He stepped down from the shuttle, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun. Yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.
She kept him still and held his beating heart with one gaze, feeding off of him. She was a succubus, beauti...
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A song of blaster fire was accompanied by the harmonious hum of a lightsaber. Beyond the doors of the stasis chamber, Wrecker and Crosshair covered one hallway while Hunter and Talia faced the other.
An unstoppable force, Hunter fired blast after blast while Talia sent out an even greater line of destruction by turning aside all shots coming their way.
Her lightsaber flashed a lambent purple and sent a pair of D-wing battle droids flying in a shower of sparks and metal parts that scattered everywhere. Her saber deflected blaster fire into several more. She raised a hand, palm outward, and another of the droids went crashing into the wall.
"Hunter, hold them off," she ordered when they'd cleared the next wave. "I'll go check on Rex and Tech."
Hunter put away his blaster and pulled the vibroblade from the sheath on the forearm portion of his armor. "You got it, General."
He rushed forward and she watched him just a moment longer before turning towards the blast doors with a flourish of her blade. She jogged into the eerie lab, adrenaline from the battle coursing through her veins. Her lips parted when she caught sight of Tech.
"The situation's almost under control out there," she said, coming to a stop. "How's it—"
The words died in her throat when Tech stepped aside. Blue eyes met brown-gold for the first time in over a year.
"Echo," she breathed.
The three clones regarded her, tan skin looking almost pale. She was frozen, as if she'd seen a ghost. And perhaps she had with the way her heart all but broke and stopped and the same time.
Echo couldn't help but smile at the sight of her. It was weary and somewhat plagued, but a smile all the same. "Talia."
The sound of her name on his lips seemed to shake her from her reverie and she strode forward, kneeling before him alongside Rex. She seemed hesitant to place her trembling hands upon him for fear her touch might cause him pain. She hid it astonishingly well, but rage and horror began to well inside of her as she took in his appearance.
The paleness of his skin wasn't even the worst of it and that angered her. She studied the cybernetic implants and enhancements, eyeing the three tubes still attached to the back of his head—and what she presumed was his nervous system—before looking up at Tech.
"What can you do for him?"
Tech turned back to the computer terminal. "I'm still trying to decrypt his cerebral interface. Until I do, we cannot disconnect him from this computer system."
She looked back at Echo but he seemed to be out of it again. She nudged Rex and they stood.
