A/N: Because Omega is a little girl, after all...

Chapter 3: Not Quite a Professional Soldier

The streets of Ord Mantell reflected strangely in the night. The street lamps shone their dingy yellow onto the moist pavement, and a chilly rain misted down from the sky.

Omega trudged alongside the Bad Batch, sliding her boots over the slick road. The amount of dirt and filth littering their path in all manner of substances made it even more difficult to walk as the dust of the day along with leftovers from discarded takeout packages leaked about the road and mingled with the rain.

Omega was exhausted.

Today's adventure in the droid destruction place had resulted in not a few bruises from her fall onto the steaming pile of metal limbs. And added to that, the excitement of the last several days was beginning to catch up to her.

Their return to Cid's bar hadn't been a happy scene. The trandoshan had launched into an impressively vocally-controlled rant about their incompetance. Omega had stepped forward, fully prepared to tell Cid that they hadn't failed, Hunter had just given the information to Raze and Trace, when Echo's hand pulled her back and Hunter silenced her with a look - a look probably harder than he was intending. They were all tired after all...

Omega sighed and scuffed her boot against the pavement. She hadn't remembered the distance between Cid's and the landing pad being this far.

"Not much farther, kid," said Hunter.

Omega stumbled and he put a steadying hand on her arm.

"Hunter?"

"Hm?"

Omega frowned thoughtfully at the the shining street ahead. "If we'd told Cid why we didn't have the droid's information, wouldn't she have been happy that it was doing some good?"

"It doesn't always work that way, Omega," Hunter sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, sending droplets of rain scattering onto Omega's already soaked head.

"Sometimes," he went on, "people will do anything for money."

"Like us?" Omega asked.

Echo let out a short laugh and she turned to look at him.

"Not exactly," the cyborg told her, smiling a tired little smile. "We're not going to do just anything in order to get money."

"But we do need money," said Omega, turning back to Hunter.

"Undoubtedly," Tech cut in. "We have used up a decent supply of our stores for this - er - job which, in the end, didn't pay off."

Hunter scrubbed both hands down his face.

"Let's just get back to the Marauder and rest up. Tech, tomorrow I'll need you on ship repairs, Echo, Wrecker, supplies. I'll talk to Cid about another job."

"What about me?" said Omega, tugging his bracer.

Hunter glanced down at her. "Someone needs to watch the ship."

Omega pouted, to tired to care that she was acting a bit spoiled. "But Tech will be on the ship already... You just want me to rest because you think I'm too tired to come with you..."

She hated the words the instant they came out of her mouth. She shook her head, trying to clear her muddled thoughts and understand why she had responded so rudely to Hunter. Hunter!

Hunter glanced at her again - she could feel his eyes watching her. "Well," he said quietly after a pause that was too long to mean anything good. "I think you just proved that yourself."

"We have arrived," Tech chirped, pulling his nose from his datapad long enough to point towards the Havoc Marauder. The ship sat solid in the darkness, the moisture glinting comfortingly off it's many plates and facets.

Normally Omega would have smiled upon returning home, but tonight she was tired and caught off guard by the sudden wave of grumpiness, so foreign that it felt it had been there all the time. She knew she should apologize to Hunter, but when Tech lowered the boarding ramp and Hunter stepped aside, gesturing for her to enter first, she clenched her hands, arms stiff at her sides, and stalked aboard without looking at him at all.

She struggled with instant remorse and fled to her room. Wrecker's loud whisper of "What's wrong with her?" didn't help at all.

She could hear the other Bad Batchers moving about the ship, unclipping armor plates and a few clinks and bangs from the storage racks.

There was a sudden "Hey! You almost smashed my feet!" from Echo. And Wrecker's loud, jovial response of, "Ha! It's not like ya have toes to worry about!" only made Omega feel grumpier than ever.

But more than the grumpiness, there was a deep fear that she wasn't quite sure she was aware of or not. Somewhere in the back of her head, a small voice kept repeating over and over "Why? Why doesn't he trust me? I can take care of myself!"

These words were constantly overlapped by another voice that said "You should say sorry, he just wants what's best for you, go say sorry to Hunter, there's no reason to be sad...he'll understand..."

She blinked and pushed her palms against the blur in her eyes.

"Hey, kid?"

Wrecker. Omega straightened and smiled as she pulled aside the curtain to her room.

Wrecker's large head popped up the ladder and he deposited a carton of Mantell Mix by her pillow.

"You forgot yours on the counter," he said.

Omega grinned, stuffing a hefty handful into her mouth. "Thank you, Wrecker," she said with all the sincerity she could muster. Somehow she didn't want Wrecker to see her sad, but a tiny nasty worm in her bruised little heart told her to make Hunter see how much she was upset with him and his decision not to take her with him.

The thought startled her, and she hurriedly stuffed in another handful of the mix in order to hide her face from view.

Wrecker looked about to say something else, but the sight of her energetically consuming the Mantell Mix seemed to convince him that all was well. He flashed her a grin.

"G'night, kid!" He said and jumped down the ladder to the floor.

Omega quickly closed her curtain again and turned off the lights. She thought perhaps she might want to just sit in the dark for a while and be sad.

Something was telling her that this sort of behavior was not how the Bad Batch opperated. That she needed to move on and stop stewing about what was, in reality, a rather small mistake. A passing weakness.

But, no. She had argued with Hunter, had spoken meanly to him. She had to be mad with herself for that. He had to be mad, too.

Her curtains rustled gently. A soft blue glow was bobbing about outside her room, but before she could pull aside the fabric shade, a soft voice muttered, "It would take courage to admit your mistake and apologize. It is pointless to trap yourself in your mind with thoughts that only border on the truth of the situation, if at all."

The blue light moved away, and Omega flopped back onto her pillow.

She was tired, she knew that. But Tech was right. She had to be brave and do the right thing. Hunter would do it, so would Tech, Wrecker, and Echo. And even Crosshair, whom she knew had been fighting his chip so hard, though in the end it was a losing battle.

Fine. She'd do it for them all.

Sliding the curtain aside, Omega clambered down the ladder and headed towards the cockpit. She could see a few strands of dark hair peeking around the back of the pilot's seat. Maybe Hunter was asleep...

She tiptoed further into the cockpit and seated herself in the copilot's chair, trying to appear casual.

Hunter had his feet up on the dashboard. He was definitely awake, but Omega didn't want to look at him quite yet. She didn't want to see the pale gray showing through in his eyes. She'd look only when they were their steady dark brown again.

"I'll...do my best to be a good guard for the ship," she ventured.

She could feel Hunter's smile and looked up as he turned back to gaze at the pattering rain that splashed consistantly over the viewport.

The two of them sat in silence for a long while. Omega knew it was all right now. Her previous worries seemed so silly now, and she was glad it was fixed.

She didn't even have to say sorry. She knew Hunter was all set now, too. But she took a breath and said it anyway.

"I'm sorry, Hunter."

"Eh, we'll get another job, and then we'll all be off for a while. Personally, I think the mission planning is the hardest part."

Omega giggled and slid off the chair, snapping Hunter a quick salute.

"And I promise I won't drive Tech crazy - though I might ask about flying the ship..."

Hunter chuckled. "I doubt anyone could drive Tech crazy unless they were insisting on incorrect data. But doing that's the best way to get him to talk when he's preoccupied."

"I'll test it out!"

Hunter nodded and smiled when she grinned. "Get some rest, soldier."

"Copy that!"Omega bounded off to her room.