"Wrecker, please! This isn't you, it's the inhibitor chip!"

Omega scrambled across the ground with her left arm, wight arm busy straining with the weight of the blaster she held, one that belonged to the mass of muscle that was now stomping his way towards her, his face usually so open and expressive closed of by the darkness surrounding them and filled with empty rage. Omega's heart jumped into her throat.

"Please! I don't want to hurt you," she begged, hand shaking as she realized that he wasn't stopping, he won't stop. Not until he's finished his mission, and Omega felt her finger start to squeeze the trigger where it was resting despite herself, because she didn't want to hurt him, didn't want to shoot him, but he wouldn't stop-

An aborted gasp escaped her mouth when the blaster was suddenly yanked away from her fingers violently to the hands of its rightful owner, large hands(Echo being grabbed and thrown away like trash, Tech and Hunter's faces turning blue from the air being stolen from their lungs because of the hands at their necks) smoothing over the metal as his arms slowly shifted into position, as if he was savoring the moment-

"But Wrecker," she croaked, throat suddenly dry. "I'm your friend."

Lightning flashed outside the abandoned room, illuminating his face briefly before being shrouded in darkness once again, only the ghostly white of his left eye visible as he stared her down, looming over the small girl like a predator secure in the fact that they had finally caught their prey.

(She'd never realized how big Wrecker actually was)

"Good soldiers follow orders," he rumbled, and Omega's heart ratcheted into a staccato as she curled herself into a tight ball, arms thrown over her head as if it would protect her from the plasma that could burn through flesh, sending a quick apology to Hunter and Tech and Echo and Wrecker and Crosshair, her squad, her family, wondering how they would react to her demise, if they would miss her at all, wondering if they were dead, maybe Wrecker had killed them all, and she didn't stay to check, she instead had ran away like a coward, and now they were gone, they would never save Crosshair, and he would never know what happened to his brothers, whom she had taken away from him, and he would be under the Empire's control forever, and her hear was hammering in her chest, threatening to burst while her lungs were burningburningburning and she was waiting for the pain or for nothingness, why wasn't she dead, she should be dead, maybe she was already dead, but is death really so painful-

She couldn't control the violent flinch that wracked her body at the light touch that rested on her arm, despite how gentle it was, how it didn't hurt at all, fingers barely glancing off her shoulder as a voice shushed her quietly when she whimpered, and she instinctively glanced up from her curled position to see-

Hunter? Her mind asked, but her eyes said no as she zoned in on the white plastoid with blurry eyes where it should have been grey, no hair tumbling down over his shoulders, a clean face where she was used to seeing a half a skull, and those eyes…

Eyes golden like honey, warm and kind, eyes she'd seen so many times, the eyes were the same.

They were safe.

"Hey kid," his voice was soft, so similar, and yet so different, as he slowly flattened his hand against her arm so he could curl it around her shoulder, gently tugging her out of her crouched position, before guiding her hand to his chest, all his movements carefully telegraphed as if she were a spooked tooka with an injured leg. "You're gonna pass out if you keep that up. Breathe with me."

He took an exaggerated breathe so big she could feel his chest move through the plastoid, and suddenly she realized that while her heart no longer wanted to climb out of her throat, her lungs still burned so when he took another deep breath, she did her best to follow, forcing air into her lungs until they got the memo and started working by themselves, causing her to cough and wheeze, until she'd calmed down enough to be able to breathe normally again.

Once she'd gathered her wits, she straightened against Rex(because that was who it was, and she felt embarrassed for not remembering who he was) who had at some point wrapped his other arm around her, and found herself glancing around the room, eyes immediately drawn to the grey armor that was huddled on the ground, and any measure of calm she had achieved immediately melted away as panic started to envelope her once more as she caught the lax expression on his face, so peaceful expression so different from the twisted features he had, eyes closed, eyes that had been open and bright, open and dark-

"Omega," the arm around her squeezed slightly and she was sharply reminded of Rex's presence again. "Can you tell name five things you can see?"

"Wrecker," she gasped out, lungs turning into lead again. "W-Wrecker, Wrecker's hurt! I-I need to-"

"You need to calm down." Rex calmly cut in, hands firmly pushing her back down from where she had started to rise. "Now, fives things you can see."

Omega sucked in a hiccupping breathe and wrung her hands together. "I-I can see Wrecker. Wrecker on the ground, he-he's hurt."

"He's fine, just stunned. Now tell me four more things you can see. It'll help, I promise."

