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When The Light Comes From The Dark

Summary:

Against the whirlwind of thoughts, Phee’s voice repeated the question. “Got a name, Brown Eyes?”

The cockpit spun around him. His fingers lightly touched his helmet around his eyes, as if to adjust something on them. “Tech.”

Another phantom touch on his shoulder, warm and gentle. “Head to these coordinates, Brown Eyes.”

He needed to find out more.

~~~

Or the one where CX-2 is actually Tech and everyone deserves their happy ending.

Word count: 4213

AO3 link

“You chose the wrong side,” was all he said before he submerged the clone under the water. From behind his mask, he watched as his struggles began to cease. It served him right. Traitors who turned their back on the Empire deserved nothing less.

The hands peppering the assassin’s arms slid below the surface as well. It wouldn’t be long now. Once CT-9904 stopped moving, he would resume pursuing the target and bring her—

Someone was behind him.

CX-2’s mind always worked fast; a trait he was secretly proud of. Although he shouldn’t have been. Such display of individuality was unbecoming of someone like him. However, it was in his nature. It provided him with a valuable advantage.

Well, at least most of the time.

It were instances like this that drove him to frustration. His mind being able to pick up something, yet his body was too slow to react. And what was worse, he made a mistake. It was foolish of him to think the others would leave their own behind, he assumed no one would be coming—

“Better late than dead, I always say.”

The woman’s words were the last thing flashing through his mind before the world turned dark.

He came to as his body collided with the rocks at the bottom. Aware of the water filling his lungs, he suppressed the urge to cough and began to swim towards the surface. Painstakingly, CX-2 heaved his body onto the rocky bank and allowed himself a moment to catch his breath.

“Ace? Ace, wake up.”

He startled awake, unaware of the fact he was starting to drift off. The phantom feeling of someone shaking him faded back to where it came from.

Ace…

There was a strange familiarity tied to the way it was spoken, stirring something in his chest. He was aware the clones were naming themselves instead of going by their designated number, this however… Ace. Was he… was he going by ace before becoming CX-2? It didn’t feel quite right, but at the same time it didn’t feel wrong either.

“Got a name, Brown Eyes?”

He sucked in a breath. It was the same voice from before. The answer to the mysterious woman’s question was at the tip of his tongue, yet it refused to come through.

He shook his head. This was ridiculous. He was CX-2 and that was all that mattered. The target might have escaped, but some of the luck was on his side at least. He could very well imagine the consequences of thinking such thoughts.

With one last steadying breath, CX-2 pushed himself to his feet and headed for his shuttle.

Tracking down the Trnadoshan wasn’t all that difficult. One would think that after dealing with the Empire and selling the rogue clones out, she’d have enough brains to disappear off the radar.

Yet she stayed in her shady little bar.

The Trandoshan’s unwillingness to give up any other information could be considered remarkable, if only it didn’t stir something in CX-2’s chest. Something dangerously resembling anger.

“Hey, you three. You could have walked away. That loyalty is admirable, but with Cid, it doesn’t always go both ways. Watch your backs.”

It happened again. The more time CX-2 spent activated outside his chamber, the more these little voices whispered to him somewhere from beyond his reach. Bits of conversations, sometimes even a quick flash of some place or another where he, to his knowledge, hasn’t been before.

This time, the voice whispered a warning. Something told him it didn’t come from what you would call a trustworthy source, but the words rang true. The emotion that was most definitely anger was, strangely enough, burning not on his own behalf, but on someone else’s.

“Remember our mutually beneficial arrangements, and how well we know one another, if you know what I mean. You’d do well to not assume I am just threatening you boys.”

She betrayed them, although he couldn’t determine who ‘them’ was.

In one swift motion, he took out his vibroblade and plunged it into the bar counter. The Trandoshan – Cid – flinched. Her eyes roamed around the bar for help that wasn’t there. The two patrons fled the moment they recognized him as a part of the Empire, although not before sending the bar owner a disgusted look.

“It would be wise to start talking now,” CX-2 said. At her hesitation, he continued. “You didn’t seem to mind selling them out for a quick credit before. Why the hesitation?”

Cid silently turned her head away in shame.

