Chapter 1 - Escape
Plot: Captured by the Empire, Omega's only hope of escape, and survival, lies in her estranged brother. She hasn't seen Crosshair since they parted ways on Kamino, and she doesn't know how he'll feel about her coming to him for help. But she has to try. She has to trust him to help her, even if it won't be easy.
Author's Note: This is the second fic I wrote with the Bad Batch. This idea just occurred to me, and really, how could I possible resist the desire to write soft, fluffy bonding with Crosshair and Omega? Lol.
This is canon compliant until a couple months after season 1 when things diverge. Enjoy! :)
Ngl, writing Omega is pretty easy, but I had such a hard time with Crosshair. Lol. He's a very complicated character. I'm not sure if I believe his inhibitor chip was really removed or not, but for the sake of this story, it was. I think it would be interesting to explore his reasons for wanting to stay with the Empire even with his chip truly gone, and while this fic doesn't get into that too much, I'm thinking about dealing with that in later installments in this probably-going-to-be-a-series. Lol.
This is a gift fic for ameliasstories on ao3 for the SW Sibling Appreciation Gift Exchange! :D There are six chapters, and I'll be posting weekly on Thursday (including this week. :)
~ Amina Gila
Omega pants weakly, leaning against the wall and pressing a hand to her right thigh as if that will be enough to stop the throbbing. She's covered with an assortment of still unhealed bruises from her latest escape attempt, not to mention the myriad of cuts and incisions, most of which were never properly bandaged. By some miracle, she'd managed to befriend a medical droid and convinced it to find out where Crosshair is – because for some inexplicable reason, she had a feeling that he's here on this Star Destroyer, though she had been captured and brought here by a bounty hunter.
The droid complied with her requests, and finally directed her to the quarters where she's hoping Crosshair is staying. If he doesn't help her, it will all be over.
It's been a couple weeks, at least, since she was captured, and she's been subjected to more medical tests than she cares to remember. At some point, she's become used to the pain, learned to tune it out and shut it down when it becomes too much for her. The Empire didn't care that she was a child, didn't care that she was in pain. All they wanted was answers to the "secrets" she supposedly possesses within her.
Because she is... lucky. Apparently. She is the first – and only – Force-sensitive clone to be created, and the Empire wants to find a way to replicate that. But now, they're done with her, and if Crosshair doesn't help her, it will all be over.
It's been a few months since she last saw him on Kamino, when he chose to stay behind with the Empire instead of leaving with them. It hurt. It hurt because they thought he was under the control of his chip. He wasn't. He said he wasn't, and Omega doesn't know what that will mean. She doesn't know if he'll even care about her enough to help. But she has to try. She has to trust that he'll help her when she needs him.
Her feelings towards him are... mixed, to say the least.
"I wanted to believe it was the inhibitor chip that made you like this... But I was wrong."
Crosshair was nothing like she thought he would be. He was... bitter, argumentative, even cruel, when she saw him on Kamino. Hunter and the others said that he could be difficult, but it was nothing like that. She had thought that his attitude was just because of the chip, and she just – she doesn't know how she feels about him. She's never really known him, not like the others, but she still cares about him. She still stubbornly clings to the hope that he'll come back to them someday, a hope that none of the others seem willing to hold.
In the end, nothing really changed at all, after Kamino, but it feels like everything did. Hunter is quieter, more withdrawn, more hesitant, more... depressed. Tech still disappears, sometimes for hours, when the topic of Crosshair comes up. Wrecker alternates between being miserable and being angry, though it's usually the former. Echo is struggling with a deep guilt, a firm, unwavering conviction that it's their fault Crosshair is gone, that they should have done more to help him. He buries it well with an anger that he's never unleashed against them, but they all know it's there.
"I would have thought," he said bitterly once, when Hunter tried to tell him that it's not his fault, "That we would have learned not to leave our own behind. Look what happened to me."