Swallowing hard, Omega forced her eyes away from her friend. "Y-your blaster. Pointed at him." The arm that had wrapped around her shoulders held the blaster keeping her upright and keeping a steady hand to fire if needed while his other arm hovered at her front, ready to stabilize her if needed. She cleared her throat. "The door, on the ground."

She continued on with two more things she saw, before Rex made her recite four things she could touch, three things she could hear and two things she could smell. By the time she got to one thing she could taste, she felt calm enough to look back at Wreckers still form without hyperventilating all over again.

"Feeling better?" Rex asked as he rubbed her back, following the line of her spine.

She took in a shaky breath. "Y-Yeah, I'm better." She sniffed and after she wiped away the tears she hadn't known had been falling and glanced up at the captain. "T-thanks Rex."

"Your welcome 'So- ehh k-kid. Omega." Rex fumbled slightly, but she didn't notice, focusing once more on the fallen bad batcher. She took another breathe and determinedly started to crawl away from Rex's protection towards Wrecker's fallen form.

When she reached him, she carefully reached out and cupped his slack face, feeling slightly worried at the frow of his brow, nose twisted slightly in pain. She let out a breathe as she remembered the same face glowering at her from above, seemingly the last face she would ever see before she would be gunned down.

This time, she didn't jump when Rex put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head to look at him, seeing the worried look on his face, the same face she sometimes saw in Hunter focused on her even as he kept his blaster pointed at Wrecker. She felt her chin tremble. He tried for a reassuring smile.

"He's only stunned," he reminded her. "Alright? We're gonna keep him under, get the chip out, and then he'll be ok."

She looked away and focused on Wreckers face again.

"… You were right," she whimpered. His smile faded. "T-the chips… are more dangerous inside…" Her voice caught a little.

Rex sighed. "… I wish I wasn't."

Omega choked, and feeling overwhelmed, threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his torso as best as she could, and shoved her face into the hard plastoid, not caring at how uncomfortable it was in her misery. Distracted by her emotions, she didn't notice how hard Rex tensed, arms awkwardly raised in the air, before bringing the arm not holding the blaster around her shoulder to squeeze her against him.

She'd never been so scared before. She'd been in many scary situations before, this week alone, facing down a nexu and a moon dragon, almost being kidnapped by a lady and falling from great heights twice within the span of five minutes, the zygerrians, almost being melted alive; so many terrifying incidents within the span of a few weeks compared to how long she'd been living, and every single time leaving behind nightmares she'd never had to deal with before leaving Kamino. And yet, she's never reacted so harshly before, breaking down to the point where she didn't even realize she'd stopped breathing.

"Oh, thank the force, are you guys alright? Is she hurt?"

"Nah she's ok. Just, a bit overwhelmed."

Maybe it's because of the atmosphere, the dark shadows caused by the jagged edges of the broken ship, casting shadows to trick the eye into seeing creatures that don't really exist. Maybe it's because of the accumulation of bad things happening, where things have gone wrong so frequently so quickly that she has reached a breaking point, like some of the cases Nala Se had reviewed, of troopers that had 'snapped' and broken down to where they wouldn't be fit for battle anymore or, in more severe cases, would literally jump to their deaths because they would prefer finishing it all then live with pain any longer. Or maybe it's because this reminded her of Crosshair, of how he hadn't hesitated to shoot at them because of the chip stuck in his head.

"Osik, osik, osik, ugh this is a mess. You were right, we should've dealt with this earlier."

"Yes, you should have. But we're here now, and we're dealing with it. Better late than never."

Or maybe because it was Wrecker. Wrecker who had been the first to tell her 'Good job'. Wrecker who had given her his most prized possession, Lula, just because he wanted her to have a toy. Wrecker, who had disabled a gonk droid for her, calmed her during their first crash landing, given her her own room, saved from Fennec, and played with her and Muchi when they were going back to Ord Mantell from Zygerria. And who she had been sharing popcorn with just a few days ago after another successful mission as they joked around and teased each other.

Wrecker who hadn't listened to her plea's as he tried to kill her. Because of the chip. The chip that she knew about and didn't say anything about. Because she didn't think she had to. Because she believed it wouldn't be a problem, because they were different from the other clones.

"But it's even better to nip it before it becomes a problem."

"That's true, how are the others?"

Omega felt herself finally start to calm down despite the horrible thoughts that continued to plague her mind, sobs quieting into hiccups and shuddering breaths as she leaned heavier against blue striped plastoid and closed her eyes, right before reopening them as a hand touched the back of head as someone called her name. she twisted around in Rex's arms, to find herself staring at an unnaturally pale face who grinned down softly at her.

