Part 5 - Rampage
Plot: Omega takes her brothers to Ord Mantell to find answers about the bounty hunter on their tale. Cid demands they go on a mission for her to give the information they need, except dealing with slavers always inevitably goes downhill.
Author's Note: Er... this is. A litttttle bit dark compared to the rest of the series? Just a warning for child abuse necessary.
PS: Don't worry, the evil people get mauled. :')
~ Rivana Rita
"We're going to need comms first," Omega says, rolling her shoulders and piecing her armor back on. They've landed, and they need to hurry. It's hard to say if this is safe, but hey, they have to start someplace. As long as somebody's after her, her brothers are going to be in danger, and Omega can't let anyone hurt them. "After we check in with this Cid."
"Assuming they have comms here," Crosshair supplies.
"I think comms are a standard thing," Hunter objects, nudging his shoulder. "Right?"
"Some planets are weird," Omega answers, "And unpredictable, but probably. But make sure you stay close to me this time." She gives Crosshair a pointed look, and he crosses his arms and pouts. She knows he's curious, but she was so, so scared when she turned around and saw he was gone. There were regs there, and they could easily have started planet-wide chaos as they tried to make it out.
"We're fine," Hunter promises, slinging an arm around Crosshair's shoulders. He's definitely the most mature of them. Omega's so, so happy to see them again. She missed a few years of their lives, but they were absent from hers for far longer. They're so... them. Different. Grown. She adores them.
"Stay close, anyway," Omega requests, "There could still be someone after us."
From there, they set out for the parlor. Tech mutters a quiet "charming" when they arrive, and Omega laughs. It's a parlor. She's been here before, and it's not usually exactly the best place for kids, but hey, they go wherever she goes.
Finding Cid herself is hard. She claims she doesn't know who she is, which is annoying, but it's not a hard guess.
Echo plugs himself into the holotable and pulls up a hologram of the woman who dragged them into this mess. "Do you know who she is?" he demands.
"No, but I know a bounty hunter when I see one," Cid replies, arms crossed.
"Well, we already know that," Tech grumbles.
"We need to know who hired her," Omega says bluntly, looking at the trandoshan.
"That depends on what you boys do for me," she replies.
Omega stares. That does not answer the question? Is she missing something obvious? Echo looks confused too, though.
"Are you fresh outta the tube?" Cid snaps irritably, "You pull a job for me, and I get the information you want. That's how this mercenary thing works."
"Mercenary?" Echo repeats, sounding genuinely incredulous, and maybe a bit disgusted.
"I don't know what you call it," Omega says, "But we need answers."
"What kinda job do you want us to pull?" Hunter inquires.
"A rescue," Cid replies, "There's a nice bounty on a kid named Muchi. My sources say she was taken by Zygerrian slavers who are holed up on the other side of the planet. Bring me the kid and I'll get you your intel."
Zygerrian slavers.
Omega knows them. Well. She's had a long, unpleasant run-in with Zygerrians in the Clone Wars on a mission with Anakin. That was when she got her bow. Anakin was a slave once, and Omega hasn't seen that much of slavery, but she still knows more about it than she wishes she did. She saw it first-hand. Zygerria was her first mission.
"Well... who's gonna get the bounty?" Wrecker asks.
"We split the bounty 70-30, my favor."
"Thirty?" Crosshair echoes dubiously. "We're taking the mission, and we only get thirty?"
"Take it or leave it, kid," Cid snaps, "Your information is part of your pay."
Omega glances at Echo in silent question. He knows about slavery, too, and from the darkness in his eyes, she knows he finds it as personal as she does. "We'll take it," Omega decides firmly. She didn't know there was anything left of Zygerria – she thought the 501st had ransacked virtually the entire planet.
Apparently, there's still enough left to be a nuisance.
Cid gives them the data they need, and they set out. Omega knows this will be risky, but she knows Zygerrians. She knows enough about how they work to pull this off, and her brothers shouldn't be at too much risk. Yeah, they're young, but they're still trained. They'll pull this off. It's not that bad.
"What are slavers?" Wrecker asks in a loud whisper as they trek back to the ship.
"Someone who buys and sells people for credits," Echo answers bluntly.
"People... can be sold?" Crosshair asks. He sounds a little freaked out, understandably. Omega was, too, when she realized that. Zygerria was awful.
"They don't have a choice. They're captives, and treated like property," Echo explains.
