A/N: A question for those of you who didn't go straight to the next chapter after reading the previous one... how do you do that?

The hiss of the lift opening, an anguished cry, voices and pounding footsteps— none of it mattered to Hunter. The entire galaxy faded away as he clutched Omega's limp body closer, pressing his forehead to hers as hot tears streamed down his face. Even the increasingly violent shuddering of the deck below him went unnoticed. If fate were to have them all burn up in the atmosphere or suffocate in the vacuum of space, then so be it. None of it mattered. Not without Omega. The darkness consumed his every thought, all signs of hope flickering out with his adi'ka.

Then, he felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder. For a moment, something happened. A ray of light broke through his raging storm of emotions, like the sun breaking through the clouds of Kamino. It was calm. He desperately grabbed for the light, only then finding the strength to raise his head.

Kanan knelt where Tech had been, and there was a message in his eyes that even Hunter, as devastated as he was, could never miss. Understanding.

Hunter's stomach clenched with another violent bout of emotions, and he again bowed his head so low it touched Omega's. Letting out a shaky breath, he tenderly, hesitantly lowered her still form back on the deck. For a long moment, his hand lingered on her cheek.

Her face was so peaceful, so content. Even when he had failed her. His girl. His adi'ka…

Another sob threatened to overwhelm him, building in his throat and choking him until he could hardly bear it anymore. He squeezed his eyes shut, unable to look at her face any longer without seeing the shining, inquisitive, empathetic girl he remembered so well.

The Jedi almost completely left his mind as he battled with the raging storm in his head. That is, until Wrecker's sobs cut off with a gasp, and he unexpectedly grabbed Hunter's shoulder in a solid grip.

"Wrecker, wha—?" Hunter choked out, but stopped short as well, mouth dropping open.

Kanan was still kneeling on Omega's other side, with Ezra beside him now. The two Jedi both had one hand outstretched, hovering just over Omega's torso. Where the blaster wound was slowly disappearing. Hunter watched in shock as skin knitted itself back together, as blood faded away, until the only remaining evidence of any injury at all was Omega's red-stained tunic. Their eyes were squeezed shut with determination, and Hunter could see the shaking in both of their hands.

As soon as the wound had disappeared completely, Kanan and Ezra fell back with gasps of exhaustion, a sheen of sweat covering their foreheads like they had just finished running a marathon.

Everything else faded into the background again as Hunter lunged forward and gently pulled Omega back into his arms. Seeing the Jedi heal her had exposed a flicker of hope in his chest, and he had grabbed onto it like it were his only lifeline. Both Wrecker and Tech seemed to do the same as they huddled closer to their adi'ka. Even Crosshair slowly, hesitantly drew closer.

A moment passed by, then another. But Omega still did not stir.

"Hunter, she—why isn't she waking up?" Wrecker dared to ask, and Hunter felt that last piece of hope inside of him shatter. They were too late. He had drawn too close to the flame and burned himself.

He had to answer Wrecker. He had to reassure him – reassure all his squad – but when he tried to make his vocal cords work, all that came out was a choking noise. There was nothing to say. He had failed them. Failed her.

Then, a wet, rattling gasp escaped Omega's chest.

Suddenly, Hunter could breathe again, the crushing grief and guilt that had overpowered him suddenly eclipsed by the relief that now flooded his chest.

"Hunter—?" Omega croaked as her eyes fluttered open but was interrupted by a strong cough.

With a shuddering gasp, Hunter wrapped her up in his arms, and before he knew it, tears were streaming down his cheeks and his shoulders were shaking again as he stroked her hair back repeatedly.

"Yeah, Omega. It's me. You're alright. You're safe," he repeated soothingly, as much to convince himself as to reassure her, choking occasionally on his own tears.

Then, both of them were surrounded by tear-sodden warmth. Tech was pressing against Hunter's side, already fussing over Omega, Crosshair was on his knees on Omega's other side, as quiet sobs of relief caused his shoulders the quake, and Wrecker's arms were wrapping around them all as the giant bawled like a distraught tooka kitten. For a short eternity, their little family was all that mattered.