It was the last time anyone tried to talk to him about it.
They're still together, but it feels like they're simultaneously drifting apart, and Omega hates it. She doesn't want what's left of the team to lose each other. She wants her brothers back together. She wants them to be happy.
Unfortunately, it seems that they've all forgotten what that means, as if they've forgotten how to recover from their wounds and move on. It's not easy. If Crosshair was dead... it would be easier. But he's with the Empire, working against them. His loss is a jagged wound, raw and festering, and it's not one that can heal. They lost a part of themselves when they lost him, when they realized that there was no way for them to get him back... unless he chose to walk away.
And here she is now, standing outside his quarters, trying to work up the courage to knock. She's terrified, which is stupid, because he is far from the greatest threat. ... Probably. But somehow, Omega can't imagine Crosshair hurting her, killing her.
Taking a fortifying breath, she raises a hand and taps on the door, trying not to draw too much attention to herself.
The door slides open after a few moments, and her breath hitches involuntarily when she sees him in front her. Crosshair. Her brother. Visible shock flickers across his face when he sees her standing there, leaning against the doorframe, trying to take the pressure off her right leg. He reaches out, grabbing her arm and jerking her into his quarters.
The door slides shut behind her, and she lets out a quiet, stifled gasp as her injuries are jarred painfully. Crosshair stares at her for another moment, as if he can't quite grasp that she's here. He doesn't let go of her arm, doesn't even seem to realize that he's still holding onto her, as he stares.
"What are you doing here?" he finally growls, dropping her arm, glaring.
"I need your help," she says, fidgeting. Her voice wavers a little despite herself. "I was captured. They ran some... tests on me, and I heard them saying that they didn't need me anymore. They're planning to terminate me."
If Crosshair doesn't help her, it will be over. She tries not to think about how Hunter and Wrecker and Tech and Echo will feel about that, if they learn she's dead before they got to her.
He crosses his arms, looking down at her with something akin to disbelief. "And you want me to do what, exactly, about that?"
"I can't escape on my own," Omega replies. "I already tried." And nearly got a broken rib to show for it. Her left side is still sore and bruised, but she doesn't think anything is broken.
"Helping you is treason." His words are hard, blunt, but he makes no move to sound an alarm.
"They're going to kill me," she protests, her voice.
Something dark flickers through his brown eyes. "If they had protected you better, that wouldn't be a problem," he sneers. He doesn't need to say who the 'they' is. It's obvious.
"It's not their fault," she begins instinctively, even as she knows that they do not have time for this. "They –"
"I don't care," Crosshair interrupts sharply. "If Hunter had listened to me, you'd be safe now."
The words send a sharp pang through her, as she thinks back, briefly, to how they've been on the verge of falling apart ever since Kamino. A part of them has been ripped away, and somehow... everything feels empty. Dead.
She could argue with him, but it changes nothing. "Will you help me?" she asks, because if he doesn't... well, she try to make it on her own again, even if she fails. She will go down fighting, if she must.
Crosshair's glare is so fierce that it nearly makes her take a step back, but she holds her ground, even if she's half-afraid that he'll deny her, brother or not. He doesn't answer, spinning around and stalking across his cabin, picking up his helmet and pulling it over his head, lifting his rifle into his arms. "How much time do we have?" he bites out.
"They'll probably notice I'm gone any minute," she answers, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with sheer relief, "But it could be longer."
Omega shouldn't have doubted, she realizes, because he has saved her life already, when they were on Kamino. He helped all of them escape then, and they had helped him. While she doesn't know what the Empire knows of their survival, they have heard nothing that indicates there's a hunt for them, until the bounty hunter came after her, which may mean that Crosshair did not report they escaped. If – he protected them, then, didn't he?
Crosshair opens the door, glancing both ways down the hall. "Can you run?"
"Not well," she admits.
"If I get you to a ship, can you use it?"
