The rain pitter-pattered pleasantly on the dusty stones of Ord Mantell. Omega twirled around once before hopping back to walk alongside Echo. Hunter was at the front of the group, Wrecker stumped along directly behind him, oddly silent, and Tech had his nose buried in his datapad again.

Omega kept her datapad in a little bag at her side, and she pulled it out as she walked, curious as to how Tech was able to work and keep his balance at the same time.

The raindrops plinked delicately onto the screen. Omega wiped them away with her fingers. The watertrails left rainbow streaks on the tablet screen, blurring the lighted image into sharp pixelated spots of color. It was beautiful.

She stumbled. Echo caught her arm, then took her datapad.

"You can do that when you're older," he said, and slipped the datapad back into her bag.

Omega skipped once and tapped the toe of her boot into a puddle. Some droplets jumped up and sprinkled the hem of her already wet tunic. "Technically, I'm older than all of you," she said, tapping her boot harder and making a bigger splash.

The water sprayed onto Echo's kama and several drops flew into Omega's eyes. She blinked hard as her vision blurred, and stumbled into Echo.

Echo steadied her again, his smirk audible in his voice. "Like I said, when you're older."

A soft huff that could have been a laugh sounded behind them. Omega wiped the remaining water from her eyes and turned back.

Crosshair was following slowly behind everyone else, walking stiffly, but steadily. Omega hurried back to him, scuffing her boots into a few more pools of water on the way, and spinning again, she fell into step alongside him, unable to stop herself from clapping her hands.

She was so excited that Crosshair was in the group, coming with them to go on a mission! She couldn't believe how well everything was going, considering how Crosshair had refused to leave Kamino with them.

But now, they were all together again, and things would be so much better! Hunter wouldn't be so tired, Wrecker would smile more, Tech would talk more, and Echo wouldn't be so severe.

It might take a few days for everyone to get used to having Crosshair back, and that was another reason Omega was looking forward to the "down time" Hunter had promised the squad. They would actually have those few days without being interrupted by missions or Imperials shooting at them.

Omega stomped another puddle, delighted by the shining droplets that sprayed out in all directions. Crosshair ignored her still. At least he hadn't told her to "go away".

Omega felt safe enough to venture a question.

"Crosshair? Did you ever...play in the rain?"

Crosshair did not reply, and Omega was glad when Tech unglued his eyes from his tablet screen long enough to glance at her over his shoulder.

"Sometimes we did," said Tech. "But such occurrences as 'playing' were very infrequent and often...less than safe."

"Where did you play?" Omega asked.

"On the roof," Wrecker suddenly cut in. "Boy, that was fun! You could see the whole ocean -"

"Merely a portion of it," Tech interjected.

"-and I wish you could'a seen the sun comin' up, Omega! It was great!" Wrecker beamed, completely undeterred by Tech's interruption.

"One time," he went on, grinning as Hunter's shoulders hunched, "it was really fun! We were sneaking around -"

"That was not fun," Tech quipped. "That was a disaster."

"But there were so many weapons! The armory -"

"Was restricted," Hunter interrupted. "Yeah, that was a disaster."

"You boys sure got into trouble a lot," said Echo. "I know I haven't heard the half of it, but even Fives and I didn't get into messes like that!"

"What happened?" Omega asked.

Wrecker winced, then laughed, then winced again. "Uh...I set off one of the stun grenades...?"

"Oh..." Omega stared at the toes of her boots, not wanting to hear anymore. She could well imagine what had occurred after the Bad Batch was caught.

The conversation seemed to be over. They walked along in silence for a minute or two, Omega splashing every puddle she encountered in her path.

They were almost at Cid's. And so far, Crosshair had said nothing.

Omega opened her mouth to speak again, looking up at him this time. Crosshair was scowling darkly.

Omega breathed once and tugged his hand. "Crosshair, I know you didn't like it on Kamino. But, was that sunrise at least pretty?"

Crosshair glanced down at her, and Omega stared up, confused at the sadness in the sniper's eyes.

Instantly, she ducked her head. "I'm sorry, I was just wondering," she whispered. Her confusion grew all the more when Tech turned back again and looked at her curiously.

Crosshair sighed. "Yes, it was," was all he said.