In the end, it didn’t take that much force before she was spilling again, and CX-2 left Ord Mantell with a name of a pirate that’s been in contact with the target.

“She’s not a pirate. She’s a liberator of ancient wonders.”

This particular whisper caused him to exhale through his nose sharper than usual. It could almost resemble a chuckle. That was dangerous. It was a good thing he was yet again alone, as he wasn’t sure he would be able to mask it.

Still, what a strange reaction.

The comm on his ship beeped. It was time to report his findings.

The woman had remarkably good instincts. Even without hearing the alarm, she sensed something wasn’t right and pulled out her knife as she approached the ramp. She even gave the hangar one last sweep before boarding. He kept observing her until she boarded the ship and the door closed behind her. Only then he moved.

In a corner of his soul, he was grateful for the droid’s intervention. He would hate it if he had to hurt her—

He stopped going over the data he pulled from her navicomputer, stunned by his own thoughts. He’d hate to hurt her? That was hardly the proper terminology. He was meant to think eliminate, no?

“Got a name, Brown Eyes?”

There it was again, that same whisper. There have been many, but this was the only one that repeated with a certain frequency. He couldn’t figure out why it was so. CX-2 was aware of the fact he was a clone, so what was so special about it? The phenotypic eye color for all clones was brown. And while he was different from the rest, iris pigmentation was not affected by his mutation—

“Aren’t clones supposed to look alike? So much for quality control.”

“She’s not a pirate. She’s a liberator of ancient wonders.”

“Heh. Looks like you have some competition.”

Sounds of wooden classes dully clicking against each other. The sun setting and the lights coming on, resembling stars in the sky.

“Got a name, Brown Eyes?”

He sucked in a breath.

Phee.

Of course, he learned her name from the Trandoshan, but that was Phee. They… knew each other. It was a mere feeling, and he was a logical person after all, but he knew it to be true! She knew him… and the traitors… no… brothers… and the target… little sister who was technically older…

Against the whirlwind of thoughts, Phee’s voice repeated the question. “Got a name, Brown Eyes?”

The cockpit spun around him. His fingers lightly touched his helmet around his eyes, as if to adjust something on them. “Tech.”

Another phantom touch on his shoulder, warm and gentle. “Head to these coordinates, Brown Eyes.”

He needed to find out more.

Reluctantly, he punched the comm button. It would be suspicious if he suddenly went radio-silent.

He found them near the Archium. The name of the structure came to him out of nowhere, like many things did recently. The sense of familiarity the place invoked in him set something off in his very core. CX-2 pushed it asked and pressed a button on his arm.

“Report.”

“I’ve got eyes on the target.”

“Ground them and wait for the division. She must be recovered unharmed! No mistakes this time!”

“And the clones she’s with?”

“If they get in your way, eliminate them.”

CX-2 gripped his rifle. He’d have to make sure they wouldn’t get in his way.

No matter what.

The following hour passed by in an odd hazy blur as two unseen forces battled inside of him. On one hand, there was the need to follow orders. He blew up the ship. He gave the order to destroy every ship and skiff to cut any possible escape route off. He was even ready to give the order to burn the entire island to the ground.

But on the other hand…

He could’ve shot the rogue clone, or blow him up along with the ship, it would have been easier. So why didn’t he? He was meticulous about everything he did. Then why did it appear like he gave the clone enough time to escape the explosion?

“I like to blow things up,” the whisper paused before it rose in volume, “because I like to blow things up!”

At the sight of the ship burning, something screamed inside of him and didn’t stop. It blended with the screams of the civilians fleeing the soldiers. Then there was the attempt to commandeer one of their ships, and he couldn’t bring himself to shoot the clone.

Instead, he shot the pilot.

Usually, the crash would kill anyone on board, but for some reason, deep down CX-2 knew better.

He’d told the mayor he could do worse.

Then why was it impossible for him to do so?

Stars, he even lied to the soldiers he’d neutralized the two when the girl surrendered herself. It was like his body was running on autopilot, mouth detached from the brain.

Clearly, it was naïve of him to expect to find answers here. In the end, he was left only with more questions.