"There you are," Echo chuckled slightly. "You feeling better kid?"

Omega blinked at him and started nodding a split second before realizing that it was Echo and proceeded to launch herself out of Rex's hold into Echo's body. He gave a slight grunt as she collided, and his armor wasn't that much more comfortable then Rex's, but she didn't care, because-

"You're okay!" she cried gleefully. Paused, leaned back slightly to look at his face. "You.. ARE okay, right?"

Echo chuckled as his hand wen to his head automatically where an angry red bruise had started to appear to rub it. "Yeah kid, I'm okay. I'm a little banged up, but it's nothing bacta can't handle."

Omega sighed in relief and snugged close to him again as his flesh hand smoothed down her hair again. But the hug was short lived as Echo slowly pulled back. "Come on now Omega, we have to go."

Omega frowned at that. "Go? Go where?"

"Back to the med bay. I need to check on Hunter and Tech again and get some sedatives for this big lug over here, while you watch over them. You also need a glass of water for all that… uh… excitement."

Another coil of tension in her somehow released and tensed at the same time at the mentions of Hunter and Tech. If Echo checked on them before, it meant they were still alive, but not well enough to walk all the way over here. "How hurt are they."

A pause. "…I'm not sure yet. They haven't woken up."

Oh. Well that pretty bad.

"Well, I'm not surprised," Rex reminded her of his presence again. "Asphyxiation is not fun, it would take a while for me to get my wits in order whenever we would run into some pretty nasty force users. I seemed to always be their favorite to practice their sithy powers on." He gave her a wry smile. "Go on kid, their gonna wanne see that you're okay."

Omega blinked and felt her brows furrowing, hesitating as she once again glanced at Wrecker. Looked back at Rex. "But… what about you?"

"What about me?"

"What… what if he wakes up?"

"Then I'll stun him again," he cocked his head slightly at the gun that was still trained on Wrecker. "I was a little too slow on the draw last time, but this time he'll be too disoriented to dodge this time."

Echo muttered something like 'you were too slow to draw' while Omega fidgeted and gave another glance at Wrecker. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," he chuckled. "Don't worry kid, I've dealt with worse. I'll be fine."

Omega let out a breathe. "Okay. If you say so." She made to get to her feet.

Only to have her legs buckle and almost sent her crashing back to the ground if Echo hadn't been there to catch her as she felt her legs shake, feeling like lead trying to weigh her down.

"Woah," Echo said. "Easy there, it's okay, you're okay, you're just running out of adrenaline." Omega sighed and tried to calm her pounding heart as she remembered the other times this has happened in the various situation she'd been in danger. It happened so frequently now that she was actually getting annoyed at it. She didn't have to complain for long though because Echo brought his prosthetic arm under her bottom and lifter her up letting his flesh hand stabilize her against his chest, and after a knowing nod to Rex, slinked out of the dreadful room, leaving him alone with Wrecker.

Omega let out another breathe and leaned against Echo as she tried to stop her hands from shaking by digging her fingers into the edges of his cuirass, staring at the bruise on his temple that had started growing slightly bigger.

"I'm sorry Echo," she sighed out.

Echo was confused. "What? Why?"

She shrugged. "Because of all of this. What's happening. I knew about the chips, I knew how they worked, but I didn't tell you anything about them because I felt like I didn't need to. I feel like if I had told you more, we could have removed the chips sooner, and none of this would ha-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there kid," Echo said firmly. "I don't want you starting to get ridiculous ideas like that alright? This isn't your fault alright. You might not have told us everything, but it was enough to prove that they were not good and we still us who decided not to take care of this right away. Even if you made a mistake, you can't let it bring you down. You have to pick yourself up, fix that mistake and then do better next time. Besides, you're not the one who put these things in our heads. That on the long-necks. There's no one else to truly blame but them. So don't go turning into our dear Captain Rex here and start blaming everything that's wrong with the universe on yourself.

Omega relaxed into Echo's arms again. "…Ok. But only as long as you don't blame yourself either."

Echo huffed. "Deal."

By that point they had reached the debris that surrounded the medbay and Echo quickly ducked in, immediately going to the corner where some soft blankets were hastily strewn on the ground as if whoever put it there was in a hurry, and on it lay Hunter and Tech, still unconscious to the world. Echo hummed unhappily and carefully put Omega down next to Hunter before pulling the neck of the sergeant's blacks down enough so he could take his pulse, before quickly doing the same with Tech. As he did that, Omega studied Hunter's face, and winced at the bruising around his neck, feeling something in her ease at seeing him alright.

