FORESIGHT and SCOPE: BOOK TWO

C H A P T E R F O R T Y-N I N E

THIRD PERSON POV

Tech studied Fern's dark, intense eyes glaring into his bulging ones while his brows furrowed. While he had witnessed it plenty, the intellectual clone had never been on the receiving end of her hostile episodes. He mustered a tough disposition to challenge hers, his mouth twisting in contempt. "Your aggression is irrational, Fern."

"You haven't seen her irrational." Hunter averted his eyes as he crossed his arms in a reserved manner. Fern glanced to him with pursed lips before raising a brow at Tech for his response. The latter exhaled sharply through his nose. "I was merely stating—"

"No, Tech." The female clone shut him down.

"Sooner or later, Omega will have to come to terms and accept Echo made his decision." Tech barked back.

"Not like this." Fern clenched her fists at her hips until her knuckles turned white. She fixated her inflection in order to emphasize her severity. "Omega is not like us. She was not trained to—to 'move on' when someone or something is, is lost." She finally backed away from Tech, waving her hand in distress, but she didn't break eye contact. While she created distance between them, her aura dominated the overall confined space of the mine. Tech in particular, as opposed to Hunter and Wrecker, sensed the weight of what was to disperse from her intuition on the subject at hand, and he was not mentally prepared for such encumbrance...

"Listen, I get it." Fern flipped her braid over her shoulder and adjusted her grey headband with one hand. Her fingers trailed down her temple and cheek before hovering them in front of her face and waving them as she expressed certain points. "Situations like this constantly occurred during the war to soldiers like us. Lose a ship? Get a new one. Lose a man...Keep moving forward. There is nothing else you can do. However, Omega doesn't comprehend that the same as you and me. We as a squad have very little to hold onto in this vast galaxy—now place Omega in that equation. In addition to the four of us, Echo and the Marauder were—are—two essential pieces in her life...And you just expect her to accept it?"

Tech clenched his jaw. "I do not require your recollection, Fern. I am perfectly capable of assimulating such hindsight."

"You are absolutely right, Wired-Brain." Fern's lips tightened, rolling her shoulders back. "Like I said, you of all people should understand—or do you not recall our conversation on Iego?"

"What happened on Iego?" Hunter asked softly.

Fern acknowledged his question without turning to him by knotting her arms and shifting her weight to one hip. "Well, Tech?" The spectacled clone flinched. He bit the inside of his bottom lip while his chest panted. Fern yielded in courtesy to her friend and faced Hunter and Wrecker, drawing their full attention when her eyes flared. "Do you all believe Omega was prepared for Echo's departure? None of you, including Echo, chose to tell her—to tell me." She raked her fingers through her loosened braid. "Yes, I wasn't in the dark. Echo and I spoke about him potent—well, anyway, I wish I'd been prepared. That way, I could've been there for Omega and support her way of processing this change. Not yours, Hunter. Or yours, Tech. Omega's way. And I'm proud of her for standing up—Tech?

Fern tilted her head when she noticed Tech avoiding to make any eye contact. She somehow recognized his internal struggles to express empathy while attempting to remain stubborn. His muscles were so tense. What she didn't know was he was biting on his tongue in guilt; when she called his name, his teeth tore the muscle tissue and tasted blood.

"I'm sorry, Fern." Hunter suddenly respired, then paused to consider to his perspective. "You are right: we reacted upon our instincts to carry on when Echo left. In regard to the ship, there just wasn't time to think. As soldiers, it's only natural for us to access and act. Personally, my priorities were to lead you and everyone else to the spaceport as quickly and safely as possible."