Just like on Daro, though Hunter is not presently captured.

"We can try meditating again," Omega volunteers.

That is an effective method for Jedi, though Tech is no Jedi. It does not function the same for him as it does for them. Perhaps because, like Echo once said, he has had enough solitary as well.

He never said what the statis is like. Crosshair was fortunate to never have to endure that. It's a sleep-wake state, a merging state between the two, but Hemlock could never allow them real sleep, or their minds would heal and free themselves of the programming he so meticulously worked into them.

Tech was mostly aware of it, hours of nothing, his mind too dull to focus but too awake to be blank – hours and hours of nothing but the red glaring light. It's red it was always red – and the chamber's door two inches from his face.

Lengthened silence, dark spaces sends his mind into the void, and to do nothing for such lengths is a waste of the minimal time he and his brothers already have. It is not something Omega could ever truly understand, because that was not a life she lived, and her life was a life of peace without purpose. She was always made to be more.

"Do we know of another way to transport us?" Ahsoka asks.

"Wrecker can warp reality," Tech replies, because that was apparent to him the instant he first used his powers on Teth. "Theoretically, he should be able to transport us."

"And what about the consequences of breaking a hole in reality? That's what the Mother wants," Ahsoka objects.

"We cannot leave Hunter there to fight her alone." Tech had felt it when she was on Tantiss, her icy cold crawling into his mind, catching his violent rage and stretching it, twisting until all he could do was explode outwards with every last shred of rage he's ever felt in his life. That wasn't himself. It was her.