A/N: I'm back (again)! I'm hoping to get at least one more chapter out before the end of my vacation, but I can't make any promises. For now, though, I'm on a roll. Not much else to say here other than I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

Despite their earlier enthusiasm, things took significantly longer than any of them expected. Tech had quickly gotten to work as soon as they had finished their discussion and had been working nonstop ever since. Although they had been forced to leave behind most of his tools in the Marauder, Tech had managed to scrape together enough to get the job done.

Hunter winced as he shifted his arm in its hastily applied sling. Since they had left the Marauder, he hadn't had time to stop and take care of it. The painkillers had long since worn off, and the pain was becoming increasingly distracting. With a long sigh, he stood, deciding to check in on Tech. Since his little brother had started his work, Hunter had been the one checking in every now and again, making sure he still ate and took breaks. After that, he would take some more painkillers and get a more permanent splint.

Probably.

Walking through the ship, Hunter tried to recall the brief tour Hera had given him when they had first arrived. It really was a unique ship, as Tech had gushed for a good ten minutes. It was exactly what Hunter would have expected from Hera, even from a young age.

Speaking of the girl— woman, Hunter reminded himself with a fond smile; she was no longer a child— he had been so relieved to find her more or less safe. Seeing her, however, had only felt like twisting the knife inside of the wound. It had made it impossible not to face the fact. Omega was gone. Or so he had thought. Then, the padawan, Ezra, had come out of the blue saying she wasn't, and she was being held on the Imperial Star Destroyed they had just left behind. It was a bit shocking, to say the least.

Now, they just had to wait. And they had. For hours. They were coming up on twenty-four hours since Tech had begun, without word on his progress. Wrecker had attempted to "help" more than once, but Tech had snapped at him, something usually unlike him. They were all tense. Omega was relying on them, and it was only a matter of time before the Empire decided she was of no use to them, so Hunter couldn't really blame him. He himself was strung as tight as cable.

Confident that he had found the hallway that would lead him to the cargo hold, Hunter turned the corner and let out a grunt as he ran head-on into one of the crew, arm jerking as the two collided. Hunter sucked in a sharp breath and clenched his jaw as pain lanced up his arm.

"Oh, sorry."

Hunter looked up from cradling his arm to see Kanan watching his movements carefully, looking from Hunter's strained expression to his arm held tightly to his chest.

"Are you alright?" Kanan asked slowly.

"Yeah, just going to check up on Tech."

Kanan raised an eyebrow, but gestured down the hall, "keep going this way, then take the ladder up into the cargo bay."

"Thanks," Hunter said with a nod, before walking past. He had only taken a few steps when he stopped in his tracks. With his arm throbbing the way it was, it would be challenging to climb the ladder, to say the least. Sighing, Hunter turned again, to see Kanan watching him with the shadow of a smirk on his face.

"Okay, fine. Maybe my arm is a little broken," Hunter admitted. "Where's the medbay?"

Kanan jerked a thumb behind him. "Down the other hallway, across from the mess."

Hunter stared at the Jedi.

"What?"

Hunter shook his head. "Nothing. Thanks." As he turned away from the Jedi, he was sure that something was familiar about Kanan, like he was seeing a shadow of someone he had seen in the past. Could Crosshair be right after all? Hunter struggled to find an excuse, any way to reassure himself that he wouldn't be forced to face his mistake. Hunter had seen plenty of Jedi during the war he reasoned. He could just be recognizing his face from wanted posters, or maybe Kanan just reminded him of someone else he had met.

As he turned to go, an idea dawned on him, a way he might be able to prove Crosshair wrong… or right.

"Actually," he said, turning to face Kanan once more, "I need someone to help me fix up my arm. Mind helping?"

For a split second, Hunter could have sworn he saw Kanan's face flicker with uncertainty before returning to default, void of any hesitation. "No, I can help."

As they approached the medbay, Hunter heard a large crash followed by loud, rapid wailing in binary from the other side of the doors. The duo locked apprehensive gazes for a beat, before Kanan sighed, pushed the control panel, and the doors slid open. Immediately, the two were assaulted by all manner of distressed noises as Gonky barreled through the door and hid, trembling, behind Hunter.

"Gonky? Wha—?"

"Woah, woah! Chopper!" Kanan shouted over the racket when the astromech attempted to plough past him and Hunter, bellowing angrily and waving his arms wildly over his rusty head.

"Chopper!" The astromech stopped wailing long enough for Kanan to ask irritably, "what's going on?"

The droid pointed a metal arm accusingly at Gonky, and shot into a furious rant, abundant with expletives.

"Okay, okay, Chopper, I get it. You don't like the gonk droid." Kanan said, blocking another attempt to get past the two of them standing in the doorway to Gonky. "You don't like any other droids."

