Part 4 - Cornered

Plot: Omega takes her little brothers on a supply run and to scramble the Marauder's signature, but they quickly realize the Empire isn't the only threat, or the only one after them.


"Why do I hafta stay here with Echo and Tech while you get to go sightseeing?" Wrecker complains sullenly, looking up at Omega.

"They're gonna need your help with taking the ship apart," she says apologetically.

"Hey," Hunter offers, elbowing Wrecker's shoulder lightly, "I'm stuck here, too, and I don't even have to help." Which, they did. Omega had pointed out Hunter looks too obviously reg-like, and if they saw him, well, it could pose a bit of a problem. It's not a risk she'd wanted to take, and Crosshair gets that, even if he's grumpy about it.

"Don't worry," Crosshair tells his twin brother, "I'll bring ya something back to eat."

Wrecker turns away with a grumpy growl.

Well, at least Crosshair gets to do something cool! Staring at the outside of a ship would get very boring very quickly.

"Stay out of trouble," Hunter calls as Crosshair and Omega start moving off.

"I'm not the one always getting in trouble," Crosshair grumbles, following Omega as she heads for the hangar's exit, pausing only when she and Echo wish mutual good luck with each other's separate missions.

"Stay close to me," Omega warns, patting his shoulder. "There could be regs around here, so let's try to stay unnoticed."

"I'm a sniper," Crosshair argues, "That's hardly a problem for me."

"You are, or you will be? When you're big enough to hold a rifle?"

Crosshair groans loudly. "Okay. I will be. But I don't wanna wait a few years." His aim is still off, but he's already better than most. The Holding Still thing is still hard. But hey, Wrecker has the same issue. It's not that weird. A lot of people do.

"I get what's different about Hunter and Wrecker," Omega comments as they walk through the city – there's so much to see, and there's brilliant, multicolor lights everywhere. Crosshair's only seen white or gray lights. It's – cool. "But what about you and Tech?"

The question catches him off-guard, but just because Omega's different, doesn't mean she knows a lot about them. "My sight's enhanced," Crosshair replies, "Tech's memory is weird, or something. He processes things faster."

"Ah," Omega muses, "That would explain the technology thing."

"Technology thing?" Crosshair queries.

"Yeah. He's good with machines. I didn't really get it."

He makes a non-committed sound of agreement, focusing on staring around his surroundings. Being off Kamino still feels surreal. They're free now, and they don't have to worry about stupid rules or regulations or orders or annoying regs. Actually, literally anything. They're free.

Still wishes his brothers were here because they're always supposed to go places together, but he wanted to get to look around. He wanted to get to see, and hey! Someone has to bring some food back. Wrecker and Crosshair are the only ones obsessed with anything and everything sweet, so he has to pick out something special himself. He can guess what Wrecker would like.

There's some sort of holoscreen going about some Imperial something-or-other, that's more confusing and frustrating than anything else.

"How can everybody be celebrating the war's end?" Crosshair asks frustratedly, "It's what we were made to fight in."

"We were fighting to end the war," Omega replies, "I don't think anybody really thought about what would happen to the clones after."

"But without the Clone Wars, what are we? We're still soldiers."

"You can be more than that," Omega replies, "You... are more than that."

The conversation's lost on Crosshair somewhere midway through. Genuinely – he has no idea what she's saying. That doesn't really make sense. The only thing they've ever been supposed to be is soldiers – how could they be anything else?

Hopefully, his brothers are actually getting somewhere with properly finishing fixing the Marauder, and Wrecker's not getting too bored. Mayyyybe Crosshair will be able to find something cool here – they are in a city, and there's all kinds of food here.

Really cool-looking food. He knew food came in shapes and sizes other than ration bars and other stuff on Kamino, but this is so different.

Omega's trying to negotiate something with somebody who's not listening to her at all, and Crosshair spots what he thinks is a maybe-fruit stand nearby. He tiptoes over, keeping Omega in his line of sight, because this was why he came in the first place, right?