"You didn't leave like I told you," Omega murmured crossly into Hunter's embrace.

"Of course, we did not," Tech interjected. "Besides, when have we ever followed orders?"

Wrecker, Hunter, and Omega turned to Tech with matching faces of shock and horror. But Tech only shrugged, donning an innocent expression.

"It has been proven countless times."

Crosshair huffed at Tech's words and pulled away from the hug, rubbing aggressively at the tear-tracks staining his face. "Not to break up the party, but the others here are probably going to drag our shebs back to the ship if we aren't careful," he said, bringing them back to reality as another tremor shook the deck beneath them.

"He's right," Kanan interjected, and Hunter started. He had completely forgotten the others were even there. Suddenly, the weight of what Kanan and his padawan had done struck Hunter like a freighter. Omega was alive because of them. They had brought his adi'ka back to him. To all his brothers.

But before he could open his mouth, the cruiser groaned ominously. A harsh screeching noise split the air, and Hunter gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the stabbing pain that shot through his temples. He blanched when he risked opening them again to look out of the viewscreen. White flames licked the transparisteel, heating its edges to an intense red. Beyond, tinted by the heated viewport, Delthqar loomed larger than before. Much larger. Splintered metal came loose in massive chunks of shrapnel before whirling through space and into the atmosphere of the planet below.

"Let's go, then," Hunter said, although he released Omega with a large amount of hesitance. Her skin was still rather pallid, and he didn't want to cause her any additional injuries.

"Wrecker, you carry Omega—"

Omega's expression soured. "I can walk on my own, you know. I'm not a child anymore."

"You were just clinically dead for exactly two minutes and forty-eight seconds," Tech said knowledgably. "I would not recommend you do so."

With a huff, Omega nodded in agreement. It was extremely difficult to disagree with Tech, especially in a scenario where he almost undoubtedly knew more than you. Unless you were Crosshair, of course, but that was just one of the sniper's inexplicable talents.

But as Wrecker carefully lifted Omega into his arms, her expression morphed from annoyance to panic in a flash. "Where's Echo?"

Hunter blinked, and his stomach dropped. Looking around them, he realized that Echo was nowhere to be seen. Earlier, he had been too distraught to even notice the other team's arrival, much less count the number of people with them. Which only made him feel that much worse. Had he really allowed himself to fall apart so much that he didn't even realize he was missing another member of his squad? His family?

"Already on the Ghost," Kanan said hurriedly, but that was hardly a relief to Hunter. Why was he on the Ghost? What had kept him from coming with the others? Because the Echo he knew was far too loyal and caring a brother to simply leave the dirty work to everyone else. No. Something else was wrong.

But that would have to wait. Kanan didn't sound too terribly worried about it at the moment. Perhaps because they were literally falling to a fiery grave right now. Another violent tremor, as nasty as any earthquake they had experienced on Pabu if not more so, nearly knocked them off their feet.

Hunter and Kanan locked gazes, and without another word to each other, Kanan broke into a run. Hunter stayed back for a moment, making sure that everyone was accounted for. Before he himself joined them, he spared one last glance down at the still corpse of the Admiral. The woman who had dared touch his adi'ka.

"See you later, chakaar," he muttered into the silence, before turning on his heel and sprinting after the other. By the time he had caught up to the front, Kanan had pulled out his commlink and was just now activating it.

"Hera! We're on our way back!" He announced briefly.

"Copy that, Kanan. Just hurry! It's raining debris and the Ghost can't take much more of it!"

Between gasps, Sabine snapped, "we are hurrying!"

As the group rounded a corner, Chopper snapped something unintelligible right back at her, and Hunter was partially glad he couldn't understand going off of the looks on the other's faces.

