A/N: Okay, guys, I'm back... again. I ended up writing a LOT during break, so I'll probably end up posting a few new stories after this, too. Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter!
"Come on, Hera! Let me help!" Sabine begged for the third time in the past ten minutes.
Hera sighed, "alright, but be careful."
Grinning ear to ear, Sabine gave Hera a loose, two-fingered salute. "Aren't I always?" Then, she jogged out of the ship's open hatch.
The cave that they had found was massive. The opening was just large enough to fit the Ghost, but it extended upwards a hundred feet. She heard footsteps and turned to see Zeb coming around the side of the ship with a large crate.
"What're you doing out? I thought you were supposed to be resting," he pointed out.
Sabine grinned. "I annoyed Hera until she let me out." Looking out of the cave, she scanned the forest curiously. "Where are Kanan and Ezra?"
With a shrug, Zeb gestured out of the cave saying, "Somewhere out there 'making signals,' or something. Said they'd be back in an hour."
"Huh."
Kanan had explained to the rest of the crew that Hunter's skills weren't exactly tracking, in its regular sense, although he could do that pretty well, too. He sensed electromagnetic pulses and could track most technology from anywhere on a planet. All they had to do was use a machine, even a small one, and they already had a blaring signal that the Empire couldn't see.
Sabine helped Zeb push the last of the supplies back into the Ghost, then strode to the entrance of the cave. The sun was slowly making its way across the sky, and a cool, autumn breeze ruffled her hair for the first time in a few days. After spending days stuck inside the ship, it was a relief to finally get a breath of fresh air, even under their current circumstances. Honestly, Sabine was rather pleased that they were stuck on planet that wasn't trying to kill them for once.
For the rest of the hour, Sabine helped Zeb with repairs on the Ghost, occasionally lingering at the mouth of the cave as she watched for Ezra and Kanan's return. Hera was right. The damage was severe, but not unrepairable. Unless they got lucky, which Sabine thought was highly unlikely considering their track record, it would be a while until the Ghost could leave the planet. Still, they might have to count on luck. With the Empire searching every nook and cranny of the entire moon, it was only a matter of time before someone found them.
A familiar shout interrupted Sabine's musing, just a moment before Ezra pushed through the bushes.
"Sabine!" he exclaimed as the shadow of the cave slipped over him and Kanan, "Hera finally let you out?"
She grinned, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "Yep," she said, and cocked her head curiously, "what were you two doing, exactly?"
"'Making signals' with that old power generator, I guess," Ezra replied, making quotation marks with his fingers, and gesturing to the rusty, battered power generator Kanan was carrying. "Whatever that means."
As he passed the two of them, Kanan breathed an exasperated sigh, "I already told you what it means, you just weren't listening."
"And that's unusual how?" Sabine asked with a sarcastic roll of her eyes and a mischievous grin. Ezra sent her a glare. Internally, Sabine chuckled. In the year that she had known him, one thing hadn't changed, and that was how his glare was about as scary as a wet Loth kitten.
The three of them were just turning around when Ezra paused, looking around as if someone had called his name. Sabine and Kanan halted, and Sabine's eyebrows knit together.
"Ezra…?" Kanan said cautiously.
"What is it?" Sabine asked. Without meaning to, her voice had gone down to almost a whisper.
"I… I sensed something… watching us," Ezra answered uneasily, still gazing around the cave and at the entrance. For a moment, Sabine, Ezra, and Kanan stood anxiously, almost instinctively drawing closer to each other, back-to-back. Suddenly, the cave that had been their safe haven had become dark and dangerous, and the wind whistling quietly through the mysterious holes in the walls a threat.
"Hey, you're back!"
The group nearly jumped three feet in the air as Zeb rounded the side of the Ghost. Sabine let out a sigh of relief and cursed under her breath. Whatever Ezra had sensed seemed to be gone, because he stared into the woods only a moment longer before shaking his head and turning around.
"What's going on?" Zeb asked, staring at them in confusion.
"There was something out there," Ezra said uneasily, glancing over his shoulder again. He shook his head, as if trying to scare off an annoying insect. "At least… I thought there was something out there."
"I didn't notice anything," Kanan said, although they all knew that Ezra sometimes caught things that Kanan didn't. Zeb also seemed to realize this, because he inspected the edge of the forest for a moment, before repressing a shiver.
"Let's just get inside."
Sabine nodded fervently and the group hurried inside.
Hunter sighed and dragged his free hand down his face for the sixth time in the last hour.
"We don't have time for this."
"But Crosshair touched me!" Wrecker wailed, pointing a finger accusingly at the sniper, who sent him a murderous glare and shot back,
"You touched me first."
"Just don't touch each other, then," Hunter suggested. Wrecker and Crosshair were silent for a total of three seconds before they both burst into argument again.
With a sigh, Hunter stopped himself from dragging his hand down his face again. Sometimes, his squad had the maturity of a bunch of two-year-old cadets. At least Tech hasn't gotten involved in this, he thought, knowing it would only take one incorrectly cited fact to drag his younger brother into the mix. Usually, he didn't have to worry about Echo, who seemed almost as weary as him of the other's antics.
Clearly hoping to distance himself from the chaos erupting behind them, Echo strode up next to Hunter and asked,
"How far, do you think we have to go? Tech's limp is getting worse, but he keeps telling me it's nothing."
The sound of armor whacking armor from behind them. This time, neither of them dared look back.
"That, and I'm not sure how much longer I can restrain myself."
Hunter looked at Echo quizzically. "Restrain yourself from what?"
"Murder."