"Tech has been teaching me, but he won't let me fly until I know all the specs." Her expression scrunches. "You aren't coming?"
"No."
There's so much fury in that one word that it makes her hurt. The more Omega has seen of Crosshair, the more she realizes that he is naturally cold and prickly, that he hides his emotions under a mask. He's in pain, and he's hiding it with anger.
"We can take the ventilation system," Crosshair says, swinging his rifle over his shoulder. "Come."
He steps out into the hall without looking back at her, and she scurries to keep up with his long strides, limping slightly as she walks next to him. Now that she's out in the open, she's terrified that someone will see them before they can make it to safety, even if it is currently in the night-cycle, meaning less people are around. As it was, she was lucky to evade all of the patrols on the way here.
Crosshair stops suddenly, shoving her back against the wall and covering her with his body to hide her from sight as a patrol passes at the end of the corridor. They don't look over, but Omega doesn't breathe again until they're gone.
"Thank you," she whispers.
He whips around, and if she could see his face, she thinks he'd be glaring again. "Don't thank me yet," he snaps, quietly. "You're still here."
Omega presses her lips together and doesn't respond. She's not only thanking him for covering her. She's thanking him for being willing to help her, even at risk to himself. She's thanking him for still being her brother, despite everything. Maybe she's not even marginally as comfortable around him as she is the others, but that's only because she doesn't know him, and because he's a part of the Empire.
It could change, though, and she can see how she could become as close with him as the others... so long as he was willing to let her in.
**w**
He has no idea why he's doing this. It's stupid, because if he's caught, he'll be, rightfully, charged with treason. Omega is a prisoner, slated for termination. She's an enemy.
"Don't become my enemy."
"Crosshair, we never were."
But she's also a kid, and for some unfathomable reason, (his brothers) Clone Force 99 insists on keeping her around. They should have listened. Hunter should have listened. If he had, they would be together, and the kid would be safely away from the Empire, from the whole mess. She's a child. She shouldn't be a part of this, but of course, Hunter was selfish.
Crosshair doesn't start to relax until they're both in the ventilation system. They'll be much safer there, away from prying eyes, and so long as he can get Omega on a shuttle, undetected, she can go back to her brothers. He has no intention of leaving, and why should he? He's part of something bigger, something better. He can show the others, the nat-borns, why he's not any different than they are. They'll respect him.
Everything the Empire is doing, it's necessary. Maybe Hunter can't see or understand why, but it's needed, to bring the galaxy together. They're soldiers. That's all they've ever known, all they'll ever be. There is no other life for them.
He's in front of the kid, crawling through the long, seemingly never-ending shaft, as he works towards the hangar. Maybe if he had more time, he could have come up with a better plan, one with a higher chance of success. He doesn't plan to go with her, though. He can't. His place is here, with the Empire, and if he was to leave, what then? He has nowhere to go.
Clone Force 99 doesn't trust him. He tried – he tried to show them, to earn their trust, but... that worked out so well. So, he's alone.
Down below, the alarms go off, and he hears Omega's sharp intake of breath behind him. She's scared, as well she should be. If she's caught... they might kill her. He doesn't know if he fully believes that the Empire is planning to have her killed. It's very possible, but at the same time, it doesn't really matter. She's a child. She shouldn't be here, even if a part of him is wary to send her off on her own. The others clearly can't keep her safe.
If he had more time, he could have arranged something far safer, but he doesn't, so he'll have to make do with the time he has. As a commander, Crosshair has a great deal of access on this Star Destroyer, and, if he pushes it, he can get the kid onto a ship, show her what she needs to do so she can get away to a random point in space before contacting Clone Force 99 to pick her up. Then, he can go back, destroy the relevant footage, and pretend nothing happened at all.
Easy.
They reach a branch in the ventilation shaft, and the direction they need to go is down. It's not a long drop, but... he remembers the way the kid was limping. "We're going down," he warns her, and then, even if he hates it, "I'll catch you."
