crosshair-hunter - Tumblr blog

crosshair-hunter · 2 months ago

Text

This made me cry😭

May They Be Remembered

@ailesswhumptober Day 15 Waterboarding, Removing Body Parts, "Don't break down on me yet."

Fandom: The Bad Batch Rating: Mature Word Count: 5936 Summary: Emerie is interrogated by Hemlock as he believes she aided in Omega trying to escape Tantiss once again. This leads to Omega being caught and dragged to sub-level containment. She is given a cruel ultimatum. All the while, battle rages outside. Author's note: I understand there is a lot of whump in this, but I promise the ending is absolutely beautiful. WARNINGS: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Gore, Forced Amputation, Torture, Interrogation, Burns, Execution READ ON AO3

Emerie’s gaze frantically searched the cell she was brought to. A camera, a table with restraints, only one way out, and it was ray-shielded.

Emerie had seen countless clones restrained to these tables, and her heart was beating so fast she could barely breathe, as she was now restrained to it.

The troopers weren’t gentle, and Emerie’s struggles didn’t help. She could feel their hands like the bruises were already beneath her skin.

Once she was restrained, they each took up a position on either side of the room.

A TK trooper arrived, and with him…

Hemlock.

Emerie was confused, and felt herself shaking.

“Why am I here?” she asked, voice devoid of all confidence. It was a weak, wavering thing.

Hemlock glared, and Emerie felt it into her bones.

She had only seen him like this with others. Never her. She was slowly realizing that he was not in fact kind to her, but at the same time she couldn’t see what else could be wrong with how she was treated.

“You know why.”

Oh no. The tool she’d brought into Omega’s cell so Omega could swipe it from her. Did that mean…?

Was Omega trying to escape at this moment?

Emerie had heard the laser cannons, had felt the shuddering through the mountain. Was… was Clone Force 99 here as well?

Emerie had only done one small thing. That was it! Like the small things she’d done with Crosshair so he could send his distress signal to the rest of his squad.

There was a pang in her heart as she thought of them, thought of the love she’d heard in Omega’s voice when she spoke of them. All Emerie wanted was to be loved like that.

“Now tell me, where is Omega?”

A solid guess came to Emerie’s mind, but she tried to ignore it.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hemlock growled, slamming his fists down on the table beside her, making her jolt.

He breathed in, then said, “Fine. I was hoping we could have a respectful conversation, but I see that is not the case. And I am running out of time. I have no patience for you today. Commander Scorch, get the tools I requested.”

The TK trooper seemed to glare at Emerie under his helmet, then nodded, and left.

“While we wait, how about we try this again?” Hemlock asked. “I’ll start first. You were reported by one of the other doctors. You entered Omega’s cell with unnecessary tools, and one was missing when you came back out. Care to tell me why that is?”

“Clearly she stole it,” Emerie argued.

“No, we need to go back a little in this story. You were the one who provided the tool that she stole, and now she is missing from her cell.”

“I had nothing to do with that,” she asserted.

“Fine. We’ll just wait for Commander Scorch, and perhaps your answers will change.” He huffed out a laugh, and started pacing, massaging his left hand. “I have been more than generous to you, Dr. Karr. I took you under my wing when Nala Se discarded you, a mere child. I have provided you with everything you need: clothes, food, a place to sleep, work to keep you occupied, and this is how you repay me? I could have thrown you in a cell like this one years ago. But did I? I was even kind enough to not punish you for your missteps with Omega, and CT-9904. But… it’s my fault to have expected more from you. You’re a clone, just like every single prisoner here. You’re nothing but property, and this betrayal shows that I have not sufficiently cowed you yet. But the time for that is over. I will not be gentle, Emerie, and I will get what I came here for. That is a promise.”

Commander Scorch returned with a tray, and he held it out for Hemlock. Emerie was shaking, turning her head away so she couldn’t see what Hemlock was planning for her.

A scrape of metal against metal.

“Forgive me for my barbaric methods,” Hemlock said. “I need this done quickly.”

Emerie tried to squirm, and held in a cry as Hemlock grabbed her left wrist.

What was he going to do? What was he going to do?

Emerie squeezed her eyes shut.

She cried out at the slice of a scalpel through her wrist.

“Where is Omega?” he asked.

Tears welled in Emerie’s eyes, and she whimpered, trembling as they rolled down her cheeks.

“I don’t know, I don’t know!”