She blinked when a bottle of water was shoved into her still trembling hands and Echo squatted down next to her and put a medpack next to him. "Alright, drink a little of that, and then just stay here and rest up, and keep an eye out for when they wake up got it? And I mean it this time Omega; Don't. Go. Anywhere."

Omega grinned sheepishly around a sip of water, and Echo huffed in response to that and ruffled her hair slightly before grabbing the medpack and started jogging back to the room holding his captain and Wrecker.

Omega sighed slightly and brought her gaze back down to Hunter and Tech's faces as she continued sipping at her water, watching their eyes carefully and willing them to wake up, because seeing them so still after such a violent attack was unnerving.

As if some divine being had heard her wish, Tech let out a pained groan as his hands went to his neck on reflex. Omega gasped in delight and quickly shifted so she was at their heads instead of only on Hunter's end. "Tech!"

Tech jolted slightly at that and tilted his head so he could see her. "Ah, Omega," he cleared his throat, voice slightly gravelly due to being choked. "I'm- glad to see that you are well. What- what is it that has happened, the last thing I remember was scanning Wrecker, and then…" he trailed off lightly as his face froze and his eyes widened.

Omega bit her lip. "Wrecker, Wrecker's chip got activated," she said with a wince.

"…Oh. Oh, I see," Tech's tried to keep his face carefully blank, but a slight furrow of his brow was giving him away. "That- that is unfortunate timing." He cleared his throat again. "Or perhaps, it is fortunate timing, as we were already on route to take out the chips, and if we hadn't we would have faced him unknowing as to why our comrade had started assaulting us, although I suppose it doesn't really sound fortunate if we were already on the cusp of removing his inhibitor chip, which I suppose, then it would be unfortunate timing, as we hit such a snag right as we were on the verge of removing the problem-"

"Tech," Tech's mouth snapped shut. "Are, are you okay?"

Tech blinked slightly at the question. "Why, yes Omega I am quite alright." He slowly brought his arms below him so he could push himself up. "Where, ah, where is Wrecker at this moment?"

"In a room several halls down. Rex managed to stun him, and he and Echo are sedating him and bringing him back here now."

"Ah, I see," he gave her a once over, gaze lingering on her still shaky hands. "And yourself?"

"Oh me?" she winced at the slight crack in her voice. "I'm fine, I just, had a close call is all. But!" she caught Tech's face closing off. "But I'm okay! Really, like I said, Rex stunned Wrecker before anything could happen."

Tech's face remained unreadable. "… Before Wrecker could… I see." He adjusted his goggles. "I am. Grateful to the captain then. I should be grateful to him for a lot of things it seems. Like warning us about my- our negligence to deal with such a dangerous threat, no matter how unimportant it might seem."

Omega blinked. This sounded awfully familiar for some reason. "Tech, are you… are you sure you're okay?"

Tech's face twitched. "As I said, I am quite alright."

"Are you sure? Cause you sound kind of…" Omega trailed off. "Tech, you don't blame yourself for this, do you?"

Tech stared at her for a bit, before looking away.

"Cause it's not your fault Wrecker's chip activated."

"Perhaps not, but it is my fault that it got so far along to activate in the first place. Wrecker had been complaining about headaches for so long, and he hadn't been having those from before order- well, the order, and I with all my infinite knowledge, didn't put two and two together." He brought his hand to rub his face. "I was so secure in thinking we were immune, just because we were different, and I boasted about our ability to ignore bowing to such a tiny device, even though Crosshair proved that wrong, and even then I waved him away as some type of anomaly within our group. So, no Omega, it's not my fault the chip activated, but in other ways it most certainly is."

Omega stayed quiet for a moment as she studied the older clone, never having seen him get so heated before, but after a few moments of tense silence, she reached over and grabbed his hand. "Okay, so maybe it is your fault. In some ways. But you could say the same for me. I knew about the chips the whole time and what they could do, and yet I didn't tell you the whole truth when it would have been very useful, but I didn't. So, in some ways, I'm as guilty as you." Tech looked slightly put off by that, as if he couldn't imagine her being guilty of anything. "But, that doesn't mean I'm going to just sit down and feel sorry for myself because I made a mistake, but I'm going to stand up, help Wrecker get his chip out, and then do better next time."