CX-2 escorted the girl to the ship, taking note of the look she threw over her shoulder before he made her move again, and set coordinates back to Tantiss. It wasn’t until the ship shuddered as it jumped into the hyperspace that he heard a quiet sniff.

He chanced a look over his shoulder to find the target hunched in on herself, a single tear running down her cheek.

And that’s when the haze broke and everything became clear.

“We’re a family. Aren’t we?”

“Well, uh, yes. Yes, of course we are.”

“Then why don’t you act like it?”

But he did.

“I may have process moments and thoughts differently, but it does not mean I feel any less than you.”

His grip on the controls turned white, hidden by the black gloves.

“They call him Tech.”

A good-natured shove followed. “Yeah, he can fill your head with useless info for hours.”

He would do anything for his family.

“We have not always agreed with Crosshair, but he still is our brother. We do not leave our own behind.”

They were going to get their brother back. They were going to be a complete family again, they were so close—

“When have we ever followed orders?”

Tech felt nauseous.

What had he done?

Running through every possible scenario, he concluded there was no way out of this. If it was a possibility, contacting Echo would be his best bet if he was still with Rex, seeing as he blew up his own ship and cut his brothers off, but the shuttle’s comms were monitored. The imperials would know immediately if he attempted an unauthorized transmission.

Then there was the matter of his internal homing device. He had no means to remove it from his body safely, so even if he changed the coordinates, Hemlock would keep sending other operatives after them until he succeeded at recapturing them again.

Something told Tech he would not be making it out of that situation alive.

And lastly, there was Omega. He couldn’t tell how much time has passed since Eriadu, but judging by her hair, it must have been months. She had an air of maturity around her, but there was a part of her that was easily excitable. It was impossible to tell if she would be able to keep up the ruse if he revealed himself.

Tech couldn’t risk that. Still, it didn’t stop the decision from eating away at him all the way to Tantiss.

Omega eventually fell into restless sleep, and he took the chance to remove the suicide capsule from his mouth.

There was no turning back now. Hemlock was awaiting their arrival and there was nothing Tech could do. As much as it pained him, he gave his little-big sister a slight shove to keep the appearances.

Then he was dismissed.

As the stasis chamber closed on him, he hoped his brothers would come up with a plan to find her.

Find them.

The base was a mess.

Tech categorized anything he could on his way to intercept his brothers. To a certain degree, he was glad for the initial haze the stasis chamber has left him in, as he was uncertain how he would react to their orders if he was fully himself right away. This way, however, he remained undetected.

Positioned at the vantage point with the rest of the operatives, he spotted his brothers sneaking in through the rubble. He couldn’t help but notice their armor stripped of all color.

It was like before their first ever mission.

Chasing nostalgia away, he took out his rifle and aimed before any other operative could beat him to it. He aimed at Hunter and pulled the trigger, knowing his brother would be able to dodge. It was the most subtle way to alert his squad to their presence.

Then all hell broke loose.

Crosshair watched as the other assassins passed a blade between each other. The one who nearly drowned him on Teth let the blade hover over his wrist before it was raised high into the air.

“You should be more careful with your shooting hand.”

The horror inside of him intensified as he became aware of the assassin’s intention. Time seemed to slow down with the blade’s descend.

Except the pain never came.

The blade suddenly changed the trajectory and was sent flying right at the assassin electrocuting Wrecker nearby. The throw was precise. The assassin’s grip on the staff loosened as he fell, the blade plunging even deeper into the gap in the armor when his body hit the ground.

The foot pinning his wrist to the ground disappeared as the one standing over him shifted his stance, took out his rifle in one swift motion and with no hesitation shot the one who owned the knife. The one who was previously attacking Hunter and Wrecker before being stunned by Crosshair’s explosive shot had barely a second to react before he found himself with a hole in the chest too.

Shocked, Crosshair looked up the last assassin, their gazes meeting.

“I mean it.” The tone switched from menacing to more nonchalant and matter-of-factly. “You really should be more careful, Crosshair.”

Too stunned to speak, Crosshair could only blink. The voice-changer was still active, but the intonation almost reminded him of…

The assassin removed his helmet.