The last word turned into a scream as Hemlock sliced deep into her hand.

“Where is she?”

The mountain shook.

“Please, please. All I did was let her steal the tool.”

“Oh, and what did you think she would do with it?”

Emerie couldn’t breathe, felt herself hyperventilating, the room spinning.

She couldn’t speak, couldn’t catch her breath enough to.

Hemlock dug the point of the scalpel into the underside of her pointer finger till it touched the bone.

Emerie tried to free herself of her restraints, screaming, sobbing.

“I do not have patience for you,” Hemlock warned, leaning in.

Emerie tried to steel herself, but the sharp pain across her wrist and hand, and the deep ache in her finger was all she could think about.

“Open your eyes.”

Emerie had no choice but to listen to his commanding voice. She had done so for years.

He held up the scalpel, and she flinched from her own hot blood dripping onto her face.

And then all her thoughts were busy wondering where he would hurt her next.

Hemlock seemed to know this.

He grabbed her face, and leaned in.

“I always knew you were too sentimental. I tried to rid you of it, but I see now. You’re nothing but a failure. No wonder Nala Se discarded you.”

More tears slipped free at that, her lips quivering. A held-in sob turned into a whine in her throat.

“This is your last chance to be helpful before I make this much, much worse. And believe me, I can. I have no qualms with doing what is necessary to achieve my goals. You’re just in my way.”

“I-I thought maybe she could get into the walls, maybe even reprogram the medical droid that came by for testing,” Emerie got out through the ache in her throat.

For a second, she had to think like Omega. This was the girl who had gotten herself and Crosshair out before, and in such an imaginative way. There were no limits for Omega. And Emerie wished she could see her escape, wished that her sister would be okay. Maybe… maybe if Hemlock found her then she could be safe again.

But it felt like something in her chest was caving in and breaking.

Tantiss was not safe.

Hemlock was not safe.

For a second the lights and ray shield sputtered out, and flared back to life.

Hemlock straightened, looking around.

“Commander Scorch, gather a team and head to the vault. Check that our asset is under control.”

“Yes, sir.”

With a nod, Commander Scorch left, hurrying off.

Then it hit Emerie. The zillo beast.

“Omega’s released the zillo beast,” Emerie blurted out. Her words didn’t feel like much of a betrayal because Hemlock already suspected it.

Hemlock turned to her again, holding that scalpel over her face once more.

“And did she tell you any of her other plans?”

“No,” Emerie said with full honesty.

Hemlock sighed. “I believe you. But, after today, things are going to change. I now realize I gave you too big of a leash. Perhaps you need a collar that’ll make you choke.”

She started as he wiped the sides of the scalpel off on her face, then carelessly dropped it so it sliced into her arm. A cry scraped out of her, forcing its way past her clenched teeth.

Hemlock said to one of the troopers, “Come with me. I need to activate all our operatives. Let them deal with this.”

Hemlock turned back to Emerie as he was leaving. She expected a disappointed word, something. All she earned was a sneer.

Omega was captured by Hemlock and one of the CX troopers before she could even make it out of the base, or out to her family.

She was put in a room to wait, and wait, and wait.

Her stomach was in knots, and whenever she stood she felt like she would faint. What if her family was being killed right now? What if they were being tortured, imprisoned, used?

The operative she’d turned herself in to to get here finally arrived, and he put binders on her before dragging her along.

“Where are you taking me?” Omega asked.

No answer.

Oh, he was good.

Omega wished she could make a dash for it, but she’d escaped once. She knew everything up against her, and this night, the firepower of Tantiss was much, much worse.

She was taken to a strange room she’d never been allowed in before, but had seen Crosshair walk out of it day after day, his hours filled with some unspeakable torment.

The room was circular, and inside was a lift up to a domed room that looked down at the entrance.

She was dragged inside, and up.

Omega didn’t have to search the room to figure out what was going on. Crosshair was before her, restrained in some odd contraption.

Hemlock was already there, hands behind his back, smiling in a way that had always deeply disturbed her.

“Omega, good of you to join us,” he said.

The trooper shoved her to the center of the room, but released her, going over to Hemlock.

“How did you know I was escaping?” Omega asked.

“That question will be answered presently. CX-2, show in our other prisoner.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, voice deeply modulated by his vocoder.

Omega frowned at him, wondering why he felt familiar, as he had when he brought her back to Tantiss.

He left for only a moment before returning, and Omega gasped at who he brought in with him.

