Cejanr (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

47

The door to the shaft opened and Wrecker burst out with a yell, punching the droids standing guard and whipping out his blaster to make short work of the ones in front of  him, despite having just been reminded that this mission was strictly stealth. No shooting, no blowing things up. Rex sighed and pulled out his own blasters, moving to take out the reinforcements as they arrived. 

As they cleared the small room in front of them, Wrecker finished with a yell of adrenaline and triumph. Rex gave him a sidelong look as dropped the droid head he was holding and rubbed at the back of his heck. 

"Um... Sorry. I just got excited." He mumbled. 

"Well, save your excitement. I'm picking up Echo's signal again." Tech barked, turning to point down a passageway. "There."

They moved down the hall quietly, the only sound being the clacking of armor and the thud of boots on the durasteel under their feet. They came to a split in the hallway where it widened out, revealing a labyrinth of rooms and corridors. 

Tech came to a sudden halt. "Hold on, I've lost it." He said, puzzled. 

"Lost it? There are no atmospheric disturbances up here." Hunter pointed out. 

"Well, maybe that means your friend is really dead after all, and this was all just a trap." Crosshair said. Rex took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

"If that is the case, then I will deal with my miscalculation." He said calmly, "But the matter of the origin of the transmission is still the primary target." 

"Understood, Captain." Anakin broke in. "Split up, and find the source of the algorithm" He instructed.

Rex moved through the rooms, calling for the other's locations ever so often to narrow down the search pattern. Most rooms were empty. Some rooms contained droids that were easy enough to dispatch. 

"Captain." Tech's voice crackled over the comms. "I've regained Echo's signal, and I have a new theory. Echo's signal is a live transmission, therefore only traceable when in use. So we can only track him as he dispenses information."

"Understood. Everyone, converge on Tech's location." Rex ordered over the comms, keying up Tech's location on his HUD and feeling for him in the force. As he moved quickly through the hallways towards the signal. As he reached out to the force, he felt like an idiot for not doing it sooner. He concentrated a little harder, looking for a signature that wasn't the bad batch or Anakin or a droid. He found it, and it was... strange. Oddly bright, but... muted. Almost sickly. Rex's pulse sped up as he raced through the area towards Tech.

He rounded the corner to find an open chamber, near the outer area of the tangle of hallways they had just gone through. The unnamed force presence was just beyond the only door in the vicinity, and Tech raised a finger to point at it. 

"There." He said. Hunter and Wrecker joined them. Rex let out a deep breath. 

"Get it open." He ordered. Tech saluted. 

"Aye aye, Captain." He said, walking over to the doors and getting them open fairly quickly before moving onto the inner chamber doors. 

As they entered the laboratory inside the double sealed doors, Rex noticed one of two things. The massive control area covered in sensors and monitors that took up half the room. The second thing was a stasis pod raised up and angled slightly downward above all the blinking dials. Tech rushed over to the panel and gave it a cursory examination. 

"There's a life form in there." He said. "Hold on, I think I can-- There!"

There was a hiss of steam and icy mist as the doors of the chamber slid open, and the occupant fell forward. 

It was a visual straight from Rex's nightmares. The pale and gaunt face of a long dead brother staring at him accusingly, they're vacant eyes staring right through him. But this vod wasn't dead. He took a shuddering breath, his eyes rolling in their sockets.

Rex reached up and gently pulled him down, moving to cradle his little brother in his arms as he spasmed slightly. He was emaciated and whiter than an umbaran. Metal plates ran along his spine. Both arms and legs were missing. His right hand was barely flesh, covered in sensors and sockets. His left was a droid's jig. His legs were more like the legs of an ATST than human, and the skin where the cybernetics met icy cold flesh was scarred and mutilated. 

Echo spasmed again, his eyes wheeling once more to lock on Rex's face. He opened his mouth and made a dry crackle of a sound in the back of his throat. Rex shifted so the smaller clone's head rested against his chestplate. "Easy, vod'ika." Rex hushed. "Easy."

"Rex... you.... came back." Echo whispered. His voice was like the quiet rustle of dead leaves over duracrete. Rex stiffened slightly. 

"I'm sorry, trooper. Captain Rex died some time back. Reconditioning." Rex said softly. There was a commotion outside of the doors, and the sounds of blasterfire rang back at them. "Tech, how do we get him out of this?"

"Working on it now. I just need a little more time." Tech breathed, his fingers flying over the buttons. Rex shifted so his back was to the doorway they came in, shielding the flesh parts of Echo's body behind his. 

"Oh..." Echo rasped softly. "His wife's gonna kill him." He murmured, his head lolling slightly as he yawned. 

"Echo? Stay with me trooper. Don't go to sleep. Stay awake for just a little longer." Rex ordered. Echo was tossing his head back and forth weakly now, muttering about the citadel. 

"Tech!" Anakin was at the first set of doors now, along with the others as they sealed the entrance behind them. 

"Not yet... not yet..." Tech warned as Echo seemed to slip back into semi lucidness with a twitch. "Now. You can unplug him now."

Echo wriggled out of Rex's grasp to turn around, exposing the tubes and plugs among his back. Rex took a firm hold of the one on top and pulled it out. Echo gasped and grabbed at the control panel with the hand that had an opposable thumb, and Rex moved onto the next plug. Echo gave a whimper of pain at that one, and full on cried out at the last one, falling back to the floor. His breathing steadied after a couple tense seconds. 

"Sir?" He said, looking at Anakin. He gave a terse grin. "I gotta bit headache." 

"Heh. Better to feel something than nothing old friend." Anakin chuckled. He glanced at the door. Two red streaks appeared and he shook his head. 

"But if we don't move fast, we'll all be past feeling soon."

The separatists were breaking through. 

A/N - So, quick note. Cejanr is the last book in my Rexsoka centric storyline, but I have two other duologies to write after this. One is focusing on Cavalry, the other on Caedus. I've decided to let you guys choose on which one you want. I posted this on my message board already, and some of the votes have already come in. Voting will close Wednesday, November 4th at 3pm eastern standard time. If you have a preference on which you'd like to see first, go to my message board and either comment Cavalry or Caedus to vote.