But the effect was lost when a tremor shook the ship, and Hunter almost lost his footing. A firm hand caught him before he could faceplant onto the deck, and as he righted himself, his eyes met Kanan's, and he sent him a grateful nod. Checking over his shoulder to make sure everyone else was alright, Hunter continued the sprint down the hall.

Just a few steps ahead of him, Kanan reached another junction that peeled off in several directions.

"That way!" Tech offered, without even stopping.

"How close are we, Tech?" Hunter all but shouted. The screeching and of broken durasteel was becoming almost unbearable to his enhanced senses, and he had to shout in order to be heard over the volume.

"Too far."

Ezra's voice was almost drowned out by another massive tremor, although this time they all managed to stay on their feet. "You mean we aren't going to make it in time?!"

"This was the fastest possible route, but it seems that my calculations were flawed."

Hunter almost stopped running to gawk at Tech. Flawed? Had Tech just admitted to being wrong? Now he'd heard everything.

"This ship is going down faster than I anticipated," Tech elaborated. "Even at a quicker pace, there is a wall between the hallway we are currently occupying and the location at which Hera is going to meet us."

Immediately after the words left Tech's mouth, Hunter knew what was coming.

"Wait, so you're saying the only thing between us and an evac is a wall?" Wrecker asked, and Hunter could almost hear the grin in his voice.

At that same moment, Tech also seemed to connect the dots. "Yes. It appears that an improvised entryway is required."

Wrecker cheered and the others seemed to catch on around the same time as Crosshair groaned, "oh Force, here we go again."

"You're just going to blow a hole in the wall?" Ezra asked, as Tech brought them to a stop, pointed at a section of the wall, and backed away to let Wrecker do his work.

After carefully passing Omega over to Crosshair, who pulled her arm over his shoulders so that she was properly supported, Wrecker turned back to the wall with a cheerful, "yep!"

Bringing out a length of detonator ribbon, he knelt by the wall and got to work. It was one of his less destructive tools, to be sure, but the right amount of it would do the trick. The wrong amount would likely reduce them to scorch marks on the deck.

But Hunter trusted his brother when it came to his occupation. Usually.

Zeb, on the other hand, didn't seem so sure.

"And you're not going get us blown to bits?" He growled, eyeing the ordinance that Wrecker was attaching to the wall apprehensively.

At his side, Sabine elbowed the Lasat. "Hey. This guy knows his stuff as much as I know mine. And if we're going to die, it'll be because we were sucked out into the vacuum of space after this ship fell apart. So be nice."

Hunter raised an eyebrow, curious as to how and when Wrecker and Sabine had become such fast friends. He figured he would just have to ask later, once they were all back on the Ghost in one piece. Part of him didn't really want to know.

Then, the hallways around them began to groan ominously, and Hunter realized he might never find out either way.

"Wrecker…!" Hunter said through a clenched jaw, urging his brother to work faster without taking his eyes off the warped and bending ceiling. Not far down the hall they had come from, the metal support beams gave a final screech of protest before collapsing with a massive crash. They were out of time.

"Done!" Wrecker announced, scrambling to his feet and away from the wall. "Everyone get back!"

Hurriedly, Hunter backpedaled until his armor clacked against the opposite wall, then crouched and squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for the blast to come. A blast rang through the air, and immediately he was back on his feet before the smoke had even begun to settle, ignoring the fresh pain the sound had caused his head.

"Go, go, go!" He ordered, ushering the others through the gaping hole one by one, first Crosshair and Omega, then Zeb, Kanan, Tech, and Wrecker. Last one, he counted mentally when Sabine had ducked through to the opposite side. That left just him and Ezra. On sheer impulse, he looked up at the ceiling again to see the first beam lurch. Directly above them.

Without a second thought, he dove forward into the padawan, tackling them both through the entryway and onto the deck on the other side as the beam crashed into where they had both been mere seconds ago. Pain, hot and excruciating, lanced up his arm as he instinctively put it out to catch them, and he stifled a scream.

Through the pounding in his ears, someone called their names. Immediately, hands were pulling him and Ezra back onto their feet, urging them forward and away from the hallway as it collapsed behind them.