Emerie was bound and bleeding, keeping her head down, shoulders hunched in.

“What did you do to her?” Omega demanded of Hemlock.

She wanted to race to him, to hurt him, but she knew it would be futile.

She tried slowly going to Emerie, hoping her movements wouldn’t be thought of as anything to stop or worry about.

CX-2 pulled a blaster on her.

Crosshair started struggling hard.

Hemlock sighed, pressed a button, and then electric pulses were shooting into Crosshair’s temples. Choked screams left him.

Omega immediately went back to her space in the middle of the room.

“Stop! Stop! Please stop! He didn’t do anything!”

“Not entirely true,” Hemlock said. “After all, he broke into my facility, hoping to rescue you. He doesn’t understand that now you are a specimen, and one of great importance to me.”

“What do you want?” she asked, voice low, glaring. “And how does it involve Emerie?”

Hemlock laughed, walking over to CX-2 and Emerie. “Oh, can’t you see? She gave you up.”

Omega’s breath caught in her chest, eyes welling up with tears.

“Emerie?” she asked, her voice breaking.

She wouldn’t look at her. Omega just wanted her to look at her, to see her eyes, to see if this was the truth.

“I’m sorry, Omega.”

But Omega looked at all the blood from her hand, the trail it had made into the room. The sense of betrayal eased, and all she felt was sad. Terribly, horribly sad.

“It’s okay,” she told her.

Emerie glanced up then, holding Omega’s gaze.

But only for a fleeting moment, a matter of seconds.

Hemlock rolled his eyes.

“Kill her.”

CX-2 drew a knife, and Omega screamed as he slit Emerie’s throat.

Blood spurted, and her lifeless body fell to the floor.

The last look on Emerie’s face wasn’t that of terror, or surprise, but of yearning. She had wanted to be loved. That was all she had wanted. Omega knew that, had seen it in her face when she talked about Omega somehow being safe here, had seen it whenever she’d finally grown bored enough to reach out and tell Emerie of her family.

Omega had somehow been hoping that Emerie would make it, that she could have what she wanted.

She didn’t know why she’d hoped.

It was as if everything shifted in such a small moment.

Omega wasn’t sure what she thought she was doing as she ran over to CX-2, grabbing his wrist, and screaming at him wordlessly.

He held his knife to her throat, and she immediately seized up. He backed her up to the center of the room.

“Stay. Put,” he told her before backing away, back to Hemlock’s side.

Omega ground her teeth together, her hands in tight fists, promising herself that she would kill him. Along with Hemlock.

“Now that we’ve concluded that business,” Hemlock said, “I have something to show you. You too, CT-9904, so pay attention.”

He grinned, then turned to the trooper. “CX-2, kindly remove your helmet.”

CX-2 holstered his sidearm, and did as Hemlock ordered.

Omega fell to her knees, and didn’t even feel the impact against the hard durasteel.

Looking out at her was… was…

She gasped.

Her world upended. The galaxy upended.

She watched her brother fall, resigning himself to death, felt her heart break and break and keep breaking as she was forced to leave him behind, forced to let him die.

“Tech?”

“No,” Crosshair cried. “It can’t be.”

Tech’s left eye was cybernetic, jagged scars running along his cheek, almost down to his mouth. She couldn’t see any other differences. But there was no use denying it. That was his face. His slightly wider eye shape, his straight chin, his sharp cheekbone, and hard jawline.

There was no recognition in his eyes; eyes as brown as hers.

Omega felt like she was staring at a machine, a ghost.

Yet he was a person. He breathed, he looked at her, at Crosshair.

Crosshair was struggling to get free.

“This is a trick, I know it,” he cried. “It has to be.”

“No tricks this time, CT-9904. This was CT-9902, but is now CX-2. Mine. He succeeded where you failed.”

“How—” Omega began to ask.

Hemlock walked behind CX-2, running a hand across his shoulders.

“It’s quite a long story, and one I have no interest in telling. Let’s just say, I found him when you abandoned him.”

Omega was crying as she argued, “We didn’t. That’s not how it happened!”

“I suppose it doesn’t matter much anymore. CX-2 can’t remember the event with much clarity. Or you.” Then he turned to Crosshair and added, “Or you.

“Now, to business,” he went on. “You will not escape this facility, and you will cooperate with all tests I see fit to run on you. Is that understood?”