Tech blinked slowly at her in wonder, as if he couldn't puzzle her out. She couldn't stop herself from grinning. "At least, that's what Echo said." It was like magic. The awed expression he had on his face immediately disappeared as he rolled his eyes with an 'of course' muttered under his breathe. He sighed.

"Well, I suppose when you put it like that…" Omega giggled slightly and reached over to hug him as he huffed, tension easing from his muscles.

Of course, this was the moment that Hunter decided to jerk up into a sitting position. "Wrecker," he yelped out, voice rougher than usual, and winced as he went to rub at his sore throat.

"Hunter!" Omega squealed with delight as she delved to give him his hug. Hunter instinctively caught her and pulled her away from him too soon to give her a once over, most probably checking for injuries. Once he was satisfied at the lack of blood, he pulled her back in with a 'thank the force.'

But he once again pulled back with a scowl on his face. "What the heck were you thinking kid? You can't just- shoot at a soldier like that unless you wanna get shot! Especially if it's a hostile!"

"What? What do you mean? Who did she-" Tech stiffened. "She shot at Wrecker? Omega why did you shoot at Wrecker?"

"I'm assuming to lure him away," Hunter exclaimed after clearing his throat. "Kid that was by far the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do. Something bad might have happened! What if you'd gotten hurt?"

"Well, I wasn't," Omega stated as she crossed her arms. "But you were. You were getting very hurt. Wrecker would've killed you and we all know it. And you told me that you weren't going anywhere. I'm not letting you break your promise so soon after making it."

Hunter gaped at her slightly before shaking himself as he gave an exasperated sigh. "Kid, every time you pull a stunt like this, I'm more likely to get a heart attack. You gotta realize that you're part of the problem!"

"Am not," Omega huffed. "Besides, you're not old enough to have a heart attack, even with your accelerated aging."

Hunter snorted but relaxed slightly. "Age means nothing to stress, kid." He gathered her into his arms again. "Cheeky brat. Tech, how you doing? You worried us when he… you know."

Tech adjusted his goggles again. "Oh I'm alright as can be. Doing much better now actually. Glad to see you well sarge."

Hunter chuckled and it was at that point they heard the sound of grunts and curses reach their ears as plastoid scraped against metal. Hunter quickly moved to get up and despite Omega's protests, marched right out of the medbay. Omega and Tech sat there and heard Hunter's offers to help immediately get shot down as both Echo and the captain hounded him to 'go sit down! You look like your about to fall over force sake!' Hunter came back sulking with Rex and Echo right behind him as they hauled Wrecker into the medbay, dashing all of Omega's worries for them. Rex turned and grinned at her seeing her Tech and Hunter being better, already brightening his mood.

"See kid?" he said. "Told you I'd be okay. You seem to be doing better also."

Omega blinked up at him before staring down at her hands, realizing that at some point her shaking had stopped. She smiled back at him. "Yeah, I guess so."

Half an hour later, they had finally been able to locate the chip and continue with the procedure as they should've in the first place. Finally, Wrecker would be okay.

At least he should be, and he would be if he would only wake up.

"Maybe you and Omega should go topside," she heard Rex murmur to Hunter. "Get some air."

"No," she said firmly, as she arranged a chair and sat down, folding his large hands into her small ones. "I am staying until he wakes up." She wasn't going to leave him to wake up when she would not be here, to make him think, even for a moment, that he had succeeded in killing her, because she honestly didn't think he would be able to take it. No, she had to be here. She had to be here to assure him, to tell him it wasn't his fault at all, in any way shape or form, that she might be having nightmares about this later on, but that didn't mean she was afraid of him, because she wasn't. That hulking giant that had followed her around the ship wasn't Wrecker, but a monster that used his body, and she had to make sure he understood that.

Time passed, the natural light from Bracca slowly dimmed until the artificial lights from the medbay were the only lights lighting the entire ship. Snippets of conversation passed over her head as she put all her focus on Wrecker. She though she heard Rex and Echo talk about someone named Fives and Tup. Echo mentioned something about the occipital lobe. Hunter asked about other commanders throughout the GAR. Soon though, any talk petered out as silence enveloped them like a blanket and Omega felt herself sink into it's comfort, eyes barely able to keep open, let alone focus on her friends face.

More time passed. There was a big but gentle touch to her hair.

"H-hey kid." A voice so rough yet so gentle, so similar yet so different. "Why the long face?"

Omega felt the world of sleep leave her as she jolted awake and found herself staring into honey-warm eyes.