Just Stuff

No. Tech felt like the ground fell out from under him. They were the same markings he had been watching slowly disappear in the mirror. The ones on her left arm were oozing blood from her hand up past her elbow. 

He tried to reach for her. His hand hit the pillar of light and could go no further. It was like a solid wall. 

Omega grimaced. To Tech’s horror, he realized the blood was gradually spreading up her arm along the path of the vine as if she were being cut there with a knife.

“I’m sorry, Tech,” she said as a trail of tears dripped down one cheek. “You weren’t supposed to see this.”

Tech struck the wall of light with one fist. “What is happening? Why do you—? What is—?!” He was afraid he already knew. But he couldn’t put it into words.

“It’s okay,” Omega said. Even now, she tried to comfort him with a smile. “It was worth it to bring you back.”

Tech felt like he was stabbed simultaneously in the heart and in the gut. Everything made sense all at once. Why his resurrection seemed too easy. Why Omega always wore gloves. Why she asked him about his research everyday, always hoping for a different answer. He grabbed two fistfuls of sand. “And this was the price? Was this always the price?!” 

Omega shrieked. A trickle of blood mingled with her tears and Tech realized one of the paths on her cheek had split open. “I d-didn’t know it at first. By the time I realized it, it was too late. I’m sorry. B-but you’ll be okay. You’ll—” She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. The cut continued up to her temple. 

Tech fumbled for his comm. He slammed the button on the side that would activate the emergency alert system he’d installed on the home console. Their brothers would receive the distress signal and the coordinates for his current location. “Hang on!” he cried. “We’ll figure this out.” He hit the force field one more time. “I can’t get to you. Can you move?”

She shook her head. “Not much. There’s too much pressure. Tech…please go home. I don’t want you to see this. I don’t want you to remember me like this.”

Tech’s already bleeding heart cracked open further. “You are not going to die! And I am not leaving!”

“I left a note on my datapad. It explains everything. Please, Tech.”

His eyes rapidly flew over the magic-induced force field. It extended up much higher than he could reach. If he couldn’t go through it and he couldn’t go over it… He scooped frantic handfuls of wet sand away from the base. Maybe he could dig down far enough to get under it. He flung sand behind and to either side of him like a canine. He quickly created a hole in the sand before him, but no matter how deep he went, the wall was still there. Still he dug. The tide washed in and filled the hole halfway before receding. His hands splashed through the water without slowing.

This couldn’t be happening. Omega couldn’t be sacrificing herself for him. She couldn’t be sitting here ready to accept an agonizing death on his behalf. Especially not when he had only just realized who she really was to him. 

His body flooded with adrenaline, and his brain went into the overdrive state it often did when he was on the battlefield and needed to find a solution to a bad situation fast. What else could he do? There was no droid to be hacked. No detonator to disassemble. No precise shot to make. This was Force magic, and Tech was no jedi. What could he do against that?

A sharp sting sliced across his right pointer finger as he dug. He jerked his hand away and found a broken shard of a seashell deep inside the hole. He ripped it free and prepared to toss it away. The motion made his hand come into contact with the wall of light again.

He started when his fingers passed through. He dropped the shell shard. He pushed his hand forward. It went through the wall only up until his knuckles. Then the pressure was too great for him to proceed. His eyes blew wide. The cut on this finger began to glow. Where it was inside the wall, the line of blood on his hand shone with golden light. He could advance his hand only as far as the cut went. 

He fumbled for the seashell piece. He took it into his left hand and, with no hesitation, pushed the sharp end into his skin right where the cut ended and sliced a long streak down his palm.

“Tech!” Omega cried in alarm.

But Tech had a theory to prove. He put his hand to the wall again, and this time, it went through down to the base of his palm. He could get inside the barrier as long as he was bleeding. He yanked his sleeve back, took the shell to his skin, and slashed down his arm to his elbow. He pushed his arm through the wall, his cut immediately lighting up. It was enough for him to be able to get a hold on Omega’s upper arm. 

Her skin was burning. She was hotter than she had been on Eriadu. He held her above where her patterns were bleeding. He pulled back, hoping that perhaps if he could pull her out of the circle, the spell would end. He couldn’t move her. He could feel the pressure she mentioned bearing down on him. It was like it pushed everything to the center. Getting in was easy, but going back out was nearly impossible. 

Then Tech noticed something else. Where he touched Omega’s skin, light crept up onto his fingers. The glowing vine pattern gradually bled away from her arm and crawled onto his hand.

Omega gasped. “Tech, let go!”

“I will not.” The marks elsewhere on her body had not changed, but where they made contact with Tech, they left her and attached to him.

“Stop!” Omega cried. “The whole reason I did this was to save you! You can’t undo that!”

Tech squeezed her arm harder. “I did not give my consent for you to trade your life for mine.”

“And I didn’t give my consent for you to die for us on Eriadu! I didn’t want you to do that!”

“I would do it again,” Tech said. “I will do it again.”

“No!” Omega attempted to pull out of his grasp, but she couldn't move more than an inch. She whimpered. A spot of red blossomed on the shoulder opposite Tech where another vine began to split open. She hung her head. “Let go, Tech. It’s not going to matter. It’s too late.”

Tech plunged the shell into the sand beside his knee, sharp side sticking up. He maneuvered his left hand against the point. It took a few tries, but he was at last able to cut a few messy streaks along his hand and arm. He reached that bleeding hand through the barrier and grasped Omega’s bare ankle. The pattern glowing there shifted on her skin as it slithered toward his fingers. “It’s never too late.”