“Tech,” he breathed out in disbelief.

Tech reached out his hand and Crosshair allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. “My apologies. I was waiting for the right time, and in the meantime, I had to avoid suspicion.”

It was impossible. His brother who died on Eriadu after carrying out Plan 99 was standing in front of him, alive. Although in imperial gear. “How—“ Crosshair forced out a single word, but before he could force the rest of the sentence out, Tech was suddenly off his feet in one of Wrecker’s famous bone-crushing hugs.

“Ah, it’s… good to see you too, Wrecker,” Tech wheezed out. The only response he got was a sob.

“All right, Wrecker, put him down before you squeeze the living lights out of him,” Crosshair said.

After a few more sniffs and being convinced Tech was indeed real and alive and not a fragment of his imagination, Wrecker did so. It was obvious he wanted to ask the same question as Crosshair, but changed his mind last minute and instead shoved their brother. “Don’t you ever dare to do something like that ever again, you hear?!”

Tech’s mouth opened, a retort no doubt on the tip of his tongue, when a groan coming from a nearby rubble cut him off. They all spun on their heels immediately and rushed to their leader. While he and Wrecker worked on getting the debris off Hunter, Tech hovered over him, scanning for injuries.

Hunter blinked the daze away, meeting his now-alive brother’s eyes. He then clocked his other two brothers and sighed. “We’re dead, aren’t we.”

“No,” Tech replied. “Although, you came close quite a few times. We… all did.”

The implication hung heavily in the air, but they all knew this wasn’t the time or place to demand answers.

“Later,” Tech promised. “Now,” he motioned to the burning base, “Echo or Omega?”

“Take a guess,” Crosshair replied.

After a moment, Tech nodded to himself. “Omega.”

“I never took you for a sniper rifle type,” Hunter filled in the silence as they ran through the base in search for Omega. “It’s more of Crosshair’s thing.”

“I am not,” Tech replied, “but they didn’t exactly ask me what my preferences were.”

Crosshair wordlessly held out his blaster. Tech, appreciating the offering, took the sniper rifle off his back and swapped it.

They met with Echo and Omega and all the freed clones near the detention block.

At last, Tech allowed himself to fall to his knees and spread his arms in anticipation of Omega’s hug. He was never too big on physical contact, but this time, it was a necessity. For both of them.

“I’m sorry. Omega. I’m so sorry,” he murmured.

“It’s not your fault,” Omega pulled back and placed her hands on his cheeks. “They made you do it.”

Omega was always observant. Helmet or not, his attire remained the same, so it should be no wonder she connected the dots. He wanted to protest, but she was having none of it. She wiped her tears, her eyes sparked with determination.

“Let’s make him pay.”

They surrounded Hemlock on a bridge outside. He was a far cry from his usual put-together look, with his hair being a mess and a crazed look in his eyes.

He lost.

Tech could sense the thirst for revenge from all around him.

Hemlock turned to look at him, their gazes locked.

“You,” he hissed. “How did you—“ he cut himself off.

“You sound surprised,” Tech stated. “It should have been obvious after you failed with Crosshair. I might have been more susceptible due to my injuries after the fall, but you should have known it wouldn’t last. We’re deviant after all. It’s in our nature.”

The crazed look intensified. “We’ll see about that. You’ve been compromised!” he yelled. “Eliminate yourself right no—“

It was Crosshair who broke the tension with the first shot right to Hemlock’s chest.

His hand didn’t shake.

The chain reaction was instant. All freed clones carrying a weapon aimed and shot and shot and shot until the force of the bolts sent Hemlock’s body over the railing into the jungle below.

Tech watched with cold detachment. This time, he was certain. There was no surviving that.

Several pairs of eyes turned to him. He blinked, snapping back to reality. “Your worries are unwarranted. I already removed my suicide capsule.”

Hunter huffed a laugh. “Of course you have.”

It hasn’t been easy readjusting to normal life after everything they��ve been through. Then again, they were never normal.

Tech already lost track of how many times he woke up screaming when the nightmares of Tantiss plagued him in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the comfort was never far. It came either in a form of a mere presence and reassuring words of his brothers and sister, an embrace from Phee, or the weight of the Lurca hound named Batcher Omega tamed and took with her the first time she escaped Tantiss.