Omega, usually so ready to talk, couldn’t say anything, not as she looked back and forth between Tech, and Crosshair.

“It would seem I can’t trust those who work for me, and you clearly have no lack of imagination. So instead, I am going to make a bargain with you.”

Omega shifted on her knees. “And that is?”

Hemlock just looked at Tech, and tilted his head to Crosshair.

Before Omega or Crosshair knew what was happening, Tech grabbed Crosshair’s trembling right hand, and chopped off part of his pointer finger, right before it hit the knuckle.

Omega was on her hands and knees, begging, and pleading, screaming, wishing she could turn back time. Crosshair’s face was scrunched up in pain, his jaw tightly clenched, blood coming from his mouth from a bitten tongue as he screamed.

Hemlock came forward, got down on one knee, and grabbed Omega by the chin, grip bruising.

“Cooperate and CT-9904 won’t have to lose more parts of himself at CT-9902’s hands. Look at how you’re torturing them.”

“I—”

“I have no lack of creativity when it comes to pain. Perhaps I’ll bring back your precious Tech.” He leaned in, breath hot against her face, making her squirm and wince. “And then he’ll have to live with what he’s done. If I were you, I would accept my generous offer before it’s too late.”

“Don’t do it, Omega!” Crosshair cried. “Please, not for me.”

Hemlock just motioned to Tech with a hand, not even looking back.

“No, wait!” Omega screamed.

But it was too late. Tech’s arm raised, and then fell. More of Crosshair’s pointer finger was cut off.

Omega couldn’t breathe, and all she saw was Hemlock’s face as she trembled, and listened to Crosshair’s screams.

She felt like she was going to be sick.

She swallowed roughly, really hoping she wouldn’t be.

And Tech. Did any part of him know what he was doing? At all?

Omega didn’t know what to do. She had thought she’d known. She was going to escape, she was going to be with her family.

But it was all so wrong.

Emerie was dead, body in her peripheral vision, Crosshair was losing parts of his hand, the very knife held by Tech, who was Hemlock’s to control. She didn’t even know how Tech was alive, didn’t know how any of what she was seeing was real.

Hemlock wiped away one of her tears with a thumb, and she shuddered, but met him with hard, unforgiving eyes.

“I see you don’t believe all this,” he said. “A shame. I always thought you were too unbreakable—annoyingly so, I might add. Perhaps you require more convincing.”

He rose, his grip dragging her with him, to her feet.

Omega shook him off, a mixture of horror, anger, fear, and pain clashing in her body, roaring like the storms on Kamino, unforgivable lightning, and crashing waves as tall as mountains.

She didn’t know how, but she would get out of here. Crosshair would walk out of this room, and so would Tech.

She looked to Tech now, at the blankness in his eyes.

“I’m going to save you,” she promised him.

Hemlock laughed. “How adorable.” Then his tone changed, becoming a cold thing like a shiver in the middle of the night. “This is going too slow.” He nodded at Tech. “Cut off his hand.”

“Wait, no!” Omega cried.

Crosshair didn’t beg. Yet the eyes he laid on her were wide, so full of terror it could have drowned a planet.

Omega felt it stab through her, her limbs going numb..

He just nodded, and she froze, mouth open.

She knew Crosshair well enough to recognize what he was telling her:

Don’t give yourself up for me.

“Please,” she begged, the word now for him.

Crosshair ground out two words that had already torn Omega’s life apart once: “Plan Ninety-Nine.”

Tech cut off his hand.

Omega only saw gushing blood through her tears, falling to her hands and knees again.

Crosshair had passed out, but Omega was still awake to see all the blood, to see his hand on the floor rather than with the rest of his body.

And she couldn’t take it back. She could not go back from this moment. Her life for months had been one torment after another after another.

This one was too grotesque.

Omega threw up, and sobbed through it.

“Please, Tech,” she cried. “I’m your family. Crosshair’s your family. You don’t have to listen to him.”

“What… does she mean?” Tech asked, voice the same as ever, a voice that soundly landed a blow right to her chest.

Omega lifted her head up, watching him.

A frown fell on his face, one Omega recognized. He was thinking, hard.

Hemlock was watching him with a stern gaze, brows lowered.

“Why would Omega claim to know me? Did I have a family? I… realize I don’t know where I came from.”

“It’s because you don’t need to know,” Hemlock said, drawing a blaster he’d had hidden on him.

“Wait!” Omega cried.

