Fun fact this story was originally going to be called Can't Help Falling In Love, but after the S2 finale that title was immediately scrapped. Tech ain't falling nowhere!
"Malaina, a little help!" Echo shouts from the floor of the factory.
Malaina groans, throwing her head back while her arms dangle at her sides. "Hang on, I lost a shoe!" She shouted back, jumping across the lava pit and onto the bridge. She located her shoe underneath the police droid's body.
She quickly put it back on, then went over to the second droid and ripped her vibroblade from its head.
Glancing over at Wrecker, who was about to jump across the pit, she gave him a look, silently asking if he was doing alright. The large clone gave a thumbs up, and that's all she needed to take off.
And the chaos never stops.
The next thing Malaina knows, she's jumping down onto a moving conveyor belt to rescue Omega, whose foot was trapped underneath a heavy battle droid. To make it worse, the blonde was about fifteen feet from falling into the lava pit that was stocked up with droids that were in the process of melting.
Malaina jumped over the scattered droid parts, stumbling a few times when the tips of her toes got caught, but she had just about made it to the blonde clone.
One of the women caught up to Malaina, sticking her food out underneath her. Malaina shouted in shock, falling onto her elbows with a huff. Hunter then ran past her, shouting after the blonde.
"Hunter!" Omega shouted desperately, approaching the end of the conveyor. The unknown woman stole the droid head from Hunter and took off, but the Sergeant was focused on trying to save Omega.
The blonde screamed as she fell off the edge of the conveyor. Panic flooded through Malaina's veins and she stuck a hand out, using the Force to hold Omega in the middle of the air. "I got you, Omega." She said through clenched teeth, unsure where to go from here. Now what?
A police droid landed a shot just between Malaina's parted feet, destroying the rolling track beneath her.
Her hold on Omega dissipated and she found herself falling into the pit of lava, not yet making contact with the substance due to the large amount of droids blocking up the hole.
This is not ideal.
"Get to the edge!" Malaina shouted, pointing to one of the women that surprisingly stopped to help. She was holding out a hand for Omega to take.
"Over here! Hurry!" The woman shouted to the two stuck in the pit. Malaina stayed behind Omega, making sure she didn't slip past the top layer of droids they were crawling across.
Omega reached the edge, trying to jump up and reach the woman's hand, but she couldn't quite do it. When the blonde hopelessly jumped up again, Malaina held out a hand and used the Force to make her go a little higher.
Hunter dropped to his knees beside the woman and pulled Omega up, and together those two adults each grabbed one of Malaina's hands and pulled her up out of the pit seconds before the lava rose and began melting the droids.
"You guys alright?" Hunter asked, looking between Malaina and Omega. The Inquisitor nodded, dropping her head and taking a deep breath.
"Yeah." Omega confirmed, panting from her adrenaline rush.
Hunter slowly turned his head to the woman in the yellow and gray jumpsuit. "Thank you." He said gratefully.
"You're welcome." The woman nodded.
Just then the second mysterious woman came falling down in the center of the gathered group. She stood up with a pained groan, straightening out her back. Everyone just stared at her wordlessly. She shrugged. "Oh, I'm fine. Don't worry about me or anything." She grumbled, shooting a police droid that had come up behind her.
Malaina stood up, pulling out her vibroblade. "Is it time to skidaddle yet? I hate it here." She expressed, eyeing the tactical droid head in one of the women's arms.
Hunter pulled his blaster out. "If we wanna get out of here, we need to work together." He says, specifically to the two extra women.
"Fine, but I still don't like you." The second woman replied.
"I'm used to it." Hunter retorted.
"I'm sure you are." Malaina muttered, turning around and nearly getting the fright of her life upon being face to face with a police droid.
Something in her mind initiated her foot to attack, and she cursed in pain immediately after kicking the droid. She drove her knife through its head and then bounced away, ignoring the judgmental looks she received.
She had no clue why kicking was her initial reaction, and it'll probably keep her awake tonight out of embarrassment for herself, but that was the least important thing at the moment.
Malaina strayed from whatever group had been formed between Hunter, the two women, and Omega, to join Tech and Echo. "What's up, nerds?" She chimed, joining them behind the conveyor control panel.
"How did you lose a shoe?" Echo asked now that he was able to communicate with her.
"I threw it at a droid. I found it, though. All is well." Malaina replied, throwing her knife into a police droid's head before calling it back to her hand with the Force.
She repeats this process a couple of times, giving Echo cover to check on their status.
"All the exits are blocked and it's about to get worse. A larger wave of police droids is headed our way." Echo warns, resuming his engagement in the firefight.