"Delightful," Crosshair supplies. Hunter tries and fails to coax him back in the seats for landing, but well, Crosshair's stubborn.
They land near the coordinates Cid gave and go to the top of a ridge to check it out. Making the plan isn't hard, and Omega realizes afterward they should probably have asked for the species of the child they're supposed to rescue, but it can't be too hard, can it?
There's only one child and two adults down in the center of the encampment, and the sight is familiar enough it makes her sick. Well, maybe she'll destroy their entire operation here while they're at it. Might as well.
"Tech, stay with the ship," she requests, "We're probably gonna need a fast pick-up." Maybe not, but just in case they get overwhelmed, she needs a backup. Anakin had always told her that when they worked together. He was always a fast thinker.
She misses him. Has no idea if he's still alive, but now isn't the right time to grieve. There are so many people she should be grieving. Anakin's just one, and her best friend.
"So much for staying together," Crosshair grumbles.
"We might need a fast exit," Omega points out, "Come on."
They move in closer, and predictably, right when Omega is about to think that nothing could go wrong, a giant dragon-thing jumps her and Echo as they go to create a minor diversion in the hopes that her little brothers will have enough time to get the people out. She whirls around, raiding and firing her blaster, but the thing is too fast.
She's flung into a nearby rock, her head smashing against the solid ground and Omega's vision goes dark.
**w**
When she wakes, it's to her hands cuffed and in the same chain loop as the slaves they were coming to free. Echo's beside her, and Omega's breathing catches when she sees a very, very grumpy-looking Crosshair, Wrecker, and Hunter, too.
They're in shock collars. She knows these things, too.
Wants to stab every single person who did this to them even more. She is going to, though her blaster and bow are gone, thrown in a stash a distance off. Same for Echo's blaster, and Hunter's knife. Pretending Echo's scomp isn't a far more lethal weapon than a blaster most of the time.
Her head is still throbbing from where she hit the rocks, and Omega shakes her head to clear the lingering stars from her vision.
She needs to get up and focus. They have to get out of here. Tech's still out there, and it won't be long until he's found, too.
The fact that her little brothers are moving – at least the twins are. Hunter's still curled up in a decidedly miserable ball – says they must've been captured a bit after. Maybe. Omega's not fully certain.
She lightly knees Wrecker, who's beside her. Hunter's on his other side, and Echo and Crosshair are a short distance away on the other side of the slaves they were supposed to be rescuing. So much for that.
Wrecker shifts a little, pushing himself up. He looks annoyed. "You okay?" she whispers to him. They'll have to be careful to avoid alerting the slavers, which could get risky quickly.
He groans. "Yeah."
"Me too," Crosshair grumbles, "Thanks for asking."
Omega looks past the twins to Hunter and Echo again. She wishes they were closer, but at least the guards are a distance away. "What happened?" she inquires.
"Got caught in their zapper thing," Crosshair answers.
"Hunter's still out," Wrecker adds worriedly eyeing their older brother.
Omega bites her lip as she follows his gaze. Hunter's still mostly motionless, his hair falling across his face, hiding most of it. He looks young. He's – five? Ten, nat-born standards, but he's so young.
They all are, even if they're still soldiers in training.
"Echo?" she asks, and he instantly looks up. What? She was knocked out from that thoroughly and he wasn't? That's genuinely ridiculous. And clumsy. Doesn't matter now, though. They need to get their gear somehow. They'll need a diversion. "Any ideas?"
"Negative," he replies.
Omega sighs softly, glancing at Wrecker. "Can you break the chains? And the collar?"
Should probably have worded her question better, because Wrecker being Wrecker instantly tries it. One of the Zygerrians sees, and Omega gasps as he hits Wrecker with an electrowhip.
Crosshair jolts forward, growling low in his throat.
"Crosshair, down," Omega snaps, shifting forward because she knows he's about to get hit, too.
The Zygerrian hits him, anyway, and Crosshair falls with a strangled gasp, silver curls flopping across his forehead.
"Do that one more time and you'll be –" Echo starts, cut off when they turn his collar on. Omega flinches when he screams.
She's going to murder every single one of these people, and it will not be pretty for them. She's gonna make sure of that.
She's going to gut them with Hunter's very useful knife, and she will not feel bad.
They shouldn't have hurt her brothers.
The dragon-creature is making noise from up above. Omega's going to stab that thing, too.
