Tech watched in awe as Sheera tucked the lightsaber into her shoulder bag. Rising from the floor, she tilted her head toward the nearest exit and the two of them slowly made their way through the hall and left the museum.
His mind racing, Tech did his best to focus on blending into the crowds as he and Sheera traveled back to their lodgings. Once they returned to the relative safety of their hotel room, however, he exhaled audibly.
Tech locked the door and pushed the controls to lower the window shades. He waited for Sheera to remove the lightsaber from her bag, and when she laid it on a cloth on the table in front of them, he stood looking at the object, transfixed.
They both gazed at the unmistakable item completely dumbstruck. Finally, Tech's curiosity overtook his sense of awe.
"Is that...what I think it is?" he said.
Sheera nodded, and Tech resisted the urge to pick up the lightsaber and examine it straightaway.
He watched and waited for Sheera to offer an explanation as to how she found this relic in a heap of rubble in what was probably the most guarded site in all of Coruscant. She sat staring at the smooth metal device utterly silent, however, and his hands fidgeted at his sides eager to investigate the intriguing device.
Eventually his desire to analyze the lightsaber got the better of him, and he broke the silence with an avalanche of questions.
"Can you tell whose lightsaber this was just by looking at it? Does it appear to be in functioning condition? Will you attempt to use it?"
Sheera lifted her head to look at him, then closed her eyes and sighed.
"It's mine," she said.
"Wait, you mean to say..."
"Yes, all this time, my lightsaber has been buried under a pile of rocks next to the ventilation grate I escaped through all those years ago."
When Sheera looked at him again, her eyes were a deep green. Like the deepest parts of the Kaminoan ocean, Tech thought.
"I'm not sure if I should use it," she said, her voice wavering and her shoulders slumping forward. "Or if I even could wield it now. I've almost forgotten what it feels like to have it in my hands."
Tech moved to the door and checked again to make sure it was secure. Then he pushed the couch and table against opposite walls of the room.
"Why not at least attempt to use it?" he said, gesturing to the open floor. "You may find you remember more than you think."
When she didn't move, Tech picked up the lightsaber off the table and held it out to her. Sheera finally reached out her hand, and Tech wrapped his fingers around hers.
"No matter what happens, I'm here with you, cyare."
He stepped back and waited. Sheera inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. Tech felt a warmth come over him and his mind felt peaceful and clear.
I can feel her using the Force. She's reaching out to the lightsaber, and I can feel her connection to it.
Tech's eyes lit up as a bright green blade extended from the end of the weapon, its iridescent light filling the room. He heard the distinct hum of the blade's energy and decided the sight of the woman he loved wielding a lightsaber was the most beautiful and powerful thing he had ever seen.
Sheera moved her feet into a defensive stance and began swinging the glowing saber back and forth in graceful arcs, slowly at first, then faster and smoother as she kept going.
Tech marveled at the speed and power behind her movements as she continued to work through a series of defensive and offensive sequences. He observed the muscles in her arms and legs flexing with each motion as though they were waking from a deep slumber. When he drew his eyes to Sheera's face, he saw her countenance was perfectly calm, but her pale green irises blazed with a fury he had yet to witness from her.
When she had completed a dozen different exercises several times over, she paused, her breathing labored and her clothes soaked with sweat. She deactivated the weapon and gazed at Tech, a smile playing on her lips though her eyes continued to burn brightly.
"I think I'm ready to see my family again," she said.
~~~~~
"Are you nervous?"
Sheera and Tech sat in a quiet booth at the back of a small diner each nursing a lukewarm cup of caf.
"I would be lying if I said no." Reaching for his hand, she said, "But you're here with me, and that makes me feel better."
Tech squeezed her shoulders gently. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be, cyar'ika.
Sheera had contacted her brothers, Davil and Keth, pretending to be a friend of their mother's who was visiting Coruscant. When she asked if they could meet her somewhere quiet, Sheera's heart swelled when they suggested the quaint restaurant down the street from her family's apartment.
