Phee sat on the beach as she watched the sunset. She had seen it many times here on Pabu, but it was something she never grew sick of. She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed deeply, it was nice just to have some alone time.

"Phee?"

"Yes, brown eyes?" She smiled, this was one interruption she did not mind.

"I thought perhaps we could talk for a moment?"

"Sit." She motioned to the spot beside her, watching as he settled. "What did you want to talk about?"

"The nature of our relationship has changed recently."

"Has it?"

"While it may have taken me a while at first to realise, I know that it started out as a simple flirtation. Based on not much more than you found me physically attractive. But as we grew to know each other I believe the nature of that attraction has changed. Am I wrong?"

"You're not."

"Right, good." He reached up to adjust his goggles. A nervous habit Phee had noted before. "This might come as a surprise to you, but I am not inexperienced when it comes to relationships of the physically intimate kind. I am by no definition of the word an expert but I am not completely ignorant."

"You're not, are you? That's good to know." Her eyes roamed slowly down his body, making no effort to hide what she was doing.

Tech blushed and adjusted his goggles again before continuing, "But when it comes to emotional and romantic intimacy I find myself at a loss for what to do."

"So, you're telling me that you've slept with other people before, but you haven't had a romantic relationship of any kind."

"Precisely."

"Why not? Were you not allowed?

"We were not explicitly forbidden from such endeavours but it was not encouraged. We were extremely busy during the war and never had much time for anything. I never saw the point in forming such a relationship. And we've been on the run since then I haven't had much time for any kind of relationship."

"I see. But this has changed?"

Tech nodded. "I now find myself at a point where my feelings for you are of the romantic kind, and they only seem to grow stronger with time. I wanted to know if this was a mutual feeling?"

"It is," Phee replied matter of factly. The straightforwardness is something Tech greatly appreciated. She reached over and took his hand, interlocking their fingers.

"There is something you should know before this progresses anymore." He paused to make sure he had her full attention. "Us clones, we don't have very long lives. Our accelerated ageing means we won't live a life span typical of a human. It is very likely that if we do enter a serious relationship that remains in the long term, I will die long before you. I could not continue on this relationship trajectory if you did not have this knowledge. I understand if this changes your feelings."

"Tech," Phee says, the use of his name drawing to the seriousness of the conversation. "That doesn't change my feelings for you, or on the prospect of getting into a relationship with you."

"It doesn't?" He sounded shocked at this revelation, as though he'd been expecting her to change her mind.

"You tell me you aren't going to be able to live as long a life as me, that's ok. All I ask of you-" here she gently took both his hands in hers "-is that you give me what time you do have. Would you like to do that?"

"I would gladly give you that."

"Good." She watched him as the son crept ever lower behind the horizon, the warm light reflecting in his eyes. He liked to tell her that his eyes were just like all the other clones, but Phee didn't think that was true. She can see it just between the few she has met. Tech's were so warm and they lit up when he talked about things he was interested in and they were so very expressive. She could look at his eyes all day, but there was something else she would very much like to do.

Tech was watching her with equal interest. He reached over and cupped her cheek, leaning in closer but not kissing her just yet. "May I ki-" he started to ask, she answered by closing the gap between them and kissing him fiercely. He met her with equal intensity, his lips parting instantly under hers, the kiss deep and hungry from the first brush of lips.

They stayed like that for as long as they could, but due to the urgent growing need for oxygen, they were forced to break apart, though it was reluctant on both parties. Tech laid his forehead on hers not moving too far even as he panted for breath. "You're quite good at that." She smiled.

"I do make it a priority of mine to be highly skilled in many areas."

"I can't wait to see in what other areas you're highly skilled." Phee winked, her thumb tracing along his bottom lip.

Even as he felt his face heat, Tech leaned into her touch, the light touch of her hand a comfort instead of making him want to crawl out of his skin. Phee watched him and Tech felt as though she understood him more than anyone had before.

Phee pulled him back into another slower kiss. His arms were strong around her and she liked the feeling of being held by him. She wanted to roam her hands all over him if he would allow her to, but they couldn't do that out in the open. Her lips lingered on his for several moments longer, not wanting to break the kiss even at the promise of more.

Eventually, and extremely reluctantly, she pulled back from him. "What do you say we take this somewhere actually private?"

"I would be interested in doing so," he replied.

His arms fell away from holding her and he pushed himself to stand, then he extended his arms to help her up. "Thank you," she said as he pulled her up. She rose up further onto her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips, when they parted she took his hand and they made their way back to hers.

When Tech returned to the Maurauder an hour so late it was considered early, Hunter was awake, most likely drawn from his sleep at the noise, no matter how quiet Tech tried to be. Hunter did not say anything but he smiled before rolling over and going back to sleep.

"Not even a goodbye, brown eyes?" Phee sidled up to him.

"I did not know you required one," Tech replied, still fiddling with his datapad.

Phee scoffed and rolled her eyes with fond exasperation. "Just don't go running off with any pirates or smugglers while you're gone."

"Yes, this mission should not involve either."

"That's not exactly what I was getting at."

There was an odd change in the way she spoke and Tech realised suddenly that he'd said something wrong. His hand came up to adjust his goggles a nervous habit of his he was finding extremely hard to break. "I apologise if I have upset you in some way. I do not know what I've done to do so."

