Inevitable {Tech}

Chapter Thirty Four: Just A Little While

"What's wrong?" Rex squinted and stood to his feet, keeping his voice low and on alert.

When none of the boys answered, Rex's gaze flicked towards the Jedi. Cass averted her eyes and rubbed her palm, waiting for anyone to say something and save her from spewing out every explanation and apology she could muster.

Cass was never one to ignore others—especially Rex—and the captain knew it wouldn't take much to get her to talk.

"Cassiopeia," he warned sternly and shifted his weight towards her.

When Tech used her full name, it made her heart leap and jump and pound out of her chest, but when the rest of the the boys used it—she knew she was in trouble.

She shortly sucked in a breath before sputtering out, "We were going handle it, Rex, I promise we were. Even Tech—Tech made this device that can scan-"

"-Wait," he held up a hand. "You mean to tell me they haven't removed their chips?" Rex interrupted and stared incredulously, his gaze peered between each individual.

"No, not yet," Tech finally chimed in, in hopes of taking some of the weight off of Cass.

Without hesitation, Rex's hand slowly pulled back his cloak and hovered over his blaster. Seeing the sudden change in behavior, Hunter and Echo set their glasses down and straightened their postures.

"Rex," Hunter drew out the captain's name as he rose cautiously from his seat.

"Those chips make you a threat to everyone around you. Especially these two," Rex explained as he glanced at Omega and tucked her behind him.. "You're all ticking time bombs."

"Take it easy, Captain," Hunter held out a hand and inched closer.

"Rex," Cass pleaded as an attempt to reason with her brother.

"You can't be too careful," Rex continued with a sneer. "You're lucky you've gone this long without something happening," he scoffed.

Cass couldn't stop her eyes from briefly glimpsing at Wrecker, but Rex had learned to pick up on her subtle glances.

He cocked a brow and exhaled deeply. "It's activated before...hasn't it?"

Cass bit the inside of her cheek and exhaled every ounce of air left in her. She knew none of this was her fault—nor fault of the boys—but she also knew Rex would berate her for even choosing to stick around after one of Wrecker's episodes. But she couldn't exactly lie to him either.

She pursed her lips and raked a hand through her tangled knots. "I just—I don't know if it exactly-"

"You do know. It's a yes or no, Cass," Rex prompted gravely.

"It's not that simple-" Cass tried to explain, but to her disadvantage—Rex was almost as hard to argue with as Echo.

"Well it should be," he cut her off and tugged her off to the side.

She chewed the inside of her lip and rubbed her palm raw. "It happened once. On the ship—it was just for a split second-"

"-If any of their chips activate, none of them will hesitate to kill you," he muttered lowly.

Cass glanced past the captain to see Tech staring right back, his face contorted into something Cass had never seen before. His shoulders slumped and his breathing even looked ragged from where she stood.

Not once did he ever think that he could be the one to hurt her. Never once did his exceptional mind take into consideration that he could have just as easily been the one defecting right now. It would be simply impossible, no...unthinkable—that he could be forced to threaten one of the people he loved most.