Soon the entire squad plus the two women, who Malaina learned their names to be Trace and Rafa, were hiding behind the console, working on creating a plan.
"What we need is a diversion." Trace determines, staring down at the tactical droid face.
"What we need is a diversion." Rafa chimes, crouching next to her sister.
Trace's eyes widen and she shakes her head, glancing down at Omega who had crouched beside her. "Is there an echo in here?"
"Yes." Echo chimes, crouching down in front of her.
Trace frowned. "What?"
"I'm Echo." The cyborg said, saluting with his scomp. Malaina tilted her head back and laughed, her act immediately straightening up when a blast bolt nearly ended her life.
"Really? Okay, Echo, we need a distraction." Trace determined, holding up the tactical droid head. "And he can help with that."
Malaina stood up from her place beside Tech, walking around the panel and waving a hand across the small squad of police droids. About 6 or 8 of them landed in the lava pit, their circuits beginning to fry under the heat.
"Malaina, you're going to get yourself killed." Hunter said sharply, expressing his worry for her major exposure.
"K'uur! I'm concentrating!" She retorted, launching her vibroblade into another police droid.
Next thing she knows, the decommissioned battle droids had recommissioned at the same time the large wave of police droids began flooding inside the factory.
"Huh? What's happening?" She hears one battle droid ask.
"I don't know. Did we win?" Another one chimed.
Malaina found her breath caught in her throat, unsure as to why. The right side of her head began throbbing, then increased to sharp shooting pain. Her eye pinches shut, that entire side of her face beginning to paralyze in pain.
"Malaina! What are you doing?" Hunter shouted, shooting down the police droids that were about to kill her on spot. She just stood there, unmoving from her exposed spot.
Malaina shook her head and then placed a hand over the spot that hurt. Her right ear began to ring.
And then she no longer found herself standing in the factory, but in the bridge of a ship, battle droids flooding into the room with bolts firing out of their blasters. Her hands, which were wrapped around a silver hilt that emitted a blue laser, guided the sword through the air to block the live fire. Beside her stood a blurry image of a man wielding a green lightsaber, his voice muffled as he shouted unintelligible orders to her. She turned to look out at the windshield, her eyes widening at the terrestrial planet they were falling through the atmosphere of.
Malaina turned to the person standing on the other side of her. Another man, whose voice sounded a lot like Echo's, shouted more unintelligible words as he fired back with the two blasters in his hands. This was a clone, one with a blue pauldron on one of his shoulders.
And then Malaina was back in the factory, gaze meeting the side of Tech's helmet as he grabs her arm and pulls her down behind the panel.
"Never thought I'd see battle droids helping us." Echo chimes, firing back at the police droids.
"Do you have a death wish?" Hunter asked, the visor of his helmet peering directly in Malaina's direction. But she was silent, almost frozen, unable to respond. "You don't just stand in the middle of a firefight!"
"I suggest we table this conversation until after we escape." Tech chimes from his place beside Malaina. He was slightly concerned, obviously he was the only one to notice how lost Malaina had looked, and partly still does.
Malaina held her vibroblade close to her chest, gripping it so hard her knuckles almost glowed white. Peeking past the panel, she watched the battle droids fight against the police droids.
She tried to push aside the throbbing pain in her head, but she could hardly focus because it was so distracting. Maker, she was taught to survive in worse situations than this. She needed to get it together.
"Move out!" Hunter tells everyone.
"Mission accomplished." Tech whispers, him and Malaina following in the back of the group. He had copied the data from the tactical droid's head.
"Nice work." Hunter whispers back, sticking to the other side of Malaina, trapping her between the two clones.
Trace and Rafa's droid, R7, landed their ship just outside of the factory. Desperate, the squad filed onto the women's ship to escape the growing firefight between the droids.
Wrecker was still rubbing his head, brows knitted together in pain.
Malaina was stuck in her own head, racking her brain for some kind of answer to what she saw.
What was it about battle droids that sent Malaina back to a place that seems both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time? Was that really her holding a lightsaber? Was she a Jedi?
She shook her head at her own thoughts. There is no way she could have ever been a Jedi, she didn't have that in her.
She had purposefully placed herself away from everyone else on the ship, wrapping one arm around herself and gripping her side while the other hand rubbed the throbbing part of her head.
But she didn't remain alone for long because Tech quickly found his way over.
She felt his eyes on her for quite some time, studying her expression, her mannerisms. It was a while before he built up the confidence to speak, and even then Malaina didn't look away from her focused gaze on the ground. "Did you take a hit to the head?" He asked, gesturing to the hand she held up to the side of her head.