Hunter twitches, slowly fading back to consciousness. Omega watches him, biting her lip.
The twins are pressed against each other, looking mutually miserable.
"We're – gonna need some kinda diversion," Hunter mutters, keeping his head down.
"I know," Omega grumbles, "Still figuring out what."
The what comes in the form of Tech, actually.
It starts with a few blaster shots, and Omega nods to Wrecker who rips his collar off and he and Echo start getting everyone free. Omega goes for her bow and blasters, firing at a few of the nearby Zygerrians before they can shoot her or any of her brothers.
Tech shoots out the lock on a cage, letting a very, very angry rancor out, who immediately attacks all the Zygerrians she can get her hands on. It's pretty useful, actually.
Crosshair grabs the nearest fallen energy bow and starts shooting, too. The gleeful squeal he makes when he takes out their leader with a shot through the chest would've worried Omega far more if she didn't second it so hard.
She does borrow Hunter's knife, because, well – she isn't going to let this easy. Maybe it's not the best time for vengeance, but she's not even being petty. They whipped her brothers. They're five years old. So, yeah, Omega does stab a few someone's. She has no regret, even if it's a little messy.
Hunter and Echo take off to get the now-freed slaves to safety – apparently, Muchi is the rancor? Omega has no idea how or why Cid never told them, but she does not appreciate it.
"She's doin' fine on her own," Wrecker chirps as they stand together, watching Muchi rampaging the remainder of the Zygerrian encampment. It's so, so satisfying to watch.
"Yeah," Omega agrees, "But we gotta capture her, or we're not getting what we need from Cid."
"Rancors adhere to a social hierarchy," Tech offers, lost in his datapad. Omega pauses, glancing down at him. Despite the chaos around them, he still seems calm. Almost shouldn't be possible, but he is. He and Hunter both have an unnatural cool.
"How does that help?" Wrecker asks, confused.
"I think he's saying someone will hafta beat her up," Crosshair offers.
Omega sighs. Loudly. Muchi is busy smashing the dragon-creature which is still giving her quite the fight, and she's wearing out, but still dangerous. "Echo?" she asks into her comm, "You up to beating up a rancor?"
**w**
See? She was right. Scomps are far deadlier than blasters.
It works. Somehow.
Echo looks decidedly grouchy about the whole thing, but Omega and the twins laugh about it. It was funny, okay? Really. Well, he could have been injured or damaged, but he's fine, so it's funny.
Hunter's hovering close to the twins, visibly worried.
Omega turns to Tech once they're safely inside the Marauder – Muchi is enormous, and they hardly have room to fit, but hey, they're fine. She's not staying.
"Thank you," she says, "The diversion was perfect. You saved us."
"Naturally," Tech replies, visibly confused, "That is what I was supposed to do."
Omega laughs. He's so awkward, and it's not exactly funny, but she still adores it. "C'mere," she asks, reaching out to pull him into a hug.
Tech freezes up, looking over her shoulder to Hunter with wide eyes, but eventually, and very slowly, relaxes, reaching up to hug her back.
At Cid's, they hand Muchi over to her owner, and Cid calls Omega to her back office while Echo tries and fails to break up some squabble with the boys.
"Gotta say, I wasn't sure you could pull this job off," Cid tells her.
Omega throws her a glare. "You could've told me it was a rancor." They could have gone in there properly. Omega could've snuck in to open the cage, and that would have been a good enough diversion. No one would have been hurt that way. No one had to be hurt.
"Hmm. Must've slipped my mind," she replies flippantly.
"Your bounty hunter is Fennec Shand," Cid informs, "She's new to the scene but has already proven herself to be cunning and ruthless."
"But who hired her?" Omega asks, "That's what I need to know."
"Unknown. My sources in the Guild say she's working on a direct commission. With someone like her nipping at your heels, you're going to need two things: friends and money. Mostly money."
She sighs tiredly. This entire thing just got a whole lot harder, and she misses Anakin desperately. He always knew what to do. Who to turn to. Who to trust. Omega isn't that good at judging people. She learned that the hard way a long time ago. "We don't have a lot of either."
"I guess it's a good thing ya met me then, isn't it?" Cid asks, shoving the container at Omega, and she takes it. It's not much, but it's something.
"Maybe," Omega agrees.