He shifts, dropping down feet-first, catching himself at the bottom, making almost no noise – not that it could probably be heard over the alarms. In a way, he's surprised that he hasn't been directly called, though he can hear the troopers talking and searching the ship, trying to find Omega. He glances back up, catching her eyes and nodding wordlessly.
The kid jumps, trusting him to catch her, and Crosshair would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised – and maybe a little touched – by that trust. She lands in his arms, and he lets her down onto the durasteel beneath his boots, not missing her quiet whimper of pain. Another injury then. Her face is pinched, and she inhales a few times, pushing it away, before she looks up at him and nods, ready to move on.
Good, because he is not good with children. At all. He's only doing this because she doesn't deserve the fate in store for her.
They don't have to go much farther before they reach a grate overlooking the hangar bay. A stack of crates is below them which they can use to get to the floor. He scans the area, tracking the locations of all the troopers, and marking out the best path to get out. There. On the side of the hangar, not more than a hundred yards away, is a standard shuttle, one that's partially blocked off from the rest of the ships by a wall of crates.
"Ready?" he asks quietly, not looking back.
"Yes," Omega whispers, and he pulls back the grate, crawling through and landing lightly atop the pile of crates. She follows, and he catches her again, helping her down and keeping her concealed by his body.
He points out the shuttle. "There's your ride out. I'll show you what you need. Once you've made a hyperspace jump away from here, you can contact them. They can pick you up from there."
The kid's expression twists with obvious concern. "What about you?"
"I'll be fine." He doesn't quiet snap it, but he doesn't not either. He is unused to having others ask after him now, and it's a sharp reminder of – of what he's lost.
They don't talk any further as they sneak to the shuttle without being seen. It's almost laughable how easy this has been, but there's something... something on the edges of his senses that twinges in warning, and an uneasy feeling worms its way into his gut. He ignores it, methodically scanning over the shuttle, destroying the two trackers that he finds.
And that's when it happens.
He hears the approaching boots, far too many to be merely a passing patrol, and instinctively, he crosses the hold to where the kid is, standing in front of her, shielding her. Maybe he always knew this was going to happen, but it still dawns on him, all at once, with a crushing sort of dread, that he misplayed his hand. He can't regret trying to save the kid, but... he betrayed the Empire doing so, and there's no going back.
As if on cue, Admiral Rampart's voice echoes through the hangar. "CT-9904 –" And he hates that, hates being called by a number, remembering, 'All you'll ever be to them is a number,' – "Stand down."
Rampart might say more, but it's drowned out by a surge of panic. "Kriff," he hisses. There are no more choices for him. If he goes back, he'll be lucky if he can explain this satisfactorily. The kid won't be even marginally as lucky, and the thought of seeing her lifeless body on the floor makes him sick. There's only one way out. No matter how much he hates it.
"I guess you get your wish," he growls at Omega, spinning for the cockpit. "Strap yourself in."
She scrambles to do as she's told, eyes wide, as he slides into the pilot's seat, flipping levers and pushing buttons as he fires up the engines, preparing to flee. He cannot let himself think about the 'what next' part of things. No matter his loyalty to the Empire, he will always choose his squad first, like he did on Kamino. He protected them to the best of his ability afterwards, and maybe he should have realized earlier that this was a trap; Rampart said nothing to him about the kid being captured, no matter that it contradicted his report after Kamino.
Blasterfire rings out, but he pushes the thrusters, blasting the shuttle forwards, out of the hangar, before anyone can try to board. Fighters are sent out to follow, and the guns on the Star Destroyer open fire as well. Gritting his teeth, Crosshair evades the laser blasts, spinning the shuttle as he heads towards the hyperspace lane to make a jump. It's not easy, to pick a destination and fly at the same time, but he manages it somehow, and after a few minutes of sheer terror – not that he'd admit to it – they've made the jump to hyperspace.
And that leaves him to face the 'what next'.
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