Well, something smells good, anyway.

Crosshair pokes his head over the stand, glancing around to make sure no one's watching. He's pretty sure this is maybe a bad idea or something he'd get in trouble for doing. Well, sneaking into the kitchen something-something area on Kamino always got him and Wrecker in trouble.

But, hey, they're supposed to be free now. He can do what he wants.

Crosshair's just finished hiding the fruit he stole in his backpack when someone approaches him.

Someone's watching him now, and Crosshair's pretty sure they didn't see what he did. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably would be bad if they did.

"Hey, kid," a voice says – it's a woman. Nat-born.

Crosshair turns around, eyes narrowing as he looks up at her. She's in black and bright orange, a strange-shaped helmet tucked under her arm, and she looks... Friendly. That's what tips him off. Nobody is friendly to him or his brothers, except Omega and Echo apparently. Especially not nat-borns.

"You out here alone?" she asks.

"I'm with my sister," Crosshair answers, tense, eyes on her blaster. She's no random somebody. She's someone Important.

"Really?"

"She's –" he looks to where Omega was a second ago, and actually, she's gone. She told him to stay close, but he got a little carried away, and now she's stars-know-where. Uh oh. This is bad. "I guess she's not over there.

"I'll help you find her," the woman offers, "The galaxy's a dangerous place to be on your own."

"Good thing I'm not alone," Crosshair mutters. He gripes the strap on his backpack tightly. Something's wrong with this person. No one wants to be by them. Nobody does that. No one ever wants to help him.

She lays a hand on his back as they start moving down the streets, Crosshair scanning for signs of Omega. She's probably already noticed he's gone by now. She is not going to be happy.

"You hungry, kid?" the woman asks. She sounds kind. Crosshair buys that even less.

"No," Crosshair answers automatically. It's not true, but he's not gonna tell her the truth, "We were going to take something back to my brothers, though."

"Hm," she says, "Okay."

His heart is pounding for a reason Crosshair genuinely can hardly even try pinpointing. Just – something is wrong. Desperately, very wrong, and he needs to get back to Omega or the Marauder, or preferably, both.

He's dressed in some borrowed clothes from Cut's family, but the fact still remains that he's a clone, and he feels glaringly out of place here. If any of the regs around know him, they'd recognize him – probably. He wishes Hunter was here. It'd make sense if he was.

"Why do you have a blaster?" Crosshair asks, because that's the thing bugging him to death. She's not a clone, obviously, so... what is she?

"To protect myself," she replies, "Like I said, the galaxy's a dangerous place to be."

"Hm." Mayyyybe she's telling the truth, but Crosshair still doesn't Buy It.

"Crosshair!" He freezes at Omega's voice.

"There's my sister," Crosshair says, moving forward. She grabs his shoulder, jerking him to a stop. He pauses, glancing back. She's reaching for her blaster, which – is bad.

"Let my brother go," Omega snarls. She's reaching for her own blaster, already angry. Hunter'd said she nearly got killed on the moon they were on, and Crosshair – well, doesn't have the greatest opinion of her abilities.

Not really.

He's not stupid.

Whoever Orange and Black is, she isn't stupid, either. She wouldn't be going after them if she didn't think he could do it, either. Crosshair has no idea who she is or what she wants, but it doesn't sound good.

"He and I were just getting to know each other," the woman replies smoothly, though there's a dark note in her voice now.

She's going to try to hurt Omega, whoever she is, and his maybe-sister's not in her armor, which means she has no protection. She could be hurt, easily.

Crosshair rams his shoulder into her thigh unexpectedly, throwing her off-balance, and the shoot at Omega misses long enough for her to have time to draw her own blaster and start shooting back.

"Crosshair, get us a way out of here!" Omega yells to him, and he scans the area for a borrow-able speeder. Crashing would be even more dangerous, though.

They're fighting up close, now, and Crosshair thinks she's trying to stun Omega, which is weird. Doesn't think about that, though.