Malaina blinked, shaking her head absently. "Not recently, no."
Tech adjusted his stance, datapad lowering in his hands just slightly. "What did you see in the factory?" He blatantly asked, like he could see right through her eyes. Something else happened in there, and Tech felt obligated to figure out what set her off.
Malaina finally tore her eyes away from the floor of Trace and Rafa's ship. She instead studied Tech's helmet he wore, eyes tracing the design he had painted. "I wasn't in the factory, not...not mentally, at least. I was on a starcruiser, surrounded by battle droids. I had a," She paused, shaking her head in disbelief. "I had a blue lightsaber in my hand." Her expression showed utter confusion.
Tech's head tilted slightly, taking a step closer. Malaina didn't realize until now how much taller he was compared to regular clones. An extra four inches, at least. She could hear a small exhale through his helmet before he spoke next. "Could it be possible that you are beginning to recollect memories?"
Malaina shook her head instantly. "There's no way. I'm too weak to be a Jedi. I don't have that kind of nobility." She denied the speculation. Malaina didn't think herself to be worthy enough to wield any lightsaber color other than red.
"All that work for nothing." Trace says in disappointment, dropping down into a seat. She had dropped the tactical droid's head in the heat of the battle, and ultimately it had been destroyed. She didn't know that Tech had copied the data, however. Only Malaina and Hunter knew of the intelligent clone's doings.
"Whoever Cid's buyer is isn't gonna be happy." Omega mumbled in disappointment.
Rafa frowned. "Let me get this straight." She started, pointing an accusing finger in Hunter's chest. "You knew how dangerous the information on the tactical droid is, but you didn't know who you were giving it to?"
Hunter crossed his arms over his chest, standing his ground. "We're being paid to acquire and deliver, not ask questions." He retorted.
Trace placed a hand on her hip. "Our contact needed that information to fight back against the Empire." She said, her tone saddening. "They're trying to help people and make things better."
Malaina, Hunter, and Tech exchanged subtle looks. Maybe these women needed the information more than they did.
"Why aren't you fighting for the Empire? Isn't that what you clones do now?" Rafa questioned, then turned to Malaina. "And how are you involved with them?"
Malaina shifted uncomfortably, mind racing for a lie. She glanced at Tech, then back to Rafa. "Civilian Volunteer Corps." Rafa seemed to buy it.
"We're different." Hunter explained for the other question.
Rafa didn't look convinced. "Yeah, I've heard that before." She scoffed, walking from the hull and into the cockpit. The Sergeant dropped his head, squinting his eyes in deep thought.
The ship landed out in the opening where the Marauder sat waiting. Tech, Wrecker, Echo, and Malaina boarded the ship immediately while Hunter and Omega talked with Trace and Rafa.
Malaina sat in the chair next to Wrecker, both of them holding the spots on their heads that hurt. Though Malaina's had begun to dull, and she just rubbed the spot while she pondered on what she saw.
Tech and Echo started up the Marauder, and when Hunter and Omega finally boarded, they were lifting off the ground and flying away from Corellia.
"Did you guys collide heads or something? What's your problem?" Hunter asked, looking between Malaina and Wrecker with the uttermost confusion spread across his face.
"I didn't hit my head." Malaina grumbled, eyes fixated on the wall behind the Sergeant.
"Ah, it's nothing." Wrecker waved off his injury, resting his head against the back of the chair while closing his eyes.
"I'm not convinced." Echo chimed from the cockpit, finishing up his flight routine before treading into the hull to observe the large clone and brunette Inquisitor.
Once the ship began traveling through hyperspace, Tech joined the group, holding an object in his hand. He held it out to Malaina. "Here is our extra comm, so you can communicate with us during missions from now on."
Malaina dropped her hand from her head, reaching up to take the device. "Thanks." She said quietly, immediately attaching the comm to her belt with her vibroblade.
As much as she wanted to hang around and talk, sleeping off the remaining pain in her head sounded like heaven to Malaina. So she excused herself to turn in early, closing the door behind her when she got inside her shared room.
Stripping herself of her overtunic and then her tunic, she then kicked off her shoes and pulled herself up into her bunk. Her tank top, which was her third and final layer, exposed many scars she had collected during her conditioning and on-world missions.
Malaina never took the time to really look at them, avoiding mirrors when she wasn't covered from her shoulders to her toes.
Pulling the blanket up to her stomach, Malaina laid back and stared at the ceiling, mind still spinning and searching for an answer. Tech's words continued to come back to her. Recollecting memories.
But there's no way Malaina could have been a Jedi prior to Arkanis, right?