“Oh, it’s far too late for that. Seems you’ve broken my favorite toy. I fear he is in need of more… re-education.”

He fired, Omega rising up, as if she could stop the blast. And then he fired two more times, a third.

All stun blasts.

Tech fell to the bloody floor.

Hemlock stooped to retrieve his vibroblade. He twirled it.

“I see there is only one way to continue this business.”

He raised the blade.

“What should I do to CT-9904 next, Omega?” he said, voice raised. “Should I cut off his other hand, remove an eye, take out his tongue, start working on his internal organs, castrate him?”

A whine left Omega, and all she could think to say in her fear that was starting to leave her brain completely blank, “Don’t.”

“Will you submit?”

Omega started hyperventilating, seeing Tech on the floor, Crosshair still bleeding from his forced amputation, face tight with pain in his unconsciousness, sweat on his brow, his face pale. And she looked around her. No way out. Emerie had tried to help her, and now she was dead.

Omega was going to break in this room. Maybe she already had.

Perhaps Crosshair wasn’t the one who should make the sacrifice.

She looked at Tech, remembering his bravery. She could do it too—sacrifice herself—she could, but… was it what Tech would have wanted? He had sentenced himself to what they had all thought was certain death to save her, to save their family. Would Omega be betraying him by letting herself be Hemlock’s willing, submissive specimen?

Oh, of course she would.

He had sacrificed himself to save Crosshair. But… if she sacrificed herself, then Tech’s mission would truly be complete.

Though… Tantiss would still exist, so perhaps not.

And all the other clones would still be tortured every day. More clones would be imprisoned, more children.

She realized what she had to do.

“I’m waiting,” Hemlock said, voice stern.

Omega raised her head, no more tears in her eyes as she stared him down.

Quietly, she promised, “I will never submit to you.”

The walls burst in, heat, and flame, and pressure ripping across the room. Omega was thrown against one of the contraptions Crosshair was caught in, pain slamming into her side, her ribs. She was sure she felt them crack, felt the fractures through her entire body. The room tilted. Fire spread in, so fierce Omega was sweating in seconds, finding it hard to breathe as the oxygen was sucked up.

She struggled as the room continued to tilt, the contraption she was stuck on now her only hope. She cried out as she reached forward, putting more pressure on her broken ribs. She exhaled, trying to keep her lungs from expanding towards her ribs in case she was injured enough for them to puncture. She managed to loop her bound wrists around part of the contraption.

She cried out as Tech’s unconscious body landed on transparisteel that cracked under his weight.

Crosshair had come to, looking sick, and in agony. And that contraption was falling.

Hemlock had caught himself on some broken transparisteel and was bleeding as he held on, screaming. That sound was one of the greatest things she had ever heard.

Emerie’s body had fallen, flames licking across it. The smoke had Omega throwing up again, terrified the whole time that her lungs woiuld get punctured by her broken ribs.

Crosshair was barely conscious, and he was trapped. And Tech…

Omega soon didn’t have to choose between the two because Hunter, Echo, and Rex were quickly dropping down into the room from a ship she hadn’t been able to see through the destruction and smoke.

“Help Crosshair!” Omega cried.

Rex got to it, and Hunter rushed to her.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’re gonna get you out of here.”

“Guys,” Echo called. Omega looked past Hunter, to see Echo trembling where he stood.

His eyes were on Tech.

Hemlock cried out louder as glass bit further into his hands. Then he was growling, attempting to move. A blaster lay dangerously close to him.

He reached for it.

“Watch out!” Omega cried.

Hunter drew a blaster, faster than she could comprehend, and before she knew it a blast had gone right through Hemlock’s gloved left hand.

He screamed, falling.

Guessing by his voice, the fall hadn’t killed him. She wondered if the fire soon would.

Omega coughed, and Hunter grabbed her, freeing her from the binders.

“Careful,” she breathed out. “I think my ribs are broken.”

Hunter grabbed her, and Rex had gotten Crosshair free. He draped him over his shoulders, and nearly slipped in all his blood.

Hunter looked to where Echo was hauling Tech to safety.

“I… don’t understand,” Echo said.

Hunter looked at Tech, but then looked around, the room groaned. Blasts lit up the night sky. The mountain shuddered. Omega hoped it would shudder to its own demise. She would love for nothing more than to have this mountain fall.

“Just take him, and go!” Hunter ordered. “We don’t have time. This room is collapsing. And we have to get the other prisoners.”