Now she sat bouncing her leg under the table and nervously rubbing her hands together.
How are Davil and Keth going to react when they see I'm alive? she thought. The sister they assumed was killed all those years ago survived and is here in this diner.
The bell above the door jingled and two men sauntered toward the counter. Tech let out a low chuckle and Sheera gave him a curious look.
"You weren't kidding when you said your brothers looked like Hunter and Wrecker," he said, rising from the booth.
He approached Davil and Keth while she sat observing them quietly from their table. The two of them had agreed Tech should inform Sheera's brothers of her survival to give them time to process the news before revealing the identity of the woman sitting in the booth.
Davil ran to her first kneeling beside the table and searching her face carefully. He knit his brows together before widening his eyes when he realized she was in fact his sister sipping a cup of caf as if it were just another normal day.
When Sheera peered back into his dark brown eyes, she threw her arms around him, letting out a laugh followed by a grateful sob.
Keth soon followed, wasting no time in picking her up in his burly arms to inspect her face closely.
"Put me down, you meat-head!" Sheera said, swatting him playfully on the arm.
Recognizing the affectionate moniker from their childhood, a relieved look swept across Keth's broad face, and he proceeded to squeeze her in an even tighter hug.
"Seriously, Keth, you're crushing me," Sheera said, her voice strained.
Setting her down, he apologized. "Sorry, sis. It's not every day a brother gets his sister back from the dead."
After exchanging a few more hugs and some happy tears, Sheera gestured for the men to join her and Tech at their booth.
She recounted to her brothers a condensed version of her story starting with her disappearance from Coruscant. She described living as a hermit in the woods of Kalkovak, meeting the clones of the Bad Batch, and helping them with their final mercenary task before getting captured by the Imperials.
"Wait just a minute," Keth said. "You were arrested, detained, and tortured by the Imps, and managed to escape? How?"
Tech cleared his throat and filled in the rest of Sheera's story explaining how he and Hunter had rescued her and taken her to Niamos with the rest of their squad to recover before joining the rebels.
"That's one of the reasons we're here," Sheera told her brothers. "We're gathering intel the rebels can use against the Empire."
Eventually, the topic of the death of their mother came up, and all three siblings' eyes misted over.
"Dad hasn't been the same since mom died," Davil said. "Last time we visited, he was going on and on about us finding useful jobs with the Empire."
"Yeah, as if running our own businesses isn't good enough," Keth said. Looking around to see if anyone else was watching, he added, "He's grown more and more supportive of anything Imperial."
Sheera and Tech exchanged glances, the images of her latest nightmare flooding back to her mind.
"How do you think he'd react to seeing me alive?" she asked.
The two brothers shifted uncomfortably on the vinyl seat.
"Hard to say, sis. It'd be quite a shock, for sure," Davil said.
"Yeah, I agree with Dav," Keth said. "Dad's definitely changed, and if he finds out you're helping the rebels, I don't think he'd take that news very well."
Sheera looked at her brothers. She had worried their relationship might have suffered as a result of the years they spent apart but being with them now proved their bond remained as strong as ever.
"I wish we could bring the two of you with us," she said, her voice betraying her feelings. "Well, provided the two of you aren't already attached to someone else?"
Davil and Keth exchanged a look and both men's faces beamed at her.
"I met a woman a few years ago, right before mom died," Davil said. "We got married and our daughter was born two standard months ago."
"I'm an aunt!" Sheera grabbed Tech's arm giving it an excited squeeze.
"And you're about to be one a second time over," Keth said. "My girl and I are due with a little boy a few rotations from now."
Overcome with the news of her expanding family, Sheera rose from the booth to embrace both of her brothers. Through her tears, she told them how happy she was to have seen them and to learn what full and joy-filled lives they had despite the devastating times.
Before they parted ways again, she said, "I know you've said it may not be wise to see Dad, but I have to go and let him know I'm alive. I wanted both him and Mom to know that after all this time, I survived."
Giving Sheera one last embrace, Davil and Keth urged her to be careful as they stepped out of the diner and walked out of sight.