Borrowing a speeder is actually easy. He climbs on, firing up the engine, and flies over Omega's head with a "hop on." Works until the speeder gets shot, and then security arrives, and they run for their lives.

**w**

Getting back to the ship is a hassle. Omega comms Echo to tell him with an overwhelming level of frustration that she thinks somebody's after her, though they have no idea why. They track it through a maintenance tunnel somewhere, nearly fall head-first off a building, and have another brief shootout with the annoying person who Crosshair deters by throwing a random object at her – apparently, his aim's better than he thought.

Could still use a blaster, though.

"Crosshair!" Wrecker yells the moment he lays eyes on him, scooping him into a hug.

Crosshair buries his face in his twin's shoulder and squeezes him back. Action is fun, but he's never had it before, and he never wants to be so far from his brothers again. That alone was nerve-wracking.

"You okay?" Hunter asks, appearing at his side and squeezing his shoulder.

"'m fine," Crosshair promises unconvincingly, pulling from Wrecker to hug Hunter, too. Hunter can make things fine, and that's what he desperately wants right now. It wasn't scary, just... it kind of was.

He likes Omega, but he doesn't really know her. She's nice, but Crosshair hasn't known her long enough to trust her the same he does his brothers. Wouldn't be the first time he thought they could trust somebody they couldn't.

Regs have acted nice to them too, sometimes. That doesn't mean it was ever real.

It's not that he doesn't trust Omega; he just... doesn't trust her yet.

"What happened?" Tech demands, pressing in behind Hunter and Wrecker. He's abandoned his fixing the ship post, clearly, in favor of fussing over Crosshair. Which – ugh, okay. That's fine. At least he's here to be worried.

"We sorta just got jumped," Crosshair grumbles, Hunter's arm still looped around his waist. He's warm and safe and Crosshair might be the tiniest bit taller than him, but Hunter still means safe, and he always will.

"Did ya get something to eat?" Wrecker asks.

"...no." One fruit thing, actually, and he was going to get more, but the entire thing is too embarrassing to even try explaining to anybody.

Wrecker looks instantly disappointed, but he doesn't complain about it.

"Are the repairs done?" Omega asks as they approach, "That bounty hunter's going to be on us any minute."

"We modified the signature key," Tech replies, "We'll have to put it back together yet, though."

"Then let's get on it," Omega warns, nodding to the ship pieces strewn everywhere.

Hunter grabs his hand and pulls him to the ship pieces as they start trying to piece it back together. It's a bit high, and it takes a frustrating length of time to get the Marauder pieced back together, and Crosshair waits by the ramp just in case until it's closed. He sees her coming out of the gunner's mount just as they're taking off. It was close. They are very, very lucky to have made it out.

"Who was that?" Crosshair asks, sliding down the ladder and heading for the cockpit. Echo and Omega are flying upwards back towards the darkness of space.

"She must be a bounty hunter," Omega replies, "Though I don't know who she's after, or why."

"I thought it was you," Crosshair says, hopping onto one of the chairs and spinning around. He still has that fruit that he is absolutely going to eat, but well, he has to wait until everybody else is busy and sneak it into the 'fresher or something.

"I thought she was after you at first." Omega side-eyes Crosshair. "But then it didn't really seem like it... but I don't know what anyone would be after me for, either. I don't think I crossed the wrong person lately."

"We'll have to figure out who it is," Echo interjects. He looks angry. He often seems to. Crosshair keeps expecting him to be mean, but he never is. It's weird. Regs aren't nice like this. "If there's a bounty hunter on our tail, that could complicate whatever we do from here."

"Yeah," Omega agrees with a sigh.

"So," Hunter asks, scooting forward, "What do we do?"

"Back with the Jedi," Echo answers slowly, "It was easy to find information. Things have changed now." He and Omega exchange a quiet, wordless glance that makes Crosshair feel momentarily, awkwardly out of place. They have some sort of something closeness with each other that he doesn't have with them, and probably never could.