“I want to help,” Omega said as Hunter got her over to a line to get her onto the ship.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve done enough, kid.”

Omega saw Emerie’s burning body, saw Tech unconscious, and Crosshair bleeding, missing a hand.

She felt like she hadn’t done anything at all.

Hemlock screams turned into ones of pure agony.

Echo, shouldering Tech said, “Do we just let him burn to death?”

Hunter drew both his blasters. “No.”

“Wait,” Omega said, reaching out a hand, and then wincing at the strain on her ribs.

“What?”

“I…” Amidst all this chaos she felt herself blush with shame. “I want to do it,” she admitted.

Echo shook his head, as if to say there was no time for this.

“The hangar’s still not under our control,” Rex reported, clearly on comms with someone.

The room tilted further, and Omega would have slid if she hadn’t been holding onto the line. Hunter, Echo, and Rex wobbled.

“Get them to safety,” he told them regarding Tech, and Crosshair.

They nodded. Hunter came in close, and took his helmet off despite all the smoke.

She found that a sob ripped free from her at seeing his face again.

He cupped her cheek.

“Omega, we are here to save you. And if I let you kill him, well, then I haven’t done my job. You’re just a child. And that’s okay. That’s wonderful. You have so much life ahead of you. I… I wouldn’t be your father if I let you do this.”

“I don’t feel like a child,” she admitted. It wasn’t just because she was trained, smart, and capable. It was because of all she had been through, it was because of Tantiss, and what had taken place in this room.

“I know,” he told her. “I understand. I do. But I need you to be more than a soldier. I need you to be Omega.” His thumb rubbed against her cheek. Voice lower, open, and vulnerable, he went on, “I need you to be my daughter.”

“Hunter, I already am.” He might have sobbed as he held her. “Just let me watch,” she begged..

Hunter sighed, but Omega could see he would acquiesce.

“Get up to the ship. I’ll grab him.”

“And you won’t kill him yet?”

Hunter shook his head.

“Promise?”

He held out his hand, and Omega took it. “I promise.”

As the line began to rise a sudden fear gripped her as she watched Hunter, and he looked up at her.

What if… what if he didn’t come back?

“Hunter,” she cried.

“Omega?”

“Just make sure you come back, okay? You’ll come back.”

He gave her a two-fingered salute, then put his helmet on, and turned to where Hemlock had fallen.

As the line rose Omega could see the sky even more clearly. A new fear—one of battle—gripped her. Yet all those ships firing on Tantiss—it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

Before she could take it all in, Rex was helping her onto the ship. A medic was tending to Crosshair, and Tech rested along the deck in binders.

Omega tried to rush over to the both of them, but the pain in her side was too much.

She paused, one of her hands hovering just over her broken ribs. She couldn’t breathe well, felt like the bottom parts of her lungs weren’t getting air.

She fell into Echo’s embrace.

He called for a medic, but there was only one on the ship, and they couldn’t let Crosshair bleed out or die of shock.

“It’s okay, Omega. It’s gonna be okay.”

She nodded, looking past him, looking at Crosshair, just wanting him to be all right. And Tech.

Long minutes seemed to pass, or perhaps it had been seconds. Omega’s brain had started going foggy.

Hunter arrived with an unconscious bound prisoner she recognized as Hemlock, though half his face was burned, like smoldering melted wax, and his left eye was nothing but red, burned viscera.

“All right, let’s go!” Hunter said.

Rex reported to his men that they had Hemlock captive.

Wrecker burst into the room.

“Where is she?”

Omega thought maybe she smiled at seeing him, but the world was floating away from her.

“Omega, why are you turning blue?”

Wrecker surveyed the rest of his family, and stood there, unable to move.

“Did you stop the bleeding?” Hunter asked the medic.

“Yes, sir.”

“Help Omega. Please.”

Echo gently lowered Omega to the deck.

The ship was on the move, the engines seeming to hum through the floor. Battle flared around them. Omega couldn’t remember much else for a bit, an oxygen mask placed over her face.

Fear seemed to lift from her, like a dark cloud breaking up from a strong wind.

When she did come to, her ribs were wrapped with her right arm immobilized against her side.

There was a fuzzy sensation in her body, but as she moved, pain hit her.

Hunter entered, and Omega thought she spied daylight and a surprisingly blue sky outside.

“Hey, I was just coming to get you.”

“Is the battle over?”

“Yes.”

“Did we… win?”