Phee noticed his growing nervousness and she reached out and set a hand on his arm. "You haven't upset me," she assured him, warmth seeping from her voice as with her touch. "Typically, you say goodbye to your friends before you leave, or to someone you're in a relationship with."

"I will remember that in the future. And thank you, for your patience with my ignorance of how this works."

Phee smiled and cupped his cheek gently. "We'll talk when you get back." She rose up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Tech watched her slowly walk away for a few moments before he gathered the courage to call out to her. "Phee, wait." She turned and watched him as he approached her when he reached her, gently took her face in his hands, tipping her head back slightly, leaned down and kissed her.

Phee felt a tingling in her body, spreading from every part of her body that touched his. The feeling brought her mind back to the previous night they'd spent together. She wanted nothing more than to drag him off for a repeat, but he had an important mission to go on, it'd be selfish to delay him much longer.

Reluctantly they broke the kiss, pausing for a few moments more with their foreheads pressed together. Tech stepped away first. "Goodbye, Phee. I hope to not be away for long." He smiled softly in that way Phee loved so much.

She smiled back at him. "See you 'round, brown eyes."

He watched her walk away again for a few moments before he turned to head to the ship. When he turned he found Echo, Wrecker, and Hunter standing on the ramp of the ship; Wrecker and Echo's mouths hanging open in shock, while Hunter smiled smugly.

Tech adjusted his goggles before approaching them. "Are we ready to go? We shouldn't delay much longer."

"Did that happen while I was gone?" Echo asked.

"I don't know what you refer to exactly?"

Wrecker shook his head. "No, this bit is new."

"Very new, it only happened last night," Hunter said nonchalantly.

Echo and Wrecker quickly turned their heads to look at Hunter. "You knew?" They said together.

"He came back very late last night smelling like her perfume and like he'd done a lot of rigorous activity." Hunter raised an eyebrow in a way that everyone picked up on his meaning, he grinned and winked at Tech whose face reddened. Curse Hunter and his enhanced senses. Echo and Wrecker turned back to Tech mouth's agape once more.

"Rigourous activity?" Omega's voice sounded from behind them. The four of them turned to see Omega with looks of muted horror on their faces. "What rigorous activity were you doing that late?"

"Hunter is exaggerating, Omega, it was a simple stroll along the beach," Tech said, the first to come up with an excuse. He pushed through his brothers and laid a hand on her shoulder directing her back into the ship.

"Stroll?" "Guess that's what we're calling it now." He heard Echo and Wrecker chuckling behind him as quietly as they could.

Tech shot a glare at them that he'd been told made him look very much like Crosshair. Echo and Wrecker stopped in their tracks. Hunter shook his head and shuffled them all onto the ship, "alright, let's go."

"Come on, Tech, hurry!" Wrecker called out, his voice sounding tinny through the comm.

"I am climbing as fast as I can."

A shot from a trooper caused another connection to the track to break, the cars teetered and shifted and Tech was dropped further away. The progress he had made was null and void now.

"Tech!" Omega's voice sounded in his ears, tinged with panic and worry. She was so young she shouldn't have to deal with all this.

"Why aren't we moving?" Hunter's voice sounded, though Tech couldn't see him from where he dangled.

Echo was the one to answer, "The car's being ripped from the track."

"Wrecker, get him on board," Hunter ordered. Wrecker moved to pull the car up but both of them shifted again.

"Don't!" Tech called out. "Any shift in weight could send both of these cars over." The cars shifted again and Tech knew what had to be done. "You must sever the connection hinge. Now!" Tech rarely shouted, rarely even raised his voice at all, it spoke now to the desperation and direness of the situation they'd found themselves in.

"Not until you're up here!"

The cars creaked and shifted again. There was no other way. "There is no time, Wrecker." Tech unholstered his blaster, if Wrecker wouldn't do it then he would. "Plan ninety-nine."

Wrecker lunged for the car and managed to grab hold of it. A blast from a fighter tore another connection from the track. "Don't you do it, Tech!"

He didn't want to die. He wanted so badly to live out his life. Retire from war, go back to Pabu, be with Phee. His brothers, Crosshair included, would tease him but he knew they'd be happy for him. Maybe they'd have lasted in a relationship. Maybe he and Phee could have gotten married someday. Maybe they could have started a family, was that even something he or Phee wanted - kids, if clones even could father children or had the Kaminoans taken that from them too? He'd never gotten the chance to think about it.

Now, he would never know.

Just the day before he'd promised Phee that he would give her the hours he had left, he'd never thought it would have been so few. He hoped she'd be alright, be able to move on, she was strong like that.

Tech sighed, lining up his shot. "When have we ever followed orders." He didn't hesitate to pull the trigger, if it was between his life or his family's he'd sacrifice his own a hundred times over.

The shot tore straight through the carriage and into the connection hinge, separating it from the first car. He's suspended in the air for just a moment more, Wrecker holding on to the carriage with all his might, but some things are too heavy even for Wrecker, and then he's plummeting. He cuts the comms, Wrecker and Omega's screams too much to bear.

He thinks to himself morbidly that it's a shot Crosshair would have been proud of.