"Are you okay?"

Clenching his jaw against another wave of pain up his arm and through his temple, Hunter raised his head to see Omega watching him with blatant distress from where she was leaning heavily on Crosshair's shoulder. He tried for a smile, but it turned out more of a grimace.

"I'm fine, Omega."

Apparently unconvinced, Omega only frowned and let her eyes drift down to the arm he held cradled against his chest.

However, before she could comment or bring Tech over to look at him over, Kanan called, "The Ghost is docked just a little further up this hallway! Let's not waste any more time!" And they were running again.

The tremors hadn't stopped now, becoming a constant rumble that resonated through the entire deck. The light fixtures flickered violently, which only exacerbated Hunter's quickly developing migraine, and threw misshapen shadows up and down the halls. Beside him, Tech stumbled and Hunter felt his heart jump up into his throat, but his brother recovered quickly, without causing them any delays.

"There!" Sabine shouted, pointing ahead.

Not even a step later, Chopper was frantically waving an arm out of the airlock and into the hallway, wailing something incomprehensible in binary. Hunter didn't have to ask to know he was telling them to hurry the kriff up.

Behind Hunter, metal screeched and crashed into the deck as another chunk of the ceiling gave out.

"Chop', tell Hera to get the ship ready!" Kanan hollered to the astromech. Apparently, Chopper had something to say about that, because he wailed something right back, and Kanan shouted impatiently, "just do it!"

They were mere seconds away from the airlock when the hallway began to collapse. As Hunter slowed to usher the last few people past him, so that he could bring up the rear, the ceiling groaned and he looked up just in time to see several of the supports buckle.

"Look out!"

Time seemed to slow as Hunter watched the metal above him come crashing down. Even as he ducked forward and tried for a final sprint, he knew it wouldn't be enough.

His immediate thought was of Omega and the rest of his squad, to hope that they were out of the way of the debris. Even if he were crushed, they might still be able to escape. If he were to die now, Omega might not be physically harmed, but she would be crushed emotionally. He had seen his family grieving before, and it was something he would never wish upon any of them, but she would come to accept it. At least they would be safe. He braced himself for the impact.

But the blow never came.

Hunter's eyes snapped open – he hadn't even realized he had closed them – and his jaw dropped. A mere handbreadth above his head, hovered the warped metal.

"Hunter!"

Wrecker's shout snapped him out of his shock just as another hand grabbed the back of his bodysuit, dragging him away from the danger. Down the hall, Kanan had both arms outstretched, straining to hold up the debris. As soon as Wrecker had dragged Hunter into the clear, the Jedi dropped his arms with a grunt, and the amalgamation of metal fell with them.

"Thanks," Hunter said, breaking into a run again beside him. It felt completely insufficient for the number of things Kanan had done in the last hour only. He was in debt to him at least two times over. How am I supposed to—?

"Later," Kanan said, startling Hunter before he even had a chance to finish the thought. "We'll talk later."

As Hunter was struggling to understand the Jedi, the first person was barreling through the airlock. Hunter skidded to a halt, heart pounding as he counted each person pass through. Sabine, Zeb, Crosshair and Omega—

"You first, this time."

Kanan's voice broke his concentration just as Tech and Ezra crossed the threshold and into safety.

Hunter chuckled dryly. "It'd be my pleasure."

And he hurried onto the Ghost, with Kanan on his heels.

A/N: I swear I'm done beating up of them now! We're almost done with this fic, and I can hardly believe it! This is the longest fic that I have ever written- Heck! It may be the longest singular piece of writing that I have ever written. - and I honestly am devastated. Even if it isn't going to end sadly (I promise), I've dedicated over a year's length, almost two, to this fic!

Anyways, I'll leave this here for now. Thanks to all of you who have stuck around for this long! My sister (my own personal beta reader and partner in crime) says she feels bad for you all, riding this emotional rollercoaster. But really, thank you so much. You all are awesome! See you next chapter!