Chopper let out a mechanical squawk of protest, but Kanan put up a hand to stop him, "I know, and I don't care. Just leave him alone."

Shifting slightly in order to see past Kanan and Hunter and make direct eye contact with Gonky, Chopper let out a low, threatening grumble before pushing past the two, and out into the hallway. As he rolled down the hall, Hunter could still hear him muttering quietly to himself, and couldn't help a small chuckle. The droid was exactly as he remembered, though maybe a little rustier and angrier.

Kneeling down, Hunter patted the GNK droid fondly. "You alright, there, Gonky?"

The droid responded by bumping him lightly and tottering around in a small circle.

"Just stay away from him, and I'm sure you'll be fine," Hunter advised, with a smile, and the droid tottered down the opposite direction.

Exasperated, Kanan shook his head at Chopper's antics. "That droid," he groaned good-naturedly before leading the way into the medbay.

Silence ensued, and Hunter debated internally how he might be able to answer his question without seeming to pry, as Kanan riffled through the shelves of supplies on the wall, back turned to him. Finally, he took a breath. "So, how did you get wrapped up in all this?"

"The rebellion?"

Hunter thought he could hear a cautious undertone in the Jedi's voice.

"I met Hera. She got me back on my feet after the war."

Hunter smiled faintly. That certainly sounded like the determined young girl that he had met on Ryloth. Hopefully that determination would be enough to help them get Omega back.

As he finished removing Hunter's old, messy splint and began applying the new one, Kanan cocked his head, "What about you? Why'd you leave the army?"

Hunter measured his words carefully. "My squad and the Empire had… differences of opinion. I just didn't think it was right, what they were doing."

If he couldn't trick— no that was the wrong word. Lead — if he couldn't lead the Jedi into telling him himself, maybe he could at least make him trust him enough to reveal the truth. Hunter still vividly remembered that silent question that had passed between him and the terrified Padawan those many years ago. Crosshair might have been determined to find out, but a part of Hunter wanted to know what had become of the boy, too.

"And what about the chips? None of the other clones had a choice. What kept you from becoming… like them?" Kanan asked, curious yet hesitant.

"I'm not sure, myself," he replied, "I just know that it didn't affect me, or my squad."

An emotion Hunter couldn't identify flickered across Kanan's face, but the Jedi looked away to grab some other supplies. "That's pretty lucky."

Hunter cocked his head. "I didn't think Jedi believed in luck."

"You're right. I don't." Kanan met Hunter's gaze for the first time in the entire conversation and seemed to be searching for something in his eyes. An odd, prickly sensation crept up Hunter's back, like a cold breeze or an insect, and he suppressed a shiver. It felt like someone was watching him, like an invasion of his privacy. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the feeling disappeared, and Kanan tied off the gauze around the splint.

What was that feeling? It wasn't like anything he had felt before, and he was almost convinced that it had been a total coincidence when Kanan spoke again.

"Caleb."

"What?"

Kanan let out a breath slowly, before continuing, "That was my name before I went into hiding. My master… Her name was Depa Billaba." The Jedi winced. "She… was killed on Kaller. Do you remember?"

Surprised at the sudden turn in the conversation, Hunter uselessly searched for words for a good few seconds before he was able to speak again. "Yeah… Yeah I do. But… Why tell me now?"

Again, silence, but on the other side this time. "I see the way you and your squadmate watch me. You were already onto me, and neither of you trust me. To be honest, I wouldn't have trusted you at all if it weren't for Hera. And if we're going to work together…" Kanan shook his head, huffing out a small laugh, an exasperated smile spreading across his features, as if remembering something, "we need to trust each other."

Incredulously, Hunter raised an eyebrow, asking "why so honest all of a sudden?"

Kanan chuckled again. "Everyone could learn something new every once in a while. And I'm certainly not an exception. Just… don't tell anyone else. My past isn't something I like to hand out."

Well this… was not how Hunter had envisioned this conversation going. Shaking his head in disbelief, Hunter said, "alright then… If we're being totally honest now…" He calculated his words carefully, "we didn't all get out of the effects of the chips. Crosshair's activated. But again, I think you probably knew that already."

Kanan snorted. "Yeah, I noticed." This time it was his turn to ask the questions. "But why's he back here now? Did you take out the chip?"

"That's… A long story."

"We've got time," Kanan replied, leaning against the counter, and folding his arms.

"Well—"

Outside the medbay, there was a crash, followed by a loud shout of pain. Kanan and Hunter exchanged startled looks before jumping up, but before either of them could reach the control panel, the door hissed open.

"HUNTER, HE FIGURED IT OUT! TECH FIGURED IT OUT!" Wrecker thundered immediately, making Hunter wince at the volume of the cry. Without notice, Wrecker lunged forward, grabbed hold of Hunter's free arm, and shouted, "C'mon!"