He wants it, but he has his brothers, and nothing matters other than that. Not really, anyway. He doesn't want more than his brothers. Never has, and it would be pointless anyhow, because no one has ever wanted them.

Until Echo and Omega, anyway, and he still doesn't Get It.

"So, what do we do?" Hunter queries, "Aren't there still some people you know other than Jedi?"

"There are some," Echo admits grudgingly, "Though I can't say how trustworthy. I know of some Jedi informants who could have some information."

"Well, it sounds like we're gonna need it," Hunter points out.

"Yeah," Omega agrees, "Though I never actually worked with any of those, Echo knew some of them." She looks to her maybe older brother. "Right?"

"I don't know any, but I do know of them," Echo agrees, "There's one on Ord Mantell. We can set course for there. I can't guarantee she won't sell us out, but we should be able to get what we need."

"That's more important, anyway," Omega reminds, "If all goes well, we'll be in and out before the Empire could come looking for us."

Somehow, Crosshair doesn't think any of this will be that easy. It's just... too easy, and real life doesn't work like that. At least nothing for him and his brothers ever has.

Can't say if that's true about Echo and Omega or not.

"And," Omega adds as an afterthought, "I think we might have some spare comms aboard? Otherwise, we better pick some up on our next stop. We all need our own comms. Crosshair, I told you to stay close."

"I did," he grumbles, "You disappeared."

Hunter's giving him a pointed amused look, and Crosshair tries and fails to kick him.

Omega gives him a skeptical disbelieving look. Crosshair slouches in his chair and scowls.

He was trying to stay close. He never tried to annoy her. Not really – there was just so much to see, and Crosshair had kind of just gotten distracted. He's worried about the bounty hunter, though. He has no idea who she was, or what she wanted. He doesn't want to have to be alone. Crosshair is terrified of being alone. He's been away from his brothers sometimes for training, but this is different. Could have been, anyway.

They stick together. He doesn't want to risk being taken apart again.

That's probably not a risk, but Crosshair's just kinda worried. He wondered if the woman was a bounty hunter, but he didn't really know. She definitely seemed more than some random gangster or something, though.

Crosshair disappears himself into the 'fresher the moment it's not awkward. The fruit's weird, but good, anyway. And he is so not explaining he got occupied stealing which was why this mess happened in the first place. Doesn't matter.

He sneaks the ration Omega gives him to Wrecker because he knows his twin is hungry. Wrecker is always hungry, and Crosshair already ate.

They curl up on the floor to sleep later that night, practically in a pile now that they don't have their bunks anymore. It's nice, though.

"You okay?" Hunter asks, poking his arm.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Whatever happened earlier?" he guesses, "I dunno. You just seem..."

"I'm fine."

"So," Hunter asks, "How was your first day off Kamino?"

"It was our second day, technically," Tech interjects.

"Whatever."

"I wanna blow somethin' up," Wrecker announces. "When can I get to?"

"I dunno." Hunter has his arm tucked under his head. "Whenever we get a chance, I guess."

Crosshair's never seen an actual, real explosion before, and he really, really wants to, even if the light will be blinding. It'd be fun, too. "Maybe we can convince Omega to give us an explosive," he offers.

"Yeah," Hunter agrees, eyes mostly closed, "We'd hafta wait for it to be needed, though."

"Mm." Crosshair snuggles closer to him, resting his head on his shoulder. He's squeezed between Hunter and Wrecker, and it's comfortable. They're safe here. Safe isn't something he's not used to, but it's not something he is used to, exactly, either. Being free is weird, and he likes it, but it's a little scary.

Should probably-maybe have shared it with Wrecker, though. He was hungry, too. Well... he'll deal with it on Ord Mantell – that's the name, right? Something like that.

"Go to sleep," Hunter advises, lightly poking his side. "We'll need it."

Probably.

"Next time, maybe we should stick together," he offers quietly.

Hunter finds and squeezes his hand. "Yeah," he promises.

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