Cid offers them work, and Omega promises to consider it before leaving. She can't guarantee anything, but... realistically? They do need money if they're gonna survive.
Omega's worried, though. She kinda likes Cid, but she definitely doesn't trust her. It's her fault – in part – that the twins got hurt, and Omega's not going to forget that. At least they got the slaves out, though. That was something.
Omega's exhausted when she trudges back into the Marauder. She wants to sleep, and her head is still throbbing dully from where it smashed against the rocks so gloriously. They were all hurt, at least minimally.
The most she can say is that at least Tech never got electrocuted. The rest of her brothers weren't so lucky. And yeah, they'll just shake it off, but still.
"I'll check for comms as soon as we finish cleaning up," Omega decides, "We gotta deal with fuel and rations too, though."
Hunter and Crosshair are having a grumpy staring contest, and Omega pauses, looking down at them. "Something wrong?" she asks.
"I was just trynna see if he was hurt," Hunter grumbles.
"I'm fine," Crosshair huffs. "I –"
"You'll have to get it checked over," Omega argues, "Electrical burns are dangerous." Anakin's told her that many times. Kix told her that, too. They're worst because the injuries are inside and longstanding, and it's hard to treat them. "I can look it over if you want. Or Echo can, but someone needs to. Wrecker's, too."
Crosshair's arms are stubbornly crossed and he looks away.
Omega half-helplessly looks at Hunter, because she has no idea what to do.
"He'll be fine," Hunter promises, grabbing her wrist and pulling her a little bit away so it's not so weird. "But... seeing Wrecker get hurt was hard."
They've never been anywhere before. It's still easy to forget that. They're fresh off Kamino, and it's not like the shinies who have been fully trained and are ready for duty. They aren't. They're just children. They're basically civilians.
"Yeah," Omega agrees quietly.
"We thought we'd be fine if we left Kamino," Hunter confesses, "I know we'd still have come, even if we didn't, but I guess we never really knew what it'd be like. It's not safe out here." He looks up at her, eyes wide and searching, but Omega has no idea what to say. There's no promise she can give. She can't protect them all. Not always.
If Anakin were here, he –
He's not. And Omega will have to find a way to live with that.
But with that comes an echo, a far-away whisper of something from what now feels like another lifetime.
"I'll teach you," Omega promises, "To protect yourselves. We can try to be picky, but there's always gonna be times that things happen Echo and I can't control."
"It's okay," Hunter nods, "I understand."
Yeah, but it just doesn't really feel fair. None of this does.
"Try to take care of him," Omega requests, "He's gonna need to have that dealt with." She pats Hunter's shoulder as she passes, moving in search of Wrecker. He's digging through the medical supplies, though he looks none too happy about doing so. Tech's with him.
Echo's up in the front by himself, and Omega tries her hardest not to remember his scream as the now-dead Zygerrians electrocuted him. It was awful. She can't stop remembering it. That and seeing the twins get hit.
It's strange to see Wrecker slightly more subdued, but he does now. It hurts. Makes the situation more real. He's been goofy and excitable non-stop since Omega met him again.
"You okay?" Omega asks quietly, hesitantly sitting beside them. She feels awkward. Like she has no idea what she's doing, and really, that's the truth. She doesn't. She didn't think it'd be so hard.
"Um," Wrecker answers, blinking up at her in confusion, "Yeah."
She settles back in her seat, biting her lip. Wanting to do something. Should probably go check on Echo, but it feels wrong to leave her little brothers here.
In the end, Echo comes to the back to find them, first.
Omega straightens the moment she sees him – he's been hurt before, but that wasn't like this, and it... feels like it was her fault somehow. "I know I should have seen that coming," Omega sighs, glancing at him.
"It happens," Echo promises, "We all make mistakes."
"Yeah," Omega agrees quietly. "Do you think we should work for Cid? I don't trust her, but I don't know if we have much other choice right now."
"I don't trust her, either," Echo agrees, "But the Jedi did. She's got to have something useful for us, at least right now."
Omega nods in silent agreement.
Wrecker curls up beside her, his head on her thigh, and she squeezes him in a one-armed hug. Tries not to think about the burn marks on Echo's neck, or that both the twins undoubtedly have and she hasn't seen.
"No more slaver rampages, though," Omega promises, "Not unless we know what we're getting into."
Echo scoffs. Omega gives him a tired smile.
She's starting to think this actually won't be half as easy as she thought it would.
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