Before he knew what was happening, Hunter was being dragged through the halls of the Ghost, all the way back to the lounge, with Kanan following suit. As the bizarre group passed, it caught the attention of the others in the ship.

Hunter heard several indistinct questions and shouts as they raced by, but no one bothered to answer them, and soon the entire crew was gathered in the lounge once more.

"I should have known! It was practically sitting right in front of me the entire time, it was obvious!" Tech rambled on as he fumbled with the small, circular disk. The man had probably been at it for hours, but he managed to fit it into the projector. Pressing several of the buttons on the console, a long stream of text, numbers, and other indecipherable information appeared above it.

"Uhh…" the padawan, Ezra, studied the text, confused, "what is it?"

"It's nota weapon at all!" Tech explained, as if all of them would immediately know that he was talking about. The circle of people stared at the mechanic blankly.

"Huh?" Wrecker grunted, tilting his head to get a better look at the nonsense on the screen.

This time, even Hunter had no clue what his little brother was going on about. "Tech, what do you mean 'it's not a weapon?'"

With a huff of exasperation, Tech pointed out several lines in the text. "It's not a weapon because 'Project Tremor' is a newly developed metal compound!" The mechanic's eyes lit up as he continued to gesture to various parts of the document. "The Empire recently discovered that if they mixed the semi-rare metal chrysithium, most commonly found on the planet Delthqar, with a variation of the standard steel compound, they could create a metal that rivals the durability of some of the strongest metals in the galaxy!"

As Tech explained the compound in detail, horror dawned on the faces of the crew. This was completely different from anything any of them could have guessed, and everyone seemed shaken except for Tech, who continued babbling on.

Zeb's frustrated growl broke Hunter and the others out of their stupor, "Karabast. How are we supposed to destroy it, then?"

Tech glared impatiently at the Lasat for interrupting his lecture but pressed another button that shifted the document to a small map. "We could start by taking out this major quarry, as well as the supply chain," he said, pointing to two locations on the map.

Both Wrecker and Sabine, the latter of whom was sitting on the back of the couch, watching the holoprojector, grinned at each other. Already imagining the amount of trouble the two explosive artists would get into together, Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What about the manufacturing facilities?" Hera asked, eyebrows knit together. "If we just destroy the facilities or the mines, what will stop them from striking back at us with all their forces?"

"We could split up," Echo interjected, stepping up to the holochart. Connecting his scomp-link into the console, he searched through the stored data until he found a chart showing a larger view of the area, at least forty klicks across, along with all the transport routes. Echo removed his scomp-link from the console and pointed to a large facility on the map. "One group could take out the main facility, while the other could hit the quarry."

"Is there some way we could wipe the data from their systems altogether?" Sabine asked, running a hand through her vibrant, dyed hair.

Tech adjusted his goggles. "Omega has already done us that favor, at least, by removing the files from the system on that Star Destroyer. I'm sure they have backups in the processing facility itself, but I could easily finish the job if I utilized the primary console."

Hera stood contemplating the map as the gathered crew turned their attention to her for approval. "It won't be easy," she said slowly, "and I would be a lot happier if we could get the help of Phoenix Squadron first…"

"By the time they get here, it could be too late!" Ezra said, stepping forward, "they already know we're coming. We have to do this, now."

Kanan shook his head grudgingly, "Ezra's right, as reckless as he is." Ezra squawked indignantly, but Kanan continued, "We have no idea how long it could take reinforcements to arrive, and we're already on a time crunch. We have to strike before it's too late."

At Kanan's words, a murmur of agreement rippled through the group. Slowly, Hera nodded, letting out a long breath. "Alright. I'm still going to contact the fleet and tell them the plan. This has become a lot bigger than when we first set out," Hera said, gaze scanning around the circle of people. "We don't know what we might be walking into. It could be a trap."

Again, Hera paused. "But we have to finish this. For Omega."

"For Omega," the voices chorused.

"But we're still going to get her back," Hunter growled, voice steely.

"Of course," Hera replied. "Once we take out the facilities, we'll see what we can do about that Star Destroyer." Hera gazed at the blue, shimmering map.

"I have a feeling they'll be waiting."

A/N: WOOHOOOOOOOO! This chapter is FINALLY done! It took me several rewrites, dozens of edits, and so many "Kriff this" moments, but it's finally here! I'm still not one hundred percent happy with how it turned out (especially the medbay scene) but at least it's done. Things are going to be picking back up again after this!

Also, I don't know if you all can tell (lol), but I've had a bit of trouble characterizing Kanan. I don't know. If any of you all have any tips or just want to point out anything else you've noticed, I would be super grateful for the help.

Anyways, until next time!

-Bubblez