Yeah, Echo definitely had a point, Hunter thought as Wrecker and Crosshair continued to bellow at each other. At this rate, he'd have a headache for days… It remined him painfully of Omega. That is, he familiarity of it all, not the headaches. (Though she had given him plenty of those, too.)
They hadn't seen each other in years, or even spoken, excluding the rare message or two. Her absence had left a hole in all of their lives. At least before he'd had the reassurance that someday this would all be over, and they could see each other again. Now, he didn't even have that.
Someone was going to regret ever having messed with them.
Snap. Hunter paused at the faint snapping of a twig deeper in the forest. He came to an abrupt halt, Echo right beside him. It took the others a moment longer to notice between their bickering and come to a stop as well. According to Tech, there wasn't any wildlife here that could be of any threat to them or be large or clumsy enough to make such a mistake. That, and Wrecker scared away every creature with any sense of self-preservation in a five-mile radius.
No, there was something else out there.
As he continued to listen intently, Hunter saw something flash behind a nearby bush. He scanned the forest cautiously, his free hand instinctively going down to his blaster.
Echo stared into the forest and whispered, "what—?"
Figures appeared from every direction, and the Bad Batch whipped out their weapons, instantly moving into a defensive position. Training his blaster on the nearest figure, it took Hunter a moment to register that these people weren't stormtroopers, but wore plain, tattered garments, and brandished outdated weapons. Among them, Hunter recognized some of the faces as those he had seen before in the village. But that didn't really change anything, because they still had dozens of blasters trained on them from all directions.
"Put down your weapons!" shouted someone from the circle of townspeople before striding coolly into the clearing. The villager, a green-skinned Twi'lek with an ugly burn scar disfiguring the lower half of his face, didn't lower his blaster even for a second. Awfully professional for someone who has never had so defend himself, Hunter noticed suspiciously. Maybe he fought in the war?
"Alright, alright," Hunter said in a placating tone, laying his weapon on the ground carefully. The rest of the squad followed a moment later. "We're not with the Empire."
The Twi'lek, who Hunter assumed to be a leader of some sort, replied evenly, "we know."
Hunter stood for a moment, unsure of what step to take next. It certainly made sense that the villagers would hate them. They were the reason that the Empire was here, the reason that their homes were a smoking pile of rubble. Kriff, he felt the same way about the Empire. But he knew from experience, angry soldiers were very different from a swarm of angry townspeople. Civilians often couldn't be reasoned with.
Injured the way they were, it was unlikely that they could fight off the townspeople if they decided to kill them, and he didn't need Tech to run the numbers. Hunter was painfully aware that their lives lay in the leadership skills of this stranger.
Looking around the clearing at the dozens of people pushing their way out of the bushes and into the clearing, he hoped fervently that it would be good enough to stave off the angry mob.
"Why are you here?" the Twi'lek demanded, crossing his arms and straightening so that he was several inches taller than Hunter.
"We were meeting with some friends," Hunter said, planning each word like a step in a minefield. "Do you know where they are?"
A ripple of laughter went through the crowd, and the Twi'lek raised an eyebrow. "Of course, we do. One of my scouts found them hiding in a cave a little way from here. This is our territory. Did you think we wouldn't notice a bunch of foreigners crashing through our forest?"
Hunter noted the hostility creeping into the leader's voice and decided to tread more carefully. This guy seemed reasonable enough. Maybe if he understood the whole situation, he would help them find the others.
"We need to find them. The Empire's building a weapon and the others have the plans for it. We just need to stop them before they hurt anyone else."
The Twi'lek's eyes narrowed, and Hunter's stomach fell. Had he gone too far in assuming that they'd help them at all? Again, he ran the statistics. Five of them, most injured, against two dozen healthy villagers? It wasn't their best odds, but they still had a slim chance of making it out of there if it did come to fighting.
"Fine."
Hunter stared in shock at the Twi'lek, who stared back unblinkingly. His face showed no sign of pity, only calm calculation as he looked over Hunter and his squad again.
"We'll lead you to your friends, on one condition," he continued. "You make sure the Empire leaves us alone and help us rebuild the town when you're done."
"Thank you," hunter said, and the Twi'lek wrinkled his nose.
"Don't thank me. We don't owe you anything, not after everything you've caused. We're doing for the sake of the galaxy."
"We understand," Hunter said with a solemn nod.
"Good."
The Twi'lek made a gesture with his hand, and the circle of people lowered their weapons, albeit with some reluctance.
"For the sake of formalities, my name is Bek, and I'm the acting leader of this mess."
"Hunter," he replied, extending his hand in hopes of an indication of trust. Bek took it and, maintaining cool, relaxed eye contact, squeezed the life out of Hunter's left hand.
As soon as he released it, walking away to speak to one of the other villagers, Hunter let out a sigh of relief and flexed his hand to get the circulation going again. Echo made careful eye contact with him, as if to ask are you sure about this?
And to be perfectly honest, no, he wasn't. But this was their only chance at staying on the townspeople's good side. The last thing they needed was to be hunted down by two hostile parties. So, he nodded.
"Alright," announced Bek, grabbing the attention of all those in the clearing, "we're going to lead these folks to their friends, and let them finish their business."
Displeased grumbles rippled through the crowd, but Bek put up a hand for silence, "then, assuming they've lasted that long, they'll all return to help us rebuild our town."
The people in the crowd nodded to each other in agreement, although some of them still watched the Bad Batch with narrowed eyes.
This will be interesting, Hunter thought as they began their trek through the forest again.
A/N: I'll continue trying to post a chapter a week, but I'm also working on other projects at the same time, so I might get a little distracted. As always, thanks for the support! Whenever I lose motivation, I think of you guys and don't want to leave you waiting. (At least, not for too long. lol)