At first, he’d been wary, but he came to care for the creature.

Some days were good. Some days the shame of what he’d done as Empire’s assassin weighted heavy on him. Shep’s words were true once again; the people of Pabu were resilient and rebuilt the damage he was responsible for after the imperial forces left.

It… wasn’t very comforting.

During those days, talking about it with Echo helped, since he was the most familiar with the feeling. He hid it well, but the time he’d spent on Skako Minor as The Algorithm responsible for countless of his brothers’ lives weighted heavy on him too.

Crosshair was a great help too. As Hunter said before the mission where they’d saved Echo, he wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but Tech was content sitting with him in silence, the quiet understanding surrounding them.

However, he wasn’t the only one affected.

It was hard to not notice the look of guilt Wrecker was watching him with from afar, even though he had nothing to be guilty of. It was Tech’s own decision to resort to Plan 99. He even said so out loud, but he knew it would take Wrecker a long time to accept it, if ever.

There were also those worried looks every time he was somewhere more elevated or was walking next to the railing when they were going to the docks. In the first case, they watched him like hawks, ready to jump at the slightest sign of trouble – even if he was only four feet off the ground. In the second case, someone always subtly-not-so-subtly wedged themselves between him and the railing. Omega rushing into various rooms with fear in her eyes only for it to disappear when she spotted him also became a regular occurrence.

He learned the hard way not to disappear on the bad days for too long after she broke down near the cave where he sought the solitude. Apparently, he’d been gone for hours and nobody could find him at any of his usual places.

And Phee…

When their ship touched back down on Pabu, she was already there, waiting for him. The moment his feet touched the ground, he found himself in yet another embrace. There was no hesitation on Tech’s side and he pulled her close.

“I’m glad you kept your word and haven’t run off with any other pirate or smuggler,” she said.

Tech didn’t comment on how her voice was thick with emotion. Instead, he opted for a simple: “I’m here now.”

Phee chuckled. “Better late than dead, I always say.”

“—you always say,” he said the last part in union. “You know, those were the exact words that began the process of breaking the conditioning.”

“Were they now?” she asked, intrigued. “Well, I’m glad I was able to help.”

Tech smiled. “You helped more than you realize.”

Phee hummed, and before Tech realized what was happening, there were lips pressing against his. They were gone as fast as they appeared, but the fluttering in his stomach remained. “Now come on,” she turned around and began to walk away, “let’s get all your friends settled.”

He blinked after her retreating form until a choked chuckle broke his trance. “What?” He saw his squad – his family – huddled together with various looks on their faces.

Wrecker was giving him two enthusiastic thumbs up, Hunter was smiling, Echo was also smiling but more smugly, Crosshair looked like he would be rather anywhere than here, and Omega was chuckling, her palms pressed against her lower face.

“Tech, you’re blushing,” she said, mirth lacing her voice.

“I guess it was inevitable,” Crosshair commented. “You two were made for each other. She flies like a maniac too.”

There was a story behind it, but for another time.

So, yes, readjusting hasn’t been easy, but they managed. They understood when Echo eventually joined Rex again, but the rest of them remained on Pabu. As civilians.

While his brothers took up work in the docks – Wrecker especially enjoyed his time on the sea –, Tech found meaning and joy in teaching the next generation all his skills. It took others two standard years before they allowed him to strike a deal with a person on another junkyard planet in the Outer Rim for him to take his apprentices there to practice their skills.

The agreement was way more mutually beneficial than the one with Cid. The junkyard owners got to sell whatever they fixed and gave them a portion of the profit, or if they managed to fix something they deemed unsalvageable, they got to keep it.

Even then, he wasn’t alone. Phee was always accompanying his group, not that he minded.

“You never know,” she shrugged as she boarded, “there might be a treasure there,” she said, winking at Omega.

But most importantly, Omega finally for to have a normal childhood. They watched their little-big sister grow up until it was time for her to go on her own journey. As he sat on the porch of his and Phee’s own home watching the ship fly off into the night, only one thing was on his mind:

In the end, it was all worth it.

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