Hunter nodded, and held out his hand for her.

“It’s time,” he told her.

Hunter led Omega off the ship, into a brilliant day, white birds flying through the air, Tantiss a smoking ruin.

They were all congregated at the main hangar. Omega, her family, even Crosshair, who was being helped to stand by Wrecker.

And then she saw them. The gray clothing, the large mass of clones who had been prisoners. And the other kids were there too, Eva holding Rex’s hand.

Omega’s breath caught, tears blurring her vision at just how many prisoners there had been. They all looked grim, half of them barely able to stand, but were present anyway. Their hatred was leveled at one man, the man bound to a post erected in the hangar. He was gagged so his lies and cruelty couldn’t spill forth. But Omega had wanted to hear him beg.

His head was lifted, facing the hatred, the pain of the hundreds of clones he had wronged.

And he still didn’t care.

His hatred seemed even stronger than the pain of the burns. But tight shivers were running through him, she noticed. His hands hadn’t been bound, and were still bleeding. Yet it was all nothing compared to how he felt for his prisoners.

Omega’s tears slid down her cheeks, seeing all the clones together, at seeing how many had been wronged. And she saw that they were alive, saw their strength as they stood there and waited for it to finally be over.

Hunter stood before them, Omega going up to Crosshair’s side, careful to avoid his heavily bandaged stump. Her fingers trembled as she gently took his arm. Crosshair gazed down at her, and she up at him. She squeezed a little tighter, letting him know they were in this together, that he was no alone, and never would be again.

“You may not know me,” Hunter began, drawing Omega’s attention back to him. “I’m a Ninety-Nine. So that would make sense. But I know you. I know that what was done to you here was unspeakable and that nothing can take away your months of pain, nothing will truly be enough to avenge it. But I see you all today, my brothers, and I want to let you know that I am with you. Men like Captain Rex, and Echo, and Captain Howzer are with you. I… I didn’t always like regs—regular clones—but today I see you, and I embrace you all. What the Empire has done to you is wrong. We are not Imperial property. We are not anyone’s property. We belong to ourselves, to each other. I look out at you now, and I finally understand the fight you all began. Your sacrifice can never be repaid. I am honored to be your brother, and…” he looked to Omega, smiling, even as tears welled in his eyes. “I am honored to be a father.” Omega beamed at him, and he turned back to the crowd, the brave army before them. “There is no fixing what was done to you,” he said. “But, we can start somewhere. This—this is for all of us—not just for who I see here today, but also in the names of those who aren’t.”

Many clones started murmuring names, their voices loud as one, getting louder and louder as everyone joined together, voicing the fallen. They were like a broken chorus, weaving a melody through the chaos from their shared losses. It overwhelmed Omega, as if through their remembrance the spirits of those brutally and carelessly killed were by their sides, holding their hands.

“Emerie,” Omega joined in.

Crosshair beside her said, “Mayday.”

“May they be remembered…” Hunter went on. His burning eyes landed on Hemlock. “And may their vengeance find you even after death.”

Hunter took out a blaster, Hemlock beyond screaming. He seemed to know his defeat, even as he quivered with pain from his burns. Omega forced herself to look at him, to keep her head high, to soak in his agony.

Hunter started walking over to them. For a moment Omega was worried and hopeful that he was going to give the blaster to her.

He offered it to Crosshair.

“Would you do the honors?”

Crosshair had a hard time grabbing the blaster, and eventually he said, “We’ll do it together.”

Clapping broke out as Crosshair began his physically laborious journey to the center of the hangar, Hunter helping him.

Omega wished to bow her head then, to cry. Her family was so brave, and they were finally being recognized.

Omega didn’t need to look at Hemlock as Hunter and Crosshair fired the blaster together, again and again. Just had to look at her family who had come together, for her, for this fight. She searched for relief on Crosshair’s face. There was only stony resignation, and burning hatred.

The cheers of the clones was deafening. Omega made her way to Crosshair, and Hunter, as the other clones crowded forward, everyone wanting to see Hemlock’s body.

“It’s over?” she asked.

Hunter looked back to the ship, to where Tech lay.

“Well… not quite.”

And they smiled.

#ailesswhumptober2024 #star wars #the bad batch #tbb #tbb emerie #tbb omega #tbb hemlock #tbb tech #cx-2 #cx-tech #tbb hunter #tbb echo #tbb wrecker #captain rex

18 notes · View notes