"In the Force, very different, each one of you are."
- Master Yoda, "Ambush"⠀⠀ Crosshair's aura was cold and quiet.
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⠀⠀ Colder than Hunter and Wrecker's warmth, the love and passion inside them burning like fire.
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⠀⠀ Quieter than Echo and Tech's energy, reverberating with the clicks and hisses of machinery. In Echo's, the sound of technology was deafening. In Tech's, it was a constant, comforting noise not unlike the ticking of a clock.
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⠀⠀ Crosshair's aura, more than any of his brothers', was calm. Organic. Concentrating on it felt like standing at the edge of a frigid lake, pitch-black and so still its surface was a perfect mirror.
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⠀⠀ Every so often, the water rippled. The creatures of Crosshair's emotion turned the reflection into fractals as they came up for air...but never for long. Nothing could be glimpsed of them, just the motion of some slithering form breaching the surface. But there was a distinct feeling that what lurked in the depths was dangerous, and colder still than the water around it. It was a relief they preferred to stay under that black lake, maintaining the stillness, breaching only to breathe.
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⠀⠀ A force aura wasn't truly sentient. It was alive, yes, and free to a point, but only insofar as it needed to reflect the life and freedom of its owner.
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⠀⠀ When the inhibitor chip began working in Crosshair's mind, that lack of sentience permeated the force, creeping through the energy of every clone, save for four. It represented itself differently in every aura, but it neutralized. Extinguishing fires of passion, calming waves of emotion, leveling steadfast mountains. Immobilizing the lake in Crosshair's aura with thick, impenetrable ice.
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⠀⠀ Those thoughts and feelings that occasionally rose to the surface to breathe now found themselves pushed down to the muddy lake bottom, trapped beneath frigid layers they clawed and kicked at with desperation. Loyalty, affection, morality...no matter how elusive they were when the lake was liquid, they still surfaced occasionally. Now, all suffocated under the ice, writhing and screaming silently.
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⠀⠀"Sir?"
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⠀⠀ A voice broke through Crosshair's thoughts, and underneath his helmet, he blinked away the pleas of those trapped under the ice. He was standing before a young Padawan, being restrained at the arms by two troopers. It was one of them that had spoken.
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⠀⠀"He's just a kid. He can't be very strong. We could just...lock him up."
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⠀⠀ Crosshair readied his blaster, his opaque visor fixing on the trooper that had spoken.
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⠀⠀"We were ordered to do this," he sneered. Pointing the blaster at the Padawan's forehead, his finger rested steadily on the trigger.
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⠀⠀"And good soldiers follow orders."
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⠀⠀ He pulled the trigger. The young Padawan slumped in the troopers' grasp.
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⠀⠀ Another layer of ice sealed over the frigid lake.
YOU ARE READING
Frigid (A Crosshair Oneshot)
Science Fiction"In the Force, very different, each one of you are." - Master Yoda, "Ambush" An examination of Crosshair's aura during a time of turmoil. (